Passions Page 22

  The thought of Gavin leaving made her want to pull over to the shoulder and cry over her steering wheel with him as a witness in the passenger seat. Luckily, she was stronger and less impulsive than that.

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked, trying to control the subtle tremor in both her hands and her words.

  Gavin passed a hand over his eyes. “I don’t know. I’m tired, and my mind isn’t all there.”

  Chloe wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but all sense of that fleeting emotion was gone when she saw the road sign for Old Mill Road. She turned onto the street, which was vacant on either side and stretched on into the night. The road had ditches on both sides and trees beyond, but Chloe could see no houses or any other sign of civilization.

  Gavin looked out of the windshield. “It may be better if we go on foot from here,” he said.

  Chloe nodded and pulled the jeep to the side of the road, put it in park and killed the engine.

  The night air was cold, and Chloe was thankful she had grabbed a heavier coat than she had been wearing into town earlier. Gavin, however, only wore the same long coat and a single button down shirt as he always did.

  Gavin walked ahead of her, his steps rather loud and grinding against the asphalt. The detox made him careless as to who heard him or not. Chloe hugged the flaps of her coat tightly around her chest and followed after him, being careful not to interrupt his concentration.

  He spoke not a word until they came to one section of the road. He stopped at the point where trees ended and an abandoned field of cotton plants began. With his chin tilted up towards the clear starry sky, he sniffed.

  “There’s been blood here recently,” he stated softly.

  Chloe looked around her as an owl hooted overhead. “Human?”

  “Yes. But there are many other scents, too.” Gavin slowly meandered towards the opposite side of the road.

  “Vampire or animal?” Chloe asked as she trailed behind him.

  “I most certainly smell an animal,” he replied.

  Chloe had hoped for a moment that there was no real danger. The authorities could easily deal with a rogue bear or even a cougar if that’s what killed the children.

  “But nothing large. I smell squirrels and deer mostly.”

  Once again, she was crestfallen. “Anything else?”

  Gavin hopped down into the ditch and bent down around the base of some pines on the other side. “I smell the police and chemicals that I presume they used for cleaning.” He breathed in deeply, and Chloe got the humorous depiction in her mind of him behaving like a bloodhound.

  “Any vampires?” Chloe didn’t want to continually mention the worst case scenario, but it was the only reason they were out there in the chilly night at all. She was thankful that no one seemed to be traveling out this late, either.

  Gavin crouched down and sat there for a moment as if to get his bearings.

  “It’s very faint, but I do smell a vampire. Not one that I’m familiar with, of course. It’s so faded that I won’t even be able to track it.”

  Chloe’s shoulders slumped, and she felt as if she’d be sick right there on the side of the road. There was a vampire in Carter Lake; a violent, child-murdering vampire. She cursed under her misty breath.

  Gavin stood and stared down the road in the direction of the cotton field. Chloe watched him, waiting for anything. But his expression gave her no clues as to what he was thinking exactly. The detox had made him even more closed off to her.

  She wanted to grab him by his coat lapels and demand more information, but she knew that he had none to give. What he told her was all he knew.

  Chloe pressed her slightly chapped lips together and tried to hold in her impatience, but it was too much.

  “We need to go after it and stop it,” she declared, feeling a righteous indignation burning inside of her. If he wouldn’t react to this horrible truth, then she would.

  Gavin turned to her, and she could see his dark eyebrows pinching together over his nose in the dim light. “Go after it? I can’t track it. And how will you kill it? I’m not sure if that stake through the heart bit works at all. Next to that is sunlight, but there’s no way we could trap it until dawn.”

  Chloe teetered on the edge of the asphalt, looking down at Gavin who was still standing in the ditch.

  “I don’t know. All I know is that we know what’s been killing these kids, and we can’t just walk away. We have a moral responsibility to do something about it.” Chloe waved her hand off in the general direction of town. “You know the police will just think that I’m crazy and won’t believe a word of it. We have to take matters into our own hands.”

  Gavin smirked. “Although I have always admired the vigilante approach to these kinds of matters, it’s a purely romanticized ideal that has too many consequences. We are ill prepared, and I am in no condition to either fight it or defend you.”

  Chloe began pacing a few yards in each direction, mulling the situation over in her head and coming up with a plan. Just as Gavin was climbing his way out of the ditch, she approached him with her proposal.

  “We can’t track it. But it’ll need to feed again, right?”

  Gavin nodded. “Theoretically, yes.”

  “Then we lure it out with a potential meal and catch it off guard. You can hide in a tree and I’ll try a little bantering back and forth, and when it least expects it, you drop down and stake it through the chest.”

  Gavin narrowed his eyes at her curiously as if she had grown two heads. “Are you insane? There’s no way I’ll allow you to be used as bait for a vampire who is obviously skilled in killing humans.”

  Chloe shrugged. “What other choice do we have? The vampire won’t go after you. And if it does, it’ll probably just see you as a threat and try to kill you. If you stay hidden and just drop from the tree, it’s minimal effort. No fighting or defending necessary.”

