*
Nick took several deep breaths and splashed his face with water. Control, he must learn control. No one would believe him, so he couldn’t turn himself in. And maybe Nicole’s disbelief wasn’t so wrong. How was he even sure he had done anything?
Duck. Move your head right now.
Nick dodged a punch that shattered the mirror he had been facing.
“I’m not in the mood,” Nick snarled. He turned and faced Miller, hand and forearm clad in a cast. Jason was behind him, looking terrified.
“Good, then just take it,” Miller snapped back. He swung with both fists, but hit nothing. Nick moved with his knees, bobbing and weaving away everything that came his way with ease.
“Last chance,” Nick barked. “Leave me alone. Or else.”
“You just don’t get it, do you? You broke my fucking hand. If she’s not mine, I’ll make sure she’s not yours.”
Nick grabbed Miller’s plaster-encapsulated fist out of the air. “Was that a threat? To hurt Nicole?”
“It’s a fucking promise.”
Nick sighed. “Stupid choice,” he breathed, and crushed the cast and the bones inside. Miller screamed for several long seconds and then slumped to his knees.
“You gonna have a go, too?” Nick asked Jason, who shook his head furiously.
Miller feebly swung his other fist toward Nick’s groin, but Nick caught that easily. “Can you think of the one thing there you shouldn’t have said, tough guy? Threatening to hurt a girl? Such a big and brave boy you are. Just for that—” He bent Miller’s other wrist backward until again the sounds of cracking bones echoed off the tiled walls. “Listen up, arsehole… You will not TOUCH HER!”
Nick roared the last two words in a voice that boomed around the bathroom. He let fly with a kick directly to Miller’s chest. Miller flew backwards into Jason and the toilet stalls. Both boys cannoned into the cubicles. Dust, wood, tiles, and cement exploded in front of Nick and rained on the two of them, half-burying them beneath a pile of rubble.
A moment of exhilaration passed quickly, before Nick thought about what he had done. The strength…the rage. He really had attacked Mr. Shubert last night. He still didn’t remember it, but he was starting to believe the voice within him was right. The shirt this morning. The claw marks. If he were a werewolf like his father, that would make all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. He heard a groan from beneath the settling dust and remembered there were still two police officers in close proximity. Without thinking, Nick turned and ran.
Chapter 29
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Good lord, boy. Where do you think you’re going?
“I don’t know. Away from the people I care about,” Nick said, stopping to take a breath. He looked around him and found he was in a golf course that was about a kilometre away from the school. There was no one around, no one to overhear him talking to himself, so he looked for a spot to settle in and gather his thoughts.
Why do you always run from what you are?
“I am NOT that. I will not be evil. I will not be hated and feared.”
And running is going to prove that?
“You could’ve killed Mr. Shubert.”
The wolf’s voice snorted from somewhere deep within his brain. I didn’t have any intention of killing him.
“I’m probably wanted for Miller’s murder now anyway.”
He’s not dead, but don’t worry. Your confrontation with him will come soon enough.
“I am not a killer!”
Not yet.
“No!” Nick bellowed. “I will not have that on my conscience.”
We have no conscience. We defend what we cherish: our loved ones, and our lifestyle. We trample the corpses of anyone who tries to take what we cherish from us. This is the instinct you were born with. No amount of running will change the fact that this is who you are. Just accept it.
“Make me,” Nick challenged.
The wolf chuckled to itself. Very well, Nicholas. If you insist on learning the hard way…
*
Alex knocked on the door of the apartment. She could’ve called first, probably should’ve really. But she hoped the surprise would fight off any frostiness accrued in the time of no contact.
The door opened and a bright smile appeared on the face of Michelle Davidson. “Hello, stranger.”
Alex embraced her and held on. “I’m so sorry it’s been so long.”
“Don’t be sorry. I haven’t called you either. It’s my fault too. Come inside.”
And so Michelle told Alex of what she had been up to for the last few months. She had travelled Europe with money saved from her years with Dante, visiting Britain and Ireland, taking a break from everything. While she was in Ireland, two vampires had attacked her. Yet once they tasted her Silver Tranite-poisoned blood, they immediately began bleeding from every orifice in their body. Michelle found this wickedly funny, but Alex found the mental image pretty disgusting.
Now, Michelle had been back in Sydney for about five weeks and was looking for steady work. With her degrees, she felt something in accounting, personal assistance, or management for a conglomerate would be worthwhile. “After all, I ran a vampire’s life for three years, so I think I can handle anything regular corporate types throw at me.” She grinned and shrugged lightly. “But it’s not urgent. I still have plenty of cash leftover, so I can afford to wait for something good. Anyway, enough about me. How are you and the big boy going?”
Alex took a deep breath and proceeded to pour out everything that had occurred while Michelle had been gone. Matt going missing and werewolves suspected in his disappearance, Nick’s arrival and subsequent problems with other boys from school, and on and on. When she got to the point where she had given an ultimatum to Dante and he had turned her down, Michelle winced but let her continue. She finished with Dante going after Nick’s attackers.
“Well, that beats my story, that’s for sure. I don’t even know where to start.”
