B00AO57VOY EBOK (34 page)

When I saw the fear behind
the anger in Nathan’s eyes, fear for me, I tried to calm down.  He loved me. 
He wanted to protect me.  Those were admirable sentiments, but I was stronger
than he gave me credit for.  The only thing that could hurt me was losing him.

Like a light bulb had
snapped on in my head, I suddenly knew how to get my energy back and how to
protect Nathan at the same time.  I had sworn it was something I would never
do, but desperate times and all...

“Grams, Kim, could you give
me and Nathan a sec?” I asked, locking eyes with the angry vampire I loved more
than I loved myself.  “I think we need to work this out alone.”

“Sure,” Kim said, getting up
and grabbing Grams—who was giving me the oddest look—by the arm and hauling her
toward the door.  “I brought my stuff so we could get ready for the dance
here.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on catching my death watching tonight’s
game in the rain.  I spent too much time on my gown to not even get to wear it
because I’m dead.”

She was babbling to cover the
fact that she was worried, so I listened to her with only half an ear as I did
silent battle with my boyfriend who was looking more and more stubborn by the
second.  Even after the door closed behind them and Kim’s voice faded down the
hall, we continued to stare at each other silently.

“We’re not going to discuss
this anymore,” he finally said. 

“You’re right, we’re not.” 
I looked away, already feeling guilty. 

I stood up slowly, part of
me, the part that loved him desperately, rebelling against what I was going to
do.  I wasn’t going to drain him completely, only enough to restore the energy
I had lost and keep him from following me to the dance.  As soon as it was all
over, I would give it back.  I didn’t have any other choice if I wanted to save
him.

“You win,” I sighed, lying
through my teeth, my guilt locked away to be wallowed in later.  “If you think
I should run, I’ll run.”

He breathed a deep sigh of
relief, and I felt even worse when he pulled me into his arms and held me tight. 
“I only want to protect you, baby.  I don’t want to lose you.  I can’t.  Please
tell me you understand that?”

“I do,” I breathed, fighting
back the tears that would have given me away.  “I understand perfectly.”

Before I could talk myself
out of it, I pulled his lips to mine and closed my eyes.  I imagined Nathan’s
energy as a bright thread of light and then coaxed that thread toward me, into
me.  I felt stronger almost immediately.  By the time Nathan realized what I
was doing, it was too late. 

I knew I had done what I set
out to do when he tried to push me away and couldn’t.  Tears slid from beneath
my closed lids, but I held the image of that brilliant thread of energy in my
mind until it started to dim and Nathan sagged against me, unconscious.

“Grams!  Kim!” I yelled,
opening my eyes and trying to readjust the weight of the unconscious man in my
arms so that we wouldn’t both topple over.  “Can you give me a hand in here? 
Please!”

They burst through the door
about a second later and Grams paled visibly when she saw Nathan’s limp form in
my arms and the tears streaming unchecked down my cheeks. 

“What have you done?” she
cried, horror saturating every syllable.

“What I had to do,” I
whispered, miserably.  “Now he’s safe.”

Pursing her lips, she came
forward and dragged one of Nathan’s arms over her shoulders.  Kim, too, shook
herself and came to help.  Between the three of us, we managed to get him the
short distance to the bed. 

I busied myself with
removing his boots so I wouldn’t have to see the accusatory look in Grams’
eyes.  I had literally sucked the life right out of my own soul mate so I could
have my way.  The more I thought about that, the worse I felt about what I had
done.  I had become a vampire.  No, I had become something much worse.  Nathan
was a vampire and he never would have done what I had just done. 

I was a monster.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered,
pulling the covers over him and leaning down to kiss his forehead.  “I hope
you’ll forgive me someday.  But, if you can’t, I’ll understand that, too.”

I stood there looking at him
for a few more minutes, tears still flowing freely down my cheeks, and then
squared my shoulders and turned to face Kim and Grams.  Kim looked like she
wanted to break into tears with me.

Grams looked like she wanted
to strangle me.

“He’ll be all right, won’t
he?” I asked her, my voice choked with tears. 

“He’ll be fine,” Grams said,
her expression softening.  “You did well.  He’ll sleep deeply for the rest of
the night.  He’ll wake up in the morning with very little memory of what
happened.  He’s going to figure it out, though, sweetheart.  And he’s going to
be mad as hell when he does, Ember.”

I nodded, wrapping my arms
around myself for comfort.  As long as he lived through the night, he could
hate me for the rest of my life.  I deserved it for what I had just done.  But,
now I could do what I had to do without having to worry that Bastian was going
to trick him into letting him kill him. 

“Um, one problem, Em” Kim
said, a grim smile on her lips. 

“What?”

“You just roofied your date.”

By eight o’clock, we were
dressed and ready to go.  Even though I was going into battle, Kim insisted on
making the charade believable.  My hair was flat ironed perfectly straight and
hung down to my hips in a curtain of fiery red.  Kim had done something to it
to give it that windblown celebrity look and I couldn’t deny that it was
beautiful.  She helped me into my dress, the dress Nathan had loved and now
wouldn’t get to enjoy, and then tossed me a pair of clear stiletto heels that
looked like Cinderella’s glass slippers.

We went ten rounds over my
jewelry choice, though.  No matter how much she griped about it, I refused to
take off the cross Nathan had given me.  It was the only part of him I would be
able to take into battle with me, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in
the world at that moment.  It had become like a good luck charm to me, and I
was going to need all the good luck I could get to make it through the night.  In
the end, Kim gave up and let me keep the ‘awful thing’.  

I was standing in the
doorway of our room watching Nathan sleep when the doorbell rang announcing
that Blake was there to pick us up.  Kim came to get me and slipped an arm
around my waist, watching my face.  If she was worried that I was going to
start crying again, she was wasting her time.  I was too depressed to cry.

