The Knight Of The Rose (13 page)

the car, “let’s get you home before you fall asleep where you stand.”

With David’s smooth driving, and my implicit trust in him, it was easy, as we rolled through

the dark streets on the ten-minute dri ve home, to fall asleep. The sound of his quiet breath made me

feel so comfortable, like I was safe in my bed—in his arms.

The car door made a quiet thud, and a second later, long arms wrapped my body.

Quietly conscious of his embrace, I rolled my head into the hollow of his shoulder and let the

gentle, soapy smell of his shirt seep into my nose with each restful breath.

“Oh, she’s exhausted,” Dad’s voice hummed as a pale circle of light broke the darkness under

my eyelids.

“Shall I carry her upstairs?” David asked—holding me like a delicate treasure.

“Uh, yeah, sure. No need to disturb her further.”

The front door closed behind us. I stayed in the blissful elation of dream world, in David’s

arms, until the cold touch of my pillow fell along my cheek and I sunk into the s oftness of my

mattress. My shoes came off my feet, and a still silence filled the room; it sounded like no one was

there, but I could feel David’s presence. “Goodnight, my love.” He pressed a cold kiss to my brow.

I lifted my mind out of sleep just long enough to whisper, “David?”

“Yes, sweetheart.”

“Stay with me tonight?”

“I planned to,” he whispered, keeping his lips against my skin.

The bedroom door closed, leaving me in darkness. My eyelids fell heavily, like they were full

of sand, and I rolled over to snuggle into my pillow.

Outside, the sound of Dad’s voice farewelled David as hi s car pulled away from our house.

And the only other sound, after Dad’s footsteps trailed away behind hi s closed bedroom door, was

the quiet, rhythmic tick of the clock on the wall by the front door , timing my dreams while I slipped

away. Just before the grasp of sleep consumed me, two cool, strong arms fell around my shoulders,

and I let myself wander into the peaceful harmony of the night, against David’s chest.

Monday morning’s sunlight hit me like a sharp pin scraping the irises of my eyes. I blinked

against the white glow as I craned my neck up ward and tr ied to focus on the long, solid shape

beside me.

“You stayed?” My voice sounded a littl e husky; I swallowed to clear my throat—secretl y

checking the stale taste in my mouth for the scent of morning breath.

David smiled down at me, s tretching his arms out and flexing hi s fingers. “Of course. You

asked me to.”

“Hasn’t mattered in the past,” I remarked sourly.

His arm found it s way back around my shoulder, and I snuggled against his chest , rubbing

my cheek into his shirt. For a vampire, he’s really warm—warmer than me.

“No, you’re just unusually cold for a human,” he answered my thought.

“Will you stop that?” I glowered up at him. Is nothing private? Next he’ll be reading about

what I really wished he’d stayed for last ni—. My mouth dropped open. Before I even finished the

thought, David started laughing, his chest shaking my head where it rested against his shirt. “David.

I’m sorry. That was really rude, I—”

“It’s okay, Ara. I’m used to it.”

“What? Used to it?”

“Not from you, sweet gir l. I mean from other peopl e. I hear that kind of stuff all the time,

well—” he smiled at a distant corn er of my room, “—I must say, never quite so specif ic as your

thoughts. One thing I can say about you, Miss Ar a—” he rolled over sl ightly and lifted my chin

until our eyes met, “—is that you have a very creativ e and very specif ic mind. When you have a

thought, it plays itself out more like—well , like a movie, I suppose. I ca n see the direction your

feelings take you, and the pull of your common-sense-mind. It’s really quite amazing.” He laughed

as he spoke.

This is so humiliating. With a feisty huff, I threw the covers off and headed for the shower—

and maybe a few minutes of unheard thoughts.

“Short distances won’t make a difference, Ara. I can still hear you,” he called out as I shut

the door.

Rolling my eyes, I took off the jeans and green sweater I slept in last night and stuffed them

in the washing basket, burying my undies and bra in case David needed to use the bathroom.

