CHAPTER 20
Julian kept hold of the remaining pieces of glass as he knocked them out of the already broken window. He dropped the glass silently onto the floor inside the building before noiselessly slipping inside. He had no idea where the vampire who had shot up the bar had gone. He could have continued to follow him, but his attention had been drawn to this building by the overwhelming stench of decay, and the presence of even more vampires.
He’d find the one who had fled the bar eventually, he would definitely pay for what he’d done tonight, but he couldn’t ignore the nest of vampires here. A nest he was certain the vampire he’d been chasing belonged to, but he’d purposely gone in a different direction. The vampire hadn’t realized Julian wouldn’t be so easily lost or led off the real trail.
Turning back, he took hold of Quinn’s hand and helped her inside. He didn’t like the idea of her in here with him, would have preferred to keep her far away from this, but that would have been impossible. It was better to have her with him while entering the building then to have her sneak in later.
She bent over and pulled two stakes from her boots. She handed one out to him, but he waved it away. ‘Keep it,’ he mouthed to her.
She shook her head and shoved it into his hand. Before he could protest further she tugged a knife free of a holster on her waist. He’d known she was armed at all times, but he hadn’t realized she was a walking death trap as she shoved the knife into his hand and pulled another one free.
Her eyes were the color of amber when they met his again; they brought to mind a hawk’s eyes when it honed in on its prey. He hesitated, his gaze slid back to the window as he briefly contemplated dragging her back outside and far away from this place.
The vampires in this place may not be old, but they were still volatile and lethal, especially to her. She jerked her head forward and jutted her chin out. She would never agree to leave here without a fight. Julian turned away from her and focused on the cavernous room they’d entered.
The expansive space took up the entire second floor of the building. Heavy cobwebs hung from the rafters above their heads, their feet left prints in the thick dust as they crossed the floor with care. At least half a dozen five-foot tall mannequins of torsos were shoved into the shadowed corners of the room. Some had sheets draped over top of them, but the sheets had fallen off of others and were a dusty heap pooled upon the ground.
He didn’t pay any attention to the floor squeaking beneath him. The rats he heard in the walls and scurrying through the shadows were more than enough to cover a noisy floorboard or two. At the end of the room was a single wooden board running from the wall to the set of stairs winding down to the first floor. Light flooded up from below, it bounced off of the dark ceiling beams and illuminated the first five feet of the loft area they stood in.
Voices reverberated through the room. A low moan sounded; he could hear the solid thwack of a boot connecting with someone’s ribs. Something cracked, a squeal sounded from below and then the hollow thuds stopped. Small mewls and whimpers continued, but the beating had ceased, for now.
“What is his problem? Why did he flip out like that?” a voice demanded from below.
“I don’t know,” someone else answered.
Bending down, Julian crept forward the last few feet, and held his arm back to keep Quinn at a safe distance away. He peered over the edge of the loft at the eight men gathered below. One of the men was curled up in the fetal position on the floor. The pitiful noises were coming from him as he kept one hand clasped against his caved in cheekbone, and the other against his concave chest.
“Kill me,” the pitiful, bloodied and broken vampire moaned. “Please, just kill me.”
“Shut up,” one of the others said and spat at the writhing man.
Julian’s lip curled in revulsion as his gaze drifted away from the pathetic excuse of a vampire lying on the floor. Before he’d looked over, he’d already known what to expect as the stench of rotting flesh and coppery blood filled his nostrils. The spectacle of the piled bodies below was enough to make even his stomach turn.
He rested his hand against the railing and wrapped his other hand around Quinn’s arm in order to hold her back. It would be impossible to keep this from her, but he’d like to be able to do so for a little bit longer.
There were at least a couple dozen bodies of women and children lying in a heap near the back of the building. These vampires were the worst form of life. They killed innocents, and slept and lived with the remains of their food. Animals had more care for their environment and conditions than this.
He was going to enjoy killing these bastards.
Bloodlust built within him, excitement pulsed through his body; his fangs tingled as his body swelled with power. Quinn’s hand wrapped around his bicep drawing his attention back to her. She crept closer to him and rested her hand on his cheek.
She affected him in some strange ways, but he wasn’t prepared for the sense of calm that slid through his body at her touch. He placed his hand over top of hers and turned his lips into her palm. She tried to take a step closer to the edge; he kept her back and shook his head no.
