Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) (2 page)

I had finally been using my bow more
often, now that no one freaking cared if you were walking around on
the streets with weapons. As long as you were killing vampires they
didn’t do a damn thing to stop you. Using the bow was actually a
huge asset. I could pick off the vamps from far away, which saved
me from having to get close.

Lately, though, I wanted to get close.
I wanted to make them hurt, so if it took me getting a few bruises
then I was all right with it … as long as they ended up
dead.

With all of my weapons securely
attached to my body, I slid my necklace with the bullet on it over
my head, letting it rest gently on my chest. Drew gave it to me for
my birthday. It was supposed to symbolize the bullet from when I
got shot. After that, I grabbed my iPod off of the desk and stuck
it in the pocket of my jeans and headed out to wait for
Drew.

I could hear voices coming from the
kitchen as I approached.

“
She is going to get hurt
if she keeps this up,” Alice said in a low voice.

It was Drew who answered, “What’s
going on? Did something happen?”

“
You don’t know what she’s
been doing?” Alice questioned, the shock evident in her
voice.

Drew must have shook his head or
something because there was no answer from him. “She is going out
by herself all of the time, for one. And if that wasn’t bad enough,
she stands up on top of the roof picking off all the vamps who even
come close to this place, and she isn’t just killing them when she
goes out into the city.” There was a pause and something that
sounded like the oven door slamming. “She is doing the best she can
to beat them bloody before she kills them.”

“
What the—”

Not wanting that conversation to go on
for even one more second, I burst into the room, interrupting
Drew’s reaction. I threw Alice a dirty look for ratting me out to
my boyfriend and headed for the fridge for a water bottle. “What
are you guys up to?” I uncapped my water and took a big swig,
switching my eyes back and forth between the two of them like I
didn’t overhear anything.

Surprisingly, Drew managed to compose
himself pretty quick, and he didn’t even say one freaking word
about me going out by myself. He simply lifted his lips into a grin
and strode across the kitchen to give me a kiss. “We were just
talking about how Christina will be over in a little while.” He
shrugged. “Nothing big. Are you ready?”

Alice stood by the counter with a
towel in her hand and her mouth hanging open.

“
Let’s go.” Drew put his
palm on the small of my back and directed me out of the kitchen,
toward the front door. As soon as the door shut behind us, a series
of clicks were heard and I knew that the alarm system had been
engaged immediately after the door was sealed.

“
Kill something for me.”
Zander’s voice came over the intercom.

I tried not to look concerned, but if
he was watching the cameras he probably saw me snooping outside of
the kitchen while Alice and Drew were talking. That was one
drawback to all of the security in and around the house: there was
no privacy at all. We just had to assume that everyone would
respect each other enough to realize what was appropriate and what
was not.

“
Will do,” Drew called into
the air and waved at the camera.

His truck was parked on the black
pavement where Zander’s truck and our new Escalade were parked. The
Escalade was technically mine, since I paid for it with part of the
money my mother left me. I was still learning to drive, but I guess
I didn’t really need a license anymore now that the world had gone
all crappy. I kind of regretted purchasing the Escalade in the
first place; all I had to do was wait a month, then I could have
gone into the city and had my pick of any vehicle down there. The
same went for the house.

However, I was an honest person, and
just because some crap was going down didn’t mean we were dishonest
or thieves. We were trying to fix this mess, not contribute to the
chaos. In any case, I did occasionally drive the Escalade, but
usually someone else was doing the driving if we were out
hunting.

And we were always hunting.

Oscar wasn’t home, but normally his
motorcycle was parked beside the other vehicles.

I opened the passenger door and set my
bow and quiver inside before hopping up into the messy but
comfortable interior.

The truck roared to life and Drew
pulled out of the parking spot, heading down the long driveway.
Zander opened the gate automatically from inside without Drew
having to show his face to the camera, which was mounted on top of
the key pad.

The mechanical iron gates rolled open
and Drew roared past them, emerging onto the deserted back road
that led to the highway.

“
Where are we headed
today?” I asked because it was only around four in the afternoon.
It was July, so it didn’t get dark till really late and the
vampires wouldn’t be out until then.

Drew took his eyes off the road and
threw a glance at me. “You’ll see.”

I sat back against the seat and put my
feet up onto the dash. “You know I don’t really like surprises that
much.” I looked out the passenger window. The trees this time of
year were full and green and the terrain always smelled fresh …
like it had just rained. I cranked the old handle on the door and
rolled down the window.

Drew kept his eyes on the road, but
his lips formed a grin. “That’s too bad.”

I sighed purposely to let him know he
was annoying. “I wish that we could go up to the falls. It sucks
not being able to get into the community.”

He nodded, agreeing with me. I knew
that he missed me, but he was not going to leave Luke to come stay
with me. And Luke sure as heck wasn’t going to move away from the
home he had lived in since before my mother was born.

We turned off onto another back road a
few minutes before we got to the highway and the road immediately
turned into dirt. I didn’t ask, because I knew that Drew didn’t
want me to. The truck’s tires crunched over the loose gravel, and
dust churned up and followed behind us in large cloud.

After about twenty minutes of driving,
he finally pulled off onto a tiny road … if you could even call it
that. It was more like a trail since it was barely big enough for
his truck to fit. Branches, which had become overgrown, swiped at
the sides of the truck as he slowly maneuvered over the pothole
infested earth.

After a few minutes the road finally
ended, exposing a wide dirt lot where the trees had been cleared
out. Someone had made a fire pit by erecting large rocks into a
ring. Remains of charred firewood were left in the pit, as well as
a scattering of beer cans and other garbage.

