Outlaw (A Tale of the Talhari Book 2)

by Heather Elizabeth King

  “Traitor.”

  It could speak. Though why shouldn’t it be able to? It had been human, after all.

  Though she trembled and her legs felt boneless, she forced herself to stand and get ready to defend herself. “I’m not a traitor. You’re a liar. You never told me about this. What are you?”

  “Knew you weren’t dead, knew you’d betray us for the vampire.”

  “Umberto took me. I didn’t go willingly.”

  He laughed. The sound of it annoyed her. She realized quite suddenly that though the thing in front of her was large, ugly, and deadly, it was still Nick. It had the same grating laugh, the same arrogant stupidity.

  Still laughing, he said, “They already think you’re dead, Bleu.” With a growl, he raised his hands, let her see the black talons his fingernails had become. “They’ll never know the truth.”

  Though her arms shook, she held the bottle up and at the ready. If she had to die tonight, she would not go down easy. “But I’m not dead, Nick. I’m alive.”

  The Nick thing bounded forward.

  CHAPTER SIX

  In reflex, she fell into battle stance with legs spread, her muscles loose and ready, and her eyes fixed on the enemy. She was no match for the oversized thug so she had to think fast, had to act fast.

  He launched himself at her, slicing the air with his right hand. She dropped to the floor a second before he would have made impact. The high swooshing sound of his talons slashing the air where she’d been was the last sign she needed that Nick wasn’t pretending. If he could, he would kill her. Slice her to bits and watch as she bled to death.

  She kicked out as hard as she could, connecting the heel of her boot with his right knee and winning a surprised cry of pain from him. The already injured leg wobbled, but he didn’t go down.

  She rolled toward him and made a grab for the blade embedded in the flesh above his knee. She got close, reaching out with the tips of her fingers, then all at once, blunt pain had her curling in on herself.

  The beast had kicked her in the stomach. The pain jarred, was nearly too much to bear. She couldn’t scream because the air had been driven out of her with such force all she could manage was a weak intake of breath. Without her enhancements, the blow would have killed her. As it was, she fell back, clutching her injured abdomen with one arm.

  He lifted his foot a second time, no doubt to kick her again. She tried to move away, but the small space was too constricted. There was no place to retreat, no way to get away from him.

  Keening and mad with blood lust, he brought his foot down. The pain of this second blow washed over her. She thought she heard her forearm break, and possibly a few ribs. She cried out at the pain.

  Before she could catch her breath, he fell on her. There was the sting of his claws along the side of his face. She cried out again when he dragged the talons over her breasts. The pain of it was nearly too much. He was too strong and too fast. He countered every move she made before she had a chance to hurt him. But he didn’t kill her, though he could have done it quickly. Instead, he dragged the torture out.

  He wanted her to suffer.

  With one hand, he lifted her by the throat, spun toward the aisle and tossed her as though she were a rag doll. She landed hard on her back in the center of the cellar. The air erupted out of her lungs. She’d long since lost the wine bottle, hadn’t even had a chance to use it.

  Then he was on her again, grabbing her by the hair and pulling her to her feet.

  “Gaia will be devastated by your loss,” he said, laughing manically.

  Gaia? What did Gaia have to do with anything?

  “Her little apprentice,” he went on. As he spoke, he spun her to face him. “I’ll tell her you went to the vampires, told them of the mission and caused the death of four Talhari. She’ll be heartbroken.”

  When his hands closed around her throat and he began to squeeze, she was almost glad. He was going to blame the failure of the mission on her, not the fact that Umberto already knew who and what they were. Gaia would be devastated. Gaia was like the mother Bleu had never had, and Gaia would never forgive herself for training a traitor.

  “How does it feel to know you’re going to die, Bleu?”

  Gaia would believe Nick because she’d have no choice but to believe him. Bleu wouldn’t be around to tell her the truth.

  “Nothing to say?” he taunted. “All choked up?”

