AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m going to catch a plane to San Francisco,” I tell him.
“What the fuck?”
I jerk my thumb at the backseat. “Already packed my bag, put it in the back before we got going.”
He glances over his shoulder and notices my bag there for the first time. “What the fuck, Rose?” he repeats. He eyes me, bewildered. “Now? I thought we were going to 7/11.”
“We can hit one on the way to the airport,” I assure him.
“Why don’t you take your own car?” he asks me.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. It might be sitting there for a really long time.”
“Rose,” he says again, shaking his head. “I know you’re going through a lot right now, with your whole vampire thing and your past lives thing, but this is nuts. Why are you going to San Francisco?”
“I want to see Solon and Lenore. They’re the only ones that can help me find Valtu.”
That’s not one hundred percent true. During my research I did find Dr. Abraham Van Helsing who is a researcher at Oxford. One look at his photo and I know this is the same man I was friends with in the late 1800s in London, then in Venice twenty-one years ago. If he’s still around, then he can help me find Valtu. But before I jet across the Atlantic to do that, I need to talk to Solon and Lenore and see what they know.
It wasn’t easy to discover where they operate. I know from Dahlia’s memories that they operated the feeding club called Dark Eyes in their house in San Francisco. The problem with vampires is that any human who knows the truth about them will never tell the general public. They’re compelled not to. So if you search the internet for either a Lenore Warwick or an Absolon Stavig, you’ll come up with nothing. It’s so thoroughly wiped that there isn’t even any record of Lenore, who went to Berkeley as a human, ever existing.
But I know that there was a club called Dark Eyes in the 1930s that old Russian czars used to hang out in and that the current club was modeled on that. I also know that club was located in the basement of the William Westerfeld House, which has some crazy dark past itself. Putting it all together, I’m guessing that’s where Lenore and Solon live.
“What makes you think you’ll find them?” he says. “Wouldn’t they be in hiding if Mom and Dad are? You think they’ll be easy to find?”
It’s not that I think I’ll be able to just waltz up to it. I’m sure there’s a ton of security protocols in place. From what I remember about Solon in person, and what Valtu had said about him, plus all we had learned about him in the witch’s guild, he has a lot of magic guarding him and that included intricate wards. But I still have to try. Maybe when they know who I am, if I can make it that far, they’ll want to see me. I’m hoping so.
“Fine. I’ll take you to Eugene,” he says after a moment. “But I’m going with you to San Francisco.”
I give him a look of surprise. “What? No.”
“I’m not letting you go to that city alone. Rose, you haven’t traveled anywhere alone.”
“Neither have you.” When you’re a vampire, your social life tends to be a little sheltered. Sure, both my brother and I have friends but we’ve always held them at arm’s length.
“Which is why I’m going with you.” He sighs, slamming his palm against the steering wheel. “Actually, as the oldest, I should be reporting you to Mom and Dad.”
“Oldest? You’re twenty-two! You’re a year older than me. And reporting me? What am I, twelve?”
“Then why not tell them? Why sneak off this way?”
I give him a steady look. “You know why.”
Obviously they can’t ground me. But I do live in their house and there is no way they would let me go. I might have newfound supernatural strength as a vampire, but I haven’t tested it out yet, and there’s two of them and one of me.
“Whatever,” he says. “I’m going with you.”
This is the last thing I want. This is something between me and Lenore and Solon. After all, I had met them before. But I have to admit, not only am I touched by my brother’s protectiveness, it might be nice to have him there. I’m not worried about going places alone—he’s right in that I never have traveled alone as Rose, but as Dahlia I was seeing the world by myself. Yet, I really don’t know what to expect. Everything I know about these vampires is from twenty-one years ago.
“You didn’t even pack,” I point out.
“Then we’re going to do some shopping once we get to San Francisco,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.
* * *
The driveto Eugene took just under two hours, with the weather getting progressively colder as we got to the airport. It’s late November, just after Thanksgiving, but the air smells like snow and I’m hoping it will hold off until we take off.
The flight I had booked for this evening luckily had an extra seat for Dylan I was able to snag from my app on the way to the airport. I wasn’t sure what to say to my parents so I haven’t said anything. It was just before we boarded the plane that my mom texted the both of us, wondering where we were.
