Submerging Inferno

by Brandon Witt

  This time, I felt my lip split as his kiss pressed into me, his tongue forcing itself so deep I wasn’t sure I’d be able to breathe. His hands tore in desperation at my clothes, his mouth never releasing mine. His eyes opened to stare into me before closing again.

  He had my clothes off, my naked back chilled by the damp dirt of the grave, before ripping his shirt over his head and beginning to tear and fumble at his belt. With a brush of my hand, his jeans disappeared. His solid, bare body crushed me further into the moist earth, his searing skin instantly eradicating the cold.

  “Brett, I love you.” I pushed his face from mine to look in his eyes. “I need you to not give up on us because it’s scary, okay? I love you.”

  He gave a fierce nod. “I’m sorry I’m struggling with this. I love you too.”

  “It’s okay. Really. We’ll get through it. We have to.”

  The palms of his hands slid up my chest in response, traveled up my arms to secure my hands over my head, and my knuckles scraped the headstone.

  “I love you, Finn.” The moon behind his head silhouetted the outline of his arms and back as he held me in place, making him appear carved of stone. “I need you in me. Now.”

  It took me a second before I realized what he was asking. I managed a nod.

  Without any other warning, his body arched downward, impaling himself on me. He cried out, a loud animallike call, his eyes wide with pain.

  I waited as he hung there, suspended, letting himself grow accustomed to my girth. His warmth surrounded me, even hotter than his skin. Hot enough it seemed like it should hurt, should burn. It didn’t. I gasped as he tightened around me.

  Another guttural groan escaped him as I pulsated inside of him. Before he began to rise up on me to begin the ride, he held my gaze. “I won’t leave you. I love you.”

  Chapter 31

  BRETT WRIGHT

  “I STILL say that we have to keep living our lives. We can’t just hide in here forever.”

  “Wendell, that’s exactly what I was saying yesterday to Christina, but then we almost lost Peter”—Paulette glanced over at me sitting on the other side of the breakfast table—“as well as Brett.”

  “That’s right! We have to be careful.” There was a tremble in Cynthia’s voice, but her jaw was set determinedly. “Plus, things have changed. We didn’t know the vampire could be out in the daytime. Now we do. And who knows how much stronger he is now that he got to drink more of Brett. He could be outside right now, just waiting for us to separate.”

  “Now, let’s just take a step back. We don’t know that Brett’s blood has anything to do with it. That’s the vampire’s theory, not ours. Who knows what actually happened. Maybe he could always be out in the daytime as long as he stayed in the shadows. Maybe he just discovered it by accident after he bit Brett that first time.” Wendell, usually so confident, seemed like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

  While I liked what he was saying, his words didn’t sit well in my gut. They didn’t feel true. “What if he’s right? What if my blood makes vampires able to be in the sunlight? If that’s true, with how much he took from me yesterday, Cynthia is probably correct.”

  “Who has ever heard of a species that makes vampires able to walk in the sun? Do you really think they would have been able to keep that a secret? Even if there were such a race, if that had been known, I guarantee the vampires would have hunted them to extinction by now. Either from the lone vampires, all trying to get that power, or from the Vampire Cathedral, so that the others wouldn’t be able to have the same ability as they do.”

  “But Dad”—Finn wiped his face, dusting off the crumbs that had gotten stuck in his stubble—“what if they didn’t know? What if this vampire is the first to discover it, or what if whatever other blood is in Brett has never been combined with demon blood before. How would they know?”

  Wendell shook his head. “Spoken like someone who hasn’t lived long enough. There isn’t much that is new to the world, Finn. If it is his blood, I can guarantee that he isn’t the first of his kind. And if he isn’t, then I can also guarantee, if there is power in his blood, the vampires would have known of it centuries ago. And again, if that was the case, the Royals would have taken care of that situation. They wouldn’t want the other race of vampires to pass for a Royal.”

