Chapter eighteen
I sat on the couch, wiping my hands on my pants. My father burst through the door, dropping Marcus' body on the living room floor. My mother gasped and stood, looking between the two of us occasionally looking down at the dead man.
"What happened? Why is he dead?" my mother asked.
"Ask your daughter!" my father shouted.
"He's the bad guy! Not me. The Guild is going to kill us. There was no other option. We have no other option. Don't you see that they are the ones we should be fighting? Not the ones they deem to be monsters."
"Alyssa, you have no idea what you have done!" my mother shrieked.
"Calm down. I know exactly what I'm doing," I lied.
She was right about one thing. I had no clue what I was doing. My plans are completely screwed up now.
"No." My mother shook her head. "You don't. You know what happened to the last family that tried standing up to the Guild."
"And I've already gotten further than they did. One of them is dead."
"I can't deal with this right now." My mother turned and started up the stairs. "Please clean up the dead body before morning."
"Yes, mother."
I grabbed his ankles and began to yank him toward the backyard.
"What exactly do you plan on doing with him?" my father asked.
"I don't know. I'll figure something out."
"We can't keep him here. Come on."
He lifted from the other end, his arms under Marcus' armpits.
"So what do you think we should do?" I asked.
"The only thing we can do, burn him."
I dropped the man's feet and stared up at my father. "Burn him? Are you serious?"
"Pre-tell, Guild killing daughter, what shall we do with the body of one of our leaders?"
I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed his ankles. "I don't know, but burn his body?"
"We have to destroy him before his brothers find out. Then we need to sit down with the mons-your friends and figure out what we're all going to do. Because whether your mother and I like it or not, we're in this together now."
"It's about time. I guess I don't have to drug you now."
"What did you say?" he asked as we crossed onto the porch.
"Never mind."
"We'll take him to the cemetery and take care of it there."
"I still don't think we need to burn him. Can't we bury him?" I asked. "He is dead."
"Let's just get him there."
I looked up and say Blake leaning against my father's SUV. "Need help?"
"Are you one of them?" my father asked.
"One of who?" Blake's eyes narrowed at him.
"Alyssa's friends."
Blake sighed heavily. "Yes."
"He's my boyfriend, dad."
"I'm sorry, your what?"
"Boyfriend. You destroyed my last relationship, you won't destroy this one," I muttered.
"He destroyed your last relationship?" Blake asked.
"He and my mother. And this ridiculous Guild," I said, kicking Marcus in the side. "They get to dictate everything I do. Where I go. Whom I talk to. Well not anymore. I'm standing up for myself and for all those they hurt."
"Quit being so dramatic. Help get him into the back of the SUV, please."
The drive was silent as we neared the edge of town. The large, wrought iron gate leading to the cemetery were closed and locked. Blake climbed out of the back and worked in front of the lock for a few seconds before the gate swung open.
"He's useful for something."
"Stop it," I muttered.
"What?"
"Don't treat him like he's some worthless piece of shit, dad. He's older than I am. He's wise. He's not the same as he was four hundred years ago. People change you know."
"He's not a person."
"Stop it! Yes he is. He just lacks a pulse. What would you call us? We're not human. We're immortal, and you know what I want to spend the rest of my immortal life with him."
"We'll talk about this later."
I shook my head and stared out the window. Blake motioned for us to follow him further in.
"Where is he taking us?" my father asked.
"Probably to a good location for our dear friend Marcus back there."
We drove past the mausoleums' and newer tombstones to a section I hadn't seen before. A small grove of birch trees surrounded a center of old tombstones. Very old.
Blake stopped and walked to the back of the SUV. He dragged the body out and propped him up against a tree.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Helping," he said as his fangs protruded from his mouth.
"You're not going to eat him, are you?" my father asked.
"I don't drink dead blood. It's deadly to vampires. I'm going to rip him apart so he's easier to burn and so there's no possible way he can ever come back."
"Come back?"
"You don't think there's a way the other Guild leaders could figure out how to bring him back?" Blake asked. "There are ways. There is other magic in this world."
"I know there is," my father stated. "I don't think the Guild has access to it though."
Blake threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh. "You are sadly mistaken, sir. They have access to many things you don't know about. You are nothing more than their gophers. You do their bidding."
"We're more than that," my father said. I could tell he took offense to the notion he was nothing more than an errand boy.
I pressed my lips together trying not to laugh. It was true. Very true. We were nothing to the Guild but killing machines. Every Hunter was expendable. When one of us died there were more to take our place.
Blake's nails were the final thing to grow. Slowly, they erupted into fine points. A low snarl escaped from his throat as he slashed at the man. Twisting Marcus' head, I watched in fascinated horror as it detached from his body like a bottle cap. He tossed it to the side and grabbed the arms, pulling as hard as he could. There was a sickening pop and crunch as the bone dislocated and broke. My stomach wretched and everything I'd eaten for the day came back up. I covered my ears and closed my eyes as Blake continued with the work. My father returned to the SUV and retrieved lighter fluid and the grill lighter. Marcus' body parts lay in a pile as Blake went back to normal. His fangs retracted and his fingernails looked as though they'd never been much longer than the tip. Father squirted the lighter fluid and set the body parts ablaze.
"Are you alright?" Blake asked.
"Yeah. I'm just not used to quite so much gore."
"I'm sorry," he said, wrapping his stone cold arms around me.
"It's fine. I suppose it's something I'd have to get used to if I'm going to be with a vampire."
"I don't do that. At least not anymore," Blake explained. "I'm a tamer vampire than I was in the past. I don't take joy in killing anything or anyone any longer."
"I understand."
My father returned to our side, watching as the former leader was reduced to nothing but a pile of ashes. We really were in on the plan together. There was no turning back now. The rest of the Guild leaders would be coming back after us. They would be sending other Hunter's to take us out. It was only a matter of time. I could only hope that the others at the school were prepared for an all-out war.