Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (6 page)

How could Noel say such a thing so calmly? She was better at this undercover thing than I gave her credit for. I could have sworn she had a thing for Gavin and Henry and even Marcus, despite his
same sex predilection.

Once class ended, Noel and I scooted out o
f our seats. We walked out side by side. Once we were in the hallway, Noel leaned into me, speaking quickly.

“One of my first assignments
as an informant was to work my way into Marcus’s crowd. Attending his parties is one of my ongoing duties.”

“So you’re spying?” I could feel my mouth gaping open.

“I’m keeping an eye on things.”

“What about Marcus,
Henry, and Gavin? Are they targets?”

Noel shot me a stern look
. “Of course not. They’re harmless.”

My eyes inadvertently lingered on Noel’s neck. Beneath her turtle neck I knew she had her own
clean
bites. Gavin and Henry were much more gentlemanly, using teeth specifically sharpened to puncture a person’s skin and start the flow of blood without chewing through flesh to the vein.

“My job is to make sure no humans are killed or harmed
…unwillingly,” Noel added under her breath. “And to keep my ears open about any baddies in the area. A serial killer was stopped last year after I overheard some vamps complaining about him at one of Marcus’s parties.” Noel puffed up her chest.

“Why didn’t
you tell me before?”

“It’s on a need
-to-know basis.”

I was just relieved to hear I wouldn’t be assigned to kick dow
n the doors of the palace. While Marcus was a hospitable host, I had no doubt he’d be every bit as violent as the baddies I’d come up against if I threatened his existence in any way.

He’d already killed two full
-grown male vampires just because they’d caused a stir at his party by abducting me.

Marcus had already boasted to me about his music room
—the place he took guests who misbehaved. Knowing Marcus, there probably weren’t any instruments inside the music room. He’d even admitted to me that he still enjoyed killing on occasion.
“When they deserve it.”

Renard and his
partner certainly deserved to die a real death, but the ease for which Marcus performed the deed unsettled me.

The warning bell
rang up and down the halls.

“Look
, don’t worry,” Noel said. “Melcher didn’t have me go to all the trouble of getting in with Marcus only to take him down. His gatherings have been a great source of information.”

I nodded slowly.

“Okay,” she said a bit louder, straightening up. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you,” I
said, heading for last period.

4

I wasn’t in any rush to get to my locker at the end of the day. It only meant freezing my butt off that much longer while I waited for Mom to show up.

Sure enough, there was no sign of the
car when I made my way down the shoveled walkway to the pick-up lane in front of the school.

At least I had my scarf back. Maybe it was silly, but it made me feel better having it around my neck.
As I fished my iPod out of the front pouch on my backpack, some guy approached flashing a row of perfectly white, perfectly smooth, teeth. He had on a black and orange letterman’s jacket. I hadn’t even noticed his approach.

“Hi, Aurora.”

I squinted at the boy.

“Hi
…”

“
Mike.” He grinned wider. “Are you waiting for someone?”

“My mom
.” I glanced at the empty pick-up lane. “Late again.”

“I can give you a ride home if you need one.”

That took me aback. I looked at him closer. Tall, slender, toned, light brown eyes, thick wavy hair—conventionally cute in every way.

I glanced behind
Mike’s shoulder at the small group of guys, his friends presumably, watching us. They were equally fit and clean cut. Probably part of the popular crowd, not that I knew or cared. I hadn’t spent enough time at West to figure out who belonged to the “it” crowd. And I had no intention of finding out.

“Yo, Mikey!” one of
Mike’s friends called out, sounding arrogant and impatient.

“Just a minute, man.”
Mike turned back to me. “I don’t mind giving you a lift.”

“Thanks, but I’m sure she’s on her way.”

She better be on her way.

Mike
flashed me a grin full of confidence. “No problem. See you in class tomorrow.”

We had a class together?
Lovely, I suppose now I’d have to say ‘hi’ when I saw him in whatever the hell class we shared.

Call me jaded, but I’d already been through this charade with Scott Stevens back at D
HS. The silly smiles and shy hellos. The part where he admitted to having a crush on me. The sloppy, horrible kisses. The even more horrible sex. Pass!

I hit “play” on my iPod before I even got the buds in my ears.
“Fake It” by Seether blasted through the speakers. The iPod was still on my running playlist. My foot tapped impatiently.

