Stalking Dead (Vampire Hunter Book 2) (7 page)

Henry answered on the first ring.

“Aurora, I was so worried about you! I’ve been going nuts pacing the house, waiting on your call.”

“We just got back,” I told him. “Lucas is really messed up. Getting a taste of blood is like an alcoholic having liquor again.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Henry asked.

“Yeah, he says he will.” I explained to Henry how I had handcuffed Lucas to the bed so he couldn’t leave, couldn’t go looking for a blood fix.

“That was crazy the w
ay he was yelling at me to get out. It’s like he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself,” Henry said.

“I know. I had no idea it was so bad. But, Henry, you still haven’t told me how in the world you knew where we were.
You saved our lives! And the way you flew at Thomas with the stake! That was incredible!”

“I think that’s the other reason I’m pacing the house. I’m totally hyped on adrenaline right now.”

“I’ll bet!” I exclaimed. “Tell me everything.”

“I was sitting in class and I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. So I waited until Ms. Perry
turned around so I could look at it. I thought for sure it would be you or one of the guys setting up our next b-ball practice.”

“But no, it was Emmett!” Henry continued. “He’d never texted me before – remember, he likes doing everything in person. All the text said was ‘Call me immediately. This is a matter of life and death.’”

“So I stood up, said that I thought I was going to be sick, and ran out of the classroom. I had Emmett on the phone by the time I was starting my car. He was frantic. Told me you and Lucas were in danger. He gave me the address of where those twins were you keeping you.”

“Wow.” If I didn’t believe that Emmett was the real deal before, I certainly did now!

“I didn’t want to waste time going home to get my vampire hunting stuff, but thank God I thought to leave one stake in the glove box of my car. I knew there were two dudes, so my original plan was to stake the hell out of one, then get the other.”

“You did great,” I assured him. “I didn’t even recognize you at first, the way you came at them.”

“I knew that they were planning to send you back to the grave,” Henry said, “so there really wasn’t another option.”

“What else did Emmett tell you?”

“Oh yeah, he said that they were doing this spell and to make sure that I knocked the bowl over. Apparently they had all this specific stuff to collect – stuff that’s not easy to come by – and by spilling the bowl it would ruin all of it.”

“Max!” I wailed. “I saw him sitting there. I totally forgot about him in the middle of everything.”

“Don’t worry,” Henry told me. “I grabbed him on the way out. Emmett was adamant about that too – take the object that was in your grave.”

“What if they come looking for it tonight?” I asked worriedly.

“I guess I’ll have to sleep with one eye open.” Henry was trying to make a joke but he sounded nervous.

“Lucas said that what you did to Thomas may kill
him, that they’ll be out of commission – for tonight at least.”

“I hope so,” Henry said. “For all our sakes.”

After I got off the phone with Henry, I trudged back to Lucas’ room to tell him what had happened.

“Are you awake?” I asked softly. I didn’t want to disturb him if he’d managed to get some sleep.

“No.” Lucas opened his eyes. “It’s not very comfortable lying with my hands cuffed to the bed.”

I started to open my mouth to say that surely it wouldn’t hurt to unlock just
one
of them, but Lucas cut me off.

“It may not be comfortable, but it’s necessary,” he said quickly. “So tell me how Henry knew something was wrong?”

I filled Lucas in on everything I’d just found out.

“I’m not thrilled that someone else knows about me now, but I can’t really complain, considering that saved us,” h
e said when I’d finished.

“You don’t think they’ll come for Henry tonight, do you?” I asked. “I know you said Thomas is wounded, but what if Bartholomew wants to take revenge?”

“They won’t come to his house. Probably not ever. Not in a residential area like that. They don’t want to be seen by anyone.”

“Still,” Lucas continued, “once I’m back to normal, I do need to find out where they are and make sure I stop whatever they may be planning next.”

“Are you going to kill them?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“If need be,” Lucas said grimly.

I shuddered.

“The important thing is that everyone is safe for tonight, at least. I should have a clearer head tomorrow.”

