Chapter 12

His feet were stuck to the pavement. Regan was holding something he couldn't see. He started to jump to conclusions. A knife, a gun. Anything could be turned into a murder weapon.

Darrien waved his hand. "Regan, piss off."

Regan jutted the thing in his hand toward Darrien. He didn't even flinch. "Got somethin' to say, faggot?"

Darrien raised a brow. "I already said it."

Ren looked between Darrien and Regan. This would have been a great time to get the hell out of there, but his feet were refusing to listen. They were acting like they wanted to stick around to see what happened. Frankly, he didn't have the time. He needed to find that fucking ring before his mom found out.

She was already mad about the letter from the Machines.

Regan looked Darrien up and down. He looked confused. "What's gotten into you?"

He turned to Ren. He made a disgusted face. "Hanging around a vamp and defending him..."

Sam and Ollie looked just as dismayed.

Darrien pushed the thing Regan was holding. Ren finally got a look at it. It was just car keys. A bit of his fear deflated.

"Come on. We were just talking. It's not like I'm a sympathizer."

Ren took a step back.

All eyes turned to him. He kept walking backward until he knew they weren't going to come after him. If it wasn't his life on the line, he might have found the situation comical. Darrien looked like he wanted to say something to Ren while Regan, Sam, and Ollie were watching with clueless looks.

He must have looked ridiculous walking backward, but his heart was pounding so hard in his chest that he couldn't think straight.

Once he crossed the parking lot, he turned. He disappeared into the thick brush of the forest, following the trail back home.

He kept thinking about Darrien's words. He sounded genuine. Well, he had until he said that he wasn't a sympathizer. He hadn't let Regan tear Ren a new one. That was the best thing that Ren could say about him.

He was halfway down the trail when it hit him that the only place that he hadn't looked was the forest. Suddenly, the night before flashed before him. The dead girl's face with her sunken eyes and pale skin almost knocked him off his feet.

She'd been beautiful, even when she was dead. Whoever killed her had ripped her apart, but had left some of her intact. His stomach churned as he remembered the smell. It wasn't the smell necessarily. The memory was imprinted on him. And so was the smell of copper.

He stood in the middle of the trail, gazing at the trees, the overgrown brush, and the dirt. All of it, paired with the cloudy sky made him feel small and insignificant. He'd always felt this way like his life wasn't worth much, not to his mom or to himself.

The wind rustled the branches. A couple of leaves fell away, soaring through the air until they found their place on the ground.

He stopped.

He let out a swift gasp before he couldn't breathe. The air whooshed out of his lungs and he was captured there. The air crushed against his body, pinning him. It felt as if someone was speaking to him, but there was no sound.

The urge was there. The urge to destroy everything in his path. He fought against it, struggling to stay in the right mind. The thoughts of blood and murder were everywhere. He couldn't escape them. He was floating. He couldn't be. His mind was tricked.

His feet felt like they were hundreds of miles away from the ground. He was flying through the air like those falling leaves.

Then, it stopped.

He fell down with a large cry that escaped his chest like it was ripped from him. The gasp that came after was soft as he hit the ground. He crawled to his hands and knees.

"What—" A trail of spit splattered in the dirt. "—the fuck."

He rolled onto his back, chest heaving as he clutched his throat. The air filling his lungs tasted better, foreign, but disgusting at the same time. It burned all the way down as did his saliva. His body was a heatwave crashing into itself and the trees were swirling like he was water going down a drain.

When it was over, he got to his feet. He staggered.

The forest hadn't changed. Neither had the trail, but there was something off about it.

Indescribable. That's what it was.

He scurried away from the horrible sight.

Away from the trail, he diverged down a small hill. It cut corners, skipping over his house, and was an easier way to get to the general area where the dead girl was. She was buried only a few feet away from where she'd been murdered. Hopefully, the ring would be on the topsoil and not buried along with her.

The sun casted a faint glow through the treetops. It was late into the evening and he didn't have a lot of sunlight left.

He made it to the site about ten minutes later. It wasn't enough time for him to calm his nerves. Instead, he was left with a flushed face and twitching hands.

It was even harder to focus when he was thinking about digging up a dead body he'd helped bury less than twenty-four hours ago.

That was if it would come to that. He hoped he would find the ring on the ground before he had to make that choice.

The sun was now a faint glow on the underbrush. It came up to his knees.

