––––––––
Madeline’s head whipped around, lips pulled back from her deadly white teeth in a snarl. Sebastian’s hands locked around her throat, but his strength wouldn’t hold her for long.
Her long, pale fingers wrapped around his wrists, dragging his hands away.
Sebastian threw his body weight against her, at least hoping that would hold her for a minute, but her body felt like a bag full of tightly coiled snakes beneath him—all muscle—and she pushed him away.
She spun around, facing him, fury burning on her face.
“So this is what it’s come to, Sebastian? Us chasing your little bitch through the night because you haven’t got the sense to do as you’re told?”
“I’ll go with you now,” he snapped, trembling with fury. “Just leave her alone.”
She glared at him. “I don’t think so. You’ve been given enough opportunities to make your choice.”
Serenity didn’t stand a chance; she couldn’t hide from Madeline. But Sebastian had to wonder, did she even plan to hide?
Sebastian remembered what she’d said—how she thought she could stand it if they were both alone, still loving each other. She would rather they were apart than see either of them forced to be with someone they hated. Serenity was the one person who understood Sebastian’s position; after all, she’d been forced to live with a man she despised for so many years. She’d wanted to try to defeat Madeline and the thought of what she might be planning terrified him. He had no idea what she was thinking, but whatever it was, it wouldn’t work.
Sebastian felt utterly powerless. He wanted to tear Madeline’s throat out—would do anything to stop her going after Serenity—but one vampire couldn’t kill another. To kill another vampire was impossible; a prime rule written in the dark laws of their kind. An instinct written into their cells prevented them from committing such an act. If he tried to sink his teeth into her throat, his jaw would lock, his strength would melt away, and he would end up helpless until the urge to kill her faded.
He knew this because he’d tried many years ago.
Madeline sprang away from him, heading for the front door.
Serenity’s blood hung thick on the night air; the wound on her wrist fresh enough to make her whereabouts traceable. As soon as Madeline gave him the letter, with Serenity’s blood dribbled across the page, he had become focused on the scent.
“MADELINE!” Sebastian roared after her as she disappeared out of the door. The other vampire was already gone into the night, chasing the scent of blood Serenity left on the air.
Fear pulsed through him. If she found Serenity now, Madeline would tear her throat out. All of their games were over. Now was the time for action.
Sebastian took after her.
Like a bloodhound on the scent of a fox, Madeline chased Serenity through the night, Sebastian hot on her tail.
In less than a minute, the trail took Madeline to the garage where Serenity had stolen the car. Sebastian followed close behind, but far enough away for her to ignore his presence. The other vampire’s focus lay solely on the hunt.
Madeline stood before the garage, hands on her hips. Sebastian stayed hidden on top of a building across the road, watching Madeline’s actions. He hoped to figure out where Serenity had gone and get ahead of Madeline.
The other vampire must have lost the trail, as he had, the metallic scent of blood merging with that of oil.
On the forecourt, a man stood shouting at a skinny, teenaged attendant.
“Where the fuck is my car?” he yelled, his hands held up. “What sort of fucking scam are you running here?”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out the reason for the lack of scent and the missing vehicle.
Madeline marched up to the attendant, picked him up by his shoulders and flung him across the lot. He hit one of the pumps and slid down, unconscious. She turned her attention to the slack jawed man in the suit, and grabbed him by the lapels.
“Where was it?” she hissed, showing her canines, her face horribly white under the harsh lights of the canopy.
“I... I don’t know what you mean?”
“Your car, you idiot. Where was your car?”
With a shaky hand, he pointed to pump number one.
Madeline dropped him and he stumbled away, his eyes never leaving the stunningly terrifying woman who had threatened him.
She headed to the pump and then, like a dog, got down on all fours, her lips drawn back, pulling the scent over her olfactory glands, sniffing the ground.
Sebastian, still watching, forced himself to hold back.
Where was Serenity headed? Her words rang in his ears, ‘Somewhere special.’
Only one location came to mind, the same place she had taken him.
The pier.
Suddenly certain of where she was heading, Sebastian hoped he would reach her before Madeline picked up another scent.
Frustration and anger filled him, making him want to punch a hole in a wall.
Though furious at Madeline, he was also angry at Serenity. Did she think she could somehow fight Madeline? She would get herself killed.
