She caught sight of Sage lying on the velvet sofa, turned to stone, and stopped dead on the spot. There was no point going on. There was no point in living.
Scarlet closed her eyes, preparing for the sensation of a thousand murderous vampires descending on her.
Suddenly, the doors to the estate burst open and the police and national guard filed in. The national guard were holding guns and riot shields. The police were equipped with planks of wood. At the front of the group stood a woman in a police uniform holding a megaphone.
“Use the wood to kill the vampires,” she was shouting into the megaphone. “Good old bullets will kill the convicts.”
The army and police streamed past Scarlet, armed with their planks of wood and guns. Scarlet stood there, stunned. She realized that standing on either side of the woman with the megaphone were Jasmine and Becca.
“Scarlet!” they cried, running forward and grabbing their friend.
Scarlet was overwhelmed with grief. She collapsed into their arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Behind her came the sounds of gunfire. Vampires were shouting, exploding into clouds of dust all around them.
“You’re okay, Scarlet,” Becca was saying to her friend.
But Scarlet’s sobs were uncontrollable. Her grief was all consuming.
“Sage is dead,” she wailed. “Sage is dead!”
She broke free from the embrace of her friends and ran towards where Sage was lying. From somewhere far away she heard someone shout, “No! She’s not one of them!” At the same time, a sharp pain shot through her stomach. She looked down and saw a jagged shard of wood protruding straight through her body. She’d been stabbed with a stake.
She was dying.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Caitlin and Caleb ran through the mansion doors. They’d seen the vampire army descend on the estate, followed by the police and military. But knowing their daughter was inside was enough to make them enter, too. They braced themselves for carnage—but what they saw was far worse than they’d ever imagined.
There, lying on the floor, bleeding, was Scarlet. Her breath was rapid. She was covered in mud and dirt. She looked like she’d been dragged through Hell and back.
Scarlet’s friends were watching her with looks of horror on their faces. A police woman was standing solemnly beside them.
Caitlin screamed in anguish and rushed forward to her daughter. She grabbed her limp body and pulled her into her chest.
“Drink, Scarlet,” she said, offering her arm to her dying daughter. “Drink. Please!”
Scarlet was trying to say no but she couldn’t make a sound at all.
“Listen to me,” Caitlin said sternly. “I’ve read all the prophecies, all the texts and books and literature. I’ve been transported to Egypt, to the lost vampire city beneath the sphinx. I am the last vampire, Scarlet. Not you. Drink my blood and you’ll become human again.”
As soon as Caitlin said the words ‘human again’ a strange look passed over Scarlet’s eyes. It was a look of grief, a mournful sorrow. But the girl took her mother’s arm in her mouth nonetheless. A tear trickled from her eye as she bit into the flesh and began to drink.
Caitlin winced but didn’t want her daughter to see her in pain. She rocked Scarlet back and forth like a baby, trying to soothe her. Caleb stood by his wife, rubbing her shoulders, trying his best not to weep, to look like the strong protector he was supposed to be.
Scarlet drank and drank, and as she did so, she grew stronger. But Caitlin, in turn, became weaker. Then, suddenly, Caitlin lost consciousness. She fell to her side, flopping against the marble floor with a thud. Caleb swooped her up into his arms and settled her into a window seat, holding her limp body tightly against his.
“I’m sorry!” Scarlet cried as sat up and wiped the tears and blood from her face.
She stood and ran over to her parents.
“Mom!” she screamed. “Mom, I’m sorry! Wake up. Please!”
But it was too late, her mother was on the brink of death, and Scarlet knew that if she died, it would be all her fault.
The doors to the mansion burst open and Kyle ran in, covered in mud from his wrestle with Sam on the banks of the Hudson. He surveyed the carnage, took in the sight of his floundering vampire army, and roared in despair.
“You!” he said, seeing Scarlet.
He zoomed towards her as quickly as a bullet from a gun and grabbed her round the throat, wrenching her into the air. Caleb leapt up and pounced at Kyle. He began pummelling Kyle’s back but it was no use. Kyle was far too strong and far too determined to be stopped.
As Scarlet dangled in the air, kicking her feet, Kyle squeezed. The look in his eye was one of murderous intent.
Then all at once, Kyle froze. He dropped Scarlet and staggered to the side as though in tremendous pain. Something was happening. Something strange and mystical.
“You’re human!” he cried, spitting out the word at Scarlet like an accusation.
Scarlet touched herself all over. It was true. Her mother had been right. She’d had taken the vampire out of Scarlet and turned her back into a human.
But that meant that Kyle no longer had a sire. The mystical vampire bloodline that passed from one vampire to the next was gone, evaporating like steam from a puddle. It was as though it had never existed.
Kyle clutched his chest as he was gripped by pain. Elsewhere in the mansion, the sounds of screaming and shouting began ringing out.
“What’s happening?” Scarlet cried.
It was Caleb who answered. His expression was gravely serious.
