“Good luck,” she said, holding the front door open for us. The storm had gone from bad to worse. The palm trees were no longer swaying, but leaning, their fronds reaching out like fingers in a desperate attempt to survive the gusts of wind coming off the ocean. The waves were tall and colorless, crashing to the shore like slaves of the storm, forced to do the bidding of Mother Nature. The sky had turned a roiling shade of grey that seemed to dare us to come out in the elements.
Beck opened the doors, and I slid into the backseat of Mark’s car, cradling Aurora on my lap. Mark and Beck transferred some more medical supplies from the house to the trunk. When they were done, Beck got behind the wheel and started the engine, flipping on the headlights. Mark climbed in the passenger side, and Beck put the car in reverse, backing out of the parking spot. I forced myself to wait until we’d been on the road for a few minutes before I started with the questions.
“Where are we taking her?”
“Vidic Vineyards,” Mark stated.
That definitely wasn’t the answer I’d expected. “Is there a special bottle of blood-laced wine that can heal her?” I asked doubtfully.
“No. There is an Elder of the Synod. Stanislav Vidic is the most powerful vampire around.”
That explained why Mark had called Damir. Aurora mentioned once that one of the Elders was Damir’s great-great-grandfather or something like that. “You think he’ll help us?”
Mark’s jaw clenched. “I don’t know, but he’s our only chance.” I held Aurora to me gently, resting her head against my chest and running my fingers over her long, black hair. “It’s risky, you know,” Mark added after a moment. “Even if he’s willing to help.”
“What do you mean risky?” I asked. “If we do nothing she’s going to die. Where’s the risk in going for help?” I thought he’d realize by now that I would do anything that meant the difference between Aurora’s survival and having to bury her. Beck met my eyes through the rearview mirror for an instant before he turned on the windshield wipers to clear the glass of the big, fat drops of rain that had begun to fall.
“Don’t take the causeway,” Mark said to Beck. “The storm will make that a joke.” Then he turned on the radio and scanned the stations until he reached one he wanted. A woman’s voice came through the car speakers, announcing that the storm we were experiencing had just been upgraded to a level two storm.
“That’s all we need,” he said, exasperated. He turned the radio off again and directed Beck to turn at the next intersection. Within five minutes, the rain had morphed into a torrential downpour. It sounded like metal bb’s pinging off the roof of the car. I wasn’t sure if my super sensitive vampire hearing was exaggerating it or what, but it was torture to listen to. “How’s she doing?” Mark called out to me over his shoulder. “I can’t make out her heartbeat over the sound of this storm.”
“She’s still with us,” I called back. I couldn’t hear any better than he could, but I was keeping my fingers on the side of her neck where I could still feel a pulse, even if it was a weak one. I tried again to glimpse a thought from Aurora, but the fog I met there was unyielding and all-encompassing and did little to calm my fears.
“Take a right here,” Mark said to Beck, gesturing with his hand to the next intersection. Beck did as he was told and turned, but it became clear once we’d pulled through the intersection that we’d hit a dead end. A traffic jam had blocked the entire intersection in front of us.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Beck said. “What are all these people doing out?”
“I don’t know,” Mark said, rubbing his face anxiously. “It’s the storm. People lose their minds. Some of them are probably trying to get out of town. We’ll have to find another way.”
Beck nodded resolutely and made a U-turn. I stared out the back window at the sheets of water that were coming down all around us as Mark instructed Beck to another route. Every car that passed us on the road pitched another wall of water onto the car, disrupting the visibility through the windshield until the wipers could catch up. Knowing Beck was a vampire and had the reflexes to go with it, gave me some comfort as we navigated through town in a storm that seemed determined to keep us here. Fifteen minutes later, I felt Aurora’s pulse grow weaker under my fingers. I moved my hand to her chest where I could feel her heartbeat. It had become erratic and slow, skipping beats again like it had done at the beach house.
