Corpses of the guards lay scattered about the floor. He’d cut through a lot to get to me. My gaze settled on the ring of keys hanging from the lock on my cell door.
“Heaven’s got a car waiting—Zara!”
I snatched the keys and started down the hall, checking each room I passed.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not leaving them here.” I went from cell to cell, opening the doors of the rooms where the vampires still looked mostly human. Only a few were changed completely. Soon I had finished with my side of the hall, so I stumbled over to the next, still too shaky to move with much grace.
Nate stood back as the starving vampires raced past him, knocking the odd one in the face with the butt of his gun if he or she came near enough to attack him. I wasn’t worried. Somehow he was alive, and because of that I was quite confident he could take care of himself.
In the next cell I came to, Dragomir pounded his fists on the glass. I leapt back but my gaze stayed frozen on him. He looked even less like himself: now his arms and legs were each a few inches longer, and his face had contorted into something that could no longer be construed as remotely human. Hair was sparse, wiry. His top jaw jutted out more and in addition to the four inch fangs he sported, his other teeth were longer. Sharper. He couldn’t be let out and I was in no condition to fight him.
I moved on.
Dragomir let out a frustrated cry behind me, pounded again and again on the glass. I kept going.
Nate had found a second set of keys and had been unlocking cages at the other end of the hall. He was already over halfway done.
“Only let out the ones that still look pretty human,” I called.
“Yeah, I figured that part out.”
Smart boy. I stopped at my final cell, where a vampire crouched in the corner, naked and shaking. Despite appearing as emaciated as I probably was, and already having the long fingernails, bulge growing on his skull, and elongated spine, he still seemed human enough.
I slid the key in the lock.
His head shot up, he flew to the door. Cold settled in my veins.
Jamie pressed his hand to the glass, fingers splayed. “Zara! You gotta let me out of here!” His eyes grew wide and terrified. “Please!”
I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Couldn’t take my eyes from him. No one deserved what Dragomir had become: a being without reason, without a mind, without any thought but to kill. No one deserved it...
“That’s the last of them,” Nate called. “We have to go.”
“Please, love!” Jamie begged. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? You have to help me.”
I stared to him for another few seconds, my hand still holding the key. I had to make a decision...
And I did. I bent the key to the side, breaking it in the lock. Not only wasn’t I letting him out, but I’d make damn sure no one else did either.
I held up the broken key for him to see. Gave him my coldest, predatory smile. No one deserved to become what Dragomir did—least of all me, which is what Jamie had signed me up for when he betrayed me.
He slammed his palms on the door. “You bitch! Fucking whore—get me out of here! Zara! Zara!”
I backed away, dropped the keys to the floor, and gave him a little wave. Then I turned to Nate and we ran for the doors.
Jamie continued screaming my name, but I didn’t look back.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Becoming Monsterific
Having simply awoken in the place, I had no idea where Nate led me. But I stuck close by and followed without question.
Outside the section where I had been held, we ran into a short hallway with offices on either side. A handful of the freed vampires feasted on the odd human they found within. My body ached with hunger, mouth filled with saliva. I needed to feed...
But first: escape. I was not dying in that fucking prison.
Past the offices waited a huge stairwell. I glanced up, and up, and up. Three levels. Nate moved ahead of me. I stumbled. My legs behaved like they were made of rubber, dropping me on my knees.
“If you can’t walk—” he started.
I wouldn’t admit defeat. “I’m braless, buddy. You try running with these flopping unfettered.” My voice was weak and I didn’t think he believed me. Twice Nate slowed down to make sure I could keep up and twice I promised him I could.
We were nearly at the top when a group of guards came up behind us from the second level. Gunfire filled the stairwell, bullets whizzed past us—
And it faded. Pain ripped through me again, starting in my skull and shooting down through my back and limbs. Ugly, angry pain, that tore at me with claws and teeth. I was dimly aware of a loud cracking sound, but I couldn’t determine where it came from.
The agony ceased, falling back like the tide subsiding. Nate knelt next to me and swung my one arm over his shoulder. He was strong and solid, and it scared me how good I felt about him being there.
“I can walk,” I protested as he helped me rise.
“Don’t argue.” He flashed a grin that turned up the corners of his mouth but didn’t touch the rest of his face. “For once.”
Together we raced up the stairs, with me leaning on him far more than I wished I had to. At the top was a door and through it, another hallway. This one had windows and beyond the glass waited a parking lot with a cloudy night sky above.
All this time, I’d been underground. Shit, it really was like being dead and buried.
At the end of the hall was a set of double doors. Only steps away, another fit of spasms enveloped me. Pain knocked me out immediately; this time I came to outside the building. My arm was still over Nate’s shoulder, and he had scooped me up to carry me the distance to a four-door car several yards away. Inside the vehicle, Heaven Thiering sat behind the wheel and Peter Fields waited in the passenger side, firing a gun through Heaven’s open window.
Both were very much alive and very much completely frozen.
