Petey huffed, his ears folding back slightly.
“Come on.” Mike took my hand. “I’ll race you to the lake.”
“Click your fingers. I’ll be there before you finish.”
We ran, racing each other until racing the cars on the highway became a better idea, and after only an hour, I couldn’t run anymore. I huffed and puffed over to the park bench by the lake across from my house and propped my foot up to tie my shoelace—again.
“What?” I asked Mike, feeling his eyes on me.
“I’m gonna miss you when I go back to the manor.”
“Yeah. I always miss you when you go.” I put both feet back on the ground.
“But it’s different this time.” He scratched the back of his head. “I won’t see you again ’til I pick you up in a few weeks.”
“Well, just think, I’ll be at the manor by summer, then you won’t have to miss me ever again.”
He linked his arm through mine and we walked toward the edge of the lake. “You’re getting faster,” he noted, but looked at my sweaty brow. “And I saw you practicing friction manipulation the other day. You did things you haven’t shown me yet.”
“Yeah. I figured out a few tricks. I’ll show you later.” I exhaled heavily to control my breath. “I just wish I could magically heal my husband, though. You never get the power you want.” I clicked my fingers once with dissatisfaction.
Mike dropped a quick kiss on my brow, then sat down heavily on the park bench. “He’ll heal. Emily’s using some herb, isn’t she? Some super-healing thing?”
“Uh yeah, it’s just Wild Indigo. But it’s supposed to promote rapid cell reproduction when mixed with vampire blood.”
Mike nodded. “You do understand, don’t you, that he won’t be able to come to the manor for some time, even when he heals? People have to bel—”
“I know, I know. They have to believe he’s dead.” I groaned. “I know. What I don’t know is how I’m going to survive without him?”
“You have me.” Mike flashed a self-loving smirk.
“Yeah, I know.”
“And Emily will take good care of him while we’re gone,” he added, stretching out his leg. “It won’t be long ’til the Knight’s Core is complete, and once that happens, it’s only a matter of time before we catch ourselves a big bad vampire. Then David can come back to life and announce himself as the new king.”
“Yeah, but it’s the catching Drake thing I’m worried about.”
“Wait ’til you meet the knights. You’ll see. There’s no need to worry at all. Some of them—the original knights—are really cool. I personally cannot wait to go after Drake.” Mike clasped his fingers together and flexed them outward, grinning wildly. “Maybe he can give us a real fight.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be an advocate for war, Mike. I’m still not sure killing Drake is the best option.”
“Of course you’re not, baby, you’re a little girl. You can’t understand the difference between doing what’s wrong for good and what’s stupid for a misinformed idea of what’s virtuous.”
I sat quietly for a minute. “You know, I’ll be queen in a few weeks, then you can’t speak to me like that anymore, Mike.”
He bumped me with his elbow, smirking wider. “I still will.”
* * *
The soft rising and falling of David’s chest soothed the emptiness in my heart. I’d never take his breath, his words, or his smile for granted ever again.
I sat on the edge of his bed and stroked my thumb along the new hairs on his brow. From the outside, aside from looking a little sunburnt, he was otherwise perfect—the old David. But inside he was still raw and grated. Morgaine said he’d probably look something like a saucy cheese pizza. Consequently, I hadn’t been able to eat pizza since then.
In some ways, despite him still being in so much pain, I was glad he’d healed on the outside, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go on seeing him like that.
“Happy six-week anniversary, David,” I whispered softly and kissed his forehead, my lips barely touching his skin.
“Ara.” His hand grabbed mine, and my lips froze above his face.
“Did I hurt you?”
“No. I just needed to touch you.” His voice sounded clearer today. “You always run away so quickly.”
“I’m sorry. I just thought I was hurting you.”
“Not at all.” One corner of his mouth pulled up into a smile, his skin still too dry to show his dimple.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better.”
“Are you hungry?” I held out my wrist.
