I turn at my waist and look over my shoulder at him. “What?”
His smile transforms from trying to be sweet to the evil man who already lured me in with candy.
I wasn’t mistaken. He meant, why didn’t I run after they killed David.
I turn and book it to the door.
Before I reach it, Emerik is there and he’s sneering at me.
I walk backward away from him and put my hands up. “Emerik, don’t do this.”
He closes the distance, taking large strides toward me. “You leave me no choice.”
He reaches out for me, but I dodge and move to the side, hitting into one of the vents. I have nowhere to go but over it, so I clamber on top and crawl along the bird-dung-stained top.
I focus on flexing away.
Emerik grabs my ankle, a vise crushing bone, and tugs me so hard toward him, I fling off the edge of the vent and land on the gravel, face first.
I didn’t flex away—for some reason I couldn’t—and his grip around my ankle does little to blunt the blow.
The flesh above my eye splits open. I shriek when fire travels across my forehead.
I roll off my face onto my shoulder. The pain over and under my skull is so intense, it clouds my mind and takes the wind out of me.
The blood seeping out of the gash is distinctly warm against my chilled temple.
Emerik lands on me, pinning one of my arms against the sharp gravel. I knee him in his side.
It doesn’t deflect him. He wraps frigid fingers around my throat.
I claw at him with my free hand, focusing as hard as I can through the haze to tap into Nestati and beyond it.
It’s not working.
He lifts me to him and bites me where my neck meets my shoulder.
The pain in my face pales in comparison.
I scream.
Air comes out of my mouth—I can see my breath in the cold—but no sound follows.
I push harder into the scream, but it doesn’t help.
The silence is deafening. I panic.
I claw at him with the hand he doesn’t have pinned to my side.
I can’t flex.
I can’t even scream.
Emerik’s sucking so hard on my artery, I’m weaker with every tug.
My clawing and swatting becomes scratches and flopping. I reach the underside of his arm with my free hand and pinch the sensitive area with everything I have left.
Emerik bites down harder and sucks deeper.
My vision fades further as hysteria sets in.
Everything goes black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Mirko
Now that Kaitlynn is nourished and starting to settle, at least as far as her transition goes, I’m back to worrying about our bigger threats.
Something went wrong with Kaitlynn’s turn. She received power during the turn that is impossible to transfer during the process, and she’d woken earlier than I’d ever seen. The only thing I can think of to explain it is that we used Brooke’s blood for the change.
Brooke is already a target for being different, but if the Commission finds out she’d created a Zao Duh unlike any ever seen before, she’ll be targeted even further.
It’s bad enough Pijawikas can build their own army by creating Zao Duhs, but I can’t even imagine the type of army someone could orchestrate using Brooke’s blood.
They’ll use her purely as a blood bank. And that’s only those who wish to use her.
Others will see the potential danger in what her blood can do and they’ll kill her without thinking twice. No Commissioner testimony. No clearing it with Zladislov or anybody. They’ll just wipe her out.
Same with Kaitlynn. We’ve saved her from meningitis but put a bigger target on her back in the process.
I shouldn’t have let Brooke get David’s hat.
I clench my jaw. I’ll never be okay letting her out of my sight again.
Cindy gives Kaitlynn a bag with the clothes she arrived to the hospital in, and Kaitlynn goes to the storeroom to change.
I wear a frantic path through the morgue, walking back and forth, waiting for Brooke and Hawk to return. Every minute they’re gone I regret my decision to let Brooke go to Kaitlynn’s room.
Relief washes over me when not ten minutes after Brooke’s departure, the elevator pulleys whine with the sound of the car coming back to the morgue.
I go over to the elevator and wait for the doors to open. I know I’m being overprotective. It’s not like Brooke was leaving the building, but I need to see her, to touch her when the doors open.
The clanking of the cables against the pulleys stops and the doors open. My gaze lands on Hawk.
And he’s alone.
My Adam’s apple stretches tight with the force of my dry swallow. “Where’s Brooke?”
Hawk steps out of the elevator with David’s hat rolled in his hand. “She’ll be down shortly. Emerik stopped us and needed to speak with her alone.”
“Was Zladislov with him?”
“No, why?”
I move around Hawk into the elevator. I slap the button for the third floor and notice he left the key in the lock.
“What is it?” he asks.
“Watch her!” I point to Kaitlynn.
The doors slide close.
Dammit! If Emerik hurts Brooke, I’ll kill him.
That son of a bitch!
I pound on the button for the third floor. Can’t this old thing go any faster?
I grind my teeth as the car crawls to the third floor.
As soon as light seeps through the doors, I force them apart and step out. I move with unnatural speed down the hall to Kaitlynn’s room.
The door’s closed when I get there.
I’m so frantic, I twist the handle with more force than I intended and the mechanism snaps.
Doesn’t matter. I’m in.
I push the door open to an empty room. I turn around and run down the hall.
I passed the main elevators on my way to the room and I didn’t see either of them.
Where the hell would he have taken her?
Probably outside.
The elevator proves to be too slow, so I make my way to the stairs.
