Dominion

by Marissa Farrar

  Serenity turned off the faucet, the whole time feeling as though something was about to grab her from behind, panic nipping at her heels. Surely Elizabeth hadn’t left the water running?

  She hated the thought that someone else might have been in Elizabeth’s room, that this whole thing wasn’t just a case of her frayed, overactive imagination. But what reason would someone else have to be creeping around their house in the middle of the night, trying to scare her?

  Everywhere she looked contained spaces perfect for concealing an intruder—behind the door, under the bed, inside the closet. Not wanting to miss anything, she checked each space, making sure no one else lurked in the room. She paused uncertainly beside Elizabeth’s bed. The little girl looked peaceful, no sign of the nightmares that had been terrorizing her. Should she wake her daughter to keep her close while she searched the rest of the house? Of course, if this all just existed in Serenity’s head and Elizabeth had simply forgotten to switch off the tap, she’d only succeed in scaring her. Elizabeth had suffered enough broken nights’ sleep lately. Serenity didn’t want to add a delusional, paranoid mother to the poor girl’s problems.

  She made up her mind. Certain the room was free of intruders, she let Elizabeth sleep.

  Back in the hallway, she realized the sound coming from Elizabeth’s bathroom had only diminished, rather than ceased altogether, and now came from a new direction.

  She made her way along the corridor and paused outside of her bedroom. She’d left the door ajar and now held her ear to the crack. The same sound of gushing water came from her adjoining bathroom.

  Certain of what she would find, she ran straight for the bathroom. As she’d expected, the faucet was on, water pouring into the sink. With shaking hands, she reached out and turned off the faucet, the tap squeaking in the still night.

  Cold air moved beside her, something brushing by with the lightness of a cobweb, sending a chill over her body. She gave a small scream of shock and stumbled into the bedroom.

  “Who’s there?” she demanded, sounding braver than she felt.

  Suddenly, the bedroom door banged open, snatching her attention, and she stifled another scream by clamping her hand over her mouth.

  What the hell was going on?

  Serenity chased the intruder out of the bedroom. This wasn’t all just in her head. She hadn’t imagined the door opening or the water being left on in the bathroom. Might another vampire be responsible? But the first time she’d experienced something similar had been in the daytime. A vampire wouldn’t be around in the light.

  The hallway was empty, but a blur of movement on the stairs in the shape of a person caught her attention. The moment she turned her head, they vanished.

  “Hey!” Not wanting to wake Elizabeth, she did a combination of yelling while trying to keep her voice down, resulting in a strangled cry.

  Perhaps she should be on the phone to the cops, but now she no longer had any friends in the local force, she didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to their family. After her disappearance, too much attention had been focused on Sebastian, and that had even been with the help of James Bentley to smooth things over. She wasn’t dealing with a regular intruder. There was something supernatural about what was happening and she didn’t want to call the police only to have them doubting her sanity and keeping a closer eye on the family.

  She followed the direction of movement, her fear making her breathe in tiny gasps.

  She clutched the banister of the huge, curved staircase, needing its support to stop her legs from folding beneath her. The sound of rushing water echoed in the vast kitchen. She could see the scene in her head before she’d even entered the room—the big, curved silver faucet thundering water into their Belfast sink.

  “Oh, God.” The words came out as a thin whine.

  Someone was messing with her, but who?

  Do we have a ghost, she wondered?

  Of course, the notion was crazy, but right now, in the dead of night, scared and alone, nothing felt closer to the truth.

  The lamp on the hall console supplied enough light to allow her a view into the kitchen. The shutters had been left open and moonlight flooded the room, casting eerie shadows on the floor. The tap continued to run, the noise too loud in the still night.

  The cold of the kitchen tiles seeped into the soles of Serenity’s feet as she crossed the room. The sink and drainage were large enough to cope with the deluge, but the water hit the porcelain and sprayed back up at her, hitting the naked skin of her arms and chest with tiny cold, sharp shocks. She turned off the faucet. Once more, silence fell over the big house.

  Sebastian, where are you?

  She wished he was with her now. Despite their earlier fight about his violent nature, she suddenly wanted a ferociously strong man by her side. Whoever was playing tricks on her might think differently with Sebastian around. Surely with his speed and keen hearing and eyesight, Sebastian would be able to catch the person responsible.

  Whoever had turned on the water certainly no longer lurked in the kitchen. The cabinets held nowhere for them to hide, unless they were child-size.

  “Who’s here?” she hissed. “Come on, you coward, show yourself!”

  But the house remained silent.

  She made her way back out into the hall. Was the person still in the house? Yes, she still had that overwhelming sensation of not being alone, of eyes watching her, a stranger’s gaze taking in her every move.

  She stood still and waited, trying to get a sense of which way to head next.

  Without warning, the front door burst open. Serenity screamed, her hand held to her heart, but only wind and a few fallen leaves gusted into the wide hallway.

  Instantly, the atmosphere of the house changed, the air less charged. She no longer felt as though someone was watching her. Whoever had been in the house was gone.

