The Vampire Christopher (3 page)

“You and I,” he paused. “You k
now I like you, right, Snow
?”

I gulped
. He hadn’t called me Snowflake
.
“I hope so, Gabe. We’ve been f
riends a long time. If you’re
pretending, then you
deserve
an Oscar.” I hoped my teasing would lighten his mood.

He smirked. “You know what I mean.”

I
forced back a sigh
. “I
do
.” This conversation
wasn’t going to end well
.

“Since you
r…
bite, and what
occurred
in
your dream
,
and the note…
well,
you have a lot going on
.
”

I waited for him to finish, my
hands
clenching into fists
in my lap
.

He let out a giant breath. “I think we should put whatever might
be happening
between us on hold
.” His hands gripped the steering wheel until they turned white with blood loss.

Tears dampened my lashes. Casually, I
tried to wipe them away. He was right. I needed to focus on
training
. Also, I had a
…
situation
with Chace
,
but wow, hearing
Gabe
say the words
hurt.

I
deliberated
whether
Gabe somehow knew what I’d been doing last night. If he could tell a vampire Hunter kissed me
thoroughly
,
drank from me multiple times,
and I’d liked it. Actually more than liked it,
delighted
in it. Ugh!

Pushing my back into the black, leather seat
, I said, “I agree. We’ll still be friends, right?” The words sounded strained, not like me.

Gab
e didn’t seem to notice. “Right.”

We rode in silence until we got to school. As soon as he put
the
car in park, I bolted without saying good-bye. I needed some fresh air
, and some space
.

Chapter 3

M
y body teetered between
conflicting emotions—excitement, and sadness. Excitement because… I’d see Chace in a few minutes. And sadness because I still had feelings for Gabe.
He’d promised he wouldn’t leave. Memories of
the night he’d stayed with me surfaced, weighing
down my heart. I missed that Gabe.

He
hasn’t exactly left
, but he doesn’t want
you
anymore,
my inner voice huffed.

Sighing, I
pulled open the front door to Sale
m High, h
ome to more than sixteen hundred students
. I made my way through
the
overflowing commons, and
to my
burgundy
locker
.
After dialing in the combination, I opened it, and
realized
I held
my breath
, so I wouldn’t smell blood.
Slowly, I blew out, and snuck another timid breath.
A delicious blood-tinged aroma swirled with sweat and perfume. A symphony of hearts beat
all around me,
but I didn’t have the slightest twinge of a
craving.
Something had changed.

Was it the do
uble dose of bloodlust tea, or
drinking
Chace’s blood
? I’d have to ask him when we had a moment alone, and if I could look
him
in the eyes without blushing.

I switched book
s
from my backpack to my locker, and
ran to c
hemistry
, barely
acknowledging
the posters announcing the football game Friday, or the
Halloween
dance coming up next month
.

Cindy
an
d Chace were already in their seats
, chatting like BFF’s. Seeing Cindy be
ing so flirty
, and Chace responding,
well
it
annoyed
me.
I dropped my backpack, and slammed my
hefty chemistry
book on the table in a huff.

Cindy gave me the eye, one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows
rising
in irritation.
“Hey, Snow. I
n a mood?” She smacked her bare knee against my thigh.

“No,” I grumbled,
stealing a look at Chace. He’d rolled
his chair
toward me.

“Hi, S
now.” He had a tone. One
that told m
e he was thinking about what we did
last night.

I blushed, the heat burning my cheeks
.

“What’s going on?” Cindy asked
, tugging on my scarf
.

That girl was way to
o
intuitive. She could read people
from a hundred feet away
, through concrete, and twenty feet of dirt
.

Sheesh!
“Nothing,” I said, from behind my book
, jerking my scarf from her hands
.

“Hmmm-
mmmm
,” Cindy responded
, and I knew we’d be having
an
uncomfortable conversation later. I
debated
what I
should
tell her though. It wasn’t like I could say,
“
Yeah, so last night Chace
took me to
another realm where we made out, and drank each other’s blood for a few hours
.
It was awesome, and so sexy.
”

Chace made a noise that sounded a lot like a groan, wh
ich caused my cheeks
to burn hot
ter than a
firework on the Fourth of July.

Before
Cindy
or Chace
said or did
anything else
,
Mr. Wallace came in and saved the day.
I’d never been happier to see a teacher.

