The smell of blood, my blood, pushes me over the edge. Serge is sprawled across my chest and the metal frame of the coffee table surrounds us, but it is a scenario I can work with. Instead of striking at me again, Serge leans in and inhales.
“I’ll bleed out eventually, moron. You’d better hurry. It smells delicious.” The sound of my voice, calm and cold, surprises him and he sits back on his haunches to look at me. He has inadvertently freed my arms.
“You smell that?” The confusion flickers across his face again.
I don’t answer. In his distraction, I reach for a long sliver of glass near my thigh. I don’t take time to consider the bite of the glass against my palm or the blood that it releases. I ignore the hunger I feel as the smell of more blood invades my nose. Serge, however, cannot.
It is just a matter of time before he figures out that while biting me won’t work, a good old-fashioned blow to the head or a stab wound to the gut will do the trick just fine. I tighten my grip on the giant shard. Et tu, Brute, I think. And so the same will serve to end Serge as well.
He rears back and roars in anticipation. In the same instant, I drive the shard home into his gut. Not a fatal blow, but it disables him long enough for me to shove him off and jump to my feet. The smell of blood is heavy in the air now as the gaping wound across his middle spills crimson onto the white rug. I’ve hit a major artery. My shirt is plastered wet against my back.
“You fucking whore,” he screams. “I was going to turn you and make you mine. But not now. Now I’m going to kill you. Your precious Lucan will come home to a drained and dry corpse.”
“Oh shut the fuck up.” It’s not much of a comeback after a death threat, but it distracts him while I step over the metal skeleton of the ruined table, putting it in between us. “You couldn’t turn me if you tried. Not to mention that if you did, I wouldn’t exactly stick around to become your vampire bride.”
He is seething. Blood is dripping down the shard of glass wedged in my palm. It hits the rug with a little plunkplunkplunk.
“What are you?” he asks, genuinely curious.
“Sodali bonded. Completely immune to your attacks.”
“Impossible…”
Serge lunges forward again, on his way to clearing the smashed coffee table and closing the distance I have managed to put between us. I strike when he is in mid air, slashing my glass blade across his neck, completely severing everything in my path.
If the glass had been stronger I would have been able to decapitate him. But the makeshift blade gives way as it hits his vertebrae and cuts deeper into my palm instead.
Blood sprays from his wounds with an incredible force, hitting me, the rug, and the floor beyond. He gurgles and spits and grabs for his mangled throat. We both realize he’s holding his head upright in his hands. There are no last words to be had since I’ve severed his vocal cords.
It is gory and disgusting but I do not look away as he drops to the floor. His eyes, the color of molten lava, cloud over to black as the immortal life drains from his face. His body withers before me until he is a shriveled hull on the now crimson rug.
I let out a scream of victory and pain, the blood is flowing from the wounds on my back and hands at a steady pace. Remembering Zaid’s word about salt’s ability to prevent vampires from regenerating, I run to the kitchen. There is a Costco-sized box of salt in the pantry.
Serge looks dead but I’m not taking any chances. I open the little metal spout and pour the entire contents of the box over his body. The little umbrella girl on the front has her eyes downcast in disapproval of my actions.
Even though adrenaline is still pumping through my veins, keeping me upright, the gravity of my actions is sinking in. I killed a man.
There is no way this can be termed self-defense since I lured my attacker into a formerly secured area with the express intention of doing him bodily harm. I seriously doubt vampire laws differ from human laws on this. I need Lucan.
My knees buckle and send me crashing to the blood soaked rug. At least we have contained the battle to one spot instead of drenching our entire apartment, I muse. The phone I found in the couch cushions rings again. I pick it up from among the shards of glass and answer it without conscious effort.
“Hello?” My voice sounds weak and far away.
“Abri?” It is Sarah. “Abri, you found Mark’s phone. Are you okay? You sound sick.”
“I killed him. There’s so much blood...”