Just when I was about to call my mom, she drove
by and took the turn into the school’s parking lot. I walked up to the curb, reaching out for the door handle on the passenger’s side before she’d come to a complete stop.

“I’m so sorry, honey,” she
said as soon as I’d tossed my backpack in the back seat and buckled up.

Fo
r once her lateness served my purpose. I’d been struck by a flash of brilliance in fourth period. Grandma had a townhouse only minutes from West and it was unoccupied half the year. Maybe Mom would consider letting me live there given she wouldn’t have to drive back and forth across town anymore.

I leaned back in my seat, eyes on the
freshly plowed road. “It’s okay,” I began. “It doesn’t seem fair making you drive across town four times a day.”

I left a very long pause in the air.
There’s always that anticipation right before you’re about to ask for something you want and don’t know if the person will surprise you or shoot you down on the spot.

“I’ve been thinking. Gran’s apartment is only a few blocks away from West
, and it’s not like she uses it in the winter. If I lived there I could walk to school.” It was so perfect. How could she say no? We’d have to ask Grandma, of course, and you never know with her. She’d want to know why I’d transferred in the middle of senior year, why I still wasn’t driving, and a thousand other questions, but it would be worth it to get a shot at her apartment. I’d only get about three months out of it before Gran came up for the summer. Just enough time to finish senior year and start looking for on-campus living at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Mom actually straightened in her seat. Even her voice
was on edge. “Out of the question. You’re in high school.”

“Not
for much longer.”

“Well, you are now
, so we can talk about this again after you graduate.”

I could still see Mom’s rigid stance out of the corner of my eye.
A frosty silence settled inside the car as she pulled away from West. I didn’t realized I’d clamped my teeth together so hard until my jaw began to ache.

I heard a sm
all sob and looked over.

“Am I so terrible to live with?” Mom
asked in a breaking voice.

Oh, shit.
I turned in my seat.

“No, Mom. I
just feel really bad making you drive back and forth five days a week.”

“I don’t mind,”
she said through sniffles.

There went my dreams of independent living
…for now. Hopefully she would be in a less fragile state when I brought it up after graduation. Better yet, maybe Dad would return before then so she wouldn’t be alone.

Mom wiped her eyes on
her coat sleeve and sniffed. She wore it unzipped over an old sweatshirt and sweatpants. She’d shucked her slippers in favor of a pair of ankle-high winter boots with a fuzzy lining.

She
sniffed a couple more times then took her usual detour up Benson Boulevard’s one-way street, swinging back around to Northern Lights. Today she chose the Taco Bell drive-through. In addition to not dressing, she no longer cooked, either.

“Do you want your usual?”
she asked as she turned into the parking lot.

Her voice had taken on a much more cheerful tone.

“Sure,” I said.

A rice and bean burrito was my usual. It reheated nicer than a taco.
Wherever we ended up, Mom always ordered something to warm up later for dinner and a snack for when we got home. The fast food was probably her real motivation for getting off the couch to pick me up every afternoon.

As soon as we got home
, I dumped my backpack in my room and changed into my running gear. Mom was eating a taco from the paper wrapping when I came bounding down the stairs. I wasn’t always able to get myself up in time to jog before school. On those days I made it up as soon as I got home.

I did my warm
-ups in the living room then headed up the hill, music playing gently into my eardrums. I kept the volume down during afternoon runs. There was more traffic, and I liked to keep tabs on it. I’d already been through a gruesome car accident. It would be just my luck to get hit on foot.

I started out with a light jog through the woods then picked up the pace in the adjacent neighborhood. I slowed at the intersection then raced across when it
the road was clear. The sidewalk passed in front of a strip mall with a video store, take-out pizza place, and laundromat.

A quick glance at the parking lot
revealed no sign of Fane’s car.

I don’t know why I tortured myself this way on afternoon runs. And I
don’t know why I thought his car might appear there all of a sudden today. It was probably the scarf. I gave it a gentle tug for reassurance.

Maybe I
would have better luck spotting his car if I ran at night. Or better yet, maybe I should let go and move on with my life.

There were other bears in the woods. I snorted to myself. Like pretty boy
Mike. Please let the guy back off and leave me alone. That’s the trouble with it. Guys liked girls who were a challenge. Maybe tomorrow I should dress up all cutesy and giggle at every sentence that came out of his mouth. That would scare him off. Yeah, right. I could never pull it off with a straight face, but it was a funny thought all the same.

I turned the volume up on my iPod
once I reached the stretch of woods leading home.