by Kristie Cook
Guilt tugged at my heartstrings. I hadn’t personally obtained the restraining order. My publicist had because Sonya seemed to be a crazed fan, with a little too much emphasis on the “crazed.” She’d never bothered me, though, and perhaps if that restraining order hadn’t been issued, Heather wouldn’t be sitting next to me, asking for my help.
I swallowed the lump in my throat before encouraging her to go on. “But then you did see her . . .”
“Yeah, I did. The first time I saw her was nearly two years ago, and I totally freaked. I couldn’t believe it, and even convinced myself that I saw wrong. When I looked back to be sure, she was gone. A few weeks later, I was at the skate park with some friends, and I saw her again, and that time I approached her. She told me I didn’t know what I was talking about, she didn’t know me, and I’d better leave her alone if I wanted to live. But something in her eyes, Alexis . . . she wanted to tell me something. She looked so . . . scared.” A tear slid down Heather’s cheek as she stared out at the horizon. “I had to do something for her. There had to be something that I could do. I stalked her for a while, following her as best as I could, but keeping my distance because she’s, well, pretty effin’ scary now. Some of those vamps aren’t very smart or secretive, especially lately. It was so easy to creep on them and listen to their conversations. They lie all the time, even to each other, but I learned some things that were true, too. Like last summer when they were pissed at not being able to attack some kind of colony on Captiva. Because of you. And Tristan. They were so scared of you guys!”
“That must have piqued your curiosity.”
“Hell, yeah, it did. How could these vamps be afraid of you? I mean, my asshole sperm-donor was, but he was only human.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the term she used for her dad—the same thing I called the guy who fathered me. She went on. “So I knew you were different, but you didn’t seem the same as the vamps. I didn’t get too close to them, but I didn’t have to. They felt all wrong. Bad vibes. And when I’d been close to you in the office that one time, you felt right. Good. But I knew you had to be something not quite human.”
I stared out at the water as I let her story sink in. How was this possible? How could she detect anything different about me, unless she wasn’t a norm herself? But I knew she was—I could feel her humanity all over her.
“Blossom says it’s because of my open mind,” Heather said, startling me. I didn’t think I’d shared those thoughts with her telepathically, but when she continued, I realized she’d gone down the same train of thought as I had. “How I can feel the difference between all of you and us norms, as you call us. I got that open mind from you, you know.”
“Me?” I asked as I pushed my toes into the sand.
“You and your books. Sonya and I talked all the time about how it could all be real. But I’d never want to be an evil vamp. I just prayed, if they were real, angels would be, too, and they would protect us.”
So Rina and the council had been right about my books. They opened people’s minds to the possibility that so-called fantastical creatures existed. I’d been so worried this would drive people to seek out the Daemoni to become a shifter or a vamp, as Sonya had. But apparently, at least as many readers could be like Heather, strengthening their faith, which would protect them against the Daemoni’s increasing attacks. My guilt lessened. A hair.
“Anyway,” Heather continued, “after we moved to Sanibel, I rode my bike to Captiva almost every day for a while, and as soon as I got my license, I’d go and watch my sister, too. It didn’t take long to figure out there were two groups and which side you were on. And then I thought, ‘They can help me. They can help me get Sonya back.’”
Chapter 6
A long moment passed before I realized the girl waited for my response.
“Heather,” I said, “I really do want to help you, but honestly, I don’t know what can be done. Sonya chose this, which meant she was willing to give up her soul to be a vampire.”
“But she hasn’t yet. She hasn’t lost her soul. I see it in her eyes. I think she realizes she’s made a huge mistake, but doesn’t know how to un-do it.” The girl turned to me, and tears filled her blue eyes as they pleaded with me. “Blossom says if there’s any hope at all, you can save her. I know there’s hope. I have to believe that!”
I pulled her into my arms and smoothed her hair as she cried. My decision was made. She needed me. She needed our help. And I owed it to her and her sister.
