by Jan Dockter
The nighttime sky was brilliant with stars, the clouds having disappeared without a trace in an odd turn of weather. The garage lights were on, bathing the driveway in a warm glow that made the tears on Ashe’s mother’s face shine. Her red hair was wild as ever, the scrunchie tangled in its depths doing nothing to tame it. When she smiled, her dimples reflected Ashe’s own.
“You finally got what you wanted,” Ashe’s mother said, as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “You're free.”
Ashe felt tears in her own eyes. Now that the day had finally come to say goodbye to her mother, she found that she wasn’t quite ready. Everyone had decided that it would be better for the group to split up, at least for a while. The surviving members of Landon’s clan would be looking for retribution and a large group of vampires moving together would be too easy to find. Ashe and Peter would head north, Ashe’s mother and father west, and Peter’s sisters south. Peter’s mother and father were headed back to Europe to see if they could draw on some of their clan’s high standing in the old world to give them protection in the new one.
Ashe gave her mother a teary hug. “It’s only for a short while. We’ll all be back together before you can even miss me.”
“I already miss you.” Her mother clung to her almost painfully until Ashe’s father stepped in to give her a hug of his own.
“Take care,” her father said gruffly. His movements were stiff, as if he were fighting the urge to break down crying himself. Though he had not aged a day in over a decade, Ashe could see a weariness in his eyes that betrayed the long years he had endured without her and the sadness of having to say goodbye again so soon.
Ashe hugged him back hard.
“You’re the bravest young woman I’ve ever met and I’m not just saying that because you’re my daughter. You’ll be just fine.” He let go of Ashe and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “But if you need anything, we’re always just a phone call away.”
“That, and a couple thousand miles of open road,” Vanessa said, passing Ashe to throw another duffel into the back seat.
“Vanessa,” Peter warned.
So much for the heartfelt family moment, Ashe thought with a trace of annoyance. Vanessa only smiled, slamming the car door behind her.
When Peter turned away again, Vanessa pulled Ashe aside. Ashe followed her away from the rest of the group, who were still saying their goodbyes.
Vanessa said, “I know things between us haven’t been so hot. I mean, I kept you hostage and then threatened you into keeping quiet about Penelope.”
Ashe had already heard Vanessa’s apology more times than she could count. Though she didn’t particularly like Peter’s sisters, she knew she had to learn to put up with them. Aside from Penelope, none of them had ever overtly harmed her enough for anyone in the family except Peter to find cause for concern. Apparently, it was expected among vampires for tensions to run a little high once in a while. Still, Vanessa found the need to apologize to Ashe every chance she got.
“I’ve put you in danger so many times, but I want you to know that I’m not my sister. When Peter told us what had happened, one thing was clear. He cares a lot about you. The bullet hole in the wall is proof enough of that. I don’t care if you’re a human, or if my brother has only known you for a short time in the eyes of us immortals. You’re part of our clan and don’t you ever forget it.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t,” Ashe replied.
As Vanessa walked back to join the others, Ashe’s right hand reached up to touch the dark red stones in her ears. That was what those earrings meant, the ones that Penelope had been so envious of. They meant that Ashe belonged to Peter’s clan, that blood wasn’t the only marker of family or of love. Though Landon’s clan had been the one to turn Ashe’s father, Peter’s clan had been the one to take him in. By extension of that, Ashe supposed that she had been a part of their clan all along. It just took meeting Peter for everything to fall into place.
“You ready to go?” Peter asked, coming towards her with the keys to the car jingling in his hand.
It was happening too fast, Ashe thought. She was really leaving home for the first time after wanting it so badly for so many years. She looked to her mother, her father, and the members of Peter’s clan who would soon be sharing their own tearful farewells, if vampires like them were even capable of such emotion. Even a decade apart must seem like a long weekend to them, Ashe reflected.
“Ashe?”
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater and got into the car. Peter came around the other side and settled in beside her. “This is the beginning of the rest of our lives,” Peter said eerily echoing Professor Wheatley’s words. “Don’t think of it as running away, but as chasing the unknown.”
But that was what Ashe was scared of— the unknown. She glanced out the windshield as her parents huddled together on the driveway in the orange light. They felt so far away already, like a vague memory from the past that she could only recall in dreams.
