The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (8 page)

So I watched them move smoothly forward, noticing other things about them. How they stayed in a perfect diamond formation
that never was the slightest bit out of line no matter how the terrain changed under their feet. How the one at the point
of the diamond was much smaller than the others, and its cloak was darker, too. How they didn’t seem to be tracking their
way in—not trying to follow the path of any scent. They simply knew their way. Maybe they were invited.

They moved directly toward the house, and I felt like it might be safe to breathe again when they started silently up the
steps toward the front door. They weren’t coming straight for Diego and me, at least. When they were out of sight, we could
disappear into the sound of the next breeze through the trees, and they would never know we’d been here.

I looked at Diego and twitched my head slightly toward the way we’d come. He narrowed his eyes and held up one finger. Oh
great, he wanted to stay. I rolled my eyes at him, though I was so afraid, I was surprised I was capable of sarcasm.

We both looked back to the house. The cloaked things had let themselves in silently, but I realized that neither she nor Riley
had spoken since we’d
caught sight of the visitors. They must have heard something or known in some other way that they were in danger.

“Don’t bother,” a very clear, monotone voice commanded lazily. It was not as high-pitched as our creator’s, but it still sounded
girlish to me. “I think you know who we are, so you must know that there is no point in trying to surprise us. Or hide from
us. Or fight us. Or run.”

A deep, masculine chuckle that did not belong to Riley echoed menacingly through the house.

“Relax,” instructed the first inflectionless voice—the cloaked girl. Her voice had that distinctive ring that made me certain
she was a vampire, not a ghost or any other kind of nightmare. “We’re not here to destroy you. Yet.”

There was a moment of silence, and then some barely audible movements. A shifting of positions.

“If you are not here to kill us, then… what?” our creator asked, strained and shrill.

“We seek to know your intentions here. Specifically, if they involve… a certain local clan,” the cloaked girl explained. “We
wonder if they have anything to do with the mayhem you’ve created here.
Illegally
created.”

Diego and I frowned simultaneously. None of this made sense, but the last part was the weirdest.
What could be illegal for vampires? What cop, what judge, what prison could have power over us?

“Yes,” our creator hissed. “My plans are
all
about them. But we can’t move yet. It’s tricky.” A petulant note crept into her voice at the end.

“Trust me, we know the difficulties better than you. It is remarkable that you’ve managed to keep off the radar, so to speak,
for this long. Tell me”—a hint of interest colored the monotone—“how are you doing it?”

Our creator hesitated, and then spoke all in a rush. Almost as if there had been some silent intimidation. “I haven’t made
the decision,” she spit out. Then she added more slowly, unwillingly, “To attack. I’ve never decided to
do
anything with them.”

“Rough, but effective,” the cloaked girl said. “Unfortunately, your period of deliberation has come to a close. You must decide—
now
—what you will do with your little army.” Both Diego’s and my eyes widened at that word. “Otherwise, it will be our duty to
punish you as the law demands. This reprieve, however short, troubles me. It is not our way. I suggest you give us what assurances
you can… quickly.”

“We’ll go at once!” Riley volunteered anxiously, and there was a sharp hiss.

“We’ll go as soon as possible,” our creator amended furiously. “There is much to do. I assume
you wish us to succeed? Then I must have a little time to get them trained—instructed—fed!”

There was a short pause.

“Five days. We will come for you then. And there is no rock you can hide under or speed at which you can flee that will save
you. If you have not made your attack by the time we come, you will burn.” This was said with no menace other than an absolute
certainty.

“And if I
have
made my attack?” our creator asked, shaken.

“We’ll see,” the cloaked girl answered in a brighter tone than she’d used yet. “I suppose that all depends on how successful
you are. Work hard to please us.” The last command was given in a flat, hard pitch that made me feel a strange chill in the
center of my body.

“Yes,” our creator snarled.

“Yes,” Riley echoed in a whisper.

