HORROR THRILLERS-A Box Set of Horror Novels (70 page)

She couldn't have
Ryan. Couldn't date him like a real girl could.

She cared little
about her subjects and if she wanted, she could speed-read every book
they gave her and retain the information, the way Eddie did.

Maybe she should
quit school and forget college and just learn what she had to learn
from books and from the world. She could take classes from a
university on the Internet. She might even go away from her parents,
leave Dallas, hide out somewhere so that she could think and find a
way to live this new life she'd been given.

Her family probably
thought she was getting suicidal. She could tell them how wrong they
were and relieve their worry. She couldn't sustain the thought of
fire, of setting herself alight and twirling until she was but cinder
and soot. She simply needed to change her life now. Get away. She
could transform, since Mentor had shown her how. She could travel
above the Earth, so far away there was no air, no heat. She could go
to another country or into the wilderness in this one. She could live
on the blood of small animals and grow her hair longer and let it
tangle. She could live like the wild thing she was. She needed
neither shelter from storm nor anything else the world offered. Why
more of them just didn't go away into hiding she couldn't understand.
Or maybe they did—and no one spoke of it. Maybe there were
thousands of them, millions! All of them hiding out, living alone,
miserable until the end of all time. The vampires who tried to live
with humanity and couldn't. The ones who were so depressed and alone
they had to go away forever.

"Oh, God,"
she said quietly.

After a tentative
knock at her bedroom door, Aunt Celia stuck her head into the room.
"Dell? Can I come in?"

Dell turned onto
her side away from the door, keeping silent. She felt the weight of
her aunt when she sat down on the bed's edge. She waited for her
touch, and when it didn't come, she turned over. "Why did they
call you?"

"They know
something's happened. This isn't like you. Can't we talk about it?"

"I don't
really want to talk."

"It's that
boy, isn't it?"

"They told you
about Ryan?"

Celia nodded and
now she did place her hand on Dell's shoulder. "Carolyn's nearly
your age," she said. "And though you might not believe it,
once I was young too."

Dell had to smile.
"I know. It's just . . . I can't talk about this."

"All right, I
won't press you. I'm having dinner here tonight, and Carolyn will be
over later. When you feel better, maybe you can come out and be with
your family."

"I'll try,"
Dell said, sighing deeply.

Celia rose and left
her alone. The door snicked closed, and Dell lay on her back, feeling
sleepy. She'd try to get up later and let her family know she was
going to be all right. She hated to make them worry.

She must have
fallen asleep because everything went hazy and she felt the hairs at
the back of her neck stand up. She knew herself under scrutiny, and
when she lifted her gaze to look around she saw she was not in her
bed, but lying on forest debris in a dark wood with a blood-red moon
overhead. It was the dream of her death—and she was back again.

~*~

Ryan stood on the
steps at Dell's house, hesitating, his fist raised to knock at the
door. It frightened him to be here. Yet he'd felt compelled to come.
He had seen for himself that Dell had been telling the truth. Not
only did she make herself disappear and reappear, but just before and
after he had seen her teeth, the sharp incisors, the look of hunger
in her eyes. They were no fake dental appliances she'd slipped into
place. The disappearance was no magic trick. The strange look that
came over her was unearthly. And it was real.

She was a vampire.
That was a fact. He knew it for certain, absolutely. Although it was
against all logic. It was truly insane. But it didn't detract from
the fact that he knew what he knew. He'd seen what he'd seen. He'd
experienced a vampire, a real one.

And he was here at
her door because . . . because he loved her. That was another
verifiable fact of life. There were vampires. And there was love.
Neither could be disputed. They were universal truths that nothing he
could do would ever change. He guessed he'd loved her the first day
he'd entered school and sat behind her in English class. He didn't
even know that love at first sight existed, but then there were a lot
of things he didn't know.

Suddenly the door
opened and Dell's little brother, Eddie, stood there, glaring at him.
"What do you want?"

Ryan stepped back a
step, but then he straightened his shoulders and looked the boy in
the eyes and said, "I've come to see Dell."

"She doesn't
want to see anybody."

"I know. But I
have to talk to her."

"That's
impossible." Eddie began to shut the door.

Ryan stepped
forward and put his hand up, holding it open. "Please, Eddie. I
know all about you, about your family. She told me."

He never got the
chance to say more. Eddie's eyes widened, then he grabbed Ryan by the
collar, and though he was smaller than Ryan, he dragged him easily
from the front step into the house. "Wait here," he said,
"God damn it."

Shaken but
determined, Ryan stood in the hall, waiting. This was a vampire
house. They walked in the day, they didn't die from the sun, they
looked just like other people. He shook his head in consternation.

In other rooms he
heard people talking and wondered if they knew he was there.

While he waited, he
wondered what he was going to say to Dell to convince her he had to
be in her life. He just had to make her understand something had
happened between them. He couldn't give her up this way. He couldn't
go on with his life as if it were still normal. He was irrevocably
changed by her, his life intertwined with hers. He couldn't stop
thinking of her. He couldn't live without her, that was the thing.

"Ryan, what
are you doing here?"

