Seraphin grabbed and pulled me up the stairs. My senses were still normalizing from the shock of what I had just done. She practically dragged me along with her like a rag doll, up the staircase, never complaining. She had obviously done away with the other guard but I didn’t see where she had disposed of his body.
We found ourselves on another floor, almost identical to the one below, except this one had a banquet room and a restaurant with a long hall dissecting the place like two halves of an orange. I glanced around; these walls were solid except the doors separating each section were plate glass. Another circular hallway followed the line of windows that surrounded the disc like the floor below. Where was everyone? Where was my family?
Seraphin continued to pull me along as we entered the old dining area. She sat me on a chair and took my machete from my side. I let her, not thinking much of it. I don’t know why I let her, or why she did so, but her face was cold and serious. I hadn’t quite recovered. That is, until she clicked something cold onto my right wrist, making me look down to see that she had handcuffed me to the chair. I jerked my head back up to her as she backed away, out of my reach.
No! I trusted her. She killed members of her own hive for me, no, this isn’t making sense!
“Well done, Seraphin. You will be well-rewarded.” A deep baritone voice boomed across the room from around a wall. I turned to see who it belonged to but couldn’t find the owner. My nostrils flared as my anger seethed through me, glaring back at Seraphin. She was looking at me but not smiling, not sneering or anything for that matter. Her eyes were trying to say something. Or maybe I just wanted them to.
I wanted her to change her mind, let me go and get me the hell out of here. But why would I expect that from her now? Why had I trusted her at all? I was her competition now. Something told me that even though she had been paired off with another vampire, Rye was not so easily forgotten. I was sure of it. I groaned at my stupidity. I should have known. And Rye? How did he not know? Or Blaze? She had them all fooled.
“I apologize for the ruse. I don’t like to toy with people.” The baritone-voiced man stepped out from behind an area that had probably been an employee station to empty plates and refill drinks. His hair was a deep coppery mahogany, long and straight, tied at the nape of his neck. His features didn’t match the color of his hair. I almost expected freckles but found a slightly olive complexion. He had to have been a mix of several ethnicities but I couldn’t pinpoint which ones.
He stood tall, taller than me but not as tall as the warrior I had taken down at the foot of the stairs. His eyes gleamed back at me with strange colors; one eye was green and one was brown. That was a bit freaky in and of itself but the circles around each iris were not gold but a sickly bright orange-red, like rust.
“I’ve waited to meet you for a long time, April.” His velvet tone washed over me like a wave of sleep. No wonder he was the leader of this hive. He was another mutation of some sort of vampire. His telepathic powers pushed at my mind, fogging it up and making the room spin. I tried to shake it off, breathing in slowly and closing my eyes.
“Where’s my family?” I snapped at him. I felt clearer with the anger surging through me. I opened my eyes, narrowing them as I stared back at him. He seemed amused by my defiance. He waved Seraphin away and she complied, setting my sword on the floor and giving me a flighty glance before running out of the room and out of sight.
I’m going to kill her if I ever get out of this alive, I thought to myself.
“You have a fire about you that I like. Not like your mother or brother at all.” He tilted his head, eyeing me like a specimen about to be dissected. “I should have aimed to acquire you instead of them.” He rubbed his chin as he crossed his arms and seemed wave a thought away.
“No matter, I have you now.” He smiled, looking genuinely handsome except for the fangs that slipped out like two tusks. I looked away, seething at his smugness.
I peered down at the grenades I had on my bandoleers, hidden under the side of my jacket. My small knives had been used up and were long gone. Seraphin had known I had more weapons; why had she left them? She had just taken my machete away. But even then, she had left it behind, gleaming at me from a just few feet away. I wiggled in the chair, hoping it wasn’t bolted down. It was. Of course.
I watched him as he ranted on about my blood and that I would be the answer to the plague that now ravaged his hybrids and oh, by the way, his name was Christian. How appropriate, I thought. Apparently, his hive had been hit harder than Blaze’s. That would account for the swelled numbers of altered ferals they’d had to use to defend the fortress. Daylight left them vulnerable. We had attacked at the perfect moment, information that could have only come from Seraphin.