“I’ve already seen your underwear, my darling gi rl,” David called out. “You don’t have to

hide them now.”

My shoulders dropped and I l et out a loud br eath. At least there’s one good t hing about

having a mind-reading vampire boyfriend—I’ll have to get very good at emptying my thoughts and

focusing on nothing. I’m sure in some odd way that could be a good skill to have.

“Speaking of skills,” David sai d from just outside the bathroom door, “we need to rehearse

for the benefit concert. I’m not even sure which song we’re supposed to be playing now.”

I reached into the shower and twi sted the taps on, then stood back and waited for the water

to get hot. “Um, we’re doing that one from that movie—the one Nathan liked.”

David chuckled softly. “He liked a lot of movies, Ara.”

I shook my head and groaned. “Wel l, you know which one I mean. I can never remember

the title.”

“Are you still doing a solo pe rformance?” His voi ce echoed a little too loud through the

door, making me cringe a little in case Dad should hear.

“Yeah, I’m doing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.”

David didn’t respond. I waited, looking over my thin body in the r eflection of the shower

glass for a second, but when the silence lasted, I stepped into the welcoming steam whorls . The

running taps and locked doors offered me a kind privacy I wasn’t used to anymore—one wher e I

could imagine my thoughts were unheard...just like my shower singing.

“Ara!” I jumped out of my skin at the sudden thud of what I assumed was my dad’s fist on

the door. “Save some water for future generations, please.”

Geeze. “Yes, Dad—just rinsing my hair.”

He groaned aloud.

I chuckled internally; he’d do a lot more than just groan if he knew I had my boyfr iend in

my room on the other side of this door.

Hmm, I wonder what he’d do if he found out my boyfriend is, in fact, a vampire.

Funny thing is, I don’t think he’d freak out...like I did. He’d probably just chew David’s ear

off—in the figurative sense—over every undocumented event in history. Well, only for the next two

weeks, that is. I sighed heavily. It’ll be sad when David’s gone. That one last and final time I see his

smile; the last moment I hold him close to me and whisper goodbye—it will break my heart. How

will I go on, never to touch him again, never to hear his voice?

Slowly, my hand rose up through the swirli ng steam cloud and rested against the foggy

glass. Droplets of water melted around the base of my palm, and as I exhaled a breath of sorrow, the

delicate touch of David’s long fingers appeared on the other side of the cold barrier. “Don’t cry,

Ara,” he said in a de ep, soothing whisper. “Please,
please
just don’t cry.” We rested our heads

against the glass, and I closed my eyes around the tears.

“How can I not cry? It hurts—everything hurts.”

“I know.”

I could feel a kind of magic between us that I was sure I’d never find anywhere el se in the

world; it was like, even though ou r flesh wasn’t touching, I could feel him against me—f eel him

from somewhere deep within. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough to miss you for the rest of my life,

David,” I whispered, watching the hot, steamy water run wasted down the drain below my feet.

“Then don’t.” He breathed out, and as quickly as he’d appeared, he was gone again, leaving

my hand against the glass, alone.

The phone rang while I struggled, in the privacy of my wardrobe, trying to pull my blue

dress over my head; it rolled up, catching on my not-quite-dry skin, and stuck halfway down my

waist. Damn it, what if that’s Mike—I don’t wanna miss him before he gets on the plane.

“Hello.” David’s melodious voice filled the room.

I froze; David’s talking to Mike. This is not good.

“Yes, she’s getting dressed.”

Oh, God, don’t tell him that! He’ll freak out thinking you’re watching me or something
.

I pulled my dress down and tripped all over myself to get out of the wardrobe.

David grinned, holding his index finger in front of me as I reached for the phone. “No, no,

nothing like that.”

With my flat palm held out, I huffed impatiently.

“Yes. It’s all she’s talked about for the last couple of weeks,” he said, then laughed.

“Okay, okay. That’s enough.” I snatched t he phone from hi s hand, and, as suming I knew

who he was talking to said, “Hi, Mike.”

