Illumination (The Penton Vampire Legacy Book 5)

by Susannah Sandlin

  She gasped when one of his fangs nicked the edge of her mouth. A small dot of blood spread, and she wiped it away. “Oh my God, are you okay? Did you get any of it in your mouth?” She sat up. “I could kill you just by kissing you.”

  “Hey.” Nik pulled her shoulders back until she lay beside him again. “That was my first kiss as a vampire. I’ll get better. I just need practice.” He leaned forward and kissed her again, careful to avoid the puncture wound he’d made. He was ridiculously happy for a man who’d died twice in the last month. “Lots of practice.”

  Shay smiled. “I could help you with that, I guess. You’ll learn faster on a vaccinated girl. More to lose by doing it wrong.”

  “Do you remember what I told you when I…before I passed out from draining the blood?” He’d died, basically, but that sounded too macabre even for a vampire. “About us?”

  A wary expression clouded Shay’s face. “You said you loved me. I won’t hold you to it, don’t worry. I know you weren’t thinking clearly.”

  “You’re dead wrong about that. I was thinking just fine. I just didn’t think I had time to be chickenshit and not tell you.”

  Damn it, what had he said wrong this time? Shay looked ready to burst into tears. “I think I loved you even when I hated you for leaving me all those years ago.”

  “Then why are you crying?” He didn’t want to cry. He wanted to claim her. To bury himself deep inside her and never let her out of his sight.

  She laughed even as tears spilled from her eyes. “Because look at us. You’re a freaking vampire in the middle of a war, surrounded by other vampires and shifters. I’m more than four months pregnant with some loser’s baby, this town isn’t set up for raising kids, and we can’t even kiss each other without endangering your life. Talk about relationship challenges. And it’s New Year’s Day now. This new year scares the hell out of me.”

  Nik chuckled and slid an arm beneath her shoulders so that she lay against him. It felt right. “We’ll figure it out. First thing is ending this war.”

  “Well, you have the Big Bad Vampire locked up. That’s a start.”

  “It’s a start, but I think dawn has arrived.” His limbs had grown too heavy to move, even if he wanted to. Which he didn’t. He wanted to think about Shay. He wanted to focus on the present, not the future. The future, Nik had learned, was fickle and capricious.

  The future could screw you six ways to Sunday in the blink of an eye.

  Chapter 35 * Shay

  Shay basked in Nik’s arms, wanting to sleep alongside him, but her mind kept returning to Hannah’s admonition to ask for what she needed. She needed Nik, but had a feeling that wasn’t what Hannah meant. “What would it take to end the war?”

  Nik had fallen asleep, but stirred at the sound of her voice. “Reaching some kind of truce with Frank Greisser, I guess, although how we could ever trust him, I don’t know. He’s broken truce before.” He grew quiet and she thought he’d fallen asleep again until he spoke. “Or maybe figuring out a way so vampires could feed from vaccinated humans, since eventual starvation is at the heart of the whole thing.”

  Shay raised up on one elbow, a cloud of an idea beginning to form. “Tell me about Hannah and her…abilities.”

  “Her visions? I’m not sure what they are, but I do love that kid.” Nik yawned. “I’ve learned to trust her visions even though they’re usually incomplete. She gets hints of things. Like she knew…” Nik stopped abruptly.

  Shay raised an eyebrow. “Knew what?”

  Nik yawned again. “Even before we went to get you away from New Orleans, she knew your name and said I would love you. And she said you were important to saving Penton. Don’t know what she meant by that, and neither does she.”

  Shay settled back in Nik’s arms and thought a while. Before long, his breathing slowed and his muscles relaxed. He’d gone beyond sleep and into daysleep. She had learned the rhythms of his heartbeats. Vampire hearts beat more slowly than those of humans, and during daysleep they were barely perceptible. She’d overheard Will telling Mirren that Nik would have regular daysleeps unless he made an effort not to, but he could be awakened without any ill effects, as far as they could tell.

  She’d delayed his daysleep with her talk, but there was no need to wake him. She needed a sounding board and he needed rest.

