Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (14 page)

Within minutes, Jared pulled up to
the Westmark Hotel. Valerie and I grabbed our bags out of the trunk and followed him into the front lobby, straight up to the check-in counter.

“Welcome to the
Westmark,” the woman at the counter said cheerfully.

“Reservation for Jared.”

The woman had it up on her computer in no time. I couldn’t imagine tourism booming in February.

“I see you right here
, Mr.—Jared. Two rooms. One with a king-sized bed, the second with two doubles.”

Valerie abandoned her suitcase and took a giant step to the counter
. “What do you mean two rooms? There are three of us.”

“You and Raven are sharing,” Jared replied evenly.

“No way. It’s the middle of winter. I’m sure there are lots of rooms available.”

“Sorry,” Jared said in a voice that conveyed the opposite. “Budget cuts.”

“Here are your keycards,” the clerk said, moving on with the check-in procedure. “We offer lunch and dinner in the Kadataan Lounge, or you can walk to the harbor and find more options downtown. We are also within walking distance of the National Historical Totem Park.”

Good,
because I doubted Jared planned on lending us the car even if we were stranded on an island.

“Now what?” Valerie asked when Jared stopped in the hallway between our two rooms.

“Now we wait until night. We’ll meet in my room at eleven.”

“That’s eleven hours from now,” Valerie
said.

I’m glad she
mentioned it. It’s what I was thinking.

“What are we supposed to do until
then?” I asked.

“Watch TV. Take a nap. I don’t care.”
He slipped his keycard into the slot. It clicked once, and he pulled the door open before looking over his shoulder one last time. “Remember, my room, eleven o’clock.”

“Just great,” Valerie said once Jared left us alone in the hall. “Notice he took the room with the harbor view.”

At least she wasn’t bitching about sharing a room…at the moment. Valerie swiped the keycard into the door across the hall. Our room didn’t have an ocean view, but it was nice, aside from the beds barely resting two feet apart.

She
rolled her suitcase to the far bed by the window and set her baggage on top of the chair.

Her phone vibrated and she
plopped onto the edge of her bed to look at the screen. She gave a girly laugh before texting back to the person who had messaged.

I dropped my duffel and messenger bag on the floor beside my bed then began digging out the things I wanted to take with me when I went exploring. I needed my wallet, of course, iPod, and digital camera. Sitka might be as far south as I’d get
for a while, at least until Melcher cleared me for out-of-state vacation leave. I planned to document the trip even if I was technically on business. I switched my pleather jacket for a raincoat.

Valerie stared at her phone then started giggling.
She typed quickly then tossed her phone on the bed beside her.

“So
, you’re with Gavin now?” I asked.

Valerie glared at me as though she’d caugh
t me reading over her shoulder.

“How is that your business?”

“I’m just curious,” I said, sticking my things inside my backpack. “Why do you have a thing for vampires?”

“It’s my job. Hello? Informant. And there’s the s
ex,” Valerie said. She laughed when she saw my face. “Does that shock you? It shouldn’t—you’ve been with Fane after all.”

I ha
dn’t exactly mastered the art of the poker face. Valerie noticed at once. She stood and took a step toward me, coming in for the close-up. A wicked grin lit up her face. “Oh my God, you and Fane never did the bump and grind, did you?”

I glared at Valerie. “And that’s none of
your
business.”

She snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re saving yourself for marriage.”

“I’m not saving myself for anything,” I retorted. I grabbed my backpack.

Valerie followed me to the door. She had a look on her face like she wouldn’t let me out of the room without an answer. Well, she could suck it. That’s what the vixen did best.
“Then why in God’s name didn’t you do the deed?”

“We weren’t together long enough,” I said coldly. “You made sure of that.”

10

It was still drizzling when I stepped outside. The Toyota hadn’t moved. I guess Jared decided to take his own advice and watch TV or rest. I doubted he would use the time to report to Melcher. Somehow Jared didn’t strike me as a check in with home base kind of guy.

I pulled my hood over my head and walked through downt
own until I reached the harbor. Mid-sized boats were tied up along the docks.

The rugged coastal mountains served as a backdrop in every direction. They all looked so close, unlike
downtown Anchorage where the Chugach Range touched the skyline in the distance.

I pulled my
hood back and fished my phone out of my coat pocket, hitting “call” next to Fane’s name before I had a chance to talk myself out of it. I couldn’t help feeling less alone when I heard the sound of his voice.

“Aurora Sky,” Fane
said, drawing my name out when he answered. “Are you on lunch break or skipping?”

“Neither. I’m on assignment.”

“Ah. Fairbanks?”

“I can’t say.”

“Who have they sent you to kill this time?”

