Chapter 13
It seemed like hours I sat there, staring at Drake in my lap, the jagged branch still protruding from his stomach, but it was really much less. The snow piled up around us though, covering everything—us, the dead vampires, all the blood. My eyes felt dry and ached. I struggled to force my brain back into action. I wanted that awful branch out of him. I wanted him to rest in peace, and he very well couldn’t do that with a tree branch sticking out of him. I gently tugged it, somewhat glad that he couldn’t feel the pain that I’m sure it would have caused.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to him before flinging the branch into a nearby yard.
I didn’t know what to do next. I couldn’t just take him home and drop him off. The hysteria alone that it would cause would be bad for everyone. Maybe I should just put him in the car and drive until I found somewhere pretty and bury him there. His parents would just think he was missing. The least I could do was get us both out of the middle of the cul-de-sac before anyone noticed something was wrong. The bass was still pumping at Morgan’s. Lucky for the partiers that they hadn’t come outside—I didn’t even want to imagine how much more of a bloodbath it could have been.
I reached into Drake’s blood-soaked pockets. They were wet and heavy. I pulled out what I had been looking for— the key to the Hyundai. Before getting up, I pointed it at the car and pressed the button on the key fob, the flashing lights indicating that I’d unlocked it. I hoisted him easily into my arms and started to make my way towards the car. A chill spilled down my spine as I heard another familiar voice.
“Drake? Vicky? That you? Let’s go, this party’s lame.” Monty shouted from the front porch. The front door slammed shut and Monty and Lauryn struggled toward me through the deep snow.
“Dang, it snowed a lot while we were inside,” Lauryn said.
“What the hell, Vicky?” Monty sputtered as they got closer, taking in my tiny frame easily carrying Drake across the cul-de-sac. “What happened to Drake?”
“I don’t know what to say,” I said, breaking into a fresh round of sobs. And I didn’t. I needed to focus and look them in the eye and send them back into the party. Nothing I could say could possibly make this right in their minds.
Monty ran towards me, struggling to take Drake out of my arms. I held on tight and wouldn’t let him go. “No, it’s okay, let’s just get him in the car.”
He slid around in the snow and managed to fling the passenger door. I placed Drake’s body in to the seat, reclining it slightly so he wouldn’t slump over.
Lauryn started screaming the moment she reached the car. “Ohmygod what happened to him? Look at his stomach! Why is there a hole there! Is he breathing? Why isn’t he breathing?” The words tumbled from her lips like a waterfall, her shaking hands rising to her mouth in horror as she struggled to take in what was going on. “Is he dead?” She gasped and started to sob.
My own tears had finally ceased and my brain finally kicked in. I grabbed her arm and looked her in the eyes. I didn’t want to screw this up. “Lauryn, listen to me, everything is going to be okay, everything is fine. Drake is fine. I’m just going to take him home. Go back to the party.” Her eyes gave me the glazed look that was now so familiar.
“Go back to the party. Everything is fine,” she murmured and turned back towards the house. Monty grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him.
“What are you?” he whispered, his voice shaking. His normal jolly demeanor was gone. His cheerful features melted into a mask of fear. “Are you some kind of witch?”
I almost laughed at the suggestion. Everyone knew witches weren’t real. But then again, I never thought vampires were real either.
“Monty, I’m definitely not a witch. If I tried to explain it, I doubt in a million years that you’d believe me.” I double-checked that Drake was safely in the car and shut the door. I turned to Monty. “If you’ll just look at me really quick, you and Lauryn can go back to the party.”
“Come on Monty, let’s go back into the party, it’s cold out here,” Lauryn said, oblivious of Monty’s fear.
“Lauryn, just shut up for a minute!” He turned to shout at her, but continued to watch my every movement.
“Is he dead?” He glanced back at Lauryn who luckily didn’t seem to be paying attention.
I lowered my eyes. “Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I was being attacked. Drake tried to help me, but it backfired. Badly.” What did it matter? I was just going to make him forget anyway.
“Are you okay?” He looked me up and down.
I glanced down at myself and did a double take. I hadn’t realized I was covered in blood as well. Vinny’s. Drake’s.
“I’m fine, not a scratch.” I sighed.
“Who did that to him? That hole is huge.” His voice shook as he glanced through the car window.
“A vampire.”
Even in the heavy snow, I could still see his skin pale as he stepped back from me, still gripping Lauryn tight.
“And you?” he whispered.
I lowered my chin slowly.
Monty seemed to struggle to find his breath.
“I told you, you’d never believe it. Let me help you forget all about it.” I moved towards him, and he flinched.
“What are you going to do with him?” He nodded towards the car.
“I don’t know. Find a nice place to bury him, I guess. I’ll make it somewhere beautiful.” I reached out and touched his hand, surprised he didn’t pull away.
“Did he know?”
“Yes. We loved each other Monty, just so you know. I still love him. I know we had only just met, but there was something there, something so special that’s gone now and it’s all my fault.” I tried to focus on his eyes as mine filled with tears yet again.
“Did he ever drink your blood? Did you ever drink his?” He straightened up, losing some of his fearfulness.
