ReAwakened

by Ada Adams

  Had my father seen Aurora the day he died? Had he turned away his “real daughter” for me? And if so, why? Those were questions I wasn’t sure I’d ever get any answers to.

  “When news of President Alastair’s death came, Aurora decided to go after you. She wanted to take back the life that rightfully belonged to her. Since I wanted you as well, albeit for other reasons, we decided to work together. She was no longer my daughter; she was simply an ally in my crusade. Aurora needed you out of the picture because she wanted your life. I wanted you because I needed your blood,” Charlotte divulged. “Of course, neither of us was powerful enough to defeat you on our own, at least not without you seeing us coming from miles away, so we devised a plan to lure you into our trap by teaming up with Dr. Jacques.”

  “Finding him wasn’t difficult. Even after all these years, the greedy idiot was still yearning for money and power. He had started kidnapping Born—both for his healing work and forta experiments, but he was doing it on such a small scale, the abductions were merely a rumor. We sought him out and offered to help him up the ante. You see, my dear daughter Aurora was actually good for something.”

  “Glamouring,” I said, stating the obvious.

  Charlotte nodded. “She helped Dr. Jacques increase the efficiency of his operation by reigning in the rogue vamps through the use of her mindbending forta. She was also the one who turned the werepups into big, bad, brainwashed wolves,” she said, chuckling. “That was another one of Dr. Jacques’ little experiments.”

  The werewolf attack…

  The Scarlet House massacre…

  All those drained vampires…

  “You’re sick,” I spat.

  Charlotte shrugged. “In the end, greed makes the world go round,” she proclaimed. “Although revenge isn’t very far behind either.” She chuckled at her own joke.

  I was thankful for Charlotte’s vanity. I could keep her talking for days. Slowly I was regaining strength. Unfortunately, the image of what had been happening in my life recently was also becoming more clear. And it wasn’t a pretty picture.

  All along, it was three different vampires with three different motives for hurting the Born, I realized.

  Jacques was after money and power.

  Charlotte needed health.

  Aurora, on the other hand, wanted my life.

  “You ordered the attack on the team while I was hunting down Jacques,” I accused.

  “When you connected the initials C.J. to Carl Jacques, I couldn’t believe my luck. You see, the phone number Twitbrook had was actually mine, but your search for Dr. Jacques threw you off my trail. At the same time, I didn’t want the team to be able to help you, so I tried to foil your plan.”

  She’d been there all along…sitting at our table, listening to us plan an attack against her operation.

  “Aurora hurt Lena.” I swallowed hard, remembering the sensation of my hands—Aurora’s hands—plunging the dagger into Lena’s chest.

  Charlotte sighed. “That one had nothing to do with me. She was growing impatient while you pranced around, flaunting your relationship with Sebastian. She thought that if Sebastian found out that you hurt Lena, he’d leave you. Of course, that backfired in more ways than one. I tried to get Sophie to fall for the same idea and turn on you, but it seems that all of your friends are as stubborn as you.”

  “Where is Aurora now?” I looked behind me, still expecting her to burst through the door at any moment.

  “She’s grounded, you could say,” Charlotte snapped. “Aurora is still just an immature child. Her motives for inflicting pain are selfish. She wants to hurt you out of jealousy, and she doesn’t care how she achieves this. When you were trapped by Dr. Jacques, she tried to undermine me and get to you first. She wanted you gone as quickly as possible and didn’t care what happened to your blood. She also crossed me when she came over to the cottage and tried to attack you in your sleep.”

  That dream…the dream about Aurora and the woman she had referred to as Mother, it had all been a sick, cruel reality.

  “That child has been a pain since the day she was born,” Charlotte said.

  “I’m sure it didn’t help that she was being raised by a woman who frequently drained her,” I shot back.

  She had the nerve to laugh. “I guess not. But you don’t have to worry about Aurora anymore, she won’t be bothering us anytime soon. I made sure that she couldn’t hurt you.”

  “You mean before you could hurt Dawn for your own selfish reasons?!” Brooke called out.