“Hopefully
, no one. We’ve been sent to check out a person of interest.”

“Then you admit vampires are people.”

“Of course they’re people,” I said.

“Are you with Dante?”

What was with the third degree? I ought to be the one asking the questions.

“No.”

If only Fane knew the truth—that I was stuck with his former suck buddy. I could see his eyes falling out of their sockets if he heard that one.

“Oh, that’s right,” Fane said. “You’
ve moved on to numb nut number two. I saw you leave the party together. Did jock boy get lucky?”

“Excuse me?” I s
aid in an icy voice. I felt equal parts relieved and enraged. If Fane thought I’d hooked up with Mike, it meant he didn’t sneak away and off the poor guy.

Then there was the enraged part. He must think me terribly pathetic to drop my panties
a second time for some high school
numb nut
as he liked to call twenty-first-century jocks.

“I
mean, that is the only way you’d let a guy stick it to you, right? If he’s one hundred percent human he’s on the ‘okay to bang’ list.”

My chest tightened in indignation.
“Fuck. You. Fane.” I was so mad I felt like chucking my phone into the harbor. Instead, I jabbed my thumb on the end call button so hard I probably left behind a permanent fingerprint.

“
Jackass. Jerk. Shit brain. Pig!” I said at the phone, even though he was no longer on the line. Might as well cuss like a sailor while standing in the harbor. I tried to hold onto the anger as long as I could, but I eventually ran out of breath.

Vampire or not, men sucked.

I walked to the end of the dock. Small ripples lapped the beams below my feet. Beyond the harbor, the bay unfurled toward the horizon like an oil canvas. Clouds clung to the sides of Mount Edgecumbe, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I should have taken a picture, but I was feeling too bleak at the moment.

I lifted my face to the mist
, relishing the cold moisture on my cheeks. Nature had so many emotions. Right now I swear she understood mine.

If I’d never known the real Fane
, the sweet man behind the rough exterior, I wouldn’t hurt the way I did now. If he were just a jerk, so be it. But we’d had something. Something I’d never felt for anyone. When Fane and I were together, he didn’t just get my mind off things, he made me feel better. He’d told me he wanted to be with me for as long as possible…right before I broke it off.

It would have had to come to that, anyway.
He knew why now, well, mostly. Fane didn’t know about Valerie’s hand in the matter. Even if I could get over my aversion to dating a vampire, it wasn’t safe for us to be together and would only lead to heartbreak. Why delay the inevitable?

Those thoughts didn’t stop me from mourning what I’d lost. Sometimes, late at night, I liked to play back scenes from our short time together like a favorite hits list. The time he’d
beat our opponents at badminton in gym class. The afternoon I ran into Fane in front of the video store and he walked me home in the snow. Our first make out session on the bus. Fane’s goofy attempt at
car rehabilitation
, and the way he never hesitated to call and check in on me. Washing dishes together the time he came over for dinner. Skipping class to walk to Portage Glacier. Making out in his car overlooking Cook Inlet.

That Fane felt like a figment of my imagination.

At least he cared enough about me to want me alive. He’d been convincing enough when Noel went to him for help after my abduction. But the moment I was better he couldn’t get me out of his sight quickly enough. And now he’d taken to tormenting me.

What did I expect? That I could dump him and then pick back up as friends?

No, nothing would be the same again, and it was my own damn fault for calling him in the first place.

I was glad Fane had spoken to me so harshly. I needed it. I needed to wake up and smell the blood.

With a final glance across the bay, I turned and retraced my steps across the dock.

On my way to the
totem park, I popped into the local food co-op and bought a bag of granola.

The totem pole at the park entrance was as tall as the surround
ing trees. The next stood in front of the visitor’s center. I moved on, grabbing handfuls of granola and munching on it as I walked from pole to pole further into the forested park.

I stopped in front of a wolf pole, shrugged off my backpack and exchanged the half-eaten bag of granola for my digital camera. Sitting on top of the wolf with his pointed ears was a village watchman wearing a hat that reminded me of an orange construction cone. I looked around. It would be nice if someone could snap a photo of me by one of the totems, but the forest was quiet. Just me and a couple ravens watching from the trees. I took a picture and moved down the wooded path to the nex
t totem. They were actually really cool and creepy with their sharp beaks, teeth, unsettling grins, and big black eyes.

I moved deeper into the forest and
paused, face-to-face with a wood bear carved at the bottom of a totem. He had what looked like a very long shrimp in his mouth. I turned my camera on and was so focused on taking the picture I never heard the footsteps behind me.

“Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

I nearly shrieked. Whatever expression I had on my face made Jared grin.

“I think it’s beautiful,” I retorted
, putting the annoyance I felt into words.