Hunted

by T. M. Bledsoe

  Easy? She’d been turned into a monster. She’d just killed someone. She’d just…the thought of what she’d done hit her like a fist and she thought she was going to throw up, but nothing happened. Her stomach stayed still inside her, refusing to empty itself.

  “That’s your conscience working on you,” Frederik pointed out. “But, your body isn’t like it was before. You can no longer wash your sins away by purging yourself.”

  She’d killed Hayley Strong.

  She’d…fed…from Hayley Strong. She was a murderer! A cold blooded killer!

  Just like Frederik.

  “Your remorse will soon fade, girl,” Frederik told her. “Especially with Allison guiding your way. She’ll see that you take to this life without any trouble.”

  “I-I don’t want this life!” she hissed at Frederik, realizing that she was sobbing as she said the words.

  “Well, there’s no going back. You’ve fed, so unless you can drive a stake through your own heart, you’ve no choice,” was Frederik’s resounding reply.

  “Why did you do this to me? I-I didn’t want this!” she spat, rage suddenly building within her chest.

  Only something didn’t feel quite right. Her anger didn’t make her feel…like it should have. An abrupt thought occurred to her and she lifted her hand to her heart. She felt nothing. She focused on her breathing, waiting to take a breath, waiting for the need to take a breath. But, she felt nothing. Nothing at all.

  “It wasn’t myself who wanted you. Allison chose you to be her companion as soon as she saw you sitting in the cemetery,” Frederik stated amicably. “There was no choice after that. And don’t look so panic stricken. You actually do have a heartbeat and breath. But, your heart beats only a few times a day and you are free to draw breath at your leisure.”

  Was that supposed to make her feel better? Because it didn’t! She would never be okay with not feeling her heart thumping in her chest!

  “I wasn’t much for Allison siring anyone, but I thought it might help her if she had someone to take care of,” Frederik went on. “She’s…a handful at times. Barely in her right mind, actually. I agreed with getting you for her because you seem like a level headed sort. I was hoping you could try and help her.”

  Lanie couldn’t believe this conversation was happening. Frederik, the vampire who had turned her into a monster, was asking her…for help?

  “What do you mean?” she asked on a choked sob, swiping at her cheeks only to find they weren’t damp.

  “Allison loves you. You’re part of her now. She might listen to you,” he said.

  “I-I don’t understand,” she stated, not really sure that she wanted to.

  “My mate is slightly more bloodthirsty than I would like,” Frederik admitted, looking slightly sheepish. “She has no sense of boundaries. If she takes it into her head, she does it. I’ve been keeping her safe all these years, trying to chase after her when she runs off to whatever town she takes a fancy to, trying to keep the body count to a minimum. But, she doesn’t like listening to me. Maybe you can help to make a rational creature out of her. Maybe she’ll allow you to be a good influence on her.”

  Something in Lanie’s mind began to click into place, but she couldn’t quite grasp onto it.

  “Kyle…Kyle…he never mentioned…he only mentions you,” she said in a raspy voice.

  “Yes. The boy. I lament what happened to him. It wasn’t my intention to turn him, but trust my word, he has dogged my steps ever since, making me repent that mistake,” Frederik said, shaking his head. “The boy has never learned of Allison. I’ve kept her shielded from everyone. She’s my burden, and as my mate I cannot allow her to be harmed.”

  Lanie felt an odd stab of sympathy for Frederik. He seemed…weighed down. Evidently, he’d been carrying Allison around like Kyle had been carrying around all the people that Frederik had killed. Or that he thought Frederik had killed.

  “I see you’re sharp for a newly turned. You understand things without my having to explain them to death,” Frederik said, suddenly holding his hand out to her.

  Lanie shrank away from that large, pale hand, fear spiking through her.

  Frederik chuckled, a deep and silky sound that Lanie just couldn’t seem to believe was coming from someone like him. “Don’t worry, young one. I have no desire to cause you pain. We’re family now.”