Carefully, he backed away, hoping Madeline had forgotten about him. Madeline was so caught up in the hunt she’d failed to recall there might be another way to find Serenity; through Sebastian. With the vampire’s rejection of humanity, she had forgotten—with intimacy comes trust.
Sebastian moved as fast as possible.
He ran with breathtaking speed and grace, leaping across the narrower roads, over fences and through backyards. Sebastian hit the San Diego freeway and jumped on top of moving cars, landing on the roofs, making the drivers glance up in surprise. Cars swerved as he moved from one to another.
Sebastian focused on finding Serenity, his brain buzzing with a desperate need to save her. Wind tore past his ears. The headlights of oncoming traffic threatened to blind him, to make him lose his footing, but he quickly gained ground.
Even at night, the lights from the city meant the sky was never totally dark.
As he headed down the Pacific Coast Highway, he saw the pier, delineated by strings of lights. The structure stretched out into the darkness of the ocean, colorful bulbs marking its boundary from the sea. The white moon reflected in ripples on the waves against the horizon.
Serenity was out there, he knew it.
Her vulnerability scared him, alone somewhere on the poorly lit structure, with a creature who wanted her dead hot on her trail.
The pier looked different from the last time they visited. Gone were the tourists, bright lights and music. Instead, silence settled over the structure and a bright yellow ‘Caution’ tape roped off the front entrance, warning people to stay out. Signs informed visitors of the pier now being a construction site, instructing that hard hats must be worn at all times. Huge pieces of machinery—a giant borer drilling machine, a couple of cement mixers and a huge flatbed truck with several steel girders, one hundred feet in length, resting on the back—were positioned at the end of the pier. The wharf was quiet now, the workmen long gone.
Sebastian wanted to call out for Serenity but held his tongue, afraid Madeline might be near. Instead, he used his sense of smell and followed the faint hint of iron on the still night air.
He stepped over the tape and onto the pier. It was strange seeing the place like this, so still and somehow exposed. Removing all the laughter and lights and music uncovered the place for what it really was—smoke and mirrors. Without people, the structure contained no life.
At a normal pace, a human pace, he walked down the length of the pier toward the machinery at the end.
Right at the end, on the right hand side, work had begun.
A huge metal cylinder had been sunk in the water, down into the bedrock. It ran parallel to the struts already supporting the pier. The existing struts couldn’t be removed; doing so would compromise the integrity of the pier and weaken it. Safer to add more support to what already existed. Several days earlier, the cylinder had been sunk and water pumped out of the huge metal tube. Embedded into the bedrock, the cylinder was now water tight. A ladder ran down the sheer internal wall, allowing the workmen access.
Sebastian didn’t care about the construction. His attention focused on the woman sitting on the back of the flatbed truck, her legs dangling over the end.
Serenity managed a shaken smile as he approached. “I knew you would come.”
“What the hell are you doing?” he said. “What if I hadn’t found you and Madeline did instead?”
She didn’t answer his question. Instead, she pushed herself off the flatbed and landed with her feet firmly on the ground. She walked up to him and took hold of his hand, focusing his attention. Her smile disappeared.
“Sebastian, you need to listen to me,” she said with urgency behind her voice. “And you need to trust me. She’ll be here soon and I want you to hide. When Madeline gets here, you need to promise me—promise me—you will wait until I call before you come out.”
Sebastian started to interrupt, but she held up her hand, stopping him.
“As soon as I call out, I want you to come and pull me out of the pipe, but not just me. You need to pull up the ladder, as well. Can you do that? Do you have the strength to rip the whole ladder up?”
“Yes, of course, but what are you planning?” he said, squeezing her hand, fear for her life encompassing him. “What the hell are you doing, Serenity? We need to get out of here.”
“Please, don’t even think about the reason for what you’re doing. You can’t think about it. Just do as I ask. I know this site, Sebastian. It was one of the contracts my old company was working on before I got fired. I know the construction and what materials are being used. It might not be much, but it’s something and I intend to use every advantage we have.”
“But...”
“Shut up, Sebastian,” she said. “I can’t always have someone looking after me. I need to do this for myself.”
“No. No, you...”
He stopped.
“She’s coming,” he hissed. “I can hear her.”
