Suddenly, with a loud screech, the vampire holding Deanna released her by tossing her forward, into the air.
Simultaneously, Michael fired into the vamp’s heart while Chris sped forward to catch Deanna. She landed hard, safe but hard, in Chris’s arms.
Meanwhile, the vamp lay face down on the stone floor. Blood oozed from a large wound on his back. Behind him, Damion waltzed into the room swinging his sword with Corrine close by his side.
Deanna wanted to press her face into Chris and let all the sobs out.
The man began to weep again.
“You aren’t an angel, are you?” he said in a weeping voice into the air.
Chris set Deanna on her feet and lifted the curtain aside.
“No,” he whispered sadly. “I’m not an angel.”
Damion stepped forward with his sword still in his hand. He leaned in over the man’s face so he could look him in the eye. “But, I am. I have been sent to set you free, and you, sir, have a job to do. You are to show us where they are keeping the prisoners locked up.”
Damion raised his sword and slid the tip of the blade over the chains. No other sword could have ever cut those chains. They fell away, freeing the man of his shackles.
“Yes, yes.” The man nodded excitedly. “I will take you there.”
Damion nodded and stepped back. “Thank you, but we must hurry. Can you walk?”
Deanna glanced at Corrine who stood motionless in the doorway with her crossbow in one hand and a flashlight in the other. She flicked it on and destroyed the vampire’s bloody body.
The man, now out of his bed and clad in only a hospital gown, ran through the room. “Come, this way! Hurry!”
“Wait!” Chris grabbed the man’s arm. “What is your name?”
The man looked up at Chris. “My name is David. Now let’s go!”
He ran in front of them with no concern for himself or oncoming vampires. Damion, by far the fastest and most durable of them all, stayed right behind David. Chris stayed in the back to help Michael place the bombs.
David passed through a door, then down a stone spiral staircase. Soon, they crept down a long hallway.
Deanna could hear screaming and moaning and also what sounded like the weather report echoing though the caves. Why in the world would those people want to know what the weather was like? That was just plain mean to rub in the outside world like that!
Finally, the man passed through another door, and just as Deanna was beginning to believe they were lucky there weren’t that many vampires in the caves, another heavily guarded door appeared before them.
Three vampires. Deanna knew they could take three of them.
The vampires were not surprised to see them; as a matter of fact, they looked as if they were expecting them. They raised their own weapons.
“Seriously?” Damion demanded. “You have guns?” He looked back at his group. “I thought we were old school here. You know, swords and crossbows, that sort of thing.”
Then, one of the vamps fired.
The bullet hit Damion in the chest. He covered the wound with his hand and closed his eyes. Then, he pulled his hand away from his chest and opened it, showing the vampires their bullet.
“What the…” one of the vampires muttered.
Damion flicked the bullet at them and let his hand linger by his waist.
“Back up,” Corrine ordered sternly.
Then, Deanna’s eyes went wide as Damion pulled the biggest sword she had ever seen from an invisible sheath at his hip. It was like pulling a sword out of thin air, appearing a little at a time.
One of the vampires screeched as loud as he could before he was decapitated along with the other two from one swift swing of Damion’s demon sword.
David jumped up and down like a little boy hyped up on candy. “Yes!” He stabbed an invisible sword and straightened up. “Let’s go.”
They opened the unlocked door. Inside, about forty men and women stood milled around like zombies. The screaming seemed to come from farther down the hallway where they had just come from.
Deanna, and everyone else, could only stare in shock for a moment. Those were the people they were going to have to leave for dead. And there were more, a lot more.
David raised his voice. “Friends. We are free, come look. These angels have been sent to free us.”
People turned their heads and shook them. It appeared it wasn’t the first time they had heard David screaming about angels.
“Look, friends!” He ran up to a woman and yanked on her arm. “Please, look, they are angels and we can leave here. We must fight!”
