Authors: Marissa Farrar
Serenity laughed along with her. It felt good to not only see Elizabeth happy, but to laugh again herself. Sometimes she needed to remind herself Elizabeth was only a child—despite all of her abilities—and she needed to be allowed to act like one.
The bedroom door opened and Sebastian stepped into the room.
“I came to say goodnight.”
Serenity offered him a smile and then kissed Elizabeth’s soft cheek. “Your father’s right. It’s late.
Time to get some sleep.”
“Okay, Mommy,” she said, snuggling beneath the blanket. She still had her comfort blanket tucked under her pillow and she reached for it as she settled down.
“Goodnight, sweetie,” said Serenity. “I love you.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
She stood up and passed Sebastian on the way out. Their arms brushed, sending her heart racing. That he could still affect her in such a way after all this time
was crazy. She almost resented his ability to elicit such a response. Whether it was the drop of blood she took once a month that kept such a strong connection between them, she didn’t know, but whatever he did, she never seemed to stop wanting him. Glancing back over her shoulder, she watched him take her place on the edge of Elizabeth’s bed, the sight of him with their child melting her heart.
Serenity left the room and paused outside of the bedroom door, listening to Sebastian’s low murmured tones, followed by their daughter’s high-pitched giggles. She wished the relationship between her and Sebastian could be as easy. With Elizabeth, there was never any question about how they felt about her. It was a love that asked for nothing in return.
For the past year, she’d believed the same to be true of her relationship with Sebastian, but the last twenty-four hours had set her emotions in a whirl.
She stood waiting, knowing Sebastian would be able to hear her—the thump of her heartbeat, the inhale and exhale of her breath. He’d even sense the warmth her skin gave off. She didn’t know if having so much intimacy, even when apart, was a good or bad thing.
Within a few minutes, he backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.
“She’s sleeping.”
Serenity smiled. “That’s good. I think she’s had a rough couple of days.”
“I guess that’s another thing I screwed up on, huh?
Convincing you to let her go to camp.”
She shook her head. “You had no way of knowing. And anyway, she wanted to go. She probably wouldn’t even be speaking to me right now if you hadn’t convinced me.”
“Perhaps sometimes we need to remember we’re her parents, not her friends.”
She looked up at him. “
Is wanting
to be both so wrong?”
Sebastian didn’t answer.
With a rueful sigh, she headed back downstairs to the kitchen, Sebastian following. A few dishes, left over from the simple meal of scrambled eggs and toast
she’d made for Elizabeth’s dinner, were left in the sink. Feeling like she needed to busy herself, she walked over and started to fill the sink with fresh water and soap. The dishes weren’t enough to make a full load in the dishwasher.
Sebastian stood close behind her, his presence like a physical force against her back. Sometimes she felt as though she couldn’t think with him around. He seemed to own a piece of her mind, snatching her attention whenever he was near.
From behind, his cool fingers made contact with her neck and he swept her hair away from her face, trailing it down her back. She wanted to sigh and lean into him, feel his strong arms around her, lose herself in his protection again, but their earlier argument still went unresolved. Instead, she jerked away and focused on the dishes, lifting a highball glass out of the water and putting it on the drainer before attacking a chopping board with the ferocity she felt toward their situation.
“Serenity…” he started.
“Just leave it, Sebastian.” She rinsed off the chopping board and propped the heavy wooden slab on the drainer. “I need some time—”
The board slipped and knocked into the tall glass. Serenity stared as the glass flew off the draining board.
Sebastian reached out to snatch it from the air, but he moved too slowly and missed. The glass shattered on the floor with a crash, shards scattering across the tiles. Sebastian
froze,
his eyes wide. She caught sight of the confusion on his face and frowned. Sebastian didn’t miss things. He moved faster than gravity could pull an item to the ground.
“I need to go,” he said, spinning from the room in a blur.
“Sebastian, wait—” she called.
But he was already gone.
Damn it!
Why did he keep disappearing?
I
s he keeping something from
me
,
she wondered. Why else would he keep running out on her? This whole thing was draining, emotionally and physically. She just wanted to go to bed and start again fresh the next day. Perhaps on a good night’s sleep she’d be able to see things more clearly.
Not wanting to be anywhere
near humans, still all too aware of his previous night’s experience, Sebastian headed into the forest. Part of him wondered if he’d run into the zomb
ie-like creature he’d created, if
he’d find the headless body stumbling between the trees, fingers dirt-encrusted from digging itself out of i
ts unmarked grave. Or perhaps the man
would have located
his
own head and be carrying it under
his
arm like a football.
Sebastian shook the macabre image from his head.
Worries drummed on his shoulders like skeleton’s fingers—threatening and disturbing. Even though he’d fed less than twenty-four hours ago, his limbs seemed to carry a weight he couldn’t see.
His toes caught on a thick root and he stumbled before regaining his balance.
Sebastian frowned, his lips pressed tight together. Fresh spurts of unease raced through him at his clumsiness.
