Aftermath Read online

  Aftermath

  Hurricane Book Two

  by Jenna-Lynne Duncan

  Aftermath

  Jenna-Lynne Duncan

  Copyright © 2013 Jenna-Lynne Duncan

  All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Edited by Rebecca Wahl

  Cover art by Elaina Lee

  Published by Stolen Kiss Press

  ISBN-13:

  ISBN-10:

  Library of Congress Control Number:

  To the inspiration behind all my romance writing, who knows that even though my heart is in New Orleans, it will forever belong to him.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Epilogue

  Preview of Tempest

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  Chapter One

  I awoke in the middle of the night to the feel of his warm lips pressed against mine. I pretended to be asleep for another few seconds before I was able to open my eyes to the night. “What’s going on?” I became worried as I made out his profile sitting elegantly at the edge of my bed, fully dressed.

  “I have to leave,” Hayden said.

  “Again?” I sat up, wiping away any mascara that may have been under my eyes.

  “Yes. Again.”

  “No, stay.” I tried to pull him down on the bed with me. That, of course, was physically impossible.

  “I would love to.” He smiled, lips closed, but the smile quickly fell. “You know I can’t.”

  “Let Luke go. He can go by himself this time.” I gave up my attempts to make him fall asleep with me, to make him forget that he had to leave.

  “Luke isn’t going.”

  “What?” I lay my head back down, feeling entirely too tired to keep my body up. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m going. Just me. Luke is staying here.”

  “No!” I stubbornly rolled my head into the pillow. “Remember what happened last time?” Last time being when he left me to go hunt a vampire and Luke stayed to ‘watch’ me. Instead, he had kissed me. His brother who I had thought hated me had instead confessed his love for me.

  “I do.” He placed a hand on my head and brushed a few strands out of the way. “The question is, why do you still remember?”

  “Hayden…” I tried to sit up but was too tired to move. I took his hand in mine instead. Why was I so tired?

  He leaned over and gave me one last kiss before I unwillingly let my eyes close for good that night. I knew he wouldn’t be there when I woke up.

  Chapter Two

  Our conversation rang through my mind as I woke up the next morning. I wished I hadn’t said goodbye that way to Hayden. I wished I could take it back. This was one of the many times I wished I could go back in time and change things. I was so tired then, in a half-asleep state. I didn’t even have the energy to sit up; my limbs felt paralyzed. “Do you remember what happened last time?” I mentally kicked myself for saying that. How could I have said that? How awful Hayden must be feeling right now. Who knows what kind of dangers he is facing? My only relief was in knowing that whatever he did, he was immortal. Still, what had bugged me the most was why I had said that in the first place. Should Hayden have to never leave my side just so I will never be tempted by Luke? Shouldn’t he be able to trust me? Shouldn’t I be able to trust myself? I was bent on making it up to him. There was enough anxiety in my life; I didn’t need to add regret to my list. I pulled the covers off me and decided I would make this a good day.

  I basically had the house to myself for the first time in a while. Hayden had left that night and Luke was never around long. What was he doing all those nights? Honestly, it didn’t matter. He was free to do whatever he wanted.

  Since I was alone and had nowhere to be that day, I decided I should indulge in some girly pampering. I slept in late. I turned up the stereo and danced as I made the bed. I picked out a new nail polish color but decided to take a bath first. I ran the water in the tub but didn’t have the patience to wait for it to fill. As I began to undress, I heard someone clear their throat, alerting their presence.

  “Luke! What are you doing?” I ran to close the bathroom door on his face, but it wasn’t his face I closed the door on. It was Hayden’s. I reopened the door to make sure what I had seen was right.

  “Huh?”

  “Well good morning to you, too.”

  “You’re back already?” I wrapped my arms tightly around him, thankful that I didn’t have to wait to start apologizing for earlier.

  “Back? I was just downstairs. But thanks for the enthusiasm.”

  “How did it go?” I considered not prying since he already acted like he’d never even left.

  “Well, I was mistaken for Luke and I got a door slammed on my face. I’ve had better days,” he spoke coolly, letting his dark hair fall into his green eyes.

  “Did you not even leave yet?” Anxiousness shook my words as I thought about having to wait even longer for his return.

  “Leave where?” A hint of worry in his confused eyes.

  “Leave to… wait. Don’t act like you don’t know what I am talking about. You know you get all uncomfortable when I bring up Hunting.”

  “Ana…?”

  “Last night you said you had to leave, and that Luke would be staying. C’mon!” I waited for him to confirm what I said was true.

  He pulled his eyebrows together. “I’m sorry, Ana, that never happened.”

  Crap. He pulled me into his arms as the realization came over me that it was all just a dream.

  “It was so real this time. I could smell you, and feel your kiss.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s killing me that I haven’t been able to figure out why you can see the future in your dreams. Since Katrina and the Lalaurie incident, they are cautious. No one is talking. If I wanted some definite answers I could go to a friend on the West Coast but you know I can’t leave New Orleans right now.”

