Dahlia (Blood Crave Series) (26 page)

She couldn’t deal with that right now, his lack of empathy.

Still sitting on the couch, Dahlia glanced toward the front door, wondering where Sam could be. His car was in the driveway so it was odd he was not home and had gone off somewhere without it. Now was the best time to break everything to him, taking into account this situation involved him. She wondered how he would take the news about the people he considered friends deceiving him like that. Who were Sam’s real friends? Could Greyson reverse the damage done to his mind?

Where did Sam go, anyway?

Dahlia hadn’t known she had fallen asleep until she woke up with tears streaming down for face. She sat up from the couch and glanced down at her watch, groaning. She had been out for hours. Her chest felt heavy as she blinked away the blurriness from her eyes, wiped the fallen tears from her face.

She had another dream. In it was the dark-haired man from her other dreams. He was a vampire—lamia. She was sure of it, even though she had never seen one. They had a connection of sorts. How, she did not know. Like the last dream she had, they weren’t alone. Three figures stood behind him, a woman and two children. They clutched their hands tightly together as they looked on with glowing eyes, staring solemnly at Dahlia and the vampire. The vampire ignored them. He just gazed down at Dahlia as if he wanted to tell her something. But she couldn’t understand anything he said, thin lips moving wordlessly as he cupped the side of her face. Then a loud ringing erupted in her ears and everything around her disappeared.

Then she was suddenly at the orphanage.

Dahlia groaned as she rubbed the side of her head. Now was not the time to make sense of that dream. She sat up slowly, noticing the silence of the entire house. She frowned as her mind finally woke up, an overbearing sense of dread washing over her. Standing up, she gazed out the window and saw that it was night. Eyeing the front entrance, she realized Sam’s shoes were still missing from the doorway.

Panic rising up deep in her chest, Dahlia rushed up the stairs as she ran to the door at the end of the hallway and opened it widely, his name at the tip of her tongue.

“Sa—,” Dahlia voice became silent as she looked in his room.

It was empty.

“Sam?” Dahlia continued to call his name as she turned around and quickly took the steps back down the stairs as she looked into each individual room, searching for him. She made her way back to the front entrance and opened the door as she walked quickly toward Sam’s car, her heart sinking in the pit of her stomach.

The key was still in the ignition.

She quickly walked back into the house and slammed the door shut as she took her phone out of her pocket and dialed Sam’s number, waiting impatiently for him to answer. It went straight to voicemail causing Dahlia to slam it shut in frustration.

Flipping the phone back open, she dialed another number, one she had memorized when he first called her. It too, went to voicemail as she closed it shut as soon as she heard the automated voice. Taking a calm breath, she tried again as she dialed, pressing each button slowly as she prayed he would answer.

At last, the phone picked up as she heard Greyson’s low voice through the phone.

“Dahlia.”

A tear ran down the corner of her eye in relief. “Greyson.”

He immediately heard the strain in her voice. “What’s wrong?”

“Sam,” she said with a quiver. “He’s not in the house. His key’s still in the ignition but I can’t find him anywhere. Something’s wrong, I can feel it.”

“Stay where you—”

His voice cut off, causing Dahlia to stare at her phone blankly. “Greyson?” She heard nothing on the other end of the line, just emptiness. She set the cell phone down slowly on the table, realizing she wasn’t alone in the house. Walking back toward the staircase, she grasped the railings tightly with her fingers, her heart rapidly pounding in her chest. She stared as the front door slowly opened to reveal a figure standing silently. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dahlia started forward, one name on the tip of her tongue.

“Grey–”

Before she could even finish, a heavy pressure slammed into the back of her head as she fell to the floor. Lying on her stomach she painfully rolled onto her back as she looked up to see a pair of bright eyes looking down at her before she lost consciousness.

***

When Dahlia opened her eyes again, her head felt  as if she’d been bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer.

“Morning, Sunshine! You sure like to sleep, don’t you?”

Dahlia blinked rapidly against the harsh lights aimed directly into her face and winced at the harsh voice in her ear. She remained silent, tried remembering why it sounded so familiar.

“Cat caught your tongue, D? How come you’re not talking to me, your best friend?”

Dahlia closed her eyes, not wanting to believe, but knew she had to face the hard truth. The person she had once considered her friend, but really hated her to the core, was holding her against her will.

