I willed it away with my mind. With everything I had inside me. I reached deep down, to the person I’d pushed away for so long I almost didn’t know who she was again. The person that could feel further and deeper than a human, or even a half breed. The person that was stronger, and faster, and more elegant. A creature of the night.
I dug deep down, and found the vampire.
I pushed back against the metal wall, forced my whole will against it. It wouldn’t budge at first. But then, slowly, it started to move, almost like I was pushing it. I threw everything I had into it, and finally it gave way faster and faster, until I could feel her again. Almost see her in my mind’s eye. Just a silhouette, but her wavy hair moved in a breeze and her fingers curled around the arms of her wheelchair. I could feel the despair, the fear, the panic.
It felt like I was peeling away from the world I knew. My head started pounding and I felt dizzy. And suddenly I knew where she was.
When I opened my eyes all three men were staring at me. Carl looked amused. Phil looked shocked. And Connor looked at me with so much emotion in his eyes I was scared he would choke on it.
“Caldwell Street,” I said and my voice sounded different. “The house in Caldwell Street. That’s where she is.”
When I spoke something nicked my lip and a sharp pain shot into it.
“Ow,” I said, and when I licked it I tasted blood. I frowned, bringing a finger to my lip, and then to my teeth. I had vampire teeth, pointed, needle tips. When I pulled my finger away it was red with blood, and it tasted metallic in my mouth.
“Well,” Connor said, and in that word he held the whole world.
“Well,” I answered, because I’d finally found myself. I’d finally come home.
Connor frowned, the words I’d spoken finally dawning on him. “Caldwell Street?” he asked. “But I got rid of that.”
“You owned it?” Carl asked.
“I lived there until the change. I sold it so that I could disappear.”
“Who did you sell it to?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I do,” I said.
We drove up the hill in silence. There wasn’t a lot to be said. We were heading right to the lair, the midpoint of everything. This new truth, this new person, the one I really was, was all a bit new for me, and I felt foreign in my own skin.
“What will we do when we get there?” Phil asked. That was a fair question.
“I think you should stay in the car,” I said to Phil. He wasn’t trained in any of the vampire-killing art, and even Carl and I, who’d been doing this for a long time, were outmatched. These vampires were a lot stronger.
“I agree with Adele,” Connor said, but when I looked at Phil he didn’t look like he was upset with the arrangement. He’d been noble, and in any other fight I’d want him at my back. But this time he was in over his head. It had been a mistake to bring him.
The three of us peeled out of the car and walked the last couple of yards to the gate. We stopped in front of it, the brown rustic metal gate reaching far above our heads.
“How do we get in?” Carl asked. He was already pacing along the wall, trying to see if there was a way in, but I knew that there would be no way in.
“We can go in through the servant’s entrance,” Connor said. “I doubt they kept the codes the same for the main gate, but the servants have their own gate and their own code.”
“And if that’s changed?” I asked.
“Well, then we’ll think of a plan B.”
Connor turned and followed the wall that reached far up above us. Carl and I followed. Connor made it way to the end of the wall where I thought the next property started, but I realized the wall dipped in and a narrow passage led between the two properties. I felt claustrophobic with tall walls on both sides and very little space to move other than forward or back. Connor was in front of me, Carl behind me, and somehow that didn’t make me feel much better. The whole place had a foreboding feeling to it, like something was waiting to go wrong any second.
Connor finally reached a door made of the same rustic metal as the main gate. It was arched and narrow like the rest of the passage. Connor took out a key and turned it. He might have been able to materialize inside, but neither of us could.
“What if they have cameras?” Carl asked.
“Then they see us,” Connor answered. “We’re going to have to face them sooner or later.”
Carl nodded but he looked like he’d rather turn back and wait for Phil. He swallowed hard and Conner pushed open the door. It was like magic. We followed him through it into the garden, and he closed the door behind us. I didn’t want it closed, but keeping it open would show whoever found it that something was wrong.
