Eternal

by Kristi Cook

  She looked up and shrugged. “I don’t know. We had a fight. I think he might have gone outside for some air.”

  I turned toward Matthew and saw my own terror mirrored there in his eyes.

  “Shit,” he muttered under his breath. “Listen, Kate. You’ve got to stay here, but if you see Jack, you make sure he stays put, understand me? You cannot let him go outside. This is important, okay? I’m talking life or death here.”

  “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice rising shrilly. “Violet?” Her pale blue eyes were wide as saucers, her bottom lip trembling. “You’ve got to tell me what’s happening!”

  I shook my head. “There’s no time. Just . . . if you find him, don’t let him go outside.” The heat against my wrist intensified, the bloodstone glowing now. “Crap, Matthew, we’ve got to hurry!”

  “Let’s go,” he said, taking my hand.

  From across the room, I saw Aidan watching us, saw his eyes narrow a fraction.

  What’s wrong? he asked telepathically.

  Follow us out, I answered, hurrying to keep pace with Matthew’s longer strides. We’ve got to find Jack. Now!

  I had no idea how much of a head start we had, how much warning the Daughter’s Eye provided. I knew only that we had to hurry. I led Matthew through the tables toward the rear exit, the one marked “emergency exit only.” As soon as we stepped outside and skimmed down the stairs, Aidan caught up with us.

  “Vampire,” Aidan said, jerking his chin upward, his gaze scanning the horizon. “Not Luc. A stranger.”

  I held up my wrist, showing him the glowing reddish black stone. “We already figured that out. And holy crap, I don’t have my stake.”

  Matthew crouched down, pushing up one pant leg. “I’ve got you covered,” he said, retrieving a lethal-looking stake from a sheath strapped to his calf. “But you’re supposed to be carrying one at all times,” he snapped. “This isn’t a game, Violet.”

  Gratefully, I took the weapon from him, wrapping my hand around the smooth, satiny shaft. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  I watched in silence as he unbuttoned the top few buttons on his shirt and reached inside for his baselard. I felt it then, the energy between the dagger and my stake, like a pulsating force.

  “Which way?” Matthew asked me.

  I took a deep breath and looked around, unsure. Directly behind us stretched the club’s driving range and golf course. Over to the right was the pool. To our left, there was nothing but dense woods.

  And a vampire, my senses told me. “That way,” I said, tipping my head toward the woods.

  Matthew raked a hand through his hair. “Damn it, just like the vision. I don’t like this. Where the hell is Jack?”

  “We’ll find him,” I said, taking a deep, calming breath. “We have to, before it’s too late.”

  “Jack!” came a high-pitched voice off to our left, echoing off the trees.

  Our heads all swiveled toward it in unison.

  “Okay, what was that?” Matthew asked.

  “Oh no.” My heart sank in recognition. “That was Kate. How did she get out there?” I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Kate!” I hollered, but there was no response.

  “Let’s go,” Matthew said, and we took off at a sprint.

  We hadn’t made it twenty yards into the moonlit woods before we heard a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere up ahead.

  No! Please, God, no.

  “We’ve got to move faster,” Aidan said, grabbing my hand and stopping me dead in my tracks. “My way, Vi. Hold on tight.” He held out his other hand toward Matthew. “Dr. Byrne, you too.”

  Matthew looked slightly confused, but he took Aidan’s hand anyway. And then . . . the entire world seemed to tumble, a dark kaleidoscope of sensations.

  In the blink of an eye, we were there, in the clearing I’d seen in my vision. A female vampire stood not ten feet away, clutching a body to her chest, its neck bent at an improbable angle.

  What happened next was so quick, so instinctual, that I could barely believe it. With a flick of his wrist, the baselard flew from Matthew’s fingers right into the vampire’s left eye.

  She tossed the body aside with a grunt and reached blindly for the dagger, trying to pull it from her damaged eye. Without wasting a single second, I sprinted toward my target, my stake lifted high. A scream ripped from my throat as I brought it down with as much force as I could muster.

  Straight through her heart.

