Sighing softly, she walked over to sit beside him. She didn’t have to ask what was wrong she knew it was his mother again. If he wished to talk about it, he would. If not, they would sit silently until he was ready to go to sleep on the air mattress tucked under the bed for him.
“Is your grandma home?” he inquired softly.
His gaze was focused on the TV, but most of his attention was on her. “No, she went to the church social tonight. There’s left over lasagna in the fridge for you if you want some.”
He shrugged, setting the remote down as he found the Red Sox game. “Someone did take my fries,” he muttered.
Cassie couldn’t help but grin as she shoved lightly on his arm. “There were only a few left.”
“The last ones are always the best.”
Laughing softly, she pushed him again. “Do you want me to heat some for you?” she inquired though she knew that was exactly what he was trying to guilt her into doing.
He turned to her, smiling softly as he nodded. “Think you owe me.”
Cassie climbed to her feet, shaking her head at him. “You’re lucky I love you.”
He flashed his bright grin with the easy charm that most girls couldn’t resist. “You’d better!”
Cassie was still shaking her head as she made her way downstairs. She may have been born an only child, but she still had an annoying, two week older brother. Finding her way easily through the darkened halls she entered the kitchen. She didn’t bother with the lights, she could see almost as well with the lights off as she could with them on. She pulled the door of the fridge open and removed the hefty piece of lasagna her grandmother had set aside for Chris. Un-wrapping it, she tossed it into the microwave and hit the buttons.
Leaning against the sink, she stared out at the dark night, her mind not on the street before her, but on the strange man from earlier. She had done nothing but think about him since arriving home. He preoccupied her every thought, her every moment. She could not get him out of her head, could not rid her skin of the strange electricity he had created in her.
Her body hummed with a fierce need to see him again, to touch him, and to finally ease the tension knotted through her. Instinctively she knew that if she could just see him again, just touch him, than things would be better. She could not shake the feeling of rightness that had filled her from the moment she laid eyes upon him. It was as if she knew him, as if her very soul knew his.
The thought filled her with excitement, but also with a level of fear that she couldn’t shake. She shouldn’t feel this way about someone she didn’t know. It made no sense to feel this intense of a connection with a complete stranger. Though she tried to remain logical, she could not shake the certainty that what she felt was right and good.
She hated it when Chris came to her house lost and angry, however she was grateful for the distraction he now offered from her strange thoughts and emotions. But now that she was alone again, the stranger was back on her mind, back in her system. She was truly afraid that she would never feel normal again until she touched him, and knew exactly how he felt. Though she already knew he would feel exquisite.
If she saw him again. The thought of never seeing him again sent her heart racing in fear.
Cassie shook her head fiercely, desperately trying to rid herself of her strange, irrational thoughts. She was acting crazy, she was feeling crazy. Maybe everything that had happened to her over the past four years had finally caused her to lose her mind. ‘How many people could actually know of the existence of vampire’s, and fight them, and not go a little crazy?’ she wondered absently.
Not many.
Something moved amongst the shadows, drawing her gaze sharply back to the street. The shadows shifted again, moving slightly before settling down once more. Cassie focused intently upon them, but they didn’t move again, and nothing emerged from the copse of trees at the edge of the yard.
The sudden beep of the microwave caused her to jump in surprise, spinning her toward the machine. She shook her head, aggravated with herself for allowing someone to affect her this much. And a stranger no less. She didn’t know him, what she felt for him could not be real, and he should not be affecting her this way. Hell, she didn’t even know his name.
Grabbing the lasagna from the microwave, she cast another glance out the window. Nothing moved amongst the shadows, but Chris’s mom had come onto her porch. She held a beer bottle in one hand, a cigarette in the other, as she stared into space. A man emerged behind her; he wrapped his arm tightly around her waist. Cassie had never seen him before, but then, she rarely saw any of Mary’s men twice in a row.
The man explained why Chris was here tonight.
Shaking her head, she hurried back upstairs, eager to get the food to Chris. She was also eager to help ease some of the hurt that clung to him, eager to try and bury some of her own swirling emotions. She swung into her room, not at all surprised to find the air mattress already set up. “Thanks,” he muttered as he took the plate from her.
Cassie nodded and plopped herself onto the bed beside him. This was going to be one of the nights that Chris didn’t want to speak; one of the nights when he had no words to convey his unhappiness. That was just fine by her, she wasn’t much in the mood for talking either, but there was one thing that she had to know.
“Chris?”
“Hmm,” he murmured around a mouthful of lasagna.
Swallowing nervously, Cassie’s hands knotted in her lap. “Do you remember that man from earlier?” When he shot her a confused look, she elaborated. “The one standing next to B’s and S’s?”
He nodded as he took another large bite of lasagna. “What about him?” he inquired when he swallowed.
“Did you um, well did you feel anything from him?” she hedged.
Chris’s eyes narrowed on her. She never asked him these questions, never wanted to know anything about what he or Melissa knew. But she could not stop herself from asking. She had to know why she could not get the stranger out of her thoughts, and Chris might be able to help her with that. “No, not really,” he answered slowly. “Why?”
