Holding on to Hope Read online

  “Les, you have no idea….” Ian began to speak but was interrupted by someone’s cell phone ringing. Leslie watched as Ronan dug his hand in his jean pocket and removed his phone.

  “Hello?” He paused for a long time. She watched his jaw clenching at something the person on the other end said. “Stay in hiding. We will be there in a few, understand?” He nodded at whatever the person on the other end said and ended the call. Then he looked up at Leslie desperately. “Look, I know you don’t trust me, but I am the only one who can help Brad right now. Dhampirs all over the city were looking for him, and some of them have managed to locate his position, so we need to make a move right now. I want you to stay here with your boyfriend….”

  “No!” Leslie spoke adamantly. “I am going to come with you.”

  “It’s not safe, Les.” Ian stepped up near her and tried to make her understand. “That old man who took Brad is a real vampire. He won’t be able to harm any dhampir, but humans are an easy prey for him. We have already risked Brad’s life, but we can’t risk your life too.”

  “I don’t care,” Leslie said, even though she wasn’t sure if she meant it.

  “Look, I promise to bring him back safe,” Ronan assured her. “I will be ready to die for him.”

  A tear escaped her eyes as she closed them shut and vigorously shook her head. “I can’t. I just can’t stay back here and keep worrying about Brad,” she sobbed.

  Ian took her in a warm embrace. “I know, Les. I know.”

  She hit his hard chest to get him off her and wiped her tears quickly. “You’re right,” Leslie said, looking at Ronan. “I don’t trust you with him. Why should I? You are the one who got him into all this trouble.”

  “Les….” Ian tried to hold her hand, but she slapped his touch away.

  “And I don’t understand why you think you are the only one who could save Brad from this.” Leslie narrowed her eyes.

  “Because the old man—as you call him,” Ronan said, in a very cold voice, “is my father. And I am the one who is destined to kill him.”

  Part 4

  AS THEY drove to their destination, Ian filled her in with a few more details about dhampirs. “The vampires aren’t natural beings. They are supposed to be resting in the graves, not out roaming around, feeding off of innocent human lives—or procreating, for that matter.” He looked disgusted. “So you see, we consider our dhampir life to be cursed with these twisted abilities that we get from our undead folks. This curse can only die out once we kill the person who is responsible for it.”

  Leslie stared as he raised his eyebrow, suggesting the obvious. “The vampire parent? Really?”

  “Female vamps can’t reproduce, obviously, so it is a male vamp who is the parent,” he clarified. “But, yes, the vampire father needs to die.”

  “And then these abilities, like, go away?”

  “Yep.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “But they are vampires, and you are like almost humans. Won’t they be stronger than you?”

  Ian grinned. “That’s the kicker, Les. With the powers inherited, we somehow are much stronger than the vamps. Why do you think they fear us?”

  Leslie turned her gaze to the rearview mirror from the backseat of the SUV where she sat with Ian. The classy car must belong to Ronan, she guessed, because he was the one driving it. It was no surprise that he owned such an expensive vehicle. After all, he owned and managed a successful nightclub in New York City.

  “Having to kill your own father… it’s just cruel,” she said with her voice lowered.

  Ronan’s blue eyes glanced up, looking at her in the mirror for a moment before he resumed concentrating on the road. He remained mysteriously silent all the while.

  “Not when your father is a vampire,” Ian countered her point, and she faced him again, listening to him intently. “You have no idea to what extent they go to prevent us from killing them. They know they can’t kill us, so instead they go after our human acquaintances, friends, or family.” He leaned forward a bit and continued in a voice just above a whisper. “Ronan’s father is the worst. For years, he has tracked down every human that meant something to his son and had them killed. He even killed Ronan’s mother right in front of him.” At the moment, she felt very bad for the blue-eyed dhampir, and she found herself staring at the back of Ronan’s seat with excess sympathy filling up her heart.

  Leslie also noticed Ian was trying to say something else along those lines. This was what they must have wanted to avoid, she realized, and so Brad had to forget Ronan. There was no other choice.

