I started towards them, but Caleb stopped me. “Hope, listen I think we need to talk.”
“Not now.” I pulled my arm from him and ran to them. Christian put his arms around me. His breaths were shallow. He needed blood in his system right away.
I rested my head on his shoulder and looked over at Wyatt. He looked like hell too, but nothing compared to Christian. I smiled at him.
Wyatt winked and smiled back. But it wasn’t his usual smile. There was a look in his eyes that told me he was grateful for what I’d just done. For once I managed to save them. And it felt so amazing.
They were safe. For now.
Chapter 32: Hope
After the events of the night, I went home right away. I didn’t feel like being there anymore knowing the only reason we were there was so that Caleb could have the chance to kill my friends.
He was awful. The only reason they weren’t dead was because I begged him not to. And now, he knew who I was. Like I needed this. I had enough going on with Francesca watching my every move and using Jade. Then there was Kane.
The constant thought of Kane being tortured made me feel sick to my stomach. And yet I was still here in Salem Point doing nothing about it. I should be doing something to free him. Something to save him. Like I saved Christian, Wyatt, and Elizabeth the other night. It felt so good to finally feel useful. To finally feel like I was helping the problem instead of just being the reason for the problem.
There was a knock at the front door and I knew right away who it was. It was funny how quickly I picked up on things about my friends. They each had their own distinct way of knocking. Knight’s was more of a pounding knock. Wyatt just barged in most of the time so he didn’t have a knock. He was very good at picking locks. And Christian? Christian’s knock was gentle, yet assertive. Just like him.
Gemma was still at work. She wanted to stay home with me after last night, but it was too last minute for her to find another doctor to cover her shift.
I walked downstairs and when I saw myself in the mirror I cringed. I looked terrible. I had an oversized hoodie and a pair of black joggers on. My hair was a mess.
I tried to fix it as best I could before going to answer the door. Sure enough, it was Christian. He looked at me oddly. “I’m sorry. Were you napping?”
Ouch. I did look like I just jumped out of bed.
“No. I’m just chilling.”
“Oh.”
He wouldn’t understand. I’ve never seen him once not look perfect. He was too proper to even own a hoodie, let alone wear one.
There was this uncomfortableness in the air. I felt like he should be mad at me for what happened last night. Only he didn’t seem mad at all. If anything, he looked even more concerned than he usually did.
“Christian, I’m so sorry for what my father did to you.” That still sounded weird to me. My father. I better get used to that.
“Hope, you aren’t responsible for the sins of your parents. Besides, Caleb was only doing what he thought was right. He’s not a bad guy.”
I rolled my eyes and folded my arms across my chest in indignation.
“Alright, not completely.”
“Thank you for not being mad at me.”
He smiled. “I could never be mad at you. Especially for something like that. Plus, I owe my life to you. Me and my siblings are only alive today because of you.”
“You were in danger because of me too.”
“When are you going to stop with the self-deprecating remarks? For the final time, you matter Hope. You deserve to have people in your corner fighting for you.”
What could I say? I was for all intents and purposes a foster kid. Trust didn’t come easy to me. Relying on anyone other than myself was a struggle everyday. I hated it with every fiber of my being.
“I get it, logically speaking. It’s just taking me awhile to get used to it.”
He smiled knowingly. He knew all about my struggles and he knew I didn’t like talking about my past. “I wanted to see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat.”
“Sure. I’m meeting with Lexie in a couple hours, but we can go now if you want.”
“Perfect.”
I looked down at myself. “Let me just fix my hair.”
“I don’t know. I kind of like your hair like this. The messy look.”
I laughed. “Christian, there’s sexy messy, and there’s whatever this is on top of my head. I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time.”
I didn’t. I hated making people wait for me. Besides, I didn’t really care how I looked in front of other people. But in front of Christian it was impossible not to care. Aside from the fact that he looked gorgeous and me standing next to him didn’t make much sense, I also cared about what he thought about me.
I hated all things girly, but when it came to Christian, Knight, and Wyatt, I was a total school girl.
After I put my hair into a neat ponytail we headed out. As we were walking down the front path, Knight was coming in. “Hey Knight.”
“Hey Hope.” He looked at Christian. “Christian.”
To my surprise, Christian smiled at Knight. “Hey man.”
Hey man? Seriously? Since when did Christian Hale call Knight “man”?
Knight looked taken back as well, but did a better job at hiding it than me. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better. Thanks again for helping my siblings and I. We owe you.”
Knight waved it off. “Don’t sweat it. Man.”
I couldn’t help smiling. They were getting along. And it only took my father trying to kill Christian to do it.
“We were just going to grab a bite to eat,” I said.
“You’re more than welcome to come with,” Christian added. “My treat.”
Now I was definitely in the twilight zone. Christian just invited Knight to have a meal with us. They wouldn’t even eat lunch at school together.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Christian said. He smiled at me. “The more the merrier.”
