Hunted (32 page)

Johnna appeared in the kitchen at that point, taking a seat at the island.  “Sheriff Bancroft, are we still allowed to have the bonfire tomorrow night?”

“I guess so.  Why?” Sam wondered.

“We were afraid the parents would want to stop it because of…you know,” Johnna said with an uncomfortable expression.

“Well, you kids have worked hard on that.  I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t have it,” Sheriff Bancroft said.  “You’re all aware of what’s happening, so I know you’ll be careful and you’ll watch out for one another.”

“Do you think all the parents will be there?” Devyn wondered.

Sam shrugged his broad shoulders.  “I can’t say.  I mean, they’re all worried about you kids and with good reason.  If they show up you’ll just have to grin and bear it.  Better to have a few parents crash the party than to have another…incident.”

Neither of the kids in the kitchen seemed to agree with his assessment, but they kept quiet on the issue.  No one wanted to argue with the sheriff.

“Why don’t we order a pizza and watch some reality TV?” Devyn offered after a brief silence.

“I’m in,” Chase said, whipping out his phone to place the necessary order.

As he, Devyn, and Johnna all exited the kitchen, Lanie let out a breath and dropped down onto a stool at the island.  Great.  Pizza and reality TV meant another mess for her to clean up later.  

“What’s wrong, squirt?” he asked her, his brows together.  “You look beat.”

“I want them to leave, dad.  Please,” she heard herself saying with a small amount of desperation.  “I don’t need anyone to baby sit me.”

“Don’t you like having your friends here with you?” Sam asked her.

“Not for this long!  Dad, they’re pigs!  I have to clean up after them all the time!  You should see my room!  Please, I’ll be fine!  Tell me I can make them go home!”  She’d grovel on her hands and knees if she had to.

“I don’t want you being here alone right now, Lanie,” Sam said, but there was a thread of humor lacing his words.

“Dad, please.  I don’t need them here.  If…if I have to I’ll go stay with Aunt Gretchen,” she said. 

Which wasn’t a bad idea, actually.  Especially considering that Kyle Vincent was staying there, too.

“Wow.  They must be getting on your nerves if you want to stay with Gretchen,” Sam chuckled.  “Alright.  They can leave.  But, if it comes to it, you
will
go to your aunt’s house, understood?”

“Understood,” she said, relief hitting her hard.  She slid off her stool and made for the living room before her dad could change his mind.

Lanie allowed her friends to watch their reality TV and scarf down their pizza and then, as kindly as she could manage, told the three of them to go home.  Devyn and Johnna both protested, but Lanie would hear none of it and led both girls up to her room to oversee the packing of their clothes.  She saw them to the front door and then watched as Chase ushered them into his SUV and whisked them away into the night.  

Lanie felt a weight roll off her shoulders.  She would finally have the house to herself again.  No more pizza boxes piled up and dirty clothes scattered all over, no more nosy friends trying to stick their noses where they should not be sticking them. 

Once Johnna and Devyn were safely away, she went straight up to give her room a good cleaning.  And then, while her dad was watching the nightly news, she buzzed around putting the rest of the house back to the way it should be and when she finally could breathe again, she retired to her room, flopped onto her bed, which had wonderfully clean sheets, and tried to forgive her friends for being the teenagers that they were.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lanie jumped awake with a start, her heart racing in her chest and her mind racing to figure out what had torn her from sleep.  Straining her ears, she listened to the silence of the house, trying to pick up on any noise that didn’t belong, trying to place what had awakened her, but there was not a sound to be heard. 

After a long minute of lying in bed with her heart pounding in her ears and hearing nothing out of the ordinary, she shot a quick glance at the clock on her night table.  It was three thirty a.m.  Feeling shaky and confused, Lanie sat up and swiped her hair away from her face, her gaze going to her bedroom window.  Her first coherent thought was that Kyle might be out there, so she slid out of bed and headed for the window, her legs feeling watery beneath her.  At the window, she peered out into the night, seeing nothing but a light mist swirling eerily through the glow of the street lights.

She knew Kyle might be sitting out on the front porch, watching the house, but somehow she didn’t want to go down there and look.  What if it wasn’t Kyle?  What if it was Frederik? 

As soon as that thought stole through her mind, she felt a jagged line of fear tear through her and she stumbled backward away from the window.  What was she doing!  Kyle had told her to stay away from the windows!  Frederik could be out there, just waiting for another chance to try and call her out to him!  Did she really want to give him another chance to get his hands on her!

Rattled, Lanie got herself away from the window and back to her bed, where she slid beneath the covers and focused on trying to get her pulse to stop racing.  She was fine.  She hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of Frederik and she was perfectly fine! 

Lanie found that she actually had to wrestle with herself to keep from getting back up and going back over to the window.  She knew very well that Frederik might be out there in the night, but there was also a chance that Kyle might be out there.  In fact, Kyle might be down on the front porch at that very moment, sitting on the top step, his crossbow on his knee, waiting for trouble to come swooping out of the shadows.  And knowing that, Lanie found it very hard not to get out of bed and go down to take a quick peek out the door.  If Kyle was out there, then at least she would know that he was okay, that nothing bad had happened to him.  Yes, he believed that Frederik wouldn’t hurt him, but
she
had no proof of that.  However, she had enough good sense to remain in bed beneath her covers where she was safe.  She couldn’t risk that it might be Frederik outside instead of Kyle and the next time he turned his gleaming red eyes on her, she might not be able to stop herself from going out to him.  And then what?  She would wind up being…his mate?  A vampire, just like him?  A monster that had to kill others in order to live?

No.  She was not willing to risk that. 

