He was too heavy to lift onto the sofa, so they had to leave him lying on the rug by the sofa, but Lanie got a pillow for his head and one for his feet and then sat down beside him, her breathing still harsh and now tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She removed the two handguns still in his waistband and laid them on the sofa. They were probably empty and wouldn’t be of any use now.
She didn’t have to cry. Not yet. Kyle was okay. And they had made it to her house. They were inside, safe and sound, where Frederik could not get to them.
“What do we do now?” Johnna questioned unevenly.
“I-I don’t know,” Lanie answered in the same tone.
They had gotten this far, but now what? She honestly had no idea, other than just completely breaking down into hysterics, which couldn’t possibly make things any worse.
“Johnna, do you have your phone?” she rasped past the knot of hopelessness in her throat.
She suddenly really wanted to call her dad. She needed to hear his voice, to know that he was okay. To tell him that she loved him, just in case.
Johnna pulled her phone from her back pocket and Lanie took it with a trembling hand, dialing her dad’s number and hoping she could actually speak when he answered.
Sam picked up on the first ring. “Lanie! Lanie is this you? Lanie, where are you!” he shouted into the phone.
“Daddy, I’m at the house!” she sobbed out the words, thinking she really was on the verge of a breakdown. “Where are you!”
“I’m at Town Hall! Lanie, don’t move! I’m coming to get you!” Sam told her, still shouting.
“Daddy, wait!” she gasped, horrified. “Kyle said you were hurt!”
“Just don’t move, Lanie!” he told her, sounding almost desperate. “I can make it to get to you!”
“No, you can’t!” Lanie cried. “He’s outside! If you come here he’ll kill you!”
“Lanie, I’m not leaving you alone to face that monster!” Sam growled at her.
“Daddy, he can’t get into the house! Please, just stay there! And I’m not alone! Kyle is here with me,”
“Lanie—“
“Please, dad!” Lanie begged, desperate to get her dad to understand. “You have to stay where it’s safe! Please! Let me come to you!”
Hearing her anguish caused Sam to pause and then let out a deep sigh. “Fine. I-I really don’t know if I can do more than make it there. I’ve…lost a lot of blood.”
Lanie let out another sob. “Are you okay?” she whispered, terror clawing at her.
“I’ll live. But, he…killed Deputy Smitty. And I couldn’t find Gretchen, Lanie.”
A cold wave engulfed Lanie. Frederik had killed Alan Smitty? She’d known him since she was a little girl. She knew his wife. They had only been married for a few years.
“Lanie, I’m sorry I locked you in the cell-block. I was trying to keep you safe. I thought we could take this guy out,” Sam confessed roughly. “But, I-I was wrong.
Lanie choked back a sob. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I never should have told you about this.”
If she hadn’t, her dad would be okay and Alan Smitty would still be alive.
“You had to, Lanie. You did the right thing by telling me,” her father assured her.
No. She hadn’t done the right thing. She should have listened to Kyle. He’d warned her what would happen, but she’d brought her father into it anyway and for what? Sam was hurt, one of his deputies, his friends, was dead, and they still hadn’t managed to find Gretchen, who was probably long dead by now. Kyle had been so right. Sam Bancroft had no place in this.
“Listen, just try to come here to the Town Hall, okay? Just make it here and we’ll figure this out. Okay, squirt?” Sam entreated, his voice thick. “Just make it here and we’ll figure this out.”
Lanie nodded even though Sam couldn’t see her. “I’ll make it there,” she said.
“I’ll be waiting for you, Lanie,” he said to her.
“I love you, Daddy,” she whispered. She knew better than to let someone she loved go without telling them how she felt.
“Love you, squirt. Just make it here in one piece, okay?”
Lanie again nodded and then disconnected, handing the phone back to Johnna, who was swiping at the tears streaming down her face.
“What’s been happening around here, Johnna?” Lanie croaked out, wiping her own damp cheeks. “How many other people have been…found?”