His movements weren’t as lithe and agile as usual. Normally, his body seemed to sense the position of obstacles and knew where to place his feet or twist or leap. But now, he found himself consciously thinking about where he needed to step.
Sebastian replayed his attempt to catch the falling glass over and over again. Had something gotten in his way?
No, he’d simply moved too slowly to catch the object.
But why?
He’d never experienced any redu
ction in his vampire’s strength
before. Even when injured, he recovered fast.
A shudder ran through his body.
Something was wrong.
Serenity woke with the
certain
knowledge
movement in the house had roused her. She froze, motionless in bed
, her ears straining
. Was it Sebastian? Elizabeth? She knew she’d wake if she heard Elizabeth, tho
ugh somehow her subconscious always
managed to filter out
sounds
Sebastian made if he
moved around
the house while she slept.
But
Elizabeth would most likely come into the
bedroom if she couldn’t sleep
,
and she had her own bathroom.
She didn’t
need to be creeping around the house.
The sound came again—the slow creak of floorboards and the low thump of footsteps along the corridor.
Slowly
,
the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck prickled and rose to attention, as though fingers ghosted their way along the length of her arms up to her back and shoulders.
She sat up, the sheets falling around her body, he
r breath caught in her lungs
. Sebastian
wasn’t lying in bed beside her, but that didn’t surprise her
. This was Sebastian’s waking time and she couldn’t expect him to hang around simply because she slept.
No further noises came.
It must
have been Sebastian she’d heard, she decided.
But then why did her skin crawl? Why did her heart beat so fast? Every fiber of her being told her
someone
was in the house
, someone
who
was not supposed to be there.
Sebastian?
She sent out the call with her heart, hoping he’d hear her. But she got no sense of him in the house or anywhere
close
for that matter
.
She needed
to deal with this herself.
Shit.
What should she do? While part of her wanted to stay in bed and hide beneath the sheets, the mother in her drove her to protect her child. If there was something else in the house
,
she certainly didn’t intend on leaving Elizabeth to fend for herself.
Something
, she realized she’d thought.
Something, not someone.
She didn’t like the way her mind was working. She felt the same way she had in the kitchen when she’d been certain she
hadn’t been
alone—the way her skin had crawled up over her shoulders, making her shudder.
Serenity slid her bare legs from beneath the sheets and her naked soles met with the plush carpet. As silent as possible, she rose to her feet and crossed the bedroom. Pausing at the bedroom door, she listened for the footsteps, but none came.
With her heart in her throat, she cracked open the door.
Anothe
r noise met her ears.
A rushing
shhhh
sound, like d
istant traffic.
Serenity frowne
d. Something about the sound seemed
familiar, though she couldn’t quite place it.
A dim light flooded up from the lamp left on downstairs, offering enough light for
her
to see the space was empty. W
hoever was responsible for the noise
s
, they were
n’t here now.
Cautious, she stepped out into the hallway. From behind, in the direction of Elizabeth’s room, came the creak of a floorboard. Serenity spun around, her heart lurching, but the hall remained empty.
Elizabeth!
Whoever it was must have gone into her daughter’s room.
She ran to Elizabeth’s room and, with no tho
ught as to what she’d do should she
find an intruder, rushed inside. She spun one way and then the next, trying to spot a figure standing in the shadows, but none materialized. Elizabeth still slept soundly, but Serenity suddenly realized t
he far off noise had grown
louder.
The bathroom.
She raced to the adjoining room. Water gushed from the washbasin faucet, the tap on full blast. The sink brimmed, water beginning to trickle down the
outside of the
white porcelain and onto the floor, the overflow struggling to keep up.
Serenity turned off the faucet, the whole time feeling as though something was about to grab her from behind, panic nipping at her heels. Surely Elizabeth hadn’t left the water running?
She hated the thought that someone else might have been in Elizabeth’s room, that this whole thing wasn’t just a case of her f
rayed, overactive imagination.
But what reason would someone else have to be creeping around their house in the middle of the night, trying to scare her?
Everywhere she looked contained spaces perfect for concealing an intruder—behind the door, under the bed, inside the closet. Not wanting to miss anything, she checked each space, making sure no one else lurked in the room.
She
paused uncertainly beside Elizabeth’s bed. The little girl looked peaceful
,
no sign of the nightmares that had been terrorizing her. Should she wake her
daughter
to keep her close while she searched the rest of the house? Of course
,
if this all just
existed
in Serenity’s head and Elizabeth had simply forgotten to switch off the tap, she’d only succeed in scaring her. Elizabeth had suffered enough broken
nights’
sleep lately. Serenity didn’t want to add a delusional, paranoid mother to the poor girl’s problems.
She made up her mind.
Certain the room was free of intruders,
she
let Elizabeth sleep.
Back in the hallway, she realized the sound coming from Elizabeth’s bathroom had only diminished, rather than ceased altogether, and now came from a new direction.
