by Renee Rose
The image from my dream blows up in my mind’s eye. The dark shape in my childhood bedroom, stalking me after killing my parent’s. The one-eyed vampire. Xavier.
“You’re sure?” I whisper. If this is true, it changes everything.
Chapter 9
Five minutes later, I’ve watched the recording Declan sent several times. The old lady is a smaller and frailer version of the she wolf I recognize. She was part of my old pack. My parents had her babysit my sister and me a few times.
On camera, she’s unfocused and confused, her story meandering until she comes to the details of attack. She tells the tale with the growing horror of someone who can never forget the atrocity they lived through. Someone who still has nightmares of their pack’s slaughter. Her description matches the image of the old picture. Bodies lying on the floor--she was one of the last to be wounded, and she fell and played dead until the attacker left. When she describes the attacker, her words are clear: a large, male vampire with scars on his face and one eye.
I replay the recording a few times, even though I don’t need to. She said it over and over: the one-eyed vampire. He did it. He had one eye.
Scars and physical build are easy to recreate as part of a physical disguise, but there’s no faking that one damning detail. How many one eyed vampires are there?
Declan sent me the details of the pack who made the recording, so I can follow up, but I believe this account. There’s no reason for Lucius to lie, to create this long con. And this old lady isn’t the only witness. Deep down, suppressed until they appear only in my darkest dreams, I have my own memories of the attacker.
All these years. All the nightmares, night after night. Sleeping with a stake to protect myself from the vampire in the room. Not Lucius.
Xavier.
It was Xavier who came to my family home and killed my parents, did away with my siblings. Xavier who took me away for foster care to raise me until he was ready to train me to kill. But first, Xavier mind wiped me so I wouldn’t remember.
Except I knew. Deep down I knew. I never let down my guard.
Movement outside the car makes me jump. A bird flies into the shelter of mesquite branches. The sun has sunk behind the mountains, taking away all warmth. The last dying rays slant through the park, the world holding its breath before plunging into night.
I dial up Declan. I don’t know why. I need to talk to someone.
He answers without a greeting. “Did ya watch it?”
“Yes.” My voice must be thick with grief because his softens.
“I’m sorry, lass.”
“It’s okay. I’ll be okay. I had a dream actually. Xavier killed my family and wiped my mind so I wouldn’t remember. He returned and killed my pack. He took me and raised me…” I have to swallow several times to wet my throat enough to continue. “He told me Lucius did it. He promised me revenge, but all the while it was Xavier who killed them…” Because of Georgianna, I realize. He wanted to avenge her death, and when he found me, a girl who looked like her, he set his plan in motion. All those years for one long con.
Declan is silent, as if shocked by the turn of events. I can’t blame him. I lived through it and I still find it horrifying.
“What ya goin tae do now?”
Good question. Easy answer. My mission hasn’t changed, just my target.
I’m about to tell him to get intel on where Xavier is when an SUV screeches into the lot. In a cloud of dust, an escalade pulls up and parks behind me, blocking me in.
“Declan,” I croak. “I’ve got company. I gotta call you back.”
“What do ya mean, company?” His voice gets high and tiny as I toss the burner on the seat beside me. The escalade looms in the rearview mirror. Doors open and shadows stream out of it. My visitors aren’t human.
My stomach starts roiling again. As if in a dream, I twist and grab the cooler on the car floor. Take the blood. You might need it.
Lucius knew this moment would come. My bad luck that it happened sooner rather than later.
Eyes on the vampires surrounding the car, I grab the first bag and uncap it.
A vampire knocks on my window. “Get out, sweetheart. Xavier wants to talk to you.”
Bottoms up. I tip my head back and swallow the thick liquid as fast as I can. Maybe I’m too desperate to be grossed out, but the bittersweet taste isn’t unpleasant. As soon as it pours down my throat, adrenaline floods my system. Time slows. The vampires blurring from the Escalade to my car seem to walk at a normal pace. My limbs, a second ago weak and shaky, feel stronger than ever.
