Dominion (19 page)

Serenity sat up, clutching a hand to her throat. Her blood was hot and sticky beneath her fingers, and the flow didn’t seem to be slowing.

“Vincent …” she croaked.

In a smear of color, the big vampire darted to her side. He crouched beside her.

More hot blood soaked into the collar of her shirt and her vision started to blur at the edges, black dots dancing in front of her vision.

His serious grey eyes locked on hers, a frown creasing his forehead. “You know what I need to do, Serenity. So you’ll heal.”

She knew. She’d need to take his blood. Doing so made her feel as though she was betraying Sebastian, but she had no choice. If she didn’t, she would die.

“Okay.” Her voice came out weak and raspy. “Okay, do it.”

Vincent’s eyes glowed yellow in the dim light and he snarled, his fangs protruding from beneath his full upper lip. The muscles in his huge jaw knotted up, making him seem even more ferocious and big than he already was. His eyes locked on Serenity’s bleeding throat. A spike of terror jarred through her, certain the vampire was about to launch at her and finish the job Natasha had started, but then he lowered his mouth to his own wrist and bit hard.

Serenity pushed down her revulsion at needing to drink blood. This wasn’t the time to be squeamish.

The big vampire offered his bloodied wrist to her, locking her focus with his fierce yellow eyes.  “You need to be quick,” he hissed.

Not allowing herself any more time to think, her world continuing to gray at the edges, she leaned forward and placed her lips against the cool of his skin. The room spun around her and her grip on the real world loosened. She began to fall backward, about to hit the floor once again, but he caught her, his arm wrapped around her back to hold her up, the huge bulge of his bicep pressing between her shoulder blades.

As the first drops of his cool blood passed her lips, she felt herself rise back to the surface. She swallowed, the slick fluid dribbling down the inside of her throat. Regaining strength, her lips locked around the wound on Vincent’s wrist, sucking harder to draw more of the thick, rich blood into her mouth.

Her fingers gripped the bulk of his shoulders, digging into the hard knots of his muscles.
God,
she wished taking a vampire’s blood wasn’t so damn intimate. She didn’t want anything to change the way she felt about either Sebastian or Vincent. She drank, gulping down mouthfuls of thick, iron-tinged blood, connecting with
Vincent in a way she had only ever done with Sebastian. A part of her sensed how he felt—how he focused on the thud of her heartbeat and how her pulse began to speed up the more she drank. And he centered his attention on the warmth of her lips pressed against his skin, on the soft brush of her moist tongue against the wound as it started to heal …

Serenity forced herself to pull away. But a buzz existed between them now, a strange connection she couldn’t see, like they were somehow walking in each other’s skin.

“I’m sorry …” she said, not even sure why she was apologizing.

“It’s okay, look. He took her hand and placed her own fingers upon the place where the gash in her throat had been. Though still sticky with her blood, the skin was smooth.

Still holding her, Vincent pulled her hand away and stared down at her blood-covered fingers. Without even thinking, she allowed him to lift her hand to his lips and slowly suck the blood away with his cold mouth, his gray eyes locked on hers.

Her senses came back to her. “Oh, God,” she snatched her hand away. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you do that.”

Vincent didn’t subdue the intensity of his gaze. “What? Save your life?”

She scrabbled to her feet. “You know exactly what I mean.”

He seemed to study her for a moment,
then
ducked his head in a strange mock bow. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“When you two have finished,” interrupted Iona. “There is something you need to see.”

Grateful for the distraction, Serenity turned from Vincent to where Iona now crossed the pile of ash that used to be Natasha. The girl grimaced as the substance clung to her sneakers. “Damn vampires,” she muttered.

She reached the back of the unit, only a couple feet past where Natasha had been standing.

Iona reached out her hand and stroked the air with one outstretched finger. The air rippled and shimmered, like a thin film of oil on water.

Serenity blinked, wondering if what she’d seen was real and not just a trick of the light. But there wasn’t enough light to cause a trick. The place Iona touched seemed to conjure up a luminosity of its own.

“The boundaries between our world and Dominion are thin here,” the sorceress said.

The madness of what had just happened had left Serenity bewildered and this didn’t help. “What does that mean?”

