Chapter 20

To Escape, or not to Escape?

I never thought school could get so difficult. I missed a couple days and I was knee-deep in homework. Rylan had avoided me; actually, he had pretty much avoided everyone. The night five days ago, when we arrived home from Becca's and Josh's, Claude disappeared with Cassy and Rylan somewhere in their huge house, and Brent filled Lukas in on the details and my dream.

Now it seemed that everybody but Rylan and Cassy were around me twenty-four-seven, as if the nightwalkers could suddenly figure out how to walk in the daylight. Hah, I highly doubt that. Although, weeks ago when I first moved into the Darquecaster house, I had doubted vampires in general. I supposed it was best not to make silly acquisitions.

In the past week, there had been no sign of any nightwalkers, for which I was grateful for. Seeing my father a nightwalker only made him a million times worse. Jakobi, the escapee nightwalker of many years, was out to change me into a creepy, nocturnal crawly like himself and my father.

Every night, I fed from each vampire in an easier way. Claude thought it would be a bit less intimate by getting their blood drawn and then having me drink it from a cup. My emotions were on the run like I was PMSing the whole day every day. I ignored it and just kept out of the way of bickering and assholes… such as Alec.

School was a drag like usual. Elly hung all over Alec, while he and Lukas teamed up on Max everyday at lunch. Both him and I got used to it, began ignoring it, and started chatting together with Brent and his new girlfriend.

Ah, did I mention the girlfriend? Well, her hair was blonde, but she was so much smarter than anyone gave her credit for. She didn't act like the preps that she hung out with. In fact, I think she had a great head on her shoulders. Much better than Elly. Shit, Tiffany didn't even goggle over Brent. She just flirted and talked about a lot more interesting things than Elly.

Plus she was gorgeous. Her hair was a dirty blonde that curled down and over her breasts in thick strands. Her eyes were slanted like a cats and a pretty hazel-green. She had a flock of freckles adorning her tiny nose and high cheek bones that set off her plump lips. If it wasn't for her tanned skin, one would have thought she was a vampire. But comparing her to Cassy, she wasn't even close to the beauty of one.

Tiffany was as human as human could be.

Brent shot me a look as he read through my mind, and I smiled apologetically, turning back to Max.

"You were saying something?" I asked. Around me, Lukas was talking to Brent and Tiffany, while Alec and Elly spoke quietly to each other. I tried with superhuman effort to ignore the sour feelings toward Elly. Rylan had skipped lunch and was always somewhere else since biting me.

Max rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah. I was wondering when you were moving out of the va- Darquecaster house." He quickly caught himself, eyes widening a bit. I gave him a reprimanding look and shrugged.

"Not for like, ten months." I sighed.

"Did it really have to be a year? You've already learned your lesson." Max assumed. I snorted on my milk and laughed.

"Nah, are you kidding me? First chance I get and I'm hitting it off at a party, hitting 300 miles per hour in my baby, and setting the school on fire."

"No, you aren't." Brent averted his gaze from Lukas to me with a stern stare. I gave him an innocent smile.

"What?" I asked, smirking. Brent raised an eyebrow at me. Tiffany leaned towards me then, giving a terrible view of her cleavage and interrupting Brent with whatever he was about to say next.

"Did you see that one show, Lost, last night?" she asked. I suddenly wondered if she interrupted Brent on purpose. He frowned down at her.

I shook my head. "Nope. Sorry."

Tiffany grinned and started talking to Lukas again. Brent gave a half, lazy roll of his eyes and turned away as well. Haha, I was starting to like Tiffany. I looked back to Max, and he was staring at Tiffany as if she were a goddess.

Oh shit.

This homework was going to kill me. I stared at the math book's pre-calculus, wondering how the hell I had made it to this math class. I groaned and let my head drop onto the pages of the thick-ass book. I was so tired.

The past few days all I had been doing was studying, chatting to Josh and Becc, cleaning the Darquecaster house like mad, and avoiding the nighttime as much as possible. I never thought being a good teenager could be so much hard work.

A knock resounded on my door and I sighed and sat up, wiping my eyes free of sleep. Glancing at my clock, I called, "Come in." It was almost nine at night. My door opened and Alec leaned in partially. I resisted groaning in response and just ignoring him. He probably had something important to say anyways. Kind of hard to ignore him, compliments to having just drank his blood like half an hour ago.

"Rory is here finally." he said, and then disappeared. I shot up from my seat. So far, which was very convenient, I hadn't had any visions. Claude had told me from Rory that it was because I hadn't trained very well under it yet.

I slipped on my black fuzzy slippers and opened my door all the way. The hallways were darker, considering it was nighttime and they had left the lights off. I headed towards the stairs, when suddenly my cell phone rang from my room. It was a really soft ring, but I could hear it. Sighing, I turned quickly and went back to grab it.

I lit up brightly when I saw it was Becca. Flipping it open, I answered, "Hey mom. I was just about to speak to Rory and-"

"Rebecca isn't here at the moment. But you can always leave a message with me so I can give it to her." My real father said with a smirk in his voice.

I sucked in a sharp gasp that made me dizzy. My hands instantly started trembling so terribly that I nearly dropped the phone. Why the fuck was my dad with Becca?! "Where is she?" I demanded, my voice going colder than an icicle despite the fear clenching inside of me.

"Is any uh… pussy boy around you?" he asked simply. I gritted my teeth, turned and shut my door silently, hoping nobody could hear me.

"No, everybody is downstairs." I replied quietly.

"Pleasant." he said, chuckling lightly at the end. "Now don't fear, Avanni. I merely stole her cell phone, and I'm currently standing outside of her house. Meaning, I know where both Joshua and Rebecca live. They're your foster parents, eh? Pretty selfish of them to take you away from me."

