B00528UTDS EBOK (3 page)

Jeanie reached out and covered Sarah’s hand with her own. “What happened to Gina was an accident. You know that don’t you?” Jeanie asked, reading Sarah’s thoughts.

Gina had been her best friend growing up. During their first year of high school they’d gone to a beach party with a few of the locals. It was that night that Sarah came face to face with death in a very personal way.

Though Sarah tried to talk her out of it, Gina went into the water anyway. She wasn’t the only one that had gone into the water that night, but she was the only one that did not come back.

They blamed Sarah for it. She talked to the dead and brought death to those around her. The kids teased her mercilessly. She should have hated them for it, but maybe it was true.

There had been a warning that morning that something would happen. She’d gone into the bathroom at school. Quickly slipping in there to brush her hair before the next class, because the wind had made such a mess of it.

One minute she had been looking at her own reflection, and the next she’d seen Gina all bloated and gray, staring at her with her dead eyes. It had been a warning from the other side. She’d tried to tell Gina that she had a strange feeling about going out that night, but her friend wouldn’t listen.

Jeanie snapped her fingers. “Have you been listening to me?” she asked Sarah.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear what you said.”

“They said that it’s really important. Besides, it would give you a chance to brush up on your skills,” Jeanie added.

Sarah wanted to say no, but Clyde had always been nice to them whenever they went to the docks to buy fish. She decided that she’d do it for Clyde’s sake. It would give her a chance to say goodbye.

Sarah gave her aunt a weak smile. “Okay,’ she agreed.

* * * *

Hidden in the large oak, Darrien watched her through the kitchen windows. From the expression on her face it was obvious that she was upset, but she seemed to be surrounded by some kind of force that kept him from probing her mind. He could sense her, but he couldn’t read her thoughts.

Why couldn’t he bring himself to snuff out her life?

He’d been so close to doing just that. To sinking his teeth into her flesh and drinking of her sweet nectar. Her fear had been tantalizing, inflaming his hunger even more, but then the memories came back. The memories of another human – another enchanting witch, weaving her spell over him until he was mad with desire. But in the end, she had refused eternity. She had chosen death instead, leaving him to endure an endless existence without her.

While she had loved him, she had also hated what he was. She’d hated him for what he’d done.

If only the witch could have forgiven him. How could he have known what she would become to him, and that she would eventually extract a revenge on him more tormenting than an eternity in the fiery pits of hell? Loving a woman that had been dead for over two hundred years, was a fate worse than any hell that man could dream up.

Since the night that she’d left this world, his soul had known no light. With a heart so black, it was little wonder that he was known among vampires to show no mercy to his victims. But then he’d peered into Sarah’s terrified eyes - eyes so green they appeared to have captured the stormy sea within their depths. There had been that flicker of light that touched his heart, and he had been unable to take her life.

But they would send others!

Someone would come and do what he had been unable to do. Her very existence was forbidden. She was a danger to the ancients. Their world would only go on as it had, if they could be rid of the sisters.

Darrien had been selected for this task because he was so ruthless. What would Omar do when he realized that his chosen assassin had failed? What would he do when they sent someone else to finish the job?

When Omar had sent him to eliminate the witch, he hadn’t known that she was a Fabre witch.

Would it have made a difference if he’d known?

Somehow Darrien doubted it. It might have made all the difference a couple hundred years go, but not today. At least it hadn’t until that moment that he’d been ready to take her life, and found that he couldn’t do it.

Ascending into the dark sky, Darrien let his hunger guide him to his prey, like he had every night for centuries, but tonight he would do so with less enthusiasm. The hunt didn’t seem quite as alluring as it had before - before he had lost himself in those beautiful - bewitching eyes.

* * * *

Sarah and Jeanie waited outside the funeral home until they saw the people begin to leave. The funeral was to be tomorrow. Tonight, friends and family would have one last opportunity to view the deceased before the coffin was closed.

“You ready for this?” Jeanie gave her an encouraging smile.

Nodding, Sarah followed her aunt through the parking lot to the large double glass doors of the mortuary. Like every time she came to one of these places, Sarah felt an ache in her stomach, and with each step she took, the pain grew worse. She knew it was anxiety, but was at a loss for how to control it.

Jeanie led her into the viewing room where Clyde’s family was waiting for them. The metallic gray coffin was positioned between two large flower arrangements. Resting on the top of the coffin was a spray of white roses. The oppressive atmosphere of the funeral home tightened the knot in her stomach. The grief around her was overwhelming. It was like a black fog encircling her, finding its way into her mouth and nose to cut off her breath. She felt as if it would smother her until she was as lifeless as the body within the coffin.

Over the years, Sarah had come to dread these occasions. The one thing that she had discovered was that the dead were far easier to deal with than the living.

Sarah would not go to the coffin and peer in at the body of the old man. She knew that Clyde was no longer in the shell that had once been his body. No, Clyde wasn’t in there at all. At the moment, the old man was standing next to his wife.

Mrs. Morris was inconsolable. Someone was asking Clyde’s wife a question, but all she could do was shake her head while she sobbed into a white tissue. Clyde was standing next to his wife, trying to talk to her, but of course Mrs. Morris wasn’t aware that he was even there.

Though Clyde was now in spirit, he appeared exactly as he had every time Sarah had seen him. He had on a black cap and blue overalls. He was still wearing the rubber boots he would wear at work to keep from getting fish guts on his shoes. His hair was completely gray, as was his mustache. To Sarah, Clyde still looked like he was among the living.

Clyde glanced over and saw Sarah standing by the viewing room doors. Leaving his wife’s side, he drifted over to Sarah and her aunt. “Thank heaven you’re here! Will you tell this woman to stop her crying and listen to me?”

Sarah smiled sadly, shaking her head. “Clyde, she can’t hear you now. You’ve passed away.”

