He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. I don’t see that happening.” He sobered. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“It seemed the least I could do after you saved mine.” She gave him a self-conscious smile. “Besides, I couldn’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Her words struck him as ironic and he laughed.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because, there was a time, not too long ago, when I think you would have been happy to leave me in that chapel and watch me turn to stone.”
To her credit, she didn’t try to deny it. “Things are different now.”
“Are they?” He searched her face, not sure if he was searching for answers to her emotions or his. He leaned close, his mouth centimeters from hers. “Kacie,” he breathed, cupping her face, “I shouldn’t want you, but God help me, I do.” He kissed her, drinking deeply from her lips, knowing he’d never sate his thirst for her. When he finally came up for air, it was only to rain kisses down the column of her throat, hesitating when he reached the pulse throbbing in her neck. It had been almost twenty-four hours since he’d fed and the part of him that was vampire roared to life. He was consumed with the ravenous need to sink his teeth into her and savor the nectar of her blood. Fear that he might hurt her, or worse, kill her, rocketed through him and he abruptly broke the kiss, stumbling back. “No,” he choked.
“Erik?” She reached out to him, but let her hand fall when he moved beyond her range.
“Get away from me. Now!” He shouted.
She looked momentarily surprised and then hurt. “Erik . . . ?”
He couldn’t take the time to explain. “Go to the guest bedroom and lock yourself in.”
Something in his face must have registered with her, because she turned and ran to the guest bedroom. He saw her close the door and waited until he heard the lock slide into place. Only then, when he knew she was safe, did he go into the kitchen and sate his hunger. The animal blood he drank tasted sour after the temptation of her sweet blood.
When he was full, he headed for his bedroom, stopping outside the guest bedroom. He wanted to explain his behavior, but what was the point? He knocked on the door, but didn’t wait for her to answer. “Kacie, I’m sorry I frightened you. I’m going to bed. I’d appreciate it if you stayed inside the castle.” He didn’t wait for her to answer, but continued on to his room. Once inside, he locked the door and, too tired to undress, lay on the bed and tried to sort through the mess he’d made of his life. It was bad enough that he was lusting after his friend’s killer—a woman who hated vampires—but now it seemed that if he didn’t keep that lust tightly reined in, he could end up killing her.
Kacie lay on the bed wondering what had happened with Erik. One minute, they’d been kissing—and the next he was shoving her away. Had he changed his mind? Lost interest? Or maybe he’d remembered that she was the one who’d killed his friend.
After thirty minutes of staring at the ceiling and finding no answers, she got up. She listened at the door for sounds of Erik but all was quiet. He’d said he was going to bed; since it was daylight outside, she assumed he was sound asleep.
She opened the door and saw that his bedroom door was closed. Relieved, she stepped out and headed into the kitchen. She was starving.
Searching the pantry, she found the bread to make toast. Not necessarily the breakfast of champions, but it would do.
When she’d taken the edge off her hunger, she went into the living room, feeling somewhat at a loss. She’d thought she would be tired, but her emotions were a mess, filling her with a restless energy. There was no way she would be able to relax enough to fall asleep.
Walking around Erik’s living room, she stopped along the wall of paintings and felt a rush of despair. The McLaughlin sunrise that Erik had given to her had been in the back of the cab. Now, she’d probably never see it again. It was yet one more thing to be upset about.
Wondering if there might be something on the television to distract her, she was searching for the remote control when the phone rang. There was no reason to think he had a separate line, so it was probably the castle’s phone ringing. Looking around, she couldn’t see a phone lying about anywhere. She listened harder and thought the ringing might be coming from the direction of the hallway, so she headed that way. There were two closed doors beyond the guest bedroom and the sound seemed to be coming from the first. She hated to go into rooms that were clearly off limits, but it could be Gerard, or even Ben, calling.
Making her decision, she walked in, spotted the phone on the large antique desk, and hurried to answer it. “Hello?”
“Kacie? Is that you?”
She recognized her sister’s voice. “Jess! Where are you?”
“I’m still in the States. I didn’t know you were going home for a visit.”
“It was a last-minute thing,” Kacie explained.
“How are things going with you and Dad?” Jess asked sympathetically.
“Actually, he’s not here,” Kacie said. “He’s at an armory convention.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Bad timing.”
It was the story of her life, Kacie thought. She changed the subject. “So, how’s everything in New Orleans?”
“Good, though busy. The baby chupa I helped deliver is a playful thing.” Jess’s voice rose with excitement.
“Jess, I hope you’re being careful. Those creatures are dangerous.”
“Oh, I never go to see them alone. John and Harris go with me.”
“That’s good,” Kacie said. “Speaking of John—how’s he doing?” Kacie couldn’t begin to imagine what it must be like to be half-vampire.
Jess laughed. “You’d be amazed at the things he can do. He’s stronger, faster—and he has great endurance, if you know what I mean.”
Kacie smiled, hearing the laughter in Jess’s voice. “Does it bother you that he’s so much like a vampire? Or that his friend is a vampire?” Because of the attack, she and Jess had shared the same hatred for vampires.
