The Haunted High Series Boxed Set Read online

  “They’ll go somewhere else,” Alden pointed out.

  “Not unless we stop them,” I replied.

  Vicken studied me with a look of distaste on his face. “And how do you propose we do that?”

  “By stopping Chutka the Shambler. He’s the reason for all of this. If we end him, we end them, right?”

  Silence filled the room.

  “Right,” came Ren’s voice from behind the divider.

  I spoke louder, “So is the opposite also true? If we stop the demons, we can stop Chutka?”

  Ren’s head poked out from the side of the divider. “They’re relationship is symbiotic. Feed one, feed the other. Starve one, starve the other.” She held out a hand. “But the same goes for the Labs. The only way to stop what’s happening in the Labs is to stop the demons, but they’ll attack the city if they don’t get what they need from the Labs, so good luck figuring that one out.”

  Silence filled the room. I couldn’t help the frustration that rose in my chest. We were stuck in a strange basement at the bottom of a rundown building waiting out the sunlight so we could find the entrance to the Labs and figure out what it was we needed to do.

  “Why wait?” I said finally. “Is there really a reason to wait until dark? Demons can see in the dark and I don’t think it’s going to make us much safer.” I turned my gaze to the divider and raised my voice. “Do the workers at the Labs wait until dark to go there?”

  “No need,” came Ren’s reply. She stuck her head out again. “The entrance is invisible.”

  She came out from behind the divider wearing jeans and a mostly clean dark green tee-shirt. Her wild auburn hair had been pulled back into a rubber band, though strands escaped as if refusing to be confined. She carried several blankets over and tossed them at us when she was close enough. Alden caught them. The scent that wafted from the cloth made me back away.

  “It’s better than being wet,” he said as he dabbed his face with one of the less-smelly corners.

  “Is it?” I asked.

  Vicken shook his head. “I’ll stay damp, thank you.”

  I glanced at Ren. She was rifling through the boxes and didn’t appear to notice our conversation.

  “Ah, here it is,” she said. She held up a box with red tape on the front. She set it in front of me. “Your key to survival.”

  I opened it and relief filled me at the sight of the overflowing bandages, antiseptic ointment, needles, thread, and medical tape. They appeared to be the cleanest things Ren owned.

  “That’s a pretty good supply,” Vicken said, his voice level.

  Ren’s gaze flickered to mine and then away. “When you’ve been to the Labs, it’s helps to have a repair plan until the moon rises.”

  I selected three butterfly bandages and held them out to Alden.

  The Grim took them with uncertainty. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “It’s either you or the vampire,” I replied with a wry tone.

  Vicken leaned back with his arms crossed. “I’ve drank my share, thank you very much. Your blood doesn’t tempt me, but I’m happy to steer clear.”

  “You can do it then,” Alden offered. He held out the bandages to Vicken.

  It was then that I noticed his fingers were shaking.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him.

  Alden’s gaze lowered. “I, uh, I don’t like blood. It makes me queasy.”

  Vicken laughed so loud it echoed around the room. “A Grim who can’t stand the sight of blood? Now I’ve seen everything.”

  Ren gave Alden a sympathetic smile. “I can take care of him.”

  “Are you sure?” the Grim asked.

  Ren nodded with her hand out. “I’ve bandaged my fair share. It’s usually just me taking care of me. Sometimes the sun takes a long time to set.” Her eyes met mine. “Too bad you didn’t get hit by that car earlier.”

  I glanced at Vicken. The vampire’s raised eyebrows said he thought that comment strange as well.

  Alden put the butterfly bandages in Ren’s hand and backed away as though he couldn’t give us space fast enough.

  “Alright, hero, let’s see what we’re dealing with,” Ren said.

  I lowered the tee-shirt. Immediately, blood began to trickle down my face.

  Ren shot Vicken a glance. “His blood isn’t clotting as fast as it should. Is there a chance you’ve had a sip or two?”

