Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (32 page)

I had her drop me off at Elderberry Park. No way was I having
her drive anywhere near the palace, not after what had happened to Agent Crist when she patrolled the area.

“You have your
phone?” Mom asked after pulling into the park’s small vacant lot. Her body became rigid as she stared through the windshield at the deserted playground. At night the statues looked rather creepy, like creatures crouched in the shadows.

She had to have seen
my phone in my hand, but I held it up for reassurance. “Yep. Right here.” I stuffed the phone inside my coat pocket, leaned across the car, and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m just going to talk to a friend.”

She
nodded tightly. “Be safe.”

I unbuckled.
“You, too. Gran’s in full battle mode.”

Mom’s shoulders relaxed
and she laughed. “Don’t remind me.”

“Will
you
be okay?” I asked.

“I’ll manage.”

At least Mom didn’t look so tense when she drove off. I started down the hill toward the inlet and N Street, zigzagging my way across patches of dry pavement. Both sides of N Street were lined with condos. I stuffed my hands inside my coat pockets, sharing space on one side with my phone and my iPod on the other.

The
humidity from my breath looked ready to freeze in the air. I pulled my scarf up to my nose, capturing the moisture in the fabric where it cooled instantly. We had to be in the negatives tonight.

I walked a couple blocks then turned right.

I hoped Noel had come out tonight, but what if she hadn’t? I guess I’d call a cab after killing enough time for Gran to leave our house. She couldn’t stay much longer. It was already late for her.

As I approached Marcus’s townhouse
, it began to strike me that coming over tonight wasn’t the best idea. What friends did I really have here? I could hardly pretend to be with Fane, not after the way he’d cast me off.

I walked up to the hand-carved wood
en door with the stained glass panels on either side and stared at the door knocker. I heard footsteps behind me and glanced over my shoulder. A young man walked up. Maybe one of the guys who’d been in the kitchen? I couldn’t tell in the dark. “Don’t be shy,” he said, nodding at the front door.

I pulled on the door handle and walked in ahead of him onto the slabs of sand-colored stone in the entryway.
The first time I’d been to the palace Henry told me Marcus imported the stones from Jerusalem. Now here I was walking on them in Anchorage, Alaska. Surreal.

I took my jacket
and scarf off and hung them from one of the curly iron hooks along the wall of the entryway.

Latin music played on low from the direction of the living room. No disco tonight.

I pulled my tunic sweater down over my skinny jeans and headed for the kitchen. I tried play it cool when I walked in and found Gavin pouring a drink inside a martini shaker. I fought the urge to ask if he’d heard anything from Valerie.

“Aurora,” he said evenly
.

I stared at the martini shaker, waiting for him to shake it
from side to side, but he didn’t. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Noel around tonight?”

“Are you looking for Noel or Fane?”

My heart flopped. I put a hand on my chest. It didn’t feel especially good. “Fane’s here?”

“I suggest you che
ck the October room,” Gavin said.

“Why’s that?” I asked coldly.

“Go see for yourself,” he answered, matching my tone.

I hated the
hard look on his face. Even more than that, I hated that I had to do the very thing he obviously wanted me to. I certainly didn’t want to stick around the kitchen with him. As soon as I turned my back, Gavin began shaking the mixer.

My feet carried me to the living room. The surroundings had begun
to take on a dreamlike quality, all hazy around the edges.

Marcus stood leaning against the iron banister of the spiral staircase in one of his silk shirts, half
-buttoned, chatting with a fellow to his left. He nodded at me in greeting, and I nodded in return. I passed him and stared at the first step of the staircase. Marcus broke off his conversation. He turned to me. “Are you sure you want to go up there?”

“Yes,” I replied firmly.

He gave me a knowing smile. I’m not sure what he knew. It wasn’t good, whatever it was, but there was no turning back.

With each step I took,
I had that feeling in my gut that I really didn’t want to see what I was about to, but I couldn’t turn away. I reached the landing and passed the giant shower with its mosaic tile artwork.

The door to the October room loomed in the distance
, the silver bat hanging heavy from the knob. I approached with even steps. I did not pause to listen when I reached it. My hand moved for the knob as though gliding on the strings of a puppeteer. It turned easily in my hand. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

They sat on top of the bed in the flickering candlelight. Fane and Noel.

Noel’s top had been dragged down her shoulder. A drop of blood beaded at the fresh puncture wound on her pale smooth skin. Not on the neck, but lower, right by her shoulder blade.

Fane’s
eyes were half-closed. It took him a moment to notice my intrusion. When he did, it looked like he was slowly beginning to wake from a dream. His expression cleared into one of recognition. Our eyes locked.

I couldn’t speak. Neither, apparently, could Fane.

Then Noel saw me. “Aurora!” she cried. Horror filled her face. How comical. Noel Harper horrified that I’d walked in on their disgusting display of betrayal. I swear I hated her even more than Fane at that moment. “It’s not what you think!”

I didn’t give her time to explain.

I gave Fane one last look, one I hoped would haunt him for the rest of his everlasting life, then turned in place and walked out, shutting the door behind me.

The last thing I wanted was Fane or Noel com
ing after me. If I had to look at either of their faces or hear their voices, I’d fling myself off the balcony into Marcus’s living room. And I just might have to if I wanted to make it downstairs in time.

I looked side to side frantically. All the doors had silver bats hanging from the knobs. I just needed a moment to avoid Fane and Noel and compose myself. I didn’t want anyone to see my face
until I’d had time to mask my emotions.

