It was almost peaceful, except for the fact the ground was rushing up at me at an incredible rate.
This is going to hurt.
In fact, it hurt so much, I can’t even describe the pain. Imagine jamming your finger in the door so hard, the skin underneath the fingernail oozed out. Now imagine that was your entire body. Now imagine a hundred times worse.
My body screamed in agony, and I blacked out.
TWENTY-THREE
I screamed. I couldn’t help myself. There was no way from my vantage point that I could recognize that the figure falling to the ground was Zander, but I knew it was. When he had sent me the SOS, I knew it was going to be bad. He had never sent me an SOS before. I had raced from the hospital to my car, then broke nearly every traffic rule getting here.
But I had been too late.
I looked away as the body smacked into the ground, the thud sickening. Others screamed, cars screeched to a halt as people ran across the street to see what had happened, to fulfill their own sick bloodlust.
I looked over, and already there were dozens of cellphones out, held high, as people recorded what had happened, hoping for their fifteen minutes of YouTube fame.
Disgusting.
I called 9-1-1, but I saw a cop car pull up, then another. It had already been called in, so I hung up. I stood at the back of my car, surveying the scene. There was nothing I could do for Zander. He wasn't dust, and from the glimpses I was getting, there was very much a head there.
So he was alive. Most likely barely.
Which would mean he would need blood.
And lots of it.
A couple of those cellphone toters definitely deserved to be fed on.
A debate raged in my mind. Do I go get the blood now, or try to rescue him, then get him to the blood? An ambulance pulled up, and the EMT’s had him in the back within minutes. I pulled out my phone and activated the SOS app. A map of the city popped up, a red dot indicating the position of his phone.
I pushed a button and the phone began spitting driving directions to me as I climbed back into my car. I raced through the traffic, but it was rush hour. I did the best I could, but the damned red dot just wouldn’t get any closer, then I noticed it stopped. A quick look at the map confirmed it wasn’t anywhere near a hospital.
Why had it stopped? Was it stuck in traffic?
Or had something far worse happened?
I floored the car, jumping through a red light.
TWENTY-FOUR
The fog of pain finally broke.
This was bad. Worse than being hit by a car. Far worse. I could feel my body healing itself, but it was going to be a long one. I heard a siren, and felt movement. I was in an ambulance, most likely on my way to a hospital.
This wasn’t good.
One examination by a professional and they’d know something was different about me. Very different. I couldn’t let that happen. I concentrated. Hard. I could hear the siren, the engine, monitors hooked up to me, beeping.
“Something’s wrong.”
The voice sounded concerned. Probably the EMT.
“What?”
The driver.
“This guy’s barely bleeding, and I can’t get an IV to take. Every time I insert the needle, it’s as if his damn arm heals, plugging the hole.”
“What? That’s impossible.”
“Hey, I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. This guy’s wounds are healing right in front of me.”
“Did Frank put you up to this?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Is this revenge for me shaving his head before his wedding?”
“That was you?”
“You mean you didn’t know?”
“I do now.”
“Oops! Does Frank know it was me?”
“How the hell would I know?”
“Well, don’t say anything, he swore he’d kill whoever it was.”
“Look. If you don’t believe me, look at his damned arm. There was a six inch gash there when we loaded him, now it’s almost gone!”
“Maybe you’re looking at the wrong arm?”
“No, his other arm is fine, just broken.”
“It was just a blood stain then.”
“No, I’m telling you, it was an open wound.”
“Holy sh—!” I heard the driver yell before the vehicle screeched to a halt. I felt the EMT’s body hit me. I moaned.
“What the hell happened?”
“Somebody just cut me off. Hey, get the hell out of the way!” I heard another burst of the siren normally reserved for intersections. “Oh my God, they’ve got guns!”
I forced my eyes opened. I was in a haze, nothing was in focus. I stared at the ceiling, forcing myself to focus on one spot. Whatever it was slowly coalesced into something solid, then suddenly it snapped into focus. A dome light.
Popping sounds erupted from outside, then the windshield shattered.
“Jeff!” I could hear the EMT cry. I felt him throw his body over mine, trying to protect me from the bullets spraying at the ambulance.
“Save yourself,” I mumbled.
“What?” His face suddenly appeared in front of mine.
“Just unhook me.”
“You’re in no condition to move.”
I stared him in his frightened eyes. “You know that’s not true.”
He looked toward the front of the vehicle. “They’re coming around the back!”
“Unhook me or we’re both dead.”
He looked at me, then nodded. He quickly undid the restraints holding me to the gurney. I swung myself off, every knitting bone in my body screaming in agony. It was way too soon for this kind of damage. I turned to him. “Now get down on the floor and play dead.”
He nodded, and dropped. I shoved the gurney over so it covered his body. He grunted, but kept still. I reached out with my left hand and pulled my right arm hard, setting the bones properly, then repeated the excruciating task on the other arm. Fortunately the fingers of my right hand were unbroken, and I fished several stakes from my jacket, tucking all but one into my belt.
