Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) (24 page)

“Be careful,” h
e replied, but it looked like that wasn’t at all what he wanted to be saying to me at the moment.
No, you aren’t going to over think things again, not now.

“I have to finish getting ready. I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Yeah.” His mouth was set in a grim line, and he backed out of my room.

Hurrying now
, since it had taken me some time to finish with the interruption, I dried my hair and threw on a t-shirt and some jeans. My go-to would be most comfortable if I was going to be put through anything. I could move around well in the jeans I chose just in case I needed to fight back for any reason. If Emma was going to make me come with her now, I was ready. I walked into the living room and Emma smiled and asked in a bubbly voice asked if I was ready to go.

“I thought bowling would be fun
, and lunch? There really isn’t a ton to do around here.”

“Sure.” I
t took a lot of hard work to smile genuinely at her. “Bye, guys.”

We left the apartment and didn’t speak until
we were quite a distance away.

“Come on
, Ariya, why so glum?”

She was twisted. “I know why you’re getting me away from everyone. Why
don’t we just get on with it?”

“What are you talking about? I just want to spend the day with you
, dear.” Then she leaned in closer. “Why would I take you when they know I’m the one who is with you? That would have fingers point straight to me if something happened. I’m not an idiot, Ariya. I know how to make things look like accidents and rule number one is always have another person, or in our case another
thing
, to blame such accidents on.”

She was toyi
ng with me. She knew that saying she wanted to spend the day with me would make me assume that was it for me. That’s why she was smiling so cruelly now. She wouldn’t win. I silently swore to myself she wouldn’t be the one finish me off and that I was going to do whatever it took to beat her and protect my friends.

We didn’t speak most of the way towards the bowling alley, which was fine with me. The things she did say were to taunt me. Asking me how James was doing, telling me that living with him was a dream.
She even went so far as to start describing old steamy scenes between the two of them. This was quickly becoming the worst day ever.

“
Oh, my favorite is when he makes that noise right before he..."

"
Enough!
Emma, enough. I know what you're doing. Stop it."

My anger
surprised me, although at this point perhaps it should have been considered normal to have such violent reactions to various things going on in my life. Maybe I wasn't as afraid of her as I thought. If I had to listen to one more comment about how she and James had done anything, though, I was going to punch my fist through the next wall we came across.

"What? This is what girlfriends do
, isn't it? We're supposed to be talking about guys, and since we share one, I thought we could swap trade secrets on how best to turn him on.
Did anything like that with you happen? Or have you all not explored that part of your relationship yet?”

She grinned at me maliciously
and
said it in such a sickeningly innocent voice. She knew she was getting to me, but for a moment, I forgot she was a vampire and I was a mere human. My hand moved to slap her across the face, but I wasn't quick enough. This was the first time I purposely tried to hit anyone in my life, so the fact that I had gone for it in the first place was startling. She grabbed my arm, growled, and spun me around so that her teeth were at my neck.

"I don't
miss feeling so out of control," she whispered before she released me. She stood before me with that evil grin of hers, proving she was in fact trying to get a rise out of me and had succeeded.

"Don't forget who you're speaking to
, Ariya. I could do quite a number on you and heal you so quickly with my blood that your friends would never know. Don't tempt me to take you before it's time."

Her eyes had narrowed and I saw the monster I had unleashed. The darkening of her eyes was frightening. They had turned completely black and her face grew paler than it normally was. When she opened her mouth again
, I noticed her front teeth had elongated. It wasn't possible for me to think of my friends in this light, but this is what a true vampire was. This is where the nightmares came from. Shuddering, I just stood there, wishing I could be stronger and ignore the fear that was gripping me. At the moment, walking away from her seemed to be the best option.

We
continued on as I clenched my hands hard into fists to try to distract me from the bouts of anger, and then pain welling up in me. How could James have ever loved her like she says he did? How was it possible?
I tried not to say much more. We were almost to the bowling alley. At least I would have time when going up to bowl to get away for a second, and not have to fake anything with her.

The trouble with a small town is you can never go anywhere without seeing people you know. As luck would have it
, when we were heading to the front doors of our destination, Riley and Helen were walking up right in front of us. I stopped short, remembering the conversation he had with James at Thanksgiving. What would he think if he saw Emma and I here together?

Helen saw me and waved before I could decide to try and bolt. It appeared there was no way out of talking to them. Riley was frowning as they waited right inside the
front doors for us to walk in.

“Hey
, Ariya,” he said, and he nodded at Emma.

“Emm
a,” she filled in for him.

“What are you all up to?” He looked confused and rightly so. In his mind, I was at the bowling all
ey with James’ new girlfriend.

“Oh
, we’re just hanging out, getting to know each other. Girls’ day, you know?” Emma nudged me as she spoke to show our girlfriend status, I guess.

Plastering on a smile
that I knew Riley would see through wasn’t going to make this situation any better.
Please don’t ask any questions,
I thought, hoping if I repeated it enough Riley would keep quiet. I knew what he would say to me if we were on speaking terms. He’d ask why I tend to put myself in situations like this. He’d say there was no reason for me to be nice to this girl whom my ex was seeing. Not that James was my ex, but Riley saw it that way. He’d say I was being too naïve, too nice, and ask what I was thinking.

“Huh,
” he said in a terribly short, curt way. ”How do you two know each other?”

