by K M Smith
“I’ll try to answer your questions if I can.” He looked up and smiled weakly at her.
“If you can?” Alice asked. She sat forward, snapped out of her thoughts. “If you can’t, then I shouldn’t be here. You may have other people fooled, but not me. You’re weak. You’re no king. And this is no castle. You were out of the picture my entire life. And now? You’ll try to answer my questions?”
“You’re upset.”
Alice laughed. “Ya think? You stole me from my friends, my family, my life. I assume you’re not just going to let me go back. Not that I could get back, since I have no money, no phone, no way of contacting anyone!”
‘That’s not entirely true,’ Adam cut in telepathically.
“Well, this night just keeps getting better,” Alice said, tossing her arms up, exasperated.
“Did I miss something?” Drew asked.
“Nothing important!” Alice shouted out loud, but she knew Adam could’ve heard her whisper.
‘I’m nearly there, Alice. You can’t keep me from trying to help you.’
Alice huffed, and flung herself back on the sofa. She kept an eye the doorway, expecting Adam at any moment.
“Shit!” Drew said.
Alice’s eyes darted to Drew as a visible change came over him. “Finally catching on?” she said.
“Eliza!” he called.
In a blink Eliza was in the room standing with her hand on the back of Drew’s chair, facing Alice. “I’m here,” she said.
“Is anyone else here?” he asked.
“You’ve got to work on your telepathy skills,” Eliza huffed and shook her head. She stood still and closed her eyes.
Amazed and drawn to this badass female, who was obviously also a vampire and some relation to Drew, Alice closed her eyes to mimic the woman’s actions. Selective telepathic communication was one thing, but throwing out spidey senses—bat vibes?—brought the undead game to a whole new level in her mind.
Eliza opened her eyes and stared pointedly at Alice. “I’ve got Leo and Jake.” Alice perked up at the mention of Jake, then sat back just as quickly. Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes went wide as she contemplated the floor.
Eliza paused, huffed at Alice, then continued, “There’s someone else near, as well. Someone I don’t recognize.”
“Adam,” Alice said and jumped up from the sofa.
As soon as she said his name, the air in the room exploded.
In the split second before Alice was thrown backward by the concussive force of the explosion, Drew and Eliza shouted for each other to take cover. Alice shrieked as the vampires were flung to the ground by an invisible energy. Closing her eyes, she threw her arms up to cover her face.
She slammed into the wall behind her and slumped to the floor in a heap, landing hard. Her head smashed into a framed portrait causing the glass to break and rain down around her. A sharp high-pitched buzzing sound rang through her head as she looked around the room to get her bearings.
All around her the air had whipped into a frenzy, smashing windows, throwing objects and people around as though they were part of the tsunami brought about by hurricane-force winds. On the floor in the middle of the room, Drew and Eliza clung to each other as dust and debris covered everyone.
It had all happened so quickly.
“What was that?” Eliza whispered. She sat up and removed herself from Drew’s clutches. Alice stayed put on the floor, dazed. She gingerly patted her clothes, hoping not to force any shards or splinters into her skin. Dust puffed up with each pat. She coughed and spluttered, hoping she wasn’t inhaling minuscule particles of glass.
As she caught her breath, she took stock of her surroundings. She hadn’t looked closely at all the things in the room prior to the explosion, but whatever had been there before was gone now.
The dust had started to settle, with little motes floating around the room when Adam marched in. In a renewed frenzy, the remaining dust and debris swirled and danced on the air behind him. He came to a halt in the center of the room as a final gust forced its way through, whipping whatever wasn’t bolted to the floor into a chaotic whirlwind, and clearing the air before settling around him. Alice had never seen such a spectacle. Though, she wasn’t surprised. Adam seemed to stir shit up everywhere he went.
Drew and Eliza were back on their feet as soon as Adam had entered the room. All three vampires tensed. Their fangs dropped, and they crouched, arms out and ready to fight. Alice couldn’t help but think they looked cartoonish.
