Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1)

by Kestra Pingree

  She had digested five gallons worth of highly nutritious blood in the last hour. Digesting a pint of blood was my limit every hour unless I was in mortal danger, which was the way most vampires’ bodies worked. There was still a limit, though; it usually amounted to a one hundred percent increase in general efficiency. Looking at Lisette, and understanding how her body worked, her limit should have been a gallon every hour. Even in mortal danger, she should have only digested two gallons at most, and that was already a hell of a lot of energy when that blood was average and none of it became waste.

  So, what the hell?

  Whatever she had done to her body was dangerous. It wasn’t built for this.

  Then I smelled something. It was rich, bitter, a pinch of salt. “You’re bleeding.” My eyes went to her stomach. Red. Dark red. It was fresh, but the wound seemed to be closed—with three silver shards left inside. She was bleeding internally.

  “I’ll be fine,” Lisette said.

  “If you extract the silver fragments poisoning you.”

  She blinked. “How could you know that?”

  “What are those?” I reached for one of several vials adorning the two belts she had strapped to her waist, but she backhanded my wrist so hard it snapped. “Ow. Thanks for that.”

  “Reflex. Sorry. I’ll tell you later.”

  There she goes again with her sorries. She didn’t need to tell me. I knew. A look told me all I needed to know. It was condensed blood. Useless to most vampires, but this monster wasn’t most vampires.

  “We’ve wasted enough time,” Lisette said. “Let’s move.”

  Someone fidgeted behind her, someone with a sweet scent. A human carrying a gun. I’d never seen a human before. She was built similarly to Ivy, though there wasn’t anything severely out of tune in her body. She was perfectly healthy.

  Lisette went to the human and scooped her up into her arms as if she were light as a feather. “Keep up, wild. It would be a bad idea to carry you both.”

  Then Lisette went into super-slayer mode. She crouched, kicked off, and vanished down the hall. “Uhm, wait?” I called, but she had already returned by the time I had finished speaking.

  She curled strong fingers around my wrist and said, “Brace yourself.”

  I did, and she repeated her last take off. It was like being attached to a missile. My shoulders were doing their best to hang in there today, but this might be the thing to break them. Lisette was damn fast, and she didn’t slow when we rounded corners. I knew why I was the one being dragged instead of carried since I was a vampyre and could handle the beating, but I didn’t enjoy it. My legs were on fire. The speed stole the air from my lungs.

  “Where are we going?” I panted.

  “The north door. Hireh is waiting for us there,” Lisette said.

  That name sounded familiar… “Am I supposed to know who that is?”

  “No.”

  “That was enlightening.”

  “Stop talking. You can barely breathe.”

  We arrived at the north door without incident. Mostly. Lisette stopped as fast as she took off. I didn’t, and a concrete wall was ready to greet me. Thankfully, Lisette caught my waist. She knocked the rest of the air out of my lungs and made me heave, but it was better than face planting into concrete.

  “Are you trying to save me or kill me, monster?” I wheezed as I doubled over.

  She ignored me, let me go, and set down the human she was carrying.

  “I see you met no problems,” Lisette said, and I was fairly certain she wasn’t talking to me.

  “The guards left before the orderlies began locking down the building. When the way was clear, I took my place here and haven’t seen anyone since. Your distraction worked.”

  When I could stand up straight, I glanced at the thrall talking to Lisette. Hireh, I supposed. The human went to the thrall, kissed her lips, and stroked the tight curls hugging her scalp.

  “I’m not sure it’s normal to be this relieved when held at gunpoint,” Hireh murmured.

  “Sorry!”

  The human retreated, but Hireh caught her hand and gently pried away the gun while caressing stiff fingers.

  They shared the kind of softness I shared with Ivy.

  And I hated it.

  I wanted to look away, but I stared at the thrall. She was dressed in sunlight-resistant gear. Two more sets of sunlight-resistant gear were stacked on top of a large pack at her feet. I knew I’d never seen Hireh before, but her name… I knew the name. And she looked familiar. She had dark features, darker than Ivy. Then there was the shape of her face. She looked like the thrall who—

  I shuddered, shut down the thought. No way.

