The Heart's Ashes (6 page)

“
Well—” Eric rested his curled fist beside his smile and
leaned back, “I must say—”

“
You two seem to be getting along.” Emily sat back down,
smiling wildly.

“
Yes.” Eric winked at me. “It seems we have quite a bit in
common.”

“
Oh, well, that’s great.” She raised her eyebrows in her ‘told
you so’ fashion.

“
Yeah, sure is.” I warmed to Eric like a rock to sun then,
feeling so much more comfortable around him than before.

“
In fact, I think we might have to spend a little more time
together.” Eric stared at me, his mischievous smile totally
disarming me. “If you like?”

I nodded.
“I...yeah. I’d like that.” I totally avoided looking at Emily, not
wanting to see that smug smile again.

Eric wandered
beside me wearing a bashful smile, his leather jacket over his
forearm. “Well, I certainly had an entertaining evening with you,
Ara.”

I leaned my
butt on my car and toyed with the hem of my dress. “Yeah, um. Me
too.”

“
I hope to see you again.” He smiled sincerely.

“
Come back with us, Ric.” Spence slapped Eric on the shoulder.
“We’re just going back the girls’ house to hang.”

Eric looked at
me. I shrugged, and smiled. “I don’t mind.” I should—but I
don’t.

“
Sweet.” Eric’s eyes went soft and round then. “I’ll follow
you.”

“
Okay.” I turned and opened my car door, trying to wash off
the thousand-spiders-made-of-cotton-crawling-up-my-skin feeling he
gave me all over—that was also uniquely enticing.

The door
closed and darkness consumed the heat of desire—leaving me feeling
cold and vulnerable, unable to find the clutch. Get it together,
Ara. He’s just a guy.

No! He’s a
vampire.

Okay, this is
bad. This is really bad. What am I doing? I can’t let—

“
Hey.” A dull tap on my window started my mind from its
reverie. I looked up at Eric, in all his black-leather-jacket and
sexy-guy glory, sitting beside my car on his motorcycle. Melt.
“Something wrong with your car?”

I wound my window down and started my engine. “Uh, no. I
just...”
forgot how to drive.

“
S’like that, huh?” He laughed and winked at me before
thrusting his foot down and turning the handle on his bike, a
mighty roar polluting the silence.

I watched the
red taillights disappear down the street before I found the
familiar necessity called air again.

Oh, God. I can
feel my vow of celibacy slipping.

I played it
cool, leaning on the hood of my car; my arms crossed, keys in hand,
and watched Eric shake out his shaggy blonde hair, resting his
helmet on the seat in front of him.

Why do guys on
motorcycles always have to look so sexy?

But my
committed attempt at ultra-cool couldn’t save me from myself; as
soon as he looked up—right into my eyes—my cheeks flushed,
restoring my notion that, in my attempt to branch out and grow up,
not much about me had really changed.

The vampire
kicked his bike stand down then jumped off the seat, unzipping his
jacket as he walked toward me with a toothy smile. And before my
eyes, a wild wind swept his jacket apart, revealing his ribs and
totally sexy abs, as a logo for men’s cologne came up, floating in
mid-air.

Cheesy, but so
deliciously cheesy.

I pressed my
knees closer together and hugged myself tight.

“
You might be able to keep your
words
to yourself, kiddo,” he said
as he stepped up beside me and placed his hand on my lower back,
“but you can’t hide the beating of your heart from a
vampire.”

I took a deep,
jagged breath. “Hm. You know, you’re nothing like Spence said you’d
be.”

“
Oh, really? And what exactly did he say I’d be?”

“
Shy and shaky.”

Eric grinned
and opened the front door for me. “He lied.”

Spencer and
Emily disappeared to the bedroom after half an hour—leaving me and
the vampire alone, with nothing but a low flame in the base of the
open fireplace and a soft CD of piano that’d been on repeat for too
long.

“
Are you tired,” Eric asked, leaning up on his elbow to look
at me.

