by A. M. Hudson
“Oh, and, hey, I never got to thank you for hooking me up with Spence.” She smiled, tilting her head into her shoulder.
“Yeah, no worries. Did he ask you out on a real date yet?”
“Yep. And guess what?”
Oh boy, she’s just brimming with excitement. I have to humour her by asking What?, even though she’s going to tell me anyway. “What?” I said, then grinned in exaggeration of her expression.
“He asked me to the Masquerade Ball.”
And there’s the squeak. One of the things I love about Emily is the way she can display excitement so easily. She’s just so…normal. “Awesome. Got a dress yet?” My enthusiasm needs some practice, though.
“I’m going shopping with my mum, tonight.”
“Cool. Yeah, I’m not looking forward to being dragged from shop to shop with Vicki, and forced to try on everything with fluff.” I laughed, but Emily frowned at me.
“Who’s Vicki?”
Oops. “Um, she’s my step-mum.” I tensed, hoping she wouldn’t ask about my real mum.
“Oh, okay. I didn’t know your dad was remarried. So, you don’t like her? I mean, ‘cause you call her Vicki?”
“Yeah, um—old habit, I guess.” I shrugged and turned to Spencer, trying to redirect the spotlight. “So, Spence, you gonna save me a dance at the ball?”
Spencer’s cheeks turned bright pink. “Ah, yeah. If that’s okay with Emily.”
“Of course it is. As long as Ara doesn’t mind if I dance with David.”
Hm, I bet you’ll just love that. “Nope. Cool with me.” But also not really.
“You three!” Dad barked from the front of the class.
Everyone turned and looked at us. I shrank to about the size of a quarter, and my cheeks burned. Conversation. Over.
When the bell rang at the end of class, everyone broke formation and dispersed quickly. “Ara, come up and see me before you leave, please,” Dad said, not looking at me.
Yikes. That sounded like an order.
“Sorry, Ara.” Emily’s shoulders lifted a little.
“Em, don’t worry about it—he’s my dad. What’s the worst he can do? Ground me?” Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I stepped up in front of Dad’s desk. “Sorry for talking in class, Mr. Thompson. It won’t happen again.”
“Ara.” He exhaled, leaning back in his chair. “I appreciate that you’ve had a hard time adjusting to a new school, and don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy you’ve made new friends. But, there’s a time for work and a time for play. I don’t want to catch you gossiping in class again or I will move you to Mr. Adams’ class. Do I make myself clear?”
David’s in Mr. Adams’ class. I would love it if he moved me. I forced back the grin. “Sorry, Dad. It won’t happen again.” Or maybe it will—just a bit.
“Okay. Now, how’s that mythology paper coming along?” Dad nodded and smiled at the other students as they started pouring in behind me.
“Uh. Great. I’m doing mine on vampires.” I just decided.
Dad raised one brow. “Is that inspired by last week’s intriguing lecture—on Lilith?”
“Actually, it is.” And the fact that my boyfriend just happens to know that history firsthand. “But, if I determine that I believe the truth behind the myth…are you and Vicki gonna have me admitted into psyche care?” I was only half joking, but Dad laughed aloud.
“Aw, honey. We’d never do that. Even if you decide I’m a vampire and try to stake me through the heart.” His face softened away from his grin as he shook his head. “I love you, okay? I know we’ve been a little watchful of you lately, but it’s because we care about you. Vicki does, too.” He spoke softer then, “She wants to be close to you. You should let her try.”
“I know, Dad,” I answered his statement about the fact that he loves me. As for Vicki? “I’ll try—with Vicki. It’s just hard, you know. She’s—she’s the only mother I have left. I’m just afraid to let her in, that’s all.”
Dad’s face melted, and he stood up. Then, even with his next class filling the room behind us, he still walked all the way around his desk and wrapped his arms around me—really tightly. I patted his back, grimacing at the thought of everyone watching. “Um, Dad. Sorta need to breathe here.”