My last gift to you.
I can fight anything off, even a vampire. Which is good, because in about two minutes I’m going to have to fight a lot of them.
“Come on,” the vampire knocks again. His buddies are now armed with crowbars. Shame to use them on the Lambo, but I’m not getting out of the car. Not until I’ve downed more blood.
“Go to hell,” I reply, and grab a second bag.
The world slows.
Moonlight glints on the leader’s fangs. “Your funeral.” He grabs his colleague’s crowbar--the blurred movement almost at normal speed to my enhanced vision--and leaps on the car. A thud as the hood takes his body weight, and another as he brings the crowbar down onto the windshield. The glass cracks but doesn’t shatter right away. Must be reinforced.
I wait as the vampire brings down the metal rod again and again. His buds stand back and watch the show. Not that they can pick the lock while their leader is destroying this beautiful car. Xavier must want me dead or alive--and I don’t blame him. If I plotted and planned, killed and manipulated for a decade, only to have my quest for revenge thwarted by a single she wolf, I’d be mad too.
Not as mad as said she wolf. The blood of a Vampire King sizzles through my veins, augmenting my boiling rage. I’m going to get out of here, track and kill Xavier. First I have to deal with these thugs. It’ll be a nice warm up.
Above me, the vampire grunts and brings down the crowbar hard enough to make the Lambo shudder. The glass is a fractured cobweb above my head. Any moment it’ll shatter.
I have to bite the inside of my cheek not to laugh. This is going to be fun.
The vampire raises his weapon again.
“All right, all right,” I shout, pretending to be scared. “I’m getting out.” I raise my hands, showing empty palms. The vampire jerks his head towards my door. I unlock and open it, swinging out slowly. The vampires stand back to give me space.
Mistake.
The vampire on the car roof drops to my side. “Xavier wants--”
I never learn what my former mentor wants. A crowbar can’t kill a vampire, but grabbing and jamming it into their guts is a good way to get their attention. Follow it up by twisting their head around hard enough to break their neck, and they drop neatly, ready to be staked or left out for the dawn. I do all this, and I do it fast enough that I blur. When I turn, I take a second to register the shock on the waiting faces. I’m fast as a vampire. Maybe faster.
As if in slow motion, the vampires start to jump on me--too slow. I jump first. The crowbar disembowels a second, a third. I’ve lost the element of surprise, but I’ve spent years practicing fighting and killing vampires. Between Lucius’ blood, and Xavier’s training, I am unstoppable.
I chase two into the park and stake them with palo verde branches. I return with more quickly fashioned stakes and take the rest of the guys out. I drag them into the park, hiding them in a ditch. Hopefully, no human will find them before dawn comes and turns them to ash.
When I stick my head into the Lambo, the burner phone is bleating. I grab it and the cooler of blood, and jog to the now empty Escalade. I took the keys off the leader.
Declan answers before the first ring.
“What happened?’ he shouts.
“Five guys, vampires. They tried to take me to Xavier.”
“Tried?”
“Yeah. Well, vampire blood has its benefits,” I say
before I can think.
But Declan knows all about vampire blood because he sucks in a breath, then mutters in a chastising tone, “Girl…”
My stomach flips as I start up the car. I’m feeling better. Not 100 percent, but good enough to take out anyone trying to stop me. Including a vampire or five.
“Where are you? “Declan asks.
A road sign flashes by and I read it to him. “It’s about twenty miles from Lucius’ home. Why?”
“Because when you hung up, we called Frangelico. Was gonna try to track your car, so we could get in and help you out.”
“So?” I reverse the Escalade. Not as much torque as the Lambo, but pretty spry for such a heavy car.
“So, no one picked up at the house. Not Lucius. Not any of his security team.”
My heart thuds to my feet. “I’m going there. Now.”
“Selene--it’s nae safe--Frangelico would want you to stay away--” Declan sputters.
