Lazarus went on as if Marco hadn’t spoken. “You once told me that you would give anything to be cured. Now we can work together to make that happen.”
Maybe I’d felt that way in the early nights, when I’d been filled with hopelessness and confusion and found it very difficult to adjust. But now? Now that would mean giving up the one thing I wanted more than anything. In which case… “Fuck. You.” I distantly noted that a whirl of energy had built behind me, and I knew the portal had re-opened.
His jaw hardened. “You want this as much as I do.”
He was wrong. “What I want is very simple. I want to be with Butch.”
“If you are thinking that he or anyone else from the legion will save you, prepare to be disappointed. Their gifts will not get them passed my force-field, and my vampires will prevent them from trying.”
Well that explained the weird energy I could feel in the air.
“Imani, come with us.” Eleanor’s voice was soft, desperate. “Please?”
I snarled at who I’d considered a friend. I supposed I should have expected her betrayal—people with perfect teeth couldn’t be trusted. “Fuck. You. Too.” She made the slightest move toward me, so I reached into her mind and flicked her blood-bond to her Sire—the warning wouldn’t have hurt her because my psychic hand was weak as all shit, but it made her halt with a hiss. “You weren’t Turned against your will. You wanted this life.”
“Because I was stupid,” said Eleanor, bitterness in every syllable. “Ignorant. Blind. Too scared to grow old, too frightened of death. I made a mistake, and I’m tired of paying for it. I want to be human again. Your blood can give me back my life.”
“You see, Imani, this is about more than just you,” said Lazarus. “It’s about more than just me. Your blood can help so many people.”
“You expect me to go with you? Seriously?” He was high.
“I understand that you feel I have betrayed you and that you are hurting. But you are a good person, Imani. You will quickly come to see the wisdom behind what I have done; you will understand that this was necessary.”
Oh he was fucking special. I felt my upper lip curl. “You don’t even see it, do you?” I hit him with a truth that I knew would be like a bullet to the chest. “You’re just like Marco and the vampire who Turned you.”
Every muscle in his body seemed to tense. “That is not true.”
“You did this to me without my consent. You didn’t think of the impact it would have on my life. You didn’t care about the pain it would put me through. You were only thinking about what you want. So yes, Lazarus, you’ve become what you loathe. And I wouldn’t go anywhere with you even if I wanted to. What I want is to stay with Butch.”
“I cannot allow that, Imani.” Lazarus made a hand gesture to the vampires at his side, and their eyes zeroed in on me as they went to move. Marco reached back and shoved me hard, knocking me off my feet and right into the fucking portal.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
(Butch)
“Butch, this is going to really hurt.” Jared yanked the spike out of my chest. I grunted through my teeth because, yeah, it hurt like a motherfucker—especially since my skin had started to heal around the spike.
One of the damn dragons had brought his tail down hard on my chest. I wasn’t sure whether the spike came off by accident or not, but it had pinned me to the fucking ground. I’d been stuck there as the shield fell, the dragons tried to flee, and the smoke cleared.
Jared had teleported to me with Paige seconds ago, and she was now healing my gaping wound. I’d lost a lot of blood and I was woozy as hell, but I didn’t care. Didn’t care about anything except one thing. “Where’s Imani?”
Jaw hard, Jared sighed. “I don’t know. Well, I have a general idea of where she is, but—”
“What does that mean?” I growled, unease slithering through me. “And why can I hear bullets being fired? What the hell is happening?”
“About ten seconds ago—which was roughly a minute after a small army of vampires appeared and started attacking us—Imani sent me a message to tell me to find you, but she didn’t respond to my reply.”
Healed, I jumped to my feet. Jared and Paige did the same. “Go to Imani,” I urged impatiently.
“Tried that.”
“And?”
“And something bounced me right back to where I teleported from.”
“What the fuck?”
“She told me you were hurt and that she was watching Lazarus and Marco having a standoff,” Jared explained. “I’m thinking that one of them is here to hurt her and the other is here to protect her.”
