"Let's go." We ran to the sign. The daggers were starting to hurt.
"I need to get in there now." Tanner shouted, and ran through the wall.
I wondered how he managed to run into the wall, but I didn't have time question it or I would soon be throwing up and incapacitated for hours. I leaned against the wall with my eyes closed and went through just in time.
"Quick. Find a room without any light," I told him with my eyes covered.
He grabbed my arm and led the way. Finally, he stopped and said, "It's safe to open your eyes."
I opened them and we were in a nearly empty walk-in closet. There were a few pieces of ugly clothing hanging up and some scarves lying on the carpet.
"Why didn't light bother me as much as it did you?" he asked.
"It has been getting more intense each day," I told him. "I'm not sure if it gets worse with time or exposure, but it keeps getting worse each time."
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But if I had spent any more time out there, I wouldn't be." I told him about what happened the last time, when I was in the other house before I found him.
"That's horrible. We need to find a way to get the sun blessing. We can't show up to our families unable to be in the sun. How would we explain that?"
I sighed. "You're right. We could go back and pretend to be normal humans if we could be in the sun. But there's no way to explain that away."
"How are we going to have a sun blessing placed on us?"
"I will have to get in contact with Brooke or Clara, because I don't know anyone who can give us the blessing."
"How will we get in contact with them without anyone else discovering us? Didn't you say that we were all over the news?"
"Yes, everyone is looking for us. We can't blend in at all, especially while we are together. If this place has internet access and a computer, I can email Brooke like I did last time."
"It doesn't look like too much was left in this house from what I could see. Did you want me to look around, assuming that the sun doesn't bother me yet?"
"If it starts to even tingle get back in here. The pain can start very suddenly."
"Will do," he said, and left the closet.
I sat and thought about everything that had happened in the last week or so. I wasn't even sure how long it had been since Tanner and I were taken. Now he was a vampire, and together we had killed the vampires who had taken us. It made my head spin just thinking about all of it.
Part of me wanted to go back home and have everything back to the way it was before I began my transformation. Another part of me was very excited about all of this and couldn't wait to see what was next. I was definitely feeling conflicted about everything.
I started to feel sleepy, so I lay down on the carpet and closed my eyes.
***
I was in a beautiful meadow beside a waterfall. Tanner was with me, and I was watching him as he ran through a field of flowers trying to catch a unicorn for me. The unicorn was toying with him, but he was determined to catch it for me.
Smiling, I sat down on a blanket, felt the soft spray of the waterfall and listened to the birds singing. I had on my homecoming dress and my fingers were covered with rings adorned with all kinds of jewels. They seemed to shine especially prettily in this particular light.
I looked up at Tanner. He had given up on the unicorn which was now sitting down, cleaning his tail. Tanner was walking toward me and had the most magnificent purple rose in his hand. When he reached me, he handed it to me, and I held it close and took in a deep breath. The scent filled my entire body with its sweetness.
He sat down beside me and said, "The flower reminded me of you because it is the most beautiful thing in this whole meadow. But it still doesn't even begin to compare with your beauty."
I smiled at him, and he leaned in and gave me a kiss. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him back.
He sat back and said, "This is like heaven on earth. I'm in the most beautiful place I've ever seen with the most beautiful woman to walk the earth, and we're here in the daylight."
"It certainly does seem perfect," I agreed and gave him another kiss.
"Excuse me," came a voice right next to us.
I opened my eyes and there stood Cliff towering over us. We both stood up and I exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to find you because I was ready to forgive you for your indiscretion and look where I find you. Right back where you were: with him. I thought that you were sorry, but you are back in his arms again. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I…I…"
"That's all that you have to say for yourself? You look like you've gone and found a new love. You've replaced me so easily and quickly. Yet I have spent my entire life waiting for you."
"You need to make a choice. If you make the wrong choice, I will banish you."
I gasped. "Banish me? Where?"
"To the underworld, which is the land of eternal misery. You'll never be able to escape and I'll never again have to look upon the face that betrayed me and broke my heart into millions of pieces."
I gulped. "I thought that I would only lose my place in the royal line."
"Leaving me to be the most powerful vampire in the world. Then I would be able to banish to you anywhere that I please."
"You wouldn't!"
"I couldn't stand to look at you if you didn't choose me after everything that I've done for you. Who is it going to be?"
"I have to choose right now?"
"Yes, reign with me or be banished with him into the land of misery and torment."
I looked at Tanner and thought of all the wonderful things that we had done together and how kind he had been to me when I was alone in a sea of hostility. I didn't want him to be banished.
Then I looked at Cliff, looking past his current rough exterior, and felt a flood of memories from our childhood when I adored him and him alone. I saw images of him waiting for me all those years even when he thought I was dead. Then, I saw the first time we were reunited before the dance and all the moments following. I saw how he had treated me like a perfect gentleman and refused to do more than kiss than my hand.
