Blood Awakening Read online

  “Someone wanna tell me what the hell that was?” Erik this time, puffed up and ready to fight. “Or are we gonna pretend that Lover Boy isn’t a crazed vampire who could rip our throats out?”

  “‘Lover Boy’ is still in the room.” We all turned and stared at Chance, who had sneaked back into the living room like a stealthy undead ninja. “Kayla.” He crossed the room and took Kayla’s hand, pulling her away from me. “I’m so, so sorry,” he said, still holding her hand. I was admittedly a little jealous that he was showing a girl he never much liked more affection than me. I was pathetic.

  “I’m fine,” Kayla said again, though this time, not so confidently. “Really.”

  “Okay.” Chance let her go then, and she timidly moved away from him. The four of us stood motionless, spread out across the expanse of the room like sworn enemies. My eyes kept darting from Chance to Erik and back, just waiting for one or both of them to start something. “I’m sorry,” Chance said to the entire room. “I would never hurt you guys.” He cut his eyes toward Erik. “Well, most of you.”

  “Bring it on, corpse.” Erik was fuming, that was obvious. But I also noticed the tiniest bit of fear lurking behind that bad-boy facade. He wasn’t as confident with his vampire-hunting skills as he pretended to be.

  “Enough, you two,” Kayla said, crossing the room and taking a seat on the sofa. She began rummaging through the papers she had been so eager to show me when we arrived. “That’s not what we’re here for.”

  “She’s right,” I added, joining her on the couch. “We need to find her dad.”

  “We?” Erik asked, pointing across the room at Chance, who hadn’t moved.

  “Yes, Erik, we.” I was so over the tension and machismo he was tossing out. “We all care about Kayla. We all wanna help her.”

  “Well, you’re right about that.” Erik came and sat down across from us, leaning forward with interest, his elbows on his knees. Even now, in the worst of situations, he looked sinfully good.

  “So, where did you get this?” I asked Kayla as I picked up the credit card invoice she had shown me earlier.

  “It was in a big stack of my dad’s mail that never got opened. I was digging through his things last night, looking for anything that could maybe help us, when I found it.”

  “Okay,” Erik said. “We know he made it to Boston. We know he had ice cream. We know anything else?”

  “Not really,” Kayla said. “Just what the lady at the university told us. That he never made it to his lecture.”

  “You guys went to Boston?” Chance’s voice actually startled me. He had stood quietly in the corner while the three of us went over where we stood with our search, so to hear him speak was unexpected. He took a couple steps in our direction, but still kept a respectable distance.

  “Sure did,” Erik said, a smug tone and sly smile carrying his words. “We had a great time at the hotel.” He leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms behind his head. “Too bad you couldn’t join us.” I cut my eyes at him, begging him like a silent movie damsel in distress to shut the hell up. He didn’t. “Of course, our room was probably too small for such a big…ego.”

  I could practically taste Chance’s disdain from across the room.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall behind him. “I’m actually surprised they could fit in the same room with such a big…asshole.”

  Erik smiled. “Takes one to know one, isn’t that what they say?”

  “Do they?” Chance wasn’t smiling back.

  “Knock it off,” I snapped, so infuriated at how rude they were being in Kayla’s house. Erik was the first to back down.

  “Sorry,” he said, throwing his hands up in surrender.

  “It was a waste of a trip,” Kayla said, looking over at Chance. “We didn’t find out anything more than before we went.” She took the credit card paper from me and studied it. I felt so bad for her. I knew how desperately she wanted to find her father, how much it was killing her not to know anything about what happened to him or where he was. I wished I could help her somehow.

  “It wasn’t a waste,” I said to her. “We found out he didn’t make it to the university.”

  “I already knew that much.” More useless paper shuffling.

  “No, you thought that much. You weren’t for sure.” I took her hand in mine, giving it a tiny squeeze. “It’s progress, Kayla.”

  “Speaking of progress,” Erik piped up from across the table. “How’s the vampire killing going?” He grinned again and cut his eyes at Chance. “I know how you can up the body count.” He was such a boy sometimes.

  “Why don’t you try and do it for her.” Chance moved toward Erik, who was on the verge of starting up again.

  “Why don’t both of you go outside and kill each other. We have stuff to do in here.” I was past the point of over it, and I honestly didn’t care if either of them was there at that moment.

  Kayla leaned in and whispered in my ear. “You have to admit, it’s kinda hot they’re both fighting over you.” A quick squeeze of my hand and she was back to the stack of papers strewn across the coffee table.

  “Ha ha,” I said, though the thought had crossed my mind—which made me as much of an inconsiderate jerk as Chance and Erik were being.

  “Nah,” Erik finally said, leaning back in the chair. “Too easy.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna embarrass him in front of everybody,” Chance said.

  “Fine. Then be quiet and help us figure out what to do here.” I looked from one to the other, silently begging them to let it rest.

  “Sounds like we need to go back to Boston.” Finally, Erik offered something useful.

  “I agree,” I said. “I think we can do more from there than from here.”

