And now they were laughing again, while Claire died. Mindy was smart with some things. She had hidden talent. Mom whispered that to her, “Don’t worry Mindy, you are a jewel. Don’t let anyone make you feel less.”
Mindy didn’t know how to help Claire. She was too busy trapped inside wordless confusion, but Earth knew, her best friend forever, truly a rock that Mindy depended on when her life became baffling. Mindy asked Earth for help.
Earth opened its heart and let Claire in.
The vampires watched in shock as the sink hole dragged Claire and the vampire down. Mindy clapped her hands.
The vampires lowered her from the van to the ground. She didn’t pay much attention to them. She was watching Earth deal with the vampire.
Behind her, from inside the van she heard Raven ask, “What’s happening?”
A vampire who misunderstood the situation laughed, “Your sister is dying. Come see.”
They helped Raven to the top of the van, which was now really the side, and then off. With rough hands, they dropped her down. Raven turned a horrified look to the hole where Claire had disappeared.
Earth tore the vampire away from Claire. Now it was crushed under rock and dirt. Mindy felt surprise and then relief. Earth’s strength obliterated the vampire into dust as surely as sunlight. The energy for such a task drained from Mindy, she felt exceptionally tired.
Earth could do more, but she needed Mindy. Without Elementals, the Elements flitted about wherever they would go. The Elemental gave the Elements life and consciousness. Earth was aware, but Mindy helped her thoughts become part of a physical reality.
Mindy closed her eyes, feeling a little wobbly. That was okay. Earth was close.
The vampires felt Ruth’s absence like a pulled tooth. One minute her mind was a voice in their head, the next there was an empty space where she had been. A wave of concern fluttered over the vampires. “Where’s Ruth?”
“I don’t feel her anymore, do you?”
“Ruth disappeared.”
“That girl did something.”
“What did she do?”
“Stop her before she hurts someone else.”
One of the vampires stepped forward.
Mindy felt a sharp pain in her head. Little speckles of red and white sparked and faded in her vision. She heard Raven shouting her name…and then everything went black.
Chapter 16
~~ Jade ~~
As the sunlight faded, Jade felt the movement of the vampire clan. She crawled out of the dirt, her fingernails torn from digging, her face filthy. Jade wasn’t herself. The beast filled her thoughts with darkness, with hunger, hate, and fear. Stumbling out of the foliage, Jade discovered the dirt road and the distant memory of her sisters.
She followed the road, trudging along while two halves fought for dominance. In her mind, Gladys beckoned.
The vampires were on the move. In large groups they cross the state. Jade knew they were looking for her sisters with revenge on their minds. The beast inside her wanted revenge, too. Jade clenched her teeth, angry at the images flashing through her mind.
The vampires were close, now. Jade stepped from the dirt road onto the highway. The beast wanted to go toward a specific group of vampires. Jade wanted to go toward her sisters. Jade won that round. She dragged the beast with her, stomping down the highway, each footstep a triumph.
The beast’s anger was her anger, and she used it as fuel to keep going. The beast’s desire to turn around faded, and Jade realized that Gladys and three other vampires had almost caught up to her. She must have been walking for over an hour. If Gladys was driving, it made sense that they would catch up.
Jade was on a long straight stretch when a Saturn station wagon pulled up. Gladys leaned out the passenger-side window. She said, “Get in.”
The beast won that fight. Jade was sitting in the back seat with a sense of alarm before she even knew she was moving. She didn’t recognize the driver who took no time in accelerating to the speed limit. Jade felt a brief moment of satisfaction that she’d gotten dirt all over the Saturn’s back seat, but it was short lived. She was hurtling down the highway with a carload of vampires, after all.
“I’m glad you’ve decided to join us,” Gladys said. She rolled the window down, letting the night’s cold breeze enter the car.
“I haven’t,” Jade said. She recognized a sense of claim in the words Gladys used and refuted them.
“Your sisters will make great vampires, except the youngest. I’m afraid we won’t have much use for her.”
“If you hurt any of my sisters, I will kill you,” Jade gritted her teeth. The beast fawned all over Gladys, and Jade hated the way her thoughts followed the beasts. Still, Jade was holding her own.
“Let’s not worry about that for now. You’ve had a rough morning. We’ll get you to a safe house. You can get cleaned up,” Gladys turned on the stereo, which was just as well, because her tone sounded false. Gladys was angry.
They drove for a few hours before turning off the highway. Jade had no idea where they were but the road was a country road and soon they were at an A-frame house with six manufactured homes around it. Jade could guess where she would end up. Two of the homes were built to be prisons with fences around the home. The beast forced the car door open, even though Jade struggled against it.
She realized that in the presence of other vampires, she was weaker…or the beast was stronger. Jade followed Gladys in, fighting every step of the way. She looked drunk, stumbling three steps away before lurching back. If Gladys noticed she didn’t say anything.
Gladys left clothes for her in the bathroom, a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans as well as a bra and underwear. Jade was hesitant about the underwear, but they had to be cleaner than what she was wearing. After undressing she looked in the mirror.
