Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5)

by V. K. Forrest

  Dallas looked at Aedan as if to say, “what’s up with her?”

  Aedan shrugged. “ ’Night, sugar pie.”

  Don’t go, Kenzie telepathed. You’ll be sorry if you go.

  I need more information than that, Aedan shot back.

  Kenzie responded with silence.

  “ ’Night, sweetie.” Dallas followed Aedan out the door, shutting the light off on the way out.

  “She seems moody tonight,” Dallas commented. She glanced over her shoulder as they went down the hall. “Of course, you do, too. You have been for days.”

  “I told you.” He walked into her bedroom. “I’ve got a lot going on.”

  Inside her room, she closed the door. “You could tell me what.” Before he could speak, she sat on the bed and brought her hands to her head and said, with frustration, “and don’t tell me vampire business.”

  “I don’t want to argue, Dallas.” He stood at the foot of her bed looking at her, his hands hanging at his sides. “You want me to go?”

  She looked at him for a second and then reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him toward her. “No, I don’t want you to go. I want you to tell me what’s going on in your life. And I want you to explain to me how all those people are in your head. They’re not just people you’ve met. Some of them are you.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. Not now. Maybe not ever.” He opened his arms. “I’m sorry I can’t do what you want.”

  She sighed, and pulled him closer. “How about this? I want you to make hot vampire love to me, then I want you to spend the night and make breakfast for me in the morning. Can you do that?”

  He looked down at her and smiled. They were still holding hands. “I can do that.”

  Aedan wasn’t expecting a phone call from Mark. Possibly not for another fifty years. But when his cell phone, in his jeans pocket, lying on the floor, vibrated, he woke instantly.

  “Aedan?”

  “Yeah?” He held the phone to his ear, still lying in bed beside Dallas, who slept soundly.

  “Come now.”

  “Okay,” he said, still not fully awake.

  “Now, Aedan.” Mark’s voice sounded strange. Tight.

  Aedan sat up.

  “His latest victim. She says she has a message for you. From him.”

  “A message?” He got out of bed and pulled on his pants.

  “She won’t tell me what it is. She’s scared to death, Aedan. He said he’d come back and finish her off if she didn’t pass on the message to Aedan Brigid.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Aedan kissed Dallas good-bye and whispered to her that he’d try to be back in the morning for breakfast, that duty called. She mumbled something about French toast and rolled over and went back to sleep. Aedan let himself out and walked to his car. It was raining.

  As he drove as fast as he could to the hospital in downtown Lewes, he thought about what Jay’s message might be. Some sort of farewell? It was still almost a week until the full moon. But maybe this was it: his last hurrah for another fifty years. There was talk of sending troopers to the local airports later in the week, closer to the full moon; but how would Mark explain the significance of the moon to his superiors? And Jay had several choices of where to fly out of: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Dulles, Newark, even JFK. They could distribute the flyers, but it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack with no name and the “everyman” sketch they had of his face.

  At the hospital, Aedan pulled up to the Emergency Room doors, morphed into an EMT with red hair and a badge that said Aedan Brigid, and walked inside. He found Mark pacing outside a curtained exam room. “She’s bad, Aedan,” he murmured. “I’m surprised she can still speak.”

  “What’s her name?” Aedan’s gaze was fixed on the curtain.

  “Sadie.”

  Aedan took a deep breath and walked into the cubicle. Like the other victims, she was on an IV as well as having a heart monitor and a blood pressure cuff that wheezed as it took her blood pressure at regular intervals. Her eyes were closed, buried in her bandaged face.

  “Sadie?”

  Her eyes flew open; they were the prettiest green. She stared at the light fixture over her head, startled.

  He walked over to her bedside and laid his hand on her. “My name is Aedan Brigid. I understand you have a message for me?”

  She turned her head toward him slowly. “Aedan Brigid?” she whispered, her voice breathy.

  “Yes.” He squeezed her fingers.

  “You know him?” she asked, as if horrified by the very thought.

  “Not really.”

  She swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

  “What?”

