Blood Awakening (31 page)

“Societal laws? I didn’t even know vampires had laws.” But I would’ve bet money that I had broken most—if not all—of them.

“Yeah, me either, but they do. A lot of them, apparently.” She fished a few sheets from the massive spread. “Take these,” she said, shoving the pages at me. “You know, just in case you wanna brush up.”

“Funny.” I took them anyway, laying them on the cushion beside me. “But I don’t see how vampire laws are gonna help us get Chance back.”

“They’re not,” she said, once again digging through papers. She pulled more sheets out and thumbed through them. “But I think this will.”

“What’s that?” My curiosity was piqued. If there was a way I could help Chance, I was game.

“Well, you already know that my dad has pretty much spent his entire life studying vampires and vampire lore, right?”

“Yes.” She had only told us a thousand times.

“He has tons of files on their history and beliefs and where they come from, all that kind of stuff.”

My head started throbbing. “Kayla.”

“Sorry.” She gave me a smile. “So, I started digging through all this stuff, trying to find something—anything—that would help us find out where Zyris is.”

“You didn’t stay up all night?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” She stood up and went back to the desk. “Anyway, after about two hours of looking at page after page of all the history, I found something that we might be able to use.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Why do you sound so shocked?”

I stood up from the sofa and stretched my arms above my head, my back instantly grateful. “I don’t know,” I said. “It’s just, we’ve been through all this already, and I never noticed anything that could tell us where Zyris or Chance is.”

“That’s because when we looked at all this stuff, it was just that: stuff. Now, it’s ammo.”

“Ammo?”

“Yes, ammo.” She grabbed the papers she had pulled earlier and held them up. “I think we can use this to get Zyris to give up Chance.”

I took the papers and read through them. “This looks like Greek to me, Kayla. Legends and prophecies and vampire royal families. I don’t understand any of this.”

“Don’t worry, I do.” She plucked the papers from my hands. “Basically, there’s this legend or prophecy or whatever that talks about a vampire that’s gonna take over humans.”

“And?” I was more confused than when I read it myself.

“Well, apparently this vampire is no ordinary vampire.” Her eyes met mine. “It’s a hybrid.”

I sunk back down to the sofa. “A—a hybrid?”

“Yeah.” She sat down beside me and read from her dad’s files. “It says that a vampire will be born with human blood, and will possess the power to save or destroy their race.”

“That’s…weird.” I was having trouble processing everything Kayla was saying, my mind still stuck on hybrid.

Another hybrid? Someone else like me? The possibility was both scary and fascinating.

“Tell me about it. The idea that one vampire could destroy all others? Weird doesn’t cover it.”

“So what does this mean? How can knowing this help us get Chance back?”

“I think we can use it as leverage, maybe.” Kayla got up from the couch and crossed the room, tossing the papers back across the desktop.

“Okay, stop doing that, you’re making me dizzy.” She stopped in mid-stride, halfway between the sofa and the desk. I pressed a finger to my forehead, hoping to will my headache away before it began. “What’s this about leverage?” I asked, crossing my legs Indian-style. “How could it be leverage?”

I saw the look on Kayla’s face. That I-have-an-idea look, which usually ended up being the sorry-I-got-us-into-trouble-again look. I doubted that whatever she was thinking would end well.

“I think that if we tell Zyris that we know who this vampire hybrid is, she’ll give us Chance in exchange for him.”

“But we don’t know who he is.”

“Gee, really? I know we don’t know who he is. But Zyris doesn’t know that. We just have to convince her that we’re telling the truth.”

“Convince an ancient vampire who’s spent her existence lying to the world that we’re not lying. Piece of cake.”

“I know it sounds crazy,” she said, leaning against the desk behind her. “But crazy’s all we got right now.” Well, that was definitely true. Crazy had followed me since I woke up in that coffin. What was a little more added to the top?

“I don’t know, Kayla. You think it’ll work?”

“Can’t hurt to try.”

“Yes, it can. She could kill us. Or Chance.”

“She’s gonna do that anyway.”

