by Jenna Bernel
"It's still refreshing, and it's not California. It's Caliontre, our home," he explained, handing the water back.
"Your home," I corrected him, taking another sip before returning the cap.
"And no I'm not setting foot there until I have Eli back; so let's talk about that," I said, shifting gears.
"You might not have a choice. Roman only gave us a week," Alec reminded me.
"I've been meaning to ask you how Roman, a full-blooded vampire can Cloud Crash?" I wondered.
"He lives in Caliontre with our people, and we supply him what he needs to survive. However, one of the more pleasant side effects for him is his ability to absorb Nephil Gifts in the process," Alec said, looking suddenly agitated.
"Meaning, he drinks Nephilim blood to survive?" I asked, getting horrified at the thought.
"That's all we have on Caliontre, full-blooded Nephil. It's all donated, of course, with blood bags, but yes, he drinks it; much to my displeasure, I might add," Alec said, flexing his jaw.
"Why can't he just go vegetarian like you?"
"Vamps who drink Nephil blood can day-walk. The sun never sets completely in Caliontre; and despite my suggestion of keeping him locked in a dark dungeon until he could go home, I was overruled," Alec answered bitterly and I almost laughed. It was clear in the dream where we all met they didn't like each other. I just didn't realize how much.
"Roman turned me; did he turn you too?" I asked and Alec nodded so tightly, like he was about to explode, that I decided to drop it. By the look on his face, I got the feeling that even though he knew of his fate, he still never had any choice in the matter, which was something I could definitely relate to.
"Tell me about Eli," I said, reaching across the counter to pull his gaze back to my direction, and he instantly emerged from his reverie with his eyes pinching at the corners in a smile.
"Okay…" he said, turning to face me and tell me what he knew.
Chapter 16: Tag Along
Sitting in AP English, my last class of the day, I decided to resume my pleading with Alec. I did not let up on him for a minute ever since last night, after he told me the next step in his plan to get Eli back.
I'm coming with you I wrote in a note before passing it behind me where Alec sat at his desk. He passed it back and I unfolded it to see what he wrote.
No! was all it said.
Either take me with or I'll find a way to get in myself I threatened, but when he opened the note and read it, instead of writing anything back, he simply crumpled it into a ball and threw it at my feet. I turned in my desk to shoot daggers at him, but he looked away so I couldn’t meet his eyes.
Last night, Alec admitted to me that he thought he figured out the rotation routine of guards that were holding Eli. He believed that each set of guards was assigned to an underground blood bank. Although Eli was being moved from one to the other, the guards remained stationary. I shuttered to think what kind of horrible experiments they were doing on him in those blood banks. The bodyguards who were "off duty" would be going to The Basement, and Alec intended to kidnap one and turn him with his blood. Then he'd use him as a mole to help him break into the blood bank where he was assigned, and hopefully, spring Eli from his captivity. It was a brilliant plan, really. The only problem was that I was not part of it. I wanted to be there to help, but Alec kept refusing to let me, despite my relentless protests.
The bell rang and I quickly gathered up my things to follow Alec who had already bolted for the door. I was running out of time. I wish I could’ve Tranced Alec and made him take me along. I sidled up beside him, but he cut me off before I could speak.
"Dani, forget it. For all I know, they’ve already figured out that Eli is not the one they were searching for and have returned with their sights now set on you," Alec said, dodging bodies as the hallway filled to capacity.
"You said they put out a bounty on me the first time; and you gave them Eli. If they figured it out already, wouldn't you have heard about the new bounty?" I asked.
"That's not the point," he said, sounding aggravated since I was right.
"Then what is the point?" I asked and he stopped when we reached his car in the parking lot.
"The point is that the 7th Circle is this close,” and he held up his fingers to only show an inch of space, before he continued, “to blowing a five-hundred-year-old plan out of the water, and I'm not about to throw our most valuable asset back into their club, now that word of an uprising is out," Alec barked.
"But it's okay for you to go?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, and looking at him like I wasn't buying it.