  “I’m so sorry.” Tears ran from the corners of her eyes to dampen the white gauze on her face. “He said to tell you”—she choked—“he said to tell you, you had made a fine choice. Again.”

  For a moment Aedan felt so light-headed that he thought he might pass out. Vampires didn’t pass out. He felt his fangs vibrate the way they did sometimes when he had to fight to keep them retracted. “What? Tell me again. Tell me exactly what he said.”

  Mark stepped into the room.

  Tears streamed down the battered woman’s face. “He said . . . you made a fine choice, again. I don’t know what it means.” She began to cry. “But he said if I didn’t tell you—”

  “It’s okay.” Aedan squeezed her hand and glanced at Mark. “Stay with her! Don’t let her out of your sight.” Aedan ducked out of the curtain and ran for the exit.

  Chapter 26

  Aedan didn’t know what to expect.

  Yes, he did. He was too late. He knew he was too late. That clever fucking bastard Jay had drawn Aedan to the hospital so he could get to Dallas.

  He pounded his fist on the dashboard as he drove in the pouring rain. That fucking bastard.

  Mark called several times as Aedan sped back to Rehoboth, his gas pedal to the floor. No one seemed to notice him. It was as if he were invisible tonight. Like Jay.

  He pulled up in front of Brew, closed down and locked up for the night. He didn’t have a key. He didn’t have a freakin’ key to get in the front door!

  He ran along the side of the building, then back to the rear entrance, thinking he would kick down the door if he had to. He didn’t need a key. The door was open. The lock picked, no doubt, probably minutes after Aedan had left. Jay had set him up.

  He took the stairs two at a time. The door to the apartment had been left open as well. He flew through the door, his heart pounding, his chest heaving. “Dallas!”

  Kenzie stood in the hallway outside her mother’s open bedroom door, as pale as any ghost he had ever seen. He threw his arms around the little girl. She was dressed in the pajamas he had put her to bed in that night: Spiderman. No blood.

  Bad man, she telepathed.

  He went down on one knee and hugged her tightly. “Did he hurt you?”

  She shook her head. I hid. She was dry-eyed, but her skin was a deathly white. Momma, she telepathed . Save her. You know what you have to do to save her.

  Aedan closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “Go to your room, Kenzie,” he ordered. “Go to your room, shut your door, and don’t come out until I come for you.”

  You won’t leave me?

  “I won’t leave you.”

  He watched Kenzie go back down the hallway, too-long pajama pants dragging.

  He found Dallas lying naked on the floor at the end of her bed in a puddle of blood. “Oh, God. Oh, God,” he sobbed, falling to his knees, lifting her in his arms.

  She was still warm. But there was so much blood. So many wounds. She couldn’t still be alive.

  He lowered his face over hers and was surprised to feel her light breath on his cheek. His voice trembled. “Sweet Jesus. Dallas?”

  Her eyelids fluttered, then opened. “Kenzie?”

  “Safe. Fine.”

  “He didn’t . . .”

  Aedan shook his
head, fighting a sob that rose in his throat. “She hid. I don’t know how or why, but she knew to hide.”

  “I’m dying, Aedan.”

  He looked away.

  “You have to help me. You have to save me.”

  It all came tumbling back so quickly. One instant he was in Rehoboth Beach in an apartment over a bar; the next, in a pub in France, hundreds of years ago. Madeleine. Dallas. The same. It was happening all over again.

  “Aedan,” she cried urgently. She tried to take his arm but she was too weak. “Look at me.”

  It was all he could do to force himself to look into her dying eyes.

  “You have to save me,” she whispered. “You have to do it. You have to make me a vampire.”

  He shook his head. He couldn’t think. How had he let this happen? This was his fault. Dallas would die because of him.

  “Make me a vampire.”

  “I can’t,” he groaned. “You know I can’t.”

  She closed her eyes, and for a moment he thought she was gone. He could feel her body letting go.

  Then her eyes fluttered open again. “Aedan, please. I’m begging you.”

  “You said I did the right thing.” He wiped at his eyes with his sleeve. He couldn’t fall apart. Not now. He had to stay strong for Dallas, for Kenzie. “With Madeleine, you said I did the right thing. In not damning her. In letting her die.”

