Forbidden Darkness (The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles, #1)

Eighteen

The rest of the night went about as well as one would expect, and by the time nine o'clock came around, I was exhausted again and needed to sleep. After brushing my teeth and putting on some pajamas, I was on my way back to my room, where Kristen would watch me this time while Philip slept. On my way there, I ran into my mom in the hallway. Neither of us said anything to each other but I tried my best to smile at her.

As I walked into my room, I heard her behind me.

"I love you, Heather."

Her words struck my heart like pins and needles and, without looking back, I said, "I love you, too, Mom."

In my room, I found Kristen sitting on my bed reading a book from my shelf and she said, "You know, this girl's really gotta make up her mind. Seriously, she's got two hot vampires that want her, but it shouldn't be an issue. This girl must get around!"

I laughed and plopped down on my bed beside her. I put my arms around her and said, "Well, she can't choose the right guy without having a best friend there to balance her out and make sure she's making the right decision."

Kristen's eyes met mine and she smiled. "Yeah. Gotta love best friends."

She got up from the bed and went to go sit in the chair to continue reading as I pulled the covers back and crawled in. A lot of things had happened the last twenty-four hours, and while most of it wasn't good, Kristen was there, as always. She was literally the best friend in the entire world and I couldn't imagine my life without her.

Thank God the pills didn't kill her the night she tried to commit suicide.

Trying to think about my life without her was too hard. She had been there through everything—my first crush, my first F, the first time I got the flu—and she never once left my side. If she had actually died that night, I couldn't even imagine how bad my life would probably be.

***

Thursday morning came and when I woke up, I couldn't help but note how odd it was that Kadin didn't visit me in my sleep. I didn't tell Philip that he had visited me the day before during my nap, but last night he didn't come at all.

Why?

Not that I was complaining, but it seemed strange. What was Kadin up to? He did say before that he was going to check on some things, but what were those things? And the fact that he asked about Philip's dad didn't make much sense to me.

Kristen was still hanging around my room, seeming perfectly awake as she had the night before. Plus, she finished the book she was reading. Her smile seemed to brighten the room. "Hey, sleepy head. Did you sleep well?"

Surprisingly, I had. "Yeah. Did you sleep at all last night?"

She shook her head. "Monster Hunters can run on very little sleep as long as they're not out hunting. You'll probably feel wide awake after you change and you may stay up for a few days."

Hmmm. The more you know, I guess. "Have you seen my mom?"

Kristen nodded. "She's still in bed."

I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that it was nine o'clock. That meant I had about twelve hours of sleep. The more the merrier as they say; or was that about people? I pulled out my phone and saw a text from Hayden.

It said, Hey, Heather, is everything okay? You weren't at school yesterday and I had things to do after school so I never got to come over. You alright?

I texted him back letting him know that I was alright and that I'd see him next week. Getting out of bed, I kept on my pajamas and said, "Well, I'm going to go take a shower. I'll be back in about ten minutes."

In the bathroom, I couldn't help but notice how terrible I looked as I stared in the mirror. I looked like I'd been hit by a bus and probably wasn't going to look any prettier after the change. Deciding that while I was not going to school, I still wanted to look somewhat decent, so I stripped off my clothes and turned on the hot water. As soon as the bathroom steamed up, I stepped into the shower and let the hot water shoot against my back.

This felt good and I knew all I needed was a little bit of self-medicating by showering, getting cleaned up, and feeling nice. As I reached for the shampoo, something in the bathroom felt different. Like I wasn't alone. I peeked out of the curtain and saw that no one else was in there with me.

Okay, this was beyond weird. I could feel eyes staring at me but no one was there. Ignoring it, I took a little bit of shampoo and rubbed in thoroughly through my hair with my eyes closed and after a moment, I began to rinse.

"Shampooing is probably a good idea. You were beginning to stink."

I screamed and turned around to find Kadin standing in the shower with me. He was fully clothed and was getting just as wet and I so terribly wanted to hit him.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" I screamed.

"Shhh!" he said. "Jeez, are you trying to get me caught?"

I couldn't even believe this at first until I looked down and realized how naked I was. I grabbed the shower curtain and wrapped it around myself in embarrassment and said, "Kadin. You're standing in my shower! Can you get out?"

He smirked. "Nah, I'm liking the view."

There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Heather, are you okay?" It was Philip. If he knew that Kadin was in there with me, he'd probably kick the door down and start World War III in my bathroom.

"I got some shampoo in my eyes, that's all!" I said. "I'll be out in a minute." Then I turned to Kadin and said, "This isn't funny. Can you please explain to my why you're standing in the shower with me and why you tried to give me a mini heart attack?"

"I have some news," he said. "And I really think you should reconsider my offer."

Reconsider his offer? He must have lost his damn mind, if he even had one in the first place. "Look, I'm not joining your side. These guys are my friends and we're a team. I don't know what you are, but the Council is already looking into it, and if you hurt me in any way—"

"Then what?" he interrupted, getting just a little too close to my face for comfort. "You think the Council has your best interest at heart? There are so many things you don't know, and when you find out what they are, it's going to hit very, very close to home." Fire gleamed in his eyes as he said, "So fine, choose them. Just remember everything I said. And when someone close to you gets really hurt, don't blame me. You had your chance."

Then he vanished into thin air, leaving me standing in the shower as hot water poured all over me. What was Kadin really up to? And more importantly, what did he know?