There was a stalled second during which Lanie found herself looking directly into the gleaming red eyes of Frederik, the monster who had killed her friends, her aunt, who had hurt her father, and something inside her, something cold and repugnant, had her finger squeezing the trigger of her handgun.
The next few seconds were nothing more than a blur of motion and deafening sound and Lanie could barely keep up with any of it. Guns were firing, bullets were striking Frederik and Chase, sending them both stumbling backwards, and suddenly Heath was falling onto the ground, a gleaming shard protruding from his chest. The flash of several more seconds passed with more gunfire and then Chase, jerking backward from the impact of the bullets striking him, spun around and was gone, fleeing into the night. Another second fell away and Frederik was struck by a gleaming shard dead center of the chest, followed by the simultaneous blast from the two canisters of blessed water. There was an outraged roar, a burst of thick smoke as Frederik’s skin was burned and then he was gone, melting away into the darkness.
The instant Frederik disappeared, Kyle holstered his crossbow and grabbed hold of both Lanie and Johnna, who tossed their handguns aside but kept hold of their canisters, rushing them from the living room and out through the foyer. Lanie hadn’t wanted Johnna to come with them, but it wasn’t safe to leave her in a house that was half torn down, so the girl had to come. With her heart thumping wildly and her ears ringing loudly, Lanie was raced out into the chill darkness, down the front steps, and straight over to her car sitting in the driveway.
She and Johnna both jumped in, fastening their seatbelts even as Kyle was revving the engine and slamming the car into gear. He hit the gas and backed out of the driveway, whipping the car around and sending them peeling out down the street with the screech of burning rubber.
A little piece of Lanie clearly remembered promising her aunt that she wouldn’t run off with Kyle Vincent, and here she was doing exactly that. Of course, her aunt didn’t much have a voice to speak against it now.
They made it to the end of Rosetree Lane and took the corner on what felt like two wheels, hitting the next street full throttle and barreling down it, blowing through stop signs like they weren’t even there, with Lanie clutching her seat and praying that no one was coming at them head on. She’d hate to have gotten this far only to die in a fiery crash.
“Where are we going?” Johnna asked from the backseat, sounding tight and strained.
“Away,” Kyle answered, taking another corner so sharply Lanie thought the Bug would flip over.
Somehow it didn’t and Lanie found herself glancing behind them, expecting to see Frederik chasing after the car. But, she saw only darkness. She couldn’t allow herself to feel relief, though. The car would have to come to a stop sometime, or at least slow down, and then what? Would Frederik come swooping out of the darkness and tear her from the vehicle? That was sort of what she figured because she honestly didn’t believe he wouldn’t simply let them drive out of town.
“Will-will everyone be safe now?” Lanie asked quietly, bracing herself as they careened around another corner.
“He’ll follow you,” Kyle assured her, his expression set in a hard grimace.
They blasted through a few more stop signs and took another corner on two wheels and Lanie realized they were flying down Aster Street, heading toward Fells Pointe Cemetery, the place her mother was buried, the place she’d never get to see again unless they could kill Frederik.
The silence and tension in the car was thick as they sped down the darkened stretch and Lanie found herself wishing she had called her dad to tell him what they were planning. He would be so worried when she didn’t make it to the Town Hall to meet him. She would have to call him later, if she had the chance.
From behind Lanie, Johnna let out a sharp gasp, bringing her out of her thoughts and the first thing her gaze landed on was the shape just up the street, just out of reach of the headlights. Lanie let out a gasp of her own as she realized what that shape was, but Kyle didn’t even let off the gas. He headed straight at the shape full throttle and Lanie tried to scream…but then the shape was gone, vanished a second before they could smash into it.
“Dammit! They’ve found us already!” Kyle gritted out, putting the gas pedal to the floor.
“It’s okay! We can outrun them!” Johnna declared in a slightly hysterical tone.
“We can once we hit the highway, but if we have to slow down, they’ll have us!” Kyle said roughly.
