Suspicious Minds

Yet, before he could say anything, there was suddenly someone standing next to us. I looked over at the boyish grin and felt my heart leap. "Isaac," I smiled, my breath coming out quickly in obvious relief.

He smiled at me but turned to Armand, "Could I steal a dance?"

Armand nodded, "Of course." He clasped Isaac on the back before striding off through the crowd.

"Ethan asked me to interject. Are you alright?" Isaac asked as his one hand found my waist and the other held my hand delicately.

I laid my arm around his shoulder and nodded, "Yes."

"What was he saying to you?"

I found myself confused, "You couldn't hear?"

Isaac shook his head, his dark brown hair messy. "Do you know how many conversations are going on in this room?" He chuckled, "I have to tune everyone out."

"Now we're equals," I joked, even though it wasn't true in the slightest. I watched as he laughed and marveled at his joyous aura. His eyes were a darker gold, almost caramel color, which glittered as he looked down at me. His teeth were bright white even against his pale skin.

"Audra," he said, still smiling as he spoke my name, "you're avoiding my question."

"He was just telling me about Vivienne and Ethan," I shrugged. I didn't want Isaac to think I'd brought it up, or that I'd pried into business that wasn't mine.

Isaac nodded, seeming to understand already, "About the break-up."

"Yeah," I confirmed. "He told me your sister doesn't treat humans very well."

He sighed, "It's true. She is not particularly sympathetic to their rights and well-being."

"I don't mean to pry," I assured him, "but Armand told me Vivienne and Ethan differed in that aspect," I trailed off, assuming he would know where I was headed.

"Ethan has been known to show humans kindness that is considered unnecessary by many vampires in our… community." I raised my eyebrows in skepticism and Isaac chuckled, a warm fluid laugh emanating deep from within him. "You are an exception on a few occasions, it would seem."

"Though, he did save me in the forest," I thought aloud, unafraid to in front of Isaac.

"Ahem?" He cleared his throat, giving me a pointed look.

"Well you were there too, of course," I smiled.

"Ethan is very protective of you," Isaac nodded, in a confirmation or explanation for Ethan's behavior. Isaac suddenly leaned in close, his skin smelling of warm vanilla. "Though, he doesn't want you to know."

A small blush crept onto my face and I quickly changed the subject. "Isaac, I wanted to talk to you about something," I admitted, glancing around to approximate our distance from the other couples.

"Anything," he replied, staring into my eyes intently, and I knew he was giving me his full attention.

"Can we go outside?" I asked, motioning over to the set of glass French doors that led out to a balcony.

He nodded and with his hand on my back, led me through the crowd and out the doors. The cold air hit me immediately and I shivered, looking up at the black sky speckled with stars. As we walked to the edge of the balcony, I realized how high up from the ground we were; there was a huge body of water, an ocean or a sea, that was so vast it took up almost all of the land that was physically possible to see. I'd had no idea we were this close to an ocean. The waves were calm and crashed gently against the shore beneath us.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Isaac asked softly, aware that I was mesmerized by the view. I'd almost forgotten I wasn't alone.

"It's about the vampire in the forest," I told him hesitantly, afraid that I might be wearing him thin on the subject.

"What about her?" I wasn't sure how he'd learned it was a female, but I assumed Ethan had discussed it with him. Perhaps he'd even seen her himself.

"I've had dreams about her," I confessed, finally glad to let someone else share the disturbing burden I'd been harboring for weeks. "Nightmares, really."

"That's understandable," he assured me, his hand resting lightly on my shoulder. "It was a very frightening and traumatic experience for you."

"Not after it happened," I elaborated, watching his face for his reaction. "Before."

Isaac seemed to hesitate for a moment, his eyes reading my face for something I wasn't sure of. "You've seen her before?"

"Once in real life, multiple times in my sleep."

"When did you see her?" His voice was getting more urgent, but he was still calm. "You aren't counting the day in the forest, are you?"

I shook my head, "No. I didn't see her that day, and to be honest, I'm not one hundred percent sure it was her," I sighed and rubbed my forehead, the stress and panic starting to rise in me again. "I just have a feeling."

