Phoenix Dead (New Adult Dark Romance) (The Vampire Years) (16 page)

"Lee. Please."

I let go just in time for him to cover himself and then bury his face against my neck, softly biting and kissing me as he came.

I laughed as he handed me my jeans. "Damn it, Kennedy, my ears are buzzing."

"That's the phone, Lee." He reached into the front of the car and swiped it from the dash where I'd left it.

9:33pm.

Chris climbed into the driver's seat and turned the engine over, while I hit the screen and put the phone up to my ear. "We're just leaving the parking lot now."

"9:30 means 9:30."

"I know," I answered, searching for my panties and finding the side strap broken. "I got caught up in leaving." Leaving, coming - close enough to the truth that it didn't sound like a lie when I said it.

I said good-bye and hung up before Danny could say anything else. With my jeans back on, I climbed up front.

"You tore my panties," I said, kissing Chris on the cheek and showing him the string.

"I...uh..."

"No worries." I kissed him again and then opened his glove box. "But you know the rule - you rip them, you keep them."

Chapter Six

By Friday morning, Oscar was a weeks' old memory whose threats were aging badly compared to the tangible threat of losing Danny, Chris or both. Still, I walked into school ready to enjoy my last day inside Maryvale's noisy, paper filled halls. With the Leavers' Ball only hours away, everyone had stopped hating me over prom being cancelled. Girls who had been calling me a "bitch" after my kidnapping were asking me to sign their year books and exchange emails and friend profiles.

Even Danny had offered me a friendly shoulder squeeze and a smile as I was getting out of the car. It was probably some kind of Stockholm Syndrome response now that he was mere days from getting rid of me, but I didn't let that half of the equation bother me.

Life - or after life, whatever - was pretty good when I wasn't worrying over affairs of the heart.

...Until Claire Hadley walked into second period with a note ordering me to the principal's office. I followed dutifully, a fist tightening in my chest as I wondered what new turn life was going to bring.

It wasn't what I expected. Nor was it good.

"Paul?"

Sitting at one of the chairs in front of the principal's desk, my step-father looked over his shoulder and smirked his hello at me.

"I'm not leaving with him," I blurted. "I'm eighteen and I don't have to."

The principal tapped her pen on her desk a couple of times and looked uncomfortably at Paul. "She's right. Even if there was no general protection order against releasing Lee to the custody of anyone other than Officer Gutierrez--"

Paul raised his hand, cutting Mrs. Valdez off while he looked me up and down. "I know all about Officer Gutierrez's 'protection.'" Turning back to the principal, he offered the woman a sickly smile. "If I can have just a few minutes to speak with my daughter in private."

"Sandy's dead - I'm not your anything any more and I
never
was your daughter."

Mrs. Valdez rose to her full five-foot-three height and came around her desk to stand in front of me. Keeping her voice low, she tried to convince me to give Paul a few minutes.

"We don't really want a scene on the last day, Lee."

Crossing my arms, I glared at her.

"Anything delaying dismissal time..."

As threats went, it was pretty lame.

She raised the blinds on her office windows. "I'll be right outside the door and so will school security."

I lifted a brow at her. The only security necessary would be to keep me from ripping Paul's throat out. But she couldn't know that. She was willing to leave me in the room with him even though she thought security might be necessary.

"Lee, the family misses you."

I turned my hard stare from Mrs. Valdez to Paul. Words bubbled up but I swallowed them back down. She really would toss me into an hour of after school detention if I said a tenth of the words running through my head.

"The family wants me to bring you home, Kiddo."

I frowned, not understanding this bullshit he was spouting about "family." I already knew Sandy's family wanted nothing to do with me since the second kidnapping and Paul's family had always shunned me.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do after school, Lee?" Mrs. Valdez touched my shoulder, almost losing her hand but I caught myself at the last minute. "I mean, you can't stay with Officer Gutierrez forever -- it's not like he's a relative."

Behind the principal's back, Paul offered a sneering eye roll.

I brushed Mrs. Valdez's false concern and her hand away and moved toward the door. "You can threaten me all you want, I'm not staying alone in the room with him. And if you try to punish me for not playing nice and saving you a headache, you'll have to answer to Officer Gutierrez, family or not."

"Certainly, I wasn't threatening you, Lee." She tried to smile. I could see sweat breaking out in fat drops across her forehead.

"So I can go back to class?" It wasn't really a question, I was already backing out of the room.

"Of course."

Paul rose, but Mrs. Valdez, her back to him, unintentionally blocked the doorway, leaving him to call out over her shoulder, "I'll be seeing you, Lee."

"Only at your funeral, rat fucker." I whispered the promise as I passed through the office and back into the corridor.

***

I was still livid at lunch. I sat at a table waiting for Chris, my hand balled in a fist in front of my mouth because my blood fangs felt twice as long as usual. Sensing something was wrong, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and touched his head gently against mine.

"What's up?"

"Paul showed up wanting to take me home." The words were garbled but with my hand in front of my mouth, Chris didn't realize why.

"Your step-dad?"

I shrugged, my brows knitting together to correct his mistake.

"I mean...yeah, uh, sorry." He smiled sheepishly and gave me a one-armed hug. "But he can't, right?"

"No, he can't," I agreed. His little grin and strong arm around me eased some of my tension and I felt my fangs retract a little. "At eighteen, I'm beyond his reach."

"Which means..." he stopped to softly rub the side of my cheek with his knuckle. "...that was the last chance that sleaze had to harass you. Next time you'll be free to punch him in the face or, better yet, let me do it."

