Blood Pact

  Chapter 7

  The next time I opened my eyes, the smell of sausage and eggs cooking reached my nose. Surprised, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was eleven in the morning. Climbing out of bed, I pulled on my robe that was lying on the back of my desk chair and decided to go check out the food that had caused me to wake up.

  In the kitchen, I was surprised by the scene in front of me. John was at the stove cooking breakfast, but what actually caught my attention was Nick seated at the bar wearing just his jeans. I knew that he looked hot with his clothes on, but his bare back wasn’t too lean or too muscled and looked just right. What surprised me the most was the tattoo on his left shoulder blade? It was an intricate cross of some kind with a date underneath it. It was hot and definitely added to the whole dark persona thing he had going for him. I must have stared too long because my mom cleared her throat to get my attention. I looked over at my mom who was also sitting at the bar looking at stuff on her laptop, giving me a look that told me that I had been caught staring. I decided that I must be in an alternate universe or having a particularly strange dream. So, I decided to leave the kitchen and then go back in to see if everything would fix itself, or hopefully I would just wake up. Wishful thinking on my part.

  When I turned around, my mom started laughing. “Sweetheart, you are not in an alternate universe or dreaming. Come sit down and wait for food.”

  I turned back around and went to sit on the bar stool in between her and Nick.

  “Alternate universe?” Nick questioned with a smirk on his handsome face.

  “Shut up,” I told him.

  My mom just started to laugh. “When she was three, she snuck around one night and watched some science fiction horror movie about these people who ended up in some kind of alternate universe. For years after that, if she thought something wasn’t right, she would leave a room and try to go back in to see if it would fix itself.”

  “She still does that huh?” Nick asked.

  “I don’t still do that,” I said indignantly. “I am just dead tired this morning, and I got sick because you’re prancing around my kitchen with no shirt on. I was just trying to get out before I vomited on something.”

  “Right,” Nick said sarcastically. “You just keep telling yourself that.”

  I looked over at my mom for help, but she just looked like she was about to burst from holding in her laughter.

  “Whatever,” I mumbled and folded my arms over my chest and pouted.

  “Nick, you should stop picking on her. You have no room to talk since you had an imaginary friend until you were eight,” the voice of John came to my defense.

  I smirked in victory. “Aww that is so sweet, a boy and his friend.”

  “Shut up,” Nick mumbled, taking his turn to pout.

  “So,” I changed the subject, “any word on Sam yet?”

  “We are working on it,” my mom replied, “and that is all you need to know right now.”

  “Okay,” I said because I knew there was no use in arguing with her. She would win any argument I tried to start before it could even get started. I guessed that our team would try to find out something on our own.

  “The stove works?” I asked turning my attention to John. “I’m surprised. The only time I have ever seen it on there was smoke, and then this one time there was even flames.”

  “I believe that was probably just user error,” John told me while glancing at my mom who looked slightly embarrassed.

  Mom decided to take the conversation away from her cooking skills by asking Nick and me how we were doing in school. By the time she was satisfied with our answers, John started placing plates in front of us on the bar. When he was done he sat on the end next to my mother, and we all began to eat the breakfast that he had cooked for us.

  It had been a while since I had eaten a home cooked meal, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted. John had made us eggs, sausage, and even pancakes, all things I had only ever had before in a restaurant or at my grandmother’s house.

  “This is good,” I told him in between bites. “Thanks for cooking.”

  I honestly could say that John looked impressed that I provided him with a compliment and a thank you.

  My mom noticed his perplexed look. “I did raise my daughter to be polite,” she told him before taking another bite herself.

  “Thank you, and you’re welcome for the food,” he replied to me.

  “Thanks,” Nick piped in as well from beside me.

  “We have some things to do today,” my mom said, “and I want you two to stay out of trouble while we are out. So what are you going to do here at home all day?”

  I thought about my answer because I could not tell my mom that I planned on going to find out for myself what happened to Sam instead of sitting at home. So, I gave her the sure fire, mom-accepted response, “I have a bunch of school work to do. I figured I would ask Nick if he wanted to work on our school work together.”

  “That sounds good to me,” my mom said smiling. “Are you going to hang around then, Nick?”

