Living Dead Girl (Vampire Hunter Book 1) (11 page)

When we got back to the house I was still feeling dazed from wha
t had just happened. We walked through the hall. Into the living room. I surveyed the area, vaguely registering the site of the blanket I had slung to the floor in a huff earlier that night.

“Let me help you clean your face up.” I forced myself to suggest something normal.

“It’s not so bad,” Lucas said. “I heal pretty quickly, just like you. Mostly caked blood.” Even though we were both acting normal, I could still feel the heat and tension in the air.

We tiptoed to the bathroom, trying to walk lightly so as not to disturb Henry, who was still softly snoring in the adjacent bedroom.

I looked at Lucas’ face in the mirror. “I can see you!” I said in surprise.

“As opposed to?” he questioned.

“Well, um, it’s just that…” my voice trailed off.

“I know the stories, folk lore, legends.” Lucas looked bemused. “I won’t make you ask the question. I can see myself. You can see me. It’s simple, really. I may not have a soul, but it doesn’t interfere with the reflective capability of the mirror.” He
grinned, that sexy smile that made my non-beating heart melt.

I turned on the
tap and focused on the cascading stream so I wouldn’t have to look at Lucas. Every time I did all I could think about was our passionate make-out just a few minutes before. I hoped one of his vampire talents wasn’t mind reading.

Soaking a paper towel, I carefully dabbed at the dried blood on Lucas’ face, avoiding looking him in the eye. “Why did you come out into the woods?” I asked casually.

“You’d been gone awhile. I thought you might have gotten lost. It’s a good thing I found you when I did.”

“Yes, you got there just in time,” I said.

“You realize those things can run at insanely fast speeds.” Lucas looked at me oddly. “How in the world did you manage to outrun it?”

“Huh? I didn’t outrun it. I could feel that monster practically drooling on my neck.”

“You don’t get it. By ‘insanely fast’ I mean upwards of oh, 20, 30 miles per hour. The fact that you were even giving it a run for its money is incomprehensible.”

20 or 30 miles per hour! Was I really going that fast? There’s no way. He must be mistaken.

I could feel Lucas looking at me. I continued to focus on cleaning the werewolf scratches.
He’s right. I can barely tell there’s a wound under here.
“Well, thanks for saving my life,” I said lamely, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

I was grasping for something else to say to Lucas when a loud jolt from the bedroom made us both jump.

Henry!
Had another creature of the night come to get him? Before we could investigate, Henry was pulling open the bathroom door.

“What’s going on in here?” Henry asked. He looked sleepy and confused.

“You look awful!” I exclaimed, hoping he wouldn’t notice my disheveled hair. “What are you doing up? It practically takes an act of Congress to get you up normally! I thought you’d be out for at least 5 or 6 hours.”

“I had these horrible dreams,” Henry admitted. “I can’t remember what specifically, but there was this wild animal that was being killed. The sounds were absolutely horrific. I wish I could get it out of my head.” Henry shook his head violently to illustrate his point.

I glanced as Lucas and it was clear from his expression that he didn’t want me to mention the werewolf. He looked completely normal; you’d have to really study his face to find the faint lines that had started as huge gashes.
Wonder why he doesn’t want Henry to know about it?
Everything was getting too complicated. I really didn’t need one more thing to keep straight.
Oh well. I’ll keep quiet about the attack. For now.

“So what are you doing in here?” Henry asked again.

I looked at Lucas, at a loss for words. We couldn’t tell Henry about the last few hours and I had no idea what to say as a cover story. Lucas had better come up with something…and fast! I was exhausted and sick of all the stories flying around.

“I slipped and scratched my face on the kitchen counter.” Lucas pointed at the now almost non-existent scratch mark spanning the length of his left cheekbone.

“Er, okay.” Henry looked bewildered. “Surprised I didn’t hear you fall. How tall are you, anyway? Like six-eight or something?”

“Something like that,” Lucas responded.

“A big guy like you falling down. That must have been a pretty loud crash.”

Ha! Lucas didn’t count on the fact that Henry never drops anything.

Lucas was clenching and unclenching his jaw, struggling not to look annoyed, I imagined. “I just stumbled, really. Not a big deal. Anyhow, Aurora was kind enough to help me clean the wound.”

“Oh my gosh!” Henry practically shrieked. “I knew it! You can’t see your reflection, can you?”

I looked at Lucas triumphantly. “See! I told you it wasn’t that dumb of an assumption!”

