The October Trilogy Complete Box Set

by Heather Killough-Walden

  Meagan didn’t answer, but Dietrich could almost hear her swallow. He watched her throat move, once more imagining the amount of blood she must be inadvertently drinking. She’d already wiped some away from beneath her nostrils; the smear of pink and red marked her upper lip and part of her cheek. The rain was taking care of the rest.

  “It’s not so bad,” Shawn said, still addressing Meagan. “The taste of blood. You get used to it.” He moved closer, taking slow, long strides that Dietrich and Meagan attempted to match in retreat. “I could get used to yours,” he continued, his tone lowering so that it became more personal. “He wants you both dead, but what a waste.” He sighed and shook his head. “Violet eyes are so rare. I’ve always admired yours, Meagan. Imagine how beautiful they would be if you were like us.”

  Meagan’s purple eyes flashed, and her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides. Dietrich felt the pull of power around her, a building of the witch’s inherent magic. She was drawing into herself, beefing it up as if preparing for an assault. And maybe she was.

  “Us?” Dietrich asked, gaining Shawn’s attention.

  The vampire turned his burning gaze on his history teacher. Shawn smiled, giving Dietrich a better view of those fangs. “Ah, Mr. Lehrer. The history teacher with the secret identity. A witch, no less.” He moved closer. “Or in your case, would it be wizard?”

  Dietrich tried to step back, but Meagan slipped behind him, her hand reaching out to clutch at his sleeve. Dietrich turned to look, steadying her as he did. They were up against the lip of the ravine. Loose rocks crumbled from the road into the mud, sliding down the slope to land in the building puddles below.

  A hissing sound was growing in volume, but Dietrich couldn’t place it. And he had more immediate concerns.

  “So tell me, teach,” said Shawn. “Can you magic your way out of this one?”

  Dietrich spun to face the vampire again, but the boy was no longer there.

  “Boo.”

  Dietrich spun in the other direction, turning to his left to find that Briggs was now behind them, flush with the edge of the ravine, his boots mere inches from slipping down into the wet, sloshy ground below.

  Miraculously, he remained firmly where he was.

  “Holy mother….” Meagan’s voice trailed off as the hissing sound Lehrer had noticed earlier now became loud enough to muffle even the sound of the rain. It sounded like snakes – thousands of them. But this noise was joined by another, the kind of bubbling, gurgling sound that boiling water made.

  Dietrich frowned, looking from Briggs to the ravine and the car that was lodged deeply in its mud below. It was too dark at its base to see what was happening unless lighting was flashing. When it did, Dietrich’s eyes followed the line of illuminated sludge to where the ravine disappeared upstream. He watched that dark edge as the lightning died, shunting it into blackness once more.

  He continued to watch. The sound continued to grow.

  And then electricity brightened the night sky once more, a bolt striking so close by, Dietrich’s body reflexively curled in on itself for protection. But his eyes remained locked on the ravine – as a wall of frothing, foaming water six or seven feet tall rushed toward them.

  He’d been right. The deep, dark wet swallowed the ground, ate up everything in the ravine, and within seconds, it filled the space of the ditch to mere inches from the lip of the road, completely drowning the ruins of his car in the process.

  Dietrich watched it with wide eyes, thanking his lucky stars that he’d managed to get himself and Meagan out of it when he had.

  “You’re wasting time, Shawn,” came a new voice from behind them.

  Dietrich spun, drawing Meagan close.

  Another of Dominic’s band mates stood beside the abandoned semi. Dietrich recognized him as Nathan McCay. His dirty-blonde hair seemed even longer than it had always been, which as far as Dietrich was concerned, had always been far too long. And, like his compatriot, he too had been transformed.

  Two vampires, both of them Dominic Maldovan’s closest friends. What could this mean?

  His mind worked a thousand miles an hour, his head spinning through the multitude of possible implications. If Dominic’s friends were vampires… was Dominic as well? Had he been compromised? And if they were vampires, then that meant that Sam Hain had managed to absorb power from somewhere after all. From Logan? From those words she had scribbled?

