Undone (Vampire Awakenings, Book 5)

by Brenda K. Davies

  Drake’s head tilted to the side as he studied the monitor. “Only one twin though.”

  Brian closed his eyes when his vision blurred. He forced them open again before Abby stepped into view on the monitor. His heart lurched into his throat as the camera angle showed her walking down the same hall he’d first traversed. Ronan strode down the hall before her with Lucien and Saxon flanking her sides and Aiden at her back. From the angle of the camera, he could tell it was located within the room he’d been captured in earlier. They were only a few feet away from that room.

  He strained forward against his restraints to discover his freed hand had been re-bolted to the table. More metal crossed over his chest and arms than before he’d passed out.

  Drake cast him a negligent glance. “Had them reinforced while you were sleeping.”

  Sweat slid down his face when he fell back against the table. Tremors rattled his body as it worked to shed itself of the rest of the effects of the gas. “Ronan’s confidence will get him killed,” Drake said as he tapped the remote against his good cheek. “I won’t be keeping him alive. He would fetch a fortune on the market, but he’s too risky. With as old as he is, we don’t know what he could be capable of, you know?”

  Brian’s heart raced when they stepped into the room where he’d been taken. Abigail, go back! She showed no reaction to the message he tried to send directly into her mind on the monitor. The gas had somehow managed to dim whatever it was in his mind that opened into hers.

  Fisting his hands, he pulled against the metal binding him. His muscles bulged and his veins swelled, but there was no screeching of metal against his burst of strength. “No!” he bellowed.

  Not Abby, he would not allow Abby to be chained to a wall and feasted upon by greedy, ravenous vampires. Her radiant soul shone through the black and white of the TV. The idea of it being dimmed in any way caused savagery to surge within him. No one would ever touch his mate in such a way.

  Drake glanced back at him, his one eyebrow lifting as his mouth quirked in amusement. “My, the mate bond does make one persistent, doesn’t it,” he murmured. A keen light came into his eyes as his gaze raked over Brian. “I was going to kill you right away, but I think I’d like to see how and what this bond does to a vampire. It shall be fun!” he declared and threw his hands into the air.

  “I am going to shove your intestines down your throat before I kill you,” Brian vowed.

  “How dramatic.” Snap, snap went Drake’s fingers above his head with a dramatic flair.

  Brian bared his fangs at the man, but Drake turned his back on him again. Brian’s gaze was drawn back to the monitor as the door started to close and gas released into the room. “Abby!” he shouted.

  Ronan moved so fast Brian didn’t see him until the door was torn from its hinges and crashed into the wall across the way. Lucien pushed the others back out of the room as the gas continued to fill it. Ronan remained behind, his eyes now entirely red as he surveyed the room. Then his head tilted back, and his gaze latched onto the camera.

  His glistening fangs were revealed by the smile curving his mouth. Walking across the room, he climbed the bodies to grab the camera. His red eyes filled the lens before he tore it from the wall and the screen became nothing but static.

  “Interesting,” Drake murmured as he tapped the remote against his cheek again.

  ***

  Gas slid down the hallway past them, floating in waves that made the hall smoky. Abby held her breath and tugged her black sweater over her nose. At least now she knew what the smell in the room had been as the acrid smoke made her eyes water.

  “It should be safe. It’s dispersing in the open space,” Lucien said to her.

  She still hesitated before pulling her sweater away from her mouth. “I’ve found a door,” Ronan said from inside the room.

  Abby stepped back into the room and surveyed the bodies. “This is where they were taken from?”

  “Most likely,” Ronan replied from where he stood with his hand wrapped around the edge of a door on the other side of the room.

  Beyond the door was a set of stairs. Lucien moved to go down them first, but Ronan held him back. “Keep an eye out for cameras.”

  Lucien nodded before descending the stairs. Ronan gestured for Saxon to follow, then her and Aiden. Abby’s noise wrinkled when the scent of mildew and the decaying aroma of death and garbage hit her like a punch in the face when she began to climb down. Lucien and Saxon exchanged a look as they stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Above her, she heard the grating sound of another door being broken.

