Burn (Drift Book 3) (11 page)

“I’m sorry, I felt like it was the right thing to do.”

I walked away from them in frustration, but before I could reply, Shade continued.

“But…they already knew.”

I turned around in a flash and glared at their smiling faces, “What?”

“They already knew, Leo.” Shade repeated.

“What are you talking about?” I approached them again.

“Lots of people know, Leo, maybe not everything
you think they may know…but a lot,” Sandra added.

I didn’t speak; I just looked at them in confusion.

“Remember Meredith?” Scruffy chimed in.

I thought back to the first person that Scruff and I released while still in the Caverns of the Forgotten, the girl from Mountainside that he recognized. Then it hit me,
not surprisingly, the captives talked. I should’ve known.

“Don’t worry, bro. It’s not as bad as you think.”

“This is getting completely out of hand, you guys. Don’t you realize, the more people that know about this, the harder it is for me to complete what I must do. People will alienate me more than they already have. Not only that, now her life might be grave danger…anyone that knows about me, the real me, is at risk. Just like you guys.”

“That may be the case, Leo, but people don’t care.
They don’t realize you’re a demon…I don’t think. Besides, her life, and the others, were already in danger until you freed them,” Shade continued.

“People?”

“Wasn’t just Meredith from our little town in that pack we rescued, man,” Scruffy added.

“Oh, this is bad.” I sunk my head.

Scruffy walked up and placed his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. “Like Shade said, they don’t care, they’re grateful.”

“For what?” I questioned.

“For you, hun,” Shade answered.

I was confused
. “Do you think there’s even the slightest chance that they may know about me…what I am?”

“
Again, I don’t think they know, but our parents do…thanks to us. Others simply think you’re a hero.” Scruffy reached over and shushed Sandra from speaking further.

“We’re sorry, babe. We had to fill our parents in, they were already aware of what took place in Romania. Not with Shimmer
, of course, but you freeing the children of this town. People recognized you and Scruffy. There was no way to hide that from everyone.”

“So, Meredith, and whoever else,
must have spoke of who exactly, or what really held them and what happened that night at the party?”

“I don’t think they’re exactly clear about who, or what, held them prisoner, but they have some ideas because of the scene at the party. You had to have known
when those that we freed went home, they’d talk about what happened to them,” Scruffy pointed out.

As obvious as it was now, it never crossed my mind that, duh, Meredith and whoever would talk about what happened. I guess I was so submerged in trying to protect Shade and kill S
himmer that I never knew some of my little secrets could blow wide open. I just never gave it much thought.

“No one else knows where I live, do they
?”

“No, just us three…and that secret is safe with us.”
Sandra smiled.

I was comforted
. “Thanks for that. So, now what do I do when I go into town?”

“Well, the first thing you need to do is absorb all this in. We
’re going to leave for a little bit and then come back and get you. We all need to hang out tonight. Unwind a little after this chaos we’ve
all
went through.” Shade rubbed my back.

“That’s right. Hang out here for a bit, we’ll be back for you later
,” Scruffy added.

“See you shortly
, Leo.” Sandra waved to me.

I bid them
farewell and watched as they continued to grin uncontrollably. Something more was going on that they weren’t telling me about. I could feel it.

“Hey, make sure my Shadow cat is here when I come back…I’ve missed him.”

“Ahhhhh, okay.” I half-cocked a smile and waved as they pulled down the hill.

Great, with all this new information that I have to process, now I have to worry about Shade serving my butt to me on a platter when she finds out about Shadow.

Goodie, goodie.

Chapter 11

GRATITUDE

I wrestled my thoughts the rest of the day while waiting for them to show back up, still not fully grasping what my friends had told me, but fully aware my little secret was no longer a secret. I wasn’t sure what exactly was known about me in Mountainside, I just knew I could no longer move about town in relative secrecy anymore. The humans really knew me now; for the most part. I was no longer just this guy dating Shade, or the dude that stood behind Scruffy all the time. I was something more to them now, but I still had no clue how much more. I could no longer fight to remain a loner for the sake of a town, now I had to embrace them and accept whatever knowledge they had about me.

It was late afternoon when my friends returned. I was happy to get out and chill with them for awhile. I was still very confused
about our earlier conversation and even more perplexed why they were so relaxed about it.

“Let’s go, Leo!” Scruffy called out from the dri
ver’s seat of Sandra’s car. Sandra got out and joined Shade in the backseat.

I smiled and got in.

“Where are we going tonight?” I questioned as we drove down my driveway.

Again, they all looked
at each other with this calm, but very sheepish display of grins and didn’t answer me.

“You’ll see
,” Shade answered.

