“God-fucking-dammit!” the intruder had roared from the living room, where a series of grunts and metallic squeals were emanating. “You bitches better not be dyking it out in there! I’m pretty sure mother-daughter incest is still a taboo in this day-and-age.”
Their father’s body, what was left of it, had flown into the hall at that moment—moving like it had been shot from a cannon—and slammed into the wall by the door, rolling onto their mother. He hadn’t been dead, not just then, at least, and through what remained of his mouth he’d rambled about the golden years of black tar and Osbourne and complained that he didn’t want to be remembered that way.
Fighting to distance herself from the horror, Tiffany had caught sight of her father’s severed arm protruding from the shredded remains of his work pants, and she fought to keep from vomiting as she took her brother and sister’s hands in each of her own.
She’d told them that they had to run.
She’d told them that the crazy man would hurt them—kill them—if they stayed.
She’d told them that she was sorry for not speaking up for them sooner; for always acting like a dumb bitch and wasting her time talking like the cast of Jersey Shore.
She’d told them that she loved them, and that she’d make sure that they’d be okay.
And she’d meant it.
They’d left Grandma behind, not that the crazy intruder gave them much choice when, as they bolted out through the shattered back door, they’d spotted him dragging the old woman to the floor where he’d begun ripping her skin off.
Then they’d ran; the lingering words of their murderous intruder pushing them every step for three miles:
“Run along now, kiddies. Tell the world that the devil stole your house.”
“Was that man really the devil?” Mary whimpered after a long silence.
Tiffany shook her head, patting her sister’s leg. “No, Mary, that wasn’t the devil. That was just a crazy person. And he did give us a reason to finally leave.” She gave Jeremy a gentle nudge, “Now you can get that girlfriend you so desperately need.”
Her brother smiled at that, though he was still clearly pretty shaken from everything he’d seen. Looking over at her, he caught sight of her hand and frowned, “You’re bleeding.”
Tiffany looked at her palm and caught sight of the fresh blood. Confused, she began looking for a source and, in doing so, caught sight of a trail of blood running down Mary’s leg.
Tearing up, their little sister confessed to her habit—much to the shock the two of them, who only saw it as more evidence that they’d needed to get away from that house—and that she hadn’t meant to go so deep.
When she was finished, Mary looked—on top of the already hefty emotional burden that morning had put on the three of them—nervous that her brother and sister might judge her in much the same way her classmates did.
“Firstly,” Tiff held up her pointer finger, “this needs to stop. I’ll help get you a counselor to talk to, but you’ve gotta promise us that you’ll never do this again.”
Whimpering, Mary agreed.
“Secondly,” Tiff added her middle finger to the already extended pointer, “I’m going to teach you how to throw a punch.”
“To throw a punch?” Mary asked.
“Mmhm,” Tiff nodded, “So the next time one of those little shits wants to tease you, you know how to knock them right on their ass. But all of this is going to cost you.”
Mary flinched. “It is? H-how much?”
Tiff smirked, “You gotta agree to not make fun of Jeremy too much when you skip a few grades and wind up in the same class as him.”
SERENA COULD BARELY LIFT HER EYELIDS AS she pressed herself against the bathroom’s tile floor. She couldn’t handle much more and she could no longer hide her fear from Maledictus. The cold tile helped numb the pain she as feeling and she pressed against it more as she let the tears flow.
How much more could she take before breaking?
She needed Zane.
She needed Zoey.
She needed everyone that she had always taken for granted.
She bit her lip, silently promising to change her ways if she got out of this. She whimpered as her stomach began to cramp and she folded over, the intensity of her hunger sending a tremor through her body.
Serena?
She looked up at the voice.
It couldn’t be!
Zoey? She responded through her auric abilities.
Serena! Is it really you? Oh thank—I’ve been scrambling about the astral plane for what feels like years!
How? I mean, you’re back at the clan, aren’t you? Serena bit her lip.
