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

pale complexion was almost a light shade of grey, and the bags under his eyes matched my own from this morning before I'd concealed them. Once I met his eyes, he looked frozen in shock. He was gaze was so intense that it gave me goosebumps. He seemed to snap out of it after a moment, he shook his head and looked to Aiden.

"I was just giving Holly a tour of the place. You know, so she knows where she can and can't go," Aiden replied.

"Right now I don't want either of you where you are right now," Chase sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I feel like shit right now, alright? I don't need you two arguing right outside my door."

"What are you talking about? You can't get sick, its physically impossible," Aiden narrowed his eyes at him.

"Yeah, well that's what I thought too, but ever since I bit her I've felt like death," Chase shot me an accusing glare.

"I guess that's what you call karma," I muttered under my breath. Chase's expression darkened even further.

"Could you guys just fuck off?" Chase exclaimed. "Odie will be coming over tomorrow, she's going to try to help me get rid of… whatever this is that is happening to me. Until then, I don't want to hear or see either of you."

"Whatever," Aiden rolled his eyes. He took a step towards me and grabbed me by the wrist. "Come on Holly, let's get out here."

"Sure," I sighed, shooting one last look at Chase. He'd already turned his back on us and had begun to close his door shut behind him.

 

As Aiden guided me away from Chase's room, all that I could think about was the look on Chase's face when he'd met my eyes just before. The way he looked at me… it gave me a strange feeling. I desperately wanted to figure out what on earth was going on with the clan, and what had happened with this Lana girl. Even though it wasn't my business, it felt as if I were involved somehow. It frustrated me to no end that nobody was willing to tell me anything about Lana. All I knew about her was that she used to be a part of the clan, she died and now her room was off limits to everybody but Chase. Something awful must've happened to her, and I wanted to find out what.

Chapter 5

"I really don't understand why he wants me to be there," I pouted as I begrudgingly followed Aiden to the lounge room. Chase had requested that everybody, including me, meet there. Since it was very obvious to me that the clan liked to keep things from me, it made no sense to me why I would need to be involved in one of their meetings. A part of me suspected Chase just wanted to bother me, particularly since I'd spent the majority of the previous day hiding away in my room and had planned to do the same today.

"His friend that came to visit would like to meet you apparently," Aiden informed me.

"Is this the same friend that is supposed to be helping him get rid of his sickness or whatever he has?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied as he walked down the stairs. "Hopefully they've already dealt with that so Chase will be in a better mood," he added.

"I find it very hard to imagine Chase in anything but a sour mood," I pointed out.

Aiden and I were the last people to make it to the lounge room. Dominic, Lily and Hunter were seated on the couch whereas Levi occupied one of the armchairs. At the front of the room stood Chase, looking a less cadaverous than he had the day before, and a woman with long platinum blonde hair, heart shaped lips and ocean blue eyes. Her porcelain skin matched Chase's, prompting me to assume that she too was a vampire. I found it hard enough to believe that Chase had friends, I found it even harder to believe that this angelic looking woman was just his friend. Her eyes met mine and she greeted me with a warm smile, catching me off guard.

"You must be the girl I've been hearing all about," she said, her eyes glimmering with curiosity. "It's Holly, right?"

"Yeah, uh… that's me," I stammered, feeling quite self-conscious in her presence.

"I'm Odette, but everybody calls me Odie. Lovely to meet you Holly," she smiled. I gave her a tight smile in return, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. Just when I expected the room to lull into an awkward silence, Odie's hand swiftly met the back of Chase's head with a distinct thump. My jaw fell open, yet I was the only one surprised. Chase scowled at Odie, cradling the back of his head with his hand.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why would drag such a lovely young girl into this mess?" Odie exclaimed, earning an eye roll from Chase. "You made her sound like a complete brat when you were talking to me on the phone."

"Just because she's pretty doesn't mean she isn't a brat," he pointed out.

"So that's why you didn't kill her, because you think she's pretty, huh?" Odie teased, placing her hands on her hips.

"Quit messing around we have more important matters to deal with," Chase scowled. Odie cracked a smile and shook her head as she sat herself on the arm of the armchair that Levi was sitting on. He was clearly less than impressed by this.

