Tainted Blood (22 page)

I shrugged again.

With one hand he slipped his fingers between mine and with the other cool, gentle hand he turned my face to his. His emerald green eyes searched mine then they settled on my lips. In a low voice he said, “I’m sorry I haven’t been around lately. I’ve been really busy with work.” His eyes flicked up to mine for a brief moment then back to my mouth, his hand slipped into my hair behind my ear, his lips close enough that I could feel his cool breath on my skin.

Even though I was irritated with him, with the way he’d been acting and the fact that he hadn’t been around much recently, I couldn’t help myself when he was that close. I pressed my lips to his. And I continued to press my lips to his and kiss him feverishly until I heard the soft knock of Kiera at the front door.

As I pulled away he asked with a hunger in his eyes, “Are you sure you want to go? We could…stay here.” A mischievous smile picked at the corner of his mouth, and even though every portion of my body wanted what he was suggesting, I fought it and stood, holding a hand out for him to join me in the night’s adventures. I saw a flash of disappointment that he quickly hid with his amazing smile. He stood, and we headed down to the parking area with Carter and Kiera.

As I took the last step, I found myself face-to-face with Oliver’s car. Not the coven issued SUV. Not his old car, the one that he and Julz had hidden the mangled remains of in some bushes weeks before. No, a brand new one, a complete replica of that mangled car before the damage had been done. He pulled a key from his pocket, and when he pushed a button on it, the lights lit up on the car before me.

“Is this your car?” I asked slowly.

He slipped his sunglasses on. “Yeah.”

I turned to him, stared up at him and questioned him silently. He looked down at me. “What?” he asked.

“Seriously? You got a new car and you didn’t even tell me?”

“Sure I told you,” he responded, and it was so convincing that I questioned myself but I knew that he hadn’t told me. I was positive that he hadn’t told me. I knew I would’ve remembered such a conversation. So I retorted with more ammo. “Yeah, just like you told me about the mythology class?” I air quoted mythology.

“What are you talking about?”

Before I could respond with heated words, I caught sight of my friends standing nearby, watching and waiting. I folded my arms over my chest and swallowed my anger. “Forget it,” I said through my frustration.

As I reached the passenger side door Oliver was right behind me and he rested his hand on the handle. But before he opened the door, he dipped his head and whispered in my ear. “Are we okay?” I shrugged, arms still crossed. “I’m sorry if I didn’t tell you, I thought I had.” I relaxed but only for a second because then he asked if Carter and Kiera could take my car. When I took a step away and looked at him he continued by saying, “I just picked it up today. I don’t want—”

I cut him off, raising a hand. “You stop now,” I told him. “We are all going together. Either in my car or yours.” I glared at his glasses wishing I could see his eyes so that I knew for sure that he could really see how ticked off I was.

After a moment of what I can only assume was him staring at me in disbelief, he actually huffed. “Fine!” he exclaimed in a quiet growl and then we all crawled into Oliver’s new car.

It was the exact same as the old car inside too: top of the line, leather, every control, button, and light imaginable, and black as night.

“Why would you need to buy a car if you have the coven issue one?” I asked as we headed for the mini-golf course. I’d waited for Carter and Kiera to be deep in conversation before quietly asking him so that Kiera wouldn’t hear.

“Because it’s mine. My own and I don’t have to report my miles and there are no restrictions as to where I can go in it.” He actually sounded a little frustrated. Like he was being controlled and I became concerned. Concerned that maybe he felt I was a restriction. Like maybe I was holding him back. It was my turn to be worried whether or not we were okay. I reached for his hand, the one that was resting on the console and slipped my fingers between his, afraid he might not want it. But he did. His fingers tightened on mine like they always did and I relaxed some as he flashed me a quick, crooked smile.

I listened to Kiera and Carter’s conversation for a moment. “Why would you add another class?” she asked him. “Especially a night class?”

