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  “Some parts are,” he admitted. “But some parts of being human are terrible as well, like sickness, old age, death. I don’t need to fear any of those things.”

  “But you kill people.”

  He nodded. “Yes, I do. That’s part of who I am, of what I am. But though it’s wrong to kill, it’s not always terrible. There’s a certain …” He sought for the right word. “Power in it.”

  Understanding flooded across her young face. “I think I felt that power.”

  He straightened in surprise. “But you haven’t killed?” Serenity hadn’t filled him in on that particular part, only that she’d bitten one of her friends. The idea of his little girl having killed stirred something dark and uneasy inside of him. She’d always been such an innocent to him.

  But Elizabeth shook her head. “No, I haven’t needed to. I can tell when a body is reaching the moment when too much will kill them and then I stop.”

  “You’re able to stop whenever you want?” He was amazed at not only her ability to pick the right time, but also to end a feed. He was more than two hundred years old and he knew such ability was not only hard to learn, it took huge restraint—not something a young vampire would normally be able to master. Also, not killing a victim had its own issues, such as the possibility of starting a full-blown paranoia about vampires.

  “What about the people you bite?” he asked. “Don’t you think it’s dangerous to let them go? They might tell someone what you did.”

  She shook her dark head. “No, they won’t. I get them to look at me and tell them what to remember and they do. I don’t know how I do it, but I just knew it was the right thing.”

  He looked at her, unable to hide how impressed he was though he knew his pride was misplaced. “That’s pretty surprising, Elizabeth. I don’t know any other vampires who are able to do something like that without first being taught.”

  “She’s not a vampire.” Serenity’s sharp tone made them both look in her direction.

  Sebastian tightened his grip on Elizabeth’s hand. “No, she isn’t fully, but she is half vampire and she’s going through a change.”

  “I can’t stand that she’s drinking people’s blood!”

  His own voice came out harsher than he’d planned. “She might need to.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  How could he say she was half vampire and so might have to feed on humans in order to survive? He didn’t want to frighten either of them, especially as he didn’t know the truth himself.

  “I’m saying we need to be open to all possibilities.”

  “No, we don’t,” Serenity said fiercely, glaring at him. “We’re going to find a way to make this stop.”

  He hesitated. Now wasn’t the time to tell them they might have to face reality and simply learn to adapt to this new situation. It wasn’t what he wanted—and he doubted very much Elizabeth wanted this either—but she was half vampire. He didn’t intend on sitting around and watching his child starve if she needed blood in order to survive.

  “I can contact older vampires to find out if anyone has experienced anything like this before, but I don’t like doing so. You know what happened the last time an elder vampire found out about Elizabeth.”

  “She hardly has any of those precognitive episodes now, do you honey?”

  Elizabeth lifted her face. “Well … actually, I do. I’m just better at hiding them now.”

  The color drained from Serenity’s face. Sebastian understood the reason for her reaction—she’d believed she’d known everything about her daughter, but here was one huge secret Elizabeth had been keeping from her. If that, then what else?

  Serenity reached out to the dresser, as if suddenly needing its support. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I didn’t want you to worry. You never liked it when I said things about people I wasn’t supposed to know.” Bizarrely, she gave a laugh. “But other people liked it even less. Life got easier if I kept my mouth shut.”

  Serenity crossed the room and crouched in front of her daughter. They weren’t at eye-level, with Elizabeth now looking down at her mother. “Oh, honey. I would never want you to keep your premonitions from me. I want you to be able to feel like you can tell me anything.”

  “I just didn’t want you to look at me like that.”

  Serenity’s brow creased. “Like what?”

  “Like you are right now. As if you don’t know whether to pity me or be frightened of me.”

  Serenity got to her feet and smothered her daughter in a hug. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I tried to be everything to you. I guess it wasn’t good enough, huh?”

  Elizabeth gave a lopsided smile. “Don’t be silly. You’ve been the best mom I’ve ever had.”

  Serenity grinned at the joke, some of the tension ebbing from the room. “Well, that’s good to know.”

  Outside the bedroom window, the wind howled, the rain lashing down, pounding against the rooftop and windowpane like angry fingers.

  “Let’s hope this storm doesn’t get any worse,” said Sebastian, “or we may find Elizabeth’s change is the least of our worries.”

  Serenity glanced at him anxiously. “Do you really think the storm might get worse?”

  “I’m not sure what to think, but when I saw the storm from a distance, the cell was right on top of Los Angeles. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought something in the city was somehow generating the storm.”

  “Don’t say that. Haven’t we been through enough to learn the impossible sometimes can be possible?”

  He rubbed his hand across his mouth, thinking. He hoped there was no connection between what was happening to Elizabeth and the storm.

  Leaving Elizabeth in peace, Serenity and Sebastian headed back downstairs. Vincent waited, pacing awkwardly around the kitchen.

  Sebastian eyed him coolly. “I guess you can leave now.”

  “You don’t have to go anywhere, Vincent,” said Serenity quickly.

