“The vampire who bit me,” I began haltingly. “His name is Rade. I found him by accident, when Criseyde and I went to Shiver.”
His expression didn’t change, but his voice was icy. “And when did he offer to help you find Ivory?”
“I went to his apartment,” I admitted, cringing. “But he didn’t offer help. I asked for it. I didn’t want to do it,” I continued in a rush when Les fixed me with a dubious stare. “I thought it was the only way to help Ivory. Your sources didn’t give you any information, so . . .”
“Did you get information then?”
“Well . . . no. Not really. Other than that he’s alive.” At his silence I shifted awkwardly. “We’re supposed to get more information later,” I added. “Soon. Tomorrow night.”
Les shook his head. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but you’re not going back out with a vampire.”
“I know it’s not a good idea.”
“Not even close.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between us. I waited nervously as he stared at me, pale green eyes intense and shadowed. His gaze sent a pleasant shiver through me but I braced myself for a lecture like Ivory might have given me.
“We’ll talk later.” It was all he said before leaving the room.
For a moment I just stood there at a loss. On one hand I felt flattered at his protective attitude. It meant he cared for me, at least in some capacity. On the other hand that same attitude made me bristle. For too long someone had been hovering at my shoulder, telling me what I should and shouldn’t do in order to stay safe. I wanted to make my own decisions and mistakes for a change. I wanted to decide for myself whether or not something was too dangerous to do.
He’s just looking out for me, I reminded myself. The way Ivory did.
I was too exhausted to think about it anymore. Defeated and agitated, I slunk down the hall to my room, wishing that conversation had never happened.
~
My eyes felt heavy the next morning, my limbs slow and clumsy as I made the coffee. Les had slept on my floor again last night, but instead of comforting me his presence had kept me awake. I could hear him now in the shower and I let myself imagine him for a moment, water sliding down his pale skin, steam rising around him. The mental picture gave me a pleasant little buzz.
The coffee had just finished when Criseyde let herself in the front door. Her white-streaked hair was tied back in a neat ponytail, bangs perfectly swooped to one side.
“How did it go?” she asked. “I see you’re not dead.”
“Thanks for noticing.” I smiled grimly and reached for my mug. “It was weird. And scary.”
“Well, yeah. What did you find out? Can I have some coffee?”
I grabbed another mug and handed it to her. “I didn’t find out anything. The whole night was just wasted. And it was so dangerous, so—so stupid. I can’t believe I even did it.” I sighed and glanced down the hall, but Les was still in the bathroom. “It made me feel so awful.”
“So what happened? Where did you go?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I said meaningfully, jerking my head toward the hall. “I was supposed to go out again tonight, but Les sort of found out about it and said I’m not.”
“So protective.” Cris looked up from pouring milk and waggled her eyebrows. “And you’re going to let him tell you what to do?”
I shrugged. Rade was coming to get me no matter what I decided, but after my encounter with Les, I felt unsure about whether I would go with him.
Les emerged from the shower and joined us in the kitchen. His light brown hair was dark with water and his white t-shirt molded to his still damp skin. His jeans were faded and holey, worn soft enough to cling to him. My stomach fluttered at the sight of him as he helped himself to a cup of black coffee. Criseyde turned to me and mouthed a silent wow behind his back. He finished pouring his coffee and glanced at her, but she was the sudden picture of innocence.
“Let’s talk,” he said, leading the way into the living room.
Cris and I sat together on the couch and he opted to stand. He began to pace a little.
“What’s this about?” Cris asked brightly, bouncing a little on the cushion beneath her like an overeager child. I had serious doubts about her need for caffeine.
“There’s a party tomorrow,” Les said, ignoring her. “The guy having it—Ethan—is a pretty notorious vampire hater. He doesn’t go out hunting vampires, but he spends a lot of time figuring out ways to kill them.”
“So you want to mingle?” I asked.
“It’s the only other place I can think of where we might get a lead on Ivory.”
