Roses & Thorns (8 page)

* * * * *

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Revelation

(
Rose
)

I
t suddenly became a habit to keep
a close eye
on Mom, and
to make sure she didn't show any
negative signs from Ter
rance's feeding
s
. But
she
always
seemed
perfectly fine
. She
went about her day
s
as usual,
and
I d
ecided that I could do no less.

S
chool was normal, but I just could
n't
seem to focus
.
Gee, I wonder why?

I kept thinking about everything that Terrance
had
told me
,
and
yet
how normal of a person he seemed to be. It was so hard to wrap my head around th
e fact that he was a honest to g
od vampire.
Cringing, I wondered
if
I'd be struck down for using those two wo
rds in the same sentence
.

As soon as the final bell of the day rang, I headed
towards the
restroom to freshen up before
I
headed down to Christian's for our
"date
.
"
At this point
,
the
dates
were more like make
out sessions, but trust me–I wasn't complaining. We'd sit in the backseat of his car
and talk
about anything and everything, but inevitably, we'd end up in each other's arms and
believe me when I say, there was no
other
place
I'd rather be.

A
bunch of girls in sportswear and ponyta
ils bust
ed
into the restroom
, rousing me out of my love-dazed thoughts
. I spotted Jillian amongst the crowd and suddenly felt
nervous. Not only did I feel
guilty
for not spending time with my best friend lately,
but also because
we
never really
talked about what
had been up with her at the pizza place. I think I just didn't want to know.

"Hey
,
Jill. You heading to practice?"

"Sure thing. What are you up to
?
I haven't seen you much lately...I miss you." She threw her arms around me, which made me feel tons better. At least she wasn't mad at me fo
r being too busy, since obviously she was pretty
occupied with her team at the moment.

"I miss you too. I've just been hanging out with Christian, and working out with Mom at the pool a lot." No way could I tell her that I
was currently
spend
ing
time with
yet
another new guy that involved
me
meeting
him
after dark.

"Okay, well
, h
ave fun with Christian
.
I've gotta go kick some ass on the court!" Her whole team
w
hooped and hollered as they bounced their way out of the restroom, leaving me to st
are at myself in the mirror
,
wondering
just how
dense I
could
possibly
be.

I was s
uddenly
having an epiphany.
Thinking about
Terrance needing to meet
me
after
the sun had set
had me p
utting two-and-two together
. How interesting that Christian and I c
ould never meet unless i
t
was after dark
as well?
And w
hy was he
always so vague when it came to
talking about any other job before this
job
that
required him to work
night
s
?
H
e was
also
the only person I
'd ever met that
ate
everything
rare and practically bleeding on the plate
.

Holy shit!
I was dating a vampire. He had to be, and I knew one sure fire way to find out.
I grabbed my cell and dialed Christian's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Christian. I
'm
just calling to let you know that I'm going to be a little bit late. I got held up a
t
school and I still need to grab a bite to eat before I head down." I didn't want to cancel all together, but first...it looked like I would be meeting Terrance tonight after all.

After dumping all my makeup back into my purse, I made a beeline to my car
–Mom had let me take it to school today since I would
be headed to Christian's tonight.
But this was a detour I had to make first.
I
drove straight to
the swim complex and found Terrance waiting in the shadow of the trees
just beyond the pool while my m
om finished her last lesson of the day. I stood behind the corner of the building and waved him over the moment he noticed me. He was at my side in two seconds with a worried look on his face.

"Rose, is everything alright? You look upset, and your hea
r
tbeat is
racing."

"I have to ask you something
,
and I want the truth. Do you know a vampire named Christian Royce?"

I knew the answer the instant that he dropped his head. After
sliding
down to the ground, we took ou
r
usual
seats
with our backs to the building and he told me the one thing that
I
never expected
to hear.

"Yes. I know Christian. Royce is the last name that he uses
in the human world,
but we really don't have last names once we're turned. We are part of the same clan and live at The Rising Pit. How did you meet him?"