  Charlotte narrowed her eyes in her direction, then nodded to the guard again. His fist connected with Brooke’s cheekbone. This time she couldn’t hold in the painful cry that escaped her lips.

  “Enough!” I told Charlotte. “Free my friends and call off the attack on the Scarlet House. I’ll come with you willingly. Wherever you want to go.”

  Her contemplative frown turned into a villainous smirk. “Like I said before, you’re no longer in any position to bargain with me.”

  “And neither are you,” I shot back. “You need me alive for the transfusion to work.” I picked up the blood bullet gun off the floor and aimed it directly at my heart.

  Sophie screamed.

  Brooke gasped.

  “No!” Hunter and Seth cried in unison.

  Charlotte regarded me warily. We had reached a stalemate; neither one of us able to trust the other’s next move. Not that I should have ever trusted Charlotte’s anything, but that was beside the point.

  “I’m not going to free anyone until I’m certain that you’ll give me what I need,” she said, taking a step toward me. She nodded to another one of her rogues—a different vamp this time—and he pressed a switch on a small device he was holding.

  Suddenly, the entire building shook as a loud blast rang out.

  “That was the west wing of the Scarlet House,” Charlotte explained. “It’s slowly going up in flames as we speak. I made sure it was the empty one that went first, but I have a lot more where that came from. If you don’t come with me, I’ll just get my friends to press all the other buttons. Like that tiny red one on Brooke’s vest. Or perhaps Hunter’s. Heck, maybe we’ll even blow up our little Sophie. ” She stared me down. “You don’t have a choice but to do what I say, Dawn. Once I have your forta, I won’t need anything from your team. I could care less about them. As long as they leave me alone, I’ll let them go,” she vowed. “Now, follow me or I’ll have to make good on my promise and hurt your little minions. Don’t even think about running or trying to attack me. I’m dying to blow up Brooke.”

  My heart raced as I followed Charlotte down to the basement infirmary, all the way to my impending doom. Dr. Carter stood in the center of the dim room, surrounded by three rogues. Her face was pale, her cheeks stained by mascara-clad tears. Her dark red gown was torn to shreds, soiled by her own blood. Though she had been defeated, it appeared that the feisty doctor had put up a good fight.

  “I made sure to provide you with the best physician in the area,” Charlotte said mockingly. “So that the draining can be as quick and painless as possible. At least for me.” She nudged me toward the doctor. “You can’t call me heartless now, can you?” she sneered as she placed my dagger against Dr. Carter’s throat. Dr. Carter flinched and tightened her jaw.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” Charlotte directed. “Dawn, you’re going to get on that stretcher over there. You hesitate, Brooke goes. Doctor, you’re going to start cutting. Just like we spoke about. And don’t you dare try to use that scalpel on me again. You know what’s going to happen to your husband and children if you do. Get going, everyone! We only have so much time before this place goes up in flames.”

  With shaking hands, Dr. Carter guided me to the table and inserted a catheter into an artery on my arm. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she connected a thin tube leading from the needle to a blood collection bag. As Charlotte snapped at her to “Hurry up!” she did the same with my other arm. Th
en moved to my wrists, continuing down my body until I was hooked up to at least six or seven bags. By that point, the first one had already filled up, and Charlotte bit into it, draining it hungrily as if it were a juice pouch. I looked away as she feasted on three more bags, instructing Dr. Carter to keep replenishing her supply. She was drinking the blood faster than I was losing it. Dissatisfied with the slow progress, she took the dagger away from Dr. Carter’s neck and slashed its blade across my jugular. Warm liquid poured down my neck as I shut my eyes in an effort to expunge the blinding pain that rocked my body.

  For a girl who doesn’t enjoy messes, she sure likes bathing in my blood, I thought bitterly, trying not to flinch at the agonizing stinging in my throat.

  Charlotte was barking another order at Dr. Carter, but her voice was too distant to hear. It echoed in my ears like the tinkling of wind chimes—if those wind chimes were made of sharp, deadly razors.

  Faintness and fatigue overtook me. I was drowning in a bright white light, my body cold and numb, floating away into space. My wounds were supposed to mend; I expected to regenerate the blood loss, but none of that was happening. Every blood cell that I lost left behind a hollow emptiness. Suddenly, I remembered Razor’s warning.

