One Immortal - Tia Louise Page 0,74

as I get closer, my muscles tense.

Ridiculous. I’m a vampire now. I’m one of the strongest monsters in the lineup. The thought makes me cringe. Passing a hand over my face, my mind jumps to what Sloan said. All of our study and knowledge made him as strong as the most powerful old one. I know things about vampires it takes them years to discover about themselves.

Forcing my brain to calm, to focus, to return from the shock, I sift through my knowledge bank. Vampires don’t care for decaying, ruined places. They don’t hang around corpses. The ones in Lafayette cemetery are exceptions rather than the rule. Vampires prefer luxury and decadence.

Walking through the abandoned park, I survey the eerie landscape. A steel roller coaster rises above it all like a monument to destruction. Its network of wood and metal girders and beams is a rusted-out crosshatch on the verge of collapse.

Rippling ribbons of blue streak down the center of the wide path I’m following. It would be festive, but instead it’s covered in a thin layer of black muck left behind by the floodwaters. I keep going.

My boots make a muffled scuff on the dirty concrete. The air smells of mildew. Several tall, colonial-style buildings stand empty. A concrete clown’s head as large as my body lies on its side smiling grotesquely at the ground.

Graffiti covers everything. Messages from “Fuck off” to “Where do theme parks go to die?” prove kids frequently visit this place. An abandoned Ferris wheel is across the way from a lifeless swing ride. It’s all been left to fall to dust.

A large theater draws my attention. The rain has started, so I push inside to take shelter. It’s an enormous, empty metal building. Trash is all over the floor and canned light fixtures hang from ceiling far overhead. The sound of rain echoes in the space.

Onstage, I run my fingers along the limp edges of a ripped movie screen. Behind it, a circular-metal vortex forms a black hole as big as me.

Every bit of this decaying, dilapidated park mirrors my emotions. I lean against the wing and slide down to sitting. My knees bend, and I rest my arms on the tops, putting my face in my hands.

It’s all over. My identity has been stolen from me. My life has been taken and changed. What comes next? Will I grow cruel like the ones I’ve killed? Will I savagely kill and feed on other humans? My fingers tighten over my face, and I don’t know the answer.

My growl, ricochets through the emptiness. I don’t want to be alone with these thoughts. The second I ease the vice-grip on my mind, the one thing I’ve been holding at bay races to the forefront. It’s the one thing that pushed me harder and harder as I ran. Only, I’ll never run fast enough to escape her.

“Melissa…” My breath catches.

Leaning my head back, I lift my chin to the black metal ceiling and close my eyes. The pain of everything I’ve lost is brutal, but the knowledge I can never see her again crushes me. I’m not sure I can survive this.

“Melissa,” I whisper her name again like a prayer. “My lady, my love…”

Metal scraping across concrete snaps me to attention. “Who’s there?” I shout.

My defense mechanism is instinctive. I prepare to fight, when an oversized black Rottweiler trots through the door. Instantly I relax, although I don’t know where this leaves us. Still, after all our years together in the service, if anyone would find me, it would be Stuart.

He hops onto the stage and walks to where I’m sitting. For a moment he waits, until I slip my arms out of my thin jacket and pass it over. I only vaguely recall I have a gun loaded with silver bullets in my boot. He shifts into human form, wrapping my jacket around his waist.

“God, you stink!” Going to the opposite wall, he covers his nose with his hand in an almost canine fashion. “Fucking vampire scent.”

“Thanks.” I give him a bitter glance, but the truth is, I’m glad he’s here. “It’s just one of my new qualities.”

“Ah, Fuck.” Dropping his hand, he leans his head against the wall behind him. “What the fuck are we going to do with this shit?”

Lowering my knees, I look down at my hands. “You know what we have to do.”

“What?” I lift my gaze to him, and I don’t have to clarify before he blasts me with a, “No