Davy Harwood (The Immortal Prophecy) Page 5

  Then I heard what she said. “What?”

  Emily heaved a deep sigh and pressed her cheek against the window. “Yeah, yeah. You were somewhere and she wasn’t saying nice things about you tonight. Said you were crazy, obsessive, and there were other words. I know there were other words.”

  “I wasn’t really nice to her when we went to the bathroom.”

  “Don’t matter.” Emily was firm. She shook her head in a circle. “A friend is a friend, no matter what’s been done between you. I know that much. I have some good friends. Of course, they’d never go to Buds, but they’re good friends. I don’t like ‘em sometimes, but still… I don’t say bad things about ‘em.”

  There was some merit in what she was saying, but… “What about when you just have to vent about something?”

  “She ain’t vented. Or… no. She didn’t vent. That’s it. She’s seen me at my ugliest times. She’s still around. Bethany Ann saw me one time with a green foliage mask on. That wasn’t pretty.”

  “See.” I flashed a grin. “You know exactly how I feel.” Except what she had to say wasn’t sitting well with me. It didn’t feel good. None of it.

  “Yep… yep…” And she was back to sleep.

  I heaved a sigh of relief. Emily drunk was almost as annoying as Emily sober. Turning back to the steering wheel, I pulled onto the road and it didn’t take long before I saw the campus. When I parked the car, I considered how heavy my roommate was. She was a little taller than me, but my weight.

  I could handle her.

  Hefting her up the stairs a few minutes later, I regretted my decision. Her head hit not one, but two doorways. Then she hit our doorway. When I caught sight of the couch, I knew I’d never be so glad to see that paisley thing in my life. Grunting one last time, I dropped Emily on the couch. Then I shut the door and sat watching Emily sleep, weighing what I needed to do. There was no real question, though. Deep down, I knew Kates was in danger.

  I rubbed my hands together and knelt on the ground by Emily. Then I closed my eyes and I reached out… I broke through Emily’s first layer. It was sluggish, but that was no surprise. It was the booze, but immediately underneath was a swirl of emotion. Adrenaline. I felt excitement, passion, rigidity, and a firmness inside of her. All of it was jumbled together. Then I went further and I gasped silently.

  I’d always known she had a black and white perspective on life, but she was harder on herself. I felt like I was being suffocated inside of her, but I pushed further down. That’s when I was hit with a wall of pain. It was masked with jealousy and insecurity. A blast of emotions hurled at me and I could almost hear the snarl. They hit me like a downpour of sleet. When I caught onto them, the hatred was physically painful. I knew I sobbed, but I just held on. I couldn’t do anything else.

  Hatred. Evil. Turmoil.

  The adrenaline was mixed with eagerness. I knew the feeling would haunt me, but I’d found what I was looking for. The vampire was in her. Taking my time, I waded through each strand. They were all entangled together. This vampire might’ve spent time with a Hunter, but he was cruel. I felt how much he loved to be cruel, but then again, a Hunter was sometimes the cruelest of them all. It made sense what company he’d keep.

  I managed to search through each strand. Sometimes I just got a feeling. Sometimes I got a name. Other times, I got a place or a memory. Certain emotions centered on a specific time or memory with him. Then I got an image of his cruelty, a little girl. When I heard her defeated whimper, I shed some tears. The pictures, feelings, thoughts, memories—everything swirled together and then out of the middle the word ‘slayer’ lashed at me.

  I bolted upright and jerked away from the couch. I was hurled out of Emily. Curling into a fetal position on the floor, I was helpless to stop the tears. They just trickled down. Some of it came from the vampire. Some from the little girl, but I knew the majority were from my own wounds.

  I was bleeding and raw, but I needed to find Kates.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I tried to call Kates, but there was no answer. Then I thought about calling Blue, but before I could, my own phone rang. I slapped it against my ear and heard, “It is about time you called me!”

  Blue sounded like she was at her wits’ end.

  “Girl, you need to tell me that I’m off-racket. Tell me that my senses are going sky-rocket into nomad’s land. Tell me… tell me that I’m high and I’ve got a debt to the peyote drug lord. Please.”

  Blue knew better.

  I sighed softly and murmured, “You should’ve blocked me.”

  “Oh… hell…” Blue groaned. “How am I supposed to block you? You’re my… you’re mine.”

  She was my sponsor. It was a bond that we weren’t supposed to impede, but… situations could run amok and who knew where both of us would be. A person always hears how the ‘team’ is there for them, how it’s all for one and one for all—it’s literally true when you’re empathic.

  “I know,” I sighed.

  I could hear those wheels in Blue’s head and I knew she was turning them rapidly… She asked, “You said you were going to call me. What were you calling me for?”