"Where did you first see her?" He asked in a comforting tone. He remained at my side, his hand on my back gently like he was reassuring me.

"The first night I met Ethan," I remembered, letting myself into the vault of the memory I'd locked shortly after the experience. "I was walking home after going out with my friends. I heard strange noises coming from the alley, and for some reason I followed them." Isaac shook his head with a small smile I could tell he was trying to hide. I imagined he was thinking it was typical of me, to put myself in a dangerous situation, but I continued. "It turned out to be Ethan, drinking from a blonde woman."

"This is who you think was after you?"

I nodded, "It has to be. I have dreams that I'm back in the alley and trying to help her, but she wakes up with these crazy, red eyes and tries to kill me." I turned to Isaac desperately, "I've seen her watching me from the forest, even when I'm in the house. I know she's out there."

Isaac immediately enveloped me in his arms, perhaps to comfort me or to show me he would protect me, but either way I smoothed against his body and relaxed. I breathed deeply into his chest and wanted to stay there forever.

"You have no reason to worry," he whispered into my hair, his breath feeling just as cold as the air. "Ethan and I would never let anything happen to you."

"I know, but it's unnerving to think she could be everywhere I am."

"It may not even be her," he tried, pulling away to look me in the eyes. "We'll find out who it was, and the next time they come within a twenty-foot radius of you, they'll have both Ethan and I to deal with."

"Thank you," I smiled, my worry fading with every second he smiled at me. I felt silly for bringing it up in the first place.

"Have you told Ethan yet? About the dreams?" My stomach dropped and I looked at Isaac guiltily.

"…No."

"You should really tell him, Audra," he advised.

"I know, but it's hard to find the right time," I reasoned, wishing he could understand my predicament. Ethan and I weren't alone very often, and when we were he was usually doing something to make me never want to speak to him again.

"Just tell him," he made it seem so simple, and then again, perhaps it was.

I nodded, "I will." Isaac gave me a victorious smile before suddenly casting a look over my shoulder.

"I should get back inside," he squeezed my shoulder delicately. "I'll see you later, though."

"Bye," I said feebly, my brows knitting in faint confusion as he quickly spun on his heels and disappeared between other vampires.

I turned back to the edge of the balcony and leaned my elbows against it. I was freezing and wanted to go back inside, but I feared running into Vivienne, or even Ethan. For some reason, Isaac's attempts at comforting me made me feel like I'd made a much bigger deal out of the situation than I needed to, and I wasn't about to go running my mouth to someone else about it.

I looked over at another vampire and sighed. She was alone, doing the same thing I was doing but on the other end of the balcony with her back to me. She was as pale as the moonlight with auburn hair tumbling down her back. I looked through the windows of the French doors and watched as vampires laughed and smiled with each other. I felt like a nobody, like I was smaller than anyone else here.

"You sound nervous," someone spoke behind me, their cool breath tickling the skin on the back of my neck. Ethan was standing close enough behind me that I could feel him brushing against my hair and I realized that he was referring to my heart beat.

"I just feel out of place," I admitted, turning to face him. He stared out at the water for a moment before switching his gaze to me. "I don't know anyone here."

"So you're more concerned about your social connections than you are about the fact that you are surrounded by vampires who undoubtedly can smell the blood flowing through your veins?" Ethan chuckled and looked down secretively, a joke in his mind that he obviously wasn't going to share.

"I'm not worried about that," I told him. I set my hands against the freezing stone wall and stared out at the water. The moonlight was reflected perfectly in the water as though it were made of glass. "I may be wrong, but I don't think any of these vampires want to attack me." I watched him for a sign that he disagreed, but there wasn't one. "I trust the few of you that I know." A movement in my peripheral vision caught my eye and I looked to see Isaac standing quite a distance away, facing Ethan and I with a smile. He caught my gaze and nodded slightly as if he were telling me to, "Go for it".

"Why is it that you can talk to him and not me?" Ethan nodded toward Isaac's retreating figure, watching him with a glint in his eyes that I assumed to be jealousy.

"I talk to you," I said, keeping my voice low to keep anyone from hearing.

