Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Information
Prologue
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
About the Author
Preview of The Night Killers
A Retribution of Soul:
Book 3 of the In-Between
Rebecca M. Senese
Copyright Information
A Retribution of Soul: Book 3 of the In-Between
Copyright © (2013) by Rebecca M. Senese
Published by RFAR Publishing
Cover Design copyright © (2013) by
RFAR Publishing
Cover art copyright ©
ra2studio/DepositPhotos.com
Interior Image © 100ker / DepositPhotos.com
Smashwords Edition
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Prologue
The glow of a new moon did little to illuminate the street but Alexa Hammond didn’t need any light to see by. She crouched between the red brick wall of the dingy gas station and the blue, dented dumpster, hands on her knees as she watched the old highway in front of her. Over the buzz of the neon sign flickering the name of Todd’s Gas, she could hear the pumping of blood from the clerk in the convenience store section of the station. It pounded at her brain with an urgency she found harder and harder to resist. But she had to, she knew it. She couldn’t devolve like the others and just eat indiscriminately. Doing that was like its own neon sign pointing “vampire here.”
She wasn’t going to make it easier for the In-Between to catch her. She wasn’t going to make it easier for him to catch her.
As always, that thought calmed her down. She’d survived this long without Constantine, her clan head, the vampire who had made her and trained her. She’d only been with him for a year before the disaster that was him. He had killed her Constantine, used Constantine’s own ambition to control the book written by the first vampire against him, and in doing so destroyed the clan heads and all civilized vampire society. Now most vampires were little more than animals. Easy pickings for those freaks, the In-Between who hunted them. They were jealous, she thought, that they hadn’t been turned completely into vampires but stuck in that twilight in between human and vampire. Too bad their blood was poisonous to her. She would have loved to drink every last one of them dry.
Especially him. Especially Sebastian.
He’d loved her once, she knew, just a few short years ago when they were in college together. He’d been geeky and awkward and shy. She’d found him funny and charming in a way. Then he’d been bitten by a vampire, but instead of having the decency to die or become a vampire himself, he’d become an In-Between, and his stupidity had led to her becoming a vampire.
Not that she was sorry about that, oh no. She quite liked being a vampire, or she had when Constantine and the clan were around. Then she had a place, a family. Now she was alone, crouching between a dumpster and a two-bit gas station in the middle of nowhere. And it had taken her over eight months to get this far.
Without Constantine’s influence, crossing the ocean from England had been a major undertaking. No more flying in a personal jet with the windows blacked out to protect her from the sun. Instead she had to travel on one of those horrible baggage ships, subsisting on the occasional drink from the crew. But she couldn’t even take her fill. It would have been too suspicious. The crew had thought their boat haunted by a ghost woman anyway. If she’d taken too much and killed any of them, they would have searched the ship, breaking through any compulsion she planted for them to avoid the section she’d hidden in. If they’d found her and dragged her out into the daylight... well, she wouldn’t be crouching here now.
She had certainly learned patience. Her vengeance was taking every last drop of it.
From the road, she heard the hiss of tires on asphalt. She poked her head out. A minute later a car approached. Would it turn in for gas? She hoped it would. She needed a ride.
The car sped by without stopping. She watched the red tail lights recede in the distance. If Constantine had been here, he would have been able to influence the driver from here and cause him to stop at the gas station. She didn’t have even close to that ability and she might never learn it now, not with her clan head dead.
Because of him.
Her anger burned.
Even when she’d turned, she wanted to bring Sebastian across with her. They could have been together forever then. He would never have had to work up the courage to ask her out. But he’d rejected her and she left to be with Constantine. She’d even been willing to leave Sebastian alone. Let him live his own life with his own choices. Just as she wanted to live her own.
But then he’d interfered with Constantine’s search for the book and used it to kill him and all the clan heads. Now she wasn’t going to just live her life anymore and let him live his. Now she was going to end his in the worst way she could think of.
If she could just get out of this gas station.
Another hiss of tires on asphalt. She peered out from behind the dumpster, brushing her brown hair from her eyes. This time the car, a blue sedan with dirt along the bottom, slowed and pulled into the gas station, aiming for the unleaded pump. As it stopped and the driver’s door opened, Alexa stood up. The driver moved to the pump and unhooked the gas nozzle. In the dark she could just make out the dark blue weave of his suit. As he turned his back, to hook the nozzle into his car, Alexa slid forward, moving with a gliding grace until she stood right behind him.
He was a full foot taller than her, with a well padded torso, arms and legs. Thinning brown hair had been combed over his head. As he turned to look at the gauge, she saw the double chin and the tortoise shell glasses perched on his nose. She tilted her head. He caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and started. The nozzle jiggled in the car.