‘Not yet,’ he mouthed against her palm.
Her eyes flickered toward the lower room, but she didn’t try to fight him on it. From below the sounds of more blows falling upon the flesh and bone of someone drifted up to them. He leaned over to see three of them beating the one on the floor again. With the way they were going, they were going to kill him before Julian had to worry that he and Quinn were outnumbered four to one.
Julian pulled Quinn back when the front door opened and moonlight briefly spilled inside the building. Thick leather boots resounded on the wooden floor as the vampire he’d been chasing strolled inside with a cocky grin on his face. His long brown hair stood up in spikes on top of his head. Julian’s fingers flexed on his free hand, as he imagined driving his fist into the smirk on this guy’s face.
“Where have you been?” one of the others inquired.
“I decided to pay our friends a little visit,” the shooter replied.
A man who had been hanging back, watching the others beat on the broken vampire on the floor, held up his hand to halt the others. They reluctantly stepped away from the now unmoving form curled into a ball.
“What?” the man who had halted them barked.
The shooter shrugged and ran his hand through his hair. “It will make them think twice about snooping around again.”
“Are you out of your mind?” The man strode across the open floor toward the shooter. The shooter’s eyes darted nervously toward the others, but they all stayed where they were. Julian focused on the one approaching the shooter; the one he assumed was their leader. “Who gave you permission to do that?”
The shooter took another step back. “We can’t continue to hide from them, I thought…”
“No one said you could think!” The bellowed words reverberated through the rafters of the building and shook the walls. “You just poked at a nest of rattlers.”
“They’re only two vampires,” the shooter stammered as he began to back peddle faster.
“I told you last night, after you sent the child, to leave them alone! I won’t tell you again!”
The crunching sound of a punch hitting shooter’s cheekbone echoed through the building. He felt the small flinch that ran through Quinn’s body. She was tough, she’d been through a lot, but she didn’t have this level of viciousness and cruelty within her. He pulled her closer against his side in the hopes his touch would be able to pacify her as much as hers did him.
The piercing snap of a bone cracking was followed by a squeal that reminded him of a frightened pig. The shooter hit the floor with a loud thump. His going down didn’t stop the other vampire from continuing to pummel him.
He knew he could take them out, but he worried about Quinn. She would never agree to stay up here and out of danger. The others would be arriving soon, he could always wait for them but he’d n
ever been one to wait, or require help. He’d also never had anything worth waiting around for. He squeezed Quinn’s hand reassuringly again.
The shooter lay unmoving upon the ground; blood seeped out around him and covered the one who had been beating upon him, but Julian knew he wasn’t dead. Kneeling down, the one who had been beating on the shooter removed a knife from the holster at his side. Julian pulled Quinn further back; he shot her a silencing look when she started to protest. She didn’t need to see the man having his head methodically sawed off.
When he finished separating the head from the body, the vampire Julian assumed was the leader of the group holstered his knife, rose to his feet and kicked the head carelessly aside. It rolled across the floor before knocking up against the wall. “We’re going to have to go and finish what this moron started.”
“But you said we should stay away from them, Drew,” one of the others protested.
“That was before this idiot,” he punctuated the word with a severe kick to, “idiot’s,” headless body on the ground. “Went and declared war on a vampire that’s easily a hundred years older than us.”
Julian scoffed at their deadly wrong assumption that he was only a hundred years older than they were. They had absolutely no idea what they were dealing with, which only led to his growing belief that the oldest amongst them was at most a hundred.
The Elders had needed to be destroyed, but jackasses like these guys were the bad side of having the hierarchy of vampires removed. Even if The Elders had mostly faded away into oblivion after The Slaughter, the knowledge of their existence had been enough to keep vampires like these assholes from stepping out of line.
They’d spent the past two years concentrating on trying to gather the straggling remainders of the Hunter and Guardian lines together, but he realized now they’d made a big mistake by ignoring the vampires still out there.
They’d given little consideration to the younger and therefore less of a hazard, vampires. Vampires like these were a big menace to society and their way of life, if they believed it was remotely ok to start shooting up human establishments and attacking other vampires in public.
“Let’s go,” Drew commanded.
Those words made his decision for him, he couldn’t allow them to leave this building.
