Wake of Darkness (24 page)

“Fantastic,” she breathed.

She chewed on her thumbnail and was
lost in thought. She didn’t look at anything in particular, and Alexander
didn’t try to listen to her thoughts. Suddenly, she looked at him.

“Not to
totally
change the
subject, and I don’t want to come off sounding jealous or anything, because I’m
not. I mean, you could hear that if you really wanted to,” she began nervously,
which was unlike her. “But, what’s with Celia? I mean, she’s found her
companion in Chaz, so what gives? Why does she care so much about you? There’s
got to be a back story there.”

“Well,” he deliberately rose and
walked over to the bed, taking a seat facing her. “I must agree that
you
are not the jealous type, but Celia always has been. She is also excessively
competitive. I met her many years ago and we did not get along then. She saw me
as a challenge at the time, because I did not care for her in the way she
believed I should. It is a very long and sad story, and it is one that ended in
the death of a dear friend of mine.”

Sophie shook her head.

“She intentionally put herself in
the middle of a foolish and life-threatening situation. Another of her family
attempted to come to her rescue, but he was killed by the vampire who had been
poised to attack her. She wanted me to be the one to save her life. She
believed that had I done so, it would change how I felt about her.”

“How stupid is that?”

“Quite,” he answered. “I walked
away from the family after that. I did not bother to tell her I was leaving. I
have not seen her from that day to this. Obviously she hasn’t changed. She
still accomplishes nothing but the spread of contention wherever she goes.”

“What a waste.”

He looked at her cautiously. “Her
concern about Jacques was genuine though; she will be of no help to us,” he
added. “In fact, she would likely tell him where we are if it benefited herself
in any way.”

“You pissed her off that bad, huh?”
Sophie asked with a laugh behind her words.

He shook his head and didn’t smile
in return. Hers faded quickly in light of his serious tone.

“No. That is simply her way. She is
entirely concerned for herself only—a true narcissist to the end. She always
has been—and always will be—her own highest priority,” he answered simply.

Sounds like someone else we
know,
Sophie thought.

He nodded solemnly. Still thinking
about Celia, Sophie walked to his bookshelf. He listened to her as she silently
read through some of the titles.

“We’ll be going to New Orleans
soon, now,” she said.

“Yes,” he replied, still watching
at her. “Dante mentioned flying out on Friday.”

“I guess I should pack,” she said.

“They’ll be gone soon.”

She nodded wisely. “I know.”

She stepped lightly to his bedside
and kissed him on the cheek before she glided out of the room with a quiet
smile.

Chapter 22

“Come in!” Laney called through her
closed door.

“Hey,” Sophie replied, suddenly
appearing on the other side of the still-closed door.

“Hi! What’s up?” Laney asked.

Sophie shrugged. “Just thought I’d
see what you were up to.”

Laney smiled knowingly, but
gestured to the piles of things around her; the mounds of clothes and stacks of
magazines, DVDs, and literal piles of jewelry. She giggled.

“I’m trying to get organized,” she
admitted to Sophie, and then the rest of her thoughts came out in a quick,
fluid stream of words. “I can’t believe we’re going to be in New Orleans next
week! We’re going to have so much fun! I really, seriously, totally
cannot
wait! I’ve always wanted to go there. It’s gonna be amazing!”

Sophie nodded, fingering a long
strand of fake pearls on the dresser. “Yeah, I know. It’s going to be kind of
hard to say goodbye to this place, though.”

“We’ll be back.”

But when?

             “Does it matter?”

Sophie didn’t answer and the room
fell silent. Her eyes became glazed over, and her face unreadable as she listened
to the conversation below. In the quiet of Laney’s room, they could easily hear
the discussions going on downstairs between Celia’s group and their family
members.

You okay?
Laney asked in a
thought.

“I’ll be back,” Sophie replied distractedly
and disappeared.

When she opened her eyes, she was
in the living room where Dante was discussing with Celia and Masumi the
research he’d been compiling. He was showing them the results of his their migration.
The data looked like weather maps.

Sophie stepped up to the little
group and looked at him. “How’d you put all this together, Dante?” she asked.

He turned to her, pleased at her
interest. “We have several friends throughout the United States with whom we
share information: where vampires have been seen, how many were sighted, that
sort of thing. I also take it upon myself to track missing persons lists. Taken
together, we gain the data of a fairly accurate pattern trace for vampires
throughout the nation.”

Sophie nodded and looked down at
the map in his hand. “May I?” She asked. He handed it to her in silence. She
ignored the weight of Celia’s and Masumi’s eyes on her.

Dante pointed to the map. “You can
see that there has been an increase in the travel patterns in the southwest,
towards Texas,” he explained.

 “They’re heading this way,” she
stated grimly.

“Yes. They will likely branch off
into two separate paths. Here,” his finger traced northward to the Tennessee
and Kentucky area, “and here,” he said, pointing to New Orleans, right where they
would soon be heading.

“Hmm,” Sophie sighed. “Why do you
think they’re going north like that?”

Celia looked at her. “There haven’t
been many things happening in Tennessee for a long time.” Sophie looked at her
questioningly. Celia shrugged. “We all keep track of this stuff.”

Sophie felt a sudden brush of air
behind her. Alexander was suddenly standing behind her.

“Vampires typically attempt to
attract as little attention to themselves as possible,” Alexander explained
quietly, “doing so ensures their survival, and in this way, they are virtually
untraceable by humans.” He placed his hand on the small of her back.

