Chapter 29
Shattered
Jael let another arrow fly. The vamp she was aiming at turned to stare after the departing truck and the arrow whizzed past his head. He ran and disappeared behind the railroad station before she could nail him with another try.
She heard the snap of a twig close behind her, too close to set an arrow. She slipped a knife from her boot and spun quickly, sending the blade singing through the air and directly into the heart of a female vamp no more than fifteen feet away. The woman toppled forward, black skirts tangling around her legs and fell face first into a pile of gravel. Jael watched her crumple to dust. Good. She was definitely dead this time. She’d wasted two knives on the woman already.
Now that Brianna and her parents were out of immediate danger, she drew a deep breath and took a moment to gather her thoughts and scope out the scene. The vampire acting as leader had fallen with an arrow to his back but she knew he wasn’t destroyed, and now his body was nowhere to be seen. Had he gone after Brianna when her attention was diverted to the others?
The sound of an engine drew her gaze back to the building. She straightened up from where she was crouched behind a pile of old railroad ties and drew a stake from her belt. Suddenly a dark pickup shot out into the clearing. It hit the edge of the pile of ties, sending them flying back toward her. She leaped away just in time, landed in the tall grass and rolled to her feet with the agility of a feline.
The pickup truck roared past, heading for the road. She saw two faces stare back at her from the dark double cab, malevolence glaring and intense. The leader had survived and was getting away. Dust rose up and choked her. She coughed, covering her face with the sleeve of her jacket. Then she heard the rumble of Shadow’s bike.
He’d ridden in the back way, staying well out of sight and sound until just the right time. Now he powered over the bumps and dips and pulled up beside her, sliding his back tire when he came to a stop. She’d never seen anything quite so welcome as the confident smirk he wore.
“Hop on, slayer. Don’t want to let any of those creeps get away, do ya?”
She grasped him around the waist, slid a leg up and over the seat of the bike and held on for dear life when he pulled back on the throttle. The bike lurched forward, spun sideways a bit until he got it under control in the loose sand and gravel, then gained speed as they roared down the lane, pipes chugging like an angry heart.
Shadow barely slowed when the dirt road ended and the highway bisected their path. He put his boot down for balance and whipped around onto solid pavement. Tires squealed and then the roar of the engine and wind in her ears drowned out all else as they flew through the night.
The motorcycle’s headlight cut through the darkness, a swath of light leading them on. Jael peered over Shadow’s shoulder, squinting. The wind dried out her eyes and whipped hair around her face. Red taillights glinted in the distance. The vamps.
She pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt and tied the strings under her chin to keep hair from flying in a tangled mess. “Go faster!” she yelled close to Shadow’s ear. “They’re getting away!”
She watched the speedometer rise until the wind was too much and she pulled back to press her face into the middle of Shadow’s back and give her eyes a rest. If the vamps had Brianna, she didn’t know what she’d do. They were still at least a mile ahead. Had Seth made it to the road and intercepted Brianna in time or was her friend once again a prisoner to those monsters? If so, she might already be…
“Can’t you go any faster?” she yelled again.
Shadow shook his head. “It’s too dangerous!”
The old Harley was already pushing it. It hit 96 mph and started to shake more than seemed normal. When it backfired, Shadow let up on the throttle. He slowed even more, glancing down at the gages and back up at the road.
“Better call Seth,” he yelled over his shoulder, “I think he’s gonna need to pick us up!”
Jael pulled out her cellphone and scrolled through the names. She leaned close to Shadow’s back to break the wind so she could hear.
“Seth! Did you get Brianna?” she asked.
“Yep. She’s here. I’m taking her home. What’s wrong?”
His words were faint but they filled her with relief. “I can barely hear you. Could you pick us up? I think the bike is ready to give out. We tried to chase the vamps down, but two of them got away.”
“We’re turning around.”
She slipped the phone back in her pocket and looked up. At first she thought she was seeing double, that her eyes were just tired from the wind and late night. She blinked. There were definitely two sets of red taillights up ahead of them. A vehicle in each lane, as though they were drag racing. Fear settled in her gut with the heaviness of iron.
The vamps were trying to run her parents off the road.
The pickup swerved into the Suburban, sending it careening off the shoulder for a second. The old SUV pulled back onto the pavement and tried to get ahead of the pickup but the vamps hit the rear corner of their bumper and her parent’s vehicle went into a tailspin. The bike’s loud thumping masked the sounds of crashing metal and squealing tires ahead of them.
