“Wait a sec—” Out of the corner of his eye Vince spied something. “What the hell?”
Below the second rooftop to their right, Vince saw flashing red and blue lights. He pulled Rico to his feet and the two vampires eyed the crowd of navy-blue-clothed police officers wrestling with a bedraggled woman.
Catrina.
Her limbs were bare of her crypt rags save for one long, faded maroon slash that hung from her shoulder and waved back and forth over her breasts. Vince recognized Scarlet’s jacket hanging from one of her shoulders. Her blood-stained mouth stretched in fear and defiance and she crouched low, her arms spread wide as a circle of officers surrounded her.
“My God, we’ve got to save her.”
Vince caught Rico across the chest. “No! We can’t go down there and risk exposing ourselves. Look at all the cops! It’s too late, Rico.”
“But they’ll put her away! I can’t let that happen.”
“Just like you put her away? She’s gone! There’s nothing left of the woman you once held dear. Let her go!”
“But don’t you see? If they try to contain her it will be behind bars in some filthy prison.” Rico struggled to keep an eye on his sister. “That’s no place for her mind! Do you know what they’ll do to her if they discover her blood is different than theirs? They’ll probe and prod and…” He stopped, catching his forehead against his palm. “Oh, Vince.”
Vince could understand the man’s heartache, having lost his own mother. But, having never known the passionate love Rico spoke of, he couldn’t be as sympathetic as he felt he should be. There was no possible way to save Catrina. There were just too many policemen. To go down there would be like committing suicide themselves.
There was only one thing to do.
Vince pulled the .22 from his pocket. “Then give her peace.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The sight of the gun, so cold and utterly mortal, shocked Rico. He pulled away from Vince’s grasp and stood watching as the police officers took turns lunging in an attempt to capture his sister. She still possessed incredible strength and at the moment was holding her own against the LAPD.
Rico felt the cold metal slide across his palm as Vince pressed the weapon into his hand.
“Let her go, Rico. End her suffering.”
Catrina’s screams filled the air. Each of her arms was held by two policemen while her kicking legs were being secured in the same manner. With more than a half dozen policemen going at her they would have her manacled and tossed in the back of the ambulance within minutes.
“But this won’t work.” He gestured to the gun. “A bullet can’t stop a vampire.” “I know…” Vince eyed the gun anxiously and thought about it. “Shit!” He kicked the the rooftop before pacing away. But he rushed back to Rico. “Maybe…if you shoot more than once… Yes! One bullet won’t cause her heart to burst, but three or four in a row, each in a different place in her heart, should. You’ve got to try, man.” Vince gripped Rico’s gun hand. “Give Catrina peace.”
Rico shivered. Compliance felt dirty and cold. Honestly? There was no other choice. He swallowed, nodded, and turned to the action, shakily placing the gun before his nose to aim.
Catrina was held by three officers, two holding each of her limbs, and one securing her head in the crook of his elbow.
Vince bent over his shoulder. “They’ll see us as soon as the first shot is fired. We gotta get away as soon as it’s over. Say good-bye now.”
Rico swallowed back the bile in his throat. He aimed the pistol, finding Catrina’s writhing body in its sight. “Addio, innamorata.” He closed one eye, wet his lips and Cat’s voice echoed in his tormented mind. Rico always hits his mark. Her giggle, like the silver gypsy bells she had worn about her ankle faded to manic screams for release.
He slumped against the roof ledge. “I cannot do this!”
“Here!” Vince knelt beside him, slipping his finger in the trigger. “I’ve never shot a gun before so you’ll have to aim. I’ll pull the trigger for you. Do it now, Rico. Do you see? They’ve almost got her to the ambulance. They’ll lock her up and poke and prod her for the rest of her miserable life. You don’t want that. Now, aim!”
With a deep sigh, Rico looked through the pistol sight.
“Is it aimed?” Vince asked.
“Yes,” he said weakly.
