4-Ever Hunted_Vampires Rule

by Blake, Kasi

  Sean looked like a crazy man with unkempt hair, a red face, unbuttoned shirt, and bulging eyes. “Where in the hell were you?” he repeated in an even louder voice. “Gone all night! Explain, mister. Now!”

  Trick stared at the man in silence. He couldn’t tell him the truth. What could he possibly say? Well, Sean, you see, I was hanging out with a vampire which is something I’ve never done before. But you know what? I didn’t exactly hate it.

  Sean’s gaze raked down the mess that was his adopted son. “You’ve been fighting again, haven’t you? Can we expect a visit from the police?”

  Caught off guard, Trick blinked in dumbfounded silence. His adoptive parents must have been worried. Either that or they were jet-lagged and blaming him for the affect the change in time zones had on their bodies. They weren’t supposed to be home yet. He was not prepared to deal with this.

  He glanced around Sean at the hallway mirror and caught sight of his reflection. The bruised cheek, dried blood on his lower lip, and torn shirt contradicted the lie forming in his mouth. Maybe he should say he got mugged. At least Sean couldn’t see the blood splatter on the black t-shirt.

  Sean continued yelling without taking more than a breath between rushed sentences. “Your mother and I were up all night worried sick you’d been in an accident! Have you been doing this the whole time we’ve been gone? Is this how you repay us for our trust? We would have called the police, but considering your track record they probably would have laughed in our faces!”

  Trick cringed. During the Donovan’s vacation he’d felt like a grown man making his own decisions. No one had been there to tell him when to go to bed or what to eat or how much time to spend studying. Yesterday he’d felt like an adult. Now in less than three minutes with Sean Donovan he was reduced to a child.

  “Where is Laura?” Trick asked.

  Sean threw his hands into the air and made a sound of disgust. “I sent her to bed after she started showing signs of an oncoming migraine. Thanks to you, she’ll probably be in pain for days.”

  “If I’d known you were coming home early—”

  “What? You would have stayed here and pretended you were obeying our rules? You know what, young man? We’ve let you get away with a lot because of your unfortunate background, but this tears it.”

  Trick shrugged, and his mind wandered as Sean went on another rant. Exhaustion pulled on him. All he wanted was a few hours in bed. An image of being asleep upstairs popped into his mind. Then he remembered his new ability to teleport. Before the desire turned into a dangerous wish, exposing his secret and making him ill in the process, he shoved it down. This was not the time to teleport.

  Trick decided to go with the truth—at least in part. “I made a new friend yesterday, and we spent the night talking. Guess I lost track of time.”

  “A friend?” Sean’s eyebrows went up. “And you just talked all night?”

  Trick nodded.

  “Does your friend have a name?” Sean asked.

  “Everyone has a name.” When Sean started thumping his foot against the floor, signaling a dangerous loss of patience, Trick shrugged. “You know what? I don’t even remember.”

  Sean gaped at him. “You are grounded until further notice. That means no going out unless it’s to school. No friends. No phone. No computer.”

  “That is so unfair!”

  “Tough!”

  Trick waited for the dreaded words... as long as you’re under my roof. If Sean said them, Trick silently vowed to leave the house tonight and never return. The police wouldn’t bother with a runaway his age.

  “Why are you mad?” he asked. “I am just months away from eighteen. Why are you making such a big deal out of this? If I’d known you were home, I would have called.”

  “Why am I mad?” Sean got quiet. That was worse than when he yelled. Trick knew he was in deep trouble when the volume dropped. “Why am I mad? We’ve tried to raise you to respect the young ladies. Don’t for a minute think I believe you spent an entire night with a girl and just talked.”

  Trick’s jaw dropped. “Girl? What girl? The friend was a guy, and he knew my father. That’s what we were talking about.”

  Another half-truth.

  Sean shifted from foot to foot. His gaze dropped. He always got uncomfortable when Trick mentioned his biological father.

