Another thud punctuated the roar from the other side of the door.
Dante cocked his head in the direction of the feral vamps separated from them only by a thin piece of metal. “What if she turns out like them? Do you want to be the one to have to kill her?”
Now that was a sobering thought. Alix hadn’t had time to think through the ramifications. “I’m sure of only one thing.” She glanced down at Alix’s too-still form. “If you don’t help her, she will die. And yes, I’ll take responsibility for the consequences.”
Dante was silent for a moment. He watched Alix as she struggled to take her last breaths. Then he sighed deeply. “Okay, hold the door. I’ll do what I can.”
Xandra laid Alix back against the cold cement floor. Bracing both her feet against the concrete, she bent her knees and pressed her back against the door beside Dante. Reluctantly, he relinquished his post. The door buckled again as the horde on the other side renewed its efforts. She threw the sum of her strength into bracing herself against the metal. Surprisingly, it held.
From somewhere off in the distance, she thought she heard sirens, and she prayed Dante’s backup would arrive in time.
Dante kneeled beside Alix. Tenderly, he slipped an arm beneath her head. Her eyelids flickered but didn’t open. “Okay, Alix,” he whispered. “Now you have to trust me.”
Alix didn’t answer. His lips met the cooling flesh of Alix’s neck. Dante sucked in a breath. His teeth pierced her skin.
Alix moaned softly in protest as his vampire saliva entered her bloodstream. She tried to move her right arm, but succeeded only in dragging it a couple of inches against the floor.
Xandra couldn’t help remembering the intoxicating feel of his mouth against her own neck, setting off little landmines of pleasure as he drew her lifeblood into him. She pressed her feet hard against the floor to keep her thoughts in the present. Dante was trying to save Alix’s life.
Dante pulled his mouth away and swallowed hard. He slid Alix’s head to his knee. Glancing up at Xandra, he brought his wrist to his mouth and bit down.
Xandra gasped. Against her will, memories of the overpowering sensation of his lifeblood flowing into her mouth burst into her mind.
Dante bent over Alix once again and pressed his wrist to her mouth. Alix lay still, unmoving.
“Dante!” Xandra called in alarm.
The door shuddered with another blow, stealing her attention.
“Alix,” Dante called her name softly. With his free hand, he rubbed her throat, urging her to swallow. For another heart-stopping moment, nothing happened. Dante’s blood flowed over her lips and dripped onto the floor.
“Alix!” Xandra added her own voice to the summons. “Come on, girlfriend, drink!”
Convulsively, Alix swallowed. Her eyes opened and she focused on Dante’s face. She choked on the blood rushing into her mouth and tried to wiggle from his grasp.
“Shh,” he said gently. “Take a little more. It will help you.”
Her brown eyes were wide open now, protesting silently. But Dante’s blood had done the trick. She seemed stronger already.
He stroked her throat again and she choked down another mouthful. Sitting her up carefully, Dante drew his wrist away.
Still supporting her back, he let her sit up. “Easy now, don’t make any sudden moves.”
Alix started to say, “What—” But the word came out as a hoarse croak.
“It’s okay,” Dante said. “The change comes later.” He grimaced in sympathy, making Xandra wonder just what lay in store for her friend. Dante had said he’d never made another of his kind, but he’d clearly witnessed the process.
“There are medics on the way. Hospitals have specialists to deal with this kind of thing now. Don’t worry.”
The door shuddered again, drawing Alix’s attention.
One of the hinges popped free, landing with a metallic ting on the concrete floor. Letting Alix go, Dante leapt to Xandra’s rescue.
Even his enhanced strength couldn’t keep the door on its hinges. The other metal plate sprang loose, leaving the door attached only by the locking mechanism. Encouraged, the feral vampires renewed their attack, levering the door open by its free side. A long-nailed hand snaked inside. Xandra turned her head aside to avoid its path.
Dante groped for his gun. He fired, nearly deafening her. The bullet went cleanly through the vampire’s hand, spraying foul-smelling flesh. It lodged into the metal beneath. The feral vamp pulled back his hand with a screech. She slammed the door back into place.
