“Cut the crap. What do you want? And why should I not kill you right now? Last I heard, we aren’t besties anymore.”
Gavin stiffened beside me. Someone was closer to homicide than I was.
“Please, Lucille. Let me extend my apologies for the unfortunate turn of events.”
“Unfortunate turn of events? You and Soren went back on your word. After everything you did to get me on team Rogue, you just threw all of that away. It was your idea to go against the First as a united front in the first place. I never asked you guys to do that.”
“I never asked to be kidnapped either,” Gavin added.
“Yeah, he never asked to be kidnapped and almost killed by Soren’s little party favor.”
“I’m so sorry for that, Lucy,” he said, sounding more twenty-first century than seventeenth century. “Soren spooks easily. He sensed the assassins closing in on us and wanted to protect the community we’ve managed to build for ourselves. Shane knew where our hideout was, and Soren didn’t want to risk going to war with your father on top of the First. He didn’t want to make matters worse for the others.”
“So he’d rather make an enemy of me than stand against my father? Bad move. I’ll hunt him next.”
“That is what I hope to avoid.”
“So you came to beg me to spare the rogue assassins?”
“No. Not all of us agree with Soren. And despite how it seems, we don’t answer to him either. I came to aid you, with the help of a few others.”
The clacking of steel wheels over the rail joints punctuated the seconds ticking by before I answered.
“I no longer require your help.” The tone I typically reserved for Gregory sprung to life.
Gavin snorted, enjoying the inside joke. His hand on my leg gave a light squeeze of support.
“Please, Lucille. I believe we need each other. Have you seen what’s going on out there? Things are getting out of control.”
“What are you talking about?”
His eyebrows drew together in consternation before he spoke, highlighting the gravity of his words. “Let me show you. We’ll all be affected by the changes coming. We need to work together to stop this.”
“Stop what? What’s going on?” Had horse face been right? Was my father about to wreak havoc and chaos on our world?
Elias bent his head to scribble on a piece of paper, handing it over the seat for me to take. “Here. Meet me at this address after sundown.” His eyes roamed up and down my tattered clothes and stopped on my matted hair. “You should clean yourself up first.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He smiled magnanimously. “You are still as beautiful as ever, Lucille, but I can smell your dried blood from hundreds of yards away.”
Gavin went stiff again, and I scowled at Elias before glancing at the paper, which had numbers scrawled next to a bunch of Russian words. I hoped Siri was on top of her game, because there was no way I was navigating us tonight.
“We’ll be there, but don’t even think about flaking out on me again, or I’ll come for you next.”
“I never considered abandoning you. I swear I will earn your trust once more, Lucille.”
“You never had it Shadowmarked. But if you prove yourself useful in this fight against my father, maybe one day you will.”
He flashed perfectly straight white teeth against an olive colored skin tone. “Thank you, Lucy. Be there by nine.”
The squeal of metal on metal gave me a headache as the train slowed to a stop. Gavin stood, extending his hand. I took it and stepped into the aisle with him. Peering down at Elias, I said, “See you soon. Have fun hanging out underground until sundown.”
He did a very informal thing and smirked. “Don’t rub it in, Lucille. It’s not nice.”
Tuning, Gavin and I exited the train and found the first hotel we came across to check in for a few hours of rest and proper hygiene.
†
Night descended over Moscow, and the cold sunk its claws deep into my bones, adding to the creepiness factor of our excursion through an industrial part of the city. 30 Days of Night anyone?
Perched high on the roof of a warehouse like the tacky gargoyles on Gavin’s building, we watched through the massive lantern skylights as vampires of all statuses filtered into the open space below. Ancient and youngling vamps gathered in the center of the room while a small group of them wheeled in a cage, a cage you’d find at a circus with tigers prowling the tiny space. There were no tigers here, though. Inside the cage were at least twenty human beings crammed against the bars.
I tensed, preparing to crash the party in a glass-shattering fashion. A hand landed on my arm, rooting me to the spot.
Elias’s voice came so low only Gavin and I would be able to pick it up off the breeze. “Wait! You need to see this. They won’t harm them yet.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because this has been going on for some time now. The entire Shadowmarked community has grown restless, bolder since your father came onto the scene. Just watch. I have a feeling that seeing this may affect your plan of action. But I could be wrong.”
He stood and gestured toward the edge of the roof. “Come. I saw a broken window just below us.”
I gave Gavin a curious glance and he seemed just as confused as I was. I guess we were following Elias’s lead on this one, watching as he disappeared over the ledge. Rising from my squat, I moved to the edge, scoped the distance to the broken window and swung over the side of the building like a pommel horse, twisting and jumping feet first through the opening. Gavin followed.
We landed in the rafters on a narrow catwalk above the meeting of evil minds. An ancient vampire with reddish-brown hair and a crisp new suit moved to stand on a table above the crowd, holding out his arms to silence the chatter. By now, there had to be almost a hundred vampires in attendance. This was unheard of in typical vamp behavior.
What the hell was happening? The whole world was going to shit, and nothing made sense anymore.