  “I don’t think this is the work of ESCAPE,” Lisette said. “The Schengs are here. Truly. Silver Hollow is under attack.” Lisette pointed at the gear on top of the pack. “Keep those.”

  The thrall returned the human’s gun and quickly shoved the gear into the bulging pack. She huffed as she slung the heavy thing over her shoulders. “You mean everyone else will be trapped here? The doors won’t unlock?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s time to leave. Are you coming or staying?”

  Hireh folded her arms. “I made a promise. Pua and I are coming.” Then she squinted, nostrils flaring. “Are you all right? Your veins…”

  “I’m fine. Will this door open or will it require force?”

  I stepped up to the keypad and input the same code that Ednis had earlier. A red light flashed. Locked. It didn’t matter what code I fed it. The reproduction center had its wired-in system to fall back on in the event the tech field was decimated. We’d have to find the server to bypass the lockdown. Unless…

  “No good,” I said and lightly kicked the door with my boot. Oh, that ding was music to my ears.

  Something yanked me backward, and a loud clang shook my eardrums. Lisette’s leg was extended, and the metal reinforced door had a huge dent in it. She kicked the same spot again. The wrong spot, where thick metal was strong.

  “Stop!” I exclaimed. “You’re fucking strong, we get it, but doing that is going to take forever. Kick it here.”

  Lisette noted my hand on the bottom right corner, near the first hinge. I wasn’t surprised no one noticed the imperfection. It wasn’t something they’d have seen with tech, and the structure was faultless to the naked eye, the touch. The door would fall because of an undetectable fracture.

  “Hoods down and masks up,” Lisette said. “And move back.”

  Lisette’s strength was otherworldly. She kicked the metal’s weak point dead on, and the door shattered like fragile glass. The human and thrall gasped as sunlight washed over us, warm and inviting. I held out my hands. Gods, this was the third time in the same day that I’d felt the sun’s embrace.

  “Where are those gliders you said were parked outside, Hireh?”

  “They’re close by,” the thrall answered.

  Lisette held out her hand. “Lead the way.”

  We only got a couple of steps outside the building when this high-pitched squeal stabbed my ears. It was followed by a low boom that roiled forward as a hot blast of air. Lisette pushed me down to the ground and covered me with her body. My face met dry grass and dirt.

  Time seemed to stop.

  For a moment, all I could think about was the sensation of Prime. I clawed my hands into earth, dirt caking my gloves. I wanted to feel it, the coolness I remembered, but I couldn’t through the leather gloves. So, I watched and listened as Prime bled in fine grains and hissed through my fingers.

  Someone was smothering me. Lisette. Why is she doing that?

  No, it wasn’t Lisette. It was the air. Taking a breath singed my lungs and a bitter taste numbed my tongue.

  I glanced over my shoulder and Lisette stood. Red, orange, and white flashed in my vision, flames consuming part of the reproduction center and the line of buildings leading up to it. It was all gone, metal and concrete glowing, molten. The air was stagnant and sulfurous.
What power. The Schengs wouldn’t be able to launch another attack like that unless they had a second lightning stone—or something equally as mythical. The frequencies challenging the air were gone, so I doubted they did.

  The war colors haloed Lisette’s intimidating figure as if she were standing at the maw of hell. Her white cloak was sullied, and her eyes were blood red. She took a tentative step toward the reproduction center, hand resting on the hilt of one of her swords. I reached up and grabbed her wrist. She stiffened under my touch, fingers rigid.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I’m going back in.”

  “Why the hell would you do that? We made it out. Let’s hotwire a glider and finish this.”

  “Fyefa is in there.”

  “So?” I had no idea who this Fyefa was and I didn’t care. Lisette had her human and her thrall. If Fyefa was so important, surely she would’ve been here too.

  Lisette’s voice was soft, quiet, when she said, “She’s my Ivy. Was. I can’t let her die.”

  My grip went slack.

  “All right, Hireh, Pua?”

  Hireh coughed as she helped the human to her feet; they were dusted with ash, but I saw no injuries. “We’re fine.”

