by K. A. Last
Travelling with Michael was similar to travelling with Grace, but now that I was a vampire it didn’t upset my stomach quite like it had the first time. The memory of when she’d showed me her wings hurt. She was so beautiful, even the sight of her in my mind hurt my eyes.
When we landed, thoughts of Grace raced through my head, and she was the first person I looked for. But she was nowhere to be seen amongst the crowd of vampires that gathered in the cavern. There were hundreds of them, leaning against the walls and gathered in small groups.
Too many to fight and survive.
Lucas lounged on his throne at the head of the huge room. He jumped to his feet when he saw us, a smile creeping onto his face.
“It looks like we’ve landed in the thick of things.” Hope stood with her back to Justice, adjusting the grip on her stake.
Cain struggled in Michael’s grasp, and it surprised me when Michael let him go. The vampire streaked across the room and stopped beside his leader.
“We can’t fight all of them,” I said.
Michael held his arms out from his sides. “Have a little faith, Josh. We only need to fight one.”
Balls of pure white light formed in his hands. He brought them above his head in an arc, and then with a forceful downward swing, threw them at the rock floor. A wave of light, similar to the one he’d let off in the park, rippled out from his feet. The wave swept through the room, knocking everyone outside our group to the floor.
The only one left standing was Lucas.
THIRTY
Grace
Our group landed in the room I’d seen in Cain’s mind.
Two vamps leant against the wall next to an open arched doorway. Their eyes widened, and it took them a few seconds to react to our arrival before they lunged at us. Everyone scattered. I stepped forward with my stake raised, dusting the closest vamp. The second one stopped her charge, backing away towards to the door. Archer crash tackled her and they fell against the wall. He grunted when he hit the rock, ash raining onto his feet.
“Is that the best they’ve got?” I asked.
Archer and Ryan went straight to Charlotte and lifted her up to take the weight off the shackles that held her to the wall.
Lilith moved into a corner. I blocked her thoughts. She was thinking too much about Josh, and the images in her head were personal ones I didn’t want to see. I didn’t think true vampires could have feelings, or heart, but it seemed they could. I’d always thought they were nothing but killing machines, bent on destroying life, and eating their way through whomever they could.
Maybe I was wrong.
I don’t think you are, Seth said in my mind. And it sucks, seeing private things you never wanted to know.
I locked my gaze onto his. I’m sorry … I …
Grace, you don’t have to explain.
I nodded and pursed my lips. Of all people, I should have learned that every action had a consequence, but I insisted on doing everything the hard way. I never thought about Seth finding out I’d been with Josh. It’s not that I wasn’t ever going to tell him, but I wished I could on my own terms.
Now is not the time to worry about the past, Seth thought. We can talk about it later … and you could never do anything to make me stop loving you. He touched my cheek with his fingertips.
Lilith seems to really care about Josh, I thought.
You can’t trust her.
There was a time when I didn’t trust you.
Seth smiled with closed lips.
“A little help here,” Archer said.
We turned our attention to Archer. Blood dripped from Charlotte’s wrists, and trailed along her bare arms. Her head hung to the side, her eyes closed. When Archer held her face in his hands, I saw tears form at the corners of his eye. He blinked them away, and gently shook her.
She didn’t respond.
Tubes ran from both of her arms into collection bags that hung on the wall beside her. Lucas had strung her up to bleed her dry. Bite marks covered her arms, and her clothing was ripped in places, revealing more bites.
“Charlotte,” Archer said, tapping her cheek with his hand. “No, no.” He shook his head. “Wake up!” He slapped her hard enough to knock her head to the other side.
“Go easy on her, dude,” Ryan said.
Archer was about to lose it. His head was a jumble of mixed-up thoughts. What he wanted to do to Lucas, how he hated himself for having been so angry with Charlotte. I agreed with him on that one. I was guilty as well. If we hadn’t turned her away, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
We’d probably be in a mess, Seth thought. Just not this one.
I smiled weakly. I’d forgotten what it was like to have him so close, looking in on my thoughts.
Archer yanked the tubes from Charlotte’s arms and threw them to the floor. Her eyes fluttered, and she opened them slowly, blinking through the blood that had collected on her eyelashes like little beads. Archer held her up to take the weight off her wrists.
“We need to get her off the wall,” Archer said.
I looked around for something to prise the shackles open, but there was nothing in the room apart from us, and the bags of Charlotte’s blood.
Lilith stood near the arched doorway. It was the only way in and out of the room. “If the others are in, then it won’t be long until Lucas finds us.” She looked out and around to the left, then stepped into the passageway.
A siren blared, and a red light on the ceiling in the corner of the room flashed.
“What did you do?” Ryan asked.
Lilith looked both ways before coming back into the chamber. “There must have been a trip wire or something to set off an alarm.”
“Come on, we can’t do anything about it now.” Archer lifted Charlotte into his arms, and the pull of her wrists against the shackles made her sob. “She’s so weak.”
“I have an idea.” I went to Charlotte and inspected the metal that encased her wrists.
