With her daughter safe in her arms, she allowed herself to absorb the rest of the scene.
“Oh, God, Sebastian!”
Sebastian lay collapsed on the floor, as though one moment he’d been standing up and then, like a puppet, his strings had been cut, leaving him helpless. Serenity started toward him, but Henry and Conner appeared in front of her blocking the way.
“Hey!” She stared between the two men. “Get out of my way!”
“I wouldn’t do that, miss,” said Conner. “He’s dangerous.”
“What are you talking about? He’s unconscious!”
The men exchanged a glance and Serenity looked past them, her attention taken by the huge vampire crouched on the ground, rocking back and forth over a shape covered by a blanket.
Two questions sprang to mind—what was under the blanket and where was Bridget?
Realization dawned, her heart clenching with fresh pain. “Oh, no,” she gasped. “Please don’t let it be true.”
“It is, Mommy,” Elizabeth sobbed into her neck. “Sebastian hurt Bridget.”
Vincent sprang to his feet, his eyes burning yellow, fangs exposed, his huge jaw knotted in a ball of muscle. “He killed my mother.”
Frantic, Serenity shook her head. “No, I can’t believe it!”
The big vampire snarled. “That son of a bitch! He’s wanted her dead ever since he found out she betrayed him to Demitri. This whole thing was just an excuse to satisfy his blood lust.”
“Vincent,” Serenity tried to keep her voice level, though internally her whole being screamed with terror, her heart wrenching in two at what Sebastian had done. With the calming influence of his mother gone, and Sebastian incapable of protecting them, she was all too aware of how fragile they were in the presence of this massive, grieving vampire. “If Sebastian had wanted Bridget dead, he would have killed her long before now. You must be able to see Sebastian wasn’t in control. You know the demon has been controlling him. You saw the state of Natasha, of what it did to her.”
He shook his head. “No. The demon was gone. Iona made sure of it. He killed my mother anyway!”
Iona stepped forward and Serenity felt thankful for the girl’s presence. Despite her age and small size, she radiated power and authority. Even a hulking vampire couldn’t help but take notice.
“I expect the demon didn’t want to be sent back. It must have fought for control and while Sebastian fought the demon, he lost control of himself. His natural instincts for blood kicked in and Bridget was the closest human at hand.”
Serenity’s heart clenched with pain and she hugged her daughter closer to her body. What if Elizabeth had been closer? What if Sebastian had attacked Elizabeth?
Iona turned to Serenity. “Just because I understand what happened, doesn’t mean I agree with or forgive it. Blood has been spilled on my property. This is the exact reason I don’t want vampires hanging around. This vampire is no longer a threat to you or Elizabeth, so I’m asking you to now take him away from here. I want no more to do with this.”
Serenity’s mouth dropped open. “You can’t leave him like this!”
Elizabeth’s worried voice came from below. “Mommy …?”
“It’s okay, honey. We’ll get this sorted out.”
Iona shook her head. “No, I’m the one who is sorry, but I refuse to have any more involvement. I won’t put my people at risk.”
“But what else are we …” Serenity’s voiced trailed off, her eyes locked on the blanket covering Bridget’s body. Something wasn’t right. Had she seen something? She gave her head a slight shake. No, she must be imagining things.
The blanket twitched. Nausea and dread swept over Serenity, and Sebastian’s words rang in her head. Sometimes the bodies come back …
Iona’s gaze followed Serenity’s line of sight.
The blanket jerked again.
Vincent leapt to his feet. “She’s alive!”
Serenity put out a hand to stop him. “No, Vincent, she’s not!”
Her warning didn’t stop him. He reached down and whipped the blanket away. Bridget lay on her back, her arms and legs at uncomfortable angles. Her eyes were open, but unseeing, her face a deathly white.
“Mother?” Vincent’s voice was uncertain.
“She’s dead, Vincent,” said Serenity. “Bridget is gone.”
“No,” he insisted. “I saw her move.”
