The pressure of time weighed heavily upon him. He dragged her closer, kissing her, capturing her whole body to his and holding her there, as though afraid something would tear her away.
Sobs shook her and her body clenched his hungrily. He felt the moment the climax took her and gave himself up to the hot pulsing of her sex.
It took minutes, hours, years, to come back to himself. Honoria shuddered against his shoulder, her entire body boneless and collapsed over his like a wilted flower. He was so breathless he couldn’t speak. He let his hands communicate his feelings, stroking her damp back and clutching her tight.
Slowly, Honoria lifted her head. Her eyes were dazed and shadowed with lush pleasure. “Wicked, wicked man,” she whispered, and pressed her lips against his throat, a gentle, affectionate caress that made him slightly uncomfortable.
Blade rolled her onto her back, spilling from her body. Honoria laughed softly, half drunk on pleasure as she stretched, careless of the fact that her breasts and legs were exposed to the world.
He tugged his breeches closed and knelt over her. A certain seriousness settled upon him. “We need to talk.”
Her eyes sobered. “About what Leo told you?”
Blade opened his mouth to speak…How to tell her? I think I only have months…at most…before the color started leeching from his body. A guttural groan died in his throat. He couldn’t. Instead he drew her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm.
“Yes,” he lied. “It’s ’bout your brother’s confession.”
Honoria tugged her bodice up and straightened her skirts. “Well?”
“It’s ’bout…it’s ’bout your father,” he said nervously, and then he told her everything.
Chapter 26
Blade opened the pressurized air dart rifle and stared down the barrel. “You use these to hunt blue bloods?”
“Only rogues,” Barrons admitted, resting one foot on the step and leaning on it. “The dart has some sort of toxin in it that partially paralyzes a blue blood for nearly ten minutes. We’ve managed to refine it so that the steam buildup doesn’t alter the chemical state of the toxin. It’s highly accurate at fifty feet.”
“Aye.” Blade shoved the dart back into the chamber. “Don’t expect this to ’old the vampire long.”
One of Barrons’s eyebrows disappeared under the tumbled curls across his forehead. “You’ve heard of the toxin?”
“Your sister knocked me on me arse with it. Lasted ’bout five, six minutes. She thinks the time you’re down’s got somethin’ to do with the level o’ CV in your blood. If so, you might get a minute or less with a vampire.”
Laughter broke from Barrons’s lips. “Good God, I should have liked to have seen that.”
“Stick ’round,” Blade said as he shot him a filthy look. “She gets wind o’ you at the moment, and you might get some first’and experience with it.”
Barrons sobered.
A head popped around the door of the audience chamber. Jasper Lynch examined them coolly. “Are we ready?”
Blade patted the air dart rifle. “Let’s get to it, then.”
The score of metaljackets stood motionless in the street, an eerie sight. Beside them, snorting steam like truffle pigs, was a pair of Earthshakers. With the heavy armadillo plates that overlapped their bodies and a spade-like appendage at their snouts that could clear a tunnel in minutes, they’d been invaluable so far. Their handler was sitting on the step beside them, fiddling with the frequency device that controlled them.
The cadre of Nighthawks stood almost as silent. They obeyed Jasper Lynch with an alacrity Blade might have almost envied and spoke rarely to either him or Barrons. Blade had watched them move like liquid through the tunnels and concluded that if it ever came to war, he’d rather have them on his side than as his enemy.
The sound of pattering feet on the stairs made him glance back at the warren. The next second a small, ragged shape barreled out, dressed in an assortment of Lark’s body armor and breeches. Honoria’s dark hair had been shoved up under a cockney lad’s cap, and soot was smeared across her cheeks. Her dark eyes met Blade’s, and her chin lifted slightly in challenge.
On her heels was Tin Man, wearing a slightly guilty expression. He shrugged helplessly.
“No,” Blade snapped, glancing around at the blue bloods around them. Was she bloody insane? The guild had her friggin’ poster splayed all over their quarters with a hefty price on it.
