Eternal Shadows (31 page)

He went pale like I had asked him to gut a chicken. Nah, he probably would have been okay with that. After all, he let me drink his blood. “I don’t really dance,” he said.

“Fine. Stay with
Jude then. He likes computers, too.”

Sara and I joined the makeshift dance party and I lost myself in the music quickly. This was the best part about parties. The music was so loud I could toss myself into that other plane where nothing existed any more. I reveled in the small escape. I couldn’t wait to get into a real club—

Dammit
. I’d better be able to go to a club at some point in this eternal life. Otherwise I would be royally ticked off.

Maybe coming to the party hadn’t been such a good idea. It just kept reminding me of things I had possibly lost.

Oh well. No turning back now. The past was the past and it couldn’t be changed. I focused on the music and let my body move. I forgot everything else. The heat from all the bodies against the night air, the slosh of the pool water where people played behind us, the laughter and chatter of my fellow classmates, I forgot it all.

The songs changed from one fast, noisy beat to another, then finally something slow entered the mix. Accidentally, of course. The whole crowd groaned at the interruption of merriment.

The breeze changed.

Musk.

I hadn’t scented it since the first time we had met, but I knew it instantly.

Sara grabbed my wrist, and déjà vu began. “Kass? Are you all right?”

Crap
.

I looked everywhere, not daring to breathe, then
I realized that if I didn’t breathe I couldn’t smell him. I sucked in breath after breath, but the scent had vanished. Sara pulled at me, asking over and over again what was wrong.

Everything.

I sought out Cade, but couldn’t smell him, either. There were too many humans, too many scents all mingled together. But then how had I caught his scent before? God, how close had he been?

Sara grabbed my other hand so she had both and pulled hard. The action shocked me into looking her straight in the face. “Kass, what’s going on? Are you okay?”

Oh, God. What if he saw her with me? Would he hurt her? He’d seen her once before, that day with the car. Had he noticed her? Where were Jude and Warren?

I ignored Sara and turned to look for the boys. They were right where we had left them, talking away, leaning against the fence. Thank God for small favors.

“Kass!”

“What?” I snapped. I hadn’t meant to. Sara’s eyes blinked wide, then everything drew down into a deep frown.

“What is going on with you?” she demanded. No question about it. Her hold on me had tightened. She meant business. What she didn’t know was that I was a vampire, and her human strength meant nothing to me.

“I feel sick,” I lied. “I’m going to go find one of the bathrooms.” I pulled away. She couldn’t keep hold.

“You’re lying!” I heard her call after me. But I ignored her and ran through the ocean of newly graduated kids. I had to do something. Find Cade. Get out of here. Scream for help. I couldn’t let him find me, not with everyone else here. He’d either kill them, or do something to force me into some hideous act in front of all of them. That’s what he wanted. To expose me.

Where the heck was Cade? Hadn’t he smelled him? He was supposed to stick close.

I found an empty bathroom on the second floor and locked the door behind myself. I needed to think. Needed to clear my head.

I paced along the spotless, white linoleum. Everything in here was white. The sink and vanity, the shower curtain, the towels, the walls. The only bit of c
olor was the copper-plated faucet and accessories. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t be distracted and sat on the edge of the old-fashioned, lion-footed tub.

Malachi was here. Here for me. I had no doubt of that. So much for everyone’s assurance he wouldn’t try anything while they were gone. I was screwed.

Someone knocked on the door.

I fell backwards into the tub.

Silence. Then the knocking came again.

“Kass?”

Warren. Thank God. I scrambled out of the tub and ran to the door. Warren looked like a deer caught in headlights when I flung it open.

He looked even more frazzled when I pulled him in, shut the door and locked it again.

“I saw you run,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“Malachi is here.”

“What?”

“I smelled him. I haven’t smelled him since that first night, but there’s no mistaking it. Only now, I have no idea where he is.” I sounded like a crazy person, suffering from paranoia.

“You can’t smell him anymore?”

“No.”

“Then why are you hiding in the bathroom?”

“Because I can’t smell Cade, either.”