  “Can you feel someone for me? My old friend, Kates.” I didn’t need any other introduction. Kates was well known, by my sponsor and the rest of the empaths. When a vampire slayer is slaughtered, empaths feel and remember it for years.

  “Oh girl,” Blue whispered, brokenly. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” I sat up straighter. “I can’t. I’m really weak right now.”

  “I will, but you have to promise me.”

  Oh God. I waited in dread because I already knew what she was going to say. She always harped about it.

  “You have to go to the next Empath meeting with me.”

  “Fine.” I’d figure a way out of it later.

  Emily grunted a snore behind me. It sounded like a train warning of its arrival, but she flipped on her stomach and the snore was muffled by the couch. I groaned and sat up straight to stretch a little, but was distracted when I heard Blue humming. I cracked a grin. I’d forgotten she did that when she needed to search for her person.

  Some empaths, the really skillful ones, could close their eyes and have the person immediately. Those were the best of the best. The rest of the upper middle class could do it, but much more slowly. Blue had told me that when she first trained for this skill, she learned by feeling every person, in every room, every building, down every street before she found her target. It sounded exhausting to me and completely ludicrous. For some reason, most of the empaths liked to have this skill. They liked working on their gift (curse—as I say) and expanding it. The curse can drive a person crazy if you’re unable to shield and block others.

  “Oh… oh… oh… OH….. oh…”

  Blue was not having an orgasm.

  “Oh….. uhhuh…. uhhuh…” This was followed by some grunts. “Ummmmm…..” Blue went back to her humming. “Oh, child. You’re in some trouble, aren’t you?” Then she said, “Davy, you need to help that girl.”

  “What’d you feel?” I felt a knot in my throat.

  “You know that I can’t tell you. What I felt within Kates is private and she chooses when to tell her friends, if she does. But I will tell you who you can call to help. She trusts him. I felt that and I already felt that she’s told you.”

  I groaned. I already knew who she was going to say and then I heard my worst fear. “There’s a Hunter in town. She trusts him. He can help you. He can help her.”

  “Why did I ask in the first place?” Holy man, I really hated that vampire.

  Blue chuckled gravely. “The most gifted always search. It’s an automatic radar, Davy. It continually scans without causing you the normal pain. But only the most gifted are able to do that.”

  I didn’t need to hear that. I did not want to be one of the ‘most gifted.’ I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice. “Right.”

  “It’s true. I haven’t said anything becaus
e I’m aware of how you feel, but it’s true. You are very gifted. What you can do… takes my breath away sometimes.”

  It took my breath away too—and not in the good way.

  Emily moaned in her sleep, which was followed by another train arriving at the station. Okay, I needed to face facts. I couldn’t do anything about my most cursed gift, but I could do something about Kates. “The Hunter, huh?”

  “He’s who you need to contact. Do you know how?”

  Do I know how? I scoffed at that thought. There’s always a few venues to search out a Hunter, but lucky for me—I had my roommate.

  “Yeah. I’ll be fine,” I reassured her.

  “Alright…,” I could sense her unease now. “…just, I’ll lower my shield to you so you can reach me if you get in trouble. I’ll alert the community immediately.”

  That was not what we needed. If she alerted our community, the empathic community, then it might be war between the empaths and vampires.

  “No, no. I’ll be fine. I’ll find the Hunter. We’ll be fine.”

  “Okay. Well…. I’ll be feeling you.” And Blue hung up with her slightly eerie parting.

  After that, I needed to wake Emily. The idea was not appealing, but I reached forward and gently patted her shoulder. “Emily. Em.”

  Nothing.

  “Hey!” I shoved her this time.

  “What? Huh?” She blinked, dazed, and struggled to focus. “Davy?”

  “Do you have Roane’s phone number?” She just looked at me. I snapped my fingers in front of her face and I saw the fog separate.

  “Huh?”

  “Luke Roane.”

  “Luke? Is he here?” She started to sit up, but I pushed her back down.

  “He’s not, but I have to call him. Do you have his number?”

  “Uh…”

  I saw the wheels turn slowly, but I knew she was starting to wonder why I’d need his number… and why I needed to call him. “Where’s his number? I wanted to warn him about Kates. I think she might like him.”

  “It’s in my cell phone.” Her answer was predictably instant.

  “And where’s that?”

  “My purse.” She lifted her arm weakly and it dropped back down with a plop.

  I saw that her arm was still through the pink purse straps. I hadn’t even noticed when I carried her inside, but then again, I was a little distracted by carrying her entire body. After I snagged her phone from inside, I thumbed through the contacts and found him. It took four rings before I heard his abrupt greeting, “Who is this?”

