by K. A. Tucker
“I thought your kind despised vampires,” I murmured, recalling Sofie referring to witches and vampires as the Montagues and the Capulets.
“That’s true. But my allegiance will always be with Sofie.” He smiled mysteriously, reminiscing fondly about something.
“How” was about to leave my mouth again but he waved it off before I could utter a sound. “Another time, please,” he said, puffing on his pipe, now lit.
I nodded, biting my bottom lip in frustration. “Can I at least ask where we are?”
He bellowed laughter. “You can ask a thousand times and I won’t tell you.”
My eyes narrowed. I glanced at Max.
“And he won’t tell you either,” Leo warned, eyeing my guard dog. “So don’t pester him to death.”
“I could order him. I’m his master,” I responded haughtily.
“And he’ll ignore you, on grounds that he is protecting you best by leaving you in the dark,” Leo answered, equally smug.
It’s true, I heard Max say. I’ve learned the loopholes.
I sighed. What was the point of being a master if my subordinate was keeping secrets and obeying only when convenient? Another set of pressing questions popped into my head. “Do you know what happened back there? Is Sofie alive? Are my friends alive?”
“Sofie is still alive. We are linked through magic. I would have felt it, otherwise. As for the others, all I can say is that Sofie successfully wired the building with Merth. No vampire is getting in or out of there.”
“So they’re all going to live in there?” I asked, screwing my face up as I pictured over a hundred vampires—most of them likely homicidal, blood–crazed maniacs right now—touring around the place.
“Yup! One big, bloodsucking kibbutz. That is, if they don’t all kill each other.” He quickly added as my eyes widened in fear, “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll all be full of love and joy, now that they have human blood again.” I noted the sarcasm in his voice. “Besides, they have enough blood in there to supply the whole lot of them for a few months, and Sofie can get more. They should be able to manage.”
I nodded. “So how long am I a prisoner here?” My eyes roamed the dimly lit, rustic room. Though much simpler in taste than Viggo and Mortimer’s place, my second prison appeared equally comfortable.
Leo sighed. “I’m not sure how many years it will be yet. It all depends on Sofie.”
“Years?” I shrieked.
“Calm down,” he said, patting the air. “Let me explain. You see, we’re in quite the pickle now. If Sofie and I hadn’t brought you here, I can guarantee that you would already be dead. If not by the hands of Mortimer and Viggo—they’re proficient in getting what they want—then by the fangs of a hundred or so vampires you inadvertently brought back with you. They’re not stable right now. Not even your friends. You saw that, firsthand.” He paused to puff on his pipe again.
I shuddered as the vision of Caden’s veiny red eyes flashed through my mind.
“It would be like covering yourself in pink frosting and sitting down with a group of three–year–olds,” he added.
“I still don’t understand what happened,” I muttered. “There were only supposed to be nineteen and that was because I had no other choice! The pendant told me they had to be touching the statue and then …” My voice drifted off as understanding dawned. I gasped. “They’ve all touched the statue at some point! They didn’t have to be touching it right at that moment, though. I misunderstood!”
“Not surprising. Those spells are tricky buggers to figure out,” Leo muttered around the pipe in his mouth. “You were likely too excited to distinguish the details of the pendant’s hints. Your biggest worry right now is Mortimer and Viggo. They’ll stop at nothing to free Veronique. They don’t have all the details but they do know they need that pendant. By now they’ll likely have figured out the rest. But they’re not your only worry. This Rachel character … Believe me, she won’t forget about you. Killing you is about as important to her as human blood. Revenge—it’s an ugly thing for these creatures. From what Sofie has told me, you did a number on her.” Leo chuckled.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I grumbled, realizing my deal with Mage to leave her behind hadn’t won me any brownie points. “I hope Sofie kills her.” I silently prayed that she had thrown Rachel into that massive pyre that erupted around the statue. Otherwise Caden would never be safe with her around.
Leo took another long draw on his pipe. “Listen to you—vampire–slayer.” He chuckled through a swirl of smoke. “And then let’s not forget about the elusive Ursula, whom we can’t track because she’s hopping through human host bodies like she’s riding a public transit system. You are the ultimate means of torturing Sofie, a goal that drives her entire existence.
“So you see, as much as you would like to go see Sofie and these friends of yours—I’m sure this Caden fellow would be pleasant under different circumstances—it’s simply not an option. And as much as we would all like to see you happy, seeing you alive is more important. We will remain here until Sofie has figured out a way to get that blasted necklace off your neck safely, and no amount of begging and pleading will do you any good. So don’t bother, kiddo.”
I swallowed. This imprisonment was even worse than before. At least before, I could escape every night to see Caden. Now, in this winter abyss, I had no means of contact, no way of making sure they were okay, nothing to remind me of them except my memories and a stack of four–by–sixes. “When my friends get over this whole blood–crazed thing … can they come here?”
Leo got up and strolled over to place his hand on my shoulder. He squeezed lightly. “It’s not something that happens overnight, Evangeline. You know that by now. We’re not sure how well they’ll adjust. They could be like baby vampires and, well, they usually spend the first twenty or so years lurking in shadows before they have some level of control.”
