Scorned (20 page)

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I ignored it
for the moment.

“We must go,” Roman said. “That call
was...important. I’ll explain more later.” His eyes flicked to
Marx, Will, Tate and Herman and I knew he didn’t trust them.

“Okay,” I said. “Just let me say good bye
and I’ll meet you outside.”

Roman nodded, his face unreadable, and
walked back out the door to stand with his back to the window. He
folded his arms across his chest and I waited for the door to close
before I spoke, even though I knew he’d be able to hear me anyway.
I didn’t plan on saying something I didn’t want him to hear.

Tate wrapped her arms around me and gave me
a fierce hug. “I know someone who can help you, off the record so
to speak. She’s out of town right now, but when she gets back we’ll
come visit. Okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“And I’ll bring your cape,” she smiled.

“Don’t get too freaked out about your new
super power,” Marx said. “There are worse things that could be
stuck in your head.” His brow furrowed and I wondered what he was
thinking about.

“Yeah,” said Will. “I’d give anything to
speak a little French. Can you imagine how the women would just eat
that up?”

I laughed. “I’ll teach you sometime.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said.

They waved and said good bye and I walked
out to meet Roman.

Pierce was sitting on my bed when Roman
brought me home. I blinked, unsure of how he’d gotten inside and
into my room without my aunt freaking out, but that was truly the
least of my worries. As he’d grown so accustomed lately, Pierce’s
face was an unreadable, empty mask.

“Thank you,” I dismissed Roman and hoped
he’d get the hint.

“LeKrista.”

“Just go,” I said sternly and he made sure
to let me know just how much that pissed him off. “And that,” I
added, “is exactly why we went where we did tonight. Good bye.” I
waited for him to leave and close the door before I turned to
Pierce.

“I got your note,” he said and waved a piece
of paper in the air. “The one you left for your aunt.” He slid off
the edge of the bed and stalked toward me like some great cat and
his eyes flashed with anger. He’d always possessed the ability to
make himself seem bigger than his five feet and two inches and
tonight was no different. His presence filled the room with hot
anger and I felt Romans’ alarm in the back of my mind. “When you
didn’t answer your phone, I got worried. Imagine my surprise.”

“Pierce, I’m not going to make excuses.” My
voice came out soft and I fought tears of anger and pain. “You have
every reason to be angry, but at least let me explain before you
jump to conclusions.”

Pierce sat on the edge of the bed. He
crossed his arms and the note was crushed beneath one of his
massive biceps. My eyes were drawn to the sound. His arms were
bulging more than usual and I knew he’d done pushups while he
waited to try and reign in his anger.

I let out a slow breath before I spoke. “The
girl from the restaurant who gouged my arm,” I looked to Pierce for
recognition, but he was too angry. All I saw was that wall of
emotionless fury that he used to hide his true feelings. “I think
she’s one of Perdita’s. I saw her give a vial of blood to her and
when she drank it, Perdita was suddenly in my head. She used her
power to induce a grand mal seizure. I would have died if Roman
hadn’t come to help.”

“When?” The anger started to fade from his
voice, but his face was still empty.

“Last night. Roman brought a friend over
yesterday. She knows people who can help. That’s why we went to
Charleston tonight, to see if they could help me find a way to keep
the vampires out of my head.”

“And did they?”

I started crying and couldn’t answer. The
wall behind Pierce’s eyes came crashing down and he wrapped his
arms around me. “They said no,” I sobbed into his shoulder. “They
flat out refused and actually suggested I’d be better off if the
vampires picked me off.” Pierce pulled me tight against him and he
felt so good, so solid and warm, that I clutched at his shirt,
afraid he would pull away and leave me again.

“Don’t go,” I begged. “Please don’t go!”

“Sh.” Pierce tried to sooth me but I was
quickly beginning to slip into hysterics. “I’m not going anywhere,
baby. Calm down.”

