“Did you see this?” I asked, producing the paper.
I read the article out loud as we drove back to his house. Authorities were trying to figure out why and where hundreds of college and high school students had disappeared to from the local schools. They’d enacted another county-wide curfew, like they had last September, and people were advised to keep tabs on their children at all times, especially after dark. Unexplainable stories of people being taken right before their eyes sickened my stomach and I barely could finish the article.
I stared out the window and watched the trees zip by. “We have to do something.”
“Like?” His blasé attitude didn’t sit well with me.
“I don’t know. Stop the venom distribution at the source. Something.”
“Isn’t that what your Dad’s unit is here to do?”
“Yeah, but …” I studied his scowl, confused where the disdain stemmed from. “That was your passion once. You were ‘Dirty Harry’ and took care of things before they got out of hand.”
“Hmmm …” he said and stared out the front windshield. “Didn’t I do that last night?”
He had, but his anger towards the innocent being changed or murdered wasn’t as strong as before. His past relegated to mere words on paper that didn’t touch his heart, robbed from his memory by his mother all for a power grab. I hated her for it.
“You don’t care?”
“I do,” he turned to me, pained. “But after living in the dark for months, I finally found where I feel whole. And that’s with you, so I’m not leaving your side. I can’t lose you. Last night was grizzly, let me tell you. Night of the living dead.”
I looked at the floorboard. “Okay.” He gripped my hand like a lifeline, like I’d slip away from him if he let go. How could I complain? He cared most about me.
We arrived at his house and I still felt the tremendous bloodlust coming from inside. Sam, only three days sober, still wasn’t handling things well.
“I guess I’ll wait out here,” I said as Nicholas disappeared into the house to fetch his phone.
I ached to tell Phil everything and also let Sam know her mom was going crazy with worry over her. Well, maybe that wouldn’t be such a good thing to tell a blood-sick vampire right now. I leaned against the car and remembered the night before. Todd looked right through me like I was a piece of meat. And then running into Rochelle and the other guys from the football team. Who else would he change?
Nicholas came back quickly and frowned. “It needs to charge.”
“Oh.”
Of course.
What would Preston say once Nicholas called? Would he even care? We were in the middle of a practical apocalypse with a failing talisman, a forgetful guardian, a deadly best friend, a distracted ex-love interest, a missing accomplice, a fretful father, a sickly brother and a house full of ET geeks who specialized in paralleling their work to
Star Wars.
I was in huge trouble.
We had all day to plan a counter offensive, but Nicholas, mesmerizing me with his green glacial eyes only wanted to relax and spend time with me romantically. And I couldn’t fight it. If this was it, the time I’d accomplish my goal, the time I’d murder everyone I loved, I wanted to spend my last day on the beach with him, snuggled in his arms far away from the panic, listening to the waves crash and smelling the salty air.
“Okay,” I said. “You win.”
Nicholas ticked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I have a place I need to show you. A special place and we’ll block out the world for today. Sound good?”
“Should we bring lunch?”
I smiled. Some things I guess are ingrained, like good movies and the Ukrainian coat of arms.
The awe in Nicholas’ face made surprising him with our own private beach even more exciting. We stood in the mouth of the sea cave once again and experienced the rush from the wind and the waves. Then he insisted we build a gigantic sandcastle using the shells we’d collected as decorations. While he built up the sand into a huge mound at lightning speed, I giggled, unsure which Nicholas I enjoyed more. The carefree one before me was much more relaxed and able to enjoy life, more so than his prior self.
When we finished, Nicholas built me a huge bonfire and we collapsed in exhaustion to admire our handiwork—our dream castle where we’d live happily ever after. I snuggled up against his chest and snacked on treats, watching the fog dissolve into fluffy filaments just offshore.
I couldn’t imagine a more perfect afternoon. Unfortunately, once we slowed our pace, my nagging conscience ran into overdrive with different plans. Nicholas didn’t seem to have a problem letting everything go, but I did. The coincidence of the insignia on the doctor’s office and the vials was too huge to ignore. Not to mention, we needed to find Todd and, though I didn’t want to do it, stake him before he used venom on anyone else. Something told me the dealer and the doctor were one and the same. I couldn’t leave all that responsibility in the hands of Dad’s ET unit.
