It was so refreshing to hear my happy friend again.
“Hmmm,” Nicholas said somberly. “So, you’re in trouble?”
“You could say that. Grounded ‘til I’m dead.”
“Dude, let me put it on speaker,” Phil interrupted.
Suddenly everything sounded louder.
“I heard you tazered ‘em! That’s so awesome.”
I let out a rush of breath in a chuckle. “Yeah … well.”
“Fab four!” he called out. “Ain’t no other vamp fighting machine.”
I laughed. “You guys are definitely more my type.”
I could imagine them, all lounging around on the leather couches in Nicholas’ place, laughing together like a family.
“I’m stuck here tonight, though,” I said in disappointment. “Sorry.”
“What? And you’re going to let that stop you?” Phil purred.
True. He knew me. Maybe a little too well.
“My dad is on to me. I can’t.” I lay back and closed my eyes, pretending I was there. “So, you guys have to get in there and handle things.”
“I’d like to stake Todd first,” Sam said, her voice suddenly sharp. “He’s already replaced me with Rochelle.”
“Oh.”
That was quick.
“Did you run into him again?”
“Yeah, last night. There’s a whole group of them from school all hanging out at the docks.”
“What are they planning to do?”
“Who knows? Make more? Take over the city?” she said in disgust. “They need to be careful because it’s going to become an epidemic and raise attention. Having Todd for a leader clearly isn’t the brightest move.”
“I say we bust into the doctor’s office, stakes blazing. Take no prisoners,” Phil said.
Phil was getting a little carried away in his bravado. Then the cardinal rule in vampiring 101 hit me like a ton of bricks. If your maker dies, you and all their kin die too.
“Wait. I just remembered. We can’t kill off the doctor, or else …” Someone’s gasp finished my statement. I heard Sam ask “what” and then shriek. “Crap. My dad and his unit are going to clean house in a few hours. You have to save the doctor, otherwise Sam ….” I couldn’t bear to voice my biggest fear—her death.
The sudden silence screamed over the line. “You still there?”
“Yeah,” Nicholas said. “I think we need to come up with a different plan. I’ll keep you in the loop. I also need to call Preston.”
“Okay,” I said and hung up.
Part of me really wanted to end the call by telling him I loved him, but felt the sentiment was too soon. We’d only made out the one time on the roof in this newly budding relationship. But to consult with Phil? The old Nicholas would never have allowed him to take charge, let alone agreed to work with him on an attack. He liked to work alone. Could they actually be friends in this new paradigm?
I looked around my room, lost and bewildered. Phil’s carefree attitude and Nicholas’ ignorance was a blueprint for disaster. They wouldn’t be able to do this without me. I crept down the hall, trying to catch word of the upcoming operation, hoping to leak back intel.
“Hey,” I heard Luke say with a scratchy voice from his room. “What’s going on down there?”
“Look who’s alive.” I swirled around and rested my arm against his doorframe, mindful of his germs. “Meeting of the geeks apparently. They’re all going to some conference tonight.”
“Yeah, I know that part. Dad made me stay upstairs. Germ-a-phobes.”
I arched my eyebrow. They had every right to be leery. Whatever he had was lethal. “Feeling better?”
He coughed and I stepped back. “Yeah.”
“Well,” I said, making my fingers into a cross, “I’m still not taking my chances.”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
I went back to the hall and hung my body over the railing as far as I could without the occupants below spotting me.
“At least you could get me some food,” Luke called out, watching me curiously.
Food.
Just the excuse I needed.
I snuck downstairs and walked past two people covered head to toe in black hazmat suits. One touched the other and the fabric glowed a bright red light. I squinted at the brightness.
“Hey!” someone called behind me. “Don’t look at that.”
He rotated me around and I looked up into a handsome face not much older than my own. “Is that a laser suit?”
“Uh, I can’t tell you that.” He scowled over my head and the two behind me scurried into the garage. “It’s top secret.”
I pouted my bottom lip out. This geek was actually rather cute. But if that suit was what I thought it was, I was impressed.
“Cool,” I whispered.
“Yeah, well.” His cheeks flushed and he let go of my shoulders, exuding attraction. “Don’t look at it or you’ll go blind.”
He likes me.
