by Anna Santos
“Who is she?” Shane asked, staring at the girl who was seated on the floor with her bloody hands pressed against her stomach.
Anna crouched in front of her. “Beth, I’m Anna and this is Shane. You are safe now. Myra told us what you did for her and how you were trapped here against your will.”
Beth’s eyes shone with watery eyes. “He took my sister, Marie. I wasn’t able to save her.”
“The king is after Alaric. He won’t get away.”
“You can’t kill him. My sister is pregnant, if you kill him, they will die too.”
“I know, we know that,” Anna reassured her, putting her hands on her shoulders to calm her down. “We need to move you again. I know you are in pain, but we need to take you from this tunnel, We heard an explosion, and the ceiling might collapse. Do you think you can move?”
“I’ll try.”
“Shane, could you help me with getting her up?” Anna asked.
Shane moved to help Beth, but she flinched back. “I’m not going to hurt you,” Shane assured. “Just put your arm around my neck.”
After a while, Beth was walking on her two legs, and Anna and Shane found their way outside that tunnel even if it was at a painfully slow speed and with Anna pressing Beth’s wound so she wouldn’t bleed out.
Chapter Twenty-One—BETRAYAL
ALARIC
"Conrad, bring Beth," Alaric ordered, grabbing Marie after the platform lowered into the level below them. Moments after, his trusty number one appeared beside him, holding Beth.
Looking at the wall before him, he waited until his men moved one of the shelves so they could access the secret passage behind it. After opening the steel reinforced door, they proceed to descend the narrow staircase carved in the rock. The sound of the door closing and being locked assured him that even if someone followed them there, the door would hold them until they had time to escape.
Alaric hadn't survived this long without being paranoid enough to have several escape plans. He didn't know how they had found them, or even who they were, but he was ready to flee. He could figure out who was coming for him, later. Now, he needed to take his mate to safety since they were still bonded, and all that happened to her would happen to him. She was a liability, and he needed to secure her. The ritual should have worked. They should have been unbound. There was no time to think about a plausible reason for it not working.
To increase his annoyance, Marie was slower since she was pregnant. In return, he was slower, too. It rattled his nerves and made him growl all the way down the uneven stairs into the secret caves under the fortress. Behind him, he could hear Beth trying to fight Conrad. He was in no mood to deal with one of her tantrums.
He yelled at her, "Beth, they will kill us all if you keep fighting Conrad. Move and stop delaying us!"
They were outnumbered. He only had four more bodyguards to protect them, not including Conrad because he needed his new number one to secure Beth.
"Which way, master?" one of the vampires in the front asked Alaric when they arrived at the caves.
There were four different tunnels to choose from.
Alaric instructed, "We need to take the second tunnel. It will lead us to the sea where I have a boat to safely take us to a submarine."
"How did you have time to call a submarine?" Maria asked out of breath.
"I was already planning to leave after all the rituals were over," Alaric clarified. "I have friends in Europe who can help us and I have other men in my castle, waiting for us."
"No, no," Beth protested.
Alaric glared back and witnessed her trying to escape Conrad’s hold. "Beth, don't force my hand. I'm not in the mood. Your sister and I are in danger. You need to behave if you want the baby to survive."
"You want to kill our baby," Marie spat, holding onto her belly. "Liar!"
"Let's go," Alaric ordered, ignoring his mate’s glare and moving forward.
Dragging Marie in the process, he entered the second tunnel.
"Stop! I can't walk this fast!" Marie begged as she pulled her arms from his hold.
He stopped and released her, ready to slap her. "Shut up! It's your fault that I can't move faster. You were the one who had to get pregnant and ruin my plans."
* * *
MARIE
Marie flinched and squinted her eyes when he raised his hand to hit her. Nothing happened, though.
Sneering, he said as she opened her eyes, “I can’t have you fainting in here. Just follow me.”