He thought he had gone the wrong way at first. The trees didn't look quite right and the feeling he got once he stepped into a ring of surrounding trees made him feel like he was entering a different time zone. Then, he saw the large boulder that marked this place as the bloody scene.

The smell of copper was in the air. It was hard to miss.

The sweet smell of the blood had long vanished. This was too old, too contaminated to make him hungry, but the thought of fresh blood made his gums ache. He pressed his tongue over his teeth, hoping it would soothe them. The ache went down some, but it was still there.

The freshly turned soil was soft beneath his feet. He crossed the clearing, following the smell of the blood, until he was sure he was hovering over the kill site.

When he looked at it, the kicked dirt and the disheveled grass, it sent him back once more to when he'd found her.

Mantel was over her body, covered in blood. When he looked up, Ren thought he was a goner. He thought he was going to die last night.

Thinking about it now, it should have been obvious that Mantel wasn't going to kill him. Mantel hadn't been drinking from her. Ren was just so afraid that his fear did the thinking for him.

Shaking his head, he started to look around. He kicked dirt, leaves, and the grass aside. He was tempted to get down on his hands and knees, but he thought it might be bad if his DNA or scent was on everything.

He laughed under his breath.

Did it matter though? His hands were on her body so it really didn't make sense.

That was his breaking point. He fell to his knees and began to comb the area inch by inch. He wasn't going to be leaving until he found that damn ring. Going home really wasn't an option.

Dirt clumped under his nails. His fingers and palms were stained. The sun was no longer casting on the ground. It wasn't fully set, but it was clear that this was all the light he was going to get.

The moon almost shined bright than the sun had. He was able to at least make out some of the things lying on the ground. There were large and small twigs, beetles crawling in the dirt and crickets that jumped when he swiped through the tall grass.

He hadn't come up with anything. There was no shine and no touch of metal.

With a heavy sigh, he sat back on his heels. The girl was buried just past the trees in front of him. The boulder to his side gave him something strong to hold onto as he got to his feet. He dusted off the dirt off his pants.

"What are you doing here?"

He almost jumped out of his skin.

He whipped around.

Mantel was standing in the clearing. The moonlight showed the natural blond highlights in his short wavy hair. He was wearing black slacks and a white button-down shirt. He looked ridiculous standing in the middle of a forest when he looked ready for an office job interview.

Mantel looking Ren up and down. He frowned.

"I—uh..." What the hell was he supposed to say? That he was going to dig up a dead girl's body because he lost a family heirloom?

It sounded like a fucking joke.

Perhaps that might have been the thing to say because the next thing that came out of his mouth was a load of bullshit.

"Just...uh...making sure she was still here." He turned around, ducking his head to look at the mound that hadn't been touched. "Yep! She is!"

Mantel narrowed his eyes.

Yeah. It was pretty obvious that wasn't what Ren was doing.

He backed up as Mantel took a step forward. Ren really didn't like the look in his eyes. It said that Ren had only a few seconds to explain himself before Mantel attacked.

Mantel's eyes glowed red.

He was getting closer, barely three feet away. "Tell me. What are you doing here?"

Ren's mouth opened. Something about Mantel's eyes.

Oh fuck.

"My grandfather's ring. I lost it." They weren't the words he'd been meaning to say.

Mantel was right in front of him now. The red glow was impossible to look away from.

"Keep looking at me," he said. His voice was steady, calming in a way that Ren didn't like. It was the voice of a predator about to catch its prey. "You're going to turn around and never come back to this place again."

Ren stared to nod.

Wait. No.

Ren shook his head as hard as he could. His eyes closed. The red glow faded from his mind.

"You—" Ren whispered under his breath. "What did you do?"

He backed up until his legs hit the edge of the boulder. His back pressed against the cold surface. He slowly opened his eyes. Mantel took another step. His eyes had faded some. A look of intrigue covered his face.

Ren's hands scurried over the rough surface of the rock, clutching onto anything he could.

A deep frown cut through Mantel's handsome face. He looked confused. Ren couldn't say that he wasn't either.

"You're kidding, right?"

That kind of language didn't sound right coming out his mouth. Mantel looked like he'd stepped out of a prep school pamphlet.

Ren pointed at Mantel's face.

"Your eyes..."

"I'm a vampire, obviously." Mantel rolled his eyes. "Magic, remember?"

Ren stumbled for words. "Halfy, remember."

He thought he saw a smile pull at Mantel's lips. "I guess we both have things to learn."

He stepped back. "Get out of here."

