Haven (29 page)

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before answering me. “I would destroy myself before I’d let myself hurt you, Violet. I’ve told you so more than once.”

“Yeah, it’s easy for you to say that now,” I muttered.

He glanced up at the ceiling, where the square-cut window showed the sky beyond. “Look, the rain has stopped. You should go.”

“Do you want me to go?” I asked, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice.

“I think it’s best if you do,” he answered, his voice soft, gentle. “Just promise me you won’t turn off your inner eye. If a vision comes, tell me at once what you see. Just . . . reach out telepathically. Will you do that?”

I nodded, a painful lump in my throat.

“Are you going to be in Manhattan over the break?” he asked, reaching for my raincoat and shaking it out.

“No, I’m going to visit my Gran in Atlanta.”

“Good. I suppose you’ll be safe there.”

Because what I’d foreseen happens
here,
at Winterhaven.

He held out my coat, and for a moment I just stood there, staring. I didn’t want it to be like this between us. I wanted to tell him I was sorry; I wanted to say that it didn’t matter that he’d kept the truth about Isabel from me. More than anything, I wanted to tell him that I still loved him.

Instead, I took my raincoat and silently shrugged into it without meeting his eyes.

“See you around, Violet,” he said, his voice full of sadness.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, trying to force back the inevitable tears. “See you around.”

Some kick-ass vampire slayer I was.

“It was amazing, Violet! I wish you’d come with us.” Cece was haphazardly pulling clothes out of her suitcase and tossing them onto the floor by her bed as she chattered on. “You wouldn’t believe how many celebrities we saw.”

I set my own suitcase on my bed and unzipped it. “Yeah? Like who?”

She rattled off a half dozen A-listers, including the lead singer of my favorite band.

“Cool! You’re sure it was him?”

“I’m sure.” She nodded. “Later on, I astrally projected to his hotel room.”

My eyes widened with surprise. “You didn’t!”

“He has a new tattoo,” she said coyly. “Right here.” She indicated a spot just below her left shoulder.

“Wow,” I murmured, suitably impressed. “Do you do that often? Spy on celebrities, I mean?” I’d never really thought about it, but since she could go to anyone, anytime . . .

“Maybe,” she said with a wicked smile. “Anyway, we really missed you and Kate.”

“Sure you did,” I teased. “How was the weather?”

Cece scooped up her clothes and walked to the closet, dumping them there in a heap. “It was perfect!” she called out. “Warm, but not too hot. Poor Sophie got a pretty bad sunburn.”

“What?” I let out my breath in a huff. “I called her and warned her!” Because I’d seen it, the very first day of break—a quick vision of Sophie in pain, her skin red and blistered. I’d been trying to coax a vision about Blackwell, but somehow I’d gotten Sophie instead. “Why didn’t she wear sunscreen like I told her to?”

Cece winced. “I think she forgot to reapply. Anyway, she’s fine now. How was Atlanta?”

“It was great,” I said, which was entirely true. It had been nice to spend some quiet time with Gran. We’d had lunch at the club, lounged by the pool. My seventeenth birthday had come and gone, celebrated quietly with Gran and Lupe, who’d made me my favorite cake—red velvet with buttercream frosting. I’d hoped to see Whitney while I was there, but our breaks coincided and she’d gone to the beach with her family. Still, all in all, it had been a nice trip. Relaxing, even.

“Well, it looks like you got a bit of a tan yourself. I swear, you were so pale you were starting to look like a vampire.”

My heart skipped a beat. But then I realized she was just kidding; the word “vampire” was just a figure of speech to her.

“Anyway,” Cece continued, “next time you have to go to Saint Bart’s with us. Promise?”

“I promise,” I agreed, just because it seemed like the right thing to say.

Cece sighed, collapsing back on her bed. “It’s good to be back here at the ’Haven, though, isn’t it? I mean, it just feels so much safer here.”

My skin prickled all over. “What do you mean, safer?”

“I don’t know. Just that here we’re free to be ourselves. I mean, what happens when we all go off to college?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I just wish I’d come here sooner.”

“Yeah, I wish you had too,” Cece answered. “Hey, you want to go to the café for a little while? I’m starved, and dinner’s not for another hour.”