  Vicken’s eyes widened. “Well, uh, yes. You could say that. But it was a few days ago. Would it still have that effect?”

  Ren looked back at me with shock on her face.

  “Your friend drank your blood? You need to get better friends!”

  I fought back a wry grin. “It’s alright. I told him he could. He was going to die.”

  “You should point out that I had just saved your life,” Vicken said sullenly. “It’s not like I’m selfish.”

  I shook my head and realized that was a mistake when the blood dripped down my nose. I pressed the tee-shirt to it again. “He’s not selfish. He did save my life,” I told her.

  Ren looked completely skeptical. “That’s not a symbiotic relationship,” she said, her voice low as if to warn me. “You don’t get anything from giving blood to a vampire except for feeling really sick for the next several days and a lessened ability for your blood to clot. It attracts them.” She shot Vicken a dark look as she put antiseptic ointment on a rag.

  Vicken rolled his eyes and turned away. “This is ridiculous,” he muttered.

  I took pity on the vampire. “He really did save my life. If it wasn’t for him, I would have drowned in a river. He pulled me out and nearly died from using up his stores of blood.”

  Ren took the tee-shirt away and cleaned the wound with the rag. “You really should stay away from rivers. Are you sure he didn’t just tell you he saved you?”

  “I’m sure,” I replied. “We may have hated each other when we first met, but Vicken and Alden are like my brothers.” I looked at them. “Nearly dying together fighting demons does that, I guess. They wouldn’t let me come here alone looking for Briggs. I haven’t exactly been grateful about that.”

  The ghost of a smile touched Vicken’s lips and he nodded before turning away. Alden grinned as if my words gave him relief from the guilt of not being able to help me with the bandages.

  “I like having brothers,” he said.

  I smiled and then winced when Ren pressed a bandage to the wound.

  “Toughen up,” she said as she applied another one. “You wouldn’t last a day in the Labs.”

  “I don’t think I want to,” I said.

  She held her fingers to the last bandage to ensure it stayed in place. Her strange blue-rimmed hazel eyes held mine.

  “You should go far, far away, Finn. Never go to the Labs. Never come back. It’s too dangerous.”

  The stark knowledge in her voice gripped my heart. I had to force myself to shake my head. “I can’t just leave. Briggs needs us and so do the others trapped down there. We can’t leave, not now.”

  Ren held my gaze in silence for several long seconds, then she blinked and it was like a light switch was flipped off. The sweet, gentle side I had seen disappeared and a wildness took over her gaze as though she had become a different person entirely. She dropped her hand and danced away on the balls of her feet with the grace of a ballerina.

  “Into the cement jungle we go, hunting through demons for friend or foe. If in the darkness you don’t know, you may lose what’s left of your soul.”

  She reached the tube we had slid down and paused with a hand on it.

  “You guys coming or what?” she called over her shoulder.

  Vicken, Alden, and I exchanged glances.

  Is she crazy? Vicken mouthed.

  I shrugged but couldn’t ignore how her change in personality bothered me. There was so much I felt like she was hiding, yet I didn’t know if she knew it herself.

  Ren climbed into the tube and, using her hands and feet, scaled to th
e top. I wished for a moment that the tube was enchanted like the slide to my mother’s hideaway at the Academy. Sliding back up was much easier than climbing the tube that moved back and forth with our efforts. By the time the rest of us made it up, even Alden’s good humor warred with uncertainty on his face.

  The forms in ragged blankets that had occupied the corners of the dilapidated building were gone. Only the scent of unwashed bodies, refuse, and stale urine remained to remind me of where they had been. The sunlight that flickered through the broken windows wasn’t enough to break the dim haze of the room. The atmosphere sent a chill down my spine.

  “Come on,” Vicken said. The vampire held out a hand to help me and then Alden to our feet. “We’ve got to stick together.”

  The same fears that Vicken tried to hide tightened in my chest. I couldn’t help feeling as though we were biting off something far bigger than we could chew. But we had no choice.