The buzzing in her head stopped as soon as the air settled. She pushed herself off the floor, and small bits of glass and splinters of wood fell from her lap and tinkled quietly as they landed on the hard wood surface below. She gently shook her hair to jolt the loose pieces out as she stood. Stamping her feet, she shook off any remaining bits still clinging to her, then leaned back against the wall and blew the hair out of her eyes.
Drew and Eliza stepped in to block Adam from getting too close. Does nobody think I can fend for myself?
“She’s coming home with me,” Adam snarled. Alice rolled her eyes.
The vampires continued squaring off as though Alice weren’t in the room with them. Like some kind of bystander to the decisions of what to do with her life. Since when does anyone speak for me? Even surrounded by angry and amped up vampires, she stood defiant.
The verbal sparring continued between Adam and Drew. At each angry volley, Alice shifted and fidgeted. Should she speak up? What would they do to her if she did? She didn’t want anyone making decisions for her, but she was outnumbered and had no chance of making a clean getaway.
The vampire called Eliza threw an entirely different vibe into the mix, and that intrigued Alice. She’d had time to get a pretty good read on both Adam and Drew, and even Jake and Leo, for that matter, but Eliza was another story. She was obviously loyal to Drew, but there was empathy laced with deep concern in her eyes as she kept watch over Alice. Does she think I’m going to go all berserker and start staking people? Eliza turned toward her and arched an eyebrow after Alice thought that, and Alice inhaled sharply at the idea of being caught.
‘Can you hear me?’ Alice projected her thoughts toward Eliza, but Eliza had turned her head away.
Drew continued his tirade toward Adam, “I never would’ve had to live knowing that I had a child and could’ve—should’ve—had a family, if not for you! You took my family. You took my life!”
“I gave you new life! You had the opportunity to start over—and look, you did. But you chose to start over without your family. You chose to run away from your problems again.” Alice caught Adam’s eye and quickly turned her head away to stare at the floor. The fighting was too much. Over what? Her? Her mother? Some old grudge?
Alice’s mind buzzed again, but the air remained settled. She studied the room and objects began to take on a Dali-esque droop. The clock, the parts of it that still remained attached to it, seemed to be melting into the floor. The arch over the doorway appeared to flow from left to right. Alice blinked her eyes repeatedly, but that didn’t help.
Everything took on a distant quality. Like she was observing the room rather than being a part of what was happening in the room. A tightness grew in her stomach and her hands began to tingle. Her body had been changing, she realized now, since meeting Adam that night in the fraternity house. Barely perceptible changes: hearing something from across the room, running faster than usual and not falling or tripping when she did run. Not that Alice was a klutz, but moving through life had become smoother recently, especially since meeting Adam. But now, surrounded by anger and confusion, that smoothness turned into a messy, constricted coil that twisted tighter as the taunts grew sharper. Alice’s breath came in short bursts, and the edges of the room began to dim.
Something big was coming.
◆◆◆
It was time to leave. Alice didn’t want to lose it in front of these people. Her choices were stay with Drew and his minions and whatever they
had in store for her, or go with Adam and his lies. Which was worse? In a house filled with vampires all making decisions for you, the only real choice was to leave. On her own. But that wasn’t likely. Not with Drew’s agitated companion watching over her, and not with Leo and Jake guarding the place. They were never too far away, as she’d discovered many times over the last twenty-four hours. And also, because she had no idea where the front door was. Alice didn’t have the luxury of vampiric strength, extra-sensory perception, or the ability to control anything, other than her own limbs. And even that seemed dicey at the moment.
Drew and Adam continued exchanging insults—each berating the other’s abilities in every way possible. As they argued, the air in the room became electrified—growing more intense and sharper with each barb. Drew’s partner, Eliza, had noticed the change as well. Wobbling, Alice threw her hands behind her against the wall to steady herself. The room appeared to fade out with only Drew and Adam remaining in her vision. She forced herself to concentrate on every word they said.