“We have been tracking their
patterns for quite some time. We are very familiar with their habits,” Dante
explained.

“Hmm,” Sophie replied and handed
the map back to Dante before she walked over to the couch and sat down,
absentmindedly chewing on her thumbnail.

Masumi followed Sophie. “What are
you thinking?”

“What? Oh, uh…nothing,” Sophie
lied. She’d really been thinking about the patterns researched by Dante and how
surprising they were. The whole thing went deeper than she’d thought.

“Yes, it does,” Alexander said,
coming to sit beside her.

There’s a whole network of us
out there, then?
Sophie asked as she struggled not to get lost in his
intense green eyes.

Yes.

And the vampires are traveling
this way.

Yes. They will be on our heels
as we travel east.

Not sure I like that idea.

Nor I, but we shall be at an
advantage in New Orleans.

How?

Home field advantage.

Sophie smiled.

Masumi watched the exchange between
the pair in unobtrusive silence. She took a seat adjacent to them.

“Let us not worry about such things
tonight, with friends under our roof,” Dante suggested.

Sophie looked up at Dante’s words
and raised an eyebrow in response. “Friends” was a loose definition for their
guests, but she wasn’t going to argue. She glanced over to Chaz who sat talking
with Jim on the opposite couch.

“So, what takes you to Austin?”
Sophie asked him.

“I have a home there, near downtown
actually,” Chaz answered in a quiet voice.

“Why do you care?” Celia asked
shrilly, appearing out of nowhere. She stood menacingly over Sophie.

Sophie looked up at her from the
corner of her eye and smiled. “Just curious,” she answered simply with a shrug.

“Nosey bitch,” Celia grumbled.

Alright, that’s it!
Sophie
stood up quickly to face her. She’d had enough. “Celia,” she growled, “what’s
your problem?”

“I have no problem with you,” Celia
replied dismissively, while staring brazenly into Sophie’s eyes.

“Then who
do
you have a
problem with?” Sophie demanded.

“Some wounds leave scars,” she
replied grimly with a quick glance at Alexander.

The room fell silent in the
presence of their little exchange. Jim stood up and Zoey suddenly appeared from
around the corner, silently slinking back into the room. Alexander watched
Sophie carefully from his seat.

“What the hell
is it
with
eternity?” Sophie demanded. “Does it turn people into petty children?”  

Celia slinked down into a defensive
crouch. A quiet growl erupted from her often sarcastic lips. Sophie paid her
aggression no mind; she would take anything Celia threw at her with glee. Alexander
slowly stood; ready to strike Celia if she made a move against Sophie.

“We’re running from a vampire who
has held a—what—
two hundred
year grudge? And now, you!” Sophie declared,
taking a step toward the other woman, heedless of the fact that Chaz now
flanked his companion. “You ‘just drop by’ to pick a fight with a man who not
only has no interest in you, but is also ten times better than you have
ever
thought about being, and who you attempted to lure—
unsuccessfully
, by
the way—into a trap that left a mutual friend dead? Get
over
yourself
already!” Sophie declared, glaring at the other woman, “or get the hell out,” she
finished firmly, not caring that it was technically Catherina’s house she was
volunteering to throw Celia and her friends out of.

Celia cautiously straightened out
of the partial crouch she’d sunken into, as Alexander mirrored her movements
just behind Sophie. Jim visibly relaxed. He stood closer to Celia than the others;
just waiting for the moment to spring. Catherina watched on from her chair, her
eyes unreadable. Zoey watched Celia carefully and Laney stood at the top of the
stairs. She held her hands up as if to try and keep the peace.

“It appears we’ve worn out our
welcome,” Celia growled.

“So it appears,” Dante replied, the
only calm one in the room.

“I’ll call a cab,” Masumi
volunteered quietly and was on her cell phone in a moment.

Jim still hadn’t relaxed from his
tense pose and Sophie’s eyes locked on Celia’s. Alexander stood so closely to
her that she wasn’t sure who would get to Celia first if she had decided to
charge in their direction. Chaz looked warily between the fighters who had
effectively backed him and Celia up against a wall.

Masumi must have worked wonders
with the cab company; they left a few moments later. Sophie wasn’t sorry to see
them leave; only Masumi seemed to regret the sudden parting. The tension
quietly melted away with the departure of their guests.

Alexander looked at her once they
were alone. “Why don’t we go for a walk?” he suggested.

Her eyes darted to the dark
windows. It was nighttime. He smiled again and took her hand, leading her to
the back door. He led her to the remodeled storm cellar out back and collected
a few weapons, just in case. They weren’t going out to actively look for
anything, but it was quickly becoming apparent to her that they were magnets
for vampires, whether they meant to be or not.

“Not always,” he replied to her
thought.

“Really?”

“Some of the time, everything is
quite peaceful. There is simply a sudden influx of their kind lately, with the
actions of Jacques and their present migration. It’s not always like this.”

“That’s kind of a relief.”

“Who knows but that we may have a
peaceful walk?” he mused, while picking up his revolver. He spun the cylinder
and it clicked resoundingly back into place in the silent concrete room. “But,
just in case we have,” he said, cocking his head in the direction of the gun
with a faint smile.

“You
like
hunting them.”

“I like protecting human beings,”
he clarified, “and my family,” he added, looking so meaningfully at her that it
made her self-conscious.

She looked away.