by Holly Hook
Another vampire dragged a soldier past the Mother. "I already made you a deal. Leave and survive." Her dainty voice dropped to a dangerous pitch. She still didn't want to risk killing me. The trust she'd gained would evaporate.
So long as the others were here, and the soldiers continued to come, I had an advantage, and it was my mouth. I had a talent for getting others in trouble.
Another vampire guy, the one who had occupied the table next to me in the transfusion area, carried another unconscious soldier over his shoulder. This soldier was a young woman who might even be old enough to have a kid or two at home. She had so many freckles I doubted Bathory would want her in her beautiful ranks.
But I had to use care.
"We should go," Brendan whispered. He stood inches from me.
"Yes. You should go." The Mother glared at him. "You useless errand boy. It's no wonder your family didn't want you."
Brendan seethed.
I couldn't hold back.
"How was yours?" I asked. "Didn't you have a family once?"
"Don't speak of things you don't know about," she said. I had never heard so much tension and hatred in a voice. She turned away and paraded down the hall, following the stream of unconscious soldiers.
I recognized it as an escape.
I couldn't let her get away.
Brendan and I pushed past more captured vampires.
"Janine," he kept saying.
The helicopter was loud enough for all to realize running out of here in the middle of the day wasn't a good option. Most of us wore thin hospital gowns. Light streamed in through the Sunning Room window and into the hall. Everyone avoided that corridor. One of the staff stood inside, panting. The sun was their only defense. And it was the mean doctor.
"We should go," Brendan said.
I continued to follow the Mother. "You must have had a crappy childhood," I said to her, loud enough for everyone to hear. "I'm sorry about that. It messes people up. Some even end up becoming serial killers because of it."
Two people carrying soldiers faced me. The Mother clenched her fists. I was trudging into dangerous territory. If I made her angry enough, she'd kill me, witnesses or no.
"What do I have to do to make you stay quiet?" Bathory asked. "You are annoying me."
"Well, I know what it's like to have a parent who doesn't want you. Was it a parent? Or a lover? Maybe it was an enemy who envied your beauty?"
We walked down the ramp now. The double doors opened as one of the vampire men pushed into them. Two soldiers occupied beds now, and one of them was opening his eyes. The equipment stood there, ready. I wondered how Bathory would convince the prisoners to transfuse them. She already had her work cut out for her.
"Well?" I asked her.
Bathory waited a few seconds before whirling on me.
She grabbed the collar of my gown and pulled me off the ground.
I grabbed at her hands, which shook with fury. The vampire in front of me, the one with the female soldier, stopped and faced me. "What's going on?" he asked. "What are you doing to that girl?"
Bathory's grip faltered, but tightened again. I couldn't pry her off. God blood might be on my side, but she was still stronger than me. "I know where you live," she said.
Those five words were the most terrifying thing she could say. "You don't," I said.
"The apartment," she said with a smile. "I had Primrose tell me. It was part of the deal. You're on the fifth floor of the one that's just a mile from the high school. The building with the blue awning. I know that you live with your Normal mother. This is your last chance to leave and keep your mouth shut." Then she lowered her voice. "I should have killed you in the bunker."
"Are you threatening this girl?" the man asked. He placed the soldier down and she groaned. "Who are you and where did you come from? Are you going to threaten the rest of us, too? Primrose is hiring some questionable help lately."
At the front of this building, Primrose fired off another War Magic charge. More soldiers were coming in. Bathory was planning to deplete the nearby base. Before other soldiers made it out here, she might have a small army built.
All she had to do was say the right things.
And she did. The Mother turned to the guy. "Follow me, or the army will kill you in here and you will never see the stars again," she said.
The man stood there like he wasn't sure what to do. "Who are you?" he repeated.
I had to open my mouth. "She's the one who stole the blood supplies from the Underground and drove you to the surface to hunt. She wanted you to get caught here so she could march in and take over."
Bathory snapped her gaze back, but I made a fist and slugged her in the stomach as hard as I could. I struck a rib and heard a crack.
I could hurt the Mother.
She gasped and released me, more from surprise than pain. I fell away and did the worst thing I could have: I backed away. The man's mouth fell open and the female soldier groaned. Bathory clutched her upper abdomen. I could see where the rib had broken. It poked against her skin as she backed away and seethed.
The man had enough. He charged Bathory, but she faced him and held up a hand. It would have looked like a blur to anyone other than me. She struck the poor guy and sent him flying back into the wall. He gasped as tendons snapped and he fell against the wall, slumping as his body cracked and pulled itself back together.
It was then I lost confidence. I had hit Bathory, the most powerful vampire of all time, who didn't care about anything other than herself and her looks. It was a lucky shot due to distraction.
And I had once again made her look bad.
Her rib popped as she healed. She leveled a glare at me like a hungry tiger. A low growl started in her throat, but she took a breath and stopped it, reverting to her doll-like voice.
I had outed myself as a threat.
She wouldn't tolerate this.
"So," she said, approaching one slow step at a time. "Not only are you nosy and in everyone's business, you are stupid. I guess I know that the new War God's blood will benefit me with more than just hearing and eyesight. That's all the information I needed out of you."