I looked back and forth between the two of them and started crying. How would I ever be able to make a choice?
***
I sat up in a cold sweat, gasping for air. It had all been a dream, a terrible dream. I knew that one day I would have to make a choice, but not right then and there. I looked over at Tanner who was sleeping on the floor next to me. He must have found a blanket somewhere, because there was one draped over us.
My mind wandered back to the dream. It was obviously not a memory like so many others that I'd had over the past months. I hoped that it was not a vision of the future. Cliff had been so cold and so distant, not unlike the last time that I had seen him.
I sighed, remembering the last time that we had seen each other and had spoken, with him ordering me out of his sight, telling me that he would call me when he was ready. He hadn't called me or anyone else. Everyone assured me that he was staying off the radar because he loved me, but I wasn't so sure.
Perhaps this dream was an expression of my feelings. I knew that the way Cliff was acting in my dream was the way that I thought he should be acting toward me. I didn't think I deserved his forgiveness. Especially now.
I looked over at Tanner, beautiful and sleeping so peacefully. He had been extremely handsome as a human, but now that he was a vampire he was extraordinarily beautiful.
How would I ever make a choice?
***
I had fallen back asleep and was awoken by a thumping noise. I listened more intently for other sounds, and thought that I heard people in the house. I nudged Tanner and he pushed me away.
"Tanner, we're not alone," I whispered in his ear.
He sat up and looked at me in shock. "You heard someone?" he whispered.
"I'm pretty sure that I heard several someones."
"Look at this place. Nobody lives here."
"You don't suppose it's a realtor do you?"
"Or worse, cops, if this place has any kind of security system. I didn't think to check for that when I was about to be killed by the sunlight."
We heard several footsteps coming up the steps and possibly right towards us.
I pointed to the ceiling and Tanner looked at me as if I had just suggested that we paint ourselves blue. I climbed up a wall and held myself up in one corner of the ceiling. He quickly followed to the corner opposite me. We were almost directly above the door to the closet, and would hopefully not be seen by humans.
My heart began racing and I told myself that we were fine, that we could take any human or even a vampire if need be. I was beginning to look forward to not having a heartbeat anymore, because it was a blaring siren to the undead.
Three people entered the closet. They were dressed like they were headed to the latest goth convention. I couldn't tell if they were human or vampires.
One said, "I hear a heartbeat. Do you hear that?"
"Of course we can hear it. It sounds like it's right on top of us."
Tanner looked at me and I knew that we had two choices: be discovered or jump down and have the element of surprise on our side. He nodded to me and then looked down.
He held out one finger, then two, then three fingers. On three, we both jumped down in front of the three strangers.
All at once, they stood like a cat ready to pounce and showed us their sharp teeth.
We responded in the same way, showing our teeth and stood in the same stance, ready to pounce.
"Who are you?" the tallest one demanded.
"Who are you?" Tanner demanded.
We all stared each other down.
"Do you mean us harm?" I asked.
"Do you mean us harm?" the other girl asked us.
"I've killed enough vampires today to last me at least a month," Tanner said. "If you don't intend to hurt us, we won't touch you."
"Seriously?" the girl asked, looking impressed.
"Yeah of course," Tanner replied.
"This I have to hear," she replied with a smile. "Tell us about the vampires you've killed today. Don't leave out a single detail."
TWENTY SIX
We were sitting around the kitchen table with the three vampires that we had just met, and Tanner was finishing up the story of his heroism. I smiled at the parts where he embellished a little, but let him have his glory. The other vampires, Kayla, Brad and Eric, were eating it up and thought he was the man. They practically had stars in their eyes.
I didn't know what his future held as a vampire, but it looked like he would make a good leader. He already had an adoring following.
"You should have seen him," I told them. "He killed about four of them while I was busy with just one vampire. He's really strong." I hoped that they got the message to not try messing with us, just in case they had other plans.
"I wish I had known how powerful I was when I was newly changed," Brad said. "That would have been really useful information."
"How did you know that you were so powerful?" Eric asked Tanner.
I glared at Tanner. Don't tell them too much.
"I hoped that what I'd seen in the movies was true, and it was," he told them.
"So did you guys escape from Vince?" Kayla asked.
"Vince?" I asked.
"So many vampires that we have run into have escaped from a powerful vampire named Vince. He's going around turning people into vampires and making them his slaves or something," she said. "Nobody really wants to talk about it."
"We haven't heard of Vince," I told her. "Has he changed a lot of vampires?"
"It sure seems that way. Almost every vampire that we come across is running from him."
"They're really scared of him too," added Brad.
"Do you know his last name?" I asked.
They all shook their heads no.
"He seems to want to keep his identity off the radar," Eric said. "Most of the vampires only know Vince by name. Nobody's actually seen him…and lived to tell about it. It sounds like he has other vampires taking care of the newly changed ones."
"I wonder what he's planning," I said, more to myself than anyone else.