“I’m not sure. My parents locked me in the house. Nearly everyone is locked in their houses. Once people heard there was a serial killer and that Sheriff Bancroft’s own sister-in-law had gone missing, things went to hell,” Johnna stated direly. “I haven’t seen or heard from anyone since…you went missing! Where were you! And don’t say you were at home, because Finn and Brady went there looking for you before they were locked down!”
“I was locked up at the Sheriff’s Office,” she said, causing Johnna’s eyes to go wide.
Without warning, Kyle sat bolt upright, startling Lanie and Johnna so they both shrieked.
“Oh my God! Kyle, are you okay!” Lanie gasped as he shook his head to clear the cobwebs.
“I’m fine,” he told her, lifting a hand to his jaw and wiggling it around. “He packs one hell of a punch.”
Kyle began to struggle to his feet and Lanie and Johnna both stood to help him.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Johnna asked. “Just sit here and wait for him to go away?”
“He’s not going away,” Kyle said. “He’s more determined than I thought to get to Lanie.”
“So, how do we handle this?” Johnna asked.
“I didn’t think it would come to this, but I have to get Lanie out of here. She needs to be as far away from Fells Pointe as she can get,” Kyle said.
“But, he’ll follow us!” Lanie argued.
“He will. But, the people in town will at least be safe. He’s going through them like cattle.” Kyle stated.
Lanie felt her stomach lurch. “How m-many people has he killed?”
“Several. And several more are missing,” Kyle answered, holstering the crossbow he was still holding. I’ve never seen him kill this many. I-I don’t know what he’s doing.”
Lanie felt sick with dread. “Where will we go?” she asked, her mind racing, wondering how she would tell her dad that she was leaving.
“We’ll figure it out once we make it out of town,” Kyle said. “My friend, Father Cristos, might be able to help us. At least he can help me protect you. He…he won’t have a problem killing Frederik.”
A sudden reverberation shook the house and Lanie let out another shriek.
“It’s alright,” Kyle told her. “He can’t get to you. We have a little time.”
That did not serve to comfort Lanie. “I-I just don’t understand!” she exclaimed, anger surging up inside her. “Why does he have to have me! Why can’t he just give up and go away!”
“Because that’s not how his mind works,” Kyle said soberly.
Johnna suddenly reached out and grabbed hold of Kyle’s shoulder. “Kyle, would Frederik have to leave Lanie alone if she belonged to another vampire?”
Kyle shrugged. “I guess. I mean, I’ve never heard of a vampire taking another’s mate. Why?”
“Why don’t you make Lanie your mate?” Johnna asked. “He’ll have to leave her alone if she belongs to you!”
Lanie felt herself grow cold and Kyle went pale. “I don’t think I can do that,” Kyle told the girl. “I’m only half of what he is. I don’t think a bite from me would do anything except hurt.”
Johnna still looked determined. “Well, there has to be a way! If she’s belongs to another vampire, he’ll have to leave her alone!”
“There’s no way to do that. And I won’t risk it, anyway! Not everyone makes it through the turning! A lot of people wind up dead!” Kyle snapped.
Another reverberation shook the walls and Lanie felt a bleak wave crash in on her. What did it matter if
Kyle could turn her? Frederik would still be alive, still be roaming around from town to town, killing people as if they mean nothing. And she would be like him. She would be feeding off people to survive and she did not want that for herself.
“Come out to me, girl!” a deep voice echoed through the house, causing Johnna to let out a sharp scream.
Kyle went stiff and Lanie knew he was going to fly out the door and go after Frederik, so she shot out a hand and clamped it down onto his arm. “Kyle, don’t go out there! Please! You can’t do anything to him.”
Kyle suddenly caught Lanie in his gaze, his handsome face going heavy with responsibility. “I’m sorry, Lanie. This is all my fault. I underestimated Frederik and I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s not your fault. He’s the one doing this,” Lanie pointed out. “He…he doesn’t have to be this way, does he? I mean, he doesn’t have to kill every person that walks by him!”
“No, he doesn’t,” Kyle said bitterly. “Father Cristos is a vampire and he lives without killing. Frederik lives this way for the thrill.”
