Unforeseen: The Vampire Awakenings, Book 9

by Davies, Brenda K.

  The broken look in Liam’s eyes was all the confirmation Jack required before Liam spoke. “He’s gone.”

  For a minute, Jack couldn’t breathe.

  “We have to go,” Stefan said.

  Jack followed them into the woods to find Charlie.

  * * *

  Though she couldn’t see flames in the trees closest to them, faint waves of smoke drifted out of the woods and slithered around them. In the distance, she heard the crack of trees falling and the resounding booms as they hit the ground. The fire was getting closer.

  “How far is it to the boats?” she asked Mike.

  “Not much further,” he replied.

  The hair on Charlie’s nape rose as she tried not to let her trepidation get the best of her, but something wasn’t right…

  “Wait!” she gasped.

  Mike turned toward her as a torrent of stakes exploded out of the woods. Fire trailed from the lethal projectiles as they flew through the air with the speed of a real missile. One of them sliced across Mike’s face. It tore away half of his face to expose the bone beneath. A gurgled sound erupted from him seconds before blood shot out of his mouth.

  Some of the others collapsed as Mike sank to his knees. He clawed at the stake protruding from his heart, but as Charlie reached for him, she realized something worse had happened. Her hand, which had been encased in Dylan’s, was now empty.

  No! No, no, no, NO!

  Her mind screamed in protest as anguish twisted her soul and tore her heart from her chest. She didn’t want to look but she couldn’t stop her head from turning as Dylan collapsed beside her and Mike fell face-first onto the ground.

  Charlie knelt beside him, and ignoring the blood covering him, she grasped Dylan’s shoulder and rolled him over. Before she saw the stake jutting from the center of Dylan’s chest and the one through his throat, his unseeing eyes told her it was too late to save him.

  Her son’s body had protected hers from the projectiles, but that was not supposed to be the way it went. She was supposed to protect him! She was supposed to die for him!

  And I will die for you! Give me the chance, she pleaded, but there was no one to hear her pleas.

  Something inside her broke and clawed at her chest. And then she realized it was her own hands clawing at her chest. Was she trying to rip her heart out to ease her suffering or to kill herself?

  She didn’t know the answer, but she couldn’t stop, and she needed this suffering to end. Then Mal was standing before her; he gripped her hands and yanked them away. His face swam before her. It took her a minute to realize it was because tears were streaming down her face, and the strange wails filling her ears were coming from her.

  Her breath hitched as she lifted Dylan and cradled his lifeless body against her chest.

  Chapter Forty

  Jack pulled the rifle from his back as three security members burst from the woods and charged at them. Unlike the last two vamps Jack encountered, these weren’t hunting; they were trying to escape. But that didn’t matter; if he could help it, Jack wasn’t going to let one Savage make it off this island alive.

  Brian grabbed the first vamp and took it down; Jack fired at the next and struck it in the heart while Ethan pounced on the third and tore its head away. Jack was about to put the rifle away when four more Savages raced out of the trees and ran straight at them. Pulling the trigger, he struck one in the forehead, missed the second, and hit the third and fourth in the chest. The third shot was a killing blow, but none of the others were.

  Jack went to fire again, but no bullets erupted from the gun. Tossing the rifle aside, he pulled Abby out of the way when the vamp he shot in the forehead staggered toward them. Jack grasped the vamp by the shirt and jerked it toward him as more Savages ran out of the woods.

  “Shit,” he hissed as Stefan and Liam brought down two more, but five others remained.

  He pulled out a stake as Abby did the same. Jack darted to the right of the vamp with a bullet in its head while Abby went to the left. Before the vamp could decide who to go for, Jack feinted toward him, drawing his attention. While the vamp was distracted, Abby bounded forward, leapt onto the vamp’s back, and locking her legs around its waist, she drove the stake into its back and through its heart.

  The wrath twisting her face was something Jack recognized as he felt it too. These bastards may not have been the ones who killed Doug, but they were the reason he was dead.

