Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4)

by Lindsay J. Pryor

  Giving it less than thirty seconds, keeping a watchful eye on the creatures that then, for some reason, vanished again, he headed to the door.

  But Homer had other plans.

  Homer came at him from behind, wrapping his arm around his throat just as he reached the foot of the stairs.

  Eden threw him forward over the top of him, smashing him to the floor, surprising even himself with how easily he had done it.

  Homer rolled onto his stomach, clambered back like a crab before stumbling to his feet. ‘You’re dead, Reece,’ he said. ‘I want you to know that. We know about Dice. We found him.’

  ‘He got lucky. It was swift, easy and relatively painless – none of which he deserved.’

  The indignation in Homer’s eyes at the confirmation someone had dared to kill one of the crew grated deep in his gut – as if some kind of injustice had been served, his obliviousness to the hypocrisy of his righteous anger the last thing Eden had the patience to deal with.

  ‘But I’m not going to make this quick for you,’ Homer declared. ‘I want you to know that bitch is ours now. And before we kill you, you’re going to watch every nasty little thing we do to her. I am going to hurt her so bad.’

  Eden exhaled tersely. ‘You’re not even going to look at her again. Lucky for you though, I don’t have time to waste. You’re going down in the first, Homer.’

  But Homer came at him regardless, taking a swipe.

  Eden blocked it before it made impact and retaliated with a sharp punch to the stomach that was guaranteed to make Homer bend over double. Homer fell to his knees with the force of the impact, one hand flat on the floor, the other clutching his chest. Eden used the opportunity to kick him hard in the face, knocking him out cold.

  But Homer was no longer breathing, the impact of his head on the wooden stairs betrayed by the trickle of dark blood dripping onto the next step down.

  Eden stared at him for a moment, not having remembered kicking him that hard.

  It had been effortless. He glanced around. Everything was sharp, piercingly sharp, as if the rush of adrenaline had attuned him somehow. The sound around him felt louder, the hurried footsteps rumbling beneath his feet where anyone who was planning on evacuating the building was already pushing and shoving their way out of the doors. He couldn’t tell how many creatures had invaded the place in total, but from the chaos that still echoed back towards him, they were appearing all over the place. And at the top of the stairs, beyond Pummel’s closed bedroom door, he could hear Jessie’s voice – something that should have been an impossibility over the background noise.

  It was the confirmation he’d needed.

  He’d already suspected why she’d been so reluctant to share the truth about her tears.

  Now he truly understood why Sirius wanted them.

  ‘Just a drop,’ Cass had said to him that night. Whilst sitting astride him, she’d run the tube tauntingly up and down his naked chest.

  ‘What is it?’ he had asked.

  ‘Just a little something to give us an extra kick.’

  ‘I’m not putting that in my mouth.’

  She’d slid it down to his ready hardness. ‘It’ll keep you going for hours.’ She’d looked back into his eyes as she’d bitten into her painted bottom lip, flashing him that wicked grin. ‘You’ll feel more too. Much more. I think you’ll like it,’ she had said, running her hand down over his biceps. ‘I think I’ll like it.’

  ‘And I’m not swallowing any shit that lab of yours produces.’

  ‘How about if I tell you it’ll also give you an added edge in your job?’

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’

  Even in her drunken state, she’d seemed to realise she was saying too much.

  He hadn’t questioned her about it again.

  Now, Eden ploughed up the stairs with effortless ease, reached for the handle to Pummel’s room, twisted it to find it locked. He shoved at it with his shoulder before stepping back to kick once and then twice. The wood splintered under the force of his new strength, the door ricocheting back at him until he slammed his palm up to stop it as he stood at the threshold.

  Jessie stood with her back to the wall to his left.

  Pummel had yanked away the chest of drawers from the wall directly ahead. There was a hole in the thin plasterboard behind it, revealing a crevice inside. A box now lay open on the floor.

  He spun to face Eden, something dangling from his hand: a vial on the end of a silver chain, the ruby-red contents glinting in the moonlight.

