The Chosen Ones (26 page)

“Apparently they’re no longer
waiting,” Grandfather whispered.

The sound of shattering glass
rang through the air. Shards burst around us. I dropped my pistol and instinctively
I raised my arms to cover my face, but I was too late. I felt the sudden stab
of a piece of glass hitting my shoulder. I stifled my scream, frantically
swinging up my gun and pointing it at the broken window. A wad of burning material
rolled across the floor, landing against the far wall. But I could see no one
outside. Dare I fire anyway?

Grandfather and Thane raced across
the room, leaving me alone to make the decision. But as I stood there waiting
for a vampire to appear so I could shoot, my arm began to tremble, the pain
from the glass almost unbearable. Cursing, I lowered my gun, and slumped to the
floor, my back somewhat protected against the wall.
 

A triangular piece of glass had pierced
my shirt and upper arm. “This is going to hurt.”

Gritting my teeth, I gripped the
edge and pulled it free. The sharp pain made me cry out, momentarily
distracting Thane, who looked my way.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” I dropped the shard and stumbled
to my feet as the blood trailed down my arm. I was more annoyed by the fact
that I had somehow managed to get hurt once again, than the actual pain. I managed
to make it to the kitchen. While Thane and grandfather put out the fire, I
grabbed a towel from the counter and using my teeth, I tied it around the
wound.

“Why bother?” my grandfather
mumbled, looking at the charred floorboards. “They won’t let up.”

As if in response to my
grandfather’s statement, another window broke and another pile of burning weeds
raced through the room. It hit the curtains on the opposite wall. They burst
into flames.

“Go,” Grandfather growled. “Go
out back to the pier. I’ll hold them off. Use the rowboat.”

“We can’t leave you,” I cried
out, racing toward the curtains to put out the fire.

Grandfather grabbed my arm,
jerking me to a stop. “You’re a good girl, Jane. A smart girl and I’m proud to
have you as my granddaughter. You can find a way out of this, I believe in you.
Trust him. You need someone strong, you need someone on your side.” He looked
up at Thane. “You’ll take care of her?”

Thane nodded. He always had
taken care of me. That wasn’t my worry. My worry was for the old man who had
lived here alone. Smoke had me coughing into my sleeve and I realized the fire
was getting worse. The flames had leapt from the curtains to the boards on the
wall, destroying the cottage my grandfather held so dear. Soon, they would make
it to the bookshelf and the novels he had painstakingly copied. Grandfather was
right, the vampires were never going to stop. And just like in the decayed city
over a month ago, they were going to smoke us out.

“Get the bag” Grandfather said,
releasing me. “It has supplies.”

Thane grabbed the sack and
tossed it over his shoulder.

Grandfather raced into the back
room. “Hold them off until I get the serum.”

Thane moved to the windows, that
pistol in hand. “Grab your gun and protect the back of the house. Make sure
it’s clear.”

I raced across the room, dodging
the two chairs where we’d sat in front of the fire while my grandfather had
told us stories about the past. Near the broken window, I scooped up my gun.
Thane had covered the front. They wanted me to protect the back, as if I could.
Using the butt of the pistol, I broke the glass in the back window. I searched
the water outside, the pier beyond, but saw no one. That didn’t mean they
weren’t there. I could practically feel them lurking on the roof, waiting to
pounce.

“Here.” My grandfather came
running back into the room, the hobble making his gait awkward, and once again
I was aware of how fragile he really was. “Take it.”

He stuffed the case into another
sack and threw it to me. I caught it, holding the bag tightly to my chest. I
didn’t understand what was going on, but that wasn’t new. The fire had made its
way up the wall and the smoke was growing thick. They were merely waiting for
us to come stumbling out in surrender.

“I’d say three on the roof,”
Thane said. “Seven out front.”

Grandfather nodded, pulling a
rifle out from underneath the counter. Perhaps he had some magical beans under
there as well. He could build a beanstalk and climb out of this mess. The
ridiculous story was preferable to what I knew would happen.