  Lisette shook off my hand and said, “Our destination is Shade Forest. Get to a glider and drive to the northeast drawbridge. I’ll meet you there. Keep each other safe until then, and don’t leave anyone behind.”

  I blinked and Lisette was gone. My wrist hit the ground with a muted thud. Just like that, she was eaten by flames.

  I was certain that was the last I’d see of her.

  CHAPTER 37

  LISETTE

  I ran inside the half-melted reproduction center as the flames grew higher. I didn’t think about it. Fyefa was in there, and I didn’t know if she had gotten out. I needed to know she had, and then I’d return to the others.

  That was what I told myself.

  The kingdom I had fought for my entire life was bleeding. In a single scream, a rumble, and burst of light, so many were killed. I didn’t know what it was, if it was an explosion or some kind of laser weapon, but there was nothing I could have done about it. My hands formed fists, fingers pressing in so tightly they could have melded to my palms.

  “Please!” a female wailed. “Someone, help us!”

  I was here for one vampire and one vampire alone. I couldn’t save every survivor.

  I didn’t want to save them all.

  Queen Maud and Ednis the Wise could die an unspeakable death, and I would celebrate. Those like Adano, Hireh, Pua… I didn’t know them, and I was no hero.

  I was a trained killer who was too “soft.”

  Fyefa was right about me. Hireh, too.

  I stopped in front of a pile of rubble blocking the way to the recreation room. A chorus of cries rose above the roaring flames on the other side. The chunks of concrete were too large for me to move, and my boost was almost spent. But I took a barakor stance. I shook out my fists and lightly tapped the heel of my hand against one of the largest concrete chunks. If I was right, shattering this one would free everyone on the other side.

  After taking a deep breath, I jabbed the concrete. Cracks spread out from where I’d made impact, breaking through concrete as well as rebar. My hand throbbed, but the cracks kept growing. My strike was sound. Thick dust mingled with acrid smoke as it all crumbled away. When the dust had settled enough to see, a jagged hole large enough for the captives to walk through revealed itself. Feet shuffled on the other side.

  “Everybody out,” I said. “North is clear, but you’ll want to hurry because it might not be for long. And keep low. The smoke will kill you before the fire does.”

  Vampires and thralls pushed through, coughing and stumbling, but they were alive. One of the vampires dressed in an orderly’s scrub suit latched on to me. My natural reaction was to fend her off, but I resisted—though the added tension aggravated my stomach wound. She wasn’t attacking me. Her cheeks were streaked with ashy tears, and she said, “Thank you.”

  I nudged her back with my elbow. “Go. There isn’t much time.”

  I didn’t wait to see if everyone had made it out. The building wouldn’t wait for me, and I had already wasted enough time. Fiery air burned my lungs as I ran low to the ground and skimmed the area. The smoke grew thicker, and my infrared vision took precedence, a good thing, because molten, harsh white pieces of the building dropped from overhead and I wouldn’t have seen them otherwise. I dove forward, landing on my sore stomach. I skinned my chin too, but avoided getting crushed.

  My stomach ripped, bled, when I found my legs. I heaved as my flesh knitted itself back together. Every inch of me itched.

  “Fyefa!” I shouted and coughed as the dry, hot air singed my throat. All I could taste was ash. My lungs were heavy and I struggled to breathe.

  I had to be close to where Fyefa was if she hadn’t left the cafeteria—at least, I thought this was the cafeteria. It wasn’t easy to navigate the reproduction center when so many halls and rooms were disfigured, but I eventually came upon a pile of rubble holding down the very vampire I was seeking: Fyefa. She struggled, coughed, reached for me. Her starlight yellow eyes were dim, eyelids heavy. She wasn’t only buried; a piece of rebar skewered her right thigh.

  Gala was nowhere in sight.

  I still had some extra strength in me. I could free Fyefa, but I’d have to be careful. This was a puzzle; a wrong move would smoosh her. I lifted pieces of concrete from the top until I had to dig deeper—which was when things started to get precarious. It wasn’t always easy to tell which chunks were bearing the most important weight. Fyefa’s hacking cough spurred me on, though, and I worked faster, with precision, until she was free of everything but the rebar in her thigh. I couldn’t pull it off of her because it came from underneath her. She had landed on it.

