Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (21 page)
Read Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick Online
Authors: Mandi Casey
“Kieran, you have a problem,” I said, surprised at how weak I sounded. “There’s a rogue vampire here. They were so close to me, my Selected senses went into overdrive, making me pass out.”
He stood, slamming the chair against the wall in the process, and demanded, “Do you know which vampire it was?”
I shook my head. “No. When we were walking toward that room together, the closer we got to the door, the worse it made me feel. No one stuck out as the bad guy. Whoever that...”
From the pit of my stomach, a stream of bile rose into my mouth. The urge consumed me. I no longer had control of my bodily functions. I leaned over the side of the bed and vomited. My body convulsed, shaking with spasms as it purged everything, including the lasagna soup.
When I didn’t feel like my cookies were going to be tossed again, I opened my eyes, my gaze slowly climbing from the floor to Kieran’s face. He looked positively disgusted at having my stomach contents splattered on his footwear, but he didn’t move away.
“I am so sorry! That just happened out of nowhere. Whenever a bad vampire or wolf is nearby, it makes me get really sick.”
The thought of the red sauce mixed with partially digested pasta and cheese smeared all over the floor made me blush. I wanted to go home, curl up in my bed, and never leave it.
Kieran’s right eyebrow raised in a questioning gesture, and I assumed the expression was made for my sake. He asked, “You know what it feels like to be near a rogue wolf?”
The coven leader seemed to have an interest in my dealings with the wolves, just as Blake had an interest with my dealings with the vampires. It shouldn’t have been a surprise.
“Uh, yeah, that. The other night, there was one around my house. My senses picked up his nearness when I was in my bathroom. Shouldn’t you be out there trying to find out who the rogue vampire is? They’re probably up to no good if they’re here, right?”
I didn’t want to tell Kieran the details about sensing the rogue the other night. It’s not as if these people were my true confidants, people with whom to discuss every aspect of my life. I figured, the less they knew about me, the better.
“Don’t worry. My people are looking right now. The party is over, but no one can leave until we’re sure we have the traitor. The rogue won’t be able to leave until my own people remove him.”
“How do your people know they need to look for the rogue?”
Suspicion percolated in my mind. Was there some type of listening device? Were Kieran’s Knights hearing every word we said from some security room? I wouldn’t blame them, but it would be a considerate thing to tell someone if they’re being listened in on.
Kieran glanced down at my vomit again, then stepped away. “While you were telling me about the presence of the traitor, my people received directions to hunt the rogue down. We don’t need to verbally speak to the members of the coven. We communicate with each other through our bond. The bond is similar to that of the werewolves, except ours is shared through blood frequently given to one another. The wolves are born to each other already sharing the bond. Whoever the rogue is, they won’t know what’s coming for them until they’re caught. Don’t worry, Sydney. They will regret ever thinking of entering my property, especially while you are present. They will suffer greatly.”
I didn’t like the crazed look in Kieran’s eyes. That rogue vampire was toast.
Kieran received the update while he was still with me. The rogue vampire had been caught trying to leave through a window with a fire escape. Kieran’s Knights had found him when one of them felt a draft coming through the doorway of one of the many rooms they passed. The Knights tied him down with thick silver chains, then put him into the room next to one Kieran had brought me. As Kieran updated me of their movements, my nausea increased, and my vision started closing in again. Kieran knelt over the bed and felt my forehead. His palm, ice cold, felt good against my skin. I was almost sure my body temperature was well over one hundred degrees.
“Don’t worry, Sydney. I’m having the rogue removed from the building right now. What you are feeling should soon pass.”
Relief flooded over me. My body wouldn’t tolerate such torture for much longer. “Okay, that’s good.” My head pounded, and my ears felt plugged. I focused on breathing, taking in even, shallow breaths, trying not to puke again. It consumed the last bit of strength left in my body.
“Sydney, it is very interesting that your response to the rogues is so strong. Your abilities were only recently triggered, and yet you can already sense the difference between the wolves, the vampires, and those of our kind that would betray us all.”
Kieran went on about how previous Selecteds before me took time to develop their abilities. None of them had learned the skill in just a week. It was hard to stay focused while he spoke. Painful spasms streaked a searing path over my entire body, making it difficult to concentrate on his words. Kieran had known Grandma Maria pretty well. They were a team, working together to get rid of the rogues. They fought both vampires and werewolves.
