The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (6 page)

“Ninja attack at dawn!” I said to make him laugh. It worked. We started joking again as we tracked our herd of vampires, but
I could tell he was thinking serious stuff under the teasing, just like I was.

And I only got more anxious as we ran. Because we were running fast, and there was no way we had the wrong trail, but it was
taking too long. We were really getting away from the coast, up and over the closest mountains, off into new territory. This
wasn’t the normal pattern.

Every house we’d borrowed, whether it was up a mountain or on an island or hidden on a big farm, had a few things in common.
The dead owners, the remote locale, and one other thing. They all were sort of focused on Seattle. Oriented around the big
city like orbiting moons. Seattle was always the hub, always the target.

We were out of orbit now, and it felt wrong. Maybe it meant nothing, maybe it was just that so many things were changing today.
All the truths I’d accepted had been turned upside down and I wasn’t in the mood for any other upheavals. Why couldn’t Riley
have just picked someplace normal?

“Funny they’re this far out,” Diego murmured, and I could hear the edge in his voice.

“Or scary,” I muttered.

He squeezed my hand. “It’s cool. The ninja club can handle anything.”

“You got a secret handshake yet?”

“Working on it,” he promised.

Something started to bug me. It was like I could feel this strange blind spot—I knew there was something I wasn’t seeing,
but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something obvious…

And then, about sixty miles farther west than our usual perimeter, we found the house. It was impossible to mistake the noise.
The
boom boom boom
of the bass, the video-game soundtrack, the snarling. Totally our crowd.

I pulled my hand free, and Diego looked at me.

“Hey, I don’t even know you,” I said in a joking tone. “I haven’t had one conversation with you, what with all that water
we sat in all day. You could be a ninja or a vampire for all I know.”

He grinned. “Same goes for you, stranger.” Then low and fast, “Just do the same things you did yesterday. Tomorrow night we’ll
get out together. Maybe do some reconnaissance, figure out more of what’s going on.”

“Sounds like a plan. Mum’s the word.”

He ducked close and
kissed
me—just a peck, but right on the lips. The shock of it zinged through my whole body. Then he said, “Let’s do this,” and headed
down the side of the mountain toward the source of the raucous noise without looking back. Already playing the part.

A little stunned, I followed from a few yards behind, remembering to put the distance between us that I would put between
myself and anyone else.

The house was a big, log cabin–style affair, tucked into a hollow in the pines with no sign of any neighbors for miles around.
All the windows were black, as if the place were empty, but the whole frame was trembling from the heavy bass in the basement.

Diego went in first, and I tried to move behind him like he was Kevin or Raoul. Hesitant, protecting my space. He found the
stairs and charged down with a confident tread.

“Trying to lose me, losers?” he asked.

“Oh, hey, Diego’s alive,” I heard Kevin answer with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

“No thanks to you,” Diego said as I slipped into the dark basement. The only light came from the various TV screens, but it
was way more than any of us needed. I hurried back to where Fred had a whole couch to himself, glad that it was right for
me to look anxious because there was no way to hide it. I
swallowed hard as the revulsion hit, and curled up in my usual spot on the floor behind the couch. Once I was down, Fred’s
repellent power seemed to ease up. Or maybe I was just getting used to it.

The basement was more than half empty since it was the middle of the night. All the kids in here had eyes the same as mine—bright,
recently fed red.

“Took me a while to clean up your stupid mess,” Diego told Kevin. “It was almost dawn by the time I got to what was left of
the house. Had to sit in a cave filled with water all day.”

“Go tattle to Riley. Whatever.”

“I see the little girl made it, too,” said a new voice, and I shuddered because it was Raoul. I felt a little bit of relief
that he didn’t know my name, but mostly I just felt horrified that he’d noticed me at all.

“Yeah, she followed me.” I couldn’t see Diego, but I knew he was shrugging.

“Aren’t you the savior of the hour?” Raoul said snidely.

“We don’t get extra points for being morons.”

I wished Diego wouldn’t taunt Raoul. I hoped Riley would come back soon. Only Riley could curb Raoul even the littlest bit.

But Riley was probably out hunting dregs kids to bring to
her
. Or doing whatever else he did while he was away.