"How did you guys become vampires?" Tanner asked, clearly trying to distract them from my out-loud thoughts. The last thing we needed was for them to find out that I was the vampire princess.
"I was left for dead by some vampire who didn't know that he had changed," Kayla said. "I found these guys not too much later."
Brad spoke up. "We've been wandering around together for a few years, trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. We don't actually run into that many other vampires. We keep hearing that if you can find a witch, they can cast a spell on you so that you can go into the sun, and we've been trying to find one ever since without any luck."
"It would be so nice to be able to blend in with society," Kayla said, sighing. "Wandering around at night gets so old. I get bored a lot."
"What about hunting?" Tanner asked. "That's pretty exciting."
"One thing that we have in common is that we don't want to kill people," she said. "So we just feed on them. It's not really a hunt. We just find some poor saps in their sleep and they wake up with a headache from the blood loss."
"Do you think that vampires make a habit of blending in with people?" I asked.
Eric said, "We don't know what typical vampires do. Like we said, we've mostly only run into Vince's runaways. We haven't found any vampire societies."
"You mean covens," Kayla corrected.
"You know," I said, "We're also looking for a way to be able to go into the sun. I know how to find someone to do it, but I will have to go alone. If you guys would stay here with Tanner, I would be willing to help you guys out."
Tanner shot me a look. Are you crazy?
I'm going to read their minds to make sure they can be trusted before I leave you with them. I wouldn't leave you in danger. You could take them, anyway.
The three of them looked at one another.
"You can really help us to go into the sun?" Kayla asked. She looked like I'd just offered her a winning lotto ticket.
"How?" Brad asked.
"What's in it for you?" Eric asked.
"Slow down. Not so many questions. Yes, I can really help to get you guys into the sun safely. I just need some kind of jewelry from you that will have the spell placed on it. What's in it for me is that I don't have to leave him alone so soon after he's been changed. Like I said, I need to go by myself."
They looked at each other, their thoughts were buzzing with excitement. It was very difficult to differentiate between the three of them.
"We're going to go discuss this in private if you don't mind," Kayla told us.
"Sounds good," I said, and they got up and went upstairs.
"What are you doing?" Tanner hissed at me.
"I'm going to get us out of this nighttime curse. Shhh, I need to listen to their conversation."
"Can we trust them?" Kayla asked the two guys.
"That guy is really powerful. They say he just took down four vampires by himself," Eric exclaimed. "He makes me nervous."
"They seem genuine. I think they're okay," Kayla said.
"I don't want him turning on us," Eric said.
"Guys, we would be able to go into the sun. We will be able to walk around with people during the day. We could possibly have a life again. Get jobs and have an actual place to live. Make some friends," Kayla said.
"What do you think, Brad?" Eric asked. "You're being quiet."
"I am concerned about his strength, but they do seem like the real deal. I'm not getting any bad vibes from them."
"It sounds like they're worried about you hurting them," I whispered to Tanner. "They aren't talking at all about harming you."
"I can hear them too,"
he said, rolling his eyes.
"You can?" I asked. "Strange. I thought that common vampires didn't have very many gifts. You can already do almost everything that I can do."
"Maybe I'm not so common because it was you that turned me."
"Interesting point," I agreed. "I haven't heard of any royals turning people into vampires. It's possible that a vampire takes on the gifts and talents of the vampire who changes them. I'll have to find out more about that."
They had stopped talking and were on their way back down the stairs.
"I can't believe you want to leave me with these vampires that we just met," Tanner hissed at me.
"You could take them all if you needed to. Not that you'll need to, they're scared of you. Maybe you could teach them a thing or two about fashion."
He laughed.
"What?" I asked.
"Just thinking it's funny coming from you. I remember what you used to dress like."
I shoved him in the shoulder. "Just because they're vampires doesn't mean that they need to dress like goths."
They entered the kitchen and Kayla said with a smirk, "We'd be happy to babysit him for you."
"Babysit me?" Tanner exclaimed.
"She's kidding," I said, rolling my eyes and trying to hide a smile. I turned to the other three. "So here's the deal. I'll need some kind of jewelry item for each of you to have it blessed for you. Also, unless your lives are in danger, don't travel too far from here. I'll need to be able to find you when I come back."
"Okay," Kayla said. "I've got a necklace. Will that work?"
"That should," I said, and she took it off and handed it to me. Brad and Eric each handed me a ring. I already had Tanner's ring.
I looked outside. "I probably should get going if I'm going to make it before daylight. Do you guys need anything before I leave?"
Tanner looked at me like he really didn't want me to leave.
"How long do you think you'll be gone?" Eric asked.
"I'm not sure exactly," I said. "I know who can take me to the one who can give us the sun blessings, but I don't know where that person is. It could be a couple of days, or even a week."
"A week?" Tanner exclaimed.
"I hope it's not that long, but I am being honest here."
The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5 Page 29
