Obsidian (Mystic Stones Series #1) (7 page)

“Protect me? You want to turn me into a vampire! How is that protecting me?”

“You need to understand. Try to understand, please,” he said. His hands gripped the steering wheel and his foot pressed on the gas pedal a little harder.

“All I can think about right now is the way you acted in the warehouse. You seemed evil. That’s the only way I can describe it. I will only think of you that way from now on. How can I see you in any other light? You’re doing all this against
my
will,” I said.

“I was putting on an act, Ava. I had to do that in front of them. The politics in my world are complicated. You’ll figure that out soon enough,” Tom said as he pulled up to my house.

I didn’t want to believe him, but his eyes seemed truthful. I couldn’t trust him, not after what I’d been through today.

“Come on,” he said, “Let’s get your things together. We can discuss this more at my house.” He got out of the car and went to the other side to let me out. He grabbed my arm again.

“Why do you keep pulling me around like this? I have this stupid wristband on. I can’t do anything,” I said, gesturing to his hold on me and down to the wristband.

“I don’t want you to do anything stupid, okay? I can tell that you’re angry and I want to make sure you don’t act on this strong emotion. It would not end well.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be on my best behavior,” I said and suddenly flashed back to the night we went out. The gentleman he pretended to be had disappeared. Part of me longed for that passionate kiss again, but I stopped myself from thinking about it. I couldn’t lose focus on my escape or the fact that Tom was a monster masquerading as a gentleman.

Once inside, I gathered my things. I did it slowly, to make sure I got all the necessities.

“I have food for you at my house,” Tom said when I went to the kitchen.

“I’m afraid a bag of blood doesn’t sound appetizing,” I snapped.

“Don’t be so cruel. My only wish is to make you as comfortable as possible.”

I didn’t reply. I simply moved on to the living room and packed a few movies into my bag. I wouldn’t use them, but at that point I stuffed more and more things into my bag to further irritate Tom. He grew impatient. After stuffing a few more pointless items into my bag, I mentally prepared myself to be his captive until I figured out what to do.

We rode in silence to his house. The place looked bigger and more intimidating since the night cap after our date. He opened the door for me, yet again. A glimmer of the gentleman he’d been during our date returned. I told myself it was an act. The real Tom was the man I’d seen in the warehouse.

“Alright,” he said as he typed in a code on a screen on the wall, “You may go wherever you want to in this house. I switched the signal from my beacon to the home perimeter. If you leave this house, you will be injected with venom. Anything of mine is yours. You can do whatever you want. Go ahead and explore if you wish.”

“Okay,” I replied. The couch was the only thing familiar to me, so I set up camp there. Tom sat down at the opposite end which gave me the space I needed to process things.

“I’m not evil, Ava. I may have been wrong to drag you into this, but sooner or later a vampire would have found you and made you sign a contract or done something even worse, something unfathomable. I don’t want you to live like that. Or die like that.”

“Fine, whatever makes you feel better,” I said flatly.

Tom changed the subject. “Is there anything I can get you? Are you hungry?”

“No, I’m not hungry. A blanket would be nice. I’m tired.”

Tom went to the closet and pulled out a blanket and a pillow. He set down the pillow and gently laid the blanket over me.

“Get some rest,” he said. I stared at the blank TV and tried to think of a plan. Nothing came to mind. I suspected it was because I was still trying to process everything. I gave up and fell asleep.

I woke to the sound of Tom’s voice. “Ava? Ava? Wake up, my dear.”

I opened my eyes. Tom had made me breakfast, which seemed strange to me. I didn’t think it could be morning. I thought I’d only taken a short nap. When I checked the clock, however, it read 8:00 a.m.

“You slept for about 14 hours. Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m not sick or anything, just groggy.” Shit. I slept away 14 hours of my precious plotting time.

“I made you breakfast. I didn’t know what you’d like so I made a little of everything. Toast; white and wheat, four different kinds of eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, French toast and waffles,” he said as he gestured to the coffee table covered with food. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. I thought I was seeing double or triple with the amount of food in front of me.

