Summer Shifter Days

by V. Vaughn

  That explains his tan. “I take it you live for waves.”

  “Not always. It’s more about the adventure. I like to go someplace I’ve never been.”

  I think about my plan to live life in a large way and say, “That sounds like fun. Where do you want to go next?”

  “I have my sights set on New Zealand.”

  Jenna asks him about what he’ll do for work, and I sit back to listen to the exchange. It leads him to a story about his job last winter. I sip on my beer as people volley back and forth with funny anecdotes, and when Matt is relaying one, Aiden leans in and whispers in my ear, “I’m glad you’re here.” While his breath tickles my ear, a sudden shiver races down my spine, and my heart is afraid. Of what, I’m not sure. I glance over at the woods, and the feeling someone is watching us floods my mind.

  I whisper back, “Thanks. This is fun.”

  Aiden takes my hand and stands up. “Come get another beer with me.” I don’t need one, but I have a feeling that’s not what he’s after. He grips my fingers tightly as he brings me into the house. When we get to the kitchen, he faces me and grabs my hips to pull me close. I inhale the faint spice scent of his soap as he says, “I’ve been dying to kiss you since the first time you came in the coffee shop.”

  I place my hand on his chest and trace down the crease between his pecs. I have no doubt Aiden is the kind of guy who picks up girls wherever he goes, but I planned on kissing him tonight, so I play along. “That thought has crossed my mind a few times too.”

  Aiden leans down and kisses me. It’s gentle nibbles, as if he’s being cautious with me, and he breaks it off too soon. He cups my chin in his hand and sighs. “That was as good as I imagined.” I’m surprised by how sincere he sounds, and I smile. His thumb is rough on my lower lip as he rubs. “Your mouth was definitely made for kissing.”

  I reach up and comb my fingers through his hair. The locks are silky smooth on my skin, and I grab the back of his head to tug him down. “Then kiss me again.”

  4

  My second kiss with Aiden loses its sweetness to make way for steamy, but as it heats up for Aiden, Alexander flashes in my mind. I recall how the vampire made my entire body hum with a need I was desperate to quench, while with Aiden, I feel as if a barrier exists so he can’t touch me the same way. I break away from him quickly.

  “Yeah,” he says. “We’ve got chemistry, Kitty Cat.”

  Right. But you’re not getting an A. I smile instead of replying and step back. Poor guy. I’m afraid I’ve led him on, and it’s time to nip this in the bud. Because even though I can’t be with Alexander, I won’t fake it with Aiden. Especially since I believe he wants to take this much further than I’m willing to go. “I’m going to get a beer. Want one?”

  “Sure.”

  The bottles are cold in my hands as I remove them from the fridge. I hand them to Aiden so he can remove the caps, and when he’s done, I move toward the patio. Aiden follows close behind me, and I try to figure out how to let him down easily. Luck is on my side, because as soon as we sit, Becky stands up and asks, “Who wants s’mores?”

  I pop up out of my chair. “Me. What can I do to help?”

  “The girls come inside with me. Guys, you find us sticks.”

  Jenna and Lyndsey practically push me through the glass doors before anyone can object, and once we’re in the kitchen, Lyndsey says, “We saw Aiden kiss you, and we can’t let you start something with him until you know what you’re getting into.”

  I hold up my hand. “Let me guess. He’s into hook-ups only.”

  “Yes,” says Jenna. “And it’s cool if that’s what you want. But if not, then we like you way too much to let him break your heart.”

  “You guys.” I let out a big sigh. “Thank you. I did get that impression, and I gotta say, he’s smooth.”

  Becky chuckles. “Did he use the we’ve-got-chemistry line?”

  I laugh too. “How did you know?”

  “By the end of the night,” says Lyndsey, “he’d be asking you to move to New Zealand with him and then paint you a romantic picture of what it would be like.”

  Jenna pulls a box of graham crackers out of a plastic bag, and it thumps on the counter when she sets it down. “It’s a shame, because deep down, he’s really a great guy.”

  “Yeah.” Becky hands me a bag of marshmallows. “He’s the first one to help anyone out of a bind, which is why we all love him. But he is way too hot for his own good.”

