Beyond the Dawn (Life and Death, Book II)

7. UNANTICIPATED

Time passed much more quickly in this body than I felt like it should have. The baseball clearing near the house was unusually quiet today. The first cold front of the fall season had just come through, and the wind was really picking up. Archie had told us it would be a few more months before things really started to get bad, but that the coming winter was going to be one of the most extreme this area had seen in a long time.

Normally, it was just Edythe and me on hunting trips. But this time Royal and Eleanor came with us. I let them run on ahead from where we were; there were a couple of elk nearby from what I could tell.

I stayed behind with Edythe, and we stood there in the cold but pleasant breeze. It was much to my relief that the cold no longer bothered me. This body no longer needed heat to be comfortable, so it was never unpleasant, despite the obvious dip in the thermometer. I simply took on the temperature of my surroundings, and it just felt neutral.

My thoughts these days were always lost on looking at the awesomeness of this new life. I had achieved the highest sense of glory with her.

I routinely searched the mountainside for our prey, or for the possibility of any threat. The latter wasn't a conscious effort; it was just an instinctual thing always running in the background. It was kind of ironic, though, because what could possibly be a threat to the invincible?

But this time there really was a reason for my overprotective senses—some miniscule trigger that my razor-sharp senses caught before I put any conscious thought into it. My eyes scanned over a distant cliff, and against the green background, something stood out.

From this distance, it was like seeing a small fire, where it was the one thing that caught my eye. The blazing red was what demanded my attention.

I focused in on the color that was so oddly out of place. It was so far away that an eagle wouldn't have even spotted it. I stared intensely at it until I could make out what it was.

And he stared back at me.

It wasn't a fire, but intensely red hair. It was pulled back and hanging halfway down his neck. The fact that he was a vampire was obvious. His skin was that characteristic, marble white. The other giveaway was his stillness. He looked like one of those ancient Greek statues. Only an immortal would be able to hold himself so motionless.

He was a total stranger to me. I was almost sure I had never seen him before. But then I realized that I had seen him, just with different eyes that had captured him in a much less abled way, so that he was nearly unrecognizable now.

He had decided to come here after all.

For a half second more I just kept staring back at him. I was just about to open my mouth to say something to Edythe when I noticed his mouth twist the tiniest bit, making him look suddenly hostile. His face was furious, actually.

Reflexively, I opened my hands in an apologetic gesture, and then his jaw unlocked as he growled. By the time the sound reached us after cutting through a couple miles of open air, he had already disappeared into the trees.

And then the pieces started falling into place. Victor had been observing us from afar... who knew for how long, and he'd only just realized I was no longer a fragile, easy target. That explained his sudden anger.

Edythe turned in response to the sound. "What was that?"

But there was no longer anyone there for her to see.

"Dammit..." I muttered. My mind was already racing. "This couldn't be good."

Before she could ask, Archie and Jessamine suddenly appeared.