Finding Obscurity (20 page)

“Let me tell you a little bit about vampires before I go any
further. What do you know about us?”

“Allergic to sunlight,” I said, ticking the list of with my
fingers, “drink blood, absolutely hate garlic, wooden stakes, holy water and
crosses, sleep in coffins,
immortal
… am I even close?”

He let out a bark of laughter with his head tilted back. “Drinking
blood, yes, but we don’t have to do that very often. No to the coffin,
sunlight, garlic, holy water, and crosses, but we can be killed with a wooden
stake just like everyone else – but if we pull it out in time, we can heal slowly
from that wound. We are not immortal by far because we can die, and that is
where that concept is completely wrong, because an immortal being cannot.
Anything else?”

“Fangs, draining people of blood, can’t walk onto holy ground,
superhuman strength, and that’s all I got.”

“You watch too many movies.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “We
can walk into a church, and there are a few scattered around that have been
monks or catholic priests. Yes, we are stronger than most people, and can move
very fast. And our sight and hearing is amazing. We don’t kill people by
draining them, and if there is an incident like that, then they are killed
before they can do any more harm.” He winked. “And of course, we have fangs.”

I shivered at the look of total animal lust behind his eyes when
he mentioned the fangs, and thought about what Stacy had said happens when they
bite you. “Don’t judge me based on ignorance about what is true or not. All I
have to go on is movies because a month ago, I never knew you existed.”

“Fair enough. Anything else you want to ask me?”

“Can you turn into a bat or fly? Read minds?”

“No shape-shifting, and we can fly in airplanes, just like you.”
He smirked. “I can’t read minds, but I always wonder what you’re thinking when
you bite your lip like that.”

My lip popped out from between my teeth, and Ashton watched the
movement with a hungry gaze. Ignoring his look, which was harder than I
anticipated, I thought about any more questions, but couldn’t think of
anything. I knew he could eat regular food, because he was eating right now,
and I had seen Carlotta do the same. Plus, I knew they could be up during the
day or sleep at night because Ashton had been in the same bed as me, fast
asleep, before waking me in the most delicious way possible.

“I don’t have any other questions right now.” I shrugged, pushing
my empty plate away. I watched him through the reflection on the diner window,
not sure where this conversation was going.

“Would you do be willing to do something to keep you safe if we weren’t
sure how your body would react?”

“It depends.” There was something uneasy about the way he gazed at
me, twirling the fork in between his fingers in the reflection of the glass.

“I would like you to drink from me.”

My head snapped back to his gaze. “Excuse me?”

He watched my expression and answered softly like he was afraid of
my reaction. “I think if you drank from me, then if you were taken, I would be
able to find you anywhere.”

“Can you find Blake anywhere?”

His body straightened. “How did you know that?”

“He told me in a dream once.”

“A dream?” He leaned forward. “What are you talking about?”

Uh oh.
I don’t think it
would go over too well if I mentioned that Blake and I had been communicating
through dreams. “He has shown up in a few of my dreams, and he told me how he
met you. About you saving his life.”

“Do you two do… anything else besides talk in them?”

Ah, he was worried Blake had touched me in them. “No, why would we
do that? In one of them he told me to talk to you when I was mad. Don’t you
trust me?”

“I trust you, but I don’t trust him when it comes to you.”

“Ashton, stop. So, can you find Blake since he’s sampled your
blood?”

“No. Our bond is… different than what we would have. For one, he
is not my lover, and two; he’s not part vampire. I’m not sure what the reaction
will be if you drink it.”

 
Hmm. Did I want to take the
chance of being a guinea pig and possibly have the safety net of somebody being
able to find me anywhere? It would come in handy if I was missing, or if
somebody was out to kill me, but that meant I could never hide ever again.
Would
us
being intimate have something to do with the
way a bond would work?
 
We made love
once, except for that little romp in the bedroom this morning. What if we
didn’t work out? “I’ll think about it. That’s all I can promise right now,
okay?”

He nodded and stood, throwing a couple of twenties on the table
before leading me out of the diner with his hand on my lower back. “That’s all
I ask.”

The night air had a bite to it tonight as it whistled through the
trees, and he put an arm around me, pulling me closer when I shivered. I got
that weird feeling again that something was wrong. I glanced around and checked
out every shadow and bush in the area. I wasn’t sure if I shivered from the
night air, or because, somewhere in the dark, I felt eyes on me.