“Yes.”
“Eat.”
He hesitated, looking back at my eyes. “You haven’t had my blood, will you be immune to my venom?”
“Why? Do you want to bite today?” My heart flipped with excitement. “Are you feeling well enough?”
“I think so.” He touched his neck. “My throat burns for the bite. I just… are my teeth still there?”
“Yes.” I laughed.
“Don’t laugh,” he said, his voice grating a little. “That’s the one part of a vampire you can actually pull out.”
“Really?” I said, but as I thought about it in that second, realized that teeth aren't actually connected to bone, so it would actually be relatively easy for another vampire to inflict pain by knocking the teeth of his opponent out. “Well, they’re still there. And I’m sure they still work.” I grinned wildly, relishing in the idea of his bite. But he shook his head, still holding my arm. “Why?”
“Don’t. Want. To…” He coughed. “Hurt you.”
I missed that kind of hurt, though—missed his bite, his touch—missed laying with him, feeling his arms around my shoulders, his lips on my neck. “I miss you,” I said sadly.
A sympathetic smile washed across his face. “I’m not going anywhere, ever again.”
“I know.” I bit my lip, considering the color in his eyes and how, a second ago, it was bright green, but for every breath he tried be normal, the color faded, became murky. “You look so tired, so pale.”
“I won’t for long.”
I pressed my thumb to where his dimple should be. “I have to go out for a bit longer today.”
“Training?”
“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “Mike wants to teach me how to manipulate the elements, because apparently he’s mastered it. Never mind that he burst a water main the other day practicing.”
He laughed breathily through his nose. “You know, it took me nearly twenty years to master that.”
“Mike’s had Morgaine to teach him.”
“She’s a good teacher.”
“Yeah. She’s been my Lilithian politics and history teacher, too.”
“I know. I’ve been listening. But you haven’t.”
I sat quiet for a moment. “It’s boring. I hate politics, David. Half the time I feel like I’m falling asleep.”
“No matter, you need to learn this stuff, Ara. The past will form the foundations for decisions about the future.”
“You sound like Mike.”
David chuckled. “How is he—Mike?”
“You know him; he’s in his element with all this knight business. He was born for this stuff.”
David, struggling to contain a cough, rolled slightly onto his side, doing well to hide his pain from me. “He doesn’t come to see me.”
“He’s busy with the knights.”
“No. He blames himself for this.” He motioned down his body. “He tried to convince us the plan would fail.”
“He did?”
“Yes. Said it was ludicrous to think for one second that you’d actually kill me.”
My gut wrenched.
David moved quickly to grab my hand. “Not because of how much you love me, mon amour, because he thought you wouldn’t have the strength—the courage.”
“Then he doesn’t know me very well.”
“No one but me does.” David looked at the roof fo
r a second, lifting his hips to reposition himself. “The knights… have you started—?”
“Turning them?” I shook my head. “Not yet. Mike wants me to at least be able to defend myself before I go into a room of dangerous men.”
“Typical.” David grinned.
“Yeah. He’s right, though. If Drake had a mole in there, it could be bad.”
“For them.” David’s voice rasped out through his lips this time. “Mike will…” He rolled slightly and coughed, trying to catch his breath.
“Shh, don’t speak, David.” I touched his chest. “Rest now. We have plenty of time.”
With a deep, labored breath, he turned his head and closed his eyes. I reached across and gently brushed wisps of his thick, wavy hair away from his forehead.
“Ara?” Mike tapped on the door.
“Hey, Mike.”
“Hey. Training. Now. I gotta leave for the manor a bit earlier than planned.”
“Oh, okay. Sure. I’ll just give David some blood, then I’ll be there.”
“Okay. Five minutes. Max.”
“Got it.” I saluted him then turned back to David, rolling my sleeve. “David?”
He roused from sleep long enough to watch me dig into my vein. It still felt weird to openly cut myself—to just dig my nail in and press until blood spilled out—and I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to it. Something about it felt so wrong, kind of sadistic.
