Vampires 101 (Twilight Hunters Book 1) A Vampire Romance (13 page)

“Shhh,” Damian whispered in my ear.

Though my racing heart calmed slightly, my head was going a thousand miles and hour. At the forefront of my thoughts, was the possibility that Damian could be responsible for the corpses I’d found in the tunnel. After all, he was basically a vampire. Even though he’d never actually admitted to being a vampire, that’s what Shadow believed he was. That’s not even to mention the fact that he looked the part too well, plus I knew he had fangs. I’d felt them when he kissed me.

“If I let you go … do you promise not to scream?” he whispered soft - caressing words in my ear.

I nodded, trying to concentrate on the predicament I was in, and not the sensation of his body so close to mine.

Slowly he released his hold on me and removed his hand from my mouth. “What are you doing here?”

Startled by the anger I detected in his voice, I couldn’t decide if I should make up some story, or just tell him the truth?

“The truth!” This time his fury was unmistakable.

“Can you read me?” I asked out of genuine curiosity, and not just because I was trying to avoid answering him, though I was.

“Only sometimes,” he admitted. “The shield you erect around your mind is a trait that was bred into you.”

Ok, what was that supposed to mean?

Before I could open my mouth to ask, he put a finger up to his lips to shush me. Taking my arm, he swiftly led the way out of the crypt. Once outside, I took a moment to savor the feeling of the warm night and the soft summer breeze against my chilled skin. Finally I turned to Damian, eyeing him with suspicion. “What are
you
doing here?”

Taking my hand in his, he started walking. “I’m a Watcher. I’ve already explained that one of my responsibilities is to watch over you. Recently you’ve made that an impossible task.” He gave me a sideward glance. “Why can’t you just stay out of trouble?’

I was burning to ask my own questions, so I ignored his. “Do you mean that you are some kind of guardian angel?”

That would be a definite twist, not to mention a shocker.

I was finding it difficult to keep up with him, so I pulled my hand from his. “Can’t you slow down a little?”

He did, but only a little. “Where’s your car?” he asked.

“I didn’t bring it. Parking a car in here would have been a dead giveaway to the police,” I explained.

Stopping in mid-stride, he looked down at me, a dangerous glint in his dark eyes. “You haven’t answered my question. Why are you here?”

“And you haven’t answered my question,” I retorted.

“This place is too dangerous. You cannot come here anymore,” he snarled. Gripping my hand, he started walking again, this time so fast that he was practically dragging me behind him.

I jerked my hand out of his grasp. “We were exploring the tunnels. There have been some murders, and I thought there could be a connection.”

He slowed, but didn’t stop. “What is that to do with you? This place is too dangerous. You need to stay away from here.”

I came to a standstill, forcing him to stop and look at me. “I could join the police you know. Then it would be my job.”

He arched one brow sardonically. “Do you actually believe that your destiny is to work for the breeders?”

“The what?”

He shook his head. “You are not ready for any of this yet.”

“What are you talking about? When am I going to be ready to know what the hell is going on?” I was angry, and not even the unsettling sensation of his nearness could damper that anger.

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head slowly. “Maybe never. Hopefully never.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Now that I thought about it, it seemed I’d been stumbling around in the dark my entire life, never really knowing where I was going or who I was. Mostly I’d attributed these feelings to losing my mother at such a young age, but now I wasn’t so sure. And here was some ancient vampire, claiming to know the things that I’d never been able to put my finger on. But he wasn’t about to talk.

“Why don’t you just zap us to where you want to go?” My question was totally off topic and it took him by surprise.

His amusement spread into a wide smile. “Is that what you think I do … zap where I need to go?”

I nodded. “What would you call it?”

“It is all part of what you are not ready to know yet,” he told me.

Ok, I was so totally getting tired of that flimsy explanation. Without bothering to wait for him, I started walking - passing him on the narrow sidewalk. He followed, catching up quickly.

“I can’t zap us anywhere … because I’m not even supposed to be here. They want to let you flounder. It makes no difference to them if you get yourself killed. As far as they are concerned, that only means that you were not strong enough to confront your destiny.”

