The Vampire's Release, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #4) (4 page)

I hated it when people called me that.  It’s what family used to call me.  But my real family was gone and had been for a very long time.  The closest I’d come to having a family again had come from being around Sarah, Nelly and Katie.  Even old Joe, the handyman, had made me feel welcome.  He sort of gave me the creeps, but he was a decent old man. 

It was Joe who had found me when I first arrived in Brown County all those months ago. 
Sarah and Nelly had taken care of me when I was at my most vulnerable.  As it turned out, that had been the plan to begin with.  I had come there with a purpose.

“You want me to go back to the farm.”

“Yes.  You will need to get Katie under control.  If she can kill strangers for blood, it’s not much of a stretch to think she might kill her own sister.”
  Her voice was hard as flint and equally cold.

There was a disassociation there that was more than just a lack of motherly concern.  I had suspected for
a while
that the physical differences between Katie and Sarah held some secret truth.  Sarah had light brown hair that was smooth and silky.  Her eyes alternated between a bright blue when she was upset to a gentle cornflower blue when she was feeling good.  Katie was dark-eyed with black curly hair that could rarely be tamed.  Sarah carried a little more weight in her hips than her sister did.  The bo
ne structure of their faces was
also very different.

“Selena…” I wanted to ask her straight out about my suspicions, but she knew what was coming and headed me off before I could utter the words.

“Stop.  Don’t ask me questions about them.”
  She sighed slowly and stared at her empty brandy glass.
  “Just get out there and get Katie away from Sarah before something horrible happens.”

I stood up.  “Where am I supposed to take her?”

“Take her to the island.”

“That’
s a long trip,” I said, trying to recall our own journey decades ago.  I had been drunk on blood and hating myself intensely when Selena had first mentioned the island she owned in the South Pacific.  Getting there was difficult in the best of circumstances.  But that was before I had been changed.  It was before I’d had Michael’s blood and Sarah’s
blood moving through my system, creating untold power and resistance to sickness and death.
  Oh yeah—except for the sunlight headaches.  Very annoying.

“I can’t.  The Council wants me to take Sarah to their meeting in Chicago.”

“
So lock Katie in the caves and take her to the island when you get back. 
As you are now, it would take you less than an hour
to make it there
.”  Her gaze slid over me like a
black cloud
.  “How long did it take you to get here from South America?”

I didn’t want to tell her.  The speed I was able to achieve seemed shameful.  All of my new powers made me feel that way most of the time.  I was alone in the jungle for a long time
after Michael turned himself over to Isaiah
.  At least it had seemed like a long time to me.  It had felt like years passed before I
began making my way back north, coasting above green treetops, chattering tropical birds,
and
turquoise waters teeming with fat fish.  I saw a huge ebony stain across the Gulf of Mexico and only later heard about the oil spill that had caused it.

I stood on the beach in Pensacola and stared at the dead fish and birds, amazed at the difference between that and the green, healthy land I had left behind.  I was coming back to a land of death and darkness after having been surrounded by pure life and virility
.  It was a sobering experience--o
ne that I did not relish.

Brief conversations had taken place over the phone between Sarah and
I
since Michael had been taken.  I knew she was petrified for him.  I was ambivalent towards Michael.  Where once there had been anger and jealousy, now there was a level of acceptance
of the change in our circumstances and Sarah’s affection.

She loved him. 
It was easy to ascertain that fact by
the quaking fear in her tone when she talked about him.  As far as my feelings for Sarah, I didn’t understand them and hated to try to analyze any of it.  We were friends.  Maybe it always should have been that way.  I had hurt her.  I had almost killed her in my blood lust.  And Michael brought her back.

I would have to go back to the farm.  Back to Indiana.  If something went wrong, Michael wasn’t there to save her anymore.  The Indian wouldn’t be able to stop Katie if she decided to take out her sister.  I would be surprised if Jackson was still alive by the time I got there.

CHAPTER
4 – Michael

Amanda was relentless.  She had taken out all twelve guards around the pitiful
little house where I’d been held.  The location had been known only to Isaiah and the guards themselves before Amanda had convinced Isaiah that she would be able to feed me her blood and lengthen the time I had left to live.
  He wouldn’t risk exposure by coming himself.  He knew he was being followed by the Council’s agents.  His every move was being reported directly to Vincent and Teddy.
  She didn’t reveal to me how she obtained the vial of Isaiah’s blood.

“I finally managed to shake
the Council
yesterday.  They lost track of me in a crowd in New Orleans.”

I eyed her warily as she removed her blood-stained denim pants and tank top.  There was far too much
worry inside my head
to feel any lust for
her at that moment. 
Between my thoughts of Sarah, my hatred of Isaiah and my recent
captivity, there was no room for such animalistic instincts.  And with Amanda t
rust seemed an impossible proposition, even though she had saved my life.
 

The motel room we’d rented in St. Louis had yellow walls and smelled like stale cigarette smoke.  Amanda had paid cash and given a fake name at the desk.  Apparently she had adjusted quite well to the new century.  She drove a shiny black roadster called a Lexus and sent messages over her cell phone by typing with her thumbs on a touch screen.  I had seen others do this before, but had never quite mastered that kind of skill.

She tossed the soiled garments on the
dingy bed
, ran her fingers through her long red hair and looked at me over her shoulder.  “I’m taking a shower.  Would you care to join me?”

