15
Avery and the Blue-eyed Vampire
I knew she couldn’t come in unless I invited her. I opened the door, with my freaky friends flanking me in the hall.
“My, Clete, how you’ve changed,” I said looking Cwen over from the widely gaping doorway. Unsurprisingly, she was dressed the same way she had been every time I had seen her. The black hip knife glinted ominously in the light and reminded me, she may not be able to come in but she could still do me damage if she really wanted too.
“Hello breather, why don’t you let me in? Show some manners for company,” Cwen said with a sinister smile showing her sharp fangs.
“How about you stand out there and I’ll stay right where I am. What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you, of course.”
“You were the one I saw at the hospital?”
“Avery, my tracking skills serve me well but I guess I’ll have to work on my stealth,” Cwen said, the smile never leaving her caramel face.
“Why did you need to find me?”
“For Audra, she isn’t at her old home and her father couldn’t tell me where she was.”
“Why would he tell you anything?”
“Because, I took a few of his pregnant wife’s fingers while he watched. His boys faired better…but not much,” she laughed.
Appalled by her actions against the man and her amusement at the memory, I stared in silence.
“I see all your friends are here. Is the girl?”
“W-Why would she be here?”
“Seems she was close to Scott and he’s close to you. If she isn’t at home or with her father, stands to reason she would go to him,” Cwen said pointing to Scott behind me.
“Well she isn’t here so you can just go on searching.”
“If you let me in, Avery, I can confirm that for myself.”
“And leave me dead or tortured after you go. No, I think this is as close as you should come to me.”
“Elle, dear, tell your friend to invite me in.”
Elle shifted back into a corner as we all swung our eyes to her. The Rory Clan might know what she looked like, but they shouldn’t know her name. Her eyes were round with fear and suddenly she looked so young to me.
“Cwen, you aren’t supposed to be here. You were supposed to let me watch them and tell you if they found the girl,” Elle said.
“Elle?” Alex said staring holes through her.
“You were on their side this whole time?” Sobie asked.
“No, no. That’s not the way it is…” Elle said.
Cwen laughed from the door, raising the hair on my arms. She laughed insanely, mockingly at us.
“What did you expect to happen? You wouldn’t tell us where she lived, even after we asked.”
“The girl isn’t here,” Elle said firmly.
“What makes you think we would have handed her over if she was?” I asked.
“Well…I was thinking of a trade. We have a friend of yours. Considering how hard he fought and how much we put him through, he was loyal enough to you that I had to take matters into my own hands. I assume that kind of loyalty must mean you are of some importance to each other.”
“What?” Kim asked blankly.
“Oh, how silly of me; threats mean nothing if you don’t know what you have to lose.”
Cwen stepped back. In the yard I could see the female twins, Eric, and the vampire who had chased us from the club. Between them, Clete was slumped on his knees in the grass. Chains gleamed and sparkled in the wan light from my porch and were wrapped around his bare chest. Silver, I didn’t even have to ask.
“She isn’t here; we have nothing to trade. Just let him go, Cwen.”
“Ave-er-ry,” Cwen said shaking her head as if I was an amusingly naughty child. “Why would I let go of my bargaining chip? The girl might not be here, but I know I’m tired of searching. As long as I have him, I can make you do the legwork.”
“You didn’t say anything about hurting anyone!” Elle yelled, walking across the room to stand at the door.
“We are vampires, why wouldn’t we hurt anyone?” Cwen asked in honest curiosity.
“You swore you wouldn’t. I had my life on the line, spying for you, on the assurance that the girl was all you wanted and that no one would get hurt.”
“Elle I don’t have to explain myself to you. You know what’s at stake if we don’t get the girl.”
“You lying bitch! Why should I help you at all?”
“You won’t be welcome with them anymore, not after this,” Cwen said, pointing to our assembled group. “Not that it matters if we kill them in the end anyway.”
“Let me talk to Clete,” I said.
“Call out to him if you like or you could just come outside. Your blood would do us all some good,” Cwen said with a chuckle.
I scowled, “Clete,” I yelled past her shoulder.
Eric pulled a wad out of Clete’s mouth.
“Aave don’t worry about me. That girl must not—” Eric shoved the gag back in.
“I like Clete and all, but I won’t trade her life for his…unless, I know why you want her and if she’ll be safe.”
“Of course she’ll be safe. She isn’t any good to us dead or uncooperative.”
“So, why do you want her?”
Cwen stood there silently debating with herself then walked out to confer with Eric. She came back without her smile.
“She’s a breeder.”
“What?” I asked.
“Our witch tells us she’s a breeder.”
“Okay, Cwen, I heard that the first time. What the hell does it mean?”
“Her mother was pregnant. The girl used her magic to make that happen.”
Scott edged closer to the door. “That’s not possible. Orenda was only with me.”
“That’s the point Scott. That’s the whole point. We wanted her and the girl, since Orenda already had what we wanted, but the accident didn’t go as planned. We thought she would just hit the brakes, not go off the road,” Cwen said with a shrug.
“But…” Scott lost the ability to talk or stand. He slumped to the floor with an empty stare.
“How do you know it was the girl and not her mother? You may have killed the one you wanted,” Alex said.
“Our witch overheard Orenda telling another witch. Orenda was confused and they couldn’t figure it out until the girl admitted her wish to them. She wanted Scott to stick around and thought that was the best way to do it. So she wished for a child and her power made it happen.”
“You’re sure?” Alex said.
“Sure enough, to go to all the trouble of getting her.”
“Why do you want to breed, you can go and make as many vampires as you want?”
“Breather, those we make are still part human. They aren’t very strong when they’re young either. We could take that weakness out of the equation all together. Our children would be pure. They would be stronger than anything in the Underworld,” Cwen was wistful talking about it and full of pride for children that didn’t yet exist.
“We aren’t going to help you with this. You know that, right?” Alex asked.
“You might not feel like you need to help us, but I am sure the humans will. They are soft and Avery won’t let anything happen to Clete. Sure she’ll drag her heels but she’ll come to our way of thinking.”
“I can’t hand that girl over to you. You’ll kill her or make her one of you.”
“We don’t know how death would affect her power. We’ll keep her alive until she is too old to be of use, then who knows. Maybe she’ll get to be one of us or maybe we’ll drain her then. That is years down the road though and nothing you need worry about, Avery.”
“Why have you been killing the other Supernaturals in the area?” Sobie asked.
“We can’t have everyone finding out what we’re doing, not until our children are old enough for the fight and just as you want to stop us, they might also.”
“Elle!” Eric called from the yard. “Come. You can’t do anything for them anymore and they won’t help you since you are one of us.”
“What of our agreement?” Elle called back.
Eric rolled his eyes, “Yes, yes, you will have what we promised.”
Elle looked to each of us. No one asked her to stay. Sobie looked ready to rip her arms off. Elle stepped backward out the door.
“NO!” I yelled reaching for her, watching as Eric moved with lightning speed and pulled her from the doorway. Her arm was all that had crossed the threshold, but he had been waiting. He was standing on my porch holding Elle by her throat and I couldn’t do anything but watch.
“Hello again, Avery,” Eric said looking into my eyes.
I felt a flutter in my mind and words started echoing quietly in my ears. I threw my wall up and looked away.
Eric seemed puzzled that I hadn’t asked him in as the echo had suggested.
“You’re going to be so much fun for me,” Eric said watching me closely.
Eric stepped back from the door as Alex lunged. Chad grabbed him with a move I couldn’t track and held Alex within the threshold.
“You’re next, Avery,” Eric said as he drew Elle’s neck straight. Sinking his fangs into her pale neck, she made a muffled cry. Eric held Elle close and drew from her, while her skin lost its faint glow. She was dying in front of us and we couldn’t do anything.
“What about my—” Elle croaked. Eric squeezed her throat and stopped anything else from crossing her lips. Her body was no longer able to support its own weight and she wilted as we watched. Eric let go dropping her. She landed with a sickeningly heavy thud.
“You have until this time tomorrow night to bring us what we want. If you don’t have the girl, we will burn you out. You can watch Clete die in the flames,” Eric said staring directly at me.
“Bye-bye baby,” Cwen said rejoining her family on the yard. They dragged Clete away into the night.
I waited only seconds after their departure to run for Elle and pull her into the house. My Freaky Friends didn’t move. Even Kim had a hard look in her eyes as I searched for Elle’s pulse. There wasn’t one.
“Make her!”
“Avery, why would we make her? She betrayed us,” Chad said.
Alex stared down at her lifeless body but stood firm where he was.
“If she was working for them, she might know where they live.”
“So, what if she does? She wouldn’t help us, not if she’s on their side.”
“Look at her. He drained her, doesn’t seem like she would be on his side after that,” I said staring Chad down, daring him to continue this fight.
“What good would knowing where they live do?” Kim asked placing her hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged it off. Was I the only one with a conscience around here? “I may not be able to do anything to them tonight while they’re awake, but I’ll burn them in the light before I let Eric touch me again.”
Still no one moved and the minutes were ticking away while I debated with them. I was sure there was only a small window to make this work. I resorted to asking Scott. He hadn’t moved in the last ten-minutes but he was my best bet. I crawled over to him and raised his chin, lining his eyes up with my own.
“Scott,” I said softly. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Hmm?”
“I need you to save Elle.”
He watched me without comprehension.
“Scott! You have to do this for me. I…I won’t see any of you anymore if she is dead. Do you understand? I won’t have her death on my head.”
“I’ve never made anyone before. I don’t think I can.”
“Do you know how?” I asked while everyone else looked down at me.
“Yes…but I don’t think I can do that to her.”
“She liked her life right? She wouldn’t want it to go like this. Save her Scott. Save her from what the vampire did to her.”
Scott was still dazed, but telling him to save her from the vampire did what I hoped for. He slid across the floor to her body and pulled it into his lap. Looking at me for reassurance, I nodded my approval.
Scott pulled her face even to his and opened her mouth. His lips overlapped hers and I saw a faint glow pass from him to her. Elle twitched and as more energy flowed out of him. He was breathing life into her limp form. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
Elle didn’t move much but I could see her eyes rolling around the room, taking us all in. Scott settled her back down on his lap and bit his wrist. He placed it over her mouth and she stuck to it with magnetic force.
I couldn’t move as I watched the rebirth of the traitor. The air felt heavy in my lungs and I struggled to keep breathing through the moment.
Scott slumped and Elle let go. Her nostrils flared as she took in the scent. I was the closet person to her and she spun around to look at me.
She wasn’t the same person I knew before. Her eyes were hers, but there was something alien about them. Her new eyes cut into me as she cocked her head to the side quizzically, in an animal-like gesture. Inching forward, she studied everything about me.
Scooting away from her, I ran into the corner and out of room to flee. Everyone else was either too weak or too enamored of what happened to stop her from coming closer. She halted a few feet from me and closed her eyes, sucking my scent deeper into herself.
Her fangs dropped when she opened them, I was gazing into two glassy orbs. They were as reptilian as Scott’s had been but they were a solid blue, the same vivid blue her normal eyes had been.
Elle lunged for me and Alex plucked her out of the air. She struggled against him but she wasn’t strong enough yet to really fight him. I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.
“Chad, take her and find a feed. She should settle some after she’s eaten. Sobie you take Scott, he too needs something.”