The rest of that night was long for Lanie.  She was plagued by the feeling that someone was out there in the darkness and she wanted more than anything to get out of bed and see if it was Kyle, only she dared not.  So, after a few hours of wallowing around, that long night finally ended and Lanie got up to shower and dress for school.  For two cents she would have skipped that day, but after playing hooky the day before, she knew she shouldn’t press her luck. 

After scarfing down a glass of juice with her dad, she grabbed her things from the coat closet and cautiously stepped out the door and into the chill, foggy morning.  With no sign of anyone along the street, she hurried over to her car and locked herself in, which angered her to some extent.  She did not want to have to scurry around like a frightened mouse and worry about having to lock doors.  But, this was the very strange situation that she was in and for the time being, nothing could be done about it.

Lanie sped away from the house and toward Fells Pointe High, feeling moderately safer once she was doing forty.  Pulling into the school parking lot, she found it swarming with its usual horde of groggy kids, all loitering around and putting off going inside until the very last minute.  Finn and Brady were in their usual spot by Finn’s car and Lanie went over to them, receiving a hug from Brady and chin lift from Finn.

“So, you ready for the big bonfire tonight?” Finn asked, stifling a yawn. 

Yes, indeedy.  It was party time.  “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she answered.

Finn let out a sigh, running a hand over his face.  “Yeah.  This was supposed to be fun.  But, it just seems like a waste at this point.”

Finn was telling the truth.  This did not really seem like the right time to be having a big blow out.  But, it was already planned and there was no turning back now.  

“Eh, come on, guys.  It’ll be fine,” Brady said with what was clearly forced enthusiasm.  “Everyone’s worked hard on this thing.  It’s a shame to let it be ruined by something we didn’t cause.”

With those words of wisdom hanging in the air, the three of them turned and trudged on into the school house.  That day droned on and on in a never ending loop of classes and teachers and at one point Lanie actually thought she might be stuck in some sort of insidious time warp that she couldn’t escape.

Really, how could she be expected to sit and pay attention to Mrs. Lowry doing an in depth break down of Pygmalion knowing that a vampire had set up house in Fells Pointe and that it was just a matter of time before he left another person lying in a heap someplace?  That was not exactly comforting knowledge, nor was the fact that she was keeping that knowledge from the one person in town who needed to be informed.

She understood that telling the sheriff could very well land him in the Fells Pointe Cemetery right next to her mother, but she knew what was happening and by not saying anything she would be responsible for the next person who wound up…dead.  Their blood would be on her hands just as surely as if she’d been the one to sink her teeth into their neck and drain the life out of them.

Though it took an eternity, that school day finally came to a close and Lanie hied herself out of the building and toward her car, with Johnna and Devyn in hot pursuit.  They were getting ready for the bonfire at her house and then traveling as one to the game field with Chase. 

After Devyn and Johnna had both finished changing outfits, and winding up in outfits that looked fairly similar to the ones they’d discarded, Lanie finally had time to freshen up and change.  Not because she wanted to dress up, but because it got chilly after dark and she didn’t want to freeze.  Devyn and Johnna dressed for fashion, she dressed for function, which was why she decided on a white long sleeved thermal with a light blue boyfriend shirt over top, and her favorite black boots.  She didn’t look as glitzy as her friends who were dressed in sparkly scarves and low cut tops, but at least she would be comfortable while they were freezing their butts off.  

As they finished dressing and putting on their faces, there was a knock at the door, which Lanie hurried to answer.  She cautiously peeked through the sheer curtain, finding Chase Wylie standing on the porch, wearing dark jeans and his school jacket and looking like the epitome of a high school quarter back.

Lanie hustled Devyn and Johnna out the door and they all piled into Chase’s car and drove to the game field, the mood in the car slightly less festive than it might have been under different circumstances.  As it stood, the entire thing just seemed…off. 

Arriving at the field, they found preparations in full swing.  The makings of the bonfire had been set up in the middle of the game field, which the fire department had taken care of and which Fire Chief Hensley and several fire fighters would be keeping a close eye on.  The Spirit Squad were all hustling around to get everything ready, setting up the tables and the drink stations and the Panthers were manning the line of grills and getting ready to cook all the burgers and dogs.

However, even though the bonfire wasn’t set to begin until sundown, nearly an hour away, there were a vast number of parents already around, trying to help out but really just getting in the way of the Spirit Squad doing what they did best.  Lanie knew it was probably safer to have everyone congregated in one spot, watching out for one another, but having the parents overseeing the festivities would definitely put a damper on the night, which already felt somber.

But, it was what it was and things needed to be done so Lanie went straight to Fire Chief Hensley to make sure things would be ready to go on time.  Once she knew things were set, she went off to help organize the grilling stations.  There would be tons of kids descending upon the food and it was best to get a head start, but a good number of the fathers were trying to elbow the team out of the way in an effort to take over and the team was obviously getting frustrated.  There was nothing Lanie could do to alleviate the situation, so she moved on to something else and prepared herself for the impending walk-out. 

Johnna and Devyn were working to ready the condiment table, where they would dole out the mustard, relish, and chili, supplied by The Pub, once the kids had filled their plates with burgers and dogs and potato salad from the vat provided by Marcum’s Deli and Lanie dove in to help them get everything sorted out.  As they worked, Lanie couldn’t help but notice that the more the minutes ticked by, the more parents there were filing onto the field, some carrying coolers, some carrying covered dishes, which they promptly piled onto the tables that were
clearly
set up for other purposes.  This invasion was beginning to aggravate the Spirit Squad.  They didn’t like people stepping on their toes.  But, they bit their tongues and tried to organize the food being brought in anyway.