Dark Rapture (68 page)

Sebastian turned and got in the car. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the wheel. “Get in,” he said between tightened lips.

Scarlet heard the bones snap as the proverbial straw plummeted the camel’s back. She gripped her fingers into fists and stalked around to Sebastian’s window. “Find her yourself,” she whispered viciously. “I wash my hands of you, Sebastian DelaCourte. I did not have sex with Vince Lyons, and it burns me to know you would assume I did. I should have never changed you into a vampire. You should be dead and burning in hell right now!”

She stomped away but then turned back to reiterate her point. “And you can take your damn girlfriend to hell with you!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Scarlet scurried across the street and down a dark alleyway spotted with greasy puddles, her fists beating through the air as she moved. A stray cat followed close behind, its tail swishing the air like a metronome. There was an iron stairway to the rooftops just ahead. Didn’t need that. With a bend of her knees, Scarlet landed the roof, setting down with feline grace. She prowled along the narrow edge and squatted, scanning the streets for the black Lincoln.

“It’s all the stiff’s fault,” she muttered.

She still could not believe Sebastian had revived Catrina. His old girlfriend!

Scarlet glanced to the side, surprised to see the cat. “How the heck did you get up here? What is it with you cats lately? I feel like a magnet for the strays of the world.”

The cat closed its eyes and sat next to her, content.

Ignoring the silent beast, Scarlet settled back into her ravaged thoughts. She wondered where Catrina was. The haggard corpse hadn’t looked as if she had the strength to stand upright, let alone actually leave the car. Not that her absence really mattered to Scarlet. All she could concentrate on now was Sebastian’s rude treatment of her.

“This isn’t the way things are supposed to be,” she whispered. “This is wrong. Or…maybe it’s right.” She looked down to her side. The black cat purred contentedly. “I don’t know anymore. I do love Sebastian. Though…I sure do have a funny way of showing it, huh, kitty?”

She stared across the lightening sky, but couldn’t help feel the emptiness in her heart.
Did
she really did love him? What was it that had compelled her into Vince’s arms? And why had she killed? For surely, by killing she had committed the ultimate fuck you against Sebastian.

A strange glimmer of confusion hovered within her head, threatening to spin her into the vortex of mad dreams she had been having lately. It was insistent, clouding the rationality of her love for Sebastian with unfounded and strange desires for Vince Lyons

“This is madness! I do love Sebastian. Vince was just…an experiment that should have never happened. Why did I do it? Why?”

She embraced her body, rocking steadily on the roof ledge. Images of Adriano’s smirking grin flashed in quick spurts. Esmarelda had loved him blindly. As she did Sebastian.

Forgive him. We’ve both been on edge lately.

“Yeah, this is what I’ve needed for a long time. To be alone. Take some time to myself to discover what I really am, to learn the truth about my vampirism. To finish those damned dairies and find out if they even hold the answers in their mildewed pages.”

Maybe some time away from her overprotective lover was just the thing. A chance to look at the world and life from her vampire prospective, unfettered by a male who demanded, or worshipped, or cleaved. And perhaps Sebastian too, could use a break from her incessant search for the truth.

The idea took shape like an opening flower bud. With each petal and new thought it began to make more sense.

She adjusted her weight on the roof ledge, sending fragments of loose cement showering to the alleyway.

The cat looked to her, its golden eyes peaceful.

“No,” she said to the feline, not that it cared about her complaints. “I can’t leave him. I love him. No matter what has come between us I will always forgive him. He’s got enough to worry about now with Catrina running wild.”

Scarlet’s head ached to think of the life Sebastian had led before he met up with her. She knew, in the depths of her heart, that his past romances should not matter to her. Their life was the here and now and the future.

But it was his past, so carelessly rekindled with the revival of Catrina Bellange that she burned to know. Could she continue to blindly accept him as Esmarelda had accepted Adriano?

And then there was Vince. After witnessing Rico’s horrors, she knew Vince was of the same vein. And she had no intention of becoming involved in their wicked death games.