  Gavin took a bounding step towards her. “And what if it won’t have anything to do with your badinage scheme and go straight to attacking you? What am I to do then? You could be dead by the time I reach you.”

  She understood the risks, but somehow, they didn’t seem as dangerous as what Gavin was making them out to be.

  “If we don’t at least try, then the vampire will kill more children; maybe all of them.” Chloe was so close to Gavin now that she could reach out and caress his lips if she wished; so close and yet so far away. “You may not kill them yourself,” she continued, “but you will seal their fate if you don’t do something to stop it.”

  Gavin glared down at her. She could see that he was thinking it over, weighing the options in his mind. Chloe didn’t mean to force him into this decision. She didn’t want to manipulate him. But, somehow, she knew that he understood that this was the right thing to do. They were throwing caution to the wind, but unless he had another idea, this was the best course of action.

  Finally, defeat settled in, and Gavin nodded. “Fine.” He raised a cautioning finger. “But, you must do exactly as I say. Failure to do so will cost both of our lives.”

  “Both?” Chloe blinked.

  “If you die, I will die, simple as that.”

  His voice was calm and even as if he were stating a fact of the universe that could not be disputed. However, Chloe could see the eddy of feeling in his eyes when he said it, and she knew it to be true. She had to stay alive for his sake, at least.

  He turned and trudged back towards the jeep, leaving her with nothing but the implied loyalty and devotion he felt for her. It was all conveyed in that guileless statement, and Chloe would never forget it.

  Chapter 17

  Chloe put one foot in front of the other, slowly wandering over the mountainside. The cabin was far behind her now and over the creek where she’d played as a child.

  She replayed the moment when she had crossed over that strip of water with Gavin by her side, a little more awake than he had been an hour before. He had explained to her exactly what to do. />
  But now, standing under the light of the waning moon above that filtered through the dense canopy of leaves, Chloe couldn’t remember a thing. All she could think of was how alone she felt out here.

  Her role was the bait for the vampire that had been terrorizing Carter Lake, and she knew that Gavin was somewhere in the treetops above her. But, she heard nothing, saw nothing. Even the animals that normally pierced the night with their mating calls seemed to be conveniently missing.

  It was as if she were the only person on the face of the planet; the only one left after some apocalyptic disaster that left her untouched. This must be how Gavin had felt after burying his wife and son; so alone, so empty.

  But she couldn’t think of that now. She had to stay alert and ready for when—or if—the vampire showed up.

  They were fools to go through with this plan without properly preparing themselves. With Gavin in his weakened state and both of them totally clueless as to what could kill another vampire, they were up a creek without a paddle and at the mercy of the current. But to Chloe, there was an urgency to stop this menace before it killed any more innocent children.

  “Wow, I can’t believe how lost I am,” she said rather loudly. She was playing to the vampire that might be within earshot, but even Chloe had to admit that her statement was filled with more truth than she liked.

  “It’s cold and a little creepy out here. Can anybody hear me?” she screamed the last supplication, hoping to lure the predator towards her. She was easy prey.

  Keeping her head on a swivel, she continued to walk, her feet shuffling through the fallen autumn leaves on the forest floor. It was the only sound she heard besides the wind rustling the leaves that still clung to branches overhead.

  Every tree looked the same, every bush and fallen log blurred together in the darkness. Figures and paths were distorted by her poor night vision. It was impossible to tell which way was north or if she had been going in circles this whole time. She wasn’t even sure if Gavin was still following her.

  Chloe tried to keep her heart light, thinking about how this exact scene would have been so corny in a horror film. From an audience standpoint, everyone would know that she would die somehow. What fun would it be if she escaped? Chloe was glad this was not a movie.

  “Hello?” she called out with her hands cupped around her mouth to help project her voice.

  “Hello.”

  The deep voice came from behind her, far too close for comfort. And it wasn’t Gavin’s.

  Chloe let out a startled shriek, jumped and turned to see who the voice belonged to.

  Standing in front of her was a man clad in all black. He would have blended in with the night around him if it weren’t for the pale glow of his exposed arms and face. His features were sharp, his physique strong but slender. Long golden hair, comparable to freshly harvested corn, was pulled back into a ponytail that draped down his back. Dark brown eyes leered down at her, supplemented by a sly Casanova smile.

  Chloe backed away slowly as the man raked his eyes over her body obviously sizing her up. He matched her step for step, keeping barely a yard of distance between them.

  “What’s a beautiful lady like yourself doing out in the middle of the woods?” he asked. His accent was American but lacking a southern dialect. He sounded more like he belonged in the New England states like Boston or New York.

  Chloe cleared her throat to make up for the long pause before she replied. “I decided to take a walk and got lost. I live on the mountain. I guess I should have carried bread crumbs with me.”

  She laughed feebly at her own joke, but the man’s expression showed no hint that he even knew what she meant by that.

  “Perhaps I could assist you home? I know this mountain well.”

  Chloe gave him a halfhearted smile and stopped backing away. He also stopped. “I’m not sure which direction I came from.”

  “I know the way to town from here,” he said. “When we reach there, can you find the way back?”

