Undeniable (36 page)

“Oh well, that depends on whom—or should I say, what—you’re
asking about. Over the years, we’ve grown to a total of three hundred
inhabitants. Fifty Survivors, one hundred Night-timers and one hundred and
fifty Fentmorians—you know, those born here. And we haven’t lost one to the
Slashers since we finished the wall, twenty years ago!”

Angelina shook her head. “How many are normal?”

“Normal? We have the quote normal unquote people, like yours
truly, who never even believed vampires existed until we arrived here. We’re
the Survivors. Our plane crashed here over thirty years ago during a blizzard.
There weren’t that many Slashers then. First one I saw nearly took my head
off!” He chuckled, tugging down the collar of his coat to reveal a mass of
bulging scar tissue as he led her down a street lined with one-story buildings.

Wooden, hand painted signs were nailed above each door.
Angelina noted they had a grocer, barber, blacksmith and tailor. One long
building had an equally long sign with the words “CLARA’S KITCHEN” surrounded
by artfully painted flowers. The last building on the block bore a huge red
cross.

Angelina winced when her sore ankle twisted in a crevice in
the street. The Mayor wrapped his arm around her waist and nearly toppled her
as he strove to help.

“We were ninety Survivors then. We crashed in the hills and
realized, before we ever set foot in the city, that the place was crawling with
blood-sucking maniacs. But they’re sensitive to the sun. They don’t incinerate
like in the movies. But they do burn, so they stay indoors.

Well, we spent our days during those first years here
building a wall around the city and our nights hiding out in the hills. You had
to see the Slashers then. Coming out at night, staring at that wall like it had
magically appeared.” He chuckled again and opened the door to the doctor’s
house. “Ah, here we are!”

Angelina shielded her eyes from the bright lights filling
the room. “You have electricity?”

“Yes. We have it all. We were on our way to Malhali, a small
Caribbean island our company purchased, expecting to take advantage of the wave
of tourists searching for a less modernized Hawaii. Our plane had doctors,
scientists, carpenters and electricians and was stocked with enough supplies
and building equipment for a year.” He arched his brows. “And of course, yours
truly, politician extraordinaire, was hoping to help organize their government.
Unfortunately, we crashed not long after we took off.”

“If you had carpenters and building supplies, why didn’t you
build a boat,” Angelina asked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the lights.

“We did. We tried again and again. Our boats would be at sea
for hours, sometimes days, then we’d spot land.” Closing the door, he snorted.
“We’d find ourselves landing on this island. We lost quite a few since we’d
land on the shore of the city.”

“We tapped into the power of the river that first year,”
added an elderly man drawing blood from a patient lying in a bed.

Angelina’s heart lurched when she realized the patient was
Diana.

“What are you doing? She’s already lost too much blood.” She
ran across the room, prepared to personally yank the syringe from his hand.

A hefty nurse blocked her way and gently grasped her
shoulders. “We can’t give her a transfusion until Doc Jenkins knows her type.
Why don’t you take a seat?”

She led Angelina to a wooden chair on the opposite side of
the bed.

“How far into the bonding,” the doctor asked, withdrawing
the syringe from Diana’s arm. He handed the vial of blood to the nurse. “Katie,
get this to the lab.”

“Tonight would have been their last.” Angelina leaned over
and clasped Diana’s cold hand in hers, recalling how often Damien had helped
her deal with the excruciating hunger she felt before their last night. How
many times had he answered her pleas for his blood, for his touch?

Doc Jenkins shook his head. “That’s going to make this one
hard to match. Their blood’s almost completely merged, unique. Hopefully, one
of our Night-timers, one whose original blood type matched hers, bonded with a
vampire related to the one she bonded with. Sometimes that works.”

“Then test my blood. I might match.” Angelina stood.

“I figured as much. Wearing a sweater in eighty degree
weather pretty much gave it away. And John said you called her your
granddaughter.” He tossed the syringe in a wooden pail. “Judging by the fact
that you look more like her sister, I’d say your ritual took place when you
were about her age.”

“I nearly made it to the last night.” Angelina said as he
tied a rope around her arm.