  “Let’s free Briggs,” I said, forcing confidence into my tone. “We’ve got this.”

  Chapter Four

  “How do we find an invisible door?” Alden asked quietly.

  We followed Ren down a sidewalk lined by trees whose branches were bare of leaves in the chilly weather. The trees gave way to an expanse of flat winter-browned grass where a woman threw a frisbee for a black and white dog. The dog raced after the frisbee and caught it out of the air. Its breath was visible when it trotted around with its prize. The dog brought the frisbee back and the woman praised it.

  “Hey Finn, that could be your fallback if the whole monster thing doesn’t work out,” Vicken said.

  I rolled my eyes. The thought of being a frisbee-retrieving wolf wasn’t as funny as he seemed to think.

  “And there’s your fallback, Fangs,” Ren said.

  We followed her gaze to where a cat devoured the remains of a mouse beneath the shadow of a tree.

  “Disgusting,” Vicken said; the humor was gone from his voice entirely.

  “What’s my fallback?” Alden asked.

  “Let’s see,” Ren said musingly. She glanced around. “You help the dead to the next life. The irony would be if you were the one killing them.” She turned on him. “You could be a serial killer.”

  Alden looked positively sick at the suggestion.

  “I, uh, don’t think you got the gist of the game, Ren,” I said.

  Ren shrugged. “It’s a stupid game.”

  I touched Alden’s arm. The Grim gave me a small smile that didn’t touch his sad blue eyes.

  “I’ll give you a fallback,” I told him.

  Interest showed in his expression. “Okay, Finn. What will I be if I’m not a monster?”

  I glanced around the park. “A tree,” I finally said.

  Vicken grinned. “I don’t know if that’s any better than a serial killer.”

  Alden shook his head. “No. I like it. Trees give shade, they grow with sunlight, and they love the rain just like I do. I would be happy to be a home for birds and squirrels.”

  “You would,” Vicken muttered. He shot me a dark look as if annoyed that my stupid answer pleased the Grim so much.

  “I want a fallback,” Ren said.

  Uncertainty filled me at the expectant expression on her face.

  “Go ahead, Finn. Give her a fallback,” Vicken said in a mocking tone.

  I took a breath and let it out between my clenched teeth. What I knew of Ren didn’t give me much to go on. Her changes of personality put me on edge, but there was something that also drew me to her and made me want to protect her. She had been through so much more than a normal person could handle. If she wasn’t exactly stable from it, who could blame her?

  Our path took us down a gentle slope. At the bottom, the sidewalk we followed crossed under a pass and another sidewalk went over it as a walking bridge. A chill ran across my skin when a breeze brushed past, catching in our still-damp clothes before rustling up the leaves at the base of the bridge.

  “The wind,” I said.

  Vicken’s eyebrows rose.

  “I’m invisible?” Ren replied with distaste in her voice.

  I shook my head quickly. “No. Watch. The wind is powerful.” I pointed to where the leaves danced. “The wind can be gentle and subtle or strong enough to make people run for shelter. It can be warm or cold, telling of spring or fall. The wind can take all the leaves off a tree or chase the clouds from the sky. It has so many sides that it can be anything it wants.”

  “Anything it wants,” Ren repeated with a contemplative expression. She nodded. “I like that.”

  I shot Vicken a triumphant look. He glowered and shook his head.

  “Look at it this way,” I told him. “She didn’t say if you were the cat or the mouse.”

  “The mouse,” Ren said immediately before I could talk about how fun it would be to climb trees or hunt.

  “Thank you,” Vicken replied dryly.

  “Anytime,” Ren said.

  She stopped beneath the footbridge. It took us a moment to realize she wasn’t with us anymore.

  “This is it,” she announced when we returned.

  The three of us looked at the wall of the bridge. The bricks appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary.

  “So how do we—” I began, but Ren pulled a pocket knife from her pants.

  She opened it and studied each of us in turn. “I need the blood of an innocent.”

  Vicken shook his head. “A sacrifice? You didn’t say anything about a sacrifice. There’s no way any of us are dying to open your door.”

