Ties To The Blood Moon

by Robin P. Waldrop

  Chapter 58

  I flew down each of the tunnels that had opened up behind the bookcase, searching frantically, but couldn’t find a trace of my mom. I was about to lose hope when I remembered something my mom had told me when I was little. “Be still, and listen” she had said. I don’t know why I even had that thought right then, but I did. I closed my eyes and listened, but didn’t hear her. “I’m just wasting time,” I grumbled.

  Just when I was about to give up hope I smelled the familiar scent of lavender and I remembered the vision I’d had in New Mexico. I slowly turned until I smelled it the strongest and followed. I thought I was headed to another dead end, but as I grew close I saw a door made to blend in with the charcoal colored walls.

  I quietly turned the knob, but it was locked. Really? You honestly think a locked door can keep me out? I took a step back, raised my foot, and kicked the shit out of the door. It went flying inward, and when the dust settled, Zane was hiding behind my mom with his knife to her throat, again.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Put down the knife, you coward,” I said in a low growl.

  “You think I’m afraid of you? Ha! You’re nothing more than a mere child.” He laughed, and pretended he was sheathing his knife, but instead threw it so fast I couldn’t get out of the way, and it stuck into my shoulder.

  It hurt, but only for a second. His eyes grew big as golf balls when I pulled out the knife, and the bleeding stopped almost instantly.

  “That’s impossible! A werewolf cannot heal that quickly, not even an Adlet wolf.”

  “You’re right, they can’t…but I can.” I heard his heartbeat grow rapid and I laughed just as eerily as he had earlier.

  He had my mom’s arm bent behind her back, and I heard it when he snapped her bones in two. She screamed out in pain, and anger like I had never felt before washed over me. The bones inside my face began to move and grow, causing the skin covering them to tighten. My neck and shoulders moved next, popping and growing. My shirt tore when my skin stretched tight across my chest as it grew. My pants also ripped at the seams when my legs became too large and too thick for my jeans to hold them.

  I thought for a moment I was turning back into an Adlet, but that’s not at all what was happening. I was changing into something I had never seen before, and I was terrified of what was happening to me.

  “I will kill you for hurting my mom,” I said in that same deep growl-like voice I had heard in the garage. I also noticed my words were over pronounced because my fangs had grown long like an Adlet, which was definitely something that shouldn’t happen to a vampire. All vampires had small fangs that were easily hidden when they closed their mouths.

  Zane quickly shifted into his wolf form at the same time I lunged for his throat. It sounded like thunder cracking every time our bodies collided. He bit into my shoulder, the same one he’d stabbed, and I shoved him, knocking him back against the wall so hard it cracked behind him.

  I heard my mom’s terrified screams, but I was more angry than I had ever been, and I couldn’t stop. I grabbed him by the fur on his throat and we went to the ground. I squeezed until my hands shook. “Die,” I growled in a deep voice sounding like a monster.

  His eyes started to glaze over, and my mom’s faint warning for me to look out echoed in my head as everything faded to black.

  When I woke up, I was lying on the floor with William cradling my head. I had a stabbing pain shooting from my back straight through to my chest. Everything was hazy except for the pain and the fact that I couldn’t breathe. Slowly, my breathing started again and the pain subsided.

  I smiled briefly at William, but when he failed to smile back the previous events started replaying in my head. I sat up, quickly feeling my face and looking at my body. I thought it all had been a terrible nightmare until I saw my pants’ legs were ripped at the seams, and fresh blood stains covered the front of my shirt.

  “Where’s my mom?” I asked, frantically looking around. “Where’s Zane?” I pushed away from William and scrambled to my feet.

  All four siblings ran in the doorway. “Their gone,” James said, looking at William. “We followed their scent, but it’s like they just disappeared.

  “What do you mean they’re gone? They were just here,” I said, scrunching my eyebrows. “What’s going on, William? I don’t understand what happened.” I paused, thinking. “I remember fighting with Zane and I had him in a choke hold.” I slowly paced across the floor as I started remembering the details. “I felt this sudden sharp pain in my back, and then...nothing.”

  William held up Zane’s knife, and I tilted my head to the side, scrunching my eyebrows tighter. “Look closely,” He said, slowly rotating it.

  It wasn’t Zane’s knife like I’d thought. I think William wanted me to figure it out on my own, but Luna innocently spoke up.

  “What are you doing with grandfather’s knife?” She asked earnestly, and I quickly turned my attention to her.

