Eleventh Grade Burns(20)

A hand—warm. gentle—brushed the hair from Vlad’s still-closed eyes. Following its light touch was Otis’s voice, equally as caring. “Vladimir, I hate to wake you, but our guests have gone. We should get you home.”

Vlad rolled over, content to sleep, and mumbled, “Five more minutes, Dad.”

After a pause, Otis’s only reply was to cover Vlad with a soft blanket. As his footsteps faded out the door and down the hall, Vlad snuggled into his blanket and slipped back into a deep and restful slumber.





7





A RUDE AWAKENING


VLAD SAT UP, STARTLED OUT OF SLEEP by the realization that his first day of school was today—his backpack, the clothes he wanted to wear, even his schedule was back at Nelly’s house, and he was still at his house, resting peacefully, dreaming of his mother. Rubbing the remainder of sleep from his eyes, he dragged himself out of bed and through the still-dark room, stumbled down the hallway and stairs, and yawned several hundred times before checking the time (4:36 A.M.). He scribbled Otis a note that said he’d see him at school later and ducked out the back door.

It didn’t take long for him to wind his way back to Nelly’s place, and he’d just stepped up onto the porch when he realized that he hadn’t given Joss a single thought on his walk. That slowed his steps a bit. He’d better learn to be a bit more careful, what with a slayer on the loose ... one who knew his address, Vlad thought with a shiver. He made his way inside and upstairs, took a quick shower, ran through his morning routine, and dressed. By the time he sat down to breakfast, the clock on the wall said that it was 5:44 A.M. For once in his life, Vlad was on time and not rushing to get out the door.

Actually, he was early and not exactly sure what to do to kill time. He wasn’t hungry in the least. He thought about playing some video games or watching television, but neither sounded very appealing in the wee hours of morning. So instead, he pulled out his journal and began jotting down all of his feelings about the impending day. He was feeling conflicted about Joss, apprehensive about Meredith, but mostly ... he was feeling lost. His life had changed dramatically over the past few years, ever since Otis had revealed himself to be not only a fellow vampire, but his uncle. Every moment since then had been full of surprises—not all of them good. And Vlad wasn’t sure he could take much more.

The very thought of everything he’d faced in his life was enough to make even the strongest man weep. Vlad thought he’d handled his troubles with as much strength as he could, given the immense pain he’d experienced—both physical and emotional. Losing his parents at a young age, being picked on and bullied by his peers, suffering broken bones and bruises, getting terrified out of his mind, hunted by both a slayer and vampires, technically killed, betrayed more than once, and brokenhearted. His life had sucked. But it was his, and nobody who mattered would judge him for shedding a few tears.

Glancing at the clock again, Vlad slipped his backpack over his shoulder and headed out the front door. Like clockwork, Henry pulled up in his new car, and Vlad slid into the front seat with a groan of envy. “I thought you were driving Melissa to school.”

Henry snapped, “I don’t have to be with her every second of every day.”

Vlad took a breath and made sure that anything that could possibly fuel Henry’s temper was absent from his voice. “What happened?”

Henry sighed, and his anger seemed to ebb out of him. “Girls, man. Just ... girls.”

Vlad nodded, as if he had any idea what Henry was talking about. He didn’t, but he thought it was important for Henry to feel like he could relate. “Hey, why are we driving anyway? The school is like four blocks away.”

The corner of Henry’s mouth rose in a smirk. “Dude. When you’ve got a car like this, you don’t walk anywhere.”




“Ohmigod!”

Joss grinned. There was a blur of pink and then Meredith was hugging him, hugging him so tight and close and happily around the neck that Joss’s head, along with his heart, almost burst. If he’d known what her reaction would have been to seeing him again, he would have dropped by the night he and his parents had pulled into town. He squeezed her and spun her around a little, chuckling. When he sat her back down on the ground, he was sorry to let her go. “Miss me much?”

Meredith beamed. “Only tons!”

“Wanna walk together?”