Shadow Lake Vampire Society Book Three: The War

by Wendi Wilson

  “So, what, like in his twenties?” I asked.

  “More like thirties,” she said, and I couldn’t stop from flinching.

  Thirties? Coco was eighteen. If a thirty-something-year-old man hit on a teenager, he was a pervert. God, it was a few months shy of pedophilia. Gross.

  Then I remembered that while he looks our age, Levi is actually much older, and I pushed the judgmental thoughts from my head. Coco was staring at me with pain etching her face, so I squeezed her hand again and apologized for my reaction before encouraging her to go on.

  “I told him my name, and he found me on social media. He DM’d me, asking to meet. I was so excited, Piper. He made me feel beautiful and mature. I wanted to tell you so bad, but he swore me to secrecy. I thought he was cheating on his girlfriend, or something.”

  “Or his wife,” I said pointedly, arching a brow at her.

  “I didn’t care,” she said, her voice meeker than I’d ever heard it. “It was exciting, sneaking around with him like that. Like I said before—I was stupid.”

  “Did you… you know?” I asked.

  “Have sex with him? No,” she replied, shaking her head. She laughed quietly, the sound filled with self-loathing. “He was a perfect gentleman, never pushing for things to go further. I waited for him to kiss me, and after four dates, I got tired of waiting and kissed him.”

  I bit my tongue against the barrage of questions I would have asked if this had been a normal conversation about a normal boy. How was it? Did he use too much tongue? Where were his hands? No, I knew how this ended, and it had to have been terrifying.

  “After you left for the summer, things changed. Jack—that’s his name, Jack—became more distant. He didn’t pull away, exactly, but he seemed preoccupied when we were together. I thought it was me, so I tried to talk to him about it. That’s when he told me I shouldn’t be friends with you anymore.”

  “What?” I yelled, then clapped a hand over my mouth. My eyes darted to True’s bed, but luckily, my shout didn’t wake her. She still snored softly with her mouth hanging open.

  “He said you were dragging me down,” she whispered. “That having someone like you in my life sucked the joy out of it, and I should just use this separation to my advantage and put more space between us. Piper, I’m so sorry, but I believed him. I didn’t answer your calls or text messages because I believed I was better off without you.”

  Hurt streaked through me, making my chest feel hollow as bile tried to climb up my throat. As I stared at her in horror and disbelief, tears began to drip down her brown cheeks, so much paler than they’d been the last time I saw her.

  Paler, because this asshole Jack turned her into a vampire after he seduced her and turned her against—

  “Oh shit,” I hissed. “He compelled you.”

  “He what?” she asked.

  “Compulsion,” I said. “Vampires have the power to control humans, and in some cases, each other with a few words. How do you not know this?”

  She shrugged. “When I dug myself out of my grave, Warren was there, and he took me straight to the estate. I only know what he told me, and he didn’t mention anything about compulsion.”

  “But… he compelled you to attack me in his office, Coco.”

  Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open for a moment before she spoke. “He told me I was starving, and your blood would be the sweetest I’d ever tasted.”

  “That was compulsion,” I explained.

  “I thought… I thought I was just out of control.” She paused for a moment, her head tilting. “Wait, didn’t you say you compelled a vampire? I was so out of it that night, I can’t remember everything, but I swear I remember you saying something like that.”

  “Yeah, well, apparently I’m a witch,” I said, then waved a hand. “Finish your story first, then I’ll tell you mine.”

  “Okaaaay,” she said, dragging out the word as if to say we’d definitely be getting back to my story. “So, he compelled me to write you off and focus on him, alone. I withdrew from everyone else in my life, and barely even spoke to my parents there at the end. The night he… killed me, he invited me to his house. I’d never been there before, and I was so excited. If he was inviting me over, that meant there was no wife or girlfriend living there. That I was the only girl in his life, and he wanted to be alone with me. I thought he was going to make his move and take me to his bed.

