Tainted Blood (6 page)

I grabbed my purse, my cell phone, and my keys and headed to my car.

As I drove toward my destination, I searched through the radio stations looking for a good song to distract my thoughts. Unfortunately, it seemed that every DJ on the air appeared to be in the mood for chatting rather than playing music, so I gave up and focused on the drive.

A few minutes later I pulled up in front of the iron gates of the cemetery with a nervous, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I hadn’t been there since my aunt was lowered into the ground
, and at
the moment, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to force myself out of my car to go through those big, looming gates.

I checked my phone, still nothing from Oliver, or anyone else. I was torn between being pissed about Oliver’s weird fit over breakfast and a feeling of worry that was beginning to creep up inside of me. I texted him once again then shoved my cell into my back pocket as I stepped out of my car. With a sigh I locked my car and headed for the gloomy iron gates of the city cemetery.

I hugged myself for warmth and wished I’d brought a sweatshirt as I walked the path to my aunt’s plot. I found it quicker than I thought I would, but I stood at a distance, staring in surprise at the elaborate headstone that now stood at the top of her resting place. There, under a magnificent magnolia tree stood a very large marble headstone. The marble was white with a bit of gray swirling through it and elegantly carved on the face of the stone it read:

Lillian Jean Hallisey.

Loving Aunt, Daughter, Sister, and Friend.

She will be missed.

At the bottom were the dates in which she had lived.

Without knowing it, I had made my way to the headstone and was standing directly in front of it. Tears stung my eyes as a cool breeze picked up, blowing loose fall leaves across the cemetery floor and rustling the branches above. I hugged myself tighter and quickly scanned the cemetery before having a seat on the new patch of grass that had been placed over Lilly’s grave. I wanted to say so much to her. But what I wanted more than anything was to be heard by her and to hear her in return.

I traced the letters of the word aunt on her headstone with my finger and whispered, “I miss you so much.” I let my hand drop, and I began picking at the freshly planted grass. I stared at my hands as my fingers picked at the blades, then I just let it all pour out.

I started talking and telling Lilly everything. I told her that Kiera and Carter were engaged and my view on the whole thing. I told her about her parents coming to her funeral, about school, about my stupid drunken night with Carter and how there was still so much I didn’t remember about that night and wasn’t sure I wanted to remember. I told her about everything that had happened in the last couple of months that I would’ve never told her in real life.
After
sitting there for who knows how long and picking myself a pretty good sized hole in the patch of grass, I finally looked up at my aunt’s headstone and said, “Well, that’s pretty much it, except…well, my boyfriend is a vampire.” Then I took a deep breath and exhaled. She knew everything, and I felt…relieved.

“How do you think she’d take hearing that?” I yelped and jumped back when I heard the voice. The owner of the voice was leaning casually against the magnolia tree right near Lilly’s headstone. He was wearing dark sunglasses and a black hoodie. I recognized him instantly, and he wasn’t who I’d expected him to be. He was that teenage boy that I had seen off in the distance at Lilly’s funeral. The one Felix followed into the brush. I wasn’t afraid. I remembered Oliver telling me the boy wasn’t a threat, and I also felt that same comforting feeling that I had felt when I’d seen him the first time.

Maybe that was his vampire superpower. Maybe he had the special power to lure people into a false sense of security. And maybe he’d fooled everyone with that power. Maybe I should’ve been afraid, but I wasn’t. Not even a little. Not even after my current mental rant.

There was a bench, one of those fancy ones, placed beside the tree. It was made from the same marble as Lilly’s headstone, and I wondered if Felix had had it put there. I watched him very closely as he took a seat on the bench. Superpower or not, I told myself to be wary. I wasn’t going to take my chances. But as I watched him—watched the way he moved, the way he carried himself—there was this elusive flare of recognition that I just couldn’t place…

He sat on the bench, this mysteriously familiar boy. He leaned forward with his hands clasped and his elbows on his knees, and he said, “In the future, you might want to see whose company you are in before you reveal such information. Someone might think you’re a bit…batty.” Then he smiled the sweetest, most innocent smile I’d ever seen.

