MY SISTER WAS in Hunter’s room, saying goodbye. I could feel my own goodbye to Arianna approaching, but I was pushing that moment away for now. I wasn’t ready. I probably wouldn’t ever be ready. For now, I was busying myself with watching my family split in half.
Mom and Dad were saying their quiet farewells, each wishing the other to be safe. Since we didn’t really know which direction the danger was coming from, it kind of felt like both parties were heading off to war. It made me wish Arianna and Trey had stayed at my house. Then they’d be safe with Starla, Jacen and Olivia. Maybe Nika and the others should abandon the ranch and go back home. That wouldn’t really solve anything though. Simon knew where we lived.
Ben and Tracey were on the other side of my parents. Tracey looked like she was having a hard time with Ben leaving. Clutching his arm, she asked him, “Are you sure you have to go? Can’t you stay here with me and Emma?”
Smoothing her hair, Ben told her, “You’ll be safe here with the others. Being with Teren is where I’ll be able to do the most good.” Pausing, he examined his wife’s face for a moment, then added, “But I was serious about doing anything to make our marriage work. If you want me to stay, then I’ll stay.”
Tracey’s eyes went wide with surprise. Ben usually did what he wanted, especially when it came to our family. She glanced around at the couples separating. Looking distraught, probably because Hunter had just severed their bond, Halina was hugging Imogen. Alanna was squeezing Dad. Everyone here was accepting the risk of losing someone they cared about. Tracey’s eyes were wide when they returned to Ben’s. “No, you’re right, I’ll be safe here. You should go where you’re needed.”
Ben beamed as he smiled down on her. “I love you, so much.”
Tracey nodded, swallowed, then told him, “I love you too. I must. You brought me into a house filled with vampires and I’ve yet to run away screaming.”
Ben laughed and I looked away. My gaze settled on Trey. My best friend was frowning as he took in the exchanges around him. Walking his way, Arianna’s hand firmly in mine since I wasn’t letting her go until the last possible moment, I asked him, “Hey Trey, what’s wrong?”
His frown deepening, Trey tucked his hair behind his ears. “I heard that dude over there telling that scarred chick that they were going on a rescue mission, and you were going with them. I should be going with you, dude.”
I smiled at his courage, then frowned at his suggestion. “It’s too dangerous, you’re better off here with the others.” Glancing over at the group he’d indicated, I said, “And that dude is my father, the scarred chick is my aunt.”
Halina’s eyes flashed to Trey. There was a deadly glint to them, and I knew she didn’t approve of Trey’s choice of words. He didn’t mean anything by it, but with the mood Halina was in now, it was best to move the conversation along. Returning my eyes to Trey, I told him, “I need you to stay here and protect Arianna for me.”
I wanted to laugh a little at how familiar this conversation was. I’d asked Trey to be her bodyguard before, but neither of them remembered it. Trey looked over at Arianna and his back straightened. Inhaling a deep breath, he stood from the small couch he’d been sitting on. His expression completely serious, he clapped my shoulder and said, “You got it, man. I’ll die for her if I need to.” With a cringe, he added, “I won’t need to, will I?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “I hope not. Thank you though.”
I looked between the girl of my dreams and my best friend, glad to have both of them in my life, even if they only recalled bits and pieces of it. I remembered it all though, and I loved them for their loyalty and acceptance. While only moments ago I’d wish that they were gone and safe, I now wished Raquel was here among them too. She’d shown herself to be a good friend recently, and I suddenly felt the need to have all my good friends and loved ones under the same roof while I was gone.
Jake was anxious to leave, I could tell by the way he paced and kept looking down the hall. I thought he might make a run for it at any moment, but not to get away this time. No, now it was to save Simon. Rory and Cleo were watching him like hawks. I supposed they would come with us, just to keep an eye on him. I didn’t see Jake being the problem this time though.
Arianna tightened her grip on my hand and I focused my attention on her. Soft, luscious lips were curved down in displeasure. I hated seeing that expression on her face. “I don’t like this.”
