Lunar Rebirth (Lunar Rampage Trilogy Book 3)

by Samantha Cross

  Melanie had been in such a dark, mopey place that it was easy to forget she had a sharp tongue much like Priscilla, and no filter. They were more alike than they realized.

  “Cora?” Max called out, his voice breaking through the catty chatter around us. “What are you thinking? How pissed are you right now?”

  “I’m not at all,” I replied with a headshake. “I actually agree with you. This is our best option.”

  Max squeezed his lips together tightly and quietly smiled. It was a reluctant smile, and I knew it was because he was relieved that we were on the same page, but also sad we were on the same page. Because if we were in a similar headspace, he knew I was dreading us being apart again just as much as he was.

  We had, after all, only been together for an hour, tops. I hated this. So much.

  Daggett crossed his arms over his chest and said, “If we’re gonna do this, we gotta do it now. Every second we stand here is one more second they have to figure out we’re kind of clueless as to what we’re doing.”

  “We’re not clueless,” Max replied and slapped the back of his hand against Daggett’s chest. Daggett rubbed the area afterward like a bullet had pierced his flesh. “You ladies lock this place up tight, and we’ll be back before you know it.”

  “What if there isn’t a battery for you to steal?” Dana asked.

  Max’s jaw clenched. “Well, I guess we’re fucked then.”

  Priscilla let out one loud laugh. “Oh, goody. I love a motivational speech.”

  Max blew air out of his mouth, and a lock of his brown hair flicked from his forehead. Even he couldn’t fault Priscilla for her response. He looked over at Dana and asked, “Is there a back exit to this building?”

  “We have a basement,” she answered. “It’s where we do our laundry, but the washer is broken most of the time, so no one ever goes down there. I locked myself there one time during a full moon when I had nowhere else to go. The only way out is a little window, but you could definitely fit.”

  “That’ll have to do then. You ready, Daggett?”

  Daggett faked a smile. “To put my body through excruciating pain again in hopes that a bunch of women chase after me and kill me? Who wouldn’t be ready?”

  “At least you’ve thought this through. Come on.”

  Before they left, they grabbed an old duffle bag of Dana’s so they’d have something to carry the battery in. Since they would have to remove their clothes as well, and it was horrifically cold outside, I suggested they take an extra bag to keep their outfits and coats in. They’d either have to strap it around their bodies or carry it in their mouths.

  They were ready to walk out the door when I pulled Max aside to say our goodbyes.

  “You’re leaving me with Priscilla,” I said.

  “It’s only fair. You did the same to me.”

  “It’s still blowing my mind that she even agreed to come along. You must have done some amazing persuasion.”

  “Actually, it was the opposite.”

  Hmm. Color me surprised.

  Max placed his hands on each of my arms and stroked his fingers beneath my elbows. “If something happens to you while I’m gone—”

  “It won’t.”

  “But if it does—”

  I pressed my fingertip against the center of his lips, silencing him. “We’re gonna get out of here in one piece. All of us. No more losing people.”

  Max took a shallow breath in and nodded. “All right. But just know that if something does happen to you, I’m probably gonna let Molly finish me off.”

  I nervously laughed. “That got super dark super fast.”

  A faint grin formed on his mouth. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay? Don’t try to be brave. Just hide out for as long as you can. If something goes sideways and you have to leave, run. Run and don’t look back. I’ll find you eventually.”

  “I know. You already did, and you always do.”

  He pulled me in for a hug and held me tight, allowing me to inhale the scent of his hair. He smelled so good, like snow and firewood. Max then kissed me on the lips and held me in place as his hands grasped onto my lower back.

  When we stopped kissing and hugging, I smiled. “That pep talk was nice. It was very Last of the Mohicans of you.”

  Max threw his head back and rolled his eyes. Yeah, I could be a pain.

  “Be serious,” he said to me.

  “I just compared you to Daniel Day-Lewis, and that’s your response?”

