Mirage (10 page)

“Yeah, I mean tonight.” He raised one arm, sniffing his own armpit. “God, I stink.”

“Yes, you do,” I agreed enthusiastically.

He reached for the end of my ponytail and gave it a tug. “For the record, princess, you smell pretty ripe yourself.”

I sat up, eyeing him sharply. “Hey, watch it. And yes, I do have plans tonight.”

“Ah, with the boyfriend, I suppose. Speaking of Mr. Moody, Jack Delafield asked me to work on a project with the two of them in the chem lab. I guess Jack’s a friend of yours?”

“Yeah, Jack’s dating my friend Kate. He’s a good guy.” But I was surprised that he’d asked for Tyler’s help in the lab, even if they did share the same psychic gift.

“Kate’s the cute blonde?” he asked. “Looks like Tinkerbell?”

I rolled my eyes. “She does
not
look like Tinkerbell.”

He shrugged. “Does to me.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a towel, wiping his face with it before stuffing it back inside. “Anyway, Jack says he’s doing some sort of medical research—something about his brother. Weird, isn’t it?”

“That he has a brother? Yeah,” I agreed. Because pretty much everyone else at Winterhaven was an only child. “Are you going to help out?”

“Yeah, I thought I would. There aren’t a lot of us here. Micros, I mean. We had more at Summerhaven.”

My curiosity was piqued. “What was Summerhaven like?”

“Way more casual than here. None of this ‘Mr. Bennett and Miss McKenna’ crap. I guess you could say it’s less traditional. Summerhaven isn’t nearly as old as Winterhaven.”

“No?”

He shook his head. “Wasn’t founded till the 1950s or something like that. And the campus is totally different—smaller, for starters. The buildings are all wood and beams, kind of built to blend right into the landscape.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Yeah, I guess. Mostly I miss the ocean. I like to surf.”

“Are you any good?”

His mouth curved into a grin. “Hell yeah. I could have competed, if I’d wanted to.” His smile disappeared at once. “But my dad … well, he was a fencer. Just missed making the Olympic team. It was pretty important to him that I follow in his footsteps.”

“What happened to your dad? I don’t mean to pry,” I added quickly. “Feel free to tell me to shut up, if you want.”

He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Nah, it’s okay. He had a dinner meeting with clients and was driving home after dark. A drunk driver crossed the center line and hit him head-on. They say he died instantly—blunt force trauma. Course, the stupid fucking drunk walked away without a scratch. On April Fool’s Day—can you believe that?”

My throat felt tight, my windpipe constricted. “I hope he’s in jail—the guy who hit him, I mean,” I said, my voice tense.

“Hasn’t been sentenced yet, but everyone thinks he’s going to walk. First-time offender and all that, just out of college. He shows up in court looking like some kind of altar boy.”

I let out my breath in a rush. “That totally sucks.”

His eyes looked hard, his jaw clenched. “Man, if I could just get my hands on him …” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I think that’s why my mom wanted to come east, to get me as far away as possible, just in case.”

I took a deep breath, gathering my courage. “I lost my dad too,” I said at last. “Three years ago. He was … murdered. Executed, actually.”

“Oh God, Violet. I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“It’s okay—I don’t talk about it much. But I wanted you to know … well, that I understand what you’re going through. And it
does
get easier. At least a little bit.”

“Do they know who did it?”

I nodded. “It was in Afghanistan. Terrorists. He was a journalist, and they”—I swallowed hard—“they kidnapped him. There was a videotape, but I had already seen the whole thing. My visions,” I clarified. “I saw …
everything
.”

“Fu-uck” was all he said, drawing it out to two syllables.

“That about sums it up,” I said, refusing to let the images enter my mind. “Anyway, I just wanted you to know, that’s all. If you ever need to talk …”

He reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thanks, Violet. I appreciate that.”

I just nodded, pulling my hand from his grasp.

“I guess we should get going, huh? You’ve got those big plans and all. With the boyfriend.”

“Are you going to keep calling him that?” I asked with a sigh. “‘The boyfriend’?”

He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Yeah, I thought I might.”

I stood, brushing off the seat of my shorts. “You are
so
annoying.”

