Heir of the Dog (Liars and Vampires Book 6) Read online

  HEIR OF THE DOG

  LIARS AND VAMPIRES

  BOOK 6

  Robert J. Crane

  with Lauren Harper

  HEIR OF THE DOG

  LIARS AND VAMPIRES, BOOK 6

  Robert J. Crane

  with Lauren Harper

  Copyright © 2019 Ostiagard Press

  All Rights Reserved.

  1st Edition

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, please email [email protected].

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Author’s Note

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Other Works by Robert J. Crane

  Chapter 1

  I wanted to meet the teacher that invented quizzes. Pop quizzes, chapter quizzes, midterm quizzes. Not to shake their hand or anything. No, I wanted to give them a good smack upside the head for inventing such an acute form of torture for students all over the country.

  I mean, what did they accomplish? Did they really teach us anything? Or were they just an insignificant numerical value placed on material that we’d memorized and would definitely forget before the end of the week?

  I didn’t know. But it was all I could think about. Not the equations and square roots and quadrilateral triangles. I’d made peace long ago with the fact that I was never to be a mathematician…no matter how much my math league teacher had said I could if I tried hard enough.

  I huffed and my chin sank into my palm. My eyes glanced at the clock. I was really starting to think that the batteries were dead. It hadn’t moved for like a thousand hours.

  There weren’t even two weeks of school left and the oppressive heat was a constant reminder that summer vacation was just on the horizon. When everyone told me that I wouldn’t understand a Florida summer until I experienced it, I had just rolled my eyes. New York could get to a balmy ninety on some days. It was rare, but it wasn’t like we wore parkas on the regular.

  Turns out, I had literally no understanding about what real heat and humidity was. It was like my skin was melting, coming off in buckets of sweat. I was drinking more water than I had ever consumed in my life and realizing that having a pool in my backyard was the biggest blessing in disguise. Hardly an afternoon went by when I wasn’t in that thing.

  Xandra was there most days, too, since she didn’t have a pool at her house.

  At least, I thought with a sigh, that’s how it used to be…before our house caught on fire. Now I had to suffer inside, staring longingly outside at the backyard of the rental house we were staying at, wondering who in their right mind didn’t install a pool.

  Mom kept telling me to just go down to the community pool and I told her I wanted nothing to do with a pool where every child in the development had access, because who knew what might be in that water. I’d rather sit underneath the air conditioning vents and pray the builders would hurry up so we could go back home.

  I tapped my pencil on the desk, watching the rest of my classmates struggle against the strain of the heat mingling with the difficult quiz questions in front of them. The air conditioning was having a hard time keeping up this late in the day.

  Miss Patterson, our math teacher, was sipping some ice water at her desk. She was combing through the quizzes that the overachievers had already finished.

  I licked my dry lips. Just a little bit longer and I’d be able to go home and have some lemonade and ramen.

  I blamed Xandra for my newfound ramen addiction.

  Everyone looked up when the phone beside the door rang. One of the few places that still had a landline and it was the primary form of communication between the different rooms and the office inside the school. How archaic, especially since the teachers were all texting each other anyways.

  Miss Patterson stood up, brushing some of her dark, straight hair from her eyes. I watched as she walked over to the phone, lifted it off the receiver and answered.

  A moment of tension passed over me as I watched her face. I half expected her to turn around and look over at me.

  Life had been too crazy as of late to rule out the possibility.

  When I realized that it wasn’t for me, I relaxed. With a heavy sigh, I looked back down at my quiz, which was still only half done. For some reason, I couldn’t find the angle to that stupid trapezoid. Then I still had to find the area. I was going to be glued to this desk for the rest of my life.

  “All right, I’ll let him know,” Miss Patterson said.

  There was a blip on my radar as I heard the unease in her voice. She hung up the phone and started walking toward the back of the class

  That also happened to be where I was sitting.

  Her flats clacked against the tile floor, echoing in the silent room. All of the pencils had paused as everyone tuned their ears toward her and whoever she was heading toward.

  She stopped short at the desk belonging to the boy who was sitting in front of me.

  He was an ordinary kid, all things considered. Not very talkative in class, but he always knew the right answers to the questions. He and I had only spoken a few times.

  His name was Derrick, I think. Derrick Bauer.

  He had shaggy blond hair that was even more blond lately from being out in the sun. The back of his neck and forearms were tan, too. Made me wonder if he liked to fish. Or was a farmer. Maybe he just liked to play football outside with his buddies. He was cute enough and was always nice to me.

