“So what next?” I asked excitedly. “If this really is the same as my situation, then something of mine is in that grave!”
“Exactly,” Lucas said. “Originally, I had called you over here to go to the graveyard and dig up the grave, but the sun will be coming up in a couple of hours so there’s no way we can do it tonight. And it would have been really stupid to try and do it on a full moon, anyway,” he added as an afterthought.
“What’s a full moon got to do with anything?” Henry looked confused.
I looked at Lucas sideways.
“Oh, I was just thinking it would have illuminated everything. You know, more chance of being seen. That kind of thing,” Lucas said smoothly. He’s so good at that! Wonder how many times he’s lied to me?
“Gotcha. That sounds really dangerous, though.” Henry looked nervous.
“That’s why we need three of us. I was thinking you and I can dig up the grave, and Aurora can stand watch.”
“Standing watch is fine, but if someone comes along and we’re four feet down in a grave, we’ll never get away in time,” Henry argued.
Lucas looked at me. “You’re awfully quiet. Don’t you have an opinion on this?”
“She does on everything else,” Henry said to Lucas.
“Hey!” I leaned over and shoved Henry playfully.
Truthfully, I was about as keen on the idea as Henry, but what other choice did we have? “Much as I don’t like it, I think Lucas is right,” I admitted. “We go to the cemetery, check out the grave, and re-group.”
“If there is something of mine in there, I’d kind of like to know,” I added. “It’s really terrifying to think that if somebody digs my grave up and takes out this object, assuming it’s there, then – pouf! – I cease to exist.”
“We don’t know that for a fact,” Lucas reminded me. “Remember, I was hired to read a spell to send you back to the grave. I don’t think you can be re-killed without a very specific sequence of events. I highly doubt that if we removed whatever’s there then – pouf! – back to the grave, as you said.”
“Maybe, but I’m not too anxious to find out!” I retorted.
“Me neither,” Henry chimed in. “I was just getting used to Aurora being back.”
“So we’re doing this tomorrow night?” Lucas asked, getting back to the matter at hand.
“Yes,” I answered. Henry nodded reluctantly.
“Okay, I had wanted you two here tonight so we could have a place to talk before digging up the grave. No point in you coming all this way tomorrow night. We can meet at the cemetery.”
We couldn’t go back to Henry’s house for several more hours without making his parents suspicious. Henry decided to go back to sleep, so I thought I’d watch TV for awhile. Lucas stayed in his position on the floor.
“You can have the couch,” I offered.
“I’m really fine,” Lucas assured me.
We didn’t speak for a long time. The only sound was the low chatter from the TV. I thought Lucas must have gone to sleep.
“Hey, Rory?”
I looked over in surprise. He’s never called me by my nickname before.
“I thought you were asleep. Is the TV too loud? I can turn it down. It’s your house after all.” I was rambling like an idiot. Why does he turn me into such a useless blubbering fool?
Lucas laughed. “You’re hyper. Thinking about the cemetery excursion?”
“Uh, yeah,” I fibbed. I was actually thinking about the surreal kiss we had shared. “What are you thinking about?”
“There was something else that I wanted to tell you about Tobias. You can make the decision about whether you want to share this with Henry or not. But you need to know.”
“This sounds serious.” I sat up from my slouched position on the couch and leaned forward.
Lucas was speaking softly. “They weren’t trying to put Tobias back in the grave solely because he was taking advantage of poor, innocent people. There were some other things going on.”
“What do you mean? ‘Other things’?” I echoed.
“Murders,” Lucas whispered. “Unexplained murders. Witnesses linked Tobias to them, but he swore that he had no memory.”
The blackouts!
“How long after he was back until those started happening?” I tried to keep my voice steady.
“Didn’t say, unfortunately.”
“Why didn’t you want Henry to know?” I managed to choke out.
“I didn’t say I didn’t want him to know,” Lucas corrected me. “It just seemed kind of personal. I thought it should be your decision on whether or not to tell him that piece of the story.”
“And besides,” he added, “isn’t it bad enough you have me following you around all the time? Do you really want Henry breathing down your neck as well?”
I sat there in stunned silence, unable to answer Lucas. I didn’t want to keep this from Henry, but he would go nuts if he found out. I could already tell he obsessively watched my every move, studied me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.
Truthfully, it was a relief during the day when I could actually just chill out and not have him around stressing me out. It was going to be a real pain when summer vacation started and he was with me 24/7.
My mind wandered back to the first night out of the grave. Henry had been so weird, offering over and over to go get my favorite foods. Maybe I am a zombie after all, I thought sadly. What if it’s just a slow acting virus that gradually drives you insane, makes you kill and eat brains to stay alive?
“What are you thinking?” Lucas interrupted my thoughts.
“Nothing worth repeating,” I said flatly.
“I almost didn’t tell you,” Lucas admitted. “But then I thought about it; if it were me, I’d want to know. Once I realized that, the decision was easy.”
“Are you going to get in trouble for looking at that case file?” I asked. I’m such a burden on everyone.
“Don’t worry about me,” Lucas answered, as though reading my thoughts. “I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I could get caught.”
He closed his eyes again and we didn’t speak. I thought he might be sleeping but I couldn’t see or hear him breathing. I still wasn’t really sure if vampires needed to breathe – as the mirror had shown us, not all the legends were true.
I turned over on the couch and closed my eyes. In all of the time I had been back, this was the first moment I really wished I could sleep. I just wanted to forget. I wanted the nightmare to be over. Sadly, I knew deep down that it had only just begun.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Living Dead Girl (Vampire Hunter Book 1) Page 12
