Tainted Blood (56 page)

Avery scrambled to her feet and stared down at Oscar still seated on the couch. “You said you loved me.” She sounded desperate and, as usual, whiny.

Oscar glanced up at Avery for a brief second then waved her off. “I tell lots of girls that.” Avery’s eyes grew wide again and she burst into tears once more—covering her face in her hands. “Please leave,” Oscar said in a bored tone.

He spaced off again, but I knew better than to fall for it. As badly as I’d wanted to run as soon as I opened the front door to shoo Avery out, I knew he was watching me even though he didn’t appear to be.

“Thanks, Laney,” Avery sniffled as she stepped up beside me at the door. I really didn’t have a clue what she was thanking me for. I hadn’t accepted her apology and I wasn’t saving her life, I just wanted her nasty ass out of my sight.

“I hate you,” I said in response to her thank you. Can you believe she actually looked surprised and even a little hurt? “Next time,” I said to her in a low, angry voice, “I’ll let you die.” I wasn’t sure if I actually meant it but it felt good to say. I gave Avery a shove out the door and slammed it behind her. I rested my forehead against the back of the door and realized too late that I probably should’ve told her to call someone to come and save me from my mentally unstable guest.

“The weakest willed are the easiest to control,” Oscar told me from where he still sat on the couch.

Keeping my forehead against the door I turned my head to look at him. The candles were burning low and a few of them were threatening to go out. Oscar watched me as I stared at him.

“You are sad,” he said to me, and I so badly wanted to say, “No shit, Sherlock!” But I didn’t because his mental state was so delicate, and whatever he was doing with me, it had dragged on so long that I wasn’t sure what was next. Was he bored of me? Did that mean he would finally leave? Or did it mean something else?

I heard my phone ring and it gave me courage that I didn’t know I had left. It was near the kitchen bar, on the floor, and from the front door, I lunged for it. It was in my hands when Oscar smacked it free of my grip. I felt all of my bravery and hope die as he lifted me off of the ground by my waist and dumped me onto the couch. I was mentally exhausted.

“I’m disappointed with you, Laney.”

Yeah, join the club.

I didn’t have the energy to speak. I just leaned against the arm of the couch and waited for Oscar’s next crazy move. But he didn’t do anything to me. He just talked. Rambled out more random shit, most of it complete and utter nonsense. He just wouldn’t shut up, and I felt like screaming! Then, when my phone rang again, sitting there, just out of my reach where Oscar had placed it, I snapped.

“Just get on with it already and bite me!” I shouted.

He blinked at me in surprise, and I relished the silence. Unfortunately it didn’t last long.

“Bite you?” he questioned. “Why would I bite you?” I felt one of my eyebrows arch and I actually rolled my eyes at him. “I have no plan to feed from my brother’s leftovers.”

My temper flared like I’d never felt it do so before. “You’ll never be half the man Oliver is! He’s good and kind and you’re heartless and selfish and fucking crazy!”

Very calmly Oscar replied, “Is that why they took him away? Because of his selflessness and good heart?”

That pissed me off even more and I was so mad that I couldn’t even respond. And I did something pretty stupid without even knowing it. In my fit of rage, I’d dug my fingernails into my palms and I saw it register in Oscar’s eyes as the smell of my blood hit him. Apparently, clean blood was a rare commodity for him.

“Are you offering me a treat?” he asked as he grabbed my hands and jerked me forward. The movement was so fast that I didn’t see it coming. He licked my palms and I squirmed under his grip. “You taste amazing, Laney. Has anyone ever told you that?”

My heart was hammering inside my chest and I was torn between anger and fear. I bit down on the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming when his fangs sank into my wrist. Dirty fangs that had just been in that whore, Avery.
Ew! Ew! E
w!

“Damn, you taste good!” Blood dripped from his mouth and hit the couch. I could smell it, that coppery smell of blood, permeating the air.

