All five doors were open. I couldn't see into the rooms from where I stood at the top of the steps. I regretted not having a plan. A real plan. I shook myself. I had gotten this far. A little backup would have been useful, but I was kind of proud of myself for escaping Mike, high-jacking the merc's car, and taking out Lilynn's two guards. Now, all I had to worry about was Lilynn.
I cleared the two rooms to my right. They were empty bedrooms. Putting one foot in front of the other, I slowly walked to the third room. It was one of those messy offices with clutter everywhere. There was a desk with a computer and papers scattered all over. Quietly and compulsively looking at the door, I entered and rifled through the papers. Most of them were bills and old junk mail for Thanksgiving sales.
The stack to the right of the computer, which was more neatly organized, had far more interesting things: lists of names, dates, bank statements, cash withdrawals for hundreds of thousands of dollars, wire transfers, addresses, car rental receipts…
I was looking at a wire transfer statement for $100,000 when I heard a noise outside of the door. I froze, looking for a place to hide, but it was too late. Lilynn stepped into view and saw me standing at the desk, paper in one hand, gun in the other. With her copper-red hair in a bun and flushed cheeks, she wore a black tee-shirt and a pair of black pants. She didn't look nearly as crazy as she did the last time I had seen her, clutching a crucifix and screaming at me for killing Damien.
We stared at each other for a long moment. Just as I was thinking I couldn't wait to use my trusty knee-to-head move on her, she yelled, "Guards!"
I don't know if she was trying to scare me or buy time, because even if I hadn't knocked the guards out, they would be out doing a perimeter check. Unless there were more…but I was almost certain that there weren't. There had only been two cars in the driveway.
The silence was deafening as we waited a beat. She looked genuinely scared for a second before she forced a blank mask on her face. I was scared of her, too, which was silly considering she was smaller than me with no fighting experience. She had thrown a punch at me once outside of Callum's house and I remember it being uncoordinated and easy to dodge. I was scared of her more because of how absolutely bat-shit crazy she was.
"Hello, Ms. Simon," she said in a steady voice. She looked like she was fighting the instinct to run. "Or should I call you Dahlia? You told me I could call you Dahlia."
I stuffed the paper in my hand into my pocket. I didn't want her to start destroying evidence of hiring mercenaries and plotting to kill me. "Lilynn," I said evenly.
"How did you find me?" she asked, eyes boring holes into me.
I took a step away from the desk. "I get to ask the questions," I told her.
Her nostrils flared, and she replied, "What are you doing in my house?"
I raised my eyebrows in a clear what-did-I-just-say way. She pursed her lips and didn't look like she wanted to run anymore. She was getting angry.
"First, I want to know why you tried to have me killed that night on the boardwalk," I said.
She blinked at me with those colourless eyes. "Didn't you get my message?" she asked.
"The one you left on my kitchen counter?" I answered, jaw clenching. "The one threatening to kill my family and friends?"
"That one," she replied coldly.
"Yeah, I got it," I said. I hoped the recorder picked that up. I could at least pin her down with blackmail.
"And you decide to come here?" She moved into the room and I made sure to watch her movements carefully. "Ms. Simon, I might not be your biggest fan, but I thought you were an intelligent woman."
"I'm not here to debate my level of intelligence, Lilynn," I said brusquely. "I want to know why you have been consistently trying to kill me."
"You know the answer to that," she said with an almost suspicious lilt to her voice.
I was glad she had admitted to it. That statement could help put her away her attempted murder. I decided to respond with, "Damien," just to goad her further.
I hadn't expected the amount of fury, hurt, and insanity to fill her eyes. They glinted with it in the light coming in from the small window behind me. "Yes," she hissed.
"This was all because he dumped you," I stated.
"Not because he dumped me," she snapped. "Because of you."
"Because of me?" I said quite indignantly.
"Yes."
"What did I have to do with your relationship? I didn't even know either of you before –"
"It was all because of you," she interrupted. Her eyes were so focused on me in a way that made me completely aware of how off-kilter she was. I don't know what she had been through in the past or if Damien broke her in some way, but she was mad. Absolutely mad.
