Bloodstone (16 page)

“How are you feeling?” I asked. “Strong? Weak? In-between?”

“I’m fine.”

His soft tone didn’t convince me. “That’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

“It already is.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“If Zephora can’t create more creatures, and we keep killing the ones already in existence, where does that leave me?”

I’d kept that thought in the back of my mind because I hadn’t wanted to admit that it would be a problem. On the other hand, how could it not? Nolan needed to feed off those with supernatural energy. If we kept killing those with paranormal attributes, how long would he remain alive?

“Do you see why I’m on edge?”

“What do we do about it? Do you have any ideas?”

He chuckled without humor. “So far, outside of the band, Celestina, and your Grams, every supernatural entity we’ve encountered so far has been evil.” He put a couple fingers to his right temple, as though trying to massage an oncoming headache. “So no, I have no clue how I’ll continue on without a constant influx of paranormal creatures to…feed off of.” The disgust in his expression made it clear that he hated having to rely on others to remain at full power.

I wanted to soothe his fears, but it would be difficult. After all, I needed to kill Zephora’s allies because they were automatically tuned in to follow her orders, and since she wanted me to die, it would be a conflict of interest to allow monsters to exist. “Have you learned anything new about your—”

“Condition?” he asked with a smirk, as though aware of my uncertainty. “Other than my strength and speed, I don’t know what else makes me a…well, you know what I mean.”

“Other than that, your ability as a guitarist, and that you were raised by your foster parents, I don’t know much about you.”

A good-natured grin came over him, the kind you’d want your mother (or in my case, grandmother, if she’d been alive) to meet. “What do you want to know?” he asked.

“Everything,” I said a little too quickly, as though I’d been waiting days for him to ask the question. While true, I didn’t want him to get that impression. It seemed that, regardless of whether he supported good or evil, I couldn’t deny that I had a thing for him. I found it disconcerting. Furthermore, it seemed I had no choice. My heart had already made its choice.

“Why wouldn’t you let me help you?” he asked. “At the bar.”

I took a long moment before answering because I didn’t know if I should tell him the truth. Then again, figuring that he deserved the truth, I decided not to censor my response. “I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

He studied me, not with a judgmental attitude or outright anger, but he sincerely wanted to know what prevented me from giving in to him…when my life was on the line. A lesser man would have broken the silence and asked why I couldn’t trust him after he’d already saved my life. A lesser man would’ve been hurt by that admission, thinking that I didn’t regard him as boyfriend-material. He could have reached many conclusions based on our conversation so far. Regardless, Nolan didn’t feel threatened in the least. He simply waited for me to explain myself.

“I don’t know much about you, Nolan.”

“We’ve already confirmed that,” he said with a hint of a grin.

“Yeah.” I chuckled. “But I don’t know what you’re capable of.”

“Neither do I.”

“So, can you see why I’m hesitant to trust you?”

Giving my words some thought, he nodded slowly.

“I want to trust you.” I made a point of looking at him in hopes that he’d meet my gaze. It didn’t happen, so I took one final glance at the road before returning my attention to him. “Look at me.”

He spent a few seconds considering my words before heeding my request.

“You…excite me.” I felt incredibly vulnerable upon saying those words, but since those were the feelings that hit me every time I saw him, I wanted to be honest. I needed to be honest. Not just with him but with myself. If I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t be the person I wanted to be. “I’ve known you less than a week, and I feel like we’ve known each other…” Because he wore an unreadable expression, I didn’t know if I sounded like a blabbering idiot, but I needed some sort of admission that he’d heard me.

“Forever,” he finished for me. His eyes twinkled with understanding, and he nodded again as he took my words in stride.

“Exactly,” I admitted, incredibly relieved that I hadn’t made a fool of myself, that I didn’t look and feel like a love-struck fool. “I don’t know how or why, but it’s there: this connection, this”—as much as I didn’t want to acknowledge the truth, if I didn’t air my feelings, I’d be lying to myself—“…this longing. It scares me.
You
scare me.”