  Darkness played at the edge of her vision. She gritted her teeth against it, fought to remain conscious.

  “Die!”

  She wouldn’t die, she couldn’t let things end this way.

  With the last of her energy, she brought her foot down on the knife in his leg.

  He cried out and reared back. To her surprise, his grip loosened enough for her to squirm free. She dropped to one knee and tugged the blade free of his leg. With a high-pitched scream she drove it into his gut and twisted.

  Black sludge spilled from the wound, but she knew it wasn’t enough. She pulled the blade free and drove it home a second time.

  Nick howled, spun on his heels and disappeared into the aisle.

  Had he moved off to another area of the wine cellar to lie in wait for her? She decided she didn’t care. At least not enough to remain where she was. She had him on the run and couldn’t back down now.

  When she stepped in front of the first the aisle and heard a voice tell her not to move, she froze.

  “Umberto?” she stage whispered, turning to face the voice.

  He was there; eyes flashing red and teeth bared.

  The creature reappeared, leaping forward and smashing an arm down on Umberto’s shoulder just as Umberto was spinning to the right.

  Though Umberto stumbled, the blow didn’t do much damage. Without losing his momentum, he whipped around and attacked the Nick thing. Umberto slammed the back of his hand into the side of the creature’s face. The beast sailed across the room, tumbling head over heels and landing in a heap on the floor.

  Before he could move, Umberto was on him again.

  Low grunts of rage and wails of pain rose from the pair. Bleu realized that though the creature was larger than Umberto, he was no match for him. Umberto was an old vampire, much stronger and faster than Nick, even now. Already Nick’s beastly face had been crushed beyond recognition. Black sludge oozed from various rents in his flesh.

  The thing was hurt, battered, and possibly as close to dying as it could get.

  A loud crackling rose from the floor, surprising her. She knew Umberto had broken Nick’s neck before she looked down at Nick’s battered and bleeding body. He wasn’t moving anymore.

  Umberto got to his feet. “I have to get him upstairs.”

  She moved forward to help him, crouched and took it by the shoulder with her good arm. She noticed the fur was grimy with sludge a second before she fell backward onto her butt and groaned. Her abdomen burned with pain and her forearm felt like it was on fire.

  Umberto looked up. For a moment, he was motionless, then he came forward. “You’re hurt.”

  “A bit.”

  “Where?”

  “My arm is broken, and I think a few ribs, and he cut me up pretty good.”

  He eased closer, then began to feel her for injury. He prodded her stomach, winning a fresh groan from her, and gently touched her ribs. “Three broken,” he muttered, speaking almost to himself. “Your face, your breasts, your shoulder.” He exhaled. “Your right arm, he did more than cut you up some.”

  “I tried to defend myself but he—” She paused, nearly whimpering when he touched the slash along her face. “he wanted me dead and he wanted to do it with as much pain as possible. I think he’s wanted me dead from day one.”

  “Why did he want you dead?” As he spoke, he bit into his hand and let blood pool in his palm.

  “I don’t know. What I think is that it has something to do with my mentor, Gaia Knight. He kept talking about her, saying he would tell her that I’d betrayed the Talh
ari—what are you doing?”

  He’d lifted his hand to her face and began smearing blood on her cheek. “My blood will help you heal.”

  “I’ll heal anyway.”

  “This will make you heal faster.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but already she could feel the tingle of regeneration on her face where he’d tended. Seconds after he’d seen to the cuts on her arm, it too began to tingle.

  “I can’t do anything about the broken bones yet,” he was saying, then stopped speaking. He looked over his shoulder and frowned. “He’s waking up. I have to get him upstairs. Can you walk or do you want to wait down here for me to come back and get you?”

  Hell no, she wasn’t spending another minute in the cellar if she didn’t have to. “I’ll be okay.” Nick’s legs twitched. “Just hurry up and take care of Nick. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Umberto bent and hiked the body over his shoulder. “It’s not dead yet. We have to burn the body.”