I suddenly recalled Marco’s words…Good people do bad things sometimes. I cursed. “Lazarus came for her. He’s who we should have had locked up.” And I was going to kill him, and I was going to enjoy watching him suffer. I drew in a slow, steady breath, needing to keep calm and think.
Jared nodded. “That would be my guess. The vampires who’ve arrived all have guns and little badges that have a familiar insignia. That tells me that they and Lazarus are part of The Order. It wouldn’t surprise me if the bastard is Beau Irons.”
“The armed vamps have formed some kind of wall,” began Paige, “so Imani must be somewhere behind it, right?”
“I’d say so,” replied Jared. “Sam’s on the front line with the rest of the two squads. Whenever anyone gets close, The Order starts firing to pin them in place.”
Like the night hadn’t been hard enough until that point. “Why can’t you teleport to Imani?”
“There’s some kind of force-field around her that’s repelling psychic energy,” replied Jared. “It’s obviously a vampiric gift. It’s like your shield in that it deflects whatever power comes at it. But the force-field isn’t solid.”
“So we could walk through it, but not get through it using any kind of preternatural force,” I mused.
“Yes,” said Jared. “That’s why my telepathic messages aren’t getting through to her.”
“If she managed to get a message to you, the force-field doesn’t contain psychic energy and prevent it from escaping; it only deflects it,” I reasoned. “That means if we get through it, we can use our gifts once we’re inside it. We just can’t use them to get inside.”
Jared swore as more bullets rang through the air. “Getting to her will be hard while we have a wall of vampires in the way. It wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t standing inside the force-field. Our gifts can’t touch them, but theirs can hit us. With gifts and guns, they’re doubly armed.”
Paige’s mouth had a cruel curve to it. “Which will make them double the fun to kill.”
Jared smiled. “There’s always a bright side.” He teleported us to Sam and the two squads, who were all taking cover behind trees that approximately ten feet away from The Order.
It was an impressive wall of defence; their arsenal of bullets, grenades, fire balls, and flaming arrows did its job well. I frowned at Sam. “You’re not fighting.”
Her scowl cut to me, her mercury irises glowing as she grumbled, “I have to take a break while my system recharges.”
“She used up most of her energy on maintaining the shield and then attacking the dragons,” said Jared, a supportive hand on her back.
Max turned to me. “We’ve attacked that force-field in every way we can think of. Nothing is getting through that fucker, and nothing is taking it down.”
“I can get through it,” I said, my voice so carefully controlled that I doubted anyone would sense the turmoil racking my entire system. “I’ll use my shield to protect me while I make a run for it.”
Max’s brows lifted. “That could work. They won’t be expecting someone to charge their way. It will take them off-guard.”
Sam spoke. “You would have to lower your shield to get inside, Butch. The force-field would repel it.”
I nodded. “I’ll slam it back up once I’m through. I can do this, Coach. I’m damn fast. By the time they see me coming,
I’ll already be inside.”
Paige put her hand on my arm, her eyes swirling with a soul-eating anxiety I could relate to. “Take me with you. You can extend your shield around both of us; you do it for David all the time.”
“You’re not as fast as me, Paige, and we both know it.” It was an insensitive comment but it was true. “I need to move quickly, I can’t afford to go slower just so someone else can keep up.”
“He’s right,” sighed Max, which made Paige snarl at him.
“I’ll tell Damien to distract those bastards,” said Jared. I guessed he’d telepathically order Damien to run at them in his astral form, since it was a technique we had used before. “When I say go, run.”
“Make sure you bring Imani back safe, you get me?” Paige fairly growled.
Jared turned to me. “All right, go!”
Pulling my shield around me, I bolted at vampire momentum out of the trees and toward the wall of vampires. As I came up against the buzz of energy that had to be the force-field, I dropped my shield, ran straight through it, and instantly slammed it back up to knock down the vampire in front of me.
