Bound in Blood 1 Clandestine (12 page)

Emily wanted to extend the communication further, to try
and get some explanation out of Sebastian. Unfortunately with
him,further explanation wasn’t the way he worked, no matter
how much she wished it to be true. She didn’t bother and instead
just nodded and walked the rest of the way home.

The next morning Emily got up early so she could get the
rest of the laundry done. Thanks to her conversation with Lucy,
the chore was right in her face screaming at her to get it done.
With the washer and dryer located in the garage, it was easy to
forget things needed washing until you were out of socks. The
pile was getting as high as Everest. Menial household tasks
weren't her top priority. She was bound and determined to try
and make heads or tails of her suspicions one way or another. Of
course, the prospect of that task wasn’t that appealing. Not only
were all her theories freakishly absurd, but it was also like
finding a needle in a hay stack.

The best solution was to go to the library. Their computer
was on the fritz and she didn’t want Sam to be able to look at her
browsing history anyway. Not that Sam knew much about
computers or anything, but it just wasn’t worth the risk. She was
going to do some research, or at least try and do some research.
How does someone look up information about vampires for
crap’s sake? There would more than likely be a lot of fluff out
there. The problem was finding something accurate,that wasn’t
all propaganda. Maybe there were news stories similar to what
had been going on in Lakeview. That would if nothing else, tell
if anything could be done.

If there was anything that could be done, Emily mused. She
pushed that pessimistic thought from her mind as quick as it had
entered. That way of thinking would not bring results. Optimism
was crucial, even if she didn’t believe a word of it. Real life
vampires roaming the Earth might have seemed farfetched to
Emily, but at this point nothing was off limits. It was clear
something was going on. A simple search online, allowed her to
eliminate the halfcocked theory from the list of possibilities.

After she got a couple loads done, she decided that was
good enough. At least a small dent had been put into the dirty
clothes pile. It may have not been the responsible choice to
leave,but she couldn’t wait anymore. Anxiousness made her
body move like a live wire. She couldn’t concentrate on anything
while thinking about going to the library. When she looked down
at herself, she realized that she was still in sweat pants and a tank
top. Figuring leaving the house in her pajamas wasn't the best
option, she hopped in the shower.

She had gotten dressed fast after bathing and was out the
door in no time at all. It was warm outside. Emily had decided to
wear jean Capri’s with fraying around the bottoms. They were
super comfy. Her stark white V-neck tank was one of her
favorites. There was a little lace on the neck of the shirt and at
the bottom. It wasn’t as Emily would call it, skank wear though.
No skin was revealed that she didn’t want shown. There were
three small Hawaiian flowers across the chest in blue. Emily had
never been to Hawaii but it was the number one thing on her
“Things to do before I die list”.

The walk to the library didn’t take long. Even though the
sun was obscured by big fluffy white clouds, it still took a
second for her eyes to adjust to the indoors. As she walked into
the poorly lit computer lab she looked around for a free station.
She hoped she could find a cubicle that was discrete. That way
no one could read over her shoulder and realize how crazy she
had become. Word traveled fast and the last thing she needed
was another lecture about what a disappointment she was.

Luckily there was a semiprivate workstation in the back
corner. No one worked at the seat next to it, so it was completely
perfect. Fearing someone could sense what Emily was there to
research, her face grew hotter and hotter the closer she got to the
computer. There weren’t a lot of people working in the lab but
most of them seem to be college age. Maybe they’re starting
their first round of term papers. She had wanted to take classes
summer quarter but she needed the extra shift at work much
more.

Sam made good money, but his bank statement would never
reflect that fact. Most of the family fortune was drunk away
every evening at Moody’s Tavern and all day on the weekends.
Other than that she had no idea what he spent his money on
because it sure wasn’t on anything practical. Melissa would be
utterly disgusted by the lack of the family funds.

Emily’s mom was
a penny pincher from way back. Her
main pleasure in life had been finding a good bargain to save
another dollar. When she went to garage sales, she was the type,
who could talk the seller down from a quarter price sticker to a
dime. Melissa had charm and wasn’t afraid to use it. She also
knew how to work someone. If she didn’t think she’d get the
reduced price she was after, she would wait until the last day of
the sale to return. By then the seller wanted to get rid of the junk,
cluttering their driveway and was willing to give it away. If they
weren’t, she’d pretend like she wasn’t interested either and start
to walk away. She had a presence about her that before she got to
her car the seller would be on her heels, accepting her low ball
offer.

Melissa used to tell her young daughter that the number on
the price tag was just a starting point for negotiations. If a seller
isn’t willing to drop it down they must not really want to get rid
of the item. Emily used to marvel at watching her mom work her
gifted craft. Even as a little girl Emily was amazed and entranced
by watching her mother work. Depending on the type of seller
she would bat an eye lash here or toss her hair there. If the seller
were an elderly woman, she would change her angle to play off
the woman’s compassionate side and practicality. They seemed
just as mesmerized by her mom, as Emily was. Who could blame
them? Melissa was flawless.

