A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) (22 page)

She
heard Gladys in her mind,
Now you’ll learn what happens to those who
disobey.

The
vampires dragged her to a stone altar standing in the middle of the field. More
than a voice in her head, Gladys was standing in front of the altar like an
Amazon woman, tall and self-assured with a stone knife in her hand.

The
vampires dragged Raven out kicking and screaming. She got a few good kicks in,
but by the time they dragged her to Jade’s side, she was bleeding from her nose
and her eye was starting to swell. She wore bruises upon bruises from the last
few days’ adventures.

Raven
spit at the nearest vampire.  Seeing Jade she fairly growled, “They’re going to
sacrifice Mindy. Are you going to help now that you’re one of them.”

Jade’s
intention was to say that they would never touch Mindy, but the beast,
strengthened by the presence of powerful vampires rose.  With fangs extended,
Jade found herself saying, “I’m going to drink from Mindy. It will be my first
act as a
real
vampire.”

When
the vampires brought Mindy out she was conscious, but stumbling and clearly in
a stupor. Jade wanted to tell Raven that the beast was controlling her, making
her say all those things.  That Gladys was feeding the creature lines
telepathically, but she was too weak.

As
they marched Mindy to the stone altar, and two vampires lifted her to lie on
the slab, Jade found herself floating in the air again. She was desperate to
return as she watched Raven struggle. She watched vampires tie Mindy’s hands. Her
body left its place beside Raven to join Gladys who stood at the altar, knife
in hand.  All the while, Jade watched helplessly from above her body.

“Tonight
we welcome a new vampire in our midst,” Under the starlit night, Gladys’ voice
boomed.

The
vampires cheered.

Gladys
continued, “Tonight we sacrifice purity. We sacrifice faith. We sacrifice
loyalty. Step forward.”

Jade
watched as her body stepped forward.  Raven screamed for her to stop. A tornado
swept through the clearing, shoving vampires aside.  Jade knew Raven wouldn’t
be able to sustain it.  That kind of power exhausted an Elemental and Raven
looked wiped.

A
chill swept through Jade as she watched herself raise the knife.  The tornado
tossed vampires away from the altar, but just as it reached Jade and Gladys the
tornado stopped.

One
of the vampires struck Raven hard across the face. Jade watched as Raven
crumpled to the ground. She was stunned. There was nothing left between the
beast and Mindy.

Never
had Jade felt so helpless, never so frightened.

A
voice intruded on her thoughts, “It’s almost too late. Let me help.”

Jade
knew who it was.  The sharp smell of ozone shook her from her panic. “Yes. Yes.
Let me save Raven and Mindy. Burn them all. I don’t care,”

It
wasn’t
almost
too late. It
was
too late.  Jade realized that in
an instant.

Mindy
was lying on the altar.  Jade’s body and the beast inside hovered over her. The
knife came down.

Jade
screamed.

She
had killed her little sister, at least her body had. The beast had thrust the
knife through Mindy’s center. 

Jade’s
echo of pain and fear, her echo of rage bounced through the forest carrying
flame.  Lightening struck in a dozen places at once, frying vampires. Gladys
screamed as she became a living vampire torch. With Gladys out of the picture,
the beast weakened. 

As
she floated back to her body, she saw Raven push herself off the ground.  Jade
wrenched control of her body away from the beast.  Her anger rose, as deadly as
a viper. Lightening struck again and again. Air joined the fury and wind
whipped the burning vampires away from the altar.  Fire and Jade worked tightly
together.  Fire relishing the freedom so rarely found in the little balls of
rock circling the Great Fire. So seldom was she allowed a true blaze.

Again
and again, vampire after vampire burst into flame.  Every structure in the
field was on fire, whether house or shed, car or lawn mower.  Only the
Elementals were safe from the inferno.

The
moment triggered a memory, a harsh moment that Jade had long ago shoved into
the recesses of her mind, a kind of amnesia.  She remembered the death of her
beloved father.  She remembered the cause.

Jade’s
legs wouldn’t hold her. She wobbled, collapsing to the ground.  She sobbed, the
memory of the Fire seven years ago, and how it jumped from her father’s
attacker to her father, how he howled and then suddenly it was over.   She
couldn’t remember what happened next, only that he had been on fire and it was
her fault.

When
the beast took her body once more, she told Fire, “End me. I can’t control the
beast, and I’m tired.”

Fire
waited. She didn’t listen to Jade.  There were other plans in motion.

