The two guards holding Sarah let her go to surround the two suspects. She rushed over to me and dropped to her knees beside me when my two guards went to do Teddy’s bidding as well. Sarah’s eyes were full of unshed tears and her mouth was set in a sad line. The tears began falling when she saw how badly I was hurt.
“We have to get out of here,” I told her quietly. “This is going to get really bad.”
CHAPTER 24 – Alex
“Oh, for God’s sake.”
I looked over at the woman who’d spoken to me so boldly.
Selena. I waved her away. “Get out of here.”
She shook her head. “What the hell are you doing?”
I tried to pull myself up higher against the light post, but only managed to gain a few inches. The strength didn’t seem to be coming back to me. I slumped even lower, finally falling to the ground in a heap. I kept hoping she would leave me alone. I should have known better.
“I can’t believe you let him drink from you,” she grumbled.
“It helped with the headaches,” I said.
She snorted. “Of course it did, you stupid thing.” She kneeled down next to me on the sidewalk and pulled a bottle out of her red leather purse. I had no idea what it was. It looked to be some clear liquid. I tried to push her hand away when she brought it close to my mouth.
“Just drink it, you fool.”
I did, but it tasted like something from a sewer. “What the hell is that stuff?”
“It’s medicine, Alex. And if you would have told me about your headaches, I could have helped you when you were in Tahoe.” She mumbled curses about Michael and threw Sarah’s name in there somewhere, but I was just on the edge of consciousness and didn’t pay much attention. Then she put her wrist to my mouth and urged me to drink. I wanted desperately to resist, but the hunger that had been stirring lowly in my gut was suddenly screaming for attention.
“Drink, Alex. It’s the only way.”
So I did. The flavor wasn’t new to me, but the feeling of fulfillment in those first few swallows was astounding. I wasn’t sure if I had waited too long to feed or if the clear stuff she made me drink had changed something inside me, but for the first time since I’d become a vampire again, I felt full.
“You’re needed upstairs, Selena.” It was a child’s voice.
I heard Selena curse again and then someone small came to my side.
“Sam, do NOT move. Stay right here with him until I get Sarah and Michael out of there, okay?”
“Okay.”
I looked up at Sam. “What did she just give me?”
The smile she gave me was like a ray of sunshine through a storm.
“She gave you your life back.”
CHAPTER 25 – Sarah
The true chaos hadn’t begun, but I knew Michael was right. The rising tension in the room was truly scary. There were no less than twenty vampires in the restaurant, and very few of them were staying out of the argument brewing between Vincent, Amanda and Teddy. Michael shifted, stretched out his right hand as far as it would go and twisted it. There was a pop.
“My knee…” he said quietly, his breath surprisingly warm in my ear. He wedged his foot between the leg of one of the tables and the leg of a chair. “Hold the chair and table together. I’ve got to use my arms for leverage.”
“Oh, my God.” I had made the mistake of looking away from what he was asking me to do, and the person who walked through the door next caught my eye. She spotted us instantly. “My fucking mother is here.”
“That’s never a good way to end a dinner date,” Michael said through gritted teeth. “Hold the chair.”
My mother had caught the attention of some of the other vampires, but she was heading straight for us. She didn’t even look at me, but kneeled down next to Michael across from me with a very annoyed expression on her face.
“Which leg?” she asked quickly.
“Left knee is twisted,” he replied.
Without hesitation, she grabbed his left calf and twisted it ruthlessly. He shouted out in pain, and I wanted to slap her across the room until I saw what she’d done. He lifted his leg, flexed it twice and tried to get up. He was too heavy for me.
“He’ll need another few minutes before he can move,” she muttered. “But we don’t have the time.”
When I looked back over towards Teddy, I saw that another set of guards were trying to move her away from Amanda and Vincent. It was hard to tell exactly who the guards were listening to. Amanda had lashed out at two of the guards who had gotten too close. They were bleeding on the floor, the crimson stain spreading like cracks in ice. Charlie was shouting to try to gain some control over the situation, but no one was listening.
When I turned back to Michael, my mother was helping him move behind a serving station. But I didn’t get a chance to follow. I heard an angry voice in my ear and felt a pair of unusually strong fingers wrapped around my throat.
“I have waited for this moment for a long time, you little piece of shit.”
Amanda. Her fingers were steel against my skin, crushing and unyielding. She was in front of me, raising me up before her. I felt the biting winter winds whipping through the broken window. The likelihood of my death seemed clear. She would either choke the life out of me or throw me down to the street.
But something caused her grip to loosen suddenly. She stumbled, bringing me down with her. Vaguely, I saw someone backing away from her. My mother. She had something in her hand that was sharp and shining.
Michael’s voice moved through me then like a burst of electric light.
“It’s not over. Be strong.”
Amanda moved off me, reaching behind her to try to find something. She saw my mother moving away with the hypodermic needle in her hand. I didn’t know what it was at the time that had been injected into Amanda, but between Michael’s words and the way he looked at me across the space of that room, I knew the game had changed.
