Catherine Kos – Author

Happy Sunday! Here’s the next installment of An Empty Grave. Happy hunting!

An Empty Grave, part 2: Chap 9

Chapter Nine – Chase

“You found her?” Duke asks.

“I said I’d call if I found her, didn’t I?” I answer as I lean against a tree, waiting for Bianca to reappear.

“That was fast,” he replies, sounding somewhat impressed.

I shrug, even though he can’t see me. There’s a benefit to not worrying about dying. It means I can go very fast. The kind of fast that cops can’t even catch up to.

“Don’t argue with her, Chase,” Duke urges.

I cut him off before he can say more. “I don’t plan on arguing with her. I plan on bringing her back home. And if that means I have to tie her up and throw her in the trunk of the Impala, then I will. I’ll call when we’re on our way.”

Ending the call, I slide it into my pocket and take a drag from the cigarette in my other hand. The sound of a loud fan fills the air and I whip around, searching for it. I step out from behind a tree and spot a fan boat on the lake a few yards out. Gotcha. I step back behind the tree, shielding myself, and lean against the trunk, waiting.

After what seems like forever, I hear the engine cut out and then footsteps on the wood dock.

“Let’s get out of here,” Hayden breathes.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Bianca replies.

“Maude, thank you,” Killian says, sincerely. The rest of what he says is lost to me when Bianca and Hayden walk right past the tree I’m leaning against her. I watch her walk away from me, waiting for her to turn around, to spot me. But she doesn’t. All these vampires around, so she doesn’t notice one more.

“I think you need to work on your senses,” I tell her. “This could’ve been bad if it was anyone else but me.”

Bianca freezes, Hayden spins around to face me.

“I take it you didn’t get the hint when we left you behind,” Bianca says, slowly turning to face me. I spot the stake that she pulls out of her pocket. Her knuckle turns white from how hard she grips it.

“Planning to use that on me?” I ask, cocking my head to the side.

“Come a little closer and you’ll find out.” She stretches her lips into a bloodthirsty grin.

Slowly, I push off the tree and walk towards her, only stopping when I’m looking down at her.

“We’re leaving and we’re going home.”

I blink in one second and in the next I’m landing on my back a few feet from her, my hand coming up to grip my jaw from where she punched me. She’s on me seconds later, one hand fisting the collar of my shirt, the other raising the stake in the air.

Killian speeds forward, wrapping his arms around her waist, and pulls her back.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she grumbles, breaking out of Killian’s hold, and shoving away from him.

She barely casts me another glance before she starts towards the Impala.

I look to Hayden, noticing for the first time the distraught look on her face.

“What is it?” I ask her, and she snaps her head to mine.

“We’re going home,” She answers before following after Bianca.

Killian holds out a hand to me. I take it, letting him haul me to my feet. We don’t speak but follow after the girls.

Bianca starts the engine and takes off the moment Killian is sealed inside.

I sit on the bike and watch after them. I look to the woman still standing by the fan boat, her eyes wide. Pulling out my phone I shoot off a text to Duke.

‘We’re on our way.’

The end, for now.