Holding on to Hope (4 page)

Ian spared him a glance before facing Leslie and Pat again. “This is the guy I told you about. And Ronan, these are Parker’s friends—Leslie and Patrick.”

Ronan took that as a cue to greet them with a curt nod. Now wasn’t the right time, yet Leslie’s eyes couldn’t resist checking the guy out. It was a quick scan really, but in a moment’s scrutiny, she found herself intrigued with the man. She had never thought a pale-skinned guy could look as hot as he did. With an attractive long nose and thin, pinkish lips, she thought Ronan must have been quite popular among the girls. His wavy hair was grown out, with the curly strands almost covering his kissable ears, and his azure eyes sparkled under the shimmering lights of the nightclub. That struck as an oddity to her. She had never thought a blue-eyed, dark-haired guy would be Brad’s type.

But as it was, she had been proven wrong.

What made him more striking was his attire. Brad had the fashion sense of a pig, and Leslie frequently nagged him about how badly he dressed. If it hadn’t been for his good looks, she’d never have thought a guy like Ronan would have ever come near him. At that moment, Ronan looked like he was all set to walk the red carpet of some celebrity awards show. He was wearing a light-blue dress shirt and a black skinny tie under an unbuttoned gray vest. Leslie noticed the design of a tattoo peeking out of the collar of his shirt. She pondered over how far down it went. For a split second, she was even envious of Brad for scoring a night with this guy.

“Ian has filled me in with all the details of what happened,” Ronan finally spoke in his deep, manly voice. “Can I see the text that he sent you?”

“Yeah,” Leslie whispered and took the phone out of her purse. She quickly searched for the message she had received from Brad when they were on their way to meet Ronan. They were all surprised and also relieved, of course. “He says in there that he has found a way to get his lost memories back.” She handed the phone to Ronan so he could see. “We are guessing that the old man in the coffee shop said something to him to make him believe….”

“Of course he did,” Ronan muttered under his breath, staring at the phone screen intently. “He tends to make people believe things that are not real.”

Leslie blinked.

“What are you fucking talking about, dude?” Patrick’s angry voice caught her off-guard. “Who is that man exactly? Do you think Brad isn’t safe with him?”

Ronan eyed him from head to foot warily before exchanging looks with Ian. The big guy gave him an apprehensive nod, and she heard a sigh that probably came from behind her: the man in black. “Right now, mister, I would say your friend is anything but safe.”

Leslie turned to face the goth guy, and suddenly realized he was there for a reason. She had noticed the waitress standing by too, listening to their conversation. It had given Leslie a weird vibe then, but now she understood. All five of them present in the nightclub at that moment knew something classified that Leslie or Patrick, or maybe even Brad, didn’t know about.

“What is going on?” she gasped. “If Brad is in some kind of danger, I need to know right now.”

“Les,” Ian spoke, grabbing her attention immediately, “Before I tell you what’s going on, I want you to know that we didn’t intend for this to happen. Ronan and I… we tried our best to keep Parker out of this.”

Patrick snorted. “I can see how hard you tried. I swear to you, Anderson, if Brad is hurt even the slightest bit, I am going to rip off your fucking head.”

Leslie held his wrist and pressed it. His face was red, and his jaw was clenched. She could understand his anger, but her boyfriend was acting before knowing the whole truth.

She turned to face Ronan. “Tell me everything from the beginning.”

Ronan nodded and returned the phone back to her. His features softened, and his eyes suddenly looked empty. Maybe it was her wishful thinking, but Leslie was certain he was thinking of Brad at that moment. A few seconds passed in silence, and she began to doubt if he would ever speak up.

But then he did, in a dangerously calm voice. “It was last month when I actually met Brad for the first time.”

Leslie did a double take. “Wait,” she interrupted, replaying in her mind the exact account that Brad had given her about Ronan, “But he said….”

“I know.” Ronan lowered his eyes and frowned. “He wouldn’t remember it. The same way he doesn’t remember last night.” She watched him exhale. “The day when we met, Brad was at Ian’s hanging out with him, and I happened to stop by. We hit it off right away, and that surprised me really, because I don’t open up to strangers that easily. But it was Brad. He has a way with getting people to talk. And such a goofball he is.” He smiled slightly to himself, making Leslie realize how gorgeous he looked with a smile on his handsome face. It didn’t last for long, though. “Then he asked me a question that took me off-guard.” Ronan turned his gaze up again to look into her clueless eyes. “He asked me out,” he said, his blue eyes looking terribly sorrowful.

