Before Dawn

  As they ran forward Kate screamed at them to stop. In that moment, she unleashed the powers inside of her that the prophecy had foretold. The vampires covered their ears and bent forward as Kate’s voice pierced the room.

  “Get back!” she cried. “I said get back!”

  With her cry came a huge gust of wind. It was so strong the three vampires were forced back against the wall, their hair and clothes whipping around them as they tried to shield their faces.

  Kate turned her face down to Elijah again, rocking him in her arms.

  “Wake up,” she said, her heart aching. “Please come back to me.”

  “This charade is over,” Elijah’s mother said from the other side of the room. “Give him to us. He doesn’t belong with you.” The expression on her face was one of pure contempt.

  Kate cradled Elijah’s unconscious body in her arms. “He doesn’t want to go with you!” she cried.

  The girl narrowed her eyes.

  “You’re in love with him,” she said as though it were an accusation. “You’re in love with my betrothed!” Her voice was filled with venom.

  Elijah’s mother put her arm on the girl as though holding her back from unleashing the full fury of her anger.

  Kate swallowed hard. So this was the girl Elijah was destined to marry, the one he’d rather die than be forced to be partnered with for eternity?

  “If you really do love him,” Elijah’s father said, “you would give him to us. Let us take him for The Breeding before it’s too late.”

  Kate silently willed Elijah to wake up, to turn her fully into a vampire so that she could kiss him and end this whole nightmare. But it was no use, he was out cold. He was so close to death.

  And that meant that she was the one with the full power to choose his destiny. All she had to do was hand him over to his coven and he would be saved, able to live out the rest of his life…

  She looked up into the eyes of the three vampires. Apart from Elijah’s betrothed, who was looking at her with pure hatred, the others, his parents, were appealing to her, pleading with her silently to give him up to them before it was too late. There was pain in their eyes, a pain she recognized as love.

  “You won’t punish him?” Kate said, her voice quivering. “For trying to defy you?”

  His dad shook his head. “No. We just want what’s best for him. He doesn’t belong in your world. You need to let him go.”

  He took a cautious step forward.

  Kate’s eyes clouded over with tears. She couldn’t just let Elijah die in her arms. But she also couldn’t condemn him to a life he didn’t want.

  “It isn’t what he wants,” she stammered.

  “Few do want it,” his mother replied. She too was stepping cautiously toward Kate. “But it is part of our culture, our tradition. It’s who we are. It’s not for you to change laws that have existed since the dawn of time.”

  Kate didn’t know what to do. Her mind was whirling with thoughts. She was torn with indecision.

  All at once, the girl rammed forward, pushing past Elijah’s parents. She raced toward Kate and pounced. Kate hit out as they fell in a heap, twisting, hissing, fangs bared like animals.

  “You filthy human,” she hissed. “He’ll never be satisfied with you.”

  They rolled across the floor. Kate grappled with the girl but found herself overpowered. Suddenly, teeth bore down on her neck and the girl began draining her blood.

  All at once, Kate felt a surge of strength. She managed to flip the girl onto her back and crouched over her, pinning her to the floor by her neck. A look of pure panic flickered across the girl’s face as Kate squeezed. She felt the girl’s neck crack in her hand. Then her eyes closed and her head flopped to the side. She was dead.

  “No!” she heard Elijah’s mother scream.

  Kate leaped up to her feet, shocked by the strength contained in her one hand.

  Elijah’s parents charged. But even the two of them, with their super vampire strength, were no match for Kate. Like the prophecy had predicted, she was far more powerful than any of them. She caught them both with her outstretched arms, making them flip over backwards and land on their backs. They lay groaning on the floor.

  With no time to waste, Kate rushed over to Elijah. He was murmuring as though feverish and his face glistened with sweat.

  “Elijah,” she cried. His eyes fluttered open as though in response. “You have to drink,” she said. She exposed her neck where the girl had already punctured her with her fangs. She’d already started the process; all Elijah had to do now was finish it. “Please,” Kate begged. “Drink.”

  She pressed her neck onto his fangs. As though some instinct took over, Elijah bit down. She felt her blood begin to drain from her body and shuddered as the pain overwhelmed her. Her head swam and her vision started to go back.

  Suddenly, Elijah’s parents were right there, recovered from Kate’s blows. They started tugging her away from him. Her body was as floppy as a ragdoll as they wrenched them apart.

  “What have you done?” his father screamed at Kate. “You killed his mate! You’ve sentenced him to death!”

  “He didn’t love her,” Kate gasped. “I’m his true mate, not her.”

  “Your love is forbidden,” his mom cried back. “Human and vampire relations can never exist.”

  Kate only hoped between the girl and Elijah enough of her blood had been taken to turn her into a true vampire. And that meant all she had to do now was get back to Elijah, to finish what was needed to be done to save his life; to kiss him.

  She rolled onto her stomach, her arms so weak she could barely hold her head up, and began to crawl on her elbows toward Elijah.

  “Don’t you dare,” his father screamed, grabbing her legs so she couldn’t get any closer.