Turning toward Quinn, he tugged her up against him so he could whisper in her ear. “I’m going down there. Wait here until I tell you differently.” He could see the argument building in her eyes as they shimmered with defiance. “The two of us in here, without them knowing is our biggest element of surprise right now. If we don’t go down there together, they might assume I left you behind when I chased our attacker. Just wait.”
Her eyes narrowed on him, he had no doubt she wouldn’t wait for long; he could only hope he’d be able to take out a couple of them before she followed. He wrapped his hand around the rail and gave it a forceful tug. Dust fell down from it, but it held up beneath his jerk. Switching both of his weapons into his left hand, he seized the board with his right and climbed onto it. He remained crouched on it for a second before launching himself over top of the stairs and out over the first floor.
Air rushed up around him, it whipped his hair back from his face and beat at his clothes as he fell from the sky. He didn’t make a sound as he landed in the center of the building with his knees bent to absorb the impact. His left hand rested on the floor, the knife and stake pressed firmly into his palm as he met the startled eyes of the men surrounding him.
He remained crouched as he stared at the men. Three of them glanced wildly toward the front door. “I’ll rip your head off before you make it ten steps,” Julian promised them.
“Hey now,” Drew’s tone of voice made Julian’s fingers curl into the wooden floor as his upper lip curved into a sneer. “We’re all the same kind here; we’re all friends.”
“You may be vampires, but you’re not my kind, and we are not friends.”
They exchanged uneasy looks, but none of them made a move. His gaze flickered over all of them as he waited for the telltale niggle at the base of his skull that would alert him to who he was searching for.
And then he felt it, the distinct sensation of something trying to wiggle its way into his mind like a worm slithering into the earth. His nostrils flared, his head turned to take in the one he sought. His eyes settled on the disheveled man across from him. He looked no older than twenty, his collarbones stuck out from his torn shirt and there was enough dirt on his face to give Pig-Pen a run for his money.
The boy’s eyes were focused on Julian, the niggling at the back of his skull intensified. Julian held his gaze as he broke into a slow smile and gave the kid a wink. The boy did a double take, his forehead creased in confusion before he took a step back. With a burst of speed, Julian sped toward him, grabbed him by the neck and drove him into the floor. A startled cry escaped the boy; his fingers tore at Julian’s hand.
“Don’t poke at those whose minds are far older than yours,” Julian snarled before driving the stake into the boy’s chest.
The boy convulsed beneath him; his fingers clawed at the stake before he went limp. Julian jerked it free and spun to face the other six as they started toward him. Though he hadn’t given the signal, Quinn leapt onto the railing of the loft and swung out to grab hold of a beam over her head. He’d been hoping to take more down before she decided to disobey him, but his biggest concern of taking out the one with mind control had at least been accomplished.
Quinn swung across to another beam while the others charged at him. Julian braced himself for their rush as she began to fall from the sky. The impact of her weight falling onto one of the vampire’s backs knocked him down; his face pressed into the ground as she raised her stake above her head and drove it through his back. Two of the others split off to go at her while the other three continued to hone in on him.
Unwilling to lose sight of her, Julian stepped to the side. The men circled with him, but the other ones continued their rush at Quinn. The knife she whipped through the air buried itself to the hilt in the throat of one of the men running toward her. Blood burst from his neck; his hands scrabbled at the knife as he fell away from her.
Quinn spun to the side and swung her arm out as the other vampire tried to attack her. She drove the stake in her hand deeply into his chest and ducked the arm swinging toward her that would have knocked her over. Placing her foot against his hip, she pulled her stake free as she shoved the man remorselessly away from her.
One of the men who had been stalking him spun toward her. Julian leapt forward, and seizing hold of his head, jerked it harshly to the side. The breaking bone resonated through the building. Julian didn’t stop until he’d wrenched the head completely around and tore it from the man’s body. Dropping the head on the ground, he took out his knife and whipped it at another vampire rushing at Quinn. The knife plunging into the man’s back did nothing to stop his momentum toward her.
The vamp’s hands wrapped around her upper arms, but even as they did, her hands encircled his forearms. The man’s mouth dropped; he jerked as he tried to break free of her grasp, but she continued to cling to him. Before his eyes, the man began to wrinkle like a prune left out in the sun. Quinn shuddered; she didn’t let go of him as she absorbed more of his life force.