With the first shot, Catrina’s breast burst in a brilliant crimson star. She continued to thrust and fight, showing no signs the bullet had even hit her. The police officers’ heads shot up, scanning the rooftops. One pointed and yelled as the second shot found its mark a fraction of an inch from the first. A band of policemen with guns cocked and ready ran towards the building.
“Mio Dio,” Rico moaned.
“Aim!”
Catrina’s body fell from the policeman’s hands as the third bullet pierced her immortal flesh.
Rico stood blindly watching her death as the policeman raced toward the building. He didn’t hear Vince’s pleas to leave. Three bullets had been enough. Catrina’s body withered. Her heart had stopped. Her life began to fade. But there it was!
The angel. His mother’s angel, still wearing the same robes of lustrous sapphire.
Red heat seared through Rico’s left leg, which he gripped involuntarily, but he couldn’t tear his eyes from his sister’s dying body and the familiar angel that hovered above her right shoulder awaiting her soul. She was reduced to ash before his eyes and before the LAPD. But Rico smiled inside, assured the angel would escort Catrina’s soul to safety.
“Come on, man.” Vince pulled him across the roof. “You’ve been shot. Let’s get out of here before they have a chance to get a good look.”
Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, their silhouettes hovered briefly in the yellow circle of moonlight. Only when they had reached the mansion and Vince had to help Rico to stagger upstairs to his bed did the tears flow freely. Rico’s body shook with the years of passion he held locked in his heart for Catrina. She was gone by his hands.
A spasm of pain rippled through his left side as Vince pried the slug from Rico’s thigh and tossed it on the floor. But it was no match to the agony that rendered his heart into two jagged pieces.
***
She stood in the rose garden. A dark-haired fairy queen reigning over her white- and red-petaled subjects. Full and open, the white rose she held was as big as her fist. Her eyelids closed as she drew in the flower’s scent. Her expression was of a woman in the throes of passion, her lips parted as a satisfied breath whispered out.
Sebastian’s footsteps crunched a stray branch. Scarlet spun around, the rose brushing.
“I was worried you might never come home.” The urge to crush her into his embrace and hold her forever was strong. But he felt nervous. Not sure what her solemn expression meant.
“I’ve come to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye?” His heart slipped. “You can’t mean that. Please allow me to explain. I’m sorry—”
“I know you are.”
“I believed Vince had made love to you. How could you let me think such a thing?”
“You gave me no other choice.”
Sebastian’s closed his eyes, and his head fell back against his shoulders. His entire body shook as his lover passed him by, the scent of her salty tears strong.
“I love you, ma chèrie. I know now it was wrong of me to assume you could do such a thing. You had every right to act as you did. You could never betray me. I know that. I’ve been such a fool. Please, you are my life…”
“Sebastian.” She spun around, avoiding his eyes. “I need to do this. You mustn’t take this personally. It’s me, not you. I’m not going away forever. Just long enough to learn.”
“Learn?”
“From Esmarelda.”
The name was familiar. “The Esmarelda from the diaries?”
“I met her last night. She’s beautiful and smart. She knows how I’ve been feeling lately. And she can give me the answer
s I need.”
“But you don’t even know this woman.”
“I do! I know her life. I know she loved blindly, as I do.”
“Blindly? But—”
She thrummed her fist against her heart. “My love for you has been blind. I know nothing about you, Sebastian, and I realize that even more after hearing your story about the twins. You’ve never shared your life with me. I fear there are many more stories I have yet to hear.
“And I’ve been wondering lately, do I really know who Sebastian DelaCourte is? There are over two hundred years of your life I know nothing about. Two hundred years that shaped and made you into a man still so mysterious to me. I have no idea if there are more women out there from your past, more vampires—”
“I created no others—other than the ones you now know of,” he quickly interjected.
