My Immortal Playlist (The Siren Collection #1) (12 page)

“You’re perfectly fine, honey,” Nurse Beatty said, looking down at the thermometer. “You can go back to class now.”

“She blacked out,” Lucas said. “She might seem fine, but that’s not normal.”

“Well, she
’s a little thing. Not getting enough to eat probably.”

“She wasn’t like that before,” he said, looking into my eyes. I had no
explanation for him - how my body had changed so quickly, to the point that even my hair and make-up had gone back to normal. It must have happened in seconds. How was that possible?

“She has to
go,” the nurse snorted, grabbing a tissue from a box on the counter and spitting into it.

“She’s staying,” Lucas ordered.

“Listen, I get the tone, honey. It’s cute. But she’s fine. You want me to go get the principal?”

“Do it,” he said. She shrugged her shoulders a
nd walked away to make a call from her desk.

“It isn’t a big deal,” I said. “We can go.”

“Whatever happened back there, it’s not normal…what did happen back there?”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” I said with a straight face and he laughed out loud. The nurse returned.

“The security will be here in a couple minutes, young man.”

“Okay,” he said. “That means I have about ten. Now leave us alone.” The nurse snorted again and let us be.

“You’re going to get in trouble,” I said to him, but he didn’t look nervous.

“Trouble is easy. I can deal with trouble. I’m more concerned about you.”

“When you say stuff like that, it’s so hard to believe you. I just…I can’t believe that you’re this changed man all of a sudden simply because you choose to be.”

“I’m not
that man yet,” he said. “But isn’t that what trying to change is? Doing something different over and over until it becomes habit?”

“Maybe.”

“All you need to know is that when it comes to you, there is no practice. It comes naturally. I never met a girl that I could just…talk to.”

“Yeah, you would be surprised by what some of the female species has to say,”
I groaned, sitting up in the chair. “But, you have to be wondering how my body changed like that.”

“Of course,” he said, his face going serious. “To be honest, I almost don’t want to know.”

“If we continue this, you’re going to have to know.” He didn’t know what to say to that. After a few moments of silence, he decided to probe.

“Then tell me.”

I thought about it for a moment, but the risk was too great. Especially not in the middle of the school. He could easily run away and I could probably catch him…I’m sure my body would transform into a new hunting mode, but I couldn’t go after him without exposing what I was to others. If I was going to tell him, I had to know him more first, and do it in private. Just in case.

“Let’s
have fun for now,” I said, giving the weakest smile ever. I could see the curiosity in his face, but he let it go. I didn’t know what to say to him next, so I jumped to my feet, grabbed his hand and began pulling him out the nurse’s office. “Let’s go,” I said. “Come with me.” He obeyed and allowed me to lead him out into the hall, and eventually through the school doors. I usually wasn’t one to draw attention to myself, but I was done worrying about how I felt about Lucas. I had a dangerous idea…a way to get a read on who he was once and for all.

I would see how he acted in his natural habitat.

“Where are we going?” he asked, as I led him to the garbage can I called my car.

“To the city.”

“What city?” he asked warily.

“Your city. To Blaketon.”

“Why are we going there?” he demanded. The shift in his tone was so noticeable that I was nearly rendered speechless.

“Um, I – I want to see where you grew up.”

“No one wants to see that dump.”

“What? Are you scared?” I goaded him. “Don’t tell me you’ve been lying all this time.”

“No, I haven’t. But you don’t get it. I’m trying to get away from there.”

“It’s been a
few years since you lived in the city. You’ll be fine.”

“Alright,” he chuckled. “But you’re not going to enjoy it.”

“We’ll see,” I said, as I got into the driver’s seat. I wasn’t terrified one bit. My body was already in need of its next feeding and if we were attacked I was certain that I could provide all the protection.

“Can this thing even make it?” Lucas laughed as he climbed into the passenger seat. My car sputtered and coughed as it came to life.
I tried not to laugh as Lucas plowed his legs through mounds of empty soda cans and fast food wrappers.

“I have no clue,” I said honestly.

“Odds are we’re probably going to get stuck.”

“Probably,” I laughed, pulling out the parking lot. He shook his head and leaned against the door. “You shouldn’t do that,” I told him. “You might end up flying out.” He shook his head again and sat up. For a few minutes I drove in silence.
He wasn’t looking forward to our trip, but it was the only way. I had seen it all too often. The guys who would act one way in front of their girls, but completely different in front of their boys. I didn’t know what our relationship was, if you could even call it that, but how he would react would speak volumes about where I stood in his mind, especially if he was as tight with his friend Reign as he claimed.

“
This is the opposite of fun,” he huffed. I glanced over at him for a second and then turned back to my driving. “I know what you’re doing.”

“What am I doing?” I asked innocently.

“You’re testing me again.”

“Testing? What do you mean? When did I test you before?”

“You don’t trust me.”

“No one said that.”

“No, it’s clear. Explain to me what happened that night at your house.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.

“Yeah, right. I remember setting up a date with you, next thing I know, I’m waking up at dawn behind Angelo’s with a bruise the size of a baseball on my face.”

“It’s not that big,” I murmured.

“Obviously someone sucker punched me,” he said. “And I thought you were going to bring it up when I saw you in the hall earlier, but you acted like it never happened. What’s the deal?”

“I hadn’t noticed,” I laughed. When he didn’t laugh with me, I cleared my throat and calmed down.
“Well, to be honest, there’s a lot I don’t really want to talk about.”

