Blood Wars: Book 4 (The Talisman Series)

by Brenda Pandos

  “Why?”

  “Because, I’d think they’d want revenge.”

  “Maybe they want to make things right.”

  I huffed and shook my head.

  Nicholas leaned in. “Dr. V’s discovery is all about saving people.”

  “Yeah, but they’re going to make gobs of money because of it.”

  My phone vibrated with a text.

  Mom: Where are you? Come home now!

  I rolled my eyes. “Great.”

  “What?” Nicholas leaned in to look at the screen. “Oh.”

  Me: I’m stuck at school. Car won’t start. Waiting for tow truck.

  Mom: Dad’s on his way.

  Me: I’ll have Nicholas drive me.

  Mom: Dad’s on his way. Sit tight.

  I threw up my hands. “They’re going ballistic. I knew this was going to happen.”

  “Your parents love you. They’re just worried.” He forced a smile and kept me from escaping his arms. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of Q.” He patted the top of my Quantum.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Q?”

  “You never named her.”

  “That sounds like a James Bond thing.”

  “Well, if you supe her up with special secret agent things, no one would know.”

  I stopped fighting and snuggled against his chest. He had an idea there. “Like guns and bullet proof glass?”

  “Exactly. Can’t forget lasers and tires that turn to make your boat into a real boat.”

  I rocked my hip into his side. “She’s not a boat!”

  “Her name is Q.”

  A puff of laughter pushed from my lips. I loved how he could disarm me. That was until my dad came peeling into the parking lot.

  “Julia!” He rolled down the passenger window. “Get inside. Now!”

  I turned to give Nicholas a quick kiss, when Dad barked again. “Now, Julia!”

  “Geez, already.”

  “I’ll see you later,” Nicholas said softly.

  I crawled into the front seat and before I could buckle up, Dad shot of out of the parking lot. “Wait! What are you doing?”

  “We’ve been robbed, Julia.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “Our house has been ransacked.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dad paused. “The house is…” He breathed deeply through his nose as if to stop himself from becoming emotional. “We’re still trying to figure out what they’ve taken, but so far it’s our computers and all the household files. The rest they’ve just destroyed.”

  I gasped. “What about my room?”

  Dad peered over with a mix of sadness and anger in his eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s bad. But don’t worry. The cops are there, and someone’s installing an alarm, and I’ve hired a security agency to oversee things.”

  Tears pricked my eyes as I imagined the worst. Once we rounded the corner, Dad swung the car into the driveway and parked. Police cars and construction trucks lined the street.

  I lugged my backpack over my shoulder and headed for the front door, walking past our noisy neighbor as she talked to an officer—her day in the sun.

  My eyes swept across the entry beyond the opened door. Nothing that once stood was erect any longer. The bookcase was shattered in a million pieces and pages of books littered the floor like confetti. Stuffing from the pillows covered the torn fabric on the couch. Withholding a sob, I ran upstairs and slowly pushed open my door.

  “Wait, Julia!” Mom called after me, but I had to see.

  My eyes glossed over the worst, my desk in a broken heap along with my end table and lamp. My curtains and sheets were hanging, but shredded. My mattress’s springs and stuffing bulged between the lining.

  A photographer that stood in the middle of the mess swiveled around startled.

  “Sorry,” she said quickly. “I’m almost finished.”

  But I couldn’t speak. Beyond her, written on the shattered mirror hanging on the wall was the remains of a note drawn with red lipstick.

  I sucked in a breath as I read it.

  YOU’RE NEXT!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I sat shaking in the investigator’s office, the threat written on the mirror playing over and over in my head.

  “Who would want to do this?” a nice-looking, middle-aged man asked again. “Has anyone threatened you?”

  That question was swirling in my head as well.

  “No,” I heard myself say, though I suspected Mr. Cruor was involved. A shiver wiggled its way down my arms. Why did they have to keep the air so freaking cold in here?

