As Danni stopped the car in front of it, an assault of terrifying memories raced through my brain. Vincent’s pointed leer, the flash of his knife as he killed that unnamed werewolf—his maniacal face just before he bit Derek. And more recently, those decomposing dead girls piled in the corner of the barn like a garbage heap.... I swallowed hard, shoving away the memories. Vincent was dead now—truly dead. He couldn’t hurt me anymore. And with the sun firmly in the sky, no other vampire would either.
“So is this where you’re going to kill me?” Danni said lightly.
I fought off a grin. She didn’t know how close she was to the true purpose of this run-down barn. “No,” I said. “I went to a party here once.”
“And . . . you were hoping someone left some beer around?”
I cut her a look.
“What?” she said. “I could totally use a drink right now.”
“Will you be serious for a minute?” But I was smiling now.
“Okay then, Sherlock. Why are we here?”
I cooked up a story quickly, trying my best to keep it sounding plausible. “I heard one of the murdered girls was found around here.” Kind of true. Not only had there been a dozen dead bodies here, but Vincent had killed a girl on Halloween night—same night I’d found out what he and Lucas were. She hadn’t been found here, but whatever. It made more sense than me telling Danni we were here because it had once been a vampire lair-turned frenzy house.
I prayed to everything I knew that Heather would be here. I had no other leads and no time to do any more searching before nightfall.
“Place smells like wet dog,” Danni called as she poked her head into the barn.
I exited the car and came up behind her, following her inside. Everything was as I recalled it, minus the dead bodies.
“Empty,” I said, voice hollow.
“There’s a door here,” Danni said, leaning over a place on the floor with her hands on her knees. “Basement, I guess.”
I hurried over as Lucas’s words echoed through my head—vampires liked to live underground. I pushed past Danni as I came up to the door. “Let me,” I said and reached for the iron ring on the basement door. They’ll be asleep. It’s still daylight.
I yanked on the handle, feeling a puff of stale air smack my face as the door flipped past me. I darted back, terrified of what I might find. But nothing happened. No vampires popped out. No corpses rattled. No Heather.
It was just a small compartment filled with an empty beer keg and some cracked plastic cups—remnants from the Halloween party, no doubt.
“Damn,” Danni muttered, kicking the door back in.
“Yeah,” I looked out at the sky above the hayloft. It was turning the color of peach skin—sunset. “We should really get back.”
“What about Heather?”
Something inside my stomach pinched, but I ignored it. I wanted to help her so badly, but staying out past nightfall wasn’t an option. I’d only make myself available to the vampires and then I’d never be able to help her.
“I’ll, ah . . . make some calls,” I said. “To her roommates and stuff. Maybe they know something.” It was a dumb excuse, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I started walking out toward the car. But Danni stayed put, hand propped up on her trim hip.
“The police will have already done that,” she said. “We should keep looking.”
I spun on her. “Where? Where do we look, Danni? I have no idea where she might be, do you?”
Danni pursed her lips. “No, but we can’t just leave. We should—”
“No,” I cut her off, voice firm. “I need to get back.”
Danni seemed to wrestle with something, probably the same guilt I felt over Heather’s fate, but then reluctantly followed me to the car. We didn’t speak for a long time on the way back to campus. I was on the verge of tears, and Danni’s face was a mask of stone. She drove agonizingly slowly to campus so that when we finally got there, it was dark and my mind was swimming with fear. I practically flew out of the car when she pulled into the driveway.
“I’ll call you if I hear anything,” I said.
She just nodded, and I could tell by her face that she was pissed. But I didn’t have time to worry about that—I could call her later and amend it. I waved and watched her take off down the road.
I cursed to myself as I hurried back to my room. Why had Danni driven so slowly? We could have easily been back before sunset. The temperature had dropped with the sun, and I shivered in my light sweater and tank top. It was one of those odd hours during the day when nobody seemed to be around, so I ran to my front door. I struggled with my keys as I tried to fit them into the lock, and they fell to the brick floor in a pile. I swore again as I bent to pick them up.
“You’re a clumsy little bitch aren’t you?” came a voice from behind me. I froze at the sound. I knew that voice.
I turned and faced Melissa.
She smiled, propping her hands on her hips, which were just barely hidden by an impossibly tiny miniskirt. Her hair was pulled straight back, and her face was painted in heavy makeup, making her even more stunningly beautiful than usual. But the deadliness glinting in her eyes was all I could focus on. Because it meant she was there to kill me.
26
SLIPPING BELOW THE SURFACE
Although the sight of Melissa’s gorgeous, coy smile sent ice water shooting through my veins, I refused to let her know she’d scared me.
“Where’s Heather?” I demanded.
“Heather who?” I tested her vibe and was surprised to find genuine bewilderment. She didn’t know who Heather was—not her name, but maybe she’d know about a new vampire or a hostage being held.
“The girl taken last night,” I said. “What did you do with her?”
Melissa flipped her long tendrils of black hair over her shoulder, eyeing me with distain. “We didn’t take anyone, you idiot. Why would we?”