He nuzzled my ear. "It's going to be really hard dancing with you tonight with your hand up like that."

I dropped my fist down to my lap and smiled at him, my fangs fully retracted. "It's hard to stay upset when you're around."

This time he kissed just below my ear. "I'm working on making it impossible, Rapunzel."

Feeling my cheeks warm in a blush, I buried my face against his neck. He smelled like spiced pomegranate. I pressed my lips to his throat, forgetting where we were and licking the pale line of a vein. His skin temperature spiked immediately and he tucked his head towards me, his tongue teasing the side of my mouth.

I could hear the lunch monitor clucking at us from five tables away and Chris pulled back.

"I'm pretty sure Docherty will kick me out of class if I go in sporting giant wood," he joked.

"So you want me to stop?" I looked up at him, coy and hungry.

"For just a little bit." He kissed my temple while he threaded his fingers through mine. Holding my hand like that, his thumb caressed my palm as he stared into my eyes.

I nodded. "So, what time are you picking me up?"

"Seven. Doors open at seven thirty." He wrapped his arms around me and hid his face in my hair. "Do you turn into a pumpkin at ten, again?"

I laughed lightly. "My guardian cop gave me until midnight."

"Same calling plan?"

"No, just when we leave the dance." I shrugged. "I'm almost completely off the leash tonight." The idea that I didn't have to check in bothered me. I'd be naive to think the danger had completely passed and Danny was too good a cop to think it was over with Oscar. But he knew there would be hotel security at the dance and chaperones.

"Well, I'm glad." He kissed me as the first bell announcing the end of lunch rang.

"Yeah," I smiled, standing up and grabbing my bag. The smile felt a little stiff and I broadened it, hoping as Chris walked me to my next class that he hadn't noticed.

There was no sign that he had, then or during final hour. Everyone had heard that Ms. Fields sent her seniors off on the last day with tins of peanut butter fudge and, for a change, all of the students showed up. There were short notes on strips of paper in the tin, like fortune cookies. She gave me my tin last. I unrolled the piece of paper to find one word.

Survivor.

I sucked air in, successfully fighting back the blood tears that were threatening to spill. "Thank you."

She touched my cheek, smiling sadly as she did so. "You don't have to thank anyone, Lee."

I shook my head, still holding my tears back. I had her, Chris and Danny. "Thank you," I whispered again as she moved back into the crowd of students and I felt Chris's arm circle my waist.

High school ended for the last time a few minutes later. Chris walked me to the front door, stopping short of going out with me. He pulled me to the side of the hall. His hands on my hips, he held me close. I could hear his pulse, faster than usual. That "giant wood" he had joked about at lunch was pressed against my lower stomach.

I smiled at him, trying to quell the effects his body was having on mine. "You're breathing a little hard there, Kennedy."

He didn't smile back, just gulped in air. "I'm thinking about you...about tonight."

"Good." I gave a little forward nudge against him and his hands gripped my hips tighter. "Because we've got a problem if you're thinking about your coach."

He dipped his head until his face was against my neck. I heard him breathe deeply, felt the rush of warm air against my skin. "I'm thinking of how beautiful you're going to look."

Gently, he bit me.

"Danny's going to see you and realize once and for all what a fucking idiot he's been."

I shook my head even though I knew a part of me wished it was true. I'd taken Danny's blood twice, had spent nights walking alone through his memories. There was nothing more intimate than that. I didn't have to wonder what kind of man he really was. I knew from the blood - just as I knew Oscar from his blood.

I felt the slow drawing down of my blood fangs. With them came the desire to taste Chris, to know him in a way only the blood would let me. I bit at my lip instead. Before I could pull back, Chris kissed me. His tongue touched my lips and, without thinking, I opened to him, my arms snaking up around his broad shoulders. It was my own blood I was tasting, but it was on him - a few drops on his tongue, on his lips.

It fueled my hunger for him. Our bodies pressed hard against one another. My breasts and nipples were sore from need and I wanted badly to stand on tiptoe, to put my mound in line with his cock - there in the hall with the last of our classmates filing out the front door. I wanted to sink my fangs into his neck.

The sharp voice of Mrs. Valdez next to us was like ice water.

"I believe Officer Gutierrez is waiting outside for you, Lee." She was standing in front of the open doors, looking out instead of at Chris and me. She raised her hand in greeting. "Yes, that's him."

Chris tensed - the kiss, my body's response to him, seemingly forgotten at the mention of Danny.

"I'll see you in a couple of hours," I reminded Chris, ignoring Mrs. Valdez to give him a parting kiss on the cheek.

***

After an almost wordless drive home with Danny, I had three hours to get ready. I spent the first hour in the tub, soaking and listening to the sounds of Danny moving through the house. He seemed restless, going in and out of his office and the garage. I tried hard not to wonder whether he was rehearsing his good-bye Lee speech.

I came out of the water like a raisin and spent another twenty minutes blow drying my hair. In my panties and bra, with the lace camisole on, I put on a light coating of make-up. I had printed out a couple of pictures of Victorian-era hairstyles and managed a messy approximation of one, loose tendrils escaping the updo to curl around my face and neck.

I finished dressing, fussed in front of the bedroom mirror with the way the jacket fell. On the dresser in front of me was the necklace with its tier of beads and garnet cross. It was a perfect match for the outfit. I traced a finger along one side of the crucifix but couldn't bring myself to put it on.

With forty minutes still left, Danny knocked on the bedroom door. I had a second to think that he shouldn't need to knock on his own bedroom door and then told him it was open. He came into the center of the room, stopping just a few feet from me.

"Were you going to have any dinner before you go?"