They prowled the hallways of the complex. Mallory was almost certain it had been completely abandoned, and part of her felt cheated by the absence of Hunters to punish and people to save.
Room after room was deserted. They entered every door they found, and every area they went into was empty. It was as though the entire complex had been designed, completed, and then simply never filled with furniture or bodies. They’d seen inside, had witnessed the place filled with desks and tables, chairs and couches. There had been only six Hunters within, but the complex had been big enough to house a hundred or more. Now, it was a barren shell with no people or things within.
Except, there had to be something. Mallory had begun to hear a noise. A ticking. She considered the possibilities. Someone tapping on glass? A leaking pipe dripping onto the tiled floor? An electronic clock, marking off time with ticks?
She started walking more slowly. Leigh hadn’t heard the ticking yet, but that was because he was no longer plagued with the sensitivity of a newbie. Something about the sound started to disturb her.
“Leigh.” Mallory spoke at full volume, trusting that there was no one else in the compound to hear. “Do you hear that?”
Leigh listened, putting more of his focus into his sense of hearing than anything. He hadn’t been able to smell anything, anyway. The compound smelled sterile and vacant.
After a moment, he began to hear what had perturbed Mallory. He stopped walking and she almost bumped into him.
“Run.”
Mallory didn’t need to let the command sink in. Already primed to abort the mission, she spun around and sprinted back down the long hallway. Leigh followed close behind her, pushing his speed to the max the confined quarters would allow.
They’d gone down two sets of stairs, so Mallory started winding up them, trying to keep herself from slipping on their slick surfaces. The ticking had increased in pace.
They were in the hallway that would take them to the exit hatch when the multitude of bombs on the lower level exploded simultaneously.
Mallory cried out. The explosion was painfully loud on her sensitive ears. They were rocked forward by the blast, but continued to run as light began mushrooming up from the stairwell.
Enraptured by the rush of flames pouring upward like a living, seeking being, Mallory stopped and turned around to watch. Suffering part morbid curiosity to see if Lydia’s charm worked and part inability to turn away from the powerful sight, Mallory was held rigid as she watched the flames roll lazily into the hallway.
“Mallory, what are you doing?!” Leigh shouted as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back into a run.
They were fast, but they weren’t faster than the fire. Mallory felt it envelop her from behind, a million warm caresses moving over her sensitive skin. It flowed over her like tepid water and didn’t burn. Running through the fire was like a jaunt through bright summer sunlight.
“Leigh, it doesn’t burn!” she exclaimed happily. Leigh didn’t slow his pace, but he did throw a comment back over his shoulder.
“We may not burn, but we can still get buried. We have to get out before the compound collapses.”
Bastards, Mallory thought. The Hunters had rigged the whole thing to blow, probably with motion sensors, trying to ensure that they trapped anyone—human or other—to go down with the ship. The fire couldn’t hurt them, but how about thousands of pounds of concrete and metal coming down on them at once? Leigh was right. She didn’t want to stick around for that.
Leigh pushed Mallory up through the exit hatch before following her up. They stumbled into the main building, burst out the door, and continued to run.
They were almost a half mile away when they heard the entire structure come down on itself.
“Wow,” Mallory breathed out as she watched the light of the explosion ripple outward across the night sky.
“Certainly an impressive exit,” Leigh agreed.
“You think they’re still in town?” Mallory asked.
“I don’t doubt it. They’ve established this town as theirs for a long time. They aren’t going to give it up without a bigger fight. Chances are, they’re holed up and waiting for reinforcements. You can bet we’re going to have a bigger fight on our hands sometime soon.”
“But until then…Well, we can…” Mallory trailed off. Her stuttering made Leigh turn to look at her. When he caught her in his sight, he started to laugh until he bent over from the force of his amusement.
Mallory looked down at herself and realized that she was completely naked, and Leigh was, too. The fire had burned away both of their clothes, but left their skin, hair, and the golden necklaces intact. Mallory began to laugh as well, thinking the cops would consider them lunatics and haul them away if they caught them near the site of the explosion. Already, sirens were singing through the night.
“We should go, shouldn’t we?” Mallory asked with laughter still in her voice. Leigh, grinning like a fool, grabbed her hand and squeezed hard.
“I love you.”
Mallory stopped laughing, stopped moving, stopped breathing. She’d thought he’d been disappointed she was so different from Marlyna. He’d been distant and confusing, and yet he’d just told her he loved her.
“I love you, Mallory. Centuries of life have made me who I am, and every bit of me loves you completely. I was so afraid to lose you I wouldn’t let you see it, but for the first time in hundreds of years, I’m not afraid and I’m not hiding what I feel. Please say something.”
“I sang to you.” Mallory wondered how those were the words that had tumbled out of her mouth, but they made Leigh grin.
“I loved listening to you sing.”
“I love you, too,” she managed to say on the next attempt. “I loved you my whole life, even when I was sure you were just a dream. Now, you’re just a dream come true.”
She hugged him tightly, but they broke apart when the police cars began to pull into the lot of the sex shop. “Time to go, I think,” she suggested with a giggle.
