Frederick picked up a bottle of scotch that I hadn’t noticed from a nearby end table, then handed it to me. “Pour it over his body,” Frederick instructed. “Empty the bottle.”
I dried my eyes again, then did what I was told, soaking every square inch of the monster with the alcohol. When I was done, I placed the bottle back on the table from which it came.
When I turned back to Frederick, I noticed he had a book of matches, holding it out between two fingers. “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked, his intense gaze sending a shiver through my body. I didn’t answer. I simply took the matchbook, stepped to the podium, and pulled a match from the booklet. I lit the match, then used its flame to ignite the entire book.
I sucked in a deep breath, tossed the small torch at the unconscious vampire, and stepped away as he quickly went up in flames. The smell was awful, as was the sight, but I needed to watch from start to finish for my girls. This was for them.
This was the vision that would come to replace my nightmares.
Once the body was reduced to charred remains, Frederick grabbed a fire extinguisher from the floor by the end table and doused the flames. The large X had fared better than the body, of which there wasn’t much more left than smoking bones and rags. Frederick then took the fire extinguisher and smashed it repeatedly into the blackened skeleton, until what was left crumpled to the floor.
“Your attacker is no more,” he said. “I hope this gives you a small sense of peace.”
“It does. Thank you,” I said. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest just as the tears returned, but these were tears of relief.
Frederick wanted me to stay for the evening and celebrate. He also intended to introduce me to a woman he was working with, named Dorothy Chamberlain, and give me a glimpse into the future he envisioned for Vampire Nation. But it was hard to get Mom to watch Fiona on such short notice and I promised I wouldn’t be home late. And furthermore, even though I’d gotten closure on the worst part of my life, I wasn’t in a celebratory mood.
Frederick was understanding enough, and I thanked him again for what he’d done for me. I couldn’t find the words that could fully express my gratitude. So, I left with the promise to see him again soon, at which time I would cash in that celebratory raincheck.
I texted Mom that I was on my way. She was just finishing washing the dishes when I got home.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said.
“You’re all out of Oreos,” she said, drying her hands and placing the folded towel on the counter.
“Did you check Fiona’s room? She steals them when I’m not looking.”
“She was the one who told me you were out of them!”
“Well, she still only eats half, then puts the other half back in the container—saving them for her sister.”
Mom approached and opened her arms, allowing me to fold into her as she enveloped me in a hug. She still had a way of making me feel I was a little girl again and everything would be okay. She patted my back and rocked from side to side as she held me.
Once she left, I snuck into Fiona’s room and gave her a kiss on the forehead. I brushed the cheek with the long scar, still seeing her as the most beautiful thing in the world. “You’re safe now,” I whispered, then gave her one more light kiss before tiptoeing out.
I collapsed onto my own bed, completely drained from the emotional rollercoaster of a night. All I wanted to do was keep my remaining daughter safe. Tonight provided a big step for her future; the monster that had torn my family apart was gone, and the man who’d made it possible was becoming a savior and mentor.
I was too exhausted to move. I wouldn’t be able to manage changing clothes, taking off my makeup, and brushing my teeth. It was all too much. I closed my eyes and rolled onto my side, ready for my first peaceful sleep since Becca had been taken from me.
“Mommy.”
My eyes shot open, expecting to see Fiona standing at the edge of my bed. She had a way of scaring the shit out of me in the middle of the night—both of them had done it, at one time.
But I didn’t see her. “Fiona? Why are you up?” I hadn’t thought I’d woken her, but perhaps I had. She never ventured to the far side of the bed, but I looked over just the same.
“Mommy?”
It sounded like Fiona was right next to me, but I still didn’t see her. I leaned over the bed to see if she was maybe sitting on the floor, out of sight. But she wasn’t there either.
“Fiona?” I called into the darkness. “Where are you?”
“It’s me, Mommy. Becca.”
My blood turned to ice at the words I’d just heard—or thought I’d heard. I sat stock still on my bed, unable to move.
“Becca?” I couldn’t believe I was saying her name aloud. This had to be a hallucination—a projection from all the compounding stress of the day. However, when she spoke again, I really heard her and would recognize that sweet voice anywhere.
“Hi, Mommy. I’ve missed you.”
No matter how cried-out I’d felt on the drive home, there was no stopping the tears from flooding my eyes now.
38
Fiona
Mom didn’t have any blood dripping down her chin, but I could see the tips of her fangs poking past her lips. With the announcement of Vampire Nation, the promise from her tattoo had been fulfilled. She’d become the vampire she’d yearned for—showing me how much I’d lost her.
I blocked the door with my body, forcing Gillian and Abigail to remain in the hallway, trying to shield them from whatever was about to happen.
