The Onyx Talisman (13 page)

“Funny.” I pulled a face.

Sam gasped, her eyes elsewhere. We followed her gaze and all of us turned at once. Todd stood out from the crowd in his vampire glory—mean and buff. I cowered momentarily. Nicholas flinched and I stayed his hand as he took out another stake, ready to eviscerate him. I wished I’d brought my laser so I could have the pleasure.

“Samantha,” Todd twisted his face. “What are you doing here with … Phil?” His mouth froze partly open and then a revelation hit his eyes. “And Julia?” He arched an eyebrow at Sam. “Don’t tell me you’re protecting—a human?”

Phil squeezed Sam’s hand. I channeled some courage her way as well.

“You have a lot of nerve showing up here.” Sam’s voice shook. “How dare you change me, then leave me alone. With my mother, no less! I had no clue what was happening to me. I almost murdered her and my best friend.”

“You haven’t fed yet?” He let out a gust of air. “What are you waiting for?”

“Of course I haven’t. I’ve chosen to abstain.”

Todd laughed a deep bellow that rumbled the ground. “No wonder.” He clenched his jaw and turned his lecherous gaze on me, giving a once-over that creeped me out. “That won’t last long, not with
her
around.”

Sam gave a slight groan, her vampire side fighting painfully hard against what she was choosing to do. “You need to go, Todd.”

“Do you know how much that venom cost? I didn’t go through all the hassle to just lose you to some human-loving cause, Samantha. I don’t have all night. Let’s go.”

“You took my humanity without permission.” She gripped Phil’s hand harder; her knuckles whitened. “There are consequences to what you’re doing and I won’t take part in it.”

Way to go, Sam.

Todd’s glaring eyes bounced from Sam, to me, to Phil, and landed on Nicholas’ hand. I removed my grip to let him know he’d overstayed his welcome and Nicholas could stake him at any moment he chose.

“You heard her,” Phil said, taunting him with a lift of his chin. “Hit the road, Jack.”

“This isn’t over,” Todd said with a scowl right before he disappeared, along with the rest of the vamps.

Sam let out an exhale and gently collapsed into Phil’s side. “Julia has to go, or we do. I can’t take it anymore.”

I opened myself up to feel her angst—overpowering and all consuming.

“We’ll go.” He kissed her on the forehead before he gave me an apologetic shrug. “She’s right. You’re exceptionally tasty right now.” He launched the two of them into the air.

Tasty? How could that be with the talisman on? My insides crawled from the rejection as I watched them soar out of sight. That used to be us flying off together on some wild adventure and now, because I was tasty, I couldn’t go.

Why am I jealous?

I sighed and turned to Nicholas for some form of comfort. In the olden days, he would have wrapped me up in his arms and kissed me. Instead he stared, waiting for me to lead.

“Do you smell me?” I asked, dejected.

“You are appealing.” He turned up the corner of his lip. “So now what?”

I wanted to brainstorm what had changed with the talisman when reality hit and I freaked. Dad would be home, flipping out, especially since I shut off my phone and it was after dark.

“I have to go home.”

“Let’s go,” he said and ushered me towards his ash-covered car.

Chapter Fourteen

“Julia Katherine Parker! Where have you been?”

I sulked into the house under the scrutiny of Dad’s sleeper-wave eyebrows as Nicholas drove away. He promised to come to my window later after Dad settled down, well,
if
Dad settled down.

“Sorry.” I held my head low. “I was out with Nicholas. It’s cool. I wasn’t
outside
when it got dark.”

“Cool?” Dad slammed the door, veins bulging from his forehead. “I told you to stay home! There’s been a new outbreak of—” he made fang fingers to indicate the obvious, “and you’re out gallivanting with—did you say Nicholas? I thought you two broke up. And why is your phone off?”

I inched closer to the stairs, hoping for a quick exit. “He just came back into town. Sorry, I forgot to text.”

“Julia! You can’t shut off your phone!” He pressed his hand onto his forehead and groaned. “It’s after dark and dangerous. There hasn’t been this many since, I don’t know how long—” He sighed and shook his head. “I was worried sick.”

“Dad, seriously. I was fine.”

“No! You don’t understand. The ET unit is coming here to set up camp. We need to find and stop the source. We’re all in grave danger.”

