Page 63 of The Vampire King's War

SHOCK AND AWE

“Did you just teleport?!” Christian gasped as Julian wrenched the last dead guy’s head off that had surrounded them.

“Ah…”

“On camera?!” Christian continued, gesticulating at the helicopters whose searchlights were slicing the darkness into strips and had just spotlighted him.

Julian froze and a cold sweat broke out over his skin. “Do you think… do you think they saw?”

“Uhm…” Christian let out a little, slightly hysterical laugh.

They saw. Oh, my God…

“So I may have just exposed all Vampire-kind to the world?” Julian dry swallowed as suddenly there was absolutely no saliva in his mouth.

Christian put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I think the zombies are probably doing that all on their own.”

“Yeah, but I teleported! But that one was going for your head and--”

“It’s okay! I’m sure out of everything that’s happening House Wynter will figure something out,” Christian tried to reassure him.

But there were suddenly three searchlights on them from three different helicopters. Julian looked up at them and had to shield his eyes from the light.

“I think they are hoping you’ll do it again,” Christian said dryly.

“Just in case they didn’t get it the first time on camera?” Julian heard the hysteria in his own voice. “I wanted to reveal their existence to the world and now… now, God, I might have done it! We should get away from these lights! We don’t want them to know who we are.”

Christian frowned. “Actually, maybe we do.”

“What do you mean?” Julian felt the skin between his shoulder blades twitching as the searchlights did not leave them.

“If they recognize us then someone will know about our show. They’ll think this is fake,” Christian said. “No one in the mainstream media has ever taken us seriously. Hell, they didn’t even take your parents seriously and they were tenured professors!”

Julian let out a soft breath. “Maybe you’re right. Though if the dead keep coming, we’re going to give them a lot more material”

In fact, there were a dozen more of the dead with flaming blue eyes coming for them, hands outstretched, fingers curled like claws that were coming straight for them. Julian had to give it to Kaly. They knew how to put on a show.

“C’mon, we need to get out from under these spotlights,” Julian urged and grabbed Christian’s nearest arm and led his best friend towards a copse of trees.

The spotlights kept on them. Julian gritted his teeth. He felt Daemon’s mind. He wondered if he should confess what just happened. But before he could summon the courage and the thought, Christian was speaking his own fears.

“Damn,” Christian said as his eyes swept over the museum’s rolling lawn. “Julian, I don’t think this can be covered up. And I don’t mean the teleporting thing. All of this. There’s just too much. Even if Balthazar were here right now, he couldn’t even fix everything.”

The spotlights were almost blinding and Julian had a hard enough time making sure they weren’t about to run into the trees so he couldn’t read Christian’s expression. And he had to make sure they didn’t run too fast or that would give them away too just like the teleporting likely had that they were not normal.

“Are you worried about Balthazar? Contact him if you are,” Julian suggested.

He knew that Christian wouldn’t likely reach out on his own. His best friend was fiercely independent. But also, he was very careful of other’s time. He didn’t want them doing something just for him. How many times had he heard Christian tell him that he hadn’t wanted to “bother” Julian with something because in his careful weighing of pros and cons, Christian’s feelings always had little weight? Too many.

Unsurprisingly, Christian shook his head. “He’s with Kaly. Part of Kaly anyways. He needs to keep his full concentration on them. If I tell him how bad things are here, he’ll rush back and not complete the task that Daemon gave him.”

In between battles, Christian had managed to tell him snippets of what had happened, which had Julian boggling. Balthazar was in the middle of something hugely important, but Balthazar was also very protective of Christian. Not to say that Daemon wasn’t, but the Vampire King seemed more willing to let Julian make his own mistakes. Julian appreciated this. He would have chaffed under too much protection.

Though really do I think Daemon isn’t watching out for me even now? I’m never truly alone. Which I’m glad for. So maybe he already did see the teleportation…

But Julian didn’t reach out to Daemon consciously to find out. Not quite yet.

“They’re still following us!” Christian grumbled as he noted that all four helicopters were still on their tail.

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