Blood Like Poison (22 page)

I jogged easily through the woods, feeling more energetic than ever.  Once I got to within a few hundred yards of the car, I could see it—clearly, as if I was standing near it in the bright light of day, even though dusk had almost given way to night.

The ambulance pulled up a couple of minutes after I arrived at the car and, as Bo suspected, they immediately wanted to give me a thorough once-over.  Luckily, because I was walking around and making sense and I didn’t appear to be bleeding, they didn’t dig too deeply (like underneath my clothes).  One of the cops who accompanied the EMTs did, however, dig into my story as he drove me back to my house. 

When a cop dropped me off at the house, I got the fifth degree from Mom and Dad, which surprised me.  I think it brought back terrible memories for them.  I’m sure they were terrified of losing another child in a car accident, even if that child was like a phantom houseguest to them most of the time. 

 When they finally fulfilled their parental obligations, they let me go to my room.  I pushed the door shut behind me and leaned back against it, closing my eyes and breathing a sigh of relief.  My room was my sanctuary.

The air smelled stagnant and made me feel claustrophobic, so I walked to my window to raise it.  Before I reached it, I heard the screech of wood scraping against a metal track as my window rose.

My feet faltered and I slowed, creeping closer to the window.  Just as I stopped in front of it, the intoxicating scent of Bo assailed me and I felt that bone-deep yearning that so often overcame me when he was near.

“Bo?”

“I’m here,” he said from somewhere outside my window.

“Did you just—”

I trailed off.  Of course he did.  How else would my window get raised?

“What?”

“Nothing,” I said.

I saw the screen pop out and then heard the shuffling sounds of him crawling through the window.  I wondered about how he’d gotten the window up through the screen, but the thought was lost as soon as Bo started walking toward me.  I couldn’t see him, but my nerves stirred with every step he took in my direction.  It made the hairs on my arms stand at attention. 

“I wanted to make sure you were alright,” he said, coming to stand in front of me.  He was so close, I could feel the coolness of his body radiating toward me, like standing in front of an open refrigerator door.

“I’m fine.”  And that was entirely true now that he was here.  “I see that you didn’t go home,” I said, referring to his transparency.

“I wanted to keep any eye on you until you got home safely.”  Gently, he rubbed the backs of his fingers over my side, where I’d been impaled.  Even through his shirt, my skin felt chilled.  “How does it feel?”

“Fine, like it always has.  It doesn’t even hurt,” I assured him.  I left out any mention of how his touch was affecting the rest of me.

Bo lifted up the edge of his shirt and slid his fingertips along my skin. 

“Yow!  Your hands are like ice,” I yelped.

Bo jerked his hand back as if I’d slapped him.  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

I felt him step back from me, and I instantly regretted my reaction.  I stepped toward him to close the gap between us.  I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my body to his, goose bumps breaking out all over my skin.  I steeled myself against the cold, determined not to shiver.

“Bo, you’re freezing.  How long can you stay like this?  Without food?”

“A while.”

I could hear the weakness in his voice, feel the little tremor that vibrated through his body.

A solution occurred to me, one that brought a hint of fear and dread, but one that I felt compelled to offer.

“Could you, um, drink from me?”

Again, Bo jerked back as if I’d hurt him.  “No!”

His reaction made me feel dirty or unsavory, like the thought of drinking my blood was somehow repugnant to him.

“Why?”  I couldn’t keep the hurt from my voice.   

“I will never do that,” he spat.

“But why?  You need blood.  I can give you that, just like you gave me yours.”

“I don’t drink from humans.  Only killers and monsters do that.”

I felt ashamed for even having suggested it, though my motives had been pure. 

I didn’t understand his reaction.  He was a vampire.  Vampires drink blood.  He needed blood.  I had blood.  What was I missing?

“You’ve never taken blood from a human?”

“I drink blood donated to the blood bank,” he replied, not really answering my question at all.

“Have you always done that?  I mean, you’ve never had it from a real live person?”

Bo’s hesitation answered my question before he even opened his mouth.

“Ah,” I said, comprehension dawning and bringing with it more hurt.  “You just don’t want my blood.”

Bo’s voice was tender and sincere when he responded.  “If I drank from humans, you would be the only person I’d want to drink from.”

“Then why don’t you?”

“I just,” he paused, sighing. I heard a rasping sound and I knew he was running his fingers through his hair.  “I did, once.  But I promised myself I’d never do it again.  And I haven’t.  It’s like poison of a different kind, poison for your soul.”

I tried not to be frustrated by his not-an-answer answers.  “I’m assuming you don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s not my favorite topic, no.”

“Then maybe you should go,” I suggested.  It sounded pouty and I hated that, so I added, “You need to feed and I’m pretty beat.”

