I felt the fear fade and anger swept over me. Who on earth did that man think he was to patronize Dylan that way?
“What do you want with me?” I finally spoke up.
He turned to look at me with faint disdain. “Little girl, you've been enough trouble. You either come with me peacefully or forcefully. Either way, you come with me.”
I could feel the heat from the stone spread through my body, even as my arm throbbed. I raised my chin up and looked him in the eye. “I'm too hot for you to handle.”
His eyes flashed with amusement. “Obviously you think this is a playground. Enough talking now. You come with me.” The amusement had fled from his eyes and they were now as cold as the arctic.
“You want her, come and get her.”
Dylan's challenge echoed in the night and there was a subtle, but no less menacing shift in the other vampires. Lord Morrison stared at us silently for a few moments then turned and walked back to where the other vampires were standing. Suddenly he snapped his fingers and the vampires attacked us from every side.
Dylan grabbed my hand and we shot up in to the air, taking the other vampires by surprise. He let go of my hand and held out both his hands, and when he brought them down, he was holding two shining swords, one long and one short. He thrust the shorter one into my hand. From the corner of my eyes I could see the masked vampires gathering around us once more.
“Use it!” he barked at me before swinging the long one in an arc and heading straight for the group of vampires.
I held the short sword and it trembled in my hands. I felt panic rise up in my chest and knew I was too close to hyperventilating. I wasn't a fighter! I knew how to hold a sword and even how to use one, Katrina had seen to that. But I had never for one moment imagined that I would ever need to use one on people…well, on vampires.
I had a split second to watch Dylan in action and felt awe. His muscles rippled as he swung his sword and it was like a beautiful dance. Just then I felt a hand grab at me and I turned instinctively and thrust. The vampire immediately let go of me as it turned into dust. Another vampire grabbed at my ponytail and yanked. I almost yelled in pain and swung around to face the offender. But then a hand grabbed at me and another, then another. I was being mobbed and there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to use the sword but my hand was being held captive.
I noticed then that they began to move with me. They were moving at such speed, I was sure Dylan would never find me.
I yelled for Dylan but even as I was calling out to him, I knew it was futile. Whatever these people wanted me for, they were determined not to let anything or anyone get in their way. I was going to have to find a way out of this myself, I thought with a sinking heart. Once again, I was alone.
Chapter Eight
Suddenly I was free and just as they had appeared, the vampires all disappeared. I looked around for Lord Morrison and even he was gone. In wonder, I shifted my gaze to Dylan's.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice shaking with reaction. “Where did they go?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he replied, panting.
That was when I noticed that he had a very nasty cut running from his left eye to his neck. It looked like it was made by a knife. My blood went cold at the sight.
“What happened to you?”
“It's nothing serious,” he replied holding onto my arm. “We need to head for your home right now before they come back.”
“Don't patronize me!” I yanked my arm from his hand. “That's a knife wound and the knife was probably covered in platinum.” Just as the silver bullet was used on our ancestors, we had evolved past that and the one substance the Born vampires were vulnerable to was platinum.
“Thank you for stating the obvious, Luanne.”
Even though his words were steeped in sarcasm, it was the first time he'd used my name and it had a funny effect on me. I felt my tummy flip at the way my name had sounded on his tongue and I momentarily forgot that we were in grave danger. I suddenly felt the need to comfort him and offer healing. Almost unconsciously, I raised my hand and cupped the injured cheek.
“I wish I could make it better,” I said softly.
He looked into my eyes and for one brief moment, I saw into his soul. He closed his eyes then and sighed.
“We can't afford to remain here,” he said, opening his eyes.
“I know.” I was about to lift my hand when the most amazing thing happened.
The heat around my chest area began to travel down my arm. I gazed in amazement as flame-colored light moved from my shoulders to my elbow and down my wrists, onto my palm, which was still on Dylan's cheek. His eyes widened in surprise as he watched then his body relaxed and he closed his eyes again on a sigh.
The flame engulfed his body, from his head to his feet. And as suddenly as it came, it was gone. The entire thing had probably lasted less than a minute or so, but it had felt like we'd been suspended in time.
I brought down my hand then and gasped.
“What?” He immediately became alert.
“The gash is gone,” I said in wonder.
He raised his hand to his cheek wonderingly. “I don't feel any pain.”
“I don't know what just happened.” I shook my head and looked down at my palm.
He looked at me and what I saw in his gaze made me tremble slightly. He slowly leaned toward me and I knew, I just knew, that he was going to kiss me. I held my breath and waited as he drew nearer, but at the last minute, he took my hand and placed a quick kiss on it.
“Thanks,” he said simply. “But we need to get out of here, now!” With that he squeezed my palm.
