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  He reached out to her again and she jerked away, but his fingers closed around the pendant hanging from around her neck. Realizing he wasn’t going to hurt her or try to drag her with him, she let him look.

  “Pretty,” he said, though a slight frown marred his forehead.

  “Thanks. It’s a present from my dad.”

  He nodded and let the necklace drop. “You should look after it.”

  With that, he turned and headed to the window, swung one leg over the sill and then looked back over his shoulder at her. “I’ll give you some time to think about my offer, Elizabeth, but don’t leave it too long. The longer you wait, the more likely it’ll be that you’ll hurt someone, and the harder it will be to reverse what’s happening to you. By the morning, you might not even recognize who you are anymore.”

  She pressed her lips together, hot tears suddenly burning behind her eyes. What if he was her only chance and she was about to let him slip through her fingers?

  “Where can I find you?” she asked.

  “You got a cell?”

  She nodded and snatched her phone up from her bedside dresser. Ryan reeled off a series of numbers to her and she punched them in. “If you need me, just call.”

  With that, he slipped from her window, clinging once again from the drainpipe before dropping lightly to the gravel below. She watched as he vanished around the side of the house, she presumed to scale the tall wall and head back home, wherever that might be.

  Elizabeth left the window and sat heavily on the edge of her bed. Folding at the waist, she put her head in her hands, her hair hanging around her face like a shield.

  What should she do now? She needed to tell her mom and Sebastian about this boy. They’d told her she was an original, but they’d been wrong. What was happening to her had also happened to Ryan. He had people who might be able help her. That was more than her parents had figured out so far.

  Still dressed in sweats and a sleeveless t-shirt, she left her bedroom and headed downstairs. The sound of heated voices, deliberately kept low to prevent her from hearing, made her slow her pace.

  “I still don’t like this,” she heard her mom say.

  Her father’s voice, “We don’t have any other choices. You know I would never do anything to put Elizabeth in harm’s way.”

  She heard her mom sigh. “I know that.”

  Elizabeth bit her lower lip and continued into the living room, her stomach churning.

  Sebastian stood as she walked in, her mom rising to her feet beside him. Vincent stood motionless in the bay window. The expressions on their faces were serious and Elizabeth’s gaze shifted between them, suddenly worried about what they’d been discussing. All thoughts of her conversation with Ryan and telling her parents about him fell from her mind. They’d be angry with her for letting a strange boy into her room. They would never understand.

  Sebastian spoke. “Elizabeth, your mom and I have been talking about what’s happening to you and we’ve decided the only route we have left is to go and ask for help from some elder vampires who may have come across your … situation … before. On my travels, I came across a small commune led by a vampire who is almost four hundred years old. There’s a chance she might be able to help us and I think I should take you to her.”

  She stared between them, her mouth hanging open. Indignant fury welled up inside her and came spilling from her mouth. “I can’t believe you would even consider that! After what happened the last time you tried to get help from some crazy-ass elder vampires? I thought you’re the parents—the ones who are supposed to be smart and stop me from doing stupid things.”

  “Elizabeth—” her mom started to say, but she didn’t let her finish.

  “I almost died the last time. Did you forget about that? Or have you figured I’m too much trouble and decided to see if there’s another vampire around who’ll finished the job?”

  Her father’s face crumpled in hurt. “Elizabeth, we would never want that. Never. The only reason I suggested this now is because we’re out of options. What happens if you keep changing and there is no way of turning it back?”

  Her mother stepped in. “Honey, I understand how you’re feeling…”

  Elizabeth gawped at her. “No, you don’t. None of you understand how I’m feeling. In fact, none of you understand me at all!”

  Her father’s face grew hard, his features like stone. “Acting like a child isn’t going to help anyone. We need to go, Elizabeth.”

  “I hate you,” she yelled, the words pouring from her mouth even though she didn’t mean them. “I wish you’d never come back!”

  With hot tears of anger streaming down her face, she turned and ran up the stairs. Deliberately, she stamped her feet down as hard as possible, making the thumps reverberate through the big house. The now familiar buzz of energy burned in her muscles, tightening every one until she thought she might burst from her own skin. She wanted to kick out at things and punch the walls, screaming as she did so. How could her parents be so goddamn stupid? She wasn’t going anywhere. Los Angeles was her home and she wouldn’t be carted off miles to the other side of the country to have a bunch of ancient freaks look at her like she was something they wanted to put in a cage and poke at with sticks.

  She’d meant what she said about no one understanding her. Her head seemed to rage with so many ideas and emotions she could barely keep track of them herself. She didn’t want to turn into a vampire—didn’t want to have to hurt people to survive—but she didn’t want to hand herself over to vampires who were stronger and older than her own father. She knew what that meant. The older a vampire, the more dangerous he was. Having Sebastian and Vincent with her would only go so far to protect her.

  But one person did understand what she was going through—the boy, Ryan.

  I should have told them about him as I meant to, she thought. They think we have no other options, but we do. But internally, she fought with herself. What if they think it’s a bad idea and drag me off to see this elder anyway? What would I do then?