I wasn’t sure which part of this she meant, but I was hoping she meant the two of us going separate ways. That was the part I hated, and I wanted her to be on the same page. “I know,” I told her, “but it’s important, and…it will be over soon, I’m sure.” Stroking her thumb, I whispered, “You should call your mom, tell her you’re spending the night at a friend’s. And…tell her something about Simon too, just so she won’t worry.”
Arianna sighed, then nodded. “Why do I get the feeling we’ve lied to my parents a bunch of times?”
I leaned into her as I laughed. “Only a couple dozen times. No big deal.”
Arianna laughed with me, then she let go of my hand and tossed her arms around my waist. I froze with the shock of it at first, then I melted into her touch. Being in her arms was the single most amazing feeling in the world, and I’d missed it more than I’d truly understood until this moment. I clutched her tight, breathing her in. Without my consent, the words, “I’ve missed you,” slipped out of my mouth.
After a quiet moment, she whispered, “I wish I remembered being with you.”
An ache went through me. God, I wished that too. “Yeah, I know. Me too.”
My sister reemerged from Hunter’s room then. Her cheeks looked freshly scrubbed, but my sharp eyes could see the tinge of red left on her skin. And there were also droplets of blood on her shirt. She’d been crying. A lot. It pained me to do so, but I left Arianna with Trey and walked over to Nika. She needed me.
Nika gave me a blank stare, then a small sob escaped her. I wrapped my arms around her, remembering how it felt to be disconnected from our family. It was hard, and we weren’t bonded like Nika and Hunter were bonded. Theirs was a deep, penetrating sire-bond. I could only imagine how lonely Nika felt right now.
“Is it bad?” I whispered in her ear. Over her shoulder, I watched Hunter walk out of his room. He was wearing a fresh, clean shirt, but he seemed just as glum as my sister. Determined, yes, but depressed too.
“I feel like a part of me is missing, Julie.” She held me tight, savoring the fact that we were still connected.
I rubbed small circles into her back, hoping what she was feeling right now wouldn’t last for the entire duration of their bond being severed. While I comforted Nika, Halina approached Hunter and comforted him. The three of them looked so desolate, it was as if someone had died in that room. Hunter gave Halina a quick hug, then pushed her back. “We don’t have time for this. We need to leave now if we’re going to save Simon.”
Jake immediately perked up at the mention of heading out. “Yes, please. We need to go now. Every second we waste could be the one second we needed.” His eyes were begging everyone in the room to hurry.
I pushed apart from Nika. “Let’s go,” I told my dad and Hunter. They both nodded. Hunter gave Nika a quick kiss on the head, then turned and started walking down the hall. Dad, Ben, and Jake followed him. I took one step after him, then turned back to Arianna. Knowing it might be the last chance I had, I reached out and pulled her into me.
I pressed my lips against hers with an almost frantic need to make her remember this moment. I knew it could be cleansed from her the same as every other moment we’d shared together, but I still tried to force it into some unreachable part of her brain.
When I pulled away from her, she was just as breathless as I was. I saw a spark of something in her eyes, something reminiscent of the way she used to look at me—like I was the most important thing in her world. I memorized the look, tucking it away in my head where I knew it would be safe.
I turned away and she grabbed my arm. “Julian!” When I turned back around, she grabbed my cheek and brought her lips to mine. The warmth and passion in her kiss almost dropped me to my knees. She cares. I was putty in her hands when she pulled back. “Come back to me,” she murmured.
All I could do was stupidly nod.
I said a quick goodbye to my mom, and everyone else who was staying, and then I started walking away. My body might be leaving the ranch, but my heart was firmly fixed in this room. Dad, Ben, Hunter, and Jake were already out of sight. Halina, Gabriel, Rory, and Cleo were just leaving. I followed Cleo with a numb feeling in my chest. Why was leaving so hard? I resisted looking back. If I looked back at Arianna’s big hazel eyes, I’d probably stay. And I couldn’t. I had a wrong to right.
