The Lola Chronicles (Book 2): A Day Without Dawn (17 page)

“But that means–”

“He will be burned alive,” Maximus said without a flicker of compassion. “Which is no less than he deserves. What did he do to you?” In an instant he was by my side only to recoil with a low growl when he saw my bleeding elbow and calf. “I told you not to come out here by yourself!”

I had never seen Maximus so angry before. His entire body vibrated with fury as his eyes changed from a misty gray to a hard, glinting black. Seeing him like this – his jaw rigid, his muscles clenched, his eyes flashing – it was easy to imagine him as a drinker. I took a wary step back. I didn’t think Maximus would hurt me, but there was no way to know for sure.

“Do not move,” he snapped. “You have lost a significant amount of blood.”

I didn’t like the accusation in his tone. Almost as if it was
my
fault I’d gotten attacked. Blame the victim much? I hadn’t asked for this! I hadn’t asked for any of it. The drinkers were the bad guys here, not me. “I didn’t know he would be out here.”

Maximus made a scoffing sound. “How could you? I only warned you of precisely that. If I hadn’t come when I did…” His voice trailed off as his throat convulsed and it was then I realized the truth. Maximus wasn’t mad at
me
. Well, he sort of was, but his anger was just a mask hiding what he truly felt.

Fear.

The big bad drinker was afraid
for
me.

I remember watching a rom-com once. Usually I wasn’t big into the whole boy meets girls, boy sweeps girl off feet, boy and girl have a Big Misunderstanding before falling madly in love scenario, but I’d been sick and home from school with nothing else to do and it had been the only thing worth watching on TV. Halfway through the movie the girl’s mother pulled her aside for a little mother daughter chat filled with infinite wisdom and chocolate chip cookies baked from scratch. The girl was trying to choose between the hero and the guy she used to date in high school who had suddenly reappeared out of nowhere in an attempt to ruin the girl’s newfound happiness.

So dramatic.

I don’t remember exactly what the girl’s mom said, but it was something to the effect of, ‘Don’t judge a man based on what he says. Judge him on what he does.’

If I only judged Maximus on the things he said – or rather the things he
didn’t
say – then I would find him seriously lacking. He was gruff, dismissive, and rude, not to mention a total liar. But if I judged him on the things he had done for me…

“I’m fine,” I said softly. “Really. It’s just a scratch. You were right. I shouldn’t have come here at night. It was a stupid mistake.”

His gaze hardened as he glanced down at my calf. “It is not just a scratch and you are not going anywhere until you’ve been tended to.”

“What are you doing?” I asked suspiciously when he slid one arm behind my shoulders and crouched low to place his other arm beneath my knees. “Maximus, seriously. What are you – put me down!”

Ignoring my protests he scooped my up into his arms as if I weighed no more than a feather. His grip was gentle but firm as he struck out across the cornfield. He wasn’t heading towards the hotel, but if his purposeful strides were any indication he had a pretty clear destination in mind. Releasing a sigh of resignation – not matter how much I struggled I knew I wasn’t getting down until he let me go – I rested my head against his hard chest and closed my eyes.

His black t-shirt felt soft against my cheek. Resisting the temptation to burrow in, I allowed myself to slowly relax. I didn’t feel safe – there were too many dangers lurking around every corner for that – but for the first time in a long time I felt protected.

I didn’t know why Maximus kept rescuing me. He had never given me a reason. At least not one that made any sense. But I did know that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me. Not when he’d risked his own life to save mine so many times I’d almost lost count.

Lulled by the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, I quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.

When I woke up it
was still dark and I was stretched out on a lumpy sofa. Someone – Maximus – had pulled a blanket over me and stuck a pillow under my head. It wasn’t the most comfortable pillow in the world and it smelled vaguely of old chicken wings and stale beer which was kind of weird, but I supposed it was the thought that counted.

Wait a second.

I recognized that smell.

The blanket fell to the floor as I sat up and – holy drinker hangover.

My entire body pulsed; a low level thrumming of discomfort that left a bitter taste in my mouth. I leaned back against the sofa and groaned. I needed some extra strength aspirin STAT. Or maybe some horse tranquilizer.

