A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) (20 page)

Chapter 17

~~ Claire ~~

Claire hated the
dirt.

She was inching
her way through a tomb, head-first.

There wasn’t
enough air in the tunnel.  It was dusty and every breath brought particles into
her mouth. She could taste rock. Coughing, she moved forward, nearly falling
when the tunnel opened into a cavern.

Claire froze.

The air was fresh
by comparison, but she had no concept of depth.  There might be a hundred foot
drop below her. Claire couldn’t say how long she waited in the dark, in a tomb
of her sister’s design.  Not that Mindy meant to kill her, no more than Claire
meant to hurt Mindy earlier.  They were just so very different.

Crawling back
until she was back in the tunnel, Claire curled up, lying flat, her cheek pressed
against the dirt.  She wanted Mom.  Jade was the oldest. Mom always talked
about how much she relied on her.  Mindy was the youngest. Mom always fawned
over Mindy.  Raven was the strongest, and even when they were fighting, Mom
liked Raven’s spirit.

But Claire…she was
the quiet one, the awkward one. She might as well be a lesser carbon copy of
Raven.  They got the same black tresses and green eyes.  At least Jade had
lovely reddish brown hair, distinct and unique from her sisters. Not Claire,
she could disappear and not even be missed.  Not when she had an older sister
just like her who was stronger, prettier, and better. 

She closed her
eyes, not that it made a difference in the pitch black of the tunnel. The air
was thin. Claire thought that she should fight harder.  Jade called her
spoiled. The memory hurt her feelings.  In school there was always a moral tale
to be told about the good sister who did her chores and was justly rewarded and
the bad sister who refused to help and thus came to an ignoble end.

Claire knew which
sister she was.  She’d been offended by the stories.  She didn’t know how to be
the perfect daughter, the sweet Cinder Ella, Goose Girl, Snow White combination
who always smiled even when sweeping the floors or dusting the house. She was
the evil step-sister, the wicked witch, the spoiled brat.

Tears dripped onto
her nose.

Water spoke to
her.

Claire?

Claire?

Claire lifted her
head.  Water had found her even in Earth’s domain.  She said, “I’m here.”

Come forward so
that you can turn around.

Claire did as Water
asked.  It was a leap of faith to push her way out of the tunnel, but Water was
waiting.  It filled the hole, meeting her at the opening. Feeling secure in
Water’s embrace, Claire pushed out of the tunnel and into the water. Once she
felt safe, water retracted, and Claire found herself standing in a little
cavern sized just for her.

The earth trembled
and then was silent.

Water shivered,
They
hurt your sister.

 “Which one?”
Claire had three sisters, and the vampires certainly didn’t like any of them.

“Earth.” Water
spoke of Mindy. Claire grabbed at the wall when the Earth shook again. Dirt
fell from the top of the tunnel.

“Will it hold?”

Earth is
strong. If she doesn’t lose her head, it will hold.  She is angry. I think we
should leave.

“What about
Mindy?  Is she okay?” Claire fell when the Earth shook again, grumbling with
sorrow and anger.

She is silent.
Earth is trying to reach her, but she will not answer.

That could mean a
lot of things, but Claire thought of what Mindy had just saved her from.  The
vampire who had jumped her was ready to choke the life out of her. When Mindy
removed Claire from their grasp, of course the vampires would be angry.  And
she would be their next target.

“Mindy,” Claire
whispered.  She jumped toward the tunnel, grabbing for rocks, trying to pull
herself up. The tunnel was over her head and she couldn’t get back up.

“Help me!” Claire
begged Water.  She had to find Mindy, had to save her. 

Claire
tried to become Water, so that she could flow quickly up the tunnel, but she
hadn’t slept well the past few nights and found it impossible to concentrate. Water
lifted her up the tunnel, but both were tired, and the movement through Earth’s
halls slow.  Claire clenched her teeth as she felt the time slipping away. 
Minutes and more minutes passed.

“Has
Earth felt Mindy yet?” Claire and Water moved up the tunnel at a snail’s pace. 
Water was exhausted, gathering upon itself to lift Claire.

The
Blood are taking your sisters away. They will be gone long before we reach the
surface. Air is safe.

