by L. E. Wilson
“I’m coming alone,” Dante informed him in no uncertain terms, and Shea looked up at him in surprise. “My…mate is below ground, as you know. She will be safe.”
Luukas shook his head. “No. If something happens to her, you will cease to exist.” A smirk lifted his lips. “And I’m rather fond of your ornery self.”
“With all due respect, Luukas, I’m not bringing her. She is safer here,” Dante said, crossing his arms over his chest. Having Laney with him would just be a distraction. Even if the things managed to get into the building, they wouldn’t find her. Once they realized the vampires were gone, they would come after them. She was better off where she was.
If she hadn’t already left, that is. Dante cracked his neck to ease the tension there. He’d given her the choice, and he would deal with whatever consequences that wrought.
“I’ll get Prickles,” Aiden told Grace.
“All right, then.” Nik rose from the sofa and pulled Emma up alongside him. “We’ll meet by the vehicles in thirty.”
Dante started walking away when he heard one of the females say, “What about the other people in the building? The people that live here? The humans? What about them and the people nearby?”
Everyone stopped, the vampires exchanging looks. It was Christian that answered Ryan’s question. “The guys have security measures in place, and Keira has a ward around the building. It’s us they’re after, or rather the box we have. All we can do is hope that they won’t get in, or if they do, that they’ll leave once they realize we’re not here.” He took her hand. “We’ll do all we can to make sure no one is hurt.”
Rolling his eyes, Dante took off. He wanted to stop by his apartment and check on the pets. Maybe he would grab Laney another blanket and take it down to her before he left, along with some more food. Brow furrowed in thought as he tried to think of anything else she may need, he picked up his step.
Chapter 23
Jesse sat stroking Cruthú’s black feathers just outside the crumbled remains of Leeha’s mountain fortress. The raven preened under his attention, ruffling her feathers against the misty rain and rubbing her beak along his hand. She gave a squawk, tilting her head and staring at him with one intelligent black eye.
“I know, Cruthú. I know. But Shea left us. She made her choice. And she won’t even take my calls. Although, I guess that as long as she keeps hanging up on me, I know she’s safe.” As if on cue, his cell phone rang. The raven jumped up to his shoulder as he dug it out from his pocket. He stared at the number on the screen. Accepting the call, he held it to his ear.
“Jesse?”
Her whiskey voice came across the line clearly, as if she were sitting right next to him. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine that she was.
“Jesse, I know you’re there. I don’t have a lot of time. I need your help. I need to know something.” His heart fluttered for a fraction of second. It stopped cold at her next words. “I need to know what Leeha’s demons are after. They’re here. And we have something they want.” A pause. “We think it’s a clue.”
No. That couldn’t be. If they were coming after the box, that means they had found the others and nearly had all of the clues. If the demons got their hands on the last one, the world as they knew it would no longer exist.
Cruthú flapped her large wings, sensing his disquiet. “What do you mean you think you have one of the clues?”
“It’s a wooden box with a carving of a dagoba in the bottom underneath the felt lining.” She paused again. “You know what it is.”
How the hell had they gotten their hands on one of the clues? It should be across the ocean. “Shea, listen to me carefully. You need to get rid of that thing. Immediately.”
“We are,” she said. “We’re taking it somewhere tonight and hiding it.”
“They will find it,” he told her. “It doesn’t matter where you hide it. They won’t stop until they find it.”
“What is it, Jesse?”
Jesse struggled with the decision to tell her. If she knew what it was, it would endanger her even more. However, to not do so would also put her immortal life in danger. And somehow, in the short time they’d known each other, her life had become very important to him. “It is a clue,” he heard himself saying. “When the demons were tied to the altar, thousands of years ago, the witches that performed the spell drained them of their blood so their souls could not find their bodies again. The clues will lead them to where their original blood is hidden.”
“What will happen once they find it?”
“They will be able to reanimate their original physical forms…and hell will reign on earth.”
Shea was silent for a long moment. “Is there any way to stop them?” Her tone held little hope.
He thought about it. “If we can stop them from finding the clue, it will slow them down. But if they have the others—”
“I’ll tell Luukas that Dante was right and we just need to burn the fucking thing. They’ll never find it.”
He smiled. If only it were that simple. “That’s impossible. It won’t burn. The old witches made sure of it. They wanted to make sure their descendants would be able to find the blood, and keep it hidden. In retrospect, probably not the best plan.”
“Can the blood be destroyed somehow?”
He shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. “It’s demon blood. It must exist in some form or another.”
“What about you?” she asked quietly.
“What about me?” Jesse fought to keep his tone impersonal. It was very difficult.
“Are you safe?”
“They won’t find me or my things, Shea. And I need to stay here. I need to protect the altar, in case there’s ever a chance we can bring them back to it. Though I appreciate your concern.”
“They’ll kill you if they find you there.” Her voice was deadpan.
The corners of his mouth lifted at her concern. It was unnecessary, but she didn’t know that. “And would that bother you, Shea? Would you shed a tear over my cold body before you walked away? Again?” He was being an ass. But he needed to hear her admit that it would.
