The Executive's Red, #1

by Leeanna White

  “Give me the phone, now!” I snap at Sara.

  “Shit, Adrien, what do I do if he finds us?” she says, ignoring me. “He’s killed Connor! He’s a fuckin psychopath.”

  Oh my god. Connor is dead. I can’t believe it. Adrien is out there; will he be next? I struggle to breathe, my chest is so damn tight.

  “Sara, what the hell is happening?” I scream. “Nathan, is he there; is Adrien okay? Shit, will you just tell me!”

  She screws up her face and gives me the dagger eyes. “Shut the hell up!” She continues to listen silently for a few seconds. “Please Adrien, hurry.” She chokes up. “A shotgun won’t be enough.”

  “A shotgun, what the hell do we need with a shotgun?” I hiss at her.

  She hands the phone to me and pulls up onto the verge of the country lane. I swiftly press it against my ear, noticing her fraught emotions coming to the surface.

  “Adrien, what’s going on?” I pant in and out for air. “Have you found Nathan? Tell me he’s safe, please.” The line remains quiet, apart from a deep hoarse breath. “Adrien, speak to me!”

  “Liz.”

  “Oh my god... Nathan,” I cry.

  “I’m with Adrien.” He groans in a laboured breath.

  “Nathan, I’m so sorry.”

  He heaves in oxygen and sighs out heavily. He’s extremely ill. I can tell without even looking at him.

  “So am I Liz.” He splutters then catches his breath. “When this is over. You stay away from here, and these twisted fucks. You don’t come back.” I can’t say a word, my throat has narrowed and I’m clogged up with tears. “Liz.” He waits for me to answer, but still I can’t. “Please be careful. Don’t trust anything or anyone. Just... just run.”

  “Nathan?”

  He’s gone and now Adrien has taken his place. He calls my name but I don’t reply. I move the phone down from my ear and onto my lap, biting my lips together hard. Sara stays frozen in shock, her hands gripping the wheel as she gazes at the rain.

  “Elizabeth!” Adrien’s voice echoes in my hand.

  I bring the phone back up to my ear. “Adrien.”

  “Elizabeth, is Sara still there?”

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t she be?”

  “Listen to me, you need to calm her down.”

  I watch as she clamps the wheel even tighter. Okay, I already know that’s impossible. You can’t calm the un-calmable.

  “Why? You’ve found Nathan now. We’ll just turn around and come back.”

  “No! You need to stay away. I’m on my way to you now,” he says directly.

  “Who’s coming Adrien?” My heart pounds in my throat. “Laurie?”

  “Yes.” He goes quiet for a few seconds. “But he doesn’t know where you are. That’s why I’m coming to you, Elizabeth. Stay with Sara. She will protect you.”

  “Adrien,” I yell, but he’s already hung-up on me. “God!”

  This is a nightmare. My pupils glaze and burn as erratic thoughts grow louder in my mind. I can’t take any more of this. I have to go back. I don’t care about the dangers. I have to do something instead of being a sitting duck. Even if it means we meet Adrien half-way. At least I’ll be with him, and able to help Nathan.

  “Turn around,” I shout as Sara lingers in a distant state. “I said turn around!” I whip out my right hand and take hold of the wheel.

  She snaps up my wrist and thrusts it down. Her grip is abnormally strong. I rub the red mark she’s left on my skin, scowling at her.

  “You do that again, and it will be more than your wrist that gets hurt,” she warns, and I believe her.

  “Laurie is looking for us. I’m not going to just sit back while you have my life in your hands.” She starts up the engine, ignoring me completely. “Sara?”

  “We do as Adrien said.” She sets off at speed while obsessively checking the mirrors. “You want to live, then we don’t go back. Do you understand that!”

  I growl in frustration and turn to the door. I have no chance of winning this argument with her.

  We turn left onto a dirt track just outside St Albans, and come to a stop outside a relatively normal size property. It’s a detached farmhouse, two stories high, with a thatched roof. I’d describe it as an oversized cottage in the middle of nowhere. Totally out of character for one of Adrien’s properties.