It took a few full seconds to realize that besides my father, Mom wasn’t alone in the room. Taylor was standing over in the corner. The movement of her going for her gun was what caught my attention, causing me to take a warning shot in her direction. I was confident enough in my aim to have hit her if I’d wanted to. Instead, the bullet whizzed by her head and sailed through the window.
“Don’t even think about it!” I warned. “I didn’t miss. Keep your hands where I can see them!”
Taylor put her hands up in surrender. Her movements were fast, but not fast enough to be mistaken for a vampire. For some reason, she hadn’t been turned yet.
“Fiona, it’s not what you think,” Mom pleaded. She even sounded different, her voice having more of a melodic quality like a mythical Siren. It hadn’t been enough that she’d been insanely beautiful as a human—now, it was just depressing. She’d never know what it was like to have scars like me. “He attacked me… I was only defending myself… I didn’t know my own strength…”
“You couldn’t stay away!” I screamed. “You couldn’t just stay out of my life!” I had just gotten my father back and she’d had to take him from me. She was determined to take all the family I had left.
She was about to defend herself, but I didn’t want to hear anything else, so I fired—aiming straight for her cold, black heart. The bullet ripped through her chest, throwing her back against the wall. However, she remained on her feet, so I’d obviously missed.
Her eyes went wide at the realization I’d actually shot her. And she saw the intent in my eyes that I wasn’t going to stop until she was lying beside my father. I pulled the trigger again as she blurred toward the window. Bullet after bullet hit the wall a step or two behind her. She didn’t hesitate to jump through the glass and plummet multiple stories to escape.
I ran toward the window but stopped when I realized I was getting too close to Taylor. I had to keep my guard up around her because if I wasn’t careful, she’d disarm me and escape too. Mom was gone. There was no way I’d catch her now. However, I wouldn’t also let Taylor slip through my fingers.
“Toss your gun onto the bed,” I demanded, again pointing the barrel in her direction.
“She made me take her,” Taylor said, slowly removing a pistol from the waistband of her jeans. “She wouldn’t allow me to be turned until I did.”
“Just stop talking,” I spat. “
I don’t want to hear it.”
While I was still dealing with Taylor, two men barged into the room with firearms. They weren’t dressed as official guards, but worked at the facility. One of them was someone I recognized from my time coming here to transcribe with my father.
“This woman brought a vampire to attack my father. Her name’s Taylor Phagan, also wanted for leading a vampire into the North Building,” I said, stepping away from her, grabbing the gun she’d thrown onto the bed, and handing it to the man I recognized.
“Where’s the vampire?” he asked.
“She’s gone—jumped out the window.”
“Go; alert patrol,” the man I knew said to his partner, who took off running down the hallway.
“She won’t stay onsite,” I said. “And she won’t be coming back.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she was my mother.”
As the man stepped farther into the room to collect Taylor, I noticed Gillian peering in through the open doorway. Abigail was right behind her.
“Don’t come in,” I said, throwing up my hands, but it was too late.
When Gillian saw my father lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, she cried out and rushed to his side.
My adrenaline was still spiked, and I hadn’t yet had a single moment to address my father.
I hadn’t seen much of an emotional response from Gillian until the moment she collapsed beside him. Her hands hovered a few inches from his body, too afraid to touch him. Her sobs came hard and loud, and it was apparent she saw him for what I’d feared—dead.
Abigail was standing a few feet away, her thin body shaking, tears streaming down her face.
I ran over and took her in my arms. “Don’t look,” I said, holding her head to my chest, and turning to shield her from imprinting this final image of my—her—father into her mind.
At least she still had her mother. Both my parents were dead.
Epilogue: Roland
1999
I descended the glass elevator with the rest of the Assembly. I could already see Susan in the glass room below—the Singularity Room. She was joined with five other potential candidates, all of whom were already awake, wide-eyed, wanting answers. But unlike the others, Susan was on her feet and hysterical.
President Gilroy, in the plague doctor mask, turned to me with concern in his eyes. “Hopefully, she can be calmed down. But either way, you know you’re not to reveal yourself.”
“I know,” I said.
As soon as the doors opened for us to exit the elevator, Susan’s cries consumed the room.
“What have you done to us? Who are you?” she yelled, backing away from us as we spilled out of the elevator. She clutched her stomach with both hands like she was about to be sick.
“Please calm down,” President Gilroy said. “Allow me the chance to welcome you all here. The answers you seek will come in time.”
“No! Tell me where the hell we are, right now!” Susan demanded.
“Where do you think you are?”