When Emily sat down at the cubicle the PC was already on,
so all she had to do was click on the internet browser. She sat
back in her wobbly chair and waited. The lab was connected to
high speed, but when too many people were on the server, it was
slow to load up. She didn’t mind, it gave her time to think of
where to start.

If Emily were totally honest with herself, she would have to
admit that she had absolutely no idea what she was looking for.
If anyone had caught sight of what she was doing, they would
probably have her committed. Part of her was beginning to think
that were a good idea.

When the Google homepage came to life on the screen
Emily leaned forward with her hands ready on the keys. Her
posture was rigid. Now what? Well, she might as well start
simple. With a deep regretful sigh, her fingers began typing the
word Vampire into the search engine.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. Seriously, like a zillion
results popped up on the screen. There was everything from
myths, books, movies, legends, and clothing. The list went on
and on for what seemed like a million pages. She had no idea
this was such a popular topic.

There was definitely going to have to be some narrowing
done. Without really knowing what to look for, the task was
going to be cumbersome. Emily couldn’t wrap her head around
all the books out there on the subject. The majority appeared to
be fiction, but she had never heard of most of the authors, let
alone the titles. Working at a book store, she had countless titles
at her disposal, she shouldknow about them shouldn’t she?

Maybe George didn’t care for the topic and that’s why he
didn’t carry them. However, she didn’t think he cared much for
ghost stories either, and he had all of those on the shelves. She
decided to make a mental note to ask him about it. Emily could
hardly believe that George would pass up a chance to tap into a
new Genre that might bring the shop more revenue.

As corny as it seemed, she decided to type
real vampires
.
That had to bring up something. Maybe the screen would go
black and big letters would scroll across in red telling her she
was nuts. That really wouldn’t have been that surprising.

Well, it did narrow the amount of results that were found to
only like a million. Scrolling through all the results she was
astonished at what she saw. Most of the headlines were about old
world myths from other countries. There were even some blogs
done by people, who claimed to be authentic vampires. Emily
couldn’t help but laugh at that.

One headline stood out from the others as she scanned. It
read “Today’s Urban Vampires Truths, Myths and Protective
Measures”. The description underneath briefly informed that
today’s vampires were a force to be reckoned with. It said that
the new breed held old ways as well as new at their disposal. The
part that really got Emily was “Check out this site for recent
news stories that will chill your bones. Emily was just getting
ready to click on it when she was interrupted.

A firm hand came down on her shoulder. Emily jumped in
surprise. She whirled around in her seat to see a towering male
standing in front of her. He was dressed all in black. Upon
further examination, she realized who he was. It was the scary
man from the bus; the one that was with that icy woman. They
were the ones that herded those people into that big house.
Instantly Emily saw that she had been right, His eyes
were
the
same emerald green as that Luke guy.

He hadn’t done anything overtly threatening, but
malevolence rolled off him. Emily couldn’t speak. She couldn’t
even move despite the fact that her instincts were screaming at
her. The pain in her midsection was agonizing. It was almost
impossible not to yell. Emily bit the inside of her cheek against
the pain. She had to stop when she could taste blood in her
mouth.

Even though she had turned completely around, the man’s
hand remained on her shoulder. He seemed to be holding her in
place. She quickly scanned the room. Not a single person seemed
to notice anything was happening. Theoretically, nothing
was
happening. Even still, the growing knots in her stomach told her
otherwise. Emily knew deep in her gut there was something very
wrong with this man.

