Salt & Venom (Blood, Bloom, & Water Book 2)

by Amy McNulty

  But I didn’t get to hear what he “just” because a car’s brakes squealed, causing a sedan to jackknife. The laughter died as shouts resounded and most of the group went running to the road. I clutched the phone at my side and chased after them.

  There was silence for a moment, the thundering of my heart drowning out even the sounds of rustling leaves in the breeze.

  Then there was a high-pitched little laugh.

  The driver rolled down his window and leaned his head out, the spittle practically flying from his lips. “Watch it, you little punk!”

  Alan was fine. On his butt on the ground just a few feet in front of the car and laughing.

  “It’s not funny,” snapped Paisley. “I’m going to kill you!” Her face reddened as I swore a vein started to throb at her temple. She rushed out into the street and lunged for her brother, but he jumped up and staggered back, clearly at ease and not caring that he’d just escaped death and was continuing to escape the threat of it from his enraged older sister.

  “Go long!” he shouted over her head and the heads of the guys who’d jumped out into the street to join her. He sent the football spinning over the car, causing the driver to curse, and into the neighbors’ yard, where some more chuckling echoed, and I remembered his friends had disappeared somewhere in that direction.

  “Ivy, what’s going on?” The faint voice from my phone broke through the chaos for a moment.

  “You little—” But whatever else Paisley had to say died as the boy had already run up across the other curb, darting behind the car that had almost killed him and joining his friends in the neighbors’ yard, his sister on his tail and most of the guys following behind her. Grey stopped briefly in front of the driver and exchanged a few words with him, his hands clasped together in apology. The driver shook his head and then rolled up the window, driving off once the road was clear of preteens and teenagers.

  “Ivy?” said Calder from my phone again.

  I spun around to look for Dean and Ember or Devam and Journey, but they’d vanished, leaving me completely alone in Paisley’s yard.

  “Get over here,” I said into the phone. “Help or no help, it’s time you stepped up, Calder.”

  I hit end before he could do more than voice a syllable of his reply, slipping the phone into my bag.

  “Alan!” screeched Paisley from somewhere over the fence.

  Something snapped and crackled in the air—like fireworks going off—and there was a loud boom that shook me to my bones, causing me to stumble in place.

  “Alan!” shrieked Paisley, all traces of anger gone from her voice, replaced by sheer, cold terror.

  Alone or not, I had to do this. I threw my tote bag on the ground and bolted, running headfirst into the lion’s den.

  Chapter Seven

  There was a virtual circus in the neighbors’ front yard, boxes and teenagers and besuited sunglasses-clad vampire movers all sprinkled throughout the grass, all staring up at the smoke rising from the side of the house. Dean and Ember weren’t among the group, and Devam and Journey both lingered over by the open moving truck in the driveway, whispering in hushed voices to one another, their faces grave.

  “Get that fire out before an eager beaver calls the fuzz!” shouted one of the vintage-style vampires, a gruff, unhealthily pale Latino man. The other guys leapt into action and ran to the moving truck, where Devam already seemed to be anticipating them, pulling a fire extinguisher out of the back and tossing it at the nearest vampire in a smooth, fluid motion.

  I ground my feet into the grass, narrowing my eyes at the one who had spoken. They didn’t want the cops around, did they?

  Charlie had his phone out in front of him.

  “Wait,” I said, putting a hand on his wrist.

  I didn’t know why at first. And then I did. The other vampire—with smooth, golden hair and a chiseled jaw—ran past with the extinguisher and my muscles quivered, my toes curling in a way that seemed to scream I needed to rip him down into the nearest body of water and wrap my fins around his face.

  End it now, I thought. “Go check to see if the kids jumped over the fence into Paisley’s backyard,” I told Charlie, purposely directing him out of harm’s way. “I thought I saw them go that way.” A complete and utter lie.