“But it’s tomorrow,” I said. “If I don’t go out with Rade tonight, that’s one night lost. That’s one night further from getting Ivory.”
“I’d like to find him as soon as we can too, but I don’t want you seeing that vampire again. Neither would Ivory.”
“I didn’t want to,” I protested, slightly distressed. “It’s just—”
“I know, Asha,” Les said gently.
“You don’t know how horrible I felt about doing it, though. I spent a lot of time agonizing over what you or Ivory would think of me if you knew.” My face reddened at the memory of our conversation last night. Sneaking inside and having him catch me had made me feel so low.
“Do you know why I asked you to help us catch Lucinda?”
I shrugged. “Because you didn’t want to ask a stranger to put her life on the line?”
“No. Ivory and I could have gone after her on our own. I wouldn’t have asked anyone but you. It wasn’t me asking you to sacrifice yourself—it was me asking you to help because I knew you could. I knew you were capable and that you would want to stop other girls from getting killed. But this isn’t like that. This thing with your vampire isn’t helping anyone, and it’s only going to hurt you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, but I felt, surprisingly, a tentative sense of relief. Les thought he understood—he was trying, anyway. He turned away and took a drink of coffee. I held my own warm mug between my hands, wanting a drink but unable to make myself move. He thought he understood, but he didn’t. Even I didn’t.
The silence stretched on until Cris said, “So. This party.”
“You’re not invited,” Les said.
“I’m always invited to parties,” she corrected.
“Don’t you have work?” I asked.
“Nope! I’m off for three days. I cashed in a few favors. Good thing, too. I’d hate to miss a party.”
Les rolled his eyes. “You’d better not cause any trouble.”
“Who, me?” Cris grinned. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“It’s not about fun.”
“It never is, with you,” she muttered. She smirked at me, then quickly recovered. “Asha, we should go shopping for outfits.”
I caught Les’s eye for a moment, but he turned away without expression. “Okay. Let’s go right now.”
We spent the afternoon at the mall. Criseyde piled outfits into my arms in each store and we tried on every single one, which wasn’t exactly my idea of an afternoon well spent. But I was glad to get out of the house and do something that didn’t involve vampires. Afterwards we lingered in the food court over bowls of white rice and orange chicken, our purchases in sacks beside us. She’d bought a hot pink dress with ruffles. Mine was ice blue with a green ribbon at the waist.
“I love a good deal,” she said with satisfaction.
After the mall, we wound her car idly through town. I told her a little about my night, leaving out the worst details. She reacted with righteous offense, then changed the subject to gossip about her coworkers. The sun sank in the sky, staining it orange.
“We’d better get back,” I said. “I don’t want Les to start lecturing me like Ivory did. Does.”
“Oh, come on. You’d take a lecture from him any day. Especially if it ended with him teaching you a lesson.” She laughed lascivio
usly.
I smirked. “Well. Maybe. Pervert.”
“Oh, you noticed?”
Fortunately, Les was not waiting with a lecture ready. His bedroom door was closed and I could hear the faint thump of music. Cris raised her hand as if to knock but I swatted her arm down, eyes wide in mock warning.
“He better not have a girl in there,” she said when we reached my room.
“What are you going to do, beat her up for me?”
“If necessary. Hey, have you ever thought of bringing a guy here just to make Les jealous? I bet he would be.”
“Um . . . no.”
“Just an idea.”
Dropping my bag on the floor by the closet, I flopped on the bed and pulled a pillow over my head. “He went to talk to Sarai the other night. I hope they’re not getting back together.”
“I can see his appeal,” Cris said. “He’s a sexy, unattainable bad boy. What girl hasn’t fallen for that at least once? And you know I’m endlessly patient when it comes to this secret love of yours, but really, Ash, you should just go for it.”
“You’re not supposed to be talking about him here, you know. What if he hears you?”
“When have I ever done what I’m supposed to do?”
