Alexei rose.
Susan dragged herself to her feet, surprised her quaking knees would support her. Stanislav’s wounds appeared fatal. But he and Alexei both acted as if he were fine. Was his healing ability so strong that—?
Something thunked behind her.
Jumping, she spun around.
One of the back doors of the totaled SUV opened. A man lurched out, his face and one arm coated with blood.
Stanislav shot forward.
“Don’t kill him!” Alexei shouted just as Stanislav reached the man.
Stanislav halted, one arm already around the wounded man’s neck, ready to snap it.
“Use him,” Alexei said. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
Susan frowned. Use him? What did that mean? Use him how?
When she looked back at Stanislav, her stomach sank.
Eyes sparking with amber light, Stanislav peeled his lips back from his teeth in a snarl, revealing long, sharp fangs.
What the hell? Shock froze her breath as he lowered his head and sank his fangs into the man’s bloody neck.
“Are you injured?”
Only dimly did she hear Alexei’s voice, the booming beat of the pulse in her ears drowning out almost everything else. Her weapon fell from nerveless fingers, hitting the ground with a clatter.
“Are you hurt?” he repeated. “Are you shot? I mean aside from your arm?”
She shook her head. She wasn’t shot anywhere else. But she was scared shitless and shaken to her core.
The man Stanislav held slumped as his knees buckled. A moment later, Stanislav let him fall to the ground in a heap.
Susan’s eyes began to burn with the need to blink.
Stanislav wiped the blood from his lips and looked her way. Stepping over the dead man, he started toward her.
Susan backed up until her butt hit the car, then began to slide along it to keep him from closing the distance between them.
He halted. “Susan?”
She shook her head, her thoughts rioting. I did not just see that. I did not just see Stanislav grow long, sharp fangs and bury them in a man’s neck. I did not just see him drink that man’s blood!
From the corner of her eye, she saw Alexei’s head swivel as he looked back and forth from her to Stanislav.
“Susan,” Stanislav said again, his voice soft and entreating.
“They were right?” she blurted incredulously. “Henry and those men who attacked us at my house were right? You’re a freaking vampire?”
“No!” both men vehemently denied.
Something between a laugh and a sob escaped her. “Yeah, right. I suppose the next thing you’re going to tell me is that the fangs are just for decoration? Like a diamond grill?”
“Susan, please,” Stanislav implored, his fangs retracting and disappearing.
“That’s how you survived down there, isn’t it?” she demanded.
“Down where?” Alexei asked.
Susan ignored him. “Isn’t it? And that’s why they’re hunting you? Why you’re so fast and strong and heal so quickly? Not because you’re a gifted one but because you’re a vampire?”
“I’m not a vampire,” Stanislav said.
“He isn’t,” Alexei seconded. “He’s an immortal.”
Stanislav nodded. “I’m an immortal.” Then he stopped and looked at Alexei in surprise. “I’m an immortal?”
Now it was Alexei’s turn to look flabbergasted. “Well, yeah. You really didn’t know that?”
“An immortal what?” Stanislav pressed.
Alexei blinked. “I have no idea how to answer that.”
Something small hit the ground at Stanislav’s feet.
Susan glanced down at it. “What is that?”
Stanislav eyed her uneasily. “A bullet.”
Another hit the ground. Then another.
She focused on the holes in his shirt. “Those came out of you?”
He nodded. “When I…” He glanced at the man whose blood he had drunk, then met her gaze. “It restored some of my strength and will help me heal faster.”
Another bullet hit the ground. And though she was still freaking out over him being a vampire or immortal or whatever, sorrow rose. He had been through so much agony already. Now this? “How many times did they shoot you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over her lashes as reaction began to set in.
“I’m not. I was too busy fighting them and worrying about you to count.”
She swiped at her cheeks. “Does it hurt?” A stupid question. But she was having trouble thinking straight and felt like she would shatter as easily as an egg if she didn’t tread carefully.
