Harper frowned. "I know," she said. "Come on, let's go back to the hotel. I bet Miriam is up by now. Let's see if she's got any bright ideas."
"Sure," Conner said. "But first..." he stopped and put a hand up against her chin. He directed her mouth to his. The kiss was soft and sensual, and Harper felt her heart skip a beat. She didn't know if she could ever love Conner like she did Alec, but she felt like she was starting to care, at least a little.
After their kiss, they walked hand in hand back to the hotel. Harper felt giddy as a school girl and kept having to remind herself that there were looming dangers everywhere. She couldn't afford to get caught up in Conner at the moment. She had to be alert.
When they got back up to Chloe's room, everyone was gathered inside. Both Samuel and Sarah looked as though they'd been dipped in a lake made of sweat, but both looked pleased enough with themselves.
Chloe and Brittney were sitting together on the bed, flipping through a room service menu. Wren and Miriam were standing together at the window, and by the sound of the shower, Harper guessed that Heather was in there.
"Welcome back," Chloe said. "How was the movie?"
Wren turned from his spot at the window. He looked between the two and smiled. "I think it went well."
"Don't do that," Conner said to Wren. "The movie was fine, Chloe, thanks for asking."
Chloe just smirked at him.
"Everyone have a good morning?" Harper asked. "No attacks?"
"None," Miriam said. "But it's daylight. Tonight, they'll come."
"Do you have any ideas yet?" Conner asked. "Because things are starting to feel a little flaky."
"There's only one real option," Miriam said. "We storm the castle."
"What?"
Miriam shrugged a shoulder. "There are nine of us," she said. "We're all heavily armed and dangerous in our own right. We wait until night, and we go after them before they come after us."
"It'll be a slaughter!" Chloe burst out. "We'll get killed, there's too many of them. We barely got out of the restaurant with our lives! How are we going to storm a place that has even more of them?"
"It's our only option," Miriam said. "Look, I know some of them. I think I can sway them to our side."
"You think," Conner said flatly.
"I think our number one priority should be taking out Thomas," Samuel said. "Without him, they'll fall apart, and they'll be easy pickings. We take him out, and then we wait out the others. Get them as we see them."
Heather stepped out of the bathroom. She was a beautiful woman, but Harper could see her for she truly was, and the birdlike nature of her face was fairly frightening. She closed her eyes briefly and told herself to see her as human. When she opened her eyes, Heather just looked like a pretty, vivacious young woman.
"That won't work," Heather said. "They'll feed, and they'll multiply faster than we can take them out. And if they don't have a leader, they'll either find another one, or they'll just wreak havoc everywhere."
The argument went on for several hours. They ordered room service during that time, and filled themselves up on the food. Harper couldn't help but think they were eating like it was their last meal.
As the sun started to lower, Miriam turned to them all. "We have to make a decision."
"I'm not going to get myself killed," Chloe said stubbornly. "It's not happening. We'd be throwing our lives away. There's got to be something else we can do. Something else we can try. Even if Heather thinks picking them off won't work, it might be the only way."
"Miriam might be right, Chloe," Conner said. "This could be our one chance. We might have to risk it."
The debate started up again, and Harper felt herself getting a headache. Conner kept bouncing back and forth on what idea he supported. Sarah didn't comment, and Heather seemed to just keep repeating the same rhetoric over and over.
"We have to take them now!" Miriam burst out. "We don't have time to argue this. This is our chance!"
"It's a bad idea," Harper said.
Miriam started to say something, but a knock on the door interrupted them. They all turned, shifting into their true forms as they did. Samuel became a bear, and Sarah a wolf. Miriam opened the door.
It was Alec.
"It's a bad idea," he said.
"You're alive!" Chloe said.
"Thank God," Brittney said.
Conner walked over and clapped him on the shoulder. "Good to see you, man."
"Of course I'm alive," Alec said, looking surprised.
"Well, we didn't know," Chloe said. "Don't you have your phone? A little warning next time would be nice."
Alec ignored her, looking past them all at Miriam. "You started this. Are you ready to see it finished?"
TWENTY-TWO
"This is Jeffrey," Alec said, introducing the new vampire to the rest of the group. "Be glad we have him. He found out where they're all meeting tonight."
"And where's that?" Miriam asked.
"They have a two story home in one of the residential areas," Alec said. "They've been staying in that. Easy to go and come, and easy to find quick meals of people walking around. Jeffrey and I rented a couple of cars. We should get going."
