Sam I Am (11 page)

I just need to get to the school….

As she neared the parking lot adjacent to the entry way, she sped up, now almost certain that she could make the double doors before Sam stopped her.

But as if on cue, a tall, dark figure stepped out from behind a long black car that had been parked on the edge of the lot, and once more blocked her path.

Chapter Eight

Dominic Maldovan could barely believe what he was seeing when he looked up from behind the wheel of his Torino-Talladega in time to see a Ford King Cab go spinning out of control, hop the curb across the street, and slide down out of sight on the other side.

It was the sound of its squealing tires that had drawn his attention from the phone in his hands. But what shocked him the most about what he found when he looked up was the fact that Logan Wright was behind the wheel.

That wasn’t what she normally drove. He would know. He hadn’t admitted as much to her, as she was the kind of girl who possessed enough sense to be alarmed by such a thing, but the truth was, he definitely knew more about her than was strictly necessary. He found himself watching her all the time. He knew she liked Coke better than Pepsi, dark chocolate better than milk chocolate, classic rock better than anything made today. He knew when she had to stay late after school and he always tried to schedule things so that he was there, in the deserted hall, when he knew she would be too.

So, it was with questions spinning in his head, and a distinctly nasty breed of fear blossoming to life in his gut, that he threw open the door of his classic, black muscle car and sprang out of the seat.

He had parked his car in the administration building parking lot, far from the swinging doors of neighboring parked cars. It also helped that it was across the street and about a quarter of a mile down from the high school, so when he wanted to take a break from playing with the band, he could disappear for a while – answer email, send a few text messages, and even have a real live phone conversation without any of the students eaves dropping.

However, though he had long legs and wasn’t a slow runner, it took him longer than he would have liked to get to the spot where he had seen the white truck disappear.

He slowed near the edge of the hill and looked down. The truck waited down below and Dominic was relieved to see that it hadn’t flipped. At a cursory glance, it looked like it was stuck in the mud, useless but unharmed. The grass was destroyed. He knew from experience that the wheel carriage was most likely damaged to some extent.

But there was no one behind the wheel. The truck door was thrown open and Logan was nowhere in sight.

Maybe she fell out,
he thought, as he took off down the hill, his eyes scanning the dark surroundings for any sign of a body.

But nothing else made itself visible to him, and nothing moved in the night-filled park beyond. There was no sound but the ticking of a heated engine cooling down and the buzzing of the lamplight up on the road overhead.

Dominic’s gaze narrowed on the turf around the truck. There were horrible, deep tracks in the grass, formed by the Ford’s tires. However, in one muddy groove, there was a smaller groove. And the slightest indentation of a shoe print.

She ran up there
…. He looked up, his dark gaze following the path to the top of the hill on the other side. Without hesitating, he sprinted up the hill, stopping to look around at the top.

And then he found her.
There.

She must have run from the truck – and not slowly, either. Now, she was standing beside the shining black hearse that principal Kaboren had rented for the Halloween dance. The new guy was standing across from her. Sam Hain. Dominic’s jaw clenched tight and his hands curled into fists at his sides.

Hain had as good as cornered her in the gymnasium earlier that day. Dom had watched the entire thing. What was he doing – stalking her?

“Logan!” he called to her, cupping his hands around his mouth.

He could see her jump from here. Sam Hain looked up as Logan spun around at the sound of her name. Dominic once more broke into a run.

Logan gazed up at Sam, her heart sinking, her mind reeling dangerously out of control.
This is it,
she thought.
He’s going to end it here
. And looking up at his form, so striking and tall, draped in leather and night, she wasn’t sure she entirely minded any more. She was tired and not feeling so good. Her heart hurt, her stomach hurt, and Sam Hain was everything she had ever wanted in a man. She actually felt ugly there, standing before him.

He began to advance toward her. “Why me?” She shook her head, taking a step back, feeling weary beyond words.

The question clearly took him by surprise. He stopped in his tracks, his brow slightly furrowed, and cocked his head to one side. “Seriously?”

I don’t understand,
she thought.
Just because he read my stories?
It wasn’t possible. Men didn’t fall in love with women because of their words or their ideas. They fell in love with big boobs and tiny waists and great blow job skills.

Sam threw back his head and laughed, the sound echoing through the night air as if the darkness were its domain, and he, its king.

Logan shivered and hugged herself.

“Logan!” A voice called to her from somewhere behind her, in the darkness. She jumped at the sound and spun around to find Dominic Maldovan racing toward her.

She didn’t know what to think of that, but was spared the job of making up her mind as, just when Dominic reached the side walk on her side of the street, he abruptly slowed – and then stopped, coming to stand at ease, his arms at his sides, his expression suddenly distant and dead. He didn’t move any further. He just….
Stood
.

Logan’s eyes widened. She turned back around. Sam lowered his head and now peered at her through the tops of eyes that were growing ever darker with black intent.

“What did you do to him?” she asked. Her bottom lip was shaking; she could feel it. Was it the chill in the air? Or terror?

“This has nothing to do with him,” he told her. “If you value his life, put him out of your mind.”

She blinked, the blood rushing from her face. He was serious. All he needed was an excuse and he would kill Dominic. She fought then, with her own inner voice. She tried to take her mind off of the boy with the long jet black hair and the jade eyes who had apparently run across the street in an attempt to come to her rescue.

She closed her eyes, forcing the image of Maldovan from her thoughts.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said. “Why me?” She gritted her teeth and opened her eyes to peer up at Sam once more.

“Logan,” he said, softly, shaking his head. “I am not a child. I’m no little boy with petty needs.”

