Innocence and Evil (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #6) (10 page)

“You bastard,” I hissed.

I clenched my fists, keeping the power under
wraps while he was so close to Christina again.

I heard a few gasps from behind me and then
Chloe whispering “Just because she was bitten doesn’t mean she will
turn. Alice and Oscar were both bitten lots of times.”

The vampire heard her. “The difference there
is that those you speak of never drank human blood to complete
their change. Our little Hunter here, however, did.”

I surged forward again, wanting nothing more
than to remove that demons filthy hands from my woman. My speed
surprised him and he barely had time to move, before pushing out
his hand. It connected with my chest and sent me flying backward. I
landed hard on the stone floor, but was up instantly, ready to
fight. I fired up my white light.

All hell broke loose then. The two vampires
had their shields up and were fighting off Hunter’s left and
right.

“Alice!” Chloe called out, holding a
fireball in her hand. “Do you think you can counteract their
shield?”

Yeah! Magic against magic. Maybe that would
work. I needed to get them away from Christina so we could get her
down from those chains and we would at least have a chance to get
out of this place, even if we couldn’t kill them.

“I don’t know,” Alice called back. “I’ll
try.”

I don’t know what Alice was doing
internally, but she stood stock still, hands in the air, her gaze
focused on the vampires. While she was doing that, I moved to the
other side of the room, away from the majority of the group and
zapped the guy on the left with my white light. It bounced off of
his shield, but he still turned toward me. “You know we are going
to kill your maker, right?”

He glared at me. “You cannot even harm us,
what makes you think that you could possibly harm my maker.”

“So who is it? Pavlos … or Anthony?” I
taunted. Finally, the vampire reached up and slid the hood from his
head. He had dark brown hair and eyes that appeared black in the
dim light. He tried not to show it, but he seemed surprised that I
knew anything about the original vampires.

“You know nothing of either man.”

“I know more than you think about those
vampires
. We are the ones who killed Korina.” Finally, he
faltered. “You dare not speak …” His sentence was cut off when I
nailed him with white light.

“Now!” Alice called at the same time. I
don’t know if it was what she did or that the other vampire was
surprised his friend got whacked, but he let down his shield and
Drew blew him back with the air in the room. As soon as he was far
enough away from Christina, half the Hunter’s in the room shot at
him, not one of them missed.

I fought the need to cover my ears as the
echo of gun shots resounded throughout the room. Both vampires were
down. One with his flesh burning away and the other with bullet
holes emitting the white light and eating away at the rest of his
body.

I sprinted toward Christina as fast as I
could. As soon as my hands touched her body I felt relief wash over
me. Just touching her and knowing I could get her out of this
place. “Gavin,” I called as I lifted Christina so that her wrists
weren’t taking all the weight. “Can you freeze those chains?”

Gavin hurried over to us, holstering his
gun. He took a chain in each hand and closed his eyes. Seconds
later, the chains began to frost over. Drew joined us and slammed
the grip of his gun into the chain. It broke instantly and
Christina fell safely into my arms.

She had passed out again during all the
commotion, but now, her lids fluttered open just slightly and she
stared up at me with bloodshot eyes. “I … you, you shouldn’t have
come back,” she whispered in a voice I could barely hear.

“You’re stupid if you think I wouldn’t,” I
whispered back.

She coughed and then sucked in some breath.
“But now … now you have to kill me.”

***

We ran from that building as fast as we
could, hoping that we could land a little more luck and not run
into anymore vampires on the way out. And we did, we made it all
the way to the front door of the library without seeing any
vampires or Dragons.

I knew there were more in there, but they
probably saw what we had done to all their friends and didn’t want
to chance going up against us.

Not long ago, people would have been scared
to death seeing a bunch of armed Vampire Hunters emerging from a
building and tearing down the street carrying a practically
unconscious woman. But now, it was a different time and although
people stared, they didn’t really seem to care otherwise.

