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

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  I rolled my eyes and left it at that, but I knew damn well that you would never find me walking around in the snow and freezing temperatures with a pair of high heeled sandals on.

  “Do you think we are going to pull this off?” Alice asked after a few moments of silence.

  Christina tilted her head and glanced over at her out of the corner of her eye. “Pull what off, the Talon Building?”

  “Yes,” she nodded, “the Talon Building. Numerical odds of us getting out of there without getting killed are pretty much none.”

  Christina shook her head. “Don’t underestimate us. We are a force to be reckoned with.” She whipped out one of her knives and tossed it up in the air. It spun end over end, its blade glinting in the sunlight, and she caught it as if she had been tossing a ball instead of a dangerous weapon.

  I smiled. “Don’t worry, Alice, we have it in the bag. Tomorrow night is our night.”

  Alice didn’t seem quite as confident as Christina and I. “Maybe we should tip off the guards at the gates and the perimeters, just in case of retaliation.”

  Christina scoffed, “Oh, they are going to retaliate, that is something we can depend on. And our guards are always ready for attack, that is why we have guards in the first place.”

  Wait, isn’t this what we were trying to avoid, risking the community? “We can’t let them get in here. I agree, we should at least let them know after the building goes down.”

  “All right,” Christina nodded, “we notify them as soon as it’s done.”

  “I might have a way that can help with that,” Alice responded softly. “I need to research it a little bit more, but I’m pretty sure there is something we can do to create some kind of a magical barrier. It would keep them out.”

  “Will it keep everyone out or just the vampires?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” She crinkled her brow. “I’ll have to research it a little bit more, but I’m sure there is a way.”

  I shrugged. “Well that’s what counts, I guess. We just need to keep them out.”

  “I’ll look into it as soon as we get home.”