I held my forefinger in front of me and conjured a ball of fire on its tip. It hovered above my nail, twisting and turning, the fire writhing over itself. Surely I could generate enough heat to melt through the metal.
“What are you going to do with that?” Ryan asked, looking over my shoulder.
“Hold her still, Arch.”
I drew a line, crossways along the shackle on her left hand. The metal glowed bright orange and I hoped I wouldn’t hurt Charlotte too much.
“Don’t burn her,” Archer said.
Shut up! I yelled at him in my head.
Charlotte cried out, but I didn’t stop. She blinked a few times before closing her eyes and burrowing her face into Archer’s chest.
The shackle broke and Charlotte’s arm dropped away, dangling at her side. The shackle clinked against the stone wall.
“Hurry,” Lilith said. “They’re coming.”
“Keep them away.” I glanced at Seth as I went to work on Charlotte’s other wrist.
What about her? Seth nodded towards Lilith.
Fight with her, but not for her. I don’t trust her, but she seems to want to stop Lucas as much as we do.
Seth stepped out into the gloomy passage, back to back with Lilith. He held his stake at the ready. He looked right at home with a vampire fighting by his side. But then again, Seth looked happy fighting anywhere. All those years of pent-up anger—I guess he had to release it somehow.
The second shackle bounced against the wall and Archer dropped to the ground as soon as Charlotte was free. He laid her down, cradling her head in his lap, muttering to her to wake up.
Charlotte tried to talk, her lips moving, but not much sound coming out.
Blood, I heard in my mind.
“Grace,” Seth said. “A little help?”
The blaring siren stopped. A rumble coursed along the passageway, and small pieces of debris fell from the gaps in the stone blocks that made up the walls.
“Charlotte,” I said. “You have to wake up.”
Blo
od. I need blood.
“Whose blood?”
“Who are you talking to?” Archer asked.
Then I realised what had happened.
“Charlotte spoke in my head,” I said.
“How is that possible?” Archer’s eyes widened.
“She used to be an angel, you idiots,” Lilith said from the passageway.
I stared at Charlotte. We have a lot to talk about when this is over.
If you want to stop Lucas, feed me my blood, Charlotte thought.
My nose wrinkled in disgust. Not much freaked me out these days when it came to the gory details. I was used to seeing vampires feed, but drinking your own blood? Yuck!
“Gracie!” Archer glowered at me. “We have to do something.”
I jumped up and ripped the blood bags off their hooks on the walls. When I pulled the tube out of the bottom, blood poured out, leaving a trail across the floor and up Charlotte’s arm to her open mouth.
Grace, I need you! Seth’s voice exploded in my head.
I shoved the blood into Archer’s hand. “All of it,” I said. “She needs her strength back, now.”
Vampires filled the passageway in both directions, but it was only narrow enough to fit one, maybe two people side by side. Dust littered the ground at Seth and Lilith’s feet, and for the first time I noticed Lilith had a stake in her hand. She also had the small crossbow strapped to her wrist.
“Not sure I can help much,” I said. “There’s no room.”
“You hold them off here,” Seth said. Then he finished his thought in my head. I’ll mist behind them. Take them by surprise.
They’ll be coming at you from both directions, I thought.
Seth kicked the next vamp in the stomach, causing him to fall back onto the vamps in the line, creating a mild domino effect. It gave Seth enough time to grab me and pull me close.
I’ll be fine.
Then he kissed me hard, leaving behind an ache in my mouth as well as my heart.
THIRTY-ONE
Josh
Lucas stared at us from his position on the raised platform, Cain in a heap at his feet. His face darkened, and his lips curled into a snarl. I knew how he felt. So many things had happened in the past few months that had pissed me off as well.
Justice laughed and looked at Michael. “Why the hell do we need hunters like me, when the world’s got you?”
“They’re not dead,” Michael said. “The only way to kill a vamp is by stake, fire, or beheading. They’ll wake up.”
“How soon?” I asked.
As if in answer to my question, a few vamps stirred. They writhed on the ground in a drunken stupor, trying to get to their feet. One after another, the rest of them started to come around.
“Sooner than I’d thought.” Michael made his way through the sea of vamps, across the floor of the cavern, and the rest of us followed. “They must be high on Charlotte’s blood. Am I wrong?” He stared at Lucas.
Lucas sniggered. “You angels think you’re so smart. And you.” Lucas glared at me when we reached the base of the platform. “You’re going to wish you never crossed me.”
I scoffed. “Next time, send someone who can actually fight.”
“What do they say?” Michael asked, laughing. “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
Before Lucas could reply, a deafening siren sounded through the chamber. Hope clamped her hands over her ears, looking around frantically for the source of the sound.
Lucas’s face split into a wide grin, and he bent forward, a laugh pouring from his mouth. It was a horrible sound—the mirth of a madman.
“Your friends won’t get out,” Lucas said. “There are too many of us.” He kicked Cain, who groaned and clambered onto his knees. “You’re an idiot for leading them to us. Which part of kill them did you not understand?”
Cain scowled but kept his mouth shut.