  The table fell silent, all lost in their thoughts and worries. Before we went to bed the night before, it had been decided that they were going to take the morning off. They weren’t going to open their stores or restaurants until they were ready. No one set alarms, and everyone just slept until they woke up on their own. The only ones still asleep were Ricky and the boys. Everyone else seemed to wake up at nearly their normal time, so before long, they were in the kitchen making breakfast. It seemed that, in the de Morisco family, everything, good and bad, revolved around food.

  Luckily, no one had been awake when Finn and I returned home. It hadn’t seemed they even noticed we’d left. Having cast the guard spells, Wendell lay sleeping on the couch. We slipped past quietly, and since we belonged in the house, the magic guards didn’t alert him. I was thankful they weren’t aware my fear had led me to have Finn leave the house and risk facing the vampire.

  I was a torrent of emotions. I was terrified of my choice but was somewhat surprised when I realized I was glad to be back. Glad I was still with Finn. With his family. Even though every aspect of this life scared me, it also felt right, peaceful. Even sitting here was a challenge. One minute fear spiked through me, the next wave after wave of guilt. For involving them in this. For leaving Finn in the middle of the night. For not simply being able to relax and enjoy what I’d discovered in Finn. What was wrong with me?

  I had been extremely nervous to face the family as I left the bedroom. Finn had told me I was just being silly, that it didn’t matter. If anyone had heard Finn and I having sex during the night…. If they’d noticed we’d been gone…. I was the only one who blushed as they said good morning. If they noticed that Finn didn’t go more than a few seconds without reaching for my hand or touching my shoulder, they didn’t let on.

  Part of me still wanted to book it for the door and not stop running. The other part wanted to drag Finn back up the stairs and devour him again.

  “Well, I think we have to look at the worst case scenario.” Caitlin put her chin in her hands, both her elbows resting on the table.

  “Of course you do, Cate. What else would you think?”

  She gave Finn a dirty look but continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “We have to assume that there is some kind of power in Brett’s blood, that the vampire can now be out in full daylight, and that he is waiting for the moment he deems is best to attack again. If that’s not the case, then no harm done, we are prepared.”

  “Wait, hold on.” Christina, spoke up for the first time this morning. She had been rather downcast. Nearly losing your child the day before would probably do that to anyone. “You just made a good point. Let’s say that Brett’s blood really does have the power to make them capable of being in the sun. With how much the vampire got yesterday, why are we assuming he is still waiting to attack? Why would he need to?” Her lips slowly curved into a smile, relief beginning to fill her face. “He’s been after Brett this whole time. I bet that is why he went after Rodrigo, trying to find him. Brett already gave him what he wants. Why would the vampire be hanging around here waiting for us? He would be off somewhere else, living it up in the sun. He’s probably at the beach snacking on surfers!”

  Far from being comforting, her words caused a heaviness to cover my chest. I hadn’t considered anyone outside of this household. Thanks to my blood, I had just opened a whole new world to the vampire. Now there was no time of day when he couldn’t feed. What if he attacked a hospital or school?

  Finn squeezed my leg. I looked over at him. He gave me a questioning eyebrow raise, and I shook my head. Even if my concerns were valid, the family had enough to worry about without me addin
g to it.

  “Sorry to burst your bubble, there, Christina.” There wasn’t sarcasm in her voice. Caitlin obviously didn’t want to cause her sister more worry over her kids. “But that’s not the worst case scenario.”

  “Come on, Cate. Do we really have to do this?”

  “Yes, Christina, we do.” Caitlin lowered her arms to a folded position on the table and squared her shoulders. “We’re not going to keep the boys safe by telling ourselves a pretty little fairy tale.” The idea that the picture of the vampire killing a bunch of surfers in broad daylight was a pretty little fairy tale seemed a little bit of a stretch to me, but I didn’t think it would be such a good idea to interrupt. “The worst cast scenario is that whatever change his blood causes can’t be completed unless the vampire drinks it all. So, there’s every reason to assume that he will be coming back, and will keep coming back until he finishes Brett off. There is also every reason to believe that he is probably stronger now and maybe doesn’t have to hide in the shadows as much as he did yesterday.”

