Darkness (14 page)

He stood up with his guitar and said, “Watch this.” With his hands ready to play he looked at Lola and she cocked her head to the side at him, “Ready girl?” She bounced to her feet and he started playing, still singing the words to the song he just created and as he started to sway his body, Lola also started to sway, keeping her eyes on him, then he slung his guitar behind his back, patted his chest, and she stood with her paws in his hands.., She was nearly as tall as he was when she was on her hind legs, and together they danced, if you could call it that, while Isaac happily belted out his new silly song and Lola had her tongue happily hanging out the side of her mouth.

She sat on the bed facing me and removed the lid. It was pictures. Lots of pictures. I picked up a stack and started flipping through them. They where pictures from the past. “My mom doesn’t know I have them.” Pictures of Julz with Isaac when they were both young, some of Julz with friends. I found a few of Julz with Oscar and a couple of her when she was pregnant and she didn’t look well. I also found a lot of Hayden through the years with all the members of her family, minus Oscar of course. And then I found old pictures of the Knight children. Pictures of Oliver when he was younger with his brother and sister. I found some of just his siblings and some of them with their parents. He had been right about Oscar and Olivia looking like their mom. She was a beautiful woman with dark hair and blue eyes. Very much like my own mother. And very much like my own mother, pictures were all he had left of his too. There were high school photos of Oliver and his brother and I even came across their prom pictures. They were stamped across the bottom:

A Night to Remember

Willow Glen High – Class of 1992

I flipped Oliver’s over, searching for who the girl in the picture was. I caught Hayden eyeing me as I felt a pit of jealously open inside. I tried to calm down and reminded myself that I also went to the prom with someone else and the fact that I was a toddler when Oliver attended his prom wasn’t helping me. He had a past before me. And considering all the things that kept popping up, I was worried that this prom date from the past might be another surprise. On the back it was written in ink, Oliver Knight and Lacey Hillmen.
Lacey? Really?
That was way too close to my name. I needed to know things about her. About them... She was really pretty despite the fact her bangs were about a mile high. And her being pretty was only adding to my inner fit.

I caught a look of concern on Hayden’s face and shoved the picture under the stack of others. I’d look into this later. She began putting the pictures back into the box and I attempted to play like all was cool.

She put the box of photos back into their hiding place then returned to the bed to sit with me. “I guess there is a small fear that I won’t change at all. That this will be it.” And she gestured to herself when she said it.

“Why do you want to be a vampire?”

She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly before answering me. “This entire world and all that’s in it, I want to see it. Every last bit of it.” It was a pretty good answer and she was so sure of it. I saw her point, but I just wasn’t sure I agreed…

I closed Oliver’s bedroom door behind me once Lola was inside and I locked it. I leaned against it for a moment and listened. They were all busy doing their own things. I had some time on my own and I started rummaging through drawers and the closet. I found an old suitcase at the top of Oliver’s closet. It was locked and the only way into it was a key or breaking the lock. That I was sure he’d notice. I shook it and it didn’t sound like anything interesting. That sounds lame, but I was looking for pictures or letters or anything that would give me clues into his past with this other girl. Or, other girls. I had no idea. Once I was done digging through the love of my life’s personal items and had found nothing, except guilt for doing such a thing, I began putting everything back where it had been. At least trying to anyways. I shouldn’t have looked through his stuff. I was acting like a crazy jealous girlfriend. And over what? A relationship that ended almost twenty years ago? I was careful to put everything back in its place and if I were asked why something wasn’t where it belonged I’d just say I was looking for food. Which wouldn’t be a total lie-I did find the cheese crackers again. I sat in the middle of the floor with the crackers and my laptop and searched the internet for any information on both Oliver and this Lacey girl.

I couldn’t find a thing on Oliver and I’d even searched for his death. Still nothing. I found a girl matching the description and information I had. I found her on Facebook, she was married with young kids and a hyphenated name. She still looked good, but I realized, in my search, that I was being the jealous girlfriend and that it was ridiculous. He was mine now and that was all that mattered.

I spent a little time with Carter before I went to bed that night. He was doing much better and even seemed to have a bit of his old spirit back.

Chapter 17 - Blood Pops

I woke to Oliver kissing down my shoulder. “You’re back!” I flipped over from my stomach and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down closer to me.

“Only for a moment,” he said quietly as he kissed my lips. “Felix and I are on damage control tonight until the teams are assembled. Which should be done by tomorrow evening.” He pecked my lips again. “I will be back as soon as I can.” He hugged me tight and I returned it. “I miss you,” I whispered into his ear. “I love you,” he whispered back. I was content there in the dark with his arms holding me close.

The next thing I knew I woke with my hands crossed over my chest liked you see vampires do in movies. I giggled to myself. I must’ve fallen back to sleep before Oliver left, because I had no recollection of him leaving and I wondered if it had all been a dream. But when I sat up I noticed his black sweatshirt, the one I’d worn that first night he was gone, was no longer hanging over the desk chair. I doubted anyone else would’ve taken it.

Lola was on the floor. Her belly up to the sky, but her eyes on me and her tongue hanging out to the side. I laughed again and she quickly twisted and was on her feet, wagging her tail and eyeing me happily.

The day was dragging on slowly. I’d eaten, showered, and checked the school website to see if there was anything I needed to do. But there was nothing. I checked my phone. There were messages from Lilly and Kiera.