“Well, we don’t get many sane ones that far into the
bonding.” He whistled. “Whenever someone gets lowered into the city, we wait
and watch. Not all come in completely mad. We rescue them and try to make their
lives a little more comfortable.”

The nurse grinned, baring small fangs. “And for that, we’re
eternally grateful.”

“Katie here was one of our first. We get more and more every
year.” He glanced up at Angelina, then over at Diana. “Don’t get many your age,
lately. It’s the teenage vampires that drop the most off. You know, they always
think they’ve found the love of their life until the next one comes along.”

She nodded, remembering how at sixteen she’d been sure
Frank’s father was her true love.

“All done.” He pressed a small ball of cloth over the tiny
hole and handed the sample of her blood to the nurse. “Every now and then we
get one in with those wafers. You came just in time. Our scientists have almost
figured out how to make them, but our supply is running frighteningly low. They
help our Night-timers.”

Angelina nodded. “The temperature here helps too, I bet.”

He nodded, taking in her sweater. “During the summer months,
at least. You wouldn’t happen to know where we are, would you?”

Shaking her head, Angelina explained. “I was unconscious,
but judging by how quickly the helicopter left me, then returned with my
granddaughter, this island can’t be too far from New York.”

“We figured that much. We weren’t in the air too long before
the crash.”

The doctor began to stitch up Diana’s wounds. “One good
thing about her going so far, she won’t have any scars to remind her of her
arrival. Poor thing, she must have been terrified.”

A lump choked off Angelina’s reply.

A half hour passed. The more labored Diana’s breathing became,
the more Angelina prayed. Just as she thought she’d scream from the tension
cramping her muscles, the nurse arrived and handed a slip of paper to the
doctor. He glanced down as Katie spoke close to his ear. Seeing their grim
expressions, Angelina drew her chair closer to the bed and grasped Diana’s
hand.

“I’m sorry. You’re not a match.” Doc Jenkins ran his hand
through his hair. “I always feel so helpless when this happens. We’ll just have
to wait and see if she can hold out long enough for us to test all our
Night-timers.”

The night drew to an end and no matter how hard she tried to
stay awake, Angelina soon fell into a deep sleep with her head resting on the
bed beside Diana’s hand.

She dreamt of Damien and Frank. They sat huddled over a map
while another man she instinctively knew wasn’t Sebastian slept on a nearby
couch. Her couch.

Damien, help us
, she tried to yell.

Although her words sounded like nothing more than a groan,
Damien raised his head and looked directly at her. He winked.

Hold on, Angelina. We’re coming.

She tried to get closer, to touch him, but no matter how
fast she ran, the distance between them remained.

Get Sebastian, Damien. Bring Sebastian to Diana. She
needs him
, she cried, her sobs strangling her words.

She watched in horror as Damien closed his eyes and turned
back to the map.

She’ll die if he doesn’t come. She needs his blood!
Her
words sounded like nothing more than babbling to her ears, but once again, she
knew he understood.

Damien just shook his head. The room faded and for a moment
she hung suspended in darkness. Gradually, she could make out a cluster of pine
trees. Her eyes adjusted. Something moved in the clearing between the forest
and a small brick building.

“No,” she wailed, realizing the enraged vampire tossing a tree
like it weighed no more than a toothpick into the air had to be Sebastian.
Blood covered his bare chest and arms and saturated his pants.
Sebastian!
Sebastian!

But he didn’t hear her. She watched in horror as he held his
arms up toward the amber sky above the horizon. Angelina realized he awaited
the rising sun, knew he had no intention of taking shelter. Drawing closer, she
saw the anguish on his face and reached out to touch him. Her hand passed
through him. No matter how hard she tried to get his attention, he saw nothing,
heard nothing.

“Don’t cry, Nana. I’m not afraid to die.”

Angelina lifted her head. “Oh, Diana,” she cried, “You have
to call Sebastian.”

Diana’s lips trembled. “He won’t come. You didn’t see his
eyes. He hates me.”

