Eternal Shadows (19 page)

“Bodyguard.” I’d spouted the word so many times it felt as natural as—well, not breathing anymore.

Sara growled. I almost laughed. I’d always thought of her as a pixie and here she was growling like some creature that went bump in the night. Like me. Ha ha.

“Maybe, but that’s not really the whole truth,” she said. “He’s doing more than just guarding your body.”

It took me a second to realize where she was headed.

“What?”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“No!” My voice squeaked.

“Don’t lie to me, Kassandra. You’re involved with him, I can tell.”

“You are so far off base here, Sara.” She was blocking the door to the hall. I couldn’t get past her without revealing the fact that I was now much stronger than I had been.

“I am not. I can tell by the way you look at each other. The way you move around each other. Have you kissed him?”

Oh, God. Shut up, Sara! Shut up! He can hear you!

I stuttered for a while. “It’s not like that, I swear. He’s just here to make sure I’m safe.” Not a lie.

“You’re all flustered.” She grinned. “You do like him.”

I whined. “Please, Sara. He can hear you.”

“No, he can’t. The halls are too loud and we’re way over here.”

He’s a vampire with supersonic hearing!

“I’m not talking about this,” I said trying to sound casual as I began to inch around her. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

She let me go. “Whatever you say, Kass. But you won’t call me. You’re too busy lately. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She made the word “busy” sound like it meant all sorts of other things.

I wanted to die.

I brushed past Rhys, not daring to look at his face. I went out the front door, down the steps, across the parking lot and to the car all without really looking at anything. I got in, buckled up
, and kept my face buried in my backpack.

Crap
.

I didn’t have enough time to come up with some good way to brush off everything Sara had said. I heard the driver’s side door open, followed by the sound of Rhys’s clothes brushing against the cloth seat.

“That went rather well,” he said, then started the car.

“Well?” My head flew up. No way he actually thought that. “How the heck did that go well?”

His lips twitched. “Perhaps that’s not the right word. But smoothly didn’t seem to fit at all.”

“You think this is funny.”

“I think you made it through the day without anyone questioning your story and without once thinking about eating the student body.”

“I did think about it once.”

“When?”

When I got into the lunch room and all the tables around my normal table had been filled with gawking girls. “Nevermind.”

“Millie’s bruises worked well. And they didn’t fade at all.”

“Great. You know, most people hide bruises with make
-up.”

“Most people aren’t pretending they’re human.”

I snorted and set my chin in my hand, looking out the window. We passed several downtown buildings, town hall, the post office, and the road that lead straight to the only remaining mall before I realized we weren’t headed home.

“Rhys, where are we going?”

“Lessons.”

“Not at home?”

“I thought you might like some privacy.” He turned down a road I’d never been on before.

“You’re going to kill me now, aren’t you?”

His gaze left the road in order to glare at me. “Would you stop asking me that?”

“It’s a legitimate concern.”

“Hardly.” The car sped up.

“You know, when I said I was good at car crashes now, I didn’t really mean that I want to experience another one.”

“I’m not going to crash. I’m barely going faster than most humans do on the highway.”

“Sure.” I pushed my bag onto the floor at my feet, not caring when my books spilled all over the place. Rhys drove in silence for another ten minutes, then he pulled off the road and parked, turning the car off.

We were in the middle of nowhere.

The little dirt road was the only sign of human life. Large oaks, maples and birch trees surrounded us on almost every side. When Rhys opened the door I was shocked at how loud the forest sounded. Every bird, every cricket, mouse, snake, raccoon
, and deer made itself known to me. I heard heartbeats, chirps, breathing, hissing, sniffing. It was terrible.

I climbed out of the car after him. Everything got louder without the barrier of the car. “How am I supposed to learn anything out here? I’ll never be able to concentrate with all this noise!” I covered my ears.

“Stop yelling. Block the sounds out. Consider it an extra lesson. On the house.”

“Jerk.” I shouted it just to be a brat. Then I closed my eyes and tried to forget all the subtle sounds of the woods.

