Alone (28 page)

T
here was nothing left for him to do except
leave the hotel and go home.

James stood
in the middle
of the parking
garage and stared around in amazement. Vandalized vehicles
surrounded him, each car with its windshield shattered, the glass
burst in over the driver and passenger seats. He put his hands over
his ears against the cacophony of alarms filling the
night.

What the hell was going
on?

Chapter Twenty-one

Sebastian had been wrong;
Madeline
didn’t leave Serenity alone.

The windowless aircraft hangar meant the
vampire didn’t need to hide away from the light any more than she
already had.

Serenity huddled in a corner of the
hangar. At first she sat with her back resting against the wall
but, as the hours wore on, she found herself curled up on the hard
floor, drifting in and out of an uncomfortable sleep.

She noticed Madeline also slept—at least,
a sleep of her own kind. Though the vampire stood upright with her
arms folded, her eyes glazed over and Serenity knew she wasn’t
fully conscious.

Yet as soon as Serenity shifted her
position to get more comfortable, Madeline sprang awake
again.

All around her the drone and roar of
airplanes coming to and from LAX waxed and waned. So many people
around and no one could help her?

Falling
asleep again, Serenity dreamed of
planes crashing around her, of running as pieces of burning metal
spun through the air past her head, smashing into the ground beside
her. She dreamed of Sebastian being on one of the planes, that he
was human and died, and she cried in her sleep.

The hard toe of a boot nudged her
awake.

“
Time to go,” Madeline told
her.

Stiff and in pain, Serenity forced herself
to sit and climbed to her feet.

“
Where are we
going?”

“
To see your boyfriend. Where do
you think?”

Sometimes, trying to talk to the vampire
was like trying to converse with a bitchy shop assistant who liked
to look down on her customers.

She tried again, “And where is he going to
be?”

“
Stop asking fucking
questions!”

Taking Serenity by surprise, the vampire
grabbed her by the wrist and started to pull her toward the front
of the hangar. She moved too quickly for Serenity to keep up and
Serenity stumbled over her feet until Madeline dragged her by the
arm.

“
Hey, slow down,” Serenity
complained, her arm screaming in its joint.

The red-head
whipped around, eyes flashing.
“Shut up!” she hissed.

They reached the small door implanted in
the huge aircraft entrance. With what seemed like little effort,
Madeline grabbed the thin metal handle and ripped the door from its
hinges, dropping it to the floor. The door’s padlock, which had
been on the outside of the door, was split and hanging from the
frame, as though severed by a bolt cutter.

Seeing the display of Madeline’s strength
shot fear through Serenity’s heart. Serenity easily forgot what
Madeline was capable of when she looked like a woman—albeit a
stunning woman—she might meet in the street.

Dusk had fallen, but plenty of light
illuminated the sky. In the dimness ahead, an aircraft’s blinking
landing lights approached. The distant thrum of its engines grew
louder as the space between them and the aircraft
decreased.

Two young men in high visibility jackets
stood on the runway. The sound of the door being torn off had been
disguised by the approaching engines, but not enough to stop them
noticing. Even at a distance, Serenity recognized the confusion in
their faces at seeing two women standing in the doorway of the
empty hangar.

Serenity grabbed her chance.

“
Help me!” she screamed,
raising her free arm, waving frantically at them.

The men didn’t even have time to
react.

Madeline wrapped Serenity’s arm across her
body, pinning Serenity to her torso. The vampire leaped away from
the men, taking Serenity with her. Serenity’s head snapped back on
her neck and she groaned in pain and fear.

Ahead of them stretched the broad expanse
of the runway. Lights were embedded in the black tarmac, guiding in
the aircraft for landing. Madeline ran across the asphalt, carrying
Serenity with her, heading for the open space on the other
side.

The approaching plane bore down on them.
So close now, its huge metal belly was exposed as the wheels came
down for landing. The sound blasted Serenity’s ears, the wind the
aircraft created snatching the air from her lungs. Her hair whipped
back from her face and the air pressure bore down on her. Her eyes
widened with horror, the aircraft about to crush them, and every
detail of the plane’s underbelly filled her vision.

The two men watched in shocked horror, the
expectation of a terrible accident written on their
faces.

Just as the rear wheels touched
down,
Madeline darted out from under the plane. Then they were
away from the airport, leaving the men in shock and the aircraft
safely landed.

The vampire
ran down the freeway, past
vehicles traveling at one hundred miles an hour, their headlights
catching only a flash of something moving in front of
them.

Madeline carried
Serenity as though
she was no heavier than a sack of flour. They left the freeway and
crossed busy streets, running down alleyways and leaping across
rooftops. Serenity heard the blare of a car horn as they crossed
another part of the freeway and caught a brief glimpse of the
shocked faces of people who had seen and felt something pass.
Voices flitted in and out of her hearing; the wail of a police
siren rushed by her so fast the effect was like tuning in and out
of a radio station.

Madeline continued to run through the
night with long, bounding steps. When Serenity dared open her eyes,
colored lights blurred past. She felt lightheaded and nauseous,
motion-sickness threatening to take hold. Instead of fighting
against the thing racing her through the night, Serenity clung to
Madeline, like a person on a rollercoaster gripping the safety
bar.

Finally, they came to a stop.

Serenity fell where Madeline dropped her.
Immediately the nausea won out and she lurched onto her hands and
knees, vomiting on the ground. Her head spun and she groaned as her
stomach fought to climb up out of her throat. She wasn’t in the
habit of heavy drinking, but this reminded Serenity of the odd
occasion she’d experienced terrible hangovers.

