She was being her typical sarcastic self, but her idea wasn’t that bad. I had Daggett sit down where Priscilla had just been, and then I stood behind Melanie and whispered into her ear, “Tell Daggett he has to stand in the center of the room with his finger on the tip of his nose and one foot off the ground. He has to do this until Max says ‘Porky Pig.’”
Melanie nodded and then repeated what I said into Daggett’s ear, for only him to hear.
Daggett glided to the center of the room like he had an invisible string pulling him there. One finger went on his nose, and his foot rose off the carpet.
“Are you here with us?” I asked him.
“You mean mentally? Yeah,” Daggett replied.
“What is it like?”
“Oh, man, it’s weird. I feel completely normal, right? But I literally can’t put my foot down. It’s like there’s a cinder block under my toes.”
“How do we get him to stop?” Dana asked.
“I made it so only one person can. With a certain word,” I explained.
“Before we do that,” Max began. “Melanie, don’t use any tricks, but just ask him to stop what he’s doing.”
Melanie got up out of her chair. “Daggett, put your arm down,” she instructed.
Daggett didn’t move.
Max scratched the tip of his chin and nodded. “Okay. I wanted to see if the person doing this to them could undo it however they wanted.”
“It has to be exactly what I told him,” Melanie said. “No other way.”
I turned to Max. “Say ‘Porky Pig.’”
His brow creased. “Don’t tell me that’s the phrase you used to knock him out of this.”
“And what if it is?”
I thought he was going to poke fun at me, but then he just laughed. We were still in the honeymoon phase of our reunion, so I got to be as stupid as I wanted.
Max turned to Daggett and said, “Porky Pig.” Daggett’s arm and leg dropped, and he nearly collapsed to the floor. He only stood there for a minute or two, but his muscles tightened to restrain himself from moving that it left his limbs like jelly.
Daggett raised his hand and saw that it was involuntarily trembling. “Okay, let’s never do that again,” he said.
Priscilla stared at him, shaking her head. “Goddamn. If only I had this ability in high school.”
“There’d be no high school left,” I said.
She nodded. “Exactly.”
Daggett let out a sigh, and asked, “So now that that’s done, what do we do?”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Our plan was to come here and find you. Well, we found you.”
With his arms crossed and a stern look in his eyes, Max said, “Now we go home.”
“All of us?” Daggett’s eyes drifted to Melanie, and I knew exactly why. She wasn’t human, she wasn’t even a werewolf. She was something else entirely, and something that didn’t have a place.
“Yes, all of us,” I barked. I didn’t mean to be so defensive but, well…I was.
Daggett dipped his chin, curled in his lips, and nodded. I could tell he felt bad, which made me feel worse for snapping at him. He had every right to be curious about how this would work. It was new territory for all of us.
It was like Max was reading my mind, because he gently told Daggett, “We’ll make it work. We can meet up with Brinly and see if she can take her in for a while.”
“Max, that’s a werewolf compound. I don’t think…” He went silent. He knew speaking about his doubts wasn’t helping.
Softly, Melanie said, “He’s right. They’re not gonna want me there. I remember how that place was. They acted like Cora and I were terrorists, and we were just stupid humans.”
“It’s changed,” Max told her. “Brinly is in charge now, not Aga. She’s way more empathetic and open-minded than he was. She won’t leave you to the streets.”
“What is a werewolf princess going to do for me, anyway? Huh? Brinly doesn’t know what I’ve been through or what I’m still going through. She’s no more useful to me than you guys are.”
“I was thinking along the lines of protection.”
Melanie turned away and scoffed. “If he wants to get to me, he will. Compound walls won’t keep him out.”
She didn’t even have to say his name for us all to know who she was talking about: the figure in the darkness that was The Master. Melanie never gave a description of him, and only spoke of him briefly, but the thought of him sent a chill down my spine.
“Why is this guy even after you?” Daggett asked.
Melanie’s cheek was still turned away from us, but from the side, I saw her eyes briefly close. “I have something that he wants. That they all want.”
The room went deathly silent.
“What does that mean?” Max asked.
Before she could answer, Daggett threw out a guess. “You took something from them? Like an object?”
“No,” she said. “It’s me. I’m what they want.”
“Why?”
I already knew the story, but it was time for everyone else to as well.
Melanie sat back down in her chair and let out an exhausted sigh. “He’s the one that got us out of that place. Where they experimented on us. He broke down the front door and slaughtered everyone who worked there. They didn’t even have time to prepare for him. He moves like he’s weightless, like he’s faster than light. He hardly even makes a sound.”
“Why did he come for you?” Daggett asked. “How did he even know about you?”
“I don’t think it was us he was after. We sort of got picked up after the fact.”
“After what?”
“I was pretty out of it for most of the stay there and only learned what they were doing when He took us away and filled us in. I guess they figured out we wouldn’t age and they wanted to, like, copy it from us.”