  “Some day, a girl is going to come along and rock his world,” says Lyndsey.

  Becky asks, “Like when he’s in his forties?”

  “Let’s hope sooner for his sake. Although I can see him holding court at a nursing home one day.” Jenna heads toward the door.

  When we get outside, the guys are still gone, so we set things out on the picnic table. A marshmallow squishes between my teeth as I take a bite, and Lyndsey yells toward the woods, “Guys! How hard is it to find a stick in the forest?”

  “Maybe they went to the brook to get high,” says Jenna.

  “Could be.” Becky looks at me. “Matt’s sister, Erica, won’t let them do it at the house because of how it would look for an elementary school teacher.”

  I nod at the logic. I recall seeing signs for nature trails in the conservation land that is adjacent to this neighborhood and ask, “Can you access the trails from here?”

  Lyndsey says, “Yes. Do you want to get high too?”

  I shake my head. “I was just curious. Beer’s enough for me.”

  Jenna says, “Lynds, I’ll walk out there with you if you do.”

  “Seriously?” Becky sighs. “You guys are going to move the party out there?” She turns to me. “I don’t get high, and neither does Declan, but if you’re uncomfortable, we can stay back here.”

  “It’s fine. I’m easy.”

  “Okay.” She gazes longingly at the fire. “But when we’re freezing our asses off, I’m coming back.”

  We all turn the flashlights of our phones on, and Lyndsey leads us to a trail. Twigs snap under our feet as we follow in a single line with me last. “It’s creepy out here at night,” says Jenna.

  Lyndsey says, “It’s just dark. I don’t think we have anything scarier in these woods than a fox.”

  “I don’t know,” says Becky. “I’ve seen some pretty nasty squirrels.”

  Tiny hairs on my body stand on end as a sense something is wrong fills me, and I try to brush it off. “Me too,” I say. “When I was a kid, we had one I swear would have cut me if I’d tried to take the Halloween pumpkin away from him.” I chuckle.

  Lyndsey stops suddenly, and her voice is concerned when she asks, “Matt? Oh my god!” She races forward, and I make it one step before my friends are yanked off the trail by figures in black.

  I drop my jaw to scream just as a hand slaps over my mouth, and Alexander’s voice is in my ear. “Stay calm. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  I let out a muffled whimper, because I see three vampires sink their teeth into the necks of my new friends, and they fall unconscious almost instantly as if the bite sedates them. I catch the eye of one man and realize it’s Sebastian. His gaze is blazing at me in the way I recognize from when he first showed me his vampire side, and he lifts his mouth away from Lyndsey’s neck to reveal his fangs as he licks his lips. My heart turns to ice, and my blood chills my veins. Sebastian is a killer!

  Fear takes over, and I have to fight the urge to struggle against a man whose own fangs are inches from my neck. Alexander says, “They aren’t going to die. Once we’re done, they’ll sleep until they wake up in a few hours. They’ll think they had too much to drink and passed out.” I nod as he wraps his arm around me and pulls me against his body, and I think he knows I’m about to collapse. “Nobody will remember a thing, and unlike horror movies, the evidence left behind will appear to be nothing more than two small bug bites.”

  I discover I’m clutching at Alexander’s arm as if he’s keeping me saf
e, which is crazy considering he’s just like the men I’m watching. He says, “I’m going to take my hand off your mouth, and you will remain calm.”

  My eyes are riveted to Sebastian as the sucking sound of the vampires feeding makes my stomach turn. How could he be so evil? My heart fills me with sadness, as if she’s accepted what he is, even though she doesn’t approve. It makes me think about the women who fall in love with inmates, but apparently I’ve insulted my heart, because she spikes with anger.

  Lyndsey’s body thuds on the ground where Sebastian drops her, and he approaches me still in his vampire form. I begin to tremble, and Alexander’s voice is annoyed when he says, “Sebastian. She’s terrified enough.”

  He morphs back to the human I recognize and wipes blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb as he grins. “That is how we eat, Margaret.”

