Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3) (20 page)

I’d told him it was too late. I was tired of being strung around. Dante did everything straight up. He wanted me plain and simple, but was that enough?

Valerie must have taken my hesitation to mean something else.

“Relax,” she said. “At least you know you’re getting laid tonight. All that blood and sucking is going to make Dante horny as hell.”

And she expected this information to help me relax? Sometimes I forgot Valerie and I were polar opposites.

“He might be human, but he’s still a close cousin of vampires,” Valerie whispered beside my ear. “I bet he could do it all night long.”

There was no way I’d sleep with Dante tonight. Our first time, if there ever was one, wouldn’t follow on the coattails of his suck fest.

My first time had been hasty, awkward, and about as pleasant as a root canal. The next experience needed to be loving. No jumping in during the heat of the moment. Ripping off clothing and being ravished worked well in romances, but I wanted something meaningful.

10

Selene swept into the pool room with two drinks. Her movements were graceful as she handed a pink drink to Valerie.

“I got a Shirley Temple for Valerie.”

“Ha, ha,” Valerie said, taking the cherry-topped drink from Selene.

Selene moved over to me and held out the second drink.

“And a sparkling apple cider for Aurora.”

“Thanks. What about you?”

“I’m fine for now.” Selene’s teeth glinted when she smiled. “Unless you want to share.”

“Sure.” I wasn’t really that thirsty, and it wasn’t not like I could catch anything from Selene. Nope, I had all the diseases covered. I might not live forever, but there was a certain sense of invincibility knowing I couldn’t get sick.

I took a sip of cider and handed the glass to Selene. I felt a lot more comfortable around the female vamp after she stepped in with Henry. Something about her presence gave me a sense of safety. So much of my time had been spent with male vampires that Selene was something of a novelty.

“Are you here with anyone?” I asked after she passed the cider back to me.

Selene looked away as though my question embarrassed her. “Kind of.”

“And you know Henry?” I didn’t recognize Selene from any of Marcus’ parties. Then again, I’d only been to four. And I’d been a bit preoccupied when those visits ended in abduction, stalking, and suspension from a ceiling. I didn’t exactly take time out to stop and stare at the guests closely during my forays into the palace. The only remotely normal experience I had at Marcus’ house was when I had a few too many and asked Fane to drive me home.

Selene touched my arm. I blinked the fog of thoughts away.

“Are you okay?” Selene asked.

No, not really. I thought boot camp had prepared me for jumping back into the field. I also thought six months would be enough distance between me and what happened at Marcus’ party. Standing in a room full of vampires again only brought it all back. I didn’t want to be here. I needed more time. I felt trapped.

I shook my head.

“What is it?” Valerie demanded.

Selene frowned at her.

I took a deep breath. “Nothing.”

Valerie set her drink beside the empty glasses on a tall square table. “This game is getting old,” she announced. “Maybe Selene can introduce us to some of her friends.”

Selene looked at me, one smooth eyebrow raised. “Is that what you’d like to do, Aurora?”

I glanced toward the rec room. I didn’t like it in there. The space felt way too walled in. But Valerie had a job to do. She couldn’t compile much of a guest list spending the evening with me and Selene at the pool table.

Good thing it was up to Valerie to remember names as Selene made introductions because I was in Aurora land for the rest of the party. The harpist wasn’t helping. I swore the music put me into a trance.

I listened in when a well groomed man in his early twenties kissed Selene on the cheeks and asked, “How was California?”

Selene didn’t answer immediately. She looked at the guy like he’d just asked how she was holding up after losing her favorite dog. Selene’s lips formed a grim line.

“It was lovely, as usual,” she replied.

“And your family is well?”

Selene did the stare thing again before turning to me. “Paul, allow me to present my new friends Aurora and Valerie.”

“Charmed,” Paul said. “Are you human or vampire?”

“Human,” Valerie answered, shooting Paul a sultry smile.

Paul looked her up and down and said, “In that case, will you permit me to fetch you a drink?”

“I’ll come with you,” Valerie said.

She took Paul’s arm when he offered it and they headed to the bar. That drink better be virgin, or Valerie better sip it slowly. I wondered if cab companies would come all the way up the mountain.

Selene’s mouth drooped with concern when she looked at me.

“Would you like to sit in the living room upstairs?”

“Are we allowed?”

“You can go wherever you want except for the third floor. Follow me.”

Relief washed over me with each step I took away from the party. I’d never considered myself claustrophobic, but tonight all the walls felt like they were squeezing me in. The stairway seemed as though it had narrowed since I walked down. It wasn’t until we entered the wide open living space with the high ceiling that I felt like I could breathe normally again.

