Bloodlust (The Blood Series #1)

Chapter 40

  "Not to sound like a Seer but there are some weird vibes in the air today", I tell Nathan as he meets me in the hallway after first period. I can feel something boiling in the air like everyone in the world is holding their breath, preparing for something.

He smiles a little but then as it has become a habit of his he soon frowns again. "All the Bloods are feeling pretty antsy about releasing my brother from his long slumber. Most of our newer recruits don't really remember him but they've heard stories. We don't like to talk about him but that doesn't stop other people from gossiping though. So now there will be a crowd waiting for his return. They want to know if he's as bad as they see he is or if the Bloods have just gone soft."

"You didn't want to go?" I ask gently. I've noticed that family matters are somewhat a sore spot for every single one of the Bloods. None of them are very good at talking about their feelings so it makes sense that family stuff that usually holds a lot of emotions (even when dealing with a demon family) isn't easy, either.

Nathan chooses his next words carefully. "My brother wants to see me even less than I want to see him."

His reserved tone tells me that that is all he's going to say about it. I take the hint and instead ask: "Where is your brother, anyway? Where are they releasing him from?"

"We had to keep him close but sealed so we built him a holding cell on the Blood property. It's underground so no one can see him but we all know that he's down there."

I gape at him. "You buried him?" I marvel and instantly images of creepy mausoleums fill my head.

Nathan shrugs to appear uncaring but I know him better than that. The treatment his brother received bothers him as much as it does me. "More like left him to rot underground."

"That is sick", I blurt out before I'm able to stop myself.

Nathan's eyes narrow as usual when I say something negative about his family. "So was he", he says, his voice a little sharper than usual. He's offended by my thoughtless words. I never seem to learn to not just blurt out things. Especially delicate things like opinions about my boyfriend's family.

I cast my eyes down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to judge you."

Nathan acknowledges my words with only a slight nod before he continues telling me about his brother's prison. "Even though the entrance to his cell is located on our land the place we sent him isn't really in this world. It is a place called the Abyss."

"The Abyss?" I repeat. It does not sound good.

"It's said that the Abyss is located between worlds and that time runs differently there. Whilst to us it seems that it has been only a few years to my brother it might have been centuries or only mere seconds. No one really knows much about the place but one thing is for certain: there is no getting out alone", Nathan says. And with those chilling thought he leaves me to chemistry where I find my thoughts to be filled with underground cells, evil brothers and the Abyss.

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Missy Cadogan has returned to school and I must say that I did not miss her one bit. Whenever I see her stupid frizzy hair bounce in the hallways or in classrooms I just want to scream. Or punch her. I know the truth now, that in reality she didn't kiss my boyfriend, she was getting fed on when I walked in but seeing her still pisses me off and I can't help wishing that she would have moved to the boarding school in Alaska where Rebekah Bilson's parents send her in the beginning of the year.

Missy Cadogan's scandal involving my boyfriend drove her out of school for months while her church group intensely prayed for her as if that would make her a non-slut again. I had thought that the whole mess must have been a huge blow to her ego but it wasn't just her, their entire cause suffered from their poster child's tumbling. Andrea had told me that since Missy's both parents are very involved with the church the praying for cleansing her soul hardly ever stopped. I don't want to feel bad for her but I do. At least I did until she figured out that by making a lot of noise about someone else's life everyone would forget all about her shenanigans. Now, who was this unfortunate soul who had to carry the burden of being constantly scrutinized by the Jesus freaks of our school? Why, yes, how'd you guess.

Me.

I would be able to take it now that I have Nathan back by my side but then that darn boy goes and forgets his English book in his locker. He tells me to go ahead to the cafeteria and that he'll be right behind me. Frowning, I go to the cafeteria, alone and vulnerable. Who else than my dear friend Missy Cadogan strolls in and as she notices me there without my usual bodyguard she and her brainless followers walk over to me.

"I bet you have already killed someone. I've heard that to get in you need to take the life of an innocent", she says pretending to be overly horrified and the oh-so-innocent look on her face nearly makes me gag. I get it. She's leading the Hate the Bloods group to take her own case out of the spotlight. She just needed someone else to slip up and sadly my slip up was even more juicy than hers. My relationship with Nathan alone is enough to keep the people gossiping but adding Andrea's mysterious injury on Halloween to that and it's freaking tattletale gold.

