The waif glanced over her shoulder at her friend and turned back to them with a smile. “Hmm. The doctor was right.”
Rose could see the moment the vampire made her decision to attack. Her knees bent, just a little, before she shot forward.
“Stop her!” Rose cried out.
But she wasn’t talking to the guys who crouched low to defend her.
The speed of the soldiers and crawlers created a windstorm.
Hands, clawed with sharp nails, paused inches from Seti’s face. The vampire shrieked, but the soldiers who held her fast didn’t twitch.
And the crawler at her feet, twining like a snake over her shoes and around her legs, hissed. “Bite?” it asked.
They’d done exactly what Rose wanted. They’d stopped the vampire before she could attack. The other one, the tall one, was held fast as well.
“Get away from me,” the small one said through clenched teeth. She made to kick the crawler, but it held on, wrapped around her ankle like a toddler, and then bit.
She screamed, high and piercing. So loud, Rose wanted to cover her ears.
The vampire dropped like a stone, and the crawler bit again.
Panic welled inside her. “What do I do?” she asked the guys. Did she stop it, the vampire would heal after all, or did she let the crawler do what crawlers did?
“Yes,” Ra answered. “She will heal. We need to get out of here before more humans appear.”
“Stop,” Rose directed. The crawler slid away, pink saliva dripping down its chin. Humans were coming, and she was surrounded by—quick head count—twenty soldiers and crawlers at least. Others lay in torn heaps, ripped apart by the ones she’d commanded to protect the other humans. “You won’t attack humans.” She lifted her voice enough to be heard over the wails and police sirens. “You’ll bring these vampires far away from Boston. Far away from humans. And you’ll keep them there and you’ll never come back.”
The soldiers shifted. The vampire still standing laughed. “You think these creatures will stop me.”
She didn’t even think about it. “Bite her. And go.”
And just like that—they did.
21
Seti
With four little words, Rose changed the entire course of whatever this fight was.
And it. Was. The. Best.
Seti couldn’t help the smile that broke out over his face. It didn’t even bother him that Ra’s face was darker than a storm cloud and Horus was practically vibrating with tension.
Rose had cleared an entire street of their enemies. His brothers hadn’t had to fight. No one was injured, except the two vampires who’d attacked them, and—yeah—a ton of humans.
The place reeked of death.
“Let’s go.” Ra strode toward their car, but Seti wasn’t sure the thing was drivable. The windshield was spider-webbed, there was a huge dent in the hood where a soldier had landed in order to stop them, and there was blood splattered over the windows.
Ra didn’t pause though. He slid into the driver’s seat and turned it on.
It shuddered, but didn’t stall. Rose moved toward it, reaching for Seti’s hand when he went to open the door. Her hand shook a little when he held it, but she seemed to be doing okay otherwise. Her shoulders were back, and she only paled when she saw the blood.
The three of them got inside and left, weaving past bodies and wrecks of cars.
“Is anyone going to talk about what just happened?” he asked after five minutes of loaded silence. They were headed north, away from the city and the chaos.
Ra shook his head, instead reaching for his phone and dialing. “Ra?” Marcus’s voice filled the car. “Don’t tell me you broke the house.”
“I know we’re asking a lot,” Ra said, “but there has been a—”
“Rose can control crawlers and soldiers,” he blurted out. “The doctor is using her blood to make them, so she can control them.”
“Seti.” Horus reached past Rose to punch him in the shoulder. “Must you announce everything?”
“They’re our friends,” he replied. “And they’re in hiding. They might want to return home now.”
“What?” Marcus asked. “How?”
“We don’t know,” Ra answered. “Those details are better left to you.”
“It might be time to strategize,” Seti said. “With them.”
“Are you suggesting it’s safe for our return?” Marcus asked.
“No,” Rose answered, surprising him. “It’s definitely not. Stay where you are. I don’t know if this is a fluke. If they’ll somehow, with time or distance, lose the impulse to do what I tell them. It worked in the heat of battle, but what if it doesn’t when it really matters?”