I jump over the railing to the lower set and then jump the next floor’s railing down to the next set of stairs. I bend my knees with the impact and then jump to the main floor’s landing.
I throw the door open and run down the hall toward the front entrance.
An elderly couple is on their way in, so the doors are already opening. I maneuver around them and make my way out to the drop off area.
I scan the lot. “Brooke!”
No answer.
Shit.
I run farther out into the lot, searching low and wide for her bright blue sneakers.
Nothing but a lady carrying a car seat out of an adjacent building.
I turn back and look at the hospital, not sure where to go or what to do next.
A cluster of crows rises from the roof and takes off in a flurry.
There.
My legs burn with the effort to get back inside. I stop long enough for the damn automatic doors to open for me to slip through, and then I’m in the stairwell again. I take the stairs three at a time and jump over the railing to clear a few more. The route up is so much slower than it was coming down.
I can’t move quickly enough.
My lungs burn and my heart is shriveling with fear that something’s happened to Brooke.
I jump over the second floor railing and remind myself that Brooke can flex if she’s in trouble. Thank God I made her drink from me before Kaitlynn woke.
I finally reach the third floor when a shriek ricochets into the drafty stairwell.
Somehow I find it in me to go faster and I push the door aside with my shoulder, not stopping until I’m on top of Emerik.
We roll along the jagged gravel. He’s strong and throws me under him, but I maneuver my way out and back onto my feet.<
br />
I catch a glimpse of Brooke lying alongside a vent, bleeding and still.
Protectiveness rears up inside me. I need to help to her.
Emerik comes at me, and I manage to clock him in the jaw before he tweaks my arm behind my back and twists. I spin with the momentum to avoid him breaking my arm.
He slams his other arm down in an attempt to break it anyway, but I catch it with my other hand and bend his fingers back.
He sidesteps out of the angle and sweeps me off my feet. He’s moving so fast I can barely avoid or counter him.
I land hard on the razored gravel, slicing open my elbow.
Emerik throws his heel down, but I roll over to avoid the impact into my gut.
I swing at my hips and wrap my legs around his, knocking him on his ass.
I scramble to get on top of him, but he’s already crouched on his heels.
He throws an upper cut as I’m standing and smashes me under my chin.
The impact rattles through my skull sending white spots marching across my vision.
I teeter back into a vent.
Emerik comes at me with his hand at my throat.
I cough and gasp to catch my breath.
He lands a punch into my ribs, and I drop my elbow tight to my side.
He swings for the other side, but I knee him in his inner thigh. He steps back enough for me to widen my stance and then comes back at me with a clawed swing to the side of my head.
I arch to the side and back.
He’s too damn fast and catches the upper part of my ear.
The skin and cartilage at the very edge fillets.
I swing at my waist and bring a roundhouse kick up to strike him in his temple. Blood sputters from the slash in my ear onto the gravel in almost a graceful arch as I swing.
Emerik’s so fast he moves out of the way so that I miss his head and land the kick to his shoulder. He wraps his arm around my shin and calf.
Shit! Bastard’s trying to break my leg.
Instead of pulling back, I keep my momentum going forward. I knock him back into the ventilation unit.
He loses the angle and grip on my leg, but we both fall to the ground.
Emerik scurries on top of me, but I push at my hips. Instead of bucking him off, he locks his legs around my waist and swings at me with a left hook.
“Stop!”
Every muscle in my body, save for my heart, halts.
Same with Emerik, his arm in midair, angled toward my head.
I’m frozen, but my thoughts are free, so it isn’t a normal Sanjam.
It’s Zladislov doing his advanced Sanjam.
I feel like I’m locked into a forced game of Red Light, Green Light. I struggle to curse Zladislov out to let me go so I can get to Brooke, but I can’t speak.
Son of a bitch!
“Stand up.”
Emerik’s tension around my waist loosens and he pulls his feet out from underneath me. He gets off and we stand up.
“Emerik, don’t move,” Zladislov orders.
I rush over to Brooke and drop to the ground next to her. I pull her into my lap and put pressure against her neck wound.
She has a nasty cut on her head too, but it’s not on an artery.
The blood from my ear drips onto her cheek, but she’s not stirring.
“Brooke?” My voice cracks with fear.
I put my wrist to my mouth and bite down three times. One bite would be sufficient if she sucks, but she’s out and I need more of a flow for it to go down her throat.
She’s lost too much blood. I have to replenish her energy. If she has enough Pijawikan in her to turn Kaitlynn, then she has to have enough for this to work. If not, a blood transfusion will be our only option. At least Emerik didn’t take Brooke away from the hospital.
When my wrist is over her mouth, I push it side to side against her lips to work her jaw open to cover my wounds. “Drink, damn it,” I growl.
My hope is that the blood will stir her animal instincts and cause her to wake and drink, but it’s not working.
I lightly slap her cheek with my free hand. “Brooke, please wake up.”
I’m terrified. My insides feel colder than it is outside.
Zladislov kneels down beside us. “Brooke, wake up,” he says, his voice deep and authoritative, but soothing.