“Here.” I offered him my wrist, and for the first time, his cold fingers came up and gripped it firmly, forcing it against his lips like he had no control over his hunger. I sat dead still, praying this strength would last. But as the blood clotted under my skin, closing out the gentle circles of his tongue, he gave no more fight. Simply turned his head and exhaled, smiling.
“You’re getting stronger.” I stroked his short hair back again and kissed the corner of his mouth.
His grin grew as he closed his eyes and turned his head, muttering before sleep consumed him, “The vampire is returning.”
* * *
Breathing the moist, warm air of the lake—our secret lake—I watched the sunlight filter through a gap in the leaves along the trail, making yellow patterns as it spilled onto the leafy floor.
Out here, away from ears of various breeds of vampires, away from eyes watching me train, it was easier to practice my new skills, but also harder to forget David—which, funnily enough, made the practicing easier too. I’d found that my new power was something controlled largely by emotion. Only trouble then was controlling my emotions.
I held my hand out, examining my fingers under the sunlight. The tingling in them was so constant now I hardly noticed it anymore, unless I touched a vampire unexpectedly, then it turned to more of a sharp zap. But for all the power running through them, they still looked ultimately normal: pink and soft, the skin almost transparent, showing the blue veins beneath—just plain hands; so small and ultimately human. I had no idea what this power in my fingertips was, or even how to use it. All I knew was that if I rubbed my fingertips together and thought about David, they got so hot I could feel it burn my arm, pulsing too much blood into my head until the heat built up so thick that it shot out like a bolt of blue light from my hands.
The first time it happened, I was ripped out of my sleep in the middle of the night by four concerned faces staring at me, their mouths agape, flashes of blue light electrifying the room around us. I’d jumped up and tried to run away from it, but Mike grabbed me and held me in place, and we all just watched as the light reversed back into my hands as I calmed down. From then on, we’d been reading and researching, trying to figure it out. The only one who had any success, though, was me—by trial and error.
“Petey?” I said to the dog at the base of the rock. “Wanna see something cool?”
He stood up, his eyes on the lake, following the aim of my gaze. As I rubbed my fingertips together, heating them with friction, a small blue light flickered around my nails. I rubbed faster, holding my breath as the rise of energy built up to an almost unbearable sting, forming a tight ache at the back of my skull, and I knew it was time.
“Zap,” I said, flicking my hand at the lake, and the light disappeared. Then, without any sign that the energy had traveled, a ball of fluid shot up out of the water as high as the trees and fizzled into steam before evaporating.
“Cool, huh?” I folded my arm back around my knees.
Petey barked and ran to the edge of the lake, coming back with a fish in his mouth.
“Oops.” I shrunk my neck into my shoulders a little. “Is it dead?”
He dropped the lifeless form onto the ground and sat by it, licking his chops.
“Wait, you’re not going to eat that, are you?”
He pawed it, shoving it away a little.
“Good dog.”
In my pocket, my phone buzzed for the tenth time. I pulled it out, slid my thumb across the touchscreen then rolled my eyes and replied: Yes, Vicki. Having fun. Paris is great. Tell Dad I’ll call soon.
Only, I wouldn’t call. I didn’t want to hear Dad’s voice right now because I knew I couldn’t hide the pain in mine. I never could hide that from him. No one else noticed it, or maybe they just didn’t want to know—couldn’t bear for me to talk about what Jason did to me now that I seemed to have just ‘gotten over it’—but Dad would.
My phone vibrated again: Dad in NY. Conference.
“Oh yeah,” I said to myself and texted back ‘musta forgot it was May,’ then switched my phone off and dumped it in the pocket of my shorts behind a many-times folded piece of paper.
Petey nudged me, his paws on the rock, hind legs extended.
“What is it, boy?”
He sniffed at my pocket. I pulled out the letter. “You want to see this?”