***

Christina remained semi-conscious all the
way back to the house. I hadn’t wanted to be away from Christina so
I rode the back with her head in my lap. When we finally rolled
through the gates, I had the door open and jumped out of the truck
before Drew had even come to a complete stop.

Gently, I lifted Christina into my arms and
carried her up to our room where I deposited her on the bed. Chloe,
Drew, Alice, Oscar, Gavin and Luke followed me in. I turned to
Luke, who I assumed knew more about this than any of them, aside
from maybe Alice. “She was bitten … and they told us she’s in
transition. How long does it take?”

Luke looked like he was going to cry. The
sadness written across his wrinkled face was almost too much to
bear. “It depends,” he told me softly. “It could take hours … or it
could take days. It really depends on the person who is
turning.”

“Can we stop it … please tell me there is a
way to stop it?”

Luke shook his head. “We can’t stop it. Once
the change has begun there is only one way to keep her from
becoming a vampire.”

Suddenly, the thought hit me like a brick in
the face. This house was filled with Vampire Hunter’s. Would they
try to kill their friend … their family member, because she was
becoming one of the things they hunted? I moved as close to
Christina as I could without actually having to sit on the bed. “If
any of you try
anything
with her, I will take you out
myself.”

Luke gently set his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry son, we have to give her a chance before anything
drastic is done.”

I didn’t even like the sound of what he
probably thought was a reassuring response. I glanced at everyone
else and saw that they all looked just as worried as Luke. No one
appeared scared or angry, not yet anyway.

Luke turned to Chloe. “Why don’t you pick
out some fresh clothes for Christina to wear and help Zander get
her changed. Everyone else … out.” He waved his hands, shooing the
group from the room. Once they were gone he turned back to me.
“Listen, we are going to do all we can for her, but you have to
prepare yourself for the worst.”

I lowered my eyes and nodded. “Yes sir.”

He left the room after shooting me another
sullen look. Chloe was in Christina’s drawer, rummaging around so I
turned back to Christina and sat down beside her on the edge of the
bed. I wasn’t used to seeing her looking so weak. She was one of
those girls who always took great pains to look badass, because it
made her feel invincible.

Her hair was tangled and spread over her
shoulder, hiding the bite mark at her throat. The clothes she was
wearing were dirty and torn with bloodstains marring the fabric in
more than one spot.

She coughed, her body trembling for a few
seconds afterward, but then she returned to a state of
unconsciousness. I grasped her hand in mine and held on, placing
both my hands around her one. Then, leaning down, I pressed our
hands to my lips. “Please let her be okay,” I begged whoever would
listen. “Please.”

My heart hurt so badly. The only other time
I’d ever felt like this was when I had to watch my mother die.

“Zander.” Chloe approached me and set a
stack of clothing on the bed. “It’s going to be okay. Even if she
is some crazy vampire when she turns, she might change when she
gets out of the young stage. The blood lust is strong at the
beginning.”

“I know that. I just don’t want her to turn
at all. How many vampires do you know that are good guys?” When she
didn’t answer I shook my head. “See, none. Vampires are demons …
they are the ones we kill.”

“That’s not true.” Chloe shook her head.
“Anthony is a vampire. And if you want to get technical, you and I
both are too. So, not all vampires are bad, there are a few good
ones out there.”

It was true. Anthony was actually a great
example, but he was like really, really freaking old so he had
massive control. On the other hand, the amount of vampires out
there that were bad guys, far outweighed the good.

“Come on, bro, let’s get her changed before
she wakes up. Cause when that happens, we are going to have to be
ready. I hear the change can be a pretty painful thing.”

I knew it was gradually getting worse. Her
body was growing colder and colder, but her skin was also covered
in sweat. “Why isn’t she waking up?” I wondered aloud.

“I don’t know,” Chloe answered, looking
worried.

We set to changing her clothes and had
almost finished getting the clean ones on when her eyes snapped
open. “Zander,” she wheezed, her chest heaving as if she were
having trouble breathing.