I am…I’m unconscious, I think. Something… something must’ve done a number on me, because I can’t find my way back to my body.
Serena looked up as Zoey appeared in a ghostly wisp, and she smiled softly at the sight. Zoey’s concerned eyes looked her over at the state she was in.
Serena…you’re so thin! Have you been eating?
I haven’t… Serena frowned, He tried to give me rats, but I kept refusing them and eventually the offerings stopped.
Well, if he does it again, put your pride to rest and take it, Serena! We need you to live! Zoey shook her head, We all need you. Zane needs you!
I know, it’s just so hard, Zoey… Serena looked down as the tears began to fall.
She didn’t have the strength to stop them from coming. She didn’t think she could if she wanted to anyway, they were the only release she had of any emotions.
Serena, we’ll be there soon… Zoey’s voice began to fade. I promise. I’ll find a way back to my body and we’ll find you!
Zoey? Zoe! Please, no! Don’t leave me! Serena whimpered, holding out her hand. Please!
Hold on, Serena… Zoey smiled warmly, you are surviving for two now.
Serena gasped, waking up again on the cold floor. Biting her lip, she pressed her hand to her stomach.
S-surviving… for two?
Zoey’s eyes widened as she sat up, gasping in air as the fog began to clear from her mind. She was just talking with…
Serena?
She shook her head, trying to get a clear view of exactly what she saw through Serena’s point of view. It was a residential house; Serena had been taken there with Maledictus and thrown into the bathroom. Zoey closed her eyes for a moment more and took a deep breath, realizing they had the beginnings of a location.
They could make it there!
“Zoey?” Isaac’s voice brought her back to the present.
She smiled, facing her lover and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, “Isaac! Oh my… I was so scared. I missed you so much!”
“I was so worried!” Isaac moved over her, pressing his lips to hers. “Do you need anything? Can I get you anything?”
Zoey nodded, “The others. I need to talk to them. I think I know where we can find Serena.”
Zoey knew what had to happen next.
“I was so worried about you, Zoe…” Isaac whispered.
“It’s okay now,” Zoey looked down, biting her lip, “I was able to chat with Serena.”
“Serena?” Isaac bit his lip, “How?”
“Somehow through my unconscious mind, I was able to pinpoint Serena’s auric signature; I found her and was able to talk to her; able to see her.” Zoey bit her lip. “She looked so sick…”
“You could see her?” Isaac asked.
“Sort of. It wasn’t with my eyes… but I could—I don’t know how to describe it—visualize her through her aura,” Zoey shook her head. “I need to get to the communications center, can you get Zane for me?”
“I think we should get him—”
“No. I need you to go get Zane, Isaac. I need to help him and Serena, and I’m the only one who can,” Zoey shook her head, grabbing a pile of clothes and beginning to dress. “Please, trust me.”
“You know I always will,” Isaac nodded.
She watched as her lover ste
pped out of the room and took a deep breath, summing up the courage to do what she had to. There was something off about Celine, something that she felt routed directly from Serena’s brother, Keith.
A conspiracy of this multitude could not be taken lightly.
She ran a hand through her short hair, heading into the room and making sure it was locked behind her. She knew both Isaac and Zane knew the code, so she had no worries of them getting in…
But she couldn’t afford any unwanted visitors.
She shivered, remembering Celine’s last words to her before she’d blacked out.
A auric firewall?
She knew a simple auric couldn’t work that kind of energy on a sang, but if she was involved with Keith in any way, then perhaps…
Shaking the thoughts away, Zoey set up a secure line and sent an urgent call to The Council’s direct line.
“Yes, hello. This is Zoey—”
“Yes, yes. I know, my dear; not many from the Vail Clan would be using this line. To what do I owe the pleasure for this call?” Jade, one of the Council’s operators purred into the line.
Zoey knew if anyone could help her, it would be Jade, a powerful auric with a nose for conspiracy and an eagerness to sniff it out. In the past, when Zoey had worked with Jade, the results had been nearly instantaneous.
