Almost to Die For (20 page)

 

 

BOWLING, IT TURNED OUT, WAS my sport. By the time Nikolai’s friends joined us, I had already won two out of three games.

I was raring to take on the new blood, but Nik called for mercy. “Food break,” he suggested. “Let’s grab some pizza.”

The alley that Nikolai had taken me to was Bryant-Lake Bowl. The front half was a swanky Uptown Minneapolis bar/ restaurant and the back end was a bowling alley. Apparently, somewhere there was also the entrance to a theater because I saw playbills for upcoming shows all over the walls.

“I’m Stevie,” said a tall woman with reddish blond hair, a broad, freckled nose, and an easy smile. I honestly would never have pegged her as the nerd. No horn-rims or braces or poor social skills there. She wore the uniform of a college student—T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes—but had a relaxed confidence that instantly put me at ease. “This is my boyfriend, John. Mike is stuck in Western Civilization.”

“Aren’t we all?” commented John, who, really, with that joke seemed much more the geek, though he was clearly trying for intellectual chic. He had round Harry Potter glasses and a thin face dotted with stubble.

Nikolai introduced me by my full first name, which he said with a surprising grace, though he added his own Romany accent. I smiled at the sound of it on his lips, but added, “Just call me Ana. It’s easier.”

“No, no, Anastasija is lovely,” John insisted. “It’s regal.”

“You’re thinking of the Romanovs,” Stevie said. “Maybe Ana doesn’t appreciate the association. I mean, things ended badly for them.”

While the two of them argued over my name, Nikolai found a table large enough to accommodate the four of us. Before we even settled, a waitress deposited menus and glasses of water. She hurried off to the next table before I could even thank her.

“Are you Russian like Nikolai?” John asked.

No, I thought, vampire. Instead, I just shook my head. “English, I think.”

“Ah, then we’re bitter enemies,” John said with a smile. Hooking a thumb at his chest, he said, “Irish.”

“And I’m half French and part Finnish and some Bulgarian,” Stevie said with a roll of her eyes, and a hearty laugh. “Are we done with the ethnic identification? I’m starving!”

“Be serious,” John muttered. “You’re not Bulgarian.”

“Says who?” She poked him in the ribs.

“Are they always like this?” I asked Nikolai.

He nodded. “Pretty much, except when they’re having sex. Then they argue louder.”

“Nice,” Stevie said, but she was smiling.

Meanwhile, I was glad the restaurant had muted lighting. It hid my blush.

My phone rang. It was Mom. Everyone was watching me, so I stood up to excuse myself. “I’d better take this,” I said.

As I put the phone to my ear, I expected the worst. Instead, she said, “Are you okay?”

The question stunned me, as did my reaction. “It’s been a weird day,” I admitted, surprising myself by wanting to hear her reassuring tone. The bar was noisy. I moved toward the bowling alley in my slippery-soled shoes. I sat down on one of the plastic swivel seats near an empty lane. “I licked this guy at school I don’t even really like, although now everyone thinks I do. I ran out of school. Then Elias came and we ended up underground, and now I’m bowling.”

I left out the part where Nikolai and I made out, because, well, I thought she might have a heart attack as it was.

“When are you coming home?”

That was it? No yelling?

“What have you done with my mother?” I asked the alien on the phone.

“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Mom said, and she sounded sincere. I cradled the phone to my ear. “I got the automated notice about your truancy on the machine. I called Helena to find out what Bea knew, and she just said there was an accident in gym class.”

“Thompson got hit in the face with a hockey puck.”

“But you’re okay?”

“No, Mom, not really,” I said.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

I looked over where Nikolai and his friends sat. They were laughing about something and Stevie jabbed poor John in the ribs again. That guy must have a constant bruise in that spot.

“I’m out with Nikolai,” I said in lieu of answering. I wanted to spill everything again, in greater detail, but Mom was a witch. She hated vampires. She wasn’t going to tell me it would all be okay, like I desperately wanted her to, even if she was acting conciliatory. “He asked me out bowling with some of his friends.”

“Nikolai Kirov? From the coven?”

I could hear the smile in her tone. I knew she’d approve. She’d wanted me to hook up with a witch boy since middle school. Most of the time I found it deeply embarrassing; it was nice to finally use it to my advantage. “Yeah, he gave me a ride home last night and we really hit it off.”

“Do be careful,” she started, and I rolled my eyes in anticipation of the “safe sex” lecture. Instead, she said, “His family hunts vampires.”

By chance, I glanced over at Nik at the very instant he looked for me. Our eyes met. “No,” I told her. “He said he’s making an exception.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment. “You should come home. It’s a school night.”

I checked the wall clock; it wasn’t even dinnertime. And anyway, I still wasn’t sure I was going home, plus I’d promised Elias I’d show up for the debut thingie, so I said, “I love you. Got to run. Good-bye!”

I had the phone clicked shut and shoved into my pocket before she even said good-bye. I didn’t want a fight to ruin everything. My face must have betrayed something when I got to the table because Nik asked, “Everything okay?” He stood up to let me back into the seat nearest the window.

“Yeah. Just my mom checking in,” I explained.

“We ordered appetizers. I hope that’s okay,” Stevie said.

“You eat meat, don’t you?” John asked.

“Yeah, I do,” I said, wedging myself back into my seat. Everyone had a drink of some kind. From what I could tell, everyone was having pop. I pointed at my glass and looked at Nikolai.

“I got you a Coke. Regular. I hope that’s okay?”

I smiled. Ah, normal. Friends out for the evening. No one talking about Initiations or vampires. Just what I needed. I let their conversation about their professors and blue books drift around me. Nikolai reached out and held my hand under the table. I gave him a gentle squeeze. This was great.