No such luck. I’d accidentally timed my breathing with some squirrel that chattered away in the tree closest to my head.

“I can’t do it,” I said, hands still pressed over my ears. “Give me a hint or something.”

He stepped into the trees, hands in his pockets. “Find something else to focus on.” Then he was out of sight.

I started after him, awkwardly keeping my balance without the use of my hands. Something to focus on. Something to focus on…I couldn’t come up with anything. A rampage through the forest, killing all the furry creatures great and small didn’t sound so bad at the moment though.

Good job, Kassandra. You’re officially a monster.

I sighed and tried to relax. Crickets were supposed to be soothing, so I narrowed in on one particular song.

After about two seconds I wanted to find it and squash it.

New plan. Squirrels were too noisy, deer were too flighty, snakes were too slithery.
Dammit
. I searched through the heartbeats, trying to find one that kept a calm pace. Nothing. I tried breathing, but most of the animals were so small their quick heartbeats called for quick breathing as well.

I tried listening to the trees, too. Nothing to hear there. Stupid, I know. I was losing my mind. Everything else in my life was so upside down though, why wouldn’t it have made sense for there to be something to hear from the trees? Growing? Breathing? Thinking?

I needed professional help.

I shouted for Rhys again, having lost sight of him and unable to pick up his scent. He’d always smelled like fresh earth to me. Surrounded by that exact thing now, I couldn’t find him.

I stopped when he didn’t answer me and called again. Worried I just couldn’t hear him over all those noise, I dropped my hands from my ears.

Still nothing.

“Rhys!” I screamed it this time. How could he not hear me? I knew the sounds didn’t bother him. He clearly knew how to block them out. I, on the other hand, felt a headache coming on. I also felt like crying.

Then I felt his hands slip over my ears. “Is it that bad?” he said, behind me.

“Yes.” Misery coated my voice. “I don’t know how to do it. There’s nothing good to focus on.”

“Of course there is. I’ll help.”

I felt him move around me until I saw him clearly, standing right in front of me. He switched his hands so he could continue to cover my ears. “Close your eyes,” he said.

“Tried it. Doesn’t work.”

“Trust me.”

Magic words. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

At first, the sound got louder. As if without other senses and stimuli my brain had nothing to focus on but the incessant noise. But then I detected Rhys’s scent, slightly different from actual earth I compared him to. I locked onto that, cataloguing the subtle differences and nuances that made the smell uniquely him. Oddly enough, once I had broken everything down, I realized what one piece he missed that made him discernable from the actual earth.

Decay.

The living earth was littered with all sorts of decomposition, animal and plant. But the long dead vampire who stood in front of me smelled of nothing but life.

Odd.

Then, for a very short moment, I thought I was dreaming again. Because Rhys’s lips had pressed against mine.

At first, neither of us moved. We stood frozen, lips locked together. We didn’t breathe. I resisted the impulse to open my eyes, afraid that if I did, the dream would end. I wasn’t ready for it to end this time.

Because the world had finally gone silent.

Then his lips began to move. Slow at first, cautious, as though afraid of my reaction. But his hands slid from my ears, to my jaw, holding me rather than blocking the noise that no longer bothered me.

Wanting more, I kissed back.

It was like that was all he had needed. All either of us needed for the explosion to happen.

The kiss turned harder, firmer, passionate—if I dared use the word. I found his neck with my hands, holding him closer and pressing myself against him as much as was physically possible. We staggered backwards until a tree got in the way, my back pressing against it with such force I heard the trunk groan.

I didn’t care. I traced the lines of Rhys’s fangs with my tongue, feeling my own fangs stretch and grow in response. Interesting. But that fleeting thought was all I spared. The rest of my attention anchored to Rhys’s lips moving over mine.

So much better than the dream. And so much better than the peck I had stolen a few days back.

When he broke the kiss and took a single step back from me I thought I might die from the loss. Panting, I stared at him, desperate to make sense of what had just happened. Desperate for it to happen again.