  I cowered, covering my ears as the vampire let out an inhuman-sounding shriek and then went quiet. She collapsed in a heap on the ground, her one undamaged eye staring unseeing at the sky as blackish blood pooled around the shaft of the stake that protruded from her chest.

  At once, my bracelet went cool against my wrist as I lay there panting, entirely spent.

  “I’ll destroy it,” Aidan said, dragging the vampire’s corpse away, toward the edge of the clearing while Matthew knelt over the crumpled form that remained. I couldn’t look, couldn’t bear to see who was lying there with their life’s blood soaking the grass.

  Please, not Kate.

  And then I heard voices, calling out to us. Footsteps growing louder. Next thing I knew, they were there surrounding us—my friends. I backed away, one hand covering my mouth as my stomach roiled in my gut.

  “Someone call 911!” Matthew shouted, and I watched numbly as Tyler pulled out his cell phone and started stabbing the screen.

  “C’mon, we’re losing her!” Matthew cried.

  Tyler was yelling into his cell. Whitney was beside him, feeding him information about our location.

  It was happening exactly as I’d seen it. I began to hyperventilate as Matthew ripped someone’s shirt into long strips—Joshua’s, I noted, seeing him standing there in nothing but a thin T-shirt now.

  Matthew knelt over the prone form on the ground, pressing the wads of cloth against the victim’s neck to stanch the bleeding. Cece was there, leaning on Sophie’s shoulder crying.

  And Jack . . . Jack was kneeling beside Matthew, sobbing. “Stay with us, Kate! You’ve got to stay with us. Don’t leave me, damn it.”

  I could smell the blood now—way too much blood. I gagged once, twice before my knees buckled and I fell to the ground, struggling to catch my breath.

  Instantly, Aidan was back, there by my side. “They’re doing everything they can,” he said soothingly. “Help is on the way.”

  “You’ve got to do something,” I said, my voice rising in desperation. I clutched the front of his shirt with both my hands, shaking him as hard as I could.

  Kate was dying. Dying! But Aidan . . . Aidan could save her.

  I struggled to my feet, dragging him with me. “You’ve got to do it, Aidan. You’ve got to turn her. Now!”

  He shook his head, his eyes slightly wild. “What are you talking about?”

  “Save her,” I sobbed. “Turn her. It’s her only chance.”

  “I can’t do that, Violet.”

  “Yes, you can. You’ve got to. Don’t you see?”

  “Are you mad?” His voice was a harsh whisper now. “I would never sentence anyone to suffer this existence. Never.”

  “Kate!” Jack cried out, his voice breaking on the single syllable. “C’mon, you’ve got to fight. Stay with us. Please, Kate!”

  In the distance, a siren wailed.

  “Please, Aidan,” I begged. “Please. Before it’s too late.”

  His cool gaze met mine, chilling me to the bone. “I’m sorry, Violet. I can’t. I won’t.”

  A sob tore from my throat. I slapped a hand over my mouth, stifling it as I turned away from him. I stumbled back toward my friends just in time to see Matthew drop his chin toward his chest in defeat, his blood-covered hands resting on his thighs.

  “She’s gone,” he said.

  20 ~ Dead Wrong

  I’m not sure how I made it through Kate’s funeral without losing my mind—how any of us did, really. The last week of break had been nothing short of
a nightmare. Only, there’d been no waking from this one, no sigh of relief when the alarm sounded and you found yourself tucked safely in bed.

  My sorrow was unrelenting. I’d screwed up; I’d somehow sent Kate out to suffer what should have been Jack’s fate. How had I missed the clues? True, I hadn’t expected to find my friends in Atlanta during break. I had expected this vision to take place closer to home. The semiformal attire had made me think prom, maybe. The filled-out, fully leaved trees suggested later in the season, at least in New York. I’d thought there was still time to figure it out.

  I’d been wrong. Dead wrong. And Kate had paid the price.

  Thanks to Aidan’s mind tricks, the Atlanta police, along with Kate’s family, were convinced that some random, depraved murderer had killed her in a particularly gruesome manner. A botched robbery, they theorized. After all, rich kids wandering out in the woods around a posh country club would be easy targets. That explanation was good enough for them.