“The other world that Sebastian visits—Dominion—exists around us all the time, but we can’t see the other world and they can’t see us. Yet we exist in the same time and space. In some places, the layer that hides their world from ours becomes thin, like a translucent veil. In these places, it’s sometimes possible to draw an entity between the worlds.”

“Like how Natasha brought the demon over and into Sebastian.”

“Exactly.”

“So, can we use this place to send the demon back again?”

“Yes, I’m sure we can.”

“Don’t we need Sebastian to be here?”

She shook her head. “The demon doesn’t have a physical form here, yet. This veiled place is simply a way of reconnecting the demon with its own world. If I can make that connection happen, the demon will leave Sebastian and go back.”

“How?”

“I can do a spell ordering anything not of this world to return through the veil. This is the only place my magic will be strong enough to penetrate between the two worlds.”

Serenity realized what this meant and her heart lifted. “So, you can remove the demon from Sebastian?” Saying his name caused a pang of guilt to tighten in her
stomach. He’d smell Vincent on her. Would he think differently of her now, even though she’d had no choice but to take his blood?

“Natasha realized I’d sensed the veil,” said Iona. “That’s why she tried to distract us by promising to tell you the truth and then attacked you.”

“She must have known we wouldn’t let her live!”

“I think she realized there was nothing more she could do that would stop us finding the veil. But she wanted to die. Did you see the expression on her face when I destroyed her? It was triumph.”

“Why would she want to die?”

“She’d done everything she could,” said Vincent. “She knew she’d hurt you. I guess that’s all she ever wanted.”

Serenity scowled. “Great.” She couldn’t help but feel some animosity toward Vincent, her emotions a mess, sensing his presence too acutely in the room. She turned to Iona. “So what do you need to do?”

“A spell—a calling of the natural forces and an incantation.”

“And you can do this right now?”

Iona nodded.

“Do it then!” Serenity cried. “What are we waiting for?”

“It’s dangerous. If Sebastian is back in Dominion as well, he might not be able to get back.”

The implication of her words sank in and Serenity’s heart dropped like lead in her chest. “Do we have any other options?”

Iona shook her head. “I’m sorry, but no.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay, do whatever you need to do.”

Chapter Nineteen

The force of Sebastian’s nervou
s
tension filled the trailer.

He sat at Iona’s round dining room table, his elbows pressed on the glass surface, his forehead rested on his hands.

Elizabeth had finally given in to sleep and lay curled up on the couch, her head resting in Bridget’s lap. Bridget, too, slept, her head down, her chin resting on her chest.

It was impossible for Sebastian to while away the hours so easily. He hated feeling not only weak and useless, but also like he was constantly under suspicion. Yes, he was a vampire, and perhaps should be used to not being trusted, but since meeting Serenity, he’d fallen too easily into the role of protector. He took care of his
family,
he wasn’t the one who threatened their safety.

He sensed the presence of Iona’s two pieces of Irish muscle standing either side of the door outside the trailer. He heard the rhythmical thump of their hearts, felt the heat their bodies radiated.
Smelled their blood.
He was sick of being in this situation—two humans thinking themselves better than him—watching him as though he were a piece of dirt.

Sebastian didn’t like being cooped up, but he had little choice in the matter. He needed to be here for news of what was happening in San Diego. He also needed to be here in case the damned demon decided to take over again.

He wished he could confront the thing inside him. He tried to focus internally, to get some sort of sense of the thing everyone told him appeared when he lost consciousness, but, other than the loss of his strengths and the changes in his physical appearance, he got no impression of the threat lurking inside him.

A low moan from the couch dragged Sebastian’s thoughts from himself. Elizabeth’s head twisted one way and then the next, squirming away from her old nanny. A frown marked her small forehead and she muttered in her sleep, “No … please, no …”

Sebastian pushed back his chair and darted to crouch at her side. “Elizabeth?”

She didn’t wake. Instead, the volume of her moans increased. She thrashed from side to side, her hands bunched into fists, her whole body tensed as though in the grips of a fit. Distress pinched her small features.

