Chapter 27

Amber

“W hat’s the matter?” Amber murmured when the kissing came to an abrupt halt. Her partner’s muscles stiffened and she opened her eyes. “Benji? Did I do something wrong? I know I’m not very experienced with this stuff, but-”

Then she saw the change in Reuben’s irises and the words froze in her throat. She took a breath to clear them and tilted her head slightly, leaning forward to get a better look. “Well that’s different! You didn’t warn me your eyes would start to glow.” She smiled and wrapped her arms around Reuben’s neck, but something was wrong. He didn’t react in the slightest.

“Benji? Hello, this is a weird spin on making out.” She released his neck and snapped her fingers a couple of times, surprised when he continued staring through her with those fiery eyes. “Hey. Reuben? You’re starting to freak me out.”

She placed both hands on Reuben’s chest to push him back, and suddenly he stopped gazing into space and focused on her. Some primeval survival instinct activated as the eyes of a hunter stared hungrily into her soul. She had seen that look before…on the night Ryan broke in and attempted to murder her. That look spelled danger.

Her pupils dilated. Every muscle in her body screamed to run. Reuben’s weight, so comforting just moments before, became claustrophobic. “Reuben, this isn’t funny. Knock it off!”

Reuben bared his fangs and she let out a shrill scream. She began struggling in earnest as an accompanying snarl caused her to scream even louder. He began scratching at his neck and Amber pushed him hard, squirming and kicking to break free until Reuben fell to the floor with a thud.

No sooner had she been released than she began gathering her things. Her eyes never left the vampire, who sat on the floor muttering “no, no, no,” while occasionally clawing at his throat.

Some small part of her considered figuring out what was going on, but that voice was quickly hushed by the panic screaming run. Run. RUN. She stuffed her keys and her phone in her pocket, then noticed her little notebook laying on the floor. Amber snatched it up and shoved it in her pocket as well. With one more glance at Reuben she rushed down the stairs, pausing only to grab her shoes before bursting into the dark neighborhood.

She had run a full block before calming down enough to stop and put her shoes on her feet. Tears streamed down her face, but Amber didn’t even notice them as she glanced back repeatedly to ensure she wasn’t being followed. She was only aware of her hands shaking as she pulled out her notebook and began rubbing the corner of the cover while running another block. The refillable book had always been a crutch of sorts; the familiar texture of the leather as she ran her fingers over it usually helped ground her during a panic attack.

But these pages brought her no comfort. One by one Amber ripped them out. They fell like autumn leaves to the ground and when the last one settled, she pulled out her phone and dialed the first person she could think of.

The phone only rang twice before being picked up, and Amber didn’t even wait to hear a hello. “Jade. I need you to come get me,” she sobbed, the words barely coherent. She ran the remaining distance to the neighborhood exit, leaving the torn pages scattered on the sidewalk.

The guard gave Amber a concerned look as she ran through the pedestrian access gate still in clothes far too big for her, but she didn’t bother to even wave. Jade screeched up fifteen minutes later and Amber climbed inside, wiping her snotty nose on Reuben’s shirt as she slammed the car door behind her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jade asked as she put the car in drive and sped back toward town. “What did he do to you? Do I need to go whip some ass? You aren’t hurt, are you?” When no answers were immediately forthcoming, Jade pulled some baby wipes from the center console and handed them to Amber. “Here, at least wipe your face. You’re staying at my house tonight, okay?”

Amber accepted the wipes and reached out for Jade’s hand. Jade held her sister’s fingers tightly all the way to her house, only letting go to put the car in park. They sat in silence for a long time, neither of them making any moves to exit the car.

“You were right about him,” Amber finally whispered, pulling her feet up onto the seat and burying her face in her knees. “He’s a predator. I could see it in his eyes! It was the same hungry look Ryan had when he broke into my bedroom.”

Jade grimaced and reached for Amber’s hand again. “Hey. Listen to me. I know where your brain is going to go, but you’re safe, okay? Ryan is still locked up, and if this scrawny vampire man comes anywhere close to this house, Jeremy will rip him apart. So no nightmares.”

“As if saying ‘no nightmares’ would actually keep them away,” Amber replied with a sniffle and a hiccup. “But thanks for the effort.”

“That’s what older sisters are for.” Jade playfully bumped her shoulder into Amber’s and removed the keys from the ignition. “How about we go inside and play some Super Smash Bros? I’ll make some cocoa and you can take everything out on Ganondorf. And I won’t even make you go to bed at a decent hour.”

Amber finally smiled and gave her sister a hug across the center console. “Alright, deal.”

* * *

Reuben

R euben returned to a hard floor and an eerie silence. He shivered and stretched the cramps out of his arms and legs, blinking as his brain rebooted little by little. The duvet on the couch clued him in that his evening hadn’t been a dream, but even in his altered state he realized that he didn’t hear the sound of Amber’s breathing.

He hauled himself up from the floor and began searching his house, hoping against hope that he would find Amber hiding in the bathroom or one of the spare bedrooms. But as soon as he descended the stairs and saw his front door hanging wide open, Reuben put on his slippers and hurried out into the night after her.

“Amber?” he called, his keen eyes and ears searching the darkness for any sign of her. A sign which came in the form of a sheet of paper that floated toward him on a soft breeze. Reuben leaned down and picked it up, immediately recognizing the handwriting. Despite being unable to make out half the words, he did recognize his name and could read a single line at the bottom of the page, surrounded in hearts.

I think I love him.

There, in the middle of the sidewalk, Reuben fell to his knees and let out an anguished cry. The paper still in his hand crinkled as his fingers curled into a tight fist and he stared at the stars. Once the initial shock wore off, he gathered the rest of the torn pages, tenderly lining them up as if putting them back together would undo what he had done.

She must have seen his eyes. Surely that was it, right? Surely he didn’t… “What have I done?” he murmured over and over, smoothing the wrinkled page like he was trying to calm a crying child. “Did I hurt her? I better not have hurt her!”

Reuben buried his face in his hands, crumpling the torn page against his face. What was he going to do now? He had come so far, only to lose himself the very first time they jumped into the deep end! Only to prove he was dangerous. Only to ruin the first chance for real love he’d had in decades.

No.

No, he couldn’t give up that easily. They had come too far to just let her disappear into the night without even trying to make it right. This was not going to become another page in his book of failures! He pounded his fist into the sidewalk and looked up, setting his jaw. There had to be a way to fix this. Even if he had to knock on every door in Beaumont to find her and apologize ten thousand times, this was not how he would lose Amber Jane Marcus, the light of his life.