Tainted Blood (29 page)

“But he already has,” he said in a softer tone and I looked at him in confusion. “That thing with Avery last night, you think he didn’t set that up? And now, you don’t fully trust me anymore.” His eyes dropped to our clasped hands.

“That’s not—” He cut me off as I began to argue my side.

“I don’t blame you, Laney.” His eyes lifted to meet mine again. “I just want you to understand what’s going on and I want you to understand that Ashton cannot be trusted.”

I nodded. I had no doubts about that. I knew Ashton couldn’t be trusted.

“I am sorry that I let this happen, Laney. I’m sorry that I’ve caused you more pain.” He brushed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. A small smile touched his lips; his pupils still not exactly the same size. Then he said, “Come on, let’s go get you a milkshake.” I grinned at him. He knew liquid ice cream was the way to my heart.

I hadn’t realized how long we’d spent talking, and it was later than I had thought when we left the apartment. We went for a drive after we stopped by Shakes to pick up my treat, plus some fries. Carter was working and had been in the back, washing dishes, so we didn’t see him. I was hoping I’d get to see him in his chicken costume. That always cheered me up.

Oliver and I drove out to the lake. The lake in which I had spent plenty of summer days with my friends, including Ashton and Avery…

Oliver parked his car in a space that overlooked the water and he cut the engine. The moon and its reflection on the water were beautiful. There was a little chill to the autumn air so we stayed in the car. We settled back in our seats, Oliver opened the sunroof, and we stared up at the stars.

He held my hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb as we gazed up at the sky. “You know I’d never do anything to hurt you on purpose, right?”

“I know,” I said around the straw as I sipped on my chocolate shake.

I knew in my heart that he would never do anything to hurt me. Not on purpose, but there were things about Oliver, weaknesses that he had that—if someone knew how to work them, they could destroy us.

As I was placing my milkshake back into the cup holder, a movement caught my eye. There was someone or something near a heavily shrubbed area close to the water. I jerked my hand away from Oliver’s and fumbled for the door locks.

“What is it?” Oliver asked in an alarmed tone.

“There’s someone out there!” I hit the button and the locks clicked into place. I scrambled for the control for the moonroof. Oliver beat me to it and the glass slowly slid into place.

“Let’s go!” I yelled.

I didn’t know who was out there and I didn’t want to find out. Oliver started the car, the engine roared, and we peeled out of the lake’s parking area. We sped off down the road and I scanned the darkness for whomever or whatever had been out there in the night. I couldn’t find anything and wondered if my mind had been playing tricks on me.

“Did you see who it was?” Oliver asked.

“No, did you?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t see anything, Laney. I didn’t even sense any other emotions.” In the glow of the dash lights I saw him shoot me a glance. “Are you sure you saw someone?”

I could’ve sworn that I had... Now I doubted myself.

Suddenly, a car without its lights on pulled out in front of us and Oliver slammed on the brakes and had to swerve to miss them. I threw my hands out to catch myself on the dash but the seatbelt held me firmly in place.

I saw the brake lights of the other car flash then it came to a stop. All I could hear was the purr of the engine in Oliver’s car as we sat there and watched all four doors of the small gold car with a mis-colored front fender open and four men stepped out.

Two of the four men stayed beside the car and the other two started toward us.

Very quietly I said, “Oliver, go.”

“What?” he whispered back.

“Go!” I shouted.

He floored it and we zoomed past them. I watched the men, who had both been holding something long that very much resembled a crowbar, run back to their car and all four of them jumped inside. They started after us.

“Go faster, please,” I pleaded.

“Laney, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” And I didn’t want to find out. I was sure that those men weren’t out at the lake by chance. I was positive they knew who we were and I was sick to think of what might have happened had I not seen the movement near the bushes.

We could still see the headlights of the other car far in the distance and that’s when Oliver turned off his lights and sped up. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through my contacts.

“Who are you calling?”

“Felix. I don’t think we should go home tonight and I don’t think Carter should either.” It felt weird that I was the one noticing the bad guys and the one deciding whether or not we’d be safe at the apartments. It was a reminder that Oliver just wasn’t quite himself. I didn’t like it.

Felix answered on the second ring and I explained to him what had happened. He told me that he would head over to both apartments right away and make sure everything was secure and also make sure Kiera was actually at her parents’ for the night. I sent her a text for peace of mind and she responded saying that she was in fact at her parents’ house. I wanted to tell her to stay there but then she would question why, and I couldn’t come up with anything that made sense—other than the truth, and I wasn’t even sure that made sense. This was a reminder that the supernatural world wasn’t going to be able to hide from Kiera much longer.

At Felix’s request, we picked Carter up from work early and we agreed that the only place we’d all feel safe was at Julz’s. (Ironic, huh?) So we headed out that way, but we didn’t take a direct route. Oliver took us a different direction, doing lots of back-tracking, circling, and all kinds of stuff in the hopes that if someone were following us, we’d lose them.

I found out later that Felix had sat in Oliver and Carter’s apartment all night in the dark. I also found out that someone did in fact try to get in. Felix had vampires stationed to watch both apartment doors that night but no one saw who it was, and whoever it had been was too fast for any of them, including Felix, to catch. My thoughts went to Oscar.

