Destined For a Vampire (14 page)

Bo shrugged helplessly. “I just don’t know. I need to see Lucius.”

“Then go,” I encouraged. “We’ll be fine.”

“No. I’m staying until you get home safely. I can go later. I may even wait until you’re at school on Monday.”

“Bo, you don’t have to—”

He put his finger to my lips. “Don’t argue. I’m not leaving you.”

Even though I, too, wanted answers, it warmed me, thrilled me to hear him say that.

Unbidden, the image of Bo with another girl popped into my mind, a faceless girl who was destined to be something to him that I could never be.

Angrily, I pushed the thoughts aside, determined not to let a bleak future ruin the only days I’d probably ever have with him. I refused to live anywhere but the present when it came to Bo. I’d hold onto him as long as I could and I’d relish every second.

I smiled. “Alright. What do you want me to do now, then?”

“I’ll be watching. Just wait your turn and when it’s time to leave, go straight to your car. Take Savannah home and I’ll meet you there.”

“At Savannah’s? What if she—”

Bo grinned, a sexy, lopsided tilt of his lips. “Trust me, I can be very quiet when I need to be.”

Flashes of our time in my bedroom and our interlude in the hall, just a few feet away, flickered through my mind and brought my blood instantly to a sizzling boil. Bo had an insane effect on me. He could block out everything else in the world, no matter how horrible or scary or important. He was like the sun in my sky, chasing away darkness and shadow. Everything melted away in the brilliance of his love.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he said. I heard the telltale hissing of the Ss and I couldn’t help but smile.

I stepped in close to Bo’s body. I could still feel the incredible heat of him; it poured off him in scorching waves.

I reached up blindly, sliding my hand up Bo’s warm chest, finding my way to his delicious lips. I traced the chiseled outline with my fingertip.

“I just wish we had time to further explore how quiet you can be.”

His lips parted when he caught his breath. I slipped my finger into his mouth and rubbed gently back and forth, testing the two pointed tips of his lower teeth.

Knowing that Bo was on fire for me—for my body, for my blood—and that any minute, someone could come through that door and find us was a heady combination, dangerously seductive.

I gasped when I felt the sting of my skin breaking beneath the sharp edge of Bo’s tooth. Liquid heat gushed through my body, pooling in that part of me that ached the most, the part that throbbed for Bo, for his touch.

Bo’s hand shot up and his fingers wound around my wrist, pulling my finger from his mouth.

“You’re playing with fire,” he growled.

“I know,” I whispered breathlessly.

Gently, Bo released me and set me away from him.

“You’d better go.”

The air around me felt suddenly colder than ever without the heat of Bo’s body so close. I felt bereft, in several ways at once. Knowing they were finite, it was harder than ever to see moments like these come to an end, especially an unsatisfying end.

A shiver passed through me, as if that feeling of loss was a precursor to the cold emptiness I’d feel when Bo moved on to an eternity with someone else.

“Ok,” I said, trying not to be too obvious about my disappointment.

I turned to make my way back through the dark back stage area. I’d only walked a couple feet when I turned back to address Bo.

“Do you—”

The question died on my lips. He was already gone. I could feel it.

********

I drove forward a few feet and stopped. With head-spinning speed, Bo was seated in the passenger side, grinning at me.

“Let’s go.”

I just shook my head. Nothing he did should surprise me anymore.

Several minutes later, I pulled in my driveway and cut the engine.

“You’re coming in, aren’t you?”

Bo looked at me skeptically.

“I don’t mean, like, where my parents can see you. I just meant you’re not leaving right now, are you?”

“Not if you want me to stay.”

“I want you to stay,” I assured him. “Give me a few minutes to get to my room and open the window, ok?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

The brightness from the dusk-to-dawn light at the corner of the house shone into the car, illuminating one side of Bo’s handsome face. It highlighted the sharp angles and threw the other half into deep shadow. With my fingers on the door handle, I paused, taking in his beauty, his masculine perfection. I wanted to memorize the way he looked at that exact moment, to let the image sear itself on my brain so that I’d never forget how gorgeous he was and that, for a while, he was all mine.