"That's different. If they catch me, they'll kill me because they have no use for the Gifts of compassion and light. You, on the other hand, would become their permanent Nephil funnel. Who knows what could happen if they get ahold of your Nephil, life giving blood. It could give them all sorts of other powers that would destroy the Balance forever," Alec said in a strained voice. I suppose he was just wishing I'd understand how important this all was. But it felt like I had tunnel vision. I could only see Eli and everything else around him was pitch-black.
"Do you think they’re absorbing Eli's Nephil Gifts, and drinking his blood?" I put my hand to my mouth, just to keep from throwing up.
"I don't think they trust it yet, not knowing what's he's capable of, or where he came from. I have to get him back before they figure out he’s open for Nephil Gift business; and I don't need you distracting me, or having me worry about your safety while I'm at The Basement. I have to go full vamp in there. I can't afford to have any suspicion landing on me right now," Alec said, exasperated, like he wished I would just cut him some slack.
"I'm going either way! So we might as well do it together," I puffed out, and seeing my breath, realized I was freezing by standing out in the parking lot without a coat.
"Good luck getting in," Alec sneered as he unlocked his car and got in. I tapped on the glass and he rolled down the window.
"What?!" he growled, sounding borderline animalistic. Challenging him like that all day was becoming a real test of how well he could control his vamp instincts, and attending a school full of humans probably made it even harder.
"You forgot your girlfriend," I said, tapping his nose with my finger a couple of times. Harper came around the car and got into the passenger seat, all the while glaring at me and no doubt, wondering what Alec and I were talking about.
Shit Alec mouthed under his breath, much too quietly for human ears as Harper sat down and buckled herself in.
Remember: no biting! I teased in an equally, under-the-breath tone so Harper couldn't hear. The muscles along Alec's strong, square jaw flexed and sprang when he ground his teeth together, visibly unamused.
His tires squealed when he peeled out of the lot and I smiled, pleased I was getting under his skin for a change. I walked back into the school to get my coat, and when I reached my locker, Evan was there. I was relieved to see him, craving a much-needed break from all the angst-like tension.
"Hey," I said, meeting him with a smile at my locker as he pulled me in for a quick hug.
"Hey, you busy right now?" he asked, leaning against the locker to look at me while I gathered my coat and gloves.
"Just homework and stuff. Why? What's up?" I asked, shoving my arms eagerly into the warm wool after catching a shiver outside.
"The demo is tomorrow for my 'Evan-inspired culinary creation,’ and I was hoping you'd go shopping with me to make sure I got all the right stuff."
"Did you already lose the list I gave you?" I asked, freeing my hair from being trapped under my coat.
He held the list up in his hand, "No, but I hate shopping and enjoy your company, so come with me and make it bearable," he said flirtatiously and I instantly stopped fidgeting with my hair. He looked me slowly up and down before gingerly pressing the paper between his lips. Stepping into me, he pulled at my coat and slowly started buttoning it from the top down. His black lashes curled downward as he foc
used on his task and I watched him until he finished the last button. Our eyes met simultaneously as we looked up at each other and my breath became irregular. How could someone putting more clothes on you feel more intimate than if he had just stripped them all off? I lifted my hand, pulling the folded piece of paper from his lips.
"You're a hard guy to refuse, Evan Clark." It was true.
"I'll have to keep that in mind," he teased, but in a deeper baritone than usual before gently brushing my cheek with the backs of his fingers. He was always a charming guy, but he never affected me like the rest of the female student body. Something was different now in the way looked at me. It wasn't just some line, and he was always himself with me. No, he was slowly treading into new territory, and it was I, who responded to it, and wanted more.
*****
Holding one paper bag of groceries in my arms, while Evan held the other, we entered my kitchen. Missy was there, sitting at the kitchen table and reading a magazine.
"Where's Conner?" I asked as I set the bag on the counter and Evan did the same.
"Playing in his room," she said, audibly turning a page without bothering to look up as I glowered at her. Maybe I did cut my dad a little slack, since discovering those amazing things, especially, that he loved and accepted me as his daughter the moment I was born. Missy, however, got no slack with me; she was on an irretractable choke chain.
