ReAwakened Page 22

  “Are you alright?” Sophie whispered, glancing down at Charlotte’s wrists.

  “Yes. Thanks to you,” Charlotte replied. She slowly raised herself to a seated position, wincing when she accidentally used one of her hands to prop herself up.

  “Who did this to you?” I prodded gently.

  “I don’t know.” Her big blue eyes welled up with tears. “I wish I could tell you.”

  Sophie, realizing that I was about to ask another question, said, “We need to get Char out of here.”

  “Yes, certainly,” I agreed as Hunter and Seth burst through the door.

  “We’ve cleared all the rooms. We took on some more rogues, but there weren’t any other hostages inside the house. Just Beth,” Hunter said.

  “And Charlotte,” Sophie added, gesturing toward her old friend.

  Seth’s “Whoa!” quieted the room.

  Sophie’s eyes filled with alarm as I shot Seth a warning look. “We better get going. There’ll be time for catching up later.”

  Together with Hunter’s help, I carried Charlotte through the dark house, Sophie clinging to her side the entire time. When we reached the exit, Charlotte cried out as the early morning sun’s rays landed upon her skin.

  I quickly withdrew her from the light. “What’s wrong? Have you had any garlic?”

  Charlotte shook her head and sighed. Her bouncing curls, her soft demeanor, even her way of speaking was so childlike. “No, I can’t. I’m allergic.”

  A vampire who was allergic to garlic. I immediately glanced at Brooke, silently cautioning her to keep any comment she was about to share to herself.

  “How do you protect yourself from the sun?” I asked, turning back to Charlotte.

  “I need blood—more blood and more often than most vampires require at a feeding. It helps keep me strong,” she said, then looked up at me bashfully. “You wouldn’t happen to have some on you?”

  “Uhh, I think I have a Blood Cola,” Seth announced, digging into his backpack. Leave it to him to always have a meal on hand.

  Charlotte began to tear up again. She didn’t only look like a child, she was beginning to behave like one. “I’m sorry, but I can’t drink that. I can only have pure blood.”

  “Is this another allergy issue or are you just a really picky eater?” Brooke asked impatiently. “I’d rather avoid the calories in Blood Cola too, but did you taste that nasty veggie thing they’re trying to force on us these days? Tomato juice and blood? Eww. What genius thought of that?”

  Charlotte squirmed under Brooke’s scrutinous glare. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t mean to cause any trouble.”

  “Char is very frail,” Sophie explained, coming to her friend’s defense. “When we were little, she couldn’t stomach anything. Even when she finally found out that she was a vampire, things were really hard for her. She gets sick often.”

  Charlotte smiled and placed a grateful hand on Sophie’s arm. “Soph, it’s okay. You don’t have to defend me,” she said.

  “You can have my blood capsules,” I said, in hope of reducing the growing tension between the girls. I fished through my jacket pocket and handed a handful of small tablets to Charlotte.

  “Thank you,” she said. Though her words displayed gratitude, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Charlotte was accustomed to much finer things in life. I was thankful for Ethan’s diner shift, because had he been with us, I realized that Charlotte may have expected us to offer him as a snack.

  Once the blood capsules took effect we began our journey back to the Scarlet House, the team’s spirits soaring high. Beth’s rescue had been a success and Sophie was reunited with a long-lost friend. It seemed that things were finally looking up for all of us.

  I spent the next couple of days working as a detective. Not the fun, chasing-bad-guys-and-solving-mysteries kind of detective—more like a detective stuck in a desk job—but I took what I could get. The team stayed at the Scarlet House while Beth and Charlotte recovered, so I spent time interviewing the girls, trying to draw out any clues that could be helpful. At least, as much time as I could with Sophie and Twitbrook constantly hovering around.

  Beth couldn’t remember much from the day of her kidnapping, but she did catch a few important details about her abductors.

  “They covered my eyes with a blindfold so I didn’t see anything, but their voices sounded like they were coming from a machine,” she explained, alluding to the voice-altering device. “There were at least two baddies, and I think they were related,” she said. “One of them kept calling the other Mother.”

