How to Elude a Vampire (VRC Vampire Related Crimes #2) - Alice Winters Page 0,116

I don’t know where to go. Are they just at the mall with low reception? Hell, maybe they went to see a fucking movie and I’m losing my mind.

Or—

My phone rings and I see that it’s Aria, so I quickly answer. “Hello?”

“M-Marcus, I just got to my dad’s. When I pulled in the driveway, I saw his car there but there’s blood all over it… Marcus, I don’t know what to do. Is he here? Is that man here? Marcus—”

Panic swells inside of me. “Calm down. I need you to go into the basement and get into the saferoom. I’ll be there as quickly as I can.”

I know I can run and move faster through the town than taking the roads, but I also know I can’t run that distance at that speed for ten minutes straight. So I have Brooks throw the siren on top of the car, and once all three of us are inside, I gun it.

“Marcus, don’t be reckless, we won’t help anyone if we kill people along the way,” Brooks says gently, but I still want to snap at him. He doesn’t understand how much I need to get to Finn. I need to protect Finn.

When I pull into the parking lot, I see that Orin’s car is running in the driveway, door open. I’m out and over to it before anyone else. I could smell the blood the moment I opened my car door, but when I look inside, I see the spray of it across the interior and the clear indication of a fight.

I breathe it in, but the blood smells like Orin’s. There isn’t even a hint of Finn’s blood.

“It’s Orin’s,” I say, feeling horrible that I’m relieved. But Orin can lose a hell of a lot more blood than Finn and still live.

“Let’s go,” Brooks says as he turns to the field that the trail of blood leads to. I move after him, following the scent until we hit a wooded area.

I put my hand out, stopping Karsyn from rushing past me. “I hear something.”

The two listen, but their hearing’s probably not as good as mine. “It’s extremely risky if you guys go with me,” I say, but I’m sure they already know that.

“Just go,” Karsyn growls, so I keep moving. The two stay by my side as I quietly make my way in until I get to an area where the blood has thickened. The smell is all around me as I turn, trying to pick apart which direction it goes in as the wind whips it around.

And that’s when I see him. He has Orin on the ground, but his body language tells me he’s noticed me. I don’t know if it’s because there are three of us or if something else happened, but he turns and rushes from us.

Without thinking, I race after him but with the head start on me, he’s already disappeared into the brush before I reach the spot where Orin lies. With his speed, I know I’ll never catch him, so I turn back to Orin. Karsyn catches up as I notice that Brooks is kneeling next to Orin.

“Is he alive?” I ask.

“Barely,” Brooks says as blood pumps from the cut across Orin’s throat that Brooks is trying to compress. It looks like the vampire tried cutting his head clean off, but Orin is fighting for life. He catches my eyes, so I kneel next to him.

“Where is Finn?” I ask.

His hand is shaking as he reaches out to me, blood dripping from his fingers. He opens his mouth, but I don’t think he can even talk like this. When his hand drops, it hits my leg, so I guide it gently down.

“I’ll find him,” I promise as I get up and pull out my phone. I quickly call Claude.

“Hey!”

“Orin’s been attacked, and Finn is missing. Do you have anything you can do to help me?” I ask. “Any idea of who it is?”

“You guys told me to stop, but I’ve looked into it some more. So in the city where it seemed to have originated, there were names of people who have no death records. Keep in mind they could’ve just never had a record or they could have moved without record. There are so many possibilities during that time. But the names I’ve narrowed it down to are a Billingsley, Clark, Gale, and I can’t tell if it’s Walter or Watt. Hold on… Watt is a diminutive of Walter, which could be