Vowed

  Then again, he realized he shouldn’t be surprised. She’d always had a way, as long as he’d known her, of appearing at the worst possible moments, of ruining anything and everything good in his life.

  He felt his frustration building.

  “You don’t have to answer,” Sera continued, getting closer. “I can sense it. You miss me terribly.

  But you don’t have to worry any longer: I’m here now.”

  She took a few more steps forward, and then reached up to lay a hand on his shoulder, putting on her most seductive look.

  Caleb took a step back and let her hand fall in the air, not wanting to be touched by her.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked coldly.

  She slowly shook her head.

  “That’s the Caleb I always knew,” she said. “Still playing hard to get. Still afraid to let your feelings for me be known. But that’s okay. I know how you truly feel.”

  “You must leave, Sera,” Caleb responded. “I’m sorry that you came, but you are not welcome here. This is our time now. Caitlin’s time, and my time.”

  Sera scowled.

  “Don’t say her name in front of me,” she spat. “She doesn’t count. You know that. You merely turn to her because you cannot have me. I know that you long for me.

  “I’ve arrived, before your wedding day, to save you from what you don’t really want. This is your chance. Your last chance, before you make the biggest mistake of your life. Come back to me. To our home, to France. We will start a new family. We will be happy, like we’d been before.” Caleb shook his head, amazed at how deeply she still lived in fantasy, especially after all these years.

  “I am truly sorry,” he began, “but I have not loved you for centuries. I thought I made that clear. I’m not playing a game. I’m not playing hard to get. I sincerely do not have feelings for you anymore. So I ask respectfully that you leave me now. And that you do not return.”

  “Then you admit you had feelings for me once?” she asked.

  Caleb thought about that. “Once. Centuries ago. Lifetimes ago.” She smiled. “That’s all I needed to hear. If you had feelings for me once, you can have feelings for me again. After all, I have not changed.”

  “But I have,” Caleb answered. “I’m not the Caleb that you once knew. I have grown, and changed. Caitlin has changed me. I love her now. I really do. And I will marry her. I look forward to marrying her. And nothing that you can say or do will ever make a difference.”

  “And what about our son?” Sera snapped, practically in tears. “Jade,” she snapped again, using the name as a weapon. “Have you so conveniently forgotten about him? Does he mean nothing to you?”

  Caleb felt tears well in his eyes at the thought of his son. He missed him dearly, every day, but nothing he could would bring him back now. He’d finally come to peace with that.

  “I’m sorry, Sera, but Jade is gone. Nothing we can do will ever change that.” Caleb turned and began to walk away, realizing that nothing he said would change her mind, and hoping that maybe she would just disappear.

  But moments later, he felt a cold hand on his shoulder, and felt it yank him, spin him back around.

  Now, she was scowling, her face transformed by rage.

  “You dare to disrespect me?” Sera asked. “Me? The one that you have loved for centuries?” She looked Caleb up and down, as if he were an insect. “How far you have fallen. Now you are just a pathetic creature.”

  “Are you finished?” Caleb asked.

  Her face deepened with rage.

  “No. I’m not finished. I will never be finished. No one rejects me. No one! ” She was practically spitting the words, like a madwoman. “Today, you have made the greatest mistake of your life. If I cannot be a part of your life, then neither can she. And if you will not have me as a lover, then you will have me as an enemy. On this day, right before your wedding, I lay upon you a curse: I pronounce that I will devote the rest of my life tearing you two apart. Destroying what you have built. From here on in, I am your sworn enemy.”

  Caleb saw the different colors flashing in her eyes, and as he did, he felt the seriousness of her curse—and it sent a cold shiver up his spine. It was like a curse uttered from the depths of hell. And he could tell that she meant it.

  Before he could open his mouth to respond, Sera suddenly turned and launched into the air, flying away, her huge black wings flapping.