  Chloe feigned a deliberation, scrunching up her lips as if she were thinking it over. She couldn’t remember what Gavin told her to say. Was she supposed to accept any offered help or decline it? Was she supposed to stall for time or simply wait until Gavin made his move? Why hadn’t he made his move already?

  Finally, she nodded. “I think I can manage that. Which is the way to Carter Lake?” she asked, trying to sound cheerful and genuinely thankful for his assistance. But all the while, she wondered how many other poor girls had fallen in this same game.

  The vampire grinned, showing his teeth but careful not to reveal his sharp incisors just yet. He was savoring this, playing with her. He’d gain her trust first and then move in for the kill.

  He gestured in one direction. “Town’s this way.”

  Chloe wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth but nodded and began to walk that way. The vampire followed close beside her as if he were a loyal dog keeping pace with its owner.

  “My name is Terrance. What’s yours?” he said, offering his hand to shake.

  Chloe was thrown off by the gesture and jerked back a little, half expecting him to reach out and grab her. But he was calm with no hint of malice. Was it always his custom to get to know his dinner before devouring it? For any normal person, it would have made the job of killing more difficult. Perhaps it wasn’t the same for vampires.

  She hesitantly took his hand and shook it. His skin was cold as ice, just like she had suspected a vampire’s would be. But Gavin’s touch had been warm before the detox. How long had it been since this vampire had fed? Or was this because he took the life of a child and drank their blood? “Chloe,” she replied.

  Terrance nodded as if he approved of her name and her openness. “That’s a beautiful name; a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”

  Chloe looked away. “You should know I have a boyfriend.”

  Terrance chuckled. “Am I not permitted to administer compliments to taken women?”

  “I suppose you can, but I’m just making you aware that you’ll get nowhere with me,” Chloe added with a simpering smile. And just like that, she was flirting.

  Terrance approved of this as well. “If you have a boyfriend, why is he not out here with you?”

  She sighed and came up with a fake story off the top of her head. “We had a fight. I came out here to cool down and think things through. But I’m going to take him back, so don’t get any ideas.”

  He chuckled. “I’m glad to hear you worked things out.”

  Terrance, if that was his real name, moved branches out of the way for her and made sure her path was unobstructed. The journey was silent for a while, and Chloe began to get worried.

  Where was Gavin? Why hadn’t he attacked yet? Did he get lost somewhere or fall asleep in the treetops? And if he was waiting for the perfect moment, could Terrance detect his presence? Surely a vampire could tell when another one of their kind was near. And even if he couldn’t sense Gavin, then he could have smelled or heard him in the trees.

  Chloe had to put her anxiety on hold when Terrance turned to her and asked, “You look familiar. Have we met before?”

  She purposefully avoided meeting his piercing gaze that was burning a hole through her. “No, I’m pretty sure we haven’t.”

  “Then perhaps I know a relative of yours.” A few beats of silence passed, and then Terrance snapped his fingers. “I know!” he exclaimed with much ebullience. “Are you related to Mary Anne Hilton?”

  Chloe stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Terrance with a mix of horror and confusion. How could he know her late aunt? There was no doubt this vampire was the one killing the children in Carter Lake, but that had only been going on for a month, and her aunt had moved out of the cabin years ago.

  Was it possible that this vampire had visited the area before? And what was her aunt doing by associating with both Gavin and Terrance? Or maybe, Chloe thought, this was the old vampire that Gavin had met with previously. Perhaps that was
why Gavin hadn’t attacked yet. He might know this vampire and trust him.

  She didn’t know what compelled her to say, “Yes, she was my aunt.”

  “Was?” Terrance questioned, tilting his head curiously.

  Chloe crossed her arms tight over her stomach. “She passed away over a month ago.”

  Terrance clicked his tongue a bit and shook his head. “That’s a shame. She was a nice, old woman. You have my deepest condolences.”

  With that one sentence, Chloe knew this couldn’t be Gavin’s old acquaintance. Whoever that vampire was left the area a half a century ago, and from what Gavin said never came back. Her aunt would have been a young lady back then, not an old woman.

  Something wasn’t right, and Terrance wasn’t telling her the truth. She didn’t expect him to, but it made Chloe uneasy all the same. However, she had to keep playing along. If Gavin was still waiting for the right moment, she had to bide her time.

  “Thank you. We were really close.”

  Terrance began to lead the way back along the path. “I know what it’s like to lose a close family member. It’s never easy.”

  He lifted a curtain of pine branches and let Chloe pass on ahead. But when she stepped through, she froze.

  Before her was a cabin, and not just any cabin. It was her cabin. And sitting on the gravel path was her black jeep. The scene was bathed in moonlight, but it didn’t seem quite real.

  She’d wandered much too far into the woods to have arrived at her cabin this soon. Terrance stepped up beside her.

  “Is this your home?” he asked casually as if he already knew that it was.

  Chloe looked over her shoulder from the direction she had come and saw the sparkling waters of the creek. She knew for a fact that she hadn’t waded through the creek to get to where she was standing now.

  This wasn’t right.

  Chloe looked back to the cabin and felt her heart thud loudly in her chest.