At least she didn’t race away. He had her attention, whether she believed him or not.

John must have taken heart, for he jumped in front of her and said, “Tell her I meant what I said the last time I called her. I would have run away with her. I even tried to give her a ring, my grandmother’s. I placed it in the glove box of her car to surprise her.”

Aden repeated every word.

Slowly she pivoted around and faced him. Tears were streaming down her face. “I don’t know how you found out about that ring and I don’t care.” She closed her eyes, exhaled a shuddering breath, and reached for the chain around her neck, tugging it from under her shirt. A diamond ring hung in the center, the small stones winking in the light. “I just want you to leave me a…lone.”

Aden followed her stunned gaze. A beam of light had streamed in through the window, hitting John and outlining the shimmer of his body. Openmouthed, Chloe reached out, fingers misting through him. He leaned into her touch anyway.

“John?”

“Hey, Chlo. God, I miss you.”

“Can you hear him?” Aden asked her.

“No,” she whispered.

He relayed what had been said. A long while passed in silence. The beam faded, and so did John, but Chloe didn’t move.

“What I just saw…that’s not possible,” she said, shaking her head.

“It’s more than possible,” Aden told her. “Later, you can tell yourself it was only your mind playing tricks, but for now…What would you say to him if you could?”

She swallowed, licked her lips. “I’d tell him that I forgive him. I’d tell him that when I found the ring, I realized he’d been telling me the truth and that I…I…I loved him, too.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” John pressed a ghostly kiss to her forehead, his image wavering, shimmering and then disappearing altogether.

Would he ever see John again? Aden wondered. Or had fulfilling his last wish ceased the ghost’s torment and sent him away for good?

Chloe stood there, crying, and her friends, who hadn’t strayed far, closed in on her, offering support and comfort. Aden left her then. Confused but strangely satisfied, he made his way to the parking lot. Victoria was already there, waiting in front of a plain blue car. He stopped. She gave him an unsure smile.

“Where have you been?” he asked, equally unsure. “Where are Riley and Mary Ann?”

She motioned to the car. “Get in and I’ll show you.”

They settled inside, Aden at the wheel. She handed him the keys and pointed north. Aden had a sinking suspicion that his day was about to take a turn for the worse. As awful as it had already been, that well and truly frightened him.

NINETEEN

ADEN DIDN’T HAVE MUCH practice behind the wheel of a car, so he wasn’t as smooth a driver as he would have liked. He hit the brakes a little too hard and took the turns a little too quickly. At least he didn’t have to worry about being pulled over. Not with Victoria in the car. She could talk them out of a ticket. Literally.

They had the music turned low in the background. His fingers tapped against the wheel, keeping the wild beat despite the pain in his knuckles. Just as they’d been during his driving test, the souls were nearly giddy.

When’s the last time we were this free? Caleb asked with a laugh.

No doctors, no teachers. Just us and the horses. Julian sighed with contentment.

“This your car?” he asked to break the silence between them and drown out his companions so that he didn’t accidentally start talking to them. “’Cause I’ve never seen you even approach one before.”

She shrugged, sheepish. “Let’s just say I borrowed it. But don’t worry. I’ll return it and no one will ever know it was gone.”

Borrowed. AKA stolen. Most likely she’d used that commanding voice and the owner had simply handed her the keys. He couldn’t help but grin—until his lip split and he winced.

Oh, Aden. Eve tsked under her tongue. Riding around in a stolen car? Whether you’ll get in trouble or not, that’s not the right thing to do. I’m not sure this girl is the best influence on you. Mary Ann is—

No, no, no. Elijah banged his head against Aden’s skull, rattling his brain. Mary Ann is a friend only, so don’t try to push him on her. And I’m not just saying that because she knocks us into oblivion. Riley would eat us alive.

Eve huffed. All I’m saying is she’s a better influence.

Once again, Aden did his best to tune them out. “So…do you know where Riley and Mary Ann are? Were you with them earlier?”

“Yes. They’re in Tri City, which is where we’re headed.”

Tri City. He’d been a few times and knew there were restaurants, lots of clothing stores and a theater. “Why are they there?”

“I—they—” She blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s too difficult to explain. It will be easier to show you.”

