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

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  Sweat ran down into my eyes and my tank top was totally soaked from the ten miles I’d just put behind me.

  Zander peeked around the corner. “Are you trying to break that thing?” he hollered over the music.

  I shook my head and slowed the speed a couple of notches. “I can’t run outside, so this is my only option.”

  “Well, this treadmill isn’t the highest quality in the world. Take it easy, all right?”

  “Sure thing, bro.” I nodded and waited till he left the room before I turned the treadmill back up to full speed and sprinted the last mile.

  As soon as I was done, I hopped off the treadmill, wiped the sweat from my face with a towel, and did a few stretches before heading over to the weights. Luckily, we had a home gym in this house, so staying in shape was no problem. Zander and I both spent a lot of time in there. He fought me at first, claiming that he didn’t need to work out, but we both knew that was a lie. He may be tough, but I stood firm that staying in shape is one of the most important parts of vampire hunting.

  Zander is my half-brother, and we came across each other by pure coincidence. When we found him, he was pulling some vigilante vampire killing stint while looking for Trevor, our father.

  The new house was more of a necessity than anything. Once we figured out that I wasn’t going to be able to get back into Arcadia Falls, the community where the vampire hunters live, I ended up having to stay with Zander. His apartment wasn’t big enough for both of us with only the one bedroom. We tried it out for a while—with me sleeping on the couch—but that was awkward ... especially when Christina slept over.

  The solution was found in Alice, who had been staying with me at my grandfather’s house. Once I was unable to get through the barrier she had put up around the community, she felt strange staying there without me.

  So, Alice bought a house with some of the money that Trevor had left her. With new vampires popping up all over the city, we decided that a house in the country was the best bet. It was still not very safe to go outside alone without any weapons, but it was better than being trapped inside some apartment building in the city.

  Of course Oscar came to live at the new house, too. That left only Drew and Luke, my grandfather, back at the house in Arcadia Falls. Drew would not leave Luke for anything, even to be near me, and I understood that. Besides, he was here every day anyway.

  The new house was a four bedroom, log house in the middle of nowhere. It was really, really big though. We had a gourmet kitchen, which was a selling point for Alice. Go figure, the vampire apocalypse was going on outside and Alice was worried about cooking and baking stuff.

  I was impressed with the house; not only was it big, but super homey. The only problem we had was cleaning. Aside from Alice, we were all slobs, and she refused to pick up after us unless the mess happened to be in the kitchen, her work zone.

  Outside of the house, we had an expanse of lawn and the other selling point to the place, a wall. There was a fifteen foot stone wall, much like the one that had surrounded Trevor’s mansion. Our wall had old-fashioned iron spikes set on top of the top of the wall. The spikes were decorative—a repetition of a tall spike and then one a bit shorter—and lined the entire wall, lifting its height another couple of feet.

  Even better than the wall, we had a security system that consisted of a crap ton of cameras, which covered every inch of the property. We could access the cameras from any of the televisions in the house, and there was a television in every room.

  Another thing we had here, which we installed after the purchase of the house, was a vampire-proof panic room. The panic room had four entrances and exits, allowing us multiple ways of getting in and out. It was solid steel and the inside was stocked with food, water, weapons, and other provisions. It also had access to all the security.

  After finishing up with the weights I went to my room, which was way bigger than the one I had over at Luke’s. This room had a gigantic king-sized bed that was covered in a black and purple comforter and like a zillion matching pillows. The beige carpet matched the rest of the carpet in the house and was really fluffy. I favored walking around barefoot just to feel it under my feet. The floors at Luke’s house were hardwood and cold as ice in the winter.

  Other than the bed, I had a desk, which was currently covered with papers and books from all of the research and studying I’d been doing when I wasn’t hunting. The only other furniture was a long, but short, dresser made of cherry wood with a huge mirror above it and a matching tall dresser.

  I did have an attached bathroom of my own just like at Luke’s, which I immediately hit for a shower after my workout. I wanted to wash all the sweat off of myself and get ready to go out hunting again. Drew was going to come and get me so that we could spend some time together.

  Once I was dressed in jeans and a tank top, I tied my hair back into two braids to keep it out of my face. Then, I strapped on my holster, beginning the process of attaching all of my weapons to my body. First, the two forty fives went into my double holster, my black one and my pink one. Then I strapped a knife sheath onto my leg underneath each boot, and finally I hooked my bow over my head so that it rested on one of my shoulders and hung loose. The quiver went over my shoulders as well. I had rigged it so that it was more like a backpack-style and wouldn’t fall off when I was fighting.

  I had finally been using my bow more often, now that no one freaking cared if you were walking around on the streets with weapons. As long as you were killing vampires they didn’t do a damn thing to stop you. Using the bow was actually a huge asset. I could pick off the vamps from far away, which saved me from having to get close.

  Lately, though, I wanted to get close. I wanted to make them hurt, so if it took me getting a few bruises then I was all right with it ... as long as they ended up dead.

  With all of my weapons securely attached to my body, I slid my necklace with the bullet on it over my head, letting it rest gently on my chest. Drew gave it to me for my birthday. It was supposed to symbolize the bullet from when I got shot. After that, I grabbed my iPod off of the desk and stuck it in the pocket of my jeans and headed out to wait for Drew.

