She stood and then bent to retrieve her clothes from the floor. A smile played on her lips as she pulled her jeans and tee back on, remembering how they’d ended up on the floor in the first place. Whatever happened, she’d never grow tired of Sebastian touching her in such a way. The memory took her breath away and made her heart skip a beat.
A pang of need gripped her, a desire to have him with her right there and then. She didn’t want to spend another minute without him by her side and being forced to wait for nightfall was frustrating.
Pushing her thoughts to one side, she left the room and padded down the hall to Elizabeth’s bedroom. The door stood slightly ajar, so she pushed it open and poked her head around the corner.
Serenity frowned. The bed was empty, the sheets ruffled. She crossed the room. Elizabeth’s comforter still lay half tucked beneath her pillow and her favorite bear was on the floor. She picked up the toy and held the soft fur against her chest.
“Elizabeth?”
Serenity made her way to the adjoining bathroom. The small space was empty. Her breath caught and her heart started to race. She was probably just being paranoid. Elizabeth had probably woken up ages ago and was downstairs, eating breakfast and watching television.
Her eyes flicked to the clock hung on Elizabeth’s wall. Only eight-fifteen—not as late as she’d assumed. If Elizabeth was up, she’d not have been up for long.
With her free hand, she reached out and ran her hand across the mattress. The whole thing was cool; she couldn’t find a single spot that remained warm from her daughter’s body.
The teddy fell from her arms, landing face-down on the floor.
Serenity spun around and raced from the room, trying stem the panic now rising from her core.
Please don’t let it be Demitri… please don’t let him have taken her.
She raced down the hall to the top of the huge staircase.
“Elizabeth,” she called again, this time loudly, not caring if she disturbed Sebastian. If such a thing was even possible. “Elizabeth? Where are you?”
She received no answer. The house remained painfully silent.
“Elizabeth!” she yelled, tears burning the backs of her eyes like fire. “Please answer me!”
She almost stumbled down the stairs in her haste. The television screen was black. No breakfast bowls or milk sat on the counter. No cereal packets spilled on the surface.
“Oh, no, no, no.” Her words came out as a moan.
A click from the front door made her jump, her heart lurching in her throat. She spun around to see Bridget walking in and she almost hit herself on the head for her stupidity. Of course, Bridget had taken Elizabeth out. She must have arrived earlier and decided to let Serenity sleep so took Elizabeth out to keep the noise down.
She let out a sigh of relief, her shoulders sagging.
But Bridget walked in and closed the door behind her. There was no sign of her daughter.
“Please tell me you know where Elizabeth is.” Serenity couldn’t help the begging tone in her voice.
At first Bridget’s face crumpled in a frown, but she must have seen the panic in Serenity face for her eyes widened in alarm. “No. I’ve not seen her since last night. Why, what’s happened?”
“Oh God.” Her hands clamped to her mouth. “I can’t find her. She’s not anywhere and her bed is cold, like she’s been gone awhile. For a moment I thought she was with you…”
Realization dawned on the older woman. “It’s the other vampire, isn’t it? The one Sebastian took you to see.”
Serenity nodded, hot tears finally rolling down her face. “He said he wanted Elizabeth as payment for making me well again.”
“What?!” she said, shocked. “And Sebastian agreed?”
She shook her head. “No, but it was too late. Demitri had already told Sebastian how to get my memory back. He said he wouldn’t come for her right away, that he’d give us some time back together as a family.”
“How heartwarming. And now the son-of-a-bitch has plucked a defenseless little girl out of her bed in the middle of the night.” She thought of something. “How come Sebastian didn’t hear him? Surely he should sense another vampire in the house?”
Serenity remembered what they were doing the previous night and heat rose to her cheeks. “Demitri is so much older,” she said in a rush. “Perhaps he’s quieter than Sebastian.”
She felt sick. To think they’d been doing that while their daughter was being abducted in the next room.
