by Lissa Kasey
“To Sei and Gabe’s room.”
“Kelly….”
After grabbing my box of cereal, I checked the hallway, which was empty, and made my way to the abandoned suite. Jamie didn’t try to stop me.
The room didn’t look like anyone had been inside. I left the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the handle and turned the light on, then flipped the deadbolt so no one would be able to get in unless they broke the door down.
Their room wasn’t much different than ours, other than the heavy lightproof curtain that covered the single window. I turned up the heat and crawled into the bed. The cold and weatherworn days were getting to me. The bed smelled like clover and honey. Seiran. It made me smile.
I snuggled down into the sheets that smelled so nice and clicked off the lamp. Here I could imagine that I was home in my own bed. That I’d wake up and find Seiran pattering around the kitchen. I’d hear Jamie wandering through the apartment grumbling about the lack of fire extinguishers or some other safety nonsense. Gabe would slide up behind Sei, kiss him, hold him close, and I’d flush with embarrassed excitement to watch two people so in love. Jamie would steal occasional glances at me that contained more heat each time. Then we’d go to the Y for a few hours of swimming and home for some pillow time with my lover. A guy could dream, anyway.
Chapter Seventeen
Jamie EVERY time I thought of Kelly with someone else I had a nearly irresistible urge to kill things. The years of Gabe threatening me if I bothered Sei too much suddenly made sense. And that Kelly would casually offer himself up as a sacrifice for a guy he’d never even met, made me see red. He probably had no idea I wanted to create something more permanent. I’d given him every ounce of my trust, and yet he expected me to let him go out and die.
Once he’d left the room, I listened at the door to be sure he went to Gabe’s room and locked the door. At least he was safe. Gabe would have help on the way by dawn, and whether I was here or not, Kelly would be going home. My ass still ached from the feel of him inside me. In that moment I’d thought he really got me. His orders filled with a loving tone that said he needed to control as much as I needed to let go.
Maybe he did get me. Because he was right. We couldn’t leave Sam to die if there was something we could do. Seiran would never forgive me, nor would Kelly, obviously. I probably wouldn’t forgive myself either.
Grabbing a pen and a sheet of paper from the desk, I sat down to write a short note to Kelly. At least if I didn’t return he’d know what I felt. Gabe had been right; I couldn’t run from my feelings for him. Couldn’t bury my emotions in my need for family. Kelly had blown that ship out of the water when he said he’d be willing to lay down his own life to save us. Gabe, Sei, and I were his family. And I think by extension, Sam had been added as well.
After I finished, I set the note on the pillow and grabbed up my things. Tonight I’d have to act, and since night had fallen and the storm arose again, I knew someone would be leaving the house to help the storm build. All I had to do was wait and watch.
I monitored the hall for almost an hour before I saw anyone move. I’d hoped it would be Con because beating the shit out of him would have relieved some of my tension that had been building. But Cat headed for the stairs, decked out in a snowsuit and gear. I waited for her to get to the bottom of the stairs before following.
After tiptoeing down to the registration area, I followed her outside and around the side of the lodge into the woods a ways. When she stepped onto a hidden snowmobile and it roared to life, my heart nearly skipped a beat. Damn, I’d have to hurry to follow her. If I kept far enough back and left the lights off she wouldn’t notice my sled over the noise of her own.
I rushed back to the sled Kelly and I had hidden, praying I could catch up with Cat and stop the storm. Kelly said Sam was there and dying, though how this was all tied to him didn’t make any sense. If Andrew Roman was really behind this mess, then it was a suicide mission. But I had to do something. Maybe I could get Sam and get out, be back at the lodge in time for breakfast and to show Kelly I really did care. Then Gabe would show up with the cavalry, and we’d all go on with our lives. Only that scenario meant that Roman probably survived and would come back to bite us in the ass another day.