Peter reached across the seat to squeeze her hand. “I know this is all new to you. I’ve been doing this since I can remember, always uprooting myself from place to place, as the life of a vampire is never completely safe. I would have given anything to have what you did, a hometown, family vacations, even pictures of myself as a child smiling with my parents.”
He paused to gather his thoughts. “What I’m saying is that you’ve got these memories to keep you strong. No matter what happens in the future, nothing can take the past away from you.” He paused and frowned, as if his own words were somehow painful to him. “Nothing will change the fact that your parents loved you and still do, and you’ll always have a home to come back to. Maybe it won’t be in this city or even the state, but it’ll be home nonetheless.”
“What about you?” Ashe asked, sensing the pain in Peter’s heart.
“Me?” he laughed weakly. “I’ve never known the meaning of home. I thought it meant family, but I guess I was wrong. Without love, family means nothing.”
Ashe felt the truth in Peter’s words, but she also knew that sometimes you loved family despite the terrible things you did to each other, simply because you were connected by the bond of blood. Ashe wondered if Peter still loved his sister Penelope, just as Ashe had loved her father for all those years, even when she thought he had abandoned her.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Ashe said with resolve.
Peter squeezed her hand tightly before starting the car. Clouds of white exhaust puffed up in the back, while in the front Ashe could see their families waving at them from up the driveway. Ashe waved back, smiling through her tears and knowing that it wasn’t farewell forever. Nothing was ever permanent, Ashe thought, not even goodbyes.
THE END BOOK 2
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The Vampire’s Embrace
Adored by The Night:
Book 3
Lucy Lyons
© 2017
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© Copyright 2017 by Persia Publishing - All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 1
It was just after eight o’clock and the roadside diner was bustling with people. It had been a long day of driving and Ashe was dead tired. She ate a burger and fries while Peter sat opposite her at the booth with a highway map unfolded in front of him.
He traced the lines of the highway with his finger. “If we backtrack a little then go east for a while, that should throw them off our trail.”
“How can you be sure there’s anyone after us?” Ashe asked. For the past few days, Peter had been convinced that a group of Landon’s people had been following them. Ashe didn’t blame him for feeling that way. It was only a matter of time before the remaining members of Landon’s clan found out that he, his father, and his two brothers had been killed by Peter and Mark’s men. But not yet, Ashe thought, not so soon after leaving the city. It wasn’t possible.
Peter looked up at her, and then past her over her shoulder as he tended to do a lot these days. “I saw him at the gas station yesterday, the one we stopped at around three.”
Ashe wanted to look over her shoulder as well but instead caught the man’s reflection in the windows lining the wall. He wore a baseball cap and a full beard. He could have been any of a number of long-haul truckers they had seen in the weeks they had been on the road.
“He doesn’t look familiar,” Ashe said.
“Trust me,” Peter replied.
The optimism they had both felt at starting their journey north had been since overshadowed by an almost constant feeling of foreboding. Landon’s clan was out there somewhere looking for revenge, and until Peter’s parents in Europe could figure out the extent of the threat, Peter and Ashe would have to lay low and bide their time. Ashe hated not knowing what was out there and feeling powerless to stop whatever was coming their way. But she knew that no matter what, Peter would be by her side and that reassurance gave her the strength to keep going.
Peter let Ashe finish her hamburger in silence and left some bills from his wallet on the table. He said nothing more about the man in the cap or his suspicions about being followed, but Ashe knew it was still nagging him.
They got back into the car and Ashe shivered as she waited for the heat to kick on. Peter was unaffected. He drove with that steely look in his eyes that told Ashe that his mind was miles away. He was thinking about something that troubled him. Ashe glanced away from him and turned to the window. It didn’t bother her that he was unreachable right now. They would connect again once they stopped somewhere for the night. It had become somewhat of a routine. Nestled in each other’s arms in some strange motel bed, they often talked until one or both of them fell asleep. In those moments, Ashe felt like they were two halves of a whole coming together again after a long time apart.
The countryside streamed by in an endless reel. There were few other cars on the highway. Long stretches went by without seeing another set of headlights. The stars shone much brighter out here than they were ever able to in the city as there was no light pollution to compete with, no haze of clouds to obscure their brilliance. The radio murmured quietly, a classic rock station that Ashe had found a couple towns back. The signal was getting stronger. They must be nearing a city.
