Death of Darkness

by Dianne Duvall

  “Honey, would you help me with this please?”

  Bastien glanced over as Melanie exited the supply closet. Her arms were full of white boxes of medical paraphernalia. Since she was immortal, the weight of them didn’t bother her. But the fact that she could barely see over the top of them made carrying them awkward.

  Straightening, he closed the distance between them and took the boxes from her. “Where are you taking them?”

  “The clinic on sublevel one.”

  Bastien nodded at the vampires. “We’ll be back in a minute.”

  The younger vamps offered him cheerful salutes. Cliff and Stewart kept running.

  Bastien accompanied Melanie down the hallway to the elevators. He nodded to Todd and the other dozen or so guards stationed there.

  All nodded back and engaged in light conversation with Melanie.

  Bastien had noticed a distinct change in their attitude toward him during past year and a half. The guards who used to hate him for the havoc he had wrought there during his first couple of years with the Immortal Guardians had treated him cordially ever since Gershom had made an appearance at the network. Bastien had sustained quite a bit of damage protecting the guards topside from grenades Gershom had hurled their way, then had gone on to battle the dozens of vampires that had swarmed inside afterward, intent on killing everyone on-site.

  Though he doubted they would ever be friends, the guards at least were no longer openly hostile toward him and treated him with respect now.

  The elevator ride up to sublevel one was quiet. When Melanie’s shoulder brushed his, anxiety flooded him through the light touch, enough to make him suspect this little excursion had nothing to do with carting medical supplies.

  Melanie gave nothing away either verbally or visually while they delivered supplies to the lighter-duty clinic. As they walked back to the elevators, however, she suddenly grabbed Bastien’s arm and tugged him into the men’s restroom.

  Two network employees standing at the urinals gaped at her.

  “Sorry,” she blurted as soon as the door swung shut. Closing her eyes, she hastily gave them her back.

  Bastien smiled at them over her head and winked. “Just looking for a bit of privacy. You don’t mind, do you, boys?”

  The two finished, zipped up, and hurried out of the bathroom without washing their hands, giving Bastien a wide berth as they did so.

  The door closed, sealing them inside the soundproof room.

  “What is it?” he asked, smoothing his hands up and down Melanie’s biceps in a gentle caress. “I can feel your anxiety.”

  Opening her eyes, she looked up at him. “You need to take Cliff hunting.”

  He nodded. “I know. He’s struggling. We can go as soon as—”

  “It’s more than that,” she said, interrupting him.

  When moisture welled in her eyes, dread settled heavily in his stomach. “Has he said something to you?”

  “No, but…”

  “What?”

  A tear spilled over her lashes. “I’ve been getting that feeling.”

  Bastien bit back a curse. Melanie had minor precognitive abilities. She didn’t see the future unfold in bold, dramatic visions. But he had rapidly come to understand that when she got a bad feeling, something fucked up was about to go down. “Could it be Gershom?”

  She shook her head. “I think it’s Cliff. Every time I’ve gone near him tonight, I’ve gotten this feeling. And I’m worried that… I’m afraid it might mean…” Biting her lip, she shook her head. Another tear trailed down her cheek.

  “You think that if he can’t bring the voices under control, tonight might be his last?”

  She nodded and leaned into him, burying her face in his chest.

  Bastien wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. “We’ll take him hunting. See if that will help.”

  “I can’t go with you. I need to stay here and keep working,” she said, voice breaking. “And you can’t go alone. Seth will be furious.”

  True. “I’d ask Aidan, but he spent most of the day with Cliff, taking him into the sun. So he could probably use a rest.”

  She nodded. “I wish he didn’t have to take the pain and wounds into himself when he does that. He’s really gone above and beyond for Cliff.”

  He had. Bastien thought Aidan would be as crushed as he and Melanie would be if they couldn’t save their friend. “I’d ask Richart, but Jenna would accompany us and…” Richart’s wife was such a sweetheart. Bastien was reluctant to let her see just how vicious Cliff could be while hunting.