  Finn’s harsh voice caused Cynthia to jump and let out a little squeak. “So, what do you want, Cate? You want to send him an invitation to come over this afternoon to finish the job?”

  Caitlin looked nearly as surprised at her next words as I was. “No.” She paused and then gave a little shudder. “No. That’s not what I’m saying at all. We just need to be prepared for the worst. That way we don’t accidentally lose anyone in this family. Brett included.” Her eyes met mine but flashed away instantly.

  Christina looked at her sister, a mix of frustration and desperation on her face. “Well, then, what do you suggest? How do we stay safe?”

  “We stay together. Between us, our power can hold a vampire long enough to finish him off.”

  “And how do we find him?”

  She shrugged. “He knows where we are. He’ll find us.”

  Wendell shook his head and leaned forward, his weight supported by his elbows causing the table to lean toward him. “Caitlin, we can’t all hole up in here. We all have businesses to run, and there is no guarantee he is going to come back.”

  “And there’s no guarantee he isn’t, Dad. How can we take the chance? If we split up, he can pick us off one by one. Brett’s the only one whose fire can hurt the vampire enough to make him back off.”

  “Caitlin, listen. We can’t—”

  I broke in, unsure of what I was going to say until my words met my ears. “It’s me he wants, not you, and he’s going to keep coming until he gets me. I’m not comfortable using your family as bait so we can catch him.” Finn started to interrupt, but I squeezed his leg to silence him and kept going. “We need answers. If it really is my blood that is doing this, then there has to be a way to find out what I really am. I didn’t just appear from thin air. Obviously, my grandparents aren’t my biological family. I had to be adopted. I had to be created from something, and whatever that something was, it’s probably still out there somewhere. If I can figure that out, maybe that will give us the answers to help us know what to do with the vampire. Maybe I have some type of power we don’t know about yet, something that would help us kill him.” I looked at Caitlin. “And, you’re right. I do have the power to stop him from killing me. I did it once, and now that I know at least part of what I am, I bet I can do it without nearly dying in the process. So, if I’m not here, you won’t be in danger.”

  Finn finally broke in, unwilling to stay silent any longer. “Absolutely not! You weren’t with Sonia or Rodrigo, and that didn’t stop him from killing them, so you can’t use that as a reason to go off on your own.”

  I looked at him imploringly. “We have to do something. I have to do something. We can’t just sit here and wait for the next attack. And the only thing I can think to do is get information so we know what we are dealing with.”

  “Fine, then. Where do we start looking?” He obviously didn’t expect me to have an answer.

  I didn’t expect to have an answer either, but suddenly I knew where to start. I just knew. “My grandma’s house.”

  “Why? You said yourself that she couldn’t be your real grandmother.”

  “I know, but if they adopted me, there have to be papers somewhere. Maybe they could give us a place to start looking. Parents’ names or an orphanage or social worker or something.”

  “That’s not a bad idea, actually.”

  Finn glared. “Dad! Come on. You can’t be serious.”

  Wendell gave his son an apologetic grimace. “I don’t know what else to do besides sit here and wait, and no matter how hard we try to stay together, at some point, he’ll be able to get one of us alone and use us against Brett again.”

  THE family spent the day inside the house, the boys bouncing off the walls. By dinnertime, everyone was so on edge and irritable that we all ate in the living room with the television on. Something Paulette informed me was never done.

  Finn assured me that as long as the rest of the family stayed together in one room, even if the vampire showed up, they would be able to keep it away with enough defensive spells that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to them.

  MUCH to Finn’s disappointment, I headed to my grandmother’s house at nine o’clock that evening. Much to my frustration, Finn came with me.

  Grandma had gone to bed at eight every night for as long as I could remember, and was one of the soundest sleepers I had ever met. She normally was asleep within minutes, so I figured an hour was more than ample to let her be lost to her dreams before we broke in.

