Obsessed (Book #12 in the Vampire Journals) (19 page)

The vampires
crowded forward, trying to get closer to the man. On the floor lay a heap of
injured officers and military personnel, some dead, some dying. Sadie turned
away, not able to cope with the images in front of her.

Then she saw the
man point towards the direction of the Hudson river, and one by one the
vampires took to the sky, following whatever command he’d given them. Sadie
gasped as she watched them soar into the air like a flock of enormous, deadly
birds. Vultures, she thought. They’re nothing more than vultures.

Sadie finally
reached her car and leapt inside. The voice of the police chief was sounding
out from the radio, frantically asking for information.

“You sent us
into a war zone!” Sadie shouted into the radio.

“Marlow?” the
chief replied. “Marlow, thank God you’re alive?”

“Yes. I’m
alive,” Sadie replied emotionlessly. “Which is more than can be said for the
rest of the officers you sent blindly into battle.” Sadie was livid, unable to
hold back her anger. “How could you do it? You knew they were vampires! You
knew the girl in the psych ward was speaking the truth! Why didn’t you send for
wooden stakes and Holy water rather than sending the army out there with guns?”

From the other
end of the line, all Sadie heard was the sound of static.

Typical,
Sadie thought.

The chief wasn’t
one to admit to mistakes. Sadie pressed the respond button of her radio again.

“Chief, I’m
bringing in two civilians. You might be interested to know that the vampire
army is heading towards the Hudson River. So if you want to send any more
innocent officers to die, that’s the place to go.”

She wrenched the
radio so hard the wire snapped, then slammed it back into its holster. She
didn’t hear anything more from the police chief. There was no drill for this,
no way of knowing what to do for the best, and so Sadie decided that all she could
and would do was rescue the victims. She’d find somewhere safe for them, then
one by one she’d search for survivors of the brutality.

She started the
car and drove as fast as possible back to the place she’d left Becca and
Jasmine. When she got there, she saw that the two girls had been surrounded by
a group of men in prison uniforms.

“Oh no you
don’t,” Sadie said, gritting her teeth.

She leapt from
her car and raised her gun.

“Step away!” she
shouted.

The convicts
turned. When they saw they were up against a lone policewoman, they smirked.

“This is your
last warning,” Sadie said. “Hands where I can see them or I’ll shoot.”

The escaped men
must have felt invincible after walking side by side with a vampire army. They clearly
must have forgotten that they were mere mortals.

As they charged
her, Sadie squeezed the trigger. One, two, three, four, a bullet for each of
them. They fell to the floor like bowling pins.

Becca and
Jasmine stood there, wide eyed.

“Get in,” Sadie
commanded.

The girls didn’t
need telling twice. Gone was Jasmine’s determination to stay with her dead
parents, overtaken by her natural instinct to survive. Becca, on the other
hand, wasn’t about to argue with someone who’d just shot dead four men in front
of her very eyes.

With the two girls
safe in her car, Sadie tried to work out her options. At this point in time,
they seemed pretty limited. All she could think to do was get as far away from where
the vampires were heading, and that was the Hudson river.

She hit the
accelerator and steered the car away.

“Wait!” Jasmine
cried. “What about Scarlet?”

Sadie looked at
her in the rear view mirror. Scarlet. That had been the name that Maria had
been babbling about back in the insane asylum.

“Who’s Scarlet?”
she said. “Do you mean Scarlet Paine?”

It was Becca who
replied. “Yes. She’s our friend. Or at least she was.” She looked at Jasmine.
“It’s too late for Scarlet. She’s one of them now.”

Sadie watched
the two girls conversing in the mirror, her mind a swirl of thoughts. If Maria
had been right about the vampire war, then maybe she was right about the only
person being able to stop it being Scarlet. And if Sadie was the only person
alive at this point in time who knew that piece of information, then that meant
she had to do something with it. She may be the one person who could stop this
mess.

Jasmine was
shaking her head, not ready to accept what her friend was telling her.