He didn’t go into much detail about the other relationship they had after my grandfather passed away. He said that they both knew she wasn’t the one mentioned in the prophecy, but he didn’t say how they came about that knowledge. He had hoped she wasn’t the one to change the world by enabling the vampires to walk in the sun. The moment the Elders believed her to be the one to fulfill the prophecy, she would have been enslaved to do their bidding. Kieran hadn’t wanted that for my grandmother.
I was surprised. If what he was saying was believable, this vampire was actually capable of caring for a human very deeply. Who would have thought?
Despite my near delirium, one statement came through. Clear as a bell. He thought I was that Selected. Kieran believed I was the one that could tip the scale of the vampires over the werewolves.
The pain began to recede, and my vision slowly cleared. Finally my headache began to go away. I assumed the rogue must be on the way out of the building. I ran a tongue around my dry mouth and said, “Kieran, what will happen to the rogue? Where will your people take him?”
Kieran patted my knee through the blanket. “You don’t have to worry yourself with such matters. He will be handled, and you will never have to deal with him again.”
The imperial way he said that spurned me. Yes, it was something for me to worry about. “If we are going to have any type of working relationship, you should show me respect. Patronizing me, saying not to worry myself isn’t okay. Why don’t you go ahead and tell me?”
Kieran eyed me up a moment, then said, “The rogue will be taken to one of my properties out in the countryside. He will be interrogated. If he doesn’t tell us exactly what we want to know, I gave my Knights the go ahead to use any force necessary. We need the information he has. Then he will be terminated.”
The way he said that with such ease, about killing another being—especially one of his own kind—was downright frightening.
A chill ran down my spine. This vampire sitting in the chair next to the bed, the same vampire my grandmother had some kind of fling with, was a stone-cold killer. When he spoke of torturing the rogue, there wasn’t a fleck of remorse in his intense red eyes. At one point in time, that rogue had belonged to a vampire coven. He may not have been in Kieran’s, but he was in someone’s. Kieran’s expression was fierce and arctic. Pressing him about his morals might have to wait for another time.
“Sydney, when a vampire decides to betray his coven, his people, he knows what the repercussions are.” He stopped talking and tilted his head to the side as if he were listening to an internal radio. Then he looked back at me. “The rogue has been secured. He reports working alone. My men have work left to do before the sun comes up.”
“What do you mean? You don’t believe he was working alone?”
He sat forward on his chair and spoke in a lowered tone. “I have received communications from other covens. A band of rogues have grouped together. We don’t know what their goals are, but the rogue that breached my dwelling had to have a purpose. The Knights didn’t find anything revealing on the rogue that was here. But they will find out who he is working with. Once we know who they are, we’ll be able to address this group of rogues that have organized themselves against us and directly disobeyed the laws of the Elders.”
That sounded bad, very bad. A group of vampires that didn’t heed to vampire law was a problem. Blake would need to know about the group of unruly vampires, too. Kieran’s people weren’t the only ones in danger. Vampires didn’t seem to have too strict of laws from what Grandma wrote in her journal, but at least they had some type of governing body. Did they have the best interests of humankind in mind? No, clearly not. But the rogues lived by their own laws, and they didn’t give a dang about keeping their presence secret from humans. Satisfying their blood needs with discretion didn’t seem important to them, either.
I read in the newspapers, the murder rates have definitely gone up around Kenosha. The killings were described as gruesome animal attacks. Blake hadn’t mentioned anything about rogue wolves killing people. Was he withholding information from me? Regardless, Blake and Morris had to be warned about the vampires; the wolves may be a target.
After the nurse determined it was okay for me to leave, Kieran said he understood my desire to go home. I was glad he didn’t seem to get offended easily. Ticking him off was the last thing I wanted to do.
Pulling out of the parking garage, I had the window on the driver’s side door cracked open. The crisp air blowing on my forehead was refreshing. I could feel the last of the fever slowly recede. At least the sweat stopped pouring out of me. My poor dress. The material was damp from my lying on the bed in a pool of sweat, and the soft fabric clung to my body like a second skin. I groaned. My hair must look awful. I could feel it sticking to my forehead and neck, and I was sure the effect of the straightening iron had long worn off.
It was only an hour past midnight, but exhaustion and dehydration started kicking in.
My legs a bit unsteady, I wavered into the kitchen. Aunt Judith was standing over the stove waiting for water to boil. At the sight of me, she dropped the spoon in the kettle and rushed over. “Sydney, my dear! What happened?”
“I’m okay. A rogue showed up at the party, and then I got sick. But I’m better now.” I tried not to cry. Aunt Judith had always been the mother figure in my life, and right now, I could use my mom.