“What it looks like can’t be possible. It looks like we’re on a space station. But that’s impossible! I remember leaving my bar, then waking up here. Is this real? Please tell me it’s not…”
Susan sounded so desperate. I hadn’t expected this reaction from her. I thought she’d be concerned and confused like most candidates, but not hysterical. She’d always seemed so curious and open-minded. I wanted her here with me, so I wouldn’t have to keep so many secrets. So we could truly be together.
“I assure you, this is very real,” President Gilroy said. “Your eyes do not deceive you. Now if you’ll just join the others, I can further explain the purpose of why you’re here.”
But Susan seemed to have no intention of doing that. Instead, she fell to her knees, still clutching her stomach, crying uncontrollably. “How could you… how could you…!” She rocked back and forth, then rolled all the way forward, touching her head to the glass floor.
The other potentials stood back, watching nervously as Susan continued her meltdown. Her anxiety was rippling through the group.
The rest of the Assembly turned to me, then to President Gilroy for what to do next.
The President didn’t take long to decide. “Matthew, sedate her. This isn’t going to work,” he said with a sigh.
Matthew came up from behind us and descended upon Susan with a syringe. She was too distraught, rolled up in a ball on the ground, to even notice him approach. Then the needle was in her neck and she was quiet within seconds.
The other potential candidates were aghast at what we’d done to Susan, making it obvious we’d lost the whole group.
“Sedate them all,” President Gilroy said. “Tonight’s a lost cause.”
Matthew became a blur as he sped to each potential and eased each one to the floor.
A hand squeezed my shoulder. The others knew how much Susan’s candidacy meant to me—how much she meant to me.
“I’m sorry,” President Gilroy said, now facing me with his mask in one hand, down by his side. “We can’t do this again.”
“I swear, this wasn’t like her,” I said. “Something else was wrong. Maybe a reaction to the injection?”
“Whatever the reason, we’re not going to take another chance on her and put ourselves at unnecessary risk. Now we know why we couldn’t find her name on the list. I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” I said, feeling tears sting my eyes. “So am I.”
“As you know, she won’t remember a thing.”
“But I’ll know,” I said, watching Matthew pick up her limp body and carry her toward the elevator.
I’d worked so hard to secure her invitation. What was I supposed to do now? Continue on like nothing had happened? I didn’t know if I could do that. Maybe this was a sign to just cut the cord…
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And while you’re waiting for the next book in this series, you may enjoy my other Young Adult dystopian series, Royal Replicas. In the following pages, I’ve included the opening chapters of the first book to give you a preview. Also, if you’re a Kindle Unlimited member, then you can read the complete series for free.
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Prologue
Beatrice Ramsey stood against the wall by the bookshelf while the doctors were working on her daughter; the girl was still lying unconscious from the procedure and looked so peaceful in her bed. Beatrice gazed upon the wooden crucifix above the bed that—once upon a time—had been her own. She felt the full weight of guilt for everything the poor girl had been subjected to.
Doctors Sosin and Crane had been taking care of Victoria since before she was born. They had good reason for their investment and concern with her wellbeing. Her current state was a definite cause for worry.
A lot of equipment had been loaded into the small, dark room, so much so that the portable dress rack and dresser needed wheeling outside. The machines blinked and beeped, connected to her daughter in a multitude of ways; some were more invasive than others.
“When will she wake?” Beatrice asked.
“In a few hours. Maybe a little longer,” Dr. Sosin said.
“There’s always some degree of guesswork in science. For all the many things you believe you control, equal numbers of variables and unseen factors challenge that certainty. You’re a woman of faith; you must understand there are things beyond our control?”
“And things we should not even be attempting to control,” Beatrice said.
“I’m not here to have a theological discussion with you, but to help keep you in good standing with the Queen,” Dr. Sosin said.
“After this, I don’t see how we can continue to be in good standing,” Beatrice answered.
“To the Queen’s knowledge, this is another routine checkup. Nothing more.”
“I don’t know whether I should be worried or relieved.” Beatrice stepped forward, approaching the bed. She reached out to touch the still girl lying beneath the covers but pulled back. “What will she remember?”
“We’ve reset her to last summer—that should be far enough—before their first meeting. We didn’t want to take too much from her.” Dr. Sosin checked the screen of one of the chirping instruments. “Just so you know, this isn’t the first one we’ve had to reset. Teenagers can be… well, unpredictable.”
“Tell me about it,” Beatrice said with a pained chuckle. “I practically have three.”
“I fear you’re getting too close,” Dr. Sosin said. “You do realize she’ll have to be returned soon?”
“I know. I’ve been preparing for it—though it doesn’t make it any easier.”
“You should really distance yourself more.”
“Are you telling me you always do the right thing?”
“Of course not. We all have our… vices and regrets.”
“I don’t regret this.” Beatrice gently laid a hand on her sleeping daughter and waited for her to wake.
Angeles Covenant Page 21
