“Then I should go find them,” I decided.
“Okay.” David grabbed his guitar case. “Just . . . Remain objective, okay? Don’t listen to too much of what Em says about Mike. You know what he’s like.”
I nodded. “I know he loves her. I know he’s. . .” I thought about it, having a laugh to myself for a second, “—downright stupid when it comes to girls sometimes, but I’ve also known him longer than she has. She can’t badmouth him in front of me, I won’t let her.”
“Good.” David nodded. “Because that kind of chatter is infectious. Before you know it, an argument she had with Mike will become a full-scale cause for hatred. Don’t let Morg get inside her head.”
“Yeah, she’s good at that,” Jason added, and both boys walked away, side by side.
***
“Hey, what’re you guys doing?” I asked, catching them on the stairs.
“Sleepover,” Emily said.
“Sleepover?”
“Yeah.” Morgaine stepped past Emily. “Mike and Em had a fight. She doesn't want to sleep in the same room.”
I noticed Em’s red eyes then. “Are you okay, Em?”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice still shaky. “I just…you know what he’s like.”
“Um, no.” I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He just doesn't get it.”
“Ara won't either, Em.” Morgaine wrapped her arm around Emily. “She's his best friend.”
“Try me,” I said.
“He doesn't listen to me,” she started, and it all came pouring out with tears. “He doesn't understand what I'm trying to say. He thinks I'm being needy and bitter, when all I want is for him to want to spend time with me. That's all. I just want him to want to. He doesn’t even have to, that’s not what I’m after, you know. And I know he doesn't have time, but…it’s just, maybe if he’d meet with me for a coffee every morning, or even invite me, or maybe if he’d spent time with me last night instead of going fishing with the boys, then I wouldn’t be so upset. I don’t want all his time…” She took a few jagged breaths. “I just want him to want to be with me, even though he can’t.”
“How do you know he doesn’t want that?” I asked.
Emily wiped her cheeks, angling her face away from me. “He doesn’t show it.”
I sighed, dropping my arms. “For what it’s worth, Em, I do understand. And I also understand why Mike doesn't understand how you feel.”
“Why?” she asked.
“He’s just…that's just how he always was with girls, before he and I were together.”
“But I'm not just some girl. I'm his fiancé.” She held up her ring hand.
I shrugged. If she thought she would be any different, she was kidding herself. She knew Mike only for the curse-captured, obsessed version of himself he was with me. But that just wasn’t who he was.
Morgaine hugged Emily close, rubbing her back. “Where’s David, Ara?”
“Um, he’s on the phone to National Security, dealing with some human issue.”
“Well, come on then.” She grabbed my hand, keeping an arm around Em. “You’re having a sleepover with us.”
“Okay,” I said. “But no scary movies.”
Emily and Morg exchanged grins.
“Knock, knock,” David said softly, peering into the dark room.
“Shh.” Morg scowled at him.
He pretended to zip his lips, then tiptoed in slowly and crawled onto the bed between Emily and I.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered.
“Missed you.”
I reached down and linked my fingers through his, cupping my other hand over his wrist.
“What are we watching?” he asked.
“Shh.” Em jammed her elbow in his ribs.
“Ow.” He laughed and poked her back.
“Chick flick,” I whispered.
He turned his head to look at Emily, then Morg, and laughed quietly, swiping a tear from Em’s cheek. “Sad movie?”
“Shut up,” Emily said. “Just because you lack the ability to show any human emotion.”
“I'm beginning to see why I stopped in the first place,” he said playfully, then wrapped his other arm over Emily’s shoulder and pulled her ear to his lips. “What happened?”
I was about to fill him in on the plot line, when Emily’s lip trembled, and I realised quickly that he wasn’t referring to the film.
My gaze went back to the TV set. I knew anything she had to say would be said in thought—not for my ears, clearly. She was so upset tonight, which could only mean there was more to this story than she’d said. But, of course, she wasn’t about to badmouth Mike with me in the room. I think she knew, deep down inside, which side I’d take. But she was kidding herself to think David would side with her, either; he and Mike were two peas in a pod.
“I’ll talk to him for you,” David said in that deep, whispery tone.
She shook her head. “Don't bother. I'm not sure I care anymore.”
“Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be crying.”
“This would be so much sadder if they were vampires, not humans,” Morg cut in, her mouth full of popcorn.
