Did it matter?
No, because it was over.
Fuck them. Fuck all of them.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as those overpowering frequencies rang in my ears. Louder and louder they rang until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I jammed my fingers into my ears, and then the mainframe let off a high-pitched beep that wouldn’t end. The computer was screaming.
Several technicians scrambled at once, typing commands. Some opened code windows on the large wrap-around monitor. I scanned the screen. Commands failed, error reports popped up one after the other. Anything connected to the tech field was blitzing out. The mainframe could only communicate with locally wired-in tech.
These pulsing frequencies had a regular rhythm, and it was speeding up.
Ednis screamed, “Get me into the system and I’ll let you use tech under my supervision! Your life can be better, Adano. Threats aren’t my preference. You know I don’t like how the queen treats you. Allying with Crimson Caves will change things. I can vouch for you.”
“Shut up!” I screamed back so I’d be heard over that incessant beep. “You’re making my ears bleed. Nothing you’re saying matters. You do realize this isn’t my or Lisette’s doing, don’t you? The Silver Hollow tech field has been overpowered by a matching frequency.”
“An enemy is tuned to our wavelength?” Ednis narrowed her eyes. “The Schengs? But this is too advanced for them.” She snapped orders at a technician: “Scan the system. Find out if we’re being hacked.”
“I don’t think the matching frequency is intentional,” I said. “There are a bunch of other frequencies being emitted with just as much strength, stinging like bees—but you can’t feel them. Basically, the Schengs, or whoever’s doing this, aren’t zeroed in on Silver Hollow’s tech-field frequency. They’re discharging a hell of a lot of energy, though. It’s coming from the northwest.” My spine started to tingle, followed by my fingers and toes.
Ednis clutched her lab coat, thumb pressing against one of the buttons. “You’re lying.”
“If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say they have a lightning stone.” Gods, I want to see it. “I know lightning stones are a myth, but what else could hold this much energy, Doctor?”
Then, as if on cue, a guard burst inside. She tripped over wires and breathed heavily as she announced, “Ednis the Wise, Schengs have been spotted heading for our northwest drawbridge with a huge, glowing weapon! It looks like some kind of cannon!”
“What?” Ednis flinched. She flinched so violently she knocked her glasses off her face. “Return Adano to his room,” she told the orderlies as she absentmindedly patted the floor. Her fingers locked around her glasses. When she replaced them, a huge crack marred the left lens. “Prepare for war.”
“You don’t want my help now?” I asked.
“I can’t trust you with this.”
The orderlies yanked my arms. Fire raced down to my fingers as laughter bubbled up my throat. I laughed so hard I almost couldn’t offer my parting words. “Good luck.”
I hoped they’d lose. I hoped they’d hurt and die.
CHAPTER 35
LISETTE
I escorted myself to the cafeteria. Everyone I saw in the halls was much more concerned with the blinking lights than they were with me, so Hireh’s absence wasn’t noticed. Even inside the cafeteria, that fear turned the air sour. No stalls were occupied. Vessels hissed and whispered as they pointed at the ceiling. Orderlies spoke quietly into portacomms that they held a little too tightly. The word “lockdown” was repeated a few times.
Then a figure caught my eye. She wore a plain shapeless dress that was unflattering and small. Brown skin, dark hair, lighter eyes. It was her, the woman Hireh had fussed over the first time I had set foot in here. I quietly stalked toward Pua. When she saw me, she skittered back. She stopped before going far, but her hands trembled and she stared at the floor.
“Pua,” I whispered.
Her eyes opened wide, and her voice was airy when she replied, “Y-yes?”
“Hireh sent me. We’re leaving Silver Hollow.”
Someone interrupted. She said my name with this cold familiarity. A shiver ran down my spine, and I thought I was imagining it. But I wasn’t. Starlight yellow eyes found me.
Fyefa was here.
At first, my heart leapt. Then it sank. Fyefa wasn’t alone. She was accompanied by Gala. They were in full uniform: leathers, combat belts adorned with vials of condensed blood, weapons, and badges clear to see with their white cloaks folded over their shoulders. A three-coils badge was pinned to the collar of Gala’s uniform. The aassu I longed to caress were sheathed and strapped to her waist. White First. A Crimson Caves vampire stole my rank, my aassu.
