Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter (26 page)

“What happened to the other girl?”

“I ate her.” Fane chuckled and turned to me. “You’ll have to
excuse my roommate. A hundred years and he’s still not socialized. Aurora, meet
my immortal companion, Josslyn.”

“So then…she knows what happened to us.” Josslyn looked me
over in disgust as though
I
was the foul creature in this scenario.

Hello? Me, human. You, walking corpse.

“Nice to meet you, Joss,” I said.

“My name is Josslyn.”

“Kind of girly.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like you.”

“Don’t take it personally,” Fane said to me. “Joss hates all
humans.”

“Hey, as long as he’s not killing them.”

Joss closed the book nestled in his lap. “
Me
kill?” He
looked at Fane, eyes narrowed. “Perhaps your new companion ought to hear about
the mass murder that took place in my village. It wasn’t vampires doing the
slaughtering.”

Fane rolled his eyes. “As charming as that story is, let’s
save it for another night.”

“Is that blood in your mug?” I asked, nodding toward the
porcelain cup.

“Certainly not!”

“It’s Earl Grey,” Fane said.

“You’re drinking tea?” I raised both brows.

Joss glared at me. “I’d rather consume strychnine than
human
blood.”

I turned to Fane. “How long can you go without feeding?”

“Months, but I don’t know what vampire would want to. The
cravings are intense—like no other addiction. As far as health goes, a regular
diet of blood gives us strength and quicker healing capabilities.”

“What about super powers?”

Joss snorted.

“Aside from heightened senses, fast healing, and the whole
living forever thing; we’re more or less human.” Fane shrugged. “Joss would
know the answer to your question about feeding better. I believe he’s set the
record for the longest fast.”

A light bulb went off in my head. “Oh, like a tick.”

“Excuse me?” Joss said.

“Ticks can live for seven years without feeding.”

“Francesco,” Joss said testily. “She’s comparing me to an
insect.”

Fane grinned. “Yes, I heard.”

Joss stood up. “I’ll be in my room.” He took his book and
tea with him and slammed a door somewhere down the hall.

Fane spread his arm toward the couch. “Have a seat.”

I settled onto the couch and looked at Fane. “How old are
you?”

“Me? Gosh.” He scratched his head. “I was born in 1755. I
guess that would make me…two hundred and fifty-eight.”

“Well, you don’t look a day above twenty,” I teased. “Where
are you from originally?”

“Italy.”

“But you have no accent.”

“Not anymore. I didn’t stick around long. Made my way to
England, which is where I learned English.”

“You don’t sound British, either. Not like Joss. Your name
makes a lot more sense now. Francesco.”

Fane screwed up his face. “Now you know why I go by Fane.”

“And I thought you were being ironic.”

I shouldn’t be at his house with him. I shouldn’t be with
him at all, but I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I was gathering intel.
That’s all. Going deep undercover. What better way to learn everything I could
about vampires than from the creature itself?

I faltered. Looking at Fane now, I couldn’t think of him as
a creature. My insides still thrummed at his nearness. Even now, I wanted to
straddle him on the couch and kiss him back to life. It was wrong to want a
vampire. So very wrong.

I switched back to teasing. “You’re so obvious, you know?
What’s with the long leather jacket? Kind of cliché, don’t you think?”

“This?” Fane opened his arms and looked down. “What’s wrong
with following fashion trends? Frankly, I like it a lot better than the bulky
cuffs and full-skirted frock coats of the eighties.”

“Eighties?”

“Oh, right, pardon, 1780s. And don’t get me started on top
hats.” Fane took his jacket off and draped it over an armchair before settling
on the couch beside me. “These are great times—for instance, you’ve got jeans
and sunglasses and I can’t tell you how much I love cotton—so soft and
unconstricting.”

I turned to him. “What about the smoking?”

“Are you kidding? It’s the easiest way to meet people.”

“So you’re not addicted to nicotine?”