  Looking back, she saw dim rays of light around the door’s edge from where it had been propped at an angle. Aiden pressed closer against her back when Ronan climbed down to join them and moved forward to stand at the front of the group. Out of instinct, she took hold of her brother’s hand and grasped it within hers. He glanced at her before squeezing her hand and releasing it.

  “There,” Lucien said and pointed at something in the hall.

  Before she could blink, Ronan vanished. She heard a wrenching sound and then he reappeared and dropped a camera at the foot of the stairs. He stomped it beneath his boot and gestured down the hall.

  He tore more cameras from the walls as they moved beneath the earth. The stench of death and garbage grew with every step she took through the old sewage or water system winding beneath the surface of the town above them. She forced herself not to inhale as she followed the pull of Brian within the convoluted tunnels, leading them unflinchingly onward when they came across a branch within the concrete walls surrounding them.

  She’d expected the concrete to be cool to the touch, but the circular tunnels kept the heat pressed against her. Sweat trickled down her brow and back as she walked. Little illumination pierced the confines, and most of it came from the holes the tree roots had created when they’d broken through from the surface above.

  Arriving at another door, her heart beat faster as her hands rested against its smooth surface. Brian was close, so close she could almost feel him beneath her fingers again, almost smell his woodsy, evergreen scent. Her hands frantically searched for a way to open it as frustration swelled within her.

  A hand rested on her shoulder. Feeling out of control with her desperation to get to him, she snapped her fangs at it. “Easy,” Ronan cautioned and nudged her away from the door. “I’ll find the entrance.”

  Abby couldn’t stop shaking as she waited impatiently for him to search the door. A click sounded before it began to swing open. “What did you do?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he replied. “Be prepared.”

  Aiden grabbed hold of her shoulders and pulled her back when something rushed at them from the shadows.

  ***

  Brian jerked and thrashed against his bonds; Drake laughed as he watched the horde of twenty or so vampires descend on Abby and the others. It was the first chance he’d gotten to see her again since she’d left the gas room. He’d caught only a glimpse of her before she was swallowed beneath the rush of vampires.

  “Abby!” he bellowed as fresh terror and strength streamed through him.

  Drake glanced back at him when metal squeaked and bent, before turning away as if nothing more would happen. A fresh wave of dizziness assailed him, causing him to pant for air as he fell back against the table. He had no idea what they’d given him, but he couldn’t shake its lasting effects.

  In their cells, Declan stopped pacing, and Killean tilted his head to listen. Declan approached the thick glass wall of his cell and rested his hands on it.

  On the video of Abby and the others, three of the vampires from the initial rush flew back into the hallway, all three of them missing their hearts. A handful more followed behind them.

  From beneath the crush, he caught a glimpse of Abby’s blonde hair as she wrestled against the vampires grasping and tearing at her. A punch connected with her cheek and she staggered backward. One of Brian’s metal bindings popped open when he lun
ged forward. They’d hurt her; they were hurting her. He wouldn’t allow it.

  Straining to break free, another restraint popped open. Drake waved a hand absently at him as if trying to shush him while his gaze remained locked on the screen. “You know,” he murmured, “I didn’t find the other twin overly appealing, but there’s something about yours… She’s such a little fighter. The things I’ll do…” Drake’s voice trailed off as he licked his lips.

  “Fuck you!” Brian thundered.

  “You mean I will fuck her.”

  One of the bonds on his thigh gave way beneath the swell of blood and power rushing through him. Not his sweet Abigail, not the woman he loved more than he’d ever dreamed possible.

  The realization hit him harder than a punch in the nose. He’d never thought he could be capable of loving someone again. He’d believed the ability to love had been destroyed with his family, but she’d made him capable of it again with her determination, strength, and the life she radiated. Somehow, through all the depravity and death within him, she made him so much more. She made him better. She accepted him for what he was, and she wanted him despite everything he’d done in his long, bloody existence.