  Laughter peeled from around the side of the house and I picked up my feet to discover what had happened. Mr. Chiseled Jaw sprayed a smoking air conditioning unit with the extinguisher, focusing on a ripped, thick tube of some kind with wires exposed—black soot on the unit quickly covered by the white of the foam. Alan and his friends were on the ground a few feet away, staring at the machine. They’d probably tumbled against it, tearing the wiring or messing with some of the volatile gases.

  But they were all alive. And not crying or anything. Paisley hovered over her brother, grabbing him by the arm. “You’re in so much trouble, you don’t even know! Mom and Dad aren’t going to let you out of the house for forty years, you utter—”

  Alan ripped his arm away and stumbled to his feet along with his friends, the three of them laughing so hard, they had to clutch their sides as they barreled past the vampire mover continuing to spray the unit, then up around the moving boxes—and through the open front door of the vacant house.

  “You. Are. Dead!” screamed Paisley, flicking her fists at Grey’s chest as he tried to grab hold of her to soothe her.

  Chiseled Jaw with the Fire Extinguisher exchanged a look with the guy who had worried about someone calling the cops and even if I couldn’t see their eyes behind those cursed dark sunglasses, something cold flushed through me, replacing my anger with terror. Fight or flight. For a brief second, I empathized with Calder, whose instincts clearly always chose the latter.

  But the cold was focusing on my hand and I needed to see this through.

  A tangible sense of relief had seemed to lead Grey to leave the yard, joining his friends on the other side, but I knew the truth. The danger Paisley’s little brother was in could just be beginning. I aimed to follow Paisley up the porch steps and into the house, screeching to a halt as another of the besuited movers stood in front of me.

  It wasn’t Dean, but this guy also seemed to have the vampire’s knack for moving from one place to another out of nowhere.

  “What’s buzzin’, cousin?” he said, his thin, dark lips peeling back on one side to reveal the slight tip of a fang. “Remember me?”

  I assumed that meant he’d been present for the Homecoming pool disaster, but I couldn’t be sure. With the sunglasses on, they were all just interchangeable, out-of-touch bloodsucking jerkwads, as far as I was concerned. I checked over my shoulder. My friends weren’t there. I’d have to assume they’d headed back next door. Fat lot of help they were to poor Paisley—though to be fair, I was the one who’d redirected Charlie—but I was glad for it, considering the vampires every which way.

  “Remember this?” I said, winding up my glowing hand and commanding the ice to lash out just as my fist met his solid abdomen. His thick muscles cracked the coating of ice, but the blow still made him jump back, his mouth curled open in a silent ‘o’ as the tiniest bit of steam started sizzling from his belly.

  I was glad they felt pain of some sort, even if they were all dead.

  He left just enough room for me to slip past and up the porch stairs.

  Inside, I paused a moment, looking to my left and to my right. Empty rooms, cluttered by the occasional remaining box or piece of garbage. A missing light fixture in the living room, with wires dangling dangerously overhead. A scuff mark on the dining room floor, the outline of a giant area rug around it where pale wood met grime.

  The distant peals of giggles, followed by Paisley’s muffled indiscernible cries, led me to realize they were all upstairs somewhere. The sounds echoed unnaturally in the hollowed-out house.

  I bolted for the stairs, shouts from the outdoors reminding me of my limited time here.

  The upstairs hallway was dark, the air thick and heavy in my
lungs as I clutched the bannister safeguarding part of the hallway from the floor below. Out of the corner of my eye, there was a flash of red downstairs along the staircase. But when I turned to look harder, there was nothing below.

  To my side, there was a hard, desperate knock on a door.

  “Open this door right now,” called Paisley. “Right. Now.”

  I hurried through the darkness, feeling my way until my eyes adjusted better to the form standing outside a bedroom door. She knocked and knocked again, and giggling was her only reply.

  “I can hear you!” said Paisley.

  I flexed my fingers and felt the cold go, only realizing as it faded that I’d been walking to the light of the faint blue glow. “We need to get out of here,” I hissed under my breath, alert as I realized how cornered we were.

  I was banking on the vampires not wanting all these witnesses. On the fact that their bloodlust wouldn’t overpower them at the thought of a giant mermaid-champion’s-friends buffet.