  Serenity pushed the big front door shut again. She frowned. The door locked automatically from the outside; the only way someone could get in was with the key. So had Sebastian gone out and left the front door ajar? That didn’t seem like something he’d do, he was normally so overprotective of her and Elizabeth. But unless they had a key, they wouldn’t have been able to get in the house.

  Quickly, she ran around the property, checking the security of the back door and windows. Everything was locked and bolted. The front door must have been the point of entry.

  She went back to the door and cautiously opened it again. She poked her head out, checking the driveway for signs of life, but everything remained still. She lifted her hand and ran it across the edge of the door and the doorframe. No dents or scrapes made her think the door had been forced.

  So her intruder had a key.

  Her stomach churned in a nervous flip-flop. She didn’t like that idea. The first phone call she’d place in the morning would be to a locksmith to get the locks changed.

  Unless, of course, the thing flitting around her house in the middle of the night, opening and closing doors, moving things around, could pass right through a solid door.

  Ghost.

  The crazy thought came again. There were no such things as ghosts. But then if someone had asked her before meeting Sebastian, she’d have sworn against the existence of vampires and witches as well. And she’d been proven wrong on both counts.

  Chapter Seven

  Sebastian blinked in surprise at the wide, palm tree-lined streets he recognized as being only blocks from his home. His heart clenched in his chest.

  Oh no, it had happened again. One moment he’d been walking through the forest, the next he found himself standing in his neighborhood.

  He spun in a circle, his senses alert for the scent of blood. Had he done the same thing and killed during the missing time? But no, he couldn’t smell blood on the night air and he didn’t feel that fiery tingling through his veins which he experienced after a feed.

  What was he doing back here, so close to home? Had he been making his way back?


  Sebastian approached the house and frowned. From the position of the moon in the night sky, he calculated the hour to be almost four in the morning, but all of the lights on the ground floor were ablaze, the illumination spilling out onto the gravel driveway.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Using his speed, Sebastian raced to the front door. He reached for the key he always kept in his jacket pocket—despite being a vampire, his small family still needed security—and his frown deepened. The key was missing.

  Had he dropped it somewhere?

  He patted himself down and located the small shape of metal in his pant pocket. Strange. He always kept it in the same place; he was a creature of habit.

  Turning his mind to more immediate concerns, he jabbed his key in the lock. The lock turned and he pushed the door with his shoulder, but it wouldn’t open. His worry stepped up a notch.

  “Serenity?” he called through the heavy wood. He didn’t want to hammer on the door, worried about waking up Elizabeth, but he didn’t need to. The door opened a crack, the security chain stretched between the back of the door and the frame with a rattle of metal and Serenity’s face peeped around the corner. Relief melted onto her features at the sight of him.

  Sebastian had expected to find her still asleep, but she looked wide awake, her eyes frantic.

  “What’s happened?” he asked, his forehead creasing in a frown.

  She shook her head and backed away from the door, letting him through. “Sorry, I deadlocked the door. I had to be sure …”

  His eyes narrowed. “Sure of what?”

  Serenity chewed at her lower lip. “Of no one getting in the house.”

  “Why? Has someone been here?”

  “Yes … well, no.” She backed away from him and then turned and headed into the kitchen, shaking her head. “I don’t know. I thought I saw something and things had moved.”

  “What sort of things?”

  She hesitated. “Not moved exactly, but the faucet in our bathroom, Elizabeth’s, and down in the kitchen were all running.”

  “Are you sure they weren’t left on accidentally? Or perhaps the water pressure in the pipes changed and forced the water on.”

  “I heard footsteps as well, boards creaking.”

  “Pipes again?” he suggested.

  “And doors slammed. The front door burst wide open!”

  “I’m not sure what to say.” He frowned. “Perhaps I didn’t close it properly when I left.” He considered the possibility. Things weren’t right with him. He may have made a mistake and not closed the door on his way out.

  Her shoulders sagged and she sighed. “So you think I’m just being paranoid?”

  “I don’t know, Serenity. Are you sure you didn’t actually see anyone?”

  “I thought I did, a movement perhaps, but now I’m not sure. Perhaps I freaked myself out for no reason.”

  Unprompted, she burst into tears.

  “Hey, Serenity, it’s all right. Everything is all right.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She buried her face against his chest and he lowered his nose to the top of her head, breathing in her familiar scent.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away from him to look up into his face. “These past couple of days have been awful. I hate us fighting, but sometimes the things you do frighten me.”

  “I don’t mean to scare you. I’d never do anything to frighten you on purpose.”

  “You went out and killed a man when you didn’t need to.”

  He took a deep breath. Telling her would be opening up a whole new world of worry for Serenity—something he didn’t want to do. But what other choice did he have? Keeping things a secret from her would only drive them apart.

  He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “You’re right, I did kill a man, but I don’t remember doing it.”

  She sniffed and wiped a tear from her cheek. A little line appeared between her eyebrows as she asked, “What do you mean?”