“What do you want me to do with
the serum?” I wasn’t a doctor, I wasn’t a scientist, I didn’t know what I was
doing and I certainly couldn’t save the world like he wanted me to. Yet, here
he was, entrusting me with the vaccine that would save the human race.

Grandfather gripped my shoulders
and pulled me close, the cold rifle between us. “Go now. You have to go. I
can’t make it, and I’ll only hold you back and we’ll all be caught. You are
young, you can escape.”

“We can’t leave you!”

“Yes, you can,” he snapped
gruffly. “It’s the only way. Don’t be stupid. There is no room in this world
for weakness, and caring too much is a weakness.”

If he meant to hurt my feelings,
it didn’t work.

“I’ll hold them off,” he
insisted. “The guns might not kill them, but they’ll keep them back while you
escape.”
 

Thane took my hand, the sack of
supplies he carried slung over his shoulder. “We have to leave now.”

Grandfather pointed his rifle
out the window toward the pier, the smoke billowing up in the background
practically consumed him. If the vampires didn’t get him, I realized the smoke
would. He couldn’t stay inside with the fire. Where would he go?

“Out the back,” he demanded. “Take
the boat and go.”

My eyes watered as I stood
there. I told myself I wasn’t crying, I didn’t cry anymore. No, the tears were
from the smoke. Thane jerked open the back door and pulled me outside. I didn’t
even have time to say goodbye. And suddenly we were gone. I didn’t dare look
back at the window. The gunshots that went off told me he still lived.
 

“Keep going,” Thane demanded,
shoving me in front of him. “Don’t stop.”

We raced down the pier, our feet
thundering against the floorboards, the sack Grandfather had given me thumping
against my back. It seemed to take forever to reach that small rowboat, and all
the while I was completely aware of how important it was to get that serum to
the mainland.
 

“Untie the boat,” Thane said.

It was only after I’d taken a few
steps that I realized he wasn’t following. I paused, turning to find him. Thane
stood in the middle of the pier, gun raised. A vampire jumped from the roof and
at the same time Thane fired his weapon. The bullet hit the animal in the head.
He cried out, falling to the shore.

“Go!” Thane snapped, tossing me
his bag of supplies. “Untie the boat!”

Juggling both bags, I raced the
last few steps to the boat and dropped to my knees. With frantic, trembling
fingers, I somehow managed to untie the rope while Thane shot another vampire.
My grandfather’s bullets still peppered the air, each blast making my heart
jump into my throat. But I craved the sound as much as it frightened me. Each
blast meant he still lived.

Suddenly, Thane was at my side,
tossing the gun to the bottom of the boat. “Empty.” He grabbed my gun. “Go! Get
in.”

He picked up the bag with the
serums and handed it to me. It was as I was catching the second bag that I saw
the blur of a body. I didn’t have time to cry out a warning before Thane was hit.
They fell to the pier so hard that even the water around it trembled.

“Go, Jane!” Thane cried out as
they rolled across the wooden planks. Frantic, I grabbed for the paddles and
tried to surge away from the dock.

The vampire’s hands were around
Thane’s neck and I could see another blood drinker jumping from the roof.

“Thane!” I cried out in warning.
 

Somehow Thane managed to point my
gun and shoot the vampire coming at him, while the other still pinned him to
the dock. The vampire stumbled to the ground, blood spreading across his chest.
 

“Start rowing!” Thane gasped.

He wanted me to leave him
behind. Damn him. Didn’t he understand I couldn’t survive this world without
him? He swung his arm upward, his fist connecting with the vampires chin. His
head snapped back, and he fell to his side, dangerously close to the water and
my boat.

“Leave!” Thane demanded.

“Fine!” I snapped back. “But if
you die, it’s your fault!” I gripped the oars and tried to row, but the pain in
my shoulder was almost unbearable. The boat turned, hitting the pier with a
thud. Thane and the vampire he was fighting lost their balance, toppled over, and
hit the water.

“Great.” With my feet, I reached
out and pushed away from the pier sending the boat back, away from the dock.

