“Help me!”

I flinch, keeping my head down as Mila’s scream assaults my ears. I remind myself over and over that it’s not real…it’s him, Lucian, playing tricks on me. He wants me to forget that I’m running from him. He wants to use my friends against me, to catch me, but I won’t let him, not this time.

“Ruby!” she squeals, sending violent goosebumps over my body. “Please!”

Her voice sounds desperate…like she’s in pain. I falter and stumble forward. It’s not real. It’s not real. I draw myself to full height, drag in a shaky breath and push on. It begins to rain and I lick my lip as a drop falls on it, to moisten my cracked skin. I recoil from the copper taste—blood. I purse my lips together and lower my head, pushing myself to my limits. There’s nothing driving me…I’m thirsty, hungry, exhausted…but my fear of Lucian spurs me on. Not a second later, I hear a shrill, evil laugh and then slam into a rock-like figure. My head spins and I fall back. Pain crepitates over my skull and I grit my teeth against the instant headache. I keep my eyes shut, refusing to look at him. I shake my head profusely, wishing he’d just leave me alone.

“Please,” I whimper, letting my head roll to the side. “I’ve had enough.”

“I’ll decide when you’ve had enough.”

I feel his hard, cold fingers grip my arms and squeeze.

My eyes shot open and the feel of Lucian’s hands on me didn’t go away. I gasped and tried to sit up, to get away from the pressure on my arms that was meant to be fake, a figment of my imagination.

“Ruby,” a familiar voice whispered. “It’s okay.”

Eli’s voice soothed me and I brushed the hair that stuck to my lips off my face.

“I’m okay.” I exhaled, breathing a little easier.

I felt the need to say it aloud, to convince myself that Lucian was dead and he couldn’t hurt me or the ones I loved anymore. I shivered and Eli removed his hands from my arms. The minute movement was enough for me to get a better grip on my reality. Safe. My reality was safe. Without a word, I shuffled over on the couch to make room for him. My back pressed firmly against Mila’s, but I was sure she wouldn’t mind. Eli waited a few seconds before giving in and slipping in beside me, and I barely waited for him to get comfortable before I pushed myself into his arms. We didn’t speak for fear of waking anybody else up. I wasn’t ready to speak yet, anyway. Eli wanted to know all about my nightmares, but what could I say? I saw Lucian every time I closed my eyes and that was the extent of it. I closed my eyes, but didn’t dare fall back asleep as he trailed soft kisses along my forehead. Strangely enough, they seemed sympathetic. Instead of analyzing it, I pressed into him and enjoyed the company. This was the first time since having the nightmares that I’ve had any kind of support and it felt nice. I wanted to savor it and get a feel for having Eli there for me. I thought him knowing would make things harder, but he was doing such a good job and I don’t know how I coped without him before now. I needed him. I always did.

Chapter Eleven

I opened my eyes and squinted around a brightly lit room. Instead of being in the sweet comfort of Eli’s arms, I was in Mila’s. I glanced over my shoulder at her face. Blonde strands stuck to her face and shook as she breathed through her nose. Yep…Mila was most definitely spooning me.

“Well, this morning just got awesome.”

I snapped my head up and spotted Hunter leaning against the wall, playing with a rubber band. He twirled it around his finger and smiled mischievously at me.

“Spooning. I like it.”

I rolled my eyes and dragged myself out of Mila’s grip. She inhaled sharply and expelled it with a heavy yawn. She arched her back like a cat and pulled a pillow over her face. I didn’t blame her. I looked around the room. Eli and Xavier were leaning chatting by the far window, but Lyric was gone. The second I thought his name, the door opened and all I could smell was bacon. It smelled so good my mouth pooled with saliva and my throat burned at the thought of eating it. Mr. Aleksandrov and Lyric brought in two large platters adorned with bacon, eggs, sausages and toast. On the other, many variations of fruit sat, just waiting for me to taste them.

Mila shot up out of bed and made a break for the bathroom. Without a word, she dived through the door and slammed it shut. We looked after her, the lot of us puzzled.