“What about Luke? Won’t he get suspicious?”

I heard a flush and looked up as curiosity stood at the top of the stairs in the form of my brother with a horrendous case of bed head. “Grave danger?”

“Look who’s up.” Dad flipped his frown into a smile. “I was… quoting a movie. It’s nothing. You finally feeling better?”

I followed with a fake laugh. Dad lied worse than I did.

“I think so,” he said and coughed. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Good thing.” I fanned the air with my hand as if I could smell his stink from there.

Luke didn’t respond, only turned around, and headed for his room. I made a beeline for the stairs.

“Julia, we aren’t finished. I
will
come talk to you later.”

I didn’t respond and ran the rest of the way up. After I closed the door, I turned
on
my phone, anxious for a text from Nicholas. Then I remembered I’d never asked if he’d reactivated his, or even knew he had a phone.

“Crap,” I said as the phone vibrated with texts and messages, all from Dad.

I went to the window and looked out, unable to see the street. We hadn’t worked out a time when he’d return. I’d merely informed him my window was on the second story in the back.

I curled up in my covers and found an old movie on the
Netflix
app on my iPhone to stay preoccupied. Halfway into the movie, another bout of bothersome bloodlust pounced upon the house. Though I knew I was completely safe, I pulled the covers up to my nose and watched the window.

Why did I suddenly smell extra delectable to vamps? I looked to the talisman for support, noticing it hadn’t changed temperature lately to signal danger like it had in the past. To my horror, white smoke swirled within the stone’s blue depths. A dreadful thought crossed my mind. What if Nicholas’ bloodlust had been triggered again? Was he going to will away the talisman from me? I clicked off my bedroom light and slid onto the floor, peeking over the side of my bed with my laser pen.

A tap on the window made me squeal. The dark haired vampire that tried to get me from Nicholas’s car had returned and motioned with his finger to come outside. I smiled back, a little larger than I should, before zapping him with the laser. His smug expression faded to fear before he exploded to a crisp.

My breath bounded out of my lungs in tandem with my pulse, when another vamp appeared at my window. I blinked, astounded. Didn’t they just see me blast the last vamp who tried to get me to come outside? I zapped him, too.

After the ridiculousness of zapping ten vamps in a row, I held down the button so the pen continually shot light out the window. The goons finally took a hint and stayed away. I shut them out of my radar as well, sickened by their disgusting love of blood—my blood.

Dad wasn’t kidding when he said an onslaught of vampires had descended on the city. Did Todd sire our entire school? He said he’d bought the venom, but who would possibly want to dole out immortality so freely only for the money? There had to be at least twenty-five at Nicholas’ and I’d killed over ten within fifteen minutes. None of it made sense.

I remembered what Nicholas had said about a vampire and their kin, about them all sharing the power equally. So the more in your family tree, the less powerful everyone was. It prevented any one vampire from siring armies of immortals. But these new vamps, though they didn’t seem very smart, were actually quite strong and talented with special gifts, like mind-moving of objects. Whoever made them overcame the rules.

And with the talisman acting up, if there was ever a time I needed protection, it would be now. Actually, the whole town needed it. Where was Nicholas? I turned off the laser and looked out the window.

Hundreds of eyes peered out at me from the shadows. I screamed. Then the power went out.

Chapter Fifteen

“Julia!” Dad yelled from down the hall. “I’m coming!”

He stumbled into the room and tripped over something, landing on the floor with a loud “oof.”

“Where are you?” he asked frantically.

“Over here.” I reached out to meet his hand. “The vamps. Where’d they all come from?”

“We’re safe inside.” He pulled me to my feet as we peered out into the scary darkness. They flitted across the lawn with jarring, blurred movements, like a swarm of bees. “I’m here.”

Then the whispers started. “Julia, come outside.”

“Dad,” I squealed and put my hands over my ears. “Why are they after me?”

“I don’t know, but let’s get the power on.”

“No! You can’t go out there,” I cried. Especially if he was only armed with a freaking laser pen.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a backup generator in the garage.”

I swallowed hard. Together, with my nails firmly planted into his ribs, we filed down into the basement room. He flipped a switch and everything illuminated.

