Page 8 of Love Bites
This night had rattled me, that was all. Who wouldn't be a little upset after seeing a vampire?
If it had been a vampire, which it couldn't have been.
"What happened tonight?"
"I don't really know," I said with a shrug. It wasn't a lie.
"Well, I'm gonna hit the hay. See you at breakfast."
I nodded, glad that he was willing to let the topic die. "Goodnight."
Once my brother was gone, I took a look around my room until I found the little nightlight in the shape of a roaring dinosaur that Dad had given to me when I'd struggled with nightmares as a child and which I could never quite get myself to throw away.
I plugged it in before going to sleep.
Chapter Four
Breakfast the following day was awkward. When Luke spotted me at the table, he immediately claimed the chair next to mine and started talking like a waterfall, all while I was still trying to wake up and feeling as if all the coffee in the world wasn't going to be enough to accomplish that feat.
"I knew you would come! I knew it!" he claimed.
I left him to his illusions as I took another sip of my sadly inadequate amount of coffee and pretended like I didn't notice Jared's watchful gaze on me. Jared was the oldest of us. He'd officially moved out years ago, but kept coming back as if he was just not ready to live on his own yet—or as if he missed us all too much. It was kind of funny. He was a big guy, and quiet most of the time. People looked at him and thought he was tough, but I knew he was really a softy inside. And the reason he barely spoke was because he could say it all with a glance.
Right then, his eyes were telling me that I couldn't fool him. Unlike Luke, he wasn't buying for a second that I'd come back to commemorate the anniversary of Dad's passing.
I probably wasn't fooling Elena, either, but my sister was far too cool to care about my motivations. She sat across from me, one eye on the toast she was munching and one eye on the tablet she'd propped up on a mug. No doubt she was reading the newspaper and getting fired up about some issue that was far more important than whatever her little brother was up to.
When she finally graced me with a look, she merely raised an eyebrow and said, "You look like shit, you know."
"Thanks," I gave back. I'd hardly slept the night before, and I was pretty sure I still had some errant glitter on my face and in my hair—which was sticking up at odd angles. "It's good to see you too." I actually sort of meant that. Elena had moved out to be on her own two years ago and I didn't always see as much of her as I might have liked to.
My sister shrugged and focused her attention back on her tablet.
And that would have been that if Remy hadn't chosen that moment to join us at the table. He set down a bowl with scrambled eggs and bacon. I appreciated his offering—the smell alone had my mouth watering—but I wished he hadn't said what he said next. "Give him a break, Elle, he's had a rough night."
"Yeah?" Elena looked up again. A smirk formed on her face and she pointed at my hair. "The kind of rough night that burns through a lot of rubber?"
"Not that kind of night," I muttered, even though I really didn't want to go into detail about what kind of night I'd had. Where would I even start?Yeah, okay, I was looking to get laid, but then the hot guy turned out to have fangs and I got really weirded out?
No way was I gonna divulgethatinformation.
"You know, what?" I said, letting my fork sink. "I'm not actually all that hungry."
I really wasn't, not while my thoughts still kept spinning back to that... man.
Thankfully, nobody followed me out of the dining room, although I could feel their eyes on my back.
Before I knew where I was going, my feet carried me up the stairs and into Dad's office.
How many hours had I spent here as a kid? Trying my best to be quiet as I sat in one of the armchairs in the corner and watched Dad work. He always told me that I had to be silent if I wanted to stay, and for the most part,hewas silent too, but every now and then, he'd toss out some pieces of advice as he tapped the keys of his computer or scribbled something down in one of his many notebooks. Things like,Garlic doesn't actually work against vampires, and,Don't ever let yourself get cornered, that's the most important thing.
It was mostly useless advice, but I still soaked it up.
And in light of recent events, maybe itwasn'tall that useless. I sat down in the chair behind Dad's desk and looked through the drawers. Many of his old notebooks were still here. If I was lucky, maybe I could find something that would explain to me exactly what had happened the night before.
It was just nerves,I heard a small voice in the back of my head.You were imagining things.
That was the most logical explanation, wasn't it?