I was at a loss for words. He’d taken me by surprise, and he was clearly a vampire with special abilities, but again, I wasn’t afraid, but I also didn’t know what to say.

We sat there in silence while I stared at him for way too long when he finally said, “Delaney, right?” I nodded. I wasn’t surprised he knew my name. After all, he did know my boyfriend and Felix. “I’m Phen.” He reached out his hand, and I sat forward on my knees to shake it.

“Phen?” was what I was finally able to say as I released his cool hand and sat back on my patch of grass over my aunt.

“Yeah, it’s short for Phoenix.”

“Cool name.”

“Thanks,” he said with a hint of that same sweet smile.

I was feeling like a real conversational mastermind with my two spectacular responses and the fact that my brain couldn’t seem to register what to say or do next. So we sat there in silence once more, and I began picking at the hole I had created in the grass, making it bigger.

I was somewhat uncomfortable. This guy was a complete stranger but he seemed so… I don’t know. There was something, and I couldn’t place it. And then there was that feeling of comfort he exuded. I enjoyed that feeling and wondered if he always felt this way or if the reason he was staying was because he only felt it when he was near others. I also wondered if I was doomed to be his next snack, but quickly brushed the thought away. Oliver had said he was not a threat… But had he meant to me or to him?

“So,” I finally said, “you know somebody here?” I made a small gesture to indicate that I was referring the cemetery.

“Not really,” he replied.

I looked up at him as he shifted and sat back against the tree with his long legs stretched out in front of him. “Then what are you doing here?”

“Same as you, I suppose. Paying my respects.”

“But you don’t know anybody here.”

He shrugged and smiled. “It’s quiet here.”

That it was. There still didn’t seem to be another soul in sight, and I questioned if that should concern me, but any concern I did feel quickly slipped away. “So,” I began again, “you’re a vampire.”

My statement didn’t seem to faze him, and he responded a moment later. “Half vampire. I’m a dhampir.”

I looked at him questioningly. It was a word I’d never heard before.

He sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees again. “You don’t know what a dhampir is?”

I shook my head.

He reached down and picked a dry leaf up off of the ground and began picking it apart into tiny pieces as he explained. “A dhampir is the offspring of a vampire and a human.”

This meant Hayden was also one of these dhampir. Phen smiled, maybe slightly uncomfortable since I was staring at him, but something in that smile was all too familiar. Yet, I still couldn’t place it…

I studied him as he tore the leaf apart. Maybe it was that I’d seen him once before, or maybe it was that his dark hair and pale skin were something I was beginning to realize was a common trait around here, or maybe if he’d take his glasses off I’d know.

“Have we met before?” I asked, completely forgetting that I wanted to ask more about dhampirs.

He dropped the remains of the leaf and leaned back against the tree again, resting his hands behind his head. “I don’t remember,” he said with a hint of a smile.

“You don’t remember?” I was sure my eyebrow was arched.

“Nope. I do not remember meeting you before right now,” he said with a smile that possibly had a hint of teasing to it.

I eyed him curiously. I was about to question him more and try to get him to take his sunglasses off when his attention suddenly shot past me toward the gates of the cemetery. I sat up straight and followed his stare.

“I should be going,” he said, and I snapped my attention back to him. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt into place. “It was a pleasure talking to you.” I looked up at him as he stood.

“You too,” I responded, still skeptical of his responses to us having met previously. But I was also nervous as to why he was taking off so quickly. I wondered if I should be concerned.

“I hope we can do it again sometime,” he added with another smile.

“Sure,” I responded, somewhat apprehensively.

He looked down at me, and even though I couldn’t see his eyes through his dark sunglasses I knew they were on me. “Meet me here the day after tomorrow. At ten o’clock,” he said in a rush.

