Violet Midnight (Violet Night Trilogy) (19 page)

The discomfort in Jake’s arm intensified. Emma had to be right about where Rosa and Marek were. Made sense the way Cynthia and Dylan knew their way around that house.

But a Frat house? How’d they pull something like that off? It wasn’t like there was a Frat of Vamps. Emma’s wrist would have been glowing from day one.

He glanced over his shoulder as they hugged the shadows the trees across the street offered. Her violet eyes scanned everything. She squeezed his hand and nodded as if she knew he’d looked at her.

She didn’t miss much. Hopefully, Jake was strong enough to help her. She needed him now more than anything. He would not allow her to lose another person she loved to the Vamps. She’d almost lost Jake hours earlier.

“Okay, last house on the corner. See it?”

Emma slowed at the last of the trees. “Darn it. No more cover. Open fields are not a Hunter’s friend. Feel like scaling some fences?”

Jake followed her line of sight. Three houses leading to the Frat house stood dark. A brick and concrete fence at least five feet high hemmed in the back yard of the first one.

“Where the hell is everyone?” Emma whispered. “It’s Saturday night. There should be a party in at least
one
of these houses.”

“Away game? Partying there?”

“Doubtful, but let’s go with it.” She stood tall. “That arm’s going to give you away for sure, though.”

“My house is down a few blocks I could run and grab something.”

She led him deeper into the shadows. “Can you try and call something from your closet to wear?”

He closed his eyes, and a few seconds later a long sleeved, black shirt landed in his hand.

“Nice.” Emma kissed his cheek. “Hurry up.”

He tossed his t-shirt off and threaded the dark, long-sleeved shirt over his head. A dim glow radiated through the fabric pores, but it was much more concealed than before.

“Clear.” She sprinted across the street.

Within minutes, they both scaled the fence and crept beneath the patio ceiling of the first house. A quick look through the picture window showed emptiness. Not even furniture. Abandoned house, maybe. So close to the campus?

Something didn’t settle right with Jake’s stomach. Emma jumped and pulled herself onto the top of the wall to the next fence. She waved him up and pointed to the right.

A dog lay on a square of concrete outside the entrance to a miniature replica of the house. Border Collie, maybe.

“At least it’s sleeping,” Emma whispered.

Hopefully it stayed that way. Jake jumped down, keeping his focus on the dog.

Emma moved across the concrete patio surrounding a pool and waved him to follow. The dim lights shimmered, and had his arm not been glowing like a lamp, and they weren’t going to face his Vamp parents, it would have been really romantic. He’d love to go swimming, mess around, and not worry about what was happening.

Something slapped, like two magnets coming together, and a growl ripped through the air.

“Oh, shit.” Emma yanked him forward. “Doggie door.”

Woof
. That bark didn’t come from the sleeping dog, but it sure woke him up. Jake turned in time to see another dog, three times the size of the one sleeping, charging, teeth bared, hackles up.

Doberman.

“Jump,” Emma yelled.

Emma released her grip on him and lunged. Jake followed suit and landed atop the wall, out of reach of the menacing creatures. The dogs barking echoed off the surrounding houses. “So much for the stealth approach.”

Emma laughed. “Come on before someone sees us.”

She jumped down, and they made it to the last wall separating them from the Frat house without incident. The dogs next door offered a few more random barks, but they must have gotten bored since it went quiet.

“What’s the plan?” Jake asked.

“See the last door there, beneath the porch?” She pointed. “It’s dark.”

“Got it.”

“Let’s start there. Bottom up.”

They scaled the wall and crept past the pool to the door. Nothing stirred. Not even a breeze. The only scent he detected was Emma’s melon shampoo. She leaned forward and pressed her ear to the glass, then jostled the handle.

She squatted down and peeked in. “Can you bring that bright light arm of yours—oh crap, it’s covered.”

“I think it’s safe to let a little light through.” He rolled up the sleeve to his elbow and squatted beside Emma. A bedroom. One window covered by a dark sheet. Queen bed in the middle and one end table with a lamp on top.

Emma crept in. “Door,” she whispered and pointed ahead of them.

She pulled at it but it didn’t open.

