Chapter 256
I realized almost instantly that this Vampire was the woman whose memories I had just seen flickering across my mind like a movie, only I wasn’t just watching, I was immersed in them. And now, I was sitting with her beside a roaring campfire as others the same as her laughed, told stories, drank, and made merry.
With a deep breath and an air of caution, I replied, still trying to figure out where we were. “A friend,” I said, hoping she’d believe me. If I could see into her mind, understand her past so quickly, could she do the same? I pinned the image of Zabrina, her jaw opening wide, in my mind’s eye, hoping this other woman would be able to see only that I had been turned and avoid the rest of the details, like the Guardian standing nearby with the Transformation serum who’d saved my life, who’d made me anything but a friend to these people.
She seemed to accept me, though, and I got the impression that while this was the same woman as before, much had changed over the decades. She was older now, had many experiences both killing and changing. Those sitting around her were the same. A myriad of experiences danced along the flickering flames of the fire.
Turning my head somehow served to bring a fresh perspective, and I realized this was an RV park. It was difficult to take everything in through the flickers and cracks of the images which seemed to lose reception and then spring back to life every few seconds, like a bad signal on an old television set or a car radio at the base of a hill. I knew my time was limited, so I asked, “Where is everyone going?”
The woman answered me quickly, not seeming at all suspicious of my motives, which made me think perhaps she had intentions of her own. Either that or hundreds of years on this Earth had not made her all the wiser, though I did not get the impression that was the case. Her response was familiar to me. “The time is now,” she said in her cackle of a voice. It took a second in my dreamlike state for the statement to register, but then I remembered I’d said the same thing myself not too long ago, aloud, right after I’d had that strange dream.
She continued. “We must get into place.”
Confused, I looked around me again. I vaguely recalled the notion that the Vampires were moving, but I couldn’t remember why I thought that or who had suggested it, I was so wrapped up in the world I was seeing now. There were at least ten, maybe twelve other Vampires sitting here. I tried to take in their faces, but it was difficult to see them all and actually get the images to register. I somehow felt this location was important, and I needed to memorize it, but I couldn’t put the pieces together as to why. And I knew I needed to find out why they were all moving at once.
“Into place for what?” I asked, my eyes moving around the group despite the fact that I couldn’t recall my purpose in being there exactly, and I was having trouble controlling my line of sight, as if I were looking through her eyes and not my own.
There was no answer, and then the images began to flicker. I realized I was losing them, and I didn’t know how to control my powers well enough to tune the woman back in. With everything I had, I concentrated on putting myself into her location. A familiar word I didn’t quite understand at the time came to the forefront of my mind. Butler, I thought to myself. And then the woman was there again, this time, I could see her cornflower blue eyes, and I asked my question one more time. “Into place for what?”
The one word that had infiltrated my mind a moment ago was replaced with a word that left me shuddering and gasping for air. Just before the woman and her world faded away, I heard a one word answer accompanied by the laughter of thousands. “Destruction.”
The heaviness of that word reverberated in my chest as I opened my eyes and recalled I was exactly where I should be, sitting on the roof of the apartment building, the campus buzzing its usual nighttime song around me. It took a moment for my eyes to focus, but when they did, the stars were back in their places, high up in the heavens, as they should be.
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before I let Brandon know he could come back through the door. I sifted through the information I had gathered. Some of it I would share with the team, some of it I would share with Brandon, and some of it I would keep to myself. It was almost impossible to put into words what it had been like to step into this other woman’s memories, and I didn’t think I would be able to articulate it as well as necessary to make any of them understand anyway.
“Well, I guess you got something?” he asked, a slight smile on his face that told me my wide-eyed expression was readable from where he approached, still halfway across the roof and mostly behind me.
“Uh, yeah,” I stammered, suddenly unused to talking with my mouth. “Something. Not sure what it means.”
“What is it?” he asked, resuming the kneeling position he’d been in before I sent him away.
I shook my head slowly, not sure where to begin. “I don’t know everything, but whatever it is, Aaron’s right. It’s big. Something bad is about to happen.”
He didn’t question how I knew that. He only rocked his head back and forth. “I guess we need to go talk to the bosses then.”
I nodded and uncrossed my legs, which were wobbly. I didn’t realize just how discombobulated I’d become until I tried to stand and all the blood seemed to rush from my head at once. “You okay?” Brandon asked, wrapping his strong arms around me.
“I will be,” I promised him. I stood still for a second, and when I tried to move again, my steps were steady. He took my hand, like he always does, but I was walking on my own. It was true that what I’d just done hadn’t been easy, but I’d done it nevertheless, and something told me, the next time I reached out with my mind, it would be even easier. Perhaps I’d prove my importance to the team after all.
