Shades of Amber (9 page)

“
Yeah, but what does that
have to do with anything?”

“
Have they talked about
things that don’t cast reflections?”

A charged silence filled
the air.

Faith paled slightly, so I
gripped the edge of my chair as the other girls leaned
forward.

When she didn’t speak, I
waved my hand in her face. “What?”

“
Dear God.” She withdrew
the rosary from her blouse. “If this real, I don’t know what we can
do to protect you.”

My lips pressed into a
thin line. “The situation is real, but how can I protect myself
when I don’t know what I’m up against.”

“
He can’t be this. It’s
impossible.” Faith drummed her fingers on the table. “He faked his
death to toy with you or something.”

“
No. He is stronger,
faster, and scarier. Now spill.”

“
There was an entire
chapter on Vlad Tepes.”

“
Dracula?” I rubbed my
forehead. “Come on, Faith. Am I supposed to hang garlic and—I’ve
seen him at school—during the day.”

“
My professor says it’s
not impossible that vampires exist because most legends start with
reality.”

There were no words. We
just stared at her until the knocking started.

Would the day get
any—nope, I would not finish that thought.

I made my way to the door
as thunder interrupted the fourth knock. Looking out the window, I
turned back to them and shrugged. There was nothing but the dreary
sky. After a few seconds, I headed toward the table, practically
shedding my skin when the pounding started again.

My fists balled as I
hurried toward it. I jerked the door open, realizing too late that
my only protection was the locked screen.

Troy stood there in all of
his dark grandeur, looking as dry and crisp as when he accosted me
at the school.

I looked past him to the
stormy sky. “What do you want?”

He gripped the wooden
doorframe. “I already told you what I want.” His voice lowered.
“And I don’t think your friends want to hear all the details of our
relationship.”

I snorted.
“
Our
relationship? What planet are you on? You’ve been gone for
two years and because
you
feel like it, you think you can just waltz back
into
my
life and
take control? Over
your
dead body!”

His gaze bore into mine.
“Okay,” he said with a smile that held a thousand
secrets.

I was leaning too close to
the screen. “Wait, what?” I glanced in the living room and saw my
girls armed with frying pans and cooking utensils as they used the
couch as a shield.

When I turned around, he
was looking past me. I followed his gaze and saw the same scene in
the mirror.

He sighed. “If you intend
to run from me, you should invest in better bodyguards,
cher.”

I crossed my arms. “We
could defend ourselves better if we knew what you were.”

Troy smirked as he
caressed the wooden frame. “What I am? I am the same man I was—only
better.” He pulled his hand away, revealing a splinter.

I cringed
“Better…how?”

His expression turned
earnest. “I’m older, wiser; I’m certain you are the only woman I
will ever want.”

“
Well, it’s too late, I
don’t want you anymore. And you’re not the same.”

¤¤¤¤

…
Troy…

“
I’m not the
same?”

Wild curls swayed as she
shook her head.

“
I
am
the same, Jade. When you wound me, do I not
bleed?”

A drop of blood formed as
I plucked the wooden shard from my index finger.

Jade stared at it for a
moment and then fainted.

It was the perfect
opportunity.

The screen door almost
came off in my hand, but that would’ve raised more questions. Our
eyes locked as Faith slipped a pillow under her head. She had the
most compassion, next to Jade.

Rocking on the balls of my
feet, I fought to control my tone. “I can help her.”

Amelia and Mariah glared,
but remained silent.

I took a deep breath and
tried to gain Faith’s attention. “She hit her head pretty hard, let
me do something. She might have a concussion.”

Amelia groaned. “This is
your fault to begin with! And unless you learned medical training
while you were dead, we don’t need you.”

“
She’ll always need
me.”

Faith moved toward the
door, but Amelia grabbed her arm.

“
Earth to Faith! What are
you doing?”

She paused. “I think we
should let him help her.”

Amelia’s jaw fell. “Why
the heck would we trust him?”

“
You’re right.” Faith
shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I punched the doorframe.
This was going to be more difficult than I expected.

¤¤¤¤

Jade

Even in the darkness, I
could sense his presence. I should have known Troy was more than a
ghost all along. The temperature always spiked, as if his very soul
was on fire.

When I opened my eyes, my
spirit was hovering in the corner as my friends surrounded my body.
My gaze went to Troy. He was in a crimson haze.

I was thirteen when my
Aunt Cinda taught me about auras, but I didn’t think they were
real. I had never seen one; I just wanted to learn something
cool.

The swirl of red suited
him. He was strong-willed, powerful, passionate, and full of barely
controlled rage. He was desperate to get to me, and in a way, I was
grateful for this unexpected moment of clarity. It gave me the
upper hand—for once.

He was a beautiful
specimen: all male, but there was danger and darkness in him. My
breath caught as I realized how much my heart still ached for
him.

A few months ago, I would
have traded anything to see him again, but now I couldn’t erase his
fiery aura from my mind. If his essence looked like that when he
was kept from what he wanted… what would it look like, and what
would he do when he found out he could never have me?

As I pondered my new
thoughts, he paced back and forth, his patience lessening by the
second.