"That's not true", I deny tiredly yet another completely untrue lie that she tries to sell off as the truth. Not that I can know for sure since I intend to know as little of the Bloods as I possibly can while dating one of them.

Missy smirks at me. "Whatever you say, Mary."

I force myself to laugh. "As in Bloody Mary? You're so effing clever, Missy", I say and walk away from them. I no longer feel like eating anything. Instead I walk out of the cafeteria and after a little location scouting I find the perfect quiet place for me to think at. The music room. No one is there during lunch but our gullible Mrs Goddacker can be persuaded into letting me spend my lunch there. I make up some crap about the healing power of music. She eats it all up and even tells me that she thinks I should come back to her lessons. I nod and smile even though I'm aware of how pathetically little musical talent I possess.

Suddenly the piano starts playing on its own. My head snaps up just to find Oliver sitting there. "Hello, Haley."

I don't respond in so many words. I pick up a saxophone and throw it at his head. He turns on the piano stool supernaturally fast and catches it with a flash of a mocking smile. "You're always so belligerent", he teases me like I'm just being silly and not murderous. He has stayed gone for a month, why couldn't he stay gone a little longer? Like for the rest of my life?

"You tried to kill my best friend!" I scream and throw the tuba next which Oliver of course gracefully dodges. Mrs Goddacker will not be happy with what I meant when I told her I was going to use the power of music. I have a feeling that she didn't actually mean that I could use the physical power of musical instruments to knock out my enemies. Darn miscommunications.

Oliver seems unfazed by the instruments flying towards his head. "Is she dead?"

I'm thrown off my game for a split second. "No, but--"

"If I had wanted her dead she would be dead", Oliver says with unwavering certainty in his voice.

I recover fast from my stunned state upon him talking so lightly about killing one of the people I love the most in this world. Or in any of the others like Nathan keeps implying that there are. "So that makes it okay? She is lying in the hospital because of the stuff you threw at her!"

Oliver shrugs. "It wasn't supposed to hit her. It was supposed to hit you. If it had done that it'd have just knocked you over. But your stupid bestie just had to dive in and take the bullet for you. Now I'm all out of insanely rare potion and still very Haley-less."

I can't keep up with Oliver's insanity. "What?"

"There is a reason why I'm after you, Ms Haley Marissa Roberts. I know so much about you that to be frank I'm kind of bored of you already. It has been months and months of nothing but SeerSeerSeer or HaleyHaleyHaley. I was sent here to watch you, to see if you'd survive the Change or not. Not that many humans do. And they often wither away as years go by, going mad with insomnia. Yet here you are, healthy and disgustingly happy. It's about time to go back and give them my final report."

I glare at him. "If you're waiting for a going-away-party I wouldn't hold my breath. No, maybe you should. You could drown in your own saliva and make this world a better place."

"If I had a heart I'm sure it'd be shattered after hearing that. Now, let's get back to business. Come with me... or face the consequences."

I lose my patience. I've heard enough threats to last a lifetime. "Doesn't it ever start to bore you? Trying to threaten me when we both know you're all bark and no bite?" I snap and live to regret it.

He slams me to a wall so hard that my lungs empty of air and the wall shudders a little.

His face is only inches away from mine when he rants: "Has precious Natie told you why I fell? How I became a fallen angel? No? Well, it is a tale of great sadness and madness. You see, back when I still bounced from one white cloud to another I had someone with me and then your boyfriend killed him. You have seen his homicidal side too, haven't you? On that weekend? No, I guess you don't remember. You should, though. Seers should be able to resist basic compulsion. Well, anyhow I did not very much care for that. In fact, I kind of swore revenge, rebelled against Heaven and yadda yadda yadda. I spend years waiting in the shadows as they tend to say. Then I got this assignment which I gladly accepted due to where it was located. The target was never Nathan. It was always you. Torturing Nathan is just a perk. But don't get egoistical now, beautiful Haley. If I happen to kill you I can just find another Seer to play with. So don't push me, pumpkin or I'll rip your fucking heart out."

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I walk out of the music room in a daze after Oliver as usual turns into a vortex and disappears. I walk around for a while until I spot worried looking Nathan. His face lights up as he sees me but then it turns into annoyed and I guess that he's preparing to lecture me for ditching him during a time like this. I'll just have to speak up first so maybe I'll be spared from the lecture.

