Venom (The Reawakening Series Book 1) (9 page)

She looks down on the floor. “No,” she says shyly.

“
Start explaining,” he orders her.

“
I was with a friend at a farm.”

“
Doing what?”

“
Just talking,” she says, avoiding his gaze.

He looks at me. “I told you this going to school nonsense was a mistake.”

“
And you”, he says, looking at Sarah. “Don’t even waste your time. Whatever hopes and dreams you have about this ‘friend’, it won’t last.”

She looks up now and there is a determination that I hadn’t seen in her before. “You are just a bitter old—vampire.”

“
Was that supposed to be an insult, sis?”

“
Ugh! I’m going upstairs.”

“
Don’t bother. I’m going out,” Nicholas says.

“
Where are you going?” she asks in a panicked tone. “You’re not going to track him, are you? We are just friends.”

“
Now that you mention, that’s not a bad idea.”

“
Nicholas!” I warn him.

“
No, I’m not going to track him. Not yet anyway.”

I sigh. “Just tell her where you are going.”

“
Out. This conversation is making me hungry.”

He is gone before either of us can get another word in.

Sarah stands there, unsure of what to do.

“
Don’t worry. He’s not going after whoever you were with.”

She looks down as if she’s embarrassed.

“
Is he ever going to get better?” she asks.

“
I honestly don’t know. From what I’ve heard about Nicholas, he went centuries avoiding any kind of relationship with anyone. That is why he never turned anyone besides Lexi, and even with her, he fought against his feelings. I’m not sure it’s possible for anyone to get over that kind of love. You meet people in life who you think you’re in love with, but then one day it’s over. And eventually, you move on by meeting someone you love even more. I have no doubt in my mind that Lexi was his soulmate. It’s not possible he will ever love anyone more than he loved her. She was it.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

NICHOLAS

I slam the door as I walk out and get in Harvey’s Aston Martin, driving off before he realizes that I took it.

I don’t think there is anything more annoying than high school relationships. I can’t even believe I was that stupid once.

I drive around knowing that finding someone to feed on at this time of the day won’t be easy. I don’t even know what I was thinking. I finally decide to drive to the college campus in a town nearby… it at least increases my chances of finding someone.

I’ve never been here before and I end up stopping at the first big building I see. I walk into the library, grab a book, and head toward the back, where I pretend to read until a young woman with brown eye and brown hair, like Lexi’s, walks in my direction. Honestly, I was looking for any resemblance of her that I could hold on to. I don’t care anymore and I just give in. I crave the memory of her more than I crave blood. I know that I have to find a way to be with her without actually being with her, or I’ll lose my mind.

I walk up to the woman, who is trying to reach for a book on the top shelf, and ask her which book she is trying to grab. I reach up, my shirt rising just enough to reveal some skin, and I can feel her staring at me. As I bring the book down, I turn to look into her eyes and glamour her. I don’t even bother asking her for her name.

“
Your name is Lexi. You’re coming with me,” I say.

She follows me as I walk toward the back of the aisle and into the bathroom. Glad that this is a somewhat private bathroom, we walk in and I close and lock the door behind us.

Lex
i leans against the sink and stares at me as if waiting for a command. I walk toward her, placing one hand on the small of her back and pulling her against me. My other hand is now on the back of her neck and I use my fingers to tilt her neck to the side. As she leans her head, I can see my reflection in the mirror. I don’t know what leads me to do this. I don’t even know if it can be done, but I focus on my reflection… on my eyes… and I say out loud, ‘for as long as she is with me, I will believe she is Lexi.’ At some point in between realizing that this was working and losing myself, I thought that glamouring myself was a genius idea.

I look from the mirror to her neck, and instead of biting her I pull her away. I look at her and get lost in her eyes until desire overtakes my every thought and I clash my body against hers as if I hadn’t seen her in centuries. My lips are on hers, my finger digging into her back. I kiss her like that is all I need to survive. When I stop, I trail small kisses down her neck and then up to her ear. “I missed you,” I say.

She doesn’t respond. When I look at her she seems confused, but she finally says, “I missed you too.”

My phone rings and I ignore it, kissing her again. My hand is just reaching for the hem of her shirt when someone starts to persistently knock on the door.

“
I’ll be right back,” I tell her.

I step outside to take care of the annoying human knocking on the door, but as soon as I step outside of the bathroom, I get a stabbing pain in my chest. The glamour I put on myself is gone.

“
Are you alright?” asks the annoying human.

Faster than I should have, vampire speed considered, I rush out of there without looking back.

CHAPTER TWENTY

SARAH

I’m surprised when I hear my phone ring. No one ever calls me besides Nicholas and Harvey, and they are both at the house. Harvey is in the living room, probably reading, since that is what he does with most of his time. Nicholas got home about an hour ago. He looked as if he had seen a ghost, but he refused to talk to anyone. He rushed to his room and locked himself in there.

Sometime throughout all the drama I forgot that Ian asked for my number and gave me his.

“
Hello?”

“
Noelle?” he asks.

