The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (27 page)

I really, really hoped I sounded annoyed
enough that my shirt was stained, because I wasn’t annoyed at all.
I wasn’t even scared; I was excited.

Taking my shirt off on the way, I went to the
closet and threw the dirty one in the hamper that I’d stuffed the
clothes rope into. I grabbed another shirt off a hanger and put it
on.

Phase one... accomplished.

I lay down on the couch with a book and tried
to concentrate on reading until Mr. No Name Vamp came to get the
cart. He never spoke unless I spoke directly to him, and he had to
answer me. I let him come and go in silence; I preferred that
anyway. He probably did too, all things considered.

Once he was gone, I went back to my book for
a while. After a while, I stood and stretched. I then changed my
clothes, making sure to put on my running shoes. After that, I
looked around as if I were considering what to do next. Pretending
the decision was made randomly, I went to the closet, retrieved my
laundry basket and hauled the whole thing into the bathroom. I set
it next to the tub and slid the door open. I stood in front of the
opening to the shower door and snatched my shirt of the top of the
basket and examined the coffee stain for a minute, showing the
cameras what I planned to do.

It was time to just go for it. I dumped the
entire basket into the tub and hoped whoever was watching—if they
were watching—wouldn’t question why I just threw a bunch of dirty
laundry in the bathtub. One thing I was positive of was that they
would never guess there was a Chloe-sized hole in the wall and I
was about to slide through it and hang from a homemade clothes rope
from the second story of the house.

Nope, they would never guess. I felt
victorious already.

As quickly as I could, I got into the shower
and shut the door. I tied one end of the clothes rope into a loop,
securing the knot by tugging it as tight as possible.

I took a deep breath. “I can do this,” I
whispered and then hung the loop on the faucet. I was worried about
going out feet first, because I didn’t want anyone to see me before
I could see them, but I had no other choice. I dumped the entire
clothes rope through the hole, letting it fall all the way down. I
stuck one leg through and followed with the other, sliding myself
underneath the siding and wiggling my body out of the hole.
Finally, I was hanging all the way down with my hands still
gripping the hole and my head still underneath the siding.

The fresh air hit me. I hadn’t smelled the
outside for so long! It was amazing. I breathed in deeply through
my nose and exhaled through my mouth. The daylight was another
story. The fall sunshine felt like daggers in my eyes. I hadn’t
seen actual sunlight in over a month. As for the air, I couldn’t
get over how wonderful it smelled and tasted. Unfortunately, I
didn’t have time to hang around breathing air. I needed to get
moving. It was time to grab the rope and climb down.

Slowly, I forced my fingers to release their
death grip on the edges of the hole and grabbed the rope with one
hand, then the other. Finally, I was within feet of my freedom.

My feet flailed for a minute until they found
the wall and I was able to start slow walking down, holding tight
to the top of the clothes rope. It was a darned good thing I’d kept
to working out, even after I got locked in, or else I wouldn’t have
had the strength to hold on. It was slow going, a lot slower than I
would have liked. I had only gone about four feet when the rope
suddenly dropped about three inches, causing me to almost lose my
grip, I did lose my footing.

I swung back and forth, trying to catch the
wall and steady myself. Not much luck. When I finally slowed enough
to get my feet up against the wall again, the unthinkable happened,
something I didn’t think over or anticipate: The faucet came loose,
freeing my homemade clothes rope from its safety.

I don’t remember falling.

I opened my eyes to see a vision I was sure
was a hallucination from the pain in my head and back. Through a
fuzzy cloud that was reminiscent of a heat off the sidewalks in the
summer, I watched Drew drop over the wall and sprint toward me in a
full-out run. He drew his guns while he ran.

I closed my eyes again. The pain was
horrendous. Throbbing and scorching in my head and back.

“Chloe!”

I opened my eyes again to see him there, bent
down in front of me. His eyes were scaling over my body, and so
were his hands.

“What are you doing?” I muttered.

“Checking you for breaks.”

I sighed and realized that I could actually
feel his hands on me. “You’re real.”

“Yes, now let’s go. You have to get up.” He
sounded just like Drew, always ordering me around.

“I’ve escaped,” I told him in a whisper.

“Chloe, you haven’t escaped yet. We have to
get out of here, now!” He reached down, lifted me up and ran back
toward the wall. I bounced around painfully in his arms while he
ran. I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him.

“I have a six pack now,” I told him.

That was when the best sound I’d heard in
almost a year rang out through the air: his laughter.

We made it to the wall and he set me down on
my feet. “You have to stand. I’m going to climb over, then I’m
going to reach down for you. Okay?”

I think I nodded because he began his ascent.
I moved over and leaned against the wall where he was climbing and
looked toward the house. I saw my clothes rope in a pile on the
lawn. The sunlight reflected off the silver faucet, which was
sitting on top of the clothes pile like a cherry topping on a hot
fudge sundae.