He sat down.
“Do you want me to read it out?”
His answering wine was probably a yes.
“Okay.” I cleared my throat, working up my best formal-speaking-ancient-vampire accent. “Dearest Princess Amara. How I long to be by your side once more. The days are not blessed with the sun in this dark world, but while I keep your smile in my heart I am blinded by the beauty to be found in each day. I will return to you in the summer, and I intend to remain by your side until happiness is a part of your life once more.” I smiled, imagining Arthur at a desk, writing the note with a quill. “So, then he signed it with just, your friend, always, not Arthur, like he usually does,” I added.
Petey nibbled the edge of the note.
“No, Petey. I’m keeping this one.” I folded it and put it back in my pocket. “I know I’m supposed to burn all our letters, but this one just sounds so genuine, you know. No talk of prophecies and plans. I like it. It feels like a letter from a friend.”
Petey sat down again, huffing once.
“I don’t care what you think, Petey, and I don’t care if Arthur gets mad at me for keeping this. I have no friends left”—I smiled at the dog when he whined—“except you, Petey. Just… just let me keep this one, okay.”
He looked at the lake again. I knew the conversation wasn’t over but, being that it was between me and a dog, really, I didn’t care either. Part of me wasn’t even sure the dog was real, and everything I thought he ‘said’ was all assumed and imagined. The only saving grace was that Mike could see him too. Otherwise, I’d think he was a figment of my imagination.
A soft breeze swept over my face and I closed my eyes, reveling in the simplicity of the moment as the sun came out again. Petey’s soft whimper made me look back at him, and my gaze followed his to where the darkness of the forest revealed a figure. My cheeks froze in the half smile they wore, as the tall man walking toward me became more than just an illusion or a wish.
“David?”
“Hey, Ara.”
I launched off the rock and straight into his arms, nearly knocking him backward. “David. What are you doing out of bed?” I stood back, brushing my hair from my face, taking careful note of his
—how it had completely grown back to its original length, falling loosely over his brow as he tipped his head down to look at me. “You’re… you’re completely normal.”
He smiled, swiping his thumb along my cheek. “Emily came by this morning after you left and used some new herb, and within about four hours, I could sit up again.”
“What herb?”
He shrugged. “No idea.”
“Well, it’s been nearly eight weeks. It’s about damn time you got better.”
“I’m not completely healed, though.” I noticed the hand across his waist then, and the way he slightly folded over. “Em says a few more days should do it.”
“But we only have two days left,” I whined. “I’m leaving for Loslilian, remember?”
“I know.” His lip pulled sharply on just one corner—the smile of the boy in the library at school—and my heart fluttered in rapid, tiny little pulses seeing the dimple had returned. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m just trying not to cry.”
“Don’t do that, my love. Don’t be strong for me. You, of any person in this world, has the right to tears.” He held out an arm, offering his embrace. “Cry, and I’ll hold you until all the pain goes away.”
“No.” I shook my head, reaching for my lost locket. “This isn’t the time for tears. I’ve used enough of those.”
“Well, if you don’t fix this proximity issue”—he motioned to the gap between us—“I’m going to cry.”
I launched back into the exquisiteness of his arms, feet finding air behind me as David spun us both around, his soul in the realm of joy, but his arms in a world of loss, of pain, his hold so tight I could feel he never wanted to let go.
“I missed you beyond words, Ara-Rose.”
“I missed you, too. I missed this you—Awake You.” I squeezed him tighter.
He placed me on the ground and shook his head, the soft smile staying on his perfect dark-pink lips. “I was always present, my love. I just couldn’t reach you.”
“And I couldn’t touch you, even if you could.” His blackened, charred body seemed like a distant memory already—one I guess I wanted to push away, to forget. “I wish you could’ve known how much I loved you. I wish there’d been a way for me to show while you were unconscious.”
Dark Secrets Box Set Page 134