Endless (11 page)

But what if they are connected?             

Was all this happening for a reason?
Elizabeth’s change, the storm, the sudden appearance of demons?
Demon,
he corrected himself. So far, he’d only seen one, though he had a horrible feeling it wouldn’t be his last.

Leaving the thing to its mischief, he raced through the streets, searching as much of Los Angeles as possible. Every few minutes, he stopped to call his daughter’s name, but got no response.

In the poorer areas, the storm damage was worse. Fences were laid flat, trees toppled, their thick, knobby roots poking out of the ground toward the black sky like some kind of topsy-turvy world. And the storm didn’t seem to be letting up any. Sebastian suspected the small homes would fare a lot worse by the time this thing ended.

Overhead, an electrical wire sparked and cracked. A split second later, all the houses on one street went dark. He could hear the waves from the ocean a few blocks away, smashing down on the shore.

This was useless. He was running around in circles with no direction. They needed to regroup and think this thing out, at least try to come up with some kind of idea about where Elizabeth might go. At this rate, he’d achieve nothing. In a few hours, morning would come and he’d be trapped once again, unable to help.

With his heart twisting in his chest, he forced himself to turn and head back toward the house. A couple of blocks away, he saw a figure standing in the street.

Elizabeth!
His heart leaped with hope.

But no, this person was too tall, her hair longer, her scent wrong.

Serenity.

She was soaked through and crying. He reached her and pulled off his own jacket. Despite the thing being as wet as she was, he used it to cover her head, holding it like a shield from the forces. The material billowed and flapped, the wind doing its best to lift it from his grip and tear it down the street with the rest of the debris, but he held firm.

“I thought I told you to stay at home,” he yelled above the storm.

“I wasn’t going to sit around helpless when my little girl is missing.” She shouted this at him, though tears rolled from her eyes, quickly washed away by the deluge.

He hustled her toward the house, using his body to press her forward. “Have you seen Vincent?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. God, I hope he’s found her.”

Sebastian pressed his lips together, grim. “So do I.”

They reached the house to find Vincent’s large form dwarfing their huge front door. He paced back and forth, the knuckles of one fist pressed against his mouth. He must have noticed them approach for he stopped walking and turned to them. Serenity’s eyebrows arched in a hopeful question, but he shook his head.

“Damn.” Sebastian marched into the house, pushing past the other vampire. “We must have missed something. She wouldn’t just leave like this.” He headed back up the stairs to her bedroom.

He struggled to believe this was the bedroom of the girl he’d raised alone for two years. He felt a pang of grief for the loss of the small presence that had seemed to be constantly by his side in those days, the way her little hand had always reached for his larger one, her warm hand automatically slipping into his own wherever they went.

Now, posters of bands he’d never heard of covered the walls and items of clothing—more pairs of jeans than he could count—were draped over every surface. Face creams, hair products and makeup she didn’t need took up the surface of her vanity table.

Then he saw it, flapping on the floor. They’d not closed the window before they’d left, wanting her to know she could come back if she wanted—like some weird vampire version of Peter Pan. A piece of folded paper lay on her carpet. Then he realized something else he had missed, another scent underlying Elizabeth’s dominating one. Young, male—a boy had been here.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes and growled.

“What?” said Serenity, her own eyes widening in alarm. “What is it?”

“A boy has been in here.” He snatched up the paper and quickly read it out loud. “’Mom, a friend thinks he can help me with my problem. You can’t call me ‘cause my phone will be off. Don’t worry, I’ll be back. Check my tablet. Love you, Elizabeth.’” Sebastian frowned. “Tablet? What does she mean, ‘check my tablet?’ Is she on some kind of medication?”

“Jeez, you really have been living in the middle of nowhere.” Serenity picked up the small, flat computer from where it lay on Elizabeth’s bed and switched the device on.

She flicked through, her eyes darting over screen after screen, application after application. Then she pulled up the photographs and her eyes widened.

She handed the computer to Sebastian. “I think this is what she was trying to tell us.”

He stared at an image of Elizabeth’s face. Her eyes were wide, as if trying to tell them something. She was crouched down in front of the screen, but over her shoulder was someone else. Quickly, Serenity touched the screen, readjusting the picture until they brought up the other person in more detail.

A boy, not much older than Elizabeth, with dark red hair and pale skin.

“Does she have a boyfriend?” asked Vincent from behind both their shoulders.

Serenity spun around. “No, she does not! She’s only just turned thirteen.”

Vincent shrugged. “Kids grow up quick these days.”

“Not that quick.”

“You sure about that?”

Sebastian went to round on him, but Serenity’s hand against his chest stopped him.

“That’s not going to help anyone,” she said. “We need to find out who this kid is.” She tapped the corner of the screen. “Look at the date and time it was taken. Right before she went missing. He must have something to do with her leaving.”

“Is he from her school?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before. We need to find out who he is, and there’s only one way I can think of doing that. We need to go and see Elizabeth’s friends.”

Chapter Eleven

Within minutes, Serenity found herself
behind the wheel of her car, Sebastian in the seat beside her, Vincent in the back. They’d reach Elizabeth’s friends’ houses faster if they travelled by vampire speed, but considering she was about to show up in the middle of the night, she at least wanted to appear as normal as possible. Though they didn’t live far away, to appear to have walked in this weather would have looked strange.

