Chapter Nineteen

Ash Piles

“Okay. Now for the hard part,” I say.

“What’s that?” asks Anthony.

“Trying to explain to everyone what just happened.” I grumble.

I could, of course, compel everyone to think we’d never left the house. That maybe we were in the kitchen together baking cookies. But the thing is... compulsion doesn’t work all that great on my immediate family—and I have a lot of immediate family in there, including all my siblings, though I’m not too worried about Mary Lou. Hmm, better to come up with a different story.

And so we do. Coming up with a rogue black bear is easy enough and somewhat expected out here, even if they’re not the most common thing.

Eventually, the temperature in the room drops enough for everyone to almost go back to normal. Metaphorical temperature, I mean. It didn’t get colder. The only noticeable change is that Ruby Grace isn’t reading her tablet now. She’s watching the windows and doors. Poor kid. She’s going to be paranoid about wildlife for the rest of the time she’s here. It feels bad to do that to her, but less bad than had she witnessed what really happened. Pretty sure no one did. Mary Lou had done a good job of keeping everyone away from the windows, bless her heart.

Anthony, Tammy, Paxton, and I end up sitting together on the second couch. When my parents got a new couch around the time I was like twelve, they never got rid of the old one. It became ‘couch number two.’ Yes, this living room is huge. Other than being a bit on the beat up side, the problem with ‘couch two’ is it’s got a bad view of the television being that it’s on the side of the room.

“Four,” says Anthony.

For a second, I’m confused until I realize he means he killed four vampires.

“We got nine, I think.” I bite my lip.

“Eight or nine, yeah.” Tammy nods.

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Hopefully that’s all… or at least most of the problem.”

Paxton folds her arms. “You know what’s going to happen now, right?”

“No.” I glance at her.

“The mastermind in charge is obviously going to kidnap me to use as bait to lure you into an ambush,” says Paxton in a voice like an actress being asked to do something extremely cliché.

I’m not sure if I should laugh or get worried that she might have a point.

Dusk gets up from Couch One, goes to the kitchen, and comes back into the living room with a beer. He bee-lines for Couch Two, drags a small ottoman over, and sits on it, facing us. He’s giving me a look. Yeah, he absolutely saw the vampire who grabbed him. No way around that. But he went with the bear story, so I’m not yet ready to panic.

“What the hell’s going on, Sam?” whispers Dusk. “Has the whole world gone nuts?”

“No. This is a localized problem.” I shake my head. “Not the world.”

Paxton leans forward, looking at him. “They didn’t have auras, did they?”

“Umm. Actually…” Dusk pops the tab on his beer. “They did. But… twisted. Kinda like two auras wrung together and tied in a knot.”

Hmm. That is really interesting... at least in my world. Immortals should not have auras. That my brother thinks these fiends have two separate auras reminds me of something ghost-Mack said. Some sort of evil presence must be half possessing the corpses and then reanimating them into these vampire-like creatures, while the person’s actual soul is somehow stuck there, unable to escape or control themselves.

That sounds freaking terrible.

Destroying these things is totally doing them a favor.

This also means they are not ‘true’ immortals like me or other vampires, or they wouldn’t have auras at all. Not exactly ‘fully contained souls.’

“And Pax... they can’t grab you if we find them first.” I narrow my eyes. “And turn them into ash piles.”

“We’re going hunting?” Tammy perks up. “Might as well do something... there’s no way I’m sleeping tonight.”

“Not exactly hunting .” Anthony smiles.

“Are you making a lame joke?” Tammy raises an eyebrow, confused.

He tilts his hand in a so-so gesture. “The term ‘hunting’ suggests we don’t know where they are.”

I blink at my son. “ You know where they are?”

“I do.”

Tammy holds both hands up. “So, there are more?”

“There are more, yes,” says Anthony.

I nod. “Yeah. Figured that. There’s at least the one who made them, whose name is Hans.”

Tammy, Anthony, Paxton, and Dusk all stare at me with deep interest.

Oh, hell with it. Dusk’s already opened the forbidden door. He’s seen stuff.

“This Hans guy is… not like the ones we just dusted. He’s a real vamp,” I say. “And… he attacked Mom a long time ago,” I whisper.

Dusk blinks at me. “Say what?”

“It will take too long to explain right now,” I tell him, and reach out and pat him on the forearm. “When this is done, I’ll tell you everything.”

“You’re saying Mom’s a vampire?” whispers Dusk, a little too loudly.

“No,” I whisper-snap. “Calm down. Shh.”

He cringes.

“Look. Short version: there’s something with our family. An old vampire bitch had out for us. She sent this guy to attack Mom, but he failed. Tried again years later and… got me. Whatever Mom did to protect herself, she maybe didn’t do it completely perfectly and ended up like she is. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to teach me anything about the weird stuff, so…”

Dusk gawks at me. “You’re a…”

“No.” I bite my lip and resist saying ‘not anymore.’ “I’m not exactly undead, though I am something. It’s very complicated.”

“So, we’re not going to hunt them.” Tammy nudges Anthony. “That still means you know where they are.”

“Not exactly.” Ant rubs his hands down his legs to grab his knees, like he’s getting ready to stand. “But I can find them.”

“Let’s do it, then!” says Tammy .

Anthony stares into space for a few seconds. “Not now. Tomorrow. During the day. They’re weaker.”

It’s a little eerie the way my sixteen-year-old son just said that like he knows things . Yet, he said tomorrow with such bizarre confidence that I can’t summon the urge to question him. Whether he’s making it up or really getting inspiration from the divine, I can’t say. Then again, classically, it’s much better to hunt vampires during the day.

So… we’ll wait.

Ugh. That means I have time to talk to Dusk now. This might be a mistake but, hey, he’s family… and Mary Lou already knows everything.

“C’mon.” I stand and wave Dusk to follow. “Let’s get some air.”