I thought perhaps if he couldn’t remember on his own that I could help him by trying to get inside his mind. We could perform the ritual again that helped us mask our mental signature from Samuel and get our solid connection again. If only I could see inside his head right now this would all be over quickly. We had all been through enough and I especially didn’t want Gavin to have to go through anything more.
I knew right now he didn’t have the mental energy to attempt that, but perhaps I could still see inside him if I tried hard enough. I gently positioned myself close to him so that our heads could touch slightly and closed my eyes.
The darkness ebbed and flowed and I allowed myself to be taken into the churning blackness of his mind. I focused as hard as I could to see if anything would come up. There were many random images running through Gavin’s head at the moment. Maggie, our kitchen, my face. I was seeing his dreams. He was dreaming of the comfort and contentment of home, something he had longed for as he laid in the ground.
The faces of everyone he loved flashed by, some so quickly that it was almost hard to catch or make them out. An image of Alexander came up, and with it a feeling of great sadness. The young boy’s face triggered a flood of desperation and fear.
I wondered if Holly had told him of the transformation gone wrong when I had been asleep. He had no reason to associate him with those emotions otherwise.
Suddenly there was a loud crash from the kitchen and the sound of boots thumping hard against the floor filled the little house. Our connection broke as the bedroom door flew open revealing a team of hunters. They stared at us with eyes permanently darkened and oversize fangs bared. Each of them were armed with a stake and eyeing Gavin like they were eager to kill.
“He’s coming with us,” one of them said. I threw myself over Gavin and began screaming.
“You can’t take him! You can’t!”
Gavin sprang to life and the connection I had formed a few moments ago let me feel the full extent of his fear and confusion. “What’s going on?”
“You’re coming with us to answer for your crimes pretty boy.”
“He hasn’t done anything,” I screamed at them. “He’s innocent. I want to talk to Angus.”
“Don’t worry sweetheart,” one of them said. “You’ll get plenty of time to talk to Angus before tomorrow night. Not that it will do any good, but he will get a trial.”
“You’re lucky you got caught today and not a few days ago,” one of them said to him while lifting me off him and throwing me down onto the floor. “It was kill on sight until then. I’ve dreamed of killing you myself but I guess we will have to settle for watching your maker do it.”
I saw the fear in his eyes as they lifted his weakened body from the bed and dragged him away. His gaze connected with mine pleading for help.
“I’m going to get you out. I promise,” I said. “You’re going to be free.” And with that they carried him off slamming the door behind them.
Chapter Twenty Eight
I was beside myself. A few moments ago my husband had been here, quietly and safely tucked into our bed. Now I had lost him again. I couldn’t bear the thought of having gone through all of this only to see him staked. I had to do something but didn’t know what.
I dressed quickly and darted around the house trying to think of something. I needed to prove he didn’t really kill any innocents, but how was I going to do that considering he had been seen doing it? Hell I had witnessed him kill a nymph myself.
I thought about calling Holly or Daniel but I didn’t want to do that until I had calmed down. I slumped down to the kitchen floor and began crying hysterically. It was Ian that I wanted.
Just then, as if my wishing had made it so, the door opened and Ian walked in. He ran over and began examining me looking for an injury. “Are you hurt? Did you fall? You should be in bed,” he said.
“They took him Ian,” I said. “The hunters, they took Gavin to the sanctuary. They said he was going to have a trial. That he didn’t deserve it but he was getting one anyway.” My voice was becoming louder with each passing word. “They’re going to kill him.”
Ian took me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. His voice was calm and steady, his eyes hardened. “No, we’re not going to let that happen.” Somehow his reassurance calmed me and I began to breathe normally again. “I know you’re upset,” he said, “but you have to hold it together.” Pulling me to his chest he hugged me tightly, rubbing his hands up and down my back as I regained control of myself.
I nodded. “What do we do?”
Ian lowered his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. We’ll think of something.”
“Angus,” I said. “We have to go see Angus.” The light came on in Ian’s eyes and he helped me up from the floor.
As we entered the sanctuary I came face to face with a group of vampires from Chapel Island along with a group from St. Peter’s. All of them were staring daggers at me. Eli, the leader of the Chapel Island vampires, snarled and charged toward us.
“You were sheltering him from us,” he said. “You knew he should be brought to justice and you were hiding him.” His fists were balled up at his sides and his eyes had darkened over in evidence of his rage.
“No, it’s not like that,” I said. “He’s innocent.”
Reyna Stone, probably the same vampire who was responsible for Emily Samson’s gruesome death, spoke up. “He was seen killing the humans, and Angus said you saw him killing an innocent creature yourself. How can you say that?”
“You don’t understand. He was...” Ian grabbed my wrist and pulled me away before I could finish my thought.
“Get back here,” she screamed. “This is bullshit!”
