4. PAYBACK
I sprang into action after finding Chance’s mom. I put a call in to the police, pretending to be a neighbor that heard something suspicious at the Caldon house. I figured that was the easiest way to get the cops to find Ms. Caldon without directly involving myself. I absolutely hated to leave her like that, but I had to save her son. I knew it was what she would have wanted me to do. I fought the urge to lock up the house, feeling it was probably best for the police to find it the way I did. I definitely didn’t want to disrupt any evidence. I ran outside to an eager Kayla behind the wheel.
“She okay?” Kayla asked as she sped down the drive and onto the highway.
“She’s dead.” I blurted the words out as fast as I could, trying to avoid crying. I thought of Ms. Caldon as my own mom. She had taken me in without even knowing me and had been nothing but nice to me. And now she was dead. The guilt I was feeling was unbearable, only fueling my anger even more. I was determined to make whoever did that to her pay.
“What?” Kayla gasped, her eyes darting from the road to me. A light dusting of snow had begun to fall, making night driving difficult. Normally I would have been scared to have someone else driving, but Kayla was the best option at the time. My mind was too busy trying to figure out how to save Chance’s life to worry about road conditions.
“A vampire killed her. Probably the same one from the dance.” My mind flashed back to the vampire’s face. His pale skin, dark eyes and evil smile unnerved me. He was a ruthless killer who probably murdered Chance’s mom without even thinking about it.
“Oh my God,” Kayla said with tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe this.” I couldn’t either. I couldn’t believe any of this was happening. Me being a vampire, Chance being a Healer, it was all so unbelievable. I felt like somehow I had gone to sleep and woken up inside a nightmare. One that was only getting worse.
“This is going to kill Chance,” Kayla added, her voice shaking. I tried not to think of what it would do to him if he found out—or when. He would be totally destroyed, especially knowing that if he had been there he could have healed her, saved her. I didn’t know if Chance wanted anyone else to know about his ability, so I kept it to myself. I figured he could tell who he wanted once I rescued him. That gave me some hope.
As we headed out of town, my mind turned from worry about Chance to worrying about Kayla and Erik and Lila. I was the only immortal one on our side. I was afraid that a large number of vampires would prove to be too much for a normal human to fight against. They were vampire hunters, though, and could probably hold their own better than me. But still, I would have felt better if we had some more power on our side.
It only took a second for my brain to make the connection. There was only one other person who could fight vampires with the same force and power that I could.
“We need to make one more stop,” I said, my nerves on edge.
“We don’t have time,” Kayla stammered, checking the clock on the dash. “We have less than half an hour till midnight.”
“Then drive faster. This won’t take long.”
“Where are we going?” Kayla sped up as she spoke, knowing that arguing would only waste time.
“Reinforcements.” I focused on the rapidly increasing snowfall outside my window, hoping we would make it to the old Caldon estate without having an accident or something. It was really coming down, coating everything in beautiful white.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Kayla said as she floored the gas and her mom’s Volvo sliced through the snow.
“Me too.”
We made it to Aldric’s house in less than five minutes. Kayla slowed the car and I jumped out and bounded up the steps of his porch with vampire speed. I was about to knock when the door flew open and Aldric was standing there, dressed in his usual stylish black with a panicked look on his face.
“Ava, what’s wrong?” His vampire hearing was obviously better trained than mine.
“It’s Chance,” I said, already heading back to the car. “He’s been taken. We have to go get him.” I didn’t wait for Aldric to protest as I opened the door to Kayla’s car. Surprisingly, he was climbing in the back at the same time.
“Who are you?” Kayla asked once she maneuvered the car back onto the highway.
“This is Aldric,” I answered.
“Aldric?” Kayla cut her eyes at me a few times before realizing who he was. “Ah,” she said. “Got it.” She kept her eyes glued to the road after that, but I caught her stealing glances in the rearview mirror every few seconds.
“What happened?” Aldric asked. Though he still spoke in his calm, poised fashion, I detected the tiniest bit of frantic worry lurking behind his words. I was actually surprised at what appeared to be genuine concern coming from him. I quickly filled him in on what went down at the dance.
