Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter (24 page)

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it
lately. I guess it’s time to move on to a higher education. Meet new people.”

“You mean friends who aren’t junkies?”

“They aren’t junkies.”

I raised a brow.

“Well, I guess they are sort of junkies, but I can’t judge
them.”

“What’s your roommate into?”

“Besides foreign films and rare books—not much.”

“Real barrel of sunshine he is,” I said.

“He’s depressed.”

“Maybe Alaska’s not the best place for him.”

Fane huffed. “He’s like that no matter where he goes.”

“Have you been a lot of places together?”

“Before moving to Alaska we were roommates in New York.”

I whistled. “Wow, New York to Alaska. I guess you really
needed a change in scenery.”

“Call of the wild,” Fane said and laughed. “It was my dream
to come out to the far north. One day, I told Joss I was moving and that he
could join me or stay behind.”

“Wow, you guys must be really…close.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Wasn’t it kind of
weird for two teenage guys to move across the country together?

 “Joss lost his family, too. We’ve been rooming together for
a long time.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Fane squeezed my hand.

“Anyway, he wanted to check it out first, but I said I was
moving—sight unseen. The decision was a bit tougher for Joss. You see, he loved
New York’s arts and culture, but hated the people. The idea of vast stretches
of uninhibited land appealed to him…the lack of artistry and architecture was
more difficult to swallow.”

“We’ve got totems and igloos,” I said, smiling.

Fane grinned back. “Joss is more of a Venus de Milo and
Basilica di San Marco kind of guy.”
 “We have ice sculptures downtown.”

Fane laughed. “You’re tenacious. I thought you were sick of
this state.”

“It’s still my home…and I still think it’s beautiful. It’s
just…”

“Dark and cold?”

I nodded, but somehow I didn’t mind so much anymore.

“I was about to come out looking for you,” Mom said
when I walked through the front door.

“Mom, I’m only forty minutes late.”

“I was worried. You never answer your phone anymore.”

“That’s not true.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing. Fane gave me a ride home.” I kicked my boots off
and shrugged out of my jacket. “My car phobia is cured. Isn’t that great?”

You’d think my mom would look happier.

“Anyway, I’m home and I’m going to get started on homework,”
I said.

I headed upstairs without waiting for a response. I hadn’t
even had a chance to get through my English assignment when she came by to
check on me later.

Her steps reached my back and stopped.

“What?” I asked when she didn’t say anything. I turned in my
chair to face her.

“You have a friend downstairs to see you.”

It had to be Fane. Why else would my mom’s face look so
pinched? I skipped ahead of her down the stairs, but found Noel waiting in the
entryway.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi.”

Her hood was pulled back, her arms were pressed at her
sides, legs together, face bent down.

“Want to come up to my room?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“This is Noel,” I said to my mom as we passed her on the
stairs.

“Hello,” Mom said.

“Hi, Mrs. Sky.” Noel looked at the floor when she spoke.

Once I had Noel in my room I shut the door. “Sorry I haven’t
been hanging for a while,” I said. “I was suspended and then…well…” I shrugged
and flashed her a dopey grin.

Noel looked around my room. She was probably realizing we
didn’t have much in common. I was just a normal high school girl. Well, not
exactly normal, but it would appear that way.

I expected her to be annoyed with me, to accuse me of not
really being one of them. What I wasn’t expecting was for her sudden change in
expression.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were macking on a vampire?”

I felt the color drain from my face. “What?”

“Fane Donado.” Noel arched a brow.

“What about him?”

Noel huffed in disgust. “What do you think, Aurora?”

Fane was nothing like Patrick, or Ivo, or the rabid lunatic.

He was just a high school boy…with dead parents, sharp back
molars, and an immunity to cigarette smoke.

Normal.

All of a sudden my breathing went haywire. A succession of
heavy gasps rasped up my throat as I fought for air. Oxygen wasn’t going to my
brain. I pulled at my neck.

Noel’s leaned forward. “Aurora?”

