Empath (Book 1 of The Empath Trilogy)

  Ch. 51

  The flight home was long but pleasant and I was still basking in the afterglow of a glorious last day in Edinburgh with James. My hand kept going to my throat and moving my necklace so that I could look at it. It was “us” I had said. And now, we were going to be “us” for a lot longer thanks to Miranda’s interest.

  We deplaned and walked to our car. As soon as we were inside, the phone buzzed and James snapped it open. “Henry, yes we’re on the ground. Have you had any luck finding anything?”

  At the mention of Henry’s name, my ears pricked and I sat up. I guessed we were going to hit the ground running. Of course. We just needed to avoid a war between humankind and vampires, then we could relax. No problem.

  James listened quietly, occasionally making a noise into the phone. His face was expressionless as his thoughts ran elsewhere. After a moment, he hung up his phone and started the car. He snapped his sunglasses into place and I felt the familiar irk. I wanted to be able to see his eyes and get a better read for what was really happening.

  Caught up in his own thoughts, James still hadn’t spoken by the time we were driving rapidly up the freeway toward home. “I would assume we are going to your house?” I prompted somewhat crossly.

  Without taking his eyes off the road, he answered tightly. “Claire, things have changed here while we’ve been gone. You are in danger as long as they are in the area.” We both knew who “they” were. Settling back into my seat, I sighed and crossed my arms. So much for my afterglow.

  He glanced at me as he exited the freeway. We were already in his neighborhood. That hadn’t taken long. “Henry said that there has been increased traffic at Glamour, you remember the club.” It wasn’t a question and I didn’t feel inclined to interrupt. “There are some new vampires in from out of town and Bradley owns the club so we’ve been watching it. The newcomers have been keeping to themselves and Henry’s man says they look like pretty rough customers. They might be the ones we’ve been waiting for. I’m going to have to put you under lock and key for the time being.”

  “No,” I blurted, hating the idea of being a prisoner even if it was for my protection.

  His free hand reached over and stroked mine, sitting on my knee. “I know you don’t like being kept hidden, but what else can I do? You might get hurt out walking around and even if it weren’t for how much I love you, I am still sworn to protect you.”

  Fearing something had changed to raise the threat level, I stared straight ahead and tried to keep my voice even. “Has anything, uh, happened? Is everyone okay?”

  We had pulled up to James’ house and I opened my door. James put a hand on my arm to stop me shaking his head. “No one is here. Henry asked me to stop and grab some files on the way to Tara’s where they are all waiting for us.”

  James scanned the area, frowning. “Stay here, I’ll just be a moment.” In a flash, he was gone and his front door was closing. It felt eerily quiet without him and I turned up the radio.

  He had been gone less than a minute when a movement to my right caught my eye. I knew without a doubt that I was in trouble. Just like in Edinburgh at the Court, I was able to think through my options quickly, yet thoroughly, and without distraction. My guess, knowing what I did now, was that it was an effect of the marks allowing me to be calm under pressure. Like him.

  I was reaching over to honk the horn to get James’ attention, when my door whipped open and a pale hand locked on my arm at the wrist. Looking back, I saw the face that haunted my nightmares. Gina’s eyes were black with hatred, lips curled up to show her fangs fully extended for attack. With a force and swiftness that took us both by surprise, my free hand flew across my body palm first to smash up into her nose. I felt the crunching of bone as it broke. Her hands flew to her face and I was free. My left hand flew back to honk the car horn and I was successful in giving it one push before her clawlike hands were locked around my arms, pulling me out of the car and down the driveway.

  With my hypersensitivity, I could see several things at once. I saw a curtain move upstairs in the house when I honked the horn. The blue Mercedes I had seen before pulled up with a screech at the end of the short driveway and the half crazy vampire carried me toward the now open rear passenger door of the blue car. The small Asian man flew out of the front passenger door with a knife held in front of him. I was only relieved for a moment when he passed me to stick the knife into the back tires of the Audi, instantly disabling the car.

  “Claire!” I heard James shout in anguish through the glass as the woman pushed me in, slid in beside me and slammed the door. James had made it to the front door as we pulled away from the curb, only to be intercepted by a blur of something rushing across his lawn and colliding with him, knocking him back into the house. I saw the frustration on his face as he wrestled only for a few seconds with the vampire before casting the limp body into the interior of his house.

  My attention was brought back to my immediate danger as the woman next to me hissed, “You’re stronger than you look, human. I’m going to make you pay for that when he gives you to me.” My mouth fell open and I watched her lips curl into a cruel smile around her fangs. The blood had already stopped and she was wiping at her face with her sleeve. “He promised I don’t have to give you back this time.”

  I tried to clear my head, to think things through, except all I could think about was the pain she was clearly excited to inflict upon me. Death was frightening enough, but she was going to make it hurt and I already had a small taste of her methods. Being better equipped to physically handle damage gave me no comfort. I wondered just how much more I could take before it was too much. I started breathing faster until eventually my mind shut down from the lack of oxygen, and I faded out.