Shiver (Night Roamers)

by Middleton, Kristen

  “If she does, then mom can decide what she wants to do. Not give the choice to some creature of the night, no offense, Duncan.”

  He smiled and shook his head. “None taken.”

  Nathan turned on his iPod and cranked up a recent song he’d downloaded by “Train.” I closed my eyes and listened to the lyrics, wishing I could escape the mess we were in. “You know,” I hollered after a while. “I think Caleb really loves her.”

  Nathan turned down the music. “Yeah, well, so do we, and our intentions are good. I’m not so sure about Caleb’s.”

  Chapter Twenty

  We dropped Duncan off at the marina first.

  “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, as I got out of the car to hop into the front seat. “I think we should talk, too.”

  I sighed. “Duncan, you know, I really need some time to think about everything. My head is spinning right now.”

  He grabbed my hand and I noticed his was getting cool again. “I don’t expect anything from you,” he said. “I just have a few things that I’d like to get off my chest.”

  I stared at his face, which seemed much paler than earlier. “Duncan, your skin, it’s getting cold.”

  He frowned and he released my hand. “Yeah, I know.”

  I sighed. The thought of him having to drink blood to stay alive for the rest of his life made me physically ill. Not to mention how he’d actually acquired it the previous night. “What are you going to do?”

  He licked his lips and looked away. “It’s not your problem.”

  “Duncan,” I whispered.

  He shook his head and stepped back. “I’ll see you later.” Then, before I could say anything more, he was gone in a flash.

  “Jesus,” said Nathan as I got in next to him. “That speed of light shit is really unnerving.”

  “Actually, he’s getting weaker and needs to feed again,” I mumbled.

  Nathan swore under his breath.

  “We have to help him,” I said. “There’s got to be some other way. Duncan is so sweet, I’m sure this whole thing must be driving him insane.”

  “I tell you one thing,” said Nathan. “I’m not going near Celeste anymore. The hell if she’s biting me two more times. I don’t care how hot she is.”

  “Thank God. I’m so glad you finally believe me.”

  “Yeah. I feel like an asshole now, giving you so much shit before.”

  “Hey, you said it, not me.”

  When we arrived, home, I quickly changed into my uniform and grabbed the car keys.

  “You sure you don’t want a ride?” asked Nathan. He was in the kitchen eating a big bowl of ice cream.

  “No, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said. As I watched him eat, I knew he’d never make it as a vampire. He’d drive a stake through his own heart if he couldn’t eat pizza or cookie dough ice cream anymore.

  “I wonder…” I murmured.

  “What?”

  “I wonder if piercing a wooden stake through a Roamer’s heart would even kill them. They don’t appear to be afraid of crosses, holy water, or garlic. Celeste told me that those were all bogus assumptions.”

  He snorted. “Well, they’d definitely go down if you cut off their heads, I’d bet anything on that assumption.”

  “You’re talking zombies,” I said. “You’re supposed to cut off their heads and that stops them.”

  “Zombies, vampires, hell, I’m sure it would work with either.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation.”

  He grabbed the ice cream out of the freezer and proceeded to refill his bowl. “No shit.”

  “We should probably figure out how to kill them, just in case.”

  He nodded solemnly. “Yeah. Come home as soon as you can. I’ll make sure mom doesn’t slip out to Caleb’s house again after she’s done with work.”

  “Okay.”

  “Call me if you need anything!” he hollered as I left the cabin.

  Rosie was ecstatic when she saw me walk through the front door of the diner. “Thank God,” she said. “I need a cigarette and we’ve been swamped all day.”

  “How’s your wrist?” asked Darlene, who was one of the older waitresses.

  I moved it around. “A little tender but… I think I’ll be okay.”

  Darlene nodded. “Good, because it seems like we’ve had many more people stopping in today, now that Susan’s gone. I think folks are curious about what happened to her and think they might find the answers here.”

