Blood Crave 2 (45 page)

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Authors: Jennifer Knight

Tags: #Social Issues, #Love & Romance, #Vampires, #College Students, #Juvenile Fiction, #Paranormal, #General, #Romance, #Werewolves, #Dating & Sex, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural

BOOK: Blood Crave 2
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The loudest silence in the history of the world filled Lucas’s car.
“I know,” he said.
“You
know?
” I gasped, turning to him. “How on earth could you know that? Did Derek tell you?”
“No. That night, when he bit you, I smelled him on you stronger than ever ... all over you. I could taste him on your tongue.”
I winced. “I did it to try and distract him; I didn’t
want
to kiss him, I swear.”
Lucas moved his thumb over my knuckles. “I know, baby. I’m not mad.”
Why did those words feel like knives in my lungs? “I’m sorry,” I whispered hoarsely.
“Stop, saying that. It’s done with. I don’t wanna talk about it anymore, okay?” He shot me a small smile as he drove. “That’s all done with.”
I shook my head, still hating myself. “That night,” I said. “When you stopped Derek from biting me, how did you even know to come? Did you hear us?”
“Kind of. I heard you in my head. It wasn’t so much your voice, as it was an instinctual thing. Like I could feel you asking for help. So I went upstairs and then I heard you yelling at him, smelled the blood.... It wasn’t rocket science.”
“Well, thank you,” I said. “I don’t know how you knew—it doesn’t make sense—but I’m glad you did.”
For a long time, I stared at the dense, green forest rolling by on the edges of the highway. The setting sun colored the leaves in varying, auburn tones. Dew sparkled on the window, marbleizing the view, while my breath made mist over the glass. It was dreamlike, whizzing through life in silence. Lucas by my side, finally. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” played over the radio, which I thought was morbidly fitting.
I forced myself to ruin the mood, yet again.
“I have another confession,” I said.
Lucas groaned.
I ignored him and went on. “It’s not a big deal. Well, no. It is.” I fixed my gaze on the window again and said, “I went on that ski trip with Derek to find out why the vampires are building an army.”
I heard Lucas let out a puff of air. “You’re not nearly as smooth as you think you are, babe.”
I frowned over at him.
“I knew that,” he said. He laughed at my shocked expression. “You’re a really bad liar. Maybe the worst in history.”
“You would know,” I grumbled.
“How else do you explain me following you there?”
“I just figured you didn’t trust me with Derek.”
Lucas nodded, raising his eyebrows. “Well, yeah. There was that, too.”
“So if you knew I was lying the whole time, why’d you even let me go?”
“I didn’t want to be an overprotective asshole who doesn’t let his girlfriend out of his sight. But at the same time I knew the vampires would be there, and I wasn’t about to leave you alone with them. And I knew you were up to something insane, as usual. So I followed you.”
“But how?”
“The vampires aren’t the only ones with private jets. I just left from a different airport so you wouldn’t see me hanging around.”
I glowered at the dashboard, angry that my awesome plan had never been all that awesome, and then said, “Well, don’t you want to know what I found out?”
He glanced at me sharply. “I figured you didn’t find out anything.”
“Why?” Did he really think I was that impotent? It hadn’t been a
total
wash, after all.
“Because you didn’t tell me anything,” he said.
“Well, I didn’t really get the chance to, did I?”
Lucas ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up in funny directions. “You gonna tell me?” he grunted.
“I found out the name of their leader. Arabella. I think she’s the leader, anyway.”
“The monarch,” he corrected. “Anything else?”
“Calvin and Silas talked a lot about the Ancestors. Do you know about them?”
“Bits and pieces. They’re pretty clandestine.”
“Well, from what I got, there are like, two groups of vampires. Ones who worship the Ancestors and ones who think they’re a bunch of crazies. Calvin was with the latter, and Silas got mad that he was committing treason by making fun of them, or whatever. Anyway, Calvin and Silas said that the Ancestors are planning something—something big, I gather—and that Arabella is helping them. Calvin said she needed stuff. Literally, he said
stuff
. And that it would somehow help them with the younglings leaving dead bodies all over the place. But I don’t know what stuff they were talking about or what the plan is. I’m guessing it’s like we thought—the uprising against the werewolves.”
“Makes sense,” Lucas murmured. “Damn it, I wish I knew what they wanted, though.”
“Well, we know they want Derek, but that doesn’t explain what the
stuff
they were talking about is.”
“If it was Derek they wanted, they coulda had him ten times over by now.” He shook his head with a dark glower. “No, I think they’re up to something else. Derek is just a weapon—he can’t help them with hiding the dead bodies. They’ve got something up their sleeves, and I’ll be damned if I know what.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have tried harder to get more out of them.”
Lucas gave me a flat look. “You know that’s not what I meant. It’s just frustrating. Vampires don’t usually do things like this—scheming against us and killing so obviously. They’re usually real quiet about it, stick to skulking around in the night and hiding from us. Their sudden boldness is really unnerving the werewolf community, even outside the pack.”
“Really,” I gasped. “So Rolf finally alerted everyone?”