He was back to his hard self. A stone-cold beauty that couldn't be reached. Ren kind of liked him when he was biting tooth and nail to get a punch at him. Looking soft in the moonlight really wasn't Mantel's thing.

Ren stood his ground. "I'm not going anywhere."

Mantel let out a growl that bordered on irritation. "You can't be here! We made a deal."

Mantel went to grab Ren's arm, his eyes glowing red once more. Ren held up his hand, jerking it out of Mantel's reach.

"Turn your eyes off!" They died out and Mantel let out another sound. He was very expressive when he wanted to be.

Once Ren was sure he wasn't going to be influenced by whatever tricks Mantel was playing, he walked around the boulder. He made sure that Mantel was in his line of sight the entire way around. Mantel glowered at him, arms crossed over his chest, and his foot tapping. If he was a ticking bomb, he would have went off already.

When Ren was on the other side of the boulder, he spoke up.

"I'm not leaving until I find the ring. Now, go off or something."

Ren couldn't actually believe he was talking to Mantel this way. Somewhere between seeing the confusion on Mantel's face and being entranced by his eyes, Ren had lost his fear. He thought he might be going mad.

"Alright, come on," Mantel said while waving Ren to come back around to him. "Away from the body."

Ren kept stepping toward the mound in the dirt. His pulse spiked when he imagined her face once more.

Mantel was growing more upset. His face was turning bright red. Ren thought he might have pissed him off.

Ren didn't care. He was still riding on a triumphant high.

He'd been cut off from vampires his entire life. He was still getting used to being so close to one.

Mantel was annoying and a little self-centered. He was nothing like the vampires Ren had heard or read about. He knew that most of it was fiction to scare humans. The vampires in Sangui always seemed like royalty from hundreds of years ago.

He thought it was kinda funny that out of all the people he could get stuck with after finding a body, it was a vampire with an attitude.

The moonlight fell over Mantel's features like a silky hand reaching out toward an angel. Ren envied Mantel's light posh clothes. He was practically dripping in money. For god's sake, he was walking round in shoes that looked to cost more than Ren's house. In a fucking forest.

Ren was surprised when he felt not fear, but anger. He hated Mantel. And it was more than his irritating personality that ground Ren's gears.

Mantel thought he was better than Ren. It was written all over his face.

Ren rolled his eyes and began to dig at the upturned soil. He hadn't thought it through when he'd come here. Getting his hands dirty hadn't been his plan, but he wasn't going to leave without the ring. The rest of his life depended on it. What worth was he if he couldn't even take care of a ring?

"Are you completely out of your mind?!" Mantel hauled up the back of Ren's shirt. He almost strangled him as Ren tried to get away. Mantel tossed him on the other side of the boulder, almost ramming Ren's head into the side of it.

Ren glared up at him, chest heaving as he tried to find the strength to yell a curse at him. But he was cut off by voices that weren't theirs.

Ren and Mantel locked eyes.

Before Ren could react, Mantel dived toward the boulder beside him.

They both pressed back against it. Ren drew his legs up to his chest while Mantel peeked over the boulder. Ren swatted him and motioned for Mantel to get down. Mantel hissed at him, but when the voices got closer, they huddled together.

This was not how he thought the night would go. With Mantel against the length of his body, it was really hard to ignore how warm Mantel was. And how fit he was under all those clothes. Jealousy coursed through him, but it was soon forgotten as he tired to focus on what the newcomers were saying.

They were older. Their voices were gruff. Men that were either in their late thirties or were heading toward early forties. Ren wanted to peak over the boulder like Mantel had. The curious part of him was itching to get a look though he knew it was a dumb idea.

They must have been in the clearing now. The boulder wasn't even fifteen feet away from them.

He was scared now. It was the strongest it had ever been with a firm grip on his heart and every inch of his body.

He heard footsteps, the cracking of twigs underweight. His heart was in his throat. His head swam as he tried to steady his breathing. Whoever they were, they couldn't know what had happened. No one but him and Mantel knew what had gone down last night.

Except the murderer.

He closed his eyes, chastising himself for bringing that up. It only made his stomach upset.

The killer could be one of them. His eyes flew open.

Mantel threw a hand over Ren's mouth, smothering the gasp he would have let out otherwise. Ren looked up at Mantel, shaking his head to get his hand off. Mantel stared back at him with a look that made Ren more terrified. Did he know what Ren was thinking? Did he think this could be the killer too?

"This is the spot." Ren could hear them. The first one had a gruff voice. He sounded like a smoker.