“Interesting attitude you got, Diego. You think that Riley likes you so much he’s gonna care if I kill you. I think you’re
wrong. But either way, for tonight, he already thinks you’re dead.”

I could hear the others moving. Some probably to back Raoul up, others just getting out of the way. I hesitated in my hiding
spot, knowing I wasn’t going to let Diego fight them alone, but worried about blowing our cover if it didn’t come to that.
I hoped Diego had survived this long because he had some crazy combat skills. I wasn’t going to have much to offer in that
department. There were three members of Raoul’s gang here, and some others that might help out just to get on his good side.
Would Riley get home before they had time to burn us?

Diego’s voice was calm when he answered. “You’re really that afraid to take me on alone? Typical.”

Raoul snorted. “Does that ever work? I mean, besides in movies. Why should I take you on alone? I don’t care about
beating
you. I just want to
end
you.”

I rolled into a crouch, tensed to spring.

Raoul kept talking. He liked the sound of his own voice a lot.

“But it’s not gonna take all of us to deal with you. These two will take care of the other evidence of your unfortunate survival.
Little what’s-her-name.”

My body felt icy, frozen solid. I tried to shake it off so I could fight my best. Not that it would have made a difference.

And then I felt something else, something totally unexpected—a wave of revulsion so overpowering that I couldn’t hold my crouch.
I crumpled to the floor, gasping with horror.

I was not the only one to react. I heard disgusted snarls and retching sounds from every corner of the basement. A few people
retreated to the edges of the room, where I could see them. They strained against the wall, stretching their necks away as
if they could escape the horrible feeling. At least one of these was a member of Raoul’s gang.

I heard Raoul’s distinctive growl, and then heard it fade as he took off up the stairs. He wasn’t the only one to make a break
for it. About half of the vampires in the basement cleared out.

I didn’t have that choice. I could barely move. And then I realized this had to be because I was so close to Freaky Fred.
He was responsible for what was happening. And as horrible as I felt, I was still able to realize that he’d probably just
saved my life.

Why?

The sensation of disgust faded slowly. As soon as I could, I crept to the edge of the couch and took in the aftermath. All
of Raoul’s gang was gone, but
Diego was still there, on the far end of the big room by the TVs. The vampires who remained were slowly relaxing, though
everybody looked a little shaken. Most of them were shooting cautious glances in Fred’s direction. I peeked at the back of
his head, too, though I couldn’t see anything. I looked away quickly. Looking at Fred brought back some of the nausea.

“Keep it down.”

The deep voice came from Fred. I’d never heard him speak before. Everyone stared and then looked away immediately as the revulsion
returned.

So Fred just wanted his peace and quiet. Well, whatever. I was alive because of it. Most likely Raoul would get distracted
by some other irritant before dawn and take out his anger on somebody close by. And Riley always came back at the end of the
night. He would hear that Diego had been in his cave rather than outside and destroyed by the sun, and Raoul wouldn’t have
an excuse to attack him or me.

At least, that was the best-case scenario. In the meantime, maybe Diego and I could come up with some plan to steer clear
of Raoul.

Again, I had a fleeting sense that I was missing an obvious solution. Before I could figure it out, my thoughts were interrupted.

“Sorry.”

The deep, almost silent mutter could only have come from Fred. It looked like I was the only one close enough to really hear.
Was he talking to me?

I looked at him again and felt nothing. I couldn’t see his face—he had his back to me still. He had thick, wavy blond hair.
I’d never noticed that before, not with all the days I’d sat hiding in his shadow. Riley wasn’t kidding when he’d said that
Fred was special. Gross, but really special. Did Riley have any idea that Fred was so… so powerful? He was able to overwhelm
a whole room of us in a second.

Though I couldn’t see his expression, I had the sense that Fred was waiting for an answer.

“Um, don’t apologize,” I breathed almost silently. “Thank you.”

Fred shrugged.

And then I found I couldn’t look at him anymore.

The hours passed slower than usual as I waited for Raoul to come back. From time to time I tried to look at Fred again—to
see past the protection he’d created for himself—but I always found myself repelled. If I tried too hard, I ended up gagging.