“Hey, baby girl. How’s things?”

“Great. You at the airport?”

“Yeah, just thought I’d make sure you hadn’t forgotten me.”

“Yeah right. It’s all I’ve talked about, isn’t it?” I poked my tongue out at David.

Mike laughed. “Well, I ’ve been looking forward to it too. And I expect t he biggest hug

you’ve got tucked into those skinny little arms tomorrow, Ara.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ve been practicing my squeezing,” I said.

“With David?” he teased.

“Uh-hu, but
you
get a different kind of squeezing.”

“Oh, fine then, I know where I stand.” I could hear the amusement behind his feigned insult.

“Still in exactly the same place as always,” I added.

“Okay, well, have fun today, and…I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

“Yep, bye.” I had to dig my heels into the carpet to st op myself from bouncing like a little

girl. As the phone disconnected, severing the lines of communication to my best friend, an empty

feeling swallowed my soul for a second until I looked at David; he looked troubled—leaning back

in my chair, drumming his fingers on the desk, his thoughts a million miles away. “David?”

He looked up at me—snapping out of his stare.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You’re right.” A very cheeky gr in lit his eyes. “He did not appr ove of my being here whil e

you were getting dressed.”

“So?”

“So, he’s overprotective. I know the sort, Ara, he
will
ask questions about me.”

“Can you read his thoughts over the phone?” I said as I walked toward him.

David shook his head. “No. I can only read certain electrical wave-lengths—which don’t

communicate over the phone. But I’ve been ar ound humans and been subj ect to their thought-

patterns long enough to make conclusions from very little detail.”

“Like one of those cool detectives on those crime shows?”

David laughed and rested his chin on his hand. “Yeah, something like that.”

The scent of David’s orange- chocolate sweetness warmed my heart as I leaned my butt

against the desk in front of him. “And you think you’ve summed Mike up, huh?”

He scratched the corner of his brow, taking a deep breath. “All I know is it’s a good thing I

won’t be here during the day. I can’t be around you if he is.”

“Why?”

“I might be tempted to kill him,” he muttered with a certain amount of animosity; my mouth

fell open a little. “He thinks he has some claim to you.”

“Really?” My cheek tightened on one side with a half-smile. “You know, you’re cute when

you’re jealous.”

“Ara, be serious.” David leaned his elbows against his knees and looked at the floor between

his legs. “I don’t know, maybe I should leave now. It’s just too risky. If he gets wind there’s a guy

in your room every night, you know what he’ll do.”

“Look.” I sank back on the des k. “I get it. I know you think he’ s got some weird spidey

sense that can track the scent of another male like a mother to cigarettes on her son’s breath, but I’m

not sure I really care if he finds out I have a vampire in my room at night—not right now I don’t.”

He looked up at me. “Ara, if he finds me in your room and we’re forced to meet in person, it

will only be a matter of time before he starts asking all the wrong questions.”

“And I’ll give all the wrong answers. I won’t tell him the truth about what you are.”

“It’s not the questions he asks you that I worry about—it’s the ones he asks himself.”

“Well, will it be that bad if he figures out what you are?”

“You mean aside from the fact that he’d steal you away from me, take you across the

country, lock you in a closet, then fly back here and start a pitchfork rally against me?”

I dropped my arms to my sides and winced at the feel of tepid water dripping down the back

of my neck from my wet hair. “You know, the chances are he’ll figure something’s not right,

anyway. I mean, especially when I refuse to laze around and watch movies with him at night.”

“I know. But—” He r eached up and stroked his thumb over a drop of water drippi ng down

my shoulder. “Well, I suppose it’s only for two weeks, right? Maybe we’ll be lucky to fly under the

radar.”

“Maybe.”

“And my being away during the day will be good practice for you.”

“Practice? You mean for being without you for forever?”

“Yes.”

Shaking my head, I folded my arms around my body and walked across to stand in front of

my dresser. “Don’t try to justify it, David. You working for two weeks before you leave has no

bright side.”

“Everything has a bright side.”