Barrons stopped to see what the commotion was then blinked. “Hon…” He shut his mouth abruptly. “Your servant?” he asked Blade in a nonchalant tone.
“Who’s goin’ to get a good whippin’ in a moment,” Blade growled under his breath and strode toward her. Grabbing her by the arms, he glared down into her dirty face. “Are you bleedin’ mad?”
“Will and Rip’re injured,” Honoria replied. “I ain’t allowin’ you to go alone.” The accuracy with which she mimicked his speech was almost eerie.
Aware that there were too many ears around them, Blade dragged her into the shadows of the doorway. “This ain’t the rookery, luv. This is Undertown we’re enterin’. And we’re huntin’ a vampire.”
“I ain’t lettin’ you go alone.”
He looked around. “This isn’t safe for you.”
Honoria leaned closer, her body pressing against his and her lips to his ear. Damn his soul if he couldn’t help reacting.
“You’re not the only reason I’m here,” she whispered. “He was my father, damn it.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I know you think I’m mad, but the last time we met, he begged for my help. I asked Lena about the incident. She said the vampire only attacked when Will grabbed her. It never tried to hurt her. Or me.”
“Maybe it ’ad other things to worry ’bout,” he snarled. “Maybe it were more concerned with killin’ me men before it could rip you apart.” Yet an image rose unbidden of that night on the rooftops, when he faced the vampire with Honoria’s gun in his hand and didn’t dare shoot. There had been plenty of chance for it to kill her if it had wanted to.
Her argument was rational. And he did need someone to watch his back. But not her. The very thought of putting her into danger made his gut curl.
“No,” he repeated. “You ain’t goin’, and that’s final.”
***
Undertown was nothing like what she’d expected. Splashing along in Blade’s wake, Honoria couldn’t help a shudder. There’d been a number of gruesome discoveries today, most of them shielded by Blade. Yet even as he shielded her, she could see the faint horror on the men’s faces and hear their swift intake of breath.
Blade was angry with her, but at least she’d won the argument. If he wouldn’t take her with him, she would simply follow. Threatening to tie her down, he’d been very nearly speechless when she shrugged and asked him how long he thought that would hold her. If the situation weren’t so dire, she’d have been given to laughter at the look on his face.
Blade’s long strides ate up the ground, despite the foot-deep water they waded through. Fingering her father’s pistol, she scurried in his wake.
A steady thrum-thrum-thrum started to drone overhead. Honoria glanced up. “What’s that noise?”
“The draining factories,” Leo muttered. “We’re directly beneath them. That noise is probably the steam engines on the filtration machines.”
The tall, grim man who led the Nighthawks held up his hand with a closed fist. They all stopped in their tracks, and Honoria peered over Blade’s shoulder.
“What is it?” she whispered.
The guild master shot her a hawkish glare, his eyes hunting the shadows.
Blade grabbed her by the wrist and shoved her to the side, hovering over her protectively. “Be still, luv,” he murmured. “It’s too quiet in ’ere. And somethin’ stinks.”
You mean, apart from the usual? Her nostrils had shut down long ago.
Someone lit a flare stick. It hissed to life with a phosphorescent glow, and curses lit the tun
nel as they all tried to adjust to the glare.
Suddenly Blade clapped a hand to his ears, his teeth bared in pain. The other men around them echoed his motions.
“What’s wrong?” she shouted.
Tin Man stared at her over Blade’s bent back. And then the path of his gaze drifted over her shoulder and his eyes widened.
Honoria spun on her heel. There was a flash of corpse white, and then one of the Nighthawks went down with a scream, the one holding the flare stick. The stick splashed into the water, still burning beneath the dirty sludge. The immediate phosphorescence dimmed.
“Get ’er out of ’ere,” Blade snapped to Tin Man, shoving her roughly into his arms.
The scream cut off abruptly, and then several pistols retorted with brief, spitting flares of light.
