A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) (9 page)

He wouldn’t use a
car.  They disappeared, leaving the car behind.

~~ Claire ~~

The
vampires knew where she was hiding.  Of course they did. When Claire had run
into the house, pulling curtains down as she went, she had left an easy path to
follow. What Claire hadn’t expected was for vampires to have tranquilizer
guns. 

Hiding
behind the couch, she could feel them take up positions in the room.  She knew
she was surrounded, and decided that rather than give them more time to
surround her, she would jump out and make a run for it.

That
is exactly what she did. 

Claire
crawled out from the back of the couch and then leapt for the door.  The
vampire shot her in the butt with the tranquilizer gun. She felt herself
slowing down, slowing down and then stopping. She said, “Don’t put me back with
the animals.”

Tasha
rolled her over and signaled the blonde vampire to grab her, “Don’t worry.
We’ve got something else planned for you.”

Claire fell asleep
for a while.  When she woke up, she was back with Gladys. Gladys looked much
younger now.  She must have been feeding.

Tasha grabbed
Claire, dragging her up.  Claire couldn’t lift her arms. They felt so heavy. 
She was awake, but didn’t have the energy to lift her head.  She choked on the
liquid Tasha poured into her mouth, swallowing between weak coughs.

Gladys lovingly
brushed her hair away from her face.  As Claire closed her eyes, she realized
that Gladys was pulling energy away from her.  She could try to take it back,
but she was so tired.  Instead she closed her eyes.

~~ Raven ~~

Air dropped Raven
at the passenger door of the van.  Raven grumbled, “You could have at least put
me in the driver’s seat.” Air kissed her cheek.  Raven opened the passenger
door, glancing over her shoulder to see if her Mom had won free.

While she was watching,
her Mom and the stranger disappeared.

Air urged Raven to
hurry. Sirens sounded in the distance and the chaos from the fire brought
people out to look. Jade hesitated at the driver’s door of the van and watched
the gas station burn with the same curiosity as Raven.  Mindy was awake and
yelling, “Jade! Jade! Jade!”

Raven said, “We’ve
got to go.  Air told me that Mom’s okay, but we can’t get to her from here. Mom
said to get Claire and we’ll meet up later.”

 They closed the
doors.  Jade carefully put her foot on the brake, looked all around the parking
lot, checked behind her…

Raven slapped a
hand to her forehead, “Jade!  If this were a getaway, we would all be busted.”

“Hey, it’s not
that easy to drive in a city.  It’s not like Wildwood is full of traffic lights
or anything,” Jade slowly put her foot on the gas.

“You’re a
teenager.  Bertha drives faster than you. That should tell you something,”
Raven said. Great Aunt Bertha was at least eighty and used a cane to hobble
everywhere.

“Shh. I’m trying
to drive.” Jade turned on her blinker.  Raven thought she would go crazy
looking at the mirror.  By the time Jade turned right, the first fire truck was
on the scene at the gas station.

“Will we get
pulled over for leaving the scene of a crime?” Jade wasn’t sure of the law, but
it seemed like authorities would be interested in talking to anyone who
witnessed a fireball blowing up gas pumps.

“Are you seriously
worried about being a law abiding citizen now?  Mom said this map used magic. We
don’t know how long it will last.  Let’s get to Claire. That’s what Mom wanted.
Then we’ll find Mom,”

Raven rolled down
the window, letting the cold morning air in.  She was feeling a little wound
up. Jade wasn’t exactly her morning companion of choice.  How Raven ended up
with a rule-following, authority pleasing sister was beyond Raven’s comprehension.

Jade ignored her
complaints, “Can you just get the map and tell me what road I’m supposed to be
on.”

Raven grabbed the
map out of the glove box. She said, “We need to take 101 to 42.”

From the back
Mindy said, “Stakes.”

Jade and Raven
exchanged a glance.  Thinking she meant ‘steaks’, Jade said, “There’s a whole
bag of snacks right at your feet. We’ll have a real dinner later.”

Mindy would make a
mess, but it was easier than dealing with the fallout when she was screaming
for food…or Mom. From the back she said, “Vampire Stakes.”

