Found (Book #8 in the Vampire Journals) (19 page)

And moments later, they were gone.

Caitlin turned back to the others and did as she was supposed to, taking her seat again at the table.

“Mommy?” Scarlet asked. “Is everything OK?”

Caitlin wiped away tears as she sat there, her heart pounding, waiting for them to return. She tried to put it out of her mind. She tried to be patient. She tried to have faith that everything would be okay.

But after several minutes of waiting, of knowing her destiny might be slipping out from under her, of knowing her husband was out there, in danger, she couldn’t take it anymore. She no longer cared if she got in the way of destiny. She felt she had to take action.

Caitlin jumped up from the table, grabbed Scarlet’s hand, and bolted from the room. She was determined to save him.

*

Caitlin ran out the room, leaving the last supper, ran down the corridor, clutching Scarlet’s hand, Ruth following, and ran down the flight of stairs. She ran past the courtyard, down another corridor, then finally burst out the rear door. She knew from history that Jesus had been betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and she knew that the garden adjoined the house of the last supper.

She burst outside, out the back of the house, praying that she had found the right place.

She had. There Jesus stood, alone with Judas, in a small, ancient garden in the rear of the house, filled with olive trees. Behind them, the sky was filled with the most dramatic, blood-red sunset Caitlin had ever seen.

Caitlin stood there, gasping for air, and the two of them turned and looked at her.

Judas’s face suddenly filled with apprehension at the sight of her, and he quickly turned and hurried out of the garden, slithering through a side entrance.

Now Jesus stood there, all alone. Caitlin could feel that his time was limited, and despite herself, she started to cry.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Scarlet asked, also out of breath. Beside her, Ruth whined.

But Caitlin couldn’t even respond. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know if she was too late.

Jesus turned to her.

She had so many questions she was burning to ask. But she found herself completely tongue-tied.

Jesus took a step closer to her, and spoke:

“Only be careful, and watch yourself closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

Caitlin tried to understand what he meant. Was he referring to Scarlet? What did she need to teach her? And how did that relate to her father?

Jesus was about to speak again, and Caitlin sensed that he was on the verge of revealing to her something momentous. Something that would make her whole life make sense. Something about her father.

But suddenly, before he could speak, the whole world changed.

Scarlet turned and pointed up at the sky.

“Mommy, look!”

Caitlin looked up and watched as the sky turned black. Thousands of vampires suddenly descended, flying right towards them.

At the same moment, the doors to the garden suddenly burst open, and in rushed Judas, followed by dozens of Roman soldiers. They charged right for Jesus, just as the vampires dove down.

It all happened so fast, there was hardly time to react.

They grabbed Jesus, who did not resist, and Caitlin began to burst into action, to help him.

But before she could reach him, at that moment, a lone vampire she did not see suddenly dove down, right for her. She turned at the last second, and prepared to defend herself.

She raised her fists, ready to knock him down.

But then, at the last second, she saw his face. It was a face she knew. A face she loved.

And she lowered her defenses.

There, flying right at her, was her brother. Sam.

Caitlin stood there, shocked, horrified.

“Sam?” she asked.

She stood there, her guard lowered, expecting him to embrace her, or to rescue her.

But to her amazement, the last thing she saw, before her world went black, was Sam raising his fist, and bringing it down, right for her face.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

Caleb could not believe what he was seeing: all around him, the graves were rising on the Mount of Olives. He remembered the prophecy for the end of days—the first to resurrect would be those buried on the Mount of Olives—and knew the prophecy was coming true.

That meant that the end of days was at hand. Right here. Right now.

The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. The apocalypse. It was really happening. Something horrific had been unleashed, and the dark side had gotten to it first. His sense of dread deepened: now, his death seemed inevitable.

Caleb turned back to the battle at hand and fought furiously, blocking Kyle’s battle axe just in time. He leaned back and kicked Kyle hard, right in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

Another sword came slashing down for his head, and Caleb blocked it with his sword, then spun around and kicked his assailant hard in the gut, knocking him down. It was
Rynd
. Kyle’s old accomplice.

Caleb was at the peak of his strength, fighting well, and he felt stronger and faster than ever. But he also knew he was badly outnumbered. He could only hold them off for so long. He hoped that Caitlin would come back, and bring her Dad with her.

Suddenly, Caleb noticed a lone figure, diving down from the sky, right to him. At first, he braced himself for an attack—but then he sensed a friendly energy. His heart leapt, as he thought it might be Caitlin.

The figure swooped down, right before Caleb, sword outstretched, and blocked the below that was about to strike him.

Caleb couldn’t believe it. It was his old rival for Caitlin’s love: Blake.

Blake had just saved Caleb from a life-threatening below, and Caleb was more grateful than he could say. Caleb felt re-energized at this presence, and he used this opportunity to leap over Blake’s head and kick another vampire hard in the chest with both feet, just before the vampire struck Blake. Blake had his back, and now Caleb had his.