Drew and his cohorts’ mouths dropped. Before they could spin to get away, Julian grabbed the one who still had the knife in his throat by his shirt and jerked him backward. He thrust his fist into the vampire’s chest, breaking through flesh and bone to wrap his hand around the non-beating heart within.
He met the startled eyes of the vampire across from him before he wrenched vehemently backward, taking the heart with him. Dropping it to the ground, he crushed the heart beneath his foot and spun toward Drew.
The man Quinn had been holding fell in a heap upon the ground. Quinn gasped; her hand flew to her mouth as another shudder ran through her. Distracted by the life force racing through her, she didn??
?t have enough time to get out of the way as Drew dove at her. His arms wrapped around her waist, a startled cry escaped her when they crashed to the floor and bounced across its hard surface.
Panic tore through him as he raced across the floor toward them. Drew didn’t appear to be at all thrown off by what she’d done to his friend as he scrambled to get a firm purchase of her.
Recovering from the influx of life she’d sucked from the other vampire, Quinn released a rapid fire of blows into Drew’s face. His nose and cheek caved from the force of her fists, but it didn’t knock him free.
Grabbing hold of her hair, he lifted her head up and smashed it into the floor. A bellow of fury tore from Julian when the scent of Quinn’s blood permeated the air. Her fingers tore chunks of skin away from Drew’s face as he lifted her head and bashed it into the floor again. A cry escaped her; she briefly lost her purchase on his face. It was all Drew needed to strike at her.
Red suffused Julian’s vision when Drew’s teeth sank into her neck, and a scream of agony erupted from her. Her hands flattened against Drew’s chest; Drew’s body began to twitch and shake. There wasn’t enough power left in her to kill Drew, or knock him free though. Drew’s throat worked as he eagerly swallowed her blood.
It felt like an eternity had passed since her fight with Drew started, but it was only seconds before Julian snatched hold of his neck and jerked him backward. With a mighty heave, he flipped Drew over his shoulder and sent him flying across the room.
He crashed into the back wall with enough force to shake the building. Dust and debris rained down from the rotting and sagging ceiling, the decaying building gave a low groan but held firm. Drew slid down the wall to land on his head. Julian’s muscles rippled as his lips skimmed back to reveal his fangs.
Quinn scrambled to her feet behind him. Her skin was whiter than normal, but she was steady on her feet. “Are you ok?” he demanded.
“Yes.” She wiped the blood away from the already healing tears in her neck.
Julian stalked forward as Drew started to get his bearings. Before he could get back to his feet, Julian flew at him, lifted him up and slammed him into the wall again. His lips twisted into a leering grin, his hand traced over Drew’s chest and stopped over his heart. Drew squirmed within his grasp; his feet kicked against the wall.
“I am far more than a hundred years older than you,” Julian murmured as he began to push his hand leisurely into Drew’s chest. Drew’s mouth dropped, strangled sounds escaped him as his ribcage began to cave in. His hands tore and beat at Julian’s arm, but he barely felt any of it. “That was your first mistake. Your second mistake was touching her.” Drew’s cries became more fervent, his legs kicked rapidly against the wall as Julian mercilessly inched his hand forward at an excruciatingly slow pace. “Your biggest mistake was harming her.”
Drew’s ribs gave way completely, leaving the tender flesh of his heart exposed. Julian smiled grimly at him; his hand encircled Drew’s heart and he gave a gentle tug. There was no color left in Drew’s face; his mouth opened and closed as rapidly as a baby bird’s looking for food.
Julian leaned closer to him and gave another subtle tug on the heart; coldness engulfed his body as he continued to toy with Drew. This was the part of himself he’d been trying to keep under control for the past two years. This awful, merciless piece of himself that relished in the thrill of death and missed the torment he’d once gleefully handed out.
There was no burying it again now. Now it had been set free to do as it pleased. He relished in the freedom that came with finally allowing this sinister piece of himself to rule again. Drew’s eyes rolled back in his head as Julian crushed his heart within his chest and tore it free. It hadn’t taken anywhere near as much time as he would have liked it to, but he wasn’t going to expose Quinn to anymore brutality than necessary. He callously dropped the heart on the floor and stared down at it.