When his brow wrinkled in confusion, I gave him a shaky smile and slipped quietly out of the car. I didn’t need him to start asking questions.

I opened the front door as quietly as I could, hoping to get past Mom and Dad unnoticed, just in case they weren’t asleep. Only that didn’t happen.

“Ridley, is that you?”

Dad.

“Yeah, Dad. I’m home,” I said, veering toward the living room to poke my head in.

“How’d it go?”

“Just fine,” I said, leaving out…everything.

“You sure about that?” Dad asked, getting up off the couch and walking over to stand in front of me. He stopped and crossed his arms over his chest, a very intimidating stance.

“Yeah, why?”

“One of your teachers called here tonight to make sure that you got home alright.”

“What? Why?”

“Apparently there was some commotion at the dance, a couple of kids got attacked. Is that right?”

I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Yes, but it’s not what you think.”

“Then why did you tell me everything was fine, young lady?”

“Because I didn’t want to worry you over something like that until the police had a chance to figure out what happened.”

“The
police
were there?”

“Well, yeah. Mr. Hall called them and, when they came, they wanted to get some information from all the students.”

“What happened? Exactly.”

“A girl, Bailey Adams, showed up saying that another girl at our school attacked her boyfriend and dragged him off. They’re thinking that either she made it up or someone played a prank on her. It wasn’t a big deal, Dad.”

“Anything that involves the police is a big deal. And for one of your teachers to call here to check on you, that’s an even bigger deal. Obviously she thought you might be in danger.” Dad rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I swear, Ridley, what am I going to do with you? You have to be more careful.”

“I was, Dad. We weren’t in any danger or they wouldn’t have let us leave.”

“Then why did Ms. Bowman call here?”

“Ms. Bowman?”

“Yes, your, um, I forgot what subject she said she taught.”

“Are you sure her name was Bowman?”

I didn’t have a teacher by that name. In fact, I couldn’t think of any teacher at the school with the last name of Bowman.

“Yes, Ridley. Heather Bowman.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Heather Bowman? I knew of only one Heather, and that was
the
Heather. And the only Bowman that I knew was Bo.

“Oh, yeah, Ms. Bowman,” I said as casually as I could muster. “What exactly did she say?”

“Just that she was calling to check on you. She wanted to make sure you were at home, out of harm’s way.”

Was that some sort of message? Or had she been trying to find out where I was?

“Ok, well, I’m tired. I’m going to bed,” I announced, throwing in a fake yawn for good measure. I was so wired at that very moment that the only thing that would’ve induced sleep was either a horse tranquilizer or a taser.

“Ridley, please be more careful,” Dad pleaded, his voice dropping low so that only I could hear him. “I don’t think your mother could survive it if something happened to you, too.”

I had to agree with him. She probably couldn’t. Of course, she was doing a pretty good job of numbing herself up against life, so it was possible that we were both dead wrong.

“I know, Dad. I promise to be more careful.”

That was the best tack to take with them: submissive agreement. Don’t rock the boat, especially a boat as unstable as ours.

I held Dad’s gaze, my most genuine expression in place, until I saw that I’d convinced him of my sincerity.

His lips twitched in a tiny grin. “Good,” he said, brushing his hand over my hair. “You look beautiful. Did I tell you that?”

“No, but thanks.”

“Come here,” he said, pulling me to him for a hug. “I love you, Ridley.”

I was stunned by both his display of affection as well as his admission. Our family didn’t act like this anymore, hadn’t since Izzy died. I felt stiff in his arms. It had been so long since either of them had shown me affection this way, especially sober, that I wasn’t quite sure how to be comfortable with it now. I wanted to melt into his arms, to enjoy the comfort that I’d missed for so long, but I just couldn’t. It felt strange and forced and bitter. I ended up patting his back mechanically, wishing for the moment to be over.

