Dark Secrets (34 page)

At lunch, we set the
date for the benefit concert and finished making ticket signs—with
the help of the Art students. Then, Emily went as far as to ask
that the performers meet after school for further rehearsals. And
we actually agreed.

Everything for the
concert was falling in to place, while for me, everything was
falling apart. Even watching Alana and Ryan cheerfully walk
everywhere
together, and
whenever a teacher wasn’t looking, hold hands or kiss, I actually
felt the hollow pit of jealousy; something I’d never felt before.
They were so normal, and I was beginning to think, to my dismay,
that David was not.

“
Em?” I said,
lowering my voice so Dad wouldn’t growl at me for talking in class
again.

“
Mm?” She kept her
eyes on him.

“
Hypothetical
question.”

“
Oh, I love this
game.”

I smiled. “If you
loved someone, more than anything, what would be the only thing
that could make you leave them?”

“
Hm.” She watched the
projection screen as Dad changed the image, and I caught one or two
words of his lecture about some religious topic—something to do
with vampire myth. “Death, I suppose. I’d only leave if they could
either die or get really hurt by my being with them.”

I nodded to myself.
“What if you were a criminal and you didn’t want them to
know?”

She shook her head,
leaning on her hand. “Nah, I’d tell them; if they loved me, they
wouldn’t care.”

“
What if your
horrible truth was that you went from place to place, making people
love you, then leaving them—for the fun of it.”

“
Then it wouldn’t be
real love, so it wouldn’t count.”

My heart wriggled down
into my diaphragm.

“
Can I ask
you
a hypothetical question?” Emily said, lowering her voice when
Dad gave us a warning glare.

“
Sure.” I tried not
to switch off; too many times she’d said things and I had to
pretend I’d been paying attention. But I just felt like crying—a
feeling so deep I had to sit straight and take a few shallow
breaths. I knew only too well that if David thought he would be
hurting me by staying, then he would absolutely leave and not come
back. And I loved him for that as much as I hated him for
it.

“
Ara?” Emily elbowed
me. “What do you think?”

Oh
crud
. “Um—”

“
Ara and Emily!” Dad
said, saving the day.

“
Sorry, sir.” Emily
winced.

“
Ask me again later,”
I said, leaning closer.

She nodded and we
tuned in to Dad’s lecture; “So,” he continued, “When God created
Adam, he also created who?” He pointed his pen to the back of the
room.

“
Eve.”

“
In some versions of
the story, yes, that’s true. But it’s also told that God first
created a woman named Lilith. Now, she has many names in different
cultures: Lilith, Kali, Satrina. She’s also known as The Snake, The
Screeching Owl—” I fazed out when I smelled something very similar
to David’s orange-chocolate cologne; I looked around, but he wasn’t
in the room.

“
So, unlike her
sister Eve, Lilith was not created from a part of Adam. She was
created as his equal. However, Adam would not treat her as such. He
tried to force her to submit to him as he pleased, and in a stand
for her own rights, Lilith left the Garden of Eden.”

“
Sweet, world’s first
feminist,” one of the football jocks snickered.

“
I
have to admit,” I whispered to Em, “this
is
getting kind of
interesting.”

“
Very sharp, Mr
Grady.” Dad paced the floor, gesturing with his hands as he spoke.
“So, at a loss now, God decided to create another woman for Adam.
But this time, she would be bound to Adam by the flesh.” Dad
stopped and looked around. “Who knows how he did that?”

“
She was created from
one of Adam’s ribs or something, right?” the paper cannon kid next
to me said.

“
That’s right. And
because she was bound to him she couldn’t…?” Dad pointed around the
room, stopping on Emily.

“
She couldn’t just
leave?”

“
Exactly. Lilith, on
the other hand, believed Eve was made to be naïve—that God had not
given her the knowledge of herself. Some say Lilith acted as the
snake that conned Eve into tasting the Forbidden Fruit, also known
as the—?”

“
Fruit of Knowledge.”
Emily grinned, dropping her raised hand.

“
That’s right. Ten
points to the students paying attention down the front here—” Dad
grinned and scribbled only five lines on the top right corner of
the board. “And deduct five, for my daughter, who hasn’t heard a
word we’ve been saying.” The whole class erupted into a murmur of
giggles; I sunk down in my seat—staring daggers at my
father.

“
Now, as the story
continues, Lilith, who was created in God’s exact likeness, lived
outside the Garden of Eden. If we jump forward in the story a
little—” he looked at his watch, “—you’ll remember from our studies
in religion last year that those in God’s likeness have the same
power as the Almighty—which included immortality.

“
You’ll find that, in
many cases throughout history, Lilith was said to be the Goddess of
Seduction and believed to have power over men. In fact,” Dad said,
raising his index finger, “in many cases, when men were unfaithful,
they proclaimed it to have been an act of seduction by the Goddess,
and not an act of sin. Sounds like the easy way out if you ask me.”
He melodramatically loosened his tie.

The class laughed—but
not me; I was still mad at him for singling me out.

“
Wasn’t she also said
to be a demon, which ate small children?” a student
asked.

“
Yes, Grace.” Dad
raised a brow. “That’s exactly right. There are many different
myths surrounding Lilith. If anyone here knows the story of Cain
and Abel, you’ll know that Cain murdered his own brother and was
punished by God—banished and cursed for eternity with a thirst for
blood. Then, he fell in love with the Goddess, Lilith.” Dad smiled
at the class. “Can anyone see where I’m going with this?” He looked
around; no one answered.