They ran. They made their rendezvous with the Dragon sisters, informed them of what had happened, and then made their way back to Heddy’s house. They were going for a swim before the next day dawned.
Epilogue
Mallory and Leigh sat on the couch in Heddy’s living room, telling the old woman about the night’s events as the sun rose to glint crystalline beams of light off the still lake. Mallory was frustrated with the lack of contact with the Hunters, but Heddy assured her granddaughter that they would have another chance. The only variable was time. They would fight the Hunters and it would be in their hometown. The only question was when.
After calling the hospital and talking to her mother and brother, Mallory was feeling slightly relaxed and a shade away from happy. She was hesitant to tell Leigh what she was thinking, however. He felt her reluctance to talk and took her hand as Heddy returned to bed with a promise of blueberry waffles as long as they let her sleep another hour or two.
“You want to say something?” he asked in an encouraging tone. “We can talk, or we can sleep. I know I could use a few solid hours.”
“I was thinking about something,” Mallory told him. She gave him a shy, hopeful little smile that he found endearing. He touched the side of her mouth, and his turned up in a smile of his own.
“I’m eager to know anything you’re thinking about.” His assurance made her laugh a little. She pushed her hair back and played with the edge of the couch cushion, picking at the resilient fabric that had lasted through children and grandchildren.
“Well, the necklaces that Lydia gave us definitely work,” she began. “I was thinking we should test something else with them.”
“I’m interested,” Leigh replied. “What do you want to test?”
“Um, the sun?” Mallory suggested hopefully. “I mean, you said the sun burns, right? It’s fire. And if we’re immune to fire…” She trailed off, eager to know if Leigh found her idea a sound one.
The older va
mpire frowned, considering his youngling’s proposal. It was an interesting concept, to be sure. But she was safe now. They hadn’t found Henry at his house when he’d check, nor had he been in any of the surrounding areas that Leigh had searched. Either way, he certainly wouldn’t attempt to give Mallory blood again. Therefore, she should be safe from any kind of blood insanity. Leigh was loath to get her torched when they finally had a chance at a life together. He was just as hesitant to go up in flames himself. Having something to truly live for made him much more concerned for his own safety.
“It was a dumb idea,” Mallory murmured, embarrassed. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up. It’s just…A friend of mine told me I needed to enjoy a sunrise for him. I really wanted to do that, and now that I’m not going to be going back to being human…”
Leigh’s frown had Mallory stumbling all over herself to try to get her words out fast enough. “I mean, am I? I’m sorry. I guess that was pretty presumptuous of me. Are you really still tired of life? You still want me to, you know?” She mimed chopping his head off and Leigh started laughing. She was adorable when she was tripping all over herself.
“I don’t want to die,” he chided. “That’s why I’m debating. I don’t want to risk the life we can have together on the chance one of us can see the sunlight again.”
“What about a bitty test at first?” Mallory suggested. “Just put your arm in a beam of sunlight or something? But quick, because we’re running out of sunrise pretty quick.”
It couldn’t hurt, Leigh mused. Well, it would, but only for a moment if the worst happened and the sun still burned. He began to feel excited at the prospect. How long had it been, truly, since he’d seen sunlight? Ages. The risk began to seem like a minimal thing against the potential payoff.
“All right,” Leigh said. “I’ll try.”
They moved to the window in the kitchen that looked out over the lake. Mallory stood to one side and raised the blind up a crack and Leigh thrust his arm into the beam that immediately slid into the room.
His skin caught fire, and burned brightly in an instant. He didn’t draw it back, because there was a surprising lack of pain. In a moment, the flames dissipated. His skin was smooth and unharmed, as though they’d never been.
Having seen enough, Mallory rushed for the back door with a giddy grin on her face. Leigh shouted after her, but she wasn’t going to stop. She’d been ready to take it on faith that the sun wouldn’t burn now. After seeing evidence, she wasn’t waiting around.
Mallory entered the patio, which sat lower than the house, and the sun was still low enough over the water that only the preemptive glow filled the space. Enjoying the warmth of it on her skin, Mallory prayed that it wasn’t the prelude to a barbeque and stepped outside.
Leigh followed because he couldn’t do anything else. If they were going to be destroyed, it would be together. And damn it, if he was going to see his first sunrise in centuries, it was going to be with her.
They walked to the water and stepped onto the dock as the sun burst over the world in a dazzling display of sparkling light and dancing rays. Their skin caught flame and burned until the fire consumed itself and disappeared. Mallory cried her joy and for the first time since The Turn, the tears were warm on her face. Leigh spun her around and kissed the tears from her cheeks. They kissed deeply once, pouring all the brightness and glory of the morning into the connection. Then, they watched the sunrise.
* * * *
Daria welcomed her weary sisters back into the house with an offering of sandwiches, cheese fondue, and chocolate cake. They were famished—from nerves if not from action—and ate everything in comfortable silence.
When the meal was finished, Lydia wanted to go to sleep. There had been too much foreplay and not enough resolution for her, and she was feisty and unsatisfied. She knew she needed to talk to her sisters about what had been going on, but she didn’t want to get into any of that just yet. It was going to be a long talk, and she would need alcohol to get her through it. Daria was a teetotaler, bless her innocent heart, and didn’t keep the stuff in the house she shared with Jade. Lydia decided the talk had to be held at her apartment sometime in the next day or two.