“We can’t waste time arguing, you’ll never convince them. We need to get to Angus right now.” I didn’t protest.
We made our way quickly through the darkened winding hallways to the little room Angus occupied. Ian knocked loudly.
“Who’s calling?” the old vampire said. I heard a quiver of something I’ve never heard in his voice before. I wasn’t sure, but I thought perhaps it might be fear.
“It’s Ian and Rachel,” Ian said. The door eased open just enough for Angus to verify us and then it opened wider to let us in.
“Come,” he said.
“Angus what’s going on? Why are all those vampires here?” I said.
Angus turned away from us to face his bookshelf. He ran his hands over the smooth leather covers of the many books that took up space there. Books he had collected over a few hundred years. “They’re here for the trial,” he said.
The hunters told me the trial wouldn’t be until tomorrow. “I’m confused.”
“They’re going to stay until tomorrow night to make sure he’s executed. They’ve threatened reprisal if he’s not.”
When I thought of a trial I assumed vampires followed the innocent until proven guilty system, apparently that wasn’t the case. “What’s the point in having a trial if you already know the outcome? Won’t they listen to reason?”
“And what the hell do they mean by reprisal?” Ian said.
He turned toward me, his eyes filled with anger. “Oh child,” he said, his anger quickly turning to pity. “There’s so much you don’t understand. It pains me to see you suffer like this, it really does. We did you no favors turning you. I’m sorry you’ll have to watch your maker be staked by his maker, but there’s nothing to be done.” He turned away once again and facing the bookshelf he added, “They’ve threatened a cleansing on us.”
“A cleansing?” I said.
Ian turned to me, “It means they’ll kill or drive out all the vampires in Soldiers Cove if they don’t get what they want.”
So that was it. Angus had made up his mind that Gavin was going to die. Even knowing he was innocent Angus would kill him for the sake of protecting the clan. He was my last hope and now I felt my knees wanting to give out. Perhaps we were truly lost.
&nb
sp; “Angus, Holly said Gavin had to have been buried in the woods for at least five or six weeks. There’s no way he could have done all those things. If you have John stake him then whoever did that will still be running around free and more people could die.”
“She’s right,” Ian said. “If others start dying what then?”
Angus smoothed his shock of red hair with his hands in frustration, and then slammed his fist into the bookshelf sending at least a dozen or so flying. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I can’t risk the life of every vampire in this clan for the sake of one.”
Ian and I exchanged a look. If he didn’t know then what the hell were we supposed to do?
“I want to see him,” I said. Angus nodded and led us out of the room.
This was familiar territory to me. Gavin and I had spent a night in this cell together after I had fed for the first time. Being a newborn vampire I had no restraint when I smelled blood, and we ended up here. Me for killing, and him for not being around to stop me.
The guard opened the door and Ian moved forward to step inside also. I placed my hand against his chest to let him know I wanted to go in alone. His eyes grew sad but he reached out and stroked my hair in understanding.
The door creaked shut behind me and I crossed the room to where Gavin was laying. He looked weaker than before. The only thing he had to lie on was a thin blanket on the floor with a small pillow for support. I sat cross legged next to him and reached out for his hand. He was sleeping a restless sleep, groaning as if in pain, but when I touched him his eyes fluttered open.
He smiled weakly, his voice barely audible he said, “I’m happy you came. I get to see you one last time.” I tried to say something to stop his awful train of thought but he reached out putting his finger over my lips to quiet me. “Don’t come tomorrow night ok? Promise me? I don’t want you to see. Remember me for what I was, not what I used to be, or for what I became again.”
“What do you mean?”
“They said I killed innocents, and Nina, and that I almost killed you. I’d rather be dead than hurt you in any way, Rachel. That was the one thing I didn’t want, and the one thing I’d never live with. I don’t want to hurt anyone, anymore.” He was closing his eyes in between words now, still exhausted from the death sleep and lack of good blood. He was physically and emotionally worn down to the point where even he didn’t believe his own innocence.
“Look at me,” I said. He forced his eyes open. “You couldn’t have done those things. Holly said you were buried during the time it all happened.”
“But...”
“But nothing. The thing that attacked me wasn’t you. It said it wanted me to kill it just like I had killed my Aunt. Gavin, do you remember what happened that day? The day my Aunt died?”
“I didn’t want you to have to do that. I wanted to spare you the pain.” A wave of relief washed over me.
“Yes. I know that, and you know that, but whatever, or whoever was going around doing all those things didn’t know that.” His eyes widened. “It couldn’t have been you.”
“Oh my god,” he said, finally realizing what I knew to be true. “They’re going to kill me anyway though, aren’t they?”
“They can’t if you remember what happened. You have to open yourself up to me and let me see if I can dig those memories out of your mind.”