  “I don’t know,” Kayla said, getting up from the sofa and pacing the room. “We don’t really have a lot to go on. And you guys said we should come back home and regroup or whatever. Is it really worth another trip?” Even though her words were revolting against the idea, her eyes were pleading with us to say yes.

  “Yes, it’s worth another trip,” I said, shuffling papers myself. “And we did regroup.” I scooped up the credit card statement and waved it in the air. “See, a lead.” Kayla smiled. “So we’re going.” I crossed the room and stood next to her. “We can go by that ice cream shop with a picture. Maybe somebody there will remember seeing him. It’s worth a shot.”

  “Okay.” She sounded a bit happy and excited—though trying to remain stoic and unaffected. “So when do we leave? I mean, we have school all week.”

  “Let me handle that part,” Chance said, looking at Kayla—and not me. “I owe you one.”

  “You owe her about fifty.” Sometimes my mouth spoke without my brain knowing it.

  He finally looked at me, his expression stern. “Yeah, well, I’ll work on that.” I hated the tension between us, the fact that we couldn’t even be in the same room without upsetting each other. Or, rather, I upset him. Clearly he was ticked off that I hadn’t jumped for joy at the idea of becoming a full vampire with him—forever. I hadn’t said no, but I hadn’t said yes, either.

  “How are you gonna ‘handle’ it?” I asked, ticked off at his rudeness.

  “You’ll see.” A crooked grin (that reminded me so much of Human Chance) and the conversation was over.

  Kayla and I made it to school Monday morning just as the first bell for homeroom rang. I barely had enough time to sprint to my seat (non-vampire sprinting, of course) before the second bell—the tardy one—sounded down the halls. Chance was already there, lightly tapping a pen on his notebook and grinning at me.

  “Try not to get in trouble today, okay?” He had leaned over and was whispering to me, the smooth sound of his voice almost lulling me to sleep.

  “Why not
?” It wasn’t like I was prone to getting into trouble—or that I went looking for it—but I didn’t like being told not to, either.

  “Because I have a plan.” He sat back in his desk, those jade eyes still staring at me, framed by just the right amount of dark hair curl. I was so in deep.

  “What plan?” I mouthed across the aisle after he pulled away, worried that Ms. Murray would catch me talking and send me to detention. Above all else, that was her favorite form of punishment. I never understood the appeal of detention to teachers. I would think sticking all the miscreants in one room would be a recipe for disaster.

  “You’ll see.”

  I “saw” during next period. Chance stopped at the front of the room to talk to our History teacher, Mr. Powell, while I wound my way to the last row of desks against the back wall and took a seat. A lot had changed over the past few months, but no way was I giving up primo seating. I couldn’t help keeping my eyes glued to Chance as he chatted it up with our teacher. His back was to me, but he talked a lot with his hands, so I was able to make out that he seemed to be asking for something. Mr. Powell’s face was curious, clearly contemplating whatever Chance was asking for. After nearly a full minute (which is a long time when you’re doing nothing but staring at someone) Chance made his way down the aisle, a smile on his face. He stopped just in front of my desk, a devious grin on his face, and I instantly got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “Come on,” he said with a whisper.

  “What?” I whispered back, confused as to why he wasn’t sitting down—especially since Mr. Powell had already begun the day’s lesson on traitors in American History.

  “We’re getting out of here.” He grabbed my hand (which I totally didn’t mind him doing) and practically pulled me from my desk. I did my best to gather my things without drawing more unwanted attention to myself. I half expected the entire class to turn and stare—or bludgeon us with notebooks and pens—as Chance dragged us out the back door of the room, but barely anyone noticed.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I asked once we were safely in the quiet of the empty hallway. “We’re gonna get in trouble.”

  “No we’re not, relax.” I stood wide-eyed as he fished his cell phone from his pocket and began texting someone. “I said I’d take care of getting us to Boston, right?”

  “Um, yeah.” I still wasn’t exactly sure what had just gone down, but seeing as how no one had burst into the hall to tell us to go to the principal’s office, I was slowly letting my guard down.

  “Well, I took care of it.”

  “What do you mean, you ‘took care of it’?”

  He finished up his text and stuck his phone back in his pocket. “I told Mr. Powell we had to go.”

  I almost laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” No response. “That’s your idea of taking care of it? Just telling our teacher we have to leave class?”

  “Not just class,” he said, that same grin on his face. “School. I told him we had to leave school. And not just us, Kayla too.”

  I did laugh this time. “We’re gonna spend the rest of the year in detention for this.”

  Chance had been scanning the halls, clearly waiting on something—or someone—but turned to face me. “Will you just chill out, Ava? We’re good, trust me. Nothing’s gonna happen to us.”

  “And what about next period? And the one after that?” I fought to keep my voice down. “Oh, and the three classes we have after lunch? Did you think about those?”

  “We’re cleared for the rest of the day, okay? Don’t worry about it.”

  Another expression of shock scurried across my face. “How did you manage to pull that off?”

  “A lot easier than I thought it would be,” he said just as Kayla came bounding down the hall with her backpack of books in tow. She was itching to leave and practically jumping for joy at the chance to search for her dad again.

