Wake of Darkness (34 page)

 “What’s up, sis?” Jim asked,
looking down at her, frustrated by his own confusion.

“Oh…” began Sophie with a sigh,
knowing she could not, and would not, keep the information from him.

“What was it?” he asked, moving to
stand protectively over her without thinking.

“She wants to kill me…like actually
come after
me
specifically. She either wants me dead or to be one of
them,” answered Sophie flatly and shook her head back and forth slowly. “I
don't know what I ever did to her, other than being born. She asked Jacques if
she could have a crack at me.”
They also think Laney would be useful for a
trade—Catherina for Laney. They’ve got her in their sights,
she thought
only to Alexander.

Catherina mumbled something to
herself. The tension was building in the room; it electrified the air around
them. Everyone fell silent for several minutes; some of them wondered the same
thing about their own biological parents, others decided how best to proceed.

Sophie glanced up at her sister and
tried to smile. “Yeah, I’m okay, Laney. Thanks.”

“What do you think, Alexander?” Jim
asked.

Alexander looked into Sophie’s
eyes. She let out a shaky breath. He glanced at Jim and Zoey, then at Laney,
Catherina, and Dante. His eyes settled on Sophie’s again, and he sighed.

“We go after them.”

Chapter 28

Sophie and Alexander exchanged a
meaningful look.

“Laney, why don't you help
Catherina to bed?” she suggested.

Laney nodded. She and Catherina
disappeared around the corner. Alexander looked at Sophie, telling her
something that the other three couldn’t hear. She suddenly disappeared, just to
reappear out of nowhere a second later, with one of the family’s various laptops
under her arm.

She quickly typed a few things into
the computer. Setting it down on the table, she spun it to face the others. It
was a map of New Orleans, zoomed in, to show the area where she and Alexander
predicted the coven was hiding out.

When the hell did they do this?
Jim thought

“It’s just something we’ve been
working on based on the flashes I’ve been getting. Turns out I was right,” she
said matter-of-factly, without a hint of arrogance behind the statement.

“We think they’ll be here,”
Alexander began, pointing to a street on the map as he spoke. He nodded to
Sophie, who scooted to the edge of her chair before she began speaking.

“They’re planning to make another kidnapping
attempt on Laney tomorrow,” she explained in a hurried, but hushed and
trembling voice. “They’re hoping that we'll come after them to get Laney back,
and we’ll either leave Catherina here alone so they can get to her without
dealing with the rest of us or that we’ll be willing to trade one for the other.”

They
have
been studying
us,
Zoey thought.

“Wait a minute,” Jim said, holding
his hand up. “What do you mean ‘another kidnapping attempt’?”

“That’s what they were trying to do
the other night when they cornered us,” Sophie replied. “Since my flash
earlier, I’ve tried to concentrate and hone in on what they’re planning. Ideally
they want to change Laney so they can exploit her talents, but they figure
she’s valuable even dead.”

A rush of expletives poured from
Jim’s lips in an angry whisper. Zoey sighed uneasily.

“We have to take the offensive. We
must approach them tomorrow before they have the chance come here,” Alexander
immediately added, ignoring Jim’s reaction. “We must strike before they have
the opportunity to do so themselves; it’s our best chance for survival.”

Sophie exhaled heavily at the word
“survival,” and Dante’s brows furrowed in concern.

Jim could feel his heart pounding
and the anger coming up from somewhere deep in his gut. They were coming after his
sister, to lure his family away, to kill his…mother, lacking a better term.

“There’s about fifteen or so,”
Sophie said.

“I guess it could be worse,” Jim
grumbled to himself.

She shrugged; she wasn’t scared for
herself at all. She worried about keeping Laney safe from them, knowing instinctively
that the rest of them—those of the family that she really cared about at least—could
take care of themselves.

“So? What’s the plan?” Jim asked
Alexander.

“First, we keep Laney and Catherina
with us at all times,” Alexander began. “You are correct about there being five
for each of us. I am afraid that it will just be the four of us on the
offensive,” he said, looking to Dante. “You will need to be with Catherina to
keep her safe.”

“Catherina will manage,” Dante said
in an even tone that pulled Sophie’s eyes to his, but his thoughts were as
silent to her as ever.

Alexander looked at Sophie, “Keep
Laney close to you. She will be able to help a bit, but remember that her power
is defensive. She will be able to block certain things, but she will not be
much use in an attack, unfortunately.”

Sophie nodded. She preferred to
keep her little sister close by anyway, especially since she now knew how
ineffective the younger girl was in the reality of a fight.

“So, what?” Jim asked, looking at Alexander.
“We just drive down the alleyway there and call ‘em out?”

“Precisely,” was his determined
answer.       

“It’s too far to jump back and
forth?” Sophie asked him.

“Yes,” he replied.

“I’ll need to take a lot of wooden
stakes and weapons,” Zoey said. "There won't be many natural items laying
about the warehouse district, I'm sure."

“We’ll need your cars,” Jim said,
looking at Sophie and Alexander.

Sophie looked up abruptly at
Alexander as if he said something to her. Her eyes met his as they communicated
back and forth, each shaking their head a bit, and their expressions changing
along a wide spectrum of emotions in split seconds: frustration, determination,
hesitation, and worry, all in a matter of seconds. Jim had a feeling he knew
who would win.

“I’ll take Laney in my car and
we’ll follow everyone else, who will be in Alex’s” she said swiftly to Jim and
Dante, “I’ll be fine,” she assured Alexander with a penetrating look. “Besides,
you’ll be in the car right in front of me. Nothing’s going to happen. We’ll be
able to outrun them if we need to. Catherina’s their ultimate target, not
Laney. They’ll hit you before they try to mess with me. You need Jim with you,
and Dante won’t leave her side.”