“Because you don’t trust me. You have these roomm
ates, and one of them is a missing person. Your body obviously changed in seconds back at the school, and you live in this big house that no one ever enters. I asked about you around the school. You know what people say about you? That your house is haunted and you’re probably a succubus in disguise.”

“People said all that?” I laughed nervously.

“And you know what? I’m no stranger to rumors. I let them go, and try to figure out the truth myself because I’ve been burned a lot in the past. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t get you…you’re not sure what to think of me yet you’re the one with all the red flags. How is that fair?”

“My intention wasn’t to upset you,” I said, putting on the right turn signal, away from the highway
and Blaketon. If Lucas was this upset, no good was going to come of our trip. To my surprise, Lucas leaned over and forced the lever upwards, making the car signal that we were going left instead.

“We’re heading to Blaketon,” he huffed. “You wanted to see it. We’re going.”

“But not if you’re going to be angry about it. I didn’t mean to –“

“ – we’re going,” he said sternly. “
I’m going to have you meet Reign.”

“Are you serious?”

“That’s what you wanted, right? What? Were we just going to drive around the city mindlessly until we happened to stumble upon them? No, let’s not waste our time. You have a sleepover to get to tonight. I’ll take you straight to them. Just watch what you say. It’s been awhile since we’ve all seen each other in person.”

“What are they going to do? Slap me?”

“They might.”

“I would like to see them try.”

“You’re not that tough,” he said flatly and I turned the wheel to the right sharply for a second, sending his head banging into the window. He winced and glared at me, but all I did was stare straight ahead and smile.

“Reign will probably be cool with you,
” he muttered, “but I can’t speak for the others. And it doesn’t matter if Reign is the leader, sometimes his men break rank and act on their own, especially if they think the reward will be greater than the punishment. Don’t do anything to draw too much attention.”

“Oh they don’t have to worry about me. I mean, I’m ugly and everything and I know how you gang types roll.”

“You’re not ugly. You’re kinda cute,” he murmured. I leaned my ear in close to him.

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch it.”

“You heard me.”

“My car makes a lot of noise, especially here on the driver’s side. Plus I’m trying to focus so my senses aren’t as strong as usual and –“

“– I said that you’re cute!” he shouted at me and then slumped back into his seat. Since we were on the highway, there was no room for him to escape. I gave him a moment to bask in his embarrassment.

“What’s cute about me?” I asked innocently.

“Are we really doing this now?”

“We still have ten minutes before we hit the city border. I want to know.”

“Can’t you settle for being cute? Why do you need specifics?”

“
I have to know before we get to our destination, or I’ll start giving your friends lap dances and then you’ll have to protect me from their advances.”

“You probably couldn’t lap dance to save your life, and second, who says I’m going to protect you?”

“You’ll protect me. You can’t help it,” I smiled at him. “Your manly instincts will kick in. Especially since I’m so…cute.”

“It’s your eyes, okay? Can we drop this?”

“Why is this so uncomfortable? What about the other girls you’ve dated? Didn’t you have to tell them what was so appealing about them?”

“Ha! No,” he chuckled. “They wer
e just grateful to be with me, even if it was only for a day. If anything, they were singing
my
praises.”

“Oh my,” I said putting a hand to my chest. “
Poor baby. This must be so traumatizing for you then.”

“The
day is heading that way.”

“Are you sure you want to continue? I mean, I don’t want to take you out of your comfort zone.”

“We’re beyond that now. Besides,” Lucas grinned at me. “As painful as some our time together has been,” he tapped the bruise on his face. “I never had so much adventure. Sticking around you has made my life interesting again.”

“You have no idea,” I laughed.
We sat in silence for a few seconds. “So…what else is cute?”

Lucas couldn’t help himself. He just started laughing. And I did too.

*
              *              *

“What’s cute about me?” Lucas asked as I parallel parked between two other cars that made mine feel right at home.

“Don’t be so vain,” I said as I applied the parking brake.

“So I can’t ask a question?”

“You’re not cute.”

“Ouch.”

“You’re handsome.”

“Sounds like something a mother would say to her son.”

“What do you want me to say? That you’re sexy?”

“That would be nice. Yes.”

“We’re not there yet,” I winked at him, and I heard him growl under his breath.
I turned off the car and examined the street we were on. It was tight, and there was a steady stream of traffic pouring down it even though it didn’t end up on a major road. One wrong move and I would lose my door or worse, a limb. Lucas got out easily as he was on the sidewalk side. But like a true gentleman, he stepped out into the street and let his body be a shield, blocking the incoming traffic and letting me get out of the vehicle safely. We ran to the other side of the street as the cars honked at him and a few expletives were thrown our way.

“You have to do some crazy things to get around,” he assured me. “Reign and the boys live in his grandmother’s house. She can’t hear too
good so don’t worry about the noise.”

“They all live here?” I asked in disbelief, staring at the two-story duplex house.

“My grandmother lives up top, the boys down bottom.”

“They pay rent?” He gave me a “yeah right” look and grabbed my hand. I was so taken abac
k by the gesture that I didn’t even fight it right away. Before I could protest, he reached out, clutched my hip and pressed my body against his. His breath was sweet and his lips were so close to mine that I was already pursing mine. Being so close to him…I suddenly didn’t care that I didn’t know everything about him yet. The attraction was too much. The wave of emotion flushing from my heart to my stomach was so quick that I was overwhelmed. He had me in his spell, and I was forbidden to break it.