The woman yanked her arm back and gave David a dirty look. Deanna watched closely as the woman scanned her eyes over Damion and Michael, as well as everyone else in their odd little group. Then, her eyes went to the door which still stood wide open.
The group stood motionless, silently watching a disaster unfold in a sort of slow motion which was hard to put a stop to.
“The door is open!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Like zombies to the smell of human flesh, the people trapped in the room for what they thought was eternity slowly turned their heads and saw the open door waiting for them.
“Fight the evil ones, fight them!” David yelled. “Use the fire in the halls.”
“Oh no!” Corrine whispered.
The prisoners rushed the door, filing through and grabbing any kind of weapon they could on the way out. Chairs, torches, lamps, it didn’t matter.
Damion caught David on his way through the door. “David, we are looking for the other prisoners, the ones who the demons would be threatened by. Do you know where they would keep such people?”
David raised a torch into the air. “I do,” he whispered, eyes darting back and forth. “Follow me.”
It felt as if they were following him for a long time behind the running humans who killed any vampires who stood in their way. They followed down several long hallways, then another spiral staircase.
Deanna felt Chris touch her back. “There is human blood close by.”
He slowed and walked closely to each doorway they passed. The group, following David, had entirely passed them by when Chris finally stopped in front of a door.
“In here.” He pointed at the door. “Someone is in there.”
“You want to go in?” she asked him.
“You bet I do.”
“All right.” She pulled out a couple of stakes from her bag while Chris kicked open the door.
When the door shattered, they found themselves face to face with three very large vampires who guarded a crib. Inside the crib lay a very contentedly sleeping Jaiden.
Deanna let both stakes fly at the same time and hit both guards on either side of the one in the middle.
“Damn it.”
She cursed when she realized as the guards only grunted and pulled out the stakes that the wounds weren’t fatal ones. Chris took up her slack while she snagged a few more stakes from her bag. She wished she had dipped them in holy water; she didn’t care if that was supposed to be a myth or not. It certainly would have made her feel better.
Jaiden sensed the commotion in the room and began to make little whining noises, which would soon lead to a full out crying jag; Deanna was sure of that.
Chris charged the one in the middle, and was charged in return. He dropped down low, stretched out his sword and tripped the guard. When the guard fell, he whipped his sword over the top of his body and right through his neck, decapitating him. That happened just as Deanna let loose her new stakes and lodged one into the heart of the guard on the left.
The guard she had hit fell solidly to the ground while the other one threw himself atop Chris, trying his hardest to stake Chris with one of the stakes Deanna had thrown.
Deanna knew how hard it was going to be to get a stake to pierce the skin of a vampire and continue the plunge through his back. To gather her momentum, she gave herself some space to charge forward. Then, she jumped as hig
h as she could force her legs and brought her stake down into the vampire’s back while he wrestled with Chris.
Immediately, the vampire fell down dead on top of Chris. Deanna ran to the crib. Chris flung the body off of him and jumped up, running to the crib as well. He lifted Jaiden and one of her blankets out of the crib. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Deanna stepped over the doorway rubble. “I couldn’t have said it better.”
They ran in the direction of where they heard the shouting of humans killing vampires come from. It led them to a chamber practically drowning in blood and among all the blood were the bodies of dead vampires and one human still chained to the wall.
Damion, Corrine and Michael stood in a silent group and stared sadly at Stewart’s body. Deanna choked back a mouthful of vomit. Stewart lay up against the wall, his stiff body left in a sitting position with his head twisted in an inhumane position. Even in death, he wore a defiant grin.
“He was laughing at his end,” Corrine whispered to no one particular.
Jaiden protested against her newfound cradle in Chris’s arms with a loud wail. The other three finally drew their attention away from Stewart’s body.
“You have her!” Damion exclaimed. “Well, Isabella isn’t here. I thought this would be where we found her.”