But the graves were still resurrecting, and the first of the shadow creatures charged right for Caleb. One of these shadows grabbed him from behind, and his touch sent a chill through Caleb, and deepened his sense of dread. The shadow was so cold and slimy, like a demon from hell.

Caleb threw his arms back and managed to throw it off, sending it flying and knocking into several others. But still more came.

Aiden swung his staff, and Caleb was shocked to see the staff stretch out before him, grow before his eyes. It grew to fifty feet, then a hundred. As it did, Aiden swung it around in a wide circle.

It had a tremendous effect. Aiden managed to knock down every creature that came within a hundred feet of him, in the shape of a huge circle. He killed a hundred creatures in a single blow.

Now, with Blake here, and Aiden’s staff, the momentum was beginning to turn. Caleb felt as if they might stand a chance, especially as he spotted Aiden’s coven members: these soldiers, dressed in their white robes, each wielded a staff of his own, and each swung them in slow but deliberate ways. They were channeling some sort of energy Caleb was not aware of, and as they spun their staffs, they each managed to knock out twenty vampires in a single blow. Clearly, Aiden’s men were infused with a special power, a high state of training that Caleb had never seen.

Caleb lunged forward, transformed in his fury and newfound confidence, and killed a dozen vampires in a few seconds. Blake did the same. Within moments, Caleb and Blake were fighting back to back, each guarding the other. And they were succeeding. The tide was turning.

“Caleb,” came a voice.

Caleb immediately spun. It was a voice he would recognize anywhere, and it sent an electric shock through his system. But it couldn’t be. How could she be here?

“Help me, please!”

As he turned, Caleb was astounded to see who was standing there. Just a few feet away, right before him, stood Caitlin. She stood there, fighting off hordes of vampires, and they were beating her. He couldn’t understand how she could be here, how she could have appeared so quickly, came out of nowhere. Maybe she had dove down, and in the chaos, he had missed her.

He didn’t have time to think about that. His first impulse was to save her, and he leapt into action, landing before her and striking back the vampires attacking her. In moments, he managed to kill a dozen of them, and the others kept a wary distance.

Caleb quickly turned and looked at her. She stood there, looking so helpless, so afraid—and so beautiful. It was the Caitlin he knew. And he felt overjoyed to see her.

Yet at the same time, something bristled inside him. Something deep down told him that something wasn’t right. But he wasn’t quite sure what.

He was so overjoyed to see her, he brushed his premonitions aside as he stepped forward to embrace her. She had been good to her word. She had come back.

“I came back for you,” Caitlin said. “I couldn’t stay away. I had to come and help you.”

She stepped forward, lowering her sword to her side.

“Won’t you give your wife a hug?” she asked.

Caleb stepped forward, took three big steps, opened his arms wide, and came in to hug her.

But as he got closer and closer, his body became colder, and something inside him screamed that something wasn’t right. He didn’t understand it, didn’t know what it could be.

And by the time he realized, it was too late.

Caleb took one more, fatal, step towards Caitlin.

At the last moment, Caitlin’s face collapsed into a scowl, as she pulled back her short silver sword, and plunged it right through Caleb’s heart. She embraced him with one arm, holding the sword with the other, hugging him, driving it all the way through.

Caleb felt the breath rush out of him. The pain was so intense, so startling, his eyes opened wide, and he could hardly breathe.

But even worse, was the pain of betrayal. He had been stabbed in the heart by the one he loved the most, by the person he loved more than anything in the world.

Caleb looked up, into Caitlin’s eyes, wondering how she could do such a thing.

“I told you I would have vengeance,” she said, looking down at him.

Caleb didn’t understand what she was saying. His whole world was going light, blurry, as he felt all the sensation leaving his body. He felt himself growing lighter and lighter, outside of himself as he watched his own body slump to the floor.

In his final seconds, lying on the ground, Caleb looked over at the battleground before him. It came to him in flashes. He saw Blake standing there, looking over, amazed, and then saw
Rynd
grab Blake from behind, while Kyle stepped forward and brought down his axe, killing him.

He saw Kyle take a long, silver spear, one he had never seen before, and charge, right towards Aiden. Somehow, he penetrated the shield, and the spear struck Aiden, right through the heart. He watched as Aiden slumped to the ground, lifeless.

He saw more and more graves open up, and Aiden’s remaining warriors swamped by vampires and shadow creatures in every direction, getting killed left and right.

And then, finally, he looked up, one last time, back at Caitlin.

At that moment, her face changed: it became the face of his ex-wife. Sera. Scowling down, triumphant.

“I learned the shape shifting trick from Sam,” she said with a sneer.

But Caleb was too delirious. He did not see her face transform, did not hear her last words. In his last moments, he left the earth still thinking that it was Caitlin, his wife, his one and only love, who had betrayed him.