Lucas (Immortal Blood) (15 page)

I straightened my back and gulped.

“I’ll go,” Jonathan said and put his hand on my arm. “Whoever it is will not harm me, since I haven’t done anything.”

“Thank you.” I smiled. “But I’ll go.
Margharet is right. I should start taking responsibility for my actions.”

“Then I’ll go with you.” Dane stepped next to me and I nodded.

We walked to the door, and I was pretty sure that the minute I opened it would be the last minute of my life. I placed my hand on the door handle and glanced behind me. They had all followed me, all but Margharet, and I felt my heart aching for the love of them. I looked at them for a moment and was sure they could all read in my eyes what I was feeling. Then I turned back to the door with a fake smile glued on my face and opened it.

My jaw dropped and I heard some sharp intakes of breath behind me. Hardening myself, I let my gaze stay on the woman before me. “Not what I expected,” I breathed and the woman looked at me coldly. “What are you doing here,
Meriel?” I tried to keep my voice from trembling.

“I came to warn you.” The ice dripping from
Meriel’s voice told a different story.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Not so long ago
Meriel and some other God-knows-how-old vampires had wanted me dead. And not only that, Meriel had made me suffer by causing me pain I’d rather not remember any time soon. Oh, and there was also the fact that Meriel and Jason were part of the same weird master vampire council. The council that thought I was an unwanted annoyance that needed to be wiped off the planet.

Dane stepped next to me. “What are you really doing here?”

“I told you, boy.” Meriel spat the word ‘boy’. “I came to warn that girl.”

“Why?” Dane crossed his arms, making it absolutely clear he didn’t believe her.

Meriel glanced behind her and breathed. “Because he’s coming.”

Dane laughed dryly. “We figured that out already. Now you’ve given us your warning you’re free to go.”

Meriel narrowed her eyes and I prepared myself for pain, but she just stared at us with a weird look on her face. “Look, we can argue as much as you like, but time is running out. You’re in danger and you need my help.” She turned to me. I didn’t move and Meriel huffed in frustration.

“Why would you help me?” I asked incredulously.

Meriel looked at me searchingly before turning to Dane. “You haven’t told her, have you? She has no idea what I do for a living, has she?”

“Believe it or not, we don’t talk about you and your little group of evils all the time.” Dane’s eyes pierced her. “But by all means enlighten her.”

“Dane?” I asked, unsure.

But before Dane could say a word,
Meriel hissed, “I’m a collector. You owe someone something and I’m the one who collects the favors.”

“I still don’t understand.” I puckered my lips and frowned. “I don’t owe anything to anyone.”

“Hmm, I strongly doubt that,” Meriel breathed and zoomed past me, stopping in the lobby. “But don’t worry, after this you’ll owe me, and you can be sure I’ll collect.”

“But―”

“Explain,” Dane interrupted, clearly interested in hearing what Meriel had to say.

Meriel
lifted her face theatrically and sighed. “Fine. I’ll help you now and you’ll do something for me later.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know yet.” Her words didn’t match the look on her face and we all suspected she knew quite well what she would ask in return. “But don’t worry, boy, she’ll be the first to know.” She nodded towards me.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“No,” Dane said at the same time.

We glanced at each other. Dane shook his head slowly but I didn’t yield. Whatever
Meriel asked me to do couldn’t be that bad. Besides, I needed to think about what would happen now, not about later. My eyes begged for his forgiveness as I stepped away from him and turned to Meriel.

“Whatever it is, I will do it.”

“Smart girl.” Meriel grinned and took a knife from her purse. She made a clean cut in her palm and held out her other hand. I took it and she made a cut in my palm, too. Then she pressed our palms together, saying, “I, Meriel Blárach, swear to do anything in my power to help Samantha Green to escape from Séasan Roideach, and in return Samantha Green will owe me a favor. Whatever and whenever I ask, she will do it.”

“One favor?” I confirmed.

Meriel nodded. “And after the debt has been paid she is free from this oath.” Her eyes looked hungry. “Agreed?”

“Agreed,” I said and felt as if I’d made a deal with the devil.

Meriel smiled. “Now, could you take me to your room? We really have no time to waste.”

I led her upstairs and
Meriel sat on a couch. She dug out two passports from her bag and handed them to me.

I took them, opened them in silence, and then looked at her. “I don’t understand.”
             

“I didn’t think you’d agree to leave by yourself,” she mocked. “Grab whatever you think is absolutely necessary but nothing more. Where you’re going you don’t need much.”

“Where are we going?” I asked while thrusting my things into a small suitcase.

Meriel
shrugged. “Somewhere safe. What does it matter? I’ve given both you and Dane new identities, enough money for you to live in comfort, and a safe place to stay. Just follow my orders and you’ll be fine.”

“Why do I have such a hard time believing that?” I muttered but didn’t stop packing. After five minutes I closed the bag and went to the door. “Done. You coming?”

Meriel gave me a scornful look before she got up gracefully.

We met Dane on the way down and I gave him his new passport.

He opened it and grinned widely. “Thank you.”

Meriel
didn’t bother to answer. She stayed behind us on purpose and let us say swift goodbyes to our friends. I couldn’t stop crying. This was so not the way I had imagined spending my eternity. Away from my friends. Hiding in the middle of nowhere. Not that I’d complain. After all, I got to spend it with Dane and there were things worse than that. A lot worse.

I looked at my friends for the last time, storing the memory of their features in my mind. Kate smiled at me encouragingly. Her small hand was in Jonathan’s bigger one, but I wasn’t sure which one was comforting the other. Jonathan’s eyes were so full of pain that it hurt to look at him. I wanted to run to him and hug him hard, but what good would it do? I had to go, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take all of them with me. The fact that Meriel had allowed Dane to go was a small miracle in itself, and I knew without asking that Meriel wouldn’t extend her charity to the others.

