The Fangs of Bloodhaven (24 page)

Everett lifted his foot, but his toe snagged on a rock hidden beneath the grass of the clearing. He plunged forward, falling into the warm embrace of the sunlit meadow.

“No!” Lisette said.

He felt her above him. It was a strange sensation. Tingles ran through his skin beyond the burning pain. He had never felt her quite so clearly before. He wished through the fuzziness of his thoughts that Adrielle and Vanguard could see her. They would understand why he wasn’t afraid.

The burning increased until he could barely breathe. He buried his face in the grass, wishing it was cool and shady. He wondered what it would feel like to die by sunlight. He wasn’t ready to die. He thought of his mom and dad and how hard they worked to take care of the family. Celeste would be heartbroken and Isabella would probably never speak to anyone ever again. He wouldn’t know if Hadley found anything he thought tasted better than dog food.

“No,” Everett growled.

Strength flared in his stomach. He channeled all that he had, forcing it together in one hot, roiling mass.

“That’s it,” Lisette said with hope in her voice.

Everett forced himself to his knees. The shadows were so close. He reached out a hand, then stared.

“Everett,” Lisette gasped.

He turned his hand over. He saw through where his palm should have been. He waved his arm back and forth, seeing the clearing beyond it. Amid his shock, he realized the burning sensation had vanished. He raised his other hand and stared at it. His gaze ran up his arm to his chest. Everything, even his clothes, were gone.

“I-I can barely see you,” Lisette said, her voice tight.

Everett rose to his feet. There was a faint outline around his body, the slightest mismatch where the image of what was behind him varied just a bit from what was in front.

“This is crazy,” he said.

“Are you okay?” Lisette asked.

“I think so,” Everett answered, though his reply held a hint of question. He walked toward the shadows. Glancing back, he saw the impressions his footsteps made.

When he reached the shadows, a chill ran over his skin. The transparency disappeared and his body looked normal again.

“Is it possible?” Everett mused. He stuck his hand back out in the purple light. Mist rose from his skin again.

“Everett, no,” Lisette pleaded.

He sucked in a breath at the pain. It intensified so that it felt like the skin was burning from his bones. Tears pricked his eyes. He blinked quickly, but refused to pull his hand back.

It was nearly unbearable. If he wasn’t staring at his hand, he would have thought it was covered in blue flames so intense every nerve ending was blistering and melting, yet it looked normal and untouched except for the mist. It took every ounce of willpower to keep his hand there.

“Annie,” he began, his words thick. “Bran.”

“What are you talking about?” Lisette asked, staring at him, her gray eyes filled with worry.

Everett concentrated on maintaining his control. “Celeste, Donavan.” He gasped and said in a tight voice, “Finch, Gabe, Hadley.” The pain faded along with the mist. As he watched, his pale skin became translucent. In the next moment, the pain faded completely and the purple beam dropped through his hand to the floor of the meadow as if he wasn’t there. “Izzy,” he finished. He flexed his hand, watching the way the purple beam changed slightly around the outline of his hand, but still fell through it as though it was a slight hindrance instead of a block for the light.

“What on earth, Rett. I’ve never seen anything like that,” Lisette breathed.

Everett glanced at her. “You’re a ghost,” he pointed out. Relief ran through him so sharply he felt like laughing until his sides hurt, but too many people in the jungle already thought he was crazy. He didn’t need to make it three, or four for that matter.

“I am a ghost,” Lisette replied. “We’re supposed to be transparent. You’re not.”

“No, I’m a vampire. I’m supposed to burst into flames and die a horrible death in the sunlight.” Everett smiled. “I’m glad that didn’t happen.”

Lisette smiled in returned. “Me, too,” she said. She reached up and wiped her eyes.

Everett’s heart gave a little backflip when he remembered that she had been crying for him. “Lisette, I...”

She shook her head and turned away. “Don’t.”

“You shouldn’t cry for me,” he said.

She looked back at him. The depth of emotion in her eyes made his breath catch. It felt like instead of looking at her, he was seeing her soul, her sadness, her hopelessness. She felt as lost as he did.

