by Kristie Cook
I pushed to my feet with a sudden need to punch something. My phone buzzed again, and I whipped it out of my pocket.
“What?” I barked, having no patience for Mom’s lectures but tired of her insistent calls.
“Alexis?” came a girl’s voice, sounding small and scared.
My breath caught in my lungs.
“Heather?” I practically shrieked into the phone. Both Tristan’s and Blossom’s heads snapped toward me. “Oh my god, are you okay? Where are you? Is Dorian with you? Tell me where you are, and we’ll come get you. You’re okay, right?”
“I’m . . . uh, yeah, I’m fine.” Her voice sounded a little better than I’d thought at first. I let out a breath of relief.
“And Dorian? Please say he’s with you. Please say he’s fine, too. Please tell me you two got away.” The pitch of my voice raised a couple of octaves as I spoke.
“I’m . . . I’m with friends. I’m fine. I had to check in with my mom, let her know I was okay, and she said you guys were probably worried about me because she’d called Blossom—”
“Is Dorian with you?” I practically screamed, unable to listen to her nervous babbling a moment longer.
“No,” she whispered. “He never was. Is he . . . he’s gone?”
I closed my eyes and swallowed, my throat tight.
“Oh my god. I should have known something was wrong,” she continued, though her words were distant in my mind as I tried to recover myself. How had I let my hopes soar so high so quickly? “Sonya warned me to get far away. She called me the other night and said to run as far and as fast as I could. To hide. So I . . . I came to some friends up at FSU in Tallahassee. I thought Dorian was at the safe house. I thought he’d be okay.”
“He was,” I managed to say through clenched teeth. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her exactly what Sonya had done. Heather had tried so hard to make sure her sister never hurt anyone again, and how did Sonya repay her? Us? She turned on all of us and massacred my mages. Allowed my son to be taken. “Something happened, though. We’re still figuring it out, but I need you to stay away from Sonya, okay? Hopefully, she’ll stay away from you, too, but . . . I don’t know. I just need to know that you’re safe, and it’s not safe with her. You’re with your friends now?”
“Um, yeah. I’m going to hang out here for a while, probably all of my spring break.” She paused for a long moment. “We’re watching movies. You know, the ones with the hot werewolf and the vampire that looks like a drug addict.”
“Good,” I breathed. But relief only lasted a moment as realization set in.
“I’m so sorry, Alexis,” she said, her voice small again and full of sorrow.
“Stay safe, okay?” We’ll be there soon, I didn’t tell her.
“Please don’t worry about me. Just . . . find Dorian.”
Yeah, right. I felt nothing but worry about her as I pressed END on my phone’s screen.
“Sonya has her,” I told Tristan and Blossom. Heather’s sister had used the exact same words to describe a movie once. Heather had been giving me a message.
“We need to go!” Blossom jumped to her feet.
Tristan and I agreed without hesitation, and I called Charlotte to let her know where we’d be going. I wouldn’t call Mom back, though. I didn’t have time to argue with her.
“I don’t like it,” Char said.
“Sonya’s a baby vamp, and it’s daytime. Tristan and I can handle it.”
A pop outside had me peeking through the curtains to see Vanessa. She blurred into the house. “I’m going.”
I cocked my head.
“She’s a vampire,” Vanessa explained. “I can help. And it’s better than hanging out here where no one wants anything to do with me.”
“Vanessa’s going, too,” I told Charlotte.
“And me,” Blossom said. “That’s my girl we’re saving.”
Of course she’d want to go.
“Sheree wants to go,” Char said through the phone.
“I was close to Sonya,” Sheree said from the other end of the line, though her voice came from farther away than Char’s. She knew I’d hear her, though. “Maybe I can talk her down.”
With the image I had in my head of what I wanted to do to Sonya, I didn’t think it would be good for Sheree to be there.
“No,” I said to Char. “Sheree can’t go. She needs to stay and help you at the safe house.”
“From the look on her face, she doesn’t agree.”
“Too bad. Keep her there. We’ll be back later with Heather.”
