“You asked what the twins were up to. They got a few hours sleep, of course, and then headed out separately. They’re trying to see if they can find their relatives. Their parents, grandparents. If they find them, they intend to stand guard until nightfall, then bring them back here.”
“And then what?” she asked. “It sounds as if it’s not safe for any vampire out there right now.”
“We have a plan, a place to go. An island. We’re spreading the information by word of mouth, vampire to vampire. Many are already on the way. I could actually use an extra pair of hands today, to help me get our yacht stocked with supplies, so we’re ready to head out ourselves. Are you game?”
She felt herself smile just a little bit. “I have no other plans for the afternoon,” she said. “And as long as you keep using such lovely bribes as hot showers, fresh clothes, delicious coffee and gooey doughnuts, you’ll probably find me quite helpful.”
“I thought so.”
James stood outside his parents’ home, a beautiful Appalachian Mountain cabin.
Or at least it had been. Now it was a pile of rapidly cooling ash. And there was nothing left. Nothing. Not a stick of furniture, like the antique rocking chair where his mother had cradled him as a baby. Not a scrap of clothing, like the long leather coat that had become his father’s trademark.
Nothing.
And he didn’t know whether his beautiful parents had been at rest when the place had been burned and now lay, no more than ashes themselves, amid the ruins or not. He tipped his head toward the sky, whispering “Why?” as he dropped to his knees. Tears burned his skin, and his face twisted into a painful grimace as his fangs extended and his fury raged.
Finally his rage subsided, pushed out of the way by another thought. He wondered if he could find his parents’ remains among all this ash. And if he did, whether he could restore them. Heal them. Bring them back.
Rising, scrubbing his knuckles across his cheeks, retracting his fangs, he stumbled into the still warm ashes of his childhood home and bent to press his hands to the charred remains, then closed his eyes and willed the light to come. Willed the power of life to beam from his hands. When it didn’t, he moved to another spot and tried again, and then again and again. For hours he knelt in the wreckage, trying to restore life to ash.
But either his parents weren’t there or their deaths were beyond his ability to undo.
It killed him to give up. But when it became obvious that staying was useless, he forced himself to get to his feet, to move on.
And he prayed with everything in him that his family had made it to safety before the humans—his other family—had attacked.
He was ashamed that he’d turned his back on his own kind in favor of trying to live as a human. That he’d been repulsed at the thought of living as a vampire. It was clear to him now who the real beasts were. And they were not the undead.
Two hours later, Lucy found herself standing on the deck of one of the most luxurious yachts she’d ever seen, not that she’d seen many. The Nightshade had four cabins, two Jacuzzis, a galley and a dining room, living room and wet bar. It was like a floating five-star hotel. She’d never been onboard a yacht before, but she seriously doubted most were this high end. Willem piloted it expertly through the waves. They’d taken it from the marina, and were speeding toward the harbor and the house. The shoreline was on their left—port, she corrected mentally. As she watched it speeding past, thinking this was actually a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, she suddenly caught a whiff of something that wasn’t so pleasant.
“Willem, what is that?” she asked, pointing.
At the helm, he followed her gaze to where smoke and flames were licking up toward the sky. And then he swore. “God, that’s my house!”
Lucy’s jaw dropped, and she sent him a look of stunned horror. His wife was in there.
And not just her. They’d left five vampires asleep and defenseless in a home that was now ablaze. Rhiannon and her cat, and gentle Roland. The great king Gilgamesh himself!
Tears brimmed in her eyes as she willed the boat to go faster.
Willem pushed the throttle all the way forward, and the front end of