by Beth Alvarez
He swore under his breath. “So distracted, watchin’ them hips. . . .”
“Excuses, excuses.”
Voices rose behind them and Kade cursed. They ducked into the new hallway together. Kade threw the door shut, setting the lock. “Digital locks. Won’t buy us much time. Keep goin’ and get ready for a fire fight.” He popped the magazine out of his gun while they ran, replacing it with the magazine full of silver bullets. She did the same, but didn’t think to cock her gun until he ejected the regular round that was in the chamber of his.
The hall was straight and long, no doors to either side, but a bright room waited straight ahead. Felicity clenched her fists and ran harder. She almost ran out into the room but Kade snagged her by the shoulder, dragging her back and pushing her up against the wall. They’d been anything but quiet, but he still pressed a finger to his lips.
A low rasp echoed in the room ahead. Kade slid around the corner with his gun ready. Felicity followed.
A deep snarl emanated from the far right side of the room.
The place looked like a lab, with stark white cabinets and steel counters that were littered with test tubes and beakers. A tall cage with thick steel bars stood on the other side of a counter, but otherwise, the room was empty.
Slowly, Kade inched toward the cage. As he neared, the monster rose.
Seeing the pictures in Kade’s books hadn’t prepared her for the creature in front of her. As tall as a horse, its body was a sickly gray-green, its leathery flesh stretched taut over jutting bones. Long, metallic spikes formed a crest that ran from the top of its canine head to the base of its whiplike tail. Red eyes gleamed in sunken eye sockets, its lips peeled back from needle-sharp teeth in a snarl.
Kade let out a low whistle, pushing up his hat.
Felicity thought she was going to faint.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
They both spun toward the voice. Though she’d been certain the room was empty a moment before, a man now stood beside the counter at the opposite end. Felicity hadn’t heard so much as a whisper, never mind someone walking. His boot heels clicked on the tile as he paced toward them now, a smile wreathing itself on his face.
If she’d thought Kade attractive, the man facing them now was breathtaking. His complexion was as pale and even as fine porcelain, making the shadows beneath his sharp cheekbones seem darker. Glossy chestnut hair fell to his shoulders in a cascade, just brushing the lapels of his fine black suit. A slender nose made his lips look fuller and his eyes had a mournful tilt beneath perfectly groomed brows, but the glint in his eyes as he looked at her was anything but sorrowful. She fought a chill.
Kade’s finger twitched to the trigger of his gun. “Drake du Coudray?”
“Of course.” Drake chuckled, looking at the beast in the cage. “And you are the latest hunter the Keepers have sent to find me, correct?”
His eyes narrowed and Kade canted his head to the side. “The latest hunter?”
“What, did you think you were the first?” Drake paced toward them, his hands in his pockets. “The first was sent by my own Keeper.”
Slowly, Kade raised his pistol. “That why you killed him?”
Drake scoffed. “Please. There were a hundred reasons to remove Alexander from my life. Few of them personal.” He paused, the corner of his mouth twitching as his eyes drifted back to Felicity. “Though I suppose that reason was.”
Her skin crawled under the weight of his gaze, the short hairs standing on the back of her neck. Reflexively, Felicity swung her pistol up and fired at the vampire’s chest.
A swirl of mist exploded where he’d been, laughter in his silky, masculine voice echoing through the lab.
From the oath that escaped Kade’s lips, she guessed he was just as bewildered as she was.
“You would have been better off coming to me for work,” du Coudray snarled, reappearing right beside her, one icy hand closing on her wrist like a vise. Felicity shrieked as he wrenched her arm behind her back, prying her gun from her fingers.
Kade jerked forward a half step before freezing, a fleeting moment of panic in his eyes.
The gun’s cold muzzle pressed to her temple and Felicity’s knees went weak.
“The Keepers and their rules are holding us back! No killing, no sharing of our divine blood—they deprive us of power. Of freedom!” Spittle flew from the vampire’s mouth, spattering her cheek. “We could be an unstoppable force. We could change the world if we could just throw off their shackles.”