Catching Cat’s trail was fairly easy, as she didn’t seem to care that the snow wasn’t yet heavy enough to cover her tracks. I caught a glimpse of her lights in the dark and hoped that wherever she was headed it would lead me to Sam. Gabe would have been more prepared. He carried a Glock in his suitcase and had it on him whenever he suspected someone might be after Sei. My only weapons were my fists and my head. Though if I was really going to be facing who I thought I would, neither of those would really do me much good, nor would a gun or any other type of weapon of this world. A wood chipper would help. Vampires could only be destroyed by fire or total body destruction.
Cat snaked around the river, flying across areas of water that didn’t seem completely frozen, and headed for what looked like a dark shadow in the distance. The closer I got, the more I could make out the round barrel shaped tower with windows painted black. The earth around me cringed away from it because whatever was inside was so unnatural even the distance couldn’t ease the growing menace. This was death magic, and I prayed that whoever was dying up there wasn’t Sam.
The tower so distracted me, I hadn’t realized I’d lost Cat until I was almost on top of a cabin. I stopped the machine, shutting it off to listen for her sled, but the world was a silent, cold-blowing wind. Heat rolled in waves from the chimney of the cabin, and light flickered in the window. It was twenty feet away, and if anyone was inside they would have heard my sled.
The door opened, and Cat stepped out. Though her expression was blank, blood dripped from her lips. I never saw him leave the cabin, but Roman appeared next to me in nothing but tan pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt. I could only think that he didn’t look injured at all from the explosion that had killed Matthew, just as he came at me, fangs glistening in the dark.
Kelly SAM and I seemed to have a lot in common. Each time I fell asleep, I dreamed of him. And like me, he dreamed of going home too. Only his home was filled with family, all speaking a different language and laughing at the babies that crawled around an already crowded room. He didn’t have the same makeshift family that we had created for ourselves. But he was hoping to get back to his regular one.
He opened his eyes to a worn little cabin. The fire was dying. He rushed to throw in another log. The flames arose again, but he didn’t linger. He pulled on a hat and some gloves and stepped out into the cold. Night was falling; it would start again. The snow would once again become a blizzard. He was so tired.
Through his eyes I saw the dilapidated cabin and the watchtower that stood behind it. A frozen river wound its way around the area in a winding path that wasn’t quite covered in snow.
Was it an abandoned ranger station?
Sam carried with him some trinkets: a lock of hair, a comb, and a watch. These things helped him keep connected, he told me without words. He wasn’t natural, and what he could do wasn’t normal. I tried to ask him what he meant, but he didn’t answer. He headed for the tower, where shadows moved through the windows like a monster waiting.
I tried to shout, tried to tell him to stop, but he climbed a ladder, and when he opened the hatch to step inside the watchtower, I woke up, sitting up in bed, drenched in sweat, heart racing like I’d had the scare of my life. Yet I’d seen nothing other than an old cabin and a tower of some kind. Getting up, I went to the window and peered beyond into the darkness, then glanced at my watch.
My stomach growled. It was after dinnertime. It was eerie how silent it got here at night. Mr. and Mrs. Gossner seemed to never be around. I never saw Con or Cat much past dark, and if there were any other guests, I hadn’t seen them at all.
I wandered downstairs, finding no one in the dining hall, and grabbed a loaf of bread that appeared to be untampered with and ate a slice while I s
tudied the large map pinned to the wall in the main lobby.
The map was a topographical close-up of the area. All of the cabins were marked. Ten in all, spanning a four-mile radius. To the south, beyond all the cabins, a blue snake etched the map in an odd design. Some sort of creek or river. Hadn’t Sam been near a river?
I followed the curving path of it, searching the banks for anything that looked like it could be the old tower. When I found it, I could hardly contain my shout of glee. Less than three miles to the southwest there was a circle and a blip that could be the cabin. Though nothing was written to say what it was, I was pretty sure that was what we were looking for.
After grabbing a spare map from the main counter, I folded it and marked the location. Finding my way back to the room was an exercise in caution. I opened the door to the room I had shared with Jamie only to be surprised to find it dark. My heart sank into my stomach when I realized all his gear was gone.