She made her way along the corridor and paused outside of her bedroom. She’d left the door ajar and now held her ear to the crack. The same sound of gushing water came from her adjoining bathroom.
Certain of
what she would find, she ran straight for the bathroom. As she’d expected
,
the faucet was on, water pouring into the sink. With shaking hands, she reached out
and turned off the faucet
, the tap squeaking in the still night.
Cold air moved beside her, something brushing by with the lightness of a cobweb, sending a chill over her body. She gave a small scream of shock and stumbled into the bedroom.
“Who’s there?”
she demanded, sounding braver than she felt.
Suddenly, th
e bedroom door banged open, snatching her attention, and she stifled another scream by clamping her hand over her mouth.
What the hell was going on?
Serenity chased the intruder out of the bedroom. This wasn’t all just in her head. She hadn’t imagined the door opening or the water being left on in the bathroom.
Might
another vampire
be responsible
?
But
the first time
she’d experienced something similar
had been in the daytime. A vampire
wouldn’t be around in the light
.
The hallway was empty, but a blur of movement on the stairs
in the shape of a person
caught her attention. The
moment she turned her head, they vanished.
“Hey!” Not wanting to wake Elizabeth, she did a combination of yelling while trying to keep her voice down, resulting in a strangled cry.
Perhaps she should be on the phone to the cops, but now she no longer had any friends in the
local
force, she didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to their family. After her disappearance, too much attention had been focused
on
Sebastian, and that had even been with the help of James Bentley to smooth things over.
She
was
n’t
dealing with a regular intruder. There was something supernatural about what was happening and she didn’t want to call the police only to have them doubting her sanity and keeping a closer eye on the family.
She
followed
the direction of movement
, her fear making her breathe in tiny gasps.
She clutched the banister of the huge, curved staircase, needing its support to stop her legs from folding beneath her. The sound of rushing water echoed in th
e vast kitchen. She could see the scene
in her head before she’d even entered the room—the big
,
curved silver faucet thundering water into their Belfast sink.
“Oh, God.”
T
he words came out as a thin whine.
Someone was messing with her, but who?
Do we have a ghost
,
she wondered?
Of course, the notion was crazy,
but right now, in the dead of night, scared and alone, nothing felt closer to the truth.
The lamp on the hall console supplied enough light to
allow her a vi
e
w
into the kitchen. The shutters
had been left
open and moonlight flo
oded
the room, casting eerie shadows on the floo
r. The tap continued to run, the
noise too loud in the still night.
T
he
cold of the
kitchen tiles
seeped into the soles of
Serenity’s feet as she crossed the room. The sink and drainage were large enough to cope with the deluge, but the water hit the po
rcelain and sprayed back up at her
, hitting the naked skin of her arms and chest with tiny cold, sharp shocks. She turned off the faucet. Once more, silence fell over the big house.
Sebastian, where are you?
She wished he was
with her now. Despite their earlier fight about his violent nature, she suddenly wanted a ferociously strong man by her side. Whoever was playing tricks o
n her might think differently with
Sebastian around. Surely with his speed and keen hearing and eyesight, Sebastian would be able to catch
the person
responsible.
Whoever had turned on the water certainly
no longer
lurked
in the
kitchen.
The
cabinets
held nowhere for them to hide, unless they w
ere child-
size.
“Who’s here?” she hissed. “Come on
,
you coward, show yourself!”
But the house remained silent.
She
made her way back out into the hall
. Was the person still
in the house? Yes, she still had
that overwhelming sensation
of not being alone, of
eyes watching her, a stranger
’
s gaze taking in her every move.
She stood still and waited, trying to get a sense of which way to head next.
Without warning, the front door burst open.
Serenity screamed, her hand held to her heart, but only wind and a few fallen leaves gusted into the wide hallway.
Instantly,
the atmosphere of the house changed, the air less charged. She no longer felt as though someone was watching her. Whoever had been in the house was gone.
Serenity pushed the big front door shut again. She frowned. The door locked
automatically from the outside; the only way someone could
get in was with the key. So had Sebastian gone out and left the front door ajar? That didn’t seem like something he’d do
,
he was normally so overprotective of her and Elizabeth. But unless they had a key, they wouldn’t have been able to get in the house.
Quickly
,
she ran around the property, checking the security of the
back
door and windows. Everything was locked and bolted. The front door must have been the point of entry.
She went back to the door and cautiously opened it again. She poked her head out, checking the driveway for
signs of life, but everything remained
still. She lifted her hand and ran it across the edge of the door and the doorframe. No dents
or
scrapes
made her think the door had been forced.
So her intruder had a key.
Her stomach churned in a nervous flip-flop. She didn’t like that idea. The first phone call she’d place in the morning would be to a locksmith to get the locks changed.
Unless, of course, the thing flitting around her house in the middle of the night, opening and closing doors, moving things around, could pass right through a solid door.