Hunted (47 page)

Seeing that…
desecration
filled Lanie with fury.  She had lost her mother and now, thanks to a soulless devil, she had lost all the things her mother had treasured! 

If she’d had any fear inside her about facing down the three vampires clawing their way into her house, that fear evaporated once she saw what had happened to her mother’s curio cabinet.  She could be afraid later.  Right now, she had to put some bullets into the monster that was destroying everything, and everyone, she loved.

Lanie, Kyle, and Johnna were all facing the living room wall, all of them holding their weapons at the ready.  Lanie’s heart was pounding with adrenaline and anger, but when all the noise suddenly ceased and the room fell eerily quiet, a little thread of fear snaked its way back in.  Kyle’s shoulders stiffened and he shot both Lanie and Johnna a glance that clearly said this was it. 

It was time.

Lanie pulled in a deep breath and tightened her grip on the handgun and the canister, ignoring the sudden wave of dread sweeping over her.  If Frederik was going to get her, at least she could put up a fight to try and save herself.

After a very long moment of complete silence, there was an eruption of rafter shaking noise that caused both Lanie and Johnna to shriek.  The sound of cracking wood rent the air and then another silence swiftly fell.  It was during that stretch of eerie calm that Lanie found it difficult to stand her ground instead of turning and running away.  Only, there was nowhere for her to run, so what would be the point?

Without warning, the painted sheetrock seemingly detonated outward into the room in a hail of chalky dust and shrapnel that hit Lanie and the others full force, stunning her so that she reeled backwards several steps.  If Kyle hadn’t reached out and took hold of her, holding her steady, she just might have turned and fled after all.

A slight feeling of terror surged up inside Lanie as through the cloud of dust filling the living room, she could see an onslaught of fists and boots and hands, kicking and clawing at what was left of the sheetrock, tearing it away from the house and revealing the dark night outside.  It all happened within a matter of seconds, and then there was no more wall, only a thick film of white powder hanging in the air and the towering forms of three vampires standing just outside, their ruby red eyes glowing through the haze.

There was a stalled second during which Lanie found herself looking directly into the gleaming red eyes of Frederik, the monster who had killed her friends, her aunt, who had hurt her father, and something inside her, something cold and repugnant, had her finger squeezing the trigger of her handgun.

The next few seconds were nothing more than a blur of motion and deafening sound and Lanie could barely keep up with any of it.  Guns were firing, bullets were striking Frederik and Chase, sending them both stumbling backwards, and suddenly Heath was falling onto the ground, a gleaming shard protruding from his chest.  The flash of several more seconds passed with more gunfire and then Chase, jerking backward from the impact of the bullets striking him, spun around and was gone, fleeing into the night.  Another second fell away and Frederik was struck by a gleaming shard dead center of the chest, followed by the simultaneous blast from the two canisters of blessed water.  There was an outraged roar, a burst of thick smoke as Frederik’s skin was burned and then he was gone, melting away into the darkness.

The instant Frederik disappeared, Kyle holstered his crossbow and grabbed hold of both Lanie and Johnna, who tossed their handguns aside but kept hold of their canisters, rushing them from the living room and out through the foyer.  Lanie hadn’t wanted Johnna to come with them, but it wasn’t safe to leave her in a house that was half torn down, so the girl had to come.  With her heart thumping wildly and her ears ringing loudly, Lanie was raced out into the chill darkness, down the front steps, and straight over to her car sitting in the driveway.

She and Johnna both jumped in, fastening their seatbelts even as Kyle was revving the engine and slamming the car into gear.  He hit the gas and backed out of the driveway, whipping the car around and sending them peeling out down the street with the screech of burning rubber.

A little piece of Lanie clearly remembered promising her aunt that she wouldn’t run off with Kyle Vincent, and here she was doing exactly that.  Of course, her aunt didn’t much have a voice to speak against it now.

They made it to the end of Rosetree Lane and took the corner on what felt like two wheels, hitting the next street full throttle and barreling down it, blowing through stop signs like they weren’t even there, with Lanie clutching her seat and praying that no one was coming at them head on.  She’d hate to have gotten this far only to die in a fiery crash.

“Where are we going?” Johnna asked from the backseat, sounding tight and strained.

“Away,” Kyle answered, taking another corner so sharply Lanie thought the Bug would flip over. 

Somehow it didn’t and Lanie found herself glancing behind them, expecting to see Frederik chasing after the car.  But, she saw only darkness.  She couldn’t allow herself to feel relief, though.  The car would have to come to a stop sometime, or at least slow down, and then what?  Would Frederik come swooping out of the darkness and tear her from the vehicle?  That was sort of what she figured because she honestly didn’t believe he wouldn’t simply let them drive out of town.

“Will-will everyone be safe now?” Lanie asked quietly, bracing herself as they careened around another corner.

“He’ll follow you,” Kyle assured her, his expression set in a hard grimace.

They blasted through a few more stop signs and took another corner on two wheels and Lanie realized they were flying down Aster Street, heading toward Fells Pointe Cemetery, the place her mother was buried, the place she’d never get to see again unless they could kill Frederik.

The silence and tension in the car was thick as they sped down the darkened stretch and Lanie found herself wishing she had called her dad to tell him what they were planning.  He would be so worried when she didn’t make it to the Town Hall to meet him.  She would have to call him later, if she had the chance. 

From behind Lanie, Johnna let out a sharp gasp, bringing her out of her thoughts and the first thing her gaze landed on was the shape just up the street, just out of reach of the headlights.  Lanie let out a gasp of her own as she realized what that shape was, but Kyle didn’t even let off the gas.  He headed straight at the shape full throttle and Lanie tried to scream…but then the shape was gone, vanished a second before they could smash into it.

