Blood Gamble by Ariel Hunter

Author:Ariel Hunter [Hunter, Ariel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

As we drove back to my parent’s house I could feel how much lighter Zander’s mood was. He wasn’t shouting for joy or dancing in the street or anything as obvious as that, but he did tune the radio to a rock station and tap his thumbs on the steering wheel in time with the beat.

I was happy to see him in a better mood, but I couldn’t match his elation. I didn’t want to downplay all the progress we’d made and how helpful it was to destroy the plants, but there was still a vast array of obstacles in front of us.

“Are you going to tell your parents where we went?” Zander asked as we pulled into the familiar driveway.

I shook my head. “No. They don’t need any more details on what’s going on.”

And knowing them, they probably wouldn’t ask.

With heavy feet and hesitation, Zander and I made our way into the old Victorian house. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting to walk into after the horrible events of earlier, but the eruption of laughter from the dining room was certainly not it.

Zander and I shared a wide-eyed look.

“That sounds . . . promising,” Zander said with hesitation.

“Or really creepy,” I laughed.

What was there to laugh about? Hunters were hell-bent on killing them and successfully broke into the mausoleum. The laughter was so out of place. It was like dolls or clocks in horror movies, where perfectly normal things seemed ominous.

We made our way down the long, narrow hall that ran through the house to the dining room. All the candles were lit so the room was awash in the warm glow of flickering light and full crystal goblets of deep red blood sat in front of each place setting.

“There’s my darling,” my mother said as she rose from the table. She was wearing a tight black dress with sheer sleeves and trimmed with golden thread. Her lips were painted a deep mauve and half her black hair was swept back in a braid.

“Hi, Mom.” I returned her cheek kisses and nervously glanced at the practical stranger sitting in my normal seat at the table.

Uncle Amos and Dad stood too. There was a bit of a resemblance between my dad and my uncle. They had the same eyes and nose, but Amos’s hair was a lighter brown, in a cut popular in a different time. He appeared to have transitioned into his undead life when he was younger than my parents, meaning he probably never had a family himself.

“This is your uncle, Amos,” Mom said. The smile on her face was nearly as bright as when she introduced people to her grandchildren. “Amos, this is Friday.”

“Friday,” he said with a lot of affection. “I’m terribly embarrassed about how we met. But you’ll have to excuse my behavior. You know how it can be.” He shrugged and gave me a sheepish grin that elicited an easy smile from me.

Uncle Amos had cleaned up nicely. He was way more human-like dressed in what I assumed were some of Athan’s clothes from this century.

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