I made my way quickly, but silently through the forest. Cautious to avoid snapping any branches and exposed tree roots, it took longer than I would have liked. With each noise I heard around me, I spun around, searching for the source, certain that I was about to ambushed. Nothing happened.
When I was finally staring at my house, I became nervous. Did I just walk in like nothing had happened? Would Mason be up, pacing the living room, worried sick waiting for me? Did I turn back around and get in Jane's car and just drive away? Just get away from anyone and anything that I had come in contact with in this past week. I finally decided on a compromise. I'd sneak in.
The light in my bedroom was out. I prayed, as I made my way over to it, that I had left the window unlocked. It'd be easier that way; quieter. My luck was holding. I applied just enough pressure to slide it gently open. I didn't need another attack of broken glass on my hands.
I was just climbing inside when my door flew open and the lights switched on. The surprise of it caused me to fall backwards, back out my window and on to the ground beneath it.
"Ouch!" I cried.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Mason yelled down from the window.
I heard the front door open and footsteps as the pounded across the porch. He wasn't alone. Damn.
"I didn't want to wake you up," I muttered, trying to pull myself up.
"Are you okay?"
Great. "The cops Mason? Really?" I started backing away, but Jake Cole grabbed hold of my arm... hard. My eyes snapped up to his. Was everyone around here inhumanly strong? I wondered.
"Now is not the time," he whispered, looking up toward Mason.
I nodded.
"It's not the damn cops, Evie. It's just Jake." Oh so now they were on a first name basis? "He was worried about you when news spread about what happened at school today so he came over." He ran his fingers through his hair, still looking down from the window. "Fuck, Evie, what the hell did happen at school today?"
"Why don't we get her inside, before anyone else sees her?" Cole said, saving me from having to answer. At least right then. I knew the time would come would I could no longer avoid it.
Mason nodded and slid my window back closed. Jake grabbed a hold of my elbow and steered me toward the front of the house moving much slower than he had moments before.
"Look, Mason doesn't know about any of this. Not really."
I raised my eyebrows, "neither do I."
Jake nodded. "Fair enough," he turned me to him and looked deep into my eyes, "I promise I'll explain everything. Soon."
I let my eyes bore into his for a moment, looking for the truth in his words. When I finally decided to trust him, I nodded, "fine."
We walked quickly inside and Mason closed and locked the door behind us. I was expecting yelling. I was expecting lecturing. I was even expecting my car to be taken away again, even though it was still in the school parking lot.
What I hadn't been expecting was the total breakdown of my brother. He grabbed me and hugged me to him so tight I thought my ribs would crack. Tears were streaming down his face, wetting any part of me that came into contact with them. His body was shaking so ferociously that mine began to shake with it.
He brushed the hair away from my face, almost cruel in his intensity. "Don't you ever fucking do that do me again." He pulled me into a hug again. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" He pulled away and scrubbed his face, but the tears just kept coming. "I can't lose you, Evie. Damn it! I can't!" His voice broke and he slumped down on to the sofa, leaving me standing in the middle of the living room feeling about as slimy and low as a worm.
That's when someone started pounding on the front door. Mason jumped up. Jake cursed and switched off the living room lights. I hissed.
I'm not really sure where the last part came from. It was a reaction that just sort of happened. With the lights off, I was surprised to notice that I could actually see almost better than with them on. Because of the moonlight earlier, I hadn't really noticed, but without the lights casting unnatural shadows, the darkness was actually inviting in a way.
Apparently Jake thought so too.
"Shh..." He pushed Mason back down on the sofa, "just be quiet for a second."
The pounding on the door had stopped, but there was laughter, the same maniacal laughter I had heard that day at the Willows. I could hear footsteps pounding around the perimeter of the house.
"What the hell is going on?" Mason whispered.
"It's them, isn't it?" I asked Jake, ignoring my brother.
Jake nodded. "They can't come inside, they are just trying to scare you."
I gulped. "What do you mean, they can't come inside?"
I was afraid I already knew the answer. The blood I had tasted on Sevren's lips, the puncture wounds I could still feel on my neck from him, the heightened senses. It was all starting to make sense; in a Hollywood, special effects sort of way. It wasn't real was it? Only I knew that it was. I was living it.
"Can one of you please tell me what the hell you are talking about?" Mason asked again.
Jake started to shake his head, but I nodded. "He deserves to know." I took a deep breath and turned to my brother in the dark. His eyes had that wild unfocused look to them and I knew that he couldn't see me, or if he could, he couldn't see me well. I, on the other hand, could see him crystal clear. "Mason, I love you, and I know that this is going to sound crazy, but there are vampires outside our house right now."
Chapter Twelve
When sunlight shown down, dispelling the darkness from the night before, life was supposed to be less scary, less complicated. When there were no shadows for evil to lurk behind, monsters were supposed to seem more like myths.
That was when life was normal. That was when your town wasn’t overrun by a population of missing teenagers who had discovered a taste for blood. That was before the supernatural had invaded your life and left traces of destruction and horror on your front porch.