  I nodded. “I guess I don’t blame them. God, I’m going to miss her,” I said, my eyes misting over. “She was such a sweetheart.”

  “Same here, honey. Coming, Hank!” she hollered towards an older customer who was holding a cup in the air.

  We were busy the entire evening and by the time nine o’clock arrived, both my feet, as well as my wrist were sore.

  “Go home and put ice on that wrist of yours,” said Rosie, studying my wrist at the end of my shift.

  “I will,” I said.

  She patted me on the back. “Thanks for coming in tonight, Nikki. I really appreciate it.”

  I nodded. “Looks like you’re going to need to hire someone soon.”

  “I know. This is getting ridiculous; first Amy and now Susan? I’m going to have to hire bouncers to walk you girls to your car. In fact, I’ll have Herb do it right now if you’d like?”

  Herb was her husband and the fry cook. He was also a former Marine and built like a linebacker. One who’d retired twenty years ago but still kept himself in pretty decent shape.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. “My car is right under the light over there,” I pointed.

  “Just be careful,” she said.

  “Did you want me to come in tomorrow?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I’m closing the diner after lunch. Susan’s family is having a special memorial service for her around four o’clock. You should go, it’s at Saint Odelia’s,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’ll be there,” I said, pulling on my jacket.

  She patted my arm. “Okay, kid. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I walked to my car and noticed that it was beginning to snow. Shivering, I started the engine and grimaced when it hesitated.

  Crap, I’d forgotten to have Nathan look at it.

  Saying a silent prayer, I took off down the road and started driving back towards the cabin, watching in awe as the snowflakes grew larger. Since I’d lived all of my life in San Diego, I wasn’t used to snow and couldn’t wait to have my first white Christmas.

  Beautiful, I thought, staring at the intricate patterns of the flakes as they dissolved onto my windshield. My mother had told me once that no two were alike, and as I watched the crystal-like flakes flutter down, I smiled at their beauty.

  It normally took me a good twenty minutes to drive home from work and I turned on my stereo to listen to some music. It was then that something farther up the road caught my eye. As I drew closer to the dark shadow, I noticed it was a rusty old Buick pulled over to the side of the road. I thought the car seemed vaguely familiar, and an image of a girl in my grade with long, brown hair and glasses suddenly popped into my head.

  Taryn Cooper?

  The lights were on and the driver’s side door was wide open, but I didn’t see anyone in the vehicle. I pulled around it and stared into my rearview mirror, wondering what I should do.

  I grabbed my purse and started searching for my phone to try and call Nathan; he’d know what to do. When my phone appeared to be missing, I swore at my stupidity. I’d set it on the charger at home, and had forgotten to bring it along.

  Crap.

  I got out of my car and walked over towards Taryn’s vehicle. When I noticed her purse abandoned on the front seat, more alarm bells went off in my head.

  Who’d leave their purse?

  I stepped back from the car and stared towards the woods, wondering if she’d ventured into them. I wasn’t sure why she would, bu
t I hadn’t seen her on the road walking towards town, either, and I doubted she’d walk the opposite direction.

  The silence of the night was broken by a shrill cry. “Help!”

  Heart pounding, my head whipped around to the trees on the other side of the road. The voice seemed to have come from that direction.

  “Help, me! Please!”

  I’m not even sure why I started running towards her cries; it was probably the stupidest thing I could do, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

  “Taryn?” I hollered.

  “Help!”

  I rushed towards the sound of her voice, wishing I’d grabbed something to defend myself with just in case, like the wrench Nathan had placed in the back of my trunk.

  “Taryn!” I called, slowing down as I entered through the tall trees. It was dark and difficult to see with the moon offering very little light. I began walking deeper into the woods, now petrified that I’d made a very bad choice, but still unable to turn away from someone needing help.

  A strangled cry from behind a large oak tree stopped me in my tracks. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I slowly moved around it.

