Beautiful Monster 2 (Beautiful Monster #2)(23)
Author: Bella Forrest

“I don’t know,” Amy said, sitting down on her couch and patting the seat beside her.

I held up the whiskey bottle and she shook her head. Not afraid of drinking alone, I poured some into a coffee mug she had left lying around, and took a sip, sitting down beside her.

“I took her to the nurse’s office, but they wanted to keep her, run some tests, and told me they would call me.”

“Do they think it’s poison?” I asked.

“You think it’s Selene?” Amy reached for the chocolate box, undoing the ribbon and opening the top. “I asked that.”

I nearly spit out my drink. “You asked the nurse if it was Selene?”

“No.” She hit me, giggling. “I asked the nurse if she thought it was something Sarah ate.”

“Oh.” I grinned back at her, as she bit into a chocolate. The drink was seeping through my insides, warming me up and lightening the weight I felt on my chest.

“What is this?” She grabbed the box lid and read about the different types of chocolate. We sat in silence a few moments, until she finished nibbling and moved it aside. She slipped under my arm and sighed.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, twisting so she was looking up at me. “I just was thinking about how much is going on.”

I brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, trailing my finger gently over her face.

“I know. It’s a lot. And it’s not something you have to be involved with, Amy…”

Her face darkened. “What are you talking about? Of course I do.”

“Not technically.” I finished the whiskey and poured a second cup, larger than the first. It had been a dry few weeks, and I had forgotten how easy it was to slip into the oblivion of alcohol. A wave of happiness rushed over me as I shifted, making Amy more comfortable. “If you wanted to wait, to bow out, and work on your thesis elsewhere, maybe abroad, I could arrange that. And then after Selene is dead…”

“Liam, don’t be stupid,” she replied, grabbing my hand and squeezing. “I’m not going anywhere. Except to an audition tomorrow.”

“Hmm?” That caught my interest. “For what?”

“For Ranger?” she named a popular period TV show that was now in its 4th season. “One of my friends told me about it, from Gatsby. Although I don’t know how I’m going to fit it into my schedule.”

"Should have known you’d be in demand." I leaned down to kiss her and she arched her back in response, making her shirt ride up. My body responded to the sight of her toned stomach, now solid from months of performing. Being on stage was the best workout that I knew.

I closed my eyes, losing myself in the world of Amy, when her cell phone beeped, jerking us out of the mood.

"Could be Sarah," she said, scrambling up to go for it.

Groaning, I poured myself another drink. "Do you have any plans for today?" I asked.

She glanced up at me with a smile, scrolling through her messages. "Nope, go ahead and get smashed on my couch."

"If you stayed for the rest of the mask workshop, you would too," I responded but Amy wasn’t listening.

She leapt to her TV, turning it on and flicking the channels lightning quick.

"What?"

"This." She sat back on her haunches as the Sites final credits began to roll. The TV began flashing familiar images of the school as the credits minimized.

"Next time on Sites, join Amy, a graduate student and girlfriend of Hollywood superstar, Liam, as they take us on a tour of Leopard Academy: the most prestigious theater school in the world. Go inside their doors to see why students pay 30 grand a year tuition to train here, often propelling them to greatness. And, as darkness falls, watch as our cameras capture a ghostly image, on the exact site of the death of ballerina Porsche DeRitter."

"Whaaaa." I stared at the TV in shock, and turned to Amy. "Did you host that?"

"Um, no. They left at 4pm. Or so I thought. Can Porsche be a ghost?"

I shook my head, downing my drink. My head was swimming and I wanted nothing more than to curl up with Amy and ignore the world. I didn’t need another reminder that Porsche wasn’t coming back.

"No, Shields can’t be anything. Not a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost or a witch. They can’t be anything but human."

"Liam." Amy’s face was compassionate as she came towards me, and I reached out for her. Just as we were about to embrace, however, a knock came at the door.

"Amy?" came a voice.

"Sarah!" Amy bounded away, leaving me in the lurch for the second time.

I growled, letting my head slam back against the wall. I was never going to get alone time with her.

Sarah stood at the doorway, looking pale and one hand on her stomach, as Amy invited her in.

"How are you feeling? Did they find out what it was?"

Sarah nodded, sitting on Amy’s window ledge, but not saying a word.

"Well?" Amy prompted. "Did they say it was something you ate?"

Sarah swallowed. "They said it was something inside me, for sure."

"Like Connor?" I said, before I could stop myself.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Ignore him, he’s drunk. Sarah?"

Sarah took a deep breath, meeting my eyes. "No, he’s right. Connor is the problem. I’m pregnant."

The coffee mug I was sipping out of fell out of my hand, falling to the hardwood floor and shattering everywhere. Amy’s jaw nearly scraped the same floor.

"What? How is that possible?" Her head swiveled from Sarah to me, and I could see that she had paled as well. "I thought vampires couldn’t… even when they were in their human form, I thought they were infertile. That’s what you told me."

"And that’s true," I replied, trying to gather my thoughts. "So it’s not Connor."

"Of course it is," Sarah said, bitterly. "There isn’t anyone else."

I laughed, harshly. "Well, it can’t be, Sarah, unless there’s immaculate conception happening."

"I’m a Shield," she replied, and silence hit the room. "And I make him human when I touch him. Fully human. I figured it out sitting in the nurse’s office. There’s no other explanation."

"But…" Words failed me, and my mouth opened and closed like a fish. "No, Sarah, there has to be someone else. Porsche and I…"

"You slept with Porsche?" Amy’s head swiveled towards me, and I tried to backtrack.

"Once or twice. It was before, Amy, before you, and we had both had a metric ton to drink…"