He snorted. “Hardly. But rumors are flying, and he’s been getting a lot of heat from the other pack masters, especially the more powerful ones in Canada and Germany—not to mention my old buds in Russia.” Something in his tone said he had one of his macabre stories to accompany that statement, but now wasn’t the time to ask about it. “They’ve all been exchanging info. Seems that this type of organized killing has been happening in other places. Small towns—remote areas where stuff gets overlooked. But when you piece it together, it’s clearly the vampire broods. And now with what you’re telling me about the Ancestors, it only reaffirms our theories. They’re organizing worldwide. Gathering numbers for the revolution.”
I suppressed a shiver. “So what do we do?”
“
You
don’t do anything. You keep yourself outta the way.”
I made a face, but remained quiet. He was right anyway—I was just going to cause trouble if I interfered.
“This little vendetta the vampires seem to have with you will disappear once we eliminate the Denver brood,” he continued. “And then ... well, depending on what Derek does with school, I might have to return to pack duty.”
“If he drops out and turns vampire, you mean?”
“Yep. I’m only assigned to him while he’s at school. If he drops out, I’ll have to go back to Gould.”
I frowned. “But . . . all this time, you haven’t been watching him.”
Lucas remained silent, his vibe going haywire beneath his calm exterior. Jealousy. Hurt. Heartache.
It hit me in an instant.
He knows.
He knew about Derek and my fling. He’d been keeping watch over Derek—and me—this whole time and I never knew. My throat suddenly seemed like it was stuffed with cotton.
“I’m . . . so . . .” I wanted to say sorry, wanted to erase that night with Derek.
“Don’t,” Lucas rumbled. “We were broken up. You had every right to ... to do what you did. It’s none of my business.”
My heart was shattering. I hated this—that he knew.
“Lucas, I—”
“No.” He didn’t look over, but his voice was pleading. “It’s over.”
We collapsed into uneasy silence. After a while, it was Lucas who broke it.
“I might have to leave Colorado if Derek quits school,” he murmured.
“What do you mean?” I asked, jolted. “Why? Where are you going?”
“To the other packs that are having this vampire problem. We have to get this uprising thing taken care of before they get too far.”
“You mean the packs in Canada or Germany?”
“Yeah.”
“And you expect me to stay behind, I take it?” I kept my tone light, but he must have heard the clip at the end. Lucas didn’t say anything, so I took that as a
yes
. “If you’re going someplace I’m coming with you.”
“Like hell you are,” he growled deeply. “You’re staying here. In school. Where it’s safe. End of story.”
I gave him a meaningful stare. One that said,
we’re not done talking about this
, but decided to move on. It wasn’t happening now, and there were too many more pressing matters to discuss.
“So do you think what I found out from Calvin and Silas will help you guys find the lair?” I asked.
“Not to dampen your glory, but probably not.”
I deflated into the seat. “Well, do you know who Arabella is? Maybe if someone knows the name then they can remember around where they saw her ... or something.”
Lucas smiled down at me endearingly.
“I’ve never heard of her,” Lucas said. “But I bet Rolf has if she’s been here any length of time. We’ll talk to him about it when we get to the house.”
I gazed out of the windshield again, watching the sun set.
“How long will that be?” I asked.
“About forty minutes.”
“We won’t make it before dark.”
He didn’t respond.
W
e drove into the night and up through the mountains, snaking along the desolate, dark roads that led to the werewolf mansion. It was about half an hour past sunset, and we were minutes from our destination when I heard a loud rumbling from behind us. I turned around in my seat and saw two bluish headlights approaching us as breakneck speed.
I assumed they were drunk drivers, since nobody in their right mind would be going that fast at night where there were no streetlamps.
“Lucas,” I said. “There are idiots coming up behind us.”
His eyes flickered into the rearview mirror and then shifted silver. He cursed savagely and slammed on the gas. My heart careened into my throat as I became pasted to the seat.
“What is it?” I gasped, clutching the ceiling handle in a vice.
“Vampires.” He cursed again, punching the dashboard so hard it dented the plastic. “I thought this might happen. Shit!”
My mind reeled, trying to make sense as we rocketed around a corner.
“How do you know it’s them?” I asked, wincing as Lucas shifted gears and charged faster.
“I saw someone tailing us for a while when we left campus, but they disappeared. They must have stopped somewhere and let the vampires pick up the chase at nightfall. Damn it, I knew this was going to happen.” He continued to blabber profanities and murderous grumblings. “We’re almost to the house,” he muttered. “Almost there . . .”
I watched the speedometer climb to ninety, a hundred ... higher.
I spun in my seat, but all I could see were the blinding white lights of the car behind us. They were already on top of us, so close I could have reached out and touched the hood.
“Sit back!” Lucas yelled as the car sped ever faster.
Another car drove up beside us, a little black one with tinted windows. The passenger’s window rolled down, and Melissa’s perfect face appeared. I saw another vampire driving.
“Oh, God,” I whispered. Melissa had survived the fight. Terror ravaged my brain. “Oh, God . . . Lucas. Go faster!”
“I am!” He hit it harder, and we blasted forward. The vampires were right with us.
Melissa laughed and made obscene gestures at us. Then she licked her long, pointy teeth and made an uh-oh face. She held the top of the car like she was bracing herself.
“Lucas!” I screamed. I tensed, readying myself.

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