Tainted Blood (59 page)

“Oh?” Oliver responded.

“Yeah. He was having trouble staying upright and then he went on about letting down his brother and Amber and Laney and Hayden. Then he fell in a ditch. He’s still there.” I looked down at Felix getting rained on, just as I was.

Oliver laughed. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re right.”

“How the hell am I supposed to get him out of there?”

“Where are you?” Oliver asked.

“Strip club outside of town.”

Oliver laughed again. “That’s rich. Let me guess, you found him there?”

“Yeah.” I was growing frustrated and rain was beginning to come down in heavier drops.

“I’ll help you out with Felix,” Oliver said. “You’re going to have to wait for a team to arrive for him. You can’t leave him and don’t let him leave either.” I looked down at Felix snoring in the ditch.

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” I said.

“They won’t be long,” he said and then he asked, “Hey, Carter. Does Laney happen to be with you?”

“No. Last I saw her, she was at home. I have her car though and it’s been pouring, so I doubt she went anywhere.”

“I’ve been trying to call but she’s not answering. Felix told her I was calling tonight, right?”

“Yeah, he told her. I’ll try her and see if she answers.”

His tone changed then. “Why would she answer your call and not mine?”

“Dude, don’t go there. I just said I’d try to call her.”

“Sorry,” he said, and I was surprised at how quickly he reset his attitude.

“I’ll head home to check on her before taking Kiera home. I’ll have Kiera try her on our way.”

“Thanks,” Oliver said as an SUV similar to the one he’d been driving for a while pulled into the parking lot and stopped behind Felix’s car. Vance and Gwen hopped out. I told Oliver they had arrived and he instructed me to give one of them Felix’s phone. I did, waved my departure, and slid my drenched ass into the driver seat of Laney’s car.

I cranked up the heater, and had I not been so damn cold, irritated, and now worried about Laney, I’d have watched to see how Vance and Gwen got Felix out of the ditch. But I didn’t wait. I hurried home while Kiera continually tried Laney’s cell.

We didn’t make it far though. It was like the sky just opened up as we were heading back. Thick sheets of water made it so I couldn’t see the road and it got so bad that I had to pull over until the rain let up. I tried Laney on my phone but she still wasn’t answering. At that point, I was beyond worried and being stuck on the side of the road, completely helpless to get to her, was driving me mad.

When we finally made it to the apartment, Laney was balled up on the couch under her blanket. I called Oliver and told him. He sounded both relieved and disappointed. I was just relieved. The weather was too bad to go back out again, so Kiera stayed over, and we went to
bed
;
if you know what I mean (this is where you imagine me with a wicked grin).

The next morning I woke up thankful Kiera leaves clothes at my place and takes her backpack everywhere she goes. Otherwise we’d have had to make an early morning run out to her parents’ and I just didn’t want to deal with that.

Laney was still passed out on the couch when Kiera and I were leaving for school and I convinced Kiera that we should let her sleep, so we didn’t bother her. And thankfully the rain had let up, ‘cause we walked to school since I didn’t want to take Laney’s car, not knowing what her plans were for the day.

Kiera held onto my arm as we walked, she rattled on about wedding stuff and school stuff. I agreed and nodded where it seemed appropriate. I gazed up at the sky as we walked along the fallen-leaf covered sidewalk. The sky had a purple haze to it. I liked it. I liked purple, although it reminded me of crazy Julz. I didn’t get why Isaac put up with her. Well, I guess he kinda wasn’t anymore. Thick gray clouds began rolling in fast, and in the distance, I saw lightning roll across the sky. I made Kiera pick up the pace and we hurried to the university.

I met with the counselor later that afternoon to change my bio class. Felix was supposed to have taken care of it, but since he was taking a trip to Guiltsville, I had to try to change it myself. No luck though. I left things the way they were so that I didn’t have to take an incomplete and figured I’d wait for Felix to deal with it when he was back from feeling sorry for himself.

