Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (13 page)

Chapter 11

The
silver metal of the gun glinted under the flickering light. A single, shaking hand
played at the trigger of the 9mm revolver. One little squeeze, and Christian
was dead. Rome watched Christian as he breathed slowly, the hot air from his
lungs twisting out of his mouth like smoke. He tipped his chin down, leaning
forward as though he planned to rush his attacker. The sole of Rome’s boot
curled slowly over the edge of the blacktop as Ariahna pressed her palms into
the pavement. He was shaking with the realization that at any moment, someone
was going to die. A mix of fury and
fear prickled
sharply over his skin, and a deathly silence hung in the air
, along with
the unmistakable tang of blood. There was a guy slouched against the cement
with blood seeping slowly from the back of his skull. Rome wasn’t sure, but it
seemed like he wasn’t breathing.

The
sound of the chamber clicking felt deafening in his ears.

“Hey!”
Rome shouted. The guy who was holding the gun whirled towards him, and a
gunshot rang out, echoing off the brick.

People say that when you’re about to die, your life
flashes before your eyes. All
Rome could see was the flare of the gun, the slow twist of the bullet as it
left the barrel. He had so much time to watch what was about to happen, but he
couldn’t make himself move and get out of the way. A hand shot out and yanked
him into a solid body, and Rome went stumbling back with Kaleb as a sharp sting
blossomed over his cheek. The warm trickle of blood slipped over his skin as he
blinked up into scared blue eyes.

“Are
you okay?” Kaleb whispered.

Rome was trembling, unable to answer him as he pressed
his
forehead into
Kaleb’s shoulder. He turned his head slowly, swallowing his heart back down as
his brain struggled to understand what was going on. The gun was gone. The guy
who’d shot at him was on the ground, and Christian was beating his face in with
his fists. He knew he needed to get to him, stop him, but he still couldn’t
make himself move.

He
was barely managing to breathe.

Rome
took three slow breaths, blinking languidly against the nausea settling in his
stomach. Kaleb had his arms wrapped around him, holding him to his chest. “You
can let me go now,” he said, pressing his hands against his body and trying to
step back. “Seriously, let me go.” The distinct sound of Kaleb’s heart
thundering against the inside of his chest stopped him. Rome wasn’t sure what
was more unsettling – the idea that Kaleb might have been scared for him, or
the fact that his heart was beating at all.

“…We have to get out of here,” he said, stepping under
the
flickering light
with Kaleb at his heels. He could already hear the sirens wailing to life off
in the distance. Someone must have heard the gunshot.

“No,”
Aria said. Christian’s arms tightened around her waist.
“Do you know how bad it will look if we run away? We just need to
wait until the
police
get here and
give them our statement.”

“They
aren’t going to last very long,” Kaleb said, tipping his head
towards the two men lying unconscious on the
ground.

Rome turned to
look at
them in confusion. It was as though
he had forgotten they were even there
. He didn’t even know how Christian
had gone from beating the guy’s face in to cradling Aria in his arms.

“Can
you fix them?” Rome asked in a small voice.

Kaleb
tensed at the question. “It’s not that simple.”

“What
do you mean? Can you save them, or not?”

“To
heal them, I’d have to give them my blood. That’s not
something
you do lightly.”

“I’ll
owe you. Anything you want. Just—do it. Before it’s too late.” Rome knew if
they died someone was going down for murder, and he had the feeling that
someone would be him.

Kaleb
stared back at him with a hard look on his face. If Rome had any idea what he
was asking him to do, he doubted he’d be insisting upon it. He shook his head
gently as he drifted over to the man with the head trauma. He knelt down beside
him, shifting uncomfortably on his knees. “If I do this,” he mumbled, “I’m
linked to them. At least until my blood leaves their system – assuming it will.
Assuming I don’t give them too much and bind myself to them permanently. I’d be
leaving a mark, a connection between us. If they were seriously injured, or if
one of them died, I don’t know what would happen to me.” He looked back at
Rome, gauging his reaction to that information. The only thing he could read on
his face was fear. Kaleb closed his eyes and turned back to the bleeding man.

“Fine,”
he whispered. Sharp teeth shot down from the roof of his mouth and he raised
his wrist to his lips, biting quickly into skin. He held his mouth over the
wound as he leaned over the nameless face he might be tying himself to for
life. If this went wrong, if the man was too close to death, he might just be
creating another vampire. The knot in his stomach twisted as he worked the
man’s jaw open and pressed his bleeding wrist against his tongue.

Moments later, he was choking to life, coughing and
sputtering
blood as
it bubbled up his throat. Rome wasn’t sure if it was Kaleb’s blood he was
choking on, or his own, but either way, the guy was alive.

“They’re
getting closer, we have to hurry,” Rome said.

“You’re
being stupid,” Ariahna yelled. “We just need to calm down and think clearly.
Those two saw us. They
will
tell the police.” She took an unsteady
breath, trying not to look down at the wounded strangers, or the blood pooling lightly
around their bodies.

“I
never thought I’d say this, but I’m with him,” Christian said, pushing off of
the pavement with her in his arms. “I’m not sticking around to find out if I’m
getting charged with double homicide.”

