My father’s expression hardened as he turned to completely face Simon. “We wouldn’t have had to kill anyone if you hadn’t descended on my children with loaded weapons. You started this bloodbath, not us.” Jake held a hand up to Dad and Dad sighed again. “None of that matters right now though. All that matters is that Henry got away…and he still has Starla and Jacen.”
I studied the ground, embarrassed that I hadn’t been able to catch him. Dad put a comforting arm over my shoulders. “It’s not your fault, Julian. None of us would have done any better. You did what you could.”
Looking up at him, I nodded, and I actually did feel a little better. And besides, not all hope was lost. We now had someone who knew exactly where Henry was hiding out. Lifting my chin, I strode forward to face Simon. “If you tell me where your grandfather is hiding, I just might forgive you for pointing a gun in my face.”
Simon’s lips curved into a cocky half-smile. “Go to hell, vampire.”
An amused scoff escaped me. “Vampire? You’re still hung up on that, even though you’re one of us?”
Eyes darkening, Simon immediately shook his head. “I’m nothing like you. I’m still mostly human.”
“So am I, nimrod. We’re both alive…for now. Until our hearts give out and we become undead, just like them.” I pointed to Dad, then Hunter and Nika. If Simon thought being alive lasted forever, he was in for a very rude awakening.
“What are you talking about? Why would my heart give out?” Simon spat, looking around at all of us like every word we said was some sort of trap.
Hands raised like Simon was a wounded animal, Olivia stepped forward. “You had Jacen’s blood, right? Well, remember how he was different? Didn’t have a heartbeat and all that. I think that’s what he means. Starla took that shot to keep her…alive. Without it, we turn into…regular vampires.” That wasn’t quite it, but it was close enough.
Simon shook his head. “No…that’s not what happens. We stay alive, why wouldn’t we? We’re alive right now?”
I shook my head at his ignorance. “You have no idea what you’ve done, what you’re about to become. And I don’t have time to explain it all to you. Let’s just boil it down to—your human body can’t handle what you’ve done to it. You’re gonna die, possibly soon…” A thought struck me, and I suddenly wished Gabriel was here to confirm what I now suspected. Voice soft, I told him, “Oh, man…you’re too young…you won’t complete the conversion. If your heart gives out now…you’ll just die. As in, dead forever die.” That was my problem too. If I died now, I wouldn’t convert. I’d just…be gone.
Jake’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about, Julian?”
Wishing Gabriel wasn’t busy with dead bodies, I let out a weary exhale. “It’s not just Starla’s blood that’s a problem. It’s age too. Mixed vampires…need to be older to convert…naturally. Nika and I were always told it would happen sometime before our twenty-sixth birthday. Simon doesn’t have that kind of time. His heart won’t make it.”
Eyes wide, Simon looked over at Jake. Clearly, he was the only one Simon trusted. “Is that true? Am I going to…die?”
Jake didn’t know, so my dad stepped forward. “Yes, unfortunately it’s true. When I turned my wife, her human body couldn’t take the new blood for long. It was going to wear out her heart before our children could be born. The only thing that saved her, and Julian, and Nika, was Gabriel’s medicine.” Dad smiled as he looked over at Gabriel, then he shook his head and returned his eyes to Simon. “It’s complicated, Simon, but ultimately, we can save you…you just have to trust us.”
Simon scrubbed his face with his hands. “Just have to trust…” Looking up, he gave Dad a quizzical expression. “My dad and I have fought your kind for as long as I can remember, and you want me to…trust you?”
Jake let out a long, resigned exhale. “I know it’s hard to trust a vampire, son. It goes against everything we’ve ever believed…but we really don’t have much of a choice. Henry must be stopped, and if they can save you…”
Simon’s face hardened as he locked eyes with Jake. He turned to me with great reluctance. “Fine. I’ll take you to his place. But we better go now, because he’s probably already prepping to leave.”
Feeling a sense of urgency, I twisted to my father. “We should run there, Dad, with everyone who can.”
Expression solemn, Dad nodded. “Agreed.”
