“What about my sisters?” I asked, recalling the prophecy.
“We will search together,” he said, kissing me again.
Lifting me in his arms, Alec cradled me against his chest and we ascended into the dark sky.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Somewhere where I can do what I have been dreaming of doing every night since the last time I saw you,” he told me.
His words sent waves of heat through me, and the best part was that this time, I wouldn’t be dreaming.
Chapter Four
Lex
From a distance, I watched the vampire take her away. I’d followed the girl from New Orleans; just to be sure she was safe. For months now, I’d been watching Miss Nicole Ashe.
Nothing could happen to her. She was too important to the future, and not just the future of the vampires, but of the world. Only through her and other like her could the vampire ever hope to reach the light.
While watching over Nicole, I was protecting my own granddaughter, and possibly earning redemption for myself.
There was a storm coming. I could feel it deep in my bones. The world as we know it was about to change and Nicole was to play a significant part in calming of that storm. Even now, Omar was gathering his army and gaining strength. The old ones were determined to bring back the Sires. If that happened, only God knew where the world would end up.
The sisters had to prevail. They would bridge the gap between darkness and light. It had already started. Nicole bringing Alec Norwood into the fold was a massive accomplishment, but there was still much to do.
Closing my eyes, I prayed for God to watch over the sisters and show them mercy. For now, Nicole’s vampire lover was watching over her, but who was protecting the others?
The Immortal Sisters, and others that were born with the ability to bridge the darkness were precious gifts. Someone had to be watching out for them.
Chapter Five
Sarah
Oregon Coast
Gasping, I tried to breathe but the air was so hot, I could feel it stinging my throat and lungs. The stinging pain in my legs drew my attention. That’s when I saw that the flames were reaching for the thick fabric of my skirt.
Soon the skirt would catch fire and sear the flesh on my legs.
Still, I refused to cry out.
That’s what they wanted. They wanted to hear me beg for my life, but it wouldn’t happen.
Raising my head, I stared out at those who had gathered to watch me burn. The morbid anticipation I saw in their eyes as waited for me to take my last breath was sickening.
To the devil with them all!
The bloodthirsty animals belonged in Hell, with the devil.
In that instant, I felt him, though I still couldn’t see him. He stood apart from the crowd, hiding in the shadows.
I didn’t have to see him. Whenever he was near, I knew.
Even now, his dark whispers filled my head, promising me immortality, if I would only accept his poisonous kiss.
But this was something I would never do.
My skirt caught fire and I felt the flesh on my legs sizzle and blister. The agonizing pain quickly chased away my will to live.
“May God have mercy on your soul.” The clergyman’s voice was weak, drowned out by the angry, unforgiving crowd.
My eyes flew open. I was gasping for air while trying to escape the blankets tangled around my legs.
In that moment I panicked, believing that I was actually burning.
Frantically, I threw the blankets away and examined my legs for burns, but there was none.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I fell back onto my pillows and closed my eyes. I tried to banish the nightmare from my head but it had been so real.
It had to be stress!
I’d been under way too much stress. The last week of the Spring Semester had been hell, literally. Now the stress was finally catching up to me.
The nightmare didn’t mean anything. It was just my overworked brain trying to work through too many finals and essays. As long as I kept telling myself this, it wasn’t too difficult to relax enough that I managed to drift into sleep.
I’d just started to doze, the double windows in my bedroom burst open and a strong wind blew through the room.
Stunned, I sat up and stared at the windows.
The wind tore at the lavender curtains, shredding one panel and nearly pulling it off the curtain rod.
Slipping from beneath the blankets, I made my way to the window. A full moon hung in the night sky but it was obscured by the storm clouds that were gathering over the sea.
That’s when I heard it. Someone was calling my name from the darkness below, in the garden.
The voice was so faint that it was barely audible. “Sarah.”
I held my breath, waiting to see if I would hear the voice again.
Had it been my imagination?
“Sarah.” The soft male voice seemed to drift on the wind.
Leaning out the window, I searched the shadows below, but there was no one there, no one that I could see anyway. Nothing seemed out of place in Aunt Jeanie’s perfectly manicured garden.
A sudden gust of wind shoved me back from the window. Pushing against the gale, I forced the windows shut.
Sleep was out of the question now. Although the voice had likely been a product of my imagination, if I tried to sleep, I’d end up tossing and turning for hours.
Slipping on my robe, I grabbed the book I’d been reading the night before and picked up where I’d left off. Reading always helped me to relax when I was wound up too tight.
As soon as I crawled back into my bed, the windows flew open again.
What the hell?
That was odd. I was sure I’d secured them pretty well.
“Sarah.” The voice floated through the open window.
Now this was too weird!
Leaving my bed, I walked to the window. Pulling the curtains back, I peered down into the gardens again.
But this time, there was someone there. The figure was lurking in the shadows, near the hedge maze. He wasn’t in plain sight but he wasn’t exactly hiding either.