Not waiting for further argument, I disconnected the call. Tristan, Blossom, Vanessa, and I took each other’s hands, and Tristan led us for the flash to Tallahassee. We had to flash around the city a few times before I finally latched on to Heather’s mind signature near the Florida State University campus, as she had said.
“She’s definitely with Sonya.” I focused harder, and then frowned. Some friends Heather had. But it made sense for them to be near the campus—college kids were probably prime targets for food and turnings. “And a whole nest of vampires.”
“Is—” Blossom’s throat moved as she gulped. “Is she . . . ?”
“Turned?” I shook my head. “No. Her mind signature is still human.”
The witch let out a loud breath of relief. “We need to go get her.”
With a nod, we set out on foot, and I led the others toward Heather’s mind signature until we came to a row of townhouses. Five mind signatures were within the homes, all vampires. Heather and Sonya, however, were behind the row of houses, in a park-like area clustered with maples, palms, and huge oaks draped with Spanish moss. Two other vampires were with them. I listened in as we approached.
“For the hundredth time, you have to turn her, Sonya,” a female vamp’s voice said. “It’s for her own good, and you know it.”
“For the hundredth time, no,” Sonya’s familiar voice answered. “I won’t make her live this horrible existence.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad,” came a third female, menace underlying her taunting words. “Besides, your only other choice is that we eat her.”
“No!” Sonya’s voice came sharper. “Leave her alone, Lesley.”
Tristan and I looked at each other and nodded, then we both blurred to the edge of a small clearing. Vanessa and Blossom showed up at the same time, Vanessa’s fist swinging toward me. I ducked, then heard a body hit the ground behind me. I spun to find a fourth vamp at my feet—someone inside must have sensed our arrival.
“Thanks,” I murmured to Vanessa.
“That’s what I’m here for,” she whispered, then added, “Sis.”
“There are more of us around,” warned one of the two females threatening Sonya—the one who wanted to eat Heather. With a short blond bob, she stood in front of Sonya with her back to us, wearing a tank top and shorts with cowboy boots.
Her companion, another blonde, though she wore her hair long, nearly to her butt, leaned less threateningly against a nearby tree, her arms crossed over her chest. The two dark-haired sisters faced us, Sonya standing protectively in front of Heather, who was backed up against the trunk of an oak.
“Let them come,” Tristan said as we stepped closer.
“Tristan,” Heather squeaked. “Alexis!”
The two blondes sucked in air noisily as they turned to face us. Sonya’s blue eyes popped open wide, and her jaw trembled. She took a step back, smashing Heather against the tree.
“Give us the norm,” Tristan said. “That’s all we want.”
“Unless any of you want to convert,” I added, because I was supposed to—and because the Daemoni often thought of that as a threat. I didn’t really expect either of them to want to.
The shorter vamp, the one with the bobbed hair, hissed. It was an odd sound coming from someone with her slight stature and sweet face. Her light blue eyes sparked with a wicked gleam.
“Fools,” she screeched, plenty loud enough to alert the rest of th
eir small nest. Then she disappeared, only to reappear on Vanessa’s back, her fangs long and poised over my half-sister’s neck.
Vanessa hissed and spun in a blur, and the two vampires bounced around the park, ramming each other into trees and rolling on the ground. Thank the Angels nobody else was around. Watching them, I couldn’t help but think about the fight Vanessa and I had had in the woods in Washington when we were on our way to Hades. This must have been what we looked like.
“Lesley, stop!” the vamp with the long blond hair said. She must have realized none of the other vampires from the houses were coming to their rescue. “You know we’re outnumbered and out-powered.”
I didn’t know if it was the warning or the distraction that did it, but suddenly Vanessa and the other vamp came to a standstill. Vanessa’s arms were wrapped tightly around Lesley, pinning the Daemoni’s arms to her sides. Vanessa’s fangs were fully extended, ready to bite if necessary.
“Heather, come here,” I ordered, seizing the opportunity. She ran into my arms. I gave her a quick hug, and then handed her over to Blossom, who swallowed the girl into a bear hug. “Sonya.”
