Blood Born (22 page)

“Glad you’re having such a good time.”

“Same here.” Her eyes took a quick glance at the front doors. “There’s Michael,” she said. “Gonna go get my dance on!” I laughed again as I watched her cross the gymnasium and practically drag Michael onto the dance floor. I got the feeling that he wasn’t the dancing type, but was trying to be the perfect date for her. As I stood there watching the dance floor patrons sway with the music—which was a fast song, now—I realized that Chance had been gone for quite a while. Panic began a slow crawl up my back as I looked around for him. I scanned the dark corner as I slowly walked toward the boys’ locker room, hoping I would spot him in the sea of faces. For once I was actually thankful for my vampire abilities; I was able to make out every feature on my peers, even in near total darkness.

I spotted Travis and Lacey practically mauling each other in the far corner. It shocked me that none of the adults chaperoning the dance had forced them apart. I was also surprised seeing the two of them together; no one had said anything about them being a couple. I tried to ignore their face sucking as I walked past them on my way to the locker room. I was glad it was dark—and that they were “preoccupied”—so they wouldn’t see me. The last thing I wanted was Lacey trying to start something and ruining my night.

I probably should have knocked or something instead of just opening the locker room door, but I was almost totally freaking out and didn’t have the time to worry about what I might have seen inside. All I could think about was what Aldric had said to me that first night in the cemetery, when he told me what I was.
Soon, others will discover your existence.

Had that time now come? Had someone—or some
thing
—found out about me, about what I was, and now they wanted to get me, and they took Chance to do it?
I barged into the locker room like I owned the place, rounding the corner of the cinder block wall put directly behind the door to block the room from the gym. The setup was a mirror image of the girls’ locker room, the only difference being the putrid smell of ‘guy’ hanging in the air. I did my best to not breathe in the rancid odor—I actually preferred smelling vampire blood to that horrible stench—as I wound through the rows of lockers and benches, my eyes immediately adjusting to the terrible lighting as I searched for Chance.

But the room was empty. I even opened all the lockers that weren’t locked just to make sure he hadn’t been shoved into one by a group of Neanderthal jocks, which would never happen given how large and muscular he was. I opened all the bathroom stall doors, praying I would find him in one. It would have been embarrassing without question, but at least I would have known he was okay. But they were all empty, too. Just as I was about to go tell a chaperon that he was missing, the strong scent of dead blood hit me hard in the face. A vampire had just walked into my high school dance.

I ran out of the locker room as fast as I could without using my super speed. I didn’t want to risk someone seeing me. I fell into the crowd unnoticed, the smell of the vampire’s blood leading me to the other side of the gymnasium. I followed the scent, remembering what Aldric had taught me about blocking out everything around me. I forced my mind to cut away all the noise of the music and the kids laughing and talking, leaving only the trail of blood to focus on. It grew stronger as I crossed the dance floor, and I allowed my fangs to drop into place. I wanted to be ready for anything. If a vampire had the nerve to show up here, I would have to risk being seen to protect everyone.

As I stepped out of the crowd of dancers, the vampire came into view. He was tall like Aldric, and just as good-looking, but I could sense right away that he was much more evil and dangerous. Evil was practically hanging off of his large, muscular frame. He was staring right at me as I walked toward him, his eyes a brilliant gold unlike anything I had ever seen. I was actually surprised that other people weren’t staring at him, at those eyes. Of course, they were all too focused on themselves and their dates to see anything else. I probably could have killed him right in front of everyone and they wouldn’t have noticed. I was actually grateful for that.

“Who are you?” I asked once I was close enough where no one would hear me. My fangs twitched inside my mouth with nervous energy. He looked down at me and smiled, the corners of his mouth lifting into a wicked, evil grin.

“Avaline, how rude to ask someone’s name. You should always wait for them to introduce themselves. That is the polite thing to do.” I could tell by the way he spoke that this vampire was definitely not a new one. He sounded old—older than Aldric, even—and powerful, though he looked almost as young as me.

“You already know who I am,” I snapped back. “It’s only fair for me to ask.” My nerves were on fire, my entire body a live wire of anxious energy. He kept that creepy smile on his face, raising his eyes to look out onto the crowd of teenagers.

“I know much more about you than just your name.” So he obviously knew I was half human. He could probably smell it in my blood.

