Chapter 25: Chapter 24

Something burst inside of me and I felt my body shoot into the air. Gregory twisted around me like I was in the eye of a tornado. He was quickly replaced with the car, the surrounding road, and the other cars. I was in the air and everything started to circle around me. Looking down, I saw the Raitscliff Family beneath my feet. I could barely make out the symbol of the lion until they suddenly started to circle so fast it was a constant blur. It was like a colorful wall and I gasped when a lion burst out of the blurred wall. It lifted its head and let loose with a deafening roar. It closed its massive mouth and then hung its head before it vanished.

For the first time in my sanity, I reached out for the Immortal. “Please stop this. I mean it! I can’t—I just want this to stop. Please stop.”

And for the first time, the Immortal didn’t answer.

I closed my eyes and felt my body slam to the ground. My legs were unsteady, but I looked up to see the surrealness around me. Kates and Lucan stood in front of me. I squeaked in panic, but when they didn’t react, I relaxed slightly.

Lucan was in the front, perfectly straight and with confidence in his shoulders. His black eyes were intense as he looked at something in the distance. He thirsted for what he thought was next to come. His jaw was clenched tight. I watched, horrified, as his nostrils slowly flared. It was like he smelled blood in the air. Then I saw patches of his skin break out to form a puzzle. He was the puzzle, but the pieces were off. It was like something had been put together wrong.

Kates stood with her head half bent towards the ground and a hand outstretched to touch the back of his. An air of intimacy swirled around them. But while he stood with no regrets, I saw a shadow in Kates. Her hair had slipped down her cheek and lifted in the air. It moved slowly, so slowly. I realized that time still moved forward, but crawled at a snail’s pace. Not me.

~‘There are rules, universal laws of nature stuff and… The Immortals are able to bend those rules.’~

I was bending time—no. The Immortal was bending time or… I was. It didn’t matter who was doing it because it was happening. Then I saw Kates bite the corner of her lip. If I’d been any other person, I wouldn’t have caught that gesture. She was having second thoughts—and something else flooded inside of me. There was still something in her that knew her path was wrong. Hope flared in me.

Then something else exploded inside of me and I was hurtled through the same tornado of time as before. When I stopped again, I saw Shelly huddled in a far corner. She was pale and tears were frozen in midair on her cheek. Wren grasped her shoulder tightly. The two looked in complete contrast with Shelly’s yellow sweater and Wren’s hooker outfit. Then something prickled the back of my neck and I turned around.

Roane stared directly at me. His eyelid twitched and I almost screamed when he hurled himself at me. When Roane’s hand touched my arm, I was thrown out of my time-loop thing. It felt like we both tumbled out of invisible glue and fell roughly against the opposite wall.

Wren and Shelly both jumped, but Roane pressed against me. “What the hell are you doing here?”

I couldn’t really tell him that it was a deep and foreboding voice inside of Blue’s head that sent me to him. In fact, I couldn’t even explain how I’d gotten to him, but I had.

“Are we in your restaurant? Weren’t you just outside of your place?” There were three tables set up in a corner. Diamond-encrusted glasses sat on top of them. I recognized those glasses. They were from the Alexander Restaurant.

“I’m every girl’s best friend,” I said faintly, echoing the Immortal’s words.

Roane frowned fiercely, but pressed closer. He shifted and blocked me from Shelly and Wren. I wasn’t even sure if Shelly knew I was there. It had all happened so fast, but I figured that Wren could smell me.

“I sent you with Gregory.” He was enraged. A shiver passed through me—it was one of those sorts that I always got around him. What was it about this guy?—vampire. What was it about this vampire? My legs forgot they had bone in them whenever he was in the vicinity.

I needed to be distracted. “I zapped away from him. Don’t worry. You can’t blame him. He couldn’t stop me… and how could you? That’s annoying.”

Roane replied swiftly, “You drank my blood. I’m connected to you.”

I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable with that thought.

“You didn’t answer me. Why are you here?” Roane pressed.