“Wow, thanks for the confidence.”

“Ugh. Fine. She’s gonna try that anyway.” I smirked at her. “Point is, we have to do something to throw her off guard, to give us the upper hand. Sort of.”

“I’m not really comfortable risking everybody’s life on ‘sort of.’”

“It’s the best I can do. I honestly have no clue if this’ll work. But I don’t have any other ideas. If you do, spill.”

“Sorry.”

“Then this is it, our only shot.”

The thought of lying to Zyris, of possibly putting everyone I cared for in danger again, scared me to death. But the thought of never seeing Chance again scared me even more. “Okay,” I finally said.

“Good.” She came and sat down beside me. “Because guess who the hybrid’s gonna be?”

“I have to tell him, Kayla. I just have to.”

“But why do you have to tell him everything? Why can’t he just find out when we get there?”

“Because that’s not fair to him.” She huffed but stayed quiet as Erik returned from the kitchen with steaming cups of coffee and a bag full of what I prayed were sugar-stuffed, sugar-coated donuts made of sugar.

“So,” he said, opting for the chair across the table since Kayla and I pretty much filled Adam’s small sofa. “Find out anything new last night, K? I know you pretty much stayed awake the entire time, so spill.” I watched him sip his coffee, the curve of his bottom lip as it wrapped around the rim of the paper cup proving to be quite the jumpstart first thing in the morning. Or afternoon. Honestly, I had no clue when it was.

“Any idea what time it is?” I asked, looking to Erik for answers.

“Sorry, no watch,” he said, followed by another drink of coffee and more lip curving. “And don’t try that subtle subject change on me. I invented that.”

“What? I wasn’t trying to change the subject. I was just wondering what time it is, that’s all.”

Erik leaned over the back of the sofa and glared into the kitchen. “It’s almost eleven,” he said, settling into a more comfortable position.

“You lied,” I said, taking a bite of donut. “You said, ‘no watch.’”

“Um, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not wearing the stove.” He lifted his arm for emphasis, shaking his wrist at me.

“Well,” I said, swallowing another bite, “you knew what I meant.”

“Maybe you should be more specific as to what you really want next time.” He threw that cute curled smile at me before biting into a donut, the thin layer of sugar coating crackling beneath his teeth. “Don’t wanna confuse simple-minded me, do you?”

“You’re funny early in the morning,” I said, finishing off one donut and grabbing another. Whoever invented these Krispy Kremes should be given a medal.

“You did hear me say it’s almost eleven, right?” he said. “Don’t think people really refer to that as early.”

“Oh.” I swallowed more donut. “Guess I was more tired than I thought.”

“You’d still be sleeping if I hadn’t woken you up,” Kayla said. “And speaking of, we need to get moving now that you’re awake.”

“What about Lacey?” I asked, hoping to stall because I really didn’t feel like moving yet. I needed to at least wait for the sugar from the three donuts I’d just scarfed down to kick in.

“Who cares,” Kayla said. “Maybe something ate her last night.”

“K,” Erik said, standing up, “that’s mean.”

“Uh, you’re kidding, right?” Kayla threw back. “You, of all people, are calling me mean? Talk about the pot and kettle.”

“The who and who?” The little exchanges between these two kept getting more and more strange.

“Nothing,” Erik said. “Forget her.” He smiled at his friend and scooped another donut from the box. “But to answer your question, Lacey’s up. Has been, for a few hours now.”

“Then where is she?” I couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit of panic thinking that maybe something did eat Lacey.

“In there.” Erik pointed to his uncle’s bedroom with his empty hand. The door to Adam’s room was still closed, but now that it was brought to my attention, I could just make out the tiniest hint of voices from the other side.

“She’s not…”

“She is.”

I slowly stood up from the couch, my back practically screaming in protest, and made my way to the door to Adam’s room. Just before opening it, I looked back at my friends. Kayla’s nose was buried in papers, and Erik was still eating. Completely normal behavior.