Chapter Twenty-One

Once we were in front of the hotel room, Ashton gave me a steamy
kiss goodnight before heading back to the room he was sharing with Blake. I
tried not to show my disappointment that we wouldn’t be sharing a bed, but when
Ashton winked at me before closing the door, I knew I didn’t pull it off.

Sam was softly snoring on the queen bed closest to the window, so
I headed to the bathroom to shower and change into pajamas. As the water
sloshed against my skin, I thought about the offer Ashton gave me, and even
though it would make sense to cover all bases when it came to the danger in my
life, I wasn’t so sure it would be the smartest thing to do. We both weren’t
sure what would happen if I did drink his blood, and right now was not the time
for some unnecessary side effects. Plus, him thinking I was his match, I wasn’t
sure what would happen to him, as well. Would it be like it was with Blake, or
would it be more intense since I was half vampire?
 
Right now, it was just baffling.

I dressed and crawled into bed, falling fast asleep as soon as my
head hit the pillow.

I was back in the basement, but this time there was somebody
untying my hands and the body that had once been on the dank floor was no
longer there. I pulled my hands forward and rubbed them together, trying to get
rid of the pins and needles, but I wasn’t sure why I was so calm about the
person behind me. I turned my head to the side and saw Paige with a knife, and
I scooted back, slamming into the wall before I noticed the dark stain down the
front of her shirt.

“Paige?”

She smirked, holding up the knife, and I screamed.

I woke with a start and found Sam reaching for me with wide eyes.
“Were you having a nightmare?”

“Sam, this can’t be good. I keep dreaming of a basement, but this
time I saw Paige with a knife.”

“Seriously?” Sam stood. “We have to tell the guys.”

“No!” I grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Not that I don’t think we
need to tell them, but let me get some more information first, okay?”

“Lily, I don’t think holding out information is a good thing right
now.”

“I’m fine, Sam.” I yawned. “Do you want something to drink? I’m
going to get something from the machine.”

“I’ll go with you.”

I stopped him from putting on some shoes. “I’ll be fine. It’s just
downstairs and then I will be right back up. The hotel seems pretty secure
anyway.”

“I don’t know…”

“Fine, you can come with me. You’ll see that this place is
probably a ghost town right now.”

He threw on sandals as I padded out of the room barefoot. When we
reached the machines and picked our drink selection, he let out a puff of air.
“You’re right. This place is as quiet as the dead.”

“See?”

Sam gave me a quick hug before we walked back into the elevators,
which took us to the second floor. “I’m just worried about you is all.”

“I know, and you’re awesome for doing that.” I smiled at him.
“Nobody is going to attack me in a hotel. They would have to get past the key
card in the back or the receptionist at the front desk.”

“Lily, they could rent a room too. Or they could get past the
front desk without a problem because they always have them doing some chore in the
middle of the night anyway.”

“Sam, stop being so paranoid. I love you, but you guys are
starting to smother me.”

“All we have learned, and what the guys have told me has made me
paranoid. I just can’t help but to want to keep you safe, even if I’m going a
little crazy about it.”

“I know.” I wrapped my arm around his shoulders.

We made it back into our room safely, and taking a chug of the
Coke, I realized it was warm and undrinkable. “Do you need any ice? My pop is a
warmer than room temperature.”

“Yeah, I think I saw an ice machine down near the vending machine.
Do you want me to go with you?”

“I think I’ll be fine. We didn’t see a soul around anywhere.”

“Be careful anyway, okay? Take this with you.” Sam handed me a can
of mace.

“Sam…”

He interrupted me with shake of his head. “I’ll feel better if you
have it, even if you don’t use it.”

“Thanks.”

I grabbed the key card, ice bucket, and padded barefoot back out
the door towards the elevator to the vending area. The carpet was soft and full
of padding until you reached the vending area, which had cold, hard tile.
Bending over the machine, I scooped ice into the small plastic bucket, being
careful not to get any on the floor. Once the bucket was full, and with the
mace tucked in my pajama bottom waistband, I headed back towards the elevator
with a yawn.

I didn’t have time to react when somebody slammed me from behind
and the ice and bucket went scattering across the floor. My chin hit the carpet
with a grunt, along with my hands, making them sting from carpet burn as I bit
my tongue, blood filling my mouth. My hands were pinned under my waist as
weight pressed into me and I wedged my arm underneath my hip to get the mace. I
got my arm free, pulled the can out, and was ready to spray my attacker. Cold
metal pressed against my temple and I froze.

