Fading Darkness (Bloodmarked #1) (24 page)

“Hey, biotch! I’m having a New Year’s Eve
party at the apartment, and you have to be there. It’ll give you a chance to
officially meet my new man. Oh, and come early so I can dress you. See you
there, bye.”

That explained why I hadn’t heard from her
in a while. She was still with that guy, and they must not have been going out
as much. It’s been long enough for them to get all couple-y, so they’ve
probably just been staying in like an old married couple. It was only a day
away from New Year’s Eve, so tonight, I planned on throwing myself into hunting
as hard as I could.

Clint was ecstatic, once again, that I
volunteered my time to give him more time with his daughter. It was a busy day
at work, and when I got off at seven, I went straight home for a quick meal and
back out in the pitch black night.

The usual routes through downtown proved to
be active. I had run into three vampires outside the local pubs they
frequented. The first caused the most trouble. He was wiry and surprisingly
slippery, after having wiggled out of my grasp several times. It took four
tries to get him in a position where I could shove the stake up and under his
ribcage.

Once hitting its target, every cell in his
evil body lit up as he burst into flames. At first, it looked like a burning
coal, then the combustion became a white hot flame, a contrast against the
darkness that quickly formed into a cloud of ash fading into the black night as
if he never existed. It was as if the evil had been released but couldn’t be
contained in this world so it disappeared and went back to where it belonged.

The second encounter was quick. He was a
young and cocky vampire who seemed like a recently turned frat boy. He tried
getting smart with me, but it only annoyed me, so I ended it without any
physical contact at all. One flick of my wrist sent the spike under my jacket
flying toward him. Before he could utter another moronic sentence, he was dust.
I was really looking forward to blowing off a lot of steam tonight, so I had
hoped to find a little more action.

The third gave me a little trouble but
nothing I couldn’t handle. She was feisty and put up a good fight. We grappled
back and forth, but I finally got her where I needed her. Before I drove the
stake deep into her chest cavity, she snarled and managed to say, “I wish I
could be there when they come for you. They will tear you limb from limb.”

I didn’t take too well to threats, so at
that, my hand came down hard, and the hot flames warmed my face as I shot up
off the ground away from them.

Just what I needed, another reminder of that
impending doom I kept hearing about. All the hype was starting to piss me off.
Enough already. If the First wanted me, what the hell were they waiting for? I
thought all the threats were a little dramatized for being aimed at someone who
feared death as little as I did. If they were going to kill me, by all means,
please do. Get on with it. Otherwise, leave me the fuck alone and let me get
back to my pathetic excuse for an existence.

That reminder had put a damper on my mood. I
was excited to have another night of normalcy, but that just ruined it. Feeling
sullied and downtrodden, I couldn’t enjoy the rest of my kills as I might have
before. Although eradicating evil was like a shot of adrenaline, I still went
home in a funk.

With more time to think, my mind kept
drifting back to the bigger problems going on around me. I thought that by
blocking out
him
from my mind, the rest of my problems would follow in
suit, since his arrival coincided with all the other recent big events. I
wasn’t sure how connected those occurrences were, but I knew I had been
ignorant before meeting him. He had opened my eyes to those bigger things, but
for sanity’s sake, I just needed to shut them out for the time being.

With exhaustion setting in, I had no choice
but to call it a night. Maybe I would get a little hunting time in after
Holly’s party. My bed felt like a big satin cloud when I hit the sheets.
Lately, I hadn’t noticed that Peeping Tom feeling I usually got. It used to be
an unusual heavy feeling of being watched at night, but it wasn’t there now.
Tom must have been mad at me, but sleep came easily without that weight bearing
down on me.

†

I woke up just before I had to be at
Holly’s, so I showered and pulled my wet mop of hair back in a tight knot.
Knowing she had something tight and uncomfortable in mind for my wardrobe, I
decided to stay comfortable as long as possible by throwing on old sweats.

