Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
ITAKE THE PORSCHE.
There isn’t a particular reason. It’s the first time I’ve driven it. But for the past four days, I’ve felt like there was a rabid animal trying to claw its way from my belly up my throat to suffocate me. It’s just millimeters from doing so.
And at the moment, speed and adrenaline seem like the cure to kill it.
I drive ninety on these forty mile an hour highways. My windows are rolled down, letting in the frigid winter air.
I park on the narrow road in the graveyard. The frozen ground crunches beneath my feet. The clouds in the distance threaten snow.
I pass grave markers. Old. New. In-between. Countless mothers and fathers. Children. Enemies. Lovers.
All these lives. And I’ll only ever get to experience this one.
It’s something that’s always baffled me.
We are bound to only one life.
The day has not yet broken, so I have to take care not to trip over myself and those that rest in the ground.
The breath in my chest stills as the place comes into view.
I was here only days ago. I watched them lower Ian into the ground. Returned to find him covered in six feet of earth.
But now, my toes rest at the edge of a hole. The earth mounds upward. It avalanches back toward a narrow opening and splinters of wood and chunks of cement are mixed in it.
This is a still and eerie place.
Ian has always been strong. His will is fierce. He’s stubborn as hell.
Even death and a grave could not hold him.
The sound of a car on the road draws my eyes up. And suddenly, my blood goes cold.
Assuming Ian came straight to the Conrath Estate after he resurrected and crawled out of his grave, approximately nine hours have passed.
This sight of Ian’s grave is terrifying. I try to think of another explanation for what someone else would see here, and there isn’t one. Someone crawled out of this grave. In this town, most people will know exactly what happened.
In the past few weeks, people have been shot and arrested for their fear of the vampires. The mayor’s own wife has been Bitten and is on the loose. If people see this grave, I can only imagine the terror that will increase in this town.
I crouch to the earth, and begin shoving the piles of it back into the hole.
I didn’t bring a shovel. But this can’t wait a second longer.
Dirt stains my hands, freezes my fingers. There are streaks of it all over my jeans, caking the sleeves of my coat.
“What the hell are you doing?”
My heart leaps into my throat and I whip around.
Sheriff Luke McCoy stands five yards behind me, hands on his hips, a look of confusion and horror on his face.
I don’t have an answer for him, so I go back to my task.
“Alivia.” I hear him walking toward me. “What are you doing, and why does it look like someone crawled out of that grave?”
“Because someone did,” I huff. My hands are numb now, making it difficult to maneuver the dirt. Thankfully, it’s still freshly turned enough that it’s not packed yet.
“And who might that have been?” he asks and his voice hardens with each syllable.
“Circumstances change people, you understand that, right?” I’ve got the hole half filled back in.
“What are you talking about?” Sheriff McCoy, now that he’s caught on to what this hole means and its implications, joins me in filling it.
“I told you a few months back that I was a good person. That I wanted nothing to do with the House.” My lungs burn from the effort of breathing hard in this cold air. “But circumstances change people.”
“What happened, Alivia?” he demands.
“I got involved with Ian Ward,” I huff. I stop suddenly.
I rest on my knees and wipe the stray hairs from my face.
My eyes lock on Luke’s. “I knew it wasn’t wise and that bad things could only come from it, but I did it anyway and he did, too.
Five days ago, Jasmine Voltera drove a sword through his stomach, right in front of me. ”
“Wha—” he starts, but I cut him off.
“I’m not finished,” I say, holding a hand up and trying to be calm and patient.
“She was going to let Micah kill Ian that night and I panicked. I went to the House instead and told Jasmine that I wanted them to kill me so I would resurrect. I was trying to distract them. Instead, they captured Ian, brought him for me to feed on, and it all went to hell.”
My throat feels tight. It’s hard to breathe as I recall how much blood rushed out of his body like a river.
“I wanted revenge,” I say with a hard edge. “I began plotting to take from her what she loves most, and that is the House.”
“Revenge is a dangerous dance when your partner is Jasmine and her House of pawns,” Luke warns.
“I am fully aware of that,” I respond as my eyes rise to meet his again. “But then Ian showed up at my house last night. Thirsty. His eyes glowing red. Fully resurrected.”
“Ian?” Luke repeats in disbelief. “Ian Ward is a Born?”
“Apparently.” I resume shoveling the dirt back into place with my bare hands.
Sheriff McCoy swears under his breath. “Just what this town needs, another Born.”
My instincts take over. I reach out and slap Luke.
“Don’t go and act like this is his fault,” I seethe.
“Ian has done nothing but protect this town from vampires for the majority of his life. You didn’t see him when he came to my house.
The self-loathing in his eyes after he had to drink his first meal. ”
Luke stares at me, his eyes hard. The cold air makes the red handprint on his cheek, smudged with dirt, rise quickly. “I can’t pretend to have sympathy for him. But I do trust Rath to keep him under control or put him down.”
I swallow hard, and my eyes drop away from Luke’s.
“Did you bring someone here with you?”
The alertness in Luke’s voice instantly triggers all the alarms in me. “No,” I breathe as I look around. “Why?”
“I just saw someone,” he says, pointing toward the tree line at the far edge of the cemetery. “Over there. He was definitely watching us.”
“You didn’t recognize who it was?” I ask. I’m instantly on my feet.
Luke shakes his head.
“And you’re sure it wasn’t one of the House members?” I reach into my pocket and wrap my dirty hands around a stake. I have a crossbow in the car, but it’s thirty yards away.
“I’m sure,” Luke breathes. He has his hand rested on the gun at his hip. “He disappeared as soon as I saw him.”
My eyes scan the trees, sweep the headstones. But I don’t see anyone.
“I’d be very careful,” Luke whispers. “I think you’re being followed, Alivia.”