“It really mattered today,” Seti answered. He remembered the speed with which the vampire flew toward them. He’d moved in front of Rose, but if he’d been a millisecond too late, she would have sunk her claws into the girl at his side.
“I didn’t mean—” Rose’s face went pale. An image of broken and bleeding bodies filled his head as she remembered all the death the creatures had caused. Guilt filtered from her to him. He was such an idiot.
“Rose.” He took her hand. “That wasn’t your fault. You have nothing to feel guilty about. All of this death falls on the shoulders of one person—and that’s not you.” It was a smooth snake of a human who had abused Rose for years.
On the other end of the line, Marcus was quiet. Finally, he sighed. “I will talk to my family. Do you need a place to stay?” he asked. “Are you going to remain in Boston?”
They were driving over the Bunker Hill Bridge. Traffic was heavy, like everyone was trying to leave. His thoughts must have filtered to Rose, because she glanced over her shoulder back at the city.
“Like the Nightmare,” she mused.
He looked back as well, but there was nothing he could see that gave away the bloodshed they’d encountered.
He was bombarded by the direction Rose’s thoughts had gone. Visions of snow falling from the sky, trying to catch them on her tongue.
Pain.
Ra.
He reached for her hand and took it in his.
“We’re leaving.” The vision was still in the forefront of Rose’s mind as she spoke. “There might be some little girl out there. Just like me. But if I take you away, there’ll be no one to rescue her.”
Ra glanced at him in the rearview mirror and lifted an eyebrow. “We need to regroup.”
Seti agreed. He wanted to make a plan and execute it with the least amount of risk possible. He understood what Rose was thinking and feeling, but sometimes, in a war, one side had to retreat before they made their final assault.
And there would be casualties. There always were.
22
Rose
Rose chewed on her lip, staring out the window. They followed Interstate 93 northward, the tall buildings of Boston disappearing behind them.
She should have felt more powerful. Stronger. She’d turned the tide of that massacre.
Instead, she felt empty.
Ashamed.
Everything inside her wanted to demand Ra turn the car around so she could use her newfound powers to end what was happening. Wouldn’t that be the easiest thing? Get a megaphone and start driving down the street. She’d be the Pied Piper of Boston, leading the crawlers and soldiers away.
And then what did she do with them?
“How many do you think he’s made?” she asked aloud.
It had seemed like there were a hundred today, but they moved so fast it was hard to tell. And they were so similar, empty-eyed or rotting, she couldn’t recognize one from the other.
“And why did those vampires have anything to do with Dr. Stone?”
Seti took one hand and Horus the other. “Power is addictive,” Horus said. “And a human with an army is certainly something they haven’t seen before.”
Except… that wasn’t quite true, was it? Ra had shown her that they’d been
an army for humans before. Killing for ancient kings and queens. Maybe this wasn’t so different.
“It isn’t,” Ra replied. He’d been silent since disconnecting the call to Marcus. They’d agreed to call again when they reached their destination. Hudson and Briar wanted to look into what Ra had shared with them about Rose’s ability. In the meantime, Ra was driving them north to someplace they could catch their breath. “They may have been waiting to see what Dr. Stone could offer them in return for their loyalty—however brief they gave it.”
His mind was closed off to her while he spoke, so she wasn’t sure he was being completely transparent. There was something about the way that tiny muscle twitched next to his eye that had her thinking there was more he wasn’t saying.
For instance, he hadn’t said a word to Marcus about his powers not working on those vampires.
That was a detail that weighed on her. “Do your powers work on Horus and Seti?” she asked.
Seti snorted. “He wishes.”
Ra cut a glance toward them. “I do,” he said quietly. “I’d have you jumping into the ocean.”
“It’s freezing.” The white-capped waves had been visible when they’d gone over the bridge. Rose shivered at the idea of the ice-cold water.
