“Rise and shine, sweetie. Time to begin the first day of dishonesties. Life is a stage, time to show them your acting skills.”
I threw the pillow at him, letting out a moan of disapproval. He laughed, tossing it back at me nailing, me right in the forehead.
“Okay, okay I’m up!” I flipped the covers off, making my way into the bathroom to shower.
Thirty minutes later I was dressed in black pencil jeans, a Barbie pink loose fitting sweater that hung off of one shoulder, combat boots, and a black slouchy beanie, leaving my beachy type waves hanging out from underneath it. A quick swipe of mascara, baby pink blush, clear lip-gloss, and I was ready too.
Sully already had the Mustang and Expedition warming up outside, and hot tea poured in a metal travel mug for both of us when I came down the stairs. This guy was Johnny-on-it, and I was quite impressed. He was sitting comfortably on a barstool at the counter, sipping on his tea.
“I must say maybe you aren’t so bad to have around, Sully.” I smiled at him, grabbing my cup off the counter.
My hands were getting clammy the closer I got to Hanover High; so, that by the time I parked the Expedition they were full on slipping all over my steering wheel.
My heart sank seeing Davin’s smoke gray Range Rover already parked in its usual spot with my spot open next to it as always, but I decided this was the first routine we needed to break; so, I parked a few rows away to keep my distance. Sully parked his Mustang next to mine, waiting patiently to walk with me inside. Even just a minute change such as this felt so weird and unnatural.
The bell was just ringing when I walked into first period.
Gretchen threw her hands up at me when I got to my seat. “Where the hell did you go last night? We looked everywhere for you!”
When I didn’t answer her right away, she raised one of her eyebrows at me, squinting as if trying to look deeper inside me.
“I thought you were dead. You didn’t answer my calls all weekend, neither did Davin. Robbie wanted to put out a missing person report on you, but I told him Davin had probably came and retrieved you, and you guys were making up for that entire twenty-four hours of lost time together. He didn’t like that too much, but I didn’t know what else to say without blowing your cover.”
I only wished that was the case. I swallowed hard, trying to smile but couldn’t force one believable enough. “I’m sorry Gretch, there was just an…uh… emergency and I had to leave.” There was no doubt she could hear the shakiness in my voice. I was on the verge of breaking down.
“Are you okay, Adelay?” I nodded my head at her, trying to hold back tears that so badly wanted to come out; but I wasn’t about to cry right here in class. She could see it in my eyes.
“Let’s go to Brando’s after school okay? We can talk there.”
I nodded again; thankful she wasn’t pursuing it any further.
It was lunchtime when Sully walked up behind me, bracing himself with one arm against my locker door. His cologne smelled strong of Bergamot, ginger, and orange. The Bergamot definitely reminded me of Davin’s lustful smell that sent my senses wild when it hit my nose. Damn, I hated this!
“I figured you might want someone to walk to lunch with. I know it’s hard for you being here. If it’s any consolation, you’re doing remarkably well.” He held his arm out for me to take ahold of.
Gretchen wasn’t here to walk with; so, I took him up on his courteous offer. “Thank you, Sully.”
If Sully and I were going to pull off that we were a couple, it meant we had to act the part. I threw my books in my locker, slamming it closed then turned to him, looping my arm through his. Nearing the cafeteria, I felt myself begin to seize up. He pulled me in a little tighter, rubbing my hand, feeling that I was an absolute nervous wreck inside.
“It will be okay. Keep your chin up, beautiful.” He winked at me, running his hands through his glossy strands of hair, moving any that had strayed out of place.
When we neared the table, my jaw about dropped to the floor at the most horrendous sight I could imagine in front of me.
Bernadette Harris’s scrawny little body was sitting in the chair directly next to Davin where I should have been, twisting her mop of highlighted curly hair around her finger with brightly painted hooker-red nails, flirting shamelessly by his ear.
What shocked me the most was he was actually engaging in conversation with her! Gretchen eyes were as wide as mine, and she lipped ‘what the hell’ to me from across the table. I shrugged my shoulders and lipped ‘later’ back to her. Davin barely glanced up at me, before he looked away coldly.
Bernadette looked over her shoulder, seeing what had caught Davin’s attention (other than her) for a moment, then rolled her eyes at me with the bitchiest smirk I had ever seen, turning her attention back to Davin with a flip of her hair. My heart was pounding so hard through my chest, making me instantly dizzy from the sudden spike in blood pressure, and I knew Davin could hear it; he had every other time.
My ears rang loudly, screaming through my head and drowning out any other sounds around me. A sudden bout of nausea filled my stomach, threatening to creep up my throat. If it did, I would make sure it went all over Bernadette and Davin. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Sully tugged me forwards pulling out a chair next to him.
My heart felt like it had just been ripped right from my chest. How could Davin show any interest in the wicked bitch of the west? Had he really already hardened his heart so much that he hated me for what I had done?
Gretchen leaned across the table towards me. “Can you believe that? What the hell is going on, Adelay?”
I swallowed hard, trying not to vomit when I spoke. Truth was I didn’t know what to say. Davin and Bernadette sitting and talking together was just as much of a shocker to me as it was to her. I shrugged my shoulders.
