I didn’t have long to think about it, though, because Boyd was apparently aiming for me. He lunged, and I danced backward to avoid his grasp. He was screaming and cursing so incoherently that it took me a couple of minutes of skipping out of his way to figure out what he was saying.
“You’re mad because someone killed your human?” I jumped over a corpse on the floor, backing away from the screeching vampire. “You’re the one who thinks vampires and humans shouldn’t have relationships,” I said. Shaking my head, I stepped forward and slammed the stake into his heart.
As I pulled back from Boyd, I heard several pops from Iverson’s sharpshooters and saw a row of tiny red holes appear on Boyd’s forehead. The vampire’s head exploded not once, but three times. It sent showers of gore into the air and back down onto me.
I plodded back to the very front of the room. Iverson was being carried over to a stretcher by two non-vamp SWAT officers, and his face was white and strained. The squad doc motioned to them, calling out instructions.
Jeanie was sitting on the floor by the door, reloading magazines. “Hey, girlfriend,” she said as I leaned on the wall beside her. “How’d it go?”
I glanced up and saw Reese in a similar pose to my own, leaning against a wall across the room, watching me with a slight smile on his face.
“Okay,” I said to Jeanie.
“Only okay?”
“Yeah. But that’s still better than I anticipated.” I slid down the wall next to her.
“Isn’t that the damn truth,” she said, lifting one forearm to brush her hair out of her eyes. But she winced as she did, and I saw a bandage tugging at the underside of her arm—clearly slapped on quickly in the heat of the battle, not meant to last long or do much more than staunch the flow of blood.
I hadn’t felt Reese move up behind me, but I knew as soon as he caught the scent of Jeanie’s blood. Our connection slammed through me, leaving me doubled over as Reese’s senses overwhelmed my own.
I want to slide my teeth into her veins, feel the hot rush of blood fill my mouth.
I want to feel her last breath flutter across my cheek.
I want her to die in my arms.
I wish I could say it was that thought that stopped me. But it wasn’t. It was Reese, stepping in between us. He held out his hand and helped her up. At the same moment, an iron band of pure will slid down around me, into me, keeping me still, restraining me from moving any closer to Jeanie.
Reese’s willpower.
Then Reese turned his back on Jeanie. “Go,” he said to her over his shoulder.
Eyes wide as she stared at us, she dragged in a deep breath—I hadn’t even realized she had been holding it—and then walked away without ever looking back.
The interaction had lasted only the barest instant. No one else in the room had noticed it.
“Get me out of here,” I rasped, shaking in reaction.
Reese nodded, pulling me in close to him and scanning the room between us and the exit. On our way out, he snagged an abandoned tuxedo jacket and wrapped it around me.
It might not have made any real difference, but it felt like protection, as did his hands across the backs of my shoulders.
And for the first time ever, I realized, his palms felt warm.
We were almost all the way through the entry when I saw the small, crushed satin of my mask peeking out from behind the door.
“Wait,” I said, ducking down to pluck it off the floor.
Reese waited barely long enough for me to grab the mask, and then tugged me out the doors and down the stairs. “Don’t make eye contact with any officers. Concentrate on looking official.”
I did my best—but probably luckily, all the officers on hand were busy taking statements from the relatively few human survivors.
And as far as I could tell, Reese was the only vampire to have survived the attack.
It didn’t take us long to get to a back service elevator, and from there to the first floor.
“You have a car back here?” I asked.
Reese made a noncommittal noise that I took to mean yes—and that actually meant he had arranged for his truck to be waiting for us on the far side of a back entrance, away from any official vehicles. He bundled me inside. As he moved into the driver’s seat, I tossed my ear bud out the window.
I didn’t want the techs hearing any more of my conversations.
By then I was shivering.
“What now?” I asked as he pulled the pickup down a side street.
He glanced at me without answering, and we drove in the general direction of his art gallery.
“Why did you retrieve that?” he finally asked, gesturing toward the small mask in my hands.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. After that, I stared out at the lights slipping along outside my window.
But I was lying. I knew exactly why I had insisted on stopping to grab it at that last moment.
I had to stop for it, had to have it, because it was symbol, no matter how small, of my last innocent moments.
The last night I truly believed I was one of the good guys.
Chapter 26
Reese ushered me to his guest bathroom, handing me a stack of clean towels and clothes.
I stared at them blankly for a few moments—I guess it had never before occurred to me that a vampire might need something so prosaic as towels. Or women’s clothing.
The thought flashed across my mind that the clothes might have belonged to Leila. A spark of jealousy threatened to ignite, but I pushed it away in favor of ignoring thought altogether. Or trying to, anyway. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had kept the dead woman’s clothes as mementos, or if he had been unable to bring himself to get rid of them. And in either case, what it might mean that he had given them to me to wear.
What did it mean to share a bond with a vampire?
In the shower, I studied the water running down my skin, tracing the blue lines of veins, thinking of the smell of Jeanie’s blood, hot and enticing.
I didn’t think of Reese turning Leah Richards.