  “Oh, my God,” I choked, staring at the grisly scene on the other side. It was definitely Taryn, or what was left of her. She lay on the dirt, staring lifelessly at the sky with her throat sliced open and blood oozing from the wound.

  “Taryn,” I whimpered, backing away in horror, expecting whatever had attacked her to come after me next. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shadow skirting around the trees and my heart stopped.

  Scared out of my mind, I turned around to flee, but something heavy landed on me, slamming me to the ground.

  “No!” I screamed in horror as my eyes locked with a pair of vivid yellow ones.

  “Yes!” growled the monster, holding me down with its crushing weight. It raised a sharp, pointy claw and pressed it against my throat.

  “Please,” I squeaked, feeling the claw rake over my skin. “Let me go…”

  “Stupid fool,” it breathed, licking its putrid lips. “Very stupid.”

  I tried to turn my head to keep from smelling the foul stench coming from its mouth. It reminded me of rotten meat and copper pennies.

  “Look at me, girl…” it hissed.

  I whimpered as the creature gripped my neck and forced me to meet its unholy gaze. As it stared at my face, its mouth twisted into a smirk. “Ah…I… know… you…”

  I stared at the monster, whose face reminded me of some kind of reptile, with green scales, wormy lips, and freaky snake-like eyes. I definitely did not know this demon.

  “Lucky…” it hissed, releasing its vise-like grip on my neck. “Oh… you are so… lucky… I will let you live… to suffer…but only… for now…”

  Then, as clear as day, the word “bitch” echoed in my mind and my breath caught in my throat.

  Faye.

  Her lips curled into an evil smile, then she leaped into the sky, but not before I caught a glimpse of her gargoyle-like body, with wings that must have measured well over twenty feet.

  Stunned that she’d actually let me go, I pushed myself up off the ground and then ran like hell back to my car.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Where were you?” barked Nathan when I stormed through the cabin door. “I was about ready to send out a search party!”

  “Oh, my God, Nathan!” I choked, rushing towards him. I threw my arms around my brother and wept.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, patting my back.

  I looked up at him. “I…I just found a dead body!”

  His eyebrows shot up. “What?”

  I brushed my wet cheeks. “It was Taryn Cooper,” I said, my voice shrill. “Faye killed her and then she went after me.”

  “How’d you escape?” he asked incredulously.

  I moved away from him and began to pace. “She actually let me go and said I was lucky, this time. You should have seen her,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself. “She looked like some kind of dragon or reptile. It was horrible.”

  He closed his eyes and groaned. “Fuck. I can’t deal with any more of this shit right now. I feel like at any minute, I should be waking up from this nightmare.”

  I grabbed a tissue from the coffee table and blew my nose. “I know. I wish that’s all it was.”

  He walked over to the window and looked out into the darkness. “I knew we shouldn’t have moved here. I just had this feeling that it was a mistake. With our luck, dad will show up next, and that would be the least of our worries.”

  My heart stopped. I’d forgotten to tell Nathan about our dad, his body tossed somewhere in the lake.

  “Hey, Nathan, where’s mom?” I asked, deciding to tell both of them at the same time.

  He turned around and sighed. “She went to Caleb’s. I couldn’t stop her.”

  My jaw dropped. “Nathan, what the hell?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “I know. I tried to keep her here, but she said that he needed her. I even tried to tell her about the vampires.”

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  “She told me to stop listening to you or she’d send both of us to a shrink.”

  I shook my head. “This is bullshit. We have to talk to her before she leaves tomorrow.”

  “You try and talk to her then,” he mumbled. “She won’t listen to me.”

  “She’ll believe us if Duncan can back us up. Where is he?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. He said he’d be over a while ago and he never showed.”

  “Okay, we’ll wait for him and then drive over there,” I said. “I’m going upstairs to take a quick shower and change my clothes.”

  Nathan didn’t respond, he just sat down in the sectional and put his head in his hands.

