Aurora Sky Vampire Hunter - By Nikki Jefford Page 0,53

no appetite for food. I don't eat meat. No, he just drank human blood. God, and his obsession with my scarf. It was probably like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

I shuddered.

I'd been lip-locking with a corpse. If Melcher knew, he'd probably tear the wooden cross off his wall and beat me with it.

"Of course he's a vampire," I said bitterly.

I was sure Noel had no idea what I was going through. In her world, having one's own personal suck buddy was probably the ultimate score, which made her humorless expression all the more confusing.

"This isn't good, Aurora."

I tried to read her eyes. "Why not?"

"Valerie, for one thing."

Jealousy raged inside my heart. How many love bites had Fane pressed into Valerie's skin? How many times had he sucked her blood? I bet she'd enjoyed every minute.

I leapt to my feet and snarled. "What does Valerie have to do with this?"

"She won't be happy you stole her man."

"That's none of her business."

Noel pushed herself off the carpet. "She has powerful friends."

"I'm not afraid of a fight."

Noel looked me in the eye. "You should be."

"Is that why you came here? To warn me?"

"Not just you."

For a moment I struggled to breathe again. "You can't mean she'd hurt Fane?"

An image of sharp, pointy objects whirled through my mind.

Noel shifted and shrugged weakly. "I don't know."

For some reason that answer was worse than yes or no. It became a statement of certainty.

"She can't do that! She can't just..."

She couldn't just...what exactly? Murder a vampire? That was my job.

I looked at Noel helplessly. She shrugged again. "I don't want anything to happen to Fane, either. He's one of the nice ones."

"Shit!" I said, pacing my room. "I need to talk to him."

"Aurora..."

"I need to talk to him now!" I turned suddenly. "You have to get me out of here."

"But Aurora..."

I pulled the dagger and sheath from the top drawer of my nightstand.

Her mouth fell open. "What are you doing with a knife?"

I sat on my bed and yanked the right pant leg of my jeans up. "Can't be too safe. You know vampires, can't expect them to play nice all the time."

"But Fane..."

"Is capable of anything - just like the rest of them." I shoved the dagger into the holster around my leg. Didn't think I'd be needing it so soon. "It's one thing to get bitten, but a whole other to date one of those...things."

Noel looked at me curiously. "I just...How could you not know? I thought that's why you were with him."

Why else would I be with Fane? It was a fair question. Not one I was going to answer, but understandable.

I covered the dagger with my pant leg and stood up. "I'm ready."

"Aurora, please don't rush in like this."

"I'm just going to talk to him."

Noel looked at my leg. "Then why do you need a knife?"

"As a precaution." I breezed past her. "Let's go."
Chapter 19 Romance Is Dead
I told Mom I was going over to Noel's to study for a French test - no need for her to know Noel was taking Spanish. Noel drove me to Video City in her beat-up Volvo, begging me the entire way not to confront Fane. I was way ahead of her. I'd called him before we pulled out of the driveway and told him to meet me. It was hard to imagine that a couple hours earlier we had skipped school to go to Portage Glacier.

Before heading back to town we'd made out in his car. He'd had his tongue in my mouth. I shuddered again.

Noel pulled into a spot in front of Video City and said, "I'm waiting with you."

"Fine," I said.

I shivered. The vents were blasting cold air on us.

"And call as soon as you're done speaking to him."

"Yes, Mom," I said and laughed.

I stared at the movie posters in the window facing us. Starship Troopers. Seriously, ever think about updating to the twenty-first century?

Fane pulled in beside Noel. He looked over and gave her a nod. Noel lowered her head slightly.

I narrowed my eyes. "Do you two know each other?"

"Not well," she said.

"Has he ever...?" I suddenly began to ask, but couldn't finish the words.

"Fane? No, of course not. Fane's a one-woman kind of guy."

Except he wasn't a guy at all. He was a bloodsucking vampire who'd wandered far from his grave. Worse yet, he didn't trust me enough to tell me.

"Aurora..." Noel said as I opened the door to get out.

I forced a smile. "I'll be fine."

Once I