Blood Ties Omnibus

by Jennifer Armintrout

  Max swallowed his anger. It wouldn’t help him burst out of the cuffs, and she would probably end their little dialogue and start cutting him up like a jack-o-lantern. “Yeah, that’s the part of all this I can’t figure out. Was she just waiting for someone to achieve the impossible? I mean, I don’t like to brag, but vampires don’t get chicks knocked up every day.”

  “Don’t give yourself too much credit there.” Anne made a disgusted face. “For one thing, it was supposed to be your little blond friend, the lady with the ugly shoes you brought in to see the Oracle a couple of months ago. And when that didn’t work, that witch thought she’d try it out with you. And then it was back to the drawing board, because we didn’t think it would ever happen. ‘We’ being the Oracle and the Soul Eater. They’ve been working together for a while now, and the Movement never knew! Anyway, she only needed a natural-born vampire to fulfill her prophecy. But a natural-born lupin? I mean, wow! Could you ask for a happier accident than that?”

  Max closed his eyes. Of course. The night with Dahlia. He could almost taste that potion again, all sugary and hot in his mouth. “Yeah. Lucky you.”

  “Well, once the Oracle gets the baby, she’s gonna try and lure the Soul Eater up here to drain it and eat its soul. When he gets here, boom. No more Soul Eater.” Anne dusted her palms together as if the old vampire’s ashes already dirtied them.

  “And the baby?” Max didn’t bother covering his intent as he pulled on the rope. A hard jerk, and the cuffs miraculously slipped a fraction of an inch. “What are you going to do with the baby?”

  Anne noted his struggle with a wry smile. “Oh, don’t worry. She’s not going to hurt her. She’s going to raise her, like a daughter. And stop wriggling, you’ll never get free.”

  She turned, apparently tired of the game. “I was going to wait until they brought your girlfriend in to watch, but I’m not that mean. You used to be on my side. I’ll just rough you up a little so it leaves marks.”

  “Gee, thanks.” He pulled again on his restraints, more motivated than before when he saw her pick up a pair of wire cutters from the table.

  Anne returned, eyeing his twisting hands. She held up the implement. “Shall we?”

  The Soul Eater’s mansion—I’d stopped thinking of it as Cyrus’s—was as frightening as I remembered it. Of course, it was frightening for more sensible reasons now. Before, when I’d come to steal Dahlia’s blood, I’d been afraid of my past. My current fear was deeply rooted in the present and near future.

  We crouched beside the back wall. I’d never seen the grounds and mansion from this angle. I doubted many people had, including those who owned the huge lot we’d encroached upon to get to our location. We’d sneaked past a night watchman, across a dark lawn, past tennis courts and a swimming pool, and found the crumbling brick wall that separated a normal looking garden shed from the Soul Eater’s guardhouse.

  I understood now how the mansion had been so isolated. Though the house was visible, distinct figures were not. We spotted shapes moving in the windows, but couldn’t tell what they were doing. Sounds didn’t carry this far, either. Dense hedges surrounding the place absorbed the noise before it could reach us—high hedges forming a maze.

  “We’ll all go through the maze,” Cyrus said at my elbow. “I know the way to the other side, and Nolen and I can easily hide there until you come back.”

  “But how will she find us?” Nathan hissed through the darkness. “We need a rendezvous point.”

  I held up my hand. This wasn’t the time for them to start arguing. “I’ll remember the way. We’ll meet at the end. If there’s trouble, if someone discovers us, it’s every man for himself, okay?”

  “No!” they both whispered in unison.

  I shushed them. “Do you want someone to hear you? Listen, I can take care of myself. I’ll be invisible. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “I’m not going to leave here if you’re in trouble. That’s asking too much!” Nathan shook his head vehemently. “I won’t do it.”

  “Listen to me!” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I have blood ties to both of you. You can keep track of me that way. If something happens that you lose me, or I can’t communicate, you’ll know it’s too late. Promise me that if you can’t hear me, you’ll leave.”

  The pain that flashed through Nathan’s eyes was visible despite the darkness that surrounded us. He nodded once in agreement.

