The door suddenly opened and Duncan stood staring at us, swaying slightly. “Excuse me.”
We moved out of the way, and before either of us could blink, Duncan was gone and we could hear the front door slam.
“Jesus,” said Sonny. “How the hell can he move that fast?”
“He’s no longer human,” I said, closing my eyes.
Chapter Twenty-five
Sonny packed everyone into his Tahoe and proceeded to take us home around five-thirty that morning. My mom sat in front with him while Nathan and I rode in the back.
“I hope Duncan will be okay,” said Sonny, rubbing his chin. “I feel so damn helpless. I can’t do anything for him except give him my support. It’s frustrating.”
“He’ll be okay,” said mom. “Duncan’s a smart kid and I know he’ll do the right thing.”
“He’s also not like the rest of them,” I said. “He’d never take it from someone by force. In fact, he probably went to Nightshade; apparently they have very willing donors.”
“It’s barbaric,” whispered my mom. “The more I think about it, the more it disturbs me.”
“You have no idea what barbaric is,” I said, “Until you’ve walked into that sick place.”
I then told them about the things I’d seen in the club, leaving out the part of walking in on Ethan having sex. It was still too painful to talk about.
“The club isn’t always like that,” said Nathan.”
Mom turned around. “How would you know?”
He shrugged. “Celeste took me there before.”
She scowled. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
“You’ve been too busy with Caleb,” I mumbled.
She sighed but didn’t say anything.
“I’m exhausted,” yawned Nathan. “I could sleep for days.”
Before long, we were back at the cabin and memories of what happened earlier came to mind.
“Great,” I mumbled, walking up the stairs towards my room. “Duncan and Ethan were in my bedroom earlier. I don’t even want to see the damage.”
“What?” asked mom.
“They were fighting over Nikki,” said Nathan.
Mom followed me to my bedroom and we both groaned in horror at the horrible mess. My bed was in shambles, my pictures and everything was knocked down from my dresser, and there was broken glass on the carpet.
“How in the world did they get blood on the ceiling?” cringed my mother.
“Don’t ask,” I said, picking up broken pieces of my alarm clock.
“This is going to take a long time to clean,” she said. “Why don’t you just sleep in my room for now?”
I nodded. “Okay. I’m too tired to deal with this mess now anyway.”
“I’ll be joining you in a few,” she said. “I’ll see Sonny out and then be back up.”
I changed into a clean T-shirt and shorts then shuffled into her room, exhausted. As I lay in my mom’s bed, I thought about Ethan and how he’d lied to me about everything. Nothing he’d done had made sense, and when I finally fell asleep, my dreams were troubled.
A half hour later, I woke up to the sounds of screams.
“No!” screamed my mother from somewhere down below.
I leaped out of bed and rushed down the steps. When I made it to the main floor, I noticed she was nowhere to be found but the front door was wide open.
“What’s going on?” hollered Nathan, coming up behind me.
“It’s mom,” I said. “She was screaming.”
He bolted around me and I followed him outside.
“Mom!” he yelled.
We stepped off of the porch and walked around the deck, towards the lake. It was then that we both froze in shock.
“Sonny!” screamed Nathan in anguish.
“Oh, my God!” I choked.
Sonny’s body lay broken and twisted near the boat launch, his eyes staring blindly up into the early morning light. We ran to his body and crouched down, trying to find a pulse.
“Who could have done this?” I cried.
Nathan scowled. “Probably Ethan or Caleb.”
I stared at him in horror. “Or Faye?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Nathan, where’s mom?” I whispered, looking around.
He stood up and wiped the tears from his face. “Mom!”
“Mom!” I yelled, getting back to my feet. “Mom!”
We started walking back towards the house, calling frantically for her, but she didn’t answer.
“I just heard her screaming!” I cried. “She can’t be too far.”
“Caleb must have taken her. We have to go and search for her.”
I nodded. “I think he knew something was wrong when he brought you back to Sonny’s.”
“Let’s go back into the house and get dressed. We’ll need some weapons or something. Shit!” he hollered, frantically running a hand through his hair. “What the hell can we even use against these things?”
I was already running up the stairs. “I don’t know, but let’s find something sharp!”
I quickly got dressed and then went back downstairs, where I grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen.
“We need Duncan,” said Nathan, coming up behind me. He grabbed his cell phone from the counter and tried calling his number.