Alone (26 page)

“
What are you going to do with
me?” Serenity asked, a tremor affecting her voice. “Why have you
brought me here?”

Madeline gestured around. “Well, firstly
this place doesn’t have any windows, which also means no light.
Considering how close you and Sebastian seem to be, I’m sure you’ve
learned daylight and our kind don’t get on very well. Then, of
course,” she said, raising her voice as another plane came into
land, and somewhere in the distance another took off, “there’s the
noise. Los Angeles is a crowded city and I figured this is one
place where no one will hear you screaming.”

Serenity shivered. She didn’t want to beg
for her life, even with Jackson she had refused to beg. What little
pride she had back then made her hang on to the last thread of her
dignity and she wasn’t going to lose it now.

Sebastian w
ill come and find
me.

He would know Madeline well
enough to
figure out where the vampire brought her.

Like he knew she wouldn’t
find you at the hotel?

She pushed the voice away. He would
come.

Another plane came into land, so close the
molecules of the iron around her vibrated. She was thankful the
place had been silent when she woke up. Being woken by this
terrifying noise would have been enough to shatter her
mind.

Something tried to nag at her, some
significance about the planes being on the move. Then she realized
what nagged her. If planes were taking off and landing, it meant
morning had arrived. Where ever Sebastian was, he wouldn’t be able
to reach her in the daylight.

The thought broke the last of her barriers
down and tears filled her eyes. She struggled to hold them in, the
world trembling in a flood, before one tear escaped her eye and
spilled down her cheek. She didn’t want Madeline to see and so she
whipped her head away, swiping at the tears with her
sleeve.

Sebastian may never find her. If Madeline
didn’t tell him where she was, he’d probably never know. She could
die in here and never see him again.

Serenity couldn’t sit here and wait to be
rescued.

“
So what are you going to do
now?” she dared ask. “If you’re not going to kill me, what are you
planning?”

“
He gets one last chance,”
Madeline said. “One last chance to make the right choice. Perhaps
when he realizes the type of danger I can put you in, if he sees
his little pet all scared, he’ll be sensible and do what I
want.”

“
How will he know I’m
scared?”

“
You’re going to tell
him.”

“
What?” she couldn’t help it, her
heart flickered with hope.

“
Don’t get excited, I don’t mean
literally. We’re going to do this the old fashioned way and write
him what I believe you call a ‘Dear John’ letter.”

“
No, I won’t.”

“
I wasn’t asking. You’re also
going to tell him that you don’t want anything more to do with him.
Tell him you’re sick of being scared and you want him to go with me
and leave you to get on with your life.”

Serenity stared at her, but
didn’t give voice to her thoughts.
He will never believe it.

Madeline took her silence
as refusal. “You
have no choice in the matter.”

“
There is always a
choice.”

Except there wasn’t. If she didn’t write
the letter, Madeline would kill her. Also, this might be the only
way Sebastian would find out what had happened to her.

The
thought of him returning to the hotel
only to find her missing made her sick with worry.

Surely someone in a nearby room or on the
ground would report the smashed window? Their plunge through the
glass couldn’t have gone unnoticed. When Sebastian got back to the
hotel and discovered her missing and the window broken, he would
quickly figure out her disappearance was courtesy of
Madeline.

If only she could figure out a
way to let
Sebastian know where she was being held?

“
Fine,” she said giving in. “I
assume you’re going to provide the stationery?”

Madeline gave her a cold, hard smile.
“Naturally.”

She reached into her oversized Marc Jacobs
handbag and pulled out a leather organizer. Opening the cover, she
removed the pen and tore out a plain sheet of paper.

“
Here,” she said, handing
them to Serenity.

The hangar was empty. Serenity sat back
down and rested the paper on the ground.

Her hand shook as she put pen to paper.
How could she give him her location without Madeline realizing. She
wracked her brain, but nothing would work. She wanted to come up
with something smart, but she couldn’t figure out a way to say,
‘Help, I’m in a hangar at the airport!’ without writing exactly
that.

Madeline nudged the paper with the toe of
her boot. “Get on with it, or I will be forced to crush your
fingers beneath my boot.”

“
Okay, okay.”

She started to write:

Sebastian,

Madeline took me and threatened
me. I can’t do this anymore. You were right when you said I
c
an still
have a normal life. Madeline says if you go with her, then she will
leave me alone. If you don’t, I will never be happy. Please do this
for me. I am sorry.

Serenity

H
er eyes filled with tears. Surely he
wouldn’t believe what she’d written. She’d told him enough times
how she felt about him. He would realize Madeline had forced her to
write the note.

A tear ran from her eye, down the side of
her nose, and plopped onto the paper. The ink blotted and ran,
smearing her name. The possibility of him believing what she had
written was like a stake in her heart.

Madeline crouched in front of her. This
time, Serenity didn’t bother to hide her tears.

“
One more thing,” the vampire
told her.

S
he grabbed Serenity’s hand, twisting it
palm up. Like a snake striking, she bit the inside of Serenity’s
wrist.

Serenity screamed, desperately trying to
yank her hand away. Pain ripped up through her arm.

Madeline lifted her head; the vampire’s
eyes burned yellow and fierce.

As though the shadow of a ghost slowly
rippled beneath her skin, her features changed. Madeline’s
beautiful face turned into a reflection of her soul; something
ancient and horrific. Her pale skin glowed stark white, almost to
the point of translucency, and Serenity thought she saw things
moving beneath; things that crawled, scuttled and
slithered.

