“Why? What’s going on?”
“You know there are vampires here, don’t you?”
“Vampires?” she repeated, frowning hard. “Are you crazy or something?”
We didn’t have time for this. “Yeah, I’m crazy. Now let’s go.” I grabbed her arm, happy that she didn’t fight against me as I pulled her out of the room.
She looked over her shoulder at Declan. “He’s scary as hell, isn’t he?”
Despite everything, that almost made me grin. “He’s an adorable puppy dog compared to what’s downstairs. Come on.”
“Just keep climbing until we get to the surface,” Declan said. When we reached the stairwell again, Declan swung open the door. Before I had the chance to go through, pale hands grabbed the front of Declan’s shirt and dragged him over the threshold. The door closed behind him with a click.
I felt as though the breath had been completely knocked out of me.
“No!” I let go of the woman and grappled for the door, pushing it open so hard it bruised my hands.
I saw Declan fly backward, down a flight of stairs, and he hit the cement wall hard at the landing before tumbling down a couple more steps. Blood streamed down his forehead.
“Declan!” I screamed.
His pain-filled gaze locked on mine, and he must have seen the terror in my eyes. “Go, Jill! Take the woman and get out of here! Now!”
The vampire—no, there were two of them—drew closer to him. Normally, I had no doubt Declan could take them. But my blood had weakened him. He could fight for a while, but it wouldn’t be long before they tore him apart.
He wanted me to leave him, to save myself and the woman. And maybe I would have done just that—in a previous life.
I glared at the woman. “Stay right here. Don’t move.”
“What are you doing?”
“Whatever I have to.”
“Leave him. Let’s just go! He said we should!”
I shook my head. “He should know by now I rarely do what I’m told.”
There wasn’t any more time to explain, to figure out a plan, to think things through. I had only a few seconds to save Declan. And I had only one weapon at hand. The same weapon I always had at hand.
Myself.
I took the stairs two at a time until I landed between the vampires. Declan was down a few more steps, and he sent a fierce look my way. I noticed his leg was twisted in an awkward position, and a chill went down my spine. He’d broken it in the fall. It would heal just like the rest of him did—quickly. But that was only if he lived.
“What the fuck are you doing, Jill?” he snapped at me.
I didn’t have time for a Q&A at the moment.
“Hey.” I tapped the vampires on their backs. In unison, they turned to me, their nostrils flaring, their lips curling back from sharp white fangs. I tried to see past the monstrous veiny exterior, the sunken cheeks, the black eyes. These were human once—a man and a woman. For all I knew they could have been husband and wife; accountant and journalist; teacher and lawyer. Whatever. I didn’t know where they came from or what their stories were. I didn’t really care.
All I knew was that they were a threat—to Declan, to me, to the woman I’d committed myself to rescuing. And I knew they were drawn to the scent of the Nightshade inside of me. Since they weren’t well fed like Lawrence was, they didn’t have his control—the control that kept him from sinking his fangs into me to get a taste of my irresistible blood.
These nameless vampires had no control. That was my hope. And, frankly, that was also my worst fear.
“Jill!” Declan’s pained cry echoed in my ears.
I staggered back a step as the vampires changed their direction and started moving toward me.
NINE
All I could do now was hope the vampires didn’t rip me apart before they tasted my blood. Declan grabbed a step and pulled himself closer, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop what was about to happen.
“Delicious, right?” I said. Fear wasn’t something I could control at the moment, so I gave in to it, wrapping myself in it like a thick blanket. “You need to drink my blood.”
“Yessss,” the female hissed. She had hair so pale blond it was almost white. I think it was a bleach job, since nobody had that color hair naturally. Her skin seemed even paler in contrast to the dark veins that branched along her jawline, and her lips were deep red, as if she’d already been drinking her fill of blood before they got to this floor. I could barely see the whites of her eyes, her irises were so large and black. She looked like some sort of angel, actually. An angel of death.
She grabbed hold of my hair, fisting it so tightly that I let out an involuntary cry of pain. The male vampire drew closer. I shuddered as he slid his hand over my stomach and pressed me back against the wall.
He sniffed along my neck. “Smells so good. Never smelled anything so fucking good in my life.”
My heart pounded so fast it made me dizzy. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Declan was trying to get to me. I shuddered with fear and disgust as I felt the male vampire slide his cold hand down between my legs and I felt his erection hard against my hip. I’d expected it, but it didn’t mean I was prepared.
For vampires, blood and sex went hand in hand. Lust for blood turned into a lust for other things. It was all I could do to not beg them to let go of me. The female had a tight hold of my hair and she wrenched my neck to the side. Her other hand grasped my chin and she nipped at my jaw, not quite hard enough to break the skin. Her fangs were as sharp as scalpels.