Bracing himself for what he’d see from her; he turned guardedly toward her. He didn’t think he could stand it if she looked at him with disgust or fear. Lifting his head, he met her gaze. He’d expected to see revulsion in her eyes, but it wasn’t reflected there.
Instead, he saw an understanding and acceptance of what he was, what he could do. His skin felt alive, the thirst for more blood and death pulsed through him in waves he was certain were going to bury him. She hadn’t turned against him now, but if he returned to the vampire he’d been, she would. She was too good for that, too good for him.
Even still, all he craved was to touch her right now. He didn’t understand how he knew it, but she could calm him. She could ease this swamping feeling of barely controlled destruction pulsating through him.
He took a step toward her, but the low moan of the last beaten vampire on the floor drew his attention. Julian’s bloodlust notched up again. There was one more to be destroyed before he could go to her. The beaten vampire released a hysterical laugh as he stared at Quinn.
“What’s so funny?” Julian snarled.
He rapidly strode forward and stopped in front of the man on the ground. The man didn’t notice him as his eyes remained on Quinn. Julian knelt down and grabbed hold of the man’s chin, jerking it toward him. “What is so funny?”
The man still wouldn’t look at him. “Vampires have been looking all over for her… and I didn’t realize… it was Quinn,” he got out in between hitching bouts of laughter broken up by wracking waves of coughing. The blood pooling in the man’s mouth from his internal injuries sprayed outward and dribbled down his chin.
Julian turned toward Quinn; she looked as confused as he felt. Moving closer, she studied the filthy, bruised and swollen face of the man lying on the ground. Then, her forehead cleared and her mouth dropped.
“Seanix?” she gasped.
“I’m a little different now,” the man giggled.
“What happened to you?”
“I think that’s fairly obvious,” he said with another manic laugh. “The same as you.”
“When? How?”
“A couple of years ago. I was on a truck run in Alabama when I got jumped by a group of guys. I woke up later as this thing.”
Quinn’s hand pressed against her mouth as she gazed at the man in sorrow. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Chuckles rolled through Seanix, he wiped at his mouth but only succeeded in smearing blood from one side of his face to the other. His eyes flashed from red to brown and back again as tears began to roll down his cheeks. Julian almost thrust the disturbed man away from him, but he found even he couldn’t be so cruel to the pathetic vamp.
“I don’t think Seanix made it through the transition with his mind still completely intact.” Julian had already known Chris, Melissa, Zach, Lou and Luther had arrived before Chris had spoken.
He didn’t turn to look at them when he replied, “It happens sometimes, the trauma of it can destroy an already fragile mind.”
Seanix began to laugh louder, his arms wrapped around his belly as his laughter shook his slender frame and more blood sprayed from his mouth. Julian released his shirt and moved away in order to avoid the spray.
“I’d thought we’d missed all the fun,” Melissa said dryly as she stepped over a body. “But apparently this guy is a barrel of laughs.”
“Yeah.” Julian ran his fingers through his hair as he studied the man before him. It felt cruel to kill someone who so obviously wasn’t all there, but Seanix couldn’t be allowed to live either, not in this condition.
“If I’d known it was Quinn they were looking for I would have told them. They would have let me have Angie if I had!” Seanix burst out through his fits of laughter and sobbing.
Any sympathy Julian felt for the man vanished. His hand shot out and wrapped around his throat as he shoved him into the ground. “What do you mean by that?” he snarled.
His anger didn’t break through to Seanix as he continued to chuckle like a clown high on pot. “They wouldn’t let me have Angie, wouldn’t let me
turn her, wouldn’t let me near her. They told me lookie but no touchie. They said I was too young, they said I had to earn her, but they would bring her here, tease me with her, and let me know what I could have if I brought them people and helped them to find the vampire. The one of the prophecy. They wouldn’t let me touch Angie; they’d sit her there, just beyond my grasp, and then they would take her away again. Then, when they realized you were in town.” His eyes fell on Julian. “They said I couldn’t see her anymore. As awful as it was to have her here, it was far worse not to be able to see her.”
“Oh, Seanix,” Quinn breathed as she stepped forward and knelt at his side.
