Well my friends, here's another :) lol. I've been so busy and exhausted, but I SWEAR I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU GUYS. I read a review that said another author tried to do this, and never finished. I will not leave, I promise. I hope I'm not disapponting you guys!
Enjoy! Keep up the reviews, they make me smile every time :) Love you guys!
"Can I please just ask one more?" I pleaded, leaning closer to Ashley. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to the road. In fact, it seemed like she was speeding up.
"One," she sighed.
"How did you know which direction the bookstore was in if you can't hear my thoughts?" Ashley's expression hardened, and she turned her butterscotch eyes toward the window. I watched her pale hands grip the wheel tightly. "I thought we were past all the ambiguity."
"I followed your scent," she was looking directly at me now, and my lungs compressed as I fought to breathe. How was I supposed to respond to that? At any rate, I wasn't going to let her get away now that she was opening up.
"Well, you didn't answer my first question. The mind-reading thing, can you read anyone's mind? Can your family do it too? How close do you have to be to hear someone?" I was positively shaking with eagerness now.
I can't help it. This is Ashley Davies we're talking about.
"That's more than one, Spencer," she pointed out, a hint of disapproval apparent in her voice. I simply smiled, and tilted my head, waiting for her to continue.
"It's just me," she exhaled loudly, "and I can't hear anyone anywhere. I have to be somewhat close to hear someone's thoughts, and even then I can only hear them within a few miles of myself. And I can't hear everyone, obviously. I can't hear you," she whispered the last part almost bitterly. If Ashley could see inside my head, I would surely die of embarrassment.
Actually, if you could see inside my head, I would probably die of embarrassment.
"Why can't you hear me, Ashley?"
She looked at me thoughtfully, the engine revving unexpectedly again. "I'm not sure. I believe your mind works differently than any other human beings that I can hear."
"Oh, so I'm a freak, now?"
Ashley laughed her quiet, musical laugh, and an electric shudder rolled through me. Butterflies again…
"I can hear minds, and you're under the impression that you're a freak?"
I decided it was still plausible that I'm a freak, and ignored her question. "What's it like? Hearing other people's minds, I mean."
Ashley ran her hands along the length of the steering wheel. "It's almost as if I'm standing in a huge hall, or possibly the White House. Everyone is speaking at once, but to me it's just a buzz, or a hum. I can easily focus on one, and tune into whatever they're thinking. But I've become very good at tuning everyone out. It can prove to be profoundly distracting…and that way, I can seem…normal," she frowned. I was so stunned by the revelation that I could do nothing but stare at her gorgeous face, my mouth slightly agape.
"Anything else?" Ashley asked softly. I glanced at the speedometer for the first time since I got into the car, and gasped.
"Ashley, slow down!" I yelled, throwing myself full force against the back of my seat and gripping the sides as if I were holding on for dear life.
I must have looked pretty stupid by now, and in front of Ashley too. Pat yourself on the back, Spencer. You've succeeded in looking like an idiot for the day.
My previous thought was confirmed when Ashley rolled her eyes at me, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.
"We're not going to crash, Spencer. I promise."
"Are you trying to murder me?" I demanded, still frightened by the triple digits that flashed at me.
"Relax," she commanded. And I did. I loosed my death grip, and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to find Ashley's breathing in the silence of the car.
I couldn't hear it. She was probably good at breathing quietly too, just like she's good at tuning people out.
"I've never been in an accident, Spencer," her velvet voice soothed me, "but are you happy now?" I glanced at the speedometer, which was now gradually decreasing toward 80.
"I suppose," I mimicked Ashley and folded my arms. She flashed me a crooked smile.
I think my heart just melted.
"I'm still waiting for your latest theory," she reminded me. I felt the Porsche slow to a stop, and looked around. Twilight was breaking just over the horizon.
We'd been driving all night, and I didn't even realize it.
