Obsessed (Book #12 in the Vampire Journals) (4 page)

Caitlin
struggled to catch her breath as she fell though the night sky. One moment
Caleb had hit the eject button, and the next, the plane was suddenly no longer
around her. She was in the black air, falling toward the raging ocean.

She glanced
right, looking for Caleb. He wasn’t there. Feeling anguished, she looked about
her—and finally, she spotted Caleb above her, his parachute deployed. He was
pointing to his parachute cord. She couldn’t hear him over the sound of the
roaring air.

Then she
realized: he was trying to tell her to pull her cord. She did and all at once
the plummeting stopped as her body snapped. All was suddenly peaceful. She was
hovering, floating, the white parachute spread open above her like angel’s
wings.

Caitlin took
some deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She looked back up at Caleb and saw
him giving her two thumbs up. Caleb, who had far more experience with this sort
of thing, managed to maneuver himself so that they were almost level.

“It’s going to
be cold!” he shouted to her.

Caitlin looked
down. The water was looming, and before she had a chance to think about the
frozen waves hitting her, an enormous explosion made the whole world shudder.

Panicking,
Caitlin looked to her right to see that the plane had crashed into something.
She realized with a sinking sensation that it was the building she’d seen on
the horizon, the one her senses had told her was where Scarlet was to be found.

“No!” she
screamed.

Flames and bits
of burning fuselage tumbled into the sea as a huge plume of black smoke
billowed into the air.

Then Caitlin hit
the ocean.

Caitlin gasped
as she hit the freezing water. It was so cold, it felt as though her bones had
turned to ice.

But the sharp
sting caused by the frigid ocean paled in comparison to the anguish in her
heart. Just ahead, the building Caitlin was certain her daughter was in was
ablaze. She watched, as though in a daze, as the ceiling caved in. A moment
later, the whole sea-facing wall crumbled into the ocean, leaving a deep wound
in the exterior.

“Caitlin!”
Caleb’s voice came from a little distance away.

Caitlin shook
her head and found her way back to her senses. Caleb was swimming toward her,
his parachute already detached and floating away, snatched by the strong
current.

“Get your pack
off!” Caleb instructed the second he was beside her.

Caitlin shrugged
the heavy thing off, feeling instantly more buoyant. But her body was still weary,
and her water-logged clothes were weighing her down.

“We have to get
to land,” Caleb said.

He scooped his
arm around his wife. She could feel that he was trembling violently. He was
trying to be strong for her but really his situation was just as perilous.

“Do you think
you can swim that far?” he added, nodding to the crumbling Boldt Castle.

Caitlin gritted
her chattering teeth.

“What if the
plane hit her?” she managed to say.

Caleb shook his
head. “Don’t think like that.”

“I can’t help
it. She’s our daughter. What if—”

But Caleb didn’t
let her finish. He pressed his hand over Caitlin’s heart.

“If she was
dead, you’d know,” he said. “Wouldn’t you? If you can sense our daughter, track
her to this place, then you’d know in your heart. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Caitlin bit her
lip.

“Yes,” she said,
finally. “You’re right. I would know if she was dead. I would feel it.”

But even as she
said the words, and even though she believed them, she couldn’t help but feel
that same sense of dread. Even if Scarlet was alive, she was most certainly
still in danger.

Caitlin felt her
arms begin to fatigue from treading water for so long.

“What are we
going to do?” she cried to Caleb. “The only land is that way.”

She pointed at
Boldt Castle, at the gaping hole in its side. Caleb followed her outstretched
finger.

“I know,” he
said with trepidation.

Caitlin nodded.
Wet tendrils of hair stuck to her face. She swiped them away and began to swim
toward the castle.

Just then, a
noise caught Caitlin’s attention. It sounded like a distant whining noise,
mechanical in nature. Familiar. Getting louder.

Caitlin glanced
over her shoulder at Caleb.

“A helicopter,”
she said.

Caleb paused mid-stroke
and stared up at the sky as the noise grew louder and louder.

“The police?” he
said. “They can’t still be on our tails, can they? Unless they were tracking
the plane.”

Caleb suddenly
thumped his open palms against the water, making a huge splash. But the noise
was almost completely drowned out by the whirring blades of a helicopter
approaching fast.

His features
dropped into resignation.

“Get ready,” he
said. “This is about to get a lot more dangerous.”

*

It took several
minutes to swim to Boldt Castle. The side closest to Caitlin and Caleb was
completely destroyed where the plane had struck. Stone and rubble had tumbled
into the ocean, creating a sort of slope that they could now climb up. It was
precarious going but they made it, finally, into Boldt Castle.

The smell of
airplane fuel was strong in the air, mixed with the smells of dust, smoke, and
sea salt. Caitlin heard a clamoring of noise in the distance, of people
shouting, arguing, and crying out in pain. She knew at once that the building
had been full before the plane hit, and that thanks to her, many people had
been hurt. She shivered, her frozen body racked with guilt.

Caitlin was in a
state, her hair a mess, the jump from the airplane and force of the waves having
turned it into soggy dreadlocks. Her clothes were torn in places. Caleb looked
just as bedraggled.

“Well?” he said.
“Can you sense her?”

Caitlin put a
finger to her lips to quiet him. She tried to get a feel for her daughter, to
let her instincts tell her where she was, but she was struggling to catch hold
of anything tangible. The sound of the roaring helicopter circling above them,
the heat coming from the fire, the cries coming from the injured, all were
crowding her mind and messing with her abilities.

