“Just the little girl I was looking for,” a shrill voice called from behind her.
Ally sagged. “Really? This again.” She turned to face the blonde that she knew would be standing there.
Natalia gave a sweet smile and waved her fingers.
“Did you follow me?”
“Maybe.” Ally cringed at the voice. It was too high, too sickly sweet for a woman. It belonged to a little girl. But then again, the way she was acting, perhaps it suited her after all.
Natalia started to walk in a large circle around her. “I did follow you,” she admitted.
Eyes blazing, Ally glared. “You’re sick you know that right?”
“No, just protecting what’s mine.”
“Oh for god sakes Natalia. Let me make this abundantly clear. He is not yours. He was never yours! You can’t protect what was not yours to begin with.”
A low growl filled the empty space. “I was going to help you out, but you can forget it now.”
“Why would you want to do that?” She asked, hands on her hips.
Natalia’s sweet smile was beginning to grate. “To get rid of you.”
“And how would you achieve that exactly?”
She stopped circling and stared at Ally before answering. “By telling you who James is.”
Temptation spiralled within her. She wanted answers. She wanted to know who James was. Didn’t she?
“Alright I’ll bite. Who is James?”
“Your soulmate.”
Her feet stood rooted to the ground. The despair was evident on her face.
Natalia laughed. “That’s right. You have a soulmate out there, who is probably searching for you, and here you are all shacked up with Vincent. Hmmm…I wonder what James would say if he knew?”
“Shut it.”
“Oh no this is way too much fun.” She put her finger on her lips. “I know where he is. Perhaps I should go fill him in on the fact that you’ve been getting cosy with the one man he hates the most!”
“Why should I even believe a single word that comes out of your mouth.”
“Because it’s the truth and you know it.” Natalia spat. “You may not remember anything, but your heart knows the truth. I saw the look on your face, Alessandra. You’ve probably held back with him, sensing that something wasn’t right, but couldn’t work out the reason. Am I right?”
Ally stared incoherently. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.
“I can see by your reaction that I’m right about that as well.” She laughed wickedly again. “Oh this is just too much. The perfect little girl has suddenly veered off the course of all that is goodness and light.” She mocked. “Vincent has that effect.”
“No,” Ally felt her legs starting to give way beneath her. “No, that’s not the reason. If I had a soulmate how could I ever forget him.”
“Ask Vincent.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nevermind. I’ve decided that I’m going to have to kill you after all.”
The words penetrated the fog clouding her mind. “And what do you think Vincent would do to you then if you kill the woman he actually wants, hmm?” Ally mocked Vincents drawl. “What do you think would be waiting for you then my dear, dear girl. Do you think he’ll get on his knees and fall into your arms pledging his love to you forever? Doubt it. We both know who and what Vincent is. Ruthless. Merciless. And he has a slight temper problem. Not exactly the kind of guy that you want to piss off. And believe me, by killing me that is exactly what you would be doing. So what do you think Natalia? Kill me or walk away. What’s it going to be?”
Natalia’s face revealed her doubt, but her pride would never let her walk away. “I’m going to kill you.”
Ally snorted. “You can try.”
“I’ll do more than just try.” Natalia ran at her, but Ally was waiting. She moved at the last second and grabbed Natalia from behind, throwing her to the ground. She was up within a second and charging at Ally again. This time she grabbed Ally and dug her nails into her arms. The blood spilled as Ally cried out with pain. Natalia threw her face down into the dirt. Ally tried to get up but Natalia held her down with her foot.
“This was so much easier than I thought,” she grumbled. “I actually feel let down.”
“I’m not dead yet.”
Ally put all her strength into a roll and came up with a kick to Natalia’s mid section. “As I said, not dead yet.” The blood trickled down her arm and her face was covered with dirt.
Natalia growled again.
“And you forgot these,” she held up her hands and called the fire into her palms.
“You’ve got to catch me first,” Natalia laughed.
“No she doesn’t,” the familiar voice called from the shadows.
Their hands whipped the darkness and both watched as he moved out of the shadows. Vincent was here and judging by the fury in his eyes, he wasn’t happy. He never took his eyes off Natalia.
She shrank back further and further into herself. “Vincent? I’m helping you. She’s changing you.”
“That’s not up to you to decide.” He stalked closer to her. Her eyes darted around wildly, looking for an escape. Vincent was one step ahead of her.
“Look at me, Natalia.”
Ally watched silently, but felt the power radiating out of him. She’d known that he was powerful but until this moment, she’d never fully understood the depths of it. She had never seen him in a situation that his full power had been called for. She shivered at the knowledge of what he was actually capable of. It should’ve made her afraid of him, but it didn’t. She’d given him plenty of excuses to turn that on her but he never had.
A deep crimson filled his eyes, as the energy grew even stronger. Hypnotic. Natalia whimpered. “Vincent, no.”
“I warned you what would happen if you went after her again. Have I ever given you any reason to believe that I don’t follow through on my threats.”
She shook her head meekly.
“There is something that I owe you though. An apology. I should never have dragged you into this life on a whim. I should have left you as an immortal. I made you. I’m responsible for what you’ve become. I’m sorry for that.”