So a few weeks later, Heather, Tristan, and I took a ride in Tristan’s new toy—a shiny black Ford F-250—to spy on a nest of Daemoni vampires in Fort Myers Beach. The mission was two-fold: try to get a feel for Sonya and learn what we could about Vanessa and my pendant. A simple reconnaissance trip. Yeah, right.
Heather spotted Sonya and a redheaded female vamp leaving the condo they shared with others from their nest, and we followed them as they walked down the main road and made their way to the crowds of tourists. August was one of the slowest months of the year, but there were still plenty of tourists around. Perhaps because Key West had earned such a dangerous reputation lately. The way Sonya and her companion hungrily eyed the norms, Fort Myers Beach would soon be gaining a similar rep.
The two vamps easily found their prey in a dark parking lot behind a bar.
“Hey, two on one, huh? I’m down with that,” said the middle-aged man covered in tattoos as we crouched behind a car on the far side of the lot. I lifted my head up enough to see the vampires man-handling the guy. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I like it rough, too, but easy now.”
“We can’t let them attack,” Tristan said, and I nodded. “You stay with Heather. I’ll take care of it.”
But by the time he finished his sentence, Heather was already sprinting across the parking lot.
“Sonya, no!” she screamed. “Don’t do—”
A wail of pain cut off the girl’s words.
“Go, Alexis!” the voice, the one I refused to believe belonged to Cassandra, screamed in my head.
Tristan and I blurred to the site to find the guy gone and the redhead squatting over Heather’s splayed out body, blood pouring from a cut across the girl’s cheek. With a thunderous crash of Sonya’s body against hers, Red was thrown off of Heather. The two vampires rolled around the parking lot, fists flying at each other.
“She scared away our dinner,” Red shrieked as she freed herself from Sonya and jumped to her feet.
“She’s my sister,” Sonya yelled back, springing to her feet, too.
“Not anymore. Now she’s just a meal.”
Sonya lunged at the other vampire. She never made it across the three feet that had separated them, though—Tristan appeared between them, and she slammed into his hard body. He caught her arm in one hand and reached out to grab Red, but she took one look at him and disappeared with a pop.
Only to reappear with three others.
No exchange of pleasantries ensued. They immediately moved in for the attack. I uncloaked my dagger and yanked it from my hip, swinging it as a little blond female flew at me. The blade sliced across her forearm, and she screamed from the silver’s burn, but didn’t relent. She charged me again, along with a short guy with orange hair. I shot her with electricity and pushed Amadis power into my dagger as the blade slid between his ribs. He let out an ear-piercing scream then disappeared. The blonde began to turn a sickly gray, purple smoke rising from her skin, when something knocked my arm, breaking the current.
“That’s enough, Lex,” Tristan murmured. “You can’t kill her.”
The blonde flashed out of sight as my arm fell to my side. All of the others had disappeared, too, except for Sonya and a tall guy with a dark crew-cut, both of whom stood across the lane of cars from us.
“Go on,” Sonya said to the guy, nodding her head toward the road.
“Sonya—” he said, and the tone of his voice sounded as though he had some kind of authority.
“I need . . . to do this. Please,” she
said. They eyed each other for a long moment, and something seemed to pass between them, some kind of unspoken message. He disappeared before I had the thought to maybe “hear” what they were thinking.
Having some faith Sonya wouldn’t attack us on her own, I dropped to my knees next to Heather and pressed my fingers to her neck. Her pulse came nice and strong. She must have hit her head when she was thrown, though.
“Is she okay?” Sonya asked.
“I think so,” I said.
Sonya crossed the lane and stopped abruptly with a gasp as she took in her sister’s condition.
“Oh, my god. What have I done?” She fell to her knees, scooped Heather’s unconscious body into her arms, and rocked the girl as she sobbed. “Heather, I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t be here. What have I—” She stopped suddenly, as if frozen. The next instant, Heather was on the ground again, and Sonya stood on her feet, staring at her sister with horror in her red eyes, her hand clamped over her nose and mouth. “The blood. The blood. Oh, god, don’t let me . . .”
