he didn’t think she could help? Kyle wants Scarlet Paine. That girl,” she pointed at Maria, “is the closest we’re going to get to finding her and maybe ending this thing. If she knows something then I’m pretty sure the Chief will want to know.”
Officer Waywood shook his head.
“Fine,” he said, shoving the walkie-talkie back at her. “It’s your career on the line, not mine. Let the Chief think you’re a lunatic.”
Officer Marlow snatched the device from her partner and clicked the button.
“Chief? It’s Marlow. I’m down at the institute with the witness.”
The walkie-talkie crackled.
Officer Marlow paused, weighing her words. “She says there’s going to be a vampire war. Led by Kyle. And the only person who can stop it is Scarlet Paine.”
She looked up at her partner’s raised eyebrows, feeling like a fool. Then the walkie-talkie buzzed again and the police chief’s voice rang out.
“I’m coming.”
CHAPTER SIX
Scarlet coughed and wiped dust from her eyes. Her mind swirled as she tried to make sense of what was happening around her. One moment the Immortalists had been advancing on her and Sage, the next moment there’d been a tremendous explosion that rocked the castle. Then the ceiling had caved in, bringing with it brick, wood, and heavy slate tiles.
Scarlet looked around and found that she was in a cocoon of rubble. It was so dark she could hardly see. Thick dust clogged her lungs, make it difficult to breathe.
“Sage?” Scarlet cried into the darkness.
Something stirred beside her.
“Scarlet?” came Sage’s voice. “Is that you?”
Scarlet’s heart leapt as she realized her beloved was still alive. She scrambled over boulders and debris toward the hunched shape of Sage. Once she reached him, she pressed her lips against his.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered.
“Scarlet, it’s too late,” he countered.
But Scarlet wasn’t listening. She slipped her arms around his naked torso and pulled him to sitting. He slumped, weak, barely able to hold his body up.
“What happened?” he said, surveying the damage, his voice little more than a croak.
“I have no idea,” Scarlet replied.
She looked around again and this time started to notice the tangle of Immortalists sprawled across the floor, or trapped beneath ceiling beams and clumps of brick and stone. Flames rose from several different areas like strange orange shrubbery.
Octal lay motionless on the floor. His staff lay beside him, snapped clean in half, and the cross on the tip that had been used to pierce Sage was aflame. Scarlet couldn’t tell whether Octal was dead or not but he certainly looked like he wasn’t going to be doing any harm for the time being.
Then Scarlet recognized the twisted metal fuselage of a military plane amongst the rubble. She gasped.
“It was a plane,” she said. “A military plane crashed into the castle.”
Sage shook his head, confusion across his brow.
“There’d be no reason for a plane to be here,” he replied. “The castle is in the middle of nowhere.”
“Unless they were looking for it,” Scarlet finished for him, as it dawned on her. “Unless they were looking for me.”
Just then, a mound of brick shifted and Sage winced as it slammed into his leg.
“We have to move,” Scarlet replied.
It wasn’t just danger from the damaged building she was worried about – it was the Immortalists. They had to escape before anyone came to their senses.
She turned to Sage.
“Can you run?”
He looked up at her with weary eyes. “Scarlet. It’s too late. I’m dying.”
She gritted her teeth. “It’s not too late.”
He grabbed her hands in his and stared deeply into her eyes. “Listen to me. I love you. But you have to let me die. It’s over.”
Scarlet turned her face away from him and wiped away the single tear that fell from her eye. When she turned back she reached out and hauled Sage’s arm across her shoulder, wrenching him to a standing position. He cried out in pain and sunk into her. As she began to lead him across the rubble and through the plumes of acrid smoke, she said:
“It’s not over until I say it is.”
The castle was in disarray. Though the plane that had crashed into it had been small, the damage to the ancient building had been colossal___.
Scarlet weaved through the corridors as the walls crumbled around her. She held Sage tightly to her side and he slumped into her, groaning with pain. He was so weak and feeble it made Scarlet’s heart ache. All she wanted was to get him to safety.
Just then, she heard shouting coming from behind.
“They’re getting away!”
Scarlet realized with a sinking sensation that they were coming back to their senses, that despite their castle being destroyed and many of their brethren lying hurt and dying around them, their desire for vengeance was going to drive them on.
“Sage,” Scarlet said, “they’re coming for us. We need to go faster.”
Sage gulped and grimaced.
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
Scarlet tried to hasten her pace but Sage’s weakness was slowing them down. He had to stop running. She had to find somewhere safe to hide him so that they could at the very least say their goodbyes.
She looked over her shoulder to see several Immortalists advancing. There, at the back, half concealed by shadows, she saw Octal. So he wasn’t dead.
As the group gained on them, Scarlet saw that half of Octal’s face was badly burned. He must have been in significant pain and yet he still wanted to harm her and Sage. It made Scarlet so sad to think that the love between her and Sage outraged the Immortalists so much.
Suddenly, an almighty crash made Scarlet leap, and a sudden spray of icy water soaked her. She looked over her left shoulder to find that the whole side of the castle had crumbled into the sea, causing a mighty wave to crash over them.
She heard screaming and looked back to see the Immortalists tumbling into the sea. They fell so quickly they didn’t even have time to fly to safety, and as soon as they hit the waves, the angry ocean swallowed them up.
As the tiles began to give way beneath her feet, Scarlet slammed her back against the wall of the corridor and pushed Sage back with her arm. The black water churned several feet below them. Scarlet suddenly felt as though she were balancing precariously