  “Then let’s go,” Cyrus said softly, motioning toward the wall. “Carrie, I’ll boost you up.”

  We’d found a spot where the barricade had broken near the top, so the climb wouldn’t be too difficult. The drop on the other side might be another thing entirely, so I braced myself mentally as I placed one foot into Cyrus’s cupped hands.

  Carrie!

  I looked at his upturned face, his features sharp with desperation in the faint moonlight. I touched his cheek. “Hey, we’re not going to the firing squad. Boost me up.”

  It wasn’t the death drop I’d anticipated on the other side. In fact, the wall seemed to be taller on the side we climbed. After landing, I stayed low, crawling to hide behind a nearby tree. It wouldn’t provide great cover, but it was nice to have something tangible between me and the guardhouse.

  Cyrus followed, then Nathan. I beckoned to them, but Cyrus shook his head, motioning toward the maze. Apparently, we’d done all the planning he thought we needed.

  In the time I’d stayed with Cyrus at the mansion, I’d never ventured into the hedge maze. I’d see the Fangs go into it. I’d seen Dahlia run to it to escape pursuing vampires at the New Year’s party. But I’d never braved it myself. Mazes have always given me the creeps. I don’t like the uncertainty of not knowing where to go or how to get back. It wasn’t any better tonight, when possible death was thrown into the mix.

  I followed Cyrus, Nathan close behind me. A rule I’d learned about mazes as a child was “always go left.” I saw now it wasn’t a fail-proof rule. We twisted right and left, following angles, then curves, through narrow corridors and wide, circular spaces.

  “How do you remember this?” I asked, feeling secure enough in the cloistered darkness that I raised my voice.

  “Shh!” Cyrus whispered urgently. “There could be guards. This path intersects theirs several times.”

  “There won’t be. Dahlia ate them all.” I wished I hadn’t said that. Thinking of people being eaten destroyed the modicum of confidence I’d built up since coming over the wall. “But how do you remember your way?”

  “Practice. Also, concentration and patience. All things that I am out of,” he said, distractedly. “She ate them? All of them? I rather liked a few.”

  It seemed too short a time before I had to leave the cover of the maze. I’d dreaded the close, confusing space, but I dreaded the house at the top of the hill more.

  “Okay, got the stone?”

  I held out my palm. Nathan pulled a leather pouch from his pocket. Leather, for some reason, was unaffected by the charm, something we’d discovered when he, but not his watch, had disappeared when he’d handled the stone. He opened the pouch now, spilling the amulet into my hand.

  “You’re good to go,” he said quietly. “Be careful, Carrie.”

  “I will.” I could already feel myself vanishing. “I’m going in now.”

  They watched me all the way up the hill, even though they couldn’t see me. I know, because I stopped halfway and looked back. There was something voyeuristic about it, watching them watching me and knowing they didn’t know. They stood side by side, too visible at the opening of the maze. They should have known better, but I wasn’t going to blow our cover by shouting at them. Nathan’s features, sharpened by stress and the eerie shadows of the maze, showed his pain and fear more acutely than I’d ever seen them. Because he’d admitted to me, and to himself, that he loved me, he thought I was doomed.

  It was the same for Cyrus. How alike they were. They both thought their love would be the thing that killed
me. How alike, and how self-centered.

  Keep moving, sweetheart, Nathan prompted through the blood tie.

  A little guilty that he’d heard my thoughts, and surprised that he knew I’d stopped, I turned and continued the long walk to the house, and to the Soul Eater.

  Twenty-Two:

  To Worse

  “S o, you didn’t tell them anything? In the whole time you were there, you didn’t tell them why you were coming here or who you were looking for?”

  Max lifted his head. Sweat mingled with blood dripped into his eyes. “What did I tell you?”

  Anne regarded him coldly for a moment. “Why do you have to make this so difficult? I really liked you. I was even going easy on you. But you just keep pushing and pushing.”

