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“Trucker,” Ian, Courtney’s on again off
again boyfriend, said. He held out his fist, like he was going to
tap Trucker’s.

Trucker held closer to Julie and kissed her
softly on the forehead, completely ignoring everyone. Julie felt
relieved, safe, and touched with his arms around her.

“Slumming it?” Ian asked.

Trucker stared at Ian, his expression
impassive. Ian shuffled back uncomfortably. “Leave. Now,” Trucker
said with a small, cool smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

His voice was soft and somehow made Julie
woozy. His normal, gorgeous, fine-features grew cold and barbaric;
there was a killing glint in his beautiful blue eyes. Those eyes
focused on Ian and didn’t waver in the slightest.

Ian’s eyes widened, his head hung slightly.
He stumbled as if he couldn’t leave fast enough. Julie was
immobilized by the horrific feelings emanating from Trucker.

“Ignore them, Angel. They have no idea,”
Trucker whispered. His grip around her tightened, almost
painfully.

Julie was relieved to see Tori and Tiffany.
She practically busted out of Trucker’s arm and headed to them.
Trucker was on her heels. For a moment, she enjoyed the brief
respite from the commanding influence that was Trucker Castleman
before she was knocked into the overbearing influence that was Tori
Phillips.

“Hi,” Julie said with a small wave.

Tori yanked Julie’s arm and lugged her
across the parking lot. Tiffany stood staring at Trucker,
bewildered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tori’s voice
boomed over the traffic, the loud music blaring from a nearby car,
and the crowd.

“I did tell you, you just didn’t believe
me.” Julie shrugged her shoulders and turned on her heels, leaving
Tori looking dumbfounded.

“We got the tickets,” Julie said as Trucker
jerked on her belt loop and brought her firmly next to him.

“Stay close. Promise,” Trucker said, so low
Julie barely heard him. “Promise me,” he said, more forcibly.

“I promise,” Julie whispered.
Well, he is
definitely not ashamed of me.

“Good girl . . . I really dislike
people.”

Trucker ignored those who called him, never
shifting his eyes from Julie.

“Butter or no butter?” Tiffany finally spoke
up and asked. Tiffany was Julie’s sweetest and dearest friend. She
was unswervingly loyal to Julie and Trucker beguiled her.

“Whatever you want,” Trucker said and smiled
down at Tiffany. “I like her. She looks out for you,” Trucker
whispered in Julie’s ear.

It seemed half of their small junior college
was there, and Julie didn’t care. She did notice they walked around
Trucker like he had an invisible untouchable wall up.

The Cineplex was full when they entered the
theater. Trucker held Julie’s hand tightly. He didn’t scope out the
other girls. He made Julie feel like she was the only girl there.
Julie eyed Tori and Tiffany texting and figured it was about
Trucker and her, but didn’t care. She would have rather been there
with just him anyway. They had to sit toward the front and she
wondered what the other kids from Promise Land were saying.

“Am I boring you?” Trucker asked.

Julie realized she was yawning. It had been
the longest most perfect day of her short life. She laid her head
over on his shoulder. He halfway pulled her onto his lap, and she
fell asleep before the opening credits were even finished.

*******

The sight of the sleeping angel in his arms
was heart-stopping. If Julie only knew sleeping in his arms was the
most dangerous thing she could ever do and deathly scared Trucker.
The pain he experienced from the innocent aura she emitted didn’t
bother him, and was eclipsed by the great joy he received by just
holding her. His other side even agreed that he didn’t deserve to
be in her presence, but the monster in him also had ideas of his
own. Trucker felt it trying to come to the surface. He wanted a
closer look at her, to feel her skin, and smell her sweet scent.
Trucker buried it deeper inside him. He wouldn’t let anything hurt
her, even himself. He involuntarily tightened his arms around her
as she slept trustingly in them. She snuggled her face into his
chest. He sighed as he ran his fingers over her porcelain skin and
delicate bones. Bones so fragile, just one wrong move and they
would crush beneath his touch. He buried his face in her neck,
savoring her flowery, feminine smell. Her heart pounded and
vibrated through him. Everything around them vanished. Julie was
the very essence of good. He wanted to devour her, but also to
never spend a day without her.

