Venom (The Reawakening Series Book 1)

by Daniele Lanzarotta

  “Stop—just stop. Do you really want to be human again?”

  He nods.

  “Then you are not only choosing to go back to the way things should be. You’re choosing a life without me.”

  “So this is not something you want anymore?”

  “I never told you I wanted this, Ty. I’ve made peace with what I am.”

  “Then you are making the same choice… a choice of a life where we’ll eventually drift apart. Lexi, what we are… we are not meant to be. This is a chance to fix this for everyone who was turned against their wishes.”

  There is no hope. It doesn’t matter how much he loves me. Tyler has always hated what we are more than anything. I sit and listen to him. All of this should be a good thing, it really should, but something about what’s happening here, feels incredibly wrong.

  What I need is to find a way to get Sarah out of here.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  NICHOLAS

  I’m on my way to the cabin to meet Harvey when I get Lexi’s text.

  “We’re in Southampton. I’m not sure of the address but I need your help. There is a lot of security here. Don’t reply to this message. I’m deleting any record of speaking with you. I will do what I can so that you can find me through the blood imprint.”

  ‘Crap. She’ll have to be in danger for me to find her like that. She is going to do something stupid. Damn it.’

  I speed the rest of the way until I get to the cabin.

  I rush in and Harvey places himself in front of Valerie, who curls up on the corner of the couch.

  “What?” I ask. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

  He doesn’t move. “Any news?” he asks.

  “Yes. Lexi said they are in Southampton and she needs help getting Sarah out of where she is. I don’t know much more other than there is a lot of security.”

  “How exactly are we finding them?” he asks.

  “Blood imprint. I’ll find her.”

  He sighs. “We need to find a safe place for Valerie to stay while we go after Lexi and Sarah. She is too young to go on a rescue mission, especially being that we don’t know what we are up against.”

  “She could stay here.” I say.

  “It is hours away. I need her close.”

  “Let’s just go. We’ll figure it out.”

  We drive separate cars.

  Lexi must have known that I would leave right away. She timed everything perfectly, and I can feel her through the blood imprint as soon as we get to Southampton.

  Feeling that she is in danger hits me like a brick. Harvey knows to follow me and I follow the instincts that lead me to where she is. I want nothing more than to hurt whoever is hurting her. In a way, and for a moment, I hope it is Tyler. One of the reasons I did what I did was so the bloody fool would protect her and look where we are now.

  Once we are close enough, we stop the car in front of one of the nearby mansions, contemplating whether to leave Valerie in one of the cars until we are done. We can’t exactly take her to a hotel, or anywhere near a high concentration of humans, and these streets are deserted. Being off-season, these houses will probably be empty for months.

  I leave Harvey and Valerie for a few minutes so I can take a quick look around. Lexi wasn’t kidding about the security. There are damn vampires and humans everywhere and I keep my distance so they don’t sense me. I know that when we do act, we will have to act fast.

  I get back to the car and tell Harvey about the security and that most of them are placed near doors and windows.

  “We should wait as long as we can,” says Harvey. “Wait for the right moment.”

  “What about Valerie?” I ask.

  “Don’t act like you are concerned. She is fine.”

  I shake my head. “Let’s just take her inside that house.” I point toward the house closest to us. “They probably just have one person who works there caring for the house. Glamour that person, send him or her home, and keep Valerie there.”

  “Not a bad plan,” he says.

  “I know,” I say as I give him my best cocky smile.

  “Don’t let it go to your head.”

  ***

  Dawn is approaching and we are talking about a possible plan when we notice security moving around.

  “Change in shifts,” says Harvey. “For the ones who can’t handle the sun.”

  “You know a lot about this.”

  “Yeah,” he says. “Let’s get going. This is the best opportunity we’ll get. You find Lexi. You have the connection. I will look for Sarah.”

  I nod and as some of the vampires get in the car to leave, we move in. We approach the human security and glamour them into letting us in and keeping quiet, but not after asking when the next set of vampire guards come in. I have to keep myself from laughing when they say not until nighttime.

  I move at a high speed until I get to the room where I know Lexi is inside.

  “What the—”

  I find Lexi strapped to a chair, with one needle in each arm, hooked up to a machine that is doing something to her blood. Tyler sits next to her. He is reading her a book and she has her head down, like she is sleeping. When they hear me, her head snaps up and I see the bloody tears running down her face.

  “You sick bastard,” I rush toward Tyler, grabbing him by the neck. He drops the book as I shove him toward the wall.

  “I could rip your throat out right now. You are supposed to be protecting her!” I growl.

  He laughs a sadistic laugh. “Like you protected her?”

  I tighten my grip around his neck and try to decide what to do with this piece of trash when her voice stops me.

  “Don’t hurt him,” she begs.

  I look back at her pleading eyes. How can she be so forgiving?

  “It’s her blood. It’s making him crazy.”

  I cock my head to the side. “By ‘her’ blood, do you mean Sarah’s?”

  She doesn’t answer me, but I know it is. “Please,” she begs again. “She is okay. Just please take me out of here,” she begs.

