“Lanie? What’s wrong? What was he doing?” Kyle urged, tension thick in his voice. “Tell me—“ he suddenly stopped and Lanie felt his muscles go taut. “I think you’re dad’s starting to wake up.”
Fear shot through Lanie, but she didn’t let go of Kyle. She wanted to hang on for another minute, just to convince herself that he really was alright, though she was still swept with that sense that something wasn’t quite right with him.
“Can you come back once my dad goes to work?” she asked him, forcing herself to loosen her grip on him.
“I will,” Kyle told her, his piercing gaze so intense she thought it might actually bore into her.
Kyle paused, still holding his arms around her, but then he dropped them and took a step back. He spun around, hit the walkway at a dead run, and with a flare of his coat was…gone, leaving Lanie staring at nothing but the breaking dawn.
After a pausing for a second, Lanie quickly stepped back inside and shut the door, sliding the dead bolt into place and then making for the kitchen on unsteady legs. She would not be going to school that day. Which meant she was becoming a delinquent and a complete disappointment to her father, but she ignored those facts for a few minutes. There were more important things going on than Chemistry class at this point in time.
It wasn’t until she was in the kitchen, making her dad a pot of coffee and trying to act as if everything was perfectly normal, that it hit her just what had been wrong about having Kyle Vincent’s arms around her. While she’d had her head lying against his chest…she hadn’t heard anything. Not a sound.
Kyle Vincent didn’t have a heartbeat.
Lanie got dressed and ready for school, made her dad some toast and scrambled eggs and then saw him out the door. He gave her the standard issue warnings to be on time for school and to stay close to her friends. To avoid having to lie right to her father’s face, she simply smiled and nodded and said nothing. After all, if she didn’t speak the words, she wasn’t really uttering a lie.
She was only acting it out.
Sam left the house and Lanie went into the kitchen to have a word with her friends, who were at the center island eating cold cereal and looking hung over from their night of scarfing junk food and staying up too late.
“Johnna, text Finn and ask him to give you a ride to school,” she told her friend.
“What? Why?” Johnna asked, looking groggy and unclear.
“I’m not going to school today,” she answered, taking her dad’s dishes to the sink.
“You’re skipping school?” Devyn demanded, stunned. “Why! You don’t—wait a minute! You’re skipping to hang out with your secret boyfriend!”
“Lanie! You are not!” Johnna gasped in outrage. “This…this isn’t like you! You…you’re not that kind of girl!”
“Please, just text Finn to pick you guys up here and I’ll pick you up after school,” she urged, her face flushing. She really didn’t want anyone thinking she was that kind of girl, but it couldn’t be avoided just then.
“Lanie, what is happening with you?” Johnna demanded. “Who is this boy? Is he talking you into doing this? Doesn’t he know who your dad is?”
“Stop it, Johnna! You’re not her mother!” Devyn hissed. “Lanie knows what she’s doing! And if she wants to spend the day shtupping with a cute boy then leave her alone!”
Lanie gritted her teeth. She wasn’t doing any shtupping with any boy! “It’s alright, you two. It’s not really like that.”
“Oh? Then what is it like?” asked Johnna. “You’re skipping school to hang out with some boy. What else would it be?”
It would be she and said boy having a conversation about the vampire who’d tried to lure her out of her house and into his clutches only a little while before. “Just trust me. It’s nothing bad. I just can’t go to school today. So, call Finn.”
Reluctantly, Johnna obeyed and shot a text to Finn. “You know, we have committees after school today. Are you skipping those, too? Because you’re the head of half of them.”
“I’ll be there. I promise,” she assured, knowing full well that she was the head of a lot of Homecoming committees. But, most of the work was done. And the vampire trying to get his hands on her took precedence over parade floats.
“We have to tie up everything for the bonfire, Lanie! It’s already Tuesday and the bonfire is tomorrow!” Devyn reminded, her eyes suddenly huge in her face.
“I’ll be there at the meeting,” Lanie stated matter-of-factly.
