I smirked. "We are discussing rules here, not my escape methods."
"Fine, then I say no swords."
"I disagree, swords are allowed."
"Do you know how many people have disagreed with me and survived?" He asked.
"We are discussing rules, we are allowed to disagree, I'm not just going to accept all of your suggestions so deal with it."
His eyes narrowed on me. "Ok, I'll let you have that one, swords are allowed."
"No attacking below the waist." I said and I didn't realise how that sounded until Lucian snorted with laughter and Bethany started giggling. "Not for that reason!" I said with a blush. "I just meant you have a big enough advantage of moving faster without damaging his legs."
"That's true, but the other reason is definitely a good point." Lucian said.
Michael glared at me. "I don't agree to that."
Lucian sighed. "Ok, nice try Mckenzie, but he obviously wasn't going to go for that." He grabbed me by the arm and shoved me behind him again. "Rules are done, now you two stand over there so you don’t get hurt." He added pointing over to a building not far from them, but far enough that we would be out of the way. Bethany and I both opened our mouths to answer back, but before we could Lucian added. "Go."
We both closed our mouths with a groan before walking over to the building that he had indicated. To my disgust Eric joined us at the same building, but luckily still seemed to have the ten feet rule going on.
"You think he's going to win?" Bethany whispered to me as Michael and Lucian squared off with each other.
Lucian drew his sword and Michael was handed one by one of the soldiers.
"He better, or I'm going to get a zombie to bite him to bring him back and spend every day yelling at him for losing." I replied quietly trying to make a joke about it, but the truth was that I was terrified that he would be killed and terrified of what I would do when the soldiers tried to take everyone.
He should have let me fight, at least he would have known what to do if I had lost, but I knew that Lucian would rather cut off his own feet than stand by and watch me fight Michael.
Chapter 20
A soldier had been counting down from three without my notice and the only thing that made me realise that the fight had started was the sound of metal on metal as their swords collided with one another. The blows they inflicted with their weapons were so fierce that one wrong move could mean the difference between surviving and dieing. Michael was so fast that he was almost a blur, but luckily Lucian wasn't slow by any means of the imagination, I had never noticed how quick he was, but then again I guess that it had never been necessary for him to move with such speed.
Lucian seemed to be defending more than attacking, I wasn't sure if it was because he didn't have a chance or if it was some kind of plan he had going on in that head of his.
Me and Bethany were staring at the exchange intently as if afraid that we would miss a single strike or block if we looked away or even blinked. It was happening fast enough that, that could be all together possible. I had been worried that the fact that Lucian was human and needed to rest could be another disadvantage since the zombies could go on forever, but to my relief Lucian didn't seem to be weakening at all. Neither one of them seemed to be able to land any kind of hit, they were just too evenly matched. What would happen if it was just a draw and neither one of them could win?
That was a stupid thought though because one of them would be bound to make a mistake at some point. I just hoped that it would be Michael, the thought of Lucian losing just wasn't acceptable. A particularly violent collision of their swords had a loud squeaking sound echoing around the area as their blades slid along each other making everyone wince as it met their ears. Michael was the one to break the contact, he shoved Lucian away making him stumble and I thought he would dive right in and finish him off, but to my relief Michael jumped away and ran up the bonnet of the nearest car until he was on the roof. Lucian had already gained back his balance and was at the ready as Michael stared down at him.
The asshole was playing with him, he didn't even doubt that he would win, as far as he could see he had already killed Lucian and this was just the entertainment until the game ended.
I clenched my hands into fists at my sides, he could not win, I would not have another family taken away from me by zombies. Before I could think about interfering or anything though something collided with me from the side so hard that I went down and rolled several times with the thing in question still attached to me. I heard Bethany yell my name, but it wasn't until I stopped rolling that I realised it was Eric who had initiated the unprovoked attack on me.
Talking of people who had taken away my family, this bastard was responsible for the last time. Feeling no hesitation about wanting to kill him anymore I unleashed my full rage upon him. I swung my leg up kneeing him between the legs before I shoved him off of me and rolled over on top to straddle him.
"That's for my Dad!" I yelled as I punched him in the face as hard as I could dazing him. "That's for Lucian's Mum!" Another punch making him blink as if he was trying to focus. "That's for everyone at camp!" This punch made his nose bleed. "That's for betraying us!" A punch split his lip, he was barely conscious. "That's for me!" His head rolled to the side as my fist collided with his jaw, he was knocked out cold, but it wasn't enough. "That's for being an asshole!" I yelled punching him with every word until his face was covered in blood and then continuing to punch more, my fist was covered in blood both from his face and from my knuckles that had skin peeling from them with the force I had been hitting him with, but still I didn’t stop. My tears dripped down my cheeks mixing with the blood when they fell from my chin onto his face.
I didn't stop until I was grabbed from behind and pulled away gently, that was when my hands stopped their assault. I knew who it was even before Lucian whispered in my ear.
"It's ok sweetheart, you can stop."
I turned into his arms and cried into his chest as I choked out. "Is he dead?"
"I think so, let's get you inside, I have a fight to finish."
