Deathless (9 page)

A live shot of the reporter replaced the detective’s face. “There’s another troubling aspect about this incident that no one will talk about on camera,” the reporter said. “But I’ve been told by a member of the forensics crew that not only was there no evidence of heavy equipment, but they’ve been unable to find any sign of any digging equipment at all. ‘There aren’t even any shovel marks,’ he told me. ‘It doesn’t make any sense, but it looks like somebody dug the bodies up by hand.’”

“
Holy crap!” Cali said, turning to Leesa. “Did you hear that?”

Leesa’s head was spinning. What the heck was going on here? Her fingers began twirling in her hair.

“
Shhh. I want to hear the rest of this.”

The reporter flashed a cheerleader smile. “Now there’s a mystery wrapped up inside a puzzle,” she said. “Who or what would dig up a half-dozen dead bodies without even using a shovel? And why go to all that trouble, and then just leave the bodies lying there?”

The picture returned to the earlier helicopter shot. “That’s all we have for now,” the reporter said as the camera zoomed in on the graveyard. Leesa leaned closer to the television. A ragged circle of dark lumps was barely visible now. They had to be the unearthed bodies. From this distance, she couldn’t tell if they were covered by anything or not.

She shuddered. Even though the view was still too far to see clearly, she was struck by how similar the circle of bodies looked to the one she had seen in her dream. She switched off the television.

“
Wow, that’s freakin’ crazy,” Cali said. “Do you think your vampire friends could have done it?”

“
I keep telling you, they’re not my friends.” Leesa stood up and took a few aimless steps around the room. “But no, I doubt vampires had anything to do with it. What would they want with dead bodies? They only like live ones, filled with lots of warm blood.”

“
Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right. I definitely need to take that Vampire Science class you’re always talking about next semester.”

Cali looked at Leesa more closely and saw the worry etched on her face. She reached over and gently pulled Leesa’s hand from her hair. “So, how close was that to what you dreamed?”

“
I’m not sure. It was hard to see. I wish they’d zoomed in closer, but I guess it’s not the kind of thing they’re going to show on TV.” Leesa took a deep breath. “But from what I could see, it looked
way
too similar.”

“
There were a bunch of people watching from outside the cemetery,” Cali said as an idea popped into her head. “I bet someone took pictures or video with their cell.” She grabbed Leesa’s laptop from the desk. “Let’s check YouTube.”

Cali sat back down on the edge of the bed and opened the computer on her lap. Leesa came over and sat beside her, unsure whether she wanted Cali to find anything or not.

Cali’s fingers pecked rapidly at the keyboard, opening the YouTube home page and then typing in her search.

“
I knew it,” she said excitedly. “Look. Someone posted a clip from the cemetery. Gotta love all those smartphones out there.”

Leesa leaned in more closely as Cali started the video. At first, the picture was grainy and jumpy—barely recognizable as a graveyard. The phone’s owner was behind the police crime scene tape, well over one hundred feet from whatever was in the center of cemetery. As he or she zoomed in and found the proper focus, the image began to grow clearer.

Leesa found herself holding her breath. She forced herself to exhale, but kept her eyes glued to the screen. Finally, the details became sharp enough to recognize the bodies for what they were. And they were not covered, at least not when the video was taken. The low angle of the shot prevented her from being able to see all the corpses, but she could see most of the closest body and parts of two others. She looked more closely at one of the farther bodies, whose head and shoulders jutted out from behind the first one. She blinked, unable—or unwilling—to believe her eyes. She was pretty sure the corpse was wearing the remains of a tri-cornered hat….

10. MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

“
S
o, what do you think?” Cali asked when the video ended. “Did it look anything like your dream?”

“
The video wasn’t that clear,” Leesa said, “but yeah, it definitely seemed similar.”

Cali pecked at the keyboard again, searching for another video, one that might show things more clearly, but there were none.

“
That was the only video,” she said, closing the laptop. “You got any idea what the heck is going on?”

Leesa thought for a moment. That was the million dollar question. What the heck did this all mean? She closed her eyes and tried to bring back the images from her dream, but she kept seeing the pictures in the video. She wondered if she was making the two more similar than they really were, if her brain was taking the fresher images and making them part of her memory. Even if that was true, how had she managed to dream about corpses rising from their graves the night before real bodies were found in a graveyard—a graveyard less than ten miles away, no less. That in itself was strange enough, regardless how similar or not the actual images were. And she was pretty sure there’d been a tri-cornered hat in her dream. Her brain wasn’t making that detail up.

“
I don’t know,” she said finally. “I really don’t have a clue.”

Cali could see how disturbed Leesa was by all this. She draped her arm around Leesa’s shoulder.

“
Maybe it’s just one of those freaky coincidences. Like déjà vu or something, only in reverse. Has anything like this ever happened to you before?”

Leesa shook her head. “No, never. My sleep’s been kinda messed up the last week or two, but that’s about it. This is the first weird dream I remember.”

“
Well, if anyone has a reason to have a few sleepless nights or some weird dreams, it would be you, with all you’ve been through recently. Your mom and the one-fang, the thing with Stefan to get your brother back—I’d be having nightmares, for sure.”

