Sebastian wanted to be here; he wanted to be judged. He deserved nothing more. He only wished he believed in the entity enough for the retribution to be real.
He’d thought himself cut off from the rest of the world. Since leaving Serenity, he had wandered across the earth trying to find the perfect place to nurse his wounds. Desperate to leave America far behind, he’d traveled across Europe for many months, searching for a somewhere to hide.
Eventually, he happened upon Goreme in Turkey. The few people living in the area had dug themselves into the rock, hiding from the intense sun scorching the area, leaving only a few traditional buildings visible above ground.
The strange, almost alien landscape matched his tortured soul. Fairy chimneys—huge stone structures, like giant termite mounds—rose from the ground. Single rounded rocks balanced on the tops of the mounds, eroded by the sun and wind. Goreme looked as though it belonged on another planet. No trees or grass grew, instead the uniform color of sandstone and rock stretched as far as the eye could see.
Goreme’s scenery wasn’t the only thing to capture Sebastian’s attention. A system of disused tunnels ran beneath the rock, running hundreds of feet into the bedrock, as many as nine levels deep. He took to these tunnels, living below ground in the daytime, hunting at night. Sebastian lived as he believed he should, as a monster, hiding in the dark.
He was aware of the other vampire standing in the doorway before he even spoke.
“Surely you are not praying?” The vampire laughed, but any mockery dropped off his young, pale face as soon as Sebastian turned to him.
“How can I pray to something that cannot possibly exist?”
The other vampire raised his eyebrows. He was young and handsome, with fine, jaw length blond hair and a slender frame.
“How do we know?” he said. “We never die. If a God does exist then it will not be for us to find out.”
Sebastian growled. “If a God existed then we would not.”
He fought his own demons daily. Pining for Serenity, heartbroken at staying away from her, he remained in the darkness and shied away from contact with others—mortal or immortal. Yet, despite his isolation, from time to time Sebastian happened upon one of his own. These vampires hadn’t found a place to call home and wandered the earth.
This was one such vampire.
As nomads, they believed their presence in any one place would bring about the end of their species. In truth, this would not happen. The human species was cruel; people vanished, people were murdered all of the time. If someone mentioned the possibility of such disappearances being linked to his kind, they would be dismissed as crazy. Yet still these vampires preferred to be alone. Though solitary beings, they desired the chance to talk with their own kind.
The young vampire leapt at the wall, settling himself into one of the nooks carved into the rock as a seat.
“Maybe not,” he said, pushing his hair away from his face. “Perhaps we’re not the most terrible thing out there. Perhaps your God created worse.”
“Nothing is more despicable than what we are.” Sebastian watched his visitor coolly. He hadn’t wished for company. “We murder so we can survive. We are destined always to value our own lives above others.”
Sebastian killed; out of pain, anger, a need to forget the life he might once have led. He tried to lose himself in the rush of blood. Sebastian knew the local people feared him, though his presence was little more than a bad story, a fairy tale, a superstition. That was the beauty of his kind—people found the horror of his reality so terrifying it could not possibly be the truth.
The young vampire shrugged. “Don’t all creatures of God? What about those who kill for pleasure? Humans do, as do their companion, the common pussy-cat. Are you saying because the cat exists, God cannot?”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t want to be here debating philosophical issues. Very young, perhaps only a couple of decades, the other vampire clearly reveled in his new vampirism, like a teenager who hadn’t yet experienced the hard reality of life. Sebastian didn’t want to be the one to teach the young vampire these lessons.
He opened his mouth to ask the other vampire to leave, but the vampire interrupted.
“Anyway, I hear something much worse has been created—something abhorrent.”
Sebastian stopped. He, too, had heard such rumors. The first time someone told him of the creature, he laughed—treated the tales as a human would treat the possibility of the vampire—but when the next vampire brought up the topic, Sebastian recognized an undercurrent of worry in the stranger’s voice.
“Nothing more than hearsay,” Sebastian said, deliberately dismissive. “Our own version of the bogeyman.”
“No, it’s real.” The young vampire’s yellow eyes shone with enthusiasm. “The creature is not a vampire, but is also a long way from being human. It walks the streets, taking lives without mercy.”
“Where is the proof? Have we seen it?”
He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “No one has seen it. The creature appears in the light.”
“My point exactly. How convenient.”
The vampire shook his head. “Rumors are the thing is searching for something, for someone. Others say it used to be human, but now is a monster.”
A sense of unease stirred within Sebastian. Something had always troubled him about the events of four years ago. He’d turned over the memory of his search for Serenity’s necklace and of the empty grave he’d found the jewelry beside, again and again.
“So where is this thing supposed to be?” he asked.
Sebastian received the answer he didn’t want to hear.
“America.”
Instantly, his thoughts turned to Serenity. Was she safe?
The United States was a big place for a human; not so big for one of his kind. But then this thing was not one of them. He’d never heard of a vampire being out in the light, which told him whatever this thing was, it wasn’t a vampire. Yet the thing killed and fed, and possessed a vampire’s strength.
