Darkness (13 page)

I sighed and was disappointed but I figured I’d be fine. Being there at the house wasn’t bad. It was actually rather enjoyable. “Is everything okay?” I asked.

“I need to go, Laney. Felix will explain. I love you and I
will
see you tomorrow.” He did sound truly sorry.

“I love you too,” I said back, but with much less enthusiasm than when I’d answered the phone. I didn’t like this.
What if she comes back while he’s gone…?

After making sure Carter was all situated in bed and wouldn’t be any trouble for the rest of us, Felix gathered Hayden, Isaac and me in the living room and gave us the run down before he left.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this but the coven needs to see me and Oliver together, not separately.” He sat on the loveseat facing the three of us on the couch and continued, “Apparently our forces took heavy losses and they need us to meet with the others and regroup. They want us on damage control. There’s a possibility that we might have to pull from the lottery and that always causes an uproar.” I had no freaking idea what he was talking about. Then he rose from his seat and headed for the door. “I will return as soon as I can. Isaac would you mind taking care of Carter?”

“Not a problem.” Isaac responded. And I wondered why him? Why hadn’t he asked me to do it and then I quickly came to the conclusion that when he said “care” for him, it was about potty time and I wanted nothing to do with that.

Before Felix stepped out the door I expressed my concerns about Julz’s return without either himself or Oliver being there to, pretty much, protect me. I had worded it differently though. For one, I felt a little rude not wanting the love of Isaac’s life and Hayden’s mother to return and for another, I didn’t want to look like a total wussy. Felix reassured me that, once the house was in lockdown (I will get to the explanation of that part soon) she couldn’t get inside. Nor could we get out. Creepy…I was also reassured by Isaac after Felix left that we weren’t completely trapped. There was an emergency code that could be entered into the security system in the event we needed out of the house. It was good to know.

Isaac also expressed his, obviously bitter, concerns that Julz might never come back and apparently Oliver had never given her such freedom before. It seemed that in the past when Oliver would leave, he’d always given her some sort of timeline on when to return. This time, he just let her go.

After expressing that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it, Felix flipped on the entryway light and then closed and locked the front door behind himself. Then Isaac punched in a code on the security pad behind the front door. Now, as for the house going into lockdown: once the alarm beeped four times it silenced, began to blink red, metal panels began to slide into place over the windows, and I could hear what sounded like bolts sliding into places around the doors. Once all the sounds stopped so did the blinking light. It stayed red after that.

It was an eerie feeling, being trapped in a house with people I barely knew. Although I had been warm and fuzzy with them only moments before, this was downright creepy. Then a thought occurred to me and I voiced it, “What do we do if Lola needs to pee?” As usual she was glued to my leg.

“She’ll go in the shower if she needs to,” Hayden said nonchalantly as she left the room, flipping all the lights in the house on her way down the hall. It was dark inside with the windows covered.

I stared at the dog and was just a little surprised she didn’t know how to use the toilet. The mental image made me laugh.

Chapter 15 - Isaac

With Hayden out of the room just Isaac and I were left sitting in the living room. I’d never had an actual conversation with Isaac until that day. But being in “lockdown” together seemed to encourage him to open up and I had nothing else to do, so I figured why not. Plus, the curiosity I had for his relationship with the purple haired devil was undeniable. His openness could’ve also had something to do with the fact that all the vampires were gone and he could actually be himself without ears from any place in the house hearing him.

“I know it’s totally weird to be stuck in the house like this but it will keep us safe,” Isaac said.

“Will it?” It just seemed that if a vampire really wanted in someplace, it wouldn’t be too hard for him or her to do so. After all, I’d seen two of them carry a mangled full sized car off the road and one of those vamps was pretty damn scrawny.

“Of course.” He smiled so reassuringly that I tried to believe him, but I was finding that it was just a bit hard to do so.

“Don’t you ever feel trapped like a prisoner?” I was sort of starting to feel that way.

“Nah,” he flipped his faded turquoise bangs out of his eyes and continued, “it’s become so normal that I don’t even really think about it anymore.” Then he lowered his voice and added, “But between you and me, sometimes…sometimes I still do.” He picked up his guitar and began to strum. He seemed to relax even more with it in his hands. “You know, this isn’t the life I had in mind for myself.” I listened as he continued to mindlessly pluck away at the strings and tell me more, “I can’t imagine many dream of raising another man’s child with a woman who will never love you the way she loved him.” I tried really hard to keep my expression neutral and I have no idea if I succeeded or not, but thankfully his focus wasn’t on me. His words had come as a surprise to me and there was just nothing you could say to that.

He continued, “It’s been over fourteen years and she still craves him,” he looked up at me for a brief moment then back down to his guitar. “Do you think she ever longed for me while she was with him? I doubt it.” Again, nothing you can say in response to that.

He stopped strumming for a moment and looked at me, his sunkissed face scrunched up in frustration. “Does she honestly think that I don’t know where her thoughts go when she spaces off like she does? I mean, really! I gave up everything for her. I was young and made a decision without even thinking.” He was clearly getting some things off of his chest and all I could do was be his audience. “My choice will probably cost me my life. But I’m doing it for her.”

