Innocence and Evil (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #6)

by Malone Wright, Jennifer

  I wanted to argue, but I didn’t have the chance because Luke shuffled into the kitchen right then. “All right, kids, it’s time to start the plans to stake out where we are going to find these vampires.”

  I had the distinct feeling that Luke had been watching us on the cameras, since he didn’t want to discuss the guys in the basement.

  Drew cleared his throat. “From what Oscar got out of one of our guys, they are based at the old library. He says there are two leaders, Edgar and Tristan.”

  “And about twenty vampires total,” I added. “I think we can take all of them with just our group.”

  Luke wrinkled his brow. “I don’t know, I’d feel better about bringing in another team, just to be safe.”

  “He’s right.” Chloe leaned back in her seat. “We do have the Dragons to consider. We don’t know how many of them there are and they will fight for their vampires.”

  True enough. “Do you think that if we take out these vamps it will finally end this problem we have with them?”

  Chloe shook her head. “We couldn’t kill Anthony because of me, but there is also Pavlos to consider. We can’t concentrate on him right now, but it’s something we are going to have take care of eventually.”

  Most everyone in the group nodded. We all knew that trying to find Pavlos wasn’t going to be an easy task. “Well,” Luke clapped his hands together, “First things first. We have to protect our own city, so we need to take care of this particular problem. To do that, you all need to try and get some sleep. We head out at noon.”

  Drew stood, grabbing his shoulder holster from the back of the chair. “Do you want me to go to Arcadia Falls and get the team ready?”

  “No,” Luke shook his head. “I’ll take care of that. You go get some rest.”

  “Yes sir.” Drew nodded and left the room. Chloe hurried to catch up with him and everyone else slowly followed.

  I stayed in my chair, watching them leave and thinking about the people who had become my family. Drew was a natural leader, also the strong silent type who didn’t like taking orders from anyone. But, when it came to Luke he was all, ‘yes sir, no sir.’ Aside from Chloe, no one else could talk that guy down when he set his mind to something.

  My mom was the only one who had that effect on me. Now, Christina might be the only one who even came close to being that person who could get into my head. I looked up and saw that she was waiting for me.

  “Are you coming?” she asked.

  “You know I’m not going to sleep,” I told her.

  She flashed me a sexy smile. “I didn’t think you would. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t still go to bed.” With that, she glided out of the kitchen.

  ***

  The early light of dawn streamed through the curtains of my bedroom window. I’d told Christina the truth, I hadn’t slept. I guess that part would come later. Or maybe, not sleeping was part of what I’d become, maybe I would never sleep like a normal person again. Not for the first time, I wondered if I’d been given a gift or if it was a curse.

  After slipping quietly out of bed, I took a long, hot shower. When I got back to the bedroom, wearing fresh jeans and a tee shirt, Christina was laying against the pillows with her eyes open.

  “Hey,” I greeted her.

  “Hey,” she said back.

  I flopped down onto the bed beside her. “So, are we going to talk about what’s bothering you?”

  She shook her head, feigning an innocent expression. “Nothing is bothering me.”

  I turned onto my side and kissed her shoulder. “Come on, this is me. I know something has been going on with you for a few days.”

  “It’s nothing,” she insisted.

  “Look, I know I’ve had a lot going on, but I’m not the selfish bastard everyone wants to believe I am, now spill it.”

  She closed her eyes and then opened them again, as if she had to pause and think of what she wanted to say. “I don’t like to complain about stuff.”

  I smiled at that because it was true. “I know you’re a tough chick and telling someone if you’re upset or worried or whatever, doesn’t have any bearing on how people see you.”

  She rolled over so she wasn’t facing me anymore. “Don’t worry, I’ll get over it.”

  I let out a huge, dramatic sigh and crossed my arms over my chest. “Are you kidding me, now I really want to know? All this ‘it’s nothing’ crap just makes me want to know even more.”

  “Fine!” She rolled back over. “I am the only one in this house without any gifts … I feel so useless sometimes. At least when Drew didn’t have any, I wasn’t alone.”

  I shook my head. “Luke doesn’t have any powers.”

  “Yes he does. He’s like … psychic or something.”

  I furrowed my brow. “He is?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded, “It’s not something like where he gets these incredible visions of the future, but he can sense certain things.”

  “That’s dumb, anyone can do that.”

  “Well …” She frowned. “It doesn’t make me feel any better about it. I know I’m never going to have gifts, if I was intended to have them, I would have already come into them by now.”

  I heaved myself up and straddled her, placing an arm on either side of her head so that I was staring straight down into her eyes. “You are special. You do have gifts.” I inched my face closer to hers. “Just because it’s not something supernatural, doesn’t mean that you aren’t special. No one I know can come close to throwing a knife the way you can. You have an ability that no one else has.”

  She tried to turn her face away. I reached over and stopped her. “No. Don’t turn away.”

  “It’s not a gift, Zander, it’s a skill. Anyone can learn how to throw a knife.”

  “Not like you.”