The thought sent chills through Sebastian’s heart. In truth, this creature might be humanity’s worst nightmare; possibly even a vampire’s worst nightmare. Light was a vampire’s main weakness. If something existed with all of a vampire’s strengths, but none of its weaknesses, it might be an enemy to both species.
Sebastian could easily have ignored the rumors, staying saturated in his own well of self-pity, but he experienced a kind of uneasy recognition at the vampire’s story. He had always wondered why Madeline moved Serenity’s husband’s body. Had his maker taken Jackson’s body to turn him but, because Serenity had fought back, Madeline had been unable to complete the process?
The idea was horrific. Sebastian didn’t know if giving life to a recently dead body was even possible, but Madeline had been much older and she possessed knowledge he did not. It sounded like the sort of twisted, sick thing she would attempt.
If there was any chance of the thing having once been Serenity’s husband, he couldn’t ignore it. Sebastian had to go back and make sure she was safe.
“I must leave,” he said, abruptly, marching from the cave.
The other vampire leapt to his feet, close on Sebastian’s heels. “Wait! I thought we could go hunting.”
“Do I look like I want a bit of male bonding?” Sebastian snarled.
The younger vampire reared back. He wasn’t stupid enough to push Sebastian. At six feet two, with a shock of dark hair, Sebastian made a striking figure and his years of underground living had left him ravaged.
The other vampire slunk off into the night. Sebastian didn’t give him another thought, his mind already elsewhere.
By Sebastian’s calculations, he had about six hours of night left.
He could move fast and was strong, but laughed at the myths of vampire’s being able to teleport or change into a bat and fly. Vampires still had to abide by physical laws. He would have to get to America the old fashioned way�
�by boat. Flying posed too much of a risk. Though he owned fake passports and other documentation, allowing him to travel as a human, he couldn’t guarantee not being exposed to the light. Even if he caught a night flight, he risked the flight being delayed or rerouted, exposing him. The threat was too great.
Sebastian set off on foot.
He didn’t need to take anything with him. Nothing he owned meant anything; he cared about no part of his existence. He was as transitory as the wind.
Sebastian planned to stow away on a ship heading to the States, hide beneath deck until the ship docked and night fell. His speed made it easy for him to sneak on board. He moved too quickly for the human eye to register.
Once aboard ship, he’d find the time of passage frustrating, though things had sped up over the last hundred years. Previously, months on board passed before they covered any great distance. Sebastian appreciated the improvement. Months on a vessel meant he’d need to hunt and this created fear and chaos. Now it took only ten days to make the same journey. Sebastian survived without feeding and in far more comfortable surroundings. Cinemas and swimming pools graced the deck, a far cry from the smelly and uncomfortable trips he’d made in the past.
He hoped Serenity stayed safe until he reached her. He might be wrong about the whole thing, inflating the stories in his mind so he had an excuse to see her again. Had he been waiting for a convenient excuse this whole time?
I won’t speak to her, he promised himself, remembering the number of times he made exactly the same promise four years ago and how quickly he’d broken them.
Sebastian’s heart contracted at the thought of seeing Serenity again. She’d been in his thoughts constantly since the moment he left.
The memory of Serenity made him increase his speed. He flew through the night, across the strange, arid landscape. He could take a car if he so desired, but he’d always been uncomfortable in any kind of machinery and when he needed to move fast, he traveled faster and safer by foot.
Sebastian headed to Istanbul.
He reached the busy city frighteningly close to day break, but he was in luck. The bulks of several ships loomed in dock. Ahead, the night sky faded from black to blue. He needed to act fast in order to sneak on board and find himself a secure hiding place before morning.
The early hour meant the port was all but deserted. Sebastian headed for an American ship named, ‘The Ocean Voyager’. He hoped the boat was on a direct route and didn’t stop in every country along the way.
Boarding the ship, he approached a reception desk, much like one found in an expensive hotel. A woman in her early twenties sat behind the counter, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand.
Sebastian scanned a framed poster of the ship’s layout hung on the wall beside the desk. At the bottom of the ship were rooms with neither a porthole nor a balcony. In truth, these were the rooms no one wanted, the cheapest rooms on the ship. For Sebastian, they were perfect.
He slipped past the woman at reception and headed down to his chosen deck. He paused outside each room, listening. The shallow breathing and snoring of the room’s inhabitants as they slept met his sensitive ears and Sebastian by-passed each one. Finally, he happened upon a room where no sound came from behind the door.
Sebastian made his way back up to the reception desk. He wished he could go back to the days when actual keys were used; life had been easier when he only needed to steal a key. Moving quickly, he snuck behind the desk and took one of the cards used to open the bedroom doors. The receptionist sensed something happening around her. She frowned and rubbed at her arms, but didn’t glance up.
Sebastian went back to the doorway and walked through as though coming up from below deck. He hoped he didn’t appear too disheveled.
The woman still sat in her chair; head tilted back, eyes closed. Sebastian walked too quietly for her to hear him—something he hadn’t intended—and he cleared his throat.
She jumped and looked up to find Sebastian standing in front of her desk. Her cheeks flushed with color and she pulled herself upright, smoothing her hair back from her face.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “It’s been a long shift.”
