The car in front of us moved up and we needed to move before the convertible noticed such a big empty gap in traffic. I was grateful for Zander’s insistence on the hybrid because I was sure Raphael would have heard anything else. We inched by him, getting as close to the other vehicle as we could. Everything was going well until the AC kicked up a notch and gave me the urge to sneeze. I waved my hand in front of my nose to hold it off and Tabitha handed me a tissue, but it was going to happen one way or another. Just as I was going to let it go, the girls in the convertible sped up and came to a screeching halt in front of Raphael. They were screaming and making a menace of themselves over him looking like some sort of movie star.
My sneeze was epic. It felt like I blew out all of the air that the car was holding, because the heat from outside of the car quickly replaced the air conditioned air in the interior. We were visible again and very, very hot, but we were far enough from Raphael and about to hit 80 mph. After blowing my nose, I discovered little chunks of ice in the tissue. I guess it was better than the sand that would have been there had the windows been down.
We were looking behind us for the inevitable emergence of snow white hair and blazing green eyes but saw nothing. It couldn’t have been that easy for us to get by them. Raphael was a very gifted Elemental Vampire and he would have surely sensed something was wrong. I was wondering why they let us through when the overwhelming scent of iron filled the car. It smelled like St. Clair, so I wondered if Zander or Jordan were hurt. I tried to see which one of my brothers had gotten cut and nearly head-butted Violeta when she climbed into the back seat. Her pupils were dilated and the human being in me wanted desperately to run. Slamming myself back against the seat, I started to climb into the third row when she grabbed me around the throat; stopping my retreat. It all happened so quickly that all I could do was look at her.
“Cheyenne, you’re bleeding all over the place,” Violeta’s voice was so calm it was eerie. She turned my head from side to side before releasing me. Reaching over me, she grabbed a bag from the third row and pulled out a first aid kit.
My Elemental skills had indeed been powerful enough to fool Raphael and were now pushing blood from my nose, eyes and ears. It was strange to have Violeta tend to me. She was, however, very adept at the task and was even making sure that I felt as little discomfort as possible. Violeta was chosen for this mission, not only because she and Zander were to be married, but also because she had very good control over her thirst. Most other Vampires of her age would have had to be restrained around this much spilled blood. But Violeta was all but immune to it. The only outward sign of any reaction were her eyes. The other three were not affected because we all shared Efia’s blood and mine was not desirable to them.
It took almost thirty minutes for Violeta to clean me up and make sure that I hadn’t lost too much blood. We stopped for a roadside vendor selling oranges and she practically forced them down my throat. She had helped me change my clothes and set them on fire in an old trash can and we were back on the road. I wanted to tell her thank you but I couldn’t make the words fall out of my mouth. It was like I was afraid of rejection if I showed any type of weakness. Instead, I sat there as if the entire episode hadn’t just scared me to death.
Las Vegas was a hot mess. There were so many cars and so many pedestrians that it was hard to get anywhere. We had pulled onto Las Vegas Blvd 25 minutes before and it seemed like we had only moved 25 feet. We passed resort after resort and casino after casino until we reached our destination. A bellhop grabbed our luggage while Violeta handled the valet. I walked toward the front desk to stand in line for our keys when I felt the shimmer. Certain that another El Vampire was around, I began to glance at the other people in the lobby.
I knelt down, pretending to tie my shoes, and saw a girl sitting just a few feet from the registration desk. She had her back to us and must have been using her powers to keep people away from her because there was a family of five crowded onto a love seat while she sat alone on a six foot couch.
As nonchalantly as I could, I pointed her out to Tabitha. She stiffened and looked around to see where the rest of our party was. We saw them coming through the front entrance and Tabitha held a finger in front of her mouth. It wasn’t like the other Vampire couldn’t sense that we were there, we just didn’t want her to know that we knew she was there. We continued on as if nothing was out of the ordinary and received our keys. Acting as if we were in a hurry, which we were, we headed towards the bank of elevators with a steady pace.
As we walked, I used a small amount of my powers to move people slightly out of our way to prevent Zander from mowing them down. Behind us, the EV girl was doing the same thing, being careful that her powers didn’t reach all of the way to us. If Grigor had sent her then he knew nothing about my powers or that they were strong enough to sense hers. We made it all of the way to the elevators without missing a stride and stopped in front of the one closest to the wall.
The EV came around the corner with a group of tourists and pretended not to notice us. Her face was a blur as she hid her identity from anyone who was trying to get a closer look. I was tempted to throw some energy her way and force her to drop her shield but Jordan put an arm around my shoulder in a mock hug to prevent me from giving our identity away. Our elevator arrived first and the five of us piled in. Using my attributes to repel regular humans, I caught the Vampire's movement. She had started forward, unaffected by the energy, before she noticed that the other hotel guests remained in place. To play it off, she causally walked to the trash can and knelt to tie her shoe.
As the elevator doors were closing, Jordan let go of my shoulders and nodded towards the Vampire. Not one to miss out on the opportunity to use my powers against someone who was stalking me, I hit her with just enough to interfere with her powers, blowing just a little puff of air out and watched as her face came into focus. She was shocked and lifted her head to look at us right as the doors closed. Chloe!
