Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1)

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Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) Page 34

by Jenny Allen


  “I think its Lab 2, Blood Analysis. It would make sense. One of those men isn’t in a lab coat, so I’m guessing it’s either Ashcroft or Spencer. More likely it’s Ashcroft. I don’t think this is the kind of errand that he’d send his minion on. No sign of Coffee?”

  “None that I’ve seen and they seem to have cameras everywhere. Even in the hall closet.”

  Something sparked in her brain with sudden clarity. “The cold storage.”

  “There’s a camera in that lab, Lily. I just told you…”

  “Not the lab. The actual freezer. It’s a walk in, he’d fit in there and they probably don’t have a camera in it. It’s not exactly ideal conditions and with a camera in the lab itself they probably figured the aggravation wasn’t worth it.”

  “Why would they care if he was seen or not? Do you think they were expecting us? If they were, why let us stand here chit chatting instead of springing on us?”

  “I don’t think it has to do with the camera. Maybe they knocked him out. God help me, I have no idea how they could do that, but that freezer has a solid metal door with a locking clasp that could actually hold him if he woke up pissed off. You’re right. If this was a trap, they’d have sprung it by now.” It wasn’t until the words left her mouth completely and were ringing in the silence that the weight of their meaning really sank in. Richard Coffee, the linebacker over seven feet tall, a mountain of intelligent, skilled muscle, was out of the game. He’d been taken out by Spencer, who looked like he’d have trouble bench pressing an empty bar, and some vampire that was over 600 years old. There wasn’t a single universe should could think of in which that would even begin to make sense.

  Chance must have noticed the tremors running down her arms, or maybe it was the far off look of growing doom, but somehow, he was right there in front of her, his hands rubbing up her arms. It took her a moment to focus on those warm hazel eyes, barely flecked with green, but when she did, everything else fell away. She was completely under his spell, and that thought scared her even more than the dynamic duo that managed to take out Coffee.

  “Lily, you have to pull it together. Odds are against us, true, but we need to move fast while we still have some element of surprise. There’s no way they missed hearing that buzzer, but obviously they didn’t feel it was important enough to investigate.” His eyes searched hers, coaxing all the courage left in her from its hiding places. “We’re going to sneak down that hall, slip into that room and try and catch this monster by surprise. The way I see it, he’s the real threat. We can deal with Spencer later. Okay?”

  “He shouldn’t be a threat at all.” Her voice was whisper soft, a barely audible collection of tones that somehow seemed gravely important. “He’s almost as old as Gregor. He shouldn’t be as fast or strong as us. There is no way that Spencer could take out Coffee. How are we supposed to…?”

  “Lily! No more second guessing. We have a real shot here. Let’s take it.” There was a notable pause, as if he meant to continue with a plan of action, but just stopped.

  Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, and oddly enough, that helped her regain her grip on the fear and doom weighing her down. “What? What are you not saying?”

  Chance rubbed a nervous hand through his hair, his jaw clenching tighter. She definitely wasn’t going to like what he was going to say. “The labs. The cold storage lab is connected to Blood Analysis by an interior door right?”

  The suspicious look gave way to one of genuine confusion. “Yeah…”

  “I think I have a plan.” His eyes stared down at her arms, or more specifically, his hands where they rested on her arms. “It’s not ideal but it’s the best I’ve got.”

  “I cannot believe I am doing this.” Lilith checked and double checked her gun, wasting precious minutes while she waited for her hands to stop shaking. She stared at the door to Blood Analysis, glanced down the empty hall and finally took in a deep breath. “I swear, if I die, I’m gonna haunt his ass.”

  Lilith shoved through the door like a woman on a mission. “Dr. Nichols!!! We have to get you out of here. I don’t think the lab is safe.” Acting wasn’t difficult, especially when it was all the truth. She skidded to a halt when Nichols turned around, and at his side, the very face from her nightmare. There was a precious second of recognition that she desperately hoped he wouldn’t notice. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you had company, but we really need to go.”