“That worked,” I said stupidly when the silence started to get to me.

“Thought so.” At least he looked as flustered as I felt. And he had started it. “The noise is gone?”

“Yes.” I checked just to be sure. “And not coming back.”

“Good.”

“Is…is that how everyone learns to control the noise?”

He had his breathing back under control. “No.”

“Oh. Okay.” I took a deep breath and held it until I was sure I could stop nearly hyperventilating. “Is there anything else I can learn like that?”

Rhys laughed once. “Not sure.”

I peeled myself away from the tree that had been at my back. A good portion of the bark flaked away and fell to the ground. A crack as tall as I was ran through the trunk. “We broke the tree.”

“It will heal.”

I nodded dumbly, shaking the bark from my hair. Not bad for my first real kiss. Probably a good bet that I had most other people beat in that department now. I kicked at a small stone. “Are we going to talk about that?”

“I think I’ll teach you the coin trick first.”

“Sounds good to me.” I couldn’t talk with my brain all Jell-O-like. Best to wait. I pulled the sixpence out of my pocket and held it up where he could see it. “Teach me.”

Chapter Sixteen: Chrysalis

The cold sixpence rolled over the back of my index finger, to the middle, then stumbled and fell to the ground. I’d been practicing for the better part of an hour and that was the best I could do. I’d convinced myself that with my vampire reflexes this should have been far easier. The fact that Rhys sat so close, watching my every move, was distracting me.

I missed the beginning of the lesson, when his fingers had guided mine. He’d left me on my own for a while now. I retrieved the coin from the woody debris we sat on and tried again.

Index finger, middle, ring, pinkie—ground. Ugh.

I grabbed the coin, taking pieces of dead leaves with it and positioned it again. Index, middle, ring, pinkie, ring—Dammit!

“You’re getting better.”

“Not better enough,” I grumbled, trying again. Same result as my previous attempt.

Rhys pried my fist away from the coin when I seized it this time, taking it and brushing the dirt away. I watched the way his fingers glided over the metal, careful and reverent. Almost the same way he had touched me.

“Have you had it a long time?” I asked, suddenly jealous of the attention the coin had taken from me.

“Yes. As long as I can remember.”

“From when you were human?”

“I believe so.”

“You can have it back, you know.”

“You can hold onto it.”

“Why?” My voice had turned to a whisper. I’d leaned so far forward I was almost in his lap.

His gaze rose from the coin and settled on my face. I stopped breathing. “Because I trust you not to lose it,” he said.

“I feel bad keeping it.” He couldn’t remember his human life. If this was all he had…

“Then you can return it to me after you’ve mastered the skill.” He rolled the coin over his hand effortlessly. “And once we’ve gotten you a replacement.”

His smile nearly melted my bones. “All right,” I agreed. All I could think about was that kiss. I thought I might be ready to talk about it. Maybe.

Rhys flipped the sixpence into the air, caught it, then held it out to me. “Try again?”

I reached out for the coin and made sure my fingers brushed against his when I took it back. My eyes never left his. Without even thinking much, I positioned the coin, and let it roll.

Index, middle, ring, pinkie, ring, middle, index…

I dropped the coin in surprise.

“Good job.”

I felt the uncontrollable grin break out over my face. Nearly shaking with excitement I picked up the coin and dusted it off.

“Are you going to try again?”

“I think I’d rather live on this high note for a while longer. I probably can’t do it again right now anyway.” My fingers trembled.

He nodded and we lingered in silence for a long moment. The forest sounds had dulled to a normal roar in the background for me. No longer the obnoxious symphony it had been when I first stepped out of the car. Now, I could focus in on one thing and then another just for fun. So far listening to the playful squirrels was my favorite. They chattered to one another incessantly and I’d convinced myself I would decipher their language.

Yes, I remembered I had wanted to kill them all an hour earlier. Things change.

When I wasn’t listening to the squirrels, I listened to Rhys’s well-practiced breathing.

