Sanguinary (Night Shift Book 1)

by Margo Bond Collins

  “You don’t know how right you are, buddy,” I muttered, moving to the side to try to find a curtain pull. We needed a little distance from the carnage to keep these people safe.

  There wasn’t a curtain cord—it must have been controlled from some central area—but luckily for me, I could pull the curtains closed by hand. So I did exactly that, running across the front of the stage and hoping that no one out in the ballroom would decide to start shooting through the curtain blindly.

  I turned and surveyed the group. For a brief moment, I stared down at Garrett’s body. The strange blue light emanating from him had disappeared at some point, leaving only his open-eyed corpse. I bent down long enough to close his eyes. “I’m sorry, partner,” I whispered.

  Then I moved back to the group of people and knelt down next to Chandler. “How are you doing?” I asked him, hoping to distract him while I figured out how to get all these people safely out of the ballroom.

  “A little confused,” he said.

  “Yeah. Me too. What are you doing here?” I asked. Keep him talking. I picked up one of the chains that bound him to the others, running through loops in the prisoners’ manacles.

  “We got an anonymous tip that the Ellison Institute was going to be the site of the next set of murders.”

  I nodded encouragingly, trying to decide whether or not to attempt to break the chain. If I broke it, all these people would be free. They would still be wearing manacles, but at least they wouldn’t be chained together. And while that might be a good thing in theory, I wasn’t sure that thirty or forty loose mental patients would add much clarity to the situation on the ballroom floor.

  And I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to know—or give away—how much strength my connection to Reese might give me.

  Oh, what the hell. How could it possibly get any worse than it already is?

  I took the chain between both hands, closed my eyes, and pulled with all my strength, feeling power dance along that invisible silver cord connecting me to Reese. There was a deep creaking noise, and then one of the links slowly pried apart.

  “There,” I said, pulling the other links off of it. “That’ll give you motion, at least.” I peered at the manacles. “I don’t know if I can get those off without hurting you. Any idea who has the keys to these?”

  I looked into Chandler’s face and found that he was staring at me in sheer terror, his eyes huge. “Are you one of them?” he choked out.

  Instead of answering, I leaned down to pull on the fabric and peek under the curtain. Iverson’s men were pouring into the ballroom, covering one another as they took out vampire after vampire. The wooden dance floor was a slick mess of brains and blood. People screamed, guns popped, but the curtains muffled the noise.

  “I’m with them,” I said, motioning to Chandler to join me in looking out under the curtain. I pointed to a group of Iverson’s men in the process of killing a vamp who had been draining one of their officers.

  Chandler leaned back on his heels and nodded. Apparently, men in SWAT gear made him feel safe. I wasn’t sure Chandler was feeling entirely himself, but at least he wasn’t sobbing inconsolably like the woman next to him, or screaming that the world was ending.

  I pulled my .45 out of its holster and handed it to him. “Take this,” I said. He handled the weapon professionally, checking to make sure it was loaded, looking through the sights. Finally, he nodded. The gun seemed to give him a little of his confidence back.

  “Get these people out of here,” I said. “Don’t shoot anyone until you see the fangs. The bullets are new—they’ll take off a vamp’s head.”

  Reese sidled around the edge of the curtain, and then came to stand beside me. “You okay?” he asked.

  I saw Chandler’s eyes widen as he caught a glimpse of fang.

  “But not this one.” I grabbed Chandler’s gun hand and forced it down to keep him from aiming at Reese. “This one’s with us.”

  “Okay,” said Chandler, much more calmly than I might have in his situation. “Is there anything else I need to know? Any other friendly vampires I should avoid shooting?”

  Reese shrugged.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t know if there are any exits other than at the front, so I don’t know how you’re going to get these people out. That’s going to have to be up to you. Dallas PD should have cleared the rest of the hotel by now. If you can get to an officer, or get out of the ballroom, they can help evacuate this group too.”

  Chandler nodded. “What about you?”

  “We’ve got things to do,” I said. “Ready?” I asked Reese.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.” He spoke in his usual drawl, but I felt excitement sparking along our bond, infusing me with his anticipation for the fight.

  “Okay, then,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  Reese grinned at me and held up the curtain. “Ladies first.”

  “I’m pretty sure ladies don’t carry as many weapons as I do,” I said, grinning back at him.

  As we ducked under the curtain, I heard Chandler popping out orders to the people with him. “Okay, everyone. Listen up! FBI here. I need your attention!”

  Yeah, he was definitely doing better than I would have under those conditions.

  As Reese and I stepped out to the edge of the stage and looked over the carnage below us, he reached over and took my hand and counted. “One, two, three.”

  We jumped, up and out, over the dais, and farther, almost to the middle of the ballroom.

  For a moment, it felt like flying.

  And then we landed and began fighting.

  We moved in perfect harmony, twisting and turning, staking every vampire who dared come close to us. We were a perfectly balanced killing machine. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before.

  There were more of them than us, but all they had were their teeth and their super vamp strength.

  Reese and I had more.

  And we were winning—until our own dead began to rise and fight against us.