She turned her attention back to the game, hoping that Chris wouldn’t notice or pick up on the anxiety, excitement, and fear wracking through her. “Just wondering, haven’t seen him around before.”
It was not a lie, she tried to reassure herself. But she didn’t think Chris bought it. Fortunately, he knew her well enough to know not to push her anymore. Sitting silently, she gained some sense of comfort from his steady, reassuring presence. Without Chris in her life, she had no idea what would have become of her. He kept her sane in a world of madness and confusion.
Sighing softly, she dropped her head to his shoulder. For the first time all night, she finally began to feel normal again.
CHAPTER 3
Cassie slid her sunglasses onto the top of her head; she surveyed the crowded school parking lot as she stepped away from Chris’s beat up Mustang. Though the car looked like junk now, Chris planned to restore it to its former nineteen sixty four prestige. Cassie had no doubt that he could do it, the only thing she doubted was that he would ever get the time he needed to devote to it. Just as he hadn’t had time for his job once school had started again. Not with hunting vampires, thrown in with some school work and football practice.
Melissa slid out of the car beside her; her black hair was pulled into a sleek French braid that hung almost to her waist. “Freaking death trap,” she muttered.
“I heard that!” Chris shouted from inside as he fiddled with the only thing he had updated in the car, the stereo. Disturbed blasted loudly from the large speakers stuffed in the trunk moments before Chris popped his head above the roof. “I’ll have you know that this car is a classic.”
“More like an antique,” Melissa retorted.
He shrugged, dropping his hands on the roof as he leaned forward. “And one day it’s going to be awesome.”
“Well, until that day, it is a death trap,” Meli
ssa retorted sharply.
Chris made a face at her before ducking away again and turning the music up more. Cassie rolled her eyes; she heaved a large sigh as she grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. Cars were lined up and down the senior parking lot, music blared from most of them as students tried to outdo the stereos surrounding them. Puffs of smoke floated from some cars, drifting into the air in slow tendrils that marked the vehicles.
Students milled everywhere, calling greetings to their friends as they moved swiftly through the cramped spaces. Some juniors had wandered over from the lot below, but most stayed by their own cars, trying hard to make their systems heard over the rising cacophony. Cassie usually enjoyed the noise and confusion of the mornings, it helped to wake her up. But today she found herself wishing that everyone would keep their music at a normal level, and their voices pitched below screaming. She had gotten very little sleep, and the dull throbbing in her temples was a constant reminder of that fact.
“I’m going in,” she muttered to Melissa.
Melissa frowned at her. “Are you ok?”
Cassie frowned as she nodded and pulled her glasses back over her tired, aching eyes. “I didn’t sleep well, and that sun is awfully bright.”
“Yeah, it tends to be.”
Cassie didn’t have the energy to come up with a witty retort as she tightened her grip on the straps of her bag and made her way into the crowd. People called out loud greetings to her that she returned with a forced smile, and a cheery demeanor she didn’t feel. Her skin was still oddly electrified to the point that she wanted to rip it off, her mind still focused upon one clinging thought. Him. Being bright, cheery, and happy was not in her today, but she did a good job of faking it.
Swiftly climbing the steps, she was grateful when she reached the cool interior of the dimly lit foyer. The shade felt much nicer against her skin and eyes than the hot, bright sun. On days when she was run down, the sun was oddly draining, and painful to her. It stung her eyes more, and made her skin feel tight and itchy. She had never understood it, but that was the way it was. It was easier to avoid sunlight when she was overtired. And she was most certainly tired today.
A sophomore boy held the door open for her, making a grand, sweeping gesture that brought the first true smile to her face. With few students in the halls, it was far easier to move as she gathered her things from her locker and strolled to homeroom.
***
Devon stood silently in the shadows, leaning against the cool wall as he watched her move slowly down the hall. Her head was bent forward; her golden hair cascaded in thick waves to the small of her back. Though he couldn’t see her face, the utter perfection of her beautiful, delicate features had been burned into his memory last night. Cassie, he recalled the small girl from last night calling her.
Sighing softly, he stepped away from the wall as she disappeared into one of the near empty classrooms. He didn’t know what he was doing here, he had never stepped foot in a high school before. He had never had any intention of ever doing so. But for some reason, somehow, he found himself standing amongst the stark, foreign halls.
Well, he knew the reason, and it was her.
Ever since he had first laid eyes on her, first smelled her, he had been inexplicably drawn in. He had been passing through town, heading for the woods in search of food, when he had caught her scent. The blood flowing through her veins was strong, its fragrance deliciously alluring. It had reeled him in like a fish on a hook, snagging hold of him and refusing to let go. She had been a bright beacon against the dark night encompassing her.
