“Now let’s get shoes,” Valerie said, heading for the escalators once I finished paying for my dress.
Apparently shopping was her happy place. It wasn’t as easy for me to jump back and forth between the dark place and the light. I didn’t know if a sunny place existed within myself any longer. Maybe that place was off limits to assassins… at least ones with a conscience.
From the moment Valerie stepped onto the carpeted area of the women’s shoe department, she had a sales clerk rushing back and forth with black heels of various heights and styles.
“Find anything yet?” Valerie asked as she slipped on her fifth pair of heels.
“Most of these shoes have heels,” I said, picking a sleek red pump off a display across from Valerie as a visual aid.
Valerie shot me one of her “duh” looks, not bothering to roll her eyes.
“I had to wear stilettos on my last assignment,” I said, setting the shoe down. “Complete hindrance, not to mention uncomfortable as hell.”
“You get used to it,” Valerie said, standing. She strutted across the carpet to a mirror propped against a wall.
“I don’t want to get used to it.”
I might not be soaring through life, but I certainly didn’t want to stumble. Comfort beat looks any day of the week. Life lessons according to Aurora Sky.
While Valerie admired her legs in the mirror, the saleslady asked if she could get me anything in my size. In the end, I found a pair of nude flats. The hem on the dress practically reached the floor. Not like I’d be showing off my footwear, so might as well be as comfortable as I could. Even the flats were stiff and poked my skin around the edge.
I glanced at the time on my cell phone.
“We should go,” I said.
“I want to try on perfume first,” Valerie replied, already on her way to the perfume counter.
She picked up a pink bottle, sprayed the air, sniffed, and moved onto the next.
My chest lifted into a deep sigh. Moments like these were almost enough to make me pick up driving again.
After passing the air test, Valerie sprayed one of the perfumes directly onto her skin and rubbed her wrists together.
A clerk walked over and smiled at Valerie. “Euphoria is one of my favorites. I love the seductive scent of exotic fruits and rich florals.” She leaned in closer. “I swear it messes with my man’s head. Anytime I put it on, the compliments come rolling in. He can’t keep his eyes or hands off me.”
Oh, please. It was perfume, not liquid aphrodisiac. But Valerie ate it up, laughing along with the scent expert.
I tapped my foot against the floor.
“I’ll take a bottle,” Valerie said. Then, looking at me, “So will she.”
The clerk smiled and started to turn.
My foot stilled. “No I won’t.”
“Come on, Aurora. Dante will love it.”
“Dante doesn’t care what I smell like.”
Okay, as long as I didn’t smell like BO. No one liked that smell. But having a clean non-smell was good enough. I doubted Dante would like a high maintenance woman. He was too practical for that, besides which, I didn’t want to mess with his head.
Valerie shrugged. “It’s your call. Just don’t complain tonight if he can’t keep his eyes off me after getting a whiff of Euphoria.”
The clerk raised her eyebrows at me.
I grabbed the display bottle off the counter and spritzed my wrists.
“There,” I said. “Now we’ll both smell like Euphoria tonight.”
Valerie rolled her eyes before handing over a one hundred dollar bill to the sale clerk.
Just when I thought we’d finally be free of the department store, a pair of chandelier earrings caught Valerie’s eye.
Valerie stopped in place. “Oh my gosh, I have to have those earrings.”
“Do those go with your dress?” I asked.
“Who cares? I want them.”
She rushed to the nearest cash register as if I was going to chase her down and make her put them back. Someone had a shopping problem. I’m not sure this was what Melcher intended when he forked over a grand. Evidently, it was burning a hole in Valerie’s pocket.
Suppressing a sigh, I turned a spinning rack with silver pendants.
“Aurora!” Valerie called from the register. “I need to borrow twelve dollars.”
Had she already blown through half a grand? Big surprise. I handed Valerie one of my twenties.
“Thanks,” she said, snatching it from my fingers.
