Breathless (16 page)

He didn’t have long to wait. In less than thirty minutes, the daylight outside the bridge’s entrance began to dim, growing progressively less bright as the clouds overran the sun. He moved to the end of the bridge and surveyed the sky. The cloud layer was thick, unbroken. Smiling, he stepped out from the bridge and began his journey north.

He could have hunted here in Chester, but he wasn’t familiar with the town and thought it still too close to the cavern, despite the intervening river. His hometown of Middletown was but fifteen miles away. Middletown would be far safer, with plenty of places to hide nearby, and it offered a greater bounty of prey besides.

The land between Chester and Middletown was heavily wooded, with only a few small towns he easily avoided. He made good time, moving with vampire speed through the trees and reaching the outskirts of Middletown with an hour of gray daylight remaining. He stopped at a small cave in the hills overlooking the city that he remembered from his youth. Little more than a hole in a rocky outcropping in the hillside, the entrance was overgrown with brush and maple saplings, making it a perfect hideaway. The cave would serve as shelter from the sun for however long he decided to remain here. He didn’t need much room—his time in the cave would be mostly spent sleeping.

But not yet. The late afternoon was comfortably dim, and he was too revved up to sleep. The excitement of his escape—and his anticipation for his first real feeding—sent a current of pulsating need through his body. Never had his hunger burned so fiercely.

And he knew just where to satisfy it. Less than a mile away, a campus full of careless young humans awaited him. He threaded his way through the trees down the hillside and before long was strolling across a broad lawn in front of the library. A steady stream of students flowed from the library’s ornate front entrance, and the walkways crisscrossing the lawn also teemed with humans. All he had to do was get one alone for a few moments, somewhere no one could see. With his boyish appearance, he didn’t expect that would be difficult.

Darkness descended quickly, but brought little slackening in the number of students in the library quadrangle. The walkways in front of the library were well lit, but the farther one moved from the library, the larger the pools of darkness became. Licking his lips in anticipation, he turned away from the library and headed into a darker area to await his prey.

Always keeping far enough back to avoid making a target nervous, he followed four different women before one finally turned down a short street toward a half-empty parking area. Robert’s keen eyes swept the street. They were alone. This was his moment.

He sprang forward, closing the gap between them in a flash and wrapping his powerful arms around her before she even knew he was there. One hand covered her mouth to stifle her screams, while the other pinned her arms to her side as his fangs sank deep into her neck. As her warm blood gushed into his throat, he lifted her easily and carried her into a clump of thick shrubs to complete his meal. He drank greedily, stopping only when there was no more blood to drain. He smiled as he wiped his lips with his sleeve. This was so much better than the animal blood that had been his sustenance until now, so much more satisfying. This was what vampires were made for. And this was what he swore he would enjoy from this day forth.

He had no interest in turning his victim vampire, so he simply left her lifeless body among the bushes. At the last moment, he remembered his lessons—always hide the manner of death to avoid drawing attention to his kind. He took a short-bladed knife from the pouch at his waist and slashed a deep cut into the woman’s neck, obliterating the puncture marks from his fangs. A puzzle for the pathetic humans—what had become of her blood? He grinned and disappeared into the night, his thirst slaked for now.

Two days later, he did it again, this time carrying the corpse off into the woods and burying it where it would never be found.

19.  FIRST KISS

T
ime is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space—Leesa rubbed her forehead, trying to wrap her brain around
that
concept for her physics midterm. She had been studying hard all week, sleeping little and playing less, and felt confident she’d done well on her first three exams. Physics tomorrow would be the toughest by far, though. Her tired head was filled with symbols, equations and theories. Luckily, Professor Clerval didn’t believe in exams—instead, he had assigned the class a paper that wasn’t due until next week. So after her physics test, the crunch would be over—until finals, anyway. Ugh!

