The Onyx Talisman (11 page)
Phil cursed under his breath. “For the love of all that is sacred.”
“Phil?” Sam’s eyes widened in awe and wonder. “You’re alive?”
“You have to help her,” I said, backing away. “I’m … uh … appetizing.”
“And that you are.” Phil gave me a quick eyebrow waggle before he helped her crawl out of the car, keeping a protective stance between the two of us. She stared up at him with hope in her eyes.
“It’s okay, Sam. I’ll get ya leveled out.” He gently moved her hair from her eyes before he ushered her toward the house.
With a quick glance over his shoulder, he gave me a reassuring smile. I hoped he’d be able to bring Sam around to the sober way of life. He had to or I didn’t know what I’d do.
I got in the car and drove home, aware Dad would probably be pacing the living room since it was after dark. Loneliness hit hard as a gentle rain danced on the windshield. Though I didn’t want to go home, I had nowhere else to go, or anyone I could talk to about things.
Dad luckily only gave me a fatherly look when I walked in. I told him I was tired, overwhelmed, and needed to be alone. He gave me a sideways hug from the comfort of his La-Z-Boy, and went back to watching some war program on the history channel. I would have given anything to have him pry just a little, but went directly upstairs instead.
Tomorrow the bomb would drop. Tomorrow everyone would discover Sam was missing. Tomorrow the nightmare would begin again and the chasm between my two lives would grow even bigger.
All I could do was curl up in my bed with Nicholas’ journal wrapped in my arms and sob.
“Well, look who finally decided to get out of bed,” Dad remarked, looking over the top of his newspaper.
I stumbled into the kitchen and went directly for the coffee pot.
“You sleep okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” I mumbled and poured myself a cup with extra sugar and cream.
“How are you handling everything?”
I shrugged. A
s good as can be expected.
“’Cause if you need to talk … ”
“I’m fine, Dad.” I gave him the “don’t try to console me” look. Yesterday, I’d hoped to sit and finish where we left off, but not now—not after everything that happened last night.
“I contacted Connie at ET. She agreed to talk with you.”
I huffed and cocked my head to the side. Though he flowed out an enormous dose of concern and I should have been grateful, he didn’t have my permission to talk to Connie or anyone for that matter. He feigned an apologetic smile as I clenched my jaw before I wordlessly breezed past him and headed upstairs.
At the same time I heard a knock at the door. A wave of anxiety from the stranger struck me hard and stopped me midstride.
“Jules, will you get that?”
I gripped the railing, dread inching up my skin. “I’m in my pajamas.”
Dad scuffed the chair against the floor when the knocking persisted. “Okay, okay.”
I should have darted up the stairs but I couldn’t make myself go. I had to know who was there. My heart almost stopped when my eyes met Sam’s mom’s.
“Please tell me Samantha is here.” She stood on her tiptoes to peer over Dad’s shoulder, her hair wild and eyes crazed. “Sam?” she called into our house.
“I don’t think she’s here, but please come in.” Dad moved to the side. “Jules?”
I gulped and wished I could tell her anything to give her some hope.
“She’s not here, Mrs. King.”
Mrs. King’s face blanched. “Did she call you? Do you know where or who she might be with?”
Dad squinted his eyes as my gaze ping-ponged between the two. I struggled to answer. “I haven’t heard from her.”
“Nancy, let’s figure this out in the living room. I’m sure she’s with a friend or boyfriend, and too embarrassed to call.” He took her arm but she stayed frozen, her eyes—laden with dark circles—fixed on me.
My breathing accelerated as her suspicion clamped hard into my psyche, squeezing me like a vice. Did she know something? I cleaned up the best I could, minus the destroyed carpet. Under her stare, everything inside screamed to confess. Surely we could trust Sam’s mom. I couldn’t do this to her, take away her only child after she’d lost her husband to cancer ten years prior.
“It’s that boy, Todd. Isn’t it?” she asked, wringing her hands. “She’s with him doing God knows what. She didn’t leave in her car, or even take her phone. As far as I know, all her clothes are at home.” She shook her head. “Where are they, Julia? Her text said to call you. You were the last to talk to her. Is she in trouble?”