“Thanks,” I said, sarcasm saturated that one word.

“Virgin blood is
so
much sweeter and rare to come by.” His words were soft and I felt danger lingering close by but my smartass spoke anyway. “I imagine that in your crowd, it would be.”

His face grew closer to mine and something sparked in his eyes, and I knew I was in trouble. I refused to scream as he sank his fangs into my neck but I whimpered and I was pissed at myself for it.

“I only want a little,” he reassured me and my pulse raced as I felt his cool breath on my skin. “I promise I won’t take much.” He pressed me into the corner of the couch so that I was trapped.

In my mind, I could hear Oliver telling me that promises are for those who can’t keep them. I was sure this would be one of those types of promises and I was pretty damn sure this would be my end.

I refused to scream. It was what he wanted.

On the coffee table my phone kept lighting up, telling me I had missed calls and messages. Tears broke free as I thought of never seeing Oliver again, of never getting to hear his voice one last time.

The lights flickered once, just about the time my vision went fuzzy, and I think I passed out then because the next thing I knew, it was morning.

Chapter
30 - Losing my Mind

I was on the couch when I woke the next morning. My fleece was wrapped around me and it was quiet. Really quiet. The storm had passed and I was home alone. My neck was killing me, like I’d slept wrong. When I pushed myself up, the room spun. I put my head in my hands and kept my eyes shut tight, hoping the feeling would quickly pass. When I opened my eyes I noticed that there was dried blood down my forearm. I sat straight up, too fast I must add, and examined my left arm after the dizzy spell passed.

There were puncture wounds in my wrist. Two holes, like vampire fang marks.
Oscar
. I thought it had all been another long, horrible dream. But it hadn’t. Oscar had really been there. He’d really bitten me and I’d really kissed him!

Oliver
.

I lunged for my phone, which was on the table in front of me, and fell face-first into the coffee table. “Son of a bitch!” I groaned and held my head as I lay on the floor between the coffee table and the couch. I reached up and grabbed my phone from the table only to find that it was the remote control to the TV.

I unsteadily searched the apartment for my phone and came up empty handed. Oscar must have taken it. At a loss, I stood in the middle of the apartment feeling dizzy and woozy. I couldn’t call anyone and I knew that I should. Especially Felix, but I didn’t have anyone’s number memorized and Carter didn’t have a landline in the apartment.

I realized that it was the middle of the afternoon on Monday and I was missing classes that I had no business missing. I checked my schedule online and discovered that Felix hadn’t taken care of changing around my classes like he’d told me he would do. I was able to schedule an appointment to meet with my academic counselor later that afternoon.

I was lightheaded and my neck still hurt while I forced myself to drink a class of orange juice and eat a chocolate Pop-Tart. I showered and desperately tried to scrub Oscar off of myself, only to find that the marks on my wrist were gone. When the water hit them they just disappeared and I questioned if it had all been a dream after all. But, if it had only been a terrible dream, where was my phone?

After my shower, I stumbled around the apartment getting ready. I was pale and no amount of blush was going to hide that. The more I applied, the more I looked like a clown. I tried to wear my hair down in the hopes of hiding how pale I was, but sadly, the dark contrast of my hair only made it worse. I pulled my hair up and tried to work the kink out of my neck once again.

My keys were on the counter, which meant Carter had been home at some point. I grabbed them and headed out into the gloom of what was left of an overcast day.

Carter was just leaving the counselor’s office when I arrived. He did a double take when
he saw me. “You okay?” he asked
the concern obvious in his voice.

“I’m fine,” I told him and wished I’d left my hair down so that I could hide behind it just then. “Hey, I said to him. “Have you seen my cell phone?”

“No, I haven’t. Why?”

“Because it’s missing, dumbass!” is what I wanted to say, but instead I said, “I can’t find it.”

“Is that why Oliver couldn’t reach you last night?” Carter asked and I froze. “How do you know Oliver couldn’t get ahold of me last night?”