At least she wasn’t alone in feeling stressed. Her dorm was filled with girls wandering the halls like zombies, wearing no makeup, their eyes bloodshot, vacant looks blanking their tired faces. Yellow light leaked under doors and soft music filtered through the walls at all hours of the night as many of her floor mates pulled all-nighters. Leesa had been up until the early hours twice already this week and would be putting in another late night tonight. It was nearly one o’clock now, and she still had two more chapters to review.

Even the usually effervescent Cali had been subdued this week, joking more than once she wished she’d bought stock in Red Bull. Caffeine and herbs could do only so much, though, and Cali was showing the effects of the late hours. Leesa had tried her first Red Bull ever at the beginning of the week, and she was now downing a couple of cans a night. She was pretty sure some of the other girls were using something stronger than energy drinks and coffee, but Red Bull was more than enough for her.

On top of everything else, she hadn’t seen Rave all week. Not that she would have had time for him, but he didn’t know that, since they couldn’t talk on the phone or text like normal people. So where the heck was he? He could have come by, even though she would have had to shoo him away. At least that would have been something. She wondered if he’d gotten cold feet in addition to his cold hands.

The words on the page were beginning to blur, so she decided to take a short break. Standing up reminded her how long she’d been hunched over her desk—her spine creaked and protested like she was eighty frigging years old. She forced her shoulders back, trying to stretch the muscles in her upper back, then slowly rolled her neck in small circles. She needed to get out of her room, so she headed toward the stairway to see how Cali was doing.

Cali’s door was open, and Leesa saw her friend sitting on the bed wearing her purple sweatpants and pink hoodie, a textbook on her lap and a notebook full of scribbled pages open beside her. Five empty cans of Red Bull tossed haphazardly off the side of her bed showed how long she’d been studying.

Cali looked up at Leesa’s arrival. A tired smile curved her lips. “Hey, Lees, c’mon in.” She closed her book. “I could use a break.”

Leesa stepped into the room as Cali unfolded herself from the bed, moving as stiffly as Leesa had a few minutes earlier. “I know the feeling,” she said sympathetically as she watched Cali try to stretch out the kinks.

“This ain’t like high school, huh?” Cali said.

Leesa shook her head. “Not even close.”

“I was never up past midnight—not studying, anyhow,” Cali said, grinning.

“And I never had a Red Bull until this week,” Leesa said. “I guess new experiences are what college is all about.”

“Yeah, but I’m liking some of those experiences better than others.” Cali stifled a yawn. “Just one more day, and this experience will be over.” Her face brightened. “Then we have the big Halloween party. That’ll be fun.”

“I hope so.”

“Miss Enthusiasm strikes again,” Cali teased. She grabbed Leesa’s arm. “C’mon, let’s take a walk around the dorm. Stretch out the kinks.”

Leesa followed Cali into the empty hallway. It was fairly quiet. All the doors except Cali’s were closed. The only music she could hear was soft and muted—studying music. No light peeked out from beneath Caitlin and Stacie’s door, but most of the others glowed with the telltale yellow strip that said, “Yep, we’re still up studying.”

“Stacie’s sleeping, lucky girl,” Cali said. “She’s some kind of braniac. Caitlin says she never studies past midnight. Still gets all A’s and B’s.”

“And here we are, prowling the hallways at one o’clock, with more studying still to go,” Leesa said, sighing. “What I wouldn’t give to be in bed right now. What about Caitlin? Don’t tell me she’s sleeping, too.”

“Nah, she’s pulling an all-nighter at the library. Says if she stays here, it’s too easy to get distracted or go to bed.”

“Distracted like walking the halls?” Leesa said, laughing.

Cali smiled. “This is a break, not a distraction. There’s a difference.”

“Okay. As long as it’s a break, let’s take five more minutes, and then I have to get back to work.”

Leesa closed her Blue Book and took what felt like her first real breath in almost two hours. A glance at the clock told her she still had five minutes left for the exam, but she was done—sooo done. She felt good about her performance, though, and was confident she’d gotten at least a B. Definitely good enough for physics. All her studying had paid off. She’d been up until four that morning, slept until eight, then snuck in some last minute cramming before the exam. Now she just wanted to go home, maybe take a nap.