  He didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Sam was becoming himself again, and that meant that he would be going after Logan… most likely as something she had created with her own pen.

  Thank the gods for the spell, Dietrich thought. The spell he and Meagan had cast at the last minute would at least protect Logan from Sam. And if Logan were still alive, then there was still hope of defeating the Lord of the Dead and perhaps, as Katelyn suggested, of saving everyone else.

  Beside him, Meagan’s body felt as if it were surrounded with static electricity. It brushed up against him like Velcro, dragging at his skin and raising the hairs on his arms. He glanced down at her. Her magic was begging to be used. She always had been one of his most promising studies, and the elders of their grove had all been right. She was by far the most powerful among them. She was different, as was Logan. It made sense that the two were friends.

  “You should have killed them by now,” McCay reprimanded, clearly speaking to Shawn, who yet stood by the ravine behind them. The two vampires had caged them in, one on either side.

  “We’re not killing Stone,” Briggs replied, his voice deep and clearly audible despite the roar of the ravine. “She’s mine.”

  McCay’s gaze slid from Dietrich to Meagan. His red eyes considered her. “Little witch with the purple eyes, huh?” McCay said softly, as if speaking to himself. “This the one you wrote that song about?” he asked, obviously still speaking to Briggs.

  “The very same.”

  “Fine,” McCay consented. “We turn her and we kill Lehrer.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Logan’s dashboard turned red. She looked down.

  “Shit,” she swore, realizing that for what was probably the first time in her entire life, she’d forgotten to fill up with gas when she needed to.

  But she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she told herself. She was meeting Katelyn here anyway. She turned the wheel toward the opening of an empty Mason’s lodge parking lot. The lot was half-way between Logan’s house and the train tracks south of town. Once Katelyn arrived, they could just take Katelyn’s car the rest of the way and leave Logan’s here.

  Logan squinted as she pulled into the parking lot. The rain obscured the landscape, but a flash of lightning illuminated the muddy gravel and revealed the single vehicle parked at the far end. A deep red Volkswagen Beetle gleamed under Logan’s headlights. Katelyn had beat her to it.

  She pulled up and parked beside it.

  Katelyn opened her car door and got out, shielding her face and hair as best as she could from the deluge.

  Logan leaned over, unlocked the passenger side door, and sat back as Katelyn hurriedly got in.

  “We should take your car instead,” Logan told her right away. Katelyn turned to look at her, a little breathless. “I’m out of gas” Logan explained, “and your car isn’t a piece of crap.”

  Katelyn blinked. Then she nodded. Logan noticed a darkness under her friend’s hazel eyes as Katelyn turned to look out through the windshield. The rain had completely obliterated the landscape, and all either of them could see was mottled darkness and the occasional flash of purple-blue light.

  They fell into a mutual silence, both girls stunned by recent events, both of them needing a moment to catch their breaths.

  Katelyn swallowed hard. It could be heard in the silence of the interior. Her clothes had gotten more than slightly damp just going from her Beetle to Logan’s car, and Logan instantly felt bad for not stopping her sooner since they would just have to get back out again.

  Katelyn broke the si
lence. “So what happened?” she asked, turning to face her again. “What exactly did Sam tell you?”

  Logan pulled out her phone and handed it to her friend. Katelyn swiped her finger across its surface a few times, drew up the latest text messages, and stared at the screen.

  “Does he really have Dominic?” she asked without looking up.

  “I don’t know,” said Logan. “But when I tried to call him after I reached you, he didn’t answer.”

  “How many times did you try to call him?”

  Logan looked out the window. “Lots.”

  “And Mr. Lehrer and Meagan?”

  “Won’t answer either.”

  Katelyn sighed. “Same here. I can’t get through to anyone.” She hesitated, and then began to give voice to the very same question Logan was afraid to ask out loud. “Do you think they’re….”

  “No,” said Logan. Katelyn turned to look over at her.

  Logan met her gaze, holding it steady. A silent understanding passed between them. They’d seen a side to the world that no living being was supposed to see, much less come to know to the degree that they had. They were learning lessons that broke them down and built them back up again as different people.

