Dark Secrets (64 page)

“
I never thought of
it that way.” He looked down at the steering wheel. “I’m sorry,
Ara. I must have misinterpreted your thoughts yesterday when we
talked. I’ll…I’ll take the dress back.”

“
No. Don’t do that.” I choked on my own words. “Just...in
future, even if my thoughts indicate the opposite, listen to me
when I
say
no.”

He nodded. “So, you’ll
wear the dress?”

“
David, of course
I’ll wear the dress. I love the dress.”

“
I know you
do.”

“
I know you know I
do.” And all the irritation over the dress evaporated with one
flash of his turned lip and irresistibly cute dimples, making the
sun rise again in my world. “Thank you, by the way.”

“
For
what?”

“
The other night,
when you closed my window. It rained and I would’ve been very cold
if you—” My words dissipated with a gasp of air; I projected
forward, nearly striking the dash as the car screeched to a halt in
the middle of the road. “David! What the hell!” I pried my fingers
from their grip of fear on the seat, then slapped him hard—not hard
enough, though. He didn’t even flinch.

“
When was this, Ara?
Which night are you talking about?”

“
Friday. Why?” I
rubbed at my now throbbing hand.

“
Tell me exactly what
you think I did.” He grabbed my face, turning it from one side to
the other, then let out a breath.

“
Umm, you closed my
window.” I pushed his hand off my face. “Why the sudden
freak-out?”

After a moment of
stillness, he looked over his shoulder, then back at the dash.
“Because, Ara, I
never
close your window.”

My blood ran
cold.

“
I’m pretty sure my
brother came to visit you.”

“
What? How do you
know my dad didn’t close it?”

David reluctantly
turned his gaze to me. “The scent.”

“
The
scent?”

“
Yes. It’s nearly
exactly the same as mine, only, I should’ve followed my gut when I
realised it was on things I never touch—things I’ve never been
near.”

“
Are you saying there was some strange vampire in my room?
While I was sleeping? Oh my God.” I shook my hands around, taking
short breaths.
“I think I’m
hyperventilating.”

“
It’s okay, Ara.
Really. He would never hurt you—you have nothing to worry about.”
He placed a calming hand to my shoulder.

I didn’t feel
convinced.

“
He’s like me, my
love—in so many ways,” he said, rubbing my back. “He’s a good guy.
He was just curious about you.”

“
Then why did he
sneak into my room? What is it with you Knight boys?”

“
It’s my fault. I
wouldn’t let him meet you.”

“
Why?”

“
Because my personal
life is not his business.”

“
How is it not? He’s your
brother
.”

He looked forward,
almost pouting. “You’re starting to sound like my
uncle.”

I reached across and
touched his arm. “David?”

He looked at me
again.

“
I don’t see what the
big deal is? Why didn’t you just let him meet me? It would’ve saved
all this…” I motioned to us, stopped dead in the middle of the
desolate road. “Drama.”

“
He doesn’t fit into
your world as well as I do—anymore.” David wrapped his fingers over
his thumb, cracking it absentmindedly. “I was afraid he might scare
you.”

“
Scare
me?”

“
Yes.” He smiled into
his lap, tossing a sideways glance at me after. “He can come across
as a little...malevolent.”

“
And you tell me not
to worry that he was in my room? With me? Alone?”

“
Yes.”

“
David!”

“
I'm
sorry.”

“
How do you know he
didn't do anything…unsavoury? I mean, touch me, breathe on me—look
at me?”

“
I know my brother.
He’s—for all his faults, violence and depravity are not among them.
He wouldn’t do anything…dishonourable to you.”

“
Then why did you
study me like that?”

“
Involuntary
reaction.” He shrugged; he looked so human when he did that. “It
was silly of me. If he’d bitten you, you’d already be a
vampire.”

“
Do you really think
he’d have done that?”

He rubbed his chin. “I
don't know. I guess I was just worried he might.”

“
Why? Isn't it
against the law?”

“
Yes, but, I—” His gaze drifted into the world of nothing,
coming back with a trace of alarm. “If you ever see me or speak to
me and you feel something is slightly off, just—just ask me
something only
I’d
know, and don't think about the answer.”

“
Why? Can he read
minds, too?”

“
Yes. And not just
human minds, either.”

“
What, like, dogs and
cats?”

“
And
vampires.”

“
Really?”

“
Yes.”

I held back the urge
to laugh. “So, he’s more talented than you. I bet that
sucks.”

He brushed my hair
from my face and stared at me intently, a hint of a smile returning
to one corner of his mouth. “What would suck is having your
fourteen-year-old brother inherit the height in the family, while
you were left…short.”

“
Hey! I am not
short.”

He laughed and turned
back to the steering wheel. “Yes, you are.”

“
Well, you make up in
annoyance what I lack in height.” I folded my arms. “So, can I meet
him?”

“
Who,
Jason?”

“
Yeah.”

“
No,” he answered
swiftly.

“
Why?”

“
There’s no need—he
was obviously satisfied.”

“
Er! That’s so
creepy.” I dusted myself off as if I’d walked through an empty
web.

“
I’m sorry, Ara. I’ll
talk to him, okay?”

I swiped my hair from
my face, looking out the window. “You better.”