Translation: she would kill me now.
And I wasn't sure I could fight her.
The man against the wall groaned again. No one was coming down the ramp at the moment. More fighting had broken out near the front of the facility. The staff continued to freak out in the safe room. Guards told the ladies to calm down and stay quiet. Primrose continued to sling War Magic, and another shot fired, but the bullet struck the wall and not flesh. She was holding her own against a new wave of soldiers.
And the vampires up front rushed ahead to drag more of them down here.
I backed up another step. Her full focus was on me now. I had no advantage.
"Well?" the Mother asked. "What do you have to say? It's a shame I need to kill such a beautiful young woman. But that's nothing I've never done before."
I searched my peripheral vision for a weapon, maybe even a broom, because Mom took a self-defense class once where they said you were stronger with anything in your hand. But the ramp had nothing. It was for wheeling patients. Down in the transfusion room, soldiers begged for release. Others remained tough.
"I know it isn't," I said. "Did you think feeding on their blood would fix you? That becoming a vampire would make you better? It doesn't work that way."
Bathory paused. I had pierced her core again. Sadness filled her eyes, something not meant for anyone to see, but my new senses let nothing slip away when I was paying attention.
"Want to talk about it?" I asked.
"Janine," Brendan warned. He grasped my arm. "Let's go."
She shook her head and slipped a mask of hatred over her face, taking a bold step at me.
"Elizabeth!"
The Mother stopped and turned her head.
Richard Grimes stood in the open doorway of the transfusion room. He kept his chest puffed out in a brave stance. The
air smelled of coffee and mixed in with the metallic nerves of the soldiers. The look of anger on the ATC owner's face rivaled Bathory's own. I wondered how he had gotten away from his guards.
"Richard," she said, her voice smooth and fake. "I haven't seen you for years."
"Don't pretend to be friendly with me," he said. "You took everything from me and you know it."
"This sounds bad," Brendan whispered. There was no point in that. Bathory could hear him and so could the guy pulling himself from the wall, shaking and healed. The female soldier groaned again and pushed herself up, but the Mother ignored her.
Her full attention was on Grimes. I should strike, but the scene in front of me commanded my attention. I wasn't even sure why.
"You rejected my gift, Richard. You were one of the lucky few who did not have to die at my hands, but you've spent the better part of two decades trying to purge it."
These two knew each other. My instincts were right there was more to Grimes than I thought.
Brendan tugged on my arm again with so much desperation I had to give in. I was stronger than him, but I followed. We bolted up the ramp and made it to the top.
"We can't leave her to murder people," I said.
"She'll murder you," Brendan said as we rounded the corner, his reddish eyes full of terror. "And then me."
Another gunshot sounded from the front of the building.
This one hit flesh. A woman shouted, but it wasn't Primrose. They'd hit a vampire. That would only get them to go to Bathory's side even more. Primrose fired off more magic. A faint magenta glow filled the halls.
Downstairs, water rushed. Trish yelled at someone to dive into the creek and swim. She was trying to evacuate people. It was the only reason she hadn't followed Brendan and I. It must have been a hard decision for her to make.
Grimes continued to speak. My focus shifted to him as if something in the back of my mind wanted to know more. "Your disease took my family from me and my wife. I can never forgive you for that, and I'll fight for the rest of my life to stomp it out from the face of this world. Vampirism is unnatural. It needs to go."
Bathory laughed. "Stop rehearsing those scripted lines, Richard. You are a vampire just as much as I am, no matter how much you fight it. And I sense that the clumsy girl down the hall is your kid. Why else would you get the bravery to face me after all these years?"
Chapter Fifteen
I froze.
So did Brendan because he didn't have a choice.
Bathory's words hit like a truck.
Nothing she said made sense.
"Elizabeth," Grimes said. "I've almost cured it. These transfusions work. I'm almost Normal. I can even tolerate things like drinking coffee and staying in sunlight for almost an hour at a time. It's just going to take a while longer."
"You haven't cured yourself," she said. I heard her grab the front of his shirt. "You've only suppressed your gift. Stop the transfusions, and it will come back. I guarantee you. But you won't live that long. I will kill you, and then I will go after your offspring."
"I have no offspring." Terror filled his voice.
I held my breath, hoping that Bathory didn't hear it. But the tone didn't get lost on me. Grimes wanted me to run.
My father left us when I was two months old.
This couldn't be—
"I think you do," the Mother told him. "It's the way you stepped up for that girl. I've lived long enough to know what makes people tick."
"I don't have a child!"
"Did you think you can become Normal and waltz back into her life after sixteen years of no contact? She doesn't want you now, and I don't blame her. You're a rotten, ungrateful deadbeat." Pure hatred filled her words. "Or maybe you didn't want a daughter, but a son instead? I know how that works."
This wasn't real. My hope told me that, but what I heard between Grimes's words told me otherwise. I gripped the wall of the corner.
Brendan let out a breath next to me. Our hallway remained empty as the fighting continued out front. But all I could focus on were the events down the ramp, just around the corner.