Thinking about Fred was a good distraction from thinking about Diego. I tried to pretend I didn’t care where he was in the
room. I didn’t look at him but focused on the sound of his breathing—his
distinct rhythm—to keep tabs. He sat on the other side of the room from me, listening to his CDs on a laptop. Or maybe pretending
to listen, the way I was pretending to read the books from the damp backpack on my shoulders. I flipped pages at my usual
rate, but I didn’t take anything in. I was waiting for Raoul.

Luckily, Riley came first. Raoul and his cohorts were right behind him, but not as loud and obnoxious as usual. Maybe Fred
had taught them a little respect.

Probably not, though. More likely Fred had just angered them. I really hoped Fred never let his guard slip.

Riley went to Diego right away; I listened with my back to them, eyes on my book. In my peripheral vision, I saw some of Raoul’s
idiots wandering, looking for their favorite games or whatever they’d been doing before Fred had driven them out. Kevin was
one of them, but he seemed to be looking for something more specific than entertainment. Several times his eyes tried to focus
on where I was sitting, but Fred’s aura kept him at bay. He gave up after a few minutes, looking a little sick.

“I heard you made it back,” Riley said, sounding genuinely pleased. “I can always count on you, Diego.”

“No problem,” Diego said in a relaxed voice.
“Unless you count holding my breath all day as a negative.”

Riley laughed. “Don’t cut it so close next time. Set a better example for the babies.”

Diego just laughed with him. From the corner of my eye, it seemed like Kevin relaxed some. Was he really that worried about
Diego getting him in trouble? Maybe Riley listened to Diego more than I realized. I wondered whether that was why Raoul had
gotten crazy before.

Was it a good thing if Diego was that in with Riley after all? Maybe Riley was okay. That relationship didn’t compromise what
we had, did it?

Time didn’t pass any faster after the sun was up. It was crowded and unstable in the basement, like every day. If vampires
could get hoarse, Riley would have lost his voice entirely from the yelling. A couple of kids temporarily lost limbs, but
nobody got torched. The music warred with the game tracks, and I was glad I didn’t get headaches. I tried reading my books,
but I ended up just flipping through one after the other, not caring enough to make my eyes focus on the words. I left them
in a neat stack by the end of the couch for Fred. I always left my books for him, though I never could tell whether he read
them. Couldn’t look at him closely enough to see what, exactly, he did with his time.

At least Raoul never looked my way. Neither did Kevin or any of the others. My hiding place was as effective as ever. I couldn’t
see if Diego was smart enough to ignore me, because I was ignoring him so thoroughly. No one could suspect that we were a
team, except maybe Fred. Had Fred been paying attention as I prepared to fight alongside Diego? Even if he had, I didn’t worry
too much about it. If Fred felt any particular ill will toward me, he could have let me die last night. Would have been easy.

It got louder as the sun started to go down. We couldn’t see the light fading here underground, with all of the windows upstairs
covered just in case. But waiting through so many long days gave you a good sense for when one was almost over. Kids started
getting antsy, bugging Riley about whether they could go out.

“Kristie, you were out last night,” Riley said, and you could hear the patience wearing thin in his voice. “Heather, Jim,
Logan—go ahead. Warren, your eyes are dark, go along with them. Hey, Sara, I’m not blind—get back here.”

The kids he shut down sulked in the corners, some of them waiting for Riley to leave so they could sneak out in spite of his
rules.

“Um, Fred, must be about your turn,” Riley said,
not looking in our direction. I heard Fred sigh as he got to his feet. Everyone cringed as he moved through the center of
the room, even Riley. But unlike the others, Riley smiled a little to himself. He liked his vampire with skills.

I felt naked with Fred gone. Anyone could focus on me now. I held perfectly still, head down, doing everything in my power
not to call attention to myself.

Lucky for me, Riley was in a hurry tonight. He barely paused to glare at the people who were clearly edging for the door,
let alone threaten them, as he headed out himself. Normally he’d give us some variant on the usual speech about keeping a
low profile, but not tonight. He seemed preoccupied, anxious. I’d have bet he was going to see
her
. That made me less excited about catching up with him at dawn.