Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (28 page)

Kristi took his hand. “Thank you.”

“Did you enjoy your first meal?” Dara asked.

“Yes. It was amazing. But I hope I never have to do it again.”

20.
PERMISSION

T
he four vampires
headed back toward their cavern
. With several hours left before dawn, they were in no particular hurry, especially Kristi and Marcio, who trotted side by side. Dara and Genevieve
were not in any
rush to leave the cool
,
fresh open air
either, so they did not begrudge the slow pace of their com
panions
.

Eventually, with less than an hour before the gray fingers of dawn began to paint the eastern horizon, they arrived near the entrance to the
ir sanctuary
. Marcio drew to a halt a few hundred feet from the opening, out of sight of anyone who might be watch
ing from inside. The others stopp
ed beside him.

“We’re here,” he told Kristi. “The entrance to our cavern is just ahead.”

“You live underground?” Kristi asked, surprised.

Genevieve grinned.
“Where did you think we lived, i
n some beautiful glass house in the middle of the woods? You’ve been watching too many movies.”

“I, uh, hadn’t really thought about it,” Kristi said.

“When the sun comes up, you’ll be glad for our little hole in the ground,” Dara said. “The sunlight hurts.”

Marcio took Kristi’s hands in his. “It’s more than a ‘little hole in the ground,’ I promise.”

“Why are we stopping here, then?” Kristi asked. She watched as
Marcio’s
eyes moved to Dara and Genevieve.

“Just being careful,” he said after a moment.

“What Marcio is trying to s
ay, dear,” Genevieve said
, “is that you may not be welcome here.”

Kristi’s eyes grew wide as she looked at Marcio.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be welcome? I’m a vampire now, just like all of you, aren’t I?”

“You are,” Marcio assured her.

“The coven has rules about creating new vampires,” Genevieve explained.

“And Marcio did not get permission,” Dara added.

“I’m going to ask them to accept you now,” Marcio said.

“What does that mean?” Kristi asked worriedly. “What will happen to me if the coven won’t accept me?
They won’t kill me, will they?
”

“
No,
you will not be harmed,
” Genevieve said. “
You
will
merely
be banished, far away, s
o that anything you do that calls attention to yourself will not endanger us.”

“Call attention
to myself
? How would I do that? I’m
never
going to
drink human blood again.”

“Which is one of the things I will tell them,” Marcio said.

“How are you going to do it?” Dara asked
him
. “The Council wil
l be angry you did not ask before you turned her
.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I want you and Genevieve to go inside and find Stefan. Ask him to come out. I think I can convince him. And if I do, I believe the rest of the Council will go along.”

Genevieve nodded. “You’re right about that. Stefan has never been in higher regard than he is now, after his rol
e in destroying those two unusually
powerful vampires.”

“A battle in which I
fought at his side,” Marcio reminded her
. “I risked my life. Stefan will not forget that.”

Genevieve nodded a
gain. She and Dara had taken
part in the first disastrous contest with the two
magically enhanced
vampires and knew firsthand how powerful they had been.

“I think you’re right. We will be back as quickly as we can.”

Kristi watched as the two vampires flashed through the trees. She did not fully understand her position, but trusted that Marcio would make everything right.
As if he had been reading her mind, Marcio took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

They did not have long to wait before Stefan came striding through the trees. From the look of surprise on his face when he saw Kristi, it was clear Genevieve and Dara had not told him why Marcio wanted to see him. The two women had remained behind in the caverns, so it was just the three of them who gathered under the moonlight.

“I was told you wished to see me,” Stefan said to Marcio, though his eyes remained fixed on Kristi.

Kristi had trouble meeting Stefan’s gaze.
The black-haired vampire’s eyes were like black mirrors, unreadable. And while Marcio had an air of confidence and power, the aura surrounding Stefan took those qualities to a whole different level.

“I seek a favor,” Marcio said. “I’m hoping my role in our last battle will persuade you to grant it.”

Stefan pulled his eyes from Kristi and looked at Marcio. Kristi immediately felt as if a weight had been lifted from her.

“Your part was an important one,” Stefan acknowledged. “You risked much, at my request. I think I can guess what it is you wish
, and I will not deny you
.” He glanced briefly at Kristi and smiled, before turning back to Marcio. “And I can see why you want this one to join us.”

As soon as Stefan smiled, a sense of relief flowed over Kristi. While he still gave off an air of strength, he no longer seemed overbearing. She smiled back at him.

“Her name is Kristi,” Marcio said. “You need not worry about her. She has no craving for human blood.
It was all I could do to get her to feed once.
” He took Kristi’s hand. “Besides, I will keep her by
my side always.”

Kristi’s smile widened. She liked the sound of that.

Stefan nodded. “Come, it will
soon be light
. Bring her to your chamber, while I clear her presence with the Council.”

Stefan turned and headed toward the caverns. Kristi and Marcio followed behind him. When they crossed the opening,
and stepped into the dimness,
Kristi knew she had found a home.

2
1
.
VERIFICATION

S
unday night, it was all over the news.
Just as Leesa had foreseen
in her dream
, z
ombies had attacked
people in
a mall in Columbus.
Fortunately, t
he police
managed to destroy the creatures
before they
hurt too many people
. At least one of the cops had known
enough
to shoot for the
zombie
’s
head
s
, a
nd the other cops
had followed his example.
At first, t
he officers had tried to stop the things by pulling them away, but after one
policeman
got his arm ripped open by a vicious bite,
the police
had turned to their weapons. The wounded officer was being held under close observation at a local hospital.
The media had not been allowed to see him.

Only one person had died—an Ohio State football player who had been at the front of the group of shoppers trying to hold the door closed against the zombies.
The authorities were not calling them zombies—the official line was they were peop
le who had been ravaged by some
fast acting
flesh-eating bacteria
—but the
most
of
the
news people were not so discreet.
The more reserved among them
were ca
lling the attackers
“zombie-
like creatures.”
The rest had no such reservations and called the attackers zombies, plain and simple.
Leesa wasn’t surprised
. Zombies made for juicier
headlines
and sound bites
than even flesh-eating bacteria
.

S
itting on her b
ed,
she
glumly
watched
the reports on her
television.
Cali sat beside her, having
come racing upstairs as soon as she first heard about the story.
She was one of the few people who knew about Leesa’s zombie dreams, and she realized that anything concerning zombies would have an effect on her friend.

“I can’t believe this,”
Cali
said
when the latest report went to commercial
. “It’
s like something out of
a
freaking
horror flick.”

“I know,” Leesa replied. She turned and looked at Cali. “I dreamed
about
this Friday night.”

Cali grabbed Leesa’s forearm.

“Oh, no!
Really?”

Leesa nodded.
“Yeah.
I even knew that if it happened, it would be in Columbus.” She breathed a deep sigh. “There wasn’t anything I could do, though. Who
could I tell? And
who
would have believed me
, anyhow
? And besides, I didn’t know when it would happen, or even if it really would.”

Since Cali didn’
t know
about Leesa’s magic powers, Leesa didn’t say anything
about
how her efforts to summon a far different dream had resulted in this one instead.