The guard with the wounded stomach rose to his feet, his body already beginning to heal. He and the uninjured guard charged Demetri together, each grabbing a thick arm.
With a growl that reverberated off the walls, Demetri brought his arms together in a surge of strength. He sent their bodies careening into each other, their heads made a snapping sound when they collided. They stood for a second before Demetri, stunned into immobility. That second was all he needed. With one swipe, he cleanly cut through both the guards’ necks, one after the other. Their bodies fell to their knees for a moment before slumping forward to ooze their blood onto the floor at the same time their heads came to a rolling stop beside the door.
The third guard slowly pushed himself up to a standing position. “I’m going to see you pay for their deaths,” he threatened.
Demetri beckoned him forward by wiggling his index finger. “Come on if you think you have what it takes to defeat me,” he challenged, raising his blood-stained sword.
****
Vlad and the gunman crashed to the floor, and the concussion from the fall sent the automatic weapon flying behind them. They came to rest with Vlad atop the guard. The Alpha could feel something running down his arm and saw red seeping from his shoulder. One of the bullets had caught Vlad in the shoulder as the two men had gone down.
The guard jammed his thumb into the bullet wound, twisting it deep. Vladimir threw his head back, a roar of pain erupting from his lips. The resulting surge of adrenaline coursing through him increased his strength tenfold. He reached down swiftly and removed one of his nine millimeters from its holster. The guard knocked the gun from his hand, sending it crashing against the opposite wall.
As the guard’s eyes followed the Nine across the hall, Vlad unsheathed a dagger strapped to his thigh. He gripped the knife with both hands and raised it above the guard, aiming for his heart. The movement brought the guard’s attention back onto the figure towering over him, and he covered both of the warrior’s hands with his own.
It was a test of strength to see where the blade would land. The bullet still lodged within weakened Vlad’s shoulder. The dagger began to turn back toward the Alpha as the struggle continued between the two males. The knife shook from the battle, and Vlad felt himself weakening.
With welcoming relief, Vlad suddenly felt a rush of power as Marcus mentally sent him a surge of strength through their mindlink. Vlad slowly turned the tide, sent the dagger back in the direction of the guard. At the last moment, the guard angled the dagger away from his heart, causing Vlad to strike him in the breastbone, doing little damage.
The guard grunted when the blade sliced him, but both males knew it was an inconsequential wound. The guard pushed Vlad off, heaving him into the wall, which knocked the dagger from his hand. The injured guard jumped to his feet, and grabbed the Alpha by his neck with one hand. Vlad’s feet dangled as he was held against the wall by his neck. He struggled, grabbing the guard’s meaty forearm with one hand while bringing his other hand up against his elbow. He pushed his hands in opposite directions, breaking the male’s bones in two.
Having lost control over his arm, the guard dropped Vlad, who landed gracefully on the balls of his feet. Vlad reached down, grabbed the knife with cat-like reflexes and brought it up swiftly, plunging the dagger into the guard’s heart. The guard staggered backwards clutching at the knife in his chest, until he slumped against the wall, taking his final sleep.
Vlad stood for a moment, catching his breath. He looked down the hall and discovered Marcus faced down two burly guards by himself. Fetching the blade from the dead guard’s chest, he took off down the hall to assist him. As he made his way past the stairs, he glanced down and witnessed Demetri taking out the third of his assailants. Realizing Demetri needed no help, he quickly turned his attention back to Marcus.
He reached Marcus just as he twisted Trace’s head, ripped it from his body, then threw it to the floor with a warrior’s yell.
“I got this other one. Go help Stephan,” Vlad instructed as he approached. Alvero turned their way.
****
A horrific stench of stale human assaulted his nose when Alexander opened the white door. He descended the stairs cautiously, while Nicholai stood guard at the top, waiting, watching for the enemy. When he reached the bottom, Alex peered around, surprised to not find any guards. He turned back and motioned silently to Nicholai that the situation was not dangerous.
