The Noctalis Chronicles Complete Set

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  “With lots of tulips. Hundreds of them.” It would cost a small fortune, but something told me Viktor wouldn’t mind loaning me that much money.

  “It’ll be perfect in the summer,” Peter says, kissing my hair.

  “Right,” I say, turning back toward the house. “You should come see the upstairs. Your room is all set up, but it’s a little dusty.” This elicits a lot of grumbling from her, which distracts her exactly the way I wanted it to.

  Peter grips my hand and tugs on our connection. It’s a ‘hey, you okay?’ kind of tug. I answer back.

  Yeah, I’m fine. For now.

  Fifteen

  Peter

  Having Tex as the only living person in the house is odd. Her heart is . . . loud. I am used to being in Ava’s house, and I have gotten used to the sounds of her heart. Learning the sounds of Texas’ is going to take time.

  Hers is more, frenzied, than Ava’s, and tends to race and slow with an alarming speed.

  The rest of the day is spent going over the house, Texas convincing Viktor to play the piano, and Ava being tense.

  I know she wants to share what had happened with her best friend, but is scared to do so. I know why, but I think she is underestimating Texas.

  So far, she has been the most accepting of all the humans. I suggest that she call her friend Jamie, but she shakes her head to that as well.

  When night falls, Texas insists on watching movies, and also insists on picking which ones we watch. Since neither Viktor nor I had seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s and it is her favorite, we watch that. I had read the Truman Capote short story it was based on, and couldn’t see why Texas would enjoy that kind of thing, but the movie took liberties and Holly and Fred ended up in love. A happily ever after that the book didn’t have.

  “I love this movie,” Texas says, wiping her eyes with a tissue that Viktor hands her.

  “No mean reds?” Ava says, referencing the movie.

  “Not right now.” Texas snuggles closer to Viktor’s arm. “Right now everything’s coming up roses. Or as much as they can, given current circumstances.”

  “What does that mean?” Ava says. “What current circumstances?”

  “Um, are you not aware of the crap that has gone down in the past few months? I’m just pointing out that things are remarkably good when they could have gone so bad. I mean, Peter could have killed you, Viktor could have killed me or they could both have died and all sorts of shit could have happened. But here we are and everything is pretty much okay.” She smiles and reaches for the last chip in the bowl and then licks her fingers.

  “I guess you’re right,” Ava says, sinking further into my chest. It’s nice to have her friend here. Ava is a lot more calm with Texas here. There are things this human girl can do for Ava that I can’t.

  After the movie, Ava suggests playing cards, so we do, agreeing on Texas Hold ‘Em since we all know how to play and Texas says it’s her game.

  “How on earth do you know how to play this?” Texas asks Viktor as he wins the first game handily. Texas holds her own, and Ava’s poker face has improved, but I can still see the subtle changes on it. She is still not a completely competent liar. That will take time.

  “I know a lot of things, Tex. Enough to fill many, many volumes.”

  “You make me feel like a loser,” Texas says, pouting. “I mean, I’m an intelligent person, but you make me feel like a Neanderthal banging two rocks together.”

  “Then you are the prettiest Neanderthal I’ve ever seen.”

  “Me like you,” Texas says in a gravelly voice, pointing from herself to Viktor. Ava’s laugh rings out, causing mine to come out. She stops mid-laugh and stares.

  “You’re laughing.” Texas gives me a look as well.

  “I could not help it,” I say, because it was almost a reflex.

  “So that’s what it takes to get you laughing? How long have we been working on this?” She had started off teaching me to smile, and that had taken quite a while, but she’d also tried to work on my laugh, and that had been even more difficult. I just could not seem to make it sound natural.

  “Dude, it’s not that hard,” Texas says, taking the cards and shuffling them, fanning them out on the table and then flipping them over like a dealer.

  “It took me a long time to learn how to do it, but I had Adele to show me,” Viktor says and Texas looks down, her smile faltering for a moment. Viktor takes her hand.

