They don’t have the same power here as in Dominion, he realized. They didn’t have the same strength or solidity. As yet, they weren’t real enough in this world to have much of an effect on it, unlike when he’d faced them in the other place. Though some of them must; after all, he’d seen them drag men and women from their homes. Or, at least, that was what he thought he’d seen, but perhaps that was simply what it had looked like—the victims moving out of fright and panic rather than from the force of the demons. How long that would last, though, he didn’t know. He suspected if Conner got his way and killed Elizabeth, forever shattering the veil between their two worlds, it wouldn’t stay this way for long.
The crack above Iona widened. He shouted again, staggered toward her.
“Move! Get out of the way!”
Whatever energy she’d used in the spell seemed to have left her confused, and she just stood there, staring up at the bottom of the overpass.
The bullet wounds had finally healed enough to allow him to move. With a final attempt at a burst of strength, he launched himself at her, just as a huge chunk of concrete separated from the bottom of the overpass. He caught her around the waist, pulling her backward, but he was not quick enough. The concrete fell and something tugged him back, Iona’s scream of agony halting him in his tracks.
“No!” he roared in fury.
The lower half of her leg, from the knee down, was trapped beneath the huge slab.
His bullet wounds had healed now, his strength starting to fully return. He glanced in the direction the car had gone, then looked back to her. It was one of the hardest decisions of his life. While every part of him wanted to go after Serenity and Elizabeth, he couldn’t leave Iona lying there, helpless and in pain, knowing the demons were around.
With a growl, Sebastian bent down, slid his hands beneath the heavy slab of concrete and flung it from her body. It landed with an enormous crash, shattering into numerous pieces.
Iona lay looking small and helpless on the ground. Her leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, her face contorted with pain. A shard of bone poked from where her jeans were torn, blood soaking into the denim. The sight of the blood stirred that coil of primal darkness at his core and he felt his face change, his fangs lengthen. He turned his face away for a moment, forcing those urges away. The last thing he ever wanted to do was feed from an injured girl. The desire for blood faded and he turned back to her.
“Here, drink this.” He lowered his face to bite his wrist, intending on feeding her his blood to heal her, but she caught his wrist in a painfully hard grip for one so young.
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I can’t have vampire blood. If I take it, I will lose all my powers. It’s like going over to the dark side.”
“But your leg …?”
“It will heal in time, with a combination of magic and medicine. But I won’t take your blood.”
He glanced again in the direction Conner had left with Serenity and Elizabeth.
“Go,” she urged him. “I’ll be fine.”
“No, I can’t leave you here like this.”
She nodded to the abandoned car. “Lay me on the back seat. I’ll be fine there. You can come back for me after you’ve saved them.”
“You don’t know you’ll be fine.” But he was torn. He wanted nothing more than to go after his family.
“I’m not just some girl,” she said. “I can protect myself.”
“You didn’t do a great job of that just now.”
She managed to utter a weak laugh, though her face was drained of blood because of the pain. “No, I guess not. Nature caught me out.”
“I don’t think that had anything to do with nature. That was all Conner’s doing.”
He scowled, turning his face up to the portentous sky.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. Just get me to the car and then go get your family back.”
“What about her?” he said, lifting his chin in the direction of the woman still unconscious on the ground.
“Don’t worry about her. I can take care of her if she regains consciousness.”
As carefully as he could manage, he scooped Iona into his arms. She grimaced, clutched a scream of pain in the back of her throat. He found himself admiring her for that. He carried her to the abandoned old Suburban and settled her in the back seat.
“Go!” She waved him away. “Now, before it’s too late.”
He had no choice but to leave her, promising himself he’d come back for her as soon as it was possible. He glanced at the spot where Vincent had been killed, not even a black smear left on the sidewalk to mark where the vampire had died. He felt bad for Serenity, knowing they were close and that she would probably blame herself for the vampire’s death.
Sebastian turned in the direction he’d last seen the car heading and ran.
Chapter Nineteen
The sound of shots being fired made Elizabeth scream, and she clutched her hands over her ears. The gunfire had been so loud she was filled with the panic that it had been her or her mom who’d been shot. But as they drove away, she saw Sebastian lying on the ground, bright red blooming across the white of his shirt. She didn’t have time to find out if her dad was okay. Conner sped from the scene, staying on the road, his head craned to peer out of the windshield.
He’ll be all right, she told herself. Bullets can’t hurt him; they’d just slow him down.
“Here, take this,” Conner said to Liam, who sat in the back seat with Elizabeth and Serenity. He passed the other man the gun, never taking his eyes off the road. “If either the girl or her mother tries to make a move, put a bullet in their heads.”
Liam grinned and took the weapon willingly, placing the gun against Serenity’s temple. Her mom’s whole body stiffened beside her, her jaw clenched tight, her hands balled into fists.