“Okay. Do you want me to leave you alone? I can go watch TV while you rest.”

“I’m alone all the time,” Lucas replied. “It’s actually the
last
thing I want right now.”

Lucas smiled, showing those teeth again. I still couldn’t get used to his vampire fangs. But, in a weird way, they almost made him look sexier
, if that was possible. They certainly suited him.

“Why don’t you lie down? The bed is big enough for two.”

Well, yeah, but you’re huge and muscular and sprawled out across the entire thing!

“You can rest your head on my shoulder,” Lucas said. “Unless you don’t want to,” he quickly added.

“Oh, no, I want to,” I said hurriedly.
That sounded so awkward.

I tried to control my voice, make it sound normal. “I am tired. Not that I can sleep, but it wouldn’t hurt to rest my body, relax for awhile.”

I crawled into the bed and scooted next to Lucas, placing my head in the crook of his arm. Impulsively, I slung my arm over his chest before I could think about what I was doing.

It felt
right
. I couldn’t stop myself from running my hand along his chest, taking in the bulging muscles.

I looked up at Lucas. His eyes were closed but he was smiling. I watched his chest move up and down with his rhythmic breathing. I thought he must have fallen asleep, when he leaned down and kissed my forehead. I turned my face up towards him, wanting to again feel his soft lips against mine.

“Aurora,” he whispered my name, leaning down to kiss me. This time it was gentle, sweet. Not like the last time, that feverish kiss we’d shared. I kissed him back. Both kisses were nice.

I could tell
Lucas was tired. He pulled away. “I could kiss you all night. I really could, but I have to try to sleep this off. It’s miserable, feeling like this. Wanting to go out and murder innocent people. But it helps having you here.”

I smiled. “After tonight, I don’t blame you for needing to sleep.” I snuggled deeper into his arm.

I thought that was the last I would hear from Lucas, but a few minutes later he said my name again.

“Yes?” I asked in surprise.

“I want you to know, no matter what happens, you’re not just another case to me. I really care about you. I just thought you deserved to know it.”

And with that confession, Lucas was out like a light.

The next morning I got out of Lucas’ bed before he woke up, being careful not to disturb him. I wanted to fix myself up before he saw me.
If that’s even possible. I probably look like hell after last night.

But I was pleasantly surprised when I saw myself, considering. My bun had come loose and my hair was a disheveled mess; I looked like the ‘before’ picture in a hair ad for frizz tamer.

I fixed my hair as best as possible and walked back to Lucas’ room. He was awake now.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Hi. How are you feeling today?”

“Better.”

“Should I unlock the handcuffs?” I asked.

“I think so,” Lucas said slowly.
“It’s morning now. I couldn’t hunt in the sunlight, even if I wanted to.”

“Do you?” I whispered.

“Yes, the urge is still there,” he admitted. “It’s lessened, though. But I’ll be okay now, thanks to Henry. I couldn’t say that if he hadn’t have shown up when he did.”

I unlocked the handcuffs. Lucas stood up and stretched, rubbing his wrists. “That was brutal; I’m going to be sore all day.”

“What a night,” I said.

“I can take you home now,” Lucas offered.

“Whenever is fine.” I shrugged. “I’m in no hurry. I spend all day at Henry’s house anyway.”

Truthfully, I was hoping for more time with Lucas. I really wanted to ask him about what he’d said last night, but I was scared that today, as the effects of the blood faded, he either might not remember – or worse – might not feel the same way.

We walked into the front room of the house.

“You can stay here today, if you’d rather,” Lucas said.

“Cool, I’ll just hang out for awhile, until Henry gets back from school.”

We sat down on the couch.

“So, do you think Thomas and Bartholomew are going to come looking for you today?” I asked worriedly.

“I’m going to make some phone calls; see what I can find out about those two. I’m guessing whoever originally hired my agency to kill you hired them next. It was
probably just an added bonus when they found out I was involved, a chance to avenge their brother’s death.”