I used the momentum to push with
the oars. They cut through the water slowly, resisting and tugging at my arm muscles.
The need to get the serum to the mainland fought with my desire to find Thane. But
I knew Thane wouldn’t want me to stay, and he sure as heck wouldn’t put me
above the safety of thousands. I gritted my teeth and kept pulling on the oars,
using the strength and weight of my body. But the entire time I crept into the
open ocean, I kept my eyes on that rippling water where Thane and the vampire
had disappeared. Where was he?

“Come on, come on…”

Suddenly, Thane burst through
the surface of the water, gasping for air only a few feet from the boat. Startled,
I cried out. But my surprise quickly gave way to elation. Somehow he’d survived
once again.

“Keep going!” He gripped the
side and pulled himself up, making the boat tip dangerously toward the water’s
surface.

Soaking wet, he fell into the bottom
of the boat. As he lay there for that brief moment, breathing heavily, I
noticed the blood soaking his gray shirt. He’d been injured.

“You’re hurt.” I started to
reach for him but he shoved me away.

“We don’t have time.” He took my
seat, and grabbed the oars.

I shuffled out of his way and
settled at the back of the boat. With one pull of the oars, Thane sent us
skidding through the water at a speed that would get us to the mainland within
minutes. Water splashed against the sides, soaking my clothing, but I barely cared.

I turned, watching the cottage
as it burst into flames. It was only then that I realized the gunshots had
stopped. My heart fell to my feet, my body heavy. “I’ll never see him again,
will I?”

He pulled at the oars over and
over, a continuous movement that sent us practically flying across the water’s
surface. “He knew what he was doing when he sent us away.”

The sadness I felt was
unexpected and crippling. I drew my knees closer and stared at that burning
house where my grandfather had lived for so many years safe and protected.
Perhaps if we hadn’t arrived, the beautiful ones wouldn’t have come after us. And
perhaps if I hadn’t been so eager to save the others in the compound, Jimmy
wouldn’t be dead.

“Why did he do it?” I whispered.

“To save your kind, to save the
world.”

I turned away from the house and
faced the mainland. It was getting closer, but still too far away to see detail.
More beautiful ones could be waiting there for us. Would we ever be safe?

I took in a deep, trembling
breath. Grandfather was gone, but we still had a job to do. “He wants us to
take the vaccines to Will?”

He laughed. “Will is just an
insignificant player in all of this.”

I glanced back at the cottage
once more. As the fog from the ocean covered the island and only the eerie dark
smog of smoke could be seen, I still stared. Even though Grandfather had left
us to rot in that compound I still hoped he had died quickly, as painlessly as
possible. “Then who do we take the vaccines to?”

“Raven.”

“But…” I jerked my gaze toward
him. His face was all stoic seriousness as he continued to row. “My grandfather…”

Thane shook his head. “He’s not
the real Raven.”

For some reason it was easy to accept.
Although the truth surprised me, the more I thought about it, the more it made
sense. The real Raven was a leader, not some old man who hid out on an island. “So
who is Raven?”

Thane met my gaze, water
trailing from his hair and down the harsh planes of his face. “Good question.”

Chapter
15

We didn’t pause when we reached
shore. We didn’t pause after hiking all night inland. We didn’t even pause for
food, although it had been hours since we’d eaten. We only stopped late in the afternoon
the next day when the storm started, a giant clap of thunder that shook the ground
and rattled the tree branches above.

“Maybe it’s just passing,” I
muttered to myself.

Suddenly huge drops fell from
the sky, pounding against the top of my head and soaking me instantly. I bit
back my grimace. The healing blisters on my feet had ripped open that morning,
and my shoulder wound throbbed. The pain and exhaustion were finally winning
and my steps had slowed, leaving me trailing far behind Thane. At times I lost
sight of him, but was too tired to care.

“Up ahead,” Thane called out
over the patter of rain.

I swiped the water from my face
and used what little strength I had left to trudge uphill. Thane stood near a
dark opening that burrowed under a rocky ledge and into the ground. Although
the thought of crawling into that cave, where there were most likely spiders
and mice and other things I’d rather not befriend, horrified me, it was shelter
and that’s what we needed at the moment.

“It will protect us,” he said,
as if sensing my reservations.