Stalking Dead (Vampire Hunter Book 2) (3 page)

BOOK: Stalking Dead (Vampire Hunter Book 2)
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Chapter 7

I landed with a resounding
thud
. “What the fuck!” Lucas said. They both spun around.

“Did you really expect me to wait up there when you
finally
found something interesting?” I retorted.

“What is it?”
I asked again. I huddled in closer. “I don’t see anything.”

“Right here.” Henry pointed at a small spot on the ground. I couldn’t tell a difference between where he was pointing and anywhere else.

I squinted. “I still can’t see anything.”

“Just let us dig, will you?” Henry asked impatiently.

I watched them feverishly uncovering whatever they had found. And finally I saw it. No wonder I hadn’t been able to see it before. It appeared to be some type of cloth, and it was almost the exact same color as the dirt.

“Ah ha!” Lucas announced, finally yanking it from the ground.

In his hand was a large drawstring bag. I reached my hand out to touch the bag. It was rough.

“I think its burlap,” Lucas was saying.

“Let’s open it?” It was more of a question than anything. Now that they had finally found something, I was extremely nervous about seeing what was inside.

“Yeah.” Henry gulped. “What if we open it and it makes Aurora
really
dead again?”


That’s not going to happen,” Lucas explained. “If this is like Tobias’ case, it’s more complicated than just removing the object. Remember, I was originally hired to send Aurora back to the grave, and the spell I was supposed to say and the items I had to gather had nothing to do with her grave. If this is the key to the mystery, it’s not going to be as simple as taking out the object. And I’d rather have an idea of what we’re dealing with – in case someone else decides to dig up the grave.”

“So what do you think?” Lucas continued. “
We’ve come this far. Are you two ready to find out what’s inside?”

Both guys looked at me to give the go-ahead. I nodded in agreement, too scared to speak.

“You do the honors.” Lucas handed the bag to me.

I studied it in my hands, ran my fingers along the coarse material. The bag was light and fairly small –maybe a foot in height. There was
a knot tied at the top where the drawstring had been looped around the opening several times – for added security, I imagined.

Although why was it needed this far underground? Who else had an interest in digging up my grave?

With shaking hands, I tried to loosen the knot. But I was trembling so violently that I couldn’t get a good grip.

Henry grabbed it from me impatiently. After also struggling to loosen it with his
own shaking fingers, he clamped it in his teeth and pulled.

“Henry!” I shrieked, horrified. “The bag’s been underground, with bugs and worms and decaying things!”

“Really, Aurora?” Lucas hissed. “
That’s
your biggest worry at this particular moment?”

Henry silently handed the bag back to me. We all huddled in to see.

I tentatively stretched the neck of the opening to widen it. “Reach in there and pull out whatever it is,” Henry suggested.

“That’s exactly what I’m scared of. What if it’s a serpent or an insect nest or something?”

“Yuck. I hadn’t thought of that,” Henry replied.

“Do you want me to do it?” Lucas reached out his arms, offering to take the bag from me.

“I think I do,” I whispered, handing it over.

Without hesitation, Lucas plunged his hand into the bag. “It’s something soft,” he muttered. As he pu
lled the object from the bag, it was illuminated by the moonlight. I gasped.

Chapter 8

“That’s Max!” I exclaimed.

“Oh my god! It sure is!” Henry chimed in. Max was the stuffed elephant I had gotten when I was a little girl. I slept with him on my bed every night.

I hugged Max to my chest. “I can’t believe he’s been stuck down here.” Then, realizing how silly that sounded, I quickly added, “I know he’s not alive or anything, but it’s just weird.”

“You’ll have to save your reunion for later,” Lucas said. “You need to get back to your lookout point, and we
all
need to get the hell out of this cemetery. Don’t forget we have to repack this damn grave before we can go.”

Yuck.
I
had
forgotten. “I didn’t forget something so important,” I lied.

“Wait!” Henry interjected. “If
the dirt was
magically
repacked last time, maybe the same thing will happen again?”

“You really think we can count on that?” Lucas asked.

Neither of us answered, knowing his instinct was right. And let’s face it, Lucas wasn’t really asking us, anyway.

“Goodbye for now, Max,” I whispered. I g
ave him one last hug and tightened the drawstring, cinching the neck of the bag closed. Like the previous person who had wrapped Max up, I wound the long rope around the top and knotted it, just for good measure. I wanted to make sure Max would be safe, alone down there.

Oh well.
At least I didn’t disappear when we took him out.