Had he gone off to Rabbit Five without me? For a few seconds it was really hard to breathe. I even took a few heavy swigs from my inhaler. Did he distrust me that much? Enough to leave me behind? I sank down onto the bed, feeling like I weighed a million pounds.
“What about it?” Jamie had said about the first time we’d had sex. The fact that he saw me as nothing more than a fling really bugged me. Was it wrong to have gotten my hopes up?
Sucking in a deep breath, I fell back against the bed and glared at the ceiling. Dreams of a happy family all popped like Zuma bubbles. Of course it didn’t change the outlook of my life, because if I didn’t get out of this frozen wasteland, I’d die. Seiran was still my best friend. He’d promised me. There was no one more earnest about a promise than Sei.
The crinkle beneath my head made me roll over and grab the note that had been on the pillow. I flipped it open.
Kelly, I’m sorry I had to do it this way. You’re very young, and you deserve to find the love of your life and have a long and wonderful existence. I know how angry you are with me for not letting you go after Sam, but I can’t let you. Sei needs you, and I need to know you survived.
I will do the best I can to stop Roman. Gabe will be bringing help, so wait for him, please. I know you’ll be pissed at me. Know that I do trust you, and I do love you.
Jamie Air left my lungs in a great woosh that felt as though I’d been hit by a linebacker on the forty-yard line. I dropped the note, tears clogging my vision, and had to reach for my inhaler. It made me so mad and heartbroken at once. I didn’t need a goddamned hero. Why couldn’t he let me help? Maybe we would have a chance together. The pain in my chest didn’t ease even though the discomfort in my lungs did.
I lay there for a while, trying to pull myself together and debate my options. Were there any?
Finally feeling steady again, I stepped out of the room quietly and wondered what to do now. Go to the tower and find Sam? Getting Sam out would probably stop the storm. But I had no idea what I was up against.
The light on under the door at the end of the hall gave me a bit of inspiration. I knocked on Con’s door, praying his sister didn’t answer. He opened it looking depressed, with eyes swollen like he’d been crying.
“Everything okay?” I asked him, feeling more than a little awkward. It didn’t look like his sister was around.
“Yeah. Fine. Want to come in?” He stepped back to let me in the room.
Walking in, I looked around further. No sign of Cat.
“She’s not here.”
“Is that why you’re upset?”
He rubbed at his eyes. “I’m not upset. What are you
doing here?” I had to stop doubting myself. Had to start trusting in others. I would have to be strong enough to hold Jamie up this time. And it was now or never, I supposed. “Can I trust you?”
“Sure.” What was the worst he could do, attack me? If he helped I might have a chance. So I poured out the whole story to him about the bad storm not being natural and Seiran’s past and my current rocky relationship with Jamie. Constantine sat in silence, soaking it all up, asking a question here or there. I even told him about Sam and the tower I saw.
“It’s an abandoned ranger station. Floods every spring. That’s why they moved the station southeast,” Con told me. “But I don’t get it. If this Sam guy is trying to do the right thing, why doesn’t he just stop?”
“I’m pretty sure a vampire is making him do it. The rangers at the Beaver Creek station were dead. Jamie said he thought it looked like a vampire kill. They were just torn to shreds.”
“Can vampires really do that? Control people? I thought that only happened in movies.” “If they take your blood and they are a powerful enough vampire they can control you. Seiran was taken by a fairly young vampire recently. That vampire had to keep feeding on him to control him. He said it feels like someone else is pulling the strings of your body. Your brain gets no say.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Go to the abandoned station and try to get Sam out.
Maybe that will stop the storm, and the vampire will give up.”
“But why does the vampire want us dead anyway?”
“Not you. He probably doesn’t even know who you are. He wants Sei dead and Gabe to suffer because Gabe killed his lover years ago.” I got up and went to the bathroom, searching under the sink and praying that some of the old staples were there. They were. I’d have to check in my room too.
Grabbing the bottle of rubbing alcohol, I decided to have a backup plan for the sleds in case Jamie had taken our hidden one. “We’ll need more alcohol, but we should be able to clear a sled. You should head to Rabbit Five.”