  “I’m fine. You don’t have to do that thing. I’m just being a jealous human. Move along, nothing to see here.” Viktor takes her other hand, making the cards flutter to the floor.

  “We should give them a minute,” Ava says in my ear, but everyone can hear. It is hard to talk quietly when everyone can hear everything.

  I lift her from my lap and we go upstairs to the library and shut the door. We can still hear Viktor and Texas talking downstairs, but at least it is muffled to give them some semblance of privacy. We should invest in some sound proofing soon.

  “Tex gets a little jealous, if you haven’t noticed,” Ava says, running her finger along the stacks of books. Soon there will be as many books as she wants.

  “Jealousy is human.”

  “But you told me that you got jealous because of me.”

  “That is true, but love changes everything. It makes you feel things that you never thought you could.”

  “I love that you can love me now.”

  “I love it as well. And I love you.”

  I lean down to kiss her, but she stops me.

  “If you kiss me, I might just start ripping your clothes off, and I really don’t want Tex and Viktor hearing us . . . do that. I guess I still have a little of my human modesty left.”

  “Then I won’t kiss you,” I say, pulling back. I am teasing her. That has also gotten easier.

  “Don’t you dare,” she says, grabbing my face and pulling it down to hers so our lips can meet.

  Downstairs, Viktor and Texas are doing the same thing.

  Texas was right. Things are good.

  Tex

  Okay, so I get jealous about Viktor’s dead (again) ex. I mean, if she hadn’t died, they’d probably still be together. Sometimes it gets the best of me, because I know that a part of him still belongs to her, and always will.

  And then that makes me think about our future. I mean, I don’t know if I can stay with him while I’m aging and he’s not. I can just picture being forty and saggy and feeling all gross and him telling me I’m beautiful and me trying to believe it, but knowing that it’s not really true. I’d hate to do that to him, but what if I go the Ava route and change and then we break up? Then I’m really, really screwed. Although, I’m sure I could find another immortal boy to be with, but would I want to?

  Sometimes my head gets the best of me. Viktor’s good about calming me down. Just his presence helps stop my head from spinning in circles.

  It completely sucks that I’m the only one who has to sleep, and I fight it for as long as I can, but the three-hour car ride took a lot out of me and I’m exhausted by one in the morning, so I say goodnight to Ava and Peter, who are going flying, and Viktor takes me upstairs.

  Yup, I’m jealous. Green with envy.

  “It’s okay to be jealous,” Viktor says as I strip and climb into bed. I’m not feeling very sexy tonight, but he could probably change my mind.

  “I’m not jealous,” I say, even though we both know it’s a lie.

  “Fine, you’re not jealous.” I watch as he sheds his own clothes and I realize that I do feel sexy after all.

  ~^*^~

  When I finally crawl out of bed the next morning, it’s to the smell of bacon.

  “Wake up, Texas. Your breakfast awaits,” Viktor says, moving my hair out of my face. It has a tendency to go a little nuts when I sleep, and the pre-sleep sexy times didn’t help.

  I open my eyes and his face is inches away from mine and it scares the crap out of me.

  “Don’t do that!” I sma
ck his arm and am rewarded with a shooting pain in my hand.

  “How many times will it take you before you learn to stop doing that?” Viktor says as I shake my hand back and forth.

  “A million and one.” I roll out of bed and hear Ava giggling in the kitchen as she talks to Peter. God only knows what I slept through them doing last night, but I can’t really throw any stones where that is concerned.

  It takes me a while to get dressed after my shower. I’m still stiff from the car ride, and then the crazy sex last night. Viktor is about as adventurous as you can get in that department, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up, seeing as how I’m human and have a spine.

  “Good morning!” I have never, ever, seen Ava this chipper in the morning, but it’s probably because she doesn’t need to sleep.

  “Shut up,” I grumble and sit down at the granite counter as she puts a plate of pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse’s head, bacon, eggs, coffee and a glass of orange juice in front of me with a huge smile.