I looked towards one of the walls, the north wall, and I felt what was on the other side. “He’s here. He’s out there. And he knows that you’re in here.”

Roane followed my gaze, but he never questioned what I said. “How far?”

“Across the road. Kates is with him.”

Roane narrowed his eyes and quickly crossed to a window. As he moved away, the cold replaced his warmth.

Shelly gasped in surprise. “Davy? What are you—How? Oh thank god!”

I attempted a smile, but just sighed in the end. She shouldn’t have been grateful to see me. I was the reason she was there and yet—I couldn’t not appreciate the irony. Shelly Witless was happy to see me. Only the supernatural could do something like that.

Shelly frowned, confused. When she moved toward me, Wren held her back. “Wha—Davy… are you… do you know these people?”

There it was again, just like Emily and Adam. All three of them thought they were held captive by people. If only it were true. I didn’t say anything. What could I say?

Roane moved away from the window. “They’ve got us surrounded.”

Wren growled. “How many?”

“Lucan’s army. They split up.”

“Our Family?”

“We should be okay.” Roane hauled me behind him as he strode through the door. I heard Shelly cry out and knew Wren did the same with her. He led the way down a narrow hallway and out onto a slight perch. We were on a third floor that I hadn’t known existed in the restaurant. I glanced down and saw the fountain in the middle of the room. Our table must’ve been right underneath where we stood now, but I hadn’t had time to study the restaurant’s interior before.

I studied it now and saw that the fountain was larger than I thought. Giant goldfish circled in the clear blue water. Then I looked at the bottom and blinked twice before I realized that there was no bottom. The fountain fell to a depth that I couldn’t see. I glanced at Roane and briefly thought about slipping inside. His eyes could see it.

“Don’t even think it.”

“How do you do that?” It was becoming annoying. I had my shield up, with the little bit of effort that I needed now, but it was up. He could still read my mind.

“I don’t have to be a genius to know what you were thinking,” Roane muttered before he turned and swept us down a narrow stairway to our left. I said swept, but we really flew downwards. It only took a second before our feet landed with a swoosh on the main floor.

I heard another swoosh behind us.

“Oh—!”

“We’re going underground?” Wren’s voice was tightly restrained.

I looked over my shoulder and gulped when her eyes landed on me. She hated me. I saw it. But she was like Gregory. She followed Roane. She believed in him. And for the second time, I wondered what vampire could inspire loyalty like that.

She growled a warning and Roane jerked me in front of him. His hand fell from my arm and planted itself on my waist. He steered me in front of him and answered Wren at the same time, “Yes, we’ll go underground. A tunnel connects to the mansion. We can regroup and head out of town.”

“We’re running.” I heard the distaste in her voice.

“No.” Roane stopped and looked behind. He stared her down. “We are being smart. There are two armies to our one. Right now, we have an entire army behind us.”

“It’s a Family,” Wren retorted.

“Yes, a Family of vampires. It’s an army to our two, Wren. I won’t chance it.”

“Vampires!” Shelly squeaked. I heard another cry of pain a moment later and knew Wren must’ve tightened her hold.

Wren bit out, “You wanted to send the replacement away. I understood that, but I knew you were going to come and fight. Now we’re running. You would’ve chanced it if she hadn’t shown up.”

Oh—we all knew who she meant.

Roane had already been stiff before, but now he was like cement. My finger twitched. I fought against the urge to trail it down his arm, just to feel him. It wasn’t the time or place.

I closed my eyes and mentally repeated that to myself. I’d said it a third time when I felt Wren back down from Roane. I didn’t know what he’d said, but it must’ve worked. I felt the surrender in the air and then Roane turned to steer me forward again.

He wasn’t as rigid as before. I wondered if he knew what had passed through my mind when I felt one of his fingers dip underneath my waistband and started to rub back and forth.

My legs started to turn into jelly and I leaned back against him once before he realized what was happening. He chuckled underneath his breath, for my ears only, and removed his hand.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out in protest, but it was the right thing to do. An army was coming and we were on the run. It was definitely not the time for my legs to melt into the ground.