Chapter 6

Julie heard the music signaling the closing
credits, and squeezed her eyes together as the lights gradually
became brighter and brighter. Yawning, she sat up and turned to
smile at Trucker just as a searing hot pain radiated through her.
She touched the skin on her face, almost expecting to feel
blisters. However, it was still smooth and soft. Unsure of what she
felt, her eyes met his, and she saw a flicker of black flash across
them. The blood drained from her face. Yes, she had always been
capable of sensing the feelings of others, but she had never once
experienced something like what she felt meeting his eyes. The
feeling of death. She jumped up, kicking the armrest of her chair
and sending her still full cup into the air, causing it to fly into
Trucker’s lap. Gripped by fear, her breathing became erratic. She
reached for the ice cold soda pooling Trucker’s lap, but the idea
of touching him suddenly petrified her. Incognizant of what was
going on around her, she started to dash away, but he grabbed her
arm before she could move more than a step. Trucker sat there, the
drink drenching his pants, his eyes searching hers. He didn't move,
almost unsure of what she was doing.

“Julie, Angel, what’s wrong?”

“Your eyes,” Julie muttered, so softly it
was barely audible.

He sealed his eyes shut. “What about my
eyes?”

“They flashed black,” she answered.

Trucker’s eyes popped open and he let out a
breath almost in relief. He smiled a half smile so dazzling it
disturbed her.

“Baby, the lights are flashing in here.” He
paused. “Plus, you just woke up from a nice nap.”

She rubbed her cheek; it wasn’t just his
eyes, or the burning of her skin where she laid against him, but
the fact hate and rage oozed out of him that made her want to
escape. She needed out of there and away from
him.

“Trucker, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m going
to ride home with Tiff and Tori.”

Trucker stood up, letting the drink fall
over the seat, and roll onto the floor. He gripped her hand. “Don’t
leave me.”

She felt his command, but wouldn’t let
herself obey. She needed to work out the things she was feeling.
She stroked his face; his skin boiled under her fingers.

“Trucker, I’m sorry I dropped a drink on you,
sorry you drove me all the way here, but I'm not going home with
you.”

“Tomorrow, please sweetheart,” he begged and
fell back in his seat. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Tomorrow,” Julie said. “I’m scared . . . I .
. . I want to see you . . . I can’t.” She turned to leave.

“I’m trying.”

She heard Trucker mumbling behind her. Julie
looked over her shoulder and whispered, “Try harder.”

She ran after Tiffany and Tori who was
already walking down the aisle of the theater. Julie cringed when
she heard a menacing growl come from behind her.

“Hey, can I bum a ride with you guys?”

“Sure, but why?” Tori asked and eyed Trucker
who was still slumped in his seat.

“Oh, I accidentally spilled my drink down
Trucker’s pant leg; so he is going home to change. I told him you
wouldn’t mind taking me home, since you were driving right by my
house,” Julie explained. She hated lying, but there was no way she
could describe what she really felt, thought, or saw, not without
getting locked away in a padded cell.

“Only you would manage to spill your Coke on
the hottest guy in the state,” Tori said and gave Julie an over
exaggerated eye roll. “I would’ve offered to help him dry off,” she
added.

“Tori Phillips, that’s horrible!” Tiffany
shrieked, turning to eye Trucker one more time.

*******

Trucker didn’t realize how long he had sat in
the movie theatre until the ushers started to wipe up the spilt
drink by his foot. One of them started to tell him to leave, but
scurried away after one long, vengeful look from Trucker. He had no
desire to leave. He played around with the idea of taking a girl
behind the theater. Just one bite wouldn’t hurt, but he could still
taste Julie. Her taste lingered on his tongue and no high was worth
losing that. He kicked a hole in the seat in front of him and left
as a new group of people started filling the theatre. He had
flipped the switch that made him human. Letting the evil that
resided in him surge with a vengeances, he was no longer appealing.
He wanted to repel people too, knowing all those auras pressing on
his conscience would be his undoing.