How dangerous was
he?

As if someone flipped a
switch, his anger melted into something else. His eyes transformed
from a dark, hooded anger to a sparkling hazel.

It made me
nervous.

“
I need to go, but I hope
you move her so she can wake up on something soft,” he said with an
edge to his voice.

Faith stared after him
until Amelia spoke. “Well, he was right about one thing… Faith,
Mariah, you get her arms and I’ll get her legs. Let’s get her
upstairs.”

They all agreed, and
before I could see anything more, I was sucked back into my body.
Panic gripped me when I tried to open my eyes, but it was no use.
Had I hit my head so hard that I slipped into a coma? I could hear
their concerned voices as they fussed over me, so I tried to relax
and come up with a plan.

¤¤¤¤

…
Troy…

My night was looking
up.

I tapped the glass until a
startled Faith opened the window. “Don’t scream.” My voice soothed
her panic. “You are going to invite me in, and then you will sit in
that chair.”

“
Please, come
in.”

I climbed through the
window and gripped her shoulder. “When you hear your friends, you
will forget everything that happened since they left.”

“
I will forget
everything,” she said as I moved toward Jade’s bed.

A mixture of triumph and
desire coursed through me as I gathered her in my arms. “You don’t
know how long I’ve waited for this.”

We were two houses away by
the time their screams filled the air. I stepped out of the shadows
when a black Cadillac pulled to the curb.

“
Good evening,
Charles.”

He nodded and opened the
back door. “Mr. Montague.”

I placed Jade on the seat
and slid beside her as he shut the door. The hem of her T-shirt
rode up as she curled up with her head in my lap.

It didn’t matter that
she’d forced me to take extreme measures. She was here
now.

I brushed her hair from
her face as we sped down the highway.

She was an angel when she
slept.

¤¤¤¤

Heart &
Soul

You're my
heart,

My fire.

What else do you
expect

When you deny your
desire.

I want your
heart,

And your soul.

Nothing else can save me
from the cold.

Say you'll share with me
one love,

One lifetime.

Give me your
heart,

And I'll give you
mine.

Think of me,

As I think of
you,

And I promise,

I swear,

Our love will stick like
glue.

-Troy

Chapter 10

Jade

First, there was
darkness—then there was Troy.

It was a beautiful
illusion.

The world moved around us
as we sat in the back of his luxury car. We locked eyes for a long
time before his lips curved up. He seemed surprised when I lifted
my hand, but then he allowed his cheek to rest against my palm.
“You feel so real, but I have to let you go,” I whispered as I shut
my eyes. “I need to wake up now.”

My lashes fluttered three
times before I realized I wasn’t hallucinating, and then there was
screaming.

“
Shh, hush now,
Jade.”

I leapt to the other side,
startled by the voice in my head. “What are you?”

A smile crossed his face
as he reached for me. “You should rest. You’ve had quite a
day.”

I stared at the amber ring
on his index finger as his thumb stroked my hand.

His smile widened as he
tucked my bangs behind my ear. “You don’t know why it looks
familiar do you?”

I shook my head like a
sheepish child and kicked myself for the way I was
acting.

He couldn’t be that hard
to resist, but the longer I looked at him, the more I wanted to
give in to temptation. If the eyes really were the windows to the
soul, his were doors to the abyss.

I wanted to look away, but
his hand caressed my hair, keeping me still as the other circled my
wrist. Before I knew it, I was seeing a memory reflected in his
eyes?

It should’ve been a
hallucination, but it wasn’t.

The sun was bright as we
played at his beach house. The air carried dozens of scents with
the breeze, tickling my nose as if I were there again. That had
been one of my favorite summers. A large tree shielded us from the
sun as he pushed me in a white swing. Back and forth I went, until
he pulled me to a stop and kissed me.

I didn’t know he would
disappear from my life a few months later.

Blocking out
his
memory, I tried to
project one of my own—the day he left me.

It took all of my
concentration to make the vision as vivid as a movie. I wasn’t sure
he caught it until his grip tightened.

My gaze hardened as I
thought about that dark, rainy day. I should have suspected that
something was wrong because he’d been acting
differently.

When I analyzed it later,
I realized he must have been on drugs. All of a sudden, my early
rising, bask in the sunlight boyfriend had become a sleep all day;
see me after sunset night owl. I was so naïve.

I thought about that
evening, just hours before his twenty-first birthday. He’d shown up
at my parent’s house, soaking wet with a fire in his eyes, and
asked me to invite him in. My first instinct was to let him, but I
refused because my parents were out, and I wasn’t sure how he’d act
around my brother and sister.

He had a wounded
expression as he sat on the porch swing. Give me strength, I
thought as I opened the door and sat beside him. The air was so
warm around him that I thought I might see steam rise.

He said my name and my
heart froze in my chest. I looked, but he wouldn’t let his gaze
meet mine. I grabbed his face, pleading with him to tell me what
was wrong.

When he finally looked at
me, he was a million miles away. He tried to smile as he stroked my
cheek, but I felt his hand shake. He swallowed and looked at me
again, his smile replaced by countless emotions. “I have to go
away, Jade.”