  Shay slipped away from him and returned to the room next door. She wished she could talk to Melissa or Krys about Hannah’s comments, but they were in daysleep as well. Archer was on patrol duty.

  Mirren had asked Shay if she wanted to leave, not to return to New Orleans but to go someplace where she had no connections. He hadn’t seemed surprised when she said no. And it wasn’t entirely because of Nik and however they might or might not resolve their feelings for each other. Shay had a role here; she just had to figure out what it was. For some reason, she, too, trusted Hannah’s visions.

  Finally, she walked down the hallway, through the tunnel, and climbed up into the training center. Quite a few people still sat around at tables, but the stress level and the number of people had dwindled since the night of the Atlanta mission.

  Even as an outsider, Shay knew the lull was temporary.

  “Shay, over here.”

  She followed the sound of the voice and found Mark Calvert sitting with Nik’s techie friend, Gadget. He’d introduced himself as Garrett when she’d first met him. With his wild mane of blond hair and geek glasses, his nickname fit him better. Like Nik, he mostly wore black long-sleeved t-shirts and fatigues. Must be an Army thing.

  “Hey, Shay, you want dinner?” Glory called from behind the food counter in the corner. “Never mind, of course you do. I’ll bring it to you.”

  “Have a seat.” Gadget used his foot to push out the chair next to him. “Tell us how Nik’s doing.”

  “He’s going stir crazy, especially since Mirren locked him in the subsuite. He’s fine, though. After this daysleep, he should be back to his regular schedule. I think Hannah has made a welcome home gift for him.”

  “It’s a box for his Army Ranger pins and stuff,” Gadget said. “And it’s pink.”

  They were all laughing when Glory arrived with a tray holding three bowls of beef stew and a loaf of warm bread with butter. “I’ll have leftovers if you want to take them home,” she said before hustling back toward the kitchen. Over her shoulder, she called, “I just made it, so it’ll last three days in the fridge.”

  “Thanks,” Gadget said, and Mark nodded in agreement, his mouth stuffed full of bread.

  “Glory doesn’t like serving leftovers, which is heaven for those of us who don’t cook,” Mark told Shay between bites. “If we ever get Penton back to normal, Mirren has promised to build her a restaurant. That woman can make desserts that will make you cry.”

  From the way she’d eaten since arriving in Penton, Shay could believe it. She wasn’t sure her baby bump was all baby. “You said if Penton ever got back to normal. Are you losing hope?”

  Mark shook his head. “Actually, I’m a little more hopeful now that we have Greisser. Aidan’s getting stronger and Cage has started to accept what’s happened.”

  “And Nik’s almost back to normal—well, his new normal, I guess you’d say,” Gadget added. “Things were looking bleak for a while.”

  “Can I talk to you guys about something? I know will sound strange coming from me, since I’m really not one of you.” Shay wasn’t sure that had come out right. She was sensitive about sounding arrogant since Nik had once pointed out her tendency to always think she was right.

  “You are one of us, like it or not.” Mark smiled. “Melissa, aka my wife the matchmaker, says you and Nik are for real.”

  Shay’s skin heated, and she focused on her bowl of stew. “Well, Hannah seems to think so.”

  “Then it’s a fact.” Mark laughed and pulled another chunk of bread off the loaf. “Hannah’s visions are incomplete but I don’t think they’ve ever been wrong.”

  “That’s sort of wh
at I wanted to talk about.”

  “She said you would be able to help Penton.” Gadget pointed his spoon at her. “You specifically. I was there the night she first said it. We were at Nik’s place, right before he and Cage and Robin went to New Orleans.”

  Shay nodded. “Nik told me. And later, Hannah repeated it and told me I needed to let someone know what I needed. What could that mean?”

  Gadget and Mark stared at her a few moments, then resumed eating. “I thought about this once, but it seemed far-fetched.” Gadget spoke slowly, swirling his spoon around his bowl and watching the food circle with it. “You’re an epidemiologist, right? You study epidemics? Pandemics? Well, wasn’t what happened to the vampires related to a vaccine created for that pandemic a few years ago?”

