Lunar Rebirth (Lunar Rampage Trilogy Book 3)

by Samantha Cross

I tried to put all of that aside and rushed downstairs. Any hope of the blood being from a minor cut was soon lost when I entered the living room. The smell of it smacked me in the face immediately. It was thick, heavy, almost smothering. There was so much of it that I didn’t even feel a pang of hunger for it. It was too much.

  Max stood motionless in the center of the living room with his back facing me, staring at something. That’s when I found the culprit of the smell, in the form of the desk clerk crumpled up on the floor, oozing blood from every pore of his skin. He wasn’t just killed; he was massacred. Bite marks were scattered all over his bloodied flesh, and his throat had been ripped out.

  As fucked up as it sounds, It relieved me to know it wasn’t Cora. Problem was, despite that relief, Cora was nowhere in sight. Cora was gone.

  A trail of the man’s blood led to the wall Max was looking at. Written in crimson were the words: COME AND GET HER.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  CORA

  It happened so fast. One minute I was opening the top drawer in the kitchen for a knife, and the next, Molly was standing behind me with her hands wrapped around the desk clerk’s neck. He had been hypnotized to stand there and not make a noise. I knew this because her nails were digging so hard into his throat that blood was streaming down his skin, thick and slow like lava. Yet, he was voiceless.

  When I had first seen her all those hours ago, it was at a distance, but having her up close was much, much different. Her eyes were red and her skin was thin and white like a corpse, and there was a constant mangled smirk on her lips. She was either hungry or insane. Maybe both. Not sure which was the more terrifying option.

  “Molly,” I trembled.

  “Shhh,” she hissed. “Make a sound and baggage boy here becomes a snack.” Her fingers slowly tightened around his throat and an anguished expression took over his face, but still, he remained silent. It made me sick to think of the immense pain he was going through and how powerless he was to stop it. I felt a responsibility to help him.

  “You don’t have to hurt him. Just tell me what you want.”

  “Stop being so loud,” she snarled. “I know your fuckboy is upstairs and he’ll want to play hero to his precious damsel.”

  “I’ll stay quiet,” I assured her.

  “Yes, you will. Now, come here.” She gestured with her index finger for me to walk toward her, but I didn’t move. I didn’t fully know what she intended to do with me, so skipping in her direction wasn’t exactly my gut instinct. “I said come here, dammit,” she spitefully whispered and deepened her nails into the man’s neck.

  I flinched and threw my hands up. “I will. I just…where are you taking me?”

  Her lips parted into an over the top, fang-filled smile. “Master awaits you.”

  My stomach turned. “Me?” I asked. “Why would he want me?”

  Molly ignored me and drew closer.

  I stepped back, terrified. “Wait…” I kept telling myself to talk to her and to stall for as long as possible. There was a vampire and three werewolves upstairs, and one of them had to hear something and come down and rescue me.

  Right?

  Unfortunately for me, Molly wasn’t in the talking mood and couldn’t be delayed. She let the man go from her grasp momentarily and then dashed toward me so fast I barely saw any movement. This time, it was my neck that her hands were around. Molly held me in place and did her magic, telling me, “Don’t make a sound, and follow me.”

  If I could visualize what her hypnosis looked like, it’d be like blowing smoke into a tiny jar and watching the air slowly turn black until you could no longer see through the glass. Because it was just like that. That was my skull. The control was gradual as it encompassed my brain, and suddenly, the concept of speaking, or even words, felt foreign. My mouth wouldn’t and couldn’t open.

  It was probably the most helpless feeling I had ever felt, more than when Melanie had done it to me. Because Molly could snap me in two right then and there, and I wouldn’t make a sound.

  The sliding glass door to the hotel living room suddenly popped open, and Veronica sashayed in. Her black dress was damp from the snowfall and her cleavage glistened. Molly shoved the desk clerk into Veronica’s arms and said, “Don’t make too much of a mess.” Veronica smiled.