“What’s wrong with her?” Mr. Aleksandrov asked me and I shrugged my shoulders.

“I have no idea.”

We sat around the sofa bed, chatting and laughing—most of the discussion consisted of us making fun of Mr. Aleksandrov and this strange little town. Whatever the conversation, I was just thankful no one brought up the night before or the council. As I sat and watched everyone eat, I had this strange sense of belonging tug at my heart. What if we don’t fight the council? I frowned at myself. What if we run and never look back?

“I just hope you know what you’re doing,” Lyric said, pulling me from my thoughts as he bit down on a piece of toast. “Your decisions affect all of us and no offense, but we are all too young to die.”

“What do you propose we do then, Lyric?” Mr. Aleksandrov responded.

“I say we go back to the council and tell them we’ve realized how pushy we’ve been and leave everything as it is.”

“You’re holding that much honor to the council? They’ll kill us where we stand. Do you honestly believe they had no idea Lucian was a vampire? I guarantee you they knew the day he was turned. They left him in power because he shared important vampire information. Lucian was using them to further his cause as much as they were using him.”

Mr. Aleksandrov was right. How ‘honorable’ could they be if ninety-eight percent of our population didn’t even know they exist? Up until a couple of months ago, we only knew of Lucian, the higher power. Beyond him, there was nothing. Gods, goddesses, guardian angels—all of us—were taught that the higher power ran everything.

“We could run,” I added. “We could stay off their radar and just… I don’t know… be normal.”

I ignored the way everyone stared at me like I’d suggested we take the whole council on naked.

Mr. Aleksandrov shook his head. “We’d never get away with it and I’d never abandon Sage Sanctum.”

“So what’s the plan then?” I demanded, getting frustrated. I wanted a plan. I wanted to know what the hell was going to happen next. I was way too anxious to live minute by minute.

“We move inland, today. Gwydion has a cave-like house a few miles from here. He assures us we’ll be safe there.”

“And then what?”

“And then we stay there until I can find a way to expose the council.”

Now it was my turn to stare at him like he was crazy. “You want to expose the council? Are you insane? People would freak out!”

He shrugged. “The people have us. We’re better leaders than the council will ever be. Who hides from their people?”

I pushed my plate away and crossed my legs on the floor. “We can’t run an entire species. We’ve barely finished school.”

“Thousands of people already trust us. We’ve started something we can’t back down from. All of this, Hank, Lucian, and now the council, it’s all connected and we can’t give up now. We started this and we have to finish it.”

Mr. Aleksandrov stood up and brushed crumbs off his new, dark blue robe. “Finish up. We’re leaving in half an hour.”

He turned on his heel and left the room. After his exit, the rest of us sat around and picked mindlessly at our plates.

“We’re all going to die. You guys know that, right?” Hunter announced.

None of us answered him… partly because we knew he was right.

***

I was beginning to hate traveling, especially in cars. I swear the last few years of my life have been spent driving in a car. We were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dense forest and a long, never ending road that stretched out in front of us and refreshed to meet the horizon every mile we drove. On the plus side, we didn’t all have to squeeze into the one car. Eli, Hunter, Mila, and I took one car and Mr. Aleksandrov, Lyric, and Xavier took another. I relaxed back in my passenger seat, ignoring the mumbling conversation between Mila and Hunter in the back. I heard Gabriel’s name a few times and decided that was a conversation I didn’t want to drop in on.

“Do you have any idea how far away we are?” I asked Eli as I stared at the rear of the other group’s car.

“No clue.”

He tapped his fingers in rhythmic beats along the steering wheel and Hunter laughed under his breath. “Did you see the people that lived in that town? Out of their heads, the lot of them. I don’t trust anyone that wears a robe in summer.”

