“Dana and I were in the woods looking for you, and she apparently found it.”
“Bless her little heart,” I said. I placed the necklace against my chest, right above my heart, and closed my eyes as I happily swayed with it. I was gutted at the thought I’d never get to wear this again, and now I didn’t have to be.
“What were you even doing out there so deep in the forest?” Max asked.
“Trying not to be found,” I answered. “And trying to get here in the process.”
He grumbled to himself. “I can’t believe I couldn’t find your footprints.”
“It’s snowing like a mother out there. Everything’s covered now. It’s not a big deal.”
“I know, it’s just…I should have found you.”
“Hey,” I said, hushing him. “You found me now.” I hung my necklace from the tip of my finger and let it dangle, then flashed him a mischievous smile. “Now onto more pressing matters. Would you do the honors?”
Without answering, he turned me around and swept my hair to the left and over my shoulder. He clasped the necklace together with one click, and then kissed the side of my neck. I closed my eyes and moaned. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” he purred into my ear. The heat from his body enveloped me, and I didn’t want to move.
“Of course I know,” I breathed. “Because I missed you just as much.”
The eagerness inside him returned, and he whipped me back around and kissed me. We fell into a heated makeout session, where our hands were all over each other and our lips smeared across each other’s faces like excited teenagers. Against my mouth, he whispered, “I don’t know how I’m gonna stop touching you.”
He kissed me again and again, arching my head back and trailing his tongue across the base of my throat. I was in a fog of desire. “Then don’t,” I pleaded.
Max wrapped me in his arms and pushed me to the bed.
Chapter Nineteen
DANA
I wasn’t at ease being left alone with Rickey and Priscilla. They went back and forth trading insults and discussing the girl in the other room like she were a science experiment. It felt rude and cold-hearted, and I had a feeling they didn’t really care about what she was going through or what would happen to her. That poor girl was likely suffering from so much mental anguish and torture, and all Rickey could do was theorize on if vampires used a new form of mind control or hypnosis. I was the one at the end of that and even I knew to show some humanity. She was still a person, after all.
Rickey had the tendency to geek out over new things that he became unaware of how bad it could come off. And it’s not like Priscilla was gonna call him out on it, because she could be just as crude.
They were very strange together. I noticed a small change between them after my incident at the gas station. She still poked fun at him, but it felt toned down and restrained, like she had softened up to him a bit. But I don’t think he was aware of it yet. Guys could be like that, totally all over a girl who hates them one second but then oblivious when they begin to return the affection.
Of course, I didn’t know any of this. I just assumed.
I decided I was done listening to their banter for a while and headed down the hallway for the bathroom. Max and Cora were in my bedroom, and through the walls I could hear their voices in soft conversation. I tried to mute them out because I didn’t want to intrude, but I still heard Cora’s giggles and Max’s sarcastic jokes in between kisses. They had the kind of relationship I hoped to have one day. Theirs was an enduring love without judgment, and they felt so at ease with one another. I don’t know if I had ever felt truly comfortable with a partner. Tiffany always set me up with mindless, muscular men because they were good-looking and not because we were compatible. They were definitely not my type, that’s for sure. Not that she cared.
I sighed. We all followed Molly blindly, but for Tiffany to take part in what Molly did to me in the forest, it hurt. It hurt terribly. I had to face facts that Tiffany was truly gone. Forever.
A part of me wondered why I even mourned our friendship the way that I was. It was never a perfect relationship. A good friend wouldn’t let Molly publically belittle and talk down to me for years the way that she did. Tiffany never even seemed bothered by it. She even laughed a couple of times.
I hated that memories from years ago still conjured up so much pain in my chest. I hated how powerful they were in my mind at all times.
After I left the bathroom, I stopped right in front of the door to my spare room. Cora’s cousin was inside. I kept imagining her in there by herself, knees pulled to her chest, face soiled by tears, lost in her own isolation and pain. It was easy to envision, because that had been me just a few months ago. We may not be the same species, but our plights were similar.
I wanted her to know that if she felt like a monster, she wasn’t alone.
I didn’t even think about it, I just twisted the doorknob and walked in.
The room was filled with a flowery, powder aroma, and I took a deep inhale, tried to focus, and forced the smell to fade. Melanie was still in her chair looking out