I hugged my
knees to my chest and shrugged, enjoying the warmth of the fire,
the golden orange glow all around us and the simplicity of
companionship that I’d forgotten. “I’m okay.”

After a deep
breath, he reached across the rug and rested his fingertips to my
scar-covering scarf. “May I?”

“
Sure.” I nodded.

He sat up in
front of me and untied the scarf, leaving a soft tickle in its
wake. “Why do you hide it?”

I shrugged,
letting him angle my face this way and that, not the least bit
nervous with the way he studied me. “People don’t understand—they
stare.”

“
They stare because you’re beautiful.”

A smile
flooded my face. I reluctantly pulled his hand away.

“
So, are you going to tell me how it happened? You know I’ve
been dying to know.”

“
Only if you tell me where you’re from—which Set.”

Eric leaned
slightly back and his eyes scrunched into a confused smile. “How do
you kno—”

“
I had a boyfriend—he was a vampire.”

He nodded
thoughtfully. “So he did this?” he asked, motioning to my scar.

“
No.” I shook my head and left it at that, smiling when Eric
rolled his hand in the air, a non-verbal prompt for elaboration.
“Nope. You first.”

“
You cheeky little thing.” He pointed at me. “Fine—I’ll share
first. What do you wanna know?”

“
How long have you been a vampire—was it only
recent?”

“
No, I was born Éric Mason de la Rose, in Paris,
nineteen-thirty-eight. I became a vampire at the age of twenty-five
when I saw fit to start a fight with an old man in the street after
getting drunk at the local tavern. I woke up the next morning with
a headache and a hankering for blood.” He took a slow breath and
paused for a second. “Why would you wonder if it were
recent?”

“
Wondered if you might know about the other Sets.”

“
Giving info about the Set can have consequences. What did you
want to know?”

I shrugged.
“I’m kind of looking for...someone.”

“
Even if I knew them, it’s not my place to give their
information, Ara. We have laws against that to protect each other.
Who were you looking for?”

“
David Knight.”

Eric’s mouth
dropped open, his face paling. “He’s one of my councilmen—you’re
Amara?” He pointed at me.

“
You’ve heard of me?” I crossed my legs and tucked my hands in
my lap like a pre-schooler.

“
Oh boy—” He shook his head. “You’ve caused a lot of trouble
in the vampire world.”

“
Me?”

“
Well, at least now I know how you got
that
.” He nodded at the
scar.

I touched my
neck. “So you know it was—”

“
Jason.”

“
Don’t say that name.” I looked into my lap.

“
Why?” Eric knelt in front of me, then gave a knowing smile.
“Oh, so you think he’s the bad guy, huh?”

“
What? Eric, he
is
the bad guy!”

“
Matter of opinion.” He shook his head, studying me more
carefully. “I was at the hearing.”

“
Hearing?”

Eric looked to
one side and laughed. “Yeah. The hearing. Did you think David was
gonna just let Jason get away with trying to kill his girlfriend?”
His voice pitched like a prosecutor in a courtroom. “He went
through every vampire law book ever written—trying to find a way to
make Jason pay. But Jason’s defence was iron clad. It’s the biggest
case in the history of vampires.”

I looked up at
him. “Where is he now—David?”

“
Gone.”

“
Gone where?”

“
Defected.” While all hope slithered out of my smile, Eric ran
his fingers slowly over the side of my face and under my chin, then
lifted it until our eyes met. “The rumours were true. I should’ve
realised when I saw you in the restaurant.” His voice softened and
he sat lower on his knees—his breath touching my face. “You are the
prettiest little human I’ve ever seen. I can see why he did what he
did.”

“
Who?”

“
Jason.”

“
Oh, my God!” I pulled away from him. “There is no
justification for what he did to me.”

“
No, Amara, I didn’t mean for hurting you. I meant that he
left you alive.”

“
He left me to become a vampire—which I’m pretty sure is
illegal under your laws, if unapproved by the Council.”