“Careful,” she said. “You don’t want to spill any gas. It’s expensive enough, don’t you think?”
“Ah, yeah,” he said. “Sorry, I didn’t notice you there.”
“That’s quite all right.”
“Um, you work here? I thought it was self-serve.”
“It is self-serve,” she said. She smiled at him and extended her will. “I am looking for a ride.”
Behind his glasses, she watched his small brown eyes get that unfocused look as her command penetrated his brain.
“A ride,” he said.
“Yes, I want a ride,” she said. “You are going to give me a ride.”
“I am going to give you a ride.”
“Yes, thank you. Now finish and pay for the gas.”
He started to pull out the nozzle before even turning off the pump. She flipped the switch before he extracted it. Only a few drops hit the ground. He turned in jerking movements toward the pump. She took the nozzle from his hand.
“Go pay for the gas,” she
said.
He crossed to the convenience store to pay. She replaced the nozzle and moved to the passenger’s side of the car. When she opened the door, she found food wrappers and a map strewn across the seat. She tossed them into the back and climbed in.
The man returned a moment later, walking stiffly across the pavement toward the car. He hesitated when he reached the driver’s door. His expression looked startled when he noticed her in the passenger’s seat.
“I need a ride,” she said again, concentrating at him. “You are giving me one.”
“I am giving you one,” he said. He climbed in behind the wheel and started the car.
“Close the door,” she said.
He twitched and closed the door.
“Put on your seat belt,” she said.
He did as she instructed. She sighed. Was she going to have to tell him everything step by step? Constantine never had to do that. He’d been so much better at this than her and he’d just started to train her how to do this before he’d been murdered. She supposed she should be grateful she could do it at all.
The car started and the man pulled out onto the street. Once he was driving he seemed more able to focus on the task. She stayed silent until she glanced in the back seat and saw the laptop case.
“Does your laptop have wireless Internet?” she said.
The man started. Confusion crossed his face as he looked over at her.
“Eyes on the road,” she said.
He jerked his attention back to the road. “Ah yes, my laptop has Internet.”
“Stop at the next coffee shop,” she said.
They drove on for another ten minutes before a coffee shop appeared. As they pulled into the parking lot, Alexa noticed the lights were out inside. She peered at the hours sign. Only open until eleven. That didn’t matter, as long as their WiFi was still operating.
“Park here,” she instructed him. “Get on the Internet.”
The man twisted in the seat and grabbed the case. He dragged it to the front and turned on the laptop. While she waited, Alexa repeated what little she knew: Sebastian Lockhart, grew up somewhere in Michigan maybe or Ohio, his parents were still alive and he had a younger brother named... Her lips twisted as she tried to remember. She was sure he’d mentioned it once or twice. Caleb? No, Callum. That was it, Callum.
That was all she had. It was going to take a little time to get the right Lockhart but she would do it, as long as he hadn’t moved them somewhere. But even if he had, if she had the chance to find their home she was sure she’d be able to catch their scent. Even if someone else had bought the place and moved in. All she needed was the thinnest of scents and she’d be able to find them. It wouldn’t matter where they went, she would never stop looking.
She had years.
Decades.
All the time in the world.
The man finished connecting to the WiFi hotspot. She took the laptop from him and rested it on her lap.
“Just relax,” she said to him. He slumped against his seat as if he was a switched off automaton.
She pulled up a search engine and began hunting for Lockhart in Ohio and Michigan. Both states turned up way too many Lockharts. She had to find a way to narrow the field. Then she tried “Callum Lockhart.” Still too many. There was no way she could search the list. Well, no, that wasn’t exactly true, but it would take longer than Sebastian’s lifetime and that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted him to feel the loss of his world crumbling around him just as she’d felt when Constantine had died.
She combined the name with each state and still pulled up way too many hits on each. She banged her hands on the edge of the laptop in frustration. Damn, if she only knew more details but Sebastian hadn’t talked much of life before college.
Not much but some. Maybe all she needed to do was remember.
She tried to shy away from the thought but stopped herself. If she wanted revenge for Constantine’s death then she would have to face it. She didn’t think much about her life before she became a vampire. With every passing night, it became more and more like a strange dream she had long ago. Once in a while something would remind of her that time and jolt her back into memories, leaving her disoriented. Constantine told her it was natural for new vampires. It would go away in time, after five or six decades.
When he had first said that, she thought it was so long but now she knew it was a mere drop of time. Already she’d forgotten so much from that time before and it had been less than two years.
