Rain belted against the back of Elizabeth’s head, as hard as if someone were flicking stones at her. They’d only left the motel room for a matter of seconds, but the rain had already soaked her through again. One of Conner’s big hands encircled both of her wrists, pulling them behind her back, wrenching her shoulders back. Her right shoulder already hurt from her fall, and the position was doing the injury no good at all. Tears welled in her eyes as he propelled her across the parking lot, toward a car, a different one from the one she had traveled in before—a big black Lincoln. Ryan and Orla came with him, while the other two took the original car she’d been driven in.
She hoped someone would notice this scene of a big guy manhandling a young girl across the lot, but with the terrible storm raging around them, people were staying away from the windows. She even hoped for the one thing she’d been trying to prevent—the overwhelming sense of her vampire side taking over, so she could use her strength and break away from them and run. Hell, right now, she’d even willingly bite him if she thought it would get her out of this situation she’d so thoughtlessly put herself in.
But, like everything else in her life, nothing seemed to happen at the most convenient time and she remained just a scared and wet girl.
They approached the car and Conner reached out with his spare hand and yanked the back door open. Immediately, the wind caught the door and wrenched it out of his grip, slamming it shut. He swore under his breath and then exclaimed in annoyance, “Ryan, get over here and help me.”
He pulled the door open again and Ryan braced it. She stared at him, but he wouldn’t meet her eye.
Suddenly, the world seemed to shrink at the edges, as though her vision was compromised.
Oh, no. What’s happening?
She staggered in Conner’s grip, but realized she no longer felt his hand wrapped tight around her wrists. The pain in her shoulder had gone. The driving wind and rain had also melted away. She still stood in the parking lot, but felt distanced from it somehow, as though she now stood on a level where she was unable to interact with reality.
In the distance came movement. From out of the darkness walked a woman, her white-blonde hair flowing around her shoulders and down her back like spun silver. She moved with a determined walk, her chin held high, her features, though disguised by night, serious.
A flutter of recognition stirred in Elizabeth’s heart. She didn’t know what was happening, but she did know this woman, she had no doubt.
The stunning blonde reached her and stopped only a couple of feet away.
“Hello, Elizabeth. Do you remember me?”
Elizabeth nodded, the flicker of recognition swelling and bursting inside her, flooding her with relief. “Iona! You’re so grown up.”
The young woman smiled. “So are you. Your parents are worried about you, Elizabeth. They’re trying to find you.”
Suddenly, she thought she would cry, her eyes burning with tears, a painful lump in her throat. But she didn’t want to cry in front of Iona. She didn’t want to act like a child.
“I want them to find me too!” she blurted. “I tried to send them a message, but my phone beeped and I was in the bathroom of a motel, and they heard me and took my phone. Conner smashed it on the floor and threw me across the room.” She lost control of her tears and they spilled from her eyes and streamed down her face. “You can tell my parents where I am now, but Conner is moving me because he thinks I’ve already told someone about the motel.”
“But where are you, Elizabeth?”
She turned her head, taking in the still flickering and broken neon sign of the motel. “What do you mean? I’m right here.”
“I can’t see where you are. All I can see is you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry, you don’t need to understand. Do you know the name of the motel where they took you?”
Elizabeth nodded and reeled off the name.
“Good,” she smiled. “That’s good. We’re coming to get you, Elizabeth. Do everything you can to try to stop them taking you too far away. Okay? We’re coming, I promise …”
Elizabeth opened her eyes to find herself sitting in the back of the car with someone shaking her knee. From the steady hum of the engine, to the motion of the vehicle, she realized they were on the move. She had no memory of getting in the car or Conner pulling out of the parking lot and away from the motel. Had she been away so long? And if she’d been away, where exactly had she been?
She blinked and turned slightly to find Ryan next to her, his hand on her leg, his brow furrowed in concern.
“Hey. Hey, Elizabeth. Are you okay?”
She gave her head a slight shake, her mind spinning at the sudden change in location. She didn’t recognize the street they drove down, though she prayed they were still in Los Angeles. The buildings on either side of her were all large and industrial and, with the exception of a few sheets of corrugated iron which flapped dangerously in the wind, they seemed to have withstood the worst of the storm so far. The palm trees which so commonly lined the streets of Los Angeles were absent here, and fresh terror burst inside her at the sudden certainty that they’d already reached a different city. If they took her to a place she didn’t know, how would she ever be able to tell her parents or Iona her location?
How was I so stupid as to trust these people? What the hell was I thinking?
But she knew her reasons, and they started with the boy sitting beside her. She’d wanted so desperately to have someone she could confide in, someone who understood her. She’d wanted a friend she didn’t have to constantly feel like she kept such huge secrets from. No matter how close she was—or had been—to Emily and Jasmine, her knowledge of the paranormal world, a world they were so unaware of, would forever act like a wall between them.