I rushed to the head of the bed and leaned
over her. “I’m here, baby.”

“Why am I still here?”

“Because we saved you.”

“You … know what I mean.” When she spoke it
was as if every word was hard to get out.

She turned her head just a little bit so she
could see me better. Her eyes were still extremely bloodshot and
her skin was growing paler by the moment. I could tell she was
already moving deep into the change.

“I do know what you mean,” I told her with
as firm a voice as I could manage. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going
to do that. As a matter of fact there is no way I’m going to do
that.”

“Someone has to do it. Chloe,” She caught
sight of my sister standing behind me. “You have to. If he won’t,
then it has to be you.”

Chloe shook her head. “You’re not a vampire
yet. So, I’m not killing you. Sorry.”

Christina closed her eyes and shook her head
slightly. “But, I will be. I don’t want to be one of them. I … I
don’t want to hurt you.”

While I totally got where she was coming
from and probably would feel the same way, she was crazy if she
thought I was going to kill her. “Okay, listen. Once you have
completed the change, we will make a decision then. This will be
hard, harder than anything you’ve ever done in your life. But there
is a possibility you can come through this and not be …” I didn’t
finish the sentence because I wasn’t sure what words to use.

“I have a plan, Christina. Please … please
don’t give up now,” Chloe pleaded with her. “We need you to want to
come through this so you can still be with us.”

Tears welled at the corners of her eyes and
then eventually spilled over. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.” She
released a chest wracking sob. “I save people, I don’t eat
them.”

On any other day her declaration may have
raised a smile or a chuckle, but on this occasion it wasn’t funny
at all. I pushed her hair back off her forehead. “You will always
save people. Baby, you have Hunter blood running through those
veins and that blood is from angels and Gods. The good in you won’t
be so easy to get rid of.”

“I don’t know if I can do this. I can’t tell
you to let me turn into one of those monsters. You will have to
lock me up to keep me from attacking people.”

“We don’t know what will happen,” I
insisted.

“You …” The tears spilled over even faster,
“You might want to kill me. What if your gift prevents us from
being together?”

“It won’t,” I promised.

“I don’t want to be here without you.”
Christina wasn’t usually the type of girl who liked to bare her
soul, but I understood why she felt like she needed to say it.

“Listen to me.” I grasped her hand and held
it between both of mine, pressing it to my heart. “I will never
want to hurt you. Never. You got that?”

She didn’t say anything else, including
agreeing to try and get through this change willingly. I hated that
we were going to make her become something that she didn’t want to
be. After a few long moments, Christina turned her head toward
Chloe and whispered, “So what’s your plan?”

“I called Anthony. He’s already on his way
here.”

Christina practically seemed herself when
she let out a quick breath and rolled her eyes. “Anthony is your
plan, seriously.”

Chloe shrugged. “He’s a vampire and he’s not
all bad. He can help us with pretty much any scenario that we might
encounter after your transition.”

“Ugh, great,” Christina mumbled, but then
her eyes widened and she lurched forward to clutch at her stomach.
“Son of a … hurts.” Her legs curled up as if she were trying to
make herself into a ball.

“Christina.” I stood, not knowing what to
do. “Are you all right?”

“Oh holy mother it hurts.”

“What can I do?” I addressed my panicked
question to both Christina and Chloe.

Chloe shrugged, just as confused as I was.
We had never seen anyone go through the transition from mortal to
vampire. Her skin had paled dramatically, having gone from a nice
tan color to pasty white. That change alone made her look entirely
different.

Not that I was worried about what she looked
like or anything.

She flopped back down onto the pillow and
squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m hot. It’s so freaking hot in here.” It
was true, she was sweating before, but now she was downright
soaked. The clothes we had just put on her were stuck to her
body.

Just when I was beginning to wonder if I was
going to be able to handle seeing her go through this whole thing,
the bedroom door burst open and Anthony strode toward us, followed
by a much slower Luke. “How long has it been since she was bitten?”
He bypassed the hellos and went straight for Christina.