The Arcadia Falls Chronicles: Omnibus (Books 1-6)

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  “I really should get going.” He stood to put his jacket back on. The bad boy persona had returned quickly. Zander leaned over and gave Christina, who had been surprisingly quiet this whole time, her own napkin with his number on it. Then, he just left.

  “Oh, my god.” I slumped back in my seat. “I did not see that coming at all.”

  ~~~***~~~

  Christina dropped us off, and we filed into the house. It was around three in the morning, and we were all exhausted. Alice and I went straight to our room and practically fell into bed. She passed out immediately, but even as tired as I was, I tossed and turned in bed. Finally, realizing I wasn’t going to be able to get to sleep, I did something I had never done before.

  I crept out of bed as quietly as I could. The hardwood of the floor was cold against my feet, causing me to shiver. I had on only my shorts and tank top, but I didn’t let myself stop to get my robe. Sneaking out the door, I hurried down the hall to Drew’s room and entered without knocking.

  I stopped right inside the doorway and quietly eased it shut. Drew lay in bed on his side, snoring softly. The window shades were drawn so the moonlight shined through and bathed him in glowing light. Slowly, I approached him, peeled the covers back and slid in next to him.

  He startled, and I realized that climbing in bed with him while he was asleep was akin to a car backfiring around a soldier with PTSD; probably wasn’t the best idea that I’d ever had.

  He didn’t reach for his gun or hit me, after the initial confusion he realized it was me. “Chloe?”

  “It’s me.”

  “What are you doing in here?” I snuggled as close to him as I could get and still remain facing him, His arms found my waist and rested there.

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  He smiled. “I don’t have that problem.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told him. “I can leave.”

  I shifted, intending to let him sleep. I should have known it was a bad idea.

  “No, no. It’s all right.” He tightened his arm around me and pulled me against him. I pulled my leg up and rested it on top of his legs because it was more comfortable that way. Strange how we could probably cuddle this same way on the couch downstairs and it would seem far less intimate and more playful.

  I looked into his eyes, searching for something, although I didn’t know what. “Is it okay if I just lie here with you?”

  “Of course,” he whispered back to me and then kissed my lips softly. “Are you all right after meeting Zander?”

  “I don’t know. I hope that he’s telling the truth, but fact is, we don’t really know if he is.”

  “So if he is telling the truth, how do you feel?”

  “I have to think about it some more. I guess if it’s true, we will probably have to spend some more time together. He is a vampire killer, too, so it makes sense. It just feels weird to have us, as this whole community, as a family, and then to have my... brother,” I choked on the word, “out there fighting them all by himself.”

  He nodded, understanding my dilemma.

  I thought for a few minutes before I continued to speak. “I also wanted to make sure that you knew Gavin left.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, he left?”

  “He left. He’s gone. I don’t know where, but he told me that he was going somewhere, but that he would be back.”

  Drew rolled his eyes. “Good. I’m glad he isn’t around. It’s one less thing for me to worry about.”

  I let out a huge sigh. I should have known better than to say anything. I just kept hoping that one day he and Gavin would let go of their animosity and just be brothers. So what if Drew’s mom is a bitch? I had seen Drew and Gavin fight together. They were a great team. They could be a great team, if only they could bring that into other aspects of their lives.

  “Do you want him to come back?” Drew asked softly.

  I so knew better than to answer that. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just wanted you to know he isn’t around.”

  “Are you sleepy yet?” Drew yawned while he spoke.

  “I can try. Will you let me stay with you?”

  “Sure.” He reached up and moved some of my hair away from my eyes. I turned around so my back was to him and his chest was pressed against my back. He placed his arms around my waist and entwined his fingers with mine. I could feel his breath on my neck, his heart beat against my back, and the heat of his body keeping us warm. I hadn’t felt so utterly peaceful in a long time.

  “Oh, and Chloe?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “We’re gonna take the Talon Building.”

  The Arcadia Falls Chronicles

  Book 2

  Taking Talon