“
No.
” 
Turning away from her, I grabbed the television remote on the nightstand by the bed. 
The filth I had accumulated after wee
ks of being tied to that bed had barely been skimmed off by the garden hose a few doors down from the house I’d been in.  A more thorough shower was definitely called for, but I could wait.
  It was dangerous to assume I could effectively put off
my rescuer’s
advances indefinitely.  Resisting Amanda’s many charms had never been easy for me. 
I didn’t look at her again, but
concentrated
on finding a news channel on the tiny television
set.

A few minutes after the water came on in the bathroom,
I picked up the phone by the bed and dialed Victoria’s cell number.  Her voice was a comforting sound in that dank smelly room. 

“I was hoping it would be you,” she said.

“I’m in St. Louis.”

“I know,” she admitted in a little huff, “Amanda was supposed to call me herself once she got you out.”

Speechless for a moment, I stared at the wall.
 

“Michael?”

“You were working with Amanda to get me free?”

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have any other way into Isaiah’s group.  She knew where you were and said she could get you out.  Meekah
told me
it would happen that way.  We had to take a chance.”

I couldn’t imagine the bitter meetings that had probably taken place between the three of them.
  Once again, the loyalty of Victoria and Jones had proven to be one of my greatest assets.  After everything they had already been through for me, I felt I owed them something more than
what I’d offered in the past--s
omething infinitely more suitable as a gift to two such treasured friends.
  But for the moment, I was more concerned about the current political situation of the Council.

“The Council has renounced Isaiah?”

“Yes.  They have called a hearing to pass judgment.”  There was a sub
tle breath before she finished.
“They’ve asked Sarah to be there.”

Worry plunged through me like a ghost on the warpath.  If they had requested her presence, then it would be public knowledge.  She was going to be in a great deal of danger if she went to that meeting.  It had to be stopped.  Until Isaiah was destroyed, the only safe place for Sarah was the farm.

“Who put that on the table, Victoria?” I asked.

“Vincent.”

“Shit.”

He was the last one I wanted to spar with over this issue.  The resources available to Vincent were sizeable.  He had the money and influence necessary to downplay any request I might make on the behalf of Sarah’s safety.  Additionally, he possessed a coldly calculating sense of justice with little room for negotiation.  If he intended to fully prosecute Isaiah for his crimes, he would require Sarah’s testimony before the Council in order to render his opinion.

“Do you want me to set up a meeting with him?”

“Yes,” I answered, “And please come pick me up.”  I gave her the address of the motel
.

“We’ll be there soon.  I’m glad you’re okay, Michael.”

“Thanks, Vic.”

When I hung up, I turned to see Amanda standing in the open doorway of the bathroom.  She was still wet from her shower, her sodden mass of shining hair barely covering the dark nipples of her breasts.
 
Despite my intentions, desire surged through me.  Memories of us together fluttered around the edges of my consciousness.  She had changed the way I saw women.  After knowing her, I became so much more aware of the things a woman wanted and the things that I hadn’t even realized that I’d wanted for myself.

“Leaving so soon?”
she purred.
  Her eyes were switchblades in the dark, seeking to cut through my defenses cleanly.  But there was another image in my mind.  It was another set of blue eyes, wide and infinitely more innocen
t, that kept a fragile check on my lust. 

Sarah.  Her vulnerability.  Her strength of heart.

The vampire before me was a reminder of what I had been before Sarah had wrapped her slender fingers around my soul and grounded me.  Amanda represented the ruthless, ghastly fantasy that had been my existence before I had been taken in.  Before I’d learned to rein in the monsters inside me and trust that other voice that sometimes whispered that I was good underneath everything else.

Doubt had no place inside the chaos of Amanda’s
head.  She sent me a tiny little smile across the space between us, as if assuring me that any reservations I had would be dealt with in time.

The shiver that went through my body should have been sufficient warning of things to come.

CHAPTER 5 – Sarah

“Katie, don’t lie to me.”

She was cornered. 
Alex stood beside me in the gloom of the storage room in the basement.  It was the only place that might prevent her escape.  She glared at us both in turn with her chin up indignantly and her dark eyes burning.

The betrayal and fear churning in me had dulled
a little
once Alex had arrived.  Maybe it was just the knowledge that he had my back.  But he also knew everything that had happened with Katie and me.  He approached the house with clear purpose, having already caught up with my sister
and
he
had her firmly in his grip.  She had ceased to struggle against him, knowing it was pointless.  Nothing on planet Earth could match the strength in him.  Certainly not a fledgling vampire.

So he had taken her into the basement and decided to interrogate her there, among the boxes of Christmas decorations, suitcases and tattered rugs that Nelly had declared unsuitable for the house.  The room had one door with ancient rusty hinges that had sat open for decades.  I wasn’t sure if it could even be closed after all that time.

“How many?” Alex
barked at her.

“How many what?”

“Ten?  Twenty?  How many have you killed?”

Holy shit.  I felt a chill descend from my neck to my toes, as if someone had touched me with
a want of ice
, rendering my fingers and toes numb
.  M
y brain f
ought to drive away the feeling but it was nearly impossible.  When my sister’s gaze slid over both of us dismissively and her face remained impassive and cold, I wanted to scream.