Eternal Redemption - Book Two ✔

Chapter 25

I felt hollow inside; like a loaf of bread where you have scraped out all the filling and all that was left was an empty shell. I just sat there gently holding Grant's head in my lap. I didn't look down at his still body because I knew what I'd see. I couldn't ever unsee it. His body temperature had already begun falling. The murmurs of people coming to investigate crept up, getting louder by the second. I had to leave, but my body wasn't cooperating. Like it had shut itself down. It took every ounce of willpower for me to shift Grant's head from my lap to the cold, hard ground.

"May you rest in eternal peace," I whispered, my eyes facing straight ahead, looking at nothing in particular. I started with my legs; they felt like two lumps of meat, nothing else. Surely nothing that could carry me away from here.

Get up, I told them. Get up now!

I moved my left leg, stretching it. It worked. For a vampire, I was moving incredibly slow. Now the right leg. Stretch. Pause. Bend. Pause. Support. Pause. Rise.

And then suddenly I was up.

My gift, the energy inside me pulsated vaguely deep within, almost like a slumber, groggy and not fully awake yet. I needed it. I'd come to need it very soon as I focused all my anger on one sole person – King Pedro. I was going to kill him even if that was the very last thing I did.

I could feel the fire at my back, stretching its long fingers towards my skin. It had claimed the building with my father inside it. There was nothing left in there. Nothing left for me here.

I folded my hands together and my fingers touched the ring still on my right hand. I looked down at the golden ring, dirty from soot, but there against my pale skin. I let my finger graze the surface. "To show you that I love you." His words echoed in my head. I lifted my right hand and kissed the ring, my lips surrounding the braided gold like a protective shield. I loved him.

I loved Nox.

Nox.

He needed me. He was not dead, but he would be if I didn't get to him soon. I turned my body towards the flaming building. One last look.

Goodbye father. I will avenge you.

I could hear clear voices now. I was out of time. In my peripheral vision, I could see Grant's body on the ground. I didn't allow myself to look.

There were shapes running towards me now. I turned my back on them, the body and the building.

Then I was gone.

I raced along the edge of the woods back in the direction of the mansion. I passed the vampire scout and his detached head and I pressed on. I shouted at Nox through our bond, but it was eerily silent. He was not dead. I repeated it over and over in my head. Nox wasn't dead. Something else was blocking our communication.

I was a blur against the treeline on my left. Houses passed on my right, some where I sensed people were still living. There were less than two hours until dawn and somehow the sky already seemed to brighten, gladly pushing away the darkness to make room for the light.

I just had to be faster than that.

When I rounded the corner, and came upon the mansion driveway I immediately knew something was off. It was quiet. Too quiet. The cars were still parked in the driveway and nothing seemed out of place, but that didn't fool me. The atmosphere had definitely changed. It was colder and unfriendly.

I stuck to the shadows as I crept up the driveway, keeping out of the overhead lights flooding the front yard.

I stopped once I saw the front door was ajar. My senses tingled, yet the bond was still silent. But he had to be here. He just had to be.