“So you guys went out on a date?” Patrick asked with a frown.

“No, we didn’t.”

“You said no to him?” Leslie gasped.

Ronan shook his head a bit. “I couldn’t say anything. Even though I wanted to say yes to him so badly, I didn’t. No way was I going to put his life at risk. So I did what I thought to be the best for him.” He paused and looked between Leslie and Pat, probably trying to gauge their eagerness. “I wiped that part of his memory entirely.”

For a second, neither she nor Patrick said anything. “You did what?” Leslie asked and briefly glanced at her boyfriend. He was staring at Ronan as if he had gone cuckoo. She couldn’t blame him.

“I had to glamour him into forgetting that I ever met him.” Ronan spoke each word very carefully.

Leslie heard Patrick laughing beside her. “Do you think we are some stupid fucktards that we are gonna believe this shit you are feeding us? What the hell!” he yelled and glared daggers at Ian. “What did you do to Brad? Did you assholes drug him, is that it? Les, we have to call the cops r—”

Before Leslie could register what was happening, Ronan was suddenly standing in front of her boyfriend with his hands holding Patrick’s head in one place. She yelped and jumped as a result, watching as her boyfriend stood still, not moving an inch. Their eyes were engaged in a staring match. Neither of them blinked; neither of them even said a word, and Leslie got the weirdest feeling that the two were going to kiss.

They didn’t. Instead, Ronan stepped back and resumed his original position. “Wh—?” She gazed at him and then eyed her boyfriend worriedly. “Patrick?”

“Hey, Les,” he said in a stunned manner and then slowly turned to look in Ronan’s direction. “Who are you?”

“Ta-da!” A drunken voice came from behind them, and Leslie spared the bored, gothic man another glance.

She reached her hand up to cup her boyfriend’s cheek and made him face her. “Pat? Don’t you remember him? That’s Ronan.”

“Is he one of your ex-boyfriends?” Patrick asked.

Her boyfriend looked clueless and maybe a bit frightened by what was happening to him. Leslie concluded that he had actually forgotten every bit of detail about the man standing in front of them. It proved that everything Ronan had said until then was nothing but the truth, and she also realized how Brad hadn’t been able to remember what had happened the previous night. The mystery had somewhat finally unveiled, yet Leslie wasn’t sure if she liked this.

“How….” She trailed off, looking at Ronan in disbelief.

“I have made my point.” He nodded and made a movement to approach them once again.

Leslie, however, jerked back, keeping a hold on her boyfriend’s shirt. Unfortunately, all there was behind her was the bar counter.

Ronan held out his hand cautiously and stopped midway. “I am not going to harm him. I am just going to put his memories back in place.”

“Don’t be afraid, Les,” Ian said.

“What are you people?” she shouted, looking at each one of them. They all seemed like aliens to her, and that made her hair stand on end. “Are you a vampire?” she asked, looking directly at Ronan and dreaded thinking that he was going to bare his fangs anytime soon.

“No, Les,” Ronan answered in a rather unsteady way. “I am not a vampire.”

The plump waitress gave out a sardonic laugh from her corner, and Leslie suddenly felt stupid for saying something like that. She couldn’t help it, though. Ronan could wipe out memories from people’s minds. He said so himself that he’d glamour them into forgetting. As far as she knew from the books she’d read or the movies she’d watched, vampires possessed the same powers.

“Tell me the truth,” she demanded forcefully.

“I am telling you the truth. Look, I know why you think I could be a vampire, and you are right to a certain extent. As much as I hate that part of me, I
am
a half-vampire.”

“A what?”

“Dhampirs, Les,” Ian replied. “We are all dhampirs. Half-vampires-half-humans.”

“You mean like a hybrid of humans and vampires?” Leslie still remained quite shaken, but she also felt her curiosity reaching its peak.

“Yes.” Ian made a face. “And so all the vampire powers are passed on to us genetically.”

“But that is all we have in common with that filthy kind,” Ronan added. “We are basically mortals, same as humans, and in case you are wondering—no, we don’t have any cravings for human blood.”