Seeing her mom sitting there with the cold metal barrel of a gun pressed against the side of her head was one of the most terrifying things Elizabeth had ever been forced to witness. She couldn’t stand the idea of something happening to her mom. It scared her more than the thought of her own death. When she’d been little, she’d experienced a time when her mom hadn’t been around, a time when a bad man had taken her. The memories were dim now, but she still remembered how she’d constantly felt as if a part of her was missing.
Now, Conner drove through Los Angeles, heading toward their deaths.
She tried her best not to cry, wanting to be strong, yet the image of what would happen if Liam pulled the trigger—how the force of the gunshot would explode out the other side, covering her in her mother’s blood—kept showing itself in her head.
Blood.
Uh-oh.
A now familiar sensation of energy began to build in her muscles, focusing her mind. A red haze descended over her vision. She turned her face to the window, her hand at her mouth, feeling the changes coming over her features. She curled her tongue, making contact with the teeth which were now growing sharper. Her jaw seemed to thicken so that her bite would exert the power of a vise. Her skin grew cooler beneath her fingertips. Her leg began to bounce up and down, the burning energy in her entire body seeking a way out.
Her heart raced in alarm. What if I can’t control this? What if Liam saw her change and just decided to shoot her, or shoot her mom? They weren’t going to sit here with a vampire in the car, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to sit surrounded by the pulse and heartbeat of living, breathing humans. Even my mom’s, she realized, swallowing hard. She could sense her mother’s blood as well as all the others, though it was tinged with a slightly different scent, a tang that wasn’t present in the others. The explanation for the difference dawned on her. It was the vampire’s blood Serenity took each month—her father’s blood.
The energy continued to grow, an overwhelming burning in her muscles she was starting to lose control of. Her leg had stopped bouncing and now seemed to vibrate of its own accord, and she sensed her mom shoot her an anxious glance
.
She looked over her shoulder, through the rear window. The demons were following them, a flow of darkness that one moment was a solid stream of black, and then the next, one of two would break free, scampering up walls or leaping over stalled cars and debris, before rejoining the pack.
Why are they following? What did they want from them?
Elizabeth gritted her teeth as another wave of what … hunger? ... rolled over her. A vast chasm at her core seemed to open up, as if someone had reached in and scooped out her insides. She knew there was only one thing that would stop the awful sensation, one thing that would fill her until she felt whole again.
Blood.
She clenched her fists tight, trying to keep control.
But what if she couldn’t?
She risked a glance toward her mother, praying Serenity wouldn’t catch sight of her face. She could tell from the way her eyes burned that they’d probably changed color like her father’s when he got angry or emotional. From the shape of her face and teeth beneath her hand, she guessed she probably looked different too.
Her mom didn’t glance over and Elizabeth got the chance to take in the position of the man with the gun. Her mom sat forward, her elbows on her knees, almost leaning between the two seats in front. The man leaned back, his body turned slightly toward Serenity as he held the gun to her head. The position meant Elizabeth had direct access to the man’s throat.
Anger bubbled up inside her. At the thought of her father being shot, at Vincent’s death when he’d only been trying to help her, at their kidnapping now, a snarl escaped from between her lips.
In alarm, she clamped a hand to her mouth, certain she would have been heard. The steady drum of rain against the roof of the car, the spray of water beneath the wheels and the occasional roll and crack of thunder managed to mask the sound. She turned her face toward the car window, praying no one would notice the changes she knew had come upon her features, but she sensed her mother’s anxious gaze darting over to her. Her mom’s hand reached out to hers and laced through her fingers.
As soon as her mom touched her hand, Serenity’s fears penetrated her mind as though they were her own—the cold circle of metal pressed against her temple, her terror for what might be laying ahead of them, her worry for Sebastian, shot and injured, and her sorrow for Vincent, gone forever. Though Serenity was scared for her own life, the main reason for her fear was that if she died, she would be leaving Elizabeth alone at the hands of Conner.
Even with a gun pressed to her head, Serenity still thought of her daughter first. This realization felt like a door opening in Elizabeth’s head, an awareness of her mother’s love for her like she’d never known before.
Elizabeth couldn’t control her change much longer. The heartbeat of those surrounding her seemed to fill her entire being, the steady beats growing louder and louder until her veins seemed to throb with the sensation. She would need to attack soon, to sink her rapidly elongating fangs into soft skin and release the thick, hot fluid below. It was the only way she’d feel better—ironically, feel human—again.
If she had to lose control, she’d at least do it with a plan. However much she wanted to, she couldn’t just leap over the seat and tear out Conner’s throat. It was too much of a risk. There was a chance Liam would turn his gun on her. The possibility didn’t frighten her … well, maybe a little … but what she didn’t want to happen was for him to just pull the trigger and blow her mom’s head off. In this confined space, there was no way of knowing what might happen.
No, she needed to take out the guy with the gun. With him out of the equation, perhaps she and her mom could then jump to safety from the back door before Conner even realized what was happening.
She risked a quick glance, a snap of her head to assess the situation, a movement the others probably wouldn’t have even noticed. Her mom was still leaning forward slightly, allowing a gap between the back seat and herself, creating a space she could get through to take Liam out.
