The Vampire's Release, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #4) by S.J. Wright Page B

sitting in that room and talking to Teddy about Michael came back to me.  I had felt that something had gone wrong.  I had known.  She refused to tell me.   She had been protecting me from the bad news.
    “ Tell m e , Alex,” I said. 
    He looked at me seriously for a few quiet seconds.  “You’re sure?”
    “Yes.”   But I was also sure that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to make much of a difference in how I felt about Michael.  We belonged to each other.  Alex couldn’t change that.  Jackson couldn’t change that.  No one would convince me that he was evil.
    Alex gazed at me with a sad expression and began talking in a low voice.
    “Amanda was the one who helped Michael escape.  She did it because she knew that if he was offered a chance to drink blood, he would take it.  Especially after they had drained most of the blood out of him.  But she didn’t give him the blood of a human.  She brought him Isaiah’s blood.”
    I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
    “Isaiah’s blood has changed him, Sarah.”
    “No.”
    He nodded forcefully.  “Yes.  When we were in the car, something triggered his thirst.  He wanted me to pull over because he had to g et away from  you .”
    “But before that, when he first came back…”   I wanted to explain how tender and amazingly gentle Michael had been with me at the cabin.  But it was too personal.  I couldn’t use it to argue in favor of him.
    “It could be progressive.  He may have been fine when he got back to the farm, but he’s not fine now.   After the accident, he attacked three teenagers who witnessed the crash.  It was caught on one of the guys’ cell phones.  The Council is trying to keep the video away from the media.”
    “The media?  Nobody would believe it, Alex.”
    He shrugged .  “Maybe not.  But do you think the Council wants to take that chance?”
    The idea of Michael physically attacking three humans seemed far-fetched to me.  I knew his past was full of those kinds of incidents, but the vampire I knew would never go after innocents.  It just wasn’t who he was anymore.
    “ How badly were they hurt ?”
    “The one who recorded it survived.  The other two…”  He abruptly stopped speaking, turned towards the window and then quickly stood up.  I looked towards the window and saw a shadow slice through the meager light coming in.   I heard a scrape and a rattle outside.
    Alex was alert.  He motioned for me to mov e against the wall by the bed, but I ignored him.
    “It could be Isaiah.  Get back,” he whispered.
    But I wasn’t about to listen to orders.  I knew exactly who was outside the window.   Before Alex could stop me, I unlocked the metal latch.  His hands stopped me from doing more.  He wrapped both arms around me and pulled me away from the window.
    “Let me go!” I yelled.
    Then I heard something from outside that made my heart sing.
    “Sarah?”   It was Michael’s low voice, soft and promising.
    “It’s him!” I cried.  But Alex wouldn’t let go.  He grabbed me by the shoulders.
    I pulled to the side, trying to dislodge myself.  But it was pointless.  He was too strong.  When I looked past Alex at the window, the face I adored was there.  He was there.  Michael was outside, waiting to be let in.
    “You don’t understand, Sarah!  He killed the other two,” Alex said.
    Shaking my head, I continued to struggle.  “No.  He wouldn’t do that.  Somebody lied to you.”
    “He killed them and then turned them.  He’s not the same, Sarah!” 
    Suddenly, he let me go.  His eyes went cold and his body went still.  Then h e gestured half-heartedly towards the window.  “Ask him, then.”
    Freed by his grip, I rushed to the window.   Frantically, I tried to pull it up but it wouldn’t move.  I heard a door opening behind me and then Teddy’s cool voice.
    “He can’t come in, Sarah.  He hasn’t been invited and you don’t have the power to do it.  Not here