“I’ll never kill again,” she vowed as the wind feathered her hair across her face. “Never.” She refused to be a part of senseless violence that took away innocence and left sadness. That was one thing on which she and Sebastian agreed.

“What am I going to do?”

“I think I can help.”

Scarlet rocked on the roof ledge, nearly falling over the edge but caught herself. Surprised that she had been caught unaware, she quickly pulled herself up and stood tall before the woman who had just spoken.

The woman’s hair, lustrous and golden as the sun’s rays, blew out behind her. She wore faded jeans and a red sweater. The black cat cuddled near her ankles.

Scarlet did not know where she had come from—without a sound—but it soon came to her as frantic and insane as her dreams had been. Overwhelmed by an odd circling feeling that enveloped her entire system, she rocked unsteadily. It was a familiar feeling…the
shimmer
. And it was so strong, she didn’t even have to touch her to feel it.

The woman looked down at the cat as if to acknowledge the beast’s presence, then back to Scarlet, the moonlight glinting in deep blue eyes that seemed to have been stolen from a stained glass window. When she nodded, a narrow vial of red glass swung freely on the black cord around her neck.
Adriano
.

“I…I know you,” Scarlet stuttered. “Esmarelda?”

“Sorry to startle you.”

“You’re…her? The… Es—the woman in the diaries?”

The woman smiled elegantly as she offered her hand.

Thoroughly stunned, yet amazed she knew this woman from the pages of Alexander Lyons II diaries and her dreams, Scarlet shook Esmarelda’s outstretched hand. The
shimmer
shuddered through her palm and branched out through her body. This woman possessed a powerful aura.

“I’m Scarlet Rose. Um, but maybe you already knew that.”

“I do. I’ve been watching and waiting for a few days, knowing you needed me.”

“The dreams,” Scarlet started, finding herself elated, yet unable to look away from the woman’s radiant eyes. “Did you— You wanted me to know about you. But how?”

“A form of memory transfer.” She shrugged. So casual and normal like a next door neighbor who had stopped by for a visit. But not. “There are many things you can learn, Scarlet. Things I’ve already introduced to you in the diaries and your dreams.”

“Yes, the mind control, the body borrowed—”

“Borrowed body traveling.”

“Yes! My God, this is so incredible.” In her elation, Scarlet clapped her hands together. She wanted to ask this woman so much! Where to begin? “Vince! Are you his ancestor?”

Esmarelda nodded, a sweet girlish smile lighting her face almost as if she couldn’t bare the jubilant adoration Scarlet reflected. “I am. My child was the first of the in-born bloodline. No female vampire has ever given birth as far as I know. But I was still mortal when I conceived my son. It is a legacy Adriano would be proud of, I know.”

“Incredible,” Scarlet said. “But why me? Why not Vince?”

“Well, of course I wish to contact Vince. He needs help. Desperately.”

“So why didn’t you just—

“Walk up and introduce myself to him?” Esmarelda walked to the roof ledge and hooked her thumb in her pockets. “I knew he would not be receptive to my mind transfers. At least not in his present state. I’ve no intention of just knocking on his door without some familiar introduction. I was hoping you might bridge the gap between us?”

“Not a problem. Do you want to go see him now?”

“Not yet. I’m more worried about you at the moment. I was drawn to you, Scarlet. I felt your need, it spoke to me like a starving child cries for her mother. You have an intense yearning for discovery. It is like a bright beacon that directed me right to you.”

“This is all so fascinating. But I’m not sure how you can help me. I’m not an in-born. Are we still the same?”

“You have the ability to utilize all the vampiric powers of the in-born, Scarlet. There’s not much difference between the two of us. Your race of created vampires has been around far longer than mine. It was pure misfortune you never developed your skills. Not many vampires are aware of the mind/body connection. It is not a weapon to be used to frighten or revenge. It should be valued as Adriano’s legacy. Will you let me teach you?”

“Yes. But—” The drone of a siren some blocks away wrenched Scarlet back to reality. She shook off Esmarelda’s entrancing stare. “Will this take long?”