I ran into Laney as I was leaving the creepy counselor’s office. She didn’t look good. She was extremely pale, even for her. She had dark circles under her eyes and she was kind of moody. Kiera had been kind of moody that morning too. Fearing that their cycles had synched up, I made a mental note to avoid them both unless I had lots of chocolate. Otherwise, I feared I would not be safe.

Felix didn’t show to pick me up from work that
night, so after
waiting for a while and calling him several times with no answer, I pulled the hood up on my sweatshirt and headed home on foot. I’d tried Laney too, but since she didn’t know where her cell was she really couldn’t answer it, could she? I was seriously thankful I hadn’t had to work chicken-corner-duty that night. Lugging home that stupid chicken costume would’ve sucked!

I stopped by the corner store on my way home and got me a six pack of Sierra Nevada and some chocolate to ward off the beasts. I mean I got some chocolate as a treat for my fiancé and my friend. (Again, insert image of me and my wicked grin.)

When I got home that night, Laney was sprawled across the couch staring at the ceiling and she had a big-ass bruise on her forehead. It was kinda hard not to laugh at how she got it. Anyway, we talked for a while and it seemed Laney was sleep deprived and feeling down. She’d missed Oliver’s call the night before and now she still couldn’t find her phone. She was saying bizarre things about Oliver’s brother and Avery, which couldn’t have been true since I knew Avery was busy pole dancing the previous night.

Another concern was that Laney was still super freaking pale. The paleness made her dark hair and eyes seem darker than usual and it was actually a little unnerving. Laney was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous to be honest. So to say that her appearance was unnerving gives you an idea how bad she looked. Maybe she was coming down with something? I shrugged it off, had another beer and flipped on the TV.

In the end, she got super moody and snapped at me over watching stupid shit on TV and stormed off to her bedroom. It was then that I remembered I had the candy in the front pocket of my sweatshirt. So I ate it. I deserved it, because sometimes it felt like I had two girlfriends and I couldn’t make either one of them happy.

She woke me up screaming again. This scream was different though. It was one of those blood-curdling, terrified screams. I grabbed the baseball bat from under my bed and hauled ass for her room. She claimed Oliver’s brother was in the apartment, and after searching everywhere and coming up empty handed, we concluded that she’d been dreaming.

I headed back to bed. I stashed my bat back under my bed and the dropped
face first
onto my pillows. I was beginning to believe Laney was having some adverse reaction to Oliver biting her.

I couldn’t have been out more than five minutes when the sound of Laney screaming from my doorway woke me from a dead sleep. I fell to the floor in a tangle of blankets and dove for my bat once I’d freed myself.

“He’s gone,” she told me weakly.

“Laney, what’s on your neck?” I took a step closer. There were two holes in her neck. “Bite marks,” I breathed.

“I told you,” she said hoarsely. I caught her just before she fell and I held her up against the doorframe. Something wasn’t right. “No, Laney. Those were left by Oliver, right?”

She told me that Oliver hadn’t left any marks on her and then pointed out that I’d have noticed long before this moment. She was right. That’s when everything clicked. The only answer was that Oscar or Oz—whatever his name was—Oliver’s brother had been in the apartment, more than once. I was angry at myself for not protecting her. I scooped her up into my arms and carried her to my bed.

“What do I do, Laney?”

“Call Felix,” she said in a very weak voice then she went completely limp in my arms.

I freaked out but thankfully she was still breathing, she’d just passed out. I settled her in the middle of my bed, pulled my covers off of the floor, and covered her with them. Then I called Felix. Repeatedly. I left message after message and texted him too. With no response, I tried Oliver and got the same outcome.

I stayed home from school the next day to watch over Laney. By the time the sun rose, I’d given up on Felix and Oliver. I’d left plenty of messages, there was no way they could have missed them. Laney slept most of the day away and I finally woke her in the late afternoon so I could try to get her to eat. I got her to drink a glass of orange juice and eat half of a Pop-Tart.

