Escaped the Night (14 page)

Jayce grabbed me suddenly with such a for
ce that in a split instant
,
he
pulled
m
y body right up close to his. His breath
on my neck
sent
tingles raging through
me
. He
began kissing
me slowly and gently at first, but
then
he went
deeper,
fiercer. It was the most passionate kiss I’d ever
had
in my
life and for a
few moments
w
e
were lost in our passion.

It
was
so
powerful
, I couldn’t imagine
t
here would
ever be another one
able to
top it
,
as far as I was concerned. All of our thoughts, dreams and fantasies were shared. He was in my mind
and
I was in
his,
experiencing all of
our
burning desire together.

I
felt
dizzy and my lips
burned
hot
. The feeling lingered
,
almost
the
same
way
cinnamon heart
s
stung your lips and tongue. The
sensati
on
was
absolutely irresistible
.

Together
,
w
e sat back down on our rock
. I
was
so
comfortable
around Jayce
. I didn’t have to hide or act like some
one
I wasn’t.
The b
est part, I was
positively sure
he felt the same way about me.

He
took this opportunity to
explain
more
about the existence of
the
different
immortals. He
tol
d me stories about the elements and shape shifters. Soon he was
describing
beautiful fairies, glorious
mermaids,
fierce werewolves and
dreadful doomahorn
s.

“Doomahor
ns?”

“You’ve probably never heard of them
.
”

“Never. What exactly is a doomahorn?”

“
It’s
a rare breed of nightwalker. I’m honestly not sure
what or
who
created them. I j
ust know to steer clear
. Promise you’ll do the same.”

“How will I know if I see one?”

“
Take my word for it, t
hey’re pretty unmistakable.”

I hoped to
never cros
s
paths with one.
“
Nightwalker
”
was
one word
that made
me want to
stay away
.
I listened as Jayce
continued filling me in on
the details
of
various
immortals.

“
Nightwalkers
use scouts,
which
are the doomahorns
.
I’m g
uess
ing
you might want to know wh
at they look like so you
know what to stay away from.
” He
shot
me a quirky smile.

“That might
help.”

“They’
re dark horse-
like creatures
with
t
wo devilish horns on their h
ead
, a large
deformed
bulge on their back and big jagged fangs.
T
hey’ve got
unmistakable
ferocious
blood red eyes.
Trust me, y
ou won’t miss them.
They’re used to
track prey
. The
n, the
werewolves get the dirty work out of the way
and
the vampires come in for the final kill.
It’s the ultimate ambush.
”

This was so much to process and sounded like a movie.
I sat
,
unab
le to move or speak, just trying
to take it all in. I couldn’t h
ave imagined anything like this
, n
ot eve
n in my wildest dreams and I have
a pretty vivid imagination.
A
flood of emotion came
over me. I began crying hysterically
,
tears streaming
down my face.

Jayce leaned over. “What’s wrong?
Shanntal,
please
tell
me what’s wrong
.”

“You…
s
…
s
…
s. said,” I
choked out the
wo
rds in between my hysterical sobs. “You said
vampires
ar
e r
eal?”

Jayce
focused on trying to comfort me
. He rubbed my back and hugged
me tight
ly
.
Unfortunately, his reaction made me sob even harder. I
sensed his growing frustration and
I
felt all of this
on top of my
pain
. I had to get the tears out of the way so I could speak again. I just didn’t kno
w how long i
t would take. I’
d he
ld myself together for so long.
Eight
months had passed since my family was killed and
it had
been
months since I’
d shed any tears. Now, it felt like it
had just happened
all over again
.

Eventually, I calmed
down
. I took a couple
of
deep breath
s and
looked
at Jayce with swollen tear-
stained eyes. “So, this
vampire named
D
aray, do you kn
ow him? Is he real?” I asked
with a shaky voice.

Jayce took
a
cautious pause before
speaking
. He eyed me up and down and then carefully
started
. “Yes
,
I know
him. Daray is one of the most powe
rful vampires
of all time. I believe it’
s
because of
him
the vampires and werewolves joined alliances.
As far as I’m concerned, h
e’
s a real danger to everyone, mortal or immortal.”

Again, the hysterics took over. I couldn’t make myself stop
,
even when I trie
d. The tears
kept
on
flowing.
In order to
explain more to
Jayce, I thought long and hard about the night at Ginata’s house when we used the Ouija board. That
was
the night before
our families
were killed and
it was
when
Daray
contacted us.

“I’m so very sorry
,
Shanntal.
” He squeezed me harder
and
I knew he’d seen what
I
needed him to
. I knew this helped him figure
out
whom, or
what
killed my family, if he hadn’t already known.

Well
,
at least
now
I
had
a real idea of how my family died. I never
had
received a straight an
swer from the police on what
really happened. I
’d
only
ever
heard
it wasn’t like anyth
ing they’
d seen before. Now
,
I
understood
what they meant
. It was because v
ampires,
werewolves and doomahorns
killed them. They wer
e supposed to be make-believe… t
hey weren’t supposed to be real.

This was so much to absorb.
It was hard to find
out
about
the significance of my n
ew boyfriend
who was
also
immortal
,
a
nd that a
war
was
going on in the immortal world and somehow I was involved
, but t
he hardest part was
realizing
that
vampires and werewolves
had
killed my family.
It
felt as though
the
air
had been kicked right
out of my chest.
I needed a moment to catch my breath.

Once I pulled myself
back
together, I
started asking Jay
ce
questions
.
“What do the bad nightwalkers
eat besides humans?
How do
immortals
die
or get destroyed?
H
ow
do I
defend myself should one
attack?
Is
there
any
way for me to protect myself?
Most importantly, w
hat
does any of this
have to do
with me?”

Jayce b
egan answering my questions as honestly as he could. “It’
s very difficult to destroy an immortal, you basically need to be
one
to do it.
Don’t get me wro
ng, humans
have done it
, but it’s much
more difficult
. Th
ey
simply
don’t have the same strength.”

I s
hot him a helpless look. I was
human after all.

He ignored my
discouragemen
t and continued
answering
my questions
for the most part
.
There were
a few he ignored, but h
e did give me
tons of
other i
nformation
about t
he immortal world.

“Some i
mmortals are born while others
are
made. The ones born
begin
as babies and grow
until
they hit their destined maturity
. Then
they
stay that age fo
rever. The ones that are made come
from the bites of vampires and werewolves
. They’ll
remain the age they
were when they were
bitten
. Vampires
and werewolves are the only immortals
capable of changing a person’s mortality.
”

I shivered before asking, “Why di
dn’t my family change into nightwalkers? Why did they just die?
”

“I’m not sure,”
Jayce
said.

“Oh,” I replied solemnly.

Jayce looked at me
and I saw sympathy in his eyes. He
continued.
“
The greatest honor for any immortal is to go
up
to the
heavens. It
doesn’t mean
we die
:
instead,
we
shoot up into the stars
to be
joi
ned together with our true love or
soul mate for all time
.
”