My nerves increased. What if David was right about my dad ripping his arm off?

David squeezed my hand. “It’ll be okay.”

“No, it won’t,” I said as the door unlocked. “You’ll be gone soon.”

“Ara.”

“Hi, Dad.” I hugged him tight, standing on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck.

“Long time no see, honey.” He looked at David and extended his hand. “David? Good to see you again.”

“You too, Mr. Thompson.” David smiled politely.

“Oh, come now.” He waved a hand. “We’re not in school, anymore. I told you before, call me Greg.”

David smiled at me and we walked inside behind my dad.

“David?” Vicki squealed, almost running toward him. “What are you doing back? I thought you left?”

“I did.” David patted Vicki’s back as she hugged him. “I uh—I’m here on holiday.”

“Holiday?” Dad looked at David with a raised brow. “So, you’re leaving again?”

“Uh—” David rocked back on his heels, then looked at me, a warm smile flashing across his face as he reached for my hand. “I uh, I’m not so sure about that, now.”

Dad nodded, his face full of thought, and sat down at the dining table. “You broke my daughter’s heart, David, when you left.”

“I know.” David swallowed and sat across from Dad in the seat that used to be mine. I sat in his lap. “I’m not here to break her heart, Greg. I only came back to make sure she was all right.”

Dad looked at me for a second. “Is she?”

“No.” David squeezed me tighter.

Dad just nodded.

“David?” Sam cried from the doorway.

“Hey, Sam.” David linked hands with Sam, giving a one-shoulder hug.

“What’re you doing here?” Sam sat next to David, leaning eagerly forward.

“Just visiting,” he said.

“Ha!” Sam scoffed and leaned back. “You better not be. If you break my sister’s heart again, David, I’ll hunt you down.”

“Sam!” Dad scolded.

“No. It’s all right, Mr. Thompson.” David held up a flat palm, smiling. “It’s fine. I get it, Sam. Okay? I won’t hurt her. I promise you that.”

But he will. When he leaves me again, I’ll die. Maybe I’ll have to make my sudden death look like an accident so they don’t blame David.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back.” Vicki placed a bowl of pasta on the table. “Even if it is just for a while.”

“Thank you, Vicki,” I said, glad someone could see the bright side. “That’s exactly how I feel.”

She smiled. Girls unite. “Anyway, I’m sure it will be long enough for our Ara to convince you to stay.”

“She’s already working her magic.” David grinned as I pushed Sam over to take the chair beside him and flipped a napkin in my lap.

Working my magic? My closed lips twitched with my thought, as if trying to speak the words. Magic, like when we shared blood the other night?

He kicked my foot under the table.

Oh, I’m sorry, is that not something you want to think about around my mum and dad?

He reached under the table, took my hand and squeezed it.

Should I tell them we can only share blood because you won’t have sex with me?

Dad looked up, his eyes narrowed in confusion, when David suddenly coughed. I could actually feel the vampire’s mortification in the heat of his hands. If he could blush, he would be bright red.

Oh boy, old-fashioned guys are hilarious. I wish I’d had more of a sense of humour when we were together before. I could’ve had so much more fun torturing him with this.

My ears washed back to the conversation when I heard my name. “Huh?” I looked over at Sam.

“You see?” He laughed, pointing at my face. “She still does it.”

“Does what?” I looked at David; he just smiled.

“You still faze out,” David said. “We were just talking about Mike and Emily being together now, and Sam asked how you felt about it.”

“Oh.” I sat taller and leaned on my hand. “Um. I think it’s great.” Not. I feel betrayed, unwanted, rejected and second best—but that’s just the selfish, spoiled girl inside me talking.

David nodded, continuing the conversation, taking my verbal response as if it were fact—almost as if he ignored the truth I just offered him privately. A part of me wondered if that’s what he wanted to believe, if maybe he ignored those thoughts so he didn’t have to face them.

I looked away from my dad, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me. He may not be able to read minds, but he isn’t fooled by my self-sacrificing façade. He knows I’m hurt about Mike and Emily.

Nothing in my life is truly okay, and David can pretend all he likes, but nothing has changed; he’s still leaving, Mike still loves Emily, not me, and I’m still going to be alone when he’s gone.

Truth is, though, I am fine with Emily and Mike being together, right now—as long as David’s here. When he leaves, it’ll all fall apart again.

Emily and Mike are great, but only while David and I are, too.

I let my body drift with the flow of the notes, my fingers scaling easily over the keys, filling the room with melancholy. As the song came to an end, I smiled to myself, shifting over slightly to make room for my vampire.

“No student today?”

“No,” I said softly, rubbing the tops of my thighs. “I cancelled them. I need time to think.”

“Time to think? About what?”

“You should know—you’re always in my head.”

“No, Ara. I’m not.” He closed the cover on the piano and took my hands. “Sweetheart, I haven’t been hearing you lately.”

“What? What’d you mean?”

“I mean, I—” He nodded, looking down for a second. “I keep missing things. Thoughts you direct at me are clear, but—at first I thought you just had a quiet mind. But this is different. It’s...empty.”

“My head is empty?”

“No. I mean, yes. It’s...I don’t know. All I know is that, when I woke this morning, I thought you were dead for a second. There was nothing.”