I settled her on the couch with a blanket, and we spent the next few hours watching TV with the both of us dozing off every so often.

Finally, Laney claimed she was feeling better and that she wanted to go to class that night. We’d figured, since we couldn’t get ahold of Felix, that maybe Professor Amber might have some ideas as to what we could do about Oliver’s brother. Honestly, I was hoping I could get Amber to let Laney stay at her place to keep her safe from him. I’d come home and wait for the bastard to come back and hopefully take him out myself.

So, I jumped in the shower real quick so we could head over to the school.

I wasn’t in there long when Laney pounded on the door and told me she needed help. She didn’t sound terrified but she did sound distressed so I hurried. I found her on the couch with the cheap, two-slice, black toaster that my mom had gotten me when I first moved into the apartment.

“Whatcha got there, Laney?”

“It’s a rabbit, silly,” she said, and I felt my eyes about bulge out of my head. She stood and handed me the toaster like it was alive. “Here, I need to take a shower. You hold the rabbit.” I stared after her, fear consuming me. “Oh,” she said, turning back to me, “be careful. He pooped on me earlier.”

She closed the bathroom door and I looked down to find that there were chocolate Pop-Tart crumbs all over the couch. I set the toaster on the coffee table and sat beside it. I dialed Felix and left a message, “Dude, I’m scared. I
need
you to help me. It’s Laney. There’s something…wrong.” I ended the call and then dialed Kiera. She answered quickly. “I need help,” I told her. Hearing the obvious sincerity of my words, she headed right over.

Kiera had just gotten to the college for class when I’d called. She hadn’t even left her car yet so she arrived in minutes. I had just finished telling her about toaster-rabbit when Laney started screaming bloody murder in the bathroom.

I rushed into the bathroom with Kiera on my heels. Laney had ripped the shower curtain and rod down and she was laying in the tub like she’d fallen. She was pointing at the wall of the shower and screaming about a spider. Even though spiders were one of my worst fears, I bucked up and pulled my naked friend from the tub while Kiera shut off the water. The shower curtain had only partially been covering her and, being a guy, of course I looked. Oliver was a lucky man. Kiera wrapped a towel around Laney but she was still screaming about the spider.
Shit!
I could handle most anything, but spiders were my weakness. And needles. And clowns.

I told myself to man-up and I grabbed some TP and went in. The spider turned out to be a fairly large piece of lint. “It’s just lint, Laney!”

“No! It talked to me!” she insisted.

“Right,” I said. “Like the toaster?”

She looked at me, totally perplexed, standing there dripping wet in nothing but a towel. “The toaster didn’t say anything,” she said. Kiera gave me a “holy shit!” look then ushered her out of the bathroom.

I eyed the lint “spider” once more and I killed it. Just in case.

I listened from outside Laney’s bedroom door as Kiera struggled to get Laney to put on some clothes. Kiera finally got her into a tank top and a pair of pajama pants. She brought Laney out to the couch and sat her down. Kiera stood behind the couch where Laney sat and towel dried her hair for her. I took a seat in front of Laney on the coffee table. You know, next to the “rabbit.”

Something in Laney’s eyes wasn’t quite right. She was fully alert but it was like nobody was actually home upstairs. She smiled at me and then looked at the toaster. She held out her arms and said, “Will you hand me the bunny, please?”

Kiera and I shared a very concerned look as I handed the toaster to Laney. She held it and stroked it like it was actually an animal. I walked away so that I could try Felix again.

“You’re so nice Kiera. You’re like a mom, you know? The way you’re taking care of me and stuff. You’ll be a good momma one day,” Laney rattled on like a drunken person and Kiera’s eyes met mine with concern again as she continued towel drying Laney’s hair.

I had no luck with Felix and was waiting for Oliver’s voicemail to pick up so I could leave yet
another
message when Laney said, “You know Carter thought he knocked me up. We thought we were gonna have a baby. But the test was negative.”