The Awakening (22 page)

His heart flip flopped in his chest as he realized
who was standing in front of them. 
Aed
. Fucking shit.

"Scared?" the hybrid drawled, his eyes
fixing on the two humans. "You should be."

"Leave us alone," Alex said. "We
can't help you. You've got nothing to gain by hurting us."

Aed smirked, his gaze falling onto Isobel. "I
have everything to gain."

As he began to stride forward, Alex pulled Isobel
behind him, trying to shield her from whatever was going to happen. Fat lot of
good that would do. The hybrid would just tear him into shreds before he could
take a swing.

Another dark form dropped in between them and he
instantly recognized Zac. Had he been following them this entire time? He was
suddenly very grateful that the vampire could be so sneaky.

"You?" Aed stopped abruptly, glaring.

"Yes, me. Just your friendly Celestine stinking,
vampire watch dog here to put your plans for world domination into
disarray."

"Do not get in my way," Aed hissed.
"I will rip you into little pieces."

"I cracked your head open once and I can do it
again," Zac hissed. "If you want them, you'll have to go through
me."

"It will be my 
pleasure
."

Zac's shoulders squared and he ran towards Aed
faster than Alex's eyes could follow. The vampire pushed the hybrid with a hard
jab and he flew backwards, rolling to a stop towards the opposite end of the
lane.

Pulling Isobel back into the safety of a doorway,
he held her close. "It's going to be okay," he murmured, rubbing his
hands up and down her arms. She was shaking like a leaf, her eyes wide with
fear.

Peering around the doorway, he wondered if they
could make a run for it while Zac distracted Aed. The two vampires were in
between them and the apartment, so they would have to go the long way around.

"We need to make a run for it," Alex
said, cupping his sister's face. "I know you're scared, I'm shitting myself
right now, but we have to get outta here."

Isobel nodded and they both looked at the vampires
who were wrestling each other. He winced as Aed punched Zac square in the face,
putting the vampire flat on his back, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.
Their eyes connected for a split second and all they said to Alex was, 
run
.

Aed grabbed Zac's shoulders and pulled him to his
feet with a roar. There was a sickening crack as the hybrid squeezed,
shattering bone. The vampire let out a shocked gasp, the only indicator that he
felt any pain. His arms dangled uselessly beside him and he let out an angry
growl.

"Do you know what happens to fools who get in
my way?" the hybrid asked.

Alex felt Isobel move beside him and he went to
grab her arm, but she was too quick.

"Stop," she cried, standing in the middle
of the lane. "Leave him alone."

Aed's head flew up at the sound of her voice and he
dropped Zac abruptly. In a flash, he was in front of her, hands on her waist.
"Siobhan?"

Alex could see Isobel visibly shaking, giving away
that she was terrified. Why had she revealed herself?

"I know you are afraid of me, my love."

My 
love
?

"I know you are afraid," he continued.
"I know you don't remember me, but I understand. In time you'll remember.
I'll help you."

To everyone's shock, Aed cupped her face in his
hands and pressed his lips to Isobel's forehead like he was her secret lover.
She gasped at the contact, her entire body rigid.

Zac stumbled to his feet, his arms starting to move
again and the hybrid scooped up Isobel. She shrieked and beat her fists
against his chest, but there was nothing any of them could've done. There was a
whoosh of air and then they were gone.

Alex stumbled out of the doorway and looked around
wildly. "
Izzy
," he yelled, his voice echoing between the
buildings.

"It's no use," Zac grimaced.
"They're long gone."

"What-"

"Did you just see the same crazy shit I just
did?" Zac groaned, massaging his shoulder.

"He took her…" Alex was stunned. This was
shock, wasn't it? His limbs felt numb, his skin prickled with a thousand pins
and needles and he couldn't catch his breath.

"I knew the guy was mental, but that takes the
cake."

"Who the fuck is Siobhan?"

"Who the hell knows what's going through that
guy's head." Zac leaned against the wall with a grimace as his bones
healed.

"We need to get her back," Alex said,
desperation boiling to the surface.

"I know," the vampire replied. "We
need Gabby. She can track him."

"She can do that now? I thought she could just
sense him?"

"Regulus taught her before..." He stopped
mid-sentence and shrugged. Before he'd died. Alex knew enough about it to
understand.

Alex was just…he couldn't function properly and
just stood there staring at the place where Isobel had been standing a moment
before. She was in the hands of a insane vampire hybrid. What if he turned her?
His heart began to beat painfully in his chest as every worst case scenario
played itself out in his mind.

"Are you okay?" Zac placed a hand on his
arm, bringing him back to the present.

"No," he said shaking his head. "Are
you?"

"Yeah," he replied, flexing his muscles.
"Bones heal, severed limbs not so much."

Alex frowned, casting his thoughts back to Isobel.
There was only one option now and it wasn't gong to be pleasant. Without a
word, he strode down the street back toward the apartment, Zac trailing behind.

"Where are you going?" the vampire called
out.

Not bothering to stop, he said, "Where do you
think?"

