Chasing Shadows (29 page)

My thoughts raced through my head angrily, and I couldn’t calm them down long enough to fall asleep. Careful not to disturb my slumbering cat, I rose from the bed and sat down in my chair. I looked out at the moon. The clouds had started pulling together to hide the night sky completely. No matter how hard I tried to ignore the vision I had had, my thoughts kept going back to it and to what Sebastian had said. Sighing, I concentrated on the vision, from the feelings it stirred in me to its sights and sounds.

I was transported back to the vision, except this time I was floating around, watching everything that was happening. A crack in the distance caused my ears to prick up. I turned to look, and I saw him sitting there, smiling. His eyes were completely void of any emotion. Malice rippled off him in such strong waves, I felt like I was going to be sick. Bushes rustled, and Sebastian walked through first; I was trailing behind him. Our hands were still linked together and the smell of blood floated to me on the soft breeze. I couldn’t tell exactly where we were, just that we were somewhere in the woods, which could have been anywhere. My stomach rolled and twisted as I watched the scene unfold before me.

Something caught my attention, and my head snapped up. My eyes filled with horror, confusion, fear, and absolute anger. I pulled Sebastian away from the u da yv la dv, and we ran through the woods. Still floating above the scene, I watched as we zigzagged through trees and shrubs. We crossed over a small stream, went past some cabins, and kept going. Angry bees swarmed in my stomach, making me nervous for what was going to happen next. I screamed at myself not to turn yet, to keep going straight. We could lose them elsewhere, trick them into thinking we were going the way we were supposed to, or something else, anything else. I didn’t listen to myself, though. I turned and continued running. My heart raced in anticipation of what I was going to see next.

We stopped just for a brief moment so we could jump into the trees. Then it happened. One of the u da yv la dv that had been chasing us wrapped his arms around Sebastian, keeping him on the ground. He tried so hard to keep holding onto my hand, but he was forced to let go. I landed softly on one of the thick branches and looked down at my bleeding hand. Shock filled my face and terror shortly followed. I looked down and saw Sebastian slowly dying. Pain gripped me, and I jumped down in an attempt to save him. The u da yv la dv attacked me, jumping from every angle. When the chaos cleared, I lay in a heap of blood, my arm outstretched toward Sebastian. Poor Sebastian lay a few feet from me, lifeless. Even though it wasn’t actually happening, I wanted to tear every u da yv la dv that was in the woods from limb to limb. I wanted to destroy them all. That’s when I heard something even more terrifying than what had already happened.

He stepped out of the trees. I couldn’t tell who it was; he was wearing a black cloak with the hood pulled up over his face. “It is done,” his voice boomed through the silent night air, causing the trees to shiver.

“Yes, we did it like you said to, sir.” One of the u da yv la dv bowed to him.

“Good job. My brother did well with you. You will get this world to have as your own. But remember the deal we made. Do not break it, or I will bring them back.” He gestured to Sebastian and me lying on the ground.

The u da yv la dv shivered at the sound of the threat from the man. “Yes, sir.”

Edges of the vision started to waver away. After a few moments, my eyesight cleared and I saw my room once again. Even though I had a bigger picture of what had happened, I was even more confused than I’d been before. Why would one of the gods want to make a deal with the u da yv la dv? And why would he want them to have the world? Grunting, I stood up from my chair and began to pace the floor.

Soft taps on my door broke my concentration. I walked to the door and opened it to see Sebastian. Careful not to make the door creak, I opened it a bit more so he could come in. Although I was still upset with him, I needed someone to help me figure out the puzzle. He sat down next to Helios, who had been awake for a while. My cat growled at him and jumped off the bed. I sat on the floor in front of Sebastian, told him what I had seen, and asked him what he thought about it. Of course he was just as confused as I was. There was no one we could really go to anymore, at least not any of the gods. I was completely stumped and tired.

It was almost dawn, and we still hadn’t figured anything new out. Sebastian tried running through scenarios, and I kept turning them down as possibilities. Nothing made sense, at least nothing short of revenge or anger toward Zeus and the other gods. I paced the floor more and more as we continued running through ideas. At one point I had to stop and sit down before I burned a hole in the floor. That didn’t last very long; I was agitated and confused beyond belief. Luckily for me, the sun began to rise and my eyes started to grow heavy while my skin began to itch, signaling that I needed to sleep. Sighing in frustration, I sat back on my bed. Sebastian caught what I was doing and pulled me into his side. He played with my hair until my eyes shut completely.

When I awoke, it was well into the afternoon. Rain was pouring out of the sky and it looked like it could have been nighttime. The good thing about being part vampire and living in the Pacific Northwest was that I could be itchy skin–free when it rained heavily, which was most of the time, thankfully. I was starting to realize that I was going to hate being part vampire in the summertime, especially since even the small amounts of sun that were peeking through the clouds now irritated the hell out of my skin and eyes. Rolling over to see what time it was, I saw it was a little after two. Since I felt a little grimy from sleeping during the day, I decided to take a quick shower and get some coffee.

Dressed and semi-ready for the rest of my day, I hurried downstairs and started grabbing stuff to make coffee when Sebastian, who had followed me down, shook his head at me. Before I could ask him why not, he said, “Caffeine does not work well with vampire DNA, just a heads up.”

“Wait, why doesn’t it work well? What will happen to me?” I still wanted something to wake me up a little more.

“You will be throwing up all day, and it will do the opposite of wake you up,” he answered truthfully.

“How do you know?” I challenged.

“I’ve tried it before,” he replied.

“Well, how do you know it will affect me that way, since I’m not completely vampire?” I smirked at him.

