by Wendi Wilson
SHADOW LAKE VAMPIRE SOCIETY
The Count
WENDI L WILSON
KATIE FRENCH
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Shadow Lake Vampire Society Book Three: The War
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Wendi L Wilson
Also by Katie French
Chapter One
The only thing anchoring me to the Earth was Levi’s hand in mine as we stepped toward Coco’s casket.
I floated toward the oak box, or, at least that’s what it felt like. My mouth was dry. My hands shook. I could barely keep my feet moving in the right direction. I’d had a few out-of-body experiences in my short life, and this felt like some kind of awful rerun.
Everything in me wanted to turn and bolt in the opposite direction. The person in that box was my best friend. My Coco. I’d seen her only a month ago, and she’d been filled with joy. With life. Coco with her glossy lipstick and her bright hats. Her jokes. Her bad taste in music. Her thousands of Instagram followers.
Her love for me.
How could this be happening? How could she be dead?
I hadn’t talked to her once after leaving for my job at Camp Shadow Lake. Sure, I’d tried once or twice, but I’d been so caught up in Levi and the vampires that I hadn’t made a real effort. I’d heard from a number of people that Coco had been aloof and acting strange before her death. Her social media feeds dwindled to nothing, and she stopped answering texts. They said it in passing, not really taking much stock in it, but to me, it felt like a stab to my heart. Maybe my lack of communication had sent her into a downward emotional spiral. Maybe if I had tried harder, I could have somehow prevented this from happening.
Part of me knew the thought was irrational. That there was nothing I could’ve done and no way to get her back.
She was gone.
Quiet organ music played while hushed voices whispered to one another. The smell of cut roses floated on the cold air blowing through the vents. The funeral home was packed wall-to-wall with people. Coco was well-loved, and she had a big family, so this had to be one of the best-attended funerals this place had ever seen. A few people I knew from high school were there, but I didn’t want to talk to them. What would I say?
So, how’s things? And isn’t it crazy that Coco’s dead?
They’d probably say something along those lines. I couldn’t begin to stomach it.
“Are you okay?” Levi whispered in my ear as we waited in the processional that meandered up to the casket.
I bit my lip, and he squeezed my hand.
“Of course you’re not okay.” His brow creased with concern. “Can I get you something? Water? More tissues?”
“Just stay beside me.” With my free hand, I gripped his arm to hold myself upright. Otherwise, I might’ve just fallen to the floor. Levi felt solid, sturdy. I didn’t know what I’d do without him.
Mom was here, of course. I could stay by her side, but she’d taken a seat behind Coco’s wailing mother. Mom had the quiet presence of someone who’d been through the worst thing imaginable and knew what this felt like. I drew my eyes away from her. Just the sight of Mom in the black dress she wore at Dad’s funeral was turning the water works on again. This was the same funeral home, the same room. I swiped at the tears on my cheeks, my fingers coming away black with mascara as Levi handed me another tissue. Why’d I even bother to wear makeup in the first place?
As we took a few steps closer to the front, my heartbeat seemed to slow down. Even though it was a closed casket, I couldn’t stand the thought of her being in there alone. Coco had been in a car accident, and Mr. and Mrs. Morales didn’t want people’s last memory of her to be the Coco whose car had flipped three times before crashing into a tree.
I wanted to see her one last time, but what could I do? Throw open the casket? Everyone would be horrified.
We stepped up, and the line of people parted to reveal the glossy oak box in front of us.
I felt my knees buckle. Levi gripped my arm and helped me stand while words fell from my lips.
“I’m sorry, Coco. I love you.” I laid a hand on the smooth oak box.
I should have kept calling until you answered. I should have been there. This is all my fault.
I began to sob, and Levi helped me to a chair where he held me as I cried.
THE FUNERAL WAS BEAUTIFUL, but I was glad when it was over. I didn’t know how long I could sit in those uncomfortable chairs and listen to people talk about Coco in the past tense. The hymns and flowers were making my head light and my heart ache. It all felt too painfully similar to Dad’s funeral. Thankfully, it was brief, and Mom and I had decided not to stay for the luncheon afterwards, leaving it for Coco’s immediate family. Plus, we were exhausted, and poor Levi’s jacket was ruined from my tears and running makeup. If he minded, he didn’t show it.
The three of us followed the guests toward the door, then Mom grabbed my arm. “I want to say goodbye to Coco’s mother. I’ll meet you out there.”
I nodded, watching her filter back through the crowd.
Levi and I exited, stepping out into the hot summer air. The heat felt good on my chilled skin, though I knew it bothered Levi. Always stoic about it, he slipped on his sunglasses then put his arm around me while we walked together to a small bench in the shade of a maple tree to wait.
“That was a nice service,” Levi said, glancing at me like he wasn’t sure what to say.
I nodded while pulling a tissue out of my purse to try to clean up the mess that was my face. I didn’t really know what to say, either.
“I wonder if I had a funeral,” he said quietly.
