Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) (25 page)

We all watched
as
John walked all too silently for a human of his size. Just as he was about to pass the threshold he turned to face us.

“Ma’am, I would be honored to be your feeder should you have use of one again.” Then he nodded and left without waiting for a response.

“Wow, that’s the most I have ever heard John speak at one time before,” Ana said a bit stunned.

“Man, I feel good! And strong! I didn’t realize the quality of human blood affected how strong we were.”

“It does only to a degree, but if you were to only feed on John, and the occasional vamp you could become incredibly powerful if you continue to hone your powers. It’s like anything else; if you neglect it you lose it.”

“I bet I could stay up even after the sun rises I feel so good.”

I stood up stretching and flexing my muscles, feeling the newly attained power seeping into them. I crouched low and pushed up only intending to feel the refreshed strength in my thighs and accidently propelled myself into the ceiling leaving a sprinkling of dry wall to fall around us.

“Sorry, Juliana, no matter how good you feel no one can out run the sun.”

“We’ll see.”

“Okay, let me know how that works out then. I’ll see you tomorrow night. I was told to inform you two that th
ere will be a full debriefing ten
minutes after the sun sets. Martin already called Christian and told him to be here.”

There was no arguing or changing it, and certainly nothing left to be said about it. Ana left to head to her own room leaving Will and I alone for the little time left be
fore
sunrise.

“Hey, Ana,” I called out.

She stuck her head back in the room not saying anything.

“Thanks for your help, with Christian and John.”

In the typical Ana way she just gave me a nod of the head and continued on down the hall.

She was right though, the whirring of the shutters came and no matter how hard I tired I couldn’t stay awake. When they opened the following evening though, I couldn’t will them back closed no matter how I tried.

“Do you think we can sneak out before they notice we’re gone?”
I whined to William.

“No, I think they’ll hunt us down like
humans
if we try to skip out on their debriefing.”

“What’s the point
,
they aren’t going to believe anything I tell them anyway. They should just write down what they want me to say and save us all a lot of time.”

“Jules, just try not to argue okay. Please.”

“I don’t argue.”

“Okay, maybe just try not to talk then.”

“Whatever, Will.”

We threw on some clothes and made our way downstairs. Everyone else was already waiting.

“Nice of you to join us,” Sebastian said starting in already.

“I’ve been awake for five minutes what more do you want? Wait, how long have you all been awake?”

“Let’s just get started,” Ana said interrupting me.

Christian and I took turns relaying the events of the night before, while Martin and Sebastian took turn interrogating us. I resisted the urge to question Sebastian on why I couldn’t reach him last night when I tried to call. They let Christian go relatively early in the evening, and when they were finally satisfied with me they let the rest of us go as well. I really wanted nothing more than to get out of the house, but I had work to do.

Ana and I were locked away in my bedroom, and just about to finish working with the silver when William yelled out for me from downstairs. He had been keeping Martin occupied for the remainder of the night after the debriefing ended and Sebastian left.

“What now? We only have an hour before sunrise.”

“Juliana!” This time we could feel the floor tremble with the strength of his bellowing.

Ana and I shared a scared wide eyed look before bolting downstairs.

At the bottom of the steps we found William and Martin staring up at us each wearing stern looks of their own that weren’t revealing anything. How could two men that were just at each other’s throats be so united now?

“You have a delivery,
Gloria
,” William said with such tension radiating off him I couldn’t imagine what could possibly cause it. I did know who could cause it though, and the use of that name was a dead giveaway.

“O-oh?”

“Yes, would you care to enlighten us why Michael would be giving you such a lavish gift?” Martin took over the questioning.

“I have no idea and what do you mean by lavish? Where is it?” I looked around but I didn’t see anything.

“Oh, it’s in the garage. You know where my Audi used to be,” William was barely able to grind the words out.

“The garage?”

“Yes. My garage.”

I looked to Ana who just shrugged. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along feeling that I might need her protection on this one. When I got to the garage I stopped short, the door was opened wide and just as William said, in place of his Audi was a piece of artistic machinery I had never seen before. It was amazing. It was all sleek lines and speed defying curves.

“What is it?” I whispered.

I slowly moved forward like I was afraid of the sheer power the thing emitted from its red leather interior and the engine that seemed to be just barely contained under the glossy black hood.

“It’s a Pagani Zonda F Roadster and I want to know why he gave it to you,” Martin demanded.

“I told you I have no idea, and what is that, why haven’t I heard of that?”

“It’s only the fastest, most powerful, most expensive roadster in the world.”

I eased around to the driver’s side door g
ently opening it and sliding in
to the seat. Ana jumped in to the passenger seat taking none of the same care that I was. Her fingers roamed along the gear shift and the elegant panel. It was power and beauty merged into one.

“Well, whatever you did—or didn’t do—go back and do it again so you can get me one,” Ana said with envy.

“Why do you think it’s for me anyway?” I had yet to look up at William. I wasn’t avoiding him; I just couldn’t take my eyes off the car. “Who has the key?”

“It came with an envelope addressed to you, Gloria. The driver dropped off the key after parking the car in my garage.”

“We should take it for a spin before the sun rises. Fastest in the world huh?”

