Heart of the Dead: Vampire Superheroes (Perpetual Creatures Book 1) (3 page)

Loud voices woke Jerusa from her thoughts.

A white Jeep Wrangler was parked just ahead. She knew it well. It belonged to Thad Campbell. Thad and his girlfriend, Kristen, sat in the front seat arguing about something. Their words were heated, but Jerusa couldn’t make out what they were saying. Thad’s voice seemed almost apologetic, but Kristen’s was as shrill as fingernails on the chalkboard.

Jerusa stopped and looked around, considering her options.

Thad and Kristen had obviously driven up to the Tardy Lot for some privacy. Jerusa didn’t feel right about intruding, but what choice did she have? They were parked right in front of the wooded path she needed to take to go to Foster’s house.

Suddenly, Kristen jumped out of the Jeep, her blonde locks trailing behind her, her face as fierce and beautiful as a thunderstorm. There was something in her hand, and for a moment, Jerusa was convinced that Kristen was going to throw it at her.

Kristen didn’t throw the item at Jerusa, but instead, walked to the edge of the woods. In a panic, Thad leapt from his Jeep and chased after her. Kristen reared back and lobbed the item into the air. A shiny, metallic glint flashed against the sunlight then the shadows gobbled it up. It jingled as it tore through the newly budding leaves, skipped across the carpet of dead leaves, and came to rest somewhere in the underbrush.

“Are you kidding me?” Thad asked, his hands plastered to the sides of his head.

Kristen turned and walked away, a satisfied little smirk resting upon her perfect face. She strolled down the sidewalk, strutting like a runway model. She slowed as she passed Jerusa, her eyes narrowed.

“What are you looking at, Frankenstein?”

Jerusa hated being called that. Her cheeks flushed hot and her palms broke into a sweat. She clenched her teeth, and stuck out her chin. Countless scenarios raced through her mind, each ending with her standing over a bruised and battered Kristen while a growing crowd cheered her on.

But what did a girl with a heart condition whose most athletic endeavor was walking to school know about fighting? Kristen would be the one standing in victory and Jerusa would most likely end up in the hospital. That’d be the end of her dreams of freedom. Her mother would carry her off and lock her in a tower like Rapunzel, except that Jerusa’s hair was brittle with split ends and could in no way support a full-grown prince.

Jerusa looked away from Kristen’s basilisk-like eyes. The blonde demi-cheerleader puffed out a laugh of victory then continued on, back toward the school.

Thad was thrashing around in the underbrush, hunched over and mumbling. Jerusa started to walk past. She had nothing to do with this. She hadn’t seen Foster in a long while and his sympathetic ear would go a long way in purging Kristen’s insult from her mind.

But then she stopped and looked back.

“Do you need any help?” She hated the nervous quiver her voice always took on when she spoke to Thad.

Thad looked up as if shocked. “Oh, hi, Jerusa,” he said with a forced grin. “I, um, lost the keys to my Jeep.”

Jerusa walked closer to Thad, so that they weren’t shouting across the tardy lot at each other. “Is that what Kristen threw?”

Thad had trouble holding her eyes and his ear lobes flushed pink. “You saw that, huh?”

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

Thad stood a head taller than she did, with a slender but muscular frame. Jerusa craned her neck to look up into his face, and though it felt awkward to her, she found it impossible to look away.

Thad brushed the dark hair away from his forehead and shrugged. “Not your fault. It’s a public place. Kristen can’t keep anything private. Everything is a production to her.”

Jerusa didn’t know the protocol for dealing with boyfriends insulting their girlfriends. Do you laugh? Nod? Join in with a few insults of your own? Jerusa decided it was best just to remain silent.

Thad scanned the ground for his keys, but didn’t walk away from her.

“Do you have another set of keys?”

“I wish,” he said with a sigh. “My mom’s been telling me for a year to go have another set made. Guess I should have listened.”

“I’ll help you find them then.”

Thad shook his head. “Nah, I’ll be fine. You’ve got better things to do than to wander the woods with me.”

If only he knew just how wrong he was.

“I don’t mind,” Jerusa said, hoping her face wasn’t as red as if felt. “I’m good at finding things.”

Alicia materialized behind Thad, her arms crossed, eyes rolling.