Something had gone out of Amanda. She still looked on me with rage, but the movement of her body had slowed. I heard a gasp from the back of the room by the door and saw Alex come in. There was no time to run. There was no time to do anything.
I had to finish it.
All of the bitterness came back. The haunting memories washed through me like acid. I saw my father in his hospital bed, his eyes hollow and dark against his pale skin. I heard the last beat of his heart against my ear. I felt Katie’s tears soak through my shirt, coating me with more sorrow than any person should have to bear. I heard the disdain in Trevor’s voice when I confronted him about cheating on me, deceiving me. I saw the bills that had piled up on my Dad’s desk. I saw Doctor Fleming sitting across from me, telling me that my mother was still alive. I felt the bewilderment and shock of knowing that my mother had decided to leave her children. I heard the slamming of the door when my sister walked away and left me to battle these things without her.
I felt the anger.
The target was in front of me. The frustration spiraling in my head demanded release. I didn’t think about what might happen afterwards. The rage bursting inside of me didn’t leave room for any of that. There was a vampire on the floor in front of me who was a monster. She had tortured Captain Jones and turned my sister into a murderer. She had almost turned my lover into the same kind of monster that she was. I would not allow it to continue.
CHAPTER 26 – Michael
When she let it go, no one in the room took their eyes off of her.
Amanda had been neutralized. Her vampire powers were on hold, just as mine had been before Isaiah took me. I tried to tell Sarah in the only way I knew how. There was a joining of minds present between the two of us and I used that connection to try to convey a message. And she got it.
The emotion behind her kick would have been lethal to a human. The force of it was enough to move Amanda a meter across the floor. Sarah’s attack was purely driven by her own pain and loss. It was focused and incredibly powerful. Two members
of the extended Council physically recoiled when they witnessed that kick. And it wasn’t because they were afraid of the damage that one human could do with her leg. It was the outpouring of emotion.
That was the reason she fascinated me. That was the glory of who she was. She carried in her head the most intense emotional experiences I’ve ever come across. But that intensity was tempered by an inner kindness that she offered to anyone who could see who she really was inside. Anyone who gave her the honest chance could see that side of her.
Sarah looked down at Amanda. What she saw, lying broken and vacant in the midst of shattered glass, was the person she might have become. She saw what would have been her future self if she had actually given in to the agony of the circumstances that had plagued her. She lowered her head.
When the love of my life did lift her head, I saw in her beautiful blue eyes the kind of strength I knew I would never have. I saw courage that came from within her soul, not the anger that had been her crutch against further pain. When she turned away from the destruction, she came to me with new eyes, opened to a world that she had denied in the past.
Amanda hadn’t moved, but her blood had been spilled. Everyone in that room was quite still, but I saw the change coming over them when they caught the scent of Amanda’s blood. They knew Teddy spoke the truth. The blood of my ex-lover reeked of the stench of Isaiah’s presence.
The Council vampires turned on Vincent. There was a wild shriek of denial, but his fate was sealed. There would be no trial. They fell on him like hungry animals. I turned away and pulled Sarah with me. Selena joined us at the door. I saw Sarah look at her with confusion.
The woman she had always thought was her mother had not been the selfish creature that everyone had assumed. Selena had provided an even playing field by injecting Amanda with the same potion that had rendered me nearly helpless a month before. Even then, Amanda had some strength left in her.
Only moments after Sarah was back at my side, Amanda did the one thing I’d never imagined her capable of doing. She secured her own destruction by attempting a half-hearted attack on Teddy. She leaped wildly towards the guards surrounding my mentor, though she must have known there was no hope of success.
Theodora, the queen, struck Amanda’s head from her shoulders with one well-executed move. I felt a shiver run through Sarah when it happened. I watched as the head hit the floor and turned my head away when I saw that the crazed eyes were still open.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Doctor Nguyen said. Before he bent over and vomited up his late dinner, another human rushed in. The doctor gestured towards Teddy. “Give it to her.”
The doctor’s assistant, a bright-looking young man, stumbled through the grisly scene to Teddy and gave her a piece of paper. He also proceeded to throw up when he saw the headless body on the floor. Teddy looked at the paper and then at me.
“Michael’s blood is clean.”
Another tremor went through Sarah’s body. I suspected she was going through some shock after everything she’d seen. We vampires had seen worse than the gore in that restaurant—far worse. For humans, the violence of the end of a life was a stark reminder of their own vulnerability.
I gathered her against me. “It’s done.”
Alex approached cautiously. He looked a great deal better than he had down on the street. Sam stood with him, her eyes wide and fearful. I gently moved Sarah away from me. When she saw Alex and Sam, she nodded slightly and let Alex guide her out of the room.
“Samantha?”
She didn’t answer me at first. I tipped her chin up. Her blond hair fell back against her shoulders. When I saw her face, there was a different kind of recognition that hadn’t been there before. I’d seen that lost look on a different face—on the face of the woman I loved.
