End Game (Vampire Hunter Book 6) (4 page)

We both backtracked through the hallway into the main cave. “Never have I
been so glad to get into a tunnel in my life!” I said as I hurriedly got onto
my belly and started crawling towards the woods, towards
safety
.

“You and me both,” Jet said, close on my heels.

We had been crawling for a few feet when Jet grabbed my ankle. “Do you
hear that?” he hissed.

“Hear what?” No sooner than the words were out of my mouth I heard a
scream. It took me a minute to realize it was Jet.

“Jet! Jet!” There was barely enough room in the tunnel to turn my head
sideways. Jet’s flashlight was laying directly behind me. And Jet was gone.

“No, no, no,” the words spilled from my mouth. We hadn’t come this far
just to be defeated. I snatched the flashlight up and started moving backwards
as fast as possible. There must have been another wendigo in the lair, and now
it was going to get revenge on us for killing the other two.

It didn’t take long to get to the main cave. As soon as I was back on my
feet, I knew my fear was right. There, looming over Jet, was a wendigo even
taller than the ones he’d already killed.

But that wasn’t what frightened me to the core. There was Jet, on all
fours, desperately trying to crawl out of the wendigo’s reach, dragging his
right leg along with him like a wounded dog.

“Jet!” I screamed his name. He looked up, his face twisted in pain, sweat
pouring down his face.

The wendigo barely acknowledged me. No, it had its sights set on Jet. I
looked around frantically for the knife Jet had used – or any type of
weapon – but came up empty.
Get the life center!
a voice in my
head screamed.

The wendigo moved forward towards Jet, slowly, painfully, letting out a
low guttural sound the whole time. Jet, who had been so powerful, so fast just
minutes before, was now moving at a snail’s pace, looking like the agony of
dragging his bloodied leg was about to kill him.

This isn’t right. He should heal almost instantaneously.
Was I
about to watch Jet die?

I had no time to spend wondering about it. I had to act – now.

With a terrified scream, I tackled the wendigo to the ground. My body was
getting hot, so I knew the strength would be there. I pummeled it’s gray,
disgusting face, but the wendigo barely flinched. 

“The only way to stop it is to stab it,” came Jet’s weak voice.

The wendigo threw me off of him and climbed back to it’s feet. It had no
interest in me. All it wanted was Jet. And I was the only thing that could stop
it.

There was no knife. I’d have to improvise.

Feeling like my body was on fire, I pressed forward, positioning myself
in between the wendigo and Jet. It hissed and spat at me, but I didn’t flinch.
I clenched my fist and pulled it back by my side, then punched the wendigo as
hard as I could, dead in the chest.

My hand broke through slimy skin and I felt it connect with something
hard. And before I had time to comprehend what was happening, there was a heap
of dust around me.

“Is it dead? Is it really dead?” I shrieked, my voice sounding hysterical
even to my own ears.

“It’s dead,” Jet echoed, clutching his leg in agony.

I rushed to his side. “Why are you so hurt?” I asked in a shrill voice.
“Why aren’t you healing?”

“I didn’t tell you beforehand,” Jet said through gritted teeth, “because
I didn’t want to worry you. But excruciating pain isn’t the only reason to
avoid wendigo claws. They release venom. Into your bloodstream. If you didn’t
notice, they aren’t exactly quick movers. That’s how they stun their prey.”

“Are you going to be okay?” I shrieked. “We have to get out of here!”

“I can’t move,” Jet said. “I’m in too much pain and the venom is
paralyzing me. You’ll have to go get help.”

“I’m not leaving you!” I said, fighting the rising hysteria that was
threatening to take over.

“You don’t have a choice!” Jet boomed.

“Please, Jet.” I reached out and pulled back the leg of his torn jean,
which was soaked with blood. The gash from the wendigo’s claws looked
incredibly deep and painful.

“It’s not so bad,” I lied.

Jet choked out a laugh. “Nice try.”

I leaned in to study the wound. The cut ran from his ankle up to his
knee. “What if I help move you?” I asked.

“I can’t even lift my leg.”

As gently as possible, I slid my hands under Jet’s injured leg. “If you
can crawl, I can brace your leg, carry it,” I said, wondering how the hell we’d
get through the tunnel with me trying to carry Jet’s leg. But I couldn’t leave
him, and if we stayed here we were sitting ducks. Jet had been wrong about
there only being two wendigos – what if even more were going to show up?

Jet winced at my touch.

“I’m sorry,” I said hurriedly, “but we have to leave. I don’t care what
it takes, but I am getting you out of here.”