  There was a sickening crunch, one he’d come to identify as bone being crushed between the blades of a wire cutter. He concentrated on the sound in an effort to ignore the pain as she snipped another finger to the first joint. If this was taking it easy, he silently thanked himself for being so nice to her all those years.

  “I don’t like doing this,” she said with a sigh. “Well, I do like it. Reminds me of the old days. Torture was kind of my thing.”

  Another section. He’d been keeping track. So far, she’d done away with his pinkie and half his ring finger on his left hand. He’d looked down once, saw the split flesh and splintered bone littering the floor, and puked. Now he kept his eyes up, focusing on the oculus that would eventually open and let in frying sunlight.

  Don’t pass out before Bella gets in here. Pull yourself together, ’cause she is going to freak.

  The huge doors scraped open. Anne spun him to face them. “Oh, look who’s here!”

  A vampire pushed Bella’s wheelchair. They’d dressed her in a black velvet gown with laces on the front, and her hair was down, like some princess in a low budget fantasy movie. Only this princess looked worried and tired. He tried a lame attempt at a wave and realized he’d only managed to wiggle his injured hand, flinging droplets of blood across the marble floor. She gasped and paled.

  “You look like Morticia Adams,” he quipped, but his voice was hoarse from screaming.

  She moved as if to lunge from her chair, and the vampire behind her gripped her shoulders. “Don’t move again.”

  “Do not hurt him again and I will not be tempted to,” she said, as threateningly as she could manage.

  Max hoped the tremor in her voice was from fatigue and not worry over him. I’m not dead yet, he thought, willing the words to materialize in her brain. But he didn’t have telepathy, and he knew it was pointless.

  “I was just trying to get your baby daddy here to tell me what you two were up to.” Anne knelt beside him and lifted his bare foot, fitting the wire shears over his little toe. “You wouldn’t want me to maim him any more than I already have, would you? Why don’t you spill it?”

  Bella lifted her chin and looked away in casual defiance. “Why should I? You will kill him anyway.”

  Good girl, Max thought, digging his fingers—the whole ones—into the leather cuffs as Anne snipped the toe away. He didn’t want to scream in front of Bella. Hell, he hadn’t wanted to scream when it was just him here. But it was a losing battle. He didn’t scream now, but a low, shuddering whimper escaped him, possibly more pathetic than crying out.

  “Stop it!” Bella shouted, again trying to rise. The vampire behind her pushed her down, striking her across the face.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Anne threw her implement of torture down and stalked toward Bella.

  “Stay away from her,” Max shouted, but he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d back up that command, with his hands tied and blood leaking out of him all over the place. Still, if she was going to do something to Bella…He pulled on the restraints, wincing at the pressure on his mangled digits. His hand slipped down a fraction. The brutal, agonizing pain put a damper on the tiny victory.

  Ignoring him, Anne confronted the vampire behind Bella. “If you touch her again, you’ll fry right along with him.”

  At least Anne didn’t seem interested in hurting Bella. That took a load off Max’s mind. Anne was very, very good at hurting. The thought of Bella learning that firsthand…Jesus, he had to get her out of there.

  “Speaking of frying, when does that happen, exactly?” He jerked at the gauntlets again, half praying he’d get free and half afraid of how he’d fight two vampires when he wasn’t exactly in fighting shape. “I mean, this is getting kind of boring.”

  “Oh, this is boring you?” Anne returned to him, spinning him to face away from Bella. Anne went to the table and rubbed her hands together like a kid looking at a dessert cart. “We can move on to something else. Like…this?”

  She came forward with the cordless drill, giving the trigger a few experimental squeezes. “How about it?”

  “I’m not telling you anything. Obviously, she’s not.” He jerked his head to indicate Bella. “So, I guess if you really want to torture me, go ahead, but you’re wasting time.”

  Anne grabbed the rope securing him and gave it a tug, pulling him up so his feet had no chance of touching the floor. “I’ll decide whether or not I’m wasting my time.”

  “There has to be something left to burn, when the boss gets here,” the other vampire warned. “Or I won’t be here when she does.”

