“Don’t ever try anything like that again,” Rave said softly, holding her tightly. “If the Destiratu gets much stronger, neither volkaane nor vampire will be able to hold back. You could be killed.”

  “I’m sorry,” Leesa sobbed, her cheek pressed against his warm chest. “But I just couldn’t let you two fight.”

  Rave tenderly stroked her hair. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s over.” He continued stroking her hair until he felt the tension begin to drain out of her.

  “What was Stefan talking about there at the end?” he asked. “Who’s Edwina?”

  Leesa realized she hadn’t told Rave anything about Bradley. “Edwina was my brother’s girlfriend,” she said sadly.

  “Uh-oh,” Rave said. “This can’t be good. Tell me everything.”

  Leesa eased out of his arms. “Can we go inside? I’ll tell you about it up in my room.”

  Rave nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”

  She led him into the dorm, still shaken from everything that had transpired. Without thinking, she headed for the elevator, but Rave grabbed her wrist before she could press the call button.

  “Not a good idea,” he said with a grin. “Remember your cell phone.”

  Leesa smiled sheepishly. “Oh yeah. I forgot.” The last thing she needed was to get stuck in the elevator. She turned toward the stairwell instead. “The stairs it is.”

  Once inside her room, she opted for the softer light of her desk lamp rather than the harsh brightness of the overhead light. She fluffed two pillows and leaned them against the wall atop her bed, then sat down and patted the mattress next to her.

  “Sit here with me, please.”

  Rave hopped onto the bed and put his arm around her shoulders.

  Leesa snuggled close, enjoying his warmth. “Did you hear another woman is missing?” she asked. “Down in Old Saybrook. I saw it on the news. She just disappeared. No clues or anything.”

  Destiratu, Rave thought. His fears were coming true. The vampires were increasing their hunting. Was that why Stefan was on campus? And what was he doing with Leesa?

  “Are you certain the vampire you destroyed is the one who killed the girls here?” Leesa asked.

  Rave nodded. “Yeah, pretty sure. He’d fed recently—I could taste it. If the Saybrook woman was taken by a vampire, it’s a different one.”

  “Just how many vampires are there around here, anyway?” Leesa asked.

  “Scores, at least, just in this half of Connecticut.”

  Leesa’s eyes widened. “That many? Wow. I never dreamed.” She realized how silly that sounded. A few months ago, she didn’t even believe vampires existed. Now she was accepting that there were scores of them here.

  “And they’re becoming increasingly hungry.” Rave’s eyes locked onto hers. “Leesa, you and your friends need to be very careful, please.”

  “We will, I promise.” She put her head on his shoulder and snuggled even tighter against him.

  “Okay, now tell me about your brother,” Rave said.

  Leesa told him everything, going all the way back to their walks to strengthen her leg, and how Bradley had protected her when the other kids teased her. She showed Rave Bradley’s final email, and told him the reason she came to Weston was to find Bradley. Tears were streaming down her cheeks by the time she finished.

  “I’ve never been that close to anybody,” Rave said. “It must have been wonderful. And terrible when he disappeared.” He kissed the top of her head. “And now to learn that Edwina was a vampire. My poor sweetheart.” He kissed her hair again.

  His soft voice and tender kisses helped Leesa regain her composure. “If Bradley did go away with Edwina, she’s either turned him into a vampire—and I refuse to allow myself to think about that—or she’s keeping him as a feeder.” She lifted her head from Rave’s shoulder. “Do you know anything about feeders?”

  Rave nodded. “A captive kept as a blood source, yeah.” He was not about to tell her what a ghastly existence it was.

  “Do you know if it can be reversed?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never heard that it can—but that doesn’t mean it can’t be.”

  Leesa rubbed a tear from the corner of her eye. “I have to believe it can. I just have to.” She laid her head back on Rave’s shoulder. “Do you know where the vampires live?” she asked. She felt his body stiffen at the question.

  “Not exactly, no,” he said after a moment. “They live underground, somewhere south of here and east of the river. By unspoken agreement, my people do not seek their lair, nor do they approach our settlement. The costs of such actions would be far too great to both.”