“I had one installed just in case,” he said with a smile. “Now let’s go laser some vamps so they don’t wake up Luke.”

I halfheartedly grinned at his excitement, but felt something change outside. The emotion game dominated earlier by the love of my blood was taking heavy hits against tremendous joy and fear. Someone had come to our rescue.

As we peered outside the living room window, I braced myself for what we’d see. Three pairs of vamp eyes appeared and gawked back. Before Dad could laser them, something zinged through the air and hit them with a thunk. Fire crackled out of their torsos in unison, puffing them into smoke and ash.

“Oh.” I bit my lip, moved by Nicholas’ amazing physique as he performed ninja moves in our yard; a duffle bag filled with stakes sat at his feet. No use in hiding the obvious now.

“Your boyfriend is a vampire hunter?
Dirty Harry
?” Dad’s anger ignited. “And you knew this all along and didn’t tell me?”

My mouth wouldn’t work, caught in a lie and afraid to tell him the real truth. This was going completely in the wrong direction.

“It was to protect him,” I finally spit out.

“Protect him from whom? We’re the good side.”

“Yeah, but …” I pushed my sweaty bangs out of my eyes. “He asked me not to. I couldn’t betray his identity. And if I told you, the entire agency would find out. Besides, there’s stuff about him you don’t understand.”

“Like what? What could be more important than telling me?”

My shoulders sagged. “I was respecting his right to anonymity.”

“Anonymity? Jules, it’s about getting rid of the bloodsuckers. Something we all want—”

“It’s not that black and white.”

Dad huffed in apparent disappointment with me and continued to watch as Nicholas remembered his abilities of speed and agility. “Well, no wonder we couldn’t find him. He’s obviously not a vampire after all. I mean, I’ve seen him come get you in plain daylight. I’m impressed. How can he do all of those moves?”

I bit my knuckle and willed Nicholas to at least slow down a little. “He’s into martial arts.”

“I’m impressed. He must wear something that keeps the vamps from biting him.”

A venom drenched undershirt and not to mention, reflexes of a cobra.

I didn’t answer and eventually, the incoming vamps got a clue and stayed away. He went back to his car and leaned against the hood. He had something in his hands—the journal. My throat hiccupped.

“Is he guarding our house?” My dad looked dumbfounded.

“Uh, you think?” I held out my hand and smirked.

“You don’t have to be smart with me, young lady,” Dad said.

His double-standard angered me. His loathing hate for the vampires was understandable, but he’d unfairly lumped them all in the same category, even civil vampires, like Darren. What if Dad knew Nicholas was a half-vampire, would he think him the enemy? Would he allow me to date him? I didn’t think he’d accept Nicholas because of his bloodline, though he didn’t have a choice who his parents were. So unfair, especially since he clearly fought on our side.

Dad’s scratched his stubble on his cheek. “Do you think he’d talk to me?”

“He won’t know anything. He’s suffering from a case of amnesia.”

Dad’s composure dropped. I fought back a smug smile.

“I told you it was complicated.”

He grunted something under his breath, growing bored.

I took the cue and moved to the stairs for a quick exit. “So, I guess I’ll be going to bed now, since the drama seems to be over.”

“Please promise me you’ll stay inside,” Dad asked, his eyes beseeching.

“I will, but I want you to know something,” I said as a gust of courage bolstered my nerves. I pointed to my talisman. “Nicholas gave me this. It’s an amulet to protect me from vampires and makes biting me impossible.”

Dad squinted. “What?”

“This.” I held the glowing stone away from my chest.

“Julia. Are you sure?” His concern bounced around us. “I’ve seen those same trinkets in vending machines. How could it possibly protect you?”

“What?” My mouth parched as I looked down at the stone and back at him.

Did he not see the twenty-five carats of beauty practically singing in my hand? Something Nicholas had said about the talisman only being attractive to the beholder came to mind; that it cloaked itself.

“Was that before or after his amnesia?” Dad asked in concern.

My pride insisted I go outside just to show him just how awesome the necklace worked, but I knew the perceived danger could aggravate his heart problem. I decided to stop pressing the issue. Otherwise he’d duct tape me on an ET psychiatrist’s couch in Tulsa, far away from my friends and Nicholas.