The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 12

Towickedness you get a taste of what our world wil be comparable when our competition is out of the picture. Fol ow meRiley bounded away Raoul and his team were advanced on his heels. Kristies group started shoving and clawing slump through the middle of them to get to the trend.Dont make me mixture my mind Riley bel owed from the trees ahead. You can al go thirsty. I dont c beKristie barked an order and her group sul enly fel behind Raouls. Fred and I waited until the last of them was out of sight. Then Fred did genius of those little ladies first sweeps with his arm. It didnt find unmatchableself want he was afraid to hold up me at his back, unspoilt that he was being polite. I started running after(prenominal) the army. The early(a)s were already coherent gone, alone it was nonhing to fol ow their smel . Fred and I ran in companionable silence. I wondered what he was envisageing. Maybe he was only thirsty. I was burning, so he in all a ilklihood was, too.We caug ht up to the former(a)s after around five minutes, but kept our distance. The army was piteous in unspeakable quiet. They were focused, and to a greater extent disciplined. I kind of wished that Riley had started the exacting sooner. It was easier to be around this group.We crossed over an empty two-lane freeway, another strip of forest, and and so we were on a beach. The water was smooth, and wed gone al more or less due north, so this must rush been the strait. We hadnt passed near any residences, and I was sure that was on purpose. Thirsty and on edge, it wouldnt keep too much to dissolve this smal measure of organization into a screaming free-for-al .Wed never hunted al unneurotic before, and I was pretty sure that it was not a good idea today. I remembered Kevin and the Spider-Man minor fighting over the woman in the car that first night Id talked to Diego. Riley had fiddleter have a whole lot of bodies for us or people were going to start tearing each other up to ge t the most blood.Riley paused at the waters edge.Dont hold back, he told us. I want you wel fed and inexpugnable at your peak. straight lets go have nigh fun.He dove smoothly into the surf. The others were growling excitedly as they submerged, too. Fred and I fol owed more closely than before because we couldnt fol ow their scent under water. however I could feel that Fred was hesitant ready to bolt if this was something other than an al -you-can-eat smorgasbord. It seemed like he didnt trust Riley any more than I did. We didnt swim long, and then we saying the others kicking upward. Fred and I surfaced last, and Riley started talking as soon as our heads were out of the water, like hed been waiting for us. He must have been more aware of Fred than the others were.thither she is, he said, waving toward a large take chugging south, belike making the last commuter run of the night down from Canada. Give me a minute. When the power goes out, shes al yours.There was an excited decease. Someone giggled. Riley was off like a shot, and seconds later we saw him fly up the side of the big(p) boat. He headed straight for the falsify tower on top of the ship. Silencing the radio was my bet. He could say al he precious almost these enemies being our reason for caution, but I was sure in that location was more to it than that. Humans werent supposed to do it round vampires. At least, not for genuinely long. Just long enough for us to kil them.Riley kicked a big plate-glass window out of his way and disappeared into the tower. Five seconds later, the lights went out.I realized Raoul was already gone. He must have submerged so we wouldnt hear him swimming after Riley. Everyone else took off, and the water churned as if an enormous school of barracuda were attacking.Fred and I swam at a relatively leisurely pace behind them. In a funny way, it was like we were some old married couple. We never talked, but we stil did things at exactly the same time. We got t o the boat about three seconds later, and already the air was ful of shrieks and the warm scent of blood. The smel do me realize exactly how thirsty I was, but that was the last thing I realized. My brain shut down completely. There was nothing but fiery torment in my throat and the delicious blood blood eitherwhere promising to cast off that fire out. When it was over and there wasnt a heart left beating on the whole ship, I wasnt sure how many another(prenominal) people Id personal y kil ed. More than triple the number Id ever had on a hunting trip before, easy. I felt hot and flushed. Id drunk long past the target at which my thirst was total y slaked, except for the taste of the blood. Most of the blood on the ferry was clean and luscious these passengers had not been dregs. Though I hadnt held back, I was probably at the low completion of the kil count. Raoul was so surrounded by mangled bodies that they actual y made a little hil . He sat on top of his pile of the d ead and laughed loudly to himself.He wasnt the only one laughing. The duskiness boat was ful of sounds of delight. I heard Kristie say, That was amazing three cheers for Riley Some of her crowd put up a raucous chorus of hurrahs like a bunch of happy drunks.Jen and Kevin swung onto the view deck, dripping wet. Gotem al, boss, Jen cal ed to Riley. So some people must have tried to swim for it. I hadnt noticed.I looked around for Fred. It took me a objet dart to find him. I final y realized that I couldnt look directly at the back corner by the vending machines, and I headed that way. At first I felt like the rocking ferry was making me seasick, but then I got close enough that the feeling faded and I could see Fred standing by the window. He smiled at me quickly, and then looked over my head. I fol owed his gaze and saw that he was look uponing Riley. I got the feeling that hed been doing this for some time.Okay, kids, Riley said. Youve had a taste of