 
“Do it, bitch.” The voice
was raspy, gruff, and definitely male. He drove his point home by pressing the
gun harder into my temple.

I waited for somebody to walk down the hallway and hear the
commotion, but the hallway was silent as a tomb. I started to let out a scream,
but fingers clamped my mouth shut before I could take a breath. The static
feeling began running along my skin, down to my bones, and I let it build until
my blood hummed. I just had to stall the guy until I was sure it would either
maim or kill my attacker.

“You scream, you die,” he growled in my ear. He bashed the gun
into the side of my head, making stars float in
my vision.

I glanced around while he maneuvered us to a standing position,
waiting for Sam to exit the elevator because I should have been back up to the
room by now. In a couple more minutes, I wasn’t sure what would happen to this
guy, with the power inside me, but at this moment, I didn’t care.

“Move.”

I didn’t move a muscle and the gun slammed into my head, causing
the edges of my sight to become blurry and fade to black. Blinking and taking a
few deep breaths helped for a minute and I was pretty sure I would have a
concussion if I got out of this. I was ready to let loose my entire gift into
this guy.

The elevator dinged down the hallway and when I saw Sam exit, I
wanted to scream in jubilation, but it was short-lived because he saw us and
froze when the gun, no longer on me, pointed straight towards him.

“Sam! Run!” I screamed. I heard the gun go off, and then
everything went black.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I woke up curled in to a ball, my head pounding, ears ringing, and
muscles cramped inside the trunk of a noisy car. My head was throbbing so bad I
wanted to puke, and the exhaust fumes coming through the trunk only made the
nausea much worse. I tried to reach up and feel the spot on my temple that was
pounding in time with my frantic heart but my hands were tied behind my back,
unable to do anything but lie there for the moment and get my bearings. Moving
my wrists didn’t do anything but make the rope, or whatever it was, cut
excruciatingly into my skin. There was no way I could have gotten to my cell
anyway, but the phone, and everyone who could help me were inside the hotel.

Sam! Oh, God, I hope he is okay and wasn’t killed when that gun
went off. The last thing I remembered was Sam coming out of the elevator and
the gun blasting in my ear before everything went black. I was pretty sure the
guy’s final blow knocked me unconscious. I said a little prayer that he would
be okay because I don’t think I would be able to deal with losing him. By now,
Ashton and Blake had to know I was missing, and come to think of it, the guy
who attacked me in the hallway of the hotel was human. I hadn’t thought about
it while the attack was happening, but there was the normal hum which told me
as much. Why would a normal person kidnap me? Did they work for somebody out to
kill me? Sure, there might be religious zealots out there who knew something
about the paranormal and wanted to kill us to preserve the human race or some
religious bullshit. Maybe that explained the human behind this.

The car began to slow down, and when they banked hard to the left,
my body slid against the backseat with a thud. “Hey!” I started kicking the
seat to the best of my ability with my hands tied. “Let me go!” The speakers
turned up some country song crooning about a lost love so I screamed at the top
of my lungs, only to have the volume go up another notch.

There had to be some sort of release to pop the trunk, and
depending on the age of the car, I might be able to get out of this alive, with
some hideous road rash, but alive nonetheless. All I had to do was wait until
we slowed down, find the latch, and roll myself onto the concrete and hopefully
not into oncoming traffic. I wormed my way by moving my hips, then shoulders,
then doing it all over again until I was able to look around the lip of the
trunk for a release. The car slammed on the brakes, suddenly slamming my body
into the seat again with a groan. But it was just as well since I didn’t see
any sort of emergency release. I was stuck in this trunk until they released
me.

We turned sharply onto gravel road with the rocks hitting the
bottom of the car like popcorn in a kettle, bouncing me around the trunk like a
beach ball. The car came to an abrupt stop, the music cut off, and the car door
slammed and while I listened to the footsteps walk away from the car. I
screamed and tried to kick the seat again. The footsteps returned quickly,
stopping in front of the trunk, and I began concentrating on the power
funneling throughout my body, hoping this person touches me at the right
moment. Without a release last time, it was easy to build it up, and when I heard
the keys jingle before clicking the lock open, I smiled.

The sunlight glared in my eyes, and blinking, I looked up into the
eyes of my attacker glaring down at me.

“Shut up!”

“Make me!” I spat.

