Undone (Vampire Awakenings, Book 5)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “Good,” Abby muttered.

  “I want to be involved when it happens,” Vicky said.

  “It’s going to be ugly,” Lucien replied as he lifted the bucket from the floor.

  “I don’t care. I am going to find Duke,” Vicky said. Abby almost told her that Brian could help find him, but she bit the words back. She’d already put his life at risk once; she wouldn’t drag him into this if he preferred not to be involved. “I’ll go after him alone if I have to.”

  “You won’t be on your own,” Abby assured her.

  Vicky smiled at her before focusing on Lucien. “That’s two purebreds—”

  “Three,” Aiden said.

  “We will also go with them,” Ethan said.

  “You’re going home,” Vicky replied. “I’d never forgive myself if you missed the birth of your child, or if something happened to you. The same with you two,” she said with pointed looks at Ian and Stefan.

  “We’re not going to let you do this alone,” Ethan told her.

  “Not alone,” Abby reminded him.

  Brian’s hands tightened on her shoulders, but he didn’t protest, and he didn’t tell her she couldn’t help her sister. He had to know it would only result in a fight. However, she had a feeling there would be a lot of rules and demands placed on her before she was allowed to leave this place again. She may actually follow some of these rules. She was in no rush to die, and the warehouse had been too close of a call for her liking.

  Brian gritted his teeth against the urge to argue with her, but he knew it would be pointless. She would make sure everyone who had mistreated her sister ceased to exist, and do anything to protect her twin. And he would do anything to protect her.

  ***

  An hour later, Abby sat on the bed with Vicky again, her arm draped around her sister’s shoulders. The fresh rain scent of the shampoo and soap from Vicky’s recent shower still couldn’t mask the odor of refuse wafting from her.

  It had taken a lot of convincing, but eventually Ethan, Ian, and Stefan had agreed to leave in the morning. In the end, it had been the chance of someone stumbling across their home and taking one of their younger siblings or children while they were away, that convinced them to return.

  Vicky had just finished telling them about her capture and subsequent imprisonment. She didn’t cry again, but her voice broke when she spoke briefly of the abuse she’d endured. Ethan rose and paced away. He ran his hand through his hair as he muttered curses and threats. Ian sat on the other side of Vicky. He took hold of her hand while David and Aiden remained unmoving at the foot of the bed. Brian sat in the chair beside Abby, his hands clasped before him and his elbows on his knees.

  “Death was too good for those vampires,” Ethan said.

  Another question formed on the tip of Abby’s tongue, but she really didn’t know how to ask why or whom Vicky had killed. The others must have felt the same way as none of them uttered the question, yet she knew her siblings would all be able to smell it too.

  “For the first week and a half, I wasn’t given any blood,” Vicky said. Her grip on Abby’s hand became bruising, but Abby didn’t pull it away from her. “I hadn’t fed for a few days before they took me, so the hunger… I’d never been so hungry before. The burning, the need, it was so intense. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad under normal circumstances, but they kept draining us and not giving us anything back. It was horrible…”

  Vicky’s voice broke, and Abby was sure the bones in her hand were going to crack as Vicky continued. “Then, one day, they threw a human in with us. She ran screaming from the others as they lunged at her from the shadows, but I remained hidden, too weak to make a move toward her. She never saw me until she was falling before me. They’d… they’d cut slices across her wrists and neck. The scent of her blood…” Vicky shuddered as her voice broke off.

  “You don’t have to,” Abby whispered.

  “It was all I could smell,” Vicky continued. “It invaded all of my senses and made me burn with thirst. I had no control over myself when I fell on her. She never had a chance. She…”

  Vicky broke off and abruptly released Abby’s hand. “I need some rest,” she said.

  The others remained unmoving as her words sank in. Ravenous, drained, and beaten, Vicky had attacked the girl, and the girl hadn’t walked away. Brian may not have been able to smell the death on Vicky, but he didn’t give the impression he was surprised by this admission, as his face remained expressionless. David’s mouth parted, but he refrained from saying anything.

  Brian kept his hands clasped as Vicky revealed what he’d already known upon seeing her again. The slight shift in her soul hadn’t been there when he’d seen her in the hotel, or in the picture of her and Abby. He’d seen the same kind of shift when Stefan had been forced to kill a human. Ethan had also experienced the shifting, and he was sure he had too.

  It wasn’t so much a dimming of the soul, but more of a new knowledge or a heaviness that vampires who refrained from killing humans didn’t carry. Those who killed for pleasure did so without regret, and those who refrained from killing had no idea about the weight of another’s soul on their hands.

  He would have to let Lucien and Ronan know what had occurred with Vicky. Lucien already knew she’d killed by smelling her, so there would be no way to hide it. They would overlook this, unless Vicky decided she would prefer to be a killer. Then they would put her down without hesitation or regret.

  “We’ll let you rest then,” Ethan said and jerked his head toward the door.

  “Would you like me to stay?” Abby asked anxiously. She didn’t want to leave her sister, not yet.

  Vicky glanced at Brian before replying. “No, I want to be alone right now.”

  “Do you need anything?”