Jordan and Zander had their arms in the doors in an instant. I reached out and grabbed my little sister by the arm and yanked with all of my might and the doors shut behind us.
“Dang it, Chloe. What are you doing here?” Zander was beyond pissed off.
He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, holding her off of the ground like she were a puppy. She was too smart to struggle against our brother, so she just crossed her arms in defiance. She knew that there was nothing we could do now but take her with us because it would be far too dangerous to leave her unprotected.
When we reached our floor, Zander pushed all of us into the corridor and headed towards our rooms. He had shifted his hold on Chloe to the bicep and was all but dragging her along. There was a couple coming out of their room and I felt Chloe blur our images as we passed them. Watching the effect that it had on regular humans was amusing. Since their brains cannot reconcile the fact that something is so out of focus they will not even register it as having been there at all. It would have been quite useful if I had known how to do it when sneaking into class late.
Violeta had the door open when the rest of us turned the corner at the end of the corridor. The curtains were open, filling the room with light. It was a huge suite complete with a living/dining combination and full kitchen. Zander flung Chloe into the nearest chair and stalked to the massive windows. He put his head on the glass while getting his temper under control. Violeta joined him, whispering something in his ear.
We sat there waiting for the verdict to come down when Violeta turned toward the couch. She smiled sweetly at the both of us and I knew we were in big trouble. Jordan and Tabitha had taken the weapons and were at the table looking over maps, so they were not going to be of any help. We did have a mission to complete after all.
Zander slowly turned around and lifted his gaze to meet Chloe’s. For a long moment the two of them just stared at each other. I could feel the vibration in my cushion from her shaking and wondered what, if anything, I could do to defend her. But
then Zander opened his arms and Chloe jumped off of the couch, flinging herself into them. My mouth must have been hanging open in amazement because I felt Violeta’s fingers pushing my lower jaw closed. I looked at her and noticed that her smile had actually made it to her eyes this time.
“So,” Violeta said, “the gang’s all here. Now what?”
“We have to get moving. Raphael will be able to sense both of you together,” Zander motioned toward me while still holding onto Chloe. He was a good big brother, if not a little bit stiff and overbearing.
“We have a couple of routes to choose from,” Tabitha said from the table.
She and Jordan had set up shop immediately upon entering the room. We had a very limited amount of time to make this happen. Our mother, Zola, knew we were coming for her. Efia thought it was a trap, as did everyone else. But I held on to some sort of fantastic idea that our mother honestly loved us and Grigor had just taken advantage of her. Rescuing her and killing Grigor were the only two things on my mind besides my pending Embrace and, recently, Chloe’s safety. Things weren’t looking good.
I joined everyone at the table and looked at a map of Henderson, Nevada. The compound was much larger than Efia’s and made our plan look even less probable.
Jordan had pinpointed our best hope of infiltration and began to run down our game plan. Violeta and Zander inventoried our weapons and laid out the clothing that we would be changing into. As for me and Chloe, we stood in the window looking out over the Las Vegas skyline. Looking at the beginning or the end of everything.
Chapter 23
Part of Grigor’s property was next to a golf course and Jordan had decided that it was a point of weakness that we could capitalize on. We moved across the greens and scaled a low wall only to land in a dog run. We were greeted by three snarling German Shepherds. Before we could react, the dogs were circling me and Chloe, herding us into a corner. It was too cold to panic and our retreat stopped with our backs against a rock wall. Just as the dogs were closing in, there was a loud grumble from behind them. Each of the dogs stopped and slowly turned their heads in the direction of the noise.
I looked over the backs of the dogs to see Violeta in a crouched position with her canines elongated. Her eyes had gone almost entirely black, with the whites disappearing by the second, and they were trained on the alpha dog. I stared at this new version of Violeta in awe. She was the epitome of rage and animal ferocity and yet she was just as beautiful as she had ever been. She growled again, and the German Shepherds dropped to the ground, presenting their bellies to a superior being.
Chloe touched my shoulder to lead me away from the wall and past the submissive guard dogs. As we passed, the alpha raised his head to snapped at my heels and Violeta pounced. She was so fast that I could barely track her movement. She had lifted the dog into the air and was holding him a few feet off the ground.
“Violeta,” Zander said softly from a distance. “Violeta, that’s enough.”
It took Violeta a few long seconds before she dropped the alpha at her feet. He lay there catching his breath and being careful to remain still while Violeta composed herself. Looking at the blood in the corners of her mouth and dripping down her chin made me wonder what it tasted like. I had become accustomed to the taste of blood but the thought of dog blood made the bile rise in my stomach. Violeta’s black gaze turned on me as I wretched and lost my lunch. It was so embarrassing.
“I’m okay,” Violeta said, her eyes still on me and still very black. “I just need a moment.”
“Okay, Cheyenne and Chloe, come this way. Slowly.”
I looked up to see Zander’s outreached hand and grasped it. As soon as I did, Violeta moved forward very slightly and very quickly. She moved forward and then backward in quick succession, fighting some internal force. She continued to hold my gaze until I began to feel as if I were prey. Instinct told me to stay very still. The whites of her eyesappeared to be flickering off and on in the same way that a light bulb does right before it dies. I could only hope that the light would not go completely out.
