by SARA FREITES
I felt myself frown. “Oh my God,” I blurted out and covered my face in embarrassment, remembering the streaking incident. “You saw us?” I already knew the answer. “Look, I was still covered, mostly—”
“I’m not judging you,” he said as he stifled a laugh. “Anyway, it was about that time when Arlos’ men met up with me. We went ahead of you once the driver of the Jeep pulled onto the interstate, and we waited on a nearby overpass.”
With his last words, my chest and stomach began tightening and ached. I knew the rest of this story.
“We saw the Jeep pass under and—”
“You—” I cut him off.
In my head, I pictured everything as he spoke. I remembered seeing the four men with glowing eyes on the overpass, watched the one with yellow eyes land on the hood of Frank’s Jeep, causing us to wreck.
“You caused that wreck?”
I felt tears rising. My insides felt like they were grinding against one another like the gears of a malfunctioning clock. Blake’s narrowed eyes told me he had no idea what he’d done.
“Yes,” he answered.
I gasped and whirled away, the air lost from my lungs. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I spun back to face him. The pain was raw again, the way it felt when it all happened—when the doctor came to my hospital bed after the wreck to tell me the news. Emptiness. I wanted to throw up.
“You don’t know what you did, do you?” I pushed.
“What do you mean?”
“My brother died in that wreck!” I burst.
His face drained of color, and his lips parted. I watched his eyes search the floor, maybe for the words to say. It was so silent that I could hear the storm finally calming.
“Autumn, I am so sorry,” he said, drawing out the words. “I didn’t mean to kill anyone.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” I snapped. “Didn’t you think jumping on top of a moving car might kill someone?”
“I wasn’t thinking about making sure no one got hurt,” he answered.
“Then what the hell were you thinking?” I cried.
“I don’t know!” he shot back. His voice echoed off the bare walls.
I felt a heat rising off my back and neck. “You’re a terrible person, Blake,” I sobbed and got up to leave.
He followed after me. “Autumn, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” He moved in my way and went to grab my hand, but I flinched and rocked back, furious. He sat still as l made some space between us. “You think I’m going to hurt you?” he asked, visibly wounded. ”You think I’m like Arlos, don’t you?”
“I don’t know anymore!” I bawled, turned away and took a few steps before sitting on the floor, suddenly feeling too weak to stand.
The heaviness in my chest grew unbearable. I started crying so hard I felt like I couldn’t get enough air. He came to me and knelt just a few inches from me.
“I would never do that,” he assured me and shook his head. “I know I’ve told you some things tonight, some things about me that might scare you. But let me tell you who I am. I’m not human, but I’m not a monster. I am not Arlos. I would never want to treat anyone the way he treated my mother and me. He goes against everything I believe in.” He reached for me and wiped away some of my tears with his thumb. “I would never hurt you, never want to make you feel the way I did. I’ve killed a lot of people for Arlos, but it was never done out of malice. It was done out of fear. I was afraid of Arlos while I lived with him. All I could think about was how much I wanted to get away from him. All I knew was that one human girl stood between me and saving my mother’s life. I was frustrated, reckless the night we came for you. I was supposed to stop the car and back off so Arlos’ men could take you. That was it. I didn’t even think that you or anyone else might get hurt. I just...I didn’t care how I did it. I just wanted to get you to Arlos as quickly as possible. I wish I could say all the right things to you right now, but I can’t. I can only tell you the facts, and I know they aren’t pretty. What I did was wrong, but please believe me when I say I did not mean to kill anyone that night. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I just need you to know that I’m...Autumn, I am so sorry.”
He moved into me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, brining me into his chest. Instead of squirming away, I found myself leaning into him, crying hard on his shoulder and gripping his sleeve. Though I didn’t want to be near him, his genuine embrace somehow eased the pain. A noise from just outside caused us to pull away from each other.