This was typically the part in the movies where the good guys would arrive, stakes in hand, and make mincemeat out of the monsters, saving the damsel in distress who’d been foolish enough to wander off into danger and get herself eaten. But my life wasn’t a movie. And I’d chosen this distress with full knowledge of the potential consequences. I didn’t have nightmares every night because my life was big fun.
Do it, I begged inwardly. Bite me. What the hell are you waiting for?
Maybe if they’d been kept elsewhere, fed well, this might have gone differently. Hell, it might have gone even worse. I could have first been brutally raped before they killed me. The male obviously had sex on the brain, judging by the way he was pawing me, but it wasn’t first on his list. It was likely a close second, though.
I thought I had braced myself, but the pain was always a horrible shock. And they weren’t taking turns. The female was at my throat, her razor-sharp fangs slicing into my flesh. The male was at my wrist and I winced, feeling hot tears splash down my cheeks as he pierced my skin so deeply I was sure he’d hit bone. It hurt like hell, but I couldn’t move or struggle anymore. Something about a vampire’s bite rendered the victim paralyzed while they were fed on. I could feel everything, see and smell everything. But I couldn’t try to protect myself or fight back, which made it even more dangerous.
I looked past the woman’s pale blond hair and met Declan’s horrified gaze. Strange—I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen so much emotion on his face. His serum shouldn’t allow it, even in a situation like this. Maybe it was only an illusion.
It felt like forever that they fed on me, but I knew it was only a few seconds.
The female gasped first, pulling back from me and touching the dark red blood on her lips. The male was next, his eyes wide, his brow furrowed.
She gasped. “What is this?”
I glared at her as the feeling came back to my limbs and I was able to speak again. “It’s heartburn, bitch.”
She opened her mouth to scream, and I could see the fire coming up from deep inside of her. Before she could make another sound, she exploded in a fiery, smelly, ashy cloud. I tried to pull back from it so I wouldn’t be burned, but I was already up against the wall. All I could do was wave at the scattering ashes.
The other vampire turned his stunned gaze to mine, mouth dark with my blood. I saw fury in his eyes. The female meant something to him and now she was gon
e forever. He grabbed my throat, hard enough to crush me, but his hands had already begun to crumble. His growl of anger turned into a scream of pain as the fire consumed him. A moment later there was nothing left of either of them. I brought my hand to my throat, which was tender, raw, and bleeding. The phantom stench of burnt flesh hung in the air, and I wiped the fine coating of ash off the front of my tank top and arms.
So close. He would have killed me if he’d had more time. Luckily for me, he hadn’t.
Declan was on his feet now, favoring his left leg. He pulled himself up the remaining stairs and grabbed my shoulders. I expected him to yell at me for being so careless, for nearly getting myself killed. He roughly pushed my face to the side and took my wrist in hand so he could inspect the bite wounds.
“Damn it, Jill.” He held my face between his hands. “Are you okay?”
I smiled genuinely, so happy I was still alive, that he was still alive. When I’d seen the vampire grab him when he opened the door, I’d thought that was it. We were living on borrowed time anyway. I’d thought our meter had just expired.
I nodded. “I’ll live.”
He met my gaze. “You saved my life.”
“I think I owe you a few of those.”
His jaw set. “Don’t let it happen again. When I tell you to move, I want you to move.”
“Yes, sir.”
His lips twitched, as if he wanted to smile, but he held it back. “Let’s collect your new BFF and get the fuck out of here.”
“Your leg—”
“It’s healing as we speak. I reset it already. I’ll be fine, just slow.”
Declan had reset his own broken leg before it healed wrong. I wasn’t sure if I should feel sorry for the pain that must have caused him or be impressed. He was a serious badass.
I pulled the door open, expecting to see that the woman had taken off, but she was still there, sitting on the ground in the hallway, pressed up against the wall with her legs pulled close to her chest.
She looked up at me with fear. “Vampires.”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t know they really existed.”
“They do.”
She let out a shuddery breath. “What’s your name?”
I gathered my long black hair, pulling and twisting it to the side to keep it out of my face. “Jill. That’s Declan. You?”
“Laura.” Her gaze moved to my throat. Whatever damage she saw there made her gasp out loud.
“Well, Laura. Let’s get the fuck out of here, shall we?”
“Good idea.”
We went back to the stairwell and started climbing. We were deeper than I thought. I was in decent shape from being a bit of a gym rat back in my regular life, but this was rough going, especially after being knocked around and fed upon. Declan brought up the rear, but he kept pace with us, which was pretty impressive considering his injuries.
