Undeniable (35 page)

And tomorrow night should have been one spent baring their
souls with completely open hearts and minds as they made love and fed upon each
other until their bodies and blood merged to become one. Would she have hidden
the truth about her knowledge of her father even then?

“Diana!” he roared, feeling the muscles in his throat tear,
the pain nothing compared to the pain crushing his soul.

He still loved her. The impact of just how much nearly
suffocated him.

And now dawn hovered below the horizon and it was too late.
Too late to change the course he’d taken and return to complete their bonding.

Today, Diana’s hunger for him would consume her. As his for
her would disrupt his sleep until night fell. If he hadn’t deserted her, she
could have held on, bolstered by her faith that when he returned at dusk, her
undeniable hunger would be appeased.

Now, because of him, she would have no hope. She would allow
the hunger to creep into her mind and destroy it.

He wrapped his arms around the young tree before him.
Unmindful of the bark shredding his already raw flesh, he yanked it from the
ground and flung it high into the air. He probed the night, searching for her
and again felt nothing. It didn’t make sense. His blood ran through her veins.
Her emotions should be tangible enough to touch, even if they were hatred for
him, even if she tried to hide them from herself. But he felt nothing! As if
she had managed to cut him from her life.

He spun around, his eyes searching for something, anything
to destroy. He snarled viciously at the line of elders standing before him.
“Leave me.”

“Calm down, child,” his grandfather demanded.

“Child? I’ve suffered in this wretched existence for nearly
a century.” He groaned, falling to his knees. “I want it to end.”

“Sebastian, you must listen to us. There is so much you
don’t understand.”

“I understand that you forced Damien to spend eternity with
someone he didn’t love. Is that your answer for me? Do you have someone already
lined up?”

“Sebastian, let’s discuss this inside. Dawn is only moments
away.” His grandfather held his hand out.

Sebastian raised his eyes, not caring that the elders would
see his tears. “Why didn’t you warn me? You must have known. Why did you let it
go this far?”

His grandfather’s hand fell to his side. “You know we’re not
allowed to reveal what we know. And once you entered the bonding ritual, we
could not interfere. The ritual is based on trust, Sebastian, not just passion
and love. That’s why you couldn’t find the truth about her father when you
probed her mind. Your blood, the moment it entered her veins, altered your
powers over her.”

Sebastian shook his head, his guilt bringing a bitter taste
to his mouth. “No. I was able to lead her into the first night of the final
stage. I blocked out her doubts.”

“Only because deep down she wanted them blocked. If she had
wanted to accept the knowledge that you may have gone to her to hurt her, she
would have, no matter what you did.”

The other elders began to mumble to themselves and shift
nervously closer to the school.

“Come, Sebastian. Let fate take its course.”

“Leave me,” Sebastian demanded, his voice hoarse from the
lump lodged in his throat.

“We can’t force you to take shelter, Sebastian. You know
that,” his grandfather said.

Eternity stretched out before Sebastian, dark, empty. A
nightmare without Diana. “Then I suggest you leave.”

Chapter Fourteen

Angelina and Diana cowered in the corner of a dark alley and
warily eyed the sidewalk. Terrified that the next group of Slashers would be
too ravenous to accept the wafers if they caught a whiff of Diana’s blood,
Angelina flung a handful as far away from them as she could.

Diana touched the tips of her fangs. “They’re still there.”
Her voice cracked.

Angelina looked at the blood seeping from Diana’s wounds.
“Your fangs are the least of your problems, Diana. How are you feeling?”

“Hungry. Tired.” She drew her knees to her chest. “And I’m
so cold.” She reached into her backpack and retrieved a wafer.

“You just had one.” Angelina clasped her wrist in a viselike
grip. “Drop it, now.”

“But it hurts, Nana Lina. It hurts so much,” she cried as
she dropped the wafer into the backpack. “How could he leave me?”

Angelina watched as her granddaughter’s eyes once again
overflowed with crimson tears. A torrent of tears was better than the way her
eyes had looked when she’d first been lowered from the helicopter.

She had stared vacantly at the ravenous pack that
immediately surrounded her the moment she fell to the ground.