  She managed a small smile. “You’re only saying that to make me feel better.”

  I dipped down and kissed her soft lips. “Yes and no. I do want you to feel better and I’d probably say anything right now to make that happen. But, I do think you have an ability that is only for you. Yeah, people can learn a skill, but it takes someone extra special to be extraordinary at it. And you … my love … are extraordinary.”

  Her eyes widened. “Did you just …”

  Oh crap.

  “You said …”

  Own it Zander, I told myself. You don’t always have to be hard. You can let her in and still be the person that you are.

  “Yeah, I called you my love, and you are. Deal with it woman.”

  She laughed. “I know you love me, you moron. I just never thought I would hear you say it.”

  I grasped her hands in mine, pinning them to the pillows on either side of her. “Oh really, how do you know how I feel about you?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You aren’t as much of a closed book as you think you are. I can just tell, even when you don’t say it.”

  “It’s hard to say it,” I whispered.

  “You don’t have to,” she told me in a soft voice, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

  This time when I bent down to kiss her, I didn’t pull away. I sunk into her, letting her know without words just how special I thought she was.

  It wasn’t until later, when I was checking the clips in my guns and putting my holster on, that I realized she didn’t tell me that she loved me back. I knew she did, but it was just strange that she would have a harder time admitting it than I did. Maybe, she was truly the roughest one out of all of us.

  I made up my mind right then, I was going to make her know that she was an asset to the group and her abilities were ones we couldn’t do without. The fact that she didn’t have any supernatural powers was bothering her and I didn’t want her to feel like we didn’t need her. I needed her … and so did everyone else.

  ***

  The entire group was gathered downstairs in the living room. A map was spread out on the coffee table and Drew was already giving orders on what positions each person w
as to take. He glanced up when Christina and I entered the room. “Nice to have you two join us.”

  I rewarded him with a smile. “Wouldn’t miss it for anything.”

  “Take a look at this.” He pointed. “You and Christina are going to be here, on this side of the street. You will be directly across from the library.”

  “No problem,” I assured him.

  Daniels, who I still thought of as a soldier even though he no longer wore a uniform, slid a Glock into his left holster and glanced at all the people in the room. “So who is going to stay here with dumb and dumber downstairs?”

  “I am,” Luke announced. “Oscar and I can handle them.”

  Christina crinkled her nose. “But aren’t you in charge of the team coming in from Arcadia Falls.”

  Luke shook his head. “No, Drew is.”

  That was new. Usually the older Hunters who had seniority would lead the teams.

  “We are going in as one team today. That way, we are all on the same page and no one is overlapping the other team,” Luke explained. “And since we are the ones requesting the infiltration, then we are the ones who will lead it.”

  A loud bong sounded throughout the house. “They’re at the gate,” Gavin said, hurrying to the control room. “I’ll let them in.”

  A few minutes later, a team of six Hunters trooped into the house. It was always an interesting thing, seeing the Hunters when they were all set to go out on a mission. Usually, every single one of them had weapons covering every single inch of carrying space on their bodies, but today, the weapons were discreetly hidden underneath street clothes, since we were going on a day mission.

  I fully admit to having weapon envy. Vampire Hunters were pretty damn inventive when it came to ways to kill and always had something I’d never seen before. From crazy folding crossbows to razor edged whips, they had it all.

  With all the positions appointed, we gathered into our vehicles and headed out.

  The sweltering afternoon sun beat down on us, a reminder of the fact that it was daylight. The only bad part about a day mission was that it would be a lot harder to remain hidden. We were going to be far more exposed than we normally would be on our night hunts.

  We parked several blocks away from the heart of downtown and trekked the rest of the way on foot. The difference between downtown and the rest of the city was the architecture. The buildings were all older and the majority of them were made of brick. There weren’t any fast food restaurants or chain mini-marts. All the businesses were a bit more classy … and a bit more expensive.

  Since the Apocalypse, some of these businesses had been abandoned. Some were just closed until society completely righted itself and they decided it was safe to come back. But, despite the lack of establishments still in business, the downtown area was bustling with people.

  “Should we go up or down?” Christina asked. She kept pace beside me, looking amazing in a pair tight blue jeans and a hip length leather jacket that hid her holster and knife sheaths. Honestly, I never paid that much attention to what people were wearing, but she made it really hard not to notice.

  “Well?”

  “Well what?” I asked.

  “I asked if you wanted to go up or down.” She raised an eyebrow at me.

  I contemplated for a moment before answering. “Down. I want to be on the ground in case anything happens.”

  “Down it is then.”

  The old library was very gothic in appearance and looked like it was straight out of the middle ages. The cathedral like building was constructed of graying bricks and had four towers that rose up on each corner of the structure. The entrance had a massive stairway built out of the same gray stone and the arched windows completed the whole medieval theme the place had going on.

  Directly across from the library was an old movie theater that where they only showed classic films. Well, they didn’t show anything anymore, but before the vampire takeover that was what they played.