“Just part of my charm,” he said with a wink, and then wrinkled his nose. “You really need to hit the shower. Trust me, the boyfriend will thank you.”

I swung my bag at him, connecting with his arm.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you stink.” He took a step back as I swung for him again and missed. “Okay, so you and Tinkerbell are spoken for. What about the rest of your little gang? Help me out here.”

“Cece!” I said a little too excitedly, an idea forming in my head.

He raked a hand through his damp hair, leaving it sticking up in all directions. “Which one is Cece?”

“My roommate.” I reached for my bag and hoisted it onto my shoulder with a smile. “How do you feel about double dates?”

I blinked hard, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. “That went well, right?” I asked, lowering myself to the blankets on the floor of the chapel’s loft.

I could hear Aidan digging out the candles he kept in a box in the far corner. He struck a match, and the small space filled with soft, flickering light. “If you say so,” he said.

I scooted over as Aidan made his way back to the blanket and sat down beside me, draping one arm around me. I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder. “Well, it
was
going well till Todd walked in.”

“Is that what happened, then? I admit, I wasn’t quite following the subtext.”

“Todd sat down right behind us, even though there were plenty of empty tables.”

“Marking his territory, I suppose,” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but they broke up, remember?”

Aidan nodded. “Oh, that’s right. Well, your little friend didn’t seem to notice, if his incessant chatter was any indication.”

“Oh my God—‘my little friend’? You’re as bad as he is. He calls you ‘the boyfriend.’”

“At least he knows where things stand. Remind me to congratulate him,” he said with a smirk.

“C’mon, give the guy a break. He just lost his dad, you know. Back in April.”

His brows drew together at once. “No, I didn’t know. Does he know about your father?”

“Yeah, we were talking about it today, after practice. It was … I don’t know.” I shook my head, searching for the right words. “Easier this time, I guess. Talking about it, I mean. Mostly I just felt angry. Really, really angry.”

He pulled me closer. “I think that’s normal, Vi. Especially in a situation like this, where there’s no justice.”

“I swear, just knowing that they’re still over there, thinking they’ve won …” I shook my head. “It makes me sick.”

Aidan reached for my chin, tipping my face up toward his. “You know, if it would make you feel better, I could take care of it. They deserve to die, and I would take great pleasure—”

“No, Aidan. Oh my God, the very idea of you anywhere near them …” I swallowed hard. “Just no, okay?”

“Violet, I’m a vampire. What do you think they’re going to do to me? I could end them all in a matter of minutes, with no risk to myself whatsoever.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the mental image of Aidan taking on my father’s murderers. A shudder snaked up my spine. “You would want their blood inside you, Aidan? Tainting you? They’re evil—pure and utter evil. Just … no.”

“Of course,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I know. It’s okay. I appreciate the sentiment, trust me. They
do
deserve to die. I just don’t want their blood on your hands, that’s all.”

“Understood. Anyway, back to Tyler. He seems like a pretty okay guy,” he conceded.

“He is, and I think he could use some friends. Jack seems to like him.”

“Yeah, he said as much. He thinks Tyler can help him with his work in the lab. Which is good, because I’m pretty preoccupied with my own lately. And speaking of which, guess who stopped by today—to check on the progress of my work, she claimed?”

“Who?”

“Nicole,” he said, and then corrected himself. “Mrs. Girard. Our esteemed headmistress. I’m pretty sure she’s never set foot inside the science wing before.”

“Hmm, that’s kind of weird.”

“I thought so too. I don’t want to get too complacent about her—she’s definitely not to be underestimated.”

I nodded. “Right, the chairwoman of your vampire court. They’re all females, right?”

“Actually, there are two males on the Tribunal, Luc and Goran,” he said. “Impeccable pedigrees, those two, turned by the Impaler himself.”

“You mean … Vlad the Impaler?” I said incredulously. “He’s real?”

“Definitely.” There was a trace of amusement in his voice. “He’s like a rock star in our world. Probably the most revered male vampire ever.”

“Wow. That’s … I don’t know, surreal. Where is he now?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Around. He’s pretty much a recluse these days.”