“Come out, girl!” that deep voice sounded out again. “Come out or she dies!”
It took a second for Frederik’s words to sink in and then Lanie gasped and started to bolt from the room, but Kyle’s fingers wrapping around her arm stopped her short. “Lanie, don’t. You can’t help her.”
“Who? Help who?” Lanie whispered, fear tearing through her because she thought she already knew the answer.
“It…it sounds like Gretchen,” Kyle said and the next instant Lanie was tearing away from him and rushing out into the entryway.
She made it to the front door before arms encircled her and pulled her backward to keep her from running outside. “Lanie, don’t! You can’t help her!” Kyle growled.
Lanie let out a sob as her gaze fell on the scene through the open doorway. Frederik was standing on the porch, only a few steps away, and with him was Gretchen. His hand was tangled into Gretchen’s blonde hair, forcing her to stay next to his side. Held there, Gretchen was pale and unmoving, her clothes rumpled and torn, her face bearing the marks of what had clearly been a few very long days for her. There was a bruise beneath her right eye, a trail of dried blood leading down from a large gash on her forehead, her lip had been split open, and there were obvious puncture wounds on her both sides of her neck. Someone had been feeding on Gretchen.
“Gretchen!” Lanie screamed after that first stalled second, suddenly struggling to get out of Kyle’s vice-like grip.
“Lanie, stay inside!” Gretchen shouted back in a scratchy, weak voice.
“Let her go!” Lanie screamed at the monster holding her aunt.
“Come out to me!” Frederik snarled back at her.
Kyle tightened his grip on Lanie. “She’s not coming out!”
“Send her out to me!” Frederik demanded, giving Gretchen a vicious shake that tore a pained scream from her.
Lanie screamed, too, but Kyle refused to release her. “Kyle! Let me go! Let him have me!”
“No! He’ll kill Gretchen anyway because you’ve defied him!” Kyle shouted back at her.
Frederik gave Gretchen another shake, tearing another scream from her. “Come out to me!” he demanded.
Lanie fought Kyle as hard as she could, but she could not break out of his grip. “Don’t hurt her!” she begged Frederik. “He won’t let me go! Please, don’t hurt her!”
“Lanie, stop! You can’t go out to him!” Johnna cried out.
“Stay inside the house!” Gretchen screamed at her. “I don’t care what happens to me!”
Lanie could not live with that! She cared what happened to Gretchen! “Let me go!” she cried, struggling against the arms that imprisoned her. “Please! He won’t let me come out!”
“Send her out to me!” Frederik growled.
Kyle pulled Lanie backwards a few steps. “You can’t have her! Not her!”
Frederik went still and his eyes fell on Lanie. Something sickening rolled over her and before she could get the scream past her lips, Frederik had both hands tangled in Gretchen’s hair…and then he gave her head a vicious twist.
There was a sickening crack and for one horror filled moment Lanie was looking directly into her aunt’s wide, disbelieving eyes. And then, as surely as a cloud being blown apart by the wind, the soul behind those eyes faded, leaving nothing but two staring, vacant orbs. Frederik let go his grip on Gretchen and her body crumpled onto the porch.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Lanie went numb. She seemed to be frozen for a moment, trapped in a place without feeling or sound, her gaze fixed on what was left her aunt. A long, deafening scream erupted from outside the numb fog wrapped around Lanie. A scream that sounded familiar. Yes, it was familiar.
It was her. She was the one making that horrible, tortured sound.
As her voice died away, Frederik stepped right up to the open doorway, his pale face placid. “I’ll kill them all one by one until you come out to me,” he told her, his voice completely amicable, as if he was simply inviting her out for a walk.
“You’ll have to because I’m not letting you take her!” Kyle snarled, his tone as hard as nails.
Frederik’s gaze slid to Kyle and the two stared at one another for a long minute. And then Frederik turned and was…gone. Lanie looked at the unmoving figure of her aunt lying just outside the doorway, her stomach turning over and her heart tearing in half. She braced herself for the stab of pain she knew was coming; only it was something else that swept over her.
