Original Sin (The Order of Vampires 1)

His mind grappled to explain stillness. Everything had gone wrong the moment he saw Cain with her. “Did I do this?”

“What? Adam, no.”

“I lost control. Cain tried to protect her, but my rage...” His head pressed to Annalise’s still shoulder. “I love her. I vowed to protect her. And I did this to her!”

Grace’s sympathy railed at him. “Adam, this is no one’s fault.”

He choked, unable to swallow. He could hear the defeat in her voice. Predict the excuses waiting on her tongue. Humans were fragile. The bonding hadn’t gone exactly to plan.

He pulled her into his arms, her limp, lifeless body draping over his lap. “No...” He refused to accept defeat. “We’re bonded. There’s no risk when—”

“Adam, she was injured. If she’d had your blood earlier, perhaps—”

“No!”

Grace stilled and the air shifted. The hair on the back of his neck rose as if another presence entered the room. They both looked at Annalise, but she remained deathly still.

His gaze shifted to the broken window, as the curtains lifted. His spine prickled, as wind howled through the trees.

A rumble of thunder built in the distance, rolling toward the house. Gracie stood, approaching the sill as shards of wood and glass vibrated.

Her gown whipped in the wind, and she cupped her kapp to her head. “What is that?”

He squinted, gathering Annalise to his chest and moving to the window. Tree limbs bowed as the wind howled across the valley, pressing the fields flat with ripples of grain. Tables, left from earlier, tipped onto their sides and debris skipped across puddles.

Gracie’s breathing quickened, her hands opening against the wind. “Do you hear that?”

His neck prickled. The hair on his arms lifted. The howls grew as a sheet of rain formed a downpour, visibly speeding toward the house in a wall of hail.

A deafening clap broke the sound barrier, as a bolt of lightning cracked the sky, knifing into a tree and setting fire to the limbs.

He stepped back, his arms tightening around Annalise, and his other hand gripping Gracie’s sleeve. She stepped back, her hands still extended and trembling.

“Something’s coming,” Adam whispered. “Something angry.”

“The basement—Ahh!” She gripped her head, doubling over and releasing a blood-curdling scream.

“Grace!”

Her knees buckled, her body driven to the floor by some unforeseen force. Rain sprayed through the broken window as another tree blazed. Bolts of lightning split the sky, veins of fire stabbing into the earth, unlike anything he’d ever seen.

“Grace!” The wind tore into the room, shuffling loose objects and buffeting his shouts. Using his body to shelter both Annalise and his sister, he crouched around them in the corner. “Tell me what you feel!”

“Pain!” she screamed over the howling squalls. “Unbearable pain! I see it! Darkness. Cold and empty.”

The wind climbed to a steady roar.

“It won’t let go!” Gracie screamed, batting at her head and ripping at her hair. “Someone... I see...” Her jaw opened, and her eyes flashed. Her fangs punching through her gums as she hissed in pain.

He felt the fury in the rain, heard the agony of the storm. “What do you see?”

“Hands... Claws... Digging... Adam, who’s doing this to me? Get them out of my head! They’re in terrible pain!”

“Who? Is it a male or female?”

She covered her face, a sob ripping through her. “Bars! I see bars!”

Thunder boomed, shaking the house as a gust of wind whipped open the bedroom door, blowing objects off every surface. The pitcher of water shattered, and Gracie screamed.

The roof moaned as if ripping from the house. Trees bowed and the sky lit with a strobe of light. He cradled Annalise’s head to his chest and Grace screamed,“Caaaain!”

As if syphoned deep into the earth, the wind cut away, pulling out of the room and tunneling into nothingness. They panted in the sudden silence, clothes drenched and eyes wide.

Gracie blinked at him and scrambled to her feet, throwing a blanket over Anna. “It’s Cain. We have to go. Now, Adam!”

“Where?”

“We have to help him! He’s in pain. He forced his thoughts into my mind. He was in the wind. We have to leave, now! This is why she’s not transitioning!”

Ice formed around his heart.

“Look at me, Adam!” She gripped his face hard, demanding his focus. “I hear your panicked thoughts and I don’t know. Maybe he is... But we have to go. If you love Anna, we have to get her to Cain and we have to go right now.”

Concern. Suffocating fear. Depraved fury. Shame. Anger. Regret. Humility. Desperation. Waning hope. Sorrow. He couldn’t tell his own emotions from the ones infiltrating him.

He closed off his senses and caught his breath. Cain could save her. She needed Cain.

His eyes shifted, and he leapt from the window, holding Annalise’s still body tight to his chest. His feet bit into the marshy ground and he lunged into a sprint.