I heard a noise, then the doors ripped open, off their hinges. I threw the stake, catching the first one by surprise, then grabbed the gurney and threw it out the back, knocking two others aside. I ran forward, but collapsed, my legs still too far gone to provide the necessary support.
I felt myself grabbed by the shoulders and hauled out of the back of the ambulance, and tossed unceremoniously to the ground. Somebody kicked my shoulder, flipping me over. I looked up and saw Kovacs standing there. “We should have killed you three hundred years ago,” he said, pulling a long stake from under his jacket. He straddled me with his legs, then dropped to his knees, holding the stake high in both hands.
Shots from behind me rang out, and Kovacs shook from the impacts, falling backward. The others with him, I counted at least five, spun, returning fire. I turned my head and could see a lone NYPD officer taking cover behind a parked car.
There was no way we were getting out of this alive.
Two of my assailants burst into dust, sending the others diving for cover.
I smiled.
I love that girl.
TWENTY-FIVE
Traffic was blocked up solid. The GPS told me he was only a few hundred feet away, the dot not having moved in several minutes. I climbed out of my car and looked down the road. There was an ambulance, its lights flashing, its siren wailing, blocked by an SUV. Behind it were several people shooting automatic weapons at another vehicle, and behind that, was a lone cop.
He’s screwed.
I grabbed the Equalizer from the back seat, along with several clusters of stakes, and raced down the opposite sidewalk, out of the field of fire and took up a position to the left. I slammed a cluster in the top of the Equalizer, and opened fire. Two burst into dust, the other three diving for cover.
The cop popped up, shooting his harmless bullets at one of them, who took the hits
, but simply kept crawling for cover, trying to get on the other side of the ambulance, and out of my line of fire. I took aim, but a burst of gunfire aimed my way tore apart the pavement in front of the car I was hiding behind.
I hit the ground.
The cop kept up the pressure from the other side. Something slammed against the car I was hiding behind, and I spun around to find another cop taking cover, his back pressed against the passenger side door.
“Miss, when I open fire, you run. I’ll cover you.”
“Sorry, that’s my partner over there that they’re trying to kill. I’m not going anywhere.” I raised the Equalizer, and loaded another cluster. “Just stay out of my way.”
He looked at my weapon. “What the hell is that?”
“The only thing that’s going to save our lives.”
I rolled out from behind the rear bumper, and shot several volleys, careful to aim high and avoid hitting Zander. Another one burst into dust, and I heard the cop yell, “Holy Hannah!”
The remaining two sprinted for their SUV. My cop, and the other one, chased after them, firing. I slung the Equalizer over my shoulder and ran over to Zander. He was still lying on the ground.
He looked like hell.
“Can you walk?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
I looked around and saw the gurney lying on its side a few feet away. I flipped it upright, then grabbed him. “Get on the gurney; we’ll worry about your bones later.”
He nodded, pushing himself to his feet, me pulling at him. He bent over at the waist, falling face first. I grabbed his legs and swung them on, then got behind the contraption, pushing it through traffic, toward my car that still sat a few hundred feet away.
“Hey, stop!” I heard somebody yell. It was probably one of the cops, but I didn’t bother looking back. They weren’t going to shoot, so I kept going.
“Get ready, Zee. We need to get you in the back seat as fast as possible, so I can get us the hell out of here.”
He grunted.
We reached the car and I pulled the gurney to a halt. I pulled open the rear door and Zander was already climbing off when I turned around to help him. I shoved him headfirst inside, pushed his legs out of the way with a yelp from him, then slammed the door shut. I jumped inside, the keys still in the ignition, and pressed the button to start the car. I looked in my rearview mirror. There was no way I was going to be able to back away.
I cranked the wheel to the right, hit the gas, and jumped the curb onto the sidewalk, all the while honking my horn and yelling at people to get out of the way. Once on the sidewalk, I slammed the car in reverse and shoved the accelerator to the floor, one hand steering, the other hand pumping the horn. Pedestrians dove out of the way, and I could have sworn I heard a couple bounce off the side panels, but within seconds I backed straight into an intersection. I spun the wheel as I hit the brakes, put the car in gear, and floored it, jumping through the clear intersection and down the relatively smooth flowing northbound lane. I looked in my rearview mirror and took the next left. A few more turns and I was confident we weren’t being followed.
I quickly glanced over my shoulder at Zander. “How are you, Zee?”
“I’ve been better.”
“How’s the bloodlust?”
“I can control it for a little while longer. I didn’t lose much blood.”
“We’ll be at the office in a few minutes, just hang in there.”
“Thanks, Syd.”
“No need to thank me, just hang in there. I don’t want to have to stake you after saving your ass.”
He didn’t reply. I had to admit my heart was hammering in my chest like it never had before. Zander was hurt. Bad. And I had no blood to feed him, and only inches of space between us. If he were to lose control and fall into the bloodlust, I’d be dead, or worse.
I pressed on the accelerator harder, just making a light. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself, probably every cop in the city was looking for me, but I was in a common car, with a common color, and I doubt they had a license plate number from all the confusion.
