Part 3 (1/2)
”I'm sorry if you can't understand this,” she snapped, ”but even if her life doesn't matter to you, it matters to me. I won't let her be hurt, possibly even killed, on my behalf.”
”On the contrary, Heather means a great deal to me,” Kaleo argued, ”and I have no intention of letting her be killed. But neither do I intend to let them have you.”
”Why do you care?” Christine interrupted, fury in her voice. ”Or is it just that you don't share your victims?”
Kaleo looked at her with a long, considering gaze before saying, ”I think Sarah would object to being thought of as a victim.”
”And her opinion matters so much to you, you,” the human spat.
”Do you think, little girl, that the fact that she has been my enemy negates the fact that she has my blood?”
”Doesn't it?” Christine said challengingly, but more softly now.
The reminder that Sarah was in any way related to Kaleo was not welcome to her. Yes, he had changed Nissa, who had changed Nikolas, who had changed Kristopher, and so it was-distantly-his blood that now made Sarah a vampire. But she wasn't going to call him family.
Sarah was about to protest Kaleo's claiming her as anything, but he turned from her to Nikolas to say, ”And speaking of blood, Sarah needs to feed.”
The words jolted Sarah into immediacy.
”I'm fine,” she said. She could function fine for now. Her eating habits were not the immediate issue.
”You are not not fine.” While Kaleo argued with her, she could tell that Nikolas and Kristopher were examining her closely. ”I can see the bloodl.u.s.t in your eyes.” fine.” While Kaleo argued with her, she could tell that Nikolas and Kristopher were examining her closely. ”I can see the bloodl.u.s.t in your eyes.”
”I fed a few hours ago.”
”On Kristopher, I know,” Kaleo replied dismissively. ”It was enough to keep you alive, but it won't be enough to hold you long, not when you're this young and under stress. You need live blood to sustain you.”
Sarah knew she was in trouble when Kristopher agreed, saying, ”If you don't feed soon, willingly, then you'll feed in a frenzy, and you'll probably kill someone. You don't want that.”
She wasn't ready. There was too much else going on. She hadn't had time to take in any of it or figure out what she wanted or needed to do. She was supposed to have been at SingleEarth, where they could teach her how vampires survived without hurting anyone, not with Nikolas and Kristopher, who for all their protectiveness were admitted killers. Kristopher hadn't killed for the past fifty years, but he had stopped in an effort to support Nissa, not because he'd had a change of heart. Sarah doubted he would keep to his new ways now that he was back with his brother.
And she really really didn't want to have this conversation in front of Kaleo, who she still very much wanted to kill. Maybe the vampire blood didn't make a person evil, but it obviously hadn't made him didn't want to have this conversation in front of Kaleo, who she still very much wanted to kill. Maybe the vampire blood didn't make a person evil, but it obviously hadn't made him good good.
”The longer we bicker here, the more trouble we court,” Kaleo said. ”Sarah, deal with your own needs. We can't hold your hand right now. Nikolas, Kristopher, I advise you to warn your people. If Heather is a valid target, then any human who attends our circuits is probably in danger. There is no point in rescuing one while others are picked off. Once our people are safe, we can decide how to remove the threat itself.”
He disappeared, leaving them with yet another subject she wasn't ready for. Nikolas and Kristopher turned to her, but what was she supposed to say? The threat Kaleo had referred to was Sarah's family and oldest friends. Her mother, her sister and her cousin Zachary were the last of the Vida witches. They would be joined by hunters from other lines, like Michael, who had been Sarah's best friend before Dominique had decided they were getting too close and put her foot down.
Sarah would have to be a monster to fight them-no, not just fight, but kill, since that was the only way to stop them.
Or was it? There had to be another way. She just didn't know what it was.
CHAPTER 5
SAt.u.r.dAY, 6:37 A.M. A.M.
ZACHARY PUT HIS head down while Adia drove. His power had been wrapped up in the vampire's when the bloodbond had jumped at him, so it had been much harder to incapacitate the girl now in their backseat. He had done what was necessary, but was paying for it with a pounding head and a rolling stomach. head down while Adia drove. His power had been wrapped up in the vampire's when the bloodbond had jumped at him, so it had been much harder to incapacitate the girl now in their backseat. He had done what was necessary, but was paying for it with a pounding head and a rolling stomach.
