Dark Secrets (48 page)

“
You could always
talk to me,” she suggested.

“
Thanks, Em. But I
think I just need some time to sort my head out.”

“
And running helps
with that?” She tried not to laugh.

“
Uh, well, it used
to.” I sat back, leaning on my hands. “I used to run with Mike
every day. It was like, even running with him, even talking while
we did, I always came back feeling like I’d left my problems
behind.”

“
How’s that working
out on this run?”

“
Not so good.” I laughed, then stopped. I knew Emily was
trying to get me to open up. She was using the exact same tactics
as Vicki, without even realising it. “We had this band of seagulls
on the corner of my street,” I said to divert the conversation.
“Whenever we’d run that course, the damn things’d barely scatter a
few feet in the air to get out of the way. It was really annoying.
I always promised myself I was gonna put my foot right up their
butts if they didn’t move.” I rested my elbows on my knees, my chin
on my palm. “Mike called them
gullsters
…instead of
gangsters.”

“
You didn’t, though?
Did you? Kick them?” Emily looked horrified.

Leaning back quickly,
I said, “No! No way. Mike would, though.” I stared ahead then. “He
never had any problems kicking butt. I guess that’s why he’s so
suited to the Force.”

“
The
police?”

“
Yeah. He’s joining
the…kind of like, SWAT unit.”

“
Really?” Emily
grinned. “That is super sexy.”

“
I guess.” I breathed
out slowly. “It’s dangerous, though.”

“
You worry about
him?” she asked.

Pressing my lips
together, I slowly shrugged. I actually worried a lot. “I just miss
him.”

“
So, why’d you decide
to move away from your real mom?”

Gulp
. “Uh, to be with my
dad.”

Emily nodded. “Do you
like it here?”

After a deep breath, I
looked down at the mildly busy street, then tilted my face into the
warming sun as it melted the early-morning chill from my cheeks.
“It’s not like home. It’s not hot and dry, and there’s no ocean in
the distance, no black cockatoos on the lampposts, but—”

“
But you still like
it?”

“
Yeah. I think I
actually love it.”

“
Well, good—” she
nudged me with her elbow, “—because you’re starting to grow on us,
Ara. Everyone was really disappointed you weren’t there last
night—at Betty’s.”

“
Yeah.” I smiled
sheepishly and looked down at my untied shoelace, dangling, wet and
muddy, from my sneaker. “I wasn’t feeling well.”

“
I
know. I saw the whole
save me, David, save
me
thing—” she held her forearm to her
brow, pretending to fall backward a little, then dropped her hand,
smiling. “He was really worried about you, you
know?”

“
I know.”

“
We all
were.”

“
I know. I’m sorry.
It’s just because I didn’t eat.”

“
Yeah, Mr Thompson
told me.”

“
I know. He said you
called last night.”

“
Yeah.” She looked up
then as a car pulled into Spencer’s driveway. “Oh, I gotta go. My
mom’s here.”

I stood up and dusted
the loose pebbles of asphalt from my shorts. “Okay, Em. I’ll see ya
later.”

“
Are you coming to
school today?” she asked.

“
Nah, Dad’ll give me
the day off after what happened yesterday.”

“
Okay, well, don’t be
a stranger.” She walked backward toward the burgundy
car.

I waved and turned
toward home, then walked the rest of the street and landed, in a
huffing mess, on the porch step near Vicki’s grey cat. “Hey,
Skitz.”

He ducked low,
growling at me.

“
What?” I leaned
forward, the creaky step dipping under my weight as I reached for
the cat. But I drew my hand back when his growl intensified, moving
deeper to the back of his throat, his tail lashing about. Then I
noticed something grey and wriggly between his paws, and it wasn’t
his fat belly coming to life, either. It was a field
mouse.

“
Hey, way to go,
Skitz. Good little hunter, aren’t ya?”

He scoured the
scene—probably making sure it was safe to unveil his prey—then
tossed the mouse into the air and caught it in his teeth, pausing
to scrutinize me.

“
Gross.” Time to go
inside. I stood up quickly, but my heel shattered the step under my
foot—dragging my shin through before my knee smashed into the edge
of the top step, sending me forward onto my hands. Without
thinking, I rolled over and pulled my leg free from the wooden
cage, scraping the flesh back the other way, making it sting as a
mix of blood and sweat smeared into the shredded skin.

“
Ow! Ow! Ow!” I
hugged my knee, watching a purple line appear where it had cracked
the upper step.

Not bothering to see
if I was okay, Skittles bolted off with his catch of the day.
“Traitor!” I yelled, blinking back tears.

“
Ara? Are you okay,
dear?” I jumped a little as the front door swung open, disturbing
the quiet. “What happened?”

“
Had a fight with the
porch step—” I took a breath through my teeth, rocking back and
forth. “Step won.”

Vicki tilted her head
and sighed. “I told Greg to fix that
weeks
ago. I’ll go get the first aid
kit.” She ran inside, leaving the front door open, and quickly came
back to sit beside me on the remains of the once creaky bottom
step. “What were you doing out here anyway, Ara? It’s very
early.”

I winced as she
smoothed some sterile solution down the minced skin on my shin. “I
went jogging.”

She stopped for a
second. “I didn’t know you were jogging again. That’s really good
to hear.” She sounded pleased—with
herself
.

“
Yeah. Guess it is.”
Except, it wasn’t a sign of my recovery, but more of my isolation
and desperate need to figure my own head out.

“
Did you see Skittles
out here, by any chance? I thought I heard his bell. He has a vet
appointment this morning and I want to bathe him before we go.” She
grinned.