  “Yes…..Oh my God.” Shay dropped her spoon on the table with a clatter and sat back in her chair. Why hadn’t she made that connection? She should be shot with her own syringe. Clapped between her own microscope glass slides as a specimen of stupidity.

  If she could isolate what it was about that vaccine that changed human blood, she might be able to find something to reverse it, or at least render it temporarily inactive—long enough for a vampire to feed. Her mind spun through the things she might need.

  “I can practically hear you thinking,” Mark said. “Gadget, open your laptop and get ready to make a list.”

  “I need to set up a lab,” Shay said. “I need…a ton of stuff. Equipment, supplies. It’s not going to be easy to get.” If she had access to her lab at Tulane, she’d be able to start immediately.

  Gadget laughed. “Woman, you have no idea how resourceful I can be. Start talking.”

  Chapter 36 * Mirren

  It had only taken three weeks. Three weeks, and Frank’s acolytes had rallied behind Marianne. How that bitch had managed to survive, Mirren wasn’t sure, except that Nik and Archer had underestimated both her vampire ability to heal and her deep level of hatred.

  Whatever the reason, she was like a damned zombie. They’d think she was dead and yet she just kept walking and talking and causing trouble. And she’d probably eat their faces off if she got a chance. The woman’s own face hadn’t healed well, so now her temper was probably even nastier.

  Will and Randa had tangled with one of her people the previous night as he’d been sniffing around the old Omega entrance. So today, Archer and Gadget had zipped Frank Greisser’s daysleeping body into a light-tight body bag and hauled him to the Omega opening for an hour to make sure Marianne could scent him clearly when she next came looking. Mirren figured that would be tonight. They’d rigged a recording of a ranting, raving Frank, made hours after his abduction, to play when the steel door into Omega was opened. Then they’d doused the body bag with a lung-choking apple-scented air freshener to mask their trail and moved Frank back into his cell beneath the training center.

  Now, Mirren waited, leaning against a tree near the hatch that led down into the underground facility known as Omega. Before the new training center became the shelter of last resort, Omega had served that function. Keeping the whole town underground for an extended period had proved problematic. There were only two exits, easy for Frank’s people to monitor. The water supply had been easy to contaminate.

  With the training center, built like a tank beneath the deceptively mundane veneer of red brick, they could at least fight their way out aboveground if all the underground escape tunnels were compromised.

  Mirren’s .45 lay beside him within easy reach, although if Marianne were coming from Atlanta it would take her a couple more hours to get here. In the meantime, Faolain needed his attention. He ran a fresh whetstone slowly down the length of the sword’s steel blade, then wiped it with an oiled cloth until it shone even in the pale moonlight.

  He slid it back into its scabbard and waited. Will and Randa had staked out spots to his left and right. Robin was taking her first flyovers since being injured, although Mirren had ordered her to come in at the first sign of fatigue. That stubborn little shifter would fly till her wings fell off; only Cage could begin to keep her in line. Sort of.

  Nik and the Brit were prowling the woods behind Mirren on the off chance that Greisser’s people circled to approach from the rear.

  If Marianne showed up, they would capture or kill her. Mirren was no longer a hired killer as he’d been for much of his vampire life—and human life, for that matter. But he would not hesitate with Marianne. She had almost murdered both Nik and Robin in the museum fiasco. She’d tried to kill Nik and Aidan in the Atlanta clinic explosion.

  Whatever happened, she had it coming. If that made him worthy of his old nickname of Slayer, so be it.

  His phone vibrated and he dug it out of his pocket. A text from Robin: M on her way—20 minutes. I’m coming in.

  Good. One less person to worry about. This leader business sucked. Mirren liked working alone. Teams and leadership and responsibility…those were Aidan’s strengths. Another week, and Aidan Murphy could have his town back. He was already calling the shots, which is why capturing Marianne was even on the table. Aidan wanted her alive.

  Mirren texted warnings to the others, then put the phone away. He hated the damned things but had to admit they were useful. Except when he lost his. Glory had sewn sleeves inside all his pants pockets so that wouldn’t happen again.

  He stood up and prowled the clearing, making sure the hatch was visible. Not uncovered enough to be obvious, but easy to find without an extensive search.