“I also got you milk, chocolate milk, orange juice, apple juice, coffee and water.”

I turned my attention to him then back to the table again. I told myself not to fall for his façade. He was being kind so that I’d warm up to him and allow him to change me into a vampire.

“I’m not hungry,” I said.

“Of course you are. You haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday. Please, eat something. I wouldn’t poison you or anything,” he said looking at me with arched brows. “Is there something else you want? I could make you anything. Bagels? I should have gotten bagels. I’ll get you some.” He stood, seeming to be losing it. He thought that bagels would make me like him and want to be a vampire. Bagels.

“No, I don’t want bagels. I’ll eat what you prepared,” I said then picked up the French toast and he handed me a few different syrups and a fork. I took the maple and poured it over the two slices. He had three types of jelly, peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, cinnamon sugar, and any breakfast condiment I could imagine and more. After the French toast, I went for the scrambled eggs and bacon then drank the chocolate milk. All the while Tom watched me. Once finished, I pulled the blanket back over me and laid back down.

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No,” I said, not wanting to be bothered. I wanted to be left alone to my thoughts and figure out a way out of the mess I fell into yesterday. Tom sat with me a few more minutes then cleared the coffee table. After that, running water and clinking echoed from the kitchen. Once silence fell, he came over to me and took my hand. I snatched it away and glared at him. He seemed somewhat irritated for a moment, but the expression quickly faded.

“I want you to think of yourself as more of a guest than a prisoner. I want to remind you that you can go where you please in this house. There is a guest room on the second floor where I put your things. It has a bathroom and everything you may need. Would you like me to show it to you?”

I didn’t reply. I simply sat up and looked at him. He pulled me up then led me to the spiral staircase, where he helped me climb the stairs as if I were a child. It annoyed me, but I needed to focus less on my hatred for him and more on how to get away from him. We stopped at the second door on the right. He turned the handle then ushered me in. A king-size bed with luxurious linens sat in the far corner. A large dresser and armoire sat side by side across from it. Tom walked to a door on the far wall and then opened it. A large tub with jets, a separate shower, a large vanity, sink and, of course, a toilet made up the inside.

“This is your room. If you need any further amenities, please tell me and I’ll send my assistant out for them.”

“Thank you,” I said, with little sincerity before I sat on the bed and took in my surroundings.

“I’ll leave you to your privacy,” Tom said with a little bow of his head. He left the room, and shut the door behind him.

I decided to take a shower. The bathroom was bigger than my bedroom at home. I gave another look at the large bathtub and thought a hot bath would be better. Hot baths helped me think.

Once the water came close to the top of the tub, I sunk into the water. I rested my head on the side and began to think.

Still, nothing came to me. My brain simply didn’t want to believe that any of this was happening and therefore refused to find a solution.

When I finished, I got dressed and went to the enormous bed. The hopelessness began to weigh me down and I situated myself in a comfortable position as more tears threatened to come. Moments later, a knock came at the door.

“Yes?” I said.

“We must go to the office earlier than expected, there is an emergency,” he said, “NASA is close to finding the virus and we must get a team to create a solution.”

“I don’t want any part of this,” I said firmly.

“That’s too bad because you are coming with me whether you like it or not. Have you forgotten about the wristband?” he asked.

I glanced at the thing tightly locked around my wrist. “No.”

Tom stepped toward me. “Come along.”

He loaded me into the car once more then sped down the roadway. He seemed eager to get to the office. His cell phone rang. It had a device connected to it, like the one in the laptop at the warehouse.

“Walker . . . I know, we need the Texperts and Sarah on this immediately. Find the best and get them into the warehouse, I’ll be there in 10 minutes . . . If they figure out how to remove the virus our whole plan is in jeopardy and it will be your head.” Tom hung up the phone and sped up.

I grabbed the handle as we raced around the turns in the road. His jaw hardened and his knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel. His attention then focused on me, and his angry expression faded and his speed slowed. I wished he would keep his eyes on the road, but I was glad he slowed down a little.

