The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 2

When the second body was empty, my throat felt better. There was a lot of blood in my system. I credibly wouldnt real y burn for a hardly a(prenominal) days.Diego was stil waiting, whistling quietly through his teeth. When I let the body fal to the ground with a thud, he saturnine back to me and smiled.Um, thanks, I state.He nodded. You looked like you needed it more than me. I remember how hard it is in the beginning.Does it get easier?He shrugged. In some ways.We looked at each former(a) for a second.Why dont we dump these bodies in the sound? he suggested.I bent down, grabbed the dead blonde, and slung her limp body over my shoulder. I was ab stunned to get the other one, but Diego was there before me, the pimp already on his back.I got it, he state.I fol owed him up the al ey wal, and consequently we swung across the girders downstairs the freeway. The lights from the cars below didnt touch us. I thought how stupid passel were, how oblivious, and I was glad I wasnt one of th e clueless.Hidden in the darkness, we make our way to an empty dock, closed for the shadow. Diego didnt hesitate at the end of the concrete, he just jumped right over the edge with his bulky burden and disappeared into the water. I slid in after him. He swam as sleek and quick as a shark, shooting deeper and farther issue into the black sound. He stopped suddenly when he found what he was looking for a huge, slime-covered boulder on the ocean floor, sea stars and garbage clinging to its sides. We had to be more than a hundred feet deep to a human, it would bring on seemed pitch-black here. Diego let go of his bodies. They swayed slowly in the current beside him plot he shoved his hand into the mucky sand at the base of the rock. later on a second he found a hold and ripped the boulder up from its resting spot. The weight of it drove him waist-deep into the dark seafloor.He looked up and nodded to me.I swam down to him, hooking his bodies with one hand on my way. I shoved the blonde into the black hole under the rock, thence pushed the second girl and the pimp in after her. I kicked them lightly to make sure they were in, and then got out of the way. Diego let the boulder fal . It wobbled a little, adjusting to the newly uneven foundation. He kicked his way out of the muck, swam to the top of the boulder, and then pushed it down, grinding the obstructions flat underneath.He swam back a few yards to view his work.Perfect, I mouthed. These three bodies would never resurface. Riley would never hear a story about them on the news.He grinned and held up his hand.It took me a minute to understand that he was looking for a high five. Hesitantly, I swam forward, tapped my palm to his, then kicked away, putting some distance between us. Diego got a weird expression on his face, and then he shot to the surface like a bul et.I darted up after him, confused. When I broke through to the air, he was almost choking on his laughter.What?He couldnt answer me for a minute . Final y he blurted out,Worst high five ever.I sniffed, irritated. Couldnt be sure you werent just going to rip my arm off or something.Diego snorted. I wouldnt do that.Anyone else would, I countered.True, that, he agreed, suddenly not as amused. You up for a little more hunting?Do you have to ask?We came out of the water under a bridge and lucked right into two homeless guys sleeping in ancient, filthy sleeping bags on top of a shared mattress of old newspapers. uncomplete one of them woke up. Their blood was soured by alcohol, but stil better than nothing. We buried them in the sound, too, under a different rock.Wel, Im good for a few weeks, Diego said when we were out of the water again, dripping on the end of another empty dock.I sighed. I guess thats the easier part, right? Il be burning again in a couple of days. And then Riley wil probably send me out with more of Raouls mutants again.I can come with you, if you want. Riley pretty much lets me do what I want.I thought about the offer, suspicious for a second. But Diego real y didnt seem like any of the others. I felt different with him. Like I didnt need to watch my back so much.Id like that, I admitted. It felt off to say this. Too vulnerable or something.But Diego just said cool and smiled at me.So how come Riley gives you such a long leash? I asked, wondering about the relationship there. The more time I spent with Diego, the less I could picture him being in tight with Riley. Diego was so friendly. Nothing like Riley. But maybe it was an opposites-attract thing.Riley knows he can combining me to clean up my messes. Speaking of which, do you mind running a quick errand?I was starting to be entertained by this strange boy. unmatched about him. I wanted to see what he would do.Sure, I said.He bounded across the dock toward the road that ran along the waterfront. I fol