“Vampire stakes?”
Raven asked, “Mindy, are you saying we need to prepare for vampires?”

Mindy’s eyes lit
up. “Yes.”

Jade pulled over
long enough for them to grab a few smaller pine boughs. Raven grabbed a knife
and while Jade drove, whittled stakes. After the first one, Raven said, “Well,
they don’t look like much but at least they have a point.”

“I just hope we
don’t have to use them,” Jade said. Looking at the pile of sticky wood at
Raven’s feet, she said, “And Mom’s going to kill us for messing up the van.”

Raven held up a
stake, “I can’t even believe we’re doing this.”

Other than the
fact that Jade drove like she was on a car with training wheels, they made good
time.  They missed one turn, but only because the sign was hard to read at
speed, and Jade was slow to react.

They arrived at
the place on the map.

“Are you sure this
is where we’re supposed to be?” Jade asked. They were in the middle of nowhere,
all trees and winding roads with very few houses or landmarks.

“According to the
map, anyway,” Raven said. “Have you thought about what you’re going to say to
Claire?”

“What do you
mean?” Jade asked.

“Your words hurt
her. She completely idolized you when we were younger, at least until you
started treating her like she was in your way or something.”

“I never did. I’ve
just been busy, and I have to take care of Mindy.” Jade put on a bit more gas
and Raven thought that maybe if she antagonized Jade enough, they might even go
the speed limit.

“We’re sisters and
you’re the oldest. You need to fix this,” Raven wondered why Mindy belonged to
Jade and Claire belonged to her. It was as if with so many sisters, they each
picked a favorite with which to form a natural alliance.  It made sense that
she and Claire would sneak off to practice with their Elements.

“I’ll apologize. I
know she didn’t mean to hurt Mindy like that. I could see it on her face.” Jade
said.

She turned a
corner and there in a field of tall grass was the creepiest looking Victorian
house she had ever seen, complete with a tall iron gate that reminded her of a
B horror movie. In the light of the sun, they could see the paint peeling from
the house and the windows, some blocked, some open.

Jade backed the
van up and turned around, driving back around the corner and into a small
turn-out.  “Okay, Mindy, we’re going to take your seatbelt off.  I want you to
lie down and take a nap until we get back.”

Raven grabbed
Jade’s arm and pulled her close. With a whisper she said, “What if the vampires
come out.”

Jade waved to the
sun, “We’re good. They’ll be stuck until nightfall.  We just have to get in, get
Claire, and get out before it gets dark again.”  

Jade covered Mindy
with a blanket and made sure she had plenty of food and water.  She rolled down
the side-window, although it was cool enough outside that they didn’t have to
worry about Mindy getting heatstroke from being stuck in the car. Jade grabbed
a couple of stakes and got out of the van.

When Raven
unzipped her duffel bag and started digging for clothes, Jade said, “Raven,
what are you doing?  Now isn’t the time for a fashion show.”

“Trust me. I’ve
read up on vamps,” Raven said as she disrobed in the van. She put on a red tank
top and a black leather miniskirt. Then she grabbed her leather jacket. At
first Raven hesitated at the jacket.  It had been her ‘big’ Christmas present
from Mom last year. But it completed the look, so she had to go for it.  Sacrifice
for the family and all. Besides, her jacket might survive whatever trouble
Claire got herself into. Raven armed herself with a large knife and two other
stakes. If this was her last night on earth, she wanted to look cool.   She
pulled on a pair of black army boots that were shiny and yet serviceable.

Jade and Raven
walked back up the road. They stopped at the iron fence with the huge black
iron bars.  It could have made a prison gate in the old days.

The fence had a
huge space underneath.  Raven handed Jade her jacket, then lay on her stomach
and wiggled under, “Glad this fence is only for show. Can you imagine if it had
barbed wire?”

“It just means
they feel secure enough not to need it. Guess it’s my turn,” Jade said.

Raven held out her
hand while Jade sighed and pushed the jacket through the iron bars. Jade
crawled through after her.

As they crept
toward the house, Raven listened to the birds. There was something comforting
in knowing that the animal kingdom wasn’t absolutely terrified of the house and
its inhabitants.