“Everett, you deserve someone to cry for you,” she said quietly.

He was about to tell her that she was wrong when a howl cut through the air.

“Everett?” Vanguard’s voice followed.

The howl sounded again, drawing closer.

Lisette gave him a watery smile. “Your friends are coming.” She began to fade away.

“Don’t go,” he said.

Lisette looked past him at the trees. “You heard what they said about me. Sometimes we become shaped by the things people want to believe about us. It’s better this way.”

She vanished completely, leaving Everett with a feeling of loss. He withdrew his hand from the sunlight and watched it turn back to normal. The icy sensation rushed up his arm, and the flesh became solid again.

Chapter Twenty-four

A slender wolf with white and gold fur burst through the bushes. Everett looked around for a branch or rock he could use to defend himself.

“Stay back,” he warned.

Vanguard appeared behind the wolf. “You found him!” he said as if not at all concerned that there was a wolf in front of him. He waved whatever he held. When he walked closer, Everett saw that it was the red shirt and black pants Adrielle had been wearing.

He looked back at the wolf. “Adrielle?” he asked in amazement.

She snorted as if amused by his shocked tone.

“Who else would it be?” Vanguard asked. “Your not-so-friendly poltergeist?”

Everett rolled his eyes. “Enough jokes. She’s my friend and she’s going to stay.”

“Thanks,” Lisette whispered from somewhere behind him.

“Fine,” Vanguard said in a singsong voice. “But you’re the one playing with fire.”

The term reminded Everett of what had happened in the clearing. He opened his mouth to tell them, but Vanguard had tossed Adrielle’s clothes behind a bush.

“Hurry, babe. I wouldn’t want the creatures in this jungle to see you bare like a bear.” Vanguard grinned at Everett. “Get it? Bare like a bear? You know, because they don’t have clothes?” His attention focused on a bush with yellow flowers. “I saw a bear at the observatory in Nubium. My uncle said it broke into one of the Grazeries and killed a bunch of cows. They shot it and stuffed it.” He grimaced. “It was all bumpy and strange, not like the picture on the wall.”

Everett kept his attention away from the bushes Adrielle was changing behind. “How did you find me?”

“Adrielle’s nose,” Vanguard replied. “She can track down anything.”

The pride in the magician’s voice made Everett grimace. He turned away. “We’d better get going.”

“Not until we see what your mom packed for us,” Vanguard replied. He shrugged the backpack off his shoulders and set it on the ground.

“Sounds good to me,” Adrielle said. “I’m getting hungry.” She stepped out from behind the bushes in her clothes.

“This must be for your, fangs,” Vanguard said. He tossed something at Everett.

Everett caught the container and let out a relieved breath. His mother had packed a serving of his “vitamins” for the trip. He took off the lid and swallowed the life-sustaining fluid.

“He doesn’t need a sandwich,” Vanguard was saying. “He’s a blood-sucker, remember?”

“Come on, Van,” Adrielle replied. “Share. You already have a sandwich and Everett’s mom is the one who made the food, remember?”

“Fine,” Vanguard muttered. He threw one of the small packages.

Everett caught it and opened one of his mom’s amazing meat and cheese sandwiches. He ate it and watched Adrielle in an effort to avoid Vanguard’s loathsome stare.

Everett noticed for the first time the way Adrielle’s golden eyes matched those of the wolf. She tipped her head when she looked at him; the affect was very canine.

“What?” she asked self-consciously, looking at him from behind lowered eyelashes.

Everett forced a smile to hide the way she affected him. “Are you sure you don’t have rabies?”

She slapped his shoulder and laughed. “Come on. Let’s get going. You’re going to burn up out here if we don’t find those vampires soon.”

Everett smiled in return but didn’t comment about burning. He was still coming to terms with what had happened. The part of him that was jealous about the way her hand rested so casually at Vanguard’s elbow while they walked said he should keep it to himself.