When I blinked up at him, he shook his head. “Sorry. I’m not trying to make today about me. We should talk about Coco.”
“No, I could use a change in topic for a while. What do you mean you wonder if you had a funeral?”
He leaned back against the bench’s backrest, letting his tear-stained black suit jacket fall open to reveal a crisp white shirt. I’d seen the other girls from our high school and some of Coco’s cousins checking him out while they thought I wasn’t looking. It wasn’t the time or the place, but the distraction made me feel just the smallest bit better.
“Well, I died, and dead people usually get funerals.” Levi sighed. “My parents don’t know I’m alive. Well… technically… undead? Anyway, I didn’t see them after I woke up in the morgue, since I couldn’t risk going back to them as the monster I’d become. It would’ve been far too dangerous. By the time I was back in control of myself, it was long past the time they would have held a funeral. It doesn’t matter, but sometimes I wonder if they had one and what it was like.” He went quiet, staring pensively up at the tree branches that swayed gently in the breeze.
“Oh, Levi, I’m so sorry.” I leaned into him and put my hand on his chest where his heart beat no longer. “You hav
en’t seen them since?”
He shook his head. “They’re still alive. I check in on them from time to time on the web. They’re in their late sixties now. They seem okay. Happy even. Still in the same home I grew up in.”
“That’s so sad.” I held his hand, wishing there was more I could do.
He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve had twenty years to process my grief.”
I started to lean into him, but as I did I spotted someone staring at me from the shadows.
A dark shape hunkered between the dumpster and the funeral home’s west wall. The man was scraggly and unkempt, but the most unsettling thing was the look in his eyes. He was staring at me as if he knew me.
When he caught me looking, he lifted his hand and waved me toward him rapidly.
Who was this man, and what did he want?
My heart began to pound, and of course, Levi sensed it right away. He snapped his head around to follow my gaze. “What is it?”
“There’s someone back there.”
Levi was on his feet, coiled to strike, but I put my hand on his arm. “Don’t. There are people everywhere.”
His eyes darted around, taking in much more than mine ever could. There was a crowd gathered, some smoking, others talking. None could see the man from their vantage point, which meant if we went back there, no one would see us, either.
Levi froze, keeping his eyes trained on the perceived danger. “Go to the car, Piper. Lock the door. I’ll deal with him.”
My eyes darted from the man to the parking lot, but I didn’t go. Instead, I followed Levi toward the man’s hidey-hole.
The guy seemed unafraid, but he also seemed half-crazed. His hair was wild and white like an Albert Einstein wig. His gray beard was straggly and patchy, sticking out in places that you wouldn’t expect and disappearing in places you would. He wore gray coveralls that were soiled and thin at the knees. When he opened his mouth to speak, I saw he was missing several teeth.
“Girl, come here. I’ve got somethin’ important to tell ya.” He flashed that jack-o’-lantern smile again. “It’s real good.”
Levi stepped between the man and me, his tone and body tense. “Get to the car, Piper.”
I didn’t listen to him before, and I wasn’t going to listen now. I didn’t think Levi would kill the man right here in broad daylight, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. But the old guy didn’t seem to have any fear.
“Hey, girl. I know you. You were here before. I have something to tell you. Something about your dad.”
Despite the heat, a cold chill settled over me. Did he say… my dad?
Before I knew what I was doing, I tore around Levi and got up in the man’s personal space as anger pumped through my body. No way would he play some kind of game by invoking my dead father. Not today.
“Piper.” Levi reached for me, but I shrugged him off.
I wanted to poke the old geezer in the chest, but I had no idea what he might do. So instead, I put my hands on my hips. “What did you say about my father?”
He smiled that empty smile again. “I know some stuff about him, but… what’s it worth to ya?”
The nerve of this guy. “You tell me or my boyfriend here will rip your arms off. How about that?” I could feel Levi behind me, and I knew he looked intimidating as he towered over both of us. He literally could rip this man’s arms off, but of course I was bluffing. Still, it seemed to work.
For the first time, the man considered Levi and his smile fell. “Fine. I’ll tell, but if you find it’s worth your time, might ya part with a fiver to buy me lunch?” One wild eyebrow arched.
“We’ll see. Now talk.”
“I work here,” he said, thumbing toward the back of the funeral parlor. “I have for thirty years. I clean, do odd jobs. And I see things.”
“Like what kinds of things?” Levi asked, his interest peaked.
The man’s eyes darted up before landing back on me again. “I saw you. You were here for your dad’s funeral. Sad.” He puckered out his bottom lip in a mockery of sadness before sucking it back in again. “Anyway, I thought you should know. He wasn’t in the box.”
I felt my heart stutter. “What do you mean? Are you saying…?” My words ran dry, but the man had plenty.
“I mean, they buried an empty box. Someone took the body. If I had to guess, I’d say it was someone who was worried that evidence the police didn’t find might someday be revealed. They came at night. Two men.” He held up two fingers. “They took the body, and the mortician was so upset, he said, ‘It’s a closed casket, they won’t know,’ and put sandbags in it instead.”