“My sister was dating a vampire.”
His words stopped me cold. “What vampire?” Hadn’t he said before that his sister’s boyfriend was a cop? Shit.
“His name is Andrew Roman. He’s a detective in the cities.”
“He’s the bastard who wants Sei dead.”
“Then I’m going with you to the abandoned station.” “No way. It’s not safe.”
“Look around you, Kelly. My sister isn’t here. She’s never here. That means she’s probably out there with him. She means nothing to him. He’s probably messed with her head. But she’s all I have.” Con began tugging on his snow things. “I can help you get the sleds working. There’s more alcohol in the maintenance cupboard beside the lobby. It should be enough to clear out a sled or two.”
I stared at him for a minute, wondering if I could really trust him. But it was everyone else’s lack of trust that had been really eating at me. How could I ask them to do what I wasn’t willing to do? So I took a leap of faith. “Fine. Meet me downstairs in ten minutes.”
He nodded. I returned to my room to pack up my stuff and bundle myself up. Jamie had left most of his things, but so had Gabe and Seiran. There just wasn’t enough room on a snowmobile to carry luggage. I grabbed one of Jamie’s huge warm sweaters and put it on before piling into my snowsuit. The journey was going to be long and cold, but I’d get there and end this no matter what it took.
Chapter Eighteen
CONSTANTINEwaited for me by the front door. He’d packed up a bag of food and had an arm full of alcohol bottles. I directed him to the garage and went to check our hiding spot for the spare sled. Sure enough, it was gone. Another pain lanced through my chest. He really had gone alone.
Dammit, there was no time for woe-is-me crap. If we moved fast enough I could help. He’d be pissed that I hadn’t stayed safe at the lodge, but sometimes you had to just suck it up.
The snow was falling again, and the wind began to pick up. The ferocity of it waited, like a cougar in the bushes, waiting to pounce until I’d almost made it back to the garage. The power hit me with the force of a lightning bolt flowing through my core. I dropped to my knees and barely kept myself from falling headfirst into the snow. My hands shook while I pulled myself toward the door and then up, so I could walk
inside and put the barrier between us. Now I would need Con. He’d have to drive the sled. I wouldn’t be able to battle the storm and drive too.
He was already bent over one of the newer machines, pouring alcohol into the gas tank, then trying to start it, then adding a little more. Until finally it kicked on, sounding like a sick chainsaw. But it ran. We let it run for a while to clear out some of the tainted gas, then added another few gallons of the fresh stuff.
“Can you drive?” I asked him. “I’ll try to keep the snow from pelting us.” Though I knew how tired it was going to make me.
“Sure.” He shoved the door to the garage open. “I used to play down there as a kid. I’d know the way in my sleep.” We loaded up the sled, he slid on, and I jumped up behind him. After making sure we were both covered up from the cold and had our helmets on, we headed out into the night. I pushed my energy into a large bubble that surrounded us. Con drove fast, but well enough to take us around rocks or bushes that I couldn’t see until they were upon us.
The vibration of the machine and the raging blizzard gave me something to focus on instead of the loss of my new family. I refused to think about Jamie and the time we’d spent alone together. Those thoughts weakened my power. Without the bubble, the sled would be crawling along instead of flying through the darkness. And since I felt Sam in my head, losing more strength, I knew we had to hurry.
Con slowed the sled well before the tower came into sight. He pushed up into a heavy clot of pines and let the machine die. With a flip of his helmet he was staring at me in question. Were we really going to do this?
Yeah. Yeah we were.
I jumped off and left the helmet behind. First we’d sneak into the tower and try to get Sam out. Con would take him back to the lodge, then come back for me. If Roman was around, he was going to die tonight. However, getting Jamie, Sam, and Con to safety were first on my list. And really, armed with only a kitchen knife and martial arts, if I ran into the vampire out here, I probably wasn’t going home again. But I’d hurt the bastard really good before the hereafter took me.
