Midnight Blood (Born Immortal) (13 page)

     “Did you hear about Derrick?” she asked Cain.

     “A little,” he answered. “I was more interested in what they were saying about you.” he smiled at her, and she blushed.

     “I don’t even want to know,” Shayna said, shaking her head.

     “You’re right,” he laughed, “You don’t. So what did
you
find out about Derrick?” Cain asked.

     Shayna swallowed the bite of salad, she had been chewing on.

“He was found in the cemetary, nowhere near my father’s memorial, by the grounds keeper,” she gave Cain an approving smile, and noticed people were staring at them. Not letting it bother her, she continued, “The grounds keeper called the police. After the school called his parents, they sent for him to come home. Apparently they are making him go to a rehabilitation facility.”

     “That sounds about right,” Cain said, and winked at her, “It was his idea.”

     “You’re amazing,” She squeezed his hand, and smiled. Her tranquil blue eyes sparkling.

She thought about Aiden again, and wondered if there was
anything
, that he could “show” her about Cain, that could make her change the way she felt about him, because at that moment, no one else in the world existed to her, except for Cain.

     They finished lunch, and walked to advanded art, together. Shayna was thinking a lot, and was starting to piece some things together. She was certain it wasn’t a coincedence that Cain had come to Interlochen.

     “You took this class because of me, didn’t you?” she asked him, as they walked through the classroom doors.

     He looked at her and nodded, “I did princess,” he confessed.

     They had lost track of time in the cafeteria, and walked in to the Art room just as the final bell rang. They took their chairs and placed them around the still life table, as they had done the week before. Cain retaking his position behind Shayna, and to the side. Unlike the week before, when she couldn’t stop thinking about Cain, Shayna worked mostly on her drawing. She still thought about him during the class, she wondered how well he could draw, and if he even had a good view of the table from where he was, but she was able to stay more focused.

    The bell rang, and Mrs. Olson told the class to turn in their drawings finished or not. After they had left the Art room, Cain kissed Shayna’s neck, below her ear, before parting for their next classes. They agreed to meet at his car when school was out.

They pulled out of the school parking lot and Cain put his hand on Shayna’s knee, hoping he could impel her, even if only the tiniest bit.

 “So I have been hearing people talking a lot about a Winter Formal next Friday.”

     Shayna laughed at the thought of going to the formal, “No way!” she said.

     Damn, it didn’t work, Cain thought. “Why” he asked, pouting his lip out a little.

     Shayna hated the thought of everyone getting all dolled up, as fake as possible, and grinding up against each other all night long, and then going off to do, God knows what, at some hotel afterwards.

     “Seriously? It’s their foreplay,” she said, talking about the other students at the art academy. “And it’s my senior year, I have never been to a formal
or
prom, and I don’t really plan to.”

     Cain laughed at her, “Well I’ve never been to a formal or a prom either, but I’ve never thought about them as foreplay,” he said, still laughing, “How bout we do something else than, just you and I.”

     “I think I would like that better,” Shayna said, touching his hand that was on her knee. She was starting to get used to his coldness.

     Cain dropped Shayna off and left to tend to his horses. He had hoped to meet Sarah, since he had missed her when he dropped Shayna off after their ride. She had gotten called into work.

Shayna hadn’t even made it in the door, when her favorite El Camino pulled up to her house.

     Noah climbed out of the car and strutted up to the stoop. “Hey Shay, what do you say, what’s new today?” he said, bounding up the steps, and plopping down onto the porch swing.

     “You’re such a dork,” Shayna said. She sat down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder, and sighed.

     “You got it that bad, huh?” Noah asked.

He had never seen Shayna this way. It was like she was walking around in a daze, but she seemed more full of life than ever. Noah was worried for his friend, she barely knew this new kid.

     “Mmmhmm,” she did have it bad. So bad, it’s good. She thought. “I wish you could get to know him.”

     “Why can’t I?” Noah asked.

     “Huh?” Shayna said, a little confused. She lifted her head off of Noah’s shoulder. What did I say? She asked herself.