  I ignore Tyler’s laughter as I look at her and stare into her eyes. She is hurt in more ways than I can see.

  I nod once and look around the room for anything that can be used to restrain Tyler. There is nothing.

  “I have to drain his blood… just enough to weaken him.”

  “But his blood is contaminated. You could—”

  I grin at her concern for me. I think of using the metal part of my belt to puncture a hole on his wrist and drain his blood. I use one hand to keep a hold of him and reach for my belt with my other hand, until I decide this is a horrible idea. It will either take a while to drain him or I could risk taking too much, and even though he deserves it, she doesn’t. Instead, I use his madness against him.

  “You sit on that chair and let me take Lexi away, and I will leave my sister behind. But you have to wait until we are gone before you leave this room.” I hope like hell that Harvey found her by now.

  Tyler gives me a confused look but shrugs it off.

  “Okay,” he says.

  “He sits on the chair and doesn’t move while I kneel down and free Lexi from that seat. As soon as her hands are free, she moves them around my neck as she almost falls forward. I get up, picking her up as I do so. Without looking back, I cradle her in my arms and rush out of there. I need to get her away from here. If Harvey doesn’t have Sarah, I will come back for her.

  I rush to the house next door. I don’t see Valerie anywhere and figure she is probably hiding from me. Harvey is not back, which is a hell of a bad sign.

  I lay Lexi down on the couch. She is weak and if I let her drink from me now, I won’t be able to go back for Sarah and Harvey right away. I want to ask her why they took Sarah, but there is no time.

  She looks like she is in and out of consciousness. Afraid of what could happen, I decide to go ahead and give her a little of my blood. Just enough that it won’t weaken me.

  “L
exi, Love, I want you to drink from me okay?”

  She barely nods. I bite my own wrist, making cuts that she can drink out of. As I’m doing so, I hear her right before she loses consciousness again, ‘You saved me, Nick’.

  I grin as I put my wrist by her mouth and let my blood run in.

  “Valerie,” I yell.

  Nothing.

  “You don’t have to come here while I’m here. I just need you to respond. I’m going back for Harvey and Sarah. Would you stay with Lexi while I’m gone?”

  “Yes,” she says in a low tone.

  “You take good care of her and I will get Harvey out of there, understand? Don’t do anything crazy like try to drink her blood or we will have problems, got it?”

  “Yes.”

  I know she isn’t lying. For whatever reason, she is terrified of me.”

  I kiss Lexi’s forehead while she sleeps peacefully, and before leaving her in Valerie’s care, I whisper, “I love you, little minion.” I didn’t realize until then how much I missed calling her that.

  I go back out, watching for signs of anything strange.

  There is no one outside the house now. I walk into the house and it’s complete silent. It doesn’t take long before I realize that there is no one here.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  I have my hands curled in fists as I walk back to the house. I rush in and find Valerie sitting on the couch across from Lexi, who is now awake and sitting up.

  She avoids making eye contact with me.

  “How are you feeling?” I ask Lexi.

  “Better.”

  Valerie quickly stands.

  “Please don’t.” I say. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She looks at Lexi.

  “You’ll be okay,” Lexi assures her.

  “Why did they take Sarah?” I ask Lexi.

  She sighs. “They want to study her blood. They have a group of scientists who believe they can use her blood as a cure for vampirism. I’m so sorry, Nick. He used me to find her. He had been working with them for a while and had this planned all along. I’m so sorry.”

  I shake my head. “Don’t blame yourself, Love. All I ever wanted was to protect the two most important people in my life and I failed miserably at it.”

  Lexi looks away, avoiding me once again.

  I almost forgot that Valerie was in the room. “Where is Harvey?” she asks in a shaken tone.

  I stare her in the eyes knowing that I didn’t keep my promise to bring him back and I won’t be able to. “They are gone. There is no one there anymore.”

  She gasps and curls up in the corner of the couch.

  “We’ll find them, but I will need your help.”

  She stares into my eyes and listens.

  “Did you drink from him often?”

  She looks away, embarrassed. “He didn’t want me to feed from humans and sometimes, the blood bags weren’t enough, so yes.”

  “Can you feel whether he is in danger?”

  She shakes her head.

  “It’s okay. We are going to use your blood imprint to find him. You are new and it might take a while, but I will teach you how.”

  She nods.

  “Close your eyes.”

  She does.

  “Think about him and well, his blood. Just focus on that.”

  We stay silent for a while.

  “Do you feel anything?” I finally ask.

  She opens her eyes and shakes her head.

  Bloody hell. This is going to take a while.

  We keep trying. Valerie keeps her eyes closed and keeps focusing on Harvey and the blood imprint. I know it’s only a matter of time before she needs to feed and I can’t allow her to drink from either Lexi or myself… that would risk breaking her imprint with Harvey; the only way we have to find them.

  Lexi and I sit on the couch waiting.

  “Lexi, what was he trying to do to your blood, Love?”

  She shrugs. “I think he was trying to test it on me; to cure me.”