  Leesa eased herself out of his grasp and turned to face him. “That’s why I can’t let you kill Stefan. He’s my best chance to find Bradley.”

  Rave didn’t like where this was heading. “Leesa, you can’t go hunting vampires in their lair. Promise me, if you learn anything, you’ll come to me first.”

  She grabbed both his hands. “I can’t promise that, Rave. I don’t know what might happen.” She squeezed his hands as another tear ran down her cheek. “But I’ll come to you if I can, I promise.”

  Rave wondered if the best thing he could do for Leesa would be to hunt Stefan down and slay him, before the vampire could tell her anything that might lead her into trouble. He knew destroying Stefan would probably cost him Leesa forever, but at least she’d be safe. “Please do that,” he said. “You can’t help your brother by getting killed…or worse.”

  Leesa shuddered. She knew exactly what he meant by “or worse.”

  CHAPTER 27. GRAFHYM

  Mother died today—she just didn’t know it yet. Leesa hoped she’d soon be reborn into an easier, happier, more normal life. At least that was the plan. If Professor Clerval’s manuscript was correct about the grafhym blood’s reversing the effects of the one-fang’s bite. And if Rave could find the grafhym again and capture it alive. And if the injection did not produce any unexpected side effects. Then everything would be perfect. If…

  Getting her mom to Connecticut had been easier than Leesa expected. Not easy, mind you, not by a long shot, but easier nonetheless. It started with a two-hour phone call, followed by an early-morning cross-country flight with Aunt Janet, then a red-eye return flight to New York City the same night. Uncle Roger picked them up at the airport and drove them back to Meriden, where they arrived well before dawn. It had been an exhausting twenty-four hours, but at least her mom was here, ensconced in the spare bedroom. The room had one window, and Uncle Roger had installed thick black curtains to keep it dark, which made her mom very happy. She had scarcely left the room since her arrival yesterday morning.

  But she would be leaving it soon. They were waiting for Dr. Clerval, and then they would be off to Sleeping Giant Park, where Rave had promised to meet them at sunset. Not that there would be an actual sunset today, Leesa thought as she watched the rain stream down the front window. It had been raining all day, which was fine with her, and the afternoon was getting darker by the minute. Already, she could barely see the street through the gloom and the rain. The chill rain might cause them some discomfort, but was much preferable to sunshine as far as her mom was concerned. Leesa didn’t think they’d have any trouble getting her into the car when it was time to leave. And that was all that counted.

  A wide swath of yellow light knifed across the front yard as a VW van made a U-turn in front of the house and pulled to a stop. Leesa watched as the driver’s side door swung open and a dark umbrella ballooned through the opening, followed by the white-haired figure of Professor Clerval, clad in a yellow rain slicker. He kept the umbrella low over his head as he trudged up the driveway.

  Leesa opened the door before the professor could ring the bell. He stepped inside, holding the umbrella out the door and shaking the water off before pulling it closed and depositing it in a black and gold ceramic umbrella holder. Another thing most people didn’t have in San Diego, Leesa thought—umbrella holders. They were pretty handy here in New England, though.

  She introduced Professor Clerval to her aunt and uncle, and they all shook hands.

  “Beautiful night to take in the park, eh, Professor?” Uncle Roger said, smiling.

  “Just the kind they’d use in a horror movie,” the professor agreed. “Though I bet the director would want to mix in some fog as well.”

  “Let’s hope we can keep any horror to a minimum tonight,” Aunt Janet said.

  Leesa moved toward the bedrooms. “I’ll go get Mom.”

  She knocked softly on her mom’s door, entering without waiting for a reply. Her mom was sitting on the bed, waiting. She was wearing black pants and a heavy black and white knit sweater borrowed from Aunt Janet. The clothes were slightly big, giving her a disheveled look, but they would keep her warm. One of Aunt Janet’s old raincoats lay on the bed next to her.

  “Time to go, Mom,” Leesa said cheerfully. “It’s nice and gloomy out, just the way you like it.”

  Her mom smiled weakly and stood up from the bed, reaching out to Leesa with her hand. Leesa took it gently, touched by the gesture, and guided her out of the room.