Careful not to move any more than I absolutely had to, I looked around the room. It may have been dark, but I didn’t need light to recognize where I was.

Maximus had brought me back to my apartment.

It looked like it had the last time I’d seen it. Extra messy courtesy of the drinkers who had torn through it looking for me and my dad, but honestly not that much worse than it usually was. Beige industrial carpeting with various food and beer stains, check. Cheap second hand furniture, check. Old magazines that should have been thrown out years ago scattered all over the place, check.

The TV had been smashed in, the thin plaster walls were in need of some serious spackling and the fridge was on its side, but for the most part the apartment looked exactly like I remembered.

Dark, dingy, and dirty.

So why – of all the places he could have taken me – had Maximus brought me here?

I jumped when the front door opened, only to breathe a deep sigh of relief when I saw it was just Maximus.

I didn’t know when ‘just Maximus’ had become a good thing. There was a part of me that still regarded him as the enemy. But the longer I was around him the smaller that part became. I knew I couldn’t believe anything he said. I knew he was still keeping secrets. I knew there was more to Travis’ death than he was telling me. But one glance into those dark, smoldering gray eyes of his and it was hard to remember my own name let alone all the reasons I had not to trust him.

“I brought you something to eat,” he said as he stepped into the apartment and kicked the door closed behind him. “It’s not much, but it’s all I could find.”

“Gimme,” I demanded. Catching the tube of Pringles one-handed I used my teeth to pop off the lid and shook four crisps into my mouth. “Sour cream and onion. Not bad.”

“I am so glad you approve.” His gaze shuttered Maximus moved silently across the living room and sat in the only chair not cluttered with magazines and old takeout cartons. “How do you feel?”

I grimaced. “Like I got attacked by a drinker in a cornfield. What time is it?”

“Just shy of dawn. You’ve been asleep for nearly five hours.”

“Five
hours
? I have to go. I have to–”

“Sit down,” Maximus said firmly when I stood up. Or rather,
attempted
to stand up.

Overcome by a wave of dizziness and tottering on legs that felt like wet noodles I half sat/half fell back onto the sofa. I looked down and saw that my calf had been neatly bandaged in white gauze. My elbow was similarly wrapped which probably explained why it was so stiff. Maximus had even changed the bandages on my knee and wrist.

I was starting to look like a mummy.

“Arland nicked an artery when he cut your arm.” The hard edge in Maximus’ tone revealed he wasn’t quite as calm as he appeared to be. There was still anger there. Plenty of it if his ticking jaw was any indication. “You have lost more blood than you realize. Your body is still in recovery. You need to rest, Lola.”

“I need to get back to the gym. And what the hell kind of vampire is named
Arland
? You’re kidding me, right?”

“Arland is very cunning and very ruthless.”

“You mean Arland
was
very old, very cunning, and very ruthless.” My lips curved in a smirk as I envisioned him turning extra crispy when the sun came up. It was no less than the asshole deserved for trying to
torture me to death
.

“Yes,” Maximus agreed with the faintest of smiles. “He was.”

Leaning sideways I absently picked up a throw pillow and hugged it awkwardly against my chest with one arm. “So are you keeping me here or what? Because if you’re not…” I looked pointedly at the door. “I really need to leave. My friends are expecting me.”

“Are you still planning on attempting a rescue mission?” 

“Maybe,” I hedged. “Maybe not. That’s not really any of your business.”

A scowl creased Maximus’ brow. As weak morning sunlight filtered in through the windows I was given a clearer view of his face. His eyes looked tired and sunken. His skin was paler than usual. The cut on his lip had healed but the dried blood remained, caked in one corner of his mouth and on the side of his chin. It was the worse I’d even seen him, but even at his worse he was still outrageously attractive.

Don’t you dare start
, I warned my hormones as they stirred to life.
This is not the time or the place, do you hear me?

As per usual they weren’t listening. What did they care if the world as I knew it was coming to an end? There was a cute boy sitting across from me. That’s all that really mattered.

“I am not keeping you here,” Maximus said after a long pause. “I only brought you back to your apartment because I thought you would find familiar surroundings a comfort.”