  “I was so naive. I spent so much time preparing for that date. Shaving, straightening my hair, painting my nails. I wanted everything to be perfect. But when I got to his house, he was different. He opened the front door and jerked me inside by my wrist. I told him he was hurting me, and he smiled. I’ll never forget that smile, Piper.”

  I pulled her hand into my lap, squeezing her fingers tightly as my other hand brushed her arm. I stayed quiet, waiting for her to gather her thoughts and continue. I was pretty confident I knew what happened next.

  I’d seen it all in a vision.

  “He threw me to the floor, and I remember sliding a few feet across the wooden boards. His body landed on top of mine, crushing me, and when I opened my eyes, his face hovered over mine. But it was different. He looked like a monster with evil in his eyes as his mouth curved into a sinister smile. When I saw the fangs, I tried to scream, but no sound came out. Then there was nothing but pain and fire. I tried to fight, but my limbs were useless. I grew weaker and weaker until everything went black. The next thing I knew, I was trapped in a box in the dark. When I punched at the wood around me, it splintered and broke. Dirt caved in, filling my mouth and throat, and I thought I was going to die. But I didn’t. There was no burning in my lungs with the lack of oxygen. I started to dig, and I had no idea how I was moving so fast, but I climbed out of that grave in less than a minute and spat the dirt from my mouth.”

  “And Warren was waiting for you,” I finished for her.

  She nodded. “And you know the rest.”

  I threw my arms around her neck and hugged her, telling her how sorry I was about everything that happened to her. I told her about how she was found in a mangled car, the accident so severe, she had a closed casket at her funeral.

  “Jack must have put my body there to hide the real reason I… died.”

  I hugged her again until her body stopped shaking. Then we stretched out on our sides, facing each other, and I told her my story.

  I told her about the camp, about meeting True and the others. I described my first few interactions with Levi, going into detail about the way he made me feel. I told her about Sarah and Lars, what they did to me and my Mom. About Warren and Xander. How Warren compelled me to want him, and Xander compelled True to hate me.

  I told her about my vision, and how I thought it was my own death I was seeing, but it was really hers. We cried, we laughed, and she sighed when I described being with Levi and how deeply I’d fallen in love with him.

  The door creaked open, and we both shot up. Fear zipped through me until I recognized the familiar form standing in the entryway.

  “You two should probably save this conversation for another time. Piper really needs to get some sleep.” Levi stared in, a supportive look on his face.

  His words were meant to be serious, but his tone held obvious humor. He stepped back out and pulled the door shut behind him, and my eyes found Coco’s. She shrugged and lay back down, but I remained sitting up as my eyes moved back to the close door.

  I got so wrapped up in my conversation with Coco, I totally forgot Levi’s promise to guard the door all night. He’d been out there the whole time, which meant he heard every word of our conversation… including me gushing about what an amazing kisser he was and how much I wanted and loved him.

  The old me would have been embarrassed, but I just chuckled and settled back down next to Coco in the narrow bed. He already knew how I felt. Having him hear me confess it to Coco was no big deal.

  As I finally started to drift off, a smile curved my lips. I needed to stop focusin
g on all the bad things that had happened, and start enjoying the good.

  I had Coco back. I had my dad back. Xander wasn’t around to turn True into a raving bitch anymore, and we had support in our fight with Warren Thornberry in the shape of a hundred or so angry mountain vampires.

  Things were really starting to look up, and I couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring.

  Chapter Four

  I slept like crap, but morning arrived anyway. The camp bell that always woke us for breakfast dinged somewhere in the distance, dragging me from my dreams. Or rather nightmares. All I remembered, as sleep fell away, was darkness, teeth, and Warren Thornberry.

  But today was the day we would figure out how to take him down.

  I sat up, groaning as my body complained. Aches and pains had popped up from places I didn't even know existed, and bruises had been steadily forming over the last forty-eight hours. My body had taken a beating before, and I knew it would again, so I ignored my pain and stood up.

  Coco stirred above me. She must have climbed back into her own bed at some point in the night. “Sleep well?”