Sully leaned over, whispering in my ear, “Just breath, princess.”
Inhaling a deep breath through my nose so no one noticed how hard I was trying to keep my composure, I glanced one more time down the table just as Bernadette let out a flirty laugh wrapping her arms around Davin’s neck. He seemed to move uncomfortably underneath them when our eyes met each other’s again but didn’t push her away.
I couldn’t stomach it anymore. I pushed my chair back, exiting the table quickly while holding back my tears until I knew I was out of view from everyone, then broke into a sprint straight to the girl’s bathroom, locking myself in one of the empty stalls, and broke down into blubbery sobs into my hands.
“Adelay, can I come in?” Gretchen’s voice was outside of my stall. I wiped my eyes with my hands, and unlocked the door, letting her squeeze in here with me ignoring the limited space. “I don’t know what’s going on Adde, but I think it’s safe to say you can’t handle being here right now, or around that shit-show that’s happening out there.”
I sniffed, feeling my stomach quiver trying to suck in a breath. “Yeah, I think you’re right Gretch.”
“Why don’t we get out of here? School will be waiting for us tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Let’s get you cleaned up.” She wet a paper towel, wiping the mascara that was running down my face, and fluffed the bottom part of my hair that wasn’t hidden underneath my slouch beanie.
“Thanks, Gretch. I’ll tell you everything once we’re away from this place, and away from Davin.”
She smiled. “I know, honey. Whatever is going on though, I love you, and will take care of you the best that I can.” She hugged me. She truly was my best friend, especially since my other one was dead at the morgue.
The drive to Brando’s was a quiet one in Gretchen’s little white beetle, with neither of us saying anything. I stared out the window at the dark and dreary landscape passing by us. The woods in the distance were concealed in fog with some of it creeping across the wet streets, and everything else was speckled here and there with snow patches.
Brando’s wasn’t exactly hopping at this time of day; so, besides us there were n
ot even a handful of people inside. I grabbed my Irish crème latte, taking a seat next to Gretchen on a big fluffy Orange couch by the fireplace in one of the corners. The blazing heat from the fire felt good against my skin.
“Okay, so start talking. What’s going on, Adde?”
My grip tightened around my cup. “Xander showed up last night when we were at the club, but the Loup Garou had already gotten to him long before. He tricked me into coming to his rescue, making me believe he was still human. That’s why I ran out like that. I thought I could save him.”
“Holy shit, Adde! Is he ok?”
I shook my head blinking back tears. “He’s dead. He’s dead because of me; because that animal wanted my blood and used Xander as a pawn.”
Her bewildered expression changed to one of remorse.
“Sully and I almost didn’t make it either. Actually, Sully died, and the curse that I have in my blood saved him…I brought him back to life, and it healed me as well; but by doing that I lost Davin.”
“But why?”
“Because apparently the forces are against us. I don’t know, some stupid vampire law they have to follow. If I share my blood willingly with a vampire, I bind us together forever and lose the one I truly love. I had no other choice though, Gretch; I couldn’t let someone die for my own selfish reasons. He deserved to live, especially when he gave his life trying to protect me. He was there through all of it, Davin wasn’t.”
“Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry, Adde. Well, I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t work out or you would’ve stolen my boyfriend.” She said laughing.
I gave her a clearly unamused look.
“I’m sorry Adelay, I was just kidding around.”
“And here’s the best part, Eli told me I have to move away with them to God knows where at the end of the school year. They said too much has happened, and if we stay here it risks exposing them.”
“Geesh, this just keeps getting worse and worse.
You can’t go Adelay. We’ve been through too much together for you to just leave me behind. You’re my best friend. Besides, who else do I know that is actually harboring angel's blood and can resurrect vampires?”
I felt the same disheartening sensation I had when I was forced to leave Xander and Kat, and now I would never see Xander again. I never truly got to say goodbye to one of the people I loved the most.
Rosalinda Babic told me this fight might have been won, but the war isn’t over. Was that a warning that other things would be coming for me in the future? If I did leave Gretchen behind, would I possibly be responsible for another death of a friend? If it was a possibility, I had to make sure she was protected. I couldn’t handle going through it again if anyone tried to hurt her. Now if it were Bernadette Harris on the other hand, then I wouldn’t think twice to throw her to the wolves myself.
Sully’s black Mustang was waiting in my driveway when I got home. He opened my passenger door, climbing inside as soon as I killed the ignition, letting in a cold gust of winter wind when he did. I shivered when it reached me.
“I’ve been worried about you all day. When you left the cafeteria, I should have come after you, but I thought you might need some time alone.”
I flung my head back against the headrest exhaling loudly. “I keep telling myself I can do this, and that each day it’s going to get better; but then something always appears to prove me wrong. I know we are done, it’s been written in the books. But Bernadette Harris? Really?”
He leaned back into his headrest too, looking at the roof for a second. No expression was visible on his handsome picture-perfect face to give away what might be riding on his thoughts right now.
