How to Date a Dead Guy

by C P Fleur

  “But wh-what about my heart?”

  “She burned too bright for this world,” He quoted Brontë before adding, “Rule number fifteen, Super Nova – never give your heart to a vampire. They’ll always break it.”

  He wasn’t just telling me I could never be with him; he was warning me that I could never be with Wyatt. I nodded once, forcing myself to calm down as I watched Lucas walk back out the door to his room and possibly out of my life forever.

  “I told him not to bring you here,” Wyatt spoke up, and I spun to face him as I struggled to hide the horror from his words from my expression.

  “You didn’t want to see me?” I asked, taking a step toward him.

  “It’s all I thought about since the moment I left,” he confessed, putting my hammering heart at ease. “But I didn’t want to put you through this.” His eyes danced around the room to emphasize his point.

  “I would do anything for you, Wyatt. Anything. You know that.”

  “And that’s why I didn’t want you to know. I told him not to tell you. I made him promise.” He shook his head, sitting on a small Queen Anne bench and hanging his head as his fingers laced through his hair roughly.

  “You... you told him to lie to me?”

  “I wanted to keep you safe, Nova. If it weren’t for my accident – if I had just slowed down, keeping you safe, none of this would be happening.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, sinking down on my knees and wrapping my fingers around his wrist to pull his hands free from his face. He looked up at me, pain evident in his eyes.

  “The accident was my fault, Nova. If Lucas hadn’t been there, to save you, you would be dead. We would both be dead, and it was my fault. And if he didn’t risk everything to keep you alive, we wouldn’t be here now. Fellows wouldn’t know you exist.”

  “What did he do?” I asked, but Wyatt just shook his head, his hair falling down to brush his thick brows that were pulled together. “Wyatt, what did Lucas do?” I asked again.

  “He broke the laws, Nova. He created me out in the open, without permission and risked getting caught – for you. He destroyed half the hospital when they tried to force him away from your side.”

  “He what?” I asked, struggling to absorb all of this information.

  “You were unconscious, he was afraid you wouldn’t make it, and he wouldn’t be there if he needed to... if there was a chance he’d have to –”

  “To turn me,” I finished, a chill running down my spine.

  “Fellows was forced to clean up the mess. He paid to have the hospital remodeled to keep the story from going public. That’s how he knows you exist. That’s why you’re here now, so he can use you to control Lucas.”

  He shoved to his feet, nearly knocking me off balance as I stood as well. “You didn’t know any of this was even real,” I called after him, causing him to spin on his feet and glared at me.

  “If vampires weren’t real, we’d both be dead because of me. Don’t you get it?”

  “I don’t blame you, Wyatt. And I don’t blame Lucas.” I reached out to touch his arm, but his hand shot up, lightning-fast, as he gripped my wrist painfully tight.

  “Then you have learned nothing.” That’s when his gaze fell, and he noticed the wound on my wrist – two fresh puncture holes in my thin flesh. His fangs ran out as he snarled. “He bit you?”

  “He didn’t have a choice,” I replied, yanking my hand from his grip.

  “And now I have no choice about what I have to do to him.”

  “No,” I screamed, grabbing his arm to try to stop him. His feet paused, and he glanced back at me over his shoulder. “Please, you can’t hurt him!”

  “Don’t worry. I can protect myself.”

  “Nova,” Kamala called out from the bedroom door, her eyes wide in horror. “Lucas left. He’s going after Fellows alone. I couldn’t stop him. We need your help. Both of you. We need to protect our family.”

  Our family. We were a ragtag group of misfits – some vampire, some criminal, and even one mostly human – but we were a family. And no laws or forced coupling could change that.

  “Wyatt, I need your help. Lucas –”

  His jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed in anger. “You weren’t worried about me. You were worried he was going to get hurt,” he said with a scoff, shaking his head. “Unbelievable.”

  “I’ll wait in the car,” Kamala replied with a cringe before slipping back out of the room to give us a moment of privacy.