“They’re reverting back to humans,” he said. “Without their sire, the vampire part of them is disappearing.”
“I don’t understand,” Scarlet said.
Caleb looked back over at Caitlin slumped in the window seat.
“Your mother is an extraordinary woman,” he said. He smiled in spite of his anguish, proud of her wife and that amazing brain of hers. “She’s changed the timeline, changed the course of events. By reverting back to the original vampire, it’s as though you were never a vampire in the first place. And if you were never a vampire, then he couldn’t have been turned.” He pointed at where Kyle was writhing on the floor in agony. “It’s like he never existed in the first place.”
Scarlet watched on, her mouth agape, as the high schoolers who just moments before had been rampaging through the city streets killing innocent people became suddenly conscious of what they had done.
“Stand down,” Sadie Marlow cried into her megaphone.
She went over to Kyle and handcuffed him. Then everyone looked around as the former teenage vampire army dissolved into sobs of grief.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
A cold gray morning light settled over the mansion. As the fire fighters trudged out, having put out the large fire that had raged in the bedroom, an eerie sort of calm settled over the manor and the people still within it. The high schoolers were weeping, huddling up together, mourning the loss of friends who had been killed whilst vampires and would not be returning to their human form.
All morning a series of prison vans had come and gone, taking with them the inmates that had remained humans, along with those who’d had the brief pleasure of being vampires before reverting back to human form. A series of undertakers had also come and gone, removing the police and army personnel who’d lost their lives in the fight.
Standing in the middle of the whole thing were the stone statues of Octal and Lore’s mother. Then further into the living room were Lore and Lyra in their lovers’ grip, together forever like a work of art.
Finally, the stone body of Sage lay in his position on the sofa. Scarlet rested her head on his chest. The stone he’d turned into was still warm. If Scarlet closed her eyes, she could almost pretend to hear his heart beating.
What hurt her more than anything was the cruel irony that the reason he hadn’t gone to the vampire city was because a vampire and human could never live peacefully together. And y
et here she was, no longer a vampire, but just a lowly human girl.
Scarlet sat up. She had a sudden idea. It was a long shot but surely it was worth it.
Using the hand that had not been put into a sling, she pried the vial from Sage’s hand. The drop of immortal blood glistened at the bottom. Scarlet unplugged the stopper and pulled out the long, thin, tapered glass dropper. She held it over Sage’s lips. The drop of blood fell into his mouth.
Nothing happened.
Then, desperate, her heart pounding, tears flooding her face, she leaned forward and kissed his stone lips.
At once, the gray stone that had replaced Sage’s skin began to crack. He took in a deep breath, making shards of stone shatter to the ground. His eyes flew open and he sat up in one swift movement. The stone shell that had been encasing him fell to the floor and shattered. He looked more alive than Scarlet had ever seen him.
“Sage!” she cried, not quite believing it had worked.
Sage looked at her, his eyes wide with shock.
“What’s happened?” he said, glancing at the debris and carnage that surrounded him.
“We have a second chance,” Scarlet said, too happy to hold back her tears. “A chance to both live normal mortal lives.”
Sage’s eyes widened with emotion.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “How?”
Scarlet gestured to where Caitlin was resting in the window seat. Hours had passed but she was still pale and weak. She hadn’t regained consciousness. She was being tended to by Caleb. Her uncle Sam was there too and even Polly had turned up to support her family.
“My mother found a way to turn me back into a human,” Scarlet said. “She took the vampire blood out me completely.”
Sage could hardly speak through his joy.
“You mean we could still go to the vampire city?” he said. “And I could become a human?”
Scarlet nodded.
“But the last vampire,” Sage said. “Wasn’t that part of the spell? Didn’t I have to drain the blood of the last vampire?”
“There are no more vampires,” she said. “Everything has changed. Fate itself has changed.”
Sage laughed and shook his head, so shocked he didn’t know what to say.
“When do we leave?” he asked.
Scarlet stood and offered her hand to him.
“Right away,” she replied.
“And how do we get there?” he said, taking her hand in his. “I thought the vampire city was lost.”
Scarlet looked back at her mother.
“She told me she had been there. She must know a way.”
Together, Sage and Scarlet walked over to where her family were tending to Caitlin. Caleb pulled his daughter into an embrace.
“Is mom going to be okay?” Scarlet asked.
“I don’t know,” Caleb replied. “How are you feeling?”
Scarlet smiled.
“Human,” she said. Then she looked up at her father. “Dad, I need to ask you something. Mom told me she’d been to the lost vampire city. I need to go there too.”
Caleb frowned.
“Why?” he asked.
Scarlet glanced over at Sage.
“We don’t have much time,” she said. “But if Sage and I go to the vampire city, he can become human too. He can become mortal, like me.”
Caleb eyed the man who’d stolen his daughter’s heart. Then he pulled the leather box from his pocket and handed it to Scarlet.
“This will take you where you need to go.”