“I don’t know about the plants Dr. Transton described,” Adrielle said later during their trek through the jungle. “How will we know they eat living creatures? I mean, plants that live on blood? It just seems so...” Her voice died away and she and Vanguard stopped walking, their attention on something in the clearing in front of them.

The scent of blood hit Everett like a wall. The thirst returned so strongly he could barely hold back. He was only then aware of the fact that it had vanished almost completely since his incident in the sunlit clearing and their picnic lunch. The rational part of him wondered if being in the sun had chased it away, while the visceral side pushed him forward, urging him into the wide clearing that smelled of flesh and blood.

Adrielle grabbed his arm. “Everett, look.”

The blood-lust haze that filled Everett’s vision faded at her touch. He blinked and his gaze focused on the clearing.

The canopy overhead was thickly linked so only a little bit of light showed through. The colored beams that made it to the floor of the clearing lit a nightmarish scene.

Huge plants taller than Vanguard spread out along the grass. They opened in half like two sides of the pea pods Everett’s father grew in the green house, except that in the place of the smooth insides where the peas usually sat, these plants had huge, jagged fangs that bent inward like hooks. A few of the plants were closed and it was from these that the blood scent wafted.

Everett squinted in the half-light in an attempt to see what hung from the plant closest to them. His breath caught when he recognized the hindquarters of a deer. Blood dripped from the almost-severed limbs, and where it fell to the meadow floor, smaller pod plants opened their eager mouths for a taste.

“Oh no,” Adrielle squeaked.

Everett followed her gaze. Within moments, he could hear something thundering through the trees across the clearing. It was obvious she heard its flight better than they did. Her head turned as she focused on the sound.

“If it doesn’t stop, it’ll head straight for the plants,” she said. She took a step forward.

Everett caught her hand. “Adrielle, you can’t!”

He stopped her progress just as a massive buck crashed into the clearing. It snorted and stomped, throwing its wide-sweeping antlers as it checked over its shoulder for whatever had been pursuing it.

“It’s coming,” Adrielle whispered.

A twig snapped from the shadows. The buck leaped forward and landed directly on one of the pod halves. Before the animal could jump again, the pod snapped shut, engulfing the buck completely. The animal gave a strangled scream. The pod jerked, shuddered, then became still.

An eerie silence filled the clearing. Adrielle’s face was buried against Everett’s arm.

“Wolves eat deer,” Vanguard pointed out. There was awe on his face, but none of the horror the werewolf displayed.

Everett let out a breath, realizing he had been holding it since the buck stepped into view. He couldn’t push away his own dismay at the beautiful animal’s death.

“It’s different,” Adrielle said. “There’s honor in it. It’s a fight for life, for survival. Wolves take the weak, not the strong.” She waved a hand in the direction of the clearing without looking there. “It’s nothing like...that.” Her voice choked off.

Vanguard threw Everett a grin and nodded at Adrielle with a shoulder shrug as if he still couldn’t understand why she was upset.

Everett turned away so she wouldn’t see her boyfriend’s callous attitude. “Dr. Transton said we would find the entrance on the south side of the plants. Something about a door to the darkest night.”

“Sounds inviting,” Vanguard noted. “Shall we, babe?” He held out his elbow to Adrielle.

She gave Everett an apologetic look. “Thanks,” she said quietly.

She took Vanguard’s arm and walked away, leaving Everett to follow or be left at the edge of the very creepy clearing. He couldn’t deny the way his mouth watered at the scent that clung to his clothes. It took nearly all of his self-control to move one foot in front of the other instead of dropping to his knees beside the dripping hindquarters of the deer to lap up the blood like the tiny pod plants.

“Keep it together,” Lisette said quietly at his side. “You’re going to have to be clear-minded to survive this.”

“Survive what?” Everett asked.

Lisette didn’t answer.

Everett gritted his teeth and followed his friends deeper into the shadows beyond the south side.

“Here it is,” Vanguard said. Laughter touched his voice. “You’d think the door would be a little better hidden.”

“Maybe they didn’t think the entrance to a community of vampires needed hiding,” Adrielle pointed out.