Ava stood over Dahlia as she lay on the hard linoleum floor, duck tape tightly bound to her wrists. Crouching, she stroked the hair away from Dahlia’s face causing her to flinch away from the touch as a tear rolled down her cheek. Without her sunglasses, Ava’s blinding amber eyes stared down at Dahlia with fake concern.

“Are you crying, D? Oh, don’t do that.” Ava wiped the tears away from Dahlia’s face with the pads of her thumb. Then she pouted, raising eyebrows down at Dahlia as she patted her cheek. “Why aren’t you talking to me, D? You didn’t know this would happen today, am I right? I’m a few days early, I guess.

“Really, D, I’m starting to feel lonely right now with your silent treatment.” Ava covered her mouth as if she were truly concerned. “Oh, I forgot. I covered your mouth with duct tape. Let me help you there.”

As soon as she spoke, Ava quickly ripped the tape away from Dahlia’s mouth, leaving her lips raw and stinging.

Dahlia breathed deeply through her nose, looking at Ava accusingly as her lips throbbed, red with beads of blood on her now sensitive skin as she licked it away. She was thankful her lips began to heal instantly and she spoke stronger than she actually felt, although hoarse. “Why are you doing this, Ava?”

She waved her off with a hand. “Greyson told you all this. There’s no point in me sounding like a broken record. Since the four musketeers are finally dealt with, I figured there was no time like the present. Too bad Greyson isn’t here to save you.” She twirled her hair between her fingertips. Then Ava stood up with a smile on her face as she looked toward the door.

Dahlia became aware for the first time that they were in the school’s cafetorium.

“Well, speak of the devil. You’ve arrived just in time! The main act is about to happen.”

“Let her go, Ava.” Greyson entered the dimly lit room, surrounded by candles. Seeing Dahlia lying helpless on the ground, he headed straight for her.

“I don’t think so.” Ava gave her head a little shake and raised a hand, stopping Greyson abruptly in his tracks. Grimacing, he struggled roughly against the invisible barrier but was unable to budge.

“Did you like that trick? It’s a little gift from Merrick since he’s out of commission.” She laughed loudly then continued. “Guess what else I can do?”

She stared hard at Greyson, her amber eyes glowing. Greyson’s body unwillingly walked over to Dahlia, who was sprawled on the floor. He picked her up by the shoulders, encircling her neck with his fingers. He then tightly gripped her throat with so much force as she looked up at him in panic. She saw his mind try to resist what his body was forced to do as tears filled his brilliant green eyes.

“See, Greyson? I can make you do anything. Even kill your precious Dahlia,” remarked Ava as Greyson locked his grip even tighter around Dahlia’s neck who struggled to breathe against the pressure. Just as she felt she couldn’t take anymore, she faintly heard Ava’s voice mumble something as Dahlia instantly crashed to the ground, landing painfully on her knees. She gasped for air as her chest burned, coughing uncontrollably.

“You little bitch,” growled Greyson, murder in his eyes as he stared at Ava. “Why are you doing this?” He was still unable to move from his place.

“Why? You know exactly why, Greyson. Why we have to do this. Frankly, I’ve had enough of your stalling. The lapsus after Dahlia are all dead—I saw to that. Now we can use her for the whole point that she was even created.”

Ava paused as she looked up at him amusingly. “I thought I was the one who was supposed to get chummy with her, not you. You were only supposed to keep watch until you changed your mind and decided to fall in love with the capture.”

Greyson shook his head, frustrated. “But you don’t have to hurt her, not like this. You can take what you need without harming her.”

“Don’t hurt her?” Ava exclaimed with raised brows. “Have you grown soft? This is our whole purpose
.
And you decide to turn your back on us. For one whose blood is tainted with lamia? How could you? There’s a bigger vision than just
her.
” She spat out the last word as she looked down at Dahlia in disdain, who was on her hands and knees.

“Ava,” Dahlia whispered faintly, but Ava heard because she instantly looked over at her.

She slowly walked over and crouched so they stared eye to eye, unblinking. “What is it, dear?”

She continued to look Ava in the eyes as she spoke. “Our friendship…was it all a lie?”

