Chapter Fifteen
Kira spun just in time to see three Protectors soar through the windows to land neatly on their feet, never once waning in their powers. Like a swat team or something, they had come sailing in from the roof, using rope to catapult themselves through the old and easily breakable windows. Kira wanted to look at Luke and roll her eyes — he watched far too many movies. It was so obviously his genius plan for them to come storming inside rather than take a stealth approach.
Unfortunately, there was no time to make fun of Luke because one of those vampires stuck like a bug against the wall was Tristan. And Aldrich, closest to the hallway, was slowly inching past the conduit flames to slip away.
Kira grabbed Luke's hand.
"You need to stop them!" She shouted.
"What? We need to nail these guys," Luke said, bewildered.
Kira looked around. All three of the blond men who had come flying inside were determined. Sweat dropped down their faces, but none of them moved or let their powers weaken.
"What are they going to do?" Kira had never seen a conduit mission in action before. It was a lot more intense than she realized. One man reached into his belt to pull out a long curved knife. "Luke!"
"It's fine," he tried to calm her, but it wasn't easy when her boyfriend was easy prey and flames were still roaring all around them. "We have to drain their blood. It'll weaken them enough for us to interrogate them. We need to find out where they're keeping their Punishers."
"But Tristan!" Kira pointed at the wall. All of the vampires were slowly slinking away, as if the flames were causing them to move in slow motion. Aldrich, Kira realized, already had half of his body out the door. The conduits went to work. The Protector with the knife moved to the woman first and cut her wrist open, sending splatters of blood down the wall and to the floor. The other two conduits controlled their powers, each with one hand focused on a single vampire.
"Luke, you have to help him," Kira said, pushing him towards Tristan. He wasn't supposed to be caught up in this. Typical Tristan, she thought, he hadn't wanted to take too much of her blood so he had lost the immunity before he was supposed to. She thought the feeding had gone by rather quickly. He had only taken enough to be immune to the Punisher at the door, but not enough to stay that way. Quickly, she eyed Aldrich, her gaze torn between both vampires. "I have to go, but please, promise me you'll keep him safe."
Luke followed her gaze, seeing Aldrich about to sneak away, and nodded. He knew exactly what she was up to. "Just be careful, okay Kira?"
She smiled and instinctively kissed his cheek before looking through the flames one more time. Both of the female vampire's wrists were sliced open and the conduit was moving to other areas as well. She was getting visibly paler and she couldn't even move through the flames anymore. Tristan was next.
Kira met Tristan's gaze, smiling, and mouthed 'I love you' before chasing after Aldrich, who was, at that very moment, on the outskirts of the flames and disappearing through the door.
Kira pushed her way into the ballroom just in time to see Aldrich sneak around another set of conduits. There were maybe forty people in the gigantic room, but Kira tried to ignore the flames haphazardly dancing around her and vampires moaning in pain as the blood was drained from their veins. Broken shards of glass and trampled red roses covered the floor, mixing with the blood. Aldrich was already past the conduits, all too concentrated on their prey to notice him, and he pushed another set of wooden doors wide open. Kira dashed after him, trying not to slip on the blood.
She threw herself through the doors, only to have them shut loudly behind her.
Quickly, Kira stood up to face Aldrich as he bolted her one escape closed. She put her hands in front of her in warning.
"I don't want to hurt you, just tell me what you know about my mother."
"My my, you are a determined little thing, aren't you?" He said while taking a seat. Looking around, Kira realized they had made their way into the formal dining room. A huge wooden table surrounded by wooden chairs with green silk cushions filled the space. A sweeping chandelier cast a soft glow around the room, lightly illuminating paintings of hunting scenes on the walls. "Please, join me." He motioned to the chair next to him.
"I would rather stand, thanks. Now, what did you mean when you said my mother wasn't trapped?"