  Frederik reached over and took her hand in his, pulling her across the bed so that she was next to him. He kept hold of her hand, which Lanie realized didn’t feel as shockingly cool as it should have.

  “You’re right in your thinking, girl. The boy has been hunting me tenaciously for four years, but it’s not I who leaves the trail of drained bodies for him to follow. We need only feed a couple of times a week to sustain ourselves. It’s Allison who has a bit of the blood lust and feeds far more often than is actually necessary.”

  Again, something clicked in Lanie’s mind, something that she knew she should be grabbing hold of, but she just couldn’t.

  Frederik brought her hand up to his mouth and pressed his lips against her palm. They felt cool and smooth against her flesh. “I should have done away with the boy long ago, but I do admire his spirit, as well as his determination to avenge someone that I took from him.”

  That thing that had been trying to click inside Lanie’s mind suddenly did and this time the pieces fell right into place. Allison. Kyle’s sister’s name was…Allison.

  Frederik chuckled and again kissed Lanie’s palm. “Yes, Allison is the boy’s long sought sister. I did not kill her. I made her my mate.”

  Lanie went numb. Kyle…Kyle had been chasing after Frederik for four years, carrying guilt as surely as if it was a stone around his neck, and for what? Allison hadn’t been killed after all!

  “I was going to kill Allison the night I found her, but she begged me to make her what I was,” Frederik confessed. “The boy tried to save her. Believe it or not, I asked Allison if she wanted me to spare her kin, to make him like me so she would have company during her eternity. She told me to kill him. She wanted to move on and be free of her old life.”

  Lanie’s mouth dropped open. Allison had told Frederik to kill her own brother so she could move on and be free? Lanie felt her heart break for Kyle. What a tragedy. Kyle had spent four years trying to avenge a sister that had wanted him to die. It was too cruel.

  “Allison has been after me to kill the boy all these years, but I can’t do away with someone I sired. It wouldn’t be right,” Frederik said

  Again, Lanie was left aghast. Allison still wanted him to kill her own brother! She’d been trying to get him to do it all these years! She couldn’t believe it! She didn’t want to believe it!

  “Ah, I envy your innocence, little one,” Frederik said to her. “You are untainted so that it shocks you to learn a sister has no feelings whatever for her own brother. I vaguely remember those days.”

  Lanie wanted to cry, she could let a sob escape her throat, but she couldn’t muster a single tear.

  “Worry not, little one,” Frederik said, standing up and pulling Lanie along with him. “You’ll get the knack of functioning in this new self. It simply takes a while. For now, though, I think we should decide where to go next.”

  Frederik led Lanie from the bedroom she was in and down a long hall plastered with famed pictures of faces she recognized well. They were photos of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison, an elderly couple that lived in a large house on the opposite side of town from her. They were wealthy and threw a benefit ball every year at Christmas for the Children’s Home in Richmond.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Harrison…are they…” she whispered, pointing to a photo as they walked past it.

  “Actually, the couple weren’t here when Allison and I had to find a new home,” Frederik answered. “They must be on vacation.”

  Lanie didn’t know if she could believe him, but she hoped he was telling her the truth. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison didn’t deserve to die. They’d helped so many people…the
y deserved to live until God said it was time to go, not some bloodthirsty she-demon.

  Frederik led her down a sweeping, spiral staircase, through a maze of opulently furnished rooms and into what looked to be a man’s office. The office was filled with to the brim with things, a massive leather couch, a huge wooden desk, shelves of books, and tables scattered with knick knacks. There were so many things crowding the room, Lanie felt smothered.

  On the desk, a large map had been spread out. As they moved toward it, Lanie saw an ashtray full of cigar butts that had been knocked off the desk and onto the fancy oriental carpet. Once she was standing next to the desk, it dawned on her that she couldn’t smell the scent of cigar smoke. She should have been able to because someone clearly spent time in the room smoking them. The thought that she couldn’t smell what she should be smelling seemed to slam into her with all the force of a ton of bricks and she let out a harsh sob.