“Who are they?” It was a simple question, and one I’d been trying to get an answer to for over a week now.

Of course, he wasn’t about to give me that answer. “You don’t even have to say it,” I snapped. “I’m not ready to know. That’s getting really old Damian.”

We’d made it to the edge of the cemetery where the road started downhill, winding through a grove of oaks and aspens until it came out on River Road. Once we reached River Road, it was less than a quarter mile to my apartment.

It was dark. Not even moonlight could penetrate the thick tree cover. If it hadn’t been for the isolation and just plain creepiness of the night, I would have told him to get lost, but suddenly I was glad Damian was with me. When I’d decided to walk to the cemetery, I hadn’t counted on making the trip back alone.

Damian came to an abrupt halt. Grabbing my hand, he forced me to stop too. I opened my mouth to protest, but he put a finger to his lips to silence me.

At first I couldn’t hear anything, not even the typical serenade of crickets that accompany the night. It was that complete silence that made what I heard next so startling. Under normal circumstances, I may not have even noticed the soft rustling of leaves and snapping twigs. But in the complete and utter stillness of the moment, those sounds told me that someone was following us - watching our movements from the dark cover of the trees.

The anger radiating from Damian’s dark eyes made them appear as if they were actually glowing with an inner light.

The noise stopped. Whatever was out there was now aware that we knew it was there.

It could have just been a raccoon, or something equally as harmless, but I didn’t think so. There was a certain menacing feeling to the atmosphere. If that weren’t enough to tell me we might be in big trouble, the way Damian was staring into the trees would have been. He reminded me of a cornered animal, ready to spring at whatever threat lay in wait within the obscure darkness.

It came at us before I even had a chance to react. So many things happened at once, that later, when I tried to recall the events of the seconds that followed, it all seemed like one long blur of movement. 

Damian’s feet lifted from the ground. A sudden gust of wind caught his long - black cape, making it appear to flutter behind him like the wings of a bat. He flew into the trees. The stillness of the night was shattered with the flurry of commotion that followed. There was a low - earth-shaking growl, and then the sharp snapping of branches as it retreated. A moment later Damian stepped out of the trees. As he got closer, I saw that he was holding his stomach, and his hands were full of blood.

“You’re hurt,” I gasped.

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I heal quickly.

The sight of the shredded material of his clothes, and the blood seeping through the fingers he was using to hold himself together, was enough to make me lightheaded. I wasn’t normally so queasy when it came to blood, but the thought of Damian being gravely injured, made me quake inside.

Something told me that if I were to lose him, not only would I be left with a void in my heart for the rest of my life, but there was a good chance I probably wouldn’t live too long. He was my guardian angel, and had already saved my ass on numerous occasions. I didn’t actually believe he was an angel, but he sure filled the role of guardian angel pretty well.

I went to his side and tried to help him walk, but he was so large that I figured I was probably more of a hindrance, than help. A little piece of religious text popped into my mind.

And there were giants on the earth in those days.

I had so many questions, but at the moment I was in no mood to ask them, and he certainly wasn’t in any condition to answer them.

“Don’t worry about me. You need to get home before it decides to come back … and it
will
come back, once it realizes that I’m injured,” he warned.

“What was that thing?”

“That was your cemetery killer.” Damian’s words shook with the pain that was wracking his body.

“I can’t leave you like this.”

“By tomorrow I’ll be fine,” he assured me. “But I probably won’t be able to fight it off if it comes back right now … so go!”

I shook my head. “Shadow is in those tunnels. I have to get back there and warn her.”

“You’ll have to go through me to do it.” This time his words were steady and unyielding. “If you try to go back there … I’ll destroy that meddling vampire myself,” he added.

My mouth fell open. I was shocked, and more than a little angry that he would go to such lengths to keep me out of the tunnels. Placing my hands on my hips, I prepared to stand my ground. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He shook his head. “Cassie … you are a difficult female.” He reached up and placed a bloody hand on my forehead. I felt something cold and metallic against my skin, and then everything went black.

* * *

Awareness returned, and along with it, was also the overwhelming urge to empty my bladder. Opening my eyes, I saw light coming in between the two panels of my curtains.