“Wait,” Jet said.

“Please, we don’t have time!” I exclaimed.

“No, wait,” Jet repeated. “Something’s happening. Your touch – it’s
almost like it’s
numbing
the pain.”

“What?” I asked in surprise.

“I’m serious,” Jet said. “See, look, I can move my foot now. I couldn’t
even do that before.” He twisted his ankle from side to side to prove his point.

Excitedly, I moved my hands closer to the oozing wound. “What about now?
Is it getting better?”

“I think it is!”

And before our very eyes, the gaping, hideous wound closed up and faded
into skin.

Jet and I looked at each other, mouths hanging open. “I can move my leg!”
he exclaimed. “What the fuck? Aurora, you healed me!”

“I – I don’t know how,” I stuttered.

Jet let out a whoop. “I don’t
care
how. I thought – if I
could make it out before I lost consciousness – that I was going to have
to get a blood transfusion. But now, I think the venom is
gone.
You
neutralized it
and
healed my wound.”

Jet climbed to his feet, tentatively putting weight on his formerly gimp
leg. “It’s fine. It feels 100% normal,” he said. Jet’s face, which had been a
ghastly white, was starting to return to its normal pale color.

“Let’s go!” he said.

I didn’t need to be told twice. We crawled through the tunnel, raced back
to the car, and hit the road in record time.

Emmett was waiting for us when we got back. He must have been watching
from the window because he flung the door open before either of us could knock.
“You’re alive!” he said, relief washing over his face.

“Barely,” Jet replied. We sat down and told Emmett what had happened.

“So now you can heal people.” Emmett shook his head in disbelief, staring
at the massive rip down the right pant’s leg of Jet’s jeans.

“You didn’t have any, uh, psychic premonitions about that, did you?” I
asked him.

“No, I haven’t been able to see much of anything lately,” Emmett said.

Jet stood up. “I have to go. Aurora, it’s been real, and it’s been fun…”

I laughed and finished the sentence. “But it hasn’t been
real
fun.”

“Do you need a ride home or anything?” Jet asked.

“No. It’s almost 3 a.m. My parents would flip out if I walked through the
door right now. Emmett said I could stay here.”

Jet shook Emmett’s hand and hugged me goodbye. When he’d left, Emmett
turned to me. “I’ve got get some sleep. Make yourself at home. What’s the plan
for tomorrow?”

“Mom thinks she’s going to pick me up from Kelly’s house and meet her
parents,” I said. “But I’ll get Henry to pick me up from here and tell mom I’m
hanging out at his house or something.”

“When are you going to tell Lucas about your excursion tonight with Jet?”
Emmett asked.

“I guess tomorrow. Er, later today,” I said, realizing that it
technically was Sunday. I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. “He’s going to be
pissed.”

“He’ll get over it,” Emmett said.

“Is that psychic Emmett talking or are you just trying to make me feel
better?” I asked.

Emmett smiled. “Perhaps a little of both.”

###

The next morning I called Henry. “Can you come get me from Emmett’s
house?” I asked.

“Emmett’s house?” Henry echoed in surprise. “That’s not what I expected
you to say. Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” I assured him. “But it’s a long story. I’ll tell you when you get
here.”

“Wow,” Henry said when I’d finished. “I guess I’m glad I didn’t know,
though. I actually got a decent night’s sleep, for a change. I’d have been
beside myself with worry if I thought you were getting the wendigo tooth.” He
paused. “But at least it’s over with now. And it’s exciting to find out you can
heal
people. I’m pretty sure Tobias doesn’t have that ability.”

“What about you?” Emmett asked Henry. “Are you ready for Saturday? It
will be here before we know it.”

“Yeah, I think so,” Henry said, sounding nervous. “I just have to see if
Lucas and Nicholas got the rest of the junk last night. And I need to study the
spell a bit more, but I’ll be good to go by Saturday.”

“I hope I can say the same,” I mumbled. “If Tobias realizes I’m trying to
double cross him, he’s going to be furious. You know how crazy he is. Who knows
what he’d do? Hell, he might try and kill me if he wasn’t lying about knowing
how.

“It’s not going to come to that,” Henry said sharply. “I’ll get the Gates
open and Lucas and Nicholas will push Tobias and Magnus in. Then I’ll close
them.”

In theory,
I thought, but I didn’t comment any further. Henry was
right; we needed to have the attitude that everything was going to work out.
Because the other option was far too scary to fathom.

