Venom (The Reawakening Series Book 1)

by Daniele Lanzarotta

  I feel a sharp pain in my head. All I can focus on is the rose. Something is off, but I can’t figure out what it is. I think there is something wrong with the color. That is it… the color is all wrong, but why?

  My head is pounding. I see Sarah come out. She is talking to someone. I would normally rush her, but I just sit there and wait. All I can focus on is the stupid rose and why I have this gut feeling that I’m missing a piece of me.

  SARAH

  “Why is he here?” I ask myself.

  I start to head towards the car, but Cassie stops me.

  “Hey, Noelle!” I don’t connect to the name at first. She runs and puts her hand on my shoulder, turning me around. “Noelle.”

  I look at her startled.

  “Oh, sorry… yeah?”

  “Where are you going?” she asks, looking between the car and me.

  “Oh, that is my brother over there. He is giving me a ride.”

  She looks over at him.

  “Okay. Your brother is hot! How old is he?”

  “Hmm 19. But he has a girlfriend,” I lie.

  She shrugs.

  “Here, give me your phone.”

  She puts her number in and takes mine. “Call me later and give me your address. Maybe you can help me with some of my homework, I mean, you are taking all those tough classes.”

  “Okay.”

  “Great! And… oh, we are having a sleepover at my house this Friday night.”

  “I will have to ask—”

  “Who, mom and daddy?” she asks as she rolls her eyes.

  “No, I just live with my brothers.”

  “Even better,” she says without asking any more questions. “Either way, I wasn’t taking no for an answer. I never do.”

  I get in the car and Nicholas drives me home without saying a word. He is obviously mad.

  When we get home, Harvey is waiting.

  “How did it go?” he asks.

  “Good… better than I expected really. I made a few friends.”

  “Really?” he asks.

  “Yes. She is having a sleepover on Friday night. She invited me to go.”

  Harvey looks at Nicholas. “See, I told you she would be fine.”

  “Right!” Nicholas says in a sarcastic tone. Then he stares blankly at the xbox.

  I look over at Harvey and he looks really worried. Out of habit, he bites his bottom lip and ends up piercing his skin with his fang. He excuses himself to go to the kitchen and I follow him there.

  “What is going on with Nicholas?” I ask.

  “He is getting worse, I think. I didn’t take into consideration how much time he spent with you before. Now he has too much time to himself; too much time to think. Time, to a vampire with missing memories, can do a lot of damage.”

  “Do you think we should tell him the truth or maybe make him remember?” I don’t know if that would be better or worse. I just hate seeing him so… zombie-like.

  “I don’t know Sarah. I really don’t. We’ll wait and see what happens, at least for now.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I’m getting ready for school when I get a text from Cassie.

  ‘What’s your address? I’m picking you up on the way to school.’

  I hesitate, but end up typing my address. I finish getting ready and before I have the chance to tell Harvey and Nicholas that she is taking me to school, she is already honking the horn.

  “Who is that outside?” asks Nicholas.

  “A friend. She is giving me a ride to school and back.”

  He is about to say something when Harvey stops him. “Let her. It will be good for her to have friends.”

  I smile at Harvey and rush out the door before Nicholas can stop me for any reason.

  The day is pretty uneventful until our History class. Again, we have a partner project and I start to wonder what is with these teachers and wanting us to work with someone else. I pair up with Cassie.

  Then, the teacher looks at the back of the class and things don’t go so well. He spots Megan and her boyfriend sitting together. “Ms. Greene and Mr. Sullivan… there is no way that is happening.”

  Megan starts to say something but he interrupts her. “Megan, you will be working with Cassandra. Ian, you are with,” the teacher looks at me, “Noelle.”

  “Uh-oh” says Cassie. This is not going to be good. And I know she is right. All I want to do is stay off the radar and here I am, being thrown right in Megan’s space.

  Cassie moves to sit back with Megan, who is giving me the death stare, and Ian comes to sit next to me.

  I avoid even looking at him.

  “Noelle, right?” he says.

  I nod.

  “Is this your first year here?”

  I nod again.

  He lowers his voice. “A little piece of advice, stay away from Cassie and her group of friends.”

  This time I look at him, meeting his gaze. “Why?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “You seem like a nice girl. You don’t belong in that group.”

  Something about the way he says that gets on my nerves. “You don’t even know me. Besides, I got the same advice about staying away from you.”

  He puts both hands up. “You are right! It’s none of my business who you hang out with. So… are you any good with History?”

  “Yes. I think.” If he only knew that I lived through so much of it.

  “Thought you would say that. I bet you are good in all of your classes.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Hmm nothing. Just take it as a compliment.”

  I feel like he is up to something… or trying to tell me something, but I just go back to listening to the teacher. FINALLY, the class is over and I try to get away from him as quick as I can.

  I’m already up and turning around when I feel his warm fingers around my wrist. I turn around and give him a puzzled look.

  “I meant what I said,” he warns. “Watch your back around Cassie and her friends.”

  I stand there, frozen. The look in his eyes show how truly concerned he really is.

  “Okay,” I say.

