Stake You (Stake You #1)

by Claire Farrell

Chapter Sixteen

  I barely slept all night, and I knew I looked like shit the next morning, but I had nobody to impress anyway, so it didn’t matter.

  “I think we should check in at school until roll call, sneak out, figure out a way to break into Sully’s house, and wait for him to come home. We’ll deal with him, hopefully using the element of surprise to hurt him before he hurts us, and then we can forget about all of this.” Base didn’t look in my direction once as he spoke.

  “Looks like you have it all figured out,” I said, hoping he could feel the bitterness in my voice.

  “Someone has to. Hey, not to worry, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

  I stared at him, unbelievably hurt, and he had the sense to change the subject.

  “We should probably get going before your mother comes home.”

  “Crap.” I choked on my tea. “I forgot all about her.” How could I forget about my own mother, when everything I did was about her? I was going to kill a vampire to keep her safe, after all.

  We hurried to get ready, but she arrived before we left, so I snuck Base out the back way and had to deal with her hangover alone.

  “I need to go to school,” I said, pretending not to notice her panda eyes.

  “Stay home today,” she begged. “I don’t want to be alone. I need you, Dev. I was so stupid last night; I questioned him about leaving her. He wouldn’t even listen to me. He got so mad.”

  “What did you expect?” I shouted, livid at the way she jumped with fright. “He’s a married man, for God’s sake! Stop being the idiot who lets him walk all over you for once in your life! It’s like you actually want me to think this is okay. You haven’t even tried to make our lives better, but you seem to be going out of your way to make both of us miserable. Why can’t you be happy as you are, Mam? Or with a man who actually treats you like a human being? What’s so bloody well damaged in you that you can’t maintain any kind of a relationship, not even a crappy one?”

  Her bottom lip shook, and I knew she would sob, but I was beyond caring. “Why would you—”

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” I spat. “You made your bed, now deal with it yourself. I’m so sick of being the one who picks up the pieces. You have no idea what I’m going through, and you don’t even care. All you’re bothered about is your addiction to the drama.” I shook my head, worn out by the tears in her eyes. “I have to get to school. Try and eat something, okay?”

  I wrapped my arms around myself once I let myself out the door. I felt like shit for talking to her like that, but it was too much. Just too much.

  “That was harsh,” Base said to my right.

  I shrugged. “Truth hurts.”

  “So were you talking about her or you just then? I couldn’t tell.”

  I took a deep breath before walking faster, hoping to lose him while he was being such an idiot.

  “Why do you always take your shit out on people?” he persisted.

  “I don’t,” I snapped at last. “But I’ll take it out on you if you’re not careful.”

  “Nothing new there,” he retorted, and we walked in angry silence for the rest of the journey. The streets were cold and empty, mostly, and I kept a close eye out for Sully’s car. Not that he had to be driving it, but it was better than glancing into stranger’s gardens to make sure he wasn’t hiding there.

  The school was empty, but when I got to my locker, I stopped in shock. The door had been ripped off and mangled, actually folded up into a metal knot looking form, and I realised I had driven Sully to show his hand. I crept toward the locker, half-afraid of what I’d see. All of my books were destroyed, actually torn up into little pieces, and covered in red. The inside of the locker looked as though it were bleeding as drips of red slowly fell to the bottom.

  “Don’t touch it,” Base said in a tight voice as I lifted my hand.

  “There’s a note,” I said as if in a trance. I picked it up, careful not to get what was likely blood on my hands. “Oh, my God,” I whispered, reading it before handing it to Base.

  The note was written in an extravagant old-fashioned looking script on an ancient looking thick page that began to crumble as soon as I touched it.

  Devlin O’Mara,

  Nice video, but it makes my stay all the briefer. I’ll be leaving tonight. Come to my house and watch me finish off your friend. I want you to know how your life will end. How she squirms and pleads for her life, knowing no one can save her. And bring your new puppy. If he obeys, I may let him choose which one of you to save.

  “No,” Base hissed. “He can’t…”

  The page disintegrated in his hands. He brushed the remaining dust from his fingers in disgust. The pain in his expression was too much to bear. He couldn’t lose Aoife. He needed her, and his family needed him. Only my mother needed me, and it was about time she learned to take care of herself. The only reason Sully wanted Base there was to hurt me more.

