Angels and Hunters (Stoker Sisters 2) (2 page)

Still rushing about on all fours, Alexis hurried to push Delilah up against a tree. Drooling from the heat of the chase, Alexis snarled and bared her teeth. Her huge paws pressed into Delilah’s shoulders, keeping her securely pinned to the tree.

Chic and modern in a black cat suit and thigh high boots, Delilah seemed nonplussed by the attack. “Very cute, Alexis.” She reached up to dutifully pat Alexis on the head. “I know it’s you. You can let me go now.”

Alexis paused a moment before reverting to her natural form. “Of all the people… you’re the last person I would have ever expect to see here… in the midst of all this.”

“I thought it was about time I reconnected with you two.” She looked at one girl then the other. “You know I’ve missed you girls.”

Sadie continued to stare, dumbfounded by the quick series of events. “We thought you’d died,” she whispered, still barely believing it was really her.

Alexis shrugged and waved Sadie’s heavy sentiments away. “Don’t pay attention to her. She gets sentimental at the slightest. I knew you’d made it. I always sensed you weren’t too far away from me.”

“After losing Mama and Papa, we were devastated to learn you’d also perished in the fire.” Sadie took a tentative step towards the woman who’d been so important to her childhood. With tears in her eyes, she fell into Delilah’s arms, feeling like a young girl again as her governess hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

A dark chuckle accompanied Alexis’s grin. “See what I mean,” she said to Delilah.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make my safety known to you earlier. But all of this…” She spread her arms out around her, gesturing at the bodies that surrounded them.  “Has made it imperative I speak to you now.”

Sadie pulled away just enough to look at her. Growing suspicion kept her on her guard, but the warm and secure hug kept her close. Eager to hear what Delilah had to say, she gazed into her eyes, silently begging her to explain her presence.

Brushing her hand through Sadie’s hair, Delilah held a hard and intense gaze on her. “I’m really the one who lost you back then, aren’t I?”

Sadie’s eyes narrowed. How much did she know? But…

The full reality of Delilah’s presence in this time and place suddenly struck Sadie. “But, even if you’d survived that fire, how is it that…?”  She stared at her, remembering all the time she’d spent with her as a girl.  “How is it that you are here… now?  How have you come to be here, in California, all these years later? You should have…”

“Died a hundred years ago,” Delilah said with a nod. “Yes, I should have.”

Sadie gaped, stunned by what her governess was implying.

“You’re…?”

“Like you.” Sadness filled Delilah’s eyes a moment before she cocked her brow and offered the girls a warm, but knowing smile. “How is it that this happened to you?  How were you turned?”

Sadie was reluctant to revisit that horrible time so long ago. She dreaded drudging up the feelings, feelings of pain, of loss and of shame. “I’d been hurt,” she finally said. “Choked by the smoke and on the verge of suffocating when he swept in to save me.”

“Lord Ashwin?”

Sadie nodded. “He saved my life.”

Delilah’s inquisitive gaze turned to Alexis. “And why did you succumb?”

For a moment, Alexis appeared prepared to challenge Delilah. Defiance veiled her eyes, and Sadie was quickly brought back to a time when they’d both been so innocent. A time when trying to outsmart Delilah’s endless wit was a game, a test of their own ability to use their intellect and knowledge.

Alexis hung her head and kicked at the ground, refusing to answer.

“She wanted him to love her,” Sadie blurted out.

With a disgusted sigh, Delilah closed her eyes and leaned back against the tree. “That’s what I was afraid of.” She shook her head, her eyes glazing over as she drifted to a time long ago. “I failed you. I knew of the danger Lord Ashwin brought to Stoker Manor. I tried to warn him, to tell him to stay away from you… both of you. I knew he was up to something… the way he looked at you, the way he spoke. Far too charming. Far too worldly for two young innocents as you were.”

“Our home was completely destroyed, every wing, every room. Where did you go? How is it that no one found you?” While she wanted to empathize with Delilah’s sense of loss and guilt, Sadie needed to know what had really happened.

“I’d tried so hard to protect you. I knew Lord Ashwin was far more dangerous than his charm let on. Dracule had always been so adamant.” She looked directly at Sadie then turned to Alexis. “He never wanted a vampire to even get close to you. You were his pure descendants, he liked to say. And he certainly wanted you to remain that way.

“But that night, I was unable to come to your aid. I was overpowered, brought out to a nearby forest and chained to a tree where I was left to burn in the sun that was soon to rise. By the time I slipped out of those chains and returned to Stoker Manor, you were both gone, disappeared. No one had seen you. No one knew where you’d gone. And before I could even try to look for you, a band of hunters arrived, hungry to get to me again.”

“You seem so… so normal,” Sadie muttered, still caught up in her disbelief.

“Yeah, well.” Alexis seemed completely unfazed by the new development. “I seem pretty normal, too. I don’t hear you making a fuss over that.”

Delilah let out a light laugh and her eyes twinkled as they’d done so many times at Stoker Manor. “You girls really haven’t changed much. Sadie, still out to save the world, and Alexis…you still have a biting tongue and exceptional wit.”

“Dracule,” Sadie said, almost to herself.

“Yes,” Delilah said, gently reaching for Sadie’s hand. “You were never to know of your vampire heritage. He deemed you the Pure Ones. You were to remain pure, remain human.”