At least he dropped me at home this time.

That was my only tangible thought as I stumbled from the bed to the bathroom. After taking care of nature’s call, I took a moment to absorb a few facts. I was still dressed in the same clothes I’d been wearing the night before, and I still had Damian’s blood on my clothes, not to mention my arms. A quick look in the mirror told me I also had it on my forehead. He had to have been losing a lot of blood.

Suddenly I was hit with a surge of guilt. He’d been severely injured, and because of my stubbornness, he’d been forced to get me home while I was unconscious. Of course the unconscious part was his doing, but I realized that he was just trying to keep me safe.

The one thing I was becoming more and more aware of was that despite him being a vampire, he was like no vampire I’d ever heard of. He was something more than just some reanimated corpse that acted as an eternal prison of the soul.

He wasn’t human, that much I knew for sure. But he wasn’t really a traditional vampire either. If he was neither of these things, what was he?

With so much blood on me, I could only imagine what my bedding must look like. Letting out a deep sigh, I went to my room to strip my bed. I hadn’t exactly been planning to do any laundry today, but nothing ever went as planned anyway.

After a hot shower and several cups of coffee, I was ready to take on the world again. Ok, maybe not the world, but I was at least ready to take another shot at trying to figure out what was going on in my hometown, and why everyone else seemed to be so clueless about it.

It was barely noon, so it would be hours before there was any chance of finding out if Shadow made it out of the tunnels ok. I had no idea when, or even if I would find out what happened with Damian’s injuries. Though I suspected he was ok, worry still nagged at me.

I pondered the idea of going to the police with what I knew, but only for a few seconds. Basically there was nothing I could tell them that would sound even half way believable, except for maybe the tunnels. Chances were that the police probably already knew about the tunnels, though I doubted they had any idea there were dead bodies down there. Soon I would have to report the human body, even if Chaz and Shadow didn’t like it.

Although I didn’t necessarily agree with Shadow about waiting, she was probably right in one respect. As soon as they found that body, the cemetery would become an armed crime scene. At that point, they would have no chance of finding out what was in those tunnels, or who was roaming the cemetery, mutilating people. The police would not look in the right direction, so they’d be no good when it came to stopping this killer.

Killer Tom’s missing body popped into my thoughts. Could it actually be possible there were zombies roaming Pine View Cemetery?

No way!

I instantly pushed the thought out of my mind. Whatever was out there, it sure wasn’t zombies. At least I hoped not. It had been too dark to really see that thing Damian had tangled with last night. What little I had seen, hadn’t looked human at all.

Picking up my phone from the kitchen counter, I dialed the Pine View Police. As soon as the receptionist picked up, I asked for Riley’s extension. As strange as it was, I was beginning to prefer working with Riley than Dad. If my dad knew what I was doing, he’d just worry. It was better to get my information from Riley, who was probably too busy to worry about reporting every little thing about me to the chief.

“John Riley.” His voice came through loud and clear.

“Hey Riley. Did you ever get any leads on that missing body?”

There was a long pause. I was beginning to think that the line had gone dead when he finally asked, “Are you sitting down?”

“Sure,” I lied. I was really leaning against my kitchen counter, but he didn’t need to know that.

“I viewed the morgue’s security tapes. The guy just got up and walked out of there. He’d been left out on a table while the M.E went to lunch.”

A soul gripping fear wrapped its way around my chest until I felt as if I were being squeezed with steel bands.

“There must have been some kind of mistake. The guy couldn’t have been dead,” he added quickly.

“Oh no way!” I blurted out. “He was dead. You know that.”

“Well that’s what I thought when I viewed the body at the crime scene, but the M.E says that it’s possible his injuries were not as bad as they first appeared.”

“No Riley. I saw it happen.”

“You must have been mistaken … just like the rest of us. There’s no other explanation.”

I heard him sigh as he spoke the last word. I got the feeling that he wasn’t entirely convinced that we were mistaken.

“What about the crime scene photos? They must show the injury.”

“There’s a lot of blood. It’s hard to tell.” Riley sounded nowhere near as confident as he usually did, and that told me all I needed to know. He was worried.

