Page 11 of This Blood That Binds Us

“You’re right. I’m sorry. This is all my fault, and I’d love to explain everything to you if you would give me a chance to.”

What was I doing? Explanation was the last thing I should have been doing. But real fear flared in her eyes as she spoke. I wanted to let her know she didn’t have to worry. I wasn’t going to hurt her again.

“Start explaining,” she grumbled, snatching more napkins to wipe the food off her finger.

“Uh, this might not be the best place for me to talk about it,” I said slowly.

She scoffed. “Why? Afraid someone might find out you’re a vampi—”

“Don’t say that word! Not here.” I prayed my brothers weren’t listening to me. We had a strict no-eavesdropping rule, but I wasn’t going to take their word for it.

“Why?” she said, her eyes darting around. A small crease settled between her brows.

“Because my brothers are over there, and I don’t want them to know about this.”

My brothers could never find out what I was doing. Ever. We’d be packed up in thirty minutes flat and headed out of state to God knows where. I didn’t want to run anymore. More importantly, I didn’t want to run from her. If my older brothers had no problem keeping their secrets, neither would I.

“Are they dangerous?” She looked behind me, as if they were going to pop up any second.

“Protective is the word I’d use.” I stood and grabbed her dirty tray for her.

She snatched it from my hand and headed to the trash can. I kept in step with her effortlessly. “Fine. But I have questions for you that need answered. If you try to bring anyone or warn anyone, I’m going straight to the police.” She motioned to her shoulder. “I have proof.”

“You name it. Place. Time. I’m there.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Ten minutes. Courtyard by the fountain.”

“Ten minutes?” I shifted nervously, stealing a glance at my brothers. “Uh, yeah, I’ll make it work.”

“Good.” She flung her trash into the trash can before pulling her shoulders back and readying herself to go for the door.

“I’m Aaron, by the way.” I smiled nervously. “I promise I’m much less of an asshole in normal circumstances.”

A slow breath left her lips. “Nothing is normal anymore.”

“You won’t believe me, but I know how that feels,” I said, soft and sincere.

I thought her being alive would rid me of my guilt, but it was the opposite. It grew every second we were together. I dragged a complete stranger into my mess of a life.

“Ten minutes.”

I was fucked. I glanced at my phone. Five minutes to ditch my little brother. I did have one thing going for me. Zach and Luke had already left for their classes. Luke was notoriously a master at detecting my bullshit. He said I have an obvious tell when I lie. I was inclined to believe him, since he and Zach were the best liars I’d ever known.

“Hey, I think I’m gonna skip Chem and go to the library to study.” I kept my eyes forward as we treaded the sidewalk, a row of oak trees on either side. The fountain was just up ahead, passing the community vegetable garden on our way. A gated area, where students could learn to grow their own produce. I’d never seen anything like it.

“Since when do you study?” Presley elbowed my ribs.

“Since I’m already failing Applied Algebra, I need to get my grade up before Luke ropes me into an hour-long lecture about responsibility.”

“I don’t know why you care. This whole college thing is a sham anyway.” Presley walked on my other side, his hands behind his head.

“Well, it’s the only thing I have going for me at the moment, so—”

“Oh, ouch. Now you’ve hurt my feelings,” Presley joked. “You spend too much time moping. Live a little. We literally have eternity to do whatever we want.”

It didn’t surprise me when we woke up after Zach and Luke changed us and that Presley didn’t have one bad thing to say about it. He made the vampire life look easy and fun. An exclusive thing only the cool kids got to do.

I sighed, bringing my attention back to the only important thing I needed to worry about. “I don’t need your permission to go.”