  “Exactly what I said. One moment I was walking down Venice Beach and the next I was standing in the street with a dead body at my feet.”

  “Are you sure you killed him?”

  “Yes. I had his blood in my veins. I could feel it.”

  Serenity glanced away, her lips pressed together. Despite all their time together, he knew she still found it difficult to accept that he killed on a regular basis. Serenity had killed as well—to protect herself from Jackson, and from the vampires, Madeline and Demitri, who had threatened her family’s safety—but knowing someone you loved hurt others was never an easy thing to bear. He tried to keep that side of his life away from her as much as possible, tried to allow her to pretend it didn’t happen, but sometimes occasions arose where they both needed to face what he was head-on.

  He debated telling her about what happened in the forest, but realized keeping something from her may only prove to be dangerous. “There’s something else. The body came back.”

  “What?”

  “After I’d drained him, I took the body to the forest to hide it, but it started to come back and not in the normal way. The body acted as though it was aware and wanted to hurt me. I broke its neck, but it kept coming. In the end, I had to rip off its head.”

  She pushed him away and took a step back, her eyes wide with alarm. “Jesus, Sebastian! How could that even happen?”

  He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again.

  “What?” he prompted. “What is it?”

  She glanced away and shook her head. “This is going to sound weird, but tonight isn’t the first night I’ve felt like something strange is happening around here.”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Things moving. Feeling like I’m not alone.”

  Alarm raced through him. “So someone else was in the house.”

  “No one I saw.”

  He risked a smile. “Do we have a ghost?”

  She smiled back and ducked her head in embarrassment. “I thought the same thing myself.”

  “You think it’s a possibility?”

  She lifted her gaze back to his. “I doubt it, but something is going on. It’s not a coincidence that after I saw something in your face at the restaurant, strange things start happening in the house and then you don’t remember killing someone.”

  The mention of the restaurant caused his heart to tighten with pain, but he forced the emotion back down. “That’s not all.”

  Her face crumpled in worry. “Oh, God, what now?”

  “It’s probably the least important of everything, but I had the strangest dream.”

  “I didn’t think vampires dreamed.”

  “We don’t. I don’t even know how to explain what I experienced. I felt like I was awake—as awake as I am now—but I was somewhere else.”

  “A different city? Country?”

  He shook his head. “No, I was right here in Los Angeles, but no one else was around. At least, no one human. Also, since I had the dream, I’ve been slower, some of my strength reduced.”

  She must have seen the fear and confusion in his face because she reached out and took his hand. “I wish you’d spoken to me sooner.”

  “Me too, but we were fighting. Things weren’t right between us.”

  The tension between them thickened as they were both taken back to the awkward moment he’d proposed. She stepped closer and he thought she would put her arms around him, but then she stopped, peering at a spot right beneath his ear.

  “What’s that?”

  He lifted his fingers to touch the place where her eyes focused. His skin felt rough and flakes fell away beneath his fingertips.

  Serenity caught his wrist and pulled his hand away so she could get a better look. “It’s just a small patch of dry skin,” she said. “I’m sure it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

  He pulled away so he could stare her directly in the face. “
Serenity, I’m a vampire. I don’t get dry skin. I heal fast. If someone stuck a knife in my ribs, it would have healed completely within a couple of hours. This isn’t normal.”

  Her dark eyes studied his face. “Okay,” she said, slowly. “So someone is messing with us.”

  He nodded. “I think we need help.”

  “Bridget?” she said.

  “Yes, Bridget. This isn’t just vampires at work.”

  “Do you think we can trust her?”

  “I don’t think we have many other options.”

  Serenity glanced at the clock hanging on the wall behind Sebastian’s head. It was still far too early to be calling someone.

  “I’ll call her as soon as morning comes,” she said. “Hopefully, she’ll be willing to help us and will come over and check things out. By the time you wake up this evening, we might even understand what’s going on.”

  He nodded. “Okay.” He hesitated, not wanting to ask the question but needing to know the answer. “Things are all right between us now, aren’t they?”

  Serenity looked up at him. A smile tugged at her lips and lit her dark eyes. “I never want things to be bad between us. I love you. I always have.”

  With her words, the tension between them seemed to melt away. He stepped in toward her, closing the small gap remaining between their bodies. He felt her relax against him, her arms sliding around his waist until her hands found the hard muscles of his back.

  His fingers locked in the back of her hair. Her lips pressed against the skin of his throat, her nose nestled against the dip of his collar bone. Her mouth traced up toward his jaw, feather-like kisses that became more urgent, her lips nipping his skin.

  “I’m frightened, Sebastian,” she whispered.

  He gently tugged on the back of her hair, forcing her face up to his. “We’ll get through this. We always get through these things.”

  “We don’t even know what ‘these things’ are.”

  His eyes flicked over hers, drinking in the sight of her, simultaneously strong, and yet so vulnerable. He wanted to protect her more than ever before, but the worry about his own state hung over him. He’d almost fallen in the forest. He’d missed catching the glass. He was missing small portions of time.