Julian went to grab her hand, afraid to let her anywhere near this man after what he’d just said, but she shot him a look and shook her head. Julian’s upper lip curled into a sneer; he kept his eyes focused on the man, ready to tear off his head if he so much as twitched in her direction. Ignoring the blood, Quinn rested her hand comfortingly on his cheek.
“I wouldn’t have wanted them to hurt you Quinn, but I missed her so much.” His laughter had completely vanished, now only sobs shook his slender frame. “I would have given anything to be able to touch her one more time. I loved her with everything I am.”
“Shh, I know,” Quinn said soothingly. “She loves you very much too. She’s missed you terribly over the years.”
“She would have stopped loving me if she ever remembered what they made her witness here. I would have done anything to get her away from them, even…”
“Turn me over if you’d known,” Quinn finished when he closed his eyes and curled into a tighter ball.
“Yes,” he moaned.
“Who is looking for me?”
“All of them are. All of the vampires believe you’re the key to taking their power back. They won’t stop. They will find you. No matter where you go, they won’t stop until they find you.”
A shiver of dread swept down Julian’s spine, he pressed closer to Quinn as his gaze shot over the building. Scully’s group and this group of vampires vanishing from this area wasn’t going to help keep her hidden, but then vampires were never known to stay in one area for long. Settling somewhere for too much time was a good way to get discovered and killed. If either group had been in contact with other vampires, outside of their tight nest, it was more than likely that neither group would be giving a daily update of their locations.
It would be best if he could talk her into leaving, but he doubted she would relent and he didn’t know where he would take her. Canada was out, as long as someone hunted her, he couldn’t take her there and risk putting the young Hunters and Guardians in jeopardy.
“Do they think I’m in this area of the country?” Quinn asked nervously.
“As far as I know they’re not sure where you are, exactly.” Quinn’s shoulders slumped; she rubbed Seanix’s arm reassuringly. “We came here a month ago; they discovered my only picture of Angie right before then, and thought it would be fun to meet her.”
Choking sobs wracked him. “Oh Angie,” he moaned. “I tried to convince them she meant nothing to me, but they knew I still loved her, and they made us both pay for that love.”
“Seanix…” Quinn whispered but the man continued to speak over her.
“The prophecy is spreading around the vampire community like wildfire. Whoever finds you is going to have a lot of power to force those to do their will. They’ll have a bargaining chip no one has had these past couple of years.”
Another reason why vampires had to be monitored more closely, Julian decided. He’d always hated the prophecies that traveled throughout the vampire community. Someone would have a vision, and some of the others amongst them would run with it until it was almost unrecognizable from its original spoken words, but the general gist would still be there. These prophecies, rare though they were, could get the vampires riled up and cause a lot of chaos.
There had been one issued by a fledgling Seer, four hundred years ago, who had proclaimed the humans would wipe out the vampire race within the year. Many vampires hadn’t believed it was possible, but the ones who did worked themselves into a frenzy and created turmoil amongst the community. They became more careless in their kills, more relentless in their pursuit of humans and in doing so they had threatened to expose all vampires.
The Elders had eventually managed to stamp it out and had killed the Seer who issued the prophecy. It had been doubtful she’d ever had the vision to begin with, and was believed she’d had a bone to pick with the human race.
Whoever had received this vision had seen enough to reveal at least part of Quinn’s ability, and the momentum behind the prophecy was growing amongst the community he’d excommunicated himself from. A community he may have to infiltrate again in order to keep Quinn safe.
He believed in what they’d been doing these past couple of years. However, they’d been more focused on trying to find more Hunters and Guardians and get them to safety so they could be trained. Instead of being trained to kill every vampire they came across like they had in the past, they were now learning to differentiate between those vampires who were killers and those who weren’t.
They’d mistakenly assumed this would be enough protection, but there weren’t enough Hunters and Guardians left in the world, and it would take more time for them to rebuild their population than it would for the vampires to rebuild theirs.
Someone had to put a stop to it; he just wasn’t sure how to go about doing so without getting them all killed.
“Do you know the exact wording of this prophecy?” Julian inquired in a gruff voice.
Seanix’s eyes rolled toward him; Julian saw the growing insanity within their depths. “A vampire, not born of vampire blood, will burn like the sun the life from anyone she touches. If used correctly, she will become our greatest ally, our savior.”