Bullets wouldn’t stop the flow of the fiends. For a moment silence reigned on the other side of the door. They leaned against it, trying desperately to keep it closed.
Alix gained her feet. Swaying precariously, she attempted to help them.
“Stay back,” Dante warned.
“We’re going to have to divert their attention,” Xandra said.
Dante gave her a questioning look.
“To give your backup a chance to get up here with the medics,” she clarified.
“Good idea.”
The door gave an ominous thump. The feral vamps had obviously realized that the prey on the other side could do them no harm.
“Since they want both of us…” He glanced at Alix. “Or possibly all three of us, it makes sense for us to split up. You take Alix and I’ll—”
“No!” The thought of being separated from Dante sent a bolt of fear through her. “We stay together. No matter what happens.”
“One of us has to get to Jeremy.”
“He could be anywhere by now.”
The door buckled, the metal twisting under the onslaught from the other side. “I doubt it,” Dante grunted, trying to hold it in place. “He won’t give up on us so easily. His whole life is going down the tubes. He’s going to try to hold on to any piece of it he can.”
“Meaning us?”
“Yes, us. We’re the only part of his great experiment that’s ever worked.” He cocked his chin toward the thumping vamps separated from them by a piece of metal. “The rest of them turned out like…that. Jeremy will want to figure out why we’re different.”
“Maybe because we were bred?”
She didn’t hear Dante’s reply. The door twisted beneath her hands. The force of it threw her off to the side. The metal tore. Feral vampires poured through the crack.
“Take Alix!” Dante yelled.
Having no further time to debate strategy, Xandra put an arm around her friend. A tide of unwashed decaying bodies flowed through the door. The force of their onslaught sent separate pieces of the door flying in both directions. Xandra patted her pockets looking for a weapon.
Her fingers closed on the gun she’d stolen back from Jeremy. The one loaded with wood-tipped bullets. She fired into the fray, trying to create a tunnel through the barrier the feral vampires made. Bullets hit home. Ear-piercing shrieks rent the air, followed by the thud of bodies hitting the floor. Their bodies began to blacken and decay. Steaming ooze ran between their feet. The remaining vampires fell back. Dante bolted into the space they made, scattering them further. His bravado wouldn’t hold them off for long, Xandra thought. She glanced at her friend.
Alix hung limply in her arms, her body just beginning to succumb to the change. Xandra had never witnessed the change from human to vampire first hand, but she’d heard it was gruesome. She feared for her friend.
But the bar owner turned out to be tougher than she’d imagined. She straightened her knees, forcing herself upright. Without pausing to think past the next few seconds, Xandra put her shoulder under Alix’s arm and dragged her through the narrow space the vampires made. Alix’s feet slid in the slime left by the decomposing vampires, nearly pulling Xandra down with her. She yanked them both upright and lunged through the doorway.
“Get her down to the main floor,” Dante hollered after her.
Realizing their mistake, the feral vampires surged after her. Xandra put every ounce of her strength into
hurrying along the catwalk back to the rickety metal staircase suspended to the floor by a few bolts.
Vampire eyes glowed like red fireflies in the dim light. Some had broken ranks and followed Dante, the rest were closing on her and Alix.
Xandra turned and fired. Feral vampires dropped in a hail of bullets. The stench of decomposing bodies filled the air. She raised her gun to fire again. The click of the empty chamber echoed in the cavernous space. Realizing she was out of ammunition, the feral vampires rushed over their fallen comrades to get to her.
Having no other choice, Xandra ran for the staircase, pulling Alix with her. She missed a step on the metal stairs and they slid down several stairs before she regained her footing. Above she heard a shot. The staircase sagged.
Dante. Her heart thumped painfully against her chest. He put his own life at stake to give her and Alix a chance to escape. He was trying to shoot out the bolts that held the staircase to trap the feral vampires on the level above and give her a chance to get Alix to the medics and to safety.
