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  “Why else would she let a strange boy into her bedroom? I raised her better than that!”

  “She’s having a hard time of things at the moment. Her judgment might be skewed.”

  Serenity’s hands tightened on the wheel. “What if we can’t find her and she turns fully vampire? How is she going to cope if she can’t go out in the light and is forced to live in the dark? She’ll not be able to go to school and she’ll lose all her friends. What happens if she stops growing and ends up being a thirteen-year-old vampire for the rest of her life? Do you have any idea how hard it is being a teenage girl, never mind being one forever?”

  Sebastian shook his head. “We can’t be sure that is going to happen.”

  Vincent leaned forward from the back seat. “You’re jumping to conclusions, Serenity.”

  She ignored them both, too caught up in her fears for her daughter to think rationally. “She’ll probably never be able to have children or any kind of a normal life. She’ll end up being a freak.” She broke down into a sob, clutching the wheel tightly.

  “Serenity, stop it,” Sebastian said firmly. “You’ve written off her whole life and we don’t even fully understand what’s happening yet. She isn’t fully vampire because she’s half you. I’m sure that unless she’s turned by another vampire, she’ll never be fully vampire, no matter how strong her powers are. So we can’t predict what that means yet. Even if she’s light sensitive, she might still be able to go out in daylight. She might just need to be more careful and stay covered up as best she can.”

  She sniffed and blinked back tears. Sebastian was right, Elizabeth wasn’t fully vampire and there was no reason to think she would completely turn. She just felt like all the fears she’d held for her child—from the moment she’d learned she was pregnant with Sebastian’s child, the whole way through her pregnancy and through to her birth—were being realized. She’d been terrified about what would happen when Elizabeth was born, if she’d be allergic to the light, or if her newborn baby would try to bite her or need blood to survive. Now, all of those fears were resurfacing. All she’d ever wanted for Elizabeth was a normal, happy life, and yet every force in the world seemed determined to stop that from happening.

  The road turned a corner and Serenity drove the car toward the house before pulling to a sudden stop in the road. The big metal gates which normally barred the property from the road stood wide open.

  Her stomach lurched. “We closed them behind us when we left, didn’t we?”

  Sebastian pressed his lips together and nodded.

  Serenity’s heart lifted in hope. Perhaps Elizabeth left the gates open when she came home. She might be sitting inside the house waiting for them now! Damn, why didn’t I think to leave someone in the house to wait for her? Even though both vampires had insisted on coming with her, she should have made Vincent stay.

  She put the car back into drive and drove through the gates as fast as she dared. She screeched the car to a halt and jumped from the vehicle. Taking the few steps up to the front door two at a time, she pushed open the big, heavy door and dashed inside.

  “Elizabeth? Elizabeth?” she shouted, her voice full of both hope and fear.

  No answer came and she raced into the kitchen, searching for her. The room was empty. She turned and ran into the living room and drew to a sudden halt.

  A girl was standing in the middle of the room, but it wasn’t her daughter.

  Serenity gasped in surprise and caught hold of the edge of the couch, needing the extra support. A roll of thunder pealed across the house, culminating in a final crash which made the window panes rattle and caused her to cringe.

  “Iona!” she gasped.

  The sorceress had grown into a young woman, still with her mane of white-blonde hair hanging down her back, but now with a maturity to her features. There was a seriousness in her brilliant blue eyes. Her cheekbones were more defined, her jaw stronger. The wind roared in through the front door, which Serenity had left open in her haste, whipping the girl’s hair up and across, like a sheet on a washing line. She lifted a hand to tug away a strand which clung to her face.

  Serenity sensed another presence at her back and looked over her shoulder to find the two vampires standing behind her, equal expressions of surprise on their faces.

  “Hello, Serenity,” the young woman said with a half-smile. “I see you’re still choosing to keep questionable company.”

  “Iona! I … what ….” She stumbled over her words. “What are you doing here?”