What she saw sickened her.
Jade closed her eyes and leaned against the sink, her gorge rising. Her eyes were bloodshot. Fangs protruded from her gums. Her hair was matted and filthy with leaves, twigs, and dirt. When she removed her clothes, her body was pale having lost the summer tan that she’d developed from swimming in the past few months.
Her body felt like it was someone else’s, like it belonged to the beast.
When she thought that, she felt the beast’s excitement. It was electrified by the thought of owning her, of having this body all to itself. It needed one thing from Jade.
The beast wanted her to let go, to disown herself.
Thousands of people had done it in the past. Every vampire that ever lived had to agree to the bond. Jade wondered what the alternative would be.
Death.
The beast whispered the thought in her mind like a frost-bitten breeze after a snow storm.
“It’s my body, and I’m staying,” Jade said. Stepping into the shower, Jade was grateful for the warmth. Even here, the beast fought for supremacy. Jade wouldn’t give it an inch. At any moment that she realized it wanted something, she did the opposite. She had to be stubborn. She had to be tough.
Apparently giving in was all too easy. She found herself walking out of the bathroom against her own wishes.
~~ Amy ~~
Amy sprinted across the open field. Anyone looking out of any window in the mansion would see her, and there were far too many people. By the time she reached the woods, she was out of breath. She didn’t stop there. Amy had to put as much distance between herself and the mansion as possible.
Amy couldn’t say how long she ran through trees without seeing so much as a road. Her plan had been to find a road and follow it out, but before she ever saw a sign of civilization, she heard the sound of the sea and smelled the salt air.
The ground changed and the trees became scrubbier. The Oregon coast was thick with people. Maybe not as many as the east coast, but she should be able to find someone to help. Amy fully expected to discover houses or a campground before reaching the water.
Her feet were tired and the inside of her left foo
t was developing blisters. Amy wanted to remove her shoes and rub her feet, but she didn’t dare take the time. As soon as Tony found out she was missing, he’d come after her, probably with his goon squad.
Soil gave way to sand.
Amy climbed a sand dune, the ocean’s roar close. No sea gulls greeted her, nor was there any sign of life, human or otherwise. When Amy climbed over the dune, she stared in dismay.
It was the ocean.
But it was covered in mist. The fog stopped a few feet from the shoreline, as if an invisible wall of fog had been built along the shore. The Keepers had their own gifts of the Universe. Perhaps one mastered the fog.
Amy reached out to Water and Air.
No one answered.
It wasn’t that Amy was weak or tired. That was what scared her the most. Water and Air just weren’t there. With a breeze blowing off the ocean, Amy should have had a strong connection. Instead she had silence.
Amy walked to the edge. The water didn’t feel like the Oregon coast. It was colder, more alien. The color of the water itself was purple and black and untouched by the sun. It was as if the sun’s rays stopped with the mist. Amy was standing in sunlight. She could feel the warmth, but as she stepped closer to the water, the mist somehow dimmed the light and reduced the warmth.
People always lived by the coast. Amy decided that the best thing she could do was keep going. Even with blisters on her feet, she had to find help soon, before they discovered her missing.
Amy walked for hours with growing concern. As she walked, the beach curved. It was always an inland curve. In all that time, she hadn’t seen a gull, turn, or a sand piper. There were no houses and no roads.
The mist remained.
As did the curve.
Hours later, exhausted and aching, Amy found a set of footprints. She followed them until with growing horror, she realized that they were her own. She recognized a rock she had seen before.
Feeling frustrated and angry, Amy sat down on the rock and pulled off her sneakers. She peeled off her socks. The blister was huge, but it hadn’t broken yet. Amy thought about swimming out. The mist still hung heavy on the water.
Leaving her tennis shoes with socks tucked inside next to the rock, Amy walked down to the water. She had to get off the island.
The waves lapped against her toes. The water was freezing cold. She wouldn’t last a half hour swimming in that kind of temperature. She heard a horn, not a fog horn, but a deeper and more musical sound.
In the distance she could see a boat.
She jumped up and down, screaming for the captain to come in, her arms waving frantically. The boat glided smoothly through the water, oblivious to the waves, turning in her direction.
Amy felt a chill when the captain was close enough to see. He belonged to the void with his skeletal features and empty face. He beckoned with bony fingers, and Amy knew she had a way off the island.
The Keepers might have kidnapped her and were certainly capable of killing her. The fear she felt in their presence was like a mosquito bite compared to the fear she felt of the Void. Turning, she fled the beach, ignoring her shoes and running for cover.
Rocks and thorns poked her feet but she didn’t stop even when she was out of sight. The blisters on her foot broke, and still she ran, back to the forest, back to the center of the island. If she was very very lucky, the Keepers might even take her back.
Chapter 17
~~ Claire ~~
Claire hated the dirt.
She was inching her way through a tomb, head-first.
There wasn’t enough air in the tunnel. It was dusty and every breath brought particles into her mouth. She could taste rock. Coughing, she moved forward, nearly falling when the tunnel opened into a cavern.
Claire froze.
