The Onyx Talisman (17 page)

“Pound your foot against the tub every few minutes or I will.”

I huffed and returned to my room. Knowing him, he would. I shut down my feelings radar and ran the water. Maybe a bath would be the ticket to calm my nerves. The bubbles popped around my ears, reminding me of the amazing tub experience in the Penthouse Suite in Beverly Hills.

Though the new Nicholas was more fun, I was beginning to miss the old one. Now, he frequently needed assistance, which took away from the magic we once had. And his naïveté worried me constantly, especially now.

After a few minutes, I drained the water and hopped out. The bath idea was a bust and I wouldn’t indulge Luke’s worries by banging my foot on the tub. While blowing my hair dry, I thought of all the things that could go wrong, including something bad happening to Dad. My gut kept telling me I needed to be there.

I finally broke down and sent Nicholas a “hi” text. He didn’t respond. In a nervous rush, I threw my jammies back on and trudged downstairs, determined to make the brownies after all when I noticed Luke standing at the door.

I released the hold on my radar to sense his overwhelming lust of someone I couldn’t see. Someone with deep-seated anger and desire for power. My blood froze in my veins.

“Hello, Julia,” Alora said.

“Step back, Luke,” I cautioned and ran to the door, getting between the two of them. “You’re not invited here.” I eyeballed the threshold as she continued to smile, her lips imparting that sweet sticky grin.

“Now, let’s not be rude.” She glanced at the talisman, her envy tripling. “I’m only here for Nicholas. Is he here?”

“Sure you are,” I glowered. “Go home, Alora. You’re not welcomed here.” I calmly began to close the door, tempted to slam it in her face.

“Wait,” she said, her fear escalating all of a sudden. “If you care for him, tell him he has to leave this town immediately.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because Cain is coming and if he finds Nicholas here, he’ll kill him.”

All my blood instantly felt like it sloshed down to my feet. “Cain? Here? When?”

“Soon,” she said and looked again at the talisman.

Ice spread out from the stone and chilled my neck. I tried to catch my breath. Things were going from bad to worse fast. The new Nicholas, naive to dangerous vampire matters, didn’t know his lifesaving mantra—kill all survivors. We’d let Todd go. Did Todd turn him in?

“How do you know?”

“Easy.” Alora smiled. “The talisman told me.”

“The what? How?”

“Look at it.” Red bloody tendrils of smoke wove over the stone, covering up the blue. “It’s Cain’s, you stupid girl, and he’s calling for it. You can’t mask it from him because you’re human and don’t have the power.”

My throat felt thick, making breathing difficult. Luke grabbed my arm.

“Are you okay?” he asked me, then turned to Alora. “I think you need to go now.”

But I couldn’t concentrate. His? I was wearing Cain’s talisman? Was that what the prophecy was going to be over? Cain coming and reclaiming his jewelry and I’d stake him to keep it? Could he take it from me? I was afraid to ask, gripping the door for strength.

“Was this your doing? Did you tell him? Did you bring him here?”

“Never,” she said adamantly. “I can’t stand the man.”

“I did,”
Scarlett’s ethereal voice echoed in my mind.

I closed my eyes, my legs weakening.
“Of course you did.”

“You brought him here?” Alora screeched, her voice morphing into a cat scream as she shape-shifted out of human form.

“Did you hear that?” Luke let out a gasp. “Holy—”

Scarlett didn’t only speak to me apparently. I swiveled around and closed the door as the cat fight erupted. He fought me to reopen it.

“That woman … she turned into a cat!”

The screeching outside faded and I hoped Alora was smart enough to keep her ground against Scarlett. Her death would take Nicholas’ life. This confirmed even more that we needed to go rescue Dad.

“I know. Listen. We have to save Dad.”

Luke’s eyes remained wide. “We have to catch her. She’s some crazy freak thing.”

“Deadly!” I grabbed Luke’s shoulders so he’d look at me. “A vampire and if we don’t leave, Dad won’t be coming home. Murdered like Mom.”

Luke oozed disbelief. “Is this a joke? Am I getting punked?”

“Where are your car keys?”

Luke went to the window and looked out. “’Cause that was the most realistic thing I’ve ever seen. How’d you do it?”

“I’m serious!” I yelled. “This isn’t a joke. It’s very real.”

