Eternally Blue (Sunset Cliffs Vampire #1) (Paranormal Teen Romance) (8 page)

We had never been humans, unlike made vampires, but I still felt compassion for them. Made vampires can’t have children since their organs are human organs frozen in time, whereas born vampires have adapted over the years and can have children. It’s a blessing really because it’s probably the only thing stopping male vampires from choosing a trophy wife out of the human population since they would be pretty much worthless since they couldn’t carry on the gene line. Made vampires could also never be elders and weren’t held to as high of standards as born vampires.

I did have the right to turn Nikolai down but it was pretty much unheard of, and I was the natural choice of a wife for him, we were childhood friends after all. I always knew this time would come I just always thought it wouldn’t be so soon. Turning Nikolai down would destroy him I know, as civilized as he may seem to me, vampires in his position, radiating with the power that he does, have gone on a rampage for lesser things.

I was beginning to feel really sorry for myself something that was happening all too frequently for my liking, and was trying harder to fight back the tears swelling up in my eyes when I felt Noah’s hand on mine. He lightly squeezed and looked at me with concern. We were parked now. I could hear music playing from the car next to us and see Lindsey laughing, talking to Sean as she helped him take a pink surfboard off the top of her car. I sighed and shaking off my glum mood, squeezed his hand back, “Race you to the water!” I had my belt off and the door open in one motion and ran to the water laughing as I dived in. when I came up I wiped my face, grinning, and looked around the waves for Noah without luck. I turned in a circle frowning until my eyes landing on the beach. He was grinning at me from a towel, soaking wet.

“
What the -? How did you beat me and I not see you?” I ran out of the water and tackled him hard, laughing. My shove didn't do much though with my weakened human body and he quickly had me on my back with him leaning over me. Realization of our position hit us both at the same time and our faces turned serious and we flushed.

“
Why I don’t think I’ve ever seen this shade of red on a lady’s cheeks before” He drawled jokingly.

“
I could say the same about a certain gentleman’s cheeks” I replied softly.

That didn't make him move though. Surely he could feel my heart beating out of my chest. I was pretty sure I could hear his responding. He slowly wiped sand gently off my forehead, kissed it and flopped down next to me, shielding the sun from his eyes with his arm across his face.

What just happened? That was the most intense moment of my life. He just kissed me. As if to remind me of that, my lips tingled with jealousy and I touched them absentmindedly. Lindsey walked up, laying a towel down next to us, giggling as Sean came up behind her and smacked her butt lightly before bounding away to jump in the water.

She watched after him longingly before sitting down, arranging her suit and stomach to show the least amount of fat. As if she could look fat if she tried. Squinting against the sun she turned to me “thanks for meeting me here, you too Noah”.

“
Mmhhmm” Noah still had his eyes covered with his arm and seemed almost asleep. That gave me the chance to really admire his body: long, lean, perfectly tanned, and quickly drying. Lindsey snapped me back to reality by asking about my first day of school. Sean ran out of the water just then and charged up to us and started shaking water off him like a dog, getting both of us wet. Lindsey shrieked, jumped to her feet and started chasing him down the beach which left me and Noah alone again.

I looked around; the beach was nice, hidden. It was not too long and to enter or leave you had to trek through a worn path in some woods to the small parking lot. The trees sloped up to a pretty significant cliff that dropped off on the ocean side.

Lindsey and Sean were now farther away, both splashing in the water laughing. I grinned at them again and rolled onto my stomach and sighed, which Noah heard and acknowledged by rolling over as well.

“
Have you started to remember anything?“ he asked softly. He caught me off guard and I suppose my surprise showed because he quickly said “No, I didn't mean… I just meant if you want to talk about it…”

I shook my head. I hated lying to everyone. I guess that helped him believe the sad expression on my face when I replied “no, not yet.” We sat there silently for awhile, him pitying me, I was sure and me picking at sand and trying to think of something to say to erase my guilt over lying to him.

After both being lost in our own thoughts for awhile, Lindsey ran over. Breathlessly she looked down at me “Come on Blue, Sean and I want to see how you do on a surfboard.”

I grinned and looked over at Noah questioningly. He just shook his head and smiled. I shrugged and jumped to my feet, anxious to try my luck at the waves. It looked about as freeing as one could get in a clumsy human body.

“
Are things heating up with you and Noah?” She asked as we walked over to where Sean was waiting.

“
Not as much as you and Sean” I whispered since we were getting within hearing range of him and nudged her. The look on her face of my reminder made her almost squirm with excitement. I was reminded of him and Stacey at school, and I suppose it was obvious because she noticed my change in mood. “What?”

“
I was just wondering; Sean and Stacey were acting kind of weirdly to each other in class today”.

“
Yeah, they’re funny right? They are both really competitive and always going head to head for something or other. This year its valedictorian, last year it was class president”.

“
Really?” I was surprised. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by anything these days, I just wouldn’t have taken Stacey to be a brain, which sounds really judgmental but I don’t mean it like that. I should have at least noticed she was extra smart since she was in my honors class after all.

“
Uh, huh, just wait, they get really cut throat after the winter break, it’s like they’ve recharged and come back to tackle their goal and each other with fresh fervor”.

After I got a brief surfing lesson and demonstration, she let me loose with an extra board. I couldn’t get to my feet the first few waves which was frustrating for me, everything so far in my life has come pretty easily to me. On the fourth wave though, I got up. I was down again pretty quickly but before going under the water I heard Lindsey and the guy’s cheers and I grinned. That was amazing! I was instantly in love with the sport, and once they gained their confidence in me on shore, they came to join me with their boards and we all played and laughed for an hour or so until my body was exhausted.