With a pang of sadness, I placed the bag containing Max back on top of the dirt floor. Lucas and Henry had already climbed out of the hole. Lucas lied down on his stomach and reached both hands down towards me. “Grab my hands,” he said. I placed my palms in his and held on as tightly as possible.

I was acutely aware of how soft his large, masculine hands were.
Stop it. A romance with him could never happen for a million reasons.

Effortlessly, Lucas swung me back up to the s
urface. Once on my feet, I stared down at the gaping grave.

“Do we really have to refill this mother?” Henry asked warily. “My arms are aching.”

“Afraid so,” was all Lucas said.

I kept watch as they packed the dirt back into my grave.
I’ll be back for your Max
, I said silently. Thankfully, this part of the process was a lot faster and less tedious than digging up mounds of tough dirt. Lucas and Henry made fast progress. We must have been there at least an hour so far, but I’d still not caught sight of the security guard.

Maybe he just s
leeps in the office. Probably easy money for him.

Either way, I didn’t really care why he wasn’t patrolling the area, I was just happy for the respite. I glanced over at Henry. His face looked unusually pale, but I wasn
’t sure if that was the moon’s effect or if he was just really tired.

“I could take over for awhile,” I offered.

“Nope, I’m good.”

At least I tried.

We didn’t speak again, and in what seemed like no time at all, given the tediousness of the job, Henry and Lucas were standing next to me, shovels in hand, admiring their work.

“You think anybody will notice there’s no grass on top?” Henry asked worriedly. “We’ve made it look like a fresh grave.”

“That’s the one thing I didn’t plan for,” Lucas admitted. He raked his hand through his hair and let out a long sigh. “Not really anything we can do now. I kind of doubt Aurora’s friends and family come to visit daily.”

He glanced at me briefly and added, “No offense.”

“None taken, I guess.”
Hmph!

“Let’s get out of here,” Lucas said.

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Henry piped up.

We quickly made our way out of the graveyard.
When we got to the gate where we had first met, hours before, Lucas turned to leave. “It’s been real,” he said with a slight wave.

“Wait!” I called frantically. “When will we see you again?”
And by we, I mean me
, I added silently.

“I’ll be around, as usual.” Lucas started to walk away.

Is he still miffed about my relationship with Henry?
It may have been true that
I
didn’t know what I wanted, but the two most important people in my life didn’t seem to know what
they
wanted either!

I stood there dumbfounded, staring at the back of his head.
If you care at all about me you’ll turn around right this instant
. I watched his retreating back in disbelief.

“Come on, Rory. What’s the hold up?” Henry was beside me,
tugging at my arm. I let him lead me in the direction of the car.

Once inside, Henry turned to me. He looked exhausted. “You okay?” he whispered.

I managed to force a smile. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

But inside I felt hollow. Digging up my grave had seemed like a good idea, but what had it really accomplished?

Chapter 9

I was depressed. I had
lied in Henry’s bed, engrossed in my thoughts, for the rest of the night after we got back from the cemetery. The realization had hit me that there was no way out of this insane situation, and I just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of eternity.

Sunday
morning I had even less motivation. I had pretended to be asleep when Henry tried to wake me. “Aurora, my parents are gone for the next few hours. You getting up?”

I had ignored him
, willing him to leave me alone.

Finally, Henry had left. “Going to play b-ball with Tad,” he’d told me. But once he was gone, I still didn’t move. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling, studying the huge, sloping rafters above me.
What now, Aurora?

Lucas hated my guts, it seemed. Who the hell had I been kidding? As usual, I had been stuck in my own dreamland in my head.
A vampire and a dead girl, what a lovely sounding couple
, I thought sarcastically.

Not that I was looking for love. With everything that was going on, I didn’t even have the time! So now I had two kisses from two guys, different, but both
good.
And the crazy part was I had no clue if either Henry or Lucas still wanted to be with me.

And then there was the issue of my family. I couldn’t stay at Henry’s house forever. He hadn’t bugged me recently about revealing myself to anyone, but I knew it
had to be in the back of his mind. He had been a real sport about the whole thing, but he must want his room to himself, to not have me lurking around all the time.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a male voice. My body went rigid and I struggled to hear. Definitely talking.

I thought nobody was here? Is it possible I didn’t hear his parents get home?

I strained to listen. It sounded like Mr. Matthews was standing on the stairway leading up to the attic. There was a door in the second story hallway that you had to go through to get to the attic steps.
Did David come into the stairway for privacy?

His voice was getting louder.
Please don’t come into Henry’s room
, I prayed silently.