Chad pulled the still struggling Elle from Alex’s grasp and walked out into the night without a word. Elle’s eyes never looked away from me.
Had I made a mistake in trying to save her? Sobie lifted the catatonic Scott to her shoulder in a fireman’s carry and followed him out the door.
Kim backed out of the room taking a steak knife with her down the hall. She didn’t want to be a part of everything that happened. I’d crossed a line with her and she wasn’t ready to talk about what I’d unintentionally dragged her into.
Alex reached down and pulled me from my corner. “What were you thinking?”
“We don’t have Clete anymore and we need information from her.”
“No, why did you go out there? Eric could have been waiting for you in the dark.”
I didn’t know what to say. Alex was staring deep into my eyes as if they held the answer. “I…I wasn’t. I didn’t want her to die and…I don’t know. Why would she turn against you for him?”
“She has been with us for a few months. Elle let me into her mind and gave us no reason to suspect anything.”
I kept my eyes locked to his, searching for any hurt over what had happened. Alex didn’t look angry or hurt, just confused.
“Are vampire’s eyes always different colors?” I asked.
“No. Normally they’re black, like Scott’s the other night.”
“Why are hers different?”
“Well…maybe because she’s part elf. I have never met a vampire who was anything but human before the change.”
“What are you going to do with her?”
“I’m not sure, Avery. We’ll see what she says tomorrow and decide from there. You forced my hand with her.”
“No one was stopping me and she is our best lead back to Eric.”
Alex hugged me to his body and I let him take comfort in the closeness. If that’s what he needed after watching Elle’s death and rebirth, I was willing to give it to him.
“What are you going to do tomorrow? Search for the girl?” He asked, the question reverberating through him into my ear.
“No, I am going to find the Rory house.”
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“I’ll go back to Mia’s. I think they live somewhere close to it since that’s where they go to relax. I’ll talk to the people there and see if they can point me in the right direction. When Elle wakes up we can ask her about it if Mia’s doesn’t pan out.”
Alex stroked my hair from my face and said, “Be careful. If I could go with you, I would. We don’t know who or what owns Mia’s… Should I send Sobie back here to go with you?”
“No, she stands out too much and if the Rory Clan knows her the owner might also. I have only been in there once and the only human I saw was glamoured. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sorry I can’t stay to plan this out any better. Dawn is coming and I have to be home.”
“It’s fine. I’ve got this. I need to get some rest anyway. Anything I plan tonight probably wouldn’t make sense in the morning. I’ll call you or Scott as soon as it gets dark. Be careful with Elle, we need her.”
Alex brushed his full lips across my cheek and said, “Goodbye Aave,” as he withdrew into the fading night.
16
Avery and the Grand Victorian
I woke up with the heavy arms of someone who’s slept too many hours. I turned and looked at my alarm clock. It was past eleven and way later than I had planned to start my day. I got up and went immediately to the computer. I had to find Mia’s and get over there as soon as possible. If that didn’t work out I would spend the day looking for Audra.
I pulled up the mapping website and typed Mia’s, Seattle, WA 98122 and waited for the list to compile. I was lucky. There were only three within a forty mile radius and only one lay to the south. Jotting down the exit number, I slipped it into a pocket on the jeans I would wear for the day.
I showered quickly. Pulling my jeans and black v-neck shirt on, I realized the house was dead quiet. If Kim was awake, she hadn’t come out of her room yet. I couldn’t really expect her to come out chipper after last night though and I opted to give her the time she needed to deal with her feelings about it all.
I slipped into an old pair of tan suede combat boots. After the fights and struggles I had been in lately, I wasn’t going to make the mistake of wearing the wrong thing. I also stowed the silver bar in my bag just in case.
As I pulled to the end of the driveway, I stopped by Kim’s car. Using the spare key she had given me, I unlocked it and grabbed Audra’s box of pictures out. If I had to find her today, I knew the only clues were in that box. I put it down in my own floorboard and left for Mia’s.
Mia’s parking lot only had two cars parked there and, even though I knew the Rory Clan couldn’t be there during the day, I was glad to confirm the absence of their “BLDY” cars. Nothing else about the restaurant looked any different. The squat planters still held their dead pansies and the cream cinder blocks were no less plain and ugly.
I stepped into my personal nightmare again. In the daylight Mia’s was only the tenth or eleventh level of Hell, but it was still Hell.
The woman behind the desk by the door was the same from the first night I came in. Her eyes snapped to me and a smile drew across her lips.
“Welcome to Mia’s,” she said brightly.
“Hello. I…was invited to come here by a friend. His name is Eric Rory, is he here yet?” I asked knowing the answer.
“No, you are the first customer of the day. Please sit wherever you like.”
She hadn’t shown any recognition of me or the name Eric Rory. I hadn’t much expected her to. She had been glamoured, as I assumed all the staff had been.
I selected a booth in the back corner of the room. I chose it for two reasons; it gave me the best view of the doors and the cracked red upholstery wasn’t as bad as the rest. The cheap laminated menu held a score of common place Italian dishes and I decided I would just get coffee.
A grizzled man came from the door to the kitchen. His salt and pepper hair was disheveled on top of his unusually round head.
“What can I get ya?” He asked in a voice a bear would have envied.
“Just a coffee please.”
“Be right up.”
I looked around the room. The alcove I met the Rorys in was closed and dark. The carpets at Mia’s looked darker in the sunlight but still clashed with the red of the walls and the cheap table cloths. The garlic strands hanging around the room were a joke. They didn’t make the place seem Italian and they didn’t bother the vampires that frequented the restaurant.
I sat there for an hour without anymore customers coming in. My waiter must have asked me if I needed anything every five minutes. I just sipped my coffee and waited for something to reveal itself to me. Maybe the little blonde witch working with the Rorys would come in.
“Ma’am, whatcha’ doin’ here?” My waiter asked finally as he sat across from me in the booth.
“Just having my coffee.”
“Ay, nobody sits in here for long unless they’ve a reason and that cold cup ain’t no reason,” the waiter said focusing his opalescent eyes on me.
They were opalescent! They didn’t just hold a single color, they held all colors. I had the sneaking suspicion my waiter was just the man I needed to see. I hadn’t asked him about the Rory Clan because I had assumed he was glamoured like the girl at the desk, but his eyes changed everything.
“I…was told to come here.”
“By who?”
“By a friend,” I answered vaguely.
“Aye, I serve a certain kind of…people here. You ain’t nothing special. Why’s you spossed to be here?” He asked leaning closer to me. His accent wasn’t southern but it sounded like a blend from all over.
“Do you mean I’m just a human…a breather?
He narrowed his eyes and stared at me, tight lipped.
“I know the type you serve here,” I said.
“You human, if you know the type, why are you here?”
“Eric Rory. He…said I should come.”
“You know Eric?” He asked skeptically.
“Yes, and Cwen, and the twins too.”
“Er you the one he tole me about, the Hunter he contacted?”
Why would a vampire call a Hunter? I considered my options and how best to get the information I needed. “Yes I am. I’m here to…oust another Clan.”
“Well hell. I ain’t never met one aya. You don’t look like I’d of expected,” he said studying me more closely.
“What did you expect?”
“Don’t know, maybe ya’d be all in black and have like…weapons and stuff.”
“Well…I didn’t get your name.”
“Breathers here call me Jon. My other name,” he said shifting his eyes side to side, “is Geshem.”
“Well, Geshem, I wouldn’t be much of a Hunter if I walked around the way you picture me. The best predators are camouflaged. If you don’t know me for what I am, then others don’t either…Like you. You fit in here so I don’t know what you are.”
“Ah hell, I’m a demon. A rain demon. I like it here, ain’t ever dry.”
“See, I had no idea. That’s the way it should be,” I said filling out the character I was portraying. “Did Eric leave anything for me?”
“Na. He just tole me about you the other night. Said ya’d be in town soon and that ya’d help him with his vampire problem. Did he tell ya to get something from me?”
“Yes, Geshem, Cwen told me they would leave the directions to the house for me.”
He narrowed his eyes again and I was afraid he knew my lie. “Now, why’d they do that? You’re a Hunter. They wouldn’t trust ya not to kill them while they sleep.”
I narrowed my own eyes at him, hoping the Hunters carried enough fear to bluff me past this. “I don’t get paid if I kill them. I don’t think they’d mind if I did away with you though. You haven’t been helpful and they don’t really need you.”
“Whoa. Whoa there. Ya know how hard it is to kill a rain demon?”
“I didn’t say I would kill you. I might bury you in the Earth for a while, freeze you, break you and see if you can reform or maybe…cut you up and see if you bleed. I don’t deal with demons often, but I’d make an exception for one who kept me from getting the job done.”
Geshem was obviously stunned by my newest lie. He just sat and stared at me.
“How ya know I ever been to their place?”
“I don’t. But if I didn’t use all of my resources to make sure, I wouldn’t be doing my job.”
Geshem pulled at the collar of his red flannel shirt as if it had shrank since we started talking.
After a long pause, he said, “Ah’ite. I know the house. It’s less than a mile from here. Ya just drive west till ya see the church on the left. Turn there and follow it. Ya know the one when ya see it.”
“Are you sure I’ll know it, or will I have to come back and find you?”
“Na, ya going to know it. The Rory Clan ain’t made no effort to hide what they are from no one.”
“I hope you’re right. You seem like a nice guy, Greshem, and I don’t want to have to come back and do something you’ll regret.”
I got up and left without paying for the coffee. I felt bad about it and about forcing the information from Geshem but I had to know.
As soon as I pulled onto the street I knew, just like Geshem had said, which house the Rory Clan lived in. The yard was over grown and most of the second story windows were bricked up. I also saw the “BLDY” fleet parked along the street and in the grass. There was no mistaking this place for anything but their home.
It was an old, two-story, grand Victorian. The paint was chipping and the rails looked like they would fall off the porch at any second.
I parked across the street and slipped into the savanna that was considered their yard. The day was quiet and the rain had stopped falling on my way. The fact that it had stopped didn’t keep me dry in the grasses that swatted at my waist, leaving damp lines down my legs and discoloring the toes of my tan boots.
I crept up the porch and tried the front door. I wasn’t surprised to find it unlocked. Eric had a big enough ego that he didn’t think he needed to worry about anything. I closed the door behind me and was swallowed by the darkness in the house.
Pulling my phone from the heaping depths of my purse, I used it for light. I stood in the hall, taking in what I could see. From the wan glow everything looked gray and washed out. The walls were covered in colorless peeling paper and the doors lining the hall were all closed.
The first doorway led to a living room where the windows were uncovered. The furniture was surprisingly nice considering the shape of the house itself. The couch and chairs were modern and covered in leather. There was no TV, which would have been strange in a normal home but I didn’t know how vampires lived day to day to make a judgment on whether it was strange for them. I could see the outline of someone sleeping on the couch. I knew from the slow rise and fall of their chest and the light filtering in, that this person or being wasn’t a vampire. They hadn’t stirred because of my presence.
Stepping back into the hall, I closed the door as quietly as possible.
There was a door to a kitchen that I didn’t bother to explore. The door I needed was for the stairs and I found it on my third try. They were narrow, steep, and claustrophobic. In the near dark, I stumbled and fell up them. Yes, I fell up two of the steps. I think you have to be clumsy on a divine scale to fall up the stairs, just call me the Goddess of Clumsy.