On
all fours, Serenity waited for her world
to stop spinning. For a moment she had forgotten everything else;
the vampire standing over her and the one she hoped waited for
her.

Only the
thought of seeing Sebastian again
made her pull herself together.

Where had Madeline brought her?

Sharp stones
pressing into her palms and
knees stirred a memory;
the cut of sharp gravel beneath the soles of her
naked feet, her running across it with fear in her
heart.

They were
at Sebastian’s house, but where
was he?

Serenity forced herself to sit, only to
find Madeline staring at her with narrow-eyed hatred, her perfect
nose wrinkling at the watery bile Serenity had brought
up.

“
What does he see in you?” the
vampire said, disgust tainting her voice.

Serenity colored and a familiar
doubt washed over her. Madeline’s words brought back a memory of
Jackson shaking his head at her, saying, ‘
What do I see in you?’
and making her feel
like the most pointless person in the world.

Her empty stomach dropped out of itself
and a weight crushing down on her shoulders made her so heavy she
didn’t want to move.

The sensation was
the depression that
had haunted her for so many years threatening to return.

Serenity shook herself to re-focus. She
refused to go back to those dark times.

“
Come on,” Madeline said,
grabbing her again
and pulling her to her feet.

Serenity still felt weak and shaky, but at
least the sickness had gone. She allowed herself to be pulled
across the gravel and up the stone steps toward Sebastian’s huge
front door. With her free hand, Madeline pushed open the door. The
heavy wood slammed against the wall behind, the sound ricocheting
through the vast hallway.

Serenity held her breath in
anticipation.

Ahead of her, the huge curved staircase
rose to the second floor. Standing at the top was
Sebastian.

Serenity let her breath out in a strange,
hitching sob. Seeing him again made her sag with relief.

He wore his customary suit and his strong,
solid body filled the cut perfectly. His dark hair was swept away
from his porcelain face and his eyes glared a ferocious yellow. He
was beautiful and terrifying.

Slowly, like royalty making an entrance at
a ball, he walked down the stairs toward them. He focused on
Serenity, and his eyes melted back to the pure green she’d grown to
love. His gaze never left Serenity’s face as he approached and she
tried to talk to him through eye contact alone, willing him to read
her thoughts.

Fight her,
Sebastian
.
Don’t listen to what she says, just fight her.

Fear prevented her from speaking
out loud
.
Madeline’s hand was wrapped around her upper arm; the vampire only
needed to reach up and she could snap Serenity’s neck in an
instant.

Sebastian
reached the bottom of the stairs
and whipped his attention to Madeline, his eyes flashing bright,
fluorescent yellow.

“
Let her go,” he snarled, his
fists clenched, his knuckles even whiter than normal.

Madeline’s grip on her arm
tightened.

“
Oh, I will,” she said.
“It’s what she wants, but you have to let her go too.”

“
I’ll do whatever you want. Just
get away from her.” He turned his attention back to Serenity.
“Serenity, come over here.”

“
I can’t,” she whispered.
Madeline’s razor-sharp nails split the skin of her inner arm in
warning.

“
It’s what she wants as
well,” Madeline said. “She doesn’t want you any more, Sebastian.
She’s had enough.”

Serenity pressed her lips together, more
tears filling her eyes. Surely he would see the truth in her
face?

“
You need to read this,” the
vampire said, and flung him the folded piece of paper, stained with
Serenity’s blood. The note fluttered through the air and landed on
the marble floor at the foot of the staircase.

He watched it settle, like a leaf in the
wind, and glanced up. “Serenity?”

Nails tightened into her skin. “Just read
the letter,” she said. “Please.”

His eyes never left Serenity’s as he bent
down and scooped the letter from the floor. He shook the paper
open. Slowly, he brought the letter to his face and touched the
blood with his lips.

“
She hurt you,” he growled,
his head lowered, bull-like, about to rush Madeline.

Serenity couldn’t even look at him.
“Just read it,” she said.

H
is face blanched as he read, the muscles
in his jaw twitching.

He looked up at her and she couldn’t read
the cold hard expression on his face, but the sight frightened her.
“I don’t believe you,” he said.

She took a deep breath. “Remember what I
told you last night,” she said. “How I said we could live our lives
separately, but we’d still know the other person would be out there
somewhere, and we’d still love each other. Remember I said that?”
Her voice shook with fear, terrified Madeline would realize she was
trying to say more than she actually was. “I’ve realized that’s
what I want. We should do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
She paused again, wondering if she risked saying what she needed
to, not wanting to push her luck, but she had to let him know where
she would go should he need to find her.

“
I’ll be all right,” she said
breathlessly. “You know I’ll be somewhere special to me.” She
stared at him in earnest, hoping he understood the context of her
words.

Madeline snorted in disdain of Serenity’s
emotions, so she continued, “That’s what the letter is trying to
tell you. I love you, but I can’t do this anymore.”

He stared at her in disbelief and
confusion.

“
You’ve lost, Sebastian,”
Madeline said. “She doesn’t want you anymore. She wants to live a
‘normal’ life, but I won’t let her unless you agree to leave with
me. You know I’ll kill her if I have to. This is no different than
with your wife. You let her down; your unseen presence in her life
practically tortured her in the end,” Madeline taunted him. “You
wouldn’t want to do the same with this human.”