  Elizabeth went to her dresser and lifted her cell phone from where it was charging. She flicked through the address book until she reached Ryan’s name. She pressed her lips together, hesitating. Mom will be mad. But she shrugged off the idea. Right now she didn’t care about how her parents would react. So what if they worried about her? After what they wanted to do to her, after all the things they’d put her through, didn’t they deserve to worry just a little?

  Still, guilt swarmed up inside her, twisting her stomach with anxiety. Perhaps she should mention to them where she was going—not that she knew herself, of course. Chewing her lip again, she quickly wrote out a note, telling her parents she’d gone to see a friend who could help and that they should check her tablet. Seeing a photograph of him might help put their minds at rest that he wasn’t a lunatic or a middle-aged man posing as a teenager. She considered writing that he was a … what had he called it …? oh, yes, dhampyr, like her, but decided on just writing that he understood what she was going through. She finished off by saying she’d be back, but that they couldn’t call her because she’d have her phone off. She remembered what Ryan had said about his people not trusting others. Then she weighted the note down with an empty glass she’d had a drink of water from the previous night.

  The burning energy still powered through her limbs. She knew she couldn’t use the front door. Instead, she went to her window and opened it wide. Wind and rain blasted into the room as though she’d opened a window on a moving train. She ducked her head back for a moment, getting used to the change in atmosphere. She glanced back at the note, glad she’d thought to weigh it down. The drapes tore back from the window and the pages of a book she’d been reading flipped as though being read by someone unseen.

  Not allowing herself time to think too hard, she climbed up onto the window ledge. The drop fell out beneath her only one story, but still a huge height when positioned directly above it. She remembered her earlier
jump and the leap across the road, convincing herself this was something she could do. She squeezed her eyes shut for the briefest of moments and jumped.

  The air whistled past her ears as she flew through the air, but the sensation didn’t last long enough. Within seconds, her feet hit the ground and she instinctively dropped to a crouch, her thighs and hips taking the impact. She stayed in that position for a moment, allowing herself to adjust, and then sprang back up again and ran across the gravel.

  Part of her expected Sebastian or Vincent to hear her and chase her out, demanding to know what she was playing at, but she could still hear the sounds of their heated argument coming from the house. Their involvement in their fight, and the sounds of the storm still raging around the house, covered her movements.

  Even so, she waited until she’d made it farther down the street, the rain pounding on her head, lashing her skin and soaking her to the bone, before pulling her cell from her pocket.

  Her heart seemed to be too big in her chest as it beat, compressing her lungs and making it hard to catch her breath. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she felt nervous about contacting Ryan, about seeing him again, even though she was. She couldn’t get his strange eyes out of her head.

  She hit the call button and he picked up on the first ring.

  “Elizabeth?”

  “I’m standing on the corner of Willow Glen and Woodstock. Can you come and get me?”

  “I’ll be with you in ten,” he said and the line went dead.

  Elizabeth stood looking around her, suddenly anxious. It was the middle of the night and she was standing out in the middle of a storm. The wind was so strong a sudden gust almost lifted her from her feet, the roads deserted.

  Maybe it would be good if her mom and dad did notice her missing so they would come and find her.

  No, she corrected herself. She was a teenager now and she didn’t need their help. She could handle this by herself.

  Ahead, something ran across the street with a strange, skittering movement. The dark shape vanished into the small copse of trees on the other side of the road. Elizabeth squinted. Though her eyesight had sharpened, it was still dark, the constant rain reducing visibility, and she wasn’t able to quite make out the identity of the creature. There had been something strange about the way the thing moved. Not like a cat or a fox or any other small animal she could think of. She didn’t like it, a shiver edging its way across her shoulders and down her spine.

  Come on Ryan, where are you?

  The minutes seemed to stretch to hours, though she knew she hadn’t been waiting anything near that amount of time. The rain and cold had leached down to her skin and she began to shiver from the chill and her own nerves.

  A beat-up, dark silver Chevrolet Suburban pulled up alongside her, cutting a swath of water up from the curb to rise and fall like a wave. She stepped out of the way, but then wondered why she’d bothered; she was soaked anyway. Her whole body was geared up to a flight or fight response, her nerves screaming in response. What if this was some lunatic about to kidnap her? But then the back door opened and Ryan’s pale face appeared in the gap.

  Her mother’s words from when she’d been younger rang in her head. “Never get into a car with a stranger.” Yet, Ryan wasn’t a stranger anymore, was he?

  “Come on, then!” he yelled at her. “Get in, or do you like standing around in the rain?” He finished the sentence with a grin and relief washed through her. She ran up to the open door. Ryan scooted along the back seat to allow her in, and then reached past her to pull the door shut. His upper body pressed against hers, his dark red hair brushed past her nose so she got the scent of some kind of male shampoo or body wash. He slammed the door shut and pulled back, settling himself into the seat beside her.

  The car pulled away from the curb, the windshield wipers swiping across the glass with an almost frantic thwack-thwack, thwack-thwack, to keep up with the deluge of rain. The tires swished along the waterlogged road, loud against the engine.