Raven
was safe for now, but not Mindy.  Earth surrounded Claire, weakening her.  Not
on purpose, but it was the nature of her personality and Earth, of her
affiliation with Water.

They
traveled to the surface.

As
she stepped into the cold night, Claire knew that the vampires would be gone. 
As she crawled out of the hole, she had no idea how alone she would feel.

~~ Raven ~~

Raven
was too far away when the vampire struck Mindy to do any good.  She fought like
a tornado to get to her sister’s side.  She didn’t waste any breath screaming
at the vampires.  She used every last ounce of strength in attack. 

The
garlic saved her.

The
vampires felt repulsion even while they held her down.  It was like a woman afraid
of spiders being forced to hold one. The vampires didn’t like garlic in the
least.

When
one let go, she yanked her hand quickly from the other vampire.  The sudden
release made her fall forward. She barely got her hands up in time to catch her
fall.

Raven
could hardly stand. She half-stumbled, half-crawled to Mindy’s side.  Mindy’s
head was bleeding, quite a bit.  Raven took off her jacket and covered her
sister with it.  Because she didn’t have anything to stop the bleeding, she put
her hands over her sister’s blood-matted hair.

The
vampire who struck Mindy stood over them like a sentinel. Raven wanted to stab
him through with a branch.  Mindy needed her, and there were too many vampires
to fight.  She’d just wind up dead and unable to do anything.

“Cooperate
and you’ll both live,” the vampire said.

 “Right.
Because you did all this so that we could then go on our merry way,” Raven
said, waving her arms at the van and the vampires milling about, waiting for
something to happen.

“We
don’t want you dead.  You’re fighters and intelligent. You have other gifts.
You’re meant to be turned.  Those are my orders, unless you cause too much
trouble, in which case, I’m to kill you like the other one.”

He
meant Claire.

Raven
reacted as he would expect to the news of Claire’s death, but it was an act. 
Air had already given her news of her sister.

“You’ll
like being vampires. We’re stronger, live practically forever. We have our own
gifts,” the vampire spouted some more nonsense, but Raven stopped listening.

“We
need to take Mindy to a hospital,” Raven said.

Raven
hated the vampire talking, the one who hit Mindy.  He was pompous and full of
himself and his own importance, going on about vampires and his own role in the
group, how important he was and how they could be, too.

 She
hated him more when he said, “A dose of vampire blood will do the trick.  Gladys
loves the little ones,” Waving to a pair of vampires hanging on the periphery
who wore polyester green pants and looked like they belonged at a disco, he
said, “Put her in the Hummer.”

Raven
felt wobbly, but she pulled herself together.  No one was going to touch her
sister.  She growled at the vampires, “I’ll do it.”

She
gently lifted Mindy, cradling her sister.  They were being picked apart one by
one. First Mom, then Jade, now Claire.  She and Mindy were the only ones left
and Mindy wasn’t even conscious. Raven ignored the vampires as much as she
could. Their mouths opened and saliva dripped when Raven passed by.

They
were hungry.  Mindy’s blood reminded them that she and Raven were prey.

Raven
sat with Mindy in the back.  The woods surrounding the van were dark, but the
movement gave her the feeling that there were more vampires there than she had
first suspected.  While they were fighting, the number had grown, as if they
were herd animals, drawn one to the other.

When
one of the vampires crawled in back with her, Raven shifted away. She felt the
bottle in her pocket then, a hard lump and a reminder that she still needed to
save Jade, once they saved themselves.  And after that, Mom.

Raven
accepted the handkerchief the vampire handed her, inspecting it before she held
it to Mindy’s wound.  She wondered how they were supposed to get pure water
now…and if they would remember each other once they were vampires.  Maybe it
wouldn’t be so bad since Jade was a vampire, too.

She
glanced at the creature sitting next to her. His eyes were glued to the blood
on the handkerchief, as if he couldn’t pull himself away.

Yes,
it would be bad.

~~ Jade ~~

Gladys
was keeping something from Jade.  Early in the morning, in the wee hours before
dawn, several vehicles entered the compound, parking in front of two of the
manufactured homes that looked more like prisons than homes. The tall iron
gates with barbed wire blocked the view. Someone had come for a visit.