“I know,” he said with sincerity. “I
know
how you feel.”

“Really?” I stared at him, waiting for him to extrapolate on his feelings.

He took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. “Every other woman I’ve met, I might like the way she looks, but there’s never…there’s never any substance. It’s all surface. There isn’t any mystery.”

So that’s what got him off: a woman who played hard to get in order to rope him into her arms, a woman who hid her feelings and true intentions, a woman who might even have ulterior motives, but refused to share them with Nolan. “Oh, so you like the uncertainty, the chase.”

“No,” he said, adjusting his position in the seat so he could look directly at me. “That’s not it. I mean, no matter how much time I’ve spent with anyone else, it’s not that she’s keeping something from me and it ticks me off. That’s not it at all! I hate it. I can’t stand it! What I mean is…every other woman I’ve met, I didn’t
want
to know anything more about her.” He inspected my expression to determine if I was paying attention to him, if I truly understood what he said. “When it came to anyone else, I didn’t care. But with you…”

My breath left me, and I couldn’t snap up another one. The fear of hearing him saying anything other than what I wanted to hear made it difficult for me to hold his gaze.

“With you,” he said, “I care.”

Every particle of my being felt fringed, as though it had been stripped from my soul. When it came to the opposite sex, I’d never had anyone say anything so meaningful to me, and I didn’t know how to respond.

“So yeah,” he said, turning his attention to the passenger side window, obviously feeling rebuffed and uncertain how to take it. “There’s that.”

So much emotion built up inside me that I felt tears surge into my eyes. Grams, Kendall, and Brandon felt the same way about me, but of course, not in the same context. So to hear Nolan reveal his innermost feelings touched me on a level I’d never before experienced. I felt special. Not in the magical sort of way for once, but the human kind, the one that made me feel like I added a sense of worth to another human being. Although just as that thought passed across my mind, I realized that I wasn’t dealing with a fellow human…but a demon!  

A ringing interrupted my thoughts, but it didn’t come from either of our phones. Nolan and I both glanced to the back seat, where Celestina roused, fluttering her eyes to force herself awake, while reaching for the cell phone in the front pocket of her jeans. She placed it against her ear. “Hello?” she asked in a sleepy voice.

A muffled voice erupted from the speaker, but I couldn’t make out a sound.

“Okay,” Celestina said. She waited a moment, yawned and nodded, as whomever spoke on the other end of the line had pushed a seriousness manner into my niece’s expression. “I’m sorry, okay? I went to see Aunt Serena’s concert.”

“You what?” Alexis screamed from the phone.

Wincing, my niece pulled the phone away from her ear. She glanced my way, looking for backup, but knowing that I wouldn’t interfere, she held the phone an inch from her ear to allow me to listen in. Far from scared or disappointed to have let her mother down, Celestina rolled her eyes.

“I prohibited you from going,” Alexis continued, using a harsh tone. “And you disobeyed me?”

“I’m sorry, okay?” Celestina said, her voice full of fright. But her face revealed frustration, animosity, and the stirrings of teenage rebellion. “I made a mistake.” Only she hadn’t made a mistake. In leaving for the concert, my niece knew precisely what trouble she might face if her mother discovered she’d snuck out.

While I didn’t approve of Alexis’s parenting skills, I couldn’t side with my niece on this one. Once again, she had no business leaving the house that late by herself. If accosted, she could probably handle herself by using the seemingly unending list of abilities she now had at her disposal, but she was still a thirteen-year-old girl, and an immature, naive girl at that, who had recently begun acting out. All told, she would soon find trouble, regardless of whether she attempted to avoid it or not.

“I’ll hitch a ride with Aunt Serena.”

“No, you will not! I want you here now!”

Annoyed, Celestina clucked her tongue on the bridge of her mouth. “Where’s here?”

“Jefferson Park on Lawrence. Get in one of the cabs you seem so fucking fond of and get your ass over here!” A click ended the call, eliciting a steady dial tone from the phone.

