Hi everyone! You're all probably sick of my apologies about updating, but again I'm sorry for the wait. College is keeping me much busier than I'd thought it would. Thank you so much for sticking with me even though I take a horrendous amount of time to update this story. As always, I appreciate your reviews and I'm so glad that you guys enjoy this story. There's only about three or four more chapters left and maybe an epilogue, so we're nearing the end, people. Anyways, here's chapter 32. I hope you like it! :)
Lucas set his glass of blood down on the table next to him carefully, never taking his eyes off of us. He then stood and gestured toward the couch opposite from him.
"Please have a seat, ladies. You're just the girls I wanted to see. I'm going to assume your mother doesn't know you're here, but don't worry I won't tell." His lips curled up into a sinister smile.
A sudden fury came over me. This was the vampire who murdered my best friend and my father, and he was standing there acting like we were all old friends who he was happy to have over. Why was he here?
Worry settled in as I considered the thousands of possibilities. Were Emily and Eric okay? Did they know he was here? Was he invited here? Did I make some grave error in judgment about Eric? Were the Carsons all really my enemies? That would mean Anthony was my enemy, and to think I'd felt guilty about lying to him all this time…
While I was busy having my mental breakdown, Nicole stood strong in front of me poised to fight. She regarded the situation impassively, a skill that I admired. I needed to work on putting on a brave face because right now I was certain that both Nicole and Lucas could feel the waves of tension I was emanating.
"What are you doing here?" Nicole asked coldly.
"I could ask you the same question," Lucas retorted with the same faux politeness. "This is, after all, my nephews' home."
Hearing his voice made the anger seep through again. I wanted to kill him. He was the sole reason for everything that was currently wrong in my life.
"Where are Eric and Emily?" I asked, stepping away from Nicole so that I could see him better. I'd hoped he would be able to feel the heat of my anger through my glare, but he continued to stare at us with that same ridiculous expression on his face.
"That's a very good question," he said. "I was actually hoping you ladies would be able to tell me that. I came, and no one was home. So I decided to wait and sip on this glass of animal blood that my nephews are so fond of. I honestly can't understand why. It's so very bland, nothing like fresh human blood or rather hunter blood, now that is a delicacy."
Nicole pulled out a blade. I noticed her knuckles were white as she squeezed onto the hilt of it.
Lucas held his hands up as if to signify he was harmless. "Now, now that wasn't a threat. There's no need for anyone to get violent. Like I said, I wanted to talk to you ladies, specifically you, Evelyn."
I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself. It didn't work.
"Why?" I asked through clenched teeth.
"Because of all the Sinclair sisters you're the most interesting, of course." He said this as if it were common knowledge. "I'm very curious about the huntress who stole my nephew's heart."
Suddenly, Nicole grabbed my arm and I felt the familiar pull as she began to teleport with me, but it didn't work. Instead of teleporting to a safe place a good distance away from Lucas, I felt some invisible force push me back into the spot I was standing in while Nicole went flying straight into the nearest wall. There was a thud, and then she fell on the ground, knocked out.
"Nicky!" I screamed her name as I started to run to her, but a strong hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me back.
"I told you I wanted to talk to you," Lucas said, his voice still calm. "It would be rude of you to just leave in the middle of our conversation. Your father should have spent less time hunting and more time teaching you girls some manners. Then he might still be alive."
It was like nothing had happened. He continued to act as if he was pleased to see us. However, at the mention of my father, I forgot that he was one of the most powerful vampires in the world and that Nicole was lying unconscious across the room. My hand moved – of its own accord – faster than it had ever moved before, and the next thing I knew it made a forceful impact with Lucas' face.
He let go of me, in shock at my boldness while I pretended as though my hand wasn't in any kind of pain. In truth, it throbbed. His face was hard.
I saw his fist coming toward me and dodged it just in time. I snatched Nicole's knife, which had fallen to the floor and held it out in front of me defensively. I was determined to keep some space between Lucas and me.
"Evelyn, I'm impressed. No offense, but if I'd had to say between you and Nicole who I thought would be unconscious and who would be ready to attack, I would have said the reverse of what it is now." He said all of this nonchalantly, but I noticed the strain to keep up the façade in his voice. I preferred him annoyed, his fake friendliness got on my nerves.
"You wanted to talk to me, so talk," I said.
"Fine, I'd thought we could have a civilized conversation, but if you'd rather do it this way…."
He moved too fast for me to see and tried to knock the knife out of my hand. Only because of sheer luck I stumbled back and he missed. He grabbed hold of my wrist, and I managed to slice his left cheek with the knife. He hissed in pain as the poison from the blade seeped into him, but still slapped my hand away causing the knife to skid across the floor, far from my reach. He grabbed hold of my other wrist and pulled me closer to him, fangs bared.
