Blood Pact

by Sharon Rose Mayes

  Chapter 1

  “I’m positive the guys and Sam had more fun tonight than we did,” Taylor complained as we walked to our cars when cheer practice was over.

  “Most likely,” I replied, stretching my aching back while we walked across the parking lot.

  “What are they up to?” Hannah asked.

  I exchanged a knowing look with Taylor whose face was red from the exertion of our workout. “They were watching a movie at Nick’s place,” I told her while I stopped to adjust my ponytail. It was a lie, but I couldn’t admit to her that they were out hunting vampires.

  “They probably did,” she agreed. “No handstands and pyramids for them. What were they going watch?” she asked, naive to the fact I had been in communication with Nick the whole time.

  “Some vampire movie,” I shrugged, too exhausted to think of any movies that had recently come out.

  “Right,” Taylor said snickering. I couldn’t help smiling.

  Nick had kept me informed about the group of vampires they had faced. It wasn’t as easy a hunt as they had anticipated.

  While Taylor and I pretended to be jealous about everyone else’s “movie night,” we continued walking across the school parking lot to our cars. It was already dark out, and all three of us were drenched in sweat and probably smelled more like we were on the boy’s soccer team than cheerleaders getting ready for a competition.

  “I am ready for a nice, long shower and a good night’s sleep,” Hannah sighed.

  “Yeah, me t-” I was cutoff and shoved to the ground, getting the breath knocked out of me in the process.

  Hannah immediately started screaming, and Taylor was cursing as she moved away from what I assumed was another attacker. However, I couldn’t focus on them. My focus was on the extremely large vampire trying to plunge his teeth into my throat. Without thinking, I head butted him in his nose. When I heard the crack signifying that his nose had been fractured, I shoved him off of me and rolled out from under him. I scrambled to my feet and gave him a kick to the stomach hoping that it would keep him on the ground until I could get a weapon in my hands.

  “Here,” I yelled and threw my car keys to the nearly comatose Hannah who seemed frozen in place with shock. “Get the sword out of my trunk.”

  “What?” she asked scared and confused.

  “You will see it,” I said more harshly than I intended and delivered another kick to the vampire’s midsection. “No go.” Intimidated by my strict orders and with no choice but to listen, she ran in the direction of my car across the parking lot.

  Turning in Taylor’s direction, I could see she had her opponent under some control by swinging her gym bag back and forth keeping him away from her.

  I turned back to the vampire that had attacked me just as he was getting to his feet. It was obvious that my opponent was a newer less experienced vampire. His movements were sloppy, and he wasn’t smart enough to go for the easier prey, which wasn’t me in the situation. His brown hair was closely cropped, and he had the body of a football player. That’s when I recognized him from another school.

  “Hey, don’t you play football over at East?” I asked distracting him. “Oh wait, never mind. Not anymore. You know because of the whole no sunlight thing, and of course that you will probably try to kill your teammates.”

  He growled, not particularly amused by my banter. They never were. He lunged at me again, but thankfully this time I was expecting him. I kicked him in the groin and followed it with an uppercut to his already injured face. I needed my sword. Where was Hannah?

  He lunged at me again, this time taking a swing at me with a clumsy fist. Luckily I was able to duck in time. I heard the pounding of Hannah’s feet on the concrete as she sprinted back over to us. Finally.

  “Toss it here,” I yelled as she got closer with the vampire standing between us.

  “Okay,” she stuttered doubtfully.

  I side stepped the vampire and kicked him in the side, then caught the slender katana in my hand. Without thinking, I reflexively swung and decapitated the vampire with a quick blow.

  “Oh my god,” Hannah screamed as if she had just been haunted by an entire army of ghosts. “That was insane. What in the world was up with that? And why do you have a sword in your trunk? Not that I’m not thankful it was there.” She asked the questions rapidly like a machine gun. “Why did that guy turn to dust?”

  “Just breathe,” I said turning to see Taylor’s opponent fleeing the parking lot toward the back of the school.

  “You won’t catch him,” Taylor said as I turned to chase after him.

  I rolled my eyes, knowing that she was right. I turned to them both. “Are you guys okay?” I asked checking on their wellbeing before anything else.

  “Yeah,” Taylor said walking over to us while Hannah just nodded, her blue eyes still wide with shock.

  “Tell me everything,” Hannah said simply after taking a moment to regain her wits. “It’s a really long story,” I answered her with a small frown while I straightened my skirt and tank top and then tightened my now loose ponytail. “Let’s go talk to my parents,” I told her, still getting used to calling John my father.

