Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) (8 page)

Drew pulled out a chair and sat down
at the table. “Yeah, it’s something we all have to talk about and
soon. I’d rather not have to repeat the story to everyone
individually. After we, as a group, decide what to do, then we can
take it to The Board.”

Christina and I had both joined him by
sitting down at the table. I eyed Drew; he looked really tired.
This whole situation was stressing everyone out. Hopefully, with
Anthony’s help, we could end it and some of us could actually get a
decent night’s rest.

I began the process of taking my
weapons off and setting them on the table. “Do you think we should
talk to Luke about it before we tell The Board?”

He nodded and I noticed Christina
nodding as well. “Yeah, we should definitely bring him over here
first thing in the morning and let him know what’s going on when we
tell everyone else.”

Christina leaned back in her chair and
pouted. “You guys suck, now I really want to know what’s going
on.”

“
I’m with her,” Gavin’s
voice stated over the intercom.

Drew shook his head. “It’s only a few
hours, you guys. I have to get back to Arcadia Falls, and then I
will be back here first thing in the morning with Luke.”

Christina stood first. “I should ride
back with you, I don’t want you going by yourself.”

With a quick glance at me, Drew shook
his head. “No, I’ll be fine. Besides, you were watching the grounds
here.”

“
I’ll do it.” I returned
one of my guns to its holster. Both of their heads swiveled in my
direction. “What? She’s right,” I insisted. “I don’t want you going
all the way back to Arcadia Falls by yourself, either. So,
Christina can go with you. I can watch the grounds until the sun
comes up, and then I’ll grab a couple of hours sleep before you
guys get back here with Luke. It’s the easiest way to do this right
now without waking someone up.”

Christina flipped her hair.
“See.”

“
Don’t let that go to your
head.” I rose from the table, went to the pantry door, and opened
it. I was met with two floor to ceiling shelves full of food and
another floor to ceiling shelf that housed ammo. I grabbed a box of
45 rounds from the stack and brought it back to the table where I
began filling one of my empty clips.

Drew scooted his chair back and stood.
“I guess if you’re all right with it, then Christina should come,
just in case.”

I finished loading the clip and slid
it up into my un-holstered gun. “Why wouldn’t I be all right with
it?” This time both Drew and Christina rolled their eyes. It was
common knowledge with everyone we knew that Christina and I hadn’t
always gotten along. She and Drew were lifelong friends who had
occasionally dated … and other things. She and I still had a rocky
relationship, but at least we didn’t hate each other. It was also
easier to make these decisions about her being around Drew because
I knew that she was dating my brother, Zander, and the two of them
were a pretty hot item. Well … as hot as an item could really be in
the middle of an apocalypse.

I shrugged. “What? I’m totally okay
with all that now.”

Christina shook her head. “I’m going
out to the truck. See ya, Gavin,” she called out.

“
Later,” his tired voice
said over the intercom.

After we heard the door unlatch and
then close again, Drew reached out and pulled me close to him. “We
are going to take care of this. I’m not going to let anything
happen to you. All right?”

I laid my head on his chest and
wrapped my arms around him. He knew I was worried about what
Anthony had told us, but I wasn’t ready to be worried about myself
yet. Not yet … there were more important things to worry about,
like saving the world. “I know,” I whispered.

He reached up and lifted my chin a
little bit so that I would look at him. I always enjoyed gazing
into his eyes because they told so much about him that he never
voiced. At that second, when I looked deep into the green of his
eyes, I saw that he was scared. To make it even more interesting, I
knew it was me he was scared of losing.

My fingers found their way up and into
his hair. “I am going to be just fine. We have other things to take
care of before we can worry about me.”

He shook his head. “That is not even
an option. We will not sacrifice you.” His voice had lowered to a
whisper because Gavin was listening on the intercom.

“
That really isn’t up to
you,” I whispered back, and pulled him down for a kiss. Aware that
Gavin was most likely watching us, I had totally intended for it to
be a gentle peck of a kiss. However, Drew was also aware of Gavin’s
presence and completely went the other way. He crushed his lips
against mine and moved forward; I was forced to back up until I
felt the wall press against me.

I wanted to tell him he was mean for
intentionally flaunting our relationship in front of Gavin. At the
same instant, heat flared within me, sizzling through my veins. I
wished desperately that we weren’t being watched. I wanted to wrap
my legs around him and let him carry me to bed so we could make out
for a while before sleep finally claimed us. “I wish you were
staying,” I mumbled against his lips.

Reluctantly, he tore his lips away
from mine. “Next time,” he whispered. His breathing was heavy and
his voice was husky; this kind of behavior was dangerous for us. I
knew how hard it was for him to wait for me, but I didn’t really
want him to wait. I was totally all right with sex, even though I’d
never had it before. Drew, on the other hand, felt that we must
wait until I turned eighteen.

I didn’t really think it was that big
of a deal one way or the other.

Standing there—wrapped up in his arms,
knowing he wanted me so badly—I realized something. If what Anthony
said about the killing the bloodlines was true, I could possibly
die a virgin. Yeah … that was so not going to happen.

“
I have to go.” Drew pulled
himself back, putting some space between us. “Christina’s
waiting.”

I nodded. “Yeah, you should
go.”

~~***~~

I woke the next morning feeling the
aches and pains I felt every single day. Hunting vampires was
really tough on the body. Even though we trained all the freaking
time, when I fought with vampires I always ended up with a ton of
bumps and bruises. Even with my superior healing I was always sore
the next morning.