  Matt flew down the stairs in a mad dash and saved them both from the awkward conversation. “Mom is awake. Have you told her Trick is home?”

  Jaw tight, Sean turned away from his adopted son. “No. But I will go and do it now. Thank you.” He glanced back at Trick and added, “If you think we’re done here, you are sadly mistaken.”

  Trick was grateful they only knew about last night and not the whole weekend.

  As soon as Sean vanished upstairs, Trick said, “I owe you.”

  Matt followed him into the other room.

  Trick plopped down in a kitchen chair, way past exhaustion and probably headed for a coma. At least that’s how it felt. If he didn’t get some sleep soon, he was going to lose it. He might tell Sean everything just to watch his brain explode.

  Matt put his hands on the chair opposite side Trick. He leaned over it slightly. Keeping his voice low, he asked, “Where did you go when you went poof?”

  Trick’s jaw dropped. “You know about that?”

  Then he had a ‘duh’ moment and nodded. Scarlet had been there, and her first inclination was to run straight to his brother with the scary news.

  Thinking of Scarlet reminded him that Dani had also been in the car when he’d pulled his Houdini act. He halfway turned and looked out the window. No sign of life in the Foster home. Dani must have already left for school.

  “Where were you?” Matt repeated his dad’s question.

  In a voice barely above a whisper, Trick asked, “You remember how we talked about a genie and getting three wishes that time we watched that movie?”

  Matt made a face of disbelief. “You met a genie?”

  “We always talked about what we’d wish for if we got the opportunity. Well, what if a genie offered you immortality? You’d never die, never grow old, but you’d have to give up who you are. Would you do it?”

  Trick sat back and waited for his brother to seriously contemplate the question. When you gave Matt a hypothetical situation, no matter how much it opposed reality, he always gave it a lot of thought. Unlike Scarlet, who usually blurted out the first thing to enter her head. Matt was definitely the person to ask if you had a distressing problem.

  Unfortunately, he was too smart to be fooled for long.

  “Wait a second.” All the color drained from Matt’s face. “By genie you mean vampire, don’t you? Did Summer offer you immortality?”

  Feet running down the staircase signaled Laura was on her way. They dropped the conversation out of necessity. Seconds later, Laura Donovan rushed into the kitchen. She went straight to Trick and hugged him with the fierce love of a mama bear.

  “Where have you been?” She took a step back and searched his face. “I thought you were dead or somewhere hurt. We were so worried. Why didn’t you call?”

  “I didn’t know you were home.”

  She shook her head at him with disappointment darkening her eyes. “You still should have called your brother. He would have been worried even if we weren’t home.”

  Matt stepped in with, “No, I wouldn’t. It was actually my fault he was gone. I told him to go sleep at a friend’s house and not come back until he changed his attitude.”

  Had the perfect Matt Donovan just lied to his mother?

  Stunned, Trick kept his mouth shut and listened to them talk about him.

  “You what?” Sean filled out the doorway. “Why didn’t you tell us that last night? Or this morning?”

  “Sorry.” Matt shrugged. “Guess I didn’t realize you were that upset. You didn’t say anything to me, and it is Trick we’re talking about. Usually you let him get away with murder around here, so I just though
t...”

  Matt’s voice trailed off.

  Laura glared at him. “Why would you throw your own brother out of the house?”

  “Explain,” Sean said.

  Matt sighed, giving the performance of his life. “You wanted me to fill out the college applications. Remember? Trick saw them and got mad cause he thought I was being sneaky. We had a huge fight, and he stormed out. I told him to go stay with his friend until he got over himself.”

  Trick bit his lower lip to keep from grinning. His follow-the-rules brother was turning into him. He’d been a bad influence on Matt. Was that a good thing? He wasn’t sure.

  Laura’s expression crumbled, and she turned to her husband. “It’s the abandonment thing again. Maybe he should see Dr. Baxter three or even four times a week. The problem seems to be getting worse instead of better.”

