Davy Harwood (The Immortal Prophecy) (3 page)

I should’ve been able to easily block this vamp, but I felt the curtain slowly lift and I couldn’t do anything about it. I always felt their cold, but usually it was just a tickle. This time I felt the full blast of his darkness. It worked its way up my feet to my legs, past my knees, and over my waist. I fought it off, but it kept coming. The evil started to wrap itself around me. I felt its tentacles grasp my arms and start to squeeze me tight.

All the while, he watched me with no emotion.

Not me. I couldn’t hide my struggle. My teeth started chattering. When I felt the first poke in my chest, I shoved past him and hurried to my room. After I burst through the door to my room, the spell lessened immediately, but I was panting to catch my breath.

I heard my phone start to ring and knew it was Blue. She’d be the first to feel my panic. At that moment, I hated the lack of privacy with empaths.

I ignored the phone and slid down the door to breathe in and out.

I’d felt evil before. I’d felt it from Craig many times, but not to this extent. I’d never felt like it wanted to squeeze the life out of me, have it wrapped around my heart. It felt like it wanted my soul.

I shuddered again. I needed warmth. I needed a distraction. Hell, I could use this to my advantage.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Adam’s number since I’d programmed it in the first day when we’d gotten the Hotline Volunteer Directory.

Adam picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

I purposely didn’t fight the slight tremor in my voice. “Adam?”

“Davina? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I mean—I think—”

“What’s wrong? Did something happen? Do you need to talk?”

“I…” I sighed to myself. I needed to be honest. It was Blue’s motto. I was about to use this boy, but I liked him. He was normal. He was human. My hands tightened around the phone. “Can you come over?”

His answer was swift. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Thanks, Adam.” I hung up and fell back against the door. And the strange thing, I really was thankful.

When I heard a knock at the door, I screamed and shot to my feet. I knew who was on the other side, although I couldn’t feel him. “Go away.” I flinched when I heard my voice. It was raw and vulnerable.
I
was raw and vulnerable.

He knocked again, but slower this time. I snorted. Really?! Did he think it would be more dramatic that way?

“Go away!” I yelled this time. I wasn’t scared of vamps. I was just scared of
this
vamp. The door seemed large and luminous. I watched as it seemed to grow before me. It was like it was just waiting for me to answer it.

I don’t know how long I stood there.

“Davina? It’s me.” I jumped when I heard another abrupt knock, but relaxed instantly. It was Adam. A whole host of relief, warm fuzzies, and other feelings rushed through me at
the sound of his voice. Nice and normal.

Flinging open the door, I launched myself at him. He even smelled normal. If I knew I wouldn’t scare him away, I would’ve wrapped my legs around his waist. “I am so glad you’re here,” I jumbled out with my nose pressed into his masculine-smelling sweater.

Adam laughed, caught off guard, and held me up. “I’m glad that you’re glad.”

Right. Human. I needed to act human. I unglued myself and pulled back. “Sorry. I…uh…sorry. I’m just…” I felt stupid.

“Emotional,” Adam offered.

He was awesome.

“That’s okay. Mr. Moser said it’s good to let yourself feel. Let it flow naturally, Davina. Really. That’s the only way you can start healing.” Adam enfolded me tighter and tucked his chin in the crook of my neck. “Let it out, Davina. Let it out.”

His blue sweater felt warm against my skin. He smelled of pine trees and musk. I inhaled deeper and smelled a little vanilla in there too. This is what it would be like if we were boyfriend and girlfriend. I might need him. He’d come to hug me and the world would melt away.

“Ahem.”

We turned to see Emily glaring at us with her arms crossed and annoyed.

“What?” I was having a moment.

She rolled her eyes. “You have a visitor downstairs.”

“Who?”

Emily shrugged impatiently and pushed past us to her closet. She flung open the door and grabbed a brush. As she combed her hair and reached for some lipstick, she remarked, “Some girl who looks like a stripper.”

