by A. M. Hudson
Eric looked at me with a smug raise to his brows. “Didn’t he?”
“Eric that’s horrible.” I pushed him away and stood up. “David wouldn’t do that, and I know he regrets her death.”
“Regret? David doesn’t do regret. He doesn’t even do compassion. When his brother brought the case of Rochelle against him in the High Court, David, being a man of the law, had the case thrown out before Jason even opened his mouth.”
“You make him sound so nasty.”
A short, sharp laugh drew in through Eric’s nose, and he shook his head. “You didn’t spend much time with him, did you?”
“Enough to know I love him.”
“But not enough to know exactly what you were loving.”
“I knew he was a vampire.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I meant his ultra ass-holiness.”
“He was not an asshole. He was always nice to me.”
“And he was good at that—at playing human—until you become his dinner.”
“He never planned to eat me.”
Eric raised a brow. “Didn’t he?”
“No! He planned to change me—be with me forever.”
“Yeah, well, you can’t be a vampire, so you won’t see him again now, will you? Some true love that is.”
“Thanks.” I looked away. “I feel so much better now.”
“Well, you didn’t really think he’d come back, did you?” Eric lifted my face and looked deep into my eyes with his chocolate stare. “Even if I knew where he was, Amara, he’s done with you. Don’t you understand that?”
I shook my face from his touch and bit my teeth together.
“Get out.” Eric and I looked up when we heard a door slam down the hall. “Just go—it’s over!” Emily yelled.
“What the hell?”
Eric stood as Spence walked out. “Spence? Everything okay, man?” And suddenly, Eric became human again.
Spencer shook his head.
“What happened?” I asked.
Spencer’s jaw set stiff; he looked at Eric. “She found out about Rebecca.”
“Oops.”
“Rebecca?” I asked, the words rolling off my curled lip.
Spencer sighed. “Um. A few weeks ago—”
“Uh! No. I don’t want to hear it.” I held both hands up. “You’re an asshole, Spence.” I stopped walking before I reached the kitchen and turned back around. “Eric, I’m sorry. I have to go see Em. You wanna catch up again sometime?”
He grinned and flipped his chin. “Yeah, I’ll be around.”
Oh, my heart flutters. He’s too sexy. “Spence?” I issued him a death-glare. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
“It’s not my fault, Ara.”
I held a breath of scoff and made myself walk down to Emily’s room instead of turning around to smack him. The front door slammed shut as I tapped on Emily’s door. “Em...can I come in?”
Only a sob answered.
“Oh, Em.” My heart melted as I walked in and saw her broken, a thousand pieces on the bed—curled up into a little ball. I sat down and pulled her hands away from her face. “Em, it’s okay.”
“How—how could...he...do this, Ara?”
Tucking her safe in my arms, I wiped away her tears and stroked her hair. “I’m so sorry, Em.”
“I loved him. I loved him. Why do I let myself fall in love? What’s wrong with me?” She looked at me then, and her caramel eyes sparkled; they reminded me of Mike’s so much that it pained me to look at them—to see them reflect the sadness that was in Mike’s eyes the last time I saw him.
“It’s not you, Em. You have a good heart. It’s just all the wrong guys.”
“Why are there so many of the wrong guys?”
“Well—” I chuckled. “Because there’s only one right guy.”
“What if that was Spence?”
“Don’t think like that, Em. The right one would never do anything like that to hurt you.”
She looked at me sympathetically. “Then David wasn’t the one for you, was he? Since he left.”
I held her head against the hollow of my shoulder. “You’ll find the right one—just don’t lose hope.”
“Why not? You did.”
“No, Em, I didn’t. I just know what I want, even if I can never have it.”
She stopped crying for a second and stared at me, then it burst out of her lips at a hundred miles an hour. “I was going to sleep with him tonight, I...I feel so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, okay? You were in love—that’s what you do when you’re in love.”
“I don’t understand love.” She sat up, wiping her face with both hands. “How can it be called love if it’s one-sided?”
I clicked my tongue. “It’s not love if it’s one-sided, Emily. And love…it…well, it doesn’t mean happiness—that’s not its definition.”
“Then what is?”
“I don’t know, but when I figure it out I’ll tell you.”
The night wore on, but the Sandman never came to take me away. I sat with my head against the wall behind me, the back of my bed sticking into my neck and an upturned book on my lap. Every now and then, I could still hear the feint murmur of the tears that refused to let Emily forget, but even though my heart went out to her, the words Eric said to me earlier owned more of my attention.
I studied the deep lines in my palm, tracing a finger over the changed paths. I wished I were a palm reader so I could read them for a clue, a sign that I might one day be happy. Seeing Emily lose everything she thought was real in her world put things into perspective for me; risk. Emily risked her heart to love Spence, and he betrayed her. She placed her most precious asset in his hands and watched as he crushed it before her eyes. And she never saw it coming, never even had a clue—just followed love blindly. Like we all do. So pathetically blind. Emily will never get past this—not after Jason leaving her the way he did as well. She’s just another tainted girl, ruined for the next man that could have deserved her.