I hurried down the hall. Those stupid bats mocked me from each closed door. I quickly rounded a corner. At least I’d reached an area that couldn’t be seen from the door of the October room. Even a bathroom would do at this point. I’d lock myself in and wait until I felt certain it was safe to come out. I didn’t care if I had to wait all night.

A door at the end of the hall caught my attention. It was closed but there wasn’t a bat hanging from the knob. I walked up to it and reached for the knob then stopped. My hand wasn’t as adamant about going into this room. Then I heard a door open. This would have to do.

I yanked the door open
and shut myself quickly inside.

I leaned against the door. My breath came out in ragged gasps. I fought to control my breath and listened. I thought I heard footsteps in the distance but then they died off.

Fane and Noel. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch myself in the face and knock the image of the two of them together right out of my head. My lip curled back. Traitors, both of them!

How could Noel? She knew what it was like. She was worse than Valerie. At least Valerie did her backstabbing out in the open, not behind closed doors
like Noel.

I clutched my stomach.
Fane and Noel. The two of them together made me physically ill.

I stormed up to the window and glare
d at my reflection. The girl in the glass looked haunted. I wanted to smash through her face. I turned away from her and walked the few steps to the king-sized bed, dropping to my knees at the side as though in prayer. I shoved my face into the satin cover spilling over the edge. I pressed my mouth against the fabric to muffle my sobbing screams. I let it all out. I had nothing better to do, and I couldn’t leave with the party in full swing. How could I show my face downstairs?

I stood up slowly and went back to the window. Too far
above ground to make my escape. I guess I was just stuck waiting until morning. Hours of mind torture. What a Saturday night!

I felt an insane urge to call Dante. I
was sure he’d happily charge through the front door and get me the hell out of here, but noooo, I had to go and leave my phone in my coat pocket.

I paced the room
, muttering angry curses.

“Not ready
to cross that line.” I snarled under my breath. “Not like Noel!” I shouted at the door, punching my fist in the direction of the October room. I quickly covered my mouth and listened. When no one appeared at the door, I resumed pacing, muttering, and mocking everything he’d said to me the last time we were together.

“
What we had was good. Let’s not ruin that.
Oh, you ruined it, buddy boy. You chewed up every good feeling I ever had for you and spit it back out!” I swung my arm in the air as though cracking an invisible whip. “
Good thing I have someone on the inside to look out for me.
Yeah, Noel! I see she’s looking out for alllll your needs.”

Maybe there was a perfectly good explanation for this. Maybe Noel was just doing her job. Even if Melcher had instructed Noel to take Valerie’s place with Fane
, I couldn’t let it go. There wasn’t any room for rationalization inside my head when it came to him.

“All right, Aurora. Time to get a grip
. Head held high. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

I stopped beside a statue, noticing for the first time the bust of a muscled chest ending at the groin. I looked around the room.
A watercolor of two men seated naked beside one another hung at eye level beside the window.

On the opposite side of the room
, oil paintings depicted full male nude frontals. The adjoining wall featured more whimsical and modern portraits, including an Asian silk screen with two men: one in black leather pants and another in red, thigh-high heeled boots.

“Oh wow,” I said in a whisper. “I really need to get out of here.”

I turned quickly away from a nude drawing of Peter Pan wearing spiked wrist cuffs and bumped into Marcus’s dresser. My knee hit one of the artsy iron handles. I cursed.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.” Pain shot up my leg. I’d hit the worst spot on my knee.

I gripped the dresser, breathing in and out, waiting for the wretched pain to pass. As it subsided, I straightened up, both palms firmly planted on the dresser’s surface. I looked down and saw a box with swirls and squares intricately carved into the dark wood.

Jared claimed to have found Crist’s cross inside a wood box in a bedroom.

The same feeling of dread I’d had as I approached the October room came over me. I lifted the lid and pushed it back gently. Inside I found leather and silver bracelets, pendants, a gold chain, large gothic rings, and even diamond cufflinks. And then there, nestled inside the box, I caught the glint of an orange oval gemstone. It practically flashed me in the eye.

My heart dropped to the floor. I fel
t sick all over again.

My fingers reached inside in slow motion. I
lifted the ring in front of my face. The name “Mike” was carved into the silver on one side—an eagle, our school mascot, on the other.

My hand shook. My breath caught in my throat. At that moment the knob of the door began to turn. I
fisted the ring, but I didn’t have time to shut the lid on the jewelry box.

Marcus
stepped inside. His expression darkened when he saw me. “Who do we have here?”

My heart raced to unnatural speeds inside my chest
.

“This room is off limits.”

I swallowed and tried to control my voice. “I’m sorry. I needed privacy. I was upset.”

“And what or whom has caused such upset, my pet?” His voice
amplified inside my ears as he approached. There was no hair on Marcus’s chest, only rock solid muscles where his shirt gaped open.

“Fane,” I whispered. I hoped he mistook the
panic in my voice for heartache, but that wasn’t what made my heart pump its way up my throat as I stood trapped inside Marcus’s bedroom. Marcus, Mike’s killer. Mike’s real killer. And that possibly meant Crist’s killer, too.

“Francesco and Noel,” Marcus said knowingly. “Do not worry your pretty
little head over Francesco. There are other bats in the sky.”

“I’ll k
eep that in mind,” I said, meeting Marcus’s eyes. “I’m sorry I intruded on your personal space.”
Move feet, move
. I took my first step toward him, then the next, and began to pass. My heart called out to the open door. I could make it. I’d never felt so close to escape.