Sammie gripped my sleeve. “Justin, Justin, Justin.”
“Thank you, David. You’re a good boy.” The Vie snatched him up. He sniffed David’s neck and scrunched his nose in distaste. “Oh, you’re too ill. Shame.” He set David down, put a hand on either side of his head, and twisted. Crunch. The boy slumped to the ground, dead.
“No!” Through tears and pain, I hugged Sammie to me.
She buried her head in the crook of my neck. I picked her up, barely standing on shaky legs. Heavier than David, she still felt light as a bird.
“Now, let’s see if either one of you are worth anything.” The Vie smiled. “What’s your name, little girl?”
Sammie wiggled in my arms to face him, unable to resist. “Samantha.”
I clutched her closer to my chest. “Shh, no. Don’t listen. Please.” I begged him as much as I begged her. Breathless. I was breathless.
The Vie called to her as he had called to David. “Come here, Samantha.”
She slid out of my grasp like water spilling through my fingers.
“You can’t have her, Clotsucker.”
I managed to catch her frayed shirt collar and tugged, ignoring the icy tingle of fear winding around my spine. She screamed, tugging at her tangled hair, already suffering mentally from refusing to do as the Vie said.
His throaty laugh cut me. “What makes you think you can disobey me?”
He extended an arm. A white jagged scar marked where his missing pinky finger should have been. An imperfect Vie. My gaze shifted to his ruby signet ring. An Elite Vie, a select group closest to Abarron himself.
“Come here, Samantha,” he commanded again.
She slashed my arm with her nails. I let go from the shock of it. Free, she ran to the Vie. He lifted her above his head. One twirl. Two twirls. It was a game. He knew he was tormenting me and he enjoyed it.
She giggled. My stomach turned to ice.
“Let her go!” I yelled. Fury burned at the base of my skull, but fear locked my legs. I stood there like a petrified mouse under a cat’s stare.
The Vie sniffed Sammie’s neck. “Interesting.” He sniffed again. “Yes, you may work.” His dark eyes shifted to me.
My heart paused so long my vision dimmed.
“Is that your brother?”
“Yep. Justin.” She sucked her thumb.
I shot toward them.
top,” the Vie ordered, tightening his grip around Sammie’s fragile body. The warning carried through.
I froze as if his whole fist collided with my chest, yet the urge to pounce remained. I edged my foot forward.
The Vie stiffened. “I told you to stop.” He curled his fingers around the back of her neck.
One more step and she might end up like David. I’d never get to her before he snapped her neck. “Let her go, please,” I wheezed.
“And what fun would that be?”
“Why do you do this?” I asked.
“What?”
“Torment us.”
He tipped his head to the side like he actually considered my question as valid. Then the corners of his eyes crinkled. “We all need our entertainment.”
“We’re not entertainment.”
“Oh, you most certainly are.”
He dipped his head and sunk his teeth into her throat.
“No!”
This couldn’t happen. Vie didn’t drink Anemie blood… they didn’t. Hot tears blurred my vision and raced down my face, melding with the icy rain striking my skin like a liquid razor blade. Not Sammie. I reached for the tapered stake hiding in my pocket and pulled it out.
“Let. Her. Go.”
The Vie’s gaze flicked to my stake. His grip relaxed.
“Put her down, I mean it.”
His lifted his head from Sammie’s neck, mouth curved up in a bloody smile.
I lunged toward him.
He blocked me with his elbow, knocking me down. His dark eyes bore into me as he released Sammie, dropping her without care. She collapsed at his feet, discarded like garbage.
Winded from the sharp pain lodged in the center of my chest, I forced myself to stand, gripping the stake tightly. The son of a bitch was going down.
“Vie don’t bite Anemies,” I said.
“Is that so?” He laughed, a hollow sound more sad than joyful. And condescending, majorly condescending. “Why not?”
I faltered. “We… we make you sick.”
His eyebrow twitched. “Do I appear sick to you?”
“But—”
“You’re confused,” he mocked, sidestepping Sammie.
