She didn’t know if he would triumph, or how he could possibly hope to save them. But she did know they couldn’t remain on this island forever, and that if they were to survive, they would have to find a safer place, one farther away from man, where no one could ever find them again. And though he had once turned his back on this way of life, this society of the undead, it was very clear to her that he would not—and probably could not—do so again. They were looking to him as a leader now. Not to Damien, the onetime king, as would seem logical. Not even to Rhiannon, the queenlike Egyptian high priestess of Isis, with the power to control nature.
No, it was James they all looked to for salvation. For leadership. It was as if he were their king.
And while Lucy was bursting with pride to see him assume the mantle and the heavy burden that came with it, she also knew it meant there was no future for the two of them. She was no vampire queen. Nor did she want to be. And wherever these people ended up, James was going with them.
And she was not. She was going to return to her mundane little house, her job and her dusty lab in the university basement, with her bits of clay and her notebooks. And her cat, Huwawa.
She decided to put all that from her mind for the night. Because there was true joy around her, and it was difficult not to let it in. There were happy reunions, families finding each other, old friends reunited. Over and over, all night long.
But though touching, those were not the events that rocked her most deeply. Those came later, as other vampires began arriving. They came mostly by twos and threes, or even all alone, in tiny rowboats, motorboats, canoes. They came with terror-filled eyes and scalding tears, having lost the ones they loved most.
Lucy had withdrawn from the intimacy of the fireside reunions. She was an outsider, knowing little about their conversations, their reminiscences, the names of friends still unheard from. Like a stranger at a huge family reunion where everyone knew and loved everyone else, she’d felt out of place and awkward. So she’d left James to the throng of loved ones demanding his attention and wandered back to the beach alone. There she’d begun meeting the incoming refugees, directing them to where the others were setting up campsites and shelters in the shadow of the hulking, hollow castle.
And then a small canoe wobbled onto shore, and a man—a boy, really—jumped out, gathering a girl into his arms. Lucy ran forward into the surf to help.
He was young. So was the girl he held, though you could barely tell, with most of her hair burned down to the scalp and the skin of her face looking like a melted crayon. Her clothes hung in blackened tatters.
The young man looked up, his face streaked in soot. “Please, please, I need help. She can’t die, she can’t—”
The girl opened one eye, the one she still could, and somehow Lucy felt her pain. It was pouring out of her in telepathic waves, probably because it was too much for one person—even a vampire—to contain.
“Lay her down—over here, in the cool grass,” Lucy instructed, and then she turned to shout for James at the top of her voice. When he didn’t respond immediately, she turned to the young man. God, he couldn’t have been more than eighteen. “Stay with her. I’m going to get help.”
“No one can help,” he whispered. “And I don’t think she’s going to make it until dawn.” He lowered his head, tears streaming, sobs wracking his shoulders. “God, Ellie, what will I do without you? Why did they do this to us? Why? We never hurt anyone. Never.”
“James!” Lucy shouted, and this time she ran in the direction of the camp.
He met her halfway, nearly bowling her over. She gripped his hand, and tugged him with her. “Hurry!”
They ran side by side, then came to a stop. The boy was holding the young woman in his arms again, rocking her and sobbing. “She was on fire. I threw her into the water. I thought I could save her, but…”
Lucy lowered her head as her tears spilled like waterfalls. She couldn’t contain a gulping sob that drew James’s eye, but he looked away quickly, going to the boy, putting