Everyone packed their bags and followed Alec out into the cars. He took one and was joined by Samuel, Wren, Brittney, and Chloe. Jeffrey squeezed in the back, even though there wasn't really room for him. The rest of them took the other car, which Sarah drove.
It took about twenty minutes to reach the house that Jeffrey had told them about. Once they were there, Alec began unloading the car of the supplies they'd brought.
"You're sure about this?" Miriam asked. "You don't think there's a better way?"
"No," Alec said. "This is it. We're ending everything tonight. By the time the night's over, Phoenix will be clean again."
Everyone pitched in, beginning to sprinkle holy water around the home. For a while, everyone was worried that the vampires would hear them, but the music playing inside was loud. Eventually, though, someone did try to come out, but they couldn't cross the line of holy water.
That's when it really started, Alec would think later. That's when things began to spiral out of control. The vampires couldn't get out of the house; they'd blocked all exits. They tried the windows, but there was water sprinkled around those as well.
Conner, Sarah, and Samuel brought the gas, and all of them worked on spreading it around the building, splashing it on the walls, covering the porch, pouring it over the windows. There were now active screams from inside as the prisoners began to realize what was happening.
"Now," Alec said, handing a book of matches to Miriam. "You finish it."
Miriam started to light a match, but before she could, Chloe slapped it out of her hand. "No!"
"Chloe..." Alec said.
"No," she repeated. "We can't kill them all like this, like they're insignificant insects that we're spraying pesticide on."
Alec turned towards, and grabbed her by the arms. "You hate vampires," he said. "You know what they can do, you know what they turn into."
Chloe yanked herself free. "And I know they deserve a chance to be better. And we're going to give them that chance."
Before anyone could stop her, Chloe began levitating. She didn't know if it was just because she'd been practicing, or if her adrenaline was high, but she was able to levitate further than she ever had before. She went to the attic window, the only one that none of them could reach her at, and glanced down at the rest.
"Don't do this!" Alec shouted out. Brittney called out to her too, and the rest joined in, begging her to come back down. But Chloe didn't. She couldn't.
The smell of gasoline was strong, even from the attic. She wound her way down the stairs, and into the main part of the house. The vampires were standing in scared little huddles, some of them crying, some screaming, some swearing.
They all looked at Chloe as she came in.
"What do you want?"
"I want to talk to you,"
she said. "Who here is Thomas?"
"I am," Thomas said, striding forward to meet her. "Are you one of them? You are, aren't you? I'm going to kill you, little girl."
He came straight at her, but Chloe was ready. She lifted her hand out of her purse, and brought the wooden stake up. She slammed it directly into his heart, and he crumpled on the floor in front of her, leaving only ashes in his wake.
Chloe turned to the rest of the vampires. She couldn't give them their mortality back, she couldn't change what they'd become, but she had promised Father Gary that she would save them, and she was going to do her best.
"Listen to me!" she called out. Heads turned towards her, and people stopped screaming. "Right now, there is a group outside, a group ready to kill you all. They're going to cleanse you with righteous fire; one of the only ways to kill a vampire. They have the house boarded up, they have the exits blocked, and they've flooded the place in gasoline. They have holy water to bless the fire with. When you die this time, you die for good."
Chloe looked around. She didn't see monsters here, she saw frightened men and women, and even a few children. Those last ones hit hard. They would never grow up, even if she did manage to get them out of the place alive.
"You don't have to be bad," she said softly. "You don't have to kill. Each and every one of you has a choice. You can't go back to your normal lives, but you can sculpt new ones. You can be together, and be strong, and make your new families out of the people who've suffered the same fate as you.
"I hated vampires," she said in a voice that was growing stronger by the second. "I hated them for what they did. They killed my parents. I wasted my youth hunting them, killing them. It brought me no peace, and killing others will give you no peace either. So make a choice. Come with me, and start your life over, or stay here and die."
People began walking towards her. Some came slowly, others ran. Some even got down on their hands and knees and thanked her profusely for this second chance. She was about to text Alec when suddenly the entire place burst into flames.
TWENTY-THREE
"What did you do?" Brittney screamed at Miriam. "Chloe's in there! What did you do?!"
"I had to," Miriam said. "I had to end this. I started it. I started the killing. I had to do something to stop it."
Brittney ran towards the burning building, but Conner caught her around the middle and held onto her tightly. "You'll burn in there," he said.
"I don't care," Brittney cried out. "I don't care! Let me go!"
"No," Conner said.