  The investigator leaned in, unconvinced. “Your parents said you were involved with Horace Cruor and Dr. Volynski Cruor’s recent discovery.”

  I gritted my teeth and glared through the glass at my parents who were engrossed in their own conversation with each other. What else had they told him? I crossed my arms and spoke slowly. “I was in his internship program. He’s my history teacher.”

  “Are you no longer in the program?”

  I snapped my head up. “N-no. I’m in it. I just… after the discovery, it’s all… up in the air. You know.”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

  “I’ll find out later, I guess.”

  His eyes tightened before he scribbled something on his pad of paper. The tension in the room escalated with each passing second. The sweat in my armpits chilled me even worse. What did he know? What did he think I knew?

  I bounced my foot nervously. “Why? What have you heard?”

  Mr. Investigator’s eyebrows lifted. “They’ve been pretty tight lipped about the discovery. Who else knows about it?”

  I chewed on my lip, remembering the scene in the brother’s office underground. “His entire staff.”

  “How many staff members does he have?”

  “A lot.”

  “20? 30?”

  “Yeah, like 20.”

  “Did you happen to listen in or see documents?”

  My eyes met his, and a snort escaped from my lips. If you only knew. “No. It’s top secret.” Which was partly true. I had no clue what Dr. V did to my blood before injecting it into Mr. Cruor.

  “Did you tell anyone what you saw when they discovered the secret formula?”

  “I didn’t know there was a secret formula, so who would I tell?” I smirked at my ability to avoid his little wordsmith trap.

  “Did you tell anyone they’d discovered something?”

  “Just my boyfriend, Nicholas,” I said before thinking.

  Mr. Investigator straightened as if recognizing the name. “Nicholas…?”

  “Uh, yeah. He already kind of knew.”

  “How did he know?”

  “It’s not a secret they were looking for a blood—I mean gene—a match.” I held up my hands quickly. “He’s not involved in this.”

  “I’m just collecting facts, Julia. No one’s being accused of anything. You don’t need to worry.”

  “I’m not worried. I just want whoever did this to be locked up far far away from me.” I clenched my jaw, wanting to retract everything I’d said after he nodded knowingly.

  “And that’s what I want, too.”

  I tried to muster a smile.

  At this rate Mr. Investigator would be interviewing everyone I knew and the truth about my blood would come out. So much for anonymity.

  He scrawled more things on his pad of paper, and I watched him skeptically wishing I could read his aura. Darn powers. They came in so handy before. But I wasn’t so naive to discount that people could be bought, and that my life was worth a price. I just wanted out of the office and to go somewhere safe. Before, with Nicholas, I always felt safe. But now, I had no clue who to trust.

  “Anything else you can remember?” he asked.

  “I think that’s it,” I said softly.

  “We’re going to do our best to find out who’s behind this, Julia.” He smiled warmly and slid his card across the d
esk. “Call me if you hear or remember anything.”

  I looked at the card. His name jumped out at me and I gasped. Detective Harold Callahan.

  “You can call me Harry.”

  My eyes met his. “H-harry?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Dirty Harry. Go ahead. You can laugh. Everyone does. My parents should be shot for naming me that.”

  I snapped my gapping mouth shut, fingering the card. The Harry I knew from the past had been Nicholas’ mentor, but he was blind and old, not to mention Vietnamese, and he’d taken the name when coming to America after learning his English from Dirty Harry movies. What was his last name?

  No, Julia. This isn’t another coincidence.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled.

  “Sure thing.” He stood and opened the door.

  Without another word, I left Harry’s office. My parents stood to greet me.

  “How’d it go?” Mom asked.

  “Fine,” I mumbled.

  “This way.” Harry directed us to the front door. “If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call. You’ll be in good hands with Officer Henderson.”

  “So what’s next?” Dad asked.

  I rubbed my chilled fingers over my arms. I so didn’t want to hear this. As Harry briefed my parents on the next steps they’d take, I slipped outside. The warm air started to defrost me, and I pulled out my phone and texted Nicholas.