I heard feet running but I knew it was my sister, not Arianna. When she caught up to me, I glanced her way. “Dad said you have to stay here,” I told her.
She smirked at me. “Dad said the same thing to you, but you don’t seem to be paying attention to him.” She nodded ahead of her. “I’m just seeing you to the exit. I need to watch…” She swallowed, and her eyes remoistened. “I need to watch Hunter leave the house.”
We were silent for a moment, and I put my arm around her again.
Everyone in the rescue party was gathered in the living room by the time we got there. Dad turned to Roy and Cleo when they appeared. “One of you needs to stay here, protect the others.”
Rory and Cleo exchanged a look. Cleo raised her eyebrow and Rory sighed. “Fine.” He looked back at Dad. “I’ll stay.”
Dad nodded and looked at everyone else. “We’ll take two cars. Hunter, Great-Gran, Gabriel, and Cleo will go in one car. Julian, Ben, Jake, and I will go in the other.” Dad’s eyes moved to Nika’s. “And you’re staying here, remember?”
Nika pursed her lips as she raised her chin. “I know. I just wanted one last goodbye.”
Jake groaned while Hunter smiled. He shared one last tender kiss with Nika, then Jake grabbed his arm. “Come on. We’ve wasted enough time already.”
Hunter snapped his head around to Jake and I halfway expected him to drop his fangs and growl. Surprisingly, he didn’t. He simply shrugged him off. “We’re leaving.”
Everyone started heading for the garage. Not wanting to be left behind, I gave Nika a swift hug, whispered, “Keep an eye on Arianna for me,” and hurried after them.
The drive to Blackfoot took a couple of hours, and Jake was antsy the entire time. He kept bouncing his knees, tapping his fingers, and looking around the barren landscape like the view was actually interesting. Dad’s car was leading, with Gabriel driving his sedan a few paces behind us. I was getting really nervous about the upcoming mission, but I kept it to myself. Or tried to anyway.
The miles between Utah and Idaho were eventually eaten up. When it seemed like we’d been on the road forever, Jake leaned forward and told Dad, “We’re getting close. Take the next exit off the freeway, then turn left onto the highway. Once you cross the river, take a right on 350th.”
Dad did as Jake told him. It was dark outside, but the city lights made it pretty easy to see everything. I looked down at the water as we passed over the bridge; the Snake River was a roiling swath of black tumbling away into the night. Following Jake’s directions, we traveled north along a road that paralleled the river. When we got close enough to our destination, Jake told Dad, “Okay…pull over here. The road ahead is blocked off, and I don’t have the code. It will be stealthier if we walk from here. Maybe we can get in and out without alarming everybody in the place.”
Dad looked at Jake in the rearview mirror as he pulled over onto a gravel road beside a circular field. “He’s your family. Can’t you just knock on his door and ask for Simon back?”
While Gabriel pulled his car over behind him, Jake told Dad, “Let’s just say, things didn’t end well between us. He wouldn’t intentionally hurt Simon, not directly anyway, but me…he’d probably shoot me on sight.” I kept my face even, but I couldn’t help but think there were a couple of people in my family who felt the same way about Jake.
When I got out of the car, the soft gurgle of the river sharpened in my ears, and the smell of the countryside filtered through my nose. Preferring the scent of nature to the stale odor of the car, I inhaled deeply.
I turned to watch Cleo, Hunter, and Halina emerge from Gabriel’s car. Hunter still looked dour. I wondered if he’d be morose the entire trip. He glanced up at the moon, then turned to Dad. “We’ve got a few hours before we’ll need to head back. Let’s make them count.”
Dad nodded, then looked to Jake. “Where to?”
Jake nodded to the north of us. “There’s a junkyard up the road. Henry has a place there. That’s where we’ll find Simon.”
I frowned. “Junkyard? Does he have dogs?”
Jake gave me a wry smile. “Is the vampire afraid of dogs?”