I kept looking over to see if Noah was watching but he was curled up using his t shirt as a pillow and sleeping. The current had carried Lindsey and Sean pretty far away from me; I guess they were paying more attention to staying close to each other for conversation than I had been. I frowned impatiently as I waited for another large wave, they were getting increasingly smaller it seemed. I rubbed my arms and jumped in place to warm myself, it was getting chilly as the sun was disappearing. Oh, finally; a suitable wave.

I was halfway to shore on what was going to be my last wave when I lost my footing, and slipped backwards. I tried to steady myself but my wobbling only seemed to make it worse, I went backwards at the same time my board went into the air. I felt a massive blow to my head and then everything went black.

Chapter 5

“
Blue, oh my gosh, what should we do?” I heard Lindsey’s frantic voice. My eyes fluttered slowly open until I could see Lindsey, Sean and Noah leaning over me. Oww, my head really hurt. I lifted a hand to touch it, but Noah intercepted it.

He smiled at me and softly asked if I was ok. I nodded, “I,.. I think so. What happened?”

At hearing my voice, Lindsey’s face showed pure relief. “Oh my gosh, Blue, I’m so sorry. We got too far away from you, I should have stayed closer since it’s your first time out I just, you were doing so well, and it was easy to forget”.

I was trying unsuccessfully to piece together what happened when Sean chimed in “Yeah thankfully Noah was keeping an eye on you, once you wiped out and hit your head on your board there he was over there before we could get there and saved you. It could have been a lot worse”.

I looked sheepishly up at Noah who looked embarrassed. “I think we better get you home kid”. I tried getting to my feet, and gratefully accepted his arm.

“
Oh man, I have got to call Stacey and tell her what happened”. Lindsey was frantically looking around for her purse, which I could see was nowhere near where I washed up. I was feeling unsteady from dizziness as I pointed to the spot on the beach where it was, and Lindsey ran over to get it and came back, rooting through her purse. Noah stopped her before she could find it, “I’ll take her home, Mrs. Lacey wont freak, and don't worry this is nobody’s fault”.

Sean nodded in agreement but Lindsey still looked at me uneasily and I managed a weak smile. “Really Lindsey, I’m fine. I hope this won’t cause you not to bring me back here, I had a lot of fun”. I swayed a little which caused Noah to loop his arm around my waist. “OK time to go”, he lead me towards his car.

I took one last look at the pretty beach and over at the woods line I saw a movement of something large. I squinted trying to make out what it could be, but Noah’s arm gripped mine so tightly it caused me to jerk away. “Oww!” I looked at him with my meanest look.

“
Sorry” he said with true concern, looking at my arm and rubbing it. I looked back over to the woods but whatever was there was now gone. I sighed, and looked back at Noah who now looked more concerned than ever, and opened the car door for me to get in.

When we got on our street he pulled again into my driveway instead of across the street at his own house, and helped me out of the car. On the way to the door he gave my hand a squeeze and quietly said “Let me do the talking, we don't want to worry Mrs. Lacey so badly she doesn’t let you come out to play anymore”. I looked up to see him smiling flirtingly at me and I grinned and nodded in agreement.

When we got inside only Stacey was around but she was obviously waiting for us since she was in the foyer in a heartbeat. She looked me over before hugging me “Lindsey called, I’m so glad you’re ok. Mom is working but wants me to call her after I talk to you. First you have to tell me what all happened. Lindsey said you were all just out surfing and somehow you hit your head but Noah saved you?”

Noah nodded, “Yes, she was doing very well, well… until she wasn’t”. He gave Stacey a grin which she returned.

“
I’m going to go lay on the couch I think for a little while”.

“
I’ll stay with you”. Stacey and I both turned, surprised, to looked at Noah. “Well,” he shrugged, “if she has a concussion someone should stay with her ‘til your mom can get home and look her over”.

Stacey nodded wide eyed in agreement. “Right, ok I’ll go get ice for your head. And call mom and tell her you’re resting so she won’t spaz out”.

I laid on one of the two couches in the living room and covered myself with a blanket. I just wanted to go to sleep, but I had a guest who felt otherwise. I looked around unwilling to get back up for the remote. Noah, having been over to my house more than I guess I’d assumed, found it in the arm of one of the reclining chairs, and came over and scooped up my feet, sat down and then put them on his lap and re tucked in the blanket around them.

I was watching him with fascination as he flicked through the channels; he had the TV on so low I couldn’t hear it. I feel so at ease around him, it’s really remarkable that he feels the same it seems. I am the luckiest person alive. I smiled and tried to focus on him but my eyes kept shutting. Every time I’d think I was finally getting to rest he’d squeeze my foot to wake me. I knew I shouldn’t sleep if I had a concussion but it was still annoying after about an hour, and when he squeezed my foot again I kicked it out to show my grievance. He gave me a pointed look and just rubbed my leg and turned back to the TV. That was immature of me. Here he is just trying to make me comfortable and look out for me and I try to kick him. From then on when he would nudge me awake I tried to accept it gracefully and be glad I wasn’t allowed to sleep and possibly drool or snore all over the couch in front of him.

Sue’s coming home was impossible to sleep through anyways and I was wide awake when she flocked over me, concerned, assessing my forehead lump which now felt more defined, and peering into my eyeballs. Noah spoke up “I don't think she has a concussion, but the beach did wear her out”.

I looked at him annoyed. Why did he keep me awake for the past two hours then? Sue smiled and nodded agreement. “Thank you for staying with her Noah, though I don't think it was necessary. Will you stay for dinner? I’m sure you kids are famished”.