Full Moon (30 page)

“What if it was Jonathon? What if he’s some
kind of crazed serial killer?”

“But why would he kill his victims like an
animal? I don’t think it’s him.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I bet that pack
of wolves demolished him.”

“People can’t keep dying,” I said. “I love
this place, but I’m terrified of all the bears, mountain lions,
bobcats, and God knows what else. At least in New York City, I
could walk outside freely.”

“Right. As long as there were no muggers
around and you didn’t wear the wrong gang colors.”

“I guess I’ve still got some things to get
used to around here.”

“So what’s going on with you and Jesse?”

“We have a date this Friday. I’m dying to
see him, but I’m really shaken up.”

“Just invite him over and watch a
movie.”

“Yeah. Well, I’m gonna go now. I want to
take a nap, try to calm down.”

“Me too.”

“All right. Talk to you later, Jules.”

“Bye.”

I closed my phone and laid on my bed, then
lay back and stared at my ceiling as I tried to straighten out my
twisted thoughts. That cabin had been our sanctuary, and I was now
sure that if Jesse hadn’t spotted it, we would have been victims as
well.

I went to my laptop and looked up
everything I could about vampires. One article even said that
sprinkling salt in windowsills and doorways would help to ward them
off.
What if
Fred really was killed by vampires? Will they come for me
next?
The thought had my
heart racing and my hands shaking. The whole thing sounded absurd
and nutty, and I hoped I was just taking things way out of
context.
But
would it hurt to throw down a little salt?
As lame and stupid as it sounded, a few
minutes later, I found myself grabbing the shaker from the kitchen.
When my parents weren’t looking, I inconspicuously sprinkled the
white stuff around, hoping to create some supernatural
barrier.

After tying garlic up around my room and
around the house, I took a deep breath. I wondered again if I’d
lost my mind. I overheard my name being used in conversation, and
when I opened the door, I could hear my parents talking about
me.

“She’s put salt and garlic everywhere,” my
mom said.

“She’s just grieving over Fred, coping with
it in her own way. Just let it be.”

“There’s no such thing as vampires!” my mom
hissed.

“If it helps her feel safe, who cares? It’s
psychological. So our house smells like dinner for a while.”

“Fine. I’ll let it go for now, but if this
nonsense goes on, I’m going to have to take her to talk to
someone.”

I shut the door. “Even my parents think I’ve
lost it,” I whispered to myself as I fingered the silver cross on
my neck. “Maybe I have.” With that melancholy thought on my mind, I
closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Chapter 19

Fred had died a violent death, and I
couldn’t stop thinking about him. Tears ran down my face, and I was
constantly tormented by the vision of his dead body, and the words
he’d spoken haunted me. I couldn’t eat or sleep. I was a mess.

I also couldn’t stop thinking about Jesse.
I had to wonder if his family had anything to do with poor Fred’s
demise. As much as I knew about Jesse, and as long as I’d hung
around him, he was still a mystery, and I was struggling to put the
pieces together.
Vampires, wolves, serial killers, and curses?
I wondered if I should keep it
all to myself. I knew I couldn’t confide in my parents, and Julie
was the closest friend I had in Big Bear Lake, other than Jesse
himself. Taking a big, deep breath, I gathered the courage to spill
out what I was thinking. I only hoped she wouldn’t laugh at me and
try to have me committed.

“I’ve been thinking,” I began.

“Does it hurt?” she questioned, trying to
cheer me up.

“Very funny. Anyway, I’ve got this crazy
hypothesis. Well, it’s not all figured out, but I’m trying to…um,
it’s really crazy, so please don’t laugh at me.”

“Nothing shocks me, girl.”

“This might. It’s really out there, but just
bear with me.”

“Before Fred was killed, he told me he had
solid evidence that Jesse is a vampire and that I should stay away
from him. That’s why he gave me this cross,” I admitted, holding
the pendant up for her to see.

“Whoa. And then he turns up dead with two
bite marks in his neck?”

“Yes.

“Hmm. I don’t believe in vampires, but
something’s going on. What if some horrible hex was placed on us
when we accidentally treaded on sacred land?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve been searching the Internet for info
on hexes and curses.”

