by Myers, J. L.
Ty—in the way he always did—sensed my approach and glanced up with a forced smile. Vanessa however, busy studying the cards in her hands, seemed unaware of my advance. Knowing now what Ty was, I detected an obvious air around him. He was strong and capable—a force to be reckoned with.
“How was Dorian?” The concern in Ty’s voice mirrored his apprehensive expression.
Vanessa was now aware of my presence and regarding me with clear speculation. I decided to keep my response short. “We had a good chat, and he seems fine.” I tugged my skirt down to keep from flashing anyone my still wet bikini bottoms then dropped onto the cube beside him and scanned for Dorian. There. Through the close-knit bodies that swarmed the dance floor, I could just make him out. Ick! He was all hands as he groped Marika’s sultry dancing body. With such a blatant sexual display, I almost expected Troy to come lunging from the shadows with murder painted in his eyes. I glanced around at the alcohol-sweating dancers. Not there. Then at the few kids playing what looked like ‘spin the blow-up dolphin’ within the pool’s crystalline water. Not there either. Thank God. I looked back to Ty. “Though, I did kind of catch him getting friendly with that new girl, Marika.”
Ty’s face dropped and his darkening eyes stared down at the cards in his hands.
The sinking sensation swelling up my stomach increased. The taste of his blood rose to the back of my throat. “She told Dorian she used to live here. Do you know her?”
“We all grew up together,” Vanessa offered. Her sapphire eyes sparkled with interest.
Ty’s forearms tensed and he glared at her. His hands clenched into fists, crumpling the cards scissored between his fingers.
“What Ty doesn’t want to say,” she continued, ignoring his hostile warning, “is that he used to date her. Well, before she dumped him for Troy.”
I sucked in a startled breath, eyes darting to Ty. A flurry of questions flooded my mind. Why didn’t he tell me? Had he loved her? Did he miss her? Did he want her back?
“Can’t you ever just butt out?” Ty growled at Vanessa, who shrugged with indifference. He collected the unharmed cards from the table and packed them into a square cardboard box. “How about I get you home,” he suggested, glancing up at me. “We can talk on the way. And besides, you do look beat.”
Wanting to be alone with Ty to get answers, I nodded. Besides, I could feel the brunt of the night’s events catching up with me. If Dorian got himself into trouble again, he’d have to get out of it on his own. “Okay.”
With a stiff nod from Ty to Vanessa, we retraced the path back around the house and out to Ty’s car. For the first time tonight, I noticed how truly cold it was. Frost had settled on every car and every blade of green grass. Thick fog hung in the air. Even with my superior eyesight I could barely see the outline of the front gates bordering the property.
Ty opened the passenger door to his car. I awkwardly slid into seat, tugging again on my skirt. A second later Ty was in the driver’s seat. He threw his jacket into the back and it landed on his training bag with a clank. That didn’t sound like goggles. Before I could ask what hard object he needed for swim practice, the engine roared to life. The radio murmured quietly. Now the fifth vicious murder in under a fortnight…
Ty reached out with a frown and clicked the stereo off. Then he clasped my hand, the warmth of his touch radiating up my arm. “I know a lot has happened tonight. Not just between us, but also with Dorian and Marika.” His tongue scraped with unrestrained hatred over her name. “Are we okay? Did Dorian accept what I am?”
“Dorian took the news about you surprisingly well.” I studied Ty’s expression as I continued. “He seemed more consumed with getting to know Marika.”
Ty snatched his hand free to plunge the gear shaft into first. The car chirped, gliding through the fog and out the front gates. His hand found mine with a squeeze. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention her earlier.” He threw a quick glance my way. “I guess with everything else it just didn’t seem important.”
A sharp bend appeared through the swirling fog at the last second. Ty pulled his hand from mine—quick as a flash—and dropped back to second gear. The car made a squealing protest but clung to the road like a magnet.
Unperturbed and forcing the car back to top speed, Ty collected my hand and raised it to his heart. “Amelia, I want you to know that I want you, only you.”