  “Sure, I just need to go back home and get my school work after breakfast,” he responded, giving me a confused look.

  My mom nodded at his response, and we all ate the rest of our meal in silence. When we were finally finished eating, my mom cleaned up in the kitchen with John’s help while Nick left to get his things. While he was gone I went into my bedroom and put fresh clothes on for the day, so that I could be ready if we were called to go help find Sam. I chose a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt that I had gotten at a dance camp the summer before. After putting on shoes and socks, I headed down the stairs to find that Nick was already back and that my mother and John were getting ready to leave.

  “Alright,” my mom told us, “stay here, and if anything important goes on I will call.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “I will keep my phone on me, so give me a call,” I told her while waving my cell phone around for her to see.

  “Bye,” she said, giving me a kiss on the forehead, and then she followed John out the door.

  As soon as the door closed and I could hear the car start outside, I turned to Nick. “I am totally not going to do any school work, and since it is not dark yet I can’t go try and find out what is going on. So I am going to go watch TV, and you can either watch too or do your homework.” I turned away from him and walked into the living room.

  He followed behind me into the living room. “You are going to sneak out later, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “I have to. I don’t like not knowing what is going on, and I think that we could really help.”

  He looked thoughtful. “It will be dangerous.”

  “Most likely,” I agreed, “but I can’t just sit here and do nothing. Can you?”

  He didn’t agree or disagree with me but instead sat down on the couch and started flipping through the channels on the TV. After giving up trying to figure out what his silence meant, I sat down on the couch as well and just watched the TV as he changed the channels. There was not anything in particular that I cared about watching, so I just decided to let him find something. He finally settled on some science fiction movie that I had already watched months before.

  We started another movie after it was finished, and we just sat and watched for a while longer. Somehow, we had drifted closer and closer together until we were sitting side by side barely touching. I tried to act like I didn’t even notice, but when I turned to glance at him he was staring at me. And the same as before, I could not help but to be drawn in, and somehow I felt things that I had only read about in books or seen in movies. Glancing at his lips, I wondered what it would be like to kiss them, even though in a deep dark place at the back of my mind I knew that this was Nick, my annoying new teammate, and that I should not be thinking about kissing him. And by some unknown force we started to move closer and closer together, and our lips were almost touching.

  And just before our l
ips could connect, the front door opened, and thankfully that same magnet that was drawing us together repelled us to opposite sides of the couch.

  “Hey,” my mother said, walking into the living room.

  “Hi, mom,” I replied back while Nick just nodded.

  “What have you guys been up to?” she asked looking at the two of us. I knew that we must be looking rather awkward because we were looking everywhere other than at each other and I was practically sitting on the arm of the couch.

  “Just watching TV,” Nick told her.

  “Okay, well John is going to make us dinner, and I will call you both when it is done,” she said, appearing not to notice the tension in the room.

  As soon as my mom left the room, I quickly excused myself to my bedroom, saying I had something to do before dinner. Inside of my bedroom, I paced as I thought about what would have happened if my mother and John had not come in the front door when they did. Part of me was extremely disappointed, and the other part of me was relieved. Growing frustrated thinking about what might have happened, I went into the kitchen and waited for dinner so that I could ask my mother if they had learned anything about Sam.

  I sat next to my mother at the bar and observed John as he cooked our dinner. Just like when he worked with our team in training, he did everything so naturally and with such ease that it was hard to not be jealous. It was sort of the way that Nick did everything.

  I thought about it a minute and realized that all of the times I was around him I would get the same sense that I had been getting around Nick. No, not that I want to kiss you feeling, but the feeling that my friends always thought was weird when I could tell a vampire was nearby and they couldn’t.

  Then it dawned on me: John is like Nick; he is half vampire too.

  I felt like slapping myself. Why didn’t I pick up on this before? Probably because there was always something going on and I didn’t have time to focus on him. It also explained what he said to me that night about my mom working with someone like Nick. He was talking about himself.

  “You’re half vampire,” I blurted out without thinking.

  That stopped everyone in the kitchen from what they were doing. Nick had a look that clearly said, so you finally figured it out. John had a perfectly straight face while my mom didn’t look particularly thrilled that I had noticed.

  But instead of anyone denying anything, John just nodded and asked, “How did you figure it out?”