No
, she thought.
He’s definitely not a child
. He was powerful. Very, very powerful. She only wondered why he hadn’t yet forced
her
into some obedient, frozen state as well.

He took another step toward her. “Your body is young, Logan. And if I were only interested in the kinds of things you seem to think I should be, you would certainly suffice.” He smiled at that, hunger flashing in his eyes. And then the smile disappeared and he was serious again. “But you have a seasoned soul.” Another step forward.

Logan took another step back.

“You’re no stranger to the harvest, Logan,” he told her, his tone placating, all traces of any teasing long gone. “You know it, deep down. It guides all you do, all you dream of – all you write.” He stopped and raised his arms, turning his hands palm up.

Logan watched as a tiny glowing orange light appeared above his right hand. The light grew and began to rotate until a small, crystal jack-o-lantern was taking shape a half an inch above his palm. It was exquisite. Logan couldn’t help but admire it.

A second light caught her attention above his left hand. This one was a bluish-purple color and spun, just as the jack-o-lantern had. Within a few moments, the light was a glowing crystal skull, a mere few inches in diameter, but perfectly shaped.

Both objects shimmered beautifully beneath the moon and lamplight. Their glimmer fairly begged to be touched.

“I can give you everything your heart desires, Logan.”

“I desire life,” Logan told him, not quite sure it was the truth. But she’d always been exceedingly stubborn.

“Do you?” he asked. He closed his fists, then, and the crystal objects disappeared. He lowered his arms and began to circle her like a shark. She slowly turned in place in order to keep her eyes on him. “What can life give that you truly want – and that I can’t give you, also?”

Logan licked her lips. Her vision was blurring a little.
Breathe
, she told herself.
Don’t faint in front of him. God only knows where you would wake up.

Sam looked at the ground and a small smile curved the corners of his lips. Then he looked back up and settled his gaze on hers once more. “You’ve no real reason to fear me, you know.”

“Ha!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with disbelief.

He shook his head, almost admonishingly, and continued to circle her. “Death isn’t so different from life, Logan. Only, in my world, there will be no big brother to beat on you. No younger brother to constantly protect. No alcoholic mother, no ignorant school mates, no financial worries – no worries at all.”

Logan didn’t have anything to say to that. Behind Sam, Dominic remained frozen where he had come to a stop, and Logan momentarily closed her eyes. She’d forgotten about him.

When she opened them again, Sam was no longer before her.

Heat rushed through her and desire spiked hard in her gut when his lips were suddenly at her ear, his hard body pressed up against her back. “I will build you a castle,” he told her as his hands circled her wrists and then ran slowly up her arms. Logan’s eyes closed once more as she shuddered under his touch and found herself leaning into him. “Anything you want, my love. A ship on the sea, a cabin in the mountains, a warm hearth to curl up beside.”

His words whispered across her skin, rising goose bumps on her flesh. His hands moved up, his grip tightening slightly as he very softly kissed her ear lobe. is cool dry lips sent a hard shiver through her body, and Logan felt what strength she had remaining within her slip from her grasp. She did nothing to stop him when he moved to kiss the tender space just below her ear and his fingers deftly swept her long, thick locks aside, exposing the pale length of her neck.

One of his strong hands dropped to slip around her trim waist, his fingers splayed across her taut abdomen, pulling her body further into his. Logan sensed his breathing quicken against her skin as his head slid further down, his lips now trailing along the curve of her neck. She felt the material of her turtleneck pulled away from her tender flesh. The cool night air caressed the raw bite mark he had already left there; it was a reminder of his hold on her, his desire for her. She was marked and it was useless denying it; a part of her
needed
to be marked.

I want this
, she found herself thinking.

Sam’s grip on her tightened, his arm around her waist holding her fast, his other hand fisting in her hair. When his lips parted and she felt the very gentle grazing of the tips of his sharp fangs against her sensitive wound, she arched in his grasp, her head falling back against his chest. She could not suppress the moan he elicited from her. The sensation was both painful and blissful and felt like sin, itself.

Everyone has to die some time,
she thought wildly.

Sam’s grip on her now was nearly painful, it was so tight. She felt his presence brush her mind, as it had earlier in the gym.

Take off the necklace
, he told her.

She barely registered the command, she was so lost in him. But he straightened behind her and once more spoke in her ear. “Logan, remove the necklace for me.”

Logan frowned. The spell he had over her ebbed – and then receded. She was under it, drowning in pleasure and anticipation…. And then she
wasn’t
and her head cleared a little and she opened her eyes to find herself staring at the distant, still figure of Dominic Maldovan.

She blinked, confused by the warring sensation of warmth and longing, and the waxing logic that screamed at her to fight, to get away – to get help.

But Sam seemed to know all too well what was happening to her. His fist tightened in her hair, forcing her head back under his control, arching her neck beneath his gaze and waiting teeth. “Do it, Logan. Don’t think.”

Just do as I say and this will all be over.

But there was an uncertainty now. It was like an annoying flashlight beam in an otherwise pleasant darkness. Sam’s nearness still engulfed her, the scent of him was wrapped around her, the feel of his hardness at her back was so powerful, so breathtaking, she was delirious.

And yet, she was no longer so sure. She was no longer so sure she wanted to die.

Die?
I don’t want to die.

Take it off, Logan.

“No,” she whispered.

“Yes,” he hissed. She felt the tips of his fingers dig into her rib cage; they were clawed, sharp and unforgiving. They pierced her flesh there and she wondered if she was bleeding.

“No!” she said again, this time with more force.

“Let her go!”