Daywalkers: The Awakening (The Daywalkers Series Book 1) Read online

  She glared at me, putting the current ingredient aside. “Amulet! And I already told you. To stop me from bringing back Alexander.”

  “But why? What’s so bad about Alexander that my mother would want him to stay the way he is?”

  She ignored my questions. She looked back into the book she was using for the spell. Sorry, grimoire. “Enough. No more questions.”

  My hand was sore from the blade. Watch it get infected with my luck. Who knew where that knife had been.

  Josephine put her wrist in front of me. She had bitten a cut into her wrist. I looked at her as if she was crazy. “My blood will heal you.”

  “I think I’ll pass.”

  Josephine shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  I’d rather bleed to death than drink her blood. That was neat though. They should bottle that by the pint for hospitals. If doctor’s only knew about vampires, their jobs could be so much easier.

  “Can I go now?”

  “Not yet. I need your help.”

  “I gave you my blood.”

  “This spell takes a lot of magic. I need to channel some from you.”

  “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “I’m renegotiating,” she said, an edge to her voice. I was getting on her nerves.

  “Fine. But then I’m gone.”

  She put out her hand to me. I eyed her suspiciously before walking over to her and taking her hand.

  She closed her eyes as she chanted the spell.

  I could feel my magic flowing out from my body and into hers. I thought it would hurt. Another person was essentially sucking the energy out of me. It didn’t though. If anything, it felt kind of good. I could feel her power too. It was like we were becoming one. One source of power.

  I watched as the concoction she had created began to swirl. It was changing color. It was a red color from my blood. It was darkening. It darkened until it turned a black color.

  That looks disgusting.

  Josephine finished the spell and opened her eyes. Right away, she released her hold on my hand and grabbed the potion. She walked over to one of the coffins. To my surprise, she was waking up one of Alexander’s sisters first.

  Maybe she wanted to make sure it didn’t harm her before she used it on her husband. Guess she didn’t value her life as much as his.

  Josephine opened the woman’s mouth and allowed some of the potion to flow into her mouth.

  She watched her for any kind of reaction. I kept my eyes glued to the woman in the coffin. To be honest, I was in awe of all of this. I found magic intriguing and wished my parents would have been more open about it with me. This was a major part of who I was. Magic was in me. Of course, it would fascinate me.

  Nothing was happening. “Why isn’t it working?”

  Josephine stood back and looked at me in rage. “Are you even a Sinclair witch?”

  “What?”

  “That should have worked. Unless you aren’t who you say you are! Is Arthur your real father or did your mother spread her legs for someone else?”

  She came at me. I stepped back as she advanced towards me. “Don’t you dare say that about my mother!”

  She was going to kill me anyway. I wasn’t going to bite my tongue while she insulted my mother.

  My mother was a beautiful woman. She was caring, compassionate, the most special person I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. I was not going to let this vampire taint her with these ridiculous accusations. It wasn’t my fault her spell didn’t work. And it certainly wasn’t my mother’s fault either.

  I heard a gasp from behind Josephine. We both turned, in awe at what we were witnessing. The woman in the casket was sitting up, her hand to her chest as she took deep breaths. She still looked pretty dead to me, but she was sitting up with her eyes open, breaths going in and out of her body. She was alive.

  Chapter 7—Theodora

  Everything was so loud. I could hear the erratic beating of someone’s heart. Someone in this room was scared.

  I was all too familiar with the sound of a person’s heartbeat when they were in a petrified state. This one was beyond petrified. I was sure this person was seconds away from dropping dead from a heart attack.

  I felt so weak. Every muscle and bone in my body ached. I felt like I could fall apart into ash just from taking a mere step.

  I was so hungry. The potion that Josephine fed me had blood in it, but I needed more. So much more.

  My gaze traveled to Josephine. She was feeding the potion to the rest of my siblings now that she knew it worked. I wasn’t altogether surprised she used me as a guinea pig. She never liked the control I had over Alexander.

  My eyes shifted from Josephine to the source of the heartbeat. When I looked at her, I couldn’t help but look surprised at who I saw. I moved closer to the girl. “Elizabeth?”

  The girl looked at me in confusion. Upon making eye contact, I realized this girl couldn’t be Elizabeth. Giving by her clothing, I had been out for at least a century. There was no way a witch could still be alive after all this time.

  Furthermore, this girl’s eyes were darker than Elizabeth’s. Brown, maybe hazel. I couldn’t tell with the terrible lighting of the basement. This girl was also a bit taller than Elizabeth.

  Josephine spoke. “The resemblance to her ancestor is uncanny isn’t it?”

  I knew there had to be some relation between the two. She was a descendant of Elizabeth. It made sense since Josephine would have needed a Sinclair’s blood to perform the revival spell. Not having any blood in my system was making me stupid.

  Still, this girl looked so much like Elizabeth. She could certainly pass for her daughter. That wasn’t going to bode well with my brothers. I had a feeling that at the mere glimpse of this girl, they would attack.