“Is this better?” Selene asked.

“Yes, thank you,” I said.

She sat on a forest-green couch. I took the armchair in front of her.

“These gatherings can be overwhelming, especially when it’s your first time,” Selene said. “Male vamps forget that sometimes.”

“How many women are up there?”

“A dozen.”

I leaned forward. “There are twelve bedrooms upstairs?”

“Eight,” Selene said. “Some women have to share a room.”

My fists clenched.

“Does it bother you that your boyfriend is up there?” Selene asked.

“Yes,” I answered truthfully.

Why did Dante have to get this assignment? How could I not think about him sucking blood hickeys off twelve different women in one night? The whole thing made me nauseous.

Dating him was a bad idea, especially with missions like this.

“Don’t be too hard on him,” Selene said softly.

I looked at her in surprise.

“It’s one of the few rushes we get.”

“Blood,” I said, stating the obvious.

Selene nodded. She looked off into a dark corner of the living room, not meeting my eye as she spoke.

“There’s not much sense living forever if you don’t feel alive.”

I took it she spoke from experience.

“How long have you been around?” I asked.

“Sixty years, give or take.”

“You’re… young.” I didn’t know why the words came out sounding so stunned. Sixty in human years was getting up there, but in vamp years it didn’t sound long at all. Selene hadn’t even been around for a century.

“Thank you,” she said, her thick lashes fluttering.

“You’re from California?”

“That’s correct,” Selene said.

“So you decided to take a break from the sun?”

“I decided to give my family space.”

I tilted my head. “Your real family?”

Wouldn’t they notice Selene wasn’t aging? Maybe she meant a vamp family like the Morrel’s.

Before Selene could answer, a slightly overweight thirty-something man with thinning brown hair and metal rimmed glasses stepped into the living room. Rough lines appeared over his face when he frowned. He barely glanced at me, choosing instead to focus on Selene.

“There you are, Selene. Hitting on a human again?”

Selene straightened. “Making polite conversation, Randal. Perhaps you should try it sometime.” Her tone lost its musical quality.

“I don’t come to these things to make conversation.”

Randal walked directly behind Selene. His hands shot forward. He began massaging her shoulders, but from the way her neck hunched, his grip looked too rough. She leaned forward out of his grasp and rose regally.

“Aurora, it was very lovely to meet you.”

“You, too,” I said, looking from Selene to Randal.

“Come along, Selene. You’ve had enough for tonight.”

Selene was a good four inches taller than Randall, not to mention a hundred times more attractive. What was she doing with the control geek? Looks didn’t matter, but in that short exchange it was clear Randal lacked in personality as much as physical attributes.

She followed Randal out of the living room without another word. Long after they’d left, I stared in the direction I’d last seen the odd pair.

I was confused. Had Selene been hitting on me because I was a woman or because I was human? Or both?

What was she doing with a guy like Randal?

I looked around the empty living room.

I felt starved for friendship. I wondered what Donna, Michelle, Amber, and the other girls from boot camp were doing right now. Did any of them have a weekend mission to complete or were they at the movies with a bag of popcorn in their laps?

Boot camp had given me a taste of community. We were like a family. We bonded. We fought. We embraced certain members and tolerated others. Sleep was the only break we got from each other. There was the emotional exhaustion of being around women all the time on top of the physical fatigue. Sometimes I swore the emotional kind was worse.

Now here I sat, all alone. It felt unnatural. Loneliness was like a stomachache, eating away at my insides, causing me physical pain.

Is that why Selene was with Randal?

Is that why I was with Dante?

Why shouldn’t I be with Dante? He was a good guy. Handsome. Funny. Caring. Committed. That should spell out winner in all caps.

Maybe I wasn’t physically repressed so much as emotionally repressed… like a vampire. How had I gotten this way? To become detached was to let Jared win. I ought to look to Dante as a prime example of living a life filled with purpose and pleasure.

I was a living, breathing, aging soul; and it was about time I got my head on straight and started enjoying my finite youth.

Hopefully Dante would rub off on me.

Voices drifted up from the stairs and became louder as a group emerged and walked past the living room to depart via the entryway.

Melcher wouldn’t be happy if he could see me lounging inside an empty room with the party and Diederick downstairs. That was Valerie’s area of expertise. I didn’t know what I was good at besides being bait. I could kill, which meant something in this line of work, but I didn’t like it.

Hmm, which college major went well with murder? Philosophy? Theatre? Justice?

I didn’t see the point in any of it unless Melcher expected us to work day jobs on the side.

“Hey, there’s my girl.”

I gave a start when I heard Dante’s voice. I hadn’t seen or heard him enter the living room.