Daywalkers: The Awakening (The Daywalkers Series Book 1) Page 2

  This woman had to be a vampire. No other beings had the ability to move that fast.

  The woman looked down at me, trying to intimidate me. It was working. I was petrified at what she might do next.

  She flashed her fangs at me.

  Yup, definitely a vampire.

  “I will ask one more time and if I have to ask a third time I won’t be nice about it.”

  This was her being nice?

  “Who are you?” she said.

  “Melinda Sinclair.”

  She turned her head at the information. “You’re a Sinclair witch?”

  “Technically speaking. I don’t really practice magic.”

  She examined me with her eyes. It was making me uncomfortable.

  “Arthur’s daughter.”

  I looked at her in bewilderment. “You knew my father?”

  “Well enough to hate him.”

  I couldn’t blame her there. I hated him too. After what he did to Mom, I would never forgive him.

  She looked around the attic again. “Judging by the clothes on your back I’d say I’ve been in that amulet for a few decades at least.”

  “You’re a vampire,” I said.

  She smiled at me. Only it wasn’t a warm smile. There was nothing warm about her.

  “I am.”

  “I’ve never met a vampire before.”

  She furrowed her eyebrows. She was confused by something. “Things must have really changed. I find it hard to believe that Arthur didn’t teach you to hunt.”

  Maybe we weren’t talking about the same man. My father never even hunted for animals, let alone vampires. She had to be talking about someone else.

  “My father doesn’t hunt vampires. Or, he didn’t.”

  She eyed me curiously. “You really have no idea who I am and why I was inside of that amulet, do you?”

  I was afraid to answer. Everything inside of me was telling me to scream. To run and get as far away from this woman as I could. But I couldn’t. I was frozen in place.

  “Your silence answers my question.” She walked away, turning her back on me. She was confident. I could tell. Why else would she turn her back on me? For all she knew I was going to attack her from behind.

  “Melinda, you said your name was?”

  “Yes.”

  “Melinda, I’m sorry.”

  Before I could utter a response, the woman appeared in front of me before throwing me across the room. I banged my head on the wall and everything went black.

  Chapter 4—Melinda

  My head. Dammit my head.

  I had the worst headache I’d ever felt. And I suffered from a lot of headaches recently with all the drinking I was doing. This was ten times more painful.

  Bits and pieces were coming back to me. I was in the attic going through Mom’s things. Something attacked me, I think.

  The amulet! The woman. Not woman, vampire.

  My eyes shot open only to find more darkness. That was when I noticed that my hands were tied behind my back.

  “Help!”

  I was freaking out. I didn’t know where I was. Was I even alive? Maybe the vampire killed me. Maybe this was hell.

  I tried to move but realized I was in a tight space. A very tight space.

  This was definitely my hell. I hated tight spaces. Saying I was claustrophobic would be an understatement. I freaked out every time I had to take an elevator. Most of the time I took the stairs if I could. Even if it was a lot of flights.

  “Hello?”

  This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. I can’t be dead. This can’t be what death is like. It’s not supposed to be like this.

  I started to cry. I wanted my mother so badly. She was supposed to be here. If I was dead, she was supposed to be here to welcome me. None of this was okay.

  How had this become my life? How did I lose everything? That now included my life. How was any of this fair?

  Get a hold of yourself. Think. Calm down and listen to your surroundings.

  I stopped myself from crying and closed my eyes again. It didn’t matter if they were open or closed. Either way all I could see was darkness.

  I couldn’t hear much. But I could make out a swooshing sound. I could feel movement beneath me. Wherever I was, I was moving somehow.

  A trunk.

  Fresh tears sprang to my eyes at the seriousness of the situation I was in. I was in a trunk on my way to God knows where with a psychopathic vampire. I think that was reason enough to cry.

  Why a trunk? Why? That bitch!

  I wanted to hurt her. I wanted her dead. How dare she treat me like some object that she could just put in the trunk of a car.

  I was a human being dammit!

  “Let me out of here!”

  I kicked on the walls of the trunk, trying desperately to get her attention. To get anyone’s attention.

  I heard the sound of tires shrieking. I flew further back into the trunk, colliding with the back wall of the tiny space. I winced in pain. This vampire was really doing a number on me. First my head. Now I think she may have broken my wrists.

  The trunk opened. I winced as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

  “Let’s go.” The woman grabbed me and pulled me out of the trunk. She did it so effortlessly. No doubt due to her vampire strength. I was 125 pounds. The way she picked me up, you’d think I was closer to ten.

  “Just leave me alone!” I yelled.

  “Relax, will you. No one can hear you out here.”

  I stood up. I felt dazed. I looked around and again, I was unsure where I was. I could only tell that we were at someone’s house. It was quite the house. It looked like it could use some work though.

  “Where am I?” I said.

  She started walking towards the house. I guess she expected me to follow her. “Welcome to my home. Mi casa es tu casa.”

  “Wait, shouldn’t you be bursting into flames right now?”

  “I’m unique. Let’s go.”

  I kept my feet planted to the ground. There was no way in hell I was going into that house. Who knew if I would ever come out?