I was taken a little by surprise. “Why?”

He smiled again, that sweet innocent smile. “Because, it’s only fair. I met you here for your birthday now you meet me here for mine.”

Okay, now I was totally taken aback. “How-how did you know it’s my birthday?”

His stare shot past me toward the gates again and I heard the sound of car doors closing. “That doesn’t matter right now. Just please meet me here?” His smile was gone, and there was something almost pleading and even desperate in his tone.

I heard voices drawing closer, and Phen seemed to be growing even more uneasy. “I, uh, I don’t know…”

“Please, Delaney. It’s my birthday.” He brought out that smile again, and I caved.

“Okay.”

“Great! I’ll see you here, Saturday morning, at ten.” Then he shoved his hands in his jean pockets, hunched his shoulders forward and headed off across the cemetery toward the overgrowth I’d seen him disappear behind in the past, and again, I noticed that there was something strangely familiar about the way he moved.

The voices drew closer, and I recognized them. Carter and Felix were in sight of my aunt’s plot just as Phen was disappearing behind the bushes. Felix caught sight of him, and
I
don’t really know why or how I knew, but Phen was going to be in trouble. Something about Felix, something he gave off maybe, told me that he’d be having a talk to someone, possibly Phen, about talking to me at the cemetery. I shrugged it off. I’d done nothing wrong. I’d been in enough hot water lately and that was a reminder of why I couldn’t meet Phen back at the cemetery for his birthday.
Poor kid.

“Hey, Laney!” Carter called. “We’ve been looking for you.”

“Well, you found me.” I got up off of the grass and brushed off my jeans as they reached me.

“I know! I’m like some super-detective-vamp-were! It’s freakin’ awesome!” Carter grinned goofily and his scar wrinkled over his eye. It had faded quite a bit but it was still clearly noticeable. “It was my idea to look for you here.”

“Yeah, you’re like a super genius,” I said sarcastically.

“Ah, you’re just jealous of my mad skill,” he said, is goofy smile spreading wider.

“You are such a dork,” I said with a laugh.

“Enough messing around you two,” Felix cut in. Then he directed his attention to me. “Who was that?”

“Some vampire named Phen,” I answered.

Felix lifted his glasses so that his sky blue eyes met mine. “You stay away from him, okay?” I nodded, a bit troubled by his tone. “You two head back,” he said to us. “I have something I need to take care of.” Then he headed off in the direction where I’d seen Phen disappear. See, I knew he was going to be in trouble. I was sure I’d be getting a talking to at some point, also.

I started heading toward the gates but Carter stopped me. “Wait, Laney. I’ve got something I think you should open here.”

He pulled the present and the card that we had found in Lilly’s bedroom from behind his back. I felt an instant lump form in my throat and a knot in my gut. I took the gift from him, my eyes blurring with tears. I held it for a moment, running the silver fabric of the bow between my fingers, before I had enough nerve to tear the shiny aqua paper free.

Inside I found a handmade purse. It was a cinch bag, or rather a cinch purse. It was just big enough for my essentials. It was made out of silky aqua fabric with turquoise swirls. The inside lining was a sparkly silver and the top of the bag was lined with dangling, clear beads. There was a band of silver ribbon around the middle where it cinched with thin, gray satin cord. It had a thicker gray cord for a strap.

I ran my fingers over the satiny fabric.
She made this for me
. It would be the last thing she would ever make for me. I choked back a sob, and Carter rubbed my arm. I held the purse close to my face and breathed. It smelled like her. It was like she’d sealed her scent into the fabric.

The card was small, and I opened it last, once I wiped away some tears that had been threatening to fall away and was able to see through somewhat unblurred vision. There was a picture of wildflowers on the front of the card, and it had been blank until Lilly had filled it in. Tears filled my eyes again and spilled over, streaking my face as I read the card.