  He was actually reluctant to let most of his immortal brethren see how vicious Cliff could be now. He feared some of them might object to Bastien’s continuing to take him beyond the secure walls of network headquarters if they did.

  “What about Sean?” she suggested. “He’s been bouncing from one hunting partner to the next lately.”

  Bastien nodded. “Good idea. Sean has spent a lot of time here at the network, studying medicine when he isn’t hunting. He’s also been here more than once when Cliff and Stewart had psychotic breaks and handled it well. Cliff likes him. And since Sean is younger, Cliff doesn’t view him as a threat.”

  She squeezed him tight. “Just be careful.”

  “I will.”

  Tilting her head back, she rose onto her toes and pressed a tender kiss his lips. “I love you.”

  Bastien stole another, longer kiss. “I love you, too.”

  Crash!

  Leah jerked awake. Her heart slammed against her rib cage as she jackknifed up in bed, unsure what had awakened her.

  Whatever it was had been loud. Had a couple of cars collided out front or something?

  Her home alarm began to blare.

  Oh shit! Fear seized her.

  Heavy footsteps thumped on her wood floors as bodies poured through her apartment’s back door.

  Adrenaline surging through her veins, she rolled out of bed and yanked open the top drawer of the bedside table. Two 9mms with seventeen-round magazines rested inside, along with four spare magazines. She had taken Seth’s warning seriously and stocked up.

  Palming the weapons, she spun and faced the doorway just as a dark figure filled it. A thin man about her height paused there, his face in shadows. But his eyes glowed bright blue.

  “Call Seth!” she yelled belatedly and fired.

  Blood spurted from the man’s chest. Roaring in fury, he lunged toward her.

  Leah ducked as soon as he blurred. Driving her shoulder forward, she hit him in his abdomen and pushed up with all of her strength, then fired at another man who darted through her doorway.

  The first man sailed over her shoulder, hitting the wall behind her with a crash. The second man cried out and stumbled backward into two more who tried to breach the room.

  “Call Seth! Call Seth!” she yelled again when he didn’t miraculously appear.

  Her guns continued to spit bullets, striking every man who barreled toward her. In the neck. In the femoral artery. In the abdominal aorta. In the brachial artery. She didn’t know why the hell she was targeting those particular areas—she had always been told to aim for the head and chest—but couldn’t seem to correct the impulse.

  Some of the men’s eyes glowed green. Some glowed blue. Some silver. When ambient light from the streetlights outside struck their faces, Leah’s fear multiplied.

  They all bore what appeared to be very real, very sharp fangs.

  Seth’s enemies are freaking vampires?

  She would’ve discounted the notion out of hand and assumed these guys belonged to one of those weird vampire-wannabe clubs or some crap, but they moved so fast they blurred whenever they had the space to do so. And they were taking a hell of a lot of damage without going down.

  Where the hell was Seth?

  “Call Seth!”

  The vampire behind her clambered to his feet.

  Leah delivered a roundhouse kick to his head and continued to fire at t
he three in front of her. The vampire behind her grunted and hit the wall again. When another vampire tried to race around the bed to reach her, she spun and caught him in the throat with a push kick, then shot him in the carotid artery when he fell back against her dresser. She resumed firing at the three in front of her as they lunged forward. She would have to change magazines soon and feared that would be it for her. No way would these guys just halt and calmly wait for her to reload.

  “Call Seth!” she practically shrieked.

  One of the vampires in front of her stumbled backward as blood spurted from his arm and snarled, “Who the hell is she talking to?”

  A smaller vampire entered. This one was female. And her eyes glowed amber. “Who cares?” she called over the din. “Just don’t kill her.”

  “Fuck you,” he spat out. “She shot me. That bitch is dead.”

  “Fuck you!” the female retorted irritably. “She’s mine. I need her to take down Seth.”

  Was this Tessa, the missing woman whose mind had been poisoned by Seth’s enemy? He hadn’t mentioned her being a vampire, but why else would she be gunning for Seth and wanting to use Leah as bait?