  He did this to answer my question from earlier? I glance at the other two vampires, who are arranging the bodies by the brook so that they’re slumped against trees. My friends look like life-sized floppy dolls, and I find it hard to believe what I’m seeing is real. Hot tears roll down my cheeks as I whisper, “Why them?”

  “I told you making friends is dangerous,” says Sebastian.

  “So you ate them to prove it to me?”

  One of the other vampires grips Sebastian’s arm and says, “We’re heading out.” Sebastian acknowledges him by placing his hand over his companion’s while maintaining eye contact with me. “Don’t be so shocked. I thought you’d be impressed we don’t kill the people we feed on.”

  My fear has morphed into anger, but I tamp down the urge to give him a piece of my mind. I tug at Alexander’s arm still around my waist and step to the side so I can see both men. I speak in an even tone as I ask Sebastian, “Did you come here purposely to teach me a lesson?” Glancing at Alexander, I see he at least has the good sense to offer me a sheepish smile for revealing where I’d be tonight.

  “Margaret, you live in a dangerous world now, and it is my duty to keep you safe. Even if it’s from yourself.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I can’t help it. My temper does match my hair, and I no longer contain it as I step toward Sebastian. It takes all my willpower to avoid poking him in the chest as the volume of my voice rises. “Do you really think I’d tell anyone what you are? I told them I was Kitty Kane and am going to release a book soon. I was building up the person you want me to be!”

  I turn to Alexander and shake my head. “Did you know he’d do something like this?”

  “Not exactly. But he’s right. You live in our world now and can’t get too close to people.”

  I glance over at my friends and rake my hands through my hair. How am I going to face them knowing what I made happen tonight? I recall the eerie feeling I had earlier. “Were you watching me?”

  “You mean did we see you kiss Aiden?” Sebastian opens his jaw to reveal his fangs and run his tongue over them. His eyes flash with his vampire as he says, “He was delicious.”

  He bit Aiden out of jealousy. That obnoxious— “This is insane. You’re really petty enough to attack a guy that kisses me? Guess what, Sebastian. I’m not into you, so you weren’t losing anything.” I snap my mouth shut when I realize I went too far, and I step beside Alexander as Sebastian’s anger flips his vampire switch.

  Alexander puts his arm around my shoulders and says, “I think it’s time I took Maggie home.”

  Sebastian stares for a moment, and my legs shake as I wonder if the brothers are going to fight physically. But then Sebastian takes a deep breath and swallows up his vampire. “Yes. I’ll be home later.” His words are barely out of his mouth before he’s gone in a nanosecond. I imagine he’s going to take his rage out on any unsuspecting human he encounters, and my disgust for him grows.

  I turn to Alexander. I know just because I didn’t see him feed doesn’t make him any better than Sebastian, but other vampires are around, and I think I need him to keep me safe. I glare at him. “Shall I lead the way?”

  “Maggie.”

  “Don’t.” I glance over at my sleeping friends, and fresh tears fill my eyes. While I know they’ll be okay, I can’t believe I caused them to lose hours of their life. I wonder how much blood they lost and if they’ll think something’s wrong when it takes them days to regain their energy. And what are they going to think when they wake up to discover I’m gone? “Wait. How am I going to explain why I left them?”

  “You won’t be seeing them again, Maggie.”

  “Of course I will. They all work in town and...” Oh my god. “I’m not going to be allowed to go into town again, am I?” The thought of being locked up in the Hart mansion makes panic rise in me. “No. That can’t happen. I’ll lose my mind if I’m stuck in your dark, depressing house every day. Please.” I reach out and grab his arm. “Please tell me you won’t let him make me a prisoner. If Sebastian won’t let me leave the house, I’ll quit.”

  “Maggie, you can’t hang out with these people.” Alexander places his hand on my cheek. It’s cold, and I know in my head I should be repulsed, but my body takes over, and I lean into his touch. He sighs. “You can’t possibly understand the effect you have on me, Maggie.” He moves away from me to go toward my friends. He hoists Becky up over his shoulder as though she weighs nothing. “You can say the two of you stayed back, and that you left early because of work.”

