Living Dead Girl (Vampire Hunter Book 1) (9 page)

Lucas was the first to spring into action. He dove into a crouching position next to Henry and me on the couch. “Did either of you tell anyone where you were coming tonight?” he hissed frantically.

I looked at Henry, who was staring at the floor. Neither of us spoke.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Jesus Christ! Will one of you tell me who the hell
is at the door!”

“It’s probably this g
uy I know, Tad,” Henry mumbled.

Lucas looked at me incredulously. “Is he for real?
Tad
?”

“I know. Ridiculous, right? Who names their kid Tad!” I turned to Henry. “See, it isn’t just me who thinks that’s the worst name ever.”

“Oh my God, at a time like this we’re really discussing his name! What are we going to do?” Henry’s voice was coming out in a low-pitched wail.

“What did you tell him?” Lucas snapped.

“Just that I was going to a party with some girl I was hooking up with and her ex-boyfriend would be there.”

“And you felt the need to give him my address?” Lucas asked angrily.

“I thought you brought us here to kill us!” Henry said defensively.

“Maybe he left,” I interjected. “I haven’t heard any more knocking.”

“Maybe,” Henry echoed hopefully.

Knock.
“Anybody home? Looking for the par-tay!” A loud voice screamed from behind the door.

“Well he sounds like a real winner,” Lucas said dryly. And then, “I guess I’d better go get rid of him! You two stay here,” he commanded.

“Now look what you’ve done!” I said angrily to Henry as soon as Lucas was gone.

“I’ve really fucked up,” Henry admitted. “I’m sorry.”

I immediately felt bad. Henry’s worries had been legitimate. I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but I’d had the exact same fears.

“Eh, don’t beat yourself up over it,” I said. “Anyone in your position would have done the same thing, even me.”

Henry smiled. “Thanks, Rory. That makes me feel a lot better.”

“I told you, your friend must have been mistaken about the location of this party!” Lucas’
voice boomed down the hallway.

“Uh oh!” H
enry and I said simultaneously.

“This doesn’t sound good,” I whispered.

“No, man,
you’re
mistaken!” Tad was almost shouting now. He hiccupped loudly.

“Is he drunk?” I asked Henry.

“I don’t know. He kind of sounds like it! Lucas can’t let him drive drunk.”

Before I could stop him, Henry jumped off the couch and headed down the hallway. “Henry, wait!” I called, running after him.

Henry and I reached the door at the same. “Henry! Dude!” Tad raised his hand for a high five.

“What are you doing here?” Henry asked nervously.

“Amy dumped me tonight,” Tad slurred. “So I thought I’d get some brewskies and head out to this awesome party you invited me to.”
Hiccup
.

Lucas was standing sideways between Henry and Tad.
Yowza! If looks could kill, Henry would be 6 feet under ground right about now.

“I, uh, didn’t invite you,” Henry said. “How much have you had to drink?”

Tad clumsily raised his right arm up to reveal a half-full six-pack of beers. “One, two…three,” he carefully counted. “Three left. So I’ve had three.” He grinned broadly, obviously proud of himself.

“Those are some fine
math skills, Tad,” Lucas said.

“Thank you.”
Hiccup
. The sarcasm was lost on Tad.

“But Henry was mistaken,” Lucas continued. “There’s no party here.”

Tad swayed back and forth on his feet. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he asked, ignoring what Lucas had just said.

Lucas s
ighed loudly. “Like a vampire?”

I wanted to laugh but stifled the urge.

“Can I talk to you guys alone for a minute?” Henry asked. “Tad, give us just a sec.” And with that, Henry pulled the door shut, leaving a very confused looking Tad standing on the doorstep.

“I know you’re pissed,” Henry said. “But he needs to sleep this off. We can’t just let him drive off into the night, drunk out of his mind. Yes, it’s bad, but it
can
get worse. What if he crashes and kills himself? Or somebody else? They’ll start investigating where he was tonight and it will lead straight back to your quaint little home. Do you want that kind of attention? Can you
afford
that kind of attention?”