  “Human food. Thanks.” I grab the cup of coffee and wish it was a chai, but I’m not going to complain. Ava put a bunch of vanilla creamer and sugar in it so I doesn’t taste too much like coffee.

  “How did you sleep?”

  “Like a rock.” I pause for a second. “What the hell does that even mean, anyway? Who knows how rocks sleep? I mean, they’re rocks. Was there some sort of rock sleep study that I’m not aware of?” Where the hell has this morning babble come from? I have absolutely no idea.

  “Oh yes,” Ava says with a serious face. “It was a big deal, you didn’t hear about it? It was all over the news for weeks.”

  “Damn. That’s what I get for not watching much television,” I say, pouring syrup on my pancakes. I’m about to say something else, but Ava hands me the container of sour cream.

  “How could I forget your disgusting eating habits?” she says, also handing me a spoon.

  “I have no idea,” I say, spooning the sour cream on my pancakes and spreading it out so it’s evenly distributed. Everyone I have ever met thinks it’s the most disgusting thing ever, but I tell them that they’re missing out.

  “So what are we doing today? Um, if you guys need to like, go to the ‘grocery store’ to get some ‘food’, then I can hang out here or whatever.” I hope by using air quotes they know what I mean. I’m trying to not make a big deal out of Ava’s new vampiric lifestyle.

  Something shifts in the room, and even though no one’s facial expressions change, I know something is up. I’m perceptive like that.

  “Okay, what’s wrong?”

  Ava looks me right in the face and says, “Nothing.” Okay, so she may be able to keep a straight face when she lies now, a face that would fool anyone who didn’t know her as well as I do, but I haven’t been her best friend for this long and learned every single thing about her for nothing.

  “What happened?” I shoot the question at Ava, and even though she doesn’t flinch, because immortals don’t flinch, I can tell that I’ve rattled her.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Ava says, going to the sink. I narrow my eyes and glare at Peter and Viktor, but those two are worse than Fort Knox.

  “Clearly, I’m the only one in the dark here, which is kind of bizarre. So, let me reiterate, what happened?”

  Ava grips one of the plates too hard and it shatters in her hands. She curses and shuts the water off.

  “Two people came by yesterday to look at the house and I nearly killed them. I probably should have, seeing as how I snapped the guy’s neck and probably paralyzed him. I didn’t do much better with the woman.” She stares out the window as she says it. Peter and Viktor don’t say anything, just stand and wait.

  What she’s saying shocks me, of course it does, but this is part of her life now. In order for her to survive, or whatever, she needs blood, and she has to hurt people to get it. Yes, she knew that beforehand, but I think the reality of it is hitting her harder than she thought it would.

  I’ve watched enough Buffy to know that even in a fictional world, being an immortal creature can be awful. It’s a struggle, but she chose this, and she’s going to have to learn how to deal with it.

  “We made it look like a car accident, but . . .” She turns back around, and I get off my chair. I’m going to give her a hug, and then realize I can’t, but Viktor is right behind me, with a blanket from the couch that he wraps around me. I make sure none of my bare skin will touch hers and then I give her a careful hug. It’s strange not seeing her cry, hearing her tell the story in a mostly unemotional voice.

  “I just feel so awful about it. I wanted to only take it from people who were dying, or bad people who, I don’t know, deserved it? But who am I to make that decision?”

  “Shhh,” I say as she carefully leans her head on my blanket-covered shoulder. Seriously, the absence of tears and sobbing is really freaking me out, but I deal.

  “It’ll be okay, I swear. You’ll figure it out.”

  “What if I can’t?” she says so quietly I almost don’t hear it. “What if I can never get it under control? I’ll never be able to go home. I’ll have to run away from Dad, from Jamie, from Aj, from everything. What am I supposed to do?”

  Well that I can’t answer, but I think she is being a little melodramatic. You don’t learn to ride a bike on the first try, and I think that analogy works for this situation. She just needs . . . lessons or something.

  “She will be fine. She’s doing well, but I can’t seem to make her believe that,” Peter says, watching Ava as she hugs me.