“Sure.” I was mostly unpacked, and hungry—all I’d gotten on the plane was a tiny bag of pretzels. “Want to call and see if everyone else wants to meet us there?” Kate and Sophie and Marissa—the whole gang. I’d missed them, I realized.

A half hour later, we were all tucked into a booth in the back, laughing and chatting. We decided to skip dinner altogether and had sandwiches there instead, followed by coffee and thick slices of cheesecake drizzled with strawberry sauce and whipped cream. I took a sip of cappuccino and
watched my friends over the rim of the mug, warmth spreading through my veins.

Yeah, Winterhaven was probably the best thing that had ever happened to me. In less than a year’s time, I felt like I’d finally found myself, found the friends I’d have for life.

And Aidan . . . well, I’d had plenty of time to think about him over the break. I wanted him back, wanted our relationship the way it was before I flipped out about the whole Isabel thing. The only question was, did he want me? I had to know, had to try . . .

“Hey, earth to Violet,” Sophie said, waving a hand in front of my eyes. “You’ve got that dreamy look on your face again. A penny for your thoughts?”

“I’m not sure they’re worth that,” I said, laughing. “I was just thinking how glad I am to be back, that’s all.” Which was partly true. I
had
been thinking that, before Aidan crept into my thoughts.

“I’m glad to be back too,” Kate said. “It took me two full days to remember that I had to actually get up and walk across the room to pick up my purse or my keys or whatever.”

“My God, you are so lazy,” Marissa said with a snort of laughter.

“Yeah, well, it becomes habit,” Kate protested. “It’s difficult having a gift that’s so hard to hide.”

“Hey,” Sophie said, “not to change the subject, but are any of you taking the SAT prep course that starts this week?”

I’d almost forgotten about the upcoming SATs. Patsy had sent in the money for the prep course just before spring break. “I am. Do you know who’s teaching it?”

“No idea.” Sophie shook her head, leaning forward in her seat. “Don’t look now, but Dr. Hottie just walked in.”

“Dr. Hottie?” I asked, resisting the urge to turn around and look at the door.

“He teaches senior-level science classes,” Cece whispered beside me, “and he can’t be more than twenty-six. Fresh out of grad school.”

“What’s his real name?” I whispered back in confusion.

“Dr. Byrne,” Sophie said. “As in, Byrne-ing hot. Get it?”

“C’mon, I gotta turn around,” I pleaded.

Cece nudged me. “Oh, go on. Just be casual.”

Totally casual,
I thought, twisting my torso in my seat. The so-called Dr. Hottie stood just inside the door, chatting with a couple of students. I’d seen him around before, and they weren’t kidding. He was definitely hot.

“Hey, you’re blushing!” Cece said, and I quickly turned back around, feeling the heat in my cheeks.

“He only teaches really advanced classes,” Kate said with a sigh. “So I have no chance of getting him next year.”

“Oh, you better believe I’ll be taking his class. I’ll fill you in,” Sophie offered with a naughty smile.

Kate nudged Marissa in the ribs. “Hey, you’ve gotten awfully quiet. Don’t tell me you don’t appreciate the finer points of Dr. Hottie?”

Marissa looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Yeah, I’m just . . . I don’t know, something feels weird all of a sudden. Sort of off. I can’t explain it.”

I studied her face, my heart accelerating when I saw something that looked like fear in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “I don’t know that anything’s wrong,” she said at last. “But something’s definitely not right. I think I want to go back to my room.”

Suddenly the gaiety was gone. In silence, we gathered up our things and headed out into the cool night.

Not five minutes later it happened—my vision tunneled, my ears hummed. Next thing I knew, I fell to my knees on the concrete sidewalk. I vaguely heard my friends calling my name, felt someone tugging on my arm.

But it was too late; I was already gone, back down the rabbit hole.

I
was in Manhattan—Central Park. It was dark; the sun had just set. I could see the city’s lights all around the park’s perimeter. There was a fountain about a hundred yards away, yet the area was strangely empty. A lamppost stood to my left, throwing an eerie yellow light across the pavement.

Two women lurked in the shadows. Beside the fountain two men were talking—Julius and Dr. Blackwell, I realized with a start. I moved closer, knowing I needed to hear. “. . . an all-school assembly,” Dr. Blackwell was saying. “Everyone else will be engaged, and you can have him then. I’ll summon them to my office just as the assembly gets under way—him, and the
Sâbbat.”