  “No, go on. Stop worrying about me, Abs. I’m going to be fine.”

  She said the words, and Vicky was resilient, but Abby knew her sister would never be the same again. How could she be after what she’d endured and been forced to do? Leaning over, Abby kissed Vicky’s temple.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.

  Vicky smiled tremulously at her, but she wouldn’t meet her gaze.

  “Come,” Brian said. Rising, he extended his hand to her. After a moment’s hesitation, Abby took hold of it and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

  “If you need me, for anything, call or send for me,” she said to Vicky.

  Vicky settled back in the thick mound of pillows. She grabbed the remote for the TV they’d pulled from storage in the basement off the nightstand. “I’ll be fine. I’ve got TV and these pillows, what more could a girl ask for?”

  Ian and the others all hugged her before they reluctantly shuffled toward the door. Abby had to fight the impulse to bolt back into the room when the door clicked shut behind them. She wants to be alone. Abby stood staring at the wood before forcing herself to step away from the door.

  She waited until they were far enough away that Vicky wouldn’t hear her before she gave into her overwhelming urge to cry.

  Brian swept her into his arms as sobs wracked her body. He didn’t look back at the others as he strode purposely away from them and toward their room. Running his hands over her hair, he didn’t bother to try to hush her; there was no stemming this flow.

  CHAPTER 25

  Abby blinked her eyes open. She had no idea what time it was as Brian had closed the thick, metal shutters over the windows last night with a click of a button. Her eyes felt grainy, but then she had cried herself to sleep in his arms last night, arms that were now noticeably absent.

  Frowning, she turned to search the room for him, but it remained empty. She bolted up in the king-size bed and scooted to the edge of it. The thick red curtains draped over the canopy swayed with her movements. She caught her reflection in the floor-length mirror across from her. Her hair stood up in places, her eyes were swollen, and she realized she’d fallen asleep in her rumpled clothes.

  The
armoire she passed on her way to the door was large enough to hold three wardrobes and looked as if it had come from the seventeen hundreds. It was a masculine room, but she didn’t get the impression anyone stayed here, as all she could smell in the room was she and Brian.

  Before she made it to the door, it opened and he stepped inside with a tray in hand. His ice blue eyes lit up when he smiled at her. His face was freshly shaven, and he looked more rested than he had yesterday.

  “Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty,” he greeted and nudged the door shut with his heel. The scent of blood wafted to her from the decanters he had on the tray. “I thought you might be hungry,” he said as he walked by her and set the tray on the table.

  She started to say starving but bit back the word. After Vicky’s words last night, she realized she had no idea what starvation was. “I am,” she admitted as she followed him to the table in the corner of the room.

  The table was old with ornate, swirling designs carved into the legs, and on the tabletop. She may have no idea where they were located in New York, but she pictured the home as more of a castle, due to the elaborately fine furnishings she’d seen in the small sections of the house she’d been through already.

  He pulled the top off the decanter and poured some blood into a glass before handing it to her. He poured himself his own glass and leaned against the wall, watching her as she sipped at the liquid. “Do you know if Vicky is awake?” she asked.

  “She’s with Aiden in the gym, beating the stuffing out of a punching bag.”

  “I didn’t think Vicky knew what a punching bag was.” And if she had known, she would have avoided it like the plague before all of this, because it would have damaged her nails.

  “She does now and Aiden doesn’t seem at all pleased with being the one holding it for her.”

  Abby took another sip. “She’s got a lot of anger to get out.”

  “She does.”

  “What about the rest of my family?”

  “Stefan, Ethan, and Ian left early this morning. They told me to say good-bye to you and to have you call as soon as you could. David has decided to stay a little longer.”

  A twinge of regret tugged at her. “I had hoped to say good-bye.”

  “They were eager to get home.”

  “Understandable.” She waved her hand around the room. “So what is this place? Is it a castle or something?”

  He chuckled as he shook his head. “No, it’s not that big, but it’s close. The new recruits come here to train for battle. Aiden has been under Lucien’s supervision, but only because the last training instructor lost control and started killing humans. They’re still hunting for him. Lucien normally isn’t here, and I’m sure he’s eager to get back to Ronan and the others.”

  “Where are they?”

  “I don’t know the answer to that. I could find them if I chose to, but they’d kill me if they ever found out I’d located them. My relationship with Ronan is based on the understanding I will never try to locate their main residence. Only pureblood vampires who complete the training ever learn the location of it.”

  Abby set the empty glass down and went to grab the decanter, but Brian lifted it before she could. He poured her a glass and settled into the chair across from her. “So once Aiden completes the training, he’ll know where they are.”

  “Yes, if he completes it. Few do. It’s a year of Hell from what I’ve been told.”

  “Aiden will make it.”

  Brian smiled at her and leaned forward to brush back a strand of hair that fell over her face. “So sure,” he murmured as his fingers lingered on her cheek.

  “I am. How many other recruits are here with him?”

  “To be a member of Ronan’s order, he’s the only one.”

  Abby almost choked on her blood. “Really?”

  “There aren’t that many purebloods in existence,” he reminded her. “Aiden is their first new recruit in fifty years.”