He stepped into the room cautiously, looking around. The cellar was a thing straight out of a nightmare. The air, thick and filled with a dark sense of evil, smelled of stale sweat. There were pallets made of worn blankets on the floor upon which both women and men lay in various states of undress. Some were fully clothed; others dressed only in shirts, while some lay completely naked. They all were caged in cells with rusting metal bars. Bowls with bits of food were left scattered about and each cell housed a spigot for water.
Alex realized that the stench he’d noticed was not just from stale humans as he had first thought, but the smell of death intermingled as well. The potent combination turned his stomach.
“Get Michael,” Alex called up to his friend. “We’re going to need all of the help we can get.”
His roaming gaze took in the sight before him. Human men and women huddled in cells, kept prisoners by thick iron bars. Most sat emaciated in their cells, long forgotten and neglected. With disgust furrowing his light brows, he noted that some of the humans were already gone, dead long enough for parasites to have found their corpses.
“Michael, we need your help. Come here!” He heard Nicholai call out behind, hoping it was his fellow Alpha he heard descending the stairs.
“Where’s Michael?” Alexander asked when Nicholai joined him at the foot of the stairs.
“I don’t know. I called to him, but he didn’t respond.”
Alex approached the first cell, attempted to pull it open, and found it locked as he had expected. He turned to Nicholai. “See if you can find a key, or anything we could use to get these cells open.”
As Nicholai quickly obliged, Alex turned to the humans in the cell. “Don’t worry,” he assured them. “We’re going to get you out of there.”
Nicholai jogged up behind him. “I can’t find anything down here. I’m going to go upstairs and see if I can find any keys on the guards.”
Nicholai ascended the stairs as Alex turned his attention once again to the humans in the cell. “It’s okay,” he encouraged them. “We’ll get you out.”
One of the men inside the cell nodded and some of the women cried tears of relief. Those that could stand pushed themselves up to wait for their prison to be opened. Most though remained lying or sitting on the cold concrete floor, suffering in silence for it took energy they did not have to whimper.
The sight turned his stomach. No one should be treated this way. No one. Ever.
Alex heard the sound of jingling keys behind him.
“Found them on one of the guards upstairs,” Nicholai informed him, trying one of the keys in the lock on the cell.
They worked quickly to determine which keys opened which cell locks. Once all the cells were open, Alex returned to the first one.
“Who can walk?” he asked and several pairs of human eyes rose to meet his.
“I can,” volunteered one of the men as he stood slowly unfolding his legs from his seated position.
“I can too,” said one of the females using the wall to brace herself when she stood.
“Me too.” Yet another woman stood on shaky legs.
Alex turned to the man who had first spoken. “Do you think you could help someone else out of here?”
He nodded and reached down to help the woman who had been sitting beside him. When she stood, he placed her arm around his shoulder for support. “I can help,” he replied, a look of sheer determination on his face.
Alex nodded appreciatively.
“Those of you who are able to walk need to get up and get out.�
�� Nicholai’s deep voice echoed in the concrete room. “If you can help someone else to get out, please do so.” Nicholai opened the second cell wide. “Those of you who can’t walk on your own don’t worry. We will get you out of here.”
Two by two the humans and the vampires worked together to get everyone up and out of the basement prison. They worked steadily, Nicholai and Alexander carried the humans who could not walk under their own strength. On their third trip back down the stairs, they heard movement behind them. Alex looked back over his shoulder. Relief flooded his body when he saw Demetri, breathing heavily and following them down the stairs.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” scoffed Alex, a somber smile on his face.
“Yeah, well sorry. I could have gotten here sooner, but I was a little busy.”
“We can use all the help we can get. There are still a lot of humans left down here.” Alex indicated down the cells with his thumb.
“Where are you taking them?” asked Demetri, heaving an unconscious man over his shoulder.
“Out the back door. We have them sitting on the lawn,” answered Nicholai before he continued into one of the cells. “What are we going to do with them after we get them all out?”
