Nevermore, the Complete Series (40 page)

Destiny cackled and leapt at me, slamming me into my father's brown dresser. My back ached temporarily, but it wasn't enough to prevent me from attacking back. I spun around, my talons extracted and my mouth open in preparation to shriek but she was faster than I had imagined. Her foot met my side and sent me clambering toward the floor. Sticking out a hand, I grasped the edge of the bed and stopped myself from falling.

“You don't want to fight me, Alex,” she said in a hypnotic voice. “Let's live together and be the happy family we were always meant to be.”

“I wish we could,” I whispered before letting out a shrill shriek. She cowered with her hands over her ears and I immediately took advantage by leaping towards her. As I swung to sink my claws into her she caught my arm by the wrist. Smiling up at me she started to plead again.

“You could come back with me, Alex. You could be the daughter to Malik and me. We can still be together, like this, forever. Come on sweetie, please?”

“Never!”

“Wrong answer!” With one swift motion Destiny twisted the wrist she was holding, snapping it completely.

The pain in my arm was immense. I had thought I would feel little pain as a vampire, but I had been very wrong. The snapped bones sent a wave of sickening pain up my arm and I collapsed down onto my knees.

“We could have been together again, Alexis. One big happy family. I could have shown you the world, and you could have had anything you ever desired at your fingertips.”

“
No…no I couldn’t. My dad…my friends…Salem. I would never give any of them up, for anything!”

“Oh Alex, baby. You will come with me one way or another you know. Even if I have to let you live the life of a slave for a while like I did. You will come with me.”

“I’ll never go with you, I’d rather die!”

“Oh come now, don’t be dramatic. What did this Janet woman teach you anyway? Certainly didn’t do too great of a job, I guess, huh? Here, I will give you a choice. If you come with me now, without a fight, I will let your dad and your friends live. I’ll even let your little vampire friend there come with us if I really must. However, if you refuse…not only will I make you go, but I will kill them.”

“No…you can’t… I won’t let you.”

“Oh, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s an easy choice, really. Come with me and they can all go on about their boring, short little lives. Refuse and I will kill them all, and it will be slow. I’ll start by draining your dad here of every drop.” She kicked him lightly in the leg before continuing, “Then I will find my way to your little friend’s house that your poor daddy here told me about.
Your old house, right? What was that boy’s name? Jim? John? …Jason? I think I may do something extravagant with them. Maybe take a bath in their blood as you watch or something? You were all for the dramatics, right?” She laughed.

“Jason…” I whispered to myself.

“Well, what do you say? Come with mommy?”

What choice did I have? I couldn’t just leave with her, and pretend nothing ever happened. I couldn’t exactly just leave my friends to die either though. If only I had been strong enough to beat her. Maybe there was still hope, after all…Salem had to be somewhere close by to help.

I looked around for him, but saw nothing. Why had I told him to leave? I looked out the window, hoping to see him there, but only saw darkness.

“Salem!” I shouted with as much hope and surprise as I could muster. Maybe she would believe that I had seen him.

It had worked! As Destiny turned to look for Salem out the window I had been staring at, I seized the moment: As loud as I could, I cawed. As she crumbled to the floor I had no time to waste, I stood up…ignoring the pain in my arm for a moment…and jumped over to the dresser with my dad’s silver crossbow on top of it. I grabbed the weapon, rolled carefully across the bed and cawed again before Destiny had the opportunity to regain her senses.

This was never a position I ever foresaw myself in – standing in front of my mother, a weapon aimed at her chest with intent to kill. But what other choice did I have? How ironic was it that it was my destiny to kill her? For a brief moment I contemplated giving her a chance like Salem had for Hannah, but I knew it would be a bad idea. She was far too gone and she would never be the same. Besides, she deserved to die…just thinking of all the people she had killed over the past years made me sick. She had even admitted to drinking the blood of children. I shuddered.

I shut my eyes, pulled the trigger and tried to block out the cries of agony protruding from the mouth of the woman who, despite the monster she was, traveled the world to find me because deep down she remembered me, she loved me and couldn't live without me. If I could change the world to be how I believed it was before I met Salem, would I? I wasn’t sure. Maybe it would have been better had I always thought Janet was my real mother, and if I had ended up with Jason instead of Salem. No. This was my life now. This was my destiny.

Once my eyes were opened, I dropped the crossbow to the floor and focused on the limp body of my mother on the floor. It hurt to look at her, but I wouldn't let it end like this. I knelt beside her cold, dead corpse and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

“I love you, mom...” I whispered, “I am so sorry it had to end this way.” I swept my hand across her eyelids and they fell shut – forever.