I glanced in the rearview mirror, and adjusted it so I could watch Zander. His eyes were closed, and I could see the muscles in his face contracting, the battle he was waging to maintain control slowly being lost. I reached over to the passenger seat and pulled one of the stakes from a cluster. I gripped it so that the stake pointed upward. I would only need to jerk my hand up, and to the back, and it should impale him if he were to try and come over the seat. Unlike in the movies, I didn’t need to stake his heart, I just needed his blood to come into sustained contact with the wood, something apparently in it would cause his system to break down.
Hopefully before he could take a bite of me.
I heard a growl and glanced. His eyes opened for a moment, and they were red. It was time. I cranked the wheel into the parking garage, spun up the two levels, then slammed the brakes on, jumping out of the car as it came to a stop. I didn’t look back, I just ran toward the entrance that joined with our building, threw open the doors, raced down the hallway, pulling the office key from my pocket. I heard the door at the end of the hall slam open. I didn’t look. I didn’t want to waste the precious moments on terror.
The door opened, and I burst inside, threw open the fridge, pulled the false back out, and grabbed the first bag, cutting it open with the key, and tossing it behind me at the door. I grabbed another bag, and threw it beside the first.
The door swung open. I spun around, and to my dismay, the two bags had been pushed aside, toward me. Only a couple of feet away. Zander stepped in, his eyes glaring at me, red with the bloodlust, his teeth, barred. I cut open another bag, and tossed it straight at him. Some of the precious liquid hit him in the face, and covered his shirt. The bag slid down his body and landed on the floor.
He licked his lips, but the bag didn’t seem to interest him.
I cut open another bag and tossed it to him. “Drink the blood from the bag, Zee!” He caught it and was about to throw it aside when I pointed the stake I still gripped at him. “Drink the damned blood!” I screamed. He looked at the bag and then at me.
Suddenly his head darted forward and his teeth buried themselves into the bag, he drained it in moments. I pointed at the other one at his feet. “Drink it!”
He bent over and drained the bag dry, as I kicked the two near my feet toward him. He quickly devoured them, then fell backward, lying on his back, not moving.
“Zee, you okay?”
He raised one finger.
“Give me a minute.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Two close calls in less than a week. We needed new procedures.
I inched myself away from the fridge, and around the room, keeping my distance, the stake still in front of me. I circled around, positioning myself so I could make a dash for the still opened door if I had to.
He sat up, his back now to me.
“Zee, are you okay?”
He nodded, but I still couldn’t see his eyes.
“Look at me, I need to know.”
He slowly turned his head, and his eyes came into view.
And they were red.
“It’s over.”
I raised my stake. “Then why are your eyes still red, Zee?”
I had never seen this before. I was almost feeling dizzy my heart was beating so fast, the adrenaline fueling me beginning to be too much. I grabbed the side of the desk, the stake still extended ahead of me. “Your eyes, Zee, they’re still red! The bloodlust isn’t over!”
“Yes it is.”
“I don’t believe you. I can’t believe you. Drink more blood, Zee, please, drink more blood!”
Zander stood up, unsteady, and lurched toward me, his body still broken. I yelped and retreated into Zander’s office, the door now blocked. There was no escape from here, unless I was willing to jump out the window. I took a quick glance. Two stories was nothing, I’d survive that, but there’d
be no time, the blinds were in the way. I’d have to pull them up, then try and get out the window.
I kept walking backward, deeper into his office. He continued to lurch forward, more Frankenstein’s monster than vampire, his red eyes still staring at me, and the stake. He shoved the door out of the way, the slam making me yelp. I grabbed the cord for the blind and yanked it up, bathing the office in the late afternoon sun.
Zander didn’t seem to notice. He stared at himself in the mirror, then leaned forward, pulling the skin down under his eye. He stood up and looked at me.
“I’m guessing detached retinas.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t see very well right now, I’m guessing I burst some blood vessels in my eyes, that’s why they’re still red. They’ll heal up in a little while.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded and smiled, pointing at the stake. “You won’t be needing that, but howsabout you come around this way, I’ll go around that way, so you can get out of here.”
I nodded. He headed toward the couch, and lay down, while I headed to the door. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yes. But go, calm down, wash up, call me before you come back. I’ve got a lot of healing to do.” I nodded. “Oh, and you better call Jason and replace that blood we just used.”
“Okay.”
“Tonight we’ve got a big night.”
“Huh?”
“Once I can walk, we’ve got to go back.”
“Back, are you nuts?”
Zander shook his head. “Nope. We need to set up surveillance on that office. There’s an entire swarm working there.”
“What?” My skin crawled. Vampire business people?
“I’ll explain later. Right now I’ve got some setting to do.”
I looked at his pitiful form. “Want me to help?”
He flicked his wrist at me, dismissing me. “No, go, you’ve had quite the scare.”
I nodded, grateful he had turned down my offer, the red eyes just too terrifying.
“I’ll call you later,” he said to my retreating form.
I rushed from the office, closing the door behind me, jumped in my car and raced toward the hotel where my dad was.
Turned (Zander Vargar Vampire Detective, Book #1) Page 14