Michael sighed. “When will you get that you can never win this war? Angels, fallen or otherwise, can’t be killed by the likes of you. But vampires—all you need is a splinter through your heart …”
Vampires all around us got slowly to their feet. Hope and Justice stood back to back, as I’d seen Grace and Archer do so many times before. I hoped Grace was okay—I had to trust that she could look after herself.
“Um … you might not be able to die, Michael, but I can.” I backed away a few steps from a vamp that looked ready to rip my head off. “I hope you’ve got more magic light stashed away somewhere.”
“I’ve probably already attracted unwanted attention from above,” he said. “We’ll have to do things the old-fashioned way.”
“Fine by me,” Justice said.
The siren stopped and the ground shook. Lucas laughed again and I wondered what was so funny. Nothing about anything that had happened over the past few days was even remotely humorous.
“The others are after them,” Lucas said. “If they don’t kill them, they’ll bring them back here.”
“There are more of you?” Hope asked, looking around the chamber filled with vampires.
“There are more of us than you can possibly imagine,” Lucas said. “And most of them have had at least one dose of the miracle blood.”
The vamp that had been eyeing me off launched at me, and that was the cue for everyone to start fighting. I stayed as close as I could to Michael. I was strong enough to fight, but not ten to one. Automatically, I reached behind me for a stake from the belt Grace had given me, but it wasn’t there. I was in a room full of vampires, fighting for my life, and I didn’t have a stake.
“Josh,” Hope yelled from across the room. The fray had driven us apart. “Here!”
She threw a stake to me and I caught it, swinging it down into the chest of the vampire in front of me. She disintegrated onto my feet, and I shook the dust off. I remembered how much Grace loved getting dust on her boots. I couldn’t understand why. It was horrible.
“Head in the game, Josh,” Michael said. He orbed away and landed in the middle of a group of vamps.
“Josh, duck!” Justice yelled.
A stake flew over my head as I crouched, embedding itself into a vampire behind me. He exploded, adding to the already dust-littered floor.
Hope and Justice carved their way through the field of vampires. They took down four vamps to every one of mine. There were so many of them. We needed Grace and Archer, and Charlotte.
It was then that I wished I were an angel, or someone who couldn’t die so easily. I didn’t want to die. Not yet. Not until I could tell Grace how much I loved her. Not until I had another chance to fight for her.
As much as I wanted to hate her, I couldn’t. I loved her more than anything, and it took facing death for me to realise it. With every vamp I dusted, it brought me closer to being able to see her again. And as I staked each one, I counted the seconds until I could stop fighting and go and find her.
THIRTY-TWO
Grace
Lilith’s back brushed mine while we fought the vampires in the dim passageway. I wanted to turn around and stake her, like I’d staked the vamps that lay in piles of dust on the floor at my feet, but the thought of Josh held me back. He was all Lilith could think about, and I didn’t want to be the reason for more anger in his eyes. I’d already hurt him too much.
I blocked Lilith’s thoughts because she was driving me crazy.
Ryan stood back from the doorway, waiting for the right time to talk to me. His head was filled with thoughts about Josh, and Charlotte, and the mess we were in. I concentrated on him, sifting through the clutter, but I couldn’t come up with anything clear. I was surprised he hadn’t gone completely mad.
“Ryan, what’s wrong?” I said. “You’re standing there waiting to ask me something.”
“I want to fight.”
“There’s not enough room out here.”
“Well, make room. We have to get out of here.”
“I’m working on it,” I said.
I pulle
d my arm back to stab a vamp in the chest, but he disintegrated in front of me before I had the chance. My arm came down and drove the stake into someone’s chest, but it wasn’t a vamp.
Seth cried out and doubled forward.
“Oh my … I’m so sorry.” I ripped the stake out and put my hand over the hole in his chest. The muscles flexed beneath my fingers, blood running between them and making them sticky.
Seth clenched his teeth. “That hurt.”
“Well, toughen up, princess. We’ve got a crazy vamp to kill.” Archer stood next to Ryan, Charlotte leaning against his side.
“How about I stab you with a stake … See how tough you are.” Seth grimaced.
Archer glared.
Charlotte wasn’t her former self, but the bite marks on her arms were healing, and she had her eyes open, so I guessed that was something.
I wiped my hand on my jeans, leaving a smear of Seth’s blood behind, and then retrieved my stake from the floor where it had fallen amongst the ash. We’d killed all the vamps who’d come at us, but more could turn up at any moment.
“Where’s Lilith?” Archer asked, looking into the passage.
I sighed, turning to face the only way she could have run. I squeezed my eyes closed and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“You lost her?” Archer said.
“Please, don’t start.” I dropped my hand to my side.
“Are you serious, Gracie? You didn’t know she’d taken off?”
I turned on my brother. “I was busy fighting—”
“And staking me,” Seth said.
“You should have been paying more attention,” Archer said.
He backed away when I came towards him, anger rising in my chest. “While you were in here playing doctor, I was paying attention … to all the vamps that are now dust. Do you see any left?”