“But we can celebrate now,” I said suggestively.
He looked surprised, the sapphire eyes wide, eyebrows raised. “You and me?”
“That’s all we have right now, right? Why not? If you get some steaks and the trimmings, I’ll cook. And we need some wine, of course.”
His brows pushed together, creating those three vertical lines between them. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We need to be completely alert.”
I fluttered my eyelashes and stuck out my lower lip in a pretend pout. “Just a glass. Just for a toast to the Amadis and whatever it is they have planned.”
He studied my face. I really wasn’t trying to seduce him. Honestly. I just needed him to disappear for a while…just long enough. I smiled warmly at him.
“Okay,” he finally agreed. “You stay here. I’ll be back in ten or fifteen minutes.”
I followed him out the door and watched him walk down the driveway, into the brush and disappear. As soon as he was gone, I jumped into the Ferrari and took off, my heart pounding with anxiety and fear. I’d left the keys in there earlier, knowing I needed every second I could get when the opportunity arose. I sped down the highway, clearing as much distance as possible before Owen returned and found me gone.
Guilt pierced my conscience when I thought of him searching for me. But I had to do this. At least he wouldn’t be left heartbroken and helpless like I’d been when I was left behind. I just hoped he wouldn’t immediately guess where I headed, but would think I went after my family. Because once he knew, he would be there in a flash.
Chapter 7
I made the fifty-mile drive to Key West in twenty minutes. I barely remembered any of it—just the gray pavement passing under the car—my mind first on Owen and then on Dorian. My son’s face swam in my vision, so much like his father’s. I ached to hold him one last time. I’m so sorry, little man. Please forgive me. I love you so much. As the tears pooled in my eyes again, making it difficult to focus on the road, I reminded myself, though now with no parents, he had Mom and the Amadis. He would be well taken care of. And he would be safe.
Then I forced myself to think about what lay ahead, rather than what I left behind.
My heart picked up speed the closer I came. My chest squeezed with panic, making proper breathing difficult, and my stomach rolled with anxiety. What the hell am I doing? This was probably the stupidest thing I’d ever done—second only to letting Tristan leave me at the safe house. But I had to do this, if it was the last thing I did for the Amadis.
My hand banged on the steering wheel restlessly and my left leg bounced with nerves as I made my way to the west side of Key West, to the old part where the tourists partied and the Daemoni…hunted. Come on, come on, come on! If this didn’t happen quickly, Owen would eventually figure out where I headed. And, even if he didn’t, I was afraid I would lose my nerve.
I didn’t know what to expect. I thought maybe they would be on top of me as soon as they sensed me. Then I remembered they couldn’t read my thoughts, so they probably didn’t know I’d entered their hunting grounds. It wasn’t like they expected me to walk right into their hands. Not like the last time they got what they wanted. But this was the only way I knew how to solve the problem. I didn’t have the ability to recognize the best solution. Tristan did, but not me. I worked with all I knew—my heart and my soul telling me what was best for everyone.
I’d promised him I would come for him. Although he never knew that promise, I would do my best to keep it. I hadn’t quite changed over—my body was still preparing for the Ang’dora—but I’d run out of time. My family needed the protection. They needed to be left alone. I hoped to give that to them.
The funny thing was, I realized, I did this as me. Real Alexis. At least…the closest I would know of Real Alexis, since I’d probably never make it all the way through the Ang’dora. But this wasn’t Psycho acting out in anger or Swirly confusing me with a mix of fact and fiction. Foggy disappeared a couple days ago. I embraced this new-found purpose as me, clear minded, though a little frightened. Okay, more than a little. But definitely all me. Definitely Real Alexis.
As the sun began to set and darkness came from the east, I drove up and down the side streets of Old Key West, lined with ivy-covered hotels and inns and stately trees hung with moss. Avoiding the overcrowded Duval Street, I tried to decide the best way to attract the Daemoni. I hoped to find one or two on their own, separated from the crowds. And I hoped to set the scene up so I could pull them even farther away. I saw no need to involve innocent people. It took nearly an hour to find what I searched for.
I glanced down an alley as I slowly passed it and saw two men, a woman and a college-aged girl walking my way. I slowed the car. My sharp eyes recognized the dangerous situation immediately. The girl wasn’t exactly walking. The others pushed and pulled her along. The Daemoni alarms sounded in my head. The group stopped about fifty yards from me, from the end of the alley, and the men started harassing the girl. I assumed they planned to rape her…or worse. I took a deep breath. Here we go.
I kicked off my flip-flops and left the keys in the ignition and the car door open behind me. I walked down the dark alley. Several Dumpsters and backdoors lined the brick walls on each side. Security lights over the doors provided pools of light between pits of darkness. The Daemoni surrounded the girl in a dark area between two Dumpsters. They pushed her around and tore at her thin, red blouse and white, satiny shorts, laughing wretchedly. Even the woman. The girl hunched over, trying in vain to protect herself. She looked taller than average and thin, but her arm and leg muscles were quite defined for a female. She looked as though she could hold her own against most normal humans. But these weren’t normal humans. In fact, they weren’t even human.
“Leave her alone,” I said when I came close enough for them to hear me without having to yell.
“You ought to mind your own business, missy,” the tall white-blond said without looking at me. He held the girl by her long, dark hair. She trembled so fiercely, the edges of her shape seemed to blur.
“You are my business,” I replied, stepping closer.
They finally looked at me and they all froze. Even the girl, her face plastered in a grimace of pain as the first Daemoni still held her by the hair. She looked at me with pleading, fear-filled eyes, realizing she’d put herself in a bad situation. I could see why she willingly left her friends and went with them. The two men were quite attractive, dressed in silk shirts and dress pants, and they smelled nice—vanilla, freesia, rain, citrus, cinnamon…. Their looks and even their scents pulled her in.
They were vampires. Although subtle—they projected themselves as bait, not predators—I saw the unusually pale skin, the red tint to the irises and the slightly longer, pointy eye-teeth I knew were fangs. I wondered how she couldn’t see any of it and then remembered I was specially tuned to them. The process of the Ang’dora had already sharpened my senses beyond her human abilities. My resolve tightened when I realized what they would have done to her.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” one sang. How original. The female vampire sauntered away from the girl and closer to me, a smile spreading across her face. She looked surprisingly unattractive for a vampire, with a head of dull, pink hair that had the texture of a baby-doll’s, obviously a wig, and very masculine features. And she stood quite tall, nearly as tall as the white-blond, her legs long and muscular under her mini-skirt. Her shoulders were nearly as wide as his, too, her tank top stretching across a flat chest…. Oh! She wasn’t a she. She was a he. Huh. A transvestite vampire. I hid my mild shock behind a stoic face, trying to maintain a calm demeanor.
The third one moved toward me, also checking me out. He was shorter than the other two and not as muscular. But he was still dangerous…still a vampire.
The first one, the white-blond, still held the girl by her hair but had no interest in her. His red-tinted, ice- blue eyes studied me with curiosity, his full lips twitching with a smile.
“I think you know exactly what you have,” I said. My heart sped, as if trying to run away, as if it knew how much the vampires wanted it. The frantic pace probably excited them. But I acted as bravely as I possibly could, still trying to keep control of the situation. “So let her go and take me.”
The blond let go of the girl’s hair and seemed to pat her shoulder. She fell to the ground in a heap, as if shoved down by a great force. She looked up at me, her eyes wide and wild. Streaks ran down her cheeks as tears turned her make-up into little black rivers. I momentarily wondered what she would tell her friends…if she
