Kissing Skulls *Revised*

Chapter 24

“You hope?”  There was a scuffle beside me as if Serenity were shifting in place.  “I hope that word hasn’t reached anyone else by now.  Can you imagine what that bloody council would do to get their hands on—”

“Ren,” Alexi said sharply.  “There are ears.”

Serenity released a graceful sigh.  “Oh.  Of, course.  I’ve forgotten where we were...”

I heard a rustle of movement, and then a wrenching sound.  The mechanical whirr of electricity running through the walls was my only warning before a massive overhanging light blinked on in a flood of artificial yellow.

“Shit.”  I clutched at my eyes as they stung and burned in the brightness.  I felt damn near blinded as I blinked them open—but at least now I could see.

Though blurring eyes, I could make out the shape of Alexi as he leaned against a metal wall with his pale fingers on the lever of a massive light switch.  A few paces away, I shared a busted, mustard yellow couch with none other than Serenity who looked perfect and lovely even though—from what I could tell—she’d just woken up.

And…all around us, lounging on various bits of furniture spread throughout the massive room, were the slumbering bodies of what seemed like ten other vampires.  In the face of the light they moaned and grumbled like a bunch of children being woken up to go to school.

“Rise and shine, kiddies,” Alexi called grandly.  “The big bad world awaits.”

The vampires are a motley collection of what seemed to be young teens—all the same shape and variety of Ashley and her friends.  Several of the dirty faces I swore I recognized as the missing teens from Dustyn’s newspaper clippings—only they weren’t dead per se.

Someone had turned them all into bloodsucking, sun-fearing vampires.

 But why?

“Chop, chop,” Alexi snapped.  His eyes narrowed as his mouth flattened into a snarl.  “Get out.”

The vamps didn’t argue as they slip off moldy blankets and rush for the door. 

The way they jump and shuddered beneath Alexi’s glare made me realize that this wasn’t their first little rude awakening since the two Stroggha had been in town.  From what I guessed from Ashley and Riley’s grumbles Serenity and Alexi had intruded upon this happy little family and thought that just because they were fancy vampire royalty, or whatever, they had the right to boss everyone around.

How pleasant. 

The rusty squeal of the door slamming closed snapped me back into the present before I could feel too bad for the others, though.  Once again, I was alone with the two psycho vamps who seemed very determined not to eat me…

“How did she get here?” Serenity asked in a gentle murmur.  Her black eyes eyed me warily.  “She looks awful.”

“Don’t know,” Alexi said breezily.  He moved toward a moldy blue arm chair that sagged against the wall and threw himself into it.  “But she came alone.  I don’t think those hunters followed her.”

At the mention of Dave and the others, I flinched, and pulled myself upright.  But, I couldn’t quiet force my legs to move correctly and just ended up flopping back down again.  Beneath me, the couch cushion sagged and yellow bits of stuffing spilled from a long tear along the side. 

“W-what do you want with me?”

I tried to sound brave—really, I did.  But my voice was all snotty from crying and I had to sniff just to clear my nose enough to breathe.  I sounded like I either had just suffered a brutal break-up, or had a really bad cold.