She stood a few
feet away, her hair in disarray, clothes awry. Behind her in the
shadows stood her little brother.

"Can I talk to
you, Dell? Alone?"

"Why did you
tell him?" Eddie asked.

"Leave us
alone, Eddie," she said.

"You shouldn't
have told him. You know you must never do that."

"Go away, I
said!"

"Oh, all
right, have it your way. But Mentor's not going to like this."

When they were
alone, Ryan reached out his hand for her to take it. "Come
outside?"

She took his hand
and they went out the door, closing it behind them. Ryan turned to
her. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "I
don't care what you are. You're here and I'm here and we belong
together. I had to come and tell you that. Ever since you told me,
I've been confused and afraid, but I'm not afraid anymore."

"You weren't
listening, Ryan. I'm not like you. It's a disease, a mutated disease
that affects our whole line, affects us generation after generation.
So few of us escape it. I have aunts and uncles, cousins,
grandparents, and almost all of them are vampires. It's as if I had
some kind of deadly disease, don't you see? Only this doesn't kill
me. I wish it would. It makes me live. When I shouldn't be living."
She grabbed his hand off her shoulder and pressed it between her
breasts. She held his palm hard against her. "I told you my
heart doesn't beat. Why can't you understand? I'm an abomination. My
whole family's infected. I used to be human; I'm not anymore.”

Ryan felt her chest
through her shirt, felt the bones, the flesh so cool to his touch.
And she was right, there was no movement there, no heartbeat.
Something, deep in his mind shuddered, but he didn't pull his hand
away.

He had to say
something. If she'd bared her fangs and gone for his throat, he
thought he would have leaned to the side so she could reach the flesh
easier. If he couldn't have her, he didn't want anyone.

"I love you,
Dell." He was surprised he'd said it, but it was what he'd
wanted to say all day.

She slumped against
him, her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. "I
can't help it, Dell. I love you. I've never felt this way about
anyone before. I've had girlfriends and that's all they were. As soon
as I transferred here and saw you in class, as soon as I kissed you .
. . I knew. There's nothing you can tell me that will change what I
feel for you.”

"This will
never work out, Ryan. It causes trouble. It causes all kinds of
problems. You need to think about that. I've seen a woman imprisoned
on the other side of the world because she loved a man. A mortal. She
lost her mind over him. You're mortal, Ryan, I'm not."

"We'll deal
with the problems as they come along. That's all we can do, that's
all everyone does. You care for me, too, I know it." When she
didn't speak, he raised her face from his chest and looked at her
closely. "You care for me, too, don't you, Dell?"

"Yes,"
she whispered.

He leaned down and
kissed her, holding her tight to him. He buried his face in her
tangled, fragrant hair at the side of her neck. "I don't care
about anything," he said, "but loving you."

Dell held onto him
for a moment before pulling away. She glowered into the twilight at
the street.

"What's
wrong?" Ryan asked. He'd never seen that look on her face
before.

"Someone's
watching us."

He looked across
the street at the houses there, but didn't see anyone. "Who?"

"I don't know,
but someone. I feel it." She pushed at his chest a little with
her fingertips. "You should go."

"All right,
but remember what I said. I won't give up on you, Dell."

Her gaze softened
and she quickly kissed his lips once more. "We're both crazy,"
she said.

"You more than
me." He smiled.

She pushed him
again, more playfully, and he stumbled off the steps. "Okay,
okay, I'm going."

As he left, he saw
her scanning the street and the houses in the neighborhood, the scowl
back on her face.

~*~

"I want you to
get him for me," Upton said to George.

They sat in the
limo down the street from Dell's house. They had seen the young
couple embrace. He and George had followed the girl from one side of
town to the other. They had followed her to school and home again.
While waiting, making plans, they had seen the boy drive up and park.
When the girl came outside with him, Upton knew it was his
opportunity. "You have to get him," he repeated. "I
don't know if the boy is vampire, but if he isn't, he'll be easier to
handle. The girl will do what you say if you get her boyfriend."

"How do I get
him, sir?"

"Get out of
the car, you idiot, and get over there. When the boy starts to leave,
call to him. Ask him for directions or something, I don't care what
you do, but get close and get him. Bring him to the car. We're taking
him with us."

"Yes, sir."

Upton sat back and
watched. He saw George start for the house, saw the boy turn and walk
toward his car. George reached the girl's front yard by that time. He
saw him gesturing to the boy, luring him down the steps and to the
edge of the sidewalk.

It would all be in
Upton's control soon. He'd have the power. He'd make the girl turn
him into a vampire. He'd threaten her with fire, with decapitation,
with harm to her boyfriend, her family, whatever it took. He would
have his way or she would die, he meant it. He hadn't come this far
and invested this much time and energy in order to fail. He had so
little time left. He could feel his disease ravaging him daily. He
was nearly to the point of needing a wheelchair. He never slept,
aching all through the night. He had more sores that would not heal;
they were breaking out now on his back and spreading around his rib
cage to his chest. He'd soon get some horrible infection that would
kill him long before his disease ever got a chance to.

He needed that
girl. He needed the life she could give him.

He'd do whatever it
took.