“For Julz?” This had me puzzled.

“No, Hayden. She needed me and I needed her.” This made more sense to me.

He focused his attention back to the strings and began strumming again. “I try not to hold it against Julz, she didn’t choose this life either. We’ve both had to make sacrifices. My parents and my sister were put into witness protection. Of course its vampire witness protection but they don’t need to know that. I get to sneak off once a year to see them. My sister is married now and has kids. They have no idea who I am. I’ve missed out on my entire family while she pines away for the other man.” Clearly Isaac had been holding some things in. He was irritated and I felt I needed to find a way to settle him.

“Some people only see their families once a year by choice.” Okay, that may not have been my best attempt.

His eyes shifted from his guitar to me. He stared at me with his forehead scrunched into a thoughtful bunch and then he began to chuckle. I smiled back, thankful I hadn’t upset him.

“Sorry Laney. I shouldn’t have dumped all of that on you.”

“It’s fine.” I smiled again. And it really was fine. It gave me a little more insight into their relationship and now he made more sense to me. Then I began to wonder what time it was. I was getting hungry.

He rested his guitar against the couch again and relaxed into the cushions. “Thanks for listening. I can really only talk to Felix about this and I’m sure, after all these years, he’s probably tired of listening to me.” He patted the couch beside him for Lola to join him and she did. She rested her head across his lap like she does with me and enjoyed getting loved by him. I considered bolting from the room just to see what she’d do but I figured she’d probably take Isaac out trying to come after me. Okay, maybe the thought of being locked up was causing me to come up with crazy ways to entertain myself. Could’ve also been the lack of food…It had been hours since I’d eaten and my tummy was working on empty.

“So what’s your story?” He asked and I told him. I told him about my mom passing away when I was two, that my dad was not a part of my life and that my aunt had raised me and that she was all the family I had left. I told him a little about my close network of friends and my plans, or lack-there-of, for school, and that was pretty much it.

“Would you give up all that you have for him?” He asked in all seriousness.

Would I?
That’s when all the misgivings I’d ever had went away. I knew I would. “Yes,” I answered confidently and quietly.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure. But it doesn’t mean I’ll answer it.” I couldn’t help smirking at myself.

“Ha! You’re beginning to sound like Oliver. Anyways,” and he seemed to get a little uncomfortable which made me squirm a bit. “Have you and Oliver been
together
yet?”

Wow! Can you say uncomfortable? “Um, no.”

He looked at the dog while he carried on, “I’m not trying to scare you Laney, but sex with a vampire is different, dangerous even. No matter how human Oliver seems, he’s not.” He looked at me then, “I just want you to be aware of what you’re getting into.”

I took a deep breath and tried my best to control the hint of a burn I felt in my cheeks and said, “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. Currently I was locked in a house with people I barely knew, a dog that was part mountain lion and vampire, and a friend who was probably going to turn into some weird ass man dog when the moon was full, while my vampire boyfriend and his massive vampire partner were off with their coven trying to save the world. What the hell else was I going to say to a man giving me advice on sex with a vampire? I mentally calmed myself down; obviously I had some things I was holding in, too.

“Why do you do it?” I asked him, “Stay with her, that is.” Wow, that could’ve been taken the wrong way and I don’t even want to think about the answer I would’ve gotten.

He flipped his head to get his hair out of his eyes again. “I love her. I can’t help it. And with Hayden thrown in the mix, there’s just no way I could leave.”

I had never thought about how much it must have hurt for him to hear her say, “Why should you be able to have what I can’t?” that day she shared those memories with me. He had been sitting on the couch, in the same spot he was now. The memories I had caught a glimpse of that day tried to resurface and I had to fight hard to push them away. This wasn’t the time for me to get lost with Oscar too.

After a few awkward moments of silence he said, “How about some food?”

It was like he’d read my mind. Or at least heard my stomach growl.

Chapter 16 - The Past

Hayden joined us as we made dinner. Nothing fancy, just sandwiches. As Isaac layered all three sandwiches with a variety of meat I asked, “Does Julz know you eat meat?”

“Heck no! She’d flip a gasket if she even knew there was meat in the house, let alone in my body. There’s a lot Julz doesn’t know and never needs to know.” He gave me a quick glance.

I had no problem with that.

We had finished assembling our enormous sandwiches and were cleaning up when I caught sight of the top of Isaac’s cute little bum peeking out of the top of his less than form fitting jeans. His shirt had hiked up as he bent over to shove things into a bottom drawer of the fridge. His back was so tan and his butt wasn’t. I turned away quickly and thought about all his lady fans and how they’d probably pay big money to see what I just had.

After eating we settled back into the living room where Isaac began to play again. Hayden was sprawled out on the chaise and I sat on the loveseat flipping through the pages of another vampire book that was less impressive than the last.

Isaac started singing quietly and I began to listen and watch him. Lola was, of course, in the same room and her ears perked up at his voice. In that wonderful tone of his, he began playing around with a song. Then, after messing around with it for a few, he started putting it together. The first line came out like this: