by Ava Benton
14
Vale
We had a problem. I debated over how to break it to her. But time was slipping away and with it, the chance to escape alive.
I got up with a wince. I didn’t feel pain for long, no matter the injury, but she was a young vampire. Fresh, new, stronger than she would ever be again. Crisscrossed scratch marks covered my back, chest, and ass. I could feel every one of them and hoped they healed quickly.
“We have to keep you out of the sun,” I explained, peering out the window. It would be dawn soon. “I don’t know if the Ra-Protection extends to only me, or if it’s through the blood of the High Sorceress. If the latter, you should be in decent shape since you fed on her blood.”
“If not?”
“You’ll have to stay here throughout the day. But only this day. We have to move.”
She sat bolt upright. “What?”
“We can’t stay here. You see that, don’t you? Two vampires? What happens if one of Bradley’s minions comes knocking, checking to see what happened to you? If you died down there, or if I saved you?”
“What difference does it make? I’ll kill anybody who comes near me—especially that bastard,” she growled, and her eyes went red.
“Control it. Calm down.” I went to her, kneeling at her feet with her hands in mine. “Janna. Control it.”
“I don’t know if I can,” she gasped, breathing heavy.
Her fangs descended. Her claws dug into my palms.
“You must. You don’t have a choice. Get it under control, damn it. It will pass. I swear it will.”
“I want him dead,” she wailed.
Her body shook with the intensity of her need to see him dead.
“I know. So do I. But we might need to leave before that can happen.”
“Why? Explain it to me. Talk me down from this, please,” she begged, still shaking.
But she didn’t grip my hands with the same desperation as before.
She wouldn’t like hearing it.
“What I did to you went against all our laws. I’m not permitted to create other vampires. The council will find out about this. I’m sure they will. And when they do…”
“What?” she asked, eyes wide. They were back to their normal color, I noticed.
“They might kill me. Which would kill you.”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “But… why would you do it, then? If I’ll just die anyway…?”
“We have to get away from them. That’s the point. If we can escape, they don’t have to know, and we can be together somewhere else.”
“Where? What would we live on? How would we feed? I don’t know what the hell you were thinking.”
“Do you think I knew at the time?” I asked, dropping her hands and standing. “I’ve been asking myself all along what the hell I was thinking. The whole time you writhed and begged to die, there on the floor. Every time you threw up more blood, every time you slid in and out of consciousness, I asked myself what I was thinking when I did what I did. And I told you why. I didn’t want to lose you.”
“But you’ll lose me anyway!”
“I know that!” I roared. “And that’s why we have to move!”
“Where? Where can we go?”
“I don’t know. I have to think. You still have money, right?”
“Yes.”
“We could use that to spend the night elsewhere. In a hotel, maybe. Away from here.”
“And then what?”
“I told you, I don’t know. What I do know is, we have to stay together. Not just physically. We’re a team. We need to work as one.”
I watched rage and fear and understanding and resignation fight for control of her, as everything she thought moved across her face. Resignation won.
“All right. We’re a team.” She looked around the room with a grim smile. “I always wanted to move someplace else, someplace with more room. I never thought this would be why I had to do it.”
I shrugged. “This isn’t the sort of thing anyone can plan for.”
15
Vale
The hotel room was considerably larger than the apartment and much more comfortable. Not that it mattered. I wasn’t in the mood to relax, and neither was she.
At least we had moved under the cover of darkness, safely. Without prying eyes following us. None of Bradley’s minions.
I wondered if he was ready to give up on her, assuming she had died before anything could be done. That would be for the best.
She paced, wringing her hands. “I’m thirsty. Hungry.”
I checked the time. It had been many hours since she last fed. It seemed safe to let her have more, even though I was starting to get thirsty myself and the supply was running low.
Isobel had promised more when I needed it, but what would happen when somebody delivered it, and we were no longer at the apartment?
I could explain the need to keep her safe, which wouldn’t be a lie, but that would only last so long. And what if one of the council’s spies spotted us and knew Janna had turned?
I tossed her a bag of blood and turned my face away while she fed. Watching her lose control of herself, becoming a greedy, sucking monster who only cared about one thing—and knowing I had done it to her—was difficult, to say the least.
I turned my attention to the view outside the windows.
And nearly tore the drapes from the walls.
“You chose this place on purpose,” I snarled, pointing to the club. Directly across the street from where I stood.
“What?” Her face was a mask of innocence.
“You’re a terrible liar. You were as a human, too.”
She dragged the back of her hand across her mouth, wiping away any leftover blood, then licked it. “All right. I chose this on purpose. That’s true.”
“You can’t go over there.”
“I can, and I will. You can’t stop me. Don’t make me prove that you can’t.” Her claws started to lengthen. She didn’t need to explain her meaning.
