Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (24 page)

“Have you called Dante and Noel back
to town?” I asked.

“Dante and Miss Harper have come across some interesting information. I’m keeping them on stakeout for the time being.”

I felt my shoulders sag. I wanted people I could talk to. I wanted my friends back.

“What about Mike?” I asked.

Melcher gave me the same blank look Jared had. This was really starting to unnerve me. “Jared claims he found Crist’s cross at the Morrel house, but he didn’t find any link to Mike.”

“The case is closed,
Aurora,” Melcher said in one of his most clipped tones. “It was a double homicide and justice has been served.”

“But how are they
linked? The last time I saw Mike he was at Marcus’s party.”

Melcher sighed. “I am not at liberty to discuss the details, Aurora, but it is likely Agent Crist was patrolling around Marcus’s
townhouse the night of the party.”

I relaxed my arms and fidgeted with
my fingers in my lap. “Did she do that often? Go out on patrol? I didn’t think she was a field agent.”

“I am not at liberty to discuss Agent Crist’s involvement in our un
it, Aurora,” he repeated. “Our work has its dangers. It’s one of the greatest duties on the planet. At the end of the day, Agent Crist was privileged to sacrifice her life in the line of duty.”

I tapped my leg in agitation. And Mike? What about him? I doubt
ed he’d consider it a privilege to die for no good reason before he got a chance to live his life.

According to Melcher
, justice had been served. I still couldn’t swallow it. Jared had said nothing about Crist or Mike when confronting Henriette and Andre. Wouldn’t he have mentioned it? Maybe whatever past hang ups they had were more important in the eleventh hour than two more dead bodies.

I stopped tapping my leg. “Jared knew the Morrel’s,” I said. “They called him
Xavier. He used to be married to Henriette.”

“How do you know this?”

“I overheard them talking.”

Melcher
muttered something under his breath. His next words were as calm as ever. “Since you are already aware of Jared’s connection to the Morrel family, there is no harm in filling you in on a few details. I feel at this point it would be worse not to.”

Okay, so fill me in. I urged Melcher with my eyes.

He took a deep breath that came out like a sigh. “Back in the eighteen hundreds, Jared was a vampire in Paris. His name back then was Xavier. Henriette posed as his wife, Etienne and Giselle as their children, and Andre as Xavier’s brother. They were body snatchers.”

“Body snatchers?”

Melcher nodded. “Grave robbers. They dug up fresh corpses and sold them to medical schools for dissection.”

I wrinkled my nose.

“A body snatcher could make over a thousand francs in a single night. A small fortune back then. But the Morrel’s didn’t stop at corpses. In their greed, they began murdering people then selling their bodies for even more profit.”

I shivered involuntarily.

“This practice was known as burking, named after the Irishman and murderer William Burke. Victims were smothered and suffocated, resulting in a speedy death with no signs of violence. This also produced the freshest possible corpse. In an era without refrigeration, you can begin to understand how a steady supply of fresh corpses was in high demand among the medical community.”

Yep, sounded like Jared
all right. There it was again, that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Melcher had a similar look of distaste on his face.
“Xavier was caught and taken to La Force prison to await trial.”

“What happened?” I asked, leaning forward.

“There was a cholera outbreak. Most of the prisoners died. Xavier did not.”

“And then?”

“He was released.”

I stared at Melcher, but he didn’t continue. He could be really madd
ening at times—like
all
the time! He leaned forward and caught the eye of the driver in the rearview mirror. Melcher made a circular motion with his finger. The driver turned into the parking lot at Point Woronzof and looped around. “I’ll take you home now,” he said.

“Do I need to worry about Jared?”

“Once Jared has been debriefed I am sending him to the lower forty-eight. You have nothing to worry about, Aurora. I can terminate Jared at any time, and he knows it.”

What? Like some kind of kill switch in his brain? It wouldn’t surprise me.
I bet Jared loved that. Maybe Melcher was the one who should watch his back.

“If you’re up for it, you can go to school tomorrow.”
He flashed me a smile.

I wanted to graduate and all, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’
t dreading my return to West with Noel gone and Mike’s letterman jacket still in my locker.

Maybe I could skip going to my locker the rest of the week. I only had two days to get through. I could make it.

“Aside from letting Giselle go, I want you to know you did well, Aurora. You didn’t panic. You came home, and that says a lot about your commitment to the program. That is why I am happy to tell you that you’ve been approved for summer training once the school year ends. You’ll even get to go out of state.”

