Haven (22 page)

“Asshole!” the smaller guy spat out.

Without even thinking about what I doing, I took off at a run toward the two. “Let him go!” I called out.

The jock turned toward me, his eyes glittering in the lamplight. Football team, all right. He was still wearing his practice jersey under his coat. “You talkin’ to me?” he slurred.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you.” I took two steps toward him, refusing to back down, even though my heart was pounding. “All those steroids messing with your head or something? You know what they say about ’roids? They shrink your equipment, if you know what I mean.”

The guy in the headlock actually had the nerve to laugh— which, of course, only made his tormenter angrier. “Do I know you, bitch?” he asked, tightening his hold on his prey.

I saw what looked like a blur, and next thing I knew Aidan had appeared out of nowhere and was on the guy, pinning him to the ground.

I sucked in my breath. “Aidan, don’t!”

As if in slow motion, he turned toward me. Holy crap, but his eyes were glowing red. Our eyes met and held, and after a second or two, the red glow drained away, replaced by the familiar blue-gray.

“Apologize to her!” Aidan demanded, still pinning the jock to the ground. “To them both.”

The poor guy who had been the jock’s plaything only moments ago now stood a few feet away, watching us. He’d seen those red eyes too. I was sure of it.

“I’m sorry,” came the choked reply. At least the stupid jock had the good sense to sound terrified.

“Thanks for the saving, you two,” the other guy said, “but I’m outta here.” He turned and jogged away.

Aidan finally stood up, towering over the jock’s trembling body. I wrinkled my nose, suddenly smelling something weird, something like . . . pee. Oh my God, the guy had pissed himself. The front of his jeans was dark and wet.

“You leave them alone, all of them,” Aidan said, and I assumed he meant the shape-shifters. “And you even get
near
her, and I’ll—”

“I won’t, I swear,” he blubbered.

“Get out of here.” Aidan tipped his head toward the gym, and the jock stumbled to his feet and took off in that direction without a backward glance.

Aidan took my hand, cold as ice now, and we continued on. “Don’t you have gloves?” he asked, rubbing my hand between his palms.

“I forgot them,” I said with a shrug.

Neither of us said another word till the dorm came into sight.

“I’m sorry,” he said at last, stopping and taking both my hands in his. “I’m usually in such control, but this . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head. “It’s because of you.” He looked
down at me with darkly shadowed eyes. “I would have ripped open his neck.”

“But you didn’t,” I said, my voice a little shaky.

He dropped my hands and raked his fingers through his hair. “This is getting dangerous, Violet. These . . . protective instincts, I’ve never had to deal with something like this. I don’t even understand it.”

“Maybe you should talk to Dr. Blackwell.”

“Maybe,” he agreed. “You should go in; you’re freezing.”

“Yeah, I guess. Hey, you’re coming to the tournament Friday night, aren’t you? This is the big one, the All-Ivy tournament.”

His lips curved into a smile. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“You know Patsy’s going to be there, right? She’s going to want to meet you.” I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that, but I figured I might as well get it over with.

“Of course,” he said softly. “I’ll try and leave the beast at home that night.”

“That’s not funny.” My voice was sharp.

I’m sorry.
As usual, when he spoke in my mind it felt more intimate, his voice a secret caress.
Forgive me?

I wasn’t sure if he meant for the self-deprecating comment, or for what had happened earlier. Either way, it didn’t matter.

“Always,” I said, rising up on tiptoe and pressing my lips against his.

His arms went around me, holding me tight, his kiss stealing away my breath. Finally, he pulled away, pressing his forehead against mine. Our breath mingled, and gooseflesh rose on my skin—but not from the cold.

“Good night, Violet,” he said at last, stepping away from me.

“Good night,” I replied with a sigh, closing my eyes. When I opened them, he was gone.

Twenty minutes later I had showered and changed into my pajamas and was just climbing into bed when my vision began to tunnel. I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was no use. The images came anyway.