“To—to get to me?” It sounded so narcissistic when said aloud.
“Oh, please. We don’t need to take captives to get a hold of one measly human—especially one dumb enough to stand outside after nightfall. Alone.” The greed shining in her eyes sent my stomach into a whirl. “Besides, if we did want you that badly, we’d just use a bloodie.”
“Why didn’t you, then?”
“You’re dumb, Faith Reynolds. But even I know you’re not that dumb. You’d be able to tell if a bloodie was trying to trick you with that handy little power of yours.”
I held my head a little higher, happy that I’d gathered some semblance of a reputation among the vampires.
“Then again,” Melissa said, “you were stupid enough to stay out after nightfall tonight. So maybe we should have used a bloodie, after all. It would have saved me the trouble of scuffing my new Manolos.” She wiggled her spiky high-heeled shoes at me.
“Why now?” I asked. “Lucas and I have been apart for months, and Derek has been gone for weeks. Why wait until now to take me?”
“I wasn’t told to come and get you until tonight. I don’t know why Arabella waited so long. I don’t ask questions. I follow orders.”
“Like a good little bitch,” I said swiftly.
Her eyes sliced holes in my head, and I immediately regretted my outburst.
“I’m not coming with you,” I warned.
“Of course you are. Now come on.” She held out a petite tan-gloved hand. “Or am I going to have to drag you?”
I planted my feet. “I definitely think it’s going to be the latter.”
Melissa sighed as if greatly inconvenienced. “I hate humans.” She made to grab for me, and I screamed as loud as I could. Melissa stopped, glancing around to make sure we were alone.
“That’s right,” I said smugly. “There are windows all over the place. If you try to take me, someone will see. I’ll scream again.”
Melissa pressed her lips together as if trying to hide a smile. Suddenly she was on top of me—her arm slung around my wais
t—and she jerked me into the shadows. There was no time to scream; it lasted less than the length of a heartbeat. When she stopped on the shadowed side of the building, she let me fall hard to the ground. My head clashed against the brick pathway. We were sequestered within the thick foliage on the side of my building, completely invisible to anyone in the courtyard or the road beyond it.
I heard Melissa laughing above me as I struggled to my feet, disoriented.
“I guarantee nobody saw that,” she hissed.
I knew she was right. And I also knew she was playing with me—she could have killed me, turned me, or taken me away by now. I leaned against the brick wall, head throbbing. “Didn’t your mother tell you not to play with your food?” I said.
But Melissa wasn’t listening. She came closer, her eyes glittering in the moonlight, pupils growing wider with blackness. It was then that I noticed a warm slippery feeling on the side of my head. I reached up and then held my fingers out, feeling warm wetness that filled my gut with dread. They were coated in scarlet.
I looked up at Melissa’s hungry face.
“Shit.”
She lunged at me.
I crouched low, covering my head in my hands and bracing myself for the bite that would end me forever. But it never came. Instead, I heard a grunt and a deep throaty sound. Melissa cursed and I looked up.
The heather-gray wolf was there.
My heart exploded with relief—and fear. I didn’t know whether to be afraid of the wolf or happy that it was here. Was it there to save me or get at me first?
I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
The wolf pinned Melissa to the ground with its jaws, but she struck out with a silver knife she’d pulled from a band on her thigh and stabbed the wolf’s side. It howled and cringed away, releasing its hold on Melissa long enough for her to fly at me.
I ducked again, but the wolf recovered in time, clamping its jaws onto Melissa’s trim leg. She screamed and I ran.
I ran out of that pathway and across the courtyard so fast I hardly knew it was happening. I only refocused when I’d shut myself inside my building to watch through the glass door, trying to see signs of the fight still raging behind the wall on my right. But I couldn’t see anything. There were no sounds. I stood there for a few minutes longer—listening.
Finally, I accepted the fact that they must have left.
I turned to go up to my room and was instantly confused.
I wasn’t in my building. I was in Lucas’s. I shook my head at myself, slapping my forehead. I winced at the pain, since my head was still throbbing from hitting the ground. I’d been so eager to get away that I’d run clear across the courtyard and into Lucas’s building. I still had his key, so I’d been able to let myself in. I didn’t know if it’d been habit to come here or if it was some subconscious lure to the safety that lay just one floor above me.
Lucas.
Either way, I was stuck in here. I wasn’t going back out into the courtyard. If Melissa had won, she’d been waiting to take me. If the wolf had won . . . well, I didn’t know what it would do. It seemed to be stalking me, and the malicious intent I sensed in its vibe indicated that it probably wanted to kill me.
But just now it had saved me.
Regardless, I wasn’t going back outside until dawn.
So, I curled down against the wall and pressed the heel of my hand against the cut on the side of my head. It had stopped bleeding, thankfully, but I took off my sweater to mop up the blood on the side of my face.
There was no more denying it: I needed protection. With Lucas and Derek out of the picture, Katie was my first thought, but I just couldn’t bring myself to call her. She’d made it clear that she wasn’t willing to risk her reputation within the pack in order to help me.
