Alex was confused. “You’re coming with us?”
She nodded. “Do you really think I am going to stay here? That would be a terrible decision.”
“I’m glad you’re coming,” he told her.
Deanna’s eyes met Corrine’s. “Well, I’m not; you should go somewhere safe.”
“Sweetheart, there is nowhere safe in this world anymore. I have a gift and I need to use that gift to help Jaiden, just like I helped you.”
Alex knew Deanna had been abandoned as a child and that she had somehow ended up with Corrine. Maybe it had just been chance but maybe God had given them each other, just like he had given Stewart to Jeremiah and Jaiden to him.
Alex rose from his seat and helped Corrine who began raiding her book shelves. She picked them out quickly, without even looking at the titles, and carefully set them into boxes. She seemed to have put the boxes there earlier when Michael had been talking because he hadn’t seen them before.
She looked at the rest of the group. They stood around looking like they wanted to help but didn’t know what to do.
“Deanna, down in the basement, there are several shelves full of charms and talismans. Can a couple of you put all of them into boxes and bring them up?”
“What can we do?” Damion asked her.
“In the kitchen, in the glass cupboards, I have a lot of ingredients for potions. Would you run them down the garbage disposal?”
“Sure.” He started toward the kitchen.
“Damion,” Corrine called out and he turned to see what she wanted. “Be careful not to mix them together when you dump them out.”
“How will I know which jars are the potion ones?”
“Oh, you’ll know.” She smiled.
Michael gathered his slayers. “We are going to start prepping some of the lights.”
After they had left, Chris carefully lifted the book. “Where do you want me to put this?”
Corrine looked up at Chris. “One of us must have the book at all times. We should never let it out of our sight. So just hold onto it for now.”
Victoria sat on the couch and watched everyone work. “Corrine, what about all of your documents from the previous council members, and the records of births and deaths?”
Amazed, Alex thought, Is Corrine our librarian? How come all of the council’s records come to her?
“They are in the special vault I have which protects very old documents. I will show you where it is in a bit.”
They worked quickly. Clearing out Corrine’s home was of utmost importance. If the bad guys got their hands on any of that, it wouldn’t be a good time for any of them.
A loud explosion shook the walls and a cloud of smoke rolled out of the kitchen.
“Oops.” Damion rushed to the doorway. “Don’t worry, everything’s ok.”
They all laughed, even Alex.
33
Once again, the caravan traveled down the open and mostly empty highways. The moonlight radiating down from the clear sky helped to light the way for them.
Alex tapped his fingers impatiently on the wheel as he drove. That time, instead of Isabella and Jaiden, he carried Corrine, Danielle and Chris with him. As they were one hummer short, all of them had to ride in the only two which were left.
Alex wondered how in the world they were going to pull this off. Please let them be ok, please, God.
Because the semis had the GPS system, they led the way. Damion’s hummer followed directly behind them and Alex brought up the rear. The estimated time of arrival was early morning which left Alex wondering what he and Chris were going to do when the sun rose.
They will probably make us sit in the trucks with all those vampire slayers. He shuttered at the thought.
The silence in the vehicle seemed appropriate for the time being. Each and every one of them faced their own demons with the battle; all had their own reasons for wanting to conquer Malcolm.
Alex suddenly realized that his own reasons had recently fluctuated. Being long time enemies, he and Malcolm had fought many times while he had served on the council and Malcolm had seemed to make Alex his arch enemy for no apparent reason except that Alex was the only vampire on the council.
Alex could vividly remember one particular encounter where Malcolm had tried to tear out his heart with his bare hands.
The memory caused a vicious jolt of pain to sear through his chest.
He took his hand off the wheel and gently rubbed the spot. Because of that moment, Alex would kill him. His growing love for Jaiden and Isabella only reinforced his urge. Never in his life, save when his family had died, had he wanted to kill someone so much.
For the others, it was also personal. They each had some reason to want Malcolm out of the picture and it was those grudges which drove them hardest when facing the enemy.
Chris was the only one of them who didn’t have a particular reason except for his loyalty to Alex and the council.
Though it pleased him immensely that Chris would always be there to back him up in any given situation, he didn’t like it one bit that Chris, another of his loved ones, would be facing dangers that might bring him more loss.
He knew that that type of reasoning was true for the slayers as well. To be a vampire slayer, you needed to be born with some driving need to defeat the forces of evil, an ache to do something for the good side. Or, you simply wanted revenge.
Alex moved his head from side to side as if trying to shake out the thoughts.
He glanced over at Corrine, who sat in the passenger seat.
“Are you ok?” he asked her when he saw concern embedded on her face.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just don’t think any of us really understands just how powerful Levine actually is.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know if she knows it.”
“Well,” he responded, “maybe she underestimates us too.”
“I hope so, but did you see what happened back there? It was all of us against only her, and she got away.”
“Oh Corrine, don’t tell me that you are starting to lose faith. You just got through telling me to trust my fellow council members more.”