  As Caleb watched her rise into a fog, he felt a deepening sense of apprehension. He felt the cold and the damp rise up around him, and he knew that wherever she was flying, it couldn’t possibly be good.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As Kyle swung in the air, upside down, tied by his feet to the silver rope, he looked up at Rynd—those large, lifeless black eyes, that awful scowl—and watched him swing the huge silver sword, aiming right for his throat. He knew this moment might be his last on earth. In a way, Kyle was relieved. He had been living for centuries too long, he knew that, and death might bring a peaceful reprieve.

  On the other hand, as Kyle thought about it, he realized that death, in his case, would not bring a reprieve at all—but rather a quick descent into hell. He knew what he had to look forward to was a millennium of battling with demons, of being tortured by sick creatures, and he was not especially looking forward to. More importantly, he still had unfinished business on earth. He thought of Caitlin, of Caleb, of Sam, of how much he hated them all, and of how he just couldn’t leave without tearing each one of them to pieces, making them suffer as he had suffered—and it gave him a whole new determination to live.

  Kyle summoned one last breath, and quickly screamed out the one thing he knew that might, just might, stop Rynd from finishing his swing:

  “I can lead you to the Holy Grail!”

  As Kyle watched, Rynd stopped his swing in mid-air, just inches before it reached his throat. He slowly, gradually, lowered it, scowling down.

  “You?” Rynd spat. “How?”

  Kyle could see him thinking. He’d recalled that the Grail meant the world to Rynd, that he’d been obsessed with pursuing it his entire existence. Rynd had always been convinced that once he found it, he would have the secret to vampire immortality—a rare type of immortality that made even vampires impervious to any sort of attack or death—that it would make him the strongest vampire that ever lived. Kyle himself didn’t believe the Grail existed—but he knew that was the bait needed to convince Rynd.

  Kyle swallowed.

  “Caitlin—the girl I’ve come back in time to find—she is on a quest for the ancient shield. And she can’t find that shield without first finding the Grail. I know it to be true. Even now, her path is set in motion to find it. I’ve come to stop her. And I need you to help me.”

  “Why don’t you just kill her yourself?” Rynd snarled. “Have you become that old and weak and stupid that you cannot achieve anything on your own?”

  Kyle heard the vampires snicker all around him, and he felt his temper flaring. But he summoned all his reserves to keep it in check. After all, he was still, for now, at Rynd’s mercy.

  “She has grown powerful—stronger than you can believe. Sam, her brother, has the same skill that you do. Shapeshifting. I need someone to combat it. I need someone to use that skill against her. To dupe her, so that I can kill her once and for all.”

  “Well, how flattered I am,” said Rynd slowly, in a mocking voice. “You mean, you felt that you could use me. For your ends.”

  Rynd swung the sword back slowly, preparing to strike again.

  “NO!” Kyle pleaded. “Not to use you. To help you. You will help me get to them. And then, they will lead us to the Grail. And I will turn it over to you.”

  “Or maybe I’ll just kill you here, and leave you to hang with the others. Food for the bats.” Kyle swallowed.

  “But what good would that do you?”

  Rynd leaned back and laughed, a dark, sinister laugh.

  “I don’t always do things for my good.
Sometimes I do things just because I enjoy them.” With that, Rynd pulled back the sword, stepped forward, and brought it down in a mighty swing.

  Kyle closed his eyes, feeling the air of the swing, realizing that in another split-second, he would be gone. There was nothing more he could say. This was his final moment on Earth. And to his own surprise, he was afraid.

  A moment later, Kyle felt himself plunging downward, face-down, and he wondered if this was what it felt like to plunge down to hell.

  But then his face hit something hard, and he realized he’d actually landed face first into the dirt.

  The rest of his body followed, hitting the ground too, and as he looked up, he realized that Rynd had swung at the rope instead, cutting it. It had sent Kyle diving to the ground. Still bound, but alive.

  Kyle breathed a sigh of relief.

  Rynd stepped forward, his boot just missing Kyle’s face, and sliced the ropes binding Kyle’s feet.

  Kyle immediately leapt up, to his feet, facing Rynd, red-faced and mad. But even from this perspective, standing, Rynd was huge, towering over him.