  I was admittedly excited to help her, too—which is why it took a minute for what had really happened in Mr. Powell’s class to register with me. I turned on Chance. “You used compulsion?” Though we were alone in the hallway, I was barely whispering.

  “Wow,” Kayla said, “you can compel people?” Clearly she didn’t share my desire for keeping things quiet; her voice carried like a pigeon.

  I smacked her n the arm. “Why don’t you see if Principal Arnett will let you use the intercom system? You know, save that singing voice.”

  “Cute,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You have noticed we’re alone, right?”

  “I thought the same thing a few months ago,” I threw back. “You know, when a certain Goth Girl cornered me against a sink.” I was referring to the day Kayla had seen my fangs in the school courtyard.

  She smiled. “Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that.”

  “Yeah. So let’s try and keep it down.” I turned to Chance, who had caught Kayla’s Ready-to-Skip-School bug. “So, you compelled Mr. Powell into letting us leave school?” A quick nod. “Any clue how he’s gonna react when it wears off and we’re nowhere to be seen? And how is he gonna convince the rest of our teachers that we’re not just skipping?”

  “Wow, never thought that far ahead.” His sarcasm was annoying. “Relax, I’ve got it under control. I’ll keep it going until we’ve done what we need to do and we’re back at school.”

  “You can do that?” I asked, totally clueless as to how the whole vampire compulsion thing really worked. Aldric had offered to teach me, but I never wanted to learn, never wanted to use that ability. Now, I wished I had at least let my Creator teach me the basics.

  “Yeah,” Chance said, as nonchalantly as if he were answering a survey or something. “It’s not the most pleasant feeling in the world, but I can do it.”

  “You mean, it actually hurts when you do it?” Kayla asked.

  Chance shrugged. “It doesn’t really hurt. More like a bad headache.” Without planning it, the three of us began walking toward the front exit. “But it goes away as soon as I stop.” I couldn’t help but notice that Chance, the boy who was completely against vampires and their entire world, knew more about my new life than I did. The fact that he seemed to be more and more accepting each day of things that had happened was really starting to scare me.

  “Don’t suppose you can do multiple compulsions?” Kayla asked once we made it to the parking lot and were standing next to her mom’s Volvo. “You know, in case we get into trouble in Boston?”

  “Don’t know,” Chance said, lingering back and away from me. If there was ever an award for King of Mixed Signals, he would win it, no contest. “Aldric didn’t go that far into my training.”

  “Wait,” I said, “he trained you?”

  “Who else would have?”

  Well, he had a point there.

  “I…I’m just surprised, that’s all. That you were willing to listen to him, considering.” And I truly was surprised. Aldric definitely wasn’t on Chance’s list of favorite people, living or undead.

  “Didn’t really have a choice anymore.” He lowered his eyes to stare at the tiny rocks scattered across the dark asphalt of the parking lot, absentmindedly kicking at them with his feet. He never looked more human, and I never felt more like a monster.

  “Sorry.” I, too, looked away, mainly because I hated myself in that moment, and didn’t want my friends to see just how much.

  “Ookay,” Kayla said, unlocking the car and tossing her bag into the backseat. “Why don’t we save this dance for later, huh?” I cut my eyes at her. “Let’s just focus on this trip.”

  “We don’t even know what it is we need to do once we get there.” I was thankful for the subject change. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “Come on, Ava,” Kayla piped up. “It was your idea to go to Boston.”

  “Actually, it was Erik’s,” I said. “Who of course isn’t here to speak up
.”

  “I’m sure he’d be all for it.” Kayla was right. If Erik was one thing, it was adventurous.

  “I just have a bad feeling about this trip.” My mind was swimming with possibilities—none of them good: We could get into a car accident; someone could go missing; vampires could swarm the city and kill tons of innocent people because of me. Fun times.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Chance said. “Nothing’s gonna happen.”

  “I think we need some help.” I hated to admit it, but having an extra set of compulsion hands would really take the pressure off.

  “What do you mean?” Kayla asked. “Like who?”

  “I think we should get Aldric involved.” She just stared at me, so I used her own logic against her. “You know, in case we get into trouble in Boston?”

  She smiled. “Touché.”

  “You can’t,” Chance said. “Aldric’s gone.”

  “What do you mean, he’s gone?” I asked. “Gone where?”

  “No idea. I found a note this morning. Says he has some things to take care of, and he’ll be back as soon as he can.”

  “Well that’s just great.” I threw my hands into the air. “Why would he leave at a time like this?”

  “A time like what?” Chance asked. “We don’t need him, Ava. I can handle this.”

  “If something goes wrong, we might need him to help fix it.”

  “So you think I’m gonna screw things up?”

  “I didn’t say that.” I took a pause to collect my thoughts before saying something that would just piss him off more. “It’s just that you’ve never compelled someone before, Chance. And we have no idea what might happen. I just think having him involved would be a good thing, that’s all.”

  “Well, he can’t be. End of story.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll meet you guys at your house in an hour.” And with that, he turned and crossed the parking lot toward his truck.

  “Wow,” Kayla said over the roof of the car. “What got his fangs in a pickle?”

  “He’s pissed at me.”