“Look at the color of the sky,” said Conner to Liam and Ryan. “Morning is coming. We need to be there, ready at the exact moment of sunrise.”
“We will be,” Liam reassured him.
She only had seconds. She needed to do it now.
With a snarl, she threw herself across the back seat, shoving Serenity out of the way in her effort to reach Liam and keep her mom safe from the barrel of the gun. The man barely had the chance to react before Elizabeth sank her teeth into his soft throat. Blood flowed, coppery and warm, and the flesh seemed to come away in her mouth as easily as sinking her teeth into butter. Blood spurted into the back of her throat and she couldn’t stop herself from swallowing, the liquid warmth spreading through her limbs, intensifying every emotion and sensation coursing through her body. Her mom’s shrieks echoed in her head, but, instinctively, she grabbed the hand holding the gun, wrenching it away from Serenity. She’d thought the man’s fingers might tighten on the trigger in his death throes, but instead, the weapon simply fell from his fingers and clattered into the foot well.
It all happened so fast … so fast.
Conner realized something was wrong and twisted around while still driving, the car careening wildly across the road. Elizabeth didn’t want to give him the chance to pull over. Reaching out, she swung open the passenger door on her side. The wind caught it, and almost slammed it shut again, but Elizabeth slid down across the seat and gave it a kick to keep it open. Wind and rain gusted in with equal force.
She grabbed her mother by the shoulders.
“Sorry, Mom,” she yelled, and lifted Serenity, throwing her over her lap and out of the car.
Elizabeth barely had the chance to catch the expression of shock on her mother’s face as she flew out of the car door. She prayed her mom wouldn’t be hurt too badly. She tensed her body, her eyes skimming the road still passing beneath them, about to spring after her, but Conner turned around in his seat while simultaneously trying to keep control of the car, reached a hand out toward her and shouted, “Tenere eam!”
Instantly, something hit her chest and torso, like a giant spider web had been flung at her, pinning her to the back seat. “No!” she screamed.
Though Liam’s blood burned in her veins, the sense of energy that had been coursing through her body began to fade. She struggled against her invisible bonds, but was unable to move.
Conner slowed the car enough to open his own door, reach back, and slam shut the passenger door Elizabeth had opened.
“What about her mother?” asked Ryan, his face drained of color. “Shouldn’t we go back and get her?” He twisted around in his seat to take in the sight of the blood-soaked back seat and Liam’s body slouched, lifeless, against the passenger door. At the spectacle, he grew even paler and Elizabeth at least took some pleasure in watching his reaction. She hoped they wouldn’t go back for her mom. Or if they did, she willed for Serenity to have gotten away.
Conner shook his head. “It’s going to be morning soon, we’ll leave her. We don’t need the mother anyway. Killing the girl is the only thing we need.”
Chapter Twenty
Serenity barely had time to process what had happened. One moment, she’d been sitting in the back seat with a gun pressed to her head. The next, everything had gone crazy and she’d been surrounded by a whirlwind of blood and violence. Seconds after, she’d found herself out of the car, flying through the air.
She hit the road, pain shooting through her hip and shoulder, her face grazing the asphalt as she slid to a rest. Rain pelted the other side of her face, cold and somehow quenching. For a moment, she lay still, unable to comprehend the events of the last minute. Had that pale-faced, vicious creature really been her sweet daughter? She knew it had, but her brain was struggling to put the two images together. Though she’d previously seen Elizabeth just after she’d fed—when she’d been coming down from her change—she’d looked different, but not terrifying. The creature that had shoved her out of the way and attacked Liam
had been like a little monster, something out of a horror movie.
Serenity forced herself to a sitting position, her body screaming in pain, her heart beating so fast she thought it might explode. She stared down the street, in the same direction the vehicle containing her daughter had headed.
Oh, Elizabeth ...
What would be happening inside the car now? Would Elizabeth attack Conner? Would she end up hurt? Even though the girl that had attacked Liam had been ferocious and somehow even more terrifying because she was still only a child, right before Elizabeth pushed her from the moving car, she’d caught a glimpse of her daughter begin to return.
Only the thought of her child being hurt made her struggle to her feet, fresh pain speared up through her leg, shoulder and ribs. She couldn’t stop a cry of agony escaping her lips and she clutched her side, tears welling in her eyes. She must have broken something, the right side of her torso felt too loose, as if a part of her was missing, but she didn’t have the luxury to think about that now. Whatever Elizabeth was, she was still her daughter and she was in terrible danger. She needed to find her before Conner carried out his horrific plan.
She struggled to put one foot in front of the other, battling the wind and rain. Debris blew along the street—a black trash bag, torn branches, a crumpled umbrella with the metal spoke protruding dangerously—but the storm didn’t seem as bad as before. She glanced up at the sky. The black whirlpool of cloud still swirled above the city, but she could make out where it ended and the sky had lightened to an indigo blue. Conner had been right. Morning was coming.
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