  My mouth was dry. “Emily’s roommate.”

  “Who?”

  He didn’t remember my roommate? “You know, the one that your buddy bit tonight.”

  There was silence on the other end, long tense silence. “What do you mean?”

  “I need your help. I think my friend is in danger.”

  “Who is this?”

  Good God. “The empath!”

  “Oh.” He understood now. He was quiet for a moment, a long moment, and then he asked, “Your friend is in danger?”

  “Yeah. I need your help.”

  “The slayer.” He seemed to choose his words carefully.

  “Kates. She’s not the slayer.”

  “She has the powers of a slayer.”

  “There’s a difference. She’s not a slayer,” I defended, heatedly. I shouldn’t care this much, but being a slayer according to the new decree was illegal and it warranted instant death as punishment. The Hunters replaced the slayers. The slayer elders had agreed with the decree and so it was born.

  Roane didn’t respond to my argument. “Where are you?”

  “At my dorm.”

  “With your roommate?”

  “Yes.” Why was this so confounding to him? “I got your number from her.”

  “From Emily?”

  “Nevermind. Where do I meet you?”

  There was silence again on his end.

  “I can come to you,” I cried impatiently into the phone. Why did he need to consider this? He was a Hunter. He had to help, didn’t he? Although, truthfully, I wasn’t sure what their job requirements were. I mostly just knew they hunted the bad vampires. I waited for a long breath and then he said abruptly, “I’ll come to you. Don’t leave your dorm.”

  He hung up immediately and Emily snored from the couch. Ignoring her, I programmed the vampire’s phone number into my phone before I stood up—then I felt awkward. I didn’t know what I was waiting for, but I sat at my desk and waited… and waited …and waited some more. It’d been an hour before I growled to myself. I couldn’t stay in the room any longer so I left and went downstairs to the lobby. Of course, when I got there I noticed two things. It was two in the morning and Shelly was wrapped around Adam in the television lounge.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I tried to slip outside, but no luck.

  “Davina!” Adam called out, hurried, and did my ears detect a little bit of guilt? I was pretty sure they did.

  “Hey,” he called again and eagerly waved a hand.

  Shelly unwound her tentacles around him, but one of her arms remained on his hip. It was intimate and I knew her smirk wasn’t coincidental. They both looked dressed up, but Adam had on a sleek buttoned-down black shirt that looked like it’d been ironed. He always looked nice, but this was a pay grade above that. Shelly wore a leather shirt fastened together by one big pearl button underneath her breasts. It added cleavage. Lots of cleavage. The girl knew how to dress. Even Kates would’ve been appreciative.

  “Hi, Davy.” Shelly’s ruby red lips formed a perfect, unfriendly, smile.

  Adam was blind. He beamed. “So… where are you going this evening?”

  “More like morning, Adam.” Shelly laughed and patted his arm.

  If I were a vamp, my fangs would’ve already been out.

  “Oh yeah. I didn’t realize how late it was. We were just… talking. Time must’ve gotten away from us both.” Adam smiled nervously and shuffled on his feet.

  He was uncomfortable. Good. He should be.

  “Are you just going out?” Shelly asked this time. Her quick eyes skimmed me up and down. I wasn’t exactly dressed for a nightclub, but I knew I looked alright. How could a person go wrong with black? And it was tight. Tight always seemed to be good with guys, though that wasn’t why I wore it.

  “Uh…” I opened my mouth, but closed it. I wasn’t sure what to say. I couldn’t tell them the truth, but I was a horrible liar.

  Shelly’s eyes smarted. She asked, quick on the prowl, “Do you have a date?”

  “A date?” Adam sounded taken aback, but he tried to hide it.

  Oh yeah, bucko. I have a life besides you… wait. Was this what I wanted my future boyfriend to think? I wasn’t sure.

  “Davina…”

  I stiffened at that word and not because it was the name I started to loathe (no one can remember Davy), but because I was hit by the same cold blast as all the other times. It was followed by a host of shivers up and down my spine. Roane was able to make my name sound like a lover’s caress and as I turned to look at him, the way he strolled towards us, he looked like the perfect bad boy lover that all the good girls obsessed about. Plus, the whole supernatural predator thing molded to his form perfectly. He dressed like me all in black, but he ventured into leather land. He wore a black tee shirt over a pair of black leather pants. I never noticed how high his cheeks were, the angles seemed sharper and I realized it was because he had nearly shaved all of his hair off. He now sported a clean buzz cut and it made him look even more dangerous. I understood why Emily had a thing for him, but then again all vampires had an unnatural sex appeal.