A second later the cloaked vampires were noiselessly exiting the house. Neither Diego nor I so much as took a breath for five
minutes after they’d disappeared. Inside the house, our creator and Riley were just as quiet. Another ten minutes passed in
total stillness.

I touched Diego’s arm. This was our chance to get out of here. At the moment, I wasn’t so afraid
of Riley anymore. I wanted to get as far away as I could from those dark-cloaks. I wanted the safety of numbers waiting back
in the log cabin, and I figured that was exactly how our creator felt, too. Why she’d made so many of us in the first place.
There were some things out there scarier than I’d imagined.

Diego hesitated, still listening, and a second later his patience was rewarded.

“Well,” she whispered inside the house, “now they know.”

Was she talking about the cloaks or the mysterious clan? Which one was the enemy she’d mentioned before the drama?

“That doesn’t matter. We outnumber—”

“Any warning
matters
!” she growled, cutting him off. “There is so much to do. Only five days!” She groaned. “No more messing around. You start
tonight.”

“I won’t fail you!” Riley promised.

Crap. Diego and I moved at the same time, leaping from our perch into the next tree over, flying back the way we’d come. Riley
was in a hurry now, and if he found Diego’s trail after all that had just passed with the cloaks, and no Diego there at the
end of it…

“I’ve got to get back and be waiting,” Diego whispered to me as we raced. “Lucky it’s not in view
of the house! Don’t want him to know I heard.”

“We should talk to him together.”

“Too late for that. He’d notice that your scent wasn’t on the trail. Looks suspicious.”

“Diego…” He’d trapped me into sitting this one out.

We were back to the spot where he’d joined me. He spoke in a rushed whisper.

“Stick to the plan, Bree. I’ll tell him what I planned to tell him. It’s not close to dawn, but that’s just how it has to
be. If he doesn’t believe me…” Diego shrugged. “He’s got bigger things to worry about than me having an overactive imagination.
Maybe he’ll be more likely to listen now—looks like we need all the help we can get, and being able to move around in the
day can’t hurt.”

“Diego…,” I repeated, not knowing what else to say.

He looked into my eyes, and I waited for his lips to twitch into that easy smile, for him to make some joke about ninjas or
BFFs.

He didn’t. Instead, he leaned in slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, and kissed me. His smooth lips pressed against mine
for one long second while we stared at each other.

Then he leaned away and sighed. “Get home, hide
behind Fred, and act clueless. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Be careful.”

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard, then let go. Riley had spoken of Diego affectionately. I would have to hope that
affection was real. There wasn’t another choice.

Diego disappeared into the trees, quiet as a rustling breeze. I didn’t waste time looking after him. I sprinted through the
branches in a direct line back to the house. I hoped my eyes were still bright enough from last night’s meal to explain my
absence. Just a quick hunt. Got lucky—found a lone hiker. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The sound of the thudding music that greeted my approach was accompanied by the unmistakable sweet, smoky scent of a burning
vampire. My panic went into overdrive. I could just as easily die inside the house as outside. But there was no other way.
I didn’t slow, just rushed down the stairs straight to the corner where I could barely make out Freaky Fred standing. Looking
for something to do? Tired of sitting? I had no idea what he was up to, and I didn’t care. I would stick tight to him until
Riley and Diego got back.

In the middle of the floor was a smoldering heap that was too big to be just a leg or an arm. So much for Riley’s twenty-two.

No one seemed terribly concerned about the smoking remains. The sight was too common.

As I hurried closer to Fred, for once the sense of disgust didn’t get stronger. Instead, it faded. He didn’t seem to notice
me, just went on reading the book he held. One of those I’d left him a few days ago. I had no problem seeing what he was doing
now that I was close to where he was leaning against the back of the couch. I hesitated, wondering why that was. Could he
turn his nausea thing off when he wanted? Did that mean we both were unprotected right now? At least Raoul wasn’t home yet,
thankfully, though Kevin was.