  I spotted an empty bench beside a small potted tree. “Come on.” I reached over and grasped Christina’s hand, tugging her toward the bench. We sat down and I casually draped my arm over her shoulders so that we would look like an average young couple who was out for an afternoon on the town.

  The bench was in perfect proximity to the entrance of the library that we could simply sit there and watch the front entrance without looking like that was what we were doing. For a few moments, we simply sat there silent. Nobody went in or out of the library during that time. The book industry was probably not so hot since society had found out vampires were real. People were still pretty scared. Sure, they would come out for a pair of shoes or a hot meal, but not for books.

  Christina shifted positions, bringing herself a little bit closer to me. “Do you think that we will ever truly eradicate the vampires?”

  I shook my head, not looking away from the library entrance. “No, not while Anthony and Pavlos still live. Those from their lines will continue to make more vampires and the cycle will continue.”

  “I think your right,” she agreed. “But, can you imagine the world without them … what it would be like? What would we do?”

  I laughed. “White picket fences baby.”

  Christina didn’t laugh, so I guess she didn’t find that amusing. “You don’t understand. I’m not qualified to do anything in the real world.”

  “You could be a cop.”

  “Right. Those uniforms are hideous! That is never going to happen.”

  “Self-defense instructor?” I suggested.

  She nodded. “Yeah, I may be able to do that. We already help out at the training centers. I wonder what kind of money is in that.”

  “You’d never be rich, that’s for sure.”

  “You’re so sweet.” She leaned her head against mind. “Always so uplifting.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” I jokingly assured her.

  “What would you do?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “I really don’t know. Since my mom died, I only concentrated on finding Trevor and killing vampires. Then, you all found me and this is my job now. But, if there were no vampires, I’d probably be even more lost than I’ve ever been.”

  “That’s so weird, isn’t it? We just want them to be gone, but they are all we know.”

  It was a crazy thing to think about. Even crazier for her and the other Hunters since they were raised to fight and kill vampires. It was a way of life for them.

  “Look.” Christina pointed. “Someone is going in.”

  I saw him at the same time she did. A tall, dark haired man in a black trench coat and biker boots was pounding his way up the stone steps. When he got to the landing, he turned and scanned the street as if he was making sure no one had followed him. At that moment, his dragon tattoo came into view and the black ink stood out starkly against his pale skin.

  I stood, tugging Christina up with me.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going in there,” I told her in a low voice.

  “What? No.” She pulled her hand away. “That isn’t part of the plan.”

  I shrugged. “So what. I don’t understand the plan right now. It’s a freaking library! We should be able to go in and browse some books, while discreetly checking things out.”

  “We don’t know who is in there, someone might recognize us.”

  “If we don’t go in, we aren’t going to know what is really going on in there.” I knew she didn’t want to mess up the plan. The Hunters always stuck to the plan. Not saying that I didn’t think communication and plans were good, but sometimes you had to change the plan.

  “All right,” she agreed. “But I have to radio in and let the team know what’s going on at least.” With a sigh, she shook her head and reached into her pocket for her radio. She backed off into the shadows so she could radio in without being out in the open.

  The cell service had gone back up not long after the Vampire Council fell. However, we decide
d that we didn’t like using the cell phones. Pretty much anyone could tap into those. Yeah, the radios weren’t much safer, but old school seemed the way to go lately. You never knew who was listening to you, and after the fiasco at the Pentagon we were pretty paranoid about everything.

  “Okay.” Christina reappeared, tucking the phone into her pocket. “We’ve been cleared.”

  I nodded. “Nice, we got permission from the parents. Let’s go.”

  “You don’t have to be so grumpy about it. We’re going, aren’t we?”

  I gave her a sideways glance as we hurried across the street. “I’m not grumpy.”

  “Right,” she mumbled.

  We climbed the stone steps and I pulled open the heavy door for Christina. “Ladies first.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, now you’re the perfect gentleman.”

  “Don’t get spoiled.”

  I hadn’t been inside a library since I was in high school and one thing I remember about it was the place had a certain smell. It was hard to place, not exactly musty, but something like that. Maybe had something to do with all the paper. This library had that same scent.

  The floors were a dark hardwood that reflected the bright light of the gargantuan chandeliers that hung from the vaulted ceilings. The front desk was a large octagon not far from the entrance. And, to my surprise, someone was actually manning the desk.

  The librarian, or receptionist … or whatever she was, sat behind the counter in a rolling office chair. Unlike my high school librarian, this woman was much younger. She had blonde hair piled up on top of her head, with a few strands left down around her eyes, which were covered by hipster glasses. Even though she hadn’t looked up I could already see that she had on a crap ton of eye makeup too.

  I slung my arm around Christina’s shoulder as we approached. She eyeballed me and I gave her an eyebrow raise. Couldn’t she tell I was trying to appear nonchalant here?

  We finally reached the counter and the lady behind the desk didn’t seem to notice that we were there. She had a notepad open and appeared to be copying something from an encyclopedia sized book onto the paper. I cleared my throat in hopes that she would finally notice us.