“Like what?” I was getting antsy with anticipation. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to fight him in the middle of the Valentine’s dance, but at the same time, I wanted to rip his head off.

“Like the fact that you are clueless as to who you are talking to right now. And that you have no idea how easily I could kill you and none of these trivial humans would ever know.” He held a confidence in his voice that made me shiver. I knew he was telling the truth, that he
could
kill me before I ever got close enough to him to do any damage; that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.

“But you won’t,” I said. I wasn’t sure of that, but I doubted he would come to a packed high school party to kill me when he could have waited until I was alone. I hoped that was the case, at least.

“No. I won’t. Not yet, anyway.”

“Then what do you want?” I was getting impatient with him. Even though he scared me, I didn’t intend to show it. I just wanted him to get on with whatever he had planned. He smiled again and stepped closer to me. The super-strong smell of his rotten blood turned my stomach.

“I think you should be asking what
you
want, Avaline.” At first I was confused by what he said until I realized that he was the reason Chance hadn’t come back from the locker room. I felt the muscles in my body tighten, locking in and ready to fight.

“Where is he?” I asked, the urge to attack getting harder and harder to control.

“You’ve been a very busy girl, Avaline. News of you and what you have been doing traveled fast. Once I heard that a little girl was going around killing vampires, I just had to come see for myself. Impressive work, by the way. I don’t think even the most skilled hunters have had as much success as you.”

“I don’t screw around,” I said. “Now tell me where Chance is.” I felt venom ooze from my fangs, ready to kill the monster in front of me.

“Now where’s the fun in that? If I just tell you where he is, then you’ll miss out on being the hero. I can’t let that happen.” His wicked smile was making me sick. I was looking forward to getting the chance to rip it from his face. But I knew I couldn’t do anything to him before I found out where he was keeping Chance, if he was even still alive. The thought made me shudder. I couldn’t think about Chance being dead because of me, not while I was about to have to fight the strongest vampire I had ever met. I pushed the thought from my mind.

“I’ll be the hero anyway,” I said with fake confidence. “Once I save his life and kill you.” The vampire let a tiny laugh escape his lips.

“Strong words for such a young girl. But I admire your determination. I was hoping you wouldn’t give up easily.” He stepped even closer to me and leaned down, his mouth breathing rancid air on my neck as he whispered in my ear.

“Where you made your first kill. If you want to see him alive again, be there at midnight.” Before I could blink, he was gone. I frantically looked around the room, but he was nowhere to be found. I didn’t have time to hunt for him. It was already less than an hour until midnight, and I had to find a way to get out to those woods before Chance ended up dead. As I pushed through the crowd, still being careful not to draw any unwanted attention to myself, Kayla came running up to me. Her cheerful disposition quickly faded once she was close enough to see my face.

“What’s going on?” she asked, nerves littering her words. I didn’t want her to know what had happened—I couldn’t let her get hurt—but something was telling me that I was going to need some help.

“Chance is gone,” I said, still moving toward the front doors. “A vampire took him, and I’ve got to get him back.”

“I’m with you,” Kayla said, her voice suddenly strong and confident. I didn’t even bother to argue with her; I knew it would have been a waste of time.

“You sure?”

“Definitely.” She fished a cell phone from her purse as we headed out to the parking lot. “Let’s take my mom’s car,” she added, punching numbers into the keypad. “It’s faster than his truck.” I couldn’t argue with that. Chance’s truck didn’t exactly scream speed racer, which is what we needed. Mrs. Harper’s car was much newer and sportier, and no doubt twice as fast. I followed Kayla across the parking lot as she spoke into the phone. It didn’t surprise me who she was calling.

“Erik, we need you and Lila to meet us—” She paused to look over at me. I gave her the info I got from the vampire and she continued, “—at the old Caldon mansion. It’s time to hunt.” She snapped the phone shut and tossed it back into her purse, pulling her keys out and pressing the button to unlock the doors of the car.

“How did you know it’s the Caldon house?” I asked.

“I researched this place before we moved here. You know, scoping out the local legends.”

“So what’d you find out about that place?”

“Nothing. Except it belonged to the Caldons.”

“And you remembered that?”

“Yep. Photographic memory.” Kayla tapped her temple with her keys as we hopped in the car and sped away from the school; the entire exchange took less than thirty seconds.

“Who was he?” she asked as we zipped through town.

“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me his name.” Images of Chance being tortured or killed flashed through my mind, fueling my rage even further. “But he was old, I could tell.”