At least with her money spent, we could get going. I was shopped out and in the mood for a quiet evening on the couch watching a movie—not batting my lashes at Diederick.
I returned to the jewelry counter and began trying on stretch bracelets.
“Aurora?”
A young woman’s voice broke through the retail fog that had settled over my brain. Not Valerie’s voice. Someone familiar, yet hazy.
I looked up to find Denise—my former best friend from Denali High—staring at me in equal surprise.
“Wow, it is you,” she said.
Who did she think it was? My evil vampire hunting twin?
Denise and I hadn’t parted on good terms, so I wasn’t in the mood for all the phony baloney, “we-used-to-be-friends” bit.
Our friendship had started slipping even before my car accident. The first indication came after I got accepted into Notre Dame, and Denise reacted like a jealous banshee. A real friend would have been happy for me. To top it off, after I nearly died, she turned a cold shoulder on me when I returned to school withdrawn. I didn’t have any friends until Noel, Whitney, and Hope took me in. Thinking about it made me sad. Sadder than I’d ever felt with Denise. With Noel, I’d lost a true friend. A friend I would have loved to room with if she hadn’t invited Fane to join her in the October room at the palace.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked.
I wouldn’t have expected to see Denise in Anchorage the second week of September. Most universities started at the end of August.
Her nose lifted in a very “I’m important and superior” gesture.
“I got into UCLA. The quarter doesn’t begin for another two weeks. Just doing some school shopping with my mom before I make my way down to California.”
Guess it was my turn to be jealous. Denise didn’t know how lucky she was to attend school in the golden state. It wasn’t just about the on-campus college experience, but something far more important. Freedom. The freedom to make her own choices and go wherever she wanted. I envied that.
This was the experience we’d been looking forward to since sophomore year. At least one of us got to follow her dreams.
“That’s great,” I said. “I’ve heard UCLA is really good.”
Denise shot me a flippant smile.
“It’s not Yale, but at least it’s not in-state. So what about you, Aurora? Shouldn’t you be at Notre Dame?”
“I’m going to UAA.”
Denise’s eyes widened by a couple centimeters. “But… why?”
I shrugged. “I’ve had a lot to deal with, and I decided to stick around.”
“Sorry,” Denise said, the superior look returning at warp speed. “That sucks.”
This was never my dream scenario, but she didn’t have to say sticking around sucked. Before I could respond, Valerie pushed against me. Her shoulder leaned into mine so hard I nearly stumbled sideways.
“You know what sucks? Living on campus sucks,” Valerie said, glaring her signature death ray at Denise. “Aurora and I have our own house. Tonight we’ve been invited to party with the city’s wealthiest bachelors. So have fun hanging out in your jammies in your sucky dorm room.” With that, Valerie tossed her hair over her shoulder and grabbed my arm. “Come on, Aurora. We have more shopping to do.”
Couldn’t have worded it better myself.
Once we were out of earshot I said, “That was awesome.”
With a smug smile Valerie said, �
��Did you see the look on her face? Didn’t see the red fury coming. I can’t stand bitches who think they’re above everyone else.”
Something like compassion pulled on my heartstrings at that moment as the most unlikely thought entered my head. Valerie Ward wasn’t half bad.
Having a friend stick by me felt good. I could get used to this side of Valerie.
She gave my arm a tug. “Let’s get free makeovers at Sephora. Then all we have to do is get dressed and do our hair.”
“Why not?” I said, matching her step into the mall.
By the time we were finished with our makeovers, we only had an hour to get ready. Suddenly, Valerie went into freak-out mode.
“An hour!” she cried behind the wheel, zooming towards mid-town. “There’s no way I can drop you off, do my hair and makeup, and get back to your place in time.”
“Makeup?” I asked, frowning. “We just had makeovers.”
“Yeah, but she smudged the liner on my right eye.” Valerie sat up, practically touching her face to the review mirror.
