Blooded: Dead Things Read online

  “She is the only one of her, uh, kind,” Lana said, dismissing his doubts. “Half-human. Half-Vampire.”

  Lucas made an unconvinced face. “Like Blade?”

  “No.” Cole destroyed the look of enthusiasm on Leon’s face. “You know how they have the ability to live forever but we force them not to due to their two weaknesses?”

  “Vitamin D and trees?” Lucas joked, seeing nothing but oxygen producing plants and sunshine as his hand guided the wheel.

  “Well,” Cole proceeded to explain. “She doesn’t just have the ability. She is actually Immortal.”

  “The legend says that vamps have tried for centuries to do away with her,” Loki added.

  Lana directed her attention at the older cousin’s reflection in the rearview mirror. “The only one who lived long enough to tell anything about her powers said he cut her arm off while his friend staked her heart—”

  “Not only did it not make her go up in black smoke,” Cole interrupted, “but both wounds healed instantly.”

  “That doesn’t happen with Vampires,” Lana said, mostly to herself.

  Ill-informed, and listening to a conversation for the first time since Hastings, Kimberly asked, her voice small, “Why not?”

  Not hearing the meager lady Cole picked up where he left off. “He ran and hid while the other stayed out of fear.”

  “The Vampire quickly followed her scent to her home,” Lana told them as the sweet smell of honeysuckles drifted in the car; their twining stems dancing gracefully beside the six engrossed people. “When he and eighteen others, some were Shadows, planned their attack to dismember and burn the girl” —she paused— “well, it was as if she already knew.”

  “She tranquilized the Shadows just before dawn. Vamps figured they chickened out I guess and continued with their execution plan.”

  “She was sitting outside, and when they followed her into the house it exploded,” Lana gesticulated, her hands waving in the air. “After our Similars awakened—what we Shadows call others like us—they went to the house to find her waiting for them.”

  “She hurt them badly,” Loki commented, her voice disparaging.

  “What was she going to do? Let them beat her?” Cole said almost defensively. “They then retreated. She let them be.”

  “No Shadow has seen her since then,” Lana said, finishing the story.

  “If she helps humans… What does she eat?” the cousin with medium brown hair asked.

  “Rumor has it that she doesn’t eat humans.”

  “Then what?” Lucas demanded. “Don’t tell me she’s pulling an Edward Cullen.”

  Cole answered in a deep steady voice, “Vampires.”

  “They hate her and our kind doesn’t trust her,” Loki said.

  “May we pull over, please?” Lana asked and Lucas steered over to the side of the road. “Her name is Raven. But the night predators have a different name for her. They call her Goddess.” Lana flipped open to the bookmarked page of the Goddess, the one starring in her dreams. She handed the red and black hardback over to Lucas. “Somehow her picture ended up in this book.”

  LUCAS

  Someone once asked me if I were to look back in time could I identify the moment that sent a ripple through my life? Back then I cared little. It had seemed stupid and pointless.

  But gripping the withered book…

  PART FOUR

  10: Road Trip

  “OH MY GOD,” I WHISPERED. Staring back at me from the page is the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. The black and white picture dates back two centuries ago, yet I recognized the young-looking girl. The hair is different. Blonde. But those eyes, colorless in the photo—no amount of trauma could make me forget those.

  Her…coffee…books…AC/DC. Beauty. “She touched me,” I said quietly. Leon gave me a dirty look. “With a hot liquid substance,” I reminded him, reaching over Loki’s lap giving him the bounded pages.

  “The girl you bumped into earlier today?” Leon asked and gazed down at the crinkled page. “OH!” He jerked back in his seat.

  “Leon, I know she looks good for a rude dead chick—”

  “That’s the girl from my vision!” he practically shouted.

  I had misconstrued my cousin’s enthusiasm. He had jerked back because he saw someone he didn’t expect to see. “A buh?” I asked baffled. When I got confused as a child I would try to say “huh”, but it would come out “a buh”.

