Shiver (Night Roamers) (14 page)

“
Do you want me to keep going?” he whispered, moving his hand to the edge of the fabric.

“Yes,” I squeaked
.

His hand slid underneath the material and when he touched
the hot junction between my legs, I gasped in pleasure.

“Ethan,”
I moaned, as his fingers began to move. “Oh…”

His mouth returned
to my nipple, sending even more sensations to the place his fingers were also attending to.

“Nikki,” he breathed, as his
fingers moved faster, driving me crazy. “Say my name.”

“Ethan.”

After a few seconds, my stomach muscles clenched up and something inside of me seemed to burst, sending shock waves all the way down to my toes. Tears filled my eyes and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

He noticed the tears and kissed my cheeks
.

“I’m sorry,” I wh
ispered, not understanding all of my emotions.

“Don’t be sorry
,” he murmured, sliding my panties off. “That’s supposed to happen.”

“Oh.”

I watched as he removed his pants and then blushed. When he was naked, lying next to me, I began to tremble again.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, sliding his hands back to my thighs and par
ting them. “I’ll be gentle.”

I smiled and he
lowered his mouth to mine, kissing me deeply. I began to lose myself again, consumed by passion and something even deeper.

“I can’t wait anymore,” he groaned
, kissing my neck.

“Then don’t,” I whispered, opening myself up.

He positioned himself, staring into my eyes as he began to push. It took a few motions until he was able to enter and I gasped at the hot pain which quickly disappeared. Soon, we were moving together and his eyes began to glow with the fiery light I’d seen before.

“Oh, God, Nikki,” he growled, moving faster.
“You feel so good. I won’t be able to…last…”

I closed my eyes as his mouth found my neck again, ex
pecting his teeth to puncture the skin. But it didn’t happen. Instead, he began to groan as I moved my hips with his and then, after a few more thrusts, he tensed up and shuddered above me.

“Are you okay?” I whispered
, staring into his eyes.

He
kissed the tip of my nose and then my lips. “I’m definitely okay.” Then he fell on top of me and wrapped me in his arms.

I woke up
the following morning with the
Kings of Leon
telling me that “my sex was on fire.” I shut off my alarm and that’s when all of the memories of the previous night came rushing back.

Holy crap, I
was no longer a virgin!

I’
d had sex with a vampire!

A vampire who’d disappeared during the night.
My fingers went to my neck and I sighed with relief. No bites.

I closed my eyes an
d thought about Ethan. God, the things he’d done to me, not once, but several times during the course of the evening, just left me breathless. Good thing my mom’s bedroom was far enough down the hall that she hadn’t heard a thing.

Our lovemaking
had been earth-shattering and wonderful beyond belief, but it had also been totally suicidal. I’d given myself freely to someone who could have just as easily made a meal out of me.   As I began beating myself up about being so naive, there was a knock at my bedroom door. “Honey, are you awake?”

Shoot, I was
still naked!

“Yeah, hold on!” I jumped out of bed and grabbed a robe out of my closet, then
took a deep breath and let my mom in. “Hi.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you feeling okay?
You slept for a very long time.”

I stared at her innocently
. “I’m great. I feel so much better.”

She looked over at my bed, which was a tangle of sheets and blankets. “
Oh, looks like you had a little period mishap sometime during the night.”

There was a small amount of blood on the sheets. My cheeks turned crimson. “Oops.”

She went over to my mattress and pulled off the sheets. “It’s okay; I’ll throw them into the wash before work.”

“Thanks.”

“So,” she said, removing the linens. “Are you going to school today?”

I nodded.

“Good. I’d like to take you both to dinner tonight since we didn’t get a chance to yesterday.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Better get ready for school,” she said, leaving my room.

I took a shower, slipped on a charcoal
V-neck sweater dress, tights, and black suede boots. I pulled my hair into a loose up-do and then went down to breakfast.

“You must be feeling better,” said Nathan
, who was sitting by the counter next to mom, eating a large bowl of cereal, “haven’t seen you in anything other than your ratty old jeans lately.”

“Ha ha,” I said, looking into the fr
idge. I grabbed the bottle of orange juice and began filling a glass.

“Oh, no,”
murmured my mom, who was at the counter, watching the news.

I turned around
to look at the television and froze. A photo of my co-worker, Susan, flashed across the screen.