It was still early morning, but after the night we had experienced, Mason, Jake and I were all walking around the perimeter of the house. We needed to inspect the damage and so far, the damage was immense.
There were clawed grooves on the wood of the porch, making me wonder if they were more animal than human. There were broken tree limbs and branches covering the front yard. The worse part was the blood. I wasn’t sure whose blood it was, but from the look and smell of it, there was human blood smeared all over the house and windows.
Guilt washed over me. Had we, being the cowards that we had been, caused someone innocent to be hurt and possibly killed? The devastation they had left behind was enough to keep me wondering and the wondering was enough to keep my stomach in knots.
Almost as if he was reading my mind, Jake put his hand on my shoulder. “There’s nothing we could have done.”
I raised my brows, “really? I don’t believe that.”
He sighed, “we may be stronger than an average human, but we are no match for true blooded vampires. At least you aren’t.”
I narrowed my eyes at his words, “what do you mean ‘we’?”
He opened his mouth, hopefully to explain, but was saved when Mason walked up to us. He was visibly shaking. I knew the rollercoaster he was on. It’s excruciating to accept that someone close to you has died, but when you are given hope that there is a chance they could still be alive, it’s like a relief that you can’t possibly explain. Then you find out that monsters do exist and that somehow you have been thrown into a nightmare and if that someone is dead, they died at the hand of something so… evil, well it’s enough to cause even the sanest person to begin to question their sanity.
“Do you think there’s a chance that Jackson is still alive? Be honest with me Evie.”
I closed my eyes, fighting back the sting of tears that his question had evoked. “I honestly don’t know.” He lowered his head and a sob escaped his throat. I pulled him to me in a hug, “but my heart won’t let me gi
ve up hope, Mason. If he’s out there, we are going to find him.”
A car door slammed. I spun around, hoping to see Mr. Gates; hoping to see Jane and hear her explanation of what had happened. I was hoping to see anyone other than who I saw. Emma, with her arms crossed over her chest, took a few steps toward us. You could tell by her demeanor that she was uncomfortable and awkward. I wondered what had happened that would cause her to not only be missing school, but to also walk into the lions den.
Mason smiled slightly, “Emma it’s been a long time since you’ve been around,” oh yeah, I thought, he doesn’t know that I almost crushed her with broken glass yesterday. He looked around as if just remembering that life wasn’t normal. With vampires on the loose, it made people stopping by the house a sort of uncomfortable feeling. “Now’s not, um, really a great time though.”
She sniffed and pulled off her super dark, diva like sunglasses. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. “Trust me, I don’t want to be here.”
I pushed Mason back and walked a few steps toward her, “why are you then?” I yelled.
She visibly paled. “It’s Landon,” she whispered. “He’s gone.”
“Shit,” Jake muttered from somewhere behind me.
“What do you mean, gone?” Mason asked, coming closer to me. “Evie, you don’t think it has something to do with the… I mean, you know, the va…” he gulped and motioned around us, unable to say the word out loud. “With this, do you?”
I studied Emma, “tell us what happened.”
We walked inside the house. I couldn’t bare the destruction outside and Emma looked at it with widened eyes, but it seemed she was too afraid to ask for details. I had never seen her so visibly shaken up. Not even yesterday. Once inside, Mason paced back and forth, Jake stood by the window, Emma sat on the edge of the sofa, and I slumped down in a chair.
“Well?” I asked Emma, “what happened?”
She licked her lips. It didn’t take super powers to determine that she was nervous and probably pretty freaked out. “We were in his truck and we heard this horrible scratching noise, like nails on a chalkboard,” she gulped, “I told him not to get out, but you know how he is about his truck and he was afraid that it was an animal or a tree branch or something scratching the paint job.” She paused, waiting for someone to say something. No one did. “He never came back.”
I stared at her. Seriously? “That’s it? You didn’t see anything?”
She shook her head, “it was late and dark outside. I couldn’t see anything.”
“Did you hear anything?”
We all turned and looked at Jake. He was standing really still, but I could tell that he was totally focused on her answer. His jaw was tensed and his knuckles had gone white on the window sill. There was a bead of sweat on his forehead and an intensity in his eyes that was starting to make me nervous. We really needed to talk.
She closed her eyes, but she nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.
“This is crazy! This can’t be happening. Evie, this is real freaking life, not a damn movie!” Mason was tugging at his hair, his pacing more and more erratic with each passing second.
Jake ignored him. “What did you hear?”
She was shaking so badly that for a moment I wanted to comfort her. “It was… I mean… a scream. I heard Landon scream.”
Jake nodded as if he had been expecting her answer. Mason sat down on the floor, too overcome with emotions to make it to the couch. I stood up and took his place pacing.
“We’ve got to do something about this. Too many people have gone missing and it can’t continue.” Jake watched my progress with his eyes, but remained silent. “If we don’t do anything about this, we are just as responsible as they are.” Whoa, had that really just come out of my mouth? When had I become such a crusader? The truthful answer was, when I found out my brother was involved.
“Don’t you get it, Evie?” Jake asked softly.