“Jade, I’m glad I got you,” Zoey sighed. “Do you remember the case we had with Keith Vailean?”
“I do. I believe he was sentenced to be placed in an auric-induced coma if I’m not mistaken,” Jade replied.
“That’s correct. I’ve brought up his file here, but I think there may be more to the case; a lot more. We need to get a mind sweep on him, pronto,” Zoey bit her lip. “There is more than what we thought going on, and the only way to get the info I need is through Keith’s mind.”
“Ooh, I knew there was something about that slippery little bastard,” the scowl could be heard on Jade’s voice. “Alright, Zoey, since I trust your judgment—and because I’m eager to see if you’re right about this—I’m going to put a flash call on this, and, by that, I mean I’m going to personally dig through that eel’s noggin,” Zoey heard Jade call out for a moment through an intercom before returning to the phone, “any info you want directly searched for?”
“Search for anything you can find to do with somebody named Celine with direct connections to our clan warrior, Zane Murdoch.” Zoey frowned, thinking more about everything. Then, as an afterthought, “And, while you’re at it, anything to do with a Kristine, as well.”
“Alright, I’m on it. Shouldn’t be more than ten minutes,” Jade chuckled over the line. “I’m a fast worker. ”
“Thank you so much, Jade!” Zoey smiled, “You’re a life-saver.”
“You got it, Zoey. You owe me for this, you hear?”
“Alright, next time you’re in the area, drinks are on me,” she chuckled.
“I like the way you think,” Jade laughed. “Talk soon.”
“The same,” Zoey sighed, disconnecting the line and turning at the sound of the door’s locks disengaging.
Zane rushed forward then, scooping Zoey up and holding her in a tight bear-hug.
Zoey laughed, coughing a bit as he pulled away.
“Too tight?” he grinned.
“What gave it away?” Zoey smiled, “Good to see you.”
“I should be saying that to you,” Zane bit his lip, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment, before sighing. “Anyway, what info do you have for me? What the hell happened back there?”
“When I was out, I was somehow able to channel Serena’s aura,” Zoey told him.
“You… you talked to Serena? Is she okay? Did Maledictus hur—”
“Whoa!” Zoey held up her hands, nodding, “She’s fine; alive at least. But she does need our help, and I think I finally know how we can do it. I don’t know the specifics, but when I was unconscious a lot of things came to light,” Zoey sighed. “Not just with Serena.”
“What then?” Zane narrowed his eyes.
“It’s everything, Zane,” she said, “I think that all of it has been a part of—” She stopped and frowned, “Celine? Where is she? Has she—”
Zane shook his head, “She hightailed it after a spell Maledictus cast drove her to blurt out some rather unpleasant things.”
Zoey raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Like what?”
“Like how I fucked up some plan, and how if she’d killed me and Raith like she’d been ordered to then the relic—she called it a ‘chalice’—wouldn’t have ended up with me and such. Bunch of psycho-babble, but there was some truth behind it; no doubt about that.”
“So what happened?” Zoey asked, chewing her lip.
“So I tried to have one of our auric warriors look inside her head to find out what, and he—”
“Oh no…” Zoey looked up, sadness washing over her face, “Are they…?”
Zane nodded, “Something in Celine’s head must’ve been booby-trapped or something, ‘cause the moment he started digging he was flailing around and, before long, his heart had stopped.” His eyes widened as he thought back to it, “Holy fu—Is that what happened to you? Did Celine do that to you?”
Zoey frowned and nodded, “She called it a ‘psychic firewall.’ I guess somebody cared enough about keeping her memories a secret to make sure that no prying psychics ever caught on about what she’d—”
The computer monitor began to glow with a red warning icon and Zoey turned, punching in her credentials to receive the restricted information and gesturing to the screen as a data stream began to scroll in life-time from Jade’s system.
“What? The Council?” Zane looked over at her inquisitively, “What would they have to do with this?”