  She forced herself to continue walking forward, even though her entire body screamed for her to run. Ashcroft stood an inch or two taller than her, with a smooth, pale complexion marred by hundreds of crisscrossing scars. His dark eyes burned like bottomless pits of fire sunken deep within his skull. Those vicious scenes from her nightmares kept flashing through her mind. Gregor burning, Ashcroft’s talons sinking through her shoulders, Chance’s blood pouring from his slit throat. A wave of nausea hit her as the man’s thin lips curled into a gruesome smile.

  “Well, well, well.” The deep voice trickled through the air like poisoned honey. One taloned hand fastened tight around Dr. Nichol’s arm, who just stood there, white as a sheet, petrified. “The delicate little Lily lives.”

  She should run screaming out of the room, and seconds ago she might have, but something in his voice, something about that smug look on his face just brought the fighter out in her. About damn time. “You planning on writing poetry? I’m not really sure that fits the current trends. You should try adding some references to guns and hoes or something.”

  His head tilted to the side on his thin, spindly neck, amusement and confusion crossing his lips and lighting his eyes in a gut-wrenching way. Apparently, he wasn’t aware of the popular trends of rap artists. Shocking. “You know who I am.” His nostrils flared, as if he was scenting the air. “I can feel it, smell it. The fear, the terror.” Ashcroft took one slow step forward and Lilith had to fight to keep her bravado in place, not to mention her knees. “You know what I did to Miriah, every little, delicious, intoxicating slice…” His tongue flicked over his lips in a hungry gesture as his words slithered past his lips in a disgustingly sensuous way. It made her skin crawl and the bile started to rise up, burning her chest.

  “Still…” The dark pits of his eyes narrowed as he took another step forward. Lilith just stood there, paralyzed. Something in the way he moved, the serpentine grace of his movements made her scared to even look away from him for a second. “Still, you waltz in here with the smart mouth of someone far above their station. Perhaps your father never taught you manners.”

  Hard, searing hatred burned through her fear and she brought the gun up, training it squarely between his eyes. “Better. He taught me marksmanship.” With a satisfied smile, Lilith pulled the trigger. At only 30 feet away, there was no way she’d miss.

  In a blur of motion too fast for her eyes to comprehend, something changed. Lilith squeezed her eyes closed for half a second as she fought against the dizziness. When she opened them again, Dr. Nichols hung, suspended in the air in front of Ashcroft, blood welling from his shoulder. Very slowly, he was lowered to his feet as the pain finally began to register. Ashcroft tugged him to the side and grinned, sharp and toothy, at Lilith.

  “Perhaps I should teach you manners. It seems you’ve injured the good doctor.”

  Panic welled in her chest, sending her blood roaring in her ears. Her wide eyes stared at Dr. Nichols, the blood trailing down his white lab coat. It was impossible, it was all impossible. Her feet began to slowly back up, her arms shaking as she held up her gun, still aimed at Ashcroft, not that it would do any good apparently.

  He shoved the doctor to the ground, out of the way, and stepped forward for every shaky step back she took, a malicious grin pulling gruesomely at his thin lips, displaying ragged rows of sharp, yellowing teeth. “Leaving so soon? Now that really is quite rude, especially after I’ve gone through so much trouble to arrange all of this.”

  Tremors clenched all the muscles in her arms and she fired the rest of her clip in she
er panic. None of them seemed to hit him. Blurs of motion just made her dizzy and confused. There wasn’t a single vampire ever even rumored to move that fast, at least not outside of Hollywood. It was impossible. The empty clicks of her spent gun echoed ominously through the quiet lab as her back hit the wall. Nowhere left to run. He was going to catch her. He was going to shove his talon-like nails through her skin. She was going to die. Everything from her nightmare was going to happen. Chance would burst through the door, throw Ashcroft off her, and then he would die, they both would die. He’d find Gregor and Alvarez. They were all going to die at the hands of this monster. Her brain went into sheer panic mode.