Alex shrugged as he walked over to an unconscious woman lying in a cell.
“We’ll have to wipe their memories,” stated Demetri, grabbing a woman about her waist, hauling her slight form up against his side. “I can make it so they will think they were at some wonderful party in Vegas.”
“That would work for the non-injured ones. We can get them cleaned up, you can implant the memory, and then we’ll send them on their way.” Alex lifted the woman up onto his arms.
“What about the injured ones?” Concern dripped from Nicholai’s voice.
“We can implant a memory of an accident and get them to the hospital,” Demetri suggested over his shoulder as he muscled the two humans up the stairs.
“Implanting that many memories will be difficult, cousin.” Nicholai lifted a frail man into his arms.
Demetri nodded, acknowledging the truth in Nicholai’s statement. “We’ll take care of it. We always do.”
Chapter 39
Stephan stood in the bedroom. His gaze swept the empty room, coming to rest on a closed door in front of him. Stephan burst through the door to the master bath taking in the scene before him. Confusion furrowed his dark brows for he saw no one on the first sweep of the room.
His blood hummed, sent a tingling sensation coursing through his body. Katrina must be nearby. As he turned to leave, he noticed something on the floor behind the tub.
He made his way to the mass, the smell of blood called to him. He instinctually knew what he would find when he looked down on Kat’s injured body. His stomach rolled, bile filled the back of his throat as rage coursed through his body.
Her right leg lay bent at a ninety-degree angle from her calve, the bone protruding. Her shirt was red with her blood, soaked to the point of dripping off the side. Her blackened eyes were swollen into tight slits and her nose lay flat against her face. The wounds bled copiously on her arms as the limbs lay uselessly on the tile floor; either broken or dislocated he could not tell which. She winced in pain and moaned, the sound of which fill his ears making his rage grow like a muscle-bound man on steroids.
A furious growl left his lips, resonated off the walls, and caused her to stir. He went to her with blurring speed. As he reached her, she looked up at him through the tiny slits of her eyes. She flinched. Fear and pain rolled from her, coated him in its sickening film.
Stephan knelt beside her. “Mein schatz, what have they done to you?” he asked quietly, his voice but a whisper as he carefully lifted her into his arms.
Katrina’s limbs spasmed. Her face, misshapen as it was, contorted in pain. She started to move, then suddenly relaxed against him, as if she instinctually knew safety in his arms. She closed her eyes and leaned against his chest.
“I don’t care where we go,” she whispered in a raspy voice. “Just get me away from those men.”
It was a plea, nothing less. He tasted her fear and pain. It coated his tongue, feeding his need to do something, preferably something that involved pain, fangs, and death. His fangs lengthened as his anger overtook him.
He looked down upon her bruised and broken body, knowing she’d already lost a lot of blood. Her blood still flowed from her numerous wounds. Determination and purpose took his anger, and he realized stopping the blood flow was paramount to her survival.
Stephan leaned down and licked at the wounds on her arm, using the healing properties in his saliva to seal the wounds. The first lick made his world spin. Her blood was unlike anything he ever had before. It tasted like she smelled, like honeysuckle. It warmed him to the core, making his body come alive in a way no blood had ever done before. His vision swam, tilting the room, and his body reacted with every cell screaming, Mine!
“My heartmate!” he exclaimed, the realization almost causing him to drop her from his lap.
Stephan stilled, stunned at his reaction to tasting Katrina’s blood. He’d known he was attracted to her, but until that moment hadn’t known she was his everything, his life. His heartmate. The realization changed everything for him.
Her life would forever be linked with his. He would live for her, her love, her body. He would care for her, protect her. She would be his world.
She must survive, he thought as he watched Katrina’s eyes close, unconsciousness taking her.
Stephan placed her broken body back on the tile floor, careful to move her as little as possible. He lowered his head and licked her wounds closed, using his preternatural speed to work with haste. He heard Kat’s heart flutter, skip a beat. A new desperation gripped him as he realized that he might lose the heartmate he’d waited centuries to find.