  The sudden appearance of the girl in place of Elizabeth had left her shocked. She’d not seen Iona since the day she’d rescued Sebastian from Dominion, the day she’d almost lost him.

  When Elizabeth had been at school one day, curious, Serenity had driven back out to the site where the travelers’ camp had been. But she’d seen no sign of Iona or her circle. The area had been a barren spot, desolate and forgotten. She’d often wondered what had happened to the girl. Elizabeth had asked after her at first, but when no news came, the mention of Iona’s name grew less frequent until it stopped altogether.

  The last thing Serenity had been expecting was to find her standing in the middle of her living room.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked again.

  “I thought that was obvious.”

  Serenity frowned. “You mean because of Elizabeth? How did you find out?”

  Iona’s fine eyebrows arched. “Are you kidding? The whole city must realize something is wrong.”

  “What?” She was baffled. Nothing Iona said was making any sense.

  Sebastian stepped forward, taking his place at Serenity’s side. He touched her arm and she looked up to him, grateful for his solid presence at her side. With an almost imperceptible shift, she leaned her bodyweight against him.

  “She’s talking about the storm,” Sebastian said, his gaze shifting to Iona. “Am I right?”

  The girl nodded. “As soon as I woke up this morning, I realized something had happened. It’s taken me all day to get here. Perhaps I should have called first, but I had to get here anyway. I couldn’t do anything to help from miles away.” She paused and then asked, “Where is Elizabeth?”

  “What does the storm have to do with my daughter?” Sebastian asked, suddenly fierce.

  Iona held his gaze, no fear on her young face. “Where is she?”

  “I asked you a question. I’ve not seen you for six years and suddenly you’re back. You might be the one who knows where she is.”

  “You don’t know where she is?” Her big blue eyes widened in alarm.

  Sebastian’s top lip curled in a snarl. “Does it look like she’s with us?”

  Serenity took a deep breath, forcing herself to tamp down her emotions. She placed a hand on his arm, trying to calm him as well. “Arguing isn’t going to help,” she said to him and then turned back to Iona. “Elizabeth went missing earlier this evening. We’ve been out looking for her, but there’s no sign. Now, please, tell us what is going on.”

  “I felt the change happen in the atmosphere first thing this morning, like some equilibrium in the world had shifted. I always told you the balance of good and evil inside Elizabeth was fragile, and now something has happened to change things, hasn’t it?”

  Serenity nodded. “Elizabeth turned thirteen this morning, and she got her period.”

  “The giving of blood,” Iona said almost thoughtfully.

  “And the taking of it,” Serenity added. “Her vampire side has grown stronger. She attacked one of her friends, fed from her.”

  Iona frowned. “Then it’s far worse than I assumed.”

  “What is?” snapped Sebastian.

  “Her change thinned the veil between our world and Dominion. That is what this storm is, a crack appearing between our world and theirs.”

  “I saw one of them earlier,” said Sebastian. “I was hoping I’d imagined it, but the demon crossed the road right ahead of me and went into someone’s house.”
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br />   Serenity turned on him. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He looked down at her, a yellow tinge circling the edges of his green pupils. “Like I said, I was hoping I had imagined things or that the demon was … a stray or something.”

  She clutched a hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God. So do you think those things we saw in Dominion have our daughter?”

  Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “I’m not sure, but if they have, who is the boy?”

  A frown marked Iona’s smooth brow. “What boy?”

  Serenity had forgotten she still clutched Elizabeth’s tablet tightly to her chest. She unraveled her cold, damp arms and held out the computer. “Right before Elizabeth went missing, she took a photograph of herself, and this boy was in the background. Her friends also say the boy was at the mall, right before Elizabeth had her first episode and attacked her friends. Except they don’t know who he is.”

  “Can I take a look?” Iona asked, stepping forward to take the tablet from Serenity’s outstretched arms. Serenity nodded and allowed her to take it. With a few swipes on the screen, Iona brought up the photograph.

