What on earth is he talking about? But I decided to let it drop. I was finding things out about Lucas at the pace that he wanted me to find them out.
“Do you know what those people were doing here?” I asked, changing the subject.
“No,” he admitted. “I’m hoping we don’t see them again. This whole thing is taking a lot longer than I wanted it to.”
I kept sneaking glances at Lucas out of the corner of my eye as we were walking. I felt like I was bipolar or something. When I had stormed out of his house the night before, I hated him with every fiber of my being. I knew he thought I was just some dumb kid and would never look at me in a romantic way.
But then he had put his own life in danger by saving me from the werewolf. He obviously cared about me, at least as a friend. And that kiss! Wow! When it ended I had been desperate for more. Kissing Lucas made my whole body feel like it was on fire, in a good way.
Lucas claims he shouldn’t mix business with pleasure and then he turns around and passionately kisses me? Sure, he might be teasing me or stringing me along for his enjoyment, but Lucas didn’t remind me of the type of person who would do that. I had known humans with less of a conscience than Lucas.
And he was thoughtful enough to tell me scariest part of Tobias’ case file without Henry around, so that I could make the decision to tell Henry or not. Didn’t that mean he was watching out for my feelings, just a little bit?
“Why do you keep looking at me?” Lucas asked suddenly.
“Huh? I wasn’t looking at you.” My voice sounded shrill. “I’m keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. I don’t want to run into anybody else out here!”
From then on, I stared straight ahead. How embarrassing!
After walking for a little bit, I started to see familiar landscape. “We’re getting close to where we heard people talking, aren’t we?” I whispered the question to Lucas.
“Yeah, we are. I’m thinking Henry might be hiding somewhere around here.”
“Henry?” we called out in hushed voices, tiptoeing around the headstones and grave markers. No answer.
“I’m sure he’s looking for us, too,” I said morosely. “What if we crossed paths?”
“Maybe he went to your grave. We should have devised a meeting place in the event of something dumb like this happening.” Lucas sounded frustrated.
“Yeah, that’s probably exactly where he is! Let’s go.”
Chapter 5
We had just started walking again when we heard the voices. Male laughter. Then a girl was speaking, but the words were muffled. Lucas and I looked at each other at the same moment.
Well, at least we know it’s not the security guard.
“I think they’re on the other side of that hill,” Lucas said, pointing. There was a small hill just a few feet away from us, covered in trees. It did sound like the voices were nearby.
We crept carefully over to the hilly area. Lucas crouched down on his stomach and peered over the other side. I did the same. Sitting, sprawled out comfortably among the headstones, were two girls and two guys. They looked about twenty. Beer cans were littered all around them.
“These idiots decided to have a party in the cemetery,” Lucas whispered. “They’ve probably seen one too many episodes of Ghost Hunters.”
I snickered. “What are you going to do?”
“They’re right by your grave. They need to get the hell out of here.”
Lucas stood up from his crouched position. He zipped his signature long black coat up as far as it would go. He was now in plain sight of the partiers, but they were too wasted to notice. They wouldn’t see a ghost if it flew up and smacked them across the face.
“Do I look like a security guard?” Lucas asked me.
Maybe a male stripper dressed as a security guard, I wanted to say. Aloud I said, “They’ll buy it. They’re drunk.”
Lucas grinned. “Watch this. It might actually be kind of fun.”
He walked authoritatively over to the group. They didn’t even realize he was there until he was practically standing on top of them.
“Woah!” One of the guys struggled to his feet.
“What are you doing here?” Lucas asked in a stern voice.
Oh my god that is so sexy!
The remaining three pulled themselves to a standing position as well, dusting the dirt off their jeans.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” the other guy said frantically. “We just wanted to have a good time. Tonight’s a full moon, you know.”
“Do you know what the sentence is for trespassing in a cemetery? You could easily get five years behind bars!”
I willed myself not to laugh. The intruders were looking at each other in panic, totally convinced they had ruined their lives by sneaking in here at night. They all started talking at once, explaining that they thought it would be fun to drink some beers and see if anything cool happened in the graveyard during a full moon.
“You missed the full moon,” Lucas interrupted them. “That was last night.”
“Dude!” One of the guys smacked his friend. “You freaking idiot!”
The other guy grabbed his arm in pain. “What the fuck did you do that for?” he practically screamed. He leaned over and shoved his friend in retaliation.
Shit! They’re getting really loud, really fast.
Lucas stepped in between them, holding each at arm’s length. The two stopped struggling, but continued yelling at each other. I could hear a dog start barking, probably somewhere in the surrounding neighborhood.
I was getting really nervous now, and I imagined Lucas was, too. We had taken all of these pains to quietly and discreetly make our way around the cemetery and these drunk idiots were about to blow our cover.
“Lower your voices!” Lucas practically bellowed. I cringed. That was even louder than those bozos were yelling.
But it did the trick, because they shut up immediately.
“You jack asses better get the hell out of here before I call the cops,” Lucas hissed at them. “Consider this your first and only warning. Now get your shit together” – Lucas paused and waved at the mound of beer cans – “before I change my mind.”