So that meant I had to make up with one of the boys I’d pushed away. I looked up at the ceiling, imagining that I was directly below Lucas’s room, even though I knew I wasn’t. I closed my eyes, hoping that I could sense through the ceiling and feel his vibe; his wild, tumultuous energy that had become more of a comfort to me than anything else in my life. I missed him so much it was an actual physical pain—my body was on fire.
I winced and looked away. I couldn’t ask Lucas to help me. I’d never survive the trauma of seeing him.
So that left Derek.
I drew in a deep breath, dragged my cell phone out of my back pocket, and punched the speed dial.
“Derek Turner at your service,” his soft voice came through the phone.
“It’s Faith.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment and then, “Yes?”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted. “About . . . that night.”
He was silent.
“I was just overwhelmed, I guess. By everything. And I didn’t mean to cut you out of my life. You did that to me last semester, and I should have known how it would hurt you. I’m sorry.”
“Whatever. It’s fine.”
I frowned at my shoes. “Did you hear what happened to Heather? It was on the news. The people she was with are dead and she’s missing. I can’t get a hold of her. I’m scared she’s dead, too.”
“Uh-huh,” Derek grunted. I heard glasses clinking in the background and music playing. Someone released a slimy sallow laugh—Calvin’s laugh—and a chill skittered down my spine.
Derek hadn’t left, after all. He’d gone back to the vampires. After everything I’d done to get him away from them, he went back. All the murders and the uprising, and the attempts on my life meant nothing to him. Just because I wouldn’t be with him, he went back. Like this was some sort of morbid punishment.
I heard Calvin’s laughter again and my composure snapped. “Is that Calvin?” I demanded.
“What do you care?” Derek said just as acidly.
“I care because they might have killed Heather. And he tried to kill me! Not to mention the fact that Melissa just tried to eat me.”
Derek ignored that. “What do you want, Faith? I’m busy.”
“Do you even care that Heather is missing?”
“Not particularly. She was a pain.”
I let out a gasp, unable to believe what I was hearing. This wasn’t Derek. This was a monster.
“You know what?” I said. “Lucas was right all along. You are a leech!”
I hung up before he could contest.
I curled my hands over my face, crying out with loss and frustration. I hated Derek for going back to the vampires and I hated this fear. I wasn’t this weak person.
I sniffed loudly and straightened. I couldn’t live my life like this. I couldn’t do anything about the uprising, but I could certainly help my friend. I had to at least try.
But I needed some help to do it.
I needed—damn it, I needed Lucas.
At the thought of asking him for help, the scars I’d built around the wound in my heart twanged with an almost unimaginable pain. Suddenly, his voice was in my head, too loud to ignore as I usually did. I won’t be too proud to accept your help. It only made me grit my teeth harder against the idea. It wasn’t just pride keeping me from approaching Lucas again after all this time. It was fear. Seeing Lucas would probably send me right back to that pathetic ball of tears I used to be. But he’d be able to help me. And I had no other options.
I drew in a big breath, snatched up my phone and marched up to Lucas’s room, making it all the way to his door before doubt halted me.
What if he opened the door and I found him with someone else? What if he’d moved on? What if he didn’t care that Heather was gone? And that I was scared out of my mind that I would be next? What if he told me to go away?
What if he wasn’t even there?
I shook my head, shoving the doubt away, and pounded my fist on the door before I could stop myself. Okay, it’s over. I did it. I knocked. Now I just have to wait until he—
Lucas opened the door immediately. His eyes met mine and blazed silver, but he blinked and they were brown on
ce more. It happened so quickly I wasn’t sure if I’d actually seen it.
We stood there staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. Now that I was there, looking at him after all these many weeks of longing to see his face, I didn’t know what to say. Words seemed so inadequate. Kissing would be much more appropriate or maybe crying hysterically.
The seconds continued to pass as though we were stuck in a time warp.
My skin caught fire beneath his gaze, and the flames rippled deep down into my bones. My only thought was him. Lucas, Lucas, Lucas. Over and over like a train fallen off its tracks, wild and aimless, heading toward disaster.
Then there was a sound. A sound I’d dreamt of, soft and grating like the low end of a guitar. Rough to the ear, but somehow perfect. Somehow better than any other sound in the world.
“Is something wrong?” Lucas asked.
It took a moment for the shock to wear off. For me to realize that I had to answer.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Tell me.”
Then I stopped being amazed that I was actually talking to him and really took him in. His expression was blank. No scowl. No smirk. Nothing. Not even a vibe to go off of. Just ... indifference.
Somehow that crushed me more than anything else up to that point.
He didn’t care that I was there. He didn’t care that something was wrong. He just wanted me to go away. To leave him alone. I almost did it, but then I thought of Heather. This wasn’t just about me. She needed my help, too.
“Heather’s missing,” I said. “The people that were killed last night—I was supposed to be with them. I think ... I think the vampires are coming for me.”
Something flickered across his features, but he hid it too quickly for me to read.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”
I felt my eyebrows drop into a frown.
Blood Crave Page 28
