Kissed By Moonlight (29 page)

My heart raced as I buckled the seatbelt.

"Come on, let's go!" I said, my eyes glued to the front door, waiting for Jim the snow removal specialist to emerge just to see us make off with the truck. Though, I felt like I might just climb out and apologize if he did see.

Vick obliged, putting the big vehicle in gear and pull away from the curb. The plow on the front obstructed out view of the road somewhat, but the heater worked.

I turned it on and put my hands over the vents, smiling as my frozen fingers began thawing.

It wasn't long before we were out off the campus and in
Hazelglen proper.

"Where is it happening?" I said, unzipping my coat as more and more hot air blasted into the cabin. It was still dry air, but at least it wasn't freezing me anymore.

"Adam's house."

It took me a second to really absorb what he said.

"What?"

It seemed so ironically cruel. Kill the werewolf in his own home.

Vick shrugged as though the words just rolled off his back. Yet, he concentrated on the road a little too hard, unwilling to even glance over at me.

"It was convenient. His place is far enough away to avoid nosy neighbors. No family around to interrupt.
Very convenient."

It made my insides clench up just thinking about it. These so-called monster hunters seemed pretty monstrous themselves.

"Go faster," I said, leaning forward against my seatbelt. I looked out my window, watching the houses drift by. I didn't want to look at Vick right then.

"They won't start..." he began.

"Just go faster!"

I got pushed back against the bench seat as he gave the truck more gas.

We got about halfway up the hill leading up to Adam's house when Vick pulled over, set the parking brake, and killed the engine.

"Why are we stopping?"

"We can't just pull into the driveway. They'll see us coming. Our best chance is to sneak into the house, get Adam, and take him out before anyone notices."

Chapter 43

I unbuckled my belt and grabbed the door latch. Before pulling it to open the door, I looked at him.

"How many people are here for this little ceremony of yours, anyway?"

It felt like he was hiding a lot of information from me. I mean, I doubt he even would have told me we were going to Adam's house without prompting from me, first.

"Ten, counting me.
My family."

Nine people.
It was a pretty big house, but that sounded like enough to keep a watch around the whole place.

Vick seemed to sense my worry. He unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed his door open with one foot. Cold air spilled into the cabin, so sharp it took my breath away.

"Don't worry. They are my family, after all. I know how they operate. I can get us in and out."

"Good," I said, eyeing the thick, untamed brush and trees just a few feet away. Anxiety welled up in my stomach at the thought of having to get through all that. But it
was the best way, apparently. Or, at least the way to avoid notice.

"Let's get going," Vick said, pocketing the keys to the truck.

I took a deep breath and stepped out onto the shoulder.

It took us nearly forty minutes to make our way through the trees up the final half of the hill. I followed Vick the whole way, trying to put my feet where he put his, grabbing the branches he used for support. I didn't have any gloves on. By time we made it to the tree line around the yard to Adam's house, I couldn't feel my fingers.

I'd also put my foot into a gopher hole or something. Vick had to double back and help me out. My ankle ached, but I didn't think I sprained it.

I stuck my hands in my armpits, praying I didn't get frostbite, as I came up and knelt beside Vick. He was kneeling beside a tree, looking through some dead branches at the house.

I'd almost forgotten just how big it was. Surrounded by all these dead trees, sight of Hazelglen blocked, the place looked so lonely. And creepy. Cold fingers walked their way up my spine and I shivered.

It would be nice and warm inside. And Adam was there, just waiting for me to come in and rescue him.

"Let's get inside," I said, getting up.

Vick grabbed my wrist. "Wait."

We waited, kneeling there, until my knees ached. Vick seemed focused on the windows. I tried to see if anyone was there, watching for us, but there was no one.

Finally, he let me go.

"Stay low," he said.

We raced across the lawn. Well, tried to. We both kept sinking into the snow, and by the time we got to the side we were both huffing and red in the face. Sweat rolled down my torso under my coat and shirt. At least I wasn't cold anymore.

Vick peered up into a ground floor window. When he was satisfied, broke the pane with his elbow. The sound of shattering glass was painfully loud, and I flinched.

He took more time clearing some of the large, triangular shards out of the way. Then he reached in and unlocked it.

The next thing I knew, he helped me pull myself up and through.

We were in a wing of the house I hadn't really visited before. We both crouched low instinctively, sticking to the shadows. It didn't seem like anyone was in this... library I guess it was. I could make out tall bookcases along the walls, almost buried in shadow.

"Where is he?" I said. Even though I whispered, it sounded far too loud in the silence of the house.

"That room in the basement. The one he locks himself in when he changes."

I shot him a look. This was just getting better and better. The room he used to keep himself and others safe was the one they were going to kill him in.

He had the good sense to look away from my stare sheepishly.

We stuck to the walls and the shadows as we moved. My body was wound tight like a compressed spring, all my senses sharpened by fear and adrenaline. I could hear the curtains rustling in the library as we left it, feel the air as our passage stirred it.

My coat rustled so loudly I wanted to rip it off and leave it in the hall, but we had to go back outside. My fingers were only now really getting any feeling back into them, and they were bright red. Going out without the coat would mean hypothermia. So the
noisy coat had to stay.

