Broken Elites (The Vampire Legacy Book 3)

by Rita Stradling

  “Get out of here… get your human friend out of this pit, Bridget, now,” I gritted out, “…I don’t want to attack her, but my blood supply is missing... this favor is over. Thank you. Goodbye. I’ll find my own way out of here.”

  “We’re going. I’m sorry it went down like this,” Bridget said, “I need to tell you something before you go in there—”

  “Just go!”

  Without another word, she grabbed Sam’s arm and dragged her up the embankment.

  “Sorry!” the witch called as she disappeared over the hill.

  The crypt demon made to follow the girls, but I stepped into his path. His chest was silent. If he had a beating heart, it didn’t contain blood, and he smelled just as he did before, like dust and rotten meat. “You’re not going after them.” I shook my head. “No fucking way.”

  “You can’t stop me,” he whispered, and the quiver of excitement in his voice now sounded a whole lot more like fear. “You can’t kill me outside the ring.”

  No way was I going to let this creature stalk Bridget and Sam through the parking lot. I wasn’t that far gone yet. “And you can’t deny a challenge. I thought you wanted a deathmatch, demon?”

  “No, I don’t want that anymore. I’m sorry… let me, let me make amends…” Instead of quivering, his whole body shook, like an addict denied a fix. His pupils were a matte black, devoid of his earlier ravenous hunger. He was terrified of me, and I didn’t know why, but I was going to use it to my advantage.

  “Sure. Make amends. There’s too much light for me to see out there. Go get me my blood, and I’ll forget that you were trying to eat me a minute ago.”

  “I’m sorry for insulting you, Blood Princess.” The long thin man went to his hands and knees and scuttled across the floor of the pit, moving into the bright, blinding light like a spider.

  I couldn’t even see him. The UV spotlights were burning my eyes. If this creature or anyone else wanted to take me out, this was their perfect opportunity. A moment later, though, he scuttled closer and held up my metal bottle.

  I took it, feeling the cold metal against my burning skin. “Now you’re going to lead me into this party—or whatever is going on in there, and then I’ll release you.”

  Hopefully that would give my friends enough time to escape.

  The crypt demon watched me, looking like he might run, but instead, he turned to the cave entrance and slunk forward. As we descended a severe slope, I turned the cap on my bottle and chugged the contents while keeping my surroundings in view for every second. Old fishy blood splashed over my tongue, so foul that I could barely choke it down, but as soon as it made its way into my throat, it drenched the fire that was crackling in my chest. I tipped up my bottle and got my last sip of liquid that tasted distinctly like freezer-burned fish sticks. My fangs didn’t recede.

  The creature led me down a steep cement ramp that leveled off into what looked like an underground bunker. Flickering halogen lights illuminated a long, underground room with a pit in its center. From our angle, I could see that hundreds of men and women and creatures stood at the edge of the pit, clutching bars that ran along all sides of the hole. The volume of the noise in the space had me staggering back a step. It sounded like hundreds of voices were bouncing around the space, amplified a thousand times over.

  The moment we were inside, the crypt demon turned tail and bounded back the way we’d come, likely looking for more hapless incomers he could demand a toll from.

  I took a steadying breath before descending the rest of the way in. The crowd filled every inch of the underground around the cage. There was no way that I could get close to the cage, so I went to stand just on the fringe, craning my neck to see beyond, when the businessman looking guy beside me swiveled his head toward me like it was on a Lazy Susan. Twist lines showed over his neck as his pupils fixed on me, widening into horizontal slits.

  He stepped back and gestured before him. “Go ahead, princess.”

  Princess? That was the second time tonight someone called me that. Professor Sharp had told me that I was practically the Blood Princess. Clearly, the Supernatural community believed I was. Not only that, they recognized me the moment I showed my fangs.

  “Thank you,” I said, only to have a woman in an auto repair jumper offer for me to go ahead of her. It kept going that way, a woman in a professional-looking dress with a French twist glanced at me with glowing yellow eyes and stepped out of my way. She made a low growling sound in the back of her throat as she did it, but she opened a path to the front of the crowd.

