1
3. MEMBERSHIP
I didn’t move an inch, the shock over what had just happened paralyzing me. I kept my eyes locked on Kayla, who still had a death grip on the metal rod in her hands. I could tell by the amount of dark, rancid blood pouring from his chest that the vampire was dead—or pretty close to it. His hands were woven around the rod, obviously in a last attempt to save his own life.
I felt air rush into my lungs, which burned with the smell filling the corridor: the smell of dead blood, mixing with Kayla’s very-much-alive blood. It was turning my stomach, and I had to swallow hard to keep from being sick all over the floor. I started coughing loudly, my chest sending shivers of pain across my body. Definitely gonna be sore as hell tomorrow.
“Are you okay?” I heard Kayla’s panicked voice before I saw her running to me, kneeling down and putting her tiny hand on my chest. I had to wait for my coughing fit to subside before I could speak.
“Definitely been better,” I said with a raspy voice.
“I shouldn’t have let you come in here alone.” She was helping me off the floor as she spoke, and I was surprised at her strength for such a tiny girl. She probably could have tossed me onto her shoulder and carried me out of the mall like a bag of potting soil. She stood rigid and tall, allowing me to lean against her until my head quit spinning long enough for me to focus on standing alone. I could still hear faint ringing in my ears, residuals left over from the clanging earlier. I vowed to wear ear plugs every day from then on as long as I had super hearing. Going through that again would be torture.
“What was that?” I asked, fighting the cough in my aching chest. My head was pounding and tiny flashes danced in my vision when I closed my eyes.
“That’s not important right now. We need to go.”
“Go? Where?”
“I need to get you out of here. You can’t be seen here. Not like that.” She pointed at my face, and I didn’t even have to wonder this time.
“My eyes?”
“Yeah.”
I quickly closed them, ignoring the flashing lights and pounding headache long enough to calm down. I slowly reopened them and Kayla half-smiled. “Better,” she said softly.
“I thought I told you to stay put,” I coughed out, the impact from the attack pressing heavily on my chest. “You could have been killed.” I kept my arm around Kayla’s neck, feeling like I would black out at any moment.
“Lucky for you I don’t listen too well,” she said with a smile. “And you’re welcome.” I cut my eyes over at her; there was no way I could be mad. She was right, she had saved my life. Twice in less than a week my life had been saved by ordinary humans. I was beginning to think I didn’t really need the vampire side of me. I just needed to ramp up my human abilities and I’d be just fine. I was about to thank her properly when the door at the end of the corridor flew open, exposing us and the smelly dead vampire on the floor.
“You guys okay?” A male voice asked. The outside light flooding the doorway was too bright for me to see his face right away, but I could tell he wasn’t alone. At least one other shadowy figure was lurking in the light. I went into a panic, instinctively stepping between the unknown shadows and Kayla, holding her behind me. I kept my lips closed, but I felt my fangs break through the skin of my gums and hang ready inside my mouth.
“It’s okay, Ava,” Kayla piped up from behind me. “They’re with me.” She stepped around me and walked over to the figures lurking at the end of the hall. Reluctantly, I let her go. The shock of other people seeing what was lying in the floor had momentarily taken my speech. I was still in attack mode, crouched and ready for anything. Even though Aldric hadn’t gotten to the “defense” part of my training yet, I at least had common sense to guide me.
“That’s her?” A girl’s voice, strong and deep, said from behind the guy. She closed the door behind her as she spoke, and I was finally able to see them without the blinding light.
The girl looked closer to an adult than any of us. I guessed eighteen or nineteen, though I had been off about Kayla. Her short-cropped, spiked black hair sat harsh against her porcelain skin. She looked more like a vampire than the dead one on the floor. She dressed similarly to Kayla, entirely in black except for a stripe of pink across her shirt. I could see the impression of a pointed stake filling the pocket of her black denim jeans.
