Echoes

by Michelle Rowen

My house looked out on the park, so it wasn’t much further before we were on my street. Our street.

  “Good-bye, Olivia.” Ethan’s stride didn’t slow as he walked past my house.

  “How do I make them leave me alone?” I called after him.

  He didn’t look back at me. A couple moments later he disappeared around the curve in the road behind a thick hedge.

  o0o

  By eleven o’clock I was in bed with the lights off, staring wide-eyed at my digital clock, knowing I wasn’t going to get even a moment of sleep that night. The room felt like it was closing in on me.

  11:01

  11:02

  11:03

  Finally, I sat bolt upright and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I wore my usual sleeping attire—black shorts and a pink tank top I’d grabbed out of the dryer before bed. I absently ran my palm over the front of my right thigh feeling the familiar gnarled surface of my scar in the darkness.

  A minute later, I got up and left my bedroom, quietly heading downstairs. No sign of my mother or father. They were probably in bed already. The thought that he was so willing to accept her back in our lives, just like it had been before, still upset me.

  This time last year everything had been fine. Or so I’d thought. Little did I know she’d been so discontent living her life with me and my father and craving her freedom that she’d been looking for true love at the freaking grocery store.

  But I had way more important things to think about at the moment.

  I went to the kitchen and rooted around in the cupboard for the phone book, flipping through the pages with only the light of the moon streaming through the window to help me search the list of names.

  Cole.

  There were three Coles listed in Ravenridge, but only one here on Cyprus Street. Without over-thinking it, I grabbed the phone and pecked in the numbers. It rang three times before someone picked up.

  “Hello?” It was a woman’s voice. Ethan’s mom, probably.

  “Uh, hi. Sorry I’m calling so late. May I speak to Ethan, please? It’s important.” I spoke in a half whisper, knowing that I sounded like a crank caller, but hoping she wouldn’t hang up on me.

  “Who’s calling?”

  “It’s...tell him it’s...Olivia.”

  “Just a sec, hon.”

  There was a soft thud as the phone was put down and then silence for a couple minutes. It felt more like forever. I clutched the phone so tightly that my hand began to hurt. Finally she returned.

  “His bedroom light’s still on but he’s not answering me, Olivia. He’s probably fast asleep by now. Do you go to school with Ethan?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then whatever you want to talk about will have to wait till tomorrow morning. Sorry.”

  I was about to ask her to try again, but decided not to press my luck with her patience. “Okay, thanks anyway.”

  After ending the call, I tried to ignore the tight feeling in my chest. I should have called earlier when he was still awake.

  Only...I didn’t believe for one second he was really sleeping right now. He just didn’t want to talk to me. Just because he’d been called upon to save my life again didn’t mean he was suddenly going to open up to me about what was going on in this town.

  Ethan Cole was going to avoid me until he had no other choice but to talk to me.

  But I needed answers. I was desperate for them.

  Which left me with only one viable solution, in my humble opinion.

  Grabbing my house key and running shoes, I slipped out through the front door, closing it behind me as quietly as I could. Then, apprehension thudding in my chest, I quickly jogged down the street and around the corner to the house where Ethan lived.

  Chapter 4

  Only one room on the second floor still had its lights on. The window was open a crack and the thin blue curtains blew in the warm breeze.

  That was my target.

  The last thing I was going to do at this time of night was knock on the front door. Ethan’s mom would probably think I was completely crazy then.

  Maybe I was.

  There was a wooden trellis built up over the side of the house under the window. It was exactly like the one at my house—maybe it was installed by the same landscapers. I’d used the one under my window to sneak out and back in a couple of times when the situation called for it and I’d wanted to attend an after hours party.

  I grabbed the trellis and tested it for strength. Felt okay to me. I put one hand over the other, making sure I had a secure hold before bringing up my foot and wedging it into the next sturdy spot. It took a few minutes to climb up, but before I knew it my hands curled over the ledge on the second floor. Then I hoisted myself up until I was sitting on Ethan’s windowsill.