“Mark,” I said. “She’s not doing so good back here. Her heart is-” But I didn’t have to finish my statement before Mark was leaning over the seat. He put a hand over her heart and closed his eyes. Even the storm couldn’t distract from the hum of power I felt as Mark sent another healing burst into Aurora’s limp body. I felt her neck again, relieved to find that her pulse had leveled out again. It was clear that using so much of his moon-given ability in one night was taking a major toll on Mark. I regretted that we hadn’t grabbed some of the blood stash from the fridge in our rush to get out the door. He looked like he could use another drink already.
We encountered two more dead ends, one another traffic jam and the other a flooded intersection. We were on our way to the last feasible way of reaching the highway without having to backtrack and loose valuable time. I stared at Aurora’s face, willing her to hear my thoughts of encouragement and determination. Just then, Beck took another turn and hit the brakes on the car, sending us skidding to a stop on the wet road. I didn’t have to ask why we’d stopped. A giant oak tree had fallen on the road, completely blocking it off. The tree had to be at least fifty feet long and was bigger around than two grown men could wrap their arms around.
“Now what?” Beck asked. “Should I turn around?”
“We don’t have time to turn around,” Mark said. “We’re going to have to move it.”
Chapter 43
Trey
BEFORE WE COULD WORK out the details of how that was going to happen, two more vehicles pulled around the corner behind us and stopped nearby.
“First things first,” Mark said. “We have to get rid of the witnesses. We can’t have people running around talking about how some guys moved an oak tree when the storm dies down.”
“I can convince them to turn around. There’s no reason for them to stay with the road blocked.”
“Let’s just hope they aren’t planning on siting out the storm right here,” Mark said. The rain showed no sign of stopping. I couldn’t imagine just sitting here through it. Hopefully the humans behind us had a plan B. Mark looked at me over the seat. “You stay put,” he said. “Keep an eye on Aurora. Moving this tree out of the way won’t matter, if she dies while we’re doing it.”
I nodded and watched as Mark and Beck opened the car doors and went out into the storm. Beck went behind me, headed toward our visitors. I just hoped he was fast at convincing them to turn around and go another direction. Mark went to the tree. Even with my incredible new vision, I could barely make out more than a blurry shape of him through the rain-battered windshield. He seemed to be trying to figure out the best way to move the tree, or maybe the best place to put it to get it out of the way. It took a few minutes, but Beck eventually jogged past the car again on his way to meet up with Mark. I turned my head enough to watch the other vehicles out the back window. Their blurry headlights were the most distinguishable parts in the rain. They seemed to hesitate, probably having the same problem we were about reaching the highway, but in the end they realized the tree in the road would win out and turned to go.
Once the coast was clear, Mark and Beck joined forces at the top of the tree. I couldn’t see how they grabbed hold of it, but the tree rose in the air far enough that I could distinguish space below it. That was when Aurora’s pulse went wacky again. I almost froze, torn between my desire to let Mark move the tree now and the knowledge that her heart could be giving out this very second. I felt her chest again to determine if that was really the case and found her heart throbbing feebly, without a distinguishable rhythm. I couldn’t reach t
he steering wheel of the car to honk the horn, at least, not without moving Aurora, which seemed like a really bad idea just then. I used every ounce of mental gusto I could muster and threw a cry for help to Mark’s mind, praying that he’d hear me.
I hadn’t much practice at projecting, but the empty space below the tree vanished again and Mark sped back to the car. He threw open the back door on the passenger side and stuck his head in.
“It’s happening again,” I said, unable to disguise the panic in my voice. Mark reacted quickly, giving Aurora another moon-given burst of healing. I thought I could see the color drain from his face with the surge of power this time, which seemed to be greater than the time before. He was getting desperate, and I didn’t know how many healing bursts he was capable of dishing out before he’d start needing them himself.
