B00528UTDS EBOK Page 9

  “That’s fantastic,” Nicole smiled. Finally they had found one of her sisters.

  “I thought we would leave right away,” Ethan started pacing the floor. “If we know where she is, Omar probably does too. We’ll have to get to her soon … if it’s not already too late.”

  “What about the case you are working on?” she asked.

  “They found the boy. He was still alive, but barely. They’ve already booked someone for the crime, and it wasn’t a vampire.”

  “I suspected as much,” Nicole told him. “But thank God they found him alive.”

  “Now we can focus on this business of going to Oregon,” Ethan was digging through some paperwork on his desk.

  Nicole didn’t respond. She knew that her first obligation was to ensure her sister’s safety, but her fear for Alec made her pause.

  “Is something wrong?” Ethan asked.

  “I haven’t heard from Alec since he left. I thought I should go to Romania,” Nicole told him, her eyes downcast.

  Ethan shook his head. “I knew it was foolish for him to go there alone.”

  “I may have a solution.” Lex said as he stood up. “I will go to Sutter Point and see to the girl’s safety. It would do no good to bring her back here to New Orleans. She’d just be closer to Omar here. Let me convince her to go someplace where she can safely wait until the time that all three of you can be brought together.”

  “Where will she go?” Nicole was hesitant. Lex seemed like an ally, but she could not forget that he was a lycan, and an enemy of her kind.

  “Don’t worry, I have a place in mind. In the meantime, you can go fetch your friend. Soon you will need all the friends you can get.” Lex’s voice held a cryptic note.

  “You’ll contact Ethan as soon as you’ve found her?” Nicole asked him, still unsure if she should leave the fate of her sister to a stranger.

  Lex seemed to guess what she was thinking. “Don’t worry. Her safety is as important to me, as it is you.”

  Nicole smiled. “Thank you.”

  Ethan looked at Nicole. “You are not thinking of going to Romania alone, are you?”

  She shook her head. “Dash and his girlfriend are coming with me.”

  “Hmm … well that’s comforting,” Ethan frowned.

  “I know you think he’s odd, but Dash is a great friend. He’s someone I would like on my side,” Nicole said, draping an arm over Ethan’s shoulder. “Besides, I told him we could help him market his recipe if he came with me.”

  “We!” Ethan’s mouth dropped open. “You won’t get anyone to try that stuff.”

  “Actually,” Lex interrupted. “As I told your young lady friend … that recipe is important to the future of your kind.”

  “You see,” Nicole grinned. “I do actually know what I’m doing.”

  * * * *

  A shroud of darkness wrapped around her - squeezing at her chest until she felt as if she would smother. Though she could not actually see the dark entity, for Sarah it was real. The darkness was the heartache and despair of yearning for an immortal - someone that could never come into the light. There was despair in knowing that she may herself, be forever destined to darkness.

  With her legs drawn up to her chest, Sarah huddled in the corner of the dank cellar. No light could reach her in the earthen basement. She’d reached the house just before dawn, and had gone straight for the basement. It was the only safe place to hide from the light.

  She could hear Jeanie in the kitchen, the floor creaking as she moved about, probably preparing breakfast. Her aunt would not realize that she was gone until she went upstairs to see what was keeping Sarah from breakfast. Jeanie would be frantic.

  The last thing that she wanted to do was worry her aunt anymore than she already had.

  “Aunt Jeanie,” Sarah called out weakly.

  There was no chance that her aunt had heard from the kitchen. The house was too solid - the floors too thick.

  “Aunt Jeanie!” Sarah called again, this time with a much louder voice.

  The sound of Jeanie’s footsteps stopped.

  “I’m down here!” Sarah screamed with as much strength as she could muster.

  Though it was only a short time, it seemed like an eternity before the basement door opened and a sliver of light penetrated the darkness. Sarah scrambled away from the light, terrified that it would burn her if she came into contact with it.

  “Sarah, are you down here?” Jeanie asked, the uncertainty in her voice making it sound feeble.

  “I’m here. Shut the door quickly!”

  Jeanie switched on the light that hung from a fixture above the stairs. Stepping onto the top stair, she pulled the door shut behind her.

  “Sarah, what are you doing down here in the dark?”

  “I have to talk to you,” Sarah told her aunt, her voice shaking.

  Jeanie started down the stairs, her hand grasping the rail. When she was halfway down the staircase, she saw her niece huddled in the corner. Sarah knew she was a sight with her feet bare, and her nightgown torn and dirty.

  “Oh my! What’s happened to you?” Jeanie hurried down the stairs to Sarah.

  “I’ve turned,” Sarah told her softly.

  “What do you mean you’ve turned?” Jeanie’s brows came together in confusion.

  “I’m just turning … becoming a vampire.” Sarah told her, squeezing her eyes closed so that she would not have to see the disappointment on her aunt’s face.

  “He bit you again, didn’t he? Where did he bite you?” Jeanie was examining Sarah’s throat.

  “Not there,” Sarah said, shaking her head.

  “Where then?” Jeanie wanted to know.