"The first thing I want to discuss today is how we're going to deal with Holly," Chase announced. I felt my heart begin to beat faster, as if I already knew somehow that I wasn't going to enjoy what he had in mind. I swallowed and tried my best to maintain a neutral expression, the last thing I wanted to do was give him the satisfaction of frightening me again.

"I thought we'd already figured that out. She's sticking around here for another day or two, then she goes home and she spies on Cruz for us," Aiden recapped.

"Yes, we did decide that," Chase agreed. "However, after speaking with Odie we've come up with another option. Basically, Holly has two choices. We can either stick with our previous plan, or--with Holly's permission--we can get Levi to erase her memories of the last few days after the venom is out of her system and send her back home."

"Why can't we just erase her memories and send her home without her permission? Why give her the option to be a burden to us?" Levi asked, his emerald eyes boring into me accusingly as he spoke. Despite the fact that he was being an asshole about it, even I had to admit that he had a point. They didn't seem like the type to ask for permission.

"Because now I'm involved too, and in case you've forgotten Levi, I'm a huntress now. I can't just let you use magic on a human against their will. In fact, you should be grateful that I haven't reported all of you for exposing your identities to a human," Odie pointed out, the warm tone of her voice had now become icy. Levi folded his arms and rolled his eyes, Odie narrowed her eyes at him.

"What's a huntress?" I asked Aiden, keeping my voice low. He opened his mouth to answer, but Odie beat him to it.

"Hunters and huntresses are basically like the police for the supernatural. Our job is to hunt those who break the rules and risk exposing us all to mainstream human society. I bet that makes it a lot clearer to you why I suggested for Chase to give you the option to have your memory wiped," she explained.

"Yeah, it does," I admitted, unable to say much more.

My mind was running in overdrive. Here I was, presented with the option to make it as if the last few days had never happened. Yet, I didn't feel that it was the smartest decision. Although it had been a terrifying ordeal to be kidnapped by a group of dangerous creatures who could end my life with the flick of a wrist, I'd also learned that Cruz--somebody who I'd once considered almost family--was also a dangerous creature. Not only that, he'd also been willing to let me die at the hands of a vampire. Now that I was starting to come to terms with it all, I was only growing more curious. I was curious of Cruz's abilities. I was curious as to why he could act like two entirely different people. But above all, if Cruz was a hyrbid of an angel and a demon, I was curious what Ollie had been, and why Cruz hadn't used his abilities to save him. I wasn't naïve, I knew that curiosity was a dangerous thing, but I didn't want to go back to knowing nothing of all of this, to being lied to.

 "So Holly, what are we going to do?" Chase asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. His eyes met mine, daring me to suffer the consequences if I didn't give him the answer he wanted to hear. I knew even before opening my mouth that he wasn't going to like my answer.

"I want to keep my memories," I announced. As far as I could tell, I'd stunned everybody in the room apart from Odie. Chase's eyes were clamped shut, his eyebrows knitting together as if he were trying to wake himself from a bad dream.

"Stupid girl," I heard Levi mutter from across the room.

"I know how stupid I am for making this decision, but now that I know what Cruz really is and what he's really like, I don't want to go back to believing his lies. For all I know, blindly being friends with him could be more dangerous than choosing to be your spy," I explained.
"I think you've made a bad judgment call--"

"That's enough Chase," Odie cut in, placing herself between Chase and I. "She deserves to have a choice. Quite frankly, I don't blame her for not trusting people like us after what you put her through. So rather than whining and arguing about it, take responsibility for your actions and figure out your next move. Have you thought about what you're going to do once it's time for Holly to go home?"

"I've already contacted her parents. As far as they're concerned she's been on a school trip that she forgot to tell them about," he replied, leaving me feeling quite puzzled.

"But… how on earth did you contact them? You don't even know where I live," I pointed out, narrowing my eyes at him. I honestly shouldn't have been surprised as I watched him pull my phone out of his pocket. There was no mistaking it, I doubted Chase would ever use a pink polka-dot case on his own mobile phone. He held it out in front of him by his index finger and his thumb, as if it harboured some contagious disease.

"I just happened to find this so I decided to send them a few messages on your behalf," he smirked.

I clenched my fists as I felt my cheeks begin to burn. I couldn't remember feeling like this