“How old?”

“Not sure. But I could sense that he was powerful, so old.”

“That’s not good,” Kayla said, scaring me even more. I knew fighting a really old vampire was bad, but hearing her say it made it seem so much worse. “But doable.” She looked over at me and smiled, but I could see the fear shrouding her face. She was as scared as I was that something bad was about to happen.

“I need to go by Chance’s house,” I said as we left town and headed out toward the old house in the woods. “I’ll be quick. I just need to make sure his mom is okay.” I didn’t need to have to worry about her being harmed because of me, too.

“Good idea. Just make it fast.” Kayla sped up to shave off some time, knowing that every second we wasted put Chance in danger. When she sped down the driveway to Chance’s house, I was practically out of the car before it stopped. I shot through the door with vampire speed, no longer caring if Ms. Caldon saw me or not. I would have to worry about that later. Right now I had to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

I made it to the kitchen before I realized something was off. A cold breeze was flowing freely throughout the house, slightly moving the curtains hanging over the kitchen window. A pot of something that smelled delicious was steaming on the stove, but Chance’s mom was nowhere in sight.

“Hello?” I called out, turning off the burner and moving the boiling pot to the sink. I moved around the bottom floor of the house, hoping for any signs of life. “Ms. Caldon?” Nothing. My paranoia kicked in, and my nerves went on high alert. Something was wrong, I could feel it. Without even thinking about it, my fangs broke through my gums and slid into place over my teeth and I immediately went into defense mode. I was momentarily thankful to Aldric for starting off with that. He had been right; a good defense
was
the best offense.

I slowly and methodically scoured every room in the house, absolutely positive after seeing the front door wide open and the TV on that something bad had happened. I checked every place someone like me—a deadly vampire—could hide: closets, bathrooms, pantry, everywhere. There was no one in the house other than me. My first instinct was to bolt out the front door and try to find and follow the trail that whoever had taken Ms. Caldon might have left. But I didn’t have to. A quick glance out the back door ended my search.

I flung the door open and jumped off the porch, my feet firmly landing on the soft lawn. It took two seconds for me to sprint across the yard to where Ms. Caldon lay crumpled against a giant oak tree next to the privacy fence. Before I even knelt down next to her, I knew she was dead. Her face was void of all color, her eyes wide open and staring into space. Giant puncture marks on her neck drenched in spilled blood told me all I needed to know. A vampire had killed Chance’s mom, and it happened because of me.

I wanted to cry and scream and hit something as hard as I could, but I didn’t have time. I had to get to Chance before he suffered the same fate.

2

I sprang into action after finding Chance’s mom. I put a call in to the police, pretending to be a neighbor that heard something suspicious at the Caldon house. I figured that was the easiest way to get the cops to find Ms. Caldon without directly involving myself. I absolutely hated to leave her like that, but I had to save her son. I knew it was what she would have wanted me to do. I fought the urge to lock up the house, feeling it was probably best for the police to find it the way I did. I definitely didn’t want to disrupt any evidence. I ran outside to an eager Kayla behind the wheel.

“She okay?” Kayla asked as she sped down the drive and onto the highway.

“She’s dead.” I blurted the words out as fast as I could, trying to avoid crying. I thought of Ms. Caldon as my own mom. She had taken me in without even knowing me and had been nothing but nice to me. And now she was dead. The guilt I was feeling was unbearable, only fueling my anger even more. I was determined to make whoever did that to her pay.

“What?” Kayla gasped, her eyes darting from the road to me. A light dusting of snow had begun to fall, making night driving difficult. Normally I would have been scared to have someone else driving, but Kayla was the best option at the time. My mind was too busy trying to figure out how to save Chance’s life to worry about road conditions.

“A vampire killed her. Probably the same one from the dance.” My mind flashed back to the vampire’s face. His pale skin, dark eyes and evil smile unnerved me. He was a ruthless killer who probably murdered Chance’s mom without even thinking about it.

“Oh my God,” Kayla said with tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe this.” I couldn’t either. I couldn’t believe any of this was happening. Me being a vampire, Chance being a Healer, it was all so unbelievable. I felt like somehow I had gone to sleep and woken up inside a nightmare. One that was only getting worse.