  Though there had been none so far, he expected guilt to swell forth with the realization of his love for her, but it remained buried. The guilt and hatred that had driven him every day of his vampire years had been drowned out by Abby’s tender touches, her soft kisses, and her passionate spirit.

  Looking back, he questioned if he’d still been in love with Vivian all these years or consumed by his guilt and self-hatred over his failure to keep his family safe. Sometime over the decades, he’d begun to move on from his love for her without realizing it. He’d been a fool for not seeing his love for Abby sooner, for not acknowledging everything she’d come to mean to him, and now they could die without her ever knowing it.

  “So much spirit,” Drake murmured when Abby plunged her stake into the chest of a vampire and grabbed another by his hair. Jerking his head back, she sank her fangs into his neck and tore his throat out.

  His sweet, determined, seductress was as savage as she was loving. She’d believed she was as capable as he was of violence, and she was. And she’s capable of it for me.

  Abby kicked her victim away as the crush of vamps pushed them from the hallway and into the room from where the vampires had originally sprung. Abby was buried beneath the horde again. The loss of her sent a fresh burst of adrenaline rushing through him.

  “Guards!” Drake didn’t bother to look away from the monitor as another clamp broke away from Brian’s thigh. “I would drug you again, but I want you to watch everything I do to her.” Maliciousness gleamed in his eyes when he glanced at Brian. “I think it will be fun.”

  Two guards stormed into the room as Brian heaved against the bonds again. “Hold him,” Drake commanded.

  He bared his fangs at the men who seized hold of his shoulders and slammed him against the table. His muscles swelled as he thrashed against the table.

  “That’s it, love,” Drake murmured.

  Brian’s eyes shot to the monitor as Abby broke free of the pack and staggered into the massive room that opened up behind her. Five vampires circled her as she edged around the sofa in the sitting room someone had established in the middle of the tunnel system. She grabbed hold of a small lamp and threw it at one vampire, who ducked to avoid the blow. Using his distraction, she leapt onto the couch and over the back of it.

  The vampire nearly collapsed beneath her when she landed on his back, but he managed to keep himself upright. Before he could react, Abby used her fangs to tear a gash across his neck. Blood sprayed the room and her as she jumped away from him. One of the other vamps grabbed her wrist. She spun and smashed her fist into his chest, tearing his heart from him and stomping on it.

  That’s my girl. Pride and fear for her swelled within him; he renewed his battle against his captors when Abby leapt back over the couch. He realized one of the vamp’s had a crossbow seconds before the bolt hit her shoulder. Brian roared with fury. He managed to knock away one of the hands holding him as he flailed wildly. Another restraint gave way beneath his flexing forearms.

  Abby stumbled back, her eyes latching onto the crossbow before she turned and fled down the hall. “Here she comes,” Drake said excitedly.

  “Abby, no!” Brian shouted.

  CHAPTER 32

  Abby tore the bolt from her shoulder as she raced down the winding tunnels. The slap of her pursuer’s feet echoed around her as she ran. She kept her hand pressed against the wound to staunch the flow of blood soaking her sweater.

  Behind her, she could hear the others still battling against the vampires. She had no idea how to get back to help them, and she didn’t much feel like coming up against a crossbow again. She was following Brian’s pull through the tunnels when a bellow reverberated over the concrete surrounding her. “Abby, no!”

  The sound of Brian’s voice caused her heart to leap. It didn’t matter that he was telling her not to continue, all that mattered was seeing him again. Her hand fell away from her shoulder, the pain of it forgotten as she poured on the speed. Rounding another curve, the tunnel widened before her.

  A door opened to reveal a sterile white room. Her eyes latched onto Brian, strapped to a table raised so she could see him and tilted so he was almost upright. Blood trickled from his forehead and other places across his body as he strained against the holds on him. His muscles grew larger before her eyes as his veins throbbed with the blood filling them.