  Aunt Janet and Uncle Roger had insisted on accompanying them, so they had donned matching yellow rain slickers similar to the professor’s and were waiting by the front door. That L.L Bean guy, whoever he was, must be selling a million of those things, Leesa mused as she slipped into her dark purple raincoat. Aunt Janet gave everyone an umbrella, and they headed outside to pile into Uncle Roger’s Expedition. Aunt Janet sat beside him, while Leesa’s mom sat between Leesa and Professor Clerval in the back. When Uncle Roger switched on the ignition, Mick Jagger bellowed “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” from the car stereo. Maybe not, Leesa thought as Uncle Roger turned the volume down, but she hoped this time they’d get what they needed.

  Uncle Roger drove cautiously on the rain-slicked roads, and it took almost half an hour to reach the eastern edge of Sleeping Giant Park, where they pulled onto a narrow dirt area at the edge of the road. Her mom had been silent the entire trip, gazing vacantly out the front window, but Leesa didn’t care. At least she was here.

  There were no streetlights on this stretch of road, and it was impossible to see anything beyond the Expedition’s headlights other than the black outlines of the woods only a few feet away. Within moments of their arrival, a dark figure appeared at the edge of the trees and glided toward the car. Leesa instantly recognized Rave’s graceful gait.

  He was wearing the same blue raincoat as the other night. He stopped beside Leesa’s window and smiled in at her. The rain streaming down his face didn’t seem to bother him at all. She lowered the window and he leaned his head close, resting his hands on the edge of the door.

  Leesa introduced him to her mom, Professor Clerval and her aunt and uncle. Rave nodded and said hello to each of them. Leesa noticed his gaze lingered on her mom a bit longer than on the others, but his expression didn’t change.

  “Glad to see you all made it,” he said through the window. He held out his right hand, palm up to the rain. “No need for anyone to get wet, at least not until I get back. I’ve already made sure the grafhym’s still in the area. Now that you’re here, I’ll go round him up.” He flashed a confident smile. “If he hasn’t wandered far, I’ll be back in half an hour, at most.”

  Leesa rested her hand atop Rave’s. Even in the cold and wet, his skin was pleasantly warm. She almost expected to see steam rising from it, but was glad not to, since she didn’t know how she would have explained it to the others. “Don’t worry, Rave, we’ll wait as long as it takes.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need any help, young man?” Professor Clerval asked.

  Rave shook his head. “Thanks, but it would just slow me down.”

  Leesa forced down a grin. If they only knew how fast Rave could move. He kissed her on the forehead before turning and vanishing into the trees.

  “He’s very handsome,” Aunt Janet said. “And he likes you a lot, I can tell.”

  Leesa smiled. She could still feel the warmth of his lips on her forehead. “I know. I like him a lot, too.”

  “Are you sure he can do this by himself?” Uncle Roger asked. “It’s awfully dark out there.”

  “He can do it,” Leesa assured him. “He’s had special training.”

  “You mean like Special Forces or something?”

  Leesa stifled another grin. “Uh, yeah, something like that.”

  As Rave glided silently through the trees, he thought back to his brief look at Leesa’s mom. If you looked hard enough, you could see the resemblance between Leesa and her mom—the blond hair, the deep blue eyes, the thin nose—but in truth, the two really looked nothing alike. There was none of the joyful sparkle that filled Leesa’s eyes in her mom’s vacant stare, and no hint of happiness to curve her mouth into the bright smile he so loved on Leesa lips. More than ever, he hoped Professor Clerval was right, that the grafhym’s blood would pull Leesa’s mom from the prison in which she’d locked herself for so many years. He knew what it would mean to Leesa to have a normal mom, someone to hug and hold, to share with and confide in, to laugh and cry with. And anything that would make Leesa happy, he was going to do everything in his power to make happen.