I made an incoherent sound into the mattress. Cris smacked my foot and grabbed the bag I had tossed carelessly to the floor. She slid the closet open and scraped some hangers aside to make space.
“You know, this dress may have been on sale, but you can’t just leave it lying on the floor. It deserves a special place in your closet because it’s pretty.”
“I didn’t even need a new dress. I like jeans better. Why do I always let you talk me into these things?”
“How would you ever have any fun if I didn’t? I’ll hang mine up too. Then I can come over tomorrow and we’ll get ready together. Do you want me to bring some makeup? I have this lipstick that would look perfect on you . . .”
She trailed off and in the moment of silence that ensued, I peeked out from beneath the pillow, intrigued.
“I have a confession to make,” she said with a sigh. She finished hanging up the dresses and turned to me. “I used to have sort of a thing for Ivory.”
“Really?” I asked skeptically.
“Yeah. He’s no bad boy—he’s really good, actually. I think it has to do with the fact that he doesn’t like me. For some reason that’s incredibly appealing.”
“Odd. Why are you telling me now?”
She shrugged. “Because we were talking about Les. Because Ivory’s gone. I always meant to tell you, but I didn’t want you thinking I was just hanging out with you for your brother. I wasn’t, of course. But I care about you both. You’re . . . my family.”
The doorbell rang then, a distant and distinct sound. I threw the pillow aside and sat up. A quick glance at the partially cracked blinds on my window revealed the black of evening. In the past few hours I’d forgotten all about Rade. Had he taken it upon himself to come to my door? I felt suddenly panicked. I had to get there before Les.
Yanking open my bedroom door, I saw Les rounding the corner to the living room. “Wait,” I said, hurrying after him. But he had already reached the door by the time I got to the end of the hallway. I came up beside him as he was opening it, mentally preparing for a hellish confrontation.
It wasn’t Rade outside the door, though. It was Aleskie.
“I made it here as soon as I could,” she said, her blue eyes wide with urgency. “You have to leave now.”
Les looked at me, but I had no idea what she was talking about either.
“They’re coming. They’re going to kill you. Get out!”
She reached for me but Les struck out an arm to keep me behind him. Criseyde had followed me out of my room and now clung to my right arm. I could feel the worry in her touch, but my eyes were riveted on Les. He was talking to Aleskie, their voices low. I couldn’t make out everything they were saying, but they seemed to be reaching some sort of understanding.
“We’re going, Asha,” Les said, turning to me. “I’ll take my bike. Everyone can follow in your car, Criseyde.”
“Where are we going?” I asked as Cris obediently headed back to my room for her purse and keys. “What’s happening?”
“I’ll tell you—”
The deafening sound of glass shattering interrupted him and we all jumped, suddenly on high alert. Looking in the direction of the sound, I realized the back door was open to the night, blinds clattering softly. Glass littered the carpet.
Another, softer shattering followed, along with a scream from Criseyde. Without thinking, I dashed down the hall to see if she was all right and found her locking my door from the inside before pulling it shut.
“Your window broke,” she informed me, wild-eyed, “and I think someone’s trying to get in.”
A series of footsteps thumped overhead. We both looked up, as if the ceiling could give us a clue as to what was on the roof. I had left my telescope up there, as I always did, and worried irrationally for the safety of it.
“Get the other doors,” Cris said quickly.
We shut Les and Ivory’s doors as well as the bathroom door. Maybe the flimsy locks wouldn’t hold off our attackers for long, but they would at least buy us some time.
“Les?” I called shakily.
“Stay there,” he shouted back, darting past the hallway opening as he headed for the back door. Aleskie was close behind him.
There were shouts, grunts. A sharp wooden crack split the air. Zinging with fear, I grabbed Criseyde’s arm. “Vampires,” I whispered.
How many was tough to guess, but they seemed to be all around us. The thumps above our heads continued, now interspersed with loud, distressing knocks on the outer stucco walls. Cris and I huddled together in the bend of the hallway right outside my bedroom door. With all the inside doors shut, it was the only place in the house away from any outer doors or windows.