“I don’t know. But if you want to test the theory, then be my guest. Just don’t come crying to me when you start throwing up and falling asleep,” Sebastian said with a shrug.

I groaned, “How am I supposed to get energy then?” He shrugged again, and I groaned one more time. Officially in a foul mood, I started putting everything I needed for coffee away. Grumbling, I stomped up the stairs and threw myself back on my bed, not even caring that I looked like a three-year-old throwing a tantrum. It was crappy not knowing if I would get sick like that. I wanted to test the theory, but I was too scared to. I hated throwing up.

“I’m sorry that you can’t have your coffee. Do you want a smoothie or a milkshake?” Sebastian asked me in hopes of cheering me up a bit.

“I guess. But we don’t have stuff to make smoothies.” I frowned at him.

“I’ll take you somewhere to get one,” he offered with a small smile.

“Okay. But I want to pick where we go,” I replied excitedly.

“Where to, my little AubrieAnna?” Sebastian smirked at me.

“I am not little, Sebastian,” I growled.

He chuckled as we walked out to his car. For some reason, he thought it was funny to call me little AubrieAnna, and I kind of liked it, but it still irritated me at times. We drove to Hubbard and to the small local coffee shop in the parking lot of the Hubbard Market. I ordered a large strawberry and mango smoothie. Once I got my smoothie, we left and headed to the warehouse so I could do some more training. By the time we arrived, I had sucked my smoothie down and felt all slushy on the inside. All the lights were off, and the building had an eerie look. Sebastian sorted through his keys until he found the one that opened the door. When he finally got it, we stepped inside.

Someone had always been at the warehouse every time I’d been here before. It was strange seeing all the lights off. Every now and then I would glance at a piece of equipment and startle myself by thinking someone was standing there, waiting for us to show up. Sebastian had to go upstairs to turn most of the lights on, so I waited impatiently by the door. After a few minutes, he came downstairs and led me to a room on the left side of the building. The room was another one I had never seen before, and I assumed it was where he would teach me to hone in on my vampire abilities. I got a small thrill thinking about learning how to run faster than any human could, how to focus on something far away, and the other abilities that came with being a vampire. But the best part of my thrill came from the fact that Sebastian would be teaching me.

In the corner of the room there was an iHome, and speakers decorated the room. Sebastian plugged in an iPod and turned on an upbeat playlist that I figured he used whenever he worked out. I looked around the room and noticed the walls were padded, but before I could think about that I continued scanning the room. There was a rock wall, large, flat wooden boards that stood at least six feet tall, a punching bag along with a few punching dummies that had been bolted to the floor, and a suspended running track at least thirteen feet above our heads. Before I got to use any of the cool equipment, Sebastian decided that it would be a good idea for me to learn how to control my speed.

Learning how to control my speed became a game. Sebastian would run around the room and stop in random places, and I had to catch him. He sped to the opposite side of the room, and I focused so hard on catching him that I bounced off the wall he was leaning against. I hadn’t even noticed I had moved until I hit the wall. Shaking my head, I looked around to find him. He was on the east wall, at the farthest end from me. I took off. This time I slowed down five feet before the wall, but it wasn’t soon enough or fast enough, because I hit the wall again. We kept going for a few hours until I had learned to stop immediately without hitting a wall.

Next I was going to learn how to jump over high obstacles. This was going to prove to be difficult. Before I had changed into a supernatural, I could barely jump on a trampoline without hurting myself, even if they were baby bounces and I was directly in the center. We started small. Each time I succeeded, Sebastian added another foot. At first I jumped over a bar stool, then a high-backed dining chair, and then I jumped over a five-and-a-half-foot ladder. Of course, I had to jump over each obstacle ten times, and then we would go higher. The higher we went, the harder it became. I struggled more once we reached six feet. On the first three or four tries, I would get close, but I would hit the object hard enough to knock me on my butt. As soon as I was able to jump higher than six feet, Sebastian made me jump onto the wooden plank. It was a lot higher than I originally thought—a very high eight feet. I took a few steps back. Sighing, I gave it a running start then leapt into the air. A hard thud reverberated off the padded walls, and I braced myself for impact on the ground. When there wasn’t one, I opened my eyes and shrieked. I had made it on the first try. Sebastian jumped up to congratulate me, and we did a small celebratory dance.

I felt energized and excited. All I wanted to do was run around, jump over things, and dance like a fool. Getting a silly idea, I walked up to Sebastian and smiled sweetly at him. Before I could say anything, he gave me a look and asked, “What do you want?”

“What makes you think I want anything?” I laughed and answered sweetly.

“Because you have been running circles around me, and then you walked,
walked
at a human pace toward me and smiled. How could I not think you wanted something?” he smirked at me.

“Well, since you twisted my arm . . . ” I trailed off. “Can we go on a run through the woods?” I asked excitedly.

“AubrieAnna . . . ” His smile fell and he looked at me.

“What?” I asked.

“We can’t,” he answered me sadly.

“Well, how come?” I demanded like a child.

“Because, if there is anyone out there they could see us, and no one is supposed to know about us. And if the u da yv la dv catch us . . . ” Sebastian trailed off again.

“Okay,” I answered and walked over to the other side of the room. All of my excitement and energy was gone.

“I’m sorry, love.”

I just nodded and looked down at the ground. It was stupid. The u da yv la dv were stupid. If they didn’t exist I would be able to go outside and run like the wind with Sebastian. Even though he didn’t outright say it, I knew they were the reason he was saying no. I wanted to cry, which made me feel ridiculous. I didn’t cry because I couldn’t do something. Sighing, I sat down on the cold floor and picked imaginary lint off my shirt. Sebastian sat down beside me and stayed silent. He knew how I felt.