  Our feet thud softly on the dirt path for a while before Alexander asks, “Do you have feelings for Aiden?”

  “No. He— that’s not it.”

  I realize he’s doing me a favor Sebastian would likely disapprove of and say, “Thank you for doing this.”

  I’m not sure if I’m in shock or just stupid, but my anger for Alexander fades by the time we get to my car. And as we rattle along down the road, I realize it might be because I need him. The way I think he needs me. It’s a desire that runs deeper than sexual attraction, and I think there’s a lot more to soul mates than I knew.

  5

  As soon as we get back home, I go straight to my room. I’m still so angry with Sebastian I can’t chance an encounter, because I might not survive it. My feet thud on the floor of my suite as I pace, and I try to process what I witnessed tonight. My logical side thinks how vampires feed and keep it secret is clever. But the sound of them sucking blood keeps ringing in my ears, and I flash to the way Sebastian looked when he was feeding. I saw evil. I wrap my arms around myself and stop walking to close my eyes. It doesn’t help, because then I envision what Alexander would look like in Sebastian’s place.

  I let out a helpless sigh. What have I gotten myself into? Never in a million years would I have guessed the reason I signed an NDA was because my bosses are vampires. What a fool I’ve been the past few days since I learned the truth, because I let myself believe the Hart brothers were harmless. And that I was safe.

  My mattress bounces as I get on my bed and flop down on my back. I gaze up at the plaster ceiling, and my gaze follows a tiny crack that zigs-zags across the surface. “Now what do I do?” I haven’t got a single person I can talk to about my predicament. I place my hand over my heart. “I wish you could speak to me.” A gush of empathy fills me, and I think the girl who was my organ donor may have dealt with the same knowledge. And yet, she fell in love with Sebastian anyway.

  I recall how people who have to deal with horrible living situations find a way to cope, and I wonder if that’s what I need to do. Do I need to accept the horror I saw tonight so it doesn’t make me crazy? What am I saying? My stubborn side kicks in. I don’t have to accept this life. Nothing is stopping me from leaving.

  I replay the horrible scene from tonight one more time. I see the way Alexander hoisted Becky over his shoulder in such a cavalier way, and I realize the truth. I know too much. Even I’m not naive enough to believe I could leave without serious consequences. I’m trapped, and I’d better find a way to deal with it.

  I get up and move over to my desk. Pens rattle as I ya
nk open the drawer, and I remove one along with a pad of paper. I think back to the way my mother always found the positive in bad situations, and I channel her as I write. “They don’t kill.” But they do suck blood out of people. I imagine my friends are waking up about now and wondering how the heck they all missed the rest of the party. What am I going to say to any of them when we cross paths in town?

  The pen clatters on my desk when I throw it down. It’s no use. There isn’t anything positive about what I witnessed tonight other than the fact we survived. I wonder if that’s always the case, and I shudder when I envision Sebastian sucking someone completely dry. What does he do with the corpse?

  A soft knock sounds at my door, and dread makes my stomach churn as I walk toward it as if I’m about to be executed. Relief floods me when Alexander says, “Maggie, it’s me.”

  I open the door to him, and he asks, “Can I come in?”

  “Is Sebastian home yet?” I step back to let him enter.

  He shakes his head. “I came to see if you’re okay.”

  I want to be angry with him, but I can’t find the energy. “That depends.” The odor of smoke from the fire on my clothes suddenly becomes strong, and it deepens my sense of doom. I sweep my arm out. “Is this the only place where I’ll get to see the sun from now on?”

  “No. I won’t let that happen.”

  “Really? The way you didn’t let Sebastian and your buddies feed on my friends?”

  Pain flashes over Alexander’s face. He says, “Sit. I think you need to understand more about what being a vampire is like.”

  I let out a big sigh. “Fine.” We move over to the couch, and the velvet covering of a pillow is smooth on my palms as I clutch it and turn to face him.

  “Feeding without killing isn’t how we used to do it. Our nature is to drain out all the blood, and it’s very difficult to practice moderation. It was a necessary change we made in order to stay in one place.”

  So much for the one positive on my list. “There are vampires out there who kill when they feed?”