Bridget pressed her lips together and shook her head. “Damn Sebastian! I told him something like this would happen. He should know by now to listen to Elizabeth’s dreams. When are vampires going to learn that being immortal does not make you omnipotent? In some ways, I think male vampires are no different than any other man.”
Serenity felt a rush of protective love toward Sebastian, despite her anger at them both for not protecting Elizabeth better. She folded her arms across her chest.
“This isn’t his fault, Bridget. He only wanted to make me better again. He couldn’t have predicted this was going to happen.”
“Yes, he could, Serenity.” Her voice was sharp, her blue eyes hard. “I told him this would end badly and he refused to listen.”
“Demitri told us he’d give us some time. He went against his word. How was Sebastian supposed to know what was going to happen?”
“Well I suggest we go and tell him now.”
“But he’s…” she sought for the right word to describe the state of stasis Sebastian entered during the day. “Sleeping.”
Bridget placed her hands on her hips. “Then it’s about time he woke up.”
Together, the two women headed upstairs, Serenity drying the tears from her face with the back of her hand.
They stood outside of his bedroom, no sign of life coming from behind the solid wood. Serenity’s heart pounded. This would be the first time seeing him in this state and she didn’t want to think about what he’d look like.
Taking a deep breath, Serenity pushed open his door and entered the room,
Sebastian lay on the bed, motionless. He still wore his suit and his arms were folded over his chest, his hands clasped together. His pale face was expressionless, his features smooth. He looked exactly as she had feared—like he was dead.
Pushing her fears to the bottom of her gut, she stepped forward. She needed to wake him—Elizabeth needed her to wake him.
She reached out and took hold of his shoulder. It felt like granite beneath her hand, as though she was trying to wake a stone statue.
“Sebastian,” she hissed, “You have to wake up. Demitri’s taken Elizabeth.” She glanced back over her shoulder and Bridget gave her a nod of encouragement.
“Louder,” she said. “You’re trying to wake him, remember?”
Serenity gave a brisk nod and turned back. She shook him as hard as she could, but it made no difference. He remained immobile.
“Sebastian!” she yelled in his face. “Wake up! We need you!” Still she gained no response and she drew back her hand slapped him across the face. Pain stung her palm but Sebastian didn’t flinch.
“This is hopeless,” she said, turning back to Bridget. “He’s not going to wake until nightfall. He’s told me before that only being in immediate danger will wake him.”
“So put him in danger,” she said. “Draw back the blind.”
Sebastian blackout blind had also been taped down—extra protection against the murderous sun.
“I can’t do that.” Her voice was barely a whisper. She couldn’t stand the thought of watching his beautiful face sizzle, smoke and burn. “It’ll hurt him.”
Bridget marched over to the window. “Then I will.”
“No, Bridget, wait! You don’t know how he’ll react. He might kill the both of us purely by instinct and then where would Elizabeth be? And think about how he’d feel if he hurt us. This isn’t fair.” She thought of something else. “And what can he do anyway? It’s n
ot like he can go outside.”
Bridget’s hand hovered above the blind and then dropped to her side. “We could bundle him up and put him in the trunk of the car. By the time we drove to New York, it would be well into night time.”
“By the time we drove to New York, it would be tomorrow night and Elizabeth would have spent forty-eight hours with Demitri.” She shook her head, her mind racing. “No. He’s faster on his own. And anyway, look at the size of him. We’d never be able to move him.”
She was right. Sebastian was six foot two, two-hundred pounds of solid muscle, and inert as stone. Even if he’d been human, they’d never budge him.
“Okay,” said Bridget. “So what do you suggest? We wait for Sebastian to wake up?”
“No, we have to do something! I won’t just sit around the house all day knowing that son-of-a-bitch has Elizabeth.”