  Sarah didn’t answer. She didn’t want to tell her aunt about what had happened between her and Darrien. Jeanie picked up on Sarah’s reluctance, and guessed why she was unwilling to show her where she’d been bitten.

  Clucking her tongue, Jeanie shook her head in annoyance. “You didn’t listen to a word I said about being careful.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sarah sobbed. “When I’m with him … it’s like nothing else matters.”

  “It’s the vampire’s spell,” Jeanie told her sternly. “This is why I told you that it was dangerous for you to be with him too much.”

  “But I didn’t feed on him! This shouldn’t have happened,” Sarah insisted.

  “Maybe it hasn’t happened. Maybe it’s all in your head,” Jeanie suggested, a look of hope in her eyes.

  “I’ve hungered for his blood. It’s like … it takes control of me and I don’t know what I am doing. But he stopped me before I could feed from him.”

  “That could be an instinct born into you.”

  “He told me that it’s happening slowly. He told me to stay out of the light.”

  “Well at least he thought that much about it,” Jeanie said, sarcasm dripping from her words.

  “What am I going to do?”

  “There isn’t much you can do … if indeed you have been turned, but I have my doubts.”

  The uncertainty in Jeanie’s eyes was like a ray of hope to Sarah. She did not like the idea of being condemned to a dark cellar for the rest of her life. “How can we know?”

  “Come upstairs into the light. That is the best test I can think of.”

  Sarah shook her head violently. “No! He told me that the sunlight could kill a vampire.”

  “It is true that too much sunlight can kill a vampire, but if there is only a little exposure, it could make you ill, but probably wouldn’t kill you.”

  “No. We need to find some other way.” Sarah was adamant.

  “Very well.” Jeanie stood up. “I’ll bring you some food and water, and you can stay down here until I can figure something out.”

  * * * *

  It was nearly midday, but the murky clouds coming in from the sea were like a blanket of night covering the sun. It might as well have been twilight. The old Victorian mansion almost appeared to watch him, as if it had
a life of its own. With his enhanced senses, he could hear it breathing - daring him to come forth and save the witch. At least this is what he sensed, but he realized it wasn’t the house at all. It was his self-doubt.

  Was he worthy?

  Did he really have it in him to be selfless enough to save the witch and find redemption for his efforts?

  Lex closed his eyes, trying to block out those images that haunted his every waking moment.

  He knew firsthand how darkness could cloud one’s judgment and eventually take over. This was what was happening with Omar. Lex didn’t know what drove the darkness within the ancient vampire, but the result would be the same. Evil would eventually consume Omar, like it had almost consumed him - eating away at his soul until he had nearly killed his own daughter.

  Lex had not spoken with Kayla since he’d been banished from Outerlands, nor had he gone near his adopted granddaughter - the girl that was the third sister. The one he most needed to protect. Although this self-imposed isolation from his family was punishment enough to bring him to his knees, it came nowhere near to the anguish or self-loathing he felt for the things that he could never take back.

  His darkest hour was as clear today as it had been that night years ago. The scene replayed in his mind a hundred times a day. Even now the memory intruded and he lost focus of his purpose for being in Sutter Point. The house faded from his sight, replaced by those haunting memories.

  The flames that leaped out from the pit, cast the large earthen chamber in deep orange and red light. It was hot - so hot that it could have been the entrance to the underworld.

  Lex’s dark hair hung in sweat soaked strands around his head. Shedding his robe, he stood naked, except for a black cotton breechcloth.

  In his hands he held a golden cube. The cube bore markings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics. With the square shaped box tightly clenched in both hands, he raised it high above his head and closed his eyes. “With this key … Lord of Darkness … I call on you to close the door to Ourterlands from all other worlds.”

  The earth rumbled within the rock chamber, sending stones flying toward him. Then there was only silence.

  At that point, he still had not been strong enough to draw the dark energy into the Rostin, that magic key to all dimensions. Even after years of preparing, somehow his energy was still being drawn away from him.

  Lex was back in the present. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to block out the picture of evil that he had once been. It didn’t work. Once again he was cast back in time to that night.

  He remembered thinking that the reason that he had been unsuccessful in his endeavor to close the door to Outerlands was because Vance had betrayed him. Vance had been one of his fiercest warriors, and he also happened to be the man that his daughter loved.

  Lex had come to believe that his memory of Brenda was causing his failure. Kayla’s mother had been the only light that still burned in his heart, and he had worried that he might need to kill her before enough of the dark energy filled his soul to give him the strength he needed?

  He had been so close - too close.

  He had though that if he could kill Vance and Kayla, he would finally be at peace with the world of humans. Maybe then he could put his energy into closing the doors and isolating mankind.

  It was for the good of the people.

  The humans were too primitive to coexist with those of Outerlands. Since he could not seem to stop the crossing over into that world, he would close the door and rule Outerlands without the taint of humans.

  Lex forced the memory from his mind. He hadn’t known then that Brenda’s child was his own daughter, and that by harming Vance he would be bringing heartache to his child. He’d believed Brenda had betrayed him with a human.

  It was true that she’d been terrified of what he was. She could not accept that he was of the wolves, and this was why she’d kept the knowledge of their child to herself. If he could only go back to that moment, he would change so many things. He would not have brought such horrific pain to his daughter, or to his people - the people he had been sworn to protect as the leader of the Zen Warrior Society.