It was the same as I’d seen before—dusk, the sky almost purple. This time I forced myself to glance around, looking for clues. Daffodils. I saw yellow daffodils in the fading light. We were somewhere on Winterhaven’s grounds—I could see the administration building off in the distance. “Julius, now!” someone called out. A woman’s voice, and I didn’t recognize it. Everything was fuzzy, going in and out of focus, but I realized that my friends were there—some of them, at least. Marissa and Kate. But someone had them, was holding them. “Now,
Sâbbat,”
someone said. A man, and he was speaking to me. Calling me by some other name. “Now, or your friends die.”
I shook my head, my vision blinded by tears. Aidan was there. I called out his name. They wanted me to hurt him, to kill him. I had something in my hand, something smooth, something sharp. “Do it, now!” someone screamed. Marissa. It was Marissa, urging me on. No!

Suddenly I was back in my dorm room, sitting half on the edge of the bed, clutching the sheets. “No!” I screamed it over and over again, and Cece came rushing into the room wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around herself. Her hair was dripping wet as she leaned over me, calling my name.

“Violet! Oh my God, what happened? Violet, talk to me!”

I looked around wildly, my vision slowly coming back into focus.

“No!” I whispered, my throat aching.

“Another vision?” Cece turned and reached for her robe, putting it on over her towel.

I just nodded, my breath coming so fast that I thought I might start to hyperventilate.

“Was it your mom again?”

“No. Aidan,” was all I could say, my voice strangled.

“Does he . . . did you see him get hurt?”

“There were . . . I saw daffodils.”

“Springtime,” Cece said. “Do you want to call him?”

“He’s at the lab, he won’t have his cell.”

“Do you want me to . . . you know. Go find him?” she offered. “I mean, project to him? I’m kind of tired, but I think I could do it.”

She had no idea that I could talk to him anytime I wanted to, telepathically. I shook my head. “N-no. I can . . . it’s okay. I’ll . . . later.” God, I was so messed up, I couldn’t even string together a sentence. My hands were shaking and a bead of cold sweat dripped between my breasts.

Later.
In New York. I’d talk to him when we were home, when I’d had time to think about it. Any minute, he’d speak to me; he’d know something happened, he always did when my visions terrified me like that. But I wouldn’t talk it about now—I couldn’t. Not till—

He was there. Outside my window. I had to get rid of Cece, and fast. I took a deep, steadying breath. “I’m fine now, Cee. Really. I just want to go to sleep.”

“You sure? Do you want me to get Mrs. G.?”

“Definitely not. I’m sorry I dragged you out of the shower. Go on, you’ve still got conditioner in your hair. I swear I won’t start screaming again.” I tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a squeak.

For a second she stood there watching me, clutching her towel around herself. Then she nodded. “Okay, if you’re sure. Oops, I’m dripping all over the floor.”

“It’s my fault; I’ll wipe it up. Go, before you catch pneumonia.”

She nodded and scurried out, and as soon as her footsteps disappeared down the hall, I turned the lock on the door. Hurrying to the window, I pulled aside the curtains and lifted it open, trying to be quiet, trying not to draw any attention to my room.

In a flash, Aidan was beside me. I’d known he was there, but still, the shock made me suck in my breath. My room was on the fifth floor. “What happened?” he asked, putting his arms around me. “I sensed your fear; you seemed terrified.”

“Nothing. A vision. This is crazy, you’re going to get caught.” Still, I was so glad to see him.

“I’ll be gone before Cece gets back, and no one will see me. Don’t worry.” I felt his lips on my hair, and my heart slowed to a near-normal rate.

“Do you know someone named Julius?” I asked.

“Julius?”

“Yeah. And there were two others with him, maybe more, because someone had Marissa and Kate. And this Julius guy, he called me by another name. Shabbit or Sabbit or something like that. It was definitely springtime; there were daffodils.”

“Sâbbat?”
he said, shaking his head.

“What does it mean?”

“I can’t stay. Cece’s on her way back.” He was halfway out the window already. “But don’t worry, Vi. You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll explain it all later, over the holidays, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumbled.

“Close the window. I’m unlocking the door for Cece.”

Just as I pushed the window down, the door opened and Cece stepped inside. “Hey, whatcha doing?”

“I had to get some fresh air,” I lied.

Later, I promise.
I heard his voice in my head, and then it was gone.

“It’s pretty cold out there.” Cece shivered.