“I know, but she’s still gone.”
Serenity untangled herself from her daughter’s embrace. She turned to Henry. “Can you take Elizabeth outside?” she asked him. “I don’t want her to see any more.”
“Why, what’s going to happen?”
“Please,” she said, her voice firm, her focus locked on his green-grey eyes. “Just take her outside.”
Iona must have picked up on the anxiety in her tone. “Do as she asks, Henry.”
“Mommy?” Elizabeth’s eyes begged her, breaking Serenity’s heart. “I don’t want to go without you.”
“I know, sweetie, but I need you to do this for me, okay? I need you to be strong.”
Elizabeth’s lower lip quivered, her eyes swimming in tears.
A painful lump formed in Serenity’s throat. She didn’t want to force her child out, but she had no choice. If she was right about what was about to happen, she didn’t want Elizabeth to be exposed again.
“Come on, Elizabeth,” Henry said in his soft, Irish lilt. “Let’s do what your mammy says.”
Elizabeth gave her mother a final longing glance before allowing herself to be led from the trailer.
Vincent spun to face her. “Serenity …?”
“They’ve been coming back, Vincent. After Sebastian kills them, they come back.”
Bridget’s arms and legs jerked as though a bolt of electricity had zapped through her.
He looked between his mother and Serenity. “No, it’s too soon.”
“It’s not the same as normal. They come back …” She struggled to find the words. “Wanting to kill.”
Bridget moved again, her limbs flying outward, like someone who is dropping into a deep sleep but jerks themselves awake. Her back arched, lifting from the ground.
“Mother?” Vincent’s voice came out as a whisper. He lifted his gaze to Serenity. “She isn’t dead.”
“She is, Vincent! You of all people should know that.”
Bridget’s eyes shot open, her milky gaze focused on the ceiling.
“Jesus,” said Conner, taking a couple of steps back, bumping against the kitchen counter. With his accent, the word came out Jay-sus.
“A vampire? Is she coming back as a vampire?” asked Iona, her tone strangely hopeful.
Serenity shook her head, edging away and pulling Iona back with her. “No, something much worse.”
With four sets of horrified eyes locked upon her, Bridget sat up and staggered to her feet. She turned to them, the whites of her eyeballs bloodshot red, the blue pupils almost white. Her upper lip curled in a snarl, exposing bloodied teeth. This creature looked nothing like the woman who had loved and taken care of Elizabeth for years. Serenity couldn’t even think of this thing as being the same person.
“Iona!” Serenity cried. “Do something.”
The girl stood, staring at the abomination staggering toward them, but Serenity’s cry seemed to bring her around. She blinked a couple of times and then opened her palm and spoke the same words she’d used in the industrial unit. The ball of powerful light burst from her palm and she directing the beams right at Bridget’s chest. The light spilled over Bridget’s corpse but she kept coming, smoke rising from her torso.
They’d all edged to the farthest corners of the trailer, only a matter of feet separating them. Vincent stood against the back wall, his gray eyes fixed on the creature that used to be his mother. From their blood connection, Vincent’s horror and heartbreak washed over Serenity in equal measures, so she experienced his emotions just as he did. She wanted to cry for him, but she couldn’t allo
w herself to be distracted. She needed him.
“The head!” Serenity yelled at Vincent. “You’ve got to remove the head.”
With a roar that sounded as though his heart was splitting in two, Vincent leapt forward and darted around the back of his mother, catching her from behind. He wrapped his huge arm around her throat and wrenched. A sickening rip and a cracking of bone filled the trailer, making bile rise at the back of Serenity’s throat. Bridget’s knees gave way, her body seeming to fold in on itself, collapsing.
Vincent opened his arms and dropped his mother’s head to the floor. It rolled slightly from side to side, eyes open and staring.
“Oh, God,” Serenity turned from the sight, her knuckles pressed against her mouth. Vincent appeared in front of her and she gave a small shriek of surprise. He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her back around to face Bridget’s body.
