We stepped out of the SUV and walked toward the house. Drips of water sounded from inside, and the stench of smoke made me gag.
“Do you think there is anything to salvage?” I asked, trying to hold on to the slightest sliver of hope that coming back here wasn’t just going to torture us more.
He shrugged. “Possibly, but there is so much rubble, it would take days to dig through everything carefully enough to find anything worth taking.”
As we stepped closer to the warmth of the buried embers, I focused on the sound of water from the firefighters. I didn’t know how long they’d been gone, but the plinking noise echoed around us in the quiet of the night.
I reached out to the rose bushes when I got near where the front entrance used to be. The leaves and petals were covered in ash. When I swiped my fingers over them, the charcoal residue burned my skin.
I jerked my hand back and hissed, leaning in closer. “This wasn’t an ordinary fire, Maciah. Not even by magical standards.”
His mouth downturned. “I didn’t think it was. I’d known it was bad when I mentioned the dark magic earlier, but if the ash is burning you, then it’s worse than I thought.”
I read between the lines. Maciah had been holding on to a small hope that some of the vampires had survived, but if the ash had burned me like metal, the chances of finding any survivors lessened significantly.
Hope was a beast, one that was now ripping the cracks in my heart wide open as I stared helplessly at the remains of the nest.
Maciah’s fury rose, and he began ripping charred pieces of the house away from where he wanted to be. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but I wasn’t going to stop him. He needed this. He needed to tear his home apart and get the rage out in some way.
At least this way was cathartic.
I followed after him, doing my best to avoid the ash while searching the ground for anything worth checking out. There wasn’t much to see other than waterlogged flooring and crispy bits of furniture or structural pieces that had fallen from the upper level.
As we neared the back of the house, there was still a section of the second floor that could be accessed if someone had a ladder or the capability of jumping more than a dozen feet in the air.
“Be careful.” I barely got the words out before Maciah was leaping into the air showing that vampires were capable of just that.
He landed with a soft thud. The floor groaned beneath his weight, and he turned back to me. “Stay down there. I won’t be long.”
Yeah, I had no problem listening to that. I continued to push through the debris, doing my best to ignore the fact that I was ruining the new clothes Maciah had bought me, and I didn’t have anything else as back-up.
As I got to the rear hallway, I tried to enter a room that was sealed off, but the wood had swelled from the water and didn’t want to budge. I was one second away from kicking it in when the faintest noise caught my attention.
It was so soft, I thought I was imagining things, but as I stilled and focused, there was no denying the sounds of someone screaming.
I tried not to let hope blossom inside me again. I couldn’t handle being wrong, but there was no stopping the relief as I heard the voice a third time.
“Maciah!” I called out and turned around to head further into the house, tearing through whatever was in my way, ignoring the burns on my palms as I did so.
Maciah was right behind me when I made it to the basement stairs that led to the gym. There were steel posts jammed in front of the door, blocking the way down.
“Do you hear them?” I asked while trying to figure out how we were going to get in there.
“I hear something.” He nudged me aside and took off his suit jacket that I could see already had a couple of tears in it. Then he wrapped the material around the beams.
I stepped out of the way as he manhandled the steel, ripping the posts away and flinging them further down the hall. His palms were red and blistered, even with the jacket keeping a barrier between his skin and the metal, but he didn’t show any sign of pain.
Once the doorway was free, he kicked it in, only to find the stairwell full of more wreckage.
“We’re down here!” The voice became clearer, but it was weak and muffled, so I couldn’t identify who it might belong to.
“Hurry,” I said to Maciah as we worked together to haul the burned materials out of our way.
What felt like hours later, and lots of injuries from the ash and metal we had to dig through, we finally got to the bottom and entered the gym. The air was smoky, and there were no lights, but we could see a group of people huddled in the corner. Four of them were lying on the floor, one was standing closer to us, and another was hunched over on their knees near the prone vampires.
Zeke’s face came into view first as he stepped closer. Burn marks covered his exposed skin, and his eyes were a dark crimson.
Without thinking, I ran to him and gently wrapped my arms around his waist. Tears pricked the back of my eyes as his hands came around my back.
He winced from the movement, and I pulled back. “Are you okay?”
Zeke nodded and pointed to his throat.
“Can you talk?” I asked.
He shook his head and grimaced.
“We’re going to get you all out of here,” Maciah said as he moved past us.
I followed him. Nikki was the one hunched over her knees. I went to her, gently lifting her chin. “Can you talk?”
“Enough. I was the one screaming when I heard you guys.” Her voice was hoarse. Whatever air they’d been breathing had done a number on them.
I glanced around, trying not to panic. “Did Rachel…”
Nikki gestured with her head toward the bodies on the floor. “She’s on the right. She hasn’t been awake for the last couple of hours, but she also hasn’t turned to ash, so there’s hope.”
Next to Rachel’s body were three piles of ash. Nine vampires had made it to the basement, but not all of them survived. I shook my head, trying not to lose my composure, so we could focus on helping those who had made it.
I turned to Maciah. “We need blood.”
“I have more in the back of the SUV. I got enough earlier to last us for a week since we weren’t sure what we were doing yet.”