“Hey, what ever happened with the order
you
had to kill me? I thought you were getting pressure about it.”

“I was at first. Remember
, I told my boss that the spell I was given didn’t work.”

“And that didn’t have anything
to do with getting the object from my grave?” I asked.

“No, this was more of a generic spell; you know, kind of a ‘catch all’ for getting rid of demons and banishing creatures from earth. It really may not have worked,” Lucas admitted.

“It doesn’t sound like it. I wonder why the twins were hired. Why didn’t the new orders come to you?”

Lucas shrugged helplessly. “Who knows? Maybe someone figured out I’d had contact with you, thought it was too risky, that I was too involved with the case.”

That you were getting too close to me.
I hoped this didn’t mean Lucas was going to disappear again.

I jumped when my phone rang. “It’s Henry,” I said, looking at the display. “I hope nothing is wrong. He’s supposed to be in class!”

“Is everything alright?” I shrieked into the phone.

“Yes.” Henry laughed. “I’m on edge too, after last night.”

“Why aren’t you in class then?”

“I’m on break.
Emmett texted me. He wants you, me, and Lucas to meet him in an hour. I already got permission to leave a little bit early today. Said I still wasn’t feeling well.”

“What does he want to meet us for?” I wanted to know.

“He didn’t say.”

“What if it’s another trap?” I asked. “I mean, look what happened yesterday.”

“He wants to meet at Starbucks. I’m pretty sure we’ll be safe there,” Henry said wryly.

I agreed that he probably wasn’t going to ambush us at Starbucks; we finalized the details and hung up.

“What was that about?” Lucas asked.

“The psychic wants to meet with us in an hour,” I said excitedly.

But Lucas quickly shook his head. “You can count me out.”

“It’s not a trap,” I started.

“That’s not why I can’t go. I still can’t be around humans, not in that close of proximity.”

“
Oh.”

“But I’ll drop you off,” Lucas said.

“Even if I weren’t in this condition, I don’t think I could sit on the patio, pretending to sip a cappuccino in this blazing heat,” he continued.

I giggled at the image.

“I guess we’d better go,” I said reluctantly. I could get used to hanging out at Lucas’ house.

Henry was already there when I arrived. I was surprised by the guy sitting next to him. When I’d heard that Emmett was a professor, I’d pictured some old scholarly man with horn rimmed glasses and a sweater vest.

But Emmett was a lot younger than I’d imagined – he was probably
a few years younger than my father! He had brown hair that fell just past his chin and was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The only thing I had been right about was the glasses.

He extended his hand. “You must be Aurora.”

“And you must be Emmett,” I replied. “Nice to meet you.”

“Where’s Lucas?” Henry asked.

“He’s still recovering,” I answered.

Emmett raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment. “You guys had quite an evening last night, I hear,” he said.

“No kidding! We really owe you for saving our lives. How did you know?”

“As I was telling Henry, it’s just a
feeling
I get about some things. I can’t explain why or how.”

“You knew some pretty specific stuff, though,” I pressed.

Emmett smiled. “Well, it starts as a feeling, at least. I knew something was wrong a day ago. You kept popping into my head. Not that I haven’t thought about your case, but this was different. I felt this impending sense of dread. I cancelled one of my classes yesterday because it was making me feel so sick.”

“So I went home and just kind of sat on my couch, concentrating on clearing my mind of all other thoughts,” Emmett continued. “First I got a picture of the twins. Then I saw Lucas and you tied up. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get the address, but suddenly it popped into my head!”

“How did you know Henry wouldn’t get hurt?” I whispered.

“I didn’t know for sure. That’s why I was adamant about him taking everything he had to kill them. But he didn’t want to go home first, and it sounds like it would have been too late if he had gone back.”

“I just wish I’d had two stakes,” Henry interjected. “I would have taken out both of those bastards.”

I reached across the table and patted Henry’s hand. “Don’t beat yourself up. You were amazing.”

“So why did you want to meet?” Henry asked Emmett, changing the subject.

Emmett sat back and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I was actually hoping that meeting
both
Aurora and Lucas would help.”