  I stepped up to the bars, somehow hearing the hum of the quivering metal over the crowd.

  Two winged demons circled each other. Each was large and shirtless, and wearing only ripped jeans. Blood soaked their chests and dripped from their clawed hands. One had large bat wings with spiked ends. The other had feathery wings that were gray and speckled with dark spots as well as blood. The two men circled each other, mostly obscured by their wings.

  “Is that an angel?” I whispered to myself as I narrowed my eyes at the man with feathery wings.

  “They’re both demons.” A guy my age leaned into the bars beside me and peered at me with a narrowed gaze. He looked like an All-American high school quarterback with a wavy, short haircut and boy-next-door good looks. Incongruous with his handsome human features were his slit pupils, surrounded by a glowing yellow iris. There was a predatory glint in his cat eyes that made me think he was more of the serial killer next-door variety. “What exactly are you supposed to be. All these lovely patrons are calling you the Blood Princess.”

  “I honestly don’t know,” I muttered as I turned back to the ring, hoping Cat-eyes would move on. Justin was supposed to be here somewhere, but I didn’t see him. Was he already preparing to go in the ring for the deathmatch? My heart raced as I looked from face to face in the crowd. What would have possessed him to come down here?

  “Are Blood Princesses supposed to be any good at deathmatches? I don’t usually challenge anyone, but I’m very curious,” Cat-eyes said in a soft voice that I somehow heard over the roaring crowd. When I glanced over to the young man, he was grinning, and his wide smile and sharp canines were even more feline than his eyes.

  “What can I say to make you lose interest in talking to me?” I asked. “I’m here looking for a friend. Once I find him, I’m dragging him out of here, and I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

  “That wasn’t the right thing to say,” Cat-eyes said. “You drove in here in a van owned by the Brightside Pack, accompanied by two of the Pack’s delicious little Alderwood stooges, but I’ve never seen you at school. All evidence points to the fact that you’re on their side.”

  I blinked up at the feline-looking guy. “There are sides?”

  “Wow. You definitely don’t go to Alderwood,” Cat-eyes said with a chuckle. “So, you’re what, a shifter of some sort that the Pack is hiding? You do know you’re in one of the Pitchfork Clubhouses, don’t you?”

  “Like a motorcycle club?” I asked.

  “Some of us have bikes, but that’s not what binds us together—that would be the fact that we’re all demons.”

  My gut tightened so much that I almost thought I was going to be sick. I gripped the bars as a wave of adrenaline flooded through my system. Of all Supernaturals, demons definitely got the worst rep among humans, but I knew that much of that happened during the Christianization of Europe. Motorcycle Clubs got a bad rep too, but ninety-nine percent of bikers were upstanding citizens. I couldn’t jump to conclusions here.

  Cat-eyes leaned into the bars until I didn’t have a choice but to look at him. “Do you know what the Pitchforks do if we find Pack members sneaking in here?”

  “I’m not part of any pack or group, or club for that matter.” I tried to keep my voice as even as possible as I said the lie. I had no doubt that the moment Cat-eyes found out the group I was truly affiliated with, would be my last. “I think the demons here are calling me Blood Prin
cess out of respect for my father—”

  “And who is your father?” Cat-eyes asked as he raised his brows. “Are you divine?” His gaze flicked down my front before rising back to my face. “No,” he answered his own question, and I was pretty sure it was an insult.

  Something wet and warm sprayed up my front, and a familiar and delicious taste blossomed on the tip of my tongue. I licked my lips, savoring more of the sweet, chocolatey flavor. It only took me a second to realize it was blood from the demons in the pit. I looked down just in time to see the leathery winged demon rip the wings off the other, and a spray of blood splattered the crowd as the wing joint separated.

  Even though I’d never seen human bodies with wings attached to them before, there was something so hideous and wrong about watching one creature rip the wings off another.

