Aven's Dream (26 page)

When I looked back out the window, Will didn’t say anything. Suddenly the car swerved so violently that it started spinning. Everything slowed down, and I watched as the trees whirled around in circles. In our second three-hundred-and-sixty-degree revolution, my only thought was:
I’m going to die now
. A second later, we were parked on the side of the road like nothing had happened.

“What the hell!” I screamed into the silence.

I jerked open the car door and scrambled out, bending over in case I was about to throw up. I didn’t hear Will get out of the car, but suddenly I saw his shoes in front of me. When I was finally sure I wasn’t going to hurl, I straightened up.

“I’ll restate my original question:
What the hell
? Did you see a deer or something?”

“I was making a point,” Will said calmly.

“Another one? And what would this one be?”

“That I will not let anything happen to you, Aven. I’ve spent too long alone to lose you.”

“Well, you can’t do anything about
time
,” I whispered. “The next eighty years could go by in the blink of an eye for you, and it would be my entire lifetime. I’ll look like Mrs. Hendrix, and you’ll still be …
this
.”

The sound of crunching gravel caused me to turn, and I watched as a mud-caked pickup truck pulled up behind the Aston Martin. Seeing a gun rack with a hunting rifle in the cab, I swallowed. I couldn’t think of a time when I had actually seen a gun, not counting TV and the movies. Will pulled me to him and leaned down, pressing his lips to mine. My mind spun as he broke away from me, and I turned dizzily in time to see a man stepping from the driver’s side of the truck.

“You folks having car trouble?”

The guy had a ball cap pulled low, so I couldn’t really see his face—just his work boots, camo jacket, and jeans. I guessed he wasn’t that much older than Will. Scratch that. He was probably two centuries younger than Will. I shivered suddenly; I didn’t like the feeling I was getting from him. It was bad. Really bad.

“No trouble at all,” Will shrugged before looking over at me. “Aven, get in the car.”

The passenger-side door of the truck opened, and a second man leaned over the door, openly leering at me with blood-shot, watery blue eyes.

“
Aven
? Now, that’s a strange name for such a pretty little redhead,” the first man said, drawing my attention back to him. “But I don’t think Aven needs to go anywhere. What do you think, sweetie?”

The sound of the name my dad called me on this man’s lips made my stomach turn, and suddenly I realized I couldn’t move. I just stood there, frozen, as the first man took a step forward while the other one continued watching from his perch at the truck. Will muttered something under his breath, but I couldn’t make out what it was with my heart beating so loudly in my ears.

“Are you sure you want to choose this path?” Will asked.

The guy closest to us laughed, sending another spike of terror through me.

“
Choose this path
? Are you some kind of Zen master?” the man chortled.

The one at the truck lifted a can of beer to his lips, and I bristled. A drunk driver had killed my mom—it wasn’t something I took lightly. Will looked over at me, his blue eyes blazing.

“Aven,
get
in the car,” he said more forcefully.

Nodding, I finally got my legs to work and stumbled toward the car before a crack of thunder stopping me in my tracks. Turning back, I saw the man at the truck holding the rifle’s muzzle skyward.

“Girl ain’t goin’ nowhere,” the first man said, grinning and spitting a watery brown liquid from the side of his mouth. “Now, next bullet’s for you if you don’t do what I’m sayin’. Throw me your wallet and then get in that fancy car of yours and start drivin’.”

Will nodded and reached into his back pocket. I watched silently as he tossed the billfold into the air. Then, before I could blink or move, I saw a blur. The man standing closest to us was suddenly flat on his back, and less than a second later, Will had grabbed the second man from the truck. The rifle was already in Will’s hands, and I watched as he bent the barrel in half and threw it to the ground. Then he turned and slammed the other man against the truck, his eyes glowing with rage as he pressed the man’s throat until I heard a gurgling noise from where I stood.

“
Will
!”

I didn’t even realize I had screamed until Will looked over at me. He hurled the man to the ground like a ragdoll and threw his arms up in the air.

“Fidatov!” he growled, the sound of it echoing off of the trees.

He was next to me an instant later, his hand wrapping around my arm before he hauled me over to his car, opened the door, and set me in the seat. Before I had even registered him sitting in the driver’s seat, the car was already moving.

“Will?”

It was barely a whisper, but I knew he had heard me.

“Were you going to kill that man?”

“
Yes
!” he growled. “I would gladly kill anyone whose intent is to harm you.”

I shivered, coldness sweeping over me again as the scenery swept by us. We rode in silence, and only the sudden change in terrain jarred me out of my trance. Yesterday had felt like a dream, but now I had the feeling the darkness of the nightmare was only beginning.

W
ill parked in front of the towering glass and steel structure that was his house. Before I could move, he was already opening my door and unbuckling my seatbelt. Until today, it hadn’t completely sunk in quite how fast or strong Will really was.

“You have a right to be frightened of me,” he said quietly as he held out his hand for me to step out. “You
should
be frightened of me.”