“You will. You’ll leave again.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

We stayed like this for a long time, me
wrapped in Pierce’s tight embrace. Roman still lurked at the back
of my mind, but his presence was fading fast. I knew he was unhappy
and I knew his distaste for Pierce only grew the more time I spent
with him. I pulled away as the last bits of Roman faded and I told
Pierce, “He hates you. He does this on purpose. You’re not safe and
neither am I.”

“You’re afraid he will kill you like he did
Vivian?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m afraid he will
kill you, but I don’t think he’ll harm me. I’m talking about
Perdita. She’s not going to rest until I’m dead.”

Pierce pulled me against him once more and I
listened to his heartbeat, strong and sure and full of life. “I
won’t let that happen,” he promised and I knew he meant it.

“Will you stay?” I asked and looked up into
his eyes, begged him with my own, and I almost started crying
again. “Please don’t leave me alone.”

“Yeah,” he said after a moment and kissed my
forehead. “I’ll stay tonight. Just don’t get me shot.”

That beautiful smile of his finally lit his
eyes and I couldn’t help smiling back. “My aunt couldn’t work a gun
if her life depended on it. I think you’re safe.”

I undressed and made Pierce take his shirt
off. There was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to be next
to his skin, to breathe him in and listen to the beat of his
heart.

I wasn’t quite asleep when my brain cramped.
There was no other word for it. Something in my head seized up, not
like a seizure or a tic, just a cramp. Then laughter echoed in my
head and I knew it to be Perdita’s.

“What is it?” Pierce asked. “What’s
wrong?”

Perdita laughed hysterically in my head, as
if she were enjoying the greatest joke in all the world.

“
Run, LeKrista,”
Roman thought at me.
“
Run. She’s coming for you. Run.”

“
She’s coming,”
I whispered and
gasped. My entire right side seized up in a tick. I haven’t been
gripped by a tick that bad in years. Perdita’s magic pulled at me
calling to my blood. Instead of compelling me to do her will she
sent my body into a shudder that threatened to end in seizure. I
knew the moment she realized, because she let me go and I
sighed.

“
She is coming after you, not to kill
you, my sweet, but to frighten you. She wants you to be afraid, she
wants to play with you, but she has no desire to play with your
family. She will kill them if she has the chance. You must run. Get
away from them. Quickly.”

“
Where are you?”
I shouted.

“
I am very far away, my sweet, but I am
coming. I promise you. Just run. Don’t stop, and I will be there as
soon as I can.”

I wasn’t reassured.

“She’s coming,” I told Pierce. “She’s coming
and if I don’t leave she will kill everyone.”

“Where will you go?” he asked. “I’ll come
with you.”

“And do what?” I asked. “She’ll kill you to
get to me.” I started throwing on clothes. I didn’t care if they
were dirty or not. “Stay here and watch my family. Please.
Just...don’t let them get hurt.” I found my running shoes and slid
into them without untying the laces. “Take care of my family.”

The next thing I remember is running down
the road not sure of where to go or how I was supposed to outrun a
vampire.

I hit the main road sooner than I expected.
The pavement made solid sounds under my shoes, and my breath came
in ragged gasps. I was overweight and not wearing the right kind of
pants for marathon running. The jeans were starting to chafe
between my thighs and I wanted to cry. This wasn’t how my life was
supposed to be and it certainly wasn’t how it was supposed to
end.

Rustling in the trees to my right caught my
attention and I looked over to see eyes glowing in the dim light of
the nearly full moon.

What the-

Fear spiked through me and I tried to run
faster. It kept pace with me, but stayed to the trees and I knew as
long as there were houses around it wouldn’t pounce.

There was a curb up ahead that closed up
with trees on either side of the road. No houses. I was about to be
shit out of luck.

Perdita laughed in my head again and I
shuddered. She thought this was funny, hilarious, jolly good fun. I
kept an eye on the animal in the trees as I rounded the curb.
Waited for it to lunge. It did. I saw it crouch low, just before it
left the ground and flew through the air toward me. A giant wolf’s
dark fur shone silver in the moonlight. I stopped and ducked, and
its momentum carried it over my head, just as I’d hoped, and I was
running again before it landed.

I didn’t know the woods in this area, or I
would have run into the trees.

