I nodded and turned my attention back to the plate. I wasn’t a fan of Jack’s methods but he did care about the people of Whitby. He wanted to protect them, that much I was certain of, and so long as he stayed wanting that, I could work with him.
Chapter 30
Jack dropped me off outside the B&B he’d booked us into. Standing on the road outside, I stared up at the white painted building, the sound of the sea rolling in against the beach behind me. From what I could tell, most of the houses up around the West Cliff were B&Bs of some sort and I made a mental note to ask Jack just how booming the tourist trade was here. Dread curled in my stomach as I imagined the vampires feasting on those hapless travellers that fell into their clutches.
Crossing the pavement, I made my way up the path to the front door as the first flakes of snow fell from the sky. By the time I’d pushed the key Jack had given me into the lock, it had started to snow in earnest, each snowflake burning against my cheeks as they hit. I stepped into the darkened hall and heat enveloped me as I let the door slam shut.
There was a book on a small table in the hall and I quickly scrawled my name across the page before I started up the stairs.
My room was at the end of the hall and I padded softly down the corridor, noting the spill of golden light from beneath two of the other doors. Jack had already told me he’d dropped Grey and Alex off before coming to look for me.
Pushing open my bedroom door, I stepped into the darkness, my eyes were immediately drawn to the silvery light spilling in through the french doors. Reaching them, I stared out at the icy coloured sea that rolled in towards the shore. The snow had gotten heavier and the roads had almost completely disappeared beneath the sparkling white.
“I was worried,” Grey’s voice carried across the room and my heartbeat skipped in my chest.
I’d assumed he was in his own room and the beauty of the softly rolling sea just beyond the window had caused me to discard all my usual paranoia on entering an unfamiliar room.
“Not enough to come looking for me,” I said sharply, instantly regretting the words as soon as they’d left my mouth.
“What was I supposed to do, Jenna, go after you?”
I turned toward him as he melted from the shadows in the corner of the room.
“How long have you been lurking around in here?”
“Long enough to know I was wrong earlier…” His voice softened, his eyes glittering in the darkness of the room.
“I’m not sure you were,” I said, watching Grey’s mercurial gaze find mine. “Carmine does bother me, you were right to think she’d gotten inside my head.”
“But I was wrong to think that would stop you from doing your job,” he said.
I cracked a smile in his direction and shrugged out of my jacket. Grey’s eyes tracked my movements, the hunger I saw reflected in them awakened a desire I’d thought long extinguished in myself and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to cross the floor and press myself against him.
“You tend to underestimate me,” I chided, as I slipped the whip from my belt and laid it out on the end of the bed. My blades followed. Pleasure prickled along my spine as I noted the flicker of surprise in Grey’s expression as the knives formed a pile on the checkered bedspread.
“Clearly.” The heat from that one word scorched me as his voice silky smooth slid across my skin. “I don’t like being wrong,” he continued, “but I’m starting to realise that where you’re concerned I just keeping making mistakes… Every time I think I can make it right, I only end up making it worse.”
“We’re not just talking about tonight anymore, are we?” I turned to face him, giving him my full attention.
“Jenna, I was so wrong.”
“I don’t want to talk about this now,” I said, my voice surprisingly level considering the way my heart hammered in my chest.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.” The word dropped into the silence, opening up a gulf of emotion between us. It took me a moment to fully realise I’d said the word aloud and not just in my head.
I wanted him to know just how much his betrayal had hurt, there was a part of me, the part I tried to lock out, that wanted to carve my rage into his skin. I’d trusted him and…
Grey observed me silently and as the seconds turned into minutes I sighed. “I don’t have time for this,” I said, moving toward the bathroom. “I’m tired and I need sleep, Grey.”
As I drew level with him, he caught my arm, his fingers surprisingly cold despite the warmth blasting from the radiators in the room.
“Jenna…” His voice was hoarse and filled with an urgency that hadn’t been there moments before. He swung me around so that my front hit the wall, knocking the air from my lungs. Before I could react, before I could fully comprehend what was happening, Grey caught my arms, jerking them roughly behind me as he pinned my wrists in place with one hand. His free one slid up to tangle in my hair, jerking my head to the side as he crushed his body to mine, making it impossible to move.
The entire thing took less than a second and panic built like a bubble in the centre of my chest as Grey’s teeth found my earlobe and he bit down gently, teasing.
A moment before, I’d wanted this and now…
“Grey, no!” My voice was ragged as my fear threatened to overwhelm everything inside. The voice in the back of my head screamed at me, to get away, to move, do anything, but I was trapped.
“Grey don’t do this to me, please, you know…” I hated the pleading in my voice, the fear that overrode all other rational thought.
He wouldn’t do this. Grey knew how much this would terrify me, he wouldn’t hurt me… Not deliberately…
His cold fingers tightened around my wrists, nails digging painfully into my flesh as he jerked my head back even further, exposing the column of my neck.
I opened my mouth to scream, only managing a yelp as he released my hair and clamped his hand around my throat instead, his grip sealing off my airway as he pressed my head back against his shoulder.
My eyes met his and what I saw there caused the blood in my veins to freeze.
