Part 10 (1/2)

”How did you find me?” Ethan asked.

”There's no time. Take her north, Ethan. You'll emerge from the woods onto a road. Follow it west for fifteen miles. There you'll find a house you can use for shelter, something to eat, and a shed for the horses.”

”How did you know where to find us? And why now? Where have you been, James? I've been looking for you for”

”If you don't hurry up, you're both going to end up back on The Farm. They're coming. Get her up, dammit!”

Ethan gathered Lilith up in his arms, and held her against him as he climbed onto Charybdis's powerful back once again. He placed her sideways in front of him, her legs dangling over one side of the horse, her body against his, his arm holding her hard around the . shoulders. He took the reins in his free hand and clicked his tongue, the lifted his head to look ahead of him.

”Thank you, James. I”

But James had vanished. Ethan fell silent, scanning the woods around him. He could still hear the Arabian's hoofbeats fading in the distance as his brother galloped away. Urging Charybdis into a trot and holding Lilith tightly, Ethan sent out a mental call to James, but it went unanswered.

G.o.d, he hadn't seen his brother in two years. For him appear him just this oncehere and nowhow could it be? How had his brother known? His mind was spinning with so many questions.

But James was long gone, and Lilith needed him. A tranquilizer. It had taken a while to work, and he suspected she'd received only a partial dose, possibly from that first dart that had grazed her.

He glanced back, glad to see Scylla following along behind him as he rode in the direction James had suggestedalthough the entire time a part of him fought not to wheel his horse around and gallop after his brother instead.

Serena remembered it so vividly that it was as if it were still happening. She felt herself standing at the dark entrance to the cave, staring inside and wis.h.i.+ng she could see the two who hid within its shadowy walls. But she didn't have a vampire's vision. Behind her, at her signal, a dozen of her sisters turned on their flashlights and aimed them into the cave's mouth, both to reveal whoever lurked inside and to blind them enough to prevent an attack.

Because they might attack. The vampires had no way of knowing that the Sisterhood of Athena were on their side. And they must know they were being hunted by those who wanted only to kill them.

For just one brief moment, Serena glimpsed the tall, proud, beauty within, s.h.i.+elding her face against the light, her pale skin and endless copper hair all thai were really visible. There was a man with her.

Vampires, both. Serena had been with the Sisterhood long enough to easily tell mortal from immortal, even with no more than a glance. And no more than a glance was all she gave the male. The woman was her goal. Just as she had been for the past twenty-two years.

Lilith. Her daughter.

So beautiful. Ivory skin, smooth as silk. Long, wild curls that twisted and writhed all the way to her hips, gleaming bronze in the flashlight beams. She was tall and very slender, and her eyeswere they green like Serena's own? Was there a slight resemblance in the bone structure, the cheekbones, the stubborn chin?

Could this really be her long lost baby girl?

Before Serena could complete the thought, her sisters were aiming weapons as well as lights. With hands that trembled, she lifted her own, her prepared speech frozen on her lips.

I think I may be your mother. You were taken from me long ago, before I ever even got to hold you.

I've devoted every moment of my life since to searching for you, finding you. You're beautiful, and I love you, and you can trust me. And these guns won't harm you. They're only for our own protection, just until I can make you understand. I've come to help you, because I would never hurt you. And everything's going to be all right now. And thank G.o.d, thank G.o.d, thank G.o.d I've found you.

But none of those words made their way past her lips.

Her brain froze on one simple fact. If this was her baby girl, then what Callista had told her was true.

Her daughter was a vampire. She managed to say somethingsomething ineffective, by all evidencebecause in the next instant someone shot, and then the two vampires exploded from the cave. Sisters fell like dominoes as what seemed like a dark twister crashed through them. And then the vampires were gone.

Serena found herself lying face up in a clump of brush. ”No,” she whispered. And then, scrambling upright, she shouted it. ”No, wait! You don't understand!” And she began running in the direction they had taken. ”Come back! You have to listen to me!”

But there was no response.

She kept going, using her flashlight to scan the ground for tracks. The Sisterhood had trained her, and trained her well. She could track better than most avid hunters. All the sisters could.