  I don’t know who was the first to notice it, but Tech One broadcast the info. “Watch out for vamps in SWAT gear! Our dead men are rising. Repeat: Our dead are rising as vampires.”

  I faltered, staggering out of step with Reese. He stumbled too, shaking his head and blinking.

  A tall, thin female vampire came up from behind him, teeth bared. Without even looking at her, Reese slammed a stake back behind him. She crumpled to the ground without a sound.

  “Glad you saw that,” he said wryly.

  I shook my head, trying to dislodge a sudden double vision, showing me both what I saw and what Reese saw.

  And suddenly, what I saw scared the hell out of me.

  “Crap. Check it out,” I said, but Reese had already spun around.

  Chandler and one of the officers were leading the mental patients along the edge of the room toward the exit. This would keep them out of the way of most of the vamps—the majority of whom were still in the middle of the ballroom.

  But they were leading all those people straight to a SWAT team member. And I could tell, even if Chandler couldn’t, that the officer was now a vampire.

  Reese and I took off at a run, shoving both humans and vampires out of our way, but I knew we wouldn’t make it in time, not to save everyone.

  Inspiration hit me—and I didn’t even have to say it aloud.

  Bats.

  The moment I thought it, Reese came to a dead stop, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. I circled around him, watching for anyone who might try to attack.

  This time, I was prepared for the rush of heat through my body, and I clasped the hand he reached out toward me, never dropping my wary stance.

  Power surged between us, as all around me, fights were breaking out. But there were fewer and fewer of them. The floor was bloodstained and damp, and bodies—both human and vampire—littered the ballroom. Out of one nearby pile, I saw a SWAT officer rise and turn toward me, fangs bared. With my free h
and, I fished the little derringer out of the purse I’d managed to keep tied to my other wrist and shot the new-formed vamp right between the eyes. It twitched once, then snarled again, so I took careful aim and fired again. This time, the top of its head came off in a confetti-shower of brains and blood. Both eyes continued staring at me, though. I had barely enough time to wonder if the top of the head was enough when the vampire took one weaving step forward and crumpled to the ground.

  I looked at the ceiling. Reese’s call was working. Tiny black forms flitted across the blue and gold of the mural and then swooped down to congregate around the vampire-officer’s head. He tried to wave them away, but more and more of the bats came swooping in through the doorways, landing on him until he was covered—until he couldn’t be seen for all the bats on him.

  Chandler’s group had stopped when the bats first started attacking. The FBI agent had even taken a couple of potshots at them. I hoped he had missed. Now all of the patients stood still and watched.

  More bats circled in. Within seconds, the vampire toppled over, screaming. But the screaming soon stopped, and as the bats lifted away, I saw why. They had ripped his head off.

  Chandler cautiously began leading his people across the room again.

  “Detective Davis?” Tech One said in my ear. “Did you see what I saw?”

  “Depends on what you saw.” I worked to keep my voice steady.

  “A bunch of bats take out a SWAT officer.”

  “That officer was a vamp.”

  There was a momentary silence, and then there was no more time for talk, as another vampire moved to attack us.

  Once again, Reese and I moved in flawless accord. He spun behind the vamp and grabbed him by the arms, pulling them backward so that the vamp thrust his chest out at me as I shoved my stake into his heart.

  It was beautiful, like a symphony of death, the most amazingly, exquisitely perfect thing I’d ever experienced.

  And then the lights went out.

  They were probably out for less than a minute, but it was long enough to bring that perfection I’d experienced crashing down around me. I felt my connection to Reese weaken a tiny bit.

  I froze for an instant. And in that instant, I felt a cold, thin arm wrap itself around my neck from behind. Equally cold fingers wrapped themselves around the hand with my stake in it, holding it still in a grip like icy iron.

  “He isn’t really on your side, you know,” a voice whispered in my ear, the sibilants harsh and breathy against my cheek.

  “Somehow, Richards,” I said in my normal voice, “I don’t trust what you might have to say.” I began working my free hand around to my waist, fumbling as I tried to extract the stakes that were hidden in the folds of my dress.

  “You should believe me,” she whispered. “Mendoza made Reese. Turned him for a purpose. Groomed him. Appointed him administrator.”

  “Mendoza didn’t turn Reese.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I wasn’t, of course. Reese had told me the Sanguinary had arranged for him to be turned, but not which vampire had actually done it.

  “So what?” I said, finally getting one of the stakes free and twisting it around in my hand. “Reese isn’t responsible for what Mendoza did.” As I was about to spin out from under her and stake her, though, she slid her arm from around my neck and grabbed my only free hand.

  “Oh, but he is, you see.” She used my arms to jerk me back against her body. “It’s what he wanted. He used Mendoza to get power. Exactly like he’s using you. He’ll kill you in the end too.” She paused, and then whispered into my ear, “Just like he killed me.”

  I froze, her words tumbling down into my stomach, along with my heart. Images clicked through my mind.

  Richards, sitting on a bed in a patient’s room the night of the raid on the clinic.

  I hadn’t seen her again that night.

  Reese, disappearing at about the same time Richards had, showing up later at the cathedral crime scene.

