Cadaverous - Rewritten by P A Webster (epub ebook reader .TXT) 📖

bandage around my wrist. "Emmanuel was our leader, and a couple of weeks ago he disappeared. All of us have been on edge since he disappeared but Chase has been especially on edge. He's know Emmanuel a lot longer than the rest of us and so he obviously cared about him. But Chase also has the burden of being our leader until we find Emmanuel again."

"Why does Chase think Cruz knows something about Emmanuel? I'm certain Cruz is just a human, we practically grew up together," I told them. Lily frowned and shook her head.

"Cruz isn't human. He's… a special kind of creature. He's a hybrid of an angel and a demon. It's an extremely uncommon occurrence so he's one of only a few in the world. Chase and Cruz have history, and so Chase has a lot of distrust for Cruz. Cruz is the leader of a clan that could be considered our rival clan, so Chase assumes that Cruz had something to do with Emmanuel's disappearance," she informed me.

"I also kept hearing another person being mentioned," I changed the subject, not ready to process what I'd just learned. "Who's Lana?" I asked.

"She used to be a member of our clan," Lily said. I got the feeling that since her response was so short, it was probably something she either didn't want to talk about or felt I didn't to know about. I decided not to push for more information. Besides, I was already feeling overwhelmed as it was.

 In the corner of my eye I noticed Aiden suddenly move out of the doorway to let somebody in. Chase walked into the room looking a lot more relaxed than he had before. Hopefully this will be good news, hopefully I can just go hope and forget that this all ever happened.

"I just got off the phone with Odie," Chase announced, standing in front of us all with his arms crossed. "Unfortunately we can't let the girl go--"

"The girl has a name. It's Holly. Use it. Don't be rude," Aiden cut in, earning an eye roll from Chase. There was clearly some bad blood between these two, I was curious as to why.

"Fine. We can't let Holly go for two reasons: she knows what we are and she has venom in her system," Chase informed us.

"I thought you said that the venom would wear off quickly," I turned to Hunter, feeling a little bit betrayed.'

"I said that the side effects would wear off quickly. It'll take a few days for the venom to wear off in your system," Hunter defended himself.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means that if you were to die within the next few days, you'd turn into a monster like me," Chase said. "Not only that, but you'd become my responsibility permanently. I don't think either of us want that."

"Why can't I just go home? The odds of me dying are pretty slim, don't you think. Please, I just… I'll forget everything I've heard, I'll act like it all never happened. Just please, let me go home," I begged. Lily frowned, she appeared to be the only person in the room that actually felt sorry for me. Maybe Hunter too, he seemed like a nice enough person.

"I cannot afford to take the risk, no matter how slim the odds are. You'll stay with us for a few days and then we'll let you go home, but even then don't think that means you'll be rid of us," Chase warned me. "Since you know about us, it is our responsibility to keep an eye on you and make sure that you don't go around screaming about vampires and such. So, I've decided that until I feel that I can trust that you won't mention a word of our existence to anybody, you'll work for us."

"Work for you? What kind of work?" I demanded. For some reason the first image that popped into my head was of me having to work as their maid. I shook myself, ridding the thought from my head, hoping that I was wrong.

"You said that you are a close friend of Cruz's right? Your job will be to spy on him for us for a while," he told me.

"Spy on him?" I repeated. "I don't know what kind of information you're expecting me to be able to find out about him. We practically grew up together and I didn't know that he wasn't even human. He's obviously a talented liar."

"Are you going to question everything I suggest? You're getting off quite easy, you know that right?" Chase raised his voice, clearly becoming quite frustrated with me. I bit my lip, starting to regret picking a fight with him. "I already have enough responsibilities to deal with without having to deal with some bratty teenaged girl who clearly doesn't know how to keep herself out of trouble! Unless you'd prefer the job of being a walking blood bag I'd suggest keeping your mouth shut!"

"Alright, Chase. I think she's had enough threatening for the day, don't you think?" Lily said gently.

"If I've heard everything that you have to say, I think I'd like to head back to that room I was in for the night. I'd like to be alone for a while," I said.

"I'll escort her back to her room," Aiden offered, surprising me.

"Fine, " Chase sighed. "Don't even think about trying to escape either, because when we find you again the consequences will not be as kind," he added. I nodded and slowly stood myself up, following Aiden out of the room.

