Afterlife Read Free Page A

around him now was just one more thing
between him and the blood he needed. I knew better than to try to get him to
talk. After he’d had something to drink, then he would be okay. He had to be.
    Balthazar broke the wretched silence by turning on the
radio, classic jazz, the kind of thing my dad used to listen to around the
house. As Billie Holiday crooned about foolish things, I wondered what my
parents would say now, and whether there was any advice they could have given
us. We’d parted badly before I ran off with Lucas at the beginning of the
summer; at the moment, I missed them so much it hurt. What would they think of
everything that had happened in the past couple of days?
    I glanced at Lucas — the pale cool stillness of his flesh,
the way that death had brightened his eyes and carved out his cheekbones — and
thought bleakly, Well, they always wanted me to end up with a nice vampire boy.
    The car turned onto the road where Vic lived, an upscale
area with broad yards separating the palatial homes. As every house had a four —
car garage, we rarely saw other cars out on the street, but there were three
right in front of Vic’s house. Not the usual kinds of Mercedes or Jaguars that
drove around here either — these were beat — up trucks and station wagons.
Something about this began to feel familiar.
    Then I realized nearly a dozen people were standing in the
street and in Vic’s yard. When I glimpsed a stake in one man’s hands, I
realized at least that some of them were armed.
    “Is this Charity’s tribe?” Balthazar said. “Is she still
after Lucas ? ”
    I remembered the e-mails Lucas had sent out just before my death,
when he’d been so desperate that he’d asked anyone and everyone for help, even
people we had every reason to expect to turn against us. His messages had been
answered.
    “It’s not Charity,” I whispered. “It’s Black Cross.”

Chapter Two
     
    “BLACK CROSS,” BALTHAZAR REPEATED. IF I HADN’T been there
when Black Cross captured Balthazar — and tortured him — I might have thought
he was being very calm about the fact that a band of vampire hunters had showed
up. Instead, I could see the hints of fear and anger submerged in his gaze. His
fists tightened around the steering wheel. “We should get out of here.”
    “We can’t just leave Vic and Ranulf!” I said.
    Then Lucas leaned forward and whispered, “Mom?”
    I saw her, too: Kate, a Black Cross cell leader and Lucas’s
mother. Her honey gold hair, so like her son’s, shone beneath the streetlamp’s
light; shadows etched the firm muscles of her arms and the stake she wore at
her belt. When Black Cross had learned of my true nature and cast us out of
their cell, they’d kept her away. I’d always believed this was because of Kate’s
fierce love for her son, which was often hidden beneath her discipline and duty
but was undeniable. Was it strong enough to sustain them now?
    “It’s okay,” I said to Balthazar. “She brought some friends
and came here to help Lucas, not to hunt. See?” Pointing, I showed him where
another Black Cross hunter was at the front door, apparently asking Vic a lot
of questions while Vic did a bad job of looking casual.
    “These ‘friends’ are some of the hunters who captured me and
discovered you, Bianca,” Balthazar said. “They might have come here to help,
but once they see us, all bets are off.”
    “I need to talk to her,” Lucas said. “If you guys want to
go, go.”
    I wasn’t afraid for myself; these hunters knew little about
the wraith and would be unable to hurt me. That didn’t mean I Wasn’t afraid.
“Do you think Kate can protect you from them? And Balthazar?”
    “She’ll hold off if I tell her to,” Lucas insisted.
    “And what about you?” Balthazar said. His hands only
clutched the steering wheel harder. “Who’s going to hold you off?”
    Lucas glared at him. “I won’t attack my own mother.”
    “You think that now. Wait until you get out