“Sure thing.” I winked to toy with him. “I’m Julia.”
“I know. Just be careful.”
I may be on house arrest, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t flirt with the guards. They might let me out early for good behavior.
Pizza boxes littered the kitchen counters and I found a few slices for Luke. Dad wasn’t anywhere close that I could sense so I lingered longer than normal on my way back to the stairs, hoping someone would say something, to no avail. This would be an excellent time to have Phil’s hawk hearing.
Luke found a movie on the TV in his room and I slunk to the floor, eating a piece with mushrooms and olives myself, sitting with half my body in the hall. My phone remained silent in my pocket.
After an hour passed, I lost all patience.
- Call me.
I’d already given Nicholas the rules of not texting anything incriminating. The phone finally rang and I bolted to my room.
“So?”
“We have to tip them off,” Nicholas said.
I chewed on my lip. “Really?”
“There’s no other way. We have to protect the doctor and we don’t really know who he is, so we really can’t kill anyone. Later we can knock them off one by one.”
I groaned. Such an impossible task. Maybe if I sat in an open field with a laser suit on, then all the vamps would come to me like a moth to a flame. Phil, Sam, and Nicholas could take the stragglers out, well, hopefully without hitting me by accident. “Can we capture the doctor somehow?
“And hold him in what?”
I knew where this conversation was headed, somewhere way over our heads. “You knew how to make special weapons and armor before,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. Remembering Harry made my chest ache. “There were special metal cages reinforced with venom at the beach. Phil knows where.”
The task suddenly overwhelmed me. Killing the bad guys was one thing, but becoming the vampire judge and jury? We were talking about keeping a prisoner. Who were we to put him in shackles forever so Sam could live and others wouldn’t die—noble, yes, but feasible? But if we didn’t do something, Cain would be forced to stop the problem without any mercy. So the doctor’s capture was really our only option.
“We have to for Sam,” I whispered. If I ever saw Todd again, he’d be fried in a nanosecond for doing this to my best friend. “What did Preston say?”
“He believes that the collection of newborns is causing the necklace to weaken. Too much bloodlust in one place.”
You could say that again. I touched the talisman, happy that I at least knew it still worked where it counted—stopping a vamp from biting me. “Is he upset you left?”
“Hmmm,” Nicholas said. “Slightly, but he understands.”
“Did he offer any advice?”
“I didn’t tell him anything. None of his business as far as I’m concerned.”
“Good idea.” Who needed him or Alora involved when we already had enough problems with my own father. Preston typically didn’t get involved anyway unless Nicholas’ life was in jeopardy. But maybe he’d be concerned once news hit the tabloids and papers. The deaths and disappearances were bound to make national headlines.
“And no Scarlett either?”
“Um,” Nicholas said, sounding confused. “I don’t think so.”
They obviously hadn’t had a chance to meet yet which was odd. Would my end-of-the-world cheerleader who vowed to protect me at all costs miss my first battle? Where the heck was she?
“So what’s the plan?”
“I’m going now to find Dr. V, and Phil and Sam will meet up with me later. They can swing by and get you once it’s dark, since you’re grounded. Sam is cool to be around you now.”
I chuckled, not only at Phil’s obvious influence in nicknames, but the fact Nicholas wanted me to come along, courtesy of Phil. He definitely hadn’t gleaned from his journal that I should stay far away from the vamps, especially Phil. “Just be careful.”
“I will. I should go. I’ll keep in touch.”
I hung up and felt the anxiety heighten with the activity downstairs. The geeks were ramping up for the task, like kids waiting to go trick-or-treating or something. Hopefully Nicholas could get to the doctor before they did. If not, he’d be getting the resurrection directions from Alora post-haste so I could bring back Sam and Katie.
I looked under my bed for the blond wig to stage up my bed, when Dad knocked on the door.
“Yeah?” I said, hiding the evidence and grabbing
Promise
as though I’d been reading the entire time.
“I just want you to know that I’ve talked to your brother and he’s been instructed to do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t leave the house tonight. If you purposefully defy me, Luke’s Blazer will become mine and I won’t return it.”
“What?” I said and slid off my bed to my feet. “You don’t trust me?”