Raven
dragged herself to Jade.  Jade was barely aware of the world around her. She
stayed in her body, sharing it with the vampire, but she had no control. Raven’s
nose was bleeding. She wiped her nose on her hand and held it out for Jade.

Not
Jade, the monster.

But
Raven didn’t know that. Did she?

The
monster stood, moving to feed on Raven. Jade was so tired.  She should care,
but Mindy was dead. Jade lost herself in the beast’s hunger, losing all sense
of time and space.

The
beast shrieked.

Jade
came to her senses as Fire struck.

She
was on fire, burning from the inside out.

Burn
it.

Jade
thought she would die.  It would be better than living with the knowledge that
she had killed her little sister. She fed the fire with her own energy, feeling
the heat lick her skin.

Chapter 19

~~ Raven ~~

Raven
could barely walk in a straight line, but she had seen how hard Jade was
fighting for control.  She knew what she had to do. Taking the bottle of Keeper’s
water out of her jacket pocket, she forced herself to walk to Jade.  It wasn’t
far in terms of distance, but Raven had nothing left.

Between
the beating she took from the vampires and the power she used to help Air fan
the flames, Raven could barely walk in a straight line.

Jade
was getting worse. The fires had all gone out.

Raven
could see that it would be too late if she didn’t do something.  She had
already lost Mindy.  She wouldn’t lose Jade as well.

Raven
removed the stopper from the bottle, holding it in her right hand. When she
reached Jade, Jade’s fangs were extended.  Jade wanted to feed.

Raven
wiped her nose on her left hand letting the blood drip on her fingers and held
it out.

Jade
latched on. Raven didn’t give her a chance to feed.  She slipped her hand away
and before Jade could figure out what happened, and dumped the water down her
throat.

Several
things happened at once.

Jade
began caterwauling as if someone had just dumped her in a pot of boiling
water…maybe Raven had. The air glittered around Jade, as if a thousand
fireflies were dancing in the air around her. 

In
the dark of the night under the stars, Jade began to sparkle.  There was no
other way to describe it.  As if lit from within, her skin shimmered.  There
were several pops and smoke rose into the air.  It seemed to come from nowhere,
but Raven thought Jade had something to do with the smoke.

And
then the light faded. 

Jade
wept, tears streaking down her face. She pulled Raven into a huge hug, “Thank
you.” 

The
sisters turned toward Mindy.  Raven stepped over a pile of ash that was once a
vampire. She reached the altar first.  She hadn’t started crying yet.  Jade
hadn’t stopped crying.

When
Raven released Jade from the hug, her sister collapsed.  Raven wanted to
comfort Jade, but Mindy might still be alive.  Raven held out the hope that her
sister somehow survived the stabbing.

Raven’s
flashlight slowly inched its way along Mindy’s body.  Raven kept swallowing
bile, afraid of the moment when the light settled on a pool of blood.  That
moment never came. 

As
the light settled on Mindy’s face, Mindy said, “I’m okay.”

The
tears started flowing then.  Raven said, “Mindy?  Where did the vampire stab
you?”

Raven
didn’t want to say Jade’s name. Saying the word
vampire
created distance,
even though it was Jade with the knife.  She didn’t want either sister to have
those words ringing in their ears. “Little trick,” Mindy said and put a finger
to her lips, “Shhh...”

Raven
yelled to Jade, “Jade?  Mindy’s okay.  I’m untying her now.”

Jade
shuffled forward, wiping the tears from her eyes.  “She’s really okay?  But I
saw…I saw the knife come straight down.  How?”

Shrugging,
Raven cut the first of Mindy’s bonds, “She said it was a trick.”

The
sisters gathered around the altar. The wind rose and piles of ash that had once
been vampires drifted on the breeze.  Raven was shocked at her sister’s sudden
transformation from vampire back to human.  The whole last week felt like a
dream, a nightmare. The nightmare was over. Raven wanted to convince herself of
that, but the vampires were only the start.  They still had to find Mom.

~~ Jade ~~

Jade
couldn’t stop crying. Mindy held out her arms to Jade, “I’m fine, really. Only
my head hurts.”

“They
hit her hard,” Raven said.

“Looks
like they hit you hard, too.” Jade said to Raven as she picked up Mindy.  It
was the shortest carry ever, “I’m sorry, Cricket, I’m too tired to carry you.”