Apparently I didn’t because I had no idea what he was talking about. “You can’t tell me that you are okay with this.” I threw my hands in the air. “People are missing Jake! That’s not okay.”
He shook his head, “it’s not that, Evie. Just sit down and think about it for a second. Yes there are people missing, but more and more it seems like the people coming up missing are connected to you in some way.”
I stopped. Mason cursed. Emma stood up.
“What the hell are you guys talking about? Landon is gone. If you had anything to do with this, I swear I’ll kill you.” Her eyes were blazing fire at me.
“You can’t think those… those… those things have anything to do with my sister do you?” Mason asked, looking like he was about to throw up or pass out. Maybe even both, I thought.
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m going to find out. Let’s make a list of who all is missing.”
I sat down. “Hallie,” I said.
“Piper and Jackson,” Mason added.
“What are you guys talking about?” Emma asked, “there are more people missing?”
“What about that other girl from your school? We got a call about her yesterday. Susie or something.” Jake said, once again ignoring Emma.
My stomach twisted. “Sally?”
He nodded, “yeah that was her name.”
I closed my eyes. Why hadn’t I even thought about Sally? Was I such a cold hearted person that I would forget that one of my own classmates had been there that night. There at that party with what I now knew were a bunch of vampires.
“Landon,” Emma said, not wanting to be left out.
“Anyone else?” Jake asked.
I looked through the front door out to where Mr. Gates house lurked in the distance. There was a noticeable feel of emptiness about it. “Mr. Gates.”
Jake took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Wow, okay. Well that’s a lot in such a short amount of time.”
“There’s more,” I whispered.
All three pairs of eyes focused on me. “What is it?” Jake asked.
“Jane. There’s something wrong with Jane.” I looked at Jake, confusion shadowing my eyes, “she’s like us.”
He nodded, “I’m not surprised. I think they are using people to get close to you.”
I narrowed my eyes, “why would they do that?”
He shrugged, “I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.”
Sevren’s face flashed in my mind. That night, the blood. He had said something about Remy being obsessed with me; but why? Did that have something to do with it? I shook my head to my own internal thoughts. It just didn’t make any sense! If it was about me, why had Jackson and Piper gotten involved? How did they fit into the equation?
“What just one second!” Mason said, scrambling back to his feet, “what do you mean ‘she’s like us?’”
“Calm down, Mason.” Jake said. Mason’s face was turning a blotchy shade of purple that I had never seen before on him. “Sit down a second and I’ll explain.”
He waited for Mason to sit down, which he finally did, sitting on the arm of the chair I was sitting on and grabbing hold of my hand. I felt bad for him and wished that so many things had been different these past few months. If only he had believed me that something was going on, I could have talked to him about everything that was happening, but his continued refusal to believe that something strange was going on, had put a distance between us.
Jack took a deep breath. “Evie and I are what people call ‘enhanced’.” When I raised my brows, he held up his hand to stop any of the questions he was sure were coming. “Meaning, that we have both been exposed to vampire blood, although neither of us are actual vampires.”
“What do you mean? Vampires?” Emma actually laughed, but then stopped quite suddenly when she realized no one else thought it was funny. “You can’t be serious.” She waited a few more seconds and then paled, “can you?”
“There are things going on that seem crazy,” he paused, looking at each of us before continuing, “but
they are real.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Mason asked suspiciously, “and what exactly does being ‘enhanced’ do to you?”
“I know you have a lot of questions, but we don’t have a lot of time. People are missing. Some are probably even dead, and if we are going to do something about it, we only have until the sun goes down to come up with a plan.”
Emma shook her head, “no. No way. This is crazy! I’m going home.” She grabbed her car keys and took a few steps toward the door.
“What about Landon, Em? And Jane? Can you really just let them go without trying to do anything to help them?” I asked her softly. At this point, my bitterness over what her and Landon had done to me was gone. All I cared about was getting everyone I loved safe; even if I had to do it myself.
She stopped, but didn’t turn around. After a few moments, Mason walked to her and put his arms around her. She had been a part of our lives for so long that it just seemed natural for him to comfort her. Finally she turned and looked at me.
“No,” she said sadly, “I can’t.” She took a deep breath, “I’m in.”
Jake clapped, “awesome. We’re going to need supplies.”
It turned out that the movies did get some things right. Vampires may be stronger, faster, and have heightened senses, but they could still be killed. Garlic and crosses were useless, however stakes worked and they still couldn’t come in to a house without being invited. Also, sunlight was a definite and fire was a sure bet. Now we just needed to figure out where they were hiding.
Jake and I, mostly due to our strength, were busy breaking branches into smaller pieces. Then Emma and Mason were using kitchen knifes to try and sharpen them into points. It was busy work, something to do while we decided what to really do, but it was necessary.
“So… any ideas on where they could be hiding?” I asked him.
He sighed, “there’s a lot of ground here, I’ve been looking for a while, but there’s so much ground to cover.”
“A while? Who are you Jake Cole? And don’t tell me that you are a police officer.”
The Willows Page 13