Dad pulled back and held me at arms-length. “I love ya, honey. Now, get to class, you’re late.” He grinned, making the lines around his eyes crinkle tightly. I waved and threaded my arm through my backpack, making haste for the exit sign—with thirty pairs of eyes burning into my spine.
I stepped out of the toilet cubicle just as two familiar voices giggled their way into the quiet privacy of the bathroom.
“Oh, hey, new girl.” The dark-haired gossip queen I encountered in here on my first day bumped her hip with mine.
“Hello Gypsy,” I replied as I turned on the taps. “Did you guys come in here to talk about somebody else today, or am I on the hotlist?”
Summer, the blonde, waited until I faced the mirror before she rolled her eyes at me. How dumb can you be? Get a brain.
“Actually, you are on the hotlist.” Gypsy leaned on the counter beside me, folding her arms. “Rumour has it you and David Knight are going out.”
“Rumour would be correct—this time.” I folded my arms, too, and leaned beside her.
Summer dipped her hip on one side, resting her hands on her waist. “You know there’s only one reason that boy dates girls—and it’s not love.”
I shrugged. “He loves me.”
“Yeah, right.” Summer’s eyes flicked to Gypsy. “He says that to every girl.”
“I’m sure he does.” I dropped my arms to my sides and stood up. “But, I bet he’s never said it you.”
Her head bopped from side-to-side in the hollow of her shoulders. “What if he has?”
“Nah, I doubt that.” I shook my head, gazing down my nose at her as I passed. “You’re a little out of his league—he only likes us ugly girls.”
Her mouth fell open and a high-pitched huff came out. “You bitch.”
“Uh, Summer. I think that was a compliment—” Gypsy said, looking a little confused, “I think she just said you’re pretty.”
“Have a nice lunch,” I called over my shoulder as I stepped out of the stinky toilet block—leaving them and their gossip where it belongs.
“Ara?”
The white glare of the open corridor framed the silhouette of a boy. “David? I thought we were meeting in the auditorium for lunch.”
He unhitched himself from the railing. “We are, but I…”
“You?”
“You were late, so I went looking for you—then I saw Summer and Gypsy, and…”
“Aw.” I slid my hands inside his denim jacket and snuggled against his chest. “You were worried about me.”
“I’m sorry.” He kissed the crown of my head. “I know I shouldn’t be. I know you can take care of yourself, but I…I just didn’t want them to make you cry again.”
“Aw, you love me.” Pressing my face even closer to his lovely chest, I smiled like a little kid and drew a deep breath of his vibrant, heart-tingling scent—all sugary and mouth-watering.
“Mr. Knight!” a booming voice shocked my thoughts from inappropriate paths. “Not on school grounds.”
“Certainly, Mr. Rogers. Won’t happen again.” David held me out from his chest. I kept my face down until Mr. Rogers passed. How embarrassing.
“Didn’t you see him coming?”
David smiled down at me. “Yes, but what was I supposed to do? Getting sprung showing affection on school campus is not a good enough reason to step away when you’ve got your arms around me.”
“Maybe not for you, but he might tell my dad.”
“He won’t.” David started walking—without touching me. “He was a boy once, himself. He understands.”
“So does my dad—except when it comes to me.”
“Okay, we won’t touch at school, then. Will that make you happy?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I must be good for something.” He grinned widely, opening the auditorium door for me.
“Well, you’re a good kisser, but that’s the human in you—not the vampire.”
“That’s because the vampire me hasn’t kissed you, yet.”
“Ooh.” I pretended to feel a shiver down my spine. “Well, maybe you should let him out for a while, then.”
David leaned closer as we passed a group of students. “Meet me under the stage, and I’ll show him to you.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
The second toll of the lunch bell rang loudly as David went to speak, so he swallowed his breath and closed his mouth.
“Hey guys.” Ryan waved.
I stashed my schoolbag next to the group of desks and settled into a chair between David and Emily. “Hi. How’s rehearsal going?” I said.