  “Okay,” she agreed, scrutinizing the ash that was starting to blow away on light breeze in the night air. “Parents? I thought you only had your mom.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “We can just tack that on to the long story. My father only recently moved back to town.”

  “Oh wow!” Hannah exclaimed. “No wonder you have been here but not here the last few months.”

  “Or we could just blame it on that dreamy boyfriend of hers,” Taylor snickered despite the anxiousness we were both feeling over having been exposed in front of Hannah as vampire hunters.

  Rolling my eyes at them, I shook my head. “Let’s get out of here,” I told them walking to my car. We picked up our bags on the way. I was going to need moral support for the talk with my parents and Hannah. Taylor and I both could be in a lot of trouble. So I decided to get the only person who would be with me through everything, Nick.

  “Hey, I need you to meet me at my house, please?” I communicated to him through the connection we shared.

  “I’m already here waiting for you,” he replied back.

  “Oh, good.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I will let you know when I get there.”

  “I’ll drive,” I told them. After leaving the school, we rode in silence. Taylor and I were both nervous about the potential trouble that we might be in, but Hannah was oblivious. She just wanted to know why the guy attacked us, and why he turned to dust when I cut his head off. I parked in front of my house and was not surprised to see John’s car out front.

  Getting out of the car, I was startled when Nick seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I chastised him for not announcing himself by hitting him on the arm. He rolled his eyes saying that I hit like a girl.

  “Really?” I asked annoyed because we both knew better than that.

  But he became serious. “What is going?” he asked. “Your nervousness is really driving me crazy,” he said pointing to his head, and I instantly gave him sympathetic look. He looked down at me through his dark blonde bangs that fell messily over his deep blue eyes. “You’re not, you know?” He barely mumbled loud enough for me to hear.

  “What?” I asked, confused by his question.

  “You know?” he said again pointedly, looking toward my stomach.

  I got the hint that he was asking me if I was pregnant. “Oh no,” I said, sure that my eyes were the size of saucers. “Hell no, no way.” I finished frowning. That possibility was farfetched since the only time we had been together that way was the night we formed the bond months before.

  He let out the breath he had been holding. “I’m not ready to die yet.”

  I laughed at his absurd line of thinking. “And we are way too young for that.” I looked up into his beautiful blue eyes. “Besides, if that wer
e to happen before we are thirty, I would give you the news with a plane ticket.” He gave me a questioning look. “To give you a head start out of town, or out of the country would be even better. You know, before John finds out, or my mom, and probably Victor too. You would be probably be on the run for the rest of your life,” I said, feeding into his fears that we were in no way going to face anytime soon.

  “I think that even if we were thirty, they would still kill me,” he said in agreement with me about my relatives who were overprotective of me, especially my father. Most of the time, the two of us acknowledged each other with growls and snide comments.

  “When we get old and ever decide to take that step, you know like their age old,” I added, “I will protect you from my very scary family, including my frightening daddy. Seriously though, it is nothing like that at all.” I held up a hand. “But first let me vomit from saying ‘daddy’ though.”

  He sort of laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I can’t believe you said that either,” he said and stepped closer and put his arms around me in a tight embrace and brought his face down and softly kissed me bringing our mouths together in a deep kiss.

  “Aww, how cute,” a voice interrupted our kiss before it could grow more intense. We quickly pulled apart. I had nearly forgotten that Taylor and Hannah were standing there. They were on the other side of my car looking amused at the conversation we had been having.

  “I think I am going to be sick,” Taylor said, “from all of that lovey dovey mess.” I gave her a dirty look.

  “I think it’s cute,” Hannah said, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Yeah, but you don’t have to see this all. Of. The. Time,” Taylor responded, emphasizing each word. “I mean every time we turn around. They won’t quit touching each other.” She looked at Hannah and shuddered in mock disgust. “I really think they are going to get stuck that way one of these days,” she mumbled.

  I sighed. “Oh my god, you do the same thing with Kyle when you think no one is looking.” Taylor faked looking shocked at my accusation, but didn’t have a response to my statement because we both knew it was the truth. I turned to Nick. “She saw me kill one,” I told him, referring to Hannah. “That’s what is going on.”

  His eyes widened. “If it couldn’t be helped, then it will be okay,” he assured me, realizing that my anxiety was about the potential trouble we could be in with the leaders or the organization.