Eventually she came to a spot where signs of the vampires' pa.s.sing met up with hoofprints in the soft, damp ground. She followed the hoofprints, moving as quickly as she could, but she knew she would never catch them. Her daughterher one chance at finally finding her babywas vanis.h.i.+ng practically before her eyes.

Her whole body trembling, she stopped at last and stood staring into the distance.

”I'll find you baby. I swear to G.o.d, I'll keep searching until I find you.”

Wiping away her tears, she turned and walked back along the path to the clearing outside the cave. And there she saw her sisters, some injured, others tending to them. Shaking her head slowly, she drew a breath, and got to work.

In my dream I was back there. I was back at The Farm Ethan was gone, and I had been dejected since I'd awakened one morning to hear the gossip that claimed he had escaped. He wouldn't have done that, would he? I thought. He wouldn't have gone and left me behind.

I was the rebel, the untamable one. The one constantly being punished. The one whose mind-bending drugs were being increased beyond anything that had even been attempted before, in order to bring me into submission.

I'd heard the nurses talking about that. And I was afraid, because since this last time, I hadn't felt right.

My thinking was clouded. My temper was dulled. Part of me wanted to just give in and do what the keepers told me to do. Part of me wondered if maybe being there wasn't so bad after all.

And then I heard one nurse mention an antidote by namesomething that could be used on me in case of accidental overdose. Melanine, she said. And I knew I had to find it somehow; Because I could feel my mind slipping from my grasp.

And so I'd been very obedient that day and pretended that I no longer cared enough to disagree with the teachers. I worked hard and fell into bed. And they relaxed a little. At least enough that I didn't wind up in the punishment barracks again. Then, in the dead of night, I sneaked out of my barracks and made my way to the medical facility. I knew where it was located, but I had never ventured into that part of the compound before. I'd never had reason. I did on that night, though, and I hoped I would be able to find the right building. Unlike most other places on the compound, the medical center was only lightly guarded, and I wondered at that. As I headed closer, I pa.s.sed another building. A small tin shack, perhaps six feet square. No windows, and only one door, with two guards stationed in front of it.

Two guards. For a shack so tiny it couldn't possibly hold more than one person? Who was so importantor so dangerous? There was a barbed-wire fence around the men and the shack, and signs that warned against stepping past it.

I paused, hidden from the guards' view by the shadows, something compelling me to halt there for just a moment.

And then I heard it. A voice, all in my head, but far too real to ignore.

Young one. Lilith. You're very special. I sense it in you. I am very weak and will not be able to help you much longer. So come to me. Come to me, Lilith.

I swallowed hard, my eyes widening, my heart racing. I knew the voice came from inside that tiny, well-guarded building. I knew it.

I need your help, child, as much as you need mine. Please, find a way to get inside. I promise you won't need any help at all getting back out.

Something wouldn't let me disobey. He sounded weak. He sounded as if he were suffering, in great pain.

And I didn't like seeing anyone tortured. I knew all too well how that felt.

Licking my lips, I tried to think of a way to get the guards' attention away from their duty, and I came up with a method quite easily. I backed away until I was near the huge electrified fence that surrounded the entire compound. We all knew it was deadly and rigged to sound an alarm when touched.

I picked up a rock from the ground and threw it as hard as I could at the nearest metal fence pole. The rock hit, and a shower of white-gold sparks sizzled from the point of impact and the alarm began to shriek. The guards raced away from their post.

I ran very fast toward the tiny building, diving over the barbed-wire fence, landing hands first, and tucking and rolling to break my fall.

Then, wasting not a single second, I scrambled to my feet and ran to the door. Even as I stood there fumbling with the lock, it clicked open all on its own. I wondered if the person inside were magic. A wizard?

I stepped inside, and then I caught my breath.

It was stifling inside, like an oven. And he was lying on a hard table, beneath a white sheet, and his face was gaunt, bleached white skin stretched so tightly over sharply delineated bones that I thought it could easily be peeled away.

His cheeks were hollow, the cheekbones and jaw as prominent as a naked skull's. White matted hair covered his scalp in tufts, with pale skin in between. And his eyes pale, ice-blue eyes that seemed to be clouding over withwell, to me, it looked like death.