  Ren gave a short, humorless laugh. “Who said anything about dying? The door opens with a drop of blood. Death is a bit excessive, don’t you think?” Her hazel eyes flashed. “And besides, you’re a vampire, so don’t flatter yourself that you’re innocent.” She turned to Alden and me. “How about you two?”

  A boy had died because of me. The thought of Sebastian’s death in the car accident when I was driving made me lower my gaze. “I don’t think so,” I said quietly.

  “Aren’t you innocent?” Alden asked her.

  The incredulous look Ren gave him would have been laughable if not for her next words. “See what I’ve seen and you begin to doubt that there is any innocence left in the world.” She held out her knife. “You win, Grimsy.”

  Alden accepted the blade. He wiped the knife on his pants and then put it to his finger. He hesitated and looked at me.

  “You don’t have to do it,” I told him.

  He lifted one scrawny shoulder in a half-shrug. “It’s nice to be useful.”

  He winced when the blade poked his finger, but he held it up with a look of pride. “I did it!” His face was a bit pale at the sight of his own blood, but he forced a brave smile.

  “Let a drop fall on that rock,” Ren instructed.

  Alden knelt and squeezed his finger over the normal-looking stone just past the edge of the sidewalk. When the drop hit it, a slight, humming noise sounded.

  Ren looked around to ensure that we weren’t in view of any of the humans wandering the park, then put her hand to the brick wall. It swung inward without a sound and revealed a narrow, white-tiled hallway lit by rectangular neon lights that matched those at my old school.

  “Come on,” Ren told us. “This is a side exit, but they might be watching it.”

  “Great,” Vicken muttered behind me as we followed her inside.

  “I did it!” Alden said. He sucked on his finger. “You needed my help.”

  I nodded. “Thanks for doing that.”

  “Where do the scientists or whoever works down here get their blood?” Vicken asked from the back. “I don’t suppose they’re all innocent.”

  “Not by a long shot,” Ren replied. “They carry vials of blood so they can get in and out.” She lifted her voice. “Though I’m not surprised you’re the one asking about the blood, Fangs. You should be a bit harder to read. It’s gross.”

  “What is your problem?” Vicken demanded from behind me.


  I put a hand to his chest to keep him from pushing toward her.

  Ren walked on as if his anger didn’t bother her. “Vampires are parasites. They live by sucking the life from others. It’s sick, really. You’re a leech to this human world, a true monster in all the subtleties of the name.”

  “How dare you?” Vicken demanded.

  He struggled to get past me. I was forced to plant my feet and use my werewolf strength against him to keep him from getting by.

  “Stop it!” I finally said in exasperation.

  I glanced back to see that Ren was nearly to the bend in the hallway while Alden had stopped halfway between us.

  “She’s out of line,” Vicken growled.

  I nodded. “I know. Don’t let her get under your skin.”

  Vicken glared, his yellow eyes bright with anger. “How can she say such things?”

  I let up the pressure just a little to see if he would stop pushing. “Maybe the only vampires she’s met are cruel, I don’t know. But trying to hurt her isn’t going to change her opinion.”

  That made Vicken stop struggling entirely. “I wouldn’t hurt her.”

  At the deflated look on his face, I nodded. “I know. And I understand you being mad. But we have to keep our heads down here, alright?”

  He finally nodded. “I will. I shouldn’t let her get to me.”

  We continued down the narrow hallway toward where Alden and Ren waited.

  “The things she said would have bothered me, too, if she’d said them about werewolves,” I admitted before we reached the others.

  “Except she’s part werewolf,” Vicken replied quietly. “She wouldn’t say it about her own kind.”

  Ren turned around. “You’re assuming I’m not part vampire. Assumptions are dangerous.”

  She turned the corner and left us staring after her.

  “Is she serious?” Alden asked.

  “I have no idea anymore,” I replied.

  “Hurry up,” Ren called. “We might be in a back exit, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe.”