  A Born and her mother! I shuddered at the thought of two Born vampires working together on such a gruesome task.

  “I didn’t cry,” Beth announced proudly. “I wouldn’t let them see how scared I was.”

  “You’re a very strong girl,” I praised her.

  “I wasn’t strong enough to escape,” she sulked. “I’m not as strong as you.”

  I patted her hand. “One day you will be. I don’t doubt that for a second.”

  This earned me a warm smile. “They talked about you, Miss Dawn. They said that they would use me to get to you.” She looked up at me through her long, dark lashes. “I’m sorry if I got you in trouble.”

  Poor Beth had it all wrong. She had been in trouble because of me.

  Charlotte’s recount of her abduction was somewhat less helpful. She had flown in for a vacation from England and was abducted while on a visit to her childhood home in Connecticut. Her abductors, two strong werewolves, poisoned her with vampire blood. That’s all she recalled.

  “Do you remember anything about your captors?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “Beth said there may have been a woman in the house. Did you hear a woman’s voice?”

  Her forehead rippled in confusion. “I don’t know…I was too frightened to pay attention. I'm sorry,” she said, sighing. “They kept me blindfolded and tied up and were planning to drain me. They’d begun, but I managed to loosen some of the chains and escape, though I didn’t make it far. I got really dizzy and everything went dark.” Charlotte looked like she was about to break down again, so Sophie took her to rest.

  Once again, we found ourselves without any leads.

  “What now?” Brooke asked.

  “I guess we wait for more Born to disappear,” Seth huffed in frustration.

  “I was thinking…” I began slowly. “What if…”

  Immediately, Sebastian shot me an icy look. “No, Dawn.”

  “What?” Brooke asked.

  “No,” Sebastian repeated.

  “I was thinking that I could—”

  “If you utter the words, Dawn, I swear I’ll—”

  “—use myself as bait,” I finished.

  Sebastian looked like he was about to punch the wall.

  “We could try to make contact with the abductors,” I explained, ignoring his glare. “I’ll tell them I want to make a deal. They get me, but they have to promise that no more Born will be harmed.”

  “Dawn…” Sebastian growled.

  “I’ll let myself get taken, you guys follow, and we’ll discover their base. Just like we planned before, but this time we won’t be putting Beth at risk.”

  Razor rubbed his neck. “That’s actually not a bad plan,” he finally said.

  Now Sebastian looked like he was going to punch Razor.

  “What?” Razor raised his eyebrows. “We’ll be there to protect her.”

  “You think that will work out exactly as you imagine?” Sebastian asked. “Did you not see what happened when we set out to rescue Beth?”

  “He’s right,” Brooke added, then turned to me. “I’m also voting no on this one, Dawn.”

  “Except it’s not up for a vote,” I told her. “What I choose to do with my own body on my own time isn’t up to you.”

  “Oh, but if it was, I would definitely—” Sebastian didn’t even wait for Razor to finish before he clocked him i
n the jaw. Razor’s shocked expression turned into a mischievous smile as he rubbed the side of his face. “Good idea Sebastian, we could start off with a bit of rough foreplay!” he yelled as Sebastian stormed out of the room.

  “Thanks a lot!” I shot at him. If that was Razor’s idea of keeping Sebastian away from me, then I wasn’t sure that I wanted his help.

  “We’re clearly not getting anywhere with this right now. Let’s come up with a solid plan first,” Hunter suggested. “Okay?” he prodded when no one responded.

  “Fine, but we need to do it soon. We can’t allow any more Born to vanish. What if they go after the kids again? Can any of you live with that? I know I can’t."

  “Someone better think of something fast,” Seth mumbled. “Or else, we can be sure that she’ll vanish,” he said, motioning to me.

  I left the group and slipped outside to look for Sebastian. Feeling partially responsible for his altercation with Razor, I had a sudden urge to buffer his hostility toward his brother. I spotted him by the fountain, throwing—or rather, hurling—coins into the bubbling water.