Marie bowed in compliance as she grabbed the skirt of her dress so she wouldn't stumble on the rocky ground. Her body was sore and feeble. Every time she breathed, the air burned her lungs. In her condition, she needed to be carried.
“Are you coming or what?” Alaric asked her.
Tilting back her head, she called, "Conrad.” He had been Marie’s personal bodyguard before he was promoted to his new position.
"Why the hell are you calling him for? He’s busy with your sister. Now, stop delaying us all and come!” Alaric ordered. “Move,” he said to the vampire in front of them.
Before Marie could blink, Alaric grabbed her wrist and dragged her a few feet.
"Master," Conrad called.
Marie looked back and saw him, holding Beth, as the other two of his men waited to enter the tunnel.
Alaric came to a halt and turned around, releasing Marie. "What is it now?" he asked, clearly upset by Conrad causing them to be delayed. "Do you honestly want to stay behind and face whoever is chasing us?"
"Take Beth," Conrad ordered one of the remaining vampire bodyguards. "I'll help the mistress," he said, walking to Marie and putting an arm around her waist.
She sighed in relief when Conrad secured her and helped her stand up.
"I’m tired and my skin still burns from the ritual," she told him as he rubbed her back.
"That's not what I ordered you to do!" Alaric yelled as his eyes turned red. "We have no time for this shit! They are right behind us, and we will get ourselves killed if we don't move on!"
As on cue, thumping sounds and metal clankings were heard as someone tried to kick down the reinforced door upstairs.
Time was running out, Marie was aware of that. So, ignoring her mate, she urged Conrad, “Do it now.”
Conrad nodded and yelled at the vampire holding Beth, “Kill the whore!"
Marie smirked as Alaric shouted in return, "Don't touch her! I'll fucking kill you if you touch her!"
“Grab him while he’s weak,” Marie told Conrad.
Marie’s attention was caught by her sister as she witnessed Beth kick the vampire in his private parts, after struggling to get free. With the vampire doubling over, Beth was able to run away into a different tunnel.
“What the hell is going on?" Alaric asked since another of Conrad’s men had grabbed him and immobilized him, preventing him from helping Beth.
"You are no longer in a position to tell anyone what to do," Marie informed him as she walked to him and stabbed a needle in his neck.
"What are you doing? Marie..." Alaric's voice faded away as weakness took possession of his limbs.
“Saving my baby,” she indulged him in a response as she smiled. The exhilaration of victory washed over her for what was happening.
Before his eyes closed and he fell into a slumber, Alaric managed to ask, "What did you do to me?"
Ignoring Alaric, Marie’s eyes shifted to Conrad. “I want her dead!”
Conrad nodded as he ordered the vampire who had let Beth escape, “Go after her and kill her,"
Marie focused her hearing on the pounding sound coming from upstairs. “They will find us here if we don’t move.”
“Mistress, what do you want me to do with him?” Conrad asked as he pointed at Alaric.
“Take him with us. We are still bonded. We can’t use the boat or the submarine. Those men are loyal to him. We need to go somewhere secure.”
“I have everything ready for us," Conrad said to her as
he placed his hand on her belly. "No one will hurt you or the baby, mistress."
"Good," she whispered, laying her hand on his face. "Lead the way."
"Hold on to me." Conrad grabbed her in his arms. "Follow me!" He ordered the remaining men as he sped his way out of the tunnel.
Chapter Twenty-Two—THE EXPLOSION
JESSICA
When Marcus reached the end of the tunnel, he stopped and put Jessica on the ground, behind him. She peeked around him and saw a high ledge overlooking a small beach under the cave with an opening to the sea.
They hid against the walls of the tunnel as Marcus appeared to assess the place and the threat.
"Are you seeing Alaric?" Jessica asked him, holding on to his arm. She rested her head against his back, inhaling his scent. She had missed him terribly. It was nice to be able to touch him again.
Marcus replied, "I'm not seeing him. There are just three men in a small boat. We may be in the wrong tunnel."