“When I had you two come over tonight, I never imagined I’d get asked about that ridiculous myth not once, but twice.” He motioned Henry to come closer.

We were all crowded around the bathroom mirror now. “See.” Lucas nodded towards the mirror.

“Ah, so it’s just a part of the legend. That’s cool. It would kind of suck not to be able to see yourself.”

“Yes, it would,” Lucas responded wryly.

We looked like an odd threesome, I couldn’t help but think. There I was, with my long, dark wavy hair, pale skin, green eyes. Same as always, except maybe a little paler now that I didn’t have any blood pumping through my veins.

Lucas stood in the middle of us, towering well above both Henry and me. He was much, much paler than me, or at least he appeared to be. His paleness may have been accentuated by his inky black hair, which brushed the top of his equally dark eyes.

Henry rounded out the picture. I had always thought he was tall, but of course Lucas would dwarf almost anyone. Henry possessed the all-American good looks that guys envied and girls wanted on their arms. His dirty brown hair and naturally tan complexion, now coupled with a tight athletic body almost made him look like a model.

I can’t believe I’ve kissed both of them.
While Henry’s lips had been soft and inviting, Lucas’ lips had been commanding and aggressive. I liked the feel of both.

“What are you thinking?” I was jolted back into the moment by Henry’s question.

“I was wondering if we could go back in the living room and Lucas would tell us why he brought us here to begin with,” I lied.

“I can’t believe I almost forget,” Henry said. “Geez, what a weird ass night this has been.”

You don’t know the half of it.

“You two go on. I’ll be there in a second,” Lucas said. We filed out of the
bathroom into the living room.

Lucas stood in the bathroom, staring at his reflection in the mirror, after Aurora and Henry left. He didn’t want Aurora to know how shaken up he really was. Although his wounds were almost completely healed, his fight with the werewolf had been an extremely close call. It had been a fight to the death, and either party could have easily been the victor. If it had gone only a little differently, he might not be standing here right now.

And Aurora. Lucas sighed. She really had no idea the significance of this. Whoever had ordered the werewolf attack wasn’t playing around. This was serious shit. Lucas had been determined to be done with Aurora Stone, to keep the relationship strictly business from now on. But in light of what just happened, how the hell could he do that? He had to tell Henry and her what he had discovered.

There wouldn’t be another full moon until next month, so they were safe from werewolves – for now. That would buy him some time to find out who ordered the hit and why. Was someone sending a message to Lucas or did they really want to kill Aurora? What better way to dispose of a walking dead person than by ripping her to shreds? The ability to quickly heal is rendered useless if you’ve been shredded into millions of pieces.

Like it or not, Lucas was knee-deep in this mess now. He couldn’t gracefully bow out and leave Henry and Aurora to fend for themselves. He would just have to juggle work and helping them, and try his damndest to keep the two separate. Oh, and try not to get them
all
killed in the process.

Lucas turned to go join them in the living room.
Here goes nothing.

What the hell is he doing? Do vampires have to pee? Surely not? But what do I know?

I looked at Henry, who was also looking at me. “Do vampires have bodily functions?” he asked.

I snickered. I guess he was thinking the same thing as me.

“Something strike you as amusing about the night?” Lucas was standing there, staring at me with those piercing eyes of his.

Whoops
. “Just stress relief.”
Nice recovery
.

Lucas sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall. He stretched his long, muscular legs out in front of him. He looked strange in that position, almost vulnerable. I was so used to seeing him hulking above me.

“You want to sit on the couch?” I offered. “There’s room for three. Or I can move.”

“Nah, I’m good,” he replied. Lucas closed his eyes.

“What was I saying? Before Tad showed up?”

“The case you found. Kid who c
ame back at midnight on the one year anniversary of his death. You were telling us he was worshipped like a king or a god or something,” Henry offered.

“Ah, that’s right. So, anyway, the boy who was brought back from his grave – his name was Tobias, by the way – I guess you could say he let the power go to his head. He took everything from these people. Things he didn’t even need, all in exchange for the promise that he would heal their health or save their loved ones. From what I gathered, he couldn’t even do that. But the mere fact that he had returned from the dead was enough for the villagers to keep believing, keep giving everything they had in the hope that their prayers would be answered.”

“I’m not sure how long it went on this way,” Lucas continued. “What I did ascertain is that he was bleeding the town – and surrounding areas – dry. So an order was put out, to send him back to his grave. Back then, there weren’t agencies, there weren’t ‘official’ avenues to go through for this type of request.”