Getting out of the car, I shook my head. I wanted—no I
needed
—to convince him that he was different than his enemy, and more importantly, that I wasn’t afraid of him. I thought of the rage I had felt when I found out my mom had been killed by a drunk driver. For months, I had wanted to
kill
the man who had taken my mom away from me—because he had survived, and she hadn’t. I dreamed of it; I
wished
for his death.

“If you’re a monster, then I am one, too,” I said, reaching up to touch his cheek.

Will shook his head sadly as we walked to the entrance to the house.

“No, Aven. I know of monsters, and
you
are not one of them.”

As the glass slid open, Darcy bounded outside to greet us. I bent down and scratched his head as Will disappeared. A second later, the SUV from the weekend pulled up in front of us, and Will got out to open the back for Darcy. Then he came around and lifted me into the passenger seat. Hearing Darcy crunching on dog kibble in the back made me smile. Then Will appeared on the driver’s side, and the SUV shot forward, propelling us away from the fortress behind us. As I looked back one last time, my mind flashed to the sketches I had seen on the drafting table in Will’s bedroom.

“Did you …”

“Design the house?” he finished.

He nodded, and I stared at him.

“But how?”

“I have a graduate degree in architecture.” He paused and smiled. “You asked what I did with my nights.”

“Wow. Then, pretending to be a high school student has to be pretty boring.”

“Attending high school has been infinitely more pleasant than anything I’ve done in the past two centuries, particularly now that I have you to look forward to.”

I blushed.

“How
did
you become what you are?” I asked when I looked back at Will.

He gave me a look.

“What? It’s a relief to be able to ask you questions and have you actually
answer
them. And I don’t have anything to go on. I mean, I’m assuming you weren’t bitten
like a real vampire.”

“A
real
vampire?” Will laughed.

I froze.

“Are there real vampires?”

Will stopped smiling.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking.”

I shook my head. He was back to evasion.

“
In a manner of speaking
? What does that mean?”

“Fidatov might fit your perception of a
real
vampire.”

I felt a twinge of uneasiness.

“How so?”

“I told you that my
kind
—” he looked over at me and smiled “—feeds off of the emotions of other creatures. One of the most potent emotions is terror. Vladimir Fidatov tortures his victims and often drains them of more than just their emotions. He is a savage.”

“That’s awful …” I trailed off, fighting the urge to be sick. “How could you ever think that you’re like him?”

“I did once fervently believe that he and I were the same. I now agree with what Nietzsche said:
Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil
. What drives Fidatov is purely greed and malice. Love is merely a human weakness in his mind, and people are merely tools.”

“Those men from earlier—were they his tools?”

Will nodded.

“So, then he’ll just keep sending crazy psychos after me forever? I mean, as long as I’m alive?”

Will gave me a pained look.

“No. I
will
stop him.”

“No offense, but you dropped him to the bottom of the ocean—and that didn’t seem to work. You can’t go to the police, obviously. I mean, what are they going to do about an immortal serial killer? But then how do you stop someone like him?”

“You trap him, weaken him, and then imprison him.”

“Until he escapes,” I frowned. “Then again, I guess if that happens two hundred years from now, I won’t be around to do anything about it—will I?”

I smiled sadly and turned to look out the window. Within a few minutes, my eyelids were too heavy to keep open. I decided to close them just for a few seconds. The next thing I knew, I was weightless in someone’s arms.

“Dad?” I mumbled groggily.

Opening my eyes, I looked up at Will as he set me on the couch in my living room.

“Your father will be home soon,” he said.

Not soon enough, and I could tell from the look on Will’s face that he was going to leave. He was still afraid I thought he was a monster. Sitting up, I reached toward him.

“Stay. Please.”

“Are you certain?”

I nodded, and he scooped me up and settled onto the couch with me mostly in his lap. I laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

“What?” Will asked curiously.

“
This
. It’s just strange. I didn’t think I would date until I got to college, and if someone had told me at the beginning of this year that I would be with
you
, I would have laughed my ass off.”

“You have a surprisingly low sense of self worth,” Will said in a recriminating tone.

I turned and looked up at him.

“No, I don’t. Really. I get good grades in most of my classes. AP U.S. History and AP English are no problem. The SATs? I rocked the writing and critical reading sections. The math section? Okay, so my score outright sucked, but I’m only in Trig. I can’t sing. Dancing is out—I look like a flailing walrus.” Will raised an eyebrow. “Take my word for it. I think I look pretty good in a bathing suit, but I’m pale as hell. The point is: I know my strengths, and I know my weaknesses. My strengths don’t exactly translate to hot-guy magnet.”

“Am I
hot
?” Will asked with a surprised laugh.

I snorted.

“Oh my god. Are you
really
asking that? Most of the girls in school want to devour you.”

My stomach suddenly snarled at me.

“Speaking of hunger …” Will said humorously.

“Okay, that was embarrassing.”

I tried to sit up, but Will kept his arm wrapped around me.

“Dinner?” he asked.