“Then go,” she said. “But please, do as I ask”
So he did.
The sound of the siren blaring above James Bently’s head gave him comfort. With confidence, he skillfully guided the car as traffic pulled to the side, allowing him through.
He headed across Lincoln Boulevard and hit a red light. The car in front didn’t budge. Some young guy had his music on so loud at first he didn’t hear the police siren behind him. Then his gaze flicked up to the rear view mirror to see the police officer staring back. Momentary panic flashed in his eyes before he pulled the car to the right.
After Serenity’s call came through, James told Dawson to go home. His partner did so willingly—Dawson had already been peeved from their trip to the hotel—and happily called it a night.
Heart racing, James sped through the city. Serenity’s terror had been apparent on the phone. She said someone was after her and James believed her.
So many questions raced through his mind. What the hell had happened at the hotel? He no longer questioned the possibility that someone else had disappeared from the room, but what she’d gotten herself involved with remained a mystery. He couldn’t explain much of what had happened—from how the glass in the bedroom had been broken, to how someone managed to shatter dozens of windshields in a matter of seconds and then disappear without a trace. If he didn’t know better, James would have thought he was chasing a ghost.
Something wasn’t right. He was afraid of what he might find when he eventually reached Serenity, as though some part of him had already seen his future and couldn’t quite comprehend it.
He wasn’t on duty anymore. If someone reported him driving through Los Angeles with his lights and siren on, because of a phone call from a woman he barely knew, he would be reprimanded.
Would he be doing this if the woman in question didn’t have big, dark eyes, or skin the color of cream? Everything about her made him want to protect and take care of her. It made him crazy that a woman like Serenity would stay with a husband who hurt her.
You’d do the same for anyone else in trouble, he told himself. He’d do exactly the same thing if Serenity was thirty years older or a man.
So why did his heart beat so hard and his palms leave a slick of sweat on the steering wheel?
James hoped he’d get to the pier before whoever was chasing her reached Serenity first.
The most obvious answer to all of this was her good-for-nothing husband. He’d come out of whatever hole he’d been hiding in and found where she was staying. James couldn’t explain how he’d broken the window in the hotel room, but Serenity must have finally run from him. James refused to be another man who let her down.
The vehicle ate up the miles, the wail of the siren helping things along. The car sped down the Pacific Coast Highway and into the affluent area of Santa Monica. Within minutes, he headed down Colorado Avenue toward the pier. Before he got too close, James killed the siren.
Immediately, the silence struck him. He had forgotten the pier was closed for reinforcements and had expected the place to be covered in the usual throng of tourists and bright lights. Tonight, darkness settled over the structure. Only the thin strip of colored bulbs hanging along the edges offered any light.
A silver BMW sat abandoned at the entrance with its headlights left on. The bright halogens lit up the front part of the pier, revealing frozen pigs with saddles on their backs, and painted grins on their faces. The effect on the carousel was eerie and a shiver ran down his spine. He wasn’t a man who spooked easily, but after the events earlier, things had changed.
James pulled his patrol car up beside the BMW and got out. Everything remained quiet. He’d known work was taking place on the pier, but he hadn’t thought about it when Serenity gave him the place to meet. That wasn’t like him; he didn’t usually miss details. The sudden appearance of Serenity in his life seemed to be changing him.
He put his hand on his hip, reassured by the solid metal of his gun in its holster. He didn’t know if Serenity’s husband would be carrying, but he wasn’t going to take the risk of going out there unarmed.
With cautious but fast steps, James headed out onto the wharf, using the now dark and silent attractions as cover. The holster of his gun was unclasped, his fingers never far from the weapon. He scanned the area, searching for any place Serenity might hide. He wanted to call her name, but didn’t want to alert her husband to his location.
The silent amusements loomed over him; a clown’s maniacal face, a giant porcelain fortune teller with wide, staring eyes. James wished he’d called for backup.
Maybe Serenity hadn’t reached the pier yet? He did have the advantage of a police car and siren. If not for the abandoned BMW, he might have convinced himself he was alone.
Then he saw her.
Serenity stood, balanced on the end of the pier. One of the huge metal cylinders being used to reinforce the pier had been sunk deep into the ocean beside her.
