Tainted Blood (30 page)

“Me too.” I snuggled closer, if that were even possible, and we both fell asleep.

I dreamt of Ashton that night. He was lurking around every corner. Needless to say, I did not sleep well. Even being wrapped in the comfort of Oliver’s arms I was restless.

Chapter
16 - Paranormal Studies

Julz had stayed hidden in her room the entire time we were at her house, so things stayed quiet while we were there. We went back to the apartment that next afternoon. Felix was still there and that’s when he told us about someone trying to get into the apartment. He also told us what little information they had on the “perp,” as he called it.

Oliver was going to be on duty and away a lot the next few days and Carter was scheduled to work most evenings, as well. I was going to be home alone, way too much, and normally—you know, back when my life was
“normal”
—I wouldn’t have minded the alone time. But now, now I didn’t feel comfortable with it at all. I wasn't feeling very safe anymore and I definitely didn’t feel like I would be able to protect myself in the event that someone wanted to harm me.

Felix and Oliver discussed having round-the-clock-security on the apartment, and in the end, they decided that would be for the best. It really didn’t make me feel any better. I’d still have class with Ashton, my biology partner, and I’d still be vulnerable with the guys gone. I had a mental image of me hiding out in the closet every night and it saddened me to think that my life had come to this. Being afraid. Felix reassured me that I was stronger than I knew and I shot him a very dirty look, for I assumed he’d read my thoughts. He grinned at me in response, his sky blue eyes sparkling and that signature dimple forming in his left cheek.

Thankfully, the next few days were uneventful, educating, but uneventful. Professor Amber was still her moody self and her classes weren’t so pleasant any longer. I could only wonder how delightful she would be in our new Paranormal Studies class.

On one of the rare days that Oliver actually attended classes with me was the same day I got a notice handed to me by one of my professors. It was from Mr. Niemus, the counselor. He was requesting to see me. That’s when I remembered that I’d never sent him my list of goals.

Crap.

Oliver wanted to know what the notice was about and I told him about my meeting with the academic counselor. “Not living up to your potential, huh?” he said playfully, and I laughed at him as we sat under our tree, shaded from the bright fall day.

On this same day, Oliver and Amber had a little chat at the front of her classroom after the rest of the students had filed out. The always dignified Professor Amber folded her arms defiantly and held her chin high as she responded in an indignant tone, “But she is human!” I heard her say from where I stood, leaning against the wall at the back of the class.

“So?” Oliver responded in his own irritated tone.

“Father wanted us to mate with purebloods. He would not support this.”

“I believe your father would have wanted the both of you to follow your hearts,” Oliver replied in a gentler tone.

She huffed, actually huffed, and I half expected her to stomp her foot. “You have no idea what
our
father would have wanted.”

“Ambrose, you know how this works. We do not get to choose who our hearts love.”

Her head dropped and her small frame relaxed. “I will do my best to accept the union.”

Oliver rubbed Amber’s upper arm in a comforting way and quietly said, “It is all that we ask of you.”

They parted ways, Oliver took my hand and we headed out to the parking lot.

“What was that about?” I asked as we walked through the arched hallways.

“I’ll tell you in a moment,” he replied as he glanced around us. It made me nervous when he did that. Like he knew someone was watching or listening to us. I pulled myself closer to his side and he wrapped his arm around me as we continued along.

Once we were in the car he slipped his sunglasses off and placed them on the dash. Then he began to tell me about a bit of Amber’s history. “Levi has bonded with a human and Amber is not pleased. She believes their father would be unhappy with the match.”

“Why?”

“Their father was a traditional man. He firmly believed that the purebreds should mate to keep the pure line strong.”

“Was?”

“Yes, unfortunately their father passed on soon after the wars. His wife, Amber and Levi’s mother, was murdered during the war. From what I understand, it was a terrible death and their father was so grief-stricken and devastated that his own heart failed him from the loss of his wife and mate. Amber was still fairly young when the Vampire Wars took place, but she had been promised to Felix long before then. Their marriage had been postponed due to, well, due to a number of events.” His eyes shifted away from mine for a moment and I realized how engrossed I was in this information about Felix and Amber. It was like the best gossip ever! Oliver’s beautiful green eyes shifted back to mine. “Felix saved Amber’s life, a very long time ago. That’s when she was promised to him, by her uncle whose life Felix saved in the process of protecting Amber. During the Vampire Wars, Felix came to her rescue once again and he was to take over her family’s empire with her, but he walked away, again, postponing their engagement even further.”

“Are they still engaged?” I asked in utter fascination, my elbow on the console and my chin in my hand.

“It was never officially called off.” He paused for a moment and then continued. “You see, Felix, Levi, and our coven leader were a part of something big!” He was suddenly very enthusiastic and I cocked an eyebrow as he spoke. “The three of them were very close many years ago and for many years that followed, but they had to keep a low profile. This large part of history that they were involved in, well, Amber was a part of it too. But she was the only one of the four of them that was still in the public eye and for them to marry would bring Felix out of hiding and endanger Amber’s life as well as his own and those of his companions. So the three of them roamed, and once many years had passed and our leader had found a reason to rebuild his empire, they created Brookehaven together.”

My eyes had to have been super wide as I questioned some details, like what part of history they were involved in and whether or not Amber and Felix were
together
. He gave me a look that clearly stated he would not be divulging the history portion, but proceeded to detail why Levi and Felix were at odds.