“Guys,” Kayla said, smiling like she was introducing her new boyfriend to her parents, “this is Ava.” She stepped toward me, grabbing my arm and bringing me closer to the group. “She’s the hybrid.” I hated the term ‘hybrid,’ though I had to admit it was much easier to say than ‘half vampire, half human thingy’. . . but not as catchy. “Ava, this is Erik and Lila.”
I stared into the faces of the two, immediately noticing delicious-looking veins pulsing in their necks. I could easily sprint over, bite them both, and be back next to Kayla before any of them even realized it.
Whoa, where did that come from?
I had never had a completely vampire thought before. Every other time I had pictured biting someone, I was always present in the thought, able to turn it off. But this time was different; that thought caught me off guard. I was apparently getting worse, which really sucked. I forced my mind to ignore it and willed my fangs to retract.
“She’s young,” Erik said. He, too, looked older, but not by much. His hair was just as black as Lila’s, and almost cut in the same style. His skin was pale, not as porcelain-like as hers, and he opted for regular blue jeans paired with a black polo instead of going total Gothic. I quickly noticed that they looked alike. Exact features began to stand out at me: same blue eyes, same petite nose, same full lips. They were related. Vampire-hunting brother and sister; now I had seen everything.
“I’m old enough to kill you,” I said, though I hadn’t planned to. The words just flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. Another surprise thought. Shock spread across the faces of the siblings, though quickly replaced with anger. Lila’s hand went to the stake jutting from the top of her jeans.
“We would love for you to try,” she said, venom lacing her words. She smiled wickedly, her fingers drumming across the chunk of wood. My eyes burned with rage, my fangs ready to expose themselves again. I wanted to kill her.
Control yourself, Ava. You have to control yourself.
I heard Chance’s voice echoing in my head. It was as if he were standing right beside me, telling me I couldn’t do what my body wanted to do. I couldn’t kill an innocent person. That wasn’t me, and I knew that. The rage building up in me was so strong and commanding that I had to fight hard to ignore it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, the sweet smell of the newcomers’ blood flowing through me.
“Enough of that,” Kayla snapped, mainly to her friends but also to me. “Everybody just take it easy.” She stood firmly between us, her arms outstretched in both directions. I was amazed that such a powerful force was contained in such a tiny body. It would have made me laugh any other time. But I then remembered her standing over the body of a slain vampire. She was much more dangerous than she looked.
Get a grip, Ava. You can do this.
Chance’s soft, melodic tone helped suppress the need to kill the pair and drink their blood, and I was mad at him all over again for being able to get under my skin even when he wasn’t around. My vampire side was beating against me, trying to escape and feed. I couldn’t allow that, not now. I forced my mind to escape the corridor I was in and find a quiet, empty place. My body slowly began to calm down, though the urge sat just below the surface, lying in wait.
“We need to get out of here,” Kayla continued after the three of us (well, me and Lila) calmed down. “You two get rid of it. I’ll get Ava home.” She spoke with maturity that was unexpected in someone so young. I felt like I had been conned—depressed teen so didn’t describe her anymore.
“We meeting up later?” Erik asked. He kept stealing glances at me, his eyes searching for something. He was pr
obably waiting to see if he and his sister were going to get to kill a vampire today—namely me. I found it annoying.
“I’ll call you,” Kayla answered, and she took me by the arm and practically dragged me toward the door.
Just before she closed the door on the hallway, I caught a glimpse of Erik and Lila pouring white powder onto the vampire’s body and it melting away on the concrete floor.
“Are you going to tell me what the hell’s going on, or do I have to make you tell me?” I was mad. We ducked into the ladies’ room just down the mall from the employees’ corridor to try and clean the blood from our hands. My chest hurt like hell and I looked like I had been run over by a car.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Kayla started, “but you would’ve freaked out.” She was helping me scrub blood from my hands with really industrial-smelling public bathroom soap.
“Would have? I think I’m already a little freaked out here.” I kept glancing over her shoulder at the door, half expecting Lila to come barging in with stake raised, ready to kill me. “So what, are you like a real life vampire hunter? Like it’s a hobby of yours?”