Carter’s brow furrowed at me. “Because he called me, well, he called
Felix and, well, Felix
couldn’t answer so I did.”

I felt my own brow furrow. “What?”

“Nothing.” He stared down at his very, worn shoes.

“You talked to Oliver?” I asked and Carter’s eyes lifted to mine.

“Yeah, he was looking for you.”

I was thoughtful for a long moment. Had I dreamt all of that Oscar stuff? Did I miss Oliver’s call because I was so exhausted that I just fell asleep and slept through my phone ringing?

“Laney,” Carter said, trying to get my attention. I focused on him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

I nodded and the counselor stepped out of his office a moment later, calling me to join him. When Carter and I parted ways, I was so confused.

I rubbed my face with my hands and the counselor asked me if I was doing alright. Somehow I’d taken a seat in his office but I didn’t remember walking into the room. “Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

After lecturing me on never sending him my list of life goals and realizing there was no use in pestering me about it any longer, Mr. Niemus helped sort out my schedule. Well, mostly he told me that I couldn’t switch my classes so late in the year and if I dropped any of them, I would have to take an incomplete
.

I took the incomplete in biology. I was not going anywhere near a class where Ashton was my lab partner, let alone sharing air with Avery.

On my way out of the main office, I snagged a catalog to the University of Sacramento. I don’t think I was supposed to take it, I think it may have belonged to someone, but I didn’t care. This town was bound to be the death of not only me but Oliver too, and we just needed to get out. I wasn’t sure that Sacramento was going to be far enough for me though.

I went home after my appointment because I was not feeling well at all. I felt weak, my head was throbbing, my neck was still killing me, and I was starving. Plus, I’d pretty much missed all of my classes for the day. I was annoyed that I had no way to reach Oliver and no way for him to reach me. I figured Felix would at least show up at some point to find out why I wasn’t answering my phone.

Carter was already at work and when I got home I was surprised to find Kiera at our dining table, her attention unwavering from her textbook.

I was growing irritable as I banged around in the kitchen, mostly because she’d shushed me. I was pretty sure the library would’ve been a more ideal location for her right then. I slammed a cabinet after getting myself a bowl and she looked up at me and said, “Do you mind?” She said it rather snotty and that just made me even more irritated. Oh, and by the way, I did mind. It was my freakin’ apartment! Before I could snap at her, she made a point to tell me I looked like hell.

Awesome.

Kiera crossed the distance between us and tried to feel my forehead with the back of her hand but I pulled away from her before she could touch me.

“I’m fine!” I snapped.

“You don’t look fine.” She went back to the table and began stuffing her books into her backpack. “I’m getting out of here. If you’re coming down with something I don’t want to catch it, especially with midterms just around the corner.” She shouldered her bag and headed out the front door, her blonde hair brushing her shoulders as she left.

Not only was I irritated by how incredibly rude and inconsiderate Kiera had been, I was annoyed that she didn’t even ask me about Oliver calling, not that I had spoken to him, but still. She should’ve cared enough to ask. And she didn’t even tell me how dinner with her grandmother had gone. I was mostly irritated that she left because, well, I was kind of afraid to be alone, but I couldn’t admit it out loud.

I sat at the table with my bowl of Lucky Charms—my new best friend—and stared down into the bowl and fumed over life. Everyone was growing up or moving on. Hell, it didn’t seem that we had a choice anymore. Kiera and Carter were getting married. Zoey and her new man, Rudy, were getting pretty serious. Oliver and I were separated because he was a danger to me. And I was just sitting here, staring into my bowl of soggy cereal, waiting…

When Carter got home that night, he plopped down on the couch beside me and announced, “Got me six new friends. Want one?” I didn’t even look at him. I had my head back against the arm of the couch and I continued to stare at the ceiling. I shook my head ever so slightly to let him know I didn’t want a beer.