In the space of a few seconds, all three creatures lay dead at our feet. I felt rejuvenated and my body renewed as more power filled my core. Laughing, I soared into the air, higher than I had ever gone before. Flames shot from my fingertips as I looked down on those below me, my family, and allies.
Those who would have murdered us were gone. Midvale was now safe again for the element Carriers. And it would stay that way if I had anything to do with it. By ingesting the power of another, I had increased my brute strength, and it felt terrific. Then I was hit with sudden pain and tumbled back to earth, with a terrible scream.
“Aaron!”
Shawn managed to grab me before my head hit the ground. He looked wide-eyed at my father, who took my mother by the arm and pulled her away from me. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
This pain was nothing like what I’d felt when I lost Wesley. This was excruciating. It was like I was witnessing someone ripping Aaron to shreds and feeling what he was feeling. I could hear him screaming in my head.
Edmund looked unsure if he should touch me, even though my flame had burnt out. Shawn scooped me up and yelled orders at everyone. There were more than three; I knew it as a cold certainty. There were many others. While these three had come to detain us, the rest had ascended on Midvale.
“Aaron!” I screamed again, struggling to release myself from Shawn’s hold. But my limbs would hardly move. I was frozen rigid, listening to the screaming in my head.
Shawn put me down on the couch in the living room, then ran back outside, leaving me with a pale-faced woman I’d never seen before. Edmund instructed her to stay with me, explaining that my claim had come under attack.
I don’t know when I blacked out, but before I did, I saw Aaron’s face. They had him pinned to the wall and were biting him, clawing at him, while he screamed for someone, anyone, to come to his rescue. Shawn had told me to tell him to lock his door; now I understood why. I watched him fade, and the entire world went dark.
****
I came to in the grass outside Aaron’s house. My mother was standing with her mouth moving, her eyes white, and her hands clasped with my father’s and Shawn’s. They too seemed to be speaking. As I stood up, I realized what they had done. They had summoned me.
Fear washed over me as I looked at them and then at the house. The door was broken open, and there was blood on the steps. I sprinted up them, ignoring cries for me to stop. As I entered the house, I fell over. Aaron was lying in the center of the living room; his eyes closed. He wasn’t moving. Tears streamed down my face as I crawled toward him and threw my arms across his body.
“It was a distraction,” I heard Shawn saying behind me. “Just in case the three failed, the rest of the pack and coven had orders to take out what mattered to you most.” His hand touched my shoulder.
I covered Aaron’s body with my own, sobbing helplessly.
“Dawn listen to me,” Shawn insisted. “We called you here so you could see he wasn’t dead.”
It took a few seconds for his meaning to filter into my brain. Then I looked up at him. His mouth was a thin line, and his eyes were glistening with tears, but he nodded at me encouragingly.
I reached out and searched frantically for a pulse. And found one! It was weak, but it was there. I jumped up and hugged Shawn.
“What–what do we do now?” I stammered as I wiped the tears away.
“Your mom already called the ambulance. All three of them have been attacked. Edmund is upstairs with his parents right now.”
“Are they...?” I choked.
“Alive? Yes. We were able to get here in enough time to save the family. Sometimes having a claim on someone’s soul can be a good thing,” Shawn said, with half a smile.
“Sometimes tracking your sister’s boyfriend can be as well,” I stated as we heard sirens approaching.
“Is this how it happened with Wesley?” he asked softly as I kneeled back on the floor and put Aaron’s hand in mine.
“No, Wesley was attacked by Miranda. She used the vampires to assist her in draining him. I guess to make it go faster; I don’t know.” I shook my head, still too upset to think straight. “Why didn’t Mom seal the wounds?” I asked, seeing how bits of flesh had been torn from Aaron’s body.
“She needed the strength to call you,” Shawn said as medics hurried into the house.
We were ordered outside while Aaron and his parents were brought out on gurneys and carried to the ambulances. The police, of course, had a lot of questions. My mother, being the genius she was, explained that I was Aaron’s girlfriend. Her story stated that we had stopped by after a family outing in town and seen the door open. We had called the police as soon as we entered. She flashed a few smiles and batted her eyes, and within a surprisingly brief time; we were done.
“Who got here first?” I asked as we gathered in a little group outside the house.
“I did,” said Shawn, gloating. “Unlike you, I have wings. Edmund and the others had to run. He stayed here while the others pursued those that did this.”
“It’s not over; is it?” I asked as my mother pushed us towards the car. She was grumbling about blood and white fabric.
“Not by a long shot,” my father muttered, looking behind him. “This was just the beginning of what is to come. Sheridan is being smart right now. While Miranda makes ready her troops of newly made vampires and demons, we get hounded by the tribes of allies that have sworn to follow her.”
“So even if we are able to eradicate this group of allies there will be more to follow. We can’t predict what they will be either. Next time it could be witches or fae,” my mother warned as she opened the car door. “Dawn, I’m going to drop you and Shawn off at the hospital. Your father and I are going to come back here and see what we can pull from the blood.”