I stared back at him defiantly, determined to not let him see my fear. "What now?" I asked.
His lip pulled up into something that resembled a grin. "I'm not going to kill you because your relationship with my nephew is too amusing to destroy so soon, but I should warn you, it's only a matter of time before Anthony figures out that you're just playing with him."
"I don't know what you're talking about." The words tumbled out of my mouth automatically. There was no way Lucas could know about how my mother ordered me to uncover secrets about Lucas from Anthony and then kill him and his brothers.
Lucas barked out a short laugh. "Of course you don't. You might have Anthony wrapped around your pretty little finger, but I'm not so naïve. I know there's no way Ava Sinclair would allow any kind of chance for you to legitimately date a vampire, especially once she found out you'd been doing it behind her back. That can only mean that you're planning something."
"You don't know anything about my mother," I said, trying to skirt around the topic. Maybe he did know all about what my mother had ordered me to do, and that was why he was here – to tell Eric about my plans.
"Evelyn, I can see the anxiety in your eyes. You shouldn't be so worried though. I have no intention of telling any of my nephews about what I assume is your great scheme to kill them. I'd much rather watch you mess it up yourself."
I can't deny that it bothered me that even this vampire – who I'd only had face to face contact with a few times – thought of me as a screw up.
"I still don't understand why you wanted to talk to me."
"Oh yes," he smiled the same sinister smile he'd worn when Nicole and I first arrived. "You distracted me. I wanted to offer you a solution to all your little problems."
I stared at him blankly for a moment. "Yes, I'm sure you want nothing more than to help me out of the kindness of your undead heart."
"Come now, Evelyn, you know me better than that. I'm only willing to help you because I'm anticipating something in return."
Despite the way I was currently glaring at him, I couldn't help the raging curiosity I felt. I don't really know what I expected him to say, but it certainly wasn't what came out of his mouth next.
"Let me change you into a vampire," he said simply.
It took a few seconds for me to process what he'd said. I don't know what came over me, but when his words finally registered in my head, I couldn't stop myself from laughing hysterically. I threw my head back, overcome with the uncontrollable laughter.
Looking back, I realized how incredibly dangerous it was to be laughing in the face of a powerful vampire who had me by the wrists.
"Something funny?" Lucas asked when I was done.
"Yes, I find the idea of me as a vampire hilarious," I answered.
"You really shouldn't be so quick to write off my idea, Evelyn," he said patiently, as though he was trying to explain some life lesson to a young child. "It truly would solve all of your problems. Right now you and Anthony have managed to get yourselves into quite the cliché, forbidden lovers' predicament. You are of two different worlds. If you were a vampire, you could be with him and protect your dear friend Emily."
"There's a flaw in your little plan," I teased. "If I were to become a vampire the hunters would come after me."
"Which is why we would fake your death," he responded.
I frowned at him. "You really seem to have this all planned out. What do you plan on getting out of this?"
It was only after I asked the question, that the answer came to me. It was so obvious what he wanted, and I knew I could never let him get it.
"A rare power of invisibility should belong to someone who isn't quite as clumsy as you don't you think?" he said with a grin.
"Even in some alternate universe where I would actually want to become a vampire, I wouldn't let you be the one to change me," I said.
"But you need me on your side for the plan to work," he implored. "You'd need to me to say I killed you, or your family of hunters would come after you until they were sure you were dead. Also, in return for you lovely power of invisibility, I'll promise you immunity from me as long as you leave me alone."
"I don't plan on forming any kind of alliance with you," I sneered. "Juana did and look what happened to her."
"Ah yes, well Juana was more useful to me dead than alive. She's not who's important here, though, you are. I'll leave now so that you can make sure your sister's okay. I think she's beginning to wake up."
I glanced over at Nicole, and sure enough, she was beginning to stir.
"Do think about my proposal, Evelyn. I'd really like for us to help each other." And with those words, he let go of my wrists and left the house a speed incredible even for a vampire.
I ran over to Nicole and teleported us both back to my room. She groaned at the sudden movement.
"Are you okay?" I asked. "Can I get you anything?"
"Some ice and two Tylenol," she mumbled as she began using her power to heal the various bruises on her body.
I ran downstairs to get her things and quickly checked the house to make sure that no one was home. I didn't want there to be any eavesdropping when I told Nicole what happened. Satisfied that the house was empty, I ran back up to my room pleased to see Nicole sitting on my bed looking much more alert than she'd been five minutes ago.
She took the Tylenol and gulped down the water I handed her, and then stared at me for a while as if she was trying to figure something out. Then she asked the million dollar question.
"What happened?"