  But those of us who knew the truth, well . . . we’d have to live with it for the rest of our lives.

  School had offered us an extra week’s time off, but we’d all been anxious to return, to be together again. The first day back, they’d called us all to the school’s counselor’s office, even Matthew. I know they were trying their best, but talking about it didn’t help. Not for me and certainly not for Jack.

  Jack, who had headed back inside the club after receiving a frantic text from Kate that night. Only he hadn’t bothered to text her back to tell her he was coming, and so she’d gone out looking for him.

  And I would never, ever forgive myself for that.

  My cell, set to vibrate, buzzed beside me. Patsy. With a sigh, I connected the call.

  “Hey, Mom.” I lay back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling.

  “Hey,” Patsy said. “So, how are you doing?”

  “Fine,” I lied. “I mean, I’m hanging in there.”

  I heard her sigh. “I really wish you’d taken the school up on their offer and stayed home a few more days. It’s just too soon after something like that.”

  “Well, I talked to the school counselor yesterday.” I figured that would satisfy her.

  “Oh, that’s good. Okay.” I could hear the relief in her voice. “I . . . um . . . I kind of need to talk to you about something important, but I know it’s not really a good time.”

  Uh-oh. What now? “It’s fine,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, this is kind of big. It’s quite a shock, even for me.”

  “Okay. Go on,” I prodded.

  “Paul’s asked me to marry him,” she blurted out. “And I said yes.”

  “Wow. That’s . . . great,” I said lamely. “Congratulations.”

  “There’s more,” she warned, and I braced for it. “We’re moving to Australia. In June, right after your graduation.”

  “You’re what?”

  “I know it seems sudden, but we’ve been talking about it for a while now. And . . . well, I figured you’d probably want to go straight to Paris and get settled once you graduate anyway, so—”

  “Wait, what do you mean, Paris?” I sat up, glancing over at the calendar on the wall, realizing with a start that April first—decision day—had come and gone. My heart began to race, my palms damp now. “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “Didn’t you check the university’s website on the first of the month? I thought you told me—”

  “I totally forgot to check. Are you saying the official acceptance came in the mail already?”

  “Yes! The American University of Paris. I thought you said it was your top choice.”

  “It is my top choice.” At least, it had been. The last couple of weeks had made decisions like this one seem irrelevant.

  “So . . . are you excited?”

  “Of course! Paris. Wow, I just can’t believe it. I guess I sort of pushed it to the back of my mind. You know, with everything else . . .” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.

  “Of course, honey. I know it’s been a tough time. She was your friend, after all, and it was just so horrible, so random. It could have been any one of you. I just hope they catch that sick bastard.”

  But they wouldn’t, of course. This was one murder that would remain unsolved.

  “Anyway,” Patsy continued after a heavy sigh, “the lease isn’t up here until the end of September, so you’ve got plenty of time to pack up your stuff. And . . . I know Australia’s far away, but you can come visit us anytime you want. Seriously, Violet.”

  I was glad for the change of subject. “I . . . yeah, of course. So . . . when are you getting married?”

  “We haven’t decided yet, but it’ll be really low-key. Just City Hall or something.” In other words, I wasn’t invited. “Wait, can you hold on a sec, Violet? Actually, I better take this call. I’ll try you back later, okay?”

  “Sure,” I answered.

  “Thanks. Love you!” she chirped.

  “Love you too,” I said, then ended the call. I set aside my cell, my thoughts spinning.

  On the one hand, Patsy moving to Australia would make things so much easier. I’d be able to go to Paris and do whatever Mrs. Girard asked of me without any questions. There’d be no one around to check in with. No one to lie to.

  But on the other hand, Patsy was the closest thing to a parent I had left, and Australia was far away—literally on the other side of the globe. I was going to miss her.

  And then there was the news about my acceptance letter. I hurried over to my laptop, needing to see for myself. A few clicks later, and there it was—application status: accepted. I wondered if Aidan had remembered to check.