“This is going to kill Chance,” Kayla added, her voice shaking. I tried not to think of what it would do to him if he found out—or
when
. He would be totally destroyed, especially knowing that if he had been there he could have healed her, saved her. I didn’t know if Chance wanted anyone else to know about his ability, so I kept it to myself. I figured he could tell who he wanted once I rescued him. That gave me some hope.

As we headed out of town, my mind turned from worry about Chance to worrying about Kayla and Erik and Lila. I was the only immortal one on our side. I was afraid that a large number of vampires would prove to be too much for a normal human to fight against. They
were
vampire hunters, though, and could probably hold their own better than me. But still, I would have felt better if we had some more power on our side.

It only took a second for my brain to make the connection. There was only one other person who could fight vampires with the same force and power that I could.

“We need to make one more stop,” I said, my nerves on edge.

“We don’t have time,” Kayla stammered, checking the clock on the dash. “We have less than half an hour till midnight.”

“Then drive faster. This won’t take long.”

“Where are we going?” Kayla sped up as she spoke, knowing that arguing would only waste time.

“Reinforcements.” I focused on the rapidly increasing snowfall outside my window, hoping we would make it to the old Caldon estate without having an accident or something. It was really coming down, coating everything in beautiful white.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Kayla said as she floored the gas and her mom’s Volvo sliced through the snow.

“Me too.”

We made it to Aldric’s house in less than five minutes. Kayla slowed the car and I jumped out and bounded up the steps of his porch with vampire speed. I was about to knock when the door flew open and Aldric was standing there, dressed in his usual stylish black with a panicked look on his face.

“Ava, what’s wrong?” His vampire hearing was obviously better trained than mine.

“It’s Chance,” I said, already heading back to the car. “He’s been taken. We have to go get him.” I didn’t wait for Aldric to protest as I opened the door to Kayla’s car. Surprisingly, he was climbing in the back at the same time.

“Who are you?” Kayla asked once she maneuvered the car back onto the highway.

“This is Aldric,” I answered.

“Aldric?” Kayla cut her eyes at me a few times before realizing who he was. “Ah,” she said. “Got it.” She kept her eyes glued to the road after that, but I caught her stealing glances in the rearview mirror every few seconds.

“What happened?” Aldric asked. Though he still spoke in his calm, poised fashion, I detected the tiniest bit of frantic worry lurking behind his words. I was actually surprised at what appeared to be genuine concern coming from him. I quickly filled him in on what went down at the dance.

“Sounds like Sebastian,” he said, staring ahead into the snowy night surrounding us. We had already left the city limits, the road now dark and ominous.

“Who’s Sebastian?” I asked, turning in my seat to look at him. His face held the tiniest hint of nervousness, which didn’t help
my
nerves at all.

“I was part of his coven years ago. I left because we had...a difference of opinion.”

“What was that?”

“He felt vampires should rule the world. I didn’t.” Hearing him say that gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe he wasn’t as evil as I thought.

“So what? Now he’s put some sort of human extinction plan into action? Starting with Chance’s mom?” I tried to hide the panic in my voice, but I
definitely
wasn’t prepared to go up against something that strong.

“What happened to Chance’s mother?” He asked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “She’s dead.” I choked back my tears. “She was drained.” I could feel Kayla cringe in the seat beside me. She kept her hands locked on the wheel and her eyes on the road, but a sudden spike in how fast her blood was flowing revealed her unease.

“I don’t know what he has planned,” Aldric continued. “I think he just wants to stop you from killing vampires. But I’m sure it’s because you’re throwing a kink into whatever plan he
does
have. You’re in the way, so to speak. And he can’t have that.”

“Can we beat him?” I asked, afraid to hear his answer.

“I don’t know that, either,” Aldric said with honesty. “He’s very strong, and very lethal. And when he wants something, he always gets it.”

“Great. So now I have an entire army of vampires who hates me. My life just keeps getting better.” I turned forward in my seat, my brain shifting into hyper drive as it tried to process all that I was hearing.

We finally made it to the woods surrounding the abandoned house, careful to park far enough away so we wouldn’t be seen. Sebastian had told
me
to come. I didn’t want him or his coven knowing about my friends.
I was glad to see Erik and Lila had already arrived, their twin frames strapped with stakes and crossbows and even some of those darts I knew all too well. Having someone ready to stand and fight and possibly even
die
to help me was overwhelming and inspiring. Even in the midst of the tragic night unfolding, I somehow managed a tiny smile.

