Broken Visions

Chapter 22

When I open my eyes the sun is rising over the mountains and across the valley, painting the land with hues of pink and orange. Birds are chirping and a light breeze caresses my skin. I blink against the morning light, roll over to my stomach, and push myself to my feet. There’s no sign of the vampire anywhere, but there’s ash is scattered in the gravel just in front of my feet so I’m guessing when I stabbed him, it went through his heart.

I stretch my arms above my head and start walking, rounding the corner and crossing the cemetery, looking for Aislin, trying not to think about how I saw the mark on the vampire, which means Stephan’s been getting more followers.

Aislin is in the spot where I left her, gathering her candles, looking pleased with herself. When she sees me, however, she frowns. “You didn’t find her.”

I give her a funny look. “Who…Oh! Aleesa. Shit.” I glance back at the gate. “I completely forgot about her… I ended up running into some trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Aislin asks as we hurry toward the entrance. “And why is your leg bleeding?”

I look down at my leg where blood is soaking through my jeans. Then I sigh and tell her what happened as we leave the cemetery and head back toward the house, searching yards and places nearby, looking for Aleesa.

“So he’s marking vampires now?” Aislin shakes her head, frustrated. “God, this is getting out of control.”

“I know,” I say as we reach the corner of the street. “I need to get into that mapping ball and hopefully fix it.”

We hop over the curb and start across the lawn toward a park, searching for Aleesa.

“I don’t even want to think about where she’d go,” Aislin says as she looks around the slide and swing area of the park

She’s right. Aleesa is so new to the world and the idea that she’s wandering around alone out here is frightening, especially if there are marked vampires and probably other things as well.

“What is that?” Aislin asks, squinting at the road.

I track her gaze to a Mazda parked beside the curb. “Shit.”

The car door opens and Alex gets out, looking pissed. At first I think it’s because we snuck out of the house without telling anyone, but then I see Aleesa sitting in the passenger side of the car.

“Did you two lose something?” he asks as he strides across the lawn toward us.

Aislin lets out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, where did you find her?”

Alex crosses his arms as he halts in front of us. “She came running into the house, screaming at the top of her lungs,” he says. “When I got her to calm down, she told me you two were at the cemetery and that there was a crying fire woman there.”

“Hmmm… that’s weird,” I say, trying to get us out of an Alex lecture. “Maybe she imagined it.”

“It’s okay, Gemma,” Aislin says then looks confidently at her brother. “We were at the cemetery doing a spell which is going to hopefully remove the Mark of Malefiscus… I just need to try it out and see…” Aislin glances at me. “I’d like to try it out on your mom, but I understand if you want me to find another person to test it on first, just in case something happens. We could maybe track down that vampire.”

“I think it’s dead,” I say. “At least I think that’s what the ash was on the ground in front of me.

“Wait, what vampire?” Alex interrupts, with that look on his face that warns me he’s about to go into “Protect Gemma at All Cost Mode”, so I quickly explain to him what happened and that I staked my very first vampire. And for the moment, he kind of looks proud of me, which is a first for me, from anyone. And it makes me feel kind of proud of myself, which is also a first.