  Ashcroft stopped inches from touching her, his head tilting as he smelled her. The sight of him so close, this monster that butchered her cousin, her mother, Gregor’s whole family, it made her entire body shake. “You…smell different now.” His face hovered near hers, his dark, bottomless eyes searching her face. “Why do you smell different?” Anger flooded his face, breaking the calm façade. Maybe it was being backed against a wall, maybe it was seeing this little chink in his armor, whatever it was, it made her fight. She couldn’t give up, not now.

  “Fuck you!” With every ounce of strength, she kicked outward and slammed the barrel of her empty gun into his face. To her amazement, he stumbled back in shock, his long fingers flying up to cover his nose as he doubled over. New life surged through her with the small victory. She reached back to hit him again, but this time when her hand came down, he caught her arm, his sharp talons clutching her wrist. If she struggled, it’d slice her veins right open.

  “Such a filthy mouth on you.” He snarled the words as blood trickled down his top lip. “I should have expected no less. Filth comes from filth after all. You’re nothing but the prodigy of whores and murderers.” His freehand smacked against her cheek so hard that she sunk to her knees with the white hot pain. Before she could focus her vision, he shoved her to the ground and stormed back to the good doctor, pulling the unconscious man to his feet.

  “I don’t want our time to end so quickly. After all, I’ve been waiting centuries for the opportunity to take another child from Gregor, especially you. He somehow thinks you are…special.” His voice dripped with hatred. The righteous indignity, the gleefully homicidal joy, even the desire to simply inflict as much pain as possible, all of those emotions felt heavy and thick in the air. It made her skin tingle and somewhere deep down she knew that it was energizing her, not demoralizing her. Finally, a positive side effect to Cohen’s damn blood.

  “First, I’m going to have a little fun with the good doctor.” Lilith didn’t dare look. She kept her eyes closed, trying to get a grip. Dammit. Where was Chance?

  “I know you are awake. I can feel the fear rolling off you in waves. Tell me something. If you know who I am, knew I was here, why, oh why would you come alone? Did you really think I wasn’t a threat?” His throaty laughter was the closest to an honest to god evil laugh that she’d ever heard.

  Before she could say anything, the sharp sound of a gunshot split the air followed by the unmistakable splatter of brain matter. Lilith rubbed at her eyes and finally looked up to see Ashcroft and Dr. Nichols on the floor with Chance standing over them, gun still at the ready.

  “Dodge that, prick. Oops. Guess she wasn’t alone.” Chance stepped over Ashcroft and jogged over to her. Lilith could only stare at the trail of red mist and chunks covering the floor from Ashcroft’s head. Was it really that easy? Was it all over? 600 years of feuding, butchering, murder, betrayal, all smeared across a laboratory floor in BFE Tennessee.

  “Lily!” Chance was lightly shaking her arms now. She blinked a few times and looked up at him, seeing all the worry and mixed emotions in his face. It was becoming a familiar sight. He was looking her over, tilting her chin one way and then the other with worried eyes.

  “Why do people keep hitting me in the damn head?”

  The edge melted from his face, his full lips stretching into a smile. “You okay, sweetheart?”

  She quirked one eyebrow and frowned up at him. “Do I have brain damage or did you just call me sweetheart?”

  “Well I have to check somehow. Asking how many fingers I’m holding up just seems so overdone.”

  “Do it again and you’ll be the one with brain damage, got it?” Very gingerly, she rubbed her fingers over her tender cheek. She was seriously getting tired of being hit. She was starting to feel like a punching bag in the Gold’s gym outside Madison Square Garden.

  “Aye, aye, mon Capitan.” Chance was grinning down at her with all his casual humor when movement caught her eye. Dammit, she almost forgot about Nichols and he was shot, thanks to her. She shoved Chance aside, expecting to see the Doctor struggling with a wounded shoulder, and everything tilted into the world of complete impossibility.

  Chapter 18

  Lilith stared, her jaw dropping, as her brain desperately tried to make sense of what was happening. It wasn’t possible. All she could do was watch in absolute horror as Ashcroft’s hand dragged his limp body closer to Doctor Nichols. His eyes were still wide and glazed, hell most of his brains were trailing behind his shattered skull, clinging together by blood vessels. The sick, wet, sound they made as they dragged across the floor made her stomach churn violently.

