Authors: Marissa Farrar
Sebastian took her hand. “I think Iona is trying to tell us Conner has Elizabeth. He’s used his son to get to her.”
“Yes, I got that!” she snapped, her patience running thin. “But what the hell do they want with my daughter?”
Iona continued. “I think this storm and what’s happening to Elizabeth are all outside of Conner’s control. Even with my magic, I was only able to open a tiny fragile doorway. Well, you saw it for yourself. I think the storm is all Elizabeth’s doing, even though she doesn’t realize it
, and it’s completely out of her control. But listen to me, I don’t think this will last. Everything in life has some kind of balance, a light to its dark, a hot to a cold. The change in Elizabeth is still trying to establish an equilibrium, but in the meantime it’s set everything out of flux, which is why the storm is happening and demons are starting to bleed over to this side. As soon as Elizabeth finds her own balance, everything will settle down again.”
Serenity allowed hope to blossom in her heart once again. “So you think she’ll be all right, even with this … change?”
Iona nodded. “I think she just needs to balance out as the person she is going to be as an adult, even if she does end up being more vampire than human.”
“And will she be able to control it, her vampire side, I mean?”
“I’m not sure, Serenity. Elizabeth is strong. I’m sure she’ll figure out a way to live with this thing once her body has adjusted to all the changes happening inside her.” She took a breath. “But I’m afraid you’re missing the point. Conner’s developed some kind of fascination for the other side, for the world we call Dominion. Now a doorway has opened between our worlds, he might not want it to close again.”
“But how would he stop it?”
Iona paused and looked between the expectant faces staring back at her. “I think he’s going to try to kill her.”
Serenity’s hand went back to her mouth.
“Oh, no!”
Sebastian jumped to his feet. “I’ll kill him first.”
In a blur of movement, the huge bulk of Vincent was by his side. “I’ll help you.”
Iona shook her head. “I don’t know where he is. I’ve not heard anything from him since we excommunicated him. Seeing this photograph of Ryan is the first contact I’ve had with the family for years.”
“You must have realized he might be a danger to my family,” Sebastian snarled, his face white, eyes glaring yellow. “You should have contacted us and warned us.”
The young woman didn’t even step back. “Warned you about what? That one of my circle was asking questions? He was involved in what happened back then, remember? I would expect him to ask questions about what happened, even if he did get a little intense. The dark magic he was practicing had nothing to do with Elizabeth. Why would I even put the two together?”
“You’re supposed to be powerful, Witch,” he snapped. “You should have known.”
“Fighting isn’t helping Elizabeth,” said Serenity. “We need to figure out where they are. For all we know,
she could be dead already.” Her voice broke as she said the words, her heart feeling as though it was about to shatter.
But Iona shook her head. “No, she isn’t. He won’t kill her until the exact moment of daybreak. Dominion exists in the
dark, it is a place of darkness. Killing Elizabeth at the moment of daybreak will prevent the sun from rising again and will plunge this world into permanent darkness. That’s what he’s trying to achieve. He wants Dominion to rule here and he’ll sacrifice her in order to do it.”
“So if we don’t find them, Elizabeth will be dead and the world will be in darkness, with demons living among us.”
Iona nodded. “The world will turn to chaos.”
“Why would anyone want such a thing?”
“A black heart thrives in a world full of darkness. Conner must believe his dark magic will be more powerful with Dominion in charge.”
“So we’ve got until daybreak?” Sebastian asked.
Iona looked at him, her blue eyes darkening a shade. “And not a moment longer.”
The storm hadn’t let up
and was making the inhabitants of the rundown motel room nervous. Something had torn loose on the roof and flapped against the tiles with a constant banging. The wind howled like a banshee though a small gap between the window and the frame, and the rain drummed against the pane with the force of hail. Intermittently, the lights flickered, causing everyone to look up as if expecting the cause to materialize.
Elizabeth didn’t think the storm was the only reason for the tension in the room. Ryan kept up a constant chatter, asking her about bands and movies as if trying to distract her from what was really going on. She kept catching Liam and Mary exchanging nervous glances, while the thin woman, Orla, stood in the corner in a stony silence
, her eyes flicking between the floor and Elizabeth. The older woman made no attempt to hide her contempt, though Elizabeth could only speculate about the reason she’d drawn such dislike.
Mr. Callaghan repeatedly got to his feet and peered out of the window, as if watching out for something. He’d catch her looking and flash a cheerful smile that didn’t fit with the situation.
Something’s not right.
Her phone weighted her pocket like a brick. She desperately wanted to call her parents, but worried doing so would ruin her chances of ever being normal again. While she didn’t trust Ryan’s father, she also felt trapped, and she didn’t just mean about being in the motel room. She loved her father, but she didn’t want to be taken to the other side of the country to be paraded in front of a bunch of vampires who would probably look at her as though they wanted to eat her.