  “I should have known.”

  “You know who that is?”

  Iona nodded and sank down onto the edge of the sofa, still staring down at the image of Elizabeth with the boy in the background. She placed a hand against the image of Elizabeth’s face. “She looks so grown up,” she said, almost wistfully.

  So do you, thought Serenity, but she wasn’t about to start reminiscing about all the missing years. She needed to find out who he was.

  Sebastian got in first. “Tell us.”

  “Do you remember Conner? He was there the day your old nanny, Bridget, was ki—” She corrected herself, “Died.”

  “I’m not sure …” Serenity said, frowning, trying to remember. That time had been crazy, so much heartbreak and fear. Everything and everyone who surrounded their small family at that time seemed like a blur in her memory. All she could remember was focusing on Sebastian, what had happened and was going to happen to him.

  But it seemed the vampires’ memories were better.

  “I remember him,” said both Sebastian and Vincent together. They exchanged a glare. That day would forever sit like a loaded bullet between the two males.

  “Conner was part of my circle,” Iona explained. “He was one of my right hand men, if you like. I trusted him with almost everything and he took care of me. But after he’d met you, Elizabeth, and Sebastian, he started to change.”

  “In what way?” Serenity frowned, the murky image of the big, redheaded man who had been present in the trailer with them that day finally starting to take shape in her head.

  “About a year after we met you, we caught Conner working with black magic, trying to reopen the doorway between our world and Dominion. He and his family were ostracized from the group immediately, but before then, he was always asking about Dominion and Elizabeth. The idea of a person existing who could bridge the two worlds fascinated him.”

  “Okay,” Serenity said slowly. “But I still don’t understand what that has to do with the boy in Elizabeth’s picture.”

  “The boy is Ryan, Conner’s son.”

  Over Iona’s shoulder, Serenity stared again at the picture, as though looking at it would make all the pieces fit together in her head. “But what would they want with Elizabeth?”

  Sebastian took her hand. “I think Iona is trying to tell us Conner has Elizabeth. He’s used his son to get to her.”

  “Yes, I got that!” she snapped, her patience running thin. “But what the hell do they want with my daughter?”

  Iona continued. “I think this storm and what’s happening to Elizabeth are all outside of Conner’s control. Even with my magic, I was only able to open a tiny fragile doorway. Well, you saw it for yourself. I think the storm is all Elizabeth’s doing, even though she doesn’t realize it, and it’s completely out of her control. But listen to me, I don’t think this will last. Everything in life has some kind of balance, a light to its dark, a hot to a cold. The change in Elizabeth is still trying to establish an equilibrium, but in the meantime it’s set everything out of flux, which is why the storm is happening and demons are starting to bleed over to this side. As soon as Elizabeth finds her own balance, everything will settle down again.”

  Serenity allowed hope to blossom in her heart once again. “So you think she’ll be all right, even with this … change?”

  Iona nodded. “I think she just needs to balance out as the person she is going to be as an adult, even if she does end up being more vampire than human.”

  “And will she be able to control it, her vampire side, I mean?”

  “I’m not sure, Serenity. Elizabeth is strong. I’m sure she’ll figure out a way to live with this thing once her body has adjusted to all the changes happening inside her.” She took a breath. “But I’m afraid you’re missing the point. Conner’s developed some kind of fascination for the other side, for the world we call Dominion. Now a doorway has opened between our worlds, he might not want it to close again.”

  “But how would he stop it?”

  Iona paused and looked between the expectant faces staring back at her. “I think he’s going to try to kill her.”

  Serenity’s hand went back to her mouth. “Oh, no!”

  Sebastian jumped to his feet. “I’ll kill him first.”

  In a blur of movement, the huge bulk of Vincent was by his side. “I’ll help you.”

  Iona shook her head. “I don’t know where he is. I’ve not heard anything from him since we excommunicated him. Seeing this photograph of Ryan is the first contact I’ve had with the family for years.”