I kept my eyes on the road ahead.
“It looks fine to me.”
“You should come over while I get dressed,” Valerie said. “It will save me ten minutes if I don’t have to drop you off first.”
“No way! Then I won’t have any time to get ready.”
Valerie waved a hand at me. “Your makeup looks fine and you have your dress and shoes with you. I’m making an executive decision.” She abruptly pulled out of a turn only lane, cutting off a car on the right.
They honked. Valerie flipped them off.
Valerie sped down Minnesota Boulevard toward Denali High—my old stomping grounds. Driving around that area gave me a weird sense of déjà vu. High school felt like ages ago, especially after boot camp, which had seemed unending.
As we passed Denali High, Valerie looked over, smirk on her face, and said, “Losers.”
About four minutes later, she pulled up to a brown, single-story house in a middle class neighborhood. So this was where Valerie Ward nested.
There were lights on inside. I followed Valerie inside. A middle-aged woman with brown, shoulder-length hair sat on a couch with cushions that looked like they were upholstered in burlap sacks. She ate a frozen dinner from a TV tray while watching what sounded like a British melodrama on TV.
The living room opened up to a small kitchen with mustard-yellow appliances.
“Aurora, Kennick. Kennick, Aurora,” Valerie said, walking in front of the TV toward a darkened hallway. “Kennick’s a staffer.” Valerie rolled her eyes while her back was to the woman.
“Aurora,” the woman repeated, looking me over. “You’re a VH.”
Vampire hunter.
“That’s correct,” I said. I wasn’t sure what else to say.Nice to meet you? I could see why Valerie was excited to hang out at my place. I wanted as little to do with Melcher and his staff as possible, and Valerie had to live with one of them.
“Why are you here?” the woman asked.
“Because she’s my lesbian lover,” Valerie said. “Chill, Kennick. We’re on assignment. Big chief’s orders.”
Kennick frowned. “You know I don’t appreciate that attitude.”
Valerie waved a hand in the air. “Whatever. Come on, Aurora. Time to get pretty.”
I hurried after her down the hall. It wasn’t as if I wanted to hang out with Kennick any longer than necessary. The hallway appeared extra dark with the floor to ceiling wood paneling.
Valerie pulled me into her room and shut the door. I must have been giving her a look.
“What?” she demanded.
I shook my head. “This is dreary.”
Valerie rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. See why I fled? I have to remind myself why I came back every day just to keep from blowing my brains out over her shag carpet.” She fished a pack of cigarettes out of her purse, pulled one out, and lit up.
“Kennick lets you smoke inside?”
“Yeah, right.” Valerie moved across the room to the window and slid it open.
I never pictured Valerie under house arrest. How could I not be sympathetic?
“This here builds character,” Valerie said, waving her cigarette around the room. “Not everyone’s born with a silver spoon. One day, when I’m rich, biographers will look back on my life and write about the way Valerie Ward rose up out of nothing and made something of herself.”
“Inspiring,” I said, half-joking.
“Damn right it’s inspiring,” Valerie said. She took a drag on her cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke toward the open window. “My life is blockbuster material. Beautiful young woman attacked in L.A. alleyway. Kidnapped and forced to kill vampires in Alaska. Trained as an assassin. Sent into the underworld undercover. Almost killed a second time by the same psycho who stabbed her in L.A.” Ash fell to the carpet as Valerie moved her cigarette around. “And like every great story, mine includes romance—a tale of seduction, heartbreak, and betrayal.”
“This is fiction we’re talking about, right?”
The faraway look on Valerie’s face was replaced by a wretched scowl.
“You don’t know a god damn thing, Aurora Sky.”
“Oh really? What about blackmail? Does your biography include that chapter of your life?”
I’d been willing to move past that. Not many people would. If Valerie kept milking the sob story about her love affair with Fane, she’d have to own up to her dirty side. Fane didn’t betray her, he broke up with her—though I was sure they were one and the same in Valerie’s mind.