“Okay, sure.”
This was going to be interesting.
Chapter 33: Christian
I still wasn’t feeling right from all the hawthorne in my system. I was pretty sure there were still some traces of it coursing through my veins.
I was seriously considering getting back on human blood. At least a serving a day to keep up my strength. It was the only way I was going to be able to protect Hope.
This weekend proved that. I couldn’t even try to fight back.
I was useless to my siblings, and I was useless to Hope.
Knight was more useful than I was and he wasn’t even a full werewolf yet. My siblings were alive because he warned Hope about Caleb. He could have let us die and had Hope all to himself. But he didn’t. He did the right thing.
I wasn’t naive though. I knew he knew that if he let us die and Hope found out he knew, she was never going to forgive him for that. She would see him differently. Not as the kind-hearted boy she knew him to be.
Still, I did owe my life to him and I owed it to Hope to try to get along with him, which wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. As far as teenagers go, he wasn’t the worst. He was kind of respectful even. That wasn’t a common trait amongst teenagers in this era.
After lunch I went home to get some rest. Wyatt was sitting in the living room when I came in.
“Have a good lunch?” he asked, not looking up from what he was reading.
“Still stalking Hope I see.”
“How else can I protect her?”
I sure couldn’t. I didn’t really approve of Wyatt watching Hope’s every move, but at least he was able to try to fight off a hoard of vampires if the need arose.
“You could help me train her.”
He laughed. “Have you seen the girl try to light a candle on fire? No. We’re better off looking after her.”
“Wyatt, we’re not always going to be there. Look at this weekend.”
“Most are. Hope has to be able to protect herself in case we don’t make it out alive.” I sat down across from him and looked down at the floor. I was so bothered by what happened. I was having a hard time moving past it.
“No need to cry Christian,” Wyatt said mockingly.
“This isn’t a joke Wyatt.”
“I didn’t say it was. But getting all bent out of shape over this isn’t going to do anyone any good.”
“That’s not what I’m doing. I’m just thinking.”
“About?”
I looked into his eyes and paused seriously. “Drinking human blood again.”
He pursed his lips. “Thought you were a vegetarian?”
I sighed in frustration. “You do realize animals are still meat right?”
He scoffed. “Disgusting meat. Listen, you know I’m all for you drinking human blood. I personally don’t like having a weak little brother.”
Elizabeth opened the doors to the living room from the other side and stormed in. “Don’t listen to this ass Christian.”
I smiled at my sister. “I had a feeling you were listening.” Watching your siblings almost die could really make you appreciate them. Even ones like Wyatt.
“Always. And I think that you should stick to your guns with this blood thing. Clearly it’s important to you for you to have followed it for so long. Don’t let one bad situation impact that.”
It could have been the first of many bad situations. I had no idea how many vampires could come after Hope. Just some werewolf got the better of the three of us. There was no way I would ever be strong enough to go up against Francesca on animal blood.
I didn’t like consuming blood from humans. It made me think about the times when I’d taken too much from a human and accidentally killed them. The hunger could really overtake you. But that was a long time ago. I was a new vampire at the time. I’ve learned a lot of things through the years. Most importantly, I’ve learned control.
I didn’t have to be a monster. I wouldn’t even drink from a human. I’d drink from blood bags, and just enough to build my strength.
I had to do something. There was no way in hell I would allow anyone to harm Hope.
I had to do this. Hope needed me to do this.
Chapter 34: Hope
After lunch with Christian and Knight I went to Lexie’s house. Aria answered the door and let me in. Lexie was in the shower and their parents were out doing grocery shopping.
I didn’t talk much with Aria. She wasn’t a bitch to me anymore, but we weren’t friends either. She was Hayden’s friend, and Hayden just recently started looking at me again. Her loyalty was to Hayden, which I understood.
We stood in the kitchen awkwardly silent. She opened the fridge and looked around. “It’s a good thing my parents went food shopping. We don’t have anything good.”
“That sucks.”
“It sure does. I’m fucking starving.”
I could make a quip about how there are actual people out there starving, but I chose not to poke the bear. I went to bed hungry sometimes in foster care, so I felt for the kids that were out there still actually starving.
She closed the fridge and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. “Do you want water or anything?”
“No thanks.”
She shrugged and went to fill the glass with water from the fridge. When she was finished she sipped her water and stared at me. It was kind of creepy. “How are you?”
“How am… um. I’m good. And you?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m talking about this weekend. You know, when your dad tried to kill whatever those vampires are to you? Must be rough.”
I didn’t know what to say. I think this was Aria being nice. Her version of it anyway. “Yeah, it was. But everyone is okay, so all good. For now anyway.”
“But it’s kind of good right?”
I raised my eyebrows. “In what way?”
“Now your dad knows who you are. I haven’t heard from Hayden, so I’m thinking he may have told her mom about you.”