“How did you even know where I lived?”

“But I need you to believe me when I tell you that your mission will fail and most of you, if not all, will be killed,” he said, completely ignoring my question.

As per usual.

“We’re not stupid.” Feeling a little annoyed, I tossed the pillow aside. Despite my little episode in the cornfield, I wasn’t helpless. I might not have been as strong or as fast as a drinker, but I could hold my own when it came down to it.

As long as I remembered to reload my freakin’ gun.

“We have a plan and weapons and – and a plan. We’re not going in there blind.”

“But that is exactly what you’re doing,” Maximus countered softly.

“And why is that?”

“Because they know you’re coming.”

“That’s impossible,” I scoffed. “The drinkers have no idea what we’re planning. Unless
you
told them.”

“Arland is the first of my kind I have spoken to in nearly two weeks. Even if I had told them, I doubt they would have believed me. We have not exactly been on speaking terms since I killed Angelique and I doubt my position will be improved by murdering Arland.”

The first of my kind…

Of my kind…

My kind…

Even after watching – or rather listening – to what Maximus had done to Arland it was still hard for me to remember that he was a drinker. Before I had learned he was still alive it had been easier. I’d had the image of him standing over Travis’ bloody body burned into the back of my mind to remind me. But now… now I didn’t know what to think or what to feel. Maybe monsters didn’t come in just black or white. Maybe there were shades of gray.

Or maybe I was just a sucker for a brooding boy with a mysterious past.

“Well if you didn’t tip them off, then who did?”

Maximus stood up and walked to the window. Pulling aside the cheap plastic blinds he looked down at the street below, his hard gaze impossible to decipher. “That is an excellent question.”

“Can you stop being all dark and cryptic for once and just give me a straight answer?” I demanded. Fishing around inside the tube of Pringles I pulled out a few more crisps and popped them into my mouth. In the silence my chewing was extra loud, but I didn’t care. Who exactly was I trying to impress? A moody vampire? Please. I was covered in blood and dirt and God knew what else. A little loud chewing was just icing on the cake. “Enough with the bullshit, Maximus. You saved my life for a reason. You brought me here for a reason. You’re telling me to call off the rescue for a reason. So what is it? What’s the reason? The
real
reason.”

Without turning around he said, “I already told you. If you go to the farmhouse you will be killed.”

For a second I seriously considered throwing the Pringles at his head but then thought better of it. Why waste perfectly good food on a stubborn jackass? “You keep saying that. And I keep telling you we’re prepared. You said they know we’re coming. How? How could they possibly know? If you didn’t tell them–”

“One of your own did.” He spun around, gray eyes flashing with fire. “One of your own has forsaken you, Lola. And if you go to that farmhouse you will all pay the consequences of their betrayal.”  

Grave Robbing

“You’re lying,” I said flatly.

“And she wonders why I withhold the truth from her,” Maximus muttered under his breath.

“Hello, sitting right here.” I waved the Pringle can for emphasis. “There is
no
way one of my friends tipped off the drinkers. Why would they? It doesn’t make any sense.” It really didn’t. One of us, working with the drinkers? Talk about crazy. What would that person possibly have to gain?

The answer was nothing.

Well, nothing except for two holes in their neck.

“Besides,” I continued, “if there really is a traitor why haven’t the drinkers attacked us? We’ve been sitting ducks in the gym for over a week. If they knew about us we’d be dead already.”

“Not necessarily.”

My sigh was long and exasperated. “What is
that
supposed to mean?”

“It means they’re bored and looking for a little entertainment to pass the time. Most of the drinkers have moved on to surroundings towns and cities. Those who remain have been regulated to little more than babysitters, tasked with watching over the humans they’ve taken prisoner and the crawlers they’ve created.”

“I know they may not be much to look at now, but given time and a bit of teaching they’ll make fine soldiers…”

I shuddered as Arland’s words echoed in my head.

“Tell me more about the crawlers.”

Bracing his hands on the windowsill, Maximus leaned back against the blinds. They bent inwards, revealing a glimpse of a sky that was caught somewhere between dusk and dawn.