  “She’s the one you’ve been seeing?!” Lana half-asked half-exclaimed. “I’ve seen her too—in my dreams.”

  “What?” Cole asked surprised. “You never said anything…”

  “There it is in black and white, a clue to finding the final piece—the important piece—to the warped version of chess, the king,” he mumbled to himself.

  “I don’t get your analogy or whatever. That’s a chick.”

  The seer gasped suddenly. He threw the book into Loki’s lap. There wasn’t any ringing this time. The seer clenched his fist against his chest. “It burns. My lungs!”

  Lana and I flung open our doors and rushed out of the parked car. “Where are you going?!” Loki shrieked.

  Moving around the front of the Chevrolet, I wondered how much of this I could take. How much more can Leon take? I opened the door to my cousin screaming and Loki moving worriedly away from Leon.

  “His eyes!” cried the Shadow. The two of us peered down at a pair of open eyeballs.

  The agony stopped abruptly. Leon turned to me and Lana, his sapphire blue eyes glossed with blood.

  He had seen everything while conscious.

  “Kansas.” Leon leaned out of the car and coughed up a brown substance like that of coffee grounds. Blood had seeped out from underneath his nail beds and scalp.

  “Raven’s in Kansas. I saw her house, street, and state sign. Don’t ask me questions.” He opened the glove compartment and yanked out a medicine bottle. “I feel like I just got done climbing the Eiffel Tower, only I used my nails and banged my head a couple hundred times.” The white label on the bottle said one pill every four hours. He took six coated capsules; without water. Next he pulled out the bloody but dry washcloth and dabbed his forehead.

  I yanked the keys from the ignition. Driving directions are an essential for arriving at the location of the Potential. “Why did—” Loki started. I answered the question she was about to ask. “My cousin and I have disposable cell phones. They don’t have internet or Global Positioning System. That means GPS. That’s one of Leon’s did-you-knows that no one cares about. Our phones are pretty basic. Just in case a vamp got the idea to track us by locating our phones. Leon made them.”

  “My mom won’t let me have one,” she said and looked done at the floor embarrassed.

  “I don’t have one,” Lana said. “The only person I would talk to would be Cole. And Loki if she had one. I don’t have many friends. I just use the landline.”

  “I have a phone. But guess what I don’t have,” Cole said, looking at the screen on his cell phone.

  “A signal?” I sighed, running a hand through my blonde hair.

  “No. Battery life.”

  A dog barked ferociously somewhere close by.

  The five of us jerked upright, wildly scanning the open road for the cause of the vicious barking; Kimberly eyes remained glued to the floor as if nothing was happening. The view ahead and behind us seemed to be free of anything walking-that-shouldn’t-be in the flat and vast fields. Honeysuckle bushes blocked the view to the sides.

  Getting out of the car to retrieve Leon’s laptop was a must. We desperately needed directions. I flung open my door and ran to the trunk faster than that time I ran circles in the yard after cousin Rachel found out I had coitus with her best friend and she started shooting BBs at me.

  Another dog followed suit. The loud echoes nearly caused me to wet myself.

  I definitely didn’t like being out here alone. In fact, this Hunter didn’t like being out here at all. I felt as if I
were the most popular Christmas toy remaining on display and at any moment the greedy vultures were going to shred me in their savage fight.

  I snatched Leon’s laptop bag from inside the trunk and slammed it shut. When I reached my door, still open, a firecracker popped. I made a startled noise incapable of spelling. I couldn’t believe no one laughed at me. I quickly realized why. The popping sound wasn’t from a firecracker.

  Someone fired a pistol for the second time.

  The longhaired seer took the bag. And gravel from the side of the road clunk against the Biscayne’s undercarriage when I floored it. The wheels taking us closer to the state line.

  “Are you okay?” Loki asked Leon even though he had specifically said not to ask him questions.

  “No.”

  “On a scale of one—”

  “Loki!” Lana said in a hushed tone.