“
Yes.” I wonder how mad Nicholas and Harvey would be if I gave him my first name. It’s been years since we saw any signs of vampires hunting us down. I don’t see the harm; yet, I don’t want to take the risk of them wanting to move just because of this. I can deal with using my middle name.

Ian is quiet for a while and I even wonder if he regretted calling and hung up.

“
I broke up with Megan,” he says.

I gasp. I don’t even know why. Maybe surprise that he would actually go through with it.

“
I lied to you earlier,” he pauses. “I think it will be easier to tell you the truth over the phone.”

“
Oh.” Of course he lied. Who in their right mind would want be a pretend date to help someone he doesn’t even know? “You don’t have to explain it. You don’t owe me anything.”

He goes quiet again.

“
I lied about wanting to pretend date you.”

Something in me switches off. It’s like a self-defense mechanism. As a vampire for so many centuries, I learned to shut my feelings off to protect myself from certain emotions.

“
I don’t want to complicate things for you,” he says. “If you want me to pretend to date you to keep you safe, I will, but—”

“
You don’t have to pretend. You don’t even know me,” I say in a cold tone.

I’m about to hang up on him when I hear his pleading tone.

“
Oh, no! I’m sorry. I think you misunderstood me. I want to take you out on a real date.”

I panic and hang up on him.

I cover my mouth with my hand as soon as the phone is off. I freaked out because I never really dated anyone.

I hear my phone go off and see a text from him.

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you away. I should’ve left things alone.”

It’s funny how people get a little braver when talking to someone without face-to-face interaction, or even without hearing the person’s voice on the phone. It’s easier to hide behind a text message.

“
I’m the one who is sorry. I was a little surprised,” I text back.

“
Is that a yes?”

“
I don’t know… I don’t think my brothers will be okay with it.”

My phone rings again.

“
I’ll ask them.”

“
You? Talk to my brothers?

“
Sure. I’ll be nervous as hell, but I will if that is what I need to do.”

I giggle. “You don’t even know me.”

“
And you’re right, but I want to change that.”

“
Why?”

He sighs. “There’s something different about you.”

Not knowing what to say, I stay silent.

“
Can I come by tonight?” he asks.

“
Tonight?” I ask in shock. I’m not prepared for it to be this soon, especially with Nicholas being so unstable, but then again, when is he ever stable?

“
Yes,” he says. “I want to do this before I lose my nerve and before you change your mind.”

I sigh. “I don’t know. My brothers know I wasn’t in school and that I was with you.”

“
You’re not in trouble, are you?”

“
I—.”

I hear the doorbell ring and ask Ian to wait while I see who it is.

When I go downstairs, I see that Harvey already opened the door.

“
Valerie,” he says with a nod and a warm smile. “I thought I was picking you up.”

Nicholas walks downstairs at the same time and he chuckles when he sees Harvey’s reaction to his presence.

“
Can you wait for me outside?” Harvey asks Valerie.

Valerie nods and Harvey closes the door behind him.

“
I knew you wanted to keep that one to yourself.” Nicholas laughs. “Typical knight and shining armor move.”

“
Nicholas, just let it go, man. Whatever you are going through… just—please, just leave this one alone okay?”

Something about his pleading tone makes Nicholas retract back to his room.

“
You’re really going on a date?” I ask him.

He nods.

“
I don’t want to stay home alone with Nicholas,” I say.

He shakes his head at the realization that I really shouldn’t be alone with Nicholas and I can see that he contemplates what to do.

“
Do you have a friend you could spend a few hours with?”

I look down to the phone in my hand.

Harvey nods and somehow, he knows whom I’m talking to. “Ask if I can drop you off, but I want to meet him first.”

I smile and get back on the phone with Ian.

***

NICHOLAS

I see them leaving… starting new lives with new people. They end up getting in Valerie’s car and off they go. And I end up giving in more and more to needing
her
. I grab Sarah’s laptop and search for Lexi’s name. I’m not hoping to find where she is. I know that after her human life ended, like all of us, we do our best to disappear. Social media is the last place where we’d be stupid enough to go. But I know that once open a time she had a facebook page, so I look her up and find exactly what I’m looking for; pictures and things that while reading, I can almost hear the sound of her voice saying them. There are pictures of her with her school friends, her boyfriend at the time… the human she dated before she met Tyler, the dumb ass vampire I basically handed her off to.

I create a fake profile under Nick Montgomery, using her human last name. I don’t know why I do it, but then again, I don’t know why I do most of the idiotic things that I do. I know she hasn’t checked on this thing in decades, but I send her a private message. ‘I miss you more than you’ll ever know.’ – Nick.

I guess I do this hoping to get some kind of closure, and I feel better for a split second before I go back to looking at pictures and see her smile; the same smile that I saw during most days of the thirty years we spent together. I spend minutes looking at picture after picture, before deciding to close the computer to keep myself from making yet another idiotic decision.

But it’s too late.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SARAH

Harvey asks Valerie about her day as she drives me to Ian’s house. She works as an art teacher at an elementary school and as she talks about her work and how she loves her students, Harvey glances back at me and I can see it in Harvey’s eyes that he knows whatever this is, it won’t last. There are things in life that he will never be able to give her.