LEGIONS OF THE DARK (VAMPIRE NATIONS CHRONICLES) (25 page)

She knew she really had to get herself under control. It was as if she were in a maze, zigzagging down pathways that led her to dead ends where she had to turn around and find her way back again to another route.

Cheyenne stopped her in the hall at school and said, "What have you been doing, Dell? I know you go horseback riding and like that, but you could call me. My mom said maybe you're depressed and need some St. John's Wort tea."

Panic rose in Dell. She had forgotten her friends. She needed excuses all the time now. It was harder to straighten out her affairs and keep the humans happy.

"Lori needs to keep her mouth shut." Anger bloomed in Dell, threatening to get out of hand. She tried to soften her voice. "I mean, Lori's kind of silly, isn't she?"

"I turned him down, I don't know why, don't ask me why. So he went out with Lori last night, and I found out where she'd taken him. I got hot about it, I guess. You know what goes on at Loden's parties."

Cheyenne made a face. "Boy, do I. You know Shirley Lott? They pulled her into their group. She went from straight As to failing in one semester. She looks like a hag now, all black long skirts and raggedy old tops. Talk about someone who needs St. John's Wort."

The bell rang and Dell hurried into her classroom, waving at Cheyenne as the other girl sprinted down the hall.

I know what I'll do, Dell thought. Before we go out for real, I'll ask Ryan to go riding. She had to make sure he wasn't going to get mixed up with the Loden bunch. And maybe on Sunday I'll go swimming at the pool with Cheyenne.

In the hallway after their class together, she saw him watching her. She smiled and walked close to him. He had seen her passionate side at the party. Now he'd get a chance to see the real Dell, the one who was beginning to fall for him. "You ever ride a horse?"

"A horse? Sure, since I was a kid."

"Would you like to meet me after school and ride? I've got a horse at the Dove Stables, south of Dallas. It's between here and Ennis. Five o'clock?"

"I don't have a horse," he said.

"They'll rent you one. We'll go riding so we can talk. Okay?"

She hurried to her next class feeling triumphant. She knew, she could get him away from Lori. She could save him from the "vampyre" scene.

There were so many things she could tell the kids in Loden's group, secrets that would stand their hair on end and give them nightmares. She ought to bring a Predator to one of their rave music, bloodletting parties and let them see for themselves what being a vampire was really all about. They'd wet their pants. She sort of understood the lure, sure she did. She knew they wanted more, something supernatural, something different. But what they were headed into wasn't the way. She'd be damned if she'd stand by and watch Ryan fall into their hands.

She knew what Mentor would say. He'd warn she was interfering in the lives of humans out of selfish motives. Maybe she was. She liked Ryan a lot. But she felt she had to do this. She wouldn't tell him the truth—heavens no. Not about vampires. Not about herself. But she needed to make him understand. She didn't know exactly what she'd tell him, but she had to do something.

~*~

It was ten after five when Dell saw Ryan pull up in the parking lot at Dove Stables. For a few minutes she feared he would stand her up. He almost had a girlfriend now. What did he need with someone who had rejected him outright the first time he tried asking her out, someone who tried to bust up his date?

She was relieved and let out a happy sigh when she saw him park. He got out of the car slowly, a tall, lanky boy with hair that was long on top and unruly where it fell across his brow. He squinted toward the stables where she stood waiting for him. He smiled and came through the gate and down the well-worn path to where she waited. She even liked the way he walked. She'd seen old ranchers walk that way, bronco riders, horse trainers. It wasn't so much a bowlegged gait as it was a leisurely rolling motion from hip to hip, with long legs moving at a graceful, slow pace. It was definitely a cowboy walk, but regal for all that.

All he lacked to fit the part of cowboy was a Stetson hat. He already had on the washed-out blue jeans and softly worn tan leather boots.

"Hi," he said, reaching her side. "Sorry I'm late. Traffic. People getting out of work."

She smiled up at him. "That's okay. I haven't been here long." She was lying. She'd come to the stables straight from school. If she'd still been human she'd have had enough time to have drunk two Pepsis and go to the bathroom three times.

"Well, which one is your horse?"

Dell turned to the stables and led him to Lightning. She told him the horse's name, then laughed. "I should rename him. He's too old to be a racehorse or have a name like that. But when he wants to, he really can take off for me." She almost winced, recalling how she'd run him nearly to death.

"Lightning's a fine name," Ryan said, rubbing the horse's neck just back of the ears. "How you doing, boy?"

"Here's one I picked out for you," she said, pointing at a bay two stalls down. They walked to the bay, and Ryan began to rub it down along the neck, too.

"It seems friendly," he said. "I've been riding since I was little. My grandfather owns a ranch. Cattle, a few horses, you know," he said by way of explanation. "But still, I like a quiet, friendly horse. Riding's no fun when the horse wants to act like a fiend out of hell's gate."

"Have you ever gone on the trail ride across Texas they have in March?" She also reached out to pet the bay, on the opposite side of the neck. It shied a bit until she reached out with her mind to soothe it.

"It's just that those kids are into some weird stuff. It wasn't any of my business, but you're new here and I was worried about you."

