Eternal Beloved

by Bella Abbott

  I decided the duffel could stay in the closet, and carried it back and set it on the floor. Cyrus peered up at me from the gloom, and I smiled at him. “Make sure nobody steals my underwear,” I whispered, and closed the door most of the way, leaving enough of a gap that the cat could come and go as he pleased.

  A glance at the clock told me that the catering crew would be gathering soon, and I resolved to sign in so I could access the set. If Jared wasn’t calling because he was mad that I’d bailed, maybe we could work it out in person. In any case, I had no better plan of action, so I pulled on a fresh shirt, stuck my phone in the back pocket of my jeans, and made for the cafeteria as dusk approached.

  Melinda seemed surprised by my arrival and took me aside as the rest of the crew trickled in.

  “You sure you’re ready to go back to work?” she asked.

  I remembered that as far as she knew, I’d been absent because of the bike accident.

  “Yeah. I mean, I took a few days off already, and I feel a lot better now. Plus I need the credit.”

  “Okay, then. You can work your regular table.” She gave me a hard stare. “But no side jobs for the crew.”

  “After last time, you don’t have to warn me. I’ll stick to coffee and sodas.”

  We walked together to the film set ahead of the vans, and Melinda offered a few last minute instructions before the supplies arrived. I only half listened, busily scanning the area for any sign of Jared, but gave up when I saw it was only crew members carrying lighting and cabling. After Melinda left, I sidled over to the makeup trailer and waited by the rear as though on some sort of work-related duty.

  Alfred approached with Oscar, a script in hand, and Alfred smiled ruefully when he saw me. He said something to Oscar, who nodded, and broke away from him to make his way to where I was.

  “Feeling better?” he asked.

  “Yeah, much. Other than a few bruises, no big deal.”

  He looked sheepish. “I’m sorry I asked you to do that. I got chewed out big time, if it’s any consolation.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It was my clumsiness that caused it.” I paused. “So what are you shooting tonight?”

  “Couple of crowd scenes and one or two with the ladies.”

  My spirits sank. “Oh. No Jared?”

  Alfred’s expression darkened. “Nope. He had to cancel tonight.”

  I nodded as though the explanation made complete sense, and then Alfred looked at his watch. “We have a ton to set up before the extras arrive. Nice to see you again…Lacey,” he said, his eyes flitting to my name tag.

  I didn’t mind him not remembering my name. There were probably a hundred people on the crew, and there were a couple of dozen catering staff. Plus, really, the more I stayed under the radar, the better. I offered a smile.

  “Thanks. See you around.”

  The vans showed up and I helped unload, my thoughts elsewhere. Why had Jared canceled? His supposed strategy with the hunters was to lull them into believing he didn’t suspect anything, so why change that?

  I nearly dropped a box of cups when I realized I’d just assumed that his assurances that the hunters couldn’t get the drop on him were an absolute guarantee. What if he’d miscalculated, and they’d somehow captured him? That would explain perfectly why he hadn’t returned my call, too.

  My hands were shaking when I set the box on my table and slipped my phone from my back pocket. I placed another call to his number, with the same result – it went directly to voicemail.

  “Jared, I’m at the set and just found out you canceled. Please call and let me know you’re okay. Even if you’re angry, just…just call.”

  I disconnected and eyed the crew, and my stomach tightened when I spotted Christina deep in discussion with Trent by one of the camera booms. As if she’d felt my gaze, she abruptly looked up, and when she spotted me, she scowled. She handed Trent her clipboard without taking her eyes off me, and then marched straight toward my table, covering the ground in moments.

  “What are you doing here?” she hissed, eyes blazing.

  I was again struck by her porcelain beauty, her perfectly symmetrical features, her skin so smooth it looked airbrushed.

  “I’m just doing my job. I feel fine now,” I replied.

  “I mean at Ridley. Jared told you–”

  A grip walked by, and Christina held her tongue until he moved out of earshot. She glanced around and said in a low voice, “Let’s find someplace quiet.”

  I followed her down the path to the bridge, and when we were well away from any possible prying eyes, she stopped and turned to me. “Jared told you not to come back to the school until we’ve identified and neutralized the threat. Why are you here?”

  “He told you about us?” I countered.

  “Of course. You’re equally at risk because of your relationship with him. Did some part of that escape you?”

  “Where is he?” I demanded.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’ve been trying to call him. He never came home last night.”

  Her voice hardened to match her expression. “So you disobeyed because he didn’t show up? Has it occurred to you that you’re making our job infinitely harder by being a wild card instead of following orders?”

  “See, that’s the thing,” I said, my voice even. “I don’t obey orders. I don’t let people tell me what to do. Even Jared.” I matched the intensity of her glare. “Even you.”

  “Do you want to die? Because that’s what your little adventure could lead to. Are you willing to risk that to prove a point – over some kind of adolescent power struggle?” It was her turn to wait a beat. “Did Jared not inform you that Carl was killed?”

  “I’m not…like you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. They’ll target you to get to him. I would do the same thing. Why? Because you’re an outsider, and you’re liable to do something stupid that gives them a better chance than they have with us. Like come back to Ridley when you were told not to under any circumstances.”

