Exhale

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

I saw Adrian check out his surroundings before he focused in on one little detail on the next level up. As he moved closer, I could tell he'd found something. I was really hoping it was Leslie.

He pulled out his phone and began typing away on it. Four seconds later my phone vibrated and I checked it.

2nd level. On the right.

Then I heard my uncle's voice. "Adrian, you were the person I was least expecting at this moment."

Adrian looked off to the side opposite of the door and crossed his arms across his chest. "Well yeah, I've grown rather fond of your niece. I didn't want her getting involved, so I decided to get involved instead."

I knew Ron was busy at this moment. Too busy to realize I was actually here as well, so I took that as a moment to find the stairs leading to the next level up. Right around the corner there was a staircase, and I took it up, two at a time.

Once I reached the top, I turned to my right and looked down the hall to see my best friend collapsed on the floor in a heap. The back of her head had been gashed and there was a crimson stain under her. I looked over to the guard rail lining the edge of the second level floor, separating a person from their potential death if they fell over it, and ducked down before running along the side of the small pillars holding it in place. The church looked like an old Opera house. But instead of a stage being front and centered, it was a podium. Gigantic stained glass windows lined the walls and there was a huge glass mosaic of Christ behind the podium.

I ran over to her body, and touched her softly. She moaned quietly and I hushed her. There were bruises all over her face and her arms. A deep cut ran along the left side of her forehead. Tear stains streaked through the blood on her face. And suddenly I was more angry than I'd ever been before.

I listened to Adrian's conversation unfold as I grabbed Leslie by the arms and started gently dragging her towards the entrance.

"That was a foolish thing to do," my uncle said softly. There was a soft bitterness in his voice. "Especially after everything I've done to train you."

"That was the old me," he responded. "I'm not like that anymore."

"You better not be," Ron growled. Your attempts would have ruined my plans."

"Speaking of plans," I heard another voice echo. My blood froze in my veins. Jet. "How's it going with your attempts, Dude?"

"Jet," I heard Adrian bite in a low voice. "Why are you here?"

"Same reason he's here. Trying to collect what's owed to me."

"I owe nothing to you."

I silently apologized to Leslie before I dragged her gently down the stairs, doing all I could to keep the noise silent.

Then, at the bottom of the steps, I hooked her arm around my neck and hoisted her up under her legs before carrying her out the door of the building and over to the jeep.

I opened the door of the jeep and laid her across the back seats. She moaned again.

"Leslie!" I said softly, shaking her. "You're hurt. Do not fall asleep. You may not wake up."

"Britt," she cried out. "My head hurts so bad. And I'm so hungry." I watched her skin fluctuate between being tan with a touch of pink and being white. I watched for a second, horrified. She opened her eyes and peered at me and I gave a small gasp when I saw the color of her eyes. They were violet. Her lips were redder than they had been, and her features were beginning to become more flawless, and clear. Yet there was a monstrous type of a pucker underneath her skin, that looked the way Adrian's was that one time when he was a vampire. My heart rate sped up. "And my mouth hurts too." She moaned. "My gums feel like they're bleeding."