Henry looked at Lucas imploringly, then back at me. “Rory, help me out here,” he said.

“He’s right,” I agreed. “It would be crazy to
let
him leave in this condition, much less
force
him to.”

Lucas threw up his hands in surrender. “I guess there’s really no choice when the two of you put it like that!” He opened the heavy wooden door. “Come inside,” he started to say to Tad. But Tad wasn’t there. “Well this is just fantastic. Your drunk friend – who could barely stand up a couple of minutes ago, I might add – has somehow found the energy to stumble off to God knows where.”

I squinted into the night. It was pitch black outside and was near impossible to see anything without a light. “You two stay here,” Lucas said. “Lock the door. I’ll be back as soon as I can find Tad. Sit down and
don’t touch anything
.” I knew what that last sentence meant. Don’t go nosing around his house or messing things up even more than we already had.

Henry and I dutifully did as instructed. After a couple of minutes, Henry turned to me. “If he wasn’t going to kill us before, he probably is now,” he said sheepishly.

“Hmm,” I said noncommittally. I got up and walked the perimeter of the room.

“What are you doing?” Henry demanded. “He told us not to mess with anything.”

“I’m not,” I assured him. “I promise you I won’t touch a thing.”

I was really thinking what a sad existence this was. And more to the point:
was this what I had to look forward to as a monster? As whatever the hell I am, which is obviously not human?

A life where I didn’t age, where everyone I cared about grew old without me, where eventually I forgot the significance – or just quit caring – about owning anything personal or sentimental? It s
eemed so empty and depressing.

I was still mulling over my all-but-sealed fate when Lucas and Tad burst through the door. Lucas had Tad’s arm in a strong-hold and was effortlessly dragging Tad behind him. Henry had told me that Tad was a big guy, with a football player-type build, but next to Lucas
he practically looked scrawny.

I had to slam my hand over my mouth to keep from bursting out laughing. The stress of everything was getting to me and I could tell I was about to get hit with a major case of the giggles; this whole scene was way more co
mical than it should have been.

Henry jumped up from the co
uch. “You okay, Tad?” he asked.

“Henry!” Tad screeched. Lucas released Tad from his grasp, and Tad half-stumbled, half-walked over to Henry and wrapped him in a bear hug. “Dude, you saved me!”

“Why don’t you come sit down?” Henry led Tad over to the couch.

“This isn’t a very big party,” Tad commented. “You only have one hot chick here.”

I snorted. “You just missed the others.”
I know I shouldn’t mess with him but he’s acting like a total idiot.

“Why don’t you
sit down next to me on the couch and tell the Tad-ster your name?”

Eww!

Luckily, Lucas saved me from having to come up with a response to Tad’s suggestion, tempting as it was.

“Julie is my ex girlfriend. Although I don’t share well with others, if you get my drift.”

Tad looked at Lucas dumbly. “I’m telling you, Tad,” Lucas said patiently, “that while Julie here might be my ex, I wouldn’t recommend that you try to hook up with her anytime soon.”

Tad nodded sagely. “I follow, man, and I respect. Always.” He pounded his chest once for emphasis.

But I was still stuck on Lucas’ story.
Julie?!
How could anyone who agreed that the name Tad was pretty much
the worst name in the universe
think that I could ever in a million years be named
Julie
? Julie was one of those names reserved for snippy blond cheerleaders with pointy noses and big doe eyes. The kind of girls who flat ironed their bleached-blond locks and talked about people behind their backs. Julie was the name for girls that were the polar opposite of me.

I was thoroughly offended. For all of his gazillion years on this planet, Lucas k
new nothing at all about women.

“I’m glad we understand each o
ther,” Lucas was saying to Tad.

“He’s really wasted,” Henry said worriedly. He turned to Tad. “I didn’t see your car outside. How in the hell did you get here? Please don’t tell me you drove.”

“Of course not!” Tad said incredulously. “Michael drove, and he and Graham went to get more beer.”

“Michael England?” I gulped.