That could have been anyone according to Emily’s standards. “She didn’t give a name?”

“What am I–your receptionist?” Emily gave me a disgusted look, slammed her closet door shut, and stormed past me. Adam whistled underneath his breath.

I didn’t know why Emily was so pissed, and at that moment I didn’t care. She’d go back down, make crooning noises with the vampire, and be her oddly gushing self in a moment. I had three things on my mind: visitor, vampire, and Adam.

“I guess the news got out, huh?” Adam stuffed his hands into his front pockets, which made him look leaner and taller. The soft shadow from our poorly lit dorm room seemed to soften his features and his blue eyes looked adorable. My tongue might’ve just fallen out.

Then I heard what he said. “Wait. What news?”

“The girl that jumped – it’s all over the news.”

That didn’t bode well with me. “Uh…” I ran a hand through my hair and cringed. My hair must’ve looked like a bird’s nest.

“You look fine,” Adam reassured me.

“Thanks.” I still turned and found a mirror. Not bad. My normally frizzy hair actually looked shiny and healthy. Wonders never ceased.

“So I guess…your visitor, huh?”

“Want to walk down with me? Make sure it’s not someone creepy?”

Adam looked relieved and concerned at the same time. I chose to think he was concerned for my benefit. When we reached the stairway, I was surprised when I felt Adam grab my hand. He looked embarrassed. “Just in case it’s someone you don’t want around.”

“You’re going to play my protective boyfriend?” I teased.

His cheeks turned pink. Adorable. I squeezed his hand and said in all honesty,

“Thanks, Adam. It means a lot.”

When we moved through the bottom doorway, I stopped dead in my tracks. My focus zoomed in on the petite blonde who had wrapped herself around Emily’s vampire. One of her leather clad legs rubbed up and down against his calf and her cleavage was barely hidden underneath a tight black lace tank top poised perfectly for his viewing pleasure. Her crystal blue eyes snapped up and latched onto mine.

I knew why Emily was so furious.

Kates Heath, a childhood
nostalge
— another one of my words that I used to describe childhood friends that you remained friends with because of nostalgic memories and nothing else — was the epitome of every man and boy’s fantasy of a bad girl. Vampires ate girls like her for breakfast or they would if they could.

“Heya, celebrity,” Kates drawled in her husky voice and whipped her dusky blonde hair around.

“Kates.” I refused to look the vampire in the eyes.

Slowly, with hypnotizing grace, Kates unwrapped herself from him and stood to cross the room towards me. I felt the tension in the air. The entire room had been watching and now everyone held their breaths at our next move.

I flicked my gaze to Emily. She looked like a bomb ready to explode so I latched onto Kates’ arm and yanked her behind me. Dragging her outside, we circled around the corner and through an alcove of trees in the far corner before I whirled and snapped, “What are you doing here?”

Kates looked taken aback, but her smoky laugh rang out. “I can’t believe you. Look at you. You’re all…College Barbie.”

“What are you doing here, Kates? You’re not supposed to be here.”

Kates chuckled. “You’re too much sometimes, Davy. Get over it. You know exactly why I’m here.”

“No. I don’t.”

She groaned and placed her hands on her hips. “Steven saw you on the news. He called me and I headed here. You’re on the freaking news, Davy. You know how bad that is…for you.”

“Nine o’clock news. That was a half hour ago. There is no way that you drove from home in thirty minutes.” We lived five hours away.

“It was on the five o’clock news, Barbie Doll.”

Did it even matter? “You can’t be here,” I hissed.

Kates smiled smugly and shifted comfortably back on her heels. “You’ve got me, whether you want me or not. Who’s the hottie vampire, by the way? He’s delicious.”

I grimaced, but warned, “Stay away from him.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? He’s a vampire.”

Kates shrugged. “He’s hot. I caught a peek at his marking. He’s a Hunter.”

