Eternally Blue (Sunset Cliffs Vampire #1) (Paranormal Teen Romance) (12 page)

I looked at Noah and saw how hopeful he looked and my spirits lifted slightly, “I agree that within a week’s time it will be done, however, I would prefer to send my brother instead, I am sure he will come back in a week’s time to check on me again and if he doesn’t then I will go myself. If I go to the council with this request, in my state, they will likely demand I end my already brief time as an immortal, and that is if I make it all the way there without interference by any of the rogues that are attracted to the perimeter of my clan’s borders”. I held my breath waiting for her response, and Noah and I shared a nervous glance.

After what felt like whole minutes she replied “I accept. Now leave here before I eat you myself, I am very hungry after my journey and you have stressed me to no end”. I gladly jumped up and allowed myself only one quick look at Noah, to see him trying to contain his smile at me, before I bolted from his house.

Chapter 7

I see lights on at my house I think gratefully as I’m crossing the street. I didn’t manage to get my cell phone from Noah and I don’t want to be in trouble for missing Sue. When I get inside I am greeted by Sam, and I think with some fear, that I didn’t even see that she got home ok, and I dropped to the floor in the foyer and hugged her, glad that dogs were so smart.

The hallway light switched on and Sue stood over me “Blue! There you are! I have been worried sick calling your cell phone and you never answered! I wanted to tell you we had to cancel tonight’s appointment, but you never even picked up. I was stuck in a meeting and couldn’t come home to check on you, where have you been and why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“
I’m sorry, I was here the majority of the evening after Stacey told me to come home and wait for you. I fell asleep and when I woke up I realized I had left my cell phone in Noah’s car so I went over there to get it but,” uh oh, I had better think fast as to why his car was there and why I was gone so long but still am sans cell phone. I quickly finished “but by the time I got my cell phone, it was dead”. I patted my empty pocket for good measure, holding my breath hoping she wouldn’t ask to see it.

She regarded me for a minute, calming down steadily as I watched her. “You gave me quite a scare today, I gave you that cell phone so that I could get a hold of you, please do take more care of it”.

I nodded in agreement, “Your right, I’m sorry, I will try harder”.

That seemed to soften her up some because she sighed, “It’s ok, just a rough day all around I guess. Did you have dinner?” I shook my head no, and she led the way to the delicious smelling kitchen. It was just us for dinner, since Rick was working, and Stacey still hadn’t come home from the beach or wherever it is she was now that it was dark. We ate in companionable silence, and Sue excused herself to the study to work on something for work, and I cleared our dinner plates while trying to wrap my head around the fact that Noah was like me, but permanently.

Did I want to be involved with someone who had made that choice already? Wouldn’t it kind of make my choice for me? If I changed back into a vampire, I suppose I could try to make it work, even though we would literally be as different as night and day, but where would we live? In his world or mine? That was a crazy thought, we couldn’t live in my world because protection or not, if he lived in the boundaries of my clan, smelling like that, he would eventually get bitten.

He was made a vampire by Lainey then for some reason, because he was unhappy, she changed him back. I wonder if he asked to be changed so that they could be together and then for whatever reason they broke up, or maybe he just got depressed from sun withdraw and that ruined their relationship? I wasn’t sure of their exact current relationship but I thought it was a good thing that he didn’t seem happy to see her, and she seemed annoyed but not totally ravenous about me and him, which I figured, if they were in a relationship she would have been.

Thinking about this after the big day I’d had was making my brain hurt so I gave up on cleaning the dishes and just loaded everything into the dishwasher and went upstairs to lie in bed and wait for sleep.

Chapter 8

Every morning at school over the next few days Noah looked at me expectedly, and I was always so disappointed with myself when I had to shake my head that no, my brother hadn’t been by. If he didn’t come in the next four days I had to go to the council myself and I was not counting on that being a conversation that would go well since I was supposed to be avoiding our clan at all costs.

Noah for his part always just shrugged and moved onto other topics of conversation. Today he was cracking me up with Lainey’s latest antics, since she is nocturnal and Noah and his brother aren’t any longer, she is driving them a little crazy and he was showing signs of sleep deprivation.

I was laughing while being regaled with her latest nighttime noisy activities (last night it her going through the attic full of ancient junk that’s been in there since before Noah moved in) sitting outside on the wall before the first bell, our morning meeting spot, when Courtney sauntered up to us, immediately cutting my laughter off, and wiping the smile somewhat off Noah’s face. We both turn to her expectantly. “Noo-ahhhh” She sing-songed. “Good morning Courtney, what’s up?”

“
Noah, Mrs. Tucker says if I don’t get an A on our test on Friday I am not going to be able to keep my B average and she suggested I get someone from class to tutor me.” She let her statement hang there in the air for a minute and I looked at Noah to see him look confused. She apparently saw it too because her smile faltered for a second and she blinked in surprise and just as quickly pasted her smile back on and forged ahead, this was a girl who got what she wanted “So you see, I was thinking and really you’re the smartest person in class I know, and I mean… I could ask Marina but she works after school so…. “She gave him puppy eyes “Say you’ll do it Noah, please please please?”

He looked shocked at the ambush, but she had him cornered and she knew it. Besides, Noah was a nice guy and would enjoy helping a fellow student, especially one as pretty as Courtney I thought. He nodded slowly, “Yeah sure, how about tomorrow at five.”