It wasn’t Grey’s eyes I was staring into. I would have known him anywhere and this wasn’t him. It wasn’t Grey who had pushed me up against the wall, it wasn’t Grey holding me against my will… It was someone else, something else.
Sharp teeth grazed my neck and I tensed involuntarily. The vamp bit down and pain roared in my ears as his teeth hit bone.
He pulled away, tearing flesh as he ripped his teeth from my throat. It was a momentary relief but I could feel the warmth of my blood dribbling down the side of my neck.
“Nice to know I can get inside your head,” Carmine’s voice rang in my ears before the vamp bit again. He worried at the wound, the way a dog might worry at a bone, the sound of his teeth grinding against my collarbone echoed in my ears.
He’d watched me strip my weapons off one by one. I had two blades still inside my boots but I couldn’t reach them, not while I was pinned between his body and the wall.
The vamp groaned in ecstasy as he pushed me closer to the wall. The grip on my wrists disappeared as he wrapped his arm around my chest, like an iron band across the bottom of my ribs. His fingers flexed against my throat and then tightened as darkness ate at the edges of my vision.
With my hands now free, I placed my palms against the wall. If I didn’t get out of his hold I was going to black out. I could already feel the oblivion of unconsciousness nipping at me and the panic swelling in my body really wasn’t helping.
I bent my knees, causing the vamp to take my weight. It wasn’t much, the grip he had on my chest prevented me from slumping too far down but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He moved with me, bending over me as he tried to keep me on my feet. Bracing my hands on the wall, I pushed violently backwards, rocking my upper body back into the vamps chest. The movement was sloppy but he was too far gone to pay attention to what I was doing and he took a smal
l step backwards, giving me a little more room.
I slumped in his hold once more before I suddenly pushed up violently through my heels. I hopped, drawing my knees up into my chest as I slammed my feet into the wall. He realised a moment too late, the grip he had on me slackening, not that it mattered now that I was in motion.
Driving my body away from the wall, I used my leverage to propel us both backwards across the room. We hit the bed and the vampire released me, allowing me to roll away to the side.
I hit the floor in a crouch as he came at me again, his kick just a little too high so that I had the chance to duck out of the way and grab his leg. The knife from my left boot was already in my hand, my reactions automatic from the years I’d spent training.
Dragging the sharp edge of the blade against the inside of the vamp’s leg, blood spurted as I hit his femoral artery. It wouldn’t kill him, nothing short of destroying his heart or taking his head would, but this would slow him down. It was difficult to land accurate kicks with the muscle and artery destroyed and even if he could heal the wound, something I didn’t doubt that he could, it would take time. Something I didn’t plan to give him too much of.
He grabbed for my upper body, managing to wrap his hand in my high-ponytail. Pain tore through my scalp and the wound in my neck, ripping a grunt from my lips as he jerked my head to the side. My heartbeat sped up and I could feel the blood on my neck moving faster as I fought. This needed to end and soon, before I lost too much blood.
Holding onto the vampire’s ankle, I brought my own leg up, driving the heel of my boot down onto his leg that was still planted on the floor. I hit him just above his kneecap, driving down into the floor with everything I had. For one terrible split second his leg held. I could feel the tension in his body as he wrapped his hand tighter into my hair and his nails scored the skin of my chest.
Crack!
His roar of rage and pain filled the space as his knee gave way with a meaty snap. Beneath the weight of his body, his leg collapsed back at an unnatural angle.
I followed him to the floor, pinning him down, my knee on his throat as I thrust my blade up under his chin. I dug the point in as the vamp’s eyes rolled in his head.
“Did you really think you could take me?” I ground the words out as I pushed the tip of my blade deeper into the vampire’s chin.
He focussed in on my eyes, a wide grin splitting his lips. He looked deranged and I knew as I stared into his eyes that Carmine wasn’t there anymore.
“Why are you here?” I demanded, noting with satisfaction the blood that welled in the wound on his throat.
The sound of splintering wood filled the room as the lock on the bedroom door gave beneath a bone rattling kick. It flopped open, swinging wide on its hinges as Alex stood framed in the light from the hall. “Jenna, what’s going on?” I barely registered the machete in his hands as the vampire beneath me wriggled.
“Kill me.” The vampire pushed his face upwards, his fangs flashed white as the light from the entry hall flooded into the room.
“Why are you here?”
The vampire laughed again, the sound bouncing off the walls. “You are all so easily distracted,” he said, “can’t see what’s right in front of your nose.”
Dread unfurled its icy fingers in the pit of my stomach and I glanced up, looking past Alex and out into the hall. Where was Grey? The noise from my fight with the vampire should have drawn him out of his room just as it had Alex and yet…
“Hold him,” I said, addressing Alex.
We swapped places seamlessly and I couldn’t stop the feeling of satisfaction that filled me as I noted the way the vampire’s eyes widened in panic as Alex pressed the razor sharp tip of his machete into the throat of the vampire.
Crossing the room, I moved out into the hall.
“Where are you going?” Alex called after me but I ignored him, consumed only by the feeling of unease that grew inside me.