In a millisecond my brain absorbed the situation; Marco and Lazarus facing one another, vampires gathered either side of them…and Imani in mid-air, falling into a portal.
Fuck.
Heart in my throat, I lowered my shield, reached out, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her to safety before slamming my shield back up to protect us both. Taking her inside me with every one of my senses, I shoved back the fear that had come close to choking me. The sour taste of it still sat on my tongue.
“Don’t shoot!” Lazarus yelled at his vampires, but his eyes were locked on me as I held Imani close, keeping my back to the portal. Everyone had frozen in place, most likely shocked by my sudden arrival.
Almost everyone. Marco threw me a glare over his shoulder. “Where the fuck have you been? Didn’t I tell you to keep her safe?”
Yeah, and I didn’t fucking like that he’d been the one to rush to her rescue. Or that he seemed to think we were some kind of team. But my anger wasn’t focused on him right then. Keeping my arm tight around Imani, her back pressed against my front, I glowered at Lazarus. “It was you. You did this to Imani, and you caused this war tonight.” Caused the pain and the deaths. “You’re Beau Irons.”
Lazarus sniffed and flicked his hand, dismissive. “You cannot understand our cause, so I will not bother explaining it to you.”
“I understand that you betrayed Imani and used her as a lab rat,” I spat. “I understand that she didn’t do a single thing to deserve any of what you’ve done. And I understand that I won’t be happy until you’re a pile of ashes at my feet.”
“A pile of ashes?” echoed Imani, a bloodthirsty smile in her voice. “That sounds awesome.” It did.
“Take her through the portal!” Marco told me.
I blinked. “Are you fucking insane?”
“It will take you both to The Hollow. Get her away from here.”
Call me strange, but I wasn’t going to trust a word that asshole said.
“No, Imani, you must come with us,” said Lazarus. “You hold all the answers.”
“He thinks I’m half-human and he can use my blood to create a cure,” she explained to me. “In other words, he’s warped.”
I whispered into her ear, “Who created the force-field?”
“Lazarus,” she quietly replied.
“We need it down, baby.”
“I know, but my gift has been overused tonight.”
“You don’t need your psychic hand for this.”
Lazarus again spoke to Imani. “If you agree to come with us, I will tell my vampires to stand down. We will leave here, and all those left alive can return to The Hollow.”
I snickered. He couldn’t honestly expect us to believe that. “You want them all dead. You want our whole race dead.”
“I want a cure more.”
“But not enough to perform any tests on yourself, right?” I needed to keep him talking; to distract him while Imani worked. “You have all these vampires willing to die for you and your cause. But you’ve never been willing to do that for them.”
He held his arms out wide. “Without me alive and leading them, there would be no one to ensure the survival and success of our cause.”
Noticing Eleanor, I snarled. “You betrayed her too.”
She licked her lips, her eyes sad. “I didn’t know that Lazarus planned to use her like this.”
“I could not tell you, Eleanor, because I could not risk that you would try to stop me,” Lazarus told her. “But now that you see it worked, you can understand.” He turned back to me. “I knew Imani would survive it.”
“You didn’t know anything,” Marco said through gritted teeth. “You risked her life.”
Lazarus tilted his head. “You really do care for her, don’t you, Marco? I thought so, but I was never entirely sure. You are very manipulative, after all. But I see it now.”
Marco’s fists clenched. “She’s good.”
“She is,” Lazarus agreed. “She’s good through and through. But that did not stop you from taking her human life from her, did it? As I see it, you are in no position to judge me.”
“Yeah? Well I…” Trailing off, Marco grimaced. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Eleanor stepped forward to take a look. “There’s blood coming out of your ears too.”
The vein in Lazarus’ temple pulsed and more blood flowed from his nose. His gaze darted around before coming to rest on me. “Whatever you are doing, stop!”
“That’s not me calling your blood,” I told him. “That’s Imani. You didn’t make her half-human, Lazarus. Not even close.”
He shook his head in denial.