  “Easy!” I called out as one bounced off the marble and ricocheted back toward us. I managed to catch it just before it fell to the ground. Opening up my hand, I offered it back to Sebastian. “Maybe you can re-do this wish. Although, I think you’re covered. That’s the fifth coin I watched you fling at the poor fountain. One of them is bound to come true.”

  “There aren’t enough coins in the world to grant my wish,” he whispered hoarsely.

  “What’s your wish?”

  He searched my eyes. “For you to listen. Just this once.” I swallowed the lump in my throat as he continued. “I know that it’s selfish on my part, but when it comes to you I can’t help it. I’ve been doing my best to make peace with the fact that we can’t be together, but I can’t stand seeing you throw yourself in the path of danger.”

  “I can handle danger,” I said bravely. But I’m not sure if I can make peace with that other thing, I thought as I watched yet another coin sink away. “Maybe I should throw one in,” I told him. “You know, just in case.” I extended my hand.

  He placed a penny in my palm, covering my hand with his own. His fingers lingered for a moment too long, imprinting his touch on my skin. The caress set off a colossal quake within my body. I bit down on my lip in an attempt to calm the tremor, but the effect wasn’t lost on him. His eyes blazing, he quickly withdrew his hand. The remaining coins plummeted to the cobblestones beneath our feet. Simultaneously, we both reached for them, the tops of our heads colliding. His mere proximity set my skin on fire. My breath caught in my throat as I fumbled to straighten up. Before I could get out of the electrifying danger zone, Sebastian grabbed my wrist.

  “You should go.” His words were a tortured groan.

  “What?” His fingers were still on my wrist, his touch burning through me, reaching to the very core of my being.

  His jaw locked. “I’m trying really hard to keep from kissing you. So if you really mean what you said before, I’d strongly suggest that you get as far away from me as possible,” he warned through clenched teeth. “Your move.”

  Every cell in my body yearned for him. Stay.

  Run, my brain screamed.

  I decided to listen to my heart.

  As our lips collided, I was pulled deep into his world. Or perhaps he was drawn into mine. Whatever the case, we melted together, our bodies contouring perfectly to one another. For the first time in a long while, I didn’t think about Aurora. It was just Sebastian and I, lost in our own little piece of the universe. Our kisses were ravenous, insatiable, feeding a hunger that had been mounting for days, weeks, months.

  I kissed him with every fiber of my being, committing to memory the cool, hard sensation of his mouth against mine, memorizing the path his fingers made along my skin as they travelled over the curve of my jaw, slid down my neck…shoulders…side…all the way to the small of my back. I longed to absorb it all because this was going to be our last kiss.

  I’d greedily given in to the desire to touch and taste him, but despite the unexpected peace within my mind, Aurora was, without a doubt, still lurking within me, ready to pounce at any given moment. No matter how badly I wanted this—regardless of how hard it was to fight against what I felt for him—it couldn’t happen again. For Sebastian’s sake.

  “I knew all those coins were good for something,” he whispered when we pulled apart.

  My lips were still humming from the thrill of his touch, but I immediately sobered at the sight of the spark in his eyes. In a moment of weakness, I’d selfishly surrendered to temptation, and now we both had to suffer the consequences of my reckless actions. My guilt consumed me, seizing my heart, spreading through my veins, taking over my body.

  I was disciplined in all other areas of my life…why was I so careless when it came to my feelings for Sebastian? He gave me a way out. Why didn’t I run? Was the blood spell so strong that I was completely defenseless in my attraction to him? Or was it something else? Something much deeper and more powerful.

  Something that could potentially end him.

  My heart ached as I cursed Aurora under my breath. Regardless of how much it pained me to give him up, my happiness wasn’t worth his demise.

  “Dawn?” The icy glimmer in his eyes told me that he’d interpreted my silence exactly for what it was.

  A goodbye.

