The last drops of blood flowed out of him and he turned to ash before her eyes. Ally stood up and began to walk away.
What have I done? I’ve fulfilled the prophecy. Destroyed my soulmate and our relationship and hooked up with the guy destined to kill me…Great Job Ally.
Two strong arms grabbed her from behind. “James please…I don’t deserve you after everything that I have done. I mean the torture of tonight alone. I’m so sorry.”
“Did you love him?”
“Vincent?”
“Yes Vincent.”
“I don’t think we should talk about this right now James.”
“Answer me!” he screamed.
She sighed and forced herself to look into his beautiful eyes. “Yes, but it was never like the love I felt for you. It was a drop in the ocean compared to that.”
He gave a short nod. “I forgive you, little one.”
Ally looked deeper into his eyes and saw there was no hate or repulsion in his eyes…just love. “How can you forgive me?”
“Because love is stronger than hate and forever is a long time to be perfect. Everyone deserves a second chance, and Ally…you lost your memories. You had no idea that I even existed.”
“I dreamt of you every night,” she wiping a tear away. “But I thought you were just some beautiful, and perfect man I’d made up. I didn’t think it was possible that you existed.”
“I do,” he whispered. “Now let me take you home.”
She shook her head. “I can’t face everyone yet…but I would like to go somewhere else…just the two of us.”
James gave her a half smile and she felt her heart skip a beat. James may have forgiven her, but she never forgive herself for the torture that she had inflicted upon him and for being untrue to him…even if she hadn’t known that he’d actually existed.
The vision abruptly ended. Isabella was slammed back into reality. Tears streamed down her face. “Oh god. She’ll torture herself for ever if that happens. What do I do? We can’t let this happen!”
She felt something tugging at her mind and she knew that another vision was trying to make itself known. Closing her eyes and trying to focus, she gave herself over again.
She saw Ally and Vincent sitting on a couch in a house she’d never seen before. They appeared to be communicating without words. Something happened to make Vincent break the connection. Ally’s eyes flew open and in the next second Vincent kissed her…Ally kissed him back willingly…very willingly.
“On god, it’s already started,” Isabella whispered. “It’s happening as I’m watching it.”
The vision continued. She watched horrified. The fiend was kissing her neck now…getting closer to the base of her throat. He was going to bite her!
Isabella gasped and dragged every ounce of power she had running through her veins and called on the ancestors to assist her and yelled at Ally.
“Ally…you have to stop this NOW!”
Isabella saw both of them freeze in her vision. A wave of triumph crashed through her. Vincent and Ally were still joined. She needed more power, more strength.
“Ancestors,” she willed them to listen to her. To heed her call for help against the darkness. She screamed with all her telepathic might. “NOW!”
Her nerves were raw and she felt herself grow weak as something powerful flowed out of her. Her body swayed but she held tight to the vision. She had to know if she’d stopped them.
Vincent and Ally were almost instantaneously jerked apart by the sheer force of her screaming. The ancestors had come through for her. Vincent had been hit too as he’d been lurking around in Ally’s mind.
She felt him recover quickly and then he started to trace the connection. She had to break it now or he would know exactly who was behind it.
Her eyes flew open as she broke the contact. She’d done it just in time. Another second and he would’ve found her.
Her body swayed beneath her as she stood. She needed to speak to Adele then her body could fall to pieces.
“Adele,” she called out with what telepathic strength she had left. “James’ bedroom now. Alone.”
A bare minute later, Adele came through the door. She’d moved with considerable speed but knew something was going on that needed to be kept quiet.
“Isabella,” Adele said as she grabbed her shoulders and helped her to the couch in front of the fire. “What happened? Are you alright?”
Isabella nodded and smiled gratefully. “Thank you. I was trying to see Ally’s future and... well it’s a long story but it took all my energy to intercept.”
“Tell me,” Adele said firmly.
Isabella took a deep breath and related both visions in full.
Adele listened intently in silence. Her face changing from horror to fury. “So he’s trying to turn her against us? That black hearted devil!”
“Yes he is. That was his plan from the start…but there’s more to it now.”
“What?” Adele demanded.
“I felt what they were both feeling…and it’s strong, Adele,” she spoke quietly. “What started out as a game to Vincent has changed. He’s got real feelings for her. And…I’m afraid to say it but she has feelings for him too.”
“Oh my god,” Adele cried on a gasp. “But how? He’s the most evil, vile and disgusting vampire walking the face of the earth! How could she feel anything for that monster? And how on earth is he even capable of feeling?”
“He’s different with her. Something completely different.” Isabella was horrified but inexplicably fascinated too. “He’s still dangerous and ruthless. Ally knows that, she can sense it in him, but she is drawn to him. The electricity that I felt between them…And she’s making him feel things that he hasn’t felt since my mother. His plans are changing. He wants her by his side forever. Not as part of a game or to kill her off so that she doesn’t kill him. In his mind the prophecy has become irrelevant. She’s lost any memory of who she is and what she was meant to do. He just wants her.”