  “Daniel Day-Lewis let three other characters die in that movie. Let’s not create too many parallels there.”

  I was about to say something smart, but then I had a revelation and laughed. “I just realized the main girl in that movie’s name was Cora.”

  He laughed. “So?”

  “I told this cop back in Rookridge that the only famous Cora I could think of was that little girl who died in Titanic. I was wrong. There is another.”

  I sounded like Yoda.

  Max’s brow raised. “You pick the strangest times for these conversations.”

  “In fairness to me, if the last things we say to each other are stupid, then maybe the universe won’t stand by and let it be our last words. We’ll have to reunite.”

  “Strange way of thinking, but I think I like it.”

  I kissed him softly, and he grinned. Max brushed his thumb across my cheek and bottom lip and then said, “You better be here when I get back. It’d suck if you died.”

  I put my face to his chest and laughed. He was repeating something I had told him the summer we first met. “You remembered,” I said.

  “There isn’t a single thing about you that I’ve forgotten.”

  “I’d be touched if I weren’t an embarrassment of a human being. You can forget a couple of things, Max, I won’t be mad.”

  “Not a chance.”

  I smiled. “I love you.”

  Max was silent.

  “You’re not going to say it back?” I asked.

  “Those would be final words. We’re not doing that. Remember?” He flung the duffle bag strap over his arm and gestured for Daggett to follow him, and the two quietly left through the front door and out into the apartment hallway in search of the basement.

  I stood there, breathless and hoping that wasn’t our last goodbye.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  MELANIE

  Molly, Veronica, Tiffany, and I had been on the search for hours. We were fifty miles outside of Lunar City at the time, breaking into abandoned buildings and tearing apart vehicles in hopes that we’d find the daywalker hiding. Master sent us because he was busy with other matters. Things he wouldn’t tell us about.

  It had been months since I’d been out in the fresh air, and all my senses were in overload. I felt lightheaded and queasy, and all I wanted to do was nap. Somehow, the other three weren’t even tired. Which, at the time, confused me until Molly rolled her eyes and said, “You’re not drinking. That’s why. Just find someone to drink from and stop being useless.”

  All three of them had killed. They broke into a farmhouse and mutilated an elderly couple and then drank them dry. I could smell the blood from outside. It was thick, vibrant, everywhere. My stomach twisted and turned from hunger the more the couple bled out, but I wouldn’t join them. “Come on,” Tiffany gleefully said with blood dripping down the sides of her mouth. The way she said it was like we were kids who had stumbled onto a basket of kittens. We were killing people. This wasn’t cute. This was disgusting.

  The sickest part was that we stayed at the farmhouse while the couple’s bodies rotted in the kitchen. I went upstairs to grab a sheet to cover them with, and I found all these old pictures. There was a black-and-white photo with the man on a bike and his wife standing beside him, and there was another more modern one with a huge group that had probably been taken at a family reunion.

  These were people, and we used them for a snack.

  Before I died, I never cared much about other people and their
problems. I only cared about my own. All I could think about was my stupid husband who left me and the cup size of the dumb broad he left me for. Or how I was gonna be thirty and still wasn’t rich, married, and living on an island. But my time with Molly and the girls, seeing how little they gave a shit about anyone’s life, shook me up something fierce and I was humbled quick.

  I had been such a stupid, silly girl. I wasted so much of my life on things that just didn’t matter.

  Living in that farmhouse gave me a lot of time to think, and most of it was when the girls were asleep. I didn’t get tired during the day the way they did, so I used that time to sit by the window and reflect. I missed my parents, my daily routine, going shopping, getting the mail, eating a real meal. And I missed Cora. I never thought I would, but I did.

  Dying was my least favorite memory. I remembered the pain, the smell of blood, the panic, and I remembered the slow acceptance I felt when I knew my life was over. Cora stayed with me as tears ran down her face, and I had never been more touched over another person’s agony before. It meant she cared.