He was bulky with tight faded jeans, a flannel shirt, and a
Cincinnati Reds baseball cap shading wide-set eyes the color of mud. His nose
was sharp, curving over like a beak, with small, thin lips and a large,
protruding chin. He wasn’t ugly, but he wasn’t pretty, either, which made him
blend into the background easily, so I knew why this man was picked. He reached
forward and slapped me sharply across the cheek. Now, not only did I have a
horrendous headache, I now had an aching jaw. “Fucker!”

“You’re lucky I have something in this kidnapping, or I would’ve killed
you back in the hotel.”

“What do you have in this?”

“None of your business, bitch.” He reached forward and grabbed the
front of my tank top, dragging me out of the car and onto the gravel, which
jabbed into my skin. All he had to do was reach for me one more time, and I
would let loose a shock that I hoped would kill him. Without a doubt this guy
had no qualms about killing or hurting a woman, no matter who she might be.

“Come at me, one more time, buddy, and I’ll show you how much of a
bitch I really am.”

He kicked me in the stomach and I groaned as my muscles clenched
painfully, tears pooling behind my eyelids. He made his mistake by grabbing my
shirt and pulling me to my feet. When he reached forward to grab my arm, I
smiled evilly, and when our skin made contact, I felt the buzz of power push
out of my body and into his. He shrieked like a girl and collapsed on the
ground in a seizure.

“That’s what you get, asshole,” I said and spit on him as he convulsed
on the gravel.

I started to turn and run, but before I could get anywhere, my
whole body went rigid, tingled with a white-hot pain, and I fell to the ground.
I felt a needle jab me in the upper arm, causing me to pass out… again.

When I woke, I was in a bare room with wood floors that had
windows blacked out with trash bags, arms and legs tied to a chair, and blood
trickling down my nose onto my lips. It pissed me off that I couldn’t even wipe
my nose and had to lick some of it off. The copper metallic taste in my mouth
was disgusting, and I was thirsty as hell. With the windows blocked, I couldn’t
tell what time it was. For all I knew it could have been the next day, which
meant nobody knew where they had taken me. I silently cursed myself for not taking
Ashton up on his offer, because they would have found me by now, but I couldn’t
dwell on that because I had bigger things to figure out. First of all, how the
hell did they know where I was? Second, how far had we driven before they’d
stopped? It was hard to tell after being knocked unconscious twice, so I could
be hours away from where I was taken.

A dingy ceiling fan hummed above me, swaying precariously, and
above the noise of the fan I could hear mumbled talking behind the door. I
moved my aching shoulders and tried to wiggle my numb fingers, but it only made
the pins and needles worse, so I gave up and instead focused on voices behind
the door.

The door swung open and a man greeted me. He wasn’t that great
looking, with large brown eyes, a cleft chin, a crooked nose from what looked
like too many bar fights, and dark stubble along his large, sharp jaw. He
walked with a slight limp as he made his way into the room. “Sorry to keep you
tied up, but I’m afraid you left us no choice.”

My heart started when he spoke. It was the same guy from the
grocery store and his voice grated under my skin. “What do you want?”

He pulled a chair from against the wall and straddled it in front
of me. “Many things. First, I want to know how you lived through the fire.”

“What fire?”

“Don’t pretend to be daft, Liliana.”

“Don’t call me that!” It seemed polluted coming from his lips
instead of Ashton’s.

“I don’t think you’re at liberty to tell me what to do right now.
Tell me how you survived.”

“I don’t know, okay? I just found out who the hell I was before
you attacked me at the store.”

“We will get back to that in a minute.” The man stood up and paced
the room. “Did you drink from your boyfriend? I don’t want any surprises.”

“Drink from him? Are you insane?” I was playing dumb, but maybe
the less this guy thought I knew, the better. “Why would I drink from Blake?”

“Blake?” He was momentarily caught off guard by my response.
“Blake Moore is with you?”

“Of course. Who did you think my boyfriend was?”

He straddled the chair again and pulled a sharp-looking hunting
knife off his belt before cutting into the wooden chair, carving out my name in
the wood. “So how do you know Ashton Ryder? Are you fucking both of them? I
could see the appeal. Both of them are powerful in their own right, and they
hate each other. So why would both of them be with you at the grocery and at
the hotel? That is what puzzles me more than anything. Either could be a
potential problem, but both of them together? That is something that could spell
disaster for me. You see, I don’t plan on getting caught, so with both of them
looking for you, we may have to change our plans.”