“What are you worried about?” Nicholas asked, while pushing my damp bangs off my forehead. “You’ve got a little vessel bulging out here that says you’re thinking too hard.” His touch launched a ripple of luscious electricity down my spine.
“Stuff.”
“Why do I have this feeling that the old Nicholas wouldn’t be lounging here on the beach making sandcastles today?”
I gave a sly smile.
“Then what would I be doing?”
My smile faded. “Probably breaking into the doctor’s office.”
“Ah,” he said with a head tilt. “Would it make you happier if we did?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I pushed the sand around and buried my toes. “There’s something weird about that place and I think we should check it out.”
“If it will calm your fears, then let’s go. We’ll come back and finish our sand city later.”
I smiled half-heartily. “Okay.”
Once we drove closer to the building, I doubted the brilliance of my plan. Who were we to just waltz right inside? What would we say? And what kind of doctor did people think he was anyway? Was this Todd’s doctor? No doubt sensing my fear, Nicholas laced his hand with mine and squeezed.
We parked and walked around to the front of the building. I peered through the window; the waiting room looked normal and empty. But, lingering bloodlust hinted there were vampires nearby, possibly underground. I hesitated at the door, unsure how to warn Nicholas.
He rested his hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. I’m right here with you.”
The entrance connected a long windowless corridor to a door at the opposite end. But strangely, there wasn’t a door to the waiting room on our right. Was the room through the window a trick to make the office look like an actual clinic?
I spun around to stop our procession. My
spidey senses
were going off in my head as the door clicked closed behind us, extinguishing all the sunlight. Weak florescent lights flickered in the creepy hallway, tinting a green pallor over Nicholas’ face. My heart sped up. Why did I insist we come here?
“I’ve changed my mind,” I whispered as I reached around his torso and pulled on the door leading outside. Locked.
“Can I help you?” a woman’s voice said through the intercom from the other end of the hall.
“Um,” I said, tempted to say we got lost when a strong desire to tell the truth rushed through me instead. “We’re here to see Dr. Volynski.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
I frowned and looked to Nicholas for help. “No … we were just in the area.” He continued to exude a calmness I climbed under for security.
We waited for a long quiet minute.
“Come in,” she said with a chipper voice. The door ahead of us clicked open.
Against my better judgment, I opened the door. The waiting room inside wasn’t decorated like your typical doctor’s office. Rich crimson paint covered the walls to match the velvet couches and gold tapestries hung over darkened windows.
“Welcome,” a beautiful girl with long black hair at the dark mahogany desk said. Her sweet voice melted my fears. “Are you here to give blood?”
I gulped and crossed my arms over my chest. “Actually, I just want to see the doctor.”
Her brow rose. She typed with long black nails into the computer. “We don’t have any openings today, but I can schedule an appointment for tomorrow. Who referred you?”
“Todd McMullan.” His name popped out without a thought.
She radiated surprise, and then quickly became stoic as she studied the computer screen. I marveled at the convenience of hosting a blood bank. The perfect disguise for vampires to acquire the sustenance they needed with little to no attention. The fake storefront suddenly made sense. But did she know Todd? Had he warned her about the possibility of our arrival?
“Hmmm … He’s not in our computer, but that doesn’t surprise me.”
She touched an earpiece in her ear and a light illuminated on the top. “Yes, right away.”
“Here.” She pushed a clipboard toward me. “Fill this out. And we’ll need a blood sample.”
“A blood sample?” I backed up, knocking into Nicholas’ chest.
Her lips curled up auspiciously. “Why, yes. You’re here to have your blood analyzed, correct?”
I squinted. “Oh. I think there’s been a mistake.”
“There’s no mistake.” She pressed a green button on the desk and the door opened to the left. Another pretty girl with white blonde hair snapped a latex glove on her hand, a not-so-nice vampire.