But if she wanted to find Sebastian’s family, she was going to have to return to those memories. Her shoulders climbed up toward her ears at the thought of it. She would do it but she wouldn’t like it.
She turned the laptop off and set it on the floor under her feet. She shook the man’s shoulder.
“Hey, let’s go,” she said.
He stirred and started the car. At her instruction, he backed out and headed down the old highway again. She had him pull into an old motel for a room, making sure to get the one farthest from the office. She made him pay for three days and ask for a late checkout. When he parked in front of the room, she got out and entered, making sure to close the curtains. He wandered in after her, standing by the door until she instructed him to lie down on the bed. He did so, not even taking off his shoes.
The longer she Influenced him the more literally he reacted to her instructions. Soon she would have to tell him how to do everything as her Influence gnawed away at his functional mind. She didn’t have the finesse with it the way Constantine had but even with him this disintegration happened. Eventually, the Influenced subject became useless for anything other than food.
And Alexa was feeling a bit peckish.
She crossed to the bed. He lay on top of the worn brown blanket that looked a muddy black in the darkness. Faint light from the parking lot lights outside filtered around the burgundy curtains. She would have to seal them securely before the morning and leave a note to the hotels maids not to be disturbed.
She sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the lamp on the night stand. She liked to see what she was eating. A personal preference. Yellowish light splashed across the walls and reflected on the beige ceiling. She noticed a brownish stain over by the counter that held an ancient coffee maker. Someone hadn’t liked their Mr. Coffee. Even from here, she could smell the staleness of the single serve coffee packets. Good thing she wasn’t intent on drinking that swill.
She had another way to quench her thirst.
The man on the bed lay with his eyes wide open, staring upward at the ceiling as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Even now she could see the lack of awareness in him. It was her heavy-handed Influence. She just didn’t have the light touch that Constantine had. He could Influence someone and keep them at top shape for almost a full two weeks before they began to erode. She couldn’t even manage one night. She was going to have to get better at this if she was going to do what she wanted.
But it was too late for this one. He was already almost gone. At least he was still good enough to eat.
She reached out to turn his head toward the wall, exposing his neck. Ah, yes, the subtle sweet aroma of his blood, tantalizing her under the surface of his flesh. She smiled, exposing sharp fangs, and lunged, drinking deep and long.
She finished him in less than ten minutes, a veritable gorging. The body lay like an empty husk on the bed. She shoved it aside. It rolled off the other end and flopped to the floor. The empty space he left looked so tempting. She just wanted to lie down and sleep. But she couldn’t just yet, not with that bit of light coming in from outside. In the daytime it could prove disastrous for her.
A quick search around the room gave her nothing to secure the drapes. She would have to go to the office. She hadn’t wanted to, hadn’t wanted to engage anyone else here but it couldn’t be helped. Still, she should be able to wipe the attendant’s memory of her presence without too much damage and could even implant a command to l
eave the room undisturbed during the day. That way she could be sure of safety.
Good, she liked that.
She left the room and stepped back out into the night. Crickets chirped an accompaniment as she headed to the office. The little bell over the door tinkled as she opened it. A single desk lamp on the counter was turned on. She heard a television playing through the closed door behind the counter. A glance at the clock on the wall showed her it was just after midnight.
She waited a moment but no one came in response to the door’s bell. She slapped the bell on the counter. The sharp ring cut over the sound of the television. It turned down and then she heard footsteps. The door opened and a tall, thin man wearing a green robe came out. Reflexively, he tightened the belt around his narrow waist and tucked the lapels in around his chest. One hand brushed back the greying hair on his high forehead.
“Can I help you?” he said. “Sorry I didn’t hear your car drive up.”
“I need some duct tape,” she said, giving her voice that special command tone. Immediately his features loosened. His eyes defocused. “You will not remember me. You will instruct your employees and any one else to leave room seventeen alone. You will not enter it yourself for one week.”
“Yes... yes...”
“Get me the duct tape.”
“Yes...” His voice sputtered. With a jerk, he bent beneath the counter. She listened to him rummaging under there then he stood with a roll of silver duct tape in his hand. She plucked it away from him.
“You have not seen me,” she said.
“Not seen,” he said.
“Go back to your television.”
He turned and walked into the door. His nose bumped the wood before his fumbling hands found the door knob. Then he opened it and wandered through. She waited a moment until she heard the television again. Over it, she heard a woman’s voice and the man answering but no one came out. She waited a little longer to make sure.
Nothing.
When she left, she opened the door slowly, making sure to not disturb the tinkling bell. It still gave a brief ring as she closed it, then she hurried back to her room.
Retribution of Soul: Book 3 of the In-Between Page 1