My Fane story was much more tragic than hers. Vampire hunter falls in love with vampire, is blackmailed into breaking up with him, and later finds him with best friend. Top that, Valerie Ward! She acted like she was the only agent to have ever been wronged. Just because I didn’t want to sell the rights to my life story didn’t mean I hadn’t suffered, too.
“That’s called payback,” Valerie said. “You’re lucky I gave you an option. I could have done a lot worse.”
She’d already tried when she reported me to Melcher—saying she suspected I’d recently joined the vampire race. She probably wanted one of Melcher’s assassins to take me out. Too bad for her Iwas one of those assassins. That was the moment we discovered we worked for the same boss.
And this crazy bitch wanted me to give her a key to my house? I’d sooner set out a “Vampires Welcome” mat.
“You give yourself far too much credit,” I said. “I was about to break up with him before you blackmailed me.”
“Yeah, right,” Valerie said, rolling her eyes.
Everything had changed when I found out Fane was a vampire. After that, I knew dating him was a bad idea. I’d pulled back, but at the same time I couldn’t stay away… not until Valerie forced me to. Even that didn’t work.
Only Fane could keep me away.
“Not a good idea,” he’d said the night I tried to make a move inside his car.
The thing that hurt the most was he’d been right. The two of us would never be a good idea, and nothing could change that.
At least there were killer vampires to distract me.
“Let’s get dressed and spy on some ritzy vampires already,” I said, more than ready to change the subject and move on.
Valerie held her glare two more seconds before relaxing into a sultry smile. She grabbed an empty iced tea bottle off her windowsill, unscrewed the lid, and tossed the cigarette inside.
“The room’s all yours. I gotta redo my makeup.”
After Valerie disappeared into the hallway, I pulled my dress out of the shopping bag and snapped the tag off. I dressed in front of a small mirror above Valerie’s armoire, finger-combing my long, black hair once I’d finished.
It was a beautiful dress, long and elegant. I turned back and forth and looked around Valerie’s room while I waited. She’d done a good job of updating the room with stylish décor. There was a modern black and powder-blue theme going on with h
er bedspread, throw pillows, curtains, and matching window valance.
Decorative picture frames in silver, light blue, and black were interspersed with accent pieces on two wall shelves above her bed. Leaning in for a closer look, I saw that none of the frames held personal pictures. They were all postcards, mostly black and white. One of the Eiffel Tower. Another the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Between each frame was a statue of some kind: a meditating monk, an owl made of gems, a silver heart, a glass swirl, and a miniature rocking horse.
A framed black and white poster of Marilyn Monroe hung to the left of the shelves.
I sat on the edge of the bed and texted Valerie’s address to Dante. Even if I wasn’t his girlfriend on assignment, I still needed a ride to the party, which meant “tagging” along with the happy couple. I sighed and tried not to think too much about tonight. More vampires. Just what I wasn’t in the mood for.
8
The Lodge
The red queen finally returned freshly powdered, hair full of bounce.
She looked me over.
“You cannot wear your hair down with a backless dress. Come over here, and I’ll get you fixed up.”
While I stood in front of the mirror, Valerie ran her fingers through my hair, combing through the silky strands before gathering it all up and twisting it into a bun. She grabbed a jeweled hair stick off her armoire, stuck it in, and stepped back.
“Perfect.”
I turned my head to the side. Surprising how fancy my hair looked after a quick twist and stick.
“It looks nice. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Luckily, Valerie was much quicker changing clothes than she was with her hair and makeup. My phone dinged as she slipped into her heels.
“Dante’s outside.”
“I call front,” Valerie said. Noticing my frown she said, “I’m his date to this thing.”
I inhaled and released my breath slowly.
“Fine.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
Dante whistled when Valerie and I climbed into the Jeep.
“Looking good, ladies.”
Valerie fluffed her hair forward.
Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3) Page 9