Tainted Night, Tainted Blood (Kat Redding)

by E. S. Moore

  I managed to push back, flopping my body backward before he could finish me off. My head hit the ground hard enough to jar some sense back into me. I managed to roll out of the way as Thomas thrust his sword down where my heart would have been. His blade struck the ground and stuck there, nearly all the way to the hilt.

  He was strong, but the hard earth was stubborn. He fought with the blade, snarling in such rage he was probably making it harder on himself than he had to.

  I used the seconds it afforded me to work my way to my gun. I grabbed the modified Glock and aimed, a mere twitch of the finger away from ending the fight.

  I couldn’t pull the trigger. My hand tensed and I tried to will myself to alter my aim and at least shoot him in the leg. The silver would incapacitate him and I could figure out what to do from there.

  But I couldn’t do it. He was my brother. I couldn’t cause him any more pain. He had suffered enough.

  Thomas yanked his sword free and turned on me. His eyes were still his own, having not been affected by the partial change. I could see the brother I had lost in them. His features might be contorted from the mixed blood, but it was still Thomas. I might not be able to see it through his actions, but he was in there somewhere. He had to be.

  I jerked my aim away and fought my way to my feet. My knees tried to buckle, but I managed to stand without falling. My head swam, my hand trembled. I was covered in blood, and most of it was my own.

  “Thomas,” I said, backing slowly away. He advanced on me, one foot in front of the other, sword held at the ready. He eyed my gun. I think it was the only thing keeping him from coming at me wildly again. “Think,” I said. “It’s me.”

  His upper lip raised in a sneer. He growled, tightening his grip on his sword. There was no hint of the man I once knew in his gaze.

  He approached, stalking toward me like I had seen him stalk toward a vampire or wolf back when we hunted together. I didn’t know if it was muscle memory causing him to act like this or if it was something else. I hoped there was something of the real Thomas in there. If there was, then I had a chance.

  Of course, it was the fear that he was still in there somewhere that kept me from shooting him. If he had been acting any other way, had acted like the animal he was supposed to be, then maybe I could have done it. It was my fear of hurting my brother that kept me from ending both our suffering.

  My sword was a few feet away and I considered rushing for it. I could try to fend him off while I tried to reach him. If I could just make him understand who I was, I was almost positive he would stop. It had worked with Nathan back at House Tremaine. I’d managed to talk to him, to get him to work through the Madness and leave me be. It would work with Thomas too. It had to.

  I started to move toward the sword and Thomas shifted his advance to intercept me. I halted immediately, not wanting to provoke him.

  The arm holding the gun fell to my side. I was too weak to hold it up any longer. I doubted I could even use my sword if it came to that. If he were to take me down again, I wasn’t so sure I could get back up.

  My legs trembled; the world wasn’t just swimming now, it was in a full-tilt swing. I could feel the blood running down my back, my shoulder, my neck and chest. My right arm was throbbing, and it was getting harder and harder to keep my fingers curled around the gun. I wasn’t even sure where my knife was. I must have dropped it somewhere.

  There was only one thing I could think to do to survive this.

  I feigned to the left just as Thomas had done to me. As soon as he shifted his weight, I took off to the right. I spun around, nearly fell flat on my face, and bolted for the backyard, putting every last ounce of strength I had left into it.

  Thomas howled and I could hear him pound after me. My left shoulder hit the corner of the house as I went past. I staggered a few steps before regaining my balance.

  A pile of wood was stacked against the side of the trailer, chopped and ready for winter. I had just enough time to reach down and yank a long log out from the bottom and kick the stack. The wood tumbled down behind me.

  Thomas cried out, an inhuman sound that chilled me straight to the bone. He fell hard but was on his feet just as fast. I glanced over my shoulder and saw he still had his sword in hand. He ran slightly hunched over, like he wanted to drop to all fours.

  I pushed myself harder. My motorcycle wasn’t too far away. I just needed to get to the trees and use them as a shield against him.