The garden was huge, with big trees scattered across a perfectly manicured law. The moon cast a silver light on everything, and the garden looked like it belong in a fairy tale. We followed the shadows, sticking to them as much as we could. A long winding drive way ran through the garden, with cobbles that had an Italian feel to them, and a big fountain decorated a circle at the front door where cars could drive around to head back to the gate. Garages were lined up on the other side of the property.
Connor beckoned us in the opposite direction. We crept silently up the stair that led to the balcony on the first floor, and it was only a miracle we hadn’t been seen yet. Either they were waiting for us because they knew we were coming, or we were managing to slip through. I was hoping it was the latter.
The house was incredible. In any other circumstance I would have admired it, envied it. Wanted it. I wasn’t one for living in the lap of luxury, but this wasn’t just money. It was art. I was impressed with Connor’s taste.
He led us through a maze of passages and rooms until we finally found a room where he stopped.
“There’s metal in these walls,” he said in a whisper. I tried to access the new part of me that I’d only found earlier, and after struggling a few seconds I found it, and I could feel it too. It felt the same way it felt when my mind was foggy and I couldn’t quite remember what I wanted to say. If they were anywhere, it would be in there.
Suddenly a scream echoed through the house, so loud it vibrated in my bones long after it stopped.
“What was that?” Carl asked.
“Celia,” I answered. This was it. I turned, and she appeared as if out of nowhere in front of me.
“Adele,” Connor started but I waved him off.
“Let me deal with this. Keep Carl safe. She’s mine.”
The words were barely out of my mouth when she attacked with a hiss. I hissed too, and launched for her. When he collided it was like an explosion. She had her claws out and scratched at me. I was faster now, stronger, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made an effort to accept myself earlier. She noticed the change, and her movements became careful.
I managed to out-maneuver her, and I sunk my teeth into her arm. She screamed and a shudder rippled through her body. When I let go her arm bled onto the floor. I could smell her blood, warm and sweet, different, supernatural. The same scent of flowers hung in the air.
“You’ve acquired some skills,” she said, clutching her bleeding arm against her body.
“Never show your enemy everything you can do right away,” I said. Of course this wasn’t true. If I’d been able to do this before I would have taken her out the first time. But it sounded great when I said it and the scowl on her face was worth it.
She jumped at me again. I ducked, but she upped her game too, knowing what I was capable of now, and her nails scraped down my cheek and neck. I hissed at her and felt my skin. It was ripped and sticky with blood. I curled my lips back in a snarl, but the feeling in my neck and my face stopped me in my tracks. I was healing fast, I could feel it close up. Celia couldn’t do that. I grinned, smug.
She knew it too. This was it. This was the fight. She wasn’t going to toy with me like a cat with a mouse anymore. If she didn’t give it everything she wouldn�
�t make it.
I wasn’t planning for that to happen anyway.
I jumped at her first. She’d been stunned, watching the wound on my face heal in front of her, and she’d been caught off guard. I grabbed a handful of hair and yanked, hard. She moaned and rolled me over, getting in a hit that would have been a problem if I still had the concussion she’d left me with.
But I was fine, and besides stunning me for just a second, it did nothing.
I braced myself and threw everything I had into it, throwing her off me. I landed on her, pushing her elbows down with both knees. Her eyes were pools of black, surrounded by green. I could feel her tentacles reach into my mind, by I closed it and pushed her out. Her eyes widened.
“Please, don’t—“she started but I cut her off. I pushed my silver stake in under her ribs and angled it upward. I pushed in deeper, finding her heart, and her pulse throbbed and then stopped. Her eyes were wide, mouth frozen in a silent ‘o’ before her features went slack and she collapsed.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Carl said behind me. When I got off Celia and turned he was looking at me like I was a goddess and he hadn’t known it before.
“We had a history,” I said.
“I can see that.”