“Exactly.” Ra snorted, like he was picturing the same thing but didn’t find it quite as off-putting as she did.
Rose smiled. That was nice. She liked the way they bantered. Things couldn’t be too horrible if the brothers still teased each other.
She sat back, lifting her hand to her head to rub her temples. Why didn’t Ra’s powers work on his brothers? Was it because they were brothers, sharing the same blood and DNA?
So many questions—and it always came back to blood.
Horus squeezed her hand. She glanced at him. Eyebrows lifted, he studied her. “You okay?” The question was only for her.
Mentally, she shrugged. She was okay, but the things she needed to figure out were fast overwhelming her. “How far away are we from wherever we’re going?” she asked. She wanted to get on her computer and start looking things up.
“We’re going to Concord,” Ra said. “And a little place near Walden Pond. It’s remote, for Massachusetts.” He smiled. “I’d take you away, but I don’t think you’d go.”
“I couldn’t,” she replied. “I want to finish this.” Running and hiding held less and less appeal after what she’d seen today. She was needed, and she sure as shit wasn’t going to turn her back on the people who—whether they knew it or not—were relying on her.
Ra was shaking his head, and next to her, Seti and Horus had tensed. None of the thoughts she’d just had had been shielded from them. They heard every word she thought and every emotion she felt.
Her megaphone idea hadn’t been that bad.
“It hadn’t been good, either,” Seti muttered. She elbowed him, and he jerked away from her. “Hey. Gentle.”
“What about an ice cream truck?” A picture of Seti driving a Mr. Ding-A-Ling truck while she commanded the crawlers and soldiers hit her. “Oh my god.” She chuckled. There was a battle that wouldn’t make it onto a movie screen. If the image of vampires hadn’t already gone from handsome, morose, immortal poets to bitey, empty-eyed slug people, Seti driving an ice cream truck would really tarnish their reputation.
Next to her, Horus chuckled as well, and even serious Ra had cracked a smile. Seti, on the other hand, stared at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Here we are.” Ahead was a sign for an Air Force base and another advertising Historic Walden Pond. Traffic into the town was heavy. Cars loaded with people, suitcases strapped to the roof, were bumper to bumper. But it wasn’t until the car crept by the turn-off for the Air Force base that it all made sense to Rose.
They were looking for protection. She swallowed hard as Ra left a wide berth between them and the cars honking and inching toward the soldiers at the entrance. The air of terror and desperation was palpable.
Just like it had been a decade ago.
Ra’s dark eyes flicked toward her in the mirror. She had survived, but there was no guarantee these people would. The military could mow down the crawlers and soldiers, but they’d get back up. And if there were enough of them…
Humans didn’t stand a chance.
The farther from the base they got, the more desolate everything became. In true American tradition, most of the stores had been decorated for Christmas, but rather than picturesque—white lights, spruce trees, red berries and gold bells—it was a reminder of how things were very far from normal. Lights were strewn across the sidewalk, and many windows were boarded up or broken.
It was awful.
They passed the historic commons, the white Colonial style houses with green shutters, the clapboard church… the normalcy of the image felt wrong.
A couple of miles outside of town, Ra turned down a road leading to a campground.
“I know that we haven’t gotten to that part of our relationship where we have the all-important ‘camping discussion,’” she made air quotes, “but I’m a city girl. Last night was as close to camping as I get.”
The car slowed at a brown single-story, and from what she could see, single-room house and rolled to a stop. “This is it.”
This is what? Her snarky thought didn’t get a reply though. Instead, Seti opened the door and held out his hand, waiting for her to take it.
As she got out of the car, she put her palms on her back and stretched from side to side. They hadn’t been in the car long enough that she should ache the way she did.
“Tension,” Horus said. He placed his big hands on her shoulders, thumbs pushing into her muscles. “And probably adrenaline from the fight.”
