“So, your Master is planning to finish the job?” I question without looking at him.
“No, Tess. No. I can guarantee that you will be around for a very, very long time.”
My blood runs cold as I think of the implications from that statement. “Well I’m sure he’s a decent enough fellow for a vampire, but I have to decline. Too bad you travelled all this way.”
“It isn’t a request.” The woman says coldly. My mother reaches out and gives my hand a squeeze, keeping a firm grip after. Normally special abilities are inherited, many times the gift being passed down from the parent. But my parents are normal. My family is normal. I’m the anomaly.
If I get on a plane heading overseas, I will never come back.
“Yet still I refuse.”
“Why do you always make things difficult?” Viktor whispers, but with a household filled with highly sensitive hearing it isn’t a secret.
“Rethink your willingness,” the woman threatens in a low voice, displaying the number one characteristic of a vampire. Wouldn’t it be difficult to speak with a couple of fangs the size of daggers in your mouth? I mean, it would be like talking with a tennis ball in your mouth.
My mother’s hand is ripped from mine as the two vampires behind the couch abduct my parents, placing them out of reach. My poor mother looks like she is close to tears and my father has a stubborn set to his jaw he often gets when dealing with incompetence.
I take a step forward before a hand snakes around my upper arm quick as lightning. “Uh uh uh,” the female vampire coos, finishing her sentence before I throw her through a window. “One step and we’ll rip out their throats. All you have to do is cooperate, and they’ll go free.”
My eyes haven’t strayed from my parents who have gone pale with fear. My father’s eyes bore into mine with such intensity that it’s like I can read his thoughts, and what he is thinking is something I can never do. I can’t just walk away leaving them to die. My eyes burn with the idea of losing them. I haven’t seen my parents in person before this trip for over two years. I won’t lose them.
A small nod of defeat has two vampires surge forward with restraints, pinning my arms behind my back. My mother breaks out in a sob that rips through my heart as cool shackles slide around my wrists. Their lives for mine seems like a good trade. It’s not as if a better option has presented itself.
My father pushes against the vampire keeping him in place, struggling to break free as he shouts curses loud enough that the neighbors will hear. Ben and his family live next door, even if that door is nearly a quarter mile away.
“Dad,” I choke out, praying for him to stay calm. Thrashing against someone who can kill you with their bare hands is not the best plan. “It’ll be okay.”
“What a lovely sentiment,” the female sighs, running a manicured nail down my cheek as she looks at my parents. “There is the little matter of last night’s activities. A fair number of my people were mowed down like animals. But what can be done about it? I have an idea; after all, fair is fair. Kill them.”
Time slows to crawl as I watch my parents register the words right before the vampires snap their necks, then everything goes dark.
***
Opening my eyes is difficult, the lids so heavy it’s painful to try. A soft pressure is placed on my back and it takes a moment to register it is a blanket, but the pressure feels too much.
“Tess, Tess honey, wake up.”
My brain strains against the sound that brashly rings in my ears, the metallic noise too loud. A groan escapes my lips and I feel a hand rub my back, the contact feeling like spikes stabbing where the hand touches.
Sucking in air and blowing it out slowly helps control the pain until it fades to just a hand stroking my back. My eyelids aren’t so heavy and I crack them open. Something dark blocks the bright light from fully hitting my eyes, and I angle my head to see Eliza crouched on the ground next to me caressing my back.
“That’s it,” she soothes, readjusting the blanket. The downy material rubs oddly against my skin and when I try to sit up, I realize why. My clothes are gone.
“Where . . .” Anything else I may have said dies on my lips when I see the carnage strewn across the living room, no spot spared. I try not to look directly at any one thing laying on the carpeted flooring since dismembered body parts aren’t my thing, but it’s hard to ignore all the red.
That’s when I see a light blue slipper with faux fur lining the top. I know whose foot that belongs to. Eliza follows my line of sight. “Oh, Tess, I’m so sorry.” The hole that was punched through my chest reemerges with a vengeance and I think I’m going to throw up.
A masculine slipper rests next to the blue one and I remember with perfect clarity what happened to them. That life-altering snap a sound that will forever remain with me as the worst noise of my life. But I don’t remember what happened after. Continuing my deep breathing to keep from losing it, my eyes flicker across the room trying to piece together a theory.
“Let’s get you upstairs,” Eliza encourages, trying to block the worst of the carnage from view. Accepting help off the floor, I wrap the blanket more securely around myself. Eliza nudges me toward the stairs before stopping by the front door, her voice low as she speaks to someone outside.
The first step up the staircase is hard, and I keep thinking it will get easier, but it doesn’t. Framed photos line the walls. Each one screams at me for vengeance,