  I started to reach out to him telepathically and then stopped myself. We’d barely spoken since that awful night in Atlanta. He probably thought I was still angry with him for refusing to turn Kate, but I wasn’t.

  I was ashamed of the way I’d acted, horrified that I’d asked him to do something so terrible. At the time, I’d seen it only as a way to save Kate. To cheat death. I owed him an apology.

  Aidan?

  Silence. I stared at the clock, waiting for him to respond. A full minute passed. Then another.

  Hi, he said at last. You settled in yet?

  Yeah. Can we meet somewhere?

  I’m in my room. Why don’t you just come here?

  I hesitated. Are you sure? Won’t we get in trouble?

  Honestly, Vi, I don’t think Mrs. Girard cares what we do anymore.

  That was good enough for me. Okay, I’ll be right there.

  I’ll leave the door unlocked.

  When I stepped inside his room ten minutes later, Aidan was sitting at his desk, his golden head bent over a book. He turned toward me as I shut the door, a wary expression on his face. Behind me, I heard the lock click into place.

  “Hey,” he said softly. “How are you doing?”

  “Better than Jack,” I answered with a shrug. He was back at school, an empty shell of himself. He kept his distance from the rest of us, just going through the motions. But it was clear that his heart wasn’t in it, and who could blame him?

  “I shouldn’t have told him about the vision,” I said. I’d saddled him with unnecessary guilt—with the knowledge that she’d sacrificed herself for him.

  “You only told the truth.” Aidan closed his book but remained seated, studying me closely. I could feel the hurt radiating off him in waves.

  Tentatively, I took a step toward him. “Aidan, I . . . There’s so much I have to say to you. I’m just . . . I’m going to take down the wall around my thoughts, okay? It’ll be easier.”

  I saw his eyes widen a fraction. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded, dropping the barrier.

  His cool gaze met mine, his head tipped to one side in concentration. I could feel it now, the invasion of my mind, like invisible tentacles that poked and prodded. I forced myself to allow it, to concentrate on my remorse, my shame.

&nb
sp; Aidan’s poker face was severely lacking—I could see his every reaction to my thoughts mirrored in his features.

  “Okay?” I asked once I was convinced that he understood.

  “It’s more than okay, Vi.” He rose, closing the distance between us.

  I let out a sigh as he wrapped his arms around me, his lips pressed to my forehead.

  “We’re good, then?”

  He nodded. “We’re good. If you can forgive me for missing the funeral, that is.”

  “I wasn’t surprised you took off, not after the way I treated you.”

  “It wasn’t that, Vi. It was Mrs. Girard. She didn’t think it was safe, that’s all. She’s convinced that whoever that vampire was, she was after me. An assassin.”

  “Because she knew about the whole Dauphin thing?”

  “Probably. Our enemies know that Mrs. Girard is protecting me—they know something’s up. They’ve heard whispers about the Dauphin, and they want to remove the threat. Mrs. Girard is convinced this isn’t the end of it, that they’ll keep sending out scouts—individual assassins—even before there’s full-scale war.”

  “But why assassins, if they know the Dauphin can’t be destroyed by one of their kind?”

  “Apparently, that’s the one part of the legend that Mrs. Girard and Luc withheld from the rest of the Tribunal. That’s their trump card. Obviously, Dr. Blackwell figured it out, but they think that knowledge died with him and Julius and those two females.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “For now, we sit tight. Mrs. Girard has upped security—there’s a full force of guards around Winterhaven at all times now.”

  I suppressed a shudder. “Vampire guards?”

  He nodded. “They’re not a threat. Your bracelet is still glowing white, right?”

  I glanced down, noting the now-familiar sight of the glowing moonstones. The bloodstone was totally unaffected. Whoever these vampires were, they were on our side. I let out a sigh of relief. “It’s white. We’re good.”

  “Of course, if you ask me, this security force is sending our enemies a clear signal that they’re right—that I am being protected. That I’m a key player in Mrs. Girard’s scheme. That I am the Dauphin. But they didn’t ask me.”