“Locked?”

Emma tweaked the handle. It opened and pings of metal clanked on the hardwood floor as the lock shattered. “Not for us.”

Jake trotted through the doorway, his arm illuminating their way like a torch. A short, dim hallway lay before them. They stood close to the walls, glancing both directions.

“Let’s go,” she said as she waved him to follow.

She must be in her Hunter mode. Controlled, focused. He watched from behind as her head turned side-to-side, analyzing every angle. The crossbow armed and ready.

They reached another hallway. To the left and right showed darkness, save two wall sconces. Emma held her hand out to stop him, and raised her weapon. As if she heard something, she cocked her head. Jake held his breath and checked behind them. He didn’t hear anything other than his heart hammering his rib cage.

Suddenly, she grabbed his hand and yanked him down as she clicked off a bolt into the darkness to their left. For a brief second, two red orbs appeared, followed by a muffled scream, then silence.

“I’m guessin’ we go left,” Emma whispered.

Jake hadn’t heard nor seen the creature. What good would he be to Emma? So new to Hunting and with so much at stake.

Faith, Jake.
The voice filled his head and calmed his raging pulse. Much better than Rosa or Marek’s voice in his head.

“Yes,” he answered out loud.

“What?”

“Nothing. Let’s go.” Jake rose to his feet. Determination filled his every nerve fiber.

He took to Emma’s side, and they hugged the wall as they crept into the darkness. With his heightened sight, he made out three closed doors lining the hallway.

He tried the first knob. Locked. Second was, too. He tried the last one, and it gave.

“Wait, this one’s open,” Jake said. She stood beside him as he turned the knob.

He reached inside and palmed the wall, searching for a light. Finally, he found one and clicked the switch.

Nothing.

“Use your arm.”

Jake led, his glowing arm illuminating the darkness enough to see a figure lying on the floor, motionless.

“Ava!” Emma gasped as she rushed passed him.

Emma’s heart dropped when she saw her friend on the ground. She moved toward Ava, but a Vamp crashed into her side, knocking her over and the air from her lungs. Her crossbow clanked off to the side, disappearing into the shadows.

“Emma,” Jake yelled.

She planted an elbow into her attacker’s gut as they hit the floor. He flipped, landing her on her back, him on top. Not a good position.

A dagger cracked through the Vamp’s chest, and a layer of dust swept over Emma. She rolled to the side in time to see Jake tackled from behind. The momentum tossed him forward, almost on top of Emma.

She rolled to her left and leapt to her feet.

“Dagger,” she said.

The Vamp pinned Jake on his stomach in the middle of the room. Ava lay unconscious mere feet from them. Turning her focus back to Jake, Emma went behind the creature, and snaked her arm around his neck, weaseling the tip of the dagger in below her arm.

“Now, I can dust you, or you can get up off my friend there and tell me what’s going on.” She squeezed his neck. “Your choice, buddy.”

The creature thrashed. She jabbed the blade into his neck and dragged the Vamp to the side, keeping him on his knees so she could tower over him.

“No, no. Don’t.” The creature raised his hands.

“Talk.” She held firm while Jake got to his feet. “Jake, check Ava.” Oh, God, please let her be okay.

He scurried around them and darted toward their friend. Keeping her grasp tight on the creature, she turned toward Ava.

“What do they want her for?” Emma asked.

Jake laid his hand on Ava’s bloody neck. “She’s bit. But she has a pulse.”

Her body stirred.

Emma’s pulse spiked, with hope and anger. Ava was alive. Bitten, but alive.

Emma clamped on the creature’s neck again. “Talk or you’re dust.”

“Let me go, first,” the Vamp said.

“So not going to happen,” she said, as she loosened her grip a fraction. Jake snatched the crossbow from the floor and aimed it at the Vamp. “Talk.”

“I don’t know anything. They told me to grab her and you’d come,” the creature gasped.

“Like I believe you don’t know anything.” Emma shoved the knife deeper into its neck. She drew a steady stream of blood that time.

“Wait. Wait. Wait,” he said.

“Ava, can you hear me?” Jake gripped her shoulder.

Ava opened her eyes and moaned. “What the hell?”