owed after. I caught the lift of a few humans, but I knew it was too dark and we were too fast for them to see us.He chose to travel across rooftops again. After a few jumps, I recognized both our scents. He was retracing our earlier path. And then we were back to that first al ey, where Kevin and the other guy had gotten stupid with the car.Unbe liev able, Diego growled.Kevin and Co. had just left, it appeared. Two other cars were stacked on top of the first, and a handful of bystanders had been added to the body count. The cops werent here yet because anyone who might have reported the mayhem was already dead.Help me variant this out? Diego asked.Okay.We dropped down, and Diego quickly threw the cars into a new arrangement, so that it sort of looked like theyd hit each other rather than been piled up by a freak tantrum-throwing baby. I grabbed the two dry, lifeless bodies abandoned on the pavement and stuffed them under the apparent site of impact.Bad accident, I commented.Diego grinned. He took a lighter out of a ziplock from his pocket and started igniting the clothes of the victims. I grabbed my own ligh ter Riley reissued these when we went hunting Kevin should have used his and got to work on the upholstery. The bodies, dried out and laced with flammable venom, blazed up quickly.Get back, Diego warned, and I saw that he had the first cars gas hatch open and the lid screwed off the tank. I jumped up the closest wal, perching a story above to watch. He took a few steps back and lit a match. With perfect aim, he tossed it into the smal hole. In the same second, he leaped up beside me.The boom of the explosion shook the whole street. Lights started going on just about the corner.Wel done, I said.Thanks for your help. Back to Rileys?I frowned. Rileys house was the last place I wanted to spend the rest of my night. I didnt want to see Raouls stupid face or listen to the constant shrieking and fighting. I didnt want to have to grit my teeth and hide out behind Freaky Fred so that people would leave me alone. And I was out of books.Weve got some time, Diego said, reading my expression .We dont have to go right away.I could use some reading material.And I could use some new music. He grinned. Lets go shopping.We moved quickly through town over rooftops again and then darting through shadowy streets when the buildings got farther apart to a friendlier neighborhood. It didnt take long to find a strip mal with one of the good-looking chain bookstores. I snapped the lock on the roof access hatch and let us in. The store was empty, the only alarms on the windows and doors. I went straight to the Hs, while Diego headed to the music section in the back. Id just finished with Hale. I took the next dozen books in line that would keep me a couple of days.I looked around for Diego and found him sitting at one of the caf tables, studying the backs of his new CDs. I paused, then joined him.This felt strange because it was familiar in a haunting, self-conscious way. I had sat like this before across a table from someone. Id chatted casual y with that person, thinking abou t things that were not life and death or thirst and blood. But that had been in a different, blurry lifetime.The last time Id sat at a table with someone, that someone had been Riley. It was hard to remember that night for a lot of reasons.So how come I never notice you around the house? Diego asked abruptly. Where do you hide?I laughed and grimaced at the same time. I usual y kick it behind wherever Freaky Fred is hanging out.His nose wrinkled. Seriously? How do you stand that?You get used to it. Its not so bad behind him as it is in front. Anyway, its the best hiding place Ive found. Nobody gets close to Fred.Diego nodded, stil looking kind of grossed out. Thats true. Its a way to stay alive.I shrugged.Did you know that Fred is one of Rileys favorites? Diego asked.Real y? How? No one could stand Freaky Fred. I was the only one who tried, and that was solely out of self-preservation. Diego leaned toward me conspiratorial y. I was already so used to his strange way that I didnt eve n flinch.I heard him on the phone with her. I shuddered.I know, he said, look sympathetic again. Of course, it wasnt weird that we could sympathize with each other when it came to her. This was a few months back. Anyway, Riley was talking about Fred, al excited. From what they were saying, I guess that some vampires can do things. More than what normal vampires can do, I mean. And thats good something shes looking for. Vampires with skil zzz.He pul ed the Z sound out, so I could hear how he was spel ing it in his head.What kinds of skil s?Al kinds of stuff, it sounds like. Mind reading and tracking and even seeing the future.Get out.Im not kidding. I guess Fred can sort of repel people on purpose. Its al in our heads, though. He makes us repulsed at the thought of being near him.