  ‘I’m going to be wanting that,’ Eden declared, slamming the door behind him, doing what he could to ensure that no one, or nothing, could sneak up behind him.

  Pummel draped the vial around his chunky neck. He rotated his shoulders, preparing for the fight. ‘Well, you’re not getting it.’

  ‘We both know that, one way or another, I am.’

  ‘You’re a fool, Eden,’ he said. ‘Do you really think there is anywhere you can hide from me?’

  ‘You forget you’ve got to be alive and kicking to be looking.’

  Pummel laughed. ‘You can’t touch me. You do know that, don’t you? She’s not just helpless against hurting me; she’s obliged to intervene if I’m under threat. You come after me and she’s going to have to kill you, or she’s going to die right on that spot.’

  He snatched his gaze to Jessie, the troubled look in her glossy eyes ripping through him. Eyes that confirmed Pummel was telling the truth.

  ‘In fact,’ Pummel declared. ‘I could kill you right now and there is nothing she can do about it. And I will kill you. Eventually. You need to know that weekly dose of magic blood she gives me doesn’t just keep me young and beautiful – it gives me an added edge too.’

  ‘Don’t you worry about me,’ Jessie said, recapturing Eden’s gaze. ‘You do what you have to.’

  Pummel shot an alarmed glance at Jessie. ‘Are you fucking stupid?’

  ‘Eden,’ Jessie said, not letting her gaze relinquish from his for a moment. ‘I can handle this. Do it.’

  He’d asked her to trust him. Now, as he looked into those eyes that urged him to believe her, to act, he knew he had to trust her too.

  Eden switched his attention back to Pummel; Pummel who suddenly looked uncharacteristically anxious.

  * * *

  Jessie flattened her palms against the wall as she braced herself. It was going to take all her strength not to intervene, to overcome the power that physically forced her to intervene.

  She was back in the room that first night Pummel invaded; when she’d been in the lock-up only to sense something was wrong. And she’d run across from the alley, up the stairs to that very bedroom – the bedroom that had once been Toby’s.

  To give her added courage, she focused on the floor where Pummel had slit his throat in front of her decades before.

  She glared back at him like she had that night. Because there was no way she was going to protect him. Whatever inexplicable laws, whatever act of nature or preternatural control governed the rules, there was no way she was going to hurt Eden.

  Fists flayed as Pummel charged at Eden first, slamming him against the wall. Pummel fought with vigour, enhanced by Jessie’s blood in his system.

  The pain hit almost instantly. She slid down the wall, clutching her head, the shooting pains even worse than those of the visions.

  Eden clearly had the edge. Not just in fitness, in technique, in age, but with the gift of her tears, there was no way he was going to be defeated. Tears Pummel had never known the power of. Tears she had never shared with him. Tears she thought she would never have shared with anyone.

  They rolled onto the floor, Pummel’s vicious punches being met by Eden’s equally brutal ones.

  The draw towards the fight was like being sucked towards a black hole, an invisible wind pushing her from the wall. She turned to face it, her palms, her face, flat to it, like being stood on the edge of a precipice during heightening winds.r />
  Discomfort coiled itself around her lower limbs, that same invisible force now tugging her away from the wall that she was desperate to cling to; her head burned, her vision blurring, perspiration washing her palms.

  She fell forward with the force, her clenched hands slamming to the floor. She slid backwards as if being dragged towards the battle as Eden gained the upper hand.

  She clawed herself back to the wall, her nails scraping against wood as the hurricane that would be inaudible to them billowed against her ears. She could no longer feel her legs, the pain in her spine unbearable, her skull clamping down on her like a retracting iron helmet.

  But she would not give in. She would not ease the pain if that meant turning against Eden.

  Her nails created grooves in the floorboards as she clung on like someone had flipped the whole room upside down. She opened her eyes, looked over her shoulder to see Eden’s bloodied fist pounding into Pummel. That Pummel had fallen limp beneath him.

  She could barely breathe, the air squeezed from her lungs.

  Only one thing was guaranteed: If Pummel died now, before ownership switched, she died with him.