Finally, we reached the main level, which appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned warehouse. It was dark in here. A hundred feet ahead of me was the exit. I saw the line of light around the large door through which we’d entered.
“Leaving so soon?” The voice froze me in my tracks before I took another step.
Declan moved to stand in front of me and Laura. “Get out of our way.”
Lawrence came far enough into the dim light for me to see him. His eyes were still black. The crazed look in those black eyes seemed worse now. Bigger. Scarier. Mostly because he was smiling, drawing my attention to his mouth stained with blood right down to his chin. “Can’t do that.”
He wasn’t a bad guy. I’d seen him before he’d received that phone call. He was smart and reasonable. And, yes, obsessed with finding his wife. And willing to assist Dr. Reynolds with injecting Declan with my blood without a second thought.
Maybe he’d been crazy all along, just better at hiding it before.
But maybe he could still be reasoned with. “Lawrence, this can end here. You don’t have to do anything else you’re going to regret.”
He laughed, and the sound sent a shiver down my spine. “I don’t regret anything. This was meant to happen. I’ve been a pawn, a flunky. So eager to embrace my past that—do you see what I’ve been doing?” His voice broke and his bloody smile disappeared. “I’ve been betraying my kind. I’ve been offering up vampires just like me like lambs to the slaughter. Months now. So many have died here.”
Declan wiped at the blood on his face with the sleeve of his coat. “Those vampires deserved to die.”
He wasn’t quite as good at negotiating.
Lawrence glared at him. “Are you God? Do you have the right to say who lives and who dies?” His expression grew pained. “You—you’re just like Victor—taking other people’s lives and using them for your own gain. It makes me sick.”
I pressed my hands together to keep them from shaking. “Lawrence, please, listen to me. You’re not thinking straight right now.”
Lawrence laughed again and it sounded sharp, like breaking glass. “Wrong. Blood brings clarity, and I’ve drank my fill today for the first time in my new life. Why have I resisted for so long?”
I was wrong. He couldn’t be reasoned with. I had no idea how many people he’d killed in the basement after he’d dealt with Dr. Reynolds. A lot. Enough to change him from a conflicted research assistant to a single-minded mass murderer. There was no coming back from that. At a glance, it didn’t seem as if he wanted to.
I locked gazes with Declan, but I couldn’t read his expression past his black eye patch. Mine, however, must have been clear. I was scared to death, but I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Lawrence,” I began. “Dr. Reynolds was wrong in what he did, but you need to think about—”
“Shut the fuck up.” He took a step toward me, and Declan pushed me farther back.
“Don’t come any closer,” Declan snapped.
Lawrence’s brows drew together, and his head cocked to the side. “You care what happens to her, don’t you?”
Declan’s expression was dark. “Yes.”
“She’s poison to my kind.”
“Jill can’t be blamed for what’s in her blood. It wasn’t her decision.”
“Doesn’t change anything. Blood is something that should never be tainted—it’s a sacred communion. I’ve tasted blood today, felt it hot in my mouth while a heart ceased to beat beneath my touch. I’ve never felt anything so amazing in my life. It was primal. Incredible.”
Declan’s expression didn’t change, although I’m sure mine paled, as did Laura’s. She trembled next to me, her arms crossed over her chest.
“How many have you killed?” Declan asked. “Guards? Researchers?”
The eerie, wistful smiled returned. “All of them, I think. I lost count.”
“What about Jackson?”
“You care about his life. How interesting. Do you know he’s the reason behind all of this?”
He wasn’t making any sense to me, not that I was surprised about that.
Declan’s fists tightened at his sides. “What?”
“Jackson knew what happened to Victor’s wife and who was responsible. He offered to bring you in. Kill two birds with one stone. Victor wanted you dead. It was all he could do to not kill you the moment he first saw you yesterday.”
Declan’s stony expression shifted a little to something more raw. “Jackson sold me out. Sold us out.”
Lawrence nodded, his smile growing wider. “Don’t trust friends with huge gambling debts. One of many lessons for the day.”
The vampire hunter hadn’t made a great first impression on me, even less when he hit on me yesterday, but I’d been convinced he was trustworthy. Declan had assured me of that and I’d believed him. He’d been wrong. Jackson knowingly brought him here to be killed or tortured—with my blood.
The thought made me see red. I wanted to tear Jackson apart with my bare hands for betraying Declan.
Declan was a bit more reserved than I was. “How
do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t. And you won’t ever know for sure. He’s dead—four vampires were gnawing on his bones last time I saw. I would have joined in, but I was already full.”