  Abby launched off the vamp before it hit the ground, and Jack ducked to the side as another Savage ran at him. Swinging upward, Jack plunged his stake into the vamp’s belly and sliced upward. Blood flowed free as he exposed the vamp’s insides, but it wasn’t a killing blow.

  Jack twisted the stake in the monster’s belly before pulling his fist back and slamming it into the Savage’s chest. The vamp swung at Jack but couldn’t connect before Jack removed its heart.

  Jack released the heart and pulled the stake free as Stefan and Isabelle dispensed the last vamp. Kneeling, Jack studied the forest as he wiped his bloody hands on the ground. The crackle of the fire and the crashing of the trees the flames were devouring was getting closer. They didn’t have much time before the fire overtook the entire island.

  He slid the stake back into its holster and was turning to Liam when Charlie’s distress reverberated through the bond connecting them. Jack went still as her emotions battered him. She needed him.

  “Charlie,” he breathed, and without waiting for the others, he ran into the woods after her.

  * * *

  “No!” Charlie croaked as the fading vision thrust her back into the current moment. Her fingers were digging into her chest; she couldn’t breathe as the horror of holding her son’s lifeless body followed her into the real world.

  Is this real? What if this is fake and what I saw was real?

  The disconcerting possibility left her more confused. She didn’t have visions about herself and Dylan, but then, Mike was the first one she saw fall. The vision was most likely about him, but it could save Dylan’s life too.

  Dylan’s hand touched her arm, and she found herself gazing into his concerned eyes, which were so similar in hue to hers. She let out a strangled cry and gripped his hand in both of hers. She didn’t know when she let it go, but she wouldn’t do it again.

  “Mom, are you okay?” he whispered.

  She fought back the tears as she clutched his hand and pulled him toward her. It was a vision. Just a vision. And if you don’t get it together, it will become a reality.

  When Mike turned toward her, she was still so caught up in the future that she saw him as having half his face missing though he remained uninjured.

  “Stop!” she cried when she realized some of the others were still walking. “You have to stop!”

  The others all halted and turned toward her with confused looks on their faces. She didn’t know how to explain or make them understand what she saw. They probably thought she was nuts, but she couldn’t let them keep going.

  “What is it?” Maggie asked as she walked back to rest her hand on Charlie’s arm.

  Charlie felt half wild with desperation, but she couldn’t shake the image of Dylan’s lifeless body from her mind. She shifted him to the other side of her and warily studied the woods. She didn’t know where the stakes came from. For all she knew, they could be standing in the fire zone, but at least she could protect him now.

  “Mom, you’re hurting me,” Dylan whispered.

  Charlie eased her grip on him. “Death,” she croaked. “If we keep going, we’re going to die.”

  Mike and Maggie both frowned at her while Aiden inspected her more closely.

  “What did you see?” Aiden asked while a look of understanding dawned on Mike’s face.

  “You have a gift,” Mike stated.

  “Yes,” Charlie whispered. “And you have to believe me. If we keep going, there’s going to be this explosion of fiery stakes.” She glanced at the woods. “We could be standing in f
ront of them now.”

  The others cast wary glances at the woods.

  “Mom,” Dylan grumbled.

  “Oh, sorry,” Charlie said and eased her grip on him again. “They killed you—” Her gaze landed on Mike. “—and some others.”

  She couldn’t bring herself to say Dylan’s name. It was stupid, but she almost felt like it might make her vision come true for him if she said it, but Mike, Aiden, and Maggie all looked at her son. They must have sensed that her desperation came from more than seeing Mike and the others fall.

  Mike turned to study the woods as David came to stand beside him. “And you don’t know where they are?” David inquired.

  “I have no way of knowing,” Charlie answered. “There was no discerning marker in my vision but—”

  Before she could finish, a fiery torrent of stakes erupted from the woods and embedded in the trees and the ground fifty feet ahead of them. No one spoke as the realization they all would have been standing there, if she hadn’t stopped them, sank in.