As the arguing intensified, the electricity in the room invaded Alice’s mind. The angry electricity was feeding off Alice’s agitation and the rage being thrown around by Drew and Adam. Alice’s mind absorbed every bit of the raging energy and it grew until it pushed every other sight, sound and thought out of the way. There was nothing left inside her mind but searing pain. The rage-energy made its crescendo as a piercing scream inside her head. She grabbed her head with both hands and sank to her knees. Electric daggers of energy pierced her brain and a scream erupted from deep within her and echoed around the room.
All the fighting stopped. The air around her changed, but it had no effect on her current state. She sensed Adam draw near but she couldn’t move to push him away. The screaming in her mind was all-consuming.
From somewhere seemingly far away, Eliza shouted, “Don’t! Something isn’t right.”
Alone in her mind, Alice sensed Drew attempting to touch her after Adam moved closer. She didn’t want either of them so close, and suddenly there was a collective gasp from the vampires. Alice opened her eyes, but the light from the room forced her to close them. Determined to see what everyone was reacting to, she opened her eyes again, more slowly this time. The vampires had encircled her, but they all stayed back, like she was some sort of wild animal about to strike. She looked up toward the light and shielded her eyes from it, but as she looked up, she saw faint blue and red sparks materializing and de-materializing alternately all around her. The air shimmered with the colorful sparks.
All of this happened in a fraction of a second.
Alice put her hand up to stop Adam from touching her. Stay away, she growled in her mind. As her hand went up, a spark flew out toward him. Like she had thrown it at him. He winced at the shock of it and abruptly brought his hand back.
Alice’s chest heaved, and a low snarl came from the pit of her stomach. ‘Leave. Me. Alone!’ She threw the thought out to the room, and they all took a hesitant step backward. Panting like a caged animal, her eyes darted from vampire to vampire. Home. I want to go home. Their intense stares became too much for her to handle, and she cried out, pressing her hands tighter to the sides of her head. Eyes shut tight, intense pain fired into all the nerve endings in her body and a bright, blinding light flashed in the space behind her eyelids. Every single sensation she’d ever physically experienced in her entire life—from birth until this very moment—crushed in on her body simultaneously. Every scraped knee, every bruised limb, every goose bump, every orgasm—the myriad sensations collided and compounded so that she no longer had any sense of what was happening outside her body. Every single inch of flesh twitched and burned, and inside her mind was a black hole sucking in her thoughts, her physical sensations—everything all at once.
Then, it stopped. No searing pain. No blinding light. Just darkness and quiet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Adam
Emptiness filled the air. The buzzing stopped. The sparks dissipated. Adam’s body relaxed, and from the looks of it, everyone else felt the same sense of release.
He took a cautious step toward the empty space where Alice had been until a moment before. “What—?”
“What did you do to her?” Drew snarled through gritted teeth.
“You think I had something to do with this?” Adam snarled back.
“She was fine until you brought your weather magic in with you!”
Adam laughed, “‘Weather magic?’ Really?” He paced the room as he spoke. “So, you think my grand plan was to sweep in with my ‘weather magic,’ get Alice to somehow disapparate, and then rush out again—laughing maniacally?”
Drew squinted his eyes in reply.
Adam stopped pacing, “My ‘weather magic,’ as you call it, is a gift. I no more asked for it than I could give it away. I have no idea what just happened. And, frankly, I could just as easily point my finger at you for this.”
Drew stepped toward Adam and the two vampires squared off. “Me?” he barked. “You think I orchestrated this whole kidnapping business just so I could make my daughter—my own flesh and blood,” he pointed his finger and pounded it on his own chest as he spoke, “disappear within ten minutes of seeing her and speaking with her for the very first time?” He threw his hands to his side. “Why would I do that?” He walked back toward Eliza. His next words were directed at Adam. “I know you think I’m a helpless imbecile, but you don’t know me at all.”
