Violet Midnight (Violet Night Trilogy) (18 page)

Greg’s eyelids fluttered. “No. Trinity broken. What’s a Trinity?” He sagged against the pillow.

“Hold on, Greg. Stay with me.” Emma jostled him by the shoulder.

He shot awake and eyed her.

“What’d they say?” She snagged the cloth from the tiny table at the bedside and dabbed at his damp skin. “What’d you hear?”

“They’re coming for you, Emma. Said you’d ruined everything. Stolen their rightful place.” Greg faced Emma again. “Rightful place?”

“Don’t worry about that, Greg.” Emma leaned close. “Listen to me.”

“No. Emma. You’re in danger.” Greg reached out for her hand. “They said they’re going to kill everyone you love.”

“Greg—”

“And they’re going to make you watch.”

“Son of a bitch.” Emma thrust open the doors from the hospital and burst out into the bright sunlight.

Greg’s words vibrated through Emma like an earthquake. She knew the Avenos Vamps would be pissed, but never did she expect this. Not that she should be surprised. They were effing Vamps. Hell bent on killing, dominating. And she’d taken their key to having everything.

Jake.

They were going to kill him. Ava, too. Those were the only two people she’d let in since Gabriel.

Emma rounded the corner of the hospital with Jake’s heavy footfalls trailing. She’d bolted out of the room so quickly after wiping Greg’s mind, Jake had been behind her a distance.

“Em,” Jake said.

She leaned over and dry heaved. Nothing in there to barf up, but still, the thought of having to witness Jake and Ava’s deaths was too much.

A warm hand soothed her back, up and down her spine. “We won’t let it happen. We’ll find them and end them.”

“Where do you suggest we start looking? God, Jake. If anything happens to Ava…” She stood straight. “To you. I’ll die.”

“I’ll help you protect Ava. We’ll be fine.” He pinched her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “But I need you to help me figure out how to call a weapon to me. If I’m going to help, I need to be at my strongest.”

Doubt spiraled down her spine and formed a rock in the pit of her stomach. Jake was so new to this. Only a couple of weeks of training, and that was before his Vamp powers changed into a Hunter’s gifts.

No more impenetrable skin. That one concerned her the most. Sure, she’d showed him some fighting skills, and he was strong, but still. She tunneled her fingers into her hair and tugged until tears blurred her vision.

She would not survive if the Vamps killed Jake. Or Ava. Emma had already lost too many people she loved.

Faith, Emma.

Gabriel’s voice chimed through her mind. Easy for him to say. He was an angel. He couldn’t die again.

“Em?” Jake folded his strong, warm arms around her. “While it’s still light, show me a few things, then we’ll check out Cynthia’s place. I’m a fast learner, remember?”

“Okay.” She agreed, but doubt clouded Jake’s optimism.

“Let’s go.”

Within fifteen minutes, they were on the roof of Emma’s dorm. Last time she’d been up there with Jake, he’d nearly bitten her. Thank God for grace, right?

“So how do I do this?” Jake asked, and he widened his stance in the loose roof flooring.

He clapped his hands together and checked his surroundings as if he was in the middle of a basketball game and waiting for Emma to pass him the ball.

“I’m not exactly sure how it works. Never really had to explain it to someone before,” she said. “I usually picture what I want. The last place I’d seen it. Things like that. Visualize it coming to me.”

“Sounds easy enough.” He put his hand out in front of him, palm up. “Crossbow.”

Nothing.

“Crossbow,” he said again.

Nothing.

“Maybe because I haven’t actually seen the crossbow in the trunk?”

“But you have, remember? While sifting through some of Gabriel’s things. You clanked it and asked me more about it.” Emma nodded. “Try again.”

“Oh. I remember that. But Ava came in and you never really got to tell me about how you got them.”

“Well, call it to you and I’ll tell you.”

He smiled. His now chocolate eyes sparkled beneath the sun’s penetrating rays, sending the amber flecks bursting with color. Even from eight feet away, they entranced her. No longer the dark, eerie black.

But both were better than the Vampire red.

“Try again. Concentrate on what it looks like, the feel of it,” Emma said.

He widened his stance as if ready to receive a tackle. “Crossbow.”

A subtle light ignited above his open palm, and he flinched. The sleek weapon dropped into his hand. “Oh my gosh.”

“Crossbow.” It came to her, and she said, “Now call the dagger.”

She cranked the trigger back and checked the magazine for bolts.

“Dagger,” Jake said. His shoulders slumped when nothing landed in his open hand. He closed his eyes, and a second later, the weapon plopped onto his palm.

“Nice.”

“Only took two tries. Okay, so tell me, how’d you get these weapons?”

Emma traversed the rocky floor of the roof to the edge and propped her foot up on the short brick wall around the top. Late afternoon sun spilled over the deserted campus. Must have been the weekend to head home for family visits. Plus, there was an away football game. Good, because she had a bad feeling. The intensity with which Greg spoke about hell coming, she knew it to be true. The less people around the better.

No wonder she’d landed at this college and stayed in the dorms so long. Things were clicking into place more than she could have ever imagined.

“Em?”

“Oh. Sorry. I stumbled into a little nest of Vamps.” She rested her elbow on her knee and held the crossbow up for a closer look. “Second Hunt, really. Three Vamps there, one munching on a victim, and I tackled him. We rammed into a wall. This dagger was on display. I grabbed and stabbed. He was dust.”

“Until you got these how’d you kill them?”

Emma laughed. “Stabbed them with other things, but they didn’t turn to dust like this dude did. I must have hit the few I’d encountered in pretty good spots, though, because they looked dead enough. Didn’t realize it hadn’t truly kill them until I saw the a Vamp I’d stabbed at that house.”

