by Alicia Ryan
Ash pushed Luc aside. “What are you talking about?” he demanded. “What’s Ariana got to do with this?”
“Possibly everything,” Memnon said. “In fact, I don’t know why you blame me at all. Delilah’s the one who called down a demon to get rid of you and somehow turned you into a vampire and your child into a breeder.” He paused, clearly enjoying Ash’s dismay. “Still think you have a way with women, Samson?” he taunted.
“Are you saying Delilah and I had a child?” Ash repeated.
“So it would seem,” Memnon said, “spawning a dynasty the culmination of which is standing before you now.”
“What?” Ash looked at Luc. “Luc?” He didn’t think it was possible to be more surprised.
“Feel like the proud papa yet?” Memnon laughed. “Your little woman really did a number on you.” His laugh died. “On us all. Like you, I hadn’t quite figured out what to do with her yet, but your friend Toria has saved us the trouble.”
“What do you mean?” Luc interjected.
Memnon’s eyes never left Ash’s face. “I mean Toria—and presumably Ariana—are both quite dead by now.”
At Ash’s horrified look, Memnon laughed. “You are truly pathetic, Ash. Look at you. Brought to your knees—again—by a woman.”
Ash quickly reached out and grabbed Luc by the collar of his jacket. “Get out of here, now,” he ordered.
Luc hesitated.
“Now!” Ash yelled, pushing him backward out of the room.
CHAPTER 57
Luc knew what he had to do. Once out front, he ran to his waiting motorcycle, and blew through every red light between mid-town and his apartment.
His sense of smell told him something was wrong as soon as the elevator doors opened. The same terrible stench that pervaded Council House was noticeable even in the hallway. Panic lodged in his throat.
He reached down and pulled the knife from his boot and stood for a moment outside the door, listening. No sound issued from inside, just the overpowering stench.
He tried the door. It wasn’t locked.
Inside, the lights were on, revealing the visible signs of struggle. He saw the blood-stained wall. He saw Ariana lying in a heap on the floor.
He ran over to her still form, fearing the worst. He turned her over, trying to hurry but still be gentle. He shuddered at the huge wound in her shoulder, for once seeing the horror of blood. He felt for her pulse, knowing it was pointless.
To his utter astonishment, he felt a faint rhythm. A mere human would have missed it, but it meant he wasn’t too late.
Luc flicked his fangs out and dragged one across his wrist. It stung, and red droplets formed a dark crescent on his pale skin.
He hesitated for a moment. If he was wrong... he wasn’t wrong. This was the only way. And he didn’t know if he could even do it.
He smeared his thumb through the bloody pattern on his arm and spread it on Ariana’s lips and over her tongue. Her lips twitched imperceptibly.
He looked again at the hole in her flesh. What if making her a vampire wasn’t the only way?
Luc moved his wrist over her wound and squeezed hard with his other hand. Droplets formed again. They trickled downward, collecting at the ball of his hand into a red raindrop. Finally, that raindrop fell onto her broken body, and several more followed in its path.
He moved his wrist back to her mouth. The warm red liquid dropped onto the back of her throat, and Ariana swallowed.
Luc pulled Ash’s phone out of his pocket and looked at the most recently dialed numbers. “Car” presented itself as the second item in the list. He pressed the button and dropped it back in his pocket.
Lifting her gently, he settled Ariana’s head against his chest and strode out of apartment. As soon as his foot hit the sidewalk, he broke into a flat out run. At the end of the block, a black sedan pulled up and a uniformed driver got out and held open the back door. Luc put Ariana in and yelled an address at the driver as he ran around to the other side of the car. The sleek vehicle was already moving as Luc shut the door behind him.
The ride to the warehouse was too long, and Luc began to panic. He once more drew his teeth across his already healed wrist and squeezed precious drops onto the unconscious woman in his lap.
The car pulled to a hard halt at the warehouse door. Luc licked his wrist and gathered Ariana in his arms. He dismissed the driver and entered the combination to the heavy warehouse door.