“Scarlet
wouldn’t be a part of this,” she cried. “You know she wouldn’t!”

“We have to save
ourselves,” Becca said.

“We’ve already
lost Maria,” Jasmine sobbed. “We can’t lose Scarlet too.”

Sadie had heard
enough. These girls knew Scarlet
and
Maria, the two names that, in the
midst of all the chaos, made sense to Sadie.

She slammed on
the brakes and made a sharp U-turn. From the back seat, the girls screamed.

“Where are we
going?” Becca demanded as the car began to race in the opposite direction,
towards danger rather than away from it.

“Sorry, Becca,”
Sadie said. “But Jasmine’s right. We need to help Scarlet. She might be the only
person in the world who can save us.”

Kyle sauntered
along the road. Shady walked by his side, his right hand man. Together they’d
turned a dozen men from inside the prison and had let another fifty loose on
the streets. By the time they’d finished their rampage on the prison, there
wasn’t a single guard left alive.

Now they were
ready to unleash terror on the streets of this town. They followed the trail of
destruction that had already been left for them by the escaped inmates, passing
over turned cars and burning houses on the way, Kyle leading the small band of
newly turned vampires. His group comprised all the men he’d been closest to
whilst behind bars, the ones who’d backed him in scraps or who had beaten up
another inmate on his behalf. They were men who were loyal to him and grateful
for the freedom and power he had gifted them with. It was a gratitude that
extended far beyond the usual sire bond. These were men who would lay their
lives down to serve him.

Kyle wanted to
make sure his followers got a good show on the way into battle. He went up to
an electrical store and used his super vampire strength to smash the windows
with his fists. The crowd roared their approval. Kyle jumped in through the
broken window and began wrenching the TVs from the wall, making blue sparks of
electricity explode all around him like fireworks. He threw the TVs on the
ground and his followers cheered at the mere senseless violence of it all. The
store was aflame by the time they left it.

Kyle decided for
his next trick he would show off the flying skills he’d gotten a chance to
perfect. He wrenched a street lamp out of the sidewalk and flew up into the air
with it in his hands. Then he threw it like a javelin. It arched through the
air before smashing through a moving car, spiking it into the ground. The dazed
driver stumbled out of the wreck of his car, and his band of followers pounced
on the stumbling man and devoured him.

In the sky
ahead, a swarm of his vampire children were soaring through the skies. But
something caught his attention. In the sky, far in the distance, the other side
to where his vampire teen army was flying, he saw the lone silhouette of a girl
flying across the sky at the speed of light. She was heading towards the Hudson
river. Some instinct in Kyle told him that it was the girl he’d been chasing all
this time.

Scarlet.

Kyle raced into
the epicentre of the chaos. The inmates he’d liberated earlier were being
beaten by the national guard. But the high school vampires were feasting on the
police in turn. The whole thing was a beautiful mess.

Kyle leapt onto
the hood of a police truck, using it like a stage. It was time to lead his army
into battle.

“My children!”
Kyle cried, addressing the mob.

The vampires
looked up at him, ready and willing for their sire to give them commands. They
looked at him adoringly, as though he were a god.

“It’s time for
us to start the war!” Kyle continued.

He leapt into
the sky and the vampire army cheered and swarmed after him, following their
leader. Kyle felt more powerful than he had in his life. As he flew at the
front of his army of vampires, leading them into battle, he noticed dawn was
beginning to break. It had been the most amazing night of terror and
destruction. By the time the sun rose, Kyle would be King of a whole new race
and the humans on earth could begin counting down the days to their inevitable
extinction.

Caitlin felt
sick to her stomach as the world swirled around her. Clutching onto Caleb for
dear life, she worried that if she let go he may disappear into the ether and
become stuck between realms. All around them, lights and colors flashed. It was
impossible to tell if they were facing up or down. All they could feel was the
terrifying forward momentum and the sloshing sensation as though they were in a
boat on the waves.