Fane let out a deep, throaty laugh. “It’s the habit I
enjoy.” He leaned in closer. “There’s only one thing I’m addicted to.” His eyes
shone as he perused the skin above my scarf. He leaned in closer and inhaled
me, his lips hovering above my skin.

“Don’t,” I whispered.

His eyes were hazy. I stood up. “I should get going.”

His eyes slowly cleared. He got up and put his jacket on.

Silence followed us on the drive home. My emotions were too
jumbled to talk, my thoughts tangled up till nothing coherent could be pulled
out of them.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Fane asked as he turned
onto Century Heights.

“I’m tired.” Not that I expected to get any sleep that
night.

He threw the Pontiac into park in my driveway and looked at
me. “So are we good?”

“I don’t know,” I answered. “I need time to think about all
of this.”

Fane tapped his fingers lightly on the steering wheel. “How
much time?”

“What do you mean how much time? You have all the time in
the world.”

Fane took his eyes off his fingers and looked straight at
me. “That doesn’t make the seconds away from you go by any faster.”

My heart skittered. I drew in a breath and nearly forgot to
release it. “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

“But it’s the truth.”

It was all I could do to get out of the car and make it to
the front door without looking back. I lay awake all night thinking about Fane.
I thought about him being around for over three centuries and all the changes
he’d seen.

Mostly, though, I replayed the chase through the woods. But
instead of the scarf he ripped down my jeans and made love to me in the fallen
snow.

Every part of me tingled.

I was seriously screwed.

 20

“You are the luckiest girl ever!” Hope said when I met
the Mouseketeers for lunch in front of their lockers. “How did you manage to
snag Fane Donado?”

I sat on the ground between Hope and Whitney and stretched
my legs across the hall, my back up against the lockers. Noel sat Indian style
a foot away, hooded head bent down like the grim reaper.

“It wasn’t exactly planned,” I admitted.

Whitney pouted. “You’re not going to want to party with us
now. Not when you have your own little private party for two.”

“So you and Fane are still going out?” Noel asked.

I couldn’t see Noel’s eyes from under her hood. “Yeah, I
mean we talked and…” And I didn’t know what else to say.

What I needed right then was to reestablish some good
habits—normal habits—like attending class.

I also needed to study and get my homework done.

That was the plan anyway when I walked up the hill after
school. Right up until I found Dante’s white Rubicon parked in our driveway.

Okay. Now I was getting seriously annoyed. I was actually
trying to get back on track if people would just let me.

Then a thought occurred to me.

Did Dante know about Fane? No. He couldn’t.

“I’m home!” I yelled once I got inside.

“We’re in the kitchen,” Mom called back cheerfully.

I shrugged out of my backpack and jacket and casually
strolled into the kitchen. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dante, I wasn’t expecting you.”

He leaned against the counter and shoved a leftover brownie
into his mouth. He actually swallowed before responding. “Hey, Sky. We’ve got a
Code Red down at the station. Agents want us both in now.”

I moved across the room so he wouldn’t catch my shiver.
“What’s going on?”

“Don’t know yet.”

“I hope everything’s okay,” Mom said.

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Sky. We can handle anything.”

“Oh,” she said with a smile. “I’m sure you can.”

Dante turned to me. “Ready, Sky?”

“Do I need to bring anything?”

“Nope.”

I turned to my mom. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Take your time,” Mom said.

“Where’s Tommy Moe?” I asked as I clicked my seatbelt
on.

“I left him at home.”

“Oh.” I wouldn’t have minded some furry comfort at the
moment.

“Don’t look so worried, Sky. From your face you’d think you
just got caught with your hand in the cookie jar.”

I grimaced. He was closer to the truth than he knew.

The Jeep zoomed backward onto the road and turned down the
drive. Once on Jewel Lake Road, I watched him shift down, over, up, and down.
We lurched forward then flew down Minnesota Avenue.

“So you don’t know what this is about?”

“Nope, but we’ll find out soon enough. Melcher loves to toss
in a Code Red every now and then. He takes this all very seriously, you know.”

Apparently Dante and I were the last ones to arrive at the
party—a rather startling surprise party that included…