  I shook my head. “It’s okay as long as there’s coffee. Did you sleep?”

  She jumped down, landing as lithely as a cat. “Not really, but it doesn't matter. I’m good. I guess I don't need it anymore.”

  “Oh shit,” True moaned on the bunk at the other side of the cabin. “Is it time to get up already?” She squinted into the daylight spilling through the threadbare curtains on the windows.

  The door opened as she spoke, and Levi poked his head in. “Morning, ladies. Breakfast is cooking, and coffee is brewed.”

  “Perfect.” I walked toward him and leaned into his embrace. Even though he’d spent all night outside our cabin, he looked as fresh as a daisy. “How do you still smell good?”

  He shrugged. “The fresh pine air?” He kissed the top of my head. “Didn't get much sleep, huh?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  He nodded, glancing behind me. “I’ll let you ladies get dressed.” Then he slipped out and shut the door.

  In a few minutes, we were dressed and mostly presentable. Coco looked as beautiful as she did the night before, the lucky beeyotch, but True and I needed deodorant and a fresh change of clothes at the bare minimum. When we were ready, we met Levi outside and walked to the mess hall.

  The day was sunny and warm, reminding me it was still summer despite the fact that the campers were gone. This had been the strangest summer on record, and it was about to get even stranger because, when we walked into the mess hall, we found ourselves right in the middle of a full blown, vampire argument.

  “The council will do nothing,” my father said, his voice tinged with contempt, “and you know it, Purty. They are weak, mismanaged, and full of ancient vampires who want nothing more than to put their fingers into everyone’s business.”

  My father and Dean Purty stood in the middle of the mess hall, squared off like debaters on two sides of an argument. Or rather, they looked like two kids about to start a fistfight with their crews behind them. Many mountain vamps stood on the east side of the hall behind my father, while the camp vamps were a tense wall behind Dean Purty on the other side.

  This did not look good.

  “Scott, your usual ways of handling things don't apply here,” Dean Purty was saying. “You and your men are used to fighting your way out of problems, but that won’t work with Warren.”

  My father scoffed. “It worked at the estate.” Behind him, several mountain vamps cheered.

  But Dean Purty shook his head. “That was Warren’s small force. He thought he was only dealing with us” He waved his hand to encompass the camp vampires behind him. “He can and will muster a much stronger attack. He can buy mercenaries from other countries. He can call on decades-old loyalties to his family, one of the most powerful vampire families in the world. I’m sorry, but your crew doesn't stand a chance, no matter how savage they are. Warren will simply create more vampires if it comes to that.”

  Growls from the mountain vamps echoed through the cafeteria. They didn’t like being told they would lose. The camp vamps hedged closer to Dean Purty, looking like they might jump into a fray at any minute. Things were getting tense. If they weren't careful, a war would break out right here before we’d even begun.

  I walked over, not sure which side to head toward. There was my father, yes, but in his new role as wild mountain leader it felt strange sidling up to him. He wasn't quite the man I remembered from a year ago, the gentle accountant who made me heart-shaped pancakes on the first day of school. Then, there was Dean Purty, who'd been nothing but kind and compassionate the whole summer. He wasn't my blood, but I looked up to him, revered him even.

  I stopped right in the middle of the two, my eyes darting back and forth. The conversation had gone quiet as all eyes fell on me.

  And what the hell did I have to say? Did I really think I had some wisdom that these two didn't?

  “It sounds like our options are a straight-up fight, or a more thoughtful approach,” I said, glancing back and forth. “Dean, what would you have us do?”

  “Wait for the council to arrive,” he said, sighing deeply. “They will know what to do about Thornberry.”

  “And you’re sure they’re not already being influenced by him?” I asked.

  The dean tilted his head, seeming to equivocate, and that was all the information my father needed.

  “See!” he said, jabbing his finger forward. “He knows they’re in Thornberry’s pocket. “

  “We don't know that, for sure,” the dean shot back.

  “And how long will it take for the council to get here?” I asked.