Deanna examined the wall. Loose chains still hung from the wall with flesh hanging from the razor sharp prongs. “I think she was here at some point. They must have moved her.” She eyed Chris. “But, we need to get Jaiden out of here. We have to let Alex know we have her so he can get out too.”
“Telepathy?” Chris asked.
“You have to; Malcolm and Levine already know we’re here. I can’t believe they left her alone, knowing that. Even guarded.”
“Besides that, we don’t have much time before the bombs light this place up,” Michael agreed.
“All right.” Chris closed his eyes and secured Jaiden in his arms again. “I’ll send him the message.”
38
Alex swallowed back the fear that threatened to surface as Malcolm and his minions circled them. Intentionally, Alex ignored the guards, keeping his eyes on Malcolm only. It was clear to him that escape was not an option; they were in the lair solely to save Jaiden, and killing Malcolm would simply be a bonus in Alex’s book.
He felt Jackie’s heart begin to pump harder and he, along with every other vampire in the room, picked up on her scent as the fresh blood surged through her body. Little did they know that it wasn’t fear which caused her heart to beat faster, it was lust for the kill. Skillfully, she aimed the tip of her bolt at Malcolm’s heart and stood frozen as a statue to ensure the shot.
Alex felt Danielle at his back and silently hoped she had gotten her senses back because they were going to need her. He desperately wanted Malcolm for himself but he knew Jackie didn’t want to lose the moment and would fire soon.
Just then, the clicking of high heels echoed through the caves. Levine was coming to join her husband. It was now or never.
Jackie pulled the trigger of her crossbow. The bolt was released and the guards took her down.
Malcolm staggered backward, choking and clutching his chest where the bolt had pierced his flesh but missed the heart. Alex shot forward and pushed aside any guards who tried to stop him but getting to Malcolm was like going the wrong way on a crowded sidewalk in New York City. He wanted Malcolm, wanted him so badly that he would not let himself be killed before he killed Malcolm.
Almost distantly, he heard the echo of Jackie screaming. He risked a glance her way and wished that he hadn’t looked at all. Jackie knelt on her hands and knees, her head thrown back in the way of a wolf when it howls at the moon. She was totally defenseless against the bloodthirsty guards as they tore the soft flesh from her body bite by bite.
He turned away quickly. While the vampires ripped away her life, he continued to shove his way through the guards. Jackie had seriously injured him but Alex was going to take him to his death. It felt like he had never in his long existence wanted something so badly.
The guards parted and he finally had a view of Malcolm, but ironically, Levine entered the room at the exact same moment. It felt like time froze when he turned and saw Levine, her emerald gown shining brightly in the torch light, standing in front of two guards who each held the arm of a sagging and unconscious Isabella.
“Let her go!” he demanded.
Levine lifted her chin sharply toward her guards and they promptly released her arms. She dropped to the ground and her skull cracked dangerously against the hard floor. Alex felt his eyes bulge when he saw the puddle of Isabella’s blond hair turning crimson.
But, she still had life within her. He could practically feel her heart beating. Actually, it beat too hard for a human being who was supposed to be unconscious.
“You will pay for this by watching him die,” he growled. With his eyes on Levine, he jerked his head toward Malcolm.
“I doubt that.” She threw him a cold stare.
Levine stood on one side of him and Malcolm stood on the other. He was trapped and wondered where his angel was at that moment.
“Danielle?” he whispered.
“I’m here.” Her voice was saturated with defeat and he couldn’t take the chance to look at her and see what was wrong but he sensed from her that she couldn’t or wouldn’t help him. Without Danielle, he was totally on his own with Malcolm and Levine since Jackie was gone.
He turned away from Levine and raised his sword high into the air, preparing to leap toward Malcolm, when Malcolm, still clutching bleeding chest, crumpled to the floor without so much as a word, straight to the ground, and landed in a heap of black silk cape.
“What the…” Alex first thought it was some kind of trick, Malcolm playing dead.