Listening for anyone roused by the noise, I stood perfectly still. Nothing moved. The house was dead silent.
The first of the bedrooms on the second floor was locked. The next opened readily and I slipped in on my tip toes. I couldn’t see any furniture in the arc of light from my phone. Padding deeper into the room, I saw something on the edge of the glow.
It was Clete. He was chained like a dog in the corner, his body curled so that his arms were wrapped around his knees. The chains were locked around him, my human hands useless to free him. I didn’t know what a truly dead vampire looked like. I wasn’t able to gage his health at all. I could see the silver of the chains biting into his dead flesh, burning him even as his body rested.
“Clete,” I whispered giving him a shake. “Clete?”
He stirred but settled back into his locked position on the floor.
“CLETE,” I said in a whisper much louder than I thought it should be.
“Wha’?”
“Clete, it’s Avery. Do you know where the key is for these chains?”
“Aave?” He muttered softly. “The sun’s still up?”
“Yeah, it’s me and the sun is out.”
“What’re you doing here?” He asked grunting with pain.
“I came to find the house and since I was here anyway, I thought I might get you out.”
“You shouldn’t be here. Do Alex and Scott know you’re here?”
“Scott was out of it last night, I told Alex I would look for the house though.”
“He know you were gonna come in?” Clete asked shifting uncomfortably.
“Hell, I didn’t know it would be so easy to get in. They don’t even lock the doors. Do you know where the key is?”
“No…” Clete drooped back to sleep.
“Clete, where is it?” I asked urgently shaking him.
“Cw-Cwen took it with her…You’re lucky. Most of us can’t wake up at all during daylight.”
“Why could I wake you up then?”
“I’m older than any of the vampires you’ve met. I’ve kept that to myself though.”
“Why didn’t you kill them while they slept?”
“Blood conflict. I couldn’t do anything to them without a good damn reason and trying to get some breather girl isn’t a good enough reason.”
“Clete, is there anyway you can break out of these chains?”
“They’re silver. There isn’t much I can do about it.”
“Have you seen anything else that would help?”
“No, Aave. I have only been living here a few weeks and the Clan has kept me busy. You need to get out of here before they get up. I—,” Clete yawned. “I need to get some rest while they’re gone.”
I thought about wrapping my coat between the links and his body but that would give away my presence. I couldn’t do anything for him. I kissed his cool forehead and left my friend.
The other rooms held the sleeping dead. Most of the Clan shared their space, lying out on stacked bunks like some kind of summer camp.
Cwen and Eric shared a room much nicer than the others. Cwen was stretched prone beside Eric on a king size bed. Eric slept curled toward her, an arm and leg thrown over her. I couldn’t decide if it was a posture of possession or if he was clinging to her. I fought the urge to go touch them. I fought even harder not to kill them while they slept.
I could have killed them for sure, but I didn’t know if the others would release Clete after that or take him out as retaliation.
I didn’t rummage through their things, I just peeked into the closets and found, mostly, what was normal. I did see some older artifacts hiding in the back but nothing useful. There was an old bible, some fur pelts, a heavy bronze shield, a large box of pictures that ranged from tin type to Polaroid and a stack of vampire books and stories, which I thought were particularly ironic.
I snuck back down to the kitchen for a better look now that I knew where the vampires were. The kitchen itself was unremarkable but the room was combined with the dining area and reached the entire length of this side of the house.
The house lacked a lived in feel, despite the number of beings that called the place home. There wasn’t a table in the dining space but a few extra chairs placed around the room. It was more like a family room but there wasn’t a TV or anything of entertainment value in the space.
The floorboards creaked somewhere in the house. I slipped out of sight into a pantry until things were quiet again. The sunlight through the kitchen windows began to fade.
I was in the lions den and soon they would be hunting.
I slipped out of the house as fast as I could, without a second glance.
17
Avery at Ireland’s
I drove straight to my house, keeping a steady eye on the setting sun and the rear-view mirror. I knew vampires had an exceptional sense of smell and the Rorys might know I had been in the house. They could be coming to visit me very soon.
I hadn’t looked for Audra at all, even if I found her I couldn’t be sure of what I would do. I should take her to her father, or the police station but I had friends whose lives were on the line because of her.
The garage door made a satisfying thud on the concrete floor behind the car. I was just glad I made it home in one piece. I had been pushing my luck lately.
Kim was in the kitchen making bread salad when I came in. “Hey. You were running around doing errands for the vampires?” She asked as I sat at the table.
“Sort of. I mean it was for them and me too. Clete’s my friend and I had to do something.”
“What did you do exactly?” Kim asked turning from the cutting board to lean against the counter facing me.
“I found the Rory Clan home,” I said proudly.
“Really? What was it like?” I was glad to see Kim slipping back into her old self.
“Old, dingy, unkempt…unlocked.”
“They aren’t that stupid! They wouldn’t leave the place open. Does this mean you went in there?”
“Kim, you know me. Of course I went in. Before you ask, yes, I took some protection.”
“We aren’t talking about a condom here, what protection could you have possibly brought to defend against a house full of vampires?”
“I brought the silver rod and I made sure I had my phone.”
“Avery, what good is a silver rod against a group that size? And how exactly do you think your cell could’ve saved your life if you got into it with a house full of vampires?”
“I made some assumptions. I thought they would be dead during the day. Lucky for me, I was mostly right.”
“What do you mean, mostly?” Kim asked with a motherly expression of concern.
“Clete was there. He was chained up and dead.” Kim looked at me in horror and I amended my last. “You know vampire dead, but I got him to wake up and talk to me. Unless the others smell me, which is a possibility I realize, they won’t know I was ever there.”
“This is good. Right?”
“Yeah. We were hoping Elle could tell us where they lived but it doesn’t really matter as long as we know where to find them.” Getting up and putting salad on two plates for us, I said, “I expect our vampires will be calling in the next hour.” I called them our vampires to include her and make her feel like part of the group. She’d be more sympathetic if she felt she was one of us.
Kim stopped eating to think over what I said. She was smart and knew what I was up too, but decided to go along. “What do you think will happen tonight?”
“We’ll probably all get together and make some kind of a plan. Besides that I can’t say for sure. We still have to deal with Elle and her…transformation. No way to know if she’ll help us or try to kill us.”
“What about the girl? Did you get a chance to look for her?”
“No. It took a while to find out where the Rorys live. I had to go back to that little restaurant where I met them the first time. I just watched for a while. I thought maybe the witch that works with them might come in or something. I talked to a demon who worked there.”
Kim leaned forward. I could feel her excitement rolling across the table, like water coming to a boil. “What kind of demon?”
“A rain demon. What other kind would live in Seattle?”
“There are quite a few different kinds, but you’re right, a rain demon would fit in around here. What was it like?”
“He was a guy, like middle aged. He had a weird, all-over kind of accent. His eyes were the most interesting thing. They were dark, but opalescent, like motor oil in a puddle.”
“You know that’s how you can tell them from us. It’s all in the eyes,” Kim said.
“Them who, the demons?”
“No, all of them. All the Supernaturals, at least that’s what I’ve been told.”
“The vampires’ eyes are normal and so are the witches,” I said thinking about all the…things I had met in the last few days.
“The vampires and witches are human in origin, the others only have human forms, but it’s always in the eyes,” Kim said matter-of-factly.
Sobie’s eyes were a phenomenally bright green, the vampires’ changed when they were fully in…vampire mode. Audra and her father’s were flecked with color and the demon’s had certainly been different. It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul… “Are there other signs to look for to identify things from the Underworld?”
Kim sat quietly looking through her mind for more information. “Yes, I’m sure there are, I just don’t know them.”
“Do you--”
My cell ringing interrupted whatever I had been about to ask. Alex’s name flashed across the screen. The sun had been down for over an hour and I wondered what took him so long to call.
“Sobie told you about her diner, right?” Alex asked preemptively.
“Yeah, she told me.”
“Can you meet us there?”
“Sure, just give me some directions. Should I bring Kim?”
Kim left the room for what I hoped was paper and a pen.
“Can she do anything?” He asked his deep voice curling through my mind.
“She’s a human. She can do the same kind of things I can do.”
“Send her back to her witch friend. Maybe they can come up with something to help us, or at least block any magic the Rory witch might try.”
“I’ll have to ask her about it. She didn’t really volunteer for any of this, as you well know.”
“Ask her then. We need any advantage we can get.”
“Alex…how’s Elle?”
“She’s here with us. We just got back from feeding. We have to wait for you before we get anything from her. She doesn’t want to talk to us unless you’re here. I think you garnered her favor last night.”
“Well I was the only one really intent on saving her, wasn’t I, Alex?”
“Yes… We weren’t sure of her loyalty and that is an important part of our Clan and Supernatural society in general. We really can’t be sure of her loyalty now but there is no way to know until she talks. Like I said, she won’t do that until you get here.”
“Okay, tell me how to get there from here,” I said watching Kim come back into the room, pen in hand.
Alex rattled off the directions which I relayed to Kim.
“Get here as soon as you can, then we can go over what, if anything, you found today,” Alex said.
“Why can’t you come here?”
“If we don’t have the information we need to find Eric and we don’t have the girl, they will come for you there. This way you and Kim are going to be out of the line of fire. If we can, we’re going to keep it that way. I have to take care of a few things, I’ll see you soon.”
Alex hung up. “I’ll see you soon,” isn’t goodbye exactly, but it was an improvement over how my normal conversations with the vampires ended.
“Will I be coming with you or not?” Kim asked from her side of the table.
“No. We need you to go see the witch, Wiley though.”
“What for?”
“We need some magic on our side. Cwen and Eric have a witch on their side and she may try and use magic against us.”
“I can do that. I think she can do a simple binding spell.” Kim saw the confused look on my face. “It’s a spell that will keep her from being able to do magic.”
“Yeah, okay. That’s exactly what we need. Thanks Kim.”
“How soon do we need to bind her from harm?”
“Now I guess. I don’t know what we’re doing besides meeting up, but I would imagine the sooner we get her…tied up the better off we’ll be. I have to leave to go meet everybody. I will keep my cell on me. If you need anything call me.”
“Avery, the same goes for you. I can be wherever you need me.”
“I know.”
I pulled up to the diner thirty minutes later. It was a classic 1950’s place, with red, blocky, neon lettering that said Ireland’s. I was happy to see real leather in the booths and the little individual sized juke-boxes on every table. Mona Lisa was playing softy through the speakers and I could smell the food on the grill.
There were a few people sitting on the right side of the room that I didn’t know. I picked Alex out quickly enough; his blond hair still held blue streaks and I could see the dark glistening hair of a woman sitting with him. Alex was across from Elle in the booth farthest to the left side and Scott was on a stool at the counter facing their table. Through the window to the kitchen, I could see Sobie and Chad working while another man watched them.
I approached Scott slowly, his face bearing witness to the grief of his losses. The Eric’s desire for power had destroyed so much of Scott’s afterlife. Orenda and the baby she lost were as close to normal as Scott had come since he was made.