I’m still me. She heard the thought clearly as his gaze bore into hers. I’m still the same Stanislav. The one you enraptured with your singing long before you saved me. The one who made you laugh while we ate popcorn and watched movies together. The one who has slept beside you every night and come to care for you far more than I should without knowing my past.
“You’re really not a vampire?” she choked out.
He held her stare. “I’m really not a vampire.”
Alexei nodded, his gaze ping-ponging between them. “He isn’t. He’s an immortal.”
Another bullet fell to the ground, inspiring more tears she impatiently blinked back. “Are you okay?”
Nodding, Stanislav approached her slowly. “Are you?”
Hell no, she wasn’t. She trembled uncontrollably. Her arm hurt like hell. And she was more shaken than she had been when she had awakened to find that he had gained eighty pounds of muscle overnight. “I’m fine.” Not by a long shot.
“Will you let me look at your arm?”
She glanced down at her bloody sleeve. “It’s fine.”
Will you at least let me hold you then? he thought to her. Please. Just for a moment. I was terrified those men would kill you. I need to reassure myself that you’re all right. I need to feel your arms around me.
Biting her lip, she nodded. Because he was still Stanislav. Her Stanislav. Fangs and all.
Releasing a ragged sigh, he closed the distance between them and drew her into his arms. “Were you hit anywhere else?”
She shook her head against his chest, swallowing back sobs.
His hold tightened.
“Look,” Alexei said hesitantly, “I know… uh, Susan has had a shock. It is Susan, right?”
“Yes,” they chorused.
“You guys could probably use a minute or two to… I don’t know. But we need to clean this mess up and get the hell out of here. And it would be best if we did it quickly, before any cars come along. The last thing we need is for civilians to gawk at the carnage as they drive by, then call 911. Or, even worse, snap a picture and upload it to social media.”
Stanislav didn’t move. “What do you propose we do?”
Susan turned her head to look at Alexei.
Alexei motioned to the wrecked SUV. “Shove those guys back inside the SUV and disappear it into the woods. Do the same thing with the other group.” He strode away from them and bent over a body. After yanking a dagger out of the dead man’s chest, Alexei wiped the blade on his pants and tucked it into his jacket. He crossed to another man and did the same. “Susan, can I borrow your phone? I really need to make a call.”
Stanislav vetoed that one in a hurry. “No calls.”
Alexei swung around to face him. “You still don’t trust me?”
No response.
Dropping her arms, Susan stepped away and looked up at him. He helped you defeat those men. I saw him shoot some of them and toss you his daggers as if he’s done it a hundred times before. And he threw himself on top of me to protect me when the SUV rocketed past overhead. I think we should trust him.
“No calls,” Stanislav repeated stubbornly.
Alexei shook his head. “That shit cuts like a knife, but if you can’t remember
me, I understand. I’m just going to call the Network. Chris Reordon needs to send a cleanup crew to take care of this and see if they can identify the bodies so we can find out who the hell is hunting you. Then I’ll call Seth.” He hesitated. “Actually, maybe I should call Seth first.”
“Who is Seth?”
Alexei regarded him with disbelief. “You really can’t remember anything, can you?”
Stanislav said nothing.
“Seth is the oldest and most powerful immortal on the planet.”
Stanislav’s frown deepened. “He’s more powerful than I am?”
“A lot more powerful.”
Susan couldn’t imagine such after all she’d seen Stanislav do.
“He can defeat me in combat?” Stanislav asked.
“Easily.”
“Then I don’t want you to call him.”
Alexei shook his head. “He’s on your side, Stan.”
“I have only your word on that.” And his tone indicated that Alexei’s word meant nothing to him. At least for now.
“Fine, then I’ll just call the Network. We can’t risk anyone finding these bodies.”
“I don’t want this Network to know I’m alive.”