From the back seat, Danielle spoke up. “Maybe we should all try having some faith in God right now.”
Alex took his eyes off the road and looked back at her. “True.” He faced forward again. “But, you know how hard it is to remember your faith when danger is knocking on your door. It’s like you know it’s there but for a moment, just for a moment, you forget and you feel as if you’re facing it alone.”
They contemplated that in silence while the dark outline of the mountains grew larger and larger as they drove on.
The thick forest of tamarack and pine trees spread all the way down the mountains right up to the side of the road. For a while, they drove alongside a river. Calm and still with the moonlight reflecting off of it, Alex couldn’t help but feel a wave of peace wash over him.
“It’s beautiful up here,” he said to no one in particular.
“That’s why I love this place so much,” Corrine told him. “There’s just something about it that gives life to my soul.”
Glancing over at her, he calmly told her, “Nothing can give life to my soul.”
“You would be surprised,” she answered him just as calmly.
Eventually, the caravan started to slow to about ten miles per hour.
“I think we are almost there,” Chris said. “It looks like they are looking for a turn.”
“Yeah, I think so too,” Alex said while he tried to keep a good pace with them.
Soon, they turned off onto a road worse than Corrine’s. Alex watched in awe as the trucks maneuvered slowly over the gigantic bumps and ruts, tipping drastically from one side to the other.
“It looks like they are going to tip over,” he heard Danielle say from behind him.
“Amazing,” Chris added.
Finally, the line of vehicles came to a complete stop right in the middle of the road because
there was nowhere else to pull over. Alex cut the engine and jumped out of his hummer.
He joined everyone as they gathered near the second semi and stared at the mountains before them.
“There it is.” Michael pointed.
I guess it really isn’t quite a mountain, Alex thought. Compared to the others around them, those were just small hills, but still large enough to accommodate a massive army of vampires.
Michael had pointed toward their left; there stood a medium sized mountain that was completely round on the top. Alex knew his vision was better than most of them and it looked to him like the tip was void of any trees.
A perfect way for them to identify their home from a distance, he thought.
Damion had turned to Victoria.
“Are you ready?” he asked her.
“Of course I’m not.”
“Well, it’s time.”
Alex knew she was angry about having to do this, but at the same time, she was so mean to everyone all the time that it was hard to feel sorry for her.
“Fine, fine, I’m ready, then.”
Immediately, Damion started instructing her. “You know that you can’t use any telepathy; you have to close your mind to everything. If you don’t, they will pick up your thoughts. When you get out, then use it to find us. We can’t stay here.”
“I’m not stupid, Damion.”
Michael took her wrinkled hand into his callused one. “We can’t even take you to find the entrance; they might have surveillance.”
“I know that.” She spat out. “Just let me go get this done.”
She yanked her hand away from him. With those as her last words, she stalked off into the forest.
“Well,” Damion said. “We probably have a long wait ahead of us. Most likely all day so we should find a place to hide our vehicles.”
“Yeah,” Michael said. “I have a bad feeling about this area; I think they will be watching it if it’s the only way in.”
Damion nodded. “You’re right; we need to get out of here. We’re going to have to drive all the way up this road until we find a place to turn around.”
Michael raised his eyebrows. “I think I’m just going to back them into the trees to turn around. I doubt there is a space big enough to turn these things around, anyway.”
“Let’s just go back out to the main road and park them there. That’s probably far enough.”
“Let’s do it, then.”
After quite a difficult time of turning the semis around, they drove them and the hummers back out near the main road.
When they had parked and stood next to their vehicles once more, Alex felt Danielle’s hand on his shoulder.
“You and Chris are going to have to wait in the trucks, just to make sure that no sunlight will get to you.”
Alex shrugged like he didn’t care even though he did. “I figured.”
That was the last thing he wanted to do, sit around and talk with the vampire slayers all day; and he certainly wasn’t going to sleep.
“It’s just safer that way,” she told him.
Again, he shrugged. “I know that.”
Suddenly, Chris was beside him. “Wait a minute, what?” He pointed at the trucks. “We have to wait in there all day?”
Alex nodded.
“No, I’m not doing it; I don’t care what all of you say. I don’t know those people and they don’t know me.”
“There is nowhere else for you to go,” Danielle told him.
“Damn it.” Chris cursed.
Alex rolled his eyes at Chris. “Let’s just do it.”
Surprised, Chris snapped toward Alex. “Alex, since when did you become such a socialite? I don’t want to.”
Alex sighed. “Chris, it’s true. We don’t have any other choice and we should be happy that we have a place to go at all.”
“Damn it.” Chris swore again. “Fine, but don’t think for a second that I’m happy about this.”
“Don’t worry,” Danielle told him.
“Yeah, ok.” Chris blew her off as he marched toward the semi.
Alex shrugged his shoulders and followed.
Once in the back of the semi, he stood next to Chris as they both stared in awe at what they saw.