  “You must have realized he might be a danger to my family,” Sebastian snarled, his face white, eyes glaring yellow. “You should have contacted us and warned us.”

  The young woman didn’t even step back. “Warned you about what? That one of my circle was asking questions? He was involved in what happened back then, remember? I would expect him to ask questions about what happened, even if he did get a little intense. The dark magic he was practicing had nothing to do with Elizabeth. Why would I even put the two together?”

  “You’re supposed to be powerful, Witch,” he snapped. “You should have known.”

  “Fighting isn’t helping Elizabeth,” said Serenity. “We need to figure out where they are. For all we know, she could be dead already.” Her voice broke as she said the words, her heart feeling as though it was about to shatter.

  But Iona shook her head. “No, she isn’t. He won’t kill her until the exact moment of daybreak. Dominion exists in the dark, it is a place of darkness. Killing Elizabeth at the moment of daybreak will prevent the sun from rising again and will plunge this world into permanent darkness. That’s what he’s trying to achieve. He wants Dominion to rule here and he’ll sacrifice her in order to do it.”

  “So if we don’t find them, Elizabeth will be dead and the world will be in darkness, with demons living among us.”

  Iona nodded. “The world will turn to chaos.”

  “Why would anyone want such a thing?”

  “A black heart thrives in a world full of darkness. Conner must believe his dark magic will be more powerful with Dominion in charge.”

  “So we’ve got until daybreak?” Sebastian asked.

  Iona looked at him, her blue eyes darkening a shade. “And not a moment longer.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The storm hadn’t let up and was making the inhabitants of the rundown motel room nervous. Something had torn loose on the roof and flapped against the tiles with a constant banging. The wind howled like a banshee though a small gap between the window and the frame, and the rain drummed against the pane with the force of hail. Intermittently, the lights flickered, causing everyone to look up as if expecting the cause to materialize.

  Elizabeth didn’t think the storm was the only reason for the tension in the room. Ryan kept up a constant chatter
, asking her about bands and movies as if trying to distract her from what was really going on. She kept catching Liam and Mary exchanging nervous glances, while the thin woman, Orla, stood in the corner in a stony silence, her eyes flicking between the floor and Elizabeth. The older woman made no attempt to hide her contempt, though Elizabeth could only speculate about the reason she’d drawn such dislike.

  Mr. Callaghan repeatedly got to his feet and peered out of the window, as if watching out for something. He’d catch her looking and flash a cheerful smile that didn’t fit with the situation.

  Something’s not right.

  Her phone weighted her pocket like a brick. She desperately wanted to call her parents, but worried doing so would ruin her chances of ever being normal again. While she didn’t trust Ryan’s father, she also felt trapped, and she didn’t just mean about being in the motel room. She loved her father, but she didn’t want to be taken to the other side of the country to be paraded in front of a bunch of vampires who would probably look at her as though they wanted to eat her.

  Despite her worries about Sebastian’s plans, right now, her current situation concerned her more.

  While Ryan continued to chatter, Elizabeth kept an eye on his father. She just needed an excuse to touch him, then she’d know for sure about his intentions.

  Perhaps he was aware of her abilities, which explained why he seemed to be deliberately keeping his distance from her. Whatever his reasons, she would need to launch herself across the room to get to him, and she had a feeling the other adults in the room wouldn’t let her get that far.

  “I love going to see live bands,” Ryan continued to gab. “Smaller venue the better, if you ask me. In some of those big stadiums, you might as well be watching them on television, don’t you think?”

  “Uh-huh,” Elizabeth agreed, though she’d never been to a concert in her life. Her eyes focused on the window, on where the motel sign still hung down, the fluorescent lighting flickering and sparking. A distraction, that’s all I need. A distraction …

  Her attention spiraled onto that one thing—the lifting and banging of the broken sign. The wind seemed to pick up, raising the letters higher and letting the sign fall again. It hit against the glass, at first with just gentle bumps, and then harder.