She found herself sneaking glances toward the passenger seat whenever she got the chance, reminding herself Sebastian was with them. He sat staring straight ahead, his jaw locked, his hands clenched at his side. She couldn’t tell if his tension came from being in the car, the storm, or his concern for Elizabeth. Despite being terrified about Elizabeth, she couldn’t help her heart lifting a little every time she glanced at him and had to stop herself from reaching across the car and lacing her fingers through his. Her need to touch him wasn’t just because he was still as heart-achingly beautiful as he’d always been, but because she needed to remind herself he was real. She wanted to hang onto him so he wouldn’t go away again.

Serenity leaned over the steering wheel as she drove, peering through the lashing rain and carefully maneuvering around torn branches and other debris which had landed in the middle of the road. The wind buffeted the side of the vehicle, threatening to push her off course. A rumble of thunder rolled across the sky above them, culminating in a sharp crack that sounded as though the heavens had just split open. A split second later, the world around them lit up with a fork of lightning.

That was close,
Serenity thought, trying not to cringe. She was sure being in the car meant they were safe, but it didn’t stop her worries. Elizabeth might be out in this somewhere.

A few minutes later, they pulled up outside a grand house.

Serenity jumped out and rang the bell. She hadn’t realized both Sebastian and Vincent had followed her until Emily’s father opened the door, blinking back sleep, but with a concerned expression on his face. Immediately his eyes went to the imposing men who seemed to be flanking her like bodyguards.

Emily’s mother, Diane, appeared behind her husband, wrapped in a r
obe, her normally meticulously-styled, short brown hair mussed up on one side.

“Serenity?” she said, blinking in surprise. “Do you know what time it is? It’s almost two in the morning.”

Serenity stepped closer to the front door, seeking shelter, Elizabeth’s iPad clutched to her chest to protect it from the storm. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t an emergency. I need Emily’s help.”

The other woman shook her head, her face creasing in concern. “She’s fast asleep. She’s not seemed quite herself since she got back from the mall. Did something happen?”

“No, nothing I’m aware of,” Serenity lied, her stomach twisting in knots at the untruth. “But Elizabeth is missing, so please, I need to speak to your daughter. I need to find out if Emily knows this boy. We think Elizabeth might be with him.”

Under the shelter of the porch, she pulled up the picture. Diane frowned at the image. “You said Elizabeth is missing?” Serenity nodded. The other woman turned back to her husband. “Greg, go and wake up Emily.”

“Thank you,” Serenity said, giving a sigh of relief.

While they waited, Diane lifted her eyebrows at the two big men standing on her drive. “I see you’ve employed some muscle now?”

“Oh, them?” She gave a quick glance back over her shoulder to see the two vampires standing motionless, both with serious, identical expressions on their faces. Though dressed completely differently, with Sebastian in his typical smart suit, and Vincent in jeans and a close-fitting tee, she could understand why Diane had thought they were hired bodyguards. She wished they’d stayed in the car. Her turning up in the middle of the night with them would only add fuel to whatever gossip would now start between the school moms on Monday morning. Elizabeth running off with some boy was bad enough, now she felt sure comments about how Serenity was setting a bad example for the girl considering the company she kept would start flying around.
That’s assuming Elizabeth is still alive then
. Her heart tightened and she forced her mind away from that line of thought.

She turned back to Diane and shook her head, a smile quirking the corners of her lips. “That’s Elizabeth’s father, Sebastian, and his friend, Vincent.”

She could see the other woman’s interest piqued, her gaze flicking over Serenity’s shoulder again to check them out in more detail.

“I didn’t think he was still on the scene,” Diane said, not even looking at Serenity.

“It’s complicated,” she said, shutting off the conversation, while thinking,
You have no idea
.

Emily appeared. The girl’s hair was a mess, her face puffy from sleep.

“Hi, Mrs. Hathaway,” she said, her voice small and sounding younger than she normally did.

Serenity gave the girl a smile.
“Hi, Emily. Sorry to wake you up so late.”

The girl gave a shrug.

“Emily, honey,” Diane said, “Elizabeth is missing and her mom thinks she may have gone off with a boy. Can you take a look at a picture and tell us if you recognize him?”

Emily’s eyes went wide. “Elizabeth has run off with a boy?
No way!”

“This is serious, Emily. We don’t know if she went willingly or not.”

Emily chewed her lip and glanced at the floor. “Sorry.”

Serenity pushed the tablet toward the girl. “So, can you take a look?”

Emily took the computer and stared down at the image. “No, he’s not from school.” She frowned. “But hang on a minute, I have seen him before. He was at the mall just before …” She trailed off, her brain skipping the section of time where Elizabeth had jumped her in the bathrooms. “Yeah, I remember him ‘cause he was staring at Elizabeth. We were giving her a bit of a ribbing about it, to be honest, but he seemed pretty harmless.”

“Well, we think Elizabeth’s gone somewhere with him, so let’s hope so.”

“Oh, man, that’s bad. I’m sorry.”

“If you hear from her at all, let your mom know right away, okay?”

The girl gave a small smile. “Sure thing.”

Diane’s hand rested protectively around Emily’s shoulder. “If we hear anything, we’ll call right away.”

Serenity forced a smile. “Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”

They began to close the door and Serenity backed away, stepping off the porch. She turned and jogged back to the car, keen to get out
of the storm. As she climbed back in the driver’s seat, both the passenger door and the back doors slammed, Vincent and Sebastian appearing already settled in their seats. She pulled her damp shirt away from her body, grimacing.

“What now?” asked
Sebastian.             

“Her other friend who was with her at the mall lives a couple of blocks over. We might as well go there and make sure she’s not heard anything.”

“And if she hasn’t?”

Serenity chewed at her lower lip. “Then I really have no idea what else to do.”