Twilight Vendetta

by Maggie Shayne

Devlin looked at Emma, waiting. She couldn’t hold his eyes. “They must’ve followed me from the shore. Or maybe they saw where my Jeep was parked last night and got the plate number. I don’t know.” She looked behind her, though they’d come too far to see anything. “They took my father.”

  “Your fadere is vampire?” Tavia asked, wide eyed.

  “No. No, and he’s not a BD either.”

  “BD...ah, Chosen. He is not. But you are. And your mahder?”

  She lowered her head. “She’s....” She looked at the people in the car. Not yet. Something inside her told her this was not the time. “She’s been gone a long time. Listen, we have to go after them. We have to find where they’re taking my father. If they realize he was trying to help you–”

  “Help us.” Devlin all but spat the words, and she shot him a searching look.

  “Yes. Help you. I told him about the attempted execution of two teenage vampires–or whatever they were–in the ocean, and he was trying to figure out where they had been taken.”

  “And how would he do that, exactly?”

  Devlin’s doubt was beginning to piss her off. “He’s a genius,” she said. “Literally, not figuratively. He’s a genius. He spent his life teaching physics, retired early, and now he spends all his free time advocating for vampire rights and playing around with his favorite hobby, ham radio. He’s designed some antennas that could darn near pull in a signal from Mars.”

  “Wow,” Bellamy said. Andrew shot him a quelling look over the seat. Maybe they weren’t supposed to be impressed by mortal passengers.

  Or was she a prisoner? It remained to be seen, she thought.

  “Sometimes he’s able to pick up DPI communications. Last night he intercepted a conversation he’s pretty sure was happening between the same men I saw take your friends away. I knew exactly when they left the beach with those two kids, and he knew exactly when they arrived at their destination, because he heard them say so. At least we think that’s what they were referring to. You take that information, and the average speed the van likely traveled, and you can narrow down their location to within about a thirty to fifty mile radius. That’s what was on the map. Dad had marked out our search grid.”

  “Your search grid?” Devlin asked.

  “Yes, ours. We were going to start trying to figure out the most likely locations for a secret government prison tonight.”

  He was quiet for a long moment, looking at her as if he didn’t quite believe her.

  She heaved a heavy sigh.

  Then he said, “Tavia, pull in at this convenience store.” Then he turned to Emma. “Do you have any money?”

  Money, an overnight bag, a spare toothbrush, a few untraceable cell phones, and a first aid kit. Her Jeep was always her backup plan. “Yes, and I’m starved.”

  “So are we all,” Andrew muttered, his tone rather bitchy, she thought.

  She held Devlin’s eyes for one electric moment, then said, “There’s cash in the glove compartment. Help yourself.”

  Andrew opened the glove compartment, fished out the roll of bills she kept in there for emergencies. She saw him noticing the pay as you go cell phones in there, but he said nothing and handed the cash over the back of the seat to her.

  Emma peeled off a couple of twenties and handed them to Devlin, and he nodded, said, “Wait here,” and jumped out of the car, heading into the store.

  “So tell me, Emma,” Tavia asked. “Why did you park your car tree blocks from your house?”

  “In case I was followed,” she said. She didn’t see any reason to lie. “I figured if they knew what I saw, I’d be in trouble.”

  “Apparently they did. And you are,” Andrew said.

  “But don’t worry,” Bellamy said. “We’ll go after your father. Devlin isn’t as hard-hearted as he seems.”

  Andrew and Tavia snorted in unison, which didn’t do much for her confidence.

  Bellamy quickly added, “He just doesn’t trust humans. You can’t blame him, really, given everything that’s gone down since they found out we exist.”

  She nodded. “I know. Believe me, I know. And I don’t blame him. But I’m not like that, and neither is my father.” She swallowed hard and said, “They called your friends Offspring.”

  “Yes.” Tavia didn’t say more.

  “They were shot, close range with high powered rifles,” Emma went on. “The men who shot them thought they were dead. They were sure of it.”