 "You don't have to worry so much about Chase, you know," Aiden said as he led me up the stairs. The fact that he was speaking to me, and speaking politely, surprised me.

"I think that I do," I replied, keeping my voice low. "He's made it pretty clear that he's higher up on the food chain."

"If I've learned anything about Chase through the years, it's that he's all talk. He'll threaten to do terrible, unthinkable things to get his way, but he'll never actually do them," Aiden smirked, shaking his head. "If he truly wanted you dead, you'd be dead already."

"You think so?" I asked.

"I know so," he replied. We came to a stop as we arrived at the door of my room. "If he bothers you again, I'll step in, so don't worry."

"But he's your leader," I pointed out.

"Just because he's our temporary leader does not mean I agree with the things he does," he answered. "I'm determined to prove to you that not all vampires are shitty people," he added as he began to walk away.

"Good luck with that," I muttered to myself.

 As I walked back into the room I'd woke up in, I switched off the light again leaving the room just as dark as it had been before. I took off my shoes and tie before throwing myself face down on the bed. Sleep would've been great, but I already knew that it wouldn't come easy. My mind was plagued by the things I'd learned, I was stuck in a house full of creatures who could quite easily kill me and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about Cruz. How could this guy that I'd known my whole life be half angel half demon? Did this mean Ollie wasn't human either? Was he the same?

 I felt my mobile phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out, and lifted my head from the pillow I'd buried it in to have a look. I'd been expecting it to be my parents, but it wasn't. It was Cruz. Is he checking up on me to make sure that I'm not dead because of him? I wondered. I pondered whether I should answer or not, would Chase get mad if he knew I had my phone and was talking to Cruz? That's right. Why should I bother? This guy left me for dead, I reminded myself. I decided to let him suffer for a while and so I placed my phone on the bedside table. I ignored its near constant vibrating as I tried my hardest to fall asleep.

Chapter 4

The sound of knocking on the bedroom door woke me from my sleep. The strange feeling of waking up in an unfamiliar place hit me once again, it took me a few moments to remember where I was and why I was there. As I pushed myself up and off the bed, my wrist began to ache where Chase had bitten me the day before, serving as a reminder that in this house I was not safe. I cradled my bandaged wrist as I slowly made my way over to the bedroom door, praying that Chase was not on the other side. I swung the door open to reveal Aiden standing before me holding a pile of clothes, a hair brush and a tooth brush.

"Good morning," he smiled, holding the pile of items out to me. "I thought you might need these."

"Oh! Yes, thank you," I took the pile into my arms, suddenly feeling self-conscious once again about the fact that I was still dressed in my bloodied and wrinkled school uniform.

"Meet me near the front door when you're ready," he replied as I was about to close the door. I paused, almost fooled into thinking that he might take me back home. "I thought you might want a bit of a tour around the place since you're going to be stuck here for a couple of days."

"Sure," I said, my voice sounding more disappointed than I'd intended. "I guess it'd be nice to know where to go to avoid bumping into Chase."

"I definitely could give you a few recommendations," Aiden chuckled. "Alright, I'll see you shortly then."

"Okay," I sighed, closing the door as he began to walk away.

 

I lay the pile that Aiden had handed to me on the bed and began to sort through it. He'd given me a pair of jeans that were one size too big for me, a plain black t-shirt, a basic set of white underwear, some socks, a hair brush and a tooth brush. It was enough to get by, and I was grateful to have a clean set of clothes to change into. As expected, everything fit alright except for the jeans. Whilst they were just small enough to stay up, they were still quite baggy, particularly around my legs. My lanky figure was to blame, as always, it was making things difficult for me. Whilst I wasn't particularly tall, I was ungracefully skinny. I had always been the kind of skinny that compelled my friends' parents to put extra food on my plate whenever I visited their houses. Even though there was nothing wrong with me, other people had made me feel as if there was something terribly wrong with my health.

 

After I finished dressing myself, Aiden directed me to a bathroom. I brushed my teeth and just about ripped all of my hair out trying to brush out all of the knots that had formed. I examined myself in the bathroom mirror, I looked more like myself again even though I was clearly exhausted. My complexion was somehow even more pale than