Sixteen Going on Undead (14 page)

He winked.

“You are joking!”

“I’ll prove it to you if you give me another kiss.”

I stood up and put my hands on my hips. “My kisses are not for sale or trade.”

He rose as well. “Then give it to me for free.”

I mugged him up and down his body and turned away, but he caught my arm and whipped me back. I knew he would do that, and kind of liked it. Strong and commanding, but not so much I had to read him. When he let me up for air about five minutes later, I was panting, but his chest wasn’t moving a bit. I laid my hand on it and felt no heart beat, no rise and fall of breath going in and out of his lungs. He was definitely real, and if he was, then maybe these creatures he talked about were too. I didn’t want to see them, but at the same time, I was curious.

“Show me.”

His smile grew wide, and his hold on me tightened. I figured I was in for another fast ride all over the city looking for the grunts. “Okay, hold on. Be quiet, and stay close. Remember, they’re dangerous, even for vampires, which is why we like to hunt them, of course.”

“White boys,” I grunted.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be, I guess. Let’s go.”

Chapter Eight

We stood next to a light pole because Lorcan could grab onto the shadow from it and cloak us both with darkness. The grunt wouldn’t be able to see us, but we could observe him. I rested with my back against
Lorcan’s
chest while he wrapped his arms around me. The energy he commanded like it was nothing unfolded from his body and made the hair on my arms rise. It tickled, but I wasn’t about to laugh with that thing close by.

Thing
was the only way to describe it because I couldn’t get a good look. All I knew was that it was tall and thin. Unnaturally thin. When it moved, it seemed to float rather than walk on two legs. Energy was coming off of it too. Lorcan had whispered in my ear that the energy increased when it was about to change or do something magical.

“Why are we whispering?” I asked him. “I know I can’t talk in your head, but normally you’d be showing off by now, all inside my head.”

He didn’t take his eyes off the grunt. “You said your dad gave you a red vitamin?”

“Yeah, so?”

“It wasn’t a vitamin.”

My stomach turned. “What was it?”

“Something created by a doctor I heard of years ago when I was first turned. He was a vampire. He wanted to suppress the traits that make us what we are. It didn’t work on full fledged vampires, but he discovered it did work on humans that have had some of their blood drained by a vampire, if they are showing symptoms of turning. But you’d have to keep taking the pill until your blood replenishes itself, and your system is purified of all traces of the blood I fed you.”

“Oh my goodness. You’re kidding me. I can be cured?” I closed my eyes and blew out a breath, with a smile creeping over my face. “My dad wasn’t trying to kill me if he gave me that pill.”

“Or he was keeping you out of his head.” Lorcan had to burst my bubble.

I glared at him. “What are you talking about? I was only able to read minds that one time. The powers kept flipping around to new ones, and they’d only last a short hour or so before I was back to normal.”

He shrugged. “He had no way of knowing that. The fact that he gave you a suppression pill says he knew you had been exposed to vampires. He had no reason to think you weren’t farther along the transformation than he thought.”

“How do you know that’s what it was? It could have been a vitamin.”

He put a hand on the top of my head and forced me to look forward to watch the grunt. “All the way to your father’s apartment, I tried to enter your mind. I know that you wanted me there, so you were not throwing up a mental block—if you even knew how to. And I still can’t enter your head, probably for another couple of hours, unless I bite you.”

“Don’t even think about it!” I warned. Then a sound reached us, of a woman’s heels clicking on the ground somewhere nearby. The grunt heard it too and began to change right before my eyes. I could not believe that the willowy thing which had hovered a second before, had now set itself on the ground with two human feet. A ripple raced over his body from the bottom to the top, and the faster it went, the faster the thing became this average sized man wearing a jogging suit.

I began to shake. “What the—?”

Other than those couple of words, I couldn’t speak. The lady rounded the corner, and the thing was on her. I couldn’t tell what it wanted, to suck her blood, to kill her, or what, but she screamed her head off. I looked up and down the street. Nobody came. Lorcan had brought us to the worst area of the city where if you had any common sense you didn’t bring your butt outside after dark. But some people had no choice. You had to work, and if you got off after dark, then that’s the way it was.

“Lorcan, do something!” I begged. “Save her.”

He had the nerve to look confused. “Why?”

“Because she’s a person, and you have the strength to stop it, that’s why.” When he didn’t move, I tried to get out of his arms. He held on. I stomped on his foot with no reaction whatsoever, except those creepy crawly feelings in my ankle. “Let me go, Lorcan.”

“Keep your voice down,” he growled. “They travel in packs often. It’s not likely this one is all alone.”

I let out a shout on purpose. “Hey, you, get your hands off her!”

The thing looked up with big black eyes. I almost threw up in my mouth. The thing let the woman go, and she fell on the ground crying. The creature came at us. I knew Lorcan was going to just pick me up and run, leaving that woman behind, so I tried to distract him.

