Poison Blood, Book 2: Absolution

by Neha Yazmin

  Chapter 21: Discovery

  “NO!” I scream out loud, finally able to find my voice. “No, Ellie, no!” I shout, breathless. But she can’t hear me. By cutting herself off from the world, she has cut me off too. That’s why I am back, why I can think and speak as me again.

  She had taken me over so completely that it was a struggle to think my own thoughts. I may have managed to get a couple of pleas of “No” through to her, but I’m not surprised she didn’t detect that it was me.

  While I think all this, a small portion of my psyche tries to make sense of why Ellie is currently on a train with her mother Kim, the witch Amber, and… Aiden, the witch’s elder brother. All three of these individuals are part of The Council, one of the two major organisations I am cloaking Ellie from.

  How did they find her?

  And if Ellie sought them out, how was she visible to them while she was still under my veil?

  Though I’d initially hidden her from the vision and awareness of almost every vampire in the world – in other words, everyone I myself was concealed from – I had to make a few alterations soon after. For some reason, it weakened me and my magic cloak if I hid us both from as many beings as I was. Exhausted from maintaining the blanket of secrecy over us, I would also get something close to headaches.

  And vampires don’t get headaches!

  It was as though I was stretching my shield, and there was only so much distance it could cover. Eventually, I had to pull it back so it was just concealing us from the most important individuals and groups – The Council and The System (bar Mac, Lydia and a few others, but only when necessary). Only then did I feel comfortable.

  So how were these three Council members and the soldiers able to see Ellie?

  Fleetingly, I wonder whether the army isn’t actually part of The Council. Maybe they’ve hired help from outside? I did think it strange that there were so many of those assassins. The Council had never been much of a challenge for us in terms of numbers. As for Kim and the annoying siblings, had they left their employers? It can’t be.

  The Council needs all three of them.

  They definitely wouldn’t let Amber leave; she is their strongest weapon.

  After Ellie that is. And they want to eliminate her?

  Unable to make sense of any of this, I shake my head and decide it doesn’t really matter how it happened. They’ve seen Ellie, they’re with her now and she’s about to…

  Closing my eyes, aiming to calm my ragged breathing, I pray that Ellie hasn’t taken her own life. But I could feel how unwavering her resolve was. How strongly she believed in what she was about to do. How determined she was.

  Has she done it?

  “I sure hope not,” laughs a chillingly unfamiliar voice.

  But I know exactly who it is. This alluring, sweet voice can only belong to a vampire.

  “Kristy.” The word rips out of my mouth before I can stop it and is answered by a childish giggle. The sound tells me exactly where she is and I am facing her before the second is over.

  Wearing an ankle-length black fitted winter coat, the incredibly tall and slim female is a hundred yards away from me, smiling as though she is amused. Her shoulder-length sleek black hair is darker than her coat, making her complexion even more strikingly white. Ellie would think her beautiful, if a little too skinny, but to me, Kristy is just another pale-faced immortal.

  Nothing special.

  “I think you’ll find that I am,” she murmurs softly, smugly.

  Her words strike me as odd. I recall the first things she had said to me. Kristy is speaking to me as though she can…

  “Go ahead,” she chuckles from the distance. “Finish that sentence, I dare you.”

  Read my mind.

  “Hear every single thought running through your mind, actually,” she corrects me.

  “Everything makes sense now,” I say out loud. She’ll hear me anyway.

  “That’s right,” she agrees with a nod, “I will.”

  “That’s why Lydia wants you so badly. You’re a mind-reader. We’ve never had one like you before.” My employers and I had only dreamed about creatures that can hear thoughts in real-time. I try to make myself feel awe. This is a very gifted vampire.

  What I find myself feeling instead, is panic.

  Kristy knows every thought and feeling I’ve had this week, every secret I’ve mulled over in the last few minutes. Soon, Lydia will know too.

  “That’s probably the real reason she wants me,” the mind-reader says at the same time I come to this conclusion.

  Considering my behaviour in the last 6 months, how distant I’ve been with her, how different I am in general, I’m not surprised Lydia suspects that I’ve been keeping something from her.

  She doesn’t trust me anymore.

  All she needs to do is put me in a room with Kristy and my truth will be out. Even though I try not to connect with Ellie, doesn’t mean I don’t think about her all the time. Wonder what she’s up to. Wish I could be with her.

  That’s why my mate listed Kristy’s power as ‘Unknown’. I wouldn’t have been told that I was about to have my mind read when introduced to The System’s latest recruit.

  Good thing Darryl didn’t catch Kristy. Good thing today’s the first day I thought about Ellie being the Slayer since arriving in Norfolk.

  But the telepath knows everything now, and Lydia will be privy to this information too.

  I feel fear and its all mine. I’m not afraid for myself, but for Ellie. If she hasn’t gone through with her suicide mission, and if The Council’s soldiers haven’t killed her, then The System’s agents will annihilate her.

  I thought I was concealing her from The Council, but it looks like something went wrong there. What if I am no longer protecting her from The System? Or worse, what if Lydia can see Ellie now?

  This reminds me. How can Kristy see me? Has my shield stopped working completely?

  “No,” Kristy answers. “It’s still working. I can’t actually see you.” A crease forms between her eyes. She is bothered by her physical blindness. “The thing is Christian, I don’t just hear your thoughts as you have them, I see them too. All the images in your head play in my mind like a movie.” She giggles. “What you’re seeing, thinking, hearing, your bearings, they give me an idea of where you are.”

  So even if I am physically invisible to her, my thoughts give her a strong indication of where I am and what I’m doing.

  “And what you’re about to do,” she adds with an arrogant smile. “I’ll always be a step ahead of you Christian, just as I have been this past week. You won’t be able to lay a finger on me.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “No, we won’t,” she laughs. “You think I’ll tell Lydia everything. But that depends…”

  “On what?” I growl.

  “Whether the Slayer is still alive.”

  “What difference does that make?” I am so tensed that my muscles lock, seize up. I don’t think I will be able to move when I finally decide to attack her.

  “If she’s dead, I’m going straight to Lydia to tell on you,” she taunts like a child. “You’ve been a very naughty vampire.”

  “And if Ellie’s alive?”

  “I’m going after her,” she threatens. “Of course I go after her Christian. I’m a vampire. She’s the Slayer. It’s my duty to try and kill her. And I dare say I might succeed, seen as I’ll be able to read her thoughts, her every move…”

  I shake my head. This cannot be happening.

  “Oh but it is,” she croons. “So, why don’t you be a good boy and try to feel her out? Even if she blocked the… flow of information, the connection still exists between the two of you. You can break through to her. If she’s alive.”

  Again, I shake my head. While I’m in Kristy’s presence, I can never utilise the bond between me and Ellie.

  But I need to know that she’s okay; I don’t think I can go on much longer with
out knowing. That leaves me with one option.

  Kill Kristy before she catches up with Lydia or Ellie.

  “You’ll have to catch me first,” the mind-reader chuckles as she turns and bullets away.

  I bullet after her. I know she’s headed for London. That’s where Lydia is. That’s where Ellie will be by the time me and the telepath reach the capital.

  The question is, will Ellie be alive or ashes when we arrive?