  Only then did I have second thoughts about what I was doing.

  Ethan sat on the edge of his bed wearing light gray track pants and a white T-shirt, watching me attempt to break and enter his bedroom.

  “Okay,” he said. “Have to say I didn’t expect this.”

  Climbing up the wall hadn’t been without effort, so now I was a little winded. “I knew you were awake.”

  “If I hadn’t been, I would be now. It’s not every day a girl climbs in through my window. Actually, it’s not any day.”

  “It’s not day,” I said, finally recognizing the ridiculousness of what I’d just done. But desperate times called for desperate measures. “It’s night.”

  “Touché.” He didn’t look amused by this situation in the slightest. “Look, Olivia, I really don’t think—” Then he swore under his breath as I ignored his attempted protests, pushed the window completely open, and swung fully into his room. I looked down at where I’d come from. Now that I was up here, it seemed to be a very long drop to the ground.

  Ethan’s room was pretty much what I’d expected: a bed with a rumpled blue and green bedspread and pale blue sheets, a desk with an older model computer on it, and a scuffed hardwood floor with a large shaggy throw rug. Concert posters of a few old bands—one for The Rolling Stones, one for Led Zeppelin—both of which were taped to the dark blue wall. A bookcase with textbooks and paperback novels crammed into it.

  Finally my gaze landed on the seventeen year old boy who looked seriously annoyed with me. “Want the guided tour?”

  “No, I’m good.”

  “Why are you here, Olivia?”

  “Gee, why don’t you take a wild guess? I’m freaking out about what happened earlier, that’s why I’m here.” He opened his mouth but I held up my hand. “And don’t you dare try to deny that anything happened.”

  His dark eyebrows went up. “Wouldn’t dream of it. It happened. You were attacked.”

  “By a man who died of a heart attack. Mr. Watkinson was dead, Ethan.”

  His lips thinned. “Okay.”

  I put my hands on my hips and stood there in front of him, ready to unleash every question that bubbled up inside me. “It was an Upyri, right? Some sort of...of bodiless vampire that takes over dead bodies?”

  Ethan hissed out a long breath, and then raised his gaze to mine. “Upyri is the plural. What you saw earlier was an Upyr. Just one.”

  To finally have it confirmed without further argument was a shock and I suddenly felt lightheaded. “I need to sit down.”

  He got up and grabbed the chair from his desk, rolling it over toward me. “Here.”

  I sank heavily into it. Ethan sat back down on the edge of his bed facing me.

  “Why do they want to kill me?” I asked, my throat tight.

  “I don’t know.”

  “That man...he was the same one that attacked me the other night. But he was in the body of an even older man then, right?”

  “I think so.”

  “And when you stabbed the old man...and he disappeared...that was only the body. The body was destroyed when it caught fire out of nowhere. But the Upyr itself wasn’t destroyed. It was still around, but it didn’t have any substance...l
ike a—” I recalled what I’d read on the Internet, “—a wraith.”

  “Yes.”

  “And it found Mr. Watkinson’s body and...stole it.” My mouth was dry. “Right?”

  Ethan pushed the hair off his forehead and nodded solemnly.

  “He wanted to kill me. He said I was the one she wants and he was going to bring me to her soon.” I raised my gaze to his. “Am I supposed to be the body for one of these things?”

  Ethan stood up and so did I. I grabbed his arms just past the sleeves of his T-shirt just in case he was thinking about walking away without answering more of my questions.

  “Well?” I said.

  “They seem to want you in particular. So, yeah, you might be right.”

  I laughed then, under my breath and slightly hysterically, and Ethan looked at me strangely. Being this close to him I noticed that there was a faint scent of mint to his breath. Toothpaste, probably.

  “What?” he said.

  “I don’t know.” I swallowed hard as the laughter died in my throat. “It’s the strangest thing, but just being around you...it makes me feel safer.”

