Revamped (12 page)

In one swift move, I slammed it shut, pinning him against the truck. “Ethan! What aren’t you telling us?”

“Dawn,” he sighed wearily, his eyes pleading with mine.

I sensed Sebastian and the rest of the gang close behind.

“Whatever it is, you owe it to Hannah to tell us,” I said. “I’m beginning you, Ethan.”

My plea seemed to do the trick. “I may know why those humans were strong and fast,” Ethan whispered, slumping against the car door. “Like me.”

I looked at him expectantly.

“They—I…” He took a deep breath, collecting himself. “The day I pushed you out of the way of the arrow, I had a little help.”

I commanded my face to stay expressionless.

“My body was under the influence of this substance called
Vampiricol
. It’s a type of a performance-enhancing drug,” Ethan said, avoiding my eyes. “It gives humans extraordinary vampire senses. The speed, the power, the instincts—everything they could ever want. All the while, they stay completely human.” He clenched his jaw, banging his fists against the truck door.

“So this whole time?” I began.

“
Ohmigod
! Are you taking
steroids
Ethan?” Brooke rushed to my side. “This football player at my last high-school took steroids. He was so built and we all wondered how he—”

“No! No!” Ethan put up his hands defensively. “I only had Vampiricol in my system one time. The day I got shot.” He finally looked up at me. “I swear, Dawn. The pill wears off in twenty-four hours. After that day, it was all a hundred percent me.”

“Why?” I whispered.

“It was a big mistake,” Ethan stammered, his golden eyes overflowing with pain. “Dawn, please believe me.”

As I struggled to speak, Sebastian stepped in between us, pulling Ethan up by the collar of his flannel shirt. “Where did you get this Vampiricol pill?”

“Uhh, from a friend,” Ethan croaked, his face taking on a deep red shade.

I placed my hand over Sebastian’s arm. “Put him down!” I yelled. “Fighting isn’t going to accomplish anything. We need to think clearly,” I added, more calmly.

“Fine,” Sebastian released his grip on Ethan’s collar, sending him tumbling to the ground.

I shot him a dirty look as I pulled Ethan to his feet. I would be lying to myself if I pretended that I wasn’t feeling any distress over the Vampiricol incident, but I took solace in the fact that I had finally received some answers for Ethan’s extraordinary abilities. I trusted that he was telling the truth about only using the drug once. Over the past week, I had noticed that his power during the training sessions—while still great for a human—paled in comparison to the force he had shown the day of the arrow accident.

“It’s more than likely that the humans we fought today were also on Vampiricol,” I stated. “Can you get in touch with the friend that gave you the pill?” I asked Ethan. “Right now, it’s our only link to Hannah’s captors. We need all the information we can get.”

“I’ll do my best,” Ethan said. He hesitated briefly before adding, “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”

I patted his shoulder. While he was in the wrong for taking Vampiricol, I didn’t want Ethan to blame himself for Hannah’s capture.
It wasn’t his fault, after all. If anything, it was mine.

I nodded toward Sophie. “Go to the library and see if you can find any books or newspaper articles on Vampiricol,” I said, just as Daisy placed her paws on Sophie’s chest. Her bright pink tongue reached out to lick Sophie’s cheek. “And please take Daisy with you. She seems to have taken a liking to you.”

Looking over at Seth, I said, “You’re on computer duty. Check the internet forums, chat rooms, and other computer databases for reports about the drug. Anything you can find may be helpful.”

“Hunter, talk to your, uhh,
industry
friends and suppliers.” I disliked sending him on such a task, but we needed to contact every source we could. “If anyone will know about an illegal substance, it will be them.”

“Brooke, you can check with the students at Angel Creek High or any other high-schools you have connections at. Maybe some football players are taking this stuff.” Brooke looked pleased at the idea of having to fraternize with hordes of football players.

“I’m going to visit my father and find out if he knows about a rogue vamp organization near Millwood or the surrounding area,” I announced.

My father
. I would have to tell him that the team and I had failed to protect a human from Angel Creek. I was not looking forward to that conversation.

“What about me?” Sebastian asked.

“What about you?” I questioned.