  “Yeah, I know,” snapped Paisley, probably thinking about the fact that we were trespassing and her brother had just caused some property damage outside. She pounded her fist again. “If you don’t let me in right now, I’m going to call Dad and have him leave work to come get you and you’ll wish you had listened to me!”

  A crack rang out from my left and I jumped, my fist at the ready, the blue starting to creep onto my fingers once more. I ran for the sound, into an open room beside the one the boys had trapped themselves in. I held my fist above me, using the faint light to look around, trying to get it dampened just in case I was overreacting and there was still a chance of keeping Paisley and her brother and everyone else out of this. The room was empty, the thin carpet cold beneath my feet. A sliding closet door revealed nothing more than a few hangers and a forgotten or abandoned coat. But there could have been something behind the door covering the other half. I took a step closer.

  Another crack sounded to my right, this time followed by a thump and more laughter.

  One of the bedroom windows had been shifted open a bit.

  I ran for it, my icy hand and my normal one grabbing for the window and flinging it all the way up, peering my head to see the three boys climbing down a tree near the window of the room next to mine.

  I sidestepped back toward the hallway, my gaze not leaving the boys as the last one jumped down to the ground.

  “They climbed a tree and went outside!” I shouted to Paisley. Thank goodness. Fewer chances of being bitten by a vampire out there with the crowd and the neighborhood watch.

  “Argh!” came Paisley’s reply from down the hall. “I am seriously, seriously telling Mom I’m never watching him again. Never. Not even when he’s fifty-five!” Her voice turned to muttering as she brushed brusquely past the room, something about “locking bedroom doors” and “blowing up air conditioning” and how their parents were going to flip.

  I just realized that did mean the bedroom they’d holed themselves in would now require a locksmith. Or a flexible vampire mover to climb up the tree and through the window to get it unlocked. Hey, they were most likely the ones getting in trouble for all this. Good. I hoped they got sued into oblivion and got tied up in legal battles instead of—

  The tinny, echoing screech of tires made me jump, and I flung my arm out, sending a ball of ice right into the wall, where it flattened like a snowball with a hard thunk.

  “Blimey,” came a far-too-familiar voice. “If that had gone through the wall, I’d be right chilly about now, yeah?”

  I thundered over to the window, this time looking the other way, after quickly satisfying myself that the boys were no longer in the vicinity of the tree they’d used to make their escape.

  Orin sat atop the roof of the house’s adjoining garage, digging into a bag of chips with one hand and holding his phone with the other. An action movie blared on the tiny screen, a car chase responsible for the engine revving and tires squealing in the faint, tinny tone.

  “Fancy a crisp?” he asked, lifting his bag up toward me but not peeling his eyes from the screen for a second. The Rock shifted the gears on a car, so it was probably one of the Fast & Furious movies.

  “What in the world are you doing here?” I demanded to know.

  “Observing,” he said, lowering his chip bag and munching, clearly observing nothing but his tiny movie screen.

  “How did you get here?” I asked. We’d left him outside my dad’s house. Though I supposed that had been a while ago now.

  “Flew,” he said, his eyes probing mine and a smirk lighting up his handsome features.

  I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.

  There was a sliding sound from the door behind me—the closet!

  “Ivy,” said someone quietly.

  I turned around to find Ember, her hand on the closet door, her bloodsucking boyfriend stepping out from the darkness behind her.

  His blue eyes blazed right at me just before he pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and slid them back on his face.

  Chapter Eight

  They’d cornered me. And I’d walked right into their trap. Stupid!

  “We just want to talk, doll,” said Dean, holding both palms out in front of him. “You’ve got moxie, walking in here. Alone. Thought you might be reasoned with.”

  I wanted to wipe that little kind smile off Dean’s face.

  Ember slid in beside him, bringing her hand up—causing me to spread my legs and ready for her fireball—but she just brought a finger to her mouth and chewed on a hangnail as she stared at me.