He checked her pulse and then nodded at me, slamming the door shut as he ran back off in the direction of the tree. This time he and Beck managed to move the tree far enough for a car to sneak past the one end. They were both completely drenched when they climbed back inside car, and Beck threw it into gear. Water sprayed out from the sides of the car as Beck hit the gas and sped around through the opening at the top of the tree. Ten minutes later, we finally reached the freeway, and it seemed we might actually stand a chance. The rain continued to pound down on the car as we travelled inland. After about an hour, it was obvious we’d gotten out of the worst of it. The rain gave up on being solid sheets of water and settled for big, fat rain drops again.
“I’m not sure you would have wanted to stay at the beach house regardless,” Beck said, trying to make conversation.
“You’re probably right,” I agreed. “I can’t imagine what the beach looks like now.”
Mark pulled out his cell phone, probably to call Hana, but he just dropped it back in his lap and cursed under his breath.
“No signal?” Beck asked.
“The storm must have the cell towers down,” he said.
“I’m sure she made it somewhere safe,” I said to him.
“I’m sure you’re right,” he agreed, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anything.
The next twenty minutes of the drive went by excruciatingly slow, despite the fact that Beck was speeding like a mad man on the highway. Thankfully, the police seemed to have their hands full with the storm, and if we passed any, they weren’t the least bit concerned with us. Even at those speeds, it seemed to take forever. Just knowing that Aurora was hanging on by a thread, growing weaker as the minutes ticked by was almost more than I could stand. The silence added to the torture, but none of us could manage to keep a conversation going. I had to force myself not to think about what would happen if we failed. I held Aurora ever so still on my lap, willing her to stay alive until we could get her some help.
When her heart started to fail for the third time since getting in the car, Mark leaned over the seat to send her another burst of healing. I kept my hand on her pulse, even though I could make out the sound of her heartbeat now despite the rain. Mark looked like he could collapse at any minute, but he sent the healing burst to her, fighting his way through the utter exhaustion it caused him. To my horror, Aurora’s heartbeat didn’t stabilize this time.
“It’s not working,” I said to him, but the look on Mark’s face told me he’d just realized the same thing. “What do we do now?”
“We’re still about twenty minutes out,” Beck stated, but I felt him ask the car for even more speed.
“Keep driving,” Mark said to Beck. “You just get us there.” Then I watched in a panic as he rummaged through a medical bag he had sitting in the front seat. He pulled out a long needle just as Aurora’s heart stopped beating completely.
“It stopped,” I exclaimed. “I’m losing her. I … I can’t-”
But Mark was already leaning over the seat again. He placed one hand on Aurora’s chest to steady himself and position the needle. I watched, open-mouthed, as he stabbed the needle directly into Aurora’s heart. He forced the contents of the needle out with his thumb and then pulled it from her chest again. I could hardly process what had just happened as I looked from him to Aurora.
“Come on, Aurora,” he said through gritted teeth. “Come on.”
I ran my hand over her face, moving her hair out of the way and silently pleading with her to come back to me. A few anguishing seconds ticked by before I heard her heart jump once. “Yes,” I breathed. “Come on.” Her heart fluttered again and then picked up a recognizable rhythm, beating once more. Mark fell back onto the front seat, wiping his face with his wet sleeve. “How long will that last?” I asked him.
“Let’s just hope it’s long enough,” he said, leaning his head against the headrest.
I felt indescribable relief when Beck announced that we had arrived at our destination. Not because all of our problems were solved, but because we could finally move on to the next stage of the plan. I still didn’t know specifically what that was, but I knew I would do almost anything to save my wife. Beck pulled up to a black cast-iron gate and put the car in park. I watched anxiously as he rolled down the window and pressed a button on a small black box with a speaker.
“We’re here to see Stanislav Vidic,” Mark said from the passenger seat.
“No one sees Mr. Vidic,” was the blunt response from a male voice. My heart clenched but I didn’t speak. Mark was probably more diplomatic than I could be in this situation.
“My name is Dr. Mark Conry. Damir Vidic should have called ahead to say I was coming. Would you mind checking?”
There was a long and grueling silence before the voice came through the black speaker box again. “Mr. Vidic has agreed to see you. Pull around back.”
“Thank you.”
Beck put the car in drive and waited while the gates slid open to permit us entry.