Celestina turned off her phone, far from looking unaffected by her mother’s words, a nervous tic had developed under her right eye. “This isn’t good.” Her tone was laced with doom. “Mom doesn’t trust strangers. She wouldn’t have wanted me to get into another cab.” She pinched the skin under her eye to keep it from jittering. “She may not like you, Aunt Serena, but normally she’d have wanted you to take me home.” Celestina released the flesh, leaving it white. “Something’s wrong.” Her skin jumped again. 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I killed the headlights when I pulled to a stop at the curb beside Jefferson Park. I scanned the green grass for either Zephora or Alexis but didn’t see either of them. Wary, I shut off the engine, suspecting that Alexis knew I’d driven her daughter despite no mention of my name during her conversation with Celestina, at least from what I could tell.

Nolan turned to address Celestina. “Any idea what we’re facing?”

She didn’t offer a dismissive shrug of the shoulders. My niece looked uncertain, too frightened to answer. When the flesh above her eye quivered, she swiftly snagged it between two fingers and squeezed.

“Guess we should be ready for anything,” he said with an excited gleam in his eye. He actually looked forward to facing the unknown.

I opened my door as my passengers did likewise. We met on the passenger’s side of the grass and scanned the grounds before us.

There was a playground to the right with swings, a seesaw, and a slide. A basketball court lay just beyond, but at this time of night, both areas were vacant. I scanned the long swath of green grass and the tennis courts to the left, but again, it lay vacant. That seemed odd. Usually, during this time of night, a small group of family or friends occupied this area, having dwindled from even larger numbers, reluctant to part after spending only a few hours together.

“We’re at the right park, right?” I asked Celestina.

She left Nolan and I and then crossed the sidewalk, heading along the concrete path leading to a McDonald’s across the street.

“What the heck!” said Celestina, scanning every direction. “Mom said she’d be here.”

“Maybe she…” Upon seeing movement under a flickering lamppost beside the nearly always abandoned public restrooms a few hundred feet away, since the city seemingly never unlocked these rooms, I stopped speaking and remained on guard, waiting for further indication that someone might have bad intentions.

The lamppost light glowed bright for a full two seconds before shimmering again, allowing me to catch an eyeful of what Celestina had seen. My breath caught at the sight, and I halted.

Two rows of ten individuals faced us, but they directed their attention on someone ahead of them because their heads shifted ever so slightly from left to right as though receiving instructions from someone who walked back and forth alongside them.

A second later, two women stepped into view with their backs to us. The taller of the two women stepped forward, directed her attention to both pairs of the four men flanking her. She narrowed her arms, closing in to point at the twenty individuals standing opposite her.

The eight men sprang toward their prey and attacked them with feral intensity, while their victims didn’t so much as budge a muscle. They just stood in place as though disinterested or unmoved by how the predators unleashed a fury of violence. Someone had obviously compelled them not to move.

A vampire may have accomplished the deed, but I suspected that while Darius had likely turned these humans into vampires before I ended his life, I doubted he’d had enough time to train each of his recruits. After all, Kendall had difficulty compelling the woman who’d knocked on my door last night, but even then, she lacked the self-confidence to finish the task to the best of her ability. Plus, I’d relied on my experience during those instances where Alexis had attempted to infiltrate my mind and push thoughts into my brain that I’d otherwise never even consider.

There was only one reason to brainwash the twenty humans into stillness. Zephora had instructed the group of eight men to attack them…in order to turn them into vampires. She needed a large army, and tonight she had apparently set out to recruit new members.

Zephora may have instructed Alexis to compel the twenty humans in order to determine my sister’s level of skill. On second thought, I had difficulty believing my sister could manipulate almost two dozen people at the same time. One person? Definitely. Four or more people? Highly unlikely. Alexis was too impatient and had a tough time placing her undivided attention on any given mission for more than a couple minutes. Besides, she preferred to use her gifts with blunt force rather than smooth, seductive efficiency. Not only that, but she sought out circumstances where she could wield power over others, while her victims looked on without the ability to defeat her. In other words, she was a bully. 

