It took a long few seconds to fumble with the blinds in my haste and excitement at the prospect of seeing the girl again. When I finally opened them to their most illuminating, I looked out into the courtyard with an expectant gaze. Under the largest tree in the courtyard, facing directly at my window, leaned a blond vampire with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. She wore a tiny smile that could stop traffic.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Grant
My heart skipped a beat, and when it decided to start back up again with its normal rhythm, the band in my chest played far too quickly. I raced out of my room and down the stairs with a vigor I hadn’t felt since I had said goodbye to this creature one year ago. I was out of the building and across the courtyard almost as fast as a vampire. Well, maybe not, but I felt like I was moving at a super human speed.
Before I could even process her actual presence, I was scooping her up in my arms and swinging her around with joy. She laughed lightly in my ear and hugged me back as she allowed herself to be swung around like a ragdoll instead of the hardened vampire she really was.
I placed her back on the ground, and in another swift movement, I took her small face in my hands and kissed her lips. The kiss lingered as I tried to drink in the smell of her hair. She kissed me back even though she seemed to be able to rein it in and control her lusty feelings a bit better than I could. Had I not known her as well as I did, I would have thought she hadn’t missed me as much as I had missed her. However, I knew my Anna, and I had been reading her letters for a year. I knew that discretion was an art form to her. Even though she composed herself, she was just as excited to see me. I felt it in her kiss and in her embrace. This was heaven. I began to truly suspect maybe I had died, and this terrible campus existence I had been living was over.
“Hey, get a room!”
We were interrupted by the hoots of a passing jock who was covered in mud and running in the direction of an ongoing mud-football game. We separated after this even though the jock had gone on without any other calls our way. I felt the first impulses of embarrassment now that I remembered there were other living people around us. The feeling didn’t last though, because as soon as I stared into those intense blue eyes of hers, everyone else around us seemed to fade into the background as if they were just part of the scenery.
“You’re here. I can’t believe you’re here,” I said in wonderment.
“I am. You sounded so deflated and unGrant-like in your letters. I missed you so much. I couldn’t stay away any longer.”
I hugged her again. “I have a room, just up there.
“Whoa there, Grant. We have to talk, or did you not read the part of my letter about the danger?”
“It’s so surreal that you’re here. My life has been hell. After experiencing what we did, to come back to this boringly normal life has been torture. It’s just been torture, Anna.”
“Grant, the danger?”
I took a deep breath and calmed myself a little. “I’m sorry. Yes, I did read it. I’m just so glad to see you. My life has been so…altered.”
“I get that. I went back to my vampire life. Even though things have been going well with Lea, I haven’t been happy. I’ve missed you.”
She hugged me then. I smelled her hair and the scent of roses flooded my nostrils.
“Did you tell Lea about your friendship before the change? Is that why things are better?”
“Yes. It’s hard to tell how she feels about it. I think you are the big reason for her change. Ever since we worked together at the prison, and ever since she got to know you, she’s different. She saved you, and it changed her. There is less ruthlessness to her eyes. She sticks strictly to criminals now, and she has even come to our home to try drinking the blood we acquire from the butcher and the blood banks. She doesn’t much care for it yet, but she’s making the effort.”
“Do Bridgette and Jackson come too?”
I was ecstatic with the prospect of news from the other world. Not just encrypted-letter news, but the real news from the vampires. I even wanted to hear about Bridgette and Jackson, and they were my least favorite vampires.
“No. In fact, this new Lea is upsetting to them. They are having a hard time adjusting to the straight-and-narrow way of doing things, but Lea is still their leader. They don’t dare to defy her.”
I smiled at her. She was here. She was truly here and right in front of me. I was actually holding her hands. I was a five-year-old boy again, holding the remote-controlled car I had always wanted and finally received for my birthday. The thing I really wanted more than anything else in the world.
“You said something in your letter about a threat? If Lea is doing well and Bridgette and Jackson won’t defy her or cause trouble, then what is going on?”
Her happy expression hardened a little as her face grew suddenly serious. The brevity of the situation hit me. Something was up, and it was something big enough for Anna to risk coming here to get me. I had been so excited by her sudden appearance that I had completely overlooked the danger she’d tried to outline in her letter.
“Anna?”
“There’s another prison, Grant.”
I looked blankly at her for what felt like an hour.
“Another prison? Like the one in Texas?”
“I don’t know if it’s like that one. I’m thinking we are not dealing with werewolves this time around. Here, take a look at this.”
She produced a printout of a newspaper article from Ocala, Florida. The headline read
Perfect Record from Haunted Prison
. I read on in the article that described the Emathia Prison in Ocala, Florida as the picture of modern innovation in correctional facilities today.
The prison boasted a perfect yearly record with no incidents or riots. Plus, the number of inmates being released early for good behavior was on the rise. Despite this prison’s reputation for being supposedly haunted, it was truly a model for other institutions to base their structuring system on.
“Where did you get this?”
I knew full well that the vampires were not terribly computer literate, and I’d never seen them research anything very thoroughly.
“It arrived at the house a week ago. Chloe and Harris sent it to us.”
“Are you going to go after this one like you did the one in Texas?”
“I think we have to see what is going on there. I have a responsibility. What frightens me about this more is that I never saw anything in the newspaper or on television about our raid on the Texas prison. There were tons of witnesses and several dozen dead bodies, both wolf and human, yet there was not even a whisper of the incident. Plus, imagine how many prisoners who saw us have been released and told no one. Perhaps it is the fear of what they saw or the fear of what the authorities might do to them if they talk. Whoever controls the labs that stock these prisons has enough power to make an incident like Texas disappear. Yet something supernatural about this prison had made it into the media. This told me either there is something worse than the Texas prison in there, or they are setting a trap for us.”