When I realized what Nate had done—removed us from this dimension’s time stream or whatever he called it—I took a few moments to look around. The building where I had been held was only a single story high, with no indication of the many levels beneath it, in the center of a large parking lot; beyond it, empty fields and no other buildings. Throughout the lot there were several black vans and SUVs currently being used for cover by the guards firing at the escaping vampires. Another two cars of people I didn’t recognize were parked near Heaven’s.
Nate dispelled the time magic just as he reached for the back door of the car.
Heaven nearly leaped from her seat as we “appeared” in front of her. “Damn it, Nathan! I do wish you’d warn... Goddess, is that Zara?”
“Oops, you grabbed the wrong vampire,” I said as Nate put me in the car. “Better put me back.” I’ve always got time for quips. Always.
Nate slid me over and climbed in the back next to me; the car shook as he slammed the door. “I don’t know what they did to her.”
“Who are those guys?” I gestured to the other cars.
“Members of the surviving covens.” Heaven slammed her foot on the gas and spun us around toward the highway, tires squealing on the pavement.
Not just a couple of renegade magic users had come for me—I got a full blown rescue party. Now that was impressive. And surprising.
“They’re following.” Peter looked out the back window. Nate and I turned to check, and were met with several bullets from the gunman in the black van on our trail. The window shattered and everyone ducked as another barrage followed.
“And now there are two more,” Peter said. “Funny, I don’t think they’re pursuing any of the other cars...”
“I guess they want Zara back.” Heaven caught my gaze in the rearview mirror and she winked. “Imagine that.”
“It’s not just me.” I looked at Nate. This was gonna be a fun conversation... “It’s Sean. He’s the one behind this.”
“My father? But you—”
“No, your brother. He’s still alive. He decimated all the covens to get in with the Illuminati or whatever, and now he’s building a vampire monster army for the upcoming Armageddon.”
Nate blinked. Twice. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
I repeated it again, verbatim. “I don’t know what this apocalypse crap is about and he’s probably insane, but he believes it. Believes he needs this ‘army’—believed it enough to do all this shit and fake his death last year.”
“All this time, Sean,” Peter said. “That explains why you can’t access the family accounts.”
“That explains a lot,” Nate added quietly.
“All right, now please explain what we are to do about the people shooting at the car?” Heaven asked, swerving back and forth across the road.
Peter reloaded his gun and Nate checked his remaining rounds.
“I want a gun,” I said.
“You’re certain you—” Peter began.
“Yes. Gimme.”
Peter rifled through something on the floor of the front seat, then passed me an Uzi Carbine. It was a thing of beauty—pure fucking beauty after being alone and scared and powerless for however long I’d been underground. On the count of three, we all swung out our respective side windows and fired at those following us.
Pain swept through me again, sudden and hot.
This time, I didn’t immediately pass out. The sound cut out around me; the gun dropped from my hands and hit the pavement; the road came closer and closer as I slumped over the car door. Couldn’t move, couldn’t stop myself from falling closer and closer to the pavement—
“Jesus,” Nate mumbled. Warms arms were around me; I lay across the backseat, looking up at the gray felt ceiling. My upper body rested against Nate. He inspected one of my hands, then returned it to my side. The white skin across my knuckles had torn from dragging on the pavement.
The wounds were bloodless.
I tried to speak, to move, to do anything, but my body wouldn’t respond. All I felt was the searing heat of Nate’s body beneath mine, and the slow, rhythmic pump of blood through his veins. God, I was so hungry...
Nate shifted, arms tightening. “Peter, do you know what’s going on with her? She looked like she was seizing back there, her skin is like ice, and now she’s not even bleeding... Her ribs are cracked, too. Not healing.”
“I think they drained her and kept her from feeding,” Peter replied.
“But why?” Heaven said.
“I’ve heard stories about a vampire in southern India that was forced to go without feeding for months,” Peter said. “Came across it in my research—more than weak rumors or myths. The demon in his brain grew out of control and took over his body, changing him into a pure killing machine and purging his mind of any reason or semblance of the original person. Over twenty Hunters were contracted to take him out, and at least sixteen or seventeen died in the process. I encountered no proof, however—I never spoke to witnesses or found someone with a firsthand account.”
It sucked having to listen to everyone refer to me like I wasn’t really there, but I didn’t have to worry about that for long as my body fell into spasms and I screamed.
****
The car had come to a halt when I awoke again later.
An ache in my head throbbed constantly now, starting at the back and shooting pain through the rest of me as it pulsated. My limbs were weak and trembling as I struggled to rise; it took two tries to hoist myself into a sitting position so I could look out the window.
We were off the highway, on a side road. Area looked rural—lots of fields and trees. Headlights illuminated another car. Nate, Heaven, and Peter stood beside it, talking. I strained to hear their conversation, closing my eyes and pushing back at the pain long enough to focus.
“We’ll meet with the others,” Heaven said. “Regroup, see who’s still alive, and share with them what Zara said and what you saw, Nathan. You’re sure you don’t—”
“It’s probably best to split up right now.” That was Nate.
“All right then, we’ll come by tomorrow and see how she’s doing.” Footsteps on the gravel; quick, light ones that must’ve been Heaven’s. A car door opened and closed.