Adele was shocked speechless for a moment. “Are you telling me that Vincent is falling in love with my granddaughter?”
Isabella gave her a grave look. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
“It’s Olivia all over again…”
“Not exactly. I think that Olivia was his true soulmate, but something went wrong. It’s just a feeling that I have from reading her diary. Ally might be awakening feelings in him, but what they have isn’t as strong as what they shared or what Ally and James share.”
Adele let out a sigh of relief. “It’s still a dangerous situation. Ally will never forgive herself if things go too far with Vincent.”
“Who just happens to be James’ father,” Isabella interrupted.
“Could this get any more complicated?” Adele cried.
“I hope not,” She muttered in return. “So do we contact James and tell him or do we keep this to ourselves and see if we can find some way to sort it out without him ever knowing?”
Adele contemplated. “If he gets Ally back he’ll find out then, but for now…no I don’t think we should tell him. He’s already desperate to get her back. If he finds out about this, he’ll become erratic and a danger to himself. We need him to be able to think clearly.”
Isabella nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right. There has got to be something that we can do. If I can get into her mind again, maybe I can work out where she is.”
“What about Madison?”
“Nothing, and Vincent wouldn’t exactly tell her.”
“Is Ally safe where she is?”
“Yeah she is. He won’t hurt her Adele. Not now.”
“That should give me some comfort but it doesn’t now that I know that fiend has designs on my granddaughter.” Adele stood up. “Now you need to get your energy back and then we’ll talk about this more and come up with some kind of plan.”
She stood as well. “Yeah okay. Should we tell Damian?”
“I’ll go tell
him while you rest.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Only a few hours of daylight remained. Vincent would be returning soon, but till then she wanted some time to chill out. Walking into the library, her muscles relaxed and the musty smell of books filled her nose. She let out a soft sigh and her eyes glittered with delight at the sight of wall to wall shelves of books spanning the entire room.
Mabel must have been in here already to light the fireplace, the wood crackled and popped in the grate. Her fingers trailed along the spines of the dusty old tomes and her eyes wandered until she found what she was looking for. The gothic romance novels. Part of her felt like she was living one at the moment, but she couldn’t help herself. They were her guilty pleasure. Although why Vincent had a substantial collection of them, she didn’t know. She pulled one off the shelf, and jumped back as she sent another falling to the floor. Her hand reached down to pick it up, but met something cold instead. She yanked her hand back, and bent down to inspect what she had touched. A gold lever.
“How odd,” she mumbled. Book forgotten, her foot gingerly pushed down on it. For a moment nothing happened, then a loud groan filled the house and the bookshelf began to slide across. Hastily, she stepped backwards watching in fascination. Behind the bookcase was a steep stairwell. Craning her neck, she peered down, but darkness covered most of the stairwell. She took another step closer, hesitating on the threshold. “I have to go down there.” Her face lit up with the endless possibilities of what might await her down there in the darkness. She grabbed a candle from the desk and lit it in the fireplace. Cradling the flame with her hand, she began the slow descent into darkness.
A door lay closed at the bottom. She reached the handle. “Please be unlocked.” Fingers holding the handling, she took a breath and pushed down. It moved. “Yes!” she whispered. Soundlessly, she pushed the door open and walked inside. A faint glow emanated from the room.
It appeared to be empty, until she stepped closer and saw a bed. Adrenaline ran through her, making her edgy. “Hello?” she tentatively called out. No one answered. She took another step closer, holding her candle up higher. Someone was in the bed. A strangled cry caught in her throat. She couldn’t hear anything over her frantic heartbeat. Another step and another step, brought her to the foot of the bed.
A young girl, about seventeen, lay eerily still on the bed. “Is she dead?” Her eyes moved to the girls chest. Yes, she was breathing. Ally let out a breath she hadn’t even realised that she had been holding. Gently, she nudged the girl. Nothing. Her breathing remained even, but she hadn’t stirred at all.
Why is she here? Has she been drugged? I know one thing. A certain vampire has a lot of explaining to do.
Compassion filled her. Who knows who the girl was or how she had ended up here, but she’d be damned if she was just going to pretend that she never saw this. The angelic looking girl in the bed reminded her of the stray kitten she’d found as a little girl. She didn’t just walk away from that and she wasn’t going to walk away from this either.
She inspected the room further and found another door, but this one was locked from the outside. “Where do you lead to?”
She sighed, grabbed her candle and went upstairs to wait. She’d leave the bookcase where it was and wait it out in the library.
******
“Just the vampire I’ve been waiting for.” She stood with her hands on her hips in front of the fire.
Vincent leaned in the doorway. “Why do I get the feeling that I’m in trouble?”
“Because you are,” she retorted. “Why do you have a young girl in the house that I’m not supposed to know about?”
Vincent growled low in his throat.
Ally held up a hand. “You can growl all you like, but you will answer my question!”
“I will if you tell me who told you about her.”
“Put your fangs away, Vincent. No one told me. I found her myself. Look.” She pointed to the open bookcase. “It’s a rather comfortable dungeon you’ve got. What is going on?”