“So what are you saying? I can’t see them for the next twenty years? I’ll be … old! You may as well have let Mortimer and Viggo kill me!” I cried. A new flood of tears overwhelmed me.
“No, no, I’m not saying that at all. Don’t get all wound up,” Leo shushed me. “But … do you even want to see them after Caden tried … after that?” his voice had turned gentle.
“I … I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “No, wait! Of course. It wasn’t his fault! He had warned me.”
“Evangeline!” Leo shook his head in exasperation, but then began chuckling. “I see what Sofie meant …” he said to himself. “You’ve changed, but you haven’t changed …” He dropped his hand. “Your friends will come looking for you when the time is right and Mortimer and Viggo can’t track them. We just hope that, when they do find you, they can control themselves. Otherwise the dogs and I will have to kill them, no question about it.”
I looked down at my stew, then set my fork down and pushed the plate away. I buried my face in my arms. Leo’s hand settled on my head, patting me gently. It was a small comfort, but he was trying. I turned and looked up at the old man, my appointed guardian, wiping away tears. “What am I supposed to do, Leo?”
He smiled. That smile, at least, I recognized as his. “Trust us.”
Excerpt from Asylum
Chapter 1
“Forgive me,” I whispered, knowing my words never reached her ears. She was already gone. Safe. Safely away from this deadly atrium. Safe from Mortimer and Viggo. Safe from me.
Now for damage control …
I scanned the crowd of a hundred–odd depraved vampires, their eyes wild with varying degrees of bewilderment and crazed bloodlust after the briefest scent of a human. There! Four familiar faces; the four who needed to survive. Relief washed over me. Thank God for those pictures.
I closed my eyes, searching for the one last thread of energy I needed to cast another spell. Ah … I grasped a miniscule, glowing purple helix coil, much like a DNA strand, floating beside my heart, and yanked with my mental hand.
It immediately shot up to my fingertips. Armed with magic, I raised my hand toward Veronique’s tomb within the brightly burning pyre. With a thought, embers leaped out to soar toward my fingertips as if magnetized.
And then I struck.
The sparks shot from my fingers and erupted into six foot–high circles of flame, forming a formidable barrier of protection around Evangeline’s friends—large enough not to ignite them but tight enough to keep them from leaping out and making a run for it.
“Sofie?” Mortimer hollered uncertainly.
I turned toward him. His face a mask of shock, he stood next to Viggo, both frozen like ice sculptures, both struggling to grasp the events of the past ten seconds. I knew that confusion would quickly give way to understanding, and retaliation would follow.
I’ll deal with them later. For my sister’s sake, they needed to survive. And for my sake, in an indirect fashion. With another flick of my hand, three flaming circles formed—one around each of them and the last around myself. There. That should hold them until I’m finished.
Now, elimination.
From the corner of my eye, I caught the telltale silvery white hair and hideous features of a mutant. I shuddered, finding their very existence repulsive but worse, knowing the Merth–laced building couldn’t confine them. The last thing we needed were those monsters running loose in New York, especially with the People’s Sentinel watching us.
Flames shot out from my fingertips and struck the hideous creature, igniting his body as if it were made from tissue paper. His one short scream—the shrill sound of death—echoed through the atrium, sending a chill down my spine. I didn’t let it distract me from my focus, though. Spotting two more mutants, I quickly dispatched them as well.
Heads started to turn as the screams attracted the attention of the other vampires. Soon enough, they’d figure out the fate I had in store for them. Then I’d have mass hysteria and vampires hiding in every nook and cranny in this place. I didn’t have time to hunt them all down individually.
Fiery sparks flew freely from my fingertips, landing on any vampire in sight. Within seconds, dozens of flaming bodies were thrashing on the ground, scorching the leaves and petals of the atrium’s plants and engulfing any vampires caught too near. But I knew there were more vampires out there in Viggo’s urban jungle, out of my view.
There was only one thing left to do. I had to torch the entire atrium, then hope I could control the fire enough that the entire building didn’t go up in flames. Inhaling deeply, reconciled to the plan, I raised both hands.
A body lying on the ground, bound by Merth, distracted me. A vampire with jet black hair and yellow eyes—Rachel. My jaw clenched as I imagined slowly tearing the flesh off her body as she screamed, only to allow it to grow back so I could do it again … But there was no time for that. Sighing with disappointment, I raised a finger toward her, preparing to rid everyone of the viper once and for all.
“Caden. No!”
The desperate scream stilled the spark poised in my hand. My eyes swept over in time to see Caden, a lost, vacant expression on his face, taking a step toward the flames. I gasped. He was going to kill himself.
With the last bit of magic I possessed after executing Evangeline’s complicated transportation spell, I instantly extinguished every flame in the atrium before he could succeed.
Caden stared back at me, unharmed, resentment marring his stunning face. That’s okay. You can hate me. You’re safe.
A powerful hand grabbed me by the neck and hoisted me into the air. “Where is she?” Viggo growled, rage blazing in his eyes.
Despite everything, I laughed.