  “I hope so,” I responded, and he gave my hand a comforting squeeze. “Come on,” I told the three of them and took a deep breath. I mumbled, here goes, to myself as I looked at the house. I could see a light on in the living room and knew they were both still awake.

  “Wait here,” I told them when we entered the front hall. Inside of the living room, I found my mom laying on the couch watching TV with her feet propped up in John’s lap.

  “Mom,” I greeted. “I need to talk to you guys about something.” That one statement quickly got their attention. “I kind of messed up tonight, but I’m not sure how bad it really is.”

  “Oh no,” my mom said.

  Ugh, I thought and wondered how come people kept coming to the same conclusion.

  “No, it is in no way what you’re thinking,” I assured them emphasizing my exasperation with them thinking such thoughts. My mom still let out the deep breath she had been holding since I said I needed to talk to them. I went on to explain how were attacked in the school parking lot and how I was unable to hide the existence of vampires from Hannah.

  “It’s okay,” my mom said, gently relieving me of my fears that Taylor and I would be in trouble. “I will have a talk with her about keeping what happened a secret.”

  “Right,” John agreed.

  “Good,” I said relieved. “And another thing. I didn’t actually explain to her what she saw. I kind of didn’t tell her that what she saw was a vampire go poof or why I had a sword in my car.” and with that I left the living room to retrieve the others, leaving it up to them to explain.

  I found the other three in the kitchen, and the scene I walked into was funny because my two blonde friends were laughing about something while Nick was rolling his eyes at something they had been saying. “Hey guys,” I said getting their attention. “Let’s go in the living room. They are waiting for us.”

  In the living room, my mother stood and happily greeted Hannah and Taylor. “So you saw your first vampire tonight?” Mom offhandedly asked Hannah.

  Eyes widening, Hannah turned to me. “That’s what that was?”

  “Yeah, I am sorry I didn’t say anything,” I said sheepishly. “I thought it would be better if my mom did.”

  “I totally get it though,” she said. “The way he went for your throat and then the way he disintegrated or whatever that was when you killed him.” She nodded in thought. “But wait, how did you know what to do? And just how come you had that sword in your trunk?”

  “It’s a katana,” Nick mumbled from beside me. He was easily annoyed whenever people didn’t call weapons by their correct names. My response was to elbow him in the side to stop him from making corrections all night.

  “What?” Hannah asked when he grunted in pain.

  “Nothing,” I smiled. “Mom, care to explain?” I asked. I knew she would make it easy for Hannah to understand.

  My mom went on to explain to Hannah a little bit about the organization and some of what we do and how vital it was to keep vampires secret. And how it was important not to tell anyone about vampire hunters. Hannah promised not to tell anyone, and I knew because of her crush on Lucas that she would not be telling anyone. She wanted to protect him anyway that she could.

  After we finished talking to my parents, Hannah and Taylor called their parents. They had decided to spend the night at my house. John promptly sent Nick home to the apartment he was now living in by himself since John had recently began living at our house.

  “So being a vampire hunter is why you always fall asleep during class?” Hannah asked once the three of us were alone and settling in my bedroom.

  I laughed at the observation. “Pretty much, but don’t say anything about that in front of my mom.”

  “Yeah, she seems like she worries about you,” Hannah said.

  I nodded in agreement. “I know she does, but this was the way she was raised and now the way I have been raised too.”

  “You too?” Hannah asked Taylor.

  “Yep,” she smiled. “But my parents are a little older than Elizabeth and John.”

  “You know,” Hannah said mischievously, “statistically you got really lucky to look the way you do.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “With parents that good looking, you should have been ugly.”

  “Oh right,” I said sarcastically, “or maybe because I look like I am their kid.” I couldn’t help but to laugh because I had no doubts about my looks. I had just never thought I should have been unattractive based on my parents’ looks. “My uncle claims that I should be thankful to him.” They both gave me confused looks. “You will both understand if you ever meet him. Ask Sam. She will tell you that he is a character.”

  We laughed a bit more. Taylor already had spare clothes in my room. Hannah borrowed some clothes to sleep in. After we all showered, we settled down to sleep.

  About The Author

  Sharon Rose Mayes lives in Lufkin, Texas with her two sons. She chronicles her daily life at her personal blog Not Your Mom Blog and has been active in the blogosphere for seven years. When she is not chasing her kids and playing soccer mom, she writes and dreams of all of the places she can't wait to travel.

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