I was beginning to feel that I was just a pawn in this game, that I didn’t really know who was on which side anymore. I wondered if this man even knew that he had double agents in his hive. He must have known something was up by now. How much he suspected, I had no way to know.
“Look at me when I talk to you, mortal,” he spat at me, reaching out and roughly jerking my chin up. I grimaced as his fingers dug into my face and glaring into his peculiar eyes. It suddenly dawned on me that he was most likely sick. His eyes should have both been brown. The sickly green one was an effect of the plague. I knew he was desperate for a cure, I could feel it in his touch. The sickness inside him made my own stomach lurch as he radiated his suffering onto me.
What kept him from keeling over? My insides twisted from his touch. I didn’t give a damn about him, I wanted to spit in his face to let him know what I thought of him.
“Let them go and I’ll give you all the blood you need to find a cure. I can smell the rot in your breath; you won’t last very long without me. Let my family go and you might yet live to see another day–or night, in your case.” I snickered, feeling his rage growing like a metastasizing cancer across his features. His hardened snarls made his good looks vanish, turning him into a monstrous devil.
Christian stomped away, pacing in front of the covered windows, glaring out the slats to observe the city. He knew I was right. I could see his mind wrapping around the thought of possibly having a cure with me as his guinea pig. He was frustrated and what had kept him alive until now was apparently failing him. I bet he felt like crap under that powerful exterior. I couldn’t help but feel smug at pissing him off so. I wanted to laugh out loud at his weakness, so obvious once one observed him for more than a moment.
“I don’t have to let them go. I have you now. You are no match for me and I will take every drop of your blood and turn you into a dusty corpse, with or without your consent,” he hissed, walking around behind my chair.
I had other plans. My free hand had loosened a grenade and its pin. I held it in my left hand, the weaker of the two, but I was sure the vampire blood inside me would help me meet my mark. He was oblivious, for my back was toward him and he couldn’t see what I was up to. I had to do it before he approached me again. I was hoping the explosion would blow him through the windows.
I wondered briefly if the shrapnel would hit me. It was a risk I had to take. I figured that if I hunched behind the chair I was cuffed to, I might avoid serious injury. It was fortunate I had only been bound by one hand. I was also fortunate that it wasn’t an open-backed chair. I hoped it would be enough to keep me from the mess and shards that were sure to fling my way.
I whirled around and, dropping down onto one knee, flung the live grenade at the leader of the hive, hearing it clink on the shutters and glass of the windows.
“What the...?” was all I heard as I hunched down into a ball, my face pressed into the seat I had just been sitting in.
The explosion made the floor vibrate and shake in waves. Shards of glass and bits of metal and concrete scattered across the room. A cloud of dust particles enveloped me and reduced my visibility. I wasn’t sure if it had gotten him or not but the howl of wind and the sudden clearing of the air assured me that there was now a gaping ho
le in the side of the Stratosphere tower. My hair whipped around my face as I looked up from the protection of my arms, which I had wrapped around my head. As I moved, a fiery shot of pain jolted me back into stillness. My left leg and arm protested, making me gasp and bite my lip through the agony.
I peered down at my arm first and saw crimson blood trickle out of a rip in my shirt. My leg had suffered the same fate; a sharp fragment of glass was embedded in my thigh, drenching my pants around it with dark, warm fluid.
Shit!
I reached over and pulled the shard out of my arm, yelping at the searing jolt that came with it. I tossed the red glass to the ground, pushing on the cut with my hand. I needed to stop the bleeding now. I ripped the bottom of my shirt into strips and wrapped it around my arm, tightening it with my other arm and teeth. I pulled on the stupid handcuffs and chain that bound me to the chair. I would need to pull hard or get bolt cutters to get it off.
I had just finished tying a wrap to my leg when I realized I had forgotten about Christian. I looked up and over the chair, slowly pulling myself onto my good leg and peering about. He was on the floor, just in front of the gaping hole in the wall. His hair floated about him in whipping ropes of copper mahogany. He was lying face down and knocked out. His back was filled with multiple punctures that seeped with his icky crimson-green blood.
I yanked on the chain again, trying to squeeze my hand through the restraint. My skin rubbed raw into a nasty reddened, weepy sore. It probably would have hurt more but my leg and arm took precedence in that area. After a few minutes of gritting through my squirming to get the cuff off I sighed and sat back down on the chair, hoping someone else from our hive would make it up here soon to help me.