Jess was quiet for a second. “At first it did, but John only looks like a vampire—he isn’t one. I mean, he does drink blood, on occasion, but only during sex—and only from me.”
“What?” Kacie found that disturbing.
Jess laughed. “It’s not as bad as you might think. In fact, it’s rather exciting. I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”
“Never mind,” Kacie muttered. “I’m not sure I want to hear the details. I’m just glad to know all three of you are still getting along.”
“We are.”
No one else might have picked up the hesitation in Jess’s voice, but Kacie knew her sister better than most folks. “But . . . ?”
“Sometimes I wonder if they resent having me around them. I insist on going on the patrols with them, but I’m not as fast or strong as they are. The only thing I have going for me is that I know how to use a sword.”
“John loves you. He doesn’t care that you aren’t as strong as he is. I mean, you’re only human.”
“That’s the problem,” Jess said. “I’m only human.”
“You can’t blame yourself for that,” Kacie told her. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Maybe.”
Kacie recognized that tone as well. “Jess,” she warned. “What are you planning?”
“Nothing, yet,” Jess assured her. “But I’ve been doing some thinking and I talked this over with Beth, who is Dirk’s scientist wife. We think it might be possible to collect venom from the chupacabras and inject it into our bloodstreams. It might have to be done several times, but I think that with enough of it in our systems, we could turn ourselves into changelings.”
Kacie thought about what she was suggesting. “Would you really want to turn yourself into a changeling?”
“Yes, I would.”
Kacie was surprised that Jess didn’t even hesitate. “Why?”
“Because then I’d be like John. I’d be as strong as him, as fast, and I could g
o on patrols with him and not have him worry about protecting me or get hurt because he was.”
Injecting oneself with venom would certainly be a better option than being attacked by a chupacabra, Kacie thought. “But how would you collect the venom?”
“I’ve learned that just after the sun comes up and the chupas turn to stone, they’re not stone all the way through for about a minute. Once, when I was watching the transformation, I noticed that for several seconds after the colony had turned to stone, one of the creatures had its mouth open and a few drops of venom leaked out.”
“But how are you going to get them to open their mouths for you at the exact right moment? I guess you could have John or Harris make the chupas do it,” she surmised.
“Are you kidding?” Jess asked. “If either of them found out what I was thinking about doing, they’d throw a fit. No, I’m doing this on my own, but I’ve got that part figured out as well. You find an adolescent chupa whose adult fangs have just come in. They have a hard time adjusting to the new size and tend to leave their mouths open.”
Kacie tried to find something wrong with her sister’s plan, but couldn’t. “Wow, it really sounds possible, but do me a favor and be careful, okay?”
“I will,” she promised.
They talked for a few more minutes and finally hung up after promising to call each other next week.
Kacie looked around Erik’s study, curious. She wasn’t going to be so bold as to boot up his computer and nose through his files, but with time to kill, she searched through the papers on his desk. There was nothing much of interest, so she turned her attention to his massive floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
She walked along the stacks, reading the titles until she came to several books without markings on them. Pulling one off the shelf, she opened it and flipped through the pages.
It appeared to be Erik’s personal journal. She didn’t know if he’d mind if she read it or not, but after reading the first couple of paragraphs, she was too caught up to care.
This particular book covered the time following his death, and she could tell from his writing that he had been filled with a lot of anger and resentment.
Fascinated, she skimmed the pages, reading sections at a time. He wrote about what it had been like to watch each of his brothers die. If it hadn’t been for Michael, Sedrick, and Ty—and each successive generation of Winslows—he might have met the sun long ago. Her heart went out to him and she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been in his shoes, could she have been as strong?
Putting that book away, she selected another and leafed through its pages. She stopped when she saw the word chupacabra and took a closer look.
I found where the chupacabras are living. They are in a large chamber, deep underground, beneath the cliff. I followed one along the beach last night and saw it enter the cliff through an opening just past the fallen boulder. Low tide is the only time the entrance isn’t underwater and that explains why no one has discovered them before now.
I must decide what to do with the discovery. It is dangerous for the residents of Hocksley to let the creatures remain, yet I sense they aren’t inherently evil.
Kacie flipped through the pages, looking for other references to the creatures. She finally found another near the end of the journal.
Tonight, finally, I can rest. I believe the chupacabras have left and in any event, I will spread the rumor of their demise.
That was all the entry said. Kacie put the book away and pulled the next off the shelf. When she opened it, she found that this covered the time of the attack on her parents and brother. She wanted to read it but not there in Erik’s study. Taking it to the guest room, she sat on the bed and took a couple of breaths. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to learn the details of her parents’ and brother’s deaths. As she mentally braced herself, her gaze fell on her sword resting in the corner where she’d left it. Erik had tried talking her into taking it with her earlier when she’d left, but she’d assured him that there would be no need for it in the States. She was glad, now, that she’d left it; otherwise it would probably be in the trunk of the cab with the rest of her things.
Her thoughts turned to the Death Rider swords both the Washington, D.C., Night Slayers carried. In her hands, those swords would be no different from hers. The magic of the Death Rider sword worked only for changelings.