  “Once Duncan gets here, everything will work out,” I told him. “You’ll see.”

  He nodded.

  I really didn’t believe it would be that easy, but I could tell he was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. So was I, for that matter. We had to keep it together, at least for mom’s sake.

  I sighed and then went upstairs to take a shower. As I stood in the shower washing the conditioner out of my hair, images of Taryn’s mangled body swept through my mind. I couldn’t get the picture of her lifeless gaze out of my head and it was all I could do to keep from going hysterical. The fact that I’d almost been killed by whatever the hell Faye had turned into wasn’t easy to digest, either. As far as I was concerned, we all needed to leave town as quickly as possible, especially after hearing Faye’s threats. Without a doubt, I knew she had plans for me, and there was no way I wanted to stick around to find out what they were.

  I turned off the water and then opened the shower door for my towel. After drying my skin, I put on a robe then leaned over to wrap the towel around my hair. As I lifted my head back up, I was met with two piercing blue eyes.

  “Jesus!” I gasped, backing away from him. “Don’t do that!”

  Ethan smiled wickedly. “Do what?”

  “Sneak up on someone getting out of the shower,” I snapped, pulling my robe in tighter.

  He stepped towards me and tugged playfully at my robe. “Looks like you’re finished, which is too bad. I’d have loved to join you.”

  I slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

  Ethan moved towards me again, this time until he had me backed up against the tiled wall. “Your mouth says ‘no’,” he whispered, staring at it. “But your eyes say something entirely different.”

  I stared up at him. “Get the hell out of my house.”

  He raised his hand and touched my cheek. “Come on, don’t be like that.”

  I raised my chin. “Do you think I’d just let you waltz in here and do whatever you want with me after what you said at the diner earlier?”

  His eyes softened. “I’m sorry. I know it was rotten, but I did it for your own good.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?” />
  “I was trying to protect you,” he said, turning away. He walked out of the bathroom and I followed him.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  He sat on my bed and began removing his shoes. “Faye is dangerous.”

  “So, I’ve heard. Is that psycho creature from hell your girlfriend or something?” I asked, watching him unbutton his shirt. He wore black dress pants and a dark blue shirt that brought out his eyes more than ever.

  “Or something,” he said, reaching for me. “Look, I didn’t come here to talk about her. I came here to be with you.”

  I slapped his hands away again and stepped back. “You’re incredible.”

  He leaned back against my pillows and gave me a slow, sexy grin. “You told me that quite a few times last night. Come join me on the bed and I’ll give you an encore.”

  I raised my hands in frustration. “Just stop, Ethan. There’s no time for this. Faye murdered someone I knew from school tonight and she came after me, too!”

  His face darkened and he sat up. “What?”

  I told him about my encounter with Faye and he stood up. “Shit,” he said as he began to pace around my room.

  “You have to control your little concubine, or whatever the hell she is,” I said. “I’m not ready to die.”

  He stopped pacing and stared at me. “I can’t control her,” he said. “Nobody can. But, I’ll protect you. In fact, we need to leave this place before she comes back for you. Right now.”

  I stared at him incredulously. “I’m not leaving with you, Ethan.”

  He grabbed my arms and stared into my eyes. “I’m not asking you this time, I’m telling you. We’re leaving.”

  Before I could protest anymore, my balcony door opened and Duncan walked in. “Let her go,” he growled, his eyes blazing with fury.

  Ethan released me and snarled. “This is none of your business. Leave us!”

  Before I could comprehend what was happening, Duncan launched himself at Ethan and they crashed onto my bed.

  “Stop it!” I yelled as fists began to fly.

  “What in the hell?!” hollered my brother as he stormed through the door.

  “It’s Ethan and Duncan!” I cried, stepping back as Duncan was kicked across the room. He landed against the wall but quickly launched himself back towards Ethan, who was already prepared for another attack. I watched in horror as his fist slammed into Duncan’s and blood sprayed all over my purple and green comforter.