Page 12 of Liberty

He reached into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper and handing it to me. “But it is.”

I took the paper and unfolded it, looking down at the familiar drawing of James’ wife. I mean, I guess they had a resemblance, a little. I looked behind me to the girl who was curled into a ball, trying to make herself look smaller as if that would stop us from seeing her. Her gaze went upward toward me, crystal blue eyes falling on me and my lungs stopped moving.

It was her. The exact replica of James’ wife, sitting right in front of us. Her long black hair tangled around her face, her makeup smudged, but there was no doubt in my mind. It. Was. Her. But it couldn't be.

Oak knelt down before her, his hands shaking, and he reached to touch a piece of her hair. As if that touch alone had magic, the moment his fingers latched on to the lock of black, a peace settled over us all. The world snapped into place, and the tension was gone.

She didn’t pull away from his touch like I thought she might have, though he moved slow enough that she had all the opportunity in the world to do so. Instead, I could have sworn she leaned toward it, seeking comfort from the man, or was it beast, that saved her.

“Sarah?” Sterling asked in awe as he stepped closer.

She looked up to him and shook her head. “I don’t know who Sarah is.”

We could’ve been mistaken, but I doubted it. The chances of just stumbling upon James’ dead wife’s doppelganger mere hours after we learned of her existence, couldn’t be chance. Add in the fact that we were pulled here, drawn to this location by some unnatural desire to help her, made me even more suspicious.

I knelt down and reached toward her, only to be stopped by Oak’s arm, blocking my hand. “Don’t touch her.”

“You’re touching her,” I pointed out.

“She isn’t afraid of me,” he growled.

I found that unlikely. After that shit show I just witnessed from him, even I was a bit afraid. But yet, even without looking at her, I felt what he spoke was true. Even without listening to her heartbeat’s drumming, I knew she was more afraid of Sterling and I than of the massive vampire at her feet.

I pulled my hand back. “I will not hurt you.”

“Yeah? That’s what the other guy said, and I trusted him.” she sputtered, but I felt her lie, and I think she knew it, something that seemed to throw both of us off for a moment.

I tilted my head to examine her. “What are you?”

She swallowed. “I should ask you that question.”

Her voice was hoarse from screaming so loud. “I think you know what we are, Sarah.”

She blinked a few times, not even bothering to deny that she knew. “My name is not Sarah.”

I found that hard to believe, “Then what is it?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but when Sterling knelt next to us, the air charged and shifted, surrounding us with such a thick layer of electric energy that my skin pricked and burned. The girl gasped, her hair lifting off her face to float in the air surrounding her. She looked at each one of us, panic and fear evident in her eyes. Hell, it was in us too.

The wind picked up, the electricity zoomed, the girl screamed, then the world went black.