Blood Run (11 page)

“Wait, I didn’t say
anything
about helping!” Promise said, sitting up, alarmed. “I just said if he
knew
!”

“Well, he can’t just
know
,” Lea said, “That’s silly. If he knows then he’s going to want to help…at least…I think he’ll want to.” She looked at Mark and took a deep breath. “Promise and I are going to catch Chance and hold him at her old house until they bring the cure to change him from a vampire back to a human,” she said, all in one breath. Then she smiled. “You can help us if you want.”

“Course I’ll help,” Mark said without hesitation. He kept his eyes on Lea. Her smile widened.

“Okay then. Now, let’s go get Peter,” Lea said.

“Hold
on
! Wait just a second!” Promise said and stood abruptly, hands going to her hips. “No one said anything about Peter being involved. We don’t even know him, you guys. Why would he even want to? He has no reason to help me…he doesn’t even…we don’t even…”

Lea dropped her face into her mittens, shoulders shaking. Mark put his hand on her arm, concerned, and said, “Lea? Are you–” just as Promise said, “Oh, Lea, I didn’t mean–”

Then they both heard the chuffling, snorting laugh muffled by the thick mittens, and Promise sat down just as abruptly as she’d stood. Mark glanced at her briefly, then returned his attention to Lea.

“Lea?” he said. “What’s funny?” He was beginning to grin in spite of himself. Then Lea looked up, and her eyes were so full of sparkly mirth that he laughed, too. “What is it?”

She shook her head and glanced at her friend then back at Mark. Her giggles had tapered all the way down to a smile. “Everyone is a dummy about love,” she said. “Not just me. I just realized.”

Lea and Mark smiled at each other. She was frail and child-like in her mittens and matching scarf and so pretty, especially with the cold painting her cheeks a fresh pink. Light came up in Mark’s eyes as he gazed at her.

“Okay, whatever, I’m a dummy, okay?” Promise said grumpily, descending toward the field. “Can we just please go? Daylight’s wasting.”

Lea watched her descend and called after her, “We’ll stop and get Peter first!”

Promise didn’t turn, merely held up a hand in acknowledgement. “Fine! Whatever!”

Lea giggled and looked at Mark again, inviting him to laugh with her. But his face was still, almost grave as he looked at her.

“What?” she said, her eyes wide.

Now he smiled and shook his head. “Nothing.” He held out his hand and pulled her to standing. “We’re all dummies, Lea. Just so you know.”

She smiled and nodded and then followed him down the bleachers, and they trotted to catch up with Promise.

~ ~ ~

“It will be dangerous,” Peter said, and despite herself, Promise felt something almost like relief. He had said ‘it
will
be dangerous’ not ‘that’s too dangerous’ or ‘it will be dangerous for
you guys
.’ He was in, that much seemed clear. She
did
feel relieved…why did she also feel aggravated?

“We know that…we’re not stupid,” she said, the irritation evident in her tone. “We’re not babies.” She crossed her arms, and her eyes scanned the cramped room where he was supposed to stay with Snow. She and Lea and Mark had found Peter here when they’d come in from the football field. “If you think we’re too young for you…for
this
, I mean…then why don’t you just say it?” Her face had gone a deep red, either from anger or embarrassment, or both.

“Can I talk to Promise alone for a minute?” Peter said to Mark and Lea, his eyes not leaving Promise.

Mark and Lea looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and then rose to leave the confined space.

“We’ll see you in 508,” Mark said and put his arm around Lea. She leaned against him and glanced back at Promise as they left, but Promise’s eyes hadn’t left Peter’s.

“I think I scared you last night,” he said, and his face softened. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know, when I first saw you, that you were only…that you were as young as you are.”

Her stomach twisted. “There’s only seven years between us,” she said. “That doesn’t exactly make you my dad.”

“No, but you’re…innocent. And I think it scares you that I was married before.”

She colored again and felt vaguely ashamed, as though he’d caught her in a towel, defenseless. She touched the scrunchie holding back her hair and then lowered her head and nodded. “It…it changed things. I don’t even know why, I mean, I feel terrible that you lost your wife; it’s awful. I know, because I lost my whole family, or almost, anyway.” She ran a hand over her eyes, suddenly tired, then she sighed. “I just…it made me see you a different way, somehow. I felt like it made me a kid, too much a kid and too young for you. That scared me because I like you. A lot.” It was hard to tell the truth, but it also felt like a cloudy burden lifted from her mind.