"Did you put him on a leash too? Or is he at least free to move around in there?" I snarled. She lifted her head to say something nasty, but immediately restrained herself when she noticed Evan was here.
"Evan! Hi!" Missy exclaimed, looking flushed as she gawked at the tall, dark and handsome man now standing in the kitchen. I rolled my eyes. Gross! It was bad enough I had an image of my dad and her etched in my brain and couldn't even envision one that included Evan too.
"Hey," he grunted, barely acknowledging her.
"So it's your last year! That's exciting… You'll be on own soon, partying it up in college and dating all sorts of new women," Missy gushed in a cutesy, but suggestive voice, while flaunting her boobs blatantly in case we failed to notice them spilling over her top. Although Evan and she were much closer in age than she and my dad, Evan was not a lonely divorced bachelor and he wouldn't have touched her with a ten-foot barge pole.
"He's going to Yale, Missy, as in, Connecticut? So I guess you'll just have to keep digging for gold in the mid-life crisis club until my dad finally comes to his senses," I snipped. Evan pressed into my back, putting his arm around my neck and I could feel him shaking with laughter, even through my thick coat. Missy slammed the magazine down on the table and stomped out of the kitchen.
"Good one," Evan said, dipping down to my ear. I held his arm around my neck to keep it there while I turned to face him.
"Thanks," I said, leaning my head against his chest as we stood there quietly for a minute. He was used to family tension, mistresses, and all sorts of skeletons in the closet, so I knew he'd be unaffected by whatever way I chose to treat Missy. His tolerance for gold diggers was equally low, since his dad who was still married, kept a girlfriend (or maybe two) stashed away in the city. They all knew about the other women, but gave it no more attention than it took to sweep it under the rug. It was like my birth father: practically everyone but I knew he existed, and not one person said a word to me about it until confronted by me.
"Can I ask you something?" I said, tilting up to look at him.
"Anything," he replied, brushing the hair out of my face.
"It's pretty personal and I don't want to offend you," I warned him , biting my lip.
"More offensive than that?" he joked, indicating with his chin where Missy just vacated.
"Do you ever think that maybe… that maybe your dad might have a kid with someone else?" I asked and Evan's face fell at the question. I felt anxious, waiting for him to say something, and suddenly worried I had gone too far, even for us.
"I'd frankly be more surprised if he didn't," Evan answered, holding me tighter until my head rested on his chest again.
"Doesn't that bother you?" I persisted.
"Yes, everything he does bothers me. The way he treats my mom bothers me, his workaholic behavior bothers me, his girlfriends bother me… but it's the family I was given. I either had to embrace it or never speak to any of them again. I chose the latter. Having you really helped make it easier," he said, resting his chin on my head.
"It helped me too," I agreed. I doubt I would have survived my family if Evan and I hadn't shared a backyard.
"What brought that on?" Evan asked. I knew I'd tell him, omitting the Nephil part, of course, but I couldn't verbalize it yet. Before I left my mom in a pathetic puddle of tears, I made up a lame story about DNA-testing in chemistry. I lied and said that was how I found out. I didn't want my dad to know I knew, at least not yet, anyway.
"Nothing in particular. Now, let's separate this food into sections, and write it all down so you don't use a cup of salt to boil the water tomorrow," I said, stepping away and digging into the grocery bag.
"What’s wrong with that?" he asked and all I could do was laugh at how adorable he was.
Chapter 17: In Disguise
"Way to kick ass, Mapleton!" Dale cheered, dismounting from his keg stand as the crowded kitchen hooted and whistled in another uproar, while raising their glasses before collectively taking a drink. Dale wore a hat with a fake mullet wig attached to the back and a NASCAR jumpsuit, which suited him all too well. He was toasting his annual post-game Halloween party where we got to wear the "cool stuff," according to him, before our lame masquerade dance tomorrow night.