I wanted her to go further. "How so?" I asked.
"At first, he was curious about you and even then I was jealous." She shook her head. "All this Letalis Flora talk and deciding whether to kill you or turn you. He said I was being irrational because he had decided to kill you," she said. Her words didn't flow right and I became uneasy. "He decided to kill you!" she burst out suddenly, eyes distant as she stared at the window behind me. She turned her eyes towards me. "But he lied to me. He wanted to turn you."
"Yes," I said cautiously, "he did."
"He told me he liked the way you smelled," she spat. "He liked the way you smelled," she repeated, rolling the phrase on her tongue as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. "And then he told me he wanted you to be his mate."
"Well, I never wanted to be his mate, for the record," I interjected.
She gave me a nasty look. "He wanted to turn you—"
"Yeah, against my will. Do you really think I wanted to be with a guy who tried to kill me?" I frowned at her.
"He said you could replace Masata." She seemed to be trying to gauge my expression. Masata had been Damien's "mate" who had been killed. Before trying to turn me, he had said the he wanted a new "mate" to replace her.
"Look, I—"
"He was obsessed," she continued, ignoring what I said. "All he did was stalk around the house, talking about you, planning on how to turn you—"
"Against my will," I reminded her.
"Masata, Masata, Masata, all day and then you come along and it's Flora, Flora, Flora," she muttered. "What about me? What about me?" She stabbed her chest with a finger.
"Lilynn," I said warily.
Her eyes snapped to mine. "I tried to solve this all very civilly," she said.
"You mean when you came into my office and threaten me?" I asked disbelievingly.
"I told you to stay away from him," she snapped.
"Yeah, and I tried," I said angrily. "But he nearly beat my friend to death and I didn't have a choice, Lilynn." Will's crumpled body flashed in my mind and my hand tightened on the Firestar.
"You had a choice!" she shouted. Her hands were shaking and she lowered her voice to say, "You had a choice, so I—"
"I didn't," I said. "You should have been trying to kill Damien, not me. I never wanted anything to do with you."
Her eyes narrowed, and she lowered her voice to say, "He told me I should stay with him after he turned you so that I could be a blood source."
I hadn't known that fact. It sounded like Damien, though. "I—"
"A blood source," she repeated vehemently. "For you. I only gave him blood, he knew that." My eyes darted to her exposed neck. White scar tissue caused the skin to be slightly raised. Damien's bite mark on my own neck suddenly itched. "I wasn't going to be passed on like some sort of toy to anyone, especially not to you. I wasn't going to be handed off like that. Used like that."
"I can't say I blame you," I said, almost sympathetic. It was true. I wouldn't have let myself be used like that, either. But I wouldn't have taken it out on the other woman. I would have broken up with the guy.
She didn't like that I had agreed with her. "Yes, well," she started heatedly, but I cut her off.
"And what about th
e bombs?" My cheek was pounded where the guy had clocked me. "You didn't even know I was going to be in that house."
Something glinted in her eyes. "Killing you or Callum Knightley would have been extremely satisfying, but that wasn't the goal."
"You wanted to buy time," I said matter-of-factly to judge her reaction. By the way she darted her eyes to the floor for a second, I knew I was right. That was a relief. That meant she had needed more time to plan something. That something wasn't imminent. "For what?"
She changed the subject. "Callum Knightley," she stated, licking her lips. "I have always wondered how you managed to get his attention, too."
"That's something you'll have to ask him yourself," I said. "I honestly don't know."
"I don't believe you."
"I don't know," I repeated. "Callum has his own reasons—"
"Callum," she spat out the name and laughed. "I can't believe he lets you call him something so informal. It's Mr. Knightley. Don't you have some respect for the hierarchy of vampires?"
I felt my brow furrow. "We're not part of the hierarchy of vampires, Lilynn," I said slowly. I couldn't talk about vampires in any serious way because of the recording, so I didn't say anything further.
