Unrequited (17 page)

Finally, he reached his destination, and he stood before the bench.

Griffin didn’t seem at all surprised by Will's arrival, and Will felt even more confident that his suspicions about the dark-eyed man were right. Ashton, however, was visibly shaken by Will's sudden appearance. Before he could say anything, the Wallace family arrived, chatting excitedly about the dance, decorations, and upcoming firework show.

Will couldn’t help but sense the forced merriment , particularly coming from Elaine Wallace. He knew she was wary of Griffin's intentions toward Ashton. As much as he wanted to inwardly celebrate his continued favor with the Wallace’s, he didn’t have time.

“Frank, Elaine, the night couldn’t start until you arrived. Elaine, you have to save a dance for me, but first, it looks like the newspaper is doing group photos. Elaine, didn’t you just tell me you've been wanting a new picture of your family?” Will was trying to send Ashton away with her parents, to give him a chance to talk with Griffin.

He knew Elaine was an astute woman, and whether she understood the reasons or not, she picked up on Will's cue and dragged Ashton and Frank away.

“We will meet up with you gentleman later. I have to find Calvin and force him to be photographed with his family whether he likes it or not.” Elaine laughed as she ushered the others away.

The music seemed to fade in the distance as Will and Griffin faced each other.

***

Griffin was amused. The small town teacher was finally making a stand for Ashton. That was the only explanation for this encounter. Even though the two men were vampires, that was where any commonalities ended. Griffin would have never been friends with Will Leighton in any lifetime.

“I know your secret,” Will said.

“What secret is that? That I’m a vampire? I don't think it's a secret.” Griffin let a smile cover his face. He felt like toying with the teacher for a bit.

“No, I know you’re the one who attacked Ashton in the woods. You’re the one who made her into what she is today, and I'm going to make sure she knows.”

Griffin’s smile faded and his breath quickened. He could feel his control slip for just a moment, but it was a moment that allowed doubt and worry to enter his mind. Will wasn't as harmless and weak as he had assumed. For all the love he felt for Ashton and the affection he knew she felt for him in return, Griffin didn’t think their relationship could survive if she ever learned the truth.

He felt a panic in his soul he'd never felt before. The thought of losing Ashton was unbearable. Griffin could tell by the look in the teacher's eyes that any excuses or denials would be pointless. His mind raced to come up with a solution. He could kill Will, take him out of the picture. That would solve two problems at once.

Perhaps he should find a way to run him out town, expose him as a vampire, and force him away before he could ruin things between himself and Ashton. Somehow, some way, Will had to leave Belle Ridge.

“Tell me why, why did you attack her and steal her future?” Will’s eyes bore into Griffin, challenging him to answer

Griffin collected his thoughts and focused again on the man before him.

“There was no attack. Yes, I was in the woods that night, and yes, I changed her, but you don't understand.” Griffin wasn't going to let this lovesick teacher make false assumptions.

“What?” A cry sounded from the darkness.

Griffin turned to see Ashton's beautiful face. Her mouth was open, her face taking on a haunted appearance. She’d clearly heard the conversation, and her reaction was more unsettling than either could have expected.

***

Ashton felt like the world around her had stopped. She'd left her family to go back and find Will and Griffin, sensing something was off between the two. As she approached the darkened spot of land where they stood, she heard three words. “I changed her.”

Griffin had been in the woods that night. It was Griffin that had called her “love” and told her everything would be all right. It was Griffin who took her mortality. He had done all those things, and never told her. And neither had Will. Will had known, and he had kept it from her. The two men who had filled her thoughts and her heart with so many emotions and so much conflict were both liars.

She couldn’t stand there any longer. She wanted to be far away, as far away as her legs would take her. Ashton ran from the bench. She ran from the dance and as far from the town lights as she could get.

Finally, she found herself on the dirt road leading to her house. She slowed down and stopped, crumbling to the ground. The memories flooded her mind, memories she had never let surface before.

“ Shh, shh, don't move, love, it's going to be all right.” Ashton could hear a deep and gentle voice. She knew this new person was going to help her, save her from the boy who had tried to violate her world and steal her feeling of safety.

She tried to speak, but her lips wouldn’t cooperate. She tried to open her eyes and look at the man who cradled her in his arms. Her eyes couldn’t fully focus, but she could tell the man was handsome and that his eyes were as black as the night sky. If she wasn't mistaken, he looked sad and scared. She tried to raise her hand to his face, to let him know everything was all right, but she felt weak. Ashton could no longer keep her eyes open. She couldn’t even hold her head steady, and she let it fall fully against the man holding her.

There was a hand caressing her face. His hand. There were soft words whispered in her ear. For a moment she felt pain against her neck, but the moment passed, and she felt like she was floating. The fog from the drink began to lift. All of her senses gradually started to come back alive, and though she still couldn’t open her eyes or speak, she could hear. She heard the night noises of the woods around her, and distantly she could hear the party.

But the sound she could hear most clearly was of a man weeping.

***

It was Griffin.

Ashton remembered everything. His voice, his touch, the way it felt for his teeth to break the skin on her neck. The sobbing, she remembered the sound now, and wondered how she had ever forgotten it. It was a mournful sound, and she remembered wanting to the comfort the man making it.

She was so confused and angry. How could they have held this from her? Had Griffin planned to change her? Had he done it to create a partner for himself? Had he followed her to college and to Belle Ridge as part of years-long plan?

And Will, Will who had always been unfailingly honest with her, how long had he known, and how could he have kept this most important detail from her? He had been her solace and comfort so many times. He was the person she thought she could trust above all others.