"It's an escape route, why else would they have a boat here? They must be waiting for Alaric. But...how could we get here before he did?"
"Maybe he had already left, and they are just waiting for other survivors," Marcus assumed.
"He's not that far ahead of us...but...he could have taken another tunnel.We should go back."
"Where are Anna and Shane?" Marcus asked, looking back.
"They were just behind us..." Jessica mumbled, turning around and pouting her lips as she squinted her eyes to the darkness inside the tunnel. "Maybe they saw something that we didn't. I'm not liking this..."
"We need to grab those men and interrogate them."
After Marcus spoke, the sound of a helicopter flying over the sea echoed inside the cave.
“Kevin is here,” Marcus warned Jessica.
Spinning around, she asked, “Where?”
Marcus pointed at the openings in the caves where the waves were bashing against the rock. “In the helicopter. They found the caves. I have reception here.”
“Tell him to search for a boat,” Jessica said. “We’ll take down those two vampires.”
Marcus nodded and added, “He heard you.”
“We should…” her words got stuck in her throat when she realized that the vampires in the boat were shouting orders to grab weapons and annihilate the threat.
"What are they doing?" Jessica asked, widening her eyes when she noticed that they were heavily armed and were aiming a rocket at the helicopter that poured a spotlight inside the cave. "They are going to blow up the chopper!"
Without thinking, she ran towards the beach, right into the enemy’s line of fire. But Kevin’s life was in danger. In the background, she heard her mate yelling her name.
Jessica flared a wave of fire around her body and ran at the vampires. They saw her and pointed their automatic guns at her. Yet, they managed to launch the rocket.
The witch stretched her arms forward and opened her hands, surrounding the missile with her kinetic powers and preventing it from leaving the cave. She heard the sound of guns being fired. She sensed the air around her being disturbed by bullets, but her fire was preventing them from reaching her, melting down the metal and exploding the gunpowder. However, the rocket was trying to escape the cocoon of energy she had placed around it. Closing her eyes, she focused harder as the missile exploded inside her force field, shaking the cave and creating a shockwave that made her fly back and hit the rocky walls.
"Marcus..." she breathed out. Her head was throbbing hard, her ears ringing, and the inside of her mouth tasted like blood. She opened her eyes but saw nothing. Everything seemed dark and quiet around her. Eventually, she passed out.
* * *
MARCUS
"Jessie..." Marcus called as he kneeled before her and put his hands around her face. "Honey..." Marcus' voice was weak, his heart was racing fast, making his eyes sting with emotion.
He hadn't been fast enough to grab her before she hit the wall. He had killed all the vampires, but he wasn't fast enough to save her before the blast.
Everything around them was surrounded by a cloud of smoke, making it hard for them to breathe. The tunnel had been partially obstructed by the falling rocks and there were no signs of Alaric or his men. But all that was troubling him, at the moment, was that Jessica could be dead.
The king's hands trembled and his eyes closed as he lightly brushed his fingers across Jessie's face. He wanted to scream her name, but it wouldn't help his situation. It wouldn't bring her back to him. So he mumbled her name over and over again like a prayer.
His senses were still affected by the blast. He couldn't hear properly, but his sense of smell told him that she was bleeding. The good news was that she had a pulse. Then, he ran his fingers through her hair and noticed the blood damping the back of her head. She still had his blood in her system. Even if she died, she would return as a vampire. But Jessica didn’t want to be a vampire. Not just yet. Every minute that he wasted there, grieving and blaming himself, was pointless. She needed a doctor, so he took her in his arms and sped his way out, hoping that the tunnel was still intact and that he was able to reach the house.
***
ANNABEL
Anna and Shane arrived at the top of the stairs when they heard the sound of something speeding behind them. Shane immediately turned back and aimed his gun to the dark.
"Jessica needs a doctor!" Marcus warned, before stopping completely in front of Shane's gun. "Who's that?"
Beth was in Anna's arms, unconscious.