“I need your help, Mish. You were always so wonderful at knowing just what to do.”
“I dunno about that,” There was a hint of sadness in her voice.
“Do you have any advice for me on what should I do about Nick?”
“I don’t think there is anything you can do for him, hun. Seriously, he is a growing boy and you need to let him stand on his own feet. He’ll figure it out. In any case, from what you have told me, it seems that the attacks have stopped for now, right?”
“Yeah, but it’s not just that. It’s the ease at which Mum called Dante to beat those kids up. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think they needed to be taught a lesson, but I just couldn’t send a vampire to do it. It just seems like a serious mismatch, you know?”
“Yeah, I get what you’re saying, but I do disagree. For one thing, Dante knows what he is doing. He would’ve scared the shit out of those little creeps. Maybe it worked and they don’t want to hurt Nick again, or maybe Nick has been able to fight back. It doesn’t matter really. Secondly, what your mum did doesn’t surprise me at all. If you’re not willing to go to extremes to protect the ones you love, to make a stand for what you believe in, life’s not worth living.”
Alex couldn’t help but think there was more to Margaret’s strange behaviour than just protecting Nick, but she had no way to describe her impression, and no proof of anything sinister from her mother…yet. It was better to save that subject for another day. “So…what about Matt? Why would werewolves kidnap him from the hospital?”
“That, I admit, shocks me. I mean, even just the idea of werewolves. Man, you grow used to hearing about vampires and you forget the other beings out there. I haven’t seen or heard anything on the news about any violent killings taking place during the full moon, though. I have no idea why they would be here in Sydney, but I think I have an idea why they took Matt.”
“You serious? Tell me.”
“Lauren. On the same night she tried to kill Dante, she cri
ppled Matt. Actions like these leave ripples, people talk to other people. Eventually, someone you don’t expect is going to take notice. Just because King Fuckwit has a law about silencing anyone who learns about vampires’ existence, doesn’t mean they catch everyone. I think you’ll have the answers to your questions very soon.”
Alex nodded, realising Michelle was probably right about that. She hoped Matt would be okay. Despite everything, she didn’t wish him ill. “And Dante?”
Michelle straightened, clearly prepared for this. “Oh, honey, welcome to my world.”
“What do you mean? I thought you told me you had an easy understanding with him.”
“Mm-mmm.” She shook her head. “What I said was, our bond goes deeper than love, and it does. Well, it did. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t torture, even a little, every day. Knowing no matter what was said, or done, I couldn’t be with him. Of course you wanted to, of course you fell for him—how couldn’t you, really? That face, that voice, that body…” Michelle grinned, took a breath and raised her eyebrows meaningfully. “Anyway, he gave up on love the day Melina shattered his heart, and he’s never let anyone else in. It’s as simple as that. Ever since then, he has kept close to humans, particularly females, because he doesn’t want to hate all women based on the actions of one. I learnt little by little how to love him and be loved by him without jealousy or expectation. It didn’t come easy. But then again, I had no point of reference like you have with me, so I had nothing to gauge our relationship on. You did and I’m sorry about that, but believe me, he would’ve said the same thing to me had I given him the same ultimatum.”
“Really? Because that’s kinda what I got most upset with: the idea that he only said no to me because he didn’t think I was as good as you.”
“Oh, honey, no. God no. You and I are fine. We are both young and hot. He cares for both of us equally. And the reason I know that is because no matter how much sex we gave him, no matter how great our blood tasted, we will just never be her.”
“But that’s just it. There was no sex…” Alex started.
“Alex, it really shouldn’t matter…”
“I know it shouldn’t. I don’t know what’s with me. But it was driving me insane, having all these pent up feelings, these…desires. Then to have them just be nothing! I mean, in all the time you spent with him, are you sure the sex was real?”
“I’m sure.”
“How can you be, though? Couldn’t it have been in your mind, just like it was with me?”
“Well…there was one time where it wasn’t just us. So there’s that.”
“Wait…what? You guys had a threesome? With who?”
Michelle shifted in her seat. “Another vampire, Kiara. She’d known Dante for a while before I came along. They had an intense casual thing once. Anyway, she came to Sydney in my first year with Dante.”
“So, you guys just…got it on after a few drinks? Look, I know you’re not trying to, but this makes me angry. I mean, it seems that it’s just me that he doesn’t want to be with. I feel like that Samantha bitch.”
“Alex, do you honestly think Dante would initiate it? It was her idea but I was the one who said yes and asked him. He did it for me.”
Alex didn’t know why, but she couldn’t help but smirk. “I didn’t know you were that way inclined, Mish.”
Michelle pursed her lips. She did not return Alex’s light-hearted gaze. “I’m not. Remember when I said I’d do anything for him? Well, just think about this. Dante refused to climax whenever he was with me. Vampire ejaculate consists only of blood. So the idea of coming inside me sickened him, and I’m sure that sounds gross to you too, but I didn’t care. I begged him to. On me, in me, I didn’t care. I felt so guilty that I was getting off left right and centre and he wasn’t. So I know how you feel. But he insisted he would never put me in danger by getting me in contact with his blood. He wasn’t going to take the risk. He said though, that watching me orgasm was enough for him. Pleasuring me, pleasured him.