the sweet life, but now weve got work to doThey al roared enthusiastical y.Ive got three last things to tel you and one of those things involves a little dessert so lets sink this scow and get homeWith laughter mixed in with the snarls, the army went to work dismantling the boat. Fred and I bailed out the window and watched the demo from a short distance. It didnt take long for the ferry to crumple in the middle with a loud groan of metal. The midsection went down first, with both the bow and the stern wrestle up to point to the sky. They sank one at a time, the stern beating the bow by a few seconds. The school of barracuda headed toward us. Fred and I started swimming for shore. We ran home with the others though keeping our distance. A couple of generation Fred looked at me like he had something he wanted to say, but each time he seemed to change his mind. Back at the house, Riley let the celebratory mood wind down. Even after a few hours had passed, he stil had his pass offs ful severe to get everyon e serious again. For once it wasnt a fight he was trying to defuse, just high spirits. If Rileys promises were false, as I intellection, he was going to have an issue when the ambush was over. Now that al these vampires had real y feasted, they werent going to go back to any measure of restraint very easily. For tonight, though, Riley was a hero. Final y a while after I would have guessed that the temperateness was up outside everyone was quiet and paying attention. From their faces, it seemed they were ready to hear just about anything he had to say.Riley stood halfway up the stairs, his face serious.Three things, he began. First, we want to be sure we get the respectable coven. If we accidental y run across another clan and slaughter them, wel tip our hand. We want our enemies overconfident and unprepared. There are two things that mark this coven, and theyre pretty hard to miss. One, they look different they have yel ow eyes.There was a murmur of confusion.Yel ow? Raoul rep eated in a disgusted tone.Theres a lot of the vampire world out there that you havent encountered yet. I told you these vampires were old. Their eyes are weaker than ours yel owed with age. Another advantage to our side. He nodded to himself as if to say, one down. But other old vampires exist, so there is another way that wel inhabit them for sure and this is where the dessert I mentioned comes into play. Riley smiled foxily and waited a beat. This is going to be hard to process, he warned. I dont understand it, but Ive seen it for myself. These old vampires have gone so soft that they actual y keep as a member of their coven a pet human.His revelation was met by blank silence. Total disbelief.I know hard to swal ow. But its true. Wel know its definitely them because a human girl wil be with them.Like how? Kristie asked. You mean they carry meals around with them or something?No, its always the same girl, just the one, and they dont plan to kil her. I dont know how they manag e it, or why. Maybe they just like to be different. Maybe they want to show off their self-control. Maybe they think it makes them look stronger. It makes no brain to me. But Ive seen her. More than that, Ive smel ed her.Slow and dramatic, Riley reached into his jacket and pul ed out a smal ziplock al-Qaida with red fabric wadded up inside. Ive done some recon in the past few weeks, checking the yel ow-eyes out as soon as they got near the area. He paused to throw us a paternal look. I watch out for my kids. Anyway, when I could tel that they were moving on us, I grabbed this he brandished the grasp to help us embrace them. I want you al to get a lock on this scent.He handed the bag to Raoul, who opened the plastic zipper and inhaled deeply. He glanced up at Riley with a startled look.I know, Riley said. Amazing, right?Raoul handed the bag to Kevin, his eyes narrowing in thought.One by one, each vampire sniffed the bag, and everyone reacted with replete(p) eyes but little el se. I was curious enough that I sidled away from Fred until I could feel a hint of the nausea and knew I was outside his circle. I crept forward until I was next to the Spider-Man kid, who seemed to be at the tail end of the line. He sniffed inside the bag when it was his turn and then seemed about to hand it back to the kid who had given it to him, but I held my hand out and hissed quietly. He did a double over take almost like hed never see me before and handed me the bag.It looked like the red fabric was a shirt. I stuck my nose in the opening, keeping my eyes on the vampires near me, just in case, and inhaled.Ah. I understood the expressions now and felt a similar one on my face. Because the human who had raddled this shirt had seriously sweet blood. When Riley said dessert, he was dead right. On the other hand, I was less(prenominal) thirsty than Id ever been. So while my eyes widened in appreciation, I didnt feel enough pain in my throat to make me grimace. It would be awe some to taste this blood, but in that exact moment, it didnt evil me that I couldnt.I wondered how long it would take for me to get thirsty again. Usual y, a few hours after feeding, the pain would start to come back, and then it would just get worse and worse until after a couple of days it was impossible to ignore it even for a second. Would the excessive amount of blood Id just drunk delay that? I guessed Id see pretty soon.I glanced around to make sure no one was waiting for the bag, because I thought Fred would probably be curious, too. Riley caught my eye, smiled the tiniest bit, and jerked his chin slightly toward the corner where Fred was. Which made me want to do the exact opposite of what Id just been planning, but whatever. I didnt want Riley to be peculiar of me. I walked back to Fred, ignoring the nausea until it faded and I was right next to him. I handed him the bag. He seemed pleased Id thought to include him he smiled and then sniffed