worried.”
I quickly tossed my phone into the passenger’s
seat, then jumped in and started the engine. The
tires squealed loudly as I tore out of the parking
lot and off toward the drive-in.
My phone rang, and I picked it up and glanced
at the caller ID. It was the same number Kai had
called from. I ignored it. I didn’t have the time to
deal with Kai. My stomach was a twisted,
writhing mess.
I pulled into the drive-in parking lot and
quickly turned the ringer off on my phone. I
shoved it into my pocket. At break neck speed, I
rushed across the parking lot and bounded over a
chain to duck behind the decrepit old movie
screen. I stumbled down the embankment, and
then followed the creek to the clearing in the
woods – to the meadow where Max and I had
shared a very special moment together.
When I entered the meadow, I stopped.
Frantically, my eyes scanned the area, but Max
was nowhere in sight. I was panicking. Where
could he be? I thought. Then, out of the corner
of my eye, I thought I saw something glinting in
the distance – off in the trees behind the moss
covered rocks were Max and I had kissed.
As fast as my feet would carry me – which is
quite fast for a vampire – I flew to the spot. As I
neared it, a dark figure stepped out of the
shadows, holding a prisoner. The prisoner was
Max.
The dark figure was taller than Max, at least
six and a half feet tall. He wore a long, black
cloak, and a few strands of long white hair
fluttered out of the hood. His face was mostly
obscured by his cloak, but I could clearly see
pearly white teeth glinting behind a maniacal
grin. He held a shining silver dagger to Max’s
throat.
“Max…” I whispered weakly.
“Run, Alice!” he shouted, and the shrouded
figure pressed the dagger more tightly against his
throat. Max winced as the dagger sliced into the
tender skin of his neck.
“Let him go!” I shouted.
“You must be Alice,” the figure said slowly.
He had a sharp, thick accent, but one I didn’t
recognize. Romanian, perhaps, I thought. “I am
Alexi. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“I said let him go!” I repeated, this time more
forcefully.
“Now, now,” Alexi growled. “You aren’t in
the position to be making any demands.”
I noticed a tiny trickle of blood dripping down
Max’s throat, and I gulped. One wrong move and
Alexi might sever Max’s carotid artery. He
would bleed out in seconds, and there would be
nothing I could do.
“You wanted me, right?” I snarled, my fists
and jaw clenching in an attempt to control my
raging emotions. “I’m here. Let him go.”
Max shook his head weakly, his eyes pleaded
with me to run.
“You would give your life for a hunter who
set you up?” Alexi mused.
“That’s not true!” Max shouted.
Alexi stuck the sharp point of the silver
dagger into the skin of Max’s neck I heard Max
suck in air through clenched teeth, fighting the
pain. A very quiet grunt escaped his lips, and I
began to tremble.
“Stop it!” I screamed. “You can do what you
want with me! Just let him go!”
“So quick to protect him,” Alexi chided.
“Can’t you see it was he who led you here? Like
the good hunter, he pretended to be on the run,
made you fear for him, and called you out of
hiding. You felt right into his trap.”
Alexi chuckled darkly.
“I don’t believe you!” I snarled. “And even if
it did, it wouldn’t change the fact that I… that I
care about him.”
“Oh, you care about him,” Alexi mocked. “I
see. But you don’t love him. Is that because of
your Kai?”
I faltered. How did he know about Kai? Did
Max tell him? That couldn’t be it. Max wouldn’t
betray me like that. Would he? No. No, I was
sure he wouldn’t. He loved me.
I saw more blood trickling down Max’s neck
his skin. I had to get him away from Alexi, but
how? What exactly did Alexi want?
“Look, what do you want?” I asked directly.
“I want your whole family,” he said smoothly.
“All of them. Your mother, your brother, and
your beloved Kai. Bring them to me and I will
allow Max to live.”
“What?” I gasped. “You want… you…”
I shook my head slowly, squeezing my eyes
shut. This can’t be happening , I thought. This is
not happening.
I gritted my teeth, and my fists were clenched
so tightly I could feel the warm wetness of blood
dripping between my fingertips as my fingernails
dug into my palms. By entire body was shaking,
and my hearing became dulled. I feared I might
faint, but as I opened my eyes, I noticed the entire
world was shrouded in a bloody red haze.
Everything appeared blurry, but somehow I could
perceive everything more clearly than before.