He looked offended.

“Oh, so
now
you’re part of the team?”

“I didn’t say that I was joining any team,” he retorted. “But it looks like you’re in way over your head and could use the help.”

We were. And we could. But I wasn’t about to let Sebastian think that we needed him.

“You can come with me,” Brooke offered eagerly.

I should send him with Brooke as a form of peroxide-induced torture
, I thought callously. Although, he could end up enjoying his time with her and, for some reason, the thought of that irked me.

“You’re coming with me!” I blurted out. “I’ll try to find some use for you,” I quickly added. “Just don’t get in my way.”

Sebastian smiled coyly. “If you insist.”

“Let’s aim to reconvene here tomorrow evening. You can call my cell with any new information,” I instructed everyone.

Sebastian and I spent the first part of the trip to the Scarlet House in complete and utter silence. Even though he hadn’t spoken at all, Sebastian was openly stealing glances at me as I drove. I focused my eyes on the dark road in front of us, trying to ignore the thrilling sensation his gaze provoked. The intense way he studied me caused my skin to tingle, making me wish that real-life vampires possessed the magical mind-reading powers of so many fictional ones. I desperately wanted to hear the thoughts running through his mind as his gray eyes devoured every inch of me. The car suddenly felt hot and stifling and I was beginning to regret having retracted the roof. I rolled down the window, letting the cool night air in.

Finally, Sebastian spoke. “Tell me about yourself,” he said simply.

“You’re asking me to
tell you about myself
?” I chuckled, stunned. “Really?”

“Sure, why not.” Sebastian’s expression was earnest, his voice low and smooth.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t strike me as someone who cares to know about me,” I said. “Or anyone else for that matter.”

“Forget I asked.”

“No, I’ll play.” I was enjoying the break in the silence. “But let’s make it interesting. For every one thing that I tell you, you have to answer one of
my
questions.”

“I hope I also don’t strike you as someone who enjoys engaging in silly games,” he scoffed.

“Oh come on! Or else, I’m gonna have to put on some really horrible music,” I threatened, pulling out Elisa’s new CDs from behind the passenger seat. My old nanny was an extremely intelligent woman—a mature vampire born in the late 1700’s—but her taste in music was equivalent to that of a tone-deaf pre-teen.

I flashed the disk in front of Sebastian’s face. It was a multi-artist collaboration, the latest craze in the music industry. This particular union boasted seven popular singers from various genres of music: pop, rock, country, rap and even some heavy metal. I had had the displeasure of listening to the track a few weeks ago when Elisa took it upon herself to educate me about pop culture. While the artists had strong voices individually, together, they sounded like a herd of injured animals.

Sebastian attempted to pry the CD out of my hand, our fingers briefly touching. The light graze sent a jolt of electricity through my entire body. I quickly let go of the disk placing my trembling hand on the steering wheel. I averted my eyes away from Sebastian, focusing back on the road.

“Let’s hear this.” He inserted the disk into the player, cranking it up to full volume. A horrendous, wailing sound started to fill the car. I was wrong. A heard of injured animals would have sounded more pleasing.

Sebastian’s eyes widened. He clamped his hands over his ears, fumbling with the off button. “Wow! You really weren’t kidding,” he laughed.

I couldn’t help but grin at his reaction. For the first time in two weeks—for the first time in what felt like my entire life—I forgot about my work and my deep desire to make my father proud.
This is what it feels like to be a normal, ordinary girl
, I thought. Of course, it was a bittersweet and fleeting moment, as seconds later, thoughts of Hannah resurfaced in my mind. The joy that had spread though my body earlier immediately vanished, leaving behind an empty, aching feeling in my chest.

“Fine, you win,” Sebastian suddenly said, jolting me out of my trance. “Tell me about yourself.”

Remembering how Hannah had introduced herself to me when we first met, I attempted my own version of a life story. “My name is Dawn. I was born on July 5
th
, 1996. I am a vampire—a Born. My father Alastair is the US Vampire President. All my life, he had been training me to eventually become his second-in-command. I guess you can see how that’s going for me,” I said, choking on the words.