“Everyo
ne’s parents are cool with you guys hanging out with me…hanging out, period?”

“Yeah, they’re cool, bro.” They chuckled together as Shade reached around from behind me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

It was very clear they were aware of something I was not. I did my best to hold my tongue and just go with the flow, letting them have their way for now.

We small talked about the events we’d been through to kill time. It wasn’t a very long d
rive until we reached this small, log community center on the edge of town.

A handful of cars
, including a police car, were in the parking lot. Scruffy pulled right up in front of the main entrance.

“What is this place? What’s going on
, guys?” I began to get a little impatient with their secrecy.

“You’ll see
,” Scruffy said as he got out of the car.

“Yeah, just shut up and get out
,” Shade ordered me.

I hesitated briefly, but got out. The girls walked behind me as Scruff hustled up to the doors and opened them for us. I walked in to what looked like a lobby and saw a pair of doors wide open straight in front of me. I could hear people chatting. Scruffy pushed me, urging me
forward.

“It’s okay, babe
,” Shade encouraged.

I reluctantly walked past the doors and could see about twenty to
twenty-five people sitting in metal fold out chairs. It looked like a town hall meeting or something. State and national flags sat at the end of the room behind a microphoned podium. A Mountainside police officer was standing just to the side of it. I looked back at my friends for reassurance and they gave it to me. They flashed more smiles and nodded for me to keep going.

When we were
fully inside, the talking hushed. We walked a few steps down a center aisle and stopped. Everyone turned to stare at us. I felt very uncomfortable. I looked in the first few rows and saw Shade, Sandra, and Scruffy’s parents. They were smiling at us. I also saw about six of the kids Scruffy and I freed from the caverns as well.

“Come up to the front
, kids,” the police officer stated.

Pausing for a second, we did as he asked.

“Leo,” the police officer turned to address me. “My name is Sheriff Sam Taylor. You’re probably wondering why your friends have brought you here today.”

I
just listened and didn’t speak.

“A
s I’m sure you know, some time ago, a tragedy struck this town. Many of the children in Mountainside disappeared. Details aren’t clear and are still under investigation so I can’t elaborate, but we know some things for sure. There are still children missing and unaccounted for in this town and many moms and dads are suffering from broken hearts and sleepless nights.”

He glared at me
, which made me very nervous. I began to wonder what in the hell my friends had dragged me into.

“But beyond the tragedy came some good news…when these six kids came back home.” The Sheriff pointed to the group.

“We may not know how, or why, they were taken to Romania. We just know that these children are back…because of you and your friend here.” He smiled at me and nodded at Scruffy, who puffed out his chest. I couldn’t help but giggle a little inside at my friend.

“Tall tales seem to surround this unfortunate set of events,
something that you and I will have to talk further about, son, but right now these parents are here today to thank you, Leo, for bringing their children back home to them.” Sheriff Taylor started clapping and the townspeople followed suit.

I looked around
at the clapping people, utterly humbled before lowering my eyes to the floor. I could see my three closest friends out of the corner of my eye looking at me with big smiles as the clapping stopped. Now I knew why they were grinning from ear to ear all day.

“I’d like to take this time to personally thank you as well
, Mr. Cutler. I don’t know how you did it, but I’m glad you did. Now, if Leo doesn’t mind, I know some of you have questions for him.” He looked at me and I nodded in agreement as he turned to fully address the crowd.

A couple of hands went up and the Sheriff called to them
. “Mr. Criner.” He pointed to a man who stood up and cleared his throat. He was apparently the father of Scruffy’s friend Meredith.

“My daughter might not be here today if it wasn’t for you and Mark there. Thank you for doing what you did…putting your own lives at risk to rescue her.” The group clapped again as he sat down.

I flashed an insecure smile at him and Scruffy waved confidently. This same series of events unfolded for the next few minutes, with either a father, or a mother, or both, or an entire family standing up to thank us. When they were finished, Sheriff Taylor took over again.

“I’d like to thank Richard and Anne for quickly getting us together today about this evolving situation. I’d like
to also thank these four kids and the others seated in their chairs for their bravery in remaining strong through the most difficult time this town has ever seen. Some of you have trusted in me on your behalf to ask our friend Leo here about the details of their captivity.”

I glanced at the Sheriff. He got quiet for a sec and seemed a little embarrassed about what he was going to ask me.

“Leo…some of the kids mentioned something a little…hard to swallow.” He hesitated some more while flashing a nervous smile. “Something about being taken by vampires?”