  Finn wanted us to just go knock on her door and ask her about the adoption. I couldn’t. It had been too long since we had spoken. I couldn’t just show up on her doorstep claiming I was a demon and demand to know why. She was already worried enough about my soul. I didn’t need to give her any more reasons to hurt. She had been through enough. Her daughter running away (if there ever was a real daughter, not just some made-up girl to make me feel like I belonged), her grandson being gay and having to watch as her husband kicked him out of the house, then to only have him die of cancer a few years later. No. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her more, nor did I think I was brave enough to face her and “come out” as a demon.

  We parked several blocks away from her house, afraid the engine and lights would wake her up, no matter how sound a sleeper she was. As we made our way through Torrey Pines, constantly looking over our shoulders for the vampire, I was overcome with déjà vu. It had only been a little over a week since I’d hidden behind the garage and spied on her and Judith Jones, but it seemed like it had been years. So much had happened. Sonia had died, I’d discovered I was both a demon and something else, I’d met vampires, witches, werewolves, and nymphs, and I’d met a man I loved and who loved me. Once again, that thought caused my heart to skip as I remembered how brief a time it had been, no matter how long it felt.

  “I thought you said it wasn’t that far away?” Finn’s whisper brought me back to the present.

  I looked around, the darkness and shadows confusing me for a second. “Oh shit. Sorry. I got lost in thought. We passed it a couple of blocks ago. I didn’t notice.”

  His eyes narrowed and his hand stretched out to grasp my arm. “Babe, are you okay? I’m worried about you. We can do this tomorrow. Let’s wait until you’re better.”

  “No, I’m okay. Really. Just a lot on my mind. Sorry.” I turned and headed back the direction we’d just come, motioning as I did so. “Really, come on.”

  He followed, still looking concerned. I needed to get myself together. Focus on one thing at a time. It was enough that I might be moments away from discovering what I really was, for better or worse. Everything else I could stress over later.

  Within a few minutes, we were standing in front of her door. With a flick of his hand, Finn caused the light over her “God is Love” doormat to sputter out, hiding us in the shadow of the overhang separating us from the moon.

  Finn’s whisper was so quiet I had to think for a second to comp
rehend what he asked. “Do you have a key?”

  I shook my head. “No. Grandpa took it when he kicked me out. I thought that you could”—I wiggled my hand—“you know. If I break it, it will make too much noise. Plus, I really don’t want to do anything to Grandma’s house.”

  “Of course. I just assumed you had a key.” He stepped forward and placed the first two fingers of his right hand on the doorknob. There was a faint click, and with a turn, Finn pushed open the door.

  We stepped into the dark house and closed the door quietly behind us. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, and I looked around the room. Just as I assumed, nothing had been changed. Grandpa hated for things to be moved around. He felt that if things were good how they were, there was no reason to mess with them. I figured Grandma hadn’t wanted to go against his wishes after he died.

  “Where should we start?”

  “The only place I can think of would be in Grandpa’s old office. If the papers aren’t there, then I don’t really have any other ideas. What if he put them in some safe-deposit box somewhere?”

  Finn tilted his chin. “Let’s just hope he didn’t.” He waited for me to move. “Well, lead the way.”

  “Oh, sure.” I wasn’t very good at this breaking-and-entering thing. Not only did it feel wrong to be coming into the house this way, it was unnerving to be back in the home I grew up in. Back in the room where, the last time I had been in it, my grandfather had been yelling, calling me names, and condemning me to hell—which he didn’t even believe existed anyway—with my grandmother sobbing in the background.

  I led Finn down the hallway, motioning for him to be extra quiet as we passed my grandma’s room with her door cracked open. The very last door led into the office. We stepped through, and I shut the door silently behind Finn.

  “Oh my God,” Finn breathed. “This is unreal.” He walked toward the far wall, which consisted entirely of windows.