  By then, Megan and Cassie reach us. Cassie grabs my arm and rushes us out of the room.

  “What was all that about?” she asks. “I don’t even know how I managed to keep Megan back. She wanted to kill you.”

  “I have no idea what that was about.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  She lets it go and we go meet Cody by her car and without saying a word, we get in and she drives off.

  Cassie heads over to drop off Cody first.

  “So, really… what were you and Ian talking about? Megan was driving me insane trying to figure out what was going on.”

  Cody, who is sitting in the back seat, says, “YOU, talked to Ian Sullivan?” He shakes his head.

  I shrug. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “That is true,” says Cassie… “So, what did you talk about?”

  “Nothing really. He just asked if I was good with History.” I figured I should leave out the part where he said to get away from them.

  We finally get to Cody’s house. Cassie slams on the breaks, “Get out!” Cassie says.

  “Love you too,” says Cody, laughing and shaking his head.

  Next, Cassie takes me home. “So… the sleepover got moved to tonight. I had the date wrong.”

  “Okay.”

  “No worries. I will go in with you and talk to your hot brother. Then we’ll be on our way to my house.”

  Nicholas and Harvey are definitely going to be mad. I don’t like any of this. And I certainly wish she would stop calling Nicholas my ‘hot brother.’

  When we go in, Harvey is reading and Nicholas is playing xbox, which is probably all he did.

  They both give me the death stare when they see Cassie.

  “Sorry I didn’t call,” I say.

  Harvey gets himself together and Nicholas ignores both Cassie and I, and continues to play his game.
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  “These are Nicholas and Harvey,” I say.

  Cassie flirts with both of them, as far as I can tell, but then again, she seems like the type of friendly person who flirts with everyone.

  “Harvey. You are the one who was in the Navy, right?”

  Harvey gives me a puzzled look.

  “Yes, he is,” I interrupt before he messes up my lies.

  “Nice!” she says.

  Nicholas turns from his game long enough to look at Cassie. “It is almost time to eat,” he says with a grin. “You should probably hurry up and say your goodbyes.”

  I know right away he wants Cassie out of the house as soon as possible, and by that point, I want the same. I just want to disappear.

  “Actually,” I say. “The sleepover I told you about is tonight.”

  “On a school night?” asks Harvey.

  Cassie interrupts. “My mom will make sure we get to school on time in the morning.”

  Nicholas and Harvey look at each other and shrug.

  “I guess,” says Harvey. “Make sure you have your phone on you.”

  I run upstairs with Cassie to get my things.

  “Wow. Your brothers are stricter than my parents!”

  “Yeah, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “You were home-schooled before weren’t you?”

  “How did you know?” I ask.

  She grins. “Just a guess.”

  I grab my things and we leave.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  As soon as Cassie parks the car in front of her house she says, “Okay, don’t be mad,” she pauses and grins. “I didn’t want to tell you this until after we left your house, just in case you are not good at lying to your brothers, but we are actually going to a party.”

  I’m definitely caught by surprise.

  “Don’t worry. It’s just a small get together at Adam’s. He throws one every year, but his parents are coming home from vacation early, so it has to be tonight.”

  “I—I’m not sure about this.”

  “Come on. It’ll be fun!” she smiles.

  I try to come up with an excuse not to go.

  “I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “Don’t worry. Jenna and I got you covered. She’ll be here in a few hours and she is bringing you some new clothes.”

  “She is?”

  “Yeah. Of course. We got your back. This one is on us.”

  “Hmm. Okay. Thank you.”

  We go in. As soon as we are in Cassie’s room, she grabs her phone, dials someone’s number and says she will be back. An hour later, I’m still in her room. I start to look around at the pictures on her wall, pictures of her at school dances, football games, and other things I have never experienced. I can’t help but feel jealous… jealous of never having a normal family and of missing out on so many things.

  Cassie doesn’t come back to the room until Jenna gets to the house. Jenna walks in the room with a bag full of clothes.

  “Try these,” she says as she throws a few bags on the bed.

  After I turn down a few dresses, which made me feel very uncomfortable just to look at, I end up wearing skinny jeans with a black tube top. I’m not particularly happy with the top, but it’s the least evil considering all of my options.

  Cassie flat irons my hair, which is usually wavy. They add some eyeliner and lipstick. By the time they are done, I can barely recognize the reflection in the mirror.

  “You can thank us later,” says Cassie as she winks at me. “Oh, and I may have forgotten to mention this, but you need to go to the party with Cody.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  Cassie sighs. “Well, you’re a freshman and it will just look better if you go with Cody. Trust me. Besides, he really likes you.”

  I can’t help but blush. One of the few moments I wish I were still a vampire. It was definitely easier to hide any embarrassment back then.

  “Hey, Cassie. Freshie is blushing! Isn’t that sweet?” says Jenna.

  “Leave her alone,” says Cassie. “Cody is cute. You would have blushed too.”

  The thing is… I don’t even feel that way about Cody. It’s just that I have never heard about a guy liking me before and it just made me feel… embarrassed.