I jolted back from my resignation as I remembered the lock picks in my pocket. I fumbled to yank out the small rolled bag. I pulled out a couple pins but found it impossible to maneuver them with one hand. I dropped them to the floor, angry that they were as useless to me as paperclips.
I still hadn’t found my family and worst of all, I was trapped. Being possibly mortally wounded made my endurance start to wane. I needed more blood. I could feel my body weakening under the strain of the fighting and blood loss. Eyeing my machete on the floor in front of me, I longed to hold it in my hand. I doubted I’d be able to hack this chain off but I would feel a lot better if I was armed instead of being a sitting duck on a chair next to a crazed, sick hybrid vampire and a hole leading out to oblivion. This had not gone as planned.
I hung my head down, warm hot tears forming in my eyes, maybe from the cool winds that made me shiver for a moment and stung my eyes, maybe from the deep failure I felt at that moment. I didn’t know. I hated that my despair was bubbling up inside me. It was weak of me. I was stronger than that. I could kill hybrid vampires for goodness sake! I had hunted tribes of ferals that mucked up the city. I could do this and I would get out of here no matter what.
I was about to tug on the restraint one more time when Seraphin appeared before me, crouching and slipping the key easily into the lock. A muffled click sounded and I was free. I stared at her, not knowing exactly what to think or if she was going to finish me off. She gave me an assuring nod before a splash of her hot blood streaked across my face.
Christian was standing behind me and had caught her by surprise, slashing her across her neck and nearly decapitating her. She crumbled to the floor, writhing in pain, with her hand over the deep gash as her dark red blood gushed out from between her fingers. I jumped up and over her, diving for my machete.
I gripped the handle as I rolled painfully to my knees, attempting to stand onto my good leg. The pain screamed inside my torn muscles as I stood holding my machete at the ready. He could have killed me easily but he hadn’t. He needed me alive. He needed my blood to cure his vile disease that was slowly disintegrating his insides. His face was a pallid green now, no longer the healthy glow he’d had prior to the explosion. The blood loss had cost him; both his eyes flashed a deeper puke green at me, both filled with the putrid color now. He hissed and snarled as he crept forward, his wild expression hungry for blood. My blood.
“Stupid human. Now I will have to feed off your blood first. You dare try to kill me? I have lived through more attempts than you can imagine. A puny human like yourself is nothing to me. You are but a speck in my eye. I will outlive you and your precious family, I promise you that.” He was closer now, though his gait was unsteady, like he was still hung over with drink. I was certain I could take him, even with one arm and a leg functioning way under capacity.
“Just try it.” I gripped the hilt of my blade, making my knuckles gleam white as bone. I tried to focus on this beastly man heading in my direction, with murder swimming in his eyes, a thirst for blood and vengeance making him lick his fangs.
His face snarled as he started at me, his broad body flinging itself, more than anything else, in my direction. I steadied myself, ready to jump at just the right moment. Patience was my virtue; patience was never more important to me than now.
At the last moment, I knew it was time. I lunged to my left, bending somewhat as I held my blade to his abdomen and let his oversized knife cut the air in a whoosh right over my head. He missed but I did not. My blade sliced into his gut, letting a spill of blood and ichor tumble out as I slid across the ground. I ended up rolling as my wound caused my leg collapse beneath me, breaking my slide and sending a ferocious pain, like knives, up my leg, rendering it useless. I tumbled across the ground and landed near the edge of the gaping hole. The wind rushed over my head, screaming in my ears as my hair flew wild and loose from its ponytail, blinding me in its dance.
I winced as I rolled away from the precipice, dragging my unwilling limbs with me. I looked to where Christian lay in a lump, hunched over. His left arm cradled his gut as he used his knife to prop himself up a bit like a crutch. He was barely alive, yet the vampire in him kept him breathing. His wild look was gone and instead the serenity of a man accepting defeat washed over him, making him look slightly gaunt but handsome once more.
I kept crawling away; I had lost my machete out the gap of the blasted window. I was weaponless but I was sure I could steal his knife away from him if I wanted to.