"She should have called," the other said. It was a higher pitch. "She shouldn't have come alone."

Not the killers then. Or maybe one of them was.

They stopped. Ren itched to know where they were and to run the hell out of there.

Mantel pressed his fingers harder into Ren's cheek. They were still looking at each other. Ren held Mantel's gaze, afraid that if he looked away, he might let out a scream. His hands came up to Mantel's and gripped hard onto his wrist. He wasn't trying to move his hand. The pressure was soothing in a way, calming, and he wanted to keep it there. It was a whole lot better than shivering against the rock alone.

If Mantel hadn't shown up, they might have seen Ren. And he didn't know what these guys were up to.

Mantel clenched his jaw. He was crouched beside Ren. Ren looked down at Mantel's feet. He was in an awkward position with one leg down on the ground and the other balancing him on one foot. Ren put an arm out around his back. The tension lessened on his face.

When he looked back at Ren again, Ren felt a jolt in his chest.

"What's the scanner say?"

"It's the spot, Malcolm. If she isn't here, she isn't here."

"She wouldn't have gone off on her own. She's too smart for that."

"Maybe she's hanging with Phil. You know how kids these days are. They're not always thinking about the Society."

"She was. Now help me search the area."

They kicked a few bunches of dirt and grass. They were shuffling around, getting closer to Ren and Mantel. Ren shivered as a breeze went by them. Mantel pressed harder against him. His warmth flooded Ren's body and his thoughts. His head was getting woozy and he didn't think it was the fear's fault.

A cell rung. The feet stopped just beside the boulder. If Mantel wasn't covering Ren's mouth, he would have let out a sigh.

"Hello?" They were walking back toward the other side of the clearing.

"Sounds like your problem," the man said. The one with the gruff voice. "We're here."

There was a second of silence.

"Malcolm, hand me the scanner." There was the rustling of clothing. Another second. Ren couldn't hear anything except for Mantel's hushed breaths. Ren's own heaving chest was lost to the pounding in his ears. A headache was forming at his temples.

"It's open. What do you want me to tell Cipher?" The man hummed. "Is Carla there by chance?"

He sighed. "She isn't."

They might have been talking about the girl. Ren's eyes flickered to where she was buried. Her name was Carla.

"We're heading back now. We'll meet you at the gate."

Their heavy footfalls almost seemed to shake the entire forest floor. Ren's hand pressed down onto a twig. He wanted to scream in pain, shake the thing out of his skin, but Mantel kept him down. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed after the last of their footsteps disappeared that Mantel removed his hand.

Ren gasped and clutched at his chest. It was a soft gasp that could barely be heard over him falling onto the ground.

"They were looking for her," he said.

Mantel's face was grim. "They're with the Hunter Society."

Ren didn't know what to say. He fell into silence. They both did. Mantel's eyes were on him, but also in a faraway place. He was thinking as Ren did. The Hunter Society. Ren should have known when they mentioned Society. But it was hard to believe the HS was still active.

"I thought they disbanded."

Mantel gave him a look. "Is that the official statement or just what you believe?"

Ren was floored. "Both?"

Mantel got up, dusting the dirt from his expensive white shirt and slacks. Ren bit back a retort about how it was Mantel's fault for dressing like that out in a forest. Where did he think he was going when he set out tonight?

Ren furrowed his brows. "How did you even know I was going to be here?"

Mantel turned away. "I didn't. I was making sure nothing had dug the body up."

Her body, Ren wanted to say. He pressed his lips together.

He stood up as well, his feet feeling more like jelly. The HS and the girl were connected. That made it more obvious that he had to get his ring. If her body was ever found, the HS would be all over it.

He swallowed. "What if they come back?"

Mantel waltzed over to where her body lay. He walked around it, scanning the area, and then nodded to himself.

"I've got a plan."

Ren raised a brow. "A plan?"

He sounded too pleased with himself while covered in dirt and leaves. One was currently sticking to the back of his shoulder. Ren wasn't going to tell him any time soon.

"If you want your ring back, you'll help me."

Ren blinked. "You're going to force me into this again?"

Mantel plucked a stick from his sleeve. "Then you shouldn't have come out here. Anyway, you helped bury her. You'll help get rid of her."

He had a point. Not about Ren coming back here tonight, but the whole burying her thing. Though, he forced Ren to do that too.

He sagged against the boulder. "What's your plan then?"

Mantel said his next words like it was obvious.

"We're going to burn her."