  I wasn’t going to heal.

  This was it.

  My blood trickled down my neck, hot, wet, and sticky. Charlotte and the room around me disappeared. Just as the world began to diminish, my thoughts flashed to my friends. Sebastian. Razor. Brooke. Sophie. Hunter. Seth. Ethan. They’d come into my life unexpectedly, crawling into my heart without warning. I could never have imagined that I’d grow to care about anyone as much as I cared for them. Despite our ups and downs we were a family. They were my everything. And if I had to die so that they could live, I would. There was no question in my mind about that.

  I closed my eyes, drawing in a deep, shaky breath. In my head, I bid a silent goodbye to Sebastian, secretly wishing that it didn’t have to end like this. My chest filled with a deep sorrow—the kind of sorrow that breaks your heart ever so slowly, making you suffer through each crack and every tear; the type of sorrow that forces you to reflect on every single regret. I longingly wished that I’d been braver in love, that I’d shared myself more openly. The fear I had in regard to exposing my feelings paled in comparison to the reality of losing him forever. The pain in my body was greatly overshadowed by the ache in my heart. There would be no tomorrow for us; there would be no time to hear the words to his song.

  I bid a farewell to Razor, slightly disheartened that I would never again have another chance to roll my eyes at one of his inappropriate remarks. He’d grown on me, gradually and quietly entrapping me in the type of unusual fondness that happens without one realizing it’s actually occurring. He had his bad moments, but his affection and devotion was genuine.

  Despite our rocky start, Brooke, Sophie, Hunter, and Seth had lodged themselves deep in my heart. My chest burst with pride over the immense strides they’d made in becoming stronger and more competent vampires. As the realization that we’d never fight side by side again finally sunk in, I hoped they would continue supporting each other, growing as a team, while also developing as individuals.

  I continued to distract myself with thoughts of my friends, trying to ignore the burning in my veins. The irony of the situation didn’t escape me. I’d successfully triumphed over perilous situations and many dangerous villains in my life, and now I was being conquered by the weakest one of them all. A girl who needed my blood to gain strength; one whom, under different circumstances, I could have taken down in a blink of an eye.

  Just as my entire world was coming to a close, a commotion erupted outside the infirmary. Banging on the door. Feet shuffling. Voices. Too weak to open my eyes, I strained to hear what was happening.

  Sophie’s melodious voice rang in my ears. “You were right, Char,” she was saying. “I need you. We belong together. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

  Sophie was betraying me. She was betraying us all.

  My mind refused to believe the words ringing through my ears. It couldn’t be true. It was simply impossible, especially after everything Sophie had witnessed Charlotte say and do.

  “Please forgive me,” Sophie continued, her voice growing stronger as she neared. “I was wrong to doubt you, wrong to think that you didn’t love me. We’ve been together since we were little. I need you. Please, Char.”

  “I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Soph,” Charlotte purred as I tried to fight the dizziness that lay claim to my body. “To prove that you’re really mine, how about you take the doctor’s place?” I heard Dr. Carter scream out as Charlotte sent her tumbling across the room. “You’ll help me drain Dawn, wont you, love?”

  “Y-yes. Of course.” Sophie’s voice was barely audible.

  Sophie was going to drain me. Impossible.

  “Good girl. Here, take this and make a cut right there on her neck.”

  A loud clattering of metal ensued and I forced my eyes open. I turned my head just in time to see Sophie lunge at Charlotte, scalpel in hand. Before Charlotte could react, Sophie plunged the weapon into her chest. Time stood still as both girls took a moment to process the incident.

  “I’m sorry, Char,” Sophie whispered, blinking away tears.

  A maddening rage warped Charlotte’s face into a heinous grimace. Her angelic features twisted to form a bitter scowl as she looked down at the blood pooling around her wound.

  “You think you’re clever, huh?” A wicked smile slowly crept across her lips as she pulled the scalpel out. She released her fingers, sending it tumbling to the ground. Before it had even reached the floor, Charlotte aimed her hand at the rest of the surgical equipment lying on the table next to me, and used her forta to send the entire set of knives flying toward Sophie.