"Look, if you're worried I'll turn into a vampire, rest your mind. I've started reading Stoker's Dracula. The nightlife doesn't appeal."

She smiled to herself. He'd not get much from Stoker. "They might not want you hanging with them if they find that out."

He shrugged. "Maybe."

They had reached the little creek. Dell pulled up Lightning and got out of the saddle. "Let's let them drink," she said.

Ryan dismounted and led his horse to the sparkling water. Sunbeams glanced off its surface and threw glitters of light into the nearby stand of shadowy weeping willows. A noisy blue jay flitted from branch to branch high up, making a racket. A mama bird, no doubt, protecting her nest of eggs.

The horses snuffled and bent to the water, wetting their front hooves in the stream's edge. In the distance, the sun was beginning to set, a flaming burnt-scarlet ball radiating purple and pink against low clouds. Dell thought there couldn't be prettier sunsets anywhere else in all the world.

"Why do you really care if I get into the vampire stuff," he asked suddenly.

Taken aback, Dell stared into the running water of the creek. She didn't wish to look at him and betray herself. "It's just that I know them," she said, "and it's the danger in it, that's all."

"You wouldn't want me to get sick," he said, more softly.

She felt as if he were peeling her open the way someone shreds the skin of an orange to expose the soft center. "I wouldn't want anyone to get sick. Lori. You. Those others. I think it's just a dumb thing to be doing, that's all. It's not very responsible."

"So it's not me."

She turned to him and saw he'd moved from one side of his horse next to where she stood. "Not you, what?" Ignorance was always a good screen.

"Not me you wanted to save. I'm incidental. This ride was meant to be just a plain old warning that you'd want to give to anyone new in school, right?"

She was looking in his face, into his eyes, and she couldn't lie to him. She found she'd stopped breathing. She didn't need to breathe and in times of distress or during lapses where she daydreamed, she forgot she was supposed to be human. She took in a showy breath and let it out. She looked away from him, turned, began to rub down Lightning's coat.

"You can't lie, so you blow smoke instead. Why didn't you say you'd go out with me when I first asked you? Why did it take Lori and the cult thing to get you to notice me? Lori was a second choice. I don't have any interest in her world. It's you I wanted to be with, until you made it plain you didn't want it."

Tears sprang to Dell's eyes and she had to look down. She couldn't cry in front of him. He'd see her tears were made of other than salty water. "I . . . can't . . ."

"Like me? You can't like me? Am I that terrible? Do I have four eyes or six fingers on each hand? Is there a booger hanging from my nose?"

Now she laughed, and the threat of tears vanished. "I like you," she said, laughing at the face he was making and the gesture of a finger at his nose. "Stop that."

He stepped close and put his hands on her waist, suddenly serious. "We'll try one date. How bad could it be, after the Loden party? We'll see a movie, eat pizza, go to the mall, whatever you want to do this weekend."

"I like movies," she said.

"I won't even kiss you." He let her go and stepped back, his hands raised. "I promise. No funny business. I'm not one of those guys always out to score."

He made her laugh. She loved how he made her laugh. He was telling her serious things in a way that didn't scare them both.

"I don't know if you have to go that far," she said.

"Okay, I take the promise back. Maybe I'll kiss you, maybe I won't." He turned and leaped onto the bay, hauling back on the reins so it wouldn't get skittish. "It was the booger thing, wasn't it? Something about boogers gets girls every time."

They laughed and talked during the rest of their ride together. When they stabled the horses and were at Ryan's car, Dell felt good about everything. Damn what Mentor said. She wasn't going to be lonely and an outcast. She wasn't going to deny herself good times with Ryan. She didn't have to, damnit. She could handle herself. It was her life.

"Friday night, eight p.m.?" He was inside his car, the window rolled down. The way he was looking up at her, the curve of his lips, the sweep of his hair over his forehead, made her want to lean down and kiss him. But she didn't.

"Friday," she said. "Yeah."

She watched him drive away. She wanted to give Lightning a brushing, so she meant to stay a while. And the whole time she'd be thinking about Ryan. How cute he was, how funny and sweet. She wanted to think about how good she felt, better than she'd ever felt before, and how that could not be a bad thing. It was only a date. She wasn't marrying the guy.

What could Mentor say?

~*~

Mentor said nothing. He knew of Dell's interest in her young man, and he kept silent about it. At least a fourth of all vampires fell in love with humans at least once. Some of them kept the relationships until their humans died. A very few turned their lovers into immortals, in order to keep them. But most watched their humans die and grieved so deeply they rarely ever allowed themselves to fall in love that way again.

Mentor had been one of the latter. He'd loved Patrice with all of his soul. He had wrestled for months over whether he should or could make her vampire in order to save her from death. In the end he knew he had to let her go. When she closed her eyes for the last time, she whispered a thank you to him. She had lived with him for fifty years and knew the terror of his life. She did not want to be like him. She wanted instead to die peacefully in her own bed and go to her Creator, whom she believed in totally. She also believed that one day, when he was allowed to end his existence as a vampire, he would be with her again.