  To this day, he still could not believe that before he’d known that Kayla was his daughter, he’d actually planned on having her assassinated. Lex shuddered to think of how close he’d come to killing his only child. If it had not been for the Valley of Dreams, he may have done just that.

  The Valley of Dreams was a fog-covered basin where one would lose themselves within their own fantasies and fears. It was one of the most avoided places in Outerlands. One could enter the Valley of Dreams and wander around within their head until they perished from exposure or starvation.

  He had planned on killing her, but she’d saved him from himself, and the mist. Lex could not block out that memory, no matter how he tried.

  Kayla had been running from him. She ran through the forest. Far away - the ethereal mist of the Valley of Dreams beckoned her, and she ran faster. The Zen warriors were bigger and stronger, accustomed to the wolf’s body. They were gaining on her fast - closing the gap.

  The mist was not so far away when one could maneuver the woods with the keen senses of the beast. The fingers of the enchanting white fog reached out into the woods to touch her with its magic, tapping into her brain to show her what could be hers.

  “Do not go in there Kayla,” Lex’s words followed her as she let the mist close in around her.

  His transformation back to human form was complete, and he watched - horrified as his newfound daughter entered the mist. His warriors had stopped some distance behind him, refusing to go further.

  Lex moved cautiously into the mist. “Kayla!” he called out. “You cannot stay in the mist. You will die in here!”

  A shadow moved within the mist and Lex walked toward it. As the milky air cleared, he saw Brenda. She looked exactly the same as she did the last day he’d set eyes on her. She was crying, and shaking her head in disappointment.

  “Brenda!” Her name slipped from his lips. “You are not real,” he yelled, closing his eyes against the vision.

  When he opened his eyes Brenda was gone, but now there was a little girl riding a squeaky tricycle. She was circling him. The child stopped and with a small - plump hand, brushed her blond curls away from her face. She looked up at him with wide blue eyes.

  “Daddy … where were you? Why do you want to hurt me?”

  Lex swallowed hard, the pain of realization tearing at his heart. The mists swirled around him, seeping into his mouth, his nose, and ears. It was even oozing through his skin. Every moment he’d every spent with Brenda moved through his brain, and then there was the child, his only child.

  “I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know!” he pleaded with the little girl for understanding.

  A large wolf came out of the mist - baring its teeth, it snarled sadistically. The beast jumped on the child, sinking its teeth into her throat. The wolf began to twist its head back and forth - tearing at her flesh.

  “Stop!” Lex screamed and ran toward the animal.

  In that instant, the hatred and darkness fled his heart, replaced with an all-consuming instinct to protect his child.

  The vision dissipated, leaving in its place nothing but empty space. Lex collapsed to the ground. “Kayla!” he called out.

  “Lex.” The sound of someone calling his name came from everywhere at the same time.

  The Gatekeeper stepped out of the thick mist, his broad mouth spreading into a bright smile.

  “You are not real,” Lex choked out the words.

  “I am as real as you. This is something you have forgotten.”

  “What do you want?”

  “To talk,” Sirus told him.

  “Go away! Leave me to my hellish torment, as it is well deserved.”

  “Yes, it is.” The Gatekeeper agreed with him. “But I want to talk of second chances.”

  Lex shook his head and turned away.

  “You will put your
self at the mercy of the people you had hoped to betray.”

  The Gatekeeper disappeared as quickly as the last vision. Lex shook inside, no longer sure of what was real and what was illusion.

  Slender hands grabbed his arm and began pulling him. Lex followed, no longer caring where it was he was going. Slowly the mist thinned until he found himself in the crisp night air.

  Kayla stared up at him, her bright blue eyes wary - ready for him to leap at her. What clothes remained on her - hung in shreds. The consequence of the changing when one was not ready for it.

  “You came back for me!”

  Kayla nodded her head, but still she watched him cautiously.

  That had been the moment that he’d truly embraced her as his daughter, but it had been too late. He’d already stolen from her the only thing that would matter in her life - the man that she loved.

  Chapter Ten

  Jeanie cleared her throat in an attempt to get the man’s attention. She’d put on her hooded cloak and left the house so that she could seek out help for Sarah, but she’d noticed him across the road - staring. When Jeanie approached the man, he seemed to be completely unaware of her presence.

  Now the man was looking at her. His eyes were full of confusion, as if he’d just been awakened from a deep sleep.

  “Can I help you with something?” she asked.

  Now his eyes were sharp and alert. “I’m looking for the Fabre family.”

  “For what reason?” Jeanie’s eyes narrowed on him.

  “It is a sensitive matter that I must discuss with the family. Do you know them?”

  “Maybe,” Jeanie was cautious.

  “A young girl of the family is in extreme danger. I must speak with her.” It was obvious that he was getting impatient.

  “Well you’re a day late and a dollar short.” Jeanie was in a huff, irritated by the constant intrusion of these otherworldly creatures in the affairs of the Fabre family. She knew that he could not be human. If he were, he would not know about Sarah being in danger.