“It’s suicide.”
“Says you.”
“You’re right, says me. You have no idea how many there are, living under that club. You can’t go. You cannot. We have much bigger problems at hand.”
“If there are a hundred at the club, all I have to do is kill him and they’ll all fall. I know that’s how it works. That’s why I would die if you did. Right? He probably created all of them.”
“There’s too much uncertainty. Too many guesses.”
She opened her mouth, ready to keep fighting. Instead of firing off another argument, however, she sighed. Her shoulders drooped. Her face fell. “It doesn’t matter. If he kills me, he kills me.”
“Don’t say that.” I went to her with my hands held out.
She didn’t pull away when I took her in my arms.
“Don’t ever say that. Please.”
She trembled, and I held her tighter.
“I can’t let you go. I can’t let you take risks with your life, not when I’ve risked so much to keep you with me. I need you. Don’t you see that?”
She buried her face in my neck. “I see it.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I know it’s inconvenient.”
She snorted. “You could say that.”
“It was all I could do.”
I wished I could make her understand. She was mine. She was mine from the moment I saw her walking down the stairs in front of her building. She was mine when I watched her on the train platform, when I wanted to kill that filthy pig for what he thought about doing to her. She was mine when I killed Desiree to protect her.
Her arms slid around my waist. “I know.”
“You’re set on going over there, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I must. I have to make him pay.”
There was no fighting her—stubborn as a human, insufferably stubborn as a new vampire.
“All right. I’ll go with you.”
16
Janna
We followed the alley we’d been in that first night, where Vale had killed Desiree. It ran along the back of the buildings on that block, from end to end, and the club was in the center of the row.
It was such a wide building that there were three doors leading inside.
“It was probably three separate buildings at one point, and the owner had the walls removed to create one large space,” Vale murmured as we crouched behind a dumpster, watching.
“That doesn’t help. What happens if we choose the wrong door?”
“You sound like you expect me to know the answer to that. You’re the one this is so important to, not me.”
The last thing I needed was his sarcasm.
It was bad enough I couldn’t make sense of the war going on in my head, between the constant driving desire for blood and the rage that was always just under the surface of my thoughts.
It wasn’t Vale’s fault I was the way I was. Not really. It was Bradley’s fault. More and more of the attack was coming back to me, usually when I wasn’t thinking about it.
Peeing down my leg. The way he had laughed as he took me by the back of the neck and smashed my face into the wall. The sharp, mind-numbing burst of pain starting from my nose and radiating through my head. Not being able to see through the blood running in my eyes. His hands on me once he tore my dress, his claws digging and scratching.
And still, he had laughed.
Even when he stomped on my chest, he had laughed. Brutally, nastily. He had loved it.
It was after four in the morning as we waited to go inside through one of the back doors. The club would be closed, and the stupid, clueless patrons would have left.
Amazing how little time it took for me to start thinking the way Vale did about the humans who spent time there. How could they not see what was really happening? It was nothing more than a way to attract fresh blood to feed on.
I ran the back of my hand over my mouth at the thought of blood.
“You all right?” He was watching me, always watching, waiting for a signal that I was about to go over the edge.
I gritted my teeth and reminded myself it was for the best.
“Yes. I’m fine. Just… ready to do this.” I chose one of the doors at random. “That one. On the right.”
I was out from behind the dumpster and on my way before he had the chance to register what I’d said.
The door was locked, but that didn’t matter to me. I nearly ripped it off the hinges.
“Easy, now,” Vale muttered as he closed it behind us. “No need to sound an alarm to warn them in advance.”
“I know, I know.” I didn’t care if they knew. I almost wanted them to. I was jonesing for a fight. I knew I could take on all comers and only needed the chance to prove myself.
We were in the liquor storage room, surrounded on all sides by shelves stocked deep with bottles of everything from vodka to mixers.
We stepped out into a dark, narrow hallway—I could see the fully-lit dance floor to my right, at the far end, and stepped back into the doorway.
“Club,” I mouthed, pointing to the right.
I poked my head out and looked left. There was a stairway leading down to a lower level. I took off for it and heard Vale muttering curses behind me. I didn’t care about anything but getting to Bradley.
What I saw when I reached the bottom of that rusted, decaying staircase floored me.
“Holy shit,” Vale whispered, squeezing my arm.
I didn’t reply. I was too busy counting the coffins which lined the walls on all sides of the wide, deep basement.
Actual coffins.
They took their vampirism seriously.
I lost count after a little while—it was too dark, too difficult to make one coffin out from another once the shadows thickened.
It didn’t matter, anyway.
We didn’t have the time.
Where was Bradley? That was all I cared about. How would we ever know?
I walked quickly, quietly, examining the coffins. Which was his?
I looked at Vale, who shrugged.