  Sara has not said a word to me since that phone call, and I’m too tired to carry on digging because it’s getting me nowhere. So I get out of the car, and plod behind her.

  She opens the oak door and switches on the lights. As I move inside, I’m immediately surrounded by a cloud of dust. It’s so old and filthy with cracked plaster falling from the white uneven walls, and there’s a strong smell of damp that hits the back of my throat. There’s a tatty green tartan couch in front of an open stone fireplace, and a wonky coffee table with only three legs holding it upright.

  Sara goes through a squeaky door and I follow.

  I enter a rustic country kitchen. In the centre there’s a large pine table and chairs next to a wood-burner. The cupboards are mismatched and all have different handles. And there’s an old Belfast sink with brass taps before a small window.

  I linger by the door, looking down at the phone which is fused to my hand, as Sara pops the cork out from a bottle of red wine. She swishes it around in a glass then downs it in one, like it’s a medicine that will lighten the shitty hell we’re in. She pours another, and again it’s gone within a second. She slams down her glass.

  “What happen to Connor?” I ask.

  “You want one?” She taps her fingernails on the wine bottle. “You’ll need it.”

  I nod a yes and approach the worktop. She takes a large brown chipped coffee mug out from the cupboard next to her. She pours another glass for herself, and I get the mug. I drink it down in one. It’s very sour and vinegary, cheap crap that tastes awful.

  “Connor has met the same fate I once did, but he hasn’t got through it.” Her eyes sadden. “He crossed paths with evil.”

  “Laurie?”

  She blows out, annoyed. “Look, I really don’t want to discuss him,” she says coldly. “Adrien knows what he’s doing. This has been on the cards for a long time.”

  Yes, your words of reassurance are a great help to me Sara. My best friend has been changed into, well, a damn vampire with psychic tendencies. And the vampire I’m in love with is at war with one of his own. A devil who could and would kill us all.

  “He wasn’t chosen by the order for no reason. He’ll deal with Laurie, and hopefully we’ll never see the sick shit again,” she says in vain.

  “What happened with you two?” I’m unsure bringing up the whole red thing will help the situation, but it might shed some light on where things went wrong.

  As predicted the conversation has come to an abrupt stop, and she’s gone all tightly wound again. She takes her half-full glass and walks by me.

  “Let’s find a room for you to sleep in.”

  “You honestly think I’m going to sleep!” My nostrils flare out a breath, watching her walk away. “Sara.” She ignores me and heads up the stairs.

  There are four bedrooms and one bathroom in this property. So I picked the first one because I needed a time-out from Sara. It has a rusty metal frame bed which is corroded, squeaky, and damp. There are deep purple heavy drapes, which barely hang on a wooden rail. And the roof beams above are visible, revealing the whole cobwebbed coated ceiling space.

  I plonk myself down onto the thin mattress, rotating the iPhone in my hands. I’m going to call him again, and keep calling until I know he’s safe.

  It rings and rings, but there’s no answer. It’s so frustrating. Why give me the damn thing if he won’t take my calls?

  I push on the message tab and begin to type: Adrien, please will you just call me, text me, anything will do. I need to know what’s going on.

  I fling my body width ways across the bed, and a dust plume rises around me. The swarm of particles soar hi
gh, glinting in the moonlight like fireflies. I should move off this grubby thing, but my body is so fatigued. I’ll just take five minutes breathing deeply, waiting for contact.

  Chapter 34

  Adrien

  Leanna and Gerrard pull up beside us in a battered black Jeep, which has blood spray all over the smashed windscreen.

  “If I knew helping you would ruin my new boots, I’d have told you to go and screw yourself,” Leanna whinges.

  There is no time to mess around. They are to take Nathan and Connor’s body off our hands, before we have to deal with Laurie. Having Nathan constantly calling me a prick, when all I can think of is getting to Elizabeth, is going to cause another death. His. I’ve been so close to ripping his head off. Even Dom, who seems to know Nathan well, warned him to stop with the violent insults.

  Dom and Ben step out of the Land Rover for some breathing space. Patience with Nathan is wearing thin for us all. We’re still an hour’s drive away from the farmhouse on this small dark country lay-by, and with the lack of time and Nathan’s constant aggressive explosions, it’s beginning to feel like we’re losing the battle.