Elizabeth caught sight of a sign for the Santa Monica Highway and sighed in relief. At least she was still in the city. Movement, seemingly unrelated to the storm, caught her eye. Something black was moving at a run along the side of the car. An animal? It seemed to be keeping pace with the vehicle, though she guessed they weren’t going particularly fast, due to the constant wind and rain. Even so, the presence of the creature was strange. She’d expect an animal—it looked to be the size of a dog or fox—to want to seek shelter during these conditions. She leaned in closer to the passenger window, cupping her hands around her face and pressing them to the glass to try to get a better look.
What is that thing?
“Are you okay?” Ryan asked again, keeping his voice low.
She tore her eyes from the window and glared at him.
“What’s going on back there?” Conner demanded.
“Nothing to worry about, Dad,” Ryan called back. He lowered his voice again and leaned in closer to her. “I’m serious. You looked kind of weird just then.”
“I’m fine,” she hissed at him. She realized his hand still rested on her knee and jerked her leg away. “What do you care anyway?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to all end up like this. I didn’t know …” His eyes flicked back to the front of the car, where his father was driving and Orla sat in the passenger seat. They were both concentrating on the road, the treacherous conditions commanding their attention. The constant drum of the rain on the metal roof helped to drown out their voices.
“I trusted you! I thought you were like me?”
The corners of his mouth turned down. “I’m nothing like you.”
She frowned. “What do you mean? Look at you? The strange eyes, the pale skin, the scars you showed me?”
“It’s a simple masking spell,” he told her. “The same spell kept you from learning about me.”
What he said was true. She’d touched Ryan a number of times now, yet she’d picked up nothing about him. Normally, she’d get at least a couple of flashes, even if it wasn’t anything interesting, yet, with him, there’d been nothing. If she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her hopes about him being l
ike her, she probably would have noticed sooner.
“A spell?” she echoed.
He nodded. “Watch.”
He lifted his hand and flattened it, palm toward him, and drew his hand slowly down over his face.
She gasped in surprise. Gone were the pale blue eyes and white skin. Replacing them were eyes the same color as his father’s—a blue-gray—and a more normal, freckled complexion. With his red hair, his new coloring suited him. If she hadn’t been so stunned, she would even have thought he was cute.
“Just a trick,” he said with an apologetic shrug. “A way to get you to trust me.”
She grabbed his wrists and pulled up his sleeves. Where previously there had been faint but visible twisted white lines, now she only saw smooth skin.
The trick had worked.
“Ugh!” She pushed his arms away in disgust.
His betrayal settled in her gut like something rotten. She’d thought she’d finally found someone she could relate to, someone who understood her life, even if his family and friends were up to no good.
She thought of something else, her whole sense of self spinning in her confusion. “But you described my change and exactly how I felt.”
“It wasn’t hard to figure out.” He shifted in the seat and she sensed at least the deception was making him uncomfortable. “We just wondered what it must be like to start turning into a bloodsucker and made the rest up from there.”
She scowled at him and lowered her voice to a hiss. “You’re not going to get away with whatever messed up thing your dad and his friends are planning.”
He shrugged. “Look around you. It’s already happening.”
“What do you …?” Elizabeth frowned and looked out of the passenger window. Where the creature had been running, now a wave of darkness rushed alongside them, like liquid shadows. She might have put the shadows down to a trick of the light caused by the street lamps and the rain, but there was something strange about them, as if they were too solid. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, thinking she’d dispel the weird effect, but the shapes had only taken on more definition.
More dogs? A whole pack of them?
She could make out what seemed to be arms and legs, like small creatures running alongside them, too many to count. And then one of them turned its face toward her, locked its blood red, hate-filled eyes on hers and opened a mouth full of needle-like teeth in a snarl.
Elizabeth let out a shriek and backed away from the window, inadvertently colliding with Ryan’s legs. His hand closed over hers, but she snatched it away.
However strange the night was becoming, she refused to take any comfort from the boy who had betrayed her.
Chapter Sixteen
With her heart in her throat, Serenity watched Iona’s eyes flicker open.
For the past fifteen minutes, it had felt like the young woman didn’t even exist in the room. Though they could see her clearly, kneeling in the middle of the living room floor, it had been like watching an inanimate object, or even, God-forbid, a corpse. As soon as Iona had stopped muttering words that Serenity had been unable to understand, she’d fallen completely still and silent. The atmosphere in the room had changed, a tensing of the air molecules around them. Even the two vampires had sensed the change, both falling as motionless as Iona, and Serenity had to shake off the feeling she was surrounded by stone statues.
The minutes had stretched on, time impossibly extended, until Serenity wondered if she’d fallen into whatever state Iona had entered and now waited in a place where time didn’t change.
Iona gasped and fell forward, her hands on the floor to halt her fall, her hair hanging around her face like a silken sheet of silver.
Serenity hesitated. Her first instinct was to go forward and check she was all right, while the other part of her didn’t want to interrupt whatever process the young sorceress was going through.
But now the sorceress had come back to them, Serenity suddenly became aware of time ticking away, dawn fast approaching. With it would bring Elizabeth’s murder, a possibility Serenity couldn’t let herself think about too hard for fear of fracturing into a thousand shards of pain.