  I hated that she was right – she’d looked straight into me and seen that my rash decision had been largely unthinking. But I also remembered my vow not to allow my emotions to direct my actions, and took a deep breath before speaking.

  “Christina, I’m not going to sit in some cave while you two chase whoever. I want to know where Jared is, and I want to talk to him. Now. So crank up your bat phone, or however you communicate with him, and tell him that I’m not leaving Ridley until I see him.”

  She stared at me with hard eyes and shook her head. “You’re going to get us all killed.”

  “Then you’d better get Jared here sooner than later.”

  “I told you I don’t know where he is. All I know is that he’s following up on some leads…about a sorcerer who’s a sworn enemy. We haven’t had any news about him for years, but Jared heard some whispers through his contacts in that world.”

  “Where did he go, Christina?”

  “He said he needed to run something down in Virginia. That’s all I know. I haven’t talked to him since yesterday evening. That’s the truth.”

  “Does he have another phone?” I asked.

  “No. He hates cells. You have his only number.” Her voice softened. “Lacey, he told me all about you. You were once one of us. You know the truth. So you have to realize I’m not your enemy. If anything, I’m one of your only possible friends, and I’m begging you to leave Ridley now. I’m asking you, not ordering you, to do what’s best for all of us.” She hesitated. “I know Jared can be somewhat…overbearing at times. He’s used to being in the driver’s seat. But he’s brilliant, and if he’s afraid for you, it’s because he has good reason to be. Regardless of how you feel about the situation or how he delivered his…request, please trust us enough to help you. That’s all I’m asking. Go back to the manor. Stay there until this is over.”

  I considered possible responses, but they all seemed inadequate. Christina could have threatened, she co
uld have probably used her hypnotic powers to coerce me to leave, but instead she’d appealed to reason and had spoken to me as an equal…not as an inferior, which had been her tone before. And she sounded genuinely concerned about my presence here – not just because of Jared, but also for herself. So she too believed that the threat was both real and imminent.

  I felt like a fool. I’d behaved exactly as Jared had warned me would be the worst possible scenario for him, and I’d done so willfully, without concern for the consequences, even to myself.

  And I had nothing to show for the risk.

  Christina reached into her pocket and extracted a fat wad of hundred-dollar bills. She peeled off ten and held them out. “Take a taxi back to the manor. Now. Please. Don’t hang around; don’t tell anyone where you’re going. Just disappear. And watch the rearview mirror to ensure you aren’t followed.”

  I looked down at my boots. “I don’t even know the address, much less what town it’s in.”

  “Eighteen Serenity Lane. Outside Newcastle.”

  I repeated the address and nodded as I accepted the money. “You really think it’ll be that much?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want you hesitating because you don’t have enough. Please, Lacey. Go, now. I’ll deal with your supervisor. I’ll tell her that the insurance company didn’t want you on the set anymore.”

  “I’m not worried about her.”

  “Then take off.” She held my gaze for a moment. “I’ll tell Jared to call the moment he checks in. I promise you that.”

  My eyes widened as I thought of something. “I…I locked the front door when I left. I don’t have a key.”

  She thought for only a second. “If you haven’t heard from Jared by the time you get there, just break a ground-floor window and climb through. We can get a glass guy to fix it tomorrow.”

  I sighed. “Okay. I…I’m sorry about this. It was…I just had to get out of there.”

  “What’s done is done. Just make sure you get back safely. Jared will never forgive me…or himself…if anything happened to you. He…he doesn’t talk much, but I’ve heard about you at different times over the last hundred years, and you meant…you mean everything to him. Don’t ever forget that.”

  My throat clenched at her words, and all I could do was nod wordlessly. She accompanied me back to the set and, after saying goodbye, returned to where Trent was waiting for her like a lost puppy. I continued past the trucks and the makeup and wardrobe trailer onto the path that led back to the dorms. The night was dark around me, a dense cloud cover blocking any starlight. I picked up my pace, and the lights of the set faded behind me. I was nearly at the road when a familiar voice called from only a few feet away, startling me to a stop.

  “Lacey?”

  I was turning when a strong arm clamped around my neck and a chemical-soaked rag covered my nose and mouth. I tried to hold my breath while I struggled to break free, but after a moment my lungs betrayed me and I inhaled. The astringent fumes flooded my airway, and my lungs burned like fire, and then the world pinwheeled and everything went black.

  Chapter 33

  I came to in the front of a motorboat, my wrists bound like a hog. As the small craft sped along, the light chop pummeled my bruised ribs with each hard bounce. Icy spray blew over the bow on particularly steep waves, and it was one of those torrents that had jarred me to consciousness. I groaned and opened my eyes and saw a figure hunched over an outboard motor in the stern of the boat, peering ahead into the gloom.

  A tree of lightning lit the sky, revealing a seething mass of black clouds above. The explosion of thunder that almost immediately followed was deafening, sounding like the heavens had been split wide by a bomb. The air smelled of brine and ozone and rain, and I blinked away salt water to better make out who was piloting the boat. I thought you weren’t ever supposed to take out a small boat during a storm. You probably weren’t supposed to knock out and kidnap people either, of course.

