“And call as soon as you’re done speaking to him.”
“Yes, Mom,” I said and laughed.
I stared at the movie posters in the window facing us.
Starship
Troopers
. Seriously, ever think about updating to the twenty-first century?
Fane pulled in beside Noel. He looked over and gave her a
nod. Noel lowered her head slightly.
I narrowed my eyes. “Do you two know each other?”
“Not well,” she said.
“Has he ever…?” I suddenly began to ask, but couldn’t finish
the words.
“Fane? No, of course not. Fane’s a one-woman kind of guy.”
Except he wasn’t a guy at all. He was a bloodsucking vampire
who’d wandered far from his grave. Worse yet, he didn’t trust me enough to tell
me.
“Aurora…” Noel said as I opened the door to get out.
I forced a smile. “I’ll be fine.”
Once I slipped inside the Catalina I stared forward. I was
afraid if I looked at Fane my face would betray me.
“So what’s going on?” he asked.
“We need to talk, but not here.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“The bluff.”
Fane put the car in reverse and headed to the ocean. “Sure
you can’t tell me what this is about?”
I shook my head.
After a spell Fane asked, “How do you know Noel Harper?”
“Funny, I was just asking her the same thing about you.”
Fane’s fingers, which were loosely steering, now wrapped
around the wheel tightly. His voice turned silky. “And what did she tell you?”
I kept my silence. Fane cut through the airport and come out
on Point Woronzof Road paralleling the coastal trail. On our way to the bluff,
I pointed out a trail access surrounded by dense woods.
“Pull in here.”
Point Woronzof was a popular place to make out or access the
beach. I wanted something more secluded. Well, maybe not that secluded. By now
it was almost four in the afternoon. The sun would set in another forty-five
minutes.
The trees surrounded the deserted parking lot, shading the
last gray hues before total darkness. Fane pulled into a spot in the far corner
against the woods.
“So?”
“When were you planning on telling me you’re a vampire?”
Fane squinted at me. “I thought you knew.”
“Why in the hell would you think that?”
Fane waved his hand at my neck. “The red scarf. I thought it
was your way of signaling to me.”
“Not even!” I shook my head. “I can’t believe this.”
Now what? What would Melcher instruct me to do in a
situation like this? This was different. This wasn’t a mission. This was Fane.
His body tensed and the soft features of his face hardened.
His words were silky smooth, without a trace of surprise. He even had the
insolence to sound amused. “You chose to confront me in this dark, isolated
location, alone in my car? What is it, Aurora—bravery or the thrill of danger?”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good because I could never hurt you. I might want to sleep
with you and suck your blood, but I’d never hurt you.”
“Stop it.”
He turned in his seat to face me. I didn’t like the way he
looked me up and down. “Don’t tell me you don’t want it, too.”
“I could never sleep with you.”
I hadn’t meant to sound so repulsed. Did vampires have
feelings? I mean, if they were immune to bodily harm, perhaps their emotions
were equally deadened.
I didn’t have to wonder for long. The Fane I knew
disappeared, replaced by a big-headed brute—or maybe he was just being a
guy—who slouched back as though impervious to words or emotions. “Now you don’t
want to do the dirty because I’m a vampire? Usually that’s a turn-on for
girls.”
I bet it was. I bet girls like Valerie got off on a good
fuck and suck.
“Oh? And how many girls have you been with?”
I tried to sound as detached as him, even though he had hurt
me more than he could know, and worse, after claiming he never could.
It took him what? All of ten seconds?
“I’ve been around a long time.”
Fane pulled down his visor. A pack of American Spirits
landed in his open palm. Fane pushed a car lighter into the socket on the
dashboard. Within seconds, the metal cylinder popped out.
Somehow this infuriated me more than Fane’s countless line
of lovers. “So you’re smoking again?”
“Depends. Are you breaking up with me?”
“You’re joking. You’re threatening me with a cigarette?”
Fane shrugged and lit up. Guess he was making the decision
for me. In the end, guys were all the same whether they’d been around for
eighteen years or eight hundred.