  “You . . . did . . . do the right thing,” she whispered. She coughed, and blood ran from the corner of her mouth. “For Madeleine. But . . . I have Kenzie.” The light in her green eyes was flickering fast. “I would give my soul . . . for my daughter.”

  Aedan hugged Dallas’s body to his, remembering his vow to Madeleine. I will not curse you as I have been cursed. But then he looked into Dallas’s ashen face and thought of the little girl down the hall.

  What was he supposed to do? He groaned in anguish.

  If he didn’t decide quickly, it would be too late, and the decision would be made for him.

  It was late morning by the time they reached the Philadelphia airport. Aedan took one of Kenzie’s hands and Kaleigh the other as they tried to hurry through the ticketing hall without catching the eye of any security guards.

  Hurry, the little girl telepathed. He’s getting away. We have to hurry.

  She was still wearing her Spiderman pajamas. Aedan hadn’t been able to convince her to change out of them. She had agreed to sneakers and a jean jacket, which Kaleigh had buttoned up to cover the fact that she was wearing pajamas in an airport.

  Aedan had been certain Jay was gone. In all the confusion at Dallas’s apartment, it had been a good hour before Aedan had sat down with Kenzie and tried to figure out what to tell her. How. She’d been there in the apartment. She knew what had happened to her mother.

  You’re sure he’s still here? Kaleigh telepathed.

  Kenzie thrust out her lower lip. Bad man. He’s here.

  Where? Aedan scanned the crowd. There were so many people. And there was a flight leaving for Edinburgh in forty-two minutes. He sort of knew the face he was looking for, from the sketch, but he saw no one with a scar on his cheek, and, honestly, everyone looked like Jay now. Where is he?

  Kenzie halted, so Aedan and Kaleigh halted, all causing a minor traffic jam.

  “Over there,” Kaleigh suggested. “Want to stand over there?”

  Kenzie allowed herself to be led to a spot near the windows. Outside, people hurried past, rolling suitcases behind them. Cars pulled up to the curb, dropping passengers off.

  Where is he? Aedan asked.

  Kenzie pointed to the men’s bathroom.

  Suddenly, Aedan’s heart was pounding. He dropped down on one knee in front of the little girl and grasped her shoulders. How had Dallas failed to tell him of her daughter’s very special gift?

  Kenzie could not only see a person’s past, like her mother, but his future as well. And she didn’t need to touch him, either. She had known Jay was in the area before he had come to their apartment. Then she’d seen Jay from inside her closet, where she’d hidden when he had come for Dallas. Jay had never realized Dallas had a daughter. A very special daughter.

  You’re sure he’s in there?

  He’s going to the bathroom, then he’s going on the plane. Blue pants. Yellow shirt with buttons. No cuts on his face. Red hat. It has a fancy P on it.

  A “P”? Then it hit Aedan. P for Phillies. You’re absolutely sure?

  I can read! Kenzie insisted.

  Somehow, Aedan found that he could still smile. He stood up. You stay here with her. Anything out of the ordinary happens and you walk out with her, he telepathed to Kaleigh, and Kaleigh alone. You take her home to Clare Point. Anything.

  Kaleigh glanced around to be sure no one was watching them and then slipped something wrapped in cloth to Aedan. Aedan slid it inside his leather jacket and zipped up just the bottom. He gave Kenzie a wink. Be right back.

  Then we go home? Kenzie telepathed, grinning.

  Then we go home.

  The airport was so busy that Aedan had to morph the first time in the very short hallway going into the men’s room. He entered as an elderly, bald man with a cane. As he walked to a stall, he spotted a man at the urinals: blue pants, yellow oxford shirt, red Phillies ball cap. Jay.

  There was no one else in the restroom.

  Aedan doubted there were cameras directed at the urinals, but just to be safe, he entered a stall, then exited it as a tall, slender Caucasian male in his late twenties. He walked up behind Jay as Jay moved toward the sinks.