  She stopped walking but didn’t bother to look back at me. “I can make you come, but it’ll hurt. Either way, you’re coming inside.”

  I let out a disgruntled sigh. I really wished my parents taught me more magic. If my dad was a hunter, he should have passed on some of that knowledge before he went postal and killed my mother and himself.

  I didn’t need anymore wounds. I chose to follow her inside. I took notice that she changed her clothes. I looked at her curiously when I realized I recognized the garments.

  “Are you wearing my clothes?” I said.

  “Oh, right. I meant to say thank you.”

  “You’re not welcome! Those are my favorite jeans.”

  “Why?” she said, finally looking back at me. “They’re so tight. These were the only ones that didn’t make me feel like I was going to explode.”

  “Probably because they don’t fit you! Because they’re mine.”

  She smiled as she opened the front door. She walked inside. I walked in after her. She closed the door behind me, looking around the house.

  It was dusty. You could tell no one lived in it for a while. I guess she lived alone.

  Aside from the dust, the house was beautiful. Cathedral ceilings, a chandelier in the foyer, antique furniture. This would have been my mother’s dream home. She loved old houses. Not just for the architecture, but for the story behind the house.

  She walked into the next room. I followed her, a few strides behind. The next room looked to be the living room. She walked over to a mini bar set up behind the sofa. She opened one of the glass bottles and smelled the alcohol, making a face but taking a swig anyway. It looked like scotch. Maybe tequila.

  I could really go for some tequila. I was having a terrible day. And it only seemed to be getting more terrible as it progressed.

  She looked at me eyeing the bottle. She smirked as sh
e held the bottle out to me.

  I glared at her. I couldn’t exactly take the bottle with my hands tied behind my back.

  “Oh, right,” she said, smiling to herself as she shook her head. She came behind me, and to my surprise she cut me loose. She handed me the bottle.

  I took a sip. Tequila. Definitely tequila.

  “Little young to be drinking, aren’t you?” she said.

  “You don’t know me.” For all she knew I was in my twenties.

  “Melinda Alexandra Sinclair. Age sixteen. Twin to Nickolas Sinclair. Younger sister to Scarlett Sinclair. You go to Falls Creek High School. You play on the field hockey team, or you did up until a few months ago when your father killed your mother and then himself. Anything else you want me to know?”

  I looked at her in disbelief. I took another sip of tequila.

  She smiled before going to the fireplace. She started working on making a fire.

  “How do you know all of that?”

  “Does it matter? I know what I know.”

  “It matters to me. That’s private information.” My diary. Bitch! “Did you read my journal?”

  She laughed, looking at me incredulously. “You think I have time to read your journal? I don’t care who you and your besties are crushing on.”

  “Then how do you know so much about me?”

  “I sifted through your mind while you were out.” She said it so nonchalantly. Like it was completely fine to go through a person’s personal memories.

  “Vampires can do that?” I asked.

  She tilted her head. “Not quite. I’m special.”

  I’d say that was an understatement.

  After starting a fire, she walked out of the living room. “Follow.”

  She talked to me like I was some pet she could control. I wanted to hit her so badly.

  We walked through the house until we got to the kitchen. She opened the cupboard beneath the sink and bent down to grab something attached to the wall of the cabinet.

  It was a key. She walked to the door in the kitchen. Closet maybe?

  After she opened it, I realized it was a basement. I was not going to go down there. The only other thing that creeped me out aside from small spaces were basements. There were bugs and mice and everything else that was unpleasant in this world.

  “Follow,” she said as she descended the steps.

  “I’m good.”

  “Follow or I’ll throw you down these steps. Your choice Melinda.”

  I groaned as I walked down the steps. This basement was worse than I imagined it would be. It was ginormous, and it was dusty as hell. There were cob webs everywhere. Who knew what kind of molds had developed down here through the years?

  “What do you want with me?” I said. “You’re free. Why do you need me?”

  The woman ignored me as she came to another room.

  “How many rooms do you have in this house?”

  “Your parents really never told you anything about the amulet? About vampires?”

  “No. They wanted to protect me.”

  “They were fools.”

  I snarled at the insult. My father was a fool. But my mother? She was no fool and I would not stand for anyone calling her one.

  “I’m beginning to understand why my father locked you in a necklace.”

  “Amulet,” she corrected. “And your father did no such thing. That was your mother’s doing.”

  I was stunned. Mom never talked about magic. I assumed she didn’t know much about it and that’s why she didn’t teach me anything. That was far from the truth. She knew a lot of magic. Enough to lock a vampire away inside of a necklace. Sorry. Amulet.

  “Why? Why did she do that?”

  “To stop me from bringing back my husband.”

  “Must be a pretty terrible guy then.”

  She didn’t like that comment. I regretted saying it when I saw her eyes darken in anger. “He’s a remarkable man. He was treated unfairly. As are most people like us.”

  She turned away from me and opened the door. I followed her inside. I was shocked at what I saw. There were four coffins organized in a neat row. She went to the first coffin and opened it up.