Instead, I tried to think of what came next.
We had survived having slaughtered the Dallas vampire elite. We had helped wipe out every local vampire member of the Sanguinary. Along with more humans than I had been able to count.
And I was still alive.
A few hiccoughing sobs wracked my body. I tilted my head against the tile and waited for tears to come.
They didn’t.
The water ran cold before I finally stepped out of the stall and dressed in the jeans and T-shirt Reese had left for me. I dragged a brush through my wet hair and spun it into a loose bun behind my head.
I could feel my body begin to shake, as if in reaction, but also as if it belonged to someone else.
I don’t have time for a breakdown.
I dressed and made my way to find Reese, who was waiting in the main showroom, twirling an awl through his hands.
“Mendoza was planning more than just the stuff at the ball,” he said.
I stared at him warily but didn’t respond.
“The private Sanguinary induction was happening at the blood house. That’s part of why he had the ball at the hotel, to keep other people away from it.” He paused, his gaze searching mine. “You want to check it out with me?” he asked.
I’m not about to let you go alone.
Smile lines formed around his eyes, even though the expression didn’t touch his mouth. “You don’t have to trust me yet. It’s okay.”
I nodded. “If there’s still work to be done, I’m ready to do it,” I said.
When Reese turned away from me, I could feel the echo of our connection, drawing us together, orienting me to him like the needle on a compass to north. The pull to him was both stronger than it had been and more internal.
As we walked back to the truck, the connection between us was undeniable—despite what he’d said about not trusting him. I could feel emotions swirling between us,
a mix of hope, fear, desire, and power.
It all added up to something a little bit like love. Reese pulled his truck back onto the street, his truck’s headlights shining on the ground in front of him, and headed west.
“You think there’s anyone still at the blood house we’ll need to watch out for?” I asked.
“Maybe,” he said. “But no one we can’t take care of.”
I glanced over at him briefly, then longer to watch the play of streetlights over his squared jaw.
“What?” he asked, his gaze flicking in my direction.
“How much of this did you have planned?” I asked. I didn’t look away, didn’t dare blink for fear I would miss something.
He shrugged. “Some.”
“Only some?”
His silence threatened to draw out—but I was equally determined to wait for him to answer. When he finally spoke, I almost wished he hadn’t.
“I was waiting for my chances. When they came, I took them. I didn’t foresee all of them, but I’m damn glad I grabbed them when the moment came.” His voice was husky, and I was reminded of my own tearless crying in the shower.
“I don’t regret a single thing,” he said, almost inaudibly.
Chapter 27
The blood house was quieter than it had been on any of my earlier visits—but I was different too, so it almost sounded louder, even with only our footsteps echoing through the main room.
No one came out to meet us, but the door had been unlocked, so I assumed that we weren’t alone.
But there was no breathing, and everything was almost entirely still.
“There, I think,” I said quietly, pointing to the door behind the bar. Reese nodded and we swung out away from one another to circle the bar itself, as if we had been working rooms together all our lives.
I drew my gun and led with it. We rounded the edge of the bar to find nothing but an empty space. I slid around to the side, my back against the wall, briefly patting down the swaying curtain before sidling up to the door that led to the back.
I met Reese’s eyes out of habit, but I could feel that he was ready to go through. We swung around and he kicked the door open. It crashed against the doorframe, and we followed it through.
Hard concrete floors. Boxes and boxes of booze. Stainless-steel shelves holding bottles.
And a trapdoor leading down into the floor.
“Seems like they could have at least covered it with a rug or something,” I muttered. “I don’t think they’re even trying.”
Reese shrugged. “I don’t think they had to.”
I moved back to the doorway and peered into the empty club. “So is this normal? If Mendoza’s gone, everyone’s gone?”
“I don’t know,” he said, lifting the padlock that held the trap door closed. He tugged at it experimentally, chewing on his lip absently. “I don’t think the blood house has been empty since vampires showed up. Makes me think I’m right—there’s something here he didn’t want anyone else to see.”
“It’s creepy,” I said, moving back over to join him.
“Stand back.” He gave one sharp, hard tug on the padlock. The lock itself stayed closed, but the door around it splintered.
“That wasn’t very sturdy.” I stepped closer and bent down to peer at the wood.
“I don’t think it was meant to be.” Reese handed me the padlock. The side that had been facing up was bright stainless steel. But the other side was covered in tiny red symbols, all over.
“What does this mean?” I asked.
“No idea.” He dropped down onto the stairs leading down to the basement. “But I’m about to go find out.” Holding out one hand to me, he grinned—that same reckless, cowboy grin I’d seen on him before. “Want to come with me?”
Oh, what the hell.
“Sure,” I said, and followed Reese down the darkened stairway. About two-thirds down the steps I realized that I was seeing things much more clearly than I had anticipated—even the darkest corners seemed slightly illuminated by a bluish glow.
A slight swishing noise came from down the hall that was at the end of the staircase. I moved off the last step and turned my back to the wall, holding my gun loosely, but ready.