“How do you know Mikey?” Tad looked confused.

“Uh, Julie and I go way back! I guess we all hung out together once or twice.” Henry’s voice was high pitched. “So, uh, when do you think Michael and Graham will be back?”

As if on cue, there was a loud pounding on the door.

“Oh holy hell, not again!” L
ucas exclaimed.

“What’s the prob, bro?” Tad wanted to know.

Geez, is this guy always this obnoxious or does the alcohol just bring out the best in him? Oh well, at least he’s stopped hiccupping.

My annoyance at Tad was short-lived. I had bigger problems to deal with.
I can’t let Michael see me!

Tad was off the couch, already trying to make his way to the door. “My friends are waiting,” he complained, stumbling. He grabbed onto the wall to steady himself. “Did I tell you they brought more beer?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve had enough.” Lucas’ anger had subsided and now he just looked bemused, almost resigned.

Tad had regained his balance and was again en route to the door.
Do something, Aurora!
I commanded myself.

“I don’t feel so well!” I blurted. With a dramatic flounce, I catapulted myself towards the door leading into the hallway
and escaped to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

“Is she going to be okay?” I heard Tad ask.

“I think she
’ll live,” Lucas replied dryly.

With me safely hidden out of sight, Michael and Graham were let into the house. I pressed my ear against the door, straining to hear their conversation.

“I thought there was a party here tonight?”
That’s Michael speaking.

The second I heard his
voice, I felt a wave of emotion wash over me. It was so overwhelming that I had to grab the edge of the sink to keep my knees from buckling. I was instantly reminded of that day at school, one of my last memories as a living, breathing human being.

I had been standing at my locker, swapping out books for 3
rd
period Biology class and 4
th
period History, when I’d felt a tug on my hair.

When I’d turned around to find myself face to face with Michael England, I’d felt my heart skip a beat.
Play it cool, Aurora
, I had told myself.
Just breathe and don’t let him see how nervous you are
. I had willed my face not to blush, another telltale sign I wasn’t calm, cool and collected.

I remember Michael had tilted his head just
slightly and flashed that flirty grin.
This is it! He’s going to ask me to the dance.

But Michael hadn’t asked me to the dance that day. Instead, after staring at me for what seemed like an insanely long amount of time, he’d said, “Looking good, Aurora,” flashed that I’m-sexy-and-
I-know-it grin and walked away.

That night, I had called up my friend Jessica. Don’t get me wrong, Henry has always been my best friend in the entire world, but I learned a long time ago that when it came to affairs of the heart, he was just not the go-to guy. He had an incredibly low tolerance for listening to me ramble on about who I was crushing on and obsess about whether or not th
ose feelings were reciprocated.

But Jessica on the other hand
was great for just that purpose. In fact, that was pretty much the glue of our friendship – we both liked talking about boys and were willing to give the other one honest advice.

So after Michael had almost-but-not-quite asked me out, I had naturally texted Jessica to find out if she was up for a quick powwow to help me decipher his intentions.
Is he just playing with me and keeping me on the hook because he knows he has the upper hand? Will Michael England ever ask me out?

Jessica, in her usual helpful way, had offered up some advice on how I could discreetly increase my interaction with Michael at school, and she had even said she would talk to him on my behalf and try to find out if he liked me.

Some friend!
I huffed.
What a rotten bitch!
To find out she had hooked up with Michael, like less than a week after my gruesome death, spoke volumes about the character of both of those jerks. They were obviously shallow asses, and I’d meant nothing to them when I was alive.

But somehow, it still stung. Oddly, the fact that Henry had told me they’d been dating a little over a year made me feel worse than if they’d just gone to the dance together and the relationship had crashed and burne
d as quickly as it had started.

If it had been some rebound fling on the heels of their beloved friend’s death, I could
maybe
forgive that. But when days before Michael had been flirting shamelessly with me, and Jessica had been acting like she was trying to help me get Michael’s attention? No fucking way I could forgive
that.
They might as well have just danced on my grave, fresh with the newly packed dirt.