“I’ll take your sample,” she purred.
My instincts screamed to run and hide, but I scrambled backward instead. “Um… I forgot to eat. I can’t.”
“You can’t leave without us procuring a sample,” the desk girl said with a shrug.
More vamps appeared, all ready to take my sample. Their growing feeding frenzy became deathly palatable. Someone screamed for Nicholas. Me. He cracked a chair to pieces and broke off the legs just as the blur of vampires jumped us. One fried from grazing my necklace and Nicholas finished off another with a chair leg. I flashed on the laser and waved my hand in a fast arc.
The blonde and the brunette sliced in half, along with a few others, and fell to the floor with a squeal for their lives. Smoke quickly filled the small room. I coughed, no longer able to breathe. A warm hand cupped mine and tugged me towards the closed door. Nicholas butted his shoulder hard against the wood, knocking it down, and I sailed behind him as he demolished the next set of doors. Sunlight poured through the permanently opened doorway and nabbed another poorly placed vamp.
We ran down the street to the car. I pulled in a cleansing breath to purge my lungs of dead vamp remains.
“What was that?” I squealed, daring to look back as Nicholas dragged me forward by the hand.
“I think we found the secret hideout.” Nicholas lead me to in the front seat and latched the seatbelt.
As we drove off, I worked hard to catch my breath. “Holy crap. I can’t believe I did that.”
Nicholas shook his head. “Me neither. Now what?”
“I don’t know. You usually know what to do. We need to alert someone. Do something.” I chewed on my fingernail. “We can’t let them get away.”
Nicholas slowed the car down and parked alongside the road. “Should we go back?”
“No. We aren’t prepared. We need weapons. Did you bring any?”
He reached over and warmed my shoulder with his hand. “My coat is at the house.”
“Should we talk to Phil? Maybe Sam—” I sucked the air between my teeth. “It’s not safe. We all need armor. And I don’t know if she’s cool with me or not.”
I mashed my lips together. From what I could feel, after the fight broke out, a lot of vamps were about to come to the rescue. We’d barely escaped alive. Best bet would be to go at sunset and stake them when they tried to leave, from a distance. Then Sam and Phil could join us after dark and finish off any that were hiding inside.
“What’s going on in that head of yours? The vein is back.”
I smiled and interlaced my hand with his. “Why don’t you take me home so I can check in with my dad and then call me so I can conference call with Sam and Phil. We need to come up with a plan because this is way over our heads.”
Nicholas hummed in agreement and drove me home.
“Julia Katherine Parker!” Dad barked, his famous sleeper wave eyebrows pinning me to where I sat on the edge of my bed, far away from ET ears. “I didn’t say go find the venom dealers. You killed eight of their people.”
I gaped at Dad. “How do you know already?”
“We’ve got the whole place under surveillance. Now they’re all in a panic and probably ready to leave tonight.” Dad paced the floor.
“How the heck was I supposed to know? I just saw the sign and walked in.”
He splayed his hand over his forehead and mumbled. “What am I going to do? We have to hurry and get everyone assembled to go in before sundown. We can’t risk losing
him
again.” He turned and pointed his finger. “You, young lady, will stay home until this is handled.”
“What?” I flopped back on my bed.
“It’s for your safety.” He headed for the door. “I’m telling the rest of the unit. They’ll know you can’t leave the house, no exceptions. Don’t disobey me.”
What am I, like five?
“Ooooh!” I balled my hands into fists and watched him close the door. It took all my strength to keep from knocking all my books from the shelf onto the floor and screaming bloody murder.
The phone rang from my pocket. Nicholas.
“Hey,” I said and slumped back onto the floor with a huff.
“What’s wrong?”
All I wanted to do was crawl into the phone and disappear to the other end, far away from everyone and everything. Why didn’t we just stay on the beach today?
“Our visit to the clinic ruined everything. Apparently the ETers have been staking out the place for some time. They’re packing up right now to ambush the doctor.”
“Parker!” I heard called jovially in the background. “Come over!”
Sam giggled shortly after. “I promise to keep my teeth to myself.”