  “So he and Lucien are kicking around this massive place all by themselves?”

  “No, there are others here too,” Brian replied. “There are some turned vamps who are also here to train to fight and kill vampires, and there is a staff to help run the place, but none of them will make it into the inner circle. Every vamp here gets their own security code. When they leave, the code is erased and never used again. Only vamps with the code are allowed to know where this place is, and if they ever try to come back again, they will be killed. My code has never been changed, but if I became a killer, it would be, and I would be hunted to the ends of the earth.”

  “They have a lot of faith in you not to betray them.”

  “I could have done so many times. I’m one of the few who could probably get the drop on them and kill at least one of them. We have a symbiotic relationship that neither of us is willing to risk.”

  “But you risked it when you helped me.”

  Brian shrugged. “I had faith in Ronan to keep his temper about that.”

  “Did you train here?”

  He scoffed as he leaned back in his seat and smiled smugly at her. “No, I taught myself everything there is to know. I’ve been here to watch some of the training, and I’ve been brought in to help with it a few times.”

  Abby couldn’t help but smile back at him. He appeared more relaxed and casual than she’d ever seen him. “What did they have you teach them?”

  “How to fight dirty. There’s certainly no fighting fair when it comes to survival, which is something you have to remember.”

  “I will,” she assured him and placed her empty glass on the table. He went to lift the decanter for her, but she waved his hand away. “I’m full.” He returned it to the tray and leaned back to watch her again. “Will you tell me now how you’re able to locate others?”

  “I’m not sure how to tell it,” he replied. Her face fell, and her eyes darted away. He hated the brief hurt that flashed across her face before she covered it. “But I’ll try.”

  When her eyes flew back to his and a smile lit her face, he knew he’d do anything to keep that smile in place, even reveal the one thing he’d never told another living soul. “If it stays between us,” he said. “The air of mystery has served me well over the years, and though no one else can do it, as far as I know, I’d prefer to keep everyone in the dark about it.”

  “I’ll never reveal it to another soul,” she vowed solemnly.

  He didn’t doubt her for an instant. “It’s not so much that I find them. It’s more their souls find me and lure me toward them. If they’re in a crowded location, I cannot see exactly where they are, but I can see enough to figure out where in the world they are. With Vicky I saw the Statue of Liberty.”

  “What did you see with Paige’s father?” she inquired. He’d also helped her sister-in-law locate the man who had been trying to kill her since she was a teenager.

  “The ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign.”

  Her head tilted to the side as she studied him. “But if it’s souls calling to you, then how do you find them from a picture, drawing, or their things?”

  He folded his hands behind his head and crossed his legs before him. “I only need some kind of connection with them, as in knowing what they looked like, a picture or something they once held. It’s almost like their souls leave a residue or perhaps an imprint behind on their things, and the soul draws me in from there. Even though I knew what Vicky looked like I still needed a stronger connection with her in order to locate her. Sometimes it takes more than others.”

  “It kind of sounds like their ghosts coming to haunt you or something, and it’s their ectoplasm that they’ve left behind.”

  “I’ve thought of it like that a time or two myself,” he admitted and relished her laughter.

  “What do the souls look like?”

  “Every soul is different. Some glow more while others are sallow and weak. Some change.”

  “Change how?” she asked.

  “They shift in a way. I can st
ill find them, but sometimes things happen to them that make them different than the way they once were.”

  “Vicky’s is different now,” she guessed.

  “Hers is now, and so is Ethan’s and Stefan’s. I’m sure mine shifted after I killed those humans.”

  “Is it only death that causes the shift?”

  “Murdering a human does,” he replied, “not death.”

  “It’s not murder if you’re defending yourself or starving to death,” she retorted. “And I don’t care what anyone else says about that!”

  He smiled at how fierce and protective she was of those she loved. “You have the brightest soul of anyone I’ve ever encountered. I remember being surprised by it the first time I saw you all those years ago,” he admitted. “It has only grown over the years, radiating from you in waves of warmth and love. Maybe it’s because you’re my mate that I find it so vivid, but I think it’s also who you are.”

  A lump swelled up Abby’s throat at his words and the look of awe he gave her. “Vicky’s soul was different than mine before the shift?”

  He dropped his hands and leaned toward her. “Very different.” Taking hold of a strand of her hair, he rubbed it between his fingers. “Yours calls to me in a way no other’s ever has. I could find you anywhere, Abigail Byrne.”

  “That’s how you found me in the park and the hotel room. You didn’t follow my scent!” she guessed.

  “I could have followed your scent, but your soul is far more enticing to me.”

  “Fascinating,” she murmured, her eyes wandering to his full lips as desire shimmered in his eyes. Anxiety and anticipation roared to life within her. She’d wanted him for so long now, but what if she was bad at this? She should also be with her sister right now, not thinking about jumping her delectable mate. “I need a shower.”

  He released her hair as she leapt to her feet and hurried toward a bathroom the size of her dorm room. Tugging off her rumpled clothes, she tossed them onto the floor and turned the water on. Steam was rising from the shower when she stepped into it and tugged the curtain closed.