  I thought he was going to be spared. I thought she was using him as a way for me to go with her willingly. I was wrong. He wasn’t hurting anyone and he wasn’t at all in the way of her plan, yet she tossed him to Veronica like he was leftovers to be put in the trash. I was so confused.

  Molly took a quick bite out of his arm, and before she pushed me out the door, I could see Veronica throw the man on the ground, straddle him, and then dig into him like he was a feast.

  I sleepwalked my way out of the hotel and into the freezing cold temperatures and deep snow. My body guided me while my brain was unaware of everything that was happening. I turned my head ever so slightly at the second floor of the building and spotted a light through one of the windows. It was where Melanie was being kept. I internally screamed, knowing help was close yet so far.

  “I think they’re onto us,” she said and grabbed my arm, yanking me further through the snow. I didn’t understand why she said this at first until I remembered how strong her hearing was and that she most likely caught wind of their conversation. I felt a swell of relief build in my chest. Even if they didn’t make it outside in time, at least they knew something had happened and would come looking for me.

  But then Molly knelt down slightly and forced my body against her back like she was giving me a piggyback ride. “Hold on tight. If you fall, I will fucking end you.” My confusion didn’t even have time to fester before the two of us dashed forward so fast I thought my neck was going to snap. She used her vampire speed with me on her back, but the problem was I was still human and felt every aching pain of a speed my body was incapable of. The pressure of the frigid air pounding against my face felt like blocks of ice smacking me around, and I had to close my eyes to stop the burning sensation from gouging out my eyes.

  I’m not sure how long we were like this. On the one hand, it felt like seconds, and on the other, it felt like a century. All I knew was that by the time we stopped and she dropped me to the ground, I was shaking, my skin was stinging, and I fell to my knees and threw up. I was so sick that I couldn’t even tell where we were.

  Molly stood in front of me, her own porcelain skin unbothered by the cold breeze, and placed both hands on her hips. “You’re truly pathetic, you know that?”

  I sat on the snowy forest floor when a black blur whizzed by and then suddenly transformed into Veronica. “Why have we stopped?” she asked. She must have been following us, but was too quick for me to see.

  “This one was about to hurl all over my back,” Molly explained. “Did you leave them a message?”

  “Yep.”

  “Where did you put it?”

  “Trust me, they’ll see it,” she said proudly.

  If they were leaving some kind of ransom note for Max to find, then at least I knew I was safe for the time being. They weren’t going to kill me. Or, at least, not yet.

  I folded my arms at my chest to try to stay warm, but my body was a level of cold that felt deeper than any quick warm-up. I felt it in my bones. My teeth chattered and I was refraining from throwing up again when Veronica noted, “She really is a pitiful thing.”

  “She always was.”

  “You say that like I’m supposed to remember her. There’s nothing remotely memorable about this chick at all.” Veronica cocked her head to the side and snickered. “You really lost a boyfriend to this?”

  Molly’s face twisted angrily. “Veronica, shut the hell up.”

  “Don’t get pissy at me, all right? It’s not my fault he’s into red… brown, or whatever the hell her hair color is.”

  “I didn’t lose him to her. We ended things long before…this showed up.” I was a literal disgusting object to her now.
<
br />   “Yeah, but he didn’t exactly come crawling back to you, did he?”

  “Veronica, do humanity a favor and shut the entire fuck up. I don’t need any of this.”

  “You act like you’re the only one with problems. I died the same night as you. Remember? All the shit that I’ll never get to do again…lie out in the sun and get a tan, blow Jimmy Roberts on the 4th of July—”

  “Yes, yes, because your skin tone is as important as my literal eternal damnation. My entire family is waiting for me on the other side, and I’m never gonna show. But please go on about your sex life.”

  “At least my sex life was real.”

  Molly’s head jerked toward her. “Excuse me?”

  “The afterlife, God, heaven…it’s all bullshit. This is the only thing that comes after death.”

  Molly lunged forward, grabbing Veronica by the throat and slamming her against a tree. There was an audible boom from the speed in which she threw her. “Take that back!” she hissed. If I hadn’t been on the ground gasping for air and shivering, I may have fallen over.

