Dead Awakenings (20 page)

“I promise.” She was half relieved, half scared.

“I know you’re the most powerful newborn we have ever seen. But I can’t protect you if you do that. I did wrong by not telling you right away about Tristan. I was scared. Scared that you might leave, scared that you would choose him. I’m not sure how I feel about a lot of things, but I’m sure how I feel about you. All I see is you. You’re in my head, in my thoughts, in my soul. Nothing means anything to me but you. Not the newborns, not the people doing this to us, nothing. When I think about my future, I no longer think about dying. I think about spending whatever existence I have left, with you. I’ve never felt this way about anyone, ever. Not even Mya.”

“Luca. You know I have feelings for Tristan still.”

“But you yourself said that the two of you can’t be together. Even you see it. You don’t feel about him the way you feel about me. Admit it.”

She didn’t want to but… The connection between her and Luca was a thousand times stronger than the feelings she’d had for Tristan. “I can’t explain how I feel for you. I’ve never felt anything so intense in my old life or in this life. And I don’t think you can explain it either,” she said.

“I can’t, but I won’t deny it anymore, either. I haven’t let myself feel anything for a long time. I cut that part off from me ten years ago. But with you, from the first time we touched, I’ve had no choice in the matter. When I thought I’d lost you tonight, I was ready to tear up the whole world to find you. I know that part of it’s the connection we have, but part of it is much deeper. It’s something else completely. More than electricity, more than chemicals. Fighting the urges to be with you every day, to see you, touch you, taste you, is more unbearable than being with you. When you left tonight I knew where you would go. But I had to come. I had to make sure you were safe. All I kept thinking was that you were going to pass out while driving and end up in a wreck and dead. There’s nothing that could keep me from keeping you safe.”

He bent his head and kissed her on the forehead, the nose and the mouth. This time there was no force, no need, just him. He traced the line of her neck with his fingers, over the curve of her shoulder and down to her waist. His lips were soft and tender, his tongue languid and smooth. But the electricity between them rose like a lit candle flame, growing brighter and hotter with every passing moment. Before long Evaine found herself pressing her hips into him, her need to be consoled turning into something else. Fire bloomed in her chest as he kissed her deeper, his strong fingers digging into her hip bones, pulling her into him. His hard body pressed her roughly into the brick building. He lifted her off the ground and she wrapped her body around his. It had never been this way between her and Tristan. Tears leaked from her eyes as she thought about him. She needed this. She needed to bury the pain, to forget.

Suddenly Luca released her in time to hear footsteps coming down the alley. He crouched in a defensive stance, pressing Evaine behind him. The smell of the newcomers hit Evaine before the sight of them did. The smell of rotting flesh and dead bodies. They were dirty, but not as filthy as she had expected them to be. Still, she stifled a cough. They drew closer, and Luca tensed, ready to pounce.

The three of them stopped twenty feet away. The tallest, about six foot, stepped away from the two men behind him to speak.

“I bring greetings from Damien.”

Luca didn’t respond.

The lead man glanced at the men behind him and then back again. “Damien wishes to speak with the newborn.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” Luca spoke in an apologetic voice, not relaxing his stance for a moment. “She’s had a very tiring evening driving into the city, seeing old friends. You know how draining that can be for a newborn. I need to get her home.” Luca pushed his thoughts into her head.
“Draw from my energy. In case there’s a fight, you’re going to need it.”
She didn’t want to, but there were three of them and no matter how good Luca was, the Feeders would be stronger and faster. Her ability was the only chance they stood at getting away. She placed her hands on him and allowed his energy to flow into her.

“Damien offers you the hospitality of lodging for the night and a meal tomorrow. Then you can be on your way.” The Feeder spoke a bit more forcefully.

Evaine stepped from behind Luca to stand beside him. This was not the time to hide. Reaching down she took Luca’s hand in hers. His eyes flicked over to her face for a fraction of a second and then back to the three men. He smiled. Evaine had never seen him pretend to be gracious to someone before; it was strange.

“Again, please thank Damien for us. We’ll be sure to tell Nate of this great sign of friendship.”