My hand covered Nikki’s. “I’m going to be right back.”
She coughed and groaned in pain, but I didn’t stick around to console her. The quicker we got them blood, the quicker we could get them out of the basement. They needed nourishment to speed up the healing process and help remove whatever metal they’d ingested.
Swirls of fury and glee filled my chest. I couldn’t believe they were alive, but what they’d been through…only a sick, twisted person could have thought of such a wicked plan.
Silas was smart, but I was beginning to think he had nothing to do with what happened here.
I arrived at the SUV and opened the trunk, grabbing the cooler then racing back within mere seconds. My chest was already feeling the effects of being in the house, and I’d only been there maybe fifteen minutes. The thought of how much pain the others were in from having been there hours was almost too much to fathom.
When I arrived back at the gym, there were no longer four vampires on the ground. There were only three and another new pile of ash.
“Damn it.” I rushed forward, hating how much I prayed the missing one wasn’t Rachel. It was a selfish thought, but one I couldn’t prevent from circling my mind.
A small sigh of relief left me when I saw Zeke kneeling over her, trying to coax her awake. I opened the cooler of blood, handed out bags to each of the coherent vampires, and grabbed three more for the ones still not awake.
Zeke tore the corner off the first bag, and instead of taking care of himself first, he gently opened Rachel’s mouth, feeding her before he worried about himself.
Maciah took a bag from the cooler as I gave one to Nikki before going to help those still on the ground. Maciah was already work
ing on the second, so I moved to the third. With all of the ash covering his face, I wasn’t sure who he was, but that didn’t mean anything. Every one of them was worth saving.
I dribbled a quarter of the bag into his mouth and Nikki joined me, her eyes brighter. “Let me help,” she said, finally able to talk normally.
I handed her the bag in my hand while I reached for more from the cooler. By the time I had it open, the vampire we were working on began to cough. I helped Nikki roll him onto his side as droplets of blood spilled from his lips. My hand rubbed over his back, on fire from the metal flecks in the ash, but that was the least of my worries.
“You’re going to be okay,” I said softly, holding the bag in front of his face.
Nikki leaned in closer and murmured, “Gabe.”
I nodded, silently thanking her for the name as Gabe’s hands shakily moved for the bag. I lifted him up so that his head was propped against my stomach and his back rested on my knees.
“Easy, Gabe,” I said when he began to drink too quickly.
His gulps slowed, and he let out a small sigh. “I thought I was dead.”
“You’re not that lucky,” I joked, probably too soon, but I couldn’t help myself. The stress rolling through me was too much to handle without a bit of sarcasm.
Nikki let out a sigh of relief before moving on to help with the others still not awake yet as I stayed with Gabe.
He finished the bag, then sat up on his own. I turned to check on the others to find Maciah’s vampire was also coherent, but Zeke was still kneeling over an unconscious Rachel.
Nikki was sitting next to Zeke, holding Rachel’s hand. “Come on, Rach. You’re not allowed to give up now,” she pleaded.
Any hope that I’d been building was dwindling quickly as I took in Rachel’s ashen face. Maciah bent to her other side, and I sat at her feet.
There was nothing any of us could do as Zeke slowly continued to feed her blood. My hands gently held her legs, and I silently begged my best friend to wake up.
CHAPTER 4
Minutes of tense silence passed. The second blood bag was almost empty, but there were no changes in Rachel. The other two vampires stood around us, waiting quietly as well.
“Should we move her?” Nikki suggested.
“Getting her outside might not be a bad idea. The air in here is still burning my lungs,” Zeke said.
I agreed with him. The effects of the magically enhanced fire were still heavy in the air, even if there were no flames flickering.
“We need to do so carefully. There’s no telling what kind of internal injuries she might have that are preventing her from waking,” Maciah said as he got a better hold on Rachel’s head.
I gently held her feet and legs as Zeke and Nikki both placed their hands under her back and thighs. I hoped the movements would cause Rachel to groan or give any sign of discomfort. Even pain was better than the nothingness we were getting from her, but my hope didn’t make a bit of difference. There were no changes to her slack facial expression and limp extremities.
Gabe and the other vampire I could now tell was Jazz by the red-orange hair peeking through the ash covering him went ahead of us, making sure the path was still clear to get outside.
As we moved through the house, I could see headlights pulling into the driveway. Nick and Eddie were back from the hospital, hopefully with good news about Dave.
We set Rachel onto the grass a good twenty feet from the house. I inhaled deeply, ignoring the burning in my throat as I double-checked that the air around us was clean enough for Rachel.
Zeke took Maciah’s spot as he went to greet Eddie and Nick. I slid into Zeke’s spot, holding Rachel’s hand and watching her face for any sign of movement.
“I’m going to grab more blood,” Nikki said.
I looked up at Zeke. There were matching trails down both of his cheeks where his tears had cleared away the ash from his dark skin. My heart hurt for him. He and Rachel had just realized there could be something more between them, and they might not ever get the chance to see where things could end up.
Nikki came back with another blood bag, giving it to Zeke so he could continue to be the one to feed Rachel.