  ~~~***~~~

  Prologue - Chloe’s Diary

  ~~~***~~~

  Feb 10th, 2012

  A person does not choose their destiny.

  We are given free will and the ability to choose which direction to take on the map of our lives. However, fate will always lead us back to where we belong, no matter which road we take to get there.

  My destiny is to be a Hunter. Fate put the choice in my hands and gave me gifts to succeed at my destiny. I have finally accepted ... no, chosen to embrace the life placed before me. The blood of the Hunters runs through my veins, mingling with the demon vampire blood of my father. It took a long time to realize that this was not a curse, but a gift, a road sign on the map leading the way to where I need to be in life.

  As I chronicle our adventures in this journal, I write it down, recalling what we’ve done and what has happened to us. As these events sink in, it really occurs to me just how crazy it all sounds. Someday, this journal will be found and recorded for the history books of the Hunters. Through these pages, we will continue to protect the human race from the ever present evil of vampires.

  I have found my place, but the life of a teenager continues.

  We are amidst plans for taking out the Talon Building. Drew has finally agreed to go along with my idea about bombing vampire central ... aka, the Talon Building. Now, it is merely a matter of getting other Hunters in on our plan.

  Alice, Oscar, and Christina are with us, of course. So is Luke, but the board doesn’t think we should move on the vampires. We, however, saw Sostrate—my demi-goddess ancient grandmother—appear to us with a warning about the coming war between the Hunters and the vampires, so none of us are willing to risk the community, where our homes and families are.

  Zander is my long lost brother whom I never knew I had, which is another story. We are debating on bringing him into the group, into our community and our plans, but we can’t let just anyone through the gates into Arcadia Falls, even if they are my family. He is my family on Trevor’s side, not my mother’s. I am not sure I completely trust him enough to bring him here yet. However, we have been spending some time together, to talk about Trevor.

  I loathe talking about Trevor, that man was one of the worst things to ever happen to me, but I do it because Zander deserves to know where he comes from. I admit, even though I hated Trevor, it was nice to have learned my heritage during the time I spent with him.

  Alice is becoming a powerful weapon. I despise talking about her that way, but each day her magic grows a little bit more. She practices all the time, and studies ancient books in hopes that she will find more on what she can do. She is most likely more powerful than any of us are.

  My mother would be proud of us, I think. My mother, whose destiny to save the world from vampires changed when she discovered me inside of her womb. She passed that destiny on to me and took another for herself. Her fate was to die protecting the one who stole her destiny.

  Her death wasn’t an accident, everything that happens is guided by the gods or fate, or something ...

  ~~~***~~~

  Large, fat snowflakes fell gently from the moody, grey sky.

  I tilted my head and let the flakes fall onto my face, tempted to stick out my tongue and catch them like I
did when I was a little girl.

  “You ready?” Drew called out.

  “I am!” Alice’s voice rang across the snow covered field.

  Shaking off the memories and the wet snow, I snapped back to attention. “Me, too. I’m ready.” I spread my arms wide, focusing my energy and imagining what I wanted it to do. The heat flowed and expanded in my body, making its way outward until two flaming spheres appeared in my palms. The fire danced and swirled, just waiting to be released.

  I moved my gaze back to Alice, who looked like a snow princess in her white coat with fur trim and matching boots. Her whole outfit was white, even her jeans. She wore her blonde hair down to cover her ears, instead of her usual ponytail, and she had twin short swords crossed at her back, replacing her customary hip sword. Her hands were up and at the ready.

  Still hesitant, even though we had done this before, I pulled back and launched my flaming spheres at her.

  Between her extended hands a wavering glow appeared. The gentle glow moved like the ripples when you touched still water. My fire balls hit the glowing shield and absorbed right into it. Thank God. Those fireballs could cause some serious damage if they had actually hit her.