With all of the
windows closed, Jade and Raven didn’t have much to go on.  They needed to
figure out who they were dealing with and how many.  Raven found a tree close
to the house with branches that came up all the way to the window.

Jade waited at the
bottom while Raven climbed the tree.  She used a little help from Air, climbing
with the speed of a monkey who lived its life in the trees. She wasn’t at all
decent doing this in a skirt. Raven felt a little silly for her dramatics now. 
Still, she couldn’t very well change back into jeans now.

Crawling along the
branch, she dropped to the upstairs porch. The thunk caught someone’s
attention. Raven heard voices from the room. With help from Air, she took a
leap and let Air hold her above the door. 

Air couldn’t hold
her long. Gravity was so much stronger.  Three men, two large, one wiry pushed
through the door, eager for a fight. As she hovered above the heads of the
three men, she slipped down a little. She thought that they would someone sense
her, she was so close.  They were on edge of the balcony and looking down.

They called down
to Jade, “Who are you?  Come on up.”

One of them
finally figured out there was someone behind him and turned around, looking up.
He jumped a little when he realized that Raven was just a few feet from his
head.

“Hey guys,” Raven
said lightly when the wiry fellow pointed at her. “Sorry to crash your party.”

She had an idea, a
rather dangerous and perhaps foolhardy idea, but it was her only one.  Raven
asked Air to shoot her over the guys’ heads, hanging her over the ground just
feet away from the balcony.

Air didn’t like
it.  Not at all.  Elements cared for Elementals. They loved their humans.  Raven
was still young and not as savvy as the Elementals who had spent years
understanding their limits.  Air tried to reason with her, but Raven had a
plan.

With a gust that
might have been a sigh, Air pushed Raven over the vampires’ heads and just out
of reach of the balcony. If she accidentally let go, Raven would be badly hurt.

One of the men laughed,
“Playing hard to get?”

Raven wriggled a
come-get-me finger at him with a laugh and said with a teasing voice, “Not that
hard.”

Slapping each
other’s shoulders, the men leaned over the balcony, reaching for Raven.  She
slipped a little closer, before pulling away again.  When they were leaning
over the rail, Air whipped a quick blast, pushing the three men over the
railing.

Raven found
herself flying backward and down as Air tried to cushion her fall.  To her
credit, Jade didn’t do anything stupid like cry out.  She just ran for the
place where she thought Raven was going to land.

It was a
disappointment to land hard in front of Jade.  Raven had spent years practicing
alone or with Claire so that when the time came, she could impress Jade and Mom
with her mad skills at flying.

She tumbled into
Jade sending them both sprawling on the ground.

The joke she was
about to make about the rough landing ended when she heard one of the men on
the ground moan in pain.  The morning had come and the sun was out.  Raven felt
the knowledge like a shock.  It was one thing to kill vampires, but these were
humans.

“Jade, they’re not
burning up,” Raven was pale, all color gone from her face.  With her jet-black
hair, it gave her the look of someone deathly ill.

“What are you
saying?” Jade asked.

“I think I just
killed three people.” Raven whispered, “What if Mindy’s wrong?  What if Claire
just ran away with a bunch of kids?  I thought I was doing the right thing.”

Jade, ever the
practical sister, could see where this was heading and stopped Raven’s thought
process cold. “Raven. This whole place feels wrong. Shake it off. The windows
are covered, and those men didn’t come out onto the balcony to be friendly.  Did
you see the way they looked at us? C’mon.”

Shake it off.
 Raven
mused. It’s like she’s playing a basketball game or something.  In a small
town, anyone who wanted to play a sport got on the team. Usually in junior
high, a large number of kids played only to discover it wasn’t their thing. Raven
was going to sign up for volleyball and basketball next year, but only because
her friend, Shelly, played, but then Shelly changed her mind for
volleyball, so Raven did, too.

Raven scrambled
up. She said, “Let’s see if they have any real vampires.”

Air built herself
up inside the house pressing more of herself in tighter and tighter.  Air was
large, but she had super squeezing capacity. She squeezed into the house until
she felt uncomfortable.  She almost came out early, but Raven encouraged her to
stay. Keep going.  Air layered in upon herself until she was unbearably
uncomfortable.