Gavin looked up, his sunken eyes and hollow cheeks overflowing with a mix of fear and hope. “Do it,” he said.
I positioned his head in my lap. He was having a hard time staying conscious. “You have to stay awake Gavin, ok?” I was practically yelling at him. “Gavin, I love you, I can’t be without you. Come on you have to fight.” He gave a nod and forced his eyes open. All he wanted was to sleep, but he gritted his teeth and widened his eyes, fighting the exhaustion as best he could.
I placed my forehead against his and tried once again to make the connection to his mind. Whatever had happened had to be deep inside him somewhere and I was going to fish it out if it killed me. The darkness circled in and I let myself be taken down into it, all the while silently praying for an answer.
I was running. Running so fast that everything around was simply a blur. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted something. A speck of brown moving in the distance.
“Look, there’s one,” a voice said. Ian took off ahead of me and I followed. Ian got there first and took the animal down, effortlessly snapping its neck.
“I’m not sure about this,” I heard Gavin’s voice say.
“Don’t be such a little bitch.” Ian lowered his head to the animal’s neck and drank heavily. The blood dripped down his chin and onto his shirt. I kneeled down next to the animal still able to hear the faint beating of its dying heart and lowered my head as well. One mouthful was all I could stand. I began coughing and sputtering as if I had tasted the most disgusting thing in the world.
“I’m done,” I said.
Ian laughed and continued to drink. “You might have been a vicious killer at one point brother,” he said between gulps, “but you were never much of a partier.”
After Ian was sated he stood up and staggered toward me, putting his arm around me in a typical drunken stupor. “I do love you man, I’m sorry I ran out on you.”
“Hey, I understand. You’re back now, that’s all I care about.” Ian removed his arm and stumbled around in the grass for a while muttering about life as a vampire in other parts of the world. I half listened. Something was distracting me. I had an uneasy feeling that we were being watched.
Suddenly Ian shot toward me. I raised my hands over my head to shield myself, but he toppled me over. I felt my skull hit the ground, harder than any human could have ever survived, as my bones popped and cracked under his weight. From the corner of my eye I could see someone. There was a lone figure standing partially hidden in the trees watching us.
Gavin began moaning heavily in pain and so I broke the connection. He doubled over and rolled onto his side. “I’m sorry,” he whispered before passing out.
I covered him up as best as I could with the tiny blanket and got to my feet. Even though I had more information now, I wasn’t sure what I had just seen. Had I really seen Ian attack Gavin? I felt my stomach churn at the realization and silently berated myself for having been so willfully blind. Ian either had something to do with this whole thing, or knew more than he was saying.
Ian had helped me out in a time of crisis and I’d been so dependent on him I’d overlooked all the obvious signs. But he’d never hurt me or hurt his brother. Would he? I had just seen him telling Gavin he was sorry he had left him. Why would he hurt him? Why would he hurt me? I didn’t have an answer to any of those questions but I was sure now of who really did. The shadow in the woods, perhaps a curious onlooker who had followed them out there, could only be one person. Alexander.
Chapter Twenty Nine
“Where’s Ian?” I said to Angus when I stepped out of Gavin’s cell.
“Said he’d be back.”
That was odd. “He didn’t say where he was going?”
Angus motioned for the guard to lock the door and we began walking down the hallway together, our voices echoing in the dank ancient passage. This place had never felt more claustrophobic. “No, just that he’d be back.”
“I’m going to see Alexander,” I told him. Angus opened his mouth in what I assumed would be a protest but I took off so fast I didn’t give him the chance to voice it.
Pushing the door to the tiny room open revealed Alexander staring up at the ceiling. This was the first time since I had seen him after his awakening that he wasn’t in a panicked state. He seemed calm, almost eerily so.
“Alexander?” He pushed himself up and made his way across the room giving me a hug like always. This one, however, was uninspired. It was like he was dragging himself around. I took his face in my hands and examined his eyes. “What’s the matter bud?”
He shook his head slowly back and forth closing his eyes as if the mo
tion made him dizzy. If I didn’t know better I’d have said he was drugged, but vampires, even ones that are not full blooded, aren’t susceptible to drugs. They are however susceptible to one thing, a blood influence.
I guided the boy over to the bed so he could sit down. “Have you had any visitors in the last little while?” He stared straight ahead as if catatonic. I snapped my fingers in front of his face which got him to look at me once more. Instead of trying to find a way to answer my question, which I wasn’t sure he had even processed, he just hugged me again.
“Who was here?” I said. His response was to lie back down on the bed and stare at the ceiling. Something in the room was off too. After looking around for a few moments I realized that the drawings were all gone. There was no sketch pad or pencils anywhere, and the mural he had drawn, the one he would have continued drawing in his own blood if I hadn’t stopped him, had been painted over.
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: One Crow Sorrow Page 18