“I think you are getting off track Juliana, why did he give you the car?”

“I told you I don’t know! He kept commenting about how ridiculous we all looked piling into one car and said I could borrow one of his. I declined. That’s it, alright. Just open the damn letter if you’re so concerned.” Those two were seriously ruining my excitement over the car.

“It’s not like he’s giving it to me.”

Martin pulled the envelope from William’s hand and tore it open. The longer he looked at the more anger there seemed to be that radiated off of him. I finally broke my gaze away from the work of art in front of me and focused on Martin. His eyes slowly rose from the note in his hand and like a key turning in a lock an icy chill settled in my stomach.

“What is it?” I whispered.

He didn’t even bother looking back down at the paper, he had it memorized.

“Dear Juliana, I am gifting this Italian jewel to you in gratitude for your feeder saving my life. I wanted to deliver it in person, but I had to leave on short notice and was unable to make it myself. You may have noticed my use of your true name
.
I feel that I am at liberty to do so now that I have been made aware of your secret. I was unsure on
where your true loyalties lied
however, until your aid in saving my life. I look forward to seeing you upon my return where I hope to have you standing by my side ready to lead the world into a new era. Yours, Michael.”

“Oh my God. He’s doing it. He’s really going to reveal our existence,” I numbly heard Ana say beside me.

“Tell me what you know about this,” Martin’s fangs were in my face. The only thing holding him back from attacking me was his belief that I had information on Michael.

“I swear I have no idea! I don’t know how he found
out
about me. I would let you compel
me
to find out what you want if it would work. I give you my word I know nothing about this!” I was pleading with him like my life depended on it. I don’t know why he finally believed me, but after a long look into my eyes he yelled a curse into the night turning his back on me.

William let out a breath he seemed to be holding and pulled me out of the car, “We need to figure out where he went, and fast.”

“It sounds like he’s planning on attempting the reveal. It’s gotta be someplace public. What’s going
on
that he would try to take hijack for the readymade viewing public?” Martin asked while flipping the T.V. on and turning to the national news.

“It doesn’t have to be someplace public though, he just has to go down to the public news station and walk on camera that would do it,” Ana was pacing the room as she thought.

I went to the kitchen trash and started pulling all the old newspapers out and brought them back into the living room.

“Where’s Victoria? We need her help?”

“She went to go see Christian after Sebastian left earlier,” William was already calling her as he pulled out his laptop.

“Victoria, we need you now. It’s Michael
,
he’s on the move and tell Christian we need him here before the sun sets
. He better be
armed and ready to go. He needs to tell his dad whatever he has to, but we need him
,
clear?” He hung up a
second later
not
break
ing
eye contact with me the entire time he spoke with Victoria.

“I’m sorry Jules, but we need a human and he is the best we got. If daylight hits he might be the only way we get out alive.”

I could only nod and blink quickly to try to stop the tears from over-flowing.

I let my attention be averted as we all started scouring the news for the location to garner the most attention for Michael.

“Is there an awards show coming up?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Concert?”

“Not big enough.”

Victoria came running through the door, “When does our flight leave?”

“Flight? To where? We are still trying to figure out where he is going,” I told her.

“You have got to be kidding me. I didn’t realize I was put on a team with a bunch of self-important idiots. Well, that’s not true, I did, but I thought you could read a newspaper.” She pulled the unread newspapers I had just carried in from my hands. After flipping through them she found the one she wanted and slammed in on the table in front of us.

“JOHNSON WINS ELECTION!” She threw down another,
 

“JOHNSON WINS BY A LANDSLIDE!” “NEW AMERICA WITH PRESIDENT JOHNSON!”

“Do you nimrods get it now he’s going to the presidential inauguration.”

“We can’t wait until tomorrow night, we need to leave now,” Ana was saying.

“We have no choice the sun is going to be up in less than an hour even Juliana’s new car can’t
get
there by then, even if it could fit us all,” Martin said sound
ing
more frustrated than ever.

“You got a new car?”

“Sorta,” I told Victoria not nearly as excited about it anymore.
“Hey, does this mean I have to give the car back?”

William stomped out of the room, “I’m going to try Sebastian again. Ana book our flight.”

        
*
*
*

Christian was right on time;
well
,
I assumed he was because he was there when I woke up at least. Everyone was downstairs dressed and ready to go. We all had on our sun resistant leathers, riding boots with the blades embedded in them and kni
v
es holstered under our jackets, even Christian. We looked pretty bad-ass. I ruined the entire image when I gave Christian a big motherly hug.

“C’mon, Ma, are you gonna do this every time?”

“Make sure you use your inhaler,” I said handing the inhaler to him at the same
time
managing to ignore his question. Martin at least had the courtesy to look embarrassed for him.

“Mom, I told Ana--”

“You remember how to use it right? Push it down and inhale holding in the mist,” I gave him a meaningful look pushing the inhaler in his hands.

“Show me now, so I know you can use it later.”

“Whatever, Mom.” He puffed the inhaler twice looking at me like I had lost my mind.

“Good, use it again when we get there.” I gave him a pat on the cheek and jumped into the shuttle we had to take to the airport. Talk about embarrassing.