Without thinking, I demanded very slowly,
“Let… him… go…”
Alexi cocked his head slightly to the side, his
teeth glinting from behind his hood. With his
grin, he was accepting my challenge. I saw him
start to press the dagger into Max’s throat, and in
a flash, it seemed as though everything was
moving in super-slow motion.
I, on the other hand, moved like lightning. I
streaked across the distance between Max and
myself, and I instinctively placed my hand against
Alexi’s forehead. His body stiffened, and his
grasp on the dagger loosened. The dagger slowly
began to fall to the ground, and Alexi began to
slump in the same direction.
I grabbed Max’s hand and began to run. In a
split second, we had crossed the entire distance
of the meadow. Just as we reached the edge of
the clearing, where the creek began to wind its
way into the woods, my knees began to buckle. I
heard a deep whooshing sound, and everything
returned to its normal speed. I turned to watch
Alexi fall to the ground in the distance, and
blackness overtook me.
*****
Chapter Six – Haze
When I regained consciousness, I was vaguely
aware of movement. I felt the hum of an engine,
and I realized I was in a car. I looked around, and
as my vision cleared, I could tell I was in the
backseat of Kai’s car. Very slow, I sat up.
“Max?” I mumbled, noticing him in the
driver’s seat.
“Alice! You’re okay!” he gasped.
“Sure,” I said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’ve been passed out for about two
; hours,” he answered.
“Two hours?” I verified. “What happened?”
“I really couldn’t say,” he answered truthfully.
“We’re almost to the airport. We’ll talk about it
on the plane.”
“Plane? Where are we going?”
“Back to your family, of course.”
“Oh, my God. Kai…” I muttered.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my
phone. I had forgotten I turned the ringer off. I
flipped it open, and I saw I had thirty missed calls
and ten new messages. I immediately dialed the
number Kai had called from. He answered on the
first ring.
“Alice?” he asked, his voice frantic with
worry.
“It’s me,” I answered.
“Where have you been? I’ve been calling and
calling! I was so freaked out that Jamie had to
blindfold your mother and brother and bring
them over to our room to keep me from leaving
to find you! What is going on?”
“I’m with Max,” I said quietly.
It was completely silent on the other end of
the line.
“Kai?” I asked, wondering if our call was
disconnected.
“Max,” Kai growled.
“Kai, I…”
“I don’t want to hear it, Alice,” Kai snarled.
“I’ve had it with you. I’m done!”
“Kai!” I shouted. “Wait!”
But it was too late. He’d hung up.
I immediately dialed the phone, and Jamie
picked it up.
“Alice, what did you say to him?” Jamie
asked.
“Why? What’s going on?” I replied anxiously.
“He just threw your brother against the wall
and stormed out! He’s gone!” Jamie shouted.
“What?” I yelled. “He’s gone?”
“No one had time to stop him. Will tried, but
he threw him and just flew out the door. What
did you say to him?”
“I’m with Max,” I explained.
“Oh,” she said. “That would do it.”
“I’m about to board a plane to come back.
Someone has to go find Kai,” I pleaded. “Tell
Will to go look for him.”
“You want me to send Will out?” she
verified. “What if a Viewer…”
“Just do it!” I screamed.
“No!” Jamie screamed at me. “I’m not putting
Will’s life in danger!”
“Will!” I screamed as loudly as I could. “Get
Kai!”
I prayed he had heard me. Vampires have
better hearing than humans, but not by as much
as a lot of people seem to think.
“Will, stop,” Jamie pleaded. “Please don’t go.
Will, please!”
I heard a door slam.
“Now look what you’ve done!” Jamie
shouted. “He’s gone, too!”
I heard the receiver slam down as Jamie hung
up on me.
“Dear God, why is this happening?” I moaned.
“What’s going on?” Max asked.
“Drama,” I groaned. “Kai’s pissed, and he ran
out. My brother went to find him. Jamie hates
me. Just another day in the life of Alice Wright.”
We arrived at the airport a few minutes later,
and within an hour, we were on a flight headed to
Chicago. I hadn’t realized where we were when I
was with Kai at the motel, but when I reached the
airport there to fly back to Georgia, I’d made a
note of it. I was pretty sure I could get Max and
me to the motel.
On the flight, Max decided to fill me in on
what had transpired in the clearing.
In a nearly inaudible whisper, Max said, “I’ve
never seen anything like it, Alice. One second I
felt Alexi pressing the dagger against my neck,
and the next second I was standing beside you on
the other side of the clearing. You touched his
forehead and… he just froze.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “Did I do
all that?”