  Rynd scowled down at Kyle.

  “I missed you, Kyle,” Rynd said. “It’s been too long since I’ve encountered another creature as despicable as myself.”

  And with that, Rynd suddenly strutted right past Kyle, bumping his shoulder hard, sauntering down the dirt road, between the hundreds of hanging bodies. As he disappeared into the fog, his dozens of followers fell into line, following him.

  Kyle hurried to catch up.

  They walked through the fog, down a dirt road, into the twilight, and eventually the fog cleared just enough for Kyle to make out a narrow drawbridge, spanning a moat. Beyond that lay a small castle, shaped in triangle, with a single parapet, its walls low and angular. Kyle remembered the place well. Caeverlock Castle. A place for true evil. The place he knew that Rynd would be.

  Kyle caught up, now walking just slightly behind Rynd, as they strutted for the castle entrance.

  “You’ve arrived at the perfect time,” Rynd said as they walked, not looking his way. “Tomorrow is the Samhain Festival. There will be plenty of slaughtering, and plenty of human captives to torture. Our favorite night of the year. “When it is finished, we will go and hunt your friends.” Rynd stopped at the castle entrance, and turned to him, his mouth widening into a smile that looked more like a scowl.

  “In fact, I think I will quite enjoy it.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  As Caitlin walked with her bridesmaids through the moss-covered hills of Skye, the sight took her breath away. The early morning sun broke low and red on the horizon, lighting up the open expanse before them. The landscape was dotted with small lakes, and the grass they walked on was a vibrant green, greener than anything she’d ever seen. It felt to her as if they had come to the very beginning of the earth, a place so pure, it hardly seemed real.

  Just as Caitlin was starting to wonder where they were all hiking, Polly read her mind:

  “It’s called Faerie Glen,” Polly said, her voice filled with excitement, even more chipper than usual. Polly practically skipped as they all headed through the countryside. “It’s the only place in the world where, it is said, if you go there and make a wish, it will come true. And it’s an ancient vampire ritual for a bride to make one final wish before her wedding day.” Caitlin thought about that as she rounded yet another softly sloping hill, holding Scarlet’s hand, and took in another breathtaking vista. A place to make a final wish. But Caitlin already felt she had everything she could wish for. She had Caleb, Scarlet, Ruth, Sam, Polly, Aiden, and was surrounded by so many close friends. And now, she would be getting married. What more could she possibly want out of life?

  A child. That was true. Yes, a child. With Caleb. Maybe she would wish for that.

  As she walked, Caitlin felt that, finally, everything was perfect in her world. Yet, at the same time, the residue of her dream still lingered. Why did she have to have such a dream the night before such a festive day? She felt annoyed, as if Blake had somehow intruded in her dreams, had disrupted her perfect moment. She did not want to be thinking of him, or even have him lingering in a corner of her consciousness. But as she walked, several times, when she’d heard a twig snap, or a bird fly, she found herself jumping, looking to make sure that Blake wasn’t standing somewhere, staring back at her. A part of her was definitely on edge. And that was not what she wanted.

  She had loved Blake at one point. Had loved him dearly. But that was when she had thought Caleb was gone forever. Ever since Caleb had been back in her life, she had not thought of Blake at all. At least not consciously. Why couldn’t life be simpler? she wondered.

  As they rounded another hill, suddenly, a spectacular moss-covered valley, a lake in its center, came into view. It was the most stunning thing Caitlin had ever seen. She felt as if she’d walked straight into an oil painting, into some glowing, green fantasy land that couldn’t possibly exist. She could sense the energy coming off the place. On the surface, it was just a grassy valley, beside a small, shining lake. But deep down, she sensed that it was much more—and that whatever wish she made, it would indeed come true here.

  The other girls let out a gasp of excitement, and they all began to hurry down the hill, towards the lake. Polly took Caitlin’s hand, and they skipped down the hill, heading for the spot to make a wish.

  “You’re supposed to throw a coin into the lake,” Polly explained, as they raced for the shore. “If it lands heads up, your wish will come true. If not, it won’t. That’s the legend, anyway.”