After sealing the wounds, he sent his senses into Katrina to assess her injuries. The broken bones and internal bleeding were the worst of her injuries. In addition, she had much bruising and the cuts, though now healing from his ministrations, were still a threat.
He healed the life threatening injuries first, carefully examining each organ for bleeding as he went. He had just started to heal the lesser injuries when Marcus and Alvero crashed through the bedroom door, drawing Stephan’s attention from his task. He watched as Vladimir appeared in the doorway just behind the pair.
Gage emerged from behind the bedroom door, just as Marcus and Alvero entered the room. He slammed the reinforced door shut behind the two males and threw the dead bolts, locking them in and Vlad out. Alvero moved to Gage’s left side, as Gage bared his fangs. Stephan rose, left Kat on the tile floor and stood beside Marcus in the bedroom.
“This ends here and now,” promised Stephan, his hands fisting at his sides.
Gage growled at the warriors. “I’m going to kill you,” Gage snarled. “But before I let you die, you’ll watch me kill your female, so you’ll know the pain of losing your mate, and beg me for death.”
Gage seized Alvero, pushing him toward Marcus. His friend sidestepped the attack and Alvero slammed against the wall face first. He left an impression in the plaster as he pushed away and rounded on Marcus.
Gage summoned his power, and sent it out in a ring of force, knocking down both Stephan and Marcus.
Slowly, Gage reached up and took a samurai sword off the display hooks on the wall. He slid it out of its sheath, discarding the sheath carelessly to the side, and grinned at Stephan. Gage advanced on him with the sword held with both hands in front of his body.
Stephan feigned attacking first to one side and then the other, as his vision locked onto Gage like a laser-guided missile. Stephan pulled back his lips, presenting his fangs in an intimidating show.
Marcus made a move to get between the sword and his sire, but Alvero cut him off. Gage’s guard went for Marcus’ throat. Anticipating the move, Marcus raised his forearm to block the attack and knocked Alvero’s hands away. The guard grabbed Marcus by t
he shoulders, opened his mouth wide and brought his deadly fangs down into Marcus’ neck.
Marcus roared and grabbed Alvero by his shoulders. His fingers bit into the guard’s flesh, muscles shook from the effort. The Alpha pulled the male off his neck, but Alvero took a chunk of flesh with him when he flew across the room.
Gage’s nose twitched, the scent of the blood and flesh having gotten his attention. Stephan’s eyes dilated, and he concentrated on Gage. In one fluid movement, he charged forward, grabbed the sword and wrenched it from Gage’s hands.
From the bathroom floor, Katrina’s groan pushed from her bruised lips in protest as she tried to move. Gage spun away from Stephan and leapt toward the bathroom. With a single bound, he was on Kat, lifting her tattered body like a shield in front of him.
“Drop the sword, or I’ll kill her right now,” ordered Gage turning Kat to face him. Stephan stilled his advance, coming to a stop near the two. Kat raised her one good hand and slapped Gage across his face. The slap was not hard enough to do any real damage, but it was contemptuous and demeaning. For Gage, who was obviously used to being in command and respected, it was maddening. Stephan saw the anger climb along his face. Gage trembled, an angry blush reddened his face.
“Now you die, bitch!” he spit out, the disdain dripping from his voice. He shifted his grip as if to break her neck, but the motion gave Stephan just the opening he needed. Stephan reached for Kat, yanking her out of Gage’s grasp, and his powerful leg kicked Gage in the chest, sending him flying backwards.
Marcus stepped over Alvero’s limp form into the bathroom. Stephan handed Kat to Marcus and advanced on Gage. He scuttled across the floor like an awkward crab, trying to find a place to plant his feet and right himself to standing when Stephan launched himself with the sword held high over his head, the blade pointed toward the male below. The sword met Gage’s body in midair.
Alpha Mine (The Alpha Council Chronicles) Page 26