  I felt something brush the back of my coat and risked another glance over my shoulder. Thomas was stumbling, lips peeled back in a snarl. He had swung his sword at me and had just barely missed. An inch more and he might have severed my spine.

  I ran all the faster, pushing my weary legs well past what they wanted to do. My left knee nearly buckled as I burst into the trees, jumping over the dead wolf corpse. I bounced off a sapling and staggered around a large oak just as Thomas came in behind me. The quiver of his sword where it had struck the tree told me how close I had come to losing my head.

  Black dots sprang into my vision as I ran. I was running on pure adrenaline. I had nothing left in the tank, and I wasn’t even sure I would survive if I did manage to escape. I was losing a lot of blood.

  It was starting to feel like I was running through waist-high water. My legs were screaming and my right arm was hanging useless at my side. I could taste blood in my mouth and I knew it wasn’t from my fangs pushing through.

  My Honda came into view and I nearly cried out in relief. I started for it, my body rejuvenated at the sight.

  Thomas crashed into me just before I reached the edge of the road. We went down hard together. His teeth tore into my already useless shoulder and I screamed.

  We rolled on the ground, with him latched on to me like a human-sized leech. Sucking sounds came from where his teeth had sunk into my flesh.

  “No,” I said through clenched teeth. I knew he was already tainted, but the thought of him consuming more vampire blood scared me. I didn’t know if he could get any worse than he already was. I didn’t want to find out.

  I slammed us both up against a tree, using him to buffer me from the blow. His teeth came from my shoulder with a rip and I screamed again, nearly blacking out from the pain. As strong and resilient as I was as a vampire, I had never taken this much of a beating.

  Thomas tried to bury his claws in me to hold me still. He caught a handful of my coat instead. He roared in my ear and tried to bite me again. I slammed my head back and the back of my skull connected solidly with his mouth. I felt a tooth break on my scalp and blood started pouring out of my head, matting my hair.

  His grip on me loosened and I fought my way away from him. My coat came away, caught on his claws. I had lost my gun somewhere in the woods and was thankful he seemed to have lost his sword as well. It was probably still stuck in the tree back where he had tried to behead me. If he had still had his weapon, I’d probably be dead.

  I bolted for my Honda, hoping I could reach it before he could work himself free of the tangle of my coat. I leaped onto the seat, started the engine, and gave it so much gas I nearly lost control.

  I shot down the road, breath coming out in pained gasps. I didn’t look behind me, fearing what I might see. I drove as fast as I could, putting distance between me and the bloody scene.

  A rage-filled howl lit up the night, causing me to bear down harder on the gas. I sped up, woozy and bleeding from multiple wounds.

  I was alive, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I would last.

  19

  I staggered my way to the Luna Cult Den, not really paying attention to where I was going. I knew I couldn’t go home and let Ethan see me like this. He would freak out, and right then, I couldn’t handle that.

  The sidewalk seemed to sway back and forth, and I had to consciously make sure each foot fell in front of the other. It was a miracle I’d managed to drive all the way there and not crash into something. I could hardly stand without falling.

&nbs
p; I had no idea where the cameras were placed around the Den. I just hoped someone would see me and help me inside when I got there. My coat was gone, I was covered in blood, and I was so weak I wouldn’t be able to fend off an attacker if someone decided to take advantage of my weakened state. There were some in the Cult I was sure would love to have the pleasure.

  But where else was I going to go? If home was out, this was it. I had to take my chances that someone wouldn’t take advantage of my condition and would get me help instead.

  Nobody came out to help me inside, so I trudged up the stairs and fell against the door, breath ragged. I was still losing a lot of blood. While the lesser wounds had already stopped bleeding and had begun to heal, the one in my back was still bleeding badly. I might not die from the wounds, especially if I found someone to feed on to replenish what was lost, but it could be a near thing.

