Bound in Blood 1 Clandestine (15 page)

“Did you really just say,so there?” Emily giggled covering
her hand over her mouth.
“So.” Then he gave her a stubborn glare. Tyler’s jaw was
set, daring her to contradict him.
This of course made Emily giggleharder. “Just checking I
guess. Are you gonna stomp your foot too?” Emily tried to stifle
her laughter when she saw Tyler’s expression. “I really don’t
feel right stealing your bed. I don’t mind the couch it looks
comfy.” Emily eyed the couch thoughtfully. It honestly didn’t
look too bad.
“Guests get the bed. That’s the rule.”
“Whose rule,” Emily asked.
“I don’t know it’s just the rule. I don’t make’em I just
follow’em,” Tyler shrugged. “Well at least the good ones
anyway.” His smile was devilish and his eyes sparkled as if
hiding a secret.
The thing of it was, Emily didn’t really care where she
slept. The biggest problem was sleeping alone. Learning that the
world as she once knew it was a complete lie and goblins really
did exist,had her feeling anxious. She didn’t really know how to
bring this up to Tyler without looking like she just wanted in his
pants. He had very nice pants and even better back pockets
actually. She justisn’t one of those girls and never would be. She
hardly knew Tyler and she didn’t even think she liked him that
way, at least she hoped not. That would only complicate things.
This new found knowledge would cause them to spend more
time together, while figuring out a solution.
Well here goes nothing, she thought. Emily squared her
shoulders and let out a deep breath. Instantly her so called
courage washed away and she bit her lip. She spoke in a rush.
“Here’s the thing. I um, well, I’m kind of afraid after hearing my
suspicions are true and I don’t want to be by myself.” Emily bit
down on her lip so hard she just knew she was going to draw
blood ifshe wasn’t careful.
Tyler’s brows rose practically to his hairline as he
consideredthis. “Well,” he ventured slowly. “I’ll be happy to
keep you company between the sheets,if you need me.” The
devilish grin was back.
What a pig Emily thought. “No, no not like that never mind.
Forget I said anything. Just show me the door to the bedroom
and I’ll be on my way.” Emily had her best disgusted face on and
she even crossed her arms for effect. She knew he was just
screwing with her,but she wasn’t going to let him get away with
it.
“Hey, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Tyler said
laughing slightly at her. “No funny business I swear.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve had zero effect on my
panties, thank you very much.”
Tyler’s wounded expression gave him a boy like quality.
“Didn’t I?” Tyler asked sarcastically. He clutched his hand to his
heart like he’d been shot and fell back on the bed. “That was
harsh Em”.
Instead of giving him the satisfaction of continuing the little
bicker fest, Emily just glared at him and sighed exasperated. She
didn’t want to let him know that this was way more amusing
than she was letting on. Stubbornly, she turned, as if she were
going to head toward the bedroom.
Emily half expected him to throw his hands up in surrender
as usual. What he actually did was well, nothing. She followed
suit and didn’t say anything either. When he didn’t react to her
move toward the room, she turned to look at him. They were
both silent for a long moment just watching each other
awkwardly.
“Alright look. How about this? So it’s not so, you know
weird we can both sleep out here. Living rooms are for friends,
bedrooms are for scr“
“Okay! I get it,I get it.” Emily cut him off, totally not
wanting to hear from him what bedrooms were for.
“Sorry.”
Emily smiled. “No big deal. So, how can we do this
without… whatever.” She gestured at nothing in particular.
“Well we are both full grown adults,at least you are. I’m
sure we can handle sleeping in the same room and dare I say it,
the same bed without uh…” He paused, thinking for a moment.
“Physical relations getting in the way. I mean I don’t know about
you, but I can control myself.” He gave her a crooked smile and
winked at her.
“I can control myself just fine,” shot back Emily, annoyed
at the implication. Some guys have some nerve.
“Well alright then. I’ll go in the door on the left and get
changed. The one on the right is the bathroom. You can use that
one if you want.” Assuming she was fine with the arrangement
he headed off for what she guessed was his bedroom. Before he
did the sparkle in his eye caught the light. He was feeling very
amused and pleased with himself.
Emily never responded, she didn’t really see a point. She
did let her eyes follow him as he disappeared through the door.
After he was out of sight she plucked her backpack off the floor
by the door where she left it and went into the bathroom.
It was of course a small room. She wasn’t expecting
something with a spa, but she wondered looking around how she
would ever fit all of her stuff in a bathroom this small if she had
a place like it. Immediately she scolded herself because that
implied she might want to live with Tyler and that was not the
case. She did find him attractive,but that didn’t mean anything.
Finding someone attractive was just human nature.
After she was dressed and her teeth were brushed, she
switched off the light leaving her backpack in there for the
evening. Using a scrunchie, she put her hair up in a messy bun
while she walked to the couch. Immediately, she noticed Tyler
was already back and was watching her with an expression she
didn’t recognize.
“What?” Emily asked.
“Nothing why?” Tyler spoke quickly like he had been
caught doing something he shouldn’t be.
She glared teasingly athim. “You were staring at me.”
“Did anyone ever tell you that you really should loosen up?
I just looked up because I heard you coming,that’s all.” This
time his hands did go up in surrender.
Emily thought the mannerism was adorable. Of course she
didn’t show that to him though. She just shook her head at Tyler.
It was obvious that it was more than that, but she was too tired to
argue about it. Besides, they probably wouldn’t get anywhere
with the argument anyway. Tyler seemed to be just as stubborn
as Emily was and she didn’t know if she liked that or not. She sat
down on the opposite side of the hide-a-bed from him not sure
what to do. Sleeping in the same bed as a guy was a first. Were
there rules about this sort of thing? Emily noticed there was a
second blanket at the end of the bed now.
Tylersaw her looking at it and said, “Oh I figured this
would make you more comfortable.” He took the one on top.
“See, now I have a blanket, and you have a blanket. Strictly
platonic.” He eyed her smugly daring her to disapprove.
Emily smiled her approval and slid her blanket toward her.
She waited for him to lie down, so she could do the same. She
was trying to act casual and not like a bumbling dork like she
felt. Hopefully, it didn’t show. It really wasn’t that big of a deal.
They were just friends. It would be the same as if she had one of
her girlfriends sleep over. Except none of her girlfriends looked
like Tyler, or smelled like him either. She noticed a scent like
cologne in the air that wasn’t there before. Did he put some on
when he got changed? That definitely wouldn’t be something
just friends would do. Stop it! She scolded herself again. It didn’t
matter what his intentions were, she needed to get a handle on
her hormones.
Emily felt her eyes droop. She was mentally and physically
exhausted. She pondered whether or not to ask Tyler how he was
doing with all he had learned. He had a lot to think about like
who he was supposed to be. Emily decided against it. The
silence was relaxing. It was nice to be there together and not
have to talk. It didn’t feel awkward anymore just, nice.
At around two thirty in the morning, Emily’s eyes flew
open with terror. The conclusion of the dream she had been
having left her panting for breath. It was about a blood sucking
monster breaking into her house to suck the life out of her and
Sam. Judging by the light snoring coming from Tyler’s resting
form, he must have been sleeping okay. Selfishly she thought
about pinching him or something. If this situation was going to
give her nightmares and keep
her
up why should he get to sleep?
Any effort to keep the horrifying dream out of her mind was
useless. Every time she closed her lids, all she could see was the
glow of red. The one thing Emily was able to think clearly about,
was the need to keep her loved ones safe. The first person that
came to mind was her best friend.
It wasn’t likely that Lucy was awake. Texting was always
an option if nothing else. If she sent her friend a message than
she would be able to get it whenever she woke up. Emily didn’t
know if she would have time to get in touch with her later.
Slowly she slid off the hide-a-bed and went to the bathroom
where she had left her cell tucked into the pocket of her
backpack.
After scrolling through the contact list finding Lucy’s name
she hesitated. What was she supposed to say to her? Oh gee
guess what, we were right. The pod people apparently have
something to do with the blood sucking vampires that have taken
up residence in Lakeview. So you might wanna be careful while
you’re in town, okay? So guess I’ll talk to you later if we don’t
all die. Cool bye. Yeah, probably not the best idea.
She thought for a second and then began typing.
Hey can’t
talk 4 now our theories were right b careful will call when I can
love u
. Without waiting for a response from Lucy, she put her
phone on the floor next to her bed for the night.

