Blood Claim Read online

  I heard him whisper to Tavian, “Reminds me of Kara.”

  I hadn’t really thought about the similarities between Kara and myself, but there were a lot; we have the same build, same hair color, and while our blue eyes are very different shades, they’re both still blue. I felt my smile falter; I just wanted out of this costume now. When we finished the pictures, Rachel wanted to go see a psychic. What the hell…why not.

  The woman who was going to read me was the typical, carnival gypsy. She wore a lot of jewelry and a red dress. Her name was Nadya; she was thin and in her late forties.

  “What your name, child?”

  “Sophia,” I told her as I took a seat across from her at the small round table she sat behind.

  “Sophia, you are an interesting individual, aren’t you?” I tilted my head, but said nothing. “You have a tough family; you’ve been running from someone close to you. Perhaps a few someone’s. You feel comfortable and happy where you are, but you’re still anxious. You fear your secrets coming to light. There’s something you feel you need to handle first.”

  “Yes,” I confirmed, her reading accurate thus far.

  “Your strong, Sophia, but he who you run from is much stronger and you will have to fight for yourself and a few you hold dear. I can’t say for sure, many things still need to fall into place, but if the path you are on continues thing will soon play out.”

  Interesting.

  “How was your psychic reading?” Dante inquired as Rachel and I caught up with the group.

  “It was interesting.” He raised a brow at me. “Nevermind, will you go on the Ferris wheel with me?”

  When we hit the top of the ride, I couldn’t help myself; I was still a little uncomfortable thinking of his comment, about me reminding him of Kara. And I couldn’t keep myself from asking him about it.

  “Who’s Kara?” I asked as our car softly rocked and we looked out upon the town. Dusk was falling and the whole town was lit up, it was an amazingly beautiful view.

  “What?” He looked shocked by my mentioning her.

  “I heard you tell Tavian that I reminded you of her, who is she?” I knew who she was of course, but I wanted to see what he would tell me.

  “How’d you hear that?”

  “I guess I have good hearing too. So who is she?”

  He narrowed his striking eyes at me. “So it seems; she was an ex of mine…a long time ago.”

  “Have I always reminded you of her? Is that why you’re attracted to me?”

  “Of course not! I’m attracted to you because of you and you alone. You may have a few physical similarities to Kara but you are nothing like her, I haven’t thought of Kara in a very long time, and I’d rather not think of her now. There’s a good reason why we’re not together anymore.”

  “Fair enough, if you don’t want to talk about her, then I don’t want to hear about her. I’d much rather focus on the here and now.”

  “Me too.” He put his arm around me, pulling me snug against his side.

  After we had properly enjoyed the carnival, rides, games, and food for Sarah, her friends, and me, we went to the street dance. Lady Antebellum was getting ready to perform after a few local bands had opened for them. Dante and I made our way close to the stage. I couldn’t hide the smile that beamed from my face as they came on stage, and started their set with Just a Kiss.

  “You’re excited,” Dante commented.

  “I am!” I said brightly. “I love this song. Now, are you going to dance with me, Dante? Or do I need to find someone else?”

  He grabbed my hand and twirled me. “Nope, you’re stuck with me,” he murmured when he pulled me against his chest.

  I giggled and whispered back, “A situation I’m happy to be stuck in.”

  We danced the whole time with him holding me close, even on songs that weren’t really meant to be danced to in such close proximity. But it didn’t matter. Dancing under the stars in Dante’s arms was like being in my own personal fairytale. I was Cinderella for a night.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Dante and I had been dating for a little over a month and we had fallen into a comfortable, but exciting, routine. Although living with him made some parts of our relationship hard, I had made a promise to myself that I would not give into my desire for him until I had figured out a way to be honest about who I was and why I was in Maldera Springs. But leaving him at night to go to my own room, when all I wanted to do was stay in his arms, was incredibly hard. Thankfully, I had finally found a house and was three weeks away from closing on it and getting my keys.