“What was your original plan?”

He tilted his head to the side with a wicked smile. “To finish
what was started twenty-eight years ago.”

“You’re going to kill me?”

“No, not anymore, because that would be impossible with those two
looking after you. Too many people know about you now, and I’m afraid that it
may create a war that could be quite ugly. From our actions so far, it may
start anyway.”

 
She will be a mix of both of our heritages. We hope that one day she
will be able to bring both races as one and stop the war against each other.
I shivered. “Why would a
war break out over me? I’m nothing special.”

“Oh, but you’re much more
than you give yourself credit for. You’re the light and dark, vampire and
Conjurer, and that, my dear, is the reason why our world could go to Hell in a
hand basket. You weren’t supposed to be conceived, let alone live past birth,
so there will be a lot of people out to get you. My group of merry men
included.”

“What would be the big
deal if I wanted to be normal and stay away from all of this bullshit? I didn’t
ask to be different and to be treated like an outcast. I’m a friend with both
Blake and Ashton. They seem to be fine with that.”

He chuckled and shook his
head. “I thought Blake was your lover? Yet, you don’t seem too concerned about
him coming to your rescue. I think you’re lying to me, but I have ways to make
sure that neither of them ever
find
you again, so it
won’t matter. I’ll thoroughly enjoy having you so close.”

I shivered when he leered
at me from head to toe, and knew he planned on being more than just a
kidnapper. It made me sick. “You won’t touch me!”

“Don’t be so sure.” He
stood and leaned close to my face, feeling his hot breath against my neck. “I
have ways of making you change your mind.”

He left the room and
slammed the door behind him, making the walls rattle in his wake. If I wasn’t
already desperate to get out of here, I went in near panic mode after his
declaration of using me for his own pleasure. I moved my wrists closer together
with a cry of pain as the rope cut into my skin. I cupped my hands, trying to
picture the lightning Blake had taught me. If I could angle it just right, I
may be able to burn the rope off my wrists, then free my legs before anyone was
the wiser, and then climb out one of these windows before being home-free.

I smelt something burning
after about ten minutes of trying. It was working! Of all the times my freaky
nature had let me down, now was the time for it to work. If I couldn’t save
myself with this power, then how was I supposed to be this all-powerful person
to stop a war? The rope in between my wrists was crackling now each time I
pictured the lightning storm, and finally with a snap, my hands were free.
Rubbing my wrists, I bit my lips so I wouldn’t cry out because they were rubbed
raw and parts of them had dried blood where I had fought the restraints.
Leaning forward, I started to untie my feet but heard the snick of the door as
I started on the right one. I flew back up into position, and even though I
didn’t want to because of the pain in my shoulders, put my hands behind the
chair again.

This time the guy who captured
me from the hotel walked in with a sneer, and kept a wide berth from me – most
likely because of my little surprise earlier. “You
gonna
be nice this time?”

I glared at him. “Are
you?”

He chuckled, pulling out
a syringe from his back pocket, tapped the plastic to ensure there were no air
bubbles, and squirted some of the yellow concoction from the needle. I wasn’t
sure what was in the syringe, but there was no way this jackass was getting it
anywhere close to my body. He smirked and started to advance with the little
needle, thinking I was still safely tied to the chair. He was wrong on so many
levels; I wasn’t just going to give up and let him win. When he was within a
foot in front of me, I stood up and watched the look of shock pass across his face.
I swung the foot still tied to the chair in an arc, and the wood smacked into
his face with a thump, making him groan as he crashed to the ground. We both
spotted the syringe across the room at the same time, and both of us jumped for
it. My hand clasped around the container a second before his hand did, and he
landed on top of me, struggling to gain control of my arm from behind. My ankle
was still tied to that damn chair, and he realized that was my one disadvantage
by pulling the chair hard against my ankle.

“Motherfucker!” I cried
out as he kicked my ankle, putting pressure against the bone.

“Give it up, you stupid
bitch!” he growled, pulling my hair and slamming my face into the wood floor.

Luckily he missed my nose
and got my cheek instead, but it still hurt like hell. We thrashed about again,
with both our hands clasped on the needle, struggling like somebody fighting
for control of a gun.

“What in the hell is
going on in here?” a voice boomed, and we both turned our heads, hands still
clamped on the syringe, to see the vampire from earlier standing in the
doorway, looking pissed. “Can’t you do anything right, Joe?”