I swallowed the aching disappointment even as I felt like I was being sucked into a very small hole and my entire being was made of liquid. I closed my eyes but just as I closed them, the feeling went. I opened my eyes in confusion and realized we were in Katrina's living room.
“What the hell was that?” I yelled, freaking out.
“Watch your language, girl!”
I turned to see Katrina standing in one side of the room and every inch of her was tense.
“I'm sorry, I didn't see you.”
She frowned as though that was beside the point and turned to Dylan instead. “I've got our stuff packed. We can be out of here in five. But first I want to know how the hell that happened.”
I'd never heard Katrina that snappish before. I help my breath and waited for Dylan to speak.
“We were ambushed,” he said quietly.
“I know you were ambushed. But how did they escape your surveillance? Whoever is behind this is beyond extraordinary.”
“It's Lord Morrison.”
I watched as right before my eyes, Katrina deflated. “I see,” she said quietly as she sank onto the nearest chair. “That changes things considerably.”
I looked from Katrina to Dylan. He shifted his gaze to avoid mine and I became angry.
“Can someone please tell me what's going on? Who's this Lord Morrison anyway?”
“Don't worry about it, Luanne. We need to get you to safety now.”
I gazed at Dylan in faint hurt and annoyance. Was he serious?
“This is my life! I'm the one they want and unless someone tells me what on earth is going on, I'm going to summon them and hand myself over to them!”
I was just bluffing of course; there was no way I could summon anyone. But I watched as horror registered on my grandmother's face. I looked in confusion to Dylan's but his face was passive, without expression.
“Grandma?”
I could hear the fear and confusion in my voice and apparently, my grandmother also heard it because she sighed and got up.
“Luanne is right,” she said, surprising me. “She needs to know how all this affects her and if it is Lord Morrison that's behind this, there's no use going anywhere. We'll face him on our own turf.”
Dylan nodded. “I'll call for backup.”
Katrina nodded and they both
watched him stride out. She looked at the empty spot where Dylan had been standing and I could see she was pensive. Finally, she turned to me.
“Sit down, Lu.” Her voice was really grave. She waited for me to sit on the armchair across from where she was standing, then she sat on the sofa. “I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you. A lot of this is going to shock you, but you need to hear it and I believe you're old enough to hear it straight.”
I could feel my heart banging against my ribcage. I wanted to speak but my throat felt too dry, so I settled for nodding instead. Just before she began, Dylan came back into the room. He stood leaning against the wall and somehow I knew he was already in on what I was about to hear. I don't know how I knew, I just did.
“That stone you're wearing is no ordinary stone,” she began.
I put my hands above my heart, just where the stone rested beneath my t-shirt. It still retained some of the earlier heat, which had never happened before. Then again, this had been a very strange day.
“That stone is the source of the power of all Pereneans,” she went on. “Whoever has the stone controls the powers we all have.”
I waited a beat, expecting them to both burst out laughing and say they were just pulling my leg. But when I saw the grave expression on Dylan's face, I knew that wasn't going to happen.
“You mean those vampires are after this stone?” I asked in disbelief, focusing on my grandmother.
She nodded slowly.
I clutched the stone tightly. It meant so much to me. I had woken up to the stone on my pillow on the day I turned thirteen and had thought it was a present from my parents, even though they'd denied it. Still, it was practically all I had of them.
“Okay. I'm trying to understand this. So you're saying if I hand the stone over to the Council this is all going to stop?”
“I'm afraid it's not as easy as that, dear. If I tried to hold the stone, I would be turned into cinders.”
I felt my eyes open wide in shock. This was mind-boggling. “You mean...” I couldn't say it. But I didn't need to, Katrina was already nodding.
“You are the only one who can hold the stone. It chose you as its keeper when it came to you on the day you turned thirteen.”
“Can't we find another keeper then?” I felt the stone reach out and zap me then. “Ouch!” I cried quickly taking my hands off my chest. “It burned me.” I looked down in accusation.
Katrina smiled slightly. “It's alive and you probably hurt its feelings.”
Okay, time out! This was getting ridiculous. “I hurt its feelings? It's a stone, for goodness sake!” It zapped me again and I winced. Okay, I was getting the message.
“To answer your question, the last known keeper died five hundred years ago.”
This was worse than I thought. I was actually trapped with the stone. Although to be quite honest, I wasn't interested in giving it up to anyone, for anything.
“What of Lord Morrison?” I asked and saw Katrina wilt for a few seconds before she drew herself up.
“He's your grandfather.”
“My grand...!” This was too much to take in sitting down. So I got up and began to pace. I sneaked a look at Dylan and could tell he had known nothing about this. It eased my resentment a little.