  ME: I’m done here. Please rescue me from this.

  NK: Of course. Where are you?

  I glanced across the street at the donut shop and started to type in the address.

  “Come on, Julia,” Mom said as Dad clicked the key and unlocked the Pilot.

  “Nicholas is going to pick me up here.”

  Mom’s hand tightened on the frame of the car and she whipped her head around.

  “No, you’re coming with us, Julia,” Dad interrupted before Mom could throw a fit.

  I blew out a pent up breath. “Home? To that nightmare? No thank you. I need to clear my head.”

  Mom’s hand shot out and she latched onto my arm like she used to do when I was little and about to bolt into a parking lot. “You’re staying with us.”

  Instinctively, I jerked away. “Geez, Mom. I’m not two.”

  “You just had your life threatened. Get in the car,” she barked between clenched teeth.

  We had a standoff for a moment. Her beet-red face signaled a meltdown, I crawled into the car and folded my arms. I’d go with them, but I didn’t have to like it. Dad pulled out of the parking lot like he was in hot pursuit.

  “Slow down,” Mom yelled.

  I wished for my ear buds so I could plug into my music and ignore them.

  “What did they ask you?” Dad started in.

  I rolled my eyes and stared out of the window. “Thanks for telling them about the internship.”

  “Julia, don’t talk to your father like that.”

  I huffed. “You should have told them I was the cure to cancer, too. Why keep that a secret?”

  “Julia!” Mom barked. “Have you forgotten that they’re on our side?”

  “Are they? Mr. Cruor forked over a bunch of G’s for my blood. What do you think the precinct would do if they knew that? How much is an investigator’s salary anyway?”

  Mom sighed.

  “I know you’re worried and upset, but taking this out on us isn’t going to help things,” Dad said calmly.

  “Yeah, well, giving the investigator bread crumbs to the truth isn’t either. They’ll figure it out. I’m not safe either way.”

  “Maybe we should take up Horace’s offer.”

  “What? No way!” I shook my head. “What better way to scare us than to ransack and destroy our house!” Why can’t you remember the truth, Dad? Please.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Mom said.

  “Well, the fact of the matter is we can’t stay at home, Julia.” Dad’s anxious eyes watched me in the rear view mirror, and I squirmed. “Not until we can clean up everything and secure the place.”

  “Good thing we have the money,” Mom mumbled.

  “Pshht.” I blew out an angry breath, beyond frustrated with that man. “Protect us from Mr. Cruor, you mean?”

  “We don’t know who did it,” Dad said quickly.

  “Exactly, which makes him a suspect.” I stared out the window. “He had the perfect motive. Maybe he’s trying to teach us a lesson.”

  Mom chuckled nervously. “Which is silly. It does him no good to bite the hand that feeds him.”

  I thought her use of the word bite interesting. “And you’re running right into his greedy arms.”

  Dad hummed disapprovingly from the front seat. “Let’s not accuse anyone until we have solid facts. Horace is a respected man in the community. There were plenty of fingerprints around the house, so hopefully we’ll have answers soon.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Or someone who wants to sell my blood on the black market knows I’m the cure, or thinks I wrote down the secret formula. Someone with that knowledge isn’t going to be so dumb as to leave fingerprints.”

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Dad grunted.

  My phone rang, and Mom jumped. I pulled it out, hoping it was Nicholas. Digits unknown to me scrolled across the screen. I answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Yeah, is this Julia Parker?” the man on the line asked.

  My heart sped up. Was this the intruder? Was this going to be the first of the harassing calls I’d receive? “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, this is Jack—”

  Jack. I didn’t know a Jack from the prior life. What did he want?

  “Who is it?” Mom whispered, turning around in her seat.

  I licked my lips and lifted my shoulders.

  “Yeah, well. I have bad news,” Jack continued.

  My fingers shook. Bad news? “Who are you?”

