B006P1R39O EBOK (21 page)

“Well that was a bit a silliness.” Dash was yelling at her.

Baring her fangs, she tried to bite into the mutant’s flesh, but it had her pinned too tightly. She couldn’t move and get the leverage she needed to reach it. It hovered over her, giving Kathrina a good view of its deformed face. Its eyes were glowing blood red. Then the thing opened its mouth to reveal huge fangs - the type of fangs that belonged to monsters, not vampires.

The sharp - protruding claws on the mutant’s hands were cutting into her skin. The harder she tried to break free, the deeper they gashed her flesh. It would only be a second longer before he was tearing out her throat, but the creature suddenly howled in pain and reared its head back.

This gave her just enough movement to sink her fangs into the monster, but she never got the chance. The creature swung at its attacker and then hit the ground, already dead.

Kathrina scrambled to her feet. It was then that she saw the boy vampire on the ground, deep wounds in his chest. Before she could go to him, Luciano was at her side, pulling her toward the house.

“No!” she pulled away from him. “I have to get Chad.”

She ran to the boy’s side. His eyes were still open and she could see tears running down his cheeks. Leaning down, she picked the boy up and cradled him in her arms. He shook his head weakly, pointing toward the monster.

“Get it.” The boy’s voice was little more than a whisper.

When Kathrina turned to look at the mutant, she saw a golden sword sticking into the monster’s side.

“There’s no time,” she told him.

“I’ll get it,” Luciano yelled at her. “You just get inside.”

Kathrina ran, trying not to pay attention to the battle that was still going on around her. The wolves were tearing at the vampires, but some of them had been lost - they lay on the ground - transformed back into their human form by death.

Just as she made it to the door, it swung open and she managed to get into the house. Luciano was close behind her.

“What about Dash?” She looked out a nearby window and saw that he was slowly inching his way toward the house.

“Get ready to open it,” she told Nicole.

Her sister was still standing near the door, ready to open it as soon as Dash knocked.

At that moment there was a loud bang on the door.

“Is it Dash?” Nicole asked.

“Yes, let him in!” Kathrina screamed.

There were at least twenty vampires ready to tear Dash apart, Nicole managed to get the door open just in time, though it wasn’t as easy to close it against the onslaught of undead. It took Luciano, Dash and Nicole to get it secured.

Kathrina was a little confused. With that many vampires they could easily rip the door from its hinges and come after them, but yet they remained outside.

“Why aren’t they breaking through the door?” she asked no one in particular.

“Sarah is putting up barriers at all the entrances,” Nicole informed her.

“He’s hurt,” Kathrina told them, looking down at Chad’s pale body resting in her arms.

“He’ll pull through … he’s a vampire,” Dash told them.

Luciano shook his head. “He’s too young. It is one of the reason why turning a child is forbidden. Their cells will not regenerate like those of an adult vampire.”

Kathrina felt her throat close up and a sob escaped her lips. “We have to do something.”

Chad’s lips turned upward in a little smile. “You’re special.” His voice was hoarse so she had to listen close to hear what he was saying.

The little boy’s words brought Kathrina to the brink of black despair. She wasn’t special and she couldn’t help him.

“We have to do something!” she cried.

“There’s no time,” Nicole told her as she was running from the kitchen to the front of the house.

Kathrina followed her. When she entered the front parlor she saw that the vampires that had made it inside the house had all been destroyed, but there were many that were still outside, trying to find a way in.

Sarah was sprinkling salt around the windows and chanting a banishing spell, while her father was trying to reinforce the door. Vicky sat in the corner, and from the blank expression on her pale face it was apparent that she was in shock. Nicole’s mother was rocking back and forth, staring off into space.

Kathrina gently laid Chad on the sofa and started helping Nicole board up the broken windows.

“This won’t help for long,” she told her sister.

“I know, but it will give us some time to figure something out. The wolves have managed to keep them back, but I don’t know for how long.”

Nicole’s last words were drowned out by the sound of the front door exploding – splinters of wood flew in every direction. For just an instant there was mass confusion. Everyone was moving, but no one knew exactly what to do or where to go. Nicole’s mother was screaming so loudly that Kathrina couldn’t even think of what her next move would be.

There was a gaping hole where the front door had stood just seconds before, but it was quickly filled with a red mass. It took a minute for Kathrina to realize that what she was seeing was Omar’s robe.

Her nemesis stood in the doorway; his very presence was so stagnant and evil that he brought with him the rancid stench of hell. At least Kathrina imagined it to be a hellish odor. The sheen in Omar’s eyes was not the light of the immortal. His eyes radiated a sickly greenish - yellow color. They were not the eyes of the vampire, but the eyes of death and disease.

“Omar!” Donavan’s voiced thundered through the house.

Her uncle looked toward his brother, but there was no recognition. He reminded Kathrina of a zombie. His only purpose was to kill and consume anything in his path, unaware of all else.

“That’s Omar, but there’s something wrong with him,” Nicole whispered.

Omar turned to look at the three sisters and his mouth twisted into a vicious snarl. When he lifted his hand, Kathrina felt as if a rope was tightening around her throat, and suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

Luciano stepped forward. “Let her go Omar! Take me instead.”

As quickly as it started, the feeling was gone and Kathrina was left gasping for air.

Now Omar’s grotesque eyes were fixed on Luciano. A voice came from his mouth, though he never moved his lips. “Betrayer!”

At that moment a heavy chair flew at Luciano, but he was able to avoid it. It smashed against the wall and fell to pieces on the floor.

