Alone (29 page)

With a roar, Sebastian leaped at Madeline.
He flew through the air, his arms outstretched, his hands curled
into claws, ready to rip her to shreds. He slammed against her with
the impact of a truck. Air whipped past Serenity as the two
vampires flew backward together and hit the wall with a crunch of
plasterboard. As though two wild animals fought within its walls,
sounds of snarls filled the immense hallway. Sebastian had Madeline
pinned up against the wall and she fought him like a
wild-cat.

Serenity froze for a split second,
then turned and ran.

T
he front door and the main gates stood
open and she sprinted through them without so much as pausing to
check if she was being chased. Snarls and shrieks continued in the
house and, despite her fear for Sebastian, she drew comfort in the
sounds. As long as he grappled with Madeline, Serenity had the time
to run.

She needed help, but she had no one to
turn to. How was she supposed to run from this? How could she keep
running from this? Wherever she went, Madeline would find
her.

P
ounding the pavement with each stride, she
dragged air in and out of her lungs in short, painful bursts. She
kept expecting an arm to wrap around her neck, to feel the
vampire’s teeth sinking into her throat. Serenity ran because that
was the only thing she could do, but that didn’t stop her from
wanting to turn around and go back. Even with the terror behind
her, she didn’t want to be separated from Sebastian.

Though
still early evening, darkness had
fallen across the city. The rest of Los Angeles continued their
evening chores, completely unaware of the unimaginable horror
taking place within their so-called civilized society.

Serenity ran blindly, as though the
devil herself was on her tail.

She shoved past a couple walking their
Labrador, shouts of indignation wafted after her. Cars drove by,
people on their way home after a long, normal day at work. Drivers
and passengers looked at her, their curiosity tinged with fear, but
none stopped to enquire about her safety.

A
terrible, sharp pain wrapped around her
ribs and her lungs burned. She tried to ignore the pain but she
needed to rest. Serenity forced herself to stop and bent over,
trying to catch her breath. Her legs trembled, her calf muscles
threatening to cramp.

W
here did she think she was running to?
Wherever she went in the world, there was the chance Madeline would
find her again. Could she live like that? Always looking over her
shoulder? Wouldn’t she be living exactly how she’d feared if she
had left Jackson?

Serenity glanced around, taking stock,
trying to figure out her location. The big houses of the hills had
disappeared, giving way to more modest duplexes and apartment
buildings.

A gas station was on the other
side of the street
. A man in a suit filled his BMW and an SUV containing a
family pulled into the lot. A sign showing the services available
hung above the station door: bathrooms, hot drinks, and which
credit cards the station accepted. Below the sign was a pay
phone.

Then Serenity remembered the small
rectangular card in the back pocket of her jeans.

At
the point of exhaustion, she ran across
the road. Someone blasted their horn at her in protest, but she
barely heard, focused intently on the phone and the rescue it
promised.

G
raffiti had been scrawled over the glass
backing of the booth, but the phone was in one piece. She picked up
the black, old-fashioned handset and her heart caught in her throat
as a dial tone hummed down the line.

With her free hand, she fished in her back
pocket for the card Officer James Bently had given her. She
couldn’t locate the card and her heart raced once again, terrified
she’d lost it, but then her fingertips touched its thin edge and
her shoulders sagged in relief.

Serenity pulled the card from her pocket
and as she did so a thin sliver of silver dropped to the ground.
Her ‘Serenity’ necklace. Distracted, she bent and picked the
jewelry up. Shoving the chain into her back pocket, she turned her
attention to the card.

Officer Bently’s cell
number.

Serenity dialed the number with shaking
fingers, but in her rush she dialed wrongly, and was rewarded with
the recorded operator’s voice telling her to hang up and try
again.

“
Fuck!” she swore. She slammed
the phone back down and then she did as she’d been told.

This time the call went through and after
two rings he answered, “Bently”.

“
Help me,” she
panted.

The police officer’s voice sounded in
her ear. “Serenity? Is that you?”

“
Yes. Yes, it’s me. Please,
I need your help. Someone is trying to kill me. They’re chasing
me.”

“
Where are you?” he said, his
voice immediately alert. “I’ll come and get you.”

“
No.” Her mind was working.
“I can’t stay here. Meet me at the pier. I’ll be at the
pier.”

S
he hung up.

A plan was forming in her mind, but it was
sketchy and dangerous. She hoped Sebastian was all right, and then
she remembered what he’d said about one vampire not being able to
kill another and prayed it was true. Sebastian said Madeline was
stronger and faster than him, but he’d attacked her at the house
and bought Serenity time. At least she could take comfort that even
though Sebastian couldn’t kill Madeline, Madeline wouldn’t be able
to kill him.

In the meantime, she hoped Sebastian had
bought her enough time to get to where she needed to go.

She glanced around and saw the owner of
the BMW in the gas station shop, picking through the top shelf
magazines.

Not thinking of the consequences, she ran
to the car, pulled open the door and slid onto the leather seat. As
she expected, the keys poked out of the ignition.

She turned the keys and the engine roared
to life. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the owner but he
was so absorbed in his magazine, he didn’t even notice.

As she sped out of the lot, she
imagined his surprise as he approached the cashier and tried to pay
for gas for a car that wasn’t there.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Madeline’s head whipped
around,
lips
pulled back from her deadly white teeth in a snarl.
Sebastian’s hands locked around her throat, but his strength
wouldn’t hold her for long.

