Eternal Shadows (30 page)

I closed my eyes. He knew. I hadn’t been sure he had even believed me the first time. “It’s nothing,” I answered, just as quietly. “Probably just that bone.” God, I hoped he wouldn’t know I was lying.

“I don’t like it,” he said, lips pressed just beneath my jaw.

“I know.” I took his face in my hands and gently guided him back where I could see him. “Go. I’ll see you soon. The general needs you now.”

A tense nod was my only answer. We had been apart so rarely since my turning. It broke my heart to have to send him away. Had I known this would happen, I would have forgone shopping with Sara.

The general cleared his throat impatiently. “Rhys, you know I don’t like to be late.”

His lips pulled away from mine and I felt my breath go with him. “I know,” he said, still looking at me,
though he spoke to the general. “I’m ready now.”

Such an unconvincing lie.

I wanted to kiss him once more, but knew if I did it would be that much harder to stop. Instead I settled for running my fingers over his lips before taking a single step back. The small distance between us felt like a deep cavern.

My feeling of dread hadn’t faded.

Cade moved to my side. “I won’t let her out of my sight.” A promise. Great. I hoped Rhys felt better now. Quality time with Cade meant more vampire-sized bruises for me.

Millie hopped up from her chair, smiling brightly. “You worry too much, Rhys. You’ll get wrinkles.”

Her playful banter didn’t help. Rhys’s gaze hadn’t moved from my face. I spared a quick glance at the general. He looked sympathetic now, with Rhys’s back to him. I understood. The political side of him needed Rhys to come along without argument. The part of him that saw Rhys as a son hated taking him away after everything that had happened over the past few days.

I straightened up and grabbed Rhys’s hand. “Come on. I’ll help you pack.” I pulled him towards the door and peeked over his shoulder at the general again. “What time do you need to leave?” I kept my voice as cheery as possible. Keep positive and everything would be fine.

“On the hour.”

I looked at the clock over on the far wall. Crap. Fifteen minutes. Oh well, we were probably better off. Any more time and we might distract ourselves. Lose ourselves.

I nodded and dragged Rhys out of the study. He caught me up in his arms immediately.

“Rhys,” I said against his thr
oat where he held me so tightly. “You don’t have time right now. Let’s get you packed, you’ll go to the council meeting, and then you’ll be back.”

“I don’t like the thought of leaving you.”

I took his face in my hands. “We’ve been apart before. It’s just for a few days. And just think, when you get back, I’ll be a high school graduate.” I grinned. Yeah, definitely not bringing him to the party now.
Dammit
.

I watched the mental war wage across his face. Finally, he gave in. “You’re right.”

I smiled at him, refusing to mention the bone in the other room again, even if just to assure him that I was alive and well, not dead and cold. I wanted his mind on other things. “Of course I am. Now let’s go before we get in trouble.”

Trouble. I pondered the word as I led Rhys up to the third floor room that had become his personal haven. Rhys would be in trouble if he didn’t go with the general. I would be in trouble if I did go, though I had no idea what they meant when they said I would be a distraction. I didn’t think I wanted to know.

But was I trouble-free by staying home?

My intuition said no.

My only consolation was the knowledge that Rhys would be away from it all. And I’d be damned if I let anything keep him here.

Fifteen minutes later I watched the general’s big black car pull out of the driveway. My stupid little premonition flared when the car fell out of sight. I hoped the reaction was simply to being without Rhys. Maybe that’s all it was. Maybe I had overreacted. My soul simply didn’t want to get too far from him again. But I didn’t think so.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Commencement

After the first sleepless night, my feeling of dread dissipated. I ch
alked it up to not wanting to be so far from Rhys. I managed to sleep the second night and my dreams were nothing but fragmented memories of him and Bryn at all different ages. None of the dreams made much sense. They flip-flopped from when we were young, to the days right before the proposal and back again. I didn’t get anything out of them other than heartache. I missed him terribly. I wished and prayed for a dream that would give me something significant, something meaningful, but came up empty handed. Millie chastised me when I started napping just for the excuse to possibly remember something.

“You can’t sleep your life away.”

“Not alive, so a moot point.”

“You know what I mean. Besides, memories come while you’re awake, too. Sleeping isn’t going to make any difference.”

I stopped trying to nap. I practiced with the sixpence instead.

Still nothing.

Graduation practice had at least given me a decent distraction. Too bad it was as boring as hell. No, I take that back. Hell, while unpleasant, was probably anything but boring. But it, like everything else, ended and left me stranded in that listless ocean of nothingness. I hung out with Sara and Jude, but felt distracted. Besides, it’s hard to grab a coffee when you can’t drink it. My only reprieve was the man-eating shark, otherwise known as Cade, who made a point of attacking me almost hourly. My reflexes were better, but I still couldn’t really hold my own.

Isaac watched us early Wednesday morning while Cade kicked my butt one last time before I had to get ready for graduation. I dodged Cade’s grab, but
ended up moving right into the path of one of his powerful kicks. I clutched my abused ribs.

