Retribution of Soul: Book 3 of the In-Between

by Senese, Rebecca M.

  She taped the sides and top of the curtains, making sure to cover every inch. When she turned off the lamp to test it, not a single shaft of light penetrated from outside. Perfect! Now she could relax.

  Well, maybe not relax. Now she could remember.

  She lay down on top of the bed, cradling her head on her arms. Anxiety twisted in her stomach. She didn’t want to concentrate on that before time. That was another person, another life and it was one she didn’t like thinking about. It felt too... weird. But she knew she didn’t have any choice. If she wanted to kill Sebastian, she was going to have to remember as much as possible to find a way to exploit his weakness.

  She swallowed her anxiety, took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  They’d met during the first week of freshman year. She remembered him as this tall, gawky guy who seemed uncomfortable in his skin, as if he’d gained his height within a short period of time and still wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Later, he confessed he’d been this height since his early teens; his gawkiness had just been his usual self.

  She was in the campus bookstore, looking for the text book on statistics. As she rounded the corner, a tall young man stumbled forward, books tipping from his arms. She put out her arms to try to catch them and managed to snag one before the others toppled to the floor. He almost went after them in his rush to prevent their falling. Instead, he ended up on his knees, frantically gathering all the books together as everyone in the vicinity turned to stare. She noticed an endearing blush rise on his cheeks and turn his ears pink under his black hair.

  As he piled the books on top of each and prepared to lift them again, she noticed she was holding a statistics textbook.

  “Hey, is this the textbook for McDougle’s class?” she said.

  He glanced over at her. “Oh yeah, it is.”

  “I’ve been looking for this book,” she said. “Can you tell me where it is?”

  His eyes lit up. “Yes,” he said. He turned back the way he’d come. “Down this aisle then over one more and it’s on the top shelf above...” He tilted his head as he looked down at her. “You might not be able to reach it. I could get it for you.”

  She smiled. “That would be nice.”

  He pointed at his crooked book pile. “Watch those.” Then he darted away, long legs hurdling him down the aisle. She almost expected him to trip over himself the way his legs flailed out. But he stayed upright and disappeared around the back corner.

  She looked down at the pile of books and recognized a lot of them from her class schedule. Was this odd young man taking business as well? Maybe they’d have some of the same classes. He seemed pleasant enough.

  The sound of footsteps caught her attention. She looked up to see him returning, textbook in hand.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Are you in first year business?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Me too,” she said. She held out her hand. “I’m Alexa Hammond.”

  He shook her hand with just the right amount of pressure. “I’m Sebastian Lockhart, fresh from Michigan and looking forward to warmer climates in the winter. Sort of, I guess.”

  She laughed as he bent to retrieve his books.

  It was the beginning of their friendship, the beginning of the end of her life.

  Alexa jolted upright out of the bed. Sweat covered her body. Yuck, she hated that, it was such a... such a... human reaction. She jumped out of the bed and bolted for the bathroom, tearing her clothes off as she went. She leapt into the shower and yanked the tap on full blast. Under the scalding water, she rubbed her hands all over her body, as if she could wash the dream off. Sure, it had given her what she wanted, a memory of him mentioning Michigan which gave her a place to focus on, but it had also reminded her of how it felt to be human. She remembered first arriving at the college, the mix of excitement and anxiety. Making new friends, like Sebastian, who she came to care for, hanging out with him, laughing, joking around, smiling at how he always spilled food on his shirts and how he obsessively tried to hide it from her. Meeting Charlie, in so many ways the exact opposite of the frantic, neurotic Sebastian but complementing him, and the easy friendship between them. How comfortable she felt with them, always safe, always reliable, even as her feelings for Sebastian deepened over the years.

  She shoved her face under the steaming shower, hissing at the hot water burning her skin. Enough! She didn’t want to remember any more. That wasn’t her any more, that person was dead and gone. Those hopes and dreams were meaningless. She didn’t care about them any more!

  Finally the scalding water pulled her back into her body, erasing the edge from her thoughts. When the water turned cold, she shut off the tap and stood dripping in the center of the bathroom floor. The human memories and emotions faded, leaving a simmering anger at the indignity of them.

  With a snarl, she snatched the towel from the towel bar with such force one end of the bar came out of the wall. She scrubbed at her hair and then dried her body off. She moved into the bedroom and yanked her clothes on. She spotted the man lying on the floor between the bed and the wall. Even from here, she could tell he didn’t have a drop left in him. She’d drained him dry. So why was she starving?

  That damned remembering took up too much energy. She would have to feed again. She checked the clock on the nightstand under the lamp. Only twelve thirty. Not that long. She might be able to sneak into one of the rooms and feed a little off one of the other travellers.

  But even as she thought that she realized that wasn’t what she wanted. Not even close. She wanted more than a taste, more than even a feeding.

  She wanted a massacre.

  She thought that Constantine would approve.

  She left the room and headed back for the office. She wanted a good idea of the number of visitors so she could come up with a plan. Opening the door slowly stopped the bell from tinkling and she slipped inside. In the darkness, she found the sign-in book, a quaint, old-fashioned check-in method that they still employed. From the book she could tell only half the rooms were rented, most around back, facing away from the road.