“Why don’t you go stay with your dad for a few days,” he suggested. “You have to know that it’s possible this guy will try and come after you again.”

Yes it was possible, and not just possible but probable. There was also a damn good chance that Killer Tom wasn’t even human. I hadn’t the slightest idea what he was, but there was no way a human could have survived those types of injuries. Besides, hadn’t Damian told me as much?

“I’ll be ok,” I told him, hoping I sounded a lot more confident that I felt.

“Stay away from that cemetery, and don’t go walking anywhere at night. You should also keep your door locked.”

He fired off a succession of orders, but I wasn’t really listening. I was too busy trying to figure out what my next move should be. No doubt I had to do something. I was fairly sure that if I took the wait and see approach, I’d be a sitting duck. At least that would be the case if Killer Tom were holding a grudge.

A shiver made its way up my spine. Now there really was a zombie roaming around Pine View.

I found myself agreeing with everything Riley was saying, mostly so he would let me off the phone. After ending the call, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. It was so hard to believe that only two weeks ago, I’d been living a regular - if boring life. Now everything had been turned upside down. But it wasn’t just my life. I was slowly discovering that everything I’d believed to be reality, wasn’t anything more than a smokescreen for what was really out there.

“You might have a few more problems than you think.” Chaz’s voice came from behind me.

I was so startled that I didn’t even bother trying to stop the scream that jumped from my throat. “Damn it Chaz! I want you to knock from now on.”

“Ok,” he shrugged. “But that seems kind of stupid, don’t you think?”

“What did you mean by more problems?” I was in no mood to play games with him.

Chaz sat on one of the kitchen chairs and put his feet up to rest on my table. “Shadow never came out of that tunnel last night.”

“Do you mind not putting your feet on my table?” I glared at him.

“Jeez Dude … what’s the big deal?” he said, taking his feet down. “Are you going through some kind of PMS thing or something?”

Since he was displaying such a chauvinistic attitude, I had every intention of ignoring his question. “How do you know Shadow never came out?”

“I decided to chill there last night, thinking it would be cool to find some … you know … dead people hanging out. That place is really dead. I couldn’t find a soul … well except for one.”

I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.

“Spill it. Who did you find?” I finally asked.

“Some chick. She said she was killed there.”

“Who did she say did it?” I asked, hoping we might actually be lucky enough to get some information from an eyewitness. True, it was a dead witness, but a witness nonetheless.

Chaz shrugged. “I don’t think she knew. She seemed really confused … kind of lost.”

Well a lot of good she was going to do us. I skipped to the next question. “Why didn’t you go in and look for Shadow?”

“I did. Man, she was just gone. There was no trace of her.” Chaz was leaning back in the chair until it was balancing on the back legs.

“Didn’t your mom ever teach you not to lean back like that on chairs?” He was being even more difficult that usual today.

“Sorry.” He gave me a sheepish smile.

“Who are you talking to, and how are you balancing that chair on its back legs?”

For the second time that morning, I screamed like a ninny. My eyes flew to Riley, who was staring at me with a confused - dumbfounded look on his face.

“I knocked and the door just swung open,” he explained why he was standing in my house uninvited.

I must have been so caught up in what Chaz was saying that I hadn’t heard Riley knock.

Chaz dropped the chair back on all fours and vanished. I was definitely getting the feeling he didn’t like to be around the living. Whenever someone showed up, or was about to, he seemed to disappear.

Now I was stuck with trying to explain it to Riley, and if the look on his face was any indication of his mood, it wasn’t going to be easy.

I couldn’t think of a single excuse that might explain to him what he’d just witness, so I stalled. “I just talked to you on the phone. How did you get here so fast?”

“Have you ever heard of something called Call Forwarding? They forward my calls to my mobile. I was already on my way over here.”

Riley was no gentleman at all. He hadn’t even told me he was coming. “Why didn’t you tell me you were on your way to my house?”

“I’m a cop. I never tell anyone when I’m on my way to their house,” he stated. “So do you feel like telling me what you were doing?”

