by Lynn Rush
The remaining two lunged. She crumbled beneath the weight of the Vamps. She hiked her knee, swung her fist. One melted to the side, but the other was a strong bugger. He held on, clawing at her.
He sank his teeth into her shoulder. She screamed so loud her throat went numb.
“No.” A voice boomed. The Vamp attached to Emma’s shoulder jerked and released his deadly grip. Another Vamp grabbed the biter and threw him across the stage. “No one tastes her but him.”
Him? Darkness curved her vision. The Vamp rescuer leaned down. A smile curved his thin lips. “We’re only supposed to tire her out. Weaken her.”
In a flash, his hand covered Emma’s mouth and nose.
No breath.
Her fuel. Her greatest strength.
Her greatest weakness.
THIRTY
“Get Cynthia and Dylan out of here. These guys are too worked up to restrain themselves.” A female voice, holding a hint of a European accent, spoke, luring Emma from the darkness.
There wasn’t much that didn’t hurt on Emma. Ava. Oh God. Emma snapped to attention. Her eyes opened for a brief moment. That was enough time to see a crowd of Vamps surrounding her, with two standing close to her.
The leaders.
But she couldn’t keep her eyes open long. Probably her brain keeping her from seeing the severity of her situation. Otherwise, she’d have a melt down.
She’d failed. Ava, Greg, and most of all, Jake. She didn’t know how much time had passed. Despite the order she gave her hand to touch her throat to see if she’d been bitten, Emma’s heavy appendage didn’t move.
Not even a twitch.
“She’s a strong one.” A male voice that time. Baritone. Intense. “Bears the mark of power. And it glows. I’ve read of such a symbol in mythology. Never believed it to be true.”
“Until Cynthia told me of that paper our Jacob had asked her to interpret, I never would have believed it, either.” The female. Must be Jake’s Vamp mother.
Wake up, Emma. Fight. She kept repeating that, yet her body lay limp. Tired. Like the air no longer fueled her muscles, her strength. Or were they doing something to her?
“It must give her added strength. She fought like a warrior against a dozen vampires.” The man’s voice sounded closer. “And Yanek said her blood tasted sweeter than any human’s ever.”
“And he is nearly a century old, so that’s saying something.” The woman snickered. “Fitting she will be Jacob’s transitioning sacrifice.”
Shuffling off to Emma’s left sent hairs prickling along her arm.
“Stand down.” The man’s voice bellowed. Footfalls ensued and a slap of fist to flesh followed. “You stand down or I’ll take her dagger and end you myself. She is for my son and him alone.”
That sent Emma straight to consciousness with a roaring ache up the back of her skull. “Jake.”
“She battles through your strongholds, Marek.”
Emma turned to face the woman but heard a clank. The reality of her situation finally registered.
Flat on her back, arms chained out to the side, a totally vulnerable position. No restraints on her legs, though. The room was dark, just enough light to make out about ten Vamps lining the outer walls, tension crackling off them like a livewire.
Emma lay on a hard, concrete table.
“Hello, Emma.” The woman smiled. “Or is it Em?”
“Not to you. But I could call you Elvira, huh? Black hair, red lips. Total cliché.”
Her sarcasm earned a stinging slap to the cheek. Emma kept a stone face, refusing to give any hint of how badly that hurt.
The man laughed. “I don’t think I’ve heard anyone speak to you in such a manner before, Rosa.”
“No one who dared such manners lived to see another day.” The woman glared at Emma. “Not in about two-hundred and fifty years, anyway.”
“Well. Color me lucky.” Emma jerked the metal shackles around her wrists, but they only groaned. “Where are Ava and Greg?”
The Elvira Wannabe huffed and turned to face the man. “Is he ready?”
He drew in a breath. “Soon. The time nears.”
“What’s your deal then?” Emma propped herself up on her elbows about as far as the chains allowed. “Deadbeat parents back all of a sudden?”
The woman was on Emma so fast she barely had time to register movement. Eyes flared red, and her fangs dropped. Marek gripped her arms and held her back from Emma. “He was taken from me, two months after his birth. The first Vampires to bare a child. A prophesied child. Stolen. Now you. You fill his head with lies, working to turn him against his destiny. His heritage.”