David put the car in
gear and we pulled away again, gaining speed a little faster than
usual. I sat watching the world go by for a minute, sorting out my
inner fears by imagining everything; that vampire slipping through
my window, standing over me, his face and his smile just like
David’s, while his eyes told a different story. And that damn cat.
He was on my bed that night. How could he call himself a guard cat
if he couldn’t even alert me to strange predators sneaking into my
room? I bet he would’ve slept through my death, had it been a
murderous vampire. “So, you said I’d already be changed if he’d
bitten me. How long does it take?”

“
A day or so. For
some it can take only hours.”

“
Why?”

“
It’s based on the
strength of your immune system; the venom kills it slowly, and when
it finally gives out, you change permanently into a
vampire—assuming you have the gene.”

“
What if I
don’t?”

“
Well, it won’t
matter, because you refuse to become what I am. So—”

“
David! Tell me. What
if he’d bitten me, and I didn’t have the gene?”

“
Then—” he went quiet
again until he looked at me, “—you die.”

“
Whoa! Hold on. So,
you bite someone to feed off them? If they have the gene, they
become a vampire, and if not—”

“
Something like
that.” He nodded, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve never
turned someone. Of all the people I left alive in my years, not one
has survived. My uncle is the only person I know who’s done it
successfully.” He picked at the crumbling leather where his fingers
had gripped the steering wheel during our abrupt halt. “It’s not an
easy task; the exact method’s a closely-guarded secret—to prevent
unauthorised transformations. All I do know is if Jason and I
hadn’t been compatible for the change, we would have grown
ill.”

Grown ill?
“So, it’s
kinder
to kill them?”

“
Yes.” He looked back
at me. “Our venom numbs the skin and induces euphoria; they desire
the bite—we drain them and…they die,” his voice softened. “It’s
peaceful; serene. But if we leave them alive, the venom becomes
parasitical; they get a fever, their immune system deteriorates, as
do the cognitive functions, then, they fall into a coma. It’s a
degrading and…painful death.”

“
Can
someone survive—if they don’t
have the gene?”

His eyes scrunched
tightly for a second. “I’ve heard of a few cases; they recover from
near death—go on with normal life, like it never happened. But it’s
rare, and they’re never quite the same again.”

“
So, I could choose
to give up my life—to be with you—and it might not
work?”

“
It’s a possibility. But, do you remember that feeling you had
at the lake? The uh—” He smiled, rubbing his
chin
, “—gravitational
pull
?”

“
Yes?”

“
That’s how I know
you’re my soulmate.”

I pulled the seatbelt
away from my neck a little so I could turn in my seat. “And that
means I can be changed?”

“
Kind of. You see,
soulmates are designed for each other, Ara. If you couldn’t be
changed, the phenomenon wouldn’t have occurred.”

“
Did you feel that
with the person who changed you—with your uncle?”

He laughed. “No. You
only feel it with your soulmate, and it’s especially rare to feel
it with a human. My uncle took a risk changing Jason and I, on the
hope we would be more like him, genetically. And there was nothing
to lose anyway. We’d just signed up to join the army. He wanted us
protected if we ever went to war.”

“
Really?
That’s
how you became a vampire?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Why would he do
that? He could’ve killed you.”

“
He swore an oath to
protect our bloodline. It was either death by Arthur or by
something possibly a lot worse.”

“
So, he risked
killing you—to save you?”

“
Love works in
mysterious ways, Ara.”

“
Love? Love is not plunging two
barely
nineteen-year-old boys into a
world of murder.”

His knee sunk as he
pressed his foot to the clutch and changed to a lower gear,
bringing the car smoothly onto the gravelly roadside, then sat
staring at the dash for a second. “Being a vampire’s not all bad,
you know.” He twisted the key in the ignition, shutting it
off.

“
I know. I'm sorry,
David.” I reached across and grabbed his hand. “I didn’t mean to
imply your uncle didn’t care for you or anything, I just—” Was just
implying that if he loved the boys, why would he possibly think a
life of vampirism was better than death?

“
I’ve lived a good
life, Ara. I have no regrets about immortality.” He smiled down at
our hands then, opening my palm to trace a line down the middle.
“And you wouldn’t either, you know—once you got used to
it.”

“
Used to the killing,
you mean?”

“
There is a bright
side.” He ran the tip of his finger down the Fate Line on my palm.
“You never age.”

“
I’m seventeen. I
think I have a few years before ageing is going to bother
me.”

“
I don’t know,” he
teased, “You’re already changing. Look—” He pointed to the line.
“This is shorter than it was a week ago.”

I snatched my hand
back. “Are you saying my days are numbered?”

“
No.” He smiled to
himself. “Just that things are…changing.”

“
Nothing stays the
same forever.”

“
I
do,” he said. “Well, physically,
anyway.”

“
I don’t know. I
think your maturity levels stayed the same as your
eighteen-year-old human self.”

“
Is that so?” His
emerald eyes met mine. “This coming from a girl who thinks throwing
a tantrum is an acceptable manner of getting her own
way.”

“
I
don’t think it gets me my own way. It
actually
does.”

He laughed. “Only
because your dad’s treading on eggshells around you until he’s sure
you won’t run away or commit suicide.”

“
Then why do my tantrums work on
you
?”

“
Because,” he said,
taking my hand. “I love you.”

I sat back in the
chair and let my hand fall into my lap. “I wish we could be like
two characters in a book; that some miracle could keep us
together.”