“You’ve got to catch up!” She was desperate to do something…anything. But it was no use. The bike sounded worse with every second and her parent’s struggle was taking place without her. There was no way she could get there in time and even if she did, what could she do?
Shadow twisted back on the throttle but instead of a burst of renewed speed, it coughed and sputtered and jerked, nearly sending her flying off the seat. The Harley slowly lost momentum and she watched in horror as her parent’s vehicle spun out of control on the road ahead, crashed into the pickup and flipped over it, then flipped again and again, end over end, like a toy thrown into the desert by an angry child.
She didn’t wait for the bike to come to a full and complete stop. She sprang off the back of the seat, and took off running down the middle of the highway. Early morning twilight was bright enough to reveal a cloud of dust slowly settling over the wreckage. As she drew closer, the crisp desert air was filled with a hint of smoke, exhaust and gasoline.
Her legs felt strong, fast. She’d never run like this before. It was as though she could feel the muscles and tendons strengthen and lengthen as she ran. Power filled her stride with every step. She grasped a stake in one hand, a knife in the other, ready for anything.
She was almost there.
One of the men thrust open the door of the pickup and stumbled out into the road. He started toward the wreck in the field and then stopped. The sound of her boots slapping against pavement had apparently alerted him to danger. He jerked around just in time to feel the knife enter his heart. Moving at a full-out run, she had thrown it with the precision of a surgeon, straight and true. He fell to the ground, writhing, his face twisted and angry. She came to an abrupt stop beside him, and plunged the stake deeper with the stomp of her boot. He crumbled like the ash on the end of a cigar. He wouldn’t be getting up from that.
She turned and glanced inside the pickup, but the driver’s side door already hung open, the cab empty. A tall, dark shadow moved resolutely ahead of her toward the wreckage in the field. Jael took off running again, the other stake grasped tightly in her hand. As she neared, she saw the vamp bend down to peer into the overturned vehicle. He said something and laughed.
Fifty yards…twenty… He straightened and turned, smiling as though meeting an old friend. She raised the stake and flew at him, anger melting away self-control. He dodged away and caught her across the back with something hard. She hit the corner of the truck with her hip and fell to her knees, the sleeve of her sweatshirt ripping open where it caught on something sharp and twisted. She’d dropped the stake and couldn’t see where it fell. He swung again and she rolled out of reach. He had a long piece of wood in his hands, probably picked up back at the railroad station, and was swinging at her like Babe Ruth trying to break open a piñata.
A soft moan echoed from under the dark, twisted mound of metal. It brought her to her senses. Her mom and dad needed her. She didn’t have time to play games. Glass lay at her feet. She tore the ripped sleeve of her sweatshirt off, wrapped it quickly around her hand and scooped up a razor-edged shard of glass.
The vampire came at her, stick swinging. He hit the front door of the car, leaving a dent the size of a basketball and more glass shattered. Jael heard her mom gasp from beneath the truck. His laughter was frenzied and madness was in his eyes. He knew he was going to hell and intent on taking her with him.
She moved back out of reach, edging toward the front of the Suburban where one wheel was still spinning crazily. He swung at her and she ducked. He hit the spinning wheel with the end of the stick. It flew out of his hands and over the truck like a boomerang, smashing into a cactus.
Jael smiled and straightened. “Strike three. You’re out.”
He shook his head, a smirk playing about his lips. “I know who you are,” he said, moving back out of reach. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his black suit coat and pulled out a cell phone. He was young. At least he looked young. Probably not much older than her – sixteen or seventeen…eighteen at the most.
She lifted her brows. “That’s nice. I know who I am too. The one who’s going to put an end to your kind.” She stepped toward him and he backed up another step, frantically pushing buttons on his phone. “Sending your last will and testament to the Bishop?” she asked, picking up the stake she’d dropped earlier. She tossed the chunk of glass away. Oak was a proven weapon and she wanted to end this quickly.
He glanced up from his texting, keeping her in sight, backing up until he was nearly against the bumper of the truck. Right where she wanted him. His finger was poised over the send button when he hit the bumper and realized he was trapped. She did a jump-kick to his chest. He dropped the phone and bent over double, grappling for the thing on the ground.
She raised the stake, but he moved quicker than she anticipated and came up with a wicked-looking shard of glass in his hand, wildly jabbing and slicing through the air, trying to connect with anything he could. She jumped back but felt it rip through the front of her jacket. Instinctively she brought a hand to her stomach and felt a sticky dampness. He’d actually grazed her.