  The Katelyn staring back at Logan now was a little different than the one she’d been ten days ago. And Logan was a little different too.

  What they were about to do was suicidal. What they were now having to face, as friends and against impossible odds, was death itself.

  If it took a bit of self-delusion for them to get through the night, then they were willing to support each other in that delusion.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Meagan felt the pool of magic inside of her like a swirling unrest. It was a sort of sick, tangible upheaval combined with knowledge absolute. She stared into the red glowing eyes of her two classmates and knew that if she wanted to, she could do some serious damage here. But if she did, she would be giving up something else in return, some irreplaceable part of herself. She would be changed forever.

  To say nothing of what it would do to the real, human Nathan McCay and Shawn Briggs. Were the boys still in those bodies somewhere? Were they salvageable? Or had Sam destroyed them for good?

  That’s not the point, Meagan, she scolded herself as she felt something like static discharge race across her fingertips. It doesn’t matter. Killing is not your job. It’s Sam’s. He’s the Lord of the Dead. Samhain was the one who spirited souls away from the world and ushered them into his own. He’d proven that point several times over since he’d come through October’s door.

  Meagan resisted the urge to pat the inner pocket of her jacket, where the metal vial containing Logan’s protection spell was hidden away. As long as Logan lived, they stood a chance. Even if everyone else was killed, there was the slightest possibility that if Logan could somehow defeat Sam before the second full moon, they would all come back to life. It had happened once before. It could happen again.

  She just needed to keep that flask safe and out of Sam’s hands.

  “Sounds good to me. I never did like history,” said Shawn as he agreed with Nathan’s idea to kill Mr. Lehrer and leave Meagan alive.

  Meagan realized offhandedly that she actually sort of felt… flattered. It was untimely to say the least, and it probably meant she was certifiable, but there it was. Shawn Briggs had written a song about her? When had that happened? She’d definitely lusted after him a time or two. He had that dark hair, dark eyes appeal that touched a girl somewhere deep down. He was smart, talented, and well traveled. His parents had moved a lot. As a result, Shawn was well-rounded, knowledgeable, and sported the tiniest bit of a conglomerate accent that you only noticed after you’d been speaking with him for some time.

  It was intriguing. He was attractive.

  And now she found out that he was attracted to her as well, so much so that he’d chosen to turn her instead of kill her.

  Flattered, indeed.

  “I’m glad you’re flattered,” Shawn said, his tone intimate. His smile felt as if it were meant for Meagan alone.

  “For a witch, you’re an incredibly easy read, Stone,” added McCay with a laugh. But his expression changed in a heartbeat, going instantly cold and wary. “Wait a minute. What’s this? A spell?” His gaze narrowed. “To protect Logan?” His lips slid into a nasty, I caught you smile and he shook his head. “Do tell, little witch. What is this magic you’ve cast?”

  Oh crap, she thought. They’re vampires. They can read my mind! Vampires could read human thoughts – at least Logan’s vampires could. And since this was all based on Logan’s fantasies, these ones could too. She should have guessed as much when Shawn mentioned the taste of blood thing. She’d been inadvertently drinking her own blood due to her broken nose since she’d awoken in Mr. Lehrer’s crunched car, and just when she’d thought to herself that it was going to make her vomit, he’d mentioned that it wasn’t so bad… and that he could get used to drinking hers.

  He and Nathan had probably been reading their minds the whole time.

  “Finally figured it out,” Nathan said.

  “Give me the flask, Meagan.”

  Meagan spun to face Shawn, who was suddenly directly behind her, his tall body bent over her, his lips to her ear. She leapt back from him with a half-shriek of surprise, and Lehrer was instantly between them, attempting to shield her with his body. Her heart jumped into her throat and pounded away, taking her breath from her lungs and replacing it with lead.

  Shawn really had been reading her mind all along. While Nathan had barely learned about the spell in the first place, Shawn already knew about the flask. Meagan wondered why he hadn’t said anything until now.