Our football team won the Homecoming game so everyone was in a buoyantly good mood. I had a feeling many people would be showing up to the dance tomorrow still hung over. Kate turned to me. She was wearing a white, sparkling mask as she accidentally bumped me with her feathered angel wing.
"Oops! Sorry, these will probably be trashed by the end of the night," Kate said while tugging at the wings to straighten them.
"I like the mask; is it the one you're wearing with your dress tomorrow?" I asked, taking a sip of my drink.
"No way! I got a better one for tomorrow. It has all these layered feathers on it that fan out just past my ears," Kate described, using her hand to show me the winged effect. "What does your mask look like?" Kate asked.
"Just that satin black one I wore last year," I said, checking the microwave clock. I had to leave soon, but I didn't want to appear too suspicious.
"Way to get into the festivities," Kate said sarcastically.
"Nuh-uh. Wait ‘til you see the dress, you'll die," I corrected her, letting her know in no uncertain terms that I went all out for our senior year, but not on the mask. Kate clanked my glass, looking excited. She came over earlier, but left her dress at home, so we decided to wait until tomorrow for our big reveal while we got ready together. I would have been excited too if I weren't such a twisted ball of nerves right now.
Tonight was the night, and finally a chance to help Eli. Alec had already left, making up some excuse, but I knew he was headed for the city, and specifically, The Basement. I think he only came over to make sure I was here after the game so he wouldn't have to "worry" about me. I thought a lot about what he said, and considering how dangerous it was for me, I came up with another plan. I just had to catch up with him in the human club before he went downstairs to The Basement.
"You look hot as a blonde," Jake said to me as he and Bennet approached us.
"Thanks… I think," I said, adjusting the chin-length, bleached blonde wig with bangs that almost got entangled with my lashes.
"What are you supposed to be exactly?" Evan asked, joining our little circle, and taking a sip of his drink.
"A slut," I said as he and Jake almost sprayed their mouthfuls of beer all over us.
"No, she's a disco girl," Kate said, shaking her head at me. I called Kate, desperate for a "costume," since my wardrobe had nothing even re
motely like such skank-wear. She came over before the game with a big box filled with clothes and accessories from her mom's model slash international party girl days, (i.e., pre-wife and mother). I purposefully went for the most scantily clad items I could find so I'd fit the part, but I felt completely ridiculous and everyone was shocked when I showed up at Dale's, who was equally surprised I’d wear anything like that.
"Hey, fine by me. I hate it when girls leave it up to my imagination," Bennet said with a wicked smile and Evan Charlie-horsed him right in the thigh.
"Ouch, dude! I still gotta dance tomorrow or my date will kill me," Bennet said, rubbing his leg.
"I don't care about the dancing; just lay off the keg stands tonight. If you puke on my dress in the limo, I will kill you," Kate said darkly. Personally, I wouldn’t dare mess with her when she looked as serious as that.
Bennet held his hand up in surrender. "You got it, angel," he said. He chugged down the rest of his beer before tossing the cup off to the side to show her that was it. I was glad Kate and Bennet were going to the dance together. They were just friends, but I was relieved to see Kate seemed to have swiftly moved on from setting her sights on Eli. With the first lull in the conversation, I took my chance.
"You know, I have a headache… I think I'm going to bail out early and get some rest before tomorrow," I said, setting down my empty cup.
"But it's not even eleven," Kate whined, double-checking it on her cell phone.
"I know, but I haven't been sleeping well and just want to catch some zees. Can you find another ride home?" I asked and she nodded, but looked bummed.
"Sorry. I'll see you tomorrow," I said, waving and holding Evan's eye before I turned around. He took that as his cue to follow me to the door.
"I'll take you home," Evan offered, pulling out his keys.
"No, but thanks; it's fine, stay. I'm tired. I just want to go to bed," I said, opening my little, hand-held clutch to find my own keys.
"The nightmares keeping you up?" he asked and I nodded. Since he often witnessed my restlessness firsthand, he understood. I just wished it weren't a lie because I had no intention of going home.