  Nathan head-butts and spits on the back window, trying to get our attention. He may seem as though he’s desperate to save Elizabeth. But really it is blood he wants, and his old human feelings are trying to rationalise his crazed behaviour.

  “Any more attacks?” I ask Leanna.

  “No, it’s gone quiet, for now. This is the new blood then?” She bends to look down at Nathan who is thrashing around in the backseat. “He’s not going to come with us. He wants the girl called Liz.” She reads his mind, cringing. “Oh, I see. He’s an old flame of your new red.”

  I don’t need this right now. “Look, just do what you can with him.”

  Dom opens the back door warily, and Ben joins him in-case he needs back-up.

  “I’m not fucking going anywhere!” Nathan kicks at Ben and Dom.

  “Adrien, I’m not taking him,” Leanna says. “He needs blood, and I have all the covens up-in-arms over what’s happened tonight. I’ll take Connor for you and put him on ice. But I don’t have time to deal with him too.”

  “You’ll take Nathan,” I growl, watching Ben lift Connor’s body out from the boot, as Dom fights to re-open the door to get Nathan out.

  For a second I remain in a trance, watching as Gerrard carefully takes Connor’s body from Ben.

  “Boss,” Dom yells at me. “What am I supposed to do here?”

  I turn to the Land Rover, which is rocking due to Nathan lashing out his arms and legs. I’m not going to see the body of someone else I love being bundled into a car, because I’m wasting my time on him. I march to the back door and easily pull it away from Nathan’s grip.

  I arch over, watching his eyes flicker and flash with blackness. His new fangs are now on show, and he wants to use them on me.

  “Put your baby teeth away and shut the fuck up,” I yell. “You remember Elizabeth?”

  “Yes,” he hisses, sucking in air.

  “Well the more time I have to spend with you, the closer Laurie gets to her. So out of the fucking car!”

  “Here Adrien.” I turn and look over my shoulder to see Leanna holding a blood bag. “Give it to him. It will take the edge off.”

  I take the bag from her. “Then will you take him?”

  “No,” she replies, walking back to the Jeep.

  “Dammit!” I slam the palms of my hands down on the roof several times.

  He has always been a problem between Elizabeth and me. Now he’s my problem full stop. Leanna is right not to take him. She has enough to deal with. And if I were her, I do the same.

  “I told you, I’m not going anywhere,” Nathan yells once again. “Do you... do you not get it? I need to make sure she’s okay.” He gasps to fill his lungs. “I need to see her!”

  “Adrien, we have a problem,” Ben calls out.

  I hear the thud of many feet pounding on the tarmac, heading right toward us. Gerrard, Leanna, Dom, and Ben, stare down the long stretch of road as a dozen new bloods charge toward us.

  “Go!” Leanna yells, her eyes black and back arched, ready to fight.

  Gerrard flicks his head at me as Ben and Dom jump into the front, starting up the engine. I don’t have a damn choice now; Nathan is going to have to come with us.

  “Here.” I toss the blood bag at him and leap into the back, slamming the door as we speed away from the fight. “I don’t want to hear your voice. One word and you’ll be locked in the goddamn trunk. Understand?” I listen to his wild slurping of blood, looking through the back window.

  Leanna and Gerrard tussle with the new bloods, but I can no longer watch. I can’t help them. I have my own battle to fight.

  IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW fast we’re travelling, it’s not fast enough. Each minute that goes by feels like an hour to me, and that feeling is lost to a vampire. We have no urgency because we have an abundant amount of time. But tonight that distant feeling has returned to me.

  “So what’s the plan then with you and Liz? Marriage. Babies. Happy fucking times?” Nathan slurs his words, then vomits blood up onto his feet.

  “You could have warned us!” Ben yells at him.

  I shake my head at Nathan, rubbing my eyes. Hearing how much he hates me and that he disapproves. Listening to the truth through his vindictive words, is driving me insane.