She looked up and saw him lick the edge of the glass shard, fangs extended over his lips like an ugly bulldog. “Ew! Really?”
“I always wondered if the Chosen One would taste as good as the Bishop promised.”
“Let me guess. Chicken?” She feinted to the left, waited for him to swing, kicked the glass from his hand and rammed an elbow into his Adam’s apple with crushing force. He fell hard, choking and gasping. She grasped a handful of his dark hair and thrust his head back so she could look into his eyes. “That’s the last blood you’ll ever taste,” she promised, then plunged the stake into his heart.
She stood up at the sound of an approaching car. Seth. Thank God. They had pulled off the highway back beside the pickup. Jael waved them over, then hurried to the front passenger side of the Suburban and crouched down.
“Mom? Mom!” she called, crawling on her belly to peer up under the toppled vehicle. “I’m here,” she said, letting her eyes adjust to the deeper shadows. “Seth’s here. We’ll get you both out right away.”
Her mom’s voice came out so soft and thready it was barely more than a breath on the night air. “It’s okay, honey,” she managed, turning her eyes toward Jael. She was still fastened by the seatbelt, awkwardly suspended even while her head was pressed against the top of the hood that had been smashed in when it flipped. “I’ve been waiting for you.” She took a shallow breath. “We love you, Jael. Your dad and I…” she sucked in another breath, “so proud… of you.”
“No! Mom,” she shook her head and reached out to touch her cheek, not knowing what to say. Her mom’s neck looked strangely twisted. She tried to see her dad on the other side of the cab but it was too dark and the cab seemed to be even more crushed on that side. She pulled her head from under the truck and yelled. “Seth! Hurry up!”
Seth and Shadow ran toward the Suburban. Shadow carried a crowbar and Seth had a small box she recognized as the First Aid kit he kept in his car. Brianna was with them as well, but she stayed back a ways as though afraid of what she’d see.
Seth crouched beside her and peered under the truck. She saw his eyes close for a moment, and then he managed a sad smile. “Hey Miriam. Sorry I’m late.” His voice choked and he cleared his throat. “Jesse?”
“Seth… you’re all she has now,” her mom confirmed softly, her breathing more labored than before. A thin trickle of blood oozed from her lips. “Take care of her. Promise.”
“I promise,” he said, a tear sliding down his face. He took her hand in his and kissed the inside of the palm, but she was already gone. He scooted back out, stood up and hurried to the other side to check on his brother. There was a moment of dead silence and then Jael heard Seth sobbing on the other side of the truck.
Shadow stepped over the dead vampire, and knelt down beside Jael. He put a gentle hand on her back. Tears rolled down her cheeks unheeded, dropping into the sand beneath her chin. This was her fault. Her fight. She never should have asked them to come. They had been safe at home and now…
“I can’t do this anymore. It’s not worth it,” she said, shaking her head. “What am I chosen for? To see everyone I love die?!” She jumped up and wiped angrily at her face with the sleeve of her jacket that was still intact.
“Jael?” Brianna stepped close, her eyes as wide and doe-like as Disney’s Cinderella. She pulled her into her arms and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
Jael felt the anger seep out of her and she wept unabashedly, tears streaming down her face and soaking the shoulder of Brianna’s t-shirt. Her friend held her close and cried with her, sharing the pain and loss the best she could.
“I hate to bring this up now,” Shad interrupted after a couple minutes, “but what are we going to do with this dude when the emergency vehicles show up?” He shoved the teenage vamp over to look at his face. “Shouldn’t he go poof or something?”
Seth rounded the truck, his expression thunderous, his eyes red and still damp. “You called 911?” He grabbed Shadow by the front of his shirt and shook him. “What were you thinking?”
Shadow pushed him away. “I was thinking maybe they’d get here in time to save your family’s lives.”
Jael stepped between them, her hands out to keep them away from each other. “Take a breath, Uncle Seth. If I were thinking straight I would have done it myself. Mom and Dad’s lives are more important than...” she broke off and then whispered, “were more important.”
Seth put his hands over his face and shook his head. “I’m sorry. You’re right.” He took a deep breath and dropped his hands to his sides. His gaze swept over the scene, taking in the staked vamp and the abandoned pickup truck. “Okay, here’s what we’ve got to do – and fast.”