  “Please,” I begged. “You don’t understand. If something happens to him –”

  “You love him?” he asked, his face twisting in confusion as he glanced down at the bloodstone that hung from my neck. “You love that monster who fed on you like you were nothing but a meal?”

  “Lucas isn’t a monster, Wyatt, and neither are you.”

  He walked over to one of the shelves and grabbed something off it before stalking back over to me and shoving it into my chest. My eyes danced over the once tattered and torn rulebook that I’d ripped to pieces in my room – the book that contained some of my darkest secrets and most painful confessions. “If you think that’s true, you haven’t been paying attention.”

  I dropped it to the ground, my hand covering my mouth as I tried to suppress a sob. Had Lucas read it? Had Wyatt? Did he know how I’d felt about him, how I didn’t want to go on after I’d lost him?

  “He doesn’t deserve your sympathy or my mercy.”

  “Wyatt, please. He saved you. He could have let you die, but he didn’t.”

  His eyes searched mine as his nostrils flared. “Anything would be less painful than this.” It was almost word for word what Lucas had said the day I’d met him, and it caused my stomach to lurch. He knew. I could see it in his eyes. He knew how much I cared about him before he was torn from my life by Lucas. And I could see that he felt the same.

  “You read it.”

  “I loved you too, you know. I loved you so much; I stayed away. I kept you safe from what I was. Had I known...” his voice trailed off as he shook his head, his eyes dancing around the room. “I can make all of this right.”

  “Wyatt,” I croaked. “Please.”

  Grabbing the thin red bracelet on his wrist, he tugged at it, ripping it from his wrist before letting it fall to the ground between us.

  “Don’t worry. I would never ask you to choose. You won’t have to. By the morning, Briarwick will be nothing but a bad dream, and the world won’t ever have to know what monsters once lurked here.”

  With that, he slipped out of the door before slamming it between us.

  “Wyatt,” I yelled, grabbing the knob, but it wouldn’t open. He didn’t know that Briarwick was more than just this academy. Lucas had told me they had three locations in North America. If I couldn’t catch up to him, he may do something that he couldn’t take back. I wasn’t even sure if he cared. “Kamala,” I screamed, slamming my palms against the heavy wood, but it was no use. Everyone was already outside.

  Lucas

  My list of enemies had grown exponentially since Nova was brought here. I knew I could add Wyatt’s name to those I’d have to deal with. But I was counting on him to protect her from me. He loved her.

  I sped back across town to Briarwick, Nova’s life force still pumping so vigorously through my veins it felt like my body would spontaneously combust. If I ever had a chance to defeat someone like Fellows, it would be tonight. But it would have to be soon. I didn’t know how long my body could handle her blood.

  Fellows stayed in the old Warhaven building on the southside of campus. He lived there with his own faction; his partner Gregor and their three progeny. I knew they’d defend him at any cost.

  I parked at the edge of the long winding path that led back to his home, surrounded by old oak trees. I was under cover of night, but it would do little to hide me from other vampires. We were made to hunt in the darkness; in the shadows. That’s why most of us only fed at night, even to this day, even though we d
rank from donations.

  Sneaking up to the back of the building, I peered through one of the old lead windows, taking in the figures through the warped glass.

  Gregor sat on the couch – his gray hair wild and uncombed – a goblet of blood in his hand, as he spoke animatedly about something to someone who was out of view. I made my way to the next room, searching for Fellows.

  “I knew you couldn’t be trusted.”

  I pressed my eyes closed before turning around to face Wyatt. “Where is Nova?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t be forced to witness what was about to happen.

  “Don’t worry; she’s safe. Now. I made sure the others headed off to the Northside of campus to search for Fellows. It’s just us. I suggest you start talking.”

  “My job was to protect Nova,” I snapped.

  “Who was supposed to protect her from you?” he asked, taking a step closer, his fists clenched at his sides.

  “You don’t understand. I wasn’t just there by accident that night. Nova was my entire existence. My job was to watch over her and to keep her safe.”

  “Why would a vampire need to protect some girl from New Salem? Why her?”