  It was early June, and school was finally out. Sarah and Tavian were both very excited to have their senior year finally come to an end. I wondered how many times Tavian had graduated High School. Their graduation was on a Friday afternoon. I attended of course, on Dante’s arm, and we took seats next to Sarah’s father.

  “Mayor, it’s nice to see you,” Dante said as he shook Sarah’s fathers’ hand.

  “It’s nice to see you too, Dante.” He let go of Dante’s hand and extended it to me. “You must be the famous Sophia”

  I took his hand. “I don’t know about famous,” I smiled, “but I’m Sophia. It’s nice to meet you, Mayor.”

  “Call me Phil. Sarah has told me a lot about you; I must say I am surprised I’m only meeting you now.”

  “I hope all she’s shared with you has been good. You have a wonderful daughter and I have enjoyed getting to know her.”

  “She thinks quite highly of you as well, and I assure you it has all been good. She tells me you and Dante will be accompanying her and her friends on their trip to Orlando.” I nodded. “I’m glad they’ll have a little supervision.”

  The graduation ceremony was typical and very nice; they held it outside on the football field. They kindly provided little paper fans with ‘Class of 2011’ printed on them; the heat was stifling at five-thirty in the evening.

  Sarah and her friends had planned a camp out for graduation night with about thirty of their friends attending. Someone had gotten a keg for the party, but no one was worried about getting caught. They were going to be on private property, belonging to Brandon’s family. Sarah had begged Dante and me to come and camp out with them, not wanting to disappoint her, we agreed. Dante and I had gone to the campsite prior to the graduation ceremony and set up tents and, as a special little gift to them, we hired a DJ to come provide music for the night.

  We made it back to the campsite about an hour before anybody else was set to arrive. I went in the tent and changed out of my summer dress in favor of a white bikini and a little ruffled miniskirt.

  “If it doesn’t cool down in that tent, I don’t know how we’re going to sleep in it.” I realized after saying it that the statement was silly; Dante wasn’t bothered by temperature. But he didn’t know I knew that. “Anyways, I opened the windows so some air can flow through it.”

  He had been staring out at the water, a small breeze ruffling his sandy brown hair, it had gotten a little long, but it looked good on him. He finally turned and looked at me with an expression on his face that I couldn’t place.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, but he just continued to stare at me. “Dante! Snap out of it; what’s the matter with you?”

  He chuckled. “I’m fine, my sweet Sophia, you just render me speechless,” he answered as he pulled me to him and kissed my forehead.

  I shook my head and walked towards the water calling, “whatever,” over my shoulder.

  “You’re beautiful!” he hollered after me.

  I waved his comment off and dove in the water. It was perfect; not quite bath water warm but certainly not cold. When I came back up, Dante was at the edge of the swimming hole. He was quick, in the thirty seconds he was out of my sight he had changed and was in a pair of dark blue swim trunks with a white tribal pattern up the sides.

  The swimming hole was filled from the river, by way of a beautiful waterfall, just across the water from the camp area and
that’s where I was headed with Dante following me.

  The romantic setting called for nothing less than for me to wrap my arms around him and fall prey to a little of the mounting passion I had been holding back. He held me tight, pressing his lips hungrily against mine. My lips parted to accept his searching tongue as he deepened the kiss further and further. I held back a small moan as his hands slid down my back and stopped at my hips, pulling me closer to him. My lips left his and wandered to his neck as he tilted his head back, lost in the sensation of my teeth grazing his skin.

  Desire poured off him as I explored more of his perfect skin and twisted my fingers in his hair, pressing my body closer and harder against him. Dante’s hands grabbed at my waist as he lifted me out of the water above him, my wet, black hair fell forward, framing his gorgeous face as he brought our lips back together for a long, seeking kiss. He only broke it to slowly slide me down his chest, and stop at my neck. I didn’t worry about him being at the most vulnerable part of my body. He wouldn’t bite me, and I knew that. If he had wanted to, he’d had plenty of opportunities. I wrapped my legs around his waist and couldn’t hold back the gasps of pure ecstasy that escaped me. Dante stopped kissing me, cupping my face and staring at me with eyes that were such a dark shade of navy they almost looked black.

