Discovery of Death (7 page)

“
I see,” the young man said. “You’re here for the female. She’s dead!”

Liar.
Marcus withdrew both swords and held them aloft in each hand.

The young man wiggled his fingers. “Ooohh, scary.” He took a step closer. “So, which number are you? Forty-seven? Thirty-nine? One hundred and eighteen? Doesn’t matter. Your kind are no match for us.”

Marcus was Slayer Twenty-one. Shelly was Thirty-two. It was how those higher in the Order kept track of who was on the field and who had died in service. If a slayer’s life was claimed, their number was crossed out, never to be replaced. The only time the numbers reset themselves was when a new generation of slayers replaced the old. Thousands came before him throughout the centuries.

“
I don’t have time for this,” Marcus said and advanced toward the young man.

Immediately, the man’s fists shot out in front of him and his feet left the ground. He flew straight at Marcus. The moment the man moved, Marcus stepped to the side and brought his sword down as the man flew past. The young man’s body dropped to the ground, his head rolling along the forest floor a few feet away. A quick plunge of the sword to the young vampire’s heart and the undead creature was finished.

Three more vampires appeared in a semi-circle around him, materializing from the shadows. They were all female, blonde, and beautiful. Each wore a different colored long coat: cherry red, royal blue and snow white.

They hissed and raised their razor-sharp fingernails, ready to maul him like a pack of wild tigers. Quickly, their gorgeous faces went stark white, their features distorting as bone and muscle relocated themselves beneath their skin. The women’s brows protruded from their faces as their eyes sunk into their sockets. Their open mouths grew long and their teeth grew as well, giving birth to sharp fangs. Low, guttural growls escaped their lips.

“
Come and get it,” Marcus said, then realized how corny that sounded.

The girls darted toward him, displacing their bodies from the physical then quickly appearing next to him. The girl in red reached for his neck. In a blur of silver, he removed her arm, turned, and slammed the second blade home into her stomach. With a quick yank upward, he cleaved her in two, straight up her torso, through her neck and head. Marcus withdrew the sword and stuck it deep into the left half of the woman’s body, ensuring the heart had been penetrated. He knew he hit his mark when the torso halves erupted into a spray of flesh before disintegrating in the air as fine ash on the wind.

The lady in blue and the one in white were on him immediately. One pulled his legs out from under him and he hit the ground on his back. The other kicked him in the head then knelt down beside him, mouth wide, ready to feed. The girl in blue crawled up his body from by his legs like a mutated spider. He stuck the sword in her forehead, jerked the blade, and threw her to the side. The woman flailed on the ground as she tried to withdraw the blade from her skull. The one in white moved in to bite his neck. Marcus shot his fist into her face, careful to hit her between the eyes and not in the mouth lest he risk getting infected. With the remaining sword, he brought it down in an arc and slammed it home into her neck. Red, coagulated blood gushed out.

He got to his feet. The woman in blue nearly had the blade out. He drove his heel into the butt of the sword and sent the blade into the woman’s brain again. She fell on her back; he jumped on her, removing his knife from the sheath on his leg in the process. A quick plunge of the silver metal to the woman’s heart and her body disintegrated before him.

Only the lady in white remained. She hissed and growled as she removed the blade from her throat. She came at him, sword held high. His blade met hers in a clash of silver. He kicked her in the gut, sent her stumbling back a few steps, then swiftly closed the distance and drove the sword through her heart. With a shriek, her body exploded like a whirl of snow before disappearing altogether.

Marcus took a deep breath, mentally regrouped, then gathered up his weapons. Shelly was around here somewhere. Though he knew better than to trust a bloodsucker, he just hoped he wasn’t too late.

11

“
I
thought you
said we were going out?” Rose asked Parker. The two sat on the sofa of Parker’s pal Rick’s place.

“
I don’t know, did I?”

“
I think so.”

“
Why, what’s wrong?”

Rick’s rec room had eight people in it: five guys, three girls. Rose didn’t know any of them except Parker.

“
I’ve never been here before,” she said.

“
You need a drink,” he said and took a swig of beer.

“
Don’t really feel like one.”

“
Why not?”

“
It’s, um . . .” She didn’t want to admit she’d never drank before, at least nothing outside the occasional glass of wine her dad sometimes let her have on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

“
Oh, come on. You’re a booze virgin? I know you’re the other kind, but—”

“
Parker!”

“
Sorry.” He looked at his bottle. “Not me talking.”

“
Yeah, right.” She crossed her arms.

Some guy across the room standing next to the pool table shouted at them, “Hey, P., you getting in on this? Mike said he could take me on calls.”

“
In a minute,” Parker said with a raise of his finger.

Rose leaned closer to him. “I just don’t know anyone and I didn’t really plan on coming out anyway.” She hated being a party pooper, but Parker had pulled a fast one on her and wasn’t clear about what was going down tonight.

He seemed to consider her words. “Tell you what: let me watch this game then I’ll take you home.”

“
How much have you had to drink?”

“
I don’t know, three, four?”

“
And if you get pulled over?”

He scrunched his face. “I won’t get pulled over, you kidding? Cops are stretched thin as it is. No time for routine traffic stops. Besides, they mostly do that on holidays and there ain’t one for a while.”

She sighed. “Thanks anyway, but I’ll head ’er home on my own. Don’t want to take a chance.”