  “You don’t need my help carrying him?”

  He stood, regarded her with one brow quirked, then shaking his head, turned and started for the stairs. “The rest are dead and burned. He’s the last one.”

  Though it took her a few seconds, she stood and started forward, trying her best to ignore the pain burning in her stomach. “Why the fire?”

  “So he doesn’t come back.”

  She followed across the dusty floor and up the cellar stairs at a limp. “It’s the only way to be sure,” she said, half to herself. Gaia had drilled the importance of burning the enemy after a kill. It was disconcerting to hear the same tactic being employed on someone she had known.

  “Are you all right?” Umberto asked.

  Nick was nearly dead and she was alive. “Yeah,” she said, making her way up the stairs. “I think I am.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Bleu stood framed in the window, high above the roiling ocean below. She wasn’t sure where she was, or even if she was still in North America. The only thing she was certain of was that she didn’t care anymore. She was with Umberto, Umberto was alive, she was alive and whole. Her body had healed within hours of Nick’s attack. Her healing was sped along by the small infusion of blood Umberto had given her.

  She turned, shivered as a cool night breeze blew in through the open window, easily moving through the sheer black gown she was wearing.

  “Why didn’t you kill me, too?”

  Umberto, sprawled on his back with his arms folded under his head, raised a brow. Though gauzy curtains hung around the large bed, Bleu could see every detail of him, from his mussed brown hair to his booted feet. She’d had to swallow a reprimand when he’d laid on the white linen, boots and all, but realized she’d moved beyond the stage of life where she had to concern herself with such things. Tonight, her life had changed forever.

  “Are you going to answer me, Umberto?”

  “You should know by now that I could never kill you or hurt you. Nick and the others had to die. But you…” He shook his head. “I’ve had to endure existence since you left me. Now that I’ve found you again, how could I hurt you?” He paused and looked at her. “Do you really remember nothing of our life together?”

  She looked down at her feet and considered continuing the lie. Sighing, she met his gaze. “I’ve been dreaming about you since I met you. Dreams of the past. But I don’t understand how.”

  “We married young and had fifteen years together; not nearly enough time.” He ran his fingers through his hair, smiled at the memories. But the smile only lasted a moment. Then he was frowning and staring off into the distance. She guessed he wasn’t seeing her anymore but the one he’d lost. “You grew ill. You lost weight, couldn’t eat. The doctors couldn’t tell me what was wrong with you. It all happened so fast. You were fine one day, then you were gone. It took only two months for you to die. Two months.”

  “Two months?”

  “I was still human at the time and I didn’t know I was being stalked by the vampire who eventually made me. I didn’t realize until much later that she had been feeding on you, slowly killing you, because she knew I’d never go with her as long as you were alive. You had no memory of being fed on, but I know now that you had symptoms of anemia. You were fatigued all the time, couldn’t exert yourself without feeling faint, it was so unlike you.”

  “Your vampire friend killed me? Where is she now?”

  “Dead. When I found out, I destroyed her and threw her remains into the flames.”

  Bleu considered this, pleased despite herself. “So, what now?”

  “What now is that I give you one more day as a human and tomorrow make you like me; then nobody will ever be able to part us again.”

  “That means I’d have to kill to survive. I couldn’t live that way.”

  He shook his head, “You’d be Talhari, like me. We don’t drain to the death. You’d come with me to the motherhouse where provisions exist for our survival. It’s been that way for us for hundreds of years.”

  A grin played at the edge of her lips. “So, it really is like Anne Rice says, you only go after the evil doer?”

  He laughed. “Not quite. We don’t drain to death. Only bloodsuckers do that. The rogues.” Moving with the slowness only a vampire could master, Umberto sat up. Then she saw his leg move. A moment later he was beside her, lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the bed. With a flick of his hand he pushed the curtains aside and climbed onto the mattress. He laid her on the crisp, white linen and gazed at her.