  “I’ll go,” I said. “I’ll ask him to let her go. He might. You never know.”

  “Haven’t you seen your locker?” He pointed at the mangled metal. “He wants to do that to you. I can’t wait around. I have to go to him.”

  “And do what?” I protested. “We still don’t know what to do about him! If we all go, we all die. If I go willingly, he might free Aoife. She doesn’t even know what’s happening to her. It’s not… it’s not fair. He wanted me first.”

  “What? You’re pissed that he chose someone else?” He sounded so incredulous that I might have laughed, but then his words sank in.

  “Are you completely stupid?” I demanded. “I’m not pissed or jealous; I’m feeling guilty that Aoife took my place because of my big mouth. God!”

  He closed his eyes for a second. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “Yes, you did! You mean every horrible thing you assume about me. And I can’t change that, but I can change this. I’m sorry, Brian.”

  “For what?”

  But I was already swinging the piece of locker at his face. He stumbled at the impact, and I hated that I hurt him, but I pushed him against the lockers, and he collapsed to the ground in a heap. If he came with me, Sully would kill him just to increase my pain. Aoife’s pain too. I had realised too late that what I felt for Base had grown rapidly into something I couldn’t hide, and even if he didn’t feel the same way, it changed everything for me. I had a feeling that Sully knew, and that’s why he involved Base in the first place—to hurt me more. I couldn’t risk Base coming with me. I couldn’t watch him die.

  I was able to hail a taxi a couple of streets away from the school. I went to my house first to say sorry to my mother, but she wasn’t there. That wasn’t like her. She didn’t go outside when Richard let her down. Unless she needed a drink, but I found two bottles of wine under her bed.

  My stomach turned at the idea she hadn’t left. Worrying she had been taken, I decided to bring the bat with me. Just in case I changed my mind.

  The taxi was still waiting outside, and I gave the driver new directions. He let me out a bit away from Sully’s house, and I used the walk to leave a message on Tom’s phone.

  “Hey, Tom. It’s Devlin. I just wanted to tell you thanks for everything you’ve done for me. You and Mark, too, if you could let him know. I’m about to be eaten by a vampire, which sounds crazy, but that’s what’s going to happen. That stalker I was telling you about? Well, just check out the video I posted online last night. He might have my mother now, and my friend, but if I somehow manage to fix this… If he lets them go… Well, what I mean is if you could check on my mother every now and then, I’d be really grateful.”

  I hung up, and then realised I hadn’t told him where to find my body. I left another message giving Sully’s details and hoping Tom wouldn’t get up earlier than usual. I was the only night-shifter who got up before twelve, so I should have had plenty of time before Tom woke up and realised I wasn’t joking. I took a quick check of the video and was stunned by how many vi
ews it had. The general perception was of Sully being into some kind of weird kink, but I could see what had gotten him so angry.

  I had outed the vampire. Now, people would remember him, one way or another. He had used media to his advantage to weave a spell on teenage girls, and now I was using it to make sure people saw what he was. He would always be that creep from that video online, and it made him lose his magic somewhat. He would have to be way more devious now; he would have to find another method with which to prey.

  His mask had been torn off, and whether people realised the truth of the situation or not, he was no longer an enigma. That left a skinny boy, although who knew what age he really was, who wore a leather jacket in hot weather and sunglasses indoors.

  My stomach turned when I spotted his car. I ran around to the side of his house, ditching the bag I had carried the bat in. I was about to die, that fact had been inevitable for a while, but I couldn’t go down without a fight. Clutching the bat for dear life, I contemplated climbing in the still broken window. But Sully ripped open the back door, and a scream was born and died in my throat. His eyes were wild, no sunglasses and jacket anymore, and his sinewy strength was obvious under his light t-shirt.

  “Devlin O’Mara,” he said thickly, his mouth full of fangs. “Welcome to my web.”

  “Let Aoife go, or I’m not coming in,” I said in a steadier voice than I expected.

  He gave an awful grin then. “I’m in a hurry now. You changed the game, so you have to deal with the consequences.”

  “I’ll scream,” I warned, lifting the bat. He moved, so I swung, but I missed, and his hands squeezed my throat before I could let out a sound. He was faster than I expected. I had severely underestimated him, I realised too late. The darkness came frighteningly quick, and there was no relief as my body went limp in his arms. My eyes closed too soon, and I was lost.