I played dumb and gave him
a look like he was crazy for asking me such a ludicrous question. I laughed just to complete the sell-job. “No…I, ah, I don’t know anything about vampires. All I know is that I got word about where they were being held and took it upon myself to see if that was true. I saw no…vampires.” I laughed some more.

Sheriff Taylor grinned at me.

“How did you find out where they were?” one parent called out to me at random as the Sheriff held out his hand for her to quiet down.

“Why didn’t yo
u tell the authorities?” a man called out.

“Quiet down
now. As I told you before the kids arrived, folks, I’ll be handling the more intimate details with our friends here. Leo and I will be talking at length after you leave today about those very things. This is still a wide open investigation. I’d like to keep all private details…private, until we’ve pieced together what happened exactly. If we have no more business today, I’d like to take this time to thank you all for coming here and would ask the Lewis, Spears, and Tipton families to stay around, along with you, Leo. Thank you.”

It felt like the group was still a little suspicious of me at the end. Even after their
praises. They mumbled a little amongst themselves and stood, then something surprising happened before they filed out that I didn’t expect. Every last one of them, parents, the kids we freed, approached me personally, and thanked me again by giving me very warm hugs. They followed up those sentiments, nearly all of them anyway, by telling me if I ever needed anything from them to just ask. I was humbled.

When the last of them w
alked out, Sheriff Taylor marched out to the main entrance doors and locked them before closing both doors to the convention room.

“Okay, now for a little privacy
,” he added as he strutted back down the aisle.

“If everyone could sit up front…including you kids, we all need to have a chat about what’s
really
going on around here.” The Sheriff reached over and snagged a chair and sat down in front of us.

“Now, there are many agencies i
nvolved in this…mess, but before I report to them personally about what I know…I need to know what
you
know first.” He stared in particular at the four of us, who sat in silence.

“I’ve heard a bunch of nonsense about vampires, even demons
, from some of you and I’m about sick of it. I need to know what in the hell is going on in my town. I have a feeling there are some things you know that you aren’t telling me. Am I right?”

Again, we remained silent.

“If there’s more to this story, guys, now is the time to speak up,” said Shade’s father.

“Everyone’s parents are here and accounted for
, Mr. Cutler, where are yours? It seems as if that’s a constant complaint coming from these concerned parents. They
too
have never met, nor seen
any
parental figures on your end. Is there a reason for that, son?”

I didn’t speak a word and kept my eyes
on the floor.

“I’ve looked a little deeper into you
, young man, and have discovered that there’s no home address on record anywhere, not even at your school for you. How’s that possible? Not only that, there isn’t a person with the last name Cutler anywhere in this town. No records of you coming from somewhere else, nothing. It’s as if you just appeared from out of nowhere. Can you clarify this to me?” He leaned towards me from his chair.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say, sir.”

He leaned back. “I want you to tell me who you are, son. Where you came from? It appears to me that wherever you are, trouble seems to follow. Now if I don’t start getting some answers from you…all of you, today, we’re going to have to start taking drastic steps in order to do so.” His voice turned more forceful.

“I can take you all, especially you
, Mr. Cutler, down to headquarters and have my entire force, including the federal authorities, grill you for a couple of days while you sleep behind bars if you like. Or…you can talk right now, possibly go home, and we can continue our newfound relationship until this case is solved. The choice is yours.”

“Leo, you’re a good boy. Cooperate with Sam so w
e can all move past this sad situation. No one doubts that you’re a hero, but if you had something to do with the disappearances or someone has you frightened enough that you’re afraid to speak—” Anne leaned out to lend a helping hand and I interrupted her.

“I’m not afraid
of that, Anne,” I answered, still keeping my head down.

“Then what is it
, son?” the Sheriff continued.

“I’m afraid…I’m afraid for you…all of you.” I lifted my head and looked him in the eyes before turning to look at my friends
and their parents.

“What does that mean? Is that supposed to be some sort of a threat?” Sheriff Taylor leaned forward in his chair again.

“No…it’s not a threat, at least, not from me.”

Again, he leaned back and folded his arms. I looked briefly to the side and saw the eager eyes of the parents watching me. So were my two friends and girlfriend, but they were looking at me much different
ly. They were, of course, more informed, and were curious if I was going to spill the beans.

“To whom are you referring to then? Who is this…threat?”
the Sheriff probed further.

“L
eo, Shade told her father and me an outlandish story about you,” Anne chimed in.

“Mark told us the same story, Leo
,” Scruffy’s father joined in.

Sandra’s parents
nodded, as if they had heard the same tale. I kept quiet, trying to decide whether or not I should talk. I was afraid that if I did, the Sheriff would send out a bulletin or something then attempt to lock me up. Then
everyone
would know about me and what I was.