Wombstone (The Vampireland Series) (24 page)

Ryan's asshole facade dropped slightly, and I felt his confusion through the bond. “I didn't follow you,” he replied, as he looked her up and down. “Though I
would
follow you, don't get me wrong.”

“Bullshit!” Evie's voice was getting louder. “I know you were there. I had a vampire tailing me since Christmas last year.”

“It wasn't him,” I said. “He’s confused. He's trying to cover that up because he's a dick, but he doesn't know what you're talking about.”

Evie looked at me like I had grown a second head. “You believe him?” she asked in a horrified tone. “You think he's telling you the truth, Mia?”

“He never tells me the whole truth,” I said to her while I stared at him. “But I can tell when he's lying. It's part of the bond.”

“Great. A fucking vampire bond. Well, I'm going to bed.” She flounced into the empty bedroom next to mine, where I had put her bags. A minute later, she poked her head out of the room and addressed Ryan directly. “Oh, and if you try to bite me while I'm asleep, vampire boy, I'll rip your heart out and feed it to a troll.”

He smiled and blew a kiss at her. She slammed the door in response.

***

Ryan and I studied each other uneasily across the kitchen bench.

“She’s here to take you home,” Ryan said seriously.

“Well, wouldn’t you do the same if you were her?” I replied in a voice barely above a whisper. “She thinks it’s her fault that I’m here.”

Ryan shrugged. “So what are you planning on telling her?”

I set my jaw stubbornly and didn’t answer.

“You’re going?” Ryan asked, his tone carefully neutral, his eyes flashing with frustration.

“Caleb doesn’t even care about me” I hissed, careful not to wake up Jared who was still asleep in my bed fifteen feet away from where we stood. “Have you ever thought that maybe he just wants that goddamned heart back?”

Ryan looked taken aback, and I felt anger rise inside me as his reaction confirmed my growing suspicion.

“Give me one good reason why I should stay,” I demanded. “Now. Or I’m leaving tonight.”

He scowled, and I could see he understood. I had him backed into a corner.

“If you go home now,” he said seriously, “you will die.”

“How?” I asked. “How will I die? I want details.”

When he didn’t speak, I raised my eyebrows to prompt him. “Start talking,” I demanded. “You know I’m serious.”

“I don’t know what he’s going to do,” he said through gritted teeth. “If I did, I’d be able to stop him!”

He tore his gaze away from me, and I saw the internal struggle he was having. He looked down the hallway one last time, then back at me.

“Please,” he pleaded. “Please just trust me?”

I didn’t answer him; I just pushed past him and stormed off to my room.
 

I couldn’t sleep after the horrors I’d seen the night before. The stench of blood and rotted souls was still trapped in my nostrils, no matter how hot I made my shower.
 

Jared was still sleeping off whatever Evie had given him, which was unfortunate. I felt terrible that she had needed to do such a thing, but, of course, she had to if we were going to talk about what was really going on.
 

About vampires.

I knew she wouldn’t be asleep when I knocked on the door at 3 a.m. Sure enough, she answered, still dressed in her day clothes and completely awake.

“You’re going to be tired tomorrow,” I said, closing the door behind me.

Evie shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “I can’t believe I agreed to stay here.” Her eyes roamed the room as if it were a dirty den infested with cockroaches, instead of a palatial guest room where the sheets were egyptian cotton and the silk cushions matched the drapes perfectly.

“It’s not so bad,” I said lamely. Who was I trying to convince? I might have become used to it, but I still didn’t want to
be
here. It was pure necessity that had driven me to accept Ryan’s deal and stick it out in Ivy's house for a few months. Especially after what had happened with Ryan. The bloodlust that itched under my skin like fire ants. The possibility that I could hurt someone I loved. That I could kill them.

“Don’t you think you’re a little too comfortable here?” Evie asked point blank. The accusation in her tone was like a slap in the face. The suspicion that I accepted being here, enjoyed it, even.

You should see how comfortable I got on the kitchen table
.

“Things are messed up,” I tried to explain. “It’s not what it seems. I’ll be home soon, anyway.”

