Page 66 of Stalked

The hysteria in my voice was rising. “That’s the demon from that story?!”This is not what I signed up for.

“No,” he corrected, turning his eye to the creature. “That’s their child. The very first vampire to ever exist.”

I looked back toward the vampire. “Oh, great.” My throat tightened as I panicked. Though I had hunted vampires in my past life, that creature before us was nothing like what my visions had shown me.

I turned back to him. “Caleb, we can’t drive away. Joel and Lily are still on the shore. We need to fight back. It’s not like he could kill us, right, being immortal?”

He put his hand on his waist but froze. “The dagger I used during the ritual,” he said. “It’s gone. He must have taken it.”

“Why the hell do we need that dagger again? Aren’t wooden stakes for killing a vampire?”

There was a lot I still needed to learn, and my mind raced so frantically for my own plan, but it left me with nothing. I didn’t know how to do this.

“The dagger wouldn’t be for him, Mercy. It would be for us.”

I looked over at the vampire, who seemed to be reaching for something. I gave him a hard look. “Are you telling me that your dagger can kill an immortal? And now that vampire has it?”

Caleb nodded. “Son of a bitch.”

We looked back at the very smug, red-eyed demon; he held the dagger in his left hand and tapped it against his leg. He stood in front of the car now and sneered at us.

“My name is Kylan, Mercy. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you face to face.” His smile reached through me as if it had touched my soul, freezing me in my seat. “I was hoping to stop the ritual from happening, but you weren’t at your home like I thought you’d be. So, I took your lovely aunt to draw you out. Then that idiot came through the portal, carrying this dagger, and it was all too easy to take him over.” He flashed an evil grin and showed his creepy fangs again, his face contorting into a disgustingly vile expression.

Caleb didn’t take his eyes off Kylan as he spoke. “You’re his biggest threat, Mercy. With you being back, he knows we will destroy everything he created. He’s trying to stop us before the other vampire clans reach you.” He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. “Fuck! I wish I had put it all together earlier that he would be the first to come after you. He would have known about you long before the ritual.” Caleb cursed again, slamming both hands against the steering wheel. “I didn’t know that he could harness magic. I just assumed it was a witch.”

I placed my hand on his. “Hey, this isn’t your fault. We both knew that it was a risk to do the ceremony. I’m at risk just because I’m alive. He’s the son of a demon and an angel. There was no way to know that he had magic or wasn’t like the rest. It could have been anyone, Caleb.” I swallowed, feeling the painful ball in my throat slide down. “Now, let’s get out there and kick that mother fucker’s ass together.”

Caleb looked at me and nodded, then we exited the car, slowly and cautiously, walking in Kylan’s direction. Caleb moved to the left, and I to the right, in a flanking position.

“Oh, how precious is this?” Kylan’s lip curled. “Look at the two of you, back together again after decades apart. Too bad you’re about to die together. In a way, it’s like a tragic love story.”

His laughter sent chills down my spine. I had never been so terrified in my entire life. Despite the overwhelming feeling of fear, I was furious. He was hurting the ones I love. I felt my new powers radiating through my body, and I vowed I wasn’t leaving this park until that creature was dead.

Kylan took a step closer to us, and Ibraced myself for his next move. I watched Caleb shift into a fighting stance, hands alight with gold flames.

“Mercy, run!” I heard Joel’s voice cut through the air. I looked over and saw that Lily and Joel had regained consciousness and were breaking off the branches I had used to secure them earlier.

Kylan stalked toward us—the dagger he held, giving off an eerie red glow. I lifted my hands, harnessed my energy into a single point, and fired a beam of green light toward his left hand. The beam slammed into the blade, knocking it out of Kylan’s grip and across the parking lot. He hissed viciously, his eyes glowing even brighter as he glared at me. The magic I had at my fingertips was still sparking, and I shuddered at the power running through me. I thought it was intense before my Awakening, but that was nothing compared to this.

Lily and Joel, still standing by the bench, clasped hands together and chanted a spell, creating a ring of fire around Kylan.

“Parlor trick?” he hissed, scanning the circle of flames around him. When he looked back up, the blaze glowed in his eyes. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been around? Fire cannot hurt me, you imbeciles.”

“No?” I questioned. “Then walk through it.”

Kylan glared at me and slowly clapped his hands together as if we had just concluded the ending scene of a play. “You know, I’ve decided I’m going to kill Caleb first. That way, you can watch him die a slow and painful death.” He cocked his head to the right and curled his lip up. The slow hesitation in his movements made my skin crawl.

“The spell will only last a few more minutes,” Lily shouted. “We need to stand in a circle around the fire ring and be ready when it burns out! We can strike then.”

Kylan scoffed, “I’ll rip your throat out before you can even lift a finger against me.” Lily’s brows furrowed as she concentrated, not bothering to acknowledge Kylan’s threat. She and Joel had now moved by our side, and we clasped our hands to form a circle around him.

Kylan lifted a brow. “As the son of an angel and a demon, I was given a little magic, too, when I was born. Did you forget already?” He raised his hands, and there was a flash of black smoke. I could see Joel, Lily, and Caleb immediately stopped moving, their expressions blank as their hands dropped to their sides. Lily turned to me, and her eyes were midnight black.

Oh,fuck.

I reached out and shook her shoulders. “Lily, it’s me. Wake up. Fight it, dammit.”

Lily’s hand opened with her palm up, and I felt a tug from the inside. It clenched at my chest, and my heart felt like it was being squeezed. It was hard to move as life pulled out of me.

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