I couldn’t believe how blasé he sounded. I mean, Vlad the Impaler? He was only the most famous vampire
ever
. Well, except for Dracula, but I’d read somewhere that Stoker had actually based Dracula on Vlad, so I guess they were really one and the same. “Okay, so who else is on this Tribunal?” I asked.

“Let’s see, there’s Nicole, Luc, and Goran.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Adele—she’s pretty scary—and Melina. That’s it, besides the Eldest.”

“The Eldest?”

“Yeah, the eldest living vampire, Isa. Nicole’s the chairwoman, but that’s more like an administrative position. All the true power lies with the Eldest, though it’s a dangerous position. Isa’s been in power as long as I’ve been alive, but every couple of hundred years or so, there’s unrest among the ancients. Imagine a king with hundreds of younger brothers, all desperate for the crown—only with no familial ties to keep them in check.”

“That sounds crazy. And dangerous,” I added. “So what’s this Isa like?”

“Pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a thousand-and-something-year-old female vampire. The only real difference between her and the Propagators is that Isa is far more concerned with quality than she is with quantity. While the Propagators are indiscriminate, Isa sees vampirism as a gift only to be bestowed on the most deserving—the smartest, strongest, bravest. She’s far more calculating, more cunning, but just as dangerous.”

“Do me a favor and try
really
hard not to get sent to the Tribunal this year, okay?” I still felt ill when I thought about those three days he’d spent in their clutches last year—being
tortured
, apparently.

“You got it. Things are pretty stable right now, but you never know who’s plotting what and with whom. Which is why I prefer to stay out of the politics and why Mrs. Girard poking around the lab makes me nervous. Especially after Jenna’s little revelation about Blackwell.”

“I think we’re all a little freaked out by that. Did she tell you anything else?”

“No, and I honestly don’t think she knows anything. She was as much a pawn in the whole thing as we were. Anyway, we don’t have much time before curfew. I told you I had a surprise for you, remember?”

“Yeah, but I don’t much like surprises.”

“No? Well, I think you’ll like this one.” The candlelight flickered across his face as he gazed down at me, his eyes the same pale blue-gray as the sky at dawn. My pulse leapt in response.

“Wow, you sound awfully sure of yourself,” I said, my mouth dry.

“I am.” He reached for my shoulders and drew me closer.

Electricity skittered across my skin as his lips met mine. I leaned into him, expecting his usual tentative kiss—soft and searching, until the bloodlust took over and he was forced to pull away.

He always pulled away, not because he feared his bite would turn me into a vampire—it wouldn’t. Or even because he thought he might kill me. Oh, that was a possibility, I suppose—that he would lose control and suck me dry—but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t. Sure enough to risk it. It was because he feared his bite would hurt, and he had vowed never to hurt me.

Besides, it went against his own personal “code”—he didn’t bite innocents, didn’t drink their blood. For him, it was a punishment dealt to the deserving—criminals or would-be criminals, dangerous souls who showed no remorse.

The problem, however, with this self-imposed code was that it was directly at odds with an integral part of his vampire nature—the part that made his bite necessary for sexual satisfaction. Oh, he could have sex without biting, without drinking blood, but he wouldn’t actually
enjoy
it. At least, not fully.

And as far as I could tell, he’d only done it once—the sex-while-biting thing. With Isabel, his ex from the past who looked just like me. And since Isabel had been killed as a result of her relationship with Aidan, it seemed a safe bet that, in his mind, sex plus biting equaled a dead girlfriend. Yet there was no stopping the dual, intertwined needs from increasing his bloodlust whenever we made out. Thus, the need for caution.

But
this
kiss … this one was anything
but
tentative and cautious.

No, this kiss was slow and languorous, mind-numbingly thorough, and without any reservations whatsoever. My bones seemed to melt away inside me, my whole body growing heavy and warm as he lowered me to the blankets, his body held taut over mine, his lips never once leaving mine.

His fingers tangled in my hair, angling my head as he deepened the kiss. I could feel his heart thrumming against mine as I opened my mouth against his, wanting more.

My hands traveled from his neck down to his shoulders, across his back. Beneath my fingertips, his muscles seemed to bunch and shift, his heartbeat quickening in response. Feeling slightly reckless now, I reached under his shirt, sliding my palms up the smooth planes of his chest.