  Shawn smiled at her, giving her a close-up view of those perfectly deadly fangs, and held out his hand. “Why don’t you just give it to me, Meagan?”

  “Why don’t you just take it?” she asked, not even knowing why she asked it.

  Lehrer shot her a warning look, his eyes wide in both surprise and confusion. No doubt, he was wondering why she would shout out such a challenge at such a time.

  “What is this spell you’ve cast, old man?” Nathan asked, his tone making it clear that he was losing his patience.

  Meagan’s head whipped around. Nathan McCay had drawn closer on the other side. The two blood suckers were flanking them, closing in on them, giving them nowhere to go.

  But they hadn’t attacked yet. Why? They were vampires. They were far stronger than humans, and far faster. And if they were Logan’s vampires, they could move so fast, they would blur. They could fly. They could probably use a certain amount of magic. They could do just about anything.

  So why were she and Lehrer still alive?

  Nathan was addressing Lehrer now; Meagan wondered whether her teacher was any better at shielding his thoughts than she was.

  “It’s no use, Lehrer. You can try to hide the truth from me all you want, but eventually you’ll get tired. You’re injured. You’re in pain. You’ll grow weak, and then you’ll tell me everything.”

  It occurred to Meagan that Shawn hadn’t answered her. He hadn’t told her why he didn’t just take the flask from her himself. He could so easily rip it off of her body and then either kill her or change her. Why didn’t he just do that? And why hadn’t he answered her?

  Because he can’t take it, she thought. He can’t take it!

  She mulled the realization over in her mind, looking from one vampire to the other. And then she caught the apprehensive look Shawn shot Nathan. And she knew she was right.

  “They can’t take the flask from us,” she said hurriedly. Lehrer looked from her to their attackers. “They know it’s important and that Sam will want it,” she went on, never taking her eyes off of her fallen classmates. “But they can’t touch it.”

  Lehrer was silent for a moment. Then he licked his lips. “It must be some effect of the spell’s wording. Maybe because it protects her from Sam, it also protects her from everything Sam create
s.”

  That’s it, Meagan thought. Sam turned Shawn and Nathan into vampires; he created them. So they were as helpless against the spell as Sam would be.

  Nathan bared his teeth in an animal snarl. “We might not be able to touch the flask, but why would you care? We’ll rip at least one of you to shreds either way.”

  “In that case,” said Meagan as she reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and extracted the metal bottle. “We’d better get rid of it now.” She cocked her arm back and aimed, throwing the flask with as much accuracy as she could manage.

  It hit the furiously flowing sludge of the ravine with an inaudible splash and was instantly swallowed up in its murky, churning depths.

  “No!” Nathan bellowed. Both vampires rose into the air on phantom winds and shot toward the ditch. But they stopped so abruptly at its edge that they seemed to be jerked into place in the air. They reeled back, attempting once more to dive for the water.

  Again, they failed.

  “They can’t cross the water!” Lehrer cried just as Meagan was coming to the same conclusion. She remembered that one of Logan’s stories had mentioned a vampire’s inability to cross naturally running water. This apparently qualified.

  And suddenly she knew what they had to do. This was their one chance for survival.

  Apparently, Lehrer had the same idea because they grabbed each other’s hands at once and made a dash for the edge of the ditch. They ran – and jumped.

  This time, it was Shawn’s rage that bellowed into the night. But Meagan barely heard it. Everything else in the world receded, grew quieter in the face of the roaring, waiting water. A heartbeat passed, another.

  The frigid, frothy ravine swallowed them up and whipped them away with a hunger not unlike that of the vampires they swiftly left behind.

  Chapter Twenty

  “The ravine was filled with varieties of night sounds, lurkings of black-ink stream and creek, lingerings of autumns that rolled over in fire and bronze and died a thousand years ago. From this deep place sprang mushroom and toadstool and cold stone frog and crawdad and spider. There was a long tunnel down there under the earth in which poisoned waters dripped and the echoes never ceased calling Come, Come, Come, and if you do you'll stay forever, forever, drip, forever, rustle, run, rush, whisper, and never go, never go, go… go....” Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree