Obsessed (Book #12 in the Vampire Journals) (10 page)

“She said she
would die,” she said. “Then, dear sisters, let us tell her, that die she must.”

Scarlet felt as
if she’d been punched in the stomach. The whole world seemed to end in that
moment. All this time she had been hoping, praying, holding on to the slimmest
possibility that somehow she and Sage could live happily ever after. And now
they were telling her it couldn’t be? That she would have to die to let him
live?

“I… I have to
die?” she stammered. “So Sage can live?”

“There is no
other way,” the third sister said, cruelly. “An Immortalist can be made human
by draining a vampire of their blood.”

Scarlet could
hardly breathe. “You mean he’d have to kill me?”

The black eyed
woman smiled even more devilishly. “Of course. But this can only happen whilst
in the vampire city. And an Immortalist can only enter the vampire city of
their own free will.”

“He will do it,”
Scarlet said passionately. “If I tell him what he needs to do, he will do.”

“They must be
willing to be mortal,” the sister added with vicious glee. “And they must do it
for love or they will perish.”

“We are in
love!” Scarlet cried. “Sage will want to become a human, I know he will.”

The black-eyed
woman turned her gaze from Scarlet to her sisters.

“How can she be
so certain, dear sisters?” she said lazily. “She knows not what the boy must
sacrifice. She does not understand how it feels to have immortality flowing
through your veins.”

Before Scarlet
had entered the tower, she’d have thought there was nothing in the world she
could face that would make her question her and Sage’s love. She’d been certain
that Sage would consent to any conditions that meant they would be together.
And yet now, in a heartbeat, the women had put a seed of doubt in her mind.

She shook her
head. It could all be a game, a mental trick. She couldn’t let this woman deter
her.

“Where is the
city?” Scarlet demanded.

The black-eyed
woman turned to her sisters.

“Tell her what
she needs to know if you wish,” she said.

And in a swirl
of black smoke, she disappeared into the ether.

Scarlet stared
at the space she had once filled, feeling, in spite of herself, a profound
sense of loss.

The blue-eyed
sister approached.

“The vampire
city resides beneath the Sphinx in Egypt.”

Scarlet’s mouth
dropped open. “I’ll never get there in time! Sage will die before I reach
Egypt!”

The green eyed
sister came up beside them.

“Take this,” she
said.

She held up a
small glass vial. It had a glass stopper in the top, and a long dropper that
stretched down to the bottom.

“What is it?”
Scarlet asked.

The green-eyed
woman removed the stopper. The glass glittered and Scarlet saw then that the
point was as sharp as a needle. The woman jabbed her finger. A drop of blood
bubbled to the surface of her skin. She held her finger over the vial. The red
drop fell into it.

“A drop of
immortality,” the woman said, smiling. “For the Immortalist. It will keep him
alive until you reach the lost vampire city.”

Scarlet took the
glass bottle in her hand. It was so small, so delicate, and yet contained
something irreplaceably important.

All at once, a
green swirling smoke appeared, and Scarlet realized that the second woman was
disappearing into the ether like her black-eyed sister had.

Only the blue-eyed
woman remained.

“Why did you
help me?” Scarlet said.

The woman rested
her hand on Scarlet’s arm. Right before Scarlet’s eye, the hand became smaller.
When she looked up, she realized the woman had turned into a child, small and
innocent.

“We are the
mothers of all,” she said, her voice sweet and childlike. “We do not want our children
to fight and die and kill each other.”

“But you’ve seen
everything,” Scarlet says. “You know how it ends.”

The girl smiled.

“We have seen
everything. Every outcome. Every possibility. Everything that could be. Not
everything that must.”

Scarlet shook
her head.

“I don’t
understand.”

“We have lived
all lives, all possibilities. But you, dear daughter, can make your own
destiny.”

A blue smoke
rose around the girl. Then all at once, she disappeared, leaving Scarlet
standing in the room alone, her fingers wrapped around the precious tincture.

In her hands,
she held life and death.

Lore was up to
his ankles in mud and pig slop. As the dirty creatures rushed around his legs,
he clenched his fists. He was furious with himself for being tricked, and even
more furious to be in a stampede of stinking animals.

Lore’s rage
reached a boiling point. He grasped one of the pigs rushing past him and threw
it fifty feet into the air. The pig landed with a dull thud in a cornfield two
fields over. He stomped forward, catapulting the creatures out of his way,
feeling his anger pulsing through his veins.

The Immortalists
who had followed him looked perturbed by their new leader’s emotional outburst.
By the looks on their faces, Lore could tell that some were starting to doubt
whether following him was a good idea after all, or whether Octal had been
right to entrust Lore with this mission.

The raven-haired
woman approached Lore carefully. He was facing away, trying to get some space
from everyone’s stares, and so she came up behind him and rested a hand on his
shoulder. At first, he shook her off. She tried again. The second time he let
her fingers wrap gently around his shoulder, which was rising and falling
rapidly with each one of his angry breaths.

The woman leaned
toward his ear. Her hot breath tickled his earlobe as she spoke.

“Do not lose
faith, Lore,” she said.

He turned to
face her, taking in the beauty of her face all over again. Her appearance was
striking, making something stir deeply inside of Lore. It was an emotion he
couldn’t place, one that seemed so out of place amongst all the anger and
bitterness he usually carried deep within him.

“How can I lead
them?” Lore said under his breath. “They have lost faith in my abilities. I’ve
led them here, to this wretched farm in the middle of nowhere. I promised them
a war.”

The woman’s eyes
sparkled.

“Then give them
one,” she said. “Command them in their next mission. Do not let one failure
stop you.”

Lore turned away
and shook his head. The disappointment he felt was too much to swallow. The
pressure was too intense. His family, his race, they were all relying on him.
For the first time, he didn’t know if he could lead them to victory, and that
doubt was eating him up.

“Now is not the
time for a crisis of confidence,” the woman continued, her tone a little
sharper, as though she too were losing patience. “You brought Sage to us
before. I know you can do it again.”

At the mention
of his cousin’s name, Lore felt a deep pit of unhappiness open inside of him.
Sage. This was all because of Sage. How could he not have seen how selfish his
actions were? Falling in love with a stupid little girl? Lore had spent time
with Scarlet and her friends. He loathed them. They disgusted him as much as
the pigs milling round his feet. And yet Sage had gotten so inexplicably
wrapped up with that one girl that he would put them all through this hell? It
just didn’t make sense to Lore.

The other
Immortalists were beginning to mutter to themselves, clearly reaching the end
of their rope.

“Shall we try to
find the parents?” one of them asked, the irritation in his voice unmistakable.

Lore gritted his
jaw. He didn’t know. Should they follow the parents, who would undoubtedly lead
them to Scarlet but who seemed able to easily shake off his Immortalist army?
Or change tactics?

“Yes,” he said.
“Follow them. Find them again. They’ll lead us to the girl.”

Relieved to have
finally been given orders, the group took to the air, flying off in the
direction that the motorbike had disappeared.

Lore watched
them go, a sense of bitter disappointment filling him. He had no intention of
going with them. He had failed in his mission. It was someone else’s turn to
lead.

It was then that
Lore noticed the raven-haired woman had remained behind. She looked at him
placidly.

“You’re not
coming, are you?” she said.

Lore shook his
head.

“I’ve failed,”
he said. “I’m no leader.”

“And yet,” she
replied, “here I am, willing to follow. Isn’t that what makes a leader? Someone
whom others follow?”

Lore frowned at
her. He didn’t understand why she was so insistent in making him lead the army,
or why she was constantly trying to bring him back from the brink of his anger.

“Why?” he
demanded. “Why are you following me?”

The woman’s eyes
sparkled again.

“I’m drawn to you,”
she said. “You have a power. An energy.”

“You don’t even
know me,” Lore contested. “We had never met before tonight.”

The woman
smiled.

“Then let me
introduce myself,” she said, holding out a hand. “I’m Lyra.”

Lore looked at
her outstretched hand like it offended him.

“What do you
want me to do with that, Lyra?” he scoffed.

“I want you to
shake it,” she said with a small, haughty laugh.

With a huff,
Lore took her hand in his and shook. The moment their skin met, a current like
electricity ran through the length of his arm. Lore’s throat became very dry.
He let go of her hand immediately.

“Now what?” he
said.

Lyra smirked.
“You tell me, leader.”

Lore was about
to once more tell her how futile her trust in him was, when all at once, the
wind began to whip up around them. The sky darkened, blocking out the moon and
star light. In the distance, the farm animals in their barns began to protest,
mooing and cawing.

Lore watched as
wind raced through Lyra’s long, raven hair, tousling it. Her black clothes
flapped in the gale force of the wind. He reached out and grabbed her at the
top of her arms to steady her.

“What’s
happening?” he cried over the noise.

Lyra tried to
say something but the wind caught in her throat. She shook her head. Then Lore
saw her eyes widen with surprise.

He glanced over
his shoulder, fixing his gaze on the point in the distance that had caught her
attention. A white column of light was bursting through a layer of thick, black
cloud, far, far in the distance.

“What is that?”
he cried, turning back to face Lyra.

“I don’t know,”
she managed to shout. “But I believe it’s a sign. It’s for us.”

“How can you be
so sure?” he shouted back.

“I just am,”
Lyra replied. “And I’ve been right about everything so far.”

Lore could
hardly believe how arrogant she was being considering the circumstances.

“You want to fly
there?” he contested. “On a hunch?”

Lyra flashed her
eyes at him and grinned. Rather than answering, she took to the skies. The wind
forced her off course. From Lore’s position on the ground, he could tell the
journey would certainly be rough going.

Yet he leapt and
began to fly, following Lyra into the unknown.