Bo was quiet for what seemed like an eternity before he responded.  “Alright.”

I heard his practically silent footsteps as he made his way to the window. 

“Will you be alright?”

“I’ll be fine.  I just wanted to check on you,” he said.

I heard the sounds of him exiting through the window just before his voice traveled back to me.

“Sweet dreams, Ridley,” he whispered and then, once again, I was alone.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Monday dawned clear and cool.  When I got to school, the halls were abuzz with tales of Drew’s recovery from our car accident.  He was quite the miraculous survivor, if the chatter of the girls was any indication.  Apparently he was made of steel, superhuman and quite invincible.

I just shook my head and pushed through the throng, making my way to my locker.  A few rows down from mine, I saw Savannah standing with Devon at his locker.  He looked up and I smiled.  He looked happier than I’d seen him in a long time.  I watched as Savannah stretched up on her tiptoes to whisper something in his ear and then she turned to walk away—and made her way to me.

“So,” she said, coming to a chipper halt to my right and leaning up against the locker beside mine.  “I totally owe you.”

Puzzled, I glanced over into her cocoa eyes and asked, “Owe me for what?”

“For getting that skanky strumpet off my back,” she clarified, wrinkling her pert nose.

I couldn’t help but smile.  Savannah was a very unique personality, and very animated as well.  “Strumpet?”

“Yeah.  I read trashy romance novels.  They’ve scrambled my brain and ruined my vocabulary.”

“Strumpet,” I repeated, resisting the urge to laugh.

“Yeah, it’s like slut or whore.  Tramp.”

“No, I know what it means, I just haven’t heard anyone use that word in, oh I don’t know…
ever
,” I teased.

She shrugged, unperturbed.  “What can I say?  I’m a trendsetter.”

This time I actually did laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

Bo’s velvety voice caused my blood to jump excitedly inside my veins.  I’d been so focused on Savannah, I hadn’t felt him coming.

He spoke right beside my ear and a shower of goose flesh rained down my neck and chest, causing my nipples to tighten.  I could feel a burning heat emanating from Bo’s body where he stood at my back.  I wanted to melt right into him.  It was all I could do not to close my eyes and sigh at the pleasure running through me.

“My stunning grasp of the English language,” Savannah supplied in answer to Bo’s question.

I could almost have forgotten she was there.  I could almost have forgotten the rest of the world at that moment.

“Ah,” was his only response.

Savannah threw me a cheeky smile.  “Although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our stroll through the thesaurus, what I really came to talk to you about is a double date.”

“A what?”

“A double date,” she repeated.

“With who?”

“Me and Devon.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Bo answered.  “We can talk some more about it at lunch.”

“Fabulous,” she beamed, turning to flounce off down the hall.

I turned around, so close to Bo our thighs touched.  “A great idea, huh?”

“She’s gone, isn’t she?”  His eyes twinkled in mischief and his deep grin brought out twin dimples on either side of his mouth.  I’d never noticed them before, but I thought they were the sexiest thing I’d ever seen on a man.

“Why did you want to get rid of her?”  My belly was squirming with butterflies.

“I thought I’d steal you from Home Room and—”

Bo trailed off, distracted.  A fraction of a second later, I smelled something.  I had no idea what it was, or even how to describe it really, other than it smelled wonderful.

“What’s that smell?” I drew a huge breath into my lungs, relishing the aroma it carried.  I could almost taste the scent it was so heavy in the air.

I felt Bo’s body tense.  “You can smell that?”  His eyes were narrowed suspiciously on me.

“Of course I can.”

He frowned, but then his eyes moved off to lock onto something behind me.  I looked over my shoulder to see what had caught his attention.

A hush fell over the crowd in the hall and they began to part, mashing themselves up against the rows of lockers on either side of the corridor.  That’s when I saw him. 

He stood alone at the end of the hall, towering at least a head over everyone else.  No one moved or said a word.  No one even breathed.  It was like the world stopped spinning for a split second, time itself standing still to admire this one person.

With intense blue eyes and wavy blonde hair that brushed his forehead and his collar, he could’ve been a surfer but for his pale skin.  His eyes met mine and the left side of his mouth pulled up into a cocky smirk.  For a second, I thought I was going to actually swoon.  Swoon!  Who even does that anymore?

“Ridley,” Bo said from behind me, his voice low and deadly.  “Go to class.  I’ll meet you back here after Home Room.”

I wanted to argue, but I knew by Bo’s tone that it wouldn’t be wise.  Just before I turned to do as Bo suggested, I saw the stranger’s attention flicker to my left.  Struggling to tear my eyes away from him, I physically turned my head just in time to see Trinity round the corner and come onto the hall.