“Damn it,” he hissed, looking across the street. “Someone’s coming.” He dug through his coat pocket. “Here. I swiped it off Thade just after we landed in London. It’s what you use to transform, isn’t it?” He pulled my brother’s pocketknife from his jacket and passed it to me.
My jaw dropped. “Yes,” was all I could say about it as I took it from him.
He helped me to my feet. I heard someone traversing the roof. I cursed under my breath. Voices began rising from all around. We found silhouetted men as they ran about frantically behind the railing of the building across the street. Their voices grew loud. A noise startled me. We spun to find a man in the nearest doorway, his body nearly filling its entire space.
“Soul?” the man sounded shocked as he spoke up. “Trying to take back the reincarnation from us, are you?”
Before the man could say anything else, Blake jumped up and snapped the man’s neck in the blink of an eye. I sprang up at Blake’s action. As a haviden, it wouldn’t have killed the man, but it would prevent him from following us for several minutes. But Blake didn’t stop there. He slammed his fist into the haviden’s chest. I turned my head away as blood splattered against the wall.
“Go,” Blake said to me.
“What?” I asked.
“Eden and the others are a few streets down from us,” he explained. “I sensed them nearing when the storm let up. If you head directly east of here”—he nodded over my right shoulder—“they’ll pick up on your scent and come for you.”
“I see them!” one man shouted from outside. “Down there!”
Looking out of the window, I saw at least ten men crawling down the sides of the building across the street.
“I’m going to stop as many of them as I can, but you need to move fast,” Blake advised. “I won’t be able to hold them all off. Use that spell of yours and get the hell out of here.”
“Blake, wait,” I blurted out.
“You won’t make it if I don’t do this.”
“But—“
“Autumn! Go!” he snapped, pointing over my head as he moved quickly in on me.
Without another thought, I spun and ran through the dilapidated factory, Jacoby’s pocketknife held tightly in hand. The mens’ voices drew closer. When I made it to the other side of the building, I checked back to see Blake face the descending havidens.
“Hey! Come on!” he taunted and waved them over.
They dove in on him through the broken window. I darted behind a large rusty machine. A noise came from overhead. I held my breath and watched in silence while a haviden jumped from one railing to another directly above. I whispered the guardian spell. It came to me the way it had the last few times I’d used it, only this time, I transformed in five seconds.
Instantly, my nostrils tingled with the sensation of cold air, the aroma of the vampires. My nose curled at the presence of their scent. I went through the nearest shattered window. I landed in an alley and scaled the nearest building toward the scent. Roof-bounding was the most efficient way to travel for the vampires, and I hoped it would be for me, too. The rooftops were wet from the passing storm, but still, I moved confidently from building to building…until I sensed the havidens. Their aroma was similar to that of the vampires except with a hint of fresh, metallic human blood mixed in. But it wasn’t only their scent that alerted me. It was the sound of their footsteps on the roof beside me, their heartbeats that made me move faster.
I didn’t have time to dodge him before a
haviden slammed into my backside. I hit the edge of the three-story building. My paws lost traction, and I tumbled over the ledge. I don’t remember hitting the ground. I got up, dizzy in another alleyway. Several seconds passed before I could regain my composure. Pain radiated throughout the back of my head and neck. I waited to see if the haviden would come for me, but he never reappeared. I darted into the busy street. My claws scraped against the concrete as I ran toward the scent of the vampires. When I heard the screeching of tires and horns blasting all around, I grew anxious, giving me the incentive to move a little faster across the four-lane road. My ears rang as I evaded the noisy vehicles.
A woman on the sidewalk shrieked at the sight of me. I tensed. Six pairs of pale white glowing eyes popped up like Christmas lights in the crowd of rushing people.
Shit, I thought.
The screaming woman had just given away my location. I leapt back to the other side of the street. I could already hear one of the havidens shouting at me to stop. Miraculously, I made it to the other side of the street without being hit by a car. I crashed into the front wall of a building while trying to make a ninety-degree turn. I bounced off it and made my way down the sidewalk. I felt like a shark gliding through a school of fish as a wall of people divided before me. They screamed. I barreled blindly through them.