Chapter 44
Trey
BECK PULLED AROUND TO the back of the Vidic house where a circular driveway led up to the back doors. He parked the car, and before he stepped out, another vampire was opening the back door for me. I lifted Aurora’s insubstantial weight in my arms, carrying her up to the well-lit doors where another vampire held one open for me. Mark and Beck were right behind me as I stepped inside a grand entryway. The second vampire gestured down a long marbled hallway to the right and asked us to follow him. The only sound was the noise our shoes made against the cold stone as we walked. The end of the hallway contained the guest rooms, except they were more like suites than just rooms. I carried Aurora to the bed in one room and gently laid her on it.
“Mr. Vidic would like to see you in his office,” the vampire said. Mark nodded and took a step forward. “Both of you,” the vampire clarified, nodding at me. I hesitated, glancing back at Aurora. I didn’t want to leave her, and by the look on Mark’s face, he knew it. But this is why we were here. I had to do whatever it took to convince the Synod Elder to help Aurora.
“I’ll stay with her,” Beck said. “Go.”
I forced my feet to move and went with them, hoping I wouldn’t have to be gone from her side for long.
Stanislav Vidic’s office couldn’t have been further from the guest rooms and still be in the same house. Another vampire stood guard just outside of the office. He nodded when we approached and opened the large walnut doors. Mark and I stepped inside and heard the heavy doors close behind us.
“Come in,” said a voice. The hum of power in the room was undeniable. It vibrated in the back of my skull, forcing me to pay attention to it. The Synod Elder sat in a throne-type chair behind an expensive desk in the corner. His thirty-something appearance was deceiving, concealing his actual age, which would have been easier to count in centuries than years. He had black hair like his grandson, and eyes so brown they were almost black. He got to his feet and approached us, surprising me by offering his hand. I shook it.
“Thank you for seeing us,” I said, not sure what the appropriate greeting was for a vampire of his
position. “I’m Trey Decker.”
“I know who you are,” he responded, meeting my gaze straight on with knowing hazel eyes. “You’re the young musician who was so eager to live forever.” I wanted to correct him, to point out that Aurora was really the only part of his world I couldn’t go without. I kept quiet, realizing only after his expression changed that he’d heard my thoughts anyway. Then he turned to greet Mark. “And you’re Mark Conry. Damir tells me that you’re the Emissary’s contact at Morton Plant Hospital.” Mark nodded, shaking his hand. “So, Mr. Decker," the Elder said slowly as he returned to the great throne behind his desk. "I've been wondering for quite some time now just what it is about you that could capture the heart of a strong, young, powerful vampire such as Miss Evins." He raised his eyebrows expectantly, and I realized he wanted me to answer.
"I don't pretend to understand why Aurora chose me," I said. "If you're implying that there are other men more worthy of her, you wouldn't be the first."
Stanislav smiled and leaned back in his chair, assuming a more relaxed posture that was probably meant to put me at ease. "Quite the opposite, actually," he said. "With thinking like that you're selling yourself short." He must have read my confusion at his response. "You see, I've had the pleasure of visiting Aurora's thoughts," he continued. "I learned many interesting things on that night. One of which was how much she cared for you, human or not. Another was just how remarkable you truly are in your chosen career path. For someone who has been on the earth for so few years, you've accomplished a great deal. From what I've gathered, you're extremely popular amongst your peers."
"We're very lucky," I said. I knew he expected me to say something, but I didn't have the faintest idea what it was. I really couldn't imagine where he was trying to go with this, but I had more important things to worry about. Like the fact that my wife was dying down the hall. I realized instantly that he would have read that in my thoughts, but I decided to say it anyway. "I'd love nothing more than to talk about the music industry with you over blood sometime, Mr. Vidic, but I'm here to ask for your help. Aurora is dying, and as far as we can figure …" I included Mark with a sweep of my hand. "You're the only one who might be able to save her. If you only knew what it took to get her here."
Immortals And Melodies (Blood And Guitars #2) Page 22
