Her bark of laughter sent a cascade of chills raining down my back. “And why would I want to do that?”
Looking into her eyes, it occurred to me that I’d never fully realized the sickness, the blackness that resided inside Trinity. This would be a dream come true for her. And Lars must’ve known that. He could probably sense evil, smell it like some kind of hell hound.
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
“But it’s not the fun thing to do, is it?”
“Trinity, if you hurt me, they’ll hunt you down and throw you in jail,” I warned, grasping at straws. Truthfully, if anyone could get away with murder, it would probably be Trinity. She’s about as diabolical as high school kids come.
She knew that, too. “They’d have to catch me first,” she said, confirming my suspicion.
“Well, the police might not, but Bo would find you.”
I saw the flicker of fear, the flash of uncertainty dash across Trinity’s face. It was only there for a heartbeat before it vanished, but I saw it and now I knew. She had enough sense to be afraid of Bo.
As quickly as it had come, the fear was gone, replaced by more bravado. “And Lars would find him.”
Now was not the time to back down; I had to go for the kill, pull out all the stops.
“Seriously, Trinity? After all of a few dates, you think Lars is going to fight for you? To risk his life for you?”
There it was again. Just a trace of the insecurity I knew Trinity harbored deep down. She kept it hidden, well-concealed from the masses, but it was still in there, lurking just beneath whatever god-like power she felt coursing through her body. Though it was tiny, it was still enough for me to work with.
“That’s what I thought,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “Just remember that, Trinity, when you think about doing something stupid. We’ll be watching.”
I chose that moment to make my exit. Well, more like my escape. Although I thought the confrontation had ended in my favor, I wasn’t willing to risk pushing my luck any further.
Besides, now I knew that not only does Trinity know about Lars and Bo, she’d apparently become one of them.
After that, I was antsy to get to lunch, to tell Bo about my discovery. Unfortunately, by the time I got outside, Savannah had already lured him to the picnic table and they were embroiled in a discussion with Devon about the superior acoustic stylings of Slash’s Gibson over Eric Clapton’s Fender.
Strangely, it was a conversation that penetrated my otherwise-consumed brain fairly rapidly. For one thing, I actually knew who they were talking about because I loved classic rock. Secondly, I was pleasantly surprised that three people—at this school, in my now very small circle of friends, that weren’t burn-outs—liked that kind of music, too. In a bizarre but good way, it was as if our four lives were fated to become intertwined.
Bo waited for me after Chemistry and walked me to my car. We were both silent during the walk. It wasn’t really an uncomfortable silence. It was one that seemed to be filled with all sorts of things that needed to be said, things that loomed on the horizon. I didn’t really want to talk about most of it now, however, preferring to wait until after our visit to Lucius. With that in mind, I introduced a fairly innocuous subject that I actually did find interesting.
“So you like classic rock, huh?”
The way Bo’s face relaxed made me realize that he was feeling the same tension that I was.
“I love all kinds of music, but that’s what I listen to most.”
“You know, it’s weird, but I realized today that I don’t know very much about you.”
“I was attempting to remedy that the night I took you to my basement,” he said with a wry grin.
Bo skipped ahead and then turned to walk backwards, facing me.
“Oh.” I bit my lip in frustration. I felt like the end of that conversation had come way too soon.
Bo stopped, forcing me to stop as well. His expression turned serious.
“Do you still want to know me?”
Looking into his eyes, I knew what he was asking. It was much more than Bo asking if I wanted the answer to trivial questions about him. He was asking if I still wanted him in my life.
There was only one answer I could give, at least if I was being honest.
“Yes.”
For all the questions and doubts that I had, none of them had affected the way I felt about Bo. Beneath all the muddy waters that contained the particulars, my heart still cried out for him.
The tension he’d been carrying around his mouth melted away and he smiled. It was a genuine curve of his lips that engaged those dimples at the corners of his mouth. I hadn’t realized until that moment what a rare treat they were and how much I missed them.
“Then come with me to my lair,” he said in his best Transylvanian accent.
A shiver coursed through me when I silently finished that comment with I want to suck your blood.
Bo took the keys from me and drove us to his house in my car. He parked at the back of the house and we got out. We walked to the top of the basement steps, and as I looked around, I couldn’t help but hope that, this time, no vicious rival vampires showed up.
Always in tune with me, Bo turned as he unlocked the door. “I bet you’re having flashbacks of vampires chucking trees at your head, aren’t you?”
My mouth dropped open, not because he’d picked up on my train of thought so perfectly, but because he’d left out that little tidbit of information somewhere along the way.
“He threw that tree at me?”
Bo cringed, nodding. “I told you, these are not nice people.”
“How are you so different?”
As soon as the question was out, I regretted it, and Bo’s expression just made me feel that much worse about asking.
“I didn’t meant it like—”
“I know you didn’t,” he interrupted. “And I don’t have an answer for you.” As I watched, the happy, relaxed lines of his face vanished into thin air. My heart sank; it was my fault that they were gone. “In fact, I’m not convinced that I’m that much better than they are.”
He pushed the old red door open and flipped on the light switch. Holding the door wide, Bo stepped to the side so I could precede him.