So she stopped struggling against Mary’s hold and Mary eased up on her arm. The sharp pain disappeared, replaced by a dull ache but Mary didn’t let go completely.
“You are right. We need to think about this,” Cordelia parroted, adding a resigned sigh for good measure. “Let’s sit down and talk about it.”
Her reasonable words worked and Mary released her, moving back to give her space. She pressed her head against the wall, taking a deep calming breath and shoring up her mental shields to keep them out before turning around the face them. She gave them both a contrite smile, trying to signal to them that she was under control now.
They seemed to buy it, the tension leaving their shoulders and she heard Nicky exhale the breath he had been holding. A twinge of guilt hit her at what she was going to do. Hopefully they would understand why it had to be this way.
“I’m sorry for lying,” Cordelia said before kicking Mary in the stomach, sending her flying in the opposite direction down the hall. Before Nicky could react, the row of fluorescent bulbs that lit the hall burst in a shower of sparks, plunging them into darkness.
Turns out that grief did a hell of number on the Shadow Walker system. Not only did it make certain powers a hell of a lot easier to access, it gave her the strength to punch a hole in the shroud around the manor.
Winds kicked up and in an instant Cordelia found herself standing in the woods, a simple wooden cabin half hidden among the trees. Though there was no way to see if there was any life within, she didn’t need to see Armand to know he was here.
There was a connection that drew her to him. It was what had guided her here when she had blindly shadow walked. The connection of her lover’s blood pumping through both of their hearts.
She palmed the knife that was still strapped to her side, testing its weight. It was small but she knew the torment that was tearing through her now would give her the strength to wield it with deadly accuracy.
She made her way to the cabin door, every heightened sense she possessed running in overdrive. She let the sounds of the woods fall away and focused on the low voices behind the cabin walls. She could smell the faint scent of fresh blood, sweet with the smell of sawdust and pine. It was Gabe’s blood, brought here on Armand’s lips.
A roaring filled her head and she rushed the cabin door, her shoulder slamming into the thick oak. It blew off its hinges, skidding across the plank floor before coming to a rest against the opposite wall. The room before her was empty of any occupants but the door to the other room was open and the two thugs who had held her captive emerged.
Perfect. They would be the appetizers before she got to the main course.
She launched herself at one of them, a spitting ball of fury that brought him down hard on his back. She reared up over him and plunged the knife into his heart, twisting the hilt in a full circle before pulling it out. Quick and efficient, he would be dead within seconds.
Before she could turn her attention away from her first victim, the other thug grabbed a fistful of her hair and hauled her up off the ground. An animalistic roar ripped from her lips as she struggled against the hold. A thick arm wrapped around her neck, trying to subdue her but she tore into the bulging flesh with her fangs, his vile blood flowing into her mouth.
Her attacker cried out in pain, releasing his hold on her and she slammed an elbow square into his chest. He stumbled back and hit the wall while she whipped around to face him, spitting out the putrid blood that tasted like ash on her tongue.
The male was stunned, the breath knocked out of him, and he was bleeding profusely from where she had bit him. He didn’t even react as she grabbed his head and slammed it hard against the wall, a sickening crack filling the cabin before he slumped to the floor. Cordelia took her knife from where it had fallen and pulled the same stab and turn action on his heart, delivering a fatal blow.
She rose to her feet, blood dripping from her hands and chin, her breath hissing like a snake through her fully extended fangs. She turned to the other room, finally getting a good look at what was in there.
A handful of males stood in the room, eyes wide as they stared at her, some completely dumbfounded and others rightfully terrified. Armand stood behind them, a large hunting blade in his hand. Next to him was the battered body of a male Shadow Walker suspended from the rafters by chains.
His body was littered with bloody cuts and burns, his face unrecognizable under the myriad of bruises but she knew that this poor creature had to be Remy. Though he was a stranger to her, her blood recognized him and it boiled with fury at seeing what had been done to him.
“I only want him,” she told the others, pointing to Armand. “The rest of you can leave.”
She would have been more than willing to tangle with any of the other Shadow Walkers but that would just delay getting her hands on Armand or worse, give him a chance to escape. Every cell in her body was screaming for revenge and she would delay it no longer.
While Armand might have gotten brute strength in his lackeys, they didn’t have much in the way of loyalty. They nearly trampled over each other to get away, using their enhanced speed to disappear out of the cabin in an instant.
She ignored them, her eyes never leaving Armand. For the first time, she saw panic on his face as he watched his followers abandon him. Only one remained, the one who had been his second all those weeks ago at Roxy, but he did not step forward to defend his leader. Instead he stayed in the corner, his eyes moving back and forth between her and Armand, as if he was just waiting for the show to start.
Armand was quick to hide his panic, his face transforming into a sneering smile and he even added a careless chuckle for effect.
“As always, a pleasure to see you again, fledgling,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his words.
“I’m going to end you,” she hissed at him.
“Promises, promises,” Armand chirped, smiling gleefully as he gripped the knife tightly in his palm.