  Inside was a man. He was dressed in old clothes. Way older than the clothes she had been dressed in. This guy had to be from the 1700’s. Maybe even before that. I wasn’t good with history or what they wore during different eras.

  “This is Alexander. My husband.”

  “And the other coffins?” I asked.

  “His family. Two sisters and a brother.” She sounded so much nicer now that she had eyes on her husband. It was like she became a whole different person just by having seen him.

  I couldn’t see how she intended to bring him back though. He looked pretty dead to me. His skin was still intact, but he looked severely dehydrated. This guy was beyond dead. If I had one word to describe him, mummy would be it.

  “How exactly are you going to bring him back?” I asked.

  “Using your blood.”

  I felt the color disappear from my cheeks. She turned to look at me, as if she sensed my fear.

  “I won’t kill you. I’ll let you go. Only if you help me.”

  Chapter 5—Melinda

  This was not how I expected my day to go. You know, this was all Scarlett’s fault. If she wouldn’t have grounded me I would be at Hayden’s house right now.

  But no. Instead I was spending my Saturday in a basement with a psycho vampire and her dead husband. Oh, let me not forget her dead in-laws.

  “I can’t help you,” I said.

  The woman’s face contorted in anger. This was it. She was going to kill me and probably throw me in a coffin like the rest of her family.

  “Not because I don’t want to,” I said, trying to diffuse the situation. Truthfully, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to do anything to help this woman in any way, shape or form. “But because I don’t know magic.”

  “Clearly. You did speak aloud the inscription on the amulet that released me. I’m assuming no one ever told you never to read a spell aloud.”

  My mother and father never told me anything about any of this. I felt like there was a whole side of them that I wasn’t familiar with. There was this huge aspect of their lives that I knew nothing about. What else didn’t I know about them?

  The woman continued. “It doesn’t matter. I know magic. I can perform the spell. I just need your blood for it to work.”

  I was confused. She was a vampire. I didn’t know much about vampires, but I was certain they didn’t possess the ability to perform magic. That’s what witches were for.

  “You’re a vampire. How could you perform magic?”

  She smiled that creepy smile again. This woman belonged in a nut house. I felt like I was living in a horror movie.

  Crazy woman with a creepy smile, check.

  Old, abandoned, dusty, probably haunted house, check.

  Dead people in the basement, check.

  Yup, this was a horror movie. One I wanted to get out of as soon as I could.

  The woman shifted her weight to one side of her body, flipping auburn waves over her shoulder. “Like I said, I’m unique.”

  “I don’t even know your name and you just want me to agree to help you raise four people from the dead?”

  “First, they’re not dead. They’ve been put into a catatonic state, by your coven I might add. And second, my name is Josephine.”

  If that were the case, maybe I shouldn’t help this woman wake them up. My coven, as nonexistent as it was now, had to have had a reason for doing this to them. For all I knew they were evil.

  I needed someone who knew more about this. Maybe Scarlett knew more about this than I did. I needed Scarlett.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe if I could talk to my sister…”

  “That’s going to happen,” Josephine said. She came closer to me, trying to intimidate me again. Didn’t she realize her mere presence was intimidating enough
? She didn’t need to get all up in my face.

  “Okay.”

  “Look, I can just take your blood from you. It’s that simple. I can’t guarantee you’ll still be alive when the process is over. If you give me what I want. What I need, then no one has to die. You can be on your way back to your boring mediocre life. I’ll even let you have the car I stole.”

  Gee, thanks. Put a stolen car in my possession. Like I didn’t have enough problems as it is. I didn’t want to add grand theft auto to my growing list of offenses.

  Still, I needed to get out of there. Preferably in one piece. I’d have to give her what she wanted if I wanted the chance to see my family and friends again.

  “If I help you, I can go?”

  “No questions asked.”

  I was probably making a mistake. Actually, I knew I was making a mistake in agreeing to help her. But I didn’t see any other way. She was going to take my blood anyway. If I agreed to give it to her, I’d at least have a chance at surviving this awful day.

  “Fine. I’ll do it.”

  Chapter 6—Melinda

  I watched Josephine as she worked on combining different ingredients into a cauldron. Some were familiar. Some I had never heard of.

  “How exactly are you able to do magic?”

  She didn’t look at me. She kept her focus on the task at hand. She was meticulous with every step she took. She probably didn’t want to risk screwing anything up. After all, the life of her true love was sitting in the palm of her hands. Literally.

  It was odd to think about a vampire being in love. I didn’t know vampires could experience those kinds of emotions. Then again, I wasn’t exactly an expert in the abilities of vampires, let alone what they could feel.

  But this vampire was different. Even without knowledge of vampires I could tell. Vampires weren’t witches. They didn’t have the ability to perform spells and yet Josephine was about to. Something was up. She wasn’t sharing the whole truth with me. But I wasn’t in the position to interrogate my kidnapper.

  “You ask too many questions,” she said, not bothering to look at me.

  I tilted my head in the affirmative. “There are a lot of questions to be asked. Starting with why my mother put you in that necklace.”