"So Oliver just paid me a visit", I announce as soon as Nathan's in the hearing range. His eyes widen and he opens his mouth to ask about a million questions but I wave him off. "He said that you killed someone he loved and that's why he enjoys torturing both of us so much. Isn't it just funny how this never came up during all the talks we've had about him?"

Just then Nathan's phone beeps. At first he isn't going to answer but as the ringing just keeps at it he picks it up and growls: "What, Bianca?"

He listens to her talk for a while until his eyes go big and he spits out: "You lost him? I'm sorry, you must be talking about Lukas or Klaus because I know you did not lose the deranged brother we locked underground for years and then awoke him to deal with our problem. How the fuck did you manage to lose him?"

Bianca says something again, tries to explain how this catastrophe came to be. As she talks I try to contain my fear. Nathan told me that even the other Bloods were afraid of his brother. What chance does our human town have against someone like that?

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Nikki", Nathan snaps and hangs up. He looks very angry and I'm actually surprised that when I meet his eyes they aren't shooting fire. Well, not yet, anyway.

"Judging by that phone conversation I shamelessly eavesdropped on I'd guess that releasing your brother didn't go as planned", I say after I manage to form words into sentences again. I'm still pretty panicked about the fact that yet another psychotic killer is freely running around this weird town that holds so many more secrets than I ever could have guessed.

Nathan huffs. "No, it did not."

"He got out?"

"He got out and instantly hit the road."

"What did you mean, 'apologize to Nikki'? Wasn't Nikki his mate or something before he went underground? Why would it be a bad thing if he went to her? At least you'd know where to look for him", I try to offer then.

Nathan sighs. "My brother doesn't really care about anything in any of the worlds. Sure, he may be on our side but he doesn't really understand human emotions such as 'love' or 'hate'. He is different in that way from the rest of us. Even my parents who do their best to appear cold and unemotional still care about some things. He is not like that. He only understands possession. In his sick mind Nikki is his and that's it. It took us a long time until he even let anyone else near her. To have him out there and after Nikki..." he trails off and just stares out with a concern all over his beautiful features.

"Why won't we just call her and warn her that your brother has been released?" I ask even though I know that if the answer was that simple they would have done it already.

"We have no way of contacting her because no one knows where she is. Ever since my brother got locked up, Nikki went in hiding because my father wouldn't exterminate him. She knew one day one of our enemies would be so powerful that we'd have no choice but to use my brother against them and she didn't want to be around for that. She fell off the face of the earth."

"But if she has gone AWOL he won't find her, right?"

Nathan shakes his head. "She's his mate. There is no place in all of the worlds where she can hide that he won't find her."

That 'worlds' thing again. I'm really going to have to ask him about it once things calm down a bit. Not that they have shown any signs of slowing down ever since I started dating Nathan Blood. "Oh. So is that like a Blood thing or...?" I ask then, suddenly worried that God forbid we ever broke up or something he could just find me whenever he wanted to.

"No, that's just how it is with him and Nikki. The rest of us have to look for our missing persons the old-fashion way. Anyway, I have to go. I love you", he says and kisses me goodbye. I don't let go after the kiss like he does, I hold onto him with an idea forming in my head.

"I'll love you more if you take me with you", I say in a persuading tone.

Nathan groans. "It's --"

"Dangerous. I know. I heard you the first 1678 times", I say jaded and roll my eyes.

"Because you won't take me seriously. Haley, baby, I can't have anything bad happen to you. Especially because of who I am. I couldn't bare losing you", he says but this time I have a feeling that he's saying all that lovey dovey crap to distract me and therefore don't let myself melt into a puddle, no matter how hard my heart tries to. I couldn't bare losing him, either.

I look at him challenge evident in my eyes. "Lukas once told me that one should live not just survive", I remark.

"Lukas is an idiot."

"Who just so happens to be right. Take me with you, Nathan. This concerns me just as much as it does you. And who knows, maybe I'll even be useful. I have heard that Seers tend to be able to help out during times like these", I say pitching myself like a car salesman. Not that my Seer abilities have been much of use lately but there's always a first for everything, right?

Nathan stares at me for a little while until he barks: "Get in the car."