  “So was Dev,” Bellamy said.

  Him, she could talk to, Emma decided. He had the rounded cheeks of a child, a boyish personality and she sensed a soul to match. “They came back to life, somehow. They killed two of the goops. I heard their screams.”

  Bellamy closed his eyes and gave an exaggerated shudder.

  “What is goops?” Tavia asked.

  “Those DPI thugs who dress in black riot gear and carry rifles. It’s what we call them.”

  “We call dem crows,” she said, maybe sounding a little bit less hostile.

  “What are they? Your two young friends?”

  “We don’t even know for sure,” Bellamy said. “They’re the result of some kind of government science experiment. They took sperm and eggs from BD’s they’d jacked up on some kind of Jekyl and Hyde cocktail, and–”

  “Why do not you tell her our life history while you are at it, Bell?” Tavia snapped.

  He grimaced at Emma, a little sheepish, a little apologetic. “She’s on our side, Tav, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “Time will tell,” she said.

  Devlin was exiting the store. He had a small plastic bag in one hand, and he got into the car and closed the door, looking around him.

  It was so odd to her to see a vampire walking into a convenience store and out again without incident that it felt surreal. But then he was fishing something out of the bag and handing it to her, and the scent reached her nostrils and her stomach growled.

  A croissant with scrambled eggs and a cheese-like substance. Oh, joy, oh rapture. “I don’t suppose there’s any coffee in there?” she asked.

  He pulled a cup out of the bag and handed that to her as well. Then he pulled out the last item, a map of the area. “Do you think you can recreate your father’s search grid?”

  “Of course I can. Um, Andrew, there’s a pen in that glove box. Can you get if for me?” She took a big sip of the coffee, then frowned at Devlin. “How did you know how I like my coffee?”

  Everyone in the car laughed except Emma. And then Bellamy leaned close and said, “You were wishing for it so loudly it was hard to carry on a conversation over it.”

  She closed her eyes. “It’s been a long time since I had to worry about anyone reading my thoughts.”

  “How long?” Devlin asked, looking at her.

  She sighed, not wanting to talk about her mom. Not yet. Not with her only remaining parent missing and possibly in danger. Maybe knowing about her mother would make them trust her more. Or maybe realizing that she’d been searching for them for her own selfish reasons would ruin any chance she had of ever gaining their confidence.

  “Thanks for breakfast,” she said. “I’m surprised they still had any at this hour.”

  “I hope to heaven de rest of us are next, Devlin,” Tavia said as she pulled the Jeep back into the street and headed out. “If I do not have sustenance soon, I am going to stop dis car and feed on a pedestrian.”

  They drove until they were near the ocean again. Devlin navigated until Tavia pulled the car into a wooded glen that overlooked the ocean, and shut off the engine and headlights.

  Emma had finished her coffee, and was wishing for a refill. “What are we doing here?” she asked.

  “They need to eat.” He nodded at his companions and the three of them jumped out of the car so eagerly you’d have thought they’d just arrived at Disneyland.

  Emma watched them run back down the road, then looked at Devlin still sitting in the backseat beside her. She got stuck for a moment,
staring at him— drinking him in, really. God, he was good looking. She wanted to touch him, but didn’t dare.

  “What, exactly, are they going to eat?” she asked to distract herself from such thoughts.

  “Don’t you mean who?”

  “They can’t–you don’t just–Devlin, come on. Are they going to–”

  “They’ll take only what they need. It’s forbidden among our kind to take the life of an innocent. Though frankly, I don’t know many mortals who fit that description these days. Do you?”

  “Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. More than you know. Are you even aware of the efforts being made on your behalf?”

  He made a noise like a horse blowing in anger. Then he got out of the car, walked to the edge of the cliff, and stared down at the ocean. She got out too and stood for a moment, just looking at him. So tall and powerful, standing between her and the Pacific, the starry sky above him like a backdrop. It was a photograph begging to be taken, a painting waiting to be put on canvas. If only she were a painter instead of a writer, she thought.