After eating a hurried meal, I ran to
Holly’s but immediately regretted it when my still-wet hair formed crystals of
ice. If I didn’t have an immune system that could withstand anything, I would
probably get a cold, or possibly pneumonia.

Once I made it up to her apartment, Holly
practically dragged me into her bedroom. As soon as we stopped moving, she eyed
me up and down, giving me a doubtful look. “We’ve got work to do, since you’ve
given me so little to work
with
,” she huffed.

“I wanted you to start with a blank canvas,”
I retorted. Moving on, I added, “Where’s the boyfriend?”

She lit up and started blushing a little at
the mention of him. How sweet. “He’s coming later. He’s helping his brother
with something now. Speaking of his brother, he’s really cute, and I think you
should meet him.”

“No, no, no. Don’t even start with me,” I
said, cutting her off.

“Ohhh, so you’re still caught up on the
vampire,” she said, and the word was like ice water in my veins.

“No,” I said coldly. “I don’t want to talk
about him, ever again.”

For a second, I regretted the harshness in
my tone because Holly actually looked frightened. “Okay,” she said cautiously.
“But I still think you should at least keep your eyes open tonight for
potential boy toys. I have lots of cute friends in my classes that I invited.”

Why was it that people in relationships
always treated single people like charity cases? I was glad that she was happy,
but it didn’t mean she had to pity me because I didn’t have what she did. I
didn’t need that, and I definitely didn’t want it, especially with a filthy
murderous night-walking bloodsucking demon.

Interrupting my thoughts, Holly suggested,
“Or not. Do whatever you want, but try to have a good time. You at least
deserve that.”

I didn’t, but I didn’t want to ruin her
mood, so I didn’t tell her that. Holly was a do-gooder type who wanted everyone
around her to be happy, and I appreciated that, but there was no happiness in
my life and there never could be. “Yeah, sure,” I shrugged it off. “So are you
going to show me what I’m wearing or what?”

She got that excited gleam in her eye again
that only a boy and clothes could give her. Passion was hard to come by, and I
was sure that I have never had that kind of gleam in my eyes for anything,
well, anything good at least. “Check this out. I picked out three options, and
you’re going to choose the one you like.”

“Not sure if it’s possible for me to like
anything in your closet, but at least you’re giving me a choice this time,” I
joked.

“Shows how much you know about tasteful
fashion. I can’t really be offended by that when it’s coming from a girl
wearing baggy gray men’s sweatpants, an old Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt, a ratty
zip-up hoodie and no make-up at all,” she said.

“It’s a Led Zeppelin t-shirt,” I said
looking down. “It’s thrift store chic.”

“It’s thrift store trash,” she said.

“Ouch. It’s not like I have anyone to
impress. Who do I ever see besides vampires?” I asked. “I don’t exactly need
high fashion to hunt down monsters.”

“It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as
you look good doing it. And you don’t have to impress anyone. Sometimes
dressing up is just for you, to make you feel good. You should try it my little
grump
ette
. You might like it.”

Whether it was men or clothes, or whatever,
she was always trying to spread her happiness to others, but I still wasn’t
convinced that there was anything out there that could make me happy. That
became even more apparent when I stepped through her closet door and spotted
three outfits hanging, faced out, on one rack.

All I noticed were the colors. One was a
bright pink satin dress, which was a definite no, and another was bright green
and gauzy with one shoulder. It was not as revealing but seemed form-fitting.
The other was a gray tank with a high-waisted flowing blue skirt.

“What’s with the rainbow?” I asked,
wondering where the dark colors were. I never wore that much color at one time.
Each outfit made me dizzy to look at for too long.

“Well, normally, New Year’s parties are all
about the blacks and silvers and dark blues, but this year I wanted to do
something different. So what’s it going to be?” she asked expectantly.

“You can’t think I’m wearing pink,” I said
sternly.

“Ha. I knew that would be the first one out.
What about the others?” she asked.

“I don’t know. You know I’m no good at this.
I wouldn’t want to deny you any pleasure of choosing the perfect outfit, so why
don’t you choose,” I hinted.