Evie glanced around the room and then grabbed my hand. I felt a jolt of electricity sizzle at my palm and rush through my body, stealing my breath. It was power, I realized, the power of a witch. I stared open–mouthed at my best friend and saw a stranger instead. A stranger whose eyes lit up inhumanly as she spoke in hushed tones.

“He can’t hear us,” Evie whispered to me. “I cut off your bond for a few moments. Everything we say here stays between the two of us, understand?”

I nodded.

“You need to come home with us tomorrow, Mia. I don’t trust this guy. This house, this whole situation … it feels dangerous.”

“Of course it’s dangerous,” I replied, somewhat annoyed. “I’m not a little kid, Evie. I’m here because Caleb wants to kill me!”

I tried to snatch my hand back but Evie was incredibly strong, especially since she was now restraining vampire me. Power crackled through our palms and I felt myself immobilized. It pissed me off.

“Let go!” I whispered angrily through gritted teeth.
 

“Not until you listen to me,” Evie replied in a grave tone. “Mia, I know things. Things about the future.”

“Oh, you can see the future now?” I mocked her openly.
 

Her eyes flashed with what I guessed to be frustration. “If you stay here, you will die. I’ve seen it, and I’ve never been wrong before.”

I felt all the blood drain from my face as I turned that over in my head.
 

If you stay here, you will die. If you go home, you will die.
 

Seemed like no matter where I went, my days were numbered.

My shoulders sagged and I stared at the ground.

“Do you trust me?” Evie asked quietly.

“With my life,” I answered honestly. Because I did.

“Then believe me, please. I screwed up and they took you. Don’t let me get you killed again.”

I sighed, tears blurring my vision. “I want to come home, but I don’t. You don’t know how this
feels
inside.” I clawed at my chest with a shaking hand. “It’s enough to drive someone insane. You know?”

There was no need for me to elaborate. She knew why I didn’t want to go home.
 

“I will help you,” she said softly. “I’ll stay with you at your house, and we can get through this together. There are friendly vampires I know of. They can fill in the blanks for us with blood banks and all that.”

I just nodded. It wasn’t just the practicalities stopping me from jumping on a plane and flying home – it was this strange feeling, deep in my belly, that said I couldn’t leave Ryan. That we belonged to each other.
 

Evie’s face softened. “I know,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I know you think you can’t leave him. That leaving him would kill you.”

“It’s stupid,” I said.

If you go home you will die.

“It’s not stupid,” Evie replied gently, using her free hand to wipe tears from my cheek. “It’s the way vampires are designed. For survival. The good news is, once you’re far away enough that feeling will start to fade.”

I nodded because I wanted to believe her.

“Every time you have that feeling,” Evie said, “I want you to remember the moment you fell in love with Jared. How it felt. Where you were. Every little detail you can think of.”

I started to cry. “Why?” I asked.

“Because,” Evie squeezed my hand tightly, “he’s the one you should share a bond with. The guy you love, not a vampire who took you against your will and Turned you because he screwed up and you died.”

If you stay here you will die.

“Okay” I nodded vacantly.
 

“Okay what?”

“Okay, I’ll think about that every time. And … and I’ll come home. Not tomorrow, though. I need a few more weeks to … get this shit under control.”

We sat in silence for a while.

If you stay here, you will die. I’ve seen it, and I’ve never been wrong before.

“You were wrong once,” I said softly.
 

Evie just nodded, the haunted look in her eyes almost too much for me to bear. She released my hand and the spell was broken. She opened her arms, pulled me into her, and held me while we both cried.

***

Jared and Evie left early the next morning. Poor Jared was extremely apologetic that he had fallen asleep and thought he must have the flu or something. I felt so sorry for him. The guy had driven cross–country to see me for a few measly hours and I hadn’t even put out for him. That last lingering kiss on the front porch before he jumped into the waiting cab was enough to cement my decision to leave immediately.
 

