In the Name of Love (Love Stories Book 3) Read online

  IN THE NAME OF LOVE

  A Novel

  by

  H.T. Night

  Love Stories #3

  Acclaim for H.T. Night:

  “Vampire Love Story is one fast moving story, with action and romance, that held my attention throughout.”

  —Piers Anthony, author of Split Infinity and Virtual Mode

  “Bad Blood is fast, hilarious and sexy...the coolest vampire since Kiefer Sutherland. The Mount Shasta setting is dreamy. The cult is deliciously creepy. And Spider is as sexy as they come. I was pressing the ereader’s ‘forward’ button so fast that I broke it. Let’s hope we hear more from Spider.”

  —H.P. Mallory, author of Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble and To Kill A Warlock

  “Vampire Love Story is a hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since The Lost Boys! You’re going to love Night’s completely original take on the supernatural.”

  —J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and The Body Departed

  “H.T. Night is a riveting storyteller, capturing the essence of the vampire genre.”

  —April M. Reign, author of The Turning and Dividing Destiny

  “Vampire Love Story is a passionate story that is told from a refreshing perspective. This book was a blast. Night invents a brand new world for the Vampire genre. Great Job!”

  —Summer Lee, author of Kindred Spirits and The Sword of Peter

  “Hero Rising is more fun than a Carnival Cruise. Or a carnival, for that matter.”

  —P.J. Day, author of King’s Blood and The Sunset Prophecy

  “Night is a true storyteller. Cody Greer is thoughtful and inspirational! I enjoyed the ride.”

  —Elaine Babich, author of You Never Called Me Princess and Relatively Normal

  Return to the Table of Contents

  In the Name of Love

  Published by H.T. Night

  Copyright © 2017 by H.T. Night

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Dedication

  To Team Venom! Love you guys!

  Table of Contents

  In the Name of Love

  More Love Stories

  About the Author

  Other Books

  Reviews

  In the Name of Love

  Chapter One

  Bailey High School

  Southern California

  It was the spring of 1992, and the world was a very different place from our present day. Nobody had a smartphone, and the politics of the day were very conservative. George Bush was president. Magic Johnson had just come out as having HIV. And ignorance ran wild throughout America about gay rights. High schools were probably the least educated on the subject.

  Miss Norquist taught a health class for seniors who had failed the course as sophomores. These students were forced to take the class in their last semester or they wouldn’t graduate. The class was filled with jocks and less-motivated students. However, two students in this room had emotional IQs that were off the charts. One was the teacher’s assistant and the other played third base for the Bailey High Cougars.

  Miss Norquist was a thin, frail woman who was pushing sixty. She had just finished a lecture on the human digestive system. “You’ll have the remainder of the class period to study for the test tomorrow.”

  Jeff turned to Steve and asked, “How much time is left?” Jeff and Steve were seniors on the varsity baseball team. They had been best friends since junior high, a while after Steve’s father had died.

  Steve looked at his watch. “About five minutes.” Steve’s short brown hair fit his head handsomely.

  “This class takes forever,” Jeff continued.

  “Do you idiots have a baseball game after school?” Doug asked. Doug was a star football player for Bailey High but didn’t play a spring sport. Any pleasant words that came out of his mouth would be his first.

  Kevin laughed. “You’re just pissed because you can’t hit a baseball.” He was the tallest and most muscular out of the four boys. He easily took on the role of alpha male.

  Doug was about to give Kevin a comeback when his eyes were distracted by another student in the class. Aaron, Bailey High’s number-one actor, was talking to himself in class. Aaron did this a lot because he was always memorizing lines for a play or a scene. Doug motioned for everyone to stop talking and to look over in Aaron’s direction. Aaron was writing a sentence on a sheet of paper while talking to himself. He appeared distressed and completely unaware that anyone was watching him.

  “That dude is always freaking out,” Doug said. “What the hell is he doing now? I swear, he must hear voices in his head.”

  Jeff laughed with the others, but Steve was not amused.

  “Shut up, Doug,” Steve said.

  Doug giggled. “Oh, yeah, I forgot you two were best friends back in elementary school.”

  “Yeah, so?” Steve hated it when Doug was a bully and today was no different.

  “Nice to see you still have his backside,” Doug said in his usual asshole tone.

  “You want to see the back side of my hand?” Steve said to Doug.

  “I like to see you try.”

  “Shut the fuck up. Both of you,” Kevin said, tired of his teammates bickering when they couldn’t risk fighting each other and getting kicked off the baseball team.

  Steve was getting aggravated. “I just wish the stupid bell would just ring.” Steve looked up and saw Aaron throw the piece of paper he was scribbling on in the trash.

  “What’s the hurry?” Jeff asked him, concerned.

  “Lisa wants to talk to me about something important during lunch.”

  “What do you think it is?” Jeff asked.