I nodded against his t-shirt lifting my head up to rest my chin on his shoulder. Bethany was standing behind him to the side looking at me with a sad expression, which was why she didn't see Michael either. I did though, I had no idea how Lucian had ended up pulling me away from Eric, I didn't know if he had called a break or what, but whatever he had done Michael didn't seem to be agreeing with it because I looked up just in time to see him charging at Lucian's vulnerable back with his teeth bared. I reacted automatically, but if I had, had a chance to think about it I know that I would have done the same thing even then. Clutching onto the front of Lucian's shirt I yanked hard shoving him to the side. Caught completely unprepared Lucian stumbled sideways, he didn't go far, but it was enough that when Michael's teeth made contact with skin it was mine and not his.
His teeth pierced into my shoulder drawing blood as the venom that contained the zombie virus was injected into my blood stream. He wasn't doing it for any longer than it took Lucian to react, but it was long enough for the damage to be done.
Lucian grabbed him by the neck and pulled him away from me with a growl of rage letting Michael know that he had just done the last thing he would ever do. Quicker than my eyes could follow the blade of Lucian's sword sliced through Michael's neck sending his head down onto the concrete where it rolled a few times before his body followed.
Bethany gasped as she looked at me as if she had only just caught up with what was going on. I don't know what had been keeping my body upright before, but as if the death of Michael had made the venom from the bite react my legs gave way and agony pierced through my shoulder.
"No!" Lucian yelled as he caught me and lowered me to the floor. "No, no, no this can't be happening." He repeated over and over as if he thought that it would make it untrue if he said it enough times.
It was probably a little soon to tell him, but I had to make sure he knew so I s
aid. "You have to kill me, I don't want to be a zombie." My voice came out in a whisper as I tried to keep my voice from revealing any sign of the pain I was feeling right now.
"No." He said shaking his head as he clutched onto me and I actually saw tears falling from his eyes, I had never seen him cry before. "Why did you do that? You shouldn't have done that!"
"I couldn't lose you." I choked out, since I was going to die anyway I didn't see any point in hiding how I felt about him anymore. "You are the only one that can make me forget that we are living in an apocalypse. So many people need you."
"No, you can’t go. I need you, I need my Tinkerbell." He whispered squeezing me tightly. "This world doesn't mean anything to me if you aren't in it."
I felt tears break free from my eyes as I replied. "You only say that because I'm dieing Adams."
He sighed and rested his forehead against mine. "I really wish I was Tink, because this wouldn't hurt so much, but you are everything to me. I've loved you ever since you looked at me suspiciously with those beautiful blue eyes when I moved in next door. I loved you when you glared at me for getting Patch locked up, I loved you when you got so angry at me with such fire in your eyes as you stamped your foot." I stared at him silently as tears continued to leak down my face, still hearing the fact that he loved me. "That day in Australia I thought you would die, you survived, but you died inside when you found out what had happened to your Mum. I wished that I could have exchanged places with her just to get that look of despair off of your face. I didn't know if you would ever recover, I wanted to kill anyone who even dared get a spider near you. You never returned to normal until I drove you to school that first day I got my license, you argued with me and everything, but the fierceness in your eyes was absent until I drove too fast, you looked like you were about to tear me to shreds so I did it every time you were in the car just so I could see it." I had always wondered why he drove so fast, I thought it was just a guy thing. "I never realised how hard I was on you until that day in high school when you looked at me with such surprise for defending you from that spider. It was just all a game to me, I tried to hold back, but you made it so difficult when you gave it back. I've always loved you Taylor, no matter how many fights and arguments we had I still love you."
A sob escaped my throat, it was typical that I had to find out all of this now that I was going to be dead in a few hours. Since he told me that he loved me though I guess I owed him the truth in return because I did love him even if I had been trying to deny it.
"I can't say I've always loved you because you seriously used to make me hate you, but since I came here I fell in love with you, I tried not to because you still drive me crazy, but I can't help it and I can't believe you waited to tell me that until I'm dieing, you're such an asshole!" I cried.
He gave me a small smile. "I know I should have told you sooner, but you aren't dieing Tink, not on my watch."
I frowned up at him. "There isn't any cure Lucian."
He just grunted and slid his arm under my knees before standing up with me cradled against his chest. I winced as my shoulder throbbed at the movement.
"Are you going to leave nicely or are we going to have to kill you all?" Lucian asked the soldiers still standing around, I had completely forgotten about them.
They didn’t even answer all I knew was that within a few minutes doors slammed and engines started before accelerating out of the area.
He spoke to Bethany next. "I can save her, but I need you to not tell anyone about this, you can't tell anyone that she was bitten, if anyone asks say she got stabbed in the shoulder. If this gets out then everyone will be in danger, this is serious Bethany." It was a good thing that all of the windows on the ground floor were boarded up or this would have never worked.
She nodded without hesitation. "Stabbed in the shoulder, got it."
"Ok, let's go." Lucian said adjusting me in his grip until the bite on my shoulder was pressed against his chest hiding it from view. I winced and ground my teeth together against the pain. "I'm sorry Blondie, I know it hurts, but we can't let anyone see it." I nodded silently as he walked towards the doors with Bethany and said. "Gordon is coming upstairs with us, Bethany stay down here and spread the story about being stabbed."
