Sylvie flipped the safety off her pistol and pushed Antonio out of the way, striding towards the Conclave. “We have to get him the fuck out of there.”
“No. Leave me.”
“He is not talking to Luigi,” Nic hissed as he lunged to grab Sylvie’s arm. Evangeline stifled the burst of jealousy at her life mate touching another woman. In her head, she knew she was being ridiculous. Carlo was in danger. But the overwhelming pull of the bonding intensified every time the two of them exchanged blood. “He wants us to stay away.”
“I’m not leaving him with that wanker—”
A deep scraping sound, then a metallic whine carried over comms, and at the end of the tunnel, light glowed. The rumble sounded again, fainter this time, and the subtle illumination winked out moments before the vampires around Evangeline tensed.
Nic hauled her against him, his hand over her mouth, and the whole group rushed back the way they’d come until they were hidden behind a bend in the tunnels. In her head, Evangeline heard Nic’s strained words. “Footsteps. Luigi cursing. Carlo whispering ‘leave me’ over and over again.”
After she nodded, he dropped his hand, and Evangeline strained to hear, holding her breath as Luigi dragged Carlo closer. “I hope you are satisfied with the results of your extortion,” Luigi spat. “The human took my other test subject when she escaped. You will replace that filthy Frenchman.”
“Where…are you…taking me?”
“Somewhere you will die. Several decades from now.” A series of beeps sounded, followed by a soft click. “I have a new guinea pig for you,” Luigi called. “If you help this one escape, I will do much more than hobble you. Get out here. Now!”
Evangeline’s stomach lurched. He had to be talking to her mother. How had Luigi hobbled her? She glanced back at Nic, only the barest hint of his amethyst eyes luminescing in the semi-darkness as the door slammed shut.
“I’m going to snap his bloody neck with my bare hands,” Sylvie said as she stowed her weapon and turned to face them. “Thom, get your arse in here. Go through Luigi’s office. There’s some sort of heavy door that leads to the drainage tunnels. Hell of a lot easier than crawling through this fucking shite. We’re going in. E’s mum is in there and Carlo’s about to be in a world of hurt.”
Flicking on her shoulder-mounted light, she turned in a half circle until she made eye contact with each one of them. “We’re going in hot. Weapons ready. We don’t know what’s on the other side of that door, but opening it isn’t going to be quiet. Nic and E, Stay behind me at all times. You get Marie and Carlo out of there. Once you’re clear, you run. Don’t worry about the rest of us.”
Turning to Antonio, she grabbed his shirt. “You’re on guard duty. Anything happens to them, I’m going to hold you personally responsible. Oh, and you should know. That blood I gave you before we left the safe house? Laced with a tracker. So I’ll find you no matter where you go.”
The older vampire sputtered for a moment, then shook his head. “I hope after tonight, you will understand. I was as much a pawn as Nicola.”
“Wait,” Nic said as Sylvie turned towards the door. “I do not agree with this plan.”
“If it’s because you want to be the one to end Luigi, I get it, mate. And E looks a hell of a lot like a vampire these days. But she’s not. Not fully. Plus, her mum’s in there. What’s more important? Saving your life mate’s last living relative? Or ending Luigi?”
“Nic, please.” Evangeline wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Being the one to kill Luigi won’t give you closure. Trust me. I know.” Memories of shooting her father, of him gurgling on the floor of his lab with his jaw half gone made her swallow hard. “I need you. Carlo needs you.”
Touching his forehead to hers, Nic cupped the back of her neck. “I will not leave your side. But if I see a way to end him and save Marie and Carlo, I am taking it.”
Sylvie pulled a flashlight from her belt and flicked the switch, bathing the entire tunnel in light. Leading the way back to the door, Sylvie pulled out her little electronic decoder and hooked it onto the lock. “Get ready. Once our eyes adjust…we’re going in.”
47
With a heavy thunk, the lock released, and Evangeline’s world moved at a blur. She feared Luigi would know the moment they opened the door, but Carlo’s screaming muffled the sound.
“Hold him down,” Luigi spat at someone in another room. “Get the injection.”
“The formula isn’t stable,” Marie protested, her voice weak and strained. “You destroyed the only viable sample.”