There were doorways along the hall, but no light shone out from them, and there were no noises from within. I was torn between clearing the hall and following Reese, who moved with single-minded purpose toward the door at the end of the hallway—the one door that did have light and sound coming from behind it.
In the end, my police training kicked in and I did a quick check of each room as I moved past. I couldn’t keep anyone from coming in behind us, but I could at least make sure we hadn’t left anyone to attack us.
The rooms were small, cell-like, and empty.
At least one had rust-colored stains on the floor. I didn’t need the lab to tell me it was blood.
My methodical sweep through the hallway didn’t put me far behind Reese, who had opened the doorway at the end and stopped. I assumed he was waiting for me, though he didn’t look back, instead staring intently at the scene in front of him. As I came up behind him, he moved slightly to the side, allowing me to see around him.
“What the hell is that?” I breathed.
A wooden frame stood in the center of the room, a naked woman dangling from the center crosspiece. Various straps held her up, some of them attached to her by hooks jabbed through the meatiest parts of her body. Her arms were stretched out to the sides, her palms nailed to the wood behind her. Dried blood flaked along her skin next to gouges in arcane designs, matching the ones carved into the stand that was holding the woman mostly upright.
The entire contraption sat atop a pentagram within a circle, carved into the concrete floor, then traced in blood.
“More blood magic,” Reese said.
I moved to step into the room, but Reese held me back, gesturing at the floor in front of us.
“What is that?” I knelt down to look closer at the white line along the floor.
“Salt, I think,” he said. “Try to pass through.”
I followed his gesture and pushed my hand against the apparently open doorway, hitting what felt like marble, hard and cool to the touch, invisible to the eye. “Any ideas?” I asked.
Reese took a step back, drawing me with him. He rooted in his pocket and pulled out a penny. With an underhand toss, he threw it into the room.
The coin bounced across the threshold and rolled into the room, fetching up at the crucified woman’s feet.
I gasped when she lifted her head and opened her mouth, her breath rasping in what I think would have been a moan, or maybe even a scream, if she’d been able to speak.
“Oh, holy hell,” I whispered. “She’s alive.”
Reese nodded. “I don’t know if we can get in.”
“We need to call an ambulance,” I said.
“No.” He shook his head. “Not until we break their connection to the other world. We can’t let anyone else see this, Cami.” The way he said my name felt like a weight across my shoulders. He stared into my eyes, and I fought against the pull I could feel him exerting. “We have to destroy their access to the magic—and whatever is in this room is part of that.” He stared in through the doorway, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Can’t you feel it?”
As soon as he said the words, I felt the magic crash against whatever blocked the doorway, waves of it beating in time to my heart and my breath, pounding against the inside of my skull.
“She needs help,” I said, determined not to drop the subject.
Reese glanced at me, and the pressure against the inside of my forehead lessened. “Let’s at least get into the room first.”
I looked at him, then at the salt on the floor. “So is that supposed to keep us out, or the”—I paused, gesturing at the invisible waves still thumping against the open doorway—“magic whatever in?”
He narrowed his eye at the salt line. “Mendoza was down here. I can smell him. Th
is can’t be designed to keep vampires out, not permanently, or Mendoza wouldn’t have been able to get back in. I don’t know about humans.”
“Any idea what that stuff will do if we let it out?”
Reese shook his head. “Not a clue.”
“Okay. Brace yourself.” I knelt down and brushed my hand across the line, breaking it into individual crystals.
I expected the magical waves to wash over me, but instead, they retreated into the room.
Like my connection to Reese, they hovered just outside my ability to actually see them—almost a silvery blue shimmer, now swirling around the base of the apparatus holding the victim.
This time when I pushed my hand out, it moved easily through the doorway. I stood, brushing the salt off my hands. Reese followed me to the young woman, stepping carefully to avoid making contact with the waves. When I reached out to touch the woman gently, she began thrashing back and forth, and the angry-looking wounds around the hooks began to leak sullenly.
“It’s okay,” I repeated over and over. “We’re here to help.” I spoke softly as I moved around the stand, trying to determine if there was an easy way to take her down. After a long moment, she finally quieted. At first, I thought she had finally heard me, but then I realized she had simply passed out.
When she lost consciousness, the swirling magic stilled, and then seemed to drain away.
“We need to help her,” I said to Reese, who was scanning the equipment surrounding the scaffolding.
“In a minute.” His square-tipped fingers ran across the page of a book on a stand behind the woman. “I think I can almost see how this works.”
“Now,” I said. “She needs help now.”
Silence. He continued to examine the book, the table, the device—everything but the barely living woman hanging from it.
We’re all monsters, he had told me once.
At this moment, I believed him.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket to dial 911, but we were too deep underground. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Reese didn’t even respond.
I emerged from the stairwell into the storage room, and was staring down at my phone when something hit me from behind, hard. I tripped over my own feet and went sprawling. Someone landed on top of me, growling, “Die, bitch!” in a little-girl voice.
Sanguinary (Night Shift Book 1) Page 17