Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3) (11 page)

Fane shook his head. “I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew is that Valerie was capable of anything, and I didn’t want her lashing out at you. I thought I was protecting you. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I should have stayed by your side.”

He reached for my face. I stepped back and grabbed the door handle.

“It’s too late,” I said.

Our eyes locked. It was tempting to stare at him just a little longer, but rationality kicked in and I turned the handle. Before I finished twisting the knob, a fist pounded on the other side of the door. My heart leapt straight up my throat. I nearly screamed.

Now what? I didn’t want anyone to see me with Fane. Maybe if I kept quiet enough whoever it was would go away.

The knocking resumed.

I looked at Fane, who looked at my hand frozen on the doorknob. He raised one eyebrow and smiled slowly.

The person behind the door reached for the knob on the outside and turned. My hand turned with it. This time, I willed it to be my mom, not Dante, but who else would let themselves in?

The door moved outward.

Dante stood on the threshold grinning from ear to ear. He continued to grin even after he saw Fane lingering behind me.

Dante leaned in to give me a loud smack on the lips. “Hey, babe.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I came over to give you a lift to school.”

“It’s across the street.”

Dante pulled me against him. “Yeah, but it’s your first day. I wanted to be here for that.”

I would have given my left arm to see Fane’s expression when Dante kissed me. Probably similar to the cable tight frown currently stretched across his face.

“Hey, man,” Dante said, one arm snaking around my waist, the other reaching forward. “I’m Dante.”

Recognition lit up Fane’s eyes. His jaw loosened as he smiled and gave Dante’s hand one firm pump.

“Dante,” Fane repeated. “How could I forget that name? Aurora’s big brother, right?”

The fiend looked very pleased with himself all of the sudden.

Dante’s hand dropped from my waist as he turned to me. “Brother?”

Fane skirted past us. “I’ll let you two have some family time,” he said as he walked out the door.

Couldn’t leave without causing problems, could he? I slammed the door shut.

Dante folded his arms across his chest. I swear he’d grown an inch taller.

“Aurora? Who was that?”

I sighed. “Can we sit down before we talk?”

Dante extended an arm forward for me to lead the way.

I savored my last seconds of peace in the twenty seconds it took to reach the living room. I know I’d mentioned sitting, but I didn’t.

“That was my ex-boyfriend.”

The muscles on Dante’s chest tightened. I was so used to his carefree grin that it gave me no small thrill to see his jaw clamp down and his eyes narrow.

“What was he doing here?”

I shrugged, suddenly unable to meet Dante’s eye. “He showed up unannounced. I guess he wanted to apologize for being a dick.”

“You gave your ex-boyfriend your new address?”

“No way! That was Noel. They’re friends.”

“Great. Your ex and your friend are tight.”

“Noel’s not my friend!” I cried, but Dante wasn’t listening.

“Why did he call me your brother?”

Oops. That wasn’t good.

“Umm,” I said, nudging the carpet with the tip of my toe. “Remember when we went to Fairbanks to interrogate that kid involved in Janine’s death?” Maybe bringing up Dante’s ex-lover would help my cause.

“Yeah,” Dante said.

“Remember how I’d just broken up with a guy and told him I was going out with you so he wouldn’t try getting back together with me?”

“Yeah,” Dante said.

“Well, that was him,” I said nodding toward the hall. “He’s the guy who went out with Valerie first.”

Dante’s arms remained locked across his chest.

“I remember you telling me about him,” he said. “How is it he’s dated both you and Valerie and is friends with Noel? Is he another informant I haven’t met?”

I smiled before I could stop myself. The whole thing was too ridiculous.

“He’s not an informant. We all went to Denali High School together and somehow our lives collided.” I shrugged. “It’s crazy, I know.”

Dante frowned.

“What’s his name?”

“Francesco.”

Dante huffed. “What kind of name is that?”

Fane had asked the same thing about Dante.

“It’s Italian.”

“Oh, Italian.” Dante rolled his eyes. “You still haven’t told me why spaghetti boy referred to me as your brother.”

Spaghetti boy, really? One look at Dante’s face was enough to know now wasn’t the time to tease him. Now wasn’t the time to be having this conversation period. I had my first class to get to.

“He helped me when I was in trouble and I didn’t want him to think I’d dumped him for another guy, so I told him the truth. At least part of it. That I’d lied about going out with you.”

“Still doesn’t explain the brother comment.”

I had to think back a moment before it came back to me. I stopped fiddling with my hair.