For the first time ever, I really saw what Fred looked like. He was tall, maybe six two, with the thick, curly blond hair
I’d noticed once before. He was broad-shouldered and muscular. He looked older than most of the others—like a college student,
not a high school kid. And—this was the part that surprised me most for some reason—he was good-looking. As handsome as anyone
else, maybe even handsomer than most. I didn’t know why that was so trippy for me. I guessed just because I always associated
him with revulsion.

I felt weird for staring. I glanced quickly around the room to see if anyone had noticed that Fred was normal—and pretty—for
the moment. No one
was looking our way. I stole a fast peek at Kevin, ready to shift my focus at once if he noticed, but his eyes were concentrated
on some point to the left of where we stood. He was frowning slightly. Before I could look away, his gaze skipped right over
to me and settled on my right side. His frown deepened. Like… he was trying to see me and couldn’t.

I felt the corners of my mouth twitch into not quite a grin. There was too much to worry about to really enjoy Kevin’s blindness.
I looked back at Fred, wondering if the gross-out factor would return, only to see that he was smiling with me. Smiling, he
was really spectacular.

Then the moment was over, and Fred went back to his book. I didn’t move for a while, waiting for something to happen. For
Diego to come through the door. Or Riley with Diego. Or Raoul. Or for the nausea to hit again, or for Kevin to glare in my
direction, or for the next fight to break out. Something.

When nothing did, I eventually pulled myself together and did what I should have been doing—pretending nothing unusual was
going on. I grabbed a book from the pile near Fred’s feet and then sat down right there and acted like I was reading. It was
probably one of the same books I’d pretended to read yesterday, but it didn’t look familiar. I flipped through the pages,
again taking nothing in.

My mind was racing around in tight little circles. Where was Diego? How had Riley reacted to his story? What had it all meant—the
talk before the cloaks, the talk after the cloaks?

I worked through it, going backward, trying to assemble the pieces into a recognizable picture. The vampire world had some
kind of police, and they were damn scary. This wild group of months-old vampires was supposed to be an army, and this army
was somehow illegal. Our creator had an enemy. Strike that, two enemies. We were going to attack one of them in five days,
or else the other ones, the scary cloaks, were going to attack her—or us, or both. We would be trained for this attack… as
soon as Riley got back. I snuck a glance at the door, then forced my eyes back to the page in front of me. And then the stuff
before the visitors. She was worrying about some decision. She was pleased that she had so many vampires—so many
soldiers
. Riley was happy that Diego and I had survived…. He’d said he thought he’d lost two more to the sun, so that must mean he
didn’t know how vampires
really
reacted to sunlight. What she’d said was strange, though. She’d asked if he was
sure
. Sure Diego had survived? Or… sure that Diego’s story was true?

The last thought frightened me. Did she already
know that the sun didn’t hurt us? If she did know, then why had she lied to Riley and, through him, to us?

Why would she want to keep us in the dark—literally? Was it very important to her that we stay ignorant? Important enough
to get Diego in trouble? I was working myself into a real panic, frozen solid. If I still could sweat, I would have been sweating
now. I had to refocus to turn the next page, to keep my eyes down.

Was Riley deceived, or was he in on it, too? When Riley’d said he thought he’d lost two more to the sun, did he mean the sun
literally… or the lie about the sun?

If it was the second option, then to know the truth meant being
lost
. Panic scattered my thoughts.

I tried to be rational and make sense of it. It was harder without Diego. Having someone to talk to, to interact with, sharpened
my ability to concentrate. Without that, fear sucked at the edges of my thoughts, twisted with the always-present thirst.
The lure of blood was constantly close to the surface. Even now, decently well fed, I could feel the burn and the need.

Think about
her,
think about Riley
, I told myself. I had to understand why they would lie—if they were lying—so that I could try to figure out what it
would mean to them that Diego knew their secret.

If they hadn’t lied, if they’d just told us all that the day was as safe for us as the night, how would that change things?
I imagined what it would be like if we didn’t have to be contained in a blacked-out basement all day, if the twenty-one of
us—maybe fewer now, depending on how the hunting parties were getting along—were free to do what we wanted whenever we wanted
to.