She looked up, and he was nodding. “I like you a lot too,” he said and cautious relief calmed her jangling nerves. “Let’s do this: let’s be friends, okay? Let’s just get to know each other better. We’ll put the other stuff aside for now. Okay?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and he opened his arms to her. She stepped into them, laid her head on his shoulder, and basked in the warmth their bodies generated. She could feel the strength in his arms as they closed around her shoulders, and she encircled his waist with her arms, her hands encountering the deep valley of his spine. Even his back felt strong, the muscles and tendons hard but very warm. She traced a hand up his back, and he shivered and stepped back, his hands gripping her upper arms. His eyes had darkened to slate gray, and Promise felt the butterflies stir below her bellybutton.

His hands squeezed her arms. “Friends? Just friends for now?”

She swallowed and nodded, wondering how long they would be able to stay ‘just’ friends.

“Okay, listen, about your brother,” he said and took her hand, leading her from the room and into the hall. He kept his voice low. “I don’t think we should say anything while we’re in the school; someone might hear us. I don’t know what it’s like in Wereburg, but in the other outposts where I’ve been, the vampire suspicion is high. Real high. There were times I didn’t even let on about myself. People are afraid of someone like me…I’m a big unknown.”

He didn’t say anything more as they passed people in the hallway and then they turned into 508. Lea was alone, shoving clothes into a backpack. She smiled when they came in.

“Mark went to get his gear. We figured we might be gone for a few days since it would be easier to stay in one of the safe houses in Willow’s End while we’re doing this.”

“I want to talk to Mr. West, too. I want someone here to know what we’re doing,” Promise said. “I think he’ll understand.”

Peter looked skeptical. “Maybe, but will he approve?” he asked.

“It’s not like he can stop us,” Promise said. “He’s not the police.”

“No, but in reality,” Lea said, “you know we’d be sunk if he didn’t want us to do it.”

Promise dropped her head and sighed. “You’re right. Maybe we should keep it from him for now. Is there something else we can tell him? About why we’ll be gone? He’ll want to know.”

Lea shrugged. “I don’t know. We can’t say we’re camping.”

Mark walked in, backpack on and coat in hand. “What’s up? You guys ready to go?”

“We were just talking about Mr. West and what we should tell him,” Lea said.

“I told him we were going to stay in Willow’s End for a few days to mark trails until we found the cabin the vampires are using.” He raised his eyebrows at them. “Cool?”

“That’s cool, yeah,” Promise said, laughing. “Okay, let me get some stuff together, and then we can take off.”

In the hallway, Deidre stood with her back flush against the wall, her eyes half-lidded, and her mouth twisted in contempt, and listened to every word.

Chapter 8

In the front yard of her old house, Promise hesitated, her mind filled with a sudden, warm flood of memories. Foremost among them, she could picture the day her mom and dad had brought Chance home from the hospital. She closed her eyes so she could see it again, almost like a photograph. Her mom holding Chance in a blue blanket, bending down to show nine-year-old Promise her new baby brother. Promise in her favorite gold star T-shirt, mouth open in wonder, eyes shining, one tentative hand reaching for the baby’s foot. Her dad’s hand on her back, warm and solid and comforting, linking them, pulling them together as a unit, complete unto itself.

A hand rested on her back, and she opened her eyes and turned to find Peter next to her. “Okay?” he asked, and she nodded, looking back to the house.

“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just weird being back here. I was remembering when my parents brought Chance home. That was a really good day. The best day. But to see this house…it brings everything back, not just the good memories.”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” he said. “When I came home, after being away for so long, it was…” He trailed off, and his eyes had become distant and bitter. Promise had again the sense of being in over her head, not knowing what to do in the face of such an overwhelmingly adult situation, but she put her uncertainties aside. If this were Lea standing next to her, drifting off into bad memories, what would she do?

She grabbed Peter’s hand and squeezed it. He refocused, coming back to her. It was better than that drifting emptiness from before. “Do you want to tell me about it?” she asked. Her gaze was strong and calm and reflected back to him the pain she saw in his eyes.