“We’re related,” Emma giggled as
Riley’s eyebrows shot up in the air.

I couldn’t look at him for fear he would keep pressing questions on us
when he saw my mortified face. Fiddling with my jacket allowed me to avoid eye contact with him.

“Are you all planning on playing a game or two?” I asked Helen
, trying to draw attention away from Emma and me.

That was a stupid question; why else would they be at the bowling alley?
For the re-heated, frozen pizza?

“
Yeah! Are you all, too? We can team up – it’s always more fun with a group.” Helen was smiling.

I tried to
put on my best genuine smile, dreading that I had even asked a question and opened my big mouth. What could I say to get out of playing with them? Spending more time around them would also allow Emma to get to know more people I cared about. The way she was eying Riley up like a piece of meat was disturbing. A shiver ran up my spine at that thought.

“Well,
um…”
Think of an excuse, Ariya!
Emma was beaming.

“Ariya, don’t be rude! Of course we’d
love to play doubles,” Emma chimed in, in that disgustingly fake singsong voice she had.

Riley started at her for a moment longer
, and then averted his gaze to me, making sure I knew exactly what he thought about this situation. He was pissed at me. He was being my best friend again. If it had been under different circumstances, I would have been thrilled, but it was under the circumstance of him having to see me with Emma. This was bad for Riley’s safety.

We walked up to the shoe rack and paid for our rental shoes and one game. Hopefully that’s all we’d stay for. Emma took Helen by the arm and led her to a lane while Riley and I were still waiting to get our shoes. The guy behind the counter looked young, maybe high school. This had to be his first day because he was running around trying to find everything and fill out his paperwork.
This meant it was taking much longer than it should have and Riley was staring me down. Deciding I couldn’t avoid the lasers being drilled into my head anymore, I turned to face him.

“Yes?” I asked. It
came our rude, and that made me feel guilty. I was nervous and quite honestly, didn’t know how to act.

“What are you doing
, Ariya?” he asked, angrily.

I obviously knew what he was referring to
, but I tried to play it off. “With what?”

“You know with what. You and James
’ girlfriend are buddy, buddy now? What is wrong with you?”

“Riley, I’m just trying to be nice. She’s a relative and new to town
. She doesn’t know anyone.”
Good job, Ariya
.
That’s believable enough.

“Ariya, that’s messed up. Even for you. You do this to yourself all the time. You can’t enjoy knowing she’s with James. I know how much you like him.” The boy behind t
he counter handed us our shoes.

“Riley,
it’s fine. I’m fine. You don’t need to look out for me any more.” He looked surprised by the remark.

Angry, I grabbed the shoes and headed over to wher
e Emma and Helen were sitting. I shouldn’t be so mean to him when he was only watching out for me. The hole that the lack of his friendship had left inside of me had been pushed aside with everything else going on, and it wasn’t until this moment that I was forced to think about it again. There was no reason to be so nasty to him. He was just trying to force me into sticking up for myself. He also had every right to be mad at me. If I had just accepted him, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Or would we? Emma was probably coming after me no matter whom I was dating.

When I got
back to Emma, Helen was smiling, so at least I could rest assured Emma hadn’t been creeping her out too much. Riley plopped down across from me, still glaring at me. Not only did I need to act friendly with Emma, but now I was going to have to ignore Riley’s cold stares. This was turning out to be a really great afternoon.

After about five turns each
, Riley interrupted my current mindless babble, striking up a conversation with Emma. My chatting had kept up most of the game thus far, and my mouth was going a mile a minute. No one else could get a word in. I didn’t care if I sounded crazy or not – hopefully they all thought I was just in a chatty mood. Helen seemed to be enjoying herself. Riley though? Not so much.

“So Emma, how did you and James meet?”
Uh oh
, I thought as Riley asked the question, cutting off my incessant noise-making about how football and hockey were different.

Emma beamed. “W
ell, we met awhile back. It was love at first sight, you know how it goes.”

She sighed
, and my skin crawled at how superficial this vampire was.

“We went our separate ways for awhile
, but then when I came to visit Ariya here, we reunited. It’s like nothing has changed and we’re back together. Of course, Ariya and I had to work out some things, but we’re family, so all’s well that ends well.” She used the best fake smile I’d seen her use yet as she spoke.

I grabbed the bowling ball
and momentarily thought about bashing it over her head, but instead walked away. It was my turn. Saved by the ball.

“Huh,” Riley snorted behind me. “James and I got pretty close earlier when he started school here. I’m surprised he didn’t mention you.”

Emma’s features hardened for a moment. Helen looked a bit confused, and then looked at Riley in shock, no doubt wondering why he was being so rude. She stood up and grabbed the bowling ball to take her turn as I returned to my seat. No one was really paying attention to the game any longer.

“Yes
, well, sometimes people keep their feelings to themselves Riley, especially painful ones. James and I both thought that our relationship was something neither of us would have again. Have you ever kept something to yourself, thinking it would never happen? Crushes perhaps? Unrequited love? Anything like that?”

She looked up at me and now it was my turn to harden up. My jaw opened a bit and I sta
red at her. How dare she! Riley shot his gaze over at me for a minute and frowned. His look turned quickly to one of hurt. I shook my head. I was trying to impossibly telepathically communicate to him that I hadn’t told her anything. He wouldn’t believe me.