“
There’s no proof that he tried to change you.”

“
What? You have to be able to prove it?”

“
That’s the way it is.” Eric laughed then. “Jason was really
clever, actually, taking revenge the way he did. There was nothing
even a high councillor like David could do have him
reprimanded.”

I stared ahead
then, running everything over in my mind.

“
Ah, you see now, don’t you?” Eric asked.

“
But, that’s not fair.”

“
Neither is what David did to Rochelle. But at least Jason
left you alive.”

“
David didn’t mean to kill Rochelle—he didn’t know she was
pregnant.”

Eric looked at
me with a smug raise to his brows. “Didn’t he?”

“
Eric that’s horrible.” I pushed him away and stood up. “David
wouldn’t do that, and I
know
he regrets her death.”

“
Regret? David doesn’t do regret. He doesn’t even do
compassion. When his brother brought the case of Rochelle against
him in the High Court, David, being a man of the law, had the case
thrown out before Jason even opened his mouth.”

“
You make him sound so nasty.”

A short, sharp
laugh drew in through Eric’s nose, and he shook his head. “You
didn’t spend much time with him, did you?”

“
Enough to know I love him.”

“
But not enough to know exactly what you were
loving.”

“
I knew he was a vampire.”

“
That wasn’t what I meant.”

“
Then what did you mean?”

“
I meant his ultra ass-holiness.”

“
He was not an asshole. He was always nice to me.”

“
And he was good at that—at playing human—until you become his
dinner.”

“
He never planned to eat
me
.”

Eric raised a
brow. “Didn’t he?”

“
No! He planned to change me—be with me forever.”

“
Yeah, well, you can’t be a vampire, so you won’t see him
again now, will you? Some true love that is.”

“
Thanks.” I looked away. “I feel so much better
now.”

“
Well, you didn’t really think he’d come back, did you?” Eric
lifted my face and looked deep into my eyes with his chocolate
stare. “Even if I knew where he was, Amara, he’s done with you.
Don’t you understand that?”

I shook my
face from his touch and bit my teeth together.

“
Get out.” Eric and I looked up when we heard a door slam down
the hall. “Just go—it’s over!” Emily yelled.

“
What the hell?”

Eric stood as
Spence walked out. “Spence? Everything okay, man?” And suddenly,
Eric became human again.

Spencer shook
his head.

“
What happened?” I asked.

Spencer’s jaw
set stiff; he looked at Eric. “She found out about Rebecca.”

“
Oops.”

“
Rebecca?” I asked, the words rolling off my curled
lip.

Spencer
sighed. “Um. A few weeks ago—”

“
Uh! No. I don’t want to hear it.” I held both hands up.
“You’re an asshole, Spence.” I stopped walking before I reached the
kitchen and turned back around. “Eric, I’m sorry. I have to go see
Em. You wanna catch up again sometime?”

He grinned and
flipped his chin. “Yeah, I’ll be around.”

Oh, my heart
flutters. He’s too sexy. “Spence?” I issued him a death-glare.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

“
It’s not my fault, Ara.”

I held a
breath of scoff and made myself walk down to Emily’s room instead
of turning around to smack him. The front door slammed shut as I
tapped on Emily’s door. “Em...can I come in?”

Only a sob
answered.

“
Oh, Em.” My heart melted as I walked in and saw her broken, a
thousand pieces on the bed—curled up into a little ball. I sat down
and pulled her hands away from her face. “Em, it’s
okay.”

“
How—how could...he...do this, Ara?”

Tucking her
safe in my arms, I wiped away her tears and stroked her hair. “I’m
so sorry, Em.”

“
I loved him. I loved him. Why do I let myself fall in love?
What’s wrong with me?” She looked at me then, and her caramel eyes
sparkled; they reminded me of Mike’s so much that it pained me to
look at them—to see them reflect the sadness that was in Mike’s
eyes the last time I saw him.