Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (8 page)

That didn’t stop
her from worrying. “But who do you know here?” she asked, chewing on her lower lip.

“I’ve met a few people,” I said.

“Well, you look beautiful, honey.”

“Thank you.”

I wore my hair down and had stained my lips in a blood red shade that could hold their own against Valerie’s. I wasn’t usually big on eye makeup, but tonight I’d outlined my eyes and put on mascara. I pushed my visor back up once I’d double-checked that I had no smudges around my eyes or lips.

“What time should I pick you up?”
Mom asked.

“I’ll get a ride home. One of the guys I’m me
eting mentioned going out for dessert afterwards, if that’s okay with you.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed. “Is this boy nice?”

“Very nice and very boring. All he talks about is college.”

“There’s nothing wrong with thinking about the future,” Mom said quickly.

At least my comment worked in taking the sting out of her voice.

A group of girls
in short dresses walked past the car.

“Will you look at that,”
she said. “Those girls are going to end up catching colds without a coat on. In this weather…” She shook her head.

I’d tried to walk out of the house without a jacket earlier, but Mom insisted I take her full
-length coat. It looked too fancy on me, but then again there was no such thing as too fancy or too elegant at the palace.

I leaned over and kissed Mom on the cheek. “Thanks for driving me over
…again.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m happy to
o.”

“Don’t wait up,” I said after I exited the car.

“Don’t stay out too late,” she countered.

I
gave her a little wave then turned and headed for the school’s double doors. Knowing her, she’d watch me until I safely entered the building. A guy in a tux held the door open for his date then ushered me in ahead of him.

“Thanks,” I said.

The students who had worn coats were hanging them up on the long metal coat racks that had been wheeled into the hallway outside the gym.

I swung around to the farthest set of double doors and peered out the glass into the parking lot. No sign of
Mom’s car. No sign of Noel, either. I wasn’t particularly keen on hanging around the school in case Mike showed up.

I made my way across the parking lot
. Cars poured in one after the other as though they were part of a Friday night funeral procession. With any luck, Noel would pull in before I reached the street.

She didn’t.

I paced the sidewalk along Hillcrest Drive until I heard a honk.

Noel pulled up alongside the curb
, and I got inside her car.

“Sorry!” she said before I even closed the door behind me. “I didn’t notice the time.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I pulled the “Bite Me”
heart pendant out of my coat pocket and clasped it around my neck. I hadn’t wanted to wear it in front of Mom. She would have wanted to know where it came from, who gave it to me, why, and so on and so forth.

Noel looked over and smiled at me. “I’ve got mine on, too.”

Marcus didn’t live too far from West in downtown Anchorage. His condo sat about as close to the inlet as you could get.

I shucked off Mom’s coat and tossed
it in the backseat of the car.

“
You look nice,” Noel said, doing the same with her jacket.

“You look good yourself.” And
she did in her little black dress. I held out my arm. “May I escort you inside?”

Noel grabbed my arm. “You may.”

We knocked on the carved wood door with its custom stained glass windows. A young man in a tuxedo ushered us inside.

“No coats, ladies?”

“We left them in the car,” I said.

The young man nodded once. “Please make yourselves comfortable and have a magnificent evening.”

Noel and I looked at one another. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

“Thank you,” Noel said.

“Joyeux Noel and Aurora Sky!”

It was impossible to miss Marcus in a living room full of black tuxes. He wore a
pair of black trousers and a red silk shirt, half unbuttoned. Guests parted as he made his way through the living room to join us.

“Welcome, my black
-haired beauties.”

Marcus kissed Noel’s cheeks and then mine. He eyed our pendants and said, “Very good.”

Marcus had the same heart pinned to his shirt.

“Thank you for inviting me,” I said.

“But of course.” Marcus had a voice as silky as his shirt. I didn’t feel particularly comfortable around him, but you couldn’t find a more hospitable host.

“You know where the drinks are,”
he said, sweeping an arm toward the kitchen.

“Thank you,” Noel and I said
in unison.

Marcus stepped in the way before I could follow Noel. He leaned forward, lips curving. “Try not to behave.”

I shivered involuntarily and Marcus chuckled before rejoining the guests inside his living room.

A young man dressed like the guy at the front door walked out of the kitchen with a tray of drinks as I walked in. At least Noel and I had the space to ourselves. I looked around the counters. Last time there had been a champagne fountain.

My eyes landed on a silver tray lined with shot glasses and filled with thick, red liquid.

My eyes widened. “Is that
…”

“Blood,” Noel said.

I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off. “Don’t worry, it comes from the blood bank. There’s wine in the fridge or champagne if you prefer.”

“
I think Aurora would prefer the blood.”

Goosebumps rose over my flesh at the sound of Fane’s voice. I
turned slowly. I couldn’t stop myself from staring once I saw him. Fane wasn’t cute in the conventional sense. A lot of girls would probably cross the road to avoid passing him on the street, but they didn’t know the way he kissed. The way his lips teased me until I was breathless. If he kissed that good I couldn’t begin to imagine him in bed. Actually, I could. And therein lay the problem.

“Hello, Fane,” I said cordially.

Noel looked between us then asked, “Have you seen Gavin?”

“He’s in the living room,” Fane said, not taking his eyes off me.

