“Piece of cake,” I said, winking at him even though I felt anything but confident inside. My stomach churned as the SUV started forward again.
My heart picked up speed, and I had to make a conscious effort to not start breathing erratically. Stay calm. You can do this.
I thought of Aden, drawing strength from his belief in me.
The Scarlet Guard parted as we made our way up to the roadblock, their helmeted heads turning slowly, following us with their gazes as we rolled by. Word had probably gotten out to them by now that we had commandeered a vehicle and would most likely be heading this way. Come to think of it, it was really stupid of us to come back, but I just had this feeling that Orion would still be in Pittsburgh.
“Wow,” Leo said, looking tenser. “I’ve never seen so many of them.”
“It seems like there are more and more of them lately,” Arika murmured darkly, glaring back at the guards with mistrust.
A guard motioned for us to stop, and Leo put on the brakes. “Ready?” he asked me.
I gave him a quick, nervous nod. Everyone held their breaths as he rolled down the window and two guards walked up to the car.
I began reaching out for their minds with my own the moment he began rolling down the window. I felt traces of what the guards were feeling; fatigue, irritation, bloodlust…
A frown tugged at the corners of my lips. There was something weird about their brains, an almost telekinetic signature that crackled like electricity.
Every drop of blood drained out of my face, and my mouth dropped open in horror. “Oh my God,” I breathed, gripping the seat for support. I quickly scanned the minds of the other nearby guards, feeling the prickle of the same telekinetic signature.
Leo’s gaze snapped to mine. “What?”
I stared back in terror and disbelief at the guard peering into the car.
“They’re vampires,” I said. “Every last one of them.”
Leo paused, staring at me open-mouthed like he hadn’t heard what I said.
Rook swore, his eyes squinting as he reached out with his own glamour. I knew he felt it too when I saw his eyes widen. “She’s right. Get us out of here.”
When Leo didn’t move, Rook kicked his seat hard. “Now!”
Leo snapped awake and slammed his foot on the gas. The car shot forward, nearly running over one of the guards as we pummeled through the wooden barrier blocking off the road.
The guards were scrambling toward their cars, preparing to come after us.
I slumped back against my seat, stunned.
What the hell was going on? Had the Scarlet Guard always been vampires, and I just hadn’t noticed? Or did Frost somehow send them to infiltrate the ranks of the White Sector governments?
Headlights shone behind us as at least five cars full of Scarlet Guard chased after us.
“Leo!” I shouted.
“I know!” he shouted back, bottoming out the pedal.
Bullets rained down on the back windshield, sending glass flying everywhere. Dezyre screamed, and Leo gritted his teeth, swerving madly to try to throw off their aim.
I looked up in time to see a “NO OUTLET” sign quickly approaching. I blanched. “Leo?” I asked warily.
His eyes widened, and I followed his gaze, seeing a fence and a sign that read “Monongahela River.”
The seat seemed to drop out from under me. “You’re not going to do what I think you’re about to do, are you?”
Cars barreled toward us from the streets to the left and right of us; the Scarlet Guard and S.I.A. had us surrounded on three sides.
“We don’t have a choice,” Leo said. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. “Can everyone swim?”
I thought Dezyre would faint. “Excuse me, did you say ‘swim’?”
Leo never got a chance to reply, because right then the SUV tore through the fence in a wail of screeching metal, and there was the sensation of weightlessness before the car plummeted toward the river below.
CHAPTER 13
I think I screamed; my mouth opened, but I couldn’t hear anything. It was like time had stopped, and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as the nose of the car landed in the water, jolting us upon impact.
The SUV bobbed for a few seconds before slowly sinking. My heart threatened to explode from my chest, and I tried not to hyperventilate as the river swallowed the car whole.
Breathe, Sloane.
I should make a T-shirt with that printed on the front, or have it tattooed to my other wrist, considering how much I thought it.
Water climbed up the sides of the windows. I have to say, it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It was terrifying in a way, like how I imagined being buried alive would feel. I prayed the glass would break when we needed to get out.
Subconsciously, my trembling fingers reached for the door handle.
“Don’t,” Leo said quickly, starting to reach for my hand, but I retracted it. “It’ll be easier to get out if the car’s completely under,” he added.
“How do you know?” I asked, looking at him.
“I saw it in a movie once.”
For a few seconds, I forgot how to breathe. “You’re gambling our lives on what you saw in a movie?”
He gave me a pointed look. “It’s not as bad as it seems.”
I looked at the water outside my window. The entire front half of the SUV was completely underwater now. “Looks pretty bad to me.”
“You’re not helping,” he said, trying to sound playful, though I could hear the tension in his voice.
A weird blubbering sound filled the car, and it took me a moment to figure out what it was. I honed in on the sound, following it to its source.
With a start, I glanced behind me. Dezyre’s bottom lip was trembling, making a popping noise. She had her hands balled up in her lap, fisting them so tightly her knuckles were white.
Rook glanced at me, and then his eyes dropped to Dezyre’s lap. Slowly, he placed a hand over hers. She looked at him with a start, as if just realizing other people were around.
Arika sat frozen, ready to spring to action as soon as the rest of the car was submerged.
