Venom (The Reawakening Series Book 1) (18 page)

I lay Lexi down on the couch. She is weak and if I let her drink from me now, I won’t be able to go back for Sarah and Harvey right away. I want to ask her why they took Sarah, but there is no time.

She looks like she is in and out of consciousness. Afraid of what could happen, I decide to go ahead and give her a little of my blood. Just enough that it won’t weaken me.

“
Lexi, Love, I want you to drink from me okay?”

She barely nods. I bite my own wrist, making cuts that she can drink out of. As I’m doing so, I hear her right before she loses consciousness again, ‘You saved me, Nick’.

I grin as I put my wrist by her mouth and let my blood run in.

“
Valerie,” I yell.

Nothing.

“
You don’t have to come here while I’m here. I just need you to respond. I’m going back for Harvey and Sarah. Would you stay with Lexi while I’m gone?”

“
Yes,” she says in a low tone.

“
You take good care of her and I will get Harvey out of there, understand? Don’t do anything crazy like try to drink her blood or we will have problems, got it?”

“
Yes.”

I know she isn’t lying. For whatever reason, she is terrified of me.”

I kiss Lexi’s forehead while she sleeps peacefully, and before leaving her in Valerie’s care, I whisper, “I love you, little minion.” I didn’t realize until then how much I missed calling her that.

I go back out, watching for signs of anything strange.

There is no one outside the house now. I walk into the house and it’s complete silent. It doesn’t take long before I realize that there is no one here.

CHAPTER FORTY

I have my hands curled in fists as I walk back to the house. I rush in and find Valerie sitting on the couch across from Lexi, who is now awake and sitting up.

She avoids making eye contact with me.

“
How are you feeling?” I ask Lexi.

“
Better.”

Valerie quickly stands.

“
Please don’t.” I say. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She looks at Lexi.

“
You’ll be okay,” Lexi assures her.

“
Why did they take Sarah?” I ask Lexi.

She sighs. “They want to study her blood. They have a group of scientists who believe they can use her blood as a cure for vampirism. I’m so sorry, Nick. He used me to find her. He had been working with them for a while and had this planned all along. I’m so sorry.”

I shake my head. “Don’t blame yourself, Love. All I ever wanted was to protect the two most important people in my life and I failed miserably at it.”

Lexi looks away, avoiding me once again.

I almost forgot that Valerie was in the room. “Where is Harvey?” she asks in a shaken tone.

I stare her in the eyes knowing that I didn’t keep my promise to bring him back and I won’t be able to. “They are gone. There is no one there anymore.”

She gasps and curls up in the corner of the couch.

“
We’ll find them, but I will need your help.”

She stares into my eyes and listens.

“
Did you drink from him often?”

She looks away, embarrassed. “He didn’t want me to feed from humans and sometimes, the blood bags weren’t enough, so yes.”

“
Can you feel whether he is in danger?”

She shakes her head.

“
It’s okay. We are going to use your blood imprint to find him. You are new and it might take a while, but I will teach you how.”

She nods.

“
Close your eyes.”

She does.

“
Think about him and well, his blood. Just focus on that.”

We stay silent for a while.

“
Do you feel anything?” I finally ask.

She opens her eyes and shakes her head.

Bloody hell. This is going to take a while.

We keep trying. Valerie keeps her eyes closed and keeps focusing on Harvey and the blood imprint. I know it’s only a matter of time before she needs to feed and I can’t allow her to drink from either Lexi or myself… that would risk breaking her imprint with Harvey; the only way we have to find them.

Lexi and I sit on the couch waiting.

“
Lexi, what was he trying to do to your blood, Love?”

She shrugs. “I think he was trying to test it on me; to cure me.”

“
But you don’t feel weird or anything, right?”

She shakes her head. “I think the angel blood kept me from going crazy like Tyler.”

I shake my head just by hearing his name.

“
Nick?”

“
Yes, Love?”

“
When we find them… we have to take Tyler with us.”

I stand up and stare down at her.

“
Have you lost your damn mind?”

“
Nick, he is not himself. I can’t just sit here and not help him.”

“
Lexi, he is out of his mind, not to mention that he might be insane now, but he knew exactly what he was doing when he started to plan this. Either way, I won’t allow you to help or go near someone as insane as he is right now.”

“
I know in his mind he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. Besides, I was around you for days and you weren’t exactly sane.”

“
That is a whole different level of crazy, Love. My craziness has to do with being crazy about you.”

She rolls her eyes. “You are losing your touch, Nick. That was the worst pick-up line ever.” She manages to laugh then her smile turns into a frown. “Please, Nick.”

“
NO!” Valerie screams.

I rush to her side. “Keep your eyes closed. Tell me what you feel.”

“
They are doing something to his blood. I have to go to him. They are not far.”

“
We have to act carefully. You are weak now and they have humans around. The last thing we need is you going blood-crazy in there.”

She opens her eyes. “He is hurt!”

I move toward her and she flinches.