"Not about things directly related to your safety. Not about things that are important."

I furrowed my eyebrows and stared up at him, trying to understand his behavior. "What are you talking about?"

"Your nightmares," he mumbled, his eyes dark and meeting mine with an intensity that caught my full attention. "I heard what you were saying."

Instantly, anger flared up in me. I couldn't believe Ethan would eavesdrop on my conversations that I trusted were private. I had purposely gone out of my way to consult someone other than Ethan, and the entire time I was pouring my heart out to Isaac, he'd been listening! "How dare you," the coldness in my voice scared even me. "How much did you hear?"

"Not much," he admitted, barely fazed by the emotions flowing through me, which only irritated me even further. "The bit about the woman in the alley, basically."

"I can't believe you," I lurched away from as if he were a leper.

"Audra, what else was I supposed to do?" He reached out for my arm and grasped it firmly, keeping me from pulling from away. "You refused to talk to me about it, and I needed to know."

It was disgusting how unremorseful he sounded, like he was allowed to listen; like he had a right. "You needed to know?"

Ethan reached out for my arm again but didn't grab me; he guided me away from a few people we were close to. "Don't you think that any information you have might be useful to me so that I can prepare? So that I can protect you?"

A part of me melted as he finished, his eyes boring into mine intently and filled with emotions he was trying to silently convey. Yet, at the same time, another part of me wanted to overpower that silly, girly part of me. Ethan wasn't concerned with my safety, but he knew that I was, and he was using that knowledge to win the argument. He was turning this back around on me.

"If you would have listened for just a few more minutes, you might have heard the part about how I was going to tell you everything." Ethan clenched his jaw and I wondered if he regretted his decision to listen in. "If you're doing things behind my back, how can I trust you?"

Ethan stayed silent, his eyes turning back to the water. I watched him cautiously, afraid he might shut down or lose his temper. His face looked tense but no less beautiful than usual.

"I'm sorry," he spoke in a breath, "you're right." I practically died right where I was standing. "But you have to understand that if you don't tell me things, I can't help you."

"Why do you want to?" I asked as I backed away from him. "I thought you wanted to be rid of me?"

Ethan didn't answer but followed me until I couldn't recede any further. He grabbed my waist, carefully, I noticed, and pulled me close to him. "You're freezing," he observed as he grasped my arms gently, the pads of his thumbs brushing my skin. His hands, usually cold against my skin, felt warm. They felt as if they were the same temperature as anyone else's hands, any other human's hands, other than the fact that my skin tingled everywhere he touched me. It was almost as if we weren't any different from each other.

"It's winter," I muttered, and Ethan chuckled.

"Come inside and dance with me," he requested. I looked at him hesitantly but he took my hand and pulled me inside. "You can't accept a dance with my brother and not me."

"Shouldn't I be able to choose who I dance with?" I asked even though we were already stepping onto the dance floor.

"You have to dance with me," he concluded. "You're my date."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help the smile I tried to hide. The thought of being Ethan's date to his own birthday party made a bubble of giddy butterflies erupt in my stomach. "I'm pretty sure this isn't a date, seeing as you didn't ask me and I didn't accept," I denied him, loving the way his eyebrows rose in a silent statement of, 'Is that so?' I let him take my waist, unwilling to cause a scene in front of so many people. "As a matter of fact, I believe your exact wording was, 'Of course you're going. I can't leave you here alone.'"

Ethan pulled me so that I was pressed against him tightly and took my hand in his. He stared down at me blankly, looking back and forth between my eyes as if he couldn't decide which to fixate on. I could tell he was tense just by looking into his face.

"What's bothering you?" I asked, slightly frightened by his intensity.

His nostrils flared and his eyes darted to my lips, watching me as I spoke. "Your scent," he explained. "With all of these other vampires in the room I've hardly been able to smell you. But now that we're close," his voice was getting husky and I felt my heart beat falter in response.

"Then maybe we shouldn't dance," I offered, attempting to separate myself from him. Yet, his strong hold around me was unbreakable and I looked up into his eyes, butterscotch with flecks of gold.

He merely shook his head silently and kept swaying me gently in his arms.