“Your vampire did that,” Vincent addressed her from behind. “You should be forced to face up to what he is capable of.”
She spun back around. “Don’t make out like you’re an innocent,” she snapped. She wanted to list off all his crimes—his part in kidnapping Elizabeth, the numerous innocent people she knew he’d killed—but she held herself back. She didn’t want to anger him further. Though Vincent had played his own part in this, he’d suffered enough.
Her eyes flicked to where Sebastian still lay on the floor, his eyes closed, utterly unaware of what had occurred around him. Was he really responsible for what had happened? Surely there must be some mistake.
No. Their own daughter had told her what Sebastian had done. If she couldn’t believe her, who could she believe?
A horrified silence fell over the trailer.
Conner broke the quiet. He strode forward and picked up the blanket that had previously been covering Bridget’s body. “Jesus Christ, someone cover the poor woman up.” He spread the linen out over the remains of Bridget’s body, covering her dead, staring eyes.
With Bridget covered, the tension in the room relaxed, but only a fraction.
Motion at the door snatched Serenity’s attention. Elizabeth burst through, swiftly followed by Henry.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his hands held out either side of his body. “She distracted me.”
Serenity glared at him, but reached out and pulled Elizabeth to her side. “She’s seven-years-old. How the hell did she distract you?”
Elizabeth grinned up at her. “I told him I needed to pee.”
Serenity rolled her eyes, torn between wanting her child by her side and wanting to keep her the hell away from this mess. “And you fell for that?”
“She said she was going to pee on my shoe.”
“Elizabeth!” she scolded.
The girl shrugged. “Sorry, but I knew what was happening anyway.”
Serenity dropped to a crouch. “Are you okay?”
The smile dropped from Elizabeth’s face. “I guess. I have to be, don’t I?”
“No, you don’t have to be all right. It’s perfectly okay for you to be upset—about Bridget, about your Daddy …”
“He didn’t mean what he did,” she said, shaking her head. “He didn’t realize he was hurting Bridget.”
Serenity’s jaw locked, her eyes burning with unshed tears. She pulled Elizabeth closer and kissed the top of her head. She spoke in a whisper against her hair, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear you say that.”
She rose, her attention refocused on Iona. “You heard what Elizabeth said. Sebastian didn’t know what he was doing. Please tell me you’ll help him.”
Iona shook her head, her blue eyes wide, her silver-blonde hair flicking down her back. “No, I’m sorry, but this is too much. I have families here, people who trust me to keep them safe.”
“People are already talking, Iona,” Henry butted in. “They’re saying you’re putting outsiders before your own people.”
She spun to him, her eyes narrowed and Serenity caught a glimpse of the fearful creature that had been suspended in the industrial unit, surrounded in light.
“I had no choice, Henry! The demon using Sebastian to kill Elizabeth would have opened up a gateway between our world and theirs. A couple of vampires would have been the least of your worries.”
Henry’s shoulders dropped, but he wasn’t giving up his argument so easily. “But the demon is gone.”
Iona nodded. “Yes, the demon is gone.” She turned back to Serenity. “I’m sorry, Henry is right, I must ask you to leave now.”
Serenity felt Elizabeth’s hand slipped into hers, and she looked down to find her daughter staring up at her. “We can’t leave Daddy in that other place,” she said. “He needs to be with us.”
“I know, sweetheart. We’ll find a way to a way to get him back.”
Serenity moved her attention back to Iona. “Please,” she beseeched her. “I’ve got no one else to turn to.”
The truth of her statement hit her. With Sebastian and Bridget gone, she found herself alone once more.
Iona glanced away. “I’m sorry.”
Elizabeth broke from Serenity’s hold and walked forward. She stopped directly in front of Iona and reached out and took the older girl’s hands.
“Please don’t make me have to live without my daddy. You grew up not having your parents. Please don’t make me do the same.”
Iona closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. “Elizabeth …”
“He won’t hurt you. I promise.”