“I’m okay,” Violeta repeated, as if she were trying to convince herself.
She closed her eyes, breaking eye contact with me. The moment she did, I let out the breath I was holding and moved out of her sight line. The remaining dogs were still lying on the ground. I made eye contact with the smallest of the pack and saw the undeniable look of fear in her eyes. Her body was shaking as she kept all of us in her sight. It seemed like she shared the emotions of the rest of her pack.
Chloe and I joined Jordan and Tabitha while Zander checked on Violeta. I was still in shock by what I had just witnessed, but the others were intent on keeping to the plan. Over Jordan's shoulder we could see a small window near the rear of the house. There was light and the room appeared to be a prep area for the kitchen staff.
“We can get in through here and head to the basement. Mom is being held on the other side of the compound.”
“Jordan, do you see an alarm system?” Zander said, having returned from checking on Violeta.
“I think Violeta took care of the alarm system. Grigor is either too cocky or just plain stupid.”
“Or he wasn’t expecting me to ever return here.”
Violeta was standing just feet from me, her eyes back to their normal color, whites and all.
“Why didn’t you drop me, Chey? You’re trained for it. Or you could have just sucked the air out of my lungs.”
Her look was more question than accusation, but I still felt judged. I hadn’t dropped her or pushed the air from her lungs because I didn’t want to hurt her. A few weeks earlier I had realized that I was stronger than I thought. If I had wanted to stop Violeta’s attack, I could have. But I had grown to consider Violeta as much more than just my future sister-in-law and I didn’t want to see her in pain.
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” I said, lowering my eyes.
“I appreciate that,” Violeta started, “but the next time your life is in danger, you do what you need to do. I’ll get over it!”
Her eyes were dangerously close to going black again and my pulse quickened. She glanced at my throat and the decision was made for me. I swept my leg toward her and pulled at the surrounding air at the same time. Struggling for breath, she grabbed at her throat and her knees buckled. Not wanting to hurt her or to attract any attention, I reached out and caught her before she hit the ground and released my hold on the air.
“That is what you do when you are threatened,” she gasped. “Every time. No matter who it is. Understood?”
“Yes, Violeta, I understand.”
Thoroughly chastised but relieved that Violeta had used this time as a learning experience, I tried to concentrate. There would be no time for hesitation once we broke into the compound.
We followed closely while Jordan and Tabitha picked the lock on the rear door and entered the kitchen. A member of Grigor’s staff walked past the entrance and continued down the hallway. Jordan watched until the man turned left at the corner and then signaled for us to follow. We crept down the hallway as quietly as we could and turned right toward the stairs that led to the basement.
Our senses were assaulted with the smells of rancid meat and stale blood. I grabbed Chloe’s hand more to assure myself than to offer her support. As the only members of our group who were still human, Chloe and I were not affected nearly as much as the others; their eyes had gone black and feral. This was going to go badly.
We continued down until we reached a large steel door with an electronic keypad that glowed in the darkness. Tabitha stepped up to the panel and began running through a series for possible codes while the rest of us kept watch. The smells were worse from here and the source appeared to be on the other side of this door.
The sound of Tabitha’s extra fast typing shattered the silence in the corridor and set everyone on edge. If she didn’t stop soon we would surely be heard by some passing staff member. If someone heard her we were as good as dead.<
br />
Just before panic rose in the group, Tabitha cracked the code and the door slid opened. The smells were indeed coming from the other side of the door. The four Vampires were almost on their knees as the onslaught of odors came rushing through.
There was a faint green light glowing about forty yards from the entrance. My first instinct was to run in the other direction and to put as much distance between myself and that room. I held my breath until Zander passed me a damp cloth. Pressed to my nose, relief was immediate and I breathed in the deep smell of lilac and cinnamon.
We moved toward the source of the smells and stopped short when we heard a low and painful moaning. Every one of us drew the weapons that had been given to us at the hotel and waited for our orders.
Chloe had her small but lethal dagger. The handle had been made especially for her small hand and she held it like a professional. The thought of my sister having to use the dagger to take a life was horrifying. Her using it to protect her own life was unthinkable. I wish she would have stayed at the compound like she was told. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her.
She looked at me then, her eyes intense and mature. Suddenly I realized that she was more prepared than I was. Those eyes belonged to someone who was ready to kill if need be. Apparently I was the only person in our group with misgivings. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I would not be the weakest link.
There was no need to try to hide our presence in the room since it was empty and presented no place to hide. We simply took up offensive and defensive stances and proceeded.
The emotional tension of four siblings attempting to rescue their mother from an evil Vampire Lord charged the air with energy. Feeding off of each other’s powers and ready for anything, we walked back to back toward where we thought our mother was held. I prayed that I had what it took to protect myself and the others. Efia had told me that I was the key to the mission’s success. It was my blood that had been prophesied and my Embrace that would bring about Grigor’s destruction. I felt like Indiana Jones when he was running from that giant boulder…but I had nowhere to jump.
Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) Page 23