The two men in the back of the group started to fidget. The man in the front looked as if he were trying to find something else to say.

“We really must be going now,” Luca said. “Please give Damien our best.” He put his arm around Evaine and began to lead her out of the alley. The spokesman rushed up behind them. A split second before he would have been on them, Evaine spun around and used her ability to shove him. It wasn’t hard, but it was enough to make him think twice. He glared at her menacingly, his teeth bared.

Luca again stepped in front of her. The Feeder’s companions who had rushed forward at the spokesman’s advance stopped dead in their tracks.

“Now that was rude,” Luca said without pretense. “I am left to wonder whether Damien’s offer truly was one of friendship. I’m afraid that I’ll have to take this as a hostile action by Damien against the Family. If you do not leave now you will have declared war between yourselves and the Haven Houses, Feeder.”

The man wavered, and after a moment he took a step backward. “I apologize for the misunderstanding.” He sounded unrepentant.

With that Luca backed up quickly into the street connected to the alleyway, pushing Evaine ever farther away from the would-be assailants. He had her by the arm and dragged her along like a small rag doll. At one point she thought that he was going to pick her up and carry her because she wasn’t moving fast enough, but he didn’t. They arrived at his SUV, two blocks behind Tristan’s building, and he opened her door, shoving her inside. Running over to the driver side he jumped in and started the engine. He peeled away from the curb and barely missed the car in front of them. Luca drove like a New York cabbie trying to get out of the city.

Twenty miles later, not a word had been said between them. He finally pulled off the highway at a rest area. Luca’s tension was palpable. He was shaking from the rage he’d been fending off for the last half hour. He leaned back in his seat, gripping the steering wheel so hard she thought his bones would pop through his skin.

She reached over tentatively and touched his arm, letting her fingers comfort him. She rubbed his cheek with her hand. He didn’t move or speak; he just sat there for a long time with his eyes closed.

“What was that all about?” Her throat felt dry as Mars.

“I’m not sure. Damien has never sent anyone to get one of us when we’ve been in town before. And never have any of us been given an invitation in that manner either.” He looked at her seriously. “‘Damien wants to have a word with the newborn.’ They wanted you.”

“Why me?”

“I have no idea. Maybe Damien heard about your powers.”

“But that would mean that someone told them.”

Luca knit his brows together and pursed his lips. “Yes, it would. And the only people who know about you and what you can do are family members.”

“How did they find out I was even in the city?”

Luca pushed a button on the Bluetooth that she hadn’t realized he was wearing till now. He called Nate, explained about the confrontation, and arranged for Evaine’s car to be picked up.

“Luca,” Evaine said when he had gotten off the phone, “I can’t go back with you. I told myself that if I hurt anyone again that I would leave. And I did, I hurt you and the two other guys—”

“Evaine, no one’s mad at you. They’re all mad at me.”

“What? Why?”

“For the same reason you were. Because I knew and didn’t tell you. Because I ran off to check out the competition and almost let you get killed during the testing. Because I’m a selfish jerk who’s only thinking of himself and what he wants.” He thought for a minute. “Yeah, that pretty much covers what they said.”

“But I’m the one who hurts everyone.”

“Yeah, and if I had told you the truth to begin with instead of having you find out the way that you did, none of this would have happened.”

Evaine smiled at the thought. She’d never had people on her side before, besides Tristan. Not since…she didn’t want to think about the family who had almost adopted her.

“OK,” she said finally. “But only on one condition. You let me help on the tactical team.” She held up her hand to stop his protests. “And I don’t mean stuck-in-the-back-opening-doors-for-people help, either. I mean really help. You let me do what I do.”

He blew out a breath. “OK, but only on one of my conditions.”

“See that’s not exactly how it’s supposed to work.”

“It’s my condition or nothing.”

“Do you always have to have the last word?”

“If we’re going to do this, and I’m going to put you in the front with Victor—which, let me say, is going to be the biggest distraction in the world—” He held up her hand to stop her. “If I am going to let you do that, then when we are out on a mission, you have to keep your mental connection open to me at all times.”

“Done.”