He looked up long enough to a.s.sure himself that she was completely out. Trapped in a moving vehicle with someone whose strength, speed and healing might be almost vampiric, and who probably wouldn't hesitate to leap out a door or fight for the steering wheel at eighty miles an hour, would be a bad time to make a mistake. It had been stupid of him not to track her as a threat in the first place.
When they got home, he could tell that Adia was trying to be careful, but the jerking motion the car made upon stopping still nearly made him heave. He shoved the nausea back, though, forcing it out of his frame of awareness as he pushed open the door and stood on legs that didn't want to hold him.
”Do you need help?” Adia asked.
”I can handle it.” His mind was buzzing with a kind of white noise. The pain had pushed all coherent thoughts away, and for the moment, that was kind of nice despite the agony. It wasn't so intense that he couldn't do his job, though.
He checked around to make sure no neighbors had gone out for an early-morning walk before he lifted Heather onto his shoulder again and carried her toward the house, where Dominique was standing in the front doorway. She wasn't tapping her foot; such a display of impatience would be a shocking loss of control for the Vida matriarch. He couldn't have said what it was about her expression that made him certain she was watching him with frustration.
He just knew she was. He had always been able to sense her moods, ever since she had taken him in. He had always been able to recognize the times when she'd looked at him and seen his mother, or his sister, and wondered why he alone had survived and when the fatal flaw that had ended each of their lives would manifest in him.
He had hoped she would be sleeping, as she had said to Adia, but perhaps like the rest of them she was too restless. She must have stayed up to see what they would discover at SingleEarth.
”What's this?” Dominique asked as they approached.
”Kaleo's favorite bloodbond, I believe,” Zachary answered. His voice was too loud, but he held himself from flinching or whispering. ”Heather. We found Nissa, but then this one attacked us, and the vampire got away.” Dominique's expression s.h.i.+fted; there was just the barest tightening between her brows. Zachary added, ”She should be able to tell us a good deal. Kaleo is a major player in Nikolas's and Kristopher's circuit, and she will also probably be easier to persuade than a full-blooded vampire would be.”
Reluctantly, Dominique nodded, as if his defensive babbling had in any way been new information to her.
”Bring her in. We should bind her before she wakes.”
Fortunately, Dominique turned around too early to see him stumble on the steps. Adia caught his arm, steadying him.
”Are you okay?” she whispered.
He nodded, regretting the sharpness of the motion the instant he made it.
”Who else is here?” Adia asked as they followed Dominique to the kitchen. Zachary wondered at the question for a moment until Adia added, ”I don't know all the cars in the driveway.”
Zachary hadn't even looked. His senses were so dull at that moment he could probably have been run over by a truck without noticing.
”Jay Marinitch arrived a few minutes ago,” Dominique answered. ”Robert is also here.”
Jay. Oh, joy. Zachary had known he would have to work with that hunter once the Rights were called, but he had hoped Jay's flighty tendencies would keep him from showing up so promptly.
And then there was Robert Richards, the human would-be hunter. He lacked any recognizable discipline and had no formal training and was only of interest to Dominique because of his sister's connection to Nikolas. Christine Richards had been abducted by Nikolas the day before.
Neither Jay nor Robert would be much help in this hunt, and either could prove a hindrance. Robert's loyalties were downright questionable; Nikolas had apparently told him that Kaleo had tortured his sister and driven her mad, and had claimed he was taking Christine with him for her own good. Robert was just gullible enough to believe it.
”Zachary Vida goes out looking for a vampire, and comes back with a date.”
The clear, almost musical voice belonged to Jay. His wit had never been to Zachary's taste, and now was no exception. Jay had the sense not to bait Michael, because he knew that the Arun witch would swing a punch at him, but Zachary didn't have that freedom.
Zachary set Heather down in one of the st.u.r.dy armchairs. Dominique had already gone to get rope and duct tape to bind her. Alone, the rope and tape together could not hold a bloodbond with Heather's strength, but they could be used as a base for magic that could dampen Heather's natural power and make the bonds more effective.
”Look here,” Adia said, slipping something out of Heather's pocket as she helped arrange the bloodbond in the chair. ”Cell phone!” She flipped open the phone and started hitting b.u.t.tons. ”Nothing in the address book...and it looks like she had the sense to clear incoming and outgoing calls before she attacked us...but there's one missed call.”