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Chapter Five
I’d lived in Windy Ridge all my life, but I hadn’t explored any of the harder-to-reach spots since I was young.
Back in high school, Dean and I used to run around the whole county looking for trouble, and that led us to quite a few do-not-enter areas. I hadn’t been to such places in years, though, so trekking through the thick woods of the periphery of Damnation County now was almost a walk down memory lane. I just hoped there would be fewer gunshots than before.
The trees here were even thicker than the ones around Windy Ridge. It was like the forest had overtaken any natural footpaths ages ago, and now it was more like hiking off-trail than following a preestablished road. Roots had grown up above the soil, making me feel like we were walking up a staircase with how much climbing we had to do. The branches hung low, leaves dangling like long vines in a hidden jungle. Therewereroads to follow, but finding them was almost more difficult than getting the residents of this forgotten part of the world to speak to us. The roads were supposed to be gravel, but it had been so long since someone came to maintain them that they’d degraded until they were basically invisible. People around here didn’t like to be disturbed, and it seemed even the local officials knew that. Plus, what with the crazies and shifters running around, it wasn’t any wonder that the roads didn’t get much action.
We were headed to the third and final location of the day (or night since it was now midnight), which turned out to be the furthest away. The house was owned by a man named Ethan Thatcher, someone I’d never heard of (and even though it wasn’t like I knew everyone in Damnation County, I certainly knew orknew ofenough of them.) Dean looked around at the woods surrounding us with stealthy, shifting eyes as if he expected something to attack us any second. It wasn’t all that rare that neither of us knew these more out-of-the-way residents, but it certainly added an air of anticipation while we made our way towards the last house on our list.
I’d taken the lead for a few minutes before I heard Dean behind me, huffing with exertion. I had to hold back a smile as I paused and waited for him, and he nodded to me as he caught up.
“Thanks.” He took off his hat and wiped his forehead, smoothing back the hair on top. “God, I haven’t gotten this much exercise in a while. I forgot how much inclines can kill.”
“I thought you’d been working out?” I asked with a smirk. “Weren’t you just saying the other day how you’ve taken up running?”
He glared playfully at me. “Iamworking out,but I wouldn’t exactly call myself a hiker and definitely not one who hikes straight uphill.” He looked me over with indignation. “How come you haven’t even broken a sweat yet? We’ve been going uphill for hours.” He paused. “Or wait… that must be a vampire thing?”
I cocked my head to the side and nodded. “It takes a little more to tire me out these days.” I paused, then looked upward, where the moon was just barely rising over the treetops. “Well, I guess it just takesdifferentthings. Like the sun… for example.”
“It’s kind of hard to remember you’re a vampire sometimes…” he started, shaking his head at me. “Most of the time, you act so normal.” He waved a hand at me as I hauled myself over another fallen log and reached out to help him with it.
“What’s a vampire supposed to act like?”
He chuckled. “I don’t know—not you. Maybe more like Nosferatu?”
I laughed and held my hand up in front of my face to mimic a cape. “I vant to suck your blood!”
He chuckled and continued to shake his head as he stood there, just looking at me as though he were admiring some priceless painting. “Yes, you look too young for your age… so there’s that. But it’s not as though your fangs show, and you haven’t suddenly taken to dressing goth. And last I checked, you weren’t surrounded by flies.”
I frowned. “Are vampires supposed to be surrounded by flies?”
“I don’t know—are they?”
“Um, I don’t think so. I think you just made that up.”
“Okay, well… it’s not like you suddenly turn into a bat randomly.”
I laughed. “No, I definitely don’t do that.”
“Right—my point is to most people, people who aren’t in the know, you just seem like a very impressive mom.”
I snorted, shoving him playfully with my shoulder which nearly knocked him over and I had to reach out and keep him upright with a hand around his upper arm and an embarrassed expression.
“And you have the strength of a bulldozer,” he added as we both laughed. Before we could face the uncomfortable silence that I was sure was coming (those seemed to visit us a lot), I faced forward and turned around a bend in the pathway.
“Well, thanks, I guess—about the nice things you said about me, anyway. I’ll ignore the flies and bulldozer part.” I glanced over and offered him a smile. “Sometimes I wonder if being a mom is the thing I’mworstat.” Dean threw me a look and I put my hands up. “What? It’s true. Everything else I have is a superpower. Being a mom still takes effort… human effort.”
Dean frowned. “I guess it does,”he said, “but I think you seem to be doing a pretty good job. Sicily seems like a happy kid. She’s smart, friendly, skilled… and she seems to be really into this monster-hunting business… which I assume she got from you.”
I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “God, no. Honestly, I wish I didn’t have to do all this monster huntin’ crap most of the time.” He gave me a questioning look so I continued. “I’m fine with doing it because it protects people in Windy Ridge, butman,do those hillbillies tire me out.”
Dean’s eyes widened, though his smile was more amused than concerned. “Ahh. So Sicily’s interest in all of it actually bothers you?”
“Put it this way: it’s probably taking years off my life. And, now that I’m a vampire, I might have more of those to spare, so Sicily’s had no issue cranking it up a notch. You should have seen her when I first turned. It wasweeksof experiments.”
“She’s the Dr. Frankenstein to your monster?” Dean offered, and I barked out a laugh that caused some of the night creatures to flutter out of the trees.
“Pretty much.” I grinned at him.
