Amnesia Bites (Shady Arcade Book 1)

by Sharon Stevenson

  “Someone sounds jealous,” he joked. There was something weird between Bridget and Chloe. Since Bridget wasn’t up for talking about it, he settled for taking the piss.

  She sighed deeply and he turned, closing the door to the dishwasher and straightening.

  “You don’t know how hard it’s been,” Bridget said. She looked pained.

  He frowned. “How hard what’s been?”

  “We spend every day together, Zack. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

  He stared at her, trying to wrap his head around what she was saying. “Noticed…?”

  “This isn’t easy for me.” She clasped her hands together. “I like you, Zack. I’m sworn to protect you, so I shouldn’t be feeling like this. It’s just… it’s wrong.”

  He blinked. She couldn’t be saying what he thought she was. There’d been no indication of it up until now. Until some other girl started paying him attention. He tried not to roll his eyes at that little revelation. He could believe Bridget was being pissy that he was attracted to someone else but not out of any kind of feelings for him. She was more likely to be irritable that he wasn’t lusting after her exclusively, not that he had ever looked at her that way, but she was very pretty and she damn well knew it. She had a problem with Cassandra, too, one that seemed based on how incredibly attractive she was. This wasn’t a new look on her. She didn’t like other women. He didn’t know why he was even giving it a second thought.

  “I’m kind of tired,” he said, feeling his face flush at the lie.

  “I’ll go,” she said. “Just, think about what I said. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  ***

  Chloe walked home fuming. She kicked off her shoes when she got inside, letting out a frustrated growl. Technically, Bridget was right. She shouldn’t have spoken to Zack at all. He was fragile right now; he didn’t need her around. He didn’t remember her, and she didn’t want to go through the whole getting to know each other process again. Things wouldn’t turn out the same way they had the first time. Everything was different now. He wasn’t the same guy she’d fallen for.

  She sighed. Maybe Larry wasn’t such a bad idea…

  “Shit,” she swore, picking up her phone. She didn’t know Larry’s number, and she sighed again, heavier this time. Hauling her Doc Martens back on, she headed out. Babysitting wasn’t on her top five list of favourite things, but it would be a distraction, at least.

  She walked around to his flat and knocked on the door. He was talking inside, and she frowned as she strained to listen. Was he with a woman in there? She realised he wasn’t when he opened the door, his phone in one hand. He ushered her in, and she tore her eyes away from his naked chest. The unbuttoned dress-shirt and smart trousers told her he was heading out. She folded her arms, leaning against the wall as he finished up his phone call.

  “Aw, come on, Amira, you know you want to,” he said, a smile on his face and earnestness in his tone.

  Chloe raised an eyebrow at him. He shook his head and walked down the hall.

  “Well, okay. But you should come next time. I’ll buy you a drink.”

  He’d barely hung up when Chloe’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and smiled. Amira had sent her text. She wondered what that could be about.

  Larry was thankfully buttoning up his shirt when she looked up at him again.

  “Well, that didn’t go so well,” he said.

  “What, propositioning every girl in your phone book?”

  He laughed. “Nah. Not exactly.”

  “Hey, Amira’s a friend of mine. I don’t want you—”

  “I knew it. You do like me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I’m saying here.” She took a breath. “Anyway…what are you doing?”

  “I’m going out.”

  “What for?”

  “For a drink with friends.”

  “Uh, no, you’re not.” She shook her head. “This vampire thing is new, Larry. You need to get used to some things before you go out into warm nightclubs full of unsuspecting humans.”

  His face fell. “You’re serious.”

  “Deadly,” she said, going into her phone book. “I need your numbers. I can’t be over here all the time, but I’ll need to check in daily.”

  “So when am I okay to go for a night out, then?” He sounded whiny.

  “A few weeks, maybe,” she said, shrugging.

  He sighed, sinking to the floor and pulling at his hair. “I finally have a shot with girls like Amira, and you’re telling me I have to wait?”

  Chloe stifled a snort of laughter. She sat down on crossed legs across from him. “You have to wait a few weeks now, but you’ll have a lifetime to take your shot at those girls, Larry.”

  He glanced up. “A lifetime?”

  “Unless you get staked or something,” she joked, killing her smile when he grimaced at her. “You’re going to look that good for a long time. Get used to it.”

  He grinned at the realization. Then it sank, just a little. “I just drank like four pints of blood. I thought I was maybe getting… y’know tonight.”

  “If that’s a hint, you already know what my answer is. You’ll just have to…” She made a tugging motion with her hand, and he sighed. “Now, give me your phone numbers.”

  She passed him her phone and he started to punch the details in.

  She leaned against the wall and bit back a yawn. Her day had been long enough as it was. The thought of sticking around to make sure Larry behaved himself made her wince. She just wanted to get a cup of tea and go to bed.

  “So…” Larry handed the phone back and straightened against the wall. “I know Zack lost all of his memories, but why does that mean you have to stay away from him?”

  She smiled sadly. “He doesn’t remember ever meeting me. I’m just a girl who works in the arcade. And he’s just a guy who needs to be protected from the vampires who tried to kill him. Bridget is basically his bodyguard. I don’t trust her.”