It wasn’t a kind greeting, and she knew it. Her eyes focused on me, still wide and mixed with fear and confusion. The vamp let out a little whimper. My heart had been pounding hard in my chest this whole time, wondering what we would come upon. Wondering if I could bring myself to kill this young vampire since it was her attack that caused the mages to drop their shield over the safe house, thereby allowing Lucas and/or Victor inside to steal Dorian. I expected her to be vicious, knowing how pissed off we’d all be, especially Tristan and me. But strangely, though smartly, fear waved off of her.
I couldn’t let her faked innocence get to me. I had to remember what she’d done—the blood smeared on the walls, the mages’ mutilated bodies on the floor. She was a cold-blooded beast, not someone to feel sorry for. I took a step forward. She tried to step away, but she’d backed herself into the tree.
My voice came out low, my abhorrence for her weaved into each distinct word. “Give me one good reason not to kill you.”
“Please don’t hurt me,” she begged, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lesley demanded as she squirmed in Vanessa’s arms. Vanessa growled in her ear and lowered her mouth so her fangs scratched the other vamp’s skin. “We can take on these pansy-asses!”
The other vamp, the one with the long hair, rolled her eyes. “Don’t you know who they are? We can’t kill them.”
“Sure we can, Alys!” Lesley said, and then she gasped as Vanessa’s fangs gave a quick pierce into her skin.
“Shut up, or we’ll call in the shifters,” Vanessa warned. “We have a tiger who might not seem so bad, though I wouldn’t underestimate her. And we happen to know a few others, too. They’re not far, and they’re just waiting to chomp on a pretty little bitch like you.”
Though we knew Vanessa was bluffing, Lesley obviously didn’t because she finally fell still.
“I . . . I’m sorry, Alexis,” Sonya said, turning her attention back to me. “I really am. Please . . . please let me explain. I . . . I can help you find Dorian.”
I flew at her, and my hand wrapped around her throat as I lifted her up against the tree.
“You have no right to say his name! It’s your fault he’s gone!”
“I know,” she choked out. “I’m sorry. But please listen. I can lead you to him. But I . . . I need your help first.”
“Please don’t hurt her,” Heather whispered from behind me, and I forced myself to let go of Sonya and take several steps back for Heather’s sake. She didn’t need to see what I had planned for her sister, and that could wait until Heather was long gone. “She really didn’t mean to do any of it.”
“Honey,” Blossom said, also from behind me, “you’re safe now. You don’t need to protect her.”
“No, really,” Heather said, her voice pleading, “Sonya couldn’t help it. Let her tell you.”
I strode closer to Sonya again. Alys, the other vamp, wisely stepped farther away. I didn’t know what was up with her—her thoughts were a hot mess of confusion between attacking us or running away, though running felt stronger. So I didn’t know why she stayed. She had to know we didn’t give a rat’s ass about her right now. So I stopped for a second and turned to her. She stood quite a bit taller than me so I had to crane my neck nearly as much as I did to look at Tristan.
“Do you want to convert?” I asked her.
She stared at me with big blue eyes, not answering.
“If not, then get the hell out of here. We have what we want.”
The vamp took a step backwards.
“Alys,” Sonya said. “You don’t—”
“Hush!” I barked. “You have no right to say anything.”
The two Daemoni vamps exchanged a look, and then Alys disappeared. I nodded at Vanessa, who loosened her grip on Lesley. The shorter blonde crouched as though she planned to attack, but Tristan’s hand flew up.
“Leave. Now,” he commanded.
Her eyes swept over all of us, and she let out a growl, but then she blurred off across the park and eventually disappeared.
“So what is it you have to say?” I demanded of Sonya. “Why do you think I’d want to help you with anything, except your death?”
Heather broke free of Blossom’s hold, rushed to her sister’s side, and took her hand. I immediately regretted the harshness of my words. The vamp had kidnapped the girl, but Heather still stood by her sister’s side faithfully—trusting her.
“Tell them,” Heather said.
