Aven's Dream (21 page)

I never felt his feet touch the cement floor as he moved, but suddenly we were flying up the stairs to the second floor. Our surroundings blurred as he darted forward and then shot upwards, breaking through a hidden panel in the ceiling. Within seconds, we were balanced precariously on the roof of the house, Will still holding me casually in one arm. His breathing hadn’t altered. I looked around carefully, at once digesting both the height at which we stood and Will’s casual manner. Will’s muscles flexed again, and my stomach pitched violently as he leapt forward.

I couldn’t even scream as I watched the scenery—the sky, the trees, the ocean in the distance—blur again as we hurtled through the air. It felt like we were falling straight down. Then I heard a thunderous crack, and suddenly we were standing on a marble patio that stretched from the back of the house to the cliff’s edge.

Will very gently lowered me to the ground, his arm still supporting my weight, since my legs refused to hold me up. I looked down and saw the marble stone we had landed on—cracked into thousands of pieces and disintegrating into sand beneath Will’s feet. When I looked up at him, Will’s expression was unreadable. His appearance had melted back into how I remembered him from before, still beautiful and perfect, but not as otherworldly.
Filtered through my own expectations
.

“The cumulative energy I have acquired makes me capable of feats well beyond the realm of human ability. Even more so now that I’ve fed off of your energy.”

His arm released me, and I started falling toward the ground before he caught me again.

“And you are weaker because of it.
Now
do you understand why I am so dangerous to you?” he asked, his tone low, almost menacing.

I nodded and then remained quiet for a moment, trying to sort through my spiraling thoughts. Searching my feelings, I realized that they hadn’t changed in the last few moments. I still loved him. It was that simple. But I did have questions. My voice sounded strange and far away when I spoke again.

“Do you kill people?”

“I haven’t for a long time.”

The ease of his answer startled me into silence again, and I contemplated for several seconds.

“But you did …
take
energy from me on Friday night?”

“And just now,” he said, his expression regretful.

“How do you control it, though? How do you make sure you
don’t
kill someone?”

“Self control, practice,” he said carefully. “And after time, it’s possible to achieve a kind of equilibrium.”

“Equilibrium?”

“Yes. I can take energy, but I also can return it.”

He reached out and touched my cheek with his fingers. Suddenly I felt a rush of energy.

“Wow,” I whispered.

“
That
was nothing,” he smiled.

A million questions filled my head, causing my brain to short-circuit.

“So, wait. Are you even
human
?”

“Certainly less so than you are.”

I shivered.

“When were you born?”

“In 1777,” he answered without hesitation. “One hundred and twenty years before Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
was published.”

Which would make him
more
than two centuries old.

“Then you don’t
age
… just like a vampire,” I whispered.

My teeth began to chatter, and I shivered involuntarily. The weather was starting to calm, just as Will had predicted, but the air around us remained freezing. Before I could say anything, Will pulled me against his chest and swept me into the house, past the pool and back in front of the fireplace. He sat down across from me, and I looked toward the fire, trying to absorb everything. A jolt of adrenaline hit me, but it had nothing to do with Will.

“I totally forgot about my homework!”

Not surprisingly, I had completely lost track of time in Will’s presence. He shook his head and stared at me.

“
What
?” I cried.

“I’ve told you a secret that I haven’t shared with a single human in more than two centuries—and you’re more concerned with your schoolwork,” he laughed.

“I am
not
,” I said indignantly. “But I
am
going to have to go back to the real world eventually.”

“You don’t have to,” he said so quietly that I nearly didn’t hear him.

My eyes shot to Will’s.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Forgive the selfish creature in me for speaking out of turn.”

When I frowned, Will reached out and grasped my hand, bringing it to his lips. He looked up at me, his eyes sending my thoughts spinning again. I shook my head, trying to clear it as Will’s lips skimmed over my knuckles.

“It’s hard to think when you do that,” I reminded him.

“Do what?” Will asked.

I studied him.

“Are you manipulating my thoughts right now?”

His other hand came up and began tracing the inside of my wrist, making me shiver.

“I prefer to think of it as influencing them.”

“Why would you do that?” I asked breathlessly.

Will dropped my wrist, and I looked down as my hand fell into my lap.

“Because I am an unscrupulous fiend.”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s the truth, Aven. No matter how hard I try to change my nature, at my core I will always be an insatiable creature whose existence relies on feeding off of others.”

“No! That isn’t true. And if I’m an
empath
, then I know things. Right? Well, I’m in love with you, and I don’t care
what
you are. I only care who you are to me—and I refuse to believe that I’ve fallen in love with a monster.”

“And that is why I will continue to strive to be better than my nature,” he smiled sadly.

“Wait. Is that why you were such a psycho last week and at dinner? Because you were—”

“Craving you with an voracious need bordering on insanity?” Will finished.

Another chill traveled through me.

“But you seemed fine until …” I trailed off.

“Until the weather started getting
better
?” Will finished again.

I frowned and nodded.