All of the memories of Michael and Jessica’s betrayal tarnished the feelings that hearing his voice had stirred up. I straightened my knees and let go of the sink.
I don’t need any of them. I know who my real friends are.

I could hear them talking in
the living room still, but quieter now. Everyone seemed to have calmed down a little.

“I can’t believe you got it so wrong. This is the opposite of a party! No booze, no food.” That must be Graham. I didn’t know Graham personally, but I remembered Michael talking about him before. Michael played bass and Graham was the singer in their band,
Afterbirth
.

“You can blame Henry for that,” Tad replied. “He texted me the address. This wasn’t my fuck up.”

Nice one, Henry.

“I was confused?” Henry’s excuse sounded more like a pitiful plea, begging for his friends’ forgiveness.

Apparently it worked. “No worries, man,” I heard Michael say. And then, “By the way, where you been this week? Mrs. Dunbar’s been asking about ya.”

Huh? Henry hadn’t been in school?
That was news to me.

“You’re losing it, Mike. I’ve been there the whole time.” Henry sounded funny, but I couldn’t tell if it was just the closed door muffling his voice or if something else was going on.
If I could see him face-to-face, it would be so much easier to gauge whether or not he’s telling the truth.
I immediately felt guilty.
What has it come to? Sneaking around, suspecting my friends, not trusting anyone or anything?

I couldn’t go through life – er, my
undead
existence – without having a little faith, taking a chance here or there. I resolved not to question Henry about his whereabouts today. If he had blown off his classes, so what? I’d known him to do that on occasion; he probably just needed some time to clear his head.

And all this distrust was taking us down a very slippery slope. Henry’s suspicions of Lucas had turned what might have otherwise been a productive night into a comedy of errors. All we had to show for this botched evening was three people who now knew that Lucas existed and where he lived. I would bet money that Lucas had debated even giving
Henry and me this information.

The guys were still talking in the kitchen, but I had mostly tuned them out, stuck in my own thoughts. It was getting really late and I also had the added extra worry of a
possible blackout, although I hadn’t experienced any of the telltale signs – yet.
Fingers crossed I don’t have one tonight
. They weren’t nightly, but had become alarmingly frequent.

I was surprised when a moment later I heard the front door shut, then footsteps down the hallway. They stoppe
d outside of the bathroom door.

“You
can come out now,” Lucas said.

I swung the door open. Lucas looked wary. “How did you get rid of them?” I asked.

“There wasn’t much incentive to stay. You heard the guy. No food, no booze. When they realized no women were showing up either, they practically tripped over each other trying to get out as fast as possible.”

We walked back into the living room. Henry was sitting on the couch. “Really, really, sorry about all of that,” he said in a muffled voice, h
ead buried in his hands.

“It’s okay,” Lucas replied. I was surprised he was being so forgiving. It wasn’t like him.

Henry looked up at us, also taken aback that the menacing vampire was giving him a break. He had dark circles under his brown eyes and his forehead was wrinkled with lines of worry and exhaustion. “You aren’t mad? But what if they tell someone?” he asked.

“There’s no crime for living in the country,” Lucas said. “Honestly, there’s nothing to tell. I’d rather people not know where I live because I’m a private person. And I don’t
like babysitting drunk idiots. But past that, it’s not a big deal.”

“I don’t suppose you want to finish what you started earlier?” Henry wondered.

“You guys look like you could do with some rest first.”

I started to protest and tell Lucas I wasn’t tired in the least, but he gave me a sideways look and I knew the suggestion hadn’t been for my sake.
That’s sweet that he’s worried about Henry.

“I’m fine,” Henry tried to assert.

“You’re a guest in my house; I insist. One of you can sleep on the fold out couch and one of you in the bedroom.”

“You take the bedroom,” I said quickly.

“Aren’t you tired? I’m sure you’ll sleep better in the back of the house.”

All this time and you still haven’t figured out that I don’t need to sleep, I just have crazy blackouts
! God, men can be so clueless!