“
Yeah, I guess.” Leesa grabbed a bottle of water from atop her mini-fridge and took a drink. “But I wasn’t having any dreams while all that was happening. Not that I can remember, anyhow. So why now?”

Cali shrugged. “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” she quoted.

Leesa grinned. “Now I’m
really
amazed. Since when did you start quoting Shakespeare?”

Cali smiled back. “That’s one of the few things I remember from high school. Never thought I’d actually get a chance to use it, though. Are you impressed?”

“
Totally.” Leesa took another swallow of water, then asked, “Got any more words of wisdom for me from ol’ Will?”

“
Just this: ‘To be or not to be.’ But damned if I know how that applies here, though.”

Leesa laughed. Cali was always so good at cheering her up.

“
Too bad there won’t be any of that on my English Lit final,” Cali continued.

“
Speaking of finals, I’d better get back to my physics homework, or that’s one final that will kick my ass.”

“
I’m glad I don’t have physics,” Cali said as she got up off the bed. “Algebra is hard enough for me. Why’d you take that class, anyhow?”

Leesa smiled. “To quote a very wise person of my acquaintance, ‘damned if I know.’”

Cali cracked up. “Good one, Lees,” she said when she finished laughing. She turned and headed for the door. “Have fun with your physics.”

“
Yeah, sure,” Leesa said as she sat down at her desk.

“
Oh, and one more thing,” Cali said.

Leesa turned and saw that Cali was halfway out the door, but had grabbed the doorframe and twisted around to face back into the room.

“
What’s that?” Leesa asked.

Cali grinned. “Sweet dreams tonight.”

Leesa picked up a pen from her desk and threw it toward the door, but Cali spun out of the way before the pen could hit her.

“
Thanks a lot,” Leesa said, laughing. She could hear Cali laughing as well as she headed down the hall.

11. SPECIAL PERMISSION

E
dwina prowled the dark caverns of the vampire lair. She had formulated the beginnings of a plan, and now she needed to find Stefan so she could start to put it into motion. She’d seen him earlier, conversing with Ricard, but for what she wanted, she had to get Stefan alone. Only then could she pressure and persuade him to give her what she needed.

She finally came upon him in one of the tunnels leading from the Council chamber. She pasted a sweet smile upon her face.

“
Stefan, I’ve been looking for you. I need to speak to you.”

Stefan’s black eyes were wary. He had forced Edwina to give up her feeder, with no recompense for her, which was no small thing. He did not trust her friendly manner, not even a little. And he certainly did not trust her smile.

“
What is it, Edwina?” he asked, keeping his voice neutral.

“
I want to go outside.”

Stefan folded his arms across his chest. “So? Why tell me?”

Edwina stepped closer, cutting the distance between them by half.

“
Because I want to go out alone,” she said in a near whisper.

Stefan studied her face, but Edwina’s expression gave away nothing. “You know the Council’s decree. As long as the
Destiratu
continues to strengthen, only Council members may go out alone. If you want to go, you must find two others to go with you. It’s for your protection, as well as for the coven’s.”

“
I don’t need protection,” Edwina said evenly.

“
Perhaps not, Edwina. But
Destiratu
can fan your blood thirst when you least expect it. Without companions to restrain you, you might act foolishly. You know we cannot risk attention being brought upon our kind. Hence the Council’s decree.”

“
But the decree also states that a Council member may grant permission. You are a Council member, Stefan.
You
can give me permission.”

Stefan stroked the black soul patch on his chin. He was the newest and youngest member of the High Council—it had been less than four hundred years since that glorious day Ricard turned him—but he had the same rights and powers as the others.

“
And why would I do that?”

Edwina’s expression grew hard. “Because you owe me, Stefan. You took my feeder from me, for your own selfish purposes. Needlessly, it turned out, I might add.”

Stefan winced inside. He had made a bargain with the human girl Leesa. She had agreed to become his consort in return for her brother’s freedom. But at the first taste of her blood, he realized he could not turn her. Still, he kept his part of the bargain and allowed Bradley to remain free. Despite his failure to turn Leesa vampire, she still maintained a pull on him he had been unable to break—or even to fully understand.

“
What will you do if I give you the permission you seek?”

Edwina smiled again. She had him now, she knew.

“
Why, look for another feeder, of course. That’s all. Find a human to replace the one you took from me.”

Stefan did not trust her smile one bit. Still, he did owe her. He could not deny it, even to himself.

“
And this has nothing to with Leesa or her brother?” he asked.

Edwina gave him a look that was all innocence.

No wonder she so easily plays with humans
, Stefan thought. No one would ever suspect her true nature.

“
No, of course not. That’s ancient history. I desire new blood.”

“
I am serious, Edwina,” Stefan said sternly. “I do not want you going anywhere near Leesa or her family. Understood?”

Edwina ran her finger softly down Stefan’s cheek, scraping his smooth skin lightly with her fingernail. “Why, Stefan! Don’t tell me you still have feelings for that girl.”