Suddenly, Drew made some kind of gurgling
sound and fell over the wall on the other side.

“Drew!” I screamed. Finally, the haze was
lifting. Something was wrong. “Drew!”

I heard a strange voice say, “Over
there.”

There was shuffling and pain pierced my
shoulder. I looked down to see what had caused the pain and saw a
dart sticking out of my bicep.

“What the…?” I lifted my hand to pull it out
but never made it. Everything faded to black within seconds.

I woke slowly. The first thing I realized was
that I was lying on a cold stone floor. I reached out and felt the
floor. It was rough and damp. The darkness was thick and the air
was musty. It smelled like dirty socks.

“Drew,” I whispered.

I heard him shift and crawl toward me. “I’m
here.”

“What happened?”

“I tried to save you, but you met me half
way.” He laughed a little. “I was just climbing over the wall when
I saw a rope drop out through the siding followed by you climbing
down. I thought I’d see if you got to the bottom before I ran over
there. Then you fell, and I had to cross out into the open.” His
voice lost its excitement. “They got us before we could get back
over the wall.”

I felt myself nodding, remembering, “The
dart.”

I sat up and felt around for him.

“Yeah, they tranquilized us.” He scooted
toward me until we were sitting close together. “Any idea how to
get out of here?”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know
where
we are,” I admitted.

I looked around now that my vision was
finally clearing the fuzz. I could probably see better than Drew
could, with my vampire vision. I saw bars.

“We’re in a cell.” I heard my voice waver
with panic.

He sighed deeply. “Yes. Now let’s get to
thinking of some kind of plan.

We heard a clang and footsteps echo, coming
right toward us. I got up and went to the bars, trying to look out.
Trevor stood there. He shook his head and made a slight tsking
sound.

“I told you if you tried to escape the
alternative would be far worse.”

All the panic I had felt vanished in an
instant, replaced by waves of anger.

“Go to hell.” I told him, emphasizing each
word, through clenched teeth. Without thinking, I lifted my hands
and blasted him. His speed was faster than the fire, because when
the flames withered out, he was far out of reach.

. “You will stay here now,” he told me and
then flicked his head at Drew. “The hunter will die tonight.” With
those final words, he turned and left, walking at a normal pace so
we were forced to listen to the creepy echo of his footfalls
again.

“Oh, my god. We are screwed!” I wrapped my
hands around the bars and tried to shake them. “I hate you!” I
screamed after Trevor.

I then did the most juvenile thing I think
I’ve ever done: I had a fit, kicking the bars, throwing fire out
into the hall on the other side of the bars, screaming curse words,
and crying. I’m not sure how long I carried on, but Drew sat back
and left me alone.

Maybe he was afraid of me.

Finally, my anger receded. I looked at Drew,
who sat on the floor against the wall of the cell. His blond hair
appeared almost luminescent against the darkness. He sat with his
knees bent up, leaning forward with his head resting on his
arms.

I paced the length of the cell, thinking. We
needed to get
out.
If we didn’t, the rest of the community
would come soon enough because Drew was here. It was one thing for
me to be here; they thought I had come on my own. They would come
after Drew for certain. I spun to face him.

“Why did you come here, Drew?

His head snapped up. “Are you kidding me?
Seriously?
Chloe, I came here for
you!
”

“Well, I didn’t need you to come. I would
have gotten out of here on my own. Now we’re both stuck in
here.”

“We’ll find a way out.”

Rage bubbled to the surface of what little
composure I had left.

“Damn it!” I stomped my foot and spun to grab
the bars again. “Let us out of here, you filthy scumbag!”

“Knock it off, Chloe. He isn’t going to let
us out. Come sit down so we can try to come up with a plan.”

He was right, as always. I wasn’t doing any
good standing there screaming when no one would hear me anyway. It
was only wasting energy. I slid down the wall and sat next to
him.

“But, why… why did you come after me. You
knew I wanted to come here. And why did you come by yourself?”

Drew sighed but said nothing. I didn’t say
anything either. Eventually, he reached out and grasped my hand in
his.

Surprised, I reflexively tried to yank it out
of his grip. But he only tightened his fingers around mine. “Chloe,
I’m not sure what exactly I feel, or what it means, but I care
about you. I can’t really place the feeling just yet, especially
because you are young still, but I care about you different than I
would care about a sister or something.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but
couldn’t think of anything.

“I… I don’t know. What I do know is that I
like you more than I should.”

I still couldn’t say anything, so I just sat
there, letting him hold my hand. Could it be possible I felt this
way too? It would explain that confusion of not knowing where to
place Drew when I thought of friends and family. It would explain
the jealousy when he was with Christina.