“What? What the hell does that matter?” I stopped crying and gave him a funny look.
“If someone dies with vampire blood in their system, they’ll return as a vampire,” he said, some excitement creeping into his voice. “Or even sometimes if they’ve been bitten by a vampire. He might come back, Vicky!”
“How do you know that?” I asked, pulling him closer to me.
“It’s in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We’re reading it in English.” He looked me in the eyes. “Don’t make me forget Vicky, I want to help.”
“What?” My mind still raced from the revelation he’d just delivered. I had given my blood to him earlier, and after he’d been hurt. He had plenty of it tonight. What if he was right? Drake might wake up from this horrible nightmare. I let go of Monty and rubbed my palm on my forehead. He’d wake up from this nightmare and be in mine. But if he was wrong, I mean, Stoker was just some author from a hundred years ago. What did he really know?
“You really think this will work?” I looked back down at Drake’s face through the snowy window. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully.
“Well, before today I would’ve said no, but now that I’ve met a real vampire, I’m going to go ahead and guess it’s a real possibility.”
“Are we going to go back inside?” Lauryn asked, giving us both annoyed looks.
“No, we’re going to my house.” Monty walked around me and opened the back door of the Hyundai. He crawled into the back seat, careful not to disturb Drake.
Lauryn seemed oblivious to Drake in the front seat and said forlornly, “It’s just that I really, really wanted to go back to the party.”
“No you didn’t. That party sucked,” said Monty. He reached over her to slam the door shut. I walked around to the driver’s side and climbed in. I made sure Drake was buckled in so he wouldn’t go sliding around and gently touched his face. I almost expected his long eyelashes to flutter open, but they were still. My f
ractured heart held out hope that Monty and Bram Stoker had it right and my Drake would rise again. At least he wouldn’t awaken alone in a graveyard.
We slid through the quiet Bartlett streets, taking every turn carefully so Drake wouldn’t be disturbed, even though he wouldn’t notice. The Hyundai struggled to get through the deep snow, which was yet to be plowed. I held my breath at points. There was no way we could do with getting stranded. Luckily it held on and powered through. We pulled up in front of Monty’s house. It sat dark and silent.
“Okay, you guys stay here. I’ve gotta check that the parentals are still out.” He leaped out of the car and sprinted through the deep snow to the garage door. It opened after he punched in a code on the garage door keypad and he disappeared into the house. Based on the missing car in the garage, I guessed the parentals were indeed still out on the town.
I glanced down at the clock. It was only ten. It felt like it was five in the morning.
Monty returned and we argued for a moment about how to get Drake into the house. I insisted on carrying him and carefully removed him from the car. Lauryn followed along behind.
“Be sure to bring the cooler in,” I said to Monty as I tried not to lose my footing in the snow while carrying Drake in my arms.
“What’s his problem? Drunk?” She followed me into the house. Monty moved Drake’s car down the street.
I struggled to fit his body through the narrow hallway off the garage and managed to bang his head into the wall twice. I cringed, happy that he wouldn’t remember. Lauryn and I trudged into the kitchen. I sat Drake on the floor and leaned him against the wall.
Lauryn glanced down again and her calm demeanor melted away to horror again. “Wait! He’s not drunk! What happened to him? Vicky, he’s hurt!” She threw a wild gaze at me and looked back to Drake, dropped to his side, and pressed a finger to his neck. “No pulse.”
I sank into a chair at the kitchen table. Curious, the suggestion that everything was fine didn’t seem to stick. She began to panic again. I felt so tired. My body ached, though I knew it wasn’t from any physical injuries. I leaned back, tuning out her voice. The scents started to trickle in. Red, ripe strawberries, juicy apples baked in a pie, fresh lemon ice, its tangy zest stinging my nostrils. My veins began burning in that special way and my eyes popped open. I looked at Lauryn in a whole new light.
Monty flung the door to the garage open and stepped through. My eyes landed on the cooler in his hands. I leaped to my feet and lunged towards him. He shrank backwards, trying to block himself with the cooler, which I ripped from his grip. I popped it open and pulled out a blood bag, one of three I’d packed. I opened the valve with shaky fingers and took a long draw off the tube, letting the flavors run down my throat. This blood tasted of pork chops and bacon. Not quite as refreshing as I imagined Lauryn’s blood would’ve been, but it quenched the thirst.
Lauryn’s voice sounded strangled, trapped in her throat as she gaped at me.
“Sorry,” I said between sips.
Monty walked carefully around the kitchen table, taking a seat across from me. “You won’t, um, eat us, will you?”
I sucked the bag dry and threw it back in the cooler. Monty jumped in his chair at the sound of the lid snapping shut.
“Nope. I’m pretty good at controlling it as long as I have a supply handy. I just have to be prepared. There are two more bags in there, so when Drake, I mean, if Drake wakes up, he’ll need them immediately.”
Lauryn dropped to a blubbering heap on the floor and Monty turned to look at her. She whimpered like a scared puppy. He got up and crossed over to her side, sliding an arm around her shoulders. “Shhh, it’s going to be okay, come on now, that’s it.” He helped her to her feet and led her over to a chair next to him. She sat down, her eyes on me the whole time, bulging and fearful.