“He could be in danger.” Xavier wants Lucius bad enough to kill my entire family and pack and wait years until I was honed as his perfect weapon. He’s not going to stop now.
“Who would dare attack the Vampire King?”
“Xavier,” I answer, my heartbeat speeding up with the Escalade. “Not just Xavier. There’s a coup. Lucius’ sired want to overthrow him. What if they’re working with Xavier?” The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. That auction wasn’t Xavier’s doing. Whatever’s going on, all Lucius’ enemies are in it together.
I hit the gas and the wheels squeal.
Lucius
I know the minute the sun retreats before the dark. My lungs fill with air.
The lethargy rolls away. I rise, pushing aside the sarcophagus lid. My morning ritual requires an act of supernatural strength. It should make me feel all powerful. Immortal. Instead I am drained. Weak.
I close my coffin and stretch out on it, hands folded as if in prayer. But who would I pray to? In all my years, I am closest thing to a god anyone will ever meet. Immortal, all powerful.
A monster, forever damned.
Cool air wafts down the hall. I blink, but don’t turn my head.
The house is empty without her. My life is empty without her.
But not my crypt. Someone else is here.
“Lucius,” Xavier’s voice echoes in the gloom.
I left the crypt open. Two thousand years and I never let my guard down. Not until her. And when she came in, she brought light into my world, the likes I thought I’d never see again.
The shadows coalesce as the one-eyed vampire takes a solid form.
It’s time for this to end. I rise to greet my lifelong enemy. “Hello, old friend.”
Selene
My foot hits the floor as the SUV powers up the mountain to Lucius’ palace.
“Hang on, lass,” Declan’s voice crackles on the burner phone. “We’re almost there.”
Gritting my teeth, I take a turn too fast. The Escalade almost tips on two wheels, straightening with a jarring bump. I’m coming, Lucius. I don’t know if he’s in trouble, but the fact that he’s not answering his phone, that Xavier’s minions found me doesn’t bode well.
“It’s gotta be Xavier and all of Lucius’ sired.” I tell Declan to let him know what we’re walking into. As crazy as it sounds, I believe they’re working together. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. Xavier was Lucius’ enemy. Why would Lucius’ sired align with him?” I wonder aloud.
“Selene, there’s something else you should know,” Declan says. “I didn’t send you the full recording, just the specific part where the witness named the attacker.”
I rip around another turn. “So?”
“Not all your pack died in the massacre. The alpha did some digging some of your pack were taken to a private compound. This facility contained a lab and there’s evidence that the they didn’t die right away.” he stops as if what he’s about to say is too horrible to blurt out.
“Torture?” I ask.
“Not quite. The vampires had a purpose for stealing the youngest and strongest of your pack. We think the vampires were trying to turn them.”
“Shifters can’t be turned,” I say on autopilot, even as Lucius’ words echo in my memory. They got the idea that they could turn shifters, he said. Form an army to overthrow my rule.
“Xavier was searching for a way. Had a theory that if a shifter could become a vampire, they’d be more powerful than any other creature on earth. Able to overthrow anyone.”
“Like the Vampire King.”
“Exactly.”
“Did it work? Did any of the experiments work?
“Apparently not. All the test subjects he stole eventually died. I’m sorry, lass.”
“It’s all right.” I thought they were dead long ago. This doesn’t change anything.
“Did he ever try to change you?”
“No.” I look like Lucius’ first love. I was too precious to waste on an a risky experiment. Unlike the rest of my pack.
Fucking, fucking vampires. The SUV stinks of them. I hit the down buttons on the windows and relax as fresh air blows through the cabin.
I don’t know if I can take on Xavier and all his sired, but I’m gonna try.
I slow as I approach the gate to Lucius’ home. It’s open, but someone’s manning the guardhouse. “Quiet,” I order Declan and roll the windows back up before I stop beside the guardhouse. A vampire exits.