Did he really expect me to jump for joy
over spending my summer stuck at boot camp? “Is this mandatory?”

“It’s not only mandatory
, it’s a step up to official agent status. It also means you’ll be eligible to mentor new recruits after you have a few more missions under your belt.”

Just how many young AB negative people did they
anticipate biting the dust each year? Is that why Jared was being sent away? To speed up the recruiting process?

I narrowed my eyes, studying Melcher’s unblemished face. Did he believe in the cause enough to actually hurt
young people in order to get them in the program?

Melcher kept smiling. “Don’t worry. You’ll do great.”

“Where are you sending me?”

“I can’t tell you that until it’s time to go.”

“Of course not,” I said with a grumble.

“And we’ll have you back in plen
ty of time to start your college classes.” Melcher leaned toward me. “You did still want to go to college, didn’t you, Aurora?”

“Yes.”

He sat back. “Good.”

We drove back in re
lative silence. I turned my head away from Melcher and stared out my window. My breath spread across the glass in a fog that lingered then disappeared.

“What if Valerie doesn’t come back?” I asked while we waited for traffic to pass before turning onto my road. I glanced at Melcher. Not that I needed to. I could see the smile on his face in my mind before my eyes ever reached him.

“If she doesn’t come back, we’ll bring her back.”

I just hoped that wasn’t why Jared was headed to the lower forty-eight. I wouldn’t wish him on anybody. Not even Valerie.

As soon as Melcher dropped me off I sent her a quick text. I didn’t know why and I didn’t know if she’d even get it, but it was something I had to do.

Melche
r knows which flight you’re on.

17

I woke up late Thursday. Well, to hell with school. One more day wasn’t going to make a difference. As soon as I saw the time on my digital clock, I stuffed my head under my pillow. Third period could go on without me.

I bit the bullet Friday and went to school. I hadn’t made it past third period when one of Mike’s friends
got in my face and yelled, “What happened to Mike? He said he was meeting you at a party and then he ended up dead!”

I
cowered at the accusation in his voice. Me, Aurora Sky, vampire hunter let a high school boy intimidate her in the hallway.

“I’m so sorry,” I stammered. “I don’t know what happened.”

“Well, he’s dead because of you.” Such hatred in those eyes. Boy did he know how to make an exit. He said his lines and left, leaving them to linger in my brain like a scar I was stuck living with for the rest of my life.

People in the hallway stared. Let them. This wasn’t my high school. I had no friends here. I had no life. Just passing through.

I couldn’t wait to get my goddamn diploma and get out.

At the end of the day
, I waited until the school emptied out to open my locker. I swear that the small metal enclosure had become permeated with Mike’s scent. I yanked his letterman jacket off the hook in the far back and wadded it into my hands.

Halfway down the hall I saw a big plastic wastebas
ket. I clutched the jacket to my chest then dropped it in the moment I stood over the trash bin. I looked over my shoulder. Why did it feel as though I was disposing of a body?

Outside, m
y mom waited at the curbside for a change. I got into the car and yanked the door closed behind me. “How was school?” she asked.

“Sucky,” I said, staring out the front windshield.

“At least it’s the weekend.”

Yeah, so? I kept staring out the window. Mom did her loop around Benson Boulevard. “Taco Bell again?” I
asked.

“I have a lot to deal with right now,”
she said defensively. Her voice went back to normal when she rolled down her window and ordered a taco salad, Mexican pizza, and nachos. “What would you like?” she asked in her even voice.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You need to eat something.”

“Maybe I should drink blood instead.” Mom wasn’t the only one whose mood was slipping. I felt myself going to
a dark place. I’d been there before, and it never did me any good.

Mom added a bean burrito and
a pink lemonade freeze to the order. Right, cause I really wanted to drink something with the word “freeze” in it.

Once we were home I changed into my running gear.
Instead of going through the woods, I ran down the street to the bike trail across the road. I had my ear buds in but no music playing. I jogged up to the corner were I’d had my accident then paced along the curve, staring at it from every angle.

I could still see it in my head: the frosted trees along the road, the oncoming vehicle, my
dashboard, the windshield…then nothing.

I pictured Jared driving along a couple seconds later
, happy to see another person about to lose her humanity.

“Another One Bites the Bust” by Queen started spinning through my mind.

I ripped my ear buds out, but it kept going. It was all in my head.