It wasn’t like Christian could do anything to help Dala or anyone else anyway. Even if he could find them, it’s not like he had an antidote. I wished there was something I could do to stop Dala from transforming into one of those awful things, but Christian wasn’t the answer. As hard as it was to believe it might be possible to save her, I reminded myself that I had been spared. If we could get over there quickly enough, maybe we could save her, too.
I needed to tell Cadence and Aaron what I’d found out, but it was well past midnight, so I figured my sister was asleep. The time had really gotten away from me. I must’ve been in Dala’s head longer than I thought. I could tell Aaron—he never sleeps. But I didn’t want to tell him without talking to my sister. He’d probably ask me where Christian was, and I didn’t want to go into that right now.
Bed would’ve been a good option for me at that point, but I was all hyped up from the situation with Dala and knew I wouldn’t fall asleep anyway. My thoughts went to Brandon for just a fleeting moment, but I was able to push them aside. I wanted to talk to someone about what I’d just found out, but I felt more alone than I had in a long time.
I picked up my phone. If I couldn’t talk about Dala, maybe I could find out more about her so that if we weren’t able to save her, at least I could figure out who I needed to contact to say—something. Not the truth, but something.
I opened Facebook, figuring it would be the most likely to have a name and a face that matched with what I knew. I searched for Dala Toth and four people came up. I saw her face and knew it was her immediately. Luckily, her timeline was public.
The most recent post wasn’t from Dala. It was a woman named Zorta Toth, and I assumed it was her mother. “Dala, please come home. We miss you so much. Call me.” My heart was breaking again. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose a family member, and her poor mother had no idea what had happened to her daughter. She was probably feeling so guilty that the last conversation they’d had was in anger.
Dala had plenty of selfies on her timeline. She was cute. Her dark hair was way shorter than mine, but we had a lot in common. We could probably wear each other’s clothes. In several of the pictures, there was a guy, and I could tell by the way Dala was looking at him that she liked him. I didn’t think he was her boyfriend, though. I wondered where he was and if he knew what had happened to her. I hoped he didn’t have first-hand experience. I could check for his name on the list later or jump into his head, but for now, I kept flipping through pictures of this girl—this real human being who was in a hole in the ground now, scared, alone, and turning into a monster.
The whole thing made me so angry. What gave Daunator or anyone else the right to grab someone off the street and commit such a heinous act against them? I wished I could go over there right now, hunt him down, and make him pay for his sins. It occurred to me that if the rest of the team had listened to me and made the trip last week, when I first told them we needed to go, Dala and several others wouldn’t be in the state they were in.
As upset as I was for not being heard, I was more angry at Daunator. We needed to go find him, now. If Christian’s new weapons worked, maybe there was a way we could strike him down. With the rage building up inside of me, I thought I could possibly take him myself. It occurred to me that I sounded like Christian, but I ignored that and imagined Daunator in front of me, my hand outstretched, unleashing all of my powers on him, as the Vampire began to crumble, shrivel and turn to ash.
“You cannot defeat me.”
The sound of Daunator’s voice in my head made me physically jump off of the couch. How had he known what I was thinking? “Get out!” I shouted, looking around the room. Was he monitoring my thoughts somehow? What were the chances he’d just happened to leap into my head as I was planning his demise? Or had Schmitz been right and naming him did summon the beast?
A low cackle began to fill my head, growing louder and louder. A rush of cold transformed my skin into a mountain of gooseflesh as he snarled, “You cannot force me out. You cannot sneak up on me. I will know when you are near. But if you think you have any sort of weapon that could possibly end me, think again. Nothing can, child. Nothing!”
His words were a roar in my mind, and then the laughter began again. My hands flew to my ears, but they did no good. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t get him out of my head. “Get out! Get out! Get out!” I demanded, both with every fiber of my mind’s power and my lips, but Daunator didn’t budge and the laughter continued.
This was going to drive me insane, and it wouldn’t take long at this rate. I felt as if my entire brain was vibrating with every utterance of laughter that broke free of his mouth. A few minutes passed, and he wasn’t letting up. I had no idea what to do. With no other thought but to make it stop, to get help, I ran out of my apartment, my hands still over my ears, to the first place I thought of when I needed to feel safe and protected. I didn’t know if anyone could help me, but I knew one person who would do anything he could to help me make this stop before I lost my mind.