“No … not really.” It was the truth. The last thing I wanted to do was try and come up with something that didn’t make me look loony as hell, but I guessed it was too late for that.

“But you are going to tell me … right.” Riley didn’t even crack a smile, which meant he wasn’t about to let it go.

“You know … I’m really hungry. Why don’t you buy me breakfast … and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Was I really going to barter information for breakfast?

I sure was. Since I was going to have to tell him something, I might as well get breakfast out of it. In any case, eating breakfast would give me some time decide how much I should tell him.

Riley let out a long sigh. “You’re still a Hell Brat.”

* * *

He chose the Yesteryear Grill, which I knew he would. It was where all the Pine View cops hung out. Like its name suggested, the Yesteryear was a throwback to another time. While within its walls, it was easy to imagine a time when the police would gather for coffee and to plot strategies in their hunt for gangsters like Al Capone.

Sitting across from Riley, I devoured my breakfast of bacon, eggs and western hash browns. My ravenous hunger made it all too obvious that I hadn’t had a decent meal in days. He sipped his coffee while patiently waiting for me to live up to my word and tell him what was going on.

I had reached the moment of truth. Now I just had to decide if I was going to make up something to satisfy his professional curiosity, or if I was actually going to tell him what had been happening, and risk a court ordered psychiatric evaluation. I decided to tell him some of what I knew, but I’d leave out the really weird parts, like the vampires and ghosts. Hopefully he wouldn’t question me about talking to myself.

When I’d finished the watered down version of what I’d been dealing with the last few days, he asked. “So you think our killer is hiding in the tunnels beneath Pine View?”

I nodded.

“What does that have to do with talking to yourself?”

Riley was sharper than I’d given him credit for. He wasn’t going to let that little tidbit go.

“I talk to myself when I’m trying to work things out in here,” I told him, pointing to my head.

“And the chair?” he asked. “It was leaning back by itself.”

I shook my head, pretending not to know what he was talking about. “You must have imagined that. I didn’t see the chair leaning back.”

It was a bald-faced lie, but it was for the best, at least for the time being. I saw the disbelief in Riley’s eyes and cringed inwardly. If he wasn’t convinced I was telling him the truth, he wasn’t going to drop the subject.

But I was wrong. He returned to the issue of the tunnels. “I’ve known about the tunnels for a long time, but it’s not easy to get in and out of them. I doubt our killer would be using them to hide in.”

I wanted to contradict him and tell him about the entrance through the tomb, but I couldn’t yet. Not until I’d had time to explore them, and surely not until I found Shadow.

I lifted my shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “Well that’s my theory.”

Riley gave me a tolerant smile. “Cassie … being in places like the Pine View Cemetery after dark is risky, even without a serial killer running the streets. I hope you are smart enough to stay away from there,” he added.

When I said nothing, he continued. “I’m not saying that Stuart Butler will come after you, but it’s a possibility that we can’t ignore.”

For a brief moment I wasn’t even sure who he was talking about, but then I remembered that Stuart Butler was Killer Tom’s real name. “Maybe it’s time to get a gun.”

What I didn’t tell him was that I had every intention of purchasing a weapon anyway. There was no way I was going back down in those tunnels without one.

“That might not be such a bad idea,” he agreed. “But you need to learn how to use one, and you really don’t have time for that.”

I had him there. One of the first things my dad taught me while growing up, was how to use a gun. I knew how to shoot before I knew how to make pancakes. True, I didn’t really care for guns, but I knew how to use them.

“Dad already taught me how to use a gun,” I informed him.

“Good,” he smiled. “Then our next stop will be a gun shop. It will be a couple of days before the background check goes through, but maybe you can get a can of pepper spray to get you by until then.”

Apparently Riley had no intention of leaving me unprotected and vulnerable to Killer Tom, but I didn’t really understand why. He didn’t even like me.

* * *

By nightfall I was ready to crawl out of my skin. I’d heard from no one since Riley dropped me off at my apartment, not even Chaz, which was a little abnormal. He usually checked in a couple of times a day. He was still waiting for me to open some door so he could get to the other side. I was convinced he was wasting his time on that one, given that I didn’t have the slightest idea what he was talking about.