Dying To Be Heard (Book 1): Outcry (27 page)

“No, not me. Let Layla go. They might believe that one of us got away, but not both. You can use the excuse that I was more important, and you didn’t think it was necessary to chase after her. It will help you with them.”

He shook his head. “What you said earlier is true. If they get what they want, everyone is pretty much gone, anyway. Just go,” he nearly commanded.

Rayne nodded and bolted over to Layla, quickly untying her restraints. Her friend wobbled on her feet slightly, but regained her balance, and within seconds the two were bounding out the door. She stopped just long enough to look back at Christophe. “Come with us!” she said frantically.

The vampire shook his head. “When they come back, they’ll come after you. I might be able to hold them off for a few seconds. Go! Now!” he yelled.

Rayne nodded her thanks and chased after Layla.

Christophe stood in the door of the house, trying to figure out exactly what he had just done. He knew that nothing certain awaited him, but there was some form of deep satisfaction in knowing that maybe his soul wasn’t completely damned after all. If he could gain back some of his humanity by saving the lives of countless others, then maybe, just maybe, a higher power would smile down on him, for however brief a time it might be.

The two girls ran frantically through the underbrush and dense shrubbery surrounding the decrepit old house. Branches, thorns, and bugs of every kind hit them in the faces, arms, and legs, leaving cuts and nicks here and there.

“Wait, stop,” Rayne finally panted out as she doubled over and grasped her side.

Layla was just as out of breath as she was, and only momentarily stopped to turn and look at her best friend.

“We need to split up,” Rayne gasped.

Layla’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No. We stay together.”

Rayne held up her hands. “I’m not asking, Layla. I’m telling.” Bright green eyes connected through the darkness with dark chocolate. “They only want me. If we split up, they’ll leave you alone. It’s your only chance to get away.”

The pudgy girl grabbed her by the arm and began pulling her forward. “We are not doing this. Not here. We stay together, and we are getting out of this mess.”

A loud commotion from the vicinity of the building had them both snapping their heads in its direction.

Rayne jerked her hand away, her eyes full of desperation and pleading. “Just go!”

The car hadn’t even come to a complete stop before Camden was out and barging over the threshold of the shack. The smell of Rayne’s perfume and some kind of blood filled his nostrils, making his stomach churn with sickening worry.

As he neared, he realized the stench was not human blood, but from one of his own. A trail of crimson liquid splattered the floor and led into the kitchen. The closer he got, the more he was able to observe and imagine just what type of battle had taken place. The furniture that looked newer than the house itself was broken and splintered, littering the floor and blending in to the decaying establishment. On the kitchen floor were a pile of ashes that he recognized as the aftermath of the death of a vampire. He only could imagine that most of the blood belonged the deceased, but there was more that had a slightly different scent.

“Doesn’t look like this one turned out good for him.” Connor’s deep voice came from behind him.

Camden shook his head. He didn’t want to think about what could have caused such drastic measures to be taken.

Could Rayne have done this?

“There’s more out here!” Paul called, and immediately his companions were at his side and staring down at the red drops marring the bright green of the shrubbery.

Bright blue eyes searched through the darkness and listened intently.

Where are you?

Rayne watched as Layla’s face twisted in fear and she turned to bolt further into the woods. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a stick and bent it over her knee, easily snapping it to create sharp splinters at the break.

Closing her eyes, gritting her teeth, and holding her breath, she dug the points into her forearm hard enough to break the skin and cause a trickle of crimson liquid to spill out. She threw down the makeshift weapon and headed in a different direction from Layla, allowing her arm to rub against nearly every branch and plant as she passed. None of this was Layla’s fault. It was all hers. She would make sure her best friend got out of this, even if it meant she didn’t.

Her heart pounded in her throat and she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t let that stop her for even a second. She knew they would be on her heels, and she didn’t have time to spare. However, even with so many things happening, and her main focus on surviving, she couldn’t get Camden from the back of her mind.