“Cagna.” A slap, followed by her mother’s whimper, made Evangeline flinch as Sylvie cleared the main room. A large cavern with antique electric lights—the kind she’d only seen in old movies on disc in the catacombs—held several benches, along with half a dozen beakers, some bubbling on top of Bunsen burners, others with probes extending into the red, muddy, or clear liquids inside. A large fridge hummed in the corner.
“Do it. Now,” Luigi ordered.
“Please, no.” Carlo’s plea sent Sylvie streaking down a dimly-lit corridor. “Get your bloody hands off him,” she yelled. Shots reverberated on the stone walls, so loud Evangeline wanted to cover her ears.
Antonio shoved Evangeline and Nic back as a tall, burly vampire dressed in an official dark blue uniform raced into the main room, shouting into a radio. “We’re compromised. Get the fuck in here.”
As the guard focused on the three of them, his eyes widened, and he fired. With a groan, Antonio tackled him. “Go,” he managed. “I will—”
The guard’s fist cut him off, and Nic grabbed Evangeline’s hand and pulled her around the corner. They flattened themselves against the wall, both drawing their guns.
“Leave me,” Carlo moaned before another three shots and Sylvie’s pained curse had Evangeline abandoning caution and racing down the hall with Nic at her heels.
Four doors and one makeshift cell waited, light spilling through thick metal bars. Sylvie stumbled back out of the cell, hitting the wall with an “oof.” Jamming one hand against her stomach, she tried to raise her gun, but she stumbled as another shot hit her in the shoulder and a third caught her right leg. “No,” she managed as she started to slide down the wall.
“Sylvie,” Evangeline cried and tried to surge forward to catch her bodyguard, but Nic banded his arm around her waist. “Let me go,” she hissed. “Sylvie—”
“If you want your mother to live, pet, you will put down your weapon and show yourself.”
“Fuck you, you geriatric prick!” Struggling against Nic’s hold, Evangeline tried to reach her mother. If only she could see into the cell…
Sylvie’s knees hit the stone. “Run,” she managed before she toppled over, her chest stuttering with each breath. “No…chance. Two. Guards.”
“You have five seconds, pet,” Luigi said.
“Don’t. Eva. He’ll make me…hurt you. Like…before.”
“Four.”
Before? When Marie had made her…into whatever the hell she was now.
“Three. If you come now, pet, I will ensure you are treated…fairly.”
“He’ll need more and more—” Marie’s desperate words ended on a choked cry.
Evangeline looked up at Nic, uncertainty overwhelming her. He tightened his hold and his lips brushed her ear as he spoke to her mind. “Is she…confirming Luigi’s illness?”
“I think so. Let me go.”
The struggle in his eyes brought a lump to her throat, and she reached up to brush his cheek. His ever-present stubble tickled her fingertips, and she leaned in to kiss him.
“Two. You are running out of time.”
“I love you,” she whispered to his thoughts. “Sempre.”
As Nic released her, she took a deep, shuddering breath. “Stop. I’ll do what you want.”
Holding up her hands, her finger well away from the trigger of her gun, she stepped into the doorway. Carlo lay on the floor, a silver collar tight around hi
s neck, the chain fed through a hook in the ceiling. He struggled, his fingers clawing at the links, his eyes unfocused and wild. A red flush crawled up his cheeks, and he let out an agonized moan as his body convulsed.
Above him, another of Luigi’s guards—one she recognized from her time as his prisoner—held a large caliber handgun in one gloved hand, the end of Carlo’s chain in the other.
Marie trembled in front of Luigi as the elderly vampire held a dart gun to her heart. Bruises covered her arms, her neck, and her face. Her wrists and ankles were bound in silver with perhaps ten inches of slack. Blood stained the hem of her pale blue pants and the sleeves of her scrubs top. Marie’s red-rimmed, swollen eyes held a lifetime of pain, and her gaze kept flitting to the dart gun. “I’m so sorry, Eva. I tried to get away.”
“It’s okay…Mom. He won’t hurt me. He needs me.”
“Drop the gun.” Luigi jabbed Marie harder, and her mother winced. “The drugs in this dart will kill her. Very, very slowly. Over the course of months. She’ll be unable to feed. Unable to do anything but wither away.”