Inside, he didn’t bother to turn on any lights, just went straight to the elevator and took it down one floor, stopping at his office. There he turned and went out the side door into a narrow hallway. Most of the rooms behind the office were small storage areas, but there was one bathroom. Luc pushed open the seldom-used door.
It wasn’t clean, and the fixtures were ancient, but there was a claw-footed porcelain tub. Luc laid Ariana in it and ripped her flimsy tee shirt off with one swift tear.
Her eyelids fluttered.
Luc turned and ran down the hall to the rickety stairs that led down to the third level. He sincerely hoped none of his four friends was still around. He didn’t see anyone as he ran to the cooler. He really didn’t care. He’d kill them all if he had to.
The bucket of their blood was still in the fridge. Luc grabbed it and ran back up the stairs toward the bathroom, just in time to see a slight, dark figure slip in ahead of him. He set the bucket down carefully, just inside the door of one of the other rooms, and pulled his knife from his boot.
The door to the bathroom where he’d left Ariana was now closed. He crept toward it, refusing to dwell on what the ramifications of killing Solotnik’s daughter might be. It didn’t matter.
Luc paused outside the bathroom door, but only for a moment. He knew where she would be—kneeling over Ariana. He drew a picture in his mind and hoped his aim was true, then rammed his whole arm through the flimsy wooden door. He felt the knife tip strike home. A high-pitched scream curdled up from inside the tiny room.
Luc pulled his arm back and opened the door. The female vampire he’d had caged below flew at him in a rage. He caught her as she came at him and turned her around. They hit the opposite wall, her back to his chest.
Luc reached around her and plunged his knife into her heart. She struggled as the traitorous organ pumped her now silver-tainted blood into all the cells of her body.
It took a few moments, but when she was still, Luc carried her into the bathroom and slit her throat and wrists. He closed the drain and flopped the top half of her body into the tub at Ariana’s feet so her blood would begin to drain.
Luc stripped off the rest of Ariana’s clothes, returned with his bucket, and added the blood from it as well. He turned on the warm tap until a pink pool covered Ariana up to her neck and then bit into his own wrist again.
He dragged his fangs through several inches of tissue this time and drained his own blood into the swirling water. It wasn’t long before he felt himself losing consciousness. Still he pressed his wrist. He wanted her to fight, to live. He wanted their child to live. Soon he felt his arm slip, saw the bathroom floor rise up to meet him, and then the room went dark.
CHAPTER 58
Ash turned back to Memnon and launched himself full force at his robed figure.
Their two bodies collided in mid-air. Memnon laughed, and Ash thought it was the emptiest sound he’d ever heard. Had Memnon been this soulless as a human?
He shook his head, clearing the momentary fog. Memnon had thrown him back down to the marble floor, and a great crack was spreading across its ringed design.
“You can’t defeat me,” Memnon rasped. “You were a great warrior once, Ash, but you’ve gone soft. You’ve forgotten the reason we fight, if you ever even knew.”
“What reason is that, Memnon?” Ash scanned the room as he spoke. He needed a weapon.
Memnon sneered. “I left Pompeii out of disgust for what the Romans had done to the world. Now, after all this time, nothing has changed. The world has gone to he
ll. Its leaders and its people are corrupt. It begs to be conquered by a force that can unite it and turn it to a better purpose.”
Ash remembered this. Conquer, assimilate, and repeat. It had been Alexander’s way and his father’s before him. The Romans had been expert at it as well before becoming too bloated to maintain their empire.
Alexander and his fighting force were always light, nimble, and mobile. That was the only way to rule an empire. To be everywhere at once.
Ash hadn’t much cared for that time. Alexander preached piety and restraint, yet repeatedly ordered them to slaughter soldiers who had surrendered.
“And you plan to fill Alexander’s shoes and try to conquer the world?” Ash asked.
Memnon laughed. “I would never try to fill Alexander’s shoes, but I serve one who can. He will bring the world to heel.”