Elizabeth’s movements woke Bridget. The older woman blinked and rubbed at her eyes, then looked around as though reminding herself where she was. She caught sight of Elizabeth and sat up straight. Her gaze flicked to Sebastian, concern etched across her features. “Is she okay?”

Sebastian frowned. “She’s dreaming.”

Implication weighted his words. They both knew Elizabeth’s dreams were not always just dreams.

“We should wake her,” said Bridget, leaning across to shake the little girl awake.

Sebastian’s hand shot out, halting her. “No, wait. We may interrupt her learning something important.”

Bridget stared at him in dismay. “You can’t let her suffer, Sebastian!”

He gave himself a mental shake. What the hell was he thinking?

“No, of course not.”
He reached out and stroked Elizabeth’s hair from her face. Her forehead felt clammy, her dark curls clinging to her skin. She moaned again as his cool fingers touched her.
“Elizabeth, honey.
Time to wake up.”

“No, Daddy!” Elizabeth shrieked. “Don’t! Stop it!”

Alarm raced through him. “Elizabeth, you’re having a bad dream. You need to wake up now!”

Elizabeth’s eyes shot open and she bolted upright, panting. In a parody of Bridget only moments earlier, she looked around. Only, unlike Bridget, she didn’t seem to see the trailer or the people around her. Her eyes didn’t focus on either of
their faces, instead, staring right through them as though witnessing a scene they weren’t privy to.

“What is it?” Sebastian asked, terrified of the answer. “Is it Mommy?”

It was all he could think—that something had happened to Serenity. Normally, he sensed her presence in the world, a connection through the blood she took from him once a month and from the emotional connection they had. But, right now, he sensed nothing, as if something had interrupted their connection. His instincts told him he couldn’t hold the demon responsible for this particular change.

He hoped she was safe.

Bridget reached out and placed her palm over the back of Elizabeth’s hand. “Did something happen—” she started, but Elizabeth’s eyes widened in horror and locked on Bridget’s face.

“Oh, no, Bridget!”
The little girl burst into tears.

Sebastian reached for his daughter, but she flinched away, moving fully into her old nanny’s embrace.

“Something
bad’s
gonna
happen,” she sobbed.
“Something real bad.”

“Tell me, Elizabeth,” Sebastian
demanded,
his tone firm. “You need to tell me what’s going to happen, so we can stop it.”

The girl cringed closer to Bridget. “Get away from here, Daddy! You need to leave, right now!”

“Why?!”
He reached for her again, but she cowered and cried.

“Stop it, Sebastian,” said Bridget. “You’re frightening her.”

“She’s already frightened. I need to know what she saw.”

The two Irish men banged in through the door. “What’s going on?” demanded the
sandy-haired
Conner.

Sebastian spun around the face them, his eyes blazing yellow. “My daughter had a nightmare. It’s none of your concern.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem to me like she wants you to comfort her right now, buddy.”

Sebastian spun between the burly Irish men and his frightened child. He knew his eyes blazed yellow and he fought to control his emotions. His actions only created a vision of the thing they were all frightened of.

And right now, it didn’t seem to be anything to do with a demon.

Right now, they were afraid of
him
.

Iona stood before the veiled
place, that thin membrane between the two worlds. She stood with her feet apart, her hands held in front of her body, palms up. With her head lowered, her long white-blonde hair fell over her face.

Serenity waited several feet behind, anxiously chewing her lower lip. She felt Vincent’s presence looming just behind her shoulder. Even though he’d saved her life, she struggled with her emotions about having him so close.

Guilt,
she realized. That was the reason she didn’t want him near her, near any of them. She’d experienced an intimate connection with the big vampire—something she hadn’t experienced with anyone but Sebastian before. Also, this vampire had played a hand in kidnapping her daughter. The last thing she should be thinking about is how his mouth felt around her fingers.

Damn it!
Stop thinking about it then
.
They had bigger things to worry about.

She forced herself to concentrate on Iona. The girl spoke in mumbled tones, just loud enough for Serenity to understand that she spoke in Latin. With her words, the area in front of her began to thicken, like textured glass, but with a fluid motion.

She wondered what would happen if she were to attempt to step through the strange spot. Would she find herself in the other place? If she put one arm through, would the arm exist in one reality and not the other?