My heart floundered in my chest. “I…I don’t know,” I stuttered out, unsure what else to say. “We didn’t talk about anything important. She didn’t say she was leaving. She was—home.” My voice teetered up, hinting my lie.
Dad’s curiosity spiked.
“Well, I’m going to Todd’s parents after this. He took her somewhere and when I find out where, heaven help him.”
Visions of the interrogation at school with Principal Brewster and the fliers littering the halls when Phil was missing came back in a rush. I wanted to bury my head in a hole until the hysteria passed.
Mrs. King’s agitation erupted. We didn’t have the answers she came to find.
“Sorry to bother you. If she calls, please have her call me.” She clutched her purse to her chest while she darted out of the door.
“Of course,” Dad said, chasing after her and helping her into her car.
I watched from the doorway as she screeched her tires and tore off down the street. Dad returned, his brows pulled down, shadowing his eyes—what Luke and I called the infamous sleeper-wave eyebrows of death. “Do you have your pen?”
“Yeah.” I snapped to attention at the directness of his question. “It’s upstairs.”
“When you see Sam, use it.”
“Dad!” I gasped, amazed he’d ask me to zap her, no questions asked.
“And if she’s okay, nothing will happen.”
“And if she’s not, it’ll kill her.”
“Yes.” Dad looked grim.
“NO!”
I turned to run upstairs as he grabbed my arm. “You have to. I know you can’t imagine this as a possibility, but if she’s been turned, she won’t be able to control herself. And honestly, Sam won’t really be Sam anymore. The creature will look like her, but it will only want one thing from you and you’ll have to protect yourself.” He loosened his grip and pursed his lips, composing himself. “I’m sorry. I hope I’m wrong.”
His exact interpretation of what really happened sent a quiver through my gut. In spite of all his warnings, without the talisman, I would have died yesterday. And instead of Sam’s mom coming to our door, police would have informed him of my demise just now.
But the talisman did change everything. I’d been able to give Sam a second chance along with the rest of my vamp friends to choose a different life. The fact Dad would have zapped them on sight hurt. How could he be so cruel, especially since he knew civil vamps existed?
“You’re wrong.” I pulled my arm away. “You shouldn’t be so quick to judge. You had good vampires that you worked with.”
Dad laughed, the sound sadistic and mean. “Very few are civil, at best. And that’s only after years of practice. They still need blood to survive and will do anything to get it. They don’t keep humans as pets, just like you don’t buy ice cream to admire it in the freezer.”
He was misinformed. Vamps didn’t need blood, they only craved it, and once they abstained the bloodlust decreased drastically and they could lead bloodless lives. “If my eating ice cream killed people, I’d quit.”
“I’m not joking. For them it’s not an option. They don’t care if you were once friends. They kill to satisfy their overwhelming appetite. It’s a simple fact.”
They can if they’re given a chance.
“But still,” he said, “No going out after dark until we get a location on Sam. If she’s been changed, she’ll be lethal.”
I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Hardly.”
“Julia, this isn’t something to mess with. She’ll find you. You’re familiar. She won’t be able to help herself.”
I wanted to scream that I had a vampire-warding talisman and that she couldn’t harm me, but I wasn’t sure if that was wise.
“So you’re going to lock me up?”
“It’s for your safety.”
“Phil found me and nothing happened.”
He pressed his lips together. “You were lucky.”
“Lucky?” I snorted. “I thought you said I was brave.”
“That too. You’re just like your mother,” he said, almost as an afterthought.
My throat hiccupped. “What do you mean?”
Grief hit hard as Dad sat on the chair in the foyer. He stared down at the floor. “Mom had an ability to sense the emotions of others. She once asked me what kind of person would ever crave blood. I thought she was joking and didn’t take her comment seriously until it was too late.”
I sat down on the stairs opposite him. “Why didn’t you ever tell me Mom was an empath?”
Dad looked up, startled. “I—I don’t know.” His mouth froze, partly open as his skin paled. “Are you … are you one too?”
I looked away.
“That makes sense.” He touched my arm. “I should have known; you’ve always been so aware.”
“Freakishly so.”
“Oh, don’t think that,” he said and stood up, pulling me into a hug. “You’re special.”