“Eh—” Ryan shrugged. “Haven’t started. We’ve mostly been making paper aeroplanes and seeing who can hit the lighting rig.”
“Sounds productive.” I looked at Emily, who rolled her eyes and leaned on her hand.
“This might be a little cold,” David said, sliding a tray of food in front of me, then flashed a wildly mischievous grin. “I made it to the canteen line first.”
“Well,” I poked the mildly warm nachos with my finger, “you do run really fast.”
“So, Ara, did you get totally busted by your dad for talking in class?” Alana asked.
“Uh, not really. Why do you ask?”
“I was in his next class—saw him talking sternly with you,” she said. “Em said it was ‘cause you were all gossiping in class.”
My brows rose. Wow, that’s the most I’ve ever heard that girl say. Ryan must be bringing her out of her shell. “Um—no, he just wanted to find out how my mythology paper was coming along.” I shrugged and started eating.
“I’m doing mine on fairies,” Alana said in a dreamy tone. “I love fairies.”
“Yeah, I’m doing mine on trolls,” Ryan added. “What about you, Dave?”
David looked up from thumbing his phone, and the words he was holding back washed across his face; he hates being called Dave, but he’ll never say it. I smiled sympathetically at him.
“I’m uh—I’m actually in Mr. Adams’ class. We’re doing a different topic this semester,” he said.
“Yeah, me too,” another kid, sitting down the end of our little rectangle of friends, added.
While the others continued the conversation, my mind wandered as I watched David focus intently on his phone. What is he doing?
He grinned without looking up, then inched his body closer so our shoulders touched and his screen sat between us. “I’m tweeting.”
“Really?” I whispered, reading the text: All is well in the world now she has arrived. “I didn’t know your kind used social media.”
He laughed once and slipped the phone into his pocket. “How narrow-minded of you.”
It amazes me how much more human he is around everyone from school, and how, now I know what he is, I can see right through his poorly-executed human disguise. His movements are so deliberate; blinking carefully, closing his eyelids a little too slowly, and he shifts on a counted beat.
One, two, three—I made it ten and he crossed his ankle over his knee.
One, two, three—yup, ten again and he uncrosses it.
He turned his head and smiled, branching us away from the group conversation again. “Problem?”
I shrugged.
“Would you prefer an odd count?” His smile gleamed.
I nodded, and counted in my head. One, two, three; he ran his hand through his hair.
One, two; he picked up his cup. Much better.
“What about you, Ara?” I looked up like I’d been sprung talking in class. “What’re you doing yours on?”
“My what?”
“Honestly, Ara.” Emily shook her head. “Do you ever pay attention?” I stared blankly at her; she smiled and said, “Your mythology paper. What are you doing yours on?”
“Oh, um…vampires.”
David coughed out beside me and shot up out of his chair, dusting cola off his jeans after his flimsy paper cup exploded in his hand. “Damn it!”
“You all right, man?” Ryan frowned.
“Uh—” He stood up straight, holding the now oddly-shaped cup out from his body, glancing over the wide stares of all the other kids at our table. “Yeah, I swallowed the wrong way.”
Emily’s cheek tightened on one side, and the others, not thinking anything of David’s strange reaction, went back to their food and conversation.
“David?” I whispered, mostly talking with my eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Can we talk?” he asked, his eyes widening for a second.
“Sure.” I stood up. “Where?”
He jerked his head in the direction of the stage.
“We’ll be back.” David looked at Emily.
“Okay, don’t be too long,” she said, “I’m gonna kick everyone’s butts soon and get this rehearsal into swing.”
“Of course.” David nodded, though it looked more like a bow, then took my hand and led me to the base of the stage.
Is this just an elaborate escape plan—to get me in private?
“No,” David said in a short tone.
Humph!
