Chapter 7
We get back to Hunters’ house at 3 am. He really should’ve left the porch light on or something because it’s so dark out I trip going up the back steps.
“I swear I left the porch light on,” Hunter says as he opens the screen door.
“I turned it off,” Mercedes confesses. “The lesser the people that know we live here, the better.”
Hunter raises his eyebrows at her but doesn’t say anything to her. Instead, he turns to me when he turns on the living room light. “You’re welcome to stay here tonight.”
I give it some thought, but I really want to sleep in my own bed in my own pajamas tonight instead of his couch. “I think I’m gonna go home for the night, but thanks.”
Hunter frowns. “You won’t be able to stay at home much longer. Mixing family life and werewolf life gets much harder as time goes on. I should know. I’ve been one since I was 5.”
I was taken aback. I didn’t know he’d been one that long. “At least until I finish high school. Plus, I don’t have much of a family life anyway.”
Hunter doesn’t look convinced.
“Well, I’m going to bed. I hope I don’t see you tomorrow,” Mercedes announces, and she gives me a huge fake grin, showing of perfect white teeth. I’m tempted to attack her. Her stiletto boots click on the metal stairs as she goes up and her short black hair bounces around her head. It only increases my temptation to attack her.
Adam takes my hand and I realize for the first time his hand is rough and warm. Must be side effects of shifting. “Come on. I’m gonna go home too.”
“Come back tomorrow. Orion will be here,” Deon says. He’s obviously spending the night but I know he lives with his dad somewhere downtown Portland.
“See you later. I’ll give you your clothes tomorrow,” Victoria says, and she gives me a hug. I hug her back kind of awkwardly and pull away as Adam leads me toward the door.
Anker pops something into his mouth. “You just survived your first shift,” He grins and crashes on the couch.
Hunter disappears into the kitchen then Adam slams the door behind us and we’re out in the cold night air once again. Or morning air.
We walk along the path back to our houses in silence at first until I come up with something to say. Things are a little different between us now.
“So Hunter’s been a werewolf since he was five?” I ask.
Adam snaps his head up like he’d been sleeping. “Um, yeah. He ran away when he was like 13. His parents made a big deal about it. I think there’s still a billboard in Brookings that says “Help find Hunter Riordan.”
“Wow,” I say because I have no idea what else to say. I would’ve asked Hunter himself but I’d feel like that would be crossing some forbidden line.
We’re silent again until we get to the wooden fence behind our houses. He opens the gate for me and closes it when we’re both through.
I turn to him. “What about Blaine?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. No one knows really. He’s mysterious. See you tomorrow?”
Talk about lack of information. “Yeah, tomorrow.”
“Stay safe, “He says, then makes his way to the front door of his house. I stand here, taken aback. Did I do something wrong? He acts like he’s mad at me. I swear I’ll never figure him out.
I wander into my dark, empty house; nobody’s home. I disappear for a couple of days and they still go to work and come home like any other normal day. I wonder what would’ve happened if I had never came home. If I would’ve just stayed at Hunters’.
I jog up the stairs, suddenly very tired, and I start when I throw open my door.
Dwayne is sitting on my windowsill, holding a long, slender, silver knife.
He looks at me calmly with a slight grin. “Hello, Tess.”
“What are you dong in here?” I demand. He is not allowed in my room. And I just decided no one is.
He stands up, running two fingers along the blade of the knife. “I think we both know the answer, don’t we?”
The moonlight shining in from my window makes his combed back blonde hair look even blonder and his face look pale and porcelain.
Pale and porcelain.
Shit. He’s a vampire. How is it I never noticed before? He walks, talks, and looks perfect. Not to mention he does not look thirty-six. He looks like he’s twenty.
He walks toward me slowly and I back away along the wall, feeling for something that I can use to defend myself. It’s not like I keep weapons in my room so I’m gonna have to improvise. Really improvise. Like shove an eyeliner pencil in his eye or hit him in the head with a book.
“I tried to protect you,” he starts, lightly hitting the knife in the palm of his hand. I still can’t believe how good my night vision is. “Sending you away was the only choice but I had to get your mother to agree. So I made you seem troubled by using compulsion and simple scenarios, like breaking the vase. I was only trying to keep you safe from the wolves.”
“Oh, so this is about the war between vampires and werewolves? Nice of you to stick me in the middle,” I retort, and my hand brushes the edge of a book. Looks like that’s my weapon. I better keep him talking.
He shakes his head. “The only way I could get to the wolves is to bring them to me or get you out of the way. So I tried both. But those werewolves are too stupid to figure out the murderer was a vampire. They kept thinking it was a human. They should know by now that the bite marks heal within minutes,” he explains through gritted teeth.
I stop and stare. “You were the one who killed all those girls in Salem and Portland?”