“I told you not to call me at the weekend,” he was saying. He sounded agitated. “If
Valerie ever finds out about this, she’ll leave me. I don’t have a pre-nup. I can’t afford that.”

This was awful!
Why would he say something like that if he wasn’t having an affair? And how can I ever tell Henry about this? He’ll never believe me. His parents have always seemed so solid.
Maybe not head-over-heels in love, but
happy, complacent
.

“I can meet tomorrow,” Mr. Matthews said. He
laughed. “I’ll figure out something.” He paused. “No, we met there last time. I don’t want anyone getting suspicious. How about
The Hilton
in midtown at noon?”

David hung up the phone and walked back down the stairs, humming to himself.

Holy shit! I have to follow him tomorrow.

My first instinct was to call Lucas, my original partner in crime for investigating Henry’s father. But that wasn’t going to work. He had
made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with investigating Henry’s father. And besides, who knew if he was still mad at me? I could never tell with him.

Like it or not, I was going to be
all alone for this one. I briefly considered not following David, but I owed it to Henry to find out the truth, after all he had done for me.
I just hope if I confirm the worst tomorrow Henry won’t shoot the messenger when I tell him.

That
cinched it. I’d just have to take the bus. It’s how I’d gotten around when I’d been alive and none of my friends had their licenses yet.

I was still trying to figure out how I would make sure Henry was out of the house in order to follow Mr. Matthews without any suspicion when Henry got back from his basketball game.

He seemed surprised to see me still camped out on his bed when he got back up to his room.

“Have you just been sitting there all day?” he asked me.

“Yeah, what else is there to do?” I muttered.

“I guess it doesn’t help that my parents got back so early. I thought they were going to
visit friends. Sorry about that.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’d probably ha
ve done the same thing as I’m doing right now, even if I’d had the house to myself.”

“How
was the basketball game?” I asked, changing the subject. Up until now I’d been lying with my back away from Henry. I turned to face him. “Damn, you’re sweaty!” I exclaimed.

Henry looked like he’d just had a grueling workout. Sweat was dripping down his red face and his clothes were drenched.

“It was harder than usual,” Henry admitted. “My arms are really sore after all that shoveling I did last night. Probably should have taken the day off. I hadn’t mentioned it to you with everything that’s been going on, but I’m training for the basketball team at school next year.”

“Really?”
I asked in surprise. I hadn’t ever thought of Henry as the athletic type.

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. You sound utterly shocked.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. And I meant it. “I just never knew you to be interested in sports before,” I explained.

“There’s a lot that you don’t know about me now,” Henry said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice.

“It just means that since you’ve been back, all we talk about is trying to figure out why you’re here and when you should tell people.”

I gulped. Henry was right. I don’t think I’d asked him one thing about what had happened in
his
life for the past year. “I’m sorry.”
I seem to be apologizing a lot these days.

“Do I look upset?” Henry asked. “Don’t worry about it. I’d probably be the same way. I didn’t tell you that to make you feel bad. I told you because you looked like you’d gotten the shock of your life t
o hear that I’m trying out for the basketball team next year.”

Henry stood up. “I’m going to get a shower,” he said, walking to the bathroom. “Oh, and I’m playing again with Tad and the guys tomorrow, same time.”

At least I won’t have to worry about getting him out of the house now. 

I vowed to myself to be a better friend. I had to stop being so self-obsessed and realize
that other people had lives too.

Henry playing basketball
, I mused. But really if I stopped to think about it, it wasn’t that ridiculous of a notion. He was taller than I’d remembered and obviously had been working out.

It would be fun to sit in the gym bleachers, cheering him on. I never thought that I’d miss school.

I had always found studying to be such a drag; even though I made good grades, it was tedious as hell. But now I found myself missing everything about school, from the steel gray walls to the mystery meat in the cafeteria.

I felt a pang. I w
as never going to experience that first bite of the mystery meat again. Laughing with my friends as we tried to guess what the mush was on our plates. Obsessing over how many calories in the huge chocolate chip cookies they always stuck on the lunch trays.

I was going to have to make some tough decisions, and soon. I had to get back to school next year. Maybe Henry was right; if he tutored me all summer, I might be able to catch up and start back with my classmates for
senior year. And weighing most heavily on my mind was the fact that I needed to tell my parents about my existence. But how?
Maybe Henry can help me figure that part out. Oh my god! I’m doing it again. Making it all about me.

I sighed a
nd turned back over on the bed. Tomorrow I’d be a better friend. Today I wanted to wallow in my misery.

BOOK: Stalking Dead (Vampire Hunter Book 2)
9.5Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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