“Cool,” Noel said. “See you soon?”

And then
she left me. Alone. With Fane.

His
grin widened as Noel passed him on her way out of the kitchen.

“
Alone at last,” he said, inching closer. “Don’t look so scared, Aurora. I’m the one who should be afraid.” Before I knew it, he was at my side. “Hunter,” he whispered inside my ear.

I took a step away from him. “I’m just here to have a good time, like everyone else.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Fane grabbed two shot glasses off the tray and handed one to me.

Without thinking, I grabbed the shot then scowled. “I don’t drink blood.”

Fane gave me a dubious look then tossed back his blood shot and set it on the counter with a clack. “Yes, you do,” he said, running a tongue across his lip.

I set the shot beside his empty one and glared.
Now that he was closer I could smell cigarette smoke on him. He’d quit once for me. Back when we were together. Back when I thought he was human.

“Th
anks for returning my scarf.”

“You’re not wearing it,” Fane
said. He pushed my hair over my shoulders then sucked in a breath when he saw the bite marks on my neck.

Henry chose that moment to enter the kitchen.

“Geez, Fane! Get carried away?”

Fane’s back was to Henry
, so the other vampire didn’t see Fane scowl. His expression changed almost instantly to one of smug satisfaction.

“You know me, I like the rough stuff.”

I felt my cheeks heat when Henry glanced back at me, unsure how to respond. I knew how he felt. I was utterly without words. Unlike Fane. The fiend.

“Speaking of which
…Aurora, may I speak to you upstairs?” Fane asked.

“Upstairs?” I repeated. The
room expanded as my eyes did.

“Yeah,” he
said. “I need to
talk
to you in private.”

I nodded, once more speechless.
My heart beat erratically as I followed Fane out of the kitchen.

“Hey,” Henry called.

When we turned around Henry held out two shots of blood to Fane.

“Why don’t you take a couple of these, Fane? Go easy on her.”

Fane’s upper lip, which was smaller than the lower one, curled when he smiled. “Thanks, bro,” he said. He downed the first shot in one gulp then lifted the second one in the air. “One for the road.”

With Fane’s
free hand he slipped his fingers over my arm and steered me through the living room to the spiral staircase.

“What are you doing?” I whispered frantically.

Fane looked around the room. “Have to keep up appearances, don’t we?” he responded testily.

Fane knew that if we didn’t keep up the act of being together then eventually one of the vampires at these parties would want to bite me
, and if they bit me, the gig was up. At least Fane didn’t want me dead. How romantic.

I nodded mutely and followed him up the custom iron and wood spiral staircase leading to Marcus’s many private guestrooms upstairs. Fane walked
down the hall into the October room—a spacious quarter painted in various shades of orange. He pulled the silver bat dangling from the doorknob inside the room and moved it to the outer knob—Marcus’s clever “do not disturb” signal.

He didn’t bother turning on the overhead light. Candles blazed from all corners of the room. It sme
lled like orange peel and clove.

Once he’d shut
the door, Fane held up the shot of blood. “Still going to pretend you don’t want this?”

“I don’t want it.”

Fane shrugged, but rather than down it he set it beside an orange pillar candle on the dresser. The blood flickered in the light.

“We’re alone now,” I said impatiently to mask my jangled nerves. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Who said anything about talking?” Fane walked over to the bed.

My breath caught in my throat as he ran a hand along the quilt
while skirting the length of the bed to the headboard.

I swear every move he made was a del
iberate attempt to unnerve me.

I expected Fane to sit on the bed, but he rested his back agains
t the wall and folded his arms. “You have a lie to maintain, and I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Some reputation,” I said under my breath.

He smiled. I tried not to stare at his lips too long.

They puckered right before he began speaking. “How’s the new school?”

“Same shit, different faces.”

Fane leaned forward when he laughed. I felt my body relax as h
is did as though our minds were somehow hardwired together. “Are you staying out of trouble?”

“I’m West High’s model student. Early to class. Front row. Attentive.”

Fane nodded. “I’m sure that makes your mother happy.”

I shrugged and sat on the edge of the bed. The doorknob settled in my direct line of vision. I’d forgotten how easy it
was to talk to him even after the whole vampire/hunter revelation and breakup. Easy didn’t exactly equal comfortable. I hadn’t yet formulated the words to ask if he and Valerie were together. It’s not the kind of thing that flowed naturally into a conversation.

“Have you made any new friends?” Fane asked carefully.

I couldn’t tell if that was Fane’s roundabout way of asking if I had a boyfriend.

“I don’t need friends. I need to graduate.” I turned
and met his eye. “As long as we’re in private maybe you can confirm something for me.”

Might as well go for it.

Fane raised a brow. “And what’s that?”

“Are you with Valerie?”

I didn’t care how it sounded. I had to know.

“The only reason Valerie threw herself back at me was so she could d
itch me a day later.” Fane chuckled. “I forgot what a hellcat she is.”

He said the last part a little too fondly for my liking. And I suppose Fane considered me a kitty in comparison. I don’t know why Dante and Fane perceived Valerie as the feisty
one. I thought the news would relieve me, but now that I knew, it seemed irrelevant. If Valerie hadn’t dropped him, Fane would still be with her. That’s what mattered.