  The bat-winged demon circled the pit with his full set of wings high in the air while the feathery demon fell to his knees. He only had severed stubs where mottled feathers so recently were.

  The bat demon grasped his adversary’s head, lifting his face up to the light. All around me, the group cheered, and I was getting the feeling that this fight was coming to an end with a clear victory in sight.

  I stared down at an unmistakable face, and the whole world faded away. My heart froze in my chest. The set of his features were horribly familiar, but it was impossible. Beneath the blood, the demon with ripped wings had Justin’s features.

  I leaned in. “Justin!”

  Golden eyes snapped open, locking in on mine.

  The All-American guy next to me leaned in. “You know that one?”

  “That’s my boyfriend.” It didn’t make any sense. Time seemed to slow as the demon holding Justin roared his victory. “Please,” I begged the cat-eyed demon. “Can you stop this?”

  “I can, but I’m not sure I should. Your boyfriend clearly has a death-wish.” Cat-eyes let out a slow whistle, and the bat-winged demon pulled his hands from Justin’s head only to grab Justin’s shoulders and launch him against the wall. His beaten and bruised body smacked into the concrete wall, bounced off, and plopped onto the ground, unmoving.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  A booing rose through the crowd as Justin’s body continued to lay there, unmoving. Blood coated every inch of his torso and soaked into his ripped jeans.

  My hands lifted to cover my mouth as a ringing in my ears drowned out the roar of the crowd. My mind exploded into a thousand tiny pieces as I stared down at Justin’s face.

  No.

  This wasn’t Justin.

  This couldn’t be him.

  My eyes were tricking me.

  The bat-winged demon lifted his bloody claws up over his head, and an immense cheer rose up over the booing.

  “Brutus! Brutus!” The crowd repeated all around us as they stomped on the ground.

  A sudden, violent rage built in my chest. If this crowd didn’t stop cheering, I would fight each and every one of them, starting with the cat-eyed demon and ending with Brutus as he cheered over Justin’s corpse.

  “Brutus’ signature move is ripping off their heads at the end. I’m never going to hear the end of this from my father,” the quarterback looking guy with cat eyes and sharp canines said from beside me. “Don’t say that I never did anything for you, Blood Princess.”

  My hands shook as the rage drained from me in a rush. “Justin isn’t dead?”

  “Quiet.” Cat-eyes threw back his head in clear annoyance. “Not exactly the brightest, are you?”

  A sudden wash of relief crashed into me.

  “I guess not,” I muttered. He could insult me all he wanted so long as Justin was alive.

  “Come with me,” Cat-eyes said. Nodding back into the crowd.

  My gut squeezed into a hard knot as I followed behind the guy. The demons had shifted out of my way, but they rushed out of Cat-eyes’ path.

  A ringing started in my ears, and it drowned out the roar of the crowd. The faces around me blurred, and it took all of my concentration to walk forward on the stilts that should have never been considered appropriate footwear. Blood splattered down my front. Justin’s blood. My whole face burned, and I didn’t know if I was going to cry or be sick.

  I followed him deeper into the club, knowing that the only correct response to this situation was to flee like hell, but hope kept me moving forward. Was Justin alive? Was Justin even here, or was he asleep in his bed while this winged demon walked around town with his face?

  Cat-eyes led me through to a narrow staircase down into the earth. My heart stampeded in my chest as I followed him in, and a metal door slammed shut behind us, echoing low through the stairwell. The roar of the crowd instantly silenced, and the guy ahead of me peered back over his shoulder. I would say that his look was sly, but that could just be the feline set of his face.

  I hesitated on the stairs. “Is Justin alive?”

  “Presently, but I doubt he will be for long. Your boyfriend walked into the clubhouse and threw down an open challenge before he told us that if he died, we should toss his corpse out into the street like trash. He said that he wanted our best fighter, and he got what he asked for.” Cat-eyes gave me another feline grin. “I’ve figured out who you are, Blood Princess.”

  I nodded. “Who am I then?”