“I—” Alexei clamped his lips together, looking as if he wanted to scream. “Okay,” he said, making a visible effort to remain patient. “Okay. I get that. I won’t mention you or Susan. I’ll say they lured me out here and attacked me. As soon as I end the call, we’ll hide my car in the woods and leave in Susan’s.”
“Why not go in your car?” Stanislav asked, suspicion narrowing his eyes.
“Because the Network LoJacks all employee cars. And even though I’m your Second, the Network pays my salary. If we use my car, they’ll be able to track us.”
Stanislav consented with a brief nod. “Make your call then. But I’ll be listening.”
Susan took her phone from her back pocket and handed it to Alexei.
Thanking her, he started to make the call, then hesitated.
“What?” Susan asked.
Alexei shook his head. “I’ve been spending too much time around Roland Warbrook.”
“Who is Roland Warbrook?” Stanislav asked before Susan could.
Alexei sighed. “One of your fellow immortals. The antisocial one. He’s always pissing Reordon off by accusing Network employees of foul play. In the past, his accusations never panned out, but… Network employees cleaned everything up after the battle you were wounded in. If someone found you before I could and decided to tuck you away somewhere with the intention of using you to make a tidy profit… Hell, I hate to say it, but maybe it was one of them.”
Susan looked from Alexei to Stanislav and back again. “So where does that leave us?”
Stanislav grunted. “He’s sure as hell not calling the Network.”
“I’ll call a friend instead,” Alexei told them. “Someone I trust. Someone we both trust, Stan. Or you would if you could remember him.”
Stanislav lowered his gaze to Susan’s. Are you getting anything from his thoughts?
She tried again to read them, straining to see through the mental barriers Alexei had erected. Not much. Only a few scattered images of the two of you together that seem to back up his claim that you’re like brothers.
He nodded to Alexei. “Go ahead.”
While Susan watched Alexei dial, Stanislav gave her arm a squeeze, then went to work. She found the fact that handling dead bodies didn’t appear to faze him at all a little disturbing. And he was moving with that amazing speed again, darting around like the Flash.
“He’s a good guy,” Alexei murmured, holding the phone to his ear. “If those men were hunting him for the same reason others have in the past, they deserved their fate. Had they caught him, they would’ve turned him into a lab rat and cut him up to try to identify the causes of his differences so they could duplicate them. And if they’d captured you as well, they would’ve tortured you in front of him to force his compliance. Don’t mourn for them or hold their deaths against him.”
She wouldn’t but didn’t say as much. She did not doubt that those men would’ve killed her, Alexei, and eventually Stanislav had they met no resistance.
Stanislav pushed the upside-down SUV into the bushes as easily as a child would a Hot Wheels car. That superhero strength of his was going to take some getting used to.
As would the fangs.
Stanislav felt the weight of Susan’s gaze as he retrieved the bodies of the men that littered the pavement and stuffed them back into the second SUV.
What must she think of him?
“Hello?” a man answered Alexei’s call. As it had earlier when Susan had spoken to Alexei on the phone, Stanislav’s acute hearing enabled him to hear both sides of the conversation.
“Dmitry,” Alexei said, relief in his voice.
“Alexei?” the male responded.
“Yes. Are you alone?”
“Yeah. Whose phone are you using?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alexei told him. “Are any immortals close enough to hear us?”
“No. Why? What’s up?”
“I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
“I need a cleanup ASAP, but can’t call Reordon myself. I need you to call him for me.”
“Do you need backup?”
“No. I’m good. There’s just something I have to do, and I won’t be able to do it with Reordon breathing down my neck, wanting to know all the particulars. Tell him I called you from a prepaid cell, have him trace my car, then lose this number, okay?”
“Okay. Are you sure you’re all right?” Dmitry pressed.
“Yeah. Just dealing with an unexpected complication.”
“Okay. Call me if you need me.”
“I will,” Alexei vowed. Ending the call, he handed the phone to Susan.
Stanislav pushed the second SUV into the forest.