"I see being with Tristan has given you a false sense of security around us," he said, ignoring Kira's question. "But when I tell you to sit, it is not a polite request." Suddenly, the chair shot out from the table behind Kira, slamming hard into her legs. Her knees buckled beneath her and she landed heavily on the padded cushion.
"What the?"
"Tristan," Aldrich said, cutting her off, "has the perfect physical composition, which was why I chose him so long ago. But he lacks the mental authority one needs to become truly powerful. You however," he said, grabbing Kira's chin again, "are different. I can feel the power churning inside of you. I have plans for you, very big plans."
Kira let a flame rise on her palm as she grabbed his hand from her chin. "Do not touch me," she said, feeling the burn seep into his skin.
He laughed, the excited mirth of a boy with a new toy. "Oh, I understand now why Tristan has been following you around like a little puppy. You're so exciting," he said while slipping free of her hold. "Nothing like the girls I used to bring him. They were weak and terrified, I should have known he would want a challenge."
"Stop talking about Tristan like you know him," Kira said while crossing her arms and trying not to picture these kidnapped girls. "It's not like that."
"Oh, but it is, with a vampire it always is. You'll see."
Frustrated, Kira released her power on him, trying to break through his shield like she did with Diana. She needed to intimidate him.
Instead, a bowl knocked against her hands, banging them to the side so her power went harmlessly flying towards an empty wall. Shocked, Kira stopped.
"Yes, before you ask, my vampiric abilities came not in the way of force like your Tristan, but in mental power. Try burning me again and I will send something larger at your head." There was no anger or frustration or remorse in his tone. His voice was like steel, cold and unemotional, and it sent a shiver down Kira's back. For the first time in a long time, she felt very afraid to be facing a vampire, especially on her own.
"Now, where were we?" Aldrich ran a hand over the top of his head, smoothing his hair back while he took a moment to think. "Oh yes, your mother. I'm sure she would love to see you. I—"
"Where are you keeping her?" Kira interrupted, trying to find the strength to stand up to him. He flashed annoyed eyes in her direction and the chandelier above her head began to wobble, chiming as the pieces of glass clinked together.
"This conversation grows tiring. She lives with me—"
A loud bang on the door stopped him mid-sentence.
"Aldrich!"
Kira heard a pained scream from the other side of the door. It took a second to realize the mangled voice belonged to Tristan.
Another boom reverberated along the walls as Tristan slammed into the door again, making the entire room shake with his strength. Kira looked at Aldrich. He sat calmly in his chair, not bothered by Tristan in the slightest.
"He tried to leave me once, maybe a year after I turned him," Aldrich said, turning to Kira conversationally and ignoring the yells beyond the door. "He banged and banged on the door until even his vampiric skin was breaking open and bloody, not an easy feat I assure you. But, he always forgets that physical strength is the weakest kind. With my mind holding the door shut, he will never break through."
"Why'd you let him go then?" Kira asked, intrigued despite her fear.
"A moment of weakness I regretted for a long time," he said. Kira almost believe the honesty in his words.
A loud crack caught her attention and she eyed the door in time to see a huge fissure splinter the wood. Another bang and scraps flew off, landing against the floor and leaving a hole in the door.
Through it, Kira could see Tristan back up and prepare for another charge. He looked beyond coherent thought with tears streaming down his face and his muscles bulging.
"Well, it seems he has gained a little more mental control in the hundred years since I've seen him." Aldrich's voice was one of happy surprise. Kira thought he even sounded proud for a moment. "It seems I must bid you farewell."
He picked up Kira's hand and lifted it to his lips. Though she was afraid, Kira kept her powers inside. She didn't want to test Aldrich and she had the oddest sensation that he really didn't want to hurt her, that if he wanted to hurt her she would already be dead. He had other plans in mind — big plans like he said before, something far worse than killing her. Kira forced herself not to pull her hand from his grip as fear crept further into her mind.
In the same instant that his mouth brushed against her skin, the door behind Kira flew off of its hinges.