“
Going to call Daddy?”

“
Okay, I’m done,” she said and stood from the couch. “See ya.”

“
I’ll be here.”

From across the room: “Parker! You deaf? Let’s go!”

Rose made her way to the stairs, ignoring the looks everyone gave her as she did.

Just want to go home, pour a hot bath, and relax.
“Parker’s an idiot,” she muttered.
Just a couple too many and he sometimes says things he doesn’t mean. Can only imagine what comes out of his mouth when he’s really hammered.
She put on her shoes and headed out the door.

Going down the driveway, she looked up at the night sky. It was partly cloudy; the sky that was exposed was crystal clear. It reminded her of late night walks with Zach. He was out there somewhere. He was still considered a missing person. His family was in hysterics at first, but now spent every day on edge, wondering if the next phone call would be news about their son. She didn’t check in often with them anymore, not that she didn’t want to, but even calling there was painful. Dialing that phone number, like she had so many times before to talk to Zach, speaking to his father, the old ideas of one day them being her in-laws—it was too much. She really hoped and prayed they were okay, though. They deserved better than to wonder where their son was, or if he was alive or . . . “Dead,” she said without meaning to.

The air was cool, but not uncomfortable. She knew the way home. It would take a good forty minutes to get there. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed home, feeling a bit of a goon for needing Daddy to come to the rescue. The line rang and rang. Eventually, the machine kicked in.

“
Great,” she said. “Where are you guys?”

She hung up.

Rick lived in the suburbs like she did and, from what she knew, the streets were safe. Very seldom did anything happen.

Just got to stop thinking about Zach. Think about something else, like school tomorrow.
“Okay, so not meant that last part.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Stupid Parker. Hope he’s having a good time.”

12

“
I
can’t believe
how awesome this is!” Zach said as he and Cassie flew through the air.

“
I know. So awesome. Nothing up here but us and, well,
sometimes
other
vamps
but, you know, whatever. It’s just a chance to relax. Could never do this in the old life.”

“
Duh.” Zach had to admit, he was really enjoying himself. Who wouldn’t? Right now, he was thankful he didn’t remember anything from his old life. He was even thankful for what he’d become, except: “I’m thirsty, Cassie. Real bad. Mouth is dry. And . . .” How could he explain it?
Just say it even if it sounds stupid. If she’s like you, she might understand.
“I feel this kind of dark thing within me. This anger. I have this mental picture of my thirst, and it’s black and it carries those feelings with it. I think about something else, and those feelings are gone though I’m still thirsty.”

“
I know what you mean,” she said. She flew over him and came down on his other side. “You haven’t fed yet. It’s the only downside to being one of us. Well, not really a
downside because once you’ve fed for the first time, you want to be thirsty all the time just so you could do it again.”

“
What do we eat?”

“
Drink
. Blood. Human blood.”

“
Blech. No thanks.”

“
Trust me, it’s good stuff. Real good. And it’s not even the taste that’s good about it, though that’s really awesome, too. So yummy.” She floated in closer. “Can I tell you something?”

“
About blood?”

She chuckled. “No, about the
feeling.
”

“
Um, okay.”

She gave him a sly grin. “It’s like having an orgasm.”

He wrinkled his face. “I so don’t want to hear this.”

“
No, you do.”

“
No, I don’t.”

He adjusted his flight path so he was further away.

Cassie flew in close to him again. “Just hear me out because it’s actually important. Sorta. It
is
like having an orgasm, but full-body, and not even that—though that’s super
awesome
wicked—but
it’s
like
that
ultra
intense kind, the one that hurts but feels amazing at the same time.”

“
I wouldn’t know.”

“
As if.”

“
Okay, I do, but not in the way you think.”

“
As if I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, it’s like the kind where you build up to it, back off, build up to it, back off—and eventually you explode. But imagine that for not just, like, six or seven seconds, but for as long as you feed. Totally euphoric.”

“
Thanks for the sex class, Sis.”

“
I’m serious. Besides, you need the blood” —she flew in right up to him again— “if you want to live.” Cassie banked to the left and descended into the clouds below. She disappeared from sight.

Zach stopped and hovered in the air. The thirst was getting to him. The darkness was growing. “I’m going to hate this,” he said and dove down in Cassie’s direction.

When he emerged beneath the clouds, he found Mira waiting for him.

“
Where’s Cassie?” he asked.

“
I sent her away. Your first feed belongs to me.”

13

M
arcus ran through
the woods. “Shelly?” he whispered as loud as he could, doing his best not to attract attention to himself, but if he knew the vampires for what they were, they were probably hunting
him
even now.

Swords drawn, ready to strike down anything that came into his path, he scanned in between the trees and above the bushes for his wife. She had to be here. The patch of trees lining the river would be at an end soon. Unless . . . unless she was the other way.

Can only do one thing at a time,
he thought.

He burst through a thicket of bushes and skidded to a halt. A row of a half dozen vampires stood before him, three male, three female, all seeming to have been in their late thirties when they were turned.

The row of the undead eyed him coolly, each gaze like ice, penetrating into his own.

Clear your mind. Don’t let them read
—

“
We know who you are, Marcus, Slayer Twenty-one,” the center male said. He wore a snug blue T-shirt, black pants, icy-blond spiked hair, and a studded leather band around his neck.