Evangeline slowly crouched down, setting the gun next to her foot before straightening. When Luigi jerked his head to the other side of the room, she kicked the gun away. “You’re a fucking monster.”
“I am. Also your master now.” He took a step back with Marie held tight against him. “Roman, bind my pet.”
“Wait.” With her hands still in the air, Evangeline tried to force her fangs to pop out, but she still had so little control over her newly found vampire abilities. “Think this through, Luigi.” At his growl, she swallowed hard. “Master.” The word threatened to choke her, and nausea crawled through her belly. She couldn’t let him get his hands on her. Not again.
“You’re…sick. My blood…it’s not working. Is it?” Taking a single step closer, she stopped trying to control her terror, and her mouth started to ache, then throb as her fangs burst through her gums. “I’m not the same person I was when you…took me.”
Evangeline curled her lip so he could see her small fangs. “You did something to me, you bastard. Forcing me to drink your blood. Keeping me drugged up. Dosing me with the same shit my father shot me up with all these years. You turned me into a vampire. Ironic. Using me as a blood slave so you could have eternal life is what will kill you, in the end.”
“Vaffanculo,” he spat and wrapped his free hand around Marie’s neck. “You did this!” Her mother wheezed as Luigi tightened his hold. “I knew I could not trust you.”
“You’ve lost,” Evangeline said with a shrug. “All you can do now is let her go. Let both of them go. Do that, and you can live out the rest of your life with as much regular, human blood as you want. You’ll be in a cell, but you’ll be alive.”
“Thom is here,” Nic said to her mind. “In five seconds, drop.”
“No! Not yet!” Her mother was still in danger. She had to find a way to remove Luigi’s leverage.
“What’ll it be?” Evangeline met her mother’s gaze, hoping she could somehow convey the need to get down, that there was help on the other side of the wall. But Marie was seconds from passing out. She couldn’t wait any longer.
Nic’s footsteps echoed on the stone. Calling on every reserve, praying she’d developed even a fraction of a vampire’s enhanced speed, she lunged for her mother. Pain ripped through her shoulder as a deafening crack split her ear drums. More shots ricocheted off the rough-hewn stone walls, and she wrapped her fingers around her mother’s wrist.
Marie’s body jerked, and Nic’s roar penetrated her terror as he sprinted towards Luigi. “No!” Evangeline cried and lunged for the dart gun in Luigi’s hand.
With a whimper, Marie crumpled to the floor, and Evangeline forced Luigi’s arm up as Nic tackled him and the three of them went down together.
She tasted blood, and Luigi’s fangs scraped her arm. Crying out at the pain, she tried to recoil, but he wrapped his hand in her hair as Nic punched him in the jaw.
“Let. Her. Go.” Another punch, this one to the neck, and the elderly vampire wedged his other hand against Nic’s chest and shoved, sending him three feet across the room and slamming into the wall. With only Evangeline to contend with, he snarled and yanked her across his body.
“You are mine,” he spat and sank his fangs into her neck.
No. Not again. With the last of her strength, she grabbed his head and tried to pull him away. But he rolled with her, trapping her underneath his frail, but surprisingly heavy body.
Her right arm was numb, her fingers slippery, and Luigi took a deep pull from her vein, the blood burning her skin as he tried desperately to drain every last ounce of strength from her body.
Evangeline screamed and dug her fingers into Luigi’s mouth, prying his jaw open just enough that his fangs slipped from her vein.
“Get. Off. Of. Her.” Nic’s roar was her salvation, and Luigi’s weight lifted, a rasping, weak scream escaping the man’s lips as he hit the ground.
But her blood had fueled him enough. He sprang up in a heartbeat, his purple eyes wild as he strode towards Nic. Steps away, Luigi jerked, pawed at his back, and whispered, “No.”
As Luigi sank to his knees, Sylvie, standing over Marie’s unconscious body, lowered the dart gun. “Fuck you, wanker.”
Thom hauled Luigi up and bound him in silver handcuffs while Nic raced to Evangeline’s side.