  I could hear voices coming from the kitchen as I approached.

  “She is going to get hurt if she keeps this up,” Alice said in a low voice.

  It was Drew who answered, “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

  “You don’t know what she’s been doing?” Alice questioned, the shock evident in her voice.

  Drew must have shook his head or something because there was no answer from him. “She is going out by herself all of the time, for one. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she stands up on top of the roof picking off all the vamps who even come close to this place, and she isn’t just killing them when she goes out into the city.” There was a pause and something that sounded like the oven door slamming. “She is doing the best she can to beat them bloody before she kills them.”

  “What the—”

  Not wanting that conversation to go on for even one more second, I burst into the room, interrupting Drew’s reaction. I threw Alice a dirty look for ratting me out to my boyfriend and headed for the fridge for a water bottle. “What are you guys up to?” I uncapped my water and took a big swig, switching my eyes back and forth between the two of them like I didn’t overhear anything.

  Surprisingly, Drew managed to compose himself pretty quick, and he didn’t even say one freaking word about me going out by myself. He simply lifted his lips into a grin and strode across the kitchen to give me a kiss. “We were just talking about how Christina will be over in a little while.” He shrugged. “Nothing big. Are you ready?”

  Alice stood by the counter with a towel in her hand and her mouth hanging open.

  “Let’s go.” Drew put his palm on the small of my back and directed me out of the kitchen, toward the front door. As soon as the door shut behind us, a series of clicks were heard and I knew that the alarm system had been engaged i
mmediately after the door was sealed.

  “Kill something for me.” Zander’s voice came over the intercom.

  I tried not to look concerned, but if he was watching the cameras he probably saw me snooping outside of the kitchen while Alice and Drew were talking. That was one drawback to all of the security in and around the house: there was no privacy at all. We just had to assume that everyone would respect each other enough to realize what was appropriate and what was not.

  “Will do,” Drew called into the air and waved at the camera.

  His truck was parked on the black pavement where Zander’s truck and our new Escalade were parked. The Escalade was technically mine, since I paid for it with part of the money my mother left me. I was still learning to drive, but I guess I didn’t really need a license anymore now that the world had gone all crappy. I kind of regretted purchasing the Escalade in the first place; all I had to do was wait a month, then I could have gone into the city and had my pick of any vehicle down there. The same went for the house.

  However, I was an honest person, and just because some crap was going down didn’t mean we were dishonest or thieves. We were trying to fix this mess, not contribute to the chaos. In any case, I did occasionally drive the Escalade, but usually someone else was doing the driving if we were out hunting.

  And we were always hunting.

  Oscar wasn’t home, but normally his motorcycle was parked beside the other vehicles.

  I opened the passenger door and set my bow and quiver inside before hopping up into the messy but comfortable interior.

  The truck roared to life and Drew pulled out of the parking spot, heading down the long driveway. Zander opened the gate automatically from inside without Drew having to show his face to the camera, which was mounted on top of the key pad.

  The mechanical iron gates rolled open and Drew roared past them, emerging onto the deserted back road that led to the highway.

  “Where are we headed today?” I asked because it was only around four in the afternoon. It was July, so it didn’t get dark till really late and the vampires wouldn’t be out until then.

  Drew took his eyes off the road and threw a glance at me. “You’ll see.”

  I sat back against the seat and put my feet up onto the dash. “You know I don’t really like surprises that much.” I looked out the passenger window. The trees this time of year were full and green and the terrain always smelled fresh ... like it had just rained. I cranked the old handle on the door and rolled down the window.

  Drew kept his eyes on the road, but his lips formed a grin. “That’s too bad.”

  I sighed purposely to let him know he was annoying. “I wish that we could go up to the falls. It sucks not being able to get into the community.”

  He nodded, agreeing with me. I knew that he missed me, but he was not going to leave Luke to come stay with me. And Luke sure as heck wasn’t going to move away from the home he had lived in since before my mother was born.

  We turned off onto another back road a few minutes before we got to the highway and the road immediately turned into dirt. I didn’t ask, because I knew that Drew didn’t want me to. The truck’s tires crunched over the loose gravel, and dust churned up and followed behind us in large cloud.

  After about twenty minutes of driving, he finally pulled off onto a tiny road ... if you could even call it that. It was more like a trail since it was barely big enough for his truck to fit. Branches, which had become overgrown, swiped at the sides of the truck as he slowly maneuvered over the pothole infested earth.

  After a few minutes the road finally ended, exposing a wide dirt lot where the trees had been cleared out. Someone had made a fire pit by erecting large rocks into a ring. Remains of charred firewood were left in the pit, as well as a scattering of beer cans and other garbage.

  Drew parked and hopped out from behind the wheel. “Come on.” He waved, urging me out of the truck.

  I opened the door and jumped down, but immediately fitted my bow and quiver back onto my shoulders. “Drew, we should be out there scouting already. I know you’re trying to be all romantic or whatever, but we are wasting time.”

