She looked up and shrugged. “I don’t know. We had a fight. I think he might have gone outside for some air.”
I turned toward Matthew and saw my own terror mirrored there in his eyes.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath. “Listen, Kate. You’ve got to stay here, but if you see Jack, you make sure he stays put, understand me? You cannot let him go outside. This is important, okay? I’m talking life or death here.”
“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice rising shrilly. “Violet?” Her pale blue eyes were wide as saucers, her bottom lip trembling. “You’ve got to tell me what’s happening!”
I shook my head. “There’s no time. Just . . . if you find him, don’t let him go outside.” The heat against my wrist intensified, the bloodstone glowing now. “Crap, Matthew, we’ve got to hurry!”
“Let’s go,” he said, taking my hand.
From across the room, I saw Aidan watching us, saw his eyes narrow a fraction.
What’s wrong? he asked telepathically.
Follow us out, I answered, hurrying to keep pace with Matthew’s longer strides. We’ve got to find Jack. Now!
I had no idea how much of a head start we had, how much warning the Daughter’s Eye provided. I knew only that we had to hurry. I led Matthew through the tables toward the rear exit, the one marked “emergency exit only.” As soon as we stepped outside and skimmed down the stairs, Aidan caught up with us.
“Vampire,” Aidan said, jerking his chin upward, his gaze scanning the horizon. “Not Luc. A stranger.”
I held up my wrist, showing him the glowing reddish black stone. “We already figured that out. And holy crap, I don’t have my stake.”
Matthew crouched down, pushing up one pant leg. “I’ve got you covered,” he said, retrieving a lethal-looking stake from a sheath strapped to his calf. “But you’re supposed to be carrying one at all times,” he snapped. “This isn’t a game, Violet.”
Gratefully, I took the weapon from him, wrapping my hand around the smooth, satiny shaft. “I know. I’m sorry.”
I watched in silence as he unbuttoned the top few buttons on his shirt and reached inside for his baselard. I felt it then, the energy between the dagger and my stake, like a pulsating force.
“Which way?” Matthew asked me.
I took a deep breath and looked around, unsure. Directly behind us stretched the club’s driving range and golf course. Over to the right was the pool. To our left, there was nothing but dense woods.
And a vampire, my senses told me. “That way,” I said, tipping my head toward the woods.
Matthew raked a hand through his hair. “Damn it, just like the vision. I don’t like this. Where the hell is Jack?”
“We’ll find him,” I said, taking a deep, calming breath. “We have to, before it’s too late.”
“Jack!” came a high-pitched voice off to our left, echoing off the trees.
Our heads all swiveled toward it in unison.
“Okay, what was that?” Matthew asked.
“Oh no.” My heart sank in recognition. “That was Kate. How did she get out there?” I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Kate!” I hollered, but there was no response.
“Let’s go,” Matthew said, and we took off at a sprint.
We hadn’t made it twenty yards into the moonlit woods before we heard a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere up ahead.
No! Please, God, no.
“We’ve got to move faster,” Aidan said, grabbing my hand and stopping me dead in my tracks. “My way, Vi. Hold on tight.” He held out his other hand toward Matthew. “Dr. Byrne, you too.”
Matthew looked slightly confused, but he took Aidan’s hand anyway. And then . . . the entire world seemed to tumble, a dark kaleidoscope of sensations.
In the blink of an eye, we were there, in the clearing I’d seen in my vision. A female vampire stood not ten feet away, clutching a body to her chest, its neck bent at an improbable angle.
What happened next was so quick, so instinctual, that I could barely believe it. With a flick of his wrist, the baselard flew from Matthew’s fingers right into the vampire’s left eye.
She tossed the body aside with a grunt and reached blindly for the dagger, trying to pull it from her damaged eye. Without wasting a single second, I sprinted toward my target, my stake lifted high. A scream ripped from my throat as I brought it down with as much force as I could muster.
Straight through her heart.
I cowered, covering my ears as the vampire let out an inhuman-sounding shriek and then went quiet. She collapsed in a heap on the ground, her one undamaged eye staring unseeing at the sky as blackish blood pooled around the shaft of the stake that protruded from her chest.
At once, my bracelet went cool against my wrist as I lay there panting, entirely spent.
“I’ll destroy it,” Aidan said, dragging the vampire’s corpse away, toward the edge of the clearing while Matthew knelt over the crumpled form that remained. I couldn’t look, couldn’t bear to see who was lying there with their life’s blood soaking the grass.
Please, not Kate.
And then I heard voices, calling out to us. Footsteps growing louder. Next thing I knew, they were there surrounding us—my friends. I backed away, one hand covering my mouth as my stomach roiled in my gut.
“Someone call 911!” Matthew shouted, and I watched numbly as Tyler pulled out his cell phone and started stabbing the screen.
“C’mon, we’re losing her!” Matthew cried.
Tyler was yelling into his cell. Whitney was beside him, feeding him information about our location.
It was happening exactly as I’d seen it. I began to hyperventilate as Matthew ripped someone’s shirt into long strips—Joshua’s, I noted, seeing him standing there in nothing but a thin T-shirt now.
Matthew knelt over the prone form on the ground, pressing the wads of cloth against the victim’s neck to stanch the bleeding. Cece was there, leaning on Sophie’s shoulder crying.
And Jack . . . Jack was kneeling beside Matthew, sobbing. “Stay with us, Kate! You’ve got to stay with us. Don’t leave me, damn it.”
I could smell the blood now—way too much blood. I gagged once, twice before my knees buckled and I fell to the ground, struggling to catch my breath.
Instantly, Aidan was back, there by my side. “They’re doing everything they can,” he said soothingly. “Help is on the way.”
“You’ve got to do something,” I said, my voice rising in desperation. I clutched the front of his shirt with both my hands, shaking him as hard as I could.
Kate was dying. Dying! But Aidan . . . Aidan could save her.
I struggled to my feet, dragging him with me. “You’ve got to do it, Aidan. You’ve got to turn her. Now!”
He shook his head, his eyes slightly wild. “What are you talking about?”
“Save her,” I sobbed. “Turn her. It’s her only chance.”
“I can’t do that, Violet.”
“Yes, you can. You’ve got to. Don’t you see?”
“Are you mad?” His voice was a harsh whisper now. “I would never sentence anyone to suffer this existence. Never.”
“Kate!” Jack cried out, his voice breaking on the single syllable. “C’mon, you’ve got to fight. Stay with us. Please, Kate!”
In the distance, a siren wailed.
“Please, Aidan,” I begged. “Please. Before it’s too late.”
His cool gaze met mine, chilling me to the bone. “I’m sorry, Violet. I can’t. I won’t.”
A sob tore from my throat. I slapped a hand over my mouth, stifling it as I turned away from him. I stumbled back toward my friends just in time to see Matthew drop his chin toward his chest in defeat, his blood-covered hands resting on his thighs.