  I glanced over my shoulder, the sound of Orin’s casual crunching distracting. “Sorry?” he said. “I’ll turn it down.” He fiddled with the volume on his phone and then kept staring at it. Rolling my eyes, I turned back to face my step-sister and her suave and smarmy vampire prince.

  “We’re well beyond reasoning, I’d say.” I jutted my chin out toward them. “Your grandpa of a boyfriend and his friends attacked first at Homecoming.”

  A knowing grin spread on his face. “You sure about that?”

  Ugh. “What do you want?” I asked instead of giving credence to this liar’s implications.

  “Surrender,” said Ember, removing the finger from her mouth and smoothing her hand on the front of her sweater. “Say you submit and this is all over.”

  I hesitated. Calder wasn’t exactly winning any points with his frequent disappearing act. And vampires seemed to have the advantage everywhere but in water—and water was something that was hard for me to come by if I wasn’t prepared.

  I opened my mouth, not even sure yet what I was going to say.

  The screech of yet another tire—loud and piercing—made me whip around to face Orin instead. “I thought you turned that down!” But my attention was quickly diverted to the street far beyond the garage—Calder’s truck was back and out poured Bay and another guy and girl—then even Laguna, the wisp of a girl, looking like she was itching for a fight.

  “You’re in trouble now,” I said, whipping back to face Ember and Dean.

  But they weren’t there anymore.

  “What is it about ‘only the champions need fight’ that has all these scaly and undead monsters so confuddled?” lamented Orin. He groaned exaggeratedly, a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play. “Guess I’ve got some closer observing to do.” He slipped his phone in his pocket and stood on the roof without missing a beat, making a big show of bending over to grab his empty chip bag.

  But I didn’t have time to stand there all day watching him.

  Sprinting for the door, I kept my icy fist held high, praying none of my friends would pop around the fence to see what the fuss was about. We just needed to keep it quiet, and we might not get too many nosy onlookers.

  A thunderous crash—like the shutting of a moving truck door—sounded from outdoors. Maybe the moving could provide some cover for the fight.

  I raced for the staircase, overshooting it and stumbling a bit as I grabbed for the ha
ndrail. Cold skin snatched my wrist before I successfully took hold of the rail, spinning me around. The besuited vampire who’d blocked my way into the house stood there, his dead skin unnaturally clammy against mine. “Payback, you dead hoofer.” His fangs glistened as his mouth widened. “How about just a little snack?”

  “Oy.” Orin strolled down the hallway. “Your champion deals the finishing blow or it don’t count, yeah, Mr. Leopold?”

  The burly vampire took a step back and wiped his free arm across his lips, still not letting me go. “Wasn’t going to finish ’er off, though, was I?”

  Like I’d take his word for it. I focused, using the bloodsucker’s cold skin as inspiration to bring the coldness rushing forth to that hand.

  He shrieked and let go, and I wound back, sending another ice ball right at his abdomen. “Things are getting icy-dicey now, bloodsucker!” His back cracked against the wall and he slumped downward. I turned to go but thought better of it and whirled around to spit on him for good measure. “Never learn, do you?”

  Orin seemed to be stifling a laugh. I tossed my hair over my shoulder with my icy hand and didn’t even flinch when the snowy wetness coated the dark lock. “Thank you,” I said, though I ground my teeth soon afterward.

  “Welcome,” he said, unable to keep the snicker from his voice. “Nice action hero quip, by the way.” He snorted into his shoulder.

  I’d never understand this guy.

  Rushing down the stairs, I glanced around to find the source of all the voices. They seemed to be coming from everywhere—outside, to the right of me, behind me. I zeroed in on the most recognizable.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Ember.” Calder. In the kitchen.

  An idea struck me just then and I fled through the dining room, bypassing little Laguna strangely holding her own against a vintage vampire who towered over her. He lunged for her and she dodged, grabbing hold of his arm and flipping him over her back like a pro.

  Holy, sweet cow.

  But I didn’t have time for that and she seemed just fine. She flashed me a smile as I ran past, then I screeched to a halt as my waist bumped into the floating island breakfast bar that housed the kitchen sink. Ouch.