"Aldrich!" Tristan bellowed, but Aldrich was gone. He disappeared out the window and into the night.
Tristan ran to Kira and embraced her, pulling her hard against his body. Kira hugged him back, throwing her arms over his shoulders. It was only after her hands met at the base of his neck that she realized there was a small paper stuck to her palm.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He pulled her back and examined her face.
"No. I'm fine. I promise. We were just talking," Kira said. Quickly, she stuck her hand in her back pocket, dropping the little paper there for later. Curiosity was almost killing her: she needed to know what Aldrich had written.
"Come on," Tristan tugged on her hand, "Luke is meeting us outside. They're going to blow the house apart, we need to leave now." Kira let him pull her along until they reached the window.
The note would have to wait until she had time alone. No matter what it was, neither Luke nor Tristan could be involved, at least not yet. Kira knew exactly how powerful Aldrich was and if she couldn't handle him, than neither could they. She still wanted to find her mother, but if this night had taught her anything, it was that sometimes patience was a virtue. Not one Kira currently possessed, but one she needed to work on.
Tristan slid through the window first, preparing to catch her. But, right when Kira lifted her foot to step over the windowsill, her eyes caught a strip of metal that reflected her image back at her.
Stunned, Kira tripped over her own foot and fell against the wooden floor. She looked around for a mirror and saw a large metal plate hanging on the wall. She ran over to it, ripping it from the wall and holding it in front of her face.
The boys had said her eyes were blue, but Kira still wasn't prepared for what she saw. Where as before her eyes had been a rusty orange in the center, leaking into a deep olive green with flecks of yellow, they were now bright blue. Not a turquoise or aqua or navy, but a bright cobalt blue that alarmed her.
The perfect royal blue started at her pupils, extending to almost the edge of her iris where a small ring of red-yellow waves pushed their way in. Those looked like her flames, fighting and struggling to stay with her, reminding her of her fight and her power. But now she didn't recognize anything else or any part of her when she looked in the mirror. Her new eyes changed the entire look of her face, and she didn't like it.
Blue was for vampires. It was a color without heat and without spark. Despite the saturated hue, there was no life. Blue was the color of death; it was the pale grey that crept along the body as blood slowly stopped pumping, the color of frost as it covered a forest floor and stopped life in its tracks.
More than anything, Kira wondered what it meant? What had happened to her in there that had so fundamentally changed who she was? She didn't feel different, not really.
"Kira!" Tristan yelled from out the window. She dropped the plate, suddenly jolted back to reality. But before walking to the window, Kira couldn't resist pulling the note from her pocket. Slowly, she unrolled the crinkled paper. In elegant, loopy script were the words: "If you want to see your mother, visit my castle any time. Kindly bring Tristan along." Written below was an address in England.
Kira let her back fall against the wall while she thought. Of course she would go. She had to now. Her mother would never be living there willingly, not with someone so evil. Something else was going on, Kira had to believe it.
And maybe it was a trap. Maybe Aldrich did have plans for her like he had said, but what kind of person would she be if she didn't go? Just because she feared him didn't mean she wouldn't fight him.
Maybe something had changed within her — maybe something had awakened inside of her. Regardless Kira knew one thing: no more playing by other people's rules. She had gone to Sonnyville because of the Council. She was stuck in that hotel room for a week because of Luke and Tristan. She had been playing referee between them and trying to keep everyone from being hurt. But now, Kira was going to do what she wanted when she wanted to and there would be no stopping her.
If her destiny was to turn into a mindless killing machine, there was only one way she could think to stop it — to do what she felt was right instead of driving herself insane trying to please other people.
"Kira? What's wrong?" Tristan asked again and jumped back up, poking his head through the window.
"Nothing," Kira said and stuffed the note back in her shorts. Nothing at all was wrong. For tonight, everyone was safe and she had gotten exactly what she wanted. Diana was dead and her mother was alive.