  Ian spoke about the dhampir clan they belonged to. “We are like a group of hunters with a common goal, so we stick together. We have each other’s back whenever there is a crisis,” he told her proudly. “Such as this. All Ronan had to do was send everyone a text to track down where his father and Brad were, and they were on it immediately.”

  He told her some more about the clan—how they trained to fight or had group meetings at Ronan’s nightclub on Sundays—before the vehicle came to an abrupt halt. Leslie looked out of the window and discovered that they had stopped on a street quite unfamiliar to her.

  “What is this place?” The old apartments running parallel on both sides of the street looked as if they would collapse at any second. The dark, moonless night made it seem even creepier.

  She heard Ronan’s sigh coming from the driver’s seat before he said, “This used to be my home.” Without any further explanation, he opened the car door and was out in a flash.

  Leslie turned toward Ian, wondering what it was all about. He took the cue and explained, “Being here, I guess, he is reminded of some bad memories.” He pointed out of the window at one of the apartments. “This is where his mother was killed.”

  It all made sense. She gazed at the building sorrowfully and mulled over how much pain Ronan must be in right now. However, it also brought some fear in her, realizing that Brad was most likely in there. She shivered, wondering what the old man must have done to him already.

  “Come on,” she heard Ian say, and the sound of the car door opening followed. She was about to open her door when Ian called for her attention.

  “Les,” he said, seeming a bit hesitant to express his thoughts to her. Leslie turned to look at him and found him standing outside. He had bent down, leaning over the open door to talk to her. “He had said yes.”

  She replayed their previous conversation in her mind, trying to figure out what he was talking about. “What?” she asked, finding herself lost.

  Ian sighed, looking down at the road. “The first time when Brad and Ronan met at my apartment, when Brad asked him out, Ronan did agree to go out with him.”

  “Oh!”

  “Yeah,” Ian said, and she watched wrinkles forming on his forehead. “But it was me who told him later that it was a bad idea, and I may have suggested the idea of wiping out his memory to Ronan.” He cringed. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry,” Leslie spoke in such a calm voice that it even surprised herself. In her mind, she was far from calm. The only thing she wished at that moment was to find Brad and get him home safely. “I understand now why you guys did what you did.”

  “Thank you.” He looked relieved. “I just wanted to tell you… it wasn’t easy for Ronan to glamour Brad. It was hard to convince him to do it in the first place. But even when he decided to do it, I could see on his face how much he was struggling. He was in pain, and that was just their first meeting. Imagine how much more pain it caused him when he had to do it over and over again.” Ian gave a sad smile. “I tell you, he loves him, Les. Ronan loves Brad. I don’t know why you can’t see it in his eyes or his actions. It’s so obvious to me.”

  He sounded so sincere to her that she almost believed him.

  Leslie shrugged. “I wish I could see what you see, Ian,” she said and hopped out of the car. Not giving him another glance, she walked over to the spot where Ronan stood with two
big, muscled guys. They were pointing at the house and whispering something to him.

  The temperature had dropped considerably. Although it hadn’t started to snow yet, the weather outside did show signs of it. Thankfully, Leslie had her coat and gloves to keep her body warm. The cold winds continued to slap her exposed skin, though, and she shivered every now and then.

  When Ronan saw her approaching, he signaled to the men to stop talking and spoke to her, “Les, I think you should wait inside the car.”

  “Dude, I don’t think that’d be such a good idea,” Ian said, before she could oppose. “She’ll be in more danger out here alone than with us. At least we can protect her.”

  Ronan looked between her and Ian before nodding, “Fair enough. But he can smell the fresh blood once we are in, so we’ll have to be extra cautious.”

  A prickly premonition of fear pervaded her senses. Smelling blood, glamour, feeding off of human life—it was all supposed to be a sheer fantasy. Reading about vampires in books was cool, but being real was too much. Leslie had tried to wrap her mind around the concept of some weird species called the dhampirs. Now she was about to face a real-life vampire. Her emotions were running wild, and she suddenly had second thoughts about her decision to leave Pat back in the nightclub.

