Outcast, page 21
Bones cracked and popped, and Leif hurt all over. He laid stunned on the floor of the store amid various opened and crushed candy, his body slowly rejuvenating. He heard Beatrice scream, but by the time he was able to clear his head, Beatrice went flying a foot above him, smashing into the next fixture over.
And I thought the gryphon was the dangerous one, he thought.
The gryphon leapt through one of the window-walls, causing glass shards to scatter everywhere. Bones and joints popped back into place, bringing on anguished pain, then casting it out as if it had never been there in the first place.
Groaning, he slowly got to his feet, dusting himself free of candy and chips. Moments later, Beatrice was on her feet, too, her hood thrown back.
“I’ve… never felt pain like that before,” he said, watching as Beatrice’s broken nose clicked back into place, followed by a displaced cheekbone.
“About as much as when you broke things off with me at the boarding house,” she said, casting him a look.
Unbelievable, he thought. “You’re going to bring that up right now?”
A rumble in the distance saved him from the awkward moment, but he knew precisely what that rumbling was.
“The gryphon and kitsune will be an unpleasant surprise for Draven,” Beatrice said, stepping over the passed-out form of Benny. Leif wondered if his hold had knocked the cashier out, or if he’d faded on his own from the circumstance. “And he’s not going to be happy we didn’t kill them.” She looked back at Leif, and he struggled to meet her gaze. “Come on. We’re not finished yet.”
He wanted to turn and run. He wanted to wash his hands clean of this mess. But Beatrice grabbed his arms, and he looked up into her acorn eyes. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Eyes on the prize.”
“I don’t want this prize,” he said, half-heartedly resisting her pulling. His heart sank like a rock tossed into the Missouri River.
At last, he allowed Beatrice to pull them out of the store and onto the winter streets of Pierre, and he glanced one last time at the still form of Benny.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“For losing your head in the middle of the game?” Beatrice said, mistaking who his apology was actually for.
Before he could reply, a shrill scream erupted from the southwest and was cut short.
“That’s our trail,” Beatrice said. “Let’s go see what’s going on.”
She didn’t let go of him, and his feet seemed to have a mind of their own, propelling him forward. He lacked the drive to do so himself, as if his soul was being sucked away by a deep, dark vacuum.
They crossed smaller city streets until they reached the side of the river, and the emptiness he felt increased tenfold. Bloody, motionless bodies were strewn about the land, some dismembered into multiple parts. Others were floating face-down in the river, being taken away by the icy current.
“Fools,” Beatrice muttered, shaking her head at the carnage as if she’d just walked into the dining room after an unsupervised children’s ice cream party. “Such a waste of perfectly good blood.”
Leif closed his eyes to escape the gore, but the image was burned into his mind. He’d never be able to un-see the murdered and mutilated bodies. The blood she lamented should still be flowing through pumping hearts, not spilled out onto the snow and dirt.
“Quickly,” Beatrice said, pulling him along once more and forcing him to open his eyes to keep up with her. She picked up her pace, and Leif saw that they were heading for the single landbridge.
At their rapid pace, it didn’t take long to reach the bridge lined with ice, and Leif kept his eyes up to avoid seeing the trail of bodies they encountered. A trail of death that led straight back to him. A trail that could never be washed away.
What have I done? Leif thought. Oh Gemma, what have I done?
There was no response from the love of his life. Not even a disgusted look-what-you’ve-become.
Explosions sounded from the center of La Framboise Island. It shook the ground they were running on, and Leif tumbled into Beatrice, causing them both to come to rolling stops in the muddy snow.
“I bet the shifter school’s leveled by now,” Beatrice said, getting to her feet and wiping off the mud clinging to her clothes. She extended a dirty hand to him, but he ignored it and pushed himself upright. Smacking his shoulder, she said, “We’re almost there. Come on.”
They hadn’t run too far when booming thunder rang across the sky, like an echo from the explosion that had come from The Island.
Then, like a firework, the thickest bolt of lightning Leif had ever seen shot out of the sky, shining as bright as the sun. They both came to a stop and shielded their eyes for a moment.
“That’s got to be the gryphon,” Beatrice mumbled, still in awe. “That’s no natural lightning storm.”
The bolt kept raining down, bridging the island to the sky. Leif could only imagine what such power was being used for. But he didn’t want to imagine.
Once more, Beatrice tugged him along, and moments later, the shifter school came into view. At least what was left of it, anyway.
The magnificent structure was in ruins. The desolation looked like a massive grave, and Leif trembled at the thought of innocence still within, buried alive.
“I don’t belong here,” he muttered, the nearby lightning illuminating the rubble, magnifying its destruction.
“You’re a vampire,” Beatrice said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You belong wherever we are, whether that’s Heritage Prep or fighting shifters. You belong right here.”
He lifted his quaking hands before him, staring at his shaking fingers, imagining them doused in crimson blood. He tried blinking the thought away, but it didn’t help, and he started wondering if they really were covered in blood.
“You belong with me,” Beatrice said, hugging him close.
Lips quivering, he shook his head slowly. “I belong with Gemma.”