“You’re doing fine, Dawn.” Sebastian’s voice was softer than usual. He reached out and gently touched my shoulder, his unexpected touch causing another intense tremor to surge through me. I bit down on my bottom lip in an effort to calm my pounding heart.

What in the world was going on with me? And, better yet, what in the world was going on with Sebastian?

“Your turn! I get to ask some questions,” I stammered, trying to ignore the sensation of his cool fingers against my burning skin.

“What do you want to know?” he asked, leaning back in his seat and pulling his hand away. I relaxed, releasing a breath I didn’t even know that I was holding.

I want to know everything, I realized.

I wanted to know about his family, but that was a subject much too personal and too painful to bring up. I wanted to know why he fiercely opposed joining the group and what his problem with me was, but I didn’t want to start another fight now that he was finally being pleasant. I wanted to know why he had been lurking around the forest and spying on me for weeks, but I was somewhat afraid of the answer.

I opted instead for something less intense. “Have you lived in Angel Creek all your life?” I tried not to place too much emphasis on the word “life”.

A brief flash of pain swept over his face. “All my
life
, yes. But after my family was murdered I had to get away,” he said quietly. “As I’m sure you already figured out, I was turned the night of the 1875 massacre. I not only had to deal with being a new vampire, but I was also destroyed by grief and guilt over failing to protect my loved ones.” He looked away, focusing his eyes through the passenger side window at the darkness around us. “I lost my mind.”

“Where did you go?” I whispered.

“I went to find my older brother, Christopher.”

“The one from the picture on the memorial plaque?”

Sebastian smiled sadly. “Yes. He wasn’t in Angel Creek at the time of the attack. He was a renowned surgeon, working on some special medical program in Canada. After two hazy weeks of drifting, I somehow managed to locate the hospital he was working in. To this day, I’m still foggy on most of the details. I survived by drinking the blood of dead animals, not nearly strong enough to overpower a live one. I didn’t know about garlic granting us defense from sunlight, so I only traveled during the night.”

 “By some miracle I survived, and by an even greater miracle, I managed to locate my brother. He had already received news of our family’s slaying, so when he saw me, he actually fainted from shock. I tried to tell him that we were attacked by vampires, but he didn’t believe me. Of course, the world didn’t know about vampires then and he became convinced I was suffering from some horrible illness. Heck, he even convinced me I was sick too and that there was hope I would get better.”

Sebastian closed his eyes, briefly transporting himself back in time. “Christopher tried every treatment possible to cure me. Of course, nothing worked. Even though I found myself desperately thirsting after it, he wouldn’t allow me to drink blood. He was convinced it would make me even sicker, or drive me mad, but with each passing day, I grew more and more hungry. One evening, when he came to my hospital room to check on me, everything went dark.” He took a deep breath before continuing to talk. “In a blind rage, I jumped on my brother and I can only assume that I drained him. I never found out what happened. I ran from the hospital and didn’t stop running until I reached Mexico. Along the way, I fed—this time on humans.”

He glanced over at me, apprehensively searching for my reaction. I could tell that he had expected me to be horrified, but I wasn’t. The pain in his voice was so agonizing; I could feel it reverberating through every cell in my body. I nodded encouragingly, desperate to hear the rest of his story.

He relaxed a little, the tension on his face dissolving. “I spent some time in Mexico, learning to survive. I joined an underground vampire clan in the area and they taught me some basic skills. A few years later, I went to Europe, then to Asia. I spent a century and a half as a nomad, living all over the world: North and South America, Australia—even Antarctica. I kept running, desperate to get away from everything,” he said. “Desperate to escape from myself,” he added quietly.

“When did you come back to Angel Creek?”

“A few months ago, I got a sudden urge to return. Somehow, after all these years, I felt that it was time to come back to my home town. I was done running and was ready to make peace with the past.” He paused, adding, “And then I met you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I was taken aback.

Sebastian looked away. “Nothing. Never mind,” he said, once again shutting down.

“Fine.” I knew better than to press, so I remained quiet, resisting the impulse to yell, “Tell me!” over and over again. Or, even better, to bang his head against the dashboard.