“Did Tobias know they wanted to overthrow him as a ruler?” Henry interjected.

“He knew there were mixed opinions, but he didn’t care. He had come to believe that he was a god, and that he was untouchable.”

I could see how in a different time, in a different place, something like this would be seen as desirable, as
special
. Tobias had flaunted his ‘power,’ the complete opposite of me, who was hiding from the world, ashamed and confused. But for good reason. If I showed myself, it could be detrimental. I was a freak. Who knew what people would try to do to me?

“What ended up happening?” I asked Lucas.

“The details are kind of sketchy,” he admitted. “I wish I had all of the answers. I’ll tell you right now that I don’t. Part of the case file is missing, which is more than a little strange. I already told you I wasn’t supposed to even have access to those documents.”

“What I did find, the most significant thing to your situation, is
how
they think Tobias was brought back.”

“What?!” I practically shrieked. “And you’re just now getting to this part! Screw the deity, god, ruler shit! That means nothing to me! How the hell did this Tobias douche get resurrected to begin with?”

Henry laughed nervously. He’d seen me worked up before, and probably wanted to squelch my rising emotions.  “Rory, come on, please, calm down,” he whispered.

I gritted my teeth together as hard as I could. “Sorry,” I managed to spat out. “Please do continue.”
Only a hint of sarcasm. Not too bad.

“What I was saying before you so rudely interrupted,” Lucas looked at me and paused. He was taunting me. I refused to take the bait. I gritted my teeth even harder.
If I grind these off will they grow back?
I briefly wondered.

I looked at Lucas and raised my eyebrows, smiling demurely.

After making me wait another few moments (just to be an ass, I’m sure), he continued. “They dug up Tobias’ grave – which, like yours, was mysteriously re-packed after he came out of it. And here’s the weird part. The grave wasn’t empty.”

“Do you mean
someone else’s
body was inside?” Henry asked in horror.

“Oh, god, no, nothing horrible like that,” Lucas assured us. Henry breathed a sigh of relief.

“What they found was the quill ink pen that Tobias had used in school.”

“Huh?”
Did I hear him right?
“That’s about the last thing I expected you to say.”

“No one knows for sure, but the popular belief was that the item was placed in the grave and some kind of spell was cast that, well, gave a dead person life, for lack of better words.”

“So you’re suggesting that by placing a personal item in Tobias’ grave, he was able to climb out of it?” Henry furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Hello?” I waved my hand in front of his face. “It sounds absurd, but how is that any crazier than
my
situation?”

Ignoring us, Lucas continued, “What I don’t understand is if removal of the pen returned Tobias to his grave or if there was some accompanying ritual or ceremony or something. Hell, for all we know, Tobias could still be walking around today, looking like any other seventeen year old boy.”

Jesus Christ!
That last sentence really hit me hard.
Lucas’ solitude existence really could be my future.

“I doubt he’s still around, though,” Lucas continued. “He’s not logged in under any databases. It would be next to impossible for him to be living in this day and age and for us not to know about it.”

He didn’t say completely impossible.
But Lucas was probably right. And it didn’t really matter anyway. I was more concerned about
my
future. Not what some greedy jackass did a gazillion years ago.

“So what next?” I asked excitedly. “If this really is the same as my situation, then something of mine is in that grave!”

“Exactly,” Lucas said. “Originally, I had called you over here to go to the graveyard and dig up the grave, but the sun will be coming up in a couple of hours so there’s no way we can do it tonight. And it would have been really stupid to try and do it on a full moon, anyway,” he added as an afterthought.

“What’s a full moon got to do with anything?” Henry looked confused.

I looked at Lucas sideways.

“Oh, I was just thinking it would have illuminated everything. You know, more chance of being seen. That kind of thing,” Lucas said smoothly.
He’s so good at that! Wonder how many times he’s lied to me?

“Gotcha. That sounds really dangerous, though.” Henry looked nervous.

“That’s why we need three of us. I was thinking you and I can dig up the grave, and Aurora can stand watch.”

“Standing watch is fine, but if s
omeone comes along and we’re four feet down in a grave, we’ll never get away in time,” Henry argued.

Lucas looked at me. “You’re awfully quiet. Don’t you have an opinion on this?”

“She does on everything else,” Henry said to Lucas.

“Hey!” I leaned over and shoved Henry playfully.