He turned sideways to face me. “You know princess, I’ve had so much heartache through the past couple centuries, I’ve come to realize that it’s inevitable. There are no fairytale endings, no true love conquering all, no knight in shining armor. There’s happiness, misery, and somewhere in-between. Most of your life you experience happiness briefly, live somewhere in-between mostly, and almost always misery has entangled itself through all of it. If you stop any person off the street and ask if they have had more good luck or bad luck in their lives, nine times out of ten it’s the latter. It’s just the way life is. The hands we have been dealt by this shitty thing called life.”
I refused to believe that. He had been hurt one too many times in the past and was allowing that to be the driving force to his lack of faith in happiness; but I wasn’t going to let that persuade the way I thought. Knights in shining armor did exist, and so did true love. I had experienced it with Davin, and if even for a short time, at least I got a taste of what it felt like. I was bound to experience it again at some point.
“Well, I think what happened Friday night was enough to count as a whole lifetime of luck for the both of us. Especially you, Sully.”
He laughed looking out the windshield. “You’re right princess, I think it was. I stand corrected.” He sat up, reaching for the door handle.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to go home for tonight. I don’t want you getting sick of me too fast. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Plus, your parents are on their way home.”
“How do you…?”
Just then my phone beeped with a text message from my mom.
On our way home see you soon.
“I’m a vampire, that’s how.” He winked, closing the car door behind him.
Santo and Johnny’s Sleepwalk emanated through my speakers when I pressed play on my iPod, infiltrating my room with the melancholy instrumentals. Leaning back in my furry pink desk chair, I closed my eyes, surrendering to the sudden solitary confinement of my room. For the first time in a long time I was alone, and it felt amazing.
A presence standing above me brought me to, from the sleep I had unintentionally drifted into. “Davin?”
My eyes gradually adjusted to the blurry figure I was gazing up at. Soft moonlight cast through the crack in my drapes, gleaming off of Xander’s beautiful olive skin. His soft wavy brown hair fell over his eyes that he flipped to the side with a jolt of his head. I jumped up quickly almost falling backwards in my chair.
“Oh my God -- Xander is that really you?” He nodded with a huge smile across his face. “But how… why? You’re dead!”
His smile faded as he came to kneel in front of me. I scooted back, unsure if I could trust him or if I was even really seeing him here in front of me. I had watched him die gruesomely before my eyes. Maybe I had finally gone stress-induced crazy.
“I’m here, Adelay. I don’t know for how long, but for right now I am here.”
The beam of light flicked across his neck for a brief instant when he moved in closer to me, showing a strange purplish mark on his neck. With two fingers I shakily touched the raised wound that was the entire width of his thick muscular neck where he had slid the knife across to kill himself. A small imperfection was all that was left from his self-mutilation. He closed his hand over mine.
“How did you come back?”
“Because I couldn’t leave you without saying goodbye.”
“I miss you so much.”
Warm sticky tears spilled down my cheeks. He wiped them with his unusually cold hands, but it wasn’t the same cold I felt when Davin touched me, a dense physical touch; no, this was more like when a cold breeze brushes across your skin, you feel it, but there’s no solidity to it.
It was because he wasn’t a human being, or even a werewolf anymore; he was some form of apparition that I was somehow able to wrap my arms around. Throwing my body into him I lay my head on his chilly shoulder, crying in his chest. His cheek rested on the top of my head.
“It’s okay Adde, I am here.”
“I’m so sorry, Xander! I tried so hard to keep you out of harm, but I was too late.”
“It’s not your fault, Adde. Dalton intercepted any means of communication as soon as he knew I was coming to see you. He came to Colorado looking for me, and th
reatened to hurt my family, as well as you and Kat, if I didn’t come with him. I had to go. I had to become like him.”
“But it’s because of me that he even knew who you were! If he hadn’t have been after what’s in my blood, he would have never gotten to you.”
“Yeah, about that blood of yours…who knew my best friend is half angel?”
“I’m not half angel, Xan. It’s just some stupid curse that has completely violated my life, stemming from some angel fornication.”
“You’ve always been an angel in my eyes.”
I looked up at his cerulean eyes that sparkled like sapphires from the watery tears that filled them not quite spilling out yet.
“I wish I could’ve saved you like I did Sully. I would give anything for that chance.”
“You did save me, Adelay. You saved me from myself. He was controlling my every thought, every movement; but something in your voice, and your love for me, was able to break his hold even if only for a short moment. I took my life so that I didn’t take yours, and for that I was spared being damned for eternity. From what I became I’m not an angel yet. I still have to do something more to prove myself to the hierarchy; so, I have been sent back with you for when that time comes.”
“So, does that mean you’re here until then?”
He shook his head. “I can’t stay Adelay, but I will be back -I promise. I love you, I always have.” His body faded into a translucent silhouette and then he was gone.
“I love you too, Xan,” I whispered into the empty room.
All my questions weren’t answered, but I knew that I would see him again. Hopefully now I could sleep at night.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Today was Friday, and I was just heading into last period when Gretchen bounced up to me hand in hand with Andy in the hallway. She let go, giving him a quick kiss bye.
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