Jaxon’s fingers twisted together, and her stomach burned, a hard knot of pain. “Why? What would he accomplish?”
Lucian’s black gaze moved over her, fathomless, moody, possessive. “Precisely what he did. Pain. Vampires thrive on other people’s pain. He must have caught you out in the open, away from the protected property, and read your memories. He could not have hidden his taint of power from me had I been close.”
Jaxon felt as if he had punched her hard in the pit of her stomach. The feeling was so real, she actually hunched over, dropping her head into the heel of one hand. “So I did this. Just by going out of the house, I caused all this to happen. Basically that’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”
Lucian’s arm slid around her slender shoulders. Her pain was radiating from her, enveloping him so that he felt almost as sick as she did. “Of course not, Jaxon. You cannot ever think you are responsible for the sick actions of others.”
Jaxon ducked out from under his arm, unable to bear the contact. She was struggling just to breathe. “Lucian, have Antonio stop the car right now. I need to get out. I’ll walk the rest of the way. It isn’t that far.”
“It is almost dawn, my love.” He said the words softly, without inflection, apparently neither for nor against her decision.
“I can’t breathe in here, Lucian. Stop the car.” She wanted to run as fast as she could—whether from herself or from everything that had happened this night, she didn’t know. She knew only that she had to be out in the open. “I need to be alone. Please just stop the car and let me walk by myself back to the house. I have to be alone.”
Lucian’s black gaze moved over her face once more, brooding, suspicious. His mind moved in hers. He read Jaxon’s need to alone, to be in the fresh air, to be able to breathe freely. There was such chaos in her mind, she was having trouble breathing.
At once the car rolled to a stop, and Jaxon realized Lucian had commanded Antonio to come to a halt. Instantly she was out of the car and running, leaving the asphalt behind, taking to the open meadow leading to the hills and the south side of the estate. She ran parallel to the road until the car went around a bend and disappeared from sight. Instantly she switched directions and ran up the hill, away from the house and toward the bluffs. Twice she had to stop, leaning over as her body protested the terrible crimes committed simply because someone knew her. What was she? A monster magnet? Some hideous thing inside her drew out the demon in others. She didn’t pay the price; some innocent bystander always did.
Jaxon had heard the conversations throughout the apartment building and in the squad room. The murmurs, the silent condemnation. Most of her friends were afraid to speak to her, none of them wanted to be seen with her, and all of them were terrified for their families, and rightly so. This latest carnage was worse than anything Drake had ever done before. This vampire was capable of mass killing in two places at one time.
She continued running as fast as she could. As the trail became steeper, she stumbled occasionally, tears streaming down her face, clouding her vision. Jaxon had no clear thought in her head; she really didn’t know what she was going to do. Only that this killing couldn’t continue any longer. Her father. Her mother. Her beloved little Mathew. The entire Andrews family, even poor Sabrina, just home from college on a break. Then her neighbor, Carol. Sweet Carol’s big crime was watching the sunrise every morning, and she died because she enjoyed sharing the experience with her neighbor. And now all these other innocent victims.
She was sobbing as she clawed her way up the steep rock to the top of the bluff. Just as she pulled herself up, the earth rolled and bucked beneath her feet like a roller coaster. Overhead black clouds swirled and roiled, boiling like a cauldron. Lightning arced from cloud to cloud, slamming to earth in white-hot jagged bolts, the thunder nearly deafening her. She screamed as she ran for the cliff’s edge. If there was no Jaxon, there would be no need for Drake to kill anyone ever again.