When I looked at Connor he smiled. I didn’t think it was because of my lack of feeling when I murdered Celia. I thought that maybe it was because of who I’d become. I smiled and I felt my own teeth on my lips. It was a strange sensation, but not altogether unfamiliar. I wondered at which point I’d forgotten I’d always had them as a child.
“We have to get in there,” Connor said, nodding towards the door.
I took a deep breath. It didn’t matter how in touch I was with myself. These guys were still the master vampires that had killed Zelda and Ruben. Carl swallowed hard enough for me to hear next to me, and I knew he thought the same thing.
“Together,” I said to him, and he understood. A part of this would be for Ruben after all.
Connor felt the door but it was locked. Somehow I hadn’t thought it would be open. There was no way to get in, I could feel the metal all round. So Connor knocked on the door like we had an appointment. Sometimes the only way to go was forward.
For a moment nothing happened. Then the door clicked like a lock was being turned, and it opened.
The leader opened the door.
“Well,” he said, looking at Connor and then at me. “We knew she’d eventually arrive, but we didn’t expect you.”
“Vladimir,” Connor said as a greeting. Well, if there was ever a scary vampire with a scary name, this was it. The vampire smiled with teeth that still seemed horrible, even I had a set of my own now, and his eyes flashed red. He didn’t look friendly at all.
“Come, come in,” he said. “We have everything ready for you.”
He stepped aside and we walked into the room. I was last to go in, and as soon I was through the door I found a wall and put my back to it so I faced the entire room. I had guns and knives on me, but somehow it didn’t feel like it was enough. These vampires weren’t here to play games.
I didn’t know what I’d expected, but the room, besides the menacing vampires in it, was very normal. Rich, but normal. It was carpeted from wall to wall with a thick white carpet that I sank into. The walls were painted a wine red, and the furniture was all black. Leather couches formed a cozy half-circle around an unlit fireplace, a lacquered desk stood in a corner with stacks of papers and files, and the back wall was covered with ceiling-height bookshelves with leather bound books. The other vampires, number two, I decided, lounged on a leather sofa.
I noticed there were two big windows with black curtains drawn across from me. The material looked like it was leaded, heavy, dragging down. The same as the covers they put over women in x-ray machines. They could keep light out all by themselves.
There were no other vampires in the room. I had thought maybe there would be hostages. But there was no one.
Vladimir walked to the wall and pushed a button, and a bar rolled out. Fancy.
“Can I offer you anything to drink?” he asked. We all shook our heads. He shrugged and picked up a wine glass, taking a sip. The wine was a dark red, and thick. I frowned, and then the smell reached me. It wasn’t wine at all, it was blood.
I gasped for me breath about the same time Connor did. Vladimir laughed.
“Not so tough after all, the two of you,” he said in a voice that suddenly sounded deeper, harder. He pointed a long finger at Carl. “Only he seems to have the stomach for this. But he’s just a human. I doubt he knows what this is.”
I felt suddenly nauseous.
“Where’s Aspen?” I asked, hoping my voice sounded more confident than I felt. “I’m here for my sister.”
“Yes, I thought so. Of course, killing him would have been fine. But I see you brought him here. Did you hope we would do it for you?”
He was talking about Connor. Carl stepped in front of Connor, and Vlad and his number two laughed.
“There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity,” he said. He moved so fast I hadn’t even seen him move. Not even a blur. The one moment he’d been by the bar, the next he had Carl pinned against the wall, the blood in his glass still dancing from side to side.
“Don’t!” I called out. Vladimir smiled with a terrible smile, one that promised bloodshed.
“He’s done nothing to deserve dying,” I said.
“And still you brought him.”
“I volunteered,” Carl said but his throat was squeezed shut so the words came out as a wheeze. He was going to get himself killed.
“Are you going to beg for mercy like your boss?” Vladimir asked Carl, squeezing tighter. Carl squirmed in his hand, legs kicking, hands groping at the fingers around his neck. His face went red.