  I somehow managed to get the door open despite the fact my right arm was totally useless. I dragged myself through the glamour-made darkness and fell face-first into the light, unable to support myself any longer.

  My world swam in darkness, though I could still hear what was going on around me. Someone said something harsh in Spanish and a moment later, I was lifted roughly from the floor. I gibbered something close to “Sorry,” though I wasn’t quite sure what I was sorry about. I think it had something to do with getting blood on their floor.

  Wind hit me in the face as I was taken back outside. I wanted to protest, to tell them who I was and that I’d come there for help. But instead of dropping me into the grass, I was carried farther, held by strong, supportive arms.

  I could smell cinnamon on whoever was carrying me. I tried to focus on the face, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make my eyes cooperate. Others moved around me, but like the guy carrying me, they were indistinct shapes, just barely glimpsed at the edge of my fuzzy vision.

  Deep down, my sense of self-preservation, as well as my stubborn independent streak, tried to fight to the surface. This wasn’t me. I didn’t go crawling to others for help. I’d been hurt before and had managed to take care of it myself. If I had gone home, Ethan would have made sure I got blood.

  But then he would know how fucked up things had become. I couldn’t do that to him. If Ethan saw me so screwed up, he would certainly insist on helping me in some way that would put him in danger. I couldn’t do that to him.

  We passed from the chilly night into an underground area I soon recognized as the Luna Cult garage. A few minutes later, I was put into the back of a car. The engine started and two shapes took their places in the front, leaving me alone stretched across the back seat. I tried to ask where we were going, but my mouth refused to work.

  The drive wasn’t long. I felt totally helpless and it pissed me off to no end. I tried to fight away the darkness that was creeping up on my vision, tried to make my body obey my mental commands, but it was no use.

  The car came to a stop after ten minutes that felt like an eternity. Both people up front got out. A moment later, the back door opened and the cinnamon smell returned. I was scooped up and gently pulled through the opening.

  They took me inside and set me down on a bed. The lights were dim, just enough to illuminate the room, but not so bright as to make it uncomfortable. It was soothing, actually. The place smelled clean, almost hospital clean.

  My heart seized and I tried to sit up. I wanted nothing to do with a hospital. Supes died under the care of Pureblood doctors. It didn’t happen all the time, but there were quite a few Purebloods who took matters in their own hands in a futile attempt to take back the night.

  A hand pressed me back down and I could do nothing to resist. Agony flared in my back, along my shoulder and chin, and it was all I could do to keep from screaming. A needle was pressed into my right arm and my left hand shot around my body instinctively. I grabbed a wrist that felt strong, but was so thin it had to belong to a woman.

  Sudden images of the crazy woman’s face in the alleyway flashed through my head and I nearly panicked.

  “It’s okay.” The voice came from my left and I turned my head to look. I could just make out the face as the adrenaline kicked back in, clearing my vision. Jonathan laid a hand on my good shoulder. “Let her do her job.”

  I laid back, though I was raging inside. I hated to admit it, but I was terrified. I’d never been beaten this badly. What if something was hurt worse than what my body could fix? What if I didn’t heal all the way and couldn’t fight like I used to? I had seen it before. One look at Jonathan could tell me everything I needed to know about the limitations of our supernatural healing.

  The needle went the rest of the way into my arm and the pain subsided almost instantly. I breathed a sigh of relief and settled back in, no longer caring what happened to me. Whatever I had been injected with had to have been pretty strong stuff. Most drugs didn’t work on vampires. The taint in our blood killed it before it could affect us.

  Someone tugged at my boots, pulling them from my feet. I was okay with that. It wasn’t until the cold press of scissors against my flesh brought me sitting up again.

  “No,” I said, pushing away at the hand at my waist.

  “She needs to remove the clothing to check your wounds. You are seriously injured.”

  I turned to glare at Jonathan, though I think all I managed was a delirious, blank look. He still got the message.

