Your Red Always

by Leeann Whitaker

  Adrien paces irately before the window. He’s so tense and he’s making me jumpy. He stops and slams his hands down on the table so it cracks loudly, fracturing like ice across a lake. I jolt in alarm, catching a breath. Sara and Ben sink a little in their seats, anxious of Adrien’s raging capabilities.

  “Selene does not need to know about this,” Adrien says. “And the treaty will remain intact… your father is our ally. Not our enemy.”

  “One of your own is out there breaking all codes. How long do you think it will be before she finds out?” Gerrard snaps. “The once great Knight is falling fast,” he taunts. “The once feared, has been tamed like a kitten by some girl.”

  “She won’t.” Adrien eyeballs Gerrard. “This ends now. I will seek out this individual, and his or her retribution will be swift.” He gazes at me and calms somewhat. “Leanna, Gerrard, you will go and find out everything you can. Even if it means you going underground to get it,” he instructs. “Keep your lines open, I want constant contact.”

  “You want us out there walking through the gutters for your fuckup?” Gerrard laughs. “I don’t work for you.”

  A haze sweeps by me creating a ferocious backdraft, and a chair lands inches from my feet. Adrien roars, pinning Gerrard up by the collar of his black jacket.

  “You will do this. If I find out you’ve not followed my orders, I will personally see you pay,” he cautions. “You of all know what happens to those who get on the wrong side of me.” He shoves a wary Gerrard back. “Ben, you will go with them.”

  I don’t want to be here anymore. He’s scaring me. All this has got me thinking that there is a hell of a lot more I don’t know about Adrien Knight. Dark things maybe he doesn’t want to tell me. He’s lost is damn mind over this, and there is still no sign of Nathan. With shaky hands, I feel my way down the wall, closer to the door panel.

  “Sara… you will take Elizabeth, now,” he snaps as I rush into the bedroom.

  I lock myself in the bathroom, sobbing in chaos. I jog to the end wall as far from the door as possible. My feet stride in panic, back and forth. Shit! I slam my shoulders against the tiles and slip down to the floor. Rain showers a cascade of water across the windows and the wind roars. Every noise makes my tic. I wipe my raw eyes embracing my knees tight.

  The silver doorknob jiggles. I hold my breath and squeeze my legs firmer. There’s a light tap and a loud bang. I cover my mouth with my sweaty hand.

  “Elizabeth,” Adrien calls through the wood. “Elizabeth… Jesus. Open the door.”

  I place my palms on the cool floor. It’s not like I can pretend I’m not here, but it doesn’t make facing him any easier. I brush my wet jaw with my wrist and stand unsteadily.

  “Please… I’m sorry if I frightened you,” he utters. “I’d not do such a thing deliberately.”

  I exhale and fill my lungs. I stare at the door, taking one slow step at a time. Being afraid of him is the last thing I want. I take hold of the lock and flip, opening the door just a few inch. His head is propped against the frame and his troubled gaze diffuses the fear in me.

  “I just want you to be safe.” He swallows. “Because of me you’re in danger, and I’m furious with myself. Not you… not even the Vigore. Me.”

  I bite my lip, opening the door further and place my hand against his cheekbone. Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t stay. But I’m not. No matter what he is, or has done that I don’t know of, I still love him.

  “I deserve whatever’s coming to me, but you don’t.”

  “I’ll go with Sara,” I whisper. “But what will happen to you… Nathan?”

  “Elizabeth,” he says quietly. “I can’t give you an answer to that until I know what I’m up against.”

  “What if you’re outnumbered?” I utter as my heart booms fast. “What if this is some kind of trap to get you; if it’s the last time I see you… I’ve already lost Nathan.” I can’t breathe with dread.

  He smiles. “It won’t happen, I swear,” he says positively, placing a slight kiss on my quivering lip. “Do you trust me?” He asks with his forehead on mine.

  “I just want normal, why is that so damn hard?”

  His hand cups my cheek. “When all this is over, then I shall give you normal.”