  She was dead.

  She couldn’t smell because she wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t breathing because…she was dead.

  “What is it, little one?” Frederik asked as they stopped at the desk. “I told you the people who live here weren’t in the house when Allison chose it.”

  Lanie shook her head, wishing she could cry, but the tears refused to come. “I-I…I can’t smell the cigars,” she croaked out.

  Frederik lifted the corner of his mouth in a smile. “That’s because you aren’t breathing,” he pointed out unnecessarily. “Just focus on it, take a breath, and you’ll be able to smell things. Vividly.”

  “No, but…but I-I…upstairs I could smell…” The blood. She could smell the blood Frederik had drawn from Hayley Strong.

  “You weren’t actually smelling that so much as tasting it,” Frederik told her. “Fresh blood always hits the tongue first. You’ll experience what it smells like when you learn to draw breath.”

  Learn to draw breath. She had to learn to draw breath because…she was dead. She’d stopped breathing when Frederik…or Allison…had killed her.

  “Just focus on it and your body will respond,” Frederik instructed.

  Lanie did as she was told. She focused on filling her lungs with breath, which should have been second nature, but now seemed to require a bit too much effort. It felt like she was in a dream, trying to get her lungs to work when they didn’t want to. It almost felt like she couldn’t remember how to do such a simple thing!

  “Just calm down and focus and your body will do what you expect of it,” Frederik stated easily. “I promise.”

  Lanie tried to calm down, but it was extremely hard when a person knew they should be breathing, that it should be easy to draw air into their lungs, but it simply would not happen! Which was just further proof that she was dead!

  Suddenly, Lanie’s lungs expanded, drawing in a breath and letting it out all in a big, uncontrolled rush. That act sent a wave of relief rolling through her and she tried again. It came easier this time, as if her body only needed that slight reminder of how it was supposed to function, and the air surged into her lungs, bringing with it the overwhelming scents of the room about her. Pungent cigar smoke, bitter ashes, lemon furniture polish, strong and unpleasant cologne, the scent of an animal that she hadn’t seen yet. All those scents struck her hard, making her expel the breath she’d taken in, quickly covering her mouth and nose with her hands. If she’d been able to, she would have thrown up. She decided she could do without taking another breath for a while.

  “That is why we breathe only when we want to. Otherwise, life would be most unpleasant,” Frederik told her, again taking her hand and bringing her attention to the map on the desk. It was a map of the U.S. spread out there. “Choose your destination, little one,” Frederik told her. “We will go to any location you take a fancy to.”

  Lanie looked at the map, feeling overwhelmed. “I-I don’t want to go,” she whispered and Frederik smiled softly, pulling her against his side in a comforting embrace.

  “You’ll have to, I fear,” he told her. “You will be a danger to everyone you know here. It takes time to learn how to control the bloodlust. Though, unfortunately, there are those that never conquer it.”

  Lanie suddenly decided to ask the question she didn’t really want to know the answer to. “Did you kill him?” she croaked out.

  Frederik look at her, not even bothering to pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about. “I didn’t harm him. He’s been out there trying to find the both of us over the past few days. But, worry not. He eventually will. He’s never far behind me.”

  Days. She’d been gone for days? Her dad must going crazy.

  “What about the girl who was in the car with me? Did you…hurt her?” she asked.

  “No. She’s alive and well,” Frederik answered.

  “Why did you kill the others and make them like you?” she wondered. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I did not. While I was out trying to get to you and while the boy was after me, Allison was trying very hard to make sure that you did not escape us,” he told her.

  Allison had made that little vampire army? Lanie felt a surge of rage toward the girl, but she couldn’t really hold onto it. “She’s evil,” she told Frederik flatly. “Why don’t you kill her?”

  “Because she’s my mate,” Frederik answered her. “I cannot end her. And she is the one who sired you, so you’ll find yourself hard pressed to try and do it for me, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  She wasn’t thinking that, but that option was not off the table for her.