  Perfect.

  While she was here, she might as well get started.

  She found the old man and his wife up in their bedroom, above the office. The man didn’t make a peep as she sliced his throat open. The wife woke up as the splash of blood hit her in the face. She gasped, opening her eyes, her hands fluttering up in confusion. At the sight of Alexa straddling her husband, blood staining her top, mouth full of fangs smiling widely, the woman opened her mouth to scream. Alexa fell on her, stifling the scream as she wrenched the woman’s head aside and plunged her teeth into the jugular vein.

  The aborted scream ended in a gurgle.

  When she left, Alexa tore out the sign-in sheet from the book and decided to start at one end of the motel and work her way back toward her room.

  Using the master key from the office, she opened the first door and found a man sleeping alone in a queen size bed. He didn’t even wake up as she ripped his head from his body. The next room held a man and woman. For sport, she killed the woman first, slicing up the torso with her claws. The man woke up, yelled when he saw Alexa and lunged for the door. She let him get two paces from it before she fell on him, dragging him to the floor as she broke his neck.

  The next two rooms were empty. The following room was another single man. For fun, she turned the overhead light on, jolting him awake. At the sight of her fangs and the blood staining her shirt and smeared across her face, the man jumped from his bed and actually made it to the bathroom before she caught up with him. He slammed the door in her face and locked it. Fantastic! This was great fun! She giggled to herself as her claws dug into the crevices around the door and pulled. The bathroom had no exit.

  He’d trapped himself.

  Yanking off the door took less than half a minute. When she stepped into the bathroom, she found the man trying to squeeze his way out of the small window above the toilet. He managed to
get his shoulder and head out but was stuck. She laughed when she saw him, then sliced into the femoral artery in his leg. He yelled for almost five seconds before she drained enough from him to shut him up.

  She left the room, wiping her mouth. Hmm, maybe it hadn’t been so smart to let him start yelling like that. Although none of the doors had opened yet, she could smell an increase in adrenaline wafting on the air. The few remaining people were awake now. She would have to move fast.

  This was more fun than she’d expected.

  But as she turned to leave and dispatch the last few she caught a glimpse of the clock. After one now. Hmm, she wouldn’t be able to spend the day here, not after the mess she made. She’d have to finish up fast and find somewhere else.

  No more time for games.

  The last three rooms (two couples and a single) took her less than five minutes. She swept through like a scythe, cutting them down before moving to the next. She didn’t even bother feeding much. She was already full and could barely force down a mouthful or two.

  She circled back to her room and dug out the keys to the car from the man who’d given her a ride. That car had enough gas to get her far enough from here, she knew. She pocketed them and then returned to one of the other cars. She siphoned off some gas and spilled it through each of the rooms. Returning to her car, she lit a match and tossed it into the room.

  Fire whooshed up. It tasted the gasoline and seemed to like the flavor.

  She returned to the car and got into the driver’s side. She backed out to the edge of the parking lot and waited, watching. Sure enough, the fire began to spread, sending arms of orange destruction to embrace the other rooms. Black smoke drifted into the night sky, blotting out the stars.

  Alexa gunned the engine and took off. She’d find somewhere to hole up for the day. At least now she had a destination.

  Michigan.

  And Callum.

  Part One: Retribution

  CHAPTER 1

  Even without light, Sebastian could see well enough in the early morning hours. Most of the lights in this parking lot had been broken or burned out, especially near the back alley. Rumors of something back there had caught the ear of the local In-Between, a man named Hanson and an old friend of Jessica’s. He’d called in a favor that she had to return and here Sebastian was again, dressed in the camouflage of black pants and a black long sleeved top, crouching behind a dented dumpster, peering around the corner into an alley.

  All he wanted to do was get home but that had turned out to be easier said than done. Now with the clan heads gone, destroying any semblance of vampire structure, vampires roamed like animals, killing indiscriminately. Then when the police tracked them down, the vampires slaughtered them, leaving a trail of blood and destruction behind. The In-Between were stretched to the limit trying to stop them all. While the vampires were organized into clans, they hunted together. But now with the clans dissolved, all bonds had shattered and the vampires spread out alone. According to In-Between intelligence, the majority of vampires were in Europe, spreading down the Mediterranean toward Africa.

  North America had to wait.

  This last one, he thought. He’d finish this favor for Hanson and then he was heading home. He didn’t care that it was somehow easier for him to stop the vampires than the others. He didn’t care if they were stretched thin. He had to get home.

  His eye caught movement at the end of the alley. He made a slashing motion behind him. A moment later, he heard the crunch of gravel. The figure of a woman, clad in the same black outfit as him, stepped forward. In the darkness, he admired how the fabric smoothed over her curves, the sweep of her dark hair pulled away from her face into a pony tail that fell to her mid-back. She didn’t often let her hair hang free but he liked it when she did, when the soft brown waves flowed around her face and tickled his nose. He blinked the image away as she slipped near.

  “How many?” Jessica whispered.

  “Can’t see,” he said.

  “Feel?” she said.