Adam chose not to reply. He thought back through his own extensive lifetime, and never had he experienced anything like this. He’d never heard of something like this happening.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Leo began. Adam snapped his head in Leo’s direction, listening to the brute for the first time. “But I kinda think we oughtta try and track her down. I mean, I know she just disappeared—’scuse me, ‘dis-app-a-ra-ted’—’n-all but, uh, I’m pretty sure she’s going to turn up somewhere, and who knows what’ll happen if someone we all don’t like happens to find her before we do.”
Jake ran his hand through his hair and nodded. “Leo’s right,” he said. “She’s not here, but she can’t just be gone.”
“I agree. I think.” Eliza chimed in. “But we can’t just take off through the city with no plan.”
“So, what do you suggest?” Adam spoke up and looked at Eliza expectantly.
“I don’t know – yet.”
“What the hell just happened?” Drew spoke this time. He traced a path behind Jake, “Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening?”
Adam shook his head. Everyone remained quiet, their mouths hanging open in disbelief.
CHAPTER FORTY
Alice
Alice opened her eyes and struggled to focus through the slimy mess sliding off her face. A Vaseline effect further clouded her vision. She reached up to drag her hand across her face but froze midway as a rustling sound screamed through her head. Flinching at the sound provoked another scream to rip through her brain. “Ah!” The scream from her lips amplified to create a roaring waterfall crashing inside her head. Nausea rolled through her and she stopped moving, anything to keep that horrible noise away.
Blinking slowly and only moving her eyeballs, she looked around. Where am I? Why is everything so loud? Blinking again, the Vaseline-vision dissipated. She had been lying on her stomach in what appeared to be a dirty, slush-covered pile of moldy leaves. The leaf-mush had been restricting her vision.
“Wha…?” she mumbled through moldy leaves stuck on her face. She winced at the sound, still loud, but no longer screaming in her brain. A few leaf stragglers clung to her face and she forced out a puff of air to encourage them to fall. To keep the nausea and searing pain at bay, she carefully pushed herself off the ground and sat back on her heels. The ground seemed to move under her feet, and she reached back to steady herself. Ignore the spinning. Don’t throw up. When the nausea abated, she brushed her hands together to wipe off any remaining leaves. Particles p
uffed in the air around her hands and everything moved in slow motion. Sounds were loud and distorted, like a record that had been slowed down.
A delicate, lacy leaf caught her eye as it floated toward the ground. It was the middle of the night, dark except for the street lights, yet the veins running through the leaf were obvious and bright. The leaf had started turning a deep purple around its jagged edges and those edges held the smallest drops of a congealed liquid, suggesting an insect had recently been chewing there. Dancing in time with the air currents, with the slightest change causing it to jump or dive, the leaf landed on the ground with an audible “poof.”
Reaching out to touch the leaf, Alice became distracted by the visible wake left in the air as she moved her arm. “Woah!” She slowly moved her hand again, amazed by the effect. Like disturbing steam over a tea kettle. Am I high? Hallucinating, maybe?
She slid to the side and the scratching of her jeans as they rubbed together and scraped across the ground sounded, to her newly sensitive ears, as loud as a semi-truck barreling down the highway. Wincing, she turned her head away. Somewhere off in the distance, an impossibly loud owl made itself comfortable in a branch. How did she know it was an owl or what it was doing?
Nothing made sense. Time to take stock. Darkness equaled nighttime. Unless whatever had caused her to wake up outside in a pile of cold, mushy leaves, also caused the earth to stop rotating and the sun to stop rising and setting. Best to not contemplate that. An ache in her hands caught her attention. Her fingers dug into the frozen ground as she gripped the earth to keep from falling off. People don’t fall off the earth, Alice, she scolded herself. She would have believed herself a few weeks ago, but now…now she held on for dear life as the earth hurtled in its orbit through space. Slow down, Alice, think. Don’t try to relive what just happened but focus on your current situation. Breathe—because you can, and that’s a good thing. It dawned on her then that she was still breathing, and she clearly still had a heartbeat, as evidenced by the whoosh-roar thrumming in her ears. Every time another layer of what she was experiencing became evident, her body had to speed up to help her mind keep pace.
