The Blood Will Run (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

A
livia
drove down the alley to the back of the Grand Coffin Cafe. She stiffened up when she saw her friends.

Erica was sitting on the front stairs with Bex.

She narrowed her bright blue eyes in Alivias’ direction. Alivia slid out of the car, slammed the door and walked toward them.

“You thought that you could escape us that easily, Livy?” Erica asked.

“Right, like you honestly believed you weren’t going to the party with us tonight. You thought we weren’t going to come here and force you to go,” Bex said. "Well, I have news for you Livy, we're here, so you're going." She snatched up Alivias’ free hand and practically dragged her through the front door, up the winding staircase and down the narrow hallway to her bedroom.

Alivia plopped down on her bed and leaned her back against the headboard.

Her eyes darted from Erica to Bex.

Erica smiled and said, “Oh come on, Livy. Seriously, you’ll have fun. I promise.”

Erica flung her slender athletic body down on Alivias’ bed. She grabbed the Bookmart bag off the red quilt and slid out the books.

“Besides,” Erica began, “now that you own the books you could read them anytime, right?”

At that very second, Alivia wished that she were invisible. She shook her head and frowned. She didn’t stand a chance in hell against them. She knew that they would not leave her alone until she gave in and went to this party.

“Perfect,” Bex grinned. “Then it’s settled we’re all going to the party together.”

Bex jumped up from the armchair in the corner of Alivias’ room and began ransacking through her closet.

☼

Chace wasn’t human. He realized that. But for some reason, he felt cheated. He never used to think that way. He was quite content in feeding off his prey and luring woman to satisfy his never-ending thirst and his uncontrollable sex craving.

But somehow, he managed to fill the empty hole in his heart for centuries by just existing this way.

Then everything changed when he gazed into the sad emerald green eyes of Alivia Marks.

His heart started to beat. He didn’t know why it started beating.

It just did. He could’ve used his powers to seduce her and find out, but he didn’t.

Instead, he started having his dinner at the Grand Coffin Cafe.

He ordered the same vampire chili special and ate it even though he knew that he would have to empty the contents of his stomach hours later.

He’d sit at coffin booth number nine and stare at Alivia while she served customers or when she cleaned the espresso machine, the milk shake machine or the machine used for iced coffee.

Chace knew Alivias’ nightly routine as well as she did.

He knew Erica Wells was her best friend and that the bond they shared was stronger than that of actual sisters. Erica and Alivia seemed much closer than Alivia was to her real sister Jules. He wondered why, but when he saw how Jules treated her, he began to realize that Jules was the sort of person who was bossy.

He watched Alivia while she laughed and joked around with Tucker Pierce, Bentley Donnelly and Bex Donnelly. Alivia and her group of friends seemed to have a lot of fun together. He even sensed the tension between Alivia and Bex, but it didn’t seem to bother Alivia as much as it did Bex.

Bex seemed to be more of a friend to Erica actually, than she was to Alivia and that suited him just fine. Chace knew Bex from many of the creek parties and she wasn’t the type of girl that you would consider bringing home to meet your family.

But Alivia was, she was the reason he went to see Mercy in the first place. He wanted to be a part of Alivias’ life. He wanted to be as close to her as her friends were. What he wished for more than anything was to be able to love Alivia. He longed to hold her close to his chest and comfort her. He wanted to stroke her auburn hair that he imagined would feel like silk. He dreamt of kissing her full luscious lips that she would bite down on when she was nervous.

He had many women in his life, but he never felt as drawn to them as he did to Alivia.

Everything about her was magical. The sound of her voice was as pleasing to the ear as listening to a beautiful concerto at the opera. He couldn’t help but want every inch of her.

She was perfect. That’s when he decided he would wait to seduce her. And when he did, he would wait for the right moment to kiss her and hold her in his arms.

Then when he had her right where he wanted her, he would make her fall in love with him. She would have no choice. He smiled.

☼

After Erica and Bex touched up their make-up and did their hair, they turned and stared at her.

Erica shook her head when she saw that she was wearing her black jogging suit.

"Is that what you're wearing?" Erica asked.

Alivia nodded.

"Well," Bex said, staring at Alivia, "Really, we don't have time to wait for you to change, the boys are waiting downstairs. Let's go." Bex walked to her bedroom door and opened it.

As the girls raced down the stairs one right after the other, Jules shot them a dirty look.

“Wow,” Tucker said and then whistled as he grabbed Erica and pulled her to his chest.

He kissed Ericas’ cheek. “Beautiful babe, as always.”

“Damn, you ladies look hot!” Bentley said, eyeing just Alivia.

Bex elbowed her brother in the ribs.  “Now Benny, control those wacko hormones of yours. You wouldn’t want to ruin a perfectly healthy friendship now would you? Besides, Alivia doesn’t really like boys. She’d rather stay at home and read her books.”

“Seriously Bex, was that really called for?” Erica shot Bex a dirty look.

“I’m not trying to be mean. I’m just stating the facts. After all Alivia has been through in the last couple of months, I don’t really blame her anyway,” said Bex.

“Well let’s be thankful that Alivia is nothing like you. You party way too much. Maybe you should stay at home and read a book or two.” Bentley glanced at his sister sideways and grinned devilishly.

“Right, always take her side,” said Bex in a heated voice.

“I’m not taking anyones’ side,” Bentley said and then continued. “Just stop acting like a total bitch and we’ll be just fine.”

“Okay, really? Wow guys. We’re all together tonight to have fun. Let’s not ruin Alivias’ first night out in months,” Erica said staring at Bex threateningly.

