Sixteen Going on Undead (18 page)

“We’ll talk about that later.”

He slammed the door closed and was gone. I spun to face Ronnie. “What are you, my babysitter? What about your sister?”

His eyes widened. “You know about her?”

“Yeah. My dad didn’t say much, but he told me Mrs. Knowles is your sister. So you knew that too when we went to her house that first night. Tell me something, you didn’t call the police at all, did you?”

He stared at the floor. “No.”

“I can’t stand you.” I didn’t look at him but climbed back on the bed and folded my legs up so I could rest my knees on my chin. “Did you report to him that you left me plenty of times when you were all caught up in Adrienne and Butterfly’s face?”

“I wasn’t.”

I didn’t bother looking up.

“All of that was part of my cover. I had to be the typical human boy, crazy over girls. Your dad said I couldn’t be the popular kind because then you would want me.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Please, don’t fool yourself.”

“I had to be a nerd and get close to you. Be your friend.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks. “How did he know it would work?”

“He didn’t. I would be whoever you needed to be your friend. If Ronnie didn’t work, Rochelle would, or Rhonda.”

I wasn’t even going there with all the
R
names. Maybe his real name was
Rodkzzk
, and he wanted to stick with that letter. I had no idea if grunts had regular names like we did. I mean like humans did. I wasn’t even a full one. I cried harder. No matter how much I did, no matter how many tears fell, I couldn’t go back to my innocent life where it was just me and my friend, hanging out, doing nothing, making fun of other people or going to the movies. All that was gone, shot out the water, and it was my dad’s fault. Because of
who
he was. Right at that moment, I hated his guts. I wanted to be normal, but it was impossible. I almost wished the vampires had gotten me. Then I wouldn’t have to sit here and feel sorry for myself, getting on my own nerves.

“Why did
Mrs
...I mean, your sister, why did she leave me?”

Anger filled Ronnie’s eyes. “She was bribed. Jett convinced her that the secret to making her a vampire was in your blood, and after years of research, he found out how to do it. He said if she let them take you, he would make sure she was the first grunt to be turned.”

“I don’t have an endless supply, for crap sake,” I screamed. “Didn’t anybody show up in biology or even health class?”

Ronnie looked like he pitied me. “If you were a full vampire, whenever you take blood into you, it would be like making an antidote for them. That blood would become your blood. Then just like that, they could draw it out and use it. I don’t know how they use it or if whatever changes they can make happen to them would last, but I know they would use you over and over.”

I was only half listening. My brain couldn’t hear anymore, or I’d go out of my damn mind. “Did you care even a little bit about me? Was I your friend a little?”

He came over and pulled my hand off my leg. I tried to get away, but he held on and looked into my eyes with these big old fake brown eyes. They might have been
fake
, but I got the feeling the emotion was real. “You are still my best friend, Tanesha. I’ve been around for a long time, and I haven’t met anyone who could put up with me like you.”

I grinned. “Okay, loser. Fine. But how do I know the spell or the hex or whatever my dad did to you isn’t making you say that?”

“You don’t.” He shrugged. “I don’t either for that matter. Everybody says grunts are just evil, and they say that about vampires too, but do you think your dad doesn’t love you?”

“Bad example.”

“Okay.” He glanced at me through eyes that were suddenly dark and curious. “What about Lorcan? Is he all evil?”

I leaned back on the bed and closed my eyes. “Don’t even go there, Ronnie. Now leave me alone. I didn’t sleep enough.”

* * * *

He was calling me, Lorcan was. I couldn’t hear him in my head, but I knew just as surely he was calling me. I sensed it somehow, but there was no sound in my mind except my own thoughts. I woke and sat up in bed, glancing around the room. No light shown through the window, and I figured Ronnie had closed the shade to block out the moon. When I listened hard, I picked up his quiet breathing. He was sleeping. For a minute, I wondered if he slept in his shifted form, or if he went back to his natural state.

Aside from that, what about his older brother? I shivered.
Eww
, I had been lusting over his brother. Gross! Probably another grunt. His cover story had been that his brother was raising him because his mother died. Did he even have a dad? Was that guy his brother? I had asked the questions, but Ronnie acted like he didn’t want to tell me anything. Grunts were secretive, like shadows in dark alleys. You never knew how much was hidden in them.

I stood up and crept over to the door. With my hand on the knob, I waited to see if he would wake up, but he continued to snore softly. I slipped out and was soon on the street. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Scary movie, the idiot goes out alone, and all that? Yes, that was me. But I couldn’t stay away from Lorcan. I couldn’t help myself. Maybe he had done something to my head, or it could be I really did love him. But I had to find out if his feelings were real.

I knew while I strolled down the city street, crowded even at this time of
night, that
I was risking getting caught by the other vampires, but I was willing to take that chance. Maybe if they couldn’t get in my head, they wouldn’t be able to track me. Everybody had kept talking about how I had some kind of protection, and I realized it was the two grunts on me, plus my dad’s protection. Not one of the others, no matter how old they were, was as powerful as he was, and I had begun to think they resented him for it and the walking in the daylight thing.