“I don’t want to leave him alone,” I said.
“He’s got . . . whoever that was,” Cris reminded me, though she sounded doubtful.
“That’s Aleskie.”
I tried to figure out how I could help Les and if I should even try. How many vampires could he take on his own? How much help would Aleskie be? I knew they were still alive, or at least one of them was, because the sounds of fighting continued. There were gunshots and thuds and snaps and sounds I had no words for.
“What do they want?” Criseyde whimpered.
“I’m going to help him,” I said. “Come with me. Neither of us should be alone.”
As we crept toward the living room, clutching each other for dear life, the night became eerily silent.
“We are dead,” Cris said. “We are so dead.”
Suddenly a tall, thin figure dressed in black appeared in the gaping, jagged hole where the sliding glass door had once been. Criseyde screamed and my skin crawled with fright. I recognized Rade, who moved with such unhurried menace, whose expression was so devoid of emotion, it was impossible to tell whether he meant us harm.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a low voice. “Did you do all this?” Though the living room looked largely unharmed, broken glass sparkled all over the carpet. The dining room table had somehow split down the middle, each half angled like sinking ships. The front door stood wide open. There was no sign of either Les or Aleskie.
“I was waiting for you, like we’d planned,” Rade said evenly. “I came to help when I noticed the commotion.”
“What the hell was this?” Cris demanded.
He didn’t even look at her. “You’ve made someone very angry, Asha. I wonder if someone recognized you at the hotel last night.”
“Oh, my god,” Cris said. “You went to a hotel with him?”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protested.
I noticed Rade’s eyes widen infinitesimally just before a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders from behind. I fell flat on my back, cutting myself on the glass wedged in
to the carpet fibers. My lungs struggled for the air that had been knocked out of them, but when I inhaled the glass dug sharply into my skin. An upside down face appeared above me. I didn’t recognize the man, but I knew he was a vampire.
Rade set me up, I thought dimly. All along he’s planned my death.
But then he was there by the vampire man’s side, moving more quickly than I had thought possible of him. The two fought like animals. I rolled onto one side and saw Cris hunched against the wall near the kitchen. With some effort I managed to get up and make my way over to her. We both looked over just in time to see the unknown vampire flee out the broken back door. Rade stood up, brushing lightly at his clothes, and glanced at us as if nothing unusual was happening.
He had just saved my life. Again.
Before I could say anything, Les and Aleskie entered through the front door. Both looked exactly as if they’d been fighting for their lives: visible skin striped with bloody scratches, clothes torn and smudged with dirt, hair wild.
Les, breathing heavily, focused immediately on Rade. His body taut, eyes dangerously stormy, he advanced quickly on my vampire.
“That’s Rade,” I said weakly. “He’s the vampire who bit me.”
“I saw them together last night,” Aleskie said. “He helped drive off the vampires just now, for what it’s worth.”
Rade remained motionless. “I mean her no harm.”
Fury darkened Les’s face and he launched himself at Rade. With a brittle crunch of glass, there was a sudden confusion of limbs as Les wrestled Rade down and swung his arm repeatedly at the vampire’s face. Rade did nothing to defend himself. I watched, rapt, and flinched at each punch. I wasn’t scared for Rade, just shocked at seeing Les so incensed. I knew he’d gotten into fights at school from time to time, but the Les I saw every day was reserved and rational, the complete opposite of what I was witnessing now.
At last he realized Rade wasn’t fighting back and sat up, letting him go. Rade’s slim dark figure dashed past Aleskie out the front door and disappeared into the night.
In the sudden quiet Les breathed heavily, his shoulders heaving. “Sorry,” he said after a moment. Without turning to look at any of us, he stood up and swiped his bloody hands over the thighs of his soiled jeans. “We should go now.”
A Dark-Adapted Eye Page 13