  He flashed another smile and for the first time she noticed the light spatter of freckles across his nose. “I’m glad you called. I was worried you wouldn’t and I’d have to climb through your bedroom window again.”

  “Yeah, well, my mom and dad have lost their minds. I didn’t know who else to turn to.”

  She tried to get a view into the front seat, to see who was driving. She guessed the woman was in her thirties, though Elizabeth was terrible at guessing ages and she might have easily have been in her forties without her knowing any different. She had straight black hair tied in a sensible ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her profile was angular, with a straight, narrow nose and high cheekbones, though she made no attempt to turn her head to smile or say hi.

  Elizabeth turned to find Ryan watching her. “Who’s that?” she mouthed at him.

  “Oh, her,” he said, not making any attempt to keep his voice down. “That’s Orla, she works for my dad. Don’t worry, she’s only staff.”

  Elizabeth wasn’t sure what she made of someone who had staff. Her parents weren’t short of money—even if her dad hadn’t exactly been around to help spend it—but they’d never gone as far as employing someone to help out. Even her mom still cleaned the whole place, despite half of the bedrooms and bathrooms never even being used. Something about the idea made her uneasy.

  Though full of questions, she was unsure how freely she could speak in front of the woman driver.

  “Does she … know?” she asked, raising her eyebrows and widening her eyes to stare in the direction of the woman.

  “Oh, yeah, sure.”

  Again, she felt uncomfortable. This woman knew stuff about her, when she knew nothing about the woman.

  Still, the questions burned.

  “So,” she started. “Is your situation the same as mine, then? I mean, is your father like mine is.”

  He smiled and shook his head. “No, my father’s human. My mother was the vampire.”

  “A female vampire had a live baby?” She couldn’t help her surprise. “I didn’t know such a thing was possible. For it to grow …”

  “No less possible than your father conceiving a child.” He snapped the words out and Elizabeth flinched. She’d obviously hit on a sensitive spot for some reason. Yet she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. She’d never met someone like her before—especially someone who was her own age, almost. The words popped out of her mouth before she could help herself. “Will I get to meet your mother?”

  “No. I guess you could say she hasn’t been around much.”

  She gave a rueful smile. “Bit like my dad, then. Must come with the territory.”

  They drove downtown, the woman negotiating the storm, the car occasionally losing traction and skidding across water on the asphalt. Yet she managed to keep control of the vehicle, despite a couple of moments where Elizabeth felt as though she’d left her stomach behind.

  They pulled up at a motel and the woman parked the car in front of one of the rooms. Lights were on, a soft orange glow. Elizabeth could just make out the darker shadows of people moving behind the closed drapes.

  Her stomach roiled with nerves.

  Who would be waiting for her?

  Chapter Ten

  The impact of Elizabeth’s words seemed to echo in the girl’s wake. I wish you’d never come home.

  Serenity glanced at Sebastian’s stony face. She put out a hand and rubbed his arm, wanting to ease the sting of their daughter’s words, but he jerked away.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I realize she’s just angry. She must have a lot of conflicting emotions she’s trying to figure out.”

  Serenity risked a small smile. “She’s a teenager now, right? I guess we need to get used to that kind of thing.”

  Vincent stepped forward. “I think she has a point, though.”

  Sebastian’s head snapped in the other vampire’s direction, glaring at him. “It’s no surprise that you’d agree with her wishing I’d never come
back.”

  Vincent scowled back. “I wasn’t talking about her not wanting you to come home. I meant that I agree with her not wanting to go and see an elder vampire. Too many years walking this earth tends to make elder vampires insane with power.” He shot a knowing glance at Sebastian as if trying to prove a point. Sebastian was almost two hundred years older than him. “You can’t trust them.”

  Sebastian cocked an eyebrow. “I’ve found younger vampires aren’t exactly trustworthy either.”

  “We’re just trying to find our way in the world, figure out what’s important to us.” Vincent gaze shifted over to Serenity and she felt herself shrink under his intensity. She never wanted to be in the middle of this, though she guessed she’d brought it upon herself by not being strong enough to tell Vincent to leave them alone. Except she had never wanted him to. In some strange way, having him in her life all this time made her feel even more connected to Sebastian. It was as if she’d not been able to give up the paranormal world of vampires as much as she’d not been able to give up either man completely.

  “So what would you suggest?” she asked Vincent, aware that Sebastian’s stare was now directed at her for daring to listen to the other vampire.

  “We should take Elizabeth somewhere remote until all this passes. Somewhere she isn’t going to get herself noticed or in trouble.”

  “And what if this doesn’t pass?” asked Serenity.

  Vincent shrugged. “I guess then will be the time to consult elders.”

  “So you propose we basically wait this out,” said Sebastian, his voice heated. “We sit around and wait for Elizabeth to turn into one of us.”

  “If that’s what she is destined to be, I don’t see how any elder vampires are going to be able to stop it.”

  “I won’t have my daughter as a vampire if there is anything I can do to try to prevent it. She deserves better.”

  Vincent’s face remained impassive. “What we are has its benefits. Elizabeth might come to find she even embraces what she is.”