My eyes darted to Tristan to silently ask for a little help with the vampire, but his expression stopped me. He appeared to be waging some kind of internal battle. Tristan! He snapped out of it and looked at me with dark eyes. Help Heather. He stared for a confused moment, then finally gave a slight nod and moved to the younger girl’s side.
“Sonya,” I said, slowly rising to my feet and moving toward the vamp, one hand out in precaution, the other on the hilt of my dagger. “Be strong. You don’t want to hurt her, right?”
She stared at me with wide eyes, the same blue as her sister’s, and shook her head.
“No, don’t let me,” she whispered behind her hand. Then her eyes changed, glowing bright red as her worried expression morphed into anger. Her voice was no longer a whisper, but full of venom, stopping me in my tracks. “How could you do this? How could you bring her here? It’s too dangerous!”
“I brought them here,” said a hoarse voice at our feet, and we both looked down at Heather, still cradled in Tristan’s arms. He’d healed the cut on her cheek.
“How could you be so stupid?” Sonya demanded. “I told you to stay away from me. You have no idea the monster I’ve become!”
And if I hadn’t already believed it, I knew right then her soul could be saved. After all, you don’t worry about someone’s safety if you don’t give a rat’s ass about them. She still cared. No, more than that. She still loved.
“Help her,” not-Cassandra whispered.
“Sonya,” I said, taking another step closer to her and slowly reaching my hand out for her arm. She hissed at me, and her fangs slid out, but I refused to back off. “I do know what you think you are. But you’re wrong. I sense good in you.”
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped, shrinking away from my hand. She’d apparently been warned about my electrical touch or about the pain of the Amadis power. Probably both. “You did this. It’s all your fault!”
I cringed at the accusation, but nodded. “I know. I accept that. But I want to make it better. You know I can, right? You know I can help you?”
She shook her head violently, and her dark hair stuck to the tears running down her cheek, reminding me of her mother a decade ago when her father had struck her in the park by the beach. “You won’t help me! You’ll kill me.”
“Do you want to live like this?” I asked Sonya, throwing one hand toward Heather at my feet and the other in the general direction of her nest. She didn’t respond, but her answer came loud and clear in her thoughts: No! “We can help you. The Amadis can get you out of this. We can show you a better way to live.”
Sonya’s blue eyes flew from me to Heather, back and forth several times. A multitude of emotions stormed across her face as she remained in the grip of indecision.
I think she’ll come with us, I said to Tristan. He didn’t respond, and I peered at him again. He stared right at me, his eyes hard. Tristan?
He blinked. His eyes softened. Sort of. Again, a battle seemed to rage just under the surface, but his only coherent thought came as a growl. “This wasn’t the plan.”
So you want to leave her here? I asked with disbelief. What was going on with him?
Heather’s hands gripped Tristan’s arms as she struggled to sit up. “Do it, Alexis,” she implored. “Do what you need to, now, tonight, I beg you!”
The girl’s pleas pulled at my heart, but what was I thinking? Her hopes were already flying, but I’d only disappoint her. I had almost no experience with conversions. We had a safe house, but no staff to manage it. Whose lives would I be risking by bringing our enemy there with no one but Tristan and me to babysit her until we had help for the conversion? We couldn’t dare leave her alone. And what about Dorian? What if something went wrong, and she got to him, then whisked him away? Could I risk my son’s life like that?
“You cannot think that way, Alexis. You are an Amadis daughter.”
Not-Cassandra was right, and this was my purpose—defending souls such as Sonya’s. She deserved this from me. They all did, but especially Sonya, because I felt somewhat responsible for her being in this position in the first place. I couldn’t turn my back on her when she needed me so badly. Helping her was my duty, and I’d find some way to do it and keep Dorian safe at the same time.
“That is right. You just need to trust yourself.”
Let’s do it, Tristan. He blinked at me again, as if he didn’t understand. Now, while we have the chance. Go on. Do it!
Right when I was about to reach over and smack some sense into him, he shook himself, gave me a strange look, then lifted his hand. He blasted his power at Sonya, knocking her out. The vampire dropped to the ground, and Heather screamed.
