Helpless (Blue Fire Saga) (16 page)

23. AN UNEXPECTED GUEST

W
hile Leesa and Dominic drove west, Stefan was making his way toward the Weston campus. The beautiful gray clouds that had blanketed the sky yesterday were breaking up, allowing the sun to peek through for increasingly long intervals. Stefan did not care. He had his hooded sweatshirt and his gloves. As much as possible, he would keep to the shade, but if he had to bear the burning rays of the sun he would do so. There was no time to wait for nightfall. He wanted to begin putting his plan into motion as soon as possible.

Most of the route between the vampire lair and the college was sparsely populated and he was able to move at vampire speed through the wooded hills. Only when he neared the southern edge of Middletown did he slow to a fast walk.

When he reached Leesa’s dorm, he crossed quickly to the stairwell. Today was Sunday, so there were no classes. He hoped Leesa would be here, but he hadn’t even ascended the first flight of stairs when he knew she was not. His brief taste of her blood allowed him to sense her presence from short distances, but his vampire senses detected no trace of her. Still, he continued up the stairs—he had nowhere else to go, and he was good at waiting.

He gave her door a perfunctory knock, just in case, but received no response. Putting his back against the wall, he slid down into a sitting position beside her door and let his eyes drift off into the vacant stare that was the vampire equivalent of a nap.

All vampires have extreme patience. Other than the change between day and night, time means little to them. They are extremely good at waiting—except when they are very hungry. Then their patience grows thin.

It wasn’t long—perhaps an hour in human time—before Stefan began to grow antsy. The feeling surprised him. He prided himself on his control, yet yearnings were building up inside him. It was
Destiratu
, he knew; the magic was fanning his hunger. He tried to force it down, but his need continued to grow. He fumed—was he not was a member of the High Council and powerful besides? He was expected to be able to control his urges—that was why council members were still allowed out on their own.

He stood up. He could control this thirst, he knew. But not here, surrounded by the sweet smell of so many tasty young humans. Their numbers and proximity were a powerful call, especially with nothing to distract him. And the call was growing increasingly strong.

He set off down the hall, sniffing the air as he went.

Cali flicked off her television. There was nothing on the tube she wanted to watch. Unless you were a sports fan, weekend afternoons pretty much sucked as far as television went. She wished Leesa was around, but she was off somewhere with that Dominic guy. Leesa had been spending an awful lot of her time with him, and Cali wondered what they were doing. She guessed Leesa would tell her eventually—she had already shared about Rave and Stefan with her—but that wasn’t doing her any good right now.

She sighed and switched on her CD player. The Black Eyed Peas started singing to her that tonight was going to be a good, good night. Maybe so, she thought, but this afternoon was definitely leaving a lot to be desired. She turned up the volume and stretched out on her bed while she tried to decide what to do next. Closing her eyes, she let the music wash over her.

The Peas were “just not getting enough” when the knock sounded at her door. She barely heard it over the music. She pushed herself up from the bed, happy that someone was going to rescue her from her boredom.

She opened the door to find the last person she would ever have expected to see looking back at her.

“Hi, Cali,” Stefan said, smiling.

Cali stepped back involuntarily. It took her a moment to find her voice.

“Stefan,” she said finally. “What are you doing here? How did you know where I live?”

Stefan’s grin widened. “Which question would you like me to answer first?”

Cali found herself unable to pull her gaze away from Stefan’s dark eyes. They looked like bottomless black pools.

“Uhmmm, I don’t care….Would you like to come in?” The question sounded foolish to her as soon as she asked it—as if she could stop him from doing what he wanted in any case.

“Thank you,” Stefan said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. “Do not worry, sweet Cali. You have nothing to fear from me. I would not have saved you only to turn on you now.”

Cali backed up as Stefan entered, still unable to pull her eyes away from his. She recalled the recent discussion she’d had about him with Leesa. Nice or not nice, he was definitely the sexiest guy she had ever met. The sexiest vampire, she corrected herself.

