Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Izzy
I glimpse movement on the roof. A vampire. I call a warning, but he’s already racing down the steep, gabled roof of the mansion and jumping into the air. He has a long, gleaming sword in his hand.
And he’s just the distraction. A dozen other vampires seem to materialize around us, dashing across the lawn with their weapons raised.
Aiden’s hammer is suddenly in his hand, and Van is drawing his sword from the sheath that just materialized on his back. Reid and Wilder move defensively in front of me, the four men forming a circle around me without conscious thought.
How come the girl doesn’t get a sword?
I raise my hand at the vampires racing toward us. The first one drops into the grass, squealing frantically, suddenly transformed into an adorable little pig. One of the vamps pales as he almost trips over his friend, who runs bleating between his feet.
Right. That’s why I don’t need a weapon.
The vampires fight us with their fangs bared. There’s something so eerie about their red-rimmed pupils, their perfectly beautiful faces.
I feel a prickle up my spine. I whirl to find a dark-haired girl with a sword in her hand. She’s close enough for me to feel instant fear, and I raise my hands to face her.
She shakes her head frantically. Her face is oddly familiar, drawn with horror.
Swords and hammer clang together, and I watch, from the corner of my eye, as the first of the vampires fall. The girl presses her hands to her mouth in horror and I pause, this close to transforming her into something cute and fluffy.
At first, I think the fallen vamp is dead, and then I see his eyes are still open, a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth. He’s hurt, but he’s struggling to rise again as Aiden pursues him.
Aiden pins him with his hammer, pressing it against his chest.
“What do you know about Layla?” Aiden roars. The vamp writhes under the weight of the hammer, his fingers curling uselessly against the hammer, trying to push away the handle. But no one can wield Thor’s hammer but Aiden.
The vamp finally gives up fighting and lets his head fall back, breathing shallowly under the pressure of the hammer. “What do you want with my wife?”
Aiden’s eyes go disbelieving. “Just because you tricked her into your bed doesn’t mean—“ He breaks off, obviously trying to get control over his fury, and I see the moment he loses it. He draws back the hammer, preparing to strike.
“No!” the girl across from me screams.
And it all clicks together for me.
“Aiden, stop!” I scream, but Aiden is already bringing the hammer down from over his shoulder. The heavy weapon is unstoppable, and Aiden’s gaze snaps up, looking for mine, as he frantically wrenches the hammer to one side.
He listened to me. I can barely believe it, even as the hammer smashes harmlessly into the ground inches away from the vampire’s head.
The vamp stares at the destroyed ground, the hammer buried deep in the grass until Aiden rests it easily on his shoulder again, and the girl lets out a relieved sob.
“Layla,” I say, and my voice comes out loud in the battle.
The vampire scrambles up from the ground and flings himself between us and Layla, his arms held out protectively. The battle is still raging around us, but Aiden has come to a dead stop, staring at her.
“Enough!” I shout. “All of you, stop fighting.” I turn to the vampire and there’s command in my voice as I order, “Make them stop!”
He scoffs at that, but Layla turns worried eyes up at his face and he abruptly shouts, “Peace! Hold off!”
There are a few last clattering sounds of weapons striking weapons, and then a hush falls over the yard.
This isn’t possible. I was there when they buried Layla. I was there when they lowered her casket into the ground.
And yet, now that I see it, there’s no denying it’s her.
Layla could’ve been Aiden and Reid’s twin.
She has the same dark hair, the exact shade as Reid’s, and something about her face marks her as his sister.
Maybe the fullness of her lips, the curves of her cheekbones, and the arch of her brows…
except she’s far more delicate than Reid.
And yet, it’s her eyes that keep me spellbound. It’s like looking at Aiden.
Her mouth opens, but no words come out.
Suddenly, Aiden is backing away. “What are you? What is this? This isn’t possible.”
Reid doesn’t move. He doesn’t react. He just stares.
Layla’s mouth closes, and her eyes grow wild. I get the sense she’s about to bolt, and that would be the worst thing possible. Aiden is like a storm about to be unleashed, while Reid is the calm before the storm.
If she takes off, they will level this world to reach her. They’ll destroy all these vampires, and I’m not sure what they mean to her, but I have a feeling they mean something.
I take a deep breath. “Layla, is that you?”
Her gaze jerks to me. “Izzy?”
I nod. “Are you…are you Layla? Or something else?”
“Both,” slips from her lips.