I headed for the refrigerator and grabbed a blue bottle of nutrient water. I guzzled the invigorating fluid to get a bit of strength. Hopefully, the drink would push the last bit of fever down to a tolerable level. The cool liquid descended down my throat, cooling my entire body from the inside.
Aunt Judith’s kettle sounded. She poured herself a mug of tea, and came over to sit with me.
“Sydney, you look terrible. What happened? What did the vampires do to you?” she asked, looking me over. She wasn’t connecting the rogue sighting with my current state.
“I’m fine, Aunt Judith. Kieran made sure of my safety. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, did you have food poisoning or something?” she asked, concern and suspicion in her eyes. The skin above her brow cinched, despite the smile she kept plastered on her face.
“No. The rogue vampire’s presence ended up making me sick. I’m better now, just wiped out. I feel all grimy. I’m going to take a hot shower and go to bed.”
Aunt Judith stood, came over to my side of the table, and planted a motherly kiss on the top of my head. She patted my arm, and said, “Sydney, it might be best if you stayed here at the house for a while. I’ll run the store. Those damn vampires better not bother you anymore. You look awful, dear.”
“No, Aunt Judith. There’s no way I’m giving up the store. Working gives me purpose, and there’s nothing that would make me give that up for anything. Besides, the vampires know where we live. They can find me anywhere. If they want me, they already know where to look.”
She nodded.
The front door opened, and Brianna’s soft giggling traveled into the kitchen. My aunt and I went out into the living room as Brianna was brushing off a thin layer of snow from her arms and legs. She spoke into her cell phone, said goodbye to whomever she was talking to, and stuffed it in her purse.
She looked up at us from her bag and smiled. As she came further into the living room, she tripped on the step and laughed a little too loudly. Clearly my little sister had consumed more than a few drinks tonight.
“Aunt Judith! Sydney, my big sister! How the heck are you guys?”
She went to the overstuffed couch, and dropped onto one of the cushions. She took her shoes off, and put her feet up on the cushion next to the one she sat on. Both couches in the living room had an old pattern that matched the lacy cloths placed under each lamp and candy dish in the room. The bright neon pattern of her clothing was a distinct contrast to the dark green couches.
“It’s late, girls, I’m going up to bed. Good night, you two.” Aunt Judith gave us each a hug, and went to bed.
Brianna sat and grinned at me. She had a look that told me she knew something that I’d want to know. Thinking of Blake, maybe whatever she knew wasn’t going to make me too happy.
“So, have you thought more of what we talked about?” she asked, a mischievous smile on her face.
I knew exactly what she meant. The answer was no, at least not in terms of having an actual relationship with Blake. But yes, I’d thought of him often, as a man, of his body, and how deliciously warm the room got the second he entered it. The heat that burned me to the core whenever he touched me, wherever he touched me, was also a thought that frequently ran across my brain, waving a huge manly flag with Blake’s naked body lying on it, insisting on my sweet surrender.
“No, it’s just not the right time. Besides, we hardly know him. He might be interested in me for the moment, but he may be one of those guys that once he gets what he wants he’ll dump me like yesterday’s newspaper.”
Brianna blew out a deep, exasperated sigh. “Syd, he’s not like your last boyfriend. You don’t have anything to worry about Blake hittin’ it and ditching you. Besides, we went to Morris’ house tonight, and Blake seemed all moody for some reason. He asked a lot about you. He wanted to know about our family, and stuff.”
He did? He asked about me? I could barely hide the smile that bloomed from deep within the core of my being. I relished the thought of Blake being moody because he knew where I really was, and why he couldn’t call or be with me. It made my heart sing, despite knowing that being with him probably wasn’t in either of our best interests.
“Oh, that’s nice. Don’t get your hopes up, though.” I kept my voice as neutral as possible. Brianna didn’t need to be given a glimmer of hope that I’d start dating her boyfriend’s cousin. I had enough guilt and lies to deal with. I didn’t need any more.
“Syd, I want to talk to you about something. We went to Morris’ house, well, it’s hard to explain. It’s weird. Don’t get me wrong, Michael’s family members are wonderful people and very welcoming. But something seems off. Like they all have some deep, dark secret they’re keeping. Every time I turn around, the family is talking in hushed voices. When they realize I’m lookin’ at them, they turn away, or completely leave the room!”
I didn’t want to keep having to lie to my sister. Good sisters don’t lie to each other.
“Brianna, I’m sure they just have to get used to having you around, you know? Don’t take it personally, okay?”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s really important to me they like me. I like Michael so much. It just has to work out, Sydney. He might just be the one, but feeling like some weirdo when I’m around his family is really awkward.” She slurred a little as she spoke.