  Miss Patterson knelt down beside his seat.

  I pretended to be really stuck on this last problem, my pencil hovering over the equation that I knew was wrong, but my ears strained to hear what she was saying.

  “Hey, Derrick. That was the office, saying that your dad was here to –”

  “Wait, my dad?” he asked. There was a slight note of panic in his voice. “He’s not supposed to be here. He doesn’t have custody. He can’t check me out of school �
�”

  Miss Patterson was nodding her head. “I know, I know. That’s what they told me. The principal is talking with him right now, letting him know that legally, we cannot release you to him if he isn’t your designated pick-up that we have on file. I know your mom changed that recently, but the school would be liable if you were to go home with him.”

  I saw Derrick’s shoulders tense. “All right.”

  Miss Patterson nodded and patted his shoulder gently. “I just wanted you to know what was going on.”

  “Thanks,” Derrick said, returning his eyes to his quiz.

  Yeah, right. I’d give up right then and there, if I were him. There’d be no room in my head for concentrating anymore on math.

  Normal fell back over the room for a few minutes as pencils scratched across their papers and a frustrated groan came from one kid near the door who I was pretty sure was failing anyways.

  Even I got distracted, trying to figure out why I couldn’t get my problem to come out right before we were all roused from our stupors when the voice of the principal came over the intercom.

  “Initiating lockdown procedures. Initiating lockdown procedures. This is not a drill.”

  The entire room seemed to freeze over. Even Miss Patterson, who’d returned to her desk, turned and stared up at the speaker. It was like the whole room was an exhibit at Madam Tussauds, everyone made of wax but oh so lifelike.

  “Initiating lockdown procedures. Initiating lockdown procedures. This is not a drill.”

  Lockdown. This is not a drill.

  Wait.

  “Lock the door,” I heard myself say. I was standing, somehow, pointing at the door. When did that happen?

  No one was moving. My vision was tunneling. Everything was happening all at once and not at all.

  “Miss Patterson,” I said in a firm tone. “You need to lock the door. Now.”

  The principal’s voice came back over the intercom.

  “All students and staff, please report to the nearest classroom or office. Remain there until further notice. Ensure doors are locked and stay away from all windows and doors.”

  He was speaking hastily, which made it even worse. My blood was pounding in my ears and I was ready to run.

  “Do not open your doors for anyone that you do not recognize or does not have a visitor’s pass.”

  There was an intruder?

  All the color left my face as I gripped my pencil. A motion out in the hall caught my eye, drawing my gaze to the window in the door that looked out of the room.

  There was a man, a very large, broad shouldered man, striding down the hall with purpose. He had a wild look in his eyes, his teeth were grit. He had an angular head with wild, long salt and pepper hair that looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks, a long nose and ears that were almost perked up.

  My blood ran cold. It didn’t look like he was carrying anything in his hands, but it didn’t matter. He was looking for something.

  Or someone.

  “Miss Patterson,” I said from my desk. “Lock the door. Now!”

  Miss Patterson seemed to come to and as she stood, her hands trembling. “Get away from the windows, and just stay quiet.” She hurried to the door, locked it, turned out the lights and then rushed back to her desk.

  The room was dark and silent. No one moved. No one even dared to breathe.

  The footsteps from the man out in the hall grew closer and closer. He was shouting something. I couldn’t hear him clearly, but it was making every nerve in my body feel like it was on fire.

  I crawled down onto the floor, between the back wall and the bookshelves, shielding me from the doorway. My heart hammered against my chest.

  We were trapped in this classroom with nothing but a flimsy lock to separate us from some lunatic who was stalking through the school. I’d been through vampire attacks, assaults from witches and wizards, a faerie war. But a human coming in to attack us? Why was this so frightening to me?

  “Oh my God…”

  I looked over and realized that it was Derrick who crawled up beside me along the wall. He was peering out around the corner of the bookshelf, staring up at the window in the door. His mouth was hanging slightly open as he leaned back out of sight.

  “It’s…it’s my dad.”

  Chapter 2

  “Holy crap. Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!”

  I could hear the whispers of the other kids in the classroom. Some were hiding along the wall that the door was on, beside bookshelves and tables. Some girl was whimpering on the other side of the room, followed by a chorus of “shush!” from other students.

  Derrick was rubbing his hands over his face, muttering to himself under his breath.