“Cara, Dio mio. I thought I would lose you.” He gathered her against him, his breathing ragged, his fear a physical weight that pressed down on her. With the edge of his sleeve, he wiped the blood from her neck. “I should have been faster.”
“E. Bloody hell. Get over here.”
The seriousness in Sylvie’s tone sent a fresh wave of panic to drown her.
“Oh God.” Cradled in Sylvie’s arms, Evangeline’s mother trembled with her hands pressed to her stomach as the bodyguard pulled the poisonous dart from Marie’s chest.
“Mom. No.”
48
Tears burned Evangeline’s eyes as Nic helped her into a fresh shirt. Her right shoulder was still stiff and sore, though the bullet wound had healed to nothing more than a swollen, reddish scar after he’d encouraged her to bite him and take some of his blood.
“It’s my fault,” she whispered. “She told me not to come back for her. Maybe she’d be—”
“No.” Nic’s sharp tone made her flinch, but in the next breath, he cupped her cheeks. “Cara, your mother was only conscious for a few moments, but the way she looked at you…she does not blame you.”
Despite the pain burning through her shoulder, fresh memories of Luigi violating her, and the myriad of bruises and scrapes from fighting him, Evangeline had rushed to her mother’s side minutes before Marie passed out.
“Mom. Look at me.”
Marie’s labored breathing stuttered, and she forced her eyes open. “Eva. Don’t…take me…to a hospital. Too…dangerous. I’m so sorry…I wanted to know you.”
“You will know me. There has to be something we can do.” Evangeline pulled her mother into her arms, and Marie groaned, her fangs perched on her lower lip.
“My research,” she panted.
Nic dropped to his knees next to Evangeline. “Marie, where is your research? What do you need?”
“Where…he held me…before. A loose stone…” Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she coughed, blood trickling from her lips. “Love…you…Eva.”
“Evangeline.” Nic drew her out of her memories, smoothing his hands down her arms. “Vittoria is with her now. We will know more soon.”
After a quick knock, Sylvie poked her head into the bedroom. “Carlo’s awake.”
They followed her into the main room of the safehouse, and Evangeline touched her arm. “Are you all right? You’re still limping.”
“Silver bullets. Chipped my femur. Thom had to fish out a bloody big bone shard. I’ll be fine tomorrow, but it still smarts.” Sylvie dropped into a chair next to the couch where Carlo lay propp
ed up on pillows. The male bore deep burns around his neck, and he struggled to focus.
“Carlo, grazie Dio,” Nic said, sliding his hip onto the arm of the couch and accepting a bottle of blood from Sylvie. He cracked the seal, then held the bottle to Carlo’s lips. “Feed, figlio mio.”
Hours ago, she and Nic had been ready to sever all ties with Carlo. But he’d risked his life to save her—and her mother. The entire ride from the Conclave to the safe house, Carlo had screamed in pain, only to pass out as Nic carried him up the stairs.
Tears burned Evangeline’s eyes as the realization hit her. In every way that counted, Carlo was Nic’s son.
“Is Luigi dead?” Carlo asked as he took the bottle from Nic and clutched it to his chest.
“No.” Sylvie ran a hand through her purple-tinged hair. “Antonio and Thom took him to the Conclave prison. But I shot him full of the same shite he used on Marie, so he doesn’t have much time left. Plus, E’s blood wore off. And regular blood isn’t helping him.”
“What did he do to you, Carlo?” Nic pulled Evangeline to his side, his arm around her waist. “We worried for you.”
“Some weak approximation of the serum.” With some difficulty, Carlo shoved at the pillows propping him up. “Not the same as Longo’s. Luigi said…the components were substandard. Unstable. Once he had an endless supply of Evangeline’s blood, he was convinced Marie would perfect the formula.”
“When he had me,” Evangeline said, digging her fingers into Nic’s shoulder, “my mother told me Luigi was forcing her to try to replicate Henry’s research.”
When the door to the second bedroom opened, Evangeline tensed. Vittoria emerged, her cheeks flushed and dark circles bracing her eyes. “Dio. I need blood.” Trudging into the small kitchen, she withdrew a bottle of donor blood and cracked the seal. “I have done all I can for now. She is resting, and I gave her something for the pain.”
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