Scott didn’t even look at me as I placed my hand on his knee. His hazel eyes focused solely on the table across from him. I tried to steal a kiss. I thought he might turn to me for that at least, but it fell softly on his impassive cheek. Scott had closed me out. I wasn’t sure if it was because he feared he might lose me, or if Eric had really killed his humanity when he killed the family that might have been.
Sliding into the booth beside Alex, I left the stoic vampire I cared about to his grief. Elle was looking pretty stoic herself. Maybe that was one of the signs of a Supernatural; they were apathetic toward the world.
“Hello, Elle,” I said.
“Avery,” she said nodding her greeting. I was glad to note, she didn’t jump across the table to chew on me or seem otherwise hostile.
“You want to talk to me?”
“Yes. Thank you for…last night. I know you’re the reason I’m still here,” Elle said, glaring at Alex across from her.
“I can’t say I did it completely for you.”
“I know that. I know they have your friend. I’m not on their side, despite what you heard last night, not willingly anyway.”
“How did they force this on you then?” I asked.
Elle’s ambivalent face broke. Her vibrant blue eyes shed her pain down her pale cheeks in shining lines of tears. “They took my son.”
“What?” I asked shocked by the news. Alex twitched beside me, equally surprised by Elle’s confession.
“My son, Taylor, they-they took him. He’s six. I was trying to live normally for him.”
“Tell me what happened, from the beginning.”
“I moved here about three months ago from Astoria, Oregon and got a job at this little Italian restaurant. Mia’s, a place you know well. The Eric and his clan were nice and I made the mistake of trying to be friends with them. I wouldn’t have, but it’s hard to pretend to be less than you are and I didn’t see the harm in it. They started telling me about a vampire who would like me and that if I could get in with this guy and get some information they could pay me.” She looked at Alex and said, “That’s why I was in the Silver Circle. They know it’s the best club for our kind in the area and that eventually you would come in. They started out just wanting to know little things. Who was in your clan, what area your hunting grounds covered and whether you were planning something against Eric. He’s kind of paranoid about you.”
“Elle, they were paying you to be with me and you took the money,” Alex said with his arms crossed over his chest.
Elle used a napkin to wipe her straining eyes. “Yes, at first. I never told them anything they could use against you, just who was in your clan. I never told them where you lived or anything like that. I really started to care about you, all of you,” she said including Scott in her stare. Scott didn’t return her attempt at eye contact.
“Why did they take your son if you were working for them?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t give them anything useful about Alex. As I got to know everyone,” she said indicating Scott, Alex, Sobie and Chad in an all inclusive sweep, “I started to fight with Cwen and Eric about it. I wouldn’t talk to them for days at a time. Then about two weeks ago Cwen came over to the house and told me to find out about this girl. She wanted to know about Audra. I asked why and she told me about what the witch had overheard. I-I refused to do anything for them after that. Cwen and Eric had both been to my home; they came later, killed the sitter and took my son while I was at work.” Elle choked on the words as they came out. She couldn’t control her tears anymore and they fell freely down her face and into her lap. “They came to Mia’s and showed me a picture of him bound to a chair and forced me to get the information. Once they took Taylor, I quit the restaurant and devoted my time to finding what they needed.”
Alex stared down into his lap and shook his head in a defeated way. “How did you hide all this from me? The child, the Rorys, the restaurant, all of it, I’ve been in your head and it wasn’t there.”
“It’s an elf ability. I-I didn’t really hide it… so much as disguise it. You thought you were looking at my childhood, old friends and a place I used to work. It isn’t really hard to do and I had to for Taylor.”
“Fine, we’ll discuss it more, later, when we have time. Do you know where their Clan lives?” Alex asked. He avoided looking at her and his voice was short and snippy.
“No. If I did, I would have gone in there for my baby.” Elle sobbed into her hands at the mention of her son and her inability to save him up to now.
I placed my hand over Elle’s on the table. “Don’t worry about that one, I found out were they live today. It isn’t far from Mia’s. I didn’t see a child when I went in, but I wasn’t looking for him,” I said to my stunned audience. Even Scott shifted uncomfortably on the stool.
“You went in there…alone?” Scott asked.
“Yeah,” I said turning to look him in the eye, “I threatened a rain demon at Mia’s for the location and I checked the door. They left it unlocked and I went in.”
“Are you sure Taylor wasn’t there?” Elle asked.
“No. I can’t be sure. I just checked the layout of the place and where Clete and the other vampires were…Someone was asleep on the couch, but I assumed it was the Hunter they hired.”
“WHAT!” Alex asked regarding me with sharp eyes.
“Yeah, I told the demon, Geshem, that Eric sent me to the restaurant. He assumed I was the Hunter and I played along. If Hunters are as dangerous as they sound, after tonight I would get out of town for a while or at least lay low. I was able to pretend to be this Hunter and intimidate a demon. If he can be scared by someone who is faking it, I can only imagine what a real Hunter could do.”
“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to drag you along for this, Aave, but it looks like we have no other choice. You will have to take us to the Clan house. I want you to wait outside, hidden close by. We may need to leave in a hurry… We could all be killed tonight. If we are, I’ll write down the location of our home. There is a book with a listing for the Conclave. You’ll have to call them about the Rory Clan if we can’t take care of this.”
“Why not call them now and let them take care of Eric?” I asked twisting my hands in my lap.
“We are required to try on our own before we call them in. The Conclave is the only council for all of our kind. They are the last resort if a vampire goes too far.”
“Alex, what if they find the girl before the Conclave can come here?”
“If it’s too late to stop the plan and no one is left to force the charge, Eric will get away with it. All he would have to do is keep his children secret for a few years and then who knows. This is unprecedented; we can’t know what these births would bring.”
“What’s our plan then?” Elle asked.
“I’ll call Eric and tell him we have the girl. I will explain the need to meet somewhere neutral, late tonight. The Silver Circle at midnight, then we’ll go to his home and confront him unawares.”
“That won’t work. Alex, he would never believe you’d give the girl to him. Let me make the call. He wouldn’t doubt me. He said last night I am the weak link. I wouldn’t let my friend die. He may suspect something to happen at the meeting place, since I told him I wouldn’t hand over Audra, but he won’t think we’d attack him at home. He thinks he is invincible. They don’t even lock the doors during the day when they are truly vulnerable.”
“Alright, Aave, tell us about the house.”
18
Avery, the War Plans, and Puget Sound
“Chad, Sobie, come on out here,” Alex called into the kitchen.
Chad and Sobie came out and leaned on the back side of the counter facing Alex. Sobie’s aloe-green eyes shone with excitement and Chad looked equally ready for something to happen.
“We are going to war tonight. What preparations should we make?”
Sobie was aglow. I hoped no one else noticed she seemed to be shining at the prospect of battle. “We should take weapons. Whichever we each feel is most appropriate. With the size and strength of Eric’s group, we each need to be comfortable and confident tonight,” Sobie said with zest and aplomb.
She was completely sure of herself, in the way a tried and proven Commander is on the battlefield. She had no hesitation and doubt would be an unheard of thing for her. Victory was before her. It was like she had already seen the fight.
The one weapon I was really comfortable using I had no way to get. Who’d give a civilian an M-16A2 and a can of ammo? Especially if I came and told them it was to shoot up a house full of vampires. God, unless I managed to get silver bullets the M-16 wouldn’t do me any good anyway. I would be dead by the time the first round left the chamber.
I couldn’t just sit here in this cheery family-style fifties diner and listen to them talk about what was surely impending death for at least one of us. The colors surrounding me were all happy colors and we were talking about horror. Sobie was still planning as I stood up and walked out the door. I could feel their eyes on me as I left, but no one tried to stop me.
The January air was crisp and cool in my lungs, making me feel young again. I inhaled life along with the oxygen and I suddenly felt as vigorous as Sobie. It was raining in that Washington way, where it isn’t really rain so much as a heavy mist in the air. I wanted to step out in it and wash away everything I had seen since I met Scott. I hadn’t gained anything from knowing him or his friends and it was looking like sorrow was the only thing in my future if I continued on the same path as them.
I stepped from under the awning to receive my baptism. The rain cleansed me, running down my face and into my v-neck shirt in fine rivulets. I could leave. I could just go home and put this all behind me. I told Alex and the rest of them about the demon Geshem. They could go and talk to him and get the same information I had. I didn’t really have to be a part of this.
I hit the lock button on my keychain just as I heard the door to the diner open.
“Avery?” Scott called from beneath the awning.
I couldn’t turn to him, I stared at my car.
“Are you leaving us?”
“I was thinking about it. You know enough to lead you to the Rory house. Go to the demon Geshem, he can tell you. Elle can take you to Mia’s. I don’t think I can do this. I can’t watch you all walk into death willingly,” I said.
“We need you though,” Scott said sincerely.
“I know, I know. You need me to call Eric and you need me to inform the Conclave if you don’t make it out. I’m sure you would love a ride over there too.”
“No. We need you.”
The strain in his voice was the only reason I turned away from my car and the escape plan I had been forming. “What do you mean you need me?”
“You’re the reason we’re all here. You’ve brought us together in a way we never have been before. Sure, we all liked each other and got along, but never so fluidly. We need you to be the anchor.”
“You’ve been together for twenty or more years. You can’t tell me a lowly breather like me has brought you any closer.”
“But you have. We all rally around you. You can’t see it because you didn’t know us before. You remind us of what it is to care about something. You know things about us all that we haven’t ever shared before…I need you.” Scott stepped out to me in the rain and wrapped his arms around my waist.
I sighed into his stilled chest. I thought he had closed me out and now he was pleading with me to stay. “I am not so sure you need me.”
“I do. You make me…me again. I was a shell before you. I want you close. I want you to understand and see me for all I am. You accepted the vampire in me; accept the man in me as well. Stay with us, stay with me. Don’t leave now. We are so close to harmony again and I want to spend that peace with you,” Scott said looking into my eyes.
“Ten minutes ago you couldn’t even look at me.”
“Ten minutes ago I didn’t think you would go. Ten minutes ago I was trying to figure out whether the losses were worth the gains.”
“And are they?”
“I am holding the one thing I didn’t know I needed before and I only gained it through the losses. Yes, so far, it’s worth every minute of pain I’ve endured.”
Scott closed the few inches between us with a kiss, a full kiss that held the hope of something more. I returned it with as much intensity and longing. I wanted to skip all the hard parts of the night ahead of us and take him back to the house. I couldn’t we had things to do, but I truly wanted nothing more than time with him.
As he broke the kiss, I considered asking him to leave with me. He took my hand before I had a chance to even open my mouth and pulled me back into the fifties.
“I am sending Chad back to the house for everything we need,” Alex said fixing me in his stare as I took the stool beside Scott.
“Good. I want to lay a few things out to you while we’re here. I will stay out of the Rory house but I want to stay close. If things turn on you, I want you to come back out to the car so I can get you out of there. There’s no reason for you all to die because I was too far away to get you out,” I said glaring at Alex.
“Fine, but if they get you don’t blame us…If you have time to even think of it,” he answered ominously.
“I have to call Kim and the witch and see what they have come up with. I don’t want anyone but the Rorys to be surprised by things tonight.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “Then call Eric.”
Walking into the back corner of the restaurant, I dialed Kim’s cell. It only rang twice.
“Hey Avery, what’s up?” Kim answered.