“We can hope it’s not true, but I’m not
sure. Fred mysteriously died days after we entered that forbidden
place.”

She swallowed hard. “I know, and that scares
me to death. What if I’m next?”

I stared at her hard, and I could tell how
worried she was.

Her mouth pressed into a grim line. “I don’t
wanna die, especially not like that. Maybe we could make amends and
take some flowers back without crossing the line.”

I shook my head. “No way. I don’t ever want
to go back there again.”

“But it might be the only way to keep us
alive,” she said, her voice trembling.

“Try and keep it together, all right. I have
info that’s a lot worse than curses.”

“Yeah right. Back to the vampire thing,” she
said. “What else did Fred tell you?”

I sighed. “Not much, and I didn’t believe
him at the time. In the end, he got mad and walked away.” I pointed
to the silver cross again. “He gave this to me to protect me from
the undead.”

She softly fingered the cross. “Hmm. Maybe
he was being overly dramatic.”

“I thought so, too, but he really seemed to
believe it.”

“You think he saw something?” she asked.

“He said he did. He said he had solid proof,
but he stormed off before we could get to that.”

“Maybe he saw one of them murdering
someone.”

“Stop being so morbid. I’m sure he saw
something, but it couldn’t have been that. If he’d seen something
that vile, he would have told me and begged me not to meet up with
Jesse. But I’m sure he saw something. I just don’t know what.”

“Somebody had to kill Fred to prevent him
from revealing their awful secret.”

I nodded. “Exactly. I hate to say it, but
maybe it
was
a
vampire.”

She bit her lip hard and didn’t say
anything.

I knew it sounded crazy, so much so that I’d
debated telling her about it, but she believed the curse, so I’d
presumed vampires wouldn’t be such a far stretch. I placed a stray
strand of hair behind my ear. “Do you remember when Jesse was
shot?”

She arched a brown. “Yeah. How could I
forget?”

“How was he able to throw that bodybuilder
around like that?” I asked. “He was weak and losing blood fast. He
was burning up with fever, and his face was pale, whiter than a
ghost.”

“Have you ever heard of adrenaline? That
stuff can make guys strong enough to lift a car.”

“I know, but there’s more to it than
that.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Like what?”

“Think about it. How did he find us in the
woods in the complete dark? Not even a skilled tracker could’ve
done that.”

“Hmm. Now that you mention it, that was
weird. Then again, how did that psycho shooter find us in the
complete dark too?”

I shook my head, thinking the same thing.
“You’re absolutely right. And why didn’t he come in when the door
was ripped off its hinges? He just stood there, staring.”

“Maybe he was still dazed from the punch
Jesse gave him.”

“
Or maybe he wasn’t
invited
in,” I said in a dramatic tone.

Julie laughed. “Oh please! Are you trying
to tell me you think he was a vampire? Next thing I know, you’ll be
claiming those wolves were werewolves. And you think
I
watch too many horror
movies!”

I let out a long breath. “I’m just
saying…well, maybe there’s something paranormal going on here.”

She shook her head. “I’m not denying that.
You heard that voice, and I believe you, but I think this is about
ghosts and spirits—hauntings.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“Look, vampires are everywhere—in books,
movies, magazines, online, and on television. It’s a popular craze
that’s not gonna go away anytime soon. Let’s face it. Women want to
be bitten and swept away by a sparkling, 100-year-old, handsome
vampire. They want a hot bloodsucker in their life, and they don’t
care if he’s a walking, murdering corpse. If he’s hot, they’re
willing to put aside a little thing called age.”

“This is different from all that pop culture
nonsense, Julie—way different. This isn’t Hollywood. It’s the real
deal.”

I met her gaze. “Put the pieces
together.”

“Are you saying you now believe Jesse is a
vampire?”

“He has immortal strength and vision. He saw
that cabin in the dark woods long before we did.”

She glanced away, as if in thought. “Sure,
but he also walks in the daylight, eats, and feels warm.”