I shivered and crouched as low down as I could. Lucas’ tone was downright frightening. The foursome obviously felt the same way. They silently gathered their trash and high tailed it out of our sight.
After they were gone, Lucas looked around. I could see in the bright moonlight that his brow was furrowed worriedly. They made a ton of noise.
And where was Henry! Why did everything we tried to do end up being a huge cluster fuck?
Apparently convinced that the real security guard wasn’t coming to investigate the commotion, Lucas slowly walked back over to where I was waiting, still huddled close to the ground.
“Life with you sure isn’t boring,” he said dryly.
“I didn’t conjure up those douches to give you something extra to worry about!” I said defensively.
Lucas sat down on the ground. I shifted from my crouching position to sit down next to him. “I don’t see Henry around here anywhere,” I said. “No matter what we do tonight, we have to find him.”
“I know you won’t believe me, but he’s pretty safe here,” Lucas responded.
“What do you mean?”
“Supernatural predators aren’t exactly hanging out at the cemetery, waiting for some human to come along. Any creature that preys on the living wouldn’t pick a graveyard as its hunting ground.”
“That makes sense,” I said slowly.
“You know, Aurora, I wanted to ask you something.” Lucas looked at me and brushed my hair out of my eyes.
What’s going on?
I gulped. “Yes?”
Lucas leaned in closer and looked at me intensely. Is he going to kiss me again?
We were startled by a rustling noise from behind. I jerked around to see what had made the noise. Lucas was on his feet in what seemed like less than a second.
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Chapter 6
Henry! “I finally found you guys!” he exclaimed. “That was absolutely awful. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
I stood up and Henry wrapped me in an enormous bear hug. “I was really worried when you took off like that. I thought something had taken you, to be honest. Nobody could have run away that quickly! It seemed like you were gone in a flash. And then I couldn’t find Lucas and I didn’t know what the hell had happened.” Henry was still hugging me.
I laughed awkwardly and wriggled out of his grasp. “Stop, you’re crushing me,” I said.
I noticed Lucas watching us. He must think I’m such a flirt! Kissing Henry, then him, then hugging Henry again.
“What happened back there?” Henry asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“We just got separated; no big deal,” Lucas said. “We have work to do. Let’s dig up the grave and get out of here, before something else happens.”
Lucas walked in front of Henry and me. “Is he alright?” Henry whispered. “He seems kinda mad or something.”
“I think it’s just been a long night,” I whispered back. Could Lucas be jealous?
We reached my grave, which had trees surrounding it on one side. It was serene and peaceful. Not too shabby a place to spend eternity.
“Aurora, keep a lookout.” Lucas didn’t sound mad anymore but he was definitely all business. No kidding around with Henry and me.
I paced around my tombstone nervously as Lucas and Henry started digging. My eyes kept flicking over the engraving on the headstone, but I wouldn’t let them linger to read the words. Even though I was used to the notion that I had died by now, seeing it written out that way, so final, was something I still couldn’t handle.
The two made quick work of loosening the dirt and shoveling it to the side, layer by layer. At one point, maybe a foot into the ground, Henry stopped and leaned on his shovel handle, breathing heavily. “This dirt feels like its packed solid,” he said. “That day when we came back and saw your family, I assumed somebody else had replaced the dirt on the grave. But it’s almost as if it were done by magic. I would have thought the grave had been packed for years.”
For the first time in awhile, Lucas spoke. “What do you mean, ‘that day we came back and saw your family’?” he asked.
“Oh, I guess we didn’t think to tell you,” I said. I quickly explained how we had decided to come fill the grave back up, since I had left it in tatters that morning when I climbed out.
“We knew that my family or friends might bring flowers to the grave on the anniversary of my death,” I finished telling Lucas. “But when we got here, the grave was completely undisturbed.”
Lucas started digging again. “I wish you’d told me that before. Just remember, I need to know everything. Even if it seems unimportant.” He looked pointedly at Henry.
He wants me to tell him if Henry and I have become a couple. Right, like that would have happened overnight. The day after I kissed Lucas. For a million year old vampire who’d probably been with a gazillion women, he was acting like a gawky sixteen year old.
For all of the bad luck we’d had up until this point, the grave digging was going surprisingly smoothly. It was going fast, as well. It was no shock that Lucas could dig and shovel dirt effortlessly with his huge ripped arms, but Henry was holding his own.
I thought back to that awkward moment we’d had in the kitchen on the morning I’d followed Henry’s father. I’d noticed then how his arms seemed awfully muscular. But now, as I watched him shoveling dirt in the moonlight, I could see just how muscular.
Lucas must have caught sight of me staring at Henry. “Aurora! Keep watch in case someone is around!” he called agitatedly.
Perfect! He thinks I’m drooling over Henry’s body. Now look what I’ve done.
I was so confused. I had to clear my head and focus on now. How was it I could be so strongly attracted to two guys? And who the hell really knew if either of them wanted to be with me!
I looked around the graveyard in all directions. Everything was quiet. I forced my shoulders to relax. I discreetly glanced back down at Henry and Lucas, inside the dug up grave, trying to see how much farther they had to go.
