Life's Blood (The Cordelia Chronicles) (7 page)

Dressed in a an auburn-colored African print silk dress that accented my hair color perfectly and a pair of tan wedge sandal, I grabbed my computer bag and dashed down the stairs.

“Are you ready to go?” I said, slamming into Chaseyn at the bottom of the stairs.

“You have to eat something first,” he replied, turning me toward the kitchen.

“There’s no time. You’re going to have to drive like lightning as it is to get me there in time for my first class.”

“Luckily that’s my specialty,” he quipped.

“I have no idea where I’m going because we spent all day in bed yesterday instead of touring campus like we were supposed to, so we have to get there with plenty of time for me to get lost at least once.”

“Humor me then and eat this on the way,” Chaseyn said, handing me a banana from the basket on the breakfast bar.

“That I can do,” I smiled and kissed his cheek.

As promised, Chaseyn drove like a bat out of hell to get me to school with time to spare. He pulled into the nearest parking space, and just as I leaned over to kiss him goodbye, he cut the engine.

“I thought I made it clear I was running late. There’s no point parking the car because there’s no time for a long goodbye,” I said.

Chaseyn didn’t say a thing. Instead, he pulled the keys from the ignition and slid out of his seat. In the blink of an eye, he was opening my door to let me out.

“This really isn’t necessary,” I told him as he took my hand and we started to walk. “I know I said I was worried about getting lost on campus, but I’m sure I can figure it out on my own.”

Chaseyn remained silent but kept walking. When we arrived at the entrance to the auditorium where my Introduction to Political Science class was being held, he finally released his hold on my hand. Then, he drew in a deep breath, and I knew he was finally going to say something--goodbye, perhaps?

“I’ll see you at lunchtime,” he said.

“That’s going way above and beyond,” I laughed.

“You didn’t have time to make anything this morning, so I thought we could get a bite to eat at one of the places on campus. My Macro Economics class ends at 12:15 and your next class--Philosophy 101, I believe--ends at 11:45. That should give you enough time to walk to my building, and we can go from there.”

“What did you just say?”

“I was saying we should meet for lunch when class lets out.”

“What do you mean
you
have class? You enrolled for classes?”

“I have nothing else to do with my time while you’re at school, so I figure I might as well find a productive way to pass the days,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as though it was no big deal.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this before.”

“You never asked.”

He was right. I hadn’t asked how he was planning to spend his days in my absence. I never really thought about it before. I guess I thought he’d get a job.

“Besides, your mom asked me what classes I’d enrolled in, and I couldn’t very well tell her I had decided not to get my degree.”

“But you have one already--several, in fact.”

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t very well tell her that either.”

He had a point.

“Okay, I guess I’ll see you in a few hours,” I said after a short pause.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about having Chaseyn at school with me. I loved being with him, and when I wasn’t with him, all I could do was think about when I would be again. But this was supposed to be
my
time to break free, make new friends, and find myself.

Maybe I had talked too much about how scared I was to be without Addie for the first time. She and I had been in every class together for as long as I could remember. I’d never faced a “first day” of classes without her at my side. But as daunted by the notion as I was, I was also excited by the prospect of coming out from under her shadow. Now, I would be firmly entrenched beneath Chaseyn’s. Despite their best efforts, Addie and Chaseyn commanded attention. They were beautiful and wealthy, and the rest of us were just average by comparison. For once,
I
wanted to shine.

“I thought you’d be happy about this,” Chaseyn said, hanging his head. He kicked an imaginary stone on the ground and rubbed his forehead between his thumb and forefingers. “I screwed up.”

“I’m always happy to spend time with you,” I said, tugging his chin up.

“But…”

“But I’m a little surprised is all,” I replied.

“And not in a good way,” he said.

“Not in a bad way, either,” I smiled, trying to lighten the moment. Chaseyn had only done what he thought was right. No sense kicking him when he was down.

“How about you go to class, make some new friends, and we meet at the
end
of the day to drive home together?” Chaseyn suggested.

I threw my arms around his neck and planted a hard kiss on his mouth. My lips were still swollen from spending all day Sunday in bed together, and the sting made me wince. It was times like these I envied Chaseyn’s inhuman healing abilities.

“You’re the best,” I said.

“Don’t forget it when you’re out there carving out new friendships. I don’t want any guys getting the wrong idea,” he teased.

“Why, Mr. Lear, do I note a hint of jealousy in your tone?”

“You better believe it,” he said coyly. “You’re volunteering to spend your days with other people. A guy could get a complex if he didn’t know any better.”

“Good thing this guy knows
way
better,” I laughed before turning to walk into the auditorium to take a seat.

I surveyed the landscape in an effort to select my seat wisely. I’d heard the professors sometimes forced you to keep the same seat for the entire semester, and I didn’t want to get stuck sitting beside someone I couldn’t tolerate. All of the people in the first few rows looked way too eager. I was a good student, but I didn’t want to be dubbed a brown noser. At least three of the students sitting in the back row were sleeping, and a handful of others appeared to be either hung over or still drunk, from the night before. I decided to keep to the middle rows. I took a seat between what appeared to be another solo female on my left and one half of a football couple on my right--the male half. I only knew because he was a brick wall of a man wearing a school jacket with the word “linebacker” embroidered on the arm. And while the seat next to him had been temporarily vacated, there was an iPad emblazoned with a decal displaying the logo for a cheer squad sitting on the desk, and an overly peppy blonde was bouncing down the aisle in his general direction.