  “I have no idea. All I know is, it has something to do with this weekend.”

  Just then, the bell rang. Everyone rose and left the classroom, except for the teacher and Steve. Steve walked over and picked the paper from out of the trash can where Aaron had tossed it.

  The title on the paper read, “In My World.” Steve wrote poetry, too, and he knew very quickly that Aaron had thrown away bits and pieces of the poem.

  Steve read the words on the paper: Loneliness, misunderstood, and sadness. That was it. Perplexed, Steve put the piece of paper in his pocket.

  Chapter Two

  Steve found Lisa waiting for him at the cafeteria doors and they fell in line with the steady stream of Bailey High students heading to lunch. When they were seated, Steve turned to Lisa at a senior quad table that was reserved for seniors just outside the cafeteria. Lisa was a senior like Steve, who was in the ASB cabinet. She had long brown hair and was addicted to one thing: academics. She was only one month away from learning if she had won valedictorian. It had been a goal of hers since she was ten.

  “So, tell me what’s going on?” Steve asked, biting into his hamburger.

  “Huh?” Lisa squirted ranch dressing on her fries.

  Steve figured she must have forgotten she’d told him she had something to discuss. “For this weekend. What’s so important?”

  Lisa smiled. “Oh, yeah. You know how the dance is this weekend?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why don’t we go?”

  Steve was puzzled. “Didn’t I ask you about two weeks ago if you wanted to go? You said you were going to go to your aunt’s house that night.”

  “I know. We’re still going to my aunt’s. I thought the dance was on Saturday, though. But I found out yesterday that it’s on Friday. A
nd we’re going to my aunt’s on Saturday. So, I’m able to go to the dance with you now.”

  Steve smiled. He’d been hoping that something would change with Lisa’s plans so she could go to the dance with him. “All you had to do was ask me. I knew which day the dance was on.”

  “Well, I didn’t know.”

  “So, you want to go now?”

  She frowned. “Don’t you want to go?”

  “I was already planning on going. My problem is, I told my friends that you weren’t going. We were all planning on going together, and leaving early.”

  Lisa’s expression changed. She was getting a little worried about what Steve would say next. “Well, can’t you tell them you’re going with me now?”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I will. But I’ll have to tell them I can’t go out with them afterward. You know how they get when I tell them I’m going to do something with them, and then break it off to do something with you.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, “Let me guess what the big plan is. Hmm... Let me see. This is a hard one. You’re going to go drink beer at the park?”

  Steve laughed at her over-dramatization. “You know it’s our tradition every Friday night. We’ve been doing it since our sophomore year.”

  “I hate how much you and your baseball buddies drink. Never mind, then. You won’t have to break your precious little tradition for me. My mom already said she wanted me home early. She wants me to be rested up for the trip on Saturday.”

  “Doesn’t your aunt live like twenty miles away?”

  Lisa rolled her eyes again. “Yeah, but you know my mom.”

  ***

  Meanwhile, at a senior table on the other side of the senior quad, Aaron, Bailey High’s drama production president was sitting with his girlfriend, Elizabeth, the vice president of the drama club.

  “Aaron, what’s wrong with you? You’ve been acting like a jerk all day,” Elizabeth said.

  “I’m sorry, I just have a lot on my mind.” Aaron was in deep thought, picking at his food.

  “Well, so do I. Please talk to me.” Elizabeth winced. “I hate wondering what’s wrong with you. Maybe I can help?”

  “I’m not asking you to wonder about me, Elizabeth. I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself.”

  “Why are you acting like the whole world’s against you?” Elizabeth was now visibly frustrated.

  Aaron was getting angry at his girlfriend’s accusatory tone. He had to check his own tone of voice and volume before he responded. “I’m not.”

  Elizabeth gave him a sympathetic look. “Then, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. Quit insinuating that something is wrong.”

  “If something wasn’t wrong with you, you wouldn’t be acting this way.”

  Finally, Aaron let out a long sigh. “Listen, I have a lot on my mind.”

  And instead of just letting it go, Elizabeth pressed on. “I don’t understand you. Yesterday, you won the Drama Edmonton State award. And today, you’re acting like nothing good has ever happened to you.”

  “Elizabeth, why does it matter that I won that award?”

  “Why does it matter? I can’t believe you. Do you know how many drama dorks like myself wished that they were even nominated for it?”

  “It doesn’t matter if I won it or not. Today is the same day it would be if I didn’t win. Winning it doesn’t change anything. All people care about is being on top.”

  Elizabeth shook her head in despair. “It’s not the winning. It’s being recognized as a senior in high school. Winning this award is a message from the universe that you are on the right track.”

  “The right track to what?” Aaron asked.

  “To greatness.”

  “I’m an actor because it’s my passion. I don’t do it to compete for silly awards. People don’t understand that. This school doesn’t care about me. No one in drama could care less about what happens to me after this year.”