“More over there,” I shouted. He looked, and I broke free and rolled on the ground like I was some kind of trained spy. Okay, it probably looked crazy, but it felt good. Lorcan didn’t have time to grab me again, because the grunt was all over him snarling and flashing some scary claws. I searched around for a weapon and found a small metal pipe that looked like it had broken off the rail at the side of some steps.

Just in time to crack the second grunt that showed, upside his head, I swung the pipe as hard as I could. The thud of hitting his head made me scream again, but I whipped it a second time. He went down and looked unconscious, but Lorcan was now fighting two more.

I ran over to the woman still crying on the ground. “Are you nuts, lady? Get up, and get out of here unless you want that thing to eat you.” I didn’t wait for her to get
up,
I yanked on her arm hard enough to dislocate it. That got her moving. In seconds she was on her feet and running down the street.

A flash of white light lit the area, and ear-splitting screeches made me sink to my knees, covering my ears. Lorcan roared. The sound must have been tearing his head apart with his sensitive hearing. I looked over to find him flinging two of the shifters off of his arms. Like a streak of lightning he flashed over to me, snapped me up into his arms, and we shot off down the street in the direction the woman had run. Within a few moments, the grunts were nowhere in sight.

Lorcan continued at top speed until we were back at the lake, and then he let me slide down to the grass. The look he turned on me could have set my hair on fire if he had the power. “Why did you do that?”

I sucked my teeth. “You the one who wanted to hunt grunts.”

He growled and sank down beside me. “I would not have attacked them with you there. You’re a distraction.”

“Oh please, you were getting your butt kicked, and you’re blaming me.”

“I was not!”

“Whatever, Lorcan!”

We were nose to nose. A gentle laugh made us snap out of it, and I looked around. Of all people Adrianne stood there, looking too beautiful as usual. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight, and her flaming hair made me want a pair of scissors. Her arms were folded under big old half exposed boobs.

“You’re late, Lorcan.” She pointed her chin at me. “For that?”

I jumped to my feet, adrenaline from the fight pumping through me at top speed. “Oh, we can go right now, girlfriend.”

I hadn’t completed a blink before she was on me, hand around my neck. “You sure about that?”

Lorcan jerked her away, a little too hard. She tumbled on her butt, and I laughed out loud.

“I told you to stay away from her, Adrianne.”

“You turn on your own—for a human?”

“Leave it alone.” He gave her his back, but I wasn’t letting her out of my sight. She was sneaky, and I wouldn’t put it past her to do something to Lorcan just to get at me.

On the edges of my mind, I heard whispering, and I knew the pill was wearing off. I decided not to mention it just in case. Adrianne stood up and brushed her butt off. She straightened her short skirt and pulled her top down over it. “He wants to see her. Now. He knows she left her dad’s, so you can’t use that as an excuse.”

I looked at Lorcan. “What’s she talking about?”

“Nothing.” He growled at Adrianne, and I was thinking he sounded more like a werewolf than a vampire at that point. A shiver ran over my body. You know when you’re in over your head, and I so had that feeling right then. It was flashing lights and ringing bells at me. I should go back home and take my chances with my dad. At least I’d known him longer, and he hadn’t killed me yet.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I ain’t
nobody’s
fool, Lorcan.” I sneered and ran my gaze up and down Adrianne’s body before spinning on my heel and starting to walk off. “I’m going home.”

Lorcan trapped my elbow in a tight grip. I glanced back over my shoulder and caught the pitiful expression on his face, like he was apologizing before he sold me out. “I’m sorry, Tanesha. I can’t let you do that.”

“Excuse me?”

“They won’t kill you, I’m sure.” He spread his fingers out and shrugged like that would make it all right.

Adrianne laughed. “Not forever.”

“I can’t believe this,” I shouted. “I thought
we
—” Adrienne was all ears to know what I was going to say. I wasn’t giving that
skank
the satisfaction. Without thinking about it, I hauled off and punched Lorcan in the face. I aimed for his big fat lying lips, but missed and hit his jaw. I cried out in pain.

He grabbed my hand and looked at it. “Why did you do that?” Stupid jerk didn’t even feel it.

The second attack was a kick, but this time, I was careful to protect my toes and hit him with the ball of my foot. I managed to knock him off balance and give myself enough time to get my arm free, and then I ran as fast as I could. Of course outrunning either of them was a joke, but I tried. Adrienne was the first to catch me. She slung me around and tried to slap my face, but I blocked her swing. Her eyes widened, and I imagined my face was full of shock too. The energy in my body was building, and I knew if I didn’t gain an advantage over her quick, her years of doing this would outweigh my power that came out only when it felt like it.

So I let her have it. I grabbed a hold of her long hair, spun her around, and shoved with all my strength in time to send her flying into
Lorcan’s
chest. The power must have been great, because they both slammed to the ground and tumbled until they splashed in a heap inside the water. I wanted to stick around and laugh my head off, but I got out of there. As I ran, I heard their thoughts clear as day.