  “A week or more,” the dean said, generating more shouts from the mountain vamps. “They travel from all over the world, and they are not swift when summoned. Being centuries-old does that, I guess.”

  “A week or more will give Warren plenty of time to mount forces against us,” I said, rubbing my forehead.

  “But if we rush in there, he’ll tear us apart.” The dean gestured back to the camp vamps who had already lost two of their number.

  We’d lost Naveen and Miranda. No, I couldn't agree with any plan that would likely cost us more death.

  “What if we sent a small force?” I asked. “If we knew where Warren was hiding out, we could try to get to him quickly and take him out.” I thought of my compelling power. If I could compel Warren not to fight, we could stop him easily. But could I do it on command? The situation with Xander had been rushed, frantic, and done purely out of desperation. I would have to perfect my power, and do it quickly.

  “A precision operation,” my father said, rubbing his beard. “I like it. As long as I’m on the team to take him down.”

  “But we don't know where Warren is,” the dean retorted, his eyes darting to me.

  “We don’a know yet,” Zelda said, stepping forward. Her apron was stained with bacon grease, and her red hair was wild, but her expression seemed hopeful. “We might find Thornberry if we had a Grúpa de Thriúr. “

  “A what?” I asked.

  Zelda’s bright green eyes landed on me as a small smile twisted her lips. “A Grúpa de Thriúr. A witch Group of Three. You, me, and the lassie there,” she gestured to True, her bracelets jangling.

  True and I exchanged a confused glance. If this was a spell, it was the first I’d heard of it, but Zelda seemed sure. She nodded knowingly.

  “With the three of us, we could do it. Together, we could find the bugger. “

  “OCH, now lassies, don’a make that face. It won't be as bad as ya think.”

  True and I stared at Zelda and then at the concoction brewing in her giant stew pot. It bubbled and frothed as it sat on the stove burner, smelling of rotting garbage and looking like green sludge.

  “What is it?” True said, daring to lean in close before pulling back violently as the smell hit her.

  “A clarity concoction. If ya want to be
witches, ya better learn to brew.” Zelda leaned forward, one hand trapping her necklaces to her ample chest as she peered into the bubbling caldron before grabbing a pinch of something on a cutting board beside it and tossing it in. If that was spotted newt tail, I was out of here.

  The concoction hissed like it was a living thing and wasn't pleased about the offering.

  “I think I’m going to hurl,” True said, grabbing my arm.

  I slipped my hand in hers, not so sure I would keep my breakfast down either. After Zelda had declared that three witches joined in a spell could locate Warren, the mood in the mess hall had changed. It seemed that my father and the dean were both in agreement that if we could find Warren and compel him, we might be able to stop the war from happening and save many lives.

  The problem was, I had to use two pretty powerful witchy powers to make it happen, and I wasn’t sure I was up to the task.

  I’d only learned I was a witch a few weeks ago and only figured out I could compel vampires a few days ago. And I’d only pulled it off once. That was a power I needed to try out more, but Zelda had insisted we do the Grúpa de Thriúr right away. Something about the air currents and placement of the moon. She’d shuffled into the kitchen, but not before shouting that True and I should purify ourselves and come back in an hour.

  I knew I needed a shower, but having it yelled out in front of the whole camp was another level of embarrassment I didn't need right now.

  Either way, we’d done it and returned. And here we were staring down into a cauldron of putrescence.

  “And now we drink,” Zelda said, ladling it into ancient metal goblets.

  “Oh no! Nuh uh!” True tried to back toward the door.

  I kept a firm hand on hers, dragging her back to me. “True, this is serious.”

  “So am I!” she said, shaking her dark curls. “That stuff is going to kill me! My aunties used to make me drink brews like that, and they are nasty.”

  “Then you’re used to it,” I shot back.

  “It tastes better than it looks.” Zelda blew into her frothy green mixture to cool it before plugging her nose with one hand and tipping the goblet back with the other. True and I watched in horror as she drained the whole thing.