  My hunter boyfriend merely shrugged his shoulders. “The vampires will still be there, but you need a time out.”

  “What?” I felt the heat rise into my cheeks. “A time out?”

  Drew ran his hand through his blond hair, which had grown longer over the last few months, and then he reached out for me. “Just come with me before you get all bent out of shape, all right?”

  I gave him my hand and let him lead me toward the trail. “I don’t need a time out,” I mumbled.

  “Shhhh” He pushed aside some of the brush that had grown over the unused trail.

  “Don’t you shhhh me!” I growled at him, feeling myself getting more and more frustrated by the moment. “Ahhh!” He let go of the branches he had been holding for me to pass by and they swung back, hitting me right in the face.

  “Don’t be a pansy, oh fierce hunter,” he teased.

  “Shut up.”

  We walked in silence for a few minutes, and the trail gradually sloped downward. Eventually we emerged from within the brush and found ourselves on the bank of a small lake.

  I held my hand over my eyes to shield them from the hot sun, which shone down onto the calm, flat surface of the water. If we had been above the lake it would have been like looking into a mirror. Even from where we stood on the bank I could see the image of the tree laden mountains reflected off of the water.

  As I stared out, a cool breeze lifted my hair away from my neck. It felt nice on such a hot day, but for some reason standing before this lake with no one else around, the air felt cleaner than usual.

  “It’s beautiful here,” I admitted.

  “Well, it’s not the Falls,” he shrugged, “but it’s peaceful and out of the way. Plus, there is little chance of any vampires heading out this way since there aren’t any people around.”

  I turned to him and gave him a weak smile. “This is all well and good, it is nice here, but we can’t sit around and stare at the water when we should be hunting or scouting the areas.” I couldn’t help it, I was getting antsy. Every moment spent messing around was a moment we should be killing vampires ... or training to kill them.

  “We aren’t going to sit around staring at the water.” He offered me a small smile before bending over and untying his boots.

  “Well let’s go then.”

  He straightened up, still with that smirk on his face. His eyes met mine and those twinkling greens suddenly portrayed mischief. He reached down, not taking his eyes off of me, and began unbuttoning his jeans.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” I practically screeched, taking a couple of steps back. I unintentionally covered my eyes with my hands, but peeked through them when I heard him laughing.

  Through my fingers I saw that my boyfriend had kicked off his boots, shed his jeans, and was standing there in his swimming trunks while holding up my bikini in his hands. “Swimming,” he said between chuckles. “We are going swimming.”

  “Where did you get that?” I pointed at my bathing suit, which had been in my underwear drawer the last time I’d seen it.

  He shrugged. “Alice.”

  “Well, where were you hiding it?”

  He glanced at the tiny bits of fabric still in his hand. “I stuck it in my pocket ... there isn’t that much here.” He strode forward and held it out to me. “So, are you joining me for a swim or not?”

  I shook my head. “We should go.”

  He bowed his head in defeat, and then looked back up to meet my eyes. “Chloe, you need to take a break.”

  I turned my head away and glanced at the lake, and then back at his eyes again. “No, what I need to do is take out every single vampire I can. I started this mess, it’s my job to help clean it up.”

  “You can’t do it alone, though. Especially if that’s all you do. You can’t forget how to have fun.”

&n
bsp; “Yeah, coming from the king of partying it up.”

  Shaking his head, Drew sighed and tossed my bikini on the ground. “Fine. I’m going swimming. You can just wait here if you don’t want to swim.”

  “Drew, we have to go!”

  He took off toward the waterline. “We will,” he called over his shoulder before he splashed into the water.

  I stood there for the longest time, waiting for him to get out. But, no, he didn’t come out. He swam far out into the lake and then floated on his back for a while, staring up at the clear blue sky.

  While he was out there, I found myself beginning to sweat in the fierce July heat. Damn it, now I understood his plan: leave Chloe out in the heat until she practically melts and is forced to go into the water.

  Drew’s blond head was bobbing in the water as he swam back to the shore. I watched him with frustration, feeling the lines of sweat roll down from my hairline. “Fine,” I muttered to myself, spinning around in the dirt to grab my bikini off the ground. It would feel good to cool off, but I needed to be out protecting people ... saving them. How many were going to die while I was swimming?

  I stalked off to the confines off the trees so that I could put my suit on where Drew couldn’t see me. Once I had shed my clothes and my bikini was securely in place. I realized how exposed I felt not having my weapons on. The last thing I was comfortable with was going out into the lake, without any protection, and becoming bobbing targets for vampires. I still had my fire, but I liked having a variety of ways to kill at my disposal.

  Gathering my clothes and weapons in my arms, I found my way back to the beach and dropped my pile of stuff as close to the water as I safely could without risking them getting wet. Then, I secured my dark purple bikini once more and looked out over the water. Drew was out there, staring at me with a big grin plastered on his face.

  “What are you smiling about?” I yelled at him.

  “Victory!” he hollered back at me.

  I stepped into the water and felt my body start to cool down immediately. Oh, it felt so good. The heat was awful this time of year. “You won’t be feeling that victory for long, hunter boy,” I called out as I waded deeper into the lake.