I explained to her in full detail everything I could remember about my conversation with Lucas, from his apparent knowledge of how Mom had ordered me to kill Anthony and his brothers to his offer to turn me into a vampire. When I finished, she continued to regard me with that same look.
"You're really lucky when it comes to that vampire," she mused.
I stared at her. After everything I'd just told her, she wanted to talk about how lucky I was?
"Every time you face him, you come out alive, and usually relatively unhurt. That doesn't usually happen for most hunters. I'm a little jealous," she said.
This pleased me a bit. I'd spent so much of my life jealous of my older sisters that, Nicole saying that gave me an irrational kind of high.
"But what should I do?" I asked her. "Do you really think he's not going to tell Anthony that I'm supposed to kill him? Or should I tell Anthony myself?"
"I think –" she sighed.
"You think what?"
"I think you need to figure it out on your own."
"What?" I asked in shock.
"You just keep asking me what I think you should do, but really these decisions affect you a million times more than they do me. Honestly, I don't know what to do any more than you do. I don't really have a master plan here. I've been making everything up as I go along, and just when I think I've finally wrapped my head around the situation, you come and give me a whole new spiel of new problems to add on to the old ones. It's hard to keep up with you Evelyn," she said, looking at me sadly.
"So, you're done helping me?" I asked, feeling angry even though I knew I had no right to be. She didn't have to help me, after all. Actually, she was putting herself in danger by doing so.
"No, of course not," she said. "I'm just resigning as the brains of the operation. I'll go along with whatever crazy plan it is you come with up because I want to keep you and Emily safe."
"But I don't know what to do," I whined. "If I could've figured it out on my own I wouldn't have involved you in the first place."
"I wear myself out worrying about you, Evelyn. Look, I'm going to check on Emily to see how she's doing. You figure out what you're going to do with your life. And you know, if you'd thought about these problems in the first place, you wouldn't be in this mess right now."
"If I wanted a sister who would lecture me, I would've gone to Cheryl or Olivia," I said petulantly. I didn't respond when she told me bye as she teleported off to go see Emily.
Having other people fix your problems was supposed to be the perk of being the youngest in the family. I sat alone, thoroughly sulking now.
…if you'd thought about these problems in the first place, you wouldn't be in this mess right now. Nicole's words ran through my head. Well no kidding, I thought irritably. If I'd known Anthony would turn out to be the nephew of the vampire who killed my father and that he'd be connected to the vampire who turned one of my best friends into a vampire I would've never looked at him twice. Really this was all his fault.
No it wasn't. Damn the annoying voice in my head. Okay fine, as far as I know Anthony hadn't done anything to hurt me intentionally. And as stupid as it was, knowing everything I did now, I still couldn't imagine not having been with Anthony. Selfish or not, being together with him made me happy.
I knew I made my own decisions, and that's why I was deep in the mess I was in now. This, of course, was precisely why I shouldn't be making decisions. I needed Nicole to come back and tell me what to do.
I sat on my bed for a while, going through my memories of Anthony and me together. And then it came to me. I couldn't kill Anthony. No matter how much, I'd been trying to convince myself that it was the right thing to do, the best thing to do, I knew I would never be able to stab him with a knife. It really didn't matter if he was lying to me about Juana's death, or if he had some other secrets, killing him was out of the question.
I wish this revelation had come with some sort of master plan on what do about my plethora of problems, but it didn't. It did, however, make what I was about to do next feel more right.
I teleported straight to the hotel room where Anthony was staying and was thankful to find that he was alone.
"Evelyn," Anthony said my name in surprise as he jumped up from the chair he was sitting on.
"I need to talk to you," I said.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" He asked. His fingers gently stroked the side of my face causing the butterflies in my stomach to go crazy, and he frowned at me in concern.
"I want to tell you everything, but first I need to know why you lied to me," I said, watching carefully for his reaction.
"What are you talking about?" he asked. He was looking at me like I was crazy.
"I heard you talking to your brothers," I explained. "You were talking about how Juana was dead. When I asked you if you'd heard anything about her, you lied. I need to know why."
Anthony closed his eyes and sighed. "Please don't be angry, I didn't tell you because I was worried that you would be upset that I'd been talking to Lucas. Everyone's been so on edge recently, and I agreed with my brothers that I would keep it a secret for now. Mark has been suspicious that –"
"Mark was right," I blurted out. "I'm supposed to be preparing to kill you and your brothers."
Anthony's eyes widened as he continued to stare at me, but I felt relieved. I didn't have to keep this secret anymore, and fake a relationship with him. I filled him in on the details of what my mom and the Administratio wanted me to do. When I finished, he just looked at me.
And then, his arms reached out and he pulled me close to him, one arm was around my back, the other held my hair and he kissed me. His lips were soft and earnest, and for the first time in a long time, I kissed him back without a worry in the world.