  He turned and caught her staring, so she moved to stand beside him. “There are a lot of people protesting the mistreatment of vampires by our government.”

  “And yet the mistreatment continues.”

  “In secret, yes. But word is getting out. What happened to your two friends went out into the Twitterverse within hours, and it’s already gone viral.” She didn’t tell him she was the one who’d put it there, using one of her numerous and ever changing handles and the #ERFU hashtag. By the time she’d come around earlier tonight, the tweet had already been trending.

  He frowned, sent her a look. “You’ll have to translate most of that sentence.”

  “People are talking all over the Internet about two teenage vampires being executed by some goops.”

  “Crows,” he said. “We call them crows.”

  “Crows. Fine. So you do know what the Internet is, right?”

  He held her eyes for a moment, then looked back down at the waves crashing to the rocky shore far below them. She got the feeling he’d understood everything she’d said. Then got distracted by the way the wind was moving his hair.

  “There’s a movement afoot,” she said. “People are starting to protest, to complain. The media–”

  “The media? Really, that’s going to be the salvation of vampire kind? The media? Where celebrity gossip gets more air time than mass murders?”

  She tipped her head to one side, looking up at him. It was a little disconcerting, standing beside him. He was so much taller and so much bigger. His chest and shoulders strained the seams of the black polo shirt he wore, and his thighs were testing the strength of the denim of his jeans.

  “You hate us all, don’t you?”

  “I’ve got reason.”

  She lowered her head. “I don’t doubt it.”

  A quick glance his way revealed that her response had surprised him, at least a little bit. She drew a breath and asked, “So what do you think the salvation of your kind is going to be?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? We have to organize and fight back. There’s no way humankind can win an all-out war against us.”

  Emma widened her eyes. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? Of course there’s a way they can win. You go to war and you’ll be wiped out.”

  His lips thinned. “We’re stronger. One fledgling vampire is equal to ten mortal men, and an ancient one, equal to fifty. We’re immortal.”

  “Right. But you wouldn’t go up against a half dozen armed goops–excuse me, crows–to save my dad a little while ago.” She held up a hand before he could respond. “No. You were right to hold back. You’re vulnerable. You can bleed to death in a matter of minutes. If one of them shot you, it would’ve been all over. But that’s just my point. You go up in flames at the touch of a spark, you sleep like the dead during every hour of daylight. DPI has weapons. They have drugs. They’ve been researching ways to kill your kind for decades. Centuries, maybe. Devlin, war is the last thing you want. Believe me.”

  He looked away, clearly offended by her arguments. “We can move faster than their eyes can detect. We can control their minds, make them do our bidding–”

  “Only the weakest willed humans can be controlled that way. And you’d better believe DPI is training its personnel to resist it.”

  “Fledging vampires can only control the weakest of minds. An old one like me can do much better.”

  She looked up at him, at his thick, corded neck, and wide, strong jaw. He was dark skinned, for a vampire, and she wondered about his ethnicity, not for the first time.

  “My human ancestry is a blend of Samoan, Native American, and African,” he said softly. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because I like the way you look. Your skin is so beautiful it makes me want to touch it every time I’m near you.” She clapped a hand over her mouth and her eyes widened.

  He smiled at her, the first real smile she’d seen. “See? It’s not just the weak-minded who can be controlled.”

  Her jaw dropped, but she snapped it shut again. “That wasn’t fair.”

  “I find you very beautiful as well, Emma.”

  She lowered her head, angry. But he put his forefinger under her chin and raised it up again. “Your skin, like porcelain, and those wild ribbons of angel’s hair. Plump red lips and eyes like pools of melted chocolate.”

  She felt herself warming inside and wondered if he was still messing with her head.

  “You’re one of very few human beings I can’t quite manage to detest,” he told her. “And you have been ever since I first found you, nearly drowned in your parents’ swimming pool.”