The unusual beat of his heart soothed my worries, dissolving the clatter of questions clogging up my mind. I smiled, my muscles releasing all the tension of the night. Sleepiness weighed on my eyes. “Me too.”
~
I stood surrounded by ivory-tinted limestone and reaching cabinetry. The space was awash with brilliant-white chandelier light. It took only a second for me to realize that I was standing in our home’s kitchen. The limestone island, big enough it could double as a sacrificial altar, was proof enough. Yet knowing where I was didn’t dislodge the disorientation I felt.
Everything appeared to be in its rightful place, with dirty plates and blood-tinged glasses collecting on the marble counter next to the deep, round sink. But something was wrong. The persistent pounding of my heart made that crystal clear.
“How did you expect me to react?” My eyes shot to my mom, whose strained voice had startled me. Natural poise abandoned, her hands clenched into fists and belted down against the counter top. The force sent a sunburst of hairline fractures straight through the limestone. “When you’re seeing that…that filthy mongrel?”
Acid spiked the back of my throat. She knows. I felt like vomiting. But an uncontrollable fury at her insult of Ty ignited within me. “Don’t speak about Ty like that. You know nothing of what he is.”
Mom shook her head almost regrettably. She stepped around the island to lay a gentle hand over my shoulder. “Amelia, sweetheart, you know this must end.”
Violently, I threw my hands in the air, batting her arm away. I opened my mouth to scream in protest. Nothing came out.
Panic seeped through my core as everything faded to blackness. Restricting arms tightened around me. “Let me go!” I tried to scream, thrashing to get free.
“It’s okay,” a deep and familiar voice spoke. “It’s just me.”
My eyes blinked open as my back connected with something soft. The constricting arms around me released. I couldn’t see. Pins shot through my eyes while my lids fluttered. The room slowly lightened. Through blurred and spotted vision, varying shades of purple grew more and more prominent as my senses awakened. Warmth bloomed beside me, along with the sound of an irregular heartbeat. Ty. I struggled to focus. “What happened? Where are we?”
Ty’s hands found mine. “You fell asleep on the way home. I didn’t want to wake you, so I carried you up to your room.”
It was just a dream. I frowned, my eyes finally clearing. Ty was sitting before me, framed by the mauve-swathed posts of my princess-style bed. His brows arched in surprise. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s your eyes,” Ty said, covering his expression. “Your whites, they’re completely red.”
I flung my legs over the edge of the bed and rummaged through my nightstand. In a second I’d passed my stashed chocolate and recovered a palm-sized mirror. My reflection shocked me. The blue of my irises looked similar to when I drank blood, completely silver. Though right now there was a stark difference. The whites of my eyes when I drank blood usually became rimmed with red. I had seen the reaction when drinking packaged blood at the cabin. But now, without having consumed anything since the party, since Ty, they appeared completely stained with the crimson of fresh blood. Confused, I shook my head. “It must be a latent reaction to your blood.” As I stared at my reflection, the red slowly faded back to white. Thank God. Yet I was far from feeling relieved. Something was still nagging at me, filling me with unquenchable dread. “Wait! How did you get inside, I mean, when you brought me home?”
“Your mom let me in,” Ty replied, his tone level and devoid of concern.
&
nbsp; The air suddenly tasted stale. I coughed, gagging, and began to hyperventilate. “You met my mom!” Oh my God, it’s happening. My dream is coming true.
“Hey.” Ty leaned in, rubbing his warm hands vigorously up and down my shaking arms. “What’s wrong?”
“You met her, and now she knows.” I struggled not to scream. “She knows what you are.”
Ty shook my arms, forcing me to look at him. “No, she doesn’t. When you fell asleep I took something to mask my scent. I’m certain she had no idea.”
I sniffed the air. Ty was right. His scent was gone. Still, his words did little to shake the memory of my dream and the disappointment hedging Mom’s expression. “How can you be so sure?”
He smiled, taking a deep breath. “Because, I could hear her heart beat.”
I frowned. How could Ty’s detection of her beating heart prove anything?