  Vincent returned the stare. “I’m not here for you, Sebastian. I’m here for Serenity and Elizabeth. Something you haven’t been for the past six years.”

  “I had my reasons for not being here. Reasons Serenity and I both agreed upon.”

  “Yeah, that you couldn’t be trusted. I can’t see what’s changed.”

  “Stop it, both of you!” Serenity said. “We’re all here for the same reason, and that’s Elizabeth. I understand you have your differences, but you need to put them aside now and focus on one thing—getting Elizabeth better.”

  Chapter Nine

  The emotional and physical exhaustion of the day had taken its toll on Elizabeth. As soon as her parents left the room, she’d curled up on her side, pulled her covers over her body, and quickly fallen to sleep. It was the middle of the night after all, and the nocturnal living she’d gotten used to when her father had been around had long gone out of her system.

  Now a dream rose around her like the stage of a play, where she was the only actor. She stood in her street … At least she thought it was her street, though she didn’t actually recognize any of the buildings. The houses were uniform white buildings with no individuality to separate them, each with white stone walls separating them from the road. She stood in the middle of the road, but had no fear of traffic. The place felt deserted.

  Some part of her brain seemed to know she was dreaming, but she couldn’t break out of it. Instead, she started to run down the empty street, searching for something or someone, but unable to remember who or what.

  A rushing noise came from the distance. She drew to a stop. Quickly, it grew louder and she gasped. From down the street, a huge wave of water headed toward her. She stared in horror. Where had all this water come from? Was that a tsunami wave? She’d heard of such things causing terrible damage in other countries, but not here in America. Something about the wave seemed all wrong—too dark, too thick—and an overwhelming scent of metal filled her nostrils. She
stared, eyes wide, and suddenly realized it wasn’t water heading toward her, but a huge wave of blood.

  Oh, my God.

  Run! part of her brain screamed at her. Run!

  But another part of her relished in the sight, a bubble of excitement welling up inside her, a fierce energy, wondering how it would feel to allow herself to be swept away, to open her mouth and drown in the tidal surge of blood.

  The black wall fell toward her and she outstretched her arms, welcoming the deluge. It hit her like a warm liquid blanket, coating her arms and face in its oil-like slick. Blood filled her mouth and nose, plunging her into a thick, red darkness. And though deep down she screamed in horror, somehow she stood solid, even as the wave swept over and around her.

  Elizabeth opened her mouth and laughed in glee …

  She woke, gasping for breath and clutching at her throat.

  A dream, it had only been a dream.

  But then she remembered the events of the day and realized the dream wasn’t so far from the truth. She pushed her thick, dark hair from her face, strands sticking to her skin with cool, damp sweat. Yuck, she thought. I must look awful.

  Outside, the storm continued to rage. But beneath the storm, she heard another sound.

  A sharp tap came at her window and her head snapped around in the direction of the sound. She froze, waiting to see if the noise would come again. Within a few seconds, another clatter came at the window pane, the pitch sharper than that of the constant drum of the rain against the glass.

  She frowned and twisted her whole body around in bed, toward the window. Though her drapes were open, she’d been asleep with her light on, making it hard to see outside.

  With her heart pounding, she got to her feet and padded across the floor. She leaned forward and peered out of the window. Her eyesight seemed to have grown sharper in the dark and she could easily make out the grounds of the house, despite the blur of the driving rain. But the gravel driveway remained empty.

  Psst.

  She probably wouldn’t have heard the hiss if her hearing had been how it used to be, but since that morning, everything seemed easier to distinguish, as though the sounds filtered through to her ears in separate layers.

  Elizabeth leaned closer, her cheek pressed against the cool glass and looked to the left of her window where she thought the noise had come from. She let out a shriek and stumbled back. Someone was clinging to the side of the house, hanging on to the drainpipe.

  “Elizabeth!” the figure hissed.

  What on earth? She forced herself to take several shaky steps back toward the window and look back out at the person. His face was pale in the moonlight, his strange white-blue eyes almost luminescent in the night.

  The boy from the mall!

  “Let me in, Elizabeth.”

  How does he know my name?

  She wondered what on earth she was thinking as she pushed open her window and stepped back to allow him to climb through. He swung a leg over the sill and climbed awkwardly through the space. Now he stood before her, she saw he was tall, at least a foot taller than her. His red hair was even darker than before, left wet and dripping from the torrential rain. He wore only a t-shirt and threadbare blue jeans, both of which were soaked and clinging to his skin.

  “You’re the boy from the mall, aren’t you?”

  He lifted a finger to his lips, indicating her to be quiet and then said in a low voice, “Sorry for staring, but I hadn’t seen anyone like you before.”

  She didn’t know whether to be flattered or creeped out. The fact that he was standing in her bedroom in the middle of the night made her think the second option was probably the most sensible one, yet she’d still let him in.

  She matched the level of his voice. “I saw you outside earlier too, didn’t I? In the street, I mean.” The memory of what she’d been doing when she’d sensed him flooded through her and her cheeks burned.

