Wake of Darkness (30 page)

They parked around the corner from
the restaurant, and stepping out of the car, she looked around herself. The
cool, wet air hit her cheeks and blew through her hair, giving her a shiver. Long-abandoned
Mardi Gras beads still hung in some of the trees around them, and an empty beer
bottle lay in the gutter where the water from the afternoon’s shower pulsed by
like blood in the veins of the city.

“This way,” Alexander said quietly,
walking around the front of the car and holding a hand out to Sophie as the
others filed out.

Coop’s Place inhabited an old brick
building with mortar seeping from between the red blocks, as if the air had
been too laden with water to allow for proper drying time when the walls were
built. A white arched doorway flanked by naked light bulbs greeted them as they
entered the warm restaurant.

Opening the door, they were hit
suddenly by the smell of traditional New Orleans cuisine: chili powder, cayenne
pepper and rich brown roux. A huge grin spread across Jim’s face and it was clear
that Alexander was just as much of a fan as Jim was of the almost-literal hole
in the wall. The smells of the rich Cajun recipes made Sophie’s mouth water.

Jim led them to a large booth in
the back corner. Sophie glanced at Alexander.

“It’s not what you had in mind for
tonight,” she said.

“It will do,” he answered with a
peaceful smile and grasping her hand.      

She slid into the seat and the five
of them were quickly feasting on Cajun entrees, complete with cornbread. As
always, they found a great deal of humor in the thoughts of those around them,
but it didn’t keep Jim and Alexander from reminiscing.

“So when was the last time you guys
were here?” Sophie asked.

“We were talking about that the
other day, and we figured it’s been about five years,” Jim answered.

“It does seem longer,” Alexander
added, glancing around the restaurant.

Laney shrugged. “This is my first
time here too,” she told Sophie.

“Oh,” Sophie replied, a little
taken aback. “I didn’t realize.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I guess they found
me—what guys, like three years ago or something? I don’t know; I don’t ever
think about my life before.”

Lucky,
Sophie thought to
herself, and Alexander silently took her hand under the table and squeezed it
in empathy.

Jim patted Laney on the top of the
head, oblivious to what was going on at the other side of the table. “Yeah, we
went to St. Louis for this one,” he said with a grin.

Laney nodded in agreement. “I ran
away from the group foster home I was in. Don’t think they missed me too much
though, since they didn’t come looking for me,” she confessed with a shrug.

“So was the family already in St.
Louis?” Sophie asked.

“No,” Alexander replied. “We had
been in Louisville—Catherina was uncertain about Laney’s location—prior to
discovering where we would find her.”

“Oh,” Sophie replied.

Zoey smiled at her. “Catherina saw
her just like Laney saw you and just like you saw Celia.”

“It’s all really weird, honestly,
but I'm sure I’ll get used to it all. Eventually,” Sophie said.

“You will,” Alexander assured her, stroking
her knee under the table quickly, and making her jump at the touch.

“Man, this is good grub,” Jim
complemented when the cute waitress came up to the table. “Thank you, darlin’,”
he couldn’t help but add with a devilish smile.

Alexander snickered and Laney had
to look away so that she wouldn’t laugh at the scene. The waitress, Caroline,
walked off and Sophie looked at Jim reproachfully.

“You’re going to give that poor
girl a heart attack!” she chastised him.

“Nah,” he brushed Sophie off with a
wave of his hand.

He winked at the waitress when she
turned around to look at him again. Zoey elbowed him the ribs.

“Uhhh,” Sophie suddenly groaned,
slumping back in the booth, “I’m so full.”

She and Jim exchanged a smile. “Told
you you’d like it,” he said.

Sophie nodded. “Yeah, I ate way too
much.”

“Why don’t we walk it off?” Laney
suggested.

“Good idea,” Jim replied, waving
for the check which Caroline promptly brought over. She’d scribbled her name on
the top.

They slid out of the booth and,
dodging other patrons, eventually made their way out of the little
establishment into the dark, damp street. Alexander gently pulled Sophie’s arm
through his, walking on the street-side of the sidewalk. She leaned against his
arm as they followed the others towards the waterfront.

A lone saxophonist played a soft,
slow jazz tune as boats languidly moved up and down the channel. Music and
sounds floated lazily down the hill towards them as Sophie caught a chill. She
shivered. Alexander wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer
to him, protecting her from the light wind coming off the water.

It was peaceful and they were quiet
for several minutes. Sophie and Alexander fell behind the other three, lost in
their own thoughts. They wandered away from the river and the wind changed
directions.

Jim froze and looked around wildly.
“Oh,
damn it
!” he cursed, suddenly spinning on a heel and pushing Laney
behind him, feeling something that not even Sophie had picked up on.

Alexander wrapped an arm around
Sophie’s waist and reached for the revolver at his hip with the other. Jim had
already drawn his own gun. Zoey pulled Laney back to stand beside her. Alexander’s
eyes charted the invisible line from Jim’s eyes to the point of their focus, finding
the source of the foul stench that wafted their direction: vampires.

Four of them slinked out of the
shadows. Sophie stood behind Alexander with her hand on the small his back. She
glanced at Laney and Zoey where they stood behind Jim. She nodded encouragingly
at the younger girl who looked about them anxiously, fear etched on her face.  With
Zoey, she exchanged a more knowing look.

There’s more somewhere,
thought
Jim.

Sophie held her breath.
Behind
us,
she thought suddenly.