My blood boiled.
“White Leader, to what do I owe the honor?” I said and noted Fyefa’s hand was resting on the pommel of her short sword.
“Honor?” she scoffed, replying in Lyris for Gala’s sake. “What have you done, Lisette?”
The most bizarre sight in the cafeteria was no longer the flickering lights. It was the slayers. Every pair of eyes was trained on us. Some spectators froze while others backed away slowly, their goal to sneak out the double doors.
I kept my tone level and I spoke in Chezquan. “What do you mean?”
“Ednis the Wise briefed us. I know you planned to desert with your vampyre.” She grimaced. “You’ve turned traitor. How could you? You were supposed to come back.”
When Gala snuck her a black-eyed glare, Fyefa bared her teeth.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Ednis the Wise sent us,” Gala interrupted. “She knows you’ve been messing with the Silver Hollow system.”
Fyefa stepped in front of Gala and tilted her nose toward the ceiling. One of the lights winked at her. “What is this shit? Tech was never your thing.”
My hands curled into tight fists. Deserter. Traitor. Fyefa said those words as if I was in the wrong. She had no idea, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t care to know, didn’t care about me, and I wasn’t stopping here. My life with Fyefa and as a slayer was over.
Fyefa’s portacomm beeped, and she answered it. “We haven’t started yet.”
“I don’t care about that.” Ednis the Wise’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Schengs have commandeered the northwest drawbridge, and they’ve compromised our system. We’re under attack. Silver Hollow needs you there. Gather your team and go. They have a large weapon we can’t allow any closer.”
“That can’t be—”
I leapt forward, stole Fyefa’s short sword, and slashed at Gala as I swung around. The Crimson Caves vampire was not prepared. I cut deep into her waist. She screamed and fell on the floor when I withdrew. She’d be fine. She was already healing, and I hadn’t sliced through her spine.
However, Fyefa had been much quicker, drawing one of my aassu before Gala fell. She struck, but I blocked. She wasn’t used to my aassu. They were powerful weapons, but they couldn’t take a heavier weapon head-on unless they were used in tandem. The thin silver blade of my aassu crashed against the thick silver blade of Fyefa’s short sword and a vicious vibration racked Fyefa’s sword arm, loosening her grip.
I snapped the blade of her short sword upward and launched my aassu out of her hand. I caught the hilt and changed my barakor stance, widening it, to complement dual wielding. My weapons weren’t balanced, but it was enough. Fyefa threw a punch at my stomach, where she thought I was unguarded. I slammed the hilt of her short sword down on her forearm. She screamed in time with the screech of bones shattering.
It seemed I hadn’t lost my touch.
Vampires and slaves scattered as orderlies did their best to round them up. They bolted for the double doors, trampling each other in their haste. Cowards. But Pua stayed. She shivered behind me, hugged herself tightly, but she stayed.
Fyefa raised her responsive hand in surrender as I pointed the tip of her blade at her throat.
Wisps of white-blond hair escaped her braid, catching on fluttering eyelashes. “You’re not going to sever my head, are you?”
I kept Fyefa’s sword raised to her throat as I walked over Gala. The Crimson Caves rat was scrabbling at her belt. I stomped on her hand and jammed my aassu into her forearm. Bones popped, flesh ripped, and she let out a blood-curdling scream. I couldn’t risk her moving, so I smashed the hilt into her head hard enough to crack her skull. She’d live, though. Probably. I wouldn’t take all of their condensed blood.
Fyefa shifted, hand going for her back, underneath her cloak.
“Don’t move,” I warned. I was good at watching more than one target, though I didn’t recommend it. Mistakes happened when one’s attention was split.
Fyefa knew this, and she didn’t stop. She pulled out a small silvery gun and fired point-blank a second before I could react.
BANG!
