Sun Poisoned (The Sunshine Series) (15 page)

There's knocking at the door before he gets to say anything else. I didn’t even know it was closed.

“Listen,” he says, barely distracted by it. “You need to get them away from the apartment for about an hour,” he says. “Go out to eat.” I register the crinkling sound of money being pulled out of his jeans pocket, but don't realize he's giving me cash until I'm glancing down at the crumpled bills in my hand.

Crumpled.

Like the girl on the floor, not two feet away from us.

“
Come back in an hour for movie night,” he says gently, like he wants to say something more to put me at ease, but we both know there's nothing he can say right now.

“
I'll be here,” he says after a long pause. “I'll explain later.” Then he's helping me stand.

I can hear Boo knocking vigorously.
“Come on!” His muffled voice comes through the door.

My eyes fixate on the dark wood of the door for a few seconds before Myles' hand is on my face, making me turn my attention to him.

Myles’ eyes are blazing. With what—concern, tension, fear—I don't know. “Take a breath,” he says. “Drink some water. Then go get the door.”

His voice is soft, but he's instructing me in what to do like he's reading a manual.

I nod. I do as he says.

I take in air and let it out. I take the water bottle from the floor and open it. I take a swig. I don’t look to the right, where Evan and Ava are. I don't look at them, or the blood, or Myles. I turn around and start toward the door.

My hand shakes when it reaches the knob, and I turn back momentarily to make sure Myles has ducked behind the counter again before I open it.

Another breath forces its way into and out of my lungs before the door swings open.

I clear my throat when Boo says, “What took you so long?”

“
Sorry,” I say, almost sounding like I should—like there isn't something screwed up happening in my apartment at the moment. “I had my headphones in.” Another breath. “Were you guys knocking long?”

“
No,” Trei says. “Only a couple of minutes.” She turns to her brother. “You're so impatient, Boo.”

I hear slight movement from inside the kitchen. Thankfully, they seem too preoccupied to hear it too.

“You guys want to go get food before Myles gets here?” I blurt out, and at the same moment I become aware of the wad of  bills in my fist. I shove them into my pocket before taking a step toward the door and the outside world.

“
Sure,” Trei says. “Is he going to join us?”

I shrug.
“Maybe,” I say. “He said he'd be here in an hour, but I'm too hungry to wait, so. . .”

“
Okay,” Boo agrees.

I take another step forward.

Then Boo holds up a hand in front of me. My breath catches.

“
What?” My voice sounds tight.

“
Aren't you forgetting something?”

I shrug. I wish I could just shrug the rest of the day. I don't feel like talking for some strange reason.

“You're sun-stuff,” Trei says.

Shit.

I laugh, hoping the uneasiness I feel in my stomach doesn't come out of my mouth. “Wow,” I say. “I must be tired or something.”

I turn away, grab my glasses off the coffee table, and my coat from the couch. I only glance for a split second to the side, but time slows when I see Myles leaning down the same as before, blocking Evan and Ava from my sight. He raises a finger to his lips, then points to the door.

With that, everything begins moving at the normal pace and I'm walking back to Boo and Trei. I shut and lock the door behind us, trying to act normal when we discuss which restaurant to go to on the way down the stairs.

When did actually
being
normal turn back into acting normal for me? I feel like that's something I should have been aware of the moment it happened. How can a person just not notice something like that?

I thought that after years of practice, I'd be an expert at acting normal. Years of hiding scars and monsters should have prepared me for something like this, right?

Why can’t I push the uneasiness out of my stomach?

Why can’t I just eat the damn food I ordered without seeing Ava's crumpled body on my kitchen floor?

“I thought you said you were hungry,” Trei comments, digging into her salad.

“
I am,” I say, looking down at my burger for the first time. The ketchup is slipping out on one side and it’s enough to make my stomach do half a flip. “I'm just waiting for it to cool off.”

“
You and Myles okay?” Boo asks suddenly.

I look at him and rather than being greeted with the joking expression I was expec
ting, his face is questioning.

“
Yeah,” I say. “We're great. Why?”

He shrugs.
“Just asking.” He swipes one of my fries. “You guys are always together, and you didn't want to wait for him. Seems like a logical question to ask.”

Trei cuts me off before I can answer for myself.
“Oh come on, Boo,” she says. “Just because they're not attached at the hip doesn't mean they're fighting.”

Boo offers up his arms in defense.
“Okay,” he says. “Just looking out for you is all.” He takes a bite of his burger now, squirting ketchup out of the back end and almost making me want to vomit when it hits the plate in front of him.

“
If he ever hurts you,” Boo says in a lighthearted tone. “I'm going to have his balls as a necklace.”

Despite whatever the hell is going on in my apartment, I forget for
a minute and let myself laugh. “Good to know, Boo.” And I start eating, praying that I won't regret having a full stomach later.

The walk home is hot, and for once, I welcome the sweat that begins pooling at the small of my back and underneath my legs and arms. I can distract myself from the uneasiness growing in my gut of what awaits me at home. Being afraid to go home is familiar, but it's so much different too.

I open the door to my apartment, not knowing how to prepare myself, but I soon find out that there's no need. Everything's in its place. The kitchen is spotless, like nothing happened. There's a very faint smell of bleach, but other than that, no one would ever be able to guess what had gone on in this room an hour ago.