“I know, sorry. But I feel much better now.”

“Good. You look better, actually. Less pale.”

“Do I really get pale when I have a vision?”

“You have
no
idea. Scares the crap out of me every time.”

“Oh, yeah?” I countered. “Well, you should see yourself when you’re off traveling. You look like a corpse.”

Cece laughed. “Hey, just be glad you don’t have to room with a shifter!”

“Or Jenna Holley,” I said, not wanting to talk about the shifters.

“Now
that
would be a nightmare.” Cece started getting ready for bed, and I climbed into my own bed and pulled up the covers.

Later, he’d said. Over the holidays. Three more days of school, and then the tournament on Friday night—that was it. The weekend couldn’t come fast enough. And in the meantime, I wasn’t supposed to worry?

Yeah, right.

T
hat was
so
embarrassing,” I said, plopping down on the sofa in Aidan’s living room with a sigh. It was Christmas Eve, and we’d just had dinner at a swanky French restaurant on East 65th with Patsy.

Aidan just shrugged. “I had a nice time. I like your stepmother.”

“Yeah, she obviously likes you, too,” I muttered. Considering how much more time she was spending with me now than she did over Thanksgiving, when Aidan
hadn’t
been around. She still got all flustered and weird around him, though; she dropped her fork three times at dinner tonight. I’m pretty sure the waiter thought she was wasted.

“Hey, can I help it if I’m irresistible?” Aidan joked, and I just shook my head.

“Oh, pul-eeze,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It’s just the Aidan effect.”

“The what?”

I kicked off my shoes with a sigh, tucking my feet beneath myself. “Never mind. We’re all alone now. Are you going to tell me who this Julius dude is, or not?”

“Can’t it wait?” he asked, sitting down beside me and drawing me close.

“Why are you putting it off? C’mon, you promised you’d explain it to me. So explain.”

“I’m putting it off because it’s Christmastime, Vi, and I’d like you to enjoy your holiday. That’s why.”

I shook my head. “Not a good enough reason. Try again.”

“And because I’d like to do a bit more research first.”

“Research? About what?”

“
Sâbbat,
that’s what. What Julius called you.”

“So what does it mean?”

“Let’s start with Julius first. I guess you could call him an enemy, though I’ve no idea how he tracked me here. I haven’t seen him in, oh, forty or fifty years? Maybe more. My sources place him in Paris these days. We were turned about the same time, and for a while we were on friendly terms. I later
found that I didn’t agree with his philosophies, and we parted ways.”

“So, you’re not friends. That doesn’t make you enemies.”

“Let me finish. I soon became known throughout our world for my work, my research. I made no secret of my goal—to cure vampirism. Julius, on the other hand, is what is known as a Propagator. From what I understand, he leads a sect of Propagators, now based in Paris. This makes us enemies, I suppose.”

I wrinkled my brow, totally lost. “Propagator?”

“Julius’s mission is to spread vampirism as far and wide as possible. He’s one of the odd males with a desire to do so, and his sect is mostly made up of females. Very aggressive females.”

I shuddered at the thought. “Why hasn’t anyone tried to stop him?”

“Like I said, he surrounds himself with very powerful female vampires, for one. And his sect moves around, never settling in one place for long.”

“Well, what difference does it make to him if you want to cure yourself? Why should he care if there’s one less vampire in the world?”

“I can only assume that Julius fears that, were I to succeed and develop a cure, it could be used against him and his kind without their consent. Like a weapon, you might say.”

“Great. So you’re saying there’s a dangerous vampire
coming after you, and he’s probably bringing a bunch of even more dangerous vampire chicks with him?”

He shook his head and reached for my hand. “Your vision aside, there’s no evidence to support that. Dr. Blackwell has extensive contacts among our kind, and he’s heard nothing about Julius—”

“That’s because it isn’t springtime yet,” I reminded him.

“I suppose it’s possible,” he said, looking skeptical. “Anyway, he won’t get far without Blackwell knowing.”

“I hope you’re right.” He had a lot more faith in Dr. Blackwell than I did. Then again, he’d known him longer than I had—a lot longer. “But my visions have never been wrong before. What makes you think that this time—”

“Because we know. We can be prepared, right?”