Relentless (Vampire Awakenings Book 11)

by Brenda K. Davies

  However, she couldn’t deny that recalling the sensation of her stake piercing through flesh and bone made her stomach churn. And she did not want to do it again. Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to have a choice.

  She ducked low when the Savage lunged at her again, but this time she couldn’t avoid it. Its fingers entangled in her hair before it jerked her head back. Instinct caused her to spin toward it, and she lashed out.

  She landed a solid backhand across its face and experienced a moment of grim satisfaction when its head snapped to the side and putrid blood spouted from its mouth. Instead of releasing her, its hand entangled in her hair and jerked her head back. It ripped her off her feet.

  The breath exploded from her lungs when she hit the floor on her back. She tried to gasp in a breath, but air refused to fill her constricted lungs. She couldn’t lie here; she had to move.

  Still unable to breathe, she put her hands on the floor and pushed herself to the side. Somehow, she’d managed to retain her stake, and as the asshole was jerking her hair up, she plunged the weapon into its foot. The creature howled and yanked its foot away, taking her stake with it but also releasing her hair.

  Rolling onto her back again, she caught a glimpse of red, fury-filled eyes as the Savage ripped her stake from its foot. Getting onto her hands and knees, Cassidy pushed herself to her feet as air finally rushed back into her lungs.

  With her stake in hand, the Savage charged toward her; before it got there, Dante crashed into its side. Wrapping his arms around the creature, he propelled the thing into the floor, shaking the building. The candles they knocked over, spilled across the ground. The flames sputtered before the melted wax smothered them.

  Pinning the vamp beneath him, Dante released a series of bone-crushing blows to its face. Its cheekbones gave way, and its eye socket shattered, but Dante couldn’t stop pummeling it. This thing had touched Cassidy; it hurt her, and he would make it pay.

  “Dante!” Cassidy shouted when another Savage ran toward him.

  As Cassidy sprinted toward her mate, she removed another stake from her pocket. The new Savage was almost on top of Dante when he turned toward it. When the thing leapt at him, Dante grasped its shirt and, with one hand, lifted it over his head and threw it across the room. The Savage skidded across the floor before crashing into the wall.

  From the corner of her eye, Cassidy caught a rush of movement. She turned to see a woman sprinting toward Preston and a young girl. It took her a second to recognize the young girl was Julie as terror contorted her face and she’d lost weight.

  The woman was almost to them when Preston stepped in front of her, and she crashed into him. When the impact propelled them into the wall, rotten wood gave way beneath their weight, and they disappeared in a puff of dust.

  Julie stared at where her brother had stood with her mouth gaping open. Kyle tore the head from the Savage he was fighting and was about to rise when two more pounced on him. Cassidy started toward her brother when another Savage ran toward Julie.

  Bloodlust emanated from the creature stalking Julie as its teeth clacked together and red burned in its eyes. Julie took a frightened step back, but like a deer caught in the headlights, she didn’t run to avoid her approaching death.

  “No,” Cassidy breathed.

  She looked to Dante as he plunged his fist into the chest of the Savage he was still battering and tore out its heart. He was fine, and Kyle was holding his own, but Julie remained frozen in place.

  Cassidy raced toward the Savage and was almost to it when it reached Julie. The young girl shrieked when the monster grabbed her arms and lifted her off the ground. Cassidy watched in horror as the thing sank its fangs into Julie’s throat.

  Rage propelled her to cover the remaining fifteen feet in a fraction of a second. Leaping into the air, she encircled her legs around the Savage’s waist, lifted the stake over her head, and plunged the weapon through its back.

  She ignored the sickening crunch of bone as she pressed her weight into it, driving it deeper. The creature released its bite on Julie as it slapped at her over the top of its head. But it was already too late for this monster as the bone gave way and the stake plunged into the heart muscle.

  Releasing her hold on its waist, Cassidy pushed herself away from the Savage and landed on the ground. Grasping Julie’s wrist, she pulled the girl out of the way as the Savage staggered back and fell to the ground.