They weren’t going to make it to the highway. Lanie suddenly knew that. The highway was too far, they were still blocks and blocks away from there. There was no way they wouldn’t have to slow down!
“Kyle, we aren’t going to make it!” she breathed, that cold realization clawing at her.
“We’ll make it!” Kyle told her through his teeth. “He’s not getting his hands on you, Lanie!”
“The highway is too far away!” Lanie told him. “I don’t want Johnna to die like this!”
“We aren’t going to die!” Johnna hissed at her. “We’ve gotten this far!”
“But, it’s not far enough!” Lanie argued. “We have to figure out something else!”
They weren’t going to make it! All they had done was make themselves a moving target! They hadn’t really bettered their circumstances at all!
As that thought crossed her mind a blast of sound filled the car as something landed on the roof with all the force of a boulder. Kyle swerved from the impact, desperately trying to right the car as it careened across the road and then banked a hard left, but it was useless. Lanie and Johnna both screamed as the Bug slammed into the wrought iron fence surrounding the Fells Pointe Cemetery.
The breath suddenly surged back into Lanie’s lungs and the next instant she was opening her eyes to find the car filled with smoke and a deflated airbag covering her lap.
Numb and dazed, Lanie glanced to her left, finding the driver’s seat empty and the door open. Through the door, out in the darkness, she saw Kyle on the ground, battling with a dark shape she recognized immediately as Frederik. Terror seized Lanie and she cast a glance into the backseat, seeing Johnna desperately struggling to get her seatbelt off.
Oh God! Frederik was going to kill Johnna!
Lanie flung her own seatbelt off and fought with her own door for a second, but it wouldn’t open, so she scrambled across the seat, through the haze of smoke, and out the driver’s side door. Once she hit the ground, she didn’t hesitate. She took off at a dead run, away from the car and Johnna, down the street that was deserted, her footsteps echoing through the darkness and the sound of Johnna screaming after her filling her ears.
She had to get away from Johnna! Frederik wanted her and she hoped and prayed that he would overlook her friend and come after her!
The sound of fast footsteps pounding the pavement behind her sent terror along Lanie’s spine and a jolt of adrenaline surging through her. Desperation swelled in her chest and she shot forward, but the footsteps were already right behind her. A heavy weight hit her hard from behind and she pitched forward with a shriek, but never felt her body hit the pavement…
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
The strange noise invaded Lanie’s mind even before she was awake. It took her a while to try and place what it was. She almost couldn’t. It was familiar, yet so loud and insistent she thought she must wrong. But, after floating in the darkness and listening to the sound for a good while, she knew that she wasn’t wrong after all.
It was the sound of…a heartbeat.
Loud and fast and slightly irregular, and so close she thought it was her own heartbeat…only it wasn’t. She didn’t think her heart could possibly be beating that fast. She would have been able to feel it thumping against her ribcage.
No. That heartbeat did not belong to her.
Curious, Lanie struggled to pull herself out of the sleep she was in, struggled to open her eyes, which seemed heavier than they should have been. That sound became more i
nsistent, faster it seemed the more she tried to wake herself.
It took a vast amount of effort, but Lanie finally managed to get her eyelids to flutter open. But, there was a blinding assault of light that pierced right through her skull, forcing her to shut them tight again. She waited a long minute before trying again and then slowly, she opened her eyes, bracing herself against the assault. After several painful moments, her eyes finally adjusted and she found herself looking up at…a ceiling and an overhead light fixture dripping with dangling crystals. She’d never seen that light fixture before.
Confused, Lanie turned her head, a part of her expecting to see the familiar surroundings of her bedroom, but instead she found herself looking at a dark red wall hung with large floral paintings and an old fashioned dresser with an ornately carved oval mirror. Lanie’s mind tried to place the things she was seeing, but she couldn’t. She didn’t think she’d ever been in this room before.
How strange.