“Really?” Thad asked. “You don’t mind?”

“That’s what friends are for.” Could she have said anything more cliché? It took a concerted effort not to gag on the embarrassing dribble falling out of her mouth. She had a sudden urge to run full-tilt through a briar patch as an act of contrition for her severe awkwardness.

Thad smiled and her knees went to butter. She caught herself staring at him too long, so she turned in the opposite direction and walked away, pretending to search for the keys.

Jerusa looked around for Alicia, but the ghost had vanished.

“Alicia,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “C’mon. I know you’re there.”

“Did you say something?” Thad asked.

Jerusa shook her head. “Nope.” She turned back around. “Alicia,” she said as quietly as she could.

Alicia poked her head through the thick trunk of a maple tree and Jerusa gave a quick, startled cry.

Thad ran up to her. “Are you all right?”

Jerusa’s cheeks were hot enough to ignite the forest, and she could only pray she didn’t look like a stop sign. “I’m fine,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I thought I saw a snake is all. It was just a stick.”

Alicia held her stomach, pulsating with silent laughter.

“I’m going to go look over here.” Jerusa walked twenty yards deeper into the woods then slid out of view behind the thick, interlocking limbs of a mulberry bush.

Alicia appeared next to her, still giggling.

“Ha, ha,” Jerusa whispered. “Thanks a lot. I feel like an idiot.”

Alicia shrugged in a semi-apologetic way.

“Yeah, well, you owe me.”

Alicia rolled her eyes and gave a bored little sigh.

“I know, you already found a set of keys for me.” Jerusa peered around the bush to make sure Thad wasn’t close enough to hear and think she was talking to herself. “Maybe the universe is full of lost keys today. Who knows? But I need your help. Thad is a nice guy and you know it.”

Alicia’s shoulders slumped and her mouth tightened to a fine line. She turned and scanned the forest, looking up and down and side to side. She vanished and reappeared in five different spots, each time shaking her head before continuing her search. At last, she settled on an area in between Jerusa and Thad only twenty or so feet farther into the woods. Alicia pointed to the ground, at her feet, with one hand and gave a thumbs-up sign with the other.

Jerusa went to Alicia, bent down, and found the keys underneath a layer of dead leaves. She held the keys over her head and gave them a triumphant jingle. “Found them.”

Thad’s face brightened. He jogged over to her and took the keys from her hand. His fingertips brushed her palm and Jerusa’s heart rate tripled.

“Wow! You really are good at finding things.”

“No big deal,” Jerusa said. “I just got lucky.”

Alicia threw her hands up in disgust, turned, and vanished.

“Can I give you a ride home?” Thad asked. “It’s the least I can do.”

Jerusa said yes and was buckled into Thad’s Jeep before she realized what she had agreed to. But Thad was already backing out of his parking spot and it was too late to change her mind.

The wind blew through the open top, tousling her hair. She gathered it up and held it in a ponytail over her left shoulder. She looked from window to window, expecting any moment to see the shocked face of some informer that would run and tattle to her mother. It was ridiculous, she knew. Her mother was at work. Still, Jerusa continued to look until Thad asked her if something was wrong.

“No, I’m fine.” Jerusa sat back in her seat, still as a mannequin, as if this would somehow render her invisible.

“You just seem nervous, that’s all.”

“So … what’s going on with you and Kristen?” Jerusa asked, reaching for anything to break the long silence that had fallen over the Jeep.

Thad shifted in his seat. “It’s kinda complicated.”

“Give me the short version.”

Thad’s head bobbed side to side, his windswept hair dancing as he considered what he should say.

“Kristen and I broke up.”

Her breath stopped in her lungs as her heart tried to shimmy out of place. She didn’t understand why this news should make her so happy — it had absolutely nothing to do with her — but she couldn’t stop the smile from invading her face.

“Broke up?” Jerusa asked, needing it to be confirmed again.

“Yeah.”

“You and Kristen broke up?” She felt dangerously close to a fit of giggles.

“You sound surprised.”

“I am,” Jerusa said. “You two have been together for like three years. Everyone thought you’d get married.”

It was Thad’s turn to laugh.

“You do realize that prom is next week, don’t you?”

“Oh, believe me, I know.”