“Look at her irises. She didn’t partly heal. She just evolved, and her abilities evolved right along with her.” I didn’t bother explaining it any further—no way would I feed his hungry scientific mind.
Blood trickled out of the corners of his mouth. “Stop, Imani.” But she didn’t. “Do not make me kill you.”
I growled. “As if I’d let that happen. You wouldn’t see your lab rat dead anyway—not after all you’ve done to get this far.”
He winced, putting a hand to his head. More blood gushed out of his nose. “Shoot her, but do not shoot to kill,” he told his vampires.
“No!” screamed Eleanor. But no one listened. Bullets zoomed our way…and each one crashed into my shield and fell to the ground.
Marco smirked at Lazarus. “Didn’t you know that was his gift? Or did you just forget?”
Sneering at him, Lazarus opened his mouth to speak. Instead, he let out a cry of agony as his face reddened and the veins in his head looked close to popping. The force-field flickered.
My heart jumped in my chest. “Keep going, baby.”
It flickered again. And again. And again. Then it fell. I smiled.
Four things abruptly happened at once.
I heard vampires crying out as energy balls, lightning bolts, lethal darts, a jaguar, and psychic attacks slammed into them.
Marco lunged at Lazarus, moving too fast for Eleanor or the males flanking the Master Vampire to act.
Marco’s vampires launched themselves at Lazarus’ group, snatching the guns and crushing the weapons before attacking the group.
Imani’s knees buckled a moment before she passed out in my arms.
Cursing, I scooped her up and held her tight as mayhem ensued for a second time that night. She was pale, even for a vampire. And I knew she’d be seriously pissed when she woke up to realise that she’d lost consciousness.
Paige rushed to us and slapped a hand on my shield. “Drop it.”
I did. “There’s nothing to heal. She just exhausted herself.”
Slipping two hands underneath Imani, she said, “I’ve got her; get to Lazarus before he has someone teleport his ass out of here.”
Shaking my head, I tightened my grip on Imani. I badl
y wanted to get my hands on that motherfucker but… “Lazarus won’t be the only one here convinced that she can help create a cure. Others might try to take her.”
“They’d have to get through us,” announced Ava as she and the rest of her squad—including Maya in her jaguar form—appeared.
At Paige’s signal, the females all formed a protective circle around us. “Go, we’ll protect her. You’re needed over there.”
She was right. Only a few vampires were left standing—one of whom could be the teleporter—and Lazarus was slicing at Marco with a glimmering blade that seemed to be sucking the life-force out of him. Fuck.
“Listen to me a sec,” said Paige. Her next words tumbled out of her in a rush. “I know you want to beat the fuck out of Lazarus but don’t make this into a fight. Marco’s his vampire, so the moment he kills him their blood-bond will break and Lazarus will be in so much agony he’ll be vulnerable. He’ll have someone teleport him away before anyone can leap on that vulnerability. Your attack has to be quick and fatal. You’ll have sheer milliseconds to make that happen. You’re the fastest of all of us; you can do this.”
Again, she was right. My grip flexed on Imani. “I’m trusting you with her.”
Paige inclined her head. “Go!”
Relinquishing Imani, I turned…just in time to watch Marco drop to his knees, speared by a long spiral blade. He was laughing.
Pulling out the blade, Lazarus huffed at him. “Only you would laugh as you lay on death’s door.”
Well, the guy didn’t feel pain and he was mostly insane, so...
“I did what I came here to do. I saved Imani from you.” Marco shot to his feet and blurred to my side.
I instinctively brought up my shield, but what I saw in his eyes told me this wasn’t an attack. I lowered the shield, certain I could take the fucker if he was playing me.
“He needs to suffer.” Marco slapped something into my hand. “An eye for an eye, right?” Curling my fist around the object, I nodded. He looked at an unconscious Imani. “Take care, sweetheart.” His legs failed him again, and he collapsed on his back, but he wasn’t yet dead.
“Butch!”