“I’m good,” I said breezily. I faked an exaggerated yawn. “I’d rather stay out here and watch some TV anyway before I doze off.”

“Okay.” Henry looked relieved. He trudged off to Lucas’ bedroom.

“Poor guy,” Lucas commented when he was out of earshot.

I snickered. “He looks totally beat. This night has been
unreal
.”

Lucas nodded but didn’t respond. He sat down next to me on the couch.
If I stretched my leg a little our knees would touch.

We sat in silence for a minute until I spoke again. “Thanks for not being mad at him.”

“I meant what I said,” Lucas replied. He paused, looking perplexed.

“What are you thinking?” I asked him.

Lucas sighed deeply. “I was just contemplating my work for the agency. When I took the job, it wasn’t for a true desire to protect mankind. I did so many bad things, for such a long time. You have no idea, Aurora.” Lucas looked at me and raked his hand through his thick mane of black hair.

“I, I..” Lucas’ voice trailed off.
I’ve never see him at a loss for words before.

“Go on,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s difficult to explain. At first, I didn’t give a shit about the people I was protecting. I just had so much self-loathing for the things that I had done, and I had to find a way to stop myself from ever doing those things again.”

“So when the opportunity came up to work for the agency, it seemed like a perfect fit. It got me off the streets, and I could begin to repay my debt to society. I knew I could never truly erase my sins, but devoting eternity to protecting the human race from monsters like me seemed like a good place to start.”

“It was also a way to punish myself, if that makes any sense,” Lucas explained.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Lucas.

“Before my job with the agency, I was living off the grid. As long as I covered my tracks and never overstayed my welcome, I was invincible. I was just some mysterious creature, doing as I pleased, never caring about or even aware of the consequences of my actions.”

“What changed?” I asked nervously.

Lucas looked at me; his eyes almost looked black in the dim light. I shivered involuntarily. “Are you cold?” he asked, noticing my reaction.

I didn’t want to tell him the truth; I wasn’t cold. I was terrified. So I just bit my lip and nodded.

Without speaking, Lucas got up and walked quietly back into the bedroom, where Henry was already snoring softly.  Lucas emerged a few moments later with a small blanket. “Here,” he said, draping it around my shoulders.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!
He was so close to me now.

Aloud I said, “You were just about to tell me what changed you.”

Lucas chuckled. “Ah, I was hoping you’d forget that. Let’s just say I’m really old and jaded and you’re not, and it’s best if we keep it that way.” I could tell Lucas was trying to keep it light. I knew vampires sucked blood. What the hell else could he have done that was so horrible? My mind could have raced through possibilities all night but Lucas was talking again. I returned my full attention to him, riveted.

“As I was saying,” Lucas continued, “my work with the agency was less than fulfilling – at first. It was a chore, a way to keep myself in check, a way to keep one more monster off the streets. I knew I couldn’t revert to my old habits because now I was
on
the grid. I would be accountable. They would hunt me down and kill me, if I slipped up even once.”

“And that’s how it’s been for a very long time, although I can still remember the beginning like it was yesterday. It was hard at first – fucking excruciating. The synthetic blood…it’s nothing like the real thing.” Lucas inhaled sharply.

Holy shit! It’s like an addict talking about his next fix!

“But, this is life now.” Lucas shrugged. “I’ve accepted that I deserve what I’m living.”

“You make it sound so terrible,” I whispered. “I thought it would be glamorous, like the movies.”

Lucas laughed. “When is real life ever like the movies?”

I smiled in agreement.

“But I discovered something,” Lucas said excitedly. “All of these years, it’s always been by-the-book for me. I watch, document, report. Always from a distance. But I realized almost immediately with you, before I knew what you were, that I was drawn to you.”

Is he about to profess his undying love for me? If I still had a heart it would be beating so fast I’d be in cardiac arrest right about now.

I leaned closer. My right knee was now touching his left knee.
This is it! He really does like me!
I leaned my upper body towards him, letting my eyes close slightly in preparation for that magical first kiss.