  I had to look away from the girl. Seeing her was bringing back memories I had wished would be gone by now. Unfortunately, it felt as though we had just fallen asleep and no time had passed at all. All of my wounds were still fresh and right at the surface. Time may have moved forward, but we were still stuck on the day we were betrayed.

  “How long?” I asked.

  Josephine knew what I was asking the second the words came from my mouth. “200 years.”

  I took a shaky breath at the information. We were out for 200 years. And I had no one to blame for this but myself. I knew my siblings were going to blame me too. I was the reason we ended up here. My weakness put my family in danger. So much time that we lost. All because of me.

  I wouldn’t blame them if they never forgave me. I knew Alexander and Sofia were going to forgive me eventually, but Christian was always one to hold a grudge. It didn’t help that we were always at each other’s throats.

  Speak of the devil, I heard Christian gasp for air as he sat up in his coffin. His eyes met mine right away. He stood up from his coffin, a bit too fast as he stumbled forward.

  “Take it easy,” I said. “You need blood. We have to regain our strength.”

  His eyes traveled to the girl. As soon as he laid eyes on her, his eyes turned black. A clear sign he was about to feed on someone. I tried to stop him, but I was too weak myself.

  Christian ran forward and put his hand around the girl’s neck. “Elizabeth! You traitorous bitch!”

  He believed her to be Elizabeth. No surprise there. I predicted this would happen.

  “Let her go,” I said, trying to sound as commanding as I could with how weak I felt.

  He laughed. “Not a chance dear sister.”

  I felt rage boiling inside of me. His grasp around the girl’s neck was too tight. She couldn’t breathe. He was killing her.

  I used all of my strength to focus. I could feel it swirling around inside of me. My powers. Anger always was a good way to set them off. I pushed forward as I felt the fiery energy inside me leave my body. I hit him with everything I had in me. “I said let her go!”

  Christian went flying across the room. The girl fell to the ground, gasping for air as her
hand went to her throat. Her neck was going to be bruised.

  I was stronger than Christian. He may have been a stronger vampire than I was, but I was a stronger witch than him. I was a firstborn. My power would always surpass his. It would always surpass all of my siblings.

  He glared at me from the floor. “I see our little nap hasn’t changed your loyalties.”

  I snarled at the blow. He always knew which wounds to reopen. Christian was well aware how much that would hurt me.

  “Fighting already? Why am I not surprised?”

  Christian and I both looked to the source of the voice. Alexander was awake.

  Chapter 8—Theodora

  Christian rose to his feet, death glare still directed at me. “I was just giving our sister’s witch what she deserved.”

  Elizabeth was not my witch. She never was.

  “She’s not Elizabeth,” I said to him. I spoke very slowly, trying to get through to my thickheaded little brother.

  Christian took his eyes off of me to look at the girl. His face remained impassive as he took in her features. “Looks close enough. I’m famished.”

  Now it was my turn to glare at him. “Leave her alone. You will not touch her.”

  Christian and I stood strong against each other. Neither of us were willing to backdown. If he made one move towards the girl, I was going to use everything I had in me to knock him back into his slumber.

  “Thank you,” the girl said.

  She shouldn’t be thanking me. I had reasons for wanting the girl alive. She wasn’t going to like a single one of them.

  The girl started walking backwards, towards the door. “Now that you’re all awake, I think it’s time I leave.”

  I broke eye contact with my brother to look at the girl. “That’s not happening.”

  She jumped at the tone of my voice. The girl’s eyes found Josephine. “Josephine, we had a deal.”

  “That deal was made with Josephine. She may be willing to let you go, but I’m not. And you’re staying.”

  The girl’s nostrils flared as her eyes bore into me. If looks could kill, her look just might be strong enough to kill me. God knows nothing else was strong enough to end my life entirely.

  “You can’t just kidnap me. I have a life. Friends. A family.”

  “As do I. My family will not perish at the hands of your family ever again. That’s why you aren’t going anywhere.”

  I was looking around at the house upstairs. Josephine made some modifications through the years. I think I preferred the old décor. Then again, I never did like Josephine’s taste.

  I took a sip from the glass of blood I poured myself. Josephine had pints of it stored in the fridge and bags in the freezer. She made a stop at a blood bank on the way to the house. Apparently, she’d been defeated by the Sinclair’s herself. Though, her time inside of Elizabeth’s amulet was nothing compared to the centuries we spent asleep. Buried in the darkness of our own minds.

  Every moment was torture. I could feel things around me. My body’s hunger. The sounds around me. But I couldn’t move. It was an endless nightmare that I feared I would never wake up from. I relived memories in my head. I saw the face of every one of my victims. All of the atrocities we had committed, and all of the atrocities that had been committed against us.

  It was utter anguish.

  “You should have joined Christian and Sofia on their hunt.”

  I smiled at the sound of my brother’s voice. “I prefer my blood over ice, you know that Alexander.”

  “How fancy you are.”

  “And why didn’t you join our siblings on their run for food?”

  “I wanted to stay close to Josephine.”

  “You must be thrilled to have her back in your life.”

  “I am. And are you thrilled to have a replica of Elizabeth?”