The reign of terror in Leslie’s mind began to slowly mitigate. When she was a bit more composed, she became aware of how awfully quiet Patrick had been through all this.

She gazed at him and found him staring straight ahead. “Pat?”

“He can’t hear you,” Ronan said, grasping her attention. “Your boyfriend is dreaming right now.”

“Dreaming? With his eyes open?” Leslie scowled, studying her boyfriend’s face for a while. She even waved her hand in front of his face, but Pat didn’t budge. “How did you do that?”

“To glamour someone, all I need is for them to look into my eyes. I can control their mind easily then.” He looked smug.

Leslie shook her head and snorted. “Dhampirs, vampires, mind control, what else?”

“Les, I know it is all too much to take in right now,” Ian said. “But you should know that even though we aren’t entirely humans, we aren’t evil at all. Rather, we hunt vampires to keep the humans safe.”

“But you think it is okay to play with our minds.” Leslie felt anger rising in her. “How is that not evil? Someone so innocent like Brad—you made him forget those memories for which he has dreamt forever. He was your friend, Ian. You should have known better than that.”

“We were left with no choice,” Ian said, seemingly helpless.

Pat mumbled some gibberish, the same way he usually talked while he slept. Leslie stared at him. Her thoughts were all over the place, and she was trying to collect them piece by piece. Everything sounded so complicated.

She briskly turned her head and threw a sharp glance at Ronan. “You met him a month ago, you say? And then a month later, you meet him in this nightclub.”

Ronan and Ian looked at each other, and Leslie began to think the suspicion in her mind was right after all. “Actually, we had many more
first
meetings after that.” He paused and continued with his voice toned down, “like, almost every day. Initially, it was a mere coincidence that our paths would cross. But later, it was me wanting to see him badly. The connection I felt with him was so strong that I couldn’t help myself. But every single time I would end up with the same question.”

Leslie stared at him, feeling numb. “You know what I think? I think you enjoyed it when he begged you to go out with him. I bet it did your ego good.” She shook her head in disbelief. “You are such a heartless son of a bitch.”

Ronan cast his head down and gulped noisily. “I guess I am.”

“Les, you have no idea….” Ian began to speak but was interrupted by someone’s cell phone ringing. Leslie watched as Ronan dug his hand in his jean pocket and removed his phone.

“Hello?” He paused for a long time. She watched his jaw clenching at something the person on the other end said. “Stay in hiding. We will be there in a few, understand?” He nodded at whatever the person on the other end said and ended the call. Then he looked up at Leslie desperately. “Look, I know you don’t trust me, but I am the only one who can help Brad right now. Dhampirs all over the city were looking for him, and some of them have managed to locate his position, so we need to make a move right now. I want you to stay here with your boyfriend….”

“No!” Leslie spoke adamantly. “I am going to come with you.”

“It’s not safe, Les.” Ian stepped up near her and tried to make her understand. “That old man who took Brad is a real vampire. He won’t be able to harm any dhampir, but humans are an easy prey for him. We have already risked Brad’s life, but we can’t risk your life too.”

“I don’t care,” Leslie said, even though she wasn’t sure if she meant it.

“Look, I promise to bring him back safe,” Ronan assured her. “I will be ready to die for him.”

A tear escaped her eyes as she closed them shut and vigorously shook her head. “I can’t. I just can’t stay back here and keep worrying about Brad,” she sobbed.

Ian took her in a warm embrace. “I know, Les. I know.”

She hit his hard chest to get him off her and wiped her tears quickly. “You’re right,” Leslie said, looking at Ronan. “I don’t trust you with him. Why should I? You are the one who got him into all this trouble.”

“Les….” Ian tried to hold her hand, but she slapped his touch away.

“And I don’t understand why you think you are the only one who could save Brad from this.” Leslie narrowed her eyes.

“Because the old man—as you call him,” Ronan said, in a very cold voice, “is my father. And I am the one who is destined to kill him.”

A
S
THEY
drove to their destination, Ian filled her in with a few more details about dhampirs. “The vampires aren’t natural beings. They are supposed to be resting in the graves, not out roaming around, feeding off of innocent human lives
—
or procreating, for that matter.” He looked disgusted. “So you see, we consider our dhampir life to be cursed with these twisted abilities that we get from our undead folks. This curse can only die out once we kill the person who is responsible for it.”