I couldn’t imagine that was going to go well. Her mother was the town mayor and from what I heard a bit of a snob. I could see her caring most about how this was going to make her look. Regardless, it was still news that her husband had an affair with another woman. My mother. And that affair resulted in me, so I doubt Mayor Wilson was going to like me very much.
“Not sure how I feel about that.”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t sleep with Caleb.”
I grimaced at her words and so did she. “Gross.”
“Yeah, I totally caught that way too late.”
Talking with Aria was nice. It was different from talking with Lexie. The two girls couldn’t be more different from each other. Aside from the obvious of being fraternal twins, Aria was rougher around the edges. Lexie was usually more gentle in her approach to things.
“I have to say I’m kind of surprised you’re being nice to me,” I said.
She waved her hand. “Oh, come on. We’re practically family now.”
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, which prompted her to clarify. “You’re my best friend’s sister. Half-sister. Whatever you guys are to each other.”
I smiled. “She doesn’t even like me.”
“That’s just Hayden being Hayden. And besides, I don’t always like Lexie. And she definitely doesn’t always like me. That doesn’t change that she’s my sister and if anyone ever tried to hurt her I’d cut their throat.”
I laughed, but she remained serious. “That was a joke right?”
“No, seriously. I would.”
The crazy look in her eyes told me she was one thousand percent serious. Reminder to never get on her or Lexie’s bad side.
At perfect timing, Lexie came into the kitchen. Her hair was still wet and she had joggers and a t-shirt on. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I got up from the bar stool I was sitting on at the island. I smiled at Aria. “It was actually nice talking to you Aria.”
“You too Hope. Let’s make this a once a month type of thing.”
“Seriously?”
“No, girl. I’m fucking kidding. I’ll be up in my room.” She took her water and left the kitchen.
“We can go downstairs,” Lexie said. She didn’t seem like herself today. Something was bothering her. I could tell.
I followed her down into the basement. She turned the TV on and sat down quietly. I sat down next to her. Suddenly I wanted to be back talking with the other Drake twin.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Great.”
She should never go into acting. She was terrible at it if that was her trying to be convincing. “You don’t seem great. Lexie, what’s wrong?”
She sighed deeply and turned off the TV. “I think we need to stop being friends with Jade.”
“What?”
“We’re dangerous Hope. We’re putting her in danger.” Her eyes darted to mine. “Something could happen to her because of us.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
She looked at me incredulously. “Hope, this weekend was proof that we have no idea what’s coming for us. Your own father tried to kill the Hale’s. This weekend was a close call. Jade could have found out everything or she could have been hurt.”
“I know, and we’ll do a better job at keeping her safe from all of this.”
She took a deep breath and looked down at her hands. “I think we should just compel her to stay away from all of us.”
Had she lost her mind? I didn’t like that Francesca was compelling her. There was no way I was going to ask one of the vamps to compel her. Just thinking about doing that made my stomach hurt. That sounded so depressing. Compelling Jade not to speak to us anymore? It was bordering on cruel. “That’s terrible.”
“It’s smart and saving her life.”
“We’re Jade’s be
st friends. You want to just make her go back to eating lunch alone in the library?”
“If it keeps her safe. Yes.”
“Well, I’m not going to do that.”
She pursed her lips. I never saw Lexie look angry before. Not like this. She looked like she was about to perform some seriously black magic on me. “We’re dangerous Hope. We live dangerous lives and Jade is always going to be a vulnerable human. It’s not fair of us to drag her into this. We don’t have a choice. We were born into this. She wasn’t. She can live a normal life. It’s selfish of us to want anything other than that for her.”
“She’s our friend Lexie. We can’t just stop being friends with her.”
“If you really are her best friend, you’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe. Even if it hurts.” She got up from the couch and went back upstairs. I think she was on the verge of crying and she didn’t want me to see.
I didn’t even stop to think about how much this must be hurting Lexie. Jade was my best friend and the thought of her not being in my life made me feel sick. But she was so much more to Lexie. She hadn’t told her how she felt about her, but anyone with eyes could see she was in love with her. If she was suggesting pushing her out of her life entirely, then she must be petrified that she really was going to bring Jade harm by being in her life.
Maybe Lexie was right.
Maybe I was being selfish.
Chapter 35: Hope
I was waiting outside of Knight’s house. He was having an argument with his father. It was about the usual thing. His drinking.
Knight’s father couldn’t come to terms with the fact that he had a drinking problem. He didn’t see it, and it was destroying Knight. I wished he would just move in with his uncle so he could be happy.
But he wouldn’t leave his father. He couldn’t. He was selfless like that. And kind and loving. He deserved so much better.
The yelling stopped and seconds later Bill came out of the house. He slammed the door shut. When he saw me sitting on the front steps, he groaned and mumbled something under his breath before walking down the steps right by me and walking down the street.
Saving Hope: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Bloodmoon Series Book 2) Page 11