“Now, as to how I knew where you live,” Stefan said. “I kissed your hand, remember? That brief taste was enough for me to find you whenever we are close.”

He held out his hand. Without really thinking about it, Cali placed her hand into his upturned fingers. Stefan lifted it to his lips and kissed it again. The same icy thrill as last time shot through her.

“Yes, very sweet,” Stefan said, smiling. He let go of her hand. “I was looking for Leesa. I need to talk her. I thought perhaps she might be with you or that you might know where I could find her. I guessed you two probably lived in the same dorm, so I just walked the halls until I sensed you.”

Something in Stefan’s eyes shifted and Cali was able to pull her eyes away from them. She sat down on the edge of her bed.

“Leesa’s not around,” she said. “She probably won’t be back until much later.”

Cali hoped he wouldn’t ask who Leesa was with because she wasn’t sure she could keep herself from answering. She did not think Leesa would want Stefan to know about Dominic.

“Is she with Rave by any chance?” Stefan asked. “Rave is who I really want to talk to.”

Cali wasn’t sure she’d head correctly. Why on earth would Stefan want to talk to Rave? Vampires and volkaanes were sworn enemies.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Stefan thought for a few moments, unsure what to do. Normally, he would just go back and wait outside Leesa’s room, but his
Destiratu
-fueled hunger made that far too dangerous. Even now, he found his gaze roaming to Cali’s tender neck. He could never attack Leesa’s best friend, but the other girls in the dorm carried no such strictures. He needed to get away from here soon, at least for awhile.

“When you see Leesa, please tell her I need to speak with her, and with Rave, too, if she can get a message to him. Tell her I will be back later, and I hope she will wait for me. It’s important.”

“Okay,” Cali said, nodding. “I’ll leave a note on her door telling her to come see me as soon as she gets back.”

“Thank you, Cali.”

Stefan kissed her hand one more time and then spun around and left the room.

Cali stared down at the back of her hand as Stefan disappeared out the door. Kissed by a vampire two more times, she thought. She didn’t know if the Peas were right about how good her night was going to be, but it had certainly turned into one damn fine afternoon. She sat down at her desk and began writing the note. Maybe she’d get to hear about some more cool stuff once Leesa talked to Stefan.

24. A COLD RIDE

L
eesa saw the folded yellow note taped to her door as soon as she stepped out the elevator. She pulled it off the door before inserting her key into the lock but didn’t open it until she was inside her room.

Stefan stopped by this afternoon. Said he needs to talk to you (and Rave!). Very important. He said he’d be back and hopes you’ll wait in your room for him. P.S. He kissed my hand TWO MORE times!

Leesa rolled her eyeballs. Cali really was incorrigible.

She sat down on her bed without even taking off her parka and read the note again, wondering what Stefan could possibly want to talk to her about. And wanting to talk to Rave? What the heck was that about? That part was almost beyond comprehension.

She glanced out her window. The sun had been down for well over an hour. She was a little surprised Stefan had not returned with the onset of darkness and simply waited outside her room for her.

 She shrugged off her coat and refolded the note, then scribbled
Be right back
on the outside before sticking it back onto the door using the same piece of tape. She didn’t plan to be gone long, but just in case Stefan came by while she was downstairs, she wanted to make sure he’d wait for her to return.

Taking the stairs as quickly as her limp allowed, she hurried down to Cali’s room. The door was open, so she knocked lightly on the doorframe and stepped inside. Cali was sitting at her desk, scribbling what was probably some last minute homework for one of her morning classes. She swung around at Leesa’s knock.

“I got your note,” Leesa said. “I can’t believe Stefan came here to talk you. How did he even know where you live?”

Cali grinned. “He said because he had kissed my hand, he could sense me.” Her grin widened. “Now that he’s kissed it twice more, I wonder if he’ll be able to find me from even farther away?”

Leesa shook her head, but couldn’t help smiling. “You do remember our talk, right?”

“Oh, yeah. For sure. You said Stefan could
be
nice, and he definitely was nice this afternoon.”