She looked at Elizabeth, making eye contact. “Did you see that in a vision?”
Elizabeth hesitated, then wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Not yet, but I know my Daddy. He might be different, but he loves me and he’s the only one I’ve got.”
Iona gave a deep, shuddering sigh. “If I do this, I’m doing it for you, Elizabeth. No one else. I’m helping you because I know what it’s like to grow up without my parents.”
Serenity’s heart lifted with hope. She opened her mouth to get Iona’s confirmation, but then shut it again. Elizabeth seemed to be handling this one pretty well on her own.
Conner muscled in. “We won’t have him on our turf, Iona.”
Serenity glared at him and was about to argue when Elizabeth said, “So come home with us. We can take Sebastian with us. Then he’ll be nowhere near your people.”
Iona’s gaze flicked to where Sebastian lay on the floor. Serenity watched the girl study his face. He looked like a sleeping statue, a god carved in ivory. With his eyes closed, the milky change in his beautiful green irises was hidden and his shirt and jacket covered most of the patches of dry, flaky skin that had developed since the demon took hold.
Overwhelmed by a desire to be near him, she crossed the room and knelt at his side. She leaned down and placed her head against his motionless chest, wishing she at least had his heartbeat to remind her he was still a part of their world. A solitary tear gathered in the corner of her eye and slid down her cheek, dampening his shirt.
She sensed someone standing above her and lifted her head. Elizabeth knelt across from her, on the other side of her father’s chest. She reached out, across his body, and touched her mother’s damp cheek.
“Don’t be sad, Mommy. Iona will help us.”
“She hasn’t said that yet, Elizabeth.”
“Yes, I will.”
Serenity twisted her neck to glance over her shoulder at the young sorceress.
“Really?”
“I can see how much you both love him, even after what’s happened. I guess if I’d been able to ask someone to help save my own father’s life, I’d have done so, even though being with my mother eventually killed them both. They knew the dangers, but nothing stopped them loving each other.”
“Thank you, Iona. Thank you so much.”
“I hope I don’t regret it.”
She became aware of Vincent still standing there, his mother’s blood splattering the material of his close-fitting t-shirt.
“I’m sorry, Vincent,” sh
e said, knowing the words were meaningless. Nothing she could say would ever make what had happened right again. She didn’t know what he would choose to do now. Would he leave them? She couldn’t deny feeling something for him, though she couldn’t explain what. Perhaps she could blame it solely on his blood, or maybe it was something more. Either way, letting him leave hurt a small part of her. However, the emotion was incomparable to the pain she felt at the possibility of losing Sebastian and over Bridget’s death.
Vincent turned to her, his feature’s softening. “Serenity, I want to help you—I want to be on your side—but I can’t stand by and watch you try to help him. After everything that’s happened, if you really intend on bringing him back, you can’t expect me to stay.”
“Vincent, please …”
“You know I can’t kill him, though I might want to, but I can’t play any part in helping the vampire who was responsible for my mother’s death.”
“It wasn’t him,” she pleaded. “You know the demon was responsible.”
He lifted a hand to stop her. “Just be careful, Serenity.” He reached out and took her hand and lifted her fingers to her lips. “Stay safe,” he said, his eyes locking with hers.
He moved in a streak of color around the trailer, scooping up the remains of his mother.
And then he was gone, the trailer door banging in his wake.
Chapter Twenty-one
Sebastian was lost.
He walked down the empty freeway, the desert stretching out for miles either side. Something terrible had happened—he knew that much—but he had no idea what. Only the image of Elizabeth’s terrified face had filled his mind as the darkness claimed him.
Had he done something to his daughter? No, he would never hurt Elizabeth. Whatever else happened, he would die himself before he harmed his child.
Movement rustled in the shrubs on either side of him. He ignored it and picked up his pace, breaking into a jog. He needed to get back to Los Angeles. He wouldn’t stay here in this expanse of nothingness, inky patches of darkness hiding all kinds of unthinkable creatures.
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