Twilight Prophecy (27 page)

“What makes you think—”

“Where else James go? Know you not, woman?

You are…his heart.”

She blinked against a sudden rush of hot moisture and averted her eyes. “You’re wrong.”

“No, he’s not.” James had silently entered from behind Utanapishtim and stood now by the back door, an ax in his hand. “He’s wrong about a lot of things, Lucy, but he’s dead on target about that.”

“James…”

She whispered his name on a choking sob, wanting to run to him but afraid to move. Did he mean it?

And did it matter, at a time like this?

“You killed innocents out there, Utanapishtim,”

James said softly. “The carnage outside is… It’s brutal.”

“It…ness-ary.” The king bowed his head slightly, one hand rising as if he was about to press it to his forehead, but he stopped himself in midmotion. “They try stop me.”

“You could have backed off, regrouped, waited for me in ambush somewhere,” James said. “Those actions would have been preferable to the annihilation of the innocent.”

“I…there was no time.”

“There’s all the time in the world. We’re immortal. You know that. But don’t you see, Utanapishtim?

You’re not thinking clearly.”

Utanapishtim’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing.

“You…question decision of you king?”

“You’re not my king, Utanapishtim. Never were.”

“Don’t antagonize him,” Lucy whispered. She was working her way around the room, trying to get to where James stood. She was edging along the wall, wanting nothing more than to be in his arms.

“Think you I not have pondered this, James of the Vahmpeers? I have thought on this. My decision has made.”

“You’ve thought on this with a sick mind, Utanapishtim! All those centuries, captive in that stone statue, it twisted your brain.—”

“Nothing twist mind of king. I am like Anunaki.”

“I know. I thought I was like a god, too, for a while. I let my ego get away from me. But I’m not a god, I’m a man. Just like you. You are a man, Utanapishtim, and now you are also a murderer of innocents. What you plan to do is genocide, and you must stop it now.”

“The gods demand—”

“I don’t give a damn what the gods demand!”

“Then die!” Utanapishtim’s eyes narrowed on James and began to glow. And in that instant Lucy launched herself as if from a rocket, diving into the path of that beam, only one thought, only one emotion, driving her: that she could not stand by and watch the man she loved blasted to bits.

The last thing she heard before the hum that tried to blow her head open was James screaming her name.

J
ames had mentally braced himself for the blow when Utanapishtim’s eyes had begun to shine. And then, like a slow-motion nightmare, he’d seen Lucy lunging into the path of that killer beam.

She shouted, “Utanapishtim, no!” as she leaped in front of the man.

And even as James screamed her name and lunged for her, she took the blow meant for him. The beam of light hit her, and her body went stiff and began to vibrate. James raced toward her, noting that Utanapishtim’s expression had turned to one of horror and the beam from his eyes had flickered.

And then another beam shot from behind James, blasting past him and hitting Utanapishtim square in the chest, sending the great man flying backward to slam into a wall and crumple to the floor. James shot a stunned look behind him, only to see Brigit striding into the room like some kind of warrior woman—one who was royally pissed.

Utanapishtim lay on the floor, beaten, stunned, looking shell-shocked and as if he might have finally suffered a complete break with reality. He was muttering, “I intend not her. Not Loo-see. Not Loo-see.” And then he lapsed into Sumerian—or something James presumed was Sumerian.

He didn’t care. He refocused on Lucy, kneeling beside her where she’d fallen. Gathering her into his arms, he lifted her upper body from the floor, pushed up her scorched tank top. Her belly was badly burned, a large black spot smoldering, smoking, raw flesh visible beneath the charred skin.

She opened her eyes, looking up at him, and he could see the pain in her eyes. “You can heal it. I know you can.”

Meeting her eyes, he felt tears brimming in his own, because he was so afraid he couldn’t. He pressed his palms to her belly, waiting for the white light to come. And when it didn’t, he blinked rapidly.

Brigit put her hand on his shoulder. “Do it, J.W. What are you waiting for?”

“I’m trying.”

“Well fucking try harder, bud. She’s circling the drain.”

He tried, he focused, he searched inside himself for the pool of energy he’d always been able to tap into, to reroute, to press outward into those who needed it. And for the second time in his memory, he felt only emptiness inside him. There was nothing there.

“It’s…gone. He took it from me, back on the yacht. I was afraid of that when I tried to heal you in that church and couldn’t…. I just didn’t want to believe…”

Brigit met his eyes, her own wide with disbelief as she processed that. She pressed her lips together, gave a firm nod. “You’re gonna have to do it the other way, big bro.”

“What other way?” Then realization entered his eyes. “Oh, no. Hell, no. I don’t even know if I can. Or if she’d want it.” Then he shot a look Utanapishtim’s way and realized the other man was gone. “He took my power. He can use it. Utanapishtim! Where are you?”