If I didn’t get back to the gym soon Hunter was going to have an absolute fit. But the middle school was at least three miles from here, and I was in no condition to walk. If I wanted to get there I was going to have to rely on Maximus to take me.

Which meant I was going to have to play nice.

“Please,” I added belatedly. “You mentioned them before and I’ve seen two of them, but I don’t understand what they are.”

“The crawlers are an abomination.”

“Do you… want to elaborate?” I ventured when he fell silent.

Maximus gritted his teeth. “When a drinker wants to change a human there must be an equal transfusion of blood. The drinker will suck the human to the brink of death and then fill them with their own blood. This process usually takes several hours during which the drinker is at its most vulnerable. Once the transfusion is complete the human must feed immediately or they will reject the drinker’s blood and, quite literally, explode.”

My nose wrinkled. “Gross.”

“‘Gross’ is an understatement. Once the human has fed they will endure a period of suspended animation while their body adjusts to the changes.”

“A period of what who?”

“For all intents and purposes they will appear dead until they rise as a drinker.”

Like Travis.

I pushed the thought aside. Travis had looked dead because he
was
dead. I refused to believe otherwise. “So that’s how the drinkers create other drinkers. But how do they make crawlers?”

“The process is the same except only half of the human’s blood is drained. The entire change happens more quickly and the drinker is put at less of a risk, but the consequences are grave. Because the human retains some of their blood they do not transform completely but hover somewhere in between what they were and what the drinker has turned them into.”

“So that’s why they can be out in the sunlight. Because at least part of them is still human.”

“Yes.” His jaw clenching Maximus looked past me at the wall. “And as their drinker half battles with their human half they are ultimately driven into insanity, becoming neither human nor drinker but an abomination of the two. It is not a…pleasant existence.”

Talk about an understatement.

“Arland mentioned something about the crawlers being soldiers. What was he talking about?” I knew I was pressing my luck by asking Maximus so many questions, but to my surprise he actually gave me an answer.

“A crawler is easily controlled by the drinker who made it and will do nearly anything for blood. There are some of us – like Arland – who believe this weakness should be exploited. Think of a dog, raised in darkness and starved for food. The dog is not inherently evil, but it has been taught cruelty at the hands of its master and knows nothing but pain and misery.”

“Okay…” I said slowly.

“Now,” Maximus continued harshly, “imagine that same dog, half-starved to death, released in a room filled with defenseless children. That is what the drinkers intend to do with the crawlers. That is why have been created. That is their sole purpose. To be a brutal, mindless killing force that can hunt during the day.”

My stomach rolled. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse…

“That’s horrible.”

“That is only the beginning. Now that they have stepped from the shadows the drinkers will stop at nothing to achieve their end goal. They do not care what – or who – stands in their way and they will use any means necessary to get what they want.”

I couldn’t help but think of the crawler who had attacked me in the middle of town. Yeah, she probably would have slurped up my intestines if I hadn’t kneecapped her, but I hadn’t been imagining the glimmer of humanity in her eyes. Underneath the oozing sores and the craving for blood she was still a person. A person who was lost and confused and slowly going out of their mind. “Is there a way to turn them back? To turn the crawlers back to human?”

Maximus hesitated before he shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“But you knew all this,” I said, gesturing with a wild sweep of my arm that sent a jolt of pain shooting up through my elbow. “You knew what the drinkers were going to do when they came here. You knew Revere wasn’t going to be the only town they attacked.” I lurched to my feet as my anger and frustration swelled, tightening my throat and raising my voice. “You knew what they planned to do with the crawlers.
And you did nothing.
”

“Lola–”

“Don’t ‘Lola’ me,” I sneered. So much for playing nice. I was just so sick and tired of watching people suffer. Good people, better people than me, people who had done nothing to deserve all of the horrific things that had happened to them. “You should have tried to stop it, Maximus. You should have warned us. You should have–”

“YOU DON’T THINK I TRIED?” A vein pulsed in his forehead as he began to pace the length of the living room, mindlessly kicking magazines and cartons of junk food out of his way. “I tried,” he repeated. “But how am I supposed to stop an invading army when I can’t even protect one girl?” He stopped and looked at me, his expression so dark and bleak and hopeless it stole the very breath from my lungs.