“
Yeah, well, he’ll
need one now,” I said.

“
Why?” She covered
the cut with some gauze and tape.

“
He
caught himself a nice,
juicy
mouse,” I probed, watching her face for disgust.
It licked her expression without any further prompting. Sam would
definitely be bathing Skittles now. Victory move. I one-upped him
and he wouldn’t even know it was me.

“
Why would you let
him do that, Ara? You know how I feel about that.”

“
Why?” I scoffed. “Vicki, he’s a cat—they kill mice. It’s what
they’re supposed to do.” And as soon as I said it, everything
slowed down around me. The cat killed. I praised him for it. I all
but patted his head not more than two minutes ago. But I’d never
punished him. And yet, for some reason, I’d been punishing David
for doing exactly the same thing, in the only way I knew how; by
denying him my heart. Deep down, the real truth I didn’t want to
face was not that he was a vampire, but that, like he said, if I
loved him, then there must be something wrong with me. But I loved
him anyway—for who he was, vampirism aside. Mouse catching aside.
David wouldn’t kill if it weren’t necessary. He was a good, kind
person, but
also
a vampire. It wasn’t the same thing.

Vicki waved her hand
in front of my face. “Ara, are you all right, dear?”

Blinking, I snapped
out of my trance. “Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

“
Well, come on, we’ll
go inside and yell at Dad for not fixing that step.” She took my
hand and helped me to stand.

“
Actually, Vicki, I
think I’ll just go sit on the swing for a bit.”

“
Okay.” She frowned,
then smiled. “Well, I’ll be inside if you need to talk.”

“
Oh, um—” I almost
laughed, “—thanks, Vicki.”

She nodded and walked
back up the stairs. When the front door closed, my smile dropped. I
stumbled clumsily over the hedge fence at the side of the house and
into the backyard. Then, as I righted myself and looked up—met with
the eyes of a vampire. “David?”

Perfect as always, he
leaned casually against the oak tree, with one hand in his pocket
and a very sexy smile across his lips. “Hello Ara,” his tone seemed
to sing the words.

“
What’re you doing
here?”

David looked down at
his feet as he shuffled up, very human-like, from his lean against
the trunk. I loved it when he looked human. “Can we talk?” He
offered his hand.

“
I, uh—” I looked at
his long, outstretched fingers. “I don’t think that’s a good
idea.”

“
Oh.” He dropped his
hand. “Okay…I’ll go then.”

“
No. I—” I stepped
forward, reaching for him. “I don’t want you to leave. It’s just—”
I smiled sheepishly down at my bleeding leg.

His eyes followed
mine, his brow pinching when he saw the gauze. “What
happened?”

I flopped down on the
ground in an exhausted heap, my legs and arms sprawled out to the
sides. “Apparently I’m heavier than I used to be.”

He laughed, gently
bending my sore leg at the knee as he squatted down. I tensed a
little, rolling up at the waist to watch him rest a sweet kiss to
the purple bruise. “You will never have to be afraid of me,
Ara.”

“
But you’re a
vamp—”

“
Yes.” He extended
his hand and helped me to sit up. “And it would take a lot more
than a line of blood across your skin to make me hurt
you.”

“
So, it doesn’t
bother you—the blood?”

“
No.” He sat down
across from me.

“
Then, it doesn’t
make you want to bi—”

“
Shh.” He placed his
finger to my lip and nodded toward something behind me.

I stiffened. “What is
it?”

“
Vicki.” He looked
back at me. “She’s watching us from the laundry.”

“
Well…what’s she doing in there—just
watching
us?”

“
No.” David’s intense
stare softened to a smile. “She’s bathing a cat, I
believe.”

“
What?” I spun around to see her struggling with something in
the sink—something smudgy and dark-grey—almost slimy, with
claw-ending tendrils thrashing out of the tub every few seconds.
“Why is
she
bathing the cat?”

“
I assure you, I have
no idea.”

I turned back,
folding my arms, probably wearing a scowl, too. “It was a
rhetorical question. Sam was supposed to be doing it—as payback
for…well…never mind.” I didn’t want to tell him I mucked around
with my little brother like a seven-year-old. “Those deep scratches
were meant to be for
him
.”

David laughed.
“Revenge will not bring satisfaction, Ara.”

“
Says you,” I
scoffed, biting my teeth together.

“
If you want to get
back at Sam for hitting you with a towel—”

“
How do you know
about that?”

David only smiled,
ignoring that question. “You might try stashing dirty cups in his
room for Vicki to find, then perhaps she will punish him with the
dishes for the next month.”

I grinned—a wicked
grin. “You
are
evil, aren’t you?”

“
When it comes to
little brothers, yes, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

“
So, um…” I checked
behind me, then whispered, “Can we go somewhere? Talk?”

“
Would you like to
change first?” David grinned, nodding toward my shorts and zip-up
jacket, but stared just a little too long at the space right below
my navel.

If only I knew what he
was thinking then, when he looked at me that way.

“
Inappropriate
things, Ara,” said the annoying mind reader.

“
Like
what?”

His lips moved,
twitching, while his smiling eyes changed shape several times. “Go
get changed. I’ll meet you in the car.”

“
But—” I
said, stopping when my words struck an empty yard. “Damn it,
David.” I stood up, dusted myself off and went to get
changed.

Chapter
Eighteen

The warm air of the
fading summer skimmed across the glassy surface of the lake,
filling my lungs with the scent of grass and clay. “I never thought
I’d see this place again.”

“
Why would you think
that?” David smiled, already laid out on the picnic rug.

“
Well, because,
obviously, this place has no hold for me without you in
it.”