“She’s awake,” a soft, delicate voice suddenly sounded out.
Lanie couldn’t remember hearing that voice before, either, but she turned her head in that direction, her gaze falling on what she thought had to be the most beautiful person she’d ever seen. The girl, such a young looking girl, had long golden-blonde hair, pale porcelain skin, fine bones, and enormous green eyes that were twinkling like stars.
Standing next to the girl was someone that Lanie did recognize, though, and seeing that tall man with the white-blonde hair and handsome, chiseled features sent a shard of fear spiking through her.
Frederik!
The instant after her gaze landed on that pale, familiar face, everything came crashing back in on Lanie with the force of a tidal wave. Frederik tearing at the side of her house, she and Johnna and Kyle racing through the darkened streets, the car crashing in front of the cemetery, her climbing out of the car and running away, hoping Frederik would follow her and leave Johnna alone…
With a gasp, Lanie sat bolt upright, terror and panic racing through her veins as her body braced itself to see Frederik come flying at her. Instead, it was the beautiful girl who rushed forward and quickly took hold of Lanie’s shoulders, sitting down next to her on…the bed. The bed? Yes, they were sitting on a bed that was covered with crumpled silk sheets.
The girl tightened her slender hands on Lanie, preventing her from bolting up off those sheets. “It’s alright, Lanie,” she said in that delicate voice. “No one is going to hurt you. You’re safe now.”
Safe! How was she safe when Frederik was standing right there! Didn’t this girl know what was happening! Didn’t she know what Frederik was!
“Don’t be scared. I promise you’re going to be just fine,” the beautiful girl assured her.
Lanie’s mind was screaming at her to shove the girl’s hands off her and at least try to run, try to save herself instead of sitting there just waiting for Frederik to sink his teeth into her, but her body refused to obey. Hearing the girl’s voice, looking into her sparkling green eyes, did something strange to her insides. She could feel a ribbon of calm snaking through her belly and wrapping around her limbs. This beautiful girl wasn’t afraid. Maybe she didn’t have to be either. Maybe the girl knew how to help her.
“Everything’s alright,” the girl said to her, her beautiful face holding not a single hint of fear or worry. “You’re just a bit confused right now, but you’ll understand things soon.”
Yes. She would understand things soon. Maybe she could understand them now if the sound of that rapid heartbeat still filling her ears would just stop long enough for her to think. Where on earth was it coming from!
“Frederik, bring her here,” the girl said to Frederik, who instantly strode across the room.
Her? Bring her here? Fear again gripped Lanie. What if Frederik had Johnna! What if he had…done something horrid to her!
But, it wasn’t Johnna who came into Lanie’s line of vision. It was Chase Wylie. And he was dragging a young girl along with him. Through the surge of fear and confusion, Lanie recognized the girl as Hayley Strong, a freshman from school. The girl was as white as a sheet and the look on her face made Lanie’s stomach turn.
Hayley Strong was scared to death. She was so scared, her heartbeat was going a mile a minute.
And then it dawned on her that she was hearing Hayley’s heartbeat.
Immediately, she forced her mind to block it out. She didn’t want to hear it anymore! She wouldn’t let herself hear it anymore!
In a sort of numb state, Lanie watched as Frederik and Chase Wylie drug the girl, who was sobbing quietly, over to stand by the bed. Lanie couldn’t take her eyes off Chase. He was ashen and gaunt, with his ruby red eyes pinned on the girl he was holding, his lips curling back over his teeth as he stared at her.
“Thank you, boy,” the beautiful girl said to Chase, waving him away. “You can leave now.”
Chase hesitated for a brief second, keeping his gaze glued to Hayley, which seemed to annoy Frederik. He made an aggravated noise in his throat and shot out a hand, giving Chase a hard shove away from Hayley. In a blink, Chase was out of the room and the door was slamming behind him.
“Frederik, go ahead,” the girl said sweetly, giving Lanie’s shoulders a little squeeze.