     “You said you wished I could get to know him,” Noah told her, “Why can’t I”

     Shayna racked her brain for something to say, she hadn’t even meant to say it out loud. “I meant I
can’t wait
for you to get to know him.”

     Noah looked at Shayna suspiciously. He sensed there was something she wasn’t telling him, and if he knew Shayna, he knew that she would never tell. He would have to wait for her to slip, like she had, so he could put the pieces together.

     “I can’t wait either,” he finally said. He saw the necklace that hung around her neck, and he reached out and touched it. “Where did you get this?”

     “I found it in the attic a couple years ago,” she told him. She took the stone in her hand and held it, the cold feeling of it reminded her of Cain, “It was my dad’s.”

     “It’s pretty cool,” Noah said, “I like how the red spots look like drops of blood.

     “Ironically, it’s called a bloodstone,” Shayna told Noah. She thought about how the bloodstone would protect her from the sun, and how powerful it truly was.

     They hung out on the porch talking for a while, and then went inside to make smoothies. Noah left after his mom had called him, needing him to go to the store for her. He had gotten absolutely nowhere with Shayna regarding Cain, and was more suspicious about the two of them then before he had came to her house. Deep down inside he got an odd feeling about Cain. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but it was a feeling that things weren’t what they appeared.

Chapter 9

     Shayna found herself walking down a dark hallway. She didn’t know where she was, but she knew she was in another time period. Maybe even in another country. It was one of those things in a dream, that is never clarified, you just know.

     She could feel someones hand holding her’s, and she gasped in shock. She could not see who it was in the darkness, and she tried to pull her hand away, but the firm grip, on the other end, only tightened  They got closer to the torch burning at the end of the hallway, and her eyes focused, and she saw that it was Aiden. She was confused, but glad to see him.

     “Where are we?” she asked him quietly.

     Aiden gave her a mischievious smile, “I told you, I would show you, and this is the only way,” he said.

     He guided her to the right, down another hallway. They came to a door where they stopped. He pushed open the door, it led into a bed chamber. Shayna saw a beautiful girl, combing her hair in front of a mirror on a dark wooden dresser inside. She was Shayna’s age, and was dressed in a long flowing, light blue, chamber gown. Her hair was long, and as black as Obsidions. The girl put the comb on the dresser, and walked toward the bed, and to Shayna’s amazement, she saw Cain appear on the balcony.

     “Aiden?” Shayna whispered. “Where are we?”

     “That is not important,” he told her, still holding her hand tightly, “Just watch.”

     Shayna did as he said, and looked back to the bed chamber. The girl saw Cain, and a look of surprise swept her face. Then she smiled at him, inviting him in with a wave of her hand.  They sat down on the bed together and began talking.

     “Why can’t we hear them?” Shayna asked Aiden.

     “That is not important either,” he answered.

     “Can they hear us?” Shayna said, and looked at him.

     “No,” Aiden said, and gently took her chin in his hand and turned her head back towards the bedchamber. “Watch,” he insisted.

     Shayna watched as the expression on Cain’s face changed from, calmness, to confusion, to sadness, then to anger. He stood up and began to walk toward the balcony, then stopped.

     “Her name was Roslyn,” Aiden whispered, into Shayna’s ear.

     Shayna didn’t respond. She watched silently, as Cain turned back to Roslyn, eyes red, and rushed towards her. He grabbed her, and although Shayna couldn’t hear it, Roslyn clearly screamed. Shayna knew she didn’t have a chance, she had felt Cain’s strength herself. She watched in horror as Cain held the helpless girls hands behind her back with one hand, and with the other, he held her neck and sunk his extended canines in. Shayna was paralyzed, she didn’t want to watch, but she couldn’t look away. Her eyes were locked on them.

      Roslyn stopped fighting Cain, and Shayna trembled as she watched him place her limp, lifeless body on the bed.

     “Is she dead?” she asked Aiden. He didn’t answer her. She turned her head in his direction,  he was gone. “Aiden?” She whirled around looking for him in the dark halls of the ancient castle like building she was in. Aiden was nowhere in sight. “Aiden!” She cried out again.

