Vampire Boys Of Summer (Completed!)

Episode 69: Looking For Ryo

After the initial shock, I was overjoyed to see Luhan. I scooped him up in my arms , hugging him close.

"Oh my God, we thought they had you!"

"So did they," he replied in his true, smug fashion. "But you can keep hugging me. I don't mind that at all."

I thought I better set the lecherous little guy down before he pinched my butt. When I said as much he gave me a wink. I thought to myself he might just be the most dangerous vampire boy of all.

Haru and Chi abandoned their search in the wreckage and were beyond happy to see that their companion was okay. Well, except for all the blood, but apparently vampires don't mind being covered in the stuff. They came over, hugged him, and then we all had a big group hug, relieved over Luhan's safety. We must have looked strange, embracing among the carnage of the crash with two dead bodies laying in the road. If anyone would have come over the rise, it wouldn't have been good.

I stood there as Haru and Chi fawned over the little guy some more. I couldn't help think there was much more to Luhan than meets the eye. He wasn't just this cute little flamboyant kid. He was dangerous. He apparently took out the two fake cops and caused the crash. He even walked away from it as if nothing had happened.

"We better get out of here," Haru finally said, mirroring my own thoughts of being discovered.

Luhan looked around, spotted the car, and then frowned. "Where's Ryo?"

Chi looked down at the dust of the road. "We left him."

"They got the advantage of all of us, Luhan. We had to leave him. We couldn't let them get too far away with you. We didn't know you'd be able..."

"And I wouldn't have been able to escape if Chi hadn't smashed their taser. I heard them talking about it and knew they had no way to keep me subdued once the shock wore off."

He looked at us all. "Thank you for coming after me. But now, we need to go back and get Ryo. We need everyone to take the labyrinth. The way my captors were talking they do have an army, and its growing in numbers day by day, both vampires and human servants." He started to head for the car. "Right now on our side, there's only three vampires and one free spirited girl. No offense, Nora."

"None taken, " I replied.

We all piled into the car.

"The good news is even in real life the villains don't know when to shut up."

"What do you mean?"

"We now know the exact location of the labyrinth. Idiots wouldn't stop talking about it. They even put it into the Cruiser's GPS. Longitude and latitude."

Hearing this was a relief. I mean I had a vague idea where it was at. I'd been to the cove where all the kids swam in summer, and according to my dad it was close by, hidden against a rocky hillside by wooden boards and overgrown brush. Devil's Hole. I'd always been too scared to go there. That was for adventurous boys and the foolish girls that followed them. Which is exactly how I felt now.

The drive back to my house, where we had first been attacked by the children in the trees, seemed longer this time. Perhaps that was because we weren't chasing someone anymore. Still, Chi had a heavy driving foot and no one else seemed to be on the road. It was almost dark. We needed to find Ryo and get to Devil's Hole while we still had light to see the hidden entrance.

Pulling up in the yard, Chi drove across the grass to where we'd last seen Ryo. Our cocky companion was nowhere to be seen, though evidence of the attack remained. Tiny shoes littered the yard, a child's jacket hung from a tree branch, a World Cup Soccer shirt, extra small and torn in two, lay discarded in a patch of grass. It was all very ominous, and yet there were no bodies. No sign of the children who had leapt from the trees, foaming at the mouth and out for blood. No matter his fate, Ryo would have gotten a few of them and rendered them immobile at the least. But there was no one there. Even the football players, those three hulking thugs, were gone. I'd halfway witnessed their demise at Haru's hands, and yet it was like a clean up crew had come along and scooped up all the bodies.

"I don't see him, " Chi said. "I don't know if that's good or bad."

"Maybe he took flight," Haru suggested.

"I cant imagine Ryo running away," I added.

Luhan walked around the yard, looking for clues like a Scotland Yard inspector investigating a scene of the crime. "Well, he gave them a fight, that's for sure." He pointed to a pair of child's fangs lying in the grass. It looked like they had been pulled right out of the kid's mouth. "That one learned a harsh lesson. You almost feel sorry for new vamps."

"Were all the kids vampires?"

He looked at me, shaking his head. "No. I think a few had just been turned. The others appeared to be under control of a stronger vampire."

"To control that many, you have to be pretty powerful," Haru replied.

Luhan agreed. "Yeah, this wasn't some second rate vamp who just got turned in the past year or so. Their master has been doing this a very long time. Possibly as long as us." He looked at both Haru and Chi who nodded solemnly. "I have a feeling we are going to be faced with some hard choices."

"I do, too," said Haru.

I looked at my love. He had a lost, far away look in his eyes. For a moment I wondered if he was thinking of Chiyo, the girl he had accidentally killed all those years ago. Because of love, his whole life had changed to the point he hadn't even recognized himself as he had once been. I feared that's what was happening to us now. As a result of our love, bad things were happening. Someone else wanted me as their queen. Ryo was gone, either dead or missing. Angela was being held captive by an army of vampires who probably just wanted to drain her dry. My father was dead. My mother a mess. And the whole town seemed to be under the spell of evil. Was love worth this much? Can you put a price on loving someone, and if so, how high? What does it take before you to say to yourself, this is beautiful and all, but it's just not worth it?