“What’d you do to her?”

“I got hungry waiting for you to come, had a snack.”

She moved the knife to his chest. “I’m getting tired of waiting to hear what you know.” She dug the blade deeper, slicing through the dark, cotton shirt.

“They can’t have you two roaming around. Since he didn’t join them, he has to die. And now they know about you, so you have to die, too. You can’t stop them. This is the holy land. They’re too strong.”

“I didn’t join them,” Jake said, kneeling next to Ava. “So they aren’t too strong.”

Ava sat up and held her neck, scared eyes darting from Jake to Emma and the creature.

“Ava, you okay?” Emma asked.

“Um, no. He bit me. He bit me. And—”

“Ava, hold on. You’re okay. Just be quiet for now and do exactly as we tell you.”

“Wait, what the hell? What’s going on?” She looked at Jake’s glowing arm and back to Emma.

“We’ll tell you later, Ava, trust me for right now. Can you do that?” Emma said.

She nodded, evidently stunned into silence—a rarity for her.

“Okay, creep. Where are they?” Emma said.

Jake moved toward her. His jaw clenched as he held the crossbow out in front of him, ready. The Vamp thrashed in Emma’s arms and broke free. It lunged at Jake. One click later, dust spewed into the air.

Emma hustled to Jake’s side. “Here take the knife, I’ll take the crossbow. Ava, come here, now.”

She felt Ava’s presence beside her, for once, following a directive without question.

She switched the crossbow into her right hand while reaching out for Ava’s arm with her other. Her pulse was strong, but she’d been bitten. Who knew how much blood she’d lost. It would be safer if she were gone. “We have to get Ava out of here.”

“No, Emma. I can help. I want to help. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m not afraid.”

“She’s right, Em,” Jake said.

“What? No, she’s leaving. It’s not safe.”

“It’s not safe for her out there, either. They could grab her again,” Jake said. “Or worse.”

A sigh left her lips as she analyzed the room, trying to think of a plan. Jake was right. If a Vamp got Ava, they’d kill her for sure.

“Come on. Let’s keep moving. Marek and Rosa have to be here somewhere,” Emma said.

“Who’s that?” Ava asked.

“Ava, there’s so much you don’t know, for right now, here’s the run down. Vampires are real. I hunt them. Marek and Rosa are Jake’s parents. They’re Vampires.
The
Vampires, and since Jake didn’t join them, he hunts them, like me. Now we have to go find them and kill them. But they’re kind of pissed, so we have to be careful.”

Silence.

“Stay with us and you’ll live. If you don’t, you’ll die,” Emma said. “Clear?”

“Yeah,” Ava’s voice rattled.

“Now, get up, stay close.”

Emma rose to her feet and Jake and Ava followed. She hated having to be so forceful with her best friend, but Ava flirted with shock, Emma could tell. She had to be strong for Ava. Protect her. If that meant scaring her into compliance, then so be it.

They crept toward the door. As if to remind her of the pending danger, Emma’s wrist flared not just a pulse of light, but a throb of pain.

Jake groaned behind her. He must have felt the zinger, too.

Emma stuck her head out into the hallway and glanced each direction. “Clear.”

She went right, keeping Ava behind her and staying close to the hallway wall. Her crossbow was cocked and ready. Ava’s face was pale. She held her free hand over her neck, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

Hopefully.

They neared the end of the hallway and met stairs heading up. Not too fond of dark stairwells after what happened last night, Emma waved Jake forward. “Okay, glow stick, feel like leading?”

He held up his dagger. “Makes sense. I’ve got the torch.”

“I can’t believe his arm,” Ava whispered. “Where are we going?”

“Not sure, just following our wrists. I’ll tell you more later,” Emma said. “Stay close to me.”

Emma smiled at Jake. His orange light illuminated his pale face, but he didn’t smile. His jaw clenched and nostrils flared.

The two people Emma held dear were with her. She had to stay strong. To fight. To save them both. But her armor cracked at the thought of them in danger. More Ava. She was so vulnerable. Jake was strong. He’d help. As long as that mental hold his parents had over him broke when he made his choice.

Oh shit
. They couldn’t still control him, could they?