I held the stake up. Who cared if Vie could or couldn’t drink our blood? This one clearly did. And he hurt Sammie.
“What’s more interesting is your false belief that you can stand up to me. Whatever gave you that idea?” He spoke slower, as if his tongue had thickened.
“She w-was—is—innocent.”
Sammie’s eyes were closed. Her hair flared around her head like a halo. My sister. My beautiful, perfect little sister. The only reason I kept going. My fingers clenched into fists.
“So resistant to the truth.” Apparently, I amused the Vie because his grin widened, exposing his fangs. Day old stubble framed his mouth, as if the vaccine had frozen him in immortality before he had a chance to shave. I hadn’t gotten close to a lot of Vie, but he was definitely more careless than most. Less… perfectly put together. The silence between us only made the details more obvious. Rain doused his dark hair, traveled in rivulets down his straight nose, dripped from his angular jaw, but he didn’t move or blink. He just stood there like a statue.
My heart thumped so violently I thought it might leap right out of my mouth. I wanted to scream, beat the crap out of him, and crumple to the ground all at once. Why wasn’t he moving? Doing something?
“Your sister’s blood is more potent than I expected.” His grin faded as a full body shiver took him. He closed his eyes and turned his face to the sky, swaying to some unknown rhythm. “This is the best high I’ve had in a long time.”
“What?” My voice cracked.
“Has the anemia wasted your brain so much that you can’t understand simple English?” The words tumbled from his mouth, rushed and slurred. He lowered his gaze and shifted Sammie’s body with his foot. Her light brown eyes—the same color as mine—slid open. She arched her back, mouth forming a perfect O. No sound came out. Then she started to shake, her face scrunched in a grimace. Horrible to watch, but she was still alive.
“Sammie!” I threw my body over hers, screw the bastard Vie.
“How dramatic. But you can’t protect her anymore,” he said.
Whether she survived the initial bite or not, the Vie had already poisoned her with his saliva and it was only a matter of time before her body gave out from the neurotoxin coursing through her veins.
I brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I’m sorry, Sammie.”
Her body stilled. I cupped a palm against her cheek. Her skin was on fire.
“Your turn, Justin,” the Vie ordered.
His call clawed into my neck, wrapped around my nerves, and threatened to take over my muscles. It made the thought of death almost appealing. The end of hunger, fatigue, grief. I was alone now anyway, or would be soon when Sammie’s heart stopped beating. Why not get it over with? A fresh layer of tears blurred my vision. Without Sammie, I had nothing.
I stood as he commanded. My gaze volleyed between my precious little sister and the monster.
The Vie opened his arms for the embrace, and I stepped into it, my grip solid around the stake. I knew what to aim for. Tear open his heart just right, otherwise he’d heal too quickly for the blow to kill him.
And I’d have to deal with one pissed off Vie.
His iron-like fingers gripped my upper arms, pinning them to my sides as he lifted me in the air. I winced and kicked at his legs. He sniffed my neck. “Rare stock.”
Another sniff. “You have a different variety than your
sister’s.” He licked his lips, speaking faster. “You could be of use.”
My pulse rushed faster through my ears. “For what?”
“I don’t need to explain myself to you.” He dropped me.
I stumbled, arms failing.
“Hold still.” He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head to the side. His breath singed my skin.
My stomach curdled. This was it. My only chance. I jabbed the stake into his chest.
“Clots!” A snarl burst from his throat. He stumbled, pawing at the stick impaling him left of center. Freed from his grasp, I fell to my knees, panting and shaking. His fangs had been so close to my jugular.
His mouth gaped. Dark blood oozed out of the wound, congealing as soon as it hit air. He was healing around the stake. Fast.
I rose and plowed into him, aiming to drive the stake deeper into his chest. Like a bird ricocheting off a window, I bounced off him. Rippling pain snaked across my shoulder from the contact. He hadn’t even budged.
“You withered little abortion!” With neck veins bulging and lips curled, he clasped both hands around the stake and pulled it free. Then he ripped his shirt open to inspect the damage. The wound knitted itself closed in seconds. All that remained was a small, reddened area.