  Sean threw up his hands. “If twice a week isn’t helping, what makes you think four will?”

  They talked about him like he wasn’t in the room and argued over what to do with him until he couldn’t listen to it a second longer. If he heard the stupid ‘A’ word one more time, he was going to put his fist through a wall.

  “He didn’t abandon me!” Trick shouted.

  Sean and Laura stopped arguing and looked at him, puzzled.

  Trick said, “My father didn’t abandon me. He died.”

  “How do you know that?” Sean asked. “Did your new friend tell you?”

  Trick nodded.

  Laura caught a gasp with both hands and looked at her husband. “That poor man. He must have been ill when he gave Trick up.”

  “He wasn’t ill.” Trick decided to deliver a death blow to the conversation. “My father was murdered.”

  After dropping the bombshell, he spun around and stormed out the back door. His emotions took him on a roller coaster ride all the way to the sidewalk. The last thing he wanted to do was share personal stuff like that with Sean and Laura. Now they’d feel even sorrier for him.

  One thought remained: he needed to see Dani.

  ♫

  While running from the Shadow Faerie on Saturday, he had left his motorcycle at school. That meant he needed to walk five miles; he didn’t care. The journey would give him time to think. There were several things weighing on his mind. On the top of the pile was Cowboy’s offer to turn him. NO! Even after their fun trip he stood by his earlier decision. He’d rather die than become a vampire.

  Switching topics, he went to his second biggest problem. Dani had seen him disappear. It must have freaked her out, maybe to the point where she’d refuse to talk to him. The first thing he wanted to do once he reached school was talk to her. He wanted to see her pretty face so badly that... he clenched a fist.

  The thought slid dangerously close to a wish. Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He corrected himself before he accidentally teleported. Dani could wait. He’d see her soon enough.

  A car horn honked, startling him.

  His eyes popped open.

  Scarlet pulled up next to him in her father’s car. Seeing that she was headed in the wrong direction, he figured she was on her way to his house. Maybe he should have called her to let her know he was okay. He had been solely focused on getting to Dani.

  He jumped inside without hesitation. “You’re running late. Why aren’t you in school?”

  She glowered at him, jaw tight. Her unruly hair had been gathered at the back of her neck and tied with a blue plaid scarf. Other than that she looked the same. “Really?” she asked with a sour expression. “Is that what we’re talking about?”

  He sighed, exhausted. After two days without sleep he should be at home in bed, but he couldn’t do that without giving Sean some sort of explanation. Maybe he could take a nap in the storage closet at school. He said, “The disappearing thing is new, and I didn’t do it on purpose. It just sort of happened.”

  The cushioned seat felt so good beneath him that he was tempted to fall asleep in Scarlet’s car. His eyelids grew heavy, and he struggled to keep them open.

  “Did you get sick after?” Scarlet asked.

  “For a second, I thought I was gonna die.”

  Scarlet turned the car around and headed for school.

  “What do we do?” She shot a glance his way. “It’s getting serious, and we don’t have a clue how to stop it.”

  Trick was shocked to see her eyes were damp. In all the years he’d known her she hadn’t cried. Not that she was crying now. The tears remained in her eyes. Scarlet was such a tough girl sometimes he forgot she could get sad like anyone else.

  His hand went to her shoulder. “After I disappeared, I went to the vampire’s house. Cowboy. He gave me a way out of this mess... if I want to take it.”

  Scarlet gaped at him. “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “His solution to my problem might be worse than dying.”

  “What do you mean? What did he say?”

  Trick took a deep breath and blurted, “He wants me to become a vampire.”

  She squealed, “What!”

  The car drifted into oncoming traffic, and Trick grabbed the steering wheel to keep them from hitting another vehicle head on.

  Scarlet got it under control. She started driving slower and paid more attention to the road. A few feet and they reached the stoplight on Beckley, just half a mile from school. She hit the brake abruptly, and the car behind her honked.