  “I’m Jack from the Village Garage.”

  I blinked, running through the name. Village Garage? Was that code for something?

  “Yeah, you had your Quantum towed here, and I’ve isolated the problem. Unfortunately, it looks like it needs a new transmission.”

  The air pushed out of my lungs as the reference clicked. My body slumped into the seat.

  “You still there, miss?”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Whatever it needs. Just fix it.”

  “I don’t think you understand. It’s gonna be a lot more money to fix than what the car’s worth. Are you sure? Maybe you should consider turning it in—for scrap metal.”

  Listening to what he was saying, that my car wasn’t worth anything, felt like he was hammering nails into my coffin. The tears brimmed on my lids. In a few short hours, I’d lost my freedom, my belongings, and now I was about to lose my car.

  “Who’s on the phone, Julia?” Mom whispered, then she stopped. The corners of her lips turned down. “What is it?”

  “Oh,” I managed to eek out to Jack. “Let me talk to my parents. I’ll get back to you.”

  I clicked END.

  “Answer me, Julia! Who was that?”

  I swallowed down the tears and stared at my mother’s terrified face. “The shop. My car is dead.”

  Mom rolled her eyes. “Geez, Julia. Don’t scare me like that.”

  Dad quickly pulled onto our street and parked on the driveway. The police cars and construction crew trucks were gone, but what their presence meant still lingered. I wasn’t safe. No one I loved was safe. It was just like before with the vampires, except I didn’t know who my enemy was this time.

  Dad turned in his seat. “We’ll deal with the car after we get settled. Okay? I’m sure there’s something that can be done. Just collect clothes for a few days. I’ll find us a hotel.”

  I sniffled and nodded, opening the door.

  “We can stay at my mother’s,” Mom suggested.

  “I’ll find us a hotel,” Dad said more firmly. “Just get our clothes together. Don’t forget my shaver and toothbrush.”

&n
bsp; I left the car so I didn’t have to listen to them argue. Dad loved Gran, but could only handle her hoarding for a few hours before the clutter started to drive him mad. Luckily Dad balanced out Mom’s tendencies and forced her to purge every once in a while. The robbers, on the other hand, purged it all.

  I pulled out my house keys and turned the knob. Inside, a newly installed control panel on the wall began to beep. I stared at it, helpless.

  “Hey!” I yelled out the door. “What’s the code?”

  “What?” Dad asked.

  “The code?”

  Mom walked up and punched in something, but the beeping didn’t stop.

  She leaned out the door. “Russell, the code isn’t working?”

  “I’ll be there in a second. I’m booking the hotel.” Dad walked into view, emphasizing the phone stuck to his ear.

  “The code isn’t working, Russell. Hang up.”

  Dad put up his pointer finger for us to wait.

  Mom walked out to him and put her hands on her hips. “The alarm is going to go off.”

  “It’s our anniversary.”

  “I put that in.”

  “My birthdate?”

  I punched in Dad’s birthdate. The panel lit up red, then a blaring alarm sounded from the tiny speakers. I covered my ears.

  Dad cussed and ran over. He punched in some numbers. Nothing happened. He tried again.

  “What’s your security password?” a lady said from the panel.

  “My what?” Dad yelled.

  “Your password.”

  “Uh…” He scratched his head as the alarm seemed to grow louder. “It’s my anniversary, I suppose.”

  “It’s a word, sir,” she replied.

  “I just had this thing installed. I don’t know what my password is.”

  “Wait.” Mom ran from the kitchen with a stack of papers. “It’s… red barron?”

  “Thank you,” the woman said on the panel, but the alarm didn’t stop blaring. “I will cancel with dispatch.”

  “Now what?” Dad yelled at the panel. When no one responded, he yelled louder. “Now WHAT?”

  Mom sighed and punched in a code. The alarm stopped.

  Dad blinked. “What did you punch in?”

  Mom put her hand on her hip. “Our supposed anniversary. What year were we married?”