“When we arrive, I want you to stay close to me. There are going to be a lot of my kind there and they may not be on their best behavior. Just because they can’t hurt you doesn’t mean they won’t try to get you into trouble. They’ve been known to lure banded prospects away from the vampire wearing the beacon. Once the venom is injected, you are no longer considered a prospect, but your blood will still be desirable for about ten minutes. They will take advantage of that time,” he said firmly.

Fear pulsed into my veins.

We pulled up to the gate. The security guard nodded us on. Todd or whatever his name was looked different. More “zombie” like. I wondered if he’d signed a contract, and if so, how many others had done the same.

We pulled up to the warehouse. Tom got out and went around, opened my door, then led me inside. I remained right behind him, afraid to go too far from his side. The second we walked in, all eyes turned to us.

There were a lot of people in the warehouse. I assumed they were all vampires. He quickly announced I was his prospect, and most of them went on with their business. A few, however, peered at me with devious eyes. My heartbeats sped up again, like it had the last time I was in the warehouse.

Tom rushed to an area resembling a command center. In the place of the simple table and laptop was a row of computers with multiple screens. Three Texperts worked frantically to keep their plan from falling apart.

“We’ve put up more roadblocks,” one of them said.

“Good, but we need to get someone in there. We need someone to go to NASA’s mainframe and trash it. There shouldn’t be a way around this, but we can’t be too careful,” Tom said. He turned to one of the men I recognized from the last time I was here. He was one of the higher-up authorities. “If we don’t get someone into NASA, we’re going to be dangerously close to losing all our work here. This has been in the works for years. The Emperor will not be happy.”

“Pick someone,” the man said assertively. “Get him on a plane by tonight.”

“Soon we’ll have a more permanent solution and we can pull him out of there,” Tom said. “I have men working around the clock.”

“Good. It looks like you have things under control here. We will take our leave tonight. See that your man gets into NASA, and be in contact next week. I do need to speak to you alone before we leave,” he said. He gestured to me when he said the last sentence.

“Yes, I’ll meet you in the control room in a moment,” Tom said, then turned to me and took my by the arm again to lead me to a chair.

“Stay right here,” he said. “Don’t talk to anyone.”

He left me there . . . alone . . . in a warehouse full of vampires.

I watched them at work. There were at least fifty running around. Some were on cell phones. Some were on computers. After about five minutes, one approached.

“You’re Ava right?” he said. He was the one who put the wristband on me.

I didn’t want risk anything, so I nodded and turned so that I could see him out of the corner of my eye. His gaze wandered and then settled back on me.

“Tom sent me. I’m supposed to take you to him.”

I looked at the man again. He was thin, with dark blonde hair. I wasn’t sure he was telling the truth. Tom told me to wait here. I couldn’t tell if he was still in the control room or not. This had to be a trick.

“I’m his assistant, James. I’m the one that brought you your car the other night.”

“You’re also the one that put this on me yesterday.” I gestured to the wristband.

“Boss’s orders,” James said.

I thought it over some more. It was possible Tom had sent him. If he were going to send anyone it would be his assistant. I tried to get a better read on James, but nothing came. He stood there, staring at me. Then he held out his hand and I stood up, cautiously, but didn’t give him my hand. Instead, I crossed my arms and looked around one last time for Tom.

“Right this way,” he said. He walked toward the back of the warehouse. Soon we were almost at the back wall and my wristband started beeping, which meant he wasn’t taking me to Tom at all. The beeps kept coming, three, four, five six, seven, eight, nine . . . I closed my eyes and counted the beeps that signaled my approaching death. Suddenly, they stopped and I heard Tom’s voice.

“I thought I told you to stay put,” he growled. Then he turned to James, “What are you doing back here, James?”

“I thought you came back here, I was simply trying to bring her to you,” James said with an evil looking smile.

“Did I ask you to bring her to me?”

“No, but a prospect shouldn’t be left alone, I thought you’d appreciate it.” He still had a smile across his face.