Prologue
Dove
I stare down at the map I printed out when I was working at the library earlier today. Over the last week I’ve learned that somehow these four large houses are connected. Though it shouldn’t be possible, it’s the only thing that makes sense. At this point this is the only thing I can think of for how they move.
Though the maps could be outdated, I know the overhead pictures on Google are only taken every few years. They could be traveling on four wheelers or something to get from home to home, but that would put them in the sunlight during the day.
They never use the main roads to go from one house to another. How else are they coming and going without ever using their front doors? I know I’ve seen the twins return home, then hours later they’re exiting Kane and Juliet’s home without ever stepping foot outside. How did they get there?
For some reason I think they have underground passages, but maybe that’s my overactive imagination. My grandpa says mine can get out of control, that I let things take root and grow and grow until I’m caught in a trap of my own making and I can’t get out.
What’s a girl to do when you grow up in a mortuary? Books and digging into the unknown has been my life for as long as I can remember. Kids in school didn’t want to make friends with the girl whose home was in the middle of a graveyard and had bodies in the basement.
Grandpa was sure college would help push me out into the world, but I think it’s only made things worse because I’m pretty sure my dorm roommate ran off to live with a vampire.
“Are you staying for dinner, pumpkin?” my grandpa asks.
I look up from where I have everything laid out in front of me. There are maps, old newspapers, and even photos I’ve taken. He doesn’t give them a second look as he comes over to where I am. Growing up, my books and whatever I was researching were always scattered over the large dining room table because we didn’t need it with only the two of us. Most of the time we ate at the small table in the kitchen or in the living room on a TV tray.
“No, I’ve got plans,” I tell him as I start to pack up my stuff. I kind of miss living here, and it’s why I visit so much. I’m an introvert, but living in a dorm room alone is pretty lonely. I’m not about to ask Grandpa if I can come back home though. He wouldn’t let me because he thinks I need to find myself and not hang out with the dead all the time. If he only knew that I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve stumbled on out there.
“Is it a date?” He perks up at the idea, and I fight a smile.
“Aren’t you supposed to warn me away from boys?” I tease him, but the two I’m thinking about right now are definitely men.
“You’re old enough to date. Falling in love was one of the greatest joys of my life.” His eyes drift off for a moment and I know he’s thinking about my grandma. I never knew her since she and both my parents died before I was old enough to remember anything about them other than what Grandpa told me. Death seemed to like this family a little too much. Grandpa says I’m the reason he had the will to keep on living after he lost them all.
“Well, I might have my eye on someone,” I admit, knowing it will make him happy to hear it. I leave out that it’s two somebodies and they could be vampires because I don’t want him to have a heart attack.
“Have fun, pumpkin.” He gives me a kiss on the top of my head and I finish packing up all my stuff.
I tell him goodbye again as I leave and get ready for my nightly stakeout. I’ve noticed they are only ever out at night, which obviously makes them vampires. The list of evidence I’ve been compiling is growing and growing. I’ve been looking at everyone, but I always drift back to the twin brothers. I’m used to being sucked into an idea for hours or days, but this is different. I should be scared of following them, but I’m not. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen my old roommate Juliet with her new man, Kane. He looks like a deadly beast that could rip a person in half with his bare hands, but he treats her as if she’s made from spun sugar. I could never imagine a man looking at me that way.
He’s the reason I started digging around to begin with. Things with Juliet and him went fast and I’ve seen him in action once. Neither of them knew I witnessed him attack a man who tried to hurt Juliet. The way he moved and the way his eyes changed…I knew he was something more and I had to know what it was. That’s when I found the twins, Ezra and Erik, and I was done for. Digging into their lives has been hard, but I’m slowly piecing it all together.