  “’S okay. Really, it’s fine. I should be so lucky as to have dreams about you kissing me.” I looked up at him to make part of my dream into reality. “They just are beginning to feel too real though. I mean, I didn’t even know it was just a dream. So does that mean you are leaving?”

  “I don’t know, am I?”

  “I hope not. Too bad I can only see the future and not change it. Why didn’t I get a useful abnormality?”

  “If I recall, it has proven useful, Ana. And who says you can’t change the future?”

  “I have never been able to before.” I bit my lip remembering the horrible consequence of trying to tell my school’s guidance counselor, Mr. White, about his wife’s impending death. I didn’t even want to think about the helplessness of having a psychic dr
eam about Hurricane Katrina.

  “Just because you haven’t before doesn’t mean you still can’t.”

  “So you wouldn’t mind me trying, then?”

  “Trying to change the future?”

  I nodded.

  “If anyone can do it, it would be you.” He wrapped one arm around me to pull me closer. “But…”

  “But?”

  “But…I think we should focus on what the Vasquez said. It could be very dangerous if word gets out about your…ability. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” For now.

  “Even though you didn’t leave, I missed you.”

  “I can fix that.” He grabbed me with both arms now, pulling me into a kiss.

  “Do you want to answer that?” He pulled back at the sound of vibration coming from my night stand.

  “No?” I tried to pull him towards me but he gave me an exasperated look. “Fine.” I ran towards the bed and flopped on my stomach to grab my phone in time. The screen lit up with three letters I hadn’t seen there in a while. Dad.

  “Hi, Dad,” I answered. I heard the water turn off in the bathroom and looked back to make sure Hayden hadn’t yet left. It was my dad so I knew the conversation would be short.

  Hey babe, what’s going on?

  “Nothing, just at home right now.” I still couldn’t get used to saying ‘home’ and meaning in this mansion, with Hayden. “Why, what’s up?”

  I have a break tomorrow; do you want to go out for an early dinner?

  Hayden and I had plans after school. I looked back at Hayden, knowing he could hear, and mouthed sorry. He nodded.

  “Sure, dad. I’m free.” I winked at Hayden before turning back around.

  K. Should we meet at the restaurant or do you want to me to pick you up?

  “I’ll just meet you there.”

  Hey Ana?

  “Yeah?”

  Where’s the truck?

  My heart stopped and every muscle on my body paralyzed. Hayden didn’t need to hear what my dad had said to be able to see that all the blood had drained from my face.

  “The truck?” I managed to get out.

  He laughed. Good thing you evacuated with it huh? To think, it might have gotten flood damage.

  “Ha, yeah, to think…” I was in big trouble. I had forgotten all about his truck. I was at the supermarket when I had been kidnapped and pulled into Hayden’s car as it sped away. If it was still there and not stolen, it would have been under a couple feet of water from Katrina. Why did he want the truck anyway? He drove his girlfriend’s car. “Why do you ask?” I tried to turn the tables.

  Well I just thought about selling it. Since you’re always driving with Hayden it’s probably just sitting in the garage, ain’t it?

  “Sitting in the garage. Yep.” I tried to laugh but it sounded like a groan.

  I just thought you could drive it to the restaurant when we have dinner tomorrow and I could drive it back.

  I turned back to Hayden to signal help with my eyes but he was already gone. “Maybe, dad. But I gotta go. Love ya, bye.”

  Um, love you…”

  I hung up the phone before he could ask any more questions. What was I going to do? “Hayden?” I yelled as I ran into the hallway.

  “Down here.”

  I flew down the steps to find him at the computer. “What are you doing? How could you leave me like that? I am totally dead!” I paced in front of him, knowing there was no possible way to get out of this one.

  “No you’re not.” He didn’t find my expression funny. “I am finding you a new one.”

  “Oh, I know! I could stage a carjacking!”

  “You wouldn’t lie, Ana.”

  “I kinda already did…”

  “Besides, I am taking care of it.”

  I was too caught up in coming up with lame excuses to give my father that I didn’t hear Luke come home.

  “Seriously, what am I going to do?”

  “What? Can’t figure out which outfit to wear?” My head whipped toward Luke who was lying on the couch drinking a can of soda.

  “I’m not in the mood Luke.” I pinned him to the couch with my eyes.

  “Whoa, sorry.” He stood up and walked over to look at Hayden’s computer. “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, Ana is just being overdramatic because her father wants his truck back.”

  “Overdramatic? How am I being overdramatic? It’s not like he's asking for a book back, it’s his truck. It’s probably a $10,000 truck, for which I have no idea where to start looking. Even if I do find it, it probably won’t even start!”

  “Ana, don’t worry. I said I am finding you a new one.”

  “What do you mean ‘a new one?'”