The moment his cigarette caught fire I felt myself spark
with rage. I threw the car door open and got out. I slammed it shut with both
hands. The smash of metal was somewhat satisfying. I began taking off across
the empty lot.
Fane would either speed away or chase after me. I figured he
would go for the hunt, since he was a vampire.
I just wasn’t expecting it so soon.
He jumped out of the car right after me. I saw him flick the
cigarette across the snowy lot. He locked eyes with me, and a shiver ran down
my spine.
I bolted.
Bright idea, Aurora, let’s make this even more exciting
for the vampire.
I wasn’t a complete dolt. I had my dagger and something even
more lethal—my blood. He wanted to bite me. I could feel it with every beat of
my heart. And if he did…
That thought alone made me run faster.
I crashed through the woods. Adrenaline was a powerful
thing. In normal circumstances, I would have tripped over a stump by now.
Instead, I leapt over fallen trunks and dashed through the trees toward the
ocean. And what would I do there? Swim across to Fire Island? I wouldn’t make
it thirty feet before hypothermia set in.
I couldn’t risk looking behind me, and I couldn’t hear Fane
through the pounding of my heart, which drummed inside my ears. My blood was
beckoning him. An inexplicable thrill shot through my body.
When I ran into a clearing on the bluff I stopped suddenly and
whirled around.
My body trembled, but it wasn’t from fear or cold. Our eyes
locked, stopping Fane in his tracks twenty feet away.
We stared each other down like two combatants about to duel.
Fane started toward me. The important thing, I reminded myself, was not to show
any fear. But for all my feigned courage, I couldn’t move.
Fane took advantage of my hesitation to close the remaining
distance between us. He yanked me to him with both hands. It was difficult to
tell if he meant to caress or attack me. His hands ran down my back.
Fane pulled at my scarf as he whispered in my ear. “I’m dying
to taste you.” His words left hot marks on my skin.
I pushed at him, but he gripped me harder and ripped off my
scarf. The fabric pooled over the snow like a stain. I struggled and was just
about to reach for the dagger when Fane released his hold on me.
I pitched forward, falling to my hands and knees in the
snow.
Fane stood over me blinking.
“You’ve already been bitten.”
The cold air prickled my neck. It was like someone had cut
off my hair and left me completely exposed.
Fane’s gaze fixated on my neck. At least he didn’t look as
though he wanted to bite me anymore. I probably could have used stitches where
Ivo bit me. Since I had the scarf to hide the wound, it wasn’t carefully
covered up with powder or foundation.
Fane’s fingers trembled when he reached for my neck. “Who
did this to you?”
“A vampire.”
He didn’t smile. “Who was it?”
I studied his side profile in the dying light. “Why? Do you
know every vampire in Alaska?”
Wait, would I be required to report that information back to
Agent Melcher? Maybe it was better if he didn’t answer.
Fane’s eyes narrowed. “That bite mark is fresh.”
I lowered my chin and tried to look at it, which was
ridiculous—there was no way I could see my own neck. It was better than looking
Fane in the eye when he was staring at me as though I’d cheated on him.
“I didn’t go out of my way to get this!” Okay, that was a
lie, but it’s not like I wanted to be bitten. I’d rather jab a needle in my arm
than get gnawed on by creepy killers.
Fane bent down slowly for the scarf and handed it to me from
two feet away. “Come on, you must be freezing.”
The snow seemed thicker on the walk back.
Fane turned on the heat once we got inside his car. “Noel Harper
dragged you to one of Marcus’s parties, didn’t she?”
I really had to meet this Marcus and check out one of his after
hour parties. They were the talk of the town, at least among the undead and
their cohorts.
A look of rage crossed Fane’s face. “Aurora?” he said
carefully. “A couple days ago you had a bruise on your forehead. Did someone
force himself on you?”
I stared out the windshield, weighing my options. From a
sitting position, I could ease my hand down my leg and retrieve the dagger
under my pant leg. I didn’t want to hurt him, though. It was hard enough
killing evil vampires. Would the agents ever ask me to kill nice ones like
Fane?
“Have you ever killed anyone?” I asked suddenly.
“What?” Fane scowled. “No.”