She struggled to find the right words, and Daggett met her halfway. “They were trying to extract the agelessness from you girls? To duplicate it for humans?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Shit. Did they?” Priscilla asked. She sounded a tad too excited, like she was ready to pour open her purse and throw all of her money at this potential anti-aging vampire face cream.
Melanie shook her head and replied, “No. They gave up on that idea, I guess, so they tried to find a way to be more like us. Only, they wanted to be able to walk in the sunlight.”
“And this guy knew they were coming up with this serum or whatever?” Max asked.
Melanie nodded. “It’s not even that they were coming up with the idea. They made it. They injected all of us with it to see if it’d take, and by the time he showed up, there was nothing left. Only the records of everyone involved in the experiment. He had me, Molly, Veronica, and Tiffany help him track down the vampires that got away. To see who it worked on.”
“What was he gonna do, drink the serum out of them?”
“Worse.” Melanie lowered her head and nothing more came from her lips. She didn’t want to say it.
So I did.
“He wants to do a ritual,” I said. “He has to…devour the heart of any vampire capable of walking in the sunlight.”
Priscilla wrinkled her nose. “Gross. He couldn’t do a blood transfusion or something?”
“Like Daggett said, this is beyond science.” I looked over at Melanie, who was already staring back at me. Her eyes still, sad, tortured. “This is where Magic comes into the picture.”
“Okay, this all very horrifying and all that shit, but does this really need to be our problem? Let the cops or the navy or whoever the fuck blow this guy away with a missile while we get the fuck out of here.”
“That might be easy to do if he weren’t after Melanie.”
“But why—”
“It worked on you, didn’t it?” Max interrupted. He had been staring at Melanie intensely throughout the entire conversation, his arms folded and his brow narrowed. �
�You can walk in the sun, so he needs you.”
She hesitated at first but then nodded.
It felt like everyone in the room took a collective sharp inward breath together, completely horrified at the idea of it. I had the same reaction when she first told me. I didn’t want to believe it. It made my stomach churn.
Priscilla’s red lips parted for a moment, and then quietly added, “Oh.”
“Is there anyone else it worked on?” Max asked.
Melanie shrugged. “None that I know of. I’m the only one he knows about, though.”
Dana approached our circle. “We have to hide Melanie. We have to get her as far from here as we can, somewhere where he’ll never think to look.”
“I think we’re a little late for that,” Daggett spoke. We turned to the direction of his voice and saw that he was standing by the window, his hand pulling back the curtain and his focus outside.
We joined him at his side, each trying to peek over one another’s head to see what had caught his attention.
Out in the parking lot was Max’s car, only it had been tampered with. The hood was popped open, and it looked as though the battery had been ripped out. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who had done it.
It was Molly.
Chapter Twenty-One
CORA
Not only had they stolen the battery, but the snow was coming down even harder than it was ten minutes ago. It was a full-blown winter wonderland outside. When Max went outside to see the damage they had done to his car, he came back in with wet snow marks up to his knees. The way the snow was piling on fast and hard took us all by surprise. Snowfalls like this didn’t usually come around until January.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal. But normally, we wouldn’t be a group of six with no vehicle out in the middle of nowhere, trying to hide from a pack of people who literally had a taste for blood. You can understand how the sudden blizzard was making us sweat a little.
Priscilla wasn’t helping matters, either. “We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, oh, shit, we’re so fucking dead.”
“Shush!” I told her.
“For what?! It’s not like they don’t know we’re here. They’re probably outside listening to us right now!”
“I hear they go for the loud ones first,” Max said as he wiped off the snow from his boots. “It’s easier to kill the rest of the group when the loud one isn’t around to make noise. It doesn’t alert bystanders who could intervene.”
Priscilla’s pale face somehow went paler as she pointed at him. “That is not funny.” She looked back at me and said, “How is he making jokes at a time like this?”
“Who says I was kidding?”
She balled up her first and placed it to her mouth. “I’m gonna hurl. I’m actually going to puke all over this floor.”
Dana said, “The toilet is ten steps to the left.”
I’m not sure if she meant it to be sarcastic, but it tickled me.
“You didn’t see anybody when you were out there?” Daggett asked Max.
Max shook his head. “I was ready to get jumped at any second too. They’re probably somewhere out there watching, trying to figure out if it’s just us four or if we found Melanie and Cora.”
“So they followed us. Great.”
“We did park my car out in the open like a couple of schmucks.”
“It’s not like we could hide it in a tree.”
“Somehow, I don’t think a car in a tree would be less conspicuous,” I added.
“Why are you guys joking around?” Priscilla asked. “You do realize we’re literally going to have our throats slashed and our bodies stuffed into a garbage disposal, right?” She shook her head and sighed. “Molly’s probably been itching to kill me since that party where I told her her foundation didn’t match her neck.”
“I’m sure that keeps her up at night,” Max said.
“You know how psycho she was about the little shit.”