We didn’t get that long because right then several red blurs ripped through the water, creating little tunnels in the river around us as they shot toward the riverbed.
Rook’s gaze turned grim. “Scarlet Steel bullets,” he said. “I guess that means we’re wanted dead or alive.”
I turned back to Leo. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
The last word was lost as a bullet broke through the back windshield, cracking it. Water began pouring in through the hole, bowing the busted window as the weight of the water increased.
“Take a deep breath!” Leo shouted, right before what was left of the windshield gave way to the might of the river.
Water poured through the back of the SUV. I sucked in a tight breath before ice-cold water crashed into my face, and I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them, the interior of the car was completely filled with water. Arika was swimming through the opening where the back windshield used to be. Rook had an arm around Dezyre, and he guided her up and through the opening in Arika’s wake of bubbles.
A hand rested at my lower back; Leo was pushing me forward. Snapping out of it, I swam toward the opening and into the open water. It was dark as pitch down here, and the water was so cold that it was making it hard to think or move, since my body was starting to go numb.
Leo swam up beside me and grabbed my wrist, jerking me along after several other dark shapes swimming away from the sinking car. We started to follow our companions when another stream of bullets tore through the water, blocking our path.
Leo drew up short and pulled me in the opposite direction. I faltered, pointing toward the others, but Leo firmly shook his head. Not having any other choice, I followed after him, and together, we swam away from the barrage of bullets, into the darkness.
My lungs began to burn for f
resh air, but I kept going, pressing my lips shut to keep from opening my mouth as the pressure inside my lungs built to the point of becoming extremely uncomfortable.
Leo had the same pinched expression on his face. I wondered if being a vampire meant I could somehow hold my breath longer, and a bolt of fear ripped through me at the thought of my best friend drowning. I couldn’t let that happen.
Desperately, I grabbed his arm and began pulling us upward toward the surface. When Leo resisted, giving me a “What are you doing?” look, I pointed to my mouth and proceeded to haul us up.
I didn’t think we were going to make it, and that I was about to get a lungful of river water. We couldn’t have broken the surface soon enough. I gasped for air as I shot out of the water, inhaling several mouthfuls of water. I coughed and ran a hand over my eyes, trying to clear them of the river water.
“Over there!”
Fabulous, I thought as flashlights shone our way.
Leo was sputtering beside me, sounding just as out of breath as I was. My eyes widened as I saw the S.I.A. and Scarlet Guard raise their guns.
“Leo, swim!” I screamed.
Gunfire rang out, and a barrage of bullets pelted the water, sending up little sprays all around us. I fought against the current, swimming for all I was worth; I didn’t care that I was exhausted, or that the water was practically frozen because it was so cold. My breath fogged the air, and I could hear Leo coming up alongside me.
“Agh!”
My whole world froze at Leo’s agonized cry. I stopped swimming and whirled around, eyes wide. Pain twisted Leo’s features, and he gripped something below the water, struggling to remain afloat.
Something twisted deep inside me. No. No, please, not him. Please don’t take him away from me too.
Someone was shouting over a megaphone from the riverbank. “Stop shooting! Sovereign McAllister wants her alive.”
So she can kill me herself, probably.
As they lowered their weapons, the beam of their flashlights bounced off something shiny. Hope lifted my quickly sinking spirits. Grabbing hold of Leo, I began dragging him through the water toward a piece of metal sticking just above the river’s surface.
“Hold on,” I said breathlessly. “Just hang in there.”
He grunted in response. I could feel the pain rolling off him; it was so intense that it nearly crippled me.
The metallic object I saw earlier was ribbed, like a piece of piping. The opening appeared to be below the surface.
“Hold your breath,” I said.
After making sure Leo got a mouthful of air, I clamped in a breath and dove underwater.
It felt like a thousand needles were prickling my skin, and it hurt to keep my eyes open as we swam toward the dark, metallic opening. There was something off about Leo’s efforts, so I had to work twice as hard for both of us. Though the water helped carry some of his weight, it was still a bit of a chore to drag him toward the opening.
The tunnel was dark, but about twenty feet ahead, the water lit up with orange light. I pushed us through as quickly as I could; my lungs were starting to burn again. We burst up on the other side, gasping for air. It looked like some kind of entrance to a storm drain.
Leo cried out, then immediately bit down on his lip.
I studied his face, worry creasing my features. “Leo, what is it? What’s wrong?”
His face scrunched up, as if he were trying to hold in his pain. His voice was so ragged I barely made out what he said between gasps.
“My leg… I think I’ve… been shot.”
CHAPTER 14
“I’ve been shot.”
Those three words reverberated inside my head, pumping fear into my heart.
I blinked and took a deep breath, steadying my voice. “It’s okay, Leo. You’re going to be fine.”
Terror ripped through me, threatening to paralyze me. But before it had a chance to, I jerked my mind back in the moment. If I had any prayer of helping Leo, I had to be totally, one hundred percent “on it.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Leo’s lids start to flutter shut. My heart catapulted into my throat, nearly leaping out of my mouth. I shook Leo. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me, Rinaldi. I’ll kill you if you die.”