“Just pretend they are,” I said.
“You’re not crying, Ara,” David stated, removing his arm from around Emily. “You always cry in these movies.”
“Guess I've done my fair share of crying for the next decade or so.”
He sat forward and looked at my face, sinking back again with a sigh. “I'm sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“Just…” He scratched his chin, leaving his hand just under it for a second after. “I just wish I’d taken better care of you.”
My words were lost, and I think Morg and Em were so shocked by it, even they held their breath. I felt the awkwardness saturate the air then, as both girls slowly turned back to watch the movie, and David looked on with a certain amount of trouble behind that gaze. He wasn't watching the movie at all; he was lost in whatever picture of the past he’d just apologised for. But we all looked up, Morg pausing the film, when a loud rap came down on her door, and before she even got off the bed, the tension rose in the room with the scent of Mike outside.
“Hey,” Morg said, opening the door only a crack.
“Hey.” Mike’s arm appeared on the doorframe above Morg’s head. “You got a sec?”
“Uh, I’ve got…company,” she said, opening the door.
Mike’s mouth popped open a little. “Em, there you are. I was wondering where you’d got to.”
She looked into her lap.
I leaned over and whispered in Em’s ear, “What’s he doing here if he’s not here to see you?”
“You’re welcome to join us.” Morg’s voice rose over mine in an obvious attempt to shut me up.
“No, he's not,” Emily said, coldly.
“Aw, Em, come on.” Mike took a step into the room. “Don't be like that, you know I—”
“Mike, just go, please,” she said, holding a hand up.
“You’re serious?”
She nodded.
“Why? What did I do?”
Morg, Emily and I huffed loudly.
Mike stopped walking, looked at David, then me, then Morg, and turned around, leaving the icy welcome behind.
“Just give it time, Em,” David said as Morg closed the door. “He’s got a lot going on.”
“I know.” The tension in her shoulders eased with David’s fingers softly tangling in her hair, rolling her head toward his lap. “I’m just not sure I can always wait for him to care.”
I placed my hand over David's for a second, then stroked Emily’s forehead. “We’re here for you, Em. Okay. You can come move into my room if you want.”
She laughed softly, closing her eyes. “It’ll be okay. We just need a break.”
“A break?” I said.
She nodded. “I think he needs to lose me to know what it’s like to miss me.”
David looked up from Emily, the deep concern remaining in his eyes. He really cared about her, and I always knew that, but now I could really see it too—could really see the connection they’d formed through months being alone together, sharing blood. And he thought nothing of the fact that she was lying in his lap, her lips just inches away from a place only I should go. But it didn't feel as wrong as it should. It felt like . . . I don’t know, maybe like they had some deeper, untainted connection.
Morgaine sat on the chair again, leaning forward a little as though she was listening to me whisper a secret across the room. I’d seen her do that before, when she was trying to get a feel for a situation, so I gave her a soft smile, which she returned.
“We ready watch the movie again?”
“Ready,” David whispered.
Morg pressed play on the remote, then came to snuggle up behind Em, her head on David’s shoulder like he was some Universal Pillow. He’d been a part of each of our lives once—in some way deeper than friendship—and we all owned some small claim to him. He wasn't bothered by the closeness or affection of Em and Morg, and he didn't even seem to notice it bothered me, which probably meant I was looking into it too deeply. So, I rested my head on Emily’s, and fell asleep with David stroking my hair.
Despite falling asleep in Morgaine's bed last night, David tucked tightly between me and Emily, I woke in my own bed, with a pair of radiant green eyes smiling down from the vampire standing above me.
“What’s this?” I sat up.
“Something you haven’t had for a while.”
My eyes wound around the cup in his hand, steam rising from the contents, the warm smell of sweet coffee waking my mind. “You made me a coffee.”
“Only the best for my girl.” He sat beside me. “Did you sleep better last night?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my head with one hand, taking the cup with the other. “I didn't even dream.”
“I know.” He smirked.
“How do you know?” I studied him, pausing a sip away from tasting the first David-made coffee I’d had in what felt like forever. “What did you do?”
He stared at the bed sheets, as if he didn't want to tell me, but the smile tugging his lips indicated that it wasn’t for any strange reason. “I put you to sleep.”
“What, like you used to when I was human?”
He nodded, the grin growing. “It seems that, with the power of a king, everything I could do to you before you became immortal, I can do again.”