“What’s the plan? I want our side to know what to expect.”
“We’re going to lay a fog around the house to keep the neighborhood from knowing anything. We can’t bind their witch because we don’t have a picture for the ritual, but we have come up with something else to keep her occupied so don’t worry about her. We are also going to try and slow the Rory Clan down.”
“How are you going to slow them down?” I asked.
“We’re just going to change how they relate to this world. They’ll find gravity to be more…limiting.”
“If you can change that, can you send them somewhere else? Maybe we don’t really need to go to battle to get rid of them.”
“Avery, we could but we would need a few covens to maneuver that much magic and we don’t have the time to pull that many together. It takes huge amounts of power and could kill us without the right number of witches.”
“Okay, we’ll keep that in mind for next time then. Thanks for the rundown. I gotta go and pass the word to the others. Thanks Kim and tell Wiley we owe her big time.”
“Will do. Bye.”
We hung up simultaneously and I walked back to the stool beside Scott.
Chad came in the door carrying a large duffle bag I recognized from the first night they came over to get ready for the club. Setting the bag on the table, I could hear the buzz of the zipper as he opened it and began sifting through its contents. All I could see was his back.
He handed Alex a pair of black gloves with sharp silver claws on the finger tips. Elle received a small crossbow whose ammunition looked like nothing more than pencils. Chad handed Scott a black police style baton, the end sharpened into a point. “We collect a lot,” Chad said as I looked quizzically at it. “Are you religious?” He asked handing me a cross.
“-Maybe…”
“Not religious enough then,” Chad said pulling it back from my hands, “maybe I have something else in here you can use to defend yourself if you have to.” He tossed it back into the bag and rummaged further.
“It’s okay, I have this.” I pulled the silver stake from my bag and they all looked at me like I had sprouted horns. “What? I went to the Rory house alone today and a girl can never be too careful,” I said with a shrug.
Sobie laughed heartily and Chad gave me a deep vampire nod of approval. Alex smiled a genuine smile of pride, and I was happy to note his fangs were hiding this time. Scott put his arm around my shoulders possessively.
Sobie seized a silver dagger from the bag while Chad chose another black baton for himself.
“This is the book, Avery. If you have to make the call, it’s in the bag and we’ll leave it in your car,” Alex said, holding up an old brown leather bound book, with yellowed paper peaking from the side.
“Shall we make the call then?” Scott asked pulling Alex’s eyes from me.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
I dialed Clete’s phone. Eric’s voice when he answered made me cringe.
“Ah, this is Avery I presume. Aren’t you cutting it a little close to the deadline dear?”
“Yeah it’s me, who else would it be?” I asked ignoring the “dear” comment.
“Clete came from somewhere and I am waiting to hear from his Clan. I think we may get something of use by trading his life,” Eric said coolly.
“If you are going to give him back to me that won’t really work.”
“I was only voicing my plan-b. Does this mean you found the girl and will give her to me?”
“Yes, Eric, I found the girl. I will give her to you—”
His gleeful laughter cut me off. “I knew you would. I knew you were special to one another. I suppose its love,” he cooed at me in baby talk. “We’ll meet at Denny Park in an hour.”
“No. He’s just my friend and I won’t let him die by your hand. I’ll give you Audra on my terms, where I feel comfortable.”
“Depends on the terms,” Eric said guardedly.
“No. It doesn’t work like that. I have what you want--what you need and I don’t plan on handing her over until I have Clete with me and your assurance she won’t be killed.”
“She is useless dead; you already have my promise on that count. You need to keep in mind I have something you want as well.”
“Eric, I realize that, but Clete isn’t the key factor in some big plan, he’s just a vampire. I think I have the more valuable person.”
“What are your terms then?”
“Meet me at the Silver Circle at midnight,” I said giving Alex the thumbs-up.
“No, Avery, not there. I want open ground for this trade.”
“Eric, this is my choice. I want a neutral space, somewhere I know I won’t die.”
“You’re trying to pull something. You aren’t going to give me the girl if we go there.”
“I will. I chose it because I’ll be safe there, but if I don’t have the girl, you can take me outside and kill me.”
“I can’t bring Clete there for the exchange. I would have to unbind him and I won’t risk that.”
“Eric, if you plan on getting what you want from me, you will be there. Figure out how to deal with Clete, that isn’t my problem, I just want him back.”
The line went quiet as Eric pulled the phone from is ear to discuss the problem with someone near-by. I could make out some of what they were saying. It sounded like Cwen, his number two, giving her input.
“I don’t want to unbind those chains,” I heard Eric hissing.
“We’ll just have to restrain him with our hands. It can wait until we are at the door to the club. He won’t be able to do anything in there and we are strong enough as a group to hold him,” Cwen whispered back.
“Fine,” Eric hissed before putting the phone back to his ear. “Avery, we agree to your terms. Bring the others with you. I want them in plain sight when we make this trade. Don’t try and cross me. You’ll regret it.” With that he hung up.
Alex was studying my face as I slid the phone back into my cavernous purse. His artic eyes tracing my profile as he waited for the confirmation.
“We’re good. He thinks we’ll all be at the Silver Circle in two and a half hours.”
“Time to go,” Alex said leading the way out of the diner.
Sobie was beside me on the way to the car. “It’s great isn’t it?” She asked with a smile showing each of her perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth.
“Which part, the restaurant or the war to come?” I asked deadpan.
She just said, “Yeah, it’s all great.”
Scott sat in the front seat with me, carefully examining the contents of Audra’s shoe box. We stopped a few miles from the target for gas. I didn’t want to get there then have to leave suddenly and worry about escaping on fumes.
I could see Alex in the back hatch looking at what else Chad had stuffed into the bag. Chad and Sobie were enthusiastically making out in the back seat. You’d think they didn’t know we were going to war… Maybe they did and that was why they were so excited. Elle just stared out the window.
Scott was pushing buttons on Audra’s MP3 player when I slid back into the seat. He was looking at it as if it was an alien artifact.
“Here, like this,” I said pushing the play button.
Softly playing out from the tiny headphones were the three most important words I heard in days.
“To Puget Sound”.
The mystery that had consumed me since the confusion at the hospital was solved. It was a band I had never heard, singing a song I didn’t know, but the words brought back the talk I had with Audra the night this all began.
“We were going to our place, me and my mom. We have been going down to the Sound every full moon for years to watch the waves. We stand on the pier, down by the ferry and watch them roll and crash below us.”
That’s what I couldn’t remember. That was what she told me that I needed to know. She was down by the pier and I was sure that’s where she would be if I just went.
I dropped the headphones in a stupor.
“Avery, what is it?” Scott asked as everyone in the car looked to me.
“I know. I know where she is,” I whispered.
“Who?” Elle asked in a tone that seemed deafening to me.
“Audra Avinpala. She’s at the Sound down by the ferry terminal… We have to go get her!”
“Avery, we can’t go now. This is our only chance to catch Eric off guard we have to take it. We’ll go to her after this fight is over,” Alex said reasonably.
“We could all die, we have to go now!”
“No, you will be fine. If you go for her before we take care of Eric, it will put her life in jeopardy.”
“But she’s a kid and she has been out there on her own for days.”
“If she’s survived this long, she’ll survive another hour while we go do this. I am sure she’s fine. We already know she has been using her magic to cover her location,” Alex said in a voice full of exasperation.
“Avery, we have to take care of this first,” Scott said placing his hand on mine and looking me in the eyes.
I couldn’t be angry with the logic. I could still be worried about the girl, but they were right. Saving her now wouldn’t be saving her at all. “Then, let’s do this damn thing,” I said starting the car.
I drove the few miles to the Rory house, killing the head lights as I turned down the street by the church. The tract on the far side of the house was empty. I pulled slowly behind the line of trees that separated the two lots.
Through the open kitchen windows, I could see Eric and Cwen dancing as their music boomed out into the night. The other houses on the street were built away from this one. Almost like they had a bubble over the Rory house and no one would live so close to it. The street was dark but for this one house. The Rory Clan was celebrating their victory, counting their chickens before they hatched.
I shut off the dome light and watched as my vampires slipped silently from the car.
They moved like the wind through the tall grass, not a sound at their passing. There were two large French doors into the kitchen dining room area, with light pouring out. Despite the clear view they should have out the door, I assumed the Rorys couldn’t see out because of the light reflecting off the panes of glass on their side.
They didn’t see it coming. Alex and Scott put their shoulders down and crashed through the door as a heavy fog descended on the house. I wasn’t able to see into the room anymore and I gripped the steering wheel of my dead car and waited for the worst.
19
Avery and the Heavenly Despair
I had only been alone in the car for about three minutes when the blood curdling scream shattered the still night. I was out of the car running with my silver stake through the yard and fog before I even realized what I was doing.
The fog was heavy on my body and in my lungs. It covered all my senses. Sounds inside it became muffled and my hand was nearly invisible in its swirling depths. The only noise was the banshee scream which seemed just as strong and loud in the miasma as it had outside it. I let the broken keen lead me until I saw a faint square light break the dark gray gloom. I was the moth going for the light in the mist.
I was at the edge of the intangible gray curtain looking in through the spilt doors. The vampires were lagging. They were slow enough I could process what I was seeing, but they were still moving far faster than humans could and the spell wasn’t limited to just the Rory vamps. Chad was on the ground underneath the agitated vampire with the buzz-cut from the Silver Circle. He beat the vamp’s back with his baton. Sobie had the redheaded car chaser from the same night penned against the wall in a battle of will over the direction her silver knife would go.
The Rory twins were standing back in the kitchen watching but not participating in the skirmish. Alex and Eric were head to head, circling each other. Alex hands outstretched and curved into claws against the broken table leg in Eric’s hands. Scott was duking it out with Doug, Clete’s driving partner. Clete was wrapped in chains in the corner of the room, beside Elle who was holding something in her arms as her screams died down to a pained moan.
Cwen crossed the room toward Elle and Clete with a determined step. The young blond witch stopped Cwen in her tracks as she tapped her throat and gesturing wildly to her alpha. I made my decision. Clete and Elle, they were defenseless and Cwen was distracted for the moment.
Jumping over a writhing, fighting vampire knot, and kicking away a broken chair, I ran straight for the compromised members of our group.
“Elle!” I yelled, trying to pull her into the Now.
I could see the form hanging limp in her arms. I knew the ragged doll had once been Taylor, her son. Bites and small cuts covered all the visible skin on his pale body. Eyes once the same vibrant blue as his mother, were empty, staring blankly out at me from under delicate black brows. His head lulled at an unnatural angle over his mother’s arm. He was a kindergartener- small, fragile, and broken by the Rory Clan.
“Elle, you have to do something!” Dropping the stake, I pulled my jacket off and covered the boy in her arms. Her wail ended and her eyes snapped to me.
“Elle, you’ve got to do something,” I said in a hushed tone.
I could see Elle’s sanity teetering on the edge. “I have to make him…” She whispered at first building up her voice to a yell. “I have to make him and save him!”
“You can’t, Elle,” I said reaching out slowly to her. Her blue vampire eyes burned into mine, full of anger and she fled from me, carrying her boy out into the night.
The music from the Rory’s interrupted party boomed through my ears as I bent unwinding the chains from Clete’s body. Pulling them from where they sank into his flesh, I could see the links burned a line of crescent marks.