  “Because she’s not what you think she is.”

  “You think you know her better than I do?” He barked, loud enough for someone inside to possibly hear us.

  “Trust me; I never planned for it all to happen this way,” I shot back.

  “Trust you?” he bit out like the words left a bad taste in his mouth. “You’re the reason she’s here.”

  “Fellows brought her here –”

  “After you caused a scene.”

  “After he realized that her maker had someone who would one day come to avenge his death and expose him for the fraud he is.”

  “Maker?” he asked as his face screwed up in confusion.

  I bit back a curse. “Father,” I corrected.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Nova’s father was a vampire.”

  “You’re lying,” Wyatt snapped. “She would have told me.”

  “She didn’t know. And I have reason to believe he is still alive. I owe it to Nova to find out.”

  “But her mother... I knew her. She was human.”

  “She was also a witch before her magic was bound.”

  “You kept all of this from me, all this time?” he sneered before his fangs dropped with a snarl.

  “The fewer people that knew about her, the safer it was for her.”

  “From me?” he snarled. “You just wanted her for yourself. I saw the bite mark on her wrist.”

  My fangs ran out as well, and I stretched my neck to the side. “I didn’t want to feed from her. She made that choice. She saved me.”

  “Yeah, well, you won’t get that lucky twice.” With those words, he launched himself toward me, crashing both of us against the brick façade of the old antebellum home.

  Rule 16: Remember the Rules

  Nova

  I WAS PANICKING, MY chest feeling like I was being crushed under a truck. I couldn’t breathe.

  “Remember the rules,” I mumbled to myself as my eyes landed on my tattered rulebook on the floor. “Number one...” I squeezed my eyes closed, begging my heart to slow. “Never show fear.” I took a deep breath, shaking my hands, and trying to force myself to calm down. I wasn’t going to be able to do anything if I couldn’t focus. “Number four,” I shouted as my eyes danced over the space before landing on a window. “Have a getaway plan,” I squealed as I rushed over to it, struggling to pry it open.

  It took nearly all my strength to break it free from years of paint that had coated it shut. But slowly, it cracked free from its hold, and I was able to slide it open. I slipped my legs over the sill and jumped to the grass below.

  Pulling out my phone, I dialed Lucas’ number, but it only rang. I clicked to end the call and shoved my phone in my pocket as I stormed off into the night toward the academy.

  I needed a plan, but first, I needed to figure out where Lucas was before Wyatt found him. I knew I wasn’t that far from the campus, but it was hard enough for me to get around even in broad daylight. I stopped, taking a deep breath and let my eyes fall closed, begging my tears to stay at bay long enough for me to formulate some sort of plan.

  That’s when I felt it; something was pulling me. It was faint at first but grew stronger with each step forward. I could feel it in the erratic drumming of my heart. My eyes snapped open, and I struggled to focus on the night ahead of me as I continued to walk toward whatever it was that was summoning me.

  AFTER TRAVELING THROUGH thick brush and a few back yards, I found myself on the edge of campus. I closed my eyes again, focusing on the way my heart was beating, feeling the pull toward Lucas. Letting him feed from me seemed to have tethered him to me, and I was thankful for the unexpected side effect. That’s when I saw it. The blue shadow that glowed behind my eyelids, moving like water in my direction. It was a vampire.

  Slipping out onto the street, I stopped short when a silhouette came into view.

  “H-hello?” I called out.

  I watched the figure take a few steps closer before being illuminated by a street light. I couldn’t help the tears that clouded my vision and began to fall as I came face to face with the boy who I’d just watched try to kill Lucas – Remy.

  Lucas

  I grabbed hold of Wyatt by his throat, lifting him from the ground before slamming him down onto the sidewalk with enough force to crack the concrete. “You’re going to get us both killed,” I rasped before his fist connected with my jaw.

  “Good,” he bit out. “As long as Nova is safe.”

  “She won’t be if we aren’t here to protect her,” I yelled back at him as the clouds broke free, and rain began to pelt us. I released him, panic radiating through my body. But it wasn’t my own. It was Nova. I still felt it; I felt her. She was terrified.

