LEGIONS OF THE DARK (VAMPIRE NATIONS CHRONICLES) (28 page)

In just seconds she sensed he was gone. She turned, sighing in resignation at the pact she'd made. She clamped her trembling hands together. For now she had saved both herself and Alan.

All she had to do was to convince him he must forget what he'd seen. She hoped he had not yet told Charles Upton. If he had, then her promise was already broken and they were all doomed.

21

Dell walked alongside Ryan through the mall, hoping he would take her hand. Wishful thinking, she told herself, but it would be nice if he did.

They stopped at a booth in the center aisle of the mall and looked at gold jewelry. Ryan picked up a gold heart with scrolled edges, but put it down again quickly. "That's pretty," she said, smiling.

He looked at her. "Yeah, it's nice."

They moved on, mingling with crowds, passing other young couples and groups of kids from their school. "You want something to eat before the movie starts?" he asked.

She glanced over to the food shops and shook her head. Lately, just the smell of real food put her off. She did not want to go near those places, but would suffer it if he was hungry. "No, thanks, but you eat something if you want."

"I'm all right."

They browsed in a bookstore, and he bought her a bookmark imprinted with angels. "Here, to mark your place," he said, handing it to her once they were out of the store.

"Aggie bound!" She grinned at him. She had thought that was where she would go, too. She had applied long before the change. If she were going to live for more than one lifetime, she would need education. A lot of it. Perhaps she would be a perpetual student, come right down to it. It might be the only way she would stay current during all the decades of whatever society she inhabited. "I'm going there, too," she said. "I was admitted just last week.'

"What major?" he asked.

"English literature, at least to begin with. I guess I'll just go for a liberal arts program. I really love libraries, you know? Quiet, clean, so peaceful."

"Better than people, sometimes. They don't talk back, they don't get jealous, and they don't drive sport utility vehicles."

"Aw, c'mon." He smiled. "I'm refinishing an old truck I keep on my grandfather's ranch. It's a 1952 Ford and ugly as sin, but when I get through, it'll take you wherever you want to go.'

"What color will you paint it?"

"I don't know yet. Right now it's gray and rust. Maybe you can help me out with the color when I get ready to paint it."

They talked about college and how they were both happy about going off to school, what they wanted to do when they had degrees, where they might want to live one day. The whole time Dell found herself full of excitement to think they'd be on the same campus.

At show time, they entered the mall theater lobby and he stood in line to buy them popcorn and cold drinks. She just couldn't tell him she wanted nothing without arousing his suspicion. She was learning quickly how to fake the eating of food and drinking of liquids. Sometimes she disposed of things when no one was looking by using her burgeoning skill at sleight of hand. Sometimes she just pretended to sip on a straw until she could set aside the drink. No one ever really watched another person consuming food or drink. It wasn't very difficult to trick the limited vision of a mortal.

He was so sweet to her, she thought, watching him as he paid for the goodies. Not anything like some of the other boys in her school. He wasn't full of ego, wasn't acting like a Romeo out to get whatever he could. He was polite to her, and so honest, his face showing every emotion that crossed his mind.

In the darkened theater seats, she placed her drink in a cup holder and let it sweat. Once in a while she took a handful of popcorn, bringing it to her mouth, then carefully dropping it to the floor. She smiled into the darkness when he slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer to him.

She knew it was crazy, but she really wanted to go a little nuts and kiss him full on the mouth when he wasn't expecting it. She stopped herself, knowing it might throw him a little. She would let him make his own moves, in his own time, but she wished that he would hurry. She could hardly concentrate on the movie for thinking of how good his arm felt around her shoulder, how great it was to have his hand brush the edge of her arm.

Her mother had told her just the night before how her emotions would be larger than before, her appetites greater. They had been discussing the night she left the house and rode Lightning too hard. They advanced from horse riding to the discussion of relationships. She was warned about feeling rage she would have to control, anger that might spiral out of hand, and all sorts of overwhelming desires she would have to contend with.

"It's as if you've matured by fifteen or twenty years," her mother said. "You'll want to do things . . . well, things you haven't done yet."

If she could have, Dell would have blushed. Her mother had never openly talked about sexual things before. She knew she was talking about virginity and having sex, and she had assumed, correctly, that her daughter had not yet had intercourse. Assumed, or she'd read her mind.

"I have to ask something, Mom."

"Anything, sweetheart."

"Can I become pregnant? I guess I can, since you did even before you changed, but I need to know these things and how they work. How they'll work for me."

"Yes, you can have a baby. Your body works just as it did before. If you feed, you'll remain healthy. So you can conceive and have children, but . . ."

"But I shouldn't mess around with mortals, I know, Mentor told me."

