––––––––
As the car covered the distance on the freeway, Elizabeth’s strength began to wane until she was only left with a horrible taste coating her mouth and a certainty was she going to be sick. If I’m going to throw up, she decided resolutely, I’ll make sure I’m close to Conner. If he planned on killing her, she’d at least get the tiniest bit of revenge by vomiting his friend’s blood all over him.
The thought of Liam made her glance over at where the man’s body still slumped against the door opposite. He’d gradually slid deeper into the foot well, so his lower half crumpled beneath him in a crouch. His head lolled to one side and his eyes stared sightlessly at the inside of the car roof, as if he found the crumpled segment Sebastian had left fascinating. His throat was a raw, red gash, a gaping maw that looked like it might open wider and bite her back.
She turned away, swallowing down bile that rushed into her mouth. In front, Conner drove, neither he nor Ryan speaking. The tension in the car was palpable, something caused not only, she suspected, by the presence of the dead body or herself, but because of what was to come.
The invisible bonds strapping her to the back of the seat began to loosen, allowing her to twist her shoulders. Conner’s spell was wearing off. She chewed on her lower lip. If it wore off completely, could she risk making a jump for it? They were travelling at a much faster speed now than when she’d pushed her mom from the car. By jumping, she might be risking a broken neck or back rather than just a wrist or ankle.
She hoped her mom was all right. The way she’d fallen from the car had looked worse than Elizabeth had imagined in her head when she’d been forming her plan. They hadn’t seemed to have been going particularly fast when they’d been driving with the doors closed, but as soon as she’d opened one and seen the road going by beneath them, their speed had seemed so much greater.
Her dad would have found her mom by now, she reassured herself. Sebastian wouldn’t allow Conner to get away with this, so he’d be following them. She tried not to think about how much stronger Conner’s magic seemed to be, how he was able to leave her helpless just by the reach of his hand and a few muttered words. Was that what he planned to exchange her life for? Would killing her somehow strengthen his powers even more?
She didn’t want to die. There was so much she still wanted to do. Hell, she’d never even kissed a boy properly, not a real kiss. The silly running, chasing games they’d all played when they’d been younger, where the boys had demanded a kiss in return for catching them, didn’t count. Earlier, she’d allowed herself—if only briefly—to wonder if Ryan would be the special boy to steal her first kiss. She hated herself for that thought now. He’d betrayed her and she hated him almost as much as she did Conner.
They pulled off the freeway and slowed to a crawl on the Pacific Coast Highway, turning onto Colorado Avenue. Elizabeth prayed for another tree to be down and block the way or for the cops to suddenly appear and pull them over, but their route remained clear. The road ran down to the beach, which had almost vanished in the storm. A thick layer of sand, seaweed and water covered the asphalt, spraying up from under the wheels of the car as they drove. A couple of other cars were skewed across the road, and Conner slowed to maneuver around them. There was no sign of whoever had been driving the abandoned vehicles.
Conner pulled the car over and Elizabeth realized the water hitting the windshield was no longer rain, but spray from the ocean, leaving white tracks of salt across the glass. The rain had stopped. She looked out across the water. Huge waves towered high as they headed toward shore and crashed down with terrifying force. The ocean was an angry gray. Foam and froth was carried in the high winds and blew across the road. The huge beach was all but gone, the waves as close to the road as they could get. The restaurants and shops lining the Santa Monica pier were all in darkness. Even if it wasn’t night, the buildings would still have been closed, with no help to be found within. Everyone would have been forced to evacuate this area. Many of the buildings were missing all or parts of their roofs. The rides were no more than pieces of twisted metal and broken pieces of wood. By the state of what remained, the area clearly wasn’t safe.
All of her vampire strength had vanished now. Once more, she was only a frightened girl, and this tumultuous ocean and broken scene did nothing to placate her emotions.
Conner got out of the car and opened the back door. She cowered away from him, but he reached in and dragged her from the back seat like an errant puppy.
The wind drove the spray into her face, the salt from the seawater stinging her eyes. She gasped against the rush and blinked furiously, clearing her vision.
Out on the horizon, she could make out an end to the cloud mass, a distinct line where the swirling cell above their heads ended. Beyond that, the sky had lightened to a deep blue-black. Morning would be here soon.
Conner had the back of her long-sleeved t-shirt bunched in his fist. “What we need is strapped to the bottom of your seat,” he called to Ryan. “Get it.”
The boy leaned forward and reached beneath, struggling with something for a moment before straightening back up again. He climbed out of the car, his face pale, eyes wide. In his hand he held a six-inch blade, wickedly sharp.
Elizabeth gasped and renewed her struggles.
“Good,” said Conner. “Now, get the gun.”
Ryan chewed on a piece of skin on his lower lip, hard enough to make a spot of blood bloom.
Conner snapped, “Now!”
Ryan turned from his father and climbed back into the car. Elizabeth could see him leaning over the back seat as he scrabbled around, trying to find the weapon. He lifted something up and backed out the way he had come, before holding the gun between his thumb and forefinger. The weapon dangled by the butt and Elizabeth understood the reason why. Liam’s blood spattered the metal.
“Here,” he said, holding the gun out to his father.
Conner shook his head. “You need to be in charge of the gun.”
Ryan’s forehead creased. “Why can’t you take it?”
“Because I need to kill her with a knife. Her blood needs to be spilled by a blade, and I can’t handle both, can I?” There was a snide tone to his voice. “Any sign of trouble and you use it.”
“Isn’t she a vampire? I thought we’d need to stake her to kill her?”