“The world’s just fine how it is.” Kade’s hazel eyes darkened with the intensity of his stare. “And you’ll have to forgive me for interruptin’ your chance to wax poetic, but I still got a job to do.” His gun snapped up, the single shot whizzing past Felicity’s ear.
Again her captor dissolved into mist and she collapsed with a gasp, her gun clattering to the floor.
Kade spun, firing again, catching the vampire as he reemerged from thin air.
Drake howled as the bullet tore through his shoulder, staggering backwards as the thick, coppery scent of blood filled the air. He reached for his pocket as he fell against the counter.
Felicity dove for her gun.
A click and metallic clank sounded behind her and too late, she realized it wasn’t a weapon he was after.
It was a remote.
“Look out!” she screamed.
Gray flesh streaked out of the cage. Kade wheeled to face her, greeted instead by the massive chupacabra vaulting over the counter.
It struck his chest with a sick crack, driving him to the ground, lunging for his throat.
The first bullet struck the side of its skull before Felicity knew what she was doing.
The beast screamed.
Recoil sent shocks of numbness up her arms, turning her muscles to jelly. She pumped the trigger anyway, five more bullets burying themselves in the monster’s head and neck before the gun clicked uselessly.
The chupacabra shrieked, shrill and blood-curdling, flailing wildly as it collapsed.
Kade jammed his gun under the monster’s jawbone, pulling the trigger once.
The beast went still and Kade collapsed, his pistol spinning out of his hand.
“Enough!” Drake roared. He tore the gun from Felicity’s hand before she could reload, whipping her across the face with the muzzle.
Stars exploded in her field of vision and she stumbled before falling, pain lancing through her whole body when she hit the hard floor.
“You’ve proven yourself quite a nuisance, human.” The vampire sneered, scooping the full magazine from the floor and clicking it into place. “No need for silver with you.”
His words were faint in Felicity’s ears, buried beneath the ringing aftermath of the gunshots. Her eyes flicked toward Kade, struggling to his hands and knees, his face twisted with pain.
Drake lifted the gun and she squeezed her eyes closed. For one fleeting moment, she regretted not changing when she had the chance.
The sound of the shot that followed chilled her to the bone and her eyes flew open again.
Screaming in fury, du Coudray fired again and again, the end of his pistol buried in Kade’s stomach. Shot after shot did nothing to stop the cowboy’s advance, wild rage burning in his eyes.
Kade’s hands closed on Drake’s shoulders, fingers digging in as he hauled the slender vampire closer and buried his fangs in his throat.
Anger became agony and du Coudray writhed in Kade’s grasp, his hands clawing at the hunter’s mouth in a desperate attempt to escape. The effort was futile. Pallor grew in Drake’s face, his cries fading to pained moans, fading further as his knees buckled and they sank to the floor together.
Felicity propped herself on her elbows, staring as Kade rose, crimson trails running from both corners of his mouth. As she watched, the bullet wounds in his stomach began mending, stemming the cascade of blood that stained his shirt and jeans.
Her heartbeat drummed in her ears and throbbed all the way to her fingertips, ad
renaline giving way to relief as he took a step toward her.
She met his gaze and fear replaced relief.
Kade advanced with a predatory stride, nothing human left in his eyes.
TWENTY
* * *
“HANDS UP!”
The order was muted, as if she were underwater, competing with the ringing in her ears. Police in body armor spilled through the doorway, the sound of their boots on the floor seeming distant.
Felicity sank back against the cold tile, holding her hands in the air with her fingers spread wide. It took all her strength to hold them there.
They weren’t interested in her, darting past without a second look.
Kade bared his fangs at them, his face twisted into a snarl as they formed a half circle between him and the doorway, forcing him back. One of the officers knelt beside the dead vampire, speaking into his radio, the words garbled in her ears.
Then there were hands on her shoulders, helping her sit up. A wave of dizziness threatened to topple her again and she held onto the officer’s hands for support.
“Hands up,” someone barked again.