"It's just that . . ." Her mother seemed at a loss for words. She finally said, "It's just that if you conceive with a human male, the child will be . . . different."

"Will it live?"

"Oh, yes, absolutely it will live. The fetus of a vampire mother is always strong and vigorous. But if the father is a mortal, it won't be vampire. But . . . it won't be human either."

"Human, with supernatural abilities, but not with the need for blood that we have. Truly alive, truly mortal, but with more strength, better vision, keener hearing, enhanced stamina, quickness, and some other abilities I just don't know about. I don't know any dhampirs. Some of the Predators do away with them."

"They kill them?"

"Oh, yes. They're a little dangerous to keep around."

"But what's wrong with being a . . . a super-advanced human? It's the best of both species, isn't it? Why haven't we all mated that way?"

"Because it knows both worlds, it's a product of both, it feels and knows everything we know and feel. The mixed child comes to despise the parent who is the immortal, and often tries to destroy him. Or her."

"Jesus. Is that why Mentor warned me about having a mortal boyfriend?"

"I'm sure that's part of it. He left the rest to me. The other part, as you know, is the finite life of humans. The pain of separation when death takes them from us is awful. The aging they undergo, while you stay the same age, at least to the visible eye. It's a terrible thing, Dell, a horrible agony if you love someone. I wouldn't want you to have to go through it. That's why I'm telling you everything I know about it, and I'm asking you to be careful in your choices."

So here she was, sitting in a darkened theater with just the person her mother told her to shy away from, and she wanted to kiss him, and she wanted to hold him, and she wanted . . .

She stopped her train of thought and directed it to the screen. She could control herself. She knew she could. She had to. She simply couldn't ravish Ryan like a succubus, no matter if it produced a child or not. She couldn't live in a wanton manner, taking whatever her desires dictated, taking chances on unforeseen outcomes. She had not lost her virginity before now for these same reasons.

On the other hand, she'd never felt this serious about anyone before either.

I knew it wouldn't be easy, she thought, reaching to her shoulder to take his hand. Feeling his warm flesh beneath her cool fingers, she wondered if it would be impossible to keep her distance. The hormones, or whatever it was that caused her to want to find a mate, seemed to be operating at full throttle. At this point, the urge to love someone and have him love her back was stronger by far than the ever present hunger for blood. Because he was human, she wanted him for her lover. No, she thought, that wasn't right. She wanted him because he was Ryan. And because she was vampire, she knew she should never have him.

~*~

Ryan came away from kissing Dell with something in his brain sparking like moths striking against a hot light bulb. He thought: Wow! He said, "Uh . . ." and then she flung her hands around his neck and kissed him again. He nearly fell right over a precipice of reason into a valley of deep desire.

They sat in his car in front of her house. Outside a night bird called in a tree at the edge of her yard. He was only going to kiss her gently, a good-bye and thank-you kiss, but it had turned into something hot and unworldly. He felt zany and bedazzled, as if he were in a fairy tale and was bowled over with a spell.

When she released him, he sat back panting, feeling startled and aroused.

"I don't think I've ever been kissed like that before," he said.

She remained silent, but she touched his cheek with her fingertips before letting herself out of the car. He watched her run up to her front door.

He put the car into drive and drove slowly away. Sweat had broken out on his brow and he now wiped it away. "Whew," he said, reaching for the air conditioner control to see if it was working.

His mind was made up. Lori was a kisser, all right, but compared to Dell she was a rank amateur. Dell made him forget where he was and what the hell he was doing. He didn't think something like that could happen and was so amazed he nearly ran a stoplight before noticing the light was red and slamming on the brakes. He got home in a shaky state and let himself into a dark house. His parents were already in bed asleep. It was a good thing, he thought, since if they could see his face they'd know something had happened. He knew of no way to explain it. A kiss that knocked him for a loop. A kiss that seemed to sear into him and seal him tight to her.

On the way to his room he realized it was true what he'd told himself. He'd flipped out. He was way over the moon. Dell Cambian was a magician, and, just like the song said, she'd put a spell on him.

22

Alan drove directly to Bette's house, so worried that he drove too fast and was stopped for speeding just inside Dallas city limits. Frustrated with the delay of signing for the ticket, he arrived at Bette's house frazzled as a half-dead mouse who had been toyed with for hours by a particularly energetic cat.

Bette, to his relief, met him at the door looking serene and beautiful. She had donned a hip-hugging, ankle-length, traditional Japanese gown. It was turquoise satin, embroidered all over with tiny black flying birds. He had seen her in traditional dress only once before when he'd arrived to take her to dinner. It always took him aback to remember that though she was thoroughly American, she upheld the past traditions of her forebears.

"You look a fright," she said, smiling and leading him inside. "Would you like some tea?"