“She’s not fully vampire. Slitting her throat and draining her will work just as well.”
Ryan paled further. “Do we really have to do this, Dad?” His gaze flicked between Elizabeth’s face and his father’s. “Surely there’s another way?”
“Don’t tell me you’re losing your balls?” Conner spat. “You’ve seen what she’s capable of. She ripped out Liam’s throat and fed from him. She’s as bad as a regular goddamned vampire, if not worse because she can get away with acting like a normal human.”
“But we’re killing her. Doesn’t that make us just as bad?”
“She’s not a person. She’s barely alive.”
“And these things ...” He gestured around and Elizabeth saw what she hadn’t before. Creeping out of the shadows and storm, demons moved silently toward them. They descended from all directions to line the road and the small strip of remaining beach. They did not seem to interact with each other; instead, their red eyes were focused on Elizabeth. Their existence struck terror through her heart. They were even scarier than Conner with his knife.
Ryan also took in the sight of the demons, the hand holding the knife trembling. “Look at them all. What do they want?”
Conner reached out and snatched the knife from his son’s hand and then proceeded to clock him over the back of the head with its hilt. “What do you think they want? They want her blood to be spilled so they can take this world as their own.”
Ryan cringed away from his father, rubbed at the back of his head, and shot another glance at Elizabeth. She felt sure she saw something close to regret in his eyes.
“You don’t have to do this—” she started to say, directing her words at him, but Conner didn’t let her say anything else. He yanked the back of her shirt, the material tightening around her throat and almost choking her. He started to drag her past the ruins of the tourist attractions of the Santa Monica pier, toward the part where the huge structure balanced out over the water. She fought against him, willing her bloodlust to return so she could tear the son-of-a-bitch to pieces.
The far end of the pier looked as though it had been partially bulldozed. Huge waves rose and crashed over the end, but when the water pulled back to create another swell, Elizabeth saw that much of the boardwalk was splintered and in ruins.
Conner stopped where the solid ground ended and the pier started. He hauled her around to stand in front of him so they faced east, their bodies angled away from the start of the pier, looking out across the ocean, toward the city. He held his arm across her chest, pinning her against him. The other hand held the sharp edge of the knife against her throat. The blade felt like a sliver of ice against her skin.
“Now we wait,” he called to his son, who had followed along behind.
“For what?” came the nervous reply.
“For the exact moment of sunrise.”
Serenity clutched her arms around Sebastian’s neck as he ran at his full, breath-taking speed down the road toward the ocean. She prayed they were right about where Conner had taken Elizabeth. She suspected they were. Something else had given his location away. While they all seemed to have vanished now, each time she’d dared to lift her head from Sebastian’s shoulder, she had caught a glimpse of moving black shadows all heading in the same direction. Toward the ocean.
There was a lull in the storm, the rain suddenly petering off to a light drizzle. Even the wind seemed to have dropped. She didn’t want to think about what it meant, though her mind couldn’t help going over the possibility that the end of the storm also meant the end of Elizabeth’s life. Her heart clenched so hard it hurt and she tightened her grip around Sebastian’s neck, praying the notion was wrong and that they’d reach her in time.
Sebastian slowed and she lifted her head to find they stood at the bottom of Colorado Avenue. The ocean stretched out in front of them. Though the storm had settled, waves continued to rise like angry fists, smashing down on the beach. Most of the white sand had been washed away, the sea water hitting the road, sidewalk and walkways.
Silently, Sebastian lowered her to her feet. Cold spray doused her face and hands, the water tightening her skin. Serenity flicked out her tongue and tasted salt. She looked out across the pier, her eyes frantically searching for her daughter. Within seconds, she saw her.
Conner held Elizabeth at the start of the otherwise deserted pier, one arm around her chest, pinning her back to him. The other hand held a knife, the blade of which was pointed against her throat. Elizabeth’s head was tilted to one side, as if offering him better access. The sight snatched the breath from Serenity’s lungs. Oh, God, Elizabeth! She wanted to rush forward, screaming, to tear Elizabeth from Conner’s grip and take her a long way from any danger, but she knew acting impulsively now would only get her daughter—and probably herself and Sebastian—killed.
The end of the pier had been swept away in the raging storm. What had once been a strong structure was now reduced to splintered shards of wood and bent steel. As the ocean drew the water back, before rising and swelling to create another wave, Serenity caught sight of the concrete structure which had supported the pier—in particular, the massive support where she’d captured Madeline all those years ago.
She couldn’t help the shudder that worked its way across her shoulder and down her back. So many years had passed and yet, still, the memory of the other vampire struck fear through her heart. Would she still be alive down there, starving and furious? How damaged were the struts? Enough to allow Madeline to break her way free? Though Serenity’s priority was and always would be with Elizabeth, she couldn’t help the additional niggle of worry that wormed its way through her.
But she couldn’t allow herself to think about that now.
So far, Conner hadn’t noticed them standing there.
But others had.
On the beach, just beyond the break of the waves, but as far as the eye could see, demon after demon stood, facing them. The humanoid kind stood motionless, their hands by their sides. The smaller demons sat crouched, as if preparing to spring forward at any moment. All sets of eyes that had previously been fixed on Elizabeth had now turned to them. Serenity shivered again. It was so creepy, the way they all stood there, silently watching.
“What are we going to do?” she hissed at Sebastian, lifting her chin toward the creatures.
Sebastian reached down and took her hand. She took strength from his contact, from having him by her side. Together, they took a step forward. As they did so, each of the demons moved an identical step forward, closing in around them.
“They’re not just going to let us take her.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “We’re not going to give them a choice.”