Roane directed me around the main floor, through a myriad of tables. As we passed the fountain, I glanced down again and caught a swish of a tail from the deeper depths.

“Focus, Davy,” Roane murmured into my ear. “We’ll be fine.”

“She will be. She can’t die, but the rest of us can,” Wren snarled. I heard the swift swish of her leather as she strode behind us.

Roane steered us to a back door and as his hand reached out, glass shattered behind us. He stopped, but I watched in fascination as his hand flexed momentarily. He fought against an urge and then decided something as he turned slowly…. My heart was effectively in my throat. I tried to peak around him, but Roane kept me in place behind him.

Wren growled. I jumped when I heard another deeper undertone that she hadn’t added before. It had been from Wren before, but this sound was from the vampire.

All the sudden, Shelly and Wren moved away. Shelly screamed in protest and Roane’s hand slipped behind me. He grabbed the doorknob, but didn’t turn it. I watched, confused, and then as another explosion occurred, Roane pushed the door open. I was quickly on the other side before I realized what happened and the door was shut behind me.

Well… hell.

I turned and looked at the closed door. Roane didn’t want me in danger. I got that, but what he didn’t know is that we couldn’t be divided—for whatever reason. The scary voice inside of Blue’s head said so.

I heard another explosion on the other side followed by a loud thump. I pressed my ear against the door and heard a lot of growling, a bunch more thumps. When I heard a shrill scream, the pain blasted me. I could’ve blocked it, but I didn’t want to—I sighed in relief when I realized it wasn’t Roane. Then I slipped inside their pain and nearly choked as they died. The body’s coldness quickly became cemented. It had been a vampire, but now it was just a body. His eyes were open. I looked through him at the room from the ground. His head was turned to the right and I had a perfect view of the action.

Wren had shoved Shelly into a corner with a table to block her.

Roane warned me never to be alone with her. Now I knew why.

She swept forward, dodged a vampire, grabbed his leg and another’s leg and rolled to the ground. She used her body’s momentum and both vampires fell to the ground. Their necks snapped as she completed her roll. Somehow, she grabbed a knife in each hand and quickly stuck them into two more vampires who were focused on Roane.

My mouth went dry watching her. All of the sudden, I felt another searing pain in my chest. I gasped and clutched my chest. When I pulled it away, I was surprised to find there was no blood. I’d expected blood and then I cursed underneath my breath. I quickly slipped back into the dead vampire and looked for Roane. I couldn’t see him. The pain must’ve been his.

When I tried to get inside of Roane, he lashed at me, ~‘Stay out!’~

I tried again—nothing. Roane had completely locked me out.

The dead vampire was turned the other way now. He wasn’t a help and so I did what I probably shouldn’t have. I slipped inside of Wren. She was boiling with adrenalin, excitement, and wrath all at once. Complicated.

As she bent forward, I reeled, and suddenly she was back up with her legs in the air and her fists between them. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Then another scream punctured the air and everything froze.

Wren whirled around, her insides surging.

Lucan held Shelly in front of him with his mouth turned towards her neck. He lowered his teeth, but looked up—Wren followed the gaze—and there stood Roane with two vampires in his hands.

It was a direct challenge.

Roane straightened, deftly flexed his hands and snapped the vampires’ necks. Their bodies fell to the ground and he stepped over them, calm and assured.

Wren stretched her hands, ready for Roane’s command. None came. He held his human brother’s gaze steadily. “Do you want to drink? Go ahead. You know what will happen.”

Lucan grinned, lethally, and nipped lightly at Shelly’s skin.

She shuddered against his chest, but Lucan only had eyes for Roane. “Is this how you thought it’d end? After all this time and I’ve got the girl in my arms. You had your chance, brother. Too bad you forgot who you were when you went to them.”

“Do you want the Immortal or do you want me?” Roane threw out the challenge.