Blood Awakening (29 page)

“Why do you think that?” he asked as he came over and helped me turn the sofa upright. “Why do you think that saving the world is up to only you?”

“Because…” I stopped, since I didn’t really have an answer to that. At least, not one I could put into words. I just felt like it was my job, to right all the wrongs that my being here had caused.

“You know,” he continued when I couldn’t produce words. “Uncle Adam used to say that ‘because’ is the weakest answer somebody can give you.” We slid his uncle’s desk and chair back into place, and I picked up the computer and put it on top, amazed that it wasn’t shattered. “He said that’s what people say when they don’t have an answer.” I glared at him, mad that he wouldn’t let this go—and that he was right. “And you don’t have an answer because there isn’t one, Ava. Not one that makes sense, anyway.”

“It does make sense. At least to me.” I knelt down and began scooping up scattered papers from the floor, tapping them against the wood to get them to fall in line together. The monotonous task helped my mind stay free of unwanted images of torture and pain and death. “If I hadn’t come here, if Chance hadn’t found me that night, none of this would be happening right now.”

“I’ve already told you, this would all be happening even if you weren’t here, Ava. Zyris and Sebastian—”

“—I meant that it wouldn’t be happening to you.” I stopped picking up paper and sat on the floor. “To any of you. It might have still gone down this way, but at least all of you would be safe.”

Erik sat down beside me. “You don’t know that.” His knee grazed mine, and I became fixated on the point where our jean-covered skin touched. “Who’s to say that Sebastian wouldn’t have attacked Wellesley anyway?”

“Why would he?” I asked, pulling my eyes from our knees and up to his face. “He didn’t even know you guys existed until I started killing off his family.”

“His family?”

I winced. “It’s what he calls them. It’s gross, I know. The point is, I’m the reason he’s here. And it’s up to me to stop him.”

“No, it’s up to us. We’re gonna stop him, Ava. Somehow.”

And I knew that Erik would. Or at least he’d try. Since Lila’s death, though he hadn’t been vocal about it, getting revenge on Sebastian was his main focus. I couldn’t stop him if I tried.

Which was what scared me to death.

“If anything happens to you…”

“It won’t.” He slid his hand onto my knee and gave it a squeeze before lifting it into the air and saluting me. “Scout’s honor.”

I gave a little laugh. “I think it’s more like this,” I said, lifting three fingers into the air like I had seen the boys do countless times on those Boy Scouts of America commercials.

Erik laughed a little, too. “Yeah, well, I never was a Boy Scout. Too much outdoor activity for me.”

“Really?” I said with genuine surprise. “I would’ve thought that a skilled hunter such as yourself would love showing off outdoors.”

A sly grin slid across his face. “Oh, I love showing off,” he said, his eyes rolling toward me. “But I’m much more of an indoor sports kind of guy.”

I could almost feel my cheeks blossom red. “Down, boy,” I said with a shaky voice. “We have more important things to do right now.”

He leaned back, placing his hands on the floor behind him. Though I tried not to look, I couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of the tiny muscles on the sides of his arms as they flexed. “Maybe more important, but definitely not more fun.”

Crap.

“Um, maybe we, um, need to go get Kayla and Lacey?” I was flustered, no doubt about it. Even in the midst of total trauma, Erik could get under my skin like nobody else. “They’re probably freaking out wondering where we are.”

Erik smiled and hopped up, extending a hand out to me. I reluctantly took it and he hoisted me up, so fast that I almost fell into him. If I didn’t know better, I would have guessed that was on purpose. “If I know Kayla,” he said, still smiling, “she’s still neck-deep in that computer.” I followed him out of Adam’s apartment and back downstairs, my mind doing somersaults over exactly how good Erik might be at those indoor sports.

“Find anything?” I asked as Erik and I filed into Adam’s dentist office. Kayla was still behind the computer, just as Erik had guessed, and Lacey was near sleep on the sofa between the two fake trees on the far wall.

“Tons,” Kayla answered, never pulling her eyes from the screen. The printer behind her was going berserk, spitting out pages and pages of what I assumed were her dad’s journal entries. “No time to go through it all now, though. So we get to do a little reading tonight.” Finally she looked at me long enough to flash an excited smile before turning back and clicking away on the mouse. I moved in behind her and began pulling pages from the printer tray, glancing at some of the stuff she had already found. Words like PROPHECY and LEGACY stood out to me, but the rest was so in-depth and technical that I didn’t really understand much.

“Looks like you are gonna be doing a little reading tonight,” I said, adding the pages back to the stack still flowing from the printer. “I don’t understand this stuff.”

“Fine with me,” she said. She clicked a few more pages on the screen before shutting the folders she had open and removing her jump drive from the port in the side of the monitor. “You know how I live for this stuff.” She jumped from the chair and began clearing the printer, stacking the papers like I had done with Adam’s scattered files upstairs. Which reminded me that she and Lacey had zero clue as to what went down.

“Um, there’s something we need to fill you guys in on,” I said, moving back across the room to where Erik stood.

“Lemme guess,” Lacey said, sitting up on the couch. Every day at school, she was the vision of perfection. Her hair was always in place (usually a ponytail, but still), flawless makeup, stylish clothes. But now, she looked tired and worn and ready to give up. Though I hated to admit it, I felt bad for her. “Some of your distant cousins decided to drop in for a family reunion?”

That bad feeling didn’t last long.

“No,” I said, rolling my eyes at her. “But a vampire did show up here.”