The air was fresh by comparison, but she had no concept of depth. There might be a hundred foot drop below her. Claire couldn’t say how long she waited in the dark, in a tomb of her sister’s design. Not that Mindy meant to kill her, no more than Claire meant to hurt Mindy earlier. They were just so very different.
Crawling back until she was back in the tunnel, Claire curled up, lying flat, her cheek pressed against the dirt. She wanted Mom. Jade was the oldest. Mom always talked about how much she relied on her. Mindy was the youngest. Mom always fawned over Mindy. Raven was the strongest, and even when they were fighting, Mom liked Raven’s spirit.
But Claire…she was the quiet one, the awkward one. She might as well be a lesser carbon copy of Raven. They got the same black tresses and green eyes. At least Jade had lovely reddish brown hair, distinct and unique from her sisters. Not Claire, she could disappear and not even be missed. Not when she had an older sister just like her who was stronger, prettier, and better.
She closed her eyes, not that it made a difference in the pitch black of the tunnel. The air was thin. Claire thought that she should fight harder. Jade called her spoiled. The memory hurt her feelings. In school there was always a moral tale to be told about the good sister who did her chores and was justly rewarded and the bad sister who refused to help and thus came to an ignoble end.
Claire knew which sister she was. She’d been offended by the stories. She didn’t know how to be the perfect daughter, the sweet Cinder Ella, Goose Girl, Snow White combination who always smiled even when sweeping the floors or dusting the house. She was the evil step-sister, the wicked witch, the spoiled brat.
Tears dripped onto her nose.
Water spoke to her.
Claire?
Claire?
Claire lifted her head. Water had found her even in Earth’s domain. She said, “I’m here.”
Come forward so that you can turn around.
Claire did as Water asked. It was a leap of faith to push her way out of the tunnel, but Water was waiting. It filled the hole, meeting her at the opening. Feeling secure in Water’s embrace, Claire pushed out of the tunnel and into the water. Once she felt safe, water retracted, and Claire found herself standing in a little cavern sized just for her.
The earth trembled and then was silent.
Water shivered, They hurt your sister.
“Which one?” Claire had three sisters, and the vampires certainly didn’t like any of them.
“Earth.” Water spoke of Mindy. Claire grabbed at the wall when the Earth shook again. Dirt fell from the top of the tunnel.
“Will it hold?”
Earth is strong. If she doesn’t lose her head, it will hold. She is angry. I think we should leave.
“What about Mindy? Is she okay?” Claire fell when the Earth shook again, grumbling with sorrow and anger.
She is silent. Earth is trying to reach her, but she will not answer.
That could mean a lot of things, but Claire thought of what Mindy had just saved her from. The vampire who had jumped her was ready to choke the life out of her. When Mindy removed Claire from their grasp, of course the vampires would be angry. And she would be their next target.
“Mindy,” Claire whispered. She jumped toward the tunnel, grabbing for rocks, trying to pull herself up. The tunnel was over her head and she couldn’t get back up.
“Help me!” Claire begged Water. She had to find Mindy, had to save her.
Claire tried to become Water, so that she could flow quickly up the tunnel, but she hadn’t slept well the past few nights and found it impossible to concentrate. Water lifted her up the tunnel, but both were tired, and the movement through Earth’s halls slow. Claire clenched her teeth as she felt the time slipping away. Minutes and more minutes passed.
“Has Earth felt Mindy yet?” Claire and Water moved up the tunnel at a snail’s pace. Water was exhausted, gathering upon itself to lift Claire.
The Blood are taking your sisters away. They will be gone long before we reach the surface. Air is safe.
Raven was safe for now, but not Mindy. Earth surrounded Claire, weakening her. Not on purpose, but it was the nature of her personality and Earth, of her affiliation with
Water.
They traveled to the surface.
As she stepped into the cold night, Claire knew that the vampires would be gone. As she crawled out of the hole, she had no idea how alone she would feel.
~~ Raven ~~
Raven was too far away when the vampire struck Mindy to do any good. She fought like a tornado to get to her sister’s side. She didn’t waste any breath screaming at the vampires. She used every last ounce of strength in attack.
The garlic saved her.
The vampires felt repulsion even while they held her down. It was like a woman afraid of spiders being forced to hold one. The vampires didn’t like garlic in the least.
When one let go, she yanked her hand quickly from the other vampire. The sudden release made her fall forward. She barely got her hands up in time to catch her fall.
Raven could hardly stand. She half-stumbled, half-crawled to Mindy’s side. Mindy’s head was bleeding, quite a bit. Raven took off her jacket and covered her sister with it. Because she didn’t have anything to stop the bleeding, she put her hands over her sister’s blood-matted hair.
The vampire who struck Mindy stood over them like a sentinel. Raven wanted to stab him through with a branch. Mindy needed her, and there were too many vampires to fight. She’d just wind up dead and unable to do anything.
“Cooperate and you’ll both live,” the vampire said.
“Right. Because you did all this so that we could then go on our merry way,” Raven said, waving her arms at the van and the vampires milling about, waiting for something to happen.
A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) Page 17