Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter (28 page)

“Ah, here’s Dante,” Mom said cheerfully.

She rushed past me to let him in. He stayed on the porch and
nodded to her in hello.

She smiled. “Dante, it’s so good to see you again.”

“And you, Mrs. Sky. Always a pleasure.”

Mom giggled and blushed.

I brushed past her. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Do you have your phone?” Mom asked.

“Yes.”

“Be safe.”

“What’s with the boo-hoo face?” Dante asked the moment
we were shut inside his Rubicon.

I twisted in my seat to give Tommy Moe pets.

I grumbled. “I can’t believe I have to nurse a broken heart
with you for company.”

“Broken heart? Did some guy mistreat you, Sky? I’ll kick his
ass to kingdom come.”

“It was my doing. I broke up with him.”

“Then he must have deserved it.”

“Not really.”

“So what’s the deal?”

“Nothing good could have come from being with him. Whether
it was now or later, it had to be done.”

“You’re one tough cookie, Sky. That’s one of the things I
admire about you. You’re able to make tough choices—no matter what the price.”

“That seems like all we do—make sacrifices.”

“Naw.”

As we were cruising down Fifth Avenue, Dante suddenly threw
on his blinker and pulled into a Wendy’s. He zoomed into the drive-through.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s a long drive and I’m hungry. You want anything?”

“God, no,” I said, scrunching my nose. “And if I did it
wouldn’t be this junk.”

“Suit yourself.” Dante rolled down his window when he pulled
up to the order speaker. “I’ll take a double bacon cheeseburger, large fries,
and a chocolate Frosty.” Dante looked over the menu and turned to me. “Want
some apple slices? They’ve got apple slices.”

I shook my head.

“No milkshake? What happened to binge eating when you’re
feeling down?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need to puke on top of everything
else.”

Dante pulled up to the pickup window to collect his bag of fast
food. He unwrapped the cheeseburger before getting back onto Fifth and tossed
the bacon slices back to Tommy. Only Dante could manage to steer, shift gears,
and stuff a burger in his face. When the burger was finished, Dante jammed
fingers full of fries into his mouth and chewed loudly.

He noticed me watching and held the fries toward me. “Want
some?”

I wrinkled my nose. “No, I’m good.”

Soon, we were on the Glenn Highway. This time, I could
actually see the landscape waltzing by. We careened past the miles of fenced
forest along the base, skirted mountains and woods, and crossed over rivers.

“I won’t be able to go back,” I said.

“Where?”

“To Denali.”

“This guy really got to you, didn’t he?”

 “Yeah.”

I looked out the window.

“I could enroll at West with Noel.” I paused. “You probably
think I’m a real coward.”

“Not at all. From Dante’s Guide to Life: If you no longer
like the scenery, change it. Keep moving is what I say.” Dante tapped his
fingers on the steering wheel. “So you’re friends with Noel, but not Valerie?”

“She’s more like my arch nemesis.”

“Too bad, she’s really cute.”

I ground my teeth together. “Let’s be clear, if you ever
hooked up with Valerie I’d never speak to you again.”

“Whoa,” Dante said and laughed. “What did this chick do to
you?”

“She’s about to steal my boyfriend…or ex-boyfriend anyway.”
I guess there was no harm in telling Dante part of the truth. I’d just leave
out the bit about Fane being a vampire.

“She’s a badass,” Dante said in admiration.

“I stole him first.”

“Then you’re the badass.” Dante sounded even more impressed.
“Nothing like a bit of juicy assassin/informant rivalry to entertain the mind
on the long drive ahead.”

I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. “I’m done
talking about Valerie.”

“Come on. How did you steal her man out from under her?”

I shrugged. “He came to me.”

Dante chuckled. “I don’t doubt it.”

I changed the subject. “It’s all fine and good to say I’ll
just transfer, but I’m going to spend my last semester of senior year utterly
friendless.”

“Two words for you, Sky: track team.”

“Track team?”

“Join the track team, win at the meets, and you’re golden.
Take it from your officially appointed mentor. I know what I’m talking about.”

“You’re forgetting one thing. I suck at sports.”