“Oh.”

Oh. Yeah. Right. Screwed.

Warren went to the window and looked out. I could hear my classmates yelling, screaming and otherwise carrying-on below. “Well, Sara and Jude are worried. I told them I’d find you. Sara doesn’t believe you’re sick.”

“I know.”

“If Malachi is really here, we should find Cade.”

“I don’t know how. There are kids everywhere.”

The lock on the window unsnapped and Warren pushed it wide open. Immediately I could smell every single human in the yard. “Find Cade. He can’t be far.”

I shook my head. “Too many scents.”

“Human scents. You told me once we all smell alike.”

“I was lying. There are slight differences.”

“Still, Cade should be different enough, and from up here, you’re not bombarded by the sources.”

He had a point. Damn. And yay. At least it was a plan. I stuck my head out the window and took a deep breath.

The wind shifted, and I smelled him. Cade. Off somewhere to my right. Then the breeze shifted again and I smelled
him
.

I pulled back and slammed the window shut. “Run!” I grabbed Warren and made for the door. The lock fought my sweat-slickened hands, but I managed.

The door, however, swung open on its own. The edge clipped me in the face, and sent me staggering backwards into Warren. Both of us crashed to the floor.

The scent of musk filled the white bathroom.

He had dressed in trendy clothes. He looked just like every other boy in the house. Only his expression held a different sort of excitement, a sicker one.

“Hello, Kassandra.” His scar stretched as he said my name. I struggled to my feet, pulling Warren with me. I kept my body between him and Malachi. “What’s wrong? Not happy to see me?” He crept forward. I moved us back. His eyes flicked to Warren, then back to me. “So this is the one whose blood fills your veins. You smell alike.”

Like I cared. I took a deep breath and screamed, hoping I would be heard. “Cade!”

Malachi laughed. “He’s busy at the moment. He and Garrett have some catching up to do.”

My skin went cold. That feeling on the back of my neck traveled down my spine, spreading all the way to my toes.

“We have some catching up to do of our own.”

“No thanks,” I said, thinking as fast as I could. Cade was good. He could take care of Garrett and still get here in time to help me. Right? Right. Tell myself encouraging things. Maybe it would help.

Malachi pressed even closer. Warren and I were backed up against the wall and window now. “Too bad Rhys and the general had to go to the council. If only they’d stayed home. This may not have happened.” He leaned in, his face so close to mine I could feel his breath as he spoke. He didn’t breathe otherwise. He enjoyed being a monster. “Poor Kassandra. Alive again only in time to die.”

He hit me so hard my vision blacked out for a moment. Pain spread everywhere. When I could see again, I was on the bathroom floor beside the toilet. My head felt like it had been used as a baseball. Another crash, and a scream. The curtain rod for the shower broke in two when Warren hit it. He crumpled against the rim of the old-fashioned tub and didn’t move. Spots of red blood marred the perfectly white décor.

Malachi grabbed me by the throat and lifted me from the floor like I was nothing more than a rag doll. I coughed and choked, tearing at his steel-like fingers. His grip wasn’t killing me, but it hurt, and the sensation of not being able to breathe even though I wanted to scared me.

“Such a pretty dress,” he said. I could feel his eyes on me. “Too bad Rhys will never see it like this.”

The next moment was one of those instants when time stops. No sound reached us. Nothing existed outside him and me. And I saw in his dark eyes everything he had intended for me. I was going to die. But not before he had his fun first.

Time slammed back.

“Hope you can swim, Kassandra.”

The air sucked past me like a vacuum. The wall of the house crumbled behind my back, glass from the window shattering. Then I was falling backwards. I heard the screams of my classmates for only a second before I hit water. I breathed on impulse.

The pool.

I forced myself to remember how to swim. Arms and legs, arms and legs. Kick. Surface.

I spit out what felt like a gallon of water when I broke the surface. My body expelled the unneeded liquid easily. Everyone had gathered at the edge of the pool, staring at me. Hundreds of young teens, humans, all wanting to know if I was okay.