“What might you get?” I asked.
“Images, thoughts, ideas… things that will help us to figure out who they were.”
****
I seemed to be spending far too much time in hospitals lately. I was shocked when the nurse remembered me from when Wesley was there. She gave me a sympathetic smile and a consolatory hug after they told me that Aaron was in critical condition. His parents were stable, however. Dr. Matthews was able to talk about what had happened, but when he started babbling about people turning into dogs, the doctors decided he was delusional and were considering sedatives. The nurses put it down to severe PTSD. Only Shawn and I knew he was telling the truth.
We sat in the waiting room of the ER for hours until finally, a lady came out in a white coat to talk to us. I assumed she was one of the doctors.
“Aaron’s conscious, and he’s asking for you,” she said to me in a lowered voice. “Normally I wouldn’t allow non-family back there, but his father is adamant that you go.” She looked at me a little suspiciously. She was probably one of the ones who weren’t sure Dr. Matthews was quite back in his right mind as yet.
I told Shawn and then followed the white-coated lady to a room in the back. It was dimly lit, but I could see a heavily bandaged figure lying in a hospital bed with machines beeping beside it. Aaron looked up as I approached. He tried to smile, but it clearly hurt him too much.
“I’ll give you five minutes,” the doctor said.
Aaron didn’t seem to be aware of her. Instead, he just stared at me.
“You must be cursed or something,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
“What do you mean?” I whispered, walking to the right side of the bed, and tenderly running my fingers through his hair.
“Everyone who loves you seems to get hurt.” He smiled weakly at me and flinched. “They said it looks like dog bites.”
There were dozens of wound dressings all over his body, but I couldn’t tell how bad they were.
“You’re going to be okay,” I said, leaning over, and kissing him on the forehead.
“Yeah. I’m going to have some scarring, but if you can handle it, I can handle it.” He loo
ked into my eyes and frowned slightly. “How did you get there?”
“How did I get where?”
“To my house. Your parents and your brother, they… they swooped in and forced those things out.” He sighed. “Does that sound crazy? Do you think I’ve gone nuts?”
I smiled down at him. “No, not at all. Why would I think you’re nuts?”
“Because of what I saw… think I saw–” He winced and looked up at the ceiling.
“Am I hurting you?” I asked, concerned, as I removed my hand from his head.
“No, no, it’s not you… my head aches and I feel like I’m about to combust or something. They gave me some stuff for it, but it hasn’t kicked in yet.”
He breathed out slowly, and the pain seemed to subside. He looked at me again.
“When I get home, will you come stay with me?”
I nodded. “Someone has to. Your parents will need looking after as well.”
I noticed a nurse tapping her watch at the doorway, so I gave him a last kiss on his forehead. “I have to go.”
“I love you,” he whispered, squeezing my hand, and closing his eyes.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you,” I said as I walked out the door.
The nurse escorted me back to the waiting room.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” I said to Shawn as I grabbed my sweater from the chair beside him.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. But something just doesn’t feel right,” I repeated as we made for the exit.
“Should I believe your hunch?” Shawn asked, struggling to keep up.
“I am very rarely wrong when things don’t feel right,” I assured him. “Especially when it comes to someone I care about.” I stopped in the middle of the parking lot, then groaned and turned to my brother.
“Took you long enough to figure out that we don’t have a ride home,” he observed, laughing as I threw my hands up in the air.
“Call mom and tell her to get us,” I said irritably. My body was increasing in temperature. I had to calm down before I burst into flames.
“Who needs moms?” Shawn winked, and I watched as two large black wings unfolded from his back. “We can fly.”
My heart fluttered at the beauty taking shape before me. Shawn smiled and opened his arms. I let them wrap around me, and we took off like a bullet up into the sky. One thought displaced all others in my head. I had to get me a set of wings.
Chapter 24
Moving On
I didn’t sleep that night and the next day at school dragged by slower than molasses. I didn’t see Adam all day; he was even absent in choir. I became concerned. He hadn’t missed a single day of school all year. I was filled with fear, thinking that the creatures had attacked him at the same time that they had attacked Aaron. I would never be able to live with myself if something had happened to him and I hadn’t been there.
Once class was out, I took off at a sprint to get to Adam’s father’s diner to see if he was there. I pulled into the parking lot, but the restaurant was empty, and the closed sign was visible in the window. I panicked as I got back in my car and frantically dialed Adam’s cell phone number on my mobile. It went to voicemail, and I was even more frightened as I sped down the road to the townhouse that his father had rented until they could move back to their home.
The police were still investigating the murder that had taken place. Okay, they were assuming it was murder… there was nothing that they could do to figure out what had happened in Adam’s room.
Both their cars were in the driveway. I slammed on the brakes, took the keys out of the ignition, and raced to the front door; beating on it with all my might. When nobody answered, I tried the handle. It was unlocked, so I threw the door open and raced inside. I couldn’t feel Adam there, and I was feeling even more scared than I was before. Hundreds of scenarios played out in my mind when my phone began to ring in my back pocket.
