Eternal Kiss (27 page)

Gabby walked home with Jennifer, which was not unusual, especially for a Friday. Their houses were a few blocks from each other. Jennifer’s mother hadn’t wanted to move too far away from her sister even though they both lived in the same town. Gabby chattered about Colin the whole way home—about where he’d moved from, about the things he’d said in English class, and about whether or not he liked Jennifer. Jennifer barely paid attention. All she wanted to do was get home and read the books Colin had left in her locker.

She convinced Gabby not to come inside the house with her, claiming she had a headache. Locking the front door behind her, she raced upstairs to her room and flung herself on the bed, fumbling the books out of her bag. Their covers were even more lurid than she remembered—each one showed a powerfully muscled male vampire bent over the prone body of a woman, her back arched, her pale throat nakedly exposed. Unconsciously pressing her hand to her own throat, Jennifer opened
Blood Desire
and began to read.

She finished
The Vampire’s Secret
after midnight, having read straight through for six hours, not even going downstairs for dinner. But she didn’t feel tired. She felt alert and awake. Her mouth was dry, her heart pounding as if she’d been running. She was barely aware of what she had read—she’d taken in almost nothing of the stories—but images raced through her mind, as if they came swirling up out of dreams: pale bodies sinking back into darkness, dark hair blown on the wind, red fingernails scraping across the front of an old-fashioned white shirt, blood on an exposed throat, blue veins running under skin like a roadmap. Her own skin burned and itched. There was a pain in the side of her throat. Taking her hand away, she saw her fingertips stained red and realized she had dug her own nails into the skin of her throat until it bled. Her stomach twisted.
Colin
, she thought.
I want Colin
.

When Jennifer came downstairs that morning she found her father sitting at the breakfast table, half-hidden by a newspaper. Her mother was by the stove, flipping pancakes.

Her father lowered the paper with a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Good morning, sunshine.”

Jennifer tugged self-consciously at the neck of her sweater. She’d worn it to cover the bruises she’d made on her throat with her own fingernails. “Morning, Dad.”

He frowned. “You look a little peaked, kid. Is everything all right? You feeling okay?”

Her mother, coming over to the table with a plate of pancakes. “Do you need to stay home from school, Jenny?”

Staying home from school would mean not seeing Colin. Jennifer’s stomach twisted, a feeling of nausea rising inside her. The sickly smell of maple syrup was overwhelming. “I’m fine. I just had a lot of homework to do last night.”

Her mother and father glanced at each other across the table, their eyes meeting in secret parental communication. “We were thinking of going up to your grandmother’s this weekend,” her mother said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen her. We thought you could take Friday off school.”

Jennifer’s grandmother lived hours outside the city in the middle of nowhere, a tiny house surrounded by trees, miles from the nearest town. And she was even more conservative than Jen’s mother. She banned all books from her house, not just the ones with magic or supernatural creatures in them, and all music and movies, too. She was terrifying—cold and rigid and strict. Gabby said everyone was afraid of her, even her daughters. Gabby hated going there just as much as Jen did; they’d always used the place as a threat to each other when they were little.

If you do that, they’ll send you to Grandma’s house!

“Is this because I asked you about dating?” Jen demanded, whirling on her mom. “It’s not like he even asked—”

She broke off, already knowing she’d said too much.

Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “So there is a boy. A
specific
boy?”

“No!” Jennifer backed away from the table. “There isn’t anyone.”

“Jen,” her father said. His voice was placating. “You know the rules.”

But what if you met him?
Jen wanted to ask, but it was pointless. She thought of her parents meeting Colin, with his rings and his strange black clothes and his claim that he was a vampire. She could only imagine how badly that would go.

And it wasn’t as if he’d asked her out in the first place, anyway.

“I just don’t want to go away this weekend,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “I have a lot of work. A big assignment—”

“Jen,” her mother said. Her voice was soft; she didn’t sound angry. “Whoever he is, just forget about him. Someday, when you’re older, there will be other boys.”