"Come on," Ashley unbuckled her seatbelt, and pressed the button on mine. Her gentle, honey eyes never left mine as she exited the car.
"Where are we going?" I asked cautiously. But then, I recognized the forest on the outskirts of Forks.
"For a walk," she explained simply, smiling, and strode into the trees.
Well of course I'm going to follow her. Who wouldn't? Me and Ashley Davies in a forest, all alone? You do the math.
"I won't laugh," she laughed musically again, and it rang through the trees this time. I didn't see her until I broke into the clearing. There, I saw her standing in the middle, rocking back on the heels of her feet, a teasing grin playing across her face. I suddenly became irrepressibly nervous.
"I'm afraid you'll be angry with me, actually."
"I doubt it's that bad," she encouraged, as I came to stand in front of her. My heart rate sped up as Ashley began to pace around me, slow as a jungle cat. I shifted from foot to foot, clearly distressed. I was on her good side now, but what if I was on her bad one in just a few moments? But if I don't say it now, it will bug me forever.
"Go on, Spencer," she said quietly, calmly. That was my cue.
I chose now.
"I…I know what you are," my voice came out in a hoarse whisper, and I felt Ashley stop directly behind me.
"Say it," Ashley's voice also came out in a whisper, but not hoarse. Hers was clear, constrained. I said nothing, absolutely terrified now. I didn't want it to happen like this. I don't want her to hate me.
Spencer Carlin, you coward.
"Say it," Ashley repeated again, this time with more force. I closed my eyes.
"Vampire," I breathed so quietly, it was almost inaudible. Everything in the clearing was silent…so painfully silent that I just wanted to turn around and…and…
I don't know what I want to do.
"It doesn't matter though," I assure her quietly, looking around to see her face, contorted into an expression irritation, anger, and sadness. "I don't care what you are, Ashley."
"You don't care?" Her voice was colored with pure disbelief and acrimony. She turned, and leapt gracefully onto a rock, uprooting a tree with one hand as she went. My eyes widened as I watched in amazement.
This is not real.
"You don't care that I can do this, Spencer?!" She shouted angrily, and launched the tree easily out of her hand, where it snapped like a twig as it hit a boulder at the other side of the clearing. "Or this?" This time, she jumped down, and ran--or should I say, blurred--the length of the clearing at least one hundred times in 30 seconds.
I was rooted to the spot. There was no way I was right. Ashley was suddenly in front of me, so close that I could smell her shampoo again, taste that delicious smell that radiated from her skin, even more powerful than the one still wafting up to my nose from her jacket.
"You don't care that I could reach over and break every single bone in your body in the space of one minute?" She breathed menacingly. I looked into her eyes, trying to focus my own from one, being in such close proximity with her, and two, witnessing the outrageous event that had just unfolded before my eyes.
"I-I-I don't. It doesn't matter," I stuttered, trying to gain some confidence. Ashley closed her eyes, looking truly jaded since the first time I glimpsed her beautiful features, and stepped carefully away from me.
"I'm right, aren't I, Ashley?"
"Does it matter?" she imitated me, enunciating the last word harshly as she clenched her fists. I didn't back down, though.
"No, it doesn't. I told you that," I took a step forward, but she took a step back.
Great, now she's afraid of me.
"I am curious, though," I told her timidly. She looked up, resignation and a small amount of curiosity mirrored in her amber orbs.
But sadly, she didn't move toward me.
"About?"
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen," she answered automatically; almost mechanically, as if she were a robot.
I got the feeling she's used that answer for a long time.
"How long have you been seventeen?" I pressed, staring her down.
She looked down at her shoes, closing her eyes as a breeze swept through the field. I shivered, not sure what kind of effect her answer would have on me.
"A while," she admitted faintly. I nodded, the hushed air becoming a little more than unbearable for me.
I needed to hear Ashley's voice.
"How did you find out?" she asked, still quiet, almost as if she heard my thoughts.
I was right. And that abrupt awareness petrified me.