  Dante ran toward them, but the Savage he’d tossed over his head was close on his heels, and Kyle was still fighting off the other two Savages. When Dante spun to face the Savage, it collided with him, and they both tumbled to the ground.

  Her instincts screamed at her to go to Dante as they rolled across the floor, punching and kicking each other. She was about to tell Julie to hide in the corner, but then Dante came out on top of the Savage. From what she could see, he was the only one with a weapon in hand.

  Her brother got his legs up between him and one of the Savages and thrust upward, but as he propelled the Savage away from him, it caught Kyle’s foot and yanked him toward it. Her brother grunted as the Savage dragged him across the floor. When the other Savage charged at him, Kyle kicked it under the chin with his free foot. The Savage’s head shot back, but the blow only deterred him for a couple of heartbeats.

  Cassidy pushed Julie behind her and nudged her toward the corner of the room. “Stay over there.”

  She didn’t wait to hear what the girl said before she yanked the stake from the back of the asshole she’d killed and ran to help her brother. She was almost to Kyle when Jasmine reemerged from the wall. The dust covering her hair and clothes caused the fire in her eyes to look as if it burned hotter.

  Cassidy shot a panicked look toward Julie, who huddled in the corner, but Jasmine didn’t notice her as she focused on Dante. Cassidy opened her mouth to shout a warning, but it was choked off by the Savage who tackled her.

  Dante was about to put a stake through the vamp’s heart when a fist smashed into the side of his face. The impact threw him off his victim. He tried to figure out what happened as he blinked away the lights flashing before his eyes.

  When his vision cleared, he discovered Jasmine standing over him with a cruel smile on her face and a victorious gleam in her red eyes. She didn’t give him more of a chance to recover before she pounced. Trying to fend off her blows and slashing nails was like trying to fight off a honey badger on a rampage.

  Dante knocked away one of her hands but realized too late she’d used it as a distraction from the stake in her other hand. He had no idea where the weapon came from; it hadn’t been there seconds ago. Somehow, he managed to turn in time to avoid taking the stake to his heart. Instead, the wood sank deep into his shoulder.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain of the wood grinding against his bone, he grasped Jasmine’s throat. He started to lift her off him when the Savage he’d been fighting seized his wrist and jerked it down to pin it to the ground.

  With his grip on her broken, Jasmine grasped the stake in his shoulder. He tried to lift his hand, but when she twisted the stake, a tingling sensation ran down his arms. His numbed fingers twitched but didn’t do much else.

  Dante tried to yank his wrist free, but the Savage shifted and pinned his wrist to the floor with his knee. At the same time, the fucker twisted his knee into the bone until something cracked, and he lost feeling in his fingers.

  When Jasmine pulled the stake from his shoulder, Dante gave up on trying to jerk his useless hand free as sensation flooded back into his arm again. As she lifted the stake to deliver a killing blow, he swung out with his good hand and hit her in the side of the head at the same time as she plunged the stake down again.

  The tip of the stake pierced through flesh before breaking through the protective shield of his chest plate.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Cassidy tore away chunks of flesh from the face of the Savage who’d tackled her. Usually, the idea of having someone else’s flesh and bloo
d beneath her nails would cause her stomach to turn, but it didn’t so much as make her cringe. She needed this bastard dead.

  When the vamp’s hands enclosed on her throat, she stopped clawing at its face and sank her fingers into its eyes. She ignored the atrocious, mushy sensation it created as she did everything she could to blind the Savage.

  With a howl, the vamp reared back as it tore away from her. Planting her feet on the floor, she thrust her hips up, knocking it forward. Grasping its shirt, she held it close as she rolled and pinned it beneath her. She slapped aside its hands when the creature fumbled for her and, lifting its head, battered it off the floor.

  The blow stunned the Savage into immobility. She didn’t stop to ponder how she’d gone from disliking the idea of killing again to glad she’d probably bashed its skull into its brain. She didn’t care what she had to do to keep Dante safe, she would do it.