  Glass shattered, spraying inside the room from the bedroom windows. The men in front of Leah began to jerk and dance backward as blood spurted from holes in their chests.

  What the hell? Someone outside was shooting them? Was it Seth? Why didn’t he just teleport in and—

  Strong arms wrapped around Leah from behind.

  For a second she felt relief, thinking Seth had arrived.

  But those arms locked hers at her sides as an unfamiliar male voice growled, “Gotcha now, bitch.”

  Fear consuming her once more, Leah bent her wrists to reposition her weapons. As the man behind her ducked his head and placed his lips on her neck, she fired several times.

  His legs buckled. Howling in rage and pain, he released her and stumbled backward. His injured legs collapsed, taking him down.

  More vampires filled the room. More bullets sailed through the window.

  Leah swiftly ejected now-empty mags and replaced them with full ones, advancing the first bullets into the chambers.

  Bodies hit the floor. Blood spattered the walls. Bullets zipped past her like bees, but none struck her.

  Leah looked frantically around for the woman. “Tessa?” she shouted over the cries of pain that filled the room.

  The woman’s head whipped around. Her brows drew down in a deep V. “How do you know my name?”

  The vampire between Tessa and the window crumpled.

  Blood spurted from a wound in Tessa’s shoulder as a bullet struck her.

  “No! Don’t shoot her!” Leah yelled. Scrambling onto the bed between them, she dove forward.

  Tessa’s eyes widened just before Leah tackled her.

  Pain erupted in Leah’s shoulder as they hit the floor, hard.

  Tessa pushed Leah off her and rolled over onto her knees, staying behind the bed so she wouldn’t be in the sights of the shooter or shooters. Everyone else in the room was down, either dead or dying.

  At least Leah thought they were dying. Did bullets kill vampires?

  She didn’t know and couldn’t see much from where she lay, pain burning through her chest. It grew weirdly hard to breathe.

  “Why did you do that?” Tessa demanded, staring down at her.

  Reaching toward her, Leah bit back a moan and rested a hand on the younger woman’s arm. “Seth has been so worried about you, Tessa.” Was her voice weak, or did it just seem like it because her ears were ringing from all the gunshots? “I couldn’t let them hurt you.” A coppery taste filled her mouth. She must have bitten her damn tongue when she hit the floor. “He’s going to be so glad you’re okay.”

  Tessa slowly withdrew from the touch and shook her head. “Seth wants me dead. He—”

  “No,” Leah interrupted. “He doesn’t. He wants to protect you.” When she struggled to sit up, pain lanced through her. “Shit!” She lay back down, clenching her teeth. “I think I b-broke a rib or something when I tackled you.”

  Tessa’s hands curled around the daggers she held. Biting her lip, she rubbed those fists up and down the fronts of her thighs. Her glowing amber eyes filled with confusion and indecision. “You didn’t break a rib. You’ve been shot.”

  “I have?” Leah asked in surprise.

  “Yes.”

  Looking down, Leah saw blood spreading across her T-shirt in a large stain. “Shit.”

  “Leah?” Seth roared from the living room.

  Finally!

  “Yeah!” she called back, then clenched her teeth. Damn, that hurt.

  What sounded like a sword fight of all things erupted in the living room.

  Tessa dropped her daggers and leaned forward. Placing her hands on Leah’s chest, she applied pressure to the wound.

  Leah nearly passed out as agony burrowed into her.

  “Don’t lie to me,” Tessa urged. “Tell me why you really did it. Were you just trying to keep me here until Seth could arrive and kill me?”

  “No.” Leah swallowed hard when dizziness made the room tilt and whirl. She covered Tessa’s hand with her own. “He j-just wants you safe.” She found enough strength to squeeze the woman’s hand. “I do, too.”

  A vampire darted into the room.

  More glass burst from the window, glittering like fairy dust as bullets slammed into his chest.

  His body hit the floor beside Leah with a thud.

  Seth’s heart pounded as he swung his katanas. Blood sprayed from a vampire’s neck as the vamp stumbled backward and tripped over the body of one of his fallen comrades.