Luke laughed.

“We need to leave. Now!” I looked down at my attire. Black flannel pants with pink poodles weren’t going to fit the bill. “I’m changing first. If you want to come, you can, but you can’t stop me from leaving.”

No matter what I said, he laughed. I stamped my foot. A wave of bloodlust stopped my tirade.

“Okay,” I said, throwing open the door. “How about this?”

I stepped outside and fanned the air around my neck. Within seconds a ravenous vampire came from nowhere and tried to pin me against the side of the house. Once he hit the talisman, he recoiled, his hands and face burning like always. I whipped out the laser and zig-zagged the guy to dust.

Luke’s mouth dropped open. “What the—?”

“Real vampires.” I stood with my hands on my hips. Another was close by and too hungry to learn from his predecessor. He got dusted before he could touch me. “Any questions?”

Luke backed into the house. “This isn’t funny anymore, Julia.”

I walked in after him and shut the door as more bloodlust came on the scene. “I know. I’m not laughing. We have to save Dad.”

“Where is he?”

“Those geeks are out using their new toys to stop this growing coven.”

Luke staggered backward. “He’s fighting those
things
?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”

He pulled his hand through his greasy hair. “Is he insane?”

“No. It’s his job.”

“Job?” Luke collapsed on the chair in the foyer. “Are werewolves real, too?”

I chuckled. “Not that I know of.” I sat on the step opposite Luke. “Vampires have been around since the beginning of time. They are more like snake people.”

“Did she mean Cain from the Bible?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Wow.” He took a moment to digest everything. “And how long have you known?”

“Since Nicholas saved me off the cliff, from a vampire.”

He blinked back at me. “How did you not freak out and tell everyone?”

“Would you have believed me?”

He shrank away from the window when two vampires showed up and drooled on the glass. “No, probably not.”

I waved my magic wand and exterminated them. “So, where are your keys?”

Luke didn’t move, exuding fear. “How come I’ve never seen them before?”

“I don’t know. They only come out at night. The sunlight kills them.”

“Why aren’t they coming in here?”

I exhaled heavily. “They have to be invited.”

“Julia, how are you so calm? I’m seriously freaked.”

“I’m not. We have to get Dad.”

Sudden happiness sliced through my psyche as the door opened. Boba Fett and the cute guy from earlier were strutting their stuff, hair slicked back from sweat and smiles plastered across their faces.

I got to my feet. “Where’s my dad?”

“Back there,” Cute Guy said, motioning behind him.

My body collapsed in relief and I ran outside to find his car. A few others drove up and the entourage filed past me, way too happy for my liking, but not Dad. Luke stayed inside, staring out at me with terror in his eyes.

In a panic, I grabbed the arm of the closest geek. “What happened?”

He smiled wide. “We got him.”

“We killed a
Royal
,” his buddy said next to him.

I worked hard to hide my horror, but felt my heart drop like a stone. Sam, my best friend, was gone now. Why hadn’t anyone texted me?

“No,” I whispered and took out my phone to text Nicholas.

- call me NOW!

This couldn’t be happening.

I pivoted in a circle and staggered into the street. “Alora! Scarlett!”

The disaster, leveling me in my spot, urged me to beg my enemies for help. I’d do anything at this point. With no answer, I ran into the house and riffled through the drawers, looking for keys, any keys. One of the geeks left a set to a Toyota on the table, I hovered my hand over the top, tempted to steal them.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked.

I yanked my hand back and pulled him aside. “Something is wrong. Dad’s not back. I’m going.”

“Going where?”

“Downtown. I know where the sting operation went down.”

“Dad said to stay here.”

I looked him dead in the eye. “Something is wrong, I know it.”

“I’ll just call him.”

“Then do it.” I held out my phone.

Just like I thought, Dad’s phone rolled over to voicemail and he didn’t respond to our texts.

“See?”

Luke grabbed the nearest geek by the arm. “Where’s my dad?”

He furrowed his brow. “He’s not back yet? Let me check.”

I watched as the ambiance of the room flipped from excitement to confusion. Somehow, Dad didn’t make it back with the rest of them.

“What do you mean you don’t know where he is?” I barked. “Who’s in charge of this operation?”

Boba Fett wiped his brow. “Russell, your dad is.”