I don’t want Lucas getting pissed off at me again for not keeping lookout.
“How deep do you think you’ve dug?” I called from above. “That’s got to be at least 5 or 6 feet. Surely you’re getting close.”
“Or there’s nothing to find,” Lucas responded.
I didn’t want to admit that if that was the case, I was more than a little disappointed. If nothing was in my grave, then what? We’d have no leads whatsoever. But it would lessen the chances that you’d turn into a monster, I reminded myself.
“Yeah, we’ve been digging for a long time. We’re over 6 feet down now. This could go on forever. At some point we’ve got to call it a night and go home,” Henry said. “I’m exhausted. This is hard work, in case you can’t tell.”
“Please,” I whined. “Can’t you go just a bit further? I can come down there and help.”
“No!” Lucas and Henry said in unison.
Ha! Why did I feel like I was in the middle of a pissing contest?
After several more minutes of digging, I was just about to say that Henry was right, but just then he exclaimed, “I think I’ve found something!”
Lucas was quickly by his side, the two shoveling dirt like crazy with their hands.
“What is it?” I called excitedly, but they were ignoring me.
Screw this. With a quick look around to make sure nothing was coming, I sat down on the edge of the grave so that my legs were dangling into the massive hole they had just dug. Before either of them could notice what I was doing and yell at me to stop, I jumped down into the grave to join them.
Chapter 7
I landed with a resounding thud. “What the fuck!” Lucas said. They both spun around.
“Did you really expect me to wait up there when you finally found something interesting?” I retorted.
“What is it?” I asked again. I huddled in closer. “I don’t see anything.”
“Right here.” Henry pointed at a small spot on the ground. I couldn’t tell a difference between where he was pointing and anywhere else.
I squinted. “I still can’t see anything.”
“Just let us dig, will you?” Henry asked impatiently.
I watched them feverishly uncovering whatever they had found. And finally I saw it. No wonder I hadn’t been able to see it before. It appeared to be some type of cloth, and it was almost the exact same color as the dirt.
“Ah ha!” Lucas announced, finally yanking it from the ground.
In his hand was a large drawstring bag. I reached my hand out to touch the bag. It was rough.
“I think its burlap,” Lucas was saying.
“Let’s open it?” It was more of a question than anything. Now that they had finally found something, I was extremely nervous about seeing what was inside.
“Yeah.” Henry gulped. “What if we open it and it makes Aurora really dead again?”
“That’s not going to happen,” Lucas explained. “If this is like Tobias’ case, it’s more complicated than just removing the object. Remember, I was originally hired to send Aurora back to the grave, and the spell I was supposed to say and the items I had to gather had nothing to do with her grave. If this is the key to the mystery, it’s not going to be as simple as taking out the object. And I’d rather have an idea of what we’re dealing with – in case someone else decides to dig up the grave.”
“So what do you think?” Lucas continued. “We’ve come this far. Are you two ready to find out what’s inside?”
Both guys looked at me to give the go-ahead. I nodded in agreement, too scared to speak.
“You do the honors.” Lucas handed the bag to me.
I studied it in my hands, ran my fingers along the coarse material. The bag was light and fairly small –maybe a foot in height. There
was a knot tied at the top where the drawstring had been looped around the opening several times – for added security, I imagined.
Although why was it needed this far underground? Who else had an interest in digging up my grave?
With shaking hands, I tried to loosen the knot. But I was trembling so violently that I couldn’t get a good grip.
Henry grabbed it from me impatiently. After also struggling to loosen it with his own shaking fingers, he clamped it in his teeth and pulled.
“Henry!” I shrieked, horrified. “The bag’s been underground, with bugs and worms and decaying things!”
“Really, Aurora?” Lucas hissed. “That’s your biggest worry at this particular moment?”
Henry silently handed the bag back to me. We all huddled in to see.
I tentatively stretched the neck of the opening to widen it. “Reach in there and pull out whatever it is,” Henry suggested.
“That’s exactly what I’m scared of. What if it’s a serpent or an insect nest or something?”
“Yuck. I hadn’t thought of that,” Henry replied.
“Do you want me to do it?” Lucas reached out his arms, offering to take the bag from me.
“I think I do,” I whispered, handing it over.
Without hesitation, Lucas plunged his hand into the bag. “It’s something soft,” he muttered. As he pulled the object from the bag, it was illuminated by the moonlight. I gasped.
Chapter 8
“That’s Max!” I exclaimed.
“Oh my god! It sure is!” Henry chimed in. Max was the stuffed elephant I had gotten when I was a little girl. I slept with him on my bed every night.
I hugged Max to my chest. “I can’t believe he’s been stuck down here.” Then, realizing how silly that sounded, I quickly added, “I know he’s not alive or anything, but it’s just weird.”
“You’ll have to save your reunion for later,” Lucas said. “You need to get back to your lookout point, and we all need to get the hell out of this cemetery. Don’t forget we have to repack this damn grave before we can go.”
Stalking Dead (Vampire Hunter Book 2) Page 2