As we drove up and down streets and back around shopping centers, Oliver called Julz to let her know that we were on our way and that the three of us would be staying for the night. She was ready when we arrived. She had her car out of the driveway and the garage open. She’d also moved Oliver’s coven issued SUV out onto the street so that Oliver could pull the Challenger into the garage. We pulled into the garage and Julz closed it behind us.

“Thanks for picking me up guys,” Carter said and Oliver was genuinely nice in response. It made me hopeful that he was finally over his Carter issues.

We entered the house through the laundry room. I could hear the TV on in Oliver’s room and we found Hayden and Isaac snuggled under the covers watching a movie with Lola lying across them. Lola bounded off the bed and right to me, rubbing on me and licking me and making that odd sound that she makes when she’s happy. I was glad to see her too, and I crouched down so that I could wrap my arms around her and bury my face in her fur.

Julz came in through the front door after pulling her car back into the driveway. She called out asking if everyone was inside and then she put the house into lockdown. The alarm began to beep and the metal shutters began sliding into place.

I’d never been so happy to be locked in a house. Even locked inside with Julz didn’t seem frightening compared to what was waiting for us outside.

Julz disappeared into her room as the rest of us stayed up for a while talking. We told Isaac and Hayden about what had happened and about the Ashton stuff. Once our nerves had calmed a bit and I couldn’t stop yawning we decided that we should probably try to get some sleep.

Isaac gave us the bed and he and Carter slept on the couches in the living room. Hayden lent me a pair of pajamas and Oliver and I changed the sheets before we slipped under the covers. Lola jumped up on the bed with us and lay across our legs, apparently trying to prevent us from sneaking away in the night.

“I feel really scared,” I whispered as the house fell silent. And I did. There were too many threats outside, and I was beginning to believe that Ashton was only a minor danger compared to what else was, well, hunting us. That’s what it felt like, being hunted. We were hiding after all.

“I know you do, I can feel it,” Oliver responded quietly. He traced his fingers along my cheek in the dim light of the bedroom.

“Sorry,” I said. Then I snuggled tight against him, resting my head against his chest and he held me there in his strong arms.

“Don’t be,” he said softly and kissed the top of my head.

“I don’t want to go back,” I told him.

“Go back where?”

“To school, the town, the lake.” I was tired of fearing for my life, fearing for our lives.

“You can’t let somebody scare you away from the things you love.”

“The things I love are here in this bed with me.” That wasn’t necessarily true. I loved my friends and I wanted to gather them up and run as fast and as far away as we could.

He squeezed me a little tighter and kissed the top of my head again.

“I’m sure I could convince the others to run away with us,” I said very quietly.

He chuckled for a moment then said, “Is that what we are doing now, running away?”

“Sure,” I said with some enthusiasm. “Let’s go make a fresh start somewhere else.”

“It’s not a bad plan,” he responded.

“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” I could hear it in his tone.

He laughed again,
“
But
, you have school to finish, I have work—I have to complete my assignment before I can move on—and your best friend is getting married very soon in that same place you want to get away from.”

“Those are just technicalities,” I played.

He chuckled again. “How about, after this semester, we decide what to do. Sound good?”

“Meaning, we’ll figure out what to do for next semester or after that?”

“After that.”

I huffed, “If we survive that long.”

“Laney, I think we need more than a month to figure out what we’re going to do with the rest of our lives. So you might as well kill time finishing the school year.”

“Easy for you to say; you dropped the class with the Psycho Siblings.”

“I told you, Laney, I have a plan for our future that involves leaving
Treeville
and creating a community just for us. We won’t have to worry about anybody finding out what I am or what Carter is. I just need more time to get it worked out, okay?”

“How much time?” I asked, propping my chin on his chest so that I could look at him.

“I don’t know for sure. I’ve already got the area designated. We just need to expand what I’ve already created.”

“What you’ve already created?”

With a little smirk he responded, “Yeah, this little gated community was my idea. We need to expand though, and incorporate some necessary amenities.”

“Like?”

He smiled at me. “Well, we need a school, a medical facility, a grocery store, and a park just to name a few.”

“What’s wrong with the grocery store that’s already here?”

“It’s fine, needs updating, but it’s also not ours. I have a team of vampires who want to be a part of the community helping me with the planning. We’ve got to weed out the others, non-vamps you know, that were already living here when the community began.”

“Why weed them out?”

“If we don’t, the area will just end up like
Treeville
all over again. We just don’t mix. Tonight is a good example of that. So, if we take over the entire town and make it our own we can all be ourselves.”

“Sounds perfect,” I said and rested my head on his chest again.

“I’m tired, Laney,” he told me through a yawn. “I’ll probably fall asleep. If I do, don’t wake me, okay?”

“Why?” It reminded me of what the ghost of my mother had said when I was trying to wake Oliver on Halloween.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Mixed-bloods, like me, tend to wake in a delusional-type state.”

“What do you mean?” I propped my head on his chest once again and gazed into his heavily lidded eyes. His pupils were still uneven.

“We sometimes have a hard time separating our dreams or our past memories from the current reality.”

“I see,” I said although I really had no clue. “So, what do you dream about?”

He chuckled and gave me a quick kiss. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would,” I said with a smile. I rested my head on his chest and snuggled down against him as he reached up and turned off the lamp on the headboard.

“May I help?” I asked.

“With my dreams? You already do.”

“No,” I laughed. “Can I help plan the community?”

“You’d want to do that?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d like that, Laney.”