“
Help me!”
I shouted to Roman, and
hoped he could hear me.

“
Run.”

I did. My legs carried me down the road at a
pace that had never been my own. I leapt off the road and crossed a
field to dodge a hill, a corner, and some extra running time. Then
I was back on the road, past the school on the left and several
churches. I came to the quarry where Lucretious had tossed me and
my car into the lake. The water was dark and held threats of death
in its icy murk. I passed the quarry and was up the road, headed to
Roman’s house.

“
I’m not there, LeKrista,”
Roman
reminded me, but I hadn’t forgotten.

“
Where else am I supposed to go?”
He
didn’t answer, because he knew there was nowhere else.

Two more sets of glowing eyes joined the
first. I had a moment of panic, before I realized they could taste
my fear. I would have taken deep breaths to calm myself if I had
the breath to spare.

“
She cannot follow you inside the church,
LeKrista.”

I’d forgotten about that part.
“What
about the wolves?”

“
If they are in her command, she cannot
command them inside.”

That was good to know. I passed Roman’s
house at the last minute and ran up the road toward my family’s
church.

“
Faster,”
I begged.
“Can’t we go
any faster?”

“
I can. You cannot.”

I whimpered, but accepted it. I could no
longer feel my exploding lungs, but I knew they were struggling, or
would be once Roman closed himself to me and I was operating on my
own faculties again.

I ran as hard and as fast as Roman would let
me. I ran until I could see the steeple of my church rising above
the trees and I knew I still had a mile to go. A mile at partial
vampire speed was faster than human speed, but it still wasn’t as
fast as I would have liked. I ran past the few cars that were still
on the road and past the buildings and work places. I lost sight of
those glowing eyes, and assumed they had stayed in the trees where
it was safe and they wouldn’t be seen.

I turned onto the street where my church
stood dark, silent, and empty. There wasn’t a single car in the
parking lot, not a single light save the red exit signs, and the
first thing I saw was the youth building. It was closer than the
main sanctuary, and if it would give me the refuge I needed I
wouldn’t be picky.

The doors were locked. Fancy that. I broke
one of the glass doors to get in and set off a blaring alarm. If
worse came to worst, I could play the crazy person who’d come to
the church to hide from the vampires that were trying to kill her.
It worked as the truth and a lie.

I did my best to step over the broken glass
in the floor, but it still crunched under my shoes, and the jagged
edges tried to poke through the soles. I didn’t stay in the open
for long. The worship area was to the right through a pair of
double doors, and it was so very dark. I let the doors close behind
me and huddled against a wall where I was hidden in shadows. I let
my head drop to my knees and gasped for air. My lungs hurt. My
throat felt like it was sticking together and I wished I’d thought
to get a drink of water from the café. I still could, couldn’t I? I
was inside the church. I was safe. No, I wasn’t ready to move. My
legs felt like jelly and my head throbbed. I closed my eyes and
prepared to stay all night.

My first indication that something was wrong
was the sound of glass under foot.

“LeKrista?” Perdita sing-songed from way too
close for comfort. She shouldn’t have been inside! She shouldn’t
have been able to follow me in, unless...

My heart rate sped up, betraying my
location, and Perdita chuckled.

“You thought you could hide from me in here,
didn’t you?” she asked. “Guess what? You’re not safe in this
place.” She was quiet for a moment. “I can hear your heartbeat.”
She sang it like she was taunting me with candy and ice cream.

Nah-ne-nah-ne-boo-boo...

The main sanctuary. What if I could make it
there...

I didn’t know if it would do any good. If
this part of the church wasn’t covered, would the other be? What
did I have to lose? Either I stayed here and died, or I went there
and died. Either way, I died.

I listened for Perdita. She wasn’t in the
café anymore. She’d moved into the worship area from the door at
the opposite end. She knew exactly where I was, and she was playing
games with me. Just like Roman said.

She growled and I heard her rip something
out of the wall. Then again. The drywall crumbled and the alarm
stopped. Now I had nothing to cover the sound of my escape. I
couldn’t see the vampire, but I was willing to bet she could see
me. I stood.