  “Well,” I said collecting my thoughts, “sitting here observing you cook and move around the kitchen put everything together for me. But it was mostly the comment that you made to me that day about my mom working with people like Nick. Plus I get the vibe from you.”

  “Vibe?” he asked. My mom had leaned forward on her stool and Nick arched a questioning eyebrow waiting for my response.

  “Yeah,” I continued, “I have been actively going out and hunting vampires since I was thirteen, and I always sort of get this feeling when I am close to them. Just now I realized that I was getting it from you and not just him,” I finished, nodding in Nick’s direction.

  “Interesting,” John said.

  “Okay,” my mom said, looking a bit concerned and perplexed. “When will food be ready?” she asked, changing the subject.

  John went back to cooking the food and said it will be ready any minute. My mom told us to set the dining room table and we got up to do as we were told. I showed him to the dining room, and we started putting the plates on the table.

  “You know,” I told him, “I don’t think we have actually ever eaten in here. We have lived in this house since I was five, and we have only ever used this table for my school projects and the odd craft project that my mom decided to do with me when I was a kid.”

  “You guys live like a couple of college guys,” he laughed.

  “No, we don’t,” I said laughing. “Okay, maybe we do, but I told her no when she wanted to put in the beer pong table. I’m still too young for that.” We continued laughing, and when my mom walked in we laughed even harder, causing her to roll her eyes at us as she brought food in.

  We spent the next hour eating dinner and talking. Afterwards, Nick and I cleaned the dining table and kitchen. When we were finally done, my mother and I walked them to the door to see them out.

  After my mom closed the door, she immediately faced me. “So what in the world happened earlier?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, wanting her to clarify what she was asking before I volunteered anything.

  “You and Nicholas on the couch,” she said, looking at me expectantly for an answer.

  “We were just watching TV,” I told her, and she looked doubtful. “I think I am going to go up to my room now and call Taylor to see how she is doing,” I told her, looking for an escape.

  “Okay,” she sighed as I started to walk up the stairs. “Night.”

  I stopped midway up the stairs and turned and looked down at her. “Are you sure there isn’t anything you can tell me about Sam?”

  “No sweetie, once something is definite I will let you know.”

  “Okay,” I said and turned back up the stairs.

  Inside of my room I immediately picked up my cell phone, dialed Taylor’s number, and waited just two rings before she answered.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, how are you doing?”

  “As well as I can be. My parents talked to your grandfather today, but they aren’t saying anything.”

  “Yeah, my mom was gone all day doing something with them, and they won’t let me know anything either.”

  “I wish there was something we could do.”

  “I know, me too.”

  I thought about the note and wondered if maybe we could actually go question some of the vampires.

  “Taylor, what if we go hunting some of the vampires and question them?”

  “Yeah, we could do that but wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

  “Maybe, but it can’t be any more dangerous than hunting them like we always do.”

  “That’s true. We should talk to the guys.”

  “Okay, let’s talk to them tomorrow, and if nothing comes up we will go out tomorrow night and find something out.”

  “Sounds good. I think I am going to try and get some sleep. I haven’t been able to get much rest.”

  “Me either. Goodnight. I will talk to you tomorrow.”

  I hung up the phone and leaned back onto my pillows and wondered if we would be able to pull this off. We had never actually tried to get information from the vampires we hunted, and I was not sure how this would go. All we could do is try to get the information we needed.

  I started to close my eyes and considered sleeping, but I was sure sleep wouldn’t come easy. So I climbed out of bed and carried my laptop over to my bed. While the computer booted up, I decided that I would do normal teenage girl stuff and distract myself online.

  Truthfully looking at clothes and social networking sites only lasted me about thirty seconds because it was so hard to do mindless stuff when one of your best friends was missing. I closed the laptop and set it aside when my phone buzzed with a message. It was from Nick.

  Hey.

  Hey.

  How are you doing?

  I am good, just plotting stuff.

  Please don’t do anything crazy.

  I am not. Taylor and I talked, and we want to gather the team and go hunting tomorrow night to try to find something out on our own.

  Are you sure about this?

  Yes, are you in?

  I guess someone has to make sure you don’t try something crazy.

  I won’t. We are just trying to get information.