  It’d be best to get the rebar out of her and then force a vial of condensed blood down her throat so she’d heal. I didn’t think she had used the last one I left her. She showed no signs that she had, so that was how I would proceed.

  First, I grabbed the extra length of rebar shooting out of her leg. Then I calculated where I could strike it near her thigh to make a clean break. The hilt of one of my aassu would work better this time, so I drew one, aimed, and slammed the pommel into the rebar. It broke off just above her thigh as if I had sliced it with a blade that could cut through anything.

  “Ready?” I blinked to relieve my dry eyes, but nothing came of it. I was shriveling like a fruit left to bake in the sun.

  Fyefa said nothing as she wiped the soot from her brow. Then she grabbed my waist. I took that as my cue. I slid my hands underneath her leg, locked her in place with my fingers, and yanked. She muffled a scream as her nails left indents in my leathers. The pain in my stomach was everywhere in my middle now, as if my waist were being severed. A scream fought its way up my throat too, but I bit my tongue to block it.

  My strength fled. My boost was expended, and the cooldown branded my body. I thought a piece of melting debris had landed on my back, but it was just the cooldown. Then my flesh tore open. Blood leaked from my stomach, splattered on the boiling ground. Fetid steam swirled into my nose, and I gagged.

  Fyefa let me go and stole the gun holstered at my back. She threw herself onto her side and pointed the gun at my stomach. Again. I twisted out of the way—because I didn’t fall for the same move twice.

  CHAPTER 38

  LISETTE

  BANG!

  The bullet grazed one of my combat belts.

  Damn Fyefa. She really wants to kill me.

  “Get out of here!” She fired without pause. “Traitors! All of you! First you and then the crimson rat!”

  BANG!

  This time I ducked, and then I body slammed her.

  We grappled, hands moving, catching, deflecting, for a moment. Then I backhanded the gun out of her grasp. She scrambled for it, so I lay on top of her, holding her arms down. We both co
ughed hard enough to pop our lungs, barely able to inhale any oxygen.

  “Fyefa, stop fighting me,” I said, breathless. “We have to get out of here. Just look around you. Silver Hollow is falling.”

  Fyefa wheezed and puffed. “Why did you come back?”

  My tongue stopped working. It was idiotic of me, all of this. It didn’t change anything, but I had to do it. This was Fyefa. The Fyefa who betrayed me, but she was also the Fyefa I had relied on for so many years. I couldn’t imagine those years without her. And then I found the words, the truth of it. I drew on Ivy’s last words to Adano and said, “Because I loved you, once.”

  Fyefa bit her lip, squeezed her eyes shut. “Get off me and run for your life. I’ll kill you if you aren’t fast enough. You’re dead to me. I meant it. You don’t exist anymore. You never did. Leave.”

  Moving was the last thing my body wanted to do, but I had to. I pushed off the ground, reclaimed my gun as I dropped a vial of condensed blood, and I ran without looking back. My infrared vision was failing me. Everything was warped, and fire reached for me at every turn. My head spun with blood loss. Each time one of my heavy boots met uneven ground, a splatter followed.

  I picked up the pace, ignoring my wound and the cooldown. Together, they were crippling. If I didn’t get out of here soon, I’d die by asphyxiation.

  Fire danced and played on my vision as I pressed my hand to my stomach. Were those screams shredding my ears or another attack from that astounding weapon? Figures burning in the fire? I couldn’t decipher any of it, and I was too clumsy to dodge the next shadowy form that wiggled its way in front of me. This one was real, because he hit hard.

  I stumbled backward and scanned the towering behemoth in front of me. He hadn’t hit me. He just hadn’t budged when I crashed into him, as if he were a statue.

  But he was very much alive.

  His eyes were aglow with blue moonlight.

  Werewolf.

  My blood-soaked hand left my stomach for the hilt of my aassu. I assumed the most basic barakor stance, readying myself for a one-handed fight. My other hand rested on a vial of condensed blood. I needed to drink another. It might not work since I had already hit the cooldown from my first boost, but what else could I do? I had succeeded before, and one look at this werewolf told me he was strong, easily a Scheng general.