My ears rang and pain roared in my stomach, but I had already committed to my counterstrike. My aassu whistled through the air, slid through Fyefa’s wrist without stopping, cutting through leather, flesh, bones, and tendons as if they were gelatin. Her gun hand disconnected, flipped through the air in a spray of blood with her gun still in its grip. Fyefa hissed, straining against a scream as she stumbled back. She couldn’t grab the condensed blood on her belt. She had no working hands left.
I hadn’t meant to amputate her hand.
I was so shocked by the outcome I didn’t realize red was gushing out of my stomach until Fyefa’s heavy sword slipped from my grasp and clanged when it hit concrete. That was a bad sign. It meant she had hit something vital. I hadn’t had a chance to drink any blood since I’d let Adano drink mine, so I wasn’t healing as quickly as I would have. The pain would intensify, perhaps cripple me, once the adrenaline wore off.
Quick, before you and Fyefa bleed out.
My reflexes slowed, but the blade of my aassu met its leather mark with precision. Fyefa’s belt clattered on the ground.
“Pua,” I said, “do you know how to use a firearm?”
In answer to my question, the human fought back her gag reflex as she crouched over Fyefa’s severed hand. She uncurled the stiff fingers and claimed the gun. “I’ve seen it done.” She whimpered, but her hands didn’t tremble, and her aim was good; she lined up the sights with Fyefa’s forehead.
I was impressed, though I shouldn’t have been. This woman was important to Hireh. Of course she’d have what it took to survive this, scared or not.
“You trust her not to shoot you?” Fyefa panted.
“I do.” I trusted her to have my back too since she was someone Hireh would risk everything for.
The bullet in my gut made itself known—in several places—when I bent down. My stomach cramped. I almost couldn’t breathe, but I bit back the pain, the urge to topple over, and grabbed both slayers’ combat belts. I kicked Fyefa’s sword away while I was at it.
“You’ve lost your damn mind,” Fyefa said through gritted teeth. Her knees buckled and she dropped into a puddle of her own blood.
Splat.
Drip.
Drip.
Splat.
She was losing so much blood. The sound tapped against my skull, but I had to ignore it. Had to.
I popped the metal cork off one of the vials of condensed blood. I didn’t have time to search for and remove bullet fragments. Hopefully the boost would push them out.
I threw back the vial and swallowed the thick blood in one gulp. It barely touched my tongue, but my face screwed up because it was sour.
My veins rose on my skin as inky-black rivers. My ruined flesh itched and slithered, wet and raw, as two silver fragments were pushed out of my wound. They pinged against the concrete, but no others followed as my wound knitted itself back together. Damn it. The scattered throbbing in my middle meant I had more fragments to take care of. They must have been lodged in too deep and my body must have been healing too quickly. That meant this injury would continue to leech away at my boost.
“Pua, hold your aim,” I ordered. “Be ready to shoot.”
“O-okay.”
I had to act quickly. When the cooldown hit, it would leave me vulnerable, though it wouldn’t be as bad as when I had taken two vials of condensed blood. I’d manage.
I stripped Gala in record time, shed the gauzy vessel gown, and donned White Team’s uniform. Next, I stole one of Fyefa’s hair ties and banished my long black hair from my face. After swiftly checking that my sheathed aassu hung properly from my waist, I holstered Gala’s gun at my back. Luckily, Gala hadn’t had time to draw it.
The savory scent of vampire blood permeated the cafeteria, thick and pungent. Though only three of us were bleeding, I swore it was as saturated as a blood-soaked battlefield.
Fyefa glowered at me. “Why are you doing this, Lisette? You’re killing Silver Hollow.”
“I don’t give a damn about Silver Hollow,” I said.
“What about me? Your team?”
“You left me. Betrayed me. If you hadn’t, I’d still be by your side.” Of course, none of us could know that for certain, but I thought it might be true. There was no other explanation, because looking at Fyefa as she bled out was intolerable, worse than the bullet fragments stabbing my insides.
“We’re slayers,” Fyefa spat. “Our kingdom comes first. I wasn’t wrong. I’m not wrong. You have no honor.”
Fyefa shook out her broken arm. She hadn’t had any condensed blood, but she must have had nutritious blood not too long ago because her broken arm was mostly healed. “You’re dead to me.” Fyefa squeezed her severed wrist as if to staunch the blood flow.