Before he could ask about the bite again I said, “Look, any
girl who hangs out with Noel and her friends ends up getting bitten.”
Fane’s features began to vanish in the dimming light. It was
the end of January, and we were up to seven hours and forty minutes of
daylight, not that it was noticeable on overcast days like this. The grayness
had a calming effect…until Fane punched the dashboard. It made me jump.
“I can’t stand it!” he cried. “I can’t stand the thought of
someone else biting you.”
“Hey, I didn’t like it either.”
He turned to me. “You didn’t?”
“It was disgusting.”
“But most people…”
“I said it was disgusting!”
Fane settled back into his seat and stared forward. “Is that
what you think of me? That I’m disgusting?”
I sighed and shrank back in the seat.
My voice came out so much quieter than I’d intended. “I
wanted to…but I can’t.”
His fists tightened around the steering wheel.
I hugged myself in my arms. “Don’t ever bite me, though.”
I couldn’t tell if Fane was nodding or shaking his head. “Do
you want me to take you home?”
“Not yet.”
“Do you want to stay parked a bit longer?”
Parking inevitably led to one thing—making out—and it
probably went against every code of honor for a vampire hunter to have
relations with a vampire. But who cared? It wasn’t like Melcher had made me
recite any vows. Fane wasn’t a killer. He was just…dead.
I turned my eyes away from the oppressive trees. “Can we go
to your place?”
“My place? That’s fine, but I have to warn you, my roommate
isn’t hospitable.”
“Honestly, I could do without the pleasantries tonight.”
Fane pulled onto Postmark Drive, skirting cargo hangars and
the big FedEx Express Center. We passed my street and headed toward Denali
High, passing it before pulling into a nearby neighborhood.
“You live this close to school and you don’t walk?”
“Walk?” Fane repeated. “I wouldn’t be caught dead walking to
school.” He laughed.
He pulled the tank into the right side of a one-story duplex
and made no movement to vacate the vehicle.
I looked over when he didn’t get out. “What?”
“How did you figure out I was a vampire?”
“Noel told me. I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out,
myself. I mean,
‘Fane.’
Kind of obvious, don’t you think?”
“It’s spelled with an ‘e.’ not a ‘g.’”
“You’re right, that makes all the difference.” It felt good
to laugh, even briefly. I nodded at the garage door. “Does your roommate get
the garage?”
Fane grunted. “You could say that. It’s full of his books.
He’s a rare books dealer—sells online. That’s how we cover our expenses.”
I bit down softly on my lower lip. “Oh, right, I didn’t think
about that. You still have to make a living. So what are you doing at Denali
High?”
Fane stretched his hands on the steering wheel. “Every few
decades I enroll in school to check out how things have changed. Joss hates
society, but it fascinates me. I miss being part of it. Besides, it’s the best
place to pick up chicks.”
My voice rose. “Skating on thin ice.” Still, I was happy we
were joking again.
Fane chuckled.
“So, how does twenty-first-century high school compare to
the fifties or eighties or whenever you were last in school?”
“It’s changed a lot. I’ll tell you, I sympathize with the
teachers. These days they have cell phones and guns to contend with…I think
cell phones are worse.”
“And your roommate doesn’t mind you playing school boy while
he brings home the bacon?”
“Joss doesn’t bring home anything. I have to do all the leg
work. Drive him around to garage sales, mail packages, fetch supplies…”
“He doesn’t drive?”
“He refuses to learn—said automobiles are just another
destructive invention of mankind. It didn’t matter in New York. No one drives
in the city.” Fane looked over. “Sure you want to come inside? Or are you
stalling?”
“I’m sure.”
We got out of the car and approached the front door. I didn’t
see any boarded-up windows.
“Welcome to my lair,” Fane said as we walked in.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, it wasn’t the
antique furniture I focused on, but the pair of unfriendly eyes regarding me as
though I were vermin crawling around his feet by the couch. There was a white
porcelain mug on the end table by his side. The mug and scowl on his face were
all lit by a glass iron lamp on the table. I recognized Joss from outside the
video store.
“What is she doing here?” he demanded.
“What do you think? She’s my guest, and she’s come for a visit.”