Then all at
once, everything stopped. They found themselves standing on the banks of a
river.

“The Hudson?” he
asked.

“Yes!” Caitlin
cried, relieved that they had survived the journey through time and space.

Then she saw a
sight that made her heart lurch.

“Look!” she
cried, pointing into the sky. “It’s Scarlet! It’s really her!”

Caleb watched
his daughter race across the sky, heading for the estate on the banks of the
Hudson.

“Come on!” he cried,
grabbing Caitlin’s hand.

They began to
run towards the mansion. But they hadn’t gotten more than five paces when a
swarm of vampires raced over their heads.

“We’re too
late,” Caitlin cried, feeling desperation take control of her senses.

They watched,
terrified, as the huge black cloud of vampires raced over their heads. They
were going towards the estate as well. Caitlin knew then that Scarlet was in
peril.

Caitlin was
about to charge in the direction of the mansion when all at once, the vampire
army double backed on itself. Suddenly, it came right for them.

“Caleb!” Caitlin
screamed.

The man leading
the army landed in front of Caitlin, stopping her in her tracks. Caitlin’s
heart clenched with terror as she came face to face with the man she’d seen her
daughter feast on back at Pete’s bar, a time that felt like a million years
ago. What was his name?

Kyle.

Kyle sniffed the
air like a dog following a scent.

“Mr. and Mrs.
Paine,” he said, looking Caitlin and Caleb up and down.

He snapped his
fingers and the obedient vampire army took to the skies again, racing off for
the estate, following unspoken commands that Caitlin could only assume meant
danger for Scarlet.

“I’ve been
looking for your daughter all night,” Kyle said, pacing round and round Caleb
and Caitlin. “I’m pleased to say that her life will be over by the time the sun
rises. I’m going to enjoy telling her how you begged for your lives as I killed
you.”

Caitlin couldn’t
help but think this was it, that everything was going to end here, now, when they’d
been so close to saving their daughter. The thought broke her heart. She felt
like a failure. A failure as a mother and a wife. Caleb was right when he’d
said it didn’t matter if she survived elsewhere, in another dimension or time.
This was the world she lived in, this was the life she was conscious of, and
for it to end now was more than she could bear.

Then suddenly, a
roaring sound behind Kyle made him spin around. Someone was charging forward,
head down like a quarterback. The person barrelled into Kyle, knocking him off
his feet before slamming him into the ground on his back. Caitlin realized with
surprise that the person was her brother. Sam.

She felt a flood
of love for him as she watched her brother grapple on the floor with Kyle,
clearly risking his life to save hers and Caleb’s.

“Go!” he
shouted. “Save Scarlet!”

Caitlin didn’t
have time to argue. Caleb grabbed her hand and together they raced to the
mansion, leaving Sam at Kyle’s mercy.

Vivian chased
Scarlet through the skies, right on her tail. Scarlet must have known she was
being chased because she kept looking back over her shoulder. Blake was lagging
behind but he still followed Vivian dutifully on her quest to cause pain.

No matter how
fast Scarlet was as a vampire, she couldn’t out fly Vivian, who had been more
athletic in her human form than Scarlet. Scarlet had just reached the roof of a
mansion when Vivian caught her by the ankle.

The two girls
went skidding across the rooftop, scraping a path over the tiles and making
them fly up all around them. Vivian was immediately in fight mode. She grappled
with Scarlet before pinning her down by her arms. Scarlet thrashed like a woman
possessed.

“Let go of me!”
she screamed.

Vivian laughed
maniacally. This was the moment she’d been dreaming of all along—and she was
going to squeeze every ounce of pleasure out of it that she could.

“What the hell
happened to you?” she sneered. “You look like crap.”

Scarlet was
windswept, covered in small nicks and cuts. She had tears in her clothes, mud
in her hair, and dirt encrusted on her hands. The sight of her disgusted
Vivian.