Raven
was looking for a way out.  With a sigh she said, “The cars are all burnt. I
was hoping to get out of here.”

Jade
sniffed. Tears were still running.

“It’s
over. You can stop crying,” Raven teased.

But
Jade couldn’t.  Because she remembered things no daughter should ever
remember.  She said, “I’ll probably be weepy for a while.”

Fire
nudged Jade. 

“Oh,”
Jade turned, “Fire told me that there is a car left.  She knew we’d need to get
out.  She just didn’t want to leave one near where the vampires were dying, in
case they tried to escape.”

“How
far is it?” Raven didn’t think she could move another step, let alone ten, let
alone one hundred.

“I’ll
get it and bring it around,” Jade said. She wanted a little time away.  She
needed to cry for a while, and somehow it seemed better to do it walking
through the night looking for the car than sitting next to her sisters.

Fire
didn’t understand distance the way a human did. The car was a Ford Mustang
parked in one of the slow-car turn-offs up the road. After a long hike, Jade
spent several minutes looking for keys and ignoring Fire.

Finally
Fire gave up on trying to convince Jade.  While Jade was poking around in the glove
box, Fire turned over the engine. Jade lifted her head, “Oh, I
really
don’t need keys.” That was what Fire was trying to tell her.

Fire
wasn’t a talker, not like Air or Water.  She did the Fire version of shrugging
by making a few sparkling flickers in the air around Jade. Jade drove the car
back to the field, bouncing along the uneven ground.

Raven
got into the back seat with Mindy.  It made sense, but Jade had a wide range of
emotions from guilt to humiliation. The thought crossed her mind that maybe
Raven was afraid of her or didn’t like her anymore or remembered Jade’s part in
their Dad’s death.

“Where’s
Claire?” Jade rubbed her temple.  Her head hurt. It had been a long week and
right now she was feeling like she’d been hit by a freight train going a
hundred miles an hour.

Raven
blinked.  She had forgotten Claire. She put a hand to her forehead and said,
“She was underground. Air said she was okay, but then the vampires grabbed us
and I lost track of her. Maybe Air can find her again.”

Raven
asked and Air went searching.

Jade
said, “I might as well get to the main road while we wait for Air, in case
there are other vampires around.”  

The
forest was eerily quiet.  Jade tried not to block everything out of her mind,
but she kept replaying the moment when the vampires burned, the foul smell in
the air, the sickening sensation that she wouldn’t be able to stop.  Worse than
that, the memory entwined itself with the memory of her father’s death.  She
focused on the road, on that bare patch of visible gravel struck by the
headlights. She tried to zone everything else out.

“Anything
about Claire yet?” Jade asked Raven.

Raven
rubbed her eyes.  She had fallen asleep, as had Mindy.  “What?”

“I
was just wondering if you’d heard from Air.” Jade said.  She drove slowly, at
least ten miles under the speed limit.  The roads were empty.  She was so tired
she was afraid that she’d fall asleep at the wheel. 

“Nothing
yet…I hope Claire’s okay,”  Raven said.

Once
they hit asphalt Jade just guessed at a direction and drove.  She wanted
distance between them and the vampires, if there were any left alive.  The next
town she reached they’d take their mother’s credit cards and…Jade had a
horrible sinking feeling.  “Raven, did you grab Mom’s purse?”

“Um…no. 
Surrounded by vampires, remember?” Raven asked in that snotty superior way that
sisters sometimes have.

“Okay.
Okay.  It’s just that we don’t have any money for a hotel room…or gas…or
anything else,” Jade felt an avalanche of overwhelmed.  A glance at the gas
tank gave her some relief.  At least it was over halfway. 

“We
just took out a hundred vampires.  A little cash-flow problem can’t get us
down,” Raven said.  She leaned her head back against the seat.  She hurt so
bad.  Her face felt like it was one of those giant balloons that kids jump in,
the ones with a thousand little balls and it felt like the kids had been
jumping on it all day. Raven figured the way her head ached in rhythm fit the analogy.

Jade
sighed, “Easy to say, but we’re exhausted and we don’t know what else is out
there.”

Raven
straightened in her seat, “Yes, we do.  We’ll ask for help from Wayne in Bend. 
Long story.  I’ll give you directions.”  

Jade
shoulders relaxed just a little. Maybe they would get out of this mess.  But she
wouldn’t feel completely at ease until they all were together.

She
said, “I just hope Claire’s okay.”