I considered going back to the lake but thought that would be too obvious to the others, so I went to the park instead. We’d only met there once, and there wasn’t much to the place, not like we had jumped each other there. I shivered thinking that way and laughed nervously.

“Hey, little girl,” someone whispered.

I froze. Turning slowly, I looked to the left and spotted a man in the alley. He grinned, glanced up and down the street, and then asked me if I needed drugs. He didn’t actually say drugs, but one of those stupid words they used on the street so the cops wouldn’t know what they were talking about. Yeah, right, like anybody would be fooled. I wasn’t giving him the time of day. Worse things than that dealer were probably in that alley. No thanks.

As if it was proving my thought, a black shadow came up behind the pusher and grabbed him around the throat. All I saw was an arm and sharp fingernails. That was all I needed to see. I bolted, hard and fast, down the street. Zipping through a couple of guys who were staggering around drunkenly, I kept moving. Even when I came up on the corner and saw that the Don’t Walk sign was flashing, I didn’t slow down.

“Lorcan, where are you?”
I called out in my mind.

No answer.

A car screeched to a halt to avoid hitting me, and I don’t know where it came from, but my palms went down on the hood, pressed, and I flew up and over the car. Someone shouted behind me. “Did you see that jump? Yeah, girl, that’s what I’m talking about. Work it out, baby!”

My fear lessened, and I burst out laughing. Another few steps, I stopped to lean on a wall, holding my sides. My throat burned. I stooped and checked down the street the way I had come. No one was chasing me, and the guy in the car that had almost hit me drove on. I stared down at my hands, wondering.

“Dude, you won’t find the answer there.”

I raised my head. “Hey, Blake.” I sighed. “You come to take me back?”

He popped something in his mouth that looked like gum, but it was blood red. I cringed. “No, not exactly.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
Lorcan’s
looking for you.” He tapped his head. “We can’t get in there, dude. Your daddy blocked you again.” He rolled black eyes, circled with thick black eyeliner. “I so don’t like him. I hope you don’t mind.”

I shrugged. “Feeling’s mutual.”

He tossed the sides of his trench coat back and rested his hands on his hips. I tried to remember if the hand that had grabbed the pusher in the alley had black fingernails like Blake had. I didn’t know.

“Look, dude,” Blake began, “we’re all thinking about blowing out of here. The adult vamps think they know everything, and we’re tired of being pushed around.
Lorcan’s
coming with us and—”

I gasped. “
Lorcan’s
leaving town?”

He looked bored and annoyed that I had interrupted him. “Yeah, didn’t I just say so?”

I frowned. “Do you need a nap?”

He laughed. “No, I’m hungry.
Wanna
supply me?”

“Not!” I wasn’t scared of his threat. “Where is he? Where’s Lorcan? I want to see him.”

“Didn’t I come to find you to take you to him? What am I the errand boy? Everybody bosses Blake around.”

I walked over to him and patted his arm. “Sorry, okay. Chill. Just tell me where he is, and I’ll go there. You don’t have to get involved.”

His nostrils flared. I wondered why he wasn’t perfect looking like the others and was glad he couldn’t get into my head right then. It was probably the way he dressed that gave the illusion.

“So you can get there safely, on the other side of town, the vampires on the hunt for blood, and the grunts out looking for trouble?”

I gulped. “Ah, yeah, right. Come on, Blake, do me this huge favor. I won’t ask anything else of you. I’ve got to see him tonight, and besides aren’t you going to see him anyway. I mean all of y’all are leaving together, right? Please?”

He ran his fingers through his slick hair and growled, then started pacing while he thought it over. Blake had always been nice to me, but he had a selfish side too. When he was in a bad mood, I didn’t feel like dealing with it. But I was so not going to miss seeing Lorcan before he left, not for anyone. If Blake wouldn’t help me get to him, then I would just have to pull out some more of that power or whatever it was that made me jump that car, and just run all the way there without stopping. It was possible, right? I was my dad’s daughter.

Blake stopped pacing and faced me. “Okay, but it’s dangerous out here, and I’m not getting into a knock down, drag out fight with one of the stronger vampires over you. Got it?” I nodded. He searched the area again and then looked at me. “You do what I say one hundred percent, right?”

“Right.”

He eyed me like he didn’t trust my word, and I tried hard to look like he could. After an eternity, he smirked. His eyes lit up with his usual happy-and-don’t-care-who-doesn’t-like-it look, and he held out his hand to me. “All right, let’s go.”

I lurched forward, grabbed his hand, and clutched his arm. He pulled me closer, a little too close for my comfort, and he lowered his head to sniff my neck. It was creepy and kind of gross. I shoved at him, but he was a solid rock I couldn’t move.

“Your blood smells good,” he groaned.

“
Eww
, maybe you need to...uh...feed first.” I shivered, getting nervous.

Blake laughed. “Let’s go.” I didn’t get a chance to say a word before he had taken off running, with me hanging onto to his chest. The farther we got from the safe house, the weirder I felt, like whatever my dad had put over that house was getting weaker. And something else too. The pill was wearing off. The voices were coming in slowly, getting louder. It was different than it was before. The balloons were there, or what I called balloons, the barriers the others would put up in their head so lesser vampires couldn’t get in without a fight, and the older, more powerful ones had free reign.