Dad motioned for me to follow him, and we hurried over to Ben’s car. With Halina and Gabriel’s help, it had only taken a couple minutes to clean up all the evidence of the fight; even the bullet casings were gone. Ben closed the back of his SUV just as Dad approached. “We need to get the bodies out of here before someone comes by. Take Rory, Cleo, Jake, and Olivia back to the ranch. The rest of us are heading out for Starla and Jacen on foot.”
Ben frowned at hearing Dad’s plan. “I don’t like this, Teren.”
Dad smiled. “I know. But we need to get there fast, and unless you want Great Gran to finally convert you…”
At hearing that, Halina shifted her gaze our way. “He wishes I’d put my mouth on him.”
She winked at Ben after she said it and Ben rolled his eyes. “Just bring them home, Teren. And yourselves.”
“That’s the plan,” Dad said with a smile.
“No, it’s not,” Jake said, coming up behind Dad. With a sigh, Dad turned to face him. “I just got Simon back,” he stated, “and I’m not going anywhere without him.”
“And I’m going too,” Olivia added, crossing her arms over her chest.
Curling his hands into fists, Dad calmly looked at each of them. Pointing at Jake, he said, “You can’t keep up, and time is of the essence. You’re going to the ranch.” Shifting his finger to Olivia, he said, “You’re too young…and your mother will kill me if anything happens to you. And she’ll probably try to kill me anyway once she hears about what happened here. You’re going to the ranch too. End of discussion.” Turning his eyes to Simon, he stated, “Lead the way.”
Looking as insolent as Olivia, Simon shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere without my dad. Especially with you guys.”
Dad opened his mouth, but Gabriel beat him to it. Stepping forward, he coolly told him, “Starla is my child. If you refuse to help us help her…well then, I see no reason to share my medicine with you. And trust me when I say, child, you will die without it. Permanently.”
Simon’s lips pressed into a firm line, but he didn’t object any further. Jake looked like he wanted to attack Gabriel again, but he also seemed to understand where Gabriel was coming from, so he only nodded in response to his ultimatum. Olivia didn’t seem as satisfied as the other two. She started to tell Dad exactly what she thought of his plan, but Ben slapped his hand over her mouth and all we heard was an annoyed series of muffled noises.
Seeing that everyone was finally finished voicing their opinion, Dad settled his eyes on Simon, like he was waiting for him to make the first move. Simon finally pointed the way I’d gone when I’d chased after Henry earlier. “That way. Follow me. If you can.” He gave Dad a half-smile, then blurred away.
Dad rolled his eyes, then we took off after him. We sped toward Henry, keeping as much to the shadows as we could. With our speed, we wouldn’t be much more than a trick of the eye to any human who might be looking, but the last thing we needed right now was for one of us to be exposed. Luckily, even Simon seemed to understand that, and he kept out of sight as much as the rest of us.
It was nerve-wracking, using powers openly in a city teeming with humans, and I let out a relieved sigh when the buildings and streets gave away to sloping hills and low brush. Simon stopped every few miles to make sure we were still following. When he saw that we were, he would blur off into the night again, leaving only the sound of the evening wildlife behind.
Halina and Gabriel stayed so close to Simon that they were probably stepping on his shoes, while Dad remained by my side since I was just a bit slower. Hunter and Nika
stayed somewhere in the middle of the two packs. Just as my stamina was beginning to fade and I was positive we would never get to Henry’s hideout, Dad and I spotted Simon and the others standing around a clump of trees. As we slowed to a stop, I looked around. There was nothing out here. Nothing but shrubs, trees and rocks. Was Henry living underground or something?
When Simon saw that we were all there, he pointed to the wall of trees behind him. “Grandfather is down in that valley, in an abandoned cabin. We made good time, so he should still be there. Your friends are in no condition to run, so he’ll have to use the van to get them out of there.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened, and I knew why. Starla and Jacen were in no condition to run because they were being drained and starved on a daily basis. I didn’t even want to think about what these last few weeks had been like for them. “Let’s not waste any more time then.”
Gabriel’s tone was cold, emotionless, and somehow that made it even more chilling. A shiver ran through me, and Dad noticed. “You can stay here, Julian. It’s all right.”