  Something very irrational pops into my head. But to me it seems like the right thing to do. We can be together and he won’t have to worry about me because we’d be the same. Not one Vampire can object to us, not if I’m one of them. God its crazy, but it will work, I know it will. Sara creeps into my mind. She seems relatively human. And Dom, well, he’s just like one of the guys. This is madcap idea, but it’s worth a shot, surly.

  “Turn me.” He angles back with a scowl. “I mean it. I won’t be made a target to get to you. I won’t be weak. My friends will not be hurt.”

  He laughs and shakes his head. “You’re not thinking straight and clearly need to sleep.”

  “I’m being very serious, Adrien.”

  His smile vanishes. “I won’t condemn you to an existence like mine. It’s not an option Elizabeth.” He turns his back and moves through the bedroom, rubbing his chin.

  I quickly follow. “Say this ends tonight, don’t you think they’ll be others that will use me to get to you?”

  He strides to me. “I want you to live. The life that runs through you, is one of the things that makes you the light to my dark. Please don’t ask this of me. Not yet.” He slinks his hand up my neck affectionately.

  “One day you may not have a choice in it.”

  His nose touches mine. “And that day will not be in the foreseeable future.”

  Chapter 26: Stay Gone

  It was the most heart-wrenching goodbye I’ve ever been part of. Adrien dressed in his inconspicuous black hoody and dark jeans. Ready to go out into the night to battle with his demons. He took away my mobile phone and gave me a brand new IPhone, in-case whoever’s behind this is tracking my number. He’s even gone as far as to buy this old Mercedes I’m now sat in, with blacked out windows. I didn’t want to let him go. He had to prize my hands away, and now I feel retched; sick to the pit of my stomach.

  We’ve been on the road for thirty minutes. The windscreen wipers are on full speed as the heavens open. I haven’t been paying much attention to where we’re heading. Apart from seeing one road sign which stated we were moving through Elstree. I haven’t even asked. The only things on my mind are Adrien and Nathan.

  Sara shuffles forward and back in the driver’s seat as I clutch the IPhone, wondering if it works. I want to tell her to turn back, but I know she’ll only refuse. Then they come again, the tears. I turn to the window so she can’t see me blinking out the tide. I bring the phone up to my face and turn on the backlight. Perhaps it’s on mute, or the sim needs to be registered. There must be some reason I haven’t heard anything yet.

  “He will call you,” Sara finally speaks. “You’re making me nervous… stop with the snivelling.”

  I should have sat in the back. Cold-hearted bitch wouldn’t know love if it hit her like a freight train. I watch her, wondering why she’s not one bit concerned about Adrien. She’s always done everything he’s asked of a PA, and from what I can see, she gets paid very well for it. She’s a part of his Coven, so I don’t understand where she gets this indifferent attitude from.

  “What?” She snaps.

  Not a good time to punch her in the face Liz. She’s driving. I look back to the window. I’ve got all sort going on in my head, and the last thing I need is to be cat fighting with selfish Sara.

  The screen above the stereo suddenly illuminates and a ringtone sounds through the speakers. I know that number, it’s Adrien’s. Why is he calling her and not me?

  Instead of answering through the Bluetooth, she picks up her mobile to take the call. I rotate in my seat and gape at her with impatient eyes. She hums as Adrien’s low muffled voice comes from the receiver. I angle closer, but it’s useless, I can’t hear a word he’s saying.

&n
bsp; “Sara… give me the phone.” She ignores me, letting out an uneasy sigh.

  “You’re sure it’s him.” She visibly gulps.

  Whatever he’s said, it’s created a manifestation across her face I’ve never seen in her, pure fear.

  Automatically, Nathan is at the forefront of my mind. Has he been found; has he hurt someone; is he still alive? My hands begin to shake, which sets a wave of distress throughout my body.

  “Give me the phone… now!”

  “Shit… Adrien, what do I do if he finds us?” She says. “He’s killed Connor. He’s a fuckin psychopath.”

  Oh my god. Connor is dead. I can’t believe it. Adrien is out there; will he be next? I struggle to breathe. My chest is so damn tight.

  “Sara, what the hell is happening?” I scream. “Nathan… is he looking for me; is Adrien okay? Jesus, will you tell me.”