“Killed him? Killed who?” She is screaming. That is, of course, the proper reaction to have isn’t it? I can hear her relaying my words to Mark in the background. I can hear him telling her to keep me on the line and that he is coming.
“Get Lucan,” is all I manage to say before I black out.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
The astringent smell of antiseptic pulls me out of rather soothing dream starring Lucan and me on a remote island paradise. It smells better than blood, which is the last thing I remember smelling. Blood. Oh shit. The memories of what I did come back to me and my eyes fly open.
I’m not in our apartment anymore. I am in the Enclave clinic. In the same room where I learned of my hybrid lineage a few weeks before. Only there is a hospital bed in place of the metal examination table. Why do vampires need a doctor… Maybe it’s for the Patrons not the vampires. My thoughts are scrambled like eggs. I hate eggs.
“Love, it’s okay.” Lucan’s voice is calm. His hand rests in mine on the bed. “You’re okay.”
“Lucan.” I turn my head towards his face. Tears well up in my eyes and spill over. The sobs are deep and uncontrollable. I can’t talk so Lucan fills the void.
“I’m here. Mark and Sarah, too. They haven’t left even for a minute. I got here as soon as I could. I’m so sorry. I should never have left you with that animal on the loose. He overrode the alarms, but Zaid is installing a new system as we speak.”
Zaid is supposed to be in California. “How long have I been out?”
“Just over a day. Dr. Steinman had to stitch you up. He tried giving you some vampire blood to speed up the healing process, but you wouldn’t hear of taking any except mine so he had to sedate you.”
The cuts must have been bad then. I struggle to sit up. Lucan reaches for my shoulder but I wince. He frowns and settles for propping the pillow up behind me. “Serge didn’t override the alarms. I disabled them.”
“You disabled them! Why?” Lucan is searching my face and my brain for an answer.
“Mark left his phone at the apartment and I answered it. It was Serge. He knew it was me and it was the only way we were going to get to him, so I invited him over.”
I acknowledge the insanity of my plan even as the words leave my lips. My mental chatter is still dim from the sedation so I can hear Lucan’s thoughts loud and clear. He is trying to find words to comfort and not admonish me. Although he really wants to chew me out. And he probably should.
Before Lucan can find the words, the door opens. It’s Dr. Steinman. “Ms. Cole, I see you’re awake. Those were some nasty gashes. Mark tells me you fell over a glass table?”
Mark must have left out the part about the nearly headless, salt-cured vampire that had been lying next to said glass table and was ultimately the cause of my injuries.
“Ah, yeah.” I don’t feel like giving him anymore of the story and since no one else has apparently felt like it either I don’t worry.
“You lost a lot of blood, but we gave you a transfusion from our human Patron stock and Lucan followed it up with a little of his own so you should be as good as new in a few days.”
“Days? Wow. Can I go home then, Doc?” The stitches on my back are already starting to itch and I want out of this hospital gown and into my pajamas.
“I don’t see why not. Luke, you’ll need to change the dressings tomorrow and keep an eye out for infection. And keep the wounds dry. No showering, just a sponge bath if you can’t wait. I think we will be able to take the stitches out day after next.
There might be a little scarring on your hand given your hybrid nature. There were traces of salt in the wounds. Won’t hurt a human, but with you I can’t know for certain.”
“Yes, sir,” Lucan acknowledges. “I brought you some fresh clothes. Do you want to get dressed?”
“Yes, please,” I murmur. Dr. Steinman takes his cue to leave. Getting dressed with a bandaged hand and a shredded back is difficult, but we manage. Steadying myself to get off the bed and across the room is another story. I concede to Lucan carrying me.
Out in the hallway, Mark and Sarah are waiting. Sarah bursts into tears when she sees me. Sarah wants to follow us home and make sure I am all right but Mark convinces her Lucan can take care of me now. They promise to visit when I am up to it. It makes me cry again. In fact, I am rather sniffley the entire ride back to the Chrysler.