“No. You’re the liar. Controlling his mind, filling it with lies about not being able to choose something else. To choose Love.”
A collective hiss from Marek, Rosa, and the Vamps filled the air with their rancid breath.
“Don’t like that word, do you? Love. God. Angels.”
This time Marek did the hitting. His rock-hard hand slammed into Emma’s cheek. Her head whipped to the side so violently, her other cheek rammed into the hard surface. He led Rosa away, behind two Vamps milling before a door. Emma’s mind cramped as she searched for a way out of this situation. Not that she could go anywhere. Not without Ava, Greg and Jake.
Jake.
Three Vamps shuffled along the edge of Emma’s vision. They blurred, and in the next instant, they stood at Emma’s side. The one nearest her feet held her Dagger. The middle one leaned toward Emma and inhaled. “Seems we didn’t weaken you enough.” The ends of his thin lips curled upward and fangs dropped.
She cracked her head up and connected her forehead with the Vamp. A second reached for her, but she planted her foot against his chest. “Dagger.”
It landed in her palm, but the chains restricted her movement. With a flick of her wrist, she swiped at the Vamps. Fruitless. She was strong, but not that strong. The third vamp vaulted onto the table and straddled her, keeping her lower half pinned with his massive body weight.
She screamed and pulled at the chain. Tendrils of fire-hot pain coiled up her arm. The metal sliced into her wrist, but a link snapped, and her arm was free. The dagger plunged into the Vamp’s neck, and it rolled to the side. A set of iron fingers curled around her now free wrist, pinning it down, and another clamped over her mouth, restricting her air through her nose.
She thrashed, but the hold was relentless.
“Stop,” Jake’s voice boomed off the walls. In an all-too-familiar Vampire blur, Jake’s form rammed into the Vamp holding Emma down. Around the corner, another blur and Jake bounced off the Vamp on the other side of Emma.
“Jake. Thank God.”
A low hum started and vague, non-descript words floated along the air. Jake stopped, back to her, but she saw he held the Vamp by the neck. “She’s mine.” And Jake tossed him like a bag of cotton.
He crumbled to his knees and bowed, forehead to the ground. “Sorry, sir.”
“Jake?”
He stiffened and stood straight. A slight turn allowed the limited light to show his face.
Red eyes flared. Long fangs dented his bottom lip.
“No. Jake.” She’d failed him. Utterly and completely failed him.
He knelt before her and pressed his hand on her forehead. His grip bordered on painful. One flex, and he cranked her head to the side, exposing her throat.
Chanting started. Foreign words, but a steady rhythm. Emma’s wrist flared--pulsed an orange so bright it radiated like a campfire in the darkness.
Jake leaned in, mouth open. “Jake. No.” Emma squirmed beneath his penetrating touch. He planted his massive palm on her chest, holding her steady. “There’s still time, Jake. Wait—”
He clamped his jaw shut. Veins bulged around his temple and down the sides of his throat. His hand clutched her shirt, and a tremor rocketed through him, into her. “Can’t. Stop.” Sweat beaded along his forehead.
She had to help him. “You have a choice.”
He didn’t move. Almost as if he didn’t hear her.
“Jake.”
“For four hundred years, our kind has come to this land. Our ancestors christened it with blood. So shall we tonight.” Marek raised his hand. “And in doing so, we unite the three prophesied Avenos Vampires to rule as one. The Trinity.”
Jake growled, his red eyes went blank, and he struck.
Teeth punctured Emma’s neck. And Jake sucked. With each pull, he moaned and clutched her tighter. She gripped her dagger. Her last hope.
He wouldn’t want this. She knew it. Felt it. She would kill him before he killed her, then he wouldn’t die a Vamp. He’d die human. She owed him that much for failing him.
“I love you, Jake Cunningham,” she whispered.
And with all her strength, she swung.
THIRTY ONE
Jake dodged Emma’s blade, but the tip nicked his cheek. The jolt ripped him from the stupor. No, it had been her words that awakened him.