“It didn’t elevate,” he explained. “If she were suspicious, lying, or in any way trying to hide something, her heart would tell.”
I slumped back against the many fluffy pillows adorning my bed. “It was just a dream?”
Ty’s rough hand grazed my cheek. “Sounds more like a nightmare.”
Suddenly I became aware of his proximity. Not to mention that we were alone in my bedroom, on my bed. He sat facing me, one knee folded with his free hand resting against it. There was only an inch separating his fingers from the bare flesh between my hiked-up short skirt and knee-high boots. Memory rushed of those very hands clutching my thighs and lifting me off the ground with such easy strength.
Blood heated my cheek under the warmth of Ty’s palm. He edged forward, brushing his sweltering lips against mine. “I’m going away tomorrow. I won’t be back till sometime next week.”
I jerked away for him. “What? Where are you going?”
“My father called earlier.” Ty’s eyes shifted to the bedroom door. “It’s a family thing. I really can’t elaborate, not yet.”
He was still keeping secrets? Irritated, I folded my arms over my chest. “Can’t, or won’t?”
Ty blew out a long, slow breath. “Both.” He collected my hands and looked into my eyes, his own rippling with a glint of gold. “It’s for the best. Just trust me on this one.”
The last thing I wanted to do was let the subject lie. But a deepening thirst was rolling through my stomach. Even though I couldn’t detect Ty’s blood, I could still hear his heartbeat and see the pulsing vein along his neck. “Okay. I’ll let it go,” I said, feeling my fangs peeking through, “for now. But don’t think I’ll forget.”
Ty’s smiled and he dipped his head, lips meeting mine with restrained force. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
With Ty suddenly absent—a fact that irritated me to no end—I expected the remainder of the weekend to be slow and boring. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Dorian and I sprawled across the soft grass of our backyard under the canopy of a cherry tree with my iPod running through the Lifehouse album Smoke and Mirrors. Now that autumn was in full swing, its leaves ranged from burned russet to browning gold. Mom’s first charity event, a fund raising auction, was to take place here next Saturday. Ironically, the proceeds would go to the Department of Hematological Medicine in support of research into rare blood diseases. The event would require a lot of preparation. Decorations and flowers needed to be ordered. Waiters and other staff needed to be booked. Auction items also needed to be sought. Mom took on the brunt of the laundry list. Dorian and I were left to picking out—from the many catalogs she had collected—lighting, a stage, and a podium. There would also be a marquee to accommodate Mom’s extensive guest list of colleagues from the Portsmouth Vampire Council, and local bored-housewife charity volunteers.
A number of vampires were expected to attend—extended royalty and turned vampires whom weren’t immune to the sunlight. Because of that, the event would commence at twilight.
We spent the afternoon flicking through catalogs with Dorian continually taking breaks to text Marika. Now the sun was diving for the horizon. The late afternoon temperature began to plummet. Around us, fog began to rise. A thin film of frost began to form on everything in sight, growing like cracked crystal. With the grass beneath us becoming damp and sticking our clothes to our bodies, we got to our feet. I snatched up my iPod and the completed order forms.
In that same second Mom exited the terrace doors. She was making straight for us with light and ethereal steps. To me she had always been delicate-looking and graceful. Dorian with his drawing charisma was more like her than I had ever been. “How’s it all coming along?” she asked.
I narrowed my eyes dubiously. The question hadn’t been out of the ordinary, but her lit face made me curious. What was she up to?
Dorian, oblivious, thrust the order forms into her hands. “All done.”
Mom skimmed the forms then turned her giddy expression back to us. “Well, after all your hard work, I have a surprise.” Her red-painted lips parted with a delighted smile. “We have a visitor.”
She peered over her shoulder towards the terrace doors. A dark figure emerged, partially shrouded by a row of young cherry trees. The guy sauntered our way in a zipped up hoodie. The hood was pulled over his head obscuring his features, and his hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his black cargo pants. Even without the hoodie, which he always wore under his boarding jacket, I would have known who it was.
