Blood Pact

  Part of me wondered if I were set up somehow when I was attacked. And if I were, how did Nick know where to find me at? Is he part of it? Does he know?

  Ring Ring

  The doorbell grabbed my attention, and I was relieved by the distraction it provided. As I walked down the hall to the front door, I made up my mind that I was going to find out why I was sent on a separate mission. And if Nick knew anything I was going to find that what he knew, I decided as I opened the front door.

  Expecting Scott, the pizza guy, I was surprised to find Nick at my door.

  Taking in his dark blue jeans and dark grey V-neck that fit him just right. I swallowed. “Can I help you?” I asked as I tried to hide my surprise, because as much as I didn’t like him, I had to admit that he was very good looking.

  “Hi,” he greeted me and paused and looked thoughtful; I raised an eyebrow because he actually looked nervous about what he was going to say. “I was wondering if we could talk. I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

  I was surprised by this turn of events. I figured after my statements during training at headquarters the day before that he would be plotting how to get back at me.

  “Sure,” I said. I figured that it would not hurt to hear him out, and this made it easier for me to find out if he knew anything. “Come on in,” I told him and stepped out of the doorway, allowing him to come inside the house.

  I closed the door and just as we started to walk down the hall, the doorbell rang.

  “Give me a second,” I said to Nick and turned back to the front door. I opened the front door and saw that it was Scott. “Hey,” I told him. “Let me run to the kitchen and get my wallet real quick.”

  “Here, I got it,” Nick interrupted and pulled out his wallet from his back pants pocket. “How much?” he asked the delivery guy.

  “Fifteen dollars even.”

  “Here you go,” Nick said pulling out a twenty dollar bill. “Keep the change.”

  “Thanks,” Scott said and handed me the pizza.

  “See you next time Scott,” I told him.

  After I shut the door, I turned toward Nick who was smirking at me. “What?” I asked him.

  “Nothing,” he replied and then started laughing. “Do you know all of the food delivery boys by name?”

  I thought about it a second and started to name all of the delivery people I know in my head to myself: Scott was the pizza delivery driver, Hal delivers for the Chinese food place, and Serena delivers for the grocery store. “Well, maybe most of them. My mom can’t cook, so we have to eat somehow.”

  “When you put it that way, I totally understand,” he said finally laughing.

  “It’s not funny,” I said before laughing with him. “Would you like to have some pizza?” I asked after we calmed down and walked into the kitchen.

  “Sure.”

  “By the way,” I stopped, “thanks for paying for the pizza.”

  “No problem,” he said as he started to follow me.

  In the kitchen, I placed the pizza down onto the bar and went over to the cabinet and grabbed us each a plate. Back over at the breakfast bar, I handed him a plate and sat in my own seat and shoved my geometry work aside.

  Offering him the pizza box, I decided not to beat around the bush. “Well, what brings you here?” I asked as he took a slice of pizza and then watched him for his response.

  “I just felt like we started off on the wrong foot, and since we are going to be on the same team, we should be able to work together.”

  “Okay, that’s true, but I can’t help but to think that you might be a danger to us. I mean after all,” I trailed off not knowing exactly how to word what I was trying to say.

  “Because I have a father that is a vampire?” he asked before taking a bite of the pizza.

  “Yes, that. I was just trying to be polite about your parentage. From what I have always been taught, vampires can only survive on blood. So forgive me if I am under the impression that you might rip out all of our throats.”

  He stared out of the kitchen window for a minute. “I eat regular food,” he told me finally. “I can drink blood if I have to. It makes me stronger, but I don’t have to have it to live.”

  “I see. There is one thing that I am curious about,” I said chewing on my bottom lip, unsure of how to ask him the question on the tip of my tongue.

  When I didn’t ask him the question immediately, he nodded for me to continue, “Yes?”

  “Do you have fangs?” I blurted out almost afraid of the answer that I might get.

  “Yes,” he answered slowly, “I do, but they only come out when I take blood if I choose to and sometimes when I am fighting. Anything else?”

  I shook my head. “No, but if I think of anything else I will be sure to ask.”

  I took a bite of my pizza and stared out of the window while I chewed my food. We ate in silence for a few minutes, and I found it oddly comfortable around Nick. Before I knew it, we were talking about our childhoods and lives. We were actually laughing and having a good time together. Besides being half vampire and half human and being a vampire hunter, I found out that he has a pretty normal life. Like me he had lived with his mother until she passed away recently from an illness and had been trained by John since he was young.

  “I was actually told that your trainer was from here. From what I understand, he was on the same team as my mother when they were young,” I told to him.

  “Yeah, that is what I was told before we came here,” he agreed.

  “Oddly though, he told me that if I wanted perspective about working with someone who is like you that I can always ask my mother,” I told him about my talk with John. “I really don’t know what he could mean by that,” I finished.