I wanted to say Priscilla was overreacting, but Molly had always been a bit intense for no particular reason. I sat down on the edge of the couch, my heart suddenly pounding. The reality of her hiding outside the building waiting for us to step into the parking lot finally set in. They wanted Melanie because they were sent for her, but Molly and I had history. I placed my hand to my chest and felt how hard my heart was still going, and said, “I don’t think you have to worry, Priscilla. You’re probably at the bottom of her list.”
“No, Daggett is. She doesn’t even know who his ass is.”
“I’m beginning to think that’s not such a bad thing,” he said.
Dana stood beside Max and peered up at him. “So what do we do now?” she asked. “Do we stay here and hide, or do we make a run for it?”
The way she looked at him warmed my heart a bit. There was a lot of respect and admiration in her eyes, like she felt he was the true leader of the group and could be trusted with this big decision.
Max exhaled slowly. “We make a run for it, and there’s a good chance we get jumped. Not all of us have great speed.”
Priscilla leaned into my ear and whispered, “Is he talking about us?”
“Considering I get winded eating a bag of chips, I’m gonna say yeah,” I replied.
“I feel like this is some kind of discrimination because we’re humans.”
“I don’t think there’s a support group for something like that.”
“Typical.”
I turned my attention back to Max’s conversation.
“You think we should stay here and hope they leave?” Dana asked.
“No, I’m not saying that either,” Max replied. “We gotta get my car up and running before we all take off as a group. Moving on foot isn’t an option, especially with it coming down like it is outside.”
Daggett stroked his chin. “Pretty sure a vehicle needs a battery for us to drive it.”
“We’ll get another one. I know there’s a shop not far from here. We’ll get it there.”
“It’s after five, it’ll be closed.”
“We’ll break into the damn place if we have to.”
“We’re thieves now?” I asked.
Max shrugged. “What would you rather be, a thief or dead?”
“Is there an option C?”
Dana asked, “How are we going to get to the shop, though? You said we shouldn’t go on foot.”
“We’re not all going to go,” he told her.
I felt dread creep into my stomach, and it twisted so sharply I had to lean forward to control the pain. Dana must have felt the same way because her eyes darted toward me and then back at Max. “Split up?” she trembled. “We just found each other.”
Max put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Only one or two of us need to go. Don’t worry.”
“Who’s going?”
“Me and Daggett.”
Daggett lifted his head up and let his eyes bounce around the group, like he was trying to make sure he had heard correctly. “Me? Why me? Shouldn’t someone stay with the women?”
“Prince Charming over here,” Priscilla commented with a scoff.
Max approached Daggett. “The only way we can sneak out of here mostly undetected and get to the store fast enough is if we’re in wolf form. You and I are the only ones here who can do this at will.”
“Would that actually work?” Dana asked.
“It’s our best shot. I doubt they’re as fast as us, and it’ll let us break into that place without cameras catching us.”
“What about us?” Priscilla asked. “You’re just gonna leave us behind with no way to defend ourselves?”
“I can protect us,” Melanie said.
“Me too,” Dana added.
They exchanged a faint smile.
“That’s cute and very ra-ra feminist of you both, but we’re outnumbered,” Priscilla complained. “Dana can’t even wolf-out when she wants to, and Melanie is only one vampire. And if that Master dude shows up, we’re com
pletely fucked.”
“They’re not gonna show up, because they don’t know that you’re with us,” Max said to her. “As soon as we’re gone, you’ll kill the lights, which will clue them in that something is up. They’ll start sneaking around the building looking for us and realize that we bailed, and then they’ll come after us while the rest of you hide out.”
“That’s a pretty iffy scenario,” Daggett replied.
“You got a better plan?”
“Maybe not a better plan.”
“What if I was the one who left?” Melanie said. “They’re after me anyway.”
Before I could raise my voice to tell her it was an insane idea, Max very casually said, “No. The whole point of us two going is so they don’t know where you are. You isolate yourself, and you’re as good as dead.”
“Is it really fair that you two get yourselves killed for me?”
“We won’t be killed. We have ten times the speed and strength when we change than when we’re human.”
Melanie scoffed. “So do we. But we don’t have to turn ours on.”
Gravely serious, he said, “This will work. Trust me.”
The worst part of this plan wasn’t that Max was putting himself in danger or that we were left to fend for ourselves, but that all of this would be happening and he was completely in the right to let it. His plan was the most sensical, and as much as I wanted to fight him about it, it’d only be wasting precious time.
I guess it was my turn to worry about him now.
Just as I had this thought, Priscilla turned to me and said, “You’re being uncharacteristically quiet. You choking on air over there?”
My mouth dropped. “You said you weren’t going to make fun of me for that anymore. But, no, that’s not what’s happening, I’m just…I’m thinking.”
“As equally dangerous.”
“Why are you single again?” Melanie sarcastically asked.
Priscilla glared at her. “No man is ready for what I have to offer.”
“Crabs?”
A few of us chuckled, but no one louder than Dana. Her cheeks instantly turned red afterward and she covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the continuous laughter.
Lunar Rebirth (Lunar Rampage Trilogy Book 3) Page 14