The man was staring up at my window but that wasn’t the strangest part. His eyes had an odd radiance to them that made them appear to glow.
As I watched him, my eyes adjusted so that I could see him better. He wasn’t just gorgeous, but totally hot. There was a strange beauty to him that I’d never seen in another man, but there was also a darkness about him that sent a chill down my spine. Even from a distance, I could feel the danger. A sense of foreboding settled around me like a cloak of darkness.
The man’s aura was so dark that it literally took my breath away, but at the same time, there was something enchanting about him.
An idea hit me.
Maybe it was my time to go and the Angel of Death had come to collect my soul.
But there were other possibilities. What I was seeing could be a dark specter – a lost soul searching for the light.
As soon as the thought formed, I could actually feel the man’s amusement. He knew what I was thinking and found it laughable.
Feeling his emotion wasn’t so strange. For as long as I could remember I’d been able to pick up on the emotions of others, at least some of the time.
It was doubtful that I’d feel anything from a dark spirit except for evil and despair, so I quickly scratched that idea. An angel was out of the question too. The only thing I knew for sure was that here had come for me. I was as sure of this as I was my own name.
I thought about backing away from the window but my legs seemed to have a will of their own and they weren’t budging.
It happened so fast that at first I so stunned that I couldn’t think, let alone accept what I was seeing.
I was no longer looking at the shadows in the garden. I wasn’t even standing at the window.
The man’s face was mere inches from mine. I saw anger in his eyes, but there
was also a silent plea.
We were both lying on a bed and he had his arms around me. He seemed to be pleading with me for something – something that I could not bring myself to do.
The vision was more like a memory that I couldn’t quite bring into full view. Gradually, the vision faded and I was again standing at the window. Although I was back where I was supposed to be, I was left with the uncontrollable urge to go to the man, to reach out and caress his face, to kiss his lips.
As soon as the thought entered my mind, I slammed the door on it. The very idea was too terrifying to contemplate.
As if he’d read my mind, the dark figure bent forward in a mocking bow, before disappearing into the shadows.
Chapter Six
Darrien
Turning away from the girl, I walked away.
It would have been easy to ride upon the winds and take her from the window, to steal away her last breath and extract the life force that flowed through her veins, but I couldn’t do it. Not yet.
The sight of her standing at the window was tantalizing. It was in the way the wind blew through her long, auburn hair and her silk nightgown fluttered behind her like the wings of an angel. Seeing her like that had stirred a desire deep within me.
Not only was the image bewitching, but it inflamed my hunger for blood and my lust for something else.
I could have taken her while she stood at that window, lost in her visions, and I should have taken her.
If only the memories hadn’t picked that moment to intrude. They were images that I’d banished long ago and now the pain of those memories was fresh in my mind once again. It was those memories that brought out the anguish that festered in my soul.
But why was I thinking of her now?
I had a job to do.
Centuries ago, I’d discovered that for a vampire, nothing mattered but the moment. That was the only way to remain sane. If you dwelled too long on the past and all you had lost, it would send you into madness.
Nothing would convince me to dwell in that pain for too long. I’d become quite adept at forgetting, which was exactly what I intended to do now.
My thoughts returned to the girl.
She was strong enough to resist the calling of the vampire, but she wouldn’t hold out for long. It was my job to see that she didn’t.
It was my job to see that she died.
Chapter Seven
Sarah
As I descended the long, spiral staircase to the first floor, the aroma of breakfast cooking had my stomach growling. When I entered the kitchen, Aunt Jeanie was at the stove, flipping pancakes.
Aunt Jeanie was way ahead of me. She’d already dressed for the day and probably had half the household chores done already. But that was my aunt. I couldn’t remember a single morning that she wasn’t up with the sun.
“I hope you’re hungry. I’ve made us a huge breakfast,” she said over her shoulder as she flipped another pancake.
“Smells great. Thanks,” I told her.
Jeanie was in her forties but she still looked great. True, she didn’t exactly have great taste in fashion, but physically she was in good shape, though slightly on the chunky side. Usually, my aunt wore her long red hair in a bun and I rarely saw her in any color other than black.
The loose fitting black dress she was wearing just screamed witch. That wasn’t too odd, considering Jeanie was a witch. I just thought it was something she should be a little more discreet about.
The kitchen was one of my favorite places in the old Victorian house. The windows were huge and let in an abundance of morning sunshine. During the warmer months, we often ate breakfast with the windows open so that we could enjoy the salty sea air.
“Have a seat,” Jeanie said as she set a plate full of pancakes on the table.
A moment ago I’d been starving but now I could barely taste the food. Finally, Jeanie sat in her chair at the table. “What’s on your mind, Sarah? You’ve been doing more playing with your food than eating it. Have you been away so long that you forgot what a real breakfast is?”
I shook my head. “No, the pancakes are delicious.”
It was true. Jeanie was a fantastic cook and her home cooked meals were one of the things I’d missed most while I’d been away, attending college.