  “But I don’t have a coin,” Caitlin said, laughing as they raced downhill.

  “Don’t worry,” Polly said, out of breath, running beside her, “I have one for you.”

  “What about me?” Scarlet chimed in. “I want one, too!”

  Ruth barked.

  “And so does Ruth!”

  Polly laughed.

  They soon reached the edge of the lake and all came to a stop by its shore, out of breath, Scarlet still laughing. Caitlin looked down at the water and marveled at its light-blue, crystal-clear color: she could see right through to the bottom, and saw it was lined with thousands of smooth, multi-colored rocks. The place truly looked magical.

  Polly reached into a small leather pouch and handed each of them a shining, gold coin.

  “You only get one toss,” Polly explained, as she placed it into their palms. “Think carefully of your wish. And make it a good one.”

  Caitlin looked down, opened her palm, and felt the small, cold metal in it. She then closed her eyes, and concentrated with all she had. As she did, she felt the cool October breeze caress her face, felt the slight moisture off the lake. It was dead silent here, even with all the other girls standing close by; Caitlin assumed they were all silently making a wish, too. All she could hear was the sound of the wind whipping through the ancient moss-covered hills, rippling the water. She focused, concentrating with all she had.

  I wish that Caleb and I will have a child together. A child of our own.

  Caitlin wished so hard, she could feel herself willing it, demanding that it come true.

  She suddenly felt moisture on her cheeks. She opened her eyes, and was amazed to see that it had started to snow. She was in awe. Had the universe answered her?

  She reached out and tossed the coin. She watched as it sank through the clear water and settled on the bottom. Her heart leapt to see that it landed head-first.

  She felt a warm thrill run through her body, hoping beyond hope that maybe, just maybe, it could happen.

  She looked over in time to see Polly toss hers and she watched as it sank down to the bottom. It landed tails-first. The hopeful expression on Polly’s face collapsed into one of despair. Caitlin felt terrible for her.

  “Don’t worry,” Caitlin said, hoping to console her, “I’m sure it’s all just an old wives’ tale. I’m sure whatever you wished for will come true no matter what.” But Polly looked crushed.
“No it won’t. It landed tails-first.” Caitlin came over and put a reassuring hand around Polly’s shoulder, not knowing what to say.

  “What did you wish for?” Caitlin asked.

  As she looked at her, Caitlin could see that Polly was nearly in tears.

  “I wished to be together with your brother, forever. That was all I wanted.” Caitlin felt a chill run through her spine at the seriousness of Polly’s tone. She had never heard her sound more serious about anything since she’d known her. She could hear in her voice how much she loved Sam, how much it meant to her to be with him.

  Caitlin didn’t know what to say. This was the first she’d ever heard either of them express their love for each other.

  As she was thinking of something to say in response, suddenly Taylor rushed over, with an alarmed expression.

  “Where’s Scarlet?” she asked, dread in her voice. “And Ruth?” Caitlin’s heart stopped, and she suddenly spun around wildly, searching for them. They were gone.

  Caitlin couldn’t understand it. Just a moment before, they had been by her side. Now, it was as if they had completely vanished. She had no idea where they could have gone in this empty landscape.

  Caitlin’s heart started pounding.

  “Scarlet!” Caitlin screamed, hearing the desperation in her own voice Suddenly, dark clouds covered the sun, and a cold breeze ripped through the lake, blowing the snow more strongly.

  And as it did, Caitlin had the sudden feeling that she would never see Scarlet again.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Scarlet skipped along the open meadow in high spirits, Ruth at her side. While everyone had been standing around making their wishes, she’d decided that she didn’t want to make a wish after all: everything she could ever wish for, she’d realized, had already come true. She was away from that horrible, awful foster parent who had beat her in London; she was safe and sound with Caitlin and Caleb; she had new parents who she loved; and she also had Ruth, who she loved like a sister. There was nothing else Scarlet wanted in the world. So she decided she’d leave the wish-making for grown-ups.