“No wonder she threw your keys into the woods.”

Thad smiled, but there was a sadness in it that made Jerusa regret her words. “Why did you break up with her?” It was none of her business, but she desperately wanted to know the answer.

“She’s got another guy on the side.” He made a dry little laugh. “Or maybe I’m the guy on the side.”

“Kristen is cheating on you,” Jerusa blurted out. “With who?”

“Some guy. Doesn’t matter. That’s why I broke it off.”

Jerusa felt sudden shame over her enjoyment of this news. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Look, don’t say anything, okay? I’m kind of embarrassed about it.”

“I won’t.”

“So,” Thad said after they had driven a while in silence, “since you know something personal about me, I want to know something personal about you.”

“Like what?”

“Where’d you get that scar on your chest?”

Jerusa broke out in a cold sweat. She started to cross her arms over her chest, but forced them back down into her lap. She started to ask him how he knew about her scar — when had he seen it — but what did it matter now?

“I was born with a bad heart,” she said, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice. “I won’t go into details, but I’ve almost died a few times. A couple of years ago, I had a heart transplant, and that’s where I got the scar.”

Thad nodded his head, an impressed little look etched on his face. “That’s awesome. Are you all better now?”

“For the most part,” she said. “I can’t really do anything too strenuous, and I have to take medicine to keep my body from rejecting the heart, but other than that, I’m doing great.”

“Nice,” Thad said. “You should get a t-shirt that says ‘I Cheated Death and I Have the Boss Scar to Prove It.’”

Jerusa couldn’t contain her smile. All at once, she couldn’t remember just why she had wasted so much time being ashamed of her scar. Thad was right. It was a badge, a symbol, of all that she had come through. Tears welled in her eyes and she wiped them away before they could drop. Thad’s face tightened, his brow furrowed.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re fine. What you said was nice. You must think I’m an emotional wreck.”

Thad shook his head. “No more than the rest of us.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you want to go somewhere? Maybe get something to eat?”

Jerusa’s head felt as if it detached and was floating dangerously close to the open roof of the Jeep. Did Thad Campbell just ask her out? She banished the thought from her mind. It was no more than a kind gesture among new friends.

She wanted to say yes, maybe more than she wanted her next breath, but she’d thrown enough caution to the wind for today. Better to quit while she was ahead. “No, I better not.”

“We can go see a movie, if you prefer that.”

“Maybe some other time.” The words tasted bitter on Jerusa’s tongue. “I should probably be getting home.”

Disappointment brewed in Thad’s eyes and Jerusa had the urge to slap herself. He sat silent the rest of the drive, never looking away from the road.

As they pulled into Jerusa’s driveway, a gasp escaped her lips. The PT Cruiser was parked in the driveway. Her mother stood on the front porch, her hands on her hips and her eyes so fierce that Jerusa wouldn’t have been surprised if beams of fire erupted from both.

Chapter Four

T
hey were still searching for him, but those on foot couldn’t keep up with him on this steep terrain, and the rocky overhangs hid him from those riding in the sky.

The altitude thinned the air, but this didn’t hinder him. The cold night air lay upon his naked body like a film of ice, causing him to shiver. Even though he realized that he could survive far colder temperatures, he still wished he had taken some of the clothes from the four he had fed upon in the compound.

A sick feeling settled in his stomach at the thought of those poor souls. He hadn’t wanted to kill them, even though they had certainly wanted to kill him. Their hearts had been full of dreadful things — dark imaginations that he couldn’t quite understand. Still, he felt terrible remorse at taking their lives. He had fled from their corpses in such a hurry that he hadn’t even considered taking some clothing for himself.

A sickle moon, bone-white, drifted into the sky, visible from the crag in which he was perched.

They were getting closer. He could hear them scurrying around like rats on the rocks above him. They had been on the hunt ever since he had stepped out of the compound into the resplendent sunlight, but now that night had fallen, they were getting desperate.

He had absorbed a great cache of knowledge from the four he had fed upon. These people, who called themselves the Light Bearers, were masquerading as a part of the military, but beneath that façade was a clandestine group with a hidden agenda. He had gathered much information from them, but none had the answers to the deep mysteries, like whom — or more so, what — he was. He didn’t even have a name.