Armand made the first move, launching himself at her but she stood her ground. When he was within reach, she grabbed his wrist, twisting it and using his own momentum to snap the delicate bones. The knife dropped from his now useless hand as he screamed in agony.
Despite the injury, he kept his footing and lashed out with a fierce sidekick to her ribs that sent her flying into the tables, scattering tools everywhere. She shook her head, momentarily dazed as a tight band wrapped around her lungs, her cracked ribs protesting with each breath she took. She did her best to ignore the pain, letting the rage inside her take over.
She gripped the table edge tightly and twisted herself around, flinging the heavy piece of furniture in Armand’s direction. He tried to dodge it but a corner clipped his shoulder, sending him spinning in the air before hitting the ground. She grabbed the knife from where it had fallen and fell down upon him, wrapping one hand around his throat.
An ugly smile spread across his face as he looked up at her. This close to him, she saw he still had streaks of Gabe’s blood on his face. She squeezed his throat tighter but he just kept smiling.
“You felt it the moment it happened, didn’t you?” he croaked out. “I know I did. When his heart stopped beating, it was like music to my ears. Did you hear it?”
She turned the knife around and slammed the hilt of it into Armand’s face, wanting to shut him up. He cried out in pain but it soon turned into stuttered laughter and he continued to taunt her.
“Maybe you didn’t hear it. After all, I’ve got a hell of a lot more of his blood in me than you do, don’t I? Here, taste it.”
With that, he spat the blood that had filled his mouth in her face, momentarily blinding her. He kicked her off him, rolling to his side and scrambling to his feet as she wiped the blood from her eyes.
Cordelia got to her own feet as Armand used his good hand to heft up a ball-peen hammer that had fallen to the ground.
He swung the weapon but she dodged it, ducking down and landed a punishing hit to his injured wrist. T
he pain dropped Armand to his knees and the hammer fell from his good hand. She dove for the weapon before Armand could regroup, her hand gripping the handle firmly and she swung it in a wide arc.
A sickening crunch sounded as she drove the hammer into the back of Armand’s skull. He dropped to the ground face first, his body twitching frantically as if every circuit in his brain was firing at once. She stood poised with her knife to deliver more damage but his body gave one great shudder before going still.
She looked over to where Matthew still stood in the corner, their eyes meeting. His expression was unreadable, his eyes void of anything resembling emotion. He simply bowed his head in respect to her and before she could make a move, he fled the cabin in a flash.
She was prepared to follow him but from behind her, Remy groaned painfully and her attention went to her injured brother. She studied the pulley system that had him strung up, following the path of the chains to determine how to get him down.
“You have to get the heart,” Remy rasped, his voice hoarse. “He’s not dead until you destroy the heart.”
“I know,” she said as she released the mechanism that locked the chains in place. With a steady hand-over-hand motion, she lowered Remy to the floor. “I have no intention of letting him die just yet.”
As Remy knelt on the floor before her, she looked over the hooks in his shoulders. They looked painful but she figured the best way to handle this was quick and efficient with a little distraction.
“He killed the man I love and he is going to suffer for it. I’m going to put him in this rig and I’m going to torture him,” she told him, gripping a hook in each hand. “And you’re going to help me.”
She pulled the hooks out clean, Remy screaming in agony before curling up in the fetal position, his body shaking as he whimpered softly. She let him ride it out in his own way, afraid to lay a hand on him even in comfort.
His skin was a roadmap of torture and she worried that any pressure on it would cause him even more pain. The trembling eventually eased and Remy seemed to relax slightly before his one good eye opened, blinking a few times before he focused on her face.
“Thank you,” he whispered, his voice filled with such gratitude, she wanted to weep. But before she could respond, she saw his eye focus on something over her shoulder and then widen.
Before she could turn around, she was pulled off her feet, the room spinning around her before she was slammed onto her back hard, black spots blooming in her vision. The next thing she knew, Armand was on top of her.
Blood poured from the wound on his head, his eyes black voids, fangs fully extended and dripping blood and gore as he snarled. He hauled back and headbutted her, causing her eyes to roll back into her head. She fought hard against the wave of darkness that tried to take her under. She couldn’t let him get any advantage over her.
Her sense of self-preservation took over and she reared up to bite down on the only piece of Armand she could reach: his nose. Blood spurted and he roared in pain, which let her get the leverage she needed to turn the tables on him.
Hooking her leg around the back of his knee and pushing off the floor with her shoulder, she rolled them over. When she had him pinned under her, she grabbed his ears and slammed the back of his head against the floor, wanting to keep him immobile.
“Get me a weapon,” she called out to Remy.
Armand continued to struggle against her like a wild animal, his eyes unseeing as he snapped viciously with his fangs and she fought to keep him down. She glanced back to see where the hell Remy was with a weapon and blanched. Remy was coming with a weapon all right, the broken leg of the table and he was aiming for her back.
She screamed as the wood pierced through her stomach, the pain lancing through her entire body and that damn darkness was back to take her down. She fought it, she couldn’t blackout, not yet, not until she knew he was really dead. She looked down to see the wood sticking out from her stomach and into Armand’s chest.
Straight through the heart.