Bridget fixed her gaze. “Too damn right. We’ll fly to New York and leave Sebastian a note telling him what’s happened. When Sebastian wakes at sunset, he’ll have to make the trip back across the country himself. This vampire—Demitri—will be sleeping like Sebastian during the day. Maybe he’s got some human watch-dogs, but I can deal with them.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve got my own powers, Serenity. I tried to tell Sebastian but he dismissed me. I’m a witch and I come from a long line of witches. That’s why it was so easy for me to accept what happened to my son. I’ve known about vampires for years. I grew up learning the craft from my mother, but she passed away and I was left with my grandmother. She was very powerful indeed and taught me how to release my own powers. I might not be strong or fast like a vampire, but I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve.”
Serenity stared at her. “Are you serious?”
“I wouldn’t say such a thing if I wasn’t.”
“But what sort of things can you do? Pull rabbits out of hats and make things disappear?”
She laughed. “Not so much with the rabbit, but I can make things appear to disappear. In truth, they’re still there, but I cast a spell around them—like a magic veil—and the spell hides the object or person.”
She wanted to believe Bridget, but she’d been born with a healthy dose of skepticism. Even so, a sense of hope wrapped around her. She held the feeling at bay, not wanting to be let down if Bridget’s claims went unfounded.
Something else occurred to her and a tiny part of her heart lifted. “So the blue blanket you did with Elizabeth was real?”
“The light, you mean?”
“Yes. She wanted me to recreate it for her, but of course I couldn’t.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“I know you didn’t. Honestly, I feel better knowing the blanket was real. I was worried Elizabeth had replaced you as a mother figure in her life—and she has in a way—but at least I know that’s something I genuinely couldn’t do, not that Elizabeth would rather have had you doing it instead.”
“No one will ever replace you in her heart. You’ll always be the only mother she has.”
Serenity smiled to hide the tears threatening to break through. She needed to focus on more immediate issues than self-pity.
“Can you wake Sebastian using magic?”
Bridget shook her head. “No, I can’t interfere with his sleep, it’s too much a part of who he is, and besides, the magic is harder to work on supernaturals.”
“Show me something else then?”
“We don’t have time right now. You’re going to need to trust me. I promise, as soon as I can, I’ll show you what I can do.”
Serenity swallowed her doubts and crossed the room to hug the older woman tight. “Thank you so much, Bridget. I don’t know what I’d do right now if you weren’t here.”
“Yes, you do. You’d be heading off to New York and probably getting yourself killed.”
The world trembled before her as tears flooded her eyes. “You might be right,” she admitted. “And Sebastian is going to think exactly the same thing.”
“Screw what Sebastian thinks.”
“I just hate for him to be scared for all of us when he wakes up.”
“We can’t do anything about that.”
Bridget took hold of her arm and pulled her from the room. Serenity sent Sebastian one last longing glance, wishing for him to be awake to help her deal with this. She’d feel so much better with him by her side.
“Do you have identification?” Bridget asked. “Enough to catch a flight?”
Serenity sniffed and wiped her eyes, pulling herself together. “I’ve got a driver’s license.” She felt a brief stab of panic. “I hope it’s not expired!”
“Well, go check.”
Serenity ran to her room. Sebastian had brought in all of her belongings from her apartment. Her clothes hung in the closets and more were neatly folded in drawers, though she had no idea where to find anything.
She started to pull open drawers, searching through her clothes and underwear. In the nightstand, her fingers closed around the stiff rectangle of her driver’s license.
Thank God, she still had twelve months left on the document.
“Got it!” she shouted to Bridget. Serenity paused just long enough to pull on some socks and her sneakers. She grabbed a sweater off the back of an occasional chair and then went back to the closet and pulled out a jacket. Los Angeles was warm almost all year round, but at this time of year, New York would be ready for snow. She hoped Elizabeth had warm clothes with her. She hated to think of Elizabeth shivering, cold and frightened somewhere. The vampire wouldn’t think to give her a blanket or something to keep her warm—the temperature didn’t affect him.