“I don’t know how else to explain it,” Max
admitted. “I didn’t see anything except you
touching Alexi’s forehead. I don’t even know
how you got to us so quickly. You must have
been at least twenty or thirty feet away. I just
blinked and you were there.”
“Then how did we get all the way across the
clearing?” I asked.
“I couldn’t tell you,” he shrugged. “I felt you
take my hand, and suddenly we were just there. It
was like we teleported or something.”
“I’m so confused,” I moaned.
“There’s something else,” he added. “Just
before it happened, you started shaking all over
and your eyes turned red.”
“My eyes?” I questioned.
“Not just your irises,” he explained. “It looked
like your eyes were bleeding. It was like a curtain
of blood was flowing over your eyes, and right
after that, I ended up on the other side of the
clearing.”
I shook my head. It sounded impossible.
“I’m a vampire, Max,” I whispered. “We don’t
have super powers.”
“Some do,” he corrected me.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Some do have abilities. I’ve
heard of a rare few who do. But nothing like
this!”
“That’s true,” Max agreed. “I told you I’ve
never seen anything like it, or even heard of it.”
“There must be more to this,” I said. “It
couldn’t have been me. I’m not special.”
“You’re more special than you know,” Max
whispered, holding my chin and staring deep into
my eyes.
When he looked at me that way, it made me
weak. Kai was my world. He was so gentle and
so beautiful. I loved him as much as I could ever
imagine loving anyone. Yet, somehow when Max
looked at me with those dark eyes – those coffee
colored eyes, nearly black and brooding – all of
my resolve melted away.
I felt his lips, warm and moist, close over
mine. My eyes were closed, but I didn’t
remember closing them. He took my face in his
hands, and my hands closed over his wrists. His
kiss was gentler than it had ever been.
“Wait…” I whispered.
He pulled away and looked at me. “What is
it?”
“Kai,” I said softly.
Max’s face hardened. I saw the muscles in his
jaw tense and relax several times.
“Kai,” Max repeated with scorn.
Max’s hands dropped to his lap, and he leaned
back against his seat. He closed his eyes, and I
saw his hands clench and unclench.
“Max…” I whispered, touching his arm.
He jerked away. “Don’t,” he said, shaking his
head, his eyes still closed.
I sighed, and leaned back in my own seat. How
could I screw my life up so badly? I had not one,
but two incredible guys in love with me, and
somehow I managed to alienate both of them.
How could this happen?
Beyond that,
what had happened in that
clearing? I remembered everything turning red
and hazy, and I remembered the shocking clarity I
could perceive through that haze.
Then I suddenly remembered another moment
when I’d seen that same haze. It was only a brief
flash, but it was real. The night I met Kai and his
mother had hit him and burned his hand on the
stove... I’d seen it. It was gone in a flash – so
quickly I’d barely realized it had happened – but I
remembered it now.
That night I’d felt much the same as I had felt
in the clearing. I had watched in horror as Kai’s
mother hurt him, and I felt so much rage that I
wanted to hurt her. In the clearing, it was Max
being hurt, and I wanted to hurt his attacker. It
was me.
“Max,” I gasped. “It was me!”
“What was you?” Max asked, confused.
“In the clearing!” I shouted. “It was me!”
I noticed several passengers turning to stare at
me, and I lowered my voice. “I remember it,
Max. It was me. When it happened, I saw a red
haze in front of my eyes. It was like blood. That
must have been what you saw in my eyes.”
“Wow,” Max breathed.
“I saw it once before,” I said. “The haze. It
happened a few months ago, but it only lasted a
second.”
“This
has
happened before?” he asked
incredulously.
“The haze, yes,” I admitted. “But not the…
other stuff.”
“What do you remember from the clearing?”
he wanted to know.
“I remember seeing the haze,” I said. “I
remember it seemed like time slowed down so
much it almost stopped, and I ran over to Alexi
and touched him on the forehead. I don’t even
know why I did it, I just felt this overwhelming
compulsion to do it. I saw him relax his grip on
the dagger, and it started to fall so slowly it was
almost imperceptible. Then I grabbed your hand
and ran as fast as I could. When we were on the
other side of the clearing, I felt an overwhelming
weakness. I heard this weird low-pitched
whooshing sound, and everything sped up again.
I turned and saw Alexi fall to the ground, and
then everything went black.”
Max nodded. “That’s sort of what I remember,
except it all happened in a flash. I saw you touch
him, then we were on the other side of the
clearing and you fainted. I picked you up and ran
back to the parking lot with you.”
“Is Alexi… dead?” I asked.