Blood Crave 2 (39 page)
Authors: Jennifer Knight
Tags: #Social Issues, #Love & Romance, #Vampires, #College Students, #Juvenile Fiction, #Paranormal, #General, #Romance, #Werewolves, #Dating & Sex, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural
“Me, apparently,” Danni said dryly.
Heather leaned in and said, “Faith—remember that night we all went out to the La Poudre together?”
“Yes.” Wow, that felt like ages ago.
“Well, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw Pete reading—” She dissolved into giggles. “He was reading a
romance novel
on his Kindle!”
romance novel
on his Kindle!”
I had to laugh at that.
“What a girl!” Heather shrieked.
I chuckled and looked between the two of them. This was actually kind of fun.
“Okay,” I said. “Lucas used to do this thing every night before bed—he never saw me watching, but whenever he got out of the shower, he’d spend like, twenty minutes just staring at himself in the mirror. It was so bizarre. I think he was looking for wrinkles.”
“Or pimples,” Heather said, guffawing.
We all snickered.
“How self-absorbed can you be?” Danni grumbled. “My last ex used to make me go into the changing room with him when we went shopping. And not to fool around. No. He wanted me to tell him how his ass looked in every pair of pants he tried on.”
“Pete wears tighty-whities because he thinks they make his package look bigger!”
Everyone—including some of the blood bitches who overheard—screeched with laughter.
When we calmed down, Heather ran into Danni’s kitchen to cook some pizza snacks, and I leaned on the couch, sighing. As much as I hated being around these druggies, I had to admit, this was the best time I’d had since ... well, since Valentine’s Day, probably.
Danni, too, had turned out to be less threatening than she was irritatingly funny. I should have hated her for what she’d done to Heather, but—and I totally loathed myself for this—I could actually see why Heather liked her.
Which gave me an idea. Danni was the ringleader here. Heather had made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t going to listen to me, but maybe if Danni stepped in, she’d pay attention.
“Hey, Danni?” I asked. “Do you think you could do me a favor?”
“Sure, babe. Anything for you.” She winked slyly at me.
I leaned in closer so nobody else would hear us talking. “Look,” I said. “I get that you guys are into all—this,” I gestured to the room at large. “But Heather isn’t like this. At least, not the Heather I know. She’s just—I guess she’s still upset about losing Pete and stuff, so she’s using the drugs as an escape. Which I get. But, really do you think this is
good
for her?”
good
for her?”
Danni studied me with those emerald orbs of hers and said, “I’m not fit to judge anybody, man.”
“I’m not asking you to. I’m just asking you to talk to her. Can you do that?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It might sound a little hypocritical coming from me.”
“She’ll listen to you, though.” For some idiotic reason, Heather trusted Danni. I’d seen no evidence of trustworthiness in her, but whatever.
Danni watched the group below us with a calculating expression, before finally saying, “Sure, lady, I’ll talk to her. What can it hurt, right?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. But make sure she doesn’t know I asked you to.”
“Why, you two having a fight?”
I shrugged. “Not so much a fight as a rift. I don’t know. . . . We just aren’t as close as we used to be. Most of that is my fault, but I can’t seem to fix it.”
“Well, just call me Dr. Phil. I’ll fix it for you.”
I shook my head at her, fighting off a smile.
“Hey, do you think you could take me home now?” I asked. “Curfew is coming up and ... well, to be honest, this is kind of depressing me.”
“Yeah, watching people get high loses its glamour after a while.”
I watched her fish her keys out of her jacket pocket. “So why do you do it so much?”
“These are my clients, babe. I gotta be present or else they’ll find someone else to buy from.”
I eyed her as she stood. Now would have been the perfect time to oh-so-casually bring up the vampire blood again, but as I watched her say good-bye to her clients I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was done with that world. Whatever Danni was into was her business, and I refused to get dragged back into that mess.
So I followed Danni out the door and let her take me home to my lonely dorm room.
I
was totally going to flunk out of college. I was convinced. Final exams were coming up, and I was completely unprepared. I’d basically bombed this whole semester thanks to Lucas and Derek, so for the next two weeks, I took studying to a whole new level. I lived in the library, drowning myself in useless facts and numbers until my brain felt like old cereal. It was lame. And lonely. And sad. But it was better than agonizing over missing Lucas and Derek. And it would keep me from failing all my classes.
was totally going to flunk out of college. I was convinced. Final exams were coming up, and I was completely unprepared. I’d basically bombed this whole semester thanks to Lucas and Derek, so for the next two weeks, I took studying to a whole new level. I lived in the library, drowning myself in useless facts and numbers until my brain felt like old cereal. It was lame. And lonely. And sad. But it was better than agonizing over missing Lucas and Derek. And it would keep me from failing all my classes.
I did have one social event to look forward to, though. Danni had found me on campus a couple nights ago and cornered me into a double date with Heather and her new blood bitch boyfriend, Ryan. I was being set up with Ryan’s roommate, Harrison. He was not a blood bitch, which was the only reason I’d agreed. Plus I wanted Danni to leave me alone about being so moody, and she’d claimed that this was the only way for me to move on.