“Did he say anything more than what you put in your note?”

Cali thought for a moment. “Not really. Just that he wanted to talk to you and Rave, and that it was really important. Oh, wait. He did say Rave was the one he really wanted to talk to. I think he just wants to talk to you so you can tell Rave.”

“I don’t get it.” Leesa’s hand moved to her head and her fingers began twirling in her hair. “What could Stefan possibly want with Rave? The one time they saw each other, they were ready to kill one another.”

Cali shrugged. “I don’t know. What are you going to do? Are you going to tell Rave?”

Leesa sat down on Cali’s bed. “I’m not sure. I guess I’ll wait to hear what Stefan has to say.”

“You want me to come up and hang with you while you wait? You know, to help keep you safe when Stefan gets here?”

“Ha! Nice try. I think I’ll be okay, though.” Leesa stood up. “I’d better get back up there.” She headed for the door.

“Tell me about it when you can,” Cali called after her.

Leesa twisted her head around. “
If
I can,” she said and then headed down the hall toward the stairwell.

Upstairs, she didn’t have long to wait. Sitting on her bed, she tried reading her psychology book, but she was too distracted by the riddle of Stefan’s visit to get much out of her reading. She did not hear him approach, but when she looked up from her book, there he was, standing in her doorway.

He looked like he always did—seductively handsome and not at all threatening, unless you allowed yourself to get lost in his eyes.

Leesa tried to act nonchalant. She closed her book, but did not get up.

“I got your message,” she said. “What’s up?”

Stefan stepped into the room, leaving the door open behind him. He smiled.

“That’s it?” he asked. “A vampire shows up in your room and says he wants to talk to your volkaane boyfriend, and all you have to say is ‘what’s up?’”

Leesa scooted up to the edge of her bed. “Okay… yeah, I’m a little intrigued—more than a little. What’s going on?”

“I cannot tell you any details. All I can say is that I need Rave’s help, and I need you to ask him to talk to me. I can’t very well go marching up to volkaane settlement and try to find him.”

“Why do you think Rave will help you? You two aren’t exactly best buds.”

Stefan took a step forward, looking like he was going to sit down beside her, but at the last minute he twisted around and sat on her desk chair instead.

“I’ve helped two people who are very close to you, Leesa. I’m hoping that’s enough to get Rave to listen to me, at the least. If he does, I think I can convince him to help me.”

Leesa knew Stefan was probably right about the first part, anyhow. “I think I can get a ride out to go see Rave tomorrow. If he agrees to talk to you, he could probably be here tomorrow evening.

It was usually almost impossible to read Stefan’s face, but Leesa thought she saw a bit of disappointment.

“You have no way to contact him tonight?” Stefan asked.

“Just how do you think I could do that, signal flares? You know he doesn’t use phones or anything.”

“I know. I was just hoping you two had figured out some way to get in touch.”

Leesa thought about how she was able to contact Rave through Max and wondered in Stefan somehow suspected something like that was possible. Using Max tonight carried the same problem as going out to the volkaane settlement—she would need a car. She supposed she could call her aunt or uncle and ask them to drive Max out here to her dorm, but how would she explain a strange request like that without revealing more than she wanted her family to know?

“There might be a way,” she said after a few moments. “But it’s ten miles away. I’d still need a ride.”

“I could give you a ride,” Stefan offered.

“You? I didn’t know you had a car.”

 Stefan smiled. “I don’t. But I do not need a car to give you a ride.” Stefan’s grin grew wider. Leesa almost expected to see his fangs drop down. “You are not that heavy, Leesa. Besides, I’m guessing you and Rave have already tried it.”

Leesa blushed and began twirling her fingers in her hair. Of course Stefan could carry her. He was even stronger than Rave. And while Stefan was not as fast as Rave, she was pretty sure he could carry her to Meriden in not much time at all. Somehow, though, the thought of letting Stefan carry her made her feel disloyal to Rave.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not sure how I would explain showing up at my aunt’s without a car.”