Though he hadn’t fed off a human in a very long time, he had been unable to resist the appeal of her enticing aroma. He was so ensnared by it that he hadn’t been able to wander far from her since he had first seen her. Somehow, strangely, she was a shining light against the darkness residing in him, and he had to get closer to her. Though he had not wanted to come here, he’d had to see her again in order to try and figure out the strange hold she had over him, or to see if he had just imagined it. He had neither figured it out, nor had he been imagining it. In fact, her pull over him felt even stronger today. Hence, why he was here, and why he had stood outside of her house last night for a bit.
There was a wealth of sadness in her, a longing and need that called to him. It touched something in him, sparked to life something that he had thought cold and dead centuries ago. Hell, she touched something that he hadn’t even known he possessed. It had taken him awhile to name the strange emotion building inside him, and it had shocked him when he finally recognized it as hope. Seeing her again now, he felt the strange hope once more, and a strange spark of life that kept him rooted in place. She made it damn near impossible to even think as he struggled with the astonishing feelings threatening to consume him.
He had not felt like this since Annabelle. Had not felt this pull, and need, and… obsession? Yes, it was definitely obsession he felt for this girl, but it was different from what he had felt for Annabelle. This felt good, it felt right. This girl affected him in such a different way than Annabelle had. He had simply had to have Annabelle, had to possess her, had to break her, but this girl…
This girl he wanted to protect and hold and cherish for some unknown reason. This girl made him feel oddly alive again, almost normal, almost human even. He didn’t understand her hold over him, but he could not fight the sensations pulling at him. No, this girl was completely different than Annabelle. With Annabelle it had been a game, one that had changed him forever.
But last night, when this girl had turned to him, his heart had leapt in his chest, or at least it had felt like it for a moment. He had not thought of his heart or the missing beat of it in centuries, because he had not felt anything in the region of his heart in years. However, he swore he could hear it beating now, could almost feel it pulsing blood through his deadened veins once more.
This girl was beautiful, spectacular, perfect, but it was not her looks that captivated him. It was the splendor of her wounded, bright spirit. Though she radiated loss and loneliness, he also sensed a steel rod of strength and pride running through her.
Looking upon her, seeing her, he instantly felt as if he were complete, as if he had found his home. Somehow, in her, he had found the one person that could make everything all right. He knew with absolute certainty that she could ease the aching loneliness that had eaten at his soul for centuries. That had nearly destroyed him time and time again. He did not understand his strange reaction to her. In all his many years, he had never felt anything like what he suddenly felt for her. After all of his time on earth, he had never expected to be shocked or thrown off balance again. He had thought that he had seen it all, that he knew it all.
He had been wrong.
He was completely thrown off balance now. He was unsettled and enchanted by this girl, a teenage girl no less. He needed to know more about her, see more of her. He needed to understand the strange effect she had upon him. He needed her to ease the ache that filled his deadened spirit, and he knew that she could do it.
He watched silently as the halls began to fill up, the chatter and laughter grew louder as students milled about. Lockers opened and slammed as they prepared for the day. He found himself oddly captivated by the simplicity of their lives, amazed by the easy flow of their days. It was something that he had never witnessed before as he tended to stay away from humans, and the allure of their warm blood, and pumping hearts.
Though he had control over his baser, more murderous instincts, he felt it best to avoid temptation as much as possible. And humans were a great temptation, no matter how much control he had now. Even after all of these years, he could still clearly recall the taste of their warm blood, recall the thrill of the hunt, and remember the surge of power that their deaths had brought to him. However, no matter how much of a temptation their blood was, he had been drawn here by her, and he was loath to leave her now.
Slipping from the shadows, he ignored the startle
d looks his sudden emergence caused the students closest to him. He sensed the fear, curiosity, and lust that followed his movements. Ignoring them all, he became intent upon his goal as he made his way toward the offices he had seen at the front of the building.
If he was going to stay close to her, and get to know her better, than there was only one thing he could do. He glanced around the crowded hallways, ignoring the fluttering beat of the hearts surrounding him as he took in the people that he would be spending the rest of the day with.
CHAPTER 4
Cassie played idly with the pages of her notebook as the principal droned on about the daily announcements. She honestly didn’t know if she was going to make it through this day. She was wound tight as a spring and about ready to snap. Closing her eyes, she folded her arms and dropped her head on the desk, stifling a yawn. Chris shot her a questioning look, but she ignored it as she allowed her eyes to drift shut.
The morning announcements finally came to an end and attendance began. Cassie shot her hand up, not bothering to lift her head when her name was called. Chatter started up the minute that attendance was over. Homework was discussed; plans for the weekend were made in the few minutes left before the day started.
“You ok?”
Cassie opened her eyes, her lids felt like lead as she met Chris’s worried gaze. “Fine, just a little tired,” she assured him.
The class suddenly quieted, a strange silence settled over everyone. Cassie frowned at the startled look that came over Chris’s face. He froze where he was, his hand tightened upon her desk as his eyes became riveted upon the front of the class.
A feeling of foreboding stole through her. The strange tingling sensation once again raced down her spine. Her already frayed nerve endings leapt to blazing life, seeming to sizzle and crack with electricity. She remained frozen, unable to lift her head to see what had captivated everyone’s attention; she was certain she already knew.