  As much as I pitied the old couple that were killed, they went to their graves knowing someone would mourn them and that they’d be together again. I didn’t have that. Everyone I ever knew thought I was dead and had done their mourning already. My parents probably sold my belongings on eBay and moved on.

  It wasn’t like I could come home to them. I wasn’t even human anymore.

  I stared out into the sunny front lawn of the farmhouse and noticed a tricycle leaned against a tree. It looked like it had been sitting there for a while because it was covered in frost. It probably belonged to their grandkids who left it there when their parents picked them up. It made me sad because they had no idea their last visit really was their last.

  My chest tightened and I began to cry. I didn’t want to be this monster. I couldn’t live like this.

  I opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, ready to let the sun engulf me and turn me into ashes. My suffering would at least be over.

  I closed my eyes and raised my face to the sun, but nothing happened. Everything felt just as it would if I were human. I stood in the sunlight, and I was okay.

  There was a sound of the door clicking open behind me, and I looked over my shoulder and saw Veronica standing on the other side of the screen door. Her eyes were bloodshot and wide, amazed at what I was able to do. But there was something else in her stare too. Her lips, that were still bloodstained from a full night of feasting, opened and she yelled, “Molly!”

  I knew what this meant. They found the daywalker. I was the daywalker.

  Before Veronica’s mouth could utter another word, I took off running. It may have been winter, but there was still sunlight, so I knew they couldn’t follow me for another few hours. I had that much time to get away.

  Lunar City was the nearest place I could hide, and I went hoping Cora or anyone from Brinly’s compound would be there and could help me. I ran through the cold, through the sleet, my hair drenched and my stomach growling, and I only ever stopped when I literally couldn’t go any further.

  “Ouch!” Priscilla yelled. It pulled me out of my memory and I looked over and saw her sucking on her thumb as she sat on the floor near a table of candles. “Why did that hurt so much?”

  “This just in: fire hurts,” Cora joked and then took the lighter out of Priscilla’s hand and lit another candle.

  “You know I traveled all the way down here with your butthead boyfriend to rescue you, right? You could show a little fucking gratitude.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. You want me to suck your thumb for you?”

  Priscilla pulled her hand into her chest like Cora was really gonna do it. “There’s no need to get crude now. Just because you still suck your thumb doesn’t mean you gotta suck mine.”

  Cora fake gasped. “Have you been reading my diary again?”

  “Like I’d need to. I’m sure every entry is: dear diary, today Max looked at me again, and it was like the world stopped spinning and stars came flying out of his ass.”

  “That actually wasn’t bad until the last part. That line felt unnecessary.”

  “I’ll brush up on my English major for you.”

  “That’d be nice. Thanks.” Cora crawled off of the floor and came up to Dana. “You have any marshmallows?”

  Dana sort of giggled. “You wanna eat marshmallows?”

  “We’re sitting in the dark with a bunch of candlelight. My mind immediately goes to s’mores. We could even tell a few ghost stories if we’re feeling frisky.”

  “What for?” Priscilla asked as she played with a flame. “We’re all about to be ghosts anyway.”

  “I think me standing here is proof not everyone who dies turns into a ghost,” I said.

  “At least we’re in agreement that we’re all going to die.”

  I shook my head and laughed. “You really are miss sunshine and rainbows, aren’t you? I was murdered by a piece of shit I was dating, and I have more optimism than you do.”

  “Well, it’s not like you were always the brightest. What happened to that, by the way? You drop dead and suddenly you have a brain in your skull? You’re actually forming real sentences.”

  I knew she was being sarcastic, but I still wanted to beat her ass.

  “I was drunk when we met. Who isn’t stupid when they’re drunk?”

  “Me.”

  “That’s because you’re an alcoholic,” Cora commented. Dana laughed.

  “You’ve never even seen me drunk, hoe.”

  “Oh, you were totally sneaking shots at the date auction in Rookridge. Don’t even lie.”

  “And yet here I am. The bitch lived. Even intoxicated I’m completely unstoppable.”