There were several bunks, some of which were nicely made and some that weren’t. There were two desks that were cluttered with all kinds of unrecognizable gadgets. Computers with glowing monitors also took up some of the space.
Alex began to feel uncomfortable as he realized that six vampire slayers who were lounging in various spots were staring at them.
“Hi,” Chris said loudly.
A blond woman with a very butch haircut and a sleeveless tee shirt stood with her hand extended. “Hi, I’m Jackie.”
Alex watched as Chris took her hand and shook it.
“Chris,” he told her.
She turned to Alex and shook his hand too.
“I’m Alex. They told us to come in here,” he blurted out nervously.
“We know.” She smiled at him. “Don’t worry, come on.” She waved her hand
“You can use any of the beds that you want to.”
Boy, what a sweet voice for such a butch looking lady, he thought.
“Thank you,” he said as he ignored the stares of the others and went to a bottom bunk to sit. Chris followed closely behind and sat on the one directly across from him.
Jackie took her seat at one of the desks, and then, they all sat in silence. It seemed that the other slayers had no interest in trying to make conversation with them. As a matter of fact, it looked to Alex like they were just as happy about them being there as they were.
“So,” Chris said. “Do you come here often?”
He pulled his legs up Indian style on the bed and rested his chin on his hands.
Alex sighed and lowered his head. Oh Christopher, always a comedian. Why?
One of the larger men held a book about ancient legends and lowered it when he said to Chris, “You don’t have to make conversation, man. We are all here for the same thing so go to sleep and get rested so that we can get our guy. Ok.”
Without waiting for an answer, he returned to his reading.
Alex watched graciously as Christopher only raised his eyebrows and stretched out on his bunk.
Alex did the same and rested his head on top of the pillow. It was true; they needed their rest for the night ahead of them. It would be pretty bold of them to try anything while the rest of the council was outside. So, it was probably safe to sleep.
He glanced over at Chris, who lay there with his eyes wide open, staring at the bunk above him. Then, he turned onto his side away from the eyes of the slayers and prayed silently.
Lord, please give us the strength to do this. Protect Victoria from the evil within the mountain and, when our time comes as well, help us to do your bidding to do whatever it is that you need us to do. Keep Jaiden, Isabella and Stewart safe in the arms of the enemy. I will fight for them and I will fight for you.
Alex didn’t end his prayer properly but just let his eyes close. Slumber enveloped him peacefully.
34
Victoria shed her clothes as soon as she felt sure she had put enough distance between the rest of them and herself. Then, as quickly as her aged and weakened legs would take her, she searched for the entrance.
As much as she wanted to, she could not stop the raging flood of thoughts that spun round endlessly in her head. She was doing something she hadn’t done for many years. Long ago, when she had had curves and perky breasts, it had been no problem. But she was old and taking off your clothes wasn’t something you looked forward to. Even invisibility couldn’t stop self-consciousness.
Still, she could feel the slight lust of excitement.
She knew that no one would be able to see her so she directed her worries to the imbeciles outside. Most likely they were moving about, screaming and shouting, making themselves perfect targets.
Quietly, making her steps l
ight so as to keep the twigs and such from snapping loudly, she followed the circumference of the mountain. It wasn’t long before she heard low voices. The entrance was heavily guarded by several human men.
The entrance was not well hidden; in fact, it was downright visible. A massive set of stone doors, with strange markings etched into them, along with the guards were her only obstacles.
The guards she knew she could fool; it was getting through those gigantic doors that concerned her. There was absolutely no way she was able to pass through without having to open them, which in turn would alert the guards.
It looked as if she had to wait for someone to open them.
Damn, that could take forever.
With no other choice, she waited. Softly, she moved toward where the guards stood chatting and stood right between them, in front of the doors.
She felt utterly uncomfortable as she stood there naked in front of several human men, listening to their talk about insignificant things.
Hours passed. Victoria’s legs began to ache from lack of movement. They are never going to open the damn doors, she thought. And these guards, they can just talk of nothingness all day.
The anticipated sunlight finally made its appearance and filtered beautifully through the trees. Victoria felt goosebumps rising up the length of her bare skin and couldn’t decide if it was from the chill in the air or something else.
Finally, she heard echos coming from within the doors.
Thank God.
The doors were heaved open by more humans, who were also armed like the ones she stood with.
Ah, shift change, she thought while she quickly slipped inside.
Once inside, she was not surprised to find that the passages were a labyrinth of caves. Man-made, she thought as she ran her hands over the damp walls, searching for pockets and crevices just as she had been instructed.
There were many turns and stairways that she inspected while she slowly crept through the passages. Every now and then, a passing guard wandered by as they patrolled the caves and caused her to stop and hold her breath until they were far out of sight.
Somewhere far below her, she could hear screaming. Too many screams, small ones, deep ones, long ones. She wanted to cover her ears and block them out. Instinct did bring her palms to her ears but that still didn’t quiet the awful screams.
Birth of Jaiden Page 21