  ‘Stop!’ she cried out. ‘Eden, please. Stop!’

  She closed her eyes before reopening them. Though he swayed in her vision, she could see Eden had done as she’d asked, had braced himself on both arms above Pummel’s unconscious body.

  The pain started to ease, the invisible hurricane dying down.

  Pummel was still alive.

  She looked across at him. He was still wearing the necklace.

  The necklace Eden reached for.

  ‘Don’t touch it!’ Jessie said, her hand held up.

  He looked across at her. Held her gaze.

  And took the vial anyway.

  37

  ‘We have to go,’ Eden said, helping her up from the floor as he shoved the necklace in the front pocket of his jeans.

  He had to be caught up in the moment. Or he hadn’t understood what she was saying. Or the urgency to get out of the building was too great for him to care. In the fleeting seconds that passed between him catching her wrist and her allowing him to guide her back down the stairs, she struggled for every excuse to justify why he hadn’t done as she’d asked.

  But now was not the time for an argument, not that she could do anything about it even if she did. She’d challenge him about it later, once they’d got out of there – once they’d got the lycan young out of there. They were bound to be targeted – the Night Children indiscriminate with species differences, seeking only youth.

  ‘What the fuck are those things?’ Eden demanded as they skimmed down the stairs, Jessie’s recovery quickening with every step.

  ‘Fourth species,’ she said. ‘Night Children is one name for them but as you’ve seen they’re anything but kids. They pick people off in order of age because they feed off life forces – drain you until there is nothing left in order to sustain themselves. All the fourth species are parasitic on some level.’

  ‘So it’s true – they exist? And there’s more than one kind?’

  ‘More than you’d want to think about.’

  They passed the newel post as they headed down to the kitchen. ‘I’ve heard of individual cases but that was a full-blown attack. Why appear now?’

  She yanked hard on the larder door, splitting it from its lock, no longer needing to cover her tracks from Pummel.

  ‘I think it’s to do with my visions starting again.’ She chucked him a couple of canisters of salt from the shelves. ‘It was only a few nights ago that all my drawings on the wall vanished. That only happens when there’s a major upheaval with what destiny had planned. I think they changed the path.’

  ‘Who did?’

  ‘The vampire leader and the serryn. One of them was supposed to kill the other. Instead they both survived. That’s not how it should be. You can’t divert destiny’s path without consequence.’ She got to her knees and ripped off the first padlock before ripping off the second just as swiftly. ‘Whatever they have done has caused a jolt between dimensions, a fissure – like a shift in tectonic plates letting lava through, only it’s the fourth species seeping in. The gap is forged and it’s leaking. They messed with destiny and now we’re all being punished.’

  ‘You’re saying the fourth species are leaking into our world? As we speak?’

  ‘And there’s more,’ she said, ‘many more to come. Many different types. Those that prey on humans, those that prey on the third species, even those that prey on both. What you saw tonight was just one small fraction of what lays in the fourth dimension. The bad news is, the parasites are the weaker ones. What you see here is just a tiny part, Eden. Some may say child’s play for what else lurks in the fourth dimension – some that have never been able to get here before but will now. And the more that gap widens, the bigger and the more deadly the fourth species that can get through. It will increase.’

  ‘The fourth species can get anywhere, right? I mean they’re not contained by our boundaries? It’s not just Blackthorn – they can invade other districts?’

  ‘And probably are right now.’ She yanked off the third and final padlock. ‘This is just the beginning,’ she said, meeting his gaze in the shadows.

  He crouched down so he was at eye level with her. ‘How the fuck do you stop it?’

  ‘You don’t. You can’t. Only they can – the ones responsible for creating this. For the ball to have started rolling, he must have bitten her, but something prevented him seeing it through. It was the worst possible scenario. Now that snowball is just going to keep gathering momentum until they stop it. And the only way to stop it is for the job to be finished. One of those two must die – but only by either of their hands. Then the fissure will be closed.’ She wrapped her hand around the handle of the trapdoor. ‘Hold on to those,’ she said, indicating the canisters. ‘The Night Children despise salt.’