“He’s hurt, Diana. He thought you’d tricked him. Give him a
chance. Call him.” She sat on the edge of the bed and cupped her
granddaughter’s face in her hands. “He loves you.”

“No, he hates me.”

“You listen to me, young lady. You’re dying. The Slashers
took too much blood and your body isn’t accepting mine or any from the supply
here. Call him.”

“I can’t. He has to come back to me on his own. I won’t beg
him to!”

Angelina scowled down into Diana’s once-vibrant green eyes.
“If you love him, you’ll call. He’s dying from the guilt. I saw him, Diana. He
needs to know you still love him. That you forgive him.”

“You can feel that? He wants me to forgive him?” Hope lit
her eyes.

“Open your heart to him. Close your eyes and see him with
nothing more than your love, then you’ll see what I did.” Angelina brushed a
wayward curl from Diana’s forehead. “Go to him, Diana. Scream out his name with
everything you’ve got.”

Diana closed her eyes and tore down the walls she’d erected
to protect herself from Sebastian’s hatred.

His anguish slammed into her heart before she saw him
kneeling on the ground while a sliver of the sun peeked over the horizon. A
group of men glanced at the coming dawn, then, turning from Sebastian, rushed
toward a building.

Get up, Sebastian! Get away from the sun!
She
screamed with her mind, but found that it, like her body, had barely enough
energy to keep her connection to Sebastian. The vision started to fade.

He lifted his head and glanced at the horizon. To her
horror, instead of bolting for shelter, he tilted his head up higher and closed
his eyes.

Her eyes flew open. “He’s killing himself!”

“Don’t stop, Diana. Tell him you love him. Tell him you’re
dying. He’ll find shelter if he thinks he could save you.”

Diana fought off the fatigue and squeezed her eyes shut.
I
love you, Sebastian. I’ll always love you.

She felt the heat of the sun burning his skin.
No! You
have to come back for me!

Sobbing, she used her own impending death to seduce him away
from the dawn.
I’m dying, Sebastian. If you ever truly loved me, let me see
you one more time. There’s nothing to forgive. Nothing. Oh God, Sebastian, get
up!

Sebastian’s back flinched as the first ray struck his
shoulder.

Get up, you idiot!
She watched as he raised his head,
felt her heart swell when a grin spread across his face. With a bolt of speed
that took her breath away, he charged into the building.

I’m coming, Diana.

She feared he thought she had meant that her hunger for him
was killing her.
Hurry, Sebastian. The Slashers took too much blood.

The rays of the sun seared Sebastian’s back as he sprinted
the last twenty feet to the school. By the time the metal doors closed behind
him, smoke rose from his back. The smell of burning flesh and the razor-sharp
sting from the multitude of slashes covering his body nearly sent him to his
knees.

Only Diana’s last words and the weakness he detected now
that she had once again opened her heart up to his kept him from passing out.

He had to get to her before she died.

Nearly a hundred children sat huddled against the walls lining
the dark hallway of the school, their quiet sobs and the comforting words of
the teachers the only sounds meeting his ears. He opened his mouth to demand an
explanation of why the children remained in school during the day, then closed
it with a groan. Their terrified eyes as they stared at him told him all he
needed to know.

The teachers hadn’t dared send the children out of the
school with him out there. The windows of the school had metal shutters for
emergencies such as this, but that didn’t alleviate his guilt that these
children were separated from their parents during a time when they should be
home, safely tucked into their beds.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

Luna pulled away from Ms. Tindela’s grasp and timidly
approached. “You okay, now, Uncle Sebastian?” She tilted her head back and
frowned up at him.

“Yeah, I’m okay now.” Squatting, he winced. Seeing the
concern on her face, he grinned. “How’s my favorite girl?”

She pinched her nose between her fingers. “You smell awful!”

He laughed at the sounds of disgust and fake retching that
erupted from the children as one by one they gathered around him. Their eyes
widened as they gazed at the damage a few moments in the sun had wrought. He
doubted any of these children would accept a dare to face the sun even for a
few seconds.

“You must be the strongest vampire ever,” Fallon yelled from
the back of the mass of bobbing heads.