“Felix has told me that their reason for going into hiding had caused the three of them a great deal of pain and loss, especially our leader. And after some time had passed, the three of them roamed the Earth together, disguising themselves as soldiers, commoners, and so on for years. This put a strain between Felix and Amber. It wasn’t until D, our leader, met his mate, that the three of them started making plans to settle. They decided to try to recreate what they’d once lost, or something close to it. D and Felix began working here in the States and Levi went back overseas to take his place next to his sister. With Levi’s return, Amber decided to follow Felix to the States. She thought that if Felix was ready to create some roots and stability for others that maybe he was ready to pick up where they’d left off.” He paused and glanced out the windshield before he continued.

“That was over twenty years ago. At first things between them went really well, the wedding was even put back into the works. Then tragedy stuck our leader again and all was placed on hold once more. Felix ordered their relationship be postponed once more. Levi was furious and that’s when Felix and Levi’s friendship became strained. Eventually, they stopped speaking altogether.”

I had so many questions but the one that popped out first was, “Do you think he loves her?” I thought about Hayden and the things I’d witnessed between her and Felix.

“I think at some point he did.” He shrugged, “Felix is hard to read.”

That was the only question I had the chance to ask because Oliver got a call a moment later and he rushed me home so that he could head off to work.

That evening was the first night of our new Mythology class, aka Paranormal Studies. Carter had made arrangements at work to take short shifts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I picked him up outside of Shakes. He stuffed the chicken costume into the trunk of my car and then we headed to our new class as the sun settled behind the distant mountains.

The class was being held in Professor McBaldy’s room which had been closed to students since the university reopened. There were only a few cars in the parking lot and I parked as close to the school as I could. We walked quickly and close to each other as we headed for the English building. I realized that the world made Carter just as uneasy as it made me.

Upon entering the classroom, I noticed it was a pretty big room for how few students there were. Probably about fifteen, give or take; I counted quickly as we took seats midway down the stadium seating classroom. I recognized a few of the students. There was one guy that I recalled from my calculus class and I recognized a couple of the others too, but couldn’t remember from where. But there was one guy who really surprised me. Jack,
our Chinese food, delivery boy
, was seated a few rows behind us and I waved to him as his eyes settled on us.

“Hey, Laney, Carter,” he called down over the seats.

“Hey,” Carter replied and I smiled at him.

“So, you guys too, huh?” Jack questioned, and we shared a quick look because neither of us knew how to reply to that question. We’d been told that we couldn’t speak to anyone about the paranormal world and here was a guy that we knew outside of that world flat out asking us about what we weren’t supposed to talk about.

Jack made his way down to us, taking a seat beside me, and he started talking. It would appear that Jack was a talker. I didn’t know this. Considering we only had a relationship with the guy over his uncle’s restaurant, why would I know this about him?

“So, what put you guys in here?” We exchanged another look, but Jack, without waiting for a response; kept talking and told us his story.

Apparently Jack had received a visit from a lady vampire, one that fancied virgin men. I saw Carter smirk when Jack shared this part of the story and I figured he was thankful he was safe, but I also knew he, like myself, found it amusing that Jack shared that specific detail. Anyway, Jack told us that his lady-vamp gave him some of her blood, and after he drank from her, they ended up with a blood-bond and got a little obsessed. He continued to tell us that Felix had to have a witch break the bond.

Even though the boy was a serious talker, I found his story quite interesting. I thought that, if you were bonded in any way, one of you had to die in order to break the bond. So this witch-breaking-the-bond-thing was news to me.

Jack continued to talk, about nothing of interest, and I was thankful, as was Carter, when a few minutes later Amber entered the room from a corridor behind the desk. A corridor that I didn’t recall being there before. She was dressed as elegantly as ever and had changed since I’d seen her earlier that afternoon. She still wore very high heels I was sure I’d break an ankle in and a dress that flowed around her perfect frame in a way that was rather distracting. She introduced herself as Professor SaVan and I found myself looking at her in a different light. I knew private things about her and before my mind could get lost in the conversation I’d had with Oliver she introduced her co-teacher.

Holy crap! It was our biology teacher, Professor Morgan!

Carter and I shot each other stunned looks. “Bring your items and follow me,” Professor Morgan announced, and
in a daze,
we grabbed our bags and followed a trail of students and Mr. Morgan into the corridor that both he and Amber had appeared from.

The corridor split off two ways and we followed Mr. Morgan through a door on the left and down a long concrete hallway and into a different classroom, all the while I could hear the faint click of Professor Amber’s heels not far behind us.

I was pretty sure we were under the school and I was thankful not to be claustrophobic. Unfortunately, Carter kind of was. I took his hand to try to calm him but the classroom wasn’t very big and it felt cramped with all of us crammed inside. Even I was beginning to feel trapped.

We took our seats in the little gray room. Each of us had a plastic chair and a small flat desk. Professor Amber loaded her arms with several large textbooks she’d pulled from a crate sitting atop a larger desk at the front of the room. The same desk Professor Morgan had taken it upon himself to leisurely lean against while he spoke to the class.

“At the start of each class I will meet you in the lecture room that we just came from. Each week we will study a new topic and Professor SaVan and I will do our best to have a guest speaker or specimen from that week’s topic. I will also issue a quiz on the current topic at the start of each topic to test your knowledge before we begin, and you will also be tested on every subject at the end of each topic to see what you have retained.”

Professor Amber began passing out the books loaded in her arms, placing one face down on each desk before returning to the front for another armload; this time she gathered a stack of composition notebooks and began passing them out as Mr. Morgan continued.