“He’s in a blood frenzy. Get the pole!”
Felicity sat straighter, jarred back to reality. More officers poured in, carrying tools she expected from animal control, rather than a SWAT unit.
“Ma’am, are you all right?” The officer beside her gave her shoulder a squeeze. “You’re safe now. Everything’s under control.”
She looked at his mouth as he spoke, trying to make out his soft words. The sight of fangs startled her and her eyes snapped up to his.
“Everything’s okay,” he repeated, patting her shoulder.
It wasn’t.
An officer caught Kade by the throat with a Y pole, two more men grabbing his arms and slamming him into a wall.
Kade grimaced and bucked beneath their hold, clawing at the pole with both hands, feet striking at the officers beside him.
One of the officers in the half circle turned, striding toward the door. “He’s out of control. We think he fed on the other, sir.”
Felicity craned her neck to see three men in suits standing at the entryway. Two were unfamiliar, but the one nearest her was Thaddeus. They dressed alike, wearing old-fashioned double-breasted suits and derby hats. Keepers, all of them. She was sure.
“Protocol calls for elimination,” the shorter man in the front said, holding a handkerchief to his face, casting a look of disdain toward the body on the floor.
The bottom dropped out of her stomach. “No!” She scrambled to her feet, stumbling into one of the officers in the half-circle. They couldn’t! Not now, not after everything they’d done.
“Restrain her,” one of the Keepers snapped.
The men started to move, freezing when Thaddeus raised a hand.
Felicity shoved her way past the officers, throwing herself between them and Kade. The officers holding him abandoned his arms, readying rifles instead.
The freedom only made him angrier and Kade howled through clenched teeth, every tendon in his hands standing out as he tried hopelessly to shove the pole away from his throat. He panted, wild, sinking to the floor with the metal still pinning him to the wall.
Felicity spun, grabbing his hands, gently deterring them. “Calm down!” she begged, pressing herself close. He writhed beneath her, gritting his teeth and then gasping for breath. A wild light still gleamed in his eyes, but there was something else, too. Anger. Panic. And beneath that, a silent plea.
She wrestled his arms down over and over, fighting with him until exhaustion took hold. The sounds he made were pain, agony, the sound of a man struggling to remain one.
Shushing, soothing, she draped herself against him, cradling his head to her chest. “You’re still you,” she whispered, threading her fingers through his silky hair. “Come on, Kade.”
The police still bore down on that pole, holding him fast. She shoved against it, motioning for them to take it away. They didn’t comply until Thaddeus nodded. Then she curved her body protectively around Kade’s rigid form, kissing his cool brow.
His fangs rasped against her shoulder and she cupped his face with one hand, gently steering him away. If he was in a blood frenzy, as the officers called it, that was the last thing he needed.
“Stay with me,” she murmured against his temple, hugging him close.
Groaning, he buried his face in her chest, his fingers curling in the fabric of her sweater. His shoulders sagged, his body slowly relaxing into her grasp.
Felicity let out a long breath, tears spilling down her cheeks as she kissed the top of his head.
“The situation is under control,” Thaddeus said into the silence, casting a sidewise look toward the other Keepers.
The vampire with the handkerchief sniffed in disdain. “Bag the body,” he ordered, turning his attention to the officers waiting for direction. Then he nodded toward the corpse of the chupacabra. “The monster, as well.”
The cluster of police around them scattered, their shadow lifting like a weight from her shoulders.
“Largest specimen I’ve ever seen, that’s for certain,” one of the Keepers remarked, nudging the dead beast with his toe.
All three huddled over the thing, conversing as casually as if they were discussing a sport or recent event. “Judging from what was in du Coudray’s file, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“What was done with the Keeper aiding him in his practices?”
“Dispatched by now, no doubt. Good riddance. It would be foolish to think the organization incorruptible, but it’s an embarrassment nobody noticed sooner.”
Felicity tried not to listen to any more. Kade clung to her, his eyes closed and his brow furrowed, but his breath was steady. Forgotten for the moment, or at least unimportant, they sat huddled together in a bubble of peace.