“Of course, my dear. They were all half-werewolves too. Turns out those werewolves don’t know how to identify their own kind!” He chuckles in a teasing tone.
“I’ve been living with a murderer. How could you do this?” the set of realization sets in. He is gone a lot, and he never seems to eat anything. And everyone knows vampires and dogs do not get along so that’s probably why he got rid of my dog. Hate starts to rise in me and burn toward him and my heartbeat speeds and my muscles began to ache. I try to calm myself down. But…if I’m in wolf form I can tell the others. But they’re not in wolf form right now so that idea’s off.
He stops laughing and steps directly in front of me. So close I can feel his cold breath on my face, his black eyes almost glowing. “I did what I had to do to protect you from the wolves. But then you go get yourself turned into one! Filthy dogs. It’s my job to kill you now,” He hisses. I see his fangs and a flash of silver. I grab the book and I slam it into the side of his head. He’s caught by surprise and stumbles to the side, throwing his hand out to catch himself.
I scramble to the door as fast as I can but he grabs my ankle and I fall forward, slamming into the wood floor. I see stars before my eyes but not for long. He drags be backward into the room and I try to kick him but as embarrassing as it is, I can’t reach.
He yanks me upright but he shoves me into my make-up table at full force and it breaks in half. Pain jars up my spine and I hit the floor along with all my make-up, a pile of books, and bottles of body spray.
He holds the knife in a position ready to do some stabbing. I break off one of the make-up table legs with surprising strength and hold it out as a shield. Wood kills vampires.
“You shouldn’t even bother fighting back, Tess. I always win,” Dwayne mocks with a twisted grin.
“Not this time,” I say. I can already feel myself shifting.
The shift isn’t as painful this time and I see a flicker of fear in Dwayne’s face but it doesn’t last long. The wood floor cracks and bows when my paws make contact with it and I bare my teeth at him. I’m probably three times his size now but he’s got a lot more experience at this than me. I wish he’d turn the light on. It’d be easier.
I slash my claws across his chest with all my strength and he stumbles back and actually trips over the corner of my bed and lands on my side table. It breaks too. The lamp shatters on the floor and I’m pretty sure my iPad won’t work anymore. He jumps up and crosses the room in one quick move. He blocks the door.
“Gonna have to try harder than that. You’re just a rookie; I’ll still win.”
I launch myself at him and he sprints downstairs at an inhuman pace. I follow, breaking the doorjamb as I enter the living room. I stop behind the couch; I don’t see him anywhere.
“Told you so,” he says from my right and he kicks me in the ribs so hard I whimper in pain and slide across the floor into the corner of where the wall meets the door to the kitchen. My nose hits the edge of the entertainment center and the flat screen TV topples forward and hits the floor with a sparking thud. Blood fills my mouth and I spit it out. This guy is strong.
“Hurts don’t it? You’ll be easier to kill when you’re already too distracted with the pain,” he sneers as he comes to stand above me. I stare up at him hard, desperately wishing I could speak.
I jump up and lunge at him with both claws out aiming for his chest. My claws sink in and we both hit and destroy the coffee table. Glass and wood flies everywhere. I bark in his face and I hesitate too long to make another move. He pushes me off and I fly backward and hit the couch. It topples over backward and my claw rips a hole in the cushion. He comes at me and I lunge at him again and we slide into the kitchen. We’re gonna destroy the whole house. That’s not good. But I can’t let him kill me too. He’ll go after Adam and Deon, and Hunter and Anker, and even Blaine and little Victoria. I wouldn’t care about Mercedes. I can’t let him do that.
I sink my claws into him again and hurl him into the kitchen cabinets. Doors fall off and dishes fall out and shatter on the floor. He leaves a dent in the framework. He jumps over the table at me and at the last second, I dive out of the way. He crashes into the wall behind me and the clock falls down on his head. At least mom’s not home. She’d be pissed.
Dwayne’s starting to look a little doubtful. He looks downright determined to win now and he lost the twisted grin and replaced it with a twisted frown.
“Theresa?” moms worried voice sounds from outside the door and I turn around quickly and alarmed, but no ones there.
Dwayne jumps on me and sinks the silver knife into my ribs.
Pain flares along every inch of my body, so much pain that it blinds me. I howl and it turns into a scream as I shift back into human form. I fall to the floor, unable to hold my self up. The pain is unbearable. Tears sting my eyes and my hands find the hilt of the knife sticking out just above my hip bone. It’s sticky.
I see a blurred Dwayne standing over me with that twisted grin again, saying something but the pain blocks it out. I can’t think. I can’t see. I can’t hear. All I can do is feel this burning hot pain that’s radiating from the knife and shooting all over my body. I hear myself screaming from a distance.
Dwayne walks away.