She would be there with bells on in plenty of time to discuss having Marcum’s Deli donate the hot dogs for the tailgate party and having someone pick up the plastic cups for the drink fountain because those were the most important things in the world, were they not!
“What are we going to do if the parents decide not to let us have it? Or worse, if they decide to show up to keep an eye on everyone?” Johnna questioned somberly.
“Oy! Don’t say that!” Devyn gasped in horror. “How can we have fun with parents crawling all over the place? I think it’s bad enough we have to have the Fire Chief there to watch the fire. I mean, a few parents I can handle, but all of them! We’d be better off not doing it!”
“Don’t get your bloomers in a twist,” Lanie told them, surprised that she was so ambivalent about the situation now. Of course, she did have other, bigger, worries. “We’ll deal with all this at the meeting. And I’ll ask my dad if the parents have said anything to him about the bonfire.”
“Are you bringing your mystery man with you? You know, if we have it?” Devyn wondered, her eyes bright now.
“Probably not,” she answered truthfully.
She doubted a ruggedly handsome, leather clad young man sporting a cross bow and a pouch of very pretty stakes would be well received by the citizens of Fells Pointe.
She wasn’t even truly sure if she should actually go. There was safety in numbers, but there was also a vampire out there wanting to…get at her.
“Alright, Finn should be here in a minute or two. Let’s get ready,” Johnna said, sliding off her stool. “I’ll expect to see you after school, Lanie. If you don’t show up, I might just call your dad and narc you out.”
Lanie nodded her agreement and followed the two girls from the kitchen. Finn picked them up in his SUV and sped them away down Rosetree Lane, leaving Lanie to hurry inside to try and clean up the mess in the living room, which was enormous. But, she could hustle when she needed to and it didn’t take long before the living room and the kitchen were both presentable. She knew it didn’t matter, but she just couldn’t stand the thought of Kyle Vincent thinking that she lived like an animal, when in fact, she did not.
As she zipped up to her bedroom to tidy up there, she found herself hoping the school wouldn’t call her dad because she was absent from classes. Maybe they’d just assume she was upset about Stacy and wouldn’t bother to notify him.
Thinking of Stacy gave her a sudden pang of remorse. She’d put thoughts of the girl on the backburner and she felt bad about that. But, who could blame her? Anyone would do the same thing with a very large, very angry vampire trying to…get at her. She’d forgotten all about the fundraiser for the family. She didn’t even know if the Spirit Squad still wanted to do anything beyond the flower sale they’d had at the candle light vigil. Especially now that someone else had wound up dead and the town was all whipped up into a frenzy.
As she was finishing up her bedroom, which really was a pig sty, which made her want to send Johnna and Devyn on their way back home, she heard a knock at the front door. With her stomach lurching up into her chest, she pulled in a breath and hurried down to answer it. However, before she opened the door, she paused long enough to peek out the curtain, just to make sure there wasn’t a very angry man with gleaming red eyes waiting for her on the porch. There wasn’t. It was Kyle Vincent. Though, come to think of it, why would Frederik bother knocking?
Lanie pulled open the door and heard the breath rush out of her. Kyle Vince
nt looked…staggeringly handsome! He was obviously freshly showered; his mop of wheat colored hair was damp and swept back from his face, the stubble on his chin and jaw was neatly trimmed. He was wearing dark jeans and the same high combat boots, still mostly unlaced, a dark grey button down shirt, and his customary long leather coat. He looked…alarmingly good.
“Lanie,” Kyle said by way of a greeting before stepping inside and shutting the door behind him.
Kyle Vincent looked so amazingly gorgeous that Lanie had a fair amount of trouble finding her voice. “Uh, h-have you eaten?” she asked him, trying to close her gaping mouth.
“Gretchen made me eat a bit ago,” he answered, looking slightly embarrassed.
Lanie was glad. If he was staying with Gretchen, she would make sure that he wasn’t starving. “Do you want to go in the kitchen and have a glass of tea?”