“The day I first met you I was with him. We’d actually just started going out. Anyway, you zipped me off to Fairbanks with zero notice. Naturally my boyfriend wondered where I’d been and how I’d gotten there since I was only letting my mother drive me around at the time. I said I’d gone with a friend and he figured out I’d gone with a guy so to make him feel better I said you felt more like a big brother type.”

“Ouch,” Dante said. His arms dropped to his sides as though he’d been hit in the chest.

“I’d just met you.”

Dante shook his head. “That was your first impression of me—as a brotherly type?” He grimaced before continuing. “The first time I met you I was like, wow, this chick is hot! When you opened your sassy mouth I was a complete goner.”

My heart flipped. Dante made things so difficult for me when he said stuff like that.

It’s not as if he had been available, either.

“You were with Janine when we first met.”

“Friends with benefits, may she rest in peace,” Dante added quickly looking upwards. “Anyway, that’s all in the past.”

“Exactly,” I said.

Water under the bridge to nowhere.

Dante took a step toward me. “Except your past showed up at the doorstep and barged his way in.”

“See why I don’t want to be roommates with Noel?”

Dante veered over to the couch and sunk into a sofa cushion, eyes on mine. “I can’t picture you with that guy. You’re so sweet and he looks like riffraff.”

“Riffraff?” I repeated and laughed. “I guess you could say that. We went out right after my accident. I suppose I was feeling dark at the time.”

Dante nodded as though that made perfect sense. But it was more than that. Going out with Fane hadn’t been an act of rebellion so much as a grasp at sanity. He’d been my beacon of light during a dark time. Salvation came in the most unlikely guise.

But Dante didn’t need to know that.

“Did you two ever…”

“No!” I exclaimed before Dante could finish his sentence. “We only went out for a couple weeks.”

Dante grinned. “That’s my girl—make ’em wait. I almost forgot that you’re a virgin.”

“I’m not a virgin.”

“Oh, really,” Dante said, smiling wider.

“No, now how about that ride to school?”

Dante patted the cushion beside him. “Or we could play hooky.”

“Not on my first day.” I frowned.

Sometimes, I felt like Dante didn’t see me at all—like I was just a concept inside his head. I knew he cared about me, but it would be nice if he took life a little more seriously.

Fane cared about me, too, and even when he screwed up, I did believe it was for some greater purpose—at least in his mind.

Why did he have to show up at the doorstep now? Why did he have to show up at all?

If he’d wanted to try and make amends he should have tried six months ago.

Oh right, he had… before my mom sent him packing.

Didn’t matter. I’d gone to boot camp to bury the past and reinvent myself. Life was an open road with only one direction. Forward.

6

Most courses at UAA followed a Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday schedule, which left me with Fridays off and the house all to myself… in theory.

That first Friday, I didn’t turn up the stereo and dance around the house, nor did I draw myself a nice warm bubble bath in the Jacuzzi, or even spread my books over the dining table and get a head start on my assignments.

I invited Valerie Ward over.

We’d kept in touch by text, and she was also enrolled at UAA, but this was the first I’d seen her since we parted ways in the Juneau airport.

She arrived in cutoff jean shorts and a tank top, pushing her sunglasses over her head after I let her inside. Without so much as a hello, Valerie made her way through the kitchen and dining room, flip flops slapping against the back of her heels.

“Is this your place?” she demanded.

Yeah, I invited you here
.
I caught up to her in the living room, where she spun around taking everything in. Her eyes landed on me. She frowned. “You suck!”

“Where do you live?”

“With one of the unit’s staffers.” Valerie scowled. “I was supposed to move in with a real roommate, but then I took off. Back on probation.” She sighed. Her face lit up a second later. “But now I have a place to hang out. Make me a copy of your key. It will be perfect. I can come over and study during the long gaps I have between classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.” She eyed the couch. “Beats the hell out of the library.”

I chewed on my lower lip.

“What’s the problem?” Valerie demanded.

The problem was I had to think a moment. If Valerie suddenly started hanging out, I’d be the one stuck studying at the library just to have some peace and quiet. And what if, god forbid, Fane showed up again?

“If I gave you a key, what’s to stop you from bringing guys over all the time?”

I could see it now, Valerie’s after school brothel, no silver bats to prevent me from walking in on the flavor of the week—or worse
,
flavor
s
.

“The only guy I’d invite over is Gavin,” Valerie said.

Sure, invite a vampire over into a house full of informants and assassins. At least she’d moved on from Fane.

“You’re still with Gavin?” I asked.

Valerie’s spine straightened. “I am capable of a long term relationship. I was with Fane for almost five months before you came along. All-time record. Almost made it to our half year anniversary until you turned all morbid and moody and put on your doomsday show. Fane’s a sucker for the macabre.”

“Well, I’m not with him now,” I said tersely.