Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

Lover Boy and Nameless

Luke

I pulled an old sweater they'd given me over my head. It smelled just like the house—sweet and sterile and not at all like a lived-in home. The bandage on my neck stayed in place, covering the wound I couldn't remember much about.

Then I noticed someone standing in the doorway. I jumped before realizing who it was. The blonde stood with her arms crossed, but it wasn't the blonde I loved. It was the girl who seemed like a dream.

"Sorry. I didn't see you there."

She leaned against the doorframe. "No, I didn't mean to surprise you. I just want to come in and check on you. How are you feeling?"

"Better, actually," I told her, reaching over to grab the uneaten Pop-Tart from the bedside table. "Which is amazing considering I felt like hell earlier."

She nodded. "You should be ready to go back home by tomorrow morning."

I stopped chewing. Home. I couldn't remember why I came here to this strange house, but I knew there was most definitely a reason. Ava's face floated in my mind. I hadn't seen her since she ran out that morning. Unless you counted the glimpse I may or may not had imagined of her outside making out with some guy.

"Where's Ava?" I asked the girl. What was her name? Had she told me?

Her gray eyes avoided mine. "She's...out."

I thought about the guy Ava had been with. A strange, familiar feeling entered my stomach, but it vanished in a matter of seconds.

I clasped my hands together. "When will she be back?"

"It's indefinite." The girl took a step forward, her high heels barely making a sound on the hardwood floor as if she was floating, not walking. "She ran off, no surprise there."

I didn't want to agree, but I did. Before coming here, I hadn't seen Ava in weeks. Not since she disappeared from Dean Karr's party in January. Rumors started spreading around the next day and even more once we went back to school. That she was suicidal. Depressed. In rehab. Pregnant. Ran off with some forty-year-old movie star. But when I saw her, she looked fine. Maybe even better.

The girl sat down at the foot of the bed, tilting her head to the side. "How long have you and Ava known each other?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe since sometime in middle school? I really don't remember."

"And how long have you been in love with her?"

I froze. All these years, I tried not to make myself too obvious. During freshmen year, when I realized just what that feeling might be called, I looked around myself, seeing if anyone noticed. No one ever did. Not even Ava herself.

The strange girl sighed and stood back up. "You may think you are trying so hard to hide it, but everyone know. She knows. But no one ever cares. I know how it feels, Luke. I know how it is to feel something so powerful but never have that one person acknowledge it."

I stared up at the girl. What a downer.

"We experience our lives and our existences, bases it all on a belief that the best we can do for ourselves and others is love. All you need is love, right? Love could save humanity. All this rubbish they shove down our throats trying to make us believe." She now stood right in from of me, and I found myself leaning forward at her natural pull. "But it's not true. 'Love' is only a word. That's it."

I opened my mouth for a response I hadn't rehearsed. In fact, I expected some sort of incoherent sputtering as a reply, but instead I found a sharp pain hitting the back of my head. And suddenly, nothing.

†††

I could hear a pop song blasting in my sleep. Someone nearby sang along, sounding better than the girl on the radio. I opened my eyes as the sun rose outside my window. I sat strapped in the passenger seat of an SUV next to a pretty blonde girl who now glanced over at me.

"Nice to see I didn't kill you," she said. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to wake up."

I clutched my head in my hands, the pain immediately hitting me.

"Sorry. I honestly didn't mean to hit you that hard. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't wake up before we left the house."

"Why did you do that?" I asked her, my throat dry "And where are we going?"

"Whoa, there. One question at a time." She gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles growing white. "I have my reasons."

They sped past the "Welcome to Newberry Sign". Soon, I began recognizing the familiar streets and crumbling buildings of the downtown area of home. I turned to the nameless girl. Her eyebrows pulled together and her lips were pressed in a thin line.

"You...you're taking me home," I breathed.

She kept her eyes on the road. "Bernard insisted that you stay, but truth be told it wasn't really for any medical reason. He wanted to keep you in the dark. He planned on erasing your memories of us once my blood left your system."

I swallowed. Her blood? Erase my memories?

"I...I don't know what you're talking about," I told her.

"Well, of course you don't," she muttered. "That's why I like you, Luke. You are human. You have no earthly idea about the world around you. The chaos you have found yourself in the middle of. You simply don't know what to think of it, so you just put it off as some bizarre dream. Oh, to be in your shoes for a day."

"So...you're not human?" The words tasted weird on my lips. You know, because they were impossible and all.

"Nope. Haven't been in years."

Slowly, the pieces started clicking together. Not human. Her beauty. Her blood. Her existence. Whatever she was, it was something only told in fairytales. Something from storybooks. Something off of TV. Not existing in real life. Not sitting right beside me.

"What your name?" I asked her.

She turned down another street headed to another neighborhood "Jane Parker."

"Well, Jane Parker, then," I licked my lips. "If you're not human, then what are you?"

We drove past familiar houses, maybe even passing mine. But at this point, I didn't care. I had one thing on my mind and it had everything to do with the girl who currently had my life in her hands. She kept her lips locked and her gaze on the road, refusing to me. Then she glanced at the bandage on my neck. I brought my hand up, touching the wound.

"You...you're a vampire."

The car sidled up to a two-story brick house. The soft glow of lamplight emanated through the windows. I recognized it, but not as my own. Someone opened the front door of the house, revealing a girl who much resembled Ava.

Jane got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her. I ran after her, curiosity clouding over my judgment. No, she hadn't yet confirmed it nor denied it. But all signs pointed to yes. The way she walked. How she exuded the confidence. But she didn't get that hungry look at the sight of me. Not like Ava had before running out of the room...

"Do you have the information I asked for?" Jane asked Val.

Val nodded. "I will tell you everything I know. Just promise me that you'll let Luke be. He doesn't know anything about this. I have no idea how he got himself pulled into it all."

Jane's steel-like gaze flashed over to me. "He's fine."

"Good." Val took a step forward in the streetlight. "They've been keeping me out of the loop all day. When I called, they told me I wasn't needed tonight. It only made me think the worse. I thought that maybe we would have time. That they couldn't possibly—not so soon." She shook her head and swallowed before looking back up at us."They have her."