“I love you, too, Dad.”

When he let me go, I tried to smile as I turned to walk to my bedroom, but I felt like it was glaringly obvious that I was off kilter.

Once in my room, I rushed to the window and threw it open and raised the screen. I stuck my head out and heard a rustling in the bush to the left. Bo stepped out from behind it and I backed up so he could climb through. He did it with such speed and ease, it looked as if he was outside one minute and inside the next. No transition, no movement, no distance between point A and point B.

I thought of my attacker and how I didn’t stand a chance against someone like that—a vampire— who wanted to hurt me. There would be no keeping her out, no escaping her if she got in. If a vampire wanted to hurt me, there was little I could do to prevent it.

“I need to change. Do you mind?” I asked as I walked to my dresser to get out some pajamas.

Bo stepped over to stand behind me, in front of the mirror that sat on top of the shiny mahogany surface. I watched his reflection as he raised his hand and pushed my hair back from one side of my neck and bent his head to place a kiss right at the curve of my shoulder.

“I don’t mind,” he said beside my ear. “In fact, I could be convinced to lend a hand if you need help getting out of this dress.”

One hand brushed down my back and his fingers settled at the top of my zipper. Though goose bumps erupted all over my chest and shoulders, my mind was running over a thousand worrisome things, not the least of which was that it was high time Bo and I talked. Even his intoxicating presence, his alluring scent, his arousing heat couldn’t compete with the heaviness of my heart.

“I think I can handle this one on my own,” I said, watching his reaction in the mirror.

Bo raised his head and his eyes met mine in the mirror. I stared at him, and he stared back. For a moment, all I could think about was how he was so perfect it hurt. But in that brief wordless exchange, Bo came to understand that something was wrong. I saw the weight settle over him like an invisible iron blanket. I recognized it, knew it well; it was dread.

He nodded and stepped back to let me move on to the bathroom, where I quickly changed into my pajamas and then went back out to my closet to hang up my dress.

Bo was lounging on the bed, but he looked anything but relaxed. There was a tightness about him, a readiness that reminded me of a coiled spring.

I sat on the bed in front of Bo, facing him, and curled my feet up under me.

“I got a call tonight.”

“I heard. Ms. Bowman, right?”

I nodded.

“So ,what’s the problem?”

“I don’t have a teacher by the name of Bowman.”

Bo shrugged. “Maybe it was just
a
teacher, not
your
teacher, calling to check on the kids from the dance.”

“Bo, there isn’t a teacher in the entire school with the last name of Bowman.

And did you hear her first name?”

“Hea—” he began, but then stopped suddenly, sitting up. “
The
Heather?”

“I don’t know, but I would imagine so.”

Bo leapt off the bed, a movement so fast it didn’t even shake the bed. He began to pace my bedroom floor like a caged animal.

“These past weeks, I haven’t been able to find out anything about her. Why would she call you? What did she say?”

“Just that she was calling to check on me, see if I was at home. She wanted to make sure I was ‘out of harm’s way’.”

“That means she’s close.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Just trust me. She’s close. Now if I could just find her…”

“Bo, there’s something else that you need to know about Heather.”

He stopped his pacing, looking at me expectantly, his eyes full of that anxiety that says
I don’t want to know, but I have to find out.

“While it’s true that she was probably the one who had something to do with orchestrating your father’s death, I think…
we
think…that it might be much bigger than that.”

“We?”

“Me and Lucius.”

Bo’s eyes narrowed on me. “What is it that you think is going on?”

“Bo, Lucius has kept some things from you because he wasn’t quite sure what to make of…you. I’m sure you’ve wondered how you survived the poisoning.”

Bo nodded. “I figured the stories were wrong. I thought since it had never been done before, that it was just
assumed
that it would be deadly, that no one really knew for sure. Why? What do you know about that?”

“There’s a legend, one I don’t really know that much about, but it tells of a boy who can’t be killed.”

Easily reaching the obvious conclusion, Bo said, “And you think that person is me?”