After that, Roland kept a polite distance between him and Cassidy. He continued to flirt with other girls but to his credit, he toned it down a bit. An hour later, I saw Cassidy laughing with one of her friends and I was glad I’d decided to say something to Roland.

By ten o’clock the crowd had almost doubled and I recognized a lot more of the faces. At some point, I separated from Roland and Peter and made my way down to the beach where a dozen or so people sat around the fire drinking. I found a flat rock to sit on and enjoyed the warmth of the fire on my face and the sound of the waves in the darkness.

The sensation of being watched made me glance around at the other faces to see who was looking at me. One boy I didn’t know smiled at me but I knew that wasn’t what I’d felt. My eyes travelled along the top of bluff. It was more like…

Son of a bitch. My gaze landed on Jessie Clark and Marie White practically hanging on the tall blond man watching me. If this was Chris’s idea of staying in the background, I’d hate to see what the alternative was like.

By the time I made it up the low embankment, Chris had detached himself from the two girls and met me at the top. The girls’ crestfallen expressions changed to open glares when they saw who the object of their attention had left them for. Jessie and Marie were two of Faith’s cronies so I could have cared less what they thought.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed at Chris. “What happened to keeping your distance?”

Unfazed by my anger, Chris checked to make sure no one was close enough to hear us. “There have been some developments. We are bringing more people into Portland to investigate and we thought it would be best to keep a closer eye on things on this end.”

A small chill ran down my back. “What kind of developments?”

“Nothing I can elaborate on at the moment.”

“Well since it obviously has to do with me, you’d better give me more than that,” I whisper-yelled at him. Did they really expect me to accept their vague explanations just like that?

Chris gave me a patient smile and I had the feeling that between him and Nikolas, he was the more temperate of the two. That was probably why I was dealing with him now instead of Nikolas. I think he knew it too.

“All I can say right now is that we believe the vampire who attacked you may be stepping up his attempts to find you.” He scanned the partiers as if assessing them for threats. “It might be advisable for you to go home and stay there for the next few days.”

I blinked at him. “Are you serious? I’m in the middle of werewolf territory with two of my werewolf friends. We haven’t heard or seen anything out of place – except you – in two weeks. I think I’m safe enough here.” No need to tell him that ever since I spoke to Nikolas on Tuesday, I’d taken to carrying the knife he gave me everywhere. It was tucked inside the inner pocket of my jacket right now.

“Nikolas said –”

“That’s another thing. Since when does he get to call the shots here? So I’m an orphan. That doesn’t give him the right to run my life.” I spun away from him. “And if I want to party then I will party.”

I stomped away, looking for Roland and Peter. Seeing neither of them, I headed for the crowd standing around by the van. Samson intercepted me as soon as I got close.

“I thought you’d run off. You ready for that beer now?”

“Definitely.”

“Alright.” He flipped open the nearest cooler and pulled out two beers. He opened one and passed it to me and I took a long swallow. I didn’t care what kind it was. It was cold and wet, it tasted like rebellion and I was thirsty.

Samson grinned at me. “Slow down there, chugger.”

I let out a loud burp and slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oops, sorry.”

He laughed good-naturedly. “That’s what happens when you drink the first one too fast.”

A laugh bubbled out of me. “I’m not exactly much of a drinker.”

“That is funny coming from one of Roland’s friends.”

“He thinks so too,” I said as we moved away from the cooler to grab a couple of plastic chairs at the edge of the crowd. I noticed a few girls watching us and their expressions told me they were not happy to see the drummer with me. What is with girls and good looking guys? A girl couldn’t even talk to a guy without every other female baring their claws. Nate had no idea what he was talking about when he said he wanted me to be like normal girls.

Samson leaned toward me so I could hear him over the din. “I don’t know any girls who are into the older music. What stuff do you like?”

“I don’t know. Most of it, I guess. Not the real heavy stuff. I like Janis Joplin, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner. Stuff like that.”

“What, no Backstreet Boys or N Sync?”

I made a face. “Did you really just ask me that?”

We both laughed. Samson had the rocker look nailed, the hot drummer with groupies and all, but he was a lot more down to earth than I had expected. We talked a lot about music and the different bands he’d been in. He told me Delilah’s Crush was the first band he’d started on his own and he had great hopes for them. I was surprised when he told me he was also doing a couple of business classes at USM. He said you had to have a backup plan.

“So you haven’t said much about yourself,” Samson said when he returned from getting us another beer.

“Not a lot to say really,” I replied, accepting the cold beer from him. I took a long drink. “I’m a senior at a Catholic school so you know there’s not much to say about that. I live with my uncle and unlike you I have no idea what I want to do in college, even though my school counselor keeps telling me I have to start applying soon.”