“You know what, April?” His voice came out raspy and tense, as if his lungs could not bear the stress of speaking. I didn’t answer but continued my crawl across the floor, as far away from him as I could get. He watched me pensively, unmoving from his spot.
“I thought humans were all dead. I thought they were the weakest of us all.” He let out a gurgled cough, shooting out clots of greenish, crimson blood. When he was done spitting the mess out, he glanced back toward me. I was closer to the door than I was before his fit and kept dragging myself along. “But you aren’t the weakest. You’ll be the last of us to walk this earth. You’ll be all alone, with no one else, the fittest of the fit.” He hawked again, hunching over and falling to the ground, moaning in his agony. I wasn’t one to condone torture and I shuddered to watch him suffer.
To my shock, I heard footsteps running out in the corridor. I pressed my back against the wall, weaponless and hurt so badly I would be no match against anyone now. I grabbed a broken post of wood that lay beside me, still not willing to go down without a fight. I waited patiently as the trample of shoes spilled into the room. I dropped the wood when I saw none other than Blaze, Rye and a group from our own hive filling the room.
“April! You’re hurt!”
You think? My sarcasm was thankfully all in my head.
Rye collapsed next to me, pushing my loose hair away from my face. “You’re drenched in blood! Where are you hurt?” I smiled at him, relived to see his steel grey eyes.
“My arm and my leg on the–I can’t get up now.” I nodded down to the wraps on my arm and leg. He touched them, assessing how badly they were dripping.
“But your face and chest are covered in blood, where did he get you–your neck?” Rye’s panic made me give out a haughty laugh.
“No, it’s not mine. Seraphin got hit…she’s hurt bad.” I pointed to her crumpled body next to the chair. Blaze bent down to assess her but quickly glanced back up at me, shaking his head. His face tight and tense.
Rye gave a nod and turned back to me, the same hard look on his face as he took in the fact that his ex was dead. I would have to tell him her actions in the end, still not sure where she had stood but after it all, she had let me go. I was hoping that would be enough for me to forgive her betrayal.
“Rye, I don’t think I’m going to make it out of here. Promise me you’ll find my family.…” I gulped down the stone that now formed in my throat as the tears began flowing. The air was feeling colder as time went on and blood continued to course rapidly from my leg. I could feel a threatening darkness wanting to embrace me, take me deeper into its clutches.
“No! I won’t let you die. Here, you have lost too much blood and you need to drink. Go ahead, drink April. Now!” His voice was urgent as he pressed his wrist to his teeth and bit down, bringing his crimson life force to the surface. He brought it to my lips and I let him, clamping my mouth over the wounds. The silken drink flowed into my mouth, its warmth seeping deep into me as it went. It heated my core and brought me comfort, shoving the pain away from my broken body.
“That’s enough, Rye. Let me give her some, too.” Blaze came up to us and bit his wrist, pulling Rye’s arm away from my starving mouth, replacing it with his own. I felt immediately better and the darkness pulled away from my vision almost as quickly. My body felt tingly, renewed. When Blaze pulled away, I’d had my fill. I licked the last remnants of his blood off my lips, feeling the euphoria filling me up again and I relished it.
“Oh, wow.” Rye’s excited voice bounced in my ears and I turned to see what he was looking at. He had unwrapped my leg and the skin was a soft pink color, knitting together before my eyes. I shifted my eyes to my arm as Rye undid the tie on it and gasped to see the skin there healing as well. I smiled, amazed at the power surging through me.
“I’ve never seen any vampires do that,” Blaze offered, his voice solemn as he observed the wounds. In just moments, I felt good enough to stand up. Rye helped me into his arms but the pain was not completely gone. I gritted through it as I held onto him. He smiled calmly at me but I was far from ready to let my guard down. I still hadn’t found my family.
“Have you found them?” I asked quietly, hoping to hear something I wanted to hear. I waited but impatiently. I waited and fought the overwhelming urge to run out and continue to look for them.
“Yes.” Rye’s voice came out stiff, making me pull away from him to stare into his eyes. There was something he wasn’t saying underneath his answer. He looked reluctant to tell me, his eyes pained as he avoided my gaze.
“What is it Rye, tell me what happened!” I pulled and yanked at his shirt.
“They’re alive, April. Just barely, but they’re alive.
Chapter Twenty-Seven