“You okay?” Erik asked, his voice strong and loud in the quiet of the night.

“I will be, now that you guys are here.” I walked over to Kayla, who was busy pulling her own weapons from a bag in her trunk. “Are you ready for this?” I knew her answer before she even said it.

“I was born ready.” We both smiled grimly and joined the others. As our tiny group pushed through the thick of the woods, a sinking feeling of doom came over me. I couldn’t help but think that regardless of how big a coven of vampires we were about to walk into, some of us—if not
all—
wouldn’t
make it out alive.

“Be on alert,” Aldric said to no one in particular. He was standing tall, and even though his eyes were focused on the clearing coming into view through the darkness and trees, I knew that somehow he was seeing everything going on around us. His senses were spot on, and having him there made me more comfortable; not that I was super comfortable to begin with.

“Yeah,” Lila piped up. “Like I’m gonna take orders from a bloodsucking leech.” I could hear the sarcasm in her words, and even though we were about to fight the biggest battle any of us had ever faced—well, except maybe Aldric—I really wanted to walk over and punch her. But I thought it was probably a smart idea if the good guys weren’t discovered because they were fighting each other. So I bit my tongue and kept quiet. Apparently Kayla didn’t think like me.

“You could always walk out there blind and get your throat cut.” Kayla’s voice was barely a whisper, but Lila got her point. I expected Lila to start an argument given her overbearing personality, so I was surprised when she didn’t say anything back.

“Let’s just get on with it,” Erik added with aggravation.

“They started it,” Lila pouted.

“I don’t care,” Erik snapped back. “Just stop.” I could feel the tension between them, thick like the snow skirting our feet.

“Heads up.” Aldric stopped their useless banter with his stern voice. I focused on the clearing, which was clouded with a thick blanket of snow sweeping across the damp grass. The flakes were falling fast and heavy now, clouding our view worse than before. Even with vampire eyes, I could just barely make out the silhouette of two people crossing the open field. Of course, I knew they weren’t people—well, not
living
people, anyway. They were vampires, and I had no doubt they were the first of many.

“Kayla,” Aldric whispered. “You three go east, try to circle around and come in from the other side. Ava and I will move straight forward.”

“Shouldn’t one of us be with them?” I asked, worried about splitting up our human/vampire ratio.

“We’ll be fine,” Kayla answered. “We’ve done this before.” I knew she meant they had stalked/hunted/ killed vampires before, but I didn’t believe for a second she or Erik or Lila had ever taken down an entire coven at once. Not that I knew for sure that we were about to face a coven. That was the worst part, not knowing what we were up against.

“How many are there, Aldric?” I knew he couldn’t give me an exact answer, but somewhere in the ballpark would have been great.

“Not sure,” he said. “Sebastian’s coven was rather large when I left, so he could have brought along any number of members.” He spoke of the family of vampires like it was a country club or something, which really creeped me out. “But no coven travels in its entirety. There are always those who stay behind, just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“In case they run into someone like us.” I picked up on his optimism. He sounded confident we were going to prevail, and I prayed he was right. I didn’t say anything other than “be careful” as Kayla, Erik and Lila broke off from the group and disappeared into the darkness of the woods. I lost sight of them almost instantly through the snowfall, and after a few seconds, I couldn’t even hear them moving anymore.

“You aren’t sending them into a trap or anything, are you?” I kept my eyes locked on the vampires in the clearing as I spoke. Now that we were down to two—well, one and a half if we were counting vampire power—I didn’t want them to get the slip on us.

“Of course not,” Aldric said sharply. “I’m here to help you, Ava. Trust me.”

“Trust a vampire. Isn’t that like an oxymoron or something?” Aldric didn’t answer. I knew what I said was rude, so his silence didn’t surprise me. I wanted so desperately to trust him, to believe him when he said that he was on my side. But there was something about him that made me feel uneasy, and I couldn’t let that feeling go. Not yet, anyway.

“So what now?” I asked, changing the subject. I felt Aldric move up beside me, his arm brushing mine. The warmth and electricity I felt when Chance touched me wasn’t there, only cold, dead skin. I pulled my arm away, hoping I didn’t offend him.

“Now we have some fun,” Aldric said, unaffected by my revulsion to his touch. I looked away from the clearing and tried to focus on his face. After a few seconds, the dull moonlight helped my eyes adjust to the dark and his features slowly came into view; he was smiling.