Laney (18 page)

“What about your mom?”

Another deep breath.
How hard this must be for him to talk about
. “My mom’s heart gave out. She was a very healthy person, but I think the grief was too much to tolerate. After losing the three of us and then when my dad never came home—her heart couldn’t take any more. She died alone.”

A tear rolled down my cheek and he brushed it away with his thumb. “That is the saddest thing I have ever heard.” I wrapped my arms around him. I felt his body shake like he, too, was crying.

“You wanna know what’s totally ironic?” He asked quietly against my shoulder.

I nodded.

“Olivia was really into vampires and we went to the city because she wanted to see
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
.”

I laughed, but immediately stifled it.

“It’s funny; I know,” he said with a chuckle. Then, with all seriousness, he said softly, “Maybe she knew something we didn’t…”

He rolled onto his back and I rested my head on his chest. I heard the very faint thumping of his heart and it reassured me to know he had one. He held me tight and I fell asleep in the comfort of my vampire knight’s arms.

Chapter 21 - So Many Questions

When I woke up, he was gone. I sat up with a fright, thinking that maybe he’d left for good. There was a note stuck to my mirror. I slowly got out of bed to get it, reaching hesitantly and fearing the worst.

We’re staying home from school today.

~ Oliver

I sighed in relief. I thought I deserved a day off. I had just found out that my boyfriend was a vampire.
Huh, not so hard to deal with this time.
I had so many more questions. My backpack was sitting in my desk chair. There was a smudge of dirt across the light blue fabric. I tried to brush it off and realized it wasn’t dirt; it was dried blood. I took a step back and stared at it, wondering whose blood it was and if it was human or vampire blood. There was nothing I could do about it. I shrugged it off and pulled a pen and notepad out of it and started to write questions down as they came to me.

Felix was sprawled across the couch, making it look minuscule. He was still wearing the same jeans and powder blue, short sleeved T-shirt from the previous night. The shirt looked like it was being stretched to its limits across his chest and biceps. He nodded at me. “Morning, Sunshine,” he said in his booming voice. He gave me a devious grin; a dimple I hadn’t noticed last night appeared in his left cheek.

“Hey,” I said, rubbing my eyes and stretching. “Where’s Oliver?”

“He had to go… uh…eat and change. He’ll be back soon.”

Ahhh…
It took me a minute to register what he meant.

I cleaned myself up a little, washing my face and brushing my teeth and hair. I changed into comfy black velour pants and a matching jacket with a plain turquoise tank underneath. It was five o’clock in the morning. I was never up that early. I made myself some butter and grape jelly toast with a glass of orange juice and sat at the kitchen table waiting for Oliver to return. All the while I compiled my list of questions. It felt weird to have Felix in my house without Oliver there. I wasn’t sure if I should talk to him or pretend he wasn’t there. I went with the latter, although I eyed him curiously. He was a vampire after all.

Oliver returned just as I was finishing my toast.

“Hey,” he said, crossing the room to me and hugging me tight. “I didn’t expect you to be up yet.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t expect you to be a vampire.” It just fell out of my mouth.

He stepped back and shock covered his face.

“Well, I didn’t.”

His expression softened. “Really, it never crossed your mind?”

“Nope, why would it?”

Felix cleared his throat, reminding us he was still there, and we turned our attention to him.

He gave us a “remember me?” smile. “So, can I go now?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, man. Everything’s set up; you’re good to go.”

“Cool,” he said in a happy, booming voice. “See you two later.” Then he headed out the door.

I turned to Oliver. “What do you mean, ‘Everything is set up?’”

“We have members of our coven stationed throughout town to watch for Oscar or anyone else that might be a threat.” I wasn’t sure how a town full of vampires made me feel safe, but it did.

“Felix said you had to go eat. What does that mean, exactly? Do you bite people?”

He seemed surprised by my abrupt change of subject, or possibly the bluntness of my question—either way I surprised him.

“I can eat natural food, unprocessed food. Anything else, including produce with pesticides, will have a bad effect on me. And no, I don’t bite people. That would be rude,” he chuckled lightly.

It seemed like a reasonable question to me. “Then where does the blood come from?” I was very curious about all of this.

“It’s…well… How about I show you?”

My eyes widened, my body tensed, and my hand quickly rose up to my neck. “What?”

“I mean let me show you where and how I keep my food.” He air quoted the word food. “Nobody gets hurt, okay?”