Ash snorted. “You’re a fool, Memnon. An anachronistic fool.”
“Who will stop us?” Memnon asked. “Certainly not you. You have power, but you lack the discipline for a long war. Already I have taken your friends and loved ones from you, and you do nothing. You sit there like a coward.”
Memnon rose once more into the air and hung near the third floor banister. He ripped off the tattered cloak and threw it to the floor, revealing a warrior’s physique to rival Ash’s own.
“No more pretending then, Memnon,” Ash called out. “No more running around in robes, co-opting maids and monks, spying on the rest of us from across the globe—all rather makes you sound like the coward, wouldn’t you say?”
Memnon growled, clearly not seeing things Ash’s way. “It’s just a matter of time before I crush everything you treasure,” he continued, ignoring Ash’s baiting. “Before this world and these humans you love are no more recognizable to you than that bit of your friend there.” He pointed at the glob of goo that had been a Council Elder and laughed once more.
Finally, Ash had found his weapon.
He launched himself off the ground and straight up into the air. He hovered opposite Memnon for a moment, his eyes ablaze.
The banister behind Memnon began to shake, and Memnon looked on in shock as it exploded into thousands of flying splinters. Shrinking back from the flying wood, he used his mind to divert most of the tiny torpedoes to the floor.
Several dozen, however, managed to lodge themselves in his white flesh. Memnon looked down at them and laughed.
He concentrated for a moment and the pieces began to wriggle free of his skin. Drops of blood pooled where they exited.
When Memnon looked up, Ash flung a handful of the goo that had once been the Elder at him. It hit dead on, and splattered across Memnon’s blood-speckled torso.
Memnon hissed and sucked in a breath. “No!” he screeched, frantically wiping the sludge from his skin.
Ash rose higher and pulled another pole loose from the banister. This one he aimed himself. It flew toward Memnon, puncturing his goo-covered side and pinning him to the wall.
Memnon screeched again. This time it was an audible howl. Ash didn’t gloat. Memnon sounded more angry than hurt, but he was hurt.
“That’s what we call tasting your own medicine, my friend,” Ash said.
At that moment, Ash heard a faint cry from upstairs. Nancy. He left Memnon pinned in his own goo and soared up to the third floor landing.
He started running as soon as his feet touched the carpet. “Nancy,” he called out, “where are you?”
He kicked open the door of Keller’s room and found Keller draining the helpless Nancy like there was no tomorrow. Ash belted him across the forehead, sending him flying, and caught Nancy’s limp body before she hit the floor. Keller hissed and snarled at him from across the room.
Finally, Ash saw the bleeding wound in his gut. Luc must have stabbed him with something before coming down stairs. It wasn’t a life-threatening wound, but Keller was losing blood. He needed to feed, and poor Nancy must have walked right into the lion’s den.
“Shit,” he said, knowing what he had to do.
“Get up, Keller,” he ordered. The monk, though still snarling, did as instructed.
Ash wanted desperately to finish Memnon off, but he couldn’t risk it. Not at the cost of Nancy’s life. Not even at the cost of Keller’s. Enough lives had been extinguished this night. Memnon would wait.
CHAPTER 59
Ariana didn’t want to open her eyes. She moved her arm and realized she was wet. More than that, she was under water. Her eyes flew open.
The first thing she saw was a lifeless head hanging over the edge of a bathtub looking at her with accusing eyes. She screamed and tried to back up, but it was no use. Everything was wet and slippery. Realizing she was sitting in a pool of blood, she screamed again. Her hand flew out and somehow found a perch against the white tile. She levered herself up to a standing position. Her body was stiff and weak, and she couldn’t raise her other arm.
She saw Luc on the floor, and called out to him, but he didn’t move. Then she remembered. Toria. She looked down at her body. It looked no different than it had yesterday. She remembered Toria’s hand going all the way through her and into the wall of Luc’s apartment. Where was the wound, the gaping hole that her shoulder should have been? Why was she even alive?