  Chance turned very slowly, reluctantly following her eyes. He jumped back in pure shock, screaming some obscenity that her mind couldn’t really comprehend. Lilith barely heard it. All she could do was stare at the impossible horror in front of her. She couldn’t look away, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even hear her own heartbeat.

  One of Ashcroft’s long talon-like nails purposefully slid down the center of Nichols shirt and the sickening sound of cloth and flesh tearing preceded the blood curdling screams. Nichols back arched up, his body convulsing as the nail cut straight down to his navel. Blood blossomed across his white lab coat, growing with every second.

  Ashcroft’s mouth opened in a sigh that made her skin crawl and the death glaze cleared from his bottomless eyes as they rolled up into his skull. Lilith flinched and scooted away, putting her back to the wall. He wasn’t just enjoying this… somehow, it was helping him. His talon continued cutting, the Doctor continued screaming and she was powerlessly captivated. How was any of it possible?

  Something, someone was shaking her, calling her name, but she couldn’t concentrate. The screams rattled in her brain, turned her stomach, but there was something else, something energizing that terrified her. As blood pooled on the cold linoleum, Ashcroft’s tongue snaked out, lapping at it with a horrible moan of pleasure. She watched as the edges of Orrick’s skull began slowly knitting new bone. He was healing, truly regenerating. No creature could recover that fast, not from anything even half this traumatic. How was he doing it? Was it because he was a turned vampire? But how could vampire DNA fused to human DNA cause such an anomaly? Before she could even register it, she was slowly scooting closer, caught up in the enigma and the sound of the doctor’s screams singing in her blood, like some eerie siren’s call.

  A sharp flare of pain lit across her cheek, snapping her out of it completely. After blinking a few times, she finally recognized Chance’s face looming over hers. The emotions playing across it completely surprised her. The worry and fear she understood, she’d seen enough of them, but this time, a slice of that fear mingled with a touch of disgust was directed at her. It was like he’d slapped her in the face all over again.

  “We have to go. Now.” Just like that the look was gone, replaced with his usual air of business. He grabbed her arms and hauled her to her feet. “Hurry!”

  Lilith stumbled as he shoved her through the door and she crashed into a warm, fleshy body. She looked up and stared right into Spencer’s grinning face. Her eyes flew open wide and she tried to push back away as fast as she could, but Spencer was faster. He snatched her wrists sharply and pulled her toward him.

  “Now, now. Where are you going?” The grin splitting his skelet
al face made her stomach lurch all over again. Somewhere in the back of her brain she knew that Chance was just on the other side of the door, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like she was alone, isolated with the monster that helped slaughter his family. The same monster that very nearly killed her less than 24 hours ago. “I’m guessin’ you’re not alone, so maybe we should find someplace a little more…private so we can talk.”

  Her heart started pounding like a scared rabbit. Come on, Lilith. Get it together! You got away from this prick once, you can do it again! Slowly her brain started to kick in as Spencer walked them towards the door across the hall. She knew where he was hurt…knew how to hurt him the most.

  A slow smile crept over her lips, one that made Spencer’s cocky grin falter. “What the hell are you smiling at, Bitch? I’m gonna cut that smirk right off your damn face!”

  “Let me know how that works out for you.” Lilith slammed her head forward, cracking her forehead sharply against his already swollen and broken nose. His hands raced up to cover his face, mopping at the blood rushing down as he howled in pure agony. The second his bony hands were off her, she ran full speed down the hall, heading for the security station.

  Spencer’s footsteps echoed fast on her heels. Either he was recovering faster, or both the rage and hatred were outweighing the pain. Either way, he definitely wasn’t out of the fight. Her brain fought back and forth as she sprinted faster. If she reached the security station, there might be some kind of weapon she could use. However, if there wasn’t, she’d have to square off with Spencer and he was faster and stronger than he looked, then should even be possible. She could head for the outside door, but that would make out running Spencer her only option and he was already gaining on her. Chance had the car keys, once again. Dammit. Where the hell was he?

 

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