A haviden dropped from the sky. He landed a yard or two ahead of me. I dodged him and jumped right back into traffic. I hopped into the bed of a dark blue pickup truck as it passed. Crouching, I hid perfectly there, but my weight had jolted the body of the truck upon my landing. The truck slowed, and the loud rock music blasting from inside the cab faded.
“Um, what was that?” I could hear someone say through the back window with my keen ears.
I lifted my head. With my eyes level with the cab’s back window, I came face to face with two guys. They appeared to be about my age and were turned halfway around in their seats. It took them a full three seconds to react to me. One boy’s eyes grew.
“Holy shit!” the driver shouted.
He spun back around to hold the wheel with both hands. The one in the passenger seat stared on at me with widened eyes. The driver hit the brakes. The truck jerked. I coiled my legs underneath me and sprang several yards into the air. The truck plowed into the back of a rather luxurious BMW, and that was the last I saw of it as I ascended higher and higher. Something collided with me in mid-air.
“I got her!” a man shouted in my left ear.
I felt his arms tangle around my neck. My ears flattened against my skull while his voice rang in my head. My tail flipped into the air on its own. Its blade hit flesh. The haviden let out a shriek no human could ever make as I twisted the blade deeper into his back. He let me go. I dropped helplessly toward the busy street below. When my paws hit the cement, tingles shot up my legs. I didn’t have time to shake off the mild pain that followed.
I avoided an oncoming car and stumbled onto the sidewalk where I knocked into another man. I didn’t have to guess that this guy wasn’t human. He barely budged upon the force of my impact and went for the nape of my neck. I slung my body to the right, tripping him with my bladed tail. He fell. I didn’t hesitate to maul him. My claws dug into soft flesh as he cried out. When I backed away, he moved for me again. I darted back across the street, making my way through traffic. I dodged vehicles left and right with the screams and blaring of car horns never seeming to cease.
The sound of screeching tires had me frozen in place. A brute force struck my right side. I floated up and over the hood of the car and slid into the windshield, cracking it. Glass penetrated my spine, and it caused me to lose my breath from the pain. The car came to a dead stop, the force throwing me from the windshield. I remember hitting the wet concrete of the street because it hurt more than the car had, and I tumbled over and over until I skidded to an abrupt halt. I barely gave myself time to recover before I got up, ready to take off toward the safe sidewalk. But now, pain shot up and down my right shoulder and hip. I peered back and noticed that my shoulder had been skinned away. The bone-blade that once protruded there had also broken off. Blood stained my fur, and the bare bone and muscle of my shoulder were left exposed. I limped onto the sidewalk where people stopped and stared. They were just about to be in my way.
“Oh my God. What is that?” someone wheezed in horror.
I let out a roar from deep within my chest. This sent people scattering out of my way.
“Autumn!” a voice rang out—a familiar one!
Over my left shoulder, I spotted a silver SUV parked in the middle of the road. Cars swerved violently to avoid it. Eden practically hung out of the driver’s side window. She waved to get my attention.
“Come on!” she shouted.
I jumped from the sidewalk. People cried out and dispersed. I felt pressure on my tail, then a yank dragging me back.
“Don’t move!” a man grumbled just over me.
On reflex, my tail swopped up and over my back. The haviden sailed across the street. He landed on the windshield of a passing car that immediately swerved and struck a light pole. This sent the haviden through the window of a clothing store. The store’s security alarm sounded.
I dove into the street, hoping I wouldn’t get hit by another car. The trunk of the SUV popped open. I could barely see Harper, Terry and Garrett as they scrambled to put the second and third-row back seats down. I hoped this would make more trunk space for an estimated seven-hundred-pound mass of fur and muscle. Harper squeezed by my tremendous body and closed the trunk as soon as I threw myself inside. Eden hit the accelerator. Out of the back window, I spotted a glowing-eyed figure standing on the side of the street. It watched us through traffic as we sped deeper into the city.