Somehow, the kitchen seemed like a…safe place to be. Neutral, somehow.
“Sure,” he said easily and fell into step beside her as she headed that way.
“How did Gretchen explain you to Hank?” she questioned as they made their way through the house. She actually wondered how Gretchen could explain anything to Hank with his tongue shoved down her throat.
“I think she sent him home so she wouldn’t have to explain anything,” Kyle said in answer.
In the kitchen, Kyle took a seat at the center island and Lanie poured out two glasses of sweet tea, opting to stand by the sink to drink hers rather than sitting next to him. His presence was so overwhelming she thought the space would help her breathe.
“What was Frederik doing, Lanie” Kyle asked, cutting right to the chase.
“Frederik doesn’t want to kill me!” she blurted it out because she couldn’t keep it inside any longer.
Kyle went stiff on his stool. “What do you mean?”
“He…he was trying to get me to come out of the house. I…I could almost hear him in my head. And I-I…I almost did. I-I almost went out to him,” she confessed, a measure of shame washing over her.
Kyle’s expression went tight and his sparkling eyes went hard. “He was trying to call you,” he stated.
Lanie was confused. “Call me? He-he—“
“He was calling you to him,” Kyle said, looking taut and angry. “A vampire can…sway members of the opposite sex, especially the younger ones. It makes taking a food source easier, keeps it from putting up a fight.”
Had Frederik done that calling thing to Stacy and Amy Jarvis? Did that mean they weren’t afraid? Or in pain?
“He didn’t want…food,” Lanie told Kyle. “He wanted…me.”
“What?” asked Kyle, his brows lowering.
“I-I…he wanted m-me. He said…I-I heard…or I thought I heard…he wanted me to go away with him so that he could…have me,” she fumbled, feeling her cheeks flushing with heat.
There was a moment of silence from Kyle, during which it seemed that he might just explode into a fit of rage. Lanie actually felt herself shrinking back against the sink, bracing for it.
“Are you sure?” he asked her through clenched teeth.
Lanie nodded. “I’m…pretty sure. Unless you think I-I could be wrong. I mean, I could be wrong, couldn’t I?” She really, truly wanted Kyle to tell her that she could be wrong, that she’d imagined the whole thing.
“If you think that’s what he wanted, then that’s what he wanted,” Kyle stated, pricking the bubble of hope inside her. “And that’s a problem.”
Really? “I-I don’t understand. If that’s what he wanted then why did he try to kill me in the park? When he came flying at us it didn’t seem like he wanted me…like that,” she said, feeling her cheeks again flush with heat.
“He wasn’t coming at you, he was coming at me, because I stopped him from taking you. And if he decided he wants you enough to come here and try to call you out of your house, then we have a bigger problem than I thought,” he stated.
He’d already said that. Saying it twice did not help her feel any better. “So, what do I do? I mean…what do I do?”
Kyle pulled in a long breath and ran a hand through his damp hair. “There’s nothing you can do, Lanie. This is for me to try and deal with. You…you just try to go on about your life.”
There was a tone threaded through his words that made Lanie think he wanted to say while you can, which sent a shard of fear through her. She wanted to ask if he thought she was…doomed, but he might tell her and she honestly did not want to know just then.
“I’m not going to let him take you, Lanie. I promise,” Kyle suddenly said to her, determination heavy in his voice.
However, that determination did not serve to soothe her. Kyle had been chasing Frederik for four years and had not managed to kill him. She doubted Kyle could stop him from doing whatever he wanted to her. But, again, was she willing to hide inside the house until Frederik went away? What if he decided to stay in Fells Pointe for weeks or for months? She could not stay away from her life for weeks or months!
“He…he will give up and go away, won’t he?” she asked quietly.
Kyle’s gaze faltered for a brief second, causing Lanie’s heart to lurch inside her chest. “I have no idea what’s in his head, Lanie. But, I’m not going to let him get his hands on you, no matter what I have to do.”
