Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (4 page)

No garlic? Sounded like I wasn’t the only one with
sensitivities.

The waitress turned to me. “And for you?”

“The raspberry vinaigrette salad, and we’ll take the breadsticks without the cheese.”

Dante groaned after
our waitress left. “Sky, you’re killing me. I still
do
have taste buds, you know?”

“Well, there will
be plenty of cheese on your pizza. I’m sure you’ll live.”

“B
arely.”

Dante cheered up as soon as his beer arrived. “Want some?” he asked after filling his pint glass.

“I’m eighteen.”

“Didn’t the agents
upgrade your ID?”

I laughed. “I’m sure this isn’t what they had in mind.”

“Come on, Sky,” Dante said, tapping the table with his fingers. “Live a little. Besides, you earned it.”

I shook my head, smiling. “I’ll pass on the mud water.”

Dante gulped the
mud water
down happily. The pint was nearly empty before he set it on the table.

“Look, y
ou have nothing to worry about,” he said, leaning over the table. “There’s an adjustment period after the transfusion. Our bodies aren’t the same. We’re…”

“I know,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Super human.”

Dante laughed. “That’s right.”

He poured himself another glass of beer. My salad arriv
ed shortly after, but the breadsticks took longer. My plate was nearly clean when the heaping pile of warm, doughy bread arrived.

Since food had lost a lot of its taste, I often focused on texture and temperature. I liked the warmth in my m
outh as I chewed.

Dante
practically moaned, devouring his first breadstick within seconds. He grabbed another breadstick and held it up, shaking it in front of my face. “How can you not taste this doughy goodness?”

The bread
stick flopped around as he waved it.

“Dante?”

A pretty blonde in a sporty ski jacket stood at the edge of our table. Dante’s lips were still curved into a gigantic smile.

“Hi, Ashley.”

I waited for Dante to explain who Ashley was. He didn’t. From the way she glared at me, there had to be a history between them.

She stared pointedly at me, but Dante didn’t get the hint.

“Are you ready for tomorrow’s exam?” she finally asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“How did you do on last week’s paper?”

“Pretty decent.”

Ashley stood at the end of our table for several beats. When it was clear Dante wasn’t going to engage her in mindless chitchat she finally said, “Well, enjoy
your dinner.”

“See you in class,”
he said, completely oblivious.

I hoped Ashley was going rather than coming, but she took a seat at a corner table with an older couple
—facing me. Great, cause I so enjoyed being glared at while I ate.

In the time it took Miss Frowny to get to her table, Dante had
already devoured his second breadstick and moved on to his third.

“Ex-girlfriend?” I asked.

“Ashley?” Dante asked, surprised. “She’s engaged to an art major.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Then
why the evil eye?”

“Evil
...oh, I’ve taken her best friend out on a couple dates.”

I raised both brows. “She’s not going t
o be happy when she hears you were spotted with another woman.”

Dante chewed a couple more times
then swallowed. “We’re not a couple. Besides, if Christine isn’t comfortable with me having female friends then she’s with the wrong guy.”

I gave Dante a pointed look.
“It does look like we’re on a date, though.”

Dante planted both hands on the tabletop. “You think this is me on a date?”

I lowered my forehead in confusion.

Dante
also lowered his head and gave me a hooded look. Maybe it was supposed to be smoldering. I laughed, thinking he was joking around again, but his lips didn’t even twitch. He kept staring.

“Has anyone ever told you
that you have the most luscious lips?” Dante reached for my hand.

“What are you doing?” I asked in alarm when he stroked my wrist.

“Your skin is so soft.” There was nothing playful about Dante’s tone or the way he looked at me. “I’d like to feel your skin naked against mine.”

“Hey!” I said, snatching
my hand back.

Dante leaned back, smiling
. “I bet your heart’s beating a little faster.”

“Only because you’re freaking me out.”

I broke off a piece of breadstick and threw it at him.

Dante laughed. He picked up the piece of bread where it bounced onto the table and lifted it to his lips. I thought he’d pop it in his mouth, but at the l
ast second he chucked it back at me.

I threw it back. Dante reached for the plate and threw a whole breadstick at me.

I laughed. I felt much more comfortable with immature Dante rather than flirty, unsettling Dante. Ashley glared at our table. I’d momentarily forgotten about her.

I nodded in Ashley’s direction.
“Christine is so dropping you.”

“Yeah,” Dante said with a shrug. “Probably.”

3

Back inside the Jeep, Dante had his iPod blasting George Michael’s “Outside.” He swayed side-to-side while driving, singing, and tapping on the steering wheel. Dante joined George, singing about how he was done with the sofa, hall, and kitchen table.