“Dammit!  They’ve found us already!” Kyle gritted out, putting the gas pedal to the floor.

“It’s okay!  We can outrun them!” Johnna declared in a slightly hysterical tone.

“We can once we hit the highway, but if we have to slow down, they’ll have us!” Kyle said roughly. 

They weren’t going to make it to the highway.  Lanie suddenly knew that.  The highway was too far, they were still blocks and blocks away from there.  There was no way they wouldn’t have to slow down!

“Kyle, we aren’t going to make it!” she breathed, that cold realization clawing at her. 

“We’ll make it!” Kyle told her through his teeth.  “He’s not getting his hands on you, Lanie!”

“The highway is too far away!” Lanie told him.  “I don’t want Johnna to die like this!”

“We aren’t going to die!” Johnna hissed at her.  “We’ve gotten this far!”

“But, it’s not far enough!” Lanie argued.  “We have to figure out something else!”

They weren’t going to make it!  All they had done was make themselves a moving target!  They hadn’t really bettered their circumstances at all!

As that thought crossed her mind a blast of sound filled the car as something landed on the roof with all the force of a boulder.  Kyle swerved from the impact, desperately trying to right the car as it careened across the road and then banked a hard left, but it was useless.  Lanie and Johnna both screamed as the Bug slammed into the wrought iron fence surrounding the Fells Pointe Cemetery.

The breath suddenly surged back into Lanie’s lungs and the next instant she was opening her eyes to find the car filled with smoke and a deflated airbag covering her lap. 

Numb and dazed, Lanie glanced to her left, finding the driver’s seat empty and the door open.  Through the door, out in the darkness, she saw Kyle on the ground, battling with a dark shape she recognized immediately as Frederik.  Terror seized Lanie and she cast a glance into the backseat, seeing Johnna desperately struggling to get her seatbelt off.

Oh God!  Frederik was going to kill Johnna! 

Lanie flung her own seatbelt off and fought with her own door for a second, but it wouldn’t open, so she scrambled across the seat, through the haze of smoke, and out the driver’s side door.  Once she hit the ground, she didn’t hesitate.  She took off at a dead run, away from the car and Johnna, down the street that was deserted, her footsteps echoing through the darkness and the sound of Johnna screaming after her filling her ears.

She had to get away from Johnna!  Frederik wanted her and she hoped and prayed that he would overlook her friend and come after her!

The sound of fast footsteps pounding the pavement behind her sent terror along Lanie’s spine and a jolt of adrenaline surging through her.  Desperation swelled in her chest and she shot forward, but the footsteps were already right behind her.  A heavy weight hit her hard from behind and she pitched forward with a shriek, but never felt her body hit the pavement…

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

The strange noise invaded Lanie’s mind even before she was awake.  It took her a while to try and place what it was.  She almost couldn’t.  It was familiar, yet so loud and insistent she thought she must wrong.  But, after floating in the darkness and listening to the sound for a good while, she knew that she wasn’t wrong after all. 

It was the sound of…a heartbeat. 

Loud and fast and slightly irregular, and so close she thought it was her own heartbeat…only it wasn’t.  She didn’t think her heart could possibly be beating that fast.  She would have been able to feel it thumping against her ribcage.

No.  That heartbeat did not belong to her. 

Curious, Lanie struggled to pull herself out of the sleep she was in, struggled to open her eyes, which seemed heavier than they should have been.  That sound became more insistent, faster it seemed the more she tried to wake herself.

It took a vast amount of effort, but Lanie finally managed to get her eyelids to flutter open.  But, there was a blinding assault of light that pierced right through her skull, forcing her to shut them tight again.  She waited a long minute before trying again and then slowly, she opened her eyes, bracing herself against the assault.  After several painful moments, her eyes finally adjusted and she found herself looking up at…a ceiling and an overhead light fixture dripping with dangling crystals.  She’d never seen that light fixture before.

Confused, Lanie turned her head, a part of her expecting to see the familiar surroundings of her bedroom, but instead she found herself looking at a dark red wall hung with large floral paintings and an old fashioned dresser with an ornately carved oval mirror.  Lanie’s mind tried to place the things she was seeing, but she couldn’t.  She didn’t think she’d ever been in this room before.

How strange.

“She’s awake,” a soft, delicate voice suddenly sounded out.

Lanie couldn’t remember hearing that voice before, either, but she turned her head in that direction, her gaze falling on what she thought had to be the most beautiful person she’d ever seen.   The girl, such a young looking girl, had long golden-blonde hair, pale porcelain skin, fine bones, and enormous green eyes that were twinkling like stars. 

Standing next to the girl was someone that Lanie did recognize, though, and seeing that tall man with the white-blonde hair and handsome, chiseled features sent a shard of fear spiking through her. 

Frederik!

The instant after her gaze landed on that pale, familiar face, everything came crashing back in on Lanie with the force of a tidal wave.  Frederik tearing at the side of her house, she and Johnna and Kyle racing through the darkened streets, the car crashing in front of the cemetery, her climbing out of the car and running away, hoping Frederik would follow her and leave Johnna alone…

With a gasp, Lanie sat bolt upright, terror and panic racing through her veins as her body braced itself to see Frederik come flying at her.  Instead, it was the beautiful girl who rushed forward and quickly took hold of Lanie’s shoulders, sitting down next to her on…the bed.  The bed?  Yes, they were sitting on a bed that was covered with crumpled silk sheets.