Ashton lifted herself off the ground and walked the rest of the way home. She entered the house, walked directly to her bedroom, and hurriedly packed a suitcase. She would go away for at least a few days. She would leave this very night. She scribbled out a note to her parents telling them she was all right and just needed some time to sort out her thoughts. She couldn’t tell them where she was going, because she knew they would send Will after her.

Chapter Twenty–Two

“Well, teacher, was that part of your plan?” Griffin's horror at being found out was now replaced with a sense of victory. As upset as Ashton might be, once she heard the truth, she would probably be able to forgive him, but she’d never forgive Will for hiding the truth. Griffin knew part of her attraction to Will was the feeling of trust and safety he provided, and now he had destroyed it.

He was going to make the teacher regret this confrontation for the rest of eternity.

“You deserve to be exposed, and Ashton will understand once she calms down.” Will’s voice betrayed his doubt.

“Yes, Ashton will understand. She'll understand that the night she changed was the most devastating night of my life. In all my time as a vampire, I had never turned another person. I had never wanted anyone to become the monster I had become.” Griffin was going to tell everything, and as he spoke, he couldn’t help but go back to that fated night.

College parties were becoming such a bore. Griffin had long frequented these parties. The girls were pretty, the alcohol was flowing, and it was a nice anonymous way to pass a night. Lately though, he had been wanting something more. One night stands with drunken co-eds weren't as satisfying as they once seemed. Even so, Griffin scanned the room for tonight's conquest.

There were lots of attractive girls. Many of them had favored Griffin with more than a few smiles as he wove his way around the crowded rooms. There was a petite blond girl who had captured his attention almost immediately, but he'd lost sight of her. Moving to one corner, he stood in wait. The girl would eventually reappear, and when she did, he would make his move.

As he waited, Griffin watched the party go on around him. There was dancing, drinking, singing, and lots of chatter. The room was alive and breathing with so much movement that the one non-moving person caught his attention.

She was sitting in a corner and seemed completely detached from everything around her. He could tell she wanted to be far away from the party. Griffin continued to stare at this girl and realized she was, undoubtedly, the most beautiful girl in the entire room. How had he missed her before? He took note of her thick hair and lovely eyes. Her posture spoke measures of her character and intelligence. Something about the way she held herself in the corner chair showed a thoughtful maturity. She was not a typical party girl. This was a young woman of quality.

Fleetingly he wished he was a “normal” guy so he could approach this girl and get to know her, but he let the wish dissolve. She would meet a nice guy one day, get married, have a few kids, and die an old woman.

As he tried to dismiss the serious and beautiful girl from his mind, Griffin felt a presence that made him uneasy. It came from the direction of a young man talking to the girl in the corner. The face was all charm and smiles, but Griffin could sense something sinister in this young man's intentions. Griffin watched as the young man gave the girl a drink. She swayed a few moments after her first sip, and he watched as the young man led the girl out of the party.

Griffin didn’t even think about what could happen next, because he knew he was going to stop whatever it was. He followed the pair outside as they headed for the woods. Griffin's extrasensory abilities let him focus in on the young man's thoughts, and what he could hear was frightening. Quickening his pace, he tried to catch up before anything could happen.

He finally caught them in the woods as the young man hovered over the girl like an animal. Her clothes were ripped, and she was seemingly unconscious. Before the monster could take his plans any further, Griffin attacked him with a fury he didn’t know he possessed. His intent had been merely to stop the attack before it happened, but he grabbed the boy and threw him with such force that the boy's neck snapped.

Griffin could feel when the life drained from the young man, and for a moment he was stunned, but his attention turned back to the young woman who lay motionless on the ground. She was so beautiful and perfect. Her life had barely begun, and here she lay. He could feel her life force, and it felt so very weak. Without a moment's thought, he knelt beside her and whispered words of comfort as he did the one act he had sworn he would never ever do.

He bit her neck.

Griffin told the entire story to Will, and both men sank to the bench in silence.

***

Will didn’t want to believe Griffin's story. It was easier to view him as a reckless being who had changed Ashton for his own selfish reasons. Instead he was a somewhat tortured soul who had thought to try and save a life he felt was being taken too soon. He didn’t know her listless appearance that night was due to a drugged drink. He thought she was drifting from the world, and he acted on instinct to save her. In a way, Will was indebted to Griffin for setting Ashton on the path that brought her to Belle Ridge. If not for Griffin, Will would have never met the one true love of his life.

“We have to find her. You have to tell her the truth,” Will said after several moments of silence.

As much as he wanted to banish Griffin from Ashton's life forever, he knew she needed to know how and why she had been created. He knew he would give anything to know more about his own creation. He couldn’t deny that same knowledge to another.

“She's heading home. She was on foot, so she can't have gone far.” He stood and walked toward his car without waiting to see if Griffin followed.

As Will reached his car, he could hear Griffin's steps close behind. Griffin opened the passenger side door and sat down as Will started the car.

“Normally I'd want to give her some space before confronting her, but she needs to know everything, and she needs to know while there is time to tell her alone, before her family returns.” Will turned onto the road to the Wallace’s house. He could see the lights on in the house that was as familiar now as his own.

Pulling into the drive, Will jumped out of the car before the wheels even had a chance to fully stop. He ran ahead of Griffin. The front door was open, and Will entered the house intent on finding Ashton.

He hurried through the living room and down the hall. Her bedroom door was half open. Giving a slight knock, the door opened the rest of the way.

The room was in disarray. Drawers were pulled out. There were clothes falling partway off the hangers in the closet.