“Fine,” Bex said and looked at Alivia. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound like a complete bitch. I usually just blurt things out. You know how I can be sometimes,” she said and then began to head for the door.

☼

Devin sat in the padded wicker chair in the sunroom at the Casa De Luca. He stared out through the wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling window. A hazy shade of darkness began to fall over the courtyard. Devin looked beyond the trees and through the woods to where the sky was still blue.

Then he wondered what he would have done if the moon and sun spell hadn’t worked. He shuddered at the very thought.

He owed Mercy. She had given him an amazing gift. He could now walk in the moonlight without turning into a pile of ash.

He would somehow find a way to repay her.

“Are you ready?” Chace asked.

Devin turned away from the window and stared at him.

Chace smiled with that all knowing crooked sinful smile that Devin knew all too well.

“Well, are you ready or not?”

“Ready for what?” Devin asked, puzzled by his question.

“There is a party down at the creek tonight. Wolfjack is playing a live concert on stage,” Chace said and then laughed. “Well, Wolfjack is really playing on the handmade stage built by a bunch of handy teenagers.”

“That doesn’t sound promising,” Devin said.

“They actually did a pretty good job. Anyway, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for you to get to know some of the towns’ finest looking females,” Chace said.

Devin was about to tell him to go to hell, but then he remembered the gorgeous girl from the bookstore. Maybe she would be there.

“Let me take a fast shower. I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes,” Devin said walking out of the room.

“Well, I wonder what it was or who it was that sparked a flame under your ass,” Chace said following Devin to his bedroom.

Devin walked off to the bathroom that was on the right side of his room.

“My brother, willing to attend a drunken teenage party without a second thought. Come on Devin spit it out, what gives?”

Nothing gives,” Devin yelled from the shower. “It’s just my first night out in the moonlight.

A small town party to get to know the locals seems like a pretty good idea.”

“Does this also mean I can persuade you to drink from the human vein as well?” Chace asked.

Devin ignored him, turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He wiped the fog off the large mirror with a hand towel and then smiled.

He squeezed a small amount of gel from the tube onto his palm and rubbed it through his dark locks of curls. He brushed his teeth and walked into his bedroom.

He grabbed the can of ‘Axe’ body spray off his nightstand and sprayed it all over his body.

Chace had already laid out his black jeans, white t-shirt, boxers, socks and his black leather jacket on his bed. Devin didn’t argue.

If he wanted to see the green-eyed beauty again, he had to hurry.

Devin dressed quickly and then slid his size eleven feet into his black ‘Adidas’.

“My car or yours?” Devin asked as they walked down the wide staircase side by side.

Chace grinned. “I plan on getting lucky brother. I believe that is an indication that you’re on your own tonight.”

☼

After the five of them piled into Tuckers’ minivan that he borrowed from his mother, Erica flipped on the radio.

As they turned off Greendale Street and onto Killdorn Ave, Erica turned up the radio as the song ‘Almost Everything’ by Wakey Wakey began to blast through the subwoofers.

Tucker drove up the steep hill.

No one paid attention to the closed road-sign at the side of the dirt road.

Minutes later, Tucker parked the van beside several other cars near the edge of the woods.

“You guys know about the teenagers who were murdered not too far from where we are parked, right?” Tucker began as they piled out of the van.

Alivia rolled her eyes.

Tucker ignored her and pointed to the path that was across from the Whaling Bridge. “An old woman was said to have lured five teenagers to her house. She convinced them that her young boy was dying and needed to go to the hospital. No one ever saw them again after they went inside that house. Days later, Sheriff Hunter found shreds of bloody clothing belonging to the five teenagers under the bridge. They searched for days, but never found their bodies. They just seemed to vanish into thin air. Some people swear that they have seen five ghosts in a group wandering around these woods at night. They say that the ghosts follow you and try to lure you into the house so that they can take your soul.”

“Oh, will you just shut up Tucker,” Bex said punching him in the arm. “We’ve heard these tales over and over again. There is no truth to them. Parents made up that story to keep us teenagers from having parties down at the creek.”

“I agree with Bex, Tucker,” Bentley said. He jumped in front of Bex and began to walk backward as they hiked along the path leading to the creek. Bentley continued, “But the story that is true though, is the one where two teenagers were clawed to death by some sort of animal in the cemetery.”

“I heard about that,” Alivia joined in. “They were making out in the Tarantino Ruins. The girl they found ripped apart was Jason Mannings’ sister, Betty.”

“I remember her,” Erica said. “She was the girl who went around school telling people that a dark and handsome vampire was drinking her blood. I saw the puncture wounds on her neck with my own eyes. But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how she really got those fang marks on her neck.”

“Come on people, really, enough all ready with this crazy talk. There are no such things as animals ripping apart people or even vampires for that matter,” Bex said sounding annoyed.

Bentley stopped to walk beside Alivia and put his arm around her shoulder.

“Besides,” Bex said excitedly as they reached the end of the path, “It’s time to par-tay.”

☼

Devin couldn’t believe how many teenagers were at this party. He glanced around and noticed the basketball jerseys from both Tarantino High and Coven Academy.

He smiled and stared at Chace. Devin was patiently waiting to see the green-eyed beauty that he had met at the bookstore. He was certain that she was around seventeen or eighteen-years-old.

But he was at the party now for over an hour and there was no sign of her.

“Oh, I see,” Chace said and rested his hand on Devins’ shoulder.