  He eyed me cautiously and the faintest shadow of a smile played at his lips. “That is strange.”

  “You followed me after school because you thought they’d attack me again. Right? Even though you’ve been avoiding me at school?”

  His jaw tensed. “I thought it was a possibility.”

  “Thank you.” I meant it with all my heart. Even though Ethan had driven me half-insane by avoiding me and making me wonder so many things about my attackers and about him, if it wasn’t for him I’d be dead twice over by now.

  He nodded stiffly. “You’re welcome.”

  “The one today said he’d be back again. So what am I supposed to do?”

  His brow furrowed. “I know somebody in town who knows a lot about the Upyri. He’s an old friend of mine. I think he can help us.”

  “Who is he?”

  Ethan shook his head. “No names. Not yet. But tomorrow, after school, we’ll go see him. If you want to.”

  It was more than I’d hoped for. I was surprised Ethan was now ready to extend himself a bit more to help me. “Yes. Yes, I want to.”

  “Fine.”

  I bit my bottom lip. “How do you know about these Upyri things, anyway? You knew how to stop them. You weren’t scared.”

  “I put on a good front.”

  I studied him for a long moment of silence, trying to piece it together. “Wait, are you some sort of vampire hunter?” Another hysterical burst of laughter welled in my chest and came out sounding more like a hiccup. “That sounds nuts, but is it true?”

  “That I’m a vampire hunter? Me? Definitely nuts. Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time.”

  I chewed my bottom lip. “Even if my theory’s right, you probably wouldn’t tell me the truth, would you?”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah. I do.”

  Ethan Cole, vampire hunter. I couldn’t help but be impressed. I never would have guessed it. He’d kept such a low profile at school he was practically non-existent.

  Maybe that had all been on purpose.

  He went silent for a moment, his attention now focused on the ground. “Does it ever hurt you?”

  “What?”

  “Your scar.”

  “My—?” But then I realized what he was talking about. I’d been in such a hurry to leave my house, so preoccupied by the Upyri and finding out the truth, that I’d left wearing only my shorts and tank. I hadn’t given it another thought. Both were perfectly fine for wearing out in public in this weather—it wasn’t as if I was wearing lingerie or anything—but the shorts bared my thighs, the one body part I tried my best to hide at all times in public.

  I pulled away from Ethan, now incredibly self-conscious. “Don’t look at it.”

  His gaze on my leg moved up to my eyes. “What?”

  “It’s ugly.”

  He frowned at me. “You’re kind of vain, you know that?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You hate anyone seeing any flaw about you so you keep everything hidden away. It’s stupid.”

  “Thank you for your opinion.”

  “I asked if it hurt you, I wasn’t passing judgment on your damn appearance.”

  I glared at him. “What? Are you mad at me now?”

  He glowered back at me. “Yeah, maybe I am.”

  “Why?”

  “You crawl in through my bedroom window, grill me about Upyri and your life being at risk, and then you totally hide when it comes to something stupid like a scar.”

  “It’s not stupid.”

  “I’m sure your boyfriend Peter doesn’t care about it half as much as you do.”

  “Peter’s never even seen it.” I immediately regretted saying it. It was none of Ethan’s business what Peter had never seen or what we hadn’t done together that would require the necessity of bare skin.

  His eyebrows went up. “Never?”

  “Let’s just forget about it.” I felt uncomfortably warm now. “Forget about Peter, forget about my scar, and forget about anything other than these Upyri things that are out there after me. I’m thinking that’s a bit more important than anything else right now.”

  “You’re right. But you didn’t answer my question.”

  “What question?”

  “Does it hurt you?”

  I tried to figure out if he was making fun of me, but all I saw was sincerity in his eyes. I slid my hand down over my thigh. “No. It doesn’t hurt me.”

  “Good.”

  “And I’m not vain.”

  A glimmer of a smile played at his lips again. “If you say so.”