She loved him.
A roar streamed from Jake like a river. He didn’t recognize the noise and wouldn’t have believed it to be him had his throat not stung so badly.
“Hurry.” Marek dug his iron fingers into Jake’s shoulder. “You must finish it.”
Emma struck again, this time aiming for Marek’s chest. The chains limited her movement, but she fought. Blood trickled down her neck, and at her wrist.
Marek’s hand slammed into her cheek, and she flopped to the side. But in the next breath, she propped herself up as much as she could and held her blade steady.
“Jake. There’s still time. Don’t be deceived. God, please, Jake. Hear me.”
No time. It is done.
“Choose Love.” She pointed her weapon at him.
That was when he saw it. She would kill him—to save him. Such devotion. Dedication. But to him? Someone who hadn’t had the strength to resist biting her. To resist the call of her blood.
Oh, God. What had he done? His mind whirled. Her sweet voice filled his ears. You have a choice. Choose Love.
“Jake.” A hand gripped his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. “You must finish.”
Did Jake hear a hint of desperation in his father’s voice?
Emma froze, staring at Jake with her flickering, violet eyes. Love radiated from her in tangible waves. It soothed him like a salve to an aching sore.
Emma is wrong. There is no choice. She’s lied to you.
But why? Maybe it’s true?
He kneeled next to Emma, his mind swimming in a pool of doubt and confusion. The ache in his mouth throbbed.
“I love you, Jake. Believe that. Trust it,” she said as she shifted. “I will fight them.”
He nodded and rose to his feet as he kept his gaze fixed on her. A smile curved her sweet lips. He would buy her some time. If anything, so she could get up and run. As long as she survived, that was the only thing that mattered.
“Jake.” Marek’s voice thundered.
“This is not how things have to be for me,” Jake whispered.
His heart thumped as he lifted his hand to the shoulder that bore the mark of Avenos. He dug his fingers into the fabric of his long sleeved shirt and tore.
He craned his head to see the mark. It flared ruby red. The chaos of arrows shooting in all directions fumed. The glow bounced off the hedge of Vamps around him.
He faced Marek and Rosa.
“I have a choice, don’t I? You’ve been hiding that from me, haven’t you?”
“You’re marked, there’s no changing that. It’s destiny. Our destiny, Son,” Marek said. “We will rule together. The trinity of Avenos Vampires.”
“Don’t call me son. I’m not your son,” Jake yelled. “You’ve told me nothing but lies.”
“No!” Rosa screamed. “Don’t do it.”
“I chose Love.”
Emma stirred behind him. Chains clanked, and a ping rang through the tension-filled air. A rush of heat combusted through his arm. He craned his head to the side, expecting to see his entire arm engulfed in flames. Instead, his mark of Chaos glowed a furious red. Hotter than it ever had. His stomach wrenched.
The Vamps stood frozen, focused on him. Entranced.
Had Jake’s choice not mattered? He’d drunk blood. Emma’s blood. It must mean he was too late to choose Love. The floor rushed his knees. Emma jumped to her feet, chain links dangled from the steel cuffs around her wrists. She stood between Jake and his parents, crouched, ready to fight.
He turned his focus back to his flaming arm. The detailed skull in the center of the circle vanished. The arrows shooting out from the center flashed bright white and disappeared. Only an empty circle remained. Warmth flowed over his body.
What’s happening to me?
Emma crouched in front of him, still facing his parents, weapon pointed. But they stood, motionless, watching. Veins bulged along Marek’s forehead. His mouth opened in a silent yell. Rosa reached for Emma, yet her long finger-nailed hands stopped, as if they met an invisible wall.
A stab of pain drew his attention back to his shoulder. Black lines etched his skin, following his veins. Weaving around his bicep down to his wrist. Branding him.
Changing him.
An electrified energy pulsed through his blood. The blinders of deceit fell from his vision, and everything came in crisp and clear. Brightened, as if the sun beamed in the dim room. Like he saw the world through new eyes.