“Thanks again for letting me stay here,” I told Emmett. “We’ll get out of
your hair now.”

When we got to the car, Henry said, “Want to come back to my house for
awhile?”

“Sure, why not?” I replied, hoping Mr. Matthews wouldn’t be there.

“Yeah, I was thinking we could get our plan set to deal with Benji,”
Henry said.

“Ugh, I almost forgot about that with everything else going on.”

“Tomorrow will be a week since he tried to attack you,” Henry said. “I
still want to do that spell I told you about, the one that will make him weak
if he tries to hurt anyone.”

“The anti-meathead spell,” I said. We both laughed.

“So are you game?” Henry asked, his tone turning serious. “If we get his
hair tomorrow after school, I can do the spell that evening. I already got the
other stuff I need. Like I said, it’s a beginner’s spell.”

And you’re probably already an expert.

“Sure,” I said, “why not?”

When we got to Henry’s house, I was relieved to see there weren’t any
cars in the garage. I didn’t feel like making idle small talk with David
Matthews, pretending I didn’t know he had supported Leon in trying to send me
back
to my grave.

We went upstairs to Henry’s room. “Wanna see the stuff we have so far?”
he asked.

I nodded.

Henry got down on his stomach and pulled out a plastic container from
under his bed. He took off the lid and started lining items up in a row on his
bed. By the time he was done, I counted twelve things. I pulled the tooth out
of my pocket and set it down. That made thirteen.

“I’m scared to ask what some of this stuff is,” I said nervously, eyeing
a vial of clear liquid.

“Oh, that? It’s just holy water. Probably the least scary thing in the
bunch.” Henry picked up a plastic bag with a gelatinous, green substance
inside. “This is afterbirth. From what, you don’t want to know.”

“Eww!” I exclaimed. “How can you put that shit on your bed?”

“It’s in a baggy,” Henry said, giving me an odd look.

“You didn’t…hurt anything to get that, right?” I asked.

“No, of course not. I bought this, actually.” Henry sat up straight and
pursed his lips into a serious expression. “No creatures were harmed in the
making of this spell,” he said in a television announcer voice.

I laughed. “Well, that’s good to know. But if you didn’t get it yourself,
what’s to say it’s real?”

“I just know,” Henry replied. I didn’t press him further.

“Want to watch TV or something?” Henry asked, changing the subject. “You
know, pretend like life is
normal
for a change.”

“Sure,” I replied, just as my phone rang. It was Lucas!

“Go ahead, get it,” Henry said.

I gave him an apologetic look as I answered, “Hello?”

“Hey, Rory,” came Lucas’ sexy voice on the other line. “Nic and I got the
rest of the things for the spell. I was hoping you could get Henry and come
over?”

“Sure,” I said, not wanting to tell him that I was already with Henry.

“Great,” Lucas replied. “I’ll see you soon.”

“What was that about?” Henry asked when I hung up the phone.

“I think our morning of watching TV and vegetating just got squashed,” I
said. “You up for a trip to Lucas’ apartment? He got the rest of the stuff you
need, with the help of Nicholas.”

“Why not?” Henry asked. “I knew having a normal day was just a pipe dream
anyway.”

“It will be normal…eventually,” I said, trying to sound positive. “After
next Saturday,” I added.
If we get out of there alive.

When we arrived at Lucas’ apartment, I was surprised to see that Nicholas
was there as well.

“Good to see you, man,” he said, slapping Henry on the back.

“Nic, I didn’t think you’d be here. What happened last night?” I asked.

Nic flashed his crooked smile. “We took care of business,” he joked.
“Nah, seriously, Lucas and I got back here right before sun-up and I decided to
stay indoors instead of taking a sunlight pill and going home.” He handed a
shoebox to Henry. “Voila,” he said. “The last things you requested.”

“Thanks,” Henry said gratefully. “I think we’re in a really good position
to be totally ready for Saturday.”

“Except for the wendigo tooth,” Lucas interjected. “We still have to
figure that out. Did Jet ever tell you if he found out whether it
had
to
be you who extracted it or not?”

“Uh, about that,” I said nervously.

Lucas and Nicholas looked at me expectantly. “It’s kind of taken care
of,” I said in a rush.

I told them, not leaving out a single detail, about getting the wendigo
tooth.

Lucas, who had maintained a stony expression the entire time I was
speaking, was silent when I finished.

Nicholas let out a low whistle. “Damn, so now you can
heal
as well?
That’s pretty fucking awesome.”