  If you say so, I will help.

  Thank you.

  Anytime.

  I placed my phone on my nightstand and tried to get comfortable. There was not much I could do for Sam, so I figured I might as well rest and be prepared to help when it came time to do something.
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  Startled awake by my alarm, I was shocked that it was morning. I went to the bathroom and turned the shower on as high as possible. The shower did its intended job, and I felt alert and ready to start the day. I hoped that today we would get some news about Sam. And if we didn’t get any information, the team and I would figure out how to find her on our own tonight.

  Stepping out of the shower, I dried off with a towel and then walked into my closet. I dressed as quickly as possible in a pair of jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt since it was fall and the weather had been getting cooler. Walking down the stairs after doing my hair and makeup, the house was quiet. My mother had already left, but she did leave me a hot coffee and a note on the bar where I always sit.

  Riley,

  I had to go in early. We are working on this so if anyone asks why Sam is not in school today, just tell them that she is sick.

  Love, Mom

  With a sigh and shake of the head, I crumpled the note up and tossed it into the kitchen trash bin. I understood why they wanted us to say that she was just sick, but it still felt wrong. Grabbing a travel mug for my coffee, I quickly filled it with coffee and gathered my school bag to leave the house.

  The drive to school passed by quickly, and I pulled into the lot but did not see any of my teammates or their cars at school yet. The parking lot was not too full, so I parked in an area where there were hardly any cars to wait for them to arrive.

  Tap, Tap

  Taylor and Kyle were at my car window trying to get my attention. I nodded at them and shut my car off and got out of the car.

  “Hey, guys,” I greeted them, shutting the door of my car.

  Taylor nodded. “Have you heard anything else?”

  “No, my mom will not tell me anything.”

  Taylor sighed and stared out at the field next to the school. “We have to figure this out on our own then.”

  “We just need to talk to the rest of the guys,” Kyle agreed.

  Taylor and I nodded, and Ben and Lucas pulled up and got out of the car to join our circle.

  “Find out anything?” Lucas asked.

  “No, but we want to go out tonight and start getting our own answers,” I told them.

  “Okay, let’s do it,” Ben replied while Lucas nodded his head in agreement.

  We made our plans and decided on how we were going to get out of our respective homes, then sorted out when and where we would meet. Nick walked up halfway through and gave us input and agreed with our plans.

  “I will see if I can get on my mother’s computer this evening and check to see if there’s any information on it I can get to,” I informed them.

  “Be careful,” Taylor said. “You know your mom is crazy about what is on that computer.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “but she has to go to sleep sometime.”

  We talked for a few minutes about our plans before it was time for us to go to class. Walking into the school Nick, Kyle and I went to our history class. In class Kyle actually moved seats and sat in an empty seat behind Hannah next to Nick.

  When class started, I grew bored listening to the teacher’s monotone lecture and zoned out . My attention drifted to different areas around the room and settled on the window of the classroom door. Before I realized what was happening, I started screaming. At the window, Sam was standing drenched in blood and covered in bite marks. She looked so scared and sad, and I could not quit screaming because I was frozen in my seat and could not stand to help her.

  “Riley wake up.” Someone was shaking me.

  “No, Sam,” I yelled, “I am so sorry. I will help you!”

  “Riley wake up.” I was being shaken even harder.

  Slowly I opened my eyes to find Nick and Kyle on either side of my desk. I looked over at the window and saw that there was no bloody Sam standing there.

  I looked around and realized that everyone in the class was staring at me. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

  “Miss Spencer, are you finished?” Ms. Johnson asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Well then if you are done screaming and yelling in my class, I will continue,” Ms. Johnson said very strictly. “Disturb class again and I will be sending you to the office.”

  After I nodded, she turned back to the board and continued the lesson. I decided to keep my attention from wandering around the class by doodling in my notebook. While I was no artist, it would keep me from falling back to sleep. In the middle of my doodling, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked up and made sure that Ms. Johnson was not paying attention to me before I fished it out of my pocket.

  It was a message from Kyle.

  Are you ok? What happened?

  Just a nightmare. I’m fine now.

  Okay.

  Glancing over at Kyle, I gave him a nod to let him know that I was good, and I put my phone back in my pocket.