She didn’t answer his question. “I have to go. Thank you for telling me.”
He stared at the pine trees towering around him, like ghostly sentinels in the misty rain. “You’re welcome,” he told her.
The line disconnected, and he put the phone back in his pocket. Lifting his face to the cold rain, he let it soothe his heated skin. It was coming down harder now, so he pulled the hood of his cloak up over his head and headed back through the trees to the mountain that loomed in the darkness, and the underground labyrinth he’d been unable to make himself leave.
He’d lied. He didn’t need to stay here to protect the altar. The altar had been there for thousands of years, and it would still be there long after he was gone. In all honesty, he hated this mountain. Yet he wouldn’t leave. For even though she was only there with him for a short time, it reminded him of Shea. And he still held a thread of hope that, someday, she might come back.
Chapter 24
Laney huddled on the mattress, the slightly warmer blanket Dante had brought her before he’d left wrapped around her shoulders. She’d waited for him to say something, to show some emotion…happiness that she was still there, surprise, anything. But he hadn’t said a word, wouldn’t even look at her. Just walked in, dropped off the blanket and food, and left again. He’d even brought her a jacket. A jacket she wouldn’t need if she were staying.
Maybe he didn’t want her to stay. He’d never really said that he did. Only that it would “behoove him” if he kept her around. Maybe the connection she felt was one-sided.
So as soon as he’d left, she’d put the coat on and slung her backpack over her shoulder. Tromping over to the tunnel that led to his torture room and the way out, Laney had every intention of getting the hell out of there. But as she stood there with hot candle wax dripping onto her hand, she couldn’t bring herself
to leave him.
He needed her. If she left, she’d be condemning him to die. She’d be responsible for another person’s death. But more than that, she was discovering it was possible that she needed him, too.
After the death of her son, Laney had died with him. Not physically, of course. Physically she was still in this world. She still woke up every day, went to work, smiled, talked, even flirted at times. But inside she was as dead as the babe she’d held in her arms. She shunned anyone that tried to get too close. Whenever she got asked out for a date, she would politely but firmly turn them down, the fear that she would hurt someone again always lingering in the back of her mind.
The only thing that brought her any semblance of joy were the hours she’d spent hiking the trails, just trying to forget, trying to lose her memories in the harsh beauty of the desert. It brought her temporary comfort, but it never lasted long.
She smiled. The desert had also brought her Dante. And now he knew all of her darkest secrets, and he hadn’t judged her for them in the slightest. He didn’t fear her.
It didn’t forgive what she had done, but since her confession to him, she felt like she could breathe again. Shouldn’t she do the same for him? She understood what made him behave the way he did where humans were concerned. In the short time she’d known him, she’d seen that he didn’t feel anything halfway. Whether it was a vampire thing or just a Dante thing, he was quick to react and his emotions ran strong. Those that had wronged him were treated to the full fury of his wrath.
Would his love be just as fierce? Was he even capable of love?
Laney was surprised to find that she wanted to find out. But if she was going to stay with him, there needed to be some changes. He couldn’t really expect her to just hang out down here with no one to see and nothing to do but wait for him to honor her with his presence. She would go mad. If it weren’t for the thick copy of The Iliad and the Odyssey sitting by his bed, she would be stir-crazy already.
Dante had only been gone maybe thirty minutes or so when she heard a sound in the tunnel behind her. Fearing rats, Laney jumped to her feet. She hated rats. Her skin crawled as she looked around frantically for something to smack it with. Spotting her backpack against the wall where she’d dropped it, she picked it up again, hefting the weight. It would do.
The sounds came closer. It sounded big; too big to be a rodent. She worried her lower lip between her teeth. What if it wasn’t a rat? What if it was some other animal that had found its way down here? Like a stray dog? Or a bear? She’d heard there were bears in this area, although why a bear would be wandering around the city of Seattle she didn’t know.
Whatever it was, it was definitely bigger than your normal rat. The shuffling got louder as it neared the room, and now Laney could hear other small noises accompanying it, along with a stench the likes of which she’d only smelled when driving past road kill that had been rotting in the sun for a few days.
Cold sweat beaded on her upper lip as a hand appeared out of the hole, bony fingers curling around the bricks to hoist out the body it was attached to. It was wearing a jacket with a hood that covered its face. Coming completely out of the tunnel, it stood, and Laney’s heart stopped as she found herself face to face with a living corpse.
It appeared something else had found Dante’s means of escape.
She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, for the thing had spotted her standing there and it was on her before she had time to draw breath. There was a flash of yellow fangs as it reared back, preparing to strike, and she had a sudden flashback of another monster doing this exact same thing less than a week before. Only Dante hadn’t smelled like death. He’d smelled warm and vital, even as emaciated and dusty as he’d been. Squeezing her eyes shut, she braced herself for the pain, when the thing suddenly released her.
“Get away from her, you fool! We can use her!”
Laney opened her eyes to find another creature, not quite as decayed, eyeing her up and down. It was another male. Or at least it used to be. Milky eyes peered at her from underneath the covering of its hoodie. Evil seeped from its pores. She stood perfectly still, her blood racing so fast she saw spots, as it strolled up to her and…smelled her?