      Shayna turned back to Roslyn’s bed chamber right as Cain looked up in the direction of the doorway she was standing in. He was crying. The look on his face was remorse, and surprise. He could obviously hear something that Shayna couldn’t. He was kneeling on the floor, and stood up. Quickly he ran towards the balcony, and stopped and took one last look at Roslyn lying on the bed, before he disappeared into the night. Something inside of Shayna told her to turn around, and she did just as two men, and
Aiden
, ran around the corner of the hallway, and right towards her. Shayna closed her eyes, and screamed. They were going to run right into her, she had nowhere to go. She braced herself for the impact. What was Aiden doing with them? She thought, and suddenly opened her eyes.

     Shayna layed in bed for the rest of the night replaying the dream over, in her head. She knew that it was something that really happened, her heart told her that. She wished she could have heard what they were saying. She wondered what had made Cain so angry, and what had made him kill Roslyn. Those questions and more ran through Shayna’s mind, and she wondered, why, it was so important for her to know this part of Cain’s past. But she ultimately decided that she didn’t care, she knew it had happened a long time ago, at least a hundred years, and she knew that Cain had a past.

     As the sun began to rise and daylight peeked through Shayna’s drapes, she had came to the conclusion that she was going to accept Cain’s past for what it was, and not question him on it. After all he was a
vampire
, and she knew he hadn’t drank the blood of horses all of his life.

     When Melina knocked on her door around seven thirty, there was no way Shayna was getting out of bed.

“Just get my homework for me, please,” she told Melina, before she rolled over and pulled the comforter over her head.

     Shayna spent the rest of the day in bed until Melina got home after school, and brought her the assignments that she missed. Shortly after Cain pulled up. Shayna was just getting out of the shower and Melina answered the door when he knocked.

     “Is Shayna home?” he asked Melina, with a voice that made her melt inside, and become instantly jealous of Shayna.

     “She’s upstairs, I’ll go get her for you.”

     Melina started to close the door, but Cain put his hand on it, and said, “Won’t you invite me in?”

     Melina wasn’t about to be rude to this boy, even if she was a little jealous of Shayna.

“Of course,” she said,embarassed she didn’t ask in the first place, “Please, come in,” Melina opened the door wider for him, “You can have a seat in the livingroom, and she’ll be right down.”

     Cain stepped into the foyer, “Thank you,” he said.

     He was not allowed into a dwelling unless invited. He smiled at Melina, and she gestured for him to go into the livingroom. She closed the door and headed up the stairs. Cain sat down on the couch, entertained by Melina’s thoughts of him.

     At the same time that both Melina and Shayna appeared at the top of the stairs, Sarah walked in the front door.

     “Oh, hi,” Sarah said to Cain. She was a little surprised when she saw him sitting on the couch. She had been out running errands, and had not expected to return home to find an unknown boy in her livingroom.

     Shayna reached the bottom of the stairs, “Mom, this is Cain, Cain this is my mom,” she said, introducing the two of them.

     “Sarah,” Sarah reached out to shake Cain’s hand.

He took her hand, and she immediately felt the cold, and thought of her late husband. She looked at Shayna. Shayna knew what she had felt, and could barely hold eye contact with her mother. Sarah smiled at her daughter with raised eyebrows. Cain immediately pulled his hand away. He knew what she had felt too, and he knew what she was thinking. Although Sarah never knew for sure, she had her own theories about what her husband had been, and what Shayna is. Because Marcus Verona never verified it to her, she only had her theories.

     “Nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Verona,” Cain said, breaking the tension of the awkward moment that went unnoticed by Melina, who remained at the top of the stairs.

     Cain searched Sarah’s mind. She was a very unique individual, and she didn’t care, what Shayna might be. She knew her daughter was special, and Sarah wanted nothing more than for Shayna to be as happy in life, as her father was. Cain had to look away briefly. He didn’t want them to see the embarassment on his face, when he felt through Sarah’s mind, how much Marcus Verona had meant to this family.