After the air left my lungs, I answered,
"I've been dating him for the last month
and
a
half. Why have I never seen you there?"

"I choose not to feed in the
vicinity
,
and prefer to come into town instead. Chr
istian has always fed close to home," Terrance explained.

I knew from the jealous feelings that raced through me at the thought of Christian touching
another person
, I wouldn't be breaking things off with him
. Vampire or not...
I
was sure that I was falling in
love him
.
And, based on
my conversations with Terrance
, I was certain
that
Christian
wouldn't
hu
rt anyone
,
so I really couldn't be angry at him
for
fe
ed
ing on h
umans in order to survive. He couldn't help what he was.

Even though I could bar
e
l
y process that my boyfriend was a vampire,
I suddenly felt
much
better.
I was excited to tell him that he didn't have to keep it a secret any longer.
"Well, I guess it will be a big surprise for him
tonight
when I tell him
I know
what he is
."

"No. You can't!" Terrance exclaimed as he shot to his feet.

Panicked, h
e
said, "If you reveal that you know vampire
'
s exist, you co
uld get us both killed.
"
He
went on to explain that
I had to hide my thoughts around other vampires, making sure that I only focused on the events that were immediately happening around me.

This seemed like an impossible request, and one that I wasn't sure if I could pull off. But,
I
decided that I needed to know how keeping this secret was going to affect Christian and
my
relationship before I made any rash decisions. So following Terrance's advice
, p
lanning to guard my thoughts and
keep this revelation to myself, I went to see Christian.

On my way down
,
I had a seri
es
of panic attacks and almost turned the car around multiple times. I was so co
mpletely nerve-wrack
ed, and
I thought for sure
there was no way that
I
was going to be able to
keep my thoughts from
him
. But
apparently I was pretty good at hiding things from people, because
he didn't notice a
thing.

Our date went off without a hitch. The fact that I knew he was a vampire only heightened
the emotions I was feeling.
He didn't act or feel any different
ly
and I realized in that moment that not only would I not be breaking up with him, but that I wanted to spend eternity with him.
Talk about a life changing revelation.

I didn't see Terrance for a couple of days
because
what
I had to think about
d
eserve
d
some
serious consideration.
O
nce I had made my decision, I met with Terrance and
finally asked the que
stion that I was dying to know. "So h
ow
exactly does someone become a vampire?"

"Well, it's pretty standard stuff
, really
. A
vampire bit
es
and fe
e
d
s
on
a
human until they
've been fully drained, then
the human fe
e
d
s
from the vampire in return. The human dies
and
is then r
eborn as
a vampire in a matter of hours.
"

Standard indeed. No big surprises there.
So, a
fter a f
ew
more
weeks of contemplating
and
finally admitting that
I was
,
in fact
,
in
love with
Christian and
that
those feelings weren't ever going to change
,
I
had made up my mind that
I
wa
nted to become like him so
we could be together forever. I asked Terrance if he would be willing to change me
,
and he agreed.

"Okay,
but here's the deal. N
o one can know that we know
each other or that
I'm
going to change
you. This isn't the
usual way that
these types of things happen
, and by not following the rules, that puts us both in a lot of danger
."

"
Then w
hat
is
the normal way?
If there was a way to do this without breaking any vampire rules, and as long as I could keep it a surprise from Christian, I
would
do it."

"
There is no other way. I told you we're in serious danger for you even know
ing
vampires exist. It's not like you c
an
just walk in and ask everyone to take a vote. Traditionally
,
w
hen a vampire wants to add someone to our clan, the whole clan has to
vote on
it, since everyone
gets
to have a say as to
who
m
they want
added to the family. But don't worry, as long as you can keep it a secret
,
I'll change you
because
I know that
everyon
e will
be happy
,
and
Christian will be thrilled with this surprise.
I may
be
in trouble
at first,
but
I'll deal with it.
"