“I had them do a mind-sweep on Keith,” she stuck her finger out before Zane asked her another question. “Now, I’d had my suspicions for a while, but all this business with Celine was just bugging the hell out of me. The events with Keith seemed to lead almost too quickly to Kristine’s attack on you, and then her new clan shortly after that. It just didn’t seem right; how could she have known everything that was happening so soon after it had happened? And how would somebody like her be able to afford a full clan construction in such a short time, let alone sway The Council into giving her her own clan credentials in such an unprecedented amount of time? And then, literally a few days after we got Maledictus out of you, the sudden appearance of your dead ex-fiancé—”
“Hours,” Zane’s eyes had gone wide as she’d explained her theory to him.
Zoey looked up at him, “What?”
“Remember when you took me out to the gas station for junk food after Maledictus was taken out of me? How I’d suddenly freaked out and told you to stop the car?”
“Yea?” Zoey frowned.
“It was Celine,” Zane confessed. “I could’ve sworn I’d seen her watching us from the sidewalk, but by the time I’d gotten out she was gone.”
Zoey shook her head, “So soon after…? How could she possibly have known?”
“So, are those the results of what they found then? What do they say?” Zane narrowed his eyes, feeling more than enough suspicion now from Zoey’s rundown.
He had felt something off with Celine.
“I can’t believe it…” Zoey gasped, “It was worse than we’d ever expected…”
“What is it?” Zane asked.
“Everything…everything has been connected, Zane. Keith, your turning, Maledictus, EVERYTHING.” Zoey shook her head, “Celine and Kristine had been working for Keith since the beginning; since he’d caught Celine feeding from and siring a human,” she looked at him, biting her lip. “You, Zane; she was caught with a group of other vampires feeding from you. It says here that Keith used this to blackmail her and Kristine into working for him—helping him climb to power—and…” Zoey shook her head, “And she’s the one that warned the taroe tribe that you and Raith were coming; she planned to have you two killed up there! Zane, this is bad!
Very, very bad! We need to get the others and get them up to speed, but first…”
Zane’s face had paled under the onslaught of the news, but he’d nodded, knowing what Zoey was thinking. “First we have to save Serena.”
“JUST LOOK AT THAT; JUST FUCKING LOOK AT that,” Maledictus chuckled, not noticing in his self-satisfied stupor that Serena hadn’t laid her eyes on him since she’d come to in the house.
She had no idea where they were, or whose house it had been, but the alluring scent of blood was everywhere and that was evidence enough of what had happened to them. When she’d come to, she was already shackled in the bathroom, Maledictus explaining that, since she refused to feed, running water and a toilet was all she’d need until she decided to comply to his wishes.
The circumstances hadn’t seemed quite so bad until Maledictus had decided that he needed a shower.
“Hells-fucking-yes, bitch! It’s all growing in nicely,” he mused further, admiring his new tail, which, judging from the nub it had been several hours earlier when Serena had woken up, meant that his abilities to change his shape and regrow missing limbs were growing stronger. He’d also, after seeing how much he liked his new left arm, decided to tear his right one off so that he could grow another new one just like it.
Though she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of looking, Serena could see through her peripheral vision that the new arm was already half-formed.
“For the life of me, I don’t see how you can resist all of this and continually hold out some fucking hope about Zane,” Maledictus’ voice was getting more irritated as he engineered the path of his mood from manic and malicious to enraged and murderous. Yet, no matter where his seemingly bipolar delusions took him, he seemed intent on harboring the ongoing delusions that he was, in any conceivable fashion, desirable. “Fuckwads like Zane and all those little shits are a dime-a-fucking-dozen, but those like you and me, buttercup baby, we’re golden; we’re the cream of the fucking crop; we’re out-fucking-standing!” he filled his mouth with water from the shower head and spit it across the distance between them, making Serena retch and struggle to move out of his range while keeping her breasts hidden by the hand towel that he’d left for her. “And that’s why I’m so certain that our spawn will be perfect!”
Scarlet Dusk Page 19