His coat didn't seem to rustle so much? What was so special about him? He seemed so good at sneaking around like this, and it made me wonder how many other houses his family had broken into and taken over.

Vick seemed to know the place better than I did. He went in front, checking through doorways, glancing up the stairs when we passed them. We got to the main hall and I looked down at the kitchen. Light came out under the door. Was someone in there?

So far, we hadn't encountered any of the nine people Vick claimed were in here from his family.

I wanted to ask him where everyone was, but neither of us had spoken since the library. The silence was palpable.

Chapter 44

We got to the basement door. He opened it slowly, trying to avoid any creaks.

The basement itself was flooded with shadow. I reached my hand up, trailing it along the smooth wall, and
flicked the light on. The shadows evaporated, leaving only the empty stairwell, and the vacant hall beyond that.

He went down first, keeping his feet to the side of the stairs to avoid as much noise as possible.

I followed him down in a semi-crouch. My thighs burned from all this skulking, but I didn't think it was okay to stand up straight, yet.

From the bottom of the stairs, I saw the door. The light reflected from the metal bands reinforcing it. It was dark through the barred window, which was strange. There was a skylight in the ceiling, I knew, so that he could feel the light of the sun and change back into a human being.

I started forward, but Vick caught my wrist. His eyes told me he was worried.

"What?" I said.

"There's something wrong. This is too easy."

It felt like my entire body pebbled with goosebumps. I glanced back up the stairs. We'd left the basement door open. There was no one there.

It was really strange that we hadn't seen anyone yet. The kitchen light was on, and that was the only indication there was anyone here but Vick, Adam, and me.

"What do you want to do?" I said.

I looked back over at the reinforced door. Adam was so close. If I called to him now, he'd hear me. But who else would?

"I don't know yet," Vick said.

Tension radiated from him as he crouched by the wall, looking with suspicion all around the hallway and up the stairs.

We'd come so far already. I couldn't stand the thought of sneaking back out of the
house without Adam, going through those woods again and climbing into Jim's truck.

"We can't leave him here!" I said, my voice rising.

He shot me a look, and I tried to quiet myself again.

"Let's just get Adam and then get out of here. If we leave now, I doubt we'll be able to get inside as easily again," Vick said.

It sounded good to me.

We started down the hall and got to the door. I tried to look in through the window, but it was too dark to see much of anything. I thought I saw someone lying in the middle of the floor, but I couldn't be certain.

All the same, my heart tried to escape through my throat.

I grabbed the handle and twisted, praying it wasn't locked. The door opened, letting more of the light from the hall spill inside.

"Adam!" I said, rushing in.

He was chained to the floor.
As in literal manacles. Vick's family had bolted the things to the floor, and he was bound, hand and foot. He was on his back, wearing the clothes I'd seen him in the night of the trap.

The chains kept him spread-eagled on the floor, almost no slack to them at all.

I knelt beside him, looking into his face. He was unconscious.

"Adam! Adam! Wake up; it's me,
Steph," I said, holding his head and stroking at his stubbled cheeks with my thumbs.

I looked over my shoulder for Vick. Where was he?

"Come on, help me get him free," I said.

Vick was standing in the doorway, his back to me. It took me a second to realize there was another man in front of him.

An involuntary yelp burst through my lips. I took a protective position over Adam, who was starting to groan on the floor.

"Vick..." I said.

Someone tore away whatever was covering the skylight. Yellow sunbeams shot through into the darkness as I squinted up. There were people standing on the roof, looking down into the room. At least five or six of them. What was going on?

What I felt went beyond your standard "sinking feeling." It was like I was standing over a bottomless pit on a single, thin string.
A string about to break.

"Dad, you don't understand," Vick said.

"No, I understand perfectly. You like this girl here, and she likes the monster. So you're trying to let him go instead of doing what you know is right."

Vick's father had a deep voice, the tone of it telling me he was used to using it to tell people what to do. A voice whose speaker knew he was always in the right.

Vick shot a look over his shoulder at me. It was a look of desperate confusion.

"Dad, he hasn't killed anyone! It was a guy from that fraternity you put me in. He killed that girl. Adam hasn't hurt anyone."

"It hasn't hurt anyone... yet," Vick's father said, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. Vick shrugged him away after a moment. Good! He wasn't giving in.

"I know how you feel. Trust me, Victor, Adam Arnold is a monster. We're doing him, and the world, a favor by putting him down. If we let him go, sooner or later his true nature will assert itself, and he will kill. All that blood, all those
lives, they'll be on you."

"You don't know that..." Vick said. I could see him trembling. At his sides, his hands kept clenching and unclenching, "I won't kill him, dad. You can't make me."

Vick's father sighed. Adam's groans increased beneath me. His manacles clattered against the bare floor.

"
Steph...? What's going on?" Adam said.

"Quiet, Adam. We're getting you out of here," I hissed down at him.

"No, Victor, I don't believe I can make you. Then again, I don't have to. Adam is going to make you kill him."

"What are you talking about?
Dad!" Vick yelled.

I looked up in time to see Vick's father give him a shove, sending him a few steps back into the room. Then he slammed the door shut. I heard a lock click. Vick grabbed at the handle inside and wrenched at the door, but it wouldn't budge. He clung to the bars in the window.

"Dad! What are you doing? Let us out!"