When the first one bit down on her wrist, she hadn’t even
flinched. Then as more joined in, feasting upon her exposed arms and neck,
she’d merely closed her eyes, the tendons bulging on her neck the only sign that
she felt every ragged tooth ripping into her flesh.

It had taken almost half of the wafers Angelina had stashed
in her bag to draw them away from her willing granddaughter and the fresh
vampire blood coursing through her veins.

And now, too weak from her blood loss to leave the alley
they’d taken refuge in, Diana could only sit and battle her hunger. One moment
she’d give in to her anguish over Sebastian’s desertion, then, mumbling
incoherently about him and her mother deserting her, she’d try to throw herself
into the hungry jaws of the Slashers. The next moment, she’d curse them both
and try to steal their only weapon as her eyes darted to Angelina’s neck.

Angelina moved the backpack as far away from Diana as she
could. “You’re stronger than this, Diana. Just hold on a little longer. Someone
will find us.”

“Nana, I can’t take it. Oh God, I’m going to be like them,
aren’t I,” she cried. “This was his plan all along, you know. Olympia told me.
This was his plan from the very beginning.”

Angelina cringed, watching the tears fill the open scratches
trailing down Diana’s cheeks. Her granddaughter had clawed at her face the last
time she’d brought up Olympia’s revelation. “You mustn’t believe her, Diana.”

“No, it’s true. He came to me while I was sleeping, took my
virginity, and gave me his blood before I even knew he existed. Just so I’d go
mad. That’s the only reason why he started bonding with me. Not because he
loved me. Not even because he was my soul mate. He wanted me to go mad all
along!”

“Diana, please.”

“I thought he loved me.” Diana started to giggle. “I thought
my mother loved me too. Silly me. Silly, silly, me. I can’t hold on to my
mother or my soul mate.” Her voice grew shrill. “Do you think when I become one
of these creatures, I’ll finally find someone who’ll want me?”

“I won’t let that happen to you, do you hear me, Diana? I’ll
never let that happen.”

“You can’t stop it. You can’t!” Diana hugged her knees to
her chest and began to rock. “It’s not just the unbearable hunger for blood
that drives them mad, Nana. It’s because they gave their chosen vampires their
love, then watched them devour it and toss the remains back in their faces!”

“Diana, calm down. You’ll survive, just as I did.” Angelina
tossed another handful of wafers at a small group of Slashers and shuddered as
they pounced on the promise of temporary sanity. They clawed and snapped at
each other like a pack of wild dogs. Within moments after swallowing the
wafers, they calmed down and left. She turned to hand some to Diana and froze.

Diana’s upper lip curled up as she gazed at her own wrists.
“Don’t you see, Nana? You survived because you left him. Damien didn’t rip your
heart to pieces. Damien didn’t leave you. Oh God, I can’t take it anymore.”

Diana shoved herself to her feet. Her legs buckled, sending
her crashing face first onto the trash-covered ground. She whimpered when her
grandmother grasped her shoulders and tried to lift her from the filth. “Just
leave me here. I don’t want to live without him. I’m so tired.” She rested her cheek
on her hands. “I’m so very tired.”

“Diana Nostrum, you get up this instant. Sebastian’s not
worth this. No man is worth losing the will to live. Diana, please.” She shoved
until her granddaughter rolled over.

Diana’s eyes rolled back, revealing only white. Angelina
leaned over and grabbed her wrist. Barely feeling a pulse, she feared Diana
wouldn’t make it off Fentmore Island alive. Baring her fangs, she tore at her
own wrist and held it to her granddaughter’s mouth.

Blood poured over Diana’s lips and, for a second, she weakly
sucked at the oozing wound. But when she blinked, then gazed up at the wall
towering above them, she turned her head away. “Please, Nana, just let me die.
We will anyway when we run out of wafers. It hurts so much when they bite.”

“Don’t you dare give up on me. Don’t you leave me here
alone.” Angelina sobbed. “Now, drink, drink for me, Diana.”

Diana released a long breath. “Only for you, Nana. Maybe, if
by some miracle we get out of this hellhole, you and Damien could—”

“You the lady with the wafers?”

Angelina glanced up. A man at least six foot four with
muscles that would put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame stood not two feet away.
He let out a long breath when she nodded.