“Remain human?” Sadie said.

“It’s a long story and the night is already…”

“We were turned hundreds of years ago. Why now? Why have you come back to us now?”

“Because you two are the fulfillment of Dracule’s legacy. You two provide the hope for all vampires. Dracule was the beginning. You two are to be the end.”

“I have so many questions,” Sadie said as she turned away and tried to make sense of it all. It was too much to take in. “Too many questions.”

Frustrated and feeling she’d been betrayed, she turned to face Delilah again. “After we were turned, we did what we thought best to survive as vampires. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we did our best.” She looked at Alexis who seemed just as drawn into the past as she was. “We found our own ways of dealing with it.”

“That’s understandable,” Delilah said.

Sadie shook her head. “I have vague, unclear memories of the night of our turning, of the fire. I often have flashbacks, but they’re blurry, many events blending in together and making one confusing image.”

Delilah’s sudden reappearance added to her confusion. For years she and Alexis had gone through life, adjusting to the needs of their vampirism and learning to deal with life on their own. They’d been orphaned, bad enough for any child to deal with. Taking everything into consideration, Sadie thought they’d done rather well for themselves despite it all.

She looked Delilah in the eyes, her need to know about it all, her heritage, her future, taking precedence. “Who chained you to the tree? Why didn’t you find us earlier? How long have you been here in California?”

The softness in Delilah’s eyes, brought on by the unexpected reunion, quickly changed to anger. “Skars,” she spat, the name bringing a grimace to her red apple tinted lips. “He’s the one who set the fire, after he’d drained your parents of their blood.”

A stabbing pain gripped Sadie. Knowing she’d let him get away this night angered her all the more. Though her parents were a distant memory, the emptiness left by their sudden and violent death still left her aching.

“The eternal nemesis to Dracule, and the leader of the Strigois, Skars killed not only your parents, but all the occupants and many of the workers of Stoker Manor before setting it aflame.”

“Keegan’s parents,” the girls said in unison.

Sadie had been reluctant to believe Keegan’s telling of the story. Dr. Franz had blamed the fire on a vampire. “All this time, we always believed the hunters were responsible for the fire, for all the deaths.”

Raging more than she thought herself capable of, Sadie took a few steps back and began pacing as her heart pumped each beat in anger. She caught a glimpse of Alexis and knew that she, too, was disturbed by this latest revelation.

She knew her sister was increasingly drawn to the Strigoi leader. Perhaps learning of his part in the death of their parents would finally set her straight. But in the very moment that hope crossed her mind, she saw Alexis’ gaze turn to the wounded that lay about them, her tongue coming out to moisten her lips. Her eyes narrowed in hunger as she rounded her shoulders and prepared to find a meal.

“The wounded have begun to stir,” Sadie said with a touch of surprise. “I’d thought them all beyond help, all on the verge of death. How is it that so many of them are now regaining consciousness?”

A self-satisfied smile came to Delilah’s lips as she left the support of the tree and came to Sadie’s side. “I gave them a few drops of my blood.”

Confused by her action and the results, Sadie turned to her. “Your blood? And how is it that…?”

“The healing capacity of vampire blood can be quite powerful.”

“I had no idea,” Sadie said softly. Though now a vampire for over a hundred years, there was still so much she didn’t know. Her choice to lead a life away from other vampires, to lead a life as close to human as possible had kept her innocent of some vampire ways.

The murmurings around them increased and a few of the men were rising, many now walking away.

“Why?” Alexis spat. Her fists were clenched in anger and her eyes like venom. “They’re leaving. We’re to simply let them walk away… to come hunt us down again?”

Sadie and Delilah turned to her.

“I’ve spent the last hours fighting off these hunters, men who are out to kill me, to destroy me. I succeeded in maiming many if not all of them and you now want to heal them? They're out here hunting us down, trying their best to kill us. Shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to kill them before they succeed?”

“Only Strigois kill, Alexis. Your purpose here is not to kill.” Delilah held Alexis’ defiant gaze, staring at her, almost staring into her. When Alexis tried to turn away, Delilah stepped in front of her, taking a stance just inches away from her. “Not all vampires become monsters. We don’t all turn to the dark side. If anything many of us try to steer clear of the dreadful rendering Bram Stoker conjured up so many years ago. He painted Dracule as a villain; the devil himself. But we do have a choice.”

She put her hand to Alexis’ shoulder. “You have a choice… to be good or to be bad. Float on the wings of an angel or crawl to the lowest depths of humanity. Do you not want to be an angel… one who helps humanity, as Dracule wished? And as for the hunters… you know what they do.”

While she’d always remained on the side of good vampires, and her love of humanity was fierce, Sadie couldn’t understand Delilah’s argument. “But these hunters tried to kill us. They’re only purpose is to hunt us down and rid the world of us.”

Delilah looked at them, her love for her charges evident in her eyes. “I can’t deny the hatred mankind has for vampires. Then again you can’t deny how many vampires have brought that hatred upon themselves.” She looked at Sadie. “It is unfortunate that the actions of a few monsters like Skars and his Strigois make it difficult for all vampires to survive in society.”

Alexis turned away again, fidgeting in the way she was apt to do when in an uncomfortable situation.