Sonya nodded. She inhaled a deep breath, though she didn’t really need it, then blew it out, buying herself time. I tapped into her mind to find her thoughts in a jumbled mess she was trying to straighten into sense. She pushed her dark hair out of her face before beginning.
“The Daemoni set you up. Me up. You thought it was Vanessa who was trying to trick you, but it was me all along,” the vamp admitted. I bit back an insult. Her words began to come faster as she practically vomited an explanation. “I didn’t mean to, though. You have to believe me. I didn’t know what I’d gotten myself into. They put this stone into me a long time ago, and I didn’t really know what it was, but then the other night . . . I—I lost all control over my own body.” She hiccupped as though suppressing a sob, and Heather squeezed her hand. Tears filled her voice as she continued. “It was all Lucas. He . . . he took control over me, Alexis. He made me fly through the safe house, into the commons room, and before I even knew what was happening, I’d . . . I’d killed them all. The mages. I killed them and then left them in a bloody heap.”
Heather put her arm around her sister as the vamp cried against the younger one’s shoulder.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I wish . . . I wish I’d never done this. I wish I could go back to being a norm. I screwed up when I chose this life and keep screwing up since then, and now I’ve done the worst thing imaginable. I never thought . . . I’m . . .” She pulled back and looked at me with blue eyes so dark, you could drown in their sorrow. “I’m not a writer like you. I don’t have the words to express how truly sorry I am.”
Her apologies seemed sincere enough, but her story didn’t make any sense and had a lot of holes. But there was only one thing I cared about.
“What happened after you killed the mages?” I managed to say though my throat was dry and constricted with the mental images she’d shared with me. “Did you take Dorian?”
She shook her head violently. “No. No, of course not! It was all Kali. Kali and—”
“What?” I interrupted, my patience running thin. “What does Kali have to do with anything?”
“Kali has to do with everything. She has Dorian.”
“Lucas or Victor took Dorian.”
“No.”
“You’re saying Kali took Dorian?” Tristan asked from right beside me.
“No, but she has him.” Sh
e looked to Tristan, then back at me, and her tongue darted over her lips. “Um . . . Owen took Dorian.”
Chapter 5
My stomach squeezed as though I’d been punched. I took several steps back, shaking my head in denial. I knew Owen had betrayed us, of course. He’d turned on me—and Vanessa—right in our faces and joined Kali’s side. But this? He’d go so far as to take my son? The one vulnerability he knew both Tristan and I had? Did he really become so ingrained with the Daemoni that he would willingly hurt us like this?
If so, that meant when he came back with Vanessa’s body parts, he’d already been a part of the Daemoni. A servant to Kali. Because only hours had passed between the time he deserted us in Hades and when Dorian had been taken. So either he’d switched his allegiances that quickly, or he had long before then and had deceived us while he was at the safe house.
Tristan and I looked at each other, and his expression reflected my own feelings—surprise mixed with a heavy dose of doubt. What Sonya said . . . I couldn’t fathom Owen going so far. And I couldn’t believe Victor had told the truth.
“You can read my thoughts,” Sonya said. “I know you can. Check my—”
Sonya’s face contorted, cutting her off mid-sentence. A scream rose from deep in her chest, and her mouth opened wide to let it out. Then her eyes, no longer blue but a glowing red, glazed over as she cocked her head at me.
The next thing I knew, the vampire lunged at me. Her hands reached out and scraped at my throat. At my necklace.
Help me, Sonya’s voice came in my mind. Get . . . the stone.
A strange growl ripped through Sonya’s chest this time as her body jerked side to side.
“She’s all mine, Alexis, and I’ll kill her. Don’t think I won’t.” Kali’s voice. In my head. From Sonya.
“Kali’s controlling her,” I said, though it almost sounded like a question. “Like she has a faerie stone in her.”
Sonya’s head barely twitched in a nod. Her body jerked and twisted as she tried to hold on to even a little control. While one hand still reached for my pendant, her other one clutched at her own chest. Her fingers closed in on my necklace and ripped it off my neck. She stumbled away from me, but didn’t get far. Tristan paralyzed her, one of her hands still digging into her chest as she fell to the ground.