  “It’s Nova,” I barked over the rumble of thunder. “Somethings happened to her.”

  “How do you know?” he asked, shoving to his feet.

  “Looking for me?” Fellows' voice called out from behind us. We both spun around to see him standing next to Gregor. “Who’s your friend?” he asked as he eyed Wyatt.

  “He’s from Riverville Acadamy. He’s visiting.”

  “Riverville?” His eyes narrowed. “Why did you bring him here?”

  “He was touring the campus and was thinking about a transfer. I wanted to get your permission to let him stay for a few days and sit in on a couple of classes.”

  Fellows eyed me for a moment longer before smiling broadly. “Where are my manners. Why don’t you bring our new friend in for a drink?”

  Wyatt’s eyes snapped to mine, reflecting the same panic I was feeling in my chest. But we didn’t have a choice. I nodded once, forcing a smile, as I struggled not to bare my fangs.

  We followed after Fellows, with Gregor behind us, as we stepped into the old home that looked like it had been picked up from another century and dropped into the middle of the campus.

  “Please, have a seat,” Fellow’s called out as he continued on into another room. Gregor gestured to the sofa, and we both sank down on the edge, our eyes dancing around the space. The sound of the storm outside was deafening. The wind howled, and branches from a nearby tree bounded rhythmically against the window.

  My skin grew hot. She was close. So close.

  Fellows stepped back into the room, several bags of blood in his hand. He tossed them onto the table in front of us. “I wasn’t sure which type you preferred, Mr. Carter. Perhaps, you’d like something a little more exotic.” He turned to the sound of a door opening behind him. “Oh, good. Just in time.”

  Remy stepped into view – his eyeliner snaking down his face like twin black rivers – with Nova at his side, drenched from head to toe. Her eyes went wide, and her knees buckled, but Remy gripped her arm tighter, pulling her into his side. She flinched, struggling against him.

  “S
ay what you want about the modern era, but being able to have your dinner delivered really is just too convenient,” Gregor said with a snicker. “Please, have a seat.” He waved toward the couch. Remy let go of Nova with a shove, causing her to stumble toward us. She sank down on the cushion between myself and Wyatt.

  “Why is she here?” I asked, biting back my anger.

  “Funny you should ask, Mr. Carter. Do you want to tell me why you’re really here? And who our new friend is?” He made a tsking sound as he shook his head. “You know it’s against the rules to sire a vampire without permission.” He smirked, pacing the room for added dramatic flair. “Are you feeling alright? You look a little flushed.”

  “How long have you known?” I asked, struggling to control my anger.

  Fellows shrugged. “You should really be careful about who you trust with your secrets. Maxwell,” he called out.

  Fellows’ progeny Maxwell stepped into the room, dragging Sylvi by her arm. Her platinum hair was coated in blood, matting it down against her face. She could barely walk on her own, and her eyes fluttered as if she was barely clinging to consciousness. He let go of her, and she fell to the hardwood floor below, dripping blood onto the expensive rug. I started to push to my feet when Wyatt reached across Nova and put his palm against my chest to keep me from making a dangerous mistake. I stilled as my fangs ran out.

  “Where are the rest?” I bit out.

  “I like the way you think, Mr. Carter. We need an audience for this show.” Fellows clapped his hands together twice. Taylor led Kamala out, dragging her by the hair as she fought against his hold on her. Next was Ronan, a man who looked like he’d been ripped from a weightlifting competition. He drug Lachlan to the room, wrapped in chains. All three had their mouths bound in leather straps to keep them from being able to bite.

  “That one is a disappointment,” he said with a dramatic sigh. “When you think you can trust someone...” he let his voice trail off. “Anyway, let’s stop wasting time.” Lachlan and Kamala were shoved to the ground to kneel next to Sylvi. “I underestimated you, Mr. Carter. I thought I’d be able to tempt you and have you and your little friends here take care of my problems,” he said with a sneer as he eyed Nova. “But if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”