  “Now you can see why I’d want to hide it from the world.”

  He drew a little closer to me, taking my hand in his. His skin was so warm against mine. “I know this is going to come as a severe shock to you, Olivia, and it’s completely and totally unfair, but the fact that you have a scar that makes you feel ugly only makes you more beautiful.”

  I snorted, hardly believing what he’d just said. “Beautiful?”

  He let go of my hand immediately. “Whatever. Forget it.”

  I studied him for a moment. “I seriously can’t figure you out.”

  “There’s nothing to figure out.” He took me by my arm and directed me over to the window, close enough that I could feel the warm breeze again. “It’s time for you to go. I think you can leave the same way you arrived.”

  My eyes widened. “What if I get attacked on the way home?”

  “You didn’t think about that when you came over here, did you?”

  “Not really. But now I’m thinking.”

  “Better late than never.”

  “I’m not finished asking you questions.”

  “I’m finished answering them.”

  “But—”

  “Olivia,” he said sharply. “I know you want to figure out what’s going on. So do I. That’s why we’re going to see my friend tomorrow. I honestly think he can help us.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I do. But in the meantime—” He looked at the window. “You need to go.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s not a great idea for you to be here right now.”

  “That’s not a very good answer.” I studied his face for a long moment until he looked uncomfortable again at the close scrutiny. “Did I thank you for saving my life twice?”

  He studied the windowsill now as if it held his undivided attention. “You did. But it’s not necessary. I would have helped anyone who got into—”

  I pulled him closer to me and he looked down with surprise at my hands clutching the soft material of his shirt. I was surprised, too. Hadn’t exactly planned on doing that, but now I couldn’t seem to let go.

  Just like the other night I could feel his heartbeat beneath my touch and it was going very, very fast.

  “Thank you, Ethan,” I wh
ispered. “Thank you so much.”

  I kissed him. Another surprise—for both of us.

  I was certain he’d push me away immediately, but he didn’t. Instead he kissed me back and pulled me closer against him, tangling his hands into my long hair.

  So it looked like Bree had been wrong, after all. When she said that someone like Ethan wasn’t my type...

  Totally wrong.

  I might not have paid much attention to him in the past, but I’d been paying attention—close attention—the last couple of days. Ethan Cole tried to hide, tried to keep to himself all the time. I had no idea why he’d been such a loner all these years, but now it made total sense to me. He was some sort of Upyri hunter, keeping the rest of us safe from the monsters we didn’t even know existed.

  I’d seen the real Ethan now and he couldn’t hide from me any longer even if he wanted to.

  Kissing him hadn’t been planned, but I couldn’t help myself. All I knew was it was better than I ever could have expected. Better than any kiss I’d ever experienced. This was a kiss that made me dizzy as my entire body started to shiver. I ran my hands up his chest and over his shoulders, then further up to tangle into his black hair that felt like silk sliding between my fingers.

  I wasn’t entirely sure if this was supposed to be a kiss of gratitude or a goodnight kiss. It was turning out to be neither.

  Together we crashed onto Ethan’s bed and I felt his weight press down on top of me. He hadn’t broken the kiss for a moment. When he brushed his hand gently against my scarred thigh it didn’t even make me tense up. It felt good. I wanted Ethan to touch me.

  All thoughts and worries disappeared. I wasn’t thinking about my troubles with my mom or that I’d been targeted by murderous Upyri and had no idea why.

  There was only Ethan. My fascination with him had grown in the last two days to something way more intense, way scarier, and way more exciting than I ever could have imagined.

  Just then, there was a sharp knock on the door. “Ethan? Everything okay in there?”

  “Damn.” Ethan mumbled against my lips a split second before his bedroom door opened.

  His mother peered in at us from the shadows of the hallway and her eyes widened. “Oh. Oh my.”

  My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. But it wasn’t like we were naked or anything. All our clothes were still in place, if a bit askew. And we were on top of the rumpled covers, not underneath.