It turns out Zaid had only missed the battle royale by a few hours. He had finished with his mission earlier than expect and was on his way back to New York to babysit me in Lucan’s absence—a fact Lucan had conveniently kept to himself, figuring the lockdown would upset me. He had figured right, but in hindsight, having Zaid there would have saved me from injury and near death. Lucan pushes his thoughts of agreement into my brain. I push my apology back.
I lean on Lucan during the elevator rides up to the apartment. It seems a lifetime ago that I was afraid to ride in an elevator. I am so over my fear that I planned to use one as an escape pod. I glance down at our feet to see the first aid kit and my cell phone still stashed in the corner along with the knife. Lucan leans me against his hip and bends down to pick them up.
Elevators now rank below blood-crazed vampires on my list of fears and I’m not so sure I am even afraid of those.
“There’s my warrior princess!” Zaid exclaims as we come off the lift. “Nice touch with the Morton’s. I have to say I am impressed, Mitra.”
“I figured you would be.” Leave it to Zaid to be excited over my kill. “Thanks for cleaning it up.”
“Anytime,” he replies, touching my shoulder lightly. “All that salt soaked up most of the blood. I just scooped it up into a Hefty and, well… Say, Lucan, that jackass didn’t disable the alarm. It was powered off with the security code.”
“Yeah, I did that.”
“Nice,” Zaid laughs. “Stupid, but effective.”
I shrug and it hurts. Lucan fills Zaid in on my battle plan while I make my way over to the bed to lay face down. I avoid looking at the negative space left by the missing coffee table and rug. We’ll get another one, not glass this time. Definitely not a white rug either.
I drift off to sleep to the sound of Zaid and Lucan discussing my battle prowess. I have no plans to fight rabid vampires ever again.
EPILOGUE
The sound of my cell going off wakes me from a deep slumber and I shake off the feelings of déjà vu. Lucan has the shades down so I have no idea what time it is. He is splayed out next to me in the bed, sleeping literally like the dead since his chest not rising. Every time I see it, my own heart skips a beat before I remember it’s completely normal. I will remember to offer him a little blood later, if I feel up to it.
“Hello?”
“Abri, it’s Dr. Steinman. How are you feeling?”
“Better. I think the blood helped a lot. What time is it?”
“It’s noon. I’m sorry to wake you, but I have some news. When you were brought in my staff drew blood and ran the customary labs.”
He pauses like doctors do before they deliver bad news.
“My labs were fine a few weeks ago, how could something be wrong now?” I ask.
“Abri, you’re pregnant.”
I choke back a gasp. “Pregnant?”
Lucan comes online next to me and bolts upright in the bed. “Pregnant?”
“Good morning, Lucan.” Dr. Steinman raises his voice a little. “Yes, pregnant. If you remember, I told you this was possible. You are living proof of it after all, dear.”
I guess neither one of us really put together that if my great-great grandparents could have a child, so could we if we did what people do to make children. We haven’t been actively trying, but then again, we haven’t being trying not to either. I’m a little ashamed that as a grown woman I haven’t been keeping track of this better. “What’s today’s date?” I ask no one in particular.
“April first,” Dr. Steinman says with a noticeable smirk. “And, no, this is not a joke.”
Fuck. My visit from my favorite aunt is nearly three weeks late. It must have happened just after we completed the ceremony.
Lucan hears my mental math and takes the phone from my hand. He thanks Dr. Steinman for calling and tells him we will make an appointment next week for an ultrasound. They exchange a few more congratulatory and appreciative remarks before Lucan ends the call.
Even if we couldn’t hear each other mentally, I would have known what he was thinking.
“Holy shit,” we say in unison. “Holy. Shit.”
I shake my head to clear it. “You know what this means?”
Lucan looks at me with the biggest smile anyone’s ever had and tears in his eyes. “What?”
“We have to tell my mother now.”
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