Vicky screeched in terror, and Kathrina began praying that Omar wouldn’t notice the woman.

Omar’s attention was on Luciano. “You were to take her innocence and her life. That was your debt!” Her uncle’s voice seemed to seep into every pore of her skin, sickening her.

“Her virgin soul is so sweet … isn’t it Luciano?” Omar bellowed. “You hunger for her soul just as I do. Have you told her that you are a reaper of souls … that you send your victims to hell?”

Stunned, Kathrina stared at Luciano. He had been a part of this all along.

Kathrina felt faint as poisonous laughter filled the room. It was like everything she had ever believed had been destroyed with the vampire’s words. Luciano was as evil as Omar.

Donavan stepped in front of Kathrina to shield her. “You are not my brother!”

Again that dark - decaying laughter echoed through the room. “Your brother has willingly given up his soul. He now rots with the rest of those that have welcomed me.”

It was then that it truly sunk in that the thing that she was seeing wasn’t her uncle. It was some kind of thing living inside of her uncle’s body.

“I am here to do what you were too pathetic to do,” it roared at Luciano.

Kathrina felt someone tugging at her shirt and she stole a quick look. The boy vampire had crawled from the couch on his hands and knees and was trying to get her attention. She just hoped he had not gotten Omar’s attention as well.

“Take this,” Chad forced the words from his mouth and lifted one hand to show her the golden sword.

Kathrina took the weapon from the boy. It felt warm in her hand, as if it radiated its own energy. There was something almost magical about the sword. She remembered how the mutant had fallen dead after Chad attacked him with it. Now that she thought back to that moment, she realized that simply stabbing the creature shouldn’t have killed it.

Holding tightly to the sword, she lifted it and ran toward Omar, aiming for his throat. It plunged into him exactly where she intended. In that instant, her uncle’s face morphed into something unrecognizable as human or vampire. It almost resembled some kind of serpent.

As Omar lay dying, a thick black smoke was seeping from his mouth, nose and ears.

“Demon possession.” A frown marred her father’s handsome face.

Sarah was at the window. “They are leaving,” she told the others.

“If Omar is dead, does that mean that the demon is gone?” Nicole asked.

Luciano shook his head. “He has only left the vessel he was in at the time. He has likely been trying to possess Omar for a long time and has just managed a full possession.”

Kathrina gave Luciano a look of distain and then turned her attention to Chad. “Isn’t there anything that can be done to save him?”

Chad reached up to grab her hand, pulling her until she was bent over him. “I will go to heaven … like you said … right?” A small amount of blood was dripping from his mouth and nose.

Tears sprang to Kathrina’s eyes and she had to look away quickly so Chad wouldn’t notice.

Luciano knelt down next to Chad. “Have you ever killed anyone?” he asked the boy.

Chad shook his head. “I almost killed a dog once,” he told them in a weak voice.

Luciano stood up and looked at Kathrina. “Can we talk?”

Kathrina shook her head. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“I understand that, but it’s important.”

After hesitating for a moment, Kathrina finally followed him from the parlor to the kitchen.

“What do you want … to tell me more lies?” Her words were dripping sarcasm.

“I never lied to you Kathrina,” he told her.

“No … you just failed to tell me that my soul would be delivered to the devil as soon as you did kill me.”

“It’s not like that … and that thing is not the devil,” he corrected her.

Kathrina glared at him. “Well whatever that thing was!”

“It’s all in the book. That’s why I gave it to you. But right now you have something more important to worry about.”

“What’s that?”

“The boy … you can save him,” he informed her.

Kathrina shook her head. “I can’t! I don’t know what to do.”

“Give him a little of your blood,” Luciano urged.

Kathrina’s face contorted in shocked horror. “It will kill him! You know that.”

Luciano shook his head. “It will not kill him. He is an innocent so your blood will save him.”

Kathrina stared at him, saying nothing.

“Trust me.” Luciano tried to take her into his arms, but she pulled away from him.

“Trust you!” Kathrina stormed. “Are you crazy? I can’t trust you.”

“He will die anyway,” Luciano’s dark eyes turned hostile. “You don’t have anything to lose by trusting me on this.”

Kathrina could not force herself to take action. She didn’t want to watch the boy die in agony, which would happen if he reacted to her blood the way that other vampires did. At the same time, she did not want to just let an opportunity to save him slip by.

Luciano pulled a knife from the kitchen drawer and handed it to her. “Mix a few drops of your blood with something and have him drink it … but do not let anyone know what you are doing.”

His words alarmed her. “Why not?”

“Just don’t!” he said, still holding the knife. “It will only work if a vampire has never taken a human life, otherwise it will kill them. You have to keep this a secret because if anyone finds out what your blood can do, you’ll be a walking target the rest of your life.”

Finally Kathrina decided that he was right. What did she have to lose by trying this?”

Taking a glass from the cupboard, Kathrina cut into the tip of her finger. After letting a few drops of blood trickle into the glass, she wrapped her finger with a paper towel. She then added just enough water to the glass that you could no longer see the blood.

“I want you to go away. I don’t ever want to see or talk to you again,” she said, looking up at him.

His features were like stone, revealing nothing, but she thought she saw sorrow in his eyes.

Without saying anything more, she took the glass into the parlor. Someone had moved Chad back to the couch. The contrast of his pale skin against the red velvet couch was startling. She knew he would die soon.

Dash was leaning over the boy, whispering in his ear. When he looked up at Kathrina, she was shocked to see tears in Dash’s eyes.

“I brought him some water,” she told them.

“It won’t do any good,” Dash said, shaking his head.