“Hurry, Aave, hurry!” Clete yelled watching the room behind me. “AAVE!”
Fire burned through my side as I took a kick from a pair of black boots, knocking the air out of my lungs. I rolled off Clete and looked into Cwen’s blazing eyes, a smile lighting her lips, and a chair leg raised above her head, ready to impale me.
“Breather,” she hissed, “You’re not even worth the bite!”
A body swung between Cwen and I as she plunged down at me. I didn’t see who made the dive, but my Old Spice savior crumpled on top of me under the blow. Everyone in the room stilled to watch.
I slid from under the body and found myself holding Scott’s face as he lay on the floor in front of me. The chair leg stood straight and erect from his body.
“Scott?” I whispered. “Don’t…you weren’t supposed to…Oh God Scott.” My tears were immediate, stinging and falling down to his cheek.
Scott looked up into my eyes and brushed a single droplet away. “Don’t. I’m free.”
Even as he said the words his arm dropped and his eyes dimmed. An otherworldly glow started in his skin and I shrank away from his limp body.
The light looked the same as what had passed into Elle when she was ‘made’. It was stronger though and building by the second until it was almost blinding. Then it softened as it escaped him. It was the magic that held the vampires together and without it Scott’s body lost it’s color and fell apart into ash.
The smile that had faded from Cwen’s mouth, when her blow missed it’s intended mark, rebuilt itself bigger and brighter than ever. “That was almost as satisfying as killing you will be,” she laughed.
I was faintly aware of the other combatants resuming action around the room.
“Stand up Av-er-ry. Let me finish you like a vampire should.”
Gripping my stake and the last line of silver over Clete’s body, I rose slowly releasing him from his position on the floor.
“I’ll take this one Aave,” Clete said standing and stepping in front of me into the foot of space between us and what was left of Scott.
I dipped to the floor for Elle’s discarded crossbow and pencil ammo, and then slid them into Clete’s hand. “I think this is for me to take care of. Doug,” I said nodding in the direction of Clete’s other half. “Take care of him. I will not be shielded by you or Alex from Cwen. You’ve all done it for me and now Scott’s dead because of it.”
I moved away from Scott’s remains and the protection of Clete’s shadow.
Cwen laughed loudly as she came toward me. “You really think that little bar will save you?”
They say there are seven stages of grieving, I skipped a few and went right into the angry stage. “It may not save me, but I will make sure it hurts the Hell outta you first,” I said in a voice full of venom.
The ringing zing of her hip knife coming from it’s sheaf was her retort. She swung the black blade at me with such force that when I brought the eighteen inches of silver stake up to parry she lopped the tip off. She laughed harder, at my shocked face, than she had all night.
“There’s no fun in this for me. You’re too easy breather,” she said as she drew her eyes to mine. “Let’s see what’s hiding in that head of yours instead.”
Crushing pressure forced itself onto me. I opened the door. I let her in. I was aware of her consciousness slithering through the paths in my brain and I put up my barriers once she was in.
“Cwen…Cwenie, are you here?” I called out into the spaces of my mind, listening as it echoed in the empty plain I molded.
I could see her take form as I created the blank room around us. She looked surprised to see me.
“What are you doing? It doesn’t work like this. I have control here!” She demanded.
“No. I don’t think you do.”
“What is this?” She hissed.
“I‘m not really sure, I’ve only done it once before,” I told her as I looked at the white door less walls. “Let’s see what I can do with this… Maybe a little light would be nice.” A skylight appeared and July sunshine poured into the room.
Cwen screamed as it flitted down to her and she dove for a shadowy corner.
“Oh fun. I just thought of that. I think I just proved my point. Welcome to my playground, Cwenie,” I said with a harsh laugh to match hers.
“Maybe another window would be nice.” Another appeared closer to where she crouched trembling.
It might not be real, but it was real enough.
“Ah, I think opulence is the way to go.”
Silver plated the wall behind me and traveled slowly around to her in the corner. I wasn’t sure if I could kill them here, but I was starting to hope I could. “What’s wrong, Cwenie, don’t you like my decorating sense?”
“You breather bitch! I’ll fucking kill you on the outside!” I could see smoke rising from her skin as it touched the corner of the room.
“That’s right. Maybe I should do something to you there. I don’t really want you up here forever,” I said tapping my temple. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you out soon.
Nothing would ever be as satisfying as the look of pure terror on Cwen’s face as I left her there.
I slipped out of my mind and looked at Cwen’s motionless body in front of me. She was still holding the knife raised, ready for attack.
I closed the distance between us and looked into her expressionless brown eyes as I pulled the knife from her weak grasp and tossed it a few feet away.
Would she be stuck in my head if I killed her body? I couldn’t risk that. I was concentrating on holding her up there right now, but I couldn’t be sure if I lapsed whether she would have free reign over my mind if her body wasn’t there to inhabit.
I plunged the silver stake into her thigh as deeply as I could. She didn’t move an inch. Retrieving the broken tip of my little spear from the floor where it had fallen when she loped it off, I jerked the stake out. I ripped her black canvas pants revealing the singed hole in her toffee skin and I forced the sharp point into the bloody wound, pushing it as deep and close to the bone as I could. I couldn’t kill her while she was in my head and I didn’t think I would have time too once I released her. I could, however, poison her and cause long term pain easily.
Retreating to the corner, I engaged eye contact and dissolved the room, the silver, and the light. The prison I created was gone and Cwen screamed and grasped her thigh in the real world.
“I have my own protection. Good luck healing from that,” I said pointing at her wound.
“Bethany!” Cwen screamed as she stumbled. The little blonde witch rushed from somewhere and slid under Cwen’s arm. I could tell the blonde, Bethany, was cursing at me, but no sound escaped her lips. Wiley and Kim had come through; she was mute and couldn’t use her magic against us. I smiled at the incapacitated women before me.
“Get me out of here, Breather. I will reward you later if you find me safety,” Cwen hissed to Bethany in a voice cracking with pain.
They hobbled toward the broken doorway as I dropped my sadistic smile, along with the silver stake. I went back to where Scott had saved me and pulled his ashes into a pile.
I panicked looking down at what was left of my broken savior. I couldn’t let him just blow away.
I worked my way to the kitchen searching for something to contain him. Vampires don’t eat and the cabinets were barren. The twins just watched my movements with interest.
I stilled to collect my thoughts. There might be something in my car…
I sprinted by the vampires still fighting in the dining room and out into the senseless cloud. My car door was hanging open from my initial flight into the house. There wasn’t much there but I could still see Audra’s shoebox in the floor. With only a second’s hesitation, I dumped the contents into the carpet.
The density of the fog was diminishing as I forced myself back toward the rabble.
The battle was dying as I jumped into the room. Sobie had sliced Red’s body and he was flagging under the assault. Doug was penned to the wall and had three tiny stakes circling his heart. Clete was preparing for the final thrust. Chad was mounted over his opponent and had only to force the sharpened baton through the vampires raised arms to end it.
The sight of Alex and Eric kept me from scooping Scott up.
Alex was against the wall bleeding sluggishly from one arm. His shirt was torn open at the neck, revealing most of his chest. And his gloved hands gripped desperately around the stake in Eric’s.
Eric was covered in slashes from the clawed gloves. He had the splintered end of the table leg pressed into Alex’s bared pecs, bringing blood but not yet penetrating further.
I reached for Cwen’s knife since it was close to me and went to stand beside the stake I had dropped. Stretching the v-neck of my shirt, I drew Cwen’s sharp black blade over my collar bone. The pain was intense but the location was important for what I would do next. Blood welled up and ran down into my cleavage.
“ERIC!” I called out, running my fingers in the sanguine fluid and flinging the drops at him.
Eric looked over his shoulder at me as I tossed the knife as far away as I could. Eric’s nostrils flared as he caught my scent on his shirt.
He released his grip on Alex and took a step toward me. Eric’s eyes were focused on me full of lust, blood lust. Alex slumped to the floor. Without Eric blocking his body, I could see a ragged hole in his side where the table leg had met his skin some time earlier in the melee.
Eric was on me in seconds. He looked deep into my eyes and said, “I knew I would have you again.”
I wanted to back away but forced myself to stay for his macabre touch. He wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me into him and forcing my back to arch, presenting my wound.
Eric waited only seconds before he plunged into my flesh. Biting above and below the cut I had created, he placed the gash in the center of his mouth. He took a long pull of my blood, sucking deeply.
My whole body went rigid in exquisite horror and pain. The bite was like nothing I had ever experienced. My nerves were sparking, I was incandescent. It was beautiful agony. It was heavenly despair gripping my body. It was an orgasm wrapped in terror.
I loved it and reveled in the power of feeling coursing through my limbs. I hated it for the pain and the fear that came with that tension.
Eric swallowed and sucked and drank from me with ever increasing élan. My strength fled into him. Each swill he took, he crushed me harder and harder against his body. I wondered fleetingly if he was trying to pull me into himself in every way.
Alex recovered enough to stand and I captured his eyes with my own, pleading for help. I began to feel faint. An echo started in my ears and I was suddenly cold. The electricity that had run muck in my muscles was gone as my deep red blood flowed to Eric. It took the feeling with it.
Alex came toward us. He was almost close enough to save me. I kicked the silver stake from the area by my foot to him. In silence, he took it in a gloved hand, from the floor and grasped it tightly.
Eric twitched at some small sound in the room and I moaned, both in weakness and to keep his attention focused on me. He closed his eyes to savor his last meal.
The jerk of his body brought the fangs out of my flesh.
He was holding me up as the light forced it’s way out of him. It was his turn to feel horror.
I closed my eyes to the shine and opened them again as it dimmed. I watched Eric turn gray and I felt him soften to powder as my knees buckled.
Alex reached for me through the billowing the ash, holding me up. He clasped me to his chest as tears streamed down my face.
I could feel the eyes of the room on me again. They had all paused mid-motion to watch Eric’s death. I wiped my face with the back of my hand and watched Clete as the vampires resumed their deadly dance. He had discarded the crossbow at some point in favor of the darts. Clete gracefully lunged and made a final jab into Doug’s chest.
Life stopped in the room as Doug became light.
Did the vampires feel the deaths of their own kind? Would vampires outside this house stop moving every time we killed one of them here?
Sobie and Chad made their kills like they did everything else, in unison.
The twins, whose names I couldn’t remember came into the room. No one raised a hand or seemed worried so I let it go.
I came away from Alex and said, “Thank you.”
“No…thank you,” he replied, his hands on my arms to make sure I was steady.
“I need a second.” Lowering myself to the floor, I asked, “Alex, what are you thanking me for?”
“You kept him from killing me.”
I didn’t want to point out that my presence in the house had killed Scott. “Help me collect Scott’s ashes?” I asked instead.
Alex helped me over to the box and the dust that had once been so much more. As I scooped with cupped hands, Alex gently, almost reverently,bent tohelp me. One by one, the other vampires joined us, including the twins.
20
Avery and the Vampire Division
I sat indian-style on the floor of the wrecked room looking down at the box in my lap. In a world full of magic could I fix this? Could I change anything about what had happened here tonight? Maybe with Wiley’s help I could pull Scott’s light back where it belonged.
