by M. J. O'Shea
We pulled the rental car off to the side into the bushes. It would be bad if anybody saw the car and alerted someone to our presence. We were hoping against hope that we could get in and rescue Noah’s mom without anyone even knowing we were there. The likelihood of all of us surviving a close-quarters fight with trained hunters was slim to none, so it would be best if there wasn’t a fight at all.
Walking low to the ground, the wet grass soaking our pants, we circled around to the back entrance. Noah hadn’t been to the house in years, but he remembered there was a staircase to the basement from inside the kitchen where he used to hide from his cousins who wanted to play dress-up with him. The night was pitch black, the clouds covering the moon. It was perfect for our purposes but made the night just that much scarier. We were almost to the kitchen door when there was a shuffling noise and a light flickered on inside. Noah grabbed my shirt and pulled me down, with him and Colin crouching right next to me.
In the window, I could see an older woman filling a teakettle and shuffling through the cabinets for a late night snack.
“I remember her,” Noah whispered. “She’s the head housekeeper. Her bedroom’s right next to the kitchen, and she’ll scream bloody murder if she hears us. When we go in, it has to be totally silent.”
Colin and I nodded.
When we finally heard the muffled thump of a door closing, Noah signaled us to go. Noah and Colin got to work trying to pry open a window that was at chest height. I walked quietly around to the other side of the small kitchen courtyard. I didn’t want to suggest the obvious to them but decided to try myself and see if the kitchen door was open. I put my hand on the cold brass knob and turned. With a tiny squeak, the door opened.
“Hey, guys!” I whispered as loud as I could. When they turned, I beckoned to the slightly open door. They both grinned and rolled their eyes.
“I’m glad someone’s smart,” Colin muttered when they got to the doorway. Noah simply kissed my forehead and silently ducked into the room.
Noah pointed to a heavy white door in the corner, and we crept through the cavernous old kitchen toward it. The stairs to the basement were dark and felt slightly damp, but we couldn’t use any lights at all. I ran my hand along the wall, my sensitive eyes acclimating to the darkness quickly. I thought I had to be imagining the bad feeling that seemed to be seeping out of the walls.
Just because the Harpers saw things in black and white didn’t mean they were evil, did it? I couldn’t help but think of them that way, though. Anyone who would hurt Noah was a mortal enemy of mine. I didn’t care what their reasoning was.
The stairs ended in a cramped basement hallway that seemed to stretch forever into the darkness. Colin gestured for us to stop.
“Okay, if there is a lab, or some sort of holding area, it will be near the east wing. We’ve seen Bianca in the back courtyard by a set of stairs that seem to come from that area over there.” He pointed diagonally to the right.
We both looked at Noah.
“I’ve never been down here before,” he protested. “Don’t look at me. Let’s just head down this hall and hope to hell that there’s a turnoff somewhere.”
We crept down the hallway, listening intently for movement. If nothing else, we had to get to his mother before anyone found us. The closer we got to the area under the east wing, the weirder it started to smell.
“God, what is that stench?” Noah finally whispered.
“Probably some recent incarnation of whatever it is your grandfather’s working on. God, if they’re injecting that shit into Bianca….”
We all knew the implications.
Unconsciously, we picked up the pace, heading for the disgusting smell. If there was anywhere in the house she’d be, that was probably it. I reached for Noah’s hand in the darkness to give him comfort. Who knew what we’d find at the end of the hallway?
Eventually, we got to a right turn. We took it, walking faster still but trying to remain silent. The hallway was short and by the end of it, we all had our shirts covering our faces except for our eyes. Mine were burning and watery, aching to get to fresh air. I knew we had to continue.
There was a room at the end of the hall, filled with lab tables and beakers, vials of chemicals, and test tubes filled with a red liquid I could only assume was blood. I hated the way the air felt against my skin. Whatever chemical was in those tubes reacted badly, making my pores feel as if they were tightening and melting together. It was starting to get painful.
How on earth had Noah’s mother been able to stay in here?
