Destined (Vampire Awakenings) (13 page)

   “Hey, I thought you’d gone to sleep,” Ethan greeted.

   Stefan shrugged negligently as he walked carefully over to the chair he had abandoned earlier. His physical condition ma
de
it difficult for him to walk. “Couldn’t sleep.”

   “Hmm. Got a two?”

   “What?” Isabelle asked distractedly.

   “A two?”
Ethan inquired again.

   She glanced at the cards in her hand, barely seeing the numbers on them. Stefan’s hungry, dark
gaze
had made her feel extremely uncomfortable, and edgy. Her blood seemed to be burning in her veins, and that odd tingling sensation was back between her thighs, and in her breasts. She shifted uncomfortably as a fierce yearning, that she didn’t understand, began to make its way through her. Silently she cursed herself for stupidly thinking that Stefan wouldn’t be coming back down tonight. She should have stayed in her room, buried under a pile of books like she had planned.

   “Go fish,” she mumbled.

   Of course, it didn’t help that he looked unbelievably sexy in his lose jeans, and tight, dark blue shirt. His hair was tussled, giving him a boyish appeal that was almost irresistible. Almost, but not entirely. She planned to resist it, and she planned to stay far away from him for now on.

  
“Isabelle,” Ethan said sharply.

   “What?” she demanded
, aggravated by the strange feelings coursing rapidly through her
.

   His eyes narrowed as he studied her, his brow puckered. “Are you going to go?”

   She blinked at her cards as she tried to force her attention back to them. “Do you have a four?” He tossed a card across the table at her. She scooped it up and dropped her cards onto the table. “Ten?”

   “Go fish.”

   Isabelle reached across and grabbed a card from the de
ck. “Jess sleeping?” Ethan inquired
.

   “No,” Stefan muttered.

   Isabelle stiffened as she recognized the
strange
scent that was clinging to him. She had smelled it often enough on her brothers, parents, and the stooges, and she knew exactly what it was. Disgust coiled within her stomach
at the smell of the sex
, along with another emotion, one that she was beginning to become uncomfortably familiar with, jealousy. She bit her lip, wanting to bolt from the room, but unable to humiliate herself by doing so.

   She lifted her head to find Ethan grinning knowingly as he stared at his cards. “Pig,” she muttered.

   He glanced up at her, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “What?” he
inquired
innocently.

   Isabelle glared at him as she lowered her gaze to her cards again. “When will they be getting back?” Stefan asked.

   Isabelle glanced at the clock in the corner, it was after twelve already. “Whenever they feel like it,” Ethan answered.

   “Hopefully soon,” Isabelle replied
softly
. She had been a little hungry earlier, but her distress over seeing him again made it burn into fierce, brutal life.

   “They bring people back for you?”
Stefan asked
.

   “No!” Isabelle cried, her eyes flying to his in horror. Stefan’s eyes widened in surprise
, he was startled by
the amount of alarm in her gaze, and
the
revulsion in her voice.

   Ethan sighed and leaned back in his chair
,
dropp
ing
his cards
to
the table. The game was officially over, and Isabelle was more than a little grateful. She couldn’t concentrate, and she just wanted out of the suddenly small, stuffy room. “Isabelle doesn’t feed off of humans.”

   “Ethan!” she
hissed
her intent to leave flying out the window in the face of her brother’s casual statement. If she could have reached him she would have firmly kicked him under the table.
There were some things that were private and personal, certain things that she didn
’
t want everyone to know. Especially not the frustrating stranger sitting across from her.

   “What?” Stefan asked, his eyebrows
rising
in surprise.

   Isabelle scowled fiercely at her brother as he folded his arms over his chest, a brow cocked questioningly
as he grinned at her
. “It’s true!” he protested.

   She took a deep breath as she tried to calm her growing anger and resentment. “So how do you feed then?” Stefan asked.

   Isabelle sighed and dropped her cards. She leaned back in her chair to meet his gaze with pure defiance. “There is such a thing as blood
banks. It’s what our parents did for us when we were little. I choose to keep doing it.”

   “Don’t want to hurt the humans?”

  Isabelle ground her teeth. “That’s right
,” she said coldly, although it was a lie. She didn’t like being around them, but she was more afraid that she would accidentally stumble across one that would turn out to be what her mother was to her father. Other than high
school, she had tried to keep herself away from as many humans as she could, in order to prevent herself from finding a soul mate. Now she was afraid that he might have stumbled into her sanctuary.

   “Isabelle and I are the outsiders, the outcasts,” Ethan said with an amused grin. “We’re not social, especially not
with
humans.
Although, I will
at least
feed off of them and go out once in awhile. Isabelle stays close to home.”

   “And why is that?”
Stefan asked, a little surprised by what they were telling him.

   Ethan shrugged as Isabelle shifted uncomfortably. She knew that Ethan feared the same thing that she did, but she didn’t know if he was going to tell Stefan
that
, or not. She sure as hell wasn’t going too. “We’re content here,” he replied nonchalantly. “What about you, how old are you exactly?”

   Stefan
lifted
a brow as he looked questioningly at the two of them. Isabelle was sitting silently, her dark head bent as she refused to meet his gaze. He knew that there was something more to Ethan’s simple explanation, but it was obvious that neither of them was going to elaborate further.

   “Two hundred and sixty seven,” he answered, leaning back, and folding his hands behind his head.

