“No. Your heart is cursed, Liam; cursed and belonging to someone else. That much is clear.” She was almost at the door now. I shook my head, wanting to cry out that none of this was true, but words escaped me. “Please leave me alone. Please just leave me alone.”
And then she was gone, the door slamming behind her. I heard her footsteps run up the stairs, as if the devil was behind her. And I guess he was.
The sadness hit me like a rock. Tears pricked my eyes and turned into hysterics. I was so tired and hurt. Emotion was controlling me like Selene often did. I couldn’t lose Amy. Not this way, not like this.
A million horrible thoughts poured into my mind, none of them logical. The only one that made sense was a fact: I was alone in this room, and in this world. Utterly and truly alone.
CHAPTER 12: AMY
I don’t think I slept for two days straight. I went to the school nurse as soon as I escaped Liam. I needed an excuse to get out of class. Luckily, having infected blood is apparently a reason to get out of class anytime. The one obstacle that stood in my way, however, was my father.
“Please don’t call him,” I said to her, as I got my coat, a note clutched in my hand. “I’ll tell him myself. But really, I just need a day or two to rest. It’s scarier to him if someone else calls him. If I can do it myself, it shows I’m ok. He’s under a lot of stress right now.”#p#分页标题#e#
She sighed and then put down the contact book she was flipping through.
“Alright. You’re old enough to make your own choices, Amy. But if things get worse you need to come to me right away.”
“Of course,” I nodded, zipping up my coat and then heading out of the office. Now, I was safe. Liam wouldn’t come looking for me for days, I knew that, and an official record of an excuse from class meant no one else would either. As long as I still met my Dad for lunch, he wouldn’t suspect a thing.
I didn’t want to do anything but shut myself in my room for days. Even though it was impossible to believe, I knew what Liam told me was true. There was no other explanation for what I had seen. The way his face had changed in the darkness and then changed again in the light; the fact that I never saw him after dark; the way he ran off as soon as the sun was setting. All the facts began to add up and I wondered why I didn’t see it before.
I couldn’t deal with this. I couldn’t handle it. It was almost like, wordlessly, he was mocking me. My mortality loomed with every beat of my heart … with every beep of my watch to remind me to take my AZT. Without them, the disease would descend and I’d be dead in less than a few years. They kept my death at bay but reminded me that the Grim Reaper was constantly looming over me.
I spent a good part of the day angry at him. He didn’t think it was something important to tell me when we first got involved? And still, even the fact that he had been cursed and made immortal didn’t seem so bad to me. Liam didn’t need to sleep. He was only a vampire at night. He had gone from one incredibly successful career to another without so much as lifting a finger. Everything had been handed to him. He had never known struggle or poverty, and yet he thought he had the right to complain about his troubles.
I paced the room, resisting the urge to throw something. How could I trust anything that came out of his mouth, now? All those things he had promised me - parts, help, fame, schooling - I wondered if any of it was true. Or was I simply a relief for him; a potential snack that didn’t tempt him?
How could I have been so stupid to even think I was talented? I smelled terrible to him and that’s why he wanted me around. He would rather have me, for his own selfish reasons - to be able to kiss and touch and be around a warm human he didn’t want to eat - than choose someone who actually deserved this scholarship and would be good for the school.