“Did you get her? Xavier wants you to go on through--”
I slam open the door with enough force to drive him backwards. He stumbles and falls. With my enhanced vision, these vampires aren’t so graceful. I fly out of the car and leap on top of him, snapping his neck before he can say a word. I stake him and leave him where he falls.
Behind the guardhouse, in a ditch, lie Lucius’ guards. Not a good sign.
I hop back into the Escalade and tell this to Declan and he relays it to whoever’s driving him.
“I’m going in,” I say and toss the phone down.
“Wait for us, lass--” Declan cries and I shout back, “There’s no time!”
A dark obstacle appears ahead. Two more black Escalades are parked to block the road. I almost slow--until I see the two shadows standing to the side. Vampire guards. One waves at me to stop. The other has a walkie talkie to his head. I see the moment they realize I’m not one of their colleagues. Their eyes widen.
“Oh no, you don’t,” I mutter, and mash the gas pedal down. My SUV hits the road block, metal on metal screeching in an earsplitting sound. The momentum blasts me past the two SUVs. I look back as the Escalade hurtles onward, but there’s no sign of the vampires. It’s too much to hope I got them in the crash.
A thump on the roof above my head, and I know exactly where one of the vampires went. I wrench the steering wheel back and forth, weaving up the steep incline, trying to shake the intruder off. The vampire sticks like a leech. I take a deep breath and jerk the wheel hard. The vehicle shudders, dancing out of control. The tires leave the road. My whole body is suspended in air for a horrible second as the SUV tips onto its right side, rolling several times before settling in a ditch.
Lucius
Xavier enters my crypt, his footsteps heavy. Like me, he can move soundlessly. It’s a display of power when he chooses not to.
He regards my austere lair with a sneer and says, “I was never your friend.”
I spread my hands. “Brother, then.”
“You killed our sired.”
“I’ve killed a lot of people. Most of them deserved it.”
“A vampire with a conscience.” Xavier shakes his head. “So superior.”
“There’s enough evil in the world without corrupting innocents. Although, I’ve corrupted my fair share.”
The edges of his mouth curl. “I remember. There was a sweet little blonde you hunted, once.”
“Georgianna. Yes. You turned her before I could.”
“She was mine.” Xavier’
s voice echoes through the crypt. He seems to realize he’s lost his temper because he heaves a breath and straightens. “Just as Selene was mine.”
“Was?” I tilt my head.
“I assume you killed her. Betrayal cannot go unpunished.”
I incline my head, pretending to agree. “Forget the she wolf. She means nothing to me.” The lie is ash in my mouth, but it’s safer this way.
Xavier chuckles. “She played her part. You always were a soft touch. Why else would you have left your crypt open?”
“Maybe I’m ready for the end game.” I set my hands on my sarcophagus and lean forward. “So you decided to kill me. Tell me, Xavier, what makes you think you’re strong enough to best me?”
“Interesting accusation coming from someone grieving for a lost pet. You can’t even keep your sired in line.”
“I like giving them a long leash.”
“You coddle them. If they were mine--”
“Ahh but they are not. As I recall, you have trouble siring vampires. It requires too much...coddling.”
“I sired Georgianna.” Xavier’s empty smile turns smug.
My hands clench to fists. “Only because I prepared her. You knew she’d consented to be turned. We’d completed blood exchanges. All that left was the final exchange.”
“It was so easy to seduce her away.” His laugh fills the cavernous room.
“You mind wiped her.”
“Of course I did,” Xavier spreads his hands. “We are gods. To have that power and not use it?”
“It’s not real. They do not consent.”
“Consent,” Xavier scoffs. “You want them to love you of their own free will.”
“Yes.”
“Another weakness. And how has it worked for you? How many sired have turned on you like you turned on our maker? How many have you killed?”
I don’t answer.
Xavier ambles closer to the dais. “Georgianna didn’t want to kill you, did you know that? I had to mind wipe her several times before she obeyed.”