“Nate,” Peter began quietly. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“I heard you the first time you said it.”
“No, I don’t think you did.” Peter’s voice pitched low and warning, sterner than I’d ever heard him before. “You’ve got to take her into the city and find her someone to feed from. Immediately. Even then, I can’t say for certain that she’ll be okay. The change seems to be growing at an exponential rate. It may be too late—”
“And if you’re right, and the parasite does grow out of control and takes over her soon, then we all risk exposure in the city. Sean will be looking for us and having an uncontrollable demon running around killing people isn’t what I consider keeping a low profile.”
“Nate—”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“But—”
“Just come by tomorrow. At least it will be daylight, so if I have any problems...well, you know what to do.”
Oh. Wow. I got it. They knew what I was becoming. They knew it probably couldn’t be stopped, save for killing me...
Which was exactly what Nate was going to do.
Chapter Thirty-Three
No One Here Gets Out Alive
Nate got into the driver’s seat and watched as the other car drove off.
He was going to kill me. Me. Would it be a stake to the heart, then decapitation? At least while staked, I wouldn’t feel anything else. It basically rendered a vamp unconscious. But what if he got creative with magic and fried me? That had to be a possibility too. One that would hurt.
I grabbed a hold of any worries and shoved them away, locked them up, and stopped thinking about it. One thing at a time. “Where are we?”
“North of Montreal,” Nate replied.
“Is that where they’re going?” I asked as if I hadn’t been eavesdropping earlier.
“Yes, to a hotel to meet with the other coven members.” He switched the car out of park and started in the opposite direction Heaven and Peter had gone.
I crawled between the two front seats so I was sitting in the passenger side. Just that movement left me exhausted and I slumped down, pressed a hand to my left side. No way am I gonna fight off a warlock. I eyed him warily; he was stronger than he looked, even without magic. Granted, when I was totally a monster, he’d never fight me off, but I wasn’t there. Yet.
His hair gently touched his shoulders now, about an inch longer than it had been when I saw him last. The beard was thick but not totally wild—kinda sexy.
“You weren’t sporting the Jim Morrison look last I saw. How long have I been gone?”
“Over four months.”
Damn. That was a long time. Not as long as the near decade I spent in my sarcophagus three centuries earlier, but... Fuck, it went by quick. Four months ago, I had been certain Nate might finally be falling for me.
Now he planned to murder me.
“They told me you were dead.”
He glanced my way, a smile touching his lips. “Disappointed?”
My heart hurt. I swallowed dryly and ignored the question. “How did you escape before? Jamie apparently told them we were coming.”
“When I tried to cast a dispel on whatever magical security measures had been taken, I found there were none. I figured it was a set-up, then a number of guards promptly surrounded us, and a helicopter landed on the property, probably to collect you. I did a bit of ‘time freezing’ and got Heaven, Peter, and myself to the car, but I couldn’t do anything to stop them from taking you.”
“You looked for me.”
Moonlight cut through the clouds, shining in the car and scoring lines of white over his profile. He kept his eyes locked on the road, expression neutral. “Of course.”
So they spent four months tryin
g to find and rescue me, only to decide to kill me later. Nice. ’Course, they couldn’t have known what they’d find. Maybe they thought I was already dead. “Where are we going now?”
“A cabin that belonged to a relative of mine.”
Nate avoided my gaze for the rest of the trip and we said little. Perhaps he felt bad about planning to kill me. It couldn’t be that he wanted to merely keep his eyes on the road—not out in the country where there was nothing for miles. No houses, no other cars. We turned onto a bumpy dirt road that led into a dense forest, and I really got the point then...
No people. A completely isolated spot in the middle of nowhere. Should he be unable to kill me and I turned into a monster, I couldn’t avoid the sun. That would ensure Peter and Heaven could find me and kill me the next day.
It was a perfect plan and I couldn’t say I blamed him. I sat there next to my would-be assassin feeling quite calm about it. Or numb. I’d seen what Dragomir became. Ilona had been willing to die rather than become that and when it came down to it, frankly, I probably was too.
The dashboard digital clock read after midnight when Nate pulled the car up to the cabin. It wasn’t the big, richy type I’d been expecting; the walls were wood and weathered, porch sagged slightly. Not a family vacation home; a real, actual cabin in the woods. Pity I wasn’t going to die in style.
Nate got out, letting in a breath of fresh, summer air, and went to unlock the front door in silence. I remained in the car. Debating.
I could run. Faster than him, at least. We were far from towns but there had to be humans around somewhere. Maybe camping. Humans I could drain until my head stopped hurting and gut stopped twisting. Five to six hours until dawn—that was enough time to find someone.
Never mind that I could barely move without slipping into exhaustion and occasionally burst into seizures. I couldn’t give up so easily, right?
I understood what he planned to do. I agreed with it. But a sliver of me screamed and fought at the idea of giving up so easily. I was a few centuries younger than Ilona and, when the moment happened, I’d probably be a little less quick to accept my death.
Bloodlines (Demons of Oblivion) Page 24