"Of course we are," she hissed. She touched the bun at the base for her neck. "How can Mr. Knightley choose to protect someone who can't even respect him?"
Something twinged in my chest. I had a brief moment of wondering if Callum thought I was disrespectful to him. "Maybe it's because I smell so good." I smiled sardonically at her.
Royally ticked off, she snarled, "I'm going to kill him like you ki—"
I interrupted before she could say I killed Damien on the recording. That would certainly backfire on me. "No, you're not, Lilynn," I said loudly in order to talk over her. "It's over."
"No, it's not." She stepped into the room. "Even if you kill me right now, it's not."
Something like a smile spread across her face. It was grotesque and sadistic as hell. I didn't like it one bit. It sent a nervous shock through my system. She obviously had something in place. "What is it?" I demanded.
"What?" she said, that smile still in place.
"What do you have planned?"
She let out a laugh. "Ever heard of a Randall?" she asked, clearly expecting me not to. "Well, it's spectacular." She touched her scars absently for a moment. "Running behind, but spectacular."
My eyes darted to the stack of papers on the desk. I had seen the word "Randall" somewhere. I leaned over and shifted through a couple of papers before finding it. "Randall as in Brian Randall?" I asked, squinting at the page.
I looked up to see her horrified expression.
With pleasure, I looked back down, and said, "$250,000 payment to a Brian Randall from Las Vegas, Nevada. Interesting."
It was a mistake to look away from her because she suddenly rushed towards me in a flurry of black. She hit me at full force. I lost my balance and was flung backwards with Lilynn's hands going for my throat. We fell into a pile of clutter that consisted mostly of cardboard boxes and papers, but I fell on my tailbone with a force that knocked my breath out. The gun had fallen somewhere and I didn't have time to find it because Lilynn was on me, hands scratching for my throat. She's wasn't a heavy person, but with her sitting on top of my stomach, I found it hard to breathe. Her hands closed around my neck, choking off my air supply.
"You know," she said, breathless, "even if I don't manage to kill you, Thanatos is assembling a campaign to kill you."
Seeing stars, I tried to roll over, but she held firm.
Her fingers dug into my skin. "Vampires haven't taken you seriously as a threat," she spat. "But he's going to make sure they do. He's going to – he's going to make sure you and your little prophetic vampire powers are destroyed."
I wanted to think about what she had just said, but I was losing oxygen. I sent my hands searching for something to use but only felt sheets of papers. I looked to my right and saw a hardcover book. Lilynn was too busy trying to strangle me to notice when my hand found it. With all the force I could muster, I tried to hit her in the face with it. It distracted her enough for me to rip her hands off my neck and shove her off. I coughed and dragged in as much air as I could before she stood up and tried to come after me again.
I kicked at her legs and she stumbled, finding balance on a stack of boxes. She looked delighted that I was still on the floor. As she moved towards me, I rolled in the opposite direction and ended up a few feet away from her. I stood up before she could reach me. Glancing around, I saw the Firestar under some papers. It would not be good if she saw it, too, so I looked away and tried to find another weapon.
The desk chair was promising. I lunged forward, grasped it by the seat, and swung it to my right. It connected with Lilynn, the wheels hitting her in the chest and face. She yelled out and I went to swing it at her again, but she managed to dodge it. Taking me by surprise, she yanked it out of my hands and threw it down to the side. She sent her leg out to kick me, but I was able to grab it and push her backwards.
Falling on her ass, she didn't look happy that the roles were reversed. She glared up at me as I decided what to do next. I didn't have time to check what time it was. Were the cops close? Were they even coming? I thought my best bet was to subdue her and wait.
Just as I was thinking it couldn't be any harder than knocking out the two guards, two gunshots sounded out and I instinctively flattened to the floor. I glanced up and saw that Lilynn had found the Firestar. Her face was magnificently overjoyed and I wanted to kick myself for not seeing her reach for it. I had been too distracted thinking about subduing her when I should have been actually subduing her.