Jade
decided to check out the house, to see if they had brought in some of the more
vicious vampires, the beasts with no control.

She
didn’t get far.

Seeing
her start toward the stairs, Gladys stopped Jade, “Where are you going?”

“I
need some air,” Jade said.  It was a lame excuse, but all she could think of on
a whim.

“Not
until I have your oath,” With a flick of her fingers, Gladys commanded two
vampires to escort Jade upstairs.

They
not only prevented her from going downstairs, but escorted her to a bedroom on
the far side of the house.  When she pulled aside all of the vampire layers of
protection to look out the window, all she saw was woods and the fence. One of
the vampires pointed to the opening, “It’s an hour to dawn. You’re going to
burn yourself to a crisp.”

Jade
shrugged.

The
beast moved forward with a will.  Not only did it return the window to its
former sunless state, but the beast moved a table to block the curtain to buy
time in case Jade took control again.

Tired
of losing to the beast, Jade struggled to regain control.  Even though she
seemed to have the upper hand most times, the beast could be impossible to
overcome when it made a firm decision on something. The shades on the window
gave the room a stifling feeling. 

Jade
would never see the light of day again.

She
felt the beast’s fear as she imagined the sunlight on her arms.  The vampires
weren’t afraid of much, but they were afraid of light. She also felt something
sinister, a hidden glee, a secret between the beast and the other vampires.

Jade
found the bed and sat down hard, her mind half twisted trying to read the beast’s
thoughts, which was strange since the beast was inside her, a part of her.  It made
Jade wonder how deeply this creature was entangled with her.  Perhaps it was
like a parasite or a virus.  With enough struggle, maybe Jade could beat it out
of her.

She
listened to the beast, trying to hear the thoughts.  She knew the other
vampires were talking to it.  When she was closer to the beast and fighting
less, she could hear their voices, too.  Jade almost gave up the struggle out
of sheer curiosity.

Instead,
she hung on, fighting with every bit of strength to retain her own identity, to
keep the beast out of her heart, away from her soul. An image of Mindy lying
still on the ground floated across Jade’s memory like a dream. In that instant,
Jade knew exactly what had happened.  She knew who was in the house next door. 
Not some horrible vampiric thing, but her sisters, alive so far, but far from
well.

Jade
pushed off from the bed, but the vampires guarding her knew that the beast had
been subdued.  They stepped forward. In that moment, she also felt the sun
rise.  The beast taunted her with the knowledge.  “You’ll die, too.”

She
tackled the beast.  Her spirit dominated the creature, pounding it down, but
not into oblivion. Somehow it stayed, stubborn and insistent, like a thistle in
the sock only in her mind.

Gladys
laughed in her thoughts, the mocking sound worse even than the beast’s constant
hunger, “You’ll never escape.  Your sisters have a chance. Swear your oath to
me, and I’ll see them free.”

Lies.
Jade knew what kind of freedom Gladys offered.  Maybe death. Maybe life as vampires. 
Not all freedoms were equal. She didn’t bother with a response.  Jade shoved
the beast again, not because it had risen, but because she was angry, “Let me
see my sisters.  I won’t do anything until I see them.”

“It’s
daylight.  You wouldn’t survive the journey.” Gladys had a grating voice.  It
reminded Jade of the cheerleaders in her school, specifically Danika McGregor,
whose taunts generally ended with a fake hyena giggle that somehow drove the
boys crazy.  Maybe they were just pretending, too.

The
door opened and the vampires dragged in a teenager. He looked petrified,
especially when he saw Jade.  The beast roared, and Jade knew what it wanted.

She
also caught the psychological warfare in the choice of candidates, or as the
beast thought, food. Jade couldn’t deny that the fellow was handsome, a popular
clean-cut type who would please his parents with straight A’s.

Jade’s
type.

The
beast forced her mouth open. Her legs walked to the teenager who was trapped
between two vampires with two more blocking the door. The only problem was that
Jade didn’t want to walk.  She thought a nice place to be would be across the
room from the teenager who seemed to the beast like a hamburger and milkshake
all rolled into one.