“Same Vamp was there?”

“Yeah. Well, Gabriel hadn’t quite found out what it was that killed them yet. But when this one turned to dust, we knew.” Emma tilted the crossbow to reveal the bottom of the handle. “It had my mark on the weapon. So, once I got through dusting them, I searched the entire house, found the crossbow.”

Jake stood beside her, foot up on the ledge, and leaned forward, like her. Their shoulders touched, and she leaned to the side. “Crossbow home.”

“So, you figured out it kills them.”

“Yep. Like I said. We were winging it. Only movie and book myths to help us along, and reality is a little different. But we learned quick. Okay, try again. Call the crossbow.”

He handed her the dagger and said, “Crossbow.”

It landed on his open palm.

“Send it home.” She stood, her heart pounded as she prepped to test him.

The weapon vanished from his hand.

“Try it while distracted.”

“What do you—”

She lunged, reaching for his throat. Her hand found purchase, and she squeezed. They landed on the gravel, the wind knocked from her lungs, and they rolled.

“Think it if you can’t say it,” Emma yelled and squeezed harder. “Hurry. Air’s running out.”

Two more revolutions, and he landed on top of her, dagger raised and poised to slam home in her chest. She held his throat still, keeping him at arms length. “You did it.”

He dropped the weapon to the ground, and she loosened her hold. In the next breath, his mouth formed over hers. She cinched her legs around his waist and gripped him in a crushing hug.

He was strong. Smart. Fast. They might have a chance against Rosa and Marek.

Maybe.

It was time to go find out.

Well, in a little while.

“Why are we at the library if we’re hunting?” Jake whispered in Emma’s ear as they approached the stairs to the massive building.

“Gotta start somewhere, right? Cynthia’s folk’s house came up empty. If it’s even her folk’s house, now that I think about it. No sign of anyone being there since the party.” Emma stopped and stood straight. “Jake. It’s your birthday today.”

He laughed. “Yeah. Where’s my cake?”

“If we live through the night, I’ll give you something sweet.”

“Deal.” He stood beside her. “So, why are we here again?”

“It’s almost eleven. Nothing at that dumb house but that nasty concrete slab thing. Not a hint of where they might be. Library’s open until midnight. Let’s go search through the history of the campus. Maybe we’ll find out where this so called ‘holy spot’ is.”

“And then what? If we do find something, do we go storm the castle? Just me and you? I don’t know about that, Em.”

Okay, the idea sounded good in her head. But hearing him say it out loud made it sound not so smart.

Before she could retract her stupid idea, her phone rang Ava’s song.

“What’s up, Ava? Greg okay?”

“He’s fine. Brought him to his room a couple of hours ago. Where are you?” Ava asked.

“With Jake on campus. Just…doing some studying. Everything okay?”

“He calmed down after your visit, thankfully. I came to the room to get cleaned up a little bit, but now I’m headed back.” A car door clicked open and keys jingled. “The Frat house is a tomb, though. You guys want to come over?”

“Sounds good. You and Greg hole up there, we’ll be to you in a little while. ‘K?”

“Sure. I’m headed over there now.” A loud clank rattled Emma’s ear as if Ava’s phone had fallen to the ground, and she screamed. “No. Wait. Em—”

The phone went dead.

An ache laced through Emma’s chest, and her lungs froze. “Ava?” Emma looked at the phone. It flashed
Call Ended
. “No!”

“What is it?”

“Jake, hurry.” Emma hurdled the remaining stairs from the Library. “Shit. They got Ava. Parking lot.”

Jake bolted ahead of Emma down the sidewalk. They followed the darkened path past The Church and slowed as they neared the lot.

“Ava?” Emma yelled. “Ava?”

Her voice ricocheted off the dark night shrouding them.

“She always parks on the last row, away from the other cars.” Emma pointed. Ava’s black sports car sat, door ajar and dome light on.

But no Ava. “Oh, God, Jake. They got her. They—”

Jake’s arm lit up like a bright orange Christmas tree. “Okay. This isn’t good.”

Emma’s wrist flared. It even forwent the precursor tingle.

Definitely not a good sign.

She turned a three-sixty but saw nothing other than a scarcely filled parking lot and trees fencing in the back and east sides. Open campus and the road on the remaining two sides.

“Follow the glow.” She shook out her hand and held it up. The light pulsed as she faced Ava’s car. Two steps closer, and the pulse continued. “This way.”

Emma took off toward the trail from the back corner of the lot. It led off campus. They had to have taken Ava that direction considering her wrist pulsed and Jake’s arm could light a whole city for a week for how bright it was glowing.

“You’re going to have to wear long sleeves from now on,” she said, scanning the darkness surrounding them.

“Comes in handy now, though.” He held up his arm and pointed to a light. “Bulb’s out.”

Darkness swallowed up each end of the path. “Seems they’re all out.”

“On purpose.” Jake snagged her hand and led. “Dagger.”

“Crossbow.”

Weapons in hand, they moved forward. Emma picked up her pace.
Please let Ava be okay
. She’d never forgive herself if something happened to her best friend.

The glow increased as they approached the end of the trail. “We’re near your house.”

“Left is mine, but right is the Frat house.”

Realization smacked Emma over the head like a baseball bat. “The Frat house. Of course. Remember how Cynthia knew that place? The stairwell leading up the back to Greg’s room.” Where Emma and Jake had their first kiss. “But it’s off campus.”

“Boundary lines change over time. Look how close to campus we are. Maybe it was technically part of the land once.”

“True.”

“One way to find out.” Jake stood tall and held up his arm. “Let’s go.”