Heart of Stone - Book 2: Hearts Collide

A steady pulse thrummed through the darkness like a drum: the undeniable sound of life.

Aubree felt something cool and wet press gently to her forehead. It moved to her cheek as she stirred, her nose scrunching as a strange odor met her nose. It wasn’t one she recognized, but it was unpleasant, almost metallic.

“I’m sorry about all this,” came a soft, melodic voice, “but it was the only way to get you away undetected from the beasts.”

Aubree sucked in a breath as her eyes shot open. Traces of the chemical that she had inhaled earlier caused her to cough. A gentle hand on her arm, though cool to the touch, supported her as she sat up with another on her back.

She looked over to the young blonde girl at her bedside. Her skin was so flawless and pale, it was nearly luminous. She was merely a teenager, but Aubree could feel a strength within her that was greater than her petite figure would suggest.

Aubree’s eyes widened when her eyes met the young girl’s bright red irises. Red eyes weren’t normal. The shade of it was too deep to even belong to an albino.

She had to be a vampire.

“Y-You stay back!” Aubree commanded, her hands flying to her neck, but she wasn’t wearing the cross her grandmother gave her.

Dammit! Of all days to not wear her necklace, it had to be the day she was kidnapped by vampires.

“Mother!” the girl called over her shoulder before turning back to Aubree. “Calm down. Everything will be okay. You’re safe. The beast can’t find you here.”

“What?” Aubree demanded as she tried to get as far away from the vampire as she could. The bed she had been resting on was pressed up against a wall and soon her back was against it as she looked wildly around for a way to escape. There was only one way out of the room and she’d have to push the girl out of her way to get there.

The room was small, very small, like a closet. She’d been in larger walk-in closets; it was that small. The air was damp and cold against her skin.

“Where am I? What do you want?” Aubree demanded, shifting her weight slowly, hoping to get to the end of the bed and push the girl over it so she could sprint out the door.

“I can’t tell you,” the girl said. “But don’t worry. We can help you. We can free you from the chains that bind you to the beast.”

Aubree gaped at her. “What?” What the hell was she saying? Free her from whom? Stone? “I’m not chained to anything. You-You kidnapped me.”

“I’d rather think of it as a successful rescue mission,” came another female’s voice before the woman appeared in the doorway.

Aubree’s breath caught in her throat as terror seized her.

A tall woman with dark brown hair, blood-red eyes, high cheekbones, and a sharp nose grinned down at her. The yellow fluorescent light overhead made the woman’s olive-toned skin look that much darker in comparison to the girl, though she was still paler than any normal person Aubree had ever seen.

“Wouldn’t you agree, Lily?” the woman asked the young beauty.

Lily nodded with a smile. “He’ll be so happy. Have you told him yet?”

The woman smirked. “No, not yet. Why don’t you go tell him, while I have a word with Aubree?”

Aubree inhaled sharply in horror.

The woman knew her name. This couldn’t be the Carina she had heard about, could it?

Shit!

Lily nodded and scampered off, leaving Aubree alone with the one vampire who had been trying to kill her for weeks.

I am so screwed!

Carina closed her eyes and leaned back against the doorframe. “Please refrain from doing that. I can smell the blood rushing through you. It’s making me thirsty.”

Aubree gritted her teeth as she pushed her fear away and clenched her hands at her sides. “What do you want with me?”

Carina opened her eyes and regarded Aubree with a twisted grin. “It’s not me who wants you, darling. And it’s not me who will break the chains that bind you to that mutt, although that wasn’t always the case. Something else just... came up, shall we say?”

Aubree narrowed her eyes. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Carina tut-tutted. “Language, darling. Save it for the enemy.”

"You are the enemy,” Aubree spat.

Carina lifted a perfect eyebrow. “Am I? Am I the one who forced you into a bond with a beast against your will?”

Heat radiated off of Aubree as anger made her blood boil. “I went willingly. It’s you holding me against my will.”

Carina inhaled deeply, relishing in something, and Aubree realized it was the flaring of her anger-fueled blood radiating off her skin.

“Do control your temper, darling. I can barely contain myself as it is and I’ve had centuries of practice. He hasn’t.” She opened her crimson eyes and parted her lips as she ran her tongue over the edge of her pointed fangs.

Aubree couldn’t help it. It was either be scared or angry, and she didn’t want to show this monster fear. Swallowing what she could of her anger and fear, she tried to push her emotions into her stomach and relax. A cool, calm façade would work more in her favor. She needed to know where she was and how she could escape. She needed to figure out how this woman operated and she needed to think clearly for herself. She didn’t know how much time she had but she had to be careful.

“You will release me if you want to keep your head,” Aubree said as calmly as she could. “Stone will find me and when he does, he will rip you apart.”

Carina’s lips curled up in a most horrific smirk that made Aubree cringe as she bent down and snatched Aubree’s chin in her thumb and forefinger.

“He’ll never find you down here, darling,” she whispered. “We’ve been living in this lair for decades and they’ve never been able to find us. Even if they did manage to find us, it will be too late.”

Pounding footsteps hammered down the hallway toward them, making Carina release Aubree’s chin from her cold grasp and pull away.

Aubree gasped for air, her head swimming with everything Carina had said. Hopelessness, fear, and anguish clutched at her head and heart. It couldn’t be true. Stone would find her. He had to find her.

And then he appeared in the doorway, smiling with joy and excitement as he called her name.

Pain ripped through her as her eyes flew open wide and she clamped her hand over her mouth in horror.

No!

Dan was one of them.