  He pressed his lips tight together. Her hand touched his arm, her indication that she knew he didn’t like it but it was necessary.

  Dammit, it seemed necessary too many times lately.

  He looked out at the alley entrance, willing them to move out, betray themselves without his having to do anything. Again he caught a hint of movement but they didn’t come out. Did they somehow sense his presence the way he could sense theirs?

  He never kept any of them alive long enough to find out.

  He gave a nod to Jessica. She released his arm. He heard the gravel crunch again as she drew back. Her voice murmured into her walkie talkie, letting the others know to stay back until her signal.

  Sebastian was going to Influence the vampires again.

  He stared into the darkness of the alley. The familiar tones of Jessica’s murmuring voice faded to a dull buzz in his ears. He felt the mouth of the alley expand, as if he were falling toward it. Then he was past it, feeling the scrape of feet on uneven asphalt, the heavy cloying stench of garbage and decay in his nostrils. In their nostrils. Three of them. He could feel them now. Still some remembrance of the clan in them. They clung together, whispering Xavier’s name, their clan head, even though he had burned in an inferno six months before. They were loyal, they remembered. They would build up again.

  The drive was strongest in one male. The other two, a female and another male, responded to the drive, desperate to bow down to someone. That first male retained just enough intelligence to be dangerous, just enough to maybe pull together a small clan of his own.

  And he sensed the In-Between out here.

  That’s why he wouldn’t show himself at the mouth of the alley.

  But Sebastian could feel his desperation. The night was growing shorter. They probably had enough coverage for the day in the alley but that only worked if no one knew they were there. But with the In-Between staking them out... They would have to make a move.

  Come to me, Sebastian thought. He gave it an extra push of urgency.

  He felt the stutter in the vampire’s mind, almost like a skip in his thoughts. He edged closer to the alley mouth. The others followed faithfully because that was what they did. They followed him, went where he pointed, killed when he commanded. Especially that one lovely young couple with the baby. The baby had the sweetest cry and even sweeter taste...

  Sebastian jolted back. His arm hit the dumpster, upsetting his balance and he fell on his rump. Jessica darted forward.

  “What is it?”

  “A baby,” he said. “They ate a baby.”

  “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” she said.

  “I can’t connect back,” he said. “They’re close to the mouth of the alley. There’s three of them.”

  Her hand squeezed his arm. “Okay. You wait here.”

  She turned away, muttering orders into the walkie talkie. Hanson and three others began to move. Jessica pulled out a machete and went after them.

  Sebastian climbed to his feet, holding onto the dumpster. His head throbbed. He wished it was as simple as hearing the vampires and not what it was actually like; feeling them, almost being them. He had to get close into their heads like that before he could Influence them. Now he’d pulled out because he was squeamish about babies, leaving Hanson, Jessica and the others to go in without him.

  Brilliant move, Sebastian.

  A yell sounded from the alley. One of Hanson’s men. Dammit! He looked around for a weapon but of course Jessica hadn’t left him one. She didn’t want him in on the fighting, not when he was their secret weapon.

  Not so secret and pretty damned useless at the moment.

  Okay, focus. Let the memories of their horrors wash by him. They didn’t matter. Taking control did. He had to fight his own way and dammit, he was going to do it.

  He stared at the alley and again felt the strange sensation of rushing toward it. Now he felt power and adrenaline coursing through him. The hunger to fight, to
kill, to drink. Desire filled him, almost overpowering all other thoughts. He could get lost in it if he wasn’t careful. Detach just a little, pull back... Now he could concentrate on the three of them. The female and two males. He focused on the lead male first, the one with the most coherent thoughts. The blood urge surged around Sebastian. He could feel his body tingle with it. Slow down, he thought. Time for rest. He let his own shoulders drop and felt an echo from the alley. The vampire slowed. His claws lowered from the attack. His head drooped.

  Now Sebastian widened his focus, brought in the other two vampires. They were a bit more challenging because of their more animal natures, but in different ways, easier. He focused on them having fed, feeling bloated and lethargic. The memories of victims rushed through his mind. He tried not to pay attention but the images commanded it. Men, women, children. He tried to turn away, focus on the vampires, on making them tired. He could feel them weakening, feel their focus slip...

  Then shock as one was decapitated. Sebastian slammed back into the dumpster. A shudder ran through his body. Yelling and screaming sounded around him but it seemed to come from a distance. Nothing to do with him. Pain shot through his head, pushing all sound farther into the background, muddying it into nothing. He felt hands on his shoulders. Someone in front of his face. But his vision felt doubled, here by the dumpster and in the alley. He was in both places. He was in neither place. Where was he? Who was he? Blood, pain whirled in his mind. Faces, so many faces...

  He collapsed to the ground.

  “You should have told me you were going to try again.”

  The anger in Jessica’s voice cut through the haze of pain in his head. He blinked the blurriness from his eyes. She stood across the room beside the window, her arms crossed over her chest, her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that trailed over her shoulder and halfway down her back. She still wore the same black outfit, now smudged with dirt. Her frown told him she was as much afraid for him than angry. When she noticed him looking, she turned away, staring through the sheer white curtains of the window.