I rolled m
y eyes when he leaned towards me while singing about taking things outside.

I cleared my throat. “Speaking of outside
...mind keeping your eyes on the road?”

Dante
sang back in return.

God, I
swear he had a playlist titled “Songs for Annoying Aurora.”

“Wann
a come over?”

It took me a moment to register that Dante was asking a real question, not si
nging lyrics. I looked sideways at him, momentarily speechless.

“
I’ll let you touch my claw.” Dante glanced down.

I
burst out laughing. “You are such a dork.”

A dangerous dork. The
whole ‘naked skin against mine’ comment still concerned me.

“
I should get home before my mom starts to worry.”

Doubtful.  Every day
after school she ran a little later than the previous one. Yesterday she forgot to pick me up entirely. Well, not exactly forgot so much as slept through the afternoon until my phone call woke her up.

While I’d gotten over my car phobia for the most part, I hadn’t overcome my driving phobia. Too bad I didn’t live in a city with a cool underground metro system.

“Oh, right,” Dante said, turning down the music. “How is Mrs. Sky? Still making those delicious cookies?”

More like eating them straight from the manufacturer’s b
ox.

“She’s okay. She just misses my dad. He’s not around much.”

Or ever. I had confided in Fane, but I didn’t feel like telling Dante my dad had taken off. Dante wasn’t capable of taking anything seriously. It went against his nature.

“At least she’s got you for company.”

“Not for long.”

Dante glanced sideways at me.
“No?”

“As soon as I graduate I’m moving into
my own place.”

“Yep, yep,”
he said, nodding. “That’s the way to go. I know your mom will miss you, but it’s not like you’re leaving the state.”

Not anymore.
Before my car wreck, I’d actually made it into Notre Dame, my college of choice. Paradise lost.

The
traffic light ahead turned yellow. Dante punched the gas and flew through the intersection.

I
bit my tongue. If I screamed it would only encourage him.

“
A place of your own is a great idea,” he said, easing up on the gas pedal. “In our line of work we get home at all times of the night. Your mom’s going to have gray hair before she’s fifty if she’s always staying up waiting for you to get home safely.”

And maybe dad would return if I wasn’t there. He and
Mom could work things out, get back to normal. She needed someone and that someone wasn’t me. Even with Notre Dame out of the picture, I craved my own life and privacy.

“Get some rest, Sky,” Dante said when he pulled up to my house.

“Good luck on your term paper,” I said.

As soon as I shut
the passenger door, Dante backed out of the driveway and roared down the street.

I crossed the
road to our mailbox to collect the mail.

There was a red padded envelope and a grocery bag stuffed inside the mailbox.
I opened the bag first and breathed deep. Inside, folded neatly, was my red scarf—the one Renard had claimed as a trophy after kidnapping me.

It had to be from Fane. He’d been the one to dispose of Renard’s body at the dump. I pulled it out slowly and let it unravel. In the dark the scarf looked crimson.

What did this mean?

It had to be a message of some sort.
Most likely Fane’s way of saying we were finished for good.

My fingers tightened into a fist around the scarf. I looked up the hill
toward the woods. Without thinking, I headed toward the path leading into the thicket. Ours was the last house on the hill before a dense patch of forest between us and the next neighborhood.

The spruce trees blocked out the streetlights, but I’d walked through these woods
enough times to know them by heart.

The upside of anger is it makes you unafraid.

I inhaled the frosty air, practically panting as I rushed through the woods searching the shadows for a silhouette of a man.

The dry snow crunched beneath my tennis shoes.

I stopped midway through the forest and yelled, “Fane!”

After my voice faded in the night, I listened.
No answer. I hadn’t expected but rather hoped for one.

Turn around, Aurora. Go home
. Standing alone in the woods in the middle of the night wasn’t one of my brightest ideas. I still had my phobias, but death wasn’t high on the list. Half the time I felt like the walking dead. I wondered if this was how vampires felt, like they’d lost their humanity and could never get it back. The scientists had practically turned me into a vampire. Only a monthly shot of liquid blue prevented that from happening. Still, the side effects were enough to get a taste of what it felt like to be undead.

I trudged back home. I didn’t have far to go.

All the lights were off, but the living room walls flashed with the light from the TV. Mom had
The Vampire Diaries
on. Yeah, seriously. Last week she’d finished reading the
Twilight
Saga
. She’d downloaded the first book in the
Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood
series but said it was too sexual for her taste. Naturally, I wanted to check the books out.