  “Your grandfather’s knife?” I asked. “Yeah, William…why do you have the chief’s knife?”

  William’s shoulders dropped, and his expression saddened. “I think the reason you can’t remember anything after choking Zane is because your were stabbed in the back with this knife.

  Luna’s expression changed to horrified and she gasped, throwing her hand over her mouth. The two oldest twins quickly averted their gaze from me, but I saw Joseph grow angry.

  “But I’m a vampire,” I said, still feeling a bit self-conscious saying it in front of Luna and her brothers. “A knife to the back wouldn’t cause me to pass out or kill me…would it, William?”

  “It would if it pierced your heart.” He said quietly, and he saw my confusion. “It should have killed you, Genevieve.” William had the saddest look on his face. “The only way to kill a vampire is by piercing their heart. When I found you, you were in here alone face down on the floor with a knife sticking out of your back. When I couldn’t hear your heart beating I thought you were….” His voice turned throaty sounding and he trailed off. “I held you in my arms and I pulled out the knife. When I did, you suddenly opened your eyes.” He smiled so lovingly it made my heart yearn for him. “I don’t know why you didn’t die, and I don’t care. I’m just glad you didn’t.

  I chewed at the inside of my bottom lip, thinking. “Why would the chief want to hurt me?” I asked, looking the siblings.

  I guess Joseph couldn’t hold back his anger any longer. “Grandfather didn’t do this! He wouldn’t do this. Not to Gen. He knows how I…how we care about her and how important she is to the survival of the Adlet people,” Joseph said and glared at William.

  “I didn’t do this to her,” William shouted, and got in Joseph’s face.

  “Stop it!” Luna moved in between them. “I followed William here. He’s telling the truth,” she shouted at Joseph, and his features stiffened to a painful mask. “He didn’t do it, Joe,” she said softly, lowering her eyes.

  “Maybe he didn’t, but I know my grandfather didn’t do it either!”

  “Where is your grandfather, Joseph?” William asked, sardonically. “I sure as hell don’t see him anywhere. And he left the cave before we did.”

  When William mentioned the cave, I thought about Aunt Bev. “What about my aunt? Is she…” I trailed off, not wanting to hear one of them tell me she was dead. “I have to see her,” I said before bolting from the room.

  I couldn’t help but feel sad. She was my mom’s sister. She was my blood. And maybe it hadn’t been her fault. For all I knew, Zane could of mesmerized her somehow. I remembered how I had been entranced by him in New Mexico, and I wasn’t even a human. I felt sure it would be much easier to get a human under his spell. William didn’t seem to have any trouble mesmerizing humans.

  Aunt Bev lay on the cave floor in a warm pool of her own blood. She looked so peaceful and innocent it was hard for me to keep from falling apart. It was like her betrayal no longer mattered. All the fun times we had shared streamed through m
y mind like a home movie.

  I took a few uncertain steps, and slowly knelt down next to her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” I whispered, feeling responsible for everything that had happened. When I leaned in close, gently kissing her on the forehead, she moved and I jumped. I had heard a faint heartbeat, but had mistook it for Williams.

  “She’s alive,” I shouted at William, and when I looked at her again her eyes were cracked open. “Aunt Bev, you’re going to be all right. You just have to hang on a little longer,” I uttered, stroking her hair.

  She tried to say something, but her whispers were barely audible, and it was hard to hear with the water noise.

  “Sh, don’t try to talk,” I said, smiling sadly at her. “Save your strength.”

  William rushed over and dropped to his knees on the other side of her. He peeled back her blood soaked shirt while I watched and held my breath. He gently covered it back up, looked at me, and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Gen. She’s lost too much blood.”

  “Can’t you give her your blood?” I asked desperate to save her. “You know…turn her?”

  He furrowed his brow. “She’s lost too much blood, and the smell of death has already set in. I’m sorry, but I can’t. It’s too late.”

  Aunt Bev heard him, and opened her eyes again, forcing a smile through the pain. “It’s okay. Let me go,” she stammered and I knew she was almost gone. “Your mom,” she uttered.

  “Zane took her, Aunt Bev. He got away.” I lowered my eyes, wondering if he might kill my mom as soon as he’d gotten away safely.

  “I know where…,” she trailed off coughing. Her breathing was labored and her words came out broken, which made it harder to understand what she was saying. “Prague…to,” she whispered, let out one more short breath, and was gone.