“And, you have to do what I say. End of story. No debates. No thinking about it. If I say go, you go. You don’t stop, you don’t help, you don’t think about anything else. If I say go, you leave, no matter what.”

She’d never leave him in a fight if she could help. But, if she agreed, he would be less jumpy on missions and more focused, knowing she would listen to him. “Deal.”

Chapter Nineteen

Tristan sat at his computer again, staring at the monitor. He started on his Web site, updating the information with the latest sighting and different ways she could now look. Using Photoshop on one of her pictures, he gave white hair, changed her eyes to very light blue, and lastly changed her skin tone. An empty pit consumed his stomach. It looked so much like how he had seen her just an hour before. He uploaded the photos to the site and increased the reward to a million dollars.

After he finished he Googled rave, goth, drugs, rave parties. Nothing. He searched for medical conditions that might have caused the physical changes and again got nothing. By 3:00 a.m. he was trying all kinds of weird possibilities. Abducted by aliens, government experiments, sudden onset albinism.

Finally, he decided to try sightings of strange pale people with blue eyes. He got hits from all over. Stories poured in from the Northeast, the Southeast, California, and Canada. Most thought they were vampires. The stories all related similar disturbing accounts of seeing the white people attacking other humans. One specific account was from a man who had said he had lived through one of the attacks, but now, horribly scarred, he lived in his apartment completely shut off from the world. It all seemed too unreal. Tristan didn’t know what to believe.

Rubbing his bleary eyes, he was about to shut down his computer for the night when a blog caught his attention. It was written by a guy who claimed to live in a city near where all the “white” people lived. The blogger said he knew for a fact that they were vampires. They only came out at night; they wore all black and drove dark SUVs with deeply tinted windows.

The number of supporters and subscribers to his blog numbered in the thousands. Every week or two he would post new videos taken from the surveillance camera at the gas station where he worked the night shift. There were links to three video clips. Tristan punched the play button on the most recent, his heart pounding. The grainy black-and-white film showed a dark SUV pull up. A large man jumped out of the car, almost before the car had stopped, slammed his door, and walked to the back of the SUV leaning forward. He wore his long white hair pulled into a low ponytail. Something stirred inside Tristan’s head. The guy stood there for another few minutes and finally lifted his head and gazed up to the sky. Tristan’s blood froze. He paused the screen. It was the guy from the park.

Why hadn’t he remembered? So stupid! His hair, his skin—they were just like Evaine’s. But not the eyes. His eyes had been orange and like a cat’s when he had jumped out of the tree, and hers had been blue. A shiver snaked down Tristan’s spine. This guy hadn’t been in the park by coincidence.

The thought finally came to him. This man, with the orange eyes, had taken Evaine. He had done something to her. Tristan knew one thing perfectly clear. If he found the man with the orange eyes, he would find Evaine.

Chapter Twenty

The ride home had been emotional, but noneventful. Evaine started crying about an hour into the drive while Luca had stayed silent. When the tears began, she wasn’t quite sure what they were for, but as they flowed faster and heavier she realized that she cried for Tristan, for herself, for the Forgotten, and for all the others who had been taken.

“I kept thinking that there had to be a way back.” Luca spoke softly. “If I could just find a way to be who I was, then Mya would come back to me. I would go to our apartment building every night and sit on the fire escape, watching her. For almost a month she sat up at night and cried. I wanted so badly to comfort her, but I knew I couldn’t. Then, slowly, she began sleeping again. Soon she got back to her routine. One day I went to the apartment and found her moving out. I followed her. He was handsome, the business type. But even on their wedding day I thought that if I just could get back to who I was, she would leave him for me. The day I saw her swollen belly, I knew it was over.”

She read his pain. All of the unshed tears that he held inside. Seeing her go through this with Tristan must have made all of it fresh again in his mind. Rubbing her hand with his thumb, he held it close and kissed it as he drove. No further words were spoken. Just a calm silence as they comforted each other through their own private hells. Luca of all people knew more of what she was going through than anyone else. He allowed her tears. He didn’t judge, didn’t pry. He just lent her his silent support.