Pretty When She Kills (Pretty When She Dies #2)(26)

“She...started to cry. She was upset. Her tears were bloody. There was blood in them. I tried to get away from her, but she kept begging me to not be scared. I...saw her teeth.”

“Sharp, huh?”

“Yeah, then she just threw me like a toy across the room. The rest is still hazy.”

“She tried to remove the memory from your mind.”

The second that door shuts forget about me. Understand? Amaliya’s voice whispered in his mind.

“Yeah. She did. With hypnosis or something.”

“She was new to it all. Didn’t know what she was doing. You’re lucky to be alive, Pete. Others were not so lucky,” Ethan said.

Combing his hands slowly through his dark hair, Pete shook his head. The images filling his mind combined with what Ethan was insinuating was too much to fathom. The tranquility of his surroundings was at odds with the maelstrom inside his head.

“What you’re saying, it can’t be real,” Pete said at last. He popped the beer and drank it swiftly. He wanted to be numb. He didn’t want to feel. He wanted to be fuzzy. Ethan’s words were weaving Pete’s memories together into a tapestry he did not want to look at, let alone accept.

“Why not?” Ethan returned to the grill. The fat sizzling onto the hot coals filled the air with smoke and the stench of burning flesh.

“Because...if she died, she couldn’t come back. Dead is dead.”

Ethan chuckled, shaking his head. “Oh, if only that were true.”

“You think she’s some kind of...vampire, don’t you?”

Glancing over his shoulder, Ethan gave Pete an incredulous look. “Think? I know she is.” Ethan shoveled his food onto the platter and opened up the Tupperware bins he had on the folding table. Inside were bread, condiments and chopped up lettuce and tomato. Building his hamburger, Ethan continued, “I have no doubt that she was killed and buried in that forest. She rose a few days later probably hungry and very disoriented. Coming back does that to them sometimes.”

“Them?”

“Vampires.” Ethan finished making up his sandwich, covered up the remaining grilled meat, and settled back in his chair.

“It can’t be. It just can’t!”

“Think about it. It all fits together. The massacre at the college, her coming here and seducing you, feeding off you, then trying to wipe your memories so you won’t remember. She then heads on down the road and kills a trucker in a motel, and some crazy bitch on her way to kill her husband. I have figured that much out.”

“Amaliya would never kill anyone!”

“She did, and she will. She will do it for blood. She needs it to survive. Right now she’s out there, hiding, probably afraid.” Ethan bit hungrily into his burger, chewing swiftly.

“Why are you looking for her?” Pete asked. His blurry gaze fell over the camper and truck again. He had missed the silver crosses worked into the rims of the wheels. Glancing around the area, he saw small silver cross stakes pressed into the ground around the truck and camper. “You’re a vampire hunter.”

Ethan shook his head. “Paranormal investigator.”

“You gonna kill her?” Pete felt his throat constricting at the thought of Amaliya dying again. Her face filled his mind, so beautiful, so sweet.

“Nope.” Ethan mopped up some ketchup with his bun and took another big bite.

“Then what? You said someone hired you to investigate the murders. Is that true?”

Ethan bobbed his head and wiped off his mouth with a napkin. “Absolutely. I know Amaliya killed those people, but I want to know who killed her. She can tell me that.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Kill the one who made her,” Ethan said matter-of-factly. “She can lead me to him.”

“You won’t kill her?” Pete asked, his voice slurring with beer and fear.

“Nope. I can save her.” Ethan shoved the rest of his hamburger in his mouth, annoying Pete.

“You can make her be alive again? Human?”

“Absolutely,” Ethan said around his food as he chewed.

“For real?”

“She’s only been a vampire a few months. There is this old ritual that the Catholic church used to restore vampires to life.”

“You’re shittin’ me?” Pete stared at the man incredulously. The entire conversation was insane, but he couldn’t make himself get up and leave. Despite everything, Pete believed every word Ethan was saying.

“No, I’m not shittin’ you. But it can only work within the first year of the vampire’s life. After that, the monster inside of them becomes too strong and they are lost. So my plan is to find Amaliya, find out where her master is, use his ashes in the ritual, and restore her to life.”

Pete shook his head in disbelief. “But why?”

“It’s what I do. It’s what my family has always done. We make sure that the vampires never grow strong enough to overthrow humanity. We kill the old ones, restore the young ones.”

“And you came here to figure out if we know where she is?”

“You’re my first stop. After this, I head west.”

“Her family outside of DeLeon,” Pete sighed.

“Yeah.”

“They won’t talk to you. Same as the Vezoraks. They’re not going to trust you if they do know where she is.”