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Alex stormed into his sister's apartment, the door
banging inward against the wall. Gabby, Aya and Tristan looked up and when they
saw the expression on his face, they all shot to their feet.

"Alex, wait up a minute," Zac called out
from behind.

"Gabby," he said, his determined gaze
fixed on the witch.

"What's going on?" she asked and when she
saw the blood all over Zac's face, her eyes widened.

"Aed turned up," the vampire said.
"Smacked me in the face like a little girl."

"He took Izzy," Alex said, trying to hold
everything in, but Aya was there winding a hand into his. She'd know, she'd
always
know.

"He
what
?"

"He snatched her," Alex said, but he
couldn't formulate a proper explanation.

"He was probably looking for Aya and tracked
me instead," Zac said. "I was following them at a distance to make
sure they were okay and when Alex changed course, I saw Aed following them
through the street. I hoped he'd keep his distance until we were all together,
but he must have realized…"

"He tracked you?" Alex hissed, turning on
Zac.

"He seems to think I smell like a
Celestine."

"I told him to follow you," Gabby
interrupted. "I couldn't let you go without some kind of protection."

"He almost got me," Zac said, rolling his
shoulders.

"He almost killed you?" Aya gasped and
practically threw herself at the vampire.

"I'm fine," he murmured into her hair,
holding her tight. "Thanks to Isobel."

"I got the feeling that he recognized
her," Gabby said like she'd been deep in thought.

"When?" Zac asked, looking thoroughly
annoyed.

"When I sifted through his thoughts."

"You were in his
head
?"

"The vampire that was here, the one that he
compelled…he did a sloppy job and left a thread behind. A way into his
thoughts."

"Gabby," Aya said, "he
could've…"

"He didn't," she snapped.

"That's how you knew," the hybrid said,
straightening. "I thought you'd gleaned it from the vampire, not Aed
himself."

"You knew?" Alex asked, his jaw tight.

"He thinks she's his lost love," Zac
said, putting a hand on Alex's shoulder. "He won't do anything to hurt
her."

"You said it yourself, he's
insane
. Who
knows what he'll see tomorrow?"

"We'll get her back," Gabby said,
"I-"

Alex wasn't really listening. Gabby was too
preoccupied with not wanting to hurt anybody, that she didn't quite grasp the
fact that there was no getting out of this without anyone suffering at least a
little. "You need to change me. You need to change me and we need to kill
him. That's the only way I can keep her safe."

Gabby's eyes began to fill with tears, her calm
exterior beginning to crack. "No. I won't. Not you."

"Change me, Gabby. You know there's no other
option."

"He's right," Aya said gently.

"You really want this?" the witch asked
him.

"I don't want it, but I have to do it. I know
you want to spare me, but you can't. We've run out of time."

Gabby turned back to the grimoire and ran her
fingers across the page she'd been reading. "Okay," she said meekly.
"Okay."

"I'll call Nye and the Three," Zac said.
"We need to get ready…and I need to wash my face." He gestured to the
blood from his fight with Aed.

Gabby nodded like she wasn't able to do anything
else.

"And I'll stay and help you with the
spell," Aya said. "I can't offer anything other than my presence
without corrupting Alex."

"I know."

Zac stood to leave and Aya grabbed his hand.
"Be careful. No more fighting Aed on your own."

"Believe me, I don't plan on it." He
leaned over and pressed his lips to hers and a moment later he was gone.

"I'm at your service," Tristan said with
a grin. He'd been silent the entire time and Alex got that he was the reserved
kind, but he'd been a knight so honor and valor and all of that was his game.

"It's up to Gabby," Aya said to the
knight. "It's time to follow her lead."

"We need to find a quiet spot where no one
will hear or see us," the witch said, opening Isobel's laptop. "Somewhere
where I can be close to the earth and that's free of distractions."

"Outside of town," Aya said. "A
forest or a field…"

"There's a wood at the south end of
town," Gabby said, pointing to the map she'd looked up on the laptop.

"Good," Aya declared. "Private
enough for what we need to do."

"This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" Alex
asked with a grimace.

"I don't know what it was like for the
Romans," Aya said with a shrug. "Turning on a good day isn't
pleasant, so I would assume yes. It's going to hurt." Alex started to
pale and she placed a hand on his arm. "You'll be fine."

Tristan leaned over Gabby's shoulder and looked at
the map. "I can drive you there and keep an eye out for trouble."

"I think Aed will be otherwise occupied,"
Aya said with a wave of her hand.

"No chances," Gabby said, glancing at
Alex. "We can't take the risk of someone interrupting or finding out what
we're doing."

"What happens if the spell is
interrupted?" Alex asked, a little panicked.

"No idea, but I don't really want to find out."

"That's not reassuring me, you know."

Gabby smiled thinly. "Give me five minutes to
get some stuff."

Alex fidgeted in his chair, watching as she went
through the kitchen drawers and pulled out a sharp looking knife. His stomach
instantly squirmed. What the hell had he gotten himself into? She flipped it
over and inspected the edge in the light and seemed satisfied. She wrapped it
in a tea towel and placed it on top of the grimoire. Ducking down, she rifled
through the cupboards and pulled out a green plastic bowl. Alex wondered what
she needed it all for. They were making him a vampire, not a salad.