I called Kiera back first and had a long conversation, okay more like a long listen, with her about how she was going crazy at her parents’ with no school and nothing to do. She talked about how she still hadn’t heard from Carter. She had no idea he was just in the other room from me. I told her that Oliver had relayed that Carter was still ill with some sort of stomach virus and she’d probably hear from him soon. I don’t think she realized that both Carter and I were still at Oliver’s and she didn’t ask. This was an “all about Kiera” phone call. Zoey texted me while I was listening to Kiera. She asked about Carter and I responded that all was well and improving, and she responded with a happy face. I called Lilly after Kiera was done rambling about her woes. Lilly wanted me to come out for dinner and to tell me that she missed me. I told her I’d get back to her about dinner.

Carter was doing much better and we had a long conversation. Turns out Carter knew about his vampire lineage. While in Vegas over the summer his grandfather spilled the beans and told him of their heritage. In a low raspy voice he shared what his grandfather had told him, “My grandpa is half, making my mother a quarter and mean eighth. My grandpa never went through any change so he assumed that I wouldn’t either. But because I’m male, which I guess is rare, there’s a stronger possibility that I could experience some sort of change. But now, with what’s happened, who knows how things will turn out. Unfortunately there’s no information on a situation like mine... So, we’ll just wait and see.” He forced a smile and I took his hand in mine to comfort him.

Then he cleared his throat and started in on me. “Really Laney? A vamp?”

I shrugged and let go of his hand and leaned back in the chair. “How long have you known?”

“Well, I’d thought my grandpa had lost his mind when he told me all of this. It wasn’t until you and Oliver got into that fight a while back and I saw his teeth. That confirmed everything for me. It all started to fall into place at that point. I started keeping Kiera away from him. I don’t think she’s as open minded about the fantasy world. I’m not sure she’d accept it…” It seemed like there was more he wanted to say but I wasn’t going to push him. We sat there in silence for a while and eventually I was able to help him out of bed and down the hall. His strength had greatly improved in the last couple days. We cozied ourselves onto the couch with Hayden where we were entertained by Isaac and the dancing dog again. By the time Isaac had finished his song we were all rolling with tears.

Suddenly the house began to make noise. The window panes rose and sunshine streamed into the house. Lola scrambled out of the living room, seemingly in a big hurry, so I quickly followed after her to let her out the back door. By how fast she bolted out the backdoor, I think peeing in the shower was a last resort for Lola. Felix sauntered in and closed the front door behind him. I stared at him, waiting for him to answer me. I knew I didn’t need to ask; he’d know what I wanted to know.

He smirked, causing that single dimple to appear. “He had a few more things to take care of. He’ll be back soon.” I forced a smile back at him.

Hayden was always quick to wrap her arms around Felix and this time their gaze lingered a little too long. And it made me wonder…Nah, there couldn’t be anything going on there. She was way too young and he was…well, I had no idea how old he was. Oliver wouldn’t allow such a thing anyways, would he?

The sound of ice cream truck music filled the room and Felix handed Hayden money and told the two of us to go get something sweet while he checked on Carter’s wounds.

Like most ice cream trucks, it had the sliding window to order from and a creepy old dude driving it. But this creepy old dude was creepier than usual, looking us up and down like we were a snack. I took a step back towards the sidewalk as Hayden paid but not so far away from Hayden that I wouldn’t be able to jerk her towards me if mister creep-meister decided to make a move. She took our juice bars from him and politely thanked him. He eyed us again. “Where’s your uncle?” He asked. “He’s here,” she answered without hesitation. Then his stare lingered on me and I took another step back. “Who’s your friend?” She took a lick from her juice bar before answering. “My uncle’s girlfriend, so you best keep your eyes to yourself.” With that he slid his little window closed, started up his musical truck and drove away. I shuddered at the thought of the creepy ice cream man and wondered if he was more than just a creepy guy, but maybe a creepy vampire guy...

I shook off the disturbing feeling he gave me and sat on the sidewalk with Hayden. She handed me one of the strawberry juice bars. It was an extremely dark red color and it had a weird after taste, but once you got past that, it was pretty good.

“You know he holds back around you,” Hayden said as she sucked on her frozen treat.

I shot her a puzzled look. “What?” It came out kinda snotty. I was beginning to get a little tired of everyone telling what my boyfriend was like, or rather, what he wasn’t like around me.

“He wants you to think he’s normal, but he’s not. He’s more dangerous that he leads on.” I was still staring at her stuck between a ‘what the hell’ and a ‘shut up’ look on my face. Then she added in a low voice, “Trust no one, Laney. Not even me.” Then she nodded across the cul-de-sac to where Oliver was now leaning against his car, arms crossed over his chest, watching us from behind his dark sunglasses. And with that Hayden stood. I stood too as I watched him cross the space between us. He wrapped me tight in his arms when he reached me. I buried my face in his shoulder and breathed deep. Every worry and frustration disappeared when I was in his arms. He held me close against him and whispered against my neck, “Oh, how I’ve missed you.” It sent all kinds of chills through me. When he let go, he took my juice bar from my hand and told Hayden to go inside. She was already on her way up the driveway and in a very teenage way she said, “I’m going.”

“She’s right you know.” And he took a bite of the juice bar. “You shouldn’t trust her.” I raised both eyebrows at him questioning. “It’s a strawberry blood pop.” I felt my stomach turn.
Eww, eww, eww!
“The ice cream man is a vampire.” Stomach still churning. “That was Orievitto, he’s usually trolling for victims so stay away from him.” That wasn’t going to be a problem. “For now he thinks you’re one of us. And it’s best that way.” Then he kissed me with a long slow, cold, blood pop open mouth kiss.