Kayla stopped gathering the journal pages she had printed. “What happened?” she asked, looking from me to Erik.

“It’s nothing,” Erik said, trying to play off the fact that his uncle had almost been torn apart. “A vampire got into my uncle’s place, roughed him up a bit.”

“Your uncle?” Lacey stood up from the couch. “I thought you said we wouldn’t get in trouble for this?”

“We won’t,” Erik said. “He lives here.”

“Upstairs,” Kayla added, looking over at Lacey. “Is he okay?” I almost asked how she knew about Adam’s upstairs apartment—and why she didn’t tell me—until I remembered that she and Erik and Lila were friends long before I came into the picture. Of course she knew his uncle.

“He will be,” Erik answered, smiling. Kayla smiled back and moved to hug her friend. “Ah, I wouldn’t do that,” Erik said, holding out his hands. Kayla stared at him before he pointed to his blood-soaked shirt; Kayla nodded and backed away, while I made a mental note to tell him to change clothes the first chance he got.

“And what about the vampire?” Lacey asked, fear lacing her words. “Any chance he’ll come back for the rest of us?”

“Not unless he comes back from the dead,” I responded. “Twice.”

Lacey released the pent-up air from her lungs, and her racing heartbeat slowed down a bit. “Okay, good,” she said. “Having one around at all times is more than enough, thank you very much.”

“I told you, I’m not…oh forget it. Let’s just get upstairs. We need to check on Adam anyway.” I turned and walked out of the room, frustrated at Lacey and the situation. As much as I hated what happened to Erik’s uncle, I didn’t have time to be distracted from what we were here for.

To help Chance.

I had to get him back, no matter what.

“So, fill us in,” I told Kayla once the shock of what they saw in Adam’s apartment had worn off. Well, Kayla seemed okay with the blood-spattered room; Lacey, not so much. She was curled up on the couch with Erik, who was trying to keep her from sobbing.

“Well,” Kayla said, taking a seat in the chair opposite the couch and spreading her research out on the coffee table. “I told you that my dad found out about vampires planning to take over.” It wasn’t a question as much as a statement, but I agreed with her anyway. “And I also told you I was right, right?” I nodded through my frustration. “Well, here’s the proof.” She produced three or four sheets from the massive pile on the table and held them out to me.

“I’m never gonna be able to understand all this,” I said, slowly reaching out to take them. I began thumbing through the pages as Kayla continued.

“It basically says that Zyris and her coven had put into place a plan of worldwide domination.”

“It actually says her name in here?” I asked, searching the pages in my hands.

“No,” Kayla said, “but we know it’s her.”

“We don’t know,” Erik said, trying to be nice to Lacey while at the same time keep focused on our conversation. “We think.”

Kayla huffed. “Fine, we think it’s her, whatever.”

“Okay, so you were right.” I handed the papers back to Kayla. “Still don’t see how this is gonna help us.”

“Knowing what she’s up to will help us figure out how to stop her,” Kayla said, her attention back on the research. “I just have to keep digging.”

“You do that,” Erik said, standing up from the couch. Lacey looked at him as he did, some of her fear and unease fading away. “Meanwhile, I’m going to get us something to eat. Everybody okay with pizza?”

“Fine with me,” Kayla said.

I smiled at him. “Sure, pizza’s good, thanks.”

“Okay then, back in a flash.” He headed for the door and I followed, stopping him before he headed downstairs.

“Want me to go with you?” I asked, hoping he’d say yes. I needed to get away from all this, to feel normal for even a second.

“I would love you to,” he said with a smile, “but would you mind staying here and keeping an eye on Uncle Adam? I just don’t want him left alone. I know he’s not, technically, but Kayla’s too focused on fact-finding right now, and Lacey’s so out of it I’m not really sure if she even knows where she is.”

“Oh believe me, she knows,” I said. “But sure, I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Thanks. Back in a sec.” I stood in the hall until he was out the door to the stairs before I headed back into the apartment. Lacey wasn’t on the couch when I came in.

“Where’d she go?” I asked Kayla, her nose still in paperwork.

“Not sure,” she answered, never looking at me. I wanted to yell at her for not paying attention to Lacey, but I didn’t. She was so focused on finding her dad, and so close to doing so, that I couldn’t be mean to her. So instead, I headed into Adam’s room to see if she had gone into the bathroom. I was glad that at least we’d cleaned it up a bit, since we all had to share it for the night. Though I kind of forgot that we would have to go through his room to get there.

I swung open the bedroom door and found Lacey hovering over Adam’s bed, tears streaming down her face. “Lacey?” I whispered, pulling the door closed behind me. “What are you doing in here?”

“I was going to the bathroom,” she whispered back. “I never made it.”

I slowly made my way toward her, stopping a few feet away. “Are…are you crying?” I asked, praying she wouldn’t freak out on me.

“It’s just, everything, you know?” She wiped at her tears. “I mean, I just can’t believe all that’s happened. It’s too crazy to believe.” She looked up at me, sadness that I had never seen before all over her face. “I don’t think I can take any more of this.”

“I know, Lacey, and I’m so sorry.” I wanted to pull her away from Adam’s side before she woke him, but she beat me to it, stepping into the bathroom. I followed her in and stood by as she splashed some water on her face.

“Well, you should be,” she said, her old self peeking through the reddened eyes and smeared mascara. “You should have told me everything.”

“I told you to go home, remember?” I answered, doing my best not to raise my voice at her, for fear of both waking Adam and causing her to start sobbing again. “You should’ve listened to me.”