Or had she got the whole thing completely wrong? After all, Iona said it was a veil, not a doorway. Perhaps she’d watched too many sci-fi movies?

The young sorceress’s words grew louder, more commanding. With her hair falling over her face, Serenity couldn’t see her lips move or the expression on her
features, but part of her wondered if the same thing would occur as what happened at her trailer when she’d been unable to summon the demon. Would Iona’s ancestors find her here, at this random place in San Diego, and help her complete the spell?

A spot of darkness gathered above Iona’s head, like a small gathering storm cloud set in fast-forward. With it came a distant scream of rage and Serenity gasped, taking a step away. That forming darkness seemed awfully familiar—the same thing she’d seen lurking beneath the skin of the man she loved.

Iona lifted her face upward with a sudden, jerking movement. Her eyes were wide, but unfocused. The pool of black continued to grow, swirling above her head.

“Return to the world from hence you came,” she commanded, speaking to the entity above. “Release your hold on this world and go back to where you belong. I command you through the power of our nature.
”

Noooo
!

Serenity heard the w
or
d screeched
in defiance.

“The pull of your world in this place is too strong for you to resist. Release your hold on the one you inhabit and return!”

Sebastian’s consciousness jolted to one
side, the room going black for a fraction of a second, before returning. Something had changed.

Elizabeth stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. “It’s happening.”

“What? What’s happening?”

Something seemed to move inside his head and across his vision, like catching movement from the corner of his eye. Instantly he knew what he’d seen.

The demon.

Serenity and Iona must have done something, but what? A fission of fear raced through him. Whatever it was, he didn’t think it was good.

Sudden pain raced through him, like every nerve ending was on fire, and he roared in alarm. Falling in on himself, his knees hit the floor and he hugged his arms to his chest, his back curled over. He was dimly aware of every eye in the trailer fixed on him, the tension elevated to a point of breaking.

Sebastian lifted his pale hand and something dark rippled beneath his skin, passing from the tips of his fingers, across the back of his hand and up his arm. Was this the demon? The thing Serenity had seen in his face?

Suddenly, he could feel the creature inside him, like a huge parasite wanting to crawl from his skin. Overcome with revulsion, Sebastian roared. He wanted to reach inside and somehow rip the fiend from his own body.

Gripped in madness, he thrashed from one side of the room to the other, knocking furniture flying, like a whirling dervish. His skin stretched outward, as though the demon was trying to tear skin from bone, muscle and tendon.

Sebastian’s consciousness started to pull from the edges, like he was falling into a deep hole. Somehow he knew the hole didn’t exist inside
himself
. Instead, it was the other place—Dominion—trying to pull him back. If he went, would the demon take over forever? Would it hurt his daughter?

“Get out of here, Elizabeth.” Bridget’s voice yelled in the distance. “Run and hide.”

But the little girl ran to stand in front of her old nanny, holding her arms out, as though trying to protect her. “No,” she sobbed. “I can’t leave you.”

“Yes, you can and you will!” Bridget turned to Conner. Roughly, she grabbed the top of Elizabeth’s arm and shoved her at him. “Get her out of here!”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
What the fuck is that?!” Conner and Henry’s eyes were
wide with horror, locked on Sebastian’s face. Sebastian couldn’t even imagine what they witnessed.

He could feel his skin stretch—his face, his arms, his chest—the demon trying to burst from his body. He screamed in agony, a sound that filled the relatively small space of the trailer. The pain and the horror inside of him encompassed all thought.
He’d forgotten who he was—the names of the people he loved. He was no more than a ball of writhing, struggling emotion and instinct.

Out of the blur of pain and darkness, only one thing focused his mind, offering him the promise of strength and healing.

With a roar of defiance, he snapped around and bit. Merciful, hot blood poured down his throat. He focused only on the act of feeding, blocking out the screams and yells of those around him, of pitifully weak arms attempting to pull him off.

As he fed, the sense of the demon weakened, as though shrinking inside of him. A screech of rage not coming from his own mind filled his head.

But, instead of the blood healing him, Sebastian’s grip on the world loosened further, like he was looking at the room from the end of a long tunnel.