Zephora, on the other hand, relished the idea of forcing others to do her bidding without them any the wiser. That route reduced the tendency of revolt. Zephora preferred subtlety to brute force and grand gestures. She liked to work her magic in the shadows. In fact, if given the chance, I’d bet she’d allow Alexis to steal the spotlight, to work as a figurehead, while Zephora pulled her strings.

The eight men dug their sharp teeth into their victims’ necks, spraying blood through the air.

Far from werewolves, who would have transformed into hairy beasts in order to use their weight, strength, and dexterity to their advantage, these men remained in human form. More precisely, these men moved in a sleek, efficient manner, unwilling to sacrifice the least bit of wasted movement in order to wreck the most havoc within the shortest amount of time possible.

Only vampires had those attributes.

The crew of vampires had each taken down one human, while the dozen other brainwashed individuals stood upright, completely at ease, failing to acknowledge the rampage around them. One vampire after another used its fangs to cut into a vein from their wrists before fastening it against their victims’ mouths, allowing them to ingest their vampire blood, which would turn them into bloodsuckers, once the vamps ended their lives.

Alexis had called upon her daughter in order to witness this vampire initiation ceremony. I set my gaze onto Nolan, who had already met my stare with barely contained excitement, obviously ready to take on these vamps to steal some of their supernatural power before dusting them.

I popped the trunk, rushed over to it, and removed the Soul Sword. Nolan snagged my shirt, careful not to touch me, lest he accidentally remove supernatural strength from my being. I swung back. “What’re you doing? We have to help the innocent people.”

“They’ve got two witches, eight vamps, and almost two dozen people about to get turned into vampires. There are just three of us, and we can’t count on Celestina to—”

“To what?” asked my niece, turning back to him with a glare. “To turn evil?” A low growl erupted from deep in her throat. Rather than wait for a response, she darted toward the crowd a couple hundred feet ahead of us. Her arms and legs pumped in swift, regimented bursts.

Nolan looked after her. “I guess she made up our minds for us.”

Instead of replying, I slammed down the trunk and raced after Celestina. I appreciated the cool breeze hitting me as I ran across the field. A moment later, Nolan sped past me, snatched a thick wooden stick a few inches in diameter, which had earlier fallen to the grass from the giant tree overhead, and surpassed Celestina a second later.

He rushed past Zephora and Alexis and launched himself onto a vampire’s back. Nolan swung the vamp around, reared back his right hand, and slammed the stick into its heart. As the vampire burst into dust, Nolan turned his attention to the unconscious (or, more likely, dead) man on the ground, with blood-slicked lips. Nolan hesitated for a moment, but because the man beside him would soon turn into a vampire, he rammed the stake into the man’s heart, preventing him from returning to this world as either a human or vampire. Since the vampire blood had already entered his bloodstream, the man disintegrated into a pile of particles.

Nolan turned to the next vampire, who had disregarded the dead human under him. He rushed Nolan and threw a right cross, knocking him a few steps backwards before he regained his footing. Nolan lashed the stick across the vampire’s neck with incredible speed, lopping off his head. Next, he rushed to the man who had sucked down vampire blood and slammed the stick into his heart, killing him instantly as dust filtered to the ground.

The other eight vampires looked up from their victims, none of whom had yet consumed vampire blood. They stared at Nolan, looking uncertain whether to attack him or complete their mission.

“Finish them!” Zephora shouted.

The indecision on their faces vanished. They returned their attention to their human victims.

As the creator of all paranormal creatures, Zephora had the capability to influence each of these monsters, except of course, the witches in her line. Upon devising these rules, she probably now wished she’d given herself the capacity to coerce
everyone
into abiding by her every command, especially now since Nolan and I had appeared.