  My eyes shot daggers at the man. I knew he was going to have words for me. He and I were close. Far closer than I was with any of my other siblings, even Sofia. We were always together. Even since the womb. He and I were twins. That’s how I knew he was going to be angry for my betrayal. He hadn’t expected me to ever go against him. To ever go against any of my siblings.

  “Tell me, is the reason you’re keeping this girl because you intend to have a do over with her?”

  “That won’t happen again. This girl. The only reason I’m keeping her here is because we need to be sure we have leverage. I want to know how many members of the coven are still in existent. And then I want every single one of them dead.”

  “Melinda included?” he asked, his eyebrow lifted in question.

  I hesitated. I saw and so did he. “Yes, Melinda included.”

  I could lie to my brother. But I couldn’t lie to myself. I was having a hard time with this girl. I didn’t know her at all. But she looked so much like Elizabeth. It was hard not to feel something towards her.

  Even after all this time, Elizabeth was still my weakness. And she wasn’t even alive anymore.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that yet. What I shared with Elizabeth, I’d never shared with anyone. But then, that was never real. Elizabeth’s feelings were all lies. She used my feelings for her to weaken me. And she succeeded. In turn it weakened my family.

  We ran for nearly a century before we were captured. We would have been fine if it wasn’t for me. I put my siblings in danger. Me and my stupid heart.

  That was never going to happen again. I wasn’t going to allow my humanity to control me ever again.

  This time, I was going to put my family first.

  I had to stay away from this girl. I needed to be rid of Elizabeth Sinclair, once and for all.

  Chapter 9—Melinda

  I tried to open one of the windows, but it wouldn’t even budge. It was like they were glued shut.

  I looked around the room for more ideas on how to get out of here. There had to be a way out of this place. Aside from the door that led to the unkillable vampire witches that were now keeping me as their pet.

  I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Josephine. Technically it wasn’t her fault. It was that other woman. The blonde one that looked like a supermodel. Theodora!

  What kind of a name was Theodora anyway?

  I tried to open the window again. Twentieth time might be a charm.

  “Those don’t open.”

  I jumped at the sound of Josephine’s voice. I hadn’t even heard her come in. Did she have to sneak up on me? These people were so extra.

  “Why wouldn’t windows open?”

  “They do,” she continued. “If they’re not spelled shut. Sorry. Courtesies of Theo.”

  I was beginning to hate this Theodora chick. Talk about a control freak.

  “I’m not talking to you,” I said to her.

  She smiled. “I didn’t know Theo would want to keep you. I assumed they’d want to leave town as soon as they woke.”

  “Well, you know what they say about when you assume.”

  She glared at me, her eyes darkening. “What do they say?”

  I looked at the vampire witch carefully. In the midst of my anger, I forgot that Josephine was still a murderous psychopath that could rip my throat out in a matter of milliseconds.

  I nodded my head. “Nothing.”

  “Good answer.”

  “Can’t you try to convince them to let me go? I don’t know anything about any of this. I’m no threat to you people. And neither are my siblings for that matter.”

  “I’m sorry, but once Theo’s mind is made up, there’s no changing it. You should be grateful for her. The others want you dead.”

  “I’ll be sure to thank her,” I said, sarcastically obviously.

  “I’ll do what I can to help you. But, I won’t go against my family. I finally have Alexander back and I won’t risk doing anything to jeopardize that.”

  Alexander.

  He was her weakness. Maybe I could try to use that to my advantage in convincing her to set me free.

  “I have
people that I need to get back to. You know how you love Alexander? How you need to be with him? I have someone I love too.”

  I was referring to Julian, and I’d hardly call what we had love, but she didn’t need to know that.

  Josephine made a face. “I believe you’ve forgotten that I’ve been in your head Melinda. Enough to know that you don’t love Julian. He scratches an itch, but that’s all. Trust me, you’re better off here. Believe it or not, you’re safer here than you are out there.”

  I looked to her with confusion. I wondered what she meant by that. I was in a house full of vampire witches that were starving for blood. They also kept mistaking me for some woman named Elizabeth, who they apparently wanted revenge against. I was a sitting duck here.

  “I need to leave,” I said, trying once more to convince her.

  “Sorry.”

  She turned to leave.

  What she said before was still gnawing at me. “What did you mean before? About me being safer here than out there?”

  She turned back to me. She was about to say something but stopped herself. “Nothing.”

  Something told me it wasn’t nothing.

  Chapter 10—Theodora

  We were gathered around the dining room table for dinner. We were just waiting for Christian, so we could get started.

  Sofia sighed, rolling her eyes before rolling her neck around in annoyance. I smiled at my younger sister’s mannerisms. I missed her witty personality. She always kept our lives interesting, that was for sure.

  “Chris sometime today would be appreciated,” Sofia said loudly.

  Christian appeared in the doorway of the dining room within seconds, a smile on his face. I looked at him rather shocked. He had cut his hair. His dark medium length tresses were now much shorter and brushed back to the side.

  “You changed your hair,” Alexander commented.

  “Yes,” Christian said, smiling proudly. “They call this a quiff. Short on the sides, long on the top. Apparently, most men keep their hair short in this era.” He sat down next to Sofia.