  She screws up her face and gives me the daggers. “Shut the hell up.”

  She continues to listen silently for a few seconds. Jeez, my heart rate is so fast. I need to know what he’s saying dammit.

  “Please Adrien, find him. And you,” she chokes up. “Make him pay.”

  She hands the phone to me, and pulls up onto the verge of the country lane. I swiftly press it against me ear, noticing her fraught emotions coming to the surface.

  “Adrien… what’s going on?” I pant. “Have you found him… tell me he’s safe… please.” The line remains quiet, apart from a hoarse breath. “Adrien… speak to me!”

  “Liz.”

  “Oh my god… Nathan,” I cry.

  “I’m with Adrien,” he arduously groans.

  “Nathan… I’m so sorry.”

  He heaves in a breath. “So am I Liz. You stay away from here… you don’t come back.” I can’t say a word, my throat has narrowed and I’m clogged up on tears. “Liz.” He waits for me to answer, but still I can’t. “Please look after yourself. Don’t trust anything… anyone.”

  “Nathan?”

  He’s gone and Adrien has taken his place. He calls my name but I don’t reply. I move the phone from my ear and onto my lap, biting my lips together hard. Sara stays frozen. Her hands grapple with the wheel as she glowers at the rain.

  “Elizabeth!”

  I put the phone back to my ear. “Adrien.”

  “Elizabeth, is Sara still there?”

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t she be?”

  “Listen to me… you need to calm her down.”

  I watch as she clamps the wheel even tighter. Okay, I already know that’s impossible. You can’t calm the un-calmable.

  “Why? You’ve found Nathan, we’ll just turn around and come back.”

  “No! You need to do exactly what Nathan said, just until I’ve found him,” he says directly. “I will come to you when all this is over.”

  “Found who?”

  “Laurie.”

  “Laurie… what’s he got to do with all this?” I shrill, noting Sara flinch when I said his name. “He was out searching for Nathan wasn’t he. He should be with you.”

  “Elizabeth… stay with Sara.”

  “Adrien,” I yell, but he’s already hung-up. “God!”

  This is a nightmare. He’s in danger, the gravest kind. My pupils glaze and burn. I can’t take anymore. I have to go back. I don’t care. I have to do something.

  “Turn around,” I shout as she lingers distantly. “I said turn around!” I whip out my right hand and take the wheel.

  She grabs my wrist and thrusts it down. I can’t lie, she has the grip of a lion’s jaw. I rub the red mark she’s left on my skin.

  “You do that again, and it will be more than your wrist that gets hurt.”

  “What’s going on with Laurie? If you don’t tell me, I’ll bloody walk all the way back.” She starts up the engine, ignoring me completely. “Sara?”

  “We do as Adrien says.” She sets off at speed while obsessively checking the mirrors. “You want to live, we don’t go back… do you understand that!”

  I growl and turn to the door. I’ve always known there was something about that freak Laurie. I know he’s a Vampire, and all Vampire have a darkness in them. But he has something more than just a dark streak. It’s this evil superior intent I can’t explain. His leery mannerisms, his snide comments, and the way he looks at you with those vile thinking eyes of his. Sara was his Red, she visibly fears him, and she’s frightened of no one.

  We pull onto a dirt track just outside St Albans, to stop outside a relatively normal size property. It’s a dethatched house, two stories, with a thatched roof. I’d describe it as an oversized cottage in the middle of nowhere. Totally out of character for one of Adrien’s properties. Perhaps that’s what he was aiming for.

  She’s not said a word to me since that phone call, and I’m too tired to carry on digging because it’s getting me nowhere. So I get out of the car, and plod behind her.

  She opens the oak door and switches on the lights. As I move inside, I’m immediately surrounded by a cloud of dust that makes me cough. It’s so old and filthy, with cracked plaster falling from the white uneven walls, and a strong smell of rising damp. There’s a tatty green tartan couch in front of an open stone fireplace, and a wonky coffee table with only three legs holding it upright.

  Sara goes through a squeaky door and I follow.