And then he heard her voice, like the sun rising after the longest night.
Leif.
“Gemma,” he sobbed.
And like the sun setting just as quickly as it rose, she said, Not anymore. Goodbye, Love.
She was gone. Her voice and presence departed, and his soul tore as he realized he hadn’t just caused the death of shifters this night, but also Gemma.
Leif sunk to his knees. It was Gemma’s death all over again, but this time he couldn’t blame Aline Dracul. He couldn’t blame Beatrice. Gemma had warned him, and he’d killed her.
“Leif,” Beatrice said, crouching down to match his level.
And he shoved her away. He didn’t deserve pity, not even Beatrice’s.
“Stay away from me!” he cried. And then he got back to his feet and ran. He’d run and run until he couldn’t — if that was even possible for a vampire. If he never tired, he’d run until he could find a way to fix things. He’d run until he was deserving of Gemma’s company.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
FIVE YEARS LATER
Snip, snip, snip.
With precision shears, Leif took cuttings from an ironwood shrub he’d grown from a seed for the past three years. It was also known as an oceanspray because of its white cascading flowers. He always thought it looked a bit more like sea foam than ocean spray, though. Still, the shrub was beautiful, and it was now strong enough to take cuttings from. No matter what happened to it, it would live on in the cuttings that would soon grow roots of their own.
He was in one of Draven’s sunrooms at the top of Heritage Prep. The place was supposed to be used as a means of punishment and torture for vampires who displeased Draven. Leif had been able to make it a place of refuge — a place where his daywalking abilities allowed him to separate himself from the world just outside the sunroom door. A place where he could care for living things and forget himself and what he’d done.
But sometimes, even in the sanctuary of the sunroom, his thoughts betrayed him. As he placed the fresh cuttings into a flat of small cups containing moist potting mix, and as his fingers touched the wet dirt, his mind transported him back to La Framboise Island.
His fingers gripped the mud before the shifter school, shlurping as he balled them into fists.
Beatrice was right in front of him, giving him a pitying look — a look he didn’t deserve.
“Leif,” she said softly and consoling.
He shoved her back, causing her to slip in the muddy snow.
“Get away from me!”
Her brown eyes looked at him, seeing him for the monster he was. Leif could tell. So he jumped to his feet and bolted away from her. He bolted away from the school and the murdered, innocent souls that would haunt him for eternity.
Wind whipped his dark hair backward, and he almost wished he could feel its biting chill. As he made it to the landbridge, he noticed Beatrice was hot on his trail.
“Leif, stop!” she cried out. “Let’s talk about this.”
There was nothing to talk about. His only option was running. But where to? He had no idea. And he wondered if it really mattered.
The lapping of the icy water on both sides of Leif called to him, offering an alternative way of running — one that would rightfully punish him for his evil deeds. He could drown in the river over and over, until he came to the ocean. And then he could keep on drowning for the rest of his pitiful existence.
He came to a stop at the east bank, looking at the glittering moonlit water. Yes, it was calling to him. Leif could hear music on the current. The slow, chilling call of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Closing his eyes, he extended his hands out as far as he could, teetering forward and ready to embrace the torturing seclusion the river promised.
The water’s embrace never came, but darkness did as something bludgeoned his head.
The memory shifted forward, and Leif found himself looking into Draven’s ice blue eyes. They were in his trophy room back at the vampire citadel. Leif couldn’t remember how he’d returned to Heritage Prep, but he didn’t really care.
“You completed your mission, my friend,” said Draven. He was sitting right in front of Leif, a serious look on his face. “I can see it nearly broke you.”
Nearly? Leif thought. I am broken.
“Beatrice said you almost casted yourself into the river,” the vampire leader continued. “You might not feel like you belong here, but I can promise you that you don’t belong among the fishes, either.”
Leif didn’t know what to say. This man had brought out the very worst in him.
Draven cast his gaze to the polished floor and sighed. “I promised you a reward for your invaluable contributions. We couldn’t have succeeded without your help.” Draven brought his eyes up, but looked beyond Leif. Mildly curious as to what the vampire leader was looking at, Leif turned around and saw not one, but two sets of gryphon wings mounted at the top of the doorway.
The same sick, curdling feeling he’d experienced at The Island struck Leif once again.
“You need a break,” Draven said. “I’ve pushed you too hard, and for that, I apologize.”
Leif still didn’t respond. He couldn’t respond.
Luckily, Draven had plenty to say. “I know that, long ago, you kept an orchard. Unfortunately, I have no orchard for you to tend here at Heritage Prep. But to help you find purpose, I am giving you a sunroom at the top of the citadel. You may outfit it as a greenhouse, and I will provide the funding for whatever foliage you wish to plant up there. No others will bother you.”
Solitude among plants? A place where only a daywalker could endure? A place among the living? Such a reprieve was more than he deserved.
“I’ll take your silence as acceptance.” Draven got to his feet, rubbing at his eternal five o’clock shadow. “As a side bonus, I will ensure you are delivered bloodmixes as needed. I know how reluctant you are to drink directly from hosts, even willing ones. Your needs will be met. You have done all that I’ve asked, Leif. I will ask no more of you until you feel like you’re ready.”