That
gladness
was short-lived.

“
During today’s lab we’ll be determining the relative reactions of copper, magnesium, zinc, and hydrogen. You’ll work with a partner, as
usual.”
Mr. Wallace
glanced in our direction.
“
Mr. Charming,
since you are
without a partner, and
,” he
searched
the room,
let out a grunt,
and continued, “since
Sheila is absent today, why don’t you work
with
Misssssss
,” he drew it out, like a snake debating which prey to devour. Cindy sat up straighter in her seat, and I knew she wanted him to pick her. Finally he continued, “
White.
Mr. Dooley, you and Mis
s Croswell will partner up
.
Everyone else, you have your partners, so get busy.”

Cindy
deflated, and scowled
. “I don’t want to partner with
Eddie
. He smells like onion rings.”

“Maybe that’s because he works at Onion Ring Heaven,” I whispered
, stifling a nervous giggle
. I stood as
Eddie
looked
over, his bra
ces
-filled smile taking up most
of his fr
eck
led face. “Be nice,” I said in
her ear
.

Cindy
haru
mphed
. “
Merde
! T
his
isn’t fair. And you owe me an explanation about what’
s going on between you and
Charming
. Lunchtime!”

“Okay,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows, and moving over to Chace.

Cindy laughed, and I felt better about
leaving her with
Onion Ring Eddie.

I picked up my chair, and placed it next to Chace.
He
already had the droppers, and was
in the process of organizing the test tubes.
“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

He
grunted
. “Once or twice.
Lovely
scarf, by the way.
”

I
fiddled with
it
, making
sure it still covered my neck, and
sat on the stool
, watching him
.
He looked seventeen or eighteen, but I was curious about
his real age
. I didn’t know much about vampires, but I
did know they weren’t supposed to
age. At least that was part of the myth
.
Would I age as a revenant, I wondered. I wanted to
ask Chace
, but c
hemistry
class wasn’t the place
.
I supposed I could ask Professor Pops.

Focusing, I said,
“Well,
you’d better let me do something
.”

“I can think of several
something
’s
I’d like you to do.” His voice had gone low, and was filled with sensual implication.

I colored. “Seriously, Cindy already
smells a story. The girl is like a Bassett Hound on the trail of her favorite bone.
S
he’s probably already figured out we kissed, and
is planning
our wedding, including the cake, and my wedding dress.”
I moved one of the beakers,
put a droplet of
iodine
in it, and scrawled the results in my notebook.

He
sat on the stool next to me, fixing
me with an amused
gaze. “
Wow, she’s impressive.” I tried to scowl. He didn’t know her the way I did. That was how her mind worked.

“We haven’t even been on a date,” I whispered.

“I suppose
we
can’t
conside
r what we did last night a date?
”
He wore his signature smirk.

I blushed the color of currant berries. “No!”

“
Are you embarrassed of me, Snowflake?”

“Don’t call me that.” I smacked
his arm. Only Gabe was allowed to call me that.
Besides,
what
did he
think was going on
?
Were we an item?

You were kissing him like you were prepared to have his babies, my inner voice clucked, disgustedly.

“Whatever you command, my Queen,” he inclined his head slightly.

Self-conscious
, I searched the room, and caught hold of Cindy’s
perceptive
glare
. She mouthed, “What the hell?”

I shrugged, and turned back
to Chace.
His words,
“
my q
ueen
”
,
made me think
of another question. I, technically, wouldn’t be his queen, my body would, but it’d still be her… what?
Spirit, inside my body.
I filed the question in the thickening folder labeled
Seriously Wacky Stuff
.
“You need to stop
.”

He laughed. “
Fine. I will. F
or now.” Then he winked. “Can I call you Frosty?”

I lifted my brow.
“You can call me
Frosty
when Hell freezes over
. M-Kay
.” I g
ave him a sinister look, but laughed to take the edge off.

“Snow,” he spoke my name like we were lovers
. “
Want
to hang out after school today?
We can
see what sort of
skills you’ve developed.
” He gave me a conspiratorial look. “The way we’ve been trading blood I’ve no doubt you’ll be as strong as I am in no time.”

“Will I
?” I nudged his shoulder with mine.

“
Y
ou’ll be amazing.”