Quinn shuddered beside him. Julian rested his hand reassuringly on her arm, but he could still feel the tremors running through her. Seanix’s gaze fell to the body Quinn had sucked the life from. “He may not be a pile of ashes, but I’d say the life was burned from him.”
“They’re certain it’s a female?” Julian inquired.
“Yes,” Seanix answered.
“Shit!” he hissed.
“Shit is right,” Seanix said. “They’re a bunch of brutal bastards. It’s a stupid prophecy. How could you not be born of our blood, Quinn?” The maniacal laughter escaping him echoed through the spacious building and more blood spurted from his mouth.
“Seanix, please stop,” Quinn urged. “We’ll take you to see Angie, but you’ll have to be calmer when we do.”
Julian bristled over her words, his fangs pricked as he turned to look at her. This man couldn’t be allowed to live; he’d already stated he would do whatever it took to get to Angie, including handing Quinn over.
He would do whatever it took to keep Quinn safe, including killing Seanix, and if it made her mad at him then so be it.
“She’s dead, Quinn.” Julian froze at Seanix’s sober words. “They killed her.”
“No, she’s at the bar…” Quinn’s voice trailed off, her mouth parted as she seemed to realize that the gunfire could have easily pierced through the wall and into the bathroom. “She went in the bathroom.” She spun toward Julian. “She’s fine!”
Julian grabbed hold of her hand when her eyes took on the feral look of an animal backed into a corner. Red began to seep into her irises as tears pooled in her eyes. “Easy,” he coaxed as his fingers stroked over the back of her hand.
“No, she’s not fine,” Seanix murmured. “She’s dead. I felt it when she left me.”
“Seanix, I’m so sorry. We’ll get you out of here…”
“No,” he whispered. “There’s nothing left for me. Please don’t make me leave here, please don’t make me live anymore.”
“Seanix…”
“Angie was his mate, Quinn. They may not have had the chance to solidify the bond, but it was still there
,” Julian said kindly in realization. His hand wrapped more firmly around hers as he tried to make her understand. “The vampires here must have suspected something along those lines too and used it to torment him. There’s no life for him anymore, not without her.” A tear slid down her face as her head bowed.
“Let me go to sleep Quinn, please,” Seanix begged.
She brushed back a strand of his filthy brown hair and tucked it behind his ear. “She loved you so much, Seanix. She was lost without you.”
“I was lost without her too,” he murmured. Quinn tenderly wiped away the tears rolling down his face, cleaning it of the dirt caked to his cheeks. “I want to sleep.”
“You will,” she promised. Julian expected her to step away and leave him to deal with it. He moved forward, but she turned toward him instead. “Do you mind?” Confused by the question, he frowned at her. Then he looked at their entwined hands as she lifted them off the ground. “I don’t have enough energy left in me to do this on my own.”
His eyes flew back to hers. “You don’t have to do this. I’ll take care of it.”
“No, it should be me. I’m his friend. I owe him this, but I need your help to do it.”
“Whatever you need,” he answered honestly.
She brushed aside another strand of Seanix’s hair before resting her hand on his cheek. “If you don’t fight it won’t hurt.” Seanix nodded and curled into a ball. “Sleep now; you’ll see Angie again soon.”
A prickling began in Julian’s hand. It wasn’t unpleasant, but he could feel her drawing on his life force to pull the soul from Seanix. Seanix’s eyes closed, his mouth parted as a look of peace came over his face. “Tired,” he murmured.
“I know,” she whispered as her fingers slid over his cheek. “It’s almost over.”
A smile curved Seanix’s mouth making him appear almost childlike. The tingling sensation in Julian’s hand began to ease; warmth spread through his fingers and up his arm. He realized the life that had been taken from him was now being returned.
Seanix’s body didn’t shrivel up like the others, but he felt it when the life within the vampire slipped away. His power swelled within him as the force of Seanix’s life coursed through his veins charging him like liquid lightning. The force inside him made him stronger, but he couldn’t think about that as Quinn’s heartbroken gaze met his.
Leaning forward, he encircled his hand around her head and pulled her against his chest. No more tears spilled from her, but her arms wrapped around his back as she clung to him. The others shuffled out of the room while he rocked her back and forth within his arms. He didn’t care what he had to do, who he had to kill, he would do whatever it took to keep her safe, forever.