  She had initially decided that putting his life in danger too wasn’t the right way to go about it. It had been quite an effort in getting Ronan to agree to let her come with them. When they left, Patrick was still in his dazed state because of the glamour Ronan had put on him. So she made sure the waitress would keep an eye on him, just in case he snapped out of it. Ronan, however, assured her that he wouldn’t.

  Being with a bunch of strange men now, she wished she could have her boyfriend’s hand to hold on to.

  She didn’t believe this was the time for her to be wasting on wistful thoughts, and so she focused on what Ronan was planning to do. He urged every one of them to stay together once again and dictated their positions.

  “Leslie should be protected all the time when we go in. We don’t know his exact position, so an attack could come at any time. Ian and I will be walking in the front, Leslie will be in the middle and Bo, Kol—” He looked at the other two men. “—you two will be walking behind Leslie, do you understand?” Bo and Kol nodded. “Do not, I repeat, do not, at any cost, leave your positions,” Ronan said, looking at each one of them and finally resting his sharp gaze on her. “And that means you too, Leslie.”

  She blinked innocently. “I get it.”

  “All right.” He sighed. His brief pause made Leslie want to know what he was thinking. “Let’s move.”

  Leslie was blinking away sweat from her eyes as soon as they took their first step inside the old, broken apartment building. The wooden floor was creaking, and she sensed danger from every nook and cranny. It was pitch-dark inside. All four men had small torches in their hands, giving some illumination at least, to make them aware of where they were going.

  Maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she heard weird voices coming from all around her. The half-open windows kept banging at their sills with the wind blowing outside. She turned her neck swiftly every time she thought she heard a sound, and after a while, Leslie started to experience pain near her nape. The building even stunk of pungent, sour-smelling clothes.

  Ian and Ronan came to an abrupt halt and spun cautiously in their spot. In the dim lights of the torches, she could see the alertness on their faces. For some reason, they were looking up at the ceiling with their mouths hanging open.

  “Did you hear that?” Ian’s whispered, making her realize she had missed something.

  “Yes,” Ronan said. If he had something more to say, he couldn’t because at that juncture, the attack they apparently were expecting came.

  Ian pulled Leslie behind him immediately and stood in a defense position. It was then she saw what was happening. The assault had come on the men walking behind her. Bo and Kol struggled as the creatures on their backs buried their heads on the men’s shoulders. Ian and Ronan had their torches pointed at the two attackers.

  “Son of a bitch!” Ronan muttered under his breath. “He’s got other vampires on guard.” Leslie guessed the dhampirs hadn’t expected there to be more vampires.

  The blue radiant light of the torch thrown at the vampires must have irritated one of them because the vampire on Kol’s back looked up and bared his fangs at them, making a catlike hissing sound. The hideous pale face, red eyes, and sharp teeth freaked Leslie out, and she jumped. What happened next was more ghastly, though.

  Since the vampire was distracted, Kol grabbed that opportunity to counterattack. Ian hadn’t been lying when he’d said that dhampirs were very powerful. Leslie watched in horror as Kol caught hold of the vampire’s neck somehow and flipped him over like he weighed nothing. The vamp was soon pinned down on the floor, limiting his area of movement. Kol twisted the vampire’s neck in a weird position and made him go still within seconds. He didn’t stop at that, though. Leslie’s eyes couldn’t follow his preternaturally fast movements, but she could make out that he had retrieved some kind of wooden stick—it was probably a stake, but she couldn’t be so sure—and plunged it right through his chest. Blood was sprayed all over Kol’s black leather jacket, and he had to even wipe some of it off his face.

  Leslie was about to let out a scream, totally appalled by the scene in front of her. However, Ronan put his hand over her mouth, and all that came out of her was a muffled gasp.

  “Shh… it’s okay. It’s over,” he whispered, near her ears. The oxygen in the room felt inadequate, and she panted heavily like a dying person. Her eyes refrained from blinking, and soon they were filled with tears threatening to fall. It affected her to see someone getting killed so brutally, even though the man was technically already dead. And probably, he deserved such a death too.