"Okay," Gabby said. "That should do
it. Lets go if we're doing this."

Alex stood, a little light headed. Fuck, in t-minus
an hour or so, he'd be a vampire. Just like that. Gabby would cast the same
spell that had created the Romans and that would be it. He'd be un-killable,
powerful, fast and all of the above times ten. He didn't even want to think
about the rest, at least not until it was all over.

Courage, Alex
, he thought to
himself.
Courage
.

They drove out to the forest in silence, Alex's
thoughts bouncing from Isobel back to what was about to happen to him. He
didn't know which one he should be more worried about.

"Here's okay," Gabby said and a moment later
Tristan pulled the car over to the side of the road and killed the engine.

They piled out onto the road, the woods stretching
into darkness around them, the dull glow of the city to their backs. Alex
huddled into his coat and tried not to feel sick. Gabby and Aya set off into
the tree line and he followed because there was no going back now. The point of
no return had been reached the moment Aed snatched Isobel and took off with
her. Tristan sat on the hood of the car, watching as they disappeared into
the forest. A moment later, the vampire and the road were out of sight.

"You said you needed blood?" Alex asked
as they walked. "Who's? I didn't think we could use either of yours?"

"We can't use pure Coven or Celestine
blood," Gabby explained. "I'm neither, so mine is good."

"Does that mean I'll be linked to you like
Katrin was to the others?"

"No, not unless I will it and I wouldn't do
that to you."

Alex wasn't sure if he should answer that and
instead he asked, "But Katrin was a part of the Coven, how could she
make the Romans?"

"She had power before she was made one of the
Five," Gabby explained. "But it was so small it was negligible. For
all intents and purposes, she was ninety nine point nine percent human.
Uncorrupted enough to be turned into a witch."

"Katrin had power before?" Aya asked.
"I never knew."

"The memory she showed me was of her mother
forcing her to make her grimoire as a child."

Aya snorted. "I can imagine how that
went."

They walked through the woods until they came across
a clearing that seemed to be to Gabby's liking. It was large and open, but
branches still hung over their heads, shielding them form the night sky.

"I need to cast a circle of flame," Gabby
explained. "Alex, you need to stand in the middle."

Aya looked at the grass and the surrounding forest.
"Let me dig a circle out for you." They hybrid disappeared and
returned just as fast with a branch and began digging a haphazard trench. When
she caught Alex frowning at her, she winked. "The last thing we need is a
forest fire."

Gabby knelt, setting the bowl, knife and grimoire
at her feet. She flipped through the pages until she settled on one that must
be the spell she needed.

"It's ironic, you know," Alex said,
watching Aya dig the shallow ditch around him. "I was the nerdy guy in
school. Nobody gave me a second look."

"You turned out to be a handsome muscled
gardener," Gabby said, looking up. "You were a hundred times better
than the popular kids anyway. How many of them went on to do anything
great?"

"How many of them turned out to be witches? Or
immortal vampires..."

"It's no use dwelling on the past, Alex,"
Aya said, interrupting their little trip down memory lane. "It's gone and
cannot be changed. The present and the future is all anyone has."

"I'm not sure what to say to that." He
groaned and ran an unsteady hand over his face.

"Courage," the hybrid said. It was
the same thing he'd told himself earlier.

Once Aya had completed her digging, she threw the
branch aside and stood back to observe.

"Are you ready?" Gabby asked him.

"As I'll ever be."

Gabby stood and raised her hands. There was a
sudden whoosh of hot air and the night lit up with an orange glow. Alex looked
around, eyes wide with awe as a circle of flame sprung to life in Aya's
haphazard ditch, encircling the three of them. He'd never seen Gabby practice
before, not like this and it was something else. How could he describe the
indescribable? 

"Give me your hand," she said, picking up
the knife.

"My hand?"

She gestured for him to come forward and he held
out his hand, palm up. Without blinking, Gabby dragged the blade across his
skin, opening up a long red gash. Hissing at the sudden pain, he curled his
hand into a fist. Blood began to drip into the plastic bowl and ironically he
thought,
no salad then
.

Gabby drew the knife across her own palm and
together, they let their blood combine in the bowl until both their cuts began
to clot.

"Okay, are you ready?" she asked.
"I'm going to start the spell now."

"As I'll ever be," he replied with a
grimace.

Offering him a reassuring smile, Gabby knelt down
and picked up the grimoire and started reading and the air began to tingle
around them. He knew that she was speaking the witch language, but to him
it sounded alien. There was no hope of him understanding it.

For a few minutes nothing else happened and he
wondered if the spell was working or this was it. It was meant to hurt, so why
wasn't it? As soon as the thought ran through his mind, a sharp stabbing pain
sliced through his heart.

"
Fuck
," he cried out, falling to
his knees. His chest felt like it was ripping apart, his heart swelling to
bursting point and he started to panic. Blood whooshed in his ears and stars
began to prickle his vision and it took all he had to hold onto reality.