  I turned to look at Nick, and for a split second I could see his eyes widen a fraction, but he composed himself quickly. “I have no idea what he means by that,” he told me.

  I considered questioning him more, but I was interrupted by the door to the garage opening in the kitchen.

  “Hey, I am home. I hope you got dinner,” my mother said as she entered but stopped short when she saw Nick sitting in the kitchen with me.

  “I got pizza,” I gave her a wicked smile.

  “Of course you did,” she sighed, not even surprised by my choice for dinner. She turned to Nick. “If I let her choose our dinner every day, we would end up turning into giant pizzas.”

  Nick laughed, “It sounds like it.”

  “It is nice to see you again,” mom said and held out a hand to Nick. “Nick, right? I hope Riley is playing nice now.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Nick replied, shaking her hand.

  “Well, let me tell you this,” she said, and I could tell whatever she had to say wouldn’t be good for me anyway. “Whatever you do, don’t let Riley bully you. She has this awful habit of trying to get her way and while I do not tolerate it, I guess it is kind of my fault for spoiling her since she is my only child.”

  “Humph, I am not spoiled,” I said making a point of looking the other way and ducking when she reached over and tried to ruffle my hair.

  “I will keep that in mind, ma’am,” Nick said, and I realized how polite he is to adults all of the time.

  “Don’t call me ma’am; it makes me feel old,” she said. By this point I was totally mortified. It was not like I liked Nick or anything but having my mother call me a bully and essentially saying that I was spoiled was not good at all. I looked around at the clock on the oven and saw my way out of the awkward situation my mom had created.

  “Oh, what do you know? It is seven o’clock,” I interrupted the conversation before it could go any further. “Nick and I better be heading out for our mission.”

  Nick seemed to agree, and nodded, “Yeah, we should head out.”

  I started to pick up my bag and tried to make a break for the kitchen door when I was stopped.

  “Seriously, Riley, are you going to go out hunting vampires i
n that skirt?” Mom asked me.

  “If I have to, to get away from you right now,” I muttered. “Oh right,” I said aloud looking down at my clothes that I had worn to school. “I will be right back, let me go change.”

  Running up the stairs, I hoped that while alone with Nick that my mom would eat her pizza and quit talking about me. What was I thinking? Of course, she wouldn’t; she is my mom and loves to talk about me. I shook my head to myself and decided that I better change clothes quickly.

  I ran into my room and quickly started finding clothes to change into for our hunting mission. I changed into a black t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. Yes, it is cliché but if you don’t want to be seen, it is best to dress in dark clothes. I also pulled on a pair of black sneakers and my black and grey pea coat because in my mind I just could not stand the thought of wearing all black. When I was finished getting dressed, I turned off the light and shut the door as I left the room. When I got back down stairs I saw Nick waiting by the front door, and thankfully my mom was nowhere to be seen.

  “Ready?” I asked as I approached him.

  He nodded to me, and I motioned to the door as I grabbed my keys from the table beside the front door.

  “Mom, we’re leaving,” I yelled out as I stepped out the door into the crisp fall evening and pulled my coat tightly around me. .

  “Okay, be careful both of you,” she said and poked her head out of the kitchen doorway down the hall.

  “We will,” I told her as I pulled Nick by the arm outside with me.

  Outside I started to walk to my car and noticed that there was not another car in the driveway. “How did you get here?”

  “I walked,” he responded. Of course he did was the first thought in my head. “Get in, so we can meet everyone on time.”

  “If you hadn’t taken so long getting ready,” was his response as he walked around my car to the passenger door.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said getting into the car where I grabbed my phone and saw that there was a text message from Taylor.

  Do you want to ride together tonight?

  I messaged her back that Nick was with me and that we would see her there. I then put the phone away and started the car. I looked over and saw that Nick was ready to go and took off for the park.

  Green Ridge Park was only about a ten minute drive from my house. During the drive we were both quiet, and I liked this and appreciated it. It was easier to get my mind ready for a fight with the silence than it was with the mindless chit chat that my other teammates usually provided.

  Pulling into the parking lot, I saw that there were quite a few cars. In the past we had killed several dozen vampires here. They keep coming back because there are many trails for running and walking and a lot of dark places to hide to catch people unaware, making them easy to be picked off by the vampires.

  “There they are,” I broke the silence as I spotted the two familiar cars of Taylor and Kyle.

  I could see Nick nod out of the corner of my eye in agreement. I parked in an empty parking space next to Kyle’s car and shut off the car’s engine. “Let’s do this,” Nick said as he unbuckled his seat belt and then opened the car door.

  “Hey,” Taylor greeted us first while giving me a questioning look. I just tried to give her my best I’ll-tell-you-later look. “So who has our orders,” I asked.