"Aiden Dennison. I sort of tricked it out of him," I said sheepishly, mentally noting how her eyes glinted alarmingly, her perfect mouth pressed into a thin line.
"And how did you do that?"
"I tried to flirt with him," I confessed, a blush creeping onto my face as I tried to look anywhere but Ashley, "and it worked."
She scoffed. "Yet, you accuse me of dazzling people. Poor Aiden Dennison," I blushed, not knowing whether or not to take that as a compliment.
She said the last part as if she actually felt sorry for him, but I know she didn't. There was bad blood between the Dennisons and the Davies'.
But you didn't need me to tell you that. It was painfully apparent on Ashley's face.
"What did Aiden say?" Ashley demanded, malice coating her tone.
"That you weren't dangerous. You don't hunt people."
Ashley lifted her head, her luscious chocolate girls bouncing, and turned her angelic face to the wind, inhaling. "The Quileutes have a long memory."
I took that as her confirmation. Inside, I was dancing, though.
"We're usually very good at what we do, Spencer," she rested her golden eyes on me, and my heart settled, "but sometimes we make mistakes. Me, for example, allowing myself to be here…alone with you."
My face fell, and she instinctively reached a pale hand toward me, but withdrew it just as quickly, cradling it as though it had somehow been burned. She turned away, and her beautiful, sloping shoulders slumped a little.
"This is dangerous, Spencer," she declared, and suddenly I felt like I really couldn't breathe. This was not a mistake. It can't be because…
It's just not a mistake.
I became hideously afraid of never being able to be like this with her again. Alone, just Spencer and Ashley. Her last sentence foreshadowed an end.
No.
I felt tears prick my eyes, and I took a daring step toward her. "Tell me why you hunt animals instead of people," I demanded desperately. I just needed to hear her velvet voice. As much as possible.
"I don't want to be a monster," she whispered, and I could have sworn I saw her shoulders shake. "It satisfies the thirst. For a while, anyway. It's very difficult, at certain times."
"Is it difficult now?" we were still speaking in hushed tones, as if the pitch of an actual voice would shatter our entire foundation together. The only bridge we had would be…burned.
"Immensely."
"But you're not hungry right now," I stated with conviction.
She chuckled despondently. "What makes you think that?"
"Your eyes are this…" I had to use all my willpower not to say 'beautiful,' "golden color. When they're black…" I trailed off, but she said nothing. I fidgeted, fighting back the moisture beginning to well in my eyes. "Were you and your family hunting this weekend?"
"Yes," she paused for a second, as if deliberating with herself, "I didn't want to leave, but it was necessary."
She exhaled dejectedly, and turned to face me. I nearly gasped when I saw her face. Her expression was visibly torn.
A fallen angel.
"Why not?" I breathed, my eyes scanning her face, and her defensive stance. Her slender arms were wrapped around her body, as if she were protecting herself from the world as we knew it at that moment in time.
"It makes me…anxious…to be away from you."
I think my heart just stopped.
"I wasn't joking when I asked you to be careful last week," she continued," the possibilities of what could happen to you tormented me while I was away. I couldn't concentrate on anything, it really got on Glen's nerves."
The corners of her lips twitched upward, and the threatening tears in my eyes dissolved themselves upon seeing her perfect features in a state of near amusement.
"Why weren't you at school?"
This time, she smirked, and I almost did too, just because she did.
Ashley's facial expressions were contagious to an unnerving degree.
"I'll show you sometime," she promised me cryptically. I became frustrated, though. My eyebrows furrowed.
"I was worried, you know."
"I knew you were safe," she assured me, taking a tentative step forward. This time, I was the one to take a step back. She clearly didn't understand what I was talking about.
"I didn't know where you were! I…" I hesitated, angry at myself for even allowing that sentence to exit the safe haven of my mind, where Ashley couldn't see.