  She watched as Kol robotically stood up and went to help Bo.

  “Come on,” Ronan demanded, removing his hand from over her mouth. “I think Brad is upstairs. We should get going.”

  Leslie felt the push on her back, but she was too stunned to move. Ian had to put his hand around her shoulder and guide her to the staircase. However, she kept turning back to look at the fight Bo and Kol were still engaged in. The only vamp in that space was obviously outnumbered, yet he wouldn’t give up. Leslie thought he must have been pretty strong to still be standing against the two heavily built men. She kept looking, until she could see no more and found herself on the upper floor.

  A voice was heard, and the two men walking beside her exchanged wary looks. Ronan took off without uttering a word. Ian made a hand gesture for her to follow and sprinted behind Ronan, holding Leslie by her hand.

  All three of them reached an empty room that was dimly lit and had a few candles burning. “Brad!” Leslie gasped, finding her blond friend lying on the wooden floor like a cold corpse. At that moment, she actually thought he was dead because the gray-haired vampire was feeding off him and yet Brad didn’t move an inch. When the old man looked up, he had blood dripping from the corner of his lips, and Leslie felt the need to cry, witnessing what he had done to her friend.

  A ghastly paleness had spread over Brad’s face, and his eyes were wide-open, staring right up at the wall. Leslie concluded that Ronan’s father must have compelled him into keeping his body still while he fed.

  “Ronan!” An evil grin spread on the vampire’s face. “I was hoping I wouldn’t see you so soon.” He briefly glanced at Brad before telling his son, “Your boyfriend and I were just talking about you earlier. I must tell you, son, this young man has such good manners. I am quite impressed by your choice.” Leslie watched as the old man used his thumb to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth and then sucked on it. “He is delectable.”

  “Stay away from him, Volund,” Ronan threatened, fixing a dangerous gaze on his father. He made to step forward, but the vamp quickly took hold of Brad’s head.

  “Uh-uh!” Volund
warned. “Don’t make that mistake again, Ronan. You have already lost your mother because of it. You don’t want to lose your boyfriend too, or do you?”

  Ronan swallowed visibly and stepped back. “Leave him alone, Volund. I beg of you.”

  Volund smirked. “I knew the day would come when my son would fall in love.” He gave a cold laugh. “Tell you what, son, let’s make a deal here.”

  “What do you want?”

  “That pretty human girl over there.” His words and the lustful stare directed toward her seemed to cut through her very soul. Leslie was not at all interested in being eaten up by a vampire. She stepped closer to Ian and held his arm tightly.

  “Go to hell,” Ian spat.

  Volund looked innocently between the two dhampirs. “But I assumed you brought her as an offering in exchange for your boyfriend,” he said.

  “We have brought nothing but death for you, you bloodsucking fucker,” Bo said, walking into the room with Kol. Those two looked like they had bathed in fresh blood. “There are no other vampires in sight, except for this one,” Bo informed Ronan.

  Leslie could see the fear on Volund’s face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Finding himself alone and outnumbered by dhampirs that were against him, he must have thought it best not to piss them off anymore.

  “Fine, let’s make a different deal,” he said, finally letting go of Brad’s head. “Promise me that you will let me get out of here safely and I will let your boy-toy live.”

  “Not happening, old man.”

  “Fine.” Volund exhaled. “I’ll just kill him then.” He reached to hold Brad’s head once again.

  “No!” Leslie screamed, fearing that she would be experiencing another death before her eyes, and this time Brad would be the one to die.

  Something else happened, though.

  It appeared to be a perfectly timed move that Ronan made when he suddenly took a leap, landing right on his father before he even had the chance to touch Brad. Volund grunted and kicked his son off him. Ronan flew across the room, hitting one of the walls. Kol was the first one to attack Volund after that, and Bo followed suit. As she had seen them fighting before, Leslie knew there must be a reason why they weren’t trying hard. Neither of them tried to kill him with one of the weapons that they hid inside their leather jackets. She realized all they were trying to do was help Ronan to kill his father. After all, Ian did say that it was the only way to break the dhampir curse.