Which was why I nearly jumped out of my bowling shoes when I saw Elias watching me from across the room.

O
kay, new question. Elias Constantine: (a) dashing vampire protector or (b) creepy stalker guy?

What would have been an easy “a” ten minutes ago now had me wondering. Maybe it was the way the light caught his unblinking, steady gaze that seemed to bore right through me, or the fact that I was hyperaware that I held Nikolai’s hand under the table.

But something about Elias’s presence in the darkened bar made me swallow nervously.

Trust the other girl at the table to notice my distraction. Stevie swiveled to try to see who’d caught my eye. As the boys continued to discuss the merits of retaking a failed thermal-physics class, she leaned in conspiratorially. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

No, I wanted to say, a vampire.

But when I started to point to where Elias had been sitting a second ago, he was gone. “That’s weird,” I said, scanning the bar to try to spot where he went. But I saw no sign of him. “He was there a minute ago.”

“Who?” Nikolai asked.

“That’s what I was trying to find out,” Stevie chided.

“Some guy I met the other night,” I said distractedly. Had he slipped off to the bathroom? Where did Elias go?

“The other night? ” Nikolai asked anxiously. “You mean, like,
last
night?”

“Did something happen last night?” Stevie asked.

Even John was paying more attention. “At the Gypsy dance class?” he asked. “Are you guys in that together?”

Gypsy dance class? Was that where Nikolai had told his friends he was going last night dressed for the Initiation? I tried to catch his eye to give him silent grief about it, but his head craned this way and that, searching the crowded bar. His body was tense, as if on full alert.

He knew.

Nikolai sensed a vampire was here.

“It’s okay,” I said, grabbing for the hand Nikolai had released the moment I mentioned seeing someone. “He’s a friend.”

The eyes that met mine were full of fury. “Of yours maybe, but not mine.”

“But I thought . . .”

He stood up. Nikolai’s entire posture was full of challenge.

I put a restraining hand on Nikolai. The moment we touched, I felt his magic. His whole body surged with power. It jangled along his nerves, bright and sharp. Where his hand clenched into a fist, I sensed a focal point almost like the tip of a blade. If I squinted, I could see the outline of a shimmering purple point emanating from his knuckles, as though he held a knife between his fingers.

“He’s gone,” I said, trying to tug Nik back into his seat.

“Yeah, no need to go all alpha male,” Stevie teased.

I tried to muster a smile to show her that everything was okay, but Nikolai remained on full alert.

“What’s going on?” John asked.

Nikolai bolted for the door. Outside the window, I caught sight of Elias standing in the shadow of an alleyway across the street.

“Wait,” I shouted, running after him, skating on the floor in my bowling shoes.

“This is not your fight,” he told me when I reached him just outside the door. Smokers milled around us. Embers flared and danced in the misty darkness. “Go back inside where it’s safe. This isn’t just any vampire. He’s a captain in their army, a Praetorian Guard.”

“Elias?”

Nikolai’s attention suddenly focused hotly on me. He pulled me away from the door and under the awning. His amber eyes flashed threateningly. “You have a name? A full name? Give it to me!”

No way.

I might not have passed the Initiation, but I knew names had power. “I can’t,” I told him. “It’s like I told you; he’s my friend.”

Nikolai’s face twisted. His eyes narrowed. The hand on my arm clenched tighter, more painfully, and I could feel his magic ramping up even higher. Would he use it against me?

I didn’t have time to consider what I might do if Nikolai did, because, in an instant, Elias was at my side. With a great shove, he pushed himself between Nikolai and me.

“Unhand her.” Elias’s voice was a low growl.

I felt kind of stupid and useless, pressed between the window of the bar and Elias’s back. The smokers began reacting to the altercation. Someone demanded to know what was going on. “Hey!” another shouted.

Nikolai, who’d seemed ready to impale Elias with the blade of his magic, lowered his arm slowly. “Consider yourself lucky, sucker,” Nikolai said. “Or should I say ‘Elias’ ? ”

Elias stiffened at that, but didn’t back down. “Say what you wish, Nikolai Kirov; you are not a hunter yet.”

I peeked around Elias’s shoulder just in time to see Nikolai take a step forward. He poked Elias in the chest, and I sensed the sharpness of the magical jab that made Elias stumble back, nearly crushing me against the window. “All I have to do is make my first kill.”

“If you dare, pup,” Elias said, pulling himself upright. “But I’ll make you a solemn promise as well. Bring harm to my lady and it will be your death knell ringing.”

Before they could go into another round of “oh, yeah’s,” the door sprang open and Stevie and John came flooding out into the night. “Are you guys okay? What’s going on?”

I felt a soft breeze, like a chaste kiss on my cheek. I knew Elias was gone, disappeared into the night.

 

 

WE WENT BACK INSIDE TO strained silence. Stevie figured out that Nikolai and I needed to talk, so she told John she needed his help fetching some appetizers. He protested that the waitress could do that until she poked him in the ribs again and he got it. They excused themselves and left Nik and me together.

I knew I should make good use of the time Stevie bought me, but I just sat staring at him. His whole body was shaking from the exchange. He couldn’t look at me, but all I could do was gape. Despite what he’d said to me, Nikolai seemed ready to stake Elias. I felt deeply betrayed.

“Are you okay?” he asked me. “Man, that was close.”

I frowned in confusion. He thought
I’ d
been in danger? “Elias was protecting me from you, Nik.”

“Your Elias is a butcher, Ana. He’s a ruthless killer. I may only know him by reputation, but his reputation is infamous.”

“I thought I’d changed your mind about vampires.”

Nik folded the corners of the paper napkin under his empty, sweat-streaked glass. “I don’t want to hurt
you
,” he said to the table. Then he looked up at me. “I never want to hurt you. But I’m honor-bound by blood.”