  Reese telling me had met with Mendoza to finalize his plans.

  I almost believe you.

  I couldn’t say the words out loud—could only barely think them.

  I leaned my upper body forward a little bit, and then rammed backward as hard as I could. We both went tumbling, rolling through the dark over blood and bodies. Richards lost her grip on me, and I came up onto my knees, stake held out in front of me.

  I sat there for a moment, concentrating on shutting down the channel between me and Reese. I didn’t know if it worked, but a brief moment of dizziness passed over me as the auxiliary power came on and the lights came up again.

  I shook my head to clear it.

  Richards was on her knees in front of me, rubbing the back of her hand across her own split lip. The blood leaking from it indicated that she had fed recently, and well.

  I saw her before she saw me. I lunged toward her as she looked up. The stake slid in past her ribs, and she started laughing aloud.

  “You know it’s true,” she said. “And killing me won’t change it.” Then the stake hit her heart. I felt a bolt of energy run through the wood and into my arm. Richards’s laughter died along with her body.

  I kneeled over her for a moment, almost wishing I hadn’t killed her before I could ask more questions.

  Was she telling the truth?

  Just how big a risk had I taken by coming to this ball tonight?

  I stared around the room, trying to find everyone. Not Reese—I knew without looking that he was behind me, killing another officer-turned-vampire.

  Apparently I hadn’t shut down the channel between us all that effectively.

  Could he feel my shock, my horror at the knowledge he had turned Richards?

  I wanted to find the rest of my team. The human members of my team. The people whose motives I at least knew, even if I didn’t always entirely trust or understand them. Most of the vampires were dead; most of the humans were still alive. I finally spotted them. Chandler was herding the mental patients out some exit I hadn’t even known existed. Jeanie and Andre were back-to-back on the dance floor. Andre reloaded his gun while Jeanie fired at a female vampire in a long white dress. The dress was streaked with blood—and then soaked with blood as the vamp’s head exploded and dripped down her shoulders.

  Through one of the now-open doors at the front of the room, I could see the squad doc in the ballroom foyer, tending to wounded humans—both those from our team and the ones who had been with the vampires.

  The surviving bloodgivers looked shell-shocked, and I hoped they would eventually recover. But even more of the bloodgivers had died with their vampires, protecting them until the very end.

  “Hey, Cami?” Iverson’s quiet voice came from behind me. “You okay?”

  I didn’t turn around. “How much of that did you hear?”

  “What Richards said? All of it.”

  “Could you keep that to yourself for a bit?” It was a lot to ask, I knew, but I needed to have the chance to question Reese myself.

  “You think it’s true?”

  “I don’t know. But until I do, I don’t want anyone using it against us.”

  There was a long pause, and then he placed a hand gently on my shoulder. “You know I’ve got your back.”

  “But?” I hated the way my voice quivered as I asked. Finally, I gathered the courage to turn and face my teammate.

  “No buts.” He shook his head and smiled, his eyes kind and warm. “I’ve got your back. Even if I sometimes might not like it.”

  “Thanks.” I nodded. Clamping down on my emotions, I headed over to Reese, who had finished off the last of a small group of vamps that had circled him while I was talking to Iverson.

  “Nice work,” I said.

  “Thanks,” he replied. “Would have been better with you here, though. What happened?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. The lights went out and some vamp bitch attacked me. Then I got a little woozy.”

&nbs
p; Reese nodded. “Me too. Right in the middle of these guys. Could have been bad if I hadn’t already convinced them they ought to keep their distance.” He grinned at me. My stomach flipped in response, and I felt the connection between us try to reassert itself.

  “I’m going to go help deal with any stragglers,” I said.

  He nodded and moved away.

  I heaved a sigh of relief. Eventually, I would have to deal with him.

  But not yet.

  I started systematically moving through the room, turning over corpses and staking any that still had heads. It was messy work, and the bottom of my gown was already soaked in blood. And by the time I’d made my way through most of the room, so was the top of my gown. I’d lost my purse sometime after I’d used the derringer, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen the wrap.

  And then, back against a far wall, I found Savage and Bier, the SWAT officers I’d met at Westlake. Savage was lying on the floor, a stake sticking out of his heart. Bier had Savage’s head cradled on his lap, and tears were dripping down his face. He looked up at me as I approached.

  “He tried to bite me.” A catch in his voice left long pauses between the words.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “No,” Bier said, stroking the hair on Savage’s head, “I’m sorry.” He whispered into the corpse’s ear, “So sorry I didn’t save you.”

  I backed away slowly, leaving Bier alone with his grief. I planned to make sure Bier came with us when we left, but until then, he could sit with his partner’s dead body.

  I moved back to Iverson, and we stared out across the blood and the bodies in companionable silence for a moment.

  “Nice work,” he said.

  “Thanks. I like to think it’s what I do best.”

  He chuckled and might have had something to say, if it weren’t for the fact that Boyd dropped down on him at that moment.

  I don’t know where the vamp had been hiding, but he landed so hard that I actually heard one of Iverson’s bones break. The crunch was accompanied by a startled yelp.