  Then they all looked at her.

  Charlie stared defiantly back at them. “You’re welcome.”

  Mike grinned, and David chuckled as Maggie’s hand tightened on her arm.

  “Wow, Mom, that was… awesome,” Dylan exclaimed.

  “Don’t get used to it,” Charlie told him. “It’s not consistent.”

  “It’s been pretty consistent in saving our asses today,” Kirha said.

  “Not Clifford’s,” Charlie reminded her.

  “No, but you sure saved mine.”

  “We have to go,” Paige said. “The fire is getting closer.”

  “What was that thing?” Kirha asked as they ran toward the stakes still smoldering in the trees.

  “I’m going to find out,” Mike said, and before anyone could stop him, he ran into the woods.

  If Mike had seen half his face torn away, Charlie doubted he would be so eager to discover what happened. He returned a minute later with a five-foot by five-foot catapult looking machine hanging from his hand. Whatever the device was, it had small, stake-sized holes in it and flames leaping from the sides of it.

  “It was a trap,” Mike said. “Someone must have set it with the intention of waiting to cut the rope when their prey walked in front of it, but the fire severed the rope instead.”

  “Delightful,” Paige muttered.

  “I’m ready to be off this fucking island,” Ian said.

  Chapter Forty-One

  The sweat pouring down Charlie’s body cleaved her clothes and hair to her. The heat of the spreading conflagration was becoming oppressive. Whereas she’d only seen a little smoke wafting through the trees before, now it billowed from them, and flames were devouring the underbrush only fifty feet away.

  They couldn’t leave the woods to get away from it either as they were in a section of the island where the forest met the cliffs, effectively pinning them between the ocean and the fire. Their going had become impeded by the spreading fire.

  Overhead, fire arced across the branches as it leapt from one tree to another. Sparks rained over them. Charlie swatted a spark away from Dylan’s neck, but it was too late, it had already left a red mark on his pale skin.

  “We have to get out of the woods!” David shouted over the increasing noise of the blaze.

  Charlie enthusiastically agreed as she hunched over Dylan to keep him protected from the branches breaking off the trees. The flames consuming the limbs sputtered and danced as they rode the limbs to the ground.

  “This way!” David shouted as he headed toward the cliffs on the right.

  As much as she did not want to end up in the ocean, Charlie far preferred the sea to roasting alive. Soon they would reach a section of the island where the forest didn’t meet the cliffs. If they could get through until one of those spots, they would still be close to the fire, but at least they wouldn’t be in it anymore.

  Charlie remained folded over Dylan as the smoke grew thicker. She glanced behind her, searching for Jack, but the fire had moved in behind them. Jack. His name was a whimper of need and terror in her head. Where was he?

  Yes, he was still alive, but something had happened. Was he injured? Had the fire trapped him somewhere? Had the Savages found him? She tried to shut out the questions and apprehension swirling through her, but she couldn’t bury them.

  Something had happened to delay him.

  So caught up in her worry about Jack, she didn’t see the falling branch until it hit her in the shoulder and knocked her forward a step. She bit back a cry when the flaming tip caught her cheek before falling away.

  “Mom!” Dylan cried.

  “It’s okay,” she shouted over the growing crescendo of the fire and breaking branches.

  Aiden sheltered Maggie, and Ian huddled over Paige as David led the way toward what Charlie assumed was the cliffs. When Mike fell back to jog beside her, he held his arms protectively over her and Dylan. She gave him a small, thankful smile.

  A limb broke off and plummeted down to embed in the ground only two feet in front of them. Flames shot into the air from the top of it as it blocked their way.

  “This way!” Kirha shouted and waved her arm at them.

  A break in the flames revealed they’d reached a clearing that created a gap between the forest and the cliffs—if they could just get to it. She must not have been the only one who saw it as their group moved quickly to the right.