Afraid? No. I didn’t mind dogs so long as they were friendly pets. Guard dogs however…that was a different story. Feigning confidence, I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin. “Of course not. I just…want to be prepared is all.”
Jake’s smile didn’t lessen any. “Yeah, he has dogs, among other things. Just watch your step, kid.”
I rolled my eyes at him. Like I wasn’t going to be extra careful in the middle of the night, sneaking into a scary-ass junkyard that a possibly crazy vampire hunter called home. A trace amount of fear slipped into me at that realization. I felt the world compress in on me, making breathing painful and difficult. But then Arianna’s love-filled eyes clouded my vision, and the momentary panic attack vanished.
Dad gave me a strange look, but I waved away his concern. I was fine. Dad accepted my silent gesture of assurance and patted Ben’s arm. “Stay close to him.”
Ben nodded but gave Dad a sly smile. “But then who will watch over you?”
Dad gave Ben much the same look I’d just given Jake. Hunter indicated the road we’d just pulled off of. “After you,” he told Jake.
Jake started trudging up the dark road, Cleo barely a step behind him. Gabriel and Halina spread out to watch our sides. Hunter kept pace with Cleo while Dad and Ben each flanked me. I felt useless and out of place. Maybe I should have stayed home after all; both Dad and Ben were going to be distracted trying to keep me safe. It was too late to turn back now though. And…I needed to do this.
Every crunch of rocks under my shoe heightened my senses. I could hear the heartbeats around me, could smell the different laundry detergents everyone used. Small animals skittered in the fields. Things were blooming. Things were decaying. And somewhere up ahead, the pungent smell of rust was on the breeze.
Moments later, we came to a miles long fence that looked to be circling heaps of garbage. Well, I supposed it wasn’t technically garbage, but that was how it looked to me. Twisted metal, broken machinery, forgotten appliances. None of it seemed of value, but there must have been some point in keeping it all. The heaps of trash would provide decent cover though.
There was a metal gate in the fence barring the road we were walking down. It was sealed with an electronic lock that could be opened with a code, and twin cameras with bright red power lights were perched on either side of the gate, recording every visitor. There was also an intercom box beside the gate, so people who didn’t have the code—like us—could ask for admittance. I was pretty sure our group wasn’t going to do that though. We were trying to be sneaky.
Avoiding the cameras, we walked to the side of the road so we could scale the fence undetected; well, those of us who couldn’t leap over it in a single bound, that was. Hunter, Halina, Gabriel, and Dad silently and effortlessly hopped over it like it was no more an obstacle than a baby gate. Jake watched them sailing through the air with a smirk on his lips. “Show offs,” he muttered, as he grabbed the chain link fence and started climbing. Cleo and Ben followed suit.
Knowing I probably wouldn’t successfully make a jump that high like the other vampires—I’d probably tangle myself in the fence if I tried—I started climbing up the links with the humans. It bucked, bent and made a lot of noise as I clambered up the side, and I was certain that a swarm of hunters would be waiting for us when I hopped off it on the other side. But thankfully the night was still quiet when I landed on solid ground again.
When we returned to the gravel road trailing through the junk piles, the road spilt. Dad, Ben, Halina, and I took one path. Hunter, Cleo, Gabriel, and Jake took the other. I had every confidence in Dad, Ben, and Halina, but it made me nervous to be in smaller groups.
Our group took the left side of the drive, while the other took the right. My eyes darted everywhere, looking for trouble. It was quiet among the piles of junk though. After a while, I could begin to see a pattern in the seeming randomness of the heaps of metal. A group of pipes, a stack of car doors, a pile of tires. It made me feel a little better that there was order here, and not just pure chaos.
When we got to the center of the junkyard, we spotted a building in the mess. It was long and wide, with a dark open sign in the front window. No lights were on, and it looked completely deserted. This must be where the junkyard conducted business during daylight hours. I found it interesting that Jake’s grandfather had a fulltime job outside of experimenting with mythical creatures. It made him seem a little less frightening. Very little.