Aiden’s hands curl into fists, and I speak without thinking, afraid of what might happen. “We’re…uh, gods, and we’ve come to find the vampires that killed Layla, but then you’re here now, and we don’t know what to make of it.”
She blinks really slowly, and I’m transfixed yet again by how similar and yet different she looks from the person I knew. Layla is older than all of us, and yet she looks to be the same age as we are now. It’s weird to see someone has aged, but not as much as they should have.
“Did you guys say gods?” she asks.
Aiden advances toward her, and I push a hand against his chest to stop him. “Why are you using our sister’s image?”
“I’m not!” she cuts in, looking shocked.
“It wasn’t enough you killed her,” he roars, and this time I cut him off.
“What is this?” I ask.
She takes a deep breath and speaks past me, her gaze sweeping between Aiden and Reid. “I’m your sister. I’m just not human.”
Everyone just stares, and I’m frightened by the way Aiden’s whole chest seems to heave, like it’s about to break. Like his heart and his lungs can’t take what’s happened. I long to wrap him in my arms and ease his pain, but I’m afraid of taking my eyes off Layla or the guys for one minute.
“What do you mean not human?” Wilder’s voice comes out dangerously calm.
Layla’s eyes fill with tears. “I’d started seeing a man.
Abel.” She reaches out and takes the hand of the bleeding vampire that had just been face-to-face with Aiden.
He still stands just in front of her, protectively, glowering at Aiden.
He’s pale and dark-haired and eerily handsome, looking no older than Layla.
“I didn’t understand at the time, but he turned me into a vampire.”
“That man?” Aiden’s face is suddenly even more livid with rage. “He turned you into a vampire? He stole you from us?”
“This is why we don’t try to explain things to mortals…” Abel mutters.
Aiden suddenly snarls and shoves past all of us. Lighting crackles in the air, then explodes around him. His hair blows around his face, and the air is charged with energy and a powerful wind.
“Aiden!” I scream his name.
“No!” Layla says.
Aiden raises his hand toward the vampire, who snarls as if he wants to tear into Aiden but looks as if he can’t, because he glances at Layla.
“Aiden!” Layla shouts. “He’s my husband, please!”
Very slowly, he looks back at her. “Husband? The vampire who killed you that night? Who took you from us? You married him?”
She nods.
The light dies from his hand, and he drops it. The storm continues to rage around him, but he looks so hurt, and so lost.
Ignoring the lightning and the wind, I walk through it, knowing that even enraged, Aiden wouldn’t hurt me.
I wrap my arms around him and tears gather in my eyes when I feel the way his entire body shakes.
What must this be like for him? To see the person he loved so much, the person he thought he killed, still alive?
And to see someone responsible for the accident that night?
It’s almost too much to bear.
“Everything will be okay,” I whisper into his ear. “We’re here.”
His arms come around me, squeezing me against him as if I’m the only thing keeping him from shattering. “My sister…but he…”
“I know,” I say. “I know.”
The lightning calms around him, but the wind continues to swirl. “What do I do?”
My thoughts spin. I don’t know what he should do, but I know what my heart says. “Either walk away right now and go on pretending she’s dead, or hear what she has to say and then decide what you want to do.”
He takes a deep breath that shakes his entire body, and the wind disappears like the closing of a door. “Okay.”
Reid is beside us a minute later. “We can leave right now. We don’t have to do this.” And his voice holds an anger I’ve only heard from Reid a few times before.
Aiden pulls back from me, just a little, and looks at his brother. “No, I think we need to hear her out.” His gaze snaps to the man. “But if he comes near me, I’m going to kill him.”
His words only make the man’s eyes flare with protective heat. His voice is a warning as he says, “Layla.”
“Please,” she whispers to him. Then she faces Aiden and Reid again.
“I was in the middle of the change when I was murdered.” She takes a shaky breath. “I woke up in a coffin and had to claw my way free.”
“If that’s true,” Aiden sounds tortured, “why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you tell us?”
She reaches for him, and he jerks back. Hurt is written across her face.
“Leave us,” Abel orders the other vampires. “Thank you for your help, but it turns out this is a family matter.”
Aiden’s jaw tenses at those words, but the other vampires exchange looks and then begin to leave, some of them helping each other limp away.
Abel turns his gaze on me. “If you could be so kind…”
It takes me a second to understand as he gestures across the lawn, and then I catch a glimpse of pink skin and a cute little tail, almost hidden in the flower beds.