Beyond the pier, beyond the black sea, an ominous grouping of clouds grew on the horizon. The bank rolled toward them, threatening to blanket the moon and steal what little light they had. A cold wind picked up, lifting Serenity’s hair from her neck and making James unconsciously tighten his muscles.
The sudden chill wasn’t the only thing causing James to tense; Serenity wasn’t alone.
A woman stood in front of her, her back to James. Red hair fell in spirals down her back.
A memory tugged at him.
The two women appeared to be in a stand-off. The other woman stood tall, with her hands on her hips, not looking the slightest bit intimidated.
Could this be the person chasing Serenity? The same person who had smashed the window in the hotel? A woman? He found it hard to believe a female would have the strength and speed to create such damage, but it wasn’t impossible. However, the manager at the hotel said a man and a woman were staying in the hotel room, not two women.
That wasn’t his concern right now; he needed to focus on the scene in front of him.
At first he thought neither of the women had noticed him but then Serenity’s eyes flickered to his and he saw them dark with abject fear.
Something was very wrong here.
Instinct switched on and he snatched his gun from his holster. James opened his mouth to shout ‘freeze’, but never got the chance.
The woman spun around snarling, her lips drawn back from teeth which looked as though they’d been filed down to razor points. Her eyes glowed in the dark; bright yellow with slit pupils like those of a snake. Her skin was whiter than the moon, and had the appearance of a corpse; waxy and shiny. Despite all of this, James recognized her immediately. Although he hadn’t been present when the woman came in to the station to report Jackson Hathaway had raped her, he’d seen the photographs taken as evidence.
Except, she wasn’t just a woman.
She focused on him and leapt. Her movements were unnatural, more animal than human. She flew through the air, face contorted in a terrible snarl, fingers outstretched and curled as though she intended to tear him apart with her fingertips when she landed.
James reacted. He raised the gun and fired three times in quick succession. Her body jerked in the air, once, twice, three times, and then dropped to the ground a few feet from him.
Though in shock, his mind was already forming reasons—maybe a bad dose of ice, a horrific drug that had become popular in the city—anything to rationalize what he’d seen. In his eight years as a cop, he’d never been forced to kill a woman and the act shook him to his core.
But even as he came up with excuses, she started to get to her feet.
“What the fuck?” he breathed.
In the rapidly deteriorating light, he searched for Serenity. She no longer stood on the edge of the pier. She must be hiding and he didn’t blame her.
The woman stood up straight, her eyes wide, never blinking. She tilted her head to one side and looked him up and down.
“You fucking shot me!” she said, as though outraged by his actions.
James opened his mouth and closed it again. He’d been about to apologize and then realized how insane that was. How was she standing there? How the fuck was she speaking to him? She should be dead.
He searched her chest, trying to find the bullet holes and accompanying blood. Had he missed? No, he’d seen her body jerk as the bullets hit.
“What the hell are you?” he said, his voice barely a whisper. Her face was an unearthly white and he struggled to believe those terrifying yellow eyes belonged in this world.
She raised an eyebrow. “You shot me three times and you think you get to ask the questions? I don’t think so.”
The woman spoke as though all he had done was rear-end her car.
This was insane. She would have looked like an attractive, smartly dressed woman if it wasn’t for her face.
She flew at him.
Her body blocked out the moon. A moment later, she smashed James to the ground, knocking the air from his lungs. The hand holding the gun cracked against the ground and instinctively he tightened his grip.
A blast exploded next to his head, the gunshot ringing out in the still night. His ear rang from the concussion of the shot.
The woman-thing perched on his chest, crushing him. She looked down into his face as he desperately tried to gasp for breath.
“Well that was stupid,” she said, her lips curled in a horrific snarl-smile. “You almost did my job for me.”
She lowered her head toward his, yellow eyes searching his face. Her full lips hovered inches from his. Her tongue snuck out and she slowly traced his upper lip in a cold embrace. James shrank in revulsion.
“Shame you have to die,” she said, her mouth almost touching his. “You’re a handsome one.”
She lowered her mouth to his throat, her sharp teeth ready to tear the flesh. James resigned himself to a quick death, but a name, distant and muffled, was shouted;
“Madeline!”
Serenity?
The thing sitting on his chest sat up, suddenly alert, distracted.
Then, with a swipe of her fist, she knocked him out cold.