“Ah, maybe the Aurora of yore sucked at sports, but new
superhuman Sky is a champion. Vampire blood, remember? It’s in us, it enhances
us—can’t let that extra boost go to waste, can we?”

“Doesn’t track start in the spring?”

“So even better—start with cross country. I remember being
on the cross country team,” Dante said wistfully. “Meets, competitions,
parties, girls…well, boys for you. You’ll have it made.”

I stared out the window. “Maybe I’ll look into it.”

I cleared my throat. “So you located these two guys from the
party?”

Dante produced a grunt of disgust. “Apparently one of them
overdosed right after we left. I did get an address on the second guy, Thomas
Parks—lives at home.”

“So we’re just going to barge in on his family.”

He smiled. “Single mom. Works all the time. I checked.”

Dante made several pit stops, including his favorite pullout
where, even in the daylight, we couldn’t see Denali through the clouds.

“One of these times, Sky,” he said.

Once we reached Fairbanks, Dante drove straight for a
rundown ranch house and parked in front on the street. He kept the engine
running. It was either that or risk it dying in the subzero conditions without
a plug in.

“Stay in the car,” Dante said. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

Fine by me. If I could take out two vicious vampires on my
own, Dante could handle a half-dazed suck junkie.

Outside my window, Dante walked smoothly across the
snow-covered yard on a path blazed by footsteps. The rest of the driveway
hadn’t been shoveled. There was a concrete rectangle where a car had been
parked. Dante walked onto the porch and bent over the door handle. I started to
shiver even though the heat was blasting through the vents.

Dante opened the door and pushed into the house. Just as quickly,
he shut it behind him.

Tommy’s tongue slid back and forth between his teeth. I
turned the radio on and off. I started humming.

When Dante came out the front door dragging a black-hooded
body with him, I grasped the handle of the Jeep and jumped out.

“Hurry up! Open the back.”

I nearly slipped on the ice, rushing to the rear of the
Jeep. I don’t know how Dante expected to stuff a body in his shoebox sized
trunk, but he did.

Surprisingly, Thomas didn’t struggle.

“Sedative for the ride,” Dante said as if reading my mind.

We hopped into the front seats, and I couldn’t stop shaking.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Moving him to another location to interrogate him.”

“The cabin?”

“Yep.”

I looked over my shoulder. Tommy breathed heavily then
stopped when I stared at him.

“Is there a reason Tommy doesn’t find any of this alarming?”
I asked.

Dante’s face softened. “Tommy’s just a big teddy bear.”

I guess that made Dante the grizzly.

 22

Being back inside that cabin was eerie. Our mugs from
the previous weekend were turned over on a kitchen towel on the counter. The
bed in the corner was made. Dante got to work making a fire.

Once it flickered to life, he straightened up.

“Time to bring in Thomas.”

“Need help?”

“Nah, he’s a light weight.”

Dante’s retreating footsteps echoed over the floorboards. I
rubbed my hands together in front of the fire, but it offered no heat.

The cabin door flew open, hitting the wall with a
bang
.

Dante dragged Thomas by the shoulders and dumped him on a
chair.

“Tape his arms and legs to the chair will you?”

I rummaged around in the kitchen drawers until I found a
roll of duct tape.

No one had ever trained me in the art of taping a hostage to
a chair before. I started by pulling Thomas’s arms around the seatback.

The tape made a ripping noise as I pulled long stretches of
it from the roll.

 “Make it tight,” Dante said.

I held one of Thomas’s limp arms against the back and began
wrapping tape around his appendage and the gap between the strips of wood
backing. I ripped the pieces of tape off with my bare hands. His feet were
easier.

I stood back to admire my handiwork.

“What about the hood?”

“Leave it on.”

Dante checked Thomas’s wrists. “Not bad, Sky.”

“Now what?”

The fire sparked behind Dante casting an eerie glow all
around him.

His eyes were on Thomas.

“Now we wait for the sedative to wear off.”

The cabin felt a hundred degrees hotter once the fire got
going. I welcomed the warmth when I ran back inside after freezing my ass off
in the outhouse.