Where is he? Isn’t he looking for me?

She could see his smile, the familiar hue of his blue eyes, and could still smell his cologne and feel his hard body pressed against hers. There wasn’t one thing in the world she wouldn’t give just see him, hug him, and kiss him, one last time.

I love him.

The footsteps were on her so quickly that she didn’t have time to react before a large body wrapped around hers and pushed her to the ground. They tumbled and rolled for what seemed like hours before the being came to rest on top of her, pinning her to the ground.

“Thought you were going to get away without giving me a little goodbye kiss?” Ed’s putrid breath pelted her face, and she attempted to turn her head away from his grasp. “Poor little Christophe ain’t here to save you now, is he?”

Rayne’s bright green eyes widened with anger. “What did you do to him, you piece of filth?!” she screamed.

“Hey, I like it when they fight back, give me a little challenge.” He licked his brown teeth and his face descended upon hers. “Your friend didn’t.”

“Layla?” Her heart sank and she knew that she was going to be sick. She began to kick and writhe helplessly beneath his weight, tears streaming down her face. “What did you do to her? Where is she?”

His mouth inched toward hers. “Don’t worry, you’ll be joining her soon enough.”

The instant before his mouth touched, there was a force so fast and so hard, that she wasn’t able to see it, only feel the wind from the impact and hear the grunt of air leaving Ed’s lungs as he was thrown sideways off of her.

The movements were so rapid, and she was in such shock, that she wasn’t capable of even attempting to keep up with them. Her ears were ringing, and she had a tunnel vision effect to her sight as she rolled to her side. Her stomach churned, and she felt as though someone had a vice around her heart. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see.

She only knew that she had to find Layla. Rayne frantically scratched at the dirt as she tried to clear her disorientation enough to stand. She managed to get her feet under her and stumbled in what she thought was slow motion.

She paid no attention to the sounds of fists on bone, grunting, of huffing and scuffling. She never glanced back to even see who was her savior.

I have to find her.

Finally on her feet, she bolted in the direction that she’d last seen her best friend. Rayne tripped and fell into a tree, the rough bark scraping her shoulder and a stray branch stabbing her cheek. She winced, but never missed a beat.

Until large arms wrapped around her torso and jerked her backwards.

“Let me go!” she screamed, and pelted the muscular being with her fists. The tears began to flow freely, and she knew that her attempts were doing her no good. “I have to find her!” she yelled incoherently.

“Rayne!” Connor’s deep voice boomed. “Calm down. We have you. You’re safe.”

“Put me down! He did something to Layla! I have to get her!” She continued to struggle against him but was no match for his superior strength. He easily dragged her back to where the fight was taking place.

“Stay here with Paul and I will find her. It’ll be faster,” he said calmly.

Rayne wouldn’t have it. “No!” she yelled and shook her head forcefully, her tears leaving fresh stains on her bleeding cheek.

Connor’s massive arms spun her around to give her a stern glare. “We can’t protect both of you if we don’t know where you are. Stay.”

Looking up into his dark brown eyes and familiar face, something about it seemed to calm her down, and she trusted him. Reluctantly, she nodded, and Connor disappeared just like that.

She still couldn’t catch her breath, and she wasn’t quite sure what was happening. She blinked repeatedly to clear the tears and barely managed to make out the scene before her.

Paul was restraining a nearly unconscious Ed and a merciless Camden hit him over and over. Blood poured from his mouth, and his face was so disfigured that he was unrecognizable. Still, his onslaught continued.

Paul’s attention turned briefly to her, and it was just enough to make Camden hesitate to see the cause for his sideways glance.

Rayne stumbled, unable to breathe, and her vision began to go dark. It was too much. She couldn’t hold it together. She felt herself falling backwards, and the last thing she remembered seeing was Camden’s outstretched arms and bright blue eyes locked onto her before she hit the ground.