“You did what you had to
do,” she said softly, giving me a gentle squeeze.  “He’ll understand that even
if he doesn’t like it.  Let’s just get this over with and then you can make it
up to him when it’s over.”

She tried to tug me down the
hall, but I held up a finger for her to wait a minute and turned and dashed
into Grams’ room instead.  Though all the excitement was actually going to be
going down at Oakhurst, I still felt nervous about leaving Nathan all alone. 
He wasn’t exactly in any condition to defend himself, thanks to me.

“Gabriella,” I whispered,
looking around for the spirit in question.  I knew she was there.  I could feel
her in the warmth and the peace of the room that I was denying myself because I
didn’t deserve it after what I’d done.  When she hadn’t appeared after a
second, I knew she wasn’t very happy with me.  “Okay, I guess this is going to
be a one-sided conversation.  I know you’re mad at me and I don’t blame you.  I
only did it to keep him safe, though.  Just…just promise me you’ll watch out
for him.  Please?”

“Of course I will,” she
grumbled, appearing in front of me so suddenly that I stepped back with a
gasp.  “I understand your motivations, though your methods leave much to be
desired.  Go.  End this.  After that, you can concentrate on making amends to
Nate.  My thoughts and prayers go with you,
mon ami
.”

I blinked back tears and
gave her a weak smile and nodded.  Kim was still waiting for me in the hallway,
smoothing imaginary wrinkles out of the skirt of her long, black satin sheath
gown, and the sympathy in her eyes was almost too much for my aching heart to
take.  In her hand were two feathered, sequined masquerade masks on long sticks
wrapped with black and white ribbons.  Holding one out to me with a gentle
smile, she looped her arm through mine and I let her tug me down the hall. 

I was surprised to see two
tuxedoed figures in the living room rather than one when we walked in.  Tyler
stood up the second we entered, his eyes skimming me from head to toe
appreciatively. 

“Kim said you needed a
date,” he said, shrugging when he saw the confused look on my face.  “Since I
was going to have to make an appearance, anyway, I was more than happy to
volunteer.  It would have been a shame to miss seeing you like this.  You look
amazing.”

I saw Grams’ grim expression
and knew exactly what she was thinking.  Nathan might be pissed that I had
magically roofied him, but he was going to be furious that Tyler had so easily
stepped in as his replacement.  That was a real shame, too.  They had just
started to like each other.  Oh, well.  I had bigger problems than
testosterone-fueled stupidity to worry about.

“Everything is set up,
Ember,” Grams said, quietly, coming to slip a satin wrap over my shoulders. 
“Constance slipped in and drew the circles in the last room at the end of the
hall in the west wing this morning.  They are in invisible paint so that Bastian
won’t see them at first.  They are activated by the black light she set up for
you.  Just flip the switch and place the final crystal and the circle will
activate, just like we practiced.  If there are any problems, any whatsoever,
don’t wait to see how it will play out.  Get out of there immediately.  The
rest of us will join you with the urns the moment he is locked inside the
circle.”

She pulled me into a tight
hug, and I allowed myself the comfort for a few seconds before pulling away and
giving her my best effort at a smile. 

“Don’t worry, Grams,” I
said, hugging her again when I saw the tears in her eyes.  “I know what to do. 
You made sure of that.  I’m going to be fine.”

She nodded and kissed my
cheek and then walked away so fast that she was practically running.  That was
just Grams. She didn’t like to show weakness in front of others.

“Let’s go.”   I was solemn
as I turned back to the group waiting for me.  “I want this done…and I have
something else to do, a promise to keep.  I only hope I’m not too late.”

∞§∞§∞§∞

The Blue Moon was in full
view, the storm having finally blown over, when we arrived at the dance.  It
lit up the grounds, giving the whole scene an eerie cast.  I could see the
leaves that were too stubborn to fall from the almost-bare branches of the
giant oak trees on the front lawn, knowing that to fall was to end their cycle
of life once and for all, fluttering in the breeze the storm had left behind. 
The forest that surrounded the campus seemed sinister, the shadows too deep,
too full of the unknown.  Then, given what we were walking into, that might not
have been all in my head.

Turning my face up to the
glowing, darkly beautiful moon, I sent up my own silent prayer that I would
make it through the nightmare to come.  If I didn’t, I hoped Grams would take
pity on Nathan and send him into a coma, after all.  It would be kinder than
letting him wake up to realize that I was gone.

Charles was waiting for me
when Tyler helped me from the car.  He seemed nervous and fidgety and kept
looking toward the edge of the campus with a heartbreakingly tragic expression.

“Ember!  You have to hurry,
she’s about to leave,” he said, so anxious that his form kept flickering in and
out of sight. 

“I’ll be right back,” I told
the others. 

Knowing I didn’t have much
time, I lifted the hem of my gown and ran, following the flickering,
transparent image of my friend to the benches on the edge of the school lawn. 
I felt my breath hitch, knowing these would be my last few minutes with the
ghost who had become a part of my heart, when I saw a slender, silver-haired
woman opening an umbrella.  I could just make out the sparkle of tears on her
cheeks from the streetlight behind her.

“Mary Beth!” I called
loudly, as she turned toward the curb and the car waiting there. 

She turned back, looking
confused, but she stopped and waited for me.  I could see the curiosity on her
face as she took in my gown and the mask in my hand.  I nearly slipped and fell
when I slid to a halt before her, totally out of breath, but she reached out
and took my arm to steady me. 

Stupid stilettos.

“Are you…Mary Beth Winston?”
I gasped out, sucking in deep breaths so that I could talk without passing out.