Who would have thought a vampire sighting would bring out everything I’ve ever wanted to talk about with my father, but couldn’t? Well, almost everything. I peered deeply into his eyes, begging. He couldn’t lock me up.
“So, since I sense them, they can’t sneak up on me. That’s how I knew Phil was around. So, I’m fine.”
“I trust you, Julia. It’s the vamps I don’t trust. Do you not remember what happened to your mother? Your friendship with Sam might stop you from doing the right thing.”
I sucked in a quick breath, tempted to challenge him. Could he kill his best friend? Luckily, the talisman saved me from ever having to make that choice. “I’m armed now, so I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Even still, I’m taking your keys.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, pumpkin. I don’t want you to be tempted.”
There wasn’t anywhere I needed to go, but handing them over seemed completely unfair. They hung on the wall in the kitchen and I couldn’t snag them now without him knowing.
“This sucks.”
“Just until we can locate her.”
“Fine, whatever.” I turned on my heels and marched upstairs, slamming my door.
Once Dad disappeared into his basement office, I escaped outside to clear my head. He might have my keys, but a walk in pure daylight surely wasn’t forbidden.
The ache inside for Nicholas and uncertainty with Phil and Sam drove daggers into my stomach. But Scarlett’s disappearance angered me most. This wasn’t the first time she’d gone missing in action. And now when I needed her most, she’d disappeared.
The giant redwoods creaked in time with the blue jays’ happy song, as if they played a symphony together. I padded down the winding path with Nicholas’ journal tucked under my arm. My destination: the place where fate had brought me and Nicholas together—our sacred spot.
I sat on the old familiar stump. Sunlight fought through the trees to illuminate the plants that needed the light, just like the depths of my heart, dying from the absence of everything I held dear. I didn’t know what to do, where to turn, or how to cope.
A blast of overwhelming curiosity drew my attention away. I peered down the trail, meeting a pair of green effervescent eyes. His eyes. I gasped and stood. My hands instinctively wrapped around the talisman to protect it. The journal flopped open onto the trail.
“It’s okay,” Nicholas said, putting out his hand. “Don’t be afraid.”
“I’ll scream,” I said, retreating away, knowing his mother sent him here to find me and retrieve the necklace, far away from Preston’s interference.
As I blinked, his shape blurred. Then his hand cupped over my mouth and his arm fastened my torso; his body pressing into me from behind.
“Shhh,” he whispered in my ear. “I promise. I just want to talk.”
Sincerity emanated from his being. Unable to help it, I melted into his arms, welcoming his touch. He smelled amazing and though he was there to take back what was his, all I wanted to do was kiss him.
“You won’t scream?”
I nodded my head, tempted to jump into his arms. My body went slack as he loosened his grip.
“Here.” He picked up the journal and handed it to me. “You dropped this.”
I looked down at the journal and then back into his mesmerizing eyes. Our hands touched as I received the book. He gestured for us to sit down.
“I’m sorry I snuck up on you. I wasn’t sure …”
He stopped and studied me, fascination lighting up his face, as if he admired what he saw. I looked away with a blush, my stomach dancing with butterflies.
“How did you find me?”
“After you left, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Preston and Alora wouldn’t tell me much as usual, so I got in my car and drove. Once I arrived in town, I followed your scent.”
“Oh,” I covered my mouth with my hand and then let it drop down to touch the talisman. Though it warmed, I wondered again why it wasn’t masking my scent. But because it didn’t work, he found me. Were his memories still there, just locked up somehow?
“You’re calling your parents by their first names. Why?”
“They don’t feel like my parents actually.”
Maybe not.
He scooted a little closer. I fought back the urge to grab his neck and lay one on his lips.
“So, what do you want to know?”
“Everything, anything. How we met? The events that led to my memory being erased?”
“You don’t remember anything?”
He shrugged.
“But you knew to come here?”
“You told me at the house.”
“Oh, right.”
Darn it.
I looked away from his inquiring stare and my gaze ironically focused to the object on my lap. Everything he could possibly want to know was documented here, in his own words. A far better recollection than I could do. I gripped the leather bound book tighter, afraid of the consequences. What if he read what was inside and rejected me? But I couldn’t keep it from him either.