I nodded. “Lucas?” I asked in a low voice. “I know you’re mad, but at
least it’s over with, and it gave me more insight into my powers,” I said
hurriedly.

Lucas stood up abruptly. “Aurora, can I speak with you alone?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, following him into his bedroom.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” he exploded. “I
told
you that
we can’t trust Jet. He’s head vampire, for Christ’s sake. His agenda is
completely opposite of ours. All he wants is to become even
more
powerful.
This is just a game to him.”

“You’re wrong,” I argued. “I’m allowed to make my own decisions about
people – and vampires!” I snapped. “All Jet has done is try to help. It’s
not my problem if you have some chip on your shoulder from a gazillion years
ago. Maybe Jet was an asshole in the past, but you were, too, by your own
admission. Why is it possible you’ve changed but he hasn’t?”

Lucas reached out, pulling me towards him. I felt his warm lips against
mine. I was surprised, but I couldn’t help but respond. Our kiss deepened and
he pulled me closer against him. I kept kissing Lucas, my head swimming, only
vaguely registering that Nicholas and Henry were just a few feet away from us
in the other room.

Lucas pulled back, cupping my cheeks in his hands. “What was that for?” I
asked, trying to regain my composure.

“It’s just…is there something going on between you and Jet?” Lucas asked,
not meeting my eyes.

“Do you seriously think I could kiss you like that if there was?” I shot
back incredulously. “Just because I trust Jet, it doesn’t mean I’m in love with
him.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt embarrassed.

“So what are you saying?” Lucas asked huskily. “You’re in love with me
now?” His tone was flirty, teasing.

“I don’t know!” I said honestly. “I really don’t. But I can assure you
that I’m only trusting Jet because we’ve got no other choice.” I wanted to
laugh at the realization that Lucas was jealous. It was absurd. Sure, Jet was
hot, but it didn’t mean I was about to discard my feelings for Lucas and start
pining over Jet instead. Jet was a womanizer – it was obvious – and
even if he wasn’t, my un-beating heart was already torn between two other men
– well, one man and one vampire, to be precise.

“They’re going to wonder what we’re doing,” I said.

“Yes, we’d better head back,” Lucas agreed reluctantly.

“Welcome back,” Nicholas said with a smirk when we walked into the room.

“Sorry. I just needed to understand why Aurora decided to trust Jet,”
Lucas said smoothly.

“Yeah, so now you’ve got everything you need, right Henry?” I asked,
eager to get off the subject of Lucas whisking me away to his bedroom.

“I’ll do a final inventory when I get home, but yeah, looks like it,”
Henry agreed.

“Good,” Nicholas said. “I don’t think there’s anything else we need to do
today then?” His question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.

We all nodded and agreed that it looked like we were prepared for
Saturday.

Henry and I got up to leave. “If something else comes up, I trust you’ll
tell me,” Lucas said lightly. His words were directed at Henry and me, but I
knew he was referring to me sneaking off with Jet.

“Of course,” Henry agreed, oblivious.

“Do you want to come back to my house?” Henry asked as we walked out to
his car.

“I think I’ll go home, if you don’t mind,” I said. “I just need
to…think.” My head was still swimming from the kiss with Lucas.

“Right, sure,” Henry agreed.
Is that disappointment in his voice?
I
couldn’t tell, but I had enough on my mind. I literally might explode if I
added one more worry.

“Want me to pick you up for school tomorrow?” Henry asked as he pulled up
outside my house.

“Yes,” I said. I groaned. “You just reminded me I still have to do my
damn homework. Juggling everything is turning out to be a real pain.”

“Tell me about it,” Henry agreed. “But, look on the bright side: it will
all be over soon.”

I nodded, not quite sure I knew what specifically he was referring to.
Even if Saturday went as planned, we’d still be high school seniors, stuck with
homework and classes for the next seven months of our lives. And after that,
Henry would go on to college, while I did…God knows what.

“See you tomorrow morning,” I said, getting out of the car and slamming
the door shut.

As I trudged up to my house, I couldn’t help but think that this might be
the last
normal
week of my life. If we failed – and Hell came to
earth – it would be complete chaos. No, school, no law enforcement; the
locks on our doors would mean nothing if the world became an anarchist society.

And if we succeeded…well, that was almost just as bleak. It meant I would
have to decide, once and for all, what I was going to do with my life. As much
as I cared for Lucas, the thought of leaving my family to go hunt with him was
terrifying.

One step at a time, Aurora,
I told myself. But it was a colossal
decision. One I was going to be forced to make in the very near future, whether
I was ready or not.