  “If you make noises like that, my sweet Sophia, it will be hard for me to control myself.”

  “I know,” I said breathlessly, “but…I’m sorry, Dante, I’m just not ready.”

  “You never need to be sorry for that, Sophia. I will wait until you are.” He gave me one last sweet kiss. “We should go back; the others will be here soon.”

  He was right of course, halfway across the swimming hole I heard footsteps and more cars pulling up. The DJ was the first to arrive; Dante greeted him as I went to grab my towel.

  Tavian, Sarah, Rachel, Brandon, and Jordan arrived a few minutes later. I was drying my hair with my towel as they came into sight. Sarah had a huge, happy smile on her face; Tavian and Rachel were excited and surprised by the DJ. Jordan on the other hand looked pissed, apparently not happy with the way Brandon was drooling as he stared at me. Dante, however, was amused.

  “She’s taken and way out of your league, my man.” He patted Brandon on the back and walked over to me, sweeping a brief kiss on my cheek, then going off to visit with his brother. Jordan’s eyes shot daggers at both me and Dante.

  By nine o’clock everyone had arrived, the DJ was in full swing, and the keg was tapped. I laughed as sweet Sarah did a keg stand and was rooted on by all her friends. Needless to say, they were all pretty wasted. While neither Dante nor I are affected by alcohol like humans are, we had decided not to drink tonight. With all these kids drinking and there being water so readily available for them to drown in, we figured better safe than sorry. The night was muggy but we still had a massive bonfire.

  It came to my attention that it wasn’t only beer the kids were drinking; someone had gotten some bottles of the hard stuff. I met a lot more of Tavian and Sarah’s friends, all of them fairly inebriated. However, I spent most of my time watching Jordan; I just couldn’t understand such a beautiful girl with such low self-esteem. Jordan was drinking like a fish and getting rowdy. She watched Brandon like a hawk and got mouthy whenever he talked to any other girls. I kept my distance, but still kept an eye on her. She was dangerously close to making some bad alcohol-driven decisions. Brandon was talking with one of his teammates, Jackson, when Jordan came over and tried to drag him off to the water. He told her no, that there was no way she was going in the water, she pushed him off and went by herself towards the swimming hole.

  I called out to her, “Hey, Jordan?”

  “What?” she snapped back when she turned to look at me; her hands firmly placed on her hips.

  “Hey, look, I just don’t think you should go in the water. Everyone’s been drinking. Let’s just be safe and smart about it and stay out of the water, please.”

  “And who the hell are you to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing?” she slurred.

  “Right now, I’m the sober adult who doesn’t want to see you get hurt. Now, please, just stay out of the water.”

  “Whatever! Why don’t you go be the adult to someone else, while I go swimming?”

  Jordan’s eyes narrowed and shot daggers again as Brandon stood next to me and pleaded with her. “Babe come on, just stay out of the water.”

  “Why don’t you just come with me, Brandon?”

  “Because I’ve been drinking too, and I don’t feel like swimming. A lot of our friends are leaving soon. I want to hang out with them, just like you should want to.”

  “Or do you just want to hang out with her?” She gestured towards me.

  “Oh please,” I scoffed. “He hasn’t said a single word to me or even been near me till you started acting this way, and trust me,” I looked to Brandon, “No offense,” then looked back to Jordan, “but I’m not interested in your man, Jordan. I have my own.”

  “Oh right. Well, here he comes; maybe Dante would like to go for a swim with me,” she said with a seductive smile aimed at Dante.

  I rolled my eyes. “You know what, Jordan? I’m not worried about losing Dante to you, and if you are so dead set on going swimming, I hope he will go with you. At least then there will be someone there to pull your drowning body out of the water should something happen.”