  But as he held her fast, grappling with her against the floor, Kate started to feel her body change. She’d been turning slowly over the last few weeks, becoming more vampire with each day that passed, but now, suddenly, the whole process seemed to speed up.

  She screamed as pain ricocheted through her body and arched her back up, clawing at the ground.

  “She’s turning,” Elijah’s mom said, her voice strained.

  Every part of Kate shuddered as the last parts of her human body died inside of her, letting the vampire part take over. She gasped for air, feeling like she was choking, drowning, unable to breathe.

  Finally, she fell back against the ground. Everything was silent and calm, like she’d entered the eye of the storm.

  She sat up and saw that at the farthest end of the room, Elijah’s parents had picked him up. They were huddled around him and a huge black cloud was forming around them. It seemed to be swallowing them up.

  Kate realized that they were taking him away, moving him through space like he had moved her those times before.

  Feeling rejuvenated and powerful in her full vampire body, Kate leaped up and raced toward them. She barreled into them, so hard they fell against the window. It smashed, sending shards of glass into the cold New York air. And then they were falling, all four of them in a huddle, plummeting through the window of the tower and heading toward the ground.

  The wind ripped through their hair and clothes as they fell faster and faster. Elijah’s mom lost hold of the group and spun away in a different direction. Kate saw a black cloud consume her and then she disappeared, having transported herself somewhere else. A second later, his father lost his grip on them too and the same black cloud wrenched him out of danger.

  Though battered by the force of the wind, Kate managed to keep her gasp on Elijah. As the ice cold New York air lashed against her skin, she brought her lips against his.

  Nothing happened. The prophecy had been wrong. She couldn’t save him.

  The ground was still racing up to meet them. They were seconds from certain death. It was only then that Kate remembered she was a real vampire now, fully fledged, and that meant she had the power to move them through space.
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  She closed her eyes and imagined them back on the roof of his house, looking out over the Pacific Ocean. As she willed the image into existence a black cloud began to form around her. It was working. She was moving them through space.

  The falling sensation ceased. Then the skyscrapers disappeared and the sound of racing traffic faded to silence. They were floating, the two of them, in an empty black chasm.

  Suddenly, she felt a hand on her cheek. She gasped and turned her head to face Elijah. He was awake. His eyes were glistening with tears.

  “You saved me,” he said.

  Kate brought her lips against his, and just like when he had sucked her blood from her instinctively, some kind of force beyond themselves took over. They kissed deeply, passionately, pouring all the love they felt toward one another into that one kiss.

  Kate and Elijah clung together. Kate didn’t know where they would end up, or what the coven might do to them when they found out what had happened, but she didn’t care. Because she knew that she and Elijah would be together forever.

  Whatever the future held for them, they would face it together.

  COMING SOON!

  BOOK #2 IN THE VAMPIRE, FALLEN SERIES

  In the meantime please enjoy the first chapter of TURNED, book #1 in my bestselling series, THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Caitlin Paine always dreaded her first day at a new school. There were the big things, like meeting new friends, the new teachers, learning new hallways. And there were the small things, like getting a new locker, the smell of a new place, the sounds it made. More than anything, she dreaded the stares. She felt that everyone in a new place always stared at her. All she wanted was anonymity. But it never seemed meant to be.

  Caitlin couldn’t understand why she was so conspicuous. At five foot five she wasn’t especially tall, and with her brown hair and brown eyes (and normal weight) she felt she was average. Certainly not beautiful, like some of the other girls. At 18, she was a bit older, but not enough to make her stand out.

  There was something else. There was something about her that made people look twice. She knew, deep down, that she was different. But she wasn’t exactly sure how.

  If there was anything worse than a first day, it was starting in mid-term, after everyone else already had time to bond. Today, this first day, in mid-March, was going to be one of the worst. She could feel it already.

  In her wildest imagination, though, she never thought it would be this bad. Nothing she had ever seen—and she had seen a lot—had prepared her for this.

  Caitlin stood outside her new school, a vast New York City public school, in the freezing March morning, and wondered, Why me? She was way underdressed, in just a sweater and leggings, and not even remotely prepared for the noisy chaos that greeted her. Hundreds of kids stood there, clamoring, screaming, and shoving each other. It looked like a prison yard.

  It was all too loud. These kids laughed too loud, cursed too much, shoved each other too hard. She would have thought it was a massive brawl if she didn’t spot some smiles and mocking laughter. They just had too much energy, and she, exhausted, freezing, sleep-deprived, couldn’t understand where it came from. She closed her eyes and wished it would all go away.

  She reached into her pockets and felt something: her ipod. Yes. She put her headphones in her ears and turned it up. She needed to drown it all out.

  But nothing came. She looked down and saw the battery was dead. Perfect.

  She checked her phone, hoping for some distraction, anything. No new messages.

  She looked up. Looking out at the sea of new faces, she felt alone. Not because she was the only white girl—she actually preferred that. Some of her closest friends at other schools had been black, Spanish, Asian, Indian—and some of her meanest frenemies had been white. No, that wasn’t it. She felt alone because it was urban. She stood on concrete. A loud buzzer had rang to admit her into this “recreational area,” and she had had to pass through large, metal gates. Now she was boxed in—caged in by massive metal gates, topped by barbed-wire. She felt like she’d gone to prison.