“No.” I clawed at my scarf. “It’s not true. You’re lying!” I
shouted. “I don’t believe you!”

Noel glanced at my door the louder I got. She walked over,
contemplated me calmly, then slapped me across the face.

My cheek stung like a bitch. For such a petite stick of
kindling, Noel packed a mean punch.

I put a hand on my cheek. “What the fuck, Noel!”

“Sorry. I was losing you. Are you telling me you didn’t know
Fane is a vampire?”

I did feel rather stupid now that she asked.
Fane
. I
mean, come on, how thick was I? Conversations raced through my mind, all his
odd little quirks, like the way he preferred the cold and dark and had no
appetite for food.
I don’t eat meat
. No, he just drank human blood. God,
and his obsession with my scarf. It was probably like waving a red flag in
front of a bull.

I shuddered.

I’d been lip-locking with a corpse. If Melcher knew, he’d
probably tear the wooden cross off his wall and beat me with it.

“Of course he’s a vampire,” I said bitterly.

I was sure Noel had no idea what I was going through. In her
world, having one’s own personal suck buddy was probably the ultimate score,
which made her humorless expression all the more confusing.

“This isn’t good, Aurora.”

I tried to read her eyes. “Why not?”

“Valerie, for one thing.”

Jealousy raged inside my heart. How many love bites had Fane
pressed into Valerie’s skin? How many times had he sucked her blood? I bet
she’d enjoyed every minute.

I leapt to my feet and snarled. “What does Valerie have to
do with this?”

“She won’t be happy you stole her man.”

“That’s none of her business.”

Noel pushed herself off the carpet. “She has powerful
friends.”

“I’m not afraid of a fight.”

Noel looked me in the eye. “You should be.”

“Is that why you came here? To warn me?”

“Not just you.”

For a moment I struggled to breathe again. “You can’t mean
she’d hurt Fane?”

An image of sharp, pointy objects whirled through my mind.

Noel shifted and shrugged weakly. “I don’t know.”

For some reason that answer was worse than yes or no. It
became a statement of certainty.

“She can’t do that! She can’t just…”

She couldn’t just…what exactly? Murder a vampire? That was my
job.

I looked at Noel helplessly. She shrugged again. “I don’t
want anything to happen to Fane, either. He’s one of the nice ones.”

“Shit!” I said, pacing my room. “I need to talk to him.”

“Aurora…”

“I need to talk to him now!” I turned suddenly. “You have to
get me out of here.”

“But Aurora…”

I pulled the dagger and sheath from the top drawer of my
nightstand.

Her mouth fell open. “What are you doing with a knife?”

I sat on my bed and yanked the right pant leg of my jeans
up. “Can’t be too safe. You know vampires, can’t expect them to play nice all
the time.”

“But Fane...”

“Is capable of anything—just like the rest of them.” I
shoved the dagger into the holster around my leg. Didn’t think I’d be needing
it so soon. “It’s one thing to get bitten, but a whole other to date one of
those…things.”

Noel looked at me curiously. “I just…How could you not know?
I thought that’s why you were with him.”

Why else would I be with Fane? It was a fair question. Not
one I was going to answer, but understandable.

I covered the dagger with my pant leg and stood up. “I’m
ready.”

“Aurora, please don’t rush in like this.”

“I’m just going to talk to him.”

Noel looked at my leg. “Then why do you need a knife?”

“As a precaution.” I breezed past her. “Let’s go.”

 19

I told Mom I was going over to Noel’s to study for a
French test—no need for her to know Noel was taking Spanish. Noel drove me to
Video City in her beat-up Volvo, begging me the entire way not to confront
Fane. I was way ahead of her. I’d called him before we pulled out of the
driveway and told him to meet me. It was hard to imagine that a couple hours
earlier we had skipped school to go to Portage Glacier.

Before heading back to town we’d made out in his car. He’d
had his tongue in my mouth. I shuddered again.

Noel pulled into a spot in front of Video City and said,
“I’m waiting with you.”

“Fine,” I said.

I shivered. The vents were blasting cold air on us.