Everything was exactly as it should be, which was why Kira felt perfectly comfortable diving out the open window. She knew Tristan was there to catch her. In his arms, Kira felt safe, and he carried her away from the house, only putting her down when they reached the edge of the forest. Kira peered through the branches and searched for the tree she had sat on before.
When she found it, Luke was there waiting for them both. She sat down next to him and Tristan sat down beside her, sandwiching Kira between them.
"Are you okay?" Luke asked without turning to look at her.
"I'm alive, aren't I?"
"That doesn't necessarily mean you're okay though."
"I am," Kira sighed and tried to decide how much to tell them both. "Aldrich never tried to hurt me, he really just wanted to talk — about Tristan mostly but also about my mother."
"You can't believe a word he says, Kira, you can't trust him," Tristan urged.
"I know. He's gone anyway," she said, "Aldrich vanished and any hope of finding my mother went with him."
Kira stuck her hand in her pocket to feel the slip of paper hidden there, thinking of the address he had written. She might not be able to trust Aldrich, but she did believe that he had her mother. The look in Diana's eyes at the end when she confessed, when she was terrified to die and begging for her life, that was what told Kira it was the truth. She would never forget Diana's haunted expression — staring death in the face and knowing it was too late to stop its approach. Kira could read in her eyes that Diana knew it was her own fault, that if she had told the truth Kira probably wouldn't have been able to gather the strength to kill her. Aldrich was too smooth and too controlled to believe, but Diana in those last minutes had been completely truthful.
Kira fingered the note again and decided to keep quiet. The boys hadn't seen what she had seen: it would take time for them to understand.
"How's it going in there?" Kira finally asked, realizing that all three of them were just staring straight ahead at the mansion. The windows were broken and glowing orange from the conduit flames.
"We got about half of them, maybe fifteen vampires, definitely more than I expected. They're draining the blood right now, weakening all the vampires so we can transport them to an interrogation house. And then," Luke said with a wide smile, "we're blowing the place apart!"
Kira laughed at his enthusiasm. "The grand entrance was your idea too, right?"
"That was pretty legit, you have to admit. Breaking through the windows with flames a-flying — couldn't have planned it any better."
"As one of the people thrown up against a wall, I beg to differ," Tristan said from her other side.
"But the timing was perfect, you have to admit," Kira said, giving Luke his victory.
"I know," Luke said with mounting excitement. He started talking even faster, letting his hand gestures grow slightly wild. "That blonde woman came in to warn them and Aldrich was like, don't interrupt me you insignificant fool, and she was like, but but, and then the conduits bust in like, too late — you're all fools!"
"And the look on Bronson's face..." Kira giggled, unable to continue talking.
"No Aldrich, he was the best. I swear he looked like a little kid playing with a jack-in-the-box for the first time — totally shocked and freaked out. It was great!"
"But Bronson," Kira challenged, "he was so confused. I swear he was looking around like a fish out of water, like 'conduits are not supposed to be here, they weren't invited.'"
"I think it's safe to say he'll never be hosting a red or white rose ball again," Tristan added.
"Yeah, well let's hope no one will," Kira said, instantly feeling a little sorry for bringing the mood back down.
"It's inevitable, though. Conduits and vampires have been fighting for thousands of years. I don't know what would ever stop it." Tristan shrugged. Us? Kira asked silently, letting herself believe it could be true for a moment.
The fire in the mansion died down and in the moonlight Kira saw conduits carrying the lifeless bodies of drained vampires out the windows.
"Won't be long now," Luke said quietly.
"And why again are we blowing up the house?" Kira asked.
"Because Luke is a pyro-maniac," Tristan responded with a grin.
"While that is totally true," Luke said, also smiling, "it's just standard procedure, at least I think. This way the vampire has to start over. They have no home or supplies to go back to."