  Looking up at the massive school, bars and cages on all the windows, didn’t make her feel any better. She always adapted to new schools easily, large and small—but they had all been in suburbia. They had all had grass, trees, sky. Here, there was nothing but city. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. It terrified her.

  Another loud buzzer sounded and she shuffled her way, with hundreds of kids, towards the entrance. She was jostled roughly by a large girl, and dropped her journal. She picked it up (messing up her hair), and then looked up to see if the girl would apologize. But she was nowhere to be seen, having already moved on in the swarm. She did hear laughter, but couldn’t tell if it was directed at her.

  She clutched her journal, the one thing that grounded her. It had been with her everywhere. She kept notes and drawings in every place she went. It was a roadmap of her childhood.

  She finally reached the entrance, and had to squeeze in just to walk through. It was like entering a train at rush hour. She had hoped it would be warm once she got inside, but the open doors behind her kept a stiff breeze blowing down her back, making the cold even worse.

  Two large security guards stood at the entrance, flanked by two New York City policemen, in full uniform, guns conspicuously at their side.

  “KEEP MOVING!” commanded one of them.

  She couldn’t fathom why two armed policemen would have to guard a high school entrance. Her feeling of dread grew. It got much worse when she looked up and saw that she’d have to pass through a metal detector with airport-style security.

  Four more armed policemen stood on either side of the detector, along with two more security guards.

  “EMPTY YOUR POCKETS!” snapped a guard.

  Caitlin noticed the other kids filling small plastic containers with items from their pockets. She quickly did the same, inserting her ipod, wallet, keys.

  She shuffled through the detector, and the alarm shrieked.

  “YOU!” snapped a guard. “Off to the side!”

  Of course.

  All the kids stared as she was made to raise her arms, and the guard ran the handheld scanner up and down her body.

  “Are you wearing any jewelry?”

  She felt her wrists, then her neckline, and suddenly remembered. Her cross.

  “Take it off,” snapped the guard.

  It was the necklace her grandmother gave her before she passed, a small, silver cross, engraved with a description in Latin which she never had translated. Her grandmother told her it was passed down by her grandmother. Caitlin wasn’t religious, and didn’t really understand what it all meant, but she knew it was hundreds of years old, and it was by far the most valuable thing she owned.

  Caitlin lifted it from her shirt, holding it up, but not taking it off.

  “I’d rather not,” she answered.

  The guard stared at her, cold as ice.

  Suddenly, a commotion broke out. There was shouting as a cop grabbed a tall, thin kid and shoved him against a wall, removing a small knife from his pocket.

  The guard went to assist, and Caitlin took the opportunity to slip into the crowd moving its way down the hall.

  Welcome to New York public school, Caitlin thought. Great.

  She was already counting the days to graduation.

  *

  The hallways were the widest she’d ever seen. She couldn’t imagine that they could ever be filled, yet somehow they were completely packed, with all the kids crammed in shoulder to shoulder. There must have been thousands of kids in these halls, the sea of faces stretching endlessly. The noise in here was even worse, bouncing off the walls, condensed. She wanted to cover her ears. But she didn’t even have elbow space to raise her arms. She felt claustrophobic.

  The bell rang, and the energy increased.

  Already late.

  She scanned her room card again and finally spotted the room in t
he distance. She tried to cut across the sea of bodies, but wasn’t getting anywhere. Finally, after several attempts, she realized she just had to get aggressive. She started elbowing and jostling back. One body at a time, she cut through all the kids, across the wide hall, and pushed the heavy door open to her classroom.

  She braced herself for all the looks as she, the new girl, walked in late. She imagined the teacher scolding her for interrupting a silent room. But she was shocked to discover that was not the case at all. This room, designed for 30 kids but holding 50, was packed. Some kids sat in their seats, and others walked the aisles, shouting and yelling at each other. It was mayhem.

  The bell had rang five full minutes ago, yet the teacher, disheveled, wearing a rumpled suit, hadn’t even started the class. He actually sat with his feet up on the desk, reading the paper, ignoring everyone.

  Caitlin walked over to him and placed her new I.D. card on the desk. She stood there and waited for him to look up, but he never did.

  She finally cleared her throat.

  “Excuse me.”

  He reluctantly lowered his newspaper.

  “I’m Caitlin Paine. I’m new. I think I’m supposed to give you this.”

  “I’m just a sub,” he replied, and raised his paper, blocking her.

  She stood there, confused.

  “So,” she asked, “….you don’t take attendance?”

  “Your teacher’s back on Monday,” he snapped. “He’ll deal with it.”

  Realizing the conversation was over, Caitlin took back her I.D. card.

  She turned and faced the room. The mayhem hadn’t stopped. If there was any saving grace, at least she wasn’t conspicuous. No one here seemed to care about her, or to even notice her at all.

  On the other hand, scanning the packed room was nerve-wracking: there didn’t seem like any place left to sit.

  She steeled herself and, clutching her journal, walked tentatively down one of the aisles, flinching a few times as she walked between unruly kids screaming at each other. As she reached the back, she could finally see the entire room.