Chapter Sixteen
Ididn't sleep that night, and not the next day either. I couldn’t, not knowing what I would see if I did. The basement, or Nicolai's house. One of the two. I didn't want to go back to either location, so I forced myself to stay awake. It was easier because I'd had blood.
Jared's blood.
The memory of drinking from him send shivers down my spine. Especially when my thoughts drifted to what we'd done after. How close we'd come to...
Don't go there,I told myself.
There was no point in daydreaming about things I couldn't have. Hadn't I learned that lesson by now? I was alive and I wasn't hurting. Those were things to be happy about.
I also had a dog.
Drizzit stuck by my side, chasing the bad thoughts away whenever they got to close. He'd lick me and bark at me and be the most adorable thing ever. I took him down to the kitchen to feed him once or twice, and I let him run around the backyard, and he thanked me by keeping me sane.
The girl, Elena, asked me where I'd gotten him, and Crimson asked if he could play with him too, but Drizzit only barked at Crimson. It was odd, the way he tried to avoid the other vampires in the house yet didn't seem to realize that I was one of them too.
I was standing in the open door to the backyard, keeping to the shade while Drizzit chased after a stick I'd thrown for him, when someone tipped me on the shoulder. I'd been so absorbed in watching the dog in the light of the setting sun that I nearly jumped.
It was Jared.
How hadn't I heard him come?
My senses must be growing dull with the lack of sleep.
"Would you like to come to the beach with me?" he asked. Then he nodded at the dog. "I think Drizzit would like that."
"It's almost dark out," I responded. "You want to go to the beach at night?"
"Daylight would hurt you," Jared said, as if it would be perfectly normal for us to hang out at the beach at night.
I kept looking at the dog instead of Jared. "You shouldn't worry about me." After all, what could I give him?
Nothing.
Jared didn’t seem to agree with me, though. "I'm going to pack a few things in the car," he said, and with that, he turned and left.
I hesitated, then went after him. After all, I didn't have anything better to do, and I was tired. At least, at the beach I would be distracted. If I stayed home, I might just fall asleep, and I didn't wantthat.
I climbed into the car the same way I had the day before. Drizzit jumped onto my lap and stared out the window as if he was the captain of this ship. He made me laugh.
Best dog ever.
Jared loaded something onto the backseat, but I didn't turn to see what it was until we were on the road. I figured I would find a basket with food or a beach towel or something like that, but instead, my eyes landed on a large, green-tinted bottle with a ship inside of it. Vaguely, I remembered seeing the ship in Jared's room the night before, but I hadn't paid it any attention.
"I don't think that boat is going to fit all of us," I said, nodding at it and trying to lift the mood in the car a little. To be honest, the way Jared never mentioned what had happened—what had almost happened—the night before was starting to weight on me. We'd both wanted it, and yet...
Jared kept his eyes on the road. "The ship isn't supposed to carry anything more than a slip of paper." He sounded almost frustratingly normal, as if he wasn't feeling awkward about being in a small confined space with me at all.
Well, if he wasn't feeling awkward, then I wasn't going to either.
Turning my gaze away from the boat, I resumed petting the dog and tried to make conversation as if everything was normal. "A slip of paper?"
"It's a tradition," Jared informed me. "I'm a few days late this year."
"Late for what?"
Jared didn't answer immediately. I thought that his grip tightened on the steering wheel, too, but maybe I was only imagining that. Maybe I justwantedhis perfect exterior to show some cracks. "My biological family died in a house fire when I was eight," Jared said eventually.