  “There are thousands of trucks for sale that look just like yours. We just have to find one with similar mileage that’s mechanically sound - so one not in New Orleans.”

  “So, you're going to go and buy me a truck, just so I can give it to my dad so he can sell it?” I was incredulous.

  “Yes?” He looked at me like it was a completely feasible option.

  “That is a good chunk of change that I don’t want you spending on me. I am already living with you. You have done enough for me.”

  “For the last time, you don’t need to worry about the money. And I think it is only appropriate since it is our fault that your car is gone in the first place.” His voice faded but he failed at distracting me.

  “You’re right! I would still have the truck if you hadn’t kidnapped me!”

  “You might not be alive if we hadn’t kidnapped you so I guess we’re even,” Luke butted in.

  “Fine.” I felt a little better about the situation. And it could work, it could actually work.

  “It looks exactly like it,” Luke said to Hayden as they looked at the computer screen.

  “It’s in Texas.”

  “Yes, but it looks just like it. It has the same ram bars and everything”

  “Oh, no.” The blood drained from my face as I slumped into a chair by the computer.

  “What’s wrong?” Hayden beat Luke to asking.

  “This means you’re leaving doesn’t it?” I remembered my dream all at once.

  Hayden remembered too. I just wasn’t sure what part of my dream made his eyebrows furrow in hurt. “No, I am sure Luke can go pick it up.”

  “I can?”

  Hayden let out a tormented breath. He knew he would be wasting his time if he tried to convince Luke to go instead of going himself. I wondered if he knew that because he believed in my ability to predict the future, having already seen him leaving in my dream last night, or more appallingly because he knew this was the opportunity Luke had been waiting for. “I will go on the next hunt alone if you will do this for me.”

  “No way. I have school, remember brother?”

  Hayden shook his head. I had almost forgotten that tomorrow was the first day I would be going back to Ecole Classique High School, the private academy I attended, since Hurricane Katrina. Hayden and Luke enrolled as students before Katrina hit and would continue to play the role as normal teenagers, but Luke was only trying to fool himself into pretending he cared about something as mortal as high school. Hayden couldn’t even look in my eyes as he walked past me, heading toward his room upstairs. I gave Luke a death stare before running after Hayden.

  “What’d I do?” Luke said behind me.

  It was unusual seeing Hayden alone in his room. His room was clean and smelled of him with a hint of something else, something I couldn’t figure out yet. I had never looked at his room this way before and I realized I was looking at it as an outsider and not something we shared. The thought burned the edges of my heart and I tried not to add guilt to that feeling by remembering what I had said to him in my dream. He came out of the closet, throwing a small black duffle bag on the bed. Something clanked inside that told me there was something other than clothes in it. I hadn’t seen Hayden this upset since I'd had a death wish and had stole
n his Porsche.

  “I’m going with you.”

  He smirked, pulling up one side of his smile. “You can’t.” His head hung, and he didn’t take his eyes off of a blade he examined. Oh. So definitely not clothes in the bag. How many weapons did he own?

  “I am not staying here alone.”

  He sheathed the blade and put it in his bag. “You won’t be alone.” He looked at me now as if to gauge my expression. “Luke will be here.”

  “I don’t want to be here without you.” I walked over to him, stopping him by wrapping my arms around his neck. He looked away and I tried to catch him with my eyes. “There is no reason I can’t come with you. It’s not like it’s anything dangerous.” My thoughts flashed to his arsenal and I wondered if maybe he was going to be doing something dangerous.

  “Tomorrow is your first day back at school since Katrina and you have dinner with your father. It would look a little suspicious if he asked about the truck and then all of a sudden you didn’t show up.”

  I could have argued with him. It would have probably gone something like this: I demanding that I was going, he refusing, and then I ultimately begging to go with him. But what that said was that I wasn’t capable of being alone, or that Hayden couldn’t trust me alone with Luke. There was no uncertainty in my feelings for Hayden. There was no reason I couldn’t be alone, even if it was with his brother, with whom I had shared a passionate kiss on the beach.

  I pulled Hayden into my lips. He would be gone for a night and I had to stock up on the kisses I would lose. I licked my lips in invitation. His eyes changed and something sultrier took over him. He exhaled one breath, letting me know I had won at least one battle. I smiled as I returned his kiss. He always kissed me like it was his last.

  I jolted awake to find myself enshrouded in darkness. Not even the muted sunlight lit up my curtains. Somewhere between watching Hayden pack and get ready, I had decided it was a good idea to lie down. I looked at the clock; it was 7:30 pm. I hated sleeping like that; I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep again until dawn. I looked around the room. No Hayden, just like I had dreamt. A pang of sadness shot through me along with déjà vu. At least I was able to succeed in assuring him of my intentions before he left. I picked up my phone. I had a few missed calls and texts but the only one I focused on was Hayden’s.