"You can do what you want with me," Grimes said. That same terror filled his voice. He begged me to run. "Elizabeth, you can get rid of your scars. Surgery works if you undergo the transfusions of Normal blood. You stop healing too fast for us to do what we need. Let me help you as I wanted before. I have amazing medical connections. I'm a doctor."
He was buying me time.
"Janine," Brendan said.
I should take it.
But I couldn't.
A broom leaned up against a food cart, forgotten. I seized it and broke out of Brendan's grasp. I snapped it over the cart, creating a point. The sound mixed with the rest of the commotion. The thought of what I was about to do washed over me, giving me strength.
I bolted around the corner.
Bathory held Grimes off the ground by the front of his suit, which he grasped. She had her back to me, and as I closed in with the broken broom, his eyes widened and fell on me.
"Janine!" he shouted. "Get out of here!"
He knew my name.
Bathory turned, and while she was fast, it wasn't enough.
I thrust the broken end of the broomstick into the left side of her back.
It made a sickening sound as it pierced through her ribcage and into her heart.
She let out a wet gasp and dropped Grimes, who landed on his feet with a lot more grace than a Normal should have.
Silence fell over the hallway as the Mother grasped at the broomstick and made another gross gurgling noise. My stomach heaved and threatened to lose its contents, which would have made things ten times worse.
Bathory staggered. I'd skewered her with a broomstick with speed and surprise alone. Inside the transfusion room, another soldier begged for release.
The Mother fell, writhing in pain. Grimes stepped out of the way and stared at me with brown eyes. Now that I looked, I could see the faint red inside them, a red he'd been working for almost two decades to eliminate.
For the first time, I couldn't read his expression.
He spoke, his words dry and cut. "You need to get out of here and I will follow you until you're out. Bathory won't die. She's too strong. This is your last chance."
I trembled, overtaken by emotion. "Are you--" The rest wouldn't come.
Grimes cast his gaze down to Bathory with pure hatred. A puddle of her blood spread on the floor as she twitched and groaned. I had pierced her heart, and she wasn't dying. Maybe he was right that nothing could kill her.
Or maybe he was trying to avoid me. I still couldn't read him.
"There's a creek that runs under the facility, and I can rig explosives to open it. If we--"
"It's already open," I said.
Bathory reached behind her.
"Whoa," Brendan said.
She pulled out the broomstick. The sound of her skin pulling together followed. I had done nothing but incapacitate her for less than a minute with a move that should have killed anybody.
And now I had a huge target on my back.
"You need to go!" Grimes shouted. "I'll follow."
One rational thought managed to form. He knew things about Bathory and might help us defeat her. But that meant leaving her to do what she wanted with the army and the staff.
But this was our chance. I had freed George even if I'd failed in every other way.
Bathory pushed her upper body off the floor. The bloody mess was horrific. She looked like a monster that had crawled out of the worst parts of the underworld.
Grimes shoved me up the ramp. "Go!"
He was stronger than a Normal should be. "But those people!" I shouted.
"I have another way out for them," he said, sounding honest. "This isn't your fight. It's mine."
How could I resist? If Grimes was who the Mother said, he'd want me out of here before anything else. I was doing nothing but holding him up and keeping him from getting those other people
out. Normals couldn't leave through the creek.
Grimes might not even be able if he was borderline Normal.
The three of us bolted down the hall and back to the basement door. I had to slow to let the others stay with me. The fighting got louder as we neared it. Another gun fired and more jeeps pulled up. Grimes spoke into a radio as he ran.
"Order the army back!" he shouted. "We need to evacuate personnel. Put all effort into that. Go to the safe room through the secret entrance."
Primrose used more magic, which exploded at the front entrance. More radios went off. Grimes was right. This wasn't my fight anymore. At least, this part of it wasn't.
I sensed that once people got evacuated, Grimes and the army would order some serious firepower on the place. Those soldiers in the transfusion room might not survive. Primrose might go down, too. We didn't want to be around for that, so I did as he said and ran down into the basement. I should have never come here. Bathory didn't get stopped because of me, and now she'd build her vampire army unless someone dropped a nuke on this place. Most of the vampires in this place were fighting the army from the sounds of it, thinking Bathory had saved them.
The sounds of someone biting a man filled the air right before Grimes closed the basement door behind us. That didn't help much. He grimaced as my gray vision snapped into place.
The basement had filled with two feet of cold, musty water that came up to my waist. Panic washed over me (bad pun, I know) as Brendan and I jumped off the stairwell and to the floor. Trish waited by the hole in the wall, healed. Water had stopped rushing in since it had leveled off, but I heard the sounds of swimming up the creek. She had convinced a few others to leave.
Grimes felt his way down the steps. His vision wasn't cutting it. Bathory was right he'd suppressed vampirism. But he made it to the bottom and jumped into the water.
Trish wasn't happy. "This is the ATC leader."
"It's better than Bathory," Brendan said.
"Are you here to convince me I ended my medical career by choosing my condition?" Trish asked.
"Trish, shut up," I said. "We'll talk about it later." I eyed the dark tunnel and already felt as if I were suffocating. The whole thing was submerged. "We need to get out before Bathory gets here."