Chapter 21

“Grandpa?” Rayne asked, staring at the elderly gentleman before her. “Where are we?” She glanced around the cavernous place, with nothing but darkness surrounding them. An odd glow seemed to engulf them, but there was nothing that directly emitted the light. It just…was.

“I am so proud of you,” he said quietly, his smile reaching all the way up to his eyes and crinkling the corners. “I knew that you could handle it.”

“What are you…? Where are we? Am I dead?” Something in the bend of his elbow caught her eye, and she immediately recognized it as a scar that was nearly identical to her own. She glanced up at him, her brows creased in a questioning look.

A small laugh escaped him, and he approached to wrap his arms around her in a tight embrace. “Always remember what I told you,” he said, and slowly he began to fade away. He became translucent and then was gone.

What is going on?

She wasn’t completely sure that he was real in the first place.

Standing alone in the darkness, she could feel a pounding in her head and in her chest. Her stomach sank as if she were going to be sick.

“Rayne?”

She jerked in a circle, looking for the source of the voice.

“Rayne, can you hear me?”

“Camden?” she called out, and began to look around frantically.

“Rayne.”

Slowly, Rayne’s eyes fluttered open and the stabbing pain in her head was intensified by the brightness in the room. She grunted and brought her hand up to the place where the pain was radiating from. It was covered in a bandage, and there was something stuck to her arm.

Squinting, she tried to see where she was and remember what had happened. She was in her bed at Camden’s house, with the covers pulled up to her chin, an IV in her arm, and fresh bandages wrapped around her head. She was disoriented, and a cloud-like fog shrouded her mind.

Connor and Paul stood along the wall, staring at her expectantly, and try as she might, she couldn’t make herself smile or say a word.

“Hey,” came a soft, soothing voice next to her.

She turned to see Camden sitting on the edge of her bed, his hand wrapped around hers. She couldn’t stop the tears that welled in the corners of her eyes at the sight of him.

She bolted upright, and immediately regretted the move as the pain in her head sent a knife through her skull that seemed to radiate down her spine and all the way to her toes.

“Easy,” he coaxed, helping her to recline again. “You took quite a fall.”

“How long have I been out?” her voice was raspy, and she hardly recognized it.

“About three days.” Paul approached the bed and gently patted her leg. “We were afraid we were going to have to lace ya if you didn’t come to soon.”

Her eyebrows furrowed in question. “Lace me?”

Connor laughed and pushed away from the wall. “Lace you. Give you some of our blood to make you heal faster.”

She nodded and grimaced as she adjusted herself so that she was sitting up more. On more than one occasion now, she’d heard of the power of just a small amount of vampire blood in the human body and saw firsthand the effects of too much of it. That was one experience she hoped she would continue to have the privilege to say that she’d never had. “What happened?”

The three of them glanced back and forth between each other.

“Can you give us a minute?” Camden asked.

Paul and Connor both nodded, and shortly thereafter were shutting the door behind them.

Ice blue and emerald green locked together for a familiar electrifying moment, but there was something slightly different about it this time. It was him who broke the eye contact, glancing down to fidget with the blanket. “I’m so sorry, Rayne,” he quietly choked out.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as she searched his face. “Camden...”

The vampire shook his head. “No. Just listen. When I first met you, I knew there was something special about you…something that made you unlike any girl I’ve ever met.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, attributed it to a deeper connection because of Martin.”

His eyes came back to lock with hers, and she smiled at him. Just being close to him again, able to speak with him, made everything all right.

“When I lost you and couldn’t find you,” he paused, “I’ve never been so afraid in my four hundred years on this planet. I couldn’t feed, couldn’t concentrate, and couldn’t function without you invading my every thought, every move, and every breath.”

Rayne could feel the tears coming, and her chest seemed to swell with his words.

“That’s when I knew that it didn’t matter why or how you are different. It only matters that you are.” His hand came up to caress her cheek. “I will never lose you again, and I will never let anything like that happen to you again. I swear it.”