Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (5 page)

She
seemed to think she was on some kind of research mission.

In her fragile state, I didn’t want to burst her bubble that vampires neither sparkled nor glamored impressionable young
ladies into submission. Anyway, it would probably help ease me out of the house if she had the romanticized version of what I had to deal with.

“Hey, Mom.”

Her head bobbed around before snatching the remote control. Damon’s face froze with his mouth opened wide, eyes closed. I nearly snorted.

“Hi, honey.”
She swiveled her recliner around with her slippered feet. She had gray sweatpants on beneath her blue bathrobe.

She sounded remotely cheerful. She always did when she watched her shows.

Her smile dropped when she saw the red scarf in my hand.

“Your scarf,” she said, numbly.

I’d forgotten about it in my hand. To my mother it represented all the negative changes in our lives, including Dad’s departure.

“Oh right,” I said, stuffing it back inside the plastic sack. “I found it.”

“I like the blue one better,” Mom said, nodding at my neck. “It’s much prettier.”

“Not as warm, though.”

“What’s that?” she asked, staring at the thick, red envelope in my other hand.

I looked at it for the first
time in the light. The package was addressed to me, but there wasn’t a return label.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s an early Valentine’s gift from a secret admirer.”

“Someone from West?” Mom asked.

Yeah right, like I was around school enough for anyone to notice me. This time, I really did snort.

“Beats me. Melcher wants me to stay home the rest of the week, so it’s not like I’ll be able to find out.”

Mom nodded absently. Her eyes were already back on the paused screen.

“Well, didn’t mean to interrupt your show.” I turned to leave. “Dante says hi, by the way.”

She
smiled. “You should invite him over for dinner again.”

“Maybe I would if you put some clothes on,” I
answered before I could stop myself.

Her
eyes narrowed. She’d developed a bit of an attitude over the past couple weeks.

“I haven’t been feeling well, Aurora.”

I wasn’t in the mood for an argument. “I’ll ask Dante what his schedule’s like the next time I see him. He said he misses your cookies,” I added.

She
smiled again. “You should have let me know you were seeing him today. I would have made a batch.”

“Next time. Good night, Mom. Don’t stay up too late.”

Damon resumed speaking before I made it through the kitchen.

I shut myself inside my room
, tossing the sack with my scarf onto the bed. I tore open the padded envelope, pulling out the heaviest object first, something small wrapped in red tissue paper. Inside, I found a silver heart attached to a red ribbon choker. The words “Bite Me” were engraved in the center of the heart. I set it aside and dumped the rest of the contents onto my bedspread. Small sets of wrapped candy tumbled out. There were gummy lips, candy hearts, lollipops, and chocolate hearts wrapped in red foil. It was like Cupid’s version of Halloween.

A red envelope had
tumbled out with the sweets. I tore it open and smiled when I saw the invitation. If one thing could be said for Marcus, the vamp knew how to throw a party.

I
opened the tiny bag of gummy lips and began chewing on a piece as I read over the invitation. LOVE BITES it announced.
No kidding
. The “o” in love was a red heart missing a chunk out of the right corner.

LOVE BITES

COCKTAIL PARTY

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH

D
USK

AT THE PALACE

HOSTED BY MARCUS

WEAR RED OR BLACK

I’d only been to the p
alace once, but Marcus said I was welcome back anytime. Guess he meant it.

I wondered if Fane was going.

If he brought Valerie I’d rather he didn’t.

I put the candy and choker back inside the padded envelope and stuck it, along w
ith the invitation, on my desk then took a shower.

I could still hear the TV downstairs after I finished blow drying my hair. I left my door open a c
rack. I wasn’t big on closed spaces after my initiation with the deranged rabies vampire. I discarded the plastic sack after taking out my scarf. I wrapped it gently around my neck before crawling under my bedcovers. That night I managed to sleep without having any nightmares.

My internal
clock woke me up at the usual ungodly hour of five. I had to get up extra early with my new school being across town. Even though I could have lain in bed half the day—not like Mom would notice—I flipped my covers back and put on a pair of long underwear underneath my sweat pants.

I grabbed my iPod off my desk, along with another piece of gummy lips, then walked carefully down the stairs to the entryway.

I did some quick stretches then stepped out into the bitter freeze. Oh yes, I was awake now.