  Finding the grafhym would be no problem. Though his people didn’t hunt grafhym—there was no pleasure to be found in draining the essence of such a crippled creature—he knew killing it would be easy. Grafhym had only a fraction of the power of even the youngest and weakest vampire. But he was not here to kill the creature. The professor said the grafhym must be taken alive, its blood drawn while it still breathed. Capturing the creature would be a bit trickier—volkaane were trained to kill, not capture—but he was confident his strength and speed would be enough. Ironically, there were also his breath control exercises, which were about to prove useful for something besides kissing Leesa. He grinned in the darkness.

  Ignoring the pelting rain, he leaped easily across a rushing creek swollen by the storm to a width of nearly ten feet. The darkness didn’t bother him—you could not hunt vampires without the keenest of night vision. His pace hardly slowed as he raced up a steep ridge on the opposite side of the stream, zigzagging between the trees. His speed actually helped him climb the slippery slope, for his feet did not stay in contact with the wet leaves and grass long enough to slip. At the top of the ridge he turned west, finally slowing when he reached a gigantic granite outcrop he had marked on his earlier trip here.

  He moved more stealthily now, easing his way down the far side of the ridge. He wasn’t worried the grafhym would hear his approach—no creature moved as silently as a volkaane—but he was unsure how sharp the grafhym’s vision might be, or how keenly it might sense motion in the darkness. He hoped it was asleep in the rocky den where he’d sensed its presence earlier, but wherever it was, its fate was sealed. He would not return to Leesa without it.

  He stopped suddenly, his instincts telling him the grafhym was near. He sensed the one-fang moving slowly through the blackness, presumably alert. A wet twig snapped off to Rave’s right. Scanning the darkness, he spotted a black form heading toward him, moving with an awkward gait. Every other step seemed a bit shorter than the other, but there was nothing in the grafhym’s manner to indicate it was aware of Rave’s presence. Rave melted behind a thick ash tree, a looped leather thong ready in his hands. The creature was making straight for him. All he had to do was wait.

  When the grafhym came abreast of his hiding place, Rave flashed forward, dropping the loop over the creature’s head and tightening the thong around its body in one swift motion, pinning its arms. Rave’s fingers glowed blue as he gripped the grafhym’s head and pressed his mouth over the creature’s lips. He unleashed his inner fire in a tightly controlled manner, sending only enough into the one-fang to render it unconscious. There was no pleasure in the creature’s life breath—the pleasure would come from watching Leesa’s face when he presented her with the grafhym. He hoisted the inert body effortlessly over his shoulder and sped back through the forest.

  Leesa sucked in a quick breath, her heart thumping in her chest as a jolt of adrenaline shot through her. One minute there was nothing outside her window but blackness, and then Rave had suddenly materialized out of nowhere with a limp form draped over his shoulder, his bronze face flashing eerily in the darkness, lit by the yellow glow of the Expedition’s emergency flashers. If she didn’t know how fast he could move, she would have sworn he’d teleported himself there. She took a deep breath to quiet her nerves and smiled up at him.

  “Rave’s back,” she told the others.

  Uncle Roger switched on the headlights, and enough light spilled back alongside the car to illuminate Rave. Everyone twisted around to get a look at the burden he bore on his shoulder—everyone but her mom, Leesa noticed. Her mom seemed completely uninterested in what was happening and didn’t so much as turn her head.

  Professor Clerval was first out of the car, followed by Uncle Roger. Leesa had to wait for Rave to step back before she could open her door and climb out. The air was thick with the smell of wet leaves and dirt. Rave carried the grafhym into the bright glare of the headlights in front of the car and deposited the creature onto the muddy grass. Leesa followed close behind him.

  The rain had slackened, floating down from the dark sky now in a misty drizzle. She moved forward for a better look at the creature that had caused her family so much misery. The grafhym would not have been attractive even if dry and conscious, but lying limp and soaking wet on the ground it was decidedly less so. Stringy dark brown hair was plastered across its pale cheeks in twisted strands that reminded her of seaweed washed up on a San Diego beach. Blotchy red rings circled its deep-set eyes, and its lips were thick and cracked. It wore a black cloak held tight against its thin body by Rave’s leather thong. She was tempted to reach down and pry its mouth open, to get a look at the single fang that had so dominated her life, but she resisted the urge.

 

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