Rose sucked in a breath, letting her head tilt toward the winter sky. The air had that biting cold that made her lungs ache. Heavy white clouds promised snow, and the sun was only a wan, slightly brighter spot in the colorless sky.
“We’ll stay here,” Ra said. “For as long as we’re able. It’ll be easy for us to get to Boston to scout. Horus, do you want to take care of the pond?”
“It was Seti you wanted to throw into the ocean, but somehow I end up breaking the ice on the pond.” Horus stepped away from her, shaking his head.
“Wait. What?” That didn’t sound safe at all. The temperature had to be hovering around zero, and Horus— “No. Not Horus.”
Ra’s eyes widened, the only sign of his surprise at her disagreement. She closed the door between her and the twins and stated, “He’s only just healed.”
Silent a moment longer, he stared at her. “Seti. Will you break up the ice?”
Seti let out a sigh. His breath curled like smoke in the air. “Fine. But someone has to promise to warm me up when I get back.” He winked at her, and her face heated before she glanced back at the small cottage. She had a feeling that there wouldn’t be much privacy for warming.
Especially the type he had in mind.
Seti took off so fast the snow turned into little tornados around her feet. The next thing she knew, a huge crash sounded in the distance. It was sharp, and went on and on, like pieces of glass falling from a window and smashing onto the concrete.
“Why does he have to break the ice?” She could just make out the pond—which was really the size of a lake—in the distance.
“It’s natural protection from enemies,” Ra answered. He stared hard into the distance. “We’re surrounded by forest, and while I’m certain my brothers or I would hear anyone who may be sneaking up on us, we can’t be too careful. Not even the undead want to get into that lake.”
“The crawlers would freeze, and the soldiers made so slow, they’d be ineffective once they hit land,” Horus went on. “At least briefly.”
“Enough to give us the upper hand,” Ra added, to which Horus only nodded.
The wind picked up, going right through Rose’s jacket and jeans. In a flash, Ra picked her up and brought her inside.
It was as bad as s
he thought it would be. There was a huge open fireplace against one wall, and a kitchen with the basics against the other, a small room that had to be a bathroom, but that was it. There were no beds, no tables.
No logs if they wanted to start a fire. Cold air rushed up from beneath her, suggesting the cabin was built on stilts, and not sitting on a concrete slab. The windows rattled in their frames every time the wind blew, but the view through them couldn’t be matched.
“How do you know about this place?” she asked, shifting from foot to foot and studying the room. Leaves littered the corners, but there was a broom in one corner. She started to sweep them up when a small, gray animal darted out at her feet.
With a screech, she jumped in the air and threw the broom at it.
Horus knelt, holding out his hands and the mouse ran into them. “It’s only a field mouse, Rose.” He examined the tiny creature and then wrinkled his nose. “It pooped on me.”
Her heart was pounding. “It’s not so much what it is, as how it introduced itself.” She put her hand against her sternum and tried to catch her breath. “Why don’t you put it outside?”
Grimacing, Horus turned and went outside. A fresh wave of cold air hit her back.
“You scream when a tiny rodent skitters across your feet, but when faced with a crawler, you stare it down and demand it ‘stop.’” Ra lifted his eyebrows.
“What can I say?” She picked up her broom and began sweeping again. “I’m an enigma.” But seriously, no little creatures better jump out at her again. She shuddered, but he only laughed.
“You are a sphinx.”
She rested her hands on the top of the broom and studied him. “Don’t blow smoke up my ass. It was a mouse.”
Ra chuckled, making his way over to her. When he got there, he took the broom from her and rested it against the wall. His gaze stayed on hers as he got so close his body heat leached into her. She stepped closer—because she was freezing—not because she was drawn to the smile resting on his lips.
He reached around her, pressing his palms against her back so she fell against him. Then he snaked his hands over her curves to grab her ass. “Not blowing smoke at all,” he said, his voice low and husky. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Echoes of Blood and Glory Page 11
