Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) (10 page)

Gavin stepped up next to Luke. “Which
is why we want you to come with us. It’s much safer where you will
be going.”

Amber’s husband peeled the little girl
off of her mother’s leg and lifted her into his arms. He stared
into his wife’s eyes, “Let’s go, honey. We have to.” He used his
free hand to gently touch his smaller daughter’s head and his eyes
flicked to the little girl he held. Amber seemed to understand what
he was trying to say and nodded that she understood.

“
All right,” she whispered.
She quickly strode over to the open door of the bus and stepped
inside. Her husband followed right behind her.

I let out a breath I didn’t even
realize that I’d been holding as soon as they were safely on the
bus. After a couple of deep, cleansing breaths, I called out again,
“Will anyone else join us today? I don’t know if or when we will be
able to come back again, so please, if you seek safety then come
with us.”

I waited.

The group waited.

Eventually, they began to withdraw
from their hiding places and come to us. Once several survivors had
joined us, and I was fairly sure I wouldn’t have to stand on the
bus and do anymore pleading with them, I hopped down. I joined the
others and helped greet the survivors, who apparently needed
reassurance before they got their butts on the bus.

The main reason we were trying to
greet each one before they got on the bus was to check for tattoos.
We had to make sure that we weren’t putting someone loyal to the
Vampire Council on a bus that would take them right into Arcadia
Falls.

We filled one bus and drove to another
neighborhood. Once there, we had to go through pretty much the same
process of convincing them that we were not going to hurt them and
that we wanted to help them.

We had the first half of the second
bus filled when our luck ran out on us. I heard the cars coming and
hollered to the group, “Someone’s coming!”

The police cars appeared at every
intersection, effectively blocking us from escape. The policemen
who got out were dressed in the usual uniforms of the local law
enforcement, but we all knew they were not on our side.

Crap, crap,
crap.

I looked over at the rest of the
group, discovering they were drawing their weapons. The survivors
who weren’t on the buses ran off to hide, knowing that their lives
were at stake by these people who had pledged themselves to the
Vampire Council.

“
Surrender your weapons,” a
male voice demanded from a loud speaker on one of the cars. “Set
them on the ground and put your hands in the air.”

Yeah, like that was going to happen.
Wait, on second thought, I had weapons they didn’t know
about.

I caught Gavin’s eye and locked gazes
before very deliberately setting my gun on the ground. He seemed to
understand the silent message and also put his gun on the ground in
front of him. Next, I looked to Alice. She had already seen the
exchange between Gavin and I, so she followed suit, already knowing
what my plan was.

They were coming, and fast. I could
hear the screams from the frightened survivors on the buses
already. They knew who these people were; they were one of the only
reasons they were afraid to go out while it was
daylight.

The “police” had their guns drawn and
were running toward us. “On the ground! Everyone on the ground,”
one of them yelled.

Good. We needed them close to
us.

Suddenly … a fire hydrant blew. Water
sprayed up about fifty feet into the air. The law enforcement
officer who was next to it jumped in shock and popped off a shot
when his finger involuntarily pulled the trigger.

While they were still recovering from
the first hydrant and trying to avoid being soaked, another one
made a loud popping noise and exploded like the first
one.

During this time, Gavin and I ran
forward while Alice slid back, taking the rest of the group with
her to the buses. They lined up along the side of the large yellow
vehicles and Alice worked her magic.

A sheen of sparkle slid around them,
and then up and over the buses. Her magical shield would protect
the others while Gavin and I did the fighting. There were six
pledged policemen; if we could take on groups of vampires, then we
could do this.

The only problem was that they weren’t
vampires.

These were people. They had pledged to
the Vampire Council to stay alive, and they would kill us if they
had to. Then, the people who had gotten on the buses would either
be killed or taken prisoner. So, that only left us one
choice.

Gavin used his power to push the water
down on the policemen. Reaching over, I grabbed my gun with one
hand and holstered it, then reached for my bow. Lightning fast, I
notched an arrow. Aim and fire. I could not let myself think about
the fact that these were people. I just couldn’t. I hit the first
one in the heart.

And then the second in the
stomach.

That’s when the bullets started
flying. I ran to one side and Gavin ran to the other. These guys
were horrible shots. Gavin and I knew we had a much better chance
of not getting hit if we kept moving. Still targets were a lot
easier to hit.

I put my bow back over my shoulders
and ran into the fray, letting the fire swirl within my body. The
warmth spread quickly until the tiny flames appeared at my
fingertips. The police seemed really shocked that I had ran right
in front of them. I was so close they couldn’t even get a bead on
me. All five of them were concentrating on me, so they forgot Gavin
had run off the other way. I let the fire fly.

My arms spread out wide like I was
going to fly away and I released a stream of fire, then spun like a
wannabe ballerina. Even though they were soaked to the skin from
the hydrants, there was no avoiding the pain of my fire. I knew it
was doing the job when the screams began.

They ran in circles, flailing their
arms as they tried to escape the burn of my flames. I just kept
spinning, hoping Gavin would do what I thought he was going to
do.

Bang
!

Yes, he was on it.

Bang. Bang.
Bang
.

And just like that. They were all
down.

Well … they were all down, but they
weren’t all dead. I reined in the fire and pulled out my gun. I
could hear painful moaning of the injured policemen and knew that
we couldn’t leave them there alive.

Suck it
up
, I told myself.
You can do this.
You have to do
this
.