I polished the coin with my finger, waiting until it shined again before speaking. “Can we talk now?” I kept my eyes focused on the coin, half afraid of his reaction.

I felt him shift and look upward at what little of the sky could be seen through the tops of the trees. “That would probably be a good idea, given the time.”

“Are we expected back for dinner?” I joked.

A soft laugh carried through the air. “Not quite. Though your thermos is empty.”

“I’m not thirsty,” I assured him. Blood was the last thing on my mind. He went quiet and I hesitantly glanced up at him. “Who’s going to start?”

He leaned forward with both arms on his folded knees. “I suppose I should, since I’m the one who kissed you.”

“This time,” I clarified. It wouldn’t be fair to leave out my stolen kiss from the other day.

“Yes, this time,” he agreed. “The explanation begins there anyway.”

I waited patiently.

Or impatiently. Who was to judge?

“After you acquired the coin last Friday—”

“By devious and underhanded means,” I interjected.

Rhys continued on, pausing only long enough to acknowledge my contribution with a quick look. “I didn’t quite know how to react, so when Aurelia asked me to go with her to locate Cordoba, I agreed. The weekend gave me time to think.”

Whatever thinking he did, I liked it. He could think like that all he wanted if it would lead to more of our previous activity. “And so you came up with what?” I leaned closer, putting us face to face. I wasn’t afraid of those teeth.

“That you deserved something far better than that pitiful excuse for a kiss.”

“Hey! It wasn’t that pitiful! It shocked the heck out of you!”

“Yes, it did. I hadn’t expected that.”

“That was the point. But,” I hesitated, not sure how to ask the question rolling about in my head. I tried to start again. “So what does it all mean? What happens now?”

“Well, that depends on you.”

“On me?”

“Yes. What do you want?”

I chewed my lip. “No fair, I asked you first.”

He reached up, pulling my lip free from my teeth with his thumb. My lips burned with the memory of our kiss. “I spent the weekend thinking, remembering, searching…In all my very long life I can’t remember ever feeling like this before.”

I watched his face, afraid to look anywhere else, lest he disappear like a dream or something. “Like what?”

“Alive.”

My heart beat so hard I felt it knock violently against my ribs. Rhys smiled. Obviously he had heard it. Traitorous heart.

“I haven’t lived very l
ong,” I said a little guiltily. “But I’ve never spent so much time thinking about one person before.”

I was perfectly aware of both of us beating around the bush. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter at the moment. We both knew what lingered between the lines.

“We should probably take things at a normal human pace.”

“Why?” I wanted at least more kissing, and I wanted it now.

“Because you’ve never done this before.”

“Have you?”

The corner of his mouth twitched. Caught. “Not that I remember.”

“So then we’re both on the same page.”

“Give or take five hundred years.”

I waved my hand dismissively. “Details.”

“You are a little young for me.”

“Yeah, well, Dad warned me about older guys.”

“In most cases he was probably right.”

I shifted onto my knees so I could get closer to him. “I’m not worried about you.”

Rhys didn’t move, even though I’d put our faces nose to nose. “And why is that?” His scent washed over me with every word.

“Because I only ever feel safe when I’m with you.”

“I see. And so you feel safe now?”

“Very safe.”

“That would explain why you’ve stuck your face so close to a vampire who’s been around for half a millennia.”

“It would. Since I’m not suicidal anymore.”

“So what is your goal then?”

“I think we should try that whole kissing thing again. Third time’s a charm and all.”

“You might have a point. But it’s going to rain.”

“How can you tell?”

“I can smell it.”

I hadn’t noticed before, but it had gotten darker. I guess I’d just figured enough time had gone by for the sun to set. I let my gaze flick upward for half a second and could see the clouds that had rolled in. “Will we melt?” I asked, looking back at Rhys’s face.

“No.”

“Then I don’t care.”

“Roll the coin over your hand one more time, then I’ll kiss you.” He smirked.

I frowned. “This is not a game.”

He took my hand, and set the coin over the back of my first finger. “One more time. Or you’ll think you can never do it again.”