Ava smiled cheekily. “You like my acting skills, huh?” Then she pursed her lips together, raising an eyebrow as if deep in thought. “But I suppose you deserve to know the whole truth.”

She chuckled then hit Dahlia lightly on the back as she looked over at Greyson who was still frozen in spot, glaring as he watched helplessly.

“You see, I remember watching you that day in the forest.”

Dahlia took a quick intake of breath, her mind instantly flashing back to when she was a child, alone with a lone wolf. What once thought of as merely a dream, in all actuality, was her reality.

“No one else knew I was there but I saw you. You loving,” Ava swallowed as she paused. “No,
relishing
, in the scent of blood. I knew you wanted to taste it. After all, you are a bloodsucking vampire. And as I stared at this little girl, I wanted to have my Raven snap your throat. I hated that my father wanted you so bad.”

“Merrick,” Dahlia whispered. She knew Ava was referring to her wolf when she spoke of Raven.

“Yes. You see, I never knew then about your blood being the key to his release. I only did what he told me to do which was to watch over my…” Ava paused as she got a look of disdain on her face.

Dahlia didn’t wait for Ava to continue. “Sister.”

Ava smirked back. “Half-sister.”

She whispered as she continued, “See, we had to get the scent of you. All Merrick showed me in his vision was the orphanage. How am I supposed to figure out which one of the rug rats running around was you? I had my Raven sniff you out. You know, since we’re related and all and you have that vampire blood running through your veins.

“And we kept an eye on you. Every time you went to a foster home, we knew you’d always come back. We just had to wait until you matured enough—during the time when the power of the lapsus is the strongest, the anniversary of our existence. When your blood is the strongest. But you didn’t come back, so we had Greyson and Maddox find you and everything fell into place once again.” Ava then sneered as she looked over at Greyson.

“But Greyson had to go and fall in love. Although it’s not quite our anniversary, give or take a few days, it’s close enough. I’ve frankly had enough of all this waiting. It’s time to take action.”

A new voice in the room caused everyone to turn around as Maddox strolled into the large room. He looked at Dahlia in disgust then turned to Greyson. “We had a plan, man. If we did what was required of us, we’d be free.”

Greyson looked over at Maddox as he struggled to speak. “Maddox…”

Maddox continued to rant on. “If we had it your way, I’d never be free from this connection I have with Merrick. All I wanted was to finally live
my
life without the responsibilities of my ancestors. Why couldn’t you have just given him what he wanted? It’s his right, isn’t it?”

“Enough, Maddox,” Ava interjected as she pushed him aside and knelt next to Dahlia. “We have to get on with it.” Dahlia saw her withdrew a large, sharp knife.

She took an intake of breath, trying to stall some time. “Just tell me. Where’s Sam?”

Ava looked down with a perplexed expression on her face. “Sam? Who’s Sam?”

“Please.” Dahlia begged, knowing deep down inside of her that Ava must have something to do with his disappearance. She truly felt that Meg didn’t want anyone else hurt besides her.

For the first time, Dahlia saw Ava hesitate. “Oh,
Sam.
Sam’s someone you don’t have to worry about anymore. He’s no longer in this…realm.”

Dahlia’s voice stuck in her throat at the thought of Sam.
No.
“Is he dead?” she finally cried out. “What did he ever do to you?”

“It was nothing personal. He was in the way, being so suspicious. His thoughts entirely focused on you. So were his parents, in fact. I probably could have just wiped their memories but,” she gave a shrug. “I figured the less people that cared about you, the better. It’s unfortunate of their dismissal but you understand, don’t you? This is all for the greater good of the lapsus. You should be privileged that you’re even a part of this.”

Ava knelt before Dahlia with the large knife in her hand. She pressed the tip of the blade against Dahlia’s throat lightly. Dahlia braced herself, but Ava withdrew as she snickered.

“I’m not going to cut your throat, silly.” She grabbed onto Dahlia’s hand. “Just your hand.”

Greyson was about to speak but Ava drew a hand toward him, shutting him up instantly. Dahlia watched her close her eyes as she began to chant words lightly under her breath, the knife in her hand suddenly glow along with the candles surrounding them. Ava’s eyes opened once more as she whispered, “Happy Anniversary, Dahlia,” then pressed the knife deeply into Dahlia’s hand, causing a diagonal cut across her palm.