Free Love & War Book 1 in the Arcadia Falls Chronicles by Jennifer Malone Wright Page B

splatters of blood remained on the sidewalk as
evidence of the incident.
    I spotted Oscar sitting on the icy-cold
pavement in an alley with the woman pulled tightly up against him.
He gently rocked her back and forth, in a comforting motion. Alice
and Christina stood beside him, waiting for us.
    “What happened to the vampire?” Drew asked
when we approached. He still carried his gun in his hand, probably
refusing to holster it until he knew Zander was safe.
    Christina eyed Zander cautiously before she
responded. She twirled her gigantic knife like it was a baton. “No
worries. He's gone.”
    Oscar propped the woman up against the wall.
“We have to call an ambulance. She is losing too much blood.”
    I knelt down and looked into the young
woman’s eyes, which were still wide with fear. She appeared to be
conscious but unspeaking. A sharp pang of guilt hit me in the gut.
It was our fault she was suffering. If we had only gotten to him
sooner, she would be fine. “Oscar, can you help her? Is that
possible?
    He nodded. “Yes. I can make her think
something else happened to her. Then she won’t remember anything,
but I have to wait until just before we leave her so that she has
absolutely no memory of us after I speak to her.”
    Zander approached the woman with every
single one of our skeptical eyes on him. “We should use her phone.”
He dug through her jacket pockets until he found a phone in one of
the inside pockets. “That way our phones can’t be tracked.”
    We all knew he was right, so we let him call
911 and explain about a woman with some kind of bite. He gave the
address of where we were, clicked off the phone and replaced it in
her jacket.
    Christina gave her knife one last twirl then
sheathed it. “It’s time to go.”
    Oscar turned and knelt before the woman.
    “Look at me,” he demanded softly and lifted
her chin.
    I could see her trying hard to focus on
him.
    I had asked about his ability before, and he
had explained that it wasn’t about making eye contact, like
compulsion; it was about the actual sound of his voice, but making
eye contact helped a person listen better.
    “You will remember nothing of anyone you
have seen tonight. A large animal attacked you as you walked back
home from studying late at school. You fought it and then it ran
away.”
    She blinked her eyes as her only
response.
    “You aren’t afraid any more. Help is coming.
Do you understand?” he asked.
    She nodded and managed to whisper, “Yes, I
understand.”
    Oscar stood. “All right, it’s done. Let’s
get out of here.”
    Zander looked to Drew. “Get in my truck.
I’ll take you guys to your car.”
    Drew nodded. We all piled into the bed of
his truck, except for Drew, who sat in the passenger seat so he
could watch and show him where the car was, I assumed.
    At the car, Drew stayed in the truck and
told us to meet them at café on Pine Street. As soon as we had
unloaded out of the back of the truck, they sped off into the
night. Moving as fast as we could, we hurried into the car and took
off after them.
    “Go as quick as you can, Christina. I don’t
want Drew alone with him any longer than he has to be.”
    I could see her roll her eyes even from my
position in the backseat.
    Alice sat in the back with me.
    “Are you okay?” I asked her.
    She sighed and leaned back against the seat
of the car. “It’s so strange. All that time I’ve spent around
vampires, and this was probably the most intense thing to ever
happen to me, aside from what happened with you at Trevor’s,” she
added.
    I lay back on the seat, too. I was just glad
that the hardest part of the night was over.
    We pulled into the lot of the café and
parked beside Zander’s truck.
    “I am so hungry!” I stretched after slipping
out of the car and then slammed the door shut. “Let’s get some
food!”
    We found Drew and Zander looking at menus in
a huge booth way in the back of the café. There weren’t many people
taking up space,