“Get out of here!” I screamed. They froze, stunned. “Go! Leave! Now!”

I heard the hiss of moving air and smelled his scent getting closer. I stopped breathing in that instant. Feet hit the water just in front of me. Hands grabbed me and pushed me under once again.

Malachi grinned at me underwater. I drew my legs up against the force of the water, it was a bit easier than it had been when I was human, and thrust them forward into his chest. He lost his grip on me and I kicked back and away.

The edge of the pool was mercifully near. I grabbed it and pulled myself out with vampire speed. Thank you, Cade.

My classmates still stood around, watching. “Go!” I screamed at them again, then ran off the concrete and onto the grass. I heard more sloshing from the pool, then Malachi was hot on my heels.

A boy yelled for someone to call the police. Great. More witnesses. Just what Malachi wanted. I thought I heard Sara scream for me as I ran, but I couldn’t be sure. If she had any sense at all she would get out of there. Someone screamed back that the phone lines were dead. Great.

Malachi tackled me from behind. I ate dirt and heard something snap. Spasms of pain seared up my right arm. Broken? God, I hoped not.

I couldn’t move it.

He grabbed my left shoulder and rolled me over onto my back. Sitting on my hips, he felt like he weighed a thousand pounds. My bones ached under the pressure. I swung for his face with my left arm, not expecting much, but I caught his cheek and took some skin away with my nails. The scent of his blood filled my nose. He hissed and grabbed my throat again.

“Feisty,” he said. “I like that. Too bad I hate Rhys more.”

I tilted my chin up as far as I could so I had air to speak. I lay limply beneath him. Struggling was just a waste of my energy at the moment. “What the hell is your problem with him? I thought this was about exposure.” The red marks I had put on his face matched his scars. I hoped I had given him a few more.

“Oh, it is. At least, that’s the Organization’s reason. The method by which I expose us is my choice. And Rhys has been the bane of my existence for centuries.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

He tightened his hold on my neck. “You remember now, don’t you?” He leaned close, his lips brushing my cheek as he spoke. “I knew Bryn, too. Wanted her.”

My stomach turned. I wanted to be sick. I didn’t remember him at all. He could have been lying. “Too bad she thought you were a disgusting waste. Imagine what she would have thought if she knew you were a walking corpse.” Bully for me.

His whole body shook in anger as his fingers tightened even more around my throat. I couldn’t breathe now. No more talking on my end. If he held any tighter my head might snap off. Think, Kassandra.

“Get off her.” One of the boys from my class grabbed Malachi’s shoulder. He was tall, one of the football players, but it wouldn’t be enough. I wanted to tell him to run, but couldn’t.

Malachi’s gaze never left my face. With one hand he flicked the boy away like he was nothing more than an annoying fly. I heard a crash, then screams, then a sickening thud.

God, I hoped he hadn’t died trying to help me. Courage shouldn’t be rewarded like that.

“She would have noticed me had she not been so enamored with Rhys.” Malachi continued as though nothing had happened. He reached into his back pocket. I used the moment to look for an opening. I couldn’t move my legs, he sat too far back on my hips. But he hadn’t done anything about my left arm, even after I’d scratched him.

What he drew from his pocket glittered in the pool lights and moonlight. He let it hang in front of my face. A gold locket, old by the look of it. The chain was heavy, and the locket itself was at least the size of a silver dollar. A black handkerchief hung down beside it, grasped with the chain in Malachi’s hand. “This was for her,” he said. “That week when Rhys disappeared I was going to give it to her, he never could have afforded anything like this, but she died. At least then Rhys couldn’t have her. The general’s prince, everyone’s favorite. You don’t know this yet, but there’s something about him, something that makes even the council listen. They’re fascinated by him. I have no idea why. There’s nothing special about that Irish rat. He’d didn’t come from anything. He was a farmer. And yet Julius chose him, and all the other elders fawn. It makes no sense. But after I destroy him there will be nothing left to admire. Nothing. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. This time, it will be permanent. No coming back once you’ve fed on human blood. Your soul is done.”