I turned to the coffin in front of me. Well, I had to start somewhere.
I flipped open the lid to reveal a sleeping girl. Probably my age when she was turned, whenever that was. Blonde hair. Perfect face and body. Gorgeous. Probably great at reeling men in.
All this went through my head in a split second before her eyes opened and she screeched, claws extended, reaching for me.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Lids flew open in all directions, and the sound of howling filled the room.
This was a mistake. A big mistake.
I gaped in horror as I backed away from the blonde and looked around at the chaos.
“Great move!” Vale shouted over the screeching, stepping in front of me to shield me from them.
I was still looking for Bradley. Where was he?
In the one coffin whose lid hadn’t opened. I flew to it and pried it open—he had it locked from the inside, but he hadn’t counted on a newly-turned’s strength.
There he was, waiting, eyes already open and staring into mine. “You.”
“Me.” I reached in and closed my hands around the collar of his shirt, hauling him out and throwing him across the room with one smooth movement.
That was power.
I was strong, invincible, unstoppable. I was at his side as soon as he hit the floor and I picked him up again as he roared in surprise and rage.
This time, I threw him into the group of vampires charging at Vale. They fell like bowling pins.
“Hurry!” Vale yelled, claws out and slashing the air as one after another came at him and he cut them down.
I charged through the crowd, throwing bodies aside on my quest to get to my prize.
He got to all fours and shook his head like he was clearing the cobwebs.
I reached him before he got to his feet.
Our eyes met for just the length of time it took to blink.
I remembered his sneering face, the laughter as he brutalized me.
I remembered other things, too. Every time a man had made me feel small by harassing me. My boss at the office, that slimy bastard, feeling me up. He wasn’t just Bradley. He was all of them.
And he knew I was about to kill him.
I planted a solid kick to his chin that tore his head clean off his neck.
It stunned even me, and I was the one who did it.
His head bounced off the floor, then rolled until it reached a wall and came to a stop.
Just like that, dozens of bodies fell like puppets whose masters had let go of the strings. Dead. The room went silent.
“Holy… shit…” Vale panted like an exhausted animal.
He had taken down at least a dozen vampires with his two hands and was covered in blood all over again.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t quicker,” I said, going to him. “Are you all right?”
“Fine. Never better. You?”
I looked over at where Bradley’s body had fallen. He was nothing. Just a memory.
“Yes. I’m fine. Let’s get out of here.” We used our speed to race up the stairs and through the storage room—there was chaos in the club section, probably because the few humans or vampires not related to Bradley had just witnessed others die on the spot as they cleaned the place up.
We burst through the back door hand-in-hand.
I was elated, over the moon, ready to get on with the rest of my life.
And if that meant spending eternity with Vale, that would be just fine. We would find our way together. If we could take down a basement full of vampires, we could do anything.
That was when I saw who waited for us out there in the alley.
Four tall, beautiful women in flowing robes. One of whom looked just like me—or, rather, what I had looked like before Vale turned me.
He gasped before his hand squeezed mine in a crushing vice. “Isobel?”
17
Vale
“What are you doing here?” I was painfully aware of how I looked. Blood-covered, winded, probably glowing with exhilaration.
Serena’s eyes widened, but she maintained her composure. “We became aware that you’d created a new vampire. Now, it all makes sense.”
I should’ve known they would sense it somehow. They knew everything we did. There was no such thing as privacy.
“My daughter…” Isobel reached for Janna, then thought better of it.
Anyone with eyes could see how badly she wanted to hold her daughter.
“You’re my mother?”
“What happened to you?” Rage twisted her beautiful features as she glared at me. “What did you do to my daughter?”
A nightmare was unfolding.
“We should get out of here, don’t you think? Not everyone inside is dead.”
“You’re right.” Maeve stepped forward and took one of my hands, then one of Janna’s. “Come. We’ll discuss this elsewhere.”
And I knew where “elsewhere” was. I wished I had the chance to warn Janna about what she was about to see before Maeve ported us to The Fold.
The alley dissolved, replaced by the interior of the High Council’s chambers. Had it only been a handful of days since I stood in that room, hearing the details of my assignment?
I saw life through different eyes. I knew what it was to love something more than myself, to care for another’s well-being over my own. The Vale who left The Fold in search of a self-destructive artist didn’t exist anymore.
Isobel, Esme, and Serena joined us a moment later.
While I didn’t exactly feel relaxed, since I knew I was in for a world of pain, it was easier to face them here than in that alley with the threat of discovery.
I looked down at myself and grimaced at the amount of blood caking my shirt.
“Take that off, please.” Serena’s nose wrinkled. “This is what we sent you to Manhattan to do?”
“Where are we?” Janna looked around with wide eyes, mouth hanging open. “It’s beautiful.”