“Jeeze, I do have somewhere to be today, you know.”

“You can’t just avoid one thing and hope for the best. Any reasonably good fighter will feint in order to get you to do what you just did.”

I stood straight and heard my back crack. “Fine. I get it. I need to go get dressed now.”

Cade nodded his consent.

I trudged back towards the house. Isaac leaned against the brick, just by the door. Not making some sort of eye contact would have been rude of me. I gave him the most polite smile I could manage. He creeped me out. All dark, silent, and lurky.

“When in doubt, a finger to the eye will slow an enemy down,” he said, almost shocking me into running face first into the glass door. His voice was as smooth and deep as the color of his skin. “Even vampires rely on their sight.”

His dark eyes suddenly seemed less threatening. I’d never heard him speak before. Not once. I collected myself and grabbed the door handle. “Uh, okay. Thanks.” I went inside.

He was still creepy, but a small part of my brain had decided to like him. Great.

Everyone went to graduation with me. Everyone. I don’t know who had reserved enough seats for the six of them. It sure hadn’t been me. Isaac sat at the end of the row, Cade next to him, then Madge, Millie and Brody and finally Warren. Gianna and Olivia had gotten to go to the council meeting. Millie grinned and waved at me like some idiotic proud parent when we paraded by. Brody joined in, only he hooted and hollered at the same time. Fabulous.

I tried to disappear by sinking further down into my folding chair on the football field. Sara poked me from her seat next to me. Our names were right next to each other in the alphabet, Thomas and Tigree, it was how we had met in the first place. Now it was a life-saver. Had she not been next to me, I would have been stuck next to Robert Sylus all by myself. Blech. I could never be sure if he hated me, or if he had a misplaced crush.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just some overzealous supporters.”

She looked over her shoulder, clearly searching for them. I knew she wouldn’t have any trouble finding them. They were the most hodge-podge group in the crowd. “Hm
m. Where’s Rhys?”

“Away on business.”

“Aw, man. That sucks. So I guess you’re not bringing him to the party after all.”

“Guess not.” Our valedictorian, Tammy Amante, had finally stopped talking. I hadn’t listened to a word. They started to call names. Sara and I had a while.

“So are you dating or not?”

Dating. No, we weren’t dating. We were remembering our multiple past lives together and working on creating a better one now. Dates? No. No, dates. “Yeah, we’re dating.” The simplest explanation, even if it was more or less a lie. Sara wouldn’t have understood any other explanation.

“In that case, I can’t believe he’s missing your graduation.”

“Trust me, he would rather be here.”

“We should go on a double date. I want to get to know him better.”

“Sure.” I could see it now
—Sara and Jude trying to make small talk with a five hundred year old vampire. Ha. Favorite band? They’d expect something modern, right off the radio. What they’d get was a list of both popular and little known groups from a smattering of decades. Rhys just couldn’t choose a favorite. They were all so different. But he didn’t like anything currently in fashion. I had tried to show him the light, but to no avail.

My brain clued in when they hit the “T”s. Sara and I stood and suddenly the excitement really kicked in. We half-skipped our way up to the podium to get our diplomas, then danced arm-in-arm all the way back to our seats. I spent the rest of the ceremony giggling, carrying on
, and tossing my cap into the air. Sara’s parents found us after we had processed back up the aisle and while her father gave her a huge bear hug, her mother wrapped me in a teary embrace.

“I can’t believe you girls have graduated,” she said through the tears, her blonde curls bouncing as she shook her head in denial. “It seems like only yesterday I took you both to the park to play on the swings.” She grabbed my face
and kissed my cheek. “I’m so proud of you. And your mother would be proud of you, too. Your father couldn’t make it today?”

Wow. Thanks for reminding me of that. I had shoved that sad detail to the back of my mind. She meant well, though. I suppose, really, his absence should have been at the front of my thoughts. “Oh, yeah. Business. Couldn’t be helped. It’s okay.”

She kissed me again then moved on to maul her own daughter. Sara’s father, a huge, hulk of a man with features as dark as his wife’s and daughter’s were fair, gave me my very own bear hug. “Congratulations, Kass. You earned it.”

I laughed. “Sleeping through class earns me this? Wow!” We’d always teased each other about our lack of enthusiasm for school. The truth was, I liked it just fine, and so had he, but it was fun to play the part.

Jude and his family found us next, and after going through the necessary motions, I excused myself to go find my own family.

Hm
m. Family. First time I had thought of them as mine and not just Rhys’s. Funny how things could change. Not two months ago I had hated each and every one of them just on principle.

Two months ago I’d had a father. I’d been human. I hadn’t been in love.

I guess, if not a fair trade, it was at least a decent one. Having all three would have been better.

They patted me on the back, as was expected from the huge crowd that surrounded us. People were watching. He may have been “transferred” but I was still the general’s daughter. The one who had been hit by a car a few weeks back. Yeah. The reporters covering graduation were more interested in me than anything else. Cade ushered us all home quickly. I laughed when one reporter got too close and Millie provided him with one of her coldest glares. You would have thought he had been face to face with a grizzly and not a thin, twenty-something blonde.