But Jen didn’t want other boys.

Colin was in his usual place in the lunchroom that afternoon, his feet up on the table, a black notebook spread out over his lap. As usual, there was no food on his lunch tray. Jennifer marched directly up to him, ignoring the stares of Gabby and Bridget from across the room.

“I read those books,” she said. “The ones you put in my locker.”

He lowered the notebook and looked up. His eyes seared into hers. “What books?”

Now he was playing with her. “You know what books.” She
searched his face for any clue to what he was thinking, but it was unreadable. “Why are you so fascinated with vampires?”

Now he smiled. “Why not?” he said. “People have been fascinated with vampires for centuries.”

“But
you
,” she whispered. “Why do
you
care? Why do you know so much about them?”

“They’re human, but more than human. They don’t need to eat, to breathe—imagine being like that, so pure that you have only one need in the world, one desire.”

“Blood,” Jennifer said, and a shiver went up her spine as she said it. She was no longer aware of the cafeteria, the noise and bustle all around her, or even if people were staring. She was only aware of Colin, who was holding her gaze to his with eyes like green nails.

“Blood,” he said. “So simple, but everything. Imagine looking around a room like this—” His eyes slid around the cafeteria, slow and contemptuous—“and knowing you’re better than everyone in it. Better and different.”

Jennifer shook her head. “I can’t imagine that.”

He leaned forward, his elbows on the table. His grin was florescent-bright. “You should. You
are
better. Different. Special. I knew it the minute I saw you in the library.”

She swallowed hard. “I’m not, really. I’m ordinary.”

He shook his head. “Come out with me this weekend,” he said.

Startled, she could only stare. “Like—on a date?”

“Like on a date.”

“My parents …” she began. “They don’t let me go on dates.”

“That’s too bad,” he said. He sounded like he meant it.

“And I won’t be around this weekend,” she said, and then, hardly believing her own daring, added: “But—my parents, they go to sleep early. Maybe I could sneak out …”

“Could you?” A smile played around the corners of his mouth. “I’ll tell you what. You wait for me, tonight, in your room. I’ll come to you.”

Jennifer’s throat was dry. It was all she could do to nod in response.

Leaving the cafeteria, Jen drifted through the halls like smoke, like a ghost. More than one person walked into her, but she only swerved to go around them, or stared through them until they moved on, muttering to themselves.
I’m seeing Colin tonight
, she thought, over and over.
Late tonight. He said he would come to me.
In one of the vampire stories she had read the night before, vampires had soulmates, humans who were bonded to them with a mutually interdependent bond—both vampire and human needing each other. The vampire would do anything to protect its bonded human. She thought of Colin being willing to do anything to protect her. She thought of his mouth on her throat, and a shudder went through her. She almost had to stop and lean against the wall to keep herself from falling over.

“Where are
you
?” Gabby’s voice, bright as sunshine cutting through the fog in her mind. Jennifer looked up. Gabrielle was
propped against the locker next to hers, a piece of her bright hair wound around a finger, her eyes inquisitive. “Earth to Jen.”

Jennifer swung her locker door open, avoiding her cousin’s eyes. “Sorry. I was thinking about something.”

“You’re always thinking about something.” Gabby tugged on her hair. “You need to take your mind off stuff. Want to go out tonight? See a movie? Something dumb, with cute guys in it.”

It was like Gabby was psychic. Jen bit her lip. “I can’t. I have … plans.”

“Plans? Plans with who?”

“No one.”

“Plans with Colin?”

Jennifer slammed her locker door shut. “Maybe.”

“Oh my God, you
do
have plans with him!” A look of surprise—and something more than surprise—washed over Gabby’s face. If Jennifer hadn’t known it was ridiculous, she would have thought Gabby looked frightened. “You’re not seriously going to go, are you?”

“Of course I’m going to go.”

Gabby chewed her lip. “I don’t think it’s a good idea—”

Jennifer turned away, cutting her off. “I’m going home, Gabby. I’ll see you later.”