I opened my mouth to reply with some witty retort when suddenly, Lyric slammed the brakes on his car and the tires squealed against the tar, piercing my eardrums. I heard Eli swear and Mila scream before our own car screeched and slammed to a halt. I was thrown forward in my seat, only to be caught by my seatbelt before I crashed back into my chair and winding myself. I felt Eli’s hands on me immediately, touching my hair and my shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his green eyes wide and worried.

I nodded as I rubbed my already sore throat and ignored the way my bones seemed to vibrate inside me.

“We’re good back here too, thanks for asking,” Hunter groaned, unclipping his seatbelt and opening the door. Following his lead, I got out of the car and opened Mila’s door. She was pale, beyond pale, and shaking like a leaf.

“Are you all right?” I asked, working myself up over her shock.

“Yeah,” she breathed, her voice breaking. “I think so.”

She slid from the car and hooked her arm around mine as I pulled us both over to Mr. Aleksandrov’s vehicle. No one was in it. They were standing at the front, looking at whatever it was that caused them to slam their brakes. It was probably a goat or whatever animal was common around these parts. I kept my eyes on the road, trying my best to keep my shaking legs from buckling. It wasn’t until I felt Mila being yanked from me and Eli squeezing me behind him did I realize something wasn’t right. Despite Eli’s protective grip, I shrugged him off and peered around him. If it were a cartoon, my mouth would have detached from my jaw and slammed into the road. No. No, it’s not possible. If I was shaking before, I was absolutely quaking now. I dragged my eyes over him… his tall, bulky body, clean but pale (almost blue) skin, and long, dirty blond hair that stopped at his shoulders.

Tay.

I began to step backwards, but Eli’s hand planted itself on the small of my back.

“It’s not possible,” I heard Mr. Aleksandrov mutter. “I saw his dead body.”

“I killed him,” Eli added. “Of course it’s not possible.”

“Care to fill us in?” Lyric mumbled, earning a groan of agreement from Xavier. They weren’t at Sage when Tay was. They had no clue what he put Eli and I through.

“Long story short…” Mr. Aleksandrov pointed at Tay. “He was an ex-guardian of mine who went a little crazy and Eli killed him.”

“Well, no offense, De Luca…” Hunter chuckled nervously from behind us. “But you obviously didn’t do a good enough job.”

Eli growled over his shoulder. “I tore his goddamn head from his body. I couldn’t have killed him any better than that. Trust me, he’s dead.”

“Surprise.” Tay laughed, clapping his hands together. The sound was so real, so lifelike, that it made us all flinch. “It seems you guys have been up to a lot since I’ve been gone.”

He stepped forward and I felt the whole group tense. He stopped. “What, no welcome back hugs?”

“Eli,” I whispered. “What do we do?”

He took a little while to answer me, but when he did, it took away any shred of confidence that I had. “I don’t know.”

“There are some things that are even bigger than you lot and you’re all going to die.”

And then he disappeared right in front of our eyes. Vanished into thin air, like a ghost.

“It’s not possible,” Mr. Aleksandrov said under his breath. He stepped forward, running his hands through his hair. “They wouldn’t.”

We stared at him, waiting for him to further explain whatever the hell he was talking about. He stopped and smiled at us. It was a creepy, beaming smile, one that made me extremely uncomfortable. “This could work.”

“What could work?” Lyric asked, the shock of what he just witnessed still showing through his voice.

“Someone is using a necromancer.”

Hunter scoffed. “A what?”

“A necromancer. A powerful being capable of bringing back the dead and I’m willing to bet everything I own that it’s the council. ”

“Really? You think the council would do that? That’s a little farfetched.”

Mr. Aleksandrov shrugged his shoulders. “Necromancers were wiped out, but it’s possible the council has one—just like Lucian had a heelian for his own personal use.”

I frowned at the mention of my father—correction—my sperm donor. He tried to kill me.

“They went so far as to hinder our flight home and take over a motel to kill the one thing that can cure vampirism. Trust me, they’re aren’t afraid of being farfetched.”

Eli pulled me into him and held onto me like he was afraid I was going to disappear like Tay did. “What do we do now? They clearly know where we are.”