His eyes swung to the hidden door way that was no longer concealed and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Why hadn’t he seen this coming? Why hadn’t he seen any of it coming? “She was a danger to me.”
“She’s seventeen at best. Try again. But I’ll have the truth this time.”
Vincent glared at her. “You’re like a terrier sometimes you know. Once you latch onto something, you won’t bloody let go.”
“I take that as high praise,” she made circle motion with her hand. “Now stop stalling and get on with it.”
“She was part of a plan that is no longer relevant.”
“So she’s your prisoner?”
“I wouldn’t put it quite like that,” he drawled and moved off the wall. “I’d say guest.”
“A guest trapped in a room behind a secret door,” her voice dripped with sarcasm. “Are you collecting ‘guests’ at the moment. Cause you’ve got two of us now. Maybe I was right. Perhaps you are a psycho after all!”
Vincent looked so insulted. She would have laughed if it wasn’t a serious problem that she had to deal with. “You know damn well that I’m not. I just told you the truth. She was part of a plan that fell through.”
“Hmm,” Ally murmured. “And shall our ‘guest’ be checking out now that your plan has fallen through?”
“If I get this wrong, I’m going to be in serious trouble,” he said mockingly.
“Very funny.”
“The truth is I haven’t really thought about what I’m going to do with her. I’ve been too preoccupied by someone else.”
She threw her hands up in frustration. “Flattery will get you nowhere in this situation, Vincent.”
He stalked towards her. The predator shone through his eyes. “It’s not flattery if it’s the truth, my dear girl.”
Her eyes grew flinty as she fought to keep a clear head. “You either let her go or give her to me.”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “Are you challenging my authority?”
“Yes,” she seethed back. “As you pointed out in our last discussion, I don’t know you or trust you. There is a young girl that you are holding captive, not to mention sedated, so I will question you or anything else that I deem necessary!”
He took a menacing step closer. “No one questions my actions, Alessandra.”
She matched his movements and jabbed a finger into his chest. “Then you’ve obviously never come up against someone like me. It’s clear that it’s about time you did!”
Vincent bristled even further. She could see the fury rising in his eyes. It took all her will not to step back. The two stood locked in a silent battle for what seemed like forever. Backing down was not an option with a man like Vincent. She may not know him very well, but she could see the ruthless determination in his eyes.
“I won’t bow down to your wishes,” his voice was low and the intent written on his face was clear.
She pulled herself even higher. Her face inches from his. “Neither will I.”
Without warning his face changed. The fury melted away and a bright calculation and undisguised desire blazed in their blue depths. Her breath caught in her throat, but she pulled herself together before she jumped back from him. A finger trailed down her cheek, leaving a line of fire in its wake. His gaze never left hers for a single moment.
Slowly he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “We’ll see, Alessandra.”
The way he looked at her was unnerving and exciting…she didn’t like feeling off balance. And that was exactly what he was doing to her. Throwing her entire world on its axis, from a simple touch and a heated look.
She watched him stalk out of the room with all the grace and power of a predator.
An incredibly sexy and infuriating predator.
God help me…
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ally dragged a chair over next to the bed and sat down to wait. Vincent had said the sedative would be wearing off and she’d
wake anytime now.
“You poor girl,” she sighed. “Come on sweetheart it’s time to wake up now.”
Madison’s eyes began to open. Ally leaned back into the most unintimidating position that she could. The girl grabbed her head and sat up. She spied Ally and let out a squeak before cowering back into the bed.
“Shh, Madison,” Ally spoke gently. “I’m not here to harm you. I’m here to help you.”
The girl eyed warily. “You’re not like Natalia, are you?”
Ally shook her head vehemently. “No, nothing like her.” She paused. “Between you and me, I can’t stand her.”
“Are you a vampire?”
“No, I’m not a vampire. I’m an immortal.”
Madison drew her brows together. “Then what are you doing here?”
Ally raised her eyes skyward. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later, but first I want to get you out of this dungeon and take you upstairs.”
Madison made no move to leave. “What about Vincent?”
“What about him?”
“Where is he? He won’t like you taking me out of here.”
Ally smiled. “That’s too bad for him because I’m doing it.”
“But,” she trailed off.
“But what?”
“He’s really, really bad. I don’t want him to hurt me.”
Ally’s protective shackles rose and she took the girls hand. “Listen to me. I promise you that he will not lay a hand on your head. I will make sure of it. You just have to trust me.”
“I know I can trust you, but even you’re not sure how he will react.” Madison stated.
Ally cocked her head to one side. “How do you know that?”
“I’m an empath,” she answered sheepishly. “I can feel what you’re feeling. That’s how I know that I can trust you and that Vincent is going to be seriously pissed off.”
“Be that as it may. Just let me deal with him.” She helped Madison off the bed. “Now let’s get you upstairs. I’ll get you something to drink and then perhaps a hot bath before dinner. How does that sound?”
Immortal Fate Page 10