She walked her booklet up to the front and dropped it on top of the few others already there. A couple of science geeks had been finished for a while, but most of her classmates were still frantically scribbling in their booklets as the final minutes ticked away. The professor, a preppy blond guy in his late thirties, nodded and gave her a small smile—her reward, she guessed, for finishing early. Leesa smiled back before turning and heading for the door.

The bright sunny day grew much brighter when she saw Rave smiling up at her from the bottom of the steps. He was wearing a black long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans. And those darn gloves, even though it wasn’t all that cold. Seeing him here was the last thing she expected, and her fatigue seemed to melt away. She smiled back and limped quickly down the steps.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he said. “How’d you do? Did you slay that physics monster?”

“I done good,” Leesa said, smiling. “The monster’s dead, at least for now. But how’d you know what I was doing? I never told you about my midterms.”

“I have my methods.” Rave grinned and took both her hands in his. “Just because you don’t see me doesn’t mean I’m not around.”

Leesa’s smile widened. “Somehow, I believe that.” She squeezed his hands. “And I like it, too. Though I prefer seeing you.”

Rave’s expression turned serious. “I need to talk to you. How about I take you to lunch?”

Leesa raised her eyebrows, feigning shock. “You mean almost like a real date?” She let her body go partially limp, held up only by his strong hands. “I may faint.”

Rave laughed. “Yeah, like a real date.
Almost
,” he mimicked. His face and voice turned serious. “After you hear what I have to say, you may not want any more dates, real or otherwise.”

Leesa stared into his eyes, her mind racing. What could he possible say to make her not want to see him? Any thoughts of a nap disappeared.

“How about over at Clayton?” she suggested, naming the Student Center building. “It’s the nearest place with food. Not great food, for sure, but food.”

“As long as we can get some privacy, I don’t really care about the food.”

Privacy. Need to talk. May not want any more dates
. What was going on here? Rave was being even more mysterious than usual. No way was she going any farther than Clayton before hearing what he had to say.

“Let’s go, then.” She let go of one of his hands, but kept a tight grip on the other as she led him around the corner toward the Student Center.

The dining hall was cavernous, furnished with plain, utilitarian plastic chairs and square wooden tables that could be pushed together to accommodate groups of any size. The rear wall was almost all glass and looked out onto a grassy courtyard. To the right was the cafeteria-style food service section, dominated by a long glass-covered counter stocked with sandwiches, salads, vegetables and side dishes. Behind the counter at the far end, a giant grill sizzled with hamburgers and hot dogs.

Leesa and Rave crossed to the food line, where Rave grabbed two red plastic trays and handed one to Leesa. The line was mercifully short and moved quickly, with most of the kids skipping past the salads and vegetables and heading right for the sandwiches, fries and burgers. The smell of grilled beef and fries beckoned them, even here at the far end of the counter.

Leesa also ignored the salads. She was too anxious to hear what Rave wanted to talk about to waste time picking out salad fixings. A burger and fries would do just fine, thank you.

Rave followed her lead, and a few minutes later they found a table in the far back corner that provided the privacy Rave wanted. The din of dozens of animated conversations still filled the space, but it was quieter here than at the more popular window tables. Hiding her impatience, Leesa squirted ketchup onto her fries and burger, and then offered the bottle to Rave, who shook his head.

At least he takes off his gloves to eat, she thought as she watched him pull them off and drop them onto the table. He picked up his burger in both hands and took a big bite, his dark eyes smiling at her over the top of the burger. It looked like she was going to have to wait a bit longer to hear what he had to say, so she went to work on her food. First some fries—underdone and soggy—then a bite of her burger. As usual, the meat was cooked to medium. Still, the burger wasn’t bad. Not great by any stretch, but not bad.