“You see that car behind us?” Peter said suddenly, startling Ashe. She glanced up at the rearview mirror but didn’t see anything.
“I think it’s been following us for some time.”
Ashe sat up straighter in her seat, giving herself a better angle to see behind their car. She could just barely make out the glint of moonlight on metal in the distance behind them. She wouldn’t have noticed it had Peter not said anything. The car didn’t have its lights on.
Peter brushed a lock of hair from his brow, but the gesture didn’t have the same coolness it did when he usually did it. It was a gesture of nervousness, conveying to Ashe everything he hadn’t said to her in words just now. Peter must have been right about the man at the diner. Ashe could no longer doubt that they were being pursued.
She glanced at the mirror again. The car was getting closer.
“Don’t worry,” Peter said keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “They can’t do anything as long as we don’t stop. We’ll lose them in the next town.”
Ashe couldn't help but worry. She had no idea how far the next town was and the car was inching ever closer.
Peter didn’t increase his speed as the car caught up with them. Ashe could see the driver clearly now, his face looking red in the glare of their tail lights. She was surprised to see that it wasn’t the man from the diner. The man behind the wheel was no one she had ever seen before. He was clean-shaven and his hair was buzzed down. He could have been a police officer. But none of this did anything to assuage the fear that Ashe felt upon seeing him. She could feel in her gut that he meant them harm.
The driver turned on his high beams flooding their car with light and Ashe felt a jolt as they were hit from behind. Peter maintained control of the car and kept at an even speed. The car behind them remained inches from their back bumper threatening to hit them again.
“Lock your door,” Peter instructed.
“Why?” Ashe asked.
“He’s going to try to run us off the road,” Peter said. He reached across to Ashe’s seatbelt and gave it a strong tug to make sure it was secure.
“What are you going to do?” Ashe jammed the car lock into place just as the as the pursuing car moved to overtake their own.
“I’m going to let him,” Peter replied with a calmness that gave Ashe goose bumps.
She braced for impact as the car drew level with theirs. It swerved towards them, but Peter anticipated this and jerked the wheel in the same direction. The impact was lessened considerably as they swerved off the road, but it made no difference. Both cars smashed right into the base of an oak tree standing like a pillar off the side of the road.
Ashe had never been in a car accident before and couldn’t have imagined the violence of it. Her body slammed forward hard against her seatbelt, jerking backwards again almost immediately as the car came to a rest. She sat for a moment in the odd silence that followed, paralyzed by shock and unsure of what to do.
“Are you okay?” Peter asked her.
Her ribs hurt as she took shaken, gulping breaths. There were cracks in the glass of the front windshield, but there seemed to be no major damage to either the car or herself. “I—I think so,” she managed.
“That’s good. Stay here,” he told her getting out of the car.
Ashe unbuckled her seatbelt with shaking fingers and tried to open her door. She didn’t want to be left alone. But the door opened only a few inches before being stopped by something on the other side. It appeared that the other car had pinned her door closed.
She heard a scuffle outside an
d then low voices that she couldn’t quite make out. She wriggled across to the driver’s side and eased the door open. She needed to know what was happening out there.
“I could end you right now,” Peter growled in a tone that sent shivers up Ashe’s spine.
“I’d expect no less from one of Mark’s henchmen,” the man spat back.
“I work for no one,” Peter replied. “And besides, Mark’s dead.”
Ashe remembered Mark as the vampire who had helped Peter track down Landon and his family. He had also died fighting to save the people Landon had been feeding off of. Hearing his name again gave her a chill. Ashe opened the door a little wider and stepped out. If this had something to do with Landon, she had to know.
Peter had his back turned to her facing the driver of the other car. There was a black sheen of blood on the man’s lip.
The man looked toward the car catching sight of Ashe standing next to it. His expression twisted into something ugly. Ashe had seen such an expression before, in Penelope when she had caught the scent of Ashe’s blood. The man was a vampire.
Peter too sensed the change in the man and turned sharply towards Ashe. “Get back in the car,” he shouted at her. And then to the man, “You try to put a hand on her and I’ll tear you apart.”
The man hissed bearing his fangs, but stayed where he was. “You’re only asking for trouble keeping a human with you,” he said.
“You think I don’t know?” There was no humor in Peter’s tone. He was holding something behind his back—a jagged length of wood.