Eternally Blue (Sunset Cliffs Vampire #1) (Paranormal Teen Romance) (15 page)

I looked in every room on the main level and in the garage, nothing. There wasn’t a basement, so I headed upstairs. Not only did I check every room but I looked at the ceiling in every room and closet to check for an attic access. I found the attic, looking nice and tiny, but the house was empty.

Entering into what I took to be Noah’s room I felt guilty, but I had to check if anyone was there. I saw his keys on his nightstand but other than that no sign of him. I was happy to see a lack of women’s clothing anywhere obvious in his room, like scattered on the floor after a night of lust. Instead all of Lainey’s clothes were contained in another room. That at least made me feel a little better but now I just wondered where the heck everyone was. It’s not as if Lainey makes habit of going out during daylight hours if she could help it.

Lainey! I bet this has something to do with her. Maybe she wanted to go home and he took her to the airport? For 12 hours I thought? Without his car? Get a grip Blue, I thought, rolling my eyes at myself.

I closed up the house and trudged across the street. Stacey had finished showering and looked at me hopefully as I came inside. “Nobody’s home” I said simply.

“
Nobody’s home” She repeated incredulously. I shook my head, and waved off her attempts to get me to come out with her and Fender. Even I could tell they were halfhearted. Who wants a third wheel to tag along on their first date? Especially someone as mopey as me? Not even someone as kind hearted as Stacey. Besides I wasn’t up for more beach time. I wanted to sit in my room and stare across the street stressing myself out and listening to emo music from her iTunes.

I couldn’t exactly do that at full volume when everyone was home. When she left I grabbed her laptop from her room since I left my iPod in my book bag in her car, and blasted Silversun Pickups song “Panic Switch” while attempting to dance around my room. It wasn’t music you could easily dance to, and eventually it got me so worked up I just wanted to punch something so I started shadow boxing in my room, just to burn off some energy, not that I knew exactly what I was doing. I mean I could fight as a vampire, but as a human it was like awakening a completely different set of muscles. By the time the song was over I was surprisingly worn out, so I collapsed back on my bed to just listen to the music and let it carry me away.

I only remembered to look out the window at Noah’s house once. I was eventually lulled to sleep. I woke up to what I thought was the stereo, but I could see that it had been turned off for me by someone at some point, and looking out the window it was now dark. I was surprised by something small like an acorn hitting the window while I was looking out of it and I screamed. I geared myself up enough to look below and saw Nikolai standing below my window cocking his arm back to throw another acorn and I shook my head to stop him.

I panicked. What the heck was I supposed to do about Nikolai being here? What, now instead of sending my brother to tell me to come home, he’s come to carry me off into the night himself? I had only moments to think about it. I didn’t want to open the window and let him in, what if he hurt someone in the family. Don’t be silly, I thought, he wouldn’t do that. What did he WANT? How did he find me? Of course – my brother. Errrr! I was going to wring his neck when I got my strength back.

I sighed and opened my window and Nikolai jumped to my window sill in the same second, scaring me and causing me to step back. He looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry to scare you, but can I come in, there is a family walking down the street and I don’t think they should see me like this”. I nodded and moved aside and he climbed in. I motioned for him to be quiet while I went and stuck my head out of my bedroom door to hear what was going on in the house. I heard the sound of the TV downstairs and the dryer and that was it. I closed and locked my door. Looking at Nikolai standing awkwardly in the middle of my room looking around at all of my things, I crossed my arms across my chest and jutted out a leg.

“
I take it nobody pays attention to the council’s demand that I be left alone” I hissed.

He spread his hands out in front of him in surrender “I’m sorry Blue, I didn’t think I had a choice but to come here”, He raked his hands through his hair and continued “I just… it’s your brother Blue, he’s got the princess and the two males you’ve been hanging around”.

“
He what?” I squealed. “Tell me you’re lying Nikolai, that’s not funny”. I got close to him, challenging him to back down and tell me he was lying. He didn’t, he just looked at the ground. I pushed him, which didn’t do much as I knew it wouldn’t. “Tell me you’re lying Nikolai! Why does brother have Noah?”

“
He’s been acting strangely for awhile now Blue, the council asked me to keep an eye on him, to make sure he’s ok, like a big brother would, you understand”. He looked at me willing me to understand. I nodded, trying to rush him along.

“
Well he came back smelling like you, but different one day, and I knew he’d been to see you but he wouldn’t talk about it even though we used to share everything. He started disappearing more and more, and coming back all excited, but he wouldn’t say anything about it, I could smell another vampire on him, and it took me awhile but I figured out it was royal blood I was smelling so then I really started getting worried that he found a royal vamp and was draining them for strength so I started following him, and he led me to here. I could see his interest in the house across the street. It reeked of the royal and two males that I couldn’t quite figure out what they were until I saw them. Smelling you now confirmed it, but I guess you already know”.

I nodded, “Yeah, she was their maker and she got permission to switch them back”.

He continued, “Ok that makes sense, but anyways” he started speeding up now, urgently, “well he took them somehow, I’m not sure how because he did it during the daytime when I was inside, but I know where he took them and I have already gone to confirm they were there and unharmed. I came for you Blue for a few reasons. One being that you are the only one I can trust to help me without trying to eat the princess afterwards. Also, if we can talk your brother down before he does any damage I thought maybe we could avoid this going to the council which nobody else would keep quiet about”.

