Blood Type (13 page)

Under some unspoken agreement, the dynamic of our relationship had changed from casual flirting to something a little more . . .
I don’t know
. But we were definitely more than just friends now.

It was as if that kiss under the rose-colored sky, with the fireflies twinkling all around us, had been our silent acknowledgment of the fact that there was something definite between us, whatever that something was.

Ian couldn’t stop flirting with our waitress, this pretty Indian girl about my age with coffee-and-cream skin and a diamond stud in her nose. He had her blushing and giggling so fiercely that I thought the poor girl might hyperventilate or trip over her own feet if he didn’t stop.

Her fingers shook as she set his plate before him, and he grabbed her hand in both his and said, “There’s nothing to be nervous about now, aye? I won’t bite . . . unless y
ou
want me to.”

John kept fidgeting next to me and saying things like “That’s enough, Ian,” and “Give it a rest, Ian,” and “People are watching, Ian.” I wasn’t sure why Ian’s messing with the girl made John so uncomfortable,
especially since she was obviously enjoying it,
but it did.
O
nly when John pounded his fist against the table hard enough to rattle the water glasses did Ian finally stop.

“You really know how to suck all the fun out of a night,” said Ian to John.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” I asked them a few minutes later, if only to lessen the sudden tension in the air. Both of them were pushing their food around their plates and refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” Ian said,
his
words clipped
as though in a pout
.

It hadn’t escaped my attention that John was very much on edge, and I wondered if this was
the norm for their relationship
. They seemed pretty close, but I’d begun to sense this underlying strain, conveyed in silent glares and a subtle narrowing of the eyes, which seemed to communicate more than words.

I caught the waitress’s attention, no difficult task considering she’d been staring at our table the entire time, and motioned for the check. I meant to pay for it myself—the boys had eaten nothing, after all—but John snagged it before I could and stuck a wad of cash in the girl’s hand without even counting it. 

“Keep the change,” he said, and slid out of the booth.

For a split second I thought he was going to storm out of the restaurant without a backward glance at Ian or me, but he reached his hand for mine. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

When John pulled up in the drive, I
saw
my mother standing at the front window looking out. It was dark outside, and the glow from the lights behind her set her small form in relief.
She
h
eld her a
rms crossed over her chest, her posture
ram-rod straight
. I wondered how long she’d been standing there.

I had made no contingency plans for what I would do when my mother caught me in this extraordinary lie. It wasn’t a question of
if
, but definitely of
when
;
she and Zach’s mom Helen were best friends and talked to each other about everything. I had no doubt my mom had called Helen after she and I struck our deal, and I was positive Helen had then told Zach to expect my call. Of course, that
call had
never happened.

“Crud,” I said under my breath.

“Are you home too late?” John asked, misunderstanding the reason for my anxiety.

I looked at my watch.
I still had more
than an hour before curfew, so my mother had no right to argue on that account. “No. It’s just that I didn’t exactly tell her I was going out tonight. I mean, I left a note and all, but I didn’t tell her
who
I was with.”

“And she thought you
were
with Zach,” said John, reading between the lines.

Ian leaned forward, all pretense of anger having disappeared as his curiosity got the better of him. “And who is Zach?”

“My ex-boyfriend,” I said, my eyes still trained on my mother at the window. She hadn’t budged an inch.

“Oh,” Ian said, exaggerating the long vowel of the word. “John didn’t tell me there was an ex. Is he very handsome? Maybe you could introduce me.”

I turned around and stared at Ian in frank astonishment. “What about that waitress you were flirting with not more than twenty minutes ago?”

Ian raised a brow. His teeth gleamed white in the moonlight. “I’m none too finicky.
As long as they’re warm.”

“That’s enough,” John said, the warning evident in his voice. He touched my hand. “Let me walk you to the door. Introduce me to your mother.”

Introducing him to my mother when she was in an obvious huff was the last thing I wanted to do, but I couldn’t find the words to tell him so. Instead, I nodded like it was the sanest idea in the world, even though my insides
twisted and spasmed
like I was on my way to the gallows and about to be gutted with a spoon. “All right,” I said. “Let’s go.”

“Good luck with that, brother,” said Ian to John.
“Though somehow I think you’ll not need it.”
I glanced back at Ian in question. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “John has a knack for—”

“Come on,” John said to me, cutting him off.

“Don’t be a stranger!” Ian called, his laughter trailing after
us
.

Before we’d made it halfway up the stone walk, my mother
y
anked open the door.
“Blake Edwards Ehlert. What is the meaning of this?” I cringed at the full name. John only raised his eyebrows.

“I’m not in violation of curfew,” I said in my defense as I pointed to my watch, even though my mother didn’t even bother to look at the time.

“That may be well and true,” she said, her voice sharp, “
b
ut you’re in violation of my trust.” She pointed her finger at me, apparently just winding up for the whole lecture.

“You told me you would call Zach tonight and work things out with him, but I know for a fact you didn’t. I talked to Helen, and she said Zach is devastated you stood him up.
Shame on you for lying.”

Mom paused to take a breath. Then she appeared to notice John for the first time and turned her full attention on him, her face screwing up in apparent disgust. “And who are you?”