I had started jogging a
fter Renard and his cohorts abducted and attacked me. Morning was my favorite time to run. It’s the only time when I felt like there was only me, existing in a world of my own while the rest of humanity slept.

“Believe” from the
Run Lola Run
soundtrack filled my ears as soon as I hit play on my iPod. I ran up the hill to the woods. My feet flew over the forest floor. In no time I reached the neighborhood on the other side and raced past houses with lights beginning to come on as people roused themselves out of bed to prepare for the daily grind.

My mind played over the mission from the evening before and the lack of control I’d felt when the vampires pushed me back and forth.
I was tired of getting smacked around.

I ran faster.

Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” started up. I hit skip. The next song, “Holding Out For A Hero” by Bonnie Tyler wasn’t much better. I really needed to sit down at my laptop and update my playlist.

I
jogged in place and scanned my running playlist, selected “You’re Going Down” by Sick Puppies, and sprinted the rest of the way home.

I roused my mom out of bed early Monday
morning. I wanted time to turn my doctor’s note into the office.

I spent all four morning classes at the front of
my classrooms, eyes on the teacher or board. No more skipping. No more fighting. No more Fane.

I didn’t know anyone in any of my classes except for Noel in fifth period
film elective. Every class, I arrived before her. She was always running late because fifth period followed lunch, and Noel spent lunch with Henry and Gavin. Whatever trepidation she’d felt leaving behind her friends Hope and Whitney at Denali High School were quickly dispelled by spending as many school hours as she could with the suave and sexy vampire duo.

I had an open invitation to eat lunch with them, but I didn’t feel like sitting at their crowded table in the cafeteria. I spent lunch in a quiet, empty classroom, chewing my food while
getting my homework done.

Today I tapped my foot anxiously, hoping Noel wouldn’t walk in just as the warning bell binged. As i
f on cue, she strode into class. Her shiny black hair looked good with a white turtleneck instead of her usual head-to-toe black. It’s as though Noel had taken on a new persona at West. Her usual Goth garb had been replaced by blue jeans and casual dresses. She smiled more. It was nice to see after how distressed she’d been transferring mid-year. Melcher had made her switch schools. Apparently he didn’t need two informants in one place. At least, as a junior, Noel had time to get to know her classmates before graduation.

“Hi,” I said when Noel took her seat beside me.

“Hey.” She grinned from ear to ear.

“How was lunch?”

She smiled bigger. “Gavin entertained us by recounting his first, and subsequently last, snowshoeing experience.”

Yeah, hard to picture. Gavin looked more like an
indoor than an outdoor vampire. “So what did I miss last week?”

“
We watched
Harold and Maude
.”

I shook my head. “Never heard of it.” Didn’t surprise me. Mrs. Campbell
rarely picked movies from the twenty-first century. Film class felt a lot like English with assignments centered on old classics.

“It was a cute show,” Noel
said. “It’s about this boy who is obsessed with death and then he meets this old woman and they start dating.”

I grunted
; not the most ladylike sound. Young person dating someone ancient. How appropriate. Too bad I missed it. I’d just have to rent it from the video store. Then again, I might run into Fane and his companion Joss: lover of foreign films and black tea—hater of humankind.

“Did you receive an invitation to Marcus’s Valentine’s party?” Noel asked.

“Yeah, I ate all the candy.”

Noel laughed.

“Are you going?” she asked.

I shrugged. “It’s not as though I have a hot date that night
…or any night.”

“This party is going to be a hundred times better than a date.”

“Melcher did tell us to take the rest of the month off, though I’m sure this isn’t what he had in mind.”

“Melcher knows about Marcus,” Noel said, shocking me speechless.

The final bell rang as I shouted, “What?”

Noel looked from Mrs. Campbell to me and shook her head.

Mrs. Campbell was the kind of teacher who started the moment the bell stopped and not a second later. She loved film, which made her class one of my favorites. Teachers with a passion for their subject tended to make a lasting impression.

Today I spent the period tapping my foot under my desk and my pen on top. If Melcher knew about Marcus wasn’t he, and every vampire who fraternized with him, in danger? What if the next assignment
involved going to one of his parties and poisoning guests? Marcus, Henry, and Gavin were all harmless. The thought of tricking them into biting me and then watching as they convulsed on the floor sickened me. There’s no way I could stick a knife in their hearts.