  The guy lifted his palm, and a ball of fire formed on his hand. “I saw the delight in your eyes as you tasted blood. You would be Dante Mortus’ half-vampire daughter, wouldn’t you? That’s what makes you the Blood Princess. Meaning, you don’t go to Alderwood because the Sabs have you at Blackburn.”

  I released a shaky breath. “For now, they do.”

  “And the Pack’s doing you favors, clearly...” His lips twisted, “…If you can call dropping you off here a favor.” Cat-eyes leaned against the wall and crossed one leg over the other, getting comfortable. “What do they want from you?”

  “Information.” I widened my stance just a little, not knowing if this guy was going to attack or help me. “They wanted to know about Sebastian Holter’s Alphastrain project.”

  The guy made a low, resonant hum that almost sounded like purring. “We heard rumors that Sebastian Holter lost power, but now the word is that it was all a ruse. The sadist is back on top.”

  A chill that had nothing to do with the cold, concrete stairwell we were in, crept over my skin, raising the hair on my arms. “Not openly. He’s killed a lot of people in the Hawthorn Group. He tried to kill me, but I’m starting to believe that the Hawthorn Group is only pretending to care.”

  The guy’s yellow eyes sparkled with interest that verged on hunger. “We would happily kill Sebastian Holter for you.”

  My eyes met his, and a new emotion gripped hold of me, sudden and intense.

  “You like that idea, don’t you, Blood Princess?” His voice was definitely a purr now.

  I was so utterly tempted to tell this cat demon—or whatever he was—to go ahead and do it.

  “All you would need to do is tell us where and when, and we’ll take him out for you… for a price.”

  The demon’s last words sobered me. For a price. I would literally be making a deal with a devil to murder someone for me. I negated the offer with one decisive shake of my head. “As much as I’d love to take you up on your offer, I have no idea where they’re keeping him.”

  Cat-eyes laughed. “Well, when you know, you can get word to me through Parker Cleary… I’m assuming she’s how you found out about your boyfriend’s fight, even though she didn’t even do me the honor of coming in to say hi.”

  “You know Parker?” I asked.

  The guy kicked off the wall and headed down the cement steps. “Everyone knows Parker, unfortunately. And, she’s been hanging out in my parking lot all night.”

  At the bottom of the cement steps, we exited out into a long corridor with more metal doors. The teenage demon led me to the end where a staircase ascended.

  “I did you a favor back there, meaning you owe me…”


  “A favor?” I asked.

  Cat-eyes clicked his tongue and pointed back at me. “How much is your boyfriend’s life worth to you?”

  I balled my hands into fists. “How am I supposed to answer that question?”

  Cat-eyes pushed open the metal door at the end of the corridor and held it open. “You figure it out, Princess of Blood. That is how much you owe me. And you better believe I’ll collect—half-demons always collect on debts. I’ll be paying a visit to your boyfriend as well.”

  “You did one favor, which means you can only collect one favor, period.” I wasn’t even sure where the words came from, but they sounded right.

  “That’s fair, though if I have to make a choice, you’re far more interesting than this demon with a death wish is.” Cat-eyes glanced out the door and grinned. “Speak of the devil, and she appears.”

  “Here I am, darling.” Parker Cleary strolled up with a cigarette between two fingers. She exchanged a kiss on the cheek with Cat-eyes before the guy turned around and disappeared back through the heavy metal door.

  Parker sucked on her cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke, directly into my face. “Come on, January. Justin is already bleeding all over my carpet.” She lit a second cigarette with her first and tossed the butt on the ground. “This way—I have blood in the car to get rid of your fugly little fang problem.”

  I followed her through rows of parked cars, and I couldn’t help but marvel how normal all of them were. Some had bumper stickers with stick figures of a family and a dog. Some had political stickers. A few were even fancy, environmentally friendly cars.

  Parker stopped by a large SUV that practically oozed money. The rims looked like they were pure gold, and the entire vehicle was tinted so dark, it reflected the night around us, like a giant mirror.