Drew parked and hopped out from behind
the wheel. “Come on.” He waved, urging me out of the
truck.

I opened the door and jumped down, but
immediately fitted my bow and quiver back onto my shoulders. “Drew,
we should be out there scouting already. I know you’re trying to be
all romantic or whatever, but we are wasting time.”

My hunter boyfriend merely shrugged
his shoulders. “The vampires will still be there, but you need a
time out.”

“
What?” I felt the heat
rise into my cheeks. “A time out?”

Drew ran his hand through his blond
hair, which had grown longer over the last few months, and then he
reached out for me. “Just come with me before you get all bent out
of shape, all right?”

I gave him my hand and let him lead me
toward the trail. “I don’t need a time out,” I mumbled.

“
Shhhh” He pushed aside
some of the brush that had grown over the unused trail.

“
Don’t you shhhh me!” I
growled at him, feeling myself getting more and more frustrated by
the moment. “Ahhh!” He let go of the branches he had been holding
for me to pass by and they swung back, hitting me right in the
face.

“
Don’t be a pansy, oh
fierce hunter,” he teased.

“
Shut up.”

We walked in silence for a few
minutes, and the trail gradually sloped downward. Eventually we
emerged from within the brush and found ourselves on the bank of a
small lake.

I held my hand over my eyes to shield
them from the hot sun, which shone down onto the calm, flat surface
of the water. If we had been above the lake it would have been like
looking into a mirror. Even from where we stood on the bank I could
see the image of the tree laden mountains reflected off of the
water.

As I stared out, a cool breeze lifted
my hair away from my neck. It felt nice on such a hot day, but for
some reason standing before this lake with no one else around, the
air felt cleaner than usual.

“
It’s beautiful here,” I
admitted.

“
Well, it’s not the Falls,”
he shrugged, “but it’s peaceful and out of the way. Plus, there is
little chance of any vampires heading out this way since there
aren’t any people around.”

I turned to him and gave him a weak
smile. “This is all well and good, it is nice here, but we can’t
sit around and stare at the water when we should be hunting or
scouting the areas.” I couldn’t help it, I was getting antsy. Every
moment spent messing around was a moment we should be killing
vampires … or training to kill them.

“
We aren’t going to sit
around staring at the water.” He offered me a small smile before
bending over and untying his boots.

“
Well let’s go
then.”

He straightened up, still with that
smirk on his face. His eyes met mine and those twinkling greens
suddenly portrayed mischief. He reached down, not taking his eyes
off of me, and began unbuttoning his jeans.”

“
What the hell are you
doing?” I practically screeched, taking a couple of steps back. I
unintentionally covered my eyes with my hands, but peeked through
them when I heard him laughing.

Through my fingers I saw that my
boyfriend had kicked off his boots, shed his jeans, and was
standing there in his swimming trunks while holding up my bikini in
his hands. “Swimming,” he said between chuckles. “We are going
swimming.”

“
Where did you get that?” I
pointed at my bathing suit, which had been in my underwear drawer
the last time I’d seen it.

He shrugged. “Alice.”

“
Well, where were you
hiding it?”

He glanced at the tiny bits of fabric
still in his hand. “I stuck it in my pocket … there isn’t that much
here.” He strode forward and held it out to me. “So, are you
joining me for a swim or not?”

I shook my head. “We should
go.”

He bowed his head in defeat, and then
looked back up to meet my eyes. “Chloe, you need to take a
break.”

I turned my head away and glanced at
the lake, and then back at his eyes again. “No, what I need to do
is take out every single vampire I can. I started this mess, it’s
my job to help clean it up.”

“
You can’t do it alone,
though. Especially if that’s all you do. You can’t forget how to
have fun.”

“
Yeah, coming from the king
of partying it up.”

Shaking his head, Drew sighed and
tossed my bikini on the ground. “Fine. I’m going swimming. You can
just wait here if you don’t want to swim.”

“
Drew, we have to
go!”

He took off toward the waterline. “We
will,” he called over his shoulder before he splashed into the
water.

I stood there for the longest time,
waiting for him to get out. But, no, he didn’t come out. He swam
far out into the lake and then floated on his back for a while,
staring up at the clear blue sky.

While he was out there, I found myself
beginning to sweat in the fierce July heat. Damn it, now I
understood his plan: leave Chloe out in the heat until she
practically melts and is forced to go into the water.

Drew’s blond head was bobbing in the
water as he swam back to the shore. I watched him with frustration,
feeling the lines of sweat roll down from my hairline. “Fine,” I
muttered to myself, spinning around in the dirt to grab my bikini
off the ground. It would feel good to cool off, but I needed to be
out protecting people … saving them. How many were going to die
while I was swimming?

I stalked off to the confines off the
trees so that I could put my suit on where Drew couldn’t see me.
Once I had shed my clothes and my bikini was securely in place. I
realized how exposed I felt not having my weapons on. The last
thing I was comfortable with was going out into the lake, without
any protection, and becoming bobbing targets for vampires. I still
had my fire, but I liked having a variety of ways to kill at my
disposal.

Gathering my clothes and weapons in my
arms, I found my way back to the beach and dropped my pile of stuff
as close to the water as I safely could without risking them
getting wet. Then, I secured my dark purple bikini once more and
looked out over the water. Drew was out there, staring at me with a
big grin plastered on his face.

“
What are you smiling
about?” I yelled at him.