They
ran back across the playground and through the open field, reaching his car in
what felt like record time. Rome whipped out onto the old road, kicking up
gravel. It pinged against the back window in a billowing cloud of dirt. They
had all shuffled into the car, and despite his protest, Aria and Christian were
sitting together in the backseat. He looked over his shoulder, staring
momentarily at their joined hands. It was more than enough to make him jealous.
And somehow, Kaleb, who was sitting quietly with his arms crossed and his eyes
scanning the passing scenery, was only making Rome more irritable. This was not
going to be a fun trip.

He
could smell Christian all over her, in her clothing and in her hair. Soft pink
lipstick stained his chin, standing out like a blatant slap in Rome’s face. He
wondered briefly if she even felt guilty. If she did, he couldn’t tell.

“Maybe
you should pull over,” she suggested meekly, squeezing Christian’s hand as Rome
stepped on the gas.

“Why,
so you and your date can make out in the backseat of my car?  I don’t fucking
think so.” Rome’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, making the leather
groan under the abuse.

“It
wasn’t a date,” she replied, placing her hands in her lap.

Honestly,
they were both scaring her.

“Seriously?”
Christian said. “You’re going with, ‘it wasn’t a date’?”

“What were you thinking even going down there with him in
the first
place? This
guy’s a fucking douchebag.”

“Hey,”
Christian said. “Don’t talk to her like that. Or me, for that matter. You were
the one at a cemetery in the middle of the damn night doing God knows what with
your giant, long-haired girlfriend.”

Kaleb’s
check twitched.

“He’s
not my—you know what? Just shut up,” Rome said, catching Christian’s reflection
in the rearview.

“I
really think you should pull over,” Ariahna repeated, hugging herself. Rome was
weaving through traffic, whipping around corners and practically staring a hole
through Christian at the same time.

If
he didn’t calm down, they were going to crash.

Rome
clenched his jaw, pulling onto a dark, private road that cut into the woods. He
kept the engine running, allowing a thin cloud of exhaust to build around the back
window.

Sitting
still wasn’t doing him any favors.  

“You
should calm yourself down,” Kaleb warned coolly.

“Fuck
you,” Rome bit out, pressing his back into the seat.

“What’s your problem?” Christian asked. “You’re acting
like
a damn psycho. Just
calm your shit already and get us the hell out of here.”

This
place was giving him the creeps.

“I
was almost shot in the god-damn face trying to save you, you stupid,
egotistical piece of shit.” Rome shoved his door open, stepping out of the car.
He couldn’t stay locked in there for another second.

“What?”
Christian breathed, pushing the seat forward. “What do you mean, you were
almost shot?”

Rome
stared back at him like he thought he was an idiot.

“A bullet, whirled at my face,” he clarified, pointing at
the cut on his cheek. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t see that shit.”

“…The
last thing I remember before running for your car was being tossed around like
a rag doll.”

Rome
knelt down near the door, staring at Christian.

“You
blacked out?” he said.

“Yeah,
I guess so.”

“Has
that ever happened before?”

“What’s
it to you?” Christian said.

“It’s
important,” he replied, glancing over at Kaleb. The look he was giving the two
of them was more than a little unsettling.

“There’s
something off about him,” Kaleb muttered.

“There’s
nothing off about me,” Christian said. “Can we just get out of here, before
something else bad happens?”

Rome
slipped back into the car. There was so much
tension
in the air
it was a wonder that any of them could breathe.

“What
was that?” Aria said slowly.

“There’s
nothing out there,” Rome muttered, peering into the trees just beyond the dim glow
of his headlights. A flash of movement had him slamming his door closed and
high-tailing it out of there. Better safe than sorry. As if that wasn’t enough,
Kaleb’s eyes were trained on him like a marksman. “Should I be worried?” he
asked.

“I
don’t know,” Kaleb said. “I’m only confined to a small space with three
bleeding people. What could possibly go wrong?”

Rome
grimaced. “Just hold on, we’re almost there,” he said, rolling down the
windows. That only blasted the scent around.

Kaleb
leaned his elbow on the center console, resting his chin in his palm. He was staring
at the fresh cut on Rome’s cheek when his fangs snapped down from the roof of
his mouth.

“Just
let me lick your face,” he said in a sultry whisper.

Christian
snickered.

“Don’t,”
Aria breathed, watching as Kaleb’s attention was pulled to the back of the car.
This was officially the worst night of her life. After everything that had
already transpired, she was now being stared at like prey. “Could you maybe not
look at me like that?” she said.

“Why
not?” Kaleb grinned. “You look like fun.”

“Alright,
that’s enough,” Rome said. “Just shut up, buckle your seatbelts, and if I so much
as hear another word from any of you, I’m driving this car off the cliff and into
the river.”

Christian
mouthed the word,
Psycho
.

“I
saw that,” Rome said.
He couldn’t get back
fast enough. In fact, this was the worst car
ride he’d ever had, topping
even open container nights in his father’s truck. Rome had never been so happy
to see a school building in his life. The lights in the student parking lot
flickered as he pulled into an open space. He wasted no time getting out,
holding his seat forward for Christian. He just wanted him away from his car
and out of his damn hair. But as he clambered out, Rome could see him grinning
at him. There was the hint of something evil playing at the edges of his eyes.