“I need the credits and it sounded interesting,” Carter responded and I wondered if it bothered him at all to hide things from her. I hoped it did. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to keep stuff from Oliver. Then I looked over at my vampire boyfriend, his focus on the road ahead of him, and I wondered if there were things he wasn’t telling me.

Kiera leaned forward, catching my attention. “You’re taking this mythology class too?”

I nodded.

“Why?” she asked.

I knew deep down inside Kiera was still bothered by what she thought had happened between Carter and me, I knew she was still bothered by the show we put on that night at the club. I also knew that she was doing her best not to let it bother her. But the fact that Carter and I signed up for a night class together and didn’t involve her was weighing on those fleeting thoughts that she fought so hard not believe.

“The counselor told me that I had to add another class to be considered a fulltime student. This one sounded really cool and easy.” I turned a little so I could see her. “I was going to ask you if you’d like to take it with us but I know you’re already maxed right now.” I felt like I was lying my ass off and it didn’t bother me at all. I was protecting her. I saw relief settle over her as my words (lies) flowed and the reassuring smile I gave helped. I knew then that Carter didn’t feel bad hiding what he had to from her. He was protecting her. Even though I was okay bending the truth to protect my friend, I wasn't sure that I was okay with Carter doing it to the extent that he was. She needed to know. What was he going to do, sneak off every full moon? Not saying he needed to, but if he does have the same reaction he had during the last full moon, I think she’d eventually catch on.

“See, Laney. I told you that you weren’t taking enough classes,” Kiera said rather smugly as she settled back into the back seat. That smugness made all the guilt I felt for the stuff she didn’t know fade away.
Naive little snot.

I spotted Ashton’s car as soon as we pulled into the mini-golf parking lot but I kept my mouth shut. Probably not the best move. It was Carter who verbalized it when he got out of the back of Oliver’s new Dodge Challenger.

“We should go,” I finally said after Carter made a big deal about us avoiding Ashton and Kiera not understanding why. But Oliver said no. He told me, privately, “I’m not going to let Ashton prevent us from having a good time.” His gorgeous green eyes bore into mine and he kissed my forehead, took my hand, and then led me to the entrance.

After paying, getting our clubs, and colored golf balls, we headed to the first hole. I was nervous. Oliver had barely been able to control himself the last few times we’d seen Ashton and I was worried that whatever rude comment Ashton would make on this particular night would be the one to send Oliver over the edge.

Things were going smoothly, other than I really sucked at mini-golf. There had been no sign of Ashton and we were halfway through the course before things took a turn.

I set my ball on the mat, lined it up with the hole in the bottom of the windmill, took a steadying breath and told myself I could do this, and then took my swing. Would you believe that damn ball hit the opening to the windmill, bounced back, hit the concrete edge, and shot off into somebody else’s game? I sighed, dropped my head, and with my club dragging behind me, trudged through the foliage to find my stupid ball while my boyfriend and friends showered me with words of encouragement while trying not to laugh.

You’d think that my ball taking off on an adventure of its own would’ve been enough, but no, as I stepped out of the bushes and brushed myself off, I found my stupid, blue ball in the palm of my arch nemesis.

There stood Avery, dressed as a hooker as usual, my ball in her hand and a bright pink fingernail rested on her chin as if she were pondering the troubles of the world. I know she saw me step out of the bushes but she chose to ignore my existence when she said, rather loudly, “Has anyone seen the loser that belongs to this ball?” People from surrounding holes turned at the sound of her voice. “Anyone?”

“Give me the ball, Avery,” I said, or growled was more like it. I was pissed. I held out my hand and her eyes finally met mine.

“Oh, I should’ve known it was yours. The smell of cheap desperation is all over it.” She held it out like it was plagued and dropped it into my palm.

I was burning with anger as I tightly wrapped my fingers around the ball. It was taking every ounce my self-control not to haul off and hit her upside the head with my club.

Then Oliver stepped out of the bushes behind me.

“What’s taking you so long, Laney?” I closed my eyes and focused on not losing it. I knew she would try to push me farther when she saw him.

