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Sebastian’s eyes shot open. He lay motionless on the bed, his arms folded across his chest, his ears straining.
The house was quiet—too quiet. He couldn’t hear a single heartbeat thudding within its walls, not a breath, no talking or laughter.
The house was empty.
Sebastian sat up. Where was everyone? Dusk had fallen and he felt sure Serenity and Bridget wouldn’t take Elizabeth out at night.
They’ve probably just gone to get some take-out for dinner...
Uncertainty buzzed at his nerve endings. Something wasn’t right. Serenity would have wanted to be with him when he woke. He didn’t think she’d want to miss even a minute of them being a family again.
Using his speed, he darted in and out of their bedrooms. In both Serenity and Elizabeth’s room, the dresser drawers hung open, clothes spilling from the insides. The closet doors stood ajar, another little jumble of clothes on the bottom, as though items had been torn from the hangers with no intent of picking them back up.
His sense of unease increased.
He left the first floor and raced around the house. On the kitchen counter, a sheet of paper had been weighted down with a saltshaker. Sebastian snatched up the note, the paper crisp in his fingers. His eyes scoured the lines, a combination of fear and rage creeping in as his brain processed the words:
Sebastian,
Demitri came in the night and took Elizabeth. We tried to wake you, but we couldn’t. Bridget and I have flown to New York. Please, come as soon as you can. I’ll be at the hotel, or if I’m not there, you’ll know I’ve already encountered Demitri.
I love you. Come as fast as you can.
Serenity.
Fury erupted from his core and he lifted his head and roared, the sound echoing around the big house. His fingers hooked beneath the kitchen countertop and he lifted, wrenching the huge piece of marble from the solid wood units beneath. The wood creaked and split in protest and tore apart. Enraged, Sebastian flung the huge slab to the floor. The marble hit with a resounding crack and shattered into several pieces, breaking the tiles that made up the kitchen flooring. But Sebastian wasn’t done. With anger controlling him, he yelled again and swung his arm, sending all of the kitchen appliances—kettle, coffee machine, microwave—hurtling across the room, smashing into the opposite wall with a clanging crash. He punched the wall behind where the counter had been, his fist crunching through plasterboard and finally brick.
Goddamn what he was! What good was so much strength when, once again, someone had hurt his family while he lay helpless? He hated to think of Serenity trying to wake him, begging for his help, while he lay motionless on the bed—to her eyes, for all purposes, dead.
She deserves better than me. They both do.
He hated himself, but didn’t have the time to wallow in self-pity or smash up any more of his house. He needed to make the journey back across the country again, and fast. He dreaded to think what sort of situation Serenity had already gotten herself into. The possibility of her waiting, sitting on her hands at the hotel, was remote. Knowing Demitri held Elizabeth only a couple of blocks away, Serenity wouldn’t just do nothing.
Elizabeth.
His heart contracted with pain. If Demitri had hurt her in any way, Sebastian would find a way to destroy him.
He knew the thoughts were hollow threats. The elder vampire had made it into the house without Sebastian even being aware of his presence. He’d been so caught up in Serenity, in losing himself in the pleasures of her body, he hadn’t noticed a thing outside of her arms.
He wished he could be wakened during the day, but only threatening his existence would break through his unnatural sleep. If Serenity tried to harm him—expose him to light, cut off his head, stake his heart—he would slaughter her without even realizing what he was doing. His body would simply react, even if they’d previously come to an agreement that she needed to take such actions to get through to him.
Damn it! He’d never thought Demitri would come already; he’d promised them time to be together again. Surely one night didn’t amount to ‘time’? Sebastian growled, a low rumble deep within his chest. He was always making mistakes—so many mistakes. Would a time ever come when he wouldn’t let his family down?
How could someone so strong also be so weak?
At least this journey across the country would be made alone. He wouldn’t have to worry if the person he carried was comfortable or needed to rest. He would be faster on his own and he wouldn’t tire.
Sebastian cast a glance at the mess he’d created. Serenity would go nuts at him for smashing up the house. Understandably, after living for so many years under Jackson’s violent hand, she would hate if he showed any kind of anger toward something not immediately threatening their lives. This kind of loss of control was what she feared most.
Still, he didn’t have time to start making repairs right now. He just hoped that a destroyed kitchen would be the worst of their worries by the time they got home.
Ignoring the mess, Sebastian stormed out of the house, shoving through the double fronted doors. They slammed open, hitting the walls behind. Mortar crumbled and a large crack appeared down the center of one of the panels. Sebastian kept going, running at breathtaking speed along the gravel, his feet touching the ground so lightly they barely made a sound. He lowered to a crouch, centering his strength, and sprung over the high walls.
He ran across the city, leaping over highways and the roofs of buildings when it was quicker to do so. He took more risks than he ever had when he traveled with Serenity or Elizabeth; bigger, longer jumps that made him feel like he was flying, soaring through the air until he hit the ground, light on his feet.
He left the city far behind, crossing through miles of forest. Gradually, the forests gave way to the drier, scrubbier land of the Mohave National Preserve. Huge sandstone mesas rose from the ground and he negotiated canyons to cut across the country.