“Lawrence,” I managed to say through clenched teeth, my anger helping to push away a bit of my fear. “Enough of this. You need to—”
Lawrence stormed toward me so fast I barely saw it. When Declan blocked me, the vampire instead grabbed hold of Laura. She screamed.
“Let her go,” Declan snapped.
Lawrence searched her face as she cringed away from him. “You’re the one, aren’t you? You were with Susan when she died.”
Laura sucked in a breath, her eyes were red from crying. “S-Susan . . . yes, I was. Yesterday. It was h-horrible. I didn’t understand what was going on.”
His expression held so much pain it was difficult not to look away. “She was my wife.”
“She said your name. She whispered it . . . before—” A sob caught in Laura’s throat. “Oh God. I tried to help her, but there was nothing I could do.”
“Then it really is true.” Lawrence blinked hard, his black eyes shone with tears. “The last of my hope is gone.”
“No.” She shook her head. “There’s always hope for new beginnings. Everyone has to deal with horrible things in our lives, but we need to move past them and start again.”
“Start again. Even for something like me?”
“Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Lawrence exhaled deeply. “Leave now. Don’t look back.”
He let her go. She hesitated only a moment, looking at me and Declan, before she took off for the door, wrenching it open to give me a brief glimpse of the bright sunlight outside. It was painful to realize how close we were to safety.
Laura ran through the door, and it closed behind her. The light disappeared, leaving us again in shadows.
I was glad she was safe, but that hope she’d mentioned disappeared right along with her. I didn’t chance looking at Declan again; I kept my attention focused on the vampire who’d just surprised me by doing a kind thing, letting Laura safely escape.
It was a little bit encouraging.
“What about us?” I asked after a long moment of silence passed. “Can we leave, too?”
Lawrence studied the ground as if transfixed by it. “No.”
My stomach twisted. “Why?”
He raised his gaze to mine, and he didn’t look as rational as I’d hoped. “Because what’s in your veins kills my kind. Before, I thought it was for the best—that vampires were monsters and that I was one of the few that deserved to live. Funny how things change.”
When he pulled the silver stake he’d stolen earlier from Declan out of the back of his pants, every muscle in my body clenched with fear—for myself, for Declan.
This vampire wanted blood. He’d already consumed as much as he could drink, so now he just wanted to watch it spill.
“You need to stop this.” Declan’s voice was much more controlled than mine was. “It doesn’t have to end like this.”
“With death?” Lawrence studied the stake he clenched in his hand. “Everything ends with death. I would have done anything for my wife, but I wasn’t given that choice. Victor chose my destiny. This is all his fault.”
Declan looked at me, his expression tense. His eye moved to the door fifty yards away from where we stood. He was giving me a silent order. He wanted me to make a run for it while he held Lawrence back.
“Your wife wouldn’t have wanted this,” I said instead. “She loved you. She accepted you even when you changed. You tried to be human so you could stay together. She wouldn’t want to know you became a cold-blooded murderer. There’s still time to stop this.”
His gaze tracked to me. “I’m not human. The more I kill, the better it feels. The more right it feels.” He looked at Declan. “I’m sure you know how that is.”
Declan shook his head. “I’ve never taken pleasure in what I have to do.”
I’d tried to talk sense into Lawrence, but he wasn’t seeing reason. He’d embraced the monster within him. And that monster was the only one in the general vicinity with a very sharp, very deadly weapon in hand.
Lawrence was silent for a long moment. “I’ve seen you protect this woman. You’d kill for her—anyone who’d threaten her life. Am I right?”
“Would I kill for her?” Declan glared at him. “In a heartbeat.”
Lawrence didn’t look away. “Would you also die for her?”
Declan didn’t hesitate to answer. “Yes.”
My breath caught. Despite the fact that he couldn’t make love to me, I knew he put my life before his. I just hadn’t heard it stated so bluntly before. He wasn’t lying. This was the raw, honest truth. He’d kill for me. He’d die for me. In a way, it made things easier, since I felt the same way about him.
Lawrence nodded. “Then you know how I feel.”
“There’s a difference. Your wife is already dead. And nothing you do now will bring her back. The man responsible for her death is gone. You killed him. You had your revenge. It’s over.”
Lawrence was silent for so long I thought Declan had finally gotten through to him, shown him the futility of what he was doing here.
“You think this is over?” he finally said. “It’s not. It’s just begun.”
He turned toward me, and whatever life, whatever hope, I’d seen in those black eyes was gone. This was a man who had nothing to live for. Just rage and pain that he wanted to share.