For what? Do you think that spending eternity here — even among plants — will erase what I have done?
And then the memory fizzled away like dust in the wind. Leif’s eyes focused on the small green cuttings he’d just planted. New life, separated from the one they used to live. Could he cut himself off from his past and reforge a new life, too? Could he separate himself from the poisoned roots he’d developed ever since joining Draven?
He tucked his shears away and walked the tables of plants and shrubs he’d been nurturing over the past five years. He breathed in the clean air they provided, smelling the mixture of scents they put off.
A spark of hope filled him, which was mountains more than anything he’d felt ever since the destruction of The Island. He could separate himself. Besides the plants that relied on his care, his existence was meaningless. Leif drank bloodmixes when he was thirsty. He locked himself in the sunroom. He played the piano in his quarters. But he was not needed. Leif cared for nobody, and nobody cared for him. He was a shadow that was never noticed.
But he could be more.
Blinking, holding onto that spark, he walked to the sunroom’s exit, like embers of determination being blown upon. Pulling the metal door open, he stepped into the hallway.
Leif had no idea where he was going, just that he needed to move. Taking long, rapid strides, he was at the staircase in seconds. He began the long descent, passing by vampires going up and down. Gemma’s brooch was safely in his pocket, and although he no longer heard her, the pin reminded him that she was only as far away as he allowed himself to believe. Perhaps she was the reason behind the bit of hope he was feeling.
Reaching the floor above the hangar, he heard Beatrice’s voice on the next set of stairs.
“This task would be fulfilled by Draven if he wasn’t so busy with his wife,” she said. “What they’re doing is more important than chasing the gryphon, though.”
Draven’s married? he wondered. Who would be crazy enough to do such a thing?
Another female voice sounded — one Leif didn’t recognize. “Why isn’t he sending you? Hands down, you’re the greatest combatant in the whole citadel.”
“I’m in charge of the school while Draven is gone,” replied Beatrice. “That was the task he assigned me. I don’t know what you’re so afraid of. Oberon Rex won’t even be in shifter form when you attack him. Just… be quick about it. Don’t give him time to react.”
Leif couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Oberon the gryphon was still around? He’d escaped the attack in South Dakota? In any case, the vampires had somehow gained wind of the gryphon’s whereabouts.
“What are you waiting for?” she added. “Get to the jet and hurry. If your team misses the window of time the gryphon is recruiting in California, Draven will be quick to send all of you to the Madness Chamber.”
Leif’s mind raced. This was it. This was his opportunity for redemption. If he could somehow protect the gryphon known as Oberon, or at least alert him, he’d be saving a shifter life. Of course, it wouldn’t make up for all the deaths he was responsible for, but it was at least a start. It would be a small cutting from the shrub Leif was a part of.
Asking to join the task force assigned to hunting down Oberon wasn’t an option. Beatrice would deny him the opportunity in a heartbeat. He was in no condition to do something like this.
That meant he had to get down to the hangar and board the jet unnoticed before it took off.
“I’ll be in Draven’s office,” Beatrice said. “If I don’t receive notification that your team has departed in the next fifteen minutes, Delilah—”
“We’re on our way,” Delilah interrupted. “Right team?”
There was a chorus of agreements, and Leif was relieved to hear footsteps departing from the staircase rather than coming up toward him. As quietly as he could, he trailed Delilah and her team, clearing the stairs and entering the Great Hall.
Just as she’d said, Beatrice was heading toward Draven’s trophy room. The team had already disappeared past the doors that led into the combat training rooms. Leif slid inconspicuously that way, stealthily escaping the Great Hall without drawing any attention to himself.
There were vampires behind the Plexiglas walls practicing different fighting forms against each other. As interested as he was in watching them smash each other with crushing blows, he pursued Delilah and the three other vampires trailing her.
“Rumor has it that Draven killed two fully-grown gryphons at the same time,” one of them said. “They didn’t even stand a chance.”
“Maybe taking on this Oberon will be easier than we think,” another said.
“Don’t get cocky,” Delilah said, pushing into the large hangar. “If we’re talking about rumors, supposedly this Oberon held his own quite well against Draven.”
The group went quiet, and Leif worried one of them would notice him following. Fortunately, as he entered the hangar, he found they’d been taken off to the side by somebody pointing at a computer screen. Leif recognized him. It was Steadman — Draven’s pet hacker. Leif couldn’t see past the congregated vampires to get a glimpse at what they were looking at, but didn’t feel compelled to, anyway. There was only one jet left in the hangar, as well as a couple of helicopters. Draven had increased the count of his flying machines. Thankfully, Beatrice had specifically told the task force to take the jet, so there was no question about where he was supposed to go. A stairway-ramp was opened in the side, and that was his destination.
Concealing himself in shadow would have been the smart way to make this move, but he hadn’t exactly been in the greatest state of mind. While they were distracted, he sprinted as fast as he could to the plane.