  I turned and walked towards Dante. “Your turn to deal with drunk, jealous teenagers; I’m going to find your brother and Sarah.” I planted a kiss on his lips then sauntered off.

  I found Sarah, Tavian, and Rachel seated at a picnic table playing cards with two other kids. There was a large cup in the middle of the table and the cards were spread face down around it.

  I smiled as I approached. “Kings’ cup?”

  “Yeah, have you played before?” Rachel asked as I sat down next to her.

  “Oh yeah, when I was eighteen I moved in with my ex. He was a big time partier, but I wasn’t old enough to go to the bars so we had parties at his house all the time. He used to love to watch me out drink all of our friends.”

  “You want to play?” she asked excitedly.

  I hesitated for a minute, “Sure, what are we drinking?” One game wouldn’t hurt.

  “Anything you want, gorgeous,” one of the other boys cooed.

  “Be careful, Alex, that’s Dante’s girl,” Rachel warned him teasingly.

  I smiled; I liked being called Dante’s girl. I got a drink and played with them. Sarah ended up with the last king and drank the concoction that had been mixed in the cup. By the time the second game started, Dante had joined us.

  “I thought we weren’t drinking tonight,” he teased.

  “Yeah, well I needed one. So what happened with Jordan?” I asked as he sat next to me.

  “She’s in bed. All the drinking finally got to her.”

  I had a feeling maybe a little compulsion might have gotten to her too.

  “That’s probably a good place for her; she was getting a little out of hand.”

  “Yes, well, she’s insecure around you.”

  “That’s ridiculous; she has no reason to be insecure around me or anyone else for that matter. She’s a beautiful girl.”

  “Brandon has a bit of a wandering eye when you’re around.”

  Sarah scoffed, “Everyone has a wondering eye when she’s around.” We all looked at her. “What? I’m not blind. We all know your gorgeous.”

  I looked at Dante as he chuckled. “She’s had a lot to drink.”

  “Hey,” Sarah shouted as if offended by my remark.

  “Drunk or not, she’s right.” Dante said to me in all seriousness.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Our trip to Orlando had finally arrived. I wasn’t sure how it would go. I had seen Jordan a few times since the campout, but she hadn’t gotten over what had happened. I refused to be rude and ignore Brandon when he would talk to me just because she was insecure, but that just
made it worse.

  We all piled into Dante’s Escalade, with me, Dante, and Tavian sharing the driving duty. We made it to Orlando around three o’clock on a Friday, where we checked into our amazing hotel.

  Sarah’s dad had rented a penthouse suite for us that had four rooms: a kitchen, five bedrooms, and a living area. The rooms were sleek, decorated in shades of gray, black and white. It also featured a large balcony with a table for eight and a hot tub, along with a spectacular view of Disney World. We planned a simple dinner for the first night, but that just wasn’t going to suffice, so we hit an eighteen and older nightclub.

  Dante and I left the underage members of our party and hit the bar for some drinks. We met back up with Tavian, Sarah, and their friends after downing our drinks. We enjoyed the nightclub for a few hours then retreated to the room for some time in the hot tub.

  Dante got a call early the next day. He had a friend who lived not far from our hotel and made plans to meet up with him later that evening. Not surprising was the fact that we were meeting him at a nightclub.

  Sarah, Rachel, Jordan, and I went shopping for some new clothes for the club while the guys went off to do god only knows what. We went to a cute little boutique and the girls went wild trying on clothes.

  “Sophia, this dress was made for you,” Rachel told me, while holding up a very adorable, but very short, matte gray, draped-style, one-shoulder dress with ruched sides. I gave the dress one more once over as Rachel handed it to me and then headed for the fitting room.

  “I don’t know about this one,” I told the girls as I looked over my reflection in the full-length mirror. The dress was hot and it looked good on me, but I still wasn’t sure about it. Sexy was something I was comfortable with, my ex and his brother had helped me with that, but this felt a little too sexy considering the point Dante and I were in in our relationship…desperately trying to control ourselves.