There stood Lore. He stood out in the crowd, wearing his tight leather jacket, towering over everyone.
Scarlet turned back and backhanded Vivian, smacking her so hard, the sound rippled through the crowd.
Vivian collapsed, face first, in the grass, and the crowd gasped as she did.
Scarlet turned and walked over to Lore.
“Where is Sage?” she snapped, her voice still deep and dark from the transformation.
Lore smiled, slowly shaking his head.
“He’s not coming,” he said. “He told me to bring you a message. Sorry. He changed his mind.”
Scarlet felt a knife plunged into her heart at the words. She had never felt so betrayed. She felt completely crushed.
“He also asked me to tell you to give me the necklace,” Lore said, reaching out a hand.
Scarlet stared down, and suddenly realized Lore was lying. Sage would never tell him to ask for the necklace. Or would he?
“Go to hell,” Scarlet snarled.
Slowly, Lore’s smile dropped, as his face contorted with rage. Before her eyes, she watched him transform, into a huge, raven-like creature. His wings spread wider and wider as he stepped forward to wrap them around Scarlet.
“I can kill you,” he snarled. “And I will kill you.”
“Then kill me,” she snarled back. “You’re not the only one who is immortal.”
Lore leapt into motion, bringing his wings down as if to smother her.
But suddenly, Lore’s wings stopped in mid-air, just inches away from her. He looked down at her ring, and his eyes opened wide in astonishment.
“He gave you the ring,” he hissed, trembling, frozen.
Scarlet leaned back and kicked Lore hard in the chest, so hard, she sent him flying, hundreds of feet, across the entire field, into its darkest corners.
She’d had enough. She suddenly felt certain Sage would never come, and felt her heart breaking into a million little pieces. She knew that she couldn’t stay in this crowd any longer: another minute here, and she would start feeding on everyone in sight.
So instead, with a final snarl and roar of anguish, Scarlet burst out of there, sprinting away from the field, from the school, from the dance – far, far away from everything, and deep into the darkest depths of the night.
Chapter Twenty Three
Caitlin burst through the front door of her house, and right into Caleb’s waiting arms. He hugged her tight, and it felt so good to be back in his grip. Ruth stood by her side, whining and barking, leaping up on her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry for not believing you.”
Caitlin hugged him back, not wanting to let him go either, especially after all the darkness they’d been through. Finally, she felt vindicated. Finally, he believed her. She felt his love for her coursing through, and as she did, she felt rejuvenated, restored, no longer so alone in the world. Finally, she felt as if she had a partner to help her deal with all this, to help save their daughter.
All was right in the world again. Here was Caleb, back to his old self, at her side, trusting her, believing in her. Finally, he realized she wasn’t crazy. Finally, he realized she’d been right all along – realized that their daughter was, in fact, turning into a vampire.
It had all happened so quickly, ever since Caitlin had landed back on American soil. She had called Caleb the second her plane touched down, and they’d been talking on the phone ever since, all during her drive back from the airport. She had eagerly filled him in, and was relieved and surprised that he was not only eager to hear it all this time, but that he actually believed her.
He had surprised her with his own tale of what had happened between he and Scarlet, of how she had snarled and thrown him across the room. He realized that no human could have done that, and finally realized that she was not the Scarlet they both knew. Now, he wanted Caitlin’s help. Now, he wanted to hear everything.
Caitlin, in turn, had filled him in on all the details of her search, on her journal, her meeting with Aiden, her research in her library, and her discovery in the Paris bookstore. She told him about the missing page. The ritual. She told him how urgent it was that they find Scarlet and perform it, before it was too late.
But Caitlin’s heart sank as Caleb told her Scarlet had left the previous night and he hadn’t been able to find her since. He’d been trying her cell for hours, and had called all her friends again, and had been unable to get through to anyone. He’d also called the cops. He said he had a wide net out looking for her, but nothing yet. He was more panic-stricken than he’d ever been.
Caitlin’s mind swarmed with the possibilities, and she felt a greater urgency than ever to find her.
She pulled back and looked at him.
“Have you heard anything at all? Anything?” she asked.
He shook his head, disappointedly.
“All I have is a text from one of her friends. She said she thought she saw her at the school dance. And that she saw her leave. Alone. That was about an hour ago.”
“Where would she have gone?” Caitlin asked.
“I have no idea.” He looked at her. “That ritual. Do you really think it’s authentic?” he asked.
Caitlin reached into her bag and pulled out the folder. She extracted the delicate halves of the paper, lining them up on the table before them.
Caleb looked down and examined them, and his eyes opened wide in surprise.
“It looks ancient,” he said. “What language is that?”
“Latin,” she said. “But it won’t do us any good if we don’t find her – soon.”
Caitlin’s cell suddenly lit up, and her heart skipped a beat, praying it was Scarlet.
But then she looked down and was crestfallen to see it was just Polly.
“Polly, what’s up?” she asked curtly. “Have you heard anything?”
“Listen,” Polly said excitedly, “I was able to get through on text to a friend of hers, who texted a friend of hers, who answered back and said she knew how to find Scarlet.”
“How?” Caitlin asked excitedly, as Caleb crowded in.
“Apparently, Scarlet has an app called Loopt. A lot of these kids have it these days. If you’re logged in, it lets you track your friends via GPS. And her friend’s logged in and says she saw Scarlet’s logged in, too. She might have logged in manually or she might have not turned off her settings to be logged in by default.”
“Wait a second,” Caitlin said, trying to understand as Polly spoke so fast. “What does this mean?”
“I’m saying we can track her phone. We don’t know if she has her phone or if someone stole it, of course, but at least we can get to the phone. At least until the battery dies or it powers off. We have to hurry.”
Caitlin’s heart skipped a beat in anticipation.
“Where is her phone right now?” Caitlin asked. She prayed it wasn’t someplace dangerous.
“The app shows her on Route 99. About 3 miles south of town. At a roadside bar. Pete’s.”
Caitlin’s was panic stricken. Scarlet? At Pete’s? What on earth would she be doing there? That place was a gross little roadside bar in a bad part of town, in a trailer park about a mile down the road from the local jail. It was a haven for freshly-released convicts, looking for their first drink out. It was a place where the worse misfits gathered, a place you didn’t even slow for when you zoomed by it on the highway. Scarlet’s being there could only mean danger. Real danger.
“Pick us up on the way,” Polly said. “We’ll track her.”
“We’re on our way,” Caitlin said.
Caleb was already in motion, heading for the door, and within moments he had the car started and Caitlin jumped in. He peeled out and they took off down the quiet side streets, blowing stop signs, doing 80 miles an hour. They would stop at nothing until they found her.
Chapter Twenty Four
Kyle stepped through the open gates of the prison and took his first step to the outside world, as the gates slammed close behind him. They slammed them extra hard, Kyle realized, as if wanting to rattle him, to take away his joy. It was the final insult of this merciless institution, of these sadistic guards, who had done everything to break him over the last five years.