“With?” I asked.

Emmett sighed. “It’s like I’ve hit a wall. Something is blocking my mind.”

“Has that happened before?” Henry wanted to know.

“Yes, when someone wants to keep your mind out, they can. It’s kind of like a lock on a door. You need a key to get in, or the door has to be opened from the inside. I was hoping you’d be the key.”

I was still confused. “
You’re saying that you can’t get any more information on my case because someone doesn’t want you to have it?”

“Not me, specifically,” Emmett explained. “I’m not an anomaly; there are plenty of other mediums out there. Whoever is at the
root of all of this doesn’t want
anyone
knowing
anything
. It’s probably a miracle I could see what was going to happen with the twins.”

“I was hoping meeting you in person would trigger something else,” he continued.

“And has it?” I questioned.

“It’s not instantaneous. I won’t know until
I know
, if that makes sense.”

“I guess.
” It didn’t make sense.

“I need time,” Emmett elaborated.

Henry sighed. “What if those guys – Bartholomew and Thomas – come back for us? Any premonitions about that?”

“I don’t feel like you’re in
any imminent danger, if that helps,” Emmett said. He clasped and unclasped his hands nervously.

“Besides,” he added, “a lot of the stuff they had to collect for that spell wasn’t easy to come by.”

“Like?” I asked. I was curious to know what the odd pile of stuff on the table had been.

“Hair of a hell hound, for starters,” Emmett replied.

“Come again,” I said.

“You know, a hound of hell,” Emmett said. “The ones that come for you when you’ve sold your soul to the devil and your time is up.”

“Oh. I didn’t know selling your soul to the devil was a real thing.” I had thought selling your soul at the cross roads was just a silly made up story.

“Yes.” Emmett nodded vigorously. “As you can imagine, it probably took them awhile to get that one.”

Just then Henry’s phone rang. “I have to take this. It’s my mom.” Henry stood up and walked outside.

“So why aren’t you telling Henry about what rea
lly happens when he thinks you’re sleeping?” Emmett asked as soon as Henry was out of earshot.

“Huh?” I jumped in surprise.

“I know you pass out – blackout – several nights a week,” Emmett said. “I also know you aren’t sharing this information with Henry; you pretend you’re sleeping,” he added.

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table and burying my head in my hands. “I don’t know,” I said desperately. “I don’t
want
to keep secrets from Henry…” My voice trailed off.

“But?” Emmett prompted.

“But what if the only person I really trust decides I’m destined to go on a killing spree during one of my weird blackouts and doesn’t want anything to do with me?” I blurted out in one long question.

“You’re scared,” Emmett replied.

“Of course I’m scared!” I said in frustration. “Even
I
don’t know what I’m capable of doing! You think it hasn’t crossed my mind, like a million times a day, that I could suddenly go ballistic?”

“Aurora.” Emmett leaned forward. “If it’s any help, I don’t get the feeling that you’re about to go on a killing spree. You’re lost right now.  You haven’t made the decision yet, which side you want to join.”

“Side?” I asked. “Why are there
sides
? I feel like I’m in grade school!”

Emmett leaned back in his chair and exhaled sharply. “Like it or not, you
will
have to make a choice, Aurora. I don’t know when, but it’s coming.”

“What’s coming?” Henry
slid down into his seat.

“The time I need to go back to school, to tell people I’m alive,” I said quickly.

Emmett looked perplexed, but he didn’t say anything.

“Good,” Henry said. “I’ve been telling Aurora she needs to go home, let her parents know she’s back,” Henry told Emmett.

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” I snapped. Instantly, I felt bad. “I’m sorry, Henry,”
I said. “I’m just stressed.”

“I’d be more concerned if you
weren’t
worried,” Henry said. “But seriously, if you want to start back for the senior year, you’re going to have to let people know soon.”

“Yeah, yeah
,” I muttered. But Emmett’s words were still ringing in my ears: “Like it or not, Aurora, you
will
have to make a choice…”