Chapter 86
The Darkness Called My Name
Iturned my head to Georgie. She was sitting, shaking and sobbing.
“I have to call for help,” I said. I don’t even know if she heard me. She didn’t look, she didn’t answer, she just kept crying.
Using my hands as leverage, legs made of stone, I heaved myself up and made my way toward Bob’s desk. The floor moved under my feet. From outside, the roar of a car engine was getting closer. The lion closing back in.
Exhaustion swallowed me. I couldn’t fight anymore, I had nothing left. I gripped the desk, my hands slick with sweat, it near slipped out of my grip. My legs trembled violently and wanted to release beneath my weight.
The car screeched to a halt outside.
I closed my eyes for a moment. Perhaps this was always the way it was meant to end.
I couldn’t summon enough of anything to give a fuck though.
I turned back around, my ass rested against the desk, my chest rising and falling.
I felt like my body was carved of concrete.
I looked at Georgie, she was in a state of shock.
She looked so small and vulnerable. I felt a lump rise to my throat.
I whispered, “I’m sorry.”
I waited for Sarah to come.
A shape exploded into the room, a dark blur. My heart pulsed into my skull. Not Sarah, though—Karson. He was so pale he was almost gray. His chest rose and fell rapidly. His eyes locked with mine. They were wild, angry, beast-like, and full of panic. Relief shrouded his face.
“You’re bleeding,” he rasped. He focused in on my bloody, ripped top. “Are you badly hurt?”
I couldn’t speak. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hug him. I wanted to shout at him. I couldn’t find the strength to do any of it. I just stared.
“Amelia?” he grated.
Georgie stirred to some kind of life, staring up at him, pale and shaking violently.
Am I badly hurt? I shook my head. I managed to say weakly, “I’m fine.”
He surveyed the room, in a flash he moved to the window, scanning the horizon.
“Sarah’s gone . . . help Georgie,” I said. The room was graying and seemed to be filled with floating dots. My chest felt tight. The air seemed extraordinarily thin.
Karson’s brow flickered, I thought for a moment he’d come to me.
Instead, he moved over to her. She shrieked and shrank back, dragging herself on her ass along the floor.
Curling into a ball, clutching her hands around her knees, knuckles white.
She stared up at him, her eyes wider than dinner plates.
“Be calm, Georgie,” he said, “I will not hurt you.” She relaxed instantly and drew in a deep breath. He stepped forward, bent down, and put his hands either side of her head.
“No, Karson,” I appealed, “if Sarah is still alive, Georgie will need to know.” The floor was jelly. I took a few shaking steps towards him. He stood upright and frowned.
Ethan entered through the broken window. His face was uncharacteristically pale, his lips were parted and his breathing quick. A flare of what looked like guilt stormed across his eyes.
“She’s gone,” he said gravely.
Georgie clambered to her feet. Her eyes darted between us all.
“What the fuck are you all—vampires, witches?” Her initial fear had switched to anger.
“Her teeth, eyes . . . what—a gigantic fucking wolf, that’s not even fucking possible!
You . . . you drink her blood.” She stabbed a shaky finger at Karson.
Her legs began to tremble, and as quick as the anger had flashed, shock set back in.
Ethan grabbed the chair for her as her legs gave way. She plonked herself heavily down. Hollow-eyed, lost for words, she looked up at me warily, and with suspicion. I could hardly blame her. It was a lot to process.
Heavy footsteps pounded through the house. BJ and Dahlia came running into the room.
BJ stopped abruptly and darted his eyes from me to Georgie. She made a whining sound in the back of her throat.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded. He glanced back at Georgie, she had her head bowed, staring at her knees and she was rocking back and forth. He lowered himself down beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“It’s okay, Georgie,” he said softly, tears in his eyes.
Georgie leaned into his chest and began to sob and mumble incoherently about witches, vampires, devils, and wolves.
“Monique?” I directed the comment to Ethan.
“Michael went to find her.”
“How did you know. How did you find us?”
“Turns out the dud witch, isn’t such a dud after all,” he said, looking at BJ with a hint of appreciation.
Sarah’s rage filed through my mind, like a hellish slideshow. I staggered back, gripping at the desk. So much like Karson, it hit like a brick.
A first born. Sarah must be a first born.
“Bob, is he an immortal?” I breathed.
I wanted to sit down. I wanted to sleep for a thousand years.
Ethan nodded.
“But he walks and looks like an old man?”
“It’s all an act, he likes to come back home every so often, he changes his look so no one recognises him. He’s as sprightly as I am.”