I nodded, waiting for him to let me up. He didn’t. He just took out his phone with his other hand. Giving him a curious look, I waited. When he started giving my dad’s usual order at the pizza place, my mouth dropped open. Squirming out of his grip, I swiveled around until I was facing him with my legs on either side of his.

“Seriously? You totally have been stalking me! My music, my dad’s order at the pizza place …”

“Your father orders a copious quantity of pizza,” Will smiled.

“His version of a home-cooked meal. Yours, too—judging from last night.”

“You seemed to enjoy it.”

“Uh, yeah. I did. A little too much.”

I couldn’t help thinking about other things I had enjoyed too much recently—and suddenly my current position took on heightened significance. My eyes shot to Will’s, which didn’t help things. He was staring at me in a way that made my breathing hiccup in my chest, and when he reached up slowly and brushed my lower lip with his thumb, I nearly blacked out. Scrambling backwards, I started to fall off the couch when Will caught me, pulling me up until we were both standing. He shook his head.

“You are very difficult to resist.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that one,” I said breathlessly.

Will’s eyes narrowed.

“Good.”

“
Good
? Really? I’m sorry, but how can immortal perfection be remotely jealous of anything or anyone?”

“Admittedly, jealousy is another emotion that is new to me.”

Smiling, I pulled away from him. I walked into the kitchen, stumbling when I noticed Will beside me. As usual, there was no sound of footsteps to indicate his pursuit.

“Okay,” I said, laughing. “That’s something I’m never going to get used to.”

“What’s that?” Will asked.

“Your ability to walk into a room without making a sound.”

I walked to the refrigerator to pour a glass of water before starting to unload the dishwasher.

“Did you mean what you said about the dance?” Will asked as he watched me.

“I have nothing to wear, and until I get my license, I have no way of making enough money for a dress. My dad just got me a computer, and there’s no way I’m asking him for money for a dress.”

“That shouldn’t be an issue,” Will said.

When I raised an eyebrow, he smiled.

“I would buy your dress, as well as any other items you required.”

“Dresses aren’t cheap, but okay, assuming that’s
not
nuts, it isn’t the only problem. Empath here, remember? Large groups, public places, high emotions, not to mention hormones. Seriously not good for me. I’ll just end up hyperventilating in the bathroom all night. The cafeteria is bad enough.”

The doorbell rang, and I breathed a sigh of relief as Will disappeared. Just talking about the dance was making me ill. When he came back into the kitchen with pizza, a salad, and breadsticks, I laughed.

“Since you’re not going to help me with all of this, I hope my dad’s hungry when he gets home.”

Pouring more water and grabbing a fork from the drawer, I walked back to the living room and picked up my backpack. Will followed me upstairs with the food, but when I moved to close the door behind us, Will shook his head.

“You shouldn’t get in the habit of shutting the door. I imagine that fathers of teenage girls don’t like closed doors.”

“Is that so?”

“Certainly not when suitors are involved.”

I smirked.

“And you know this
how
?”

Will shot me a look.

“Your father has been very accommodating. Don’t test him.”

“Most likely he’s been
accommodating
because he didn’t think we were dating. That, or you hypnotized him.”

Will’s too-innocent expression made me wonder whether he really had tinkered with my dad’s perception of him. Settling on the bed, I pulled out the Trig assignment that I was struggling with. Of course, it was next to impossible to concentrate on something I hated so much with Will sitting a few feet away. It didn’t help that every time I looked up, his eyes were already on me. Finishing up my second slice of pizza and some salad, I got up and brought everything downstairs. By the time I had finished going through all of my assignments, Darcy, who had settled on my bed with me, perked up. I looked to Will.

“Your father is home. Would you like me to go?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the window.

“No, stay. Please.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to spend some time alone with him?”

“I think he should get used to having you around, don’t you?”

The Volvo’s door slammed outside, and I moved across the room. My dad’s key turned in the lock just as I reached the landing.

“Hey, Dad!” I called, hurrying down the stairs.

I reached out and gave him a hug.

“It’s good to see you, sweetie.”

My stomach flipped at the word
sweetie
, and I shivered. He set down his bag and looked over my shoulder.

“Will came over to work on our paper,” I rushed to explain.

My dad nodded and pointed behind me.

“I can see that.”

I turned and noticed Will standing quietly at the foot of the stairs.

“How are you, Will?” my dad asked.

I walked into the kitchen ahead of them.

“Good, sir. Aven mentioned you were in Colorado for a conference?”

“Dad? Pizza?” I asked, taking out the salad and the mostly uneaten pizza.

“Thanks, honey.”

“Cold or microwaved?”

I opened the box.

“Cold. You kids sure didn’t eat a lot.”

I sucked in my breath, trying to come up with an excuse as I took out a plate and silverware and walked over to the kitchen table.

“I had dinner before I joined Aven to work on our paper,” Will said smoothly.

I glanced at him. He lied very easily, but then two centuries of practice probably gave him an edge, I considered.