“Fine. You should go with the green dress
because it goes with your eyes. Plus, the blue skirt is growing on me, so I
think I’m going to wear that one,” she said.

“Well, fine then. What if I wanted the blue
skirt?” I said with feigned hurt.

“Too bad. It’s mine. Now let’s get you in
hair and make-up,” she said, dragging me by the arm toward her bathroom.

She rimmed my lower lash with a subtle light
colored shimmery eye shadow and went with just a natural gloss for my lips,
which made me happy. I was glad to stick with a more natural look. She pulled
my wet knot down to air dry then put it back up in a loose side bun with free
falling tresses on either side of my face. Somehow, it took two hours to make
my hair look like I just threw it together in two minutes.

The intensity on Holly’s face told me she
loved this. She should be going into cosmetology or fashion because she had a
knack for bringing out someone’s beauty in ways that worked for that person.
She has had a lot of practice with me, so I never worried about looking like a
clown when she was through with me.

Once she was finished, we got dressed up and
went back out to the main room where she made herself a drink as we waited for
the others to show up. She was excited, but I was slightly skeptical. My goal
for tonight was to just forget some of those mounting problems of mine and try
to get back to the human side I knew was there somewhere deep down inside.

Someone once told me I was afraid of living.
That someone would remain nameless. But it was difficult when I couldn’t see
anything worth living for, and even if there was, I still wasn’t convinced
someone who was destined to become a monster should be allowed to live. He was
wrong. I wasn’t afraid, and tonight, I was going to prove him wrong. I just
hoped it wouldn’t lead to anyone getting killed again.

After the first few people began showing up,
I really thought that was possible. Freeing my mind of all the craziness in my
life was easy, and I was able to actively engage myself in normal conversations
about work-related troubles, boys, and classes, even though they weren’t my
classes. More people arrived, and I blended smoothly into the college crowd.
Granted that getting probed on my personal life became uncomfortable, I evaded
the more supernatural aspects.

Talking about my past and going through
foster care was always a sore subject, but saying it out loud over and over to
each person who asked about it made it easier to accept. I had always held a
certain amount of resentment and animosity toward all my foster families who
couldn’t deal with my freakish qualities, but the more I said it out loud made
me realize that it wasn’t their faults.

None of them signed up to house a
vampire-human hybrid, so I couldn’t blame them for kicking me out, and I felt a
little guilty for lashing out on all of them when they couldn’t handle me. I
always harbored so much anger toward them for getting rid of me like I was
nothing, but I was only now realizing how much I had held it against them for
not wanting me. At the time I hadn’t realized how much of a burden I really was
for them, and I should not have been so mad at them when it was for their own
safety to kick me out.

Talking to these strangers actually helped
me come to terms with parts of my past. Who knew? It had become a defense
mechanism to block out painful memories instead of facing them head on, but
maybe I was on to something here. I was no stranger to confrontations, but
maybe I needed to start confronting my own issues. I still wasn’t sure how much
I could handle, however, when it came to
me
.

The apartment was buzzing with people now,
and Holly came up behind me, pulling me away from the group of girls I had been
talking to. “Come on. They’re here. You have to meet D and his brother,” she
said with a devilish grin.

Great. She still hadn’t given up on playing
matchmaker.

“Seriously, Hol. I’m not interested in
complicating my life any more than it already is,” I said, infusing a plea into
my voice in hopes that she might back off.

“Whatever. You don’t have to marry him or
anything. Just meet him.”

She pulled me through the now cramped
bodies, and we came to a stop in front of two guys, who were obviously related.
They both had sandy blond hair with topaz eyes and boyish good looks. One had
longer, shaggy hair and was a little scruffier, and the other was very clean
cut with short hair and no facial hair. Both had a smaller build and were about
5’8”.

“Luce, this is Derek,” she said gesturing
toward the scruffier one. “And this is his brother, Daniel,” she added, gesturing
toward the clean cut one.