  Jay, like many of God’s creatures, must have had a sixth sense about what was about to go down. Aedan saw Jay lift his head, and their gazes met in a mirror. Aedan saw in his eyes a moment of confusion, then recognition of the moment at hand . . . then absolute fear.

  Jay spun around, whipping out a long knife with a jagged blade.

  How the hell did Jay think he was going to get through security with that thing? Aedan wondered.

  Maybe Jay had known he was never going to get away this time? Maybe it was that sixth sense.

  Aedan lunged left, then right, staying just out of reach of Jay’s wicked blade. He slipped the ceremonial knife out of his coat and grabbed the creature by his scrawny neck.

  There was no way Jay was any match for Aedan’s strength . . . or his anger. And Aedan was angry, perhaps angrier than he had ever been in his lifetimes. He was angry for what Jay had done to his life, and the ramifications . . . the pain that was still to come.

  Jay struck out wildly with his knife.

  Aedan brought his fist down on Jay’s forearm, snapping the bone. Jay cried out in pain as the knife hit the bathroom tile and skidded out of the way.

  Aedan spun the creature around and drew the ceremonial knife across Jay’s throat. He sunk it deep, using brute strength to force the blade through bone, severing Jay’s head from his body. Aedan refused to take the chance Jay could be reborn as vampires could; without a head still attached, there was no chance of that.

  He let Jay’s body fall to the tiled bathroom floor as the head rolled away and hit the wall under the sink. Aedan took a deep breath, calming his pounding heart. But he didn’t have time to stand around. He morphed again, ridding his clothing of the blood, and walked out of the men’s public bathroom, a short, elderly, dark-skinned man in a porkpie hat, plaid shorts, and black socks and white sneakers. No one checking the camera recordings later would ever be able to identify six-foot-five, red-haired Irishman Aedan Brigid as the executioner.

  Aedan put out his hand to Kenzie as he walked by her. Ready to go home? he telepathed.

  Kenzie looked at Kaleigh, then at the old man whose identity she was well aware of, and grinned.

  Ready.

  So, home they went.

  Epilogue

  One week later . . .

  “Just keep stirring the hamburger,” Brian said.

  “Like this.” He stuck a wooden spoon into the frying pan and stirred, then han
ded the spoon to Victor.

  Victor frowned. “You’re only a couple of months older than me. Quit acting like you’re an old man or something.”

  Aedan, at the kitchen counter cutting up black olives, met Mary McCathal’s gaze. She smiled and went back to rinsing lettuce in the sink.

  The kitchen was full of teens; it was taco night, which Aedan had a feeling would become a weekly event. Mary and Aedan were still working out the details with the General Council, but they were pretty certain a couple of teenage girls were going to move into Mary’s house. Aedan was going to stay at Peigi’s cottage with Victor, Brian, and some other teen boys. In the past, it had been up to individual families as to how to handle the rebirth of a teen, but after Peigi’s suicide, most members of the sept agreed it was time to take a new approach. If teens were allowed to grow up together, under adult supervision, while still living near spouses and family members, the transition might be made easier. If nothing else, it was worth a try.

  At first, Aedan hadn’t been crazy about the idea of being a house mother, but the Council had been so pissed with him after what happened with Dallas that he was lucky he hadn’t been exiled, like Peigi. Losing his job had been painful, working as an assistant at Tavia’s gym was going to be a pretty harsh sentence, but he could have ended up living with a bunch of Transylvanians or something. So at least he would be allowed to stay in Clare Point. It was only because of the extenuating circumstances, because of Kenzie, that his sentence had been so light.

  “How long ’til the burger’s ready?” Aedan asked Victor.

  Victor shrugged. “How long Brian?”

  Brian glanced in the frying pan. “Ten minutes.”

  The doorbell rang.

  “I’ll get it!” Katy hollered.

  “I’ll get it!” called another teen.

  “I’ll get it,” Aedan insisted, putting down his knife and wiping his hands on a tea towel. “It’s my house.”

  “Technically, it’s mine and Peigi’s,” Brian pointed out. “And since Peigi’s not here.” He stopped and started again. “Since she won’t be home for a while, I’m in charge here.”