Willow (Blood Vine Series) (24 page)

I cringed at the free way she said it. “You probably shouldn’t … you know … talk about them so freely.”

Her eyes skidded around the crowded lunchroom. “No one is listening to us.”

“It doesn’t mean they can’t hear.”

She ducked her head with a smile. “So what do you want to talk about then?”

“Um … ”

“You have your eye on any of the boys here?” She took an innocent sip of her apple juice.

I laughed out loud, making a few people near us pause in their own conversations to look our way. “No,” I got out around my laughter.

“Are you sure? Because I think Lucas Roberts is giving you the eye.”

“Oh! I can’t believe you said that.” My face turned bright red, making us both laugh all over again.

“Either that or his milk has gone sour.”

“Gee, thanks.”

She shook her head quickly, her dark brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. “Not what I meant,” she squealed.

Warmth started low in my stomach. It took me a few minutes to recognize it for what it was. I was enjoying myself. It had been a long … I had never really felt like this with anyone. Is this what having a friend felt like? Sort of silly and carefree? Like the things that were really important didn’t matter as much.

We were preparing to leave town because one of us had been spotted. I should be freaking out, but I wasn’t. Was it Carlie or was I just becoming what Noreen had always wanted me to be? A leader.

I swallowed over the nervous lump that had formed in the back of my throat. It was too late in the game to become friends with Carlie, I knew that, but I felt a pang of regret sharply in my chest.

“I know,” I waved away her concerned look with a not so natural chuckle. “It probably was just the milk.”

She rolled her bright green eyes. “Wanna skip the rest of today?” she unexpectedly suggested.

“Skip?” My eyes widened in mock horror.

“Yeah. The act in which rebellious teenagers don’t go to class.”

“And where would said rebellious teens go?”

“We should go to my house,” she declared firmly. “I want to talk to you about all this.” She waved vaguely to her uneaten lunch but I had a feeling she wasn’t talking about over processed tacos.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

She sat back, blinking rapidly. She obviously hadn’t expected such an easy agreement. “Ok.” A slow smile spread along her face.

Maybe it was irresponsible to get chummy with Carlie now, after everything that had happened, but Gage did want me to find out what she knew and this might be my best chance.

“I’ll have to go tell the boys.” I pushed my tray away and stood up quickly, not giving myself time to change my mind.

“I’ll meet you out in the parking lot.” She stood up with me.

I scooped my tray up with one hand. “Will the teachers just let us leave?”

“No.” She scrunched her nose up. “But if we hurry up and leave before lunch is over they’ll never know.”

“Right.” I turned abruptly and deposited my tray on the way out of the cafeteria. I expected everyone to stare at me as I left, knowing somehow that I was planning to break a school rule, but no one paid any attention to me.

I hurried through the hall as fast as I could, self-conscious the entire time. Just when I was considering morphing in the girl’s bathroom I saw Rueben ducking into a classroom. He was alone but I knew without any doubt that the others were already inside waiting for him. Why were they being so careless? I half ran to the door he had disappeared through.

As expected, five pairs of eyes met mine when I got inside. “What are you guys doing in here?”

“Having a meeting,” Rueben said angrily. He was breathing hard at Steven.

“Rueben,” I put one hand flat in his hard chest. The heat rippling off of him surprised me. “You need to get a hold of yourself,” I scolded.

“I have to move because of this idiot.” His face creased with fury.

“We,” I took a deep shaking breath through my nose. “We are long overdue to move.”

“I like it here,” Colby complained in a half whine.

“I do too.” I sat down beside him so I could put a hand on his slumped shoulders.

“Let’s just stay,” Rodney suggested. “Steven can stay home with Jed.”

“No one even knows … ” Steven began but was cut off by a low growl.

“We’re moving,” I said firmly. “Soon.”

“What about Carlie?” Rueben asked without looking at me.

“What about her?”

“We saw you talking to her. You just going to leave her?”

Comprehension started to dawn on me. So Carlie was the reason Rueben didn’t want to leave Grover. Another thing to add to my growing list of reasons we HAD to go. “It’s not safe … you know, having relationships with humans.”

“She’s your friend.”

“She’s not my friend,” I denied quickly. “I like her, but … ” I shrugged. Maybe going with Carlie now wasn’t such a good idea.

“So is this a lesson we all need to learn?” His voice grew bitter. “Don’t get too attached.”

“That’s rule number one.” I stood up with a heavy sigh. “I’m going to skip the rest of the day.” I made my way back to the door. “You guys need to split this up. We’re going. Nothing left to discuss.”

“Where are you going?”

“Carlie’s.” I tried not to sound guilty.

“What?”

“Gage asked me to talk to her.” I put my hand on the doorknob, prepared to bolt. “It’s now or never.”




Carlie was standing beside her car, bouncing on the balls of her feet when I made my way out to the parking lot. “It took you long enough,” she said in a low voice.

“I … sorry.”

We both slid into her car and ducked low as if we were a pair of criminals about to go on another crime spree. She started her car and we both held our breath, watching for any sign of angry teachers. We didn’t breathe properly again until we were out on the road.

“No one will even notice that we left,” Carlie said in an unconvincing tone.

“Not until the bell rings.”

“Yeah.”

My lips twitched but I refrained from laughing just yet. We needed to be a safer distance away first. “We’ll be fine.”

“It’s not like they send people to jail for skipping a few classes.”

“No.” I laughed nervously.