“I’ll follow Sophie’s car,” Zoey
volunteered. “It can’t hurt to have one more vehicle there.”

Dante nodded in agreement, but
didn’t say anything.

Alexander sighed deliberately and shook
his head, not wanting to accept the decision Sophie had made for them, though
he knew he had no choice. Her logic was watertight; he couldn’t deny that. They’d
need to protect Catherina more than Laney, and Catherina would be safer with
all of the men than with Sophie alone and there wasn’t any point for the coven
to kidnap Laney if Catherina was coming to them herself.

 “We’ll leave at dusk tomorrow. The
area does not seem to be heavily populated, so hopefully collateral damage will
be kept to a minimum. I suggest we rest tonight as much as possible, but we
must keep watch over Catherina and Laney in case they decide to attack.”

Sophie sighed thoughtfully. “We can
watch in shifts,” she suggested.

“Probably a good idea, sis,” Jim
said.

Alexander nodded in agreement. It
was already after ten o’clock and the night had finally started to settle in
around them.

“I’ll take the first watch,” she
volunteered.

“I shall stay with you,” Alexander
stated, of course he would.

Dante, Zoey, and Jim looked at each
other.

“Why not use my room tonight,
Dante?” Alexander suggested, since Laney and Catherina were already settled in their
shared room.

He nodded and with Jim, began to
climb the stairs; planning to trade places at three. They said goodnight to
Alexander and Sophie as they went to start their watch and Jim and Dante went to
try and get some rest.

“I’ll bed down on the couch so I’m
nearby,” Zoey said. “Don’t have too much fun, you two.”

Sophie grasped Alexander’s hand. “I’m
going to make sure Laney’s good for the night.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Chapter 29

“Laney,” Sophie called just above a
whisper.

Laney opened the door to Catherina
and Dante’s room softly and closed it just as softly behind her, looking to
them both. “Yeah?” she asked, a foreign weight in her eyes, destroying the
jovial innocence that had seemed to be ever-present there until recently.

“We need to tell you something,”
Alexander said.

She looked worriedly from Sophie’s
face to his.

“What is it?” she asked bravely,
blinking back tears of anxiety. She was nearly to her wits’ end.

“We think Jacques is coming after
you, either to get to Catherina or for other reasons,” Sophie began, seeing no
reason to beat around the bush. “They’re planning to try again tomorrow, but
we’re going to beat them to it and meet them at their hideout
instead of
waiting for them to come here.”

Sophie could feel the fear raise in
her little sister and hated it. She pulled her into her arms and held her as
tears of fear welled up in her eyes. Laney leaned her head on Sophie’s chest,
beneath her chin—she was just that much shorter than Sophie—and grasped onto her.

“We’re not going to let anything
happen to you,” Sophie assured her, smoothing her hair as her eyes met Alexander’s
and Sophie saw her own emotions mirrored in his pained expression.

“I know,” Laney sniffed. “I just
want it all to end.”

Sophie nodded in agreement. “I
know,” she whispered and rocked her back and forth a little. “Me too.”

“We are running guard shifts
tonight just as a precaution,” Alexander explained. “I know it will be
difficult, but you must try to get some rest.”

She shook her head against Sophie’s
shoulder and opened her mouth to argue.

“Laney, you know your power isn’t
as strong when you’re tired. You’re going to stay with me all day tomorrow, but
I’ll need your help,” Sophie persuaded, looking warily to Alexander. He nodded
in approval. “I need you to get some rest. We worked well together the other
day; you did a great job keeping those vamps off of me. We’re going to need you
tomorrow.”

Laney sniffed, looking years
younger than she was, and sighed. “Okay,” she gave up with a nod.

“We’ll be here until three. Jim and
Dante will take over after that. Zoey’s over on the couch in the next room. Try
to rest and don’t worry,” Sophie told her. “We’re going to handle this and then
it’ll be over tomorrow night.”
One way or another.

She smiled weakly at them both and Sophie’s
heart ached for her. Laney turned to the door and silently reentered the still
room, shutting the door softly behind her and leaving the other two in the hall.
Sophie listened to her for what may have been mere seconds, or several minutes,
and was surprised that Laney actually did fall asleep after a while. And with
Laney’s eventual slumber, Sophie finally felt herself relax, though her
instincts remained on edge.

In the meantime, her mind had
wandered. There was something deep in her soul, something dark that told her
Catherina was—if not inherently evil—then definitely well beyond selfish. Catherina
wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice Laney, or the rest of them for that matter, to
save her own skin. If it came down to it, Catherina would trade any of their
lives for hers or Dante’s; she’d told Sophie that much herself once.

Sophie had finally admitted to herself
that she didn’t trust Catherina as far as she could throw her...in the
metaphorical sense, of course. Catherina meant little to her, but somehow, Catherina
had become the glue that held the family together, bound as it was. Sophie knew
Laney would be in danger, whether from kidnapping or from the conflict itself
and she vowed to protect Laney at all costs while helping Alexander fight their
enemies tomorrow night. She still couldn’t shake the image from her dream of
the vampire Catherina hurting Laney. She didn’t stop to wonder about her sense
of responsibility for Laney, why she was so protective of her. Perhaps it was
because she had been young and vulnerable once…and there’d been no one to
protect her.

She finally turned her back to the
door, startled to see Alexander standing like a preternatural statue behind her,
watching her with unblinking eyes. It was times like this that she remembered
where they came from, who their parents were—when one of them acted a little
too un-human.