“
Noah you’re a life saver!” She squealed. She rummaged through her purse and pulled out a pen and a scrap of paper and wrote her address on it and thrust it at him. She glanced at me only for a second before hurrying away.

I sat awkwardly picking at a stray thread on my jeans. “So… Courtney”

“
Yeah she’s great isn’t she,” He said quickly.

“
Yeah” I squeaked, right up there personality wise with Lainey. Now there’s a friendship worth entertaining. I wonder who would eat who first. I knew what Courtney was really after. She wanted to get an A in Noah logy. Oh well, at least if Courtney managed to make Noah forget all about me, maybe Lainey and him will move and I won’t have to ask my brother to go to the Council on my behalf… for them. Or worse, go to the council myself.

The Lacey’s were being really great about my independence and seemed especially pleased that I was cozying up to Noah as opposed to any other guy. They really liked him. If only they knew he was an ex vampire and that the girl they saw coming and going in the evenings after dark from his house was not in fact his older cousin on holiday from Europe like we’d have them believe, but a real life vampire. Not just any vampire but the one who turned him into a vampire for reasons still unknown to me. If only they knew I still had vampire blood running through the veins of my now beating heart.

Now that I felt like I was going to lose the Lacey’s by involving the council in Noah and Lainey’s doings, I was spending all my class time thinking about them and how great they are. Not that I didn’t appreciate them before, but if you’ve ever been in my situation where you fear you are losing someone then you know what I am trying to say.

After school as I do every day now that Lindsey is back to staying after school for pep squad, I met Noah in the parking lot for my ride home. He didn’t have a happy look on his face, and I tried to get him to talk about it as we waited in the traffic leaving the parking lot but he stayed quiet. I started getting really nervous why he wouldn’t talk to me when there was obviously something wrong. I wonder if he’s been thinking about me versus Courtney. I mean, she’s a golden girl after all, and I’m a girl of the night. He was bitten by a girl of the night, maybe he decided he was done with all that and wants to give a nice Cali girl a try. I stared out the window gulping back panic.

When we finally made it out of the parking lot Noah started to speak. “Lainey sent me a text message this morning; she said she smelled your brother around our property again this morning as she was coming in for the day. She’s not happy about it and she’d like you to reconsider going to the council yourself, like immediately.”

I was stunned. Of all the things I could have thought he was upset about, never once did my brother and Lainey factor in. Why is my brother apparently hanging around their house and not coming to visit me? Of all the times I want him to ignore the rules, I thought. “Ok let’s give him until tomorrow night and if he doesn’t come by then, I’ll go myself”.

Noah nodded in agreement and reached one of his hands over to mine in my lap and squeezed. “You know I don’t like the idea of you going, and I have thought long and hard about asking you to go, but I feel that while Lainey is in such a state, she is actually more of a danger to you than your council, I mean, these are vamps who are supposed to protect you, you’ve grown up with most of them, and they made the decision to change you because they believe you had a good reason and they care about you, not because they want to eat you as soon as you get on the premises. I’m just bummed I can’t come with you to support you, since I am sure they don’t have such feelings for me and I am not under their protection. Yet.”

We drive to the beach which was become our new favorite after school spot. It seems to be everyone’s after school spot since we’re never alone there. We take his blanket out of the car and find a relatively quiet stretch of beach to lounge.

“
So, did Lainey change you both at the same time?” I ask quietly, twirling my finger in sand to avoid looking at him. He didn’t seem surprised I asked though,

“
No, she changed me first; we had been seeing each other. At night time only of course. I didn’t know what she was, I thought she worked until it got dark, and she was so hypnotizing I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary with her. She was very jealous of what I did during the day, I remember that, and finally one night we got in a huge fight about it, I said if she wanted to know what I did all day why didn’t she ever come around. That’s the night she snapped and changed me”.

“
Oh Noah,” I reached out for him, “I’m so sorry”.

He shook his head and continued “She kept me at her castle for about two years, trying to make me happy, trying to make things go back to the way they were before, when we were happy but I just couldn’t. She realized I missed my brother so she hunted him down, he hadn’t moved, he was only 14 at the time I left and he had to depend on himself for everything, when I found that out I felt so terrible for being the reason that he was left on his own at such a young age with not even a trace of me vanishing.

Later he said the reason he stayed was that he was waiting for me to come home. She took him and she changed him and brought him to me. That was when I went on a hunger strike; I couldn’t live with myself knowing what I’d caused to happen to my baby brother. Once I started getting very weak, both she and Ben started begging me to eat. Turns out he was adapting to being a vampire better than I was which made me even sicker inside.

Lainey eventually realized that I would die if she didn’t do something so she asked permission from her father, who is king of the Europe vamps, to change me back. It’s not something they take lightly as you probably know, and especially considering I now had intimate knowledge of the castle. I swore we would never so much as come within 100 kilometers of the castle if they just changed me and Ben back. Ben unfortunately didn’t want to be changed back, but she forced it on him. It took him about 15 years to forgive me but it was worth it and now I think he’s content with where we are”.

We sat there in silence when he finished talking, looking at the ocean. I was stunned at his incredible journey and my heart was breaking for him; for the love he felt. I scooted closer to him and he put his arm around me and whispered in my ear. “It was all worth it because now I have you”. I smiled and snuggled closer to him and we sat comfortingly close until the sun set, then we slowly packed up and went home.