Sebastian made the first move. In a blur of movement, he crouched in front of Iona. He reached out and touched her shoulder. “Iona? Did you see her?”
She lifted her head and nodded. “She was at the Happy Stay Motel on the outskirts of downtown.”
“Was?” he said. “What do you mean, was?”
“They’ve taken her in a car. She doesn’t know where they’re headed.”
Sebastian sprang to his feet and turned to Vincent. “Are you coming?”
The younger vampire squared his shoulders. “Of course.”
A wave of indignant anger rolled over Serenity. “Don’t think for a minute that I’m not coming with you.”
Sebastian turned to her, his green eyes fierce. “You need to stay inside. This storm is only going to get worse, never mind what Conner and his lot might do to you. Besides, you’ll only slow us down.”
“You can carry me,” she said, resolutely. “I’m not going to hang around here while my daughter is in danger.”
Iona got to her feet. “You might need me too. If they use magic on you, you will need my defenses.”
Serenity put her hands on her hips. “And if one of you needs to carry Iona, then the other one might as well carry me.”
The two determined women stood facing off the two vampires.
Sebastian’s shoulders slumped. “Okay, but we need to move now. Every second we’re standing here is another second they’re taking Elizabeth farther from us.”
Iona stepped toward Vincent. “I never thought I’d be doing this again,” she said to the big vampire.
“You and me both,” said Vincent, cocking an eyebrow. He reached out and scooped the young sorceress up against him. With Iona’s wide blue eyes and silver-blonde hair, and his huge bulk and fierce appearance, they made a striking pair. Nevertheless, Serenity didn’t miss the tight-lipped look he gave her and Sebastian as she stepped into his arms.
Sebastian lowered his forehead to hers, looking deep into her eyes. “Are you ready?”
She forced a smile, though her heart hurt in bittersweet agony. How good it was to be held against him again, to be gifted with his strength and endless love for her. Her heart ached and she could barely imagine how she had gone for so long without having his arms around her once again. It dawned on her that she never felt safer than when she was in his arms. Even if the situation should leave her terrified, something about his presence made her draw strength from him.
The part of her that always seemed to be searching for something to complete her had finally grown full. She’d always been so terrified of being forced to need a man again, of becoming trapped in a relationship like she’d been in her past. But she’d proven she could be on her own, that she didn’t need to rely on someone else to survive. Now she understood that she no longer had to need someone, instead he was simply what she wanted.
She nodded against him. “Let’s go get our baby back.”
They stepped out into the night, Vincent and Iona close behind. The moment they moved from the protective shelter of the big house, the wind snatched the air from her lungs. It tore her hair from her face, the rain seeming to drive horizontally, lashing her skin.
Sebastian must have sensed her discomfort, for he reached up with the hand that wasn’t holding her and pressed her face down against his shoulder, sheltering her as though she were a child. For once, she didn’t object, relieved to have some respite from the horrendous conditions.
He set off at a run, heading through the suburbs to get onto the freeway and downtown toward where Elizabeth had last been able to give a description of her location. Serenity kept her face buried, hoping they would reach Elizabeth before the people who’d taken her would be able to move her too far.
But within only a minute, Sebastian slowed to a human walk and she lifted
her head to gaze up at him. “What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Look.”
At his bequest, she turned her face toward the street and gasped. She didn’t want to believe the scene before her. Had they stumbled onto the set of a horror movie? But no, she knew this was real. She’d seen the cause of this chaos before.
They stood in a modest street, white painted, two-story houses with simple yards. The storm had created the expected damage, tiles torn from roofs and shattered on the sidewalk, large branches torn from trees. At the end of the street, a traffic light hung at an angle, the lights—red, amber and green—flickering in no distinct order. Rainwater poured from the roofs of houses, the guttering unable to cope with the deluge. Drains bubbled over with mud and silt. The water flowed down the street, flooding over their feet, soaking through their shoes and reaching ankle height.
But it wasn’t any of these things that had caught Sebastian’s attention, Serenity realized. Where the streets had been deserted an hour or so earlier, now people ran around the ravaged neighborhood. A woman, her soaked nightgown plastered to her body so it looked like a second layer of skin, ran from her yard. Close behind her, moving silently and smoothly across the ground like a ghost, was one of the tall humanoid demons Serenity had seen in Dominion. The woman, frantic with fear, glanced back over her shoulder and saw the thing still coming. She let out a shriek and continued to run, though she had to fight against the wind and rain to get away. Across the street, an elderly man burst from his home, three of the smaller primate-like demons attached to his arms and shoulders. The man ran out screaming in a pitch a man his age should never have been able to produce, staring at the horrors attached to his limbs as though he was on fire. A teenage boy sat huddled against the side of a car, trying to find shelter while more of the smaller demons surrounded him, staring him down with their blood red eyes, hissing and flashing their maws of needle-sharp teeth.
Serenity stared around, her eyes wide in dismay. “Oh, my God.”
Vincent and Iona appeared beside them, the same expressions of fear and disbelief on their faces as they surveyed the scene before them. Rain drummed against their skin, the wind snatching their voices as they spoke.
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