“Anyway, Kiara came up to me on her last night visiting Sydney and wished me well with him.”
“What was she like?” Alex asked.
“She was respectful, polite, but she snuck in a little comment about how she wished she could taste me. Apparently she had secretly enjoyed watching us the previous night.”
“Watching you—oh…” Alex got the message.
Thinking about it herself, Alex would never admit she could see the appeal. Alex herself had found she could not help but stare as Dante fed off Michelle’s wrist in the mansion a few months ago. Even something so simple was erotic to Alex. Watching Dante with a girl, with Michelle, that knew how to handle him would’ve been interesting. Suddenly Alex shook her head. What was wrong with her?
“Anyway, I got the idea that if she could join us for one night, she might be able to allow Dante to enjoy himself more fully, and finally climax. She agreed in a flash, but without seeming creepy, and well, the rest is history.”
“Well, what was it like?” Alex asked.
“It was…” Michelle seemed to give up trying to find the correct phrase. “I mean, I don’t tend to think about girls that way, but she was a great kisser. And she fed a bit like Dante.”
“She bit you?”
“Oh, yeah. They both did. For a while, at the same time. In any case, even if she was terrible, it would’ve been worth it to see Dante come. It remains the only one I’ve ever been a part of with him. I told you, as good as it was, I did it for him, and would do it again in a heartbeat. The way he kissed me directly after, I’ll never forget.”
Alex realized she was getting rather warm and put up a finger, signalling Michelle to wait. With a wink, she went to the kitchen where she knew Michelle kept a bottle of vodka in the freezer. She grabbed some glasses and poured them both a measure. Alex skolled hers and felt the cool burn slide down her throat before refilling her glass and heading back out to the lounge room.
“Alex, I’m only telling you this so you can try and understand a bit where he is coming from. Maybe he’s wrong, maybe he’s right. But the thing is, he believes he has your best interests at heart. My guess is that he thinks that if he just jumped into bed with you, immediately after having been with me, you might view it as him using you. Or, he thinks that you would fall for him and he knows he can’t give anything back to you, long term, so he figures it’s better to just keep his distance from the get-go.”
“And you were ok with that, when you were with him?” Alex asked.
Michelle sighed. “I know you’re not gonna like this answer, but honestly, yes. He meant the world to me, and I will never regret any time that I had with him. But I will never try to be someone else or regret that I’m not. But don’t get me wrong. I know he didn’t love me that way. He will never love anyone the way he loved Melina.”
“I know. I just don’t know if I can be as cool as you are with everything. You’re always calm and in control.”
“You’d be surprised,” she replied softly. “Look, Alex, Dante is great but he is not the be all and end all. If you think you can continue to let him feed, great. If you need more fulfilment in your life, he will understand. The best advice I can give is to talk to him and figure it out together.”
“I haven’t fed him in ages.”
“Well, for the both of your sakes, I hope you get your shit sorted. He needs blood and you need your peace of mind back. So get to it, missy! Go work it out with our man. Or I’ll kick both your arses.”
Alex laughed and hugged Michelle goodbye. She had to get back to prepare dinner, but promised to call in the next few days.
*
Michelle closed the door behind Alex and went straight to her bedroom.
From her wardrobe, she pulled out an old jewellery box, carrying it over to her bed and placing it on the bedside table. She lifted the lid and felt the glow of bright blue light from within.
She was almost out. There was only one vial left, enough for two more
doses. She would have to get to Coffinail to procure some more. Three thousand dollars’ worth would be enough for a month.
But she would worry about that later, she thought, as she began to prepare a syringe.
*
Melina awoke for the first time in weeks, at the normal time of sunset. The visions had not come again since her last day at the mansion. Strangely, she didn’t know how she felt about that. Should she be happy that her rest was peaceful again? Or angry that the mystery remained hidden behind that steel door?
“My lady, you’re up. How do you feel?” Nadia said, holding her gown.
Melina saw her holding it and looked down at her herself. She wore a light blue, silk pyjama top and nothing else.
“Call me Melina. We are not in the mansion any longer, and such a title may expose us.” She looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. “Where are we? Is this a hotel?”
“No, my—Melina. We are in Dante Delavega’s apartment.”
Melina cleared her throat. “We are…where?”
Nadia repeated herself, slowly.
Melina pinched the shoulders of her top. “Am I to understand, this is his?”
“Yes,” Nadia replied quickly, holding up the garment in her hands. “It was all I could find while I laundered your gown.”
Melina clenched her teeth and shook her head in disbelief. “And how did you know where he lived? Never mind, it doesn’t matter. You told him the situation? He welcomed you? Us? Just like that?”
“He has truly been a gracious host. He carried you into this bedroom. He does not allow me to do any manner of work for him.”
“Perhaps because he knew that as my handmaiden, he had no right to order you to do anything,” Melina said gruffly.
“Oh, no. It’s not like that. He treats me as a guest. I have never met a vampire like him.”
Day Dreamer (Undeadly Secrets Book 2) Page 23