Sebastian gave her what he hoped was a winning smile. A long time had passed since he’d been in any human company and he was out of practice.
“Don’t worry. Actually, I should be the one who is embarrassed. I’ve only just got back to the ship and discovered my key card won’t work.”
He held the card out over the desk and she reached out, taking the slip of plastic. Sebastian held her gaze for a moment too long and she glanced back down, flustered.
“Oh, it happens all the time,” she said with a dismissive shake of her head. “What room number are you?”
“Three-four-six.”
The woman ran the card beneath a scanner and typed the number into a computer. A line of red light ran across the card and something beeped. She handed the card back to him.
“There you go. You shouldn’t have any more problems.”
He smiled again, “Thank you so much.”
Down in the hull of the ship, Sebastian entered the tiny room. A narrow bunk was attached to the wall and a second bunk pulled down directly above. When lying down, Sebastian’s feet would hang over the end. The bathroom was little more than a closet, one inconvenience he wouldn’t be forced to use.
Sebastian hung the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the outside of the door and locked it from the inside as an extra precaution. He didn’t expect to be disturbed but, even if someone did try to come into the room, Sebastian could open the door without any fear of being caught in the light. Like the cabin, the corridor contained no windows.
He flung himself down on the narrow bunk, the back of his arm covering his eyes. As expected, his feet hung over the end and he felt like a giant sleeping in a child’s bed.
Vampires didn’t sleep—at least not human sleep. Instead, they entered a type of meditation so time passed faster. Their kind needing to sleep in a coffin was no more than a myth.
Within an hour, the ship’s engines thrummed beneath him and shortly after, the ship began to move, slowly edging its way out of the harbor and out to the open sea.
What am I doing?
Serenity was probably fine. She had almost certainly gone on with her life by now and thought of him only as a monster, if at all. Why was he torturing himself, probing an open wound, by going back to see her?
Sebastian sighed and rolled over to his side as best he could in the confined space.
He wanted to be like other vampires. In the years since Serenity, he’d tried to embrace his nature. To kill was his only pleasure but it didn’t bring him peace. He wished he was like the younger vampire, to whom the torture and fear of the humans he killed was all part of the fun, but Sebastian couldn’t detach himself. Not all humans deserved to live, he believed as much, but he didn’t want to be the one who chose.
Part of him wished he’d never laid eyes on Serenity, but the other part couldn’t stand the thought. He’d fought against the need to see her every moment of the last four years, like an alcoholic fighting the need to drink. She was the reason he’d killed so many; the only way he’d been able to block out the pain, with the euphoric rush of blood.
As hours passed and the ship ate away oceanic miles, Sebastian stayed hidden in his cabin, lost in the wave of memories he’d worked so hard at blocking out.
He’d last been in Serenity’s presence after he’d pulled her out of the pipe at the pier. He’d said goodbye to her then, but hadn’t left before seeing her with the police officer. The way the other man looked at her, the obvious affection in his eyes, hadn’t gone unnoticed. If she were ever to have a normal life, Sebastian couldn’t be around her. The type of life the officer would be able to offer Serenity was what Sebastian wanted for her, even if it caused him pain.
So he’d left, certain she would forget him in time and move on with her life.
The ship stopped only once
, in Crete, before crossing the Atlantic to New York.
Once they docked, Sebastian would travel across America. He had many miles to cover and hoped in the time it took him to make the journey, Serenity would stay safe.
Chapter Two
In the four years since Serenity Hathaway murdered her husband, she’d learned a lot about fear.
Where she once thought of fear as being external, created by something she was afraid of, she now understood to be internal. Like her eye color or the way her second toe was slightly longer than the others, fear had become part of her.
Serenity was a haunted woman.
She was haunted by the things she’d seen and done. She was haunted by the ghost of her dead husband. But most of all, she was haunted by a man who had turned out to be so much more than just a man.
Serenity ran down the steps of the night school, clutching a folder of notes to her chest. Her eyes picked out the police car, parked a couple of vehicles away on the other side of the street, and raised her hand in greeting, as yet unsure if he had seen her.
In response, the driver’s door opened and James Bently climbed out. He scanned the street, one arm resting on the roof of the car. Upon spotting Serenity, he smiled, raising his own hand in greeting.
She checked to ensure the street was clear and ran across the road toward him.
“I hope you’re not going to charge me for jay-waking,” she said, grinning.
James leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll let you off with a caution. You got time for a coffee?”
Serenity looked at her watch; a little after eight. Early fall, it was only just starting to get dark and the late evening air still held the warmth of the day.
“Are you sure Amy won’t mind?” she asked, glancing at the ring binding the finger on James’s left hand.
“No. She called to say both kids are asleep and not to rush back.”
“Your wife is an angel,” she said.
“I know. She must have been insane to marry me.”
Serenity had been relieved when James met Amy. The two of them fell in love almost instantly. The match left Serenity not only pleased for her friend; she had her own reasons for wanting to see him with someone.
The Serenity Series: Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 23