  I didn’t want to tell him that I’d overheard the conversation he had with Miss Patterson, but it was obvious that this kid’s dad was just a psychopath. What did he do in the office? Did he threaten someone? Did he have a weapon? Were we going to end up on the national news by the end of the day?

  I jumped as a loud banging filled the room.

  Derrick’s dad was at the door, banging as hard as he could against the heavy metal.

  “Derrick? Derrick, I know you’re in there.”

  As one, all of the eyes in the classroom shifted toward the corner where Derrick and I were holed up.

  An uncomfortable, prickly sensation passed over me, as if everyone was ready to grab him and toss him out to alleviate the tension in the room.

  “You need to come with me, son. It’s very important,” Derrick’s dad said, giving the door another few bangs.

  I heard one girl burst into tears on the other side of the room.

  It didn’t really surprise me that some of the students were having actual panic attacks. These sorts of situations were only things we heard about in the news, or on social media. No one ever really thought that they’d end up like this, staring the depravity of humans in the face.

  I chewed on my lip as I tried to figure out what to do.

  Derrick was trembling beside me, his hands over his head. I couldn’t really blame him. This was probably the scariest thing that he’d gone through in his entire life. It was probably the worst thing that any of these kids had dealt with.

  The worst part for him, though, was that it was his dad.

  I was calloused. I’d been in danger so much that I was starting to become all too familiar with that fickle fight or flight reaction that I’d learned so much about in psychology class. It coursed through me like an old, familiar friend. I was probably going to develop an ulcer by the time I was twenty with how much of my life I spent stressed out so much I wanted to be sick.

  Everything that I had been through…everything I had suffered, fought for, learned, experienced…it all felt like fantasy up to this point.

  But this was the real world. This was happening in my school, filled with humans, to a human kid who was just terrified of his dad. It was a harsh reality for me to remember that people, normal people, not supernatural creatures, could be scumbags, too.

  Was there nowhere that was safe? Did every inch of the earth seethe with disgusting, vile, selfish nature?

  I shook my head. Now was not the time to go into an existential shock.

  The pounding on the door made me jump again.

  “Derrick, this is the last time. I will break this door down –”

  “No,” Derrick shouted and a few other cries were heard around the room, anticipating an attack or a more direct threat. “No, Dad. I’m not coming with you.”

  All I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears as we waited for the reply. I really was expecting the door to come crashing down, somehow and then wondered what in the world I was going to have to do in order to get out of the situation, along with everybody else.

  We were on the first floor. Was there any way that we could somehow make it to the windows, crawl out and be in the clear before he broke the door down?

  “Derrick, you listen here,” his dad said. “I’m h
ere to give you your legacy. It’s time. Now, open this door!” His last three words were matched with pounding against the metal door.

  I looked over at Derrick, who was breathing hard.

  “Don’t,” I whispered.

  He looked over at me.

  I just shook my head. If he was anything like me, he was considering facing his dad. Of getting up and dealing with it. But it was stupidly unwise.

  It looked like I was about to play the part of Iona for a few minutes. If that’s what it came to, then I was ready for it.

  “But he already knows I’m here,” Derrick whispered.

  I pressed my finger to my lips. Just because he knew the truth, it didn’t mean that Derrick had to give himself up so easily.

  There had been a minute or so without any banging. I chanced a look around the corner of the shelf. I could see Derrick shaking his head out of the corner of my eye, telling me to stop, just like I’d told him not to.

  But his dad was still there, standing out in the hall. He was staring all around the frame of the door, as if he were missing something. Wondering if there was some way that he could unlock the door from the outside.

  Suddenly, Derrick’s dad stiffened. His whole body went rigid and he turned his head as if someone had called out to him.

  I watched him, holding my breath.

  He turned back around, his eyes narrowed. He gave the door one last desperate look over.

  And then he stalked away.

  “What’s happening?” Derrick asked, his voice trembling. “Why do you have that look on your face?”

  I shook my head. I still didn’t think it was wise to speak. Did he leave to go find something to break the door down with? If he did manage that, would we have the right sort of protection inside the room?

  Miss Patterson’s desk wasn’t all that far from the door. If we hurried and a few of us helped, we could probably shove it in front of the door. And if we managed to cover the window, too, somehow –

  “Sirens!”

  I looked over and saw Derrick’s face lighting up as he sat up straight, staring out toward the windows.