the shirt. After a second h e nodded careful y to himself. He gave me the bag back with a significant look. The next time we were alone, I thought he would say aloud whatever it was he had seemed to want to share before.I tossed the bag toward Spider-Man, who reacted like it had fal en out of the sky but stil caught it before it hit the ground. Everyone was buzzing about the scent. Riley clapped his hands together twice.Okay, so theres the dessert I was talking about. The girl wil be with the yel ow-eyes. And whoever gets to her first gets dessert. Simple as that. thankful growls, competitive growls.Simple, yes, but wrong. Werent we supposed to be destroying the yel ow-eyed coven? Unity was supposed to be the key, not a first-come, first-served kale that only one vampire could win. The only guaranteed outcome from this plan was one dead human. I could think of half a dozen more productive ways to motivate this army. The one who kil s the most yel ow-eyes wins the girl. The one who shows the best team coopera tion gets the girl. The one who sticks to the plan best. The one who fol ows orders best. MVP, etc. The focus should be on the danger, which was definitely not the human.I looked around at the others and decided that none of them were fol owing the same train of thought. Raoul and Kristie were glaring at each other. I heard Sara and Jen arguing in whispers about the possibility of overlap the prize.Wel, maybe Fred got it. He was frowning, too.And the last thing, Riley said. For the first time there was some reluctance in his voice. This wil probably be even harder to accept, so Il show you. I wont ask you to do anything I wont do. Remember that Im with you guys every step of the way.The vampires got real stil again. I noticed that Raoul had the ziplock back and was gripping it possessively.There are so many things you have yet to learn about being a vampire, Riley said. Some of them make more sense than others. This is one of those things that wont sound right at first, but Ive ex perienced it myself, and Il show you. He deliberated for a long second. Four times a year, the sun shines at a certain indirect angle. During that one day, quadruplet times a year, it is safe for us to be outside in the daylight.Every tiny military campaign stopped. There was no breathing. Riley was talking to a bunch of statues.One of those special days is beginning now. The sun that is rising outside today wont hurt any of us. And we are going to use this rare expulsion to surprise our enemies.My thoughts spun around and turned upside down. So Riley knew it was safe for us to go out in the sun. Or he didnt, and our ecclesiastic had told him this four days a year story. Or this was true and Diego and I had lucked into one of those days. Except that Diego had been out in the shade before. And Riley was making this into some kind of solstice-y seasonal thing, while Diego and I had been safe in the daylight just four days ago. I could understand that Riley and our creator would w ant to control us with the fear of the sun. It made sense. But why tel the truth in a very limited way now?I would bet it had to do with those scary dark-cloaks. She probably wanted to get a jump on her deadline. The cloaked ones had not promised to let her live when we kil ed al the yel ow-eyes. I guessed she would be off like a shot the second shed accomplished her objective here. Kil the yel ow-eyes and then take an extended vacation in Australia or somewhere else on the other side of the world. And Id bet she wasnt going to send us engraved invitations. I would have to get to Diego quick so we could bail, too. In the opposite direction from Riley and our creator. And I ought to tip Fred off. I decided I would as soon as we had a moment alone.There was so much manipulation going on in this one little speech, and I wasnt sure I was catching it al . I wished Diego were here so we could test it together.If Riley was just making up this four-days story on the spot, I guess I could understand why. Its not like he could have just said, Hey, so Ive lied to you for your whole lives, but now Im tattle the truth. He wanted us to fol ow him into battle today he couldnt undermine whatever trust hed earned.Its right for you to be terrified at the thought, Riley told the statues. The reason you are al stil alive is that you paid attention when I told you to be careful. You got home on time, you didnt make mistakes. You let that fear make you smart and cautious. I dont carry you to put that intel igent fear aside easily. I dont expect you to run out that door on my word. ButHe looked around the room once. I do expect you to follow me out.His eyes slid away from the auditory sense for just the teensiest fraction of a second, touching very briefly on something over my head.Watch me, he told us. Listen to me. Trust me. When you see that Im okay, believe your eyes. The sun on this one day does have some interesting effects on our skin. Youl see. It wont hurt you in any way. I wouldnt do anything to put you guys in unnecessary danger. You know that.He started up the stairs.Riley, cant we just wait , Kristie began.Just pay attention, Riley cut her off, stil moving up at a measured pace. This gives us a big advantage. The yel oweyes know al about this day, but they dont know that we know.As he was talking, he opened the door and walked out of the basement into the kitchen. There was no light in the wel -shaded kitchen, but everyone stil shied away from the open doorway. Everyone but me. His voice continued, moving toward the front door. It takes most young vampires a while to embrace this exception for good reason. Those who arent cautious about the daylight dont last long.I felt Freds eyes on me. I glanced over at him. He was utter(a) at me urgently, as if he wanted to take off but had nowhere to go.Its okay, I whisper almost silently. The suns not going to hurt us.You trust him? he mouthed back at me.No way.