“Well I know that! Otherwise I wouldn’t be standing in this godforsaken corpse mill,” he frowned.

Mrs. Morris noticed Sarah and came running over to her. “Oh dear girl! I’m so glad you could make it. Can you contact Mr. Morris for me? You know … he has all of the passwords to our online accounts and the fool never gave them to me.”

“He doesn’t remember what they are,” she told Mrs. Morris.

The old woman frowned. “Well a lot of help he is.”

Clyde held up his hand. “Oh wait a minute! Tell her I did write them down on a piece of a paper and hid it in one of the couch cushions.”

Sarah relayed the message to Mrs. Morris, who seemed relieved, but had gone back to crying in her tissue. “Tell him I’m mad as hell that he went and had that heart attack … just before he was going to take me to Seattle for our anniversary.”

“He can hear you,” she told the woman.

Clyde shook his head. “Tell her I’m sorry, and that she should still go and celebrate our time together.”

Again, Sarah relayed the message before turning back to Clyde. The old man’s attention seemed to have wandered. He was peering to his side, seeing something that was invisible to Sarah. She assumed it was the light and he was ready to cross over, but Clyde once again turned to Sarah.

“Gina wants to know why you ignore her?”

Sarah gasped. Gina was the one person that she had never been able to communicate with. She hadn’t heard a peep from her friend.

“I can’t see her … or hear her,” Sarah told him.

Aunt Jeanie put a protective arm around Sarah.

“She wants you to know that if you don’t run now, you will be seeing her soon,” Clyde told her.

Giving up, she opened her eyes, but Clyde had vanished.

“He’s gone,” she told Jeanie and Mrs. Morris.

“The man always did have a habit of leaving without saying goodbye. Thank you for coming dear.” Mrs. Morris moved back to the group of family members that were waiting for her near the casket.

The vampire had told her to run, and now Gina. Where could she run to, and whom was she running from?

As eerie as the ancient cemetery was, the blanket of swirling fog hugging the ground made it even more so. Alec stood at the edge of the graveyard. Behind him, a long abandoned village church and hundreds of gravestones rose up from the night mist. They were a reminder to all that life was short, and that sooner or later death would come for them. It would come for everyone but Alec, and his kind.

Alec’s soul was damned to prey upon the living for all time. Nicole was his saving grace, but for how long would that last? Sooner or later, Omar would manage to turn her or kill her? Maybe she would escape Omar, but she would not escape time. He would once again walk the earth alone, unless he could free himself of his curse.

He was sure that the ancients knew how to do this. They knew how the vampire could live in the light and exist without the need to prey on the living for their blood.

Alec stared up at the massive black cliffs. At the very top was a fortress that had occupied the same imposing stance for hundreds of years. Castle Arges stood watch over the empty village nearby. This was how the master of Castle Arges preferred it. Solitude was the vampire’s friend, especially in Romania, a land of legends and vampires.

Here in this dark land, it was difficult for the vampire to hide. The people were always watchful for these creatures, but few dared to confront Luciano. Some believed that Luciano was the oldest of the ancients, and perhaps even the first vampire, but Alec didn’t believe this. He did not doubt that Luciano was one of the ancients, but not the first.

A steep staircase led to the top of the cliffs and Castle Arges, but Alec needed no stairs. Slowly he rose out of the mist and flew through the night toward Luciano’s haven of darkness.

Confronting Luciano was a fool’s mission and Alec, was no fool. He would search out the castle himself for the Book of Anu. More than a thousand years ago, the words of an immortal were preserved in this manuscript, but it was kept well hidden by the ancients, if it actually existed at all.

Alec hoped that it did, but he’d spent two centuries searching for it, without finding even a hint that the manuscript was anything but myth. Then Lex had confirmed its existence. He was a member of the
Vilka
pack, but Alec could not help but wonder what the wolves could know of the vampires? The
Vilkas
were the wolf people of Eastern Europe, and they were ancient, but what could they really know about vampires?

The courtyard was empty and dark, the perfect place for Alec to gain entrance to Castle Arges. His feet touched down on the stone surface of the courtyard, barely making any noise at all. Normally he would have little fear of discovery, but this was no ordinary home. This was the home of Luciano, a vampire so powerful that none dared oppose him, not even Omar.

Alec slipped inside through a large wooden door. It creaked as he pulled it open, but not enough to make others aware of his presence. He found himself in a long - dimly lit corridor. Not much had changed at Castle Arges since medieval times. There was now electricity and probably running water, but it appeared almost exactly as it had all those years ago. That was one thing that you could be sure about with the ancients. They did not like change, and tended to squash anything that would bring about change, or a shifting of power.

The last time he’d been at the castle, he had not made it into the lower levels or any of the hidden passages. Alec decided that would be the best place to begin his search. A scream from another part of the castle brought Alec to a standstill. He listened for a long time. There was another shriek of agony.

Alec blocked out the sound. Someone was playing with their food. This was not the way it was supposed to be. The humans were a source of life, not a toy for cruel amusement. He continued down the corridor, and was more determined than ever to end the curse of the immortal.

* * * *

Sarah stuffed the St. John’s Wort into the plastic bag and sealed it. It was her fiftieth bag in an hour. She heard the front door open and knew that her aunt was home from her weekly shopping trip into town. Aunt Jeanie loved her privacy and preferred to stay within her home, but she also liked to gossip with her friends whenever she got the chance.

Fraternizing with the others was why she made it a point to go to town each week to shop, even if they didn’t really need anything. She and the other ladies would gather at the local diner for a little catching up. Of course many of the patrons of the Grotto would leave when they saw the ladies coming, but they didn’t let that bother them at all. A few even found it amusing that after hundreds of years, so many of the locals still feared them.