  “I always thought,” he says, wiping his mouth and snuffling nose, “that she would do good in life. She’s been saving herself you see. But now she’s throwing her life away on you.” He starts to snigger, intoxicated from his first feed. “How did you do it, get her into bed. Did you drug her, brainwash her. Or maybe you have a witch hidden in that shiny fuckin tower of yours.”

  That’s enough of his voice. I grip his throat just tight enough so the fear appears on his face. He may have been turned, but he’s still weak. He needs blood, a ton of it, for the awakening to fully take hold.

  I stare right into his pale face, and like a lion with prey in its jaws, I don’t want to let him go.

  “You had your chance and you blew it,” I bark in his face.

  “Ignore him,” Ben says over the headrest. “He’s only going to get worse.”

  I dismiss Ben’s warning. “Elizabeth is too good for me, you are correct there. But you seriously think she would ever be with you again?” I adjust my finger grip on his windpipe. “I’ll save her tonight, and I’ll do what is right by her.” I shove his ass right up into the corner. “I’ll do better by her than what you ever did.” I bite down to stop my fangs emerging.

  He chokes and coughs in my face. “Then if she... if she survives this. Leave her. Leave this fuckin country.”

  I can’t do this, sit here any longer. “Stop the car.”

  “We’re nearly there,” Dom says.

  “Stop the goddamn car!”

  Dom swerves, pulls up to a stop, and immediately I’m out in the night, flitting across the farmland. I’m faster, lighter, and more determined doing things this way. The old way. Flitting freely will get me to Elizabeth quicker, and ready me for the fight.

  Chapter 35

  Elizabeth

  Startled, I spring up from the mattress like a jack-in-a-box, as a gust of wind blows at my back. I turn to see the open window swinging back and forth, slamming against the rotten frame. With quick footing, I dash over and pull the single pane window shut.

  My chest puffs out as I take a step back, specifically recalling that window being closed.

  I pick the phone up from the threadbare mattress. It’s 1.45a.m., and I’ve managed about one hour’s sleep. He hasn’t called or messaged, and it’s driving me crazy. Sara, perhaps he’s contacted her again. She seems to be his first port of call.

  I head out into the dim hallway, hoping there’s some news.

  I flip the light switch up and down by the door, but the power has gone out. “Crap.”

  Carefully, I make my way down the creaky stairs us
ing the flashlight app on the phone. The storm outside batters the house, and the eerie noises it’s creating are not helping my nerves right now.

  The front door suddenly flies open. With a pounding heart I stumble back, gripping hold of the flaky paint spindles. My wide eyes look outside, but there’s no one there. Just leaves and rubbish blustering around in the turbulent weather.

  The window upstairs, and now the front door. I have the volatile feeling that something isn’t right here, and I’m beginning to freak-out. Sara would not have left that door open, not now she knows who is behind all this.

  I take the plunge, jumping down the last three steps through a gust of wind, slamming the door against the frame to put the latch on lock. My chest fills to full volume as I try to make a plan in my mind.

  I decide to call Adrien, pushing my shoulder blades up against the door so I can see in all directions around me. As soon as I tap on his name, a loud thrust and bang comes from the other side of the door, shunting me a good foot forward.

  “Shit!” I trip up, dropping the phone. It’s smashed. It’s in fucking bits.

  Terrified, I feel my way through the lounge, running my hand along the back of the sofa. I stub my big toe hard on the concrete step as I stumble into the kitchen. It throbs like hell as I hobble by the table, looking for safety. It’s a little brighter in here with the moonlight shining through the windows, so I can now see where I’m going.

  Quickly, I hop to the kitchen surface and grip the edge, when a shadow sweeps with speed by the window above the sink. Oh shit, there’s someone out there.

  “Oh god.” My heart stops and restarts in fear.

  The figure appears again, moving even faster this time. What, or whoever it is, is playing games with me. Trembling, I back away from the window and drop down to the floor to hide behind the counter.

  Something touches my head. I look up to see it’s a drawer handle. Please, please, let there be a phone in there, or a gun, anything useful that will keep me alive. Come to think of it, Sara was supposed to have a shotgun. Where the fuck is she? Adrien told me I’d be safe with her. Has she run?