Beside the building, I could see a kennel running along the length of the office. It was empty, and the kennel door was wide open. “Great,” I whispered, “The dogs are out.” Halina smiled, like that was great news.
Dad pointed at the parking area in front of the building, where a small sedan was sitting. Jake was running over to it, exposing himself in the process. He must believe it was the car Simon had stolen to get here, if he was willing to break cover to check it out. Dad started to make a move toward Jake, but Halina grabbed his elbow and pointed to the building. There were cameras along the eaves. If Dad stepped out there with Jake, he’d be recorded and our cover would be blown too. With our backs to the piles of junk around us, we watched Jake open the car door and look inside for clues. He immediately popped back out. Turning in a circle, he shouted Simon’s name.
“Idiot,” Halina groaned. “He’ll bring the entire junkyard down on top of us.” Just as she finished saying it, two Dobermans ran around the corner from the backside of the house. They were on Jake in an instant; he only had time to raise his arms in defense. I heard shouting in the distance and knew Halina was right—they knew we were here.
Dad ordered me to stay put, then dashed out into the lot to help Jake. Halina and Ben were right behind him. I felt completely useless as I stood there with my heart racing. On the other side of the junkyard, I saw Hunter speeding off toward the voices coming from the back of the building. Gabriel and Cleo ran off with him. While I watched, Dad and Ben tackled one dog while Halina grabbed the other. Two more joined the fray, and the parking lot was soon a mess of snarling, growling, and biting…and not all of that was from the dogs. Jake was sitting on the ground, dazed. He started scooting away from the dogs and vampires, and I whispered his name so he’d come to me where it was relatively safe.
Jake turned to look my way, then shouted my name in warning. I twisted just in time to see a pair of burly guys raising a gun at me. Jesus, I did not want to get shot again. My heart in my throat, I bulldozed into the first guard. I managed to knock him down, but I lost my balance and tumbled to the ground with him. The guard didn’t get up, and laid there unconscious. One down, one to go.
I sprang to my hands and knees, but the second guard was faster. He hit me in the head with the butt of his rifle, and stars exploded in my vision, while blackness ringed my sight. My entire head hurt, all the way down my spine. Unable to fight, I slumped to the ground again. I was sure I was a goner, sure the guard hovering over me was going to finish me off. I’d never see my family again. I’d never see Arianna again. Just as her name passed my lips, the sound of someone being punched entered my ears.
When I could lift my head, I saw Jake duking it out with the guard. He clocked him in the jaw, then grabbed his head and rammed it into his knee. The guard fell to the ground, just as listless as the first one. Jake looked down at me; he had scratches on his face from the dog’s teeth, and his clothes were bloody. “You okay, kid?”
Standing, I nodded. Just the act of moving my head made it throb. What I wouldn’t give for super-healing powers. Looking past Jake, I saw that Dad, Ben, and Halina had subdued the dogs. Dad was carrying two of them in his arms—both looked knocked out. He placed them in the kennel, and then came back for the other two. He had to pry one away from Halina, who was taking a quick drink from the beast. Jake scowled, but didn’t say anything. They had saved his skin after all.
We disarmed the guards at our feet, then walked over to the others who were locking up the rest of the dogs. From behind the building, the sounds of people scuffling were clear. Hunter and the others were still fighting. Halina looked between the noise and us. “Go,” Dad told her. “We’ll grab Simon, and meet you at the gate.”
Halina nodded, then blurred away to help the others. Dad pointed up to the cameras along the building. “We destroy the feed before we leave. And any research we come across. Whatever is going on here, needs to stop.”
Ben nodded and began walking up the steps to the building. I moved to follow him, and Dad pushed me behind him. “Stay behind us,” he whispered, motioning for Jake to follow Ben. Frowning, I fell in line behind him. I supposed it was smart to be the last one in, but the building was completely dark. It looked empty. Remembering the guard who’d given me a massive headache, I reconsidered. This place wasn’t completely abandoned.