Gripping the railing, Xandra pulled the last bit of speed out of her battered body. Alix moaned once in protest. The change had progressed, she realized. Her friend hung lifelessly in her arms, sweating profusely.
Another bullet ricocheted off the metal above, followed quickly by another. The staircase shuddered again. Gathering Alix to her, Xandra leapt for the floor.
They sprawled in a huddle on the concrete floor. Above she heard a loud crack. The staircase swayed, then began a slow tumble to the floor below.
Xandra pushed her feet under her and grabbed Alix. Ahead the moon’s wan light illuminated the doorway. Dragging her friend, she bolted for the safety of its light.
Behind her the staircase came crashing down with an earth-shattering clatter.
Flashlights suddenly lit up the darkness. Shadows crowded in the doorway.
“Don’t shoot!” Xandra screamed. “We have wounded!”
She turned to gaze up into the darkness where Dante was trapped on the second floor with the feral vampires. Vampires she’d seen attack their own kind like sharks falling on a piece of meat.
“Officer Rodriguez is up there!” She pointed to the shadows above. “He’s surrounded by feral vampires.”
“It’s all right,” said a male voice out of the gloom. “We have weapons.”
“I need a medic!”
Officers rushed toward her. One of them took Alix from her hands. “She’s been bitten,” Xandra told them. “We need a specialist.”
“We have an ambulance,” one of the officers said. “I’ll call it in.”
With Alix in capable hands she thought of Jeremy hiding somewhere up in the shadows and Dante surrounded by fiends.
The team leader shone his enhanced flashlight up into the rafters. Feral vamps shied away from the bright light, hissing. The red points of their eyes glowed.
“We have to rescue Officer Rodriguez!” Xandra insisted. “I need your weapons!” The team leader blanched.
“And you are?”
“We don’t have time for that!” She grasped the cop’s arm. “Officer Rodriguez’s life is at stake.” That Dante might be in danger didn’t mobilize them any faster. “And the main suspect in the Mack Saunders case is getting away!”
That seemed to make all the difference. “We have holy water.” The team leader held up a small flask.
Xandra snorted. “That’s it?”
He nodded.
“No wooden bullets?”
He shook his head. “A couple of boxes of silver-plated.”
“Okay, give me the holy water and a gun with silver bullets.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, ma’am. These weapons are only to be used by specially trained operatives.”
Xandra squared her shoulders. “I am a specially trained operative!”
The police officer glanced again at the feral vampires who’d given up on the broken staircase and were now crawling down the walls toward them. A few of them decided to take their chances in jumping for the lower level. From above came an ominous crash. A vampire tumbled to the concrete floor. A wooden shard protruded from his heart. Dante’s work, apparently. The vampire’s body started to decay rapidly. The sickly smell of decomposing bodies hung heavily in the air.
The officer glanced at the rotting body and quickly handed her the gun and ammo.
Crouching, she dumped out a box of ammo and crammed a few silver bullets into the handgun. She handed the rest back to the police officer. “Distribute these to your team. Make sure everyone has at least a few of them.”
With a nervous look at the feral vampires crawling down the walls, he obeyed.
Xandra took the flask of holy water. Too bad she didn’t have her turbo water pistols. If nothing else, they gave her a concentrated spray. She turned back to the officer. “We need torches. Anyone got a match or a lighter?”
His team produced two butane lighters and a book of matches. One of them rigged a torch out of a stick and a T-shirt.
She looked up at the catwalk suspended above the factory. Somewhere up there Dante was trapped. She had to help him. But the police officers seemed neither well armed nor well prepared to deal with the feral vampires. With a deep sigh, she waved her new team forward.
The feral vampires had now reached the floor, blocking their path. Fearful now, they were even more dangerous. They fell upon the group of cops with teeth and claws.
Uncapping the holy water, Xandra emptied the flask into the face of the nearest one. He shrank back, hissing as his skin caught fire. It smoldered, sending putrid smoke up into the darkness above. One of the police officers opened fire. Silver bullets caught three more of the vampires. They fell into decaying heaps as their bodies broke down. Black ooze spread across the concrete, making the floor slippery.