“Don’t worry,” Garrett said and patted my flank from the passenger seat. “I don’t think they’ll follow us. Although, I think we should have stayed and fought.”
“I told you. Thade asked us to grab her and go. Otherwise, we would have,” Harper mumbled.
“Change back, Autumn. Your weight is slowing us down,” Eden ordered.
I caught her honey eyes in the rearview mirror. Terrified that my new wounds would carry over into my human body, I realized I had no way of voicing it to Eden. Anxiously, I let a canine tooth pierce the spongy tissue of my tongue. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I felt my body shrink. My bone-blades sunk into my skin while my tail dissolved down into my spine. My arms, legs and torso reduced and compressed as my muzzle shrank in. My clothes continued materializing just in time to hide my form.
I was human again. As I laid down exhausted in the trunk space, I noticed that my new wounds had vanished, thankfully. Even the bite marks left behind by the starved vampires had disappeared. I checked over my arms and lifted my shirt at my stomach to be sure.
“Wow, they’re all gone,” I whispered to myself.
“You know, we almost didn’t find you,” Garrett blurted out, pointing into the rearview mirror at my reflection.
“How did you?” I asked, curious.
“Your scent is stronger when you’re in that body,” Eden answered for him. “We could pretty much pinpoint you once the storm died down.”
“Before that, we were on the rooftops all night looking for you,” Garrett jumped back in.
While driving like a bat out of hell, Eden called Thade to inform him we were on our way back. Fifteen minutes passed before we pulled up to a large townhouse. The steeply pitched and dark-shingled roof crowned with two dormers caught my eye first. We drove around the side of the building where I noticed cracks and water damage in the building’s foundation.
“Welcome to the Nova,” Eden said to me.
“I cannot express how relieving it is to see you, Autumn!” Thade erupted when we entered the side door.
I examined the townhouse as we all filed in. It was built similarly to the Sanctum back in Chicago, only far more modern with arched doorways, studio lighting, abstract sculptures at every turn and an extra
upstairs level. Like the Sanctum, the Nova’s windows were boarded up, and the living room and kitchen were built in the same area as the other safehaven. Only here, a dining room with a large fireplace sat in place of the sitting room.
“I trust you’ve learned much of our enemy,” Thade assumed as he wrung his hands. “I’ll have someone get you something to eat. Come to the dining room in an hour. Neil and I would love to join you. In the meantime, Eden will show you to a bed so you can rest for a time. It will help you clear your mind before your dinner. We have much to discuss.”
Chapter 17
Harboring Hate
“Autumn?” Thade asked.
He, another vampire who appeared to be in his mid to late seventies and I sat at the dining room table. I twirled my fork around in the last of my pasta. All I could think about was Blake. I wondered if he’d escaped the havidens.
After Eden brought my food, I’d had some time to let things sink in. It was hard to think of Blake and associate him with what he was and the kinds of things he’d done. But he wasn’t what Arlos had intended him to be, and in fact, he’d done everything he could not to become like Arlos. I knew Blake was his own person now—not controlled or influenced by anyone else. In his brief time alive, he’d seen and felt more pain than I ever could imagined.
I knew what happened hadn’t been intentional. I couldn’t hate Blake for Jacoby’s death. After everything he’d done, I had a right to be infuriated, but he wasn’t the one behind all of this. He wasn’t the one I needed to be upset with. His actions had directly caused Jacoby’s passing, but Arlos was the reason Blake had even been there in the first place. He’d only done what Arlos had forced him to do. Despite all of the things that happened recently, I knew Blake had my best interest in mind now that he was free from Arlos. But I knew I’d have a hell of a time convincing Thade that Blake really was on our side.