It was stark, cold, smothering…rage.
Lanie was suddenly struggling as hard as she could to get out of Kyle’s arms, desperately fighting to get away from him. He loosened his grip on her and she abruptly spun around, her hand slicing through the air and cracking right against Kyle’s face, whipping his head sideways and sending stinging pain shooting up her arm. And then she slapped him again, harder, putting so much force behind it that her arm went numb and an anguished growl was forced out of Kyle.
“Lanie!” Johnna shrieked, throwing herself at Lanie and dragging her backwards away from Kyle. “Stop it! It’s not his fault!”
“You should have let me go!” she heard herself scream at Kyle, even as she shrugged Johnna’s hands off her so that she could hit him again.
But, Kyle was suddenly taking her in his arms and crushing her against his blood soaked shirt. “I’m sorry, Lanie. I’m so sorry,” he told her thickly. “But, he would have killed her anyway. And then I would have lost you for nothing.”
“You don’t know that! He might have let her go!” she sobbed into his shoulder, the need to feel her palm cracking against his flesh burning inside her.
“Lanie, he isn’t like you. He doesn’t think like you. He has no soul. He would have killed her. Or he would have made you kill her after he turned you,” Kyle told her. “There was no way he was going let her live.”
Kyle sounded so sure, but she had no proof that Frederik wouldn’t have let her aunt go! If only he’d gotten what he wanted, he might have let her aunt live!
“You’ve seen, Lanie. He kills without blinking an eye. If I had handed you over, you both would have died,” Kyle soothed, kissing the top of her head. “Gretchen wouldn’t want that.”
“Kyle’s right, Lanie,” Johnna agreed. “I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I know that he would have killed her anyway. That’s how it works.”
Johnna was the authority on vampires. She would know how it worked if anyone would. But, it didn’t make Lanie feel any less responsible. Her aunt was dead, murdered right in front of her because she hadn’t done what Frederik wanted.
She would carry that weight with her for the rest of her life as surely as if it was a stone around her neck.
“Come on,” Kyle said, lifting Lanie off her feet and walking her out of the entryway. “I’ll take care of Gretchen.”
He took Lanie to the kitchen and sat her on a stool at the island. “I’ll be ri
ght back,” he told her. “Johnna, get her something to drink, will you?”
As Kyle rushed from the room, Johnna went to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of tea, pouring two glasses with a trembling hand.
“Lanie? Are…are you alright?” Johnna asked as she joined Lanie at the island.
Lanie had no idea. Her aunt was lying dead on the front porch, after being tortured for days and days. Who knew what Gretchen had lived through, what sort of pain and fear she’d endured. And all for nothing. She’d been killed anyway. Pain twisted Lanie’s insides, but the tears she expected suddenly wouldn’t come. Just like when her mother died, it would take a while. They would come, though. Probably about the time when she had to tell her dad about Gretchen. If she lived long enough.
“Your car is right out in the driveway,” Johnna stated thoughtfully, breaking the silence in the room. “If we can make it to the car, he might not be able to catch us once we hit the road. I mean, how fast can he run?”
She had no idea how fast a vampire could run. But, it was a long way to that car, which wasn’t exactly filled with horsepower. Then Johnna’s words dawned on her. “What do you mean we? You aren’t coming with me!”
“Says you!” Johnna shot at her. “You’re not leaving me behind! I’m your best friend and if you’re going to be spending the rest of your life running from a blood thirsty vampire, then I’m going to be with you!”
Lanie felt anger zip through her. “Johnna, this isn’t one of your books! People are dying! I don’t want you to be next!”
“You’d do the same for me, wouldn’t you?” Johnna asked seriously. “Would you let go off by myself with a monster chasing after me?”
“I’m not alone. Kyle will be with me,” she stated.
“And what if something happens to him? Then you’d be all by yourself,” Johnna stated.
“You aren’t coming with me!” Lanie argued.
“Try and stop me!” Johnna dared her.
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