I shrugged when he
looked at me. How would I know?

“
Okay, well, it’s
told that Lilith and Cain had a child—an immortal, who inherited
his father’s thirst for blood. The world’s first myth about…?” He
waited, his brow arched, cheeks high.

“
Vampires,” said a
voice from the doorway.

Quiet murmurs spread
over the class as everyone turned to look at the boy leaning on the
doorframe with his hands in his pockets.

“
Very good, David,
and you’re not even one of my students. And so—” Dad said as he
walked over and took a note from David’s hand, “—you can see that
even legends of the most vile of creatures may have some religious
origin.”

David looked at me and
smiled. It was not returned.

“
Ara?” Dad called,
still reading the note.

I sat up a little and
stared at David, my mind filling with questions. “Yes?”

“
Go with David,
please?”

All eyes in the class
fell on me; I stood up slowly, jammed my books and pens into my
bag, then shrugged at Emily as I sauntered past, slipping out the
classroom door with David behind me.

“
What did you say to
my dad?”

He started walking. “I
told him I needed to rehearse with you—for the benefit
concert.”

“
And he bought it?” I
asked, the surprise in my voice a little too obvious.

He just
laughed.

“
Did you talk to your
uncle?”

“
Yes.”

“
And?”

“
And—” His shoulders
dropped. “I still have to leave, but—”

“
But
what?”

“
But he’s granted me,
provisionally, the original amount of time I had left.”

“
How
long?”

His tongue moved
between his lips for a second before he pressed them together. “I’m
not sure. But, you can count on me being gone by
winter.”

Dread made my arms
heavy. “Then there’s no need for us to see each other
anymore.”

“
Oh, no you don’t.”
He grabbed my wrist. “You’re coming with me, whether you like it or
not.”

“
Where?”

“
Somewhere
else.”

“
Why?”

He maintained his
tight grip. “If I have to leave in a few months, I won’t waste this
time we have left; there are some things I want to do with you,
Ara-Rose, and I won’t let the fear I might hurt you stop me from
loving you the way I’ve needed to for so long.”

“
Hurt me?” The bridge
of my nose crinkled. “Why would you hurt me?”

“
Just—” He pulled me
along by the arm. “Come on. We need to go before we get caught
ditching.”

“
No, David.” I
twisted my wrist around in his grip and yanked it out through the
break in his thumb and forefinger, then stood fast—folding my arms
like a spoiled child. “Not until you tell me where we’re
going.”

“
You stubborn little
thing,” he said quickly, taking one long stride in my direction,
then arched his body downward as he swept me off the floor, into
his arms.

“
Whoa.” I pinned my
dress under my legs, nudging his chest with my elbow. “Put me down.
This is kidnapping.”

“
No, it’s not,” he
stated with a smile, keeping his eyes on the path ahead. “It’s a
rescue.”

“
Rescue?” I scoffed.
“I don’t need to be rescued.”

He stopped walking and
looked down at me; I shrank into his arms a little. “The fair
maiden who is locked in the darkest tower, guarded by the cruellest
beast, never believes herself to be in danger; only suffering
sorrows untold and a heart untouched.”

“
But I’m not in a
tower.”

“
You will be if you
don’t come quietly.”

I huffed; he just
looked forward and smiled to himself, then stuffed me in his car
and drove away with me.

“
Okay, Prince
Charming.” I buckled my seatbelt. “Fess up. Where’re you taking
me?”

“
The
lake.”

“
Why?”

He stared
ahead.

“
David.
Why?”

“
Not
telling.”

“
Why?”

“
Because you need to
learn to control your moods, Ara, without getting your own way
first.”

My eyes narrowed and
I tightened my crossed arms. “You’re not my dad. I don’t
need
you
to teach
me a lesson.”

“
Someone has to.” He
held back a wry smile.

I huffed, bit my teeth
together and looked out the window.

When David took the
final turn onto the long stretch of tree-covered road, my arms
loosened, my lungs drawing the fresh pine scent of evergreens and
the cinnamon flavour of the approaching autumn. That smell was kind
of comforting to me now—like the feeling you get when you finally
come home after a really bad day.

We pulled over in the
usual spot, then walked in total silence until my temper became a
physical sting in my chest. “Why are you walking so
fast?”

He ignored me,
continuing on his path, gliding effortlessly over the rocks and
twigs—as if he were walking an inch above the forest floor, like a
ghost. Meanwhile, I stumbled and slid on the bark-covered slopes,
brushing the side of my leg off constantly, then standing back
up—trying to look as graceful as David.

Infuriation burned
every drop of blood in my body. “Why are you ignoring
me?”

“
Because you haven’t
calmed down yet.”

I pretty much walked
with my teeth clenched the whole time after that. When we came to
the rock where we usually sat, David shook his head and continued
on a path we’d never walked down before.

“
Now
where are we going?” I whined,
dropping my arms to my sides. “I’m tired and it’s hot. I don’t
wanna walk anymore.”

He continued
ahead—tall and sleek, never looking back.

Argh
! I felt like throwing a rock at
his head.

David spun around
then, his eyes alight with a humoured glint. “Forget to have lunch,
did we?”

“
None of your
business.”

“
Actually, it is, because
I’m
the one that has to put up with your
moods.”

“
I’m not moody.” But
I knew that was a lie, and as I looked away from the irritation in
his stern eyes, my breath stopped around a dose of crushing
anxiety; his words “put up with your moods” resonating with every
belief I had that he would one day get sick of me.