Obsessed

Scarlet flapped her wings frantically, but it was no use. The terror she felt had overwhelmed her powers. She was falling faster and faster toward the angry crowds. She knew that when she reached them they would rip her to pieces, for her death was the only way they could survive. Their jeers and shouts grew louder the closer she raced toward them.

As she fell, time seemed to slow down and the faces of her friends and family flashed through her mind’s eye – her best friend, Maria, her mother, Caitlin, Ruth the dog. Even Vivian flashed into her mind even though Scarlet had hated her.

Then a beautiful face appeared before her eyes, one that made her gasp. It was Sage’s face. In her odd slow-motion plummet, Scarlet managed to tip her head to the side and lock eyes with the real life Sage. Though he was covered in sweat and blood and grimacing with pain, he was no less beautiful to her than the perfect memory her brain had conjured up. As they made eye contact, Scarlet felt a surge of love race through her. Though she knew she was mere seconds from dying, she no longer feared it, because she knew she would die loved.

She closed her eyes and prepared for impact.

But before Scarlet hit the ground, Octal stepped forward and affixed his translucent eyes on her tumbling form. Effortlessly and without emotion he rose into the air and reached out for her. She felt his hands tighten around her arm. He pulled her into him as though plucking her from the air. All at once the rushing, racing sensation she’d been feeling was replaced by a gentle lull as they began floating in a controlled manner to the ground.

Scarlet opened her eyes, almost unable to believe that she was not in fact dead. But whilst the immediate fear of death drained from Scarlet’s body, she knew the danger had not passed. Octal may have saved her from dashing her brains against the hard tiles of the church but she knew he hadn’t saved her life out of compassion. He was a torturer. It dawned on Scarlet that he had saved her only in order to kill her in a more unpleasant manner.

She peered over Octal’s shoulder at Sage.

“Scarlet!” Sage shouted.

Octal let Scarlet down. The crowd surged forward but Octal held his arms up as if to keep them back. The crowd obeyed. Scarlet didn’t know why, but Octal was giving her and Sage one last chance to be together, one last chance to say goodbye.

With the eyes of a thousand seething Immortalists on her, Scarlet ran toward Sage. Her eyes blurred with tears as she flung her arms around him and buried her face into his neck. His skin was searing hot, as though fighting a fever. She held him as tight as she could, fearing it may be the last time she ever would.

“Scarlet,” Sage murmured into her ear.

She drew back and held up his head. His eyes were puffy and bruised, and his bottom lip was split and swollen. Scarlet’s heart ached to see him like that. She wanted to kiss him, to kiss away the pain and heal him, but she knew she had no time. Instead, she swiped a tendril of hair from his face and placed a delicate kiss on his forehead, the only part of him that did not look bruised or broken.

“How did you find me?” he asked.

“Lore. He left me a note telling me you were here.”

Fear flashed in Sage’s eyes. “It’s a trap. They will kill you.”

“I know,” Scarlet gasped. “But I had to see you. My life is in ruins anyway.”

She thought of her parents and their constant arguing, of her mother’s promise to eradicate her, of her house turned upside down by Lore, of Vivian who hated her guts and her friends who seemed to have turned on her.

“You’re the only good thing left in my life,” she added with sincerity. “Don’t you remember me saying that if you died, I’d die with you?”

She tried to smile reassuringly but the look in Sage’s eyes made a pit of pain open up inside her stomach.

He shook his head.

“I wanted you to live, Scarlet,” he gasped, wincing from the pain of Octal’s staff. “Don’t you understand? The only thing that comforted me through my torture was the knowledge that you would get to live out your life once I was gone.” He sighed. “But now we will both die.”

Scarlet held Sage’s heavy head up in her hands. “And what about what I want?”

“You’re young,” Sage said with a grimace. “You don’t know what you want. I’ve lived two thousand years and the only thing that’s ever made sense to me is you. I don’t want you dying for me!”

“Was Juliet too young?” Scarlet replied sternly, remembering the magical night they had spent together watching Shakespeare’s tragedy.

At that moment, Scarlet felt the surging crowd on her back and knew that Octal was not prepared to hold them back any longer.

“Anyway,” she said, flashing Sage a bittersweet smile, “it’s too late now to change my mind.”

“It’s not,” Sage contested. “Please, Scarlet. Fly away. There’s still time.”

Scarlet responded by pressing a fierce kiss against his lips.

“I’m not scared of dying,” she said replied, firmly. Then she slipped her arm around his waist and turned to face the murderous crowd. “As long as we’re together.”

CHAPTER TWO

A vampire war.

The sea below Caitlin was as black as night. She listened to the sound of the thrumming engine as the small military plane soared through the clouds, the words repeating themselves over and over in Caitlin’s mind. She could hardly comprehend how it had gotten to this, how her daughter had flown off into the night, leaving her and Caleb to chase desperately after her. The worry she felt for Scarlet was all consuming, making butterflies of panic take flight in her stomach.

Caitlin felt a strong, primal sensation stirring within her. Scarlet was somewhere nearby. Caitlin was certain. She sat bolt upright and gripped Caleb’s arm.

“You can sense her?” he said, studying her expression.

Caitlin just nodded, gritting her teeth as a yearning need to be with her daughter swelled within her.

“She’s in danger, Caleb,” Caitlin said, holding back the tears that threatened to choke her.

Caleb looked back out the windshield and set his jaw. “We’ll be with her soon. I promise you. Everything will be okay.”

Caitlin desperately wanted to believe him but a part of her was skeptical. Scarlet had flown willingly to this place, to this castle filled with vicious Immortalists. As her mother, Caitlin had felt she had no choice but to follow. As a vampire, Scarlet was certainly in more danger than your average teenager.

Another pang of longing struck Caitlin. But this time it was worse than before. It wasn’t just the pain of separation from her daughter that Caitlin was feeling, it was something even worse.

Scarlet was in mortal danger.

“Caleb,” Caitlin said hurriedly. “She’s down there and she’s in trouble. We have to land. Now.” The urgency in her voice made her words come out in a hurried whisper.

Caleb nodded and leaned his view to the side. Below them, the black waves churned.

“There’s nowhere to land,” he said. “I don’t want to attempt a water landing. It’s far too dangerous.”

Without missing a beat, Caitlin said, “Then we’ll have to eject.”

Caleb’s eyes grew wide. “Caitlin, are you mad?”

But even as he spoke she was reaching for the parachute pack and strapping it on.

“Not mad,” she said. “Just a mother whose daughter needs her.”

No sooner had the words left her lips than the aching need for her daughter flooded through her again. She could just about make out a shape in the distance and thought that perhaps it was a building.

Raindrops had begun to fall, drawing lines down the glass and reflecting the bright moonlight, and Caleb’s grip tightened on the tiller.

“You want me to ditch the plane,” he said, calmly, more as a statement than a question.