Chapter Twenty-one
The heavy black door in the framework creaked as I pushed it open and the darkness enveloped me, thick with the musty smell of dust, latex and old books. David closed the door behind him, ducking his head a little through the low frame. I waited, leaning against a stack of chairs.
“Ara?” David stopped about a step away from me. “You can’t do—”
“Shh.” I flung my arms around his neck and cut off his words with my lips; he tried to protest, laughing under the kiss—then, with a deep breath, he yielded and slid his long, elegant fingers along the sides of my face.
“Show me the vampire,” I whispered against his lips.
“Ara.” He pulled away from the kiss softly. “Not here.”
“Yes.” I grinned. “Here.”
“What if I scare you?”
“Then we’re in a perfect place for me to try really hard not to scream.”
He sighed, smiling, and smoothed his thumb over my chin, then traced a straight line down my throat until it came to rest in the hollow between my collarbones. “You have no idea what you’re asking of me. I’m not prepared for this at all, I—”
I grabbed his face and forced his lips closed under mine, turning my head slightly so our noses wouldn’t get in the way. When I opened my mouth a little, David took control of the kiss, gripping the back of my neck to force my face against his.
God, I can’t believe he wants me like I want him. I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist as he cradled his hands under my bottom, running one hand up my dress and pressing it to my lower back. “You shouldn’t wear dresses to school, Ara.”
“Take it off me, then.”
David’s breath burst from his lips in a cool gust. He dropped his head, wiping his wrist across his smile. “You really know how to stop a guy’s heart, don’t you?”
I pressed my palm to his chest and frowned. “Looks like I stopped yours permanently.”
“Oui, mon amour. You stopped it with your smile.”
I rolled my eyes, but secretly gushed. David laughed and, keeping a hand under me, cupped his other hand over mine, on his chest. “I haven’t eaten enough for this kind of misbehaviour, my love.”
“When did you last eat?”
“Monday morning—right before I brought you the pastry.”
“That’s two days. You should be fine.”
“I don’t trust myself.”
“I trust you.”
“Ara.” He set me down on the ground and my toes ti
ngled with prickling pins. “You shouldn’t.”
“But I do, anyway.” With my pulse in my throat and hot blood controlling my limbs, I slid my fingers into the neckline of his jacket and pushed it away from his shoulders. He jiggled out of it and smiled as I cast it across the room.
“You don’t know how to take no for answer, do you?”
“That wasn’t a no,” I teased. “Now—” using his wrists to drive his hands, I pushed them down and jumped as he lifted me up again, “—show me what’s so scary about this vampire side.”
“Ara, we—” he tried to speak, but I leaned down and gripped his lips tightly with mine, then pulled a little—using my teeth.
He drew back abruptly and stared at me, wide eyed, but with a tentative grin. “So, you don’t wanna be a vampire, but you like using your teeth?”
“I’d like you to use your teeth.”
David took a short breath and cast a long glance to the darkest corner of the closet; I linked my fingers together behind his neck. With my legs holding me up around his waist, for once, my chin rested in line with his. We actually meet eye to eye.
“Physically. Not figuratively,” David practically grunted.
“Stay out of my head, vampire.” I bared my puny teeth at him; he chuckled. “Now, do as you’re told. Bite me.”
“You know I can’t do that. If I bite you, you’ll be injected with venom.”
“So?”
“So, if you’re injected with venom—you could become a vampire.”
“Oh.” We stared into each other. In the darkness of the room, his eyes almost looked black, like the pupils had flooded the green.
“We should get back out to the rehearsal.”
“Wait.” I crossed my ankles over, gripping his hips with my thighs when he went to lower me. “What if…I mean, when humans bite playfully, we don’t actually bite—” I looked at his neck. “Can’t you do it like that?”
“I—” He frowned, thoughtful. “I don’t know.”
“Here.” I leaned closer. “Let me show you how it’s done.” Before he could stop me, I squeezed my fingers into the base of his neck, then yanked his head to one side as my teeth glided over his flesh, coming closed again with a mouthful of David between them.