  Another bolt of lightning flashed in the clouds, and I caught my breath at the boom that accompanied it moments later. The boat changed course slightly, and the pitch of the engine changed, and I felt it slow as the water suddenly calmed. Moments later the hull scraped against a rocky shore, and the engine died.

  The figure stood and moved toward me. I pretended to still be out cold. He paused over me for a second and then hopped from the bow. I heard boots crunching on wet gravel, and the boat lurched as he dragged it further up the beach.

  He returned and jabbed me in the ribs with a finger as stiff as a branch.

  “I know you’re awake. No point faking it.”

  My eyes fluttered open and I fixed him with a bleary stare. “Victor? What are you…”

  “What am I doing? What does it look like I’m doing?” He laughed, the sound as dry as sandpaper on a plank. “Can you stand? I’m going to help you to your feet. Try to kick me and I’ll break your nose, understand? That’s the only warning you’ll get.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I demanded, my voice as weak as my limbs.

  “You really don’t know?” He paused. “All right. Stand on the count of three. One…two…three!”

  He hoisted me to my feet, and I nearly fell face forward onto the beach when the hull shifted to the side. Victor caught me and lifted me out of the boat and set me on the shore as though I weighed nothing. My legs were still wobbly from the drug, and I struggled to remain standing. He led me by my bound arms up the bank to a tree line and paused as he looked up at the angry sky.

  “Going to pour any minute. Let’s get going before it does, unless we want to get soaked.”

  “I’m already soaked,” I complained.

  “I meant me.”

  He half dragged me along a trail that seemed to go on forever, and then a stone wall appeared out of the darkness in front of us. He moved to the right, and we skirted the wall until a tall gap appeared – an ancient entrance to the ruined building that towered before us.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Shut up,” he snapped, and removed a small flashlight from his pocket. He switched it on and played the beam along the steps before turning to me. “Don’t trip. You crack your head open, that’s your problem.”

  I wanted to protest, but the malevolent gleam in his eyes stopped me cold. I allowed him to pull me along into the interior of the structure, the darkness so dense it was like oil. We made it to an antechamber and he stopped to face me.

  “This is what you get when you consort with monsters,” he hissed.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, the tears running down my face streaking the grime on my cheeks.

  He grunted. “Your boyfriend. You know damn well what I’m talking about.”

  “I…I don’t. I swear.”

  “Ha! That’s too rich. Then you’re just a fool.” He drew a deep breath. “He’s a living monster. A vampire. Nosferatu. The living dead.”

  I didn’t have to fake my reaction. “You’re crazy.”

  A backhanded slap so violent it surprised me came out of nowhere and knocked my head to the side. I cried out in pain and felt a trickle of blood ooze from the corner of my mouth.

  Victor’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not crazy. He’s a vampire, and I’m in the business of hunting and killing them.”

  I did my best not to cry. “What does that have to do with me?” I managed.

  “You two are a pair. He’ll come to save you. And when he does, that’s the last thing he’ll ever do.”

  “If he’s a vampire, why hasn’t he bitten me or something? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  It was Victor’s turn to blink. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Maybe he’s got you under one of his spells. It doesn’t matter. What I do know is that he’ll come to rescue you. And that will be the end of him.”

  “So you kidnapped me to lure him…here? Where are we?” I demanded.

  “A cursed place. A ruined fort on an island off the coast. Where the undead will
gather to celebrate their unholy kind any day now. I thought it fitting he should meet his end in one of their sacred spots.” Another laugh. “Poetic. The forbidden gathering penetrated by the likes of me, and their kind exterminated like rats on their home turf.”

  “I…I don’t understand. You really believe in vampires?”

  “They’re as real as we are,” he growled.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “Enough questions!” he barked, and grabbed my arm hard enough to make me cry out in pain. “We’re going down those stairs,” he said. “Again, you fall, it’s on you.”

  He guided me down a set of steps carved from the rock, the little penlight illuminating the way. At the bottom stood a rotting oak door, the iron that bound the planks together rusted nearly to dust. He shouldered it aside and dragged me into a chamber the size of a small office. Mold and lichen streaked the walls, and three inches of cold water covered the floor.

  “What is this place?” I asked, the fear in my voice real.

  He sneered. “Your mausoleum unless your boy shows up soon.”

  My eyes widened. “How do you know he’s even going to come? How could he know I’m here?”

  Victor laughed again. “Because he called your cell, and I told him that if he didn’t come and trade himself for you, you were deader than Elvis.”

  I gasped. “He called?”

  “A few minutes after we got into the boat. Depending on where he is, I figure he’ll put in an appearance any time.”

  “What makes you think he’ll come – that he won’t just leave me to die?”

  “Your friend who’s been hanging out with my brother told me all about you two.” He paused. “That, and he said if I hurt you, he’ll rip my heart out and eat it in front of me.” Victor smirked. “Sort of tipped his hand there.”

  The water lapped at my boots. “Where’s the water coming from?” I asked.