“I know forewarning you is probably a dumb-ass thing to do,” Susan said in a low voice she probably thought Stanislav wouldn’t overhear. He glanced over and caught her pinning Alexei with a hard look as she bent to retrieve her 9mm. “But if you betray Stanislav or harm him in any way, I will kill you.”
Hope left him light-headed. She wouldn’t still feel protective of him if she feared him or wanted nothing more to do with him, would she?
Instead of blustering or bullshitting or getting pissed off, Alexei shook his head. “I’d sooner die than betray him. If we didn’t need to haul ass out of here, I’d be sobbing like a baby right now I’m so damned happy to see him.”
Stanislav joined them, displeased by the weakness in his limbs. Though his wounds were on the mend, they hurt like hell. He would need a deep, healing sleep in order to regain his strength. More blood would help, too, but didn’t appear to be in his immediate future.
He motioned to Alexei. “Now your car.”
Nodding, Alexei drew out his keys and headed for the bullet-hole-riddled vehicle. Stanislav was a little surprised it started.
As the man slowly guided the Tesla off the cement slab, Stanislav turned to Susan. I want him to drive when we leave. If you drove, I wouldn’t trust him to sit beside you, nor would I trust him to sit behind us if I took the passenger seat. If he drives, you’ll be safely buckled up in back, out of his reach, and both my hands will be free to stop him should he do anything stupid.
Okay.
Awkwardness slithered through him, the first he could recall feeling since he’d met her. Her emotions were all over the place and impossible to read. And her one-word answer lent him no clue to her thoughts.
Susan… He got no further. There was so much for which he wanted to apologize that he didn’t even know where to begin.
She forced a smile. It’s okay. When he offered no reply, she reached out and touched his arm. Really. It’s okay. We’re okay. I just need time to process everything.
He covered her hand with his and gave it a squeeze, then cringed when he realized his hand
was bloody. “Forgive me.”
She wiped her hand on her pants. “Don’t worry about it.” Would she be so kind when she got a look at the wealth of blood that hugging him had deposited on her face and hair?
Alexei returned, carrying two large duffel bags.
“What’s in those?” Stanislav asked.
“Emergency supplies.” Alexei headed for Susan’s car. “I didn’t want to believe you were dead. So I figured as long as Seth continued to look for you, I would continue to lug my gear around, hoping one day you’d miraculously reappear and call me.”
Stanislav stared at him. “Seth looked for me?”
“Yeah. He never stopped. I don’t think he could bring himself to believe you were gone. It tore him up too much.” Opening the back door, he tossed the first duffel in. “I can relate.”
Grief wormed its way into Stanislav through his gift. Alexei’s grief. Genuine and unfeigned.
“As the leader of the Immortal Guardians, Seth is so powerful that usually all he has to do to locate an immortal is close his eyes and think of him. But you’ve been off his radar.” Alexei tossed the second duffel in. “I don’t know why he hasn’t been able to sense you all this time, but he refused to give up. And I didn’t want him to, because that would’ve made it all too real.” Bracing a hand on the car’s roof, he lowered his head. “Man, it was hard losing you. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it for the longest and, like Seth, didn’t want to accept it. I felt…” Shaking his head, he rubbed his eyes. “I felt like it was my fault. I’m supposed to watch your back. And that day you were watching mine, and it all went to shit. You saw some mercenaries coming up behind me, and while you were distracted cutting them down…” He raised his head, his eyes glistening with tears. “You should have just let them kill me.”
Susan gasped.
“You knew the rules,” Alexei said, anger entering his features and hardening his voice. “I’m supposed to guard you.” He pointed a finger at himself, then jabbed it at Stanislav. “I’m supposed to protect you. If either of us was supposed to die protecting the other that day, it should have been me.” He clamped his lips together to halt what Stanislav suspected was gearing up to be a nice long rant. “And this is not the time to go into it, so let’s book.” He slammed the back door.
Awaken the Darkness Page 20