“No, Edwin. You are safe now. Valek is here, too,” Charlotte calmly explained.
“Y-y-you s-stay away.” He coughed a black cloud of smoke from his chest.
Charlotte frowned and began to back away. She looked at Valek.
“S-s-stay a-away from Char-Charlotte.”
“Edwin, I
“Ch-charlotte is in d-d-d-danger. S-s-stay a-away….” He mumbled another word under his breath but none of them caught what it was.
“Say it again, Edwin,” Valek ordered.
“S-stay a-a-away, Evan-Ev-Evangeline.” His head rolled to one side.
Charlotte shot to her feet, but when she turned to look at Evangeline, all three of them saw she was gone.
“Ev-evangeline w-w-works for Ad-Aiden,” Edwin continued. “Gr-gr-grave d-danger.” He finished and life immediately left his eyes. He was nothing more than a sack once again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Valek snarled and wheeled around, disappearing over the threshold. Pages left on the coffee table flew like they had been caught in a windstorm. Both Charlotte and Sarah raced out after him to the foyer, but saw the front door left gaping.
He was already gone.
“No….” Charlotte crumpled against a wooden end table, clutching onto one of its legs for support.
The sound of thirsty Vampires slamming against wood rattled the floorboards down the hallway behind them. Sarah turned to see dust flying violently into the air from the trap door. She grabbed Charlotte by the shoulders. “Go after him! Be very careful, and do not go with anyone other than Valek. They are going to kill themselves down there if I don’t stay and do something.” The small Witch raced back toward the study to retrieve vials of animal blood.
Charlotte looked out at the world beyond the threshold. Black clouds, pregnant with electricity, swirled high over gothic rooftops. The damp wind reached her face from the outside, pulling her hair, beckoning her to take the first step. The storm was not natural. Thunder called to her from miles away, challenging who stood on the cusp between light and darkness.
She swallowed once and without thinking much more, she ran over the edge. She did not feel her knees flexing and bending as they propelled her down the black road. There were other humans, like her, staring as she raced as fast as her lungs could take in oxygen. She felt their eyes on her. Hot tears flew from her cheeks back into her hairline. Her chest burned fervently but she did not stop. Not knowing what direction she was going in, she searched between the plummets of rain for any familiar figure.
“Valek!” she cried out as she kept running. “Valek!”
Just then, something a little further down caught her attention. The silhouettes were distant and vague under a streetlamp, the only light source in the dismalness. It looked like one figure grappling desperately with another. Charlotte could see people around them stopping and staring. Air stabbed like frozen fire in her chest as she picked up speed.
“Valek!” she screamed over the pain. “They will catch you, Valek!” She begged him to hear her. “Stop!” She ran for what seemed an endless distance before slamming into the shrouded, male figure. He gripped Evangeline’s throat mercilessly.
“Go back, Charlotte,” he growled.
She breathed so she could speak. “No. They will catch you. You can’t do this here.” A wheeze twisted her lungs, and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep her world steady. “We have to go back.”
Valek’s claws clung relentlessly to Evangeline’s throat, drawing blood. “She has to die.” His fangs shone bright against the lightning, the cold rain making his hair cling to his forehead.
Evangeline whimpered and grabbed his arm, silver tears streaming down her face. “Kill me, then.” She choked. “Do it. In front of all of these humans.” Blood began to seep from one corner of her mouth as she smiled faintly. “Aiden would want you to.”
“How could you do this to us, Evangeline?” Charlotte asked sadly. She stood frozen and noticed something silver hanging around the Witch’s neck. She winced, pulling it from her. “Why?”
“He—” She coughed blood. “He would have killed me. He promised me power.” She turned her eyes on Valek. “Kill me, Valek. I deserve it. It is too late to save Charlotte now.” She coughed again. “They know where to find her.”
Something snapped in Valek’s eyes. Anger immediately flooded away from him, replaced by fear. His grip on her throat loosened. The Witch fell to her knees.
“Come on, Valek. We have to get out of here.” Charlotte tugged at his sopping wet shirt. “Leave her.”
Valek stood like an immovable boulder in the freezing rain, his fists clenched at his sides. Charlotte’s pleas echoed between his ears. He knew then, as the gaze of the Witch bore into his own, that it was over.
Police sirens sounded a few blocks away against the rolling thunder. Valek grabbed Charlotte’s hand. Slinging her into his arms, he bulleted faster than light back through the streets. Water collected in the gutters waved over the sides of the pavement as if he were a speeding car.
Francis’ house was in his line of vision. He was beginning to see the facade of the building very clearly now. He would leave tonight and run as far as he could. He didn’t care where that endpoint would be.
But before his feet could pass the surrounding low-iron fence, something very large slammed into him head on. Charlotte tumbled to the ground, rolling across the pavement. Valek only skidded backward and looked up to see the large shadow eclipse the nearly full moon above them. Wings stretched out at its sides as it dove again for Charlotte, crumpled on the street.
He screamed her name as he raced to her, blood tears mixing with the harsh rain on his face. The claw of the giant beast scraped across his arm, but he blocked it from reaching his beloved Lottie.
She scrambled onto her hands and knees, the whistle now steadfast around her neck again.
Get Inside!” he bellowed.
The winged monster above them corkscrewed and dove to the earth again.
Charlotte saw it as she finally got to her feet and sprinted for the door. She felt it come up behind her, knocking her onto her stomach over the porch stairs. Her nails clawed at the wood but it was too late. She felt a large, very solid hand rear her up onto the back of the beast. “Valek!” She screamed for him, but could not hear or see anything against the concrete pummel of the rain. “Valek!” she screamed again, but when she opened her eyes, her Vampire was no more than a tiny granite dot against the black sea of the Golden City streets.
Valek could do nothing, say nothing. He knew troops would be there any second to carry off whatever was left of his dismal reality. He rolled onto his back and watched the Gryphon disappear into the darkest part of the sky. Rain poured over him as he dug his elbows into the hard road. He heaved — scarlet red diluted by water slid down the sides of his face.
Lottie!” he cried. He threw his head back and heaved again. “Charlotte!” He sobbed as the city turned to nothing around him.
Sarah burst out the front door down the steps. She leaned over him and tried to brush the sopping hair from his face. “Valek! It’s okay. Charlotte is going to be okay! Remember my vision. Remember the plan!”
He turned away from her, continuing to cry Charlotte’s name. She hushed him, but no words would help. She pulled his head and shoulders into her lap and watched the tiny, black dot disappear in the night sky with him.
Mr. Trinozka came out of the house next, Edwin steadfast to his back. Immediately following him was the entire Vampire coven. They all loomed sadly in the doorway and watched the scene on the street in front of the