I pulled out a gun and aimed it at Vladimir’s head. The Smith & Wesson would take his head off.
“I’ll shoot,” I said. “Let him go.”
Vladimir looked at me, his eyes turning from amused to menacing.
“You threaten me? You’re an abomination and you have the arrogance to stand there and point a gun at me? For you that you’ll—“
Carl had kicked him between the legs. It didn’t matter who you were, vampire or not, a kick to the balls hurt like hell. He didn’t double over or gasp for breath or drop to the ground like a human. But he did drop Carl, and it bought me time. Carl gasped for air and scrambled across the floor to me. If he could get under my gun I could cover him.
Vladimir growled like an animal and grabbed Carl’s ankle, ripping him up and flinging him across the room. I heard bones snap and Carl cried out. He hit the far wall, and then he sunk to the floor, unconscious. He was out of the way, badly hurt, but not dead. Not yet.
Vladimir turned to me.
“The girl,” he barked and number two moved. Another door opened, and they wheeled Aspen out. She looked frail and vulnerable, hanging in her chair. Her arms were strapped to her chair so she couldn’t wheel herself and her head was bowed, her blond hair a curtain.
When I gasped she looked up, and when she saw me, she stilled.
“Adele?” she said and her voice was tiny. But she looked okay, not even harmed.
“We’re going to get you out of here, angel,” I said. She smiled and nodded. She believed me. And I would.
“You can let us go now,” I said. “We’ll be taking my sister and leaving.”
The two vampires looked at each other, smiled, and then burst out laughing like I’d made a joke.
“Really, Adele,” Vladimir said. He looked into my eyes, and suddenly the world went black.
When I opened my eyes again, hours had passed. I could feel it. I looked around me. I lay on the floor, unable to move. Connor lay by the curtains, eyes closed. Carl was bent at a bad angle, still unconscious. Aspen sat across from me, looking exhausted and worried. When she saw me awake, her face changed, relief, but she didn’t make a sound. Smart.
&nb
sp; The vampires were talking together in hushed tones and I couldn’t hear them.
Vladimir turned to me, suddenly aware that I was awake.
“You’re not as strong as we thought you were, after killing Celia.”
She couldn’t have been much loved if they didn’t care she was dead.
“Didn’t you at least like her?” I asked. My mouth worked fine even though I couldn’t move anything else.
Vladimir shrugged. “She didn’t do her job well enough. Death is a fair motivation for that. She lost.”
I tried to move again, but I couldn’t.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“We’re going to wait for sunrise,” Vlad said, looking at his watch. And then we’re going to leave, and those curtains are going to open. And you’re going to watch Connor die in the first rays of dawn.”
That was cruel. Inhumane.
“You can’t do that,” I said.
Vladimir walked over to me and I could feel the vibrations of his weight on the floor underneath the carpet as he came closer to me. He kneeled in front of me and grabbed my chin. It hurt. He tipped my head and looked at my fangs, frowning. Probably trying to remember if they’d been there before. Then he yanked my head to the side and my head throbbed, my chin aching.
“Oh, but we can,” he said.
“Master,” number two called. He’d sat down at a laptop and he pointed to the screen. Vladimir walked toward the desk and looked at the screen. He swore.
“Fix it,” he said.
Number two typed furiously, but he looked panicked. Maybe his punishment for failure would be death too.
“Business deal gone wrong?” I asked innocently. Both vampires scowled and I knew I’d hit a nerve. The time was ticking on, and I realized it was sunrise. They could still kill Connor with it, but they wouldn’t have their dramatic death. They were still fighting about whatever was happening on their screen. I managed to slide my eyes to Aspen. She sat quietly, looking at me, and I wondered what she was thinking. She was scared, it hung in the air, coming off her skin, but it was old, like she’d been feeling it too long for it to be full strength. Her arms were taped to the wheelchair and with how frail she was I knew she couldn’t break free of them. If only someone could open those damn curtains.
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