At the word home, Kira sighed and thought her family in Charleston. When she got back she would make pancakes. Chloe, Kira imagined, would come running into the kitchen because of the aroma. Then Kira would turn on the coffee machine, lulling her parents awake and dragging them out of bed to a fresh cooked meal and caffeine. Just a normal Sunday morning for the Dawson household, something that hadn't happened for a while and something Kira desperately missed.
"I can't wait to get home. All I want is a huge bowl of ice cream, a whole pint maybe. Sweet, creamy Ben and Jerry's Super Chocolate Chunk," Kira said, salivating at the thought.
"You're such a girl," Luke chided and leaned back on his palms, thinking of his own family. "I just want a home-cooked meal, some of my mother's warm and delicious beef stew. Real meat for a real man."
"Oh God," Kira said and rolled her eyes. She turned to Tristan, waiting for him to add something before realizing why he remained silent. He was alone in the world except for Kira. He didn't have anyone or anything to go home to.
"Look," he said instead and motioned to the two last conduits coming out of the house.
They ran under the cover of night to the edge of the forest, a few feet in front of Kira, Luke and Tristan. One of the conduits pulled out the remote trigger and pressed a button.
After a few completely silent seconds, as if the entire forest were holding its breath, a corner of the house exploded, engulfing the entire building in flames and sending broken pieces everywhere.
Kira watched the wild movements of the flames, felt the wave of heat hit her face, and heard the cackling and crashing of wood as the uncontrollable fire consumed it. The power inside of her responded, gathering in her heart and warming her insides as if the two fires were friends trying to reconnect. Her powers ached to be released, ached to join in on the chaos before her, but she squelched it. Was she like the fire in front of her? Wild and uncontrolled?
But the more she looked at the undulating flames, swishing back and forth and lighting the night sky, the more she saw the beauty in it, like the brilliant golden hues of the flames and the soft glow permeating the yard.
Something had undoubtedly changed in her this night. Like a switch flipped to the on position, her power churned inside of her. But Kira didn't fear it. Killing Diana and breaking through the immunity had given her a taste of her real potential. The hot smoldering burn of her power was a comfort. She didn't fear her strength. There was a purpose for it, something more than all of the killing. She just wasn't sure what that was yet.
And, even though a little voice in the back of her head told her that it was a bad idea, Kira knew Aldrich held the answers. Her gut told her going to his home would solve all of her problems. Finding her mother wasn't the end goal anymore, finding the truth about herself was.
"Hotel?" Luke asked when the fire died down to smoke and the house was charred beyond recognition.
"Hotel," Kira nodded.
"Hotel," Tristan agreed.
All three of them stood at the same time as though tied together with a string. And maybe they were, Kira thought, tied together for some inexplicable reason. She watched the last spark of the fire, saw embers drift through the smoke like fireflies, and waited for one of the boys to make a move.
Luke reached out his hand, tanned and freckled, inviting her to follow him.
On her other side, Tristan reached out his smooth white palm, asking her to move with him.
Kira stared for a moment, looking at the choice before her, small and unimportant but at the same time symbolic of so much more. She was stuck. Something that had seemed so obvious a choice only days before was somehow difficult now. It was almost as if she were two different people. And like she was cut in half, Kira's hands acted on their own, each taking hold of the hand before them.
On one side, she grasped a hand that was cool and comfortable, a hand she had held a thousand times before, one that enveloped hers and made her feel safe.
On the other side, she gripped a hand that was warm and welcoming, a hand she had held before but never in that way, never with excitement and a twinge of the unknown.
The night may have awakened more than just her powers, Kira realized. She was taking charge of her life. She wouldn't wait for the boys to come up with a plan. For the first time, she stepped forward and pulled both of them behind her, forcing them to follow her lead.
And at that moment, walking through the smoke filled forest, all Kira wanted to think about was a hot shower and a warm bed — no boys, no conduits, no parents, and no vampires. Just one night to herself, completely free of worry, because the fire inside her was heating up and, like that house, Kira knew she was about to explode.