As an afterthought, she ran into Elizabeth’s room and grabbed her small rucksack. She pulled open the drawers and shoved in a couple of items of warm clothes. The teddy bear still lay on the floor where she’d dropped it, so she bent and scooped the toy up, and stuffed it in the bag. Somehow, Elizabeth not having her comforter hurt worst of all. Elizabeth couldn’t sleep without the blanket. That she’d been denied such a small comfort made Serenity want to cry all over again.
She burst from the bedroom and found Bridget waiting impatiently at the bottom of the stairs.
“What were you doing?”
Serenity held up the bag. “Some of Elizabeth’s things. She’s going to need them when we get her back.”
Bridget smiled. “That’s the spirit. Now come on, we’ll take my car.”
“Wait a minute. I still need to write Sebastian a note.” She paused for a moment. “How will he even know where to find us?”
“Is there a place Sebastian will recognize?”
The hotel, of course.
“Yes,” she said with relief. “We stayed in a hotel near Demitri’s club during the first day after I got my memory back.”
“Can you remember the name? Would you know how to find it again?”
She wracked her memory, trying to think of the name. In her mind’s eye, she saw the sign hanging from the side of the building—one with the big back letters that read ‘HOTEL’. But what had been written above in a smaller, italic font? Serenity put her hand over her eyes. What had it been? She knew she’d seen and read the name…
“The Metropolitan Hotel!” she blurted. “That’s what the place was called. We’ll go back to the hotel to wait for him.”
A notepad and pen sat beside the phone on the hall console. With a trembling hand, Serenity picked up the pen and poised the tip against the white paper. She pressed too hard as she wrote, the nib leaving deep indentions that would surely go several sheets deep.
Serenity tore the sheet from the pad and raced to the kitchen. She placed the note in the middle of the kitchen counter. Though no breeze stirred the air, she was still paranoid the note would somehow be blown away so she weighed it down with a saltshaker.
“Okay, done,” she said to Bridget.
Bridget was already heading toward the front door. “Then let’s g
o.”
The drive to the airport seemed to take forever. Serenity sat in the passenger seat as they drove through Beverly Hills, looking out the window and chewing on her already non-existent nails. When they came to the slightest bit of traffic, her stomach clenched in anxiety. They didn’t even know if seats would be available on the next flight to New York and every minute felt like torture. She found herself leaning forward every time they slowed, as though her body could propel them forward.
Finally, on the freeway, they started to gain some ground. When they turned off San Diego Freeway and onto West Century Boulevard, she saw the metallic letters of the LAX sign rising into the sky.
How strange to think she was back here again. Sometimes she felt as though her life kept echoing itself. Not far away stood the hotel Madeline had abducted her from and then the hanger the vampire had kept her in. Four years later, Jackson had attacked Amy here. Now she was back, chasing another vampire. One who had her daughter.
Bridget pulled up to the curb in front of the terminal and jumped out. “Come on.”
Serenity climbed out and glanced at the abandoned Prius. “You can’t leave it here. You’ll get towed.”
“Who cares? We’ll pay to get the car back later. In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not important.”
Serenity wasn’t going to argue. Every minute felt precious. She imagined the gates closing for the flight, missing it by mere minutes—minutes they’d spent fussing about parking the car.
“You’re right.”
Together they raced into the terminal. A number of airlines flew to New York, but only a couple flew direct. Serenity didn’t think she could stand a stopover in Phoenix, knowing the hours were ticking by with Elizabeth still in the hands of Demitri. She only hoped that the daylight meant Demitri would be forced to leave Elizabeth alone.
“There!” said Bridget, pointing at the departures board. “Virgin America has a direct flight leaving in just over an hour.”
They ran to the counter and waited as a couple of people ahead of them checked in, chatting and weighing in luggage as though they had all the time in the world. Serenity hopped from foot to foot, resisting the urge to push them out of the way.
The Serenity Series: Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 58