“So you say. But you must understand…I don’t even know myself. Who am I? Scarlet Rose, a vampire. But what does it even mean? Vampire?” She shrugged, finding Sebastian could only nod in silence. He knew as little about their race as she.
“There is so much I need to know and learn, Sebastian. Will I live forever? Can we die? What are my strengths, my limitations? Until I know, I don’t think I can begin to understand and completely love you. Esmarelda can open my mind and fill it with the knowledge I crave. I love you, Sebastian, with all my heart. And yet…I need more.”
He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “And I’m not supposed to take that personally?”
One of the rose petals broke away from the flower and drifted across Scarlet’s skirt. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to put it.”
Red hot pain stabbed at Sebastian’s heart. Regret seared his blood and sizzled out through his veins. If only he had been more open. He wanted desperately to hold her, to kiss her senseless. Change her mind…somehow.
“I have to go now. I’ll be back.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. Not long.” She turned away.
Her long peach skirts whispered across and between her legs. The white rose dangled near her thigh. Already, with only a few feet distance between them, Sebastian was unable to smell her perfume, her hair, the rosy shampoo she used because she knew he loved the scent. Everything she did was to please him.
Sebastian rushed after Scarlet. “Wait! Perhaps you should give it a few days thought— Scarlet!”
She turned, a resolute sigh escaping her lips. The queen bid her kingdom farewell.
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know. All about my life. Please…” Sebastian pleaded, his hand outstretched before him. “Stay.”
“I’m not ready yet,” she whispered. “I need some time to myself, to spread my wings.” She placed the rose on his palm. “I do love you, Sebastian. You will never leave my heart, as I shall never leave yours. I’ll be back…when I’m ready.”
***
He stumbled up the stairway, his toes tripping him across the stones as he wandered hopelessly toward her room.
The hairline fracture in his heart began to seep and expand. Sebastian stumbled into the bedroom, clutching his chest as his breaths struggled for release. The room spun as he staggered to the open closet. Darkness enveloped his soul, squeezing his chest and forcing the blood from his heart in gushing streams. Grief encapsulated his entire being.
The tufted ruffles of the bata de cola scraped across his cheek. Sebastian clutched the slippery fabric to his chest and pulled it down as he sank to the floor. He pressed his face into the black and crimson ruffles and it became soaked with his tears. “Oh, my escurido anjo,” he whispered. “Come back to me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Californian mountains, 3 months later.
“She’s so beautiful.” Crouched on her knees in the fresh fallen snow, Scarlet peered through ice-waxed branches at the cougar that sat watching her as intently as she watched it.
“Speak to her.” Esmarelda’s breath formed a cloud of condensation near Scarlet’s shoulder. “She’s peaceful. She wishes to speak to you.”
Focusing her energies inward, Scarlet closed her eyes. Over the past few months, Esmarelda had taught her how to persuade mortals, to focus her inner strengths which would aid her command of inanimate objects—lighting candle wicks and stopping flowing water mid-stream was very cool—but she had now mastered communication with beasts of nature.
Beneath the thickening coat of winter fur, Scarlet could sense the steady proud beat of the animal’s heart, slightly cautious, yet open and ready for a new discovery.
She opened her eyes. Come, she said in her mind. This will be a new experience for both of us.
The cougar’s ears pricked and she thrust her nose up to sniff out the scents of the wooded cove. The smell of pine and bark and the underlying layer of moistness was coated with a rich clean blanket of early fall snow, common in the mountain range.
Come. Scarlet stretched her hand out before her and walked forward on her knees, leaving Esmarelda behind in the cover of an overgrown thicket. She drew on her inner voice, the heart of her soul to communicate with the animal, which had now risen to her feet and had taken a few steps forward. In the past few weeks she had learned to calm herself and to take complete control of her mind, the communication with animals had been a natural step she had learned slowly yet it was becoming easier day by day.