“What did you do to him?” she said, her voice low and raspy. She gripped Monty’s arm like it was the railing on the deck of a ship in a roiling sea.
“She didn’t do anything Lauryn. Look, girl, you need to calm down. I know everything seems a little, okay, a lot crazy, but if you calm down we can talk you through it.” He looked at her with pleading eyes. “You can trust me, right?”
“Yeah.” She sighed. Her whole body shuddered and she slumped forward onto the table, burying her head in her arms. A few moments later she sat up and took a few deep breaths. “So what. What can you possibly tell me that will make this whole situation all right? I mean Drake is sitting on your kitchen floor, dead, with a giant gaping hole in his stomach, in case you haven’t noticed. How are you both okay with that?”
Monty and I exchanged a glance.
“I would definitely not say we’re okay with it at all. I’m not okay, she’s not okay, but we’re holding on to one teensy bit of hope that this may have a better ending than we’re seeing right now.” He patted her arm.
“I’ve seen how this ends in movies, you know. Any time some teenagers are involved with a dead body and they don’t call the police, they get arrested or killed or whatever. I just don’t see how you think this could possibly get any better.” Lauryn’s whole body shook along with her voice.
“We think he might come back,” I said.
“Come back? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Like some kind of freaking zombie?” She looked slightly horrified at Drake’s still body.
“No, no. He’ll come back like me, like a vampire.”
“You’re a wha…?” Her voice trailed off.
I studied her face carefully. Could she handle it? I wasn’t sure my magic mind thingy was going to work on her after it faded so quickly this last time. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, resembling a fish, but said nothing. She looked at me, at Drake, back at Monty, and then rested her eyes on me.
“A vampire. Like a blood-sucking, sunlight-avoiding vampire? How is that possible? I’ve seen you eat food—a whole freaking Kitchen Sink. And I’ve seen you go outside during the day. I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I, so don’t feel bad.” I fidgeted with the cooler. “I can eat food, but I can’t make it through the day without drinking a few pints. At school, I keep them in the car.”
“So why does that mean anything to Drake. Did he? Did you?” Her lip curled in disgust. “Ew, that’s nasty. I read Dracula, I get it now. That’s what you’re hoping then, that Bram Stoker was right and Drake is just going to rise from the grave as a vampire.”
“Maybe not rise from the grave so much as rise from my basement couch?” Monty stood up and headed towards Drake’s body, grabbing him under the arms. “We probably should get him downstairs. My ma will have a heart attack if she finds a body in her kitchen. She would definitely think it’s not very sanitary.”
I rose to my feet and hoisted Drake up, helping by carrying his legs as we maneuvered him down the basement stairs. Lauryn followed behind us, bringing the cooler. Monty covered Drake with a blanket after we lay him on the couch and aside from his chest not rising or falling with breath, he looked asleep.
We sat silently for a moment, glancing at each other and at Drake.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” asked Monty. He settled into an armchair.
“I’m not sure. From what I figured, it took me five days to come back.” I frowned, trying to think of the logistics. “Think we can keep your mom out of the basement for five days?”
“I bet you could take care of her with your little mind thingy,” Monty said with a nod.
“I have to go home.” Lauryn was staring off into space, not really looking at anything in particular. Her eyes were wide and her normally fair skin was even more pale than usual. Dark shadows floated under her eyes. She looked more like a vampire than I did. She blinked a few times, breaking her gaze.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked softly. I hoped she was going to be able to handle th
is. If she mentioned it to anyone, we’d either be in huge trouble or they’d think Lauryn had completely lost her mind.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s a lot to swallow.” She rose to her feet. “It’s not like I quite know how to deal with that.”
“I can understand,” I said knowingly.
“It’s just that my mom will freak out if I don’t come home. I’ll come back tomorrow. And do you think we should tell Ernie and Callie?” She gave Monty a look.
“They’ll be pissed if we don’t,” he said, rubbing his face with his hands. “We’ll deal with it tomorrow. Go get some sleep.”
She disappeared up the steps and left us in silence.
“I should probably text Sue and let her know I’m staying over somewhere. Lauryn’s right, we don’t need any parents freaking out right now.” I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and sent a quick message saying I was staying at Lauryn’s.
“Can you check if Drake’s phone is in his pocket? I would, but, well, you know.” Monty made a face. “I’m sure you don’t mind.” He raised an eyebrow and I shot him a dirty look. I lifted the blanket and reached into Drake’s front pocket. The first one was empty but I found the phone in the second one. It had dried blood on it and I hoped it still worked. I tossed it to Monty and covered Drake back up.
“Dude, gross.” He unlocked the phone and did some quick typing. “There, done and done. I sent his ma a message that he was staying over here. At least it wasn’t a lie.”
“So now what?” He asked.
“Now, we wait.”
“Do you like video games?” Monty grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV.
“Not really. But I’ll play with you.”
“Great, you’ll love it. We get to kill zombies!”
I snorted. “You’re an idiot. I’d rather not kill anything else tonight if I can help it.”
Bloody Little Secrets Page 21