“Come with me, then.” He turned and walked toward the wall.

“Wait. My granddaughter’s too weak to walk.” Angelina cried,
terrified that the giant would leave. She picked up Diana’s backpack and hugged
it to her chest. “I won’t leave her.”

The man returned and looked down at Diana. “If you ask me,
you’re wasting your time.”

Angelina backed up. A group of Slashers hovered on the
sidewalk at the opening of the alley. “I’ll give every last wafer to them.”

“Okay, okay.” He swept Diana into his arms as if she weighed
no more than a baby. His eyes flicked over the dozens of wounds covering her.
“How’d she get away,” he asked as they ducked into a doorway she hadn’t noticed
earlier in the wall.

“I threw them some wafers. I don’t know how they even knew
what they were, but they quickly forgot about Diana and dove for them.” Angelina
puffed, trying to keep up with the man’s breakneck pace as they made their way
down a long, dark tunnel. “I knew you would come, but I was still scared.”

He stopped and spun around. “You knew?”

She leaned against the wall, relieved for a chance to catch
her breath. “I’m psychic. I saw Diana here. That’s why I stashed so many wafers
in her backpack. And I knew a giant…I mean tall man would help us if we had
them. I don’t usually see visions with myself in them so I wasn’t sure if it
was real.”

He frowned, then grinned and shook his head. “I guess after
seeing the creatures on this island, I could believe anything. Here, let me
carry that.”

Angelina’s jaw dropped when he deftly shifted Diana into the
crook of one massive arm, but when he reached out for the backpack, she pursed
her lips and took a step back.

“Look, lady—”

“Angelina.”

“Yeah, look, Angelina. If I wanted to steal those from you
and—”

“Diana.”

“Well you’d both be lying in that alley. Dead.” He held out
his hand.

Angelina hesitated a moment more before relinquishing the
backpack.

“Man, how many of those things did you bring,” he muttered,
flinging the strap over his shoulder and resuming their journey.

Angelina swiped at the damp hair clinging to her forehead.
“Every one I own. There’s about four hundred. I packed some of them in Diana’s
backpack the other night. The rest I grabbed just before I was taken.”

He stopped at what looked like a dead end. Bringing his face
up to the wall, he mumbled something, then stood back. The wall slid to the right,
revealing a young boy.

“Dad’s back,” the boy yelled over his shoulder.

A slender woman, no more than twenty years old, ran through
the door and wrapped the man and Diana in her arms. “Thank God, you’re back. We
were so worried.”

Angelina entered the room, then quickly realized it wasn’t a
room at all. Thirty foot walls surrounded a small town. Towering pines lined
cobblestone streets. The tops of swing sets were visible behind some of the
white picket fences that surrounded dozens of flagstone cottages.

A squat man wearing a black suit and tattered top hat ran up
to them. Removing his hat, he bowed, then, after running his fingers through
the few strands of hair covering the top of his head, plopped the hat back on.

“Welcome! Welcome! I’m Mayor Cutter. I see you’ve met John
and his family.” He glanced at Diana’s limp body cradled against John’s chest
and frowned. “They didn’t tell me she was in such bad shape.” He withdrew a
wooden whistle from his breast pocket and blew.

A group of young men carrying a wooden stretcher suddenly
appeared at the end of the road and ran up to them. Angelina watched as John
adamantly refused to put Diana down.

“I’ll carry her to Doc Jenkins.” He took off, the woman and
boy running to keep up with his long strides.

But when Angelina moved to follow them, the Mayor blocked
her path and clucked.

“Now, now. She’ll be just fine. Doc Jenkins always keeps
fresh blood on hand for Night-timers. Our lookouts have been watching you ever
since you arrived.” He slid her hand into the crook of his arm. “We would have
come sooner, but it took you so long to find your way into the alley. And when
you finally did, John was working in the fields on the other side of the
island. No one else is brave enough to enter the city at night.”

“I really should go with my granddaughter,” Angelina firmly
stated, pulling her hand away.

“If you insist, we’ll both go.” He linked his arm in hers
and led her across a small square. “I’m dying to hear all about the outside
world.”

Angelina blinked when a woman pushing an odd stroller
smiled, baring small fangs. “How many live here?”