  “You won’t be here anyway, because you’re not invited.” Ever the teenager, Anne delivered the blow with practiced snottiness that would have been devastating to someone in the eleventh grade.

  Max couldn’t see what effect it had on the vampire. “So, when does she get here?”

  “What, are you afraid?” She took a step closer, still holding the rope. A second tug set him swaying, just a bit.

  He thrashed his legs. He hoped it looked like an attempt to keep her away.

  “Is little Max afraid of the big, bad girl?” She squeezed the trigger again.

  Almost close enough. She was almost close enough, and his hands were nearly out of the cuffs. He’d have to time it exactly….

  She took another step forward, raising the drill. “How about…the eyes?”

  “How about, no?” Max swung forward with the momentum he’d built up, knocking the drill from her hand as he locked his legs around her rib cage. She’d made a mistake starting with his fingers, one that had worked to his advantage. Wet with his blood, the leather had become slippery. The missing digits made his hands small enough to slip from the cuffs, and the weight of his body did the rest.

  He took her down with him. They landed with a thud, skidding across the bloodied marble. He didn’t want to think about the sticky pieces of his former fingers getting crushed beneath them. He had her pinned now, so it would be a damn lousy time to get distracted. Before she could collect her wits to scream, he grabbed her head and twisted, snapping her neck. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would sure incapacitate her.

  The vampire who’d been guarding Bella raced forward with a roar. Max grabbed the drill, depressed the trigger and caught him in throat as he charged. “Sorry, couldn’t have you calling for help.”

  The vampire writhed on the floor, directly under the oculus. Max grabbed Anne’s limp, unconscious body by the legs and pulled her beside her cohort. “Sorry, kid. You were a good egg, for a while.”

  Shielding his eyes, he pulled the rope, flooding the room with light.

  “Max, no!” Bella screamed. In the blinding pain of the moment he saw her stand, and fall.

  “Damn it, Bella!” If she’d have stayed put, his chances would have been much better. He skirted the direct beam of light, his skin sizzling from the limited exposure. He managed to scoop her up and deposit her into the chair again before he burst into flame.

  “Will you be quiet? Do you want the whole freaking house to come in here?” He stopped, dropped and rolled into a shadowed corner. “Wheel yourself over here and let’s go.”

  The horror on her face as she approached broke his
heart. He knew how he must look. Blood on his arms, dried and fresh. Mangled hand, missing toe. He couldn’t have looked too hot before he’d inadvertently set himself on fire.

  The sickening stench of burned vampire reached them. Bella gagged and covered her nose. Lifting his head, Max saw the piles of ash where the bodies had landed. The blue ball of flame of Anne’s soon-to-be-ex heart extinguished with a fizz.

  “Hang on,” Max instructed Bella. Then the wind came, making a maelstrom of the cavernous room, destroying the wooden shutters over the windows. Bella dived from the chair to shield him from the light.

  “I have killed many vampires and that has never happened,” she said, almost accusing.

  “She was old,” Max explained. “Despite what she looked like, she was really, really old.”

  During the night, when he’d lain awake relishing what might have been his last few moments with Bella, he’d realized he would probably have to kill Anne. He’d imagined himself being somewhat more…sorry about it. Funny how having his fingers cut off a little bit at a time had changed his attitude.

  Bella touched his shoulder, then recoiled. “You are badly burned. How will we escape here? You cannot fight. I will applaud you if you can walk.”

  “Well, prepare to give me a standing ovation, ’cause we’re getting out of here.” He climbed to his feet and flattened himself against the wall. “Forgive me if I don’t help you up, but I think I’ve had enough barbecue for today.”

  Jumping down in her chair, Bella groaned. “If it comes to pass that I will never walk again, please do me the favor of killing me.”

  “At least you’ve still got all your body parts, working or not.” He waggled his ruined hand at her. “Follow me.”

  He inched along the wall, avoiding the sunlight that now flooded across the floor. Getting to the door would be the hardest part. Once they were outside it, the chances of finding another open window were slim. Unless the Oracle didn’t mind looking for new employees every dawn.