Everett studied the door. It had been made out of some sort of wood so dark he had never seen anything like it before. It looked as though it sucked every bit of light inside to never let it free again. He reached out a hand and brushed the wood with his fingertips. The surface was smooth and fine-grained for a moment, then the wood rippled beneath his touch and his hand sank inside as though he dipped in a cool pond. He yanked it back in surprise.

“Whoa,” Vanguard stated. “I didn’t see that coming.”

Adrielle set a hand on the door. The wood remained normal and flat.

“This is why we needed a vampire,” she breathed in amazement. She glanced at Everett. “You can get us through.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, watching the door with a foreboding feeling rising in his chest.

She nodded. “When you touch it, it turns. Just don’t let go of us, okay?” She took his hand.

“I’m usually against holding hands with a vampire,” Vanguard said. “But in this case, I’ll make an exception. I have a feeling this is going to lead to quite the adventure.” He grabbed Everett’s other hand.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” Everett said under his breath.

He touched the door with the toe of his shoe. The wood rippled and pulled him forward. Everett took a deep breath and stepped through the wood.

“Whoa!” Vanguard exclaimed when they reached the other side. “That was like taking a cold shower, and I hate showers.”

Everett’s attention was on the hallway beyond. It sloped downward and curved to the left out of sight, winding below the pod killing fields. The hall was arched and paved with smooth white stones that appeared as though they had been put together like a puzzle. There was no mortar between the stones, yet no space, either, only a fine line where they had been joined.

“Where is the light coming from?” Adrielle asked.

The hallway was comfortably lit, but Everett couldn’t tell from where. It took him a moment to realize the truth.

“It’s the stones,” he said in awe. The white rocks actually glowed a soft, luminescent white. He put his hand to one and felt a slight heat rising from it.

“Amazing,” Adrielle breathed. She touched the stone beside Everett’s. The stone immediately went dark, then flashed on and off. The same flashing ran through each of the stones in the row down and around the corner. A humming sound rose from the rocks; it wasn’t quite ominous, but set Everett’s teeth on edge. Adrielle gripped her boyfriend’s arm.

“I don’t think you should have touched that,” Vanguard pointed out needlessly.

“They’re coming,” Adrielle replied with a tremor in her voice, her attention on where the hallway curved out of sight.

The sound of footsteps came to Everett’s ears. The thought that he was about to meet members of his own species sent a tremor of anticipation through him. He smiled, anxious to make a good impression.

Six men dressed in solid red from head to toe came into view. Only their eyes were visible behind masks that made them look like the ninjas Donavan used to draw. They carried staffs with red spikes on each end.

“Down on your faces!” one of the vampires barked.

Everett held up his hands. “We’re friends,” he said. “We don’t mean to intrude, we’re just—”

“Get down!” the vampire yelled.

“Whoa,” Vanguard protested. “We’re not a threat!”

The vampires attacked.

They moved so quickly Everett had to channel his strength just to keep up. He managed to block a staff from one vampire and tripped another with a well-timed kick. A growl sounded behind him.

“It’s a werewolf!” one of the vampires shouted. “Kill it!”

Vanguard waved his hand and Adrielle disappeared from view. In the next second, she had two of the vampires pinned to the ground. The leader slammed her side with the blunt end of his spiked staff so hard she crashed into Vanguard. He fell backwards and his hold on the magic was lost. Adrielle reappeared in her wolf form.

All of the vampires advanced with their staves raised. Everett knew the moment they brought them down with their channeled strength, his friends would be done for.

Everett forced every ounce of strength into a knot in his stomach. Red colored his vision. He leaped in front of his friends and forced the strength forward. A red blur of energy burst from him, knocking the vampires back to the end of the hall.

Everett fell to his knees. He had never done anything like that before. He felt as though every cell in his body was empty and cold. It took all of his strength just to remain somewhat upright.

Adrielle quickly changed form behind Vanguard. The vampires advanced, their stances and gazes wary this time.

“Don’t you dare touch them,” Everett said with a snarl that revealed his teeth.

The vampires halted.

“Leonard needs to see you,” the spokesman of the group said with a tone of distaste.