“Sounds like Sebastian,” he said, staring ahead into the snowy night surrounding us. We had already left the city limits, the road now dark and ominous.
“Who’s Sebastian?” I asked, turning in my seat to look at him. His face held the tiniest hint of nervousness, which didn’t help my nerves at all.
“I was part of his coven years ago. I left because we had...a difference of opinion.”
“What was that?”
“He felt vampires should rule the world. I didn’t.” Hearing him say that gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe he wasn’t as evil as I thought.
“So what? Now he’s put some sort of human extinction plan into action? Starting with Chance’s mom?” I tried to hide the panic in my voice, but I definitely wasn’t prepared to go up against something that strong.
“What happened to Chance’s mother?” He asked.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “She’s dead.” I choked back my tears. “She was drained.” I could feel Kayla cringe in the seat beside me. She kept her hands locked on the wheel and her eyes on the road, but a sudden spike in how fast her blood was flowing revealed her unease.
“I don’t know what he has planned,” Aldric continued. “I think he just wants to stop you from killing vampires. But I’m sure it’s because you’re throwing a kink into whatever plan he does have. You’re in the way, so to speak. And he can’t have that.”
“Can we beat him?” I asked, afraid to hear his answer.
“I don’t know that, either,” Aldric said with honesty. “He’s very strong, and very lethal. And when he wants something, he always gets it.”
“Great. So now I have an entire army of vampires who hates me. My life just keeps getting better.” I turned forward in my seat, my brain shifting into hyper drive as it tried to process all that I was hearing.
We finally made it to the woods surrounding the abandoned house, careful to park far enough away so we wouldn’t be seen. Sebastian had told me to come. I didn’t want him or his coven knowing about my friends. I was glad to see Erik and Lila had already arrived, their twin frames strapped with stakes and crossbows and even some of those darts I knew all too well. Having someone ready to stand and fight and possibly even die to help me was overwhelming and inspiring. Even in the midst of the tragic night unfolding, I somehow managed a tiny smile.
“You okay?” Erik asked, his voice strong and loud in the quiet of the night.
“I will be, now that you guys are here.” I walked over to Kayla, who was busy pulling her own weapons from a bag in her trunk. “Are you ready for this?” I knew her answer before she even said it.
“I was born ready.” We both smiled grimly and joined the others. As our tiny group pushed through the thick of the woods, a sinking feeling of doom came over me. I couldn’t help but think that regardless of how big a coven of vampires we were about to walk into, some of us—if not all—wouldn’t make it out alive.
“Be on alert,” Aldric said to no one in particular. He was standing tall, and even though his eyes were focused on the clearing coming into view through the darkness and trees, I knew that somehow he was seeing everything going on around us. His
senses were spot on, and having him there made me more comfortable; not that I was super comfortable to begin with.
“Yeah,” Lila piped up. “Like I’m gonna take orders from a bloodsucking leech.” I could hear the sarcasm in her words, and even though we were about to fight the biggest battle any of us had ever faced—well, except maybe Aldric—I really wanted to walk over and punch her. But I thought it was probably a smart idea if the good guys weren’t discovered because they were fighting each other. So I bit my tongue and kept quiet. Apparently Kayla didn’t think like me.
“You could always walk out there blind and get your throat cut.” Kayla’s voice was barely a whisper, but Lila got her point. I expected Lila to start an argument given her overbearing personality, so I was surprised when she didn’t say anything back.
“Let’s just get on with it,” Erik added with aggravation.
“They started it,” Lila pouted.
“I don’t care,” Erik snapped back. “Just stop.” I could feel the tension between them, thick like the snow skirting our feet.
“Heads up.” Aldric stopped their useless banter with his stern voice. I focused on the clearing, which was clouded with a thick blanket of snow sweeping across the damp grass. The flakes were falling fast and heavy now, clouding our view worse than before. Even with vampire eyes, I could just barely make out the silhouette of two people crossing the open field. Of course, I knew they weren’t people—well, not living people, anyway. They were vampires, and I had no doubt they were the first of many.
