A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) (19 page)

Claire hated those
boys and hated the vampire and hated everything else in the world that was
unjust and unkind.  She hated that she was embarrassed by Mindy, that she
couldn’t be like Jade and just not care what everyone thought.  She hated that
Jade called her spoiled because she didn’t want to help Mindy.   

The vampires were
pulling Mindy up now, her fearful cries piercing the thin vampire laughter and
chatter.  Claire let her anger win that time. She punched the vampire right in
the stomach.  She might as well have been a twig trying to knock over an oak.
The vampire grabbed Claire by the throat and shoved her back, using her leg to
trip Claire. Claire fell to the ground with the vampire coming down with her,
strangling her.

Claire heard
Mindy’s voice yell, “Stop.”

The vampires
mocked Mindy with squawking squeaky voices, “Stop. Stop. Stop.”

Claire wanted to
punch the vampire again, but she was getting the life choked out of her.

The ground
suddenly gave way and Claire felt herself falling.  The vampire fell with her. 
They were in a strange collapsing tunnel, falling at a tremendous rate.  A rock
wedged itself between Claire and the vampire, forcing the vampire to let go. 
Claire kept falling at a tremendous rate, but the earth always held her in a
strange embrace that kept her from hurting herself.

Then it was over.

Claire was hanging
upside down in a tunnel. She felt a small breeze blowing from the tunnel below
her. She decided to crawl further down to find the breeze. 

She felt
claustrophobic.  Mindy might like tight spaces.  Claire did not. She wanted to
be free, tossing about on the ocean waves, not trapped beneath a mountain of
dirt.  Claire shook with fear as she inched her way down hoping that the slight
air would be enough. Stars blinked across her vision, and she wondered how much
oxygen she had left. 

She had felt less
frightened facing the vampire.  The vampire might have been killing her, but
Claire’s driving emotion then was anger.  Now she was alone in the dark at the
bottom of some weird tunnel, and she felt as if she’d been put into a grave.

“Raven?” Claire
called into the dark.  She pushed her way forward through the dirt and rock,
crying out for her old sister.

When no one
answered, she began to panic.

~~ Mindy ~~

The vampire was killing
Claire and the rest just laughed and laughed.  Mindy hated that they laughed at
Claire.  She remembered how hurt Claire was when the boys at school laughed at
her.  It was Mindy’s fault.  She couldn’t think the words fast enough. She
didn’t have the capacity to even realize what it was to think words, but she
knew somehow that a flaw in her own self caused Claire’s pain.

And now they were
laughing again, while Claire died.  Mindy was smart with some things.  She had
hidden talent.  Mom whispered that to her, “Don’t worry Mindy, you are a jewel.
Don’t let anyone make you feel less.”

Mindy didn’t know
how to help Claire.  She was too busy trapped inside wordless confusion, but
Earth knew, her best friend forever, truly a rock that Mindy depended on when
her life became baffling. Mindy asked Earth for help.

Earth opened its
heart and let Claire in.

The vampires
watched in shock as the sink hole dragged Claire and the vampire down.  Mindy
clapped her hands.

The vampires
lowered her from the van to the ground.  She didn’t pay much attention to them.
She was watching Earth deal with the vampire.

Behind her, from
inside the van she heard Raven ask, “What’s happening?”

A vampire who
misunderstood the situation laughed, “Your sister is dying. Come see.”

They helped Raven
to the top of the van, which was now really the side, and then off.  With rough
hands, they dropped her down. Raven turned a horrified look to the hole where
Claire had disappeared.

Earth tore the
vampire away from Claire.  Now it was crushed under rock and dirt.  Mindy felt
surprise and then relief.  Earth’s strength obliterated the vampire into dust
as surely as sunlight.  The energy for such a task drained from Mindy, she felt
exceptionally tired.

Earth could do
more, but she needed Mindy. Without Elementals, the Elements flitted about
wherever they would go.  The Elemental gave the Elements life and
consciousness. Earth was aware, but Mindy helped her thoughts become part of a
physical reality.

Mindy closed her
eyes, feeling a little wobbly.  That was okay. Earth was close.

The vampires felt
Ruth’s absence like a pulled tooth. One minute her mind was a voice in their
head, the next there was an empty space where she had been. A wave of concern
fluttered over the vampires. “Where’s Ruth?”