When she said that, my mind flashed back to
my interactions with Jesse. In the woods, when we’d first met, he’d
gone to great pains to remind me of predators, and he’d actually
mentioned them pouncing on their prey with a fatal bite to the
neck. He’d told me that Max had a natural instinct to hate him. The
mountain lion had been frightened away by him, and he’d told me it
was because of his scent. Likewise, the night of the party, he’d
mentioned that there were many dangerous predators prowling around,
and the party, he’d mentioned the other guys claiming us.

Thoughts of the party suddenly snapped me
back to the present. “Julie, do you think you were bitten at the
party?”

“No. Why? I just got hurt from the vase,
when the glass broke.”

“You assumed that. We all did. Can you
remember anything?”

“No. I was too wasted. It’s all a blur.”

“Try to think.”

She suddenly gripped my arm tight. “Are you
trying to say we walked into a party of vampires?”

My bottom lip trembled. “Maybe.”

“Then why didn’t they kill us?” she asked,
her voice rising an octave.

“One of them obviously fed off you.”

She gasped, then glanced down to think.
“Probably the blond chatting me up.”

“Maybe your blood tasted so good that he
followed us that night to finish you off.”

She gasped. “That’s a horrible thought, but
while we’re talking about it, why didn’t the werewolves kill us?
They coulda jumped through the glass and ripped us to shreds.”

“
I haven’t figured that part out yet, but
I’m starting to put the pieces together.” I swallowed hard.
Could my crush be a
vampire, or am I just blowing things out of proportion?
As I thought about Jesse,
something else dawned on me. “What if Jesse won’t take his shirt
off at the lake because there’s no scar?”

“There has to be some sort of scar. He was
bleeding all over the place,” she said. “I saw the wound. It was
real.”

“I know, but he healed.”

“Don’t vampires heal right away?” she
asked.

“Maybe he’s different, not like a normal
vampire. If he can walk in the light and eat regular food, maybe it
also takes him longer to heal.”

Julie slowly touched her chin. “I bet that’s
why he didn’t want to go to the hospital or tell the police.”

“When he was shot, he so sure he was gonna
be fine. Anyone else would have been worried, thinking they were on
their deathbed, but he knew better. He knows he’ll never die.”

She clutched her heart. “This is all so
weird. Just listen to us. We sound like lunatics.” She gripped my
shoulders. “Give me more. Give me something I can sink my teeth
into…uh, no pun intended.”

“Do we really sound like lunatics? I don’t
think so. Jesse’s mom tries to keep him isolated for a reason.
That’s why he’s homeschooled.”

“Maybe that’s a flat-out lie. If he’s
hundreds of years old, he doesn’t have to be schooled at all.”

“That would be beyond weird.”

“What if you’re his bonded mate, like in
vampire lure?”

“I don’t believe in that. We just have an
awesome connection.” I tapped my chin. “It can’t be forced or
contrived. It’s real. I can feel it.”

“Are there any other hints we’ve
overlooked?”

“Hmm. Well, he did compel a mountain lion. I
watched him do it.”

“You mean when he saved the kid at the
zoo?”

“Exactly. Also, there’s an ankh in his
tattoo. Do you know what those mean? I know the Egyptians used them
a lot, and Jesse said every symbol in his tattoo has a
meaning.”

Confusion crossed her features. “I don’t
know, but we can Google it.”

Julie jumped on her computer and quickly
typed the word in the search engine. I peeked over her shoulder and
was stunned when I read the screen.

“Immortality,” she said in a stunned
voice.

I swallowed hard. “I need to see him.”

“Are you kidding? What if he compels you to
forget everything? He compelled Max and that big cat. What if he’s
dangerous, Taylor? You can’t just waltz in there and tell him you
know his secrets. What if he kills you?”

“What do you think I should do?”

“Break up with him before he a, sips on your
vein for a nice, warm drink, b, makes blood your next drink of
choice, and c, just flat out kills you.”

“I can’t give him up like that.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Don’t vampires use
telepathy or something to control their victims?”

“I’m not a victim.”

“You’re letting him take drag you down a
slippery slope, Taylor.” She gripped my arm. “What if these recent
attacks were him and not some wild animal?”