  I’m stood in a rustic country kitchen. In the centre there’s a large pine table and chairs next to a wood-burner. The cupboards are mismatched and all have different handles. And there’s an old Belfast sink with brass taps before a small window.

  I linger, looking down at the phone that’s fused to my hand. Sara pops the cork out from a bottle of red. She swishes it around in a glass then downs it in one, like it’s a remedy that will lighten the shitty hell we’re in. She pours another, and again it’s gone within a second. She slams down her glass.

  “What happen to Connor?”

  “You want one?” She asks. “You’ll need it.”

  I nod and approach the worktop. She takes a large brown chipped coffee mug out from the cupboard next to her. She pours another glass for herself, and I get the mug. I drink. It’s sour and vinegary. Cheap crap that tastes awful. But I still down the lot of it.

  “Connor has met the same fate I once did… but he hasn’t got through it.” Her eyes saddens. “He crossed paths with pure evil.”

  “Laurie?”

  She blows out. “Look, I really don’t want to discuss him,” she says coldly. “Adrien knows what he’s doing. He’ll destroy Laurie for murdering family.”

  Yes, your words of reassurance are a great help to me Sara. My best friend has been changed into, well, a damn Vampire with psychic tendencies. And the Vampire I’m in love with is at war with one of his own. An evil twisted asshole who could kill him.

  “He wasn’t chosen by The Order for no reason. He’ll deal with Laurie, and hopefully we’ll never see the sick shit again,” she says in vain.

  “What happened with you two?” I’m unsure bringing it up will help. I just thought it the perfect opportunity.

  As predicted the conversation has come to an abrupt stop, and she’s gone all tightly wound again. I can’t talk to her like Cate. With Cate it comes easily, just flows. Good times and bad are openly discussed.

  She take her half-full glass and walks by me. “Come on, let’s find a room for you to get your head down in.”

  There are four bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs in this property. I quickly checked out each one, and took the one that appeared the cleanest. It has the same kind of rusty metal frame bed that is in all the bedrooms. Corroded, squeaky, and damp. There are deep purple heavy drapes, which barely hang on a wooden rail. And the roof beams above are visible, revealing the whole cobwebbed coated ceiling space.

  I plonk myself on the thin mattress, twirling the phone in my hands. I’m going to call him again. I’m not going to sleep, no matter how exhausted I am. Not until I at least know he’s on his way back to me. It rings, but t
here’s no answer. It’s so frustrating, why give me the damn thing if he won’t take my calls. I have all sorts of horrific situations going through my mind.

  I push on the message tab and begin to type:Adrien, please will you just call me, text me, anything will do. I need to know you’re okay x

  I fling my body width ways across the bed. A dust plume rises around me. The swarm of particles soar high, glinting in the moonlight like fireflies. I should move off this grubby thing, but my body is fatigued. Just five minutes breathing deep, waiting for contact.

  Chapter 27: Drink Me

  Startled, I spring up from the mattress like a jack-in-a-box as a gust of wind blows at my back. I turn to see the open window swinging back and forth, slamming against the rotten frame. With quick footing, I dash over, and push the old single pane window shut. My chest puffs out as I take a step back, specifically recalling that window being closed. I’m sure there was no breeze. Though, I am very sleepy, maybe I didn’t notice it.

  I pick the phone up from the frayed mattress. It’s 1.45am; I’ve managed one hour’s sleep. He hasn’t called or messaged, and it’s driving me crazy. Sara, perhaps he’s contacted her again. She seems to be his first port of call.

  “Crap.” I flip the light switch up and down by the door, but the powers out.

  Cautiously, I make my way down the creaky stairs, using the flashlight app on the phone. The storm outside batters the house, and the creepy noises it’s creating, is not helping my nerves right now.

  The front door suddenly flies open. With a pounding heart I stumble back, gripping hold of the flaky paint spindles. There’s no one there. Just leaves and rubbish blustering around in the turbulent weather.

  The window upstairs, and now the front door. I have the volatile feeling that something isn’t right here, and I’m beginning freak-out. Sara would not have left that door open, not now she know who’s behind all this.