  “The hotspot still works,” Leon said with his computer open.

  I didn’t know until later why Leon didn’t wish to think about the levels of agony he was in or even contemplate describing it. Because if he did so, then he would have to justify the other feelings he was having right now that made the pain bearable… The way he felt about Raven. How could he be crushing on someone he hadn’t even met?

  ✽✽✽

  RAVEN

  AFTER MY Orders and the brief run-in with the Kale boy, I decided that to acquire any knowledge of the cousins would be wise. I sat in front of a computer screen in Concordia, Kansas, Jet by my side, looking up certain information on Lucas Kale and Brighton Leon Carmany. Bored, Jet’s dark round eyes wandered around the room. It had been nicknamed the Comfy Room due to its remarkably different interior and soothing atmosphere that the rest of the house neglected for security purposes. His favorite thing wasn’t the air hockey table in the middle of the room or the soft cushion in his red and white swirl patterned chair, but the tasteful red carpet. Not necessarily the hue of red, rather it is the only soft floor in the entire place.

  What Jet finds interesting, besides the fact that Leon Carmany has a scary IQ and owns multiple Veterinarian clinics, or that Lucas Kale owns his very own mechanic shop, but the lack of communication from his longtime friend. “Are you going to speak today?”

  “You know I have.”

  “Other than when spoken to?”

  “No.”

  Jet ran his fingers over the hair stubble on his square face. “I know you hear it, Raven.” He let out a deep sigh. “I hear it.” I groaned in annoyance while he continued. “The fear in our neighbors. The fear from our friends.”

  “I don’t hear that from Cricket.”

  “That’s different and you know it. Now stop playing with me, Raven.”

  “Fine!” I huffed and gave him my undivided attention. “We both have had our share of friends over the years, but these are my favorites.”

  “They are going to die eventually. You know that, too.”

  Whispering, I gritted out, “You started dancing around the imaginary bush first instead of asking about my problem!”

  “Why am I the only one you go kinderyard on?” he asked, his voice low as he gently stroked the side of my oblong face with his soft, long fingers.

  “We have liked each other the longest. And kinderyard is not a word!”

  “Why are we whispering?”

  “Do you want a group pep talk?” I asked as he played with the ends of my long, blonde strands. If the others suspect that I was worried about their deaths the both of us would be hounded by words of encouragement and affection that will only make Jet and me feel worse. And who really believes that more bonding will save us from the walking dead?

  Hearing footsteps approaching the door, he whispered with demanding eyes, “We will talk later.”

  “There might not be a later,” I retorted. His jaw dropped. I smiled triumphantly and returned to the computer screen.

  “Is he the real deal?” Ganesha asked, entering vibrantly.

  “Leon is the one I need.”

  “Everything is in place,” Ganesha stated with her hips snapped to the left and her right foot cocked out. One hand on her waist and the other extended by her side.

  Jet released my thick, yellow hair that was spiraled around his fingers and he rose to his feet. His head inches from the ceiling. “There is only one thing left…”

  I pushed the black screen down. “We leave.”

  LUCAS

  THE CAR IS LACKING GAS, and everyone had to use the restroom but no one wanted to leave the guns. Entering the Nebraskan gas station with automatic weapons (or a loaded crossbow) was not a good idea. But what if we need them? I unbuckled my seatbelt, the old Chevrolet parked next to a gas pump, and turned around to the two Shadows. “Is that stuff about Shadow’s Clark-Kent-hearing ability true?”

  “Yeah, kind of. Our range is limited and the reception, if you will, involuntarily cuts off during the day. But it can be turned back on. It works better at night. Why? Oh, duh, you want me to listen for…uh…” Lana cleared her throat. “People.” She and the other dark-haired Shadow closed their eyes. A few seconds passed, customers exiting and entering the small store. The petite girl opened her eyes. “Nothing.”

  “Nada,” Cole blinked.

  “But we don’t hear heartbeats and stuff like Vampires. Everyone talking sounds fine.”