“Kendrick!” I squealed, bounding across the frosty grass and flinging my arms around his neck.
Kendrick lifted me up and twirled me around on the spot. “Told you I’d visit,” he whispered against my ear, before lowering me back to the ground. He glanced to Dorian and Mom smiling. “Thought I should come and see how you’re all living here in sunny New Hampshire.”
“Kendrick,” Dorian said, tipping his head in greeting. “Where are you staying?”
“Here!” I blurted. “You have to stay here.”
My eyes shot to Mom for approval, who nodded. “Of course Kendrick will stay with us. And now that he’s here, Amelia, will you show him up to one of our spare rooms?”
“Definitely!” I collected Kendrick’s hand, and began a rushed tour around the house, flying at vampire speed and talking at a barely intelligible babble. In minutes we were outside the spare room. It was on the second floor and just down the hall from my own bedroom. I flicked on the light switch and the chandelier illuminated. The space housed stained-hardwood furnishings, and had a walk-in closet and en suite bathroom. Two arched windows were positioned on either side of a king-size bed, shielded by thick indigo drapes.
I bounded inside and flung my body onto the satin-sheeted bed, pulling Kendrick down with me. We landed with a bounce, laughing. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
Kendrick rolled onto his side, propping up on one arm. “I’ve missed you too.”
“How long are you staying?” I asked, hating to even think of him leaving anytime soon. “Wait, what about school?”
Kendrick bent into a sitting position and ruffled his golden-brown hair. “Weeks, maybe longer. It depends.”
I bit my lip, sensing a hesitation and tenseness from him that moments ago had not been there. “Depends on what?”
“On you,” he confessed, glancing sideways at me and drawing his shoulders back. “Your mom’s concerned that you’re not adapting as easily as Dorian. She thought me being here might help.”
“So that’s why you’re here?” I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
“Of course not,” Kendrick said, drawing me up off the bed and into his arms. “I’ve missed you so much. The Armaya is so bloody boring, and without you nearby to escape to, I feel like I’m contracting cabin fever. I just needed to see you.” His arms loosened around me, but didn’t let go, his fingers entwined at my waist. “So when your mom asked mine, I begged her to let me come. She agreed, so long as I attend school with you.”
With my disappointment waived,
I smiled. “What’s it like there?”
Although Kendrick had grown up around our family, I had never been to the place he called home. He had always been reluctant to speak about his family and had always made excuses not to hang out at his place. Now I understood the reason, the secret he had kept of being a vampire before I knew I was one too. He lived at the Armaya with his mom—a beautiful woman I had only ever met when she’d dropped Kendrick off for the weekend. She, alongside our adopted Uncle Caius, held a spot on The Royal Vampire Council.
Kendrick sighed. “It’s monotonous, and structured, everything that sucks the fun out of life.
“Then don’t go back,” I pleaded, unlocking Kendrick’s hands and clutching them with my own. I couldn’t deny how normal I felt whenever I was around him. He’d always accepted everything about me, even my mood swings. “Stay here…with me.”
“Amelia, I can’t ignore my obligations, my birth-right.” He shook his head regrettably then painted a cheeky smile back across his lips. “But I’ve escaped for now!” His arms spread out wide in dramatization that made me giggle. “Tell me about you. How have you been? What’s new?”
My breath caught and my throat felt suddenly dry. In all the excitement and shock of Kendrick’s arrival, I had totally forgotten about Ty. How could I tell Kendrick that I was involved with a werewolf? He was my best friend, but he was also royal heir and bound by their laws. In his eyes, Ty was our mortal enemy.
“Amelia, what’s wrong?” Kendrick’s hand found my jaw, tilting my face up. “Your mom was right, wasn’t she? You’re still having trouble settling in, in accepting being a vampire?”
Unable to hold his gaze, I averted my eyes nodding mutely. What would he do if I told him? What would he have to do? The fear of retaliation or condemnation sent shockwaves through my body. I couldn’t force my lips to move, to say what I knew I should and to see the shock and disappointment in his face. I couldn’t tell him. Kendrick could never know.