  Kyle stepped forward. “My message said that the attacks have been occurring around the park’s northwest trail and that Taylor is to run the trail as bait while the rest of us follow behind at a distance until the vampires make an appearance. And then we will attack them. From what we have learned from recent attacks and sightings, they have been occurring near the 1 and 2 mile markers.”

  “Any idea on how many there are out there?” Ben questioned.

  All of us either shrugged or shook our heads.

  “Okay then, ready?” Kyle asked.

  “Yep, let’s do this,” Taylor said, and because I knew that she hated to play bait, I could hear annoyance in her voice. “You guys get ready, wait two minutes and follow.”

  Taylor started to jog up to the trail, and the rest of us started to get prepared for the hunt. I walked back over to my car and opened the trunk. I lifted up the carpet that covered the bottom of the trunk and the spare tire compartment and picked up my katana and slid it out of the sheath. Everyone else did the same. Ben pulled out a katana similar to my own. Kyle and Lucas both had wooden stakes in their belts and large hunting knives. Sam had her gun filled with wooden tipped bullets that was fitted with a silencer. We wouldn’t want anyone hearing gun shots by chance in a park. I glanced over at Nick and saw that he had gotten a sword from somewhere. I sent Nick a questioning look.

  “Lucas brought it to me,” he said, knowing what I was asking him. I nodded in return.

  “Okay, let’s head out,” Kyle told us, looking towards the trail.

  We all started walking down the trail. I walked at the front of the group following beside Nick, who I was guessing could sense the vampires since he is half vampire.

  “Can you sense any of them yet?” I asked quietly.

  “I am sensing vampires in the area, but I cannot tell for sure how many there are,” he replied.

  I nodded, and we continued walking. Then without saying a word, Nick broke out in a run. Without skipping a beat, the rest of us started to chase after him. I was guessing that the vampires had made their appearance. Nick was a lot faster than we were, and truthfully while I was the fastest on the team before he joined us, I could not catch up to him.

  We ran about a half a mile further up the trail before we finally caught up with Nick. He and Taylor were engaged in fighting a group of five vampires that were trying to surround them. There was a sixth, but I could see that either Nick or Taylor had already taken care of him.

  “Hey guys,” I yelled getting the vampires’ attention. “Why don’t we even up the odds here a little bit?”

  Half of the vampires turned their attention to our group that just ran up. This gave Nick the chance to engage the one closest to him in a fight. He took no time in actually killing the vampire by staking him with a stake that I didn’t even realize he had in his hand. He then picked up his sword from the ground and dispatched a second in just a few seconds time. I was nearly frozen in place for a moment watching him move. He knew how to fight, and he fought well and looked good doing it. I almost screamed at myself; I couldn’t be distracted by such things.

  After getting distracted by watching Nick killing the two vampires back to back, I had to act fast as a third vampire attacked me. I slashed toward him with my blade, but because of the vampire’s quick speed, he dodged my blow. The vampire recovered quickly and grabbed a small broken branch and swung it back at me. I blocked the branch with the blunt edge of my sword’s blade. Jumping back, I swung my weapon back at him, breaking his branch in two and quickly swung again, this time taking the head right off of the vampire.

  Kyle had just finished off the fourth vampire. The final vampire was facing off with Ben and Sam. The vampire was about to go for Sam, but she raised her gun and pulled the trigger, taking care of the vampire with a wooden bullet to the heart.

  After the last vampire was killed, the team gathered to make sure there were no injuries.

  Turning to Taylor I wanted to make sure that she was okay since she was the bait of the night. “You okay?” I asked concerned, knowing how stressful being vampire bait could be.

  “Oh yeah,” she replied, “I am good. They popped out at me while I was running, and then out of nowhere Nick was there fighting them.”

  “Impressive,” I told her nonchalantly, acting like it was nothing when it was actually kind of cool.

  “Alright,” Kyle said interrupting our powwow we had going on. “Since everyone is okay, let’s get out of here.”

  We all voiced our agreement and started the walk back to the parking lot about a mile away from where we had fought the group of vampires.
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  “So,” Taylor whispered to me from our place in the back of the group.

  “Yes?” I asked. I knew what was coming, and I was surprised that she had managed to wait five minutes into our walk back to the park to start the conversation.

  “Why are you and Nick hanging out?” she questioned, pretending to be innocent in her questioning. “Last thing I heard had you two plotting each other’s bloody deaths.”

  Nick was way ahead of us at the front of the group talking to Lucas and Kyle.

  “He came by my house tonight,” I explained, “and we had a talk and decided to call a truce, since we are on the same team.”

  “Well that is awesome,” she whispered. “I think he will be great on our team after seeing him in action tonight”

  I gave her a non-committal nod and started to think about what she said and truthfully couldn’t help but agree with her. I was pleasantly surprised by how well he fought against the vampires. Maybe having him on our team would make our lives safer.