Despite her worries about Sebastian’s plans, right now, her current situation concerned her more.
While Ryan continued to chatter, Elizabeth kept an eye on his father. She just needed an excuse to touch him,
then she’d know for sure about his intentions.
Perhaps he was aware of her abilities, which explained why he seemed to be deliberately keeping his distance from her. Whatever his reasons, she would need to launch herself across the room to get to him
, and she had a feeling the other adults in the room wouldn’t let her get that far.
“I love going to see live bands,” Ryan continued to gab.
“Smaller venue the better, if you ask me. In some of those big stadiums, you might as well be watching them on television, don’t you think?”
“Uh-huh,” Elizabeth agreed, though she’d never been to a concert in her life. Her eyes focused on the window, on where the motel sign still hung down, the fluorescent lighting flickering and sparking.
A distraction, that’s all I need. A distraction …
Her attention spiraled onto that one thing—the lifting and banging of the broken sign. The wind seemed to pick up, raising the letters higher and letting the sign fall again. It hit against the glass, at first with just gentle bumps, and then harder.
Bang, bang-bang, bang …
A strange sensation went through her, as if the only things that existed in the world were her, the wind and the broken sign.
Bang, bang-bang, bang …
The s
ign continued to lift and fall, hitting the window with more force.
Am I doing this?
The broken sign had caught the attention of the others in the room as well, and even Ryan had stopped talking and was now chewing his lower lip nervously. Was this enough of a distraction for her to get to Mr. Callaghan? She turned her head slightly and caught him staring at her. No, not yet. He would see her coming.
She switched her attention back to the window. She didn’t think it was her imagination, but the wind had lulled slightly when she’d been looking at Ryan’s dad.
Harder,
she willed.
Stronger.
The sign lifted a
gain and slammed back into the glass. At the table, Mary gave a little cry of alarm and half got to her feet, her eyes wide in the direction of the window.
Again,
Elizabeth thought.
Harder! Harder!
The result was like an explosion
.
The sign hit and glass burst inward like confetti, showering the inhabitants. Mary shrieked and even the men cried out in shock. Broken glass, wind and rain blasted into the room and, automatically, everyone lifted their arms to protect their faces.
Having had some idea about what was about to happen, Elizabeth had quickly turned away from the implosion, leaving only her back exposed. But she couldn’t waste any time and she took her chance. With everyone preoccupied, she spun back around, dived forward and grabbed Ryan’s father by the wrist. He turned to look down at her, his eyes wide with surprise. Tiny shards of glass glinted from his hair and flecked over his fair skin.
A series of images flashed in her head:
a big, doublewide trailer with cream leather couches along the walls. A person-sized bundle lying under a blanket, starting to twitch. Sebastian crouched over a body, red blood on his lips. Her, Elizabeth, as a child, curled up in the corner of the couch, crying.
She sensed the man’s horror at what was happening in that moment in his past, but beneath the horror, something else had sparked—a strange, warped interest took hold in his heart. Something about the situation had caught him, spoken to a dark and twisted part of him he’d not given voice to before.
Everything changed that day.
Conner.
The realization made her gasp and she let go of his wrist and stumbled backward, away from him. Her eyes strained as she stared at him, her brain trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
She knew his identity now. They’d met before, though she didn’t have any idea what he was doing here now or what he wanted from her. She also didn’t understand his son’s involvement. Ryan was obviously older than her, yet he’d told her his mother was a vampire. That would mean his father had been with a vampire. Yet, she remembered their attitude toward vampires on the horrible day when Sebastian had killed Bridget; it was an attitude that had existed even before that awful event. They had hated vampires, hadn’t even wanted to help her because of Sebastian. How could Ryan have a vampire for a mother when they’d made it so clear that they hated vampires?
Where did Ryan fit in?
It does
n’t matter,
she decided. They must have some other agenda than the one they’d told her. She needed to contact her parents and have them come get her. But she had the sinking sensation that Conner and his people weren’t going to offer her a ride or just allow her to walk out of here and place a call.
Conner was staring at her, his
gray eyes hard and knowing. He would realize she’d placed him from before, that she was on to him.
Can I make a dive for the broken window?
Could she use some of her additional speed and strength and make a run for it?
But Conner must have seen her gaze shifting to the broken window and click onto what she was thinking. He spun around to the others. “Come on and help me get this covered up,” he barked at them. He turned to Elizabeth. “Why don’t you go and sit down.”
“I’m fine standing,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “I said,
sit down
!”
