Page 38 of Ouch! My Vampire Doms Don't Sparkle
But I can’t lie.
“I’m not happy,” I say.“Not because of anything you’ve done, but because…Clarissa, I think you’re in danger.”
“Danger?No.Come back home,” she urges.“Please?We can get help.I’ll go with you to the hospital, we’ll get it all figured out for you.Dale and I can make sure you feel safe.You’ll be happy again.”
She truly believes what Dale has been saying about my mental state.
“You’re not listening,” I say.“You need to get away from him.I saw him—”
I break off.If I tell her exactly what I saw happen by the pool that night, and Dale finds out she knows, he might hurt her like he hurt Marcus Patrick…like he hurt my mother.
“You saw him what?”Clarissa asks.
“Clarissa, please.Please believe me, and…and get away from there.Leave Altera.I can find somewhere for you to hide, to be safe, and—”
“So far you’re giving me a whole lot of nothing.”There’s a new hardness to her voice.“You want to separate me and Dale.Why?Are you jealous over our love, over his love for me?He still wants to be your dad, Autumn.None of that is changing.”
“Did he—” I want to ask if he groomed her, but that won’t go over well.“How long has this been going on?”
She sounds both irritated and sad as she says, “We got a lot closer after you disappeared.We’ve been so worried about you.He’s been my rock through this, and I’ve been his.Autumn, please come home.”
I open my mouth to respond, but a male voice speaks in the background.“Who are you talking to, babe?”
My gut twists and I shut my eyes tight, burrowing under the blanket.It’s the voice of a monster, the voice of the man who will kill me as soon as he finds me.
“Please, Clarissa,” I whisper into the phone.“If you’re my friend at all, you won’t tell him it’s me.Lie.Say it’s a college ex.Please.”
Probably only half a second passes, but it feels like a full minute, and then Clarissa says, “Look, Greg, I’m in a relationship now.It’s too late for us.”
The line goes dead.She hung up.
She thinks I’m mentally unwell, she’s worried, she’s dating my stepdad and she thinks I could be jealous…and yet there’s a part of her deep inside that still believes in me.My friend is still there.
I use a knuckle to get the extra moisture away from my eyes.Somehow, I’ll need to call her back and tell her the truth.But not tonight, not while Dale is with her.
The phone in my hand rings and I nearly drop it in surprise.The number isn’t Clarissa’s, but I recognize it.
It’s Dale.
Xander
I can’t believe I’m going to die in this urine-soaked alley.There’s no escaping Mullet’s grasp.He’s stronger than I am, and much bigger.I kick out with my legs in an attempt to shove the slender guy away.He dodges and advances.
Fuck, I don’t want to go like this.The worst thing about it will be Autumn and Will thinking I just fucking abandoned them.
The slender man jabs the stake forward.
Furious and unable to move, I face my death.
His thrust stops in mid-air before the wood connects with my chest.
“Dub?”Mullet asks.
The slender man—Dub, I guess—doesn’t speak.His lips part, but no sound comes out.He tilts to the side and falls.
I see it, then, as he crashes to the ground—a long wooden arrow protruding from his back, which must have pierced his heart.
“Down!”a loud voice growls.