“Kayla,” Aldric whispered. “You three go east, try to circle around and come in from the other side. Ava and I will move straight forward.”
“Shouldn’t one of us be with them?” I asked, worried about splitting up our human/vampire ratio.
“We’ll be fine,” Kayla answered. “We’ve done this before.” I knew she meant they had stalked/hunted/ killed vampires before, but I didn’t believe for a second she or Erik or Lila had ever taken down an entire coven at once. Not that I knew for sure that we were about to face a coven. That was the worst part, not knowing what we were up against.
“How many are there, Aldric?” I knew he couldn’t give me an exact answer, but somewhere in the ballpark would have been great.
“Not sure,” he said. “Sebastian’s coven was rather large when I left, so he could have brought along any number of members.” He spoke of the family of vampires like it was a country club or something, which really creeped me out. “But no coven travels in its entirety. There are always those who stay behind, just in case.”
“In case of what?”
“In case they run into someone like us.” I picked up on his optimism. He sounded confident we were going to prevail, and I prayed he was right. I didn’t say anything other than “be careful” as Kayla, Erik and Lila broke off from the group and disappeared into the darkness of the woods. I lost sight of them almost instantly through the snowfall, and after a few seconds, I couldn’t even hear them moving anymore.
“You aren’t sending them into a trap or anything, are you?” I kept my eyes locked on the vampires in the clearing as I spoke. Now that we were down to two—well, one and a half if we were counting vampire power—I didn’t want them to get the slip on us.
“Of course not,” Aldric said sharply. “I’m here to help you, Ava. Trust me.”
“Trust a vampire. Isn’t that like an oxymoron or something?” Aldric didn’t answer. I knew what I said was rude, so his silence didn’t surprise me. I wanted so desperately to trust him, to believe him when he said that he was on my side. But there was something about him that made me feel uneasy, and I couldn’t let that feeling go. Not yet, anyway.
“So what now?” I asked, changing the subject. I felt Aldric move up beside me, his arm brushing mine. The warmth and electricity I felt when Chance touched me wasn’t there, only cold, dead skin. I pulled my arm away, hoping I didn’t offend him.
“Now we have some fun,” Aldric said, unaffected by my revulsion to his touch. I looked away from the clearing and tried to focus on his face. After a few seconds, the dull moonlight helped my eyes adjust to the dark and his features slowly came into view; he was smiling.
“You have a warped idea of fun,” I muttered as he slowly and methodically crept to the very edge of the clearing. I reluctantly followed him, knowing that by moving away from the trees, we were giving up what little bit of cover we had. I was actually grateful for the snow, hoping it would help hide us. Aldric kept low to the ground, his body seemingly floating along the top of the snow. His feet disturbed the white, puffy blanket, revealing dirt and leaves below. I, unfortunately, wasn’t as graceful. I looked more like a sloth slurping along the ground searching for food.
“Wait a minute,” I whispered. Aldric stopped but didn’t turn around. “What if they see us?” I kept moving forward, slowly making my way up to where Aldric was crouched.
“We want them to see us,” Aldric said. “They’ll come this way, and then your friends can make their move.”
“What move? You said they were going to storm the clearing from the other side?” I was struggling to keep my voice low so the vampire guards wouldn’t hear me.
“No, I didn’t. I said they were going to try and come in from the other side. Meaning they were to try and get inside the house. That’s our ultimate goal here, Avaline.” I felt my anger at Aldric building inside, rising to an uncontrollable level. I hated that he had become a part of my life. I hated that he held some sort of power over me. And I hated that he was running the show. Chance was my friend—or whatever—and I was going to be the one calling the shots.
“Then let’s do this,” I said with fervor, abruptly standing up. Aldric shot up beside me, surprise littering his face. “And don’t call me Avaline again.” With that, I shot out into the clearing like a bullet, hell-bent on revenge.