I’m not the only one in pain,
I realized.
I’m not the only one who is hurting.

“Okay,” I said quietly as the cloud of anger hovering over my head began to dissolve. “Okay. What we need is a plan. Say I believe that one of my friends is a traitor and the drinkers know we’re going to try to rescue the prisoners in the farmhouse. We can’t just leave them there, Maximus. We have to get them out one way or another.”

“You think your father is one of the prisoners.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I think so. Along with a girl named Hayley. I mean, don’t get me wrong. She’s a total bitch. But she doesn’t deserve to be drinker food.”

“I could get them out. It would be difficult, but not impossible.”

“And the others?”

Maximus’ gaze flicked to the side, telling me everything I needed to know.

Say yes,
half of my brain urged even as the other half hesitated. This was all I had wanted. To be reunited with my dad. Saving Hayley would just be a bonus. I didn’t owe the other prisoners anything. I didn’t even know their names.

A week ago I would have jumped at the opportunity. But now… now I knew there was more at stake.

This wasn’t just about saving myself and my dad anymore. It had become bigger than that. Bigger than us. This was about saving humanity.

And every life mattered.

“No.” I sat back down on the sofa and pulled my leg up to my chest, fingers absently skimming across the bandage on my calf. “We have to get them all out.”

Maximus’ sigh was heavy. “How did I know you were going to say that?”

“Because I always choose the option that’s most likely to get me killed?” I suggested.

This time his smile went all the way up to his forehead, dissolving the hard line that was etched between his eyebrows. “I cannot argue with that. It’s going to be dangerous, Lola. Even more so now that the crawlers will be expecting you. They may not be as strong or intelligent as a full drinker, but you can’t underestimate them.”

“I thrive on danger.”

His expression grew serious once again. “Not everyone will survive.”

My friend’s faces flashed through my mind. Hunter, Rose, Greg, Stevenson. Even Livy and Becca and Hayley. I didn’t know if I would call us friends, but I’d gone to school with them. I’d eaten beside them. I’d slept in the same locker room as them. We had a shared connection that went above and beyond anything I had ever experienced before and I couldn’t imagine any one of them dying.

So I didn’t.

“We’ll be fine.” Call me stupid if you want. Naïve. Ignorant. But it was what I truly believed. “All of us. But I have to get back to the gym. I can’t let them leave without me. Not without telling Hunter what you told me.”

Was it my imagination, or did Maximus’ eyes suddenly narrow?

“Hunter is the blond-haired boy,” he said.

“How did you – you’ve been spying on me!” I accused.

Maximus broad shoulders lifted and fell in an unapologetic shrug. “I prefer watching after you to make sure you didn’t do anything too idiotic like running your bike into the side of a building, but call it what you will.”

“Um I’ll call it spying, because
that’s what it is
.” Even as I snapped out the words I felt a warm, rosy feeling unfurl inside of my chest. All this time Maximus had been secretly looking out for me. It was…sweet. Okay maybe a tiny bit stalkerish, but mostly sweet.

“You can’t walk to the middle school from here. It’s too far. I have a car. I will take you and I will help you and your friends on one condition.”

“Which is?”

“If it becomes too dangerous and I tell you to run you will run. No questions asked.”

“Sure.” I lied without so much as a betraying flicker of an eyelash. Maximus wasn’t the only one who knew how to hide the truth. “No problem. So what kind of car do you have?”

“Just a car,” he said, although there was a definite boyish glint in his eyes that hadn’t been there a few seconds ago. He offered me his hand and I took it, letting him pull me up off the sofa. I stopped in the doorway of my apartment and allowed myself one long, lingering look. It may not have been much, but it was home. And I had the distinct feeling this was the last time I would ever see it.

“Ready?” Maximus asked, resting his hand on my shoulder.

I drew a deep breath. “Ready. Except there’s one stop we have to make first.”

Maximus didn’t need to ask where. He could read it in my eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Then we had better go.”   

This time when I looked
down into Travis’ grave I didn’t cry. There wasn’t anything to cry over.

His body was gone, just like Maximus had said it would be.

And everything I thought I knew had just officially changed.