Jake gave Ben one of the guard’s guns, and the two of them flanked the front door like a professional S.W.A.T. team. Ben tried the knob, but it was locked. He looked over at Dad, pointed two fingers at him, then the door. Dad nodded, grabbed the knob, and yanked it out of the door. The chunk of wood around the knob broke off in his hand. Ben and Jake swarmed inside, weapons raised. Dad and I followed close behind.
The room smelled musty, but there was something in the air that made my heart thump even harder. I glanced at Dad and by his expression, I knew he smelled it too. Blood. Human blood. Dad gave Ben a sigh-language message that Ben apparently understood. He darted off in the direction of the blood scent, with Dad close on his tail. Jake was circling the empty room, looking for clues. He stopped and stared at a photo of a man with long, shaggy gray hair and beard wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Henry, I assumed. I let out a soft whistle to get Jake’s attention, and indicated for him to follow us.
With Jake watching our backs, the four of us ventured deeper into the building. It was larger than I’d expected it to be, and any second I just knew someone was going to whip around the corner and cream us all. But every corner was clear, every room was empty. No sounds, no heartbeats—except for my own, Ben’s, and Jake’s. Whoever had been here wasn’t here anymore. For some reason, that made me very uneasy.
When we reached the room where the blood was strongest, Ben kicked in the door and stormed inside. Emergency lights softly lit a room that reminded me of Gabriel’s lab. Albeit, a poor man’s version of his lab. A padded hospital table was in one corner, with a strange machine next to it. The contraption was a confusing mess of tubes and IV bags full of blood. It reminded me of some medieval torture device and looked just as old, but it had to be the machine he was using for the transfusions. The rest of the room was filled with vials, beakers, Bunsen burners, computers, carts of medical equipment, supplies, bandages, cleaners, medicines, and refrigerators that hummed in the silence.
The blood that we were smelling, was dripping from a tube hanging off the transfusion machine, collecting into a bucket underneath the machine. After sweeping the room to make sure it was empty, Dad knelt beside the blood. Sticking his finger into the bucket, he coated it with blood, brought it to his lips, then tasted it. His fangs were down when he looked up at Jake. Jake’s eyes were wide, either in panic over his son’s fate, or disgust over what he was witnessing.
“It’s fresh, not from a bag,” Dad told him. “And it’s human.”
Jake scanned the room, looking for some sort of hope that his son was here. “Is it Simon’s? Is my son hurt?”
Standing, Dad shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never tasted your son’s blood, so I have nothing to compare it to.”
Jake shot Dad a dirty look and Dad raised his hands. “I’m not saying I want his blood, I’m just saying…I don’t know whose blood this is. Your guess is as good as mine.”
Running a hand through his hair, Jake cursed. “Where the hell is he? I was sure he would be here…I was sure he would go to Henry. He must have… Where would he take Simon?” He turned in a circle, scanning the room again, then he stopped. “Simon must have told him we might come here looking for him. He warned him, and Henry fled.” His face fell as desolation overtook him. “He could be anywhere now.”
He fell to the bed like he had no strength left in him. I sympathized. If it was one of my family members who were missing, I’d be a wreck. Walking over to him, I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry…we’ll find him.” Simon might not be my favorite person, but I didn’t want him to get hurt because of us…because of me. And if that blood was his, well, there was a lot of it in that bucket.
Jake looked up at me with watery eyes. “How? How will we find him?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything at all. Dad turned on the lights while Ben started rummaging around the room. With a sigh, Dad said, “We need to destroy all of this. Besides protecting people from compulsion, what he’s doing here…trapping and killing vampires for their blood, so he can attempt to make some sort of hybrid between the two species…it’s wrong, and innocents on both sides are being hurt because of it.” He looked over at Jake. “We need to permanently put a stop to this.”
Firming his jaw, Jake stood and nodded. “You’re right, vampire. We need to level this place.”