“I don’t feel her
anymore, do you?”

“Ruth
disappeared.”

“That girl did
something.”

“What did she do?”

“Stop her before
she hurts someone else.”

One of the
vampires stepped forward.

Mindy felt a sharp
pain in her head.  Little speckles of red and white sparked and faded in her
vision. She heard Raven shouting her name…and then everything went black.

Chapter 16

~~ Jade ~~

As the sunlight
faded, Jade felt the movement of the vampire clan.  She crawled out of the
dirt, her fingernails torn from digging, her face filthy. Jade wasn’t herself.
The beast filled her thoughts with darkness, with hunger, hate, and fear.
Stumbling out of the foliage, Jade discovered the dirt road and the distant
memory of her sisters.

She followed the
road, trudging along while two halves fought for dominance. In her mind, Gladys
beckoned.

The vampires were
on the move.  In large groups they cross the state.  Jade knew they were
looking for her sisters with revenge on their minds.  The beast inside her
wanted revenge, too.  Jade clenched her teeth, angry at the images flashing
through her mind.

The vampires were
close, now.  Jade stepped from the dirt road onto the highway. The beast wanted
to go toward a specific group of vampires. Jade wanted to go toward her
sisters. Jade won that round. She dragged the beast with her, stomping down the
highway, each footstep a triumph. 

The beast’s anger
was her anger, and she used it as fuel to keep going.  The beast’s desire to
turn around faded, and Jade realized that Gladys and three other vampires had
almost caught up to her.  She must have been walking for over an hour.  If
Gladys was driving, it made sense that they would catch up.

Jade was on a long
straight stretch when a Saturn station wagon pulled up.  Gladys leaned out the
passenger-side window.  She said, “Get in.”

The beast won that
fight. Jade was sitting in the back seat with a sense of alarm before she even
knew she was moving.  She didn’t recognize the driver who took no time in
accelerating to the speed limit. Jade felt a brief moment of satisfaction that
she’d gotten dirt all over the Saturn’s back seat, but it was short lived. She
was hurtling down the highway with a carload of vampires, after all.

“I’m glad you’ve
decided to join us,” Gladys said. She rolled the window down, letting the
night’s cold breeze enter the car.

“I haven’t,” Jade
said.  She recognized a sense of claim in the words Gladys used and refuted
them.

“Your sisters will
make great vampires, except the youngest.  I’m afraid we won’t have much use
for her.”

“If you hurt any
of my sisters, I will kill you,” Jade gritted her teeth. The beast fawned all
over Gladys, and Jade hated the way her thoughts followed the beasts. Still,
Jade was holding her own.

“Let’s not worry
about that for now.  You’ve had a rough morning.  We’ll get you to a safe
house. You can get cleaned up,” Gladys turned on the stereo, which was just as
well, because her tone sounded false.  Gladys was angry.

They drove for a
few hours before turning off the highway.  Jade had no idea where they were but
the road was a country road and soon they were at an A-frame house with six
manufactured homes around it. Jade could guess where she would end up.  Two of
the homes were built to be prisons with fences around the home. The beast forced
the car door open, even though Jade struggled against it.

She realized that
in the presence of other vampires, she was weaker…or the beast was stronger. 
Jade followed Gladys in, fighting every step of the way.  She looked drunk,
stumbling three steps away before lurching back.  If Gladys noticed she didn’t
say anything.

Gladys left
clothes for her in the bathroom, a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans as well as a
bra and underwear. Jade was hesitant about the underwear, but they had to be
cleaner than what she was wearing.  After undressing she looked in the mirror. 

What she saw
sickened her.

Jade closed her
eyes and leaned against the sink, her gorge rising. Her eyes were bloodshot.
Fangs protruded from her gums. Her hair was matted and filthy with leaves,
twigs, and dirt. When she removed her clothes, her body was pale having lost
the summer tan that she’d developed from swimming in the past few months.

Her body felt like
it was someone else’s, like it belonged to the beast.

When she thought
that, she felt the beast’s excitement. It was electrified by the thought of
owning her, of having this body all to itself.  It needed one thing from Jade. 

The beast wanted
her to let go, to disown herself.

Thousands of
people had done it in the past.  Every vampire that ever lived had to agree to
the bond. Jade wondered what the alternative would be.

Death.