“She belongs to one of the vampires,” the zombie, or whatever it was, told the others. Laney counted five of them altogether. “I can smell him on her, and in her.” Turning away, he looked around the room. “An old vampire if his décor is any indication.” He smiled, a gruesome slash of what used to be his mouth. “This will save us a lot of time and trouble, boys. The human will come with us somewhere a little more open. The vampires would give their lives for their mates. We’ll trade her for the last clue.”
One of the others spoke. “What if they won’t give it up?”
“They will,” the leader assured him. Pointing to one of the others, he said, “You. Bring the female.”
“No! Leave me alone!” Laney struggled as one grabbed her from behind and another took her bag. Keeping his back to her, he unzipped it and dug inside as she tried to take it back. Not seeing anything that interested him, he tossed it onto the floor while the one that held her threw her over his shoulder.
Laney kicked and screamed to no avail as they entered the passageway that would take them to the cave-in and out to the elevator.
“Shut her up,” the leader said.
Laney braced her hands on its back and lifted her head, trying to see through her unbound hair. A fist that felt more like a boulder slammed into the side of her face, whipping her head around. Her ears rang as spots filled her vision, and the copper taste of blood flooded over her tongue and dripped down her lip. Shaking her head to clear it, she lifted herself up again and opened her mouth to scream when another fist smashed her in the head.
There was no pain this time. Just peaceful blackness.
Chapter 25
Dante kept his steps measured as he walked through the parking garage to the elevator after the others. They had just returned from hiding the box in the woods outside of an abandoned building that Luukas owned near Fish Town. At least, it appeared to be abandoned to outsiders. It was actually one of their numerous bug-out buildings, in case the shit hit the fan and they needed to get out quick and re-group, far enough away, but close enough to get to it quickly, if need be. Outside, it was impenetrable. Inside, it was decked out with everything a vampire could want or need for weeks. But the area around it was rural, and hiding the box near it posed little threat to the few humans that were around.
Because they’d taken the human females with them, they’d had to drive, which meant that Laney had been here alone for just over three hours when all was said and done.
“Are you coming up, commander?” Aiden asked him as they all piled into the elevator.
He glared at the Brit, but gave the asshole no other indication that the name bothered him. It would only make him use it more, he knew. Aiden was a bastard like that. “No,” he told him shortly.
Aiden grinned.
“We’ll just see you at sundown,” Luukas told him.
Dante gave him a nod of agreement, and as the doors closed, he made his way to the second elevator that would take him to the underground.
He wondered if Laney would still be there.
Sitting up in the front seat of the SUV beside Luukas—the only one that would give him any peace—he’d kicked himself the entire drive for giving her a way out. And the reasons why he was beating himself up surprised even him.
It had hit Dante that, in the short time he’d known her, this particular human was not one that he could easily push out of his mind. Somehow, she had gotten under his skin as easily the knife blade she had tried to plunge through his heart. And he was…not horrified…at having her there.
The elevator doors opened and he entered his underground. His boots pounded along the walkway, crushing his fears with each step. He refused to entertain the thought that she wouldn’t be there. She felt something for him other th
an fear, he would bet his retched life on it.
Which was exactly what he had done by telling her how to escape. A deep growl rumbled in his chest at his own stupidity. He should never have said anything. She was perfectly safe down here, and he needed more time with her. More time to cleave her to him, whatever it took. Dante wasn’t stupid. He was a killer. And not only that. He enjoyed it. A female like Laney would never willingly agree to stay with him.
So he would force her to submit to him, whatever it took.
Jumping down from the top of the cave-in, Dante stopped. The scent of Laney’s blood was in the air, and it was fresh. His eyes fell to the wooden planks he stood upon. Just ahead, about twenty feet away, was blood. Just a few drops, but easily seen with his vampire eyes.
Pain shot through him. Pain as such that he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years. He knew exactly what the blood meant. She had tried to claw her way out of the rubble behind him again. Maybe she had tried to get out the other way and couldn’t lift the bench top. It would be heavy for a human, now that he thought about it. So she had come back out here and tried to get out this way again.
Dante continued down the passageway, hardening his heart against what he would find when he got to his room, but it mattered not. For when he arrived, he found the room empty, and his cold heart plummeted to shatter upon the wooden floor.
His little mouse had escaped.
He knew this even without checking the other room. Only wisps of her delicious scent hung in the air. She was gone. She had left him. Clenching his fists at his sides, he threw his head back and raged with all of the anger that was stemmed up inside of him, until he felt nothing.
Sinking down onto his makeshift bed, he reached behind him and pulled the small box from where he’d hidden it in the waistband of his pants. The others didn’t know he still had it. They thought he’d buried it next to the abandoned building, but he’d gone back for it when everyone was piling into the vehicles again. He’d told them he’d dropped his phone, and no one thought twice about it. It was a stupid fucking idea to leave it there. If the demons were after the box, they needed to keep it close, not leave it somewhere for those assholes to find it.