“I don’t know why—and I’ve been studying the phenomenon for decades—but the ultraviolet radiation from the sun seems to increase my metabolic rate. As a result, I need to replenish my energy more often. For creatures like me, sunshine is a burden.”

I frowned. So that was why he had been acting like such a … vampire when the sun had come out.

“You mean you’re allergic to sunlight?” I laughed before I could stop myself.

“It means I had to struggle against the impulse to drain you or any other hapless human I came across.”

I stopped smiling.

“Well, that’s very vampire-ish,” I mused. “But you seem fine now.”

“Saying I’m
fine
would definitely be classified as dangerous overconfidence on my part,” he answered carefully, again tracing my hand with his long fingers.

I fought not to close my eyes at the feeling of his touch on my skin.

“Are you saying you’re
not
okay right now?” I asked tentatively.

My skin prickled as I looked down at my small, pale hand in his grip. I felt like I was asking a python if it wanted to squeeze the life out of me
now
or
later
. The more disturbing part was that I couldn’t persuade myself to care. For better or worse, I couldn’t think of anywhere I wanted to be—or anyone I wanted to be with more than Will—regardless of the risk.

“Your energy—your life force—is very potent, and I hadn’t anticipated my craving to be as strong as it was,” Will said circumspectly. “I thought I could control myself when I showed up at your house, but I seem to burn through more reserves when I’m with you, which means I need to be more cautious.”

My brain clicked to the episode by the pool, the memory of Darcy snarling
at
Will.

“What about earlier at the pool?”

Will’s eyes darkened.

“An inexcusable moment of weakness.”

“Did I
do
something?”

Will stopped and studied me. Then he exhaled.

“Some human emotions are more intense, more
satisfying
than others,” he laughed.

“Like what?”

“Moments of intense fear, for instance. Anger. Sexual arousal.”

I blushed.

“Were you afraid of me earlier?” he asked.

“A little,” I admitted with a shrug. “But I didn’t even know why.”

“Fear
should
be your natural instinct when confronted by a predator. I could feel your fear, and
my
instinct was to pursue you, to elicit more of what I crave.”

“And arousal?” I asked, trying to hide my embarrassment.

Will looked down, his brow creased.

“Is a double-edged sword,” he said.

I frowned, and he looked up at me.

“Yours, for instance, increases my craving,” he continued. “My own makes it harder for me to control myself—but
I
can
,” he said vehemently.

I swallowed, unsure which one of us he was trying to convince.

“You mean you can sense when someone is—”

He nodded and leaned toward me. My breath caught as I felt his lips graze my jaw.

“You can’t imagine how badly I want to touch you again, how badly I need to feel your desire,” he whispered hoarsely.

Closing my eyes, I felt a sharp tremor of longing at the sound of his voice, the feel of his lips drifting across my skin. My breathing sped up, and when Will pulled back, I gasped.

“I
can
control myself,” he said softly as my eyes snapped open.

I took several shuddering breaths, trying to get my feelings under control.

“I don’t think I have as much self control as you do,” I admitted, realizing that all I wanted right now was to feel his lips on mine again.

Will stood up in a fluid motion and pulled me up with him.

“Aven, don’t say things like that. It makes it less likely that I
will
be able to retain said control.”

I blushed again. Then my hand flew to my mouth as I remembered that my dad was supposed to call.

“My dad! He was supposed to call me!”

I looked around desperately for my phone as an image of my dad calling the police flashed in my mind. I winced at the thought, but before I could panic, Will held out my cell phone.

“Where did you get my … never mind.”

I snatched the phone from him and called my dad.

“Dad?”

“Are you all right, Aven? I’ve been trying to call.”

“I was sleeping,” I lied guiltily.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better. I told you I’d be fine.”

“Good. You had me worried.”

“Sorry.”

I glanced over at Will and wondered how worried my dad would be if he knew that I was with Will—and how much worse it would be if he knew what Will was. Scratch that. I barely understood what Will was.

“How are things at the conference?” I asked absently with my eyes still on Will.

“The presentations have had a great response. I’ll tell you about it when I get home.”

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“My flight gets in around six-thirty, and it’ll be a drive from the airport. Go ahead and have dinner without me. Until then, you can give me a call if you need anything.”

“All right. Love you, Dad.”

When I ended the call, Will studied me.

“You didn’t feel like telling your father that you were spending the day in the company of a creature with very bad intentions toward his daughter?” he asked, his eyes flashing in amusement.

“You have bad intentions toward
moi
?” I asked wryly.

My heart was racing again, but not from fear.

“I do,” Will said more seriously than I expected. “But in the interest of not corrupting you any further than I already have, shall we focus on schoolwork?”

“How?” I asked, suddenly miserable. “I left all my stuff at home.”

“I brought your schoolwork here.”

I frowned.

“Really?”

Will nodded and started walking toward the glass doors at the front of the house, which opened automatically at his approach. He returned moments later holding my backpack and gestured upstairs.