  “I would rather just go with you and Jenna,” I say.

  “Oh, come on. Jenna is technically with Adam, and I have my own date. Cody is a perfect gentleman. You will see.”

  “We’ll be hanging out as a group anyway. You will be fine,” says Jenna.

  Shortly after we are all ready, Cody rings the doorbell. Cassie says we’re all going to ride together, which makes me feel better about the group thing. Cody walks in and he seems a lot more relaxed than usual…. and talking a lot more than usual.

  “Ready to go?” he asks Cassie.

  Then he sees me and grins.

  “Cassandra, Cassandra… nice job!”

  Jenna rolls her eyes.

  Cassie shrugs. “She already had the potential. I just helped a bit.”

  Jenna laughs. “You do know that Noelle is standing right here and can hear you, right?”

  They all laugh, which makes me feel even more uncomfortable than before.

  “Do you have what I asked you to bring me?” Cassie asks Cody.

  “Of course,” he smiles.

  Cassie pulls him into the hallway, but I can see him handing her an envelope.

  They are whispering to the point where no human would be able to hear them, but I’m not entirely human, and as much as I promised Harvey that I would not use my abilities, I can’t help it.

  “All the money is in there. Does she know yet?” asks Cody.

  “She knows she is going to the party with you. That is all she needs to know for now. It’s too early. You know the drill. We need something that we can use as leverage and you will get it tonight. It’s the perfect plan… it never fails.”

  I pull my phone out of my pocket and clench my fingers around it. I think about texting Harvey, but I quickly change my mind. The last thing I need is for him to question the decision to send me to school. Harvey and Nicholas are overprotective and I would never be able to go anywhere ever again. I decide that whatever they were up to, I can handle.

  Cody nods and walks back in the living room.

  “Where is Jenna?” he pauses and looks around. “JENNA! You better be ready. We are walking out the door right now!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I sit in the backseat with Cody and he doesn’t act like we are ‘going together’, so I start to relax.

  He’s pretty smooth too. We get to Adam’s house and before we get out of the car, he tells me we’ll walk in as if we are together, but that is just for show. Like Cassie, Cody and Jenna are also juniors. I don’t understand why they are so concerned about my reputation, but what do I know? I’ve never been exposed to this type of thing before, so I go along with it.

  Once we approach the door, Cody puts his arm around my shoulder, which makes me blush again, and we walk into Adam’s house. We are the first ones there, but soon I come to realize that what Cassie described as a small get-together, is far from it.

  More and more people crowd the house to the point where it feels like most of the school is here, and of course, there is alcohol that some of the seniors were somehow able to bring.

  Eventually, I get Cody to back off a little. I don’t understand the pretending. But then, a group of guys walk in and Cody makes sure to put his arms around me again. Some of the guys nod at him and grin.

  “I have to go outside and get some fresh air,” I say. Before he can say anything back, I move away.

  On my way out of the door, I walk past Megan and Ian, who are on their way in.

  Megan looks me up and down and shakes her head. Ian just… I can’t explain his expression.

  I look down, avoiding his gaze, and rush outside, where I stay until Cassie comes to get me. She shoves a cup in my hand. The strong smell almost makes me sick.
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br />   “Drink it,” she says. “You need to relax.”

  I hold the cup to my lips and pretend to take a sip.

  Cassie grins. “Come on,” she drags me back inside, where Cody is hanging out with some guys.

  “You should go over there and kiss him.”

  I turn to face her.

  “I’m not going to do that!” I say embarrassed.

  “Come on, don’t you think he is cute?”

  He is, but nothing like that. “He is but—”

  “No buts,” she says. “Come on, he has been nothing but a gentleman so far.”

  When she realizes that I’m not going to bend, she resorts to something else.

  “Come on, you like the clothes we got you, right? Do it as a return favor. You don’t even have to full on kiss him, just go over there and put your arms around him or something… anything!”

  This brings back memories of being ordered around by my caretaker when I was a vampire. I fight back the tears. I need to find a way out of here.

  To get her to shut up, I walk over to where Cody is and just stand near him.

  He gives Cassie an unhappy look and then something else catches my attention.

  I see Ian and Megan heading upstairs. Cody notices me looking at them and rolls his eyes. “Typical”, he mumbles to himself.

  Cody instantly puts his arm around me again. I try to move away from him, but he pulls me back. From the stairs, Ian meets my gaze and he seems concerned, but Megan keeps dragging him forward until they disappear into the hallway.

  When one of Cody’s friends starts to get friendly and pull me away from Cody and toward him, I know I’ve had enough. I feel overwhelmed and wish I was anywhere but here. Cody just stands there so I yank my arm free from his friend’s grip. Both of their expressions are a mix between surprise and enjoyment. I’m about to tell them off and leave when we all hear Megan shouting as she comes downstairs after Ian.

  I can barely make sense of what she’s saying because I’m more worried about taking advantage of the distraction to get out of the house or hide somewhere until I can find a way home.

  I decide that outside is my best option. I can’t take it anymore. The music… the smell of alcohol… I have to get out of here.