Paul was wriggling on the floor beside the end of the bed, trying to get himself loose from the rope binding his arms. I barely noticed his presence in the room during the fight against Destiny, despite his constant muffled groans and screams beneath the
tape. If only I could have left then, I may have saved myself a lot of pain, but instead I ran to his side and cut through the bindings with my talons. I switched forms and plucked the tape from his mouth. He screamed and rubbed his mouth, then without any warning he slammed his fist into my jaw.

“What the hell was that for?!” I screamed, holding my face.

“You just killed your mother! My wife!” he yelled. 

“Calm down, dad! That thing was NOT your wife!”

“She could have gotten better,” he insisted and ran to her side. He held her hand tightly in his own and I saw a tear fall and hit her cheek. “Oh, Destiny...”

“Dad, you have to understand…she was going to kill you!” I said, avoiding getting too close to him.

“I could have convinced her not to; somehow...I just know it. My Destiny was still in there, under all this…”

“No. That's just how you wish things would have turned out. We both know that she is not the woman you loved.”

“You're wrong!” he yelled furiously, picked up the crossbow and scrambled to his feet. “She would have listened to me, realized I didn't break my promise and with time everything would be the same again!”

“Face it, dad,” I pleaded, eying the crossbow anxiously; “the truth is…mom did die that day, so long ago.”

“No…I know the truth,” he growled, “where is that filthy vampire lover of yours anyway?!”

“I-I don't know,” I stuttered. Paul pushed me aside and stormed out of the room, down the hall and began frantically searching through the trailer. “What are you doing?!”

I chased after him through each room and then he spotted the front door hanging wide open and ran down the stairs.

Salem was leaning against my car, staring up toward the twinkling stars in the dark sky. I watched him turn around to face us, “Paul?” he said, “Is it over?”

“Oh, it’s about to be,” Paul snarled. “I never took the time to think about it before, but it all makes sense now!”

Arching a brow, Salem eyed the crossbow in my father's hand and frowned. “I don't know what you are talking about, Paul. You must be mistaken.”

“No, I'm not mistaken, Salem. You never should have come here. That's what led to all of this. You.”

“Dad – stop. You‘re just upset. You need to relax,” I begged and grabbed onto his arm.

He thrust me aside and I hit the stair banister, falling to my knees. “Stay out of this Alex. You ought to have realized it by now, too. Salem is the reason behind everything! If he had never come here, Raziel wouldn't have been in Colorado eighteen years ago! Your mother would still be alive, sane and healthy, and so would you!”

“What? That’s crazy!” I yelled as I pulled myself to my feet. “Any other vampire could have killed mom just the same, or turned me. All of this could have played out the same with or without Salem. What happened happened…and there is nothing anyone could have ever done to change it.”

Paul shook his head. He appeared almost as demented as Destiny had. “Destiny…fate...call it whatever you want. All I know is this bastard owes me for all the pain he has caused.”

The crossbow shook in his unsteady hand as he lifted it and pointed toward Salem.

“You're making a huge mistake, dad!” I shouted, leaping toward him. The sound of the trigger going off reached my ears as I tackled him to the ground.

It was going to be okay. He had bad aim. He never hit the target. Salem would be okay. Then why did I refuse to look up? Why was I so afraid that he hadn't missed? Why didn't I hear Salem? Not even a scream...

Hesitantly, I looked up. I saw the Alero, glittering slightly under the moonlight. I saw the Jeep Wrangler parked beside it. Where was Salem?

I tore the crossbow away from Paul, elbowed him hard in the head and left him unconscious in the gravel. Climbing to my feet wasn't easy, I felt like I couldn't move – I was afraid to move. Then I spotted him, sprawled on the ground beside my car.

“Salem?” I said as I approached him. My voice was shaky and sounded unusual to me. “Salem, please...”

Kneeling down beside him, I found the arrow embedded in his chest. The blood soaked through his white T-shirt and formed a pool beneath his body. He wasn't breathing, but that didn't mean anything...did it?

“Salem...” I cried, “No, no no…this can’t be happening!”

I shook him, but he didn't react. “Please, Salem!” I frantically tore at his shirt, ripping through the fabric to reveal just where the arrow had struck. It was close...it was too close.

Still no response.
“This ought to get your attention...” I said hoarsely and ripped the arrow out of his chest, but he didn’t move. “Come on...Salem...”

I laid my head against his abdomen, wishing the tears would come so that I could relieve myself of the anguish I felt.

“Paul is unconscious, if you’re pretending, you can stop now...please...” I begged.

“That was a close call,” he whispered and pulled me into his arms. I fought the urge to slap him for scaring me, but I was too relieved to care about anything else but the sound of his voice and feel of his touch.

“We need to get out of here,” I said, eying Paul's body. “We need to go to the Victorian, get what we can, get Hannah and leave Willowshire.”

His brow furrowed as he stared at me. “But Alex, your friends are here...your family...”