The sound of someone knocking on the door woke them
both up well, scared them up was more like it. They both sprang
upright at the exact same moment gasping. Tyler recovered
quicker than Emily and slid out of bed to see who it was. She
glanced around trying to remember if she took her cell phone out
of her backpack. She hated waking up and not knowing what
time it was. A quick check at the walls proved to be useless.
There wasn’t a clock on any of them. Examining all the furniture
she saw there didn’t seem to be one perched anywhere either.
She had never before encountered somebody who didn’t have at
least one clock somewhere.

Belatedly, she had a flash of memory and felt like a total
moron. The cell phone was on the floor directly next to where
she was sitting on the make shift bed. The night before, she had
been text messaging Lucy before falling asleep. How could she
have forgotten that? In her defense, the day before had been
pretty overwhelming at best.

Tyler was still standing at the door. He was too big so
Emily couldn’t see who it was. Absently she recalled her father
telling her she made a better door than a window when she was
little and blocking the television. She wanted to throw a pillow at
him and get him to get out of the way so she could be nosy.

She thought it would be sort of interesting to meet one of
Tyler’s friends. Then it occurred to her what might be perceived
by the visitor as she looked down at herself and promptly
discarded the thought. Obviously nothing had actually happened
between the two of them. However, someone on the outside
might not have seen it that way. It really didn’t matter to Emily
what people thought of her, but still.

Right about the time she had her mouth wide open in an
unattractive yawn, Tyler turned ushering someone in the
apartment. Feeling foolish, Emily laid back down covering
herself with the blanket. It was too late to pretend to be sleeping.
At least they wouldn’t see her in her jammies.

It was Sebastian. Oh that’s right, she thought. Emily sighed
inwardly. Tyler was supposed to meet Sebastian’s mentor and
start training. From under the thick comforter she could tell they
had moved closer to where she lay hidden like a skittish animal.
They were talking in hushed whispers. Maybe they hadn’t seen
her sitting up after all. Maybe Tyler thought she went back to
sleep. That was silly though, the door was practically in the
living room. Slowly Emily moved the blanket so she could peek
out just a little.

At one point Sebastian’s head turned toward Emily. He
looked as though he were in deep concentration and totally
oblivious to the fact that he was staring right at her. Her face was
mostly obscured, though she could just see him. Could he see her
watching him? Before she hurriedly closed her eyes, she saw
him turning back to Tyler.

Whatever they were talking about had Tyler looking very
intent and serious. Sebastian almost seemed annoyed and then
with a resigned shrug nodded before they both turned toward
her.

Tyler moved over to her side of the bed and sat on the edge.
“Hey, I’ve gotta go do that training thing now. I want you to
come with me.”

For a second she thought about stretching and making fake
wake up noises. Figuring that was pointless she just pulled down
the blanket. Emily didn’t answer, but looked to Sebastian to
hear his opinion.

“Tyler thinks you should meet my mentor.” Sebastian
sighed heavily. “I personally don’t think it’s a great idea, but I do
agree there is more to you than mosthumans.” Sebastian’s tone
was flat and his face looked bored by the end of his statement.