  An ominous creaking sound filled the air as a tree to their left tilted toward the ground. “Look out!” Mal shouted, but it was already too late as the tree gave way beneath the destruction of the ravenous flames. It plummeted to the ground.

  Charlie threw her hand over Dylan’s eyes and yanked him back, but some of the others weren’t fast enough to get out of the way. The tree fell onto Sheila, Valerie, and Chase, pinning them beneath its massive weight. Someone screamed, but she couldn’t see who through the blaze leaping higher into the air.

  Ian, Aiden, and Mal ran toward the tree, only to be pushed back by the fire. Even if they could get through the flames to lift the tree off the others, it was already too late as the screaming died away.

  No!

  The sorrow clogging Charlie’s throat made it difficult to breathe. They were her friends, they’d become her family on this island, and now they were gone. Trying not to cry, she held Dylan tighter when he shook against her, but he didn’t try to remove her hand from his eyes.

  Over the top of the tree and through the smoke and flames, Charlie found herself gazing across the tree at the others. She glanced at Mike standing beside her; his jaw was set firmly as the fire reflected in his eyes.

  The tree had effectively cut them off from the others, and a wall of flames now spread out to either side of the tree. There had to be a way out of the blaze, but it wasn’t here.

  “Go!” Mike shouted at the others. “We’ll find a way out and meet you at the boats!”

  David turned to the others and spoke with them before waving his hands at them. When they all hesitated, he gave Aiden a nudge in the back and pointed at Maggie. Whatever he said got them all moving again as Aiden and Ian ushered everyone away from the tree.

  David turned to face them again. “I’ll find a way around to you guys!”

  “No! Go!” Mike shouted. “There’s no guarantee that if you found your way through the fire, we would meet up again. We’ll meet you at the boats. Go!”

  David hesitated before being pushed back by another falling branch. “I’ll stay running parallel to the woods to wait for you.”

  “David, go!” Mike shouted. “Savages are still crawling all over this place. Just go! We’re wasting time.”

  David’s jaw set, and then his shoulders slumped. “Take care of yourself and get out of there!”

  Mike didn’t get a chance to reply before David turned and disappeared.

  “We’re going to have to move fast,” Mike said to Charlie as more fire rained down around them.

  “Dyla
n, I have to carry you,” Charlie said.

  She felt his hesitance; he believed himself too big to be carried by his mother, but they would move a lot faster if she could carry him.

  “I’ll carry him,” Mike offered.

  “No,” Charlie said. She was doing fine with him, and she didn’t want to part from him. “You can take care of any Savages we might stumble across.” She would also help him with that.

  Dylan stared at her before raising his arms, allowing Charlie to lift him. When he wrapped his legs around her waist, she buried his head in her shoulder and nestled it protectively against her.

  He was tall for his age, and running with him was awkward, but she was strong enough that his weight wasn’t a burden as she followed Mike through the inferno. Her throat burned and sweat dripped from her as the cloying smoke choked her airways and burned her eyes.

  “Dylan, are you okay?” she demanded.

  He nodded but didn’t speak as he kept his face buried in her shoulder. The smoke was making things difficult for her; she could only imagine what it was doing to him. They had to get out of here soon.

  Mike led the way around some boulders, and Charlie thought they were finally going to break free, but on the other side of the rocks, more trees had fallen to block their way. It took everything she had to keep her rising panic under control. She’d been sure they would get out of the fire, but they continuously found their way blocked by something new.

  Dylan, she inwardly sobbed. Not like this. Not like this.

  He was supposed to wait proudly at the end of the aisle for his bride and have fat babies with her. He was supposed to die an old man, in his bed, surrounded by his sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was not supposed to die on this fucking island.

  “This way!” Mike shouted over the growing cacophony of the raging inferno.

  The ends of Charlie’s hair tickled her cheeks as currents of air lifted it around her and more trees crashed to the ground. The thunderous booms weren’t as noticeable now that the fire was so loud.