  Panic rode Seth hard. That and fury. There must be two dozen damned vampires in Leah’s apartment. “Leah!” he bellowed.

  “Yeah!” she called back.

  He felt only marginal relief when he heard her voice. She sounded shaken. Scared. Because two dozen fucking vampires had attacked her!

  But Chris had assured him that members of his special-ops team were keeping the vampires from injuring her.

  Even as Seth cut down a couple more vampires, a third raced into the bedroom.

  The vampire jerked to a halt just inside the doorway, grunted several times, then sank to the floor. Either Leah or the soldiers Chris had installed across the street must have shot him.

  Dropping his swords, Seth drew daggers and flung them at the vampires still standing as he strode toward the bedroom. One blade after another found a home in major arteries with preternatural speed. Thuds sounded as the vampires all crumpled to the floor.

  Seth shot forward in a blur.

  Several vampires sprawled around Leah’s bedroom in various stages of decay.

  Leah lay on the floor near the closet.

  The figure looming over her leapt back in a blur and rose to face him.

  Tessa.

  She drew two sais.

  Seth’s gaze zeroed in on the blood that coated her hands. He looked at Leah, down on the floor with blood staining her chest.

  Fury crashed through him. A low rumble sounded as the floor began to vibrate.

  Tessa glanced down, then back up at him. Her hands tightened on the hilts of her weapons as fear and anger fused in her glowing amber eyes.

  “You hurt her?” Seth bellowed.

  Tessa tilted her chin up as she faced him with grim determination. “Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?”

  Seth waved a hand.

  Her weapons leapt from her hands and flew out the window.

  Somewhere outside a man swore and yelled, “Heads up!”

  Tessa’s eyes widened, but hatred still glinted in them. Clamping her lips together, she darted forward in a blur.

  Seth deflected the blow aimed at him and pressed a hand to her forehead. “Sleep.”

  She closed her eyes. Her body went limp.

  Catching her, he lowered her to the floor, then swung toward Leah.

  Blood stained the front of her tank top as well a
s the pale skin of her chest, neck, and one shoulder. A tear in the fabric revealed a jagged hole in her chest.

  “Leah,” he whispered. Heart slamming against his ribs, he knelt beside her.

  “Y-you okay?” she asked, her breath choppy. Blood painted her straight white teeth.

  Unable to speak, he nodded and rested a hand over her wound. Energy and warmth built inside him, racing down his arm and into her wound.

  She glanced down at his hand on her breast. “C-cradle robber,” she accused with a faint smile.

  His breath huffed out in the closest thing he could muster to a laugh.

  “If I’d kn-known this was all I had to do to get you to feel me up, I w-would’ve gotten shot sooner.”

  He shook his head. As soon as her flesh was healed, he lifted her against his chest and hugged her as tightly as he could without cutting off her breath.

  Leah wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.

  Chris’s special-ops team entered the apartment through the back door. Seth could hear them moving around in the living room and hallway, checking for survivors and beginning the cleanup. One muttered to Chris over either a cell phone or walkie, offering a verbal report.

  Seth didn’t join them, nor did he call out to them. Shifting, he sat cross-legged on the floor and settled Leah in his lap, never lessening his hold.

  She had nearly died tonight. Because of him.

  Long minutes passed.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked tentatively, her voice stronger now.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered hoarsely. “This was my fault.”

  She stroked his back. “No, it wasn’t. It was your enemy’s.”

  He shook his head. “I put you in his sights.”

  “For all you know, I’ve been in his sights ever since Ami visited my shop for the first time. Stop blaming yourself and focus on the good.”

  He raised his head and studied her in disbelief. “What good?”

  She pressed a palm to his cheek. “We found Tessa.”

  Renewed anger rose as he glanced at the unconscious woman. “She hurt you.” It was something he hadn’t even considered. He had worried Gershom would hurt Leah. Or perhaps vampires acting on Gershom’s behalf would. But he hadn’t considered that the missing immortals would target her.