“Blazes,” I whispered, my guts turning to stone.
His attention returned to the stake. A kid playing with a baton, he waved it up and down in a slow, sinuous movement. The corner of his mouth tugged up. He was completely tweaked.
My pulse raced faster. I had to get out of here. Now.
I couldn’t run back into the building. My legs locked at the thought of moving even a millimeter closer to him and the pair of flamethrower-wielding Vie. Wherever they’d moved on to. Every living Anemie in the building should’ve been charred by now. That left jumping over the ledge. Back to square one. And it would take a freaking miracle to get down without the Vie attacking, if he ever lost interest in the hunk of wood that was lodged in his chest a minute ago.
Guilt crept up my body, cold and sharp. How much of a coward was I to think about running without Sammie? I couldn’t leave her to die alone. Like always and in all things, I’d go with her.
I lifted her in my arms, a sob catching in my throat. She was light, empty, like a pile of dry kindling wrapped in linen. “I’ll always carry you, Sammie, like I promised.” My chest tightened. “I’m so sorry.”
“I can’t believe you did that,” the Vie grumbled.
I spun toward him.
He stared at me, a cold fire burning in his eyes. With a swift arc of his arm, he chucked the stake over the roof edge, frowning. “Come here, Anemie.”
A direct order… I felt no compulsion to obey.
Impossible.
He jutted his chin. “Well?”
“Why should I?” I fired back, reluctantly easing Sammie to the ground. Avoiding my opponent wasn’t an option, so I moved to the false bravado rule I’d recently practiced with the bald trio. My only weapons now included my mouth, my left fist, and my right fist. Oh, and maybe my feet. Depended on how much the Vie maimed me. So God help me if I had to use fighting rule number three.
“What?” he growled, eyes wide with a mixture of rage, confusion, and maybe even a hint of fear. He hadn’t expected this.
Neither had I, but since I’d started it, I’d have to finish it.
I rose to a crouch. “You heard me.”
My one warning: A flash of rage in his eye. I barely closed my mouth before he pinned me down, his teeth at my neck again. Sharp pain erupted over my jugular as he tore into me.
Poor Sammie felt this.
Sammie. No. I couldn’t give up yet; this Vie needed to suffer for biting her.
I dug my thumbs into his eyes as hard as I could. Blood gushed with a satisfying squelch.
“You stinking blood bag!” he screeched and leapt off me, exploring his face with shaking hands. As quickly as before, the blood leaking from his wounds slowed and reabsorbed. The damage erased itself as quickly as it had appeared.
“Suck it, leech.” I applied pressure to my bleeding vein with a palm.
Pain streaked into my skull and down my spine, throbbing with each heartbeat. Electric fire. The toxin spread fast.
The Vie stood, panting. “I… I feel… older.” He stumbled. Maybe I’d wounded him worse than I thought. “How is it that I feel older?”
I retreated. Well, I crab-walked backward, my bloody fingers mixing with grit and water.
He approached, zombie-like, reaching out to me, his pale skin slicked with his own, immortal, alien, other blood. “Come. Here. Anemie.”
“No.” My gaze darted to Sammie.
He squinted, catching my fear. “What if I helped your sister? Would you be more reasonable then?”
I shook my head. There was no help. No escape. No deals with Vie.
“I’ll let her go… if you come with me.” He spoke carefully, uncertain about how to negotiate. Trancing people was easy. Convincing them was not.
“She can’t survive alone.”
He sighed. “I’d see to her safety. You have my word.” His words, clipped with impatience, tickled the small bit of hope lingering for Sammie.
Only a fool would trust him. But I also had no choice. Bottom line: Sammie needed saving, and she needed it now. Her life mattered more than mine. Get the Vie to fix her, then I’d figure out the next step. “Do it.”
“Come here.”
“Help her first.”
“So stubborn. I’m not sure if it’s admirable, given your position, or annoying.” The Vie kept his eyes locked on mine as he glided to Sammie’s still body. He drew a small bottle and syringe out of his pocket.