  “We’ll leave,” he said, rising from a chair next to my bed. He motioned for someone else and I noticed Nathan was standing against the wall. He was covered in blood. It was probably mine.

  The two men left the room and I turned to face the woman standing over me. She was small, petite, and would have been pretty if it wasn’t for a missing eye and ear. Her hair was done in a way so that it fell over her face, concealing most of the damage, but there were just some things you couldn’t hide.

  “I’ll be gentle,” she said, her accent thick, though I had no idea where she had come from. “But I need to remove the clothing or I cannot do my job.”

  “Where am I?” I asked, taking in the room. There was a vase with flowers beside the bed. The walls were painted a light blue, and the floor was hardwood. The wood was darkened in a few spots as if someone had spilled something on it, most likely blood.

  “You’re in my home,” the woman said. “I am Doctor Isa Lei. I will take care of you, make you better.”

  I leaned back, my strength waning. At least it wasn’t a hospital. “Never heard of you,” I said, laying my head back and closing my eyes.

  “Not many have. I like it that way.” The scissors went to work.

  My clothes fell away and I was conscious that someone else had come into the room to help the doc roll me over, though I didn’t look to see who it was. The movement brought some of the pain back, but it was distant. I just wanted to sleep.

  Lei started poking and prodding me, pressing her fingers against the wound in my back. I hissed at the agony that brought but didn’t move. I was hoping she knew what I was, knew what my blood could do to her. I wasn’t sure if she was a wolf, a vamp, or a Pureblood, and right then, I wasn’t so sure it mattered. I just wanted the pain to end.

  Eventually, the prodding stopped and the needlework began. My wounds were scrubbed out, igniting the pain to new heights. My teeth were out and I was bleeding from the gums, making an even bigger mess on the bed than I was sure I had already made. The mattress felt squishy.

  I was too weak to bite anyone, however. Once the scrubbing stopped, Doctor Lei started sewing me up. She seemed to take forever on my back and I wondered how bad it really was. It felt like she was sticking the needle all the way into the muscle.

  The shoulder and chin didn’t take nearly as long and didn’t hurt nearly as much. She probably could have left them alone and I would have healed okay, though the scars would have been pretty bad.

  After a few hours, she was done, and I was lying alone on the bed, sheet pulled up to my chin. I was still naked. I felt we
ak as hell, but at least I didn’t think I was going to die.

  I expected Jonathan to come in right away to check on me, but after the first hour passed, no one had come into the room. Doctor Lei came in sometime during the second hour and sat down next to me.

  “Are you feeling better?”

  I nodded. My stitches pulled with the motion, but it didn’t hurt as bad as it had before.

  “I sewed you up with a special kind of stitching,” she said. “They will help the healing process, though you will be out of commission for a good month. There will be scars, but the one on your face will be mostly invisible.”

  “My blood,” I said, propping myself up. My back protested, but I wasn’t about to take all of this lying down. I was too damn stubborn for that. The sheet started to slide down and I caught it, pressing it up against my chest. “And my clothes.”

  “The blood has been taken care of,” Lei said. “None has gone where it shouldn’t. You will need more blood to fully start the healing process, however. Master Nathan is obtaining some for you now.”

  Master Nathan? “Okay,” I said. My head still felt as though someone had filled it with helium and it was going to float away. I think a lot of it was the blood loss, but some had to have been whatever she had given me for the pain.

  “As for your clothing, I have some spare I keep for situations like this. They aren’t much, just cheap rags really. You can keep them when you are done.”

  I was going to ask more questions, but just then, Nathan and Jonathan returned. I slid down in the bed so the sheet wouldn’t have a chance to slide down again. I wasn’t sure why I cared. Normally, I didn’t care who saw me naked. It wasn’t like they were going to risk touching me. I just didn’t like the thought of those two men seeing me without my clothes.

  “Drink this,” Jonathan said, handing me a cup with a straw in it. I didn’t have to smell it to know it was blood.