The four policemen who had just been
shot lay sprawled on the pavement. Water rained down upon them in
giant, fat drops, pooling in large puddles around their bodies as
it mixed with their blood.

I marched forward with determination.
Gavin appeared beside me, both of us soaked from the hydrant water.
My hair was heavy and my clothes stuck to my body in a very
uncomfortable way.

“
You don’t have to do
this,” he whispered.

“
Yes I do.”

“
We could leave them … or I
could do it. It doesn’t have to be you.”

I shook my head and blew some of the
water off of my lips. “I can do it.”

I could have easily passed this off to
him, but the whole saving the survivors thing was my idea and I had
to be the one.

There were two who were still alive.
One of them was on his hands and knees trying to crawl away. The
gunshot wound in his lower back was exposed, bleeding profusely as
he inched through the water and away from the other
bodies.

Just do it.

I lifted my gun and fired. It was a
rare thing that I missed, and this time wasn’t any different. I had
aimed for the head and that is where the bullet made its home. His
arms and legs went out from underneath him and his body hit the
pavement.

Tears escaped from the corners of my
eyes. I was grateful that the water from the hydrants was still
going because it masked my weakness.

The other officer lay on his back
shivering with pain and fear. He turned his head and watched me
come toward him, his hand covering his chest where Gavin had shot
him. Blood seeped out of the wound and through his fingers. His
eyes widened when I got a little closer and he could focus on
me.

I averted my eyes to avoid looking
into his. I concentrated on his tattoo instead. Everyone pledged to
the Vampire Council had a small dragon tattooed on their right
cheek. When they first started the tattoos, I had wondered why they
chose that particular symbol for their people. After researching,
I’d discovered that the dragon was a symbol of strength, courage,
and immortality.

“
Please,” he breathed out
so quietly that I could barely hear him. “Please … do
it.”

I felt Gavin’s hand on my shoulder and
my vision blurred with more tears as I aimed for the head
again.

Bang!

It was over.

Not wanting to look at the bodies even
one more second, I turned away and sloshed through the water, back
to where the group was waiting by the buses. Drew hurried over to
me, and after taking one look at my face he pulled me in and
wrapped his arms around me.

“
Are you all right?” he
whispered against my ear.

I was afraid to speak. I didn’t want
to break down in front of a whole bus full of survivors and my
friends. So I just shook my head, hoping he would
understand.

“
Come on.” He pulled away
from me and looked into my eyes. “We have to get out of here. More
might be coming.”

I nodded and followed him to the bus.
Everyone was already seated and ready to leave. They had gotten
some more of the survivors to come out while we had the policemen
busy and almost filled the bus.

It was later than we thought it would
be, so we hauled butt back to Arcadia Falls. During the drive I
tried to forget about what had happened. I had killed people … not
vampires. I just never thought that would happen to me.

Gavin kept looking over at me like he
wanted to come over and comfort me or something. I avoided his
inquiring gaze and leaned back in the seat with my eyes closed.
Pretending it never happened was probably best. I had to act
normal, be strong, and get on with our mission.

When we parked at the gate, I ignored
the fact that Gavin was sitting right there and gave Drew a quick
kiss on the lips. “See you soon,” I told him.

I turned to Gavin and saw hurt
swimming around in his green eyes. “Hurry back,” I said flatly, and
stepped down off the bus. Zander got off his bus, too; we had to
trade places with Alice and Oscar since we couldn’t get past the
barrier.

“
How are you guys going to
get back up to the gate?” I asked Oscar as I opened the passenger
door to the Escalade.

“
Luke will probably bring
us in his car. We’re going to leave the buses here.”

“
Good. I just wanted to
make sure that you are going to be able to get back up to the gate
without having to walk the whole way.”

He nodded. “We will be
fine.”

“
Hurry,” I told him. “We
need to get back before dark.”

I worried a lot about leaving the
house unattended. During the day it should be fine, but it was late
afternoon, so every hour brought us closer to darkness and
death.

He patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry,
we’ll be quick.” With that, he took off to join the others. The
gate rolled open and the buses passed through the invisible shield
that protected the community, but kept me out. Once they were
safely through, the gate closed and the buses disappeared from
sight.

I hopped up into the passenger seat of
the Escalade and leaned back on to the soft leather seat. Man, it
felt wrong sitting on the leather with my wet clothes.

“
What’s the matter?” Zander
asked from his seat behind the wheel.

I stared at the gate which locked me
out of the world of Hunters. “A bunch of stuff. You know one of
them. It’s the same problem you have, only you don’t really
care.”

He shrugged. “I don’t really have a
reason to care.”

I understood that. “But I do. I didn’t
live here very long, but it’s home to me. The house we live in now,
it’s just a place to be, not a home.”

He turned the key and the Escalade
came to life, idling with a steady purr. “I get that,” he told me.
“Alice will fix it. After all this is over.”

At least I could take solace in the
fact that that dumb barrier would save some lives.

Zander moved the Escalade off to the
side of the road by the gatehouse so that we could wait for the
rest of the group without sitting in the middle of the road. Once
we were parked, he cut the engine again and spent the remainder of
the wait in silence.

The time passed quickly … too quickly.
It was absolutely agonizing watching the sun get further and
further down in the sky and hoping they would show up any moment.
The most dangerous part of the mission was over, but I didn’t want
to leave the house alone.