“Excellent,” Julius said. Though I couldn’t see his face, I could hear the glee in his voice.

“But afterward the
Sâbbat
stays with me,” Blackwell warned. “I won’t have her harmed.”

Julius nodded. “That was our agreement.” So it was a trade— me for Aidan. But what did Blackwell want with me?

“Violet, oh my God!” It was Sophie, trying to pull me to my feet.

“It’s okay,” Cece said soothingly. “She’s okay. This is what happens when she has a vision.”

“I think she’s hurt,” Kate said. “Oh, shit, she’s bleeding!”

My knees burned, and so did my palms. I must have fallen, I realized. Scraped my knees and hands on the sidewalk. I tried to get up, stumbled, and fell back down again. Something was wrong. My vision began to tunnel again, pulling me back in.

Nothing like this had ever happened—usually it ended, and that was it. But this . . . my friends’ voices sounded far away. The humming in my ears grew louder, then faded away. It felt like an iron band was wrapped around my chest, and I struggled for air, struggled to fill my lungs.

Aidan.
I needed Aidan. I had to tell him what I’d seen. I needed him to pull me out of this before it sucked me down for good.

“Aidan,” I managed to croak. “Get him. Please.”

“I’ll project to him,” I heard Cece say. “If he can’t hear me, then we’ll send Kate once I know where he is.”

“Hurry, Cece!” Sophie said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but her pulse is way too fast. She’s having some kind of fit or something.”

“We can’t just stay here!” someone shouted. “We should take her to the infirmary.”

“No!” someone shouted. Definitely Marissa. “Aidan will know what to do.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, felt the ground sway beneath me. I felt the hot trickle of blood run down my leg, felt particles of cement abrading my hands.
Aidan, please,
I called out with my mind.
Please, help me.

My friends’ voices were back. “Oh, God, Cece looks dead. I hate it when she does this. C’mon, Cece, make it quick.”

There was a loud gasp, and then Cece spoke. “He’s in a classroom, a chemistry lab—”

“Go, Kate!” someone yelled.

“Violet?”
Aidan.
Had Kate found him, or had my telepathy summoned him there? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know how much time had passed. I opened my eyes and his face swam into focus, but then I had to close them again, because everything went fuzzy.

“I . . . I don’t know what’s happening,” I said, my voice a hoarse whisper. “It keeps trying to drag me back under.”

I felt Aidan’s cold fingers on my face. “Hey, c’mon, Vi. Snap out of it. Stay with me, love.”

He cradled me on the sidewalk, my head against his chest. I felt his lips in my hair, on my temple. My blood stirred, and I felt myself swimming back to full consciousness, felt the band around my lungs loosen and disappear.

Suddenly the black edging my vision disappeared entirely. Sounds were normal now; I could breathe again. “What happened to me?” I gasped.

“A vision. What did you see?” Aidan asked.

“Not here,” I murmured, looking up at my friends’ panicked faces.

“Do you want me to . . . you know, check you out?” Sophie offered.

“No, I’m fine. Really.” I rose, Aidan holding me by the elbow. “Whatever it was, it’s passed now.”

Cece glanced from me to Aidan, then back to me again. She nodded to herself, as if satisfied that I was in good hands. “We’ll meet you back at the room in a little bit, okay?”

I just nodded, watching them all walk away.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked Aidan, knowing full well we weren’t going to travel the normal way.

“To my room. Take my hand and close your eyes, okay?”

I closed them, all right—as tightly as I could. A few seconds passed, a hum and a pop, and there we were, inside his little room. The door swung shut behind us, and I heard a bolt slide into place before he led me to the narrow little daybed and sat down beside me.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked, stroking my hair.

And then I remembered—the blood! I leapt up and ran for the door, my heart pounding. “Aidan, you’ve got to let me out. My knees and my hands—I . . . I’m bleeding.”

He was beside me in an instant, reaching for my hand, drawing me back toward him. “Let me see.”

I shook my head so wildly it felt like it might snap right off my neck. “No way. Don’t you remember the last time?”

“Look at me, Violet. Look at my eyes. My teeth.” He raised his upper lip. “I’m fine. I just took the elixir, not an hour ago. It’s just a few scrapes, nothing serious. I can fix it.”

I took two steps away from him, back toward the door. “What do you mean, fix it?”