Scarlet took the box and ran her finger over the flower design on the front.
She knelt beside her mother.
“I can’t go if she won’t live,” Scarlet said, wiping back a tear. “Mom? I love you mom.”
Caleb lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“Go,” he said. “She will live. And she would want you to go.”
Scarlet kissed her mother slowly. Then she turned to Sage. The couple held hands, walking away to find some privacy and begin their journey to the lost vampire city beneath the sphinx.
Caleb watched his daughter go, then turned back to his wife. She’d made the ultimate sacrifice for the love of their daughter. She’d given up her humanity, possibly even her life. Only time would tell how much of a sacrifice she had truly made.
Caleb sat with his wife the whole morning through, until the sun was high in the sky. Though it was a cold day, it was bright, and light glittered off the Hudson river. The others filtered out, and soon it was just Caleb and Caitlin left.
Caleb stroked his wife’s pale hand and watched the river rippling from the window. He was exhausted and couldn’t even remember the last time he’d slept.
Just as he was nodding off, he was startled by a voice. His eyes pinged opened and he looked down. Caitlin’s eyes were open.
Caleb pulled his wife into an embrace and let the tears he’d been holding up fall freely.
“I thought I’d lost you forever,” he said.
Caitlin held her husband tightly.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she replied.
Caleb let go and moved back. He studied his wife’s face.
“Are you human?” he said. “Or vampire?”
Caitlin smiled, showing off a tooth that was somewhere between normal and a fang.
“I think,” she said, “I’m a bit of both.”
He leaned in and they kissed, and that kiss transported them both back. Back in time, back through all the places they had been and lived. Back through their relationship, from the day they’d met, to having Scarlet, to now. Back through everything they had been through. So many obstacles had come in their path. So many people, vampire, human, immortalist, had tried to tear them apart. But none had succeeded. After all this, all they had been through, here they were, still together.
And they would, they both knew, be together forever. No matter what.
Her vampire journals, after so many centuries, could finally be sealed.
It was time for them to start living again.
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BEFORE DAWN
(Vampire, Fallen—Book 1)
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"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!"
--Vampirebooksite.com (re Turned)
In BEFORE DAWN (Book #1 of Vampire, Fallen), Kate, 17, hates her life. An outcast in her own family, who doesn’t understand her, she is hated by her more popular and beautiful sister, and despised by her controlling mother, who favors her sister over her. Kate’s only solace is her friends and her smarts. But even with that, her life seems destined for a dead-end—especially when her mother announces she will have to stay back from college to pay for her sister’s tuition.
But one day, all that changes. On her 17th birthday, one of the popular boys falls for her. At the same time, a mysterious new boy, Elijah, arrives at her school, and their connection is undeniable. All seems to be turning her way—when a terrible accident turns her life upside down.
Kate is supposed to die. But on the verge of death, something happens, something which keeps her alive, which transforms her into something she was never meant to be. In the twilight between life and death, Kate becomes something no one has ever been before.
The debut of a spectacular new series rife with love, loss, heartbreak and redemption, BEFORE DAWN offers a fresh take on the vampire genre. With its heart-pounding suspense and characters you will fall in love with, it will keep you reading late into the night and make you fall in love with fantasy all over again.
"Refreshing and unique, has the classic elements found in many Young Adult paranormal stories….Easy to read but extremely fast-paced....Recommended for anyone who likes to read soft paranormal romances. Rated PG."
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“Grabbed my attention from the beginning and did not let go….This story is an amazing adventure that is fast paced and action packed from the very beginning.”
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BEFORE DAWN
(Vampire, Fallen—Book 1)
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COMING IN APRIL, 2016
SLAVE, WARRIOR, QUEEN
(Of Crowns and Glory—Book 1)
17 year old Adina, a beautiful, poor girl in the Empire city of Ceres, lives the harsh and unforgiving life of a commoner. By day she delivers her father’s forged weapons to the palace training grounds, and by night she secretly trains with them, yearning to be a warrior in a land where girls are forbidden to fight. With her pending sale to slavehood, she is desperate.
18 year old Prince Thanos despises everything his royal family stands for. He abhors their harsh treatment of the masses, especially the brutal competition—The Killings—that lies at the heart of the city. He yearns to break free from the restraints of his upbringing, yet he, a fine warrior, sees no way out.
When Adina stuns the court with her hidden powers, she finds herself wrongfully imprisoned, doomed to an even worse life than she could imagine. Thanos, smitten, must choose if he will risk it all for her. Yet, thrust into a world of duplicity and deadly secrets, Adina quickly learns there are those who rule, and those who are their pawns. And that sometimes, being chosen is the worst that can happen.
SLAVE, WARRIOR, QUEEN tells an epic tale of tragic love, vengeance, betrayal, ambition, and destiny. Filled with unforgettable characters and heart-pounding action, it transports us into a world we will never forget, and makes us fall in love with fantasy all over again.