I smiled at Jonathan and it broke my heart to see the silent tears in his eyes. With an effort I turned my gaze from him and saw some other vampires gathering behind my friends. They looked at me with serious faces but I couldn’t read what they were thinking. Some of them were surely happy to see me go, but some would miss me. At least I hoped they would. I tried to look brave and hide the trembling that was fast taking over my body, so I gave them one last smile before turning my back on them. You’re never going to see them again, my brain was screaming, but I forced myself to ignore it. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door.

“Going somewhere?”

I found myself staring right into Jason’s eyes. He grinned at me and I inhaled sharply. Backing away from the door as quickly as I could, I ran into the kitchen.

The smile on his face didn’t fade. On the contrary. His grin widened and the pleasure of a hunting challenge flashed in his eyes.

Dane, Jonathan
, and Kate ran after me, and the other vampires in the lobby conveniently faded away, not wanting to stay in Jason’s way. I looked at him in horror as I slammed the kitchen door closed. I leant on the door and would’ve slumped to the floor if Dane hadn’t caught me.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” I mumbled, but couldn’t help the panic starting to crawl in my head.

“Run,” Dane pleaded, and when I looked into his eyes I saw the same panic in him, too.

“No.” I shook my head and my eyes begged him to drop the subject, but he couldn’t.

“Run and we’ll hold him back.”

The others nodded to confirm his words, but how could I run? Jason had no mercy and he would be furious when, not if, he found out I was gone.

“You can’t hold him back,” I snapped. “No one can, and you know it. So stop playing the knight in shining armor and help me.”

I pressed my ear to the door. It was all quiet in the lobby and I felt pleased. At least Jason was not destroying the house and killing whoever was in his way, and maybe, just maybe, we had a couple of minutes to build a strong barrier and stop him from entering the room. I leaped to the heavy oak table and started to push it in front of the door, and the others helped me. They moved whatever furniture they could to the door, but something told me that Jason would stop at nothing. Not unless I gave in to him freely. As if that would happen. When I was satisfied with the improvised barrier, I shushed the others and listened carefully. Someone, probably Jason, was walking towards the door. I paled and backed away slowly. A quiet screech from behind us made us all jump.

Meriel stood at the back door and was holding it open for us. “This way.”             

We rushed to the door, but before we could reach it we heard a loud bang as the kitchen door was kicked open, making all the furniture we had piled against it crash to the ground.

Kate was the closest to Meriel, but Meriel didn’t stay and wait for her. She gave us a dark look and closed the back door coldheartedly, leaving us to face Jason alone.

I screamed, both in frustration and fright, and the others stepped in front of me.

Jason marched inside and smiled lopsidedly. “Hello, love. I believe you have something to tell me.”

“How did you…?” Kate’s eyes darted between Jason and me.

“Get here so quickly?” He smirked. “Let’s just say I was in the neighborhood.” His eyes found me again. “Now, where were we? Ah, the telling part.”

He took a step closer and Dane instinctively moved between him and me.

Jason shook his head disapprovingly and Jonathan grabbed Dane’s arm. “You don’t want to do that,” he said quietly and held him still.

Dane was clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles were white and a raging fire burned in his eyes. He tried to move but Jonathan’s grip held.

“Why don’t we go to the living room?” Jason held his hand out to me and arched his brow.

“No!” I breathed.

He shook his head disapprovingly. “Easy, love, I just want to have a little chat with you.”

I shook my head, feeling horrified.

“Please?” His eyes held a warning and for a second I could imagine him killing all of my friends just to get to me. He held my gaze and there was something terrible in the way his lips curled.

Finally, I swallowed and nodded. I pushed Dane and Jonathan aside and placed my hand in Jason’s. He put his fingers around mine, caressing my hand. I felt numb. He took a step towards the doorway but my feet disobeyed and refused to move. He squeezed my hand a bit, and before I could resist he dragged me out of the room.

The living room was full of vampires. They had heard the loud crash and come running to check what was happening. When they saw Jason coming in dragging me behind him, some of them actually fled from the room with a horrified look on their faces.

Jason dragged a chair into the middle of the room and placed me on it, and I half expected to see the whole vampire council there, ready to punish me again. The others backed away but none came to my rescue.

“I told you you’d screw up, love.” He kissed the back of my hand and took a chair for himself. He sat facing its back, leaning his arms on its backrest, regarding me with a devilish look in his eyes. “Now, why don’t you tell me what happened today?”

My eyes widened. How the heck could he know anything about what had happened? And yet I was sure he knew exactly what had happened and was asking only to lure me into a trap. Did he have some master powers or something? ’Cause if not, there was no way he could’ve known anything. There hadn’t been a single soul in the cemetery besides Lucas and me, and after I’d killed Lucas, Dane was the first person to show up. So maybe he was just bluffing.

I shrugged.
“Nothing much.”

Jason laughed. “Oh, I’ve missed you, Samantha. Why don’t you start with the day before yesterday?”

I glared daggers at him and he laughed even more. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? Sure, I had killed Lucas and I was pretty sure he already knew. But I didn’t think it mattered to him. No, there was something more in it, but I couldn’t quite figure out what.

“Samantha?” Jason lifted his brow.

I swallowed. I thought about defying him. But it was barely a nanosecond before the thought vanished. His gaze was still on me and I could see that he was running out of patience. The temptation to stay silent burned inside me, but as if he knew what I was thinking, he glanced lazily at Kate and grinned hungrily.