  The soft click of car doors sounded from the north, and Mirren took cover behind a stand of dense trees and brush. He scented them rather than saw them. Four distinct signatures, all vampire, none bound to Aidan’s scathe.

  They had fanned out, all approaching the south. Mirren sent Will a mental warning, leaving the younger vampire to pass it on. He’d been annoyed when Will developed the skills to become a master vampire, however that mysterious thing happened. No one knew. But having another master in Penton besides himself and Aidan had proven useful. Cage would be one soon.

  “Who’s out there?” A woman’s voice sounded from directly in front of Mirren. “I can scent you, and you aren’t mine. Show yourself.”

  No surprise; Mirren had been prepared for this. He stepped from behind cover, his .45 drawn. “Damn. Looks like you caught me.”

  Marianne, at about five-three, looked up at Mirren with a flare of victory in her eyes and a smile that spread across her face. Stupid.

  “Slayer. Oh, how I’ve longed to meet you in person.”

  Mirren smiled, and her own faltered. “I’ve been waiting for you, Marianne. Took longer to get here than I expected. My lookout thought you’d get here five minutes ago.”

  She laughed. “Well, I guess it’s a new lookout. Sorry to have killed your little eagle shifter. She was pretty. I’d have added her to my own scathe if eagles weren’t so damned loyal.”

  “Oh, she’s alive and flying again. Our psychic also survived.” Mirren moved to the side as Marianne’s companions stepped up behind her, spread across the clearing. “You aren’t nearly as deadly as you think.”

  Mirren couldn’t resist an extra taunt. “You shouldn’t clench your teeth like that, by the way. It shows every fucking bone on that side of your face.” Literally. The skin hadn’t reformed to cover her shattered lower jaw.

  “Subdue him,” she said. “I can scent Frank here. Once we retrieve him, we kill the Slayer. If we can’t find him, we have a valuable pawn. Don’t kill him yet, but if he fights back and you want to fuck him up a little, that’s okay.”

  Mirren didn’t give them a reason, although one of the assholes sucker-punched him anyway. He let them lock his hands behind him in silver cuffs. He didn’t need vampire strength to snap cuffs, but wouldn’t be sharing that information.

  He even let them tie him to a fucking tree, and watched as Marianne’s companions looked for the Omega hatch.

  “Here it is.” A vampire with a shaved head and a lot of tattoos brushed the
dirt and dead leaves from the top of the entrance. He took out a pistol and shot out the lock, then lifted off the hatch.

  “There’s a light at the bottom, but I can’t see what’s around it.”

  Marianne’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Then I guess you better climb down and take a look.”

  Shaved Head shot a nervous look at Mirren, stuck his gun in a shoulder holster, lowered his feet into the hole, and connected with the ladder rungs. Then he disappeared from view. “There’s a steel door that looks like it goes into a tunnel.” His voice wafted up from the hole. “Think Slayer’s got a key?”

  Marianne arched an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Does Slayer have a key?”

  Mirren shrugged. “No, Slayer is smart enough to know that it’s a combination lock and doesn’t open with a key.”

  The largest of Marianne’s men, a beefy man in black, sucker-punched Mirren again. Twice. Then got him in the mouth. Mirren spit out a mouthful of blood where his lip had scraped across a fang.

  “Think perfect human vision.” Mirren would make it easy for them.

  Marianne stared at him a few seconds. “There should be a combination pad. Try two-zero-two-zero.”

  The clearing was silent for a few seconds. “I can’t get it to turn,” the man said. “I think it’s rusted.”

  Marianne rolled her eyes and, again, Mirren couldn’t resist. “Sad when you have to surround yourself with a bunch of idiots, isn’t it?”

  That earned him another gut-shot. The man in black packed a hard punch, Mirren would give him that. He thought a rib had cracked on the last one.

  “Watch him.” Marianne pocketed her own gun and climbed down the ladder.

  Mirren smiled and sent a mental message to Will. “Two up, two down. Move in.”

  From the hatch came two muffled gunshots and the creak of a door, followed by the dulcet tones of Frank Greisser, yelling, among various curses, “I order you to release me from this godforsaken hole in the ground!”