  Lifting the stake, she plunged it through the creature’s chest and straight into its heart. She didn’t stay to watch its death throes as she pulled the stake free and lifted her head. Kyle was tearing the heart out of the other Savage as Jasmine sank a stake into Dante’s chest.

  “No!” the wild scream tore out of her.

  Dante’s chest plate gave way with a crack as the stake pierced his body. His body protested the presence of the offending weapon, but she’d missed his heart again. This time, she only missed by centimeters as every thunderous beat caused the organ to scrape against the stake.

  Something primitive tore free inside Cassidy, and she glimpsed a red and black color seeping across her fingers. She knew what it meant, and she welcomed this emergence of her more demonic side.

  With a speed and ruthlessness she never could have guessed she possessed, she leapt to her feet and raced across the floor toward them as Jasmine pulled her stake free. Clasping the weapon in both hands, Jasmine lifted it over her head as she prepared to stake him again.

  Judging by the blood coating Dante, she’d stabbed him more than once. Cassidy’s blood pounded so forcefully through her veins that her temples felt about to explode. She was going to tear that bitch to pieces.

  Jasmine was swinging the stake down to deliver a killing blow when Cassidy tackled her. The putrid stench of the woman filled Cassidy’s nose as the two of them hit the ground, and Jasmine’s stake skittered into the shadows.

  Cassidy threw Jasmine off her and scrambled across the floor toward the stake, but Jasmine pounced on her back. Twisting to the side, Cassidy tried to shake her off, but before she could do much more than twist, fangs sank into her shoulder.

  As if a switch flipped, all her muscles became ramrod straight, and Cassidy swore her bones shattered as fire seared her veins. She wanted to screech or cry; she tried to fight the bitch off, but she could only experience the agony of her blood leaving her body against her will.

  Then Cassidy thought about this thing stabbing Dante and, from somewhere deep inside, discovered the strength to push aside her suffering. Fisting her hand, she saw the entire thing was now a red and black color. This added strength, and fear for herself and Dante, enabled her to break free of the suffering a vampire’s bite could cause.

  Reaching over her back, she bashed Jasmine in the head. The blow did nothing to knock the woman away, but as the color spread, Cassidy gained more strength. With her second blow, she succeeded in freeing herself from Jasmine’s fangs.

  Even though Dante had blocked her out, Cassidy’s pain tore through their bond and struck his heart. He had to get to her.

  Ignoring the grinding of his bones and the blood flowing freely from his wounds, Dante rolled to the side and pulled the Savage sitting on his wrist toward him. Throwing his forehead forward, he smashed it into the Savage’s face. The blow demolished its nose.

  The creature reeled back as Dante released its shirt and finally succeeded in freeing his ruined wrist. Keeping hold of its shirt, Dante yanked the Savage to the floor and crawled over the top of it to get to Cassidy and Jasmine. When Cassidy hit her again, Jasmine fell back.

  Dante pounced, and pulling Jasmine down, he flattened his palm against the side of her head. He pressed it into the floor as he knelt on her neck. Jasmine’s hands flailed as she screeched like a banshee, but she couldn’t break free.

  While Dante kept her pinned, Cassidy grasped Jasmine’s body and jerked her around. The resounding crack of her neck snapping rebounded off the walls. Jasmine shrieked, but the rest of her body went still. While she was immobile, Cassidy removed the crossbow from inside her jacket and fired the bolt into the woman’s black heart.

  When Jasmine stopped screaming, Dante turned to discover Kyle tearing the heart from the chest of the last Savage. He tossed the organ aside and wiped his hands on his jeans as casually as if it were water.

  Dante let go of Jasmine’s body and sat back as blood oozed from him. His broken wrist was healing enough that pinpricks of feeling had returned to his fingers.

  “Are you okay?” Cassidy asked as she knelt before him.

  Despite the pain, Dante grinned as he rested the palm of his good hand against the side of her beautiful face. “Yes, are you?”

  “Yes,” she said as she clasped his face and kissed him.

  He frowned at the strange color staining her flesh and grasped her hand. “What happened?”