His mouth throbbed. Bones crackling and teeth shifting radiated through his jaw to the back of his skull and chiseled like an ice pick. He palmed his temples. If it went on much longer, his mind would give. Break.
A cool hand linked with his. He looked up into Emma’s bright, violet eyes. A smile filled her beautiful face.
He tongued his teeth. Smooth. No more fangs.
She’d been right. He did have a choice.
He was saved.
THIRTY TWO
Emma wove her fingers through Jake’s.
His skin glowed with confidence. A hollow circle replaced his Chaos tattoo. Black lines shot out from the bottom of the circle and wound their way down his arm, circling his wrist like a thick, black band of leather.
So engrossed in the sight of the new marks forming on his skin, she’d almost forgotten the danger she and Jake faced. Ahead of them stood Marek and Rosa. A ring of eight Vamps circled Jake and Emma, with only the concrete slab behind them. They stood still, as if shocked by the spectacle of Jake’s transformation.
She released Jake’s hand and turned hers palm up. Crossbow. She grasped the dagger in her left hand and passed the crossbow to Jake. He looked at the weapon, then to her. She gasped when she saw his eyes. No longer black. Instead, a beautiful brown with flakes of amber.
Like hers changed from brown to violet, his changed from black to brown. He was a Hunter after all. She’d almost lost him.
“No!” A woman’s scream thrust Emma back into the moment.
Rosa’s canine teeth elongated, protruding from her ruby red lips. Her black eyes flamed crimson, fingernails turned dark, and instantly changed into razor sharp claws.
By her side, Marek morphed into a similar creature, only double the size.
Click. Click. Click.
Three arrows shot through the air. Jake had aimed and shot before anyone even noticed.
Three Vamps to the left of Rosa dusted.
Crack shot, already? In that instant, she knew he was different. It’d taken her years to hone her skills, but it came natural for him. She called him more bolts and side-by-side, they marched forward. Emma tossed her dagger and called it back. One more Vamp dusted.
The remaining Vamps scampered through the doors at each end of the room, abandoning their Masters.
So much for loyalty.
Moving faster than Emma could track, Rosa attacked. Seemingly from nowhere, a jolt to her gut forced Emma into a stumble. But Rosa disappeared into the shadows of the dim room.
They were in the theatre still
. Only now, a concrete slab was propped on the stage.
Marek tackled Jake to the floor. “You’ve ruined everything. For that, you must die.” He leaned toward Jake’s neck, teeth bared.
Emma called for the crossbow Jake had dropped.
Click.
Marek turned and snatched the bolt from the air with a growl. One hand grasped the bolt while the other choked Jake.
“Jake!” Emma screamed. She scanned the room. No sign of Rosa.
Focus returned to Jake, Emma called her dagger. With her hand back, ready to send the steel blade straight for Marek, Jake worked his newly tattooed arm between them and pushed the massive Vampire off him.
He must be working with extra strength, too, because his father easily outweighed him by seventy-five pounds. As Jake jumped to his feet, Emma sprinted the short distance to his side as they faced off with the creature.
“Where’s your sidekick, Daddy?” Emma asked.
A growl cut from his fanged mouth as his lips curled. He back-peddled.
Emma scanned the room. Where’d she go?
“Marek, it’s over. I’ve chosen. Get out. Get away from us,” Jake yelled.
Suddenly, a shriek shattered the darkness.
Emma whirled to her left. A pale blur rushed her. Marek charged Jake. Emma lunged, intercepting Rosa, and they collided with the cement slab in the middle of the room. Emma’s back cracked against the corner.
She clasped her fingers around the Vamp’s neck, holding her face away so her lethal fangs didn’t puncture anything vital.
With her free hand, she poked her blade. The weapon made contact with Rosa’s side, and she yelped, but didn’t turn to dust. Instead, the Vamp hissed, slammed her hand in the crook of Emma’s elbow, forcing her to loosen her grip, and leapt up.
Emma rolled to the side and pushed to her feet in time to see the back of Rosa’s head bobbing as she sprinted for the door.
Emma turned toward Jake. He stood, gaze fixed on Emma, mouth agape. He touched his wrist. Then sagged to the floor.