2
5. IT BEGINS
I ran forward with all the strength my super-charged vampire body would give me. I made it less than ten feet before the vampires spotted me. One of them bolted in my direction, his speed matching mine. The clearing was massive in size, but we would be crashing into each other like two freight trains in seconds. As we both sped through the snow, it flew up around us, making the entire scene look like the inside of a gigantic snow globe. Of course, I couldn’t imagine a snow globe depicting two vampires attacking each other being a top seller. I watched as the other vampire sprung into the air and emitted a high-pitched sound that pierced my ears. He floated freely on the air before swooping down into a full sprint, headed directly for me. I felt a wave of panic rush over me, but I forced my mind to block it out. I didn’t have time to panic. I didn’t have time to do anything other than run—and attack. I quickly made the decision to go for the vampire who had charged me first. Hopefully I could subdue him before the second one crossed the fifty yards between us and got me.
My eyes were locked on the fast-approaching vampire. He was only a few yards away, and I could clearly see his fangs practically glowing in the moonlit sky. As he drew closer, the rage within me built up, coursing through my veins and fueling my speed. Somehow my body went even faster, and before I had time to think, the two of us collided. The impact jolted my body, every cell shaking violently. The pain was so intense. It felt like I had been shot by a thousand guns. I let it fly through me, and I fought back with fierce determination. I tried to ignore the paralyzing pain by filling my mind with images of Chance: the first time I saw him; the first time he touched me; our perfect first kiss. I couldn’t let him die a viscous, horrible death. I wouldn’t be able to live if something happened to him. I couldn’t live without him. Even if I had to die so he wouldn’t, I was ready.
The vampire was grasping frantically at my arms, trying to pin them against my body. His fangs were exposed, and he kept pushing his head forward, trying to sink them into my neck. I kept my arms moving, constantly changing defense positions to avoid his grip. I was trying to reach the stake I
had strapped to my back—courtesy of Lila, surprisingly—before the other vampire reached us. I knew that I was strong, and extremely determined, but I didn’t think I could tackle two at once. But I couldn’t reach the stake; the vampire was too strong. I couldn’t break free long enough to snag it. All I could do was fend off his advances.
I looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the other vampire fast approaching. It was a female, her long black hair pulled tightly behind her. She seemed about my height and weight, which would hopefully work to my advantage. She was dressed all in black, but I could see that she was holding something. My eyes zeroed in on her hands, which were fumbling with a weird, metal object. I couldn’t make out what it was at that distance, but I knew it was some sort of weapon; she was too focused on it for it not to be.
That overpowering thread of panic returned, this time too strong for me to ignore. I was in trouble, and I needed to think quickly before my fight ended right then. As if things couldn’t get worse, I saw three more vampires break through the tree line at the far left side of the clearing, running full speed in my direction, snow flying all around them. Five at once? No way could I win.
This is where I die. Right now, alone and fighting.
I guess if it was time to die, there was no better way than fighting for someone you cared for. At least, that’s what I was telling myself as my impending death swiftly approached. I ignored the three vampires crossing the clearing, keeping my mind focused on the vampire fighting me and the one fast on his heels. I knew I could take at least one of them down before they killed me.
Having totally forgotten about Aldric, I was caught off guard when he flew past me toward the trio of approaching vampires. He could definitely take all three of them on with no problem, which left me to deal with the two in front of me. Not my ideal course of action, but I understood his reasoning. And having to fight only two was definitely better than five.
Time seemed to slow down at that moment. I watched the girl vampire lift the object in her hands and point it in my direction. I was still grappling with the guy vampire as he tried to lunge for my neck, but she was close enough for me to clearly see that she was holding a crossbow, much like the one Chance had used on me, loaded and ready to fire. I only had a split-second to do something or I would be wearing a tiny arrow as a headband. I saw the rage in the guy’s face; I saw the determination in the girl’s. They both wanted to kill me, that I knew for certain. What I also knew was that I wasn’t going to let them both live. One of them would die at my hands before I was done.
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