"One of Alaric's prisoners," Shane explained.
"My earpiece isn't working. We need a doctor," Marcus told him.
"There are medics outside the house," Anna informed him. "I'm taking Beth there, too."
"Lead the way then," Marcus urged.
Moments later, Anna and Marcus were laying both women on the stretchers.
"What happened inside? We heard a blast!" Anna asked her grandfather. "How did Jessica get hurt?"
"We'll talk about this later," he said, following Jessica's stretcher.
"Your Majesty, we need you to stay back while we take her vitals signs," one of the doctors told him while listening to her heart.
"She's alive, isn't she?" he asked, grief haunting his expression.
"She's alive. Her heart is beating. She may have internal bleeding, though. The wound on the back of her head looks bad," the doctor shared. "But we need space to work on her."
"I gave her vampire blood. Do you think she needs more?”
“The blood must be healing her and we have a needle ready for her if she needs more,” the doctor confirmed.
As if on cue, a nurse arrived with a needle that the doctor administered on her neck.
“She’ll be okay,” Anna said, placing her hand on her grandfather’s shoulder.
"Where's Eric?" Marcus asked, after staying silent for a moment, staring at Jessica's face, and following the doctors and nurses movements around her.
"He's leading a team in the woods," Sebastien said, arriving with a worried expression. "His communicator is off. What happened to Jessica?"
"She'll be fine," the king mumbled, stepping back when the doctor urged him to let them do his job, once again. "She hit her head...but she'll be fine."
Anna noticed the king's trembling hands and pale face. She could only imagine what he felt. Jessie was her best friend, she was also worried about her, but she had the misfortune of seeing how her departure had affected him. “Grandpa, one way or another, she’ll live,” she stated.
His eyes were somber when he looked at her. “She didn’t want to be one of us just yet. I should have been faster.”
“It’s not your fault.”
The king gritted his teeth and with narrowed eyes, he asked Sebastien. “How many Alaric's men were you able to imprison? Did anyone see Alaric? We weren't able to find him. He vanished."
Sebastien rubbed the back of his head as he reported what he had seen, "There were a lot of casualties, but we still
managed to take twenty men alive. There's also a crazy amount of prisoners in his dungeons. The majority being girls...human girls who provided blood and...Let's just say that it's not pretty down there. We have people taking care of them, but many are too scared to trust us. I had to leave. I was beginning to feel extremely sick. The state of those girls..."
Marcus' attention was drawn to Jessica's when she reacted and started to cough. He flew to her side, grabbing her hand and ignoring Sebastien's report.
"Jessie..."
"I think she'll be fine," the doctor said, checking her vitals again and opening her eyes to see how she reacted to light. "She seems to be regaining consciousness."
"Jessie, can you hear me?"
"We still need to take her to a hospital. She needs a CAT scan."
"Do we have time to wait to arrive in town?" Marcus asked, looking at the doctor.
"I have connections in several hospitals. We shouldn't wait that long."
"We'll take a chopper. Alert the nearest hospital then."
The doctor nodded as he rushed to the ambulance and picked his cellphone.
“I’ll ask Kevin to send down a chopper,” Sebastien said as he pressed his earpiece.
“Thank you,” the king said, taking a deep breath of relief."Anna," the king called his granddaughter. "How's the girl you found doing?"
Beth’s stretcher wasn’t far from Jessica’s.
”She’ll live,” she said as the paramedics removed shards of silver from her. Beth appeared to have fainted.
“Okay. I need to fly to the hospital with Jessie.”
"I want to go with you," Anna said, approaching Jessie's stretcher and holding her hand. "Can she hear us?"
"I'm trying to tap into her mind but...I can't hear her thoughts."
"Jessie, just be strong," Anna demanded, leaning down and kissing her cheek.
"I need you to stay behind. I need you to help Shane and Sebastien with the prisoners and the girls that were found in the dungeons."
"But grandpa...I want to be with Jessie, too. She's my best friend."