  “Yeah, that was me.” He glanced away, scuffing a dirty sneakered foot across her plush cream carpet. The thought that her mom would be mad if he made a mess of the floor flashed through her head, but she pushed the idea away as ridiculous. A dirty floor was hardly top of their worries right now.

  “Sorry about that,” he continued, “I had to make sure I was right about you.”

  “And were you?”

  He lifted a russet red eyebrow. “From what I saw, I’d guess so, yeah.”

  She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Who are you?”

  He reached a hand out toward her, but didn’t actually touch her. “My name is Ryan.” His strange eyes searched her face. “I know what’s happening to you.”

  A jolt went through her. “What?” she exclaimed.

  His eyes locked on hers, holding her gaze. Her heart beat hard in her chest and she suddenly couldn’t swallow.

  “You’re feeling different than before. You’re struggling to be in the light. You can hear and see better than ever before.”

  She took a step away in shock. How did he know this about her? Everything he was saying was true. She remembered that he’d seen her feeding from the man in the street. Heat colored her cheeks. Oh God, I’m so embarrassed.

  She wondered what was going on in her head. A strange boy was standing in her bedroom telling her frightening things, and she was worried about being self-conscious.

  “How do you know these things?” she asked.

  “I’m like you, Elizabeth. I’m a dhampyr.”

  “A what?”

  “I’m half-vampire too.”

  Her heart swelled with both joy and relief. She couldn’t believe it. Had she found someone who was like her, who had already been through what she was going through now?

  “I need you to come with me,” Ryan said.

  The relief she’d experienced only moments before vanished, and was replaced with uncertainty. “Where?”

  “My people can help you. If you don’t put a stop to your change, you’ll end up fully vampire.”

  “But I can’t leave with you. I just met you!”

  “We don’t have much time, Elizabeth. If this goes too far, you’ll end up killing someone.”

  His words struck fear into her soul. After what she’d done to Jasmine, the possibility of killing someone seemed very real. She couldn’t do that, she couldn’t!

  “I need to tell my mom.” She thought of the two vampires who had been in the house earlier. Were they still here? She couldn’t imagine her father would have left again already, but he might have made Vincent leave. Should she tell Ryan about their presence, she wondered, or did he already know? For some reason, she held back. She’d been taught to keep the existence of vampires a secret her whole life and it wasn’t something she could go against, even if this boy was telling her he was half vampire himself.

  Just like her.

  “No, no.” He shook his head. “That’s the last thing you should do. My people don’t like to be exposed to others. They might not help if they realize others are with us.”

  “But it would only be my mom …” She didn’t like the fact her voice sounded like a frightened little girl. “Maybe I can tell her where we’re going without her coming with us.”

  “Would she let you go on your own?”

  Elizabeth knew the answer with certainty. “No.” She chewed at her lower lip, thinking. “Okay,” she relented. “I’ll come with you.”

  But she couldn’t leave like this; she needed to leave something to let her parents know where she was going. Her gaze skimmed her room, hoping for inspiration. Her eyes lit on her mom’s birthday present and an idea sparked through her.

  “Hang on a minute,” she told him. “I need to shut down my iPad.” She turned to her bed, picked up the tablet and held it below face level. With her back to Ryan, she risked a glance over her shoulder to check he was still standing behind her, but off to one side. He was, not paying her any attention, but fiddling with a framed picture positioned on her dresser. Quickly, she scrolled through her apps until
she brought up the camera, hit the screen to turn off the tell-tale flash, and then snapped a couple of pictures. She hoped she’d caught enough of Ryan to make him recognizable.

  Without bothering to turn off the camera, knowing the tablet would automatically fall into standby, she carefully replaced it on the bed and prayed her parents would think to check it.

  “Okay, ready,” she said, turning back to Ryan.

  He reached out his hand again and, with her heart in her throat, she reached out to him.

  Those strange eyes …

  Something rippled across his face, as if the light in the room had just changed, a shifting in the color of his eyes and skin. The flash made her jolt back in surprise. Then, just as suddenly as she’d seen it, the weird effect vanished, leaving her wondering if she’d seen anything at all.

  The moment made her realize what she was doing—about to leave her bedroom in the middle of the night with a strange boy—and she snatched her hand away, confused. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. My mom will kill me if she finds me gone.”

  “Isn’t that better than you killing someone else?”

  He spoke harshly, sending a prickle of unease through her, and she stepped back. He must have realized he’d done something wrong. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’ve been in your place. I came so close, so many times, and if I hadn’t had the right people around me, I’d have so much blood on my hands right now I wouldn’t even be able to deal with it. I don’t want you to have to go through the same thing.”

  “Why do you even care? You don’t know me.”

  “I know more about you than you think. I could see right into you the moment I caught sight of you in the mall. We’re the same, Elizabeth. No one else will understand you the way I do.”

  She stared at him, shouting in her head, but we only just met! Yet, she couldn’t force the words from her mouth, some part of her knowing that the things he’d described perhaps made him understand her even better than she understood herself right now.