“It’s not a hobby or something I do when I get bored.” She snagged a few paper towels from the dispenser on the wall and handed them to me. “But yeah, I’m a vampire hunter.” I couldn’t believe how easily she said it. I was about to hyperventilate over the news and she blurted it out like she was going over a grocery list.
“How?” I asked. “How long?” So many questions were circling each other in my mind that I had to close my eyes to focus on just one.
“Since birth, basically,” Kayla answered, again with a cavalier attitude. She washed her own hands in the sink next to mine as she spoke. “But I hadn’t actually killed a vampire until today. But I’ve hunted lots.” I then noticed her shaking hands and tense shoulders; she was scared, or freaked out. Though I was still fighting mad at her, I tried to calm down a bit so I wouldn’t make it worse.
“You’re kidding, right? This is all some elaborate joke and you’re just trying to get a laugh out of me?” As ridiculous as it sounded, I was praying it were true.
“Sorry, no joke. I am a vampire hunter, and I’ve been one since I was born. My dad was one, up until about a year ago.” I saw something change in her eyes. She went somewhere else in her mind for a moment before snapping back to me. “So now I do it for him.” She smiled at me as she threw her used towels in the trash.
“Why did your dad quit hunting?” Of all the questions I had for her, that one seemed the most important at the time. I knew she didn’t want to answer, but reluctantly gave in.
“He didn’t quit,” she said, her face turning dark and angry. “He was taken by vampires, and I’m going to find out where he is.”
1
4. TRUTH
Kayla and I met back up with Ms. Caldon just outside the restroom. She was coming down the mall toward us, a couple of shopping bags in each hand. I was terrified she was going to be upset at us for bailing on her, but she was walking with a rather happy, carefree expression, her bags swaying slowly at her sides. Kayla took hold of my hand and smiled at me.
“Try to look happy,” she said through her smile. She was walking with a bouncy gait too—really laying it on thick.
“Happy?” I snapped. “I just found out my new friend is a vampire hunter. I’m a vampire. What’s there to be happy about?” Kayla plastered a smile on her face as Ms. Caldon kept approaching.
“You think I would hurt you?” she asked, her voice stern and unwavering.
“Like you said, you were born to kill vampires.”
“I said I was born to hunt them, Ava. I don’t enjoy killing them. And I would never hurt you. You’re my friend.” I was actually grateful I had told Kayla that I considered her a friend—that definitely came in handy. And who better to have in my corner than someone trained to hunt vampires? I didn’t say anything else for fear of her changing her mind. Before we made it to where Chance’s mom had stopped to wait, some of her infectious attitude began rubbing off on me, and I began smiling for real. Maybe having her around wasn’t going to be so bad. Maybe she could teach me even more than Aldric. Maybe we could actually be friends.
You’re a vampire, Ava. She’s a vampire hunter. Friends? Not likely.
Sometimes I hated my inner voice. It was trying desperately to ruin my mood. The fact that I had anything remotely close to a happy mood was shocking given what I had just gone through, and now I was subconsciously trying to destroy it. Self-deprecation ranked right up there with public humiliation on the list of things I hated about myself.
Ms. Caldon had no clue what had gone down as we left the mall. I asked if she would mind Kayla staying for dinner—mainly because I wanted to grill Kayla some more on exactly what had gone down—but Kayla refused. She said she had to get home to her mom, so we dropped her off and headed home ourselves. Even though I still felt funny calling the Caldon house my home, Ms. Caldon insisted I was welcome there, and that I should consider the place my own. I still wasn’t quite sure why she so easily accepted Chance bringing a total stranger into their house, but I reluctantly agreed to at least give it a try.
Chance was practically climbing the walls when we got there, but he hid it very well. His mom had no clue he was freaking out as she went into the kitchen to begin dinner. Chance told her he and I were going for a walk, and we left the house with almost super speed. The sun was moving low in the sky, painting everything in a pinkish-orange glow.