   Isabelle’s head shot up, her eyes
were
wide as they landed on him. He stiffened as that gaze shot a bolt of lust
straight
through him. “What exactly can you do?” Ethan asked.

   He shrugged, his gaze still locked on Isabelle’s. Biting nervously on her bottom lip she turned away from him, her long lashes flutter
ed
down to cast shadows over her delicate cheeks. He had to fight against the overwhelming urge
t
o touch her cheek, to see if it was as soft as it looked. He scowled as he tore his attention away from her, and back to Ethan’s curious gaze. He was beginning to act like a boy in the throes of his first love, he realized. And he didn’t like it one bit.

   “Lots of things,” he replied absently.

   “Such as?”

   “Such as I can move faster than you ever dreamed, my strength is ten times yours, my hearing, eye sight, and other senses are ten times yours. My powers of persuasion, memory erasing, and cloaking my presence could make you look like a new born baby.” He knew he sounded arrogant and hostile, but the growing tension in his jeans was becoming almost unbearable, and making him edgy. “I can make humans, and you, see something that isn’t really there,” he continued in a lighter tone. “That’s what I’ve done to Kathleen, Delia, and Jess.”

   “Why didn’t you cloak your presence from us that first day
then
?” Ethan asked.
   “I didn’t expect to step out of the car, and into a nest of vampires.”

   “If your powers are so strong, th
e
n how come you didn’t sense us before you got here?” Ethan demanded, obviously a little annoyed
by Stefan’s
arrogance. Stefan tried to lighten his tone, and stance, even more. He liked Ethan, and he didn’t want
Ethan
angry because he sounded like a condescending ass.

   “Because I wasn’t searching for it, and I was busy arguing with Jess over the damn radio. I knew you were here a few miles down the road, I just didn’t expect that this was the place that we were heading too. Even if we hadn’t come here, I would have
on my own
.”

  
They both looked at him in surprise.
“Why?”

  
Stefan shrugged casually as he folded his hands before him.
“Because our kind usually doesn’t group together like you have. In fact, the most I’ve ever come across is five together. Usually, we’re too territorial
to be grouped so tightly together
. We prefer to be alone. I was curious about the amount of presence’s I sensed here. I would have
come here simply to
investigate, and discover why there were so many in one place.”

   Isabelle frowned at
him;
her eyes darkened
as she hesitantly met his gaze. He smiled back at her as he unfolded his hands and leaned forward. “We’re happy here,” she whispered.
“It’s why we all stay.”

   “I can see that, all I said was that it was unusual. I’m surprised that everyone has stayed for as long as they have.”

   “Where else would they go?” Isabelle asked, her face reflecting her innocence and confusion. “David, Jack, Mike, Doug, and my dad have been friends since childhood. They were all changed around the same time, and by the same person. They’ve always been together, helping each other out. They all helped to raise
us;
they’re like our older brothers. They’re our family.”

   “What about your
other
siblings
, are they all going to stay
?”

   “Aiden and Ian are going to college, and Abby and Vicky practically have their bags packed, even though they still have three years to go.”

   Stefan’s brow furrowed. “Do they go to school now?”

   “We all went to high school,” Ethan answered. “
Willow will start school in the fall.
By the time we’re thirteen we’re able to control our ability to change. Before that age it can be a little iffy, and hard to control. Especially when we get mad, or upset. Most of our wars were conducted as vampires, if we were mad enough.”

  
Stefan studied the amused smiles on both their faces as they exchanged glances. “
And none of you ever had a problem at school?”
he asked softly.

   “I did once,” Isabelle admitted reluctantly. “I got really mad at this guy Ralph. He was always making rude, nasty comments to me, and we ended up getting into a fight. I changed right in front of him. Thankfully Ethan was there to help me
change his memories
afterward;
otherwise
,
I don’t know what would have happened. No one else has had any problems
though
.”

   Stefan knew exactly what would have happened if Ethan hadn’t shown up, but it wasn’t a pleasant thought, and obviously not one that Isabelle wanted to contemplate. He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head again. He found himself fascinated by their existence, and how they had survived, and he wanted to learn more. Actually, if he was honest with himself, he wanted to learn more about
her
. “Didn’t you have friends that wanted to come over, or school plays, or sport
s
competitions th
at your parents wanted to go to
?”

   “Ethan and I didn’t join anything. Aiden was on the football and basketball teams, and Ian was on the swim team. Abby and Vicky are cheerleaders. Our parents go to some of the events, but they look like any other spectator when they’re there
, and unfortunately can’t present themselves as their parents
. Mike, Doug, David, and Jack go too.”

   “Why didn’t you guys join anything?”

   “Like I said, we’re the unsociable ones,” Ethan replied with a grin.

   Stefan truly wanted to know why they were the unsociable ones, but he didn’t ask. “What about friends coming over?”

   “Aiden, Ian, Vicky, and Abby have brought their friends over, not in large groups, but a couple here or there. We just alter their memories a little when they leave and make them think that our parents are older.”

   Stefan frowned as he unfolded his hands and leaned forward. “What are you going to do in another ten years, when people begin to question why
you’re
not aging?”

   “We don’t go into town very often. Most people think that we
ha
ve
already
moved off, and now live separate lives. The few times that we do go into town, it’s always at night, and we alter the memories of the few people we meet. We usually go to Portland where no one notices anything, or California.”