I let my hand fall and I felt a little foolish. I smiled back awkwardly as I ripped the page of questions from my notebook, folded it, and shoved it into my jacket pocket.

“What was that?” he asked.

“I’ve got things I want to know and you have answers for me.” I smiled, arched up on my toes, and quickly kissed his lips, not giving him time to kiss me back. Yes, it did cross my mind:
OMG! I’m kissing a vampire!
But I had done it before and it hadn’t bothered me, so why it should it now?

We wandered over to Oliver’s as the sun started to peek over the horizon. I have to admit this was fascinating, but it also made me a little nervous.
My boyfriend drinks blood and, last I checked, I’m full of the stuff.

“We need to be quiet. Carter and Kiera are sleeping,” he whispered to me as we entered his apartment.

“Geez, do they ever spend any time apart?”

“I don’t think so,” he chuckled. “We rarely do, either.” He had a point.

“True,” I said, as he shut his bedroom door behind us. And her boyfriend won’t bite her if he gets hungry. I’ll admit I didn’t even know if that was true; but, still, it crossed my mind. “But it seems like they’re living together and we’re not.”

“We can change that,” he said, wrapping his arms around me from behind.

My body tensed and my stomach turned, threatening to show me my toast again.
Dating a vampire—next step: living with one. No, next step: sleeping with one.

He turned me around in his arms to face him. “If this is too weird for you, I will understand,” he said, lifting my chin so our eyes would meet.
Oh, his eyes.

“You haven’t kissed me,” I whispered, changing the subject.

His eyes lit up. “I wasn’t sure….”

I cut him off. “I’m here, aren’t I?” I stretched up on my tiptoes to reach his lips and kissed him.
Oh…My….God!
Knowing he was dangerous made those sensations I normally got even more intense and I reacted to them. I ran my hands up into the back of his hair and pulled him closer. The rumble that came from his chest only amplified the excitement and passion that ran through me. I tried to pull him toward the bed, but he stopped me.

Holding my upper arms, he pulled away. “Laney,” he said, focusing on my eyes, “Not here; not now.” I glimpsed a fang. He pulled me into a hug. Resting my head against his chest, I wrapped my arms around his waist and waited as the hum in my body faded.

He kissed the top of my head and released the hug.

“Can I see them?” I asked very quietly.

“See who?” he asked furrowing his brow.

Without taking my eyes off his mouth, I pointed to mine.

“Oh,” he seemed uncomfortable, but he leaned closer. He lifted one side of his lip with his finger and there was a fang, pointy and sharp. It was longer than his other teeth and it overlapped his eye tooth and a little of the one in front of it. I couldn’t help myself; I touched the tip of it.

“Ow!” I jerked my finger back. It was so sharp it had pricked my finger instantly.

He jumped away from me and pressed himself against the wall. “What were you thinking?” He sounded agitated. His eyes were dark; the green was missing.

I panicked. I was bleeding and I was alone in a room with a vampire! “What do you want me to do?”

“Put it in your mouth!” His voice was frantic and his eyes were shut tight.

“What?”

“Just do it!” he hissed.

I popped my finger into my mouth. He rubbed his eyes and relaxed a little.

“I wish Felix was here.”

I shot him a dirty look.

“What? It’s probably fine now,” he said. The green had returned to his eyes.

I pulled my finger out of my mouth and looked at it. It had stopped bleeding. “I’m bleeding and you want to invite another vampire over?”

He shook his head. “He deals with fresh blood better than I do.”

“Oh, sorry.” I felt stupid.

“It’s fine,” he said, wrapping his arms around me again. “It just took me by surprise.”

“Didn’t we come here so you could show me something?” I wanted the subject changed.

“Oh, yeah.” He slid open his closet door, moved all his neatly hung clothes to the right, and pulled a panel off the wall to the left. He unlocked and removed a padlock from a hidden door that revealed a medium-sized, white refrigerator, about three feet tall. He opened the fridge door and inside were dozens of stainless steel water bottles. They were all silver and exactly the same as the one he always had with him. The refrigerator was deeper than I would have expected.

“Are those all filled with blood?”

He nodded, closed the door, and replaced the lock and panel.

“Why stainless steel?” I asked.

“It doesn’t leach into the blood.”

I shook my head, not understanding.