  The sight of him, covered in bruises and blood, caused something to emerge within her. She’d been angry and determined before, but now she was enraged. A ruthless snarl tore from her as she plunged heedlessly onward.

  Brian lifted his head. His eyes widened on Abby as she ran toward him with far more speed than he’d considered possible for her age. Her eyes glowed red, illuminating the darkness surrounding her.

  “No!” he shouted at her. “Don’t come in here!”

  She’d never obeyed him before; he hadn’t expected her to do so now. She plunged into the room, oblivious to Drake standing by the monitor. Drake’s head tilted to the side as he watched her. He adjusted himself in his pants and groaned as he stroked himself. As his hand fell away, he licked his lips.

  “Get out of here!” Brian hissed at Abby when her hands fell on the metal clasps holding him in place.

  It was too late though as the three who had been chasing her stepped through the door. “Close it,” Drake commanded.

  Abby’s gaze shot to Drake, her eyes burning hotter as her nostrils flared. A pureblood scenting out another pureblood, but Drake was far older than she was. Brian thrashed against the bonds again when Drake sniffed the air and moaned. Abby’s lips curled when he reached down to fondle himself once more.

  “Your blood smells like heaven,” Drake murmured. “I’m betting your body will feel like it too.”

  A ripple of shock radiated from Abby and into him. The effects of the drug were fading; he could feel a thin thread connecting them again and pulsing to life between them. He tried to probe her mind, but found he was still shut out from her.

  “I’ve decided to keep you for myself,” Drake said to her. “We’ll let him watch, of course.” He flicked his fingers at Brian as he moved closer to her, circling her from the other side of the table. “It will be more fun that way.”

  Abby took in the other vampires in the room before landing on the one holding the crossbow now aimed at Brian’s heart. “Move that,” she spat at him.

  “Not until you come to me, love,” the hideous looking vamp across from her replied.

  She had no idea what had happened to him to leave such destruction on his face, and she didn’t care. “I’m guessing you’re Drake,” she said.

  He gave an elegant bow with a wave of his hand. “My reputation precedes me, I see.”

  Abby glanced at the two vamp’s still holding Brian. Their gazes were focused on her,
but the look in their eyes said they were prepared to kill Brian if it became necessary. She grasped the metal band wrapped around his bicep as she prepared to wrench it free.

  “Tsk tsk, love,” Drake said. “Those are to stay in place.”

  Brian kept his eyes on Drake as he continued to close in on Abby. There was nowhere for her to go. If she moved away from him, she would be within reach of the three vamps who had chased her in here or the two who stood just behind him.

  Her fingers caressed the flesh of his arm before she released him and took a step away. Brian gritted his teeth and attempted to lunge for her, needing her back, needing to protect her as she edged closer to the other three.

  One of them snickered at her and altered his stance as he prepared to grab hold of her. Her reddened eyes met his. Within their ruby depths, he saw what he’d always seen with his Abby, a refusal to back down and admit defeat. He had to help her.

  One of the vamp’s jerked him back against the table and punched him in the temple when he tried to surge forward. Lights burst before his eyes as he fought against the darkness threatening to drag him under. He couldn’t pass out now, not when she needed him so badly.

  “Don’t hurt him!” Abby cried.

  “He doesn’t have to experience anymore pain, just come to me,” Drake said with a beckoning wave of his hands. “Otherwise…” he gave a nod at the vamp’s holding Brian.

  Before he knew what they intended, one of them grabbed hold of his right hand and jerked all of his fingers back. Brian clamped his teeth against the shout that almost escaped him when his fingers were ripped back and bone burst through his skin. Sweat beaded across his forehead and slid down his body. He could feel blood dripping from where one of his bones had pierced the skin of his palm.

  “No!” Abby screamed.

  She lunged toward him, but froze when the other guard grabbed hold of his left hand. “Do it!” Brian sneered at him. “What I’ll do to you will be much worse. You have no idea who you’re fucking with.”