“Perhaps. We’ll need time alone, to be sure.”

“What about Sebastian? I can’t leave him.”

“You were just thinking about it.”

“Yes, I know but— Can you read my mind?”

“No, your body language is very easy to read. But you don’t need to leave Sebastian forever. Come with me for a while. Perhaps it is what the two of you need. A short separation to repair the soul. You of all people know how dearly I believe in love.” She clutched the red vial in her fingers.

“Adriano.” Scarlet knew the vial to contain his ashes. Such perfect love. Forever destroyed by the ignorance of mortals. “I’m sorry for you.”

“Adriano’s presence never leaves me. You must never regret. It is not good for the soul. Release your anger toward Sebastian right now.” She smoothed a cool hand across Scarlet’s cheek. “He is troubled by your quest for answers, Scarlet. The man feels helpless.”

“Then don’t you think leaving him would only make him feel all the more abandoned by me? I have already forgiven him. I just hope he can forgive me. I’ve been so terrible to him, Esmarelda. Everything with Vince—” To even mention the singer’s name sent an icy tickle up Scarlet’s neck. “You know I felt this…compulsion, to go to Vince. For a while there I had convinced myself it was you speaking to me, wanting me to go to him.”

“I’m sorry. I did want you to see the world through Vince’s eyes. To learn for yourself that darkness holds no answers, only pain and confusion. Forgive me. I thought it a precursor to your coming into your own.”

“The cat in the alley…and the raven…”

“Me,” Esmarelda offered. “Borrowed body traveling. It’s really quite easy. Fun, too.” She clasped Scarlet’s hands between her own. “Do you want to learn the secrets of your vampirism, Scarlet? Will you come with me?”

Her gaze fixed on the red vial of ashes resting on Esmarelda’s breast. Five centuries of life walking this earth. What she must know. This woman had come to help her. Finally she would have her answers. “Yes.”

***

Drums banging loudly. So difficult to escape their cry. Must get away before they catch me. Must flee.

Oh, oh, it hurts. Stop it now.
Stop it please, Rico, help me. I need you.

Catrina Bellange stopped abruptly after running for what seemed centuries of minutes spinning around the clock. She slumped, catching her shoulder against the wall, but cringed and pulled away. Blood glistened on her arm above her elbow. The rough brick wall had torn the flesh.

Everlasting life.
The blood will keep me young. Rico, you must help me!

She could feel the pounding in the liquid, the vicious drum beat as she thrust her finger into her mouth.
Oh, the life. So sweet as it brings youth.

She jerked her head violently as if avoiding an onslaught of gnats then abruptly settled to calm. Wiping her palm across the serrated wounds on her arm, she then licked her hand clean of the vivid life.

Boom. Boom. Boom
.

“Oh.” Catrina clutched her head in her hands and fell to her knees. Drums beat against her tongue and slid down her throat. Incessant noise.
Please stop it, Rico!

She pressed a hand to her heart and screamed. She tried to scramble away from the noise. It pumped beneath her hand, a wicked drum that counted the years till her demise. “No!”

Her bare toes pushed against the tar as she moved backward on all fours. Behind her, a silver can toppled over and spilled a pile of rubbish.

Calm.

It is only your heart, Catrina. You foolish girl. Settle down. Get hold of yourself.

“Yes,” she whispered. “My heart.”

Not the death. The
life
. “I live.”

She scanned the sky above her, framed on two sides by the high-rise walls of buildings. There were many black ropes running from building to building, and she could see a few grew out of a tall post near the end of the alleyway. Everything was so big and different, yet...still the same.

Relaxing against the garbage can, Catrina stretched her toes in the air. She stroked the soft fabric of the coat she wore. “So different.” The clothing beneath the coat was tattered. Catrina pulled a long pink string from the frayed hem of her dress. “Dead,” she muttered.

She trailed her finger along the rotted material, up over her groin and across her stomach to her breasts where the crimson silk was gaping and thin. The skin over her heart pulsed with life. Catrina closed her eyes. “Alive.”