“
Listen to me,” I tell her. “You said they are not far and that makes sense. It was close to daylight when they left. They are bound to have other vampires working inside who can’t stand the sunlight. I’m sure they had to stop somewhere nearby. There are few houses here and they are far apart from one another. I’m going to drive around to find you blood and check out the area. I will keep Lexi on the phone as I drive so if you feel anything, tell her.”

She nods.

Lexi stands up and walks me to the door.

“
Nick, promise me you’ll get Tyler out of there too.”

I move my hand toward her and move a string of her hair behind her ear. She shivers as I do so.

“
You know I can’t promise you that, Love.”

She looks down. “Let me come with you then.”

I shake my head. ARGH “I need you here, Love. We can’t leave Valerie alone. I will do what I can, okay? No promises.”

She moves closer and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispers.

***

I don’t have to drive long before I see movement in and out of a house two blocks down.

“
Valerie says the imprint is fading, Nick. I don’t think you should wait any longer. She’s losing it. She tried to leave the house twice already and even with her weak, I could barely stop her.”

“
Tell her I found him. I will figure something out.”

I walk into the house slowly this time. The lack of security is actually alarming.

Tyler stands in the living room waiting for me as if he knew I was coming.

He has his nice vampire smile on and I just hope I’m not too late.

“
Where are they?” I ask.

“
Where is she?” he asks.

“
Safe. Like you should’ve kept her.”

He nods and he seems almost back to normal.

“
You don’t really think you are walking out of here with them, do you?” asks Tyler.

I grin. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. She actually asked me to bring you too.”

“
She did?” He asks confused.

“
I will be damned if I understand why.”

“
Don’t worry. I messed this up with her. She won’t want anything to do with me now that the girl is gone.”

I feel my blood getting hot as soon as he says the words.

“
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SHE IS GONE?”

He shrugs. “We needed her blood. We took it. She is gone.”

I clench my hands into fists and rush toward him, but I’m stopped by two vampires who hold me back, and then, I go numb. She is gone and I stop fighting.

“
I’m going to give you two options,” he says. “You can walk out of here right now or you can stay and we will let Harvey go.”

I look out the window seeing that the sun has set.

What good am I at protecting the ones I love?

“
Let him go.”

COMING SOON

BLOOD TIES

The Reawakening Series II

Turn the page for a sneak preview of

WIDE AWAKE

Academy of the Fallen I

by Daniele Lanzarotta

The complete Academy of the Fallen series is now available at

www.danielelanzarotta.com

Amazon, Nook and iBookstore

ONE

My life had been pretty normal until that point. I went to a private high school in LA, where I lived with my adoptive parents. I did pretty decent at school, especially for someone who didn’t try very hard. I had awesome friends, and an okay boyfriend, I mean, I thought he was great at the time, but a lot of people saw him as a jerk, but whatever…
Boy! Was I wrong?

That day, I woke up and then spent probably the next half hour scanning through my closet. On a normal day, we would wear the school’s uniform, but the school principal gave us a free pass that day, since we had a field trip. As long as we were dressed in what he considered decent, which was code for boring, we didn’t have to wear the school’s uniform.

I went downstairs, grabbed something to eat and walked out the door, getting in my Audi R8, that I had just got for my birthday. It took me forever to talk Kelly and Andrew, my adoptive parents, into getting me that car. They had the illusion that I was going to drive some kind of SUV!

Andrew and Kelly were great. They pulled me out of foster care when I was about to turn four years old, so they were like my real parents; the only parents I knew, but when it came to safety, they were a little over-protective.

So… school field trip! Who would have thought that would mess up my so-called normal life?

***

We weren’t at that silly museum but for a couple of hours. And then, my boyfriend Justin pulls me aside from the class because he wanted to talk. Like he couldn’t talk at any other time of the day, right?

So I followed him into one of the rooms along the hallway and just as soon as I got the hint that he was trying to break-up with me, I turned things around on him.

“
Yeah, I wanted to talk to you too,” I said.

And then I jumped right into what I wanted to say before he could break-up with me first.

“
This isn’t working out, Justin.”

He seemed surprised at first and then he just looked totally pissed-off.

“
Well, glad you agree, because I have been kinda dating your friend Ashley too.”

Okay, minus one on my awesome friends list. Lucky me, I could put on an act. Not showing any reaction I looked into his eyes and said, “Good. You two are perfect together.”

Justin turned around and stormed out of the door. What did he expect me to do? Cry and beg him to stay?

Needing a moment to get myself together, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was good at putting on an act, but that didn’t mean that wasn’t hurtful. Okay, I had only been dating Justin for about a month, but Ashley had been my friend for a long time.

Point was… that tough act, was just that, an act. Yes, I was just 16, but I had already learned how to hurt people before they could hurt me. That was my own defense mechanism. I would break-up with boyfriends, (not that I had many until now, I mean, I was only 16) as soon as I thought they were about to break-up with me. I would end a friendship as soon as I saw a friend get closer to someone else. It just made things easier.