“I can’t feel
her,” Caitlin whispered, feeling defeated.

Caleb rubbed his
chin. Caitlin could tell he was at his wits’ end. She wished she could do more
to help but her mind was too frantic to hone in on Scarlet.

“Is she in the
castle somewhere?” Caleb asked.

Despite his best
attempts to hide it, Caitlin could hear the exasperation in his voice. She’d
led him to this place, forced him to jump from a plane, and now she couldn’t
even tell him whether she’d been right or not.

She squeezed her
eyes shut and tried to calm her mind.

“I think she
is,” she said finally. “I think she’s here somewhere.”

“Then we
search,” Caleb replied.

He turned to
leave but Caitlin grabbed his arm.

“I’m scared,”
she said.

“Of what we
might find?”

She shook her
head.

“No,” she said,
“of seeing the damage I’ve caused.”

Caleb reached
out and squeezed her hand.

They stepped
further into the castle. They walked carefully as the ground underfoot seemed
unstable. When Caleb suddenly stopped short, blocking Caitlin’s path with an
extended arm, she assumed there was some kind of obstacle ahead. But when she
craned her head to look over his shoulder, her mouth dropped open with
astonishment. A little way ahead of them were hundreds upon hundreds of men and
women. Some of them were flying, others hovering, and all were facing a man who
stood taller than any human Caitlin had ever seen. He was at least double the size
of a normal man. Half of his face was burned red raw.

“What is he?”
Caitlin whispered to her husband.

Caleb just shook
his head.

Caitlin
shivered. Finding her daughter seemed more imperative now than ever before.
These strange people were disconcerting her, especially the giant man with his
disfigured face.

“This way,”
Caleb said in a hushed tone to her.

They crept away,
keeping as silent as possible, sticking to the shadows where the crowd would
not see them. Then Caitlin placed her hand on Caleb’s arm to stop him. He
looked back.

“What is it?
What’s wrong?”

“Scarlet,”
Caitlin said. “I can’t feel her anymore.”

“You mean she’s
not here?” Caleb challenged her.

Caitlin shrunk
back from the fury in his voice.

“I think she’s
gone somewhere else,” she said quietly, feeling defeated and desperate. “I
could feel her before, right by the place where we came in, but the further
into the castle we go, the weaker it becomes. I think she left before we got
here. She got out the way we got in.”

Caleb ran his
hands through his hair in exasperation.

“I don’t believe
this,” he muttered under his breath.

Just then, a
strong light beamed into the castle from the helicopter above. It was lowering
itself through the collapsed ceiling.

“It’s attempting
to land!” Caleb cried incredulously.

The crowd in the
great hall began to disperse, with people running and flying all over the
place.

“We have to
leave,” Caitlin said to her husband.

“I know,” he
replied. “But how?”

“This way,”
Caitlin said, tugging on his arm.

She led him across
the great hall. Thanks to the descending helicopter, none of the strange people
in the hall seemed to realize that the two figures racing across the room were
strangers. The helicopter blades were creating a mini tornado in the room,
whipping up plumes of smoke that added even more to the chaos.

Caitlin and
Caleb burst out of the hall and into a gloomy corridor. The smoke was thick
here and the light dim. Together, Caitlin and Caleb ran the length of the
corridor until they reached a door. Caleb shoved it with his shoulder and it
opened at once, revealing to them the outside world.

“Over there!”
Caitlin cried, surveying their surroundings.

Caleb looked to
where she was pointing.

Just ahead, down
some stone steps leading from the castle, was a small parking lot with enough
space for four or five vehicles. Amongst them was a motorcycle.

They ran for the
bike. It hadn’t been locked up or secured in any way.

It took several
attempts before he was able to kick the motor into life, but all at once the
engine roared and spewed out fumes. By then, people from inside the crumbling
church had begun filing out.

“Quick,” Caitlin
cried, jumping on the back behind Caleb. “They’re coming.”

But before Caleb
had a chance to accelerate away, the sound of police sirens began wailing out
from nearby.

He took off,
swerving to avoid the people darting from the castle. Streaming out of Boldt Castle
after them came the police who had arrived by helicopter. Hurtling down the
dark, winding pathway toward them came several police cars, their lights
flashing furiously.

“Now what?”
Caitlin cried.

Caleb looked
over at her. He revved the motorcycle’s engine.

“Now you hold
tight,” he said.

Caitlin just had
time to loop her arms around his waist before the bike sped away.

*

The bike bumped
along the road. Caitlin was exhausted. She rested her head against Caleb’s
back, comforted by the steady thumping of his heartbeat, and gazed up at the
black night. But she knew she couldn’t rest. Scarlet needed her help and there
was no way she could pause for even a moment while she was in danger.

“Any ideas?”
Caleb cried over his shoulder, battling to get his voice heard above the wind
and the police sirens that tailed them. “Directions?”

Caitlin could
tell he was trying his hardest to stay calm and composed but he was just as
drained as she was.

“I can’t sense
her,” Caitlin shouted back. “Not right now.”

Caleb said
nothing, but Caitlin saw his hands tensed against the handlebars hard enough to
make his knuckles turn white.

The bike flew
onwards, gradually increasing the distance between them and the police cars.

The road was a
narrow country lane. It began to wind up a hill. Soon there was a steep drop on
one side and a cliff face on the other. Feeling queasy, Caitlin ducked down
behind Caleb’s back for protection. The wind danced through her hair.