“Scarlet,” she added. “Only. Hope.”
Officer Marlow exhaled and sat up straighter. “Do you know where Scarlet is?”
Maria gritted her teeth and spoke as carefully as she could. “With Sage…the castle.”
Suddenly, a deep pain started inside Maria’s brain. She screamed out and clutched her head, pulling her hair into her tight fists. Instantly she knew that the sane part of her was being overpowered once again by whatever damage Lore had done to her. She was slipping away.
“Help me!” she screamed.
She began pulling against her shackles and thrashing wildly.
Panicking, Officer Marlow stood. She looked over her shoulder at her partner.
“Call it in,” she commanded him.
She tried to calm Maria but the girl had lost it. She was screaming over and over. The door bleeped and the psychologist rushed in.
“What happened?” he cried.
“Nothing,” Officer Marlow said, backing away. “She just flipped.”
She paced away as the psychologist tried to calm Maria and stood beside her partner.
“Did you call it in?” she said, panting from anguish.
“No,” he replied tersely.
Officer Marlow frowned at him and reached for her walkie-talkie. But Officer Waywood leaned forward and grabbed it from her hands.
“Don’t,” he snapped. “The Chief doesn’t want to hear this crap. He’s got his whole squad to look out for and you want to bother him because some crazy kid thinks there’s a vampire war!”
Over the sound of Maria’s screams, Sadie Marlow spoke in a hurried, insistent voice.
“The Chief sent us here for a reason. Why would he want to question a so-called ‘crazy kid’ if he didn’t think she could help? Kyle wants Scarlet Paine. That girl,” she pointed at Maria, “is the closest we’re going to get to finding her and maybe ending this thing. If she knows something then I’m pretty sure the Chief will want to know.”
Officer Waywood shook his head.
“Fine,” he said, shoving the walkie-talkie back at her. “It’s your career on the line, not mine. Let the Chief think you’re a lunatic.”
Officer Marlow snatched the device from her partner and clicked the button.
“Chief? It’s Marlow. I’m down at the institute with the witness.”
The walkie-talkie crackled.
Officer Marlow paused, weighing her words. “She says there’s going to be a vampire war. Led by Kyle. And the only person who can stop it is Scarlet Paine.”
She looked up at her partner’s raised eyebrows, feeling like a fool. Then the walkie-talkie buzzed again and the police chief’s voice rang out.
“I’m coming.”
CHAPTER SIX
Scarlet coughed and wiped dust from her eyes. Her mind swirled as she tried to make sense of what was happening around her. One moment the Immortalists had been advancing on her and Sage, the next moment there’d been a tremendous explosion that rocked the castle. Then the ceiling had caved in, bringing with it brick, wood, and heavy slate tiles.
Scarlet looked around and found that she was in a cocoon of rubble. It was so dark she could hardly see. Thick dust clogged her lungs, make it difficult to breathe.
“Sage?” Scarlet cried into the darkness.
Something stirred beside her.
“Scarlet?” came Sage’s voice. “Is that you?”
Scarlet’s heart leapt as she realized her beloved was still alive. She scrambled over boulders and debris toward the hunched shape of Sage. Once she reached him, she pressed her lips against his.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered.
“Scarlet, it’s too late,” he countered.
But Scarlet wasn’t listening. She slipped her arms around his naked torso and pulled him to sitting. He slumped, weak, barely able to hold his body up.
“What happened?” he said, surveying the damage, his voice little more than a croak.
“I have no idea,” Scarlet replied.
She looked around again and this time started to notice the tangle of Immortalists sprawled across the floor, or trapped beneath ceiling beams and clumps of brick and stone. Flames rose from several different areas like strange orange shrubbery.
Octal lay motionless on the floor. His staff lay beside him, snapped clean in half, and the cross on the tip that had been used to pierce Sage was aflame. Scarlet couldn’t tell whether Octal was dead or not but he certainly looked like he wasn’t going to be doing any harm for the time being.
Then Scarlet recognized the twisted metal fuselage of a military plane amongst the rubble. She gasped.
“It was a plane,” she said. “A military plane crashed into the castle.”
Sage shook his head, confusion across his brow.
“There’d be no reason for a plane to be here,” he replied. “The castle is in the middle of nowhere.”
“Unless they were looking for it,” Scarlet finished for him, as it dawned on her. “Unless they were looking for me.”
Just then, a mound of brick shifted and Sage winced as it slammed into his leg.
“We have to move,” Scarlet replied.
It wasn’t just danger from the damaged building she was worried about – it was the Immortalists. They had to escape before anyone came to their senses.
She turned to Sage.
“Can you run?”
He looked up at her with weary eyes. “Scarlet. It’s too late. I’m dying.”
She gritted her teeth. “It’s not too late.”
He grabbed her hands in his and stared deeply into her eyes. “Listen to me. I love you. But you have to let me die. It’s over.”
Scarlet turned her face away from him and wiped away the single tear that fell from her eye. When she turned back she reached out and hauled Sage’s arm across her shoulder, wrenching him to a standing position. He cried out in pain and sunk into her. As she began to lead him across the rubble and through the plumes of acrid smoke, she said:
“It’s not over until I say it is.”
The castle was in disarray. Though the plane that had crashed into it had been small, the damage to the ancient building had been colossal___.
Scarlet weaved through the corridors as the walls crumbled around her. She held Sage tightly to her side and he slumped into her, groaning with pain. He was so weak and feeble it made Scarlet’s heart ache. All she wanted was to get him to safety.
Just then, she heard shouting coming from behind.
“They’re getting away!”
Scarlet realized with a sinking sensation that they were coming back to their senses, that despite their castle being destroyed and many of their brethren lying hurt and dying around them, their desire for vengeance was going to drive them on.
“Sage,” Scarlet said, “they’re coming for us. We need to go faster.”
Sage gulped and grimaced.
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
Scarlet tried to hasten her pace but Sage’s weakness was slowing them down. He had to stop running. She had to find somewhere safe to hide him so that they could at the very least say their goodbyes.
She