Brooke’s eyes flutter and her tongue gently strokes against my wrist.
I sigh in relief.
Her eyes open and her jaw clamps down as she drinks in earnest.
“She’ll be okay. We’ll get her inside in a minute.” Zladislov stands and walks over to Emerik.
Adrenaline rushes through me so forcefully, I rock Brooke back and forth in my lap to avoid the pain and relief in my heart from leaking out of my eyes.
“Tell me what this is about,” Zladislov barks.
“You were there. You heard enough from the Commission to know they will not allow you to get away with her. She needed to be taken care of.”
“Since when is my daughter something you decided needed taking care of?”
“Since the moment I found out about her. And again when you rushed off to save her, risking all our lives, exposing everything to betray me. You betrayed our race to have relations with her mother.”
Zladislov tsks. “For over four centuries, you have been my stražar. And for seven hundred sixty-four years, you have been my friend.” Zladislov drops his voice, but I still hear the pain from Emerik’s duplicity within it.
Emerik’s eyes grow hard.
“That much has earned you the right to live in light of your betrayal,” Zladislov says, returning to his businesslike tone. “However, you are no longer welcome in my house—in any of my houses—nor are you welcome in my league.” He walks over to Emerik and snatches Emerik’s znak, tearing it clean off his neck. The breaking of the chain echoes hauntingly in the wind.
Emerik clenches his jaw and tightens his lips into a thin, angry line. When he finally speaks, it’s low and menacing. “You’re nothing without me. I raised you to the top and I kept you there. You expected me to do what you were too lazy or too guileless to do yourself. This is simply another one of those times because you were too blind, too soft to do or allow what needs to be done. And the whole race shall bear the consequences of it. My father will ensure—”
“Be careful who you threaten. I have already spent the last of my allegiance to you.”
Emerik’s jaw flexes. “And I to you.” He spins around and leaps over the side of the building onto the emergency fire ladder. The rungs ding as he traverses down to the ground.
Emerik’s gone.
And Zladislov let him go without killing him or even punishing him for what he did to Brooke.
What the hell?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Brooke
Mirko’s unwilling to leave my side as the doctor stitches my face, but once I’m sewn up, he has to go talk to Hawk to take care of the nurses, Kaitlynn’s discharge details, and get Jaren and Kaitlynn out of the morgue. And he goes because he now knows it wasn’t my dad behind the attacks. I’m relieved he had nothing to do with it.
The doctor’s been gone for a while to get some paperwork for me. I tell my dad everything that happened with Emerik, about everything he said to me.
“I apologize, Brooke. Emerik’s power is to alter sound waves. That is why you couldn’t hear your own scream. He altered it into silence. And you couldn’t jump space because his secondary power is to nullify other powers.”
All that would’ve been good to know beforehand. “It was the most terrifying five minutes of my life.”
Mirko returns. “Hawk took Kaitlynn away from the hospital to avoid any more questions, and Jaren is waiting outside in the hall.”
My mom steps in behind him. The door closes and she whisper-yells at my dad. “How could you let this happen?” She’s looking back and forth between my dad and Mirko.
Mirko looks regretful, but my dad isn’t as easily cha
stised.
“I trusted Emerik with my life. I never considered I couldn’t trust him with Brooke’s as well.”
“I did,” Mirko says, eyes meeting my dad’s. He’s communicating something to him in their silence. He’s making a point. That he’s needed here. That he’s the most qualified and the best trained to watch over me.
I won’t argue with that.
And neither is my dad.
“Thank the Lord Mirko was here,” my mom says.
“Yes.” My father surveys Mirko as if trying to find some fault but can’t, so he leaves it at that.
We don’t mentioned to my mom what happened to David yet. She can only take so much at once.
The doctor comes back in and gives my parents instructions in wound care, how to take care of my stitches, and when I should return for removal. He gives me a prescription for pain meds and my mom signs me out.
Jaren stands when we step into the waiting area. His rings under his eyes are dark and deep.
He follows behind us as my mom and my dad pass us on our way to the front doors.
Jaren lingers behind, so I slow my pace to match his. “Are you coming with us to meet up with Hawk and Kaitlynn, or going with them?”
“I’ll go back with them.” He doesn’t look at me when he speaks.
He’s shutting down.
“Are you okay?” I wrap my fingers around his elbow.
He keeps his focus on his feet and shrugs.
I guess I can’t expect much more than that. Of course he’s not okay.
That was a stupid question.
I squeeze his elbow tighter to let him know he’s not alone. To feel my presence through his numbness or pain.
When we get outside, the sun is gone and parking lights illuminate the lot. My parents split away from us to go to the other side of the parking lot, but I tug Jaren into a hug. “You’re not alone. We’ll get through this.”
He wraps one arm around me and tucks his face into the hair at my neck. “I’m glad you’re okay. I couldn’t have lost you too. Well, not any more than I’ve already lost you.” He pulls away from me, gives me a tight smile, and strolls over to my mom and dad before I can respond.
I catch up to Mirko, and we climb into the Land Rover. He pulls out his phone and calls Hawk. “Where are you guys?”
Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) Page 17