After leaving the theatre in a haze, he found
himself driving down the long winding road leading to
her
home. He was furious with himself. He’d let his worst half come to
the surface, just to satisfy a craving. Now, he was terrified he
had lost her. He growled as he pulled into the familiar spot across
from the wooden lot beside Julie’s house. He told himself that he
was there to make sure she got home safely, but it was more. He had
a deep craving to be near her. She brought up feelings in him he
had never experienced before. Even without his extra sharp vision,
he could maneuver around every tree and ditch through the small
path that led to the opening of her backyard; after all, he had
done it a thousand times before.

He leaned against a tree. Her smell
infiltrated the air; he felt the proverbial ache in his jaw and
scraped his tongue along his already extended teeth. He shook in
disgust at himself.
“Not her,”
he whispered. Feeling a
sudden rush of air, he turned to see his lifelong friend and
nemesis, Emily, running up behind him. He rolled his eyes and
turned to listen to what Julie was doing. He truly hated for any of
his kind to be near her. He felt the waves in the air caused by
Emily’s transformation.

“Trucker, your dad has been calling you all
day,” Emily said as she wrapped a hand around his arm.

Jerking away, he yanked Emily and had her
pinned against a tree in a flash of a nanosecond. She smiled.
Trucker wanted to hate her, but found he couldn’t. Emily was the
only person he had never truly had the upper hand with. He couldn’t
control her and it infuriated him. She was, however, always there
for him when he needed someone and got him through the worst period
in his life. But as much as they had a mutual understanding, he
didn’t want her anywhere near Julie. No matter what Emily meant to
him, she was nothing compared to
Julie
.

“I’ve been busy,” Trucker said and glanced
back at the house, worried that Emily was no more than a
distraction. Trucker was no fool. His kind would stop at nothing to
eliminate a threat. Julie was the biggest threat of all. She had
changed him. She had breathed new life into his long lost humanity.
Eliminating her was the one thing that he would never let
happen.

“Let me guess, with the little angel. You
really need to get a new hobby.”

He snapped at her, bringing his teeth within
inches of her face. She didn’t flinch.

“Trucker, humanity really doesn’t become
you.”

He cupped her face in his hand. “Nothing
becomes you.”

Trucker took a nip at her jaw as Emily
stroked over his limp cock. “I had no problem turning you on all
those times you crawled in my bed,” Emily said and dropped to her
knees, and went to unfasten Trucker’s pants.

He grasped her hand. Being this close to
Julie’s home, he felt bad reliving his sordid past with Emily. No
matter what his family wanted, Emily was not his. Julie was.

Emily was beyond beautiful. Trucker could see
why every human male fell at her feet. Her long chestnut brown hair
framed a face that was, well, perfect. To a human’s eyes hers
sparkled. He gripped her arm and forced her to her feet. Pulling
her to his taut frame, there was no doubting her figure either as
Trucker traced down her hips before pushing her away. Yes, she was
everything every man dreamed of, every man but Trucker. There was
only one girl he dreamed about, could even think about. She was
ruffling the covers on her bed right then. Knowing Julie was
sinking down in her bed for the night, he escorted Emily to his
car. Not because he wanted too, but because he had to get Emily
away from
Julie.

*******

Dear Diary,

Okay, I don’t know what I truly saw, but I
do know what I felt. Trucker, the one guy who has without a doubt
swept me off my feet, has a very bad side.

Overwrought, Julie tossed her diary, but just
her luck it bounced off the bedside table and hit her square in the
eye.

“Ow,” she screamed out, covering her
throbbing eye with the back of her hand. At least with her eye
crying out in pain, she didn’t have time to focus on Trucker.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Ellen came running into
the room. “Why were you screaming?”

“I hit my eye with this darn book,” Julie
said as she held up her diary and successfully chucked it on her
futon.

“How did you manage that? You’re usually more
coordinated than that.” Ellen snatched Julie’s hand off her eye to
examine it. “It doesn’t look too bad. I believe you’ll live.”

“Is that a professional opinion?” she asked,
slapping her eye with her palm, making her wince in pain.

“Are you okay? You’re not acting like
yourself.”