Dad swung his hand around the room as he locked eyes with Ben and me. “Make a pile of anything that looks like research. We’ll torch every bit of it. It won’t be all of it, of course, since I’m sure Henry took some with him, but it will be a start.”
Ben and Jake immediately started tossing things into the middle of the room. Before long, there was a decent pile in the center—papers, laptops, blood. Anything and everything that had to do with vampires went into the burn pile.
I began milling about the room, adding things to the pile with the others. Coming across a locked cupboard that looked promising, I forced the doors open. What I saw inside nearly made my heart stop. The makeshift label on the front of it read Compulsion-X—it had to be what Jake and Simon had taken, the thing that was making people immune to vampire trancing.
Oh God…immune to vampire trancing…
A thought struck me so hard, that for a second, my vision hazed and my knees buckled. I was currently holding in my hand the key to Arianna keeping her memories forever. All I had to do was slip one in my pocket, and give it to her when I got back to the ranch, and she’d get to remember this night. She would always know exactly what I was, and there would never again be a shadow looming over our relationship. We’d never have to start over.
Of course…to make Arianna immune, I’d have to completely betray my family. They’d be furious, and they’d never see me as the adult I was trying to be. Halina—and my father too, in a way—had seemed proud of the fact that I’d wanted to correct my mistake. Doing this, stealing this…it would ruin everything I was trying to set straight.
But goddamn it, I hadn’t expected the solution to all my problems to land in my lap like this. It wasn’t why I’d come out here, it hadn’t even been on my mind—not consciously anyway. Maybe some part of my subconscious had known this could happen, but I hadn’t come here for this temptation. I’d come here to right a wrong, to stop a teenager from doing something stupid that was going to get him killed.
My body began to tremble as I stared at the canisters. Duty, family…or love? Which one was more important? I knew even considering this was wrong, irresponsible, dumb…but I missed Arianna so much… She’d kissed me, she’d wanted me to stay with her, to be safe with her, she was starting to care about me, really care about me. I didn’t want to lose that. I didn’t want to lose her. I couldn’t stomach the thought of her waking up tomorrow and not remembering the closeness we’d shared tonight. I couldn’t handle going all summer long without seeing her, and then going back to school in the fall and just being…friends.
And besides, Arianna wanted to keep her memories. She’d told Nika we didn’t have a right to take them, and a part of me agreed with her. I should at least talk to Arianna about the vaccine. Offer her protection from compulsion, if she wanted it. Because wasn’t that what a good boyfriend would do?
Feeling like my heart was being torn in five million different directions, I slipped one of the small canisters into my pocket. Guilt and shame filling me, I twisted around to show my dad the cupboard. “Dad…I think I found the vaccine.” My heart was surging as Dad turned my way. I immediately tried to calm myself down. I was just going to show it to Arianna, ask her how she felt about taking it. Then, once she’d decided what she wanted, the two of us would sit down and talk to my parents. I wouldn’t use it without their permission…and somehow, someway, I’d get their blessing. I had to. I couldn’t lose Arianna, but I also couldn’t do this without their support.
Dad swung his eyes my way. “Good job, Julian,” he beamed.
Walking over, Dad examined what I’d found. Picking one up, he frowned. “This is a strange way to deliver a vaccine.” He was right. The container didn’t look like a shot. It looked more like a tiny bottle of hairspray, or a breath freshener, like Binaca. Dad experimentally pressed down on the top, and a cloud of horrible smelling mist erupted from the can. Dad’s mouth dropped open and he locked gazes with Jake. “What is this?”
Jake walked over to examine the container. With a frown, he looked up at Dad. “It would seem Henry has improved the vaccine. He found a way to aerosolize it.” Shaking his head, he handed the can back to Dad. “He can vaccinate people without them even being aware of it now. With a big enough delivery system, he could probably protect entire crowds, maybe even small towns.” His lips twisted as he shook his head. “Sorry, vampire, but your days of controlling humans are coming to an end.”