  “Now!” Sophie screamed, right before the scalpels embedded in her torso.

  The door exploded. Sebastian and Razor stormed through, followed closely by Brooke, Hunter, and Seth. My heart exploded with joy, but the happiness was short lived as I watched Charlotte throw Sophie against the wall.

  “Thanks for this,” Charlotte said to me, holding out the palm of her hand as she admired her newfound strength.

  Razor, Seth, and Hunter launched at her, while Sebastian rushed to my side. As his eyes connected with mine, his jaw clenched. He shot me a strained smile in an attempt to hide his real emotions. I could only feel the result of Charlotte’s experiment, but if what he saw matched the intensity of my pain, then I understood the reason behind his terror. I had been carved open, drained of nearly every ounce of blood.

  Picking up one of the discarded scalpels, he made a small incision on his forearm, quickly bringing it to my lips. “Drink,” he instructed, and I obeyed.

  Sebastian’s blood was my only means of escaping an inevitable death. As I started to drink, he began to talk. His deep voice vibrated in my ears, keeping me from slipping away.

  “Razor and I were by the fountain when the explosion occurred,” he said. “We rushed inside, but couldn’t find you anywhere. In fact, we couldn’t locate any of the team members. No one inside had reacted at all, the entire ballroom was full of unconscious, drugged vampires. By the time we made it to the library, the house had already caught on fire, and we found Brooke, Sophie, Hunter, and Seth, strapped to a lot of C-4, surrounded by rogues.”

  I had a feeling that he was only telling the story so that he wouldn’t have to focus on the mess in front of him. Listening to his soothing voice, I began to doze off, so he nudged me gently. “Hey, don’t fall asleep yet,” he ordered softly, “You haven’t heard me brag about how we fought off the rogues and rescued the team.” With his free hand, he rubbed my cheek. “Dawn…come on, stay with me.”

  The effect of his blood on my body was gradual, but gratifying nonetheless. Slowly, I began to regain feeling in my limbs. Still, the urge to surrender into the darkness was strong.

  “It was Sophie’s idea to go in first and disar
m Charlotte,” he said. That made me smile. From the corner of my eye, I watched as Brooke worked on applying pressure to Sophie’s wounds. Her white lacy dress was soaked in blood, but the scalpels had missed her heart.

  She’s going to be okay, I thought with resolve.

  Razor, Hunter, and Seth weren’t faring as well. While Charlotte’s body was still weak, after the feeding, her forta’s power had surged. She was using her mind to slam heavy objects into the threesome—hospital beds, medical machines—whatever it took to keep them at bay.

  “Go…help them…” I told Sebastian, moving my lips from his arm.

  His brow furrowed. “No. You’re not strong enough yet.”

  “Please…” I begged.

  “Just a little longer, and I will.”

  “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll put you under a blood attraction spell?” I attempted a joke, but my lips were too dry to form a smile.

  “You don’t need any spells to work your magic on me.” He bent down to kiss me, then presented his arm once again. Just as I began to drink, the door swung open and an army of werewolves and rogue vamps flew into the room. Four weres leaped over to us, tackling Sebastian, forcing him away from me. The rest descended on Razor, Hunter, and Seth. The vampires went after Brooke and Sophie.

  My mind hummed in elation from the feeding, but the strength hadn’t reached my body yet. As the team busied themselves with the attackers, Charlotte turned on me. Now that she’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted from me, she no longer cared if I lived or died.

  “Aurora has given me a lot of trouble, but I owe her this much at least,” Charlotte said, picking up my discarded dagger. “It’s time to free her from you.”

  She advanced on me, bringing the weapon up over her head as she prepared to strike. I turned to my side, pushing myself off the bed just as the dagger embedded into the sheets. Crashing to the floor, my skull connected with the hard tile. An intense pain rocked my body as if all of my bones had broken. I was suddenly made out of porcelain. I tried to move my limbs, but each motion brought on a deeper ache.