  As soon as the shield had completely absorbed the fire, I charged her.

  She saw me coming and expanded her shield wider. I knew I wouldn’t be able to penetrate it, so I dug my boots into the snow and pushed off, sailing right over the top of her head. While I was over her, she spun, letting down her shield and drawing her swords simultaneously.

  My gun was out of its holster before I even landed. I stuck the landing and had the weapon aimed between her swords, directly at her heart.

  “Enough!” Drew called out. “Chloe, you took too long on your draw. She would have cut you down by the time you landed.”

  How annoying. She had been practicing for a little over a month with magic, and not much longer with the swords, and she was already better than me. I holstered my gun, panting hard. “Got it.” I agreed with his criticism, even though I knew my draw wasn’t slow, my weapon was out before I even landed. It was the landing and aiming at the same time I needed to work on.

  “I’d opt for fire in the same situation next time.”

  I again nodded that I understood, but didn’t acknowledge him any further. “Nice shield expansion,” I told Alice while she fit her swords back into their sheaths.

  She smiled at the compliment. “Thanks. I’ve been practicing with it.”

  “Again,” Drew ordered from the sidelines, his arms crossed over his chest. I looked over and caught his eye, giving him a nice evil stare to show him how much I hated when he became mean trainer guy. He rolled his eyes and waved his hand at me in a get on with it manner.

  For hours and hours we continued our mock battle of throwing fire, fighting, and freezing our butts off. Eventually the sun fell behind the mountains, turning the grey snowy day into a grey snowy dusk.

  Drew eyed the sky and realized it was time to go. “All right, girls, let’s head out.” He clapped his hands together. “We need to get moving before it gets too dark.”

  I dusted some of the snow off of my pants and lifted my bow so that it was sitting across my shoulders sideways. “Well, we could have left a while ago.”

  Drew shrugged. “It will be fine. You two need to train as much as possible if we are going to pull off taking down the Talon Building. Which was your idea, by the way,” he added.

  “That’s all we’ve been doing for the last month!” I complained, even though I really didn’t mind all that much. I liked training, but it would be nice to do something else once in a while. Drew didn’t respond to my whining; he knew that responding would only make it worse. So his response was simply to turn around and start walking.

  I puffed out a big breath of air and looked over at Alice, who had been watching the exchange with boredom. She was a constant spectator of the bickering between Drew and I, so she simply waited for us to finish.

  “You ready?” she asked.

  I hefted my backpack onto one shoulder, since I was holding my bow on the other. “Yeah, let’s go.”

  We didn’t make it home before dark and ended up trying to navigate the icy trails with only my fire to lead us. Once we made it out of the trails and into town, it was easier because the street lights lit our way with a dim glow.

  Luke had dinner waiting for us when we got home, but he wasn’t alone. Oscar and Nicholas, one of his closest friends who didn’t think Luke was going crazy like the rest of the board did, were with him. They were standing around the kitchen table, staring down at several sheets of paper that were spread out in front of them.

  Drew looked from Luke to Oscar and then over to Nicholas. “What’s going on? Did something happen?” He pulled out his phone and checked it to see if he had mysteriously missed a message.

  Luke shook his head. “No, you didn’t miss anything. Nicholas is here because he is going to join us in trying to infiltrate the Talon Building.” Nicholas nodded at Drew, acknowledging him. I felt so bad for Luke. Ever since Sostrate had appeared to us and he told the board members about it, they had practically shunned him. It was my opinion that they just thought he was getting old and agreeing with the crazy kids who were making up stories about demi-goddesses appearing to them and telling them that they needed to prepare for a war with the vampires. I just felt bad that Luke had sort of lost his status because of us.

  Oscar, looking as hot as always, held a plate of food in his hands and was stabbing at something that looked like stir fry. “Yeah, check it out. Nicholas was able to get blueprints for the Talon Building!”