When the crowd quieted, the ancient spoke in Russian to their rapt ears. Elias translated what he could in hushed tones, and it sounded like they were discussing my father like he was their new king or something. I withheld my snort of amusement. King Dick living up to his nickname again.
Elias began picking up more words and quoted the ancient directly. “He has given us freedom and power which the Elite have long since kept for themselves. We will no longer have to hide in the shadows. We will rule over the humans and they will be the ones to cower in darkness, knowing what true fear tastes like as we hunt them. Starting with these humans.”
He pointed to the cage, and the people inside shrank back in fear. I braced myself against the smell of it in the air. The Shadowmarked sensed it too and reacted with descended fangs and hisses of hunger pains, like sharks smelling blood in the water.
“Not yet, Lucy.” Elias sensed my brimming violence and wanted to hear more of their plans, but I got the gist.
The crowd was riled and began shouting things I didn’t understand, but Elias translated one particularly young vampire of about sixteen with a shaved head, who gained the attention of the others. “What about the one who opposes the Dark Daymarked?”
Another vampire next to him continued, “Yeah. The girl? The other Daymarked? What will we do about her? I heard she killed twenty Shadowmarked by herself.”
Elias covered a snort after relaying that number.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gavin smirk, and his fingers lightly pinched my hip. I smiled but the tension only grew when I saw the helpless eyes trapped in the cage dart back and forth in horror and confusion. This was going to be difficult to play off as a trick of their imaginations. It wouldn’t take long for their stories to spread like wildfire.
The red haired ancient raised his hands again to calm the crowd before speaking. Elias began translating immediately. “Do not fear her. We will kill her ourselves. In fact, you’ll have your chance sooner than you thin
k.”
His next words needed no translating, because they were in English. And they were directed at me.
“Isn’t that right, Lucille Masters?” His eyes lifted and found mine, and all heads turned in unison to see the intruder.
Me.
Crap.
“Guess that’s my cue, boys.” My hands curled around the railing on the catwalk at the same time Gavin’s hand wrapped around my bicep, getting my attention.
“Be careful, Ms. Masters.”
I tilted my head close, my lips a breath from his. “Don’t steal my kills, Mr. West.”
I reflected on the times when he’d show up on my hunts and take my kills from me. Sigh. Such fond memories.
“How will I know which ones are yours?”
“Don’t you remember, sweetheart? They’re all mine. Both of you stay out of my way. I got this.”
“Getting a bit greedy, aren’t you, gorgeous?”
I winked at him. “Let’s call it an early birthday present then,” I called as I vaulted over the bar into the hissing viper pit below.
“That’s three months away,” he shouted behind me.
The crowd below parted to avoid being trampled by my Timberlands. I landed in a crouch and raked my fingers through my hair to comb it out of my eyes. When I gazed up at the enclosing Shadowmarked, I smiled and stood slowly, turning to take inventory. I spotted the bald headed kid and the guy next to him who embellished my kills.
“You had it all wrong boys. It was more like…” I made a show of counting heads with my finger before finishing my thought, “a hundred Shadowmarked by myself. But who’s counting, right?”
Who knew if any of them actually spoke English, but a taunt was a taunt, and they reacted with rage filled eyes and more growling noises that gave us vampires a bad rap for being animals.
One by one they launched themselves at me, and flames erupted everywhere as I slashed and sliced my way through them, leaving a whirlwind of ashes swirling behind me. With the frightened faces of their victims in my mind, as well as the children in the First’s castle, I let my anger consume them in fire. A veil of red fury tinted my vision.
I’ve become better at sidelining it, but times like these made me miss the old days when my anger had free reign. It was an old friend who served me well, and like reuniting after what felt like years, I embraced it fully now.
In my haze, I managed to lose two of my favorite throwing knives and a few other daggers. Running low on ammo, I called up to the rafters. “Darling, could you please pass me a stake?”
I heard him choke on his laughter, and I realized how Stepford I sounded, like we were at a dinner party discussing the rules of Gin Rummy and I asked him to pour me another glass of Merlot.
“Lucy!” he shouted.
I leapt over ten feet into the air to catch the knife he tossed to me, and when my hand curled around the hilt, I came down and drove it into the back of an amateur vampire who tried tackling me when my feet hit concrete.
“Get these people out of here before I burn this place to the ground,” I yelled at my two spectators.
“Please,” I added when I felt Gavin’s stubbornness growing through our connection.
He and Elias jumped from the catwalk to the other side of the building where the cage was kept. Screams grew louder as people scrambled to get away from the new threat. I heard Elias speak to them in Russian using southing tones, and I hoped it was enough to keep them from running scared into the night.
“You will never win, Lucille Masters!” the red head shouted in his thick Russian accent as he and two other ancients snuck closer to the exit.
“Sing another song, little birdie, because I’ve heard that one too many times.”
I rushed them, using every bit of my anger to propel me forward. It felt so good to embrace this new power without fear of losing myself. Every day I felt stronger than the previous.
Their black eyes widened in shock and something else I loved seeing, the same fear they put into their victims’ eyes. Payback was seriously a bitch, wearing ass kicking boots. My badass vibes were all sorts of tingly when the ancients actually ran.
From me.