Grabbing her sword by its handle, she lifted it into the air—and then almost dropped it as her muscles screamed in pain. She set it back against the wall in disgust. If she were a changeling, she could have lifted it easily, despite sore muscles. And her cuts and bruises would have already healed.
As soon as the thoughts entered her head, she couldn’t let them go. What if Jess was right? What if a couple of injections of chupacabra venom were all it took to get the increased speed and strength of a changeling? She sighed. She needed that strength and speed now. There wasn’t time to fly to the States and help Jess and Beth test their theory.
Putting aside the idea, she leaned back against her headboard, flipped open the book, and started to read. Erik wrote about the attack on the castle and she relived the horror of it through his eyes. He described her as a child and the guilt he felt for not protecting her. The passages became too personal and she had to flip past them. She would read them at a later date, when she wasn’t feeling quite so raw and exposed.
Thinking of trying to get some sleep, curiosity made her turn to the book’s last entry and the four words printed there made her breath catch.
The chupacabras are back.
Suddenly, she remembered some of the things Erik had said—about the growing number of vampires—not all of them progeny. The only way to create a prime was for a chupacabra to kill a human—so of course there had to be chupacabras around. He just hadn’t wanted to tell anyone, maybe for fear they’d go looking for the colony. Obviously, it was a valid concern because that’s exactly what she intended to do.
Just a little venom, she thought. That was all she needed. Not enough to become a changeling—just enough to enhance her strength and speed.
Immediately, she began working out the details. First she would need to find the colony, and she wondered if it was still in the same underground cave Erik had mentioned in his journal. It wouldn’t be that hard to sneak into the colony during the day, grab a creature, and bring it back to the castle where she could collect the venom.
All she needed was a secure place to keep the creature until she’d collected enough. She did a mental search of the castle, dismissing any place inside as impractical for keeping a wild creature. But the stables might work. Most of the outbuilding had been converted into a garage, but there was still one original section.
The stalls were constructed of solid wood and the sides were taller than she was. She didn’t think a young chupacabra would be able to get out. As she thought about what she needed, she glanced at her watch. It was almost 1:00 p.m. At this time of year, low tide was usually in the early afternoon. Which meant she needed to hurry. She needed a flashlight and a harness to carry the chupacabra in case it was heavy. She wasn’t worried about being attacked because she would be in and out before nightfall.
She hoped her dad still owned his four-wheeler; otherwise she’d never get down to the beach in time to catch low tide, nor would she be able to haul the creature back. She was not going to risk taking Erik’s Hummer.
Disregarding Erik’s orders to stay inside, she put on her shoes and left the apartment, hurrying through the castle and picking up the things she needed. When she was ready to go, she hesitated, debating whether or not she should leave a note telling Erik where she’d gone. In the end, she decided against it. If everything went according to plan, she’d be back before dark and he’d never know that she’d left.
As she’d hoped, the key to Gerard’s four-wheeler was hanging on the key rack in the kitchen. She grabbed it and hurried outside to the barn where the vehicle was parked. After checking the gas in the tank and st
owing the backpack containing her supplies on the back, she got on and started the engine. It purred to life and within minutes, she was racing down the road. She had to drive quite a distance before the sheer face of the cliff turned into a sloping hillside. At that point, she veered off the main road and took the more direct path down.
Once she was on the beach, she headed back in the direction of the castle. She stopped when she reached the end of the dry stretch, not wanting to take the four-wheeler where it would be underwater when the tide came in.
Getting off, she grabbed the backpack and headed for the base of the cliff. As she walked, she kept an eye open for the fallen boulder Erik had described in his journal. Many large boulders had fallen from the cliff since the time Erik had made the entry in his journal, and the entrance could have been behind any of them. As it was, Kacie almost missed the opening because it was so well hidden, appearing as nothing more than a dark crevice in the face of the cliff wall.
Excitement bubbled up inside her. This was it.
With the backpack slung over her shoulders, she inspected the crevice and saw that even though it appeared from a distance to be very narrow, it was actually wide enough for two people walking abreast to enter.
Before she went in, she listened for a second. Hearing nothing but the sound of the ocean, she dug her flashlight out of her backpack and flicked it on. It was a lithium flashlight, so while it was small, its beam was powerful.
Inside, she discovered a tunnel leading back into the cliff. The walls were damp, which was to be expected since the tunnel was submerged underwater so much of the time, and the air reeked with the odor of ocean and fish.
After walking several meters, she noticed that the tunnel started to narrow. It never got so small that she had to crawl on her hands and knees, but there were a few places where she definitely had to walk bent over. There were also dips in the path containing standing water; places too low to drain when the tide ran out.
After what seemed an eternity of walking, the tunnel began to climb upward. Curious to know how long she’d been walking, she shone her flashlight on her watch. She couldn’t believe what she saw. Allowing for the time spent getting to the cave, she estimated that she’d been walking nearly twenty minutes. She would have thought the chupacabras would prefer to be closer to the cave entrance, but reasoned that their chamber might be more recessed because that entire stretch of the tunnel leading in would be underwater during high tide.
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