"This is so wrong," she groaned quietly, comprehension dawning on her beautiful face, making her even more pale, if that was possible.
"I don't like not seeing you, either, Ashley. It makes me anxious, too," I blushed, but refused to take my eyes off of her.
Afraid she would disappear the second I did.
"Don't you see, Spencer? This isn't safe. It's very, very dangerous. I don't want to hear about you feeling that way…you can't. You shouldn't," her anguished eyes flickered to the road, almost as if she contemplated running out in front of a car, "please, understand that."
"It's too late, Ashley. I don't care what you are."
"Don't say that," she growled. I bit my lip, twisting my fingers around.
I was glad she couldn't see how badly that hurt.
Without another word, Ashley's perfect figure was swiftly making its way back to the Porsche. I hurried after her, not noticing that tears were now streaming down my cheeks.
I stared out the window, willing myself not to look at Ashley, afraid to let her see me like this. I don't even know why I was crying.
What a lie. What an awful lie…
I didn't want this new revelation to be the end of me and her. I couldn't let it be…
"What are you thinking?" she asked, her voice raw and hoarse from not being utilized for a period of time. I merely shook my head, refusing to respond, even though I could feel her intense gaze burning holes in the back of my head.
She was driving much too fast.
"Spencer, are you crying?" Fear and panic washed over her voice, and the car suddenly revved forward.
At this point, the fact that Ashley was speeding was far past my realm of concern.
"No," I replied, but my voice betrayed me. Through my peripheral vision, I watched her pale hand extend toward me guardedly, but then pulled back.
My heart sank. I just wanted her to touch me. But now I just wanted to cry more.
"I'm sorry," she offered, her voice cracking. I fought the urge to see if she was crying too, but a strange thought occurred to me.
I don't know if vampires cry.
After twenty more minutes of an agonizing, yet comfortable silence, we pulled up behind Arthur's cruiser. I didn't know if he had figured out where I was, but I didn't care in the slightest. I could feel Ashley staring at me as I shut the Porsche passenger door gently, and began to trudge up the path. Suddenly, I turned around, needing to hear her voice.
"Promise me you'll be at school."
"I'll be saving you a seat," she smiled, leaning out the car window. The earnest in her promise sent flutters through my stomach as I walked back toward her, surrendering control of my feet.
"Spencer," Ashley whispered, "will you promise me something, now?"
"Yes," I hardly dared to breathe.
"Never go into the woods alone. Please. I'm not the most dangerous thing out there."
I shuddered slightly at the warning in her tone, but nodded. I turned to leave, but Ashley took hold of my wrist, swinging me back toward her so that we were at eye level with each other. Her hand was ice cold, and I swear I thought I was going to faint when she brought her other hand up to gently caress my cheek. The touch was feather light, and just as chilly.
Yet I found myself leaning into her as much as she would allow.
"Sleep well," Ashley's pale, glorious face just inches from my own as her sweet-smelling breath hit my face. The next thing I knew, she had released me, and the Porsche was speeding down the highway. I turned to look at it, letting out a heavy sigh when I realized I was still leaning forward.
To anyone that might have been standing nearby, I probably looked stupid.
I entered the dark house as quietly as possible, taking the stairs two at a time and creeping down the hall to my room. Arthur was asleep; his snores could have woken up every house within eight miles if they were any louder. My mind swirled dizzily, full of images I couldn't distinguish, as I fell back onto my bed. I curled into a ball, not bothering to cover myself with my quilt.
Excited shock waves coursed through my system when I discerned that the reason I wasn't freezing was because I was still wearing Ashley's leather jacket. I pulled it as closely around myself as humanly--or inhumanly, considering it was Ashley's--possible, and breathed in her strong, delightfully tranquilizing scent.
That scent that was so uniquely Ashley.
As I drifted off to sleep, there were about three things I was absolutely positive.
First, Ashley was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of her--and I didn't know how dominant that part might be--that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her.
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R&R PLEASE!!!