  Veronica swatted Molly’s hand away from her throat and casually groaned, “Get your hands off of me, you crazy bitch.”

  “You’re so full of it. Just because you mucked up your life by letting any guy railroad you at a party doesn’t mean the rest of us are cursed to an infinity of nothing.”

  “Go ahead, Molly, take everything out on me. You never were any good with reality.” Veronica pushed both hands against Molly’s chest and shoved her to the ground. Molly skid across the snow like she was on ice.

  Shoot. Were they gonna fight?

  Before Molly could get to her feet, Veronica put the tip of her heel to Molly’s chest and pinned her to the ground. “Sit here and cool off,” she told her. “I’ll meet you back home. Try to be less crazy.”

  Veronica disappeared.

  Molly huffed and puffed and wiped the snow off of her dress as she got to her feet. It wasn’t a good feeling at all to be left alone with Molly while she was fuming.

  She turned to me and asked, “What are you looking at?”

  I immediately stared at the ground so I didn’t piss her off even more.

  “Come on. We’re leaving.”

  I knew this was her way of telling me to crawl back onto her, and so I did just that. My skin was so cold and my stomach kept twisting. At this point, I didn’t care where she took me, as long as it was somewhere warm.

  After a few minutes, we arrived at our destination. Once more, I fell ill and dropped to the ground to throw up. I didn’t feel the cold breeze as strongly, so I knew she had parked me in front of a building. I looked up at Molly, and a porch light shined against the back of her head and created a shadow over her face. It was almost a blessing, because then it meant I didn’t have to see her snarling at me.

  It dawned on me that if there was a porch light of sorts, then we were absolutely outside of a building. As much as I dreaded being taken to this Master character, I dreaded dying from frostbite even more. At least he’d finish me quickly.

  “Get your dumb ass up,” Molly commanded.

  My hands were gloveless and they stung as I pressed them into the snow to push myself off the ground to get to my feet. For a moment I thought I was going to be sick again, and I covered my mouth and moaned. It was then that I realized I was able to make a sound. The hypnosis was wearing off like a bad buzz. Either my ride through the snow forced it out of my head or the hypnosis, in general, doesn’t last long, I wasn’t quite sure.

  The front door to the building was a rustic mahogany with one giant black, circular door knocker in the center. It was an extravagant door. I briefly looked around at my surroundings to get an idea of where we were, and I was blown away. There were tall trees circling the snow-covered premises, and the land went on for miles, so far that I couldn’t even see where it ended. The building in front of us, however, was the real sight, as it was absolutely massive. It looked like something conjured up right out of Dracula. The exterior was a dirty, white stone that had faded over time into a pale shade of gray. Pillars made of rocks with pointed tops covered every inch of the roof, and the windows had a criss-cross of metal over the glass as if it were trying to keep people out…or in.

  This wasn’t a mansion, it was a damn castle.

  We weren’t in Lunar City anymore. Hell, we weren’t even a little outside of it anymore. They had found a secluded area beyond the forest and close to a frozen lake where the castle could exist in secrecy. Where He could exist in secrecy. There would be no one close enough to hear my screams when I finally regained my voice, and once I was inside the thick, stone confines of the castle, I would be forever silenced.

  I knew I had to hold out hope that the only reason I was being brought here was as a captive and a bargaining tool to get Melanie back. I hated it, but it was how I was going to stay alive. Once she and Max were here, we’d fight our way out. We had no other option.

  The castle’s interior was a lot more modern looking than I had anticipated. Yes, the walls were made of stone and were very ancient-looking, but the floors had been updated with wood and draped with red carpet. An enormous fireplace and mantle were at the entrance and in front of it were two chairs, one turned as if it had recently been sat on. Beside it was a small table with an empty glass and an ashtray with half a cigarette lying in it. Was that where he sat to think? To plot? To relish in the taste of his last victim?