I stared at him, unsure if I could believe any of this or not. Words tumbled out as I spoke more to myself than anyone else. “Who would take my father’s body?”
“You tell me, little lady. But I will tell you this. I heard one word as they snuck off—Siskiyou.” He cackled, the sound wheezing from his lungs. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned working here, it’s this—secrets from the past don’t always stay buried.”
I felt Levi’s hand on my shoulder, but little else. It seemed as though I was having another of those out-of-body experiences.
Vampires not only murdered my father, but stole his body and took it to their hideout in the Siskiyou Mountains. My heart began to pound out an angry rhythm.
I no longer cared that they were fearsome and scary. I wanted to know the truth about my father, and I wanted revenge.
Chapter Two
Mom seemed… good. It was strange—after a year of struggling to make ends meet while grieving over the death of my dad—to see her floating around our little kitchen, humming to herself as she threw a tray of homemade lasagna in the oven.
There were no overdue bills papering the kitchen counter. There was no dust on the living room furniture because she worked too many hours and didn’t have the time or energy to wipe it all down. No lines of worry creasing her forehead.
I sat at the small kitchen table, Levi beside me and Bagel the cat curled around my feet. I remained silent as I watched Mom work on dinner and contemplated everything that had changed since she was abducted and nearly killed by Sarah a week ago. Had it only been a week?
Thanks to some seriously effective vampire compulsion, she’d forgotten all about the incident. Warren Thornberry had made good on his promise to erase it from her mind. He’d also followed through on his other promise—to pay all her bills and make her life easier.
And while he’d had some “nameless benefactor” swoop in and pay everything off, including the mortgage, it seemed like she didn’t even realize that had happened. It was like she never knew she’d owed the money in the first place.
Levi’s fingers brushed over my hand, tickling my knuckles before slipping in to lace through mine. I gave him a small smile, and he returned it before addressing my mother.
“That smells delicious, Mrs. Williams,” he said.
“Please, Levi, call me Diane.” She shot me a mischievous look and added, “Or Mom.”
My eyes flared and shot daggers at her as heat rose to my face. Levi chuckled, giving my hand a squeeze and saying, “Thank you, Diane.”
The embarrassment of Mom’s silliness quickly faded as reality crashed back in, much like it had every time I tried to be normal over the last two days.
Coco, my best friend who’d always had my back no matter what, was gone. Dead. And I never got the chance to say goodbye.
My father was killed by some rogue, mountain vampire before his body was stolen from the mortuary. We’d buried an empty casket, and my mom had no idea.
It seemed surreal, like I was living inside a horror movie from which there was no escape.
“I have something to tell you,” Mom said, pulling me from my thoughts.
I looked at her, leaning against the counter, a worried look on her face as she wrung a dish towel between her hands. My head tilted to the side as I realized she was nervous. Lik
e, really nervous.
Please, God, I can’t handle any more bad news.
“I know this isn’t the greatest timing with… everything that’s happened. But I wanted you to hear this from me.” She paused, took a deep breath, and spit out the words as if they burned her tongue. “I’m seeing someone.”
I gazed at her, confusion making my mind a bit fuzzy as I tried to process what she was saying.
“Like, a psychiatrist?” I asked.
A nervous laugh bubbled from her lips, and she shook her head. “No, silly. A man. I’m seeing a man. We’re dating.”
Levi’s grip tightened on my fingers as I tried to work my mind around what she was saying. My first instinct was to balk. Mom was seeing someone who wasn’t my dad? Everything within me rebelled against the mere thought of it.
I let the silence stretch between us as I stared at her hopeful face. She wanted me to be happy for her. To accept this new… whatever it was. Fling? Relationship?
It had been over a year since Dad died, and I wanted my mom to be happy. She deserved to have someone who cared about her. Someone who would bring her joy and give her a more fulfilling life.
She’d dedicated the last year to making sure I was okay. Now, it was time for her to focus on herself.
“That’s great, Mom,” I said, forcing a smile to my face. “What’s he like?”
Relief stole across her features as she dropped the mutilated dish towel and picked up a knife. She began chopping veggies for a salad, a secret smile playing on her lips.
“His name is Jackson, and I met him at my grief support group. He lost his wife three years ago. Cancer.”
I didn’t even know Mom still went to those weekly meetings. But, then again, I’d been wrapped up in my own bubble of grief for so long, she could’ve been frequenting dive bars on the regular, and I wouldn’t have known.
“I can’t wait to meet him,” I said, hoping my smile looked genuine.
Because I could wait. For, like, a long-ass time.
Thank God I was going back to Camp Shadow Lake soon. I’d have the rest of the summer to work through my feelings about Mom moving on… That is, if I had time between dealing with the fallout of Sarah’s deadly plan, navigating this new world I lived in that included the existence of vampires and witches, and trying to find out what—if anything— happened to my dad’s body.