Her long, pale fingers wrapped around his
wrists, dragging his hands away.

Sebastian threw his body weight against
her, at least hoping that would hold her for a minute, but her body
felt like a bag full of tightly coiled snakes beneath him—all
muscle—and she pushed him away.

She spun around, facing him, fury burning
on her face.

“
So this is what it’s come to,
Sebastian? Us chasing your little bitch through the night because
you haven’t got the sense to do as you’re told?”

“
I’ll go with you now,” he
snapped, trembling with fury. “Just leave her alone.”

She glared at him. “I don’t think so.
You’ve been given enough opportunities to make your
choice.”

Serenity didn’t stand a chance; she
couldn’t hide from Madeline. But Sebastian had to wonder, did she
even plan to hide?

Sebastian remembered what she’d said—how
she thought she could stand it if they were both alone, still
loving each other. She would rather they were apart than see either
of them forced to be with someone they hated. Serenity was the one
person who understood Sebastian’s position; after all, she’d been
forced to live with a man she despised for so many years. She’d
wanted to try to defeat Madeline and the thought of what she might
be planning terrified him. He had no idea what she was thinking,
but whatever it was, it wouldn’t work.

Sebastian felt utterly powerless. He
wanted to tear Madeline’s throat out—would do anything to stop her
going after Serenity—but one vampire couldn’t kill another. To kill
another vampire was impossible; a prime rule written in the dark
laws of their kind. An instinct written into their cells prevented
them from committing such an act. If he tried to sink his teeth
into her throat, his jaw would lock, his strength would melt away,
and he would end up helpless until the urge to kill her
faded.

He knew this because he’d tried many years
ago.

Madeline sprang away from him, heading for
the front door.

Serenity’s blood hung thick on the night
air; the wound on her wrist fresh enough to make her whereabouts
traceable. As soon as Madeline gave him the letter, with Serenity’s
blood dribbled across the page, he had become focused on the
scent.

“
MADELINE
!” Sebastian roared after her as she
disappeared out of the door. The other vampire was already gone
into the night, chasing the scent of blood Serenity left on the
air.

Fear pulsed through him. If she found
Serenity now, Madeline would tear her throat out. All of their
games were over. Now was the time for action.

Sebastian
took off after her.

Like a bloodhound on the
scent of a fox,
Madeline chased Serenity through the night, Sebastian hot on her
tail.

In
less than a minute, the trail took
Madeline to the garage where Serenity had stolen the car. Sebastian
followed close behind, but far enough away for her to ignore his
presence. The other vampire’s focus lay solely on the
hunt.

Madeline stood before the garage, hands on
her hips. Sebastian stayed hidden on top of a building across the
road, watching Madeline’s actions. He hoped to figure out where
Serenity had gone and get ahead of Madeline.

The other vampire must
have
lost the
trail, as he had, the metallic scent of blood merging with that of
oil.

On the forecourt, a man stood shouting at
a skinny, teenaged attendant.

“
Where the fuck is my car?” he
yelled, his hands held up. “What sort of fucking scam are you
running here?”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out
the reason for the lack of scent and the missing
vehicle.

Madeline marched up to the attendant,
picked him up by his shoulders and flung him across the lot. He hit
one of the pumps and slid down, unconscious. She turned her
attention to the slack jawed man in the suit, and grabbed him by
the lapels.

“
Where was it?” she hissed,
showing her canines, her face horribly white under the harsh lights
of the canopy.

“
I...I don’t know what you
mean?”

“
Your car, you idiot. Where
was your car?”

With a shaky hand, he pointed to pump
number one.

Madeline dropped him and he stumbled away,
his eyes never leaving the stunningly terrifying woman who had
threatened him.

She headed to the pump and then, like a
dog, got down on all fours, her lips drawn back, pulling the scent
over her olfactory glands, sniffing the ground.

Sebastian, still watching, forced
himself to hold back.

Where was Serenity headed? Her
words rang in his ears,
‘Somewhere special.’

O
nly one location came to mind, the same
place she had taken him.

The pier.

Suddenly
certain of where she was heading,
Sebastian hoped he would reach her before Madeline picked up
another scent.

Frustration and anger filled him, making
him want to punch a hole in a wall.

Though
furious at Madeline, he was also
angry at Serenity. Did she think she could somehow fight Madeline?
She would get herself killed.

Carefully, he backed away, hoping Madeline
had forgotten about him. Madeline was so caught up in the hunt
she’d failed to recall there might be another way to find Serenity;
through Sebastian. With the vampire’s rejection of humanity, she
had forgotten—with intimacy comes trust.

Sebastian
moved as fast as
possible.

He ran with breathtaking speed and grace,
leaping across the narrower roads, over fences and through
backyards. The vampire hit the San Diego freeway and jumped on top
of moving cars, landing on the roofs, making the drivers glance up
in surprise. Cars swerved as he moved from one to
another.

Sebastian focused on finding Serenity, his
brain buzzing with a desperate need to save her. Wind tore past his
ears. The headlights of oncoming traffic threatened to blind him,
to make him lose his footing, but he quickly gained
ground.

Even at night,
the lights from the
city meant the sky was never totally dark.

As he headed down the Pacific Coast
Highway, he saw the pier, delineated by strings of lights. The
structure stretched out into the darkness of the ocean, colorful
bulbs marking its boundary from the sea. The white moon reflected
in ripples on the waves against the horizon.