Harper rushed up to Brittney. He released her into Harper's arms, and she fell onto her knees, tears pouring down her cheeks.
"No, no, no," she kept repeating. Harper held her, trying to offer some comfort, but there was really no comfort to give.
Everyone else was silent, staring at the flames that licked into the night sky, watching as the house burnt down, watching as hundreds died.
Then Jeffrey ran forward.
"What are you doing?" Alec demanded.
"I'm joining them," he said. He headed straight for the house, but Alec grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.
"Stop it," he said. "You'll die in there."
"Don't you get it?" Jeffrey asked. "I don't want to live like this. I don't want a shadow of the life I once had." Before Alec could argue more, he had slipped out of the jacket and went to the front door of the house. It was on fire, and it only took three solid kicks to make it crumble in. He ran into the house, hissing at the holy water he had to cross and fire licked the area he'd been standing in.
Brittney leaped to her feet, pushing Harper away. She reached into her bag and brought out a stake.
"You killed her," she screamed, as she approached Miriam.
Miriam didn't move. "You want to kill me?" she said. "Do it. Put the stake right here..." she tapped her chest where her heart was. "Make it fast."
Brittney wavered for a moment, but before she could drive the stake in, Samuel had tackled her to the ground. He threw the stake away from her. "Enough people have died tonight," he said. "Don't add to the tally."
She turned to look for Wren. "You said there was something rotten," she called out. "This is it, isn't it? You knew this would happen."
"I didn't know," Wren said. "I didn't. I knew something was coming... but I couldn't imagine that it was this." He looked a little ill, and walked away from the others.
Alec approached Miriam. She took him by the hand and led him away from the others. "Kill me," she said.
"What?"
"Kill me."
"You didn't make Chloe go into that house," he said.
"No," she agreed. "But I'm responsible for countless deaths. And I'm not talking about burning it down. That had to be done. I'm talking about changing them in the first place. Thinking I could play God."
"Are you sure about this?" Alec asked.
"I've made mistakes," Miriam said. "And now I'm old and tired and it's time for it to end, Alec. The others wouldn't understand."
Alec nodded. He brought his stake up, and put an arm around her. They both sank to their knees, and he put the stake against her chest.
"Kiss me," she said. "I want the last thing I feel to be that."
He pressed his lips against hers, and and as he did so, Alec slid the stake right through her heart. It went in as smoothly as a knife into butter. For a moment, their eyes locked, and then she was nothing but ash in his hands.
"You killed her!" Heather suddenly screamed. She ran up to where Alec was, her eyes wild and ferocious. He thought for a moment that she might attack him. "You killed her! She was my best friend!"
"She wanted to die," Alec said.
"I don't care," Heather said. She started to cry as well, and Samuel and Wren approached. Wren put an arm around her, and she cried into his shoulder. "I don't care," she repeated. "She was my best friend."
"I know," Wren said. "I know."
Samuel said nothing, but his jaw flexed, and Alec thought he saw a glimmer in his eyes. Then he looked around. Conner was holding Harper, stroking her hair, as she cried into his chest.
He stared at them all for a moment. The new crew, now nothing without their fearless leader. His crew, now missing a member, a member who'd died trying to save the lives of creatures she'd once hated.
He thought of Chloe then. Her smile, her laugh, her flippant way of talking and teasing. He thought of how she did his grocery shopping and always brought back the right stuff. He thought of that, and of so much more.
She was his first true friend, the first person he felt he could be around, the first one he'd connected with. And now she was gone. He'd gotten her killed with his arrogance and misplaced trust. He'd let her risk her life over and over, and he'd never once considered that she could actually lose it.
He stared at the group for a moment longer, watching the way Harper looked up into Conner's eyes for comfort, watching as Brittney sobbed on the ground with Sarah's arms around her. He watched Wren, and Samuel try their best to soothe Heather, who was crying as hard as Brittney.
Alec knew the day would come when it was time to leave. He took one last look at the burning house, thinking of all the dead inside, and then he took out his phone. He dropped it on the ground, crushed it with the heel of his boot, and quickly made his way to the rental car.
"Goodbye," he whispered as he started it up and drove away.
Above, a bird cawed as it flew through Phoenix's glowing night sky, bidding him farewell in return.
About the Author
Kaitlyn Meyers lives in the western United States near Lake Tahoe, CA. You can find her on the shores of the lake anytime of the year.
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Phoenix Under Fire (Afterlife Book 5) Page 13