Don’t panic
. The unfamiliar voice in her head warned.
Don’t move and don’t look him in the eye
.
The reassurance that came from the male voice was
calming. It helped her to keep a level head. Freaking out would
just make this situation worse, and probably please her captor.
More than ever, the voice reminded her of someone. Try as she
might, she still couldn’t place it. It was right there at the edges of
her mind just out of reach. Clicking on the note to self tablet in
her mind, she mentally jotted down the words
find out what on
Earth that voice was.
Whether it meant she was crazy or sane, it seemed like good
advice so she decided to follow it obediently. Weirdly, she still
thought it sounded an awful lot like Sebastian. Obviously, that
couldn’t be the case though. The comparison was more than
likely a product of her wild imagination.
The man cleared his throat. “I don’t think it’s a good idea
for you to look at that.”
Look at what? She wasn’t really looking at anything. Then,
with a start she realized he must be talking about her web
surfing. “Um… I just thought it would be a fun topic to look up.”
She didn’t know why but everything in her gut told her that
playing clueless was the way to go. It really wasn’t much of a
stretch anyway. She was totally clueless.
His eyes widened questioningly as he watched her intently.
“Well sometimes little girl the answers you seek aren’t always
found on the World Wide Web. You children and your…
technology, disgust me. I happen to know a lot on the subject
though.” As he said this, he gave a slight nod to the computer
screen that was still loaded with search results. “I may be
inclined to share my knowledge for a small
fee
.”
When he said
fee,
he stretched it out, implying that Emily
wouldn't understand. Even with the lack of understanding, she
was able to pick up on the obvious threat behind his words.
Emily gulped. “Oh thanks, but this was just for fun. I was just
bored and don’t really even need to look at the site. Just bored.”
The words flew from Emily’s mouth with little abandon,
sounding a bit ridiculous. For all he knew, she was some dumb
teenager and that was probably a good thing. Maybe that would
allow him to disregard her and move on? Emily suddenly wanted
to go home badly. At any moment, this whack job could turn her
into one of the pod people.
“Have it your way.” He gave her a placating smile. “You
might find that in the future, it would be wise to be mindful of
your research. Too much knowledge can be damning for a
person. He lowered his voice to a more secretive tone.“Also, it
can become quite dangerous.” His face was hard and all
business. The tone of his voice was a contradictory melodic that
did not match the expression at all.
Emily found her eyes drifting up to his against her will.
How could she have ever thought something was wrong with
them? Those eyes were beautiful. They seemed to mesmerize
Emily, capturing her deep within their depths.
The unfamiliar voice screamed at her to look away and the
urgency of it instantly grabbed hold of her attention. In all the
times she had heard it, the voice never carried such acid or such
volume. It completely broke her concentration on the man
standing before her. Emilycouldn’t help but jump, instantly
breaking the stare. “Uh, thanks for the tip. Ium, guess I’ll be
seeing you.” She tried to sound strong. Instead, she stuttered
uncontrollably.
“Oh yes, you will be seeing me very soon in deed. By the
way my lady, you should know I am called Andre.” He grabbed
Emily’s hand and raised it gingerly to his lips.
The action made her stomach contract violently, churning
with nausea, like she might flip inside out.His lips weren’t cold,
yetthey weren’t warm either. The sensation was like nothing she
had ever experienced before. His touch caused an involuntary
shiver to come over her.
Emily quickly, but politely took her hand from Andre’s.
“Well,nice meeting you.” Her tone was dismissive she hoped
anyway. To further make her point she swiveled back around
toward the computer screen.
Without another word shewatched the man’s departure
from the corner of her eye. His steps didn’t make a single sound,
not a shoe shuffle or noise from the material of his clothes
rustling. There was just nothing. As he passed, she felt a cool
breeze follow him, like when the wind picked up after a snow
fall. That type of weather shift wasn’t normal in the middle of a
computer lab.
Everyone working on a computer still did just that. Their
heads never turned to see Andre. There were a few that she could
tell upon closer examination,weren’t actually working. They
simply stared at their screens, most with their hands in their laps
clenched into fists. Emily considered asking one of them what
they knew of Andre. Figuring she would get the same response
as on the bus, Emily kept her mouth shut.
When she turned towards the computer screen her thoughts
weren’t on Andre. In all actuality, they probably should have
been, he was really freaky. Instead, they were on the new
unfamiliar voice she had acquired as some sort of conscience. It
was a male voice. She knew she had heard it before, and not just
in her mind.
She ran through everyone she knew in her head. No one in
her life sounded like that. It was stupid anyway. Someone
couldn’t be talking to her through her mind. Her thoughts
stopped on
Sebastian’s
face. Could it be?
If he was the “V” word, it may very well entitle him to
special powers. Except if Andre was one of them as well, why
would Sebastian feel compelled to help her? Shouldn’t they have
some kind of undead solidarity or something? Besides, Sebastian
seemed different from Andre and Luke. They had an evil
presence that seemed to radiate off of them like a breathing
pulse. It pooled around them like a living shadow. Sebastian was
mysterious, yes. Was heevil? No, Emily didn’t think so.
“Hi Emily, remember me? Tyler?”
The voice came from behind her making her jump and her
breath catch in her throat. God, hadn’t she had enough scares for
one day? She spun around to face him. Even though she knew
who he was, the sight ofTyler didn’t calm her nerves.
“Wow, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or
something.” Tyler sounded worried.
Emily was vaguely aware of the color that had drained from
her face. The encounter with Andre had left her feeling numb
and very cold. Was it just a coincidence that Tyler would come
strolling along right after him? “What are you doing here?” She
shot back at him with a little too much acid.
He held his hands up in surrender. “Easy there, I didn’t
mean to bug you or anything. Sorry.”
He began to back up in retreat, when a wave of guilt passed
through Emily. “No wait. I’m sorry.” Emily held out a hand to
him. “You just startled me, that’s all. You don’t have to go. It’s
just been one of those days you know?” Emily motioned for him
to take the empty chair beside her.
He hesitantly took the chair watching her the whole time.
He looked as though he thought Emily might bite him or
something. “When I came in it looked like you might need help
with something,” said Tyler.
“I’m fine,” Emily replied. She gestured vaguely at nothing
in particular.