The Sunday before exams was spent in the library for yet another marathon study session. As I trudged back to my dorm room, I tried to make myself feel something about my upcoming date on Friday—excitement, nervousness, anything. But all I could muster was dread. Imagining myself with anyone but Lucas was completely foul. I actually felt physically ill from it as I hurried through the courtyard, angry at myself for staying out past dark. I usually never did that anymore because I had no protection now and the murders were just as awful, and frequent as ever.
And it seemed that I needed protection because as I approached my building, a blast of wind hit me. I almost shrieked. But I regained composure long enough to see that it wasn’t a vampire.
Quite the opposite, actually.
It was Katie.
I blinked for a moment, letting my bag fall to the floor as my body went limp.
“Hey,” she said with a smile. Through the static of her crazy werewolf vibe, I could feel her phony niceness. I wasn’t sure why she was being fake with me, but I wasn’t about to confront her. I was too shocked and too happy to see her.
“I’m not here to talk,” she said. “I have a message. From Derek.”
More shock hit me like a hammer to the skull.
“Y-you talked to Derek?”
“Yep. He, ah . . . he called me when you left. He was pretty broken up, Faith. Really broken up.”
I pressed my lips together and took a deep breath. I hated to hear that I’d caused him even more pain, but I didn’t regret leaving him. “What’s the message?” I forced out.
Katie shifted her weight and looked around for a moment, almost like she didn’t want to tell me. Why was she acting so strangely?
“Just tell me,” I said flatly.
“He says he wants to meet you,” she said. “He wants to say good-bye.”
I balked. “Good-bye? Is he going someplace?”
Katie tossed her short black hair out of her eyes with a flick of her head. “He wants to tell you himself. He said to meet him on the football field at midnight tonight if you want to say good-bye. Otherwise you won’t see him again.”
My face collapsed into a frown as I absorbed this. Derek was leaving. Leaving where? Why?
Katie and I stood there for a long moment, and when she spoke up, her voice was softer, almost pained.
“So are you going to go?”
I wanted to go see him, but if I did so, I would only end up asking him to stay. And that was wrong. If he was ever going to learn to be happy, it had to be away from me and the pain I caused him.
“No,” I said finally. “I can’t say good-bye to him. If he wants to go, then that’s good. He should go. He should find a place for himself ... someplace that makes him happy.”
“He’s happy with you,” Katie said. “He wants you. He’s practically human still, there’s no danger with him if he takes your blood. He can’t turn you. And he’d always love you. Just give him a chance.”
At first I started to let myself believe Katie’s words, but I forced myself to stay strong.
“No,” I said. “No. I won’t give him anything more than friendship. You—you tell him for me, that if he wants to be my friend, I’ll always be here to help him. I’ll always love him that way. Otherwise, this is that way it has to be.”
Katie seemed to relax, as if relieved by my words.
“I’ll tell him.” She took a step and touched my arm. “Take care of yourself, Faith.”
And she was gone.
F
inal exams just happened to fall on my least favorite time of the month: the full moon. I got through exams with passing grades, which was a humongous feat after having slogged through the semester with only sections of my brain in working condition.
inal exams just happened to fall on my least favorite time of the month: the full moon. I got through exams with passing grades, which was a humongous feat after having slogged through the semester with only sections of my brain in working condition.
Friday night, and three weeks since I’d last spoken to Derek, I stood outside of my building in the courtyard, waiting for Heather. After Katie’s visit, Derek had tried calling me relentlessly for two days until I’d finally just shut my phone off. I couldn’t say good-bye to him.
I fiddled with the silver necklace Lucas had given me as I waited in the scanty yellow light of the courtyard lamps. It had finally stopped snowing. I wasn’t exactly sure when that happened, but now the ground was sprouting with fresh grass and the trees were starting to bloom waxy green leaves. The world was becoming alive again.
I checked my watch. Heather was late. I didn’t like being alone at night even with the silver at my throat and the double-ended stake stuffed into my purse. I was still grossly vulnerable. And there had been so many murders this past week; two or three every night. It had me—and everyone around me—totally on edge. I only wished the stupid pack would find the brood already. If they couldn’t manage it, not only would countless more die, but Lucas and the others would be entrenched in a war.
I winced as my body scorched, and then shoved the thought aside.
He doesn’t matter. He doesn’t even care that you’re out here unprotected. You could be dead for all he knows. . . .
He doesn’t matter. He doesn’t even care that you’re out here unprotected. You could be dead for all he knows. . . .
I checked my watch again and then pulled out my cell phone. I called Heather and got her voicemail. I waited ten more minutes, fingering the stake in my purse and imagining the moves I’d make if a vampire came at me.
Feeling idiotic, I went back up to my room and called Heather to cancel. But she didn’t answer. I tried her three more times, only to find that her phone had been disconnected.
What if something bad had happened to her? The vampires could have found out about her use of their blood and killed her. It was totally plausible. I called her about a gajillion times, but she never answered.
I couldn’t sleep at all that night.
The next morning, seven o’clock on the dot, I flicked on the news.
Sure enough, there had been murders last night. A car full of people. I gasped as the news lady listed the names. Ryan Avery, Harrison Klinger, and Jessica Faust. That was Heather’s boyfriend and his roommate! The girl was one of the blood bitches. But Heather’s name hadn’t been read. What did that mean? I flicked the news off and called Heather immediately.
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