“Over there!” Noah exclaimed through his shirt, pointing at what looked like an old-fashioned zoo cage. There was a figure huddled in the corner in faded gray hospital scrubs. She was shivering, and her once thick and shiny hair was a corn-colored mop sticking in all directions from her head.
“Mom!”
Noah ran toward her enclosure and shook at the bars, trying to wake her. She lifted her head and stared unseeing for a few seconds before she seemed to understand what was happening.
“Noah, baby? How are you here?” Her voice was so lost and quiet it made my heart break.
“It doesn’t matter, Mom. Do you know where they keep the keys to this thing?”
“On the hook over by the refrigerator.” She pointed with an emaciated-looking hand.
I ran over, grabbed the keys, and tossed them to Noah. He unlocked the door and rushed in, pulling her into his arms. Then he put her arm over his shoulder and helped her out of the cage. It was the first time she noticed there were other people in the room.
“Zachary? Colin? What are you doing here?”
“We’re here to get you, Aunt Bianca.”
“But Colin, I’m a—” She looked humiliated.
“Mom, it’s okay. He already knows. Look at me. Closely.”
She leaned back and took a long look at Noah. Reaching up, she cupped his face with tears slipping down her cheeks. “My little boy? How?”
“The same night as you. They turned us both and killed Dad. I thought you were dead until two days ago. That’s when Colin came and told me the Fitzgeralds found you.”
“And Zack?”
“Can we save that for the ride home? It’s a long story.” Noah flashed a grin at me as he spoke and I smiled back.
“Oh,” she whispered. Even in her weak state, Bianca Harper didn’t miss much. “I’m glad. I felt so bad for you boys before.” She took a long breath. “Let’s get the hell out of here. If I never see this place again, it’ll be too soon.”
“We came down from the kitchen. Is there a faster way out?” Bianca nodded and pointed to a darkened corner. “That stairwell leads out to a courtyard. It’s not all the way walled in. I tried to run a few months ago, but I didn’t get far enough to see if it leads to the road.”
“I guess we’ll figure it out tonight. C’mon, Mom, follow me. Zack and Colin will take the back.” We filed up the stairs, still trying to be careful and silent.
The door at the top of the stairs was cast iron and heavy and creaked so loud it sounded like one of those doors in an old Darkwing Duck cartoon. I half expected bats to come flying toward us at any second. We stood, stock still, waiting for barking dogs or lights to turn on.
Nothing. It seemed like we were home free.
“See that dark archway? Go through there.” We followed Bianca’s lead, running through the courtyard, which seemed ridiculously large.
Noah’s mother was slow, weak from long months of mistreatment and little blood. We pushed and pulled her along as much as possible, but it was frustrating. We’d have been through the gate already on our own.
Suddenly the bricks in front of us shattered as a shotgun slug hit them. “You’re surrounded! Halt!” The voice rang out across the night sky, cold and, unfortunately, familiar. The reckoning had begun.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want my mother!” Noah called out. “Let us leave and you’ll never hear from us again.”
S
hoes clicked forcefully on the paved yard, echoing across the brick walls.
Grandfather Harper emerged from the darkness, shotgun in hand and an aristocratic sneer on his face. He looked at me and recognition dawned quickly.
“Poor choice bringing that… thing. He’ll only slow you down. Two vamps and a hunter may have escaped, but a slutty little human? Not a chance.”
That’s freaking it. What’s with all the slut stuff, anyway?
I growled and went to lunge, but Noah held me back. “Babe, stop. He’s not worth it.” Then he made his voice louder. “Let us go, Grandfather. We’re nothing to you. I just want my mom to be safe and to live my life. I’m even hunting rogues still. I’m on your side. Why can you not see that?”
“Because it’s against everything you creatures are.” He snapped his fingers and two more figures appeared, walking silently from the darkness.
Noah squinted. “Aunt Sophie? Amanda?”
A beautiful young blonde girl with Noah’s coloring looked at her grandfather with accusing eyes. “You didn’t tell us it was Noah. You said that vampires were here to rescue her.”