Truthfully, I was about as keen on the idea as Henry, but what other choice did we have? “Much as I don’t like it, I think Lucas is right,” I admitted. “We go to the cemetery, check out the grave, and re-group.”

“If there is something of mine in there, I’d kind of like to know,” I added. “It’s really terrifying to think that if somebody digs my grave up and takes out this object, assuming it’s there, then –
pouf!
– I cease to exist.”

“We don’t know that for a fact,” Lucas reminded me. “Remember, I was hired to read a spell to send you back to the grave. I don’t think you can be re-killed without a very specific sequence of events. I highly doubt
that if we removed whatever’s there then –
pouf!
– back to the grave, as you said.”

“Maybe, but I’m not too anxious to find out!” I retorted.

“Me neither,” Henry chimed in. “I was just getting used to Aurora being back.”

“So we’re doing this tomorrow night?” Lucas asked, getting back to the matter at hand.

“Yes,” I answered. Henry nodded reluctantly.

“Okay, I had wanted you two here tonight so we could have a place to talk before digging up the grave. No point in you coming all this way tomorrow night. We can meet at the cemetery.”

We couldn’t go back to Henry’s house for several more hours without making his parents suspicious. Henry decided to go back to sleep, so I thought I’d watch TV for awhile. Lucas stayed in his position on the floor.

“You can have the couch,” I offered.

“I’m really fine,” Lucas assured me.

We didn’t speak for a long time. The only sound was
the low chatter from the TV. I thought Lucas must have gone to sleep.

“Hey, Rory?”

I looked over in surprise.
He’s never called me by my nickname before.

“I
thought you were asleep. Is the TV too loud? I can turn it down. It’s your house after all.” I was rambling like an idiot.
Why does he turn me into such a useless blubbering fool?

Lucas laughed. “You’re hyper. Thinking about the cemetery excursion?”

“Uh, yeah,” I fibbed. I was actually thinking about the surreal kiss we had shared. “What are you thinking about?”

“There was something else that I wanted to tell you about Tobias. You can make the decision about whether you want to share this with Henry or not. But you need to know.”

“This sounds serious.” I sat up from my slouched position on the couch and leaned forward.

Lucas was speaking softly. “They weren’t trying to put Tobias back in the grave solely because he was taking advantage of poor, innocent people. There were some other things going on.”

“What do you mean? ‘Other things’?” I echoed.

“Murders,” Lucas whispered. “Unexplained murders. Witnesses linked Tobias to them, but he swore that he had no memory.”

The blackouts!

“How long after he was back until those started happening?” I tried to keep my voice steady.

“Didn’t say, unfortunately.”

“Why didn’t you want Henry to know?” I managed to choke out.

“I didn’t say I didn’t want him to know,” Lucas corrected me. “It just seemed kind of personal. I thought it should be your decision on whether or not to tell him that piece of the story.”

“And besides,” he added, “isn’t it bad enough you have me following you around all the time? Do you really want Henry breathing down your neck as well?”

I sat there in stunned silence, unable to answer Lucas. I didn’t want to keep this from Henry, but he would go nuts if he found out. I could already tell he obsessively watched my every move, studied me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.

Truthfully, it was a relief during the day when I could actually just chill out and not have him around stressing me out. It was going to be a real pain when summer vacation started and he was with me 24/7.

My mind wandered back to the first night out of the grave. Henry had been so weird, offering over and over to go get my favorite foods.
Maybe I am a zombie after all
, I thought sadly
. What if it’s just a slow acting virus that gradually drives you insane, makes you kill and eat brains to stay alive
?

“What are you thinking?” Lucas interrupted my thoughts.

“Nothing worth repeating,” I said flatly.

“I almost didn’t tell you,” Lucas admitted. “But then I thought about it; if it were me, I’d want to know. Once I realized that, the decision was easy.”

“Are you going to get in trouble for looking at that case file?” I asked.
I’m such a burden on everyone.

“Don’t worry about me,” Lucas answered, as though reading my thoughts. “I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I could get caught.”

He closed his eyes again and we didn’t speak. I thought he might be sleeping but I couldn’t see or hear him breathing. I still wasn’t really sure if vampires needed to breathe – as the mirror had shown us, not all the legends were true.

I turned over on the couch and closed my eyes. In all of the time I had been back, this was the first moment I really wished I could sleep. I just wanted to forget. I wanted the nightmare to be over. Sadly, I knew deep down that it had only just begun.