  “Why does that sound like a tagline for a bad comic book movie?”

  “It kind of does,” Dana whispered and then bashfully giggled. It was cute how she wanted to be in on the jokes but was afraid of hurting someone else’s feelings, so was quiet about it. Priscilla probably wasn’t even able to get her feelings hurt, so Dana was wasting her kindness.

  “So, is that a no on the marshmallows?” Cora asked.

  “I doubt I have any, but I can look,” Dana answered.

  Cora skipped back to the coffee table covered by candles and sat on the floor while Dana raided the kitchen cupboards. Cora wrapped a blanket around herself and said, “I meant to say this when we all first got back together, but I like what you’ve done to your place. It looks a lot different from the last time I was here.”

  “You mean it’s clean now,” Dana said from the kitchen.

  “Well, yeah. But it’s organized too. And I think this coffee table is different.”

  Dana laughed. “How did you know that?”

  Because Cora noticed the tiniest, stupidest stuff. I used to make fun of her for it all the time, but it’s endearing me these days.

  Instead of saying that, Cora shrugged. “Just a guess.”

  Priscilla raised one of the candles to her nose, and with a repulsed expression asked, “What is this scent? Chocolate cake?”

  “Yeah,” Dana replied.

  Cora almost fell over trying to get to her feet. “Ooh, let me smell!” She swiped the candle out of Priscilla’s hand and nearly knocked her onto her ass. I had to laugh. Cora then inhaled the candle and moaned. “Now this is the quality content I’m interested in.”

  “I think you’re just hungry. When’s the last time you ate?”

  “I found a pickle in your fridge and ate it. I’m gonna be really honest with you, though, I’m not completely convinced it was, in fact, a pickle, nor do I care.”

  Priscilla wrinkled her nose. “What else would it be if not a pickle?”

  “I don’t know, man. It crunched and it had a weird shape.”

  “Let’s talk about something else. Literally anything else.” Priscilla wrapped her arms around her knees casually. “Who even buys chocolate cake scented candles, anyway?�
�

  Dana walked out of the kitchen and shrugged. “When I light it, it smells like someone is baking in the apartment, and it makes me think of my mom. She loved to bake.”

  Cora chuckled. “My mom only baked if she absolutely had to. Like for school events or family functions.” She looked at me and said, “Remember those brownies she baked for our Christmas party?”

  “Were those brownies? I thought they were croutons,” I joked.

  Cora loudly laughed. “Kind of tasted like them too, I won’t lie.”

  It was nice that we could talk like this. Like friends. It wasn’t always like that, and I’m mostly to blame. I was a total shit to her for so long and she put up with it. Even after reconnecting, a part of me wondered why she was so willing to be friends. I never had that level of forgiveness inside of me.

  “This lighter isn’t working,” Priscilla announced as she attempted to ignite a flame.

  “I have another one in my desk drawer,” Dana told her.

  “I’ll get it,” I said, and went straight for the only desk in the room. I pulled open the top drawer and found a scattered mess of envelopes, pictures, pens and rubber bands. I moved my hands around the clutter trying to find a lighter, when a photo grabbed my attention. I wasn’t even sure why, I just felt compelled to pick it up and look it over.

  The photo was of Dana, but she looked younger and her hair was blond. She was sitting on a log by the lake with her arms playfully wrapped around a good looking woman with jet black hair and dark features. They were smiling. They looked close.

  “I forgot I had that,” Dana softly spoke. She was standing beside me but I never heard her footsteps.

  I felt a little awkward and I didn’t want her to think I was snooping, but she didn’t seem to care and only smiled as I held up the photo for her to see. “You were a blonde?” I asked. “I never would have guessed.”

  “I was a blonde for a long time. Tiffany and Molly convinced me to try it out because they thought it’d give me confidence.”

  “Did it?”

  “No,” she said with a tiny laugh. “I was already uncomfortable in my skin. With this hair, I just felt uncomfortable in someone else’s.”