“No!” Levine jolted forward and crouched down protectively beside her husband.
Alex felt his adrenaline going and decided to cut his head off anyway. Better safe than sorry.
“Stop!” Isabella’s shaky voice called out.
He turned. All the guards wore shocked expressions and faced Isabella who stood tall, still in only her white, blood spattered tee shirt, and a throbbing heart dripping with dark blood raised high in her hand. Malcolm’s heart.
“Bitch!”
In a shimmering emerald blur, Levine appeared before Isabella. She reached out and grabbed her by the throat, digging her long nails into Isabella’s warm flesh.
“Give him his heart back!” she hissed.
“I will not!” Isabella choked out. “Give us the baby first.”
“Never.” Levine squeezed. Alex knew Levine was keeping her alive on purpose; even a gentle squeeze by her hand could kill a mortal.
Isabella threatened her back by doing her own squeezing on Malcolm’s heart.
“The baby!” she demanded.
Alex fought the urge to try and help her somehow. He never thought she would have tried to bargain for Jaiden but he had underestimated her. He should have known that she would do anything for a child, any child. If he tried to help her, that might only hurt her in the long run. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw Danielle pressed against the wall of the cave. What is wrong with her? He wondered. The guards watched Levine intensely, waiting for orders.
“We have Jaiden!” Alex heard Christopher’s shout in his head. “Let’s get out of here!”
Thank God, it was safe to use telepathy again. “Isabella,” he called out, moved his arms in a cradling motion behind Levine’s back and mouthed “let’s go”.
Levine whipped around to see what Alex had done. As soon as her back was turned, Isabella crushed Malcolm’s heart between her fingers until it oozed down her arm. Tears streamed from the corners of her red, puffy eyes and down her cheeks as she mashed the now dead heart to a pulp.
Luckily, Levine turning gave Alex the chance to get her off of Isabella. He bounded forward and swung his sword backward in a sweeping motion, then over his head. Levine
followed suit and charged him back. His sword met her raised hand and bounced off it as if it was made of rubber. Some sort of protective shield she had conjured or perhaps the power to deflect attacks. Either way, Alex knew he wasn’t able to take her with his sword.
“I’ll kill you!” she screamed, completely losing the composure she normally portrayed. “I’ll rip you to pieces and feed you to the wolves.” She grabbed Alex one hand on each arm and sent electricity jolting through him. “You aren’t even worthy enough for another immortal to taste.”
Alex felt the fire flowing through him. It was similar to what he had felt when he had stood under the blazing heat of a sunrise. Maybe she would kill him, who knew; after all, it hadn’t been a sure thing that he would live through that from the beginning. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t think any coherent thought except that maybe, that was really it, that maybe, he wouldn’t make it. He could feel his body stiff and jolting. Distantly, he could hear Isabella screaming, and in his mind, he saw the tears which had escaped and had started to run down her cheeks when she had crushed Malcolm’s heart. He was so proud of her.
Then, he felt his body fall to the ground and the world spun around him. He heard Chris and, though it seemed a bit perverse, he was more than thrilled when he heard Jaiden’s terrified cries. He heard Corrine shouting to Deanna to help her. He couldn’t move. They had to get out and it had to be soon.
Danielle’s dark form appeared over him. “Get up, Alex.”
“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded.
“I couldn’t help you; this was something you had to do yourself. Now get up so we can get out of here.”
“What’s the use? You will get out whether or not I make it; remember, you’re an angel.”
“Alex!” She scolded him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “On your feet, let’s move.”
She forced him to stand and to regain his wits. He wasn’t going to die; his body healed too quickly for that.
“Go, go, go. It’s time to go,” Michael shouted to everyone in his path as he ran in from the same door where Levine had entered. Then came the biggest surprise: Through the doorway ran countless numbers of humans, their arms blazing with torches and various weapons they had apparently acquired from the dead vampire bodies.
Birth of Jaiden Page 25