I grabbed it and hit the talk button without looking at the screen.
“Dawn? Where are you?” It was my mother, and she sounded panicked.
“I’m at Adam’s townhouse. There’s nobody here,” I told her, unable to keep the worry out of my voice.
“Get out of there, Dawn! They were being watched!”
As she screamed into the phone, I felt a hand slam into the back of my head.
I spun around, and my phone flew across the room. Standing in front of me was a man in a black suit. His eyes were also black, and he had a sinister grin on his face as he reached for me again.
“Who are you?” I demanded, throwing my hand to the back of my head. That shit hurt.
“I don’t think it really matters who, or what, I am,” the man said as he grabbed me by my shirt and yanked me toward him. Sniffing me, he threw me back and grumbled.
“Why are you here?” I asked. Why did I think he was going to answer that question when he didn’t answer the one before?
“That’s also not important,” he said, stomping on my phone, and shattering it. The last thing I heard from it was my mother’s shrill scream.
“Well, I think it’s important,” I retorted, trying to sound smart.
“I’m here for the angel,” he said suddenly, looking surprised at his own answer.
“What angel?” I asked. He apparently didn’t smell my celestial blood; otherwise, he would have continued beating me.
“The one with the brown hair. The one that got away from us once, but won’t this next time,” he said, looking even more confused. I wasn’t doing anything, yet he was willingly sharing the information.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I said, getting to my feet. I could feel the fires ready to explode from my fingers.
“You know the boy,” he pointed out. “So, you must know something of the girl.”
I held my hands in front of me and let the fires scorch his eyes. He screamed and tried to grab me.
“You’re one of them!” he shrieked at me.
“I am one of what?” I shouted back as his eyes began to boil. And then I ran.
I got to my car and sped out of the driveway, heading for the only place I knew to go. I kept my senses open; I didn’t want to be followed. The man in black must have been one of the guys who had asked Adam tons of questions right after Helen left, the men that my mother called Equalizers.
I couldn’t call my mother as my phone was in pieces on the floor of Adam’s dad’s townhouse. All I could do was pray that Adam and his father were with her. I drove faster than I had ever driven before, eventually pulling into our driveway and dashing for the house.
I entered the living room with my heart pounding in my ears. My mother looked up with red-rimmed eyes. In a flash, she was on her feet and throwing her arms around me.
“I thought I’d lost you!” she cried, gripping onto me.
“No, but the bastard smashed my phone,” I confessed angrily. I was confused as to why she would think that I was dead.
“How did you get away?” she asked, refusing to let me go.
“I burnt his eyes out,” I said as if this was a normal everyday thing for me.
“Good,” she replied, nodding as she finally let me go.
“Where’s Adam and his father?” I asked. That was my main focus, not the man in black that I had encountered in their makeshift home.
“Safe.” My mother straightened her dress and ran her hands through her blonde hair. “I got them out last night before we found Aaron’s house in shambles.”
“Thank God. Where are they?”
“They’re safe, Dawn. You can call Adam tonight.”
I blinked. Didn’t she trust me to know the location of my best friend?
“It’s not them you should be worrying about.” She looked suddenly distressed.
“Who should I be worrying about?” I asked. There was nothing more important to me than knowing that Adam was okay.
“Aaron,” my mother replied, her eyes watering.
“What about Aaron?” A knot formed in my stomach. What had gone wrong?
“They moved him.”
“Moved him where?” My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest.
“His father...” Her voice faltered as I stared at her. “His father had him moved to an unknown location. I went by the hospital to check on him. They were told not to tell me, or you, where they had taken him.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. What was all going on?
“I tried to reach his father at his office, but the receptionist said that he had called in and canceled all appointments indefinitely.” She was distraught.
“I still don’t understand. They love me,” I said quietly.
“Their attackers must have filled their heads with misleading information about you and the others,” she explained. “I don’t know what they said. Edmund is going to try and track them down to find answers. But he can’t do anything until tonight.”
“How can Edmund find them? If we can’t, what makes him so much better?”
“He’s a vampire, Dawn. A strong one at that. He was the one who saved them. He’ll be able to find them again.”
“Does the man that I met today have anything to do with this?” I asked, trying to put the pieces together in my head, but failing.
“He very well could. He’s an Equalizer. He’s been on Helen’s tail for years now.” My mother sat back down on the couch and pulled her hair behind her shoulders.
“Is he good or bad?” I asked, afraid I had permanently blinded one of the good guys.
“Most definitely bad,” my mother reassured me. “It might be time to get you out of Midvale. I always told you that if they found you, we should run.”
“Where are we going to run to, Mom? Miranda has Wesley, and he can locate me with his eyes closed.” I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. She wanted me to give up.
“People are dying, Dawn. They are dying because of you. They are dying because of what they carry inside of them. How long will it take them to find you and kill you?” Her voice was getting louder and more desperate. “I couldn’t stand to lose you! I didn’t get banished to Earth to watch my only child torn apart.”
Smoke & Ash (Wardens Series Book 2) Page 21