Officers moved around them, removing the bodies. Others came, carrying cleaning supplies and wearing protective suits. The smell of bleach drowned the scent of blood.
“There is one more thing to address, you know.” The shadow of a Keeper moved over them and Felicity looked up. He still held the handkerchief to his face, his nose wrinkled.
The other two joined him, all of them looking at Kade.
Her arms tightened around him. He didn’t move, his breath shallow. She would have thought him asleep if not for the way his hands twitched at her sides, his grip on her sweater tightening.
“Our stance on the matter has always been clear.” That was the tall one. Well, not that tall; he was the same height as Thaddeus, but younger. The first time she’d seen him, she’d thought it odd that Kade’s Keeper was elderly. Later, she’d assumed it normal; until now, he was the only Keeper she’d seen. Both of these Keepers were young.
“Elimination is the obvious choice,” the short one agreed.
“And yet, you have to admit this did not end as anticipated.” Thaddeus laced his fingers together behind his back.
“True,” the tall one sighed. “He exhibits remarkable control. Even Edwin looked close to succumbing when we first entered.”
The short one scowled, finally lowering his handkerchief. “I was nowhere near it.”
“Regardless,” Thaddeus said, “he did well.”
“I suppose your hunter was a good choice after all. I would have preferred to have my own do it, but I wouldn’t have wanted to risk losing him, either.” Edwin shook his head. “You’re a harsh one, Birch.”
“I always have been.”
Felicity couldn’t stand their banter any more. “What are you going to do?”
The Keepers looked at her in surprise, as if they hadn’t realized she was capable of hearing them. Then they shifted uncomfortably, exchanging looks.
“He will have to be monitored,” the tall Keeper murmured. “We don’t know how many were killed by du Coudray, or how far he advanced.”
“And unless he begins to exhibit new strengths, we won’t know.” Edwin rubbed his ch
in. “However, judging by his condition when we entered, I believe it’s safe to consider his action one of self-preservation.”
“Watchful waiting,” the tall Keeper agreed, turning away. “I shall file the report and issue the record purge to the chief of police.”
“I will oversee the cleanup.” Edwin sighed as if that was the last thing he wanted to do, but he joined the figures in haz-mat suits anyway.
Thaddeus alone stood over them, studying Felicity for a long time. Then a soft smile drifted across his face, the very last thing she expected to see. “It’s a remarkable thing you’ve done, child. The blood of our own kind is ambrosia.”
“It wasn’t me. He did it himself.” Felicity stroked Kade’s head, drawing her fingertips lightly over his ears. “If he couldn’t keep his head, he would have hurt me, too.”
“Still, he had no interest in calming until his anger put you at risk. Had you not stepped in, I expect they would have ended things shortly. They do carry silver. As well as hawthorn stakes.” He paused, looking at Kade. “I am . . . grateful. He truly is the best hunter I’ve had. I must admit I’m quite fond of him.”
She swallowed hard. “So they’re going to let him live?”
“Yes,” Thaddeus said slowly. “Although he will be monitored for some time.”
“What do you think is going to happen?”
The Keeper’s eyes narrowed. “The organization is not in the practice of answering questions.” Then his expression softened. “But I am indebted to you, so I will answer one. If that is what you wish to know.”
Felicity bit her lip. There were a thousand things she could ask, questions about the organization she’d no doubt wish she had asked before her life was over. But the most important thing was the man in her arms. Her Kade. Her vampire.
“What do you think will happen to him?” she asked again, softer.
Thaddeus studied her face a long while, then sighed. “It’s hard to say. As my colleagues and I were discussing, we don’t know how many vampires were killed by Drake du Coudray.” He frowned, lowering his voice. “Our job is an unpleasant one, but it is necessary. Many, such as du Coudray, resent the rules we have put in place. To feed upon another vampire is forbidden, as drinking the blood of our own kind gives us access to their strength. The more powerful we become, the more dangerous we are to mortals. And unfortunately, your kind has a great deal to fear from us.”