I gave him a brief shake of my head. “No, I can’t. This is all my fault…I need to make it right.”
Dad opened his mouth, like he was going to argue, but instead, he shut it and nodded. “Let’s hit him hard and fast, before he has a chance to get organized.”
Simon led the way to a small trail through the trees. It led down a steep hill to a broad valley, where I could just make out a cabin in the moonlight, resting beside a wide river. I had to pay close attention to where I stepped on the rocky slope, but even still, I saw lights on in the cabin and cars parked outside. People were still there. We weren’t too late.
Once we were all on the valley floor, we spread out. Halina and Gabriel stuck close to Simon, like they were worried he might start fighting on Henry’s side. And I supposed that was a possibility, given his prejudice against our species—his own species now. But Simon wanted to live, and he wanted to be reunited with his father. I had to believe that would be enough to keep him on our side.
Dad gave Hunter a signal to travel around the back with Nika. We went around the other direction, while Halina and Gabriel went right through the front door. Thirty seconds later, the relative quiet of the night was transformed into a raging battle with gunshots, shouting and the unmistakable sound of fighting.
“Stay close to me,” Dad hissed, as we approached the backyard. Three hunters, who had clearly gone through the procedure, blurred out of the back door of the house. They started heading our way, but Hunter and Nika ambushed them, giving us an opening. “Now!” Dad yelled at me, and we made a mad dash for the open door.
Inside was surprisingly cozy for a madman’s secret base. There were deer antlers attached to the living room wall, oversized wooden furniture that actually looked very comfortable, and fishing poles in nearly every corner. Lingering over everything was the woodsy scent of pine and cedar. But for the sounds of violent scuffles coming from outside, I could easily imagine this place belonging to my family.
Dad motioned to a set of stairs leading down to a basement. Halina and Gabriel were preoccupied in the front part of the house, while Nika and Hunter were stuck out back, so it was just Dad and me heading downstairs. I wasn’t sure we were going the right way until the smell of blood hit me. Dad gave me a worried look before stepping onto the basement level.
The short hallway from the stairs opened into a large room. Twin cages were set up on either side of the space, one holding Starla, one holding Jacen. Neither vampire moved, so we had no idea if they knew what was going on or not. Or if they were even still alive. In between the two cages, was that damned machine that Henry used for the transfusions, plus numerous cabinets, workbenches, and refrigerators with glass doors showing several containers of blood.
The scent of stale blood in the air was so strong, it was almost nauseating. With one hand behind himself, keeping me back, Dad stepped into the room. “Starla? Are you okay?”
Before Starla could respond—if she even could—Dad was tackled from the side. He was swept away from me like a flashflood, and I heard him and his assailant crashing into the far wall. “Dad!”
I zipped forward to help him, and saw that Dad was in a snarling, tangled fight with Henry. The older man looked deranged as he fought, with wild eyes and spittle flying from his mouth, a mouth that was punctuated with inch long fangs. “You and your diseased kind have finally met your match, creature! I will hunt down every last one of your undead cousins. With your blood fueling my army!” Henry started laughing, a maniacal sound laced with insanity.
Dad shoved him away, but like a dog defending a bone he would rather die than give up, Henry instantly leapt on him again. Henry used every part of his body to attack Dad, from his teeth to his feet. It was all Dad could do to keep him at bay. “That makes no sense!” Dad said between strained breaths. “You’re the same as us now! If we’re monsters…you are too!”
Wanting to help, I looked around for a weapon. A small voice in the corner of the room said my name. “Julian? What’s going on?” I looked over to see Starla slowly sitting up. Her hair was a disheveled mess, her face pale as chalk, and her skin sunken and hollow. She looked more like a zombie than a vampire, and nothing like the pampered princess who routinely played the part of my mother.
Even as I thanked the fates she was still alive, I snapped out, “I need something sharp!” With shaking fingers, she pointed to a cabinet. Blurring over to it, I yanked the doors open…and saw all sorts of tools I wished I could erase from my memory. Saws, drills, knives, corkscrews and more deadly implements, all faintly coated with blood, like they’d been hastily wiped down before being shoved back into the darkness. Wishing I could move things without having to touch them, I grabbed something that looked like an ice pick, and then turned toward the two men rolling over the ground, each one desperately fighting for the upper hand.