  “I do.”

  “I know you do. But...”

  “But what?”

  Aaron paused. “I think there’s something missing in my life.”

  “Like what?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Try happiness for starters.”

  Aaron’s comment surprised Elizabeth. “You’re not happy?”

  “No,” he said sadly. “I’m not, Elizabeth.”

  “What’s there to be unhappy about? You’re a senior. You’re graduating in two months. You have a loving girlfriend. What else does a person need?”

  “You don’t get it, do you?”

  “Get what, Aaron?” Elizabeth said, her voice rising. “Explain to me what it is that I’m supposed to ‘get.’”

  “If you have to ask, you’ll never understand.”

  “What’s there to understand? You’re talking in pig Latin. What am I not getting here?”

  “Even if I explained it, you still wouldn’t understand. I gotta get to class. I’ll talk to you later.” Aaron stood up and walked off.

  “Aaron, wait! What did I do? Explain it to me. I’ll try to understand.”

  Chapter Three

  That Friday night, Bailey High School was pumping to the sound of their Springtime Country Western Dance. Music was playing and a few people were out on the dance floor. Tables and chairs were arranged on both sides of the stage. Steve and Lisa walked through the doors together wearing Western-style outfits, complete with cowboy hats.

  “I think we’re the only ones who decided to dress up,” Lisa observed. “I can’t believe my mom made us come in these clothes.”

  Steve chuckled. “I don’t mind. I just can’t believe I can fit into your dad’s old stuff. Do people back in Texas really dress like this?”

  “Not where I’m from, but in some parts, they dress even crazier than this.”

  “Seriously?” Steve looked around the room. “Hey, do you want to get something to drink?”

  “All right.”

  Together, they walked over to the refreshment stand.

  ***

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the dance by the basketball bleachers, Elizabeth was still frustrated about the unfinished conversation she’d had with Aaron the day before. What was worse was that he still looked preoccupied. “What’s the matter, Aaron?”

  But Aaron was trying his best to stay engrossed in the music; he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

  “Is something the matter?”

  “I’m sorry. I’ve just been out of sorts.”

  Elizabeth smiled reassuringly at him. “I’ve noticed. Is it about what you told me I wouldn’t be able to understand?”

  “Sort of.”

  Elizabeth was having a hard time hiding the fact that her feelings were a little hurt. “How do you know I wouldn’t understand? Just tell me what it is! Then, I’ll tell you if I understand or not.”

  “It’s not just one particular thing that’s bothering me.”

  “How many things are there?”

  Aaron hesitated with his answer. “I don’t know, a couple.”

  “Am I one of them?”

  Again, he hesitated.

  Elizabeth frowned.

  “Let’s talk about it later,” Aaron said.

  “If it’s something bad, tell me right now. It’s going to bug me all night if you don’t. Well, is it something bad?”

  “I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Let’s just forget about it and enjoy ourselves while we’re here.”

  Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders, realizing he wasn’t going to say much more. “Well, all right. Let’s go dance.”

  Elizabeth grabbed Aaron by the hand and took him out onto the dance floor.

  ***

  As Steve and Lisa were grabbing a small bite to eat at the refreshment table, Jeff walked over to where they were standing.

  He suddenly grabbed Steve by the shoulder and said, “Hey, you decided to show up after all.”

  “Hey, w
hat’s going on?” Steve asked, happy to see his friend.

  “Nothing much. We’ve just been sitting over there, bored stiff for the past hour. Where have you been?”

  Steve looked across the room and soon spotted the table where all his friends were sitting. He smiled. “What’s the matter? You guys need to have me around to have a good time?”

  Jeff laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m saying this dance stinks, and the sooner we leave, the happier I’ll be.”

  Lisa could tell where the conversation was leading and she was having none of it. “Hey, Steve, do you want to dance?”

  “Umm... not right now.”

  She would have died before she let the surprise she felt show up on her face. Instead, she shrugged and said, “Okay. I’m going to go out there and dance by myself then.”

  “By yourself?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  With that, she turned on her heel and walked out onto the dance floor.

  Jeff looked at Steve, puzzled. “Well, that was easy.”

  “A little too easy,” Steve answered.

  “Well, anyway, come over here and sit with us at our table.” Jeff motioned to a table where six boys from Steve’s baseball team were sitting with no girls in sight.

  “Where’s Lisa?” Kevin asked, craning his neck to see around the two approaching boys. Kevin was the leader of the boys for multiple reasons. The main one was that he was six feet, six inches tall and waged 275 pounds. He was the first baseman and power hitter on the varsity squad.

  “Dancing,” Steve replied.

  “Without you?”

  “Ummm, yeah! Kevin, you know I don’t like to dance.”

  Kevin huffed. “You know what I say? I say every guy at this table either learns how to dance or we quit going to these stupid things.”