Natalia’s eyes grew wide and her mouth parted. Ally felt her face doing the same thing. Natalia had been right. He was changing, but she hadn’t known he had changed this much. But this wasn’t right. She knew that he was going to kill her. Ally couldn’t watch this.
“Vincent,” she called out quietly. “Don’t do this.”
He turned his head to her and his red eyes cleared back to piercing blue. “She won’t stop until you’re dead.”
They were so focused on each other, neither of them saw what was coming.
Natalia swiped at Vincent’s neck, slashing a line across his throat. Blood spilled out.
“No!” Ally screamed as Vincent grabbed at his throat. She couldn’t breathe, could barely see past the tears falling from her eyes. She ran to Vincent’s side and ripped her jacket off. She pushed it against his throat and put his hands on it, pushing hard. That was all she could do for him here. There was something else she was going to do. She kissed his forehead. “I’m coming back,” she whispered then took off after Natalia.
She caught up to her within a minute and tackled her to the ground. Natalia threw her off and laughed. “Seems like neither of us can have him now.”
“Wrong.” Ally felt a power rising in her. Power equal to the one she’d felt from Vincent. She sent Natalia a grin and then called the fire. Natalia smirked “You think a couple of fireballs are going to take care of me. I’ll be gone before you take aim.”
“No I don’t. But I’m pretty sure this will.” Ally held up her hands and a wave of fire flew out them. It hit Natalia with a deadly accuracy. Her screeching filled the air, along with the putrid smell of burning flesh. “Goodbye Natalia.” She raced back to Vincent’s side and fell onto her knees again next to him. His white skin was almost translucent. “No, no,” she wailed frantically. “Come on, Vincent. You have to live.”
He didn’t stir, his eyes were closed. But he wasn’t a pile of ash either. “That has to mean something right?”
“Think Ally, think. Major blood loss. Do vampires regenerate? I really should have asked these things.” She grabbed the knife from Vincent’s boot, sliced her hand and held it up to his mouth. “Come on,” she willed him. “Drink Vincent.”
Nothing. She went into his mind. A flicker of light was all that remained.
Vincent! Don’t you dare die on me right now. Drink the blood!
Alessandra?
Yes. Now drink.
She felt the slightest movement at her hand. He was drinking. Just barely but it was better than nothing. Gently, she lifted the jacket. His neck had closed, but he needed blood and more than she could give in one go.
Colour started to appear in his face. “It’s working!”
“Dead?” He sputtered.
“Natalia? Yes.” She cupped his cheek. “Save your strength. I need to get you back home before the sun rises.”
She grabbed him under his arms and dragged him up onto his feet. “You’re lucky I’ve got supernatural strength,” she ground out. He was heavier than she’d been expecting. Or perhaps it was the blood loss. Either way she ground her teeth and let him put most of his weight on her. She half dragged, half carried him back towards the house. The sun would be up in less than half an hour. She tried to use her super speed but it didn’t work very well. Vincent grunted something. She stopped walking. “What?”
“Tunnel entrance hill.” He pointed to a small nondescript hill a few metres away. “Goes into house.”
Hope spurred Ally forward. A few metres and he would be safe. They reached the hill and she set him down gently. She looked around but saw no door. “Where’s the door?”
“Under the twigs.”
“Of course,” she mentally slapped her head and hastily cleared the debris. A door that pulled out appeared before her eyes. She grabbed the metal handle and pulled with all her might. The door groaned, then gave way to her strength. She looked down into the pitch black stairwell. “Great,” she muttered. “Of course it’s stairs. Not to mention spiders.” She shivered.
Grabbing Vincent again, she took a slow pace. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to fall down and break their neck. Her eyesight was almost as good as Vincent’s in the dark, but she still fumbled around looking for a light. The urge to scream was almost unbearable each time she felt a cobweb brush against her face. The only thing that stopped it was Vincent. He needed her. His undead life depended on it.
After what felt like forever, her foot hit flat, level ground.
“Key,” Vincent mumbled. “Pocket.”
She dug around in his pocket and pulled out a little silver key. She put it in, twisted and sighed in relief when the lock clicked over. She flung the door open and got him inside. “It’s the dungeon,” she murmured and glanced over her shoulder. They’d come in through the other door that had been locked from the outside. She pushed the thought from her mind and lay him on the bed.
“Stay here. No sun.”
Ally nodded. “You need more blood.”
“Not you.”
“Yes!” She sliced her other hand and forced him to drink again. “My blood should be more potent than any regular old human. You won’t need as much.”
He pushed her hand away. Ally brushed her hand across his brow. Life was flowing in his veins once more. He tried to sit up, but she held him down. “Stay there. You need to do whatever it is vampires do to get better.”
“Regenerate.”
“Yeah that.”
“Thank you,” he murmured before the regenerative sleep took him over against his will.
She smiled and bestowed a kiss on his cheek. She locked the door once more that they had come through and made the slow climb up the stairs into the house. Vincent was going to be okay. She on the other hand was covered in blood and needed a regenerative shower of her own before she went back down to stay with him. Madison and Mabel also needed to be made aware of what had happened so that neither went out in search of them.