Ariana looked down at the bloody pool in which she stood. Quickly she put her right hand to her mouth. She didn’t feel any fangs, but the only one who might know for sure was on the floor, possibly dead. Ariana stepped cautiously out of the tub and bent to look at Luc. How do you tell if a vampire is dead?
She put both hands under him and rolled him over onto his back. His head thudded on the tile floor, and Ariana winced. She moved his head, gingerly this time, and seeing no apparent damage, she stepped over him and knelt down. The floor was cold on her knees. She grabbed Luc’s face with one hand and shook his head back and forth, calling his name. When that didn’t work, Ariana began to panic. Weakness clawed at her bones. She hung her head low over Luc’s carved features. He might have been made of stone, she thought. She began to pound on his hard chest with her fist.
Her wet hair dropped rivulets of blood onto his face. When the first drop hit his mouth, Luc’s eyes snapped open. He grabbed her hand in mid-air, and Ariana straightened to a sitting position.
***
Luc had to get out of there. He knew it, but for a moment he didn’t move, allowing his eyes to drink in the naked, blood-soaked beauty straddling his hips.
A great smile cut across his features.
“Ariana, you can get up now,” he said softly.
She rose shakily to her feet.
Luc opened the cabinet under the sink, but there were no towels. He gave Ariana his shirt and her own somewhat bloody jeans.
Ignoring her protests, he carried her back up to the street level, where he again dialed for Ash’s car service. He’d have to thank the arrogant bastard if he ever saw him again.
Dawn was breaking, but Luc didn’t care. They’d be in his apartment long before the sun got high enough to harm him.
Ariana fell asleep in his arms in the car and slept all the way back. When they reached his apartment door, she opened her eyes. “What happened?” she asked.
Her brown eyes were warm and trusting. Luc’s guts twisted under the weight of all he had to tell her. He gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. “Let’s get you cleaned up first, okay? Then I promise I’ll tell you everything.”
He gently carried Ariana to the shower and stood her under the warm spray. Dried blood liquefied and ran off her flesh and into the drain. Luc clenched his teeth and began to bathe her.
Finally, it was over. Luc wrapped her in the biggest towel he could find and carried her into the bedroom. He laid her on top of the covers and watched her tired eyes close.
Then he turned on his heel, telling himself he was giving her time to get her strength back, not just postponing the inevitable.
He spent a few moments cleaning up the mess that had been made of his living ro
om. His eyes were drawn to the comfy cushions of his well-worn sofa, and he couldn’t stop his body from following. It was fully light outside now, and his every cell screamed for sleep. He closed the curtain and stretched out his long frame. As soon as it was dark he’d explain everything to her.
Luc smiled in spite of his weariness. He’d saved her. He’d saved her and his child.
***
Hours later, Ariana’s gentle shaking roused him.
He swung to a sitting position, and she moved to take a seat in the desk chair across the room. She wore another pair of his faded jeans and one of his old tee shirts.
Luc rubbed his eyes and stared at her for longer than was really necessary. Her complexion was still pale, but he marveled at her rapid recovery.
“What’s going on, Luc?” she asked softly.
Luc shook his head. “I hardly know where to start,” he said. “What happened here?”
“Toria,” Ariana replied, confirming Memnon’s version of events. “She tried to kill me, but...” she grimaced at the recollection, “something happened to her.” Ariana closed her eyes. “I mean, I stabbed her. I didn’t think I had any choice, but before that... she... she was crazed, rabid almost.” She looked earnestly at Luc. “I can’t explain, but there was something wrong with her.”
Luc nodded. “Don’t worry about Toria,” he said. “You didn’t kill her. She was poisoned. Someone spiked the blood supply at Council House, and almost all the vampires there wound up just like Toria.”
Ariana sighed, before her eyes flew open in alarm.
“Ash?” she asked.
Luc cocked a golden brow at her. “I don’t know about Ash,” he said. “When I left, he was fine.” He leaned back into the sofa cushions. “I’ll try to find him tonight, but it’s important you don’t talk to him until I tell you it’s safe.”