Absent mindedly, my shaking hands grip the knife and pull it out. It creates even more pain but it ends as soon as the knife is out. I throw it away from me and sit up, my vision coming back into focus. I look at my hands which are wet with blood. The front of my sweater is sticky with blood and it still hurts, but not as bad. Blood blossoms over the floor and my jeans. The sight of it sickens me. I sway when I get up and I limp into the living room; I can’t put weight on my left ankle for some reason. I grab one of the wooden coffee table legs out of the mess. Dwayne is on the phone by the door. He’s not a very good vampire. He should be able to sense me.
“Hey,” I say hoarsely.
Dwayne whips around in shock and I shove the wood into his heart. He falls down but I don’t stick around to see what happens to him. I rush out the door, leaving it open behind me, and run to Adam’s house where I throw open the door.
“Adam!” I yell, and the wound flares up and I double over.
Adam is next to me in a second, looking freaked out. I would be too if someone covered in blood just burst through my door.
“What happened?” he takes my hands away from the wound and gasps. “Silver knife…who did this?”
I meet his eyes and the room sways. “Dwayne. It was my step-dad, Adam. He killed all those girls. He’s a vampire. He tried to kill me and he was gonna come after you guys next,” my voice sounded small and weak. I must be losing a lot of blood.
He picks me up carefully and runs into the living room where he sets me on the couch. He’s back not a second later with a first aid kit and a little bottle of brown liquid. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of flannel pajama pants that hung low on his waist. He looked like a really ripped sun-tanned god. If the pain wouldn’t make me pass out, he would for sure.
He works quickly. He rolls up my sweater to reveal the wound and I look away and squeeze my eyes tightly shut.
“Open your eyes,” he says softly. I do, but slowly. He dumps the brown liquid stuff on me and the wound stings, but it dulls the pain. He opens the first aid kit and dumps some hydrogen peroxide on a Kleenex. He wipes all the blood away from the wound and it stings more. He dumps some more brown stuff on it and the sting dies down, and the pain is reduced to just an annoying throb. I realize I’d been holding my breath.
He tapes gauze to it and rolls my sweater back down, “What’s that brown stuff?” I ask, finding my voice.
“It’s just some medicine that heals wounds caused by silver, only available to werewolves. Hunter gave it to me,” he meets my eyes, “Where is Dwayne now?”
I stare at him for a while and then I look away. “On the floor of my living room with a wooden stake in his chest.”
He squints and almost smiles. “A wooden stake?”
“Well, one of the legs from the coffee table.”
“And you did this after you got this?” he gestures to the wound.
I nod. “Yeah. It was hard.”
He looks at me, almost in admiration, but the look fades into something like realization. “We need to get out of here. Out of town. We can’t be here when someone discovers him. We’ll go to Hunters’ first and tell him though.”
“Leave town?” I’m not sure I like the sound of that.
Adam gets up and sets the first aid kit on his make-shift coffee table, “You still have your motorcycle right?”
Okay, maybe I do like the sound of this. But I have to call my mom and Carmen when we get to Hunters’.
“It’s in the garage. I’ll have to get the keys from Dwayne’s’ desk.”
He nods. “Pack a bag with some of your stuff. Grab the keys and the bike. Meet me outside in twenty.”
He helps me up and I pop my ankle, which makes it feel a lot better. Must’ve been twisted. I go back to my house almost reluctantly.
Dwaynes’ body lies where I left it, except now he was all skeletal and gray. When vampires die, they decay to what they should’ve been if they hadn’t come back as a vampire when they died as a human.
In my room, I grab by big blue Adidas duffel bag and start throwing clothes into it. I pick all my make-up out of the wreckage and dump it in there along with my Converse and some flip flops. I peel off the sweater and replace it with a white tee and my Portland State sweatshirt. I pull on my black boots and throw my Jack Russell Terrier stuffed animal that’s Jumpers’ replacement and a couple of books. I put my phone in my pocket and take one last look around. This is probably the last time I’ll see my room. It’s a wreck now. I saved what I could. If only I could save my Taylor Lautner poster but I wouldn’t fit in the duffel.
I run down the hall and into Dwayne’s office. I reach my hand all the way to the back of the middle drawer and grab my motorcycle keys. There’s a bag of wolfsbane next to it. Can’t believe I never noticed that either. There’s a label on it.
I run back downstairs, jumping over random pieces of broken furniture, and throw open the garage door. I tare the cover off my motorcycle and jump on, shoving the key into the ignition. It starts right away and I turn it around. The garage door opens (it opens when it senses movement). I zoom down the darkened driveway, wind whipping my hair, just as Adams comes down his. He carries a backpack that no doubt carries one of his X-Boxes. I stop at the edge of the driveway and scoot back against my strapped in duffel. He’s driving tonight.
He straps his backpack on top of my duffel and hops on in front. I wrap my arms around his waist and we zoom off down the street, the sunrise beckoning us.