“Shh!” I clamped a hand over her mouth. “It’s the only way to get her to Captiva. She’ll be fine.” The girl fell silent, but I felt obligated to add, “Well, as fine as we can hope for under the circumstances.”
Because, really, who knew if she’d be fine? Under my unskilled care, we could both be dead by tomorrow.
Tristan scooped Sonya into his arms, and Heather, still feeling a little shaky, climbed on my back before we sped to Tristan’s truck. As he unlocked doors and gave orders, I kept my mind’s eye on the signatures all around us, scanning for any Daemoni who might try to stop us. Tristan climbed in the backseat of the truck with Sonya, ready to paralyze or knock her out again if she came to. Heather sat in the front passenger seat, and I cursed as I drove the big-ass truck out of the parking lot and onto roads that seemed to be way too narrow for the extra-wide tires. I hated driving the truck. But so far, so good—no one followed.
At least, until we were halfway across the bridge connecting the island to the mainland.
A red Corvette zoomed up next to us, and a yellow Hummer roared up behind us. The blue light of a mage’s spell hit the side of Tristan’s truck, and Heather screamed. I cursed that Owen wasn’t here to shield us.
“Floor it!” Tristan ordered, and I pressed the gas pedal as far as it would go.
Another spell hit us, rocking the truck on its wheels. We left the bridge, the red brake lights of a car in front of us shone, and I jerked the steering wheel to the left, jumping onto the median to pass the little car. The Hummer and the Corvette stayed with us. I pushed the truck as fast as it would go.
“Red light,” Heather whispered, then her words came out in a shriek. “Alexis, red light!”
I eased off the gas, but Tristan yelled, “No! You have to go through it. They’re right on our ass.”
Besides the Daemoni in the car and the Hummer, I sensed no nearby mind signatures on the roads this late at night, but my heart still raced as if trying to match the speed of the truck as we flew through the intersection. My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard, my white knuckles practically glowed in the dark.
“Turn right at that light up there,” Tristan said. “Let’s try to lose them.”
“But the Corvette’s in the right lane. I’ll have to cut a
cross it.”
“Exactly. They won’t see it coming. Just get far enough ahead of them.”
“Oh, dear God, stay with us,” I muttered, and you, too, Cassandra, if that’s really you, I added as I floored the gas pedal again, shot ahead of the red sports car, and made the hard right turn at the last minute. I swore two wheels came off the ground as Heather’s head slammed against the window. The Vette’s tires squealed as it made the turn, the Hummer right behind it.
I glanced in my rearview mirror to see the Hummer pull into the lane of oncoming traffic, up to the side of the sports car. They drove side-by-side for a moment, then the car slowed down, and the Hummer sped up. I caught the driver’s thoughts as he approached.
“They’re going to hit us!” I screeched right before the Hummer banged into the truck’s bumper. I gripped the wheel tighter, trying not to lose control. They slammed into us harder, and the wheel tried to jerk away from me.
“Right,” Tristan barked. “Now!”
I made a sharp right, running over the curb. The Hummer followed in my tracks.
“I can’t do this, Tristan. I don’t know how to drive like this.”
“You have to, ma lykita. Just do as I say.”
“I don’t even know where we are!”
“Stay calm. Panic won’t—”
The Hummer hit us again, pushing the truck into the other lane of traffic. I yanked the wheel barely in time before hitting an oncoming delivery truck, but that overcorrection sent us careening toward a light post. I slammed on the brake, probably not the smartest thing to do. Our rear end began fishtailing, and the Hummer spun a one-eighty to miss hitting us.
The next thing I knew, Tristan’s hands were on the wheel, regaining control before we crashed. Without taking his eyes off the situation outside, he somehow maneuvered himself into the driver’s spot and me onto the center console. I scrambled to the backseat, not even trying to figure out how he’d switched places with me. Not caring, because already I felt safer. With a couple of strategic turns, he’d outdriven the Daemoni and lost them completely. We all let out a collective breath of relief as he pulled onto a quiet street headed to Captiva.