  Jessie led the way, Eden following close behind her. Remaining vigilant, she scanned the dark corners as her eyes adjusted. She’d see anything long before he would. More to the point, she’d feel it; she’d hear the thrumming and she’d sense the change in the air.

  She found the light switch and pulled it on for Eden’s benefit.

  The lycan young were recoiled into the corner of the cage, but Tuly promptly took her place in front of them. The young lycan eyed Eden apprehensively as he approached, her watchful eyes glancing between him and Jessie – Jessie’s presence being the only thing that seemed to reassure her.

  Eden instantly crouched at the bars so he was below eye level with Tuly. ‘Hey,’ he said, the tone as tender as his stance. ‘My friend here tells me you’re from Jask’s pack.’

  Tuly nodded warily.

  ‘Good,’ he said. ‘That means you’re the bravest lycan young out there, which is exactly what we need right now. I’m guessing you’re Corbin Saylen’s little one,’ he added. ‘And that’s even better. If you’re anything like your father, there’s more fight than fear in you, am I right?’

  Jessie’s heart pounded at his clever handling of Tuly, the strength he was bestowing on the little girl who now moved from her cowering position to edge closer towards him. And her chest warmed at watching him, at watching the way he captured and held Tuly’s attention.

  ‘I’m guessing you’re smart like your father too,’ he added. ‘So you’ve already worked out that we’re not here to hurt you; we’re here to get you out.’

  Tuly turned slightly side-on to him in a stance that was typically lycan as she still assessed him warily.

  ‘I need you to know there’s something in this house,’ he said. ‘Something that might appear.’

  Tuly took an anxious step back, her grey eyes darting around the shadows.

  ‘But it’s okay,’ he said, capturing her attention again. He handed her a canister of salt through the bars.

  He looked across his shoulder at Jessie. ‘Can you get that door open?’ he asked, indicating across t
o the metal door that led into the alley.

  But Jessie had already had the same idea. Staying attentive to the shadows around her, she headed over. ‘Two padlocks,’ she called out. ‘Four bolts,’ she added, yanking them back. She looked over her shoulder. ‘The deadlock I’ll have to leave to you. I could end up snapping the handle with the force.’

  ‘Not a problem,’ Eden said, reaching into the back of his jeans for his pins. He slid them into the lock. ‘Anything comes at you,’ he said, glancing back up at Tuly. ‘And you lob that salt at it – yes?’

  She nodded.

  ‘We’re heading straight over to that door where Jessie is,’ he added.

  Jessie pulled the first padlock off and then the second, the force of it creating indentations in her fingers.

  ‘Once that door is open,’ he added, ‘we’re going to run. But we stick together.’

  Jessie’s jaw tightened. She looked warily around the shadows as she sensed the change in the atmosphere, the thrumming low and monotonous in her ears. She hurried forward into the darkness, just as Eden unlocked the cage, saving her the time of ripping it open.

  ‘Move it, Eden,’ she said, capturing his gaze across her shoulder as she kept her back to Eden and the young. ‘Now,’ she added, keeping her tone as low and calm as she could so as not to startle the latter.

  The figure appeared less than ten feet away. It was stood in the same position the others had been with the same lethargic stance. But as they now knew, it was anything but lethargic. It was building up to the attack – making its selection.

  There were a couple of gasps and squeals from the lycan young, yelps that she guessed had been quickly muted by others in the group who clearly knew silence was going to be integral. She heard the scampering of feet, felt the wave of motion behind her as they escaped the cage.

  ‘Jess?’ Eden asked.

  ‘Just get that deadlock open,’ she said firmly, not daring to take her eyes off the Night Child. ‘It can sense them but all it can see right now is a bright light. I’m like a torch in the face to it.’ She reached her hand back. ‘The salt,’ she said. ‘Give it to me. I’ll use it until the last second. Get Tuly to use hers to create a line of salt between it and them – it’ll buy us all some time once we get out.’