“Okay.” I came to a halt in front of my grandma. “So why does he want me? How come you're both on opposite sides?”
“We weren't at first. He was the head of the protectors for so long, but somehow he got corrupted and left the protectors. We haven't been together since before your father was born.”
I had just decided that I'd had enough when the door burst open and we were invaded by said Lord Morrison.
Chapter Nine
I tried to move to where Luanne was standing but I was quickly overpowered. I struggled against the platinum bonds but there was no point. It was almost as effective as kryptonite on Superman in those classic shows. I watched, powerless, as she was surrounded by Lord Morrison's men, even though I noticed none of them was touching her.
“Katrina darling, it's been too long.”
Katrina stood up slowly and patted down one of her trademark caftans. She walked to where he was standing, barely reaching his chest in height, and lifting her up her chin, smiled at Morrison. At that moment, I felt my respect for her move up several notches.
“Morris love, it's been ages,” she purred.
He laughed then and I could see why someone like Katrina had fallen for him. He was still handsome and was oozing charm.
“And you'd love it to be several ages more, wouldn't you?” he said with a smile.
Katrina just shrugged. “If we were meeting under different circumstances, we might have stopped for a chat. But you've invaded my home and you have both my granddaughter and my guest surrounded. What is the meaning of this, Morrison?”
“I don't mean you any harm, Katy. Just hand over the girl and we'll be out of your hair.” He lifted a hand to brush her hair from her face and she stepped back.
“You know I'm not going to do that. You would have to kill me first.”
His eyes narrowed. “I'm really quite fond of you, Katy. But don't think I won't kill you if I have to. I want that stone and nothing's going to stand in my way.”
“If you want it so badly, I can hand it over to you.”
We all turned when we heard Luanne's voice. She had moved a few steps closer to where her grandparents were standing.
“Hmm, I can see your grandmother has been training you well. I want you as well as the stone. After all, don't you think it's time I got to know my granddaughter?”
Luanne snorted and I pushed down a chuckle. “As if! You never bothered, so I'm pretty much sure it's not a relationship with me you're after. I'm just curious though, what happened this evening? What sent you scurrying away with your tail between your legs?”
I held my breath and it seemed almost everyone else in the room did the same. I was also curious, but Luanne was treading on thin ground. Morrison was a very dangerous man. I saw the fury light up his eyes, but being the consummate warrior that he was, he controlled his reaction.
“That is no concern of yours,” he said shortly.
“You were scared off, weren't you?” she taunted, moving closer. “So even if I go with you, what makes you believe you can get me to do what you want?”
“Ah, I did underestimate you didn't I?” Morrison's eyes glittered with pure evil. “I don't have the need to make you do anything. All I need is your essence, girl.”
There was shocked silence. “What do you want to do with her essence?” Katrina cried in horror.
Lord Morrision looked really pleased with himself. “I'm sure you've heard of artificial intelligence? I've developed a robot that has everything needed to be a keeper. Once we transfer her essence to the robot, we'll have no further use for her.”
“If you take her essence you'll kill her, you bastard!” I yelled struggling against the bonds in vain.
He turned speculative eyes to me. “Hmm, it appears the Protector has feelings for the Keeper. Didn't I teach you better than that, Farley?” He studied me for a moment. “How is your father, boy? Heard from him lately? No? Shame.”
I grit my teeth and forced myself to remain silent. Morrison had discovered me and he had been my trainer and mentor when I'd joined the protectors. He knew me maybe better than anyone else did and there was no one I hated more on earth.
He turned away from me, bored. “All right! Enough of the chit chat. We need to be on our way. Come, girl!”
He stretched his hand out and drew Luanne to him. One minute she was standing several steps from him in the middle of the living room, and the next she was standing right beside him. He grabbed her hand and began to move.
“No! You can't take her, you coward!” Katrina launched at him.
He lifted his free hand and blasted a ball of fire at her. She flung both hands out and a produced a shield of ice. Katrina was immediately attacked from all angles and as
she battled her assailants, I struggled against my bonds, feeling totally helpless as Morrison dragged Luanne with him.
“Dylan, help me!”
I could hear her screaming and tears of rage filled my eyes. Where was the backup I'd requested? Why were they taking so long. The battle between Katrina and the other vampires raged on and while she was definitely a match for them, I could tell she was tiring.
I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. I wasn't sure if this was going to work, first of all my powers had been greatly reduced, but secondly, she was so tightly closed up. Still I knew I had to try. I focused my thoughts on Luanne and reached out.
Fight, Luanne. You're strong enough and you can do this! Fight!
I got nothing and began to panic. I could see Morrison heading toward the living room door and Luanne was struggling with him.