“Even knowing it might be a trap, you are still going?”
“I have to. I have to make this right if it is another damned prison like the one I came from. I can’t leave it. The powers that be might not have known we’d survived after all these years. But the Texas incident proved to them we were alive. They may be using this prison as a decoy, or there may be tortured monsters in there. I have to go to know for sure.”
“I’m going with you,” I said, determined.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Grant?”
“Isn’t that why you came for me? I said as I took her hands again.
“Yes and no. I really came because I missed you, and your life seemed to be terrible here. I think that is my fault. The other reason is one that I never considered when I allowed you to join us last year on our campaign. Those video monitors didn’t just capture us rampaging through the prison. They took your picture too.”
It was the first time that had crossed my mind. I should have thought about it earlier. Why hadn’t I ever contemplated that?
“You acted and looked very human. They might be curious to know who you are and why you were with us. I put you in danger, and I pushed you away to try to keep you safe, but now I’m not so sure that was a good idea. These people are very powerful, so why couldn’t they track you down? What if I went after this prison and it was a decoy, and then they used the distraction to kidnap you? I can’t take that risk. I would like to bring you along with us so that we may keep you safe if anything happens. And, of course, you can help us.”
“Are you going to turn me?”
“No, Grant. I told you I don’t want to condemn you to my life.”
“But think about how much more of a help I would be to you if you didn’t have to look after me. My life is already a condemned one if you leave me here to rot again.”
“Stop being so melodramatic. I am not turning you, and that is final. However, I will take you with me, if you promise to stay out of the prison when we raid it this time.”
“I’ll promise you anything you want. Just get me out of here.”
She smiled at me slyly, and I was again instantly lost in those eyes of hers. We could work out the logistics later. Right now, I just wanted to know where her car was so I could leave this place forever.
“Where was that bedroom of yours again?”
I grinned like an idiot at her. Maybe we could wait a few more minutes.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Anna
The car swerved at the last minute, just missing an annoyingly pink Volkswagen before it righted itself in the left lane of the busy road. Grant shrieked a little as Bridgette yanked the wheel again from side to side, reveling in the high speeds and the terror she was inflicting on her closest passenger.
She and Jackson had been acting up ever since I’d returned to New Orleans with a very grateful Grant in tow. All through the road trip to Florida, the couple had been using any excuse to scare him. I contributed their mischievousness to the fact that Lea had begun to turn over a new leaf, which therefore had diminished the amount of violent fun they were allowed in their normal day.
Poor Grant was getting the brunt of their frustrations. Apparently, their new goal was to frighten him to death. I had agreed to let Bridgette drive my car in an effort to help bridge the gap between my crew and Lea’s, but the offer had obviously been a bad idea.
We were now in Ocala, Florida and almost to the bar where we were supposed to be rendezvousing with the others. I stared deadpan at Lea, who sat across from me in the back seat, in the hopes she would get a hold on the situation. Grant took a sudden deep breath again, and Bridgette giggled.
“Bridgette, that’s enough,” called Lea as we rounded another turn way too fast. Her tone indicated she was aggravated with the car ride as well.
“You are no fun anymore!” screeched Bridgette like a whiny teenager.
I could tell this wasn’t the first time Bridgette had said this. She had a child’s want for exhilaration and carnage. That used to suit Lea just fine, but lately, Lea’s tastes were changing. Texas had changed her somehow, and even though her reaction to the photo had been subdued to say the least, it seemed to have added to her transformation. I know the photo had softened me where she was concerned, and we were slowly gaining an understanding with one another. Her gruesome twosome was obviously having a hard time adjusting.
“Bridgette, slow down or we will miss the entrance,” Lea said seriously, and the raucous vampire begrudgingly tapped the brakes to slow down the car.
Blood began to flow back into Grant’s hands as I watched his grip ease on the dashboard. The whites of his knuckles turned pink again with circulation. I gently put my hand on his shoulder as he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Here it is,” I said as a neon sign reading
Bad Moon Rising
came into view. “Let’s give this one a shot.”
“Who’s to say we’ll find anything out at this one? The last two were duds.” Bridgette pouted as she pulled the car into the parking lot and parked beside a dark-blue Dodge Charger.
“We don’t know if we will find out anything here, but we have to try. We can’t go raid this prison cold,” I retorted, getting irritated with Bridgette’s childish demeanor.
“And if we find nothing here too?”
“There are five more possible dive bars on my list that we can try after this one,” said Grant confidently. “One of them has to give us something we can use.”
“Besides,” started Lea, “there might be some criminal activity here, and then we can have a good time.”
She smiled ruefully at the girl, and Bridgette smiled back. Her eyes inked over briefly and her fangs extended. Grant pressed against the passenger door as hard as he could, and Bridgette laughed at him, throwing back her hair and bringing her eyes back to normal.
I didn’t know if Lea was serious or placating Bridgette with her comment. She was so hard to read these days. I decided as long as innocents were not being harmed, it was none of my business. Therefore, I would not worry about it. I did worry about Grant though. Not because he wasn’t adjusting to being around vampires again, but because he was adjusting to it very well. Even these jokes Jackson and Bridgette reveled in playing on him didn’t seem to faze him for more than an instant or two.