“Great.” I slapped my hands against my thighs. “So who’s driving? We need to go find your
illustrious
leader.”

Chapter Twenty

Quiet anxiety filled the car on the ride downtown and rightfully so. Rule number one: you don’t bust open a vampire ring and leave your leader behind. Someone’s head was going to roll, if not all of them.

Luke, who wouldn’t stay home alone and insisted on going, sat behind me, shook up and scared. They’d made him put on a suit and armed him with a laser. I only took the special glasses so my eyes wouldn’t fry if I looked at the light.

We parked out front on the eerily quiet street. I stepped from the vehicle and a chill of evil settled heavily over my bones. Smoke still lingered in the air, reminding me of what Nicholas and I did earlier. I gulped and confirmed with Luke he wanted to go through with this. He nodded.

Boba Fett and the cute guy, who I found out was Austin, put on their bulbous helmets and flanked me as we walked inside.
Great, escorted by the bug patrol.
We moved through the double sets of broken doors Nicholas had destroyed earlier, into a back room, and filed down a set of stairs leading underground. The air changed, weaving its icy fingers over my skin as we traversed each step. Flashlights from the crew illuminated the corridors. I reached out to feel Dad’s presence inside the oversized tomb and couldn’t find him. Dread clenched my stomach.

Creepy laughter echoed from deep within the belly of the structure as bloodlust imprinted it’s ugliness on my psyche.

“There are vampires down here,” I said to Austin. “You didn’t finish.”

“Impossible.” He made some signal with his fingers and a few of the geeks branched off.

I grabbed Luke’s arm with one hand and gripped the laser with the other, finger on the button. I didn’t trust the geeks in the slightest to protect him.

Nicholas, where are you?

My hysteria made encapsulating the bloodlust impossible, completely masking any other weaker feelings I might have sensed. But the task might have been useless anyway. If he was unconscious, void of feeling, I’d have nothing to detect.

“Where did you see him last?” I demanded.

“Here,” Austin said as we stopped at a room that looked like a laboratory with a wall of freezers lined across one side and a metal counter on the other. Foggy air leaked from a busted glass door and billowed over hundreds of broken vials of what I assumed to be venom.

“Together we found Doctor Evi—Volynski here,” Austin said, motioning to the pile of dust on the floor. “Everything happened quickly. There wasn’t much of a fight.”

“When?”

“About two hours ago.”

I pursed my lips. Right before the ETers arrived, two of the doctor’s newborns had attacked me. How could that be? Were they not the doctor’s kin?

“How did you know it was him?”

“Looked like him.” He stood with his legs wide and hands on his hips, like a hunter showing off his kill. “And he wore a lab coat with his name on it.”

I choked back my tears as I analyzed the remains of the doctor on the floor. Austin hadn’t a clue they’d also murdered my best friend at the same time. Somewhere else, Phil was probably going nuts over a matching pile of ashes, scattering in the wind like Katie’s had not too long ago. I fought an overwhelming desire to grab his collar and tell him what a moron he was.

“So what happened to my dad?” I asked openly. “Did anyone see where he went?”

I was met with blank stares and questioning faces.

“Well then what are you all standing here for? Find him!”

The group scattered and finally someone found the lights.

“I’m sorry, Julia.” Austin touched my arm.

I shrugged him off and bore daggers into his face. “Don’t you have a protocol for this? Don’t you have a boss somewhere you need to report to? My dad is missing and we need to find him!”

Austin gulped and stared at the floor. “We went in unauthorized. Russ said it would be a quick in and out. We’d get the doctor and worry about the other stuff later. Easy.”

Easy?
I laughed hatefully. “I can’t believe this.”

My arms fell to my sides. This was nothing more than a revenge mission orchestrated by Dad. Austin, some genius who lacked street smarts to realize the danger, was only his subordinate. And Dad had the audacity to get on
me
for being dangerous.

I put my nose inches from his. “Stop apologizing and call whoever’s in charge. I don’t care who gets in trouble. We need help to find my dad.”

Austin’s hands shook as he took out his phone and dialed.

I adjusted my glasses and left the room to give him privacy. Luke, still in shock and utterly confused, stuck to my side as we walked farther down the hall. I planned to search every inch of the place if it took me all night.