I closed my hand and shook my head. After what happened to Emily tonight, I know I have to stick to my decision to stay single. Eric’s nice, but he’s not David. He’ll never be David, and so, I’ll never love him. But the lure of stringing him along to get inside info on David is a little enticing. I just don’t know if I can be that mean.
A loud bang forced a shriek from my lips and sent my book flying onto the floor.
What the hell?
The noise came again, louder, and without my panicked reaction this time, revealed itself as a knock on the door. The last digit on my clock changed from a nine to a zero, marking the hour as three. Three! Who the hell would that be at three in the morning?
Suddenly, Emily’s scream echoed into the dark street outside. I threw my covers off and ran for the door, calling for her as I stumbled into the front entrance. But instead of fighting off a man with a gun, I stopped mid-step and covered my mouth, nearly falling to my knees at the sight of Emily wrapped completely around the neck of a tall, well-built man. “Ara,” he said, reaching his other arm out to me.
A cocktail of reactions flooded my motionless body. Still shaken with fear from Emily’s scream, my heart tensed, then warmed at the sight of my best friend—the guy I was supposed to marry. “Mike!”
“The one and only.” He ushered me to the hug with a half-grin.
Slowly, I walked over and wrapped my arms around him and Emily. “What’re you doing here?”
“Looking for a place to crash.”
“Why?” I said, removing myself from his arms.
“Missed you too much.” He shrugged then picked up his bag. “I’m moving to New England. Got a job interview in a week.”
“Uh—” I pushed my hair from my face. Oh, my God. What do I say?
We both looked at Emily then, who still had not stopped crying; she laughed, wiping away the tears as she stepped back fro
m Mike. “Sorry.”
He frowned down at her. “Em? You okay? I’ve only been gone four months.”
A burst of tears and laughter shot through her lips. “I’m fine,” she said, “I just broke up with Spence last night.”
“What?” Mike dropped his bag and pulled her in for another hug. “Why?”
“Rebecca,” we both stated at the same time, then burst out laughing.
Mike stared between the two of us, looking a little confused.
“Come in.” I groaned and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make some tea.”
There’s never any parking in this damn town.
I whizzed into a small, oddly angled space just in front of a café, then nearly dropped my bag and keys trying to coordinate checking my watch as well as getting out of the car; ten-past-nine. So much for the student I’m supposed to have at nine.
The long line of cafes and shops made the lengthy pathway to my workplace feel like a catwalk in front of judging eyes, like they all knew me, knew I was late.
When I caught my reflection above an ad for juice, I stopped dead, and the words blurred then transformed into “Haggard.”
“You’re right,” I said to the girl in the reflection, moving the finger of correction over my pasty skin and the bags under my eyes. But, as expected, it did nothing to fix my advertised haggardness. Instead, the lip-gloss came out of the bag, and I used the window as a reflection to smudge a tidy line of red along my lips—bringing out the blue in my eyes, if nothing else.
The satisfactory exhale I used next turned to a short gasp, as my newly-brightened eyes became round and my cheeks changed to match my red lips at the sight of a familiar face staring back at me from beyond the glass. I drew back, a heat wave of mortification rushing through me, and offered only a half-smile to his enthusiastic wave. Then, I practically bolted. Being this late, I really didn’t have time to stand around chatting.
“Hey.” But he caught up anyway.
“Oh, hey, Eric.” I threw my bag over my shoulder, walking a little faster.
“Are you avoiding me?”
“No. I’m just late. I have a student.” And yes—because you make me want to forget my plan to stay single.
“Student?”
“Yes. I teach piano, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Well,” he said, “mind if I walk with you?”
“No, as long as you can walk fast.”
Eric laughed.
Oh right, that’s a pretty stupid thing to say to a vampire.
“So...if I ask you another question, will you say yes?” he said.
“Why?”
“Because you just said no, then yes, then no.” He smirked. “It was funny. I wanted to make you do it again.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then, no.”
“Won’t work now, you already broke the pattern with why.”
I stared at him, incredulous. “Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?”
He shrugged. “I got a lotta time.”
“Go...catch a goat or something.” I waved a dismissive hand, then picked up my pace.
“Can’t. Got my eye on something a lot tastier.”
“I’d say bite me, but...” My smart remark was wittier left without closing.
“Would you like to grab a coffee?”
“Eric, I just told you—I’m running late.”
“What if you weren’t? Would you then?”
“Probably.” Even though you’re annoying and I should avoid you.
“Great. It’s a date then.”
I stopped walking and stared at him. “A date?” Awkward. “I don’t really want to date anyo—”
“Just as friends.”
“Friends?” My brow rose on one side. “But you just told me you want to eat me. Friends don’t eat friends, Eric.” I started walking again.
“Why?”
Insult littered my scowl. “I won’t even dignify that with a response.”
“You just did.”
“Argh!” My fists clenched. “You’re so annoying. Can’t you see I’m trying to avoid you?”
“Yes.”
“Then let me. It’s taken a lot of thinking to get this kind of clarity, and you with all your—” I waved at his...well, at all of him, “sexiness is not helping.”
“I’m sorry.” He stopped walking and looked down at his feet. “It’s just that...you’re a cool girl, Amara.”