“Well, hello there, lab partner. Where have you been hiding?” she cooed in a sugary-sweet voice, and before he could respond I spun around and pressed Oliver back into the foliage, pushing him as far away from Avery as I could get him at that moment.

“Hey, what are you doing?” he asked as he stumbled back onto the hole we’d been playing.

“Nothing,” I said frustrated.

“Shoving me isn’t nothing,” he responded, dipping my chin so that he could look into my eyes. “What was that about?”

I huffed and pulled away. “I hate her.” I crossed my arms over my chest and followed the path to find Carter and Kiera at the next hole.

“Yeah, I got that,” he said as he fell in step beside me.

“Let’s just play so we can get out of here,” I said quickly so as to cut him off from asking anything more.

Thankfully it worked.

We waited quietly while Carter took his turn. He had the best score and at that moment he was muttering something about making the next hole his bitch and I giggled. Carter shot me a quick smile and I felt myself relax, a little. But it didn’t last. Oliver got, well, let’s just say he got rather competitive after that, but I saw a hint of aggression in his behavior and suddenly the game wasn’t about having fun, it was about who was going to win between the boys. We only had three holes left when we finally encountered Ashton.

He was at the final hole on the opposite course when he spotted us. He appeared to be on a genuine date and his sister seemed to be tagging along. Alone. I don’t know how I didn’t see him before. Granted I just wanted my freakin’ ball back. It wasn’t like I’d looked around to see who the bitch was with.

Avery’s eyes fell on Oliver, an evil smile spreading across her face, and I felt my blood boil. I saw Oliver’s demeanor change even more. It was almost like he was suddenly showing off and I felt anger pulse through me. But what really surprised me was when Ashton looked over at us and all he said was, “Hey, guys,” very politely. He went back to devoting all of his attention to his date. A date who didn’t look like one of Avery’s tramp friends for once.

Avery’s attention stayed on our group, Oliver in particular.
And as he was swinging on his turn, and still making a show of it, his club slipped from his hands and flew off into the surrounding foliage
. He grumbled as he went after it and I followed him as Carter and Kiera stared after us.

“What is with you?” I said, through gritted teeth when I caught up to him.

“Nothing,” he snapped. He reached down and grabbed his club from where it had landed and brushed past me, heading back to the course.

We finished the game in silence and I was pretty sure Kiera and Carter wouldn’t be inviting us on a couples date again. Carter had won but he wasn’t celebrating like he normally would have. Instead, he mouthed, “What is with him?” while Oliver’s back was turned. I shrugged and after we dropped off our clubs, we headed to the car. Oliver walked ahead of us by a good distance and I figured the rest of the night would lack any enjoyment.

We headed to dinner, and as it turned out, there was one local place, owned by vampires, where Oliver could eat and it just so happened to be Carter’s favorite. It was uncomfortably quiet in the car as we headed to the local brewery.

After being seated, we examined the menus and I noticed a little unexplained symbol next to several of the listed items. I wondered if that mysterious symbol denoted the vampire safe items. Meaning they were all natural and organic—free of any dairy or processed products that the mixed bloods, like Oliver, could not tolerate. Normally I would have asked him, but I was still quietly fuming over his behavior on the mini-golf course.

After placing our orders, Kiera and I excused ourselves to the restroom where she took the opportunity to question me, asking if Oliver and I were fighting. I didn’t know how to answer. I didn’t think we were fighting, but when I really thought about it, maybe we were…

We returned to our seats and I slipped my hand under one of Oliver’s. His fingers tightened around mine and I felt relief flood through me. He was frustrated, too, I reminded myself. We’d been frustrated with each other and on edge because Ashton had been at the golf course, but we weren’t fighting and that relieved me. He flashed me a quick, small grin and we listened to Kiera and Carter chatter on about wedding details. Well, Kiera chatted. Carter smiled, nodded, and responded at all the appropriate moments.