In that moment I loved him so much. I went to him and hugged him, sobbing against his chest. “Thank you, oh thank you Nikki” I sniffed.

He stroked my back, “Don’t thank me yet Blue”. I pulled back and looked up into his eyes. He wiped away a tear of mine, inspecting it on his fingertip. “hmmm”.

I grinned, “Yeah, cool huh? Just another perk of being human”.

He frowned a little at that, and I felt bad, “I’m sorry Nikki, I didn’t think..”

“
No, it’s ok Blue, it’s what you wanted. You needed to do this. Right now though we have something bigger than us to deal with ok?” I nodded.

“
Do you have anything you can bring as a weapon?” He asked.

I gasped “I’m not using a weapon against my brother! I don’t care if he tries to eat me!”

“
What about as protection against Lainey? Does she share your loyalties? What if she tries to hurt any of us after we release her?”

I thought about that for a second and relented “Yeah ok, I’ll go get a knife from the kitchen”.

Chapter 10

Nikolai had parked around the block I came to find out, and sitting in his familiar car on the way to the place where my friends were being held prisoner by my brother, I couldn’t help but to feel comforted by the familiar smell of his car, and the sound of the engine.

We didn’t talk as we whizzed through the streets, but I could feel his tenseness vibrating through the car. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was about how things were left between us and the latest developments between me and Noah, or if it was about the potential fight we had ahead of us.

I stared out the window trying to hold back my tears of frustration, watching the lights pass me in a blur while I tried to think of something to say that would make him feel better; something that would make me feel better too about what I’d done. When we came to a stop I blinked furiously to clear my vision and was surprised to see the beach parking lot that I was so used to parking in after school. I turned to face him questioningly, and saw him squinting through the windshield up to the top of the cliffs. I couldn’t make out any signs of commotion up there, but then again my sight wasn’t what it used to be.

Before we got out of the car he prepped me and told me I was to be absolutely quiet, as if I had forgotten that vampires could hear great, and to watch my step. After a moment of consideration he offered to just carry me up the cliff since he was sure I wasn’t as graceful and stealth as I used to be. I rolled my eyes and thought about telling him what he could do with that idea, but then I decided he had a point, and I did
not
want to do anything to give us away to my brother and risk the situation escalating over a broken twig, plus I wasn’t wearing the greatest shoes for mountain hiking. I nodded my agreement and we both silently opened our doors. He put his finger to his mouth one final time in the universal sign for shush, before we both closed our car doors as quietly as possible. Kind of pointless I thought afterwards considering that we drove his car into the parking lot and my brother could probably hear the engine. But then I looked around and saw another car in the lot and heard a couple giggling from the beach.

Nikolai hoisted me onto his back with ease and I hung onto him tightly with my legs around his waist and my arms tucked under his and we slowly, so as to be quiet, started navigating the less steep side of the cliff. He of course could have scaled it easily but was no doubt being careful on my account. I rested my chin on his shoulder and breathed in the scent of his neck and sighed with the comfortable familiarity of him, which caused him to stiffen momentarily before continuing to climb. He broke his own rule by saying gruffly “Not helping” and I pressed my lips against the side of his neck and grinned so he could feel my smile since I still didn’t want to risk talking. He groaned and shifted me on his waist slightly, leaning his neck into my lips. I could hear his breathing getting shallower but knew it didn’t have anything to do with the climb.

The feel of him getting excited caused a reaction in me, we had history after all, and my breath hitched and became ragged and I felt my legs tighten around his waist as I leaned into him involuntarily. Quicker than I could comprehend, he had spun me around so that I was facing him, and he pressed my back against a tree for support. His hands clenched under my thighs and he leaned in and kissed me forcefully. I pulled his hair eagerly, putting all my fears into the kiss, and he pulled back to look at me for a moment, both of us panting in the moonlight.

Getting my bearings at our situation my face must have shown my shock and remorse because Nikolai immediately lessened his grip on my thighs. He sighed sadly and put his head on my chest.

I had heard of scary situations causing an exotic reaction in some people but this was ridiculous, my brother was out there and had Noah, oh God, I thought groaning inwardly, how am I going to tell Noah about this? My past and current life mingling were proving to be nothing but trouble.

Nikolai interrupted my thoughts “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that” he breathed quietly. His sad puppy eyes were too much to bear, I did have a special part of my heart reserved for loving him after all, and I looked back into the night.

Without a word and all business, Nikolai spun me around so that I was on his back again and we snuck off into the night. He dropped me off at the backside of a cave and motioned for me to stay still while he went to investigate. There was no doubt in either of our minds though that this was where my brother was keeping them, because we could hear Lainey begging him to let her go.

I didn’t hear Noah or his brother, a fact that scared me silent and still, straining my ears for any telltale sounds that they were still alive. Briefly the thought flitted past my mind that maybe he had let them go or they had escaped and were currently on their way to get help for Lainey. I didn’t let myself think about that fantasy for too long though, my brother may be stupid but he isn’t an idiot; if they had escaped he would have taken Lainey somewhere more secretive.

On that note, I thought, I remember seeing someone or something moving up here when I was at the beach with Noah, I wonder if he was spying on me even then. I had been standing still too long and was starting to get antsy, when Nikolai finally came back. His grim expression wiped any happiness I might have had on seeing him safely returned and I hissed “What?”

He met my eyes and I saw a wild fury in them I had never seen in him before. “I changed my mind, I’m taking you back” he said hoarsely, grabbing me by my arm.