Stefan walked over to the bed and looked down at her, doing that strange thing with his eyes again.

“Are you sure that’s the reason you are hesitant?”

Leesa forced her gaze away from Stefan’s black eyes. She knew Rave wouldn’t like it if she let Stefan carry her, but he would probably understand, especially if what Stefan wanted to talk to him about was as important as he said.

“If you are going to carry me somewhere, why not just take me out near the volkaane settlement and wait while I fetch Rave?”

Stefan shook his head. “I wish I could. But my kind do not venture within ten miles of the volkaane settlement, just as they do not come near our lair. If any of them were to sense my presence before you could get to Rave, it would mean trouble—big trouble.”

Leesa realized Stefan was right. “Yeah, I guess it would at that,” she said. “Let me think for a minute.”

She stood up and limped over to the side window. She stared out into the night, not really seeing anything, while she considered the problem. Dominic had a car, but he was no easier to contact than Rave. She supposed she could try to unleash some kind of blast of active magic—doing that had brought him all the way from Meriden once—but even if she could, her “signal” might be detected by far less friendly senses as well. No, finding a way to get to Meriden or to Rave’s was the best answer. Finally, an idea came to her. It wasn’t perfect, but it would probably work. She turned back from the window.

“I think I know what we can do,” she said.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Stefan was next to her.

“What?” he asked.

He smiled when she told him.

Being carried by Stefan was nothing at all like being carried by Rave, Leesa thought as Stefan bore her easily through the darkness. For one thing, it was cold—very cold. Being carried by Rave was like being enveloped in a warm cocoon; with Stefan, it was more like being encased inside an ice cube. The frigid night air whipped against her cheeks, and the chill of Stefan’s vampire body only added to the cold. She tucked her hands under her arms and tried to turn her face away from the wind.

She was glad when Stefan finally deposited her two blocks from her aunt’s street. Stefan was going to head immediately back to the Weston campus, to wait somewhere where he could see her dorm, but not anywhere close enough that Rave would sense him if Leesa’s message was successful. Leesa was going to tell her aunt and uncle she had been bored at school and had bummed a ride with a friend who was driving through Meriden. Her story was thin, she knew, but it should work. She planned to visit with them for half an hour or so, then get one of them to drive her back to school.

Stefan stared at Leesa with his deep black eyes after he put her down.

“Are you making me leave you here because you don’t want your aunt and uncle to see me, or because you don’t want me to know where they live?” he asked quietly.

Leesa hesitated. She was never quite sure how to talk to Stefan.

“A little of both,” she admitted. “You’d have to leave me at the end of the block anyhow, or they might wonder why they didn’t see or hear a car when I showed up. But yeah, I’m more comfortable with you not knowing.”

“You still do not trust me?”

Stefan’s eyes became bottomless pools again, drawing Leesa in. She pulled her eyes away before she lost herself in them completely and focused her gaze on his black soul patch instead.

“I trust you right now, or I wouldn’t be trying to set up a meeting with Rave. But you’re a vampire, Stefan—things could change. You could use my family to get to me, perhaps to get to Rave.”

Stefan smiled an amused smile. “I could make you show me, you know, without using any force at all.”

Leesa believed him. Despite the many times she had felt the pull of his eyes, she knew she had never felt their full mesmerizing power.

“I know. But I don’t think you will. For one thing, Rave wouldn’t be very happy with you if you did.”

Stefan smiled again. “No, I do not think he would.”

“Plus, you’ve never forced me to do anything before. I don’t expect you’ll start now.”

“You’re right. I was just being hypothetical, for the fun of it.”

Leesa turned to go. “I know you could follow me without me knowing, but I’m trusting that you won’t.”

Stefan nodded. “You have my word.”

As Leesa hurried along the dark streets toward her aunt and uncle’s house, she almost wished Stefan was following her, but she pushed aside her fears. She was not a little girl anymore, afraid of things that go bump in the night, despite learning in the last few months that many of them were far more real than that little girl had ever imagined.