I held my breath as he injected a bit of clear liquid into Sammie’s arm. Could’ve been anything. Water. Poison. I let him touch her. I trusted him not to finish her off. Fool.
“There. I’ve given her some Antinocio—pain medicine. It should hold her over for now.”
“Hold her over?” My fingernails dug into my palm as I clenched my fists.
“Do you think I carry serum around with me? Don’t be stupid.”
“You said you’d help her.”
“I will. I am.”
“Promise me she’ll survive.”
“Only time will tell, but I’ll do my best.”
“You said—”
“I said I could keep her safe. I dare say I’d do a better job of it than you.” He looked around the rooftop to prove his point. Here’s where we were, where my decisions had gotten us—the roof of an abandoned building, both bitten by a Vie.
A second Vie shot out of the doorway. The door flew off its hinges from the force of it, crashing on its side with a bang. The Vie’s helmet and black jumpsuit smoked. The fire must’ve been raging inside, gutting the building. He eyed Sammie’s limp body. “Alex, what are you doing? We’re about to wrap up. Stop playing around.”
I ducked behind Alex, hoping his shadow hid me. I couldn’t beat one Vie, let alone two.
Alex stuffed the used syringe in his back pocket out of sight from the other Vie. He angled his body just so, further blocking him from seeing me.
I held my breath. Was he doing it on purpose? Surely, the smoking monster could smell me, hear my frantic heart, my shaky breaths.
The Vie huffed. “Tasting the stock already? You’re not supposed to drink from them during a raid,” he complained.
“Who are you to reprimand me?” One thing was for sure, Alex had indignation down.
“I’m looking out for you. Have some respect.”
“I don’t need you to watch out for me. I’m taking this one to Abarron’s lab. Gather the others.” He shoved the other Vie into the stairway.
“The lab. Wh—”
“Just go!” Alex gave him second push.
The both of them continued arguing as they moved down the short stairwell. Taking my chance, I bolted out of the shadows to Sammie. Burning jolts coursed through my belly, and quick
shocks ate at my fingers with the movement. It was the neurotoxin reminding me of its presence. Tick tock.
I draped the whistle around Sammie’s neck before clutching her body to my chest and retreated to the edge of the roof. I shifted her over my shoulder so I could swing my legs over the brick half-wall. Two stories, I could make two stories… if Alex and his smoking friend kept fighting.
Sammie’s weight lifted off me quickly, as if she was a coat and I’d tossed her off.
Alex dangled her over the ledge one-handed. She swung like a ragdoll. His smile gutted me. “Come with me or I’ll let go.”
“No!” I straddled the wall, frozen.
“I don’t have time to argue with you. When the others discover you, we’ll both be in trouble.” His words crammed together in a rush.
“Let us go, please.” My entire body trembled with fear and burned from the toxin slowly spreading through my veins.
Three short bleats of a horn ripped into the night.
Alex grunted. “Time’s up. I have to leave. When you figure out what you want to do, come find me. In the meantime, I’m keeping Sammie. She’ll be waiting for you. Don’t take too long, though. Your clock is winding down. Here, I’ll help you get started.” He moved toward me so fast that he blurred, and I felt—
Nothing. Air. No ledge. No gravity.
He’d pushed me over.
I swung my arms, scratching helplessly at the building’s slippery brick like the yelp raking across my throat. I scraped along the façade until I snagged hold of a loose black cable. My fingers curled tight around it. My body jolted to a halt, feet dangling near the top of a window frame. The muscles in my arms and shoulders screamed. Miraculously, my joints stayed in their sockets.
Blazes, I’d caught myself.
I dared a glimpse down. Fifteen feet. That’s all that separated me from the ground. The same ground I’d almost splattered my brains on.
The Vie—Alex—wanted me to find him, then he shoved me over. Spinning off deals, trying to kill me, saying I needed to live, biting Sammie, promising to fix her, the guy—no, alien—was crazy. Insane. Bonkers. He wanted me to find him, after he sent me freefalling to the ground. Uh-huh. How did he expect me to do that? As a ghost?
Dawn of the Vie (Immortal Aliens Book 1) Page 3