Well, she wasn’t the only one dealing with frustration. They had another ten minutes before they reached Tri City, and the wait would not be easy. “Have you guys been there all day?”

“Yes.”

Yet they’d willingly left him behind. Ouch. “Why not pick me up earlier?”

“You hum with so much power, we wanted to first make sure we could protect you in case something went wrong.”

That, he understood. With him, something always went wrong.

A minute passed. Two. He merged off the highway and onto a side road, slowing the car to an acceptable speed. He’d wanted to talk to Victoria all day. And now here she was. He could ask the question he really wanted answered. Just say it. Put it out there.

“So who was that guy? The one who was at my window yesterday? The one who heard you tell me to leave you alone.” The words left his mouth through clenched teeth, each one scraped raw.

She twisted in her seat, facing him, and rested her head against the seat cushion. Her hair was down today, those blue streaks gleaming. “I hated telling you to leave me alone almost as much as I hate that man, but I had to say it. I couldn’t let him know how much I…like being with you. He would have challenged you, I would have taken your side, and my father would have punished us all.”

Both a comfort—she would have chosen him—and a fright—her father’s retribution. Aden would do anything, even stay away from her, to protect her from such a fate. She’d done the right thing; his anger drained.

“Next time, give me a little warning and I’ll play along. So who is he?”

“A vampire,” she hedged. “Because of him, I have now been forbidden to leave home at night.”

Her sudden bitterness matched his own. “Is he another of your bodyguards?”

“You could say that, yes.”

He could say that, but she wouldn’t? “What’s his name? Did he hurt you?”

“His name is Dmitri, and no, he did not hurt me physically.”

Emotionally, then? He was beginning to learn her nuances, Aden realized. She didn’t want to lie to him, therefore she skirted the edge of the truth with omission. Smart. He did the same with Dan.

Aden wanted her to trust him completely, utterly, no secrets between them. That would take time, though, because he wasn’t going to push her the way his doctors had often tried to push him, using promises and assurances. Actions were the true test of a man’s integrity. One day she would realize that no matter what she told him, no matter what she did, he would love her.

Love?

His heart skipped a beat, his ears suddenly ringing as blood pumped through his veins. He’d never thought to feel such an emotion himself. He’d always tried to guard himself against it, really. As quickly as he was sometimes taken from foster homes, he’d learned that goodbyes were less painful if he didn’t care about the people he was leaving.

This entire experience in Crossroads had been different, though, right from the start. Imagining Dan as his father, befriending Mary Ann and Shannon, then Victoria (and maybe kinda sorta Riley). Wanting more from Victoria than he’d ever wanted from another, halfway in love with her before he’d ever even met her.

“Are you all right?” she asked, clearly concerned. Could she hear the rush of blood in his veins? Feel the way his heart skidded out of control?

“Yes,” he managed to croak out. “Fine.” He did. He loved her.

Eve would object. A few of the others, too. But he couldn’t help his feelings. They were there, and they were strong. He wanted Victoria safe, he wanted her with him, at night, during the day. He wanted to know everything about her.

She was smart, beautiful, warm. She’d fought for him when no one else ever had. She’d never looked at him as if he were weird or different. No, she’d always looked at him as if he were perfect, even lovable in his own right.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

He couldn’t tell her. Not yet. How deeply did her feelings for him run?

“About your death?”

He tensed at the reminder.

“It’s all I’ve been able to think about since you told me.” Her chin trembled as if she were fighting tears.

Those tears both delighted and sobered him. To cry for him, she must feel deeply for him. But they didn’t have much time together. Maybe there was a way to save himself, he thought, though he knew better. He just wasn’t ready to give her up yet. “Can I be changed to vampire?”

“Oh, I wish. But unlike what your books and movies portray, it has never been done successfully. Our blood is different than yours, and humans simply cannot tolerate the amount needed to make the transformation. They go insane.”

Then there was no better candidate to give the blood to than Aden. According to his doctors, he was halfway there already.

Victoria sighed, and it was a wistful sound. “The first were created in my father’s time. When he realized what he was, what had become of him, he forced his elite soldiers and the females of their choosing to drink as he had done, as his pets had done. Some of them changed, some did not. Over the following years, many others tried to change additional humans, but all died.”