“So,” Chance said tentatively once we headed down the sidewalk in front of his house. “How was your day with my mom?” I could tell he was nervous that the two of us wouldn’t gel. I guessed he couldn’t tell by our cheerful dispositions that his mom and I got along great.
“She’s cool,” I said, trying to sound normal—something that was suddenly hard to do. I noticed that doing everyday, normal human things was growing more and more difficult. Any other time I wouldn’t have worried about trying to sound normal, I would have just said what I wanted. But now, I felt the need to show I still had my humanity intact. Fragile, but intact.
“You’re lying.” Chance walked fast down the sidewalk away from his house, eager to get out of listening distance of his mother.
“You’re one to talk,” I snapped back.
“That’s totally different, Ava, and you know it.” We rounded the corner from his house and he finally slowed his gait a bit. But his body was still tense, his blood still moving quickly through his veins.
“How is it different, Chance? Lying is lying, right?” I fought to control my anger, to keep the monster within me from leaping out and destroying whatever sort of relationship was building between us.
“It’s different because I can’t tell you certain things. Not because I don’t want to.” He stopped walking and leaned against the stone wall skirting the sidewalk, resting his back and head against a vine-covered fence. A chilly wind scooped in and around us, lifting leaves and debris from the sidewalk and slamming them against my bare legs. I loved the tingling feeling the tiny pieces made against my skin. It felt human.
“You can tell me anything. I promise if it’s something important, or something you don’t want me telling anyone else, I won’t.” I was pleading with him, and I hated that. I hated that he and Aldric were keeping something from me, something that might potentially save me (or kill me).
“I know you would, Ava. That’s not why.” He ran his hands through his hair, each dark curl falling back into place as if never touched. I suddenly wanted to reach out and do the same thing—run my fingers through that jet black hair—and had to clasp my hands together to keep from doing so.
What’s wrong with me? I’m ticked off at this guy, why do I want to touch his hair?
Again, more questions I couldn’t answer. Those seemed to be piling up on me lately. I knew I was mad at Chance, that I wanted to strangle the truth out of him. But I didn’t hate him. I didn’t think I could, actually.
“Then what is it? Just tell me.”
Chance stood up and walked behind me to the edge of the street. I was thankful no cars were speeding by since I had no clue if he intended to step out into traffic or what. But he just stood there, staring out across the street at the grove of trees on the other side. I could see his breathing become more rapid, his shoulders rising and falling much more quickly than before. I wanted to keep pushing, keep pressing him for the truth, but I kept quiet, standing still and hopefully unnoticeable behind him. He finally turned and looked at me, something different in his eyes.
“If I tell you,” he began, “you can’t freak out on me, Ava. Okay?” His face was completely serious, the muscles running along his jaw twitching with anxiety. The scent of his blood was also more noticeable (not that it was ever not noticeable) pulsing along with his hasty heartbeat.
“I won’t,” I answered, though I wasn’t being entirely truthful. What if what he told me was horrible? Or made me so mad I couldn’t control myself? I was new to the whole vampire thing. I had no clue how I would react. But I didn’t tell him that.
He took a deep breath, letting it escape his lungs slowly and methodically. “I knew what Aldric had done to you.” His words stung going in, like needles pricking my skin. I stepped back and away from him.
He knew?
I couldn’t stop thinking about that. He knew what Aldric did to me? That he turned me into a vampire? How could he have known that and just let it happen?
“How?” I said through clenched teeth, my anger rising exponentially. “Why?”
Chance kept his eyes locked on me. “I was following him. I saw him attack you. But I was too late to stop him.”
“He attacked me? I thought he saved me?”
“He did save you. But I didn’t know that when I saw him that night. All I saw was him biting you. I didn’t find out until later that he did it because you were dying.”
“Why was I dying? What happened to me?” Chance’s words were swirling around in my head faster than I could keep up, making me dizzy and sick to my stomach. I leaned against the stone wall for support.
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