She pulled her delicate glasses off of her face and pinched the bridge of her nose. The last few weeks had given her a massive, unrelenting migraine.
“You should drink some chamomile tea and get some rest,” Daria suggested in a mothering tone. “Your headache will clear right up.”
“Doubt it,” Lydia objected, but she couldn’t help pressing an affectionate kiss to the back of Daria’s head as she took her dishes to the sink. Daria was cleaning them as they came, and Lydia knew that not a fork would be out of place by the time her youngest sibling made it to bed.
“At least the second option,” Daria said firmly. She gave Lydia a scolding glare, which looked endearing coming from that sweet face and deep blue eyes.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Jade held up a sealed envelope as Lydia passed her seat. She was finishing off a last piece of cake and didn’t look very interested in the contents of the note that Lydia snatched from her hand.
“Don’t know why this came here, but it’s addressed to you.”
“Thanks, sis.” Jade shrugged at Lydia’s words and Lydia rolled her eyes. She tried to be nice to the stubborn ox and look where it got her.
“Sleep well,” Daria called from the kitchen as Lydia made her way to the guest room.
Lydia responded with a disinterested hum while she tore open the letter. It didn’t have a return address. She was curious as to who it was from.
The handwriting was tantalizingly familiar, but Lydia didn’t identify it until she had almost finished reading. By that time, she was seething with rage.
Lydia, it began. I hope this letter finds you well. I didn’t know if you moved or not, but I see your sisters here often, even if you come around so rarely. I knew the letter would get to you eventually this way. No time for casual chat, I’m afraid. You’ve pissed some people off, and they’re going to be moving Heaven and Hell in order to make you pay up. You need to call me, because I think I can help you. I want to help you. Miss your face, kid.
He’d signed the letter, Dan, and had included a phone number Lydia didn’t recognize as his. It would make sense that she didn’t know it, though. They hadn’t spoken in almost ten years.
She wanted to refuse to call him just for spite, but thought better of it. He’d mentioned Heaven and Hell in the letter. There was no doubt in her mind the people he was referring to that she’d pissed off were the Hunters. She wanted to know how he had information on them, and where the fuck he’d disappeared to all those years ago.
Dialing the number he’d given her, Lydia listened to the ringing of the phone only two times before someone picked up.
“Hello?” The warm male voice that came over the line still had the ability to make heat coil in Lydia’s belly. She knew the man who’d answered was none other than Dan, her first love and last serious boyfriend.
“Long time, no talk, doll,” Lydia purred, putting all of the sultry heat into her voice that she could manage. “Thanks for finally looking me up. Where have you been?”
“Oh, here and there,” Dan replied smoothly. “I’m really looking forward to talking to you. Could we meet somewhere, in person?”
“Eager, aren’t you?” Lydia asked with a low chuckle as she sat back on the bed in the guest room and twirled one long, thick strand of hair around her finger. She’d found the more seductive a pose she was in on the phone, the better her voice sounded. It was a trick that had never failed to ruffle the feathers she’d wanted ruffled.
“You should be the eager one,” Dan countered. “You need to know what I know.”
“Well, don’t leave me waiting,” Lydia retorted with a sugary pout in her voice. “Why don’t you give me a teaser now?”
“We have some mutual friends you’ll be interested to know the recent movements of,” h
e told her in a confiding tone. “But not over the phone. When are you free?”
Lydia pouted for real, biting on her thumbnail. No matter that he’d been older and much more experienced than Lydia when they first met, Dan had been something of an innocent when they’d started dating. He’d stumbled around her, never able to find words or confidence to handle her well. He seemed to have evolved beyond that inability, and it made her uneasy. She didn’t like not knowing how to deal with a man, and to date, he was the only man who’d ever made her unsure of herself in any way.
“Not until tomorrow.” She decided to make him wait. Even if she could do a late night coffee or something, she wasn’t giving him the satisfaction.
“I’ll call around noon to set something up. Stay safe until then,” he told her, unperturbed. Lydia frowned at the phone, beyond irritated at the fact that he’d hung up before trying to wheedle her into an earlier meeting.
“What a jerk,” she muttered as she being undressing for bed. She needed a shower, and then she needed to sleep well without thinking one iota about Daniel Richardson. The tingles in her belly wished her good luck with that goal. Frustrated, she grabbed a towel and stormed into the bedroom. The next day promised to be interesting, and she wanted to be ready for it.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My name is Ashlei Hawley. I mainly work with fantasy, horror, and erotica and I love otherworldly and apocalyptic future-scape environments for my stories to take place in.
I love movies and I am a voracious reader—I can kill a novel in a day, given an uninterrupted couple of hours. Horror is my guilty pleasure and zombies movies would have to be my niche. I love all Romero films and am in the process of writing three zombie-type movies of my own. The theater is my favorite place for a date, but only if the movie is preceded and followed by animated conversation.
Pierced [Pain & Love 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 15