I watched her finger move on the trigger and I rolled to left before she fired. I couldn't tell if she had any firing experience. I quickly crouched, saw her try to scramble to her feet, and took the risk of standing up. I sprinted out of the room and made a sharp right turn before the shot came and the bullet whizzed through the doorway and right by my left ear. I ran past to the next room and slammed the door behind me.
Chest heaving, I realized it was a bathroom. I locked the door and immediately stood to the side so that I wouldn't get hit by any bullets she sent through the door. I ducked into the shower and covered my head as the sound of glass shattering and wood cracking deafened me.
After about seven shots, she stopped for a moment to yell, "What now?"
I raised my head, looking at the destroyed bathroom. The window to the outside was broken, the sink had come off in chunks of porcelain, and the shower curtain had singed bullet holes. My breath was coming and going so fast I thought I might hyperventilate.
The door rattled as Lilynn tried to open it. I stepped out of the shower, but stayed out of the line of fire. I swallowed, thinking of what to do and trying to regulate my breathing. I had only been shot at once before and that had been from a distance. This was so much more in-your-face.
The doorknob twisted violently and I decided to needed to get out of this bathroom. The window wasn't an option; it was too small to fit through. I looked at the doorknob and patted my pockets to make sure everything was there. I shook my head, and muttered, "Jesus Christ."
Taking a deep breath, I unlocked the door with one swift click, turned the knob and kicked it open as hard as I could. It hit something hard on the other side – Lilynn – and splintered where there were bullet holes. A half-scream, half-grunt came from her and I threw the remnants of the door out of the way. I needed to get that gun back.
She had been thrown backwards and was leaning on the railing that surrounded the staircase. There were several cuts on her face. The one on her eyebrow was dripping down like tears down her face. The effect was startling on her pale skin. Her eyes rose to meet mine and her arm came up to aim the gun at me again.
"Shit!" I yelled out, ducking to my right as she fired at me again. The bullet ricocheted on the floor. I heard her laugh and I kept running into the next room. She fired twi
ce more, the sound reverberating in the house. I leaned against the wall and slammed the door shut with my foot. This room didn't have a lock, I noticed with a smack of dread.
How many bullets had she gone through? Three in the office, probably seven or eight in the bathroom, three just now. There were fifteen rounds in the clip. So she only had two or three left. I needed her to use them up. That would make this a lot more fair.
"Is that all you got?" I shouted.
From down the hall, I heard her make an angry sound. The floorboards creaked and I knew she was headed this way. I crouched to pick up a large pillow on the bed I was standing near. Throwing it out the door, there was a surprised cry and another shot. My mouth twitched. Only one or two to go.
She was close, so I leaped over the queen-sized bed, hitting the floor with a thunk on the other side, hidden from view. My back to the bed, I saw the knife sticking out of my sock. I grasped it and closed my eyes for a moment, thankful for that merc being well-prepared. I'd never really used a knife as self-defense before, but I had a feeling it wouldn't be too difficult.
"Dahlia," Lilynn called. Her voice was close; she was in the room. For good measure, I bent my head down further, staring at my boots. I wish I had counted how many shots she had taken in the bathroom. Did she have one or two rounds left?
I needed to get her to shoot at me without aiming. I had a better chance of getting out of this unscathed. Well, that was if she didn't hit me.
To my left, there was an attached bathroom. The door was open and I could see the open window's curtain blowing in the breeze. I swallowed hard, got on all fours, and crawled to the edge of the bed. I hopped up into a crouch.
"Dahlia," she called again.
In a slight crouch, I took two giants steps towards the bathroom and dove down once I heard two pops. Rolling on the floor, I used my legs to shut the door. She had taken two shots. Thank God. Now, I had a fighting chance.
The skin on my left arm felt hot. I looked down and hissed. One of the bullets had grazed me. Blood was dripping onto the bathroom's fuzzy white carpet. A white carpet? That was the worst idea I'd ever heard.
Death of Night Page 45