“And all this time you knew . . . Sarah?” I accused.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“There was no reason to. Karson had wiped her mind—or so we thought.” He swept a hand roughly through his hair.
“What are you two talking about, immortals . . . how did you . . . how did she . . . please tell me I didn’t actually sleep with you?” Georgie stammered. “Fuck, I need to get tested. God knows what diseases you’ve given me.” She glared at him with disgust.
Had it not been so serious I might have laughed. “It’s a long story, Georgie,” I smiled weakly. “We have a lot of explaining to do. But you’re safe, Ethan can’t catch human diseases.”
Karson frowned.“Amelia, are you sure you’re alright? You are bleeding quite a lot.”
The red had winged down and seeped down over the top of my jeans.
There was still no pain, perhaps the adrenaline had taken care of it.
The stark realization he had killed the son of a man I cared about, combined with the build-up of fear that our lives had been at risk, suddenly made me furious.
Unquestionably, I was not fucking alright.
“Am I alright? Physically I’m fine, no thanks to you.
Perhaps it might have been handy if you two had been honest with me for just once, and we wouldn’t be in this mess.
” I glared between the both of them. As if the surge of anger tore the last threads of strength, I began to feel faint.
“You . . . you are nothing but a cold-blooded, heartless . . . murdering . . . bastard and—” I stopped, stars danced in front of my eyes, and I couldn’t continue.
The anger born words I wanted to say were obliterated in my head.
Robbed of power and will, my legs began to deflate.
Karson reached out and steadied my body.
“Don’t touch me,” I said bitterly, yanking away from his grasp. Staggering under the burst of effort.
His brow flickered.
Energy depleted, there were no words I could use that would even come close to expressing the anguish and disdain I held for him. Nothing I could say that would change anything, anyway. I needed to sit. My legs crumbled.
Karson caught me as I collapsed toward the floor. He lifted my top up.
He drew a sharp breath. “That’s not a scratch . . . Dahlia.”
“It’s fine,” I snapped, looking down, sticky scarlet rivulets burst and seeped from three knife slices down my side.
“Oh.” Was all I could manage. It was quite a bit worse than I’d anticipated.
I glanced at Ethan to make sure he was okay, the blood not too much for him, but his eyes didn’t hold a glow, they held concern, agony, and guilt.
I would have preferred blood lust than seeing him inflicted by such emotional pain.
Dahlia moved over and squatted down, her knees cracking. She touched my arm.
“Oh no, no, not again,” I mumbled, the memory of the agony scorched my mind. “Just do the wound, my chest is fine.”
She waved her hand above my stomach and chanted. The burning ceased. The wound half closed. The blood flow slowed to a trickle. “It will still need stitching, and soon. Are you sure your chest is okay?” She squinted down.
“I think so, it’s not hurting.”
“What about your head?”
“Hurts like a son of a bitch,” I puffed. Out of breath.
She nodded. “I will get something to help once you get back home. I can’t fix that, sorry. You did good.” She squeezed my arm and sent me a half smile.
In the background the clock, tick, ticked, ticked.
Karson was on the phone, barking out an order to get here and fast.
Ethan got out his phone and moved away. I guessed he spoke to Bob. A solemn, tormented look cloaked his face. Tears pooled in his eyes.
I clutched my hands over my face for a long moment. Then I peered up at Karson. “You better leave town, Bob—he might . . . I don’t know. Once he knows what you did . . .”
He showed perplexity in the faint light. “What do you think I have done, that I need to leave town for?”
“Jesus, Karson, are really that fucking insensitive? You killed his son.”
Ethan said, “Karson didn’t kill Nathan . . . Sarah did.”
I felt a sense of relief, followed instantly by confusion. “Why does she think Karson killed him, then?”
“BJ, take Georgie home to get her things, then come back to Ethan’s. Don’t let her speak to anyone. Dahlia, you go with them and make sure they’re safe. Ethan, you can explain to Amelia. I’ll search the hidden room. Do not move until help gets here,” Karson commanded and then he was gone.
Georgie shook her head as if trying to clear a cobweb of distress from her mind. It didn’t work. Pale faced and gaunt, she stared at the ground. BJ clasped her elbow to steady her swaying body.
“You sure you’re okay, Amy?” BJ asked, a deep frown in his forehead.
“I’m fine, BJ, I’ll meet you all at Ethan’s. Then you can tell me about the awesome witch skills you keep buried.”
He gave me a tight smile. Dahlia grabbed Georgie’s other arm and they helped her walk to the door.