“John Kelly,” he said, seemingly unphased by my mom’s lack of manners. “I’m a friend of Blake’s.”

Mom made an ugly sound in the back of her throat and turned her nose up. She’d yet to change out of her party clothes, and something about the perfectly coiffed hair, starched linen
pantsuit, and wedge heels gave her an air of superiority that turned my blood cold.

“You expect me to believe you’re just friends with my daughter? I heard all about you from Zach’s mother, John Kelly,” she said, waving her index finger in a small circle near the center of his chest. “You’re an opportunistic poacher, that’s what you are. You’re encroaching on someone else’s girlfriend.
You should be ashamed of yourself, too.
”

“Mother,” I said, spitting out the word in absolute embarrassment. “You’re being incredibly rude. I happen to like John, and it’s my decision about who I date. Zach and I are over.
Why can’t you accept that?
”

She turned on me. “Oh! So you admit that you’ve been cheating on Zach with this guy.”

“Mother,” I said, forcing a calm I certainly
didn’t feel
. But she interrupted before I could finish my thought.

“Zach is a good boy from a
very
good family, Blake. You two have a future together. Why would you want to
jeopardize that
?”

“Mother,” I tried again.

“You broke his heart, and Helen says he’s been so depressed lately, and it’s all—”

I stamped my foot.
“Mother!
Don’t you dare tell me it’s
all my
fault!”

“And don’t you dare raise your voice to me, young lady. I am your mother.”

“Mrs. Kinsley-Ehlert,” John said. “With all due respect, Zach and Blake are no longer together. I think she should be free to date whomever she wants.”

“I don’t care what you think, Mr. Kelly. I don’t know exactly who you are, but I know I don’t like you. The only reason why Blake broke up with Zach is because of
you
.”

All was silent as the accusation hung heavy in the air. She was right. All of us knew it.

I looked over at John to see his jaw clench and unclench as he struggled not to lose his patience with my mother. Finally, he took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

“I am the one dating Blake now.
D
eal with it as promptly as possible, and accept that I am, and will be from now on, a part of her life.”

October 27

Josiah raised his hand and pointed a black-gloved finger at me. He crooked it twice, signaling for me to come. I swallowed hard, the inside of my mouth gone completely dry. And even though my heart beat painfully against the underside of my rib cage, I took the necessary steps and closed the distance between us.

It had been months since I’d last seen
him
. He peered down at me, dark blue eyes studying me inquisitively
from beneath the brim of his Stetson
. He leaned in closely and
gripped
my
upper arm in his
massive hand.
Then h
e closed his eyes and inhaled
, his nostrils flaring
.

“You’ve been infected
.
”
His
voice
came out
deeper than I remembered. “I smell the venom in your blood.” Before I could respond, he towed me to a coffee shop across the square.

“The usual,” he said to the girl behind the counter when she looked up.

She reached inside a glass case with a tissue napkin, her eyes never leaving Josiah, and emerged with two glazed doughnuts. She put them on a square plate and passed it to him with a smile that said everything.
“On the house.”
  

I shook my head
when she looked at me
.
“Nothing for me.”

She smiled again, though I suspected it was for Josiah.

H
e
t
ipped his head to the rear of the shop. “Come with me,” he instructed, leading me to
a
table where we would have more privacy.

I sat down as Josiah propped open the back door
that led i
nto the alleyway beyond. A rush of cool air swept in, all but obliterating the rank smells of the coffee shop. Then he slid into the seat opposite mine, his long black coat trailing the floor on either side. He took off his Stetson and placed it on the table, revealing a head of thick auburn-tinged hair that matched the stubble on his jaw. 

He raised the doughnut to his mouth. “Tell me, Blake,” he said, taking a bite of the pastry.

“Tell you what?” I sat as far back in my seat as possible. Josiah didn’t seem dangerous at the moment, but he
was
a vampire. They couldn’t all be as nice and polite as John.

“I haven’t got all day,” he said around a mouthful of doughnut. “I already told you I can smell the venom in your blood. And by the looks of you, you’re nearing the end of your human life. Tell me who did this to you and how you got away.”

“Why do you care?” I said, feeling him out.

He stopped chewing and stared at me, raising a brow in an expression of formidability that started my heart motoring once again. “
Let’s just say i
t’s my
job
to care.”
He held up a hand
before I could respond
. “Just don’t mistake that as caring about
you
.”

“And what if I d-don’t tell you?” 

Josiah leaned in and smiled with great deliberation, revealing a set of gleaming
white
,
and very sharp-looking
,
canines. “There’s no law against killing what’s already dead. I can
make
you tell me.”

I swallowed hard, reevaluating my previous estimation of the man sitting before me.
He was even more dangerous than I thought.
“You said it
’
s your job to care.” He nodded. “
Does that mean you’re
what’s
called
a
Watcher?”

The line between his eyes deepened. “How do you know about Watchers?”

Now that I was
t
here, I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing by ratting out Ian. A mental image of the way John had looked at me with a stark pleading in his eyes flitted through my head. John loved Ian, whatever his faults, and didn’t want to see him get hurt.

But what about me?
Ian had ruined my life. No matter what I felt for John, I
didn’t think I could
ever forgive Ian.