  “So, where shall I take you?” Frederik urged. “When you’ve learned to be more in control of yourself, I can take you across the waters and into my homeland. I think you’ll find Europe a lovely place to live.”

  Live? She wouldn’t be living! She’d be skulking through the night and feeding on people! She would never have a home…she would never have a family! She would never have the chance to have children and grandchildren! She would never have a husband!

  She would never really get to…live.

  “Chose your destination, little one,” Frederik told her. “All else will fall into place soon enough. You’ve many centuries and then some to come to terms with this new way and learn to embrace it.”

  No. She would not learn to embrace it. She wanted no part of this new way that had been forced onto her. And she knew the one person who had the right weapons to kill her.

  “Choose, little one,” Frederik insisted. “Choose and I shall have you out of here this very night.”

  She didn’t want to leave Fells Pointe. She didn’t want to leave her dad. He’d lost her mom and Gretchen. What would this do to him? But, if she stayed…no, she couldn’t. Frederik was right. She’d just killed a girl. She’d just drained the life right out of another human being. If she stayed, who might she kill next? She didn’t even remember what she’d done to Hayley, so how could she hope to stop herself from doing it to someone else?

  “Choose,” Frederik said softly, pressing his mouth to the top of her head. “You may go anyplace you like.”

  Lanie looked at the map in front of her, the entire thing becoming a blur as her eyes finally filled with the tears she’d been trying to shed. What did it matter where she went? She was just going to be killing people when she got there. And what if she wound up like Allison? Killing for fun when she didn’t have to? All she could do was get away from what was left of her friends and family so that she didn’t kill them. And maybe, when Kyle caught up to them, he would kill her and end this.

  Blindly, Lanie reached out a hand and laid a finger onto the map. “Nevada,” Frederik said, sounding intrigued. “We haven’t been there yet. That seems like an appealing option.”

  Yes. Nevada. That was far away from Fells Pointe. But, who knew how many people she would murder on the way, not counting once she got there.

  Frederik suddenly put a finger under Lanie’s chin and turned her face toward him. Before she could react, he leaned down a
nd pressed his mouth against hers, making her go stiff. The feel of his cool mouth on hers was a shock, but it lasted only a few seconds and then he pulled away from her.

  “Worry not, little one,” he whispered to her. “You are Allison’s progeny, but I will make certain you are cared for.” He paused for a few seconds, something soft wafting over his handsome features. “You make me think of what could have been with Allison, had she been strong enough to overcome her demons.”

  Lanie suddenly found herself lifted off her feet and cradled in Frederik’s arms, which brought her face to face with the handsome man with the piercing blue eyes. Trepidation twisted through her when she saw the look in those eyes. It was something she wished she wasn’t seeing.

  “Things are not the same as they were, little one. You are no longer part of the world into which you were originally born. In this new world, we are re-born and we may do as we like without regret,” he told her, pressing his mouth to hers again. “My own mate sired you, so you belong to me by rights. You are sweet and this life hasn’t had time to twist and bend you. It will be a beautiful change for me.”

  Lanie found herself being whisked toward the door of the office, but Allison was suddenly there, blocking the way and causing Frederik to jerk to a halt. Chase Wylie was behind her, his eyes gleaming like polished gemstones.

  Lanie wondered if she looked like that, if her eyes were the color of deep red rubies.

  “I did not want her so that you could replace me, Frederik,” Allison said, shaking her head. “She is my sister, not your new mate.”

  “She is part of my family, Allison,” Frederik stated easily. “Just as your new plaything is part of my family. I will do as I please with either of them.”

  “And what you please to do with Lanie is take her off to your bed?” Allison asked.

  “Is that not what you did with your plaything there?” Frederik questioned. “Did I speak against my own mate sharing herself with another man? Have I ever spoken against it?”

  “Frederik, this is different. Lanie is my—“