His lips tugged up at one corner in a smirk. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
My lips twitched in the faintest of smiles. “Shut up.”
My heart sank as I pulled us into the circle of eerie orange light, made even spookier by the bulb’s erratic flickering. I kicked out and that’s when I felt it – a concrete bed. I had been so focused on making sure Leo didn’t die on me that I hadn’t paid much attention to my surroundings.
We were underground, or at least, that’s what it looked like. Crumbling concrete walls rose all around, making me feel even more trapped. The thought we could turn around briefly crossed my mind before I dismissed it, knowing we’d be caught if we left.
The concrete bed rose out of the water onto a ledge that led into the earth, farther into the sewer system beneath the city. The iron bars that had once covered the entrance had either been ripped off or eroded, I couldn’t tell.
Finding my footing on the ledge, I started to lift Leo, gritting my teeth when he hissed at the movement. That sound, so full of agony, shot a dagger of ice-cold fear straight through my chest.
“I know it hurts,” I said, feeling guilty for jostling him so much as I awkwardly tried to lift him over the ledge and into the tunnel. “But I need to get you out of the water before you catch pneumonia.”
It was completely possible for vampires to catch colds too, but I figured my immune system was probably stronger than his was.
I smelled it the moment his leg broke the water’s surface, the sweet, hypnotic tang of his blood. Oh God.
My pulse picked up speed as I struggled not to breathe, to rein in my inner demons. I squeezed my eyes shut. No, not now. Not ever again.
It was harder than I thought to say no, like my drinking from him the first time had made me addicted to his blood. I wondered if vampires had secret support groups like Bloodsuckers Anonymous.
The moment my gums ached, I bit down so hard on my lip that my fangs nearly tore it off. The pain jolted me back to my senses, and I blinked, hard.
“Sloane?”
My gaze snapped to Leo. “Yes?”
The word sounded edgier thanks to the metallic, hollow echo of the tunnel. “Are you okay?” he asked. His voice had taken on a deeper tone. I knew from nursing him back to health after all our school fights that he did that in order to hide how pained he was.
My heart went out to him. “I’m sorry, Leo. Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m a trooper,” I said lamely, giving him what I hoped was a convincing smile. “Let’s get you patched up.”
We somehow managed to get him onto the ledge, and then I hauled myself up beside him. We huddled against each other, listening, every muscle in our bodies straining to hear if we were being tracked. I heard voices in the distance, accompanied by the squealing of tires, which meant the S.I.A. and the Scarlet Guard must be leaving. It would be foolish of me to think they wouldn’t be back with a diving team.
Slowly, we both let out long breaths and leaned heavily against each other. “Do you remember when we were little and played ‘super-action-hero’ in my front yard?” I asked softly, staring thoughtfully out at the pool.
That had the desired reaction. Leo’s grimace turned upside down, and I smiled back at him. “How could I forget?” he said with a soft laugh, eyes growing far-off. “We used to beat the shit out of each other. ‘We have to make it authentic, like real good guys catching the bad guys,’ I think you said.”
I winked at him, tearing off a piece of my shirt – which wasn’t so easy since it was a sweater, but I had enhanced strength – and wrung it out in a vain attempt to dry it. “Don’t lie. You liked it.”
“Yeah,” he said dryly as I rolled up his pant leg. “Now I have all these battl
e scars to show off to chicks. My badass value increased exponentially thanks to you.”
That made me laugh. “Glad I could help.” I flinched as Leo sucked in a tight breath when I rolled the hem of his pants over the bloody hole in his shin. Clenching my nostrils, I did the best I could at not breathing in the scent of his blood, though my mouth started to water.
Get a grip, Sloane.
One look at Leo’s face was all it took. Taking a deep breath, I refocused on his injury. Even with vampire vision, there were too many things gunking up the hole – blood, shredded flesh – for me to see if the bullet was still there.
I shot Leo an apology with my eyes. “Leo, you know I would never intentionally –”
“Do it,” he said. The hard look in his eyes matched the steel in his voice.
Mentally bracing myself, I reached two fingers into the hole. Leo immediately yelled, and I threw my other hand up against his mouth to muffle the sound. Every muscle in my body clenched with tension, making me edgy and nervous as I felt around for the bullet.
I knew the second I found the bullet because the nerves in my fingertips flared up like they were on fire, shooting needle pricks of molten lava straight into my bloodstream. I gritted my teeth to trap my own cry of pain inside my mouth, forcing myself to grip the Scarlet Steel bullet and pull it out. Leo began trembling with the effort of holding in his agony, and my arm, which was starting to go numb, shook as I finally pulled the bullet free and threw it into the water.
I held up my hand and almost vomited. It looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie; my index finger and thumb were nothing but bloody bones, from which clung scraps of shiny, pink muscle. The burning sensation remained as the Scarlet Steel’s chemicals continued liquefying my flesh. Tears stung my eyes as I turned away from Leo and suppressed a moan.
Leo laid a hand on my shoulder. I could feel the warmth of his fingers sinking into my soiled sweater. “What is it, Sloane?” He asked, his voice sounding raw from pain. “What’s wrong?”
Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) Page 14