I fisted my hand tightly around the cell phone. "What was the point of this call if you aren't holding them hostage?"

He snickered, sounding much like the morbid creature he was now. "That's the thing. I won't hurt them until I know for sure that you'll come visit me."

My voice got caught in my throat, my eyes widening. "I-I can't…"

"This was just a warning to you, that I won't hesitate to hurt them. I want to meet you tonight, close to midnight. That'll be okay for you, won't it? After all, I heard you're quite the rebel still."

I gulped the knot in my throat and managed to ask weakly, "Where at?"

"Remember the old apartment complex you used to drive by often?" he asked. My heart clenched. Jakobi must have told him that.

"Yeah… I remember."

"Be there by midnight, alone. If I smell any daywalker coming close, I'll be at Rebecca's house faster than either of you can blink. Understand?"

I let out a breath and managed to breathe, "Yeah."

Then the line went dead. I snapped my phone shut and threw it at my bed with a shriek of anger and terror. I hadn't even meant to shout, it just happened. Within seconds, my door was opened in a rush.

"What's the matter?!" Claude demanded, Rory and Brent behind him. I froze, staring at Brent with wide eyes. His own eyes narrowed when he read my mind instantly.

Shit. He opened his mouth, and with Alec's' vampire blood inside of me still, I made it to him to instantly cover his mouth. "Mmmf!" he glared down at me, grabbing my wrist.

"Um, Ava?" Claude asked. Brent moved my hand from his mouth with his own strength and I immediately let out a shrill hyena laugh that totally made everyone there probably think I was not only rebellious but stupid too.

"I just remembered something! Brent and I have to speak privately!" I turned on Brent, drilling him with my sturdy glare as I smiled falsely and added, "Right, Brent?"

His expression went from confused to suspicious in seconds flat. Then he narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Right. Alone." He grabbed my forearm, dragging me from my room and through the halls. His room was near the same hall as Rylan's, but his door was thicker, hopefully enough to block out any voices.

As we entered his room, he basically pushed me to the center, shut his door and locked it, and then turned on me, crossing his arms. "I really hope you don't plan on going by yourself." He obviously understood the concept that if I didn't show up, Becca and Josh were going to die. But also, if I went with another vampire, they would end up dying anyways.

"Of course I do. I have to." I said, my voice weak. Brent shook his head.

"No. I won't allow you to. In fact, I'm going to alert Claude." he turned, and I snapped automatically.

"So what? You're just going to tattle on me? Is that it?" I hissed.

Brent pivoted back on me and was in my face within seconds. "No! I'm trying to protect your life! If you go out there, he's going to kill you."

"And if I don't, he's going to kill two innocent lives!" I retorted. Brent shoved his hands through his hair with a heavy sigh. He stared at me for the longest time, and I stared straight back, unblinking.

"I can't let you do this." he finally muttered. My heart dropped.

"Brent," I grabbed his sleeve as he turned away, "please. I'm begging you. If you don't help me, then I'll turn to Rylan for help, I swear it!"

Brent avoided my pleading face and looked down at my hand attached to his sleeve. "Rylan wouldn't help you."

"Yes, he would. Remember, he helped me escape before?"

"You weren't doing anything half as stupid as you are now. I'm not letting you go anywhere, even if I have to chain you to my bed and lock my room on you."

I reached out and slapped him hard across the face. His head didn't move, but his eyes widened in shock as they moved to meet my tearful glare. Tears began pouring over my cheeks.

"I care more about Rebecca and Josh than my own life! They've shown me what it's like to be loved! Rebecca is the mother that was never there because she died at birth because of me! Becca kisses my forehead when I feel sick and hugs me all the damn time and to be honest, I love it! Joshua is the caring, careful and loving father I never got to cherish before! He doesn't raise his hand to me, nor does he yell at me! I won't let them die!" I practically sobbed incoherently.

But I was sure as Brent was a vampire that he could understand clearly. He stared at me for the longest time as I cried. I backed away from him and sat down on his bed shakily as tears continued to drop like cascading waterfalls. I covered my face, feeling ashamed to actually be crying. I was crying. How long had it been since I last cried?

I barely comprehended it when Brent sat next to me and pulled me into his arms. He stroked my hair as I cried against his shoulder, and after several more minutes, my tears finally died down.

"I'll help you, Ava." he muttered into my hair. "I'll let you go see him, but I'm going to put a microphone on you so I can hear everything that's going on. Got it?"

I smiled bitterly through my drying cheeks and eyes and nodded, hugging him even tighter. "Thank you…" I murmured. He sighed so heavily I could feel it through his chest.

"You know, you're kind of like the sister I never had."

I looked up at him in surprise. "The sister you never had?" I asked.

Brent gave a sad smile. "Before we were all turned, Cassy tried having a daughter to break the repetition of boys. It was a stillbirth."

My eyes widened and I sucked in a gasp. "She was born dead?! I'm so sorry." I pulled back, quickly looking away from him to keep myself from feeling terrible all over. Brent chuckled.

"It's all right. It would have been worse had we gotten to know her and then she died. But anyways, this is why I'd rather listen to you say things, other than reading your mind. You speak the truth in your mind, but your emotions come out through your voice."

I looked at him for a long time and smiled faintly. "Thanks. I didn't mean to be such a crybaby."

Brent stood and shook his head. "We don't have time to wait here. Let me tell Claude you're aren't feel well and you'll be going to bed."

"But really, you'll be getting me that microphone and sending me on my way, right?" I asked.

Brent smiled. "Right."