Lanie could tell that Kyle believed what he was saying. And she wanted to believe him, too. She needed to believe him; otherwise she would wind up cowering in her room, afraid to step outside her door, waiting for the monster to decide to go away and leave her alone.
She didn’t want to have to live that way.
She was not willing to live that way, no matter how many blood thirsty vampires were in town.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
There was a brief silence in the kitchen, during which Lanie could tell that Kyle wanted to say something, but couldn’t seem to work up to it. So, she decided to tell him what she’d spent all night waiting to tell him, the thing that had nearly gotten her killed.
“My aunt told me about your sister. I’m sorry,” she said quietly and watched as Kyle went even more rigid than he already was, his face going a shade paler and his gaze dropping down to his untouched glass of tea. Instantly, she was hit by a wave of guilt. “I’m-I’m sorry. I-I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said quickly, feeling like an idiot.
Maybe it was too painful for him to talk about. She hadn’t been able to talk about her mom for months. Kyle might not be ready to talk about his sister, and here she was, bringing it up! Good grief, she was as bad as Gretchen!
Kyle was quiet for a long minute before clearing his throat and bringing his eyes back up to her. The stark, raw pain Lanie saw swimming in those sparkling green orbs took her breath away.
“I went to pick Allison up from work one night and…I heard something around the back of the restaurant. I thought it was her taking the trash out, so I went back there to help her...and he was there. He had her on the ground. She wasn’t screaming or trying to get away. She was just lying there.” Kyle stopped speaking, staring at Lanie, but seeing something else. He was seeing that night. “I didn’t know what he was then. Not that it would have mattered. I would have tried to save my sister, no matter what he was. And I did try. I just…couldn’t.”
Of course he couldn’t. No one would have been able to stop that monster. She knew. She’d seen… But, it was obvious that he still blamed himself.
“I woke up later…I still don’t know how much later, maybe days…in the garbage dump across town. It took a while for me to figure out that something had happened to me. I guess he’d meant to kill me, but something…went wrong. I-I didn’t die,” Kyle said, clearly replaying that ordeal in his mind. “I tried to find Allison. I searched everywhere, I searched for an entire day, but I couldn’t find her. There was just too much filth to dig through, so I had to give up.”
Lanie tried to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. The misery on Kyle’s face was agonizing. She could actually pi
cture him, confused and desperate, digging through a garbage dump searching for the body of his sister. She tried to push that image away.
“It was a while before I understood just what he’d done to me. It was a while before I realized I was actually…dead. It took me even longer to figure out how it works with me and him. And when I figured it out, I started hunting him,” Kyle told her, some of his misery giving way to cold, hard anger. “I’ve hunted him all over the globe. I’ve hunted him non-stop for four years. I’ve hunted him until…I have nothing left to hunt him with. I-I’ve missed both my parents’ funerals, I’ve sold their house and spent every cent I have chasing him. And I’m no closer to killing him now than I was the night he killed my sister.”
“But, you are close,” Lanie told him, wanting to wipe away the sudden look of utter defeat on Kyle Vincent’s ruggedly handsome face. “You’ve shot him twice now.”
Kyle pulled in a deep breath, steadying himself. “I know. It’s the closest I’ve gotten to him in a long time. But, it’s not close enough. I’m afraid I’ll never get close enough,” Kyle confessed, shaking his head. “You’ve seen. I mean, I know exactly how to end him. I have all the right elements, I’m nearly as fast and as strong as he is, but I still haven’t been able to do it.”
Lanie placed her glass of tea onto the counter top and walked around to take a seat next to Kyle. “What do you mean elements?” she asked. “Don’t you just have to…stake him?” She flushed as she said it.
How stupid did she sound! She could not believe this was an actual conversation she was having now!
“It’s a little more complicated than just staking him,” Kyle told her, some of his anguish gone. “It’s not like the movies. Killing a vampire is more…involved and intricate than just putting a stake through him.”
“Well, tell me,” she said, thinking it might be a good idea to know how to do it, just in case.
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