“Not today, but maybe someday,” he said and smiled, but she read something else in his shuttered expression: his reluctance to tell her what he’d been thinking. She had a small twist of uneasiness. Was he hiding something? Or did he just think she was too young to understand what he had to say?

“We’ve got a lot of work to do here,” Mark said, coming around the side of the house with Lea, Lady sniffing behind them in a zigzag pattern all over the side yard. “All the back windows have been busted out. At least the slider is still there. That would have been a bear to replace.” He checked the sun. “We won’t get it all done today. How about if Peter, Lea, and I get started, and Promise, you find the nearest safe house? So we know exactly where we’re going to stay tonight. I don’t want to be floundering when the sun goes down.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s on the corner of Maple and Pin Oak, but I’ll check and then sweep it,” Promise said. “Give me your packs, and I’ll stow them there.” They handed them over, and Promise draped them from Ash’s pommel and then pulled herself up, swinging a leg over the horse’s back. “See you soon,” she said and squeezed her knees into Ash’s sides and turned him across the front yard. Snow’s head came up, and she took a few steps to follow them, and Peter grabbed her bridle.

“You’re staying here, girl,” he said and ran a hand down her face. He glanced back at Promise riding away on Ash.

Promise turned, as if sensing his look, and gave him a short wave. He waved back, and then she kicked Ash into a jog.

She rode through her old neighborhood, surprised by how run down it had become in less than a year. Of course, she’d been in Willow’s End plenty of times and seen the damage, but it was different being on her own street–you could say it brought it all home.

Windows broken out, furniture thrown into yards, and without careful tending, many of the bushes, ornamental trees, and plantings had died off. It looked like footage you’d see on the news after some natural disaster. She shivered and was glad to have the solid bulk of Ash beneath her. He was a comfort in many ways.

She trotted the horse past the bus stop where first just she, and later, she and Chance had waited every day to be taken to the schools in town. She could almost see the handful of children–roughhousing, giggling, dropping books and comparing lunch boxes. In her mind, childish laughter drifted eerily. It was sad almost beyond being bearable. She swallowed and looked away.

She got to Pin Oak and took a left toward Maple two blocks away. She could see the safe house from here. Fluorescent X’s had been spray-painted and re-spray-painted on windows, siding and doors making it impossible to miss. It looked like it had been tagged for demolition, but in reality, it had been remade as a stronghold against the vampires.

Just like the house they’d stayed in the other night, this one had no nooks and crannies creating hiding spaces, no basement access, no attic access, windows boarded over and doors reinforced. Even dryer and stove vents had been sealed; it truly was a fortress.

She dismounted and led Ash to the small front porch. She draped his rein over a handrail and then went through the front door. The inside had been stripped and sealed, too. No kitchen cabinet doors, no closets, no sideboards or dressers. No china cabinets or wardrobes. She checked the food and water stores, and she double-checked the stakes. She went quickly through each room. Everything was in order. She dropped their packs in the living room and went back out to retrieve Ash. She surveyed the empty neighborhood and tried to quell the depression that wanted to leaden her limbs and coat her mind with despair.

She did no sightseeing on the ride back to her old house and her friends. She’d seen enough.

Mark had been right–they wouldn’t finish the work today, but when Promise returned, she saw they’d made a good start. There was a small, windowless laundry room off the main family room, and that was where they had decided it would be best to trap and then hold Chance. Until the Guard brought a cure.

“We figured we’d get this room set up first, then see to the rest of it,” Peter said. “We can stay in the safe house tonight and probably tomorrow night, too, depending on how long it takes.” He and Promise were in the family room, standing near the glass sliders. He considered the room dispassionately, his mind on logistics, but Promise felt her stomach tightening. Here was the chair where Chance had been watching
Magnum P.I.
in his pj’s. Out back was the tipped over fire pit where her dad had been murdered. Promise kept her back to the glass door, trying to quell her unease at the sight of the shed, now partially covered by the creeping kudzu. Her mother’s body had been found next to her father’s, her skin blackened, and her hair disintegrated around the pink hair tie that had held it back. That scrunchie had made its way back to Promise and held her own hair back now.