  She wasn’t sure why she was telling Larry, but it felt good to unload.

  “But what can I do?” She shrugged. “I’m nothing to him now.”

  “Wow,” Larry said quietly. “Vampires tried to kill him? Why?”

  His big eyes were curious.

  She knew she could trust him. Even if he was a potential threat now, he wasn’t part of a clan, and she would do everything she could to keep him away from that. If he ever became a real threat, she’d deal with him. She had power over him. Still, she hesitated to answer. The vampire who’d made Larry had come to Shady Pines for Zack.

  “Because of what he can do.”

  “What? The guess-the-owner-of-the-trinket stuff? I thought that was like a carnival trick. I mean, I’ve seen him do it. It’s creepy as shit. But it’s fake, right?”

  She shook her head, smiling wanly.

  “It’s not fake. He has…gifts.” She knew he’d never seen it that way, but it’s what they were. “It’s up to the necromancers in town to protect him. Bridget’s here because the FBU wanted to do some damage control and because necromancers can’t actually track vampires.” She shook her head. “There are necromancers all over town. No vampire in his right mind would come here. Rumour has it, Bridget was the only one they could get to volunteer to come here.”

  Larry stared at her, raptly. “They’re afraid to come here?”

  “You want a demonstration of why?” She smiled as he nodded. “Take your shirt off, Larry. Now.”

  His fingers went straight to the buttons, undoing them quickly.

  She gave him just enough time to catch on that he had no real control against her demand. “Wait. Button it back up.”

  His fingers moved just as quickly as they had before. He stared at her when he dropped his hands to his sides. “Weird.”

  “There are worse things a necromancer can order a vampire to do.”

  “Obviously,” he said, folding his arms. “So, how many of those necromancers are th
ere in town?”

  “A lot.”

  “Like half the town a lot or one on every street a lot?”

  “Try, generations of families who’ve lived here since the town was built. More than half the town if you need to put it that way. It might be a small place, but there are a lot of us.”

  He shuddered. “What happens when they find out about me?”

  “I’m your guardian, Larry. No one’s going to hurt you. You can relax.”

  He blew out a breath. “Wait. What about Amira?”

  It took her a second to realise what he meant. “Her family only moved here when she was a kid, so no. She’s not one of them.”

  He rubbed at his face. “This is crazy.”

  “And it’s also late,” Chloe said, getting to her feet and stretching. “Try to relax. Stay inside. I’ll come back tomorrow with more blood.”

  She didn’t make it sound like a command, but she made sure she looked him in the eye when she told him to stay inside.

  “Okay,” he said, nodding slowly. He didn’t get up from where he sat, slumped against the wall in defeat.

  She went outside and breathed in the cool night air. Another buzz from her pocket made her check and actually read Amira’s text messages. She had to smile. The girl was clearly in shock, and whether it was because of Larry’s newfound confidence or just because she didn’t realise he fancied her, Chloe had no idea. She sent a message back, trying not to be too discouraging while also reminding herself Amira had no idea that vampires were real.

  The reply she got back was non-committal. She didn’t think she had anything to worry about.

  ***

  Zack lay awake, wanting to pretend everything was normal—as normal as it could get with him—but the thought of creatures like the girl in that house coming for him proved enough to make him hellishly paranoid. He wanted to trust Bridget, but knowing she was one of them was enough to put the brakes on anything that might have otherwise happened between them. He wanted to believe she had some sort of feelings for him, but it didn’t make any kind of sense. He wished she were human. It would take away the lingering doubts he still had about her.

  “Damn it, Zack. You can’t trust her,” Audrey said with a sigh. “Why do guys always let the head with no brain win?”

  “I’m kind of busy right now,” he told her. “Can you call back later?”

  She snorted. “Busy? Right. And I’m the chosen one.”

  “What do you want, then?”

  “I want you to wake up and smell the vampire.”

  He sat upright in the bed. “What did you just say?”

  “You heard me. You can’t trust vampires. Not even the sexy ones who tell you they’re into you. Especially not her.”

  “How do you know about vampires? This isn’t funny, Audrey.”

  “Am I making a joke here? No. I don’t think so. Don’t let her fool you. She’s out to get you.”

  He swallowed, not sure what to say to that. His big sister had tapped right into his own fears and laid them out for him to see. He was lucky he still had eyeballs, he supposed.

  “What do I do?”

  He hoped to hell she had some sort of advice. Thoughts of carrying around a crucifix and bathing in garlic made him cringe.

  “You find something long and sharp. It doesn’t have to be wooden. And you give her the long kiss goodnight. Threat eliminated.”

  He let himself fall back onto the bed. “Thanks a million. I never would have thought of that on my own.”

  “She’ll finish the job they started, little Z. She wasn’t lying about the things they would have done to you.”

  “Hey. How do you know about that?” He hadn’t told her. It was like she was in his head.

  And that single thought was all it took to break the connection.

  He sighed as he realised he’d just had another ‘episode’. At least he’d snapped out of it on his own this time, he supposed.