While each vampire opened a vein, prepared to force their victims to drink the blood from their opened wounds, Nolan raced around each of them in one swoop, knocking each vampire off those they intended to turn.

Zephora snarled, her eyes twinkling with disgust. She extended an arm and pointed at him. “End him!”

The vampires darted toward Nolan, but rather than gang up on him and potentially get an arm thrust in their face by one of their comrades, only one vamp attacked at a time. Either that or these vamps were complete strangers and therefore not bound by duty or honor to protect or defend one another.

Zephora or Alexis could have entered the fray, but I suspected they stood on the sidelines in order to allow the vampires to wear down Nolan as well as discover what abilities he might call upon. Although Alexis would never hesitate to enter the fray, Zephora probably wanted to determine his fighting style to discover any weaknesses, as well as to learn if he might use any supernatural abilities beyond his strength and speed. Either way, this time we’d get a free pass. It wouldn’t occur again, so I focused my energy on the vampires, now that one had broken ranks and sped toward me.

“Not all of you!” Zephora yelled at the vampires. Aggravated, she shook her head at their failure to comprehend her instructions. “Half of you…” She motioned toward the humans. “Turn them.”

Four vampires nodded their heads and rushed over to the humans they had left on the ground.

Unwilling to let them follow Zephora’s plans, I rushed past Alexis.

“Hey, sis,” she said. “Glad you could join the party.”

I ignored her, glad that Celestina had branched off from me and pulled up beside Alexis, probably to try and get her to end this horrendous attempt to multiply the vampire population. I appreciated that, since she might distract my sister from attempting to stop me. I rushed toward the first vampire to cradle a human’s neck in the crook of his elbow, tipping his head toward the patch of blood on his wrist. I had hoped to catch him from behind, but since I didn’t have super speed like Nolan, my heavy footfalls had attracted his attention.

Knowing that I’d reach him before the human in his arms had a chance to feed on him, he hopped to his feet and spun around with a sneer.

A second later, a headless vampire went flying through the air and bashed into the other three vampires who’d been attempting to get the humans to feed from them. The next moment, the headless vampire burst into dust. For the bloodsucker to have been airborne for more than a few moments meant that Nolan must have wasted a fraction of an instant in severing his head before sending him soaring through the air.

That striking image nearly disrupted my concentration as I avoided a vicious fist to the face and ducked a roundhouse kick. One of my greatest strengths from learning martial arts centered on my ability to anticipate an opponent’s impending assault based on their fighting stance and the direction of their body. I relied on that trait to predict this vampire’s movements. I blocked two more blows, back-stepped a kick to the gut, and before the vampire had a chance to perform a back-kick, I kicked his shin, knocking him to the ground.

I hurried over and attempted to impale the Soul Sword into his chest, but the vampire rolled away from me. When he leapt up, I swung the blade toward his mid-section, knowing it wouldn’t end his life, but I needed to slow him down, since the pair of vampires that had fallen to the ground by the headless vampire had shaken off their confusion and would soon confront me.  

Since I didn’t have the superpowers that Nolan could call upon, I couldn’t count on the element of surprise to confound the vamps. They could move quicker and withstand much more abuse than I could. A surge of finality entered my body, and rather than rely on my martial arts abilities or attempt to cut open the three vampires from rushing me, I extended a hand and drew the energy in my direction with the intention of forcing it at the vampires who approached me.

Try though I might, I felt the energy receding from me, rather than approaching me. Puzzled by this bizarre reaction, I placed more emphasis on suctioning the energy surrounding me, but once again, the molecular pressure in my vicinity extended outwards. Instead of allowing a third attempt to enter my mind, I needed to attend to the vampire who now rushed me. I avoided a left uppercut and right jab combination and then kicked him into the two vampires heading toward me.

As the trio fell to the ground, I reached out and let a charge of heat bolt through my chest and into my arms. I directed an outstretched palm toward the vampires, and flames erupted from my hand, shooting toward the vamps.