The vampires were in the kitchen laying plans for the division of Eric’s things. He didn’t have much worth taking but it couldn’t be left behind. While they were busy, I stood on wobbling legs and went back to the car for my phone.
“Kim?” I said with a trembling voice. I could hear the cheery voice of Wiley in the back ground and Kim answered with a laugh.
“Hey Avery,” she said sobering at the sound of my pain. “We won; Wiley told me she could see it, our side won. Right?”
“Eric’s dead. So is Scott and Elle’s son too.”
“I’m…so sorry. Wiley only got an impression when she read the fog.”
“I need her to bring the light back.”
“What? What light?”
“Scott’s light. She has to bring it back, Kim. Tell her she can pull as much energy as she needs from me.”
“I don’t understand what light you’re talking about,” she said.
“Scott…when he was staked, light came out of him. Like the night he made Elle, that kind of light.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that’s how they died. Let me go talk to Wiley and I’ll get right back to you.” Kim hit the mute button on the phone.
I was invigorated by this plan. It would work. It had to work. The witches could do anything with the right amount of power. I was sure, I was determined.
“Avery,” Kim said coming back on the line. “There’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
Another tear slid down my face. “No, this has to work. What did she say? Is she just holding out? I told you, I’ll let her take as much energy as she needs.”
“She isn’t holding out on us. It’s beyond her power. It’s beyond anyone’s power to bring him back. That light’s gone…wherever it goes once it’s released. She doesn’t even know what happens to it after that.”
I inhaled a deep breath and blew it out, restraining the scream hiding in the back of my throat. Calmly I said, “Kim, I have to go. I don’t know when I’ll be home.” I hung up without waiting for her response.
I drew another ragged breath and looked up from the box. Clete was standing by the trees a few feet away, watching me. He had recovered his clothing from the house and was wearing a gray shirt. I motioned him over with a limp wave.
“I need to be busy…what now?” I asked letting him take the lead.
“We have to go through the house quickly and take what we don’t want the neighborhood to find. The Rory cars have to be dumped or claimed. If they sit here, someone will notice. The twins, Ata and Hasana, never liked Eric or his plans for “world domination”. They were loyal to the last Clan leader. They only stayed on after the regime change because they were made into this Clan. That’s why they didn’t participate in the fighting and are going to help with the division. I have vouched for them at great risk to myself so Alex is inclined to trust them… You should at least come back inside where we can keep an eye on you.”
I didn’t have the heart to argue about the Rory twins and I let it slide. “Fine,” I said standing shakily on my own. “Lead the way.”
Clete took my free hand in his, it a gesture of support, both emotional and physical. I had stumbled about halfway across the yard when he stopped and pulled me up into his arms to carry me like a child. I was still cradling the shoebox as I rested my cheek against his chest and closed my eyes to the night.
He carried me up the stairs and sat me on the edge of Cwen and Eric’s bed. As appalled as I was to be sitting on it, I only had the energy to slide down the side and sit on the dusty floor. Clete pulled all the boxes from the closet.
I could hear similar sounds from the other rooms on this level of the house. They were scavenging. I declined the shield and furs when Clete offered them to me but chose to take the stack of vampire novels. A week ago, I would have thought them a pleasure read. Now, they could very well be fact and I wanted to look over them for clues about my recent company.
“Hey you,” Sobie said from the doorway. “I grabbed you something while I was out getting rid of the car.” She tossed a brown paper bag to me. It said Ireland’s on it and I could smell the burger and fries before I even opened it.
“Thanks,” I said feeling more gratitude than the word could express.
Sobie came and sat on the floor beside me. “You’ll need a place to rest tonight.”
I covered my mouth and talked around the bite of burger (did I mention it was the best piece of beef I had ever tasted?) “I’ll go home when we’re done here. I should be able to drive by then.”
“We’ll see... Oohh. Clete, what are you doing with all Cwen’s clothes?” Sobie asked.
“They’re yours if you want ‘em.”
“I might pull out a thing or two. I can take the rest to Goodwill.”
Clete pushed all the clothes together and pulled hard on the hangers, sending a shower of plastic hooks into the bottom of the closet. “Here,” He said handing them to her. “You might find a box downstairs to carry them in.”
Sobie flashed him her perfect smile and headed back out the door.
Everyone assembled back in the kitchen were the stack of claimed items had grown on the countertops. “Will you two be staying here or coming with us?” Alex asked the twins.
They shared a glance then answered simultaneously, echoing one another unnaturally. “We’ll go to ground tonight and decide where to go after that,” they said in stereo.
“Clete,” Alex said turning from the twins, “you are more than welcome to come with us. We have plenty of space until you can get back to your own Clan. Do you plan on moving them here?”
“Yes… I think we’ll make our home in this city,” Clete said looking over at me.
Chad was inspecting the shield from Eric’s closet when he asked, “What should we do about the house?”
We all exchanged glances but no one offered an answer. I looked down at the shoebox in clutched in my hands. “Make it ash. There’s been nothing but nightmares here. Just burn it down.”
“Does that work for everyone? Ata? Hasana?” Alex asked.
I looked over at the statuesque brunettes. They shared a dark eyed look and a nod with one another then Ata (or was it Hasana?) said, “That is acceptable. This is not an ancestral home. It was Eric’s choice after his coup.”
The vampires loaded what they wanted in my car and the two remaining “BLDY” cars. Chad and Sobie left in “BIT10” while Ata and Hasana took “BLDNGUT”. I didn’t expect to see the twins anytime soon. They weren’t tied to this town and didn’t really fit in with my vampires since they had been on the wrong side of the fight.
Alex climbed into my driver’s seat after making major adjustments to it’s placement. I had thought Alex and his clan couldn’t drive but he seemed to know exactly what needed to be done. Clete climbed into the back with me. As we pulled away, I could see flames growing inside the house, making it look like a giant jack-o-lantern. I lay down to avoid looking any longer and Clete cradled my head in his lap.
By the time we passed Mia’s the fire trucks were wailing by us.
Clete brushed the hair from my face and stroked the locks spread over his legs.
“Aave, do you want me to stay here?”
I was surprised by his question. I thought he had already made the decision. “If you like Seattle, then yes, I think you should stay.”
His jade green eyes studied my face intensely as a wisp of his short, pale, blond hair slid across his forehead. “I like it here. I like it much more than I thought I would, but I won’t stay here if it will cause you pain.”
“Why would it?” I asked turning his words over in my head.
“Well, after everything you’ve suffered, I wasn’t sure if you would want me around. I did bring you into it.”
“I was in this because I met Scott. It isn’t your fault. You didn’t know it would turn out this way.”
I shifted to my side and stared at the texture of the tan seat in front of me. Alex flicked his gaze in my direction and I gave him a weak smile.
“The girl, Elle, do you think we’ll see her again?” Clete asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said continuing to stare into the sandy colored seat. “Why?”
“I know of a Clan that would welcome her if the history with this one is too much.”
“If she comes around again, we’ll let her know.”
The drive was longer than I expected. I assumed we were headed back to my house and I was surprised when I sat up and found myself looking at a modest house (larger than my own, but no mansion) surrounded by trees. It was cedar sided and the windows on the upper floors had heavy curtains drawn across them. Alex parked on the street in front of it and stepped out.
I considered bringing the box with me, but I knew eventually I would have to let it go. The sooner I started the process the sooner I could get over the pain. I gently sat Scott’s ashes in the floorboard and accepted Alex’s hand when he opened my door. Clete was beside me in a vampire flash and we walked together to the front porch.
Pushing his keys into the lock and giggling the knob, Alex let us into his Clan home.
“Does this mean we get the secret decoder ring?” I joked. I tended toward humor under stress.
A throaty chuckle escaped Clete and Alex gave me a smile. I was glad to see they could appreciate my mortal sense of humor.
Standing in the darkened hallway, I could see a large living room to my right with bay windows and rustic furniture scattered around. To the left was the dining room with an actual table and a hutch full of antique dishes. Alex guided us up the hallway toward the stairs as I took note of a small bathroom and the entryway to the kitchen. We kept going and took the stairway up to the second level.
There had been a window at the end of the hall and I could see the bricks that filled it. Alex opened the first door to a room with nothing more than a bed in it.
“You can use this room, Clete. At least until you figure out your next move.”
“Thank ya. I need to get some things from the car. Aave,” Clete said turning to me. “Will you be alright?” Clete shot his glance to Alex and I realized he was asking if I wanted him to stay.
“I’ll be fine. Thanks.”
I watched Clete retrace our steps. Alex’s large cool hand took mine as he drew me deeper into the house.
He opened another door farther down the hall and flicked on the light for me.
The room was cozy. The pictures were landscapes and hair bands. I was in Scott’s room. There was a TV on the dresser and a full bed with blue plaid sheets.
“You might have guessed already, this was Scott’s resting place. You can stay in here... If you want too,” he added softly.
“I shouldn’t.” Tears welled up as I saw Scott in every detail of the room.
Alex clasped my arms with strong hands and turned me to face him. “This was his place. He‘d want you safe here.”
“No. This was his space. He’ll never come back here because of me. He’s dead because of me,” I said pulling away.
“You just jumped into the guilty stage…Avery, you have to stop. You’re not guilty of anything but caring. Scott wasn’t your fault. The man in the garage wasn’t your fault. And the kids in Iraq weren’t your fault,” Alex said in an exasperated tone.
I backed away from him so fast I didn’t see the bed and found myself sitting on it abruptly, shocked all over again. I replayed what Alex said in my head. He knew. He knew my own worst shame and I relived it in my head.
I hefted the duffle and strapped it to the rack on the humvee. The dust was heavy in the air and my tan flak jacket was stifling in the July heat.
I was an analyst but my name had come up on the convoy roster. I was excited to go. Analysts were considered “Fobbits”; people who spent their time in air conditioned offices and never left the gate. I wasn’t surprised to be picked for the gunners’ turret by the hard ass female lieutenant. She was one of those “good example” females in the military.
I was still happy to be in the top looking out. I didn’t want to be treated as the weaker sex and needed to prove myself. I strapped my Kevlar helmet on tight and pulled my eye-pro down.
I was in the third car in the line and felt reassured surrounded by field tested MPs.
The first twenty minutes were great. We were going fifty, gliding right through check-points and passing the old, orange and white Opels the natives all seemed to drive.
The convoy commander got a call on the radio. Part of our original route had been closed because of an IED, or improvised explosive device. The specialists had been called in but that could take time.
The convoy turned on one of the major by-ways running along the edge of a sand colored adobe town, surrounded by walls.
We started taking fire within minutes. The gunners in the trucks around me swung their weapons on the target and pelted the wall as I shifted to match their aim. I pulled the trigger as I heard a soldier call for a medic.
We didn’t know until the casualty count, there was a school behind that wall. It was one of the common tricks the insurgency used. U.S. forces couldn’t fire on schools, hospitals, or Mosques but that didn’t stop the other side from shooting at us out their windows.
“Alex? You…How-how do you know about that?”
“From when I was trapped in your mind. It seemed like a lot longer inside there than it actually was. I shouldn’t have delved but you weren’t there to relive the moments and I was…curious.”
“That was private! You knew I didn’t want you going through any of that. What were you thinking?”
Alex came and sat beside me on the bed as I looked on incredulously. “I wanted to know more about you.”
