Page 137 of Dare To Live

“I’m not a vampire, after all. Shocker.”

She huffs a laugh and burrows closer. “Don’t be an ass.”

She falls quiet, and I think she’s fallen asleep, but then she speaks again.

“Can I stay here with you tonight? I don’t feel comfortable up in my room.”

“You can stay with me whenever you want.”

“Do you think they’ll definitely reopen the school?”

“I think they’ve already made the decision. Us coming here won’t change that. They just want our blessing to make it easier and it’ll give them positive publicity.”

“I don’t like it.”

“After Friday, you won’t ever have to come here again. You could leave right now if you wanted, too. No one is forcing us to stay. We’re not schoolkids anymore, Kitten.”

“No, but I feel like we have to see it through to the end.”

I nod, rubbing my cheek against the top of her head. I know what she means. I feel the same way.

“Go to sleep, Ari. We’ll figure it all out later.”

Chapter 77

Arabella

“Ready?” Eli asks, holding his hand out to me from where he stands beside the door.

I move away from the bed, take his hand in mine, and lift it to brush my lips over his knuckles. “I’m not sure any of us are.”

“We need to know what happened that day.”

“I know.”

He draws me against the hard length of his body. “It’s going to be painful for all of us, but in the end, I think it will answer some questions and help us move on.”

Every instinct within me is telling me to run away and not relive one of the worst moments of my life. The only thing that stops is the fact Eli wants to go through it all. He needs to know what Miles saw. Events that I’m not even sure my best friend should remember when I know it’s still haunting him.

“You can always stay here.”

I tighten my hold on his hand. “You’re not leaving me behind.”

He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “You’re going to have to let Miles talk. I can already see the wheels in your head turning. I know it’s going to hurt him to talk about what happened, but I need to hear it. He needs to face it.”

“When did you turn into a therapist?”

“That’s why we came, isn’t it? We’re supposed to be here to heal, right?”

“I thought you came because you didn’t want me to be alone here.”

He drops a kiss on the end of my nose. “I did, but now I’m here I need to deal with everything. We need to find some peace with the past, so we can look to the future.”

I don’t reply, my stomach twisting at his words. The future? After all the trauma and damage we’ve been carrying around, can we have one? As much as I love Eli, I’m frightened that things between us won’t work. That our entire relationship is rooted in something that can’t be fixed.

Maybe this place feeds my memories and anxiety, but I can’t look forward while we’re inside these walls. The school is like a living and breathing entity, watching our every move.

He opens the door, and we walk into the hallway, and down to a room at the other end. He knocks, and a second later, Ivan lets us in. Garrett is already there, sitting on the edge of one bed while Miles is on the other.

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