“Me? Cool? Those words don’t really belong in the same sentence.”
He jammed his hands into the pockets of his black jeans and gave a bashful shrug. “But you are to me. It’s kind of nice hanging out with a human that knows what I am.”
With a sigh, I rolled my head forward. I shouldn’t be doing this. “Okay, fine. Meet me after I finish work?”
He looked up, smiling. “Great. I’ll wait for you all day.”
“I finish at three—you can come then.”
His eyes followed me as I passed him. “See you soon, Amara.”
“I look forward to it,” I called over my shoulder, waving without turning around.
While I paced the four steps from one wall to the other, my student played the scales jaggedly, hitting the wrong note every second finger. But cringe, as I may have yesterday, I did not today, because Eric’s smile and his witty sense of humour played louder in my thoughts than the erratic scaling’s of the eight-year-old in front of me.
I knew I shouldn’t be thinking about Eric. I shouldn’t be looking forward to catching up with him, shouldn’t be considering things I’d previously only ever considered with two other guys in my life—both of them being guys I was in love with. I mean, I didn’t love Eric. Like him—a lot, yeah. But not love.
Not even want to love.
I don’t know. I stopped pacing and leaned on the wall, crossing my arms, smiling only as a prompt for my student to continue. Maybe I don’t really want Eric at all—not even for my own...pleasures. Maybe my lust is just manifested abandonment and rejection. I have issues. I’m sure of it.
The next time I looked at the clock, it said three.
Thanking the hands of time silently, I packed up my things, said goodbye to jerk-face, I mean Geoff, and hurried out of the store.
“Hey beautiful.”
The glass door hit me in the bum as I stopped dead and looked across at Eric, leaning against his motorcycle with folded arms, sporting the cheekiest grin ever—even more so than David’s.
With a rise of hot blood in my limbs, I breathed out and looked away. “Eric—right on time.”
“Hop on.” He jerked his head to the seat behind him.
“No way. I’m human, remember, and the one helmet you have won’t fit my head.”
“So? You’ll love it. Come on.”
My shoulders dropped. To be on the back of his bike, with my arms wrapped around his waist, my legs touching the sides of his and my chin nestled tightly against his shoulder blade, would be pretty good. I know I’d be safe. Vampires have quick reflexes, right?
The afternoon sun stroked the silver spider webs painted along the abdomen of his bike, and his hair almost seemed to look silver too, like he was an angel cast under a spotlight from heaven, with the devil’s grin to make me want him. Reluctantly, I walked away from the music store and straight past Eric. “No thanks. I’ll pass.”
“Okay, we’ll walk.”
“Walking, I can do.” But as he paced himself beside me, leaning slightly around to meet my eyes, the one thing I couldn’t do was look at his free flying, shaggy hair, and the sexy indent on his right cheek—not a dimple, like David’s, but a line that pressed in when he smiled.
“Hey, Amara?”
The urge to look at him took over and the kindness in his chocolate brown eyes made me smile for a second.
“That’s better,” he said, finally looking forward. “I was wondering where that pretty smile was.”
Hmpf. Pretty? But his flattery nudged its way into my better judgement and forced a
little giggle, which I ate the moment it touched my lips. Damn vampires. Remember, Ara-Rose, I told myself, you can never let yourself be attracted to him. You must stay on course—eternal loneliness and abstinence.
Great, I’m a nun.
“So, who’s the newb?” Eric asked, looking down at his boots.
“The newb?”
“Yeah—the guy at your house. Who is he?”
I stopped walking. “Okay, that’s creepy. Have you been stalking me?”
“Uh—” He shrugged. “Only a little.”
“Eric?” I started walking again, melodramatically rolling my head back.
“I’m sorry.” He stuffed his hands back in his pockets, contradicting the confident Eric with the bashful, remorseful one, as he stayed on the spot for a second. “I can’t help it. You’re a very attractive, very delicious-smelling human, and I’m not allowed to kill you,” he finished, catching up.
“You want to kill me?”
He shrugged. “Among other things.”
“That’s…erk, whatever! But, why aren’t you allowed to kill me?”
His eyes widened and his brows rose high above his smirk. “Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know. Everyone’s kinda running scared.”
“Scared? Of who?”
“Arthur Knight.”
“Is that...” I swallowed. “David’s uncle.”
“Yup. He’s on this crusade to change century-old laws, you know, bring a balance between the Two Worlds.”
“The what now?”
“The Two Worlds—Humans and Vampires.”
“Of course. Shoulda known,” I said sarcastically. “So, what’s that got to do with killing me?”
“You started it all.”
“What, the change?”
“Seat?”
“I started a seat?”
Eric, rolling his eyes, offered me the park bench on the side of the road across from my car.
“Oh. Seat. Yeah, sure.”
The vampire waited until I sat down before positioning himself a little too close to me. I inched away; he followed. I stayed put, smirking.
“Anyway, so...what do I have to do with Arthur changing laws?”
“David was Arthur’s favourite—everyone’s favourite, actually. And when he disappeared after he lost you, it broke Arthur’s heart. He thinks that if these new laws were in place, none of this would’ve happened.”