Catching up to the first one, I gripped the back of his neck to stop his retreat and caught the underside of his jaw with my other hand. His head jerked to the side with little effort on my part, and the following snap was music to my ears. His pliant body sank back into me, and I pulled my dagger out of my jacket to plunge it into his chest.
Shoving him aside before he burst into flames, I darted around the heat and kept my eyes on the next target. She wore a black leather jacket and a sleek dark ponytail that reached her thin waist.
I threw the blade toward her leather clad spine, in the position her heart would be. With speed older vampires were known for, she spun and caught the blade, inches from her chest cavity. She glanced down at her victory and looked back up to smile coldly in my direction.
But I never stopped running toward her, and by the time she caught my attention, my hand was on top of hers, pushing the knife forward. It sunk into her chest, just under her sternum, and I angled it upward. Horror filled her fathomless eyes as they collided with mine. I smiled with the same cruelty she offered me just seconds ago.
Her mouth formed a small O and her wheezing breath was replaced by the sound a roaring furnace made when it was blazing. At least, that was what I heard. I imagined to human ears, it didn’t sound like much at all. It happened too fast for them to detect noise.
The sound of a heavy metal door creaking alerted me to my escaping victim. Red hair flashed out of the door, but I advanced, ramming the door and shattering the hinges in loud pops. Grabbing the door before it landed in a mangled mess, I tore a hunk of metal from it. Call it a lesson from Vault Maiming 101, but there was something about shredding steel that gave me the warm and fuzzies.
Bending the curved scrap into a straight edge, I chucked it at the red head’s retreating form. It lodged into the side of his neck, tearing flesh and muscle, but it got stuck less than halfway to the spine.
Damn. Note to self. Destroying metal was a fun hobby, but it didn’t make for an efficient weapon.
I closed the distance between us and drove my knife deep into the ancient’s chest, and the gurgling in his throat stopped short of gagging when he turned to ash on the wind.
Was that everyone? I reentered the warehouse, my gaze locking on a few more rats scurrying about, frantically searching for an exit that wasn’t blocked by Gavin or I.
Elias was nowhere in sight, but the cage across the room was sitting empty, so I assumed he was outside trying to come up with a logical explanation for what they saw tonight.
Good luck with that, buddy.
Focusing on the four young vampires remaining, I watched them climb up a pulley system, aiming for the same entrance my group used. They were so new to being immortal they didn’t even realize how far they could jump yet.
Wow.
I jumped onto the catwalk and headed them off, deciding to take pity on them by killing them quickly, sans metal maiming and mean taunts.
Gavin waited for me to finish and held out his hand for me when I landed next to him. “Impressive, Ms. Masters.”
“I’m just getting warmed up, Mr. West.”
Through a side door, we heard Elias call to us. “You two should get out here. I think you’ll want to hear this.”
Gavin and I shared a ‘what now’ look before joining Elias on the side of the building with a group of crying humans. A girl stood by him who looked seventeen. She reminded me of Rachel with messy onyx rocker hair and Joan Jett wardrobe choices. She didn’t have the same edge as Rachel, and her skin was too pale, accentuating the dark circles under her brown eyes. There was a kid the same age standing next to her with bleached blond hair, wearing an army green cargo jacket.
“What’s up, E? Did you stumble upon a fan club?”
“Very funny, Lucille. I’m glad to know your sense of humo
r will outlast us all and survive your father’s wrath.”
“Spit it out, Elias,” I said. At the same time, Gavin said, “Get to the point.”
“This is Arielle and Drew. They’re Keepers in the Moscow faction who went missing three days ago. It seems your father has ordered the assassins to hand them over to local ancients to make examples out of them.”
Gavin cursed in German.
“So you’re saying this is a catalyst for my father’s world domination?”
“Yes. They’re using Keepers, as well as other defiant and influential people, like military and crime mobs, as a springboard to start their own revolution against the humans.”
“And you knew about this?”
“I’ve been monitoring it, but only recently. I came to you as soon as I could.”
“The assassins have been kidnapping Keepers for weeks now.”
“That, I didn’t know about.”
I peered over at Gavin, who went classically silent. He seemed to be calculating, but I was forming my own plan.
His eyes suddenly shot to mine. “Lucy? What are you thinking?”
“I was thinking you should take me to meet Jakob. I need recruits, and you have some influence with him.”
“Recruits for what?”
“My army.”
17
I called Max, my designated point man, and told him to round up the others to meet us in Berlin. Gavin and I arrived just before they did, and we drove in a convoy to the heart of the city. We left Arielle and Drew in Moscow, telling them to keep a low profile, not returning to their faction until I worked out the full details of our plan and sent word to their leader.
Pulling up to a gated compound made of concrete and steel, we drove into an underground parking garage where our welcoming party awaited us. The structure was massive, about a football field in size, upheld by concrete pylons thicker than a linebacker. Our headlights brightened the otherwise thinly lit space, highlighting each support as we passed.
Gavin hopped out of the driver seat and was all smiles when he greeted a much older gentleman with a hug. Well, he was old in human years, but Gavin had him beat by a century. I scrunched my nose up trying not to be creeped out by the age difference.
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