Jeanie narrowed her eyes. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“There was a man, or something, standing in the garden last night.”
Aunt Jeanie drew her brows together. “What do you mean or something?”
Sighing, I set my fork on the plate. Eating was out of the question until I figured out who or what had called me to the window last night. “What I mean is I don’t think he was human. He almost didn’t seem real. His eyes had this strange radiance to them, but I don’t think he was a ghost.”
A look of shock spread over Jeanie’s face. “A light in his eyes, you say?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “And whoever or whatever he was there was for sure something dark about him.”
“Hmm. Well, you stay clear of him,” she said. Now there was a definite scowl on her face.
Jeanie’s eyes strayed to the kitchen window and got that faraway look that meant she was deep in thought.
I wasn’t about to let it go so easily. “What do you think? Was he real?”
Growing up in Aunt Jeanie’s house, I was somewhat used to things being a little strange. That probably had a lot to do with the fact that we came from a long line of witches. Not only that but I’d been able to see ghosts for as long as I could remember. In most cases, I could usually tell if the person I was seeing was living or dead.
The man I’d seen outside my bedroom window didn’t seem to be dead, but I also got the feeling that he wasn’t alive either.
Jeanie continued looking out the window for several minutes before finally turning back to me. “Oh, he’s probably real enough.”
Without elaborating further, Jeanie got up and started cleaning up the breakfast dishes.
“Well, what was he then?” I asked.
“The summer solstice is this month. I think we’ll pick up this conversation then.”
Leaning back in my chair, I folded my arms. “I’m not so sure I’ll be going.”
“Oh, fiddlesticks! Of course you’re going.” Jeanie waved the suggestion away as if it were the most absurd thing she’d ever heard. “You are probably one of the most talented of the Fabre women in generations. Why wouldn’t you join us?”
“Maybe I just want normal! I’ve never had normal until I went away to school. Everyone in this town thinks we are freaks. The Sutter Point witches!” I scowled.
“Normal is far too overrated,” Jeanie assured me.
For now, it was best to drop it. After I graduated from college, I had every intention of leaving Sutter Point and moving to Portland, but that wouldn’t be for a couple years. It was best to let my aunt think what she wanted.
Chapter Eight
Nicole
Ethan was getting a bad habit of tapping his fingers on his desk whenever he was frustrated, like now. Reading was nearly impossible. I’d read the same paragraph about three times.
Putting the book down, I looked over at my boss. “Really Ethan, you are making it difficult to concentrate. What’s on your mind?”
Frowning, he shook his head. “I just can’t believe that girl on the west coast was a miss. I was so sure she was one of your sisters.”
“And you’re absolutely sure she’s not?” I asked.
He nodded. “I double-checked the results twice. The girl’s DNA came back normal.
She isn’t Donovan’s child.”
I’d been just as surprised as Ethan. Cassie had seemed like the perfect fit. The girl’s family was rumored to have close ties with vampires but it had turned out to be more of a blood cult than actual vampires. Other than the Anderson family’s religion, there were perfectly normal, kind of.
“Well, do you still think the girl we are looking for is on the west coast?�
� I asked.
Ethan nodded. “According to my source.”
“Why doesn’t this source just come out and tell us who and where she is?” I wanted to know. This cloak and dagger stuff was crazy.
“I don’t think he knows for sure. Besides, he can’t interfere with the immortals too much or he risks a war between his kind and ours.”
“But if Omar finds her before we do …” My words trailed off when Dash stepped through the door.
Grabbing the chair in front of my desk, he turned it around and straddled it. “Are we talking about those mysterious vanishing sisters?”
“Were you listening at the door?” I asked, giving him a half smile.
Dash put his thumb and index finger together. “Well, maybe just a bit.”
I answered with a roll of my eyes.
“I’ve heard that Omar has found one of them and that he has sent an assassin to take care of her. At least that’s the whisperings among the vamps,” Dash told us.
“Oh no!” I felt my heart skip a beat. “Are they saying where she’s at?”
“Nope.” Dash shook his head. “Not even a hint.”
“This is why it would have been best if Alec had not revealed his opposition to Omar. He could have gotten this information,” Ethan put in.
“Well, it wasn’t as if he had a lot of choice,” I reminded him.
“Where is that dark sadistic lover of yours anyway?” Dash asked, the amusement obvious in his voice. Dash never missed an opportunity to let me know how odd it was that my lover was a vampire.
I didn’t care. Alec was the light in my soul. It didn’t matter what others thought. Thinking of Alec made me crave his touch. I really missed hearing the sound of his voice, especially when I was feeling down. Every moment away from him was like an eternity.
“Romania,” I told Dash, trying to force my thoughts in another direction. Thinking of Alec was too hard when he was so far away.
“No kidding! He actually left you here alone?” Dash arched one brow.
“He knew you and Ethan would look after me. And let’s not forget the ever watchful eye of my father.”
Dark Enchantment: A Vampire Romance (Immortal Legacy Book 3) Page 2