Vivian reached
in her back pocket for her shard of wood and held it up to Scarlet’s neck.
Scarlet’s eyes widened at the sight of it. Vivian watched her neck bulge as she
swallowed her fear.

“Why are you
doing this?” Scarlet cried.

“Why?” Vivian
sneered. “Because I hate you. You’re a freak. And you stole my boyfriend.”

“You’re
pathetic,” Scarlet screamed.

The insult
enraged Vivian further. She pushed hard onto Scarlet’s wrists until she felt
the satisfying crack of one of the bones breaking. Scarlet screamed.

“Bet you wished
you’d left me to drown now,” Vivian replied with a malevolent grin, tightening
her grasp on Scarlet so the writhing girl couldn’t get away. “Instead, you
saved my life. Because you’re lovely, sweet, stupid, Scarlet Paine, who
wouldn’t want to do anything bad to anyone. Thanks to you I got to murder
Jasmine’s parents in front of her.”

Scarlet’s eyes
widened with horror.

“No!” she cried
out, not wanting to believe that Vivian could be so cruel.

“Oh yes,” Vivian
said with relish. “And my bet is if she’s not dead by the end of the night,
she’ll go mad and be sent to the mental hospital like Maria.”

Tears were
shining in Scarlet’s eyes, clearly from the pain in her wrist, and from the
emotional torment Vivian was putting her through.

“What are you
talking about?” she stammered.

“Maria,” Vivian
said with slow, cold calculation. “She’s in the loony bin.”

Vivian smiled.
She was having so much fun.

“You’ve really
gone to all this effort to hurt me?” Scarlet yelped. “Just because Blake had a
bigger crush on me than on you?”

At the mention
of his name, Blake shuffled out of the shadows. His hands were stuffed in his
pockets, his head bowed. He looked completely dejected.

Vivian snapped
her fingers and he trudged towards her.

“Blake’s mine
now, aren’t you baby?” she said.

She handed him
the wooden stake.

“And to prove
how much Blake loves
me
and not you,” she added, “he’s going to kill
you.”

Blake looked at
the stake in his hand. Dutifully, he knelt down and held it directly about
Scarlet’s heart. He looked into her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Go on,” Vivian
said, urging him on, her eyes flashing with malice. “Kill her!”

“Don’t do this!”
Scarlet cried. “Please!”

Blake shook his
head.

“I’m sorry,” he
said. “I don’t want to do this, but I have no choice.”

Then in one,
swift motion, he raised the stake and stabbed it forward with all his might.

A scream pierced
the night sky. But it wasn’t Scarlet who screamed.

It was Vivian.

To her shock,
she felt searing pain in her heart, and she looked back to see that Blake had
turned the stake on her.

Vivian loosened
her grip on Scarlet. She staggered to her feet, looking at the shard protruding
from her chest with disbelief and horror.

“Blake,” she
said in a pained voice. “How could you do this?”

Blake turned on
her.

“You’re sick,
Vivian. You left me no choice.”

Vivian’s words
came out of her in rasping chokes.

“You...
killed... me.”

Then, just like
that, she disintegrated, all that was left, her Ralph Lauren shirt and Louis
Vuitton shoes, sitting on the roof tiles.

Scarlet lay on
her back panting, dazed by what had just happened. She looked up at Blake.

“You saved my
life,” she said with disbelief.

Blake extended a
hand to her. She took it and he helped her to his feet.

“I’m sorry,” he
said. “For treating you badly. I think…” He looked away, rubbed his neck. “I
think I always loved you.”

Scarlet stared
at him, not knowing what to say or what to do. Once, all she would have wanted
in the world was to hear those words.

“I wished that I
loved you as you did me,” she said, feeling sad for him—and grateful.

She leaned
forward and slowly planted a gentle kiss on his lips.

He stared back,
eyes wide with surprise as she pulled back.

With that,
Scarlet lifted up into the air, flying up, not need to look back to know that
Blake was standing on the roof, watching her fly away, and thinking, as she
was, of what might have been.