  “He’s too optimistic,” she mumbles into the blanket, and I laugh. “You smell really good, by the way. It’s kind of torturing me.” She raises her head and lets go of me.

  God, our friendship has taken a weird turn.

  “Um, thanks?” I’m not sure if this is a compliment or not. It kind of feels like one.

  “So anyway, I’m a menace to society. I should be locked up.” Ava leans against Peter.

  “This would be so much easier if you could just drink from donated blood like in the movies. Have you even tried it?”

  “It makes us sick,” Peter says. “I have tried it many times, but we can’t keep it in our bodies. It just comes up, like if we drink water.”

  Gross. I didn’t really need that visual.

  “Okay, that’s out. We can figure this out, though.” Somehow.

  We all stand around in the kitchen thinking as my breakfast gets cold. I end up pacing because everyone else is so damn still and I can’t deal with it.

  “Anyone got anything?” I say after a few minutes. “The only thing I can think of is to find someone super kinky, who gets off on this stuff. I know there are people who act like vampires out there. Granted, they’re probably not in Maine, but they must exist somewhere. Didn’t Kamir and Rasha talk about that?” I vaguely remembered them saying that they had a deal with the villagers. Super creepy, but it seemed to work for them.

  “If someone wants it, and you need it, win-win, right?”

  “It is a thought,” Peter says. “I have never tried it, but I have heard such people exist.”

  I was never going to tell them that I’d gotten the idea from my favorite vampire show.

  “You get that from Buffy?” Ava says, giving me a look.

  “No,” I say, glaring at her. It was True Blood.

  “First things first, I have to be able to not kill people,” Ava says. “Ugh, enough about me. Can we please talk about something else? Anything else?”

  “What are we going to do today?” I say. We’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere, so it’s going to be interesting to see how we’re going to entertain ourselves.

  “The town isn’t that far away,” Peter says.

  “What town?” I ask, because I seriously don’t know what he’s talking about. I saw nothing but trees and a house here and there.

  “We drove through it,” Viktor says, as if I’m an idiot.

  “When?”

>   “You remember, with the store and the town hall and the church?” It had seriously been like, five buildings and a few rundown houses. There wasn’t even a gas station, just a rusty pump outside the store.

  “Oh dear God. We are in the middle of nowhere.” Granted, Sussex wasn’t exactly a metropolis, but at least there were a decent amount of people to make up for the lack of stores and decent shopping.

  “You’re so dramatic,” Ava says, “I’m sure we’ll find something to do.”

  Not likely.

  “We could go hiking. Or there’s a lake nearby.” I seize on the second thing.

  “Lake! Let’s go to the lake!” I brought my bathing suit and a towel in addition to the many skirts, because I knew at some point I would need it.

  “Okay, lake it is,” Ava says, putting a smile on her face. She’s trying, and I love her for it.

  Viktor

  The next three days go by with mornings and afternoons at the lake, and nights at the house with movies or cards. I miss running, so I put Tex on my back and take her with me a few times while Peter and Ava go flying.

  Texas is terrified of being bored, but somehow never is. We spend a majority of the time talking, and I get to know her better through her interactions with Ava.

  I watch her sometimes and imagine what it would be like to have her with me always. The Claiming has made us closer, but it doesn’t chafe me or make me feel trapped like I thought it would. I like knowing that she belongs to me, and I belong to her.

  I told Peter that if Adele were human, I would have changed her without hesitation, and that was the truth, but I am not sure about Tex.

  Many times I wonder if it’s her hesitation and not mine that I’m feeling. It is hard to separate our emotions, and I’m often confused. We’re twisted together, and trying to unravel the two of us again is an impossible task.

  Peter told me that he liked having Ava in his mind, and I do like Texas, but sometimes her emotions are so quick to switch and change that I am two steps behind her.

  But there is one thing that overrides everything else.

  I love her. More than anything else, I know that to be true, but I don’t know the extent of it. If we could spend forever together.