  Christina pulled open the glass door leading into the ranges. “Of course, killing them all would be the better option.”

  ~~~***~~~

  As soon as we got home, Alice went running up to our room to look through her books and I went in search of Drew to see if we could head over to Zander’s. I hadn’t seen him since that night at his place. There was really no reason to see him, he was a guy and I’m positive that he wouldn’t want to sit around re-hashing the details of my drunken stupor, but we did have to brief him on the details of the attack and that required a visit.

  After checking each room, I finally found Drew in the garage doing something underneath the hood of Luke’s car. “Hey.” I stepped down into the garage, pulling the door shut behind me. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  Grease was smeared all over his jeans and red T-shirt, there were even a few smudges on his cheek where he must have rubbed at his face. His blond hair was hidden underneath a bandanna, except for a few strands slipping out at his temple.

  He withdrew from underneath the hood, holding a tiny wrench in his hand. “Yeah, I needed to replace the alternator in Luke’s car. Damn thing has been giving him all the signs of going out for a while and he never said anything to me about it, until today.”

  I shrugged. I didn’t really care about fixing cars. “Well, you know how he is.”

  Drew nodded and went back underneath the hood. “Yeah, he’s stubborn! And his granddaughter is just like him.”

  “It’s a family trait to be proud of.”

  “So, what’s going on?”

  I moved over to the workbench and sat on the stool in front of it. “I was coming to get you. We should probably go see Zander and let him know how the plans are going and make sure he knows what’s going on.”

  I heard him let out a soft sigh before answering. “Yeah, I guess we had better do that. I’m sure he also wants to know why you set his living room on fire.”

  I smiled, thinking back to the look of pure shock that my brother had had on his face at that moment. Epic. “I’m sure that Christina already explained that to him, or he would probably be calling me to find out. And he hasn’t called.”

  “All right, let me finish this up and then we can go.”

  I hopped down off the stool. “Sure. I’m going to go take a shower then.” I paused before stepping out of the garage. “You should probably think about doing that before we go, too.”

  “Ha ha, funny girl. I thought you ladies liked a man all rugged and dirty.”

  “Stop trying to woo me with your greasy clothing and get to work so we can go.” I shut the door behind me before he could make a comeback and went up to my room.

  Inside our room, Alice still had her nose buried in a rather large book with old, frail looking pages. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a messy bun and there were two pencils sticking out of the top of it. “Find anything?” I asked after shutting the door behind me.

  She shook her head without looking up at me. “Not yet. Hopefully I’ll find something soon, though. I know that we don’t want to tell anyone in the community about what we are doing. And tipping them off at all is going to be risking our whole mission. I’d rather just be able to protect the community by keeping them out.”

  “I know. I feel the same way.” I flopped down onto my bed, causing the purple comforter to make a ‘poofing’ sound as my body sunk into it. “Well, keep looking.”

  “I plan on it.”

  “I’m going over to Zander’s in a bit so we can let him know what is going on.”

  “Uh huh.”

  I shook my head at Alice’s absent minded response and closed my eyes to relax for a minute before getting in the shower. And then, of course my phone started ringing, ruining the moment. My eyes flew open when I heard the ringtone.

  It was the one that I’d given to Gavin.

  I hadn’t heard that ringtone on my phone in so long that I froze. The phone was still in my pocket, blaring memories of how much I’d longed to hear it before. Before I’d gone to live with Trevor, before Drew and I got together, back when things were not so complicated with boys.

  “Are you going to answer that?” Annoyed at the intrusion, Alice looked up from her book and glared at me.

  “No.”

  She sighed. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s Gavin. I don’t want to talk to him.”

  “What if it’s about the attack?”

  “Then he can call someone else. He has all their numbers, too.” The ringing finally ceased and we were left in a heavy silence. Relieved, I let out a long breath I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding. The relief didn’t last long, though; not a minute afterward we heard a loud bleep sound from my phone, signaling a text message.

  “Really?” I shook my head and picked up my phone to check the text message that I was sure had come from Gavin.

  It was.

  ‘Do you have time to talk?’ the message flashed over my screen.

  ‘Not a good idea.’ I answered, after waiting a minute to make it look like I had waited to answer.

  ‘Because of Drew?’

  ‘No, because whatever you want to talk about can wait.’ I texted back.

  ‘I just want to talk.’

  ‘Another time. I will see you at the meeting tomorrow before the attack.’

  ‘Tonight, come out to our spot.’

  ‘We don’t have a spot. Not gonna happen.’ I was typing furiously at the keys on my phone. Why wouldn’t he just take no for an answer?

  ‘We do have a spot and you know it. It’s where I kissed you good-bye and told you I’d make you realize I’m the one for you. I know you remember.’

  Ugh! Yeah, he wasn’t giving up. ‘See you tomorrow, Gavin.’

  ‘Fine. Tomorrow. Have a good night.’ He left a little smiley face symbol at the end of his text. I waited a
few moments to be sure he was done texting before putting my phone down and trying to relax.

  “What was that all about?”

  I looked up to find Alice staring at me with curiosity twinkling in her eyes. “He wanted to meet with me ... to talk.”

  Alice rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like you’re actually going to do that after all you just went through with Drew.”

  “I know, I am so not going there.” It was true. There was absolutely no way that I was going to risk going through all that again. Even though I wanted to be friends, I wasn’t going to push Drew. I was just happy knowing that he was letting him help on the mission. I hopped up off the bed. “I’m going to shower.”

  Back at her books, Alice barely managed to give me a nod as I disappeared through the bathroom door.

  Later, I wandered downstairs and found Drew in the kitchen, talking with Luke while he waited for me. Luke was sitting at the table with a newspaper and a steaming mug of the peppermint herbal tea that he had recently discovered.

  Drew had showered and changed into fresh jeans and a black T-shirt that was just snug enough that I could see his muscles flex underneath it. He had also lost the bandanna and opted for his normal winter hat.

  “Hey,” I offered as I strode into the room, trying to fasten my holster while I walked.

  Luke narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to see your brother?”

  I nodded just as I finished buckling my holster and gave it a pat. “That is the plan, anyway.” He only continued to glare at me.

  “What?” I spread my hands out innocently. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

  My grandfather’s eyes softened and he sipped his tea. “We will see. I’m still very upset and I don’t trust him. In fact, now I trust him even less than I did before.”

  Drew pulled his keys from his pocket. “Don’t worry, Luke. I’m not leaving her.”

  “And you have demonstrated the utmost maturity lately. I feel so much better now.” Luke rolled his eyes to the ceiling as if asking the gods for help.

  “Come on, Chloe.” Drew grabbed my hand and practically dragged me out of the house.

  ~~~***~~~

  Zander answered the door dressed in his usual black jeans and leather jacket. “I’ll let you guys in, but if you damage anything I’m making you pay for it. I’m tired of replacing all the crap you guys destroy.”

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered, slipping past him into the apartment.

  He stepped aside to let Drew in and pushed the door shut behind him. “Don’t be sorry, just stop ruining my stuff.” He led us over to the tiny little dining table that he had set up on one side of the living room.

  I slid out a chair and sat down. “We just came to talk about the Talon Building, to make sure that you know what the plan is and where to meet us.”

  Drew sat down beside me and Zander took a spot on the other side of the table. “Yeah, I’m ready. I know where to be and what to bring. I’d rather talk about you not telling me that you can shoot fire out of your fingertips.”

  I knew that was coming. Even if Christina had filled him in, I knew he would want to hear it from me. “I found out I could when I was fifteen. It runs in the blood line of the Hunters; some of us have it and some don’t. We figure I came into them early because I’m half vampire, too.”

  Zander slid his eyes toward Drew. “What can you do?”

  “I don’t have any elemental gifts,” Drew responded curtly. It was one of his many sensitive spots, because he didn’t have any gifts and Gavin did. It was like he felt as if Gavin got everything out of the deal or something.

  I reached over and set my hand on Drew’s leg. “Like I said, only some get it. I’m sure you talked to Christina about this, didn’t she explain it?”

  “She told me that it wasn’t her place to talk about it and that if I wanted to know that I needed to ask you.” He tipped back in his chair so that it was on its two back legs.

  Okay, that was something I didn’t expect. “Well, in any case, it’s hard to control sometimes. I’m getting better, but it’s the hardest to manage when I’m angry... and because I was drinking, I had even less control of my body.”