“Should we go back?” My shoulders tensed slightly. “No, we’ll be fine,” she answered herself before I could.

“Will your dad be at work?”

“He works from home. Freelance writer.”

“Oh,” I nodded slowly. “Will he be mad if we come home?”

“No, he doesn’t care about things like that.”

“Does he know,” I stumbled awkwardly over my inquiry, “does he know everything that you do?”

“That you’re the leader of a pack of werewolves living right here in Grover?” I blanched white and my stomach lurched uncomfortably. “No.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

  
Knights of Andros

My hands were already starting to shake when we pulled onto the long country road that led to my little cabin, but first would take us to Carlie’s large white farmhouse that she shared with her father. A father who seemed to know all about werewolves. What was I going to say to him? Maybe it would be better for Carlie and I to go to the cabin.

I rejected that idea quickly, though. I hadn’t warned Gage and Jed, and we couldn’t just show up. Jed was supposed to be dead. Gage wanted to know about Carlie but I doubted if he actually wanted her to be nosing around the place. There were lines that just couldn’t be crossed.

We pulled into the long driveway and she cut the engine of her car, plunging us in sudden silence. “You ok?” she asked with a pucker.

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

“My dad’s not going to care.”

“Only because he doesn’t know.”

I heard her hiss of breath but didn’t turn to look. “I meant about skipping.”

“Oh.”

“Come on.”

Carlie’s door opened and I felt the shift in the car as she got out.
There’s no danger here,
I told myself firmly. “Nobody here is going to hurt me,” I whispered before opening my own door.

I followed Carlie up the short dirt path that led to a blue door on the side of the house. “We hardly ever use the front door,” she explained. I must have let my confusion show.

I screwed my face up into a polite smile. “It’s a nice … door.”

“Nice and blue,” she exclaimed, raising her eyebrows high on her forehead.

I grinned and she led the way into a small kitchen that the blue door led to. I had expected the room to be larger, but it was cheery enough. The modern counters and appliances were shining and spotless.

“It’s nice in here. Clean.”

“My dad likes it clean. You want something to drink?” She rummaged through the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water.

There was another door that led to a huge dining room with a large round table that would have made King Arthur jealous. Carlie rolled her eyes in my direction and continued without stopping. Besides the kitchen, all the rooms in Carlie’s house were enormous.

“Dad!” she called loudly, bringing my attention back to her. We had stopped at the foot of the stairs. There was a rustle of movement followed by a loud crash.

“What … do you think he’s ok?” I whispered nervously.

Before she could say anything, a very tall man wearing tiny glasses that were slid to the very tip of his nose came tripping out of a room we hadn’t gone into before. “Carlie?” This must be Carlie’s dad.

Mr. Webb was a wiry sort of man with bright orange hair that stuck up in odd places. Either he had been electrocuted or had his hair cut by a blind madman. Or maybe he had just slept on it wet.

“This is, Willow.” Carlie pointed to me, making his eyes shift to where I stood.

“Hello, Willow,” he greeted tightly.

“Uh … hi,” I replied awkwardly.

“So what are you … ” He looked again to Carlie.

“We skipped the rest of the school day.”

“Oh.” He nodded distractedly. His eyes kept darting back to me. “Hard test today?” He grinned but it was short lived. “You know you’ll just have to take it later.”

“No test,” she denied. “We just didn’t feel like going.”

“Hmm.” He frowned, but like his grin it disappeared quickly.

“We’re going upstairs.”

“Right.” He grinned again. “To talk about boys?” He wiggled his eyebrows dramatically.

“Something like that.” She began up the stairs. I smiled awkwardly at her dad and darted up after her.

“That was … weird,” I muttered.

Carlie’s room was the first one we came to. It was a clean room painted white. Several posters were hung to break the monotony but it still looked unlived in. The bed was pushed all the way against the wall, made up perfectly.

She hung her bag and jacket inside the closet and turned to me expectantly. I quickly shrugged out of my own jacket and handed it to her. She offered me the only chair while she sat cross-legged on the bed.

“Your dad is … um … ”

“Yeah, I know.” She rolled her eyes.

“No,” I chuckled, “he seems nice.”

“He seems like he just served time.” Her eyes widened slightly.

“Or, just got done fighting a war.”

“Why do you say that?” She didn’t look offended - just careful.

“It’s just … his eyes dart around a lot - as if he’s waiting for his enemy to jump out.”

“Maybe not a war, like WWII or anything, but dad does belong to the Knights of Andros.” I jerked back at the sound of Andros’ name. “I do too, but … you know … I‘m not sure if I really … ” She stumbled over her words but I was still stuck on the Knights of Andros.

“What’s that?” My eyebrows came together severely. What was she talking about?

“What’s what?”

“Knights of Andros?”

“You’ve never heard of the Knights of Andros?” She seemed as shocked as I was.

“No, I haven’t.”

“Have you ever heard of a vampire named Andros?” Her hands stilled their nervous fidgeting. “Well, I mean, my dad always said he was a vampire. I never believed him. Have you heard of him?”

I let out a long sigh and decided that since she already knew, what was the harm of confirming the facts? “Yeah, I’ve heard of Andros and he is a vampire.”

“Have you … seen him?”

“No. He lives in the ancient city.”

“The ancient city?” she whispered, as if to herself. “Do you suppose all the legends are true then?”

“Probably most of them.”

“It’s weird.”

Yeah, just try morphing once, and then you’d know what weird is
. “Yeah, I guess so.”