“Kates.” I shook my head, and sighed. Nothing was going how it was supposed to… I didn’t even know what to think about him being a Hunter.

“What?” Kates piped up, dumbfounded. “Look. I’m just here to watch your back. When I think you’re covered, I’ll head out. Promise.”

“I don’t need this. I can’t… ”

“You were on the news. They talked about that suicidal girl and that someone from the hotline was there. They didn’t say your name, but it won’t matter. They’re going to get calls from people wanting their five minutes of fame. It’s only a matter of time before you’re hunted down. Let’s hope that no one finds out about your special gifts.”

Kates was right. Things were going to get bad, really bad. Here I was, concerned about Emily’s vampire and Shelly Witless. This reminded me— “Adam is mine.”

“Ooh—who’s Adam?”

“None of your business.” I was adamant.

“It might become my business. I’m bunking with you until it all blows over.”

Oh no.

CHAPTER THREE

The next morning, I opened my eyes and instantly groaned. When Kates and I had returned to the dorm last night, I’d been ecstatic to find the vampire gone, but disappointed to find Adam gone too However, Emily
had not
been happy to meet our newest roommate. Kates ate it up. She loved causing drama and I could see that Emily was her newest target.

I woke Kates up and made her promise to play nice, which she did with a gleam in her eyes.

Later, when I let myself in my dorm room, I knew Kates had found a loophole. Emily jumped on me and crowded me against the door. “She has to go! Now.”

“What? I don’t—” Although, I could guess.

Emily shot up a hand. “Or I’m calling the cops on her.”

Sadly, I wasn’t surprised. This was just how Kates got her jollies. “What’d she do?”

“What’d she do? What didn’t she do?!” Emily laughed in outrage. She crossed her arms and I almost saw a cloud of smoke puff out of her ears.

Kates sauntered in with a towel and a thong dangling from her hand. A coy smile was outlined by ruby red lips. “Heya, you’re back.”

I moved Emily aside and hung up my bag. “I’m tired. I’m hungry. And,” I looked at Emily. “I’ll deal with Kates later.”

A look of disgust flashed over her face before she harrumphed once and left.

“So… how many vamps did you see? I’ve seen fourteen and I haven’t left this building.”

“Uh huh.” When I sat down, I didn’t want to deal with vamps, my roommate, or my nostalge.

Kates dropped into Emily’s chair beside me. “I want to know what’s going on with the vampire population. I’ve been to colleges before. I’ve been to
this
college before and I remember seeing four, not fourteen.”

“So what?” I sighed as I glanced at the message machine. Twenty-three messages. Apparently, the word got out that I’d been on that roof. “What am I supposed to do?”

Kates threw a toned leg on the desk. “It’s weird that you’re famous. I would love to be famous, but not you. We all know your deal—”

“Emily doesn’t,” I intervened quickly.

“Really? She doesn’t know? No wonder she’s pissy at me. I know something she doesn’t and she knows it. Anyways, let’s hope the reporters don’t find out you think of yourself as an empath.”

“I am.”

“They won’t think that.” She waved it off. “They’ll paint you as some psycho and you’ll be blamed for that girl jumping. So the question is how long can you avoid them? Or is that going to make them hungrier?”

Everyone in the psychic community had grown up with strict guidelines on how to handle possible exposure. Some followed and some didn’t. The ones that the media reported on, they either didn’t care or they wanted their moment of fame. I could handle the media.

“Why so many vampires?” I wondered out loud instead. I didn’t want to discuss my current celebrity status.

Kates shrugged and stood up. She dropped the towel and bent over to look through my closet. I was relieved to see that she wasn’t naked. “I know you’re all demure when you’re around me, but you have some rocking clothes. Like this one!” She produced a pair of black leather pants.

“That’s for a Halloween costume.” Not really. They were for Adam… the when and where was still up to debate.

Kates snorted and slipped the pants on. She chose a near-see-through cream colored shirt. “I think we should go and ‘interview’ that hottie from last night.”