  “It was my grandparents’ pool. And thanks for saving me. Every time. Thanks. I mean it. I owe you one.”

  “Four, and counting.” He smiled a little.

  My God, he’d made a joke. She smiled back, feeling a little lightheaded. “How old are you?” she asked.

  “I am a hundred and fifty-seven years Undead.”

  “Wow.” She blinked. “Wow. Where did you–”

  “Do you really want my life story, Emma?”

  “Yeah,” she said softly. “I really do.” And she wasn’t admitting it because he was making her.

  He stared down at her for a long moment. “Another time. For now, we have work to do.” He nodded toward the car. “The map.”

  “It’s in the Jeep.” The truth was she’d already marked out the search radius from memory. But she’d tucked the map into her bag. She was half afraid they’d ditch her the minute they knew where to look for those kids. They didn’t need her help to rescue them. But she needed their help to save her father.

  “The next thing we need is Internet. I can do some snooping on Google Earth and maybe get an idea from that.”

  “They’ll have blocked themselves from it.”

  She lifted her brows. “So you do know about the Internet.”

  “Yes, I know about the Internet. I haven’t been living in a cave.” He shrugged. “A castle in the mountains of Transylvania, but not a cave.”

  She smiled. He was funny, even charming when he wanted to be. For a moment she was lost in his eyes, but then she got hold of herself. Her father was missing. Abducted. She had to stay on point here. “So you’ve probably already figured out that if we find the places that are blocked from the satellite feed, then those are the places where we should start looking.”

  He nodded slowly. “You’re smart, for a human.”

  “Smart enough to know that the way to stop the crimes against your kind is through education, enlightenment, and understanding. Violence only creates more violence.”

  “Violence is the only thing your kind understands.”

  “Not all of us, Devlin. Not all of us.”

  Footsteps came, soundless, at least to Emma, until they were mere feet away. The others were returning, all together as one unit. Their eyes were brighter than before, and they seemed more energized. It was almost l
ike being around a person who had used cocaine, she thought. They were on a kind of a high. She’d never really got to observe that sort of thing up close. Her mother hadn’t exposed her to any of that.

  They both carried plastic bags, with God only knew what inside. Tavia had Emma’s empty travel mug in her hand. It had been in the cup holder in the front seat. She held it out to Devlin. “I’ve brought you sustenance,” she said.

  Emma turned her back as he took the mug and downed its contents. She thought it would be rude to grimace and say “Ew” but that’s what she was thinking. That, and that she would never use that cup again if she lived to be as old as Devlin.

  “Let’s go,” he said. “We need to find a place with Internet.”

  “No, we don’t,” Emma told him, turning, at last. His eyes shone, and his skin had a rose tint it hadn’t possessed before. “I’ve got my iPad and a hot spot. I can connect from wherever we go, as long as there’s cell service.”

  “Is dere cell service on the island?” Tavia asked.

  Emma frowned. “Island?”

  Sighing, Devlin turned and pointed at the ocean. Emma moved to stand beside him, looking where his long forefinger was aiming, but seeing nothing. Dark sky, darker water. His body was close to hers, mere millimeters of space between them. She had to fight not to lean into him. He emitted a pull stronger than gravity to her.

  “It’s probably too far for your mortal eyes to see. But yes, I own an island.”

  She couldn’t see anything but fog out over the water, so she looked up at him, instead. “When did you have time to do that? You only jumped off the pirated ship–”

  His hands clasped her shoulders so suddenly that she never even saw them move, and it startled her, made her gasp. Then the way his eyes probed hers sent chills up and down her spine–and not the good kind. “How do you know about that?” he demanded.

  “I–the radio. Dad’s radio hacking. I told you, he was picking up DPI transmissions. It’s how I knew where to find you in the first place. Jeeze.”

  His eyes narrowed, but his hands eased their grip on her shoulders. He didn’t let go, though. And the strength and power in those huge hands was dizzying and a little bit frightening. If he wanted to, he could break her in half.