I looked over my shoulder to flash a quick grin a Chaseyn before he left for his own class. I knew he would wait until I had settled in. Sure enough, once he saw I was ready to tackle my first college lecture, he waved goodbye and strutted down the hall.

I missed him already.

***

“Can you believe how much we covered already?” the girl sitting next to me asked as we were packing up our bags at the end of class. “I know they told us college would be totally different than high school, but I wasn’t expecting so much to happen so fast.”

“I know,” I chuckled. “I think we’re already on the second chapter of the textbook.”

“I’m Mandi, by the way,” the girl said, extending her hand.

“Lia,” I replied, giving her hand a firm shake.

“Do you know anyone else here?” she asked.

“My boyfr--fiance--is taking Econ, but he’s in a different building,” I replied. It felt strange, but good, to call Chaseyn my fiance. The word “boyfriend” had never completely conveyed our level of commitment to each other, so it was nice to put a more defined label on our relationship.

“Lucky you,” she pouted. “I moved into res on Saturday, and you’re the first person I’ve talked to since I arrived--no wait! There was the guy at McDonald‘s, but I don’t think that counts. I’m not sure how he’d have known my order if he didn’t ask.”

“Do you have a roommate?”

“Yeah, but she was too busy sucking face with some guy she met in the hallway in the first five minutes she was here to acknowledge my existence,” Mandi explained. “It’s okay, though. I used the quiet time to read the first few chapters of the assigned textbooks for each of my classes.”

I liked Mandi instantly. She was utterly unassuming and exactly what I was looking for in a friend--witty, polite, astute. I felt like I’d hit a home run my first time at bat.

“Mandi, I have Philosophy now, but what do you say we meet for lunch?”

“Love to,” she said.

***

“How was your day, love?” Chaseyn asked as I slid into the passenger seat.

“It was fantastic,” I said and started rambling about everything that had happened since we’d parted ways that morning.

I told him all about my classes and what I would be studying for the next few months. But I spent most of the ride telling him about Mandi, my new best friend--not that I had forgotten about Addie already, but Mandi and I had chemistry. I never dreamed I would find that sort of connection with someone so quickly.

“I’m so happy for you,” Chaseyn said. “It sounds like college is everything you hoped it would be so far.”

We were nearly home, but before we turned onto the rural route leading to our house, I remembered my manners and asked Chaseyn how he’d spent his day.

“Did you make any friends?” I asked.

“I met a few new people,” he said.

I should have known better than to ask. Chaseyn made every effort to avoid personal connections. Given his
condition
, it was difficult for him to make lasting relationships. Sooner or later, people would begin to notice his inability to age at a normal rate, and he would have to move on. It was too hard to keep saying goodbye, so he avoided letting people get too close to him on an emotional level. I was a rare exception. And hopefully, in the near future, my research would pay off, Chaseyn would become human, and we would be able to stay put in our new home.

“I talked to the instructor about being a teacher’s aid,” he said happily. “I told him about my previous Economics degree, and he agreed to let me help grade assignments.”

“That’s great news,” I said, squeezing his thigh.

I wanted Chaseyn to feel like he belonged someplace, and I wanted that place to be here, with me. The more roots he put down, the more accustom he would become to the idea of becoming human, and it made me so happy to think he was making such a concerted effort.

Everything was going to work out for us. I could feel it.

Over the next few weeks, Chaseyn and I fell into a rhythm. He would wake me at six each morning--no need for an alarm clock when your half-human fiance never slept past four, if he slept at all. While I showered and dressed in one of the eclectic outfits Chaseyn had chosen with me the night before, Chaseyn would pour us each a travel mug filled with coffee--and in my case whole lot of sweetener and creamer. For the first few days of school, he had made us each a paper-bag lunch, as well, but by the second week, he had bought us each a prepaid food card for the campus cafeteria.

Once at school, Chaseyn would walk me to my first class, and then I wouldn’t see him again until the end of the day. The time apart was good for us and gave us plenty to talk about at night. On weekends, we would spend as much time together as possible. While the weather was still warm, we took walks through the park or hiked through the foothills. As the leaves changed color and snow started to cover the ground, we took to the ski hills or ice skating.

For the most part, school was a breeze. I was a good student, always had been. And the great thing about it was that I didn’t really need to study to keep my grades up. So, while everyone else was cramming for exams or writing papers, I was using the resources available to me through the university library to continue my research into the cure for Chaseyn’s condition.

Mandi and I met at the library whenever we had a study period. Sometimes we would work on our Political Science homework together, but most of the time, we would just keep each other company while we worked on whatever assignment was most pressing at the moment. For me, that was always researching where in Romania we could obtain the ingredients to make Chaseyn’s cure.

Mandi and I had also formed a study group on Friday nights. We had made a few acquaintances in our other classes, and they would join us. We’d managed to secure a semi-quiet corner of the library where we could laugh and work without disturbing the other patrons. It was amazing to be part of a group like that.

Chaseyn was great about giving me time alone with my friends. While I would hang with them, he would find a quiet space and mark papers. Occasionally, he would go for a drink with some of the other teacher aids or graduate students. We didn’t have to pretend to be the same age here, where so few people knew either one of us, so Chaseyn could say he was 21. It wasn’t entirely a lie--he had been 21 for decades. It was a big campus, so on the rare occasion when we would run into one of our former high-school classmates, we could tell them whatever they needed to hear knowing they would never learn the truth one way or another.