She nodded and grabbed the front door with one hand before looking at Lucian. "You better keep her from getting sick. Whatever you are planning on doing, make it work. You get upstairs as quick as you can and I'll send Gordon up."
I smiled at her. "Thanks Bethany."
She shrugged. "Hey girl, you saved my life, I owe you." Then she turned the handle and opened the door.
I immediately rested my head against Lucian's shoulder and closed my eyes pretending to be passed out. The minute we were in the lobby I could hear Bethany relating the story to everyone of how I got stabbed in the shoulder when I pushed Lucian out of the way. I kept my eyes closed as he walked, it wasn't until the sounds of loads of people talking were cut off as the elevator doors closed that I opened my eyes.
"You know, I'm still pissed at you for risking your life for mine again. That's twice in less than twenty four hours and I'm even more pissed because it was an unnecessary risk, neither events would have killed me."
I snorted. "What, so you're invincible now?"
He sighed. "Not quite."
I frowned. "What does that mean?"
"I'll explain in a minute." He said walking out of the now open elevator doors and heading to his room.
When he stepped in it was to find a room pretty much exactly the same as mine, but then again it was a hotel so it only made sense that the rooms were almost all the same. If it hadn't been for the fact that I knew he hadn't walked into my room I would have thought it was mine.
He walked over to the bed and lowered me onto it gently, careful not to jostle my shoulder too much. When I was laid down on there he began pacing across his room, running his hands through his hair every few steps.
"Ok, what I'm going to tell you is going to be really hard to believe." He said as he continued to walk.
"Ok." I answered wondering what the hell he was going to say, did he have super powers or something?
"Or something." He said.
"What?" I asked.
He shook his head. "You asked if I had super powers or something, so I said or something."
I sat up quickly ignoring the pain in my shoulder. "I did not ask that out loud!"
He stopped mid step and stared at me with a frown.
"Did you just read my mind?" I asked with a glare, there were so many things I had thought about while he was around that I would rather he didn’t know about. "Have you always done that?"
He shook his head still frowning at me. "No, your mind is too strong for me to read, it must be the virus weakening it."
"What the hell Adams? Explain what the hell you're talking about now!" I hissed.
He sighed. "I can read the minds of most people, but there are a few that have a strong wall guarding theirs, sometimes its after years of training, but others are just born with it naturally."
I frowned. "And that's it? You can just read minds?"
He snorted. "That's not even close to everything Blondie."
I sighed and ground out from between my teeth. "Any chance you could hurry up, because my shoulder is really starting to hurt."
He walked over to his bathroom and I heard moving about in there as he called. "Ok, well what Michael said about his bite and the blood poisoning not affecting me was true."
"What so you're immune to the virus?" I asked.
"Yeah, but that isn't all that wouldn't affect me, it would take a lot to kill me Mckenzie, I'm not even sure what would kill me." He said as he walked back into the room holding a cloth and bowl of water.
"What does that even mean?" I asked.
He sat next to me on the bed, dipped the cloth into the water before ringing it out and then pressed it against my shoulder gently making me cry out involuntarily.
&
nbsp; "I'm sorry." He murmured a he continued to clean it.
When he kept quiet I asked again. "What does that mean Lucian?" He met my eyes and his already dark eyes flashed to a complete black until there was no white left before returning to normal. I jumped in shock, but surprisingly it didn't scare me, I already trusted him too much, I was just curious so I changed my question as I stared at him with a frown. "What are you?"
He opened his mouth several times, but no sound seemed to be coming out, he was either too nervous to tell me or he just didn't know how to tell me.
"Just spit it out!" I shouted suddenly.
"I'm a demon." He muttered.
My mouth dropped open as I tried to think of something to say, but just then Gordon ran through the door and yelled. "You can’t tell her Lucian, your Dad will be pissed!"
"Your Dad?" I asked with a frown, I'd never heard much about his Dad all I knew was that he had gone to visit him with his Mum about once every year in Florida.
"Yeah, this didn't just come from nowhere, it came from my Dad, Mum was human." He said.
"You already told her?" Gordon yelled shoving the door closed behind him with a bang.
"She's dieing, she was bitten, I need to heal her!" Lucian shouted at Gordon. "I had to tell her, you know healing doesn't work with us unless she knows we are real!"
"Your Dad forbids you from healing or telling anyone Lucian, you know that!" Gordon growled.
"I don't care, I won't lose her, I'll deal with my Dad."
Gordon sighed all the fight seeming to leave him. "Fine, on your head be it, but this can only end badly."
I was so confused by now, what the hell were they talking about, why couldn't he heal me unless I knew about demons and was Gordon a demon and why had his Dad forbidden healing?
Proving that he could still read my mind Lucian answered. "Demons aren't exactly made for healing people Tink, having the restriction that healing doesn't work unless the human knows about us stops us from healing people randomly. Gordon is about a quarter demon and my Dad isn't exactly a nice man."
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 25