“He is a vampire now. Look at him. That’s what your precious Noah has become.”
Bravely, Noah walked toward his cousin, his hands held out, palms up. “Amanda, look, I’m still me. Exactly the same. Remember when we used to play in the kitchen? Ask Colin. He’s a hunter and they’ve been watching me. I’ve never killed anyone. I just want to save my mother. Do you know Grandfather’s been killing her? Injecting her with chemicals that make my skin burn just being in a room with them? Ask yourself—who’s the bad guy here?”
There was only a moment of hesitation, then Amanda’s exquisite face crumpled in agony. She rushed forward to wrap her arms around her favorite cousin’s shoulders. The moment was sweet, trusting. They drew back and grinned at each other. In a split second, Grandfather raised his gun, and a shot rang out in the night sky.
After that, things seemed to move in slow motion, just like in the movies. I screamed and ran for Noah, every step feeling like a hundred years, watching as he fell to the ground on top of the girl. At the same time, Colin rushed old Harper, wrenching the rifle out of his hands and swinging as hard as he could for his head. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the old man fall lifeless to the ground. At Noah’s side, I dropped to my knees, frantically feeling his body for wetness. I felt something sticky and warm on his side and panicked.
“Noah, babe, no! You can’t!”
He reached up and covered my hand. “I’m okay. It’s just a scratch. He didn’t shoot me.” Noah raised his hand from his cousin’s back. It was covered in blood that gleamed purplish in the dark night.
For a moment, I felt the blood lust rushing in, but I controlled it. “She’s dying,” he whispered, his eyes huge. Noah was right. I could hear the girl’s heart grinding to a stop. Each beat was getting weaker.
“Aunt Sophie!” He looked up at his aunt, who had crumbled to the ground, crying. “Aunt Sophie!” he called again. She finally looked up. “Amanda’s dying. There’s only one way I can save her.”
Sophie froze, tears coursing down her face, but then she nodded once and looked away, closing her eyes. “Do it.”
Noah moved quickly, giving one of her arms to me and taking one for himself.
“We have to turn her fast, before she bleeds too much. It’s going to take two of us. You think you can do this?”
I nodded. “Okay, on my count. One, two, three.” We both bit in and I concentrated, releasing a stream of venom through my fangs. It was a strange feeling, kind of like Novocain in my mouth. Noah’s cousin let out a blood-curdling scream and then she froze in place. I felt Noah’s hand on my arm, signaling me to stop. I withdrew and she fell, twitching, onto Noah’s lap.
“Darling, it’s okay. You’ll be okay,” Sophie murmured to her daughter and stroked her on the forehead.
Finally, whether from shock or from the venom, Amanda’s eyes rolled back and she passed out.
Chapter Seventeen: A New Day
I COULDN’T believe it was all over. Grandfather was dead. Noah’s cousin, Amanda, was a vampire. We were in England, speeding for London. There were sheep grazing in the early morning gray. The house on the hill had a red roof. The only way things made any sense was if I kept repeating facts. Little facts, huge revelations. Everything was okay as long as I just went over them again and again in my mind.
The car was warm, heat blasting to combat the shock every single one of us had to be feeling. Noah and I were in the front and Colin shared the back seat with Noah’s mother and an unconscious but alive Amanda. Noah’s aunt had asked us to take her. She couldn’t stand to watch her daughter die but couldn’t live with her being a vampire either. I hoped she’d acted out of protection when she asked us to make Amanda disappear. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
When we reached the hotel where we’d stayed the night before, Colin went to check back in while the rest of us huddled behind the tinted windows of the sedan we’d rented. After he returned, we pulled around to the back entrance and made a run for it, carrying Amanda between Noah and me.
The few moments in the partly clouded daylight hurt my skin and made my eyes burn, but soon we were in the comfortably artificial light of the elevator. I looked over at Noah, at his mother, his hunter cousin, and the poor girl slumped between us who had no idea what she was going to wake up to. I didn’t know quite what to say. Noah reached behind his cousin and rubbed my back for a brief moment.