“My family wants to kill you – and quite possibly me as well!”

“And what about your friends?” he asked.

“They’ll be okay without me. They’ll probably forget all about me eventually anyway. Jason has his new girlfriend and Karen…Karen’s almost like a stranger to me now...”

“No, they wouldn’t. You and I both know that. You have left a great impact on their lives. You need them and they need you. Paul will come to his senses eventually.”

“I'm not so sure he will, Salem,” I frowned. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see him…hear him. I think Destiny dying put him over the edge. We need to leave, even if it's only for a little while...”

“Where will we go?”

“Anywhere! We'll just get in the car and drive until we find somewhere we like...we can tell everyone that we're going on vacation or something. It’ll give Paul some time to set himself straight...I hope.”

Salem stared into my eyes and pondered the idea. I heard Paul grunt and glanced in his direction. He was still unconscious, but I didn't know how long it would last. “Okay. We will do it. Let's go home. We will tell Richard that he can stay in the Victorian for as long as he likes. Then you will pack up your laptop, I will find Hannah, and we will leave – temporarily. You will send letters or e-mails to Jason, Mitchell and Karen and inform them that we have left for a vacation and we will be back sometime...just promise to keep in touch with them.”

“Deal,” I replied with a slight smile. “Now, let's get out of here before he wakes up.”

“Alexis..?”

“Yeah?”

“Your arm…” he pointed at the mangled mess of bone that I had somehow forgotten about during everything that had happened.

“Oh, right.” I closed my eyes and concentrated on my arm. This time I was prepared with some relaxing thoughts. I thought about my mom…my real mom. I thought about Janet. About being chased through the yard of the old house with a water hose on a hot summer day. About being tickled and laughing. Memories of a childhood when everything was so much simpler. Before I could imagine the events of this night, even in my wildest dreams.

I opened my eyes and all trace of the injury was gone.

“Okay, let’s go.”

When we arrived at the house, I was relieved to find that my grandfather was asleep in the guestroom and I got to avoid any awkward goodbyes. I scrawled a simple note on a piece of paper Salem summoned for me and explained what happened and requested that he try to convince Paul that he was mistaken. Hannah was out hunting but returned moments after we showed up. She was furious upon discovering Paul nearly killed her half-brother and at first was keen on the idea of going after him. After a bit of calming she finally agreed that it was wisest to leave. She didn’t want to be tempted back to her old ways, even if he ‘deserved it’ as she put it.

I unplugged my laptop, and reflected on the day that Jason had given it to me. I took the computer out to the car, along with my volume of Edgar Allan Poe stories, sat them in the backseat and sat down. Taking my cell phone out, I dialed Jason's number and was unsurprised that it went directly to voice mail. The beep came and I sighed.

“Jason...it's Alex. I am happy for you and Eila, really – you deserve to have someone like her in your life. Salem and I are going out of town for a while; I don't know when we'll be back. Tell Karen and Mitchell for me...I love you all and will miss you,” I paused for a moment, and then added in a hoarse voice as the words fought to come out, “Goodbye...”

Hannah had practically begged to take the driver’s seat and I happily agreed. It was nice having someone else drive for a change. Salem and I sat together in the
backseats, my head leaning comfortably against his shoulder as I skimmed through the book he had created for me out of the plain black leather diary Janet had given me. My makeshift bookmark was still in pristine condition, regardless how many times I had shifted it between different sections of the book as I read. It struck me that I was almost finished with the entire volume, and my eyes trailed eagerly down the last few pages as we passed by the sign saying we were leaving Willowshire.

Salem glanced down at the book, “You have made a lot of progress,” he commented.

Turning the final page of the book, I flinched and pulled back as the paper sliced along my index finger. It was sort of funny, paper cuts still hurting even as a vampire. As I smiled I noted the drop of blood splotched onto the aged papers and before I had the chance to say anything to Salem, I noticed something else. The pages transformed right before my eyes from the words of Edgar Allan Poe to a scrawled text that was hardly decipherable. Flipping back through the previous pages, I noticed that all of the words Salem had magically summoned into the journal were vanishing and becoming replaced by this unfamiliar text.

“Salem…” I muttered nearly inaudibly, “what…what’s going on?”

“This must not have been just an ordinary journal after all…” he replied and glanced at the words developing on the page. “It looks to be a very ancient journal belonging to someone who was very well versed in the ways of vampires…”

“What gives you that idea?” Hannah asked from the driver’s seat and looked back at us.

“The writer mentions them on nearly every page that Alex has turned through,” he answered as he flipped through some more of the pages, “and keep your eye on the road, Hannah!”

“What do you think this means?” I asked, staring at the words as they evolved on each page Salem turned to.

“I think it is going to prove to be more useful to you than Janet ever imagined…”