“Shit, he’s gone. I’m going after him,” Brigit said. “Meanwhile, you’d better ask her while she’s still able to answer you. It’s time to fang up or shut up, J.W.”

“Wait, Brigit! I’ve never—”

But she was gone. And James was left holding the woman he loved—yes, loved. He knew that now. And she was dying. Right in his arms, she was dying.

“I’m sorry, James,” Lucy whispered. “I just couldn’t bring myself to give up that stupid book of Folsom’s. Books have always been everything to me. But I know now there’s something far more important.”

“Love,” he said. “Love is more important.”

She smiled softly, closing her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I ruined everything.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I did. And now I’m dying, and you’ve lost your power, and…it could have been so good. If I’d lived…if you wanted me…we could have had…” She closed her eyes, but tears squeezed through her thick lashes all the same. “I love you, James.”

“I love you, too.”

“I wish I could stay with you.” She closed her eyes briefly, then flashed them open again. “I get it now. I do. I get it. I’ve felt so guilty all this time that my parents died and I lived. But now…now I understand they couldn’t have borne it any other way. Now…I know what it is to love someone more than you love your own life. To be willing to sacrifice everything for another human being. I couldn’t have lived if I had let you die, James. I am so happy, so proud, that I was able to prevent it. To be the hero for once in my life.” She smiled through her tears. “I know how they felt, dying for me. They were happy. They were happy they managed to save me. And it feels so good to finally understand that. To understand what they did. Thank you for that, James. Thank you. I’m not a coward after all.”

He felt hot tears running down his face. “You never were.” And then she was fading, and he shook his head. “You can’t leave me,” he whispered. “I don’t want to go on without you, Lucy. I don’t know if I can. You’re like…the part of me that’s been missing. You understand me like no one else ever has…. I can make you one of us. One of them. You’re one of the Chosen. That means—”

“I know what it means.”

He nodded. “I’ve never…but I can try.”

She opened her eyes and stared into his. “I trust you. I trust you with my life, my eternal, immortal life, James. And I would be honored to join your people.”

James closed his eyes and summoned forth the vampiric part of his soul. He felt his jawline shift, felt his razor-sharp incisors extend, felt a powerful hunger piercing his awareness. And as he looked downward and she met his eyes, he saw the glowing red reflection of his gaze in hers. For the first time he thanked his stars for the part of him that was preternatural, undead. Vampire. For the first time he truly and completely loved and accepted the part of himself he had formerly rejected and tried to ignore. The part he’d hated all his life. The part he’d thought he was too good for.

The bloodlust raged, and for the first time he welcomed it, rather than meeting it with disgust and forcing it into submission. He surrendered to it, embraced it. He let it take him over, make him hard, aroused, hot, hungry. He was, in that moment, entirely vampire. And he relished it fully, as he had never ever done before. It and it alone was going to save Lucy’s life. The vampire in him was the only reason he could have her now. And for that, he loved it.

He bent to her throat, a low growl of desire and hunger rising from deep within him. Opening his lips, he sucked her neck, taking the skin into his mouth, between his teeth. Pressing just slightly, he felt the thrum of that river of blood rushing through her veins. He felt it pulsing faster as she anticipated what was to come. Her heart raced like a frightened rabbit’s, and he relished that, too. And then he sank his fangs into her flesh and he fed from her, drinking.

And it was good. It was so, so good. Her blood filled him, warming his body, thundering through him, becoming power, becoming energy, becoming strength. He lifted his head from her neck, tipped it back and roared like a lion celebrating a kill. And then he lowered his gaze to her again.

She was white as a ghost, and her heartbeat had slowed to almost nothing. He’d drained her, imbibed her, and every time her heart thudded against her chest he felt it, heard it. It stuttered. It paused. It stopped.

He picked up the ax he’d dropped beside her and drew his wrist over the sharp edge, slicing a vein. Forcefully, he pressed his flesh to her mouth.

“My blood, your blood. My life, your life. Drink, Lucy. Drink me into you and come back to me, my love.”

E
verything was different when Lucy opened her eyes to find herself in James’s arms. He was different. Stronger, deeper, sadder—and also wiser—and it showed in his eyes. He’d acknowledged and incorporated the beast within him. Embraced it to save her life. Appreciated it and was, even now, getting to know the vampiric part of himself just as she was.

Because she was different, too. Very different.

“I…I feel so strange.”

He held her, rocked her. “I know. You’ve changed. You’re a vampire now.”

She lifted her head and blinked, looking around her. “We’re not at the university anymore.”

“No. You had to sleep the sleep of the undead while the change took hold. And now we’re on the island, but not for very long.”