Sidestepping the muck, Xandra led the team through the hole their offensive had made in the feral vamps’ ranks. But where others had fallen, more took up the slack, pursuing them across the floor.
One grasped her arm. She fired at point blank range. The vampire fell, taking down one of his fellows. Xandra bolted past him as his shriek of pain and rage echoed through the factory.
Ahead, the staircase lay in a heap of twisted metal, blocking their path. A couple of officers studied the staircase, debating whether bracing it against the upper floor was a workable possibility.
“It’s too damaged,” the team leader said. “It’ll never hold.”
An ominous thud from above brought their heads up.
“Freeze!” Jeremy’s voice echoed from the darkness.
Xandra swore quietly under her breath.
No one moved. The police halted their perusal of the twisted staircase. The feral vampires stopped in their tracks. Other vamps crouched on the floor above them.
She didn’t want to look. But she forced herself to gaze up at Jeremy where he stood on the catwalk. Jeremy had a gun pressed against Dante’s back.
Dante’s eyes glittered golden in the dim light as they centered on her. “Don’t listen to him,” Dante shouted. “Take Alix and Xandra and leave.”
“No!” Xandra yelled back. “We’re not leaving without you.”
“Indeed we’re not,” Jeremy said into the silence that followed. “So if the police officers would kindly hand over my staff, we’ll be leaving with Officer Rodriguez.”
“I’m not your staff. You fired me.”
“Perhaps that was a little shortsighted.”
“Yeah, well it’s a little late for remorse,” she snapped, then added, “Daddy.”
Her former boss—no, her father—looked like he’d been run over by a train. His clothes were ripped and his hair hung in greasy tendrils around his face. Even in the dim light she could see the hollows under his bloodshot eyes.
“You’re outnumbered,” the team leader told Jeremy. “Let Officer Rodriguez go and come on down and we’ll work this out.”
“The hell we will. The lot of you hand over Miss Wh
eeler and back off, or we’ll find out firsthand whether Officer Rodriguez is affected by silver bullets.”
Dante shot her an inscrutable look. He nodded ever so slightly toward his jacket pocket. She guessed he meant that silver bullets would work just fine on his pseudo-vampiric metabolism. Even though he’d been vastly outnumbered, he looked completely horrified that Jeremy and his ghouls might have gotten the best of him. And still he’d been willing to sacrifice himself to give Xandra and Alix a chance to escape.
That knowledge tore at her heart, followed swiftly by a surge of anger. How dare he take such a risk with his life? More than anything she wanted to walk out of there with Dante and Alix alive and well. Since she’d met Dante, she’d begun thinking of a future, of having a normal life, of loving and being loved. She’d lived her entire life without love—it seemed cruel that once offered it might be taken away from her forever.
Dante had returned her feelings. It was Dante who showed her she could have a normal life, even if she wasn’t entirely normal. So why was he so willing to throw it all away?
Suddenly she understood what Dante’s unreadable look meant. He was trying to tell her he still had the gun.
“It’s over, Jeremy,” she bluffed. “You’re surrounded. You won’t win this round.”
Jeremy took a long look at the police officers. “I might not.” He sounded uncharacteristically tired, beaten even. “But neither will you.” With the gun held to Dante’s temple, he slowly pulled back the hammer. The loud click echoed through the factory. Everyone waited.
“Let Officer Rodriguez go,” the team leader said.
“Again, I repeat. Give me Miss Wheeler, and I’ll spare the officer’s life.”
“Either way, you won’t be leaving.”
Jeremy caught Xandra’s gaze and held it. “I will kill him, Xandra. You might want to think about that.”
“Don’t negotiate with him,” Dante yelled. “He’s a criminal. He’s not going to keep his word any more than he did last time.”
True enough. Xandra hesitated with indecision. She just couldn’t take any more chances with Dante’s life.
Sensing her confusion, Dante turned his attention to his colleagues. “He’s not going to negotiate fairly. Just shoot him!”
Feral Passion Page 23