Long distance vampire, he thought and would have smiled to himself if not for the gravity of the circumstances. As his legs ate away the hundreds of miles, his thoughts remained with Elizabeth. He hoped she wasn’t too frightened and Demitri hadn’t hurt her.
Sebastian crossed through the corner of Colorado and a pang of hunger hit him. Running back and forth across the country may not tire him out, but it sure as hell made him hungry. The previous night, the young woman’s blood had been racing through his veins. The night before, the blood of the hobo. He’d killed more in the past three days than in the last couple of months. But if he were to be any kind of force against Demitri, he needed to feed.
Sebastian paused for a moment, taking stock of his surroundings. Though only dense forest stretched in every direction, his keen hearing picked up the definitive high-pitched roar of a motorbike. A bike meant a road and people. He would take down whoever rode the bike if he needed to, leaping from the forest like a wildcat, colliding with it with enough speed and force to knock the rider to the ground while the bike spun away in the opposite direction.
He followed the roar. As he got closer, he picked up the sound of music playing, voices and laughter. Heat flooded through the trees, carrying with it the distinctive scent of blood. The engine of the bike cut out, but he no longer needed the constant drone as something to follow.
Sebastian broke through the trees and found himself standing on the side of an almost deserted highway. No vehicles passed, but he understood the reason for the silenced bike. On the other side of the road was a bar. Twenty or so bikes were parked up outside.
A biker stop.
One guy, a huge brick of a man complete with leather, long scraggly hair and an even longer beard, stood to one side of the building, sheltered in the bushes. The fizz and acrid stink of hot urine hitting the earth filled the air.
Moving quickly, Sebastian crossed the road. He passed the bikes and entrance of the bar, coming to rest only feet behind the big man. Though Sebastian was big, this guy stood at least two inches taller and was easily twice as wide. Sebastian stood, silent, at least offering the man the opportunity to zip his fly.
He didn’t, however, give him a chance to turn around. He launched onto the biker’s back, teeth snapping into the thick throat. Cigarette smoke, beer and fresh urine filled his nostrils. Stale sweat pressed against the flat of his tongue. The biker was strong, but nowhere near as strong as Sebastian. He yelled out and teetered backward, but Sebastian clung to him, his fingers digging into the man’s thick shoulders. He growled and sank his teeth deeper. The man’s neck crunched and he slumped to the floor.
Sebastian drank with speed and intensity. Urgency didn’t allow him to take pleasure in the act or dispose of the body as he normally would. This was one he’d have to take the risk of coming back. Sometimes, if the bodies weren’t trapped beneath the earth in some way, they reanimated, becoming almost zombie-like. Unlike in the movies, the need to eat human flesh didn’t compel them. Instead they simply wandered around. Eventually the body ran out of steam and dropped wherever it stood.
He didn’t have time to bury the body, but he didn’t intend to leave it in the parking lot. More bikers might be here any minute. Discovering the drained body, with obvious puncture wounds, would cause chaos.
Two men left the bar, the door swinging open in a blast of music and chatter. Sebastian lifted his head, blood smeared across his chin. Not wanting to be seen, he scooped up the body. From a crouch, he sprang to the roof of the bar, the body in his arms. Voices drifted up to him like smoke, and a low snort of laughter rumbled in the night.
Sebastian moved with silent steps to the back of the roof. The bar backed onto miles of forestry, the road it served being the only one in the area. Sebastian leaped from the roof, landing deep within the branches and tree trunks with no more than a rustle of foliage.
He dumped the body out in the middle of the forest as he ran. The corpse may reanimate, but wouldn’t get anywhere near other humans before it fell down forever.
With the man’s fresh blood rushing through his veins, Sebastian picked up speed. The world flew by in a blur of color, light and sound. He passed big cities, sirens and traffic blaring past his ears as he moved. His mind stayed focused, seeing only Elizabeth and Serenity’s faces, trying not to think of them hurt or possibly dead.
No, Demitri wouldn’t kill Elizabeth—she had too much value to him. But Serenity... If Serenity got in his way, the vampire may well envisage her as no more than a good meal.
The thought made Sebastian’s stomach tighten in rage and fear. He couldn’t lose her now; not after everything they’d been through together. They deserved their happy ending. He wouldn’t let one of his own kind be the one to put an end to that. If Serenity died, he’d always want to raise Elizabeth, but he’d never be whole again. A piece of his heart would die with her.
Sebastian remembered how Elizabeth had seen herself in Serenity’s place, seen where she was and what was around her. If only that talent could be reversed, so that she projected her own thoughts and the things she saw around her into his head. At least then he’d have more to go on. At the moment, however, he would be going in blind.
Don’t do anything stupid, Serenity, he thought to himself, remembering the time she’d taken on his maker, Madeline, single-handedly. Okay, that time her plan had worked, but she’d still come too close to getting herself killed.
At least Bridget was with her. Surely sensible, steadfast Bridget would rein her in if she tried to rush headfirst into Demitri’s lair.
He tried to push away the niggling uncertainty that Bridget might try to attempt something herself—that she really believed all her talk about magic potions and spells.
They’ll wait for me. He reassured himself. The two humans would have to be insane to think they could take on a den of vampires.