How could he be so selfless that he still worried about me when his family was in such turmoil? I loved him for it.
When we got to the room, Noah’s mother curled up with Amanda on one of the beds and Colin took the cushioned recliner. I made sure the door was bolted and the curtains were stretched all the way over the windows before I lay down on the empty bed and reached my hand out for Noah to join me.
He looked a little lost, as if he didn’t know what to do either. I pulled on his hand until he crawled in bed next to me. I wrapped my entire body around his and squeezed tight, hoping I could do something to make the night even a little bit okay.
“I love you. You are so amazing,” I whispered against his neck.
He covered my hand with his. “I love you too, Zack. Thank you for being everything you are.”
I WOKE to the sound of quiet conversation. Somehow I’d been shifted so I was lying horizontally across the bed with my head in Noah’s lap. His hand was sifting through my hair absentmindedly. Noah’s mother was sitting cross-legged right in front of me. She’d showered and was wearing a pair of Noah’s sweats and one of my T-shirts. Already, she looked a million times better. She smiled at me when she noticed I was awake.
“Hey,” I mumbled, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. Noah cupped my chin and gave me a soft kiss.
It was slightly embarrassing at first to kiss right in front of his mother, but as soon as his lips touched mine, I forgot there was anyone else in the room. When our mouths drifted apart, it took me a few seconds to realize I was looking at him with a lovesick smile on my face. It took way less time for me to realize I didn’t care.
“You two are so beautiful together.” She said it quietly, still looking apologetic. “Noah told me you just found each other again. I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what happened.”
I blushed a little and leaned against him. “It’s okay, Mrs. Harper, really. We may have had an awful year or so, but now we get to be together for so much longer than we would have before. I can’t really be sorry for that.”
“Call me Bianca, Zack. I think we’ve probably gotten past the formalities.” She looked at Noah. “Besides, that was something I wanted to talk to you about.” There was a silence as she formulated her words. I could tell it wasn’t easy. “I loved your father—you know that. But I think I’m going to go back to being a Fitzgerald. After what they did to me, I can’t stand being connected to that family any longer. Is that okay with you?�
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“Of course it is, Mom. No one’s going to judge you for wanting to forget what happened. Anything you can do that will help, I’m all for it.”
She smiled and reached out to caress his cheek. “Thank you, darling. I can’t believe how much you’ve grown up.”
“Where are you going to go?” he asked. “To the apartment in the city? The lake house?”
“No. Colin and I were talking while you were still asleep. I think I’m going to stay with your grandparents for a little while, get my feet back under me, so to speak. I do need to find somewhere for Amanda to go, though.”
“She can stay with us,” I said. “I’ll move the computer stuff out to the living room.”
Noah twined his fingers with mine and squeezed. “We can do that, or I was also thinking of giving PC a call. He has another empty room, and it might be nice for Amanda to have a woman around. Things may be different for her than they were for us.”
I noticed all of a sudden that the room was missing one extra-large hunter. “Where did Colin go?”
“To get food and some clothes for my mom. He should be back soon. We’re just waiting for Amanda to wake up, then we’ll take it from there.”
“How much longer till she wakes up?”
Noah shrugged. “A few hours, maybe a little more. I don’t think we put as much venom in her as I did when I bit you.”
The door opened and Colin staggered in under a mound of shopping bags. “These are for you, Auntie.” He piled bags at her feet from a number of different clothing stores. “And these are for everyone—well, except for me. It may not be your favorite kind, but it’s going to have to do. Can’t have you guys passing out on me.”
The bags were filled with little pouches of blood. Immediately, I felt a sharp pang of thirst. “Where did you get these?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Hunters always know where all the good vampire bars are.”
WE STAYED in that night, waiting for Amanda to wake. I got a kick out of watching British TV on the hotel set, and Noah beat Colin at about twenty different card games before Colin realized Noah was cheating and gave up. Bianca was happy to take another long shower and trim and blow-dry her hair before she put on new jeans and a sweater from the pile Colin had bought her.