*

Lyra and Lore
flew side by side through the treacherous storm. Below them, the ocean waves
churned, black and vengeful. Thunder rumbled in the distance, coming from the
same direction as the mysterious column of light. Lightning flashed, too close
for comfort. For the first time in a long time, Lore felt the danger of death
lurking at his shoulder.

As he flew, Lore
couldn’t help but glance over at the beautiful woman. He felt a pull toward
her, a magnetism. He admired the way she had remained level-headed when it had
seemed all hope was lost. And now, as she glided through the air, he admired
her fixed determination, the way she had not wavered for a moment in her
decision to follow the strange light. For the first time since his cousin had
run off with the vampire girl, he had an inkling as to why. The sensation
wasn’t one that could be controlled. It was above reason, above logic. Lore
realized, his heart pounding, that he may be falling in love.

A crack of
lightning exploded right beside the two Immortalists, and they swerved just in
time to save themselves from being hit, diving down so that they were soaring
just inches from the surface of the water. Lore felt ocean spray on his face
and tasted salt. The cold wind raced through his clothes, making him shiver
down to the bone. But the whole thing felt exhilarating.

“Look!” Lyra
suddenly cried.

Lore broke his
gaze from her and looked in the direction she pointed. Looming out of the
darkness was a crooked tower. It stretched up to the heavens, and seemed to
lean toward the ocean at a strange angle. The light they’d been following was
coming from the tower, bursting through its peak.

“What is that?”
Lore said.

By the excited
expression on Lyra’s face, he had an inkling that she knew.

“I can’t believe
it,” she said. “I can’t believe the legend is real.”

“What legend?”
Lore cried, fighting to make himself heard over the wind.

“They have no name,”
Lyra shouted back. “They appear in the texts under several aliases. The
Sisters. The Mothers. The Daughters. Sometimes, they are known as Trinity.”

“Who are they?”

Lyra flashed him
her beautiful smile.

“They come in
times of need. They exist to help all non-human races, to keep our species from
going extinct on the Earth.”

“You mean, they
appeared because we needed them?” Lore asked.

“Not us,” Lyra
cried. “Someone else. Another being.”

“Another
Immortalist,” Lore gasped. “You mean Sage?”

“I think so,”
Lyra replied.

Her smile was so
wide, her eyes so bright, that Lore felt his own facial expressions mimic hers,
moving the muscles in a way that he wasn’t entirely sure he ever had before.
Could they really have found his cousin?

“I knew I was
right to follow you,” Lyra laughed. “You will have to learn to trust me.”

Without even
thinking, Lore reached out for Lyra. Their fingertips connected and he felt
that pulse of electricity race through him. Lore knew then that there was no
denying it. What he felt for Lyra was beyond anything he could control.

She laced her
fingers through his and began to pull him into her until they were close enough
for their lips to meet.

Lore had never
experienced anything like it before. In all the two thousand years of his existence,
his encounters with women had been purely functional, a way to get what he
wanted. He had used people, like Maria, Scarlet’s awful human friend, for his
own means. He had never realized what it felt to connect with another being on
such a deep and powerful level.

In that moment,
lost in his kiss with Lyra, Lore decided to show Sage an ounce of compassion.
He realized now that the poor fool was in love, and he understood what that
meant. Sage was as weak as a newborn kitten, enthralled by Scarlet. He realized
then that Octal had gone about it all the wrong way. By torturing his cousin,
he had done nothing more than drive him closer to the girl. He’d made Sage
passionately territorial. If Lore wanted to save his race, he had to make sure
Sage believed that Scarlet would be safe. He had to trick him into thinking
they were on the same side. Suddenly, in that kiss, everything became clear.

He was going to
save his race. The Immortalists would not go extinct.

*

Finally, Lore
and Lyra reached the island with the crooked tower. Lightning flashes showed
them a thick canopy of dark trees. The second they had passed over the water
line, Lore could sense Sage’s presence on the island.

“He’s here,” he
said, breathlessly. “And if he is here, so is she.”

He could hardly
contain the sensation of glee inside of him. Lyra, too, look overwhelmed with
joy.

They touched
down gently under the forest canopy. The winds still battered them, and it was
difficult to make their way through the thick foliage. The sound of the wind
through the trees was deafening, and leaves and twigs spiraled round them, torn
from their branches. The very trees swayed dangerously, as though the whole
forest was being ripped up from the roots.

“This way!” Lore
cried, following his senses, the senses that told him Sage was nearby.

They ran
together, dodging the forest’s missiles, and suddenly came to a clearing.
There, as though in the eye of the storm, lay Sage. He was sleeping, and
looking perfectly serene. The wind didn’t even seem to touch him; it was as
though a barrier were surrounding him, protecting him.

Lore and Lyra
approached.

“Where’s the
girl?” Lyra said.

Lore looked
about him but there was nothing to see but trees.

“She can’t have
left him,” he said. “Their love was too powerful.”

Lyra glanced at
the shard of light coming from the tower.

“Perhaps she is
in there,” she said. “Perhaps that’s where the Trinity are.”