Nightwolf

She’s a vampire. She’s a killer. Right now, she is not my friend.

I start to struggle, my instincts to stay alive kicking in, and I’m thrashing in the tub, water spilling over, water tinged red with my blood, and that’s when the wooziness hits me. I feel all strength start to drain out of me and I realize that there isn’t that much blood in the tub, considering. No, all my blood is going straight down Lenore’s throat.

She’s killing me, drinking me alive.

Oh shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

This was a mistake.

What if I don’t come back?

I don’t want to die.

I want to keep living, I have so much more to life to live!

I try to find the strength to speak, to fight, to do something, but I’m so helpless and trapped and my god, what an awful death, to become someone else’s food.

And I’m sinking further into the water, and I can’t really feel my body anymore.

I can only do one last thing.

I muster up all the strength I have and I open my mouth and I scream.

I scream and I scream and then my scream fades and the world fades.

And I’m so afraid.

I’m dying and I’m afraid.

I think about Wolf.

I think about how I never got to say goodbye.

I think about how much I love him.

And then everything goes kind of fuzzy and black.

Like slipping into a dream.

And I’m no longer in the bathtub, and I’m no longer in my body, I’m just in this dark warm space and I’m no longer afraid.

I’m at peace in this place.

I don’t know if it’s even death, but if it is, I know now there is nothing to be afraid of. That this is a place where you’re not supposed to hurt, you’re only supposed to love.

The darkness starts to lift, like the dream is shifting.

And there is light. There is beautiful light and it’s so stunning that I feel like I’m one with it, one with every single star in the universe and I am scattered across the solar systems, just infinite stardust.

Amethyst.

I hear my name.

It’s my mother’s voice.

I know I should cry hearing it, I know I thought I would cry if I heard it again.

But there are no tears in this place, there is no sorrow.

There is only love.

There is my mother.

She is in front of me, and I feel her love and her smile and our memories and it’s like not a second has passed since she left.

I’m here, I say to her. I’m here, Mommy.

And she holds me in this light.

And I stay.

And I’m loved.

Forever loved.

Chapter 20

Wolf

I’m just about to start shaking together a gimlet cocktail for a vampire from England when suddenly the hair at the back of my neck stands up, shards of ice in my gut.

I pause, looking around the bar, all my senses on high alert, wondering what’s happened to trigger me like this.

I see Solon talking to some vampire but suddenly he looks away, standing up straighter, and meets my eyes, frowning.

What is it? He asks me in my mind.

I’m about to shake my head, to tell him I have no idea why both of us felt this strange thing at the same time, when suddenly an awful scream fills the room.

Not just any scream.

Amethyst’s scream.

It stops me dead and I can only blink, my heart sinking to the floor in terror. From the way some vampires are shaking their heads, it seems like some of them heard it too, but as far as I can tell the scream didn’t come from inside the room. It’s like it came inside my head, inside everyone’s heads.

Solon is at my side in a flash. “You heard that?” he asks, voice gruff. “That sounded like it came from outside.”

“It sounded like Amethyst,” I manage to say, hoping to God that I’m wrong.

But then the air around me drops several degrees, like ice is building up in my veins, and I hear the faintest cry.

Forgive me for not saying goodbye.

It’s Amethyst’s voice whispering in my head.

I love you, Wolf.

Holy fuck.

“Something is wrong,” I say, and I leap right over the bar, sprinting across the club and throwing open the doors. I run up the stairs, Solon right behind me.

“Amethyst!?” I yell, my voice echoing throughout the house. I look at Solon, wild-eyed. “Is she at Lenore’s parents still?”

Solon closes his eyes for a moment and I know he’s prodding around in Lenore’s head for an answer, wherever she is.

Suddenly his eyes fly open in fright. He looks at me, pure panic running through them, not an expression I see often. My stomach drops.

“Jesus Christ, no,” Solon swears and before I can ask, he’s running up the stairs and I’m right behind him, fast as lighting until we’re at his room. Odin is lying down outside the door, whimpering, knowing something is wrong.