The beast
whispered the thought in her mind like a frost-bitten breeze after a snow
storm.

“It’s my body, and
I’m staying,” Jade said.  Stepping into the shower, Jade was grateful for the
warmth. Even here, the beast fought for supremacy. Jade wouldn’t give it an
inch. At any moment that she realized it wanted something, she did the
opposite.  She had to be stubborn.  She had to be tough.

Apparently giving
in was all too easy. She found herself walking out of the bathroom against her
own wishes.

             
~~ Amy ~~

Amy sprinted
across the open field.  Anyone looking out of any window in the mansion would
see her, and there were far too many people. By the time she reached the woods,
she was out of breath.  She didn’t stop there.  Amy had to put as much distance
between herself and the mansion as possible.

Amy couldn’t say
how long she ran through trees without seeing so much as a road.  Her plan had
been to find a road and follow it out, but before she ever saw a sign of
civilization, she heard the sound of the sea and smelled the salt air.

The ground changed
and the trees became scrubbier.  The Oregon coast was thick with people. Maybe
not as many as the east coast, but she should be able to find someone to help. 
Amy fully expected to discover houses or a campground before reaching the
water.

Her feet were
tired and the inside of her left foot was developing blisters.  Amy wanted to
remove her shoes and rub her feet, but she didn’t dare take the time. As soon
as Tony found out she was missing, he’d come after her, probably with his goon
squad.

Soil gave way to
sand.

Amy climbed a sand
dune, the ocean’s roar close.  No sea gulls greeted her, nor was there any sign
of life, human or otherwise.  When Amy climbed over the dune, she stared in
dismay.

It was the ocean.

But it was covered
in mist.  The fog stopped a few feet from the shoreline, as if an invisible
wall of fog had been built along the shore.  The Keepers had their own gifts of
the Universe.  Perhaps one mastered the fog.

Amy reached out to
Water and Air.

No one answered.

It wasn’t that Amy
was weak or tired. That was what scared her the most.  Water and Air just
weren’t there. With a breeze blowing off the ocean, Amy should have had a
strong connection.  Instead she had silence.

Amy walked to the edge. 
The water didn’t feel like the Oregon coast.  It was colder, more alien.  The
color of the water itself was purple and black and untouched by the sun.  It
was as if the sun’s rays stopped with the mist. Amy was standing in sunlight.
She could feel the warmth, but as she stepped closer to the water, the mist
somehow dimmed the light and reduced the warmth.

People always
lived by the coast.  Amy decided that the best thing she could do was keep
going.  Even with blisters on her feet, she had to find help soon, before they
discovered her missing.

Amy walked for
hours with growing concern.  As she walked, the beach curved.  It was always an
inland curve. In all that time, she hadn’t seen a gull, turn, or a sand piper.
There were no houses and no roads. 

The mist remained.

As did the curve.

Hours later,
exhausted and aching, Amy found a set of footprints.  She followed them until
with growing horror, she realized that they were her own.  She recognized a
rock she had seen before.

Feeling frustrated
and angry, Amy sat down on the rock and pulled off her sneakers.  She peeled
off her socks.  The blister was huge, but it hadn’t broken yet. Amy thought
about swimming out. The mist still hung heavy on the water.

Leaving her tennis
shoes with socks tucked inside next to the rock, Amy walked down to the water.
She had to get off the island.

The waves lapped
against her toes. The water was freezing cold. She wouldn’t last a half hour
swimming in that kind of temperature. She heard a horn, not a fog horn, but a
deeper and more musical sound.

In the distance
she could see a boat.

She jumped up and
down, screaming for the captain to come in, her arms waving frantically. The
boat glided smoothly through the water, oblivious to the waves, turning in her
direction.

Amy felt a chill
when the captain was close enough to see.  He belonged to the void with his
skeletal features and empty face. He beckoned with bony fingers, and Amy knew
she had a way off the island.

The Keepers might
have kidnapped her and were certainly capable of killing her. The fear she felt
in their presence was like a mosquito bite compared to the fear she felt of the
Void.  Turning, she fled the beach, ignoring her shoes and running for cover.

Rocks and thorns
poked her feet but she didn’t stop even when she was out of sight.  The
blisters on her foot broke, and still she ran, back to the forest, back to the
center of the island.  If she was very very lucky, the Keepers might even take
her back.