Her insides twisted and she reluctantly took a couple of steps backward. The backs of her legs bumped against the edge of the bed, forcing her to sit.
Conner, Ryan and the other man, Liam, all pushed and shoved the wardrobe into the open spot where the window had been. Glass crunched underfoot, though the men ignored it. The big piece of furniture blocked out the worst of the storm and her route for escape.
Elizabeth did her best not
to touch the phone in her pocket and clutched her hands in her lap. Her palms seemed to be itching to defy her brain. She was desperate not to call attention to the presence of her cell while simultaneously feeling like it stood out, impossible for them not to notice.
She caught Ryan looking at her, his mouth a thin line. But it wasn’t the cool ice of anger she saw in his pale blue eyes, but something softer, closer to pity. He must know she had her phone on her. After all, she’d called him from the street. Did he feel sorry for her? Did he not want to be involved in whatever the hell their plans were for her? She was pretty certain at this point that her reason for being here had nothing to do with helping her.
So what else could they want?
A small bathroom was through an adjoining door. If she could get a few minutes alone, she could try to contact her mom. While she wouldn’t be able to place a call, as they were bound to hear her, she could at least send a text.
She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to pick her moment. Things had calmed down since the window had blown in, everyone retaking their positions around the room. Ryan’s cheerful chatter had ceased, as though he realized Elizabeth’s touch on his father’s arm had revealed the truth of who they really were.
She swallowed her nerves and drummed up the courage to open her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she said, half getting to her feet. “But I need to pee something bad.”
Conner and Ryan both rose with her.
“You’re not going in there alone,” said Conner.
She grimaced. “I’m a big girl now. I don’t need help going to the bathroom.”
“Maybe not, but something might happen.”
“Like what?” She couldn’t help the sarcasm sharpening her tone.
“Like another window blowing in.” He jerked his head toward Mary. “You can take her.”
Elizabeth lifted her hands. “No way. I don’t need someone coming to the bathroom with me.” She remembered something. “It’s my time of the month. Can’t a girl have some privacy?”
The men exchanged a glance, any mention of female problems always guaranteed to make a guy feel awkward.
“Fine,” said Conner. “But leave the door open a crack so Mary knows you’ve not locked it.”
That would have to do. “Fine,” she huffed.
She’d turned her phone off after she’d called Ryan, knowing her mom would probably have found her gone by now and would have been calling every couple of minutes, frantic and trying to find out where she was. As soon as she turned the phone on, it would play a standard tune, but she couldn’t do anything about that.
She went into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, making sure the door was a
s closed as possible without the latch clicking into place. Not wasting any time, she pulled her cell from her pocket and pressed the power button. With her heart pounding, she shoved the phone under her sweater and quickly flushed the toilet, trying to cover the noise. She hoped they’d think she’d just encountered a dirty bowl.
The phone came on, the electronic music faint but audible. She froze, waiting for Conner to come crashing through the door because he’d heard, but no movement came. The storm outside had at least gone some way to hiding the already muffled sound.
She carefully dropped the lid and sat down on the toilet and quickly started to key in a message to her mom’s phone. She tried to remember the name of the place; Happy Stay Motel, she thought, or something similar, but she couldn’t be sure. Then she saw it, embroidered into the corner of the hand towel hung on a rail beside the sink: Happy Rest Motel.
Suddenly a high-pitched
beep-beep
filled the small room. An incoming text! She froze once more, her breath held in her chest. Then, realizing the phone would beep again, she frantically hit the off button. But she was too late. The beep shattered the quiet.
The bathroom door exploded open, and Conner’s furious form filled the doorway.
“What the hell?”
Conner snatched the phone out of her hands and threw it to the floor. The phone shattered, but he didn’t stop there. He lifted a booted foot to smash down hard onto the plastic and metal, breaking it into fragments.
He reached over and picked her up by the hair. Pain shot through her scalp and she screamed, battering at his hands with her balled fists.
“I thought you were supposed to be watching her!” he yelled at Mary.
The woman cowered.
“We can’t stay here now. We’re going to have to move on. She might have managed to tell someone our location.”
Should she tell them that she didn’t? She might be better off staying here than going somewhere else. No, she decided. She needed to get out of this room. While she didn’t want to go out in the storm, she thought her chances for escape would be better outside.
“My dad will be here any minute,” she said with false bravado, trying not to show her reaction to the burning pain in her scalp from where Conner still held her by her hair. “If you plan on getting out of here with your necks intact, I suggest you get a move on.”
He gave a yell of frustration and threw her to the ground. She hit the floor on her right side, fresh pain rocketing up through her shoulder and hip.
“
Dammit,” Conner swore. “Get your stuff together. Looks like we’re moving out.”