  The reality of his existence hit me all at once. It’s one thing to hear about him, it’s entirely another thing to know I’m about to meet him. I suddenly wished Molly had put me under another spell so my nerves would be under control.

  She led me down a narrow hallway with walls a glowing shade of gold. Between the lit candles hanging from the walls were old picture frames with faces seemingly from hundreds of years ago. One was a painting of a woman during the Victorian era, her face sad and stoic. Another was a black and white photo of a man in western attire leaning against a horse in a pose. These were people he knew from his long life. I was sure of it.

  Molly pulled open a two-door entrance with both hands and I was escorted into a large chapel. The floors had the same velvet red carpet as the rest of the house, and the walls were draped with oversized crimson curtains bundled together and tied with a golden ribbon. An assortment of candles clustered inside, working as the only light inside the dank, gothic-looking room. The chapel seats remained empty and undecorated.

  How peculiar for a vampire to have his own chapel.

  My eyes pulled toward the end of the room and realized there was a white freestanding bathtub set at the altar. A pale body was submerged in water as Veronica knelt on the outside, running a washcloth up and down their dangling arms. At first, I thought it was a woman based on how thin and feminine their arms were, until the head turned to face me and I saw a man staring back. His eyes were black as coal, his lips a blistered pink, and blue veins trailed along the skin on his temple and across his forehead. His skin was so translucent and flimsy-looking, I thought Veronica would tear it apart just by washing him.

  He gestured dismissively to Veronica and she dropped the washcloth into the bathwater and then walked away from the tub. She retrieved a black robe that was hanging nearby and opened it wide and waited for him. The man slowly rose from the tub completely nude, unbothered by my seeing him. My eyes darted to the carpet beneath me in an attempt not to stare, but I had already seen too much. The sheer quality to his skin wasn’t just on his face but on every inch of him. But that wasn’t the worst part of what I had seen. As he stepped out of the bath, a red liquid dripped down his chest and legs, and I realized that it wasn’t water he was bathing in, but blood.

  Veronica slipped the robe over his arms and he tied it loosely at his waist, but left his hard chest exposed. His pitch-black hair was like silk and it draped over his shoulders like a shawl. As he inched his way closer to me, Molly shoved me to the ground, forcing me on my knees. “Melanie’s cousin,�
� she said. It was like she was finishing a conversation that they were mentally in the middle of.

  His long index finger extended and reached out, placing his cold touch to my chin and gently lifting it till my eyes met his. His gaze wasn’t remotely human, as his pupils took up ninety percent of his eyes. I could barely see the whites.

  “You have her complexion,” he spoke softly. “Your cousin’s, that is. Fair and without a single blemish. There is one difference, though.” He stroked the apple of my cheek so very slowly with his knuckles, smearing the blood he had bathed in across my skin. “The warmth. It radiates from you. I can smell it, even.” He bent his body forward and pressed the side of his face to mine. He was clammy and cold like a corpse, and I began to shake. “You can call me Master,” he whispered into my ear.

  Between my nerves and still recovering from the weather outside, my body was convulsing with how bad I was shaking. He noticed and pulled back his head so we were no longer touching. “You’ll have to forgive me,” he began. “It’s so rare that I’m able to stand face-to-face with a human and…interact. Are you the one they call Cora?”

  I nodded.

  “You may speak if it pleases you.”

  My not speaking had little to do with wondering if the hypnosis wore off, and all to do with being too afraid to form a sentence. I swallowed deeply and answered with, “Yes.”

  “Yes?” He waited for me to finish the sentence.

  I swallowed again. “I’m Cora.”

  Master smirked. “I’m going to assume you’re intelligent enough to know why you’re here.”

  “You want Melanie.”

  “She’s mine, yes.”

  Under normal circumstances, I’d never let anyone talk about Melanie that way, but in this instance, I had no choice.

  “Melanie didn’t keep her end of the bargain. I tried to be fair and let her come to this decision on her own, to let her feel some bit of power and grace in her final hours, but her emotions are not to be trusted, it seems. And you, my dear, will suffer because of it.”