  The following weeks passed by in a flash. As if overnight, the vibrant trees shed all of their leaves, morphing into skeletons of the splendid beings they once were. An unexpected peace fell over the vampire world, and I relished in the news that there were no further Born kidnappings. To show his gratitude for Beth’s rescue, Twitbrook had sworn to divulge any reports that he received, ensuring that nothing would slip by us. Despite the calm, I couldn’t rest. I continued my tireless search for clues leading to the elusive kidnappers, but every tiny lead quickly came to a big, fat dead end.

  Aside from our self-directed training sessions, the Misfits slowly returned to mundane life tasks. Brooke and Seth were back at school, trying to stay afloat in a sea of assignments and midterms. With Seth’s help—and there seemed to be a lot of it going on lately—Brooke had managed to pull up all of her grades. Her old friends started coming around, and she slowly began to climb back up the social ladder. The less desperate she was for the prom queen title, the more people wanted her to win, it seemed. Her hostility toward Seth had also cooled. The abrupt change in attitude couldn’t have come at a better time because the poor guy was counting down the days to his parents’ return.

  “At least now I’ll remember you with a slight sense of fondness when I’m grounded for the rest of my immortal life,” he told Brooke, and she promised to come visit him in prison—if only for further tutoring help.

  Sophie was dividing her time between work at the library, Charlotte, and her book blog which was steadily gaining more followers. As she made new friends and explored novel horizons in her literary life, I began to see a side of Sophie I’d never been privy to before. Her blossoming confidence was endearing, her happiness infectious.

  A week after our return from the Scarlet House, Sophie had cornered me to nervously ask for “a colossal favor.” Apparently, Charlotte had decided to stay in Angel Creek to make up for lost time with her friend. Since Sophie’s landlady wouldn’t allow her to have a roommate, she asked me if Charlotte could stay at the cottage. According to Sophie, her old friend had changed immensely since her days as a spoiled rich brat, and was now regretting her past. Her husband—the very same man Charlotte had extinguished her friendship with Sophie for—had left a few years into their marriage. Weeks later, Charlotte had lost her unborn baby, falling into a deep depression. When I agreed to put her up, Sophie overflowed with gratitude.

  Though she’d made herself comfortable at the cottage, I didn’t see much of my new houseguest. She spent her days holed up in her room, only appearing on occasion to grab a snack from the
fridge. Even on most evenings she chose to stay in, rarely interacting with anyone but Sophie. She didn’t bother me, and I didn’t interfere with her, so as long as Sophie was happy, I was too.

  Hunter was the only group member who had taken a turn for the worse. He had cut out of every one of our training sessions early, excusing himself for an appointment. With each passing day, I feared that he was slipping away, sliding back into his past habits. I searched for signs, but if anything, he seemed more animated—very un-Hunter-like. This only made me think that whatever he was using was heavier than anything he’d done before.

  Today, after he had announced that he was leaving early yet again, I caught his arm.

  “What are you doing?”

  His green eyes flickered in alarm. “I’m sorry, Dawn. I can’t talk about it.”

  “Why?”

  He shook his head. “I just can’t.”

  “Because it’s illegal?” My words were laced with accusation.

  “Uhh…”

  “Hunter, please…” I was at a loss. The last thing I wanted to do was push him further away, but I didn’t know how to hold on to him without breaking the fragile bond that we’d formed. “Please tell me what’s going on,” I implored gently. “We’ll fix it together.”

  “Maybe you should ask Sebastian,” he said as he walked off.

  Sebastian. If anyone was being more avoidant than Hunter, it was definitely Sebastian. Ever since our return from the Scarlet House—ever since our kiss by the fountain—he had steered clear of me. Or perhaps I was the one who was avoiding him. Either way, three whole weeks had passed, and the only York I had been in contact with was Razor.

  Razor made certain to never miss any of our training sessions, though instead of helping, he simply lounged nearby and observed. Every so often I’d attempt to involve him only to be treated to unwelcome remarks.