  “But there are lots of voices and there is music playing in every ride.”

  “We can’t be one hundred percent,” Lana stated.

  “But it sounds like regular noise if that helps.”

  “Not really,” I shook my head. “Let’s think about this. Hastings is quarantined, whatever that means, and we are the width of double-D boobies away from that place. I apologize for talking about breasts in mixed company, but a girl with nice ones just walked by and that’s the only analogy I could I think of. We haven’t actually seen anything else—not talking about the nice lady bits—so the virus couldn’t have spread ubber fast like in the movies. Realistically we should be okay.”

  “Realistically, you don’t have a science degree in Zombie Virus,” Leon said indignantly. He shoved the bag containing the laptop off his lap and next to his feet on the blue mat; having memorized the directions in case something separated us from the computer. Given Leon’s foul mood, the other’s seemed surprised the door gently closed behind him. I wasn’t the least bit stunned; Leon Carmany wasn’t the relative know for slamming and breaking objects.

  “Looks like I’m pumping.” I climbed out.

  LANA

  THE BELL over the convenience store jingled, Lana and the two other girls trailing in after Leon. The longhaired brunette in the crimson red shirt and dark denims frowned, scanning the walls for the RESTROOM sign. “I don’t care if there happens to be one of those things like Lee in here. I have to urinate and anything that tries to stop me is going to get a fist full of my headache.”

  They strolled pass the short line of paying customers and rows of shelved chips and candy. Turning left in front of the coolers lining the wall, the bell dinged again. “That’s annoying. How do the clerks put up with this all day?” Leon asked. He pushed the smooth MENS door. And Lana entered the WOMENS room, the two girls ambling behind her.

  Lana and the other girls stopped dead in their tracks.

  A thick line of blood extended from the middle of the small, tiled floor to the handicapped stall. The beige handicapped door, bigger than the door next to it, was open. The handrail bloody and red handprints smeared on the wall. “What is this?” Lana asked, fearing the answer. The store clerk standing near a yellow pushcart of pale red water slapped her mop over red smears in the middle of the bathroom floor. “Some woman left bleedin’. Left a trail all the way outta’ store. Couldn’t stop her.” The older woman, hair graying at the roots, didn’t advert her attention from the task at hand.

  “Maybe she was a zombie thing,” Loki suggested casually as if it was no big deal.

  The female clerk, currently taking on the role of
janitor, laughed and slapped the wet mop out of the bucket and scrubbed the bloody tiles. “Kids.”

  “Is it only that one?” Lana nodded at the bloody stall; she would rather do her business in a risk free environment.

  “Yeah.”

  Lana went to the other toilet. Then stopped. She just couldn’t bring herself to touch anything—let alone drop her pants. “On second thought…” she waved her hand in front of the paper towel dispenser, “we’ll use the men’s room.” The woman didn’t object. Lana pulled on the door handle using the brown paper towel, because in order for the infected woman to have left she had to have touched the handle. I hope we can’t get infected this way and that I’m just being paranoid.

  LUCAS

  MY BUTT PRESSED AGAINST THE SIDE OF THE VEHICLE. I watched the black numbers increase on the pump.

  “Man, do you really think this Vampire can help us?” Cole asked sitting on my trunk.

  “The idea thrills me about as much as a teenage boy sitting on my baby while he plays babysitter,” I halfway lied; everything was true except the part about me not looking forward to Kansas.

  “I thought it would help if I—”

  “Look, tampon boy,” I said rolling my sleeves up. “I understand your little body is filled with Buffy Summers juice, but I’ve been hunting Vampires a long time. I can handle myself out here. Unless there is a shit ton. Then by all means unload the juice.” I couldn’t believe I just admitted to watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A show about a girl fighting vampires and other nasty things. I was thankful to see two girls with ponytails wearing pink flip flops strutting my way. Cole hopped off the trunk and went inside the store. One of the chicks stopped and smiled at me.