The Birch House

Chapter 19

'Upstairs,' he said. He didn't leave us much choice; Chase was a big guy, and this time he was using his muscle. By the time I got myself together, we were upstairs, in the hallway, and Chase was shoving open the door to Alyssa's room. 'Inside, girls. Lock the door. I mean it. Don't open it for anybody but me.'
        
'But...Chase!'
        
He turned to me, took hold of both of my shoulders in those big hands, and leant forward to plant a warm kiss on my forehead. 'You don't know these guys,' he said. 'You're not safe. Just...stay in there until I get back.'
Alyssa, looking dazed, murmured, 'You have to stop them. You can't let them hurt Alex!'
        
Chase locked eyes with me, and I saw the grim sadness. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Well, that's pretty much done. Just – I have to look out for you now. It's what Alex wants.'
        
Before I could summon up anything else in protest, he pushed me back over the threshold and slammed the door. He banged on it once with his fist. 'Lock it!'
 
I reached up and flipped the dead bolt, then turned the old-fashioned key, as well. I stayed where I was, because I could feel, somehow, that Chase hadn't moved away.

 'Chase?' I pressed myself against the door, listening. I thought I could hear his uneven breathing. 'Chase, don't let him hurt you again. Don't.'
        
I heard a breathless sound that was more like a sob than a laugh. 'Yeah,'" Chase agreed faintly. "Right."

And then I heard his footsteps moving away, down the hall to the stairs.

Alyssa was sitting on her bed, staring into space. The room smelled like a fireplace, thanks to the fire that had raged next door, in my room, but there was only some smoke damage, nothing really serious. And besides, with all the black Goth stuff everywhere, you couldn't even really tell.

I sat down on the bed beside Alyssa. "Are you okay?"

"No," Alyssa said. "I want to go look out the window. But I shouldnt, right? I shouldn't see what they're doing."

"No," I agreed, and swallowed hard. "Probably not a good idea." I rubbed Alyssa's back gently and thought about what to do, and that wasn't much. It wasn't like allies were exactly falling off the trees around here. Besides Chase, we had nobody else. Our second-best choice was a vampire.

How scary was that?

Still, I could call Sophia. But that was a little like arming a nuclear weapon to take care of an ant problem. Sophia was so badass, the other badass vampires backed down without a fight. She'd said, I will make it known that you are not to be troubled. However, you must not further disturb the peace. If you do, and it is your fault, I will be forced to reconsider my decision. And that would be

"Unfortunate," I finished aloud, in a whisper. Yeah. Pretty unfortunate. And there was no way that this didnt constitute disturbing the peace, or wouldn't, as soon as Chase's dad got rolling. He'd come to kill vampires, and he wasn't going to be stopped by any little considerations like, oh, his sons life and safety.

No, not a good idea to call Sophia.

Who else? Martin? Martin wasn't exactly at the top of my Best Friends Forever list, although in the beginning I'd thought he was pretty cool, for an old guy. But he'd been playing me, and he was the second-most badass vamp in town. Who'd use us, and this situation, against Sophia if he could.

So no. Not Martin, either. The police were bought and paid for by the vampires. My teachers at school, no. None of them had impressed me as being willing to stand up to pressure.

Mom and Dad? I shuddered to think what would happen if I put in a frantic yell to them. For one thing, they'd already had their memories altered by Mystic's strange psychic field, or so I assumed, since they'd forgotten all about ordering me home for living off campus. With boys. Mom and Dad weren't exactly the kind of backup I needed, not up against Chase's dad and his bikers.

My cousin Rex? Now, there was an idea. No, Rex had been sent to jail three months ago. I remembered Mom saying so.

Face facts, Collins. There's nobody. Nobody coming riding to the rescue.

It was me, Alyssa, and Chase against the world.

So the odds were about three billion to one.