On the other side of this door, however, things were not quite so normal. But I had to go in there, to see for myself that maybe sometime during the night Lacey had grown a heart. I twisted the knob and pushed the door open, my nose instantly flooded with the scent of old blood. It only took a fraction of a second for my eyes to adjust to the dark, and I saw Lacey sitting on the bed next to Adam.

“Hey,” I whispered, pulling the door closed behind me. I slowly made my way to the bed, afraid that if I made any sudden movements, Lacey might spook like a frightened deer in headlights. “How is he?”

“I don’t know,” Lacey whispered back, never taking her eyes off Adam. I knew he was alive, the blood flowing through his veins keeping my keen sense of smell on edge, but what condition he was actually in I had no clue. “I’ve never been good at this deathbed stuff.”

“I don’t think it’s his deathbed.” I took a seat at the end of the bed, even that simple movement causing Adam to stir. “I think it’s just gonna take some time for him to heal.”

“Yeah, I thought that, too. But things change before you know it. Sometimes without you even realizing it. Then they’re gone, and you’re left sitting on an empty bed wishing you would have done something.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Lacey was talking about someone other than Adam, who might have looked like death, but was actually far from it.

“Is everything okay?” I asked her, knowing it wasn’t but not wanting to force her into telling me.

It was a long time before she finally spoke, and when she did, her words were streaked with grief. “My sister died six years ago. She was only fifteen. Cancer. It was stage four before my parents even found out.” Another long pause. “Her oncologist said there was nothing to do but wait.” She let Adam’s hand slide from hers and stood up from the bed, crossing the room to the window overlooking Central Park. “Can you believe that? All the money you could want, and you’re told to just wait. Wait till she dies, that’s what he meant.” My heart was breaking for her, this girl who I had once thought had everything, the perfect life. In that moment, I was happy with who I was. “Wasn’t a long wait.”

“Lacey,” I said, following her path to the window. “I’m so, so sorry. I..I had no idea.” It was a really lame thing to say, but I hadn’t dealt much with the emotional side of death in the short life I could remember. Sure, I had seen plenty on the fighting end of it, but nothing when it came to facing the loss. Other than Lila, I hadn’t lost anyone. Well, not to death, anyway.

“Thanks,” Lacey finally said, turning from the window and wiping tears from her cheeks. She was smiling a little, which was a welcome surprise. “You know,” she continued. “If you had told me that one day you and I would be sitting here getting all chummy together, I would’ve told you to lay off the pipe.”

I laughed a bit. “Yeah, ditto.”

“But I gotta admit, it’s kinda nice having a girlfriend.” She leaned against the wall behind her, the soft glow of streetlights pouring through the window making her appear ethereal and angelic. Geez, even as a slobbering mess, Lacey looked better than me.

“What about the Laceybots?”

“The what?”

Crap.

“Um…” I realized at that moment that I didn’t even know their real names. “The two girls who follow you around school and copy your every move?”

She laughed. “Oh, Laceybots. That’s cute.” She tucked a rogue curl of hair behind her ear. “That’s Rachel and Miri. And I wouldn’t exactly call them friends. More like…business associates.”

“Business associates?”

“Yeah.” She stepped away from the wall and headed to the bathroom, only flipping on the light once I followed her in and closed the door. Right away she began checking her makeup and hair in the mirror above the sink. Maybe that was the key to beauty: maintenance. “If you repeat any of this, to anybody, I’ll kill you.” She finished up in the mirror and turned around to face me. It looked as though she hadn’t shed a tear or felt a single emotion. I was in awe. “Have you ever seen the movie Can’t Buy Me Love?” My mind began flipping through the vast library of movies Kayla had forced me to endure since becoming her friend; that title didn’t stand out. “It’s kinda cute,” Lacey went on when I didn’t answer. “It’s about a really popular girl who gets paid a thousand bucks by a Super Nerd to make him popular. It’s McDreamy from Grey’s.” My TV references had been with me since the night I woke in the coffin, but that one was lost on me. “Nothing, huh?” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. Last year over summer break, Rachel stopped by my house one day and, um, asked me to help make her popular.”