And now the challenge…to be allowed permission to use the cougar’s body. Borrowed body traveling, a term Adriano had invented centuries ago. She had been delighted to learn the vampire legend of changing into various beasts was partially true. But they didn’t morph or mist, or transform. This was a soul transfer. A dangerous trick, one that left the vampire’s soulless body behind, unattended while the animal transported their soul where commanded.
A challenge well worth the dangers.
The air was charged with a silent static as the cougar stepped cautiously closer, bridging the distance between it and Scarlet’s hand. Scarlet did not take her eyes from the beast’s golden stare. They held one another in a defiance of nature, beast to human, an immortal joined with nature.
Please.
Stretching its nose out, the cougar sniffed at Scarlet’s fingertips, not touching her flesh, though coming close enough to exhale its warm breath across her palm.
And then the cougar’s stare became understandable. She was not afraid of Scarlet or the other immortal she smelled just beyond her. Yes, was her mental reply as she bowed her head to Scarlet.
Knowing this would take intense concentration and all her mental strength, Scarlet reached deep inside for the core of her being and began to stretch it out as if a transparent coil, a coil that traveled through her body, encompassing its entire matter and makeup. It unspiraled throughout her limbs, tingling beneath her flesh until finally Scarlet felt it trace through her fingertips.
She reached out, touching the cool, soft fur of the cougar’s face. Her fingers pressed into the thickness and felt the hardness of the animal’s skull. Scarlet’s vision went black and then immediately flashed to a brightness that nearly caused her to scream.
Instead she let out a triumphant cry that echoed through the trees and brought a hail of brittle elm leaves showering down from the overhead branches. But it was not a human cry, she had used the cougar’s body to roar like a beast.
It took only a few moments to adjust and take inventory of her new body. She stood on her hands and feet, now her paws, though the position was natural, as if she had never walked on two feet at all. Looking out through her new eyes her view of the world was a much lower level. Next to her lay her own body, motionless, her eyes closed and her hair falling across her lips. It was an eerie feeling to be standing literally beside herself, but Scarlet maintained her concentration. She didn’t want this experience to end with a sudden unexpected return to her body.
As she wiggled her nose and sniffed about she noticed many things she had not detected in her vampire body. A mixture of scents from the crea
tures that roamed the land, and crawling beneath the bark of the trees in search of safe winter homes. A crystalline trickle of water from a creek they had passed a half a mile back now sounded so clear. There was another heartbeat close by. Esmarelda.
Scarlet flashed her a golden look, pressed her front paw deep into the snow, and then dashed away across the expanse of crystal whiteness.
The cougar’s speed became her own. Scarlet felt intense exhilaration as she beat a path across the snow, bounding to the left and then stopping quickly and dashing to the right, testing her newly borrowed body.
As she bound across the ground, delighting in the freedom and stealth of the cougar, a scent of warmth and speed jumped before her. Scarlet scanned the snow. A snowshoe rabbit sped just ahead beneath the cover of frozen branches. She could sense the beat of its heart, frenzied and fearful.
Scarlet crouched low to the ground, her forelegs sinking into the snow, her hind legs poised to pounce.
The rabbit’s ears pressed to its tiny head, its heartbeat never waning.
In one instant Scarlet was aware she was only borrowing this body. She was not a cougar. The fearful rabbit before her was not her prey. But in the next, she knew the thrill of the chase was unavoidable. She sprang forward, catching her leap on powerful front legs.The rabbit dodged from side to side in a frantic attempt for cover, but Scarlet chased it out toward the meadow. She quickly gained, finding it wasn’t so much her eyesight that kept her on the rabbit’s trail, but more her sense of smell that guided her.
One jutting pounce landed her prey beneath the thickly padded forepaws of her host.
No. This beast is an innocent, Esmarelda’s thoughts traveled to Scarlet.
She tossed the rabbit away where it landed in the snow, and dashed back to the trees where Esmarelda stood. The act of leaving the body was much easier than the entry, though the pulling back of the mental coil did smart a bit.
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