  “It’s okay. It will fade. It happens to purebreds when we’re pissed off, and that bitch pissed me off.”

  Dante’s chuckle faded when her fingers brushed against the tears in his shirt. His raw flesh beneath made her itch to kill Jasmine all over again, but his bleeding was easing.

  “I told you to stay away,” he said.

  “You’d be dead if we had.”

  His laughter was cut short by the pain it caused to emanate through him. “I’m glad you’re the most stubborn creature I’ve ever met.”

  Cassidy chuckled, but she couldn’t disguise her concern for him.

  “I’m going to be okay,” he assured her.

  “We have to get you out of here.”

  “Where’s Preston?”

  The crashing of boards accompanied his question, and they turned to look as Kyle pulled away more of the boards from the hole Preston and Jasmine created when they went through the wall. Julie crept cautiously toward him as Kyle removed another board and peered into the hole.

  Gripping the sides of the wall, Kyle climbed into the hole and vanished. He reemerged a minute later. “He’s unconscious, but he’s alive. I’ll carry him out.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Kyle called Julian to help them with the removal of the bodies. He arrived half an hour later with Aida and a white construction van. “Where did you get the van?” Dante asked.

  “A couple of guys who were out for a night of fun lent it to me,” Julian replied.

  Cassidy didn’t ask for further details, especially since Julian had been scowling at her and Kyle since he arrived and heard the whole story. To say he was pissed they’d come here without him was an understatement.

  Cassidy kept her gaze averted from Julian as they worked to remove the bodies from the warehouse. Paint splashes stained the black mat in the back of the van, and the tarps tucked behind the two front seats. A step ladder was mounted to the wall opposite the sliding door. There was plenty of room to stack the bodies, but Cassidy dreaded crawling inside with them.

  They carried Preston out last and laid him down away from the bodies. Julie hovered at his side as her gaze went from the Savages to them and back to her brother so fast Cassidy thought they might spin out of her head.

  The girl was going to require some serious trauma counseling after all this; unfortunately, she wouldn’t get it. If Julie ever shared this story, she’d end up locked away or dead because some vamp would kill her.

  Feeling sorry for the girl, Cassidy rested her hand on Julie’s shoulder as she introduced herself. Julie stared at her from unblinking eyes, but she told her the names of the others too.

  “Those are my bro
thers, Kyle and Julian,” she said as she pointed out Kyle and Julian. They both waved at her. “That’s my sister-in-law, Aida.”

  “Hi,” Aida said with a smile that Julie tremulously returned.

  Cassidy didn’t release her as she pointed to Dante. Unsure of what to tell her his name was, she said, “And that’s my mate.”

  Julie glanced at him, and when the girl shuddered, Cassidy squeezed her shoulder. “It’s okay; you’re safe with us, I promise.”

  Julie nodded, but Cassidy wasn’t sure she believed her. They would have to prove to her that she was safe and earn her trust.

  When they finished with everything, Cassidy gulped as she stared into the back of the van. Gripping the sides of the open doors, she climbed into the back and settled as far from the dead Savages as possible. Not only did the idea of being around dead things creep her out, but they still reeked of garbage.

  Lifting her hands, she studied them, but the color was gone, and so was the wrath that propelled her in the building. Now, she felt mildly ill over her actions, but she didn’t regret them. However, she hoped she never had to kill anything again.

  Kyle waved a hand in front of his nose as he climbed in and sat across from her. “Open the windows. These things still stink.”

  Julian grunted in response from the driver’s seat, but he put his window down, most likely because he couldn’t take the smell either. Aida hit the window button on her side, and more fresh air flowed inside. It wasn’t enough.

  “Does it really smell that bad?” Dante asked as he sniffed the air; all he detected was the coppery tang of blood.

  “Imagine standing in a landfill of rotten fish in the middle of July,” Kyle said. When Cassidy lifted an eyebrow at him, he sighed. “Okay, it’s not that bad, but it is like standing next to a dump. These assholes stink, and it doesn’t get any better when they’re dead.”