Scarlett: (GxG)

Chapter 57

Zoey

I felt my father's power crackling around us like electricity. The three of us fought hard trying desperately to cut down the wolves that tried to push past us but it was all happening so quickly.

I'd been a child when I'd last seen my father use his gift, the gift that had passed down to me, skipping my siblings. Memories that were the cornerstone of my early years were forever burned into my brain. Hiding beneath that bed, hearing the scratching and howling as the wolves descended upon Rosalynn and I, with me beneath a bed, was one such memory. From there I had watched wolves twist and bend in ways that weren't natural as the bones and muscles they were usually in control of were manipulated by another force. It had been grotesque. And none of it compared to the elation of seeing Lord Robert Astor standing over the bodies of those dead wolves and the massive, dark silhouette of the woman behind him.

The two of them had saved us time and time again, and now all of that was coming to a bloody end. 

"Dad!"

My father, once so strong and powerful, now had been reduced to a limp body laying across the stage. It was the quieting chaos that made it all feel surreal, as did the bloody form of a woman who reached helplessly for the man she'd been guarding for centuries. Lee stumbled, falling beside him while fingers clutched at his jacket, tugging him toward her. Rosalynn reached them first.

My sister lifted my father up as best she could. By the time I made it to the stage I saw his mouth move but heard nothing.

"We have to go! We have to get him to the chamber!" she shouted at us, bare breast spattered with blood.

"Only Lee knows where the chamber is." Omari had claw marks along his face. Fleshy, festering skin had only just begun to start healing.

We all three turned to look at her. How she was moving I didn't know. My hands instinctively went out to her, only for the woman to slap a bloody hand on my shoulder. The weight she put into it told me she was using me to help her stand. The lump in my throat hurt when I swallowed. I couldn't look at her, and yet couldn't look away either. Her face and other arm were barely there. A broken, twisted jaw moved just slightly.

"You don't have to speak!" I told her. "But do you know where to go?"

It seemed cruel to even ask when I saw and felt nothing but pain in her. But I knew, even now, all Lee was thinking about was my father's safety and nothing else.

Slowly her head nodded.

We moved as fast as we could, putting Dad into the back of the SUV. He was motionless, eyes closed, but I had to believe there was still life in him. He couldn't have used his last bit of energy to save us and everyone in the observatory. There had to be some shred of energy still left. I went to drive but Lee, perhaps moving on muscle memory, pulled herself into the driver's seat.

The SUV flew through the night. Somehow she managed to drive with one eye and one arm while Omari and Rosalynn held onto their sire. I could hear my brother talking to him calmly, while Rosalynn's once fearful face had slipped into a stoic mask that I couldn't see through for once.

"It's going to be okay..." I said.

My voice sounded so meek in the confines of the car. I hated it. I wanted the strength back that I'd felt when I'd had my weapons in my hands. I wanted to be that Zoey. But when I looked up at Lee, that strong persona seemed well out of reach. Everything was most certainly not okay.

We pulled up to the graveyard and barely parked before my brother was pulling Dad out of the back seat. I'd never seen him look so worried. Lee's bloody hand once again found my shoulder as we walked. The further we went the more weight she was giving my small body. Thankfully I'd fed from Scarlett earlier and had more than enough strength to get us both to the mausoleum I assumed she was leading us to.