Alexander swiftly spun around. Five
others slithered out of the darkness, the light of the moon shinning off of
their preternatural skin and against their hollow black eyes as they cornered
them in the alleyway. They were surrounded.

Please tell me you have another
gun,
Sophie begged in a thought.

Nope,
Jim thought in
response, cursing himself.

Stakes?
She asked.

No,
he answered again.

Great,
Sophie thought
sarcastically and sighed. They’d known better.

Zoey passed her a small vial. Sophie
looked at it questioningly and then looked back at her sister.

Holy water,
Zoey thought.
All
I’ve got. Open it – I need both hands.

Sophie opened the vial. She scanned
the street, looking for makeshift weapons. They were surrounded. Zoey started
moving her hands around the top of the vial. Sophie’s eyes widened as the water
began to move like a rope out of the open top. She looked at Zoey
appreciatively.

Alexander and Jim slowly backed them
against the wall, shielding them with their bodies.

Give us some space,
Sophie
thought. Alexander moved a step away from her in response.

A low chuckle came from one of the vampires.
Sophie kept her hand securely on Alexander’s back as she continued to canvass
the deserted street. Laney grasped her around the waist in fear.

“What have we here?” one of the
vampires asked in a deep, hollow voice. The stench of his breath reached them
yards away.

He was suddenly flanked by a
female. “Why Stephan, you’ve surely heard stories of the Leone family,” she
answered. Her steely voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard.

“Ah, yes, the Leone family,” yet
another replied, in a slightly lower feminine voice.

Sophie jerked her head around to
look at the new speaker, but her attention was quickly pulled back to the first
pair.

“And who do we have with us tonight?”
Asked the one called Stephan, the obvious leader.

“The new warrior, Sophie, who so
easily murders our kind,” another male voice answered.

A shiver went up Sophie’s spine.

“And the magic girl,” the piercing
female shrilly added.

“Laney,” whispered several at once.

“And the two infamous Leone family
warriors,” added Stephan.

“Alexander,” whispered some, while
others whispered, “James.”

Another whispered Zoey’s name, and
then Sophie’s again.

Okay, that’s just creepy,
Sophie
thought, watching their enemy.

The vampires continued to step
slowly toward them, steadily closing the space between the parties as their
whispered words swept through the air like menacing ghosts.

You take half and I’ll take
half,
thought Jim.

Sophie, Zoey, take Laney and at
my word, run for the car,
Alexander instructed.

Laney got ready to run when Sophie
thought:
Not a chance. We can’t get out of here. We might as well fight.

No, Sophie, you
must
run,
he argued.
Jump, if you must.

She held her breath and squeezed Laney’s
hand. She looked to her sister.
Listen for my thoughts
, she quickly
instructed her, ignoring Alexander’s admonishments. She shot a look to Zoey,
who nodded in return. She handed Laney the empty vial and Zoey pushed and
pulled the water into a floating, osculating ball between her hands.

Watch ‘em!
Jim warned.

Sophie get ready,
Alexander
thought. He watched their enemy approach, but then everything happened at once.

NO TIME!!
Jim’s thoughts
screamed as the vampires descended in a swarm and the alleyway erupted in
action.

Alexander fired at the nearest
vampire. A round flew through her chest. He plunged the blade of his knife into
another almost immediately.

“SOPHIE!
GO!!
” He yelled.

They’re after Laney!
She
thought back in a panic, dragging the younger girl into the doorway of the
building behind her, blockading her sister there, still stubbornly refusing to
flee.

Zoey held the holy water mid-air
with one hand. With a sweep of her fingers she shot the water towards the two
nearest vampires. They collapsed to the ground, swatting at the burns on their
skin.

Jim collided with another vampire
and shattered her ribcage with his bare hands. Still she fought back until Jim’s
knife sliced through her neck, severing her head from her body.

Laney, hold them off me!
Sophie
thought.

Suddenly every object that was not
attached to a wall or the ground began to levitate. Alexander shot another
vampire through the heart and twisted off his head as the body stumbled towards
him in a final attempt to take his life. A grating sound pulled his attention
to his left. The gutter from the adjacent building began to struggle against
its bolts.

Jim wrestled with one of the males
as two females advanced on Sophie, where she stood between them and Laney,
shielding her sister from their approach with nothing but her bare hands and
her mind at her disposal.

Scattering the last of the holy
water at the crowd, Zoey grabbed a piece of metal shelving that lay against the
wall and drove it into the chest of another vampire. Her eyes were burning with
rage.

Laney struggled to keep the
vampires from reaching Sophie, holding her hands up and shaking from the effort
of holding them back. She succeeded only in slowing their steps, while the
vampires still continued to advance.

“Keep them off me, Alex!” Sophie
yelled; determination in her voice. Her body began to tremble.
I wish I
could concentrate long enough to get in their heads.

He shot through the rest of his
rounds and tossed the wasted weapon aside. Jim was already without his. Suddenly
a terrible screeching was heard as the gutter was freed from its screws.

Laney, beer bottle!
Thought
Sophie. She used her mind to hurl it through the air at the younger girl.

Laney looked at it and shoved it
with such force through the empty space that it burst in two, the shards
embedding in the torso of one of their enemy. It did little to slow him down,
simply distracting him for a moment. Sophie shot scraps of metal at the
vampire, as Jim and Alexander struggled with two males and Laney held a female
off as well as she could before Zoey got to her.

The metal from the gutter was
suddenly ripped in two parts, producing lethal spikes of both pieces.