“
So what now?” Boo asks.

“
What?” I ask, fumbling with the buttons on my trench coat.

“
Movies,” Boo says like it's obvious. “Which ones are we watching?”

“
Yeah, and aren’t we hanging out with Myles and his friend?” Trei asks.

I forgot I mentioned that when I texted them.

Quickly, I glance at my phone, pretending I missed a text from earlier in the day.

“
I don't think she's coming anymore,” I manage to say without letting anything on. I guess that's the thing about knowing how to
act
normal. Since I’ve done it enough, no one thinks I’m acting.

They seem unfazed by this.
“Oh, that sucks,” Trei says as she joins Boo in front of the bookshelf where I store all of my movies.

“
Yeah,” Boo says. “Maybe some other time.”

I let out a breath I wasn't aware I was holding in.

My phone buzzes in my hand. Myles’s first text says: “Everything's under control. I'm at the door.” Then a second later comes, “Are you okay?”

I'm guessing he's asking me this in a text so we don't look suspicious in front of Boo and Trei, but I can't help punching in only one question as I walk back to the front door.
“What happened?”

A second, then,
“Later.”

Then he’s knocking.

Myles is wearing different clothes than the ones he had on an hour ago, swapping his white shirt for a black one, his jeans are now a lighter wash. I know it's probably because the old ones got dirty or bloody, but I don't want to think about it longer than that.

“
Hey,” he says casually, like there wasn't just a girl I barely know bleeding all over my kitchen floor. Like a vampire didn't just bite her in front of me.

I don't get the opportunity to fake a hello.

“Myles!” Boo says, getting up from the couch and coming over to us as I shut the door. “There you are.”

“
Here I am,” he says.

And the pretending-to-be-normal-while-watching-a-movie party begins.

I pretty much succeed, but I only make it through one comedy that Boo picks before I tell them I’m tired and the group disperses. It’s only five, but they allow it.

Myles pretends to leave too, so it looks legit, coming back when Boo and Trei are back in their apartment.

I barely have the door shut all the way when I say, “Okay.”

I'm almost grateful when I turn around to see that Myles is sitting on the couch. He was expecting this. He's going to tell me what happened.

He motions for me to come and join him, so I do.

I waste no time going for the questions.
”Is she okay?”

Myles nods.
“She'll be okay.”

I sit beside him, staring at my boots.
“What does that mean?” I all but snap.

“
You're really upset,” and I can't tell if it's a statement, question, or surprised observation.

“
Should I not be?” I ask, my voice shaking. Great. “Tell me I'm not supposed to be upset when someone comes to my apartment, convulses and bleeds all over the place, and then has her boyfriend bite her in front of me. Tell me how and I'll get to work on that right now.”

Something behind his eyes shifts. Maybe he was expecting this to be easy.

“I'm sorry,” he says, cautiously wrapping one arm around my waist and then when I don't move away, the other.

I let him hold me for a minute. I let myself breathe the clean scent of his t-shirt. Then I pull our bodies apart so I can look at him.

“You get that I don't see stuff like that every day, right?” It's the only way I can word it right now.

He nods.
“I know.”

“
So,” I say, calm for the moment. “Tell me what happened.”

Myles runs a hand through his hair.
“It's the infection,” he says.

“
I could have guessed that much.” I say. “Is that what it’s like,” I say, trying to remember how he explained it. “When Michael’s blood comes to the surface?”

I let out a breath.

He nods. “Remember I told you that Michael was the first vampire I came across after I was turned?”

I already hate how this conversation is heading into Michael land, but I want to know this story more than I want to be left in the dark.

Myles grabs a hold of my hand and stares down at it, maybe so he won't have to look at me. “I was. . .different then. Scared. Confused. Desperate.”

I nod so he'll go on.

“He took me in, taught me about what I was.” He shakes his head. “The wrong way, but he still taught me.”

“
Okay…”

“
Anyway.”  He blinks a few times like he's trying to keep himself from thinking about something. “Evan came into our lives shortly after.”

I fail to see what this has to do with Ava, but I keep my mouth shut. He's trying to tell me something big, I can tell by the way he's not looking at me and how he keeps pausing to think of how to word things. I'm not going to interrupt.

Myles glances into my eyes for a second. “I'm not going to go into detail, because I don't like talking about it.” His attention is back on my hand in his. “Michael, took Evan and his sister a few years after I came to live with him.”

I swallow hard.
“What happened to them?”

He closes his eyes and shakes his head.

I swallow again. My mouth seems so dry all of the sudden.

“
Michael wanted Evan’s sister more than he wanted Evan. He wanted to turn her, but he couldn’t turn anyone because of his blood, and I didn’t want to help.” He shrugs. “So when she died,” he whispers. “Michael tried to kill Evan.”

Silence.

I don't want to push, but I do anyway. “You helped Evan?”

He snorts, but there's no humor in it.
“I wouldn't say that.” Myles takes in yet another breath. “I got there too late,” I barely hear him say. “There was no other way.”

For a moment the last part just hangs there, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reach up and take it or let him finish.
              Thankfully, I don't have to choose. “I had to turn him.”

I gulp.
“Oh.”

“
It's important for you to know that so I can tell you the rest. So you'll understand Ava's. . .condition better.”