  “But you don’t feel weird or anything, right?”

  She shakes her head. “I think the angel blood kept me from going crazy like Tyler.”

  I shake my head just by hearing his name.

  “Nick?”

  “Yes, Love?”

  “When we find them… we have to take Tyler with us.”

  I stand up and stare down at her.

  “Have you lost your damn mind?”

  “Nick, he is not himself. I can’t just sit here and not help him.”

  “Lexi, he is out of his mind, not to mention that he might be insane now, but he knew exactly what he was doing when he started to plan this. Either way, I won’t allow you to help or go near someone as insane as he is right now.”

  “I know in his mind he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. Besides, I was around you for days and you weren’t exactly sane.”

  “That is a whole different level of crazy, Love. My craziness has to do with being crazy about you.”

  She rolls her eyes. “You are losing your touch, Nick. That was the worst pick-up line ever.” She manages to laugh then her smile turns into a frown. “Please, Nick.”

  “NO!” Valerie screams.

  I rush to her side. “Keep your eyes closed. Tell me what you feel.”

  “They are doing something to his blood. I have to go to him. They are not far.”

  “We have to act carefully. You are weak now and they have humans around. The last thing we need is you going blood-crazy in there.”

  She opens her eyes. “He is hurt!”

  I move toward her and she flinches.

  “Listen to me,” I tell her. “You said they are not far and that makes sense. It was close to daylight when they left. They are bound to have other vampires working inside who can’t stand the sunlight. I’m sure they had to stop somewhere nearby. There are few houses here and they are far apart from one another. I’m going to drive around to find you blood and check out the area. I will keep Lexi on the phone as I drive so if you feel anything, tell her.”

  She nods.

  Lexi stands up and walks me to the door.

  “Nick, promise me you’ll get Tyler out of there too.”

  I move my hand toward her and move a string of her hair behind her ear. She shivers as I do so.

  “You know I can’t promise you that, Love.”

  She looks down. “Let me come with you then.”

  I shake my head. ARGH “I need you here, Love. We can’t leave Valerie alone. I will do what I can, okay? No promises.”

  She moves closer and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispers.

  ***

  I don’t have to drive long before I see movement in and out of a house two blocks down.

  “Valerie says the imprint is fading, Nick. I don’t think you should wait any longer. She’s losing it. She tried to leave the house twice already and even with her weak, I could barely stop her.”

  “Tell her I found him. I will figure something out.”

  I walk into the house slowly this time. The lack of security is actually alarming.

  Tyler stands in the living room waiting for me as if he knew I was coming.

  He has his nice vampire smile on and I just hope I’m not too late.

  “Where are they?” I ask.

  “Where is she?” he asks.

  “Safe. Like you should’ve kept her.”

  He nods and he seems almost back to normal.

  “You don’t really think you are walking out of here with them, do you?” asks Tyler.

  I grin. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. She actually asked me to bring you too.”

  “She did?” He asks confused.

  “I will be damned if I understand why.”

  “Don’t worry. I messed this up with her. She won’t want anything to do with me now that the girl is gone.”

  I feel my blood getting hot as soon as he says the words.

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN,
SHE IS GONE?”

  He shrugs. “We needed her blood. We took it. She is gone.”

  I clench my hands into fists and rush toward him, but I’m stopped by two vampires who hold me back, and then, I go numb. She is gone and I stop fighting.

  “I’m going to give you two options,” he says. “You can walk out of here right now or you can stay and we will let Harvey go.”

  I look out the window seeing that the sun has set.

  What good am I at protecting the ones I love?

  “Let him go.”

  COMING SOON

  BLOOD TIES

  The Reawakening Series II

  Turn the page for a sneak preview of

  WIDE AWAKE

  Academy of the Fallen I

  by Daniele Lanzarotta

  The complete Academy of the Fallen series is now available at

  www.danielelanzarotta.com

  Amazon, Nook and iBookstore

  ONE

  My life had been pretty normal until that point. I went to a private high school in LA, where I lived with my adoptive parents. I did pretty decent at school, especially for someone who didn’t try very hard. I had awesome friends, and an okay boyfriend, I mean, I thought he was great at the time, but a lot of people saw him as a jerk, but whatever… Boy! Was I wrong?

  That day, I woke up and then spent probably the next half hour scanning through my closet. On a normal day, we would wear the school’s uniform, but the school principal gave us a free pass that day, since we had a field trip. As long as we were dressed in what he considered decent, which was code for boring, we didn’t have to wear the school’s uniform.

  I went downstairs, grabbed something to eat and walked out the door, getting in my Audi R8, that I had just got for my birthday. It took me forever to talk Kelly and Andrew, my adoptive parents, into getting me that car. They had the illusion that I was going to drive some kind of SUV!

  Andrew and Kelly were great. They pulled me out of foster care when I was about to turn four years old, so they were like my real parents; the only parents I knew, but when it came to safety, they were a little over-protective.

  So… school field trip! Who would have thought that would mess up my so-called normal life?