I let four weeks pass before I felt strong enough to return home without the crushing bloodlust invading my every thought. I spent those four weeks intensively quizzing Ryan, Sam and Ivy on everything I could think of. I think Ryan took my inquisitiveness as a sign that I was sticking around, and so he relaxed a little on the strict rules and chaperoned outings.

Ryan was gone a lot during that time. He was always visiting Clair. He had really taken to her, and dare I say it, was starting to have feelings for the girl. He started to act differently, too. I took to teasing him about it every time he returned after seeing her. But secretly I was worried. She was human and he was a vampire – what was he planning to do with her?

When he was around, Ryan still acted as if there was no hurry, as if I would be staying in Pasadena indefinitely. He kept telling me my bloodlust hadn’t peaked yet, that it was only going to get worse.

And he was right, in a way. My bloodlust did get much worse. But not for many months.

If you stay here you will die
. That was all I heard in my mind for the entire four weeks.

I thought that I was fine. Fixed. Non–lusty. Safe to be alone with.

It was time to go home.

Once the decision to leave was firm in my mind, there were many things to do. Firstly, I needed a set of wheels. Evie had suggested flying home, but I couldn’t risk having my name show up on any commercial airline passenger manifests or travel databases that Caleb might be watching. I couldn’t take my own car, the one that Jared had so generously driven across the country for me. It was like driving a red flaming beacon that screamed, ‘Here I am, come and get me!’
 

I also had to time my exit appropriately so that nobody would try to stop me. I doubted Ryan would lock me up again, but I didn’t exactly trust him. I knew he had something big planned – he was going somewhere ‘important’ and could be away for a few days. Ivy was going somewhere mysteriously vague, as usual. And Sam had his teaching commitments at the university. All of this gave me a good six-hour window of time to pack my stuff up and get as far away as I could before anyone realized that I was gone.

Still, the logistics bothered me. I was going to have to stop for the night at some point, and if Ryan was really keen (which he would be) then he’d only have to track me to where I stopped and come get me. I could drive through the night, but that sounded exhausting. The other thing that worried me was having enough blood to drink in case I got my freak on again and felt like biting somebody. I was afraid to be alone on the drive in case I flipped out, but I was more afraid of
If you stay here you will die
.
 

***

It was early. I sat at the table waiting for my black coffee and blood to infuse. I hated to admit it, but the coffee component was merely a distraction to mask the plain horror of what I was drinking for breakfast – human blood. Stuff that people donated, from the goodness of their hearts, to help save lives. The stuff that pumped through my boyfriend’s veins. And I was putting it in my Nescafé.
 

Ryan sat down across from me, his own coffee/blood concoction letting off steam in front of him.
 

“Do you ever wonder whose it is?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked, digging his spoon into a bowl of cereal.
 

“The blood,” I replied. “The person who donated this. They must have thought they were giving it for good, not evil.”

Ryan smirked through a mouthful of Cheerios. “Evil?” he spluttered. “Jesus. You’re like a nun. Only you put out.”

I glared at him in disgust. “You’re so fucking hilarious.”

I can’t wait to get the hell away from you.

“The blood doesn’t come from a hospital blood bank,” Ryan explained without missing a beat. “Vampires have particular requirements of donors that humans do not. It’s about more than blood type. It depends on their diet, their lifestyle, their psychic energy. This stuff is expensive.” He tapped on his coffee mug. “Why do you think we limit our intake? Not because we want to. There’s only a small amount available.”

I thought about that for a moment and my blood ran cold. “A small amount?” I echoed. “So vampires who can’t get their hands on this stuff …”

“Get it directly from people, yes,” Ryan finished casually.
 

“Do the people die?”

Ryan shrugged. “Sometimes. It depends.”
 

“So you only drink this blood?” I asked, pointing at his cup. He could tell I was testing him – of course he could, he could read my mind.
 

“No,” he said evenly. Because I already knew. He had drained Kate. He hadn’t killed her, though. Caleb had saved her last terrified breaths for himself.

“And?” I pressed. “Do they
die
sometimes?”

“If I take blood from a human, I’m careful. I don’t bleed them to death. It gets messy. People would come looking for me.”