The rest of the afternoon passed faster than I thought it would. It felt like all I had done was blinked and it was time to go to the party. Cade agreed to follow me at a distance. Linger in the darkness outside and all that. He had promised not to let me out of his sight, after all. I’d brooded over not having a date. Not that I’d ever had a date for anything before this, but it was the principle of the matter. I should have had a date this time. Stupid politics. But when dinner rolled around I found the perfect victim.

Warren needed to get out of the house.

I dressed him in his best clothes—not hard, Warren always looked decent—and dragged him along to Kelly Peterson’s monster of a house.

He didn’t quite come quietly.

“I don’t know about this, Kass.”

“Stop moaning and have some fun for once in your life.” I straightened my dress once I had climbed out of Cade’s conspicuous bright red Charger.

Warren all but clung to my side as we walked up the driveway to the front door. “I haven’t spent time with people my own age in a long time.”

“You spend every day with me. And Brody acts like he’s seventeen.” I rang the doorbell. Music could be heard blasting inside the house. Kelly’s parents were supposedly home, but I had a feeling that was a big fat lie. If they were on the premises, they were in the small two story guesthouse, more or less a mile out back.

Kelly herself opened the door and greeted us with a huge smile, a red plastic cup gripped in one hand. “Kassandra! I’m so glad you could make it!” She stepped aside. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Warren,” I said. “My cousin.” No need to start rumors. They’d all caught on to me and Rhys apparently. I didn’t need to be linked to two guys.

“Well, it’s great to meet you! Come on in!” I wondered what was really in her cup. It was barely nine o’clock. Besides, I’d heard this was a dry party, so to speak. It was the only reason most parents had agreed to letting this be the main graduation party in town. Oh well, someone had probably snuck something in. I tugged Warren through the door behind me.

The house was packed. No kidding. Packed to the gills. The air was so thick with body heat I thought I might suffocate. I hadn’t thought there were that many people in my class. We graduated at a grand total of 305. Not small really, but jeeze. Thank God Kelly’s house had seven bedrooms, five baths, and God knows what else.

Sara found us immediately, Jude in tow. From the look on his face, the dress had done the trick. He didn’t see anything else.

“Kass!” she shouted over the ridiculously loud music. “You finally got here!”

“The party started at eight! I’m fashionably late!” I needed time to let Warren recover after I drank from him. Poor guy. He probably would have preferred me draining him dry to coming to this party. He looked shell-shocked.

Sara gave Warren a completely unsubtle, calculating look up and down. “Who’s your friend?” she asked me.

“This is Warren,” I said for the second time in five minutes. “He’s been staying at my house. Relative of one of the new guys.” Good enough story for her. Of course, I’d told Kelly he was my cousin. Oh well. No one would pay attention anyway.

“Oh.” She grinned and stuck out her hand to him. “Nice to meet you!” Still shouting over the music.

Warren shook her hand. “You too.” Yay. He could still speak. I hadn’t traumatized him too thoroughly.

Jude
introduced himself next, and after about ten minutes of being pushed and knocked around from all sides, I suggested we find a less crowded space in which to mingle. We shoved our way through the mass of people, saying hi when we needed to and dodging flying soda cans when they came our way. The backyard played host to a good half the student body, but at least there was fresh air and more room to move. We claimed a spot at the back corner of the pool deck as our own. The music wasn’t so loud outside and talking was easier.

“Can you believe it?” Sara squeaked, bouncing to the current song that vibrated through the air. “We actually did it!”

“Yes, Sara. We did it.” I laughed at her enthusiasm. Parties weren’t really my thing. I could enjoy the occasional raucous get together, though. Fun in small doses.

Jude
grinned like a man who had won the lottery. I wondered if Sara had let him catch wind of her grand plan, or if it was just the dress. Wondered, then decided I didn’t want to know. Their business, not mine.

“Everything begins now, you know?” Sara kept bouncing. “Everything! First college, then maybe grad school, jobs, weddings, families!” She threw her head back and screamed in excitement. “We’re really on our way now!” She grabbed my hands and pulled me forward until I had no choice but to dance around with
her. “And you’ll e-mail and call and text every day, right? You won’t forget about me, right?”

I forced a smile to my face as I felt my heart slam into the very bottom of my stomach. “How could I forget you, Sara?” I couldn’t promise the other things. E-mail, letters, maybe. A call every day? Probably not. I had no idea where I would be in a year’s time. She’d be living it up on the University of Connecticut campus, I’d be somewhere with my new family of vampires. Hopefully not staring down a civil war. Things had really started to settle down on the human side of things. Peace talks everywhere. I didn’t want to leave one war for another.

All I could promise was my memory.

Crap
. I’d gone and made myself sad.

I spotted a group of kids who had created a dance floor of sorts over on the other side of the pool. “Let’s dance,” I shouted to Sara. She eagerly agreed. I grabbed Warren by the hand. “You want to dance?”