  It did nothing to help him sleep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chloe had been out walking towards the town limits when she’d first met Zack. She’d just blown off her afternoon classes, annoyed at the shitty grade she’d gotten for a story she’d spent hours working on in her Creative Writing class.

  “Fucking pretentious a-hole,” she swore, slipping a cigarette out of her shirt cuff and taking her lighter from her rucksack. She lit the cigarette and tossed her bag on the memorial bench by the gate to the walking trail that led out of town and into the woods of Riverton.

  After a few puffs, she reached forward and unzipped her bag. Her marked assignment stared back at her. She plucked it from the bag and set the corner on fire with her lighter. It burned slowly. She put the lighter away and watched the paper burn.

  “You’re not planning on setting the woods on fire, are you?”

  The sound of a wry male voice made her jump.

  She narrowed her eyes as she dropped the paper. Removing the cigarette from her mouth, she stared the intruder down. He was pale and overdressed for the weather. The coat and gloves were excessive. His eyes were dark, almost the same colour as his hair. He was interesting, she decided. He was also new.

  “You’re not from around here,” she told him, flicking ash to the ground.

  “Just moved,” he said, leaning awkwardly against a tree.

  “What year are you in?” She thought of it as a subtle way to ask his age. She wasn’t standing around wasting her breath on an under-aged smart-ass.

  “I don’t go to school,” he said, causing her stomach to flip.

  He couldn’t be too much older than her, but he wasn’t at school. It instantly made him seem cooler.

  “Yeah? Well, I’m in fifth year,” she told him, tossing her cigarette to the ground and stubbing it out with her heel.

  “So you’re out here burning your homework, then?” He seemed amused. His lips twitched slightly, even if his gaze seemed to catch the ground more often than her eyes.

  She shrugged. “What’s it to you?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “I was just bored, and I saw you out here.”

  She raised an eyebrow. He motioned to the house partially hidden by trees across the road and in the woods.

  “You’re living in the old murder house?”

  “The old what?”

  She smiled. “It’s just a name. We… the kids around here used to break in on Halloween. It’s been abandoned for years.”

  “So you’re telling me I have to wait until Halloween to see you again?”

  She looked at him and shook her head. “Not if you let me see inside your house right now.”

  He cleared his throat, doubt in his eyes for a second. Then he smiled, and her heart skipped a beat.

  “Okay,” he told her, moving away from the tree he was leaning on.

  He was taller than her, even in her heels. She caught his arm as he got closer, holding on as he led the way. She glanced at his gloves again.

  “Hey,” she said. “Promise me you’re not a serial killer.”

  He seemed to realise what she was getting at. With a small pause, he tugged his gloves off and slipped them into his pocket. “I promise.”

  She moved her hand down his arm and took his hand. He tensed for a moment, and she wondered what was wrong. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded slowly. “Ready for your tour of the murder house?”

  “Of course.”

  She didn’t have that moment of doubt she usually experienced before she made a mistake. If he was a psycho, he was hiding it well. She stumbled against him as they walked over the uneven dirt path. He steadied her, stopping her from tripping.

  The old house loomed, and from the outside she couldn’t tell the difference. It still didn’t look lived in. She glanced at him as he opened the door, shifting his sweater sleeve to cover his hand as he turned the handle. “You didn’t lock your door?”

  He shrugged. “I was two minutes away.”

  She knew this was the moment
her gut instincts should be kicking in telling her this was a bad idea. She was following a stranger into his house in the woods, and she’d left her phone in her bag on the memorial bench.

  He walked into the house, and she followed without hesitation. There was a sweet but clinical smell, like bleach covered over with air freshener. The walls were brightly painted. The blue colour of the hallway was a shock. Someone really was living in the murder house. She wiped her feet on the mat and walked across the dark carpet to get a closer look at the photo above the phone table.

  He cleared his throat again; it seemed to be a nervous habit of his. “I think before you start checking out my stuff, you could at least tell me your name.”

  She turned. “Does that really matter?”

  He seemed speechless. She smiled and moved towards him. He backed into the closed front door.

  “Are you afraid of me?”

  His dark eyes were wide and entirely focused on her as she pressed up against him.

  “You barely know me.”

  “I know you’re harmless,” she said, one of her usual lines but that she actually meant, for once, rather than as a taunt. “And you’re cute when you’re scared.”

  His heart was pounding hard as she slid a hand around the back of his head, touching his hair. His face flushed as she gazed into his eyes.

  “And you have a weird way of working your anger out. Not that I don’t find it hot. But I’m not looking for anything casual.”

  She backed away, blinking in surprise. “What?”

  He sighed, taking the gloves back out from his pocket.

  She watched him put them on, trying to make sense of it.

  “So you get to work your anger out and I don’t? Not likely, killer.”

  He gave her a smile that was part grimace. “I’m Zack, by the way.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’m Chloe. Are we all caught up now? Because I could really use that work out.”

  “Can I read it?” He gazed at her levelly.

  She frowned. “Read what?”

  “The story you were burning out there.”

  She stared at him. He knew what she’d been doing. For a second, she worried that he might be a vampire with some kind of mind-reading ability. Then logic told her he wasn’t. He was human—he’d walked in daylight, and his skin was warm. “How did you know?”