Grumbling, I sat back on my heels and
balanced the coin, judging the proper position. I remembered how it had felt to roll the coin the first time.

I did it so quick and so perfect Rhys’s eyebrow rose above his right eye. “Nothing like a little motivation,” I said.

“You win.”

He kissed me.

The sky opened up, and even the thick trees weren’t enough to shield us from the onslaught of marble-sized raindrops.

This kiss was softer. Rhys’s hands returned to my face, my hair, my neck
, holding me gently while his lips moved against mine. I wove my fingers into his wet hair, loving the way each soft strand felt against my skin.

This kiss was shorter, too.

All too soon Rhys pulled back. His thumb brushed the fake bruise at my temple. “We should get home.”

“Why?” I whined. I liked it just fine where we were.

“Because I didn’t tell anyone we were going to take a detour after school, and given the current situation it may cause certain people to worry.” He took the sixpence from my hand and slipped it into my jeans pocket. Then he stood, lifting me from the ground with him and setting me on my feet. I wiped my wet hair from my face, then pulled at my shirt. I felt like a drowned rat.

“Wait,” I said when he started heading back through the woods. He stopped and turned back to me. “I guess I should ask
—did you and Aurelia find Cordoba?”

“Yes.” He walked back to me, brushing his wet bangs off his forehead.

“And what did he say?” Honestly, I was a little nervous about the whole thing. Sure Malachi had defected, but was that enough to get his sire on our side? The general seemed to see all his fledglings, or whatever, as beloved children.

“He’s going to come and discuss things with Julius as soon as he’s finished with the project he is currently working on. Aurelia stayed to help him, hoping to make things go faster.”

“What’s he working on?”

“England.”

“Oh.” That made sense a full two seconds after I had responded. I looked at Rhys in shock. “You mean when you went away this weekend, you went all the way to England?”

“It’s only a six hour flight.”

Only. Ha. Six hours and a good chunk of change I was sure. No way did Aurelia fly coach.

“We should go now.”

“Just one more question.”

“Yes?”

I reached down and took his hand in mine, winding our fingers together as I spoke. “What do we do now?”

“Probably best to keep to ourselves for the time being. Some people may get a little over excited and go overboard.”

“Millie,” I said.

“Yes.” The fondness for his adopted sister was clear in his eyes though.

I screwed up my face as I thought for a moment, a bad habit I’d picked up from my mother. “How does someone go about being discreet in a house full of super-hearing, super-seeing, practically never-sleeping vampires?”

“Very carefully.”

The ride home wracked my nerves. When he parked, I uncurled my fist from the door handle and readied myself for walking into the house and acting completely normal.

Millie met us at the front door.

“Where have you been? For all that is holy, Rhys, you’ve had us all worried sick! And you’re soaked!”

At least everything was his fault, not mine. That would make it easier to pretend.

Millie grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me inside, mumbling something about irresponsibility and unsuitable appearances.

Rhys shut the door once we were all inside. “I took her to the woods to teach her to control her hearing, Millie. That’s all.”

“And it didn’t once occur to you that maybe you should call us? We do have a good run of attacks going on recently.”

“Kassandra was never in any danger.”

“So you say. At least my handiwork held up. What if she had run into a friend in the rain and her bruises had run all down her face?”

“We weren’t anywhere where we would have run into people.”

Millie huffed.

“I’m going upstairs to take a shower and get changed,” I said. “You two go right on ahead and finish your argument without me though.” Resisting the urge to
wring my hair out all over the front rug—Anne would have killed me—I hopped up the stairs to the second floor, glancing back at Rhys only once. Go me.

He looked really good wet.

But once I got under the hot water of the shower, my brain caught up with everything that had happened.

Holy crap.

I’d kissed Rhys. Again. And he’d kissed me.

I put my head under the direct spray of the water, rinsing away the rain and beating some clarity into my skull. I’d been so caught up in everything before that I hadn’t really gotten all the answers I needed.