Madeline trembled and Serenity knew the
vampire was fighting every instinct her body threw at her, trying
not to tear Serenity to shreds.

Serenity had never been so scared in
her life.

Then Madeline’s face became
normal again, as beautiful as ever. Serenity blinked hard;
had it even
happened?

Madeline held Serenity’s wrist over the
paper. The cut was small but deep, and blood dripped across the
page.

“
Why did you do that?” she
sobbed.

“
Your blood gives the letter
credibility.”

“
How will he even know the letter
is mine?” she asked through her tears. “The writing could be
anyone’s.”

“
The blood. He will recognize the
scent of your blood.”

Serenity remembered the night they first
made love, how Sebastian leaped away from her when he nicked her
skin. Madeline was right; he would recognize her scent.

If there was any chance of him believing
what she wrote, she would lose him forever. She couldn’t let
Madeline take the letter to Sebastian.

“
He won’t believe a letter,”
Serenity said. “He’ll figure out you pressured me into writing it.
The first thing he’ll do is demand to see me.”

Madeline’s eyes narrowed. “Well that’s too
bad.”

Serenity held her bloodied wrist in the
opposite hand, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. The
vampire’s eyes flicked to the blood. Serenity knew exactly what
Madeline was capable of, but forced herself to challenge
her.

“
You think he’ll go with you if
he doesn’t have proof I’m alive. You’re kidding yourself. I thought
you said you knew him?”

Madeline flinched.

“
Take the letter, if that’s what
you want,” Serenity said. “But you need to take me too. I’ll tell
him what you want. We both know he won’t leave me alone until he’s
heard the words from my mouth.”

“
Fine,” Madeline snapped. “You
tell him you’ve had enough and don’t want anything more to do with
him. I’ll advise him if he doesn’t stay with me, I’ll kill you.”
Hearing her own words she smiled, seemingly pleased with herself.
“Then he will have no other choice but to be mine.”

“
Or, he might say ‘screw this’
and let you kill me,” Serenity said, not wanting Madeline to think
she was giving in too easily.

“
Sebastian wouldn’t do that. He
wouldn’t let me kill you without a fight.”

“
Why can’t you leave him
alone?”

Madeline looked at her, loneliness
haunting her green eyes, and for the first time Serenity saw the
woman she’d been instead of the vampire she’d become.

“
For the same reason you can’t,”
she replied.

Chapter Twenty

The call came in at
almost
five
in the morning and James Bently was close to finishing his shift.
The night had been uneventful so far, causing the last couple of
hours to drag. He and Dawson were parked outside one of the
shopping malls—a well-known place for the local teenagers to hang
out—investigating recent reports of underage drinking. So far,
there hadn’t been any signs of drinking, but the two cops warned
the kids hanging out anyway.

“
Report of vandalism at the
Hilton Airport,” announced a voice over the radio. “Possible
missing persons. Anyone close by who can respond?”

The lights of the high rise hotels serving
LAX spattered the night in the not-so-far distance. James glanced
at the radio and then at the high rises.

Was he so close to the airport because of
Serenity, or simply coincidence?

The call was probably vandalism,
nothing more, but the location made him sit up.

The Hilton Airport.

Serenity told him she was staying
there.

There was something about the case—or
about the woman—he couldn’t get out of his mind. Even her staying
at the Hilton didn’t ring true. How could someone like Serenity
afford to stay at the Hilton? Something didn’t seem right but he
couldn’t put his finger on the problem.

Her
husband had left, yet she hadn’t
seemed bothered about him attacking another woman. Serenity hadn’t
even asked about the other woman’s identity or how she’d met
Jackson. Then she acted as though she knew her husband wasn’t
coming home. She’d been so quick to start clearing out his office
but what made her so sure?

Serenity knew more than she let on. James
just needed to figure out what.

Now this call had come in and their
vehicle was closest to the scene.

His partner groaned. “Come on,” Dawson
said. “We’re close to quitting time. Can’t we ignore this
one?”

Normally, James might have been tempted,
but he needed to satisfy his curiosity. If the call had nothing to
do with the dark-eyed woman on his mind, at least he’d be able to
sleep peacefully for the remainder of the night.

James picked up the radio and responded to
the call.

Heading out onto the freeway,
they drove the ten minutes to
the hotel and pulled up outside the grand, front
entrance. The valet stepped forward, eyes darting from side to
side, his face portraying the same guilt everyone seemed to get
when a cop-car pulled up next to them, even when they’d done
nothing wrong.

James
climbed out of the car and the young
valet hesitated.

“
Don’t touch the vehicle,” James
warned.

The two officers made their way
through the foyer to the front desk. A pretty receptionist smiled
as they approached.

“
We’ve received a report of
vandalism,” James said.

The girl nodded. “Sure, that’s on the
eighth floor, suite eight-six-two. The manager is already waiting
for you in the room.” She pointed to their right. “The elevators
are over there.”

As the officers took one of the six
elevators, James questioned Serenity’s choice of residence again.
He’d seen her house and she wasn’t particularly wealthy. Not only
that, she also didn’t come across as the type of person who liked
big, pretentious hotels. Her choice of refuge surprised
him.

The elevator
doors slid open and they walked
down the corridor, the gold sign attached to the wall telling them
which direction to head in.