Sitting up, Lucy saw a campfire snapping and crackling nearby, sending sparks into the air. She felt and smelled and tasted it. Rhiannon was poking a long stick into the coals and staring into the flames. And as she widened her scope, Lucy looked around at the others. James and Brigit’s parents were there, Edge and Amber Lily. Willem and Sarafina. Brigit and others, a couple of dozen at the most.

“They survived,” she whispered. “Your family, your friends. They’re okay.” She was smiling at the people around her, though they all looked sad.

“They’re…the only ones.”

Blinking in shock, Lucy shot her attention back to James. “What?”

He nodded sadly, but before he could say more, Rhiannon had spotted them and was coming toward them. “Is she ready?”

“I think so, yes.”

Rhiannon met her eyes, and then, to Lucy’s stunned surprise, she smiled very slightly and extended a hand. “Welcome to your new family, Lucy Lanfair.”

Lucy took her hand, and Rhiannon pulled her to her feet, led her to the fire, James at her side every step of the way. “Everyone, this is Lucy, our newborn fledgling and J.W.’s mate.”

And then she proceeded to introduce everyone. When she had finished, Rhiannon turned to Lucy and said, “You now know the names of every vampire still in existence, little one. We’ve been calling out mentally, to no avail. Every vampire we know of back on the mainland has been wiped out by vigilantes, or by Utanapishtim, in his rage. The Chosen are being rounded up now, as well, by the government, and the gods only know what they intend to do with them. There’s no sign of preternatural life anywhere but here. The refugees on this island are the only vampires remaining, as far as anyone knows.”

Lucy could not contain her tears. She couldn’t bear the thought of so much death, and her emotional pain was as magnified as everything else seemed to be.

Though now, she knew, was no time to be noticing that she could hear the flap of an insect’s wings a mile away, or the swish of a fish’s tail in the ocean depths. That she could smell the scent of every plant and animal on this island, and distinguish between them, as well. And then she realized why her emotions were so overblown. She was feeling the grief of every vampire around her.

James closed his hand around hers. “We have to decide how to proceed,” he said. “But we cannot do so from here. I fear it’s too close to the mainland, and of course Utanapishtim may be able to find his way back here. We have to move.”

Damien stepped forward then, and he held a clay tablet in his hands. Someone must have retrieved it from the ashes of the mansion in Byram, where she had last seen it, Lucy thought. That reminded Lucy of the pieces still resting in her backpack, and she quickly spotted it, resting near a tree. Thank God.

“As far as the world of man knows,” Damien said softly, “they have wiped us out entirely. They know of Utanapishtim, though of course most of them have no idea who or what he truly is. All they know is that some kind of supernatural being is blasting a path of destruction through anything in his path.”

“We shall strive to keep it that way,” Rhiannon said softly. “We must remain in the shadows, hiding our presence more carefully than we ever have before. If they realize any of us are left, there will be no peace for us or the world until every vampire is gone. We’re sailing North. Cuyler Jade has a home above the Arctic Circle. We’ll be safe there, for now.”

“But what about Utanapishtim?” Lucy asked. “He can track you, he can sense you—I mean
us
.” And that thought made her shiver.

Rhiannon turned to Damien, who held the tablet and read, “‘The two who are opposite and yet the same. One light, one dark, the first the destroyer, the second the salvation.’ It makes sense now.” He turned to stare directly at Brigit.

She lifted her brows in question.

“Yes, my child,” Rhiannon said softly. “You’re the one destined to save us all. You—with your power of destruction—are the only one who can destroy Utanapishtim once and for all. It’s your destiny, not your brother’s, to be the salvation of your race.”

Brigit’s brows pressed together, her head tipped to one side, and she said, “Well, then we’re all fucked. I’m the evil twin, remember?”

The vampires huddled together around the fire, comforting and being comforted. Someone began talking about one of the dead, telling stories of their deeds, then another jumped in, and still more. All night long they spoke of those who’d died, and James held Lucy close as they listened.

Lucy felt for all the world as if she’d been born at a funeral. And she wondered what the future held for her, for James. For his kind.
Their
kind.

She knew only one thing for sure. Whatever time remained to her, she would spend it with this man—this man who was, to her, an angel. Good through and through. This man she loved. The only man she had ever, or would ever, love. And whether that time was short or long, she intended to relish every single second of her new life.

Because she finally was alive. She was alive as she had never been before. And she would rather die with these supernatural beings, in the arms of this superhuman hero, than return to the sleepwalk she had called her life before.

She would love, and she would live, with every fiber of her being for every moment she had left, spending her life right by his side from now…until forever.

Everyone ought to live that way, she thought as she turned her face up to James’s in search of his lips. Even ordinary humans. Otherwise, what was the point of living at all?