“Frankly, no. I think this is too tempting for you. And your boyfriend should stay clear as well. We don’t need his or your help tonight. If you want to invite him over here instead, you can. But it’s for your own good. I can’t do my job and worry about your safety at the same time. Once we get this coven handled, I’ll remove all the restrictions and give you back your keys. You just have to trust me and stay put.”
I didn’t know what to say. Dad had thought of everything this time, beyond using duct tape to fasten me to a chair. But I didn’t like how the bottom line put Sam’s life in such jeopardy.
“Fine,” I said and flopped down on my bed. “Nicholas managed just fine before your group showed up, so I don’t know what you’re so worried about.”
“Was that before or after his amnesia? Because I think an experienced vampire hunter wouldn’t have ever taken his girlfriend into a known vampire lair.”
My voice hitched in my throat. Dad was smarter than I gave him credit.
“I’m warning you, Julia. I’ll take your car permanently, too. Don’t leave the house tonight.”
He closed the door, taking all my thunder with him.
The geek squad packed up and left, leaving my bewildered brother and me in their wake. Evil thoughts to drug him with sleep aids crossed my mind once or twice. My conscience stopped that in a jiff. I paced the floor like a caged lion, waiting to hear word before riffling through the freezer to find some ETer ate the last of my Ben and Jerry’s
ice cream.
“We have to go to the store,” I begged Luke.
“You think I’m going to let you leave the house after Dad said he’d take my keys?” Luke popped his feet up in the La-Z-Boy and clicked on the TV. “There’s a box of brownies in the pantry. Make them.”
“I don’t want brownies.” I clenched my jaw and stared at my phone again. What was happening? Why wasn’t Nicholas texting me?
The sweet auras of two happy-go-lucky people graced the rooftop—my flying carpet ready for takeoff. I darted upstairs to my bedroom.
Phil peered inside, white teeth gleaming. He propped his hand in the air like a mime, stuck outside of some invisible box.
“The invite wore off again?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I shot back sarcastically. “My dad might be behind that.”
Both Sam and Phil’s eyes grew wide, signaling this was all news to them.
“Nicholas didn’t tell you my dad is part of a vampire hunting unit in the government?”
“Uh, no,” Phil said, his tone just as sarcastic.
“No way, Jules. This whole time? And you didn’t know?”
I looked at Sam and admired her newfound sense of control.
“Not until Slide from the fang gang in L.A. tried to dine on us for dinner and my dad came to the rescue, laser pens flashing and all.”
Phil pulled a face. “Parker, you’ve been holding out on me. And why are you wearing pajamas? Where’s that tight, black get-up of yours?” He produced a dingy T-shirt I could only assume had been drenched in venom. “Put this on.”
Sam wrinkled up her nose and pulled out a corner of her shirt for me to see. “Stinks a little, but it’s supposed to protect me from stakes.”
I bit my lip. “What? I don’t need that.”
“If there’s a wayward stake or something, you’ll be protected,” Phil said with sincerity.
A wave of anxiety burned through me. Though I couldn’t go, at least they’d remembered to wear homemade armor. I crawled out onto the ledge and sat on the windowsill in a heap.
“Thanks, but I can’t go with you tonight. Luke’s been instructed to keep track of me; we’ll both be grounded for the rest of our lives if I leave. I bet he comes up here in a few minutes to make sure I’m still home.”
At my comment, nosiness began to poke his nappy bed-head into my disappearance.
“Julia!” he yelled. “You better be here, or I’m going to kill you.”
“Yeah, I’m here,” I yelled back. “Just reading. Go away.” I looked at Phil and Sam with a shake of my head. “See what I mean?”
“Come downstairs where I can see you!”
I rolled my eyes and crawled back inside. “I have to pee. Give me a minute!”
“Hmmm,” Phil said, “I’d say you’ve got problems. Don’t worry. We’ve got a plan.” He looked sweetly into Sam’s eyes and she smiled.
I crinkled up my lips and wondered exactly what that plan involved. My impatience got the better of me. “Stop wasting time and go. Make sure my boyfriend isn’t in over his head and make him text me.”
Phil shot me his tummy-tickling grin and took Sam’s hand. They were gone before I could say goodbye.
“I’m taking a bath, if you’d like to watch,” I said over the railing in an effort to disgust him.
Disdain floated up from the ground floor and I smiled.