“Dad! Catch!”
We made eye contact and I tossed him the ice pick. He snaked a hand free just in time to grab it, then pushed Henry onto his back and drove it into his chest. I closed my eyes then immediately reopened them. This was an unfortunate part of my world. One I couldn’t pretend didn’t exist. I didn’t ever want to kill, but I had to accept the fact that I might have to one day. To protect those I loved.
Deep, dark red stained Henry’s shirt, and he stopped moving, stopped fighting. Dad immediately stood up and backed away from him. His expression was grim, sad. Dad didn’t like killing either, but Henry hadn’t given him much of a choice. He’d seemed unhinged, like a drugged human who’d gone off the deep end. He’d transformed himself to give himself an advantage…but I don’t think he’d handled the outcome well. To fight the vampires, he’d become too much like one, and it had driven him mad.
I couldn’t stop staring at Henry’s body. At the blood, at the life draining from his eyes. A part of me was still tense, thinking he was going to spring to his feet and attack us again…but Dad’s aim had been true. Henry wasn’t going to recover. Alive or undead, he would never take another breath.
Dad’s hand on my shoulder finally pulled my gaze away from the dead man at our feet. “Best to turn away, Julian. He made his choice, there was nothing we could do.” As Dad turned me around, I nodded. True. Hard to accept, but true.
Now that the immediate threat was taken care of, Dad turned his attention to the cages. Starla was still sitting up on her bed, holding onto the bars closest to her for support. She looked dazed, like she was struggling to focus. She was smiling though. “Hey, vamp boy. Is it over? Did we win?”
Dad strode over to her cage and ripped the door down. Tossing it to the other side of the room, he stepped into Starla’s prison and scooped her into his arms. She was so limp, she looked like a ragdoll. “Yeah, it’s over, Starla. Completely over. You’re safe now.”
Starla sagged in relief, and let out a breathy sigh that sounded like two rocks being rubbed together. She had to be so thirsty. And hungry. And tired. Tho
se assholes.
Starla’s eyes were closed when Dad brought her into the main part of the room. She almost looked asleep, or close to it. But just as Dad motioned for me to take her, her eyes popped open and she twisted her neck to look over at Jacen’s cage. “Jacen? Check on him. They drained more blood from him than me, since they didn’t need to worry about keeping his heart beating. He stopped talking a while ago…stopped moving a couple days ago. I have no idea if he’s…” Her eyes turned glassy, and her face contorted in pain. I wasn’t sure if that was because of her own pain…or Jacen’s.
Dad carefully shifted Starla into my arms. I braced myself for the weight, but she was so light, it was almost like the only thing left inside her was air. I followed Dad to Jacen’s cage, and watched as he ripped the door off his prison. Jacen didn’t move, didn’t flinch, didn’t make any adjustments whatsoever. He wasn’t breathing, his heart was silent…it was impossible to know if he was alive or not. I supposed, only forcing him to ingest fresh blood would tell us how he was. But not here. We had to get him back to the ranch.
As Dad emerged from Jacen’s cell with his limp body in his arms, Starla tried to push herself up so she could see. “Jacen? Sweetheart? Are you okay?”
I could tell from the look in her eyes that she would cry if she could. She had no tears left though. Jacen didn’t respond to her, and Starla’s strength gave out. She collapsed back into my arms with a whimper. “Dad,” I said. “We need to get them out of here.”
Dad nodded. “We’ll leave the same way we entered. It sounds like most of the fighting is over with anyway.” Dad looked up, to where we could feel Halina. “Great Gran, I’m going back to the ranch with Starla and Jacen. When you’re done here…burn this place to the ground.”
Halina responded with a low menacing growl, and something in Russian that was too low for me to make out. I was positive it had something to do with bathing in blood. Dad twisted to where we could feel Nika. I could tell he wanted to order her to leave with us, but surprisingly, he didn’t. He just told her to be careful and meet us at the ranch when she could.