Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Party Time

"I'll admit that he's pretty chill, but you know what they say," I muttered setting my elbow on the window sill and resting my cheek against my fist. "Plenty of fish in the sea; there's always someone better; blah blah. Ain't that right, Clay?" I asked. Keegan glanced at me and then reached across the center console to give my shoulder an affectionate shake.

"Right as rain, Red," he said with a childishly adorable smile on his face. I felt myself blush and I pursed my lips indignantly as he retracted his hand. He laughed and I couldn't help but wonder why Keegan was acting so familiar with me though we had only met that morning. It had taken days to get Zane to just hold my hand...not to mention the four years of him stalking me. Maybe it was just the difference in personality. Keegan seemed like a total extravert; he was confident in his abilities and he was comfortable in his own skin. Zane was an introvert to the extreme; shy, conservative, socially awkward and riddled with self-loathing. In the end, perhaps it was all about trust. Keegan trusted himself; he knew without a doubt that he would say and do the right things to get what he wanted. Zane, on the other hand, never seemed to trust himself even before all this crazy stuff happened. He had been so agonizingly timid because he didn't trust himself to accomplish the things he didn't already know he could do. He thought that if he tried to test his carefully assigned limits he would go spiraling off the wagon.

I understood now; I didn't back when we first met but I did now. If I were hiding something like Anton I don't think I'd trust myself either.

"Red," I heard Keegan's voice say, breaking me out of my revelation. I looked at him and I realized that the car was off and we were in my driveway. Keegan grinned at me and I could see his pearly white teeth glint in the soft glow of the street lamps.

"Party time," he said and he jumped out of the car and went to open the door for the two walking corpses in the back seat. I sat in the passenger seat and stared out the windshield as the full reality of what was going on finally donned on me. This was murder. It wasn't like Anton killing those cheerleaders or Keegan killing Ophelia; I was pretty convinced that I couldn't have done anything about either of those murders. At the worst, I was aiding a murderer, obstructing justice, harboring a fugitive...but now I was an accomplice; I had played a part in bringing these girls here and I was going to watch as their lives were ripped away and I wasn't going to do a thing about it.

I felt tears start in my eyes and my heart constrict with panic. If I got caught I would go away forever. I continued staring out the windshield with wide eyes and I murmured, "But this is what I have to do. If you don't feed the beast, the person you love more than anything else in this world will suffer. Eventually it could get out and if it does—" I sniffled pathetically. "Sacrificing a couple dozen skanks no one will miss to save the thousands of good people it could potentially slaughter...sacrifice a few for the good of the many...being able to make that decision...is that what makes a true hero?" There was a harsh knock on my window and I jumped in shock. I saw Keegan face on the other side of the window. He had his arms slung around both girls' shoulders, the bottle of scotch dangling from his right hand.

"Hurry up, babe, we gotta get this party started," he said with a smile on his face. The two girls blushed and giggled coquettishly and I felt the bile rise in my throat. How stupid were these girls? Couldn't they sense the danger they were in? I undid my seat belt and kicked open the door. I didn't understand how humans could be so stupid! What kind of self-respecting woman would just hand themselves over like this? Drunk or not, it was like they wanted to be killed; if not by a starving vampire then by some sick human creep.