“Plastic leaches into the blood and damages it. Glass won’t ruin it, but imagine trying to explain it if you dropped one of those.” He gave a little chuckled like he’d amused himself. It made me giggle.

“Why did you come here?” I asked him.

He looked at me confused. “To show you my…um…food.”

“No, you dork. Why did you come here, to ‘
Treeville
?’” I asked with a giggle.

“Oh.” He laughed. “We keep watch on the humans who have vampire lines to see if anything happens with them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, some of them will start to show signs or abilities as they get older. Sometimes, those abilities grow stronger when a full vampire is around. It’s the half-bloods we are looking for; they have the best qualities from both their human and their vampire parents. We try to find them before their abilities start to show. They are rare to find because they are usually hidden to keep them safe, but things have been quiet for a long time and more have been found lately.

“Abilities? What kind of abilities?”

“Everyone is different. It’s hard to explain.”

“Give me an example.”

“Okay…me, for example.” He smiled coyly. “I can feel changes in emotions—like when you get upset, I get a wave of it rushing through me. Oscar can sense emotions, too; he’s just not as in tune with his because he feeds on dirty blood.”

“You can feel emotions?” That explained some things.

“Yep. It’s not that exciting, though. There are some of us who can do fascinating things and others who don’t have any abilities at all. I believe you have a list you want to run by me.” He smiled as he took my hand and led me out of the apartment.

We headed back to my apartment, avoiding being at his place when Carter and Kiera woke up.

I pulled the list out my pocket as soon as he closed the door behind us back at my place. Unfolding it, I asked one that wasn’t on my list.

“Where does all the blood come from?”

“Some of it is from each other. Vampire blood sustains us the best if we feed off of each other. It doesn’t store well, though. We still do it because it’s better than human blood. The rest we get from blood banks.”

“So, no biting?” I questioned, watching him sit down on the couch.

“No, no biting.” He chuckled again.
I’m
g
lad he finds this amusing
. “Though there are some humans who are willing to let a vampire do it; it’s just really risky.”

“How do you get it from blood banks?” I asked, as I sat next to him. I cuddled my back against him, kicking my shoes off and propping my feet up on the coffee table.

He twisted a strand of my hair as he answered my questions. “You know those blood donation vans you see around town that offer a free movie ticket when you donate?”

I nodded.

“Those are ours. It’s how we keep track of people with vampire lines and how we find clean blood. That’s the blood we use for ourselves.”

“What about the people who need that blood?” I asked.

“We don’t keep it all. We have those vans everywhere and it takes a lot of donors to find the clean blood we’re looking for.”

“Free movie ticket, huh?” I found it disturbingly funny that all of those unsuspecting people were feeding vampires so they could go to a free movie. “So, what happens if you feed,”
that was tough to get out
, “off bad blood?”

“The most common things that happen if you continue to have bad blood are that you can develop a twitch, you can completely lose control of your rational senses, or you can start behaving unlike yourself. For some, it doesn’t affect them right away, but it’s like junk food—you crave more once you start. And the more you have, the worse it gets.”

“Like that guy last night? The one that grabbed me in the bush had a twitch.”

“Yep.” He continued twirling my hair.

I still hadn’t gotten to my list yet.

“Lose control how?”

“I guess like a junkie. You get desperate and do things you wouldn’t normally do; your personality changes. With Oscar, he became really possessive and dangerous, but he would feed off of anyone—the dirtier the better. He also had other issues.”

I didn’t want to hear about Oscar; it made everything he said come back and I didn’t want to think about it.

“Why do you keep saying human? Are you not human?”

“I am, just a different species. I’m human, but like an evolved version. We are stronger, faster, and smarter. We can’t die by normal means, only by another…um…I guess mythical creature, or immortal you could say.”

I shook my head a little. This was a lot to take in.

“Next question?” he asked softly.

I looked my list over and then, yawning, I leaned my head back onto his shoulder and closed my eyes. My list was going to have to wait.

“Laney,” he said quietly.

“Uh huh?”

“If you see Oscar, you scream as loud as you can. Draw attention to yourself. Run away somewhere public. Don’t hide and make sure you call me. I don’t think he’ll hurt you, just threaten. But I can’t be sure and I’m not willing to find out. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said in a sleepy voice. He kissed the top of my head and I curled up against him on the couch.

“As long as there is life in me I will come for you; I will protect you,” he whispered as I faded off. I had no doubt he was serious.