I locked eyes with Nikki, and the concern rolling off her matched my own. There was nothing we could do other than pray our friend woke up soon.
Maciah stood behind me, his hands on my shoulders as we all waited, hoping like hell that the nest wasn’t going to lose any more of its members.
Zeke finished giving Rachel the third bag and bent down to whisper in her ear. “Come on, baby. Open those gorgeous eyes.”
My throat burned from the effort it took to keep my own tears at bay. As grateful as I was that we’d found at least some of the vampires still alive, I knew losing Rachel after thinking she was still alive would overshadow any positive emotions we’d allowed in.
I squeezed her hand tight. “Come on, Rach. We need your sunshine to keep us going.”
There was a twitch in her fingers, and I tensed.
“What is it?” Maciah asked.
I didn’t answer as I waited for it to happen again. My eyes went to Nikki’s, wondering if she’d felt anything, but she didn’t look up.
Then, it happened again.
“She’s moving,” I said in awe.
Zeke began to frantically stroke Rachel’s cheeks, brushing the long strands of her hair back. “That’s right. I knew you wouldn’t give up easily.”
“If you wake up, I promise to give you the girliest girl’s night ever,” Nikki added.
Finally, Rachel sucked in a breath then began choking until Zeke pulled her up.
Fresh tears fell down my face, this time from happiness instead of grief. I backed up, giving her some space, and allowed Maciah to pull me into his waiting arms.
We might have gone from a nest of over forty vampires to only nine, but that was more than we believed we had as of this morning, and it was worth being thankful for.
“Whoever did this, deserves…” Rachel’s words were cut off by another coughing fit, but Nikki gladly finished her sentence.
“To be tarred and feathered, then burned alive? To have their skin peeled slowly from their body while they’re awake? To be stabbed with thousands of needles that slowly burn them to death?”
“All of the above,” I said before she continued to go too far down the rabbit hole of murderous ideas.
I bent back down to Rachel’s side, my voice rough with emotion. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“You guys wouldn’t survive a day without me,” she said with a small smile.
“You’re absolutely right.” I got up and pulled Maciah away from Zeke and Rachel. Nikki and the others got the hint as well. The two of them deserved a few moments to themselves after almost dying.
“How are things at the hospital?” Maciah asked Eddie.
“Good. We stayed until Dave was awake. He said to call him when you two weren’t busy. He might have more information that could help us,” Eddie answered.
I took a deep breath, even more grateful that Dave and the few vampires around us were all okay.
“I don’t think Silas did this,” Maciah said, nodding at the house.
I scoffed. “I was thinking the same thing earlier. He’s resourceful, but whatever this was took wit I’m not sure he contained.”
“What happened?” Nick asked.
Gabe and Jazz stepped forward, but Nikki beat them to answering. “When the bombs started dropping, we tried to get out the front, but the flames were blocking the exits every way we ran. Zeke got the idea to head downstairs. We grabbed as many vampires as we could, but not enough.” She wiped a stray tear from her cheek before proceeding.
“The walls were caving in around us. The air was burning our lungs. We raced to the gym and moved to the furthest corner away from the door. We heard the entrance closing in, but figured we were better off being trapped than trying to get through the flames again.”
>
“How come you didn’t dig your way out when the fire was put out?” Maciah asked.
“We tried, but the metal we’d inhaled weakened all of us. Zeke knew you’d come back for us, so we just focused on staying alive instead,” she answered, then glanced at the house. “I can’t believe this happened.”
“What are we going to do now?” Gabe asked.
“Amersyn suggested that we head to LA, and I agree with her. We have food and some supplies there that will hold us over until we can re-evaluate things,” Maciah answered.
“We can also ask the other supernaturals for help,” I said. Asking for assistance might not have been Maciah’s thing in the past, nor was it mine, but I wasn’t too proud to see that we couldn’t do this alone. Not now.
Maciah nodded but didn’t say anything else.
Zeke and Rachel joined us. He was holding her up, and she was wincing through the pain still coursing inside her body, but there was a light in her eyes that said she wasn’t giving up.
“To the airport? Or do we have anything else to do here in Portland?” Eddie asked.
Maciah glanced around what was left of his home and glowered. “To the airport.”
I reached for his hand, sending thoughts of comfort toward him. We had lost so much, but finding these five vampires still alive was a huge win, considering the circumstances. If we didn’t focus on that, then we’d drown in the negatives, which wouldn’t help us win against whoever had done this.
The more time that passed, the more I was beginning to believe Viktor had been pulling the strings for much longer than any of us realized.
Not only had we known Silas was likely working with him, but Dmitri had admitted to me that he was attempting to double-cross Viktor. We also knew that Viktor’s men were the ones to recruit Simon from Crossroads.
My biggest problem with knowing all of that was realizing that I didn’t know enough about Viktor, and it was time that changed.
CHAPTER 5
All of the vampires seemed to need time to themselves once we were on the plane. With Maciah flying, I had a minute to myself as well, which I thought would be a good thing. I was wrong. I only ended up spiraling, something I’d thought I was done with.
Vampire Vow (Scorned by Blood Book 3) Page 3