I needed to move. My veins were live wires, timers counting down my boost.
I tied Fyefa’s and clipped Gala’s belts around my waist. Then I grabbed two vials and rolled them across the concrete floor. “You’ll want to grab those to heal yourself and Gala. If you hurry, you should be able to reattach your hand.”
With that, I kicked off with reinforced boots and grabbed Pua’s arm as I launched into a run. Pua squeaked and her arm creaked. She was too slow.
“Hold on to your gun,” I said. “And me.”
She tightened her grip on the gun and my hand.
I dug in my heels. Pua had gained too much momentum and her reflexes were too slow to stop with me, but that was fine. I caught her waist as she passed me and lifted her into my arms. She instinctively clung to my cloak with her free hand, and I took off again. Wind whipped around us as I rounded a corner for another hall, never slowing.
My stomach ripped, but I ignored it. My boost was active, and speed would likely be the difference between succeeding and failing.
Fyefa and Gala wouldn’t be the only ones after us—or maybe they would be.
The Schengs threat was legitimate.
CHAPTER 36
ADANO
The orderlies used a portacomm to announce my arrival once inside the reproduction center, the last requirement before the building could complete its manual lockdown. Then they walked me down hall after hall. There weren’t any guards, and the lights were steady. When the Silver Hollow tech field was neutralized, whatever Lisette had been doing to the system stopped. Aside from the lashing frequencies, everything was deathly quiet.
And we were almost to my quarters.
The orderlies would shove me inside and life would continue the way it had been—unless the Schengs won. Either way, Lisette and I were at the end.
I jerked out of the orderlies’ grasps. They shouted at me and grabbed me again, but I could do this. They were only two. I was fully dressed in sunlight-resistant gear, ready to face the sun. A minute of freedom. That was all I asked. I could get that much.
Please.
I bit an orderly’s flailing hand, through the synthetic-leather glove she wore and into flesh and bone. When the other tightened her hold on me, I bashed my skull into hers. It was probably the stupidest thing I’d ever done. A skull was much harder than a damn nose.
I didn’t do stupid things and for good reason. It hurt like hell. We both staggered from that move, giving the one I bit time to wrench my arms back. She was about to dislocate my right shoulder. I grimaced, anticipating the coming pop and explosive pain.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” I gritted out. “Isn’t Silver Hollow under attack? Make yourselves useful instead of fighting with me!”
The orderlies wouldn’t talk. Instead of dislocating my shoulder, the one orderly used that pressure to haul me toward my room. I couldn’t figure out how to move. I wanted to do something, but anything I tried made the way she twisted my arm worse. I couldn’t wriggle loose, and the other orderly was unlocking my door.
When the lock clicked its release, I spread my legs. I could barely stretch them far enough to press the soles of my boots against the metal door frame. The orderlies couldn’t push me inside unless they broke my legs—which I wouldn’t put past them. They pushed, and I didn’t protest when I was suddenly doing the splits. Gods, my legs were not meant to stretch that far, though.
“Grab his legs.” The orderly holding my arm let go and huffed as the other pressed her back into mine, insistent on pushing.
I grinned. “Can’t we call it a draw?”
“Shut up and cooperate, vampyre!”
Just then, something blurred in my peripheral vision. White. It was like a snow flurry, but it struck like lightning. One orderly went down. Then the other.
Concrete punched my tailbone. “Fuck,” I hissed and rubbed the throbbing point, but what I wanted to do was curl up and grind my teeth. The orderlies were unconscious beside me. They breathed, though, so they weren’t dead.
“Get off your ass, wild. It’s breakout time.”
Above me. Violet-red eyes gazed at me under the shadow of a white hood. “Monster?”
Lisette held out her hand to me, and I took it. It was a reflex. I didn’t think about it. I couldn’t think. I was dazed, my mind fuzzy. Was this real? Huge black veins colored Lisette’s face and neck in spiderweb-like patterns. Her muscles bulged, straining against the synthetic-leather armor she wore.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 18