  In a moment, he’d pulled his shirt over his head. Impulse had her leaning onto her elbows and arching toward him. She longed to feel the bud of his nipple against her tongue, was eager to have the taste of him in her mouth.

  He cupped the back of her head and steered her to him. When her mouth closed over him he sucked in a breath. “You’re so beautiful, my sweet Bleu.”

  The knock at the door surprised him as much as it had surprised her. And she didn’t think anything could surprise her.

  The knock was followed by someone rudely opening their door.

  A man stood in the opening. He didn’t say anything, just looked in.

  Bleu gasped. The man was massive. He had thick blonde hair, lips set in a grimace, and was dressed entirely in black. And he didn’t look particularly happy.

  “Alaric,” Umberto said, staring at the man. “What are you doing here? I thought we agreed I’d see you tomorrow.”

  “We did, but the elders thought it prudent for me to meet you.”

  “In case I decided to run off? Do they really think I’m that stupid?”

  Alaric didn’t answer him. Instead, he entered the room and approached the bed. “Is this the woman?”

  “This is Bleu, who I told you about.”

  “The rogue.”

  “She’s not a rogue. She never drank blood. She thought she was Talhari.”

  Alaric seemed to take her in, from head to toes. He didn’t smile or frown, so she had no idea what he was thinking.

  “Why tomorrow?” Alaric asked. “Why not today?”

  “I told you what happened. She’s exhausted. I wanted to give her a day to rest.”

  “Or were you planning on changing her?”

  At this, Umberto paused. “You mean make her a true Talhari?”

  Alaric nodded. “Which you know may be forbidden.”

  “Forbidden? There aren’t any laws about this. No one like her exists.”

  “Oh, they exist. You’ve seen that much for yourself today. And I’ve seen only recently how much destruction can be done.”

  “You know what I mean. She had no idea what was going on. She fought against them when they attacked the house. Nick had nearly killed her when I found her. If not for my blood, she would be dead. She’s on our side. And she’s not crazy or rabid or whatever else you think she might be. I’m not sure what happened in Virginia, but it has nothing to do with her.”

  Alaric was quiet for a moment, while he looke
d at Umberto. “The resemblance is uncan—”

  “Don’t say that,” Umberto interrupted. “Don’t you say another word about it.”

  Alaric stared a while longer, then nodded. “Pack what you need. We’re going to Virginia tonight.”

  Bleu had watched this exchange with equal parts confusion and incredulity. That blonde idiot was talking about her as though she wasn’t there. And she’d let him.

  “Gaia Knight,” she said, surprising herself.

  Alaric looked at her for the first time in nearly ten minutes. “What about her?”

  “Is she Talhari?”

  “One of our best.”

  “Then bring her to Virginia. She’ll speak for me.” .

  Alaric stared at her for a few beats, then nodded. “I’ll be waiting downstairs,” he said.

  Bleu didn’t have anything to pack. She’d come under duress. Umberto didn’t pack too much. “Vampires don’t require much,” he said. And then they were off.

  The trip to the Virginia motherhouse was as pleasant as could be expected, under the circumstances. The Talhari had a private jet. She’d had a glass of wine while they’d flown, then had fallen into a deep sleep. When she woke, the plane was on the ground and Umberto was nudging her.

  “We’re here,” he said.

  She was startled to see that they weren’t in the plane, anymore. They were in a room. She was in bed with a downy comforter pulled up around her. The bed was so soft she could have been on a bed of clouds.

  “I didn’t want to wake you,” Umberto was saying, “but you have to go down and give them a report soon.”

  Bleu blinked and tried to get her bearings. Where were they?

  “The motherhouse in Virginia.”

  She blinked again. And then she remembered. Nick and the attack. The lies she’d been told. The fact that she’d almost killed Umberto. Well, that wasn’t really accurate. Umberto and the others had known all along who she was, and who Nick was. She was never close to killing Umberto. And she knew, when the time came, she’d never have been able to do it.

  “Get a shower. There are some clothes for you on the chair.”