“You couldn’t just ask or have conversation like normal people?”
“Avery, we aren’t normal people, not me or you.”
I balled my hands into fists as fury ran through me.
“I am normal. I am human and that makes me Normal,” I said through gritted teeth.
“You might be human, but you are far from average.”
I was normal and average. To say otherwise was as insulting and as rude as poking around where he didn’t belong.
“Come on Avery, you know this, it’s a fact. You aren’t like everyone else, you aren’t just a breather.”
My name and the word breather in the same neighborhood put me over the edge. I had heard it all too many times from these damn vampires. I was pounding my fists on his chest and arms in the blink of an eye. Nothing had gone right since I met them and I let all of the pain and frustrations go in those blows. Tears streaked my face as my punches weakened. I had never been one to cry. I hadn’t done it in years but knowing these beings forced them out of me.
Alex clasped my wrists in his hands and pulled them around his waist in a hug as I lost the energy to fight anymore. He lay down on the bed taking me to the sheets with him as my tears wet his shirt.
Within a few minutes I had nothing left.
Alex sat up, sliding out of my grasp and wrapped a blanket around my legs. He stood over me, staring and then kneeled at my side. Sliding his finger into the edge of my collar, he drew the fabric back to see the gash and the bite.
“Alex, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
He placed a finger on my mouth, stopping the words. As I watched, he licked his lips and leaned toward me. Soft cool kisses touched the edge of the cut farthest from my neck.
Alex ran them, light as a whisper, over each mark visible there, until he came to the crook of my neck where he put more weight into it. I moaned softly as my pulse quickened. He retraced the still bloody line with his tongue. When the blood was gone he brought his lips to my mouth with a heart stoppingly deep kiss.
“Alex,” I said huskily pushing him away half heartedly. “I can’t stay here. I can’t do this. Scott has to be taken care of the way he took care of me. I shouldn’t have let that happen.”
Alex gently placed a hand on my back helping me sit up. “I know. You need more time, you’re mourning. I shouldn’t have…pursued you so soon. I…You know where I’ll be.” He extracted my keys from his pocket, placing them on the mattress.
“Don’t you mourn the loss?” I asked as he headed for the door.
“Not the same way you do. We don’t get very close to others, even of our own kind.” The expression on my face prompted him to continue. “Yes, Scott was a part of this family and yes we’ll miss him, but we have watched lifetimes from beginning to end. We can’t dwell on it, we can’t get that close. We didn’t know the end would come this way, but we’ve come to expect death.” Alex gave me one last look before he left at vampire speed.
I had just lost someone I cared about and within an hour I was neck deep, literally, in vampire. It wasn’t unfaithful. Scott and I hadn’t committed to anything, but it was still wrong, wrong on every level.
I got slowly up from my seat on the bed and took myself back through the dark house and out to the car. I thought I saw Clete looking out the bay window of the living room as I unlocked the Explorer, but I blinked. If he had been there, he was gone now.
I climbed in and was looking at the Ford logo in the middle of the steering wheel. I readjusted my chair and pushed the keys back into the ignition. I turned on the dome light as I fumbled with my seat belt and I found myself looking down into the pile of things on the passenger side.
I was looking at a picture of Audra’s smiling face. I still had to go find her. I checked that Clete had unloaded the vampire belongings and once I was satisfied with the lack of their crap, I pulled away from the curb.
21
Avery and the Watcher’s Daughter
I drove through the rain back to downtown Seattle. The largest ferry terminal I knew of was there. It was also close enough to the hospital for a twelve year old to get to and was the closest to where her mother’s accident had occurred.
I parked on a quiet side street and brought Scott’s ashes from the back seat, as the rain stopped it’s endless beating. The sky cleared as I watched and the sliver of the moon added to the cities night lights. The ferry terminal was bleak and gray and not a very hospitable place to watch the water. Instead of going there to look for the girl I walked north up the street to where the views of the Sound would be nicer.
Most of the businesses were closed and I could rule them out as possible places for he girl. The section of boardwalk best suited to Audra’s description circled Pier 54. It was a large building that contained a few restaurants and novelty stores.
It was close to two a.m. and the lack of people allowed me to spot Audra almost immediately. Her auburn hair shone in the pale light of the moon like a beacon. She was leaning on the railing, looking out at the dark water.
“I knew you’d come,” she said never looking at me. “You brought Scott.” Audra stated the last, without even the hint of a question.
“Yes. How’d you know?” I asked walking to the railing beside her.
She turned and looked down at me. Her long frame seemed slimmer than when I had last seen her but in the moonlight she looked healthy and vibrant. It was like the moon rose for her. It highlighted her form and she seemed to absorb it, adding to her own powerful presence.
“I know plenty of things that other people don’t, Avery.”
“Did you know a lot of people have been looking for you?”
“Yeah. The cops, my father, a vampire clan, and you. Did I miss anyone?” She asked as her blue eyes sparkled.
“You knew about the Clan?”
“Like I said, I know more than most.”
“And why they were looking for you?”
“They thought I had something to do with my mother’s pregnancy. I think it’s disgusting. I don’t even want to think about my mother having sex, much less getting pregnant.” Audra made a grimace like a she had smelled something awful.
“They thought? You didn’t have anything to do with her carrying a Scott’s baby?”
Audra laughed at the question. “Vampires can’t have babies like that. My mom got pregnant the good old fashioned way. Scott was great and I really liked him, but there were just too many things about him that didn’t work for my mom.”
“The witch heard you admit to it.”
“No. She heard me expressing a wish for family and excitement that I was going to have it,” she said with a shrug.
The Rory War was like every other war in history. It was fought because of ignorance, ego, and greed. All the deaths were for nothing. At least if Eric had been right they would have died for a cause, no matter how fucked up the cause was. Somehow I wasn’t surprised. Instead of answering my questions, her admission led me to new ones.
“I didn’t stay at the hospital because I knew the vampires were looking for me. I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. I left you the bread crumbs and knew you’d follow them once you put it all together.”
I stared at her without comprehension. She left me a trail to follow? “What do you mean, you led me here?”
“When we talked that first night, your talk with the cop, the visions, the song, it was all to get you here.”
“I didn’t get anything from the detectives though.”
“When you talked to him on the phone, he said people had seen me and then forgotten by the time they were questioned. If you had asked him where he’d have told you the places I had been. I sent you plenty of hints. I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you to figure it out.”
“Sorry, I don’t play people scavenger hunt often. Audra, you had something to do with the things I saw helping Wiley?”
“Yeah. Kim’s an amplifier. Her energy allowed me to sneak in and give you what you needed. Everything you saw, I had seen. That nasty man at the parking garage, the waves, and the fountain at the Space Needle, I had been at all those places. You missed me at the garage by only an hour.”
“Kim’s an ‘amplifier’? What does that mean?” I asked, grasping for the least understandable thing she had said.
“She enhances the magic in others. She is a conduit and an extra charge. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll find out on her own soon,” Audra said.
“That’s what Wiley meant when she said Kim was special and had big things ahead of her.”
“Yeah, Avery. That’s why she is drawn to the Supernatuarls. She’s open to it and an enabler.”
“And you know she’ll figure it out soon? Wiley couldn’t see ahead, can you?”
“Of course. That’s why I chose you to find me. I knew you could and I knew you would take care of Eric Rory.”
“How can you see so much?”
“I can do more than just see. I can access any information I need; I only have to know to look it up.”
“So it’s like—“
“No, Avery, it’s not like an encyclopedia. It’s more like a library in my head.”
“Tell me something then.”
Audra’s body tensed and her eyes went milky. The first night I met her she was looking up the answers to my questions. “You have a younger half-brother that unknowingly follows in your footsteps. Your father is seeking you. Don’t go looking for them; they bring great danger.” Her eyes returned to their natural state as she received my shocked stare.
“Tell me the future…”
“I can’t do that.”
“You will give me hints but you won’t tell me what you obviously know?”
“That’s right. If I had told you that first night about everything you would suffer, would you have followed the path you were destined for?”
I didn’t know how to answer the hypothetical, I couldn’t know how I would have reacted since it hadn’t happened that way.
“I can tell you, Avery. You wouldn’t have. You would have demanded Scott get out of your car and you would have lived your life without any of us in it. I can’t give you the roadmap. You have to blaze this trail on your own. There is much for you still ahead, both good and bad. This journey will lead you to the thing you most need and you don’t even know what that is yet.”
I stared out at the water as I considered the unknown future and the girl beside me. What convergence of fate led to the kind of power she embodied? How was she able to live these many days alone?
“Life provides all you need,” she said answering my unvoiced thought. I might have been shocked, but having seen this Underworld and the strange things it contained, somehow I was okay with her answer.
“How though? How did it provide for you?”
“I earned what I needed. People are always looking for something. My abilities make it easy to find what they search for. Some want answers, some seek a sign, and some just need to find what’s lost. I pointed the way for those who were kind enough to return the favor. I needed food, they’d buy lunch.”
It was simple for her. She traded and shared as a child would. The fact that she was a powerful child smoothed the way for her. I couldn’t help but wonder at the wisdom hiding in the guise of youth.
“I should take you to the police.”
“Just take me to my father. By tomorrow, my disappearance won’t even be a memory.”
“Audra, I didn’t tell you, but the vampire clan attacked your father. I’m not even sure if…if he’s still alive.”
“They’re fine,” she said with a shrug. “It’ll take some healing but I think I can help with it. In a few months, they won’t even remember the pain they were in.”
“You can heal the physical?”
“Yeah, but I won’t use it for just anyone. Too many people would want me to do things for them. I don’t want to stop living a normal life. I want to go to school and have friends and date boys. I need to have that.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go with your father.”
“I didn’t, but I know now, it’s where I belong. It’s where I am supposed to be, whether I like it or not. In time, I will be a part of the family and I will be accepted there.
“We should go then. Portland is a long drive,” I said.
“Just a few minutes more…We should let him go here,” Audra said nodding at the box I carried. I didn’t know why I had brought it with me to come find her, but now I suspected she had influenced the decision.
“I thought about finding his family and letting them decide.” I wasn’t sure if that was true or if I wasn’t ready.
“They let him go. You need to now. It’s clear and beautiful here. I think he would like it.”
The ultimate freedom. He could ride the waves forever. It was perfect. I gently opened the box as the wind around us stopped in hushed reverence, and turned Scott out into the world. I watched him swirl and dance as a single gust rose and carried him away.
“Avery,” Audra said, touching my arm. “It’s time.”
A tear slid down my cheek as we walked away.
After I dropped Audra at her father’s in Portland, I checked my phone. I had a voicemail.
“Avery, we need to talk about the other night…I saw something and I can’t get it off my mind. I’m not even sure I can explain it. Can you call me back?” Megan Rosser asked through the recording.
I dialed the hospital. After a subdued Denise picked up then put me on hold, I waited for Dr. Rosser to answer.
“Megan, what did you see?”
“I don’t know.”
“You believe me now?”
“Absolutely. I saw a man in the park near my loft and he just…he just, became something else,” Megan said in a hushed voice.
“Oh, a were-animal of some kind. I haven’t met any of those.”
“What else is out there?”
“Megan…I have no idea.”
Avery's second adventure-------->Avery and the Demonly Demise |
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