  “Interesting. Why didn’t you just tell me before?”

  “There was no reason to say anything.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t lie, Chloe, it’s because you don’t trust me enough, isn’t it?”

  I stared him straight in the eyes. “No, I don’t. You just came into my life and you claim to be my brother from a vampire who tried to kill me. How am I supposed to trust you? Trust is something that is earned over time ... and honestly, I don’t trust that many people to begin with.”

  His chair hit the floor with a muffled, thunk. “That’s understandable, I guess.”

  Suddenly, I felt a pang of guilt and pity for him. He had nothing. Like me, he’d lost his mother who was his whole life and went searching for his father. Only his reasons for trying to find his father were totally different than mine, and his father died before he could find him. The difference between us was that I had a support system of people behind me and he had no one. On the outside he was this bad boy who did whatever he wanted, but I knew there was something deeper there. He ran around at night saving innocent people from vampires for crying out loud! People who only cared about themselves didn’t do things like that.

  “Zander. The trust will come in time, but don’t ever think that I don’t care about you. I am still your family and I’m around so we just need to keep getting to know each other.”

  He pushed away from the table and stood up. “I don’t really care either way. I’ve been on my own this long.”

  I stood up, too, and Drew followed suit. “Well, we should go then. Since you’re ready for tomorrow.”

  Zander nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

  Drew, who had remained surprisingly silent the entire visit, held his fist up for a fist bump. I guess that was the guy way of making up after the scuffle about me the other night. “See you tomorrow.”

  Zander tapped his own fist into Drew’s. “Yup.”

  We left the apartment and headed for home to get a good night’s sleep before the excitement that the next night would bring us. I thought about it on the way home and realized that I should have been nervous, but I wasn’t. I was actually anxious and excited about taking out that vampire-ridden building. For every one of those monsters that left this earth it meant multitudes of innocent people who would get to live.

  ~~~***~~~

  The scent of city lay on the breeze. Cities always carried that unique smell of exhaust and every different kind of food you can imagine. I inhaled the air deeply; it was a scent that I rather liked. The city had far less snow and ice than the countryside of Arcadia Falls. Just a few patches and piles left here and there.

  Drew and I were hidden within the crevices between the buildings surrounding the Talon Building, watching and waiting for our moment. At three in the morning the dimly lit streets were deserted, but security still remained in some of the surrounding buildings.

  My gun was at my side, in a new holster which situated the new silencer that was attached to it. I held my bow and one arrow at the ready while we staked out our target. Reaching up, I adjusted the earpiece on my headset. We were listening to Oscar persuade the security guards from all the buildings. Christina was with him, since she was a better fighter than he was and was better equipped to handle it if there were any problems.

  Drew and I were alone in our little hiding spot. Zander and Alice were down the block a little ways, while Luke, Nicholas, and Gavin were already making their way to the door we intended to enter.

  After what seemed like forever, we heard Oscar’s voice through our earpieces. “Surrounding structures are clear. En route.”

  We all had headsets so that we could communicate with each other if needed. I couldn’t stand the damn thing. It interfered with my super hearing, big time. Zander was having issues with his, too. We had to remove
them every time we wanted to use our enhanced hearing otherwise our eardrums could be blown out.

  “Red con one,” Luke’s voice whispered over the headset.

  “That’s the signal,” Drew hissed, sliding his hood up over his head. “Let’s move.” He stood up, grabbing my hand and bringing me with him. “You ready, babe?”

  I scrunched up my nose. “Babe?”

  He shrugged. “Just trying it out.”

  Christina made a gagging noise over the headset so I squeezed Drew’s hand. “I’m totally ready. Let’s go.”

  Cloaked by the darkness of night and the shadows of the buildings, we hurried toward the others who were waiting for us. As we approached, Nicholas was just putting away the tools he had used to pick the lock. It was some sort of key code lock in addition to the two bolt locks. I made a mental note to have him teach me how to do that, and then briefly wondered if they taught lock picking at school. It wasn’t just the lock; he had been there since we arrived hacking the security system and disabling it.

  Luke waved us in with one hand and held his gun in the other hand. Silently, we all filed into the depths of the Talon Building’s basement. The basement was a maze of concrete rooms filled with noisy machines. Nicholas led the way with Drew and Gavin right behind him carrying backpacks full of explosives, which were to be placed into designated spots within the building. Luke was bringing up the rear since he had been the last through the doorway.

  Nicholas stopped at one of the closed doors along the way and swung open the door. Oscar moved to the front of the pack and hurried inside the room with Nicholas to cut the elevators. The rest of the group stood outside the room and waited. I peeked inside and saw all kinds of switches and levers. Oscar was fiddling with some of them while Nicholas wired up one of the bombs. It didn’t take long. Nicholas and Oscar came out of the room and we resumed our single-file formation through the underbelly of the Talon Building.

  I was teamed with Zander and we were to go to the top of the building along with Alice and Oscar. Each team had to take a different side of the top floors while the others stuck to the bottom of the building.