“Ea
rly this morning the body of nineteen-year-old Susan Fields was found in a dumpster behind Ruth’s Diner on Main Street,” said the reporter.

I dropped my gla
ss and it shattered. “Oh, my God,” I choked.

“No!
” gasped Nathan in horror.

“Officials aren’t saying whether this is related to the other teens found murdered Saturday morning, but obvi
ously foul play is suspected. We’ll keep you updated as more information is released.”

My mom turned
off the television while Nathan and I stared at each other in shock. Both of us knew Susan fairly well; Nathan had even gone out with her a few times.

“I’m so sorry,”
sighed mom. “I know you three were friends.”

I turned to my mom
with tears in my eyes. “I think I’ll be staying home again.” Then I stepped over the broken glass and went upstairs to my room. I threw myself onto the bed and buried my face into my pillow, mourning for the first friend I’d made in Shore Lake.

Seconds later, Nathan
knocked on the door and entered, his face full of anguish. “This is really fucked up,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “I just saw her last night, too.”

I turned to him. “You saw her last night?”
I sniffled.

He nodded. “
Yeah, after work I was craving an omelet. They have the best egg dishes, you know, especially the Texas style, with the peppers and…”

“Yes, I know…” I prodded
, impatiently. “Keep going.”

He nodded.
“Okay, anyway, I sat up at the counter and we talked for a while. Then, some guy walked into the diner and she pretty much shut me down.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean, shut you down?”

“She basically cut me off during our conversation to go and wait on the other dude. I could hear her gushing over him with the other waitresses, too,” he scowled. “I was like… hello, what am I, scrap-meat?”

“What time did you leave the diner
last night?”

He shrugged. “
About ten o’clock.”

“Did you notice anything else?”

He shook his head. “No, the place was pretty dead, except for that other guy. I do remember she talked to him quite a bit, though.”

“I wonder if Rosie
knows anything more.”

I also w
ondered who that guy was that Susan had been talking to. Something niggled at the back of my mind. Then it hit me.

“I wonder if it was
Drake,” I said.

“Who’s Drake?”

“A guy she dated a while back. A friend of Ethan’s. I’m pretty he’s a vampire, too.”

He snorted. “Of course.”

I sighed. “Nathan, when are you going to start to believe? Too many people are dying around here, and if you can’t accept what’s going on, you’re putting your own life in danger.”

He sat down at the edge of my bed
and looked down at his hands. “Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve been having some strange… I guess you could say… visions or dreams.”

“What
do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Just…
I don’t know. Ever since I went to the club with Celeste the other night, I’ve been having these nightmares. But the crazy thing is they seem so real.”

“What kind of nightmares?”

He smiled sheepishly. “Well, I um…I had this dream that I was chasing Celeste through the woods and when I caught her, I...”

“What?”

He frowned. “I hate to say this but, I held her down and tore into her throat, like a freaken vampire. Thanks, by the way, for putting those ideas in my subconscious, with all your vampire talk.”

“Nathan…”

He stood up and began to pace. “The shitty thing is…”

“What?”

He smiled humorlessly. “I can’t believe I’m actually telling my own sister this, but it kind of excited me.”

I raised my eyebrows
. “Oh…that is pretty creepy.”

He snorted.
“Yeah, tell me about it.”

I took a deep breath.
“Nathan, have you had sex with Celeste?”

He stared at
me for a minute and then gave me a shit-eating grin. “Yeah, once.”

I stared at him in horror. “Did she bite you?”

He shrugged. “No, not that I know of.”

I moved
over to him and tried looking at his neck. “Let me check.”

He pushed me away.
“Oh, for the love of God, she didn’t bite me, okay? She’s not into freaky sex or anything; at least not with me.”

“This is serious, okay?
We need to check for bites.”

“Fine. If it’ll get you off my back, check for yourself.”

I examined his neck but didn’t seem to find anything. 

“Are you sure she didn’
t bite you? Maybe somewhere else?”

“Well, actually, now th
at you mention it, she scraped my back.”

I raised my eyebrows. “With her teeth?”

He smiled. “Yeah, but don’t ask me to get into details.”

I raised his
T-shirt and examined his back. Sure enough, right below his shoulder blades, were two little holes. “Oh, my God,” I groaned. “She bit you.”

He stood up and went over to the
dresser mirror. “Yeah, looks like she did.” He smiled. “She’s a little tigress in bed.”