Lanie went cold as she watched Frederik snatch up Hayley’s arm, bring it up to his mouth, and sink his sharp teeth into it. Hayley’s large brown eyes filled with something that was horrendous to see, but she didn’t even flinch. She just stood stock still, an occasional sob escaping her, not even trying to get away.
Frederik pulled the arm away from his mouth and Lanie watched as a curtain of crimson blood fell from the wound he’d created, hitting the floor with a patter that mimicked soft raindrops.
Something struck Lanie in the face as that ruby liquid spilled down to the floor. Some scent…was it a scent…yes, it was a scent…or was it a taste…that she couldn’t put a name to, but one that brought water to her mouth. She could not place that scent, but it was thick and velvety and had her trying to remember the last time she’d…eaten anything?
Confused, she glanced around the room, looking for whatever it was creating that smell that seemed to hit every single one of her taste buds all at the same time. But, there was no food anywhere in the bedroom. How strange. If there was no food, then what smelled so…wonderful?
“It’s her that you want, Lanie,” the girl said in her ear and Lanie turned her attention back to Hayley Strong.
Her gaze fell on the little river of crimson still sliding from the wound on her wrist. It looked like a satin ribbon winding down.
“That’s what you want, Lanie,” the girl whispered in her ear again. “Go on. Go and take a taste.”
Those words sent something through Lanie that stiffened her spine and sent fear shooting along her nerve endings. Go and take a taste?
Go and…take a taste?
Lanie looked back at the girl holding her, not wanting…not willing…to believe it. She wouldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it…
“Don’t be afraid, Lanie. You’re with me now. You’re my sister. I’m going to teach you everything you need to know,” she said softly.
“She needs to feed, Allison,” Frederik said in a voice that was far kinder than Lanie would have ever thought possible.
Lanie glanced over to Frederik and Hayley, her eyes fixing on that crimson ribbon still spilling down, feeling her mouth begin to water again. And her soul seemed to shrivel inside her.
Frederik had done it.
Frederik had taken her and…made her like him.
Frederik had made her…a vampire.
So many thoughts began swirling through her mind that she couldn’t keep up with them. Thoughts of her dad, her friends, her life…but another, more prevalent thought, kept all the others in the background. It was the thought of what that crimson liquid might taste like if she dipped her tongue into it.
“It’s alright, Lanie. This is what you need to do right now.
Don’t feel bad about it. She won’t feel a thing,” Allison told her.
Lanie wanted to believe Allison. Allison wouldn’t lie to her.
“Go on. If you don’t feed you’ll die, Lanie. You don’t want to die, do you?” Allison asked her.
No. She didn’t want to die. She’d tried her very best to keep herself from dying…but, it had happened anyway.
Lanie wanted to tell Allison that she’d rather be dead than have to live like Frederik. She didn’t want to be a monster that killed innocent girls and drained the life out of them. But, the scent of that velvety, crimson liquid pattering to the floor seemed to take the will to speak right out of her. And then Allison let go of her shoulders…and the room went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Lanie opened her eyes and sat bolt upright, terror slicing through her like a sharp knife. With a start, she glanced around her, her gaze instantly falling on the man standing by the window, his arms folded, his piercing blue eyes locked on her.
Frederik.
“You needn’t fear me now, girl,” he said in an easy tone, dropping his arms and walking across the room to sit next to her on the bed.
Of course she needn’t fear him. She was like him! She was…a sudden thought hit her and she gasped again, wildly glancing around the room for Hayley Strong, but the girl was nowhere in sight.
“Allison and the boy are disposing of the leftovers,” Frederik told her.
Lanie stared at Frederik, feeling sick and cold. Leftovers? “I-I…I didn’t…I-I killed her?” she croaked out, scooting away from him.
She didn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it! She wasn’t a monster!
“You fed. It’s what you’re supposed to do,” he told her with a patient tone. “And you don’t have to be scared of me now. The worst is done. Everything after this is easy.”
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