By the time I managed to drag myself
out of bed, shower, and throw some clothes on, Drew and Luke had
already arrived and were sitting in the living room chatting.
Actually, the entire group was in there lounging on the couches and
eating some kind of yummy looking pastries that Alice had
made.

Luke, Drew, Alice, Zander, Christina,
Oscar, and Gavin all looked up when I hurried into the room. “Why
didn’t anyone wake me?” I demanded. “You shouldn’t have let me
sleep so long.”

Luke stood as I hurried into the room
and opened his arms for a hug. I rushed over and wrapped my arms
around my grandfather. I missed him so much. There were a lot of
downsides to living in his little house, especially when Alice and
Oscar were crowded into the small space with us, but I often wished
I was able to get back onto the community and go home.

“
Ah, Chloe! I’ve missed you
so much.”

“
I’ve missed you, too,” I
told him honestly. “I wish we could come back home.”

He nodded. “As do I.” He looked to
Alice. “Has there been any progress with finding a way to break the
shield?”

Alice had had a smile on her face, but
it fell as soon as Luke brought up Arcadia Falls and the shield.
“No,” she shook her head and her blonde ponytail bobbed all over
the place, “I’ve been searching all of the spell books trying to
find the right one. Nothing has worked so far. I’m trying,
though.”

He smiled with understanding. However,
the reality of it was that she wasn’t trying all that hard. The
group had had numerous discussions about the subject and we all
decided that it was actually better if we left the barrier up.
Leaving it up would protect the Hunters within from being attacked,
and that was one less thing we had to worry about. Zander and I
being unable to get through was a small worry at this
point.

Luke released me and rubbed his hands
together. “So, I hear that you have some news. Let’s hear
it.”

He returned to the recliner he had
been sitting in and I found a spot between Drew and Alice on the
couch. As I squeezed myself into the tiny space, I caught Gavin
staring at me. Our eyes locked and he gave me a small smile, but I
saw hurt swimming in the depths of his pretty green
irises.

He still insisted that he would fight
for me, but since the vampires had taken over everyone sort of had
bigger priorities than our love lives. Gavin and Drew still had a
lot of issues to sort out and it wasn’t going to be something that
happened overnight. Drew harbored so much jealously and anger
toward Gavin because of their mother. She had abandoned Drew and
his father so that she could be with Gavin and his father. She was
not a nice lady, and I would never say it to his face, but I knew
without a doubt that Drew was a lot better off without her in his
life. Gavin turned out all right, but she loved him, and from what
I could see, she didn’t really care that much about Drew at
all.

Everyone was waiting for one of us to
tell them what was going on, so Drew took the initiative and
recapped Anthony’s story about how the first vampires were made and
the remaining bloodlines, leaving out the last part about Zander
and I being part of Anthony’s own line. His gaze flicked over to
Luke, since Luke was his mentor and one of the elder
Hunters.

It wasn’t often that I saw Luke
surprised, but his jaw was slack and his eyes wide. “An end to the
vampires. It … could it really be possible?”

I nodded. “If what Anthony says is
true, then yes, it’s totally possible.”

“
There are a few things we
need to discuss before we get too excited, though.” Drew rubbed his
forehead like he always did when he was stressed out. “First of
all, he only knows where Korina is. That is only one bloodline, but
it can still take out a huge majority of them.”

Christina had gotten up during his
story and stood by the window, flipping her giant knife around like
a baton. “Well, I don’t understand why we don’t just take out
Anthony, too.”

“
Good question,” Drew
complimented her. “Two reasons, one is that he can help us find the
remaining vampires, since he knows them. The second reason is a bit
more complicated. We can’t prove it, but Anthony says that Trevor
was of his line, which in turn …”

“
Makes Chloe and I at risk
to die if you kill him,” Zander finished for him.

I nodded. “Yes. Exactly.”

“
Shit.” He bowed his head
down into his hands.

Gavin spoke up before anyone else had
the chance. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. We can’t risk
it.”

“
We risk our lives every
day,” I told him. “Each time we leave this house to go fight the
vampires we take the chance that we might not come
back.”

Luke shook his head. “No, it doesn’t
matter. Anthony stays alive then.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “We
don’t even know if he is telling the truth about this. He could be
making it up just to save himself.”

Gavin glared at me. “Not. Gonna.
Happen.”

I sighed. I knew they were all going
to feel like this. “Another thing we haven’t thought about is that
Zander and I are only half vampire, the concept of the line falling
might not work on us because we were born, not made.”

“I can probably find a blood spell
somewhere, but we won’t be able to do it unless we can get some of
his blood. That will determine if Chloe, Zander and Anthony share
the same bloodline.”

Alice appeared thoughtful as she
spoke, as if she were already searching the spell books in her
mind

“
You can do that kind of
thing.” Christina questioned, her eyes wide.

Alice nodded. “Of course.”

Oscar leaned forward and flipped the
pages of one of the magazines on the coffee table. “It’s strange
that he would want to help in the first place.”

“
I thought the same thing,”
Drew agreed. “I feel that he is genuine in wanting to get rid of
the other lines. He says he is willing to give himself up, but he
did go through some trouble to find Chloe and let her know that if
he dies then she possibly could, too. That sounds like something a
person would do to protect themselves.”

Luke held his hands up. “Let’s take
this one step at a time. The first thing we should concentrate on
is finding the other lines. We can worry about Anthony Christos and
his bloodline later. For now, we have the opportunity to take out,
at the very least, one other line. If Dahlia is of Korina’s line,
this should eliminate a large majority of the vampires who have
taken over the city.”

Drew raised his eyebrows. “So, we go
to New Orleans?”