“I’m sorry.”
I turned and walked out looking back down the hallway toward Ian’s room. I had once loved Ian with every fiber of my being. I had wanted to be his wife, to bear his children. The echo of that love had thundered loudly when I had first arrived in Hamletville almost seven months ago, but it had become clear almost immediately that it was just that—an echo. I had once loved him, but that is all. In place of that love was fondness stemming from our shared history. I’d once thought him my soul-mate, but he betrayed me. Ian didn’t choose the vampire blood, but his change betrayed all of us. It was truly too late. And while it made me sad, I felt even sadder for the great loss Jamie would feel . . . Jamie, who had never betrayed anyone.
I stepped back outside and took a deep breath. Jamie needed to know. I headed toward the front of the hotel, but Will intercepted me.
“Oh my god! There you are,” he said breathlessly.
“What is it?” I asked, wiping a tear from my eye.
“Kira and Susan are missing.”
My heart skipped a beat. We rushed back to Frenchie’s room. When we entered, I saw Frenchie’s face and eyes were red. Buddie was talking to her in a quiet tone. Jamie stood over them. Summer and Tom were sitting on the bed listening.
Everyone looked up when I entered.
Frenchie collapsed into tears. I went to her side and put my hand on her shoulder.
“She took them outside for some air. Kira dropped her bear in one of the fountains. Frenchie reached down to get it and when she got back up, the girls were gone,” Jamie told me.
“I came back hoping they were here,” Frenchie sobbed. “Layla, I looked everywhere.” Frenchie’s voice was hoarse from screaming.
“How long ago?” I asked.
“Maybe twenty minutes,” she whimpered.
“Dusty went back to the fountains to check again,” Buddie told me.
“Boots on the ground. In pairs. We need everyone. Now,” I said.
Tom and Summer nodded and headed out of the room. I could hear them knocking on doors in the hallway followed by the sound of Hamletville voices. Soon there was a flurry of movement.
“Can you track them?” I asked Buddie.
“Let’s see,” he replied, and the four of us headed back to the garden where Frenchie had last seen her daughters. It was a beautiful place, full of fresh spring tulips, the air perfumed with hyacinth. The fountains shimmered in the sunlight.
Jamie and I stood aside as Frenchie talked and Buddie scanned the ground.
“Where have you been?” Jamie asked.
There was too much to tell. “Later,” I whispered.
Jamie looked inquisitively, but just then Dusty came up to us. “No sign,” he whispered.
Buddie went over the ground looking again and again. He shook his head. “I see tracks in, nothing out.”
Frenchie sobbed.
I took her hand. “We’ll find them.”
I scanned the horizon. Two girls could not vanish into thin air. We set off in groups and began searching the island. By late afternoon, no one had seen anything. Getting together as many of the Hamletville people as we could, we regrouped in Frenchie’s room. No one had seen any sign of the girls.
“Maybe we should tell the hotel staff,” Ethel suggested.
“No, no way,” Dusty said. “They took those girls.”
Ethel looked shocked. “Are you sure?”
Everyone was looking at one another. By now they had all heard someone had tried to kill me and about Pastor Frank’s accident. This, coupled with the news of Kira’s and Susan’s disappearance, had everyone on edge. Not only that, they also had heard reports from the other hotel guests. Others related tales of accidents and odd disappearances.
“Layla?” Tom said.
The entire room looked at me. I could tell from the pained expressions on their faces, they knew I had been right.
“We need to find Kira and Susan, and then we need to get out of here,” I said.
Several people nodded.
“What is happening here? What are these people?” Ethel asked.
I looked at Jamie and gave him a should we tell them expression.
He looked as uncertain as I did. “They’re vampires,” he said at last.
Several people in the group looked stunned.
Jeff laughed out loud. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Vampires don’t exist.”
“Just like that zombie that tried to chew your foot off last week doesn’t exist, right?” Kiki said stingingly.
“Have you seen Ian? He looks so much better. They are helping us,” Mrs. Finch said.
I looked at Jamie. We hadn’t talked yet, so I said nothing.
“Yeah, just like they helped Pastor Frank off the cliff,” Buddie replied.
“Or helped Layla out the fourth floor window,” Jamie added.
“Or helped us come here by tracking us on the radio,” Kiki said.