“Hold on, I’ll pull it out,” Remy’s voice floated up from somewhere behind her. She tensed when she felt his hand on her shoulder, preparing for the pain. Even being ready for it this time, it hurt like a son of a bitch and if she had eaten anything in the last day, she would have thrown it up all over the floor.
Despite the pain and the nausea, she still managed to roll herself off Armand, not wanting any part of his foul body touching her. Remy knelt beside her, breathing just as heavy as she was now, the two of them fighting to stay in control of their beaten and broken bodies.
“Sorry about that,” Remy panted, “Couldn’t get a clear shot.”
“You know, I’m getting really tired of being stabbed,” she said when the pain had finally gone from sharp and demanding to a dull ache all over.
Remy turned his head to look at her, wincing at the pain from the movement. “You get stabbed often?”
“More often than you’d think. ”
He tried to laugh but it turned into a painful coughing fit.
“Sorry to add to the tally,” he said when he gained his breath. “Hell of a way to introduce myself to my new sister.”
“A ’nice to meet you’ probably would have been better,” she replied before groaning painfully. “Are you sure I’m going to live through this because it really hurts.”
“You’ll live as long as we get you some blood.”
“Any ideas how to do that because I didn’t exactly drive here so I’ve got no wheels for us to take.”
“You just have to call out to Nicky. I’d do the honours but this thing on my head jams my psychic abilities,” he said, pointing at the metal ring bolted to his head. “Call out to him and he’ll come get us. Just let me get the lights.”
He grabbed the bloody table leg and hurled it at the light bulb hanging from the ceiling, smashing it with a sizzling pop. When the room plunged into darkness, she dropped her shields and reached out for their sire.
He was right there, having been searching for her since she had left the manor. She didn’t have to say a word before a gale of wind rushed through the cabin, signalling Nicky’s arrival.
“My God, children.”
She felt Nicky’s warm hand on her cheek and then the distinct shift in reality that she was beginning to identify with shadow walking.
Overhead lights flicked on moments after their arrival and she had to blink a few times before her eyes adjusted. She was back in the infirmary, being laid out on a bed next to the one that Remy was being put on.
Now that she was home and safe, the adrenaline rush that had been pushing her began to peter out and the full extent of the damage done to her body began to register.
Anne’s face filled her slowly narrowing line of vision and Cordelia tried to fight off unconsciousness and focus on what the doctor was saying.
“You’re going to be fine, Cordy, I promise you. Just hold on a bit more, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“Sorry, you’ll hafta wait,” Cordelia slurred before finally allowing the darkness to take her away.
Chapter 20
Cordelia came awake slowly, trying valiantly to fight off consciousness. She wanted to stay in this dark world where there was no pain. It was so much better here where there was only a vast expanse of nothingness. Unfortunately, reality could not be put off forever and her eyes fluttered open of their own accord to reveal the white tiled ceiling of the examination room.
Her mouth was bone dry and she struggled to swallow, a throaty moan croaking from her lips. She heard movement beside her and a bleeding wrist was pressed to her mouth, warm blood rushing over her tongue. She latched on without any preamble, her body demanding the strength the blood provided. She zoned out as she fed, instinct taking over and drawing the sustenance into her body to jump start the healing it required.
Too soon the wrist was pried away from her lips and she was pushed back against the thin mattress of the gurney. She lay there, riding out
the high that came from the blood, her eyes trained on a hairline crack in the ceiling tile while she waited for her heart to stop racing and the buzz that filled her ears to fade away.
When she finally felt more like herself, she turned her head to see Nicky and Marcus sitting next to her bed, both of them watching her intently. She looked down at where Marcus held a tissue against his bloody wrist.
“Thank you,” she whispered to him.
“No need for thanks,” he smiled at her fondly, reaching out to squeeze her hand gently before rising from the chair. “Feel better, darling.”
He then exited the room, leaving her alone with her sire. She looked at Nicky expectantly, knowing that he would have some choice words for her considering her actions tonight.
“Oh there are many words I could say to you right about now,” he told her, reading her mind again. “Do not doubt for a moment that I am angry with you for going after Armand on your own. You should have let us help you. But I’m also grateful that you brought Remy home to us. So I guess we can call it even.”
“Remy!” she cried out hoarsely, having momentarily forgotten all about him. “Is he okay?”
“Yes, Anne is with him right now,” Nicky reassured her. “You saved him.”
Cordelia smiled half-heartedly at that bit of good news. “I’m glad I was able to save at least one person tonight. I hope Anne will be able to help him. He’s in pretty bad shape.”
“She has already worked one miracle tonight, I’m sure she can pull off another one.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked cautiously. There was a gleam of excitement in Nicky’s eyes and he smiled widely.
“She saved him. Gabe is alive.”
His words had her instantly struggling to get out of the bed. Pain from her stomach wound knifed through her body but she ignored it.
Could it be true? She had felt him die but why would Nicky play such a cruel joke on her?
“Cordelia, you need to rest,” Nicky said, taking hold of her shoulders to try to settle her down but she pushed back.
Born in the Shadows (In the Shadows Series Book 1) Page 29