~~ Claire ~~

It
was the middle of night in the middle of nowhere and every step felt like
torture.  Claire hefted the duffel from one hand to the other. The thousand
pound bag, with water and jerky, a teddy bear, a few clothes, Mom’s purse, and Raven’s
favorite CD bounced along her back.  Claire felt guilty that she didn’t find
any of Jade’s favorite things to bring.  She did put in the copy of Day
Soldiers that Jade was reading. That book had special meaning now that she knew
vampires were real. Until this summer, vampires had always been fiction.

Claire
shuddered.

She
tried to think of happier things.  Water. Sunlight. The park during winter when
they all went sledding.  Anything but the fact that she was walking on the side
of an empty road at night and could possibly be watched or stalked by vampires.

Something
stirring in the night air gave her the creeps.  She couldn’t stop from
shivering.  It was as if she were sitting in a freezer.  Claire couldn’t get
warm.  Whether it was the stress of the long, wet climb-and-carry out of the
tunnel or the terrible fear she had for her sisters, Claire focused on taking
one step and then another, all the while shaking so hard her teeth rattled.

What
if I just stopped walking?

Claire
was just thinking the thought to herself, but Water overheard.  Water said,
You
could join me.  We’ll just become one forever. You’ll never be too cold or too
hot.  You can dance on the Earth and play in the Air.

It
sounded so good, especially now that the road was heading up a steep incline. 
The air was so cold.  Claire wished she had a pair of gloves and a hat.  She
thought it would be nice to turn into Water, to play endlessly.  There was a
danger to playing too long as an Element.  Aunt Bertha warned her several times
to control herself, that Elementals had been known to lose themselves in the
Element.  Their souls could be trapped forever as the Element they favored.

Claire
was too tired, now.  She was sure to lose herself if she allowed Water to talk
her into changing form.

Trudging
up the hill and around the bend, Claire shifted the duffel bag several times.
Water didn’t have good news about her sisters.  They were trapped by the
vampires miles away.  Walking she didn’t have a prayer of catching up.

The
night was still and silent.  Claire felt lonely to the depths of her bones. 
Not just lonely in a human way, but lonely in an animal way, as if she didn’t
belong anywhere at all.  She didn’t miss anyone specifically. She missed
everyone.

As
she breached the top of the hill and started working her way down, Claire had
the feeling of being watched.  She turned completely around a few times, only
to come out of the turn with a stronger feeling that something was out there and
a terrible fear because she couldn’t see who it was.

She
didn’t see him coming.  Not at all.

Claire
took a step right into him.

He
grabbed her arms, his thick hands so cold that her skin felt freezer burn where
he touched.  She felt him there, grabbing her, but when she tried to see him,
her eyes slid off him in the weirdest way, as if the man himself was an optical
illusion.

She
surely felt him, though.

His
grip was tight.

Claire
tried to become water.  He seemed to know what she was doing and prevent it. 
Claire didn’t know how, only that she felt a frozen electricity running along
her arms and she couldn’t change.

Water
didn’t ask for permission.  She didn’t even indicate that she was going to do
anything. Water blasted the man, every droplet available on the floor of the
forest, a few spouts from a nearby stream flew in a water spiral at the man.

He
was surprised and loosened his grip for just a second.

Claire
yanked herself away, letting the change take her.

As
she changed, she could see the man more clearly.  A man who was not a man.  A
dark shadow that could see without eyes, hear without ears.  It hunted them.

He
raised both of his arms.  A jolt of electricity pierced Claire and she lost her
thoughts. When she came out of her daze, the man was gone. Her knees buckled
and she crawled into the grass, throwing up again and again, her stomach
heaving even when there was nothing left.

“What
was that?” Claire asked, when she was done heaving.

A
servant of the void.

“How
do I get away? Where do I run?” Claire’s heart seemed to skip a few beats as it
pitter-pattered in a desperate rhythm.

Water
answered,
He got what he came for.

That
made no sense to Claire.  Nothing had been taken.  He had grabbed her arms,
though.  She thought back.  She was still talking to Water, so she didn’t lose
her Elemental status. What could he have taken? Finally, she gave up trying to
figure it out on her own, “What did he come for?”

Knowledge.
He knows the Gift of Time is not with you.  He will seek out your living
relatives. 

“Is
he dangerous?” Claire asked.

Unpredictable.
They kill some Elementals, take others to become Void, and leave the rest
alone.  Only the Void’s Master knows why.