  Trick did a double-take at her. This was the first time he’d seen Scarlet stop for a yellow light. Sometimes she didn’t bother to obey the red.

  “If you want to talk,” he said, “maybe we should pull over somewhere.”

  The car behind them swerved around her car.

  Scarlet, face flushed, stared at him with wide eyes. “Repeat what you said. I think I just had a stroke and didn’t hear you right.”

  Trick sighed. “Cowboy says my only chance of surviving this power thing is to become immortal.”

  She scoffed. “Yeah. That’s what you need to do, become a monster so hunters can kill you.” Her eyes went north. Then she narrowed them on him. “Wait a second. You aren’t thinking about doing it, are you?”

  Was he?

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged.

  “You can’t let them turn you into one of them.” She threw her hands into the air before punching him in the arm. “How can you even think about it after all the monsters we’ve killed? You told me the only good vampire is a dead vampire.”

  “I still feel that way, but—”

  “But nothing. You can’t do it. No way. Forget it.”

  The light turned green, and she started to drive again. Neither of them said another word until they reached the school parking lot. They both had a lot on their minds. Not to mention he was feeling sleep deprived.

  Scarlet parked and turned off the ignition.

  They sat in silence.

  He started to open the door, but she grabbed his arm.

  “There has to be another way to save your life,” she said. “We will find another way. Trust me.”

  Trick nodded but didn’t believe her.

  Scarlet insisted, “We will find another way. I’m not going to let my best friend die, and I’m not going to let you become a monster either. I’d hate to have to hunt you down and kill you.”

  He almost laughed, but the steely sincerity in her eyes strangled it. She was serious. If he became a vampire, she’d kill him, and the ironic thing was he’d taught her how.

  ♫

  Falling asleep in class was never a good idea, but he wasn’t willing to take total blame. History was the most boring thing on the planet, and Mr. Enid’s dull monotone delivery didn’t help. Trick would have blown off detention if it wasn’t for the fact that History was his final class of the day, and detention was held in the same room. Mr. Enid wasn’t just the most boring teacher Lincoln High had; he was also the size of a bulldozer.

  Trick remained in his seat after the bell
rang and planned what he would say to Dani when he finally saw her. Although, at this rate he was beginning to wonder if that would happen. He had tried to speak to her at lunch. Then he’d remembered it was Monday, which meant she was busy tutoring a student in the library. Their conversation needed to be private. So he’d waited, hoping he could grab her during the ten minute break between classes.

  But he hadn’t seen her then either.

  Was she avoiding him, or was it just bad timing on his part.

  Trick stared at Mr. Enid’s indecipherable writing on the white board and wondered if the teacher on detention duty had forgotten.

  As Trick considered ditching detention, the door opened, and a teacher breezed into the classroom. Tall and thin, he was as pale as a vampire with a receding blond hairline. He appeared to be in his mid to late twenties.

  Trick frowned. After almost four years of high school, he knew every teacher on staff, but he’d never seen this man before. Was he new?

  Dressed in solid black with the exception of the red sneakers on his feet, the teacher set his coffee cup on the desk before sitting on the edge next to it. His nearly transparent blue eyes settled on the only student in the room.

  “Trick Donovan, I presume” the teacher said. “I have wanted to meet you for....well, since I found out you existed.”

  That didn’t surprise Trick. He was kind of a legend at the school with what the principal claimed was a record number of detentions in a solitary year.

  Trick grinned. “You’re a fan?”

  “I am.” A slow smile spread across the teacher’s face. “I am a fan of anyone who kills vampires and still manages to keep a decent grade point average.”

  Trick lost all feeling in his hands and forgot how to speak.

  The man continued. “Do you know you’ve killed ninety-two vampires to date? I’ve done the math. Do you keep track? Make notches on your wooden stakes?”

  Trick took a deep breath. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Cautious. I like that.” The teacher nodded with approval. “Tell me something, Trick. If I frisked you for a weapon right now, how many stakes would I find?”