It was a reminder to me that there was more to do. There were others who needed me. I wasn’t a prisoner anymore. If I were to be the kind of person that really deserved a full life, I would have to change. Selena was standing in the doorway, looking at me thoughtfully. She knew what I was thinking, and I knew that she would help me. It was going to be risky. I nodded at her without saying a word.
I picked up Samantha.
“It’s going to be okay, kid.” I felt the warmth of two little arms go around my neck and the weight of a little girl’s head on my shoulder. Sarah would survive, despite all the obstacles thrown her way. Sam and Anne would survive. And I would be there to see them through it—come what may.
CHAPTER 27 – Sarah
THREE MONTHS LATER
“Nelly, tell me again why I’m doing this?”
She grinned at me from her easy chair. “Because if you’re going to be a veterinary technician, you have to get your license. It was your choice, honey.” She took a sip of her tea and went back to watching her favorite crime TV show.
I pulled off my new eyeglasses and rubbed my temples. College was absolutely nothing like high school. It seemed like there was so much more work involved, but it was also possible that unlike high school, I was actually taking the vet technician training seriously. I closed my laptop and got up for a stretch.
It was amazing how much things had changed. It didn’t seem real to me most of the time. The change in environment had been so scary at first. I had gone from living with Nelly in a huge, mostly-empty country inn to living out in the woods in a three-bedroom log cabin with two kids. Nelly was there nearly every day, but when I’d sold the farm she had expressed some interest in getting a little condo near Greenwood and it seemed like the right time to cut the apron strings.
The cabin was cozy and warm and had everything I could want. It was also very good for the girls. After spending decades traveling from one big city to another with Teddy, Anne and Sam were thrilled to be settling down in a real house. When I started spending time with them after everything that had happened in Chicago, I realized how much of a difference I could make if I gave more of myself. Teddy had known that they needed something different in their lives and I offered them a home.
“Sarah, have you talked to Katie lately?” Nelly asked.
I sighed. “Yes. But they only let her talk to me for a few minutes.”
My sister turned herself in to the Council for the murders she had committed in Brown County. They weren’t being easy on her. Anonymous donations were made to the families of her victims, and she was at the very beginning of her prison term set by the Council’s lead attorney. She was given some leniency based on her connections with Michael and the fact that she was willing to undergo a radical new “detoxification” process that could end up being the standard treatment for rogue vampires. She was being held in a Council-run private prison in Brazil.
“How is she holding up?”
“She’s a little edgy, but she’s trying to come to terms with what she’s done. The detox process will start next week.” I got up and went to the sliding doors that led to the backyard. The sun wasn’t due to set for another two hours, but I wanted the girls to get cleaned up before bed. When I opened the door and stepped out, Sadie pounced at me playfully.
“Calm down, you silly dog.” I saw Lenny grazing in the small pasture behind the shed, but not Messenger. “Anne! Sam! Time to come in!”
Anne appeared around the corner of the shed, carrying her easel and paint box. Her smock was encrusted with different shades of blue and yellow watercolors. I ruffled her dark hair as she went past me and she smiled.
“Is Nelly still here? I wanted to show her the landscape I did earlier.”
“She’s still here. I’m sure she’d love to see it, sweetie,” I told her. She took her things inside and I went in search of Sam. Sadie followed along, always happy for an excuse to take a walk. Behind the shed where we kept the lawn mower and garden tools, Messenger stood quietly as a little blond-haired girl stood on a stool beside her and pulled burrs out of her long black mane.
I opened the wooden gate and joined them. “She got into them again, huh?”
“You’d miss all that gorgeous hair, girl. Besides, brushing her mane is the best part.”
She giggled. “At least it doesn’t get poop in it like her tail.”
“That’s disgusting!”
Her pale eyebrows crinkled up as she laughed, and the dimples in her cheeks made me want to grab her up for a hug. I nearly did before I saw how filthy her clothes were. “Sam, that’s the shirt that Kara bought you for your birthday!” It was smeared with some brown stuff that made me wonder if she’d used the shirt to clean Messenger’s tail.
She pulled one last burr from the mare’s mane, ran her fingers through the dark strands of hair and jumped down from her stool. “It’ll come out with that pre-wash stuff you use. That works on everything.” I watched as she put her grooming bucket and stool back inside the shed and gave the horse one last kiss on the nose. I rubbed Messenger’s neck and turned to head back to the house. Sam had disappeared around the corner of the shed. I heard a squeal from her, then a low familiar voice rumble a warm greeting.
My pulse sped up at the sound. When I rounded the corner, a sob made its way up through my throat. He was there. Michael was standing on my back porch with Sam cradled in his arms and an easy smile sweeping across his amazing face. After months of waiting and hoping, he was finally here.
There was a freshness that seemed to roll off of him. He wasn’t pale. The tone of his skin was different, and there were lines around his eyes that I’d never noticed before. He was more real than the cool grass against my bare feet. He wasn’t a part of some dark dream.
Michael was alive.
He saw me staring at him, and a different kind of smile found its way to his lips when our eyes finally met. He put Samantha down, but didn’t watch when she went running inside to get cleaned up. His focus was locked on me.
The Vampire's Release, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #4) Page 11