Please, be just sleeping… Please, just be a really heavy sleeper…
Knocking on Grey’s door drew no response, so I tried the door handle. It rattled uselessly and I pressed my ear against the painted white wooden door, straining to hear the least little hitch of breath from within.
Fabric sighed, the sound of the waves hitting the cliffs met my ears and from beneath the door curled a cold breeze.
“Grey, if you can hear me, now would be a really good time to open the door, or I’m going to kick it in…” I paused, holding my breath.
Please just answer me, damn it…
For a moment silence flowed in around me only to be broken by the high-pitched giggling of the vampire still on the floor in my room.
Drawing back from the door, I hit the wood near the lock with my booted foot. Wood splinters sprayed the air as the lock groaned and ripped from its moorings in the wooden frame. It hit the wall, splitting the plaster and rattling the windows in their frames.
My eyes drifted over the room, taking in Grey’s sword that was stretched out across the be and his open overnight bag on the floor, the contents spilled across the carpet. I spotted the overturned chair near the corner of the room as a faint metallic tang reached my nose, reminding me of the jar of old pennies I kept in my room at home.
“Grey…” I already knew he wasn’t there but still I called his name, hoping that against the odds he’d pop his head out from around the bathroom door, smile and ask me what was wrong.
“He tasted of magic and pine needles,” the vampire said from his place on the floor, and his words tore me from my search of the room.
“Where is he?” I asked, voice low as I strode back into my room and dragged the vampire up from the floor.
He wriggled in my grip, his grin widening as laughter spilled from him once more.
“You don’t scare me,” he said. “I’ve looked into the Mistress’ eyes and lived… Nothing else can touch me.”
I stared into his deranged expression and my heart sank. Whatever Carmine had done to him, he was utterly insane. There would be no chance of scaring the truth out of him, nothing I could do would ever compare to whatever torture she’d already visited upon him.
Snatching the machete from Alex’s grip, I thrust it through the vampire’s body below his heart before Alex could utter a word. Jerking the blade upwards, bone cracked and split apart, the light in the vampire’s eyes extinguished as the machete destroyed his heart.
Pulling it free, I let the vampire crumple toward the floor before I swung the blade down and took his head off in one clean sweep.
“He was our best lead,” Alex said grimly.
“He wasn’t going to tell us anything.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I saw the truth in his eyes, Carmine used him up… He was her creature, there was nothing we could have done.”
He didn’t reply and I didn’t elaborate, but the unspoken words hung between us. The look I’d seen in the eyes of the vampire was the same one I saw in my own every time I looked in the mirror. As much as I tried to deny it, I was Kypherous’ creature. I was the thing he’d created and nothing and no-one would ever change it.
Chapter 31
“Why would they take him and not just kill him?” Alex paced back and forth.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I leaned forward and dropped my head into my hands, shoving my fingers up into my hair.
I wanted to scream, just sitting here, doing nothing felt wrong, and the urge to hop to my feet and storm out into the night in search of Grey and Carmine was overpowering.
“Earth to Jenna,” Alex said, coming to a halt in front of me and clicking his fingers in my face.
“I don’t know why!” I snapped. “How the hell should I know?”
“Because like it or not,” he said, a little more gently, “you’re the best lead we have in this whole mess.”
I opened my mouth to snap at him once more but he raised his hands in mock surrender and shook his head. “Don’t shoot the messen
ger, Jenna, we both know it’s the truth. You’ve got a relationship with her, you know her. The rest of us…” He broke off with a sigh. “Well the rest of us, we’re just stumbling around in the dark like ignorant children.”
“The only relationship I had with her, is etched into my back,” I said stiffly. It wasn’t entirely true but Alex didn’t need to know that.
“Look,” he said, moving over to the chair that still lay on its side in the corner of Grey’s room. “Maybe her taking Grey isn’t such a bad thing… I mean, wouldn’t it be worse if he was lying here dead?”
I watched as he straightened the chair and then proceeded to flop down into it. I wasn’t sure her taking him was such a good thing, at least not for Grey. There was a simplicity in death, a momentary blip and then nothing… But whatever Carmine planned to do to Grey…
“She’s going to make him suffer,” I said, my words ringing hollow in the room. “I don’t know why, but she’s trying to teach me a lesson and she thinks the best way to do it is with Grey.”
“Then she knows you better than you know her.” There was a sting in Alex’s words that caused a lump to form in the back of my throat.
I pushed up onto my feet and started to pace around the room. There had to be something here, a clue that would tell us what she had planned. Carmine enjoyed theatrics, thrived on them even. Whatever she intended to do, it would be a spectacle, and if I wanted to save Grey, then I needed to think more like her.
“Jack said they hold a festival here,” I said, absently running my fingers over the still sheathed blades Grey had left on his dresser. When they attacked, he didn’t even have the chance to arm himself…
“Jack who?”
“Jack Barker,” I said, “the primary here in Whitby for Division 6?”
“Oh, him,” Alex muttered darkly beneath his breath and I suddenly wanted to ask him what had happened after I’d stormed out.
Instead, I ignored him and ploughed on. “They hold a goth festival, a celebration of Bram Stoker and the vampires that came to settle in the area, so to speak.”
Stakes and Stones Page 24