  I rushed forward to look and so did Drew. “Oh my God! Why didn’t you call us?” I demanded, placing my hands on the table and staring down at the blueprints. I couldn’t really understand anything about them, but they could and that is what mattered. Being able to find a way into the building was huge.

  “Where did you get these?” Alice asked while Drew intently studied the sheets of paper.

  Nicholas looked up from the prints; he wasn’t as old as Luke, but almost and it showed. He was a very fit, older man with a full head of grey hair that he had slicked back. “We had them in the vault, but no one ever thought that taking on the Talon Building was worth it. So they have just been sitting there.”

  “Wow.” I turned away from the blueprints and went to get myself a bowl of the stir fry. “This is awesome!”

  Oscar nodded enthusiastically. “That’s what I thought. Aside from getting people to help us, this is probably our most valuable piece of the puzzle.”

  Drew and Alice moved away from the plans, each grabbing up a bowl so that they could get some dinner, too. “How long do you think it’s going to be till we infiltrate?” I asked over a mouthful of veggies.

  Luke began rolling up the blueprints so that the table would be clear for people to sit down. “There is no way to tell, but I think we need a couple more weeks, at least.”

  I took off my bow and backpack, setting them down in the corner of the kitchen, and then sat down in one of the chairs with my food. I glanced back and forth between Nicholas and Luke. “We can’t wait too long, you know. Sostrate told us there was going to be a war, but if we wait long enough they are going to attack us, and the community is vulnerable because no one believed us.” Nicholas looked away, appearing ashamed of the decisions made by his fellow Hunters.

  Luke nodded. “We know, Chloe. But we also cannot move before we are ready.”

  Since my mouth was full, I nodded that I understood.

  Alice brought her dinner to the table and Oscar sat down beside her. “I think if it came down to it, we would do all right in a fight,” she said, looking down into her bowl.

  Drew shook his head. “All right isn’t good enough.”

  Her head snapped up. “Drew, I have been working my butt off. I can do hand to hand combat and I’d never thrown a punch in my life before I started training! I can fight with duel swords and win ag
ainst anyone here, and I have several magical powers that I’ve excelled at. All in the course of one month! I’m pretty sure I could at least hold my own.”

  “I agree,” he told her calmly, his green eyes twinkling. I think he was actually pretty proud of her progress.

  Finished with my stir fry, I stood and took my bowl to the sink. “He means me,” I told her. “You’re doing great. I’m the one who still has issues.”

  Drew met my eyes and I saw it was true. He never told me things to make me feel better, he just told the truth. I liked that quality about him, but at the same time it was really frustrating that he didn’t have more confidence in me.

  “I just want you to be able to protect yourself. And others,” he added.

  I wanted to argue so badly, but I knew he was just worried about me. “I don’t care. I’m working hard and I will continue to work hard.” I turned and tried not to appear huffy as I strode out of the room.

  ~~~***~~~

  The next day, Monday, I had school. I truly could not wait until I didn’t have school anymore. There was no one there that I cared to see at all, and none of them paid attention to me either. Luckily, Drew had realized that I had no friends and showed up at lunch time every day, saving me from having to eat alone at the empty lunch table of shame.

  “You all right?” he asked, handing me a sandwich after I climbed into his ugly old truck.

  I accepted the sandwich, wrapped in the checkered wrap from Dana’s Deli, and shrugged. “I’m fine, just feeling sort of down I guess.”

  “Can I help?”

  I shook my head. “How should I know? I don’t even know what’s wrong with me.”

  He leaned over, bringing his face close to mine. “Are you sure there is nothing that could make you feel better?”

  I crinkled my brow in confusion. “What is wrong with you?”

  He gently took the sandwich out of my hand and ran his fingers across my cheek. “I just don’t like it when you’re unhappy,” he whispered.

  “I’m not unhappy.” My breath caught when he moved closer and brushed his lips against mine. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in closer as our kiss deepened.