Honoria’s hand was shaking as she drew her pistol. Tin Man hauled her into a side tunnel, the hook on his hand held defensively.
“Blade!” she screamed.
He was lost in the shadows and the melee. Pistol fire barked in the main tunnel, and men shouted in confusion.
“It’s too narrow in ’ere! Stop firin’!”
Honoria stilled. That was Blade’s voice. She pushed forward, evading Tin Man’s grip as she peeked around the corner. There were floating corpses everywhere. Blade’s pale hair came into view, dragging a screaming, mangled body back to safety. Leo was at his side, holding a hand against his thigh and limping.
The tunnels ahead intersected. The vampire had lain in wait for them, using the narrow depths to its advantage. Where was the metaljackets’ handler? They stood still and silent, the bluish glow in the empty sockets of their eyes powered down to a mute flicker of light.
With the shadows and the slowly dying flame of the flare stick, she could barely see. Only by following the sounds of screaming could she track the vampire.
She saw Blade’s body stiffen as he looked up, and then he was dropping the body he was dragging and reaching for his knife. Leo moved to grapple the white blur streaking toward them but stumbled in the knee-deep water.
Before Honoria knew what she was doing, she was running forward and screaming, “No!”
The creature hit Blade, who staggered backward, his serrated knife punching into his attacker’s side. A high-pitched squeal echoed at the edge of hearing, and Blade flinched as the sound cut through him. He went down with a splash.
She couldn’t use the pistol without hitting him. Tucking it at her belt, she threw herself at the creature and screamed in its face. Somehow she managed to halt the deadly strike of its slashing claws.
Filmy white eyes met hers. The stink of it was strong enough to cut through the stench of the tunnels. She could taste it in her mouth, thick and rancid, like old grease.
A backhand caught her by surprise. She went sailing through the air, her body crumpling against the wall of the tunnel. A shaft of pain went through her shoulder, and her head rocked at the impact. In the dim light she could see the creature’s hand strike down into the body beneath it. Blade.
“Father! No!” Stumbling forward once more, she caught at the rigid tendons in the vampire’s wrist and pulled futilely.
Blade’s face came out of the water with a gasp, blood spreading through the swampy muck.
“I can help you! I can help you!” Honoria yelled, tears streaming down her face. The hand beneath hers suddenly shifted.
Blade dragged himself against the wall, cradling his side. Their eyes met and Honoria deliberately put herself between him and the vampire.
“Don’t,” he gasped. “Run, you bloody fool woman.”
So close. The vampire’s nostrils sniffed the air as it turned to face her. She let its arm go, drawing the pistol from her belt. “I can help you.” A whisper.
Honoria stared at the creature who had once been her father. There was no resemblance now, though she looked for it. The irony was cruel. Her proud, anti–blue blood father would have hated this end of his existence.
Honoria’s hand shook as she lifted the pistol. The vampire quivered as it stared at her, head drifting side to side as it fought the base hunger of its nature.
The vampire tried to say something. Its lips stretched over vicious, needle-sharp teeth stained with blood. Please.
Its hand caught hers and dragged the pistol to its forehead.
“Lena and Charlie miss you,” she sobbed. “And so do I.”
Gritting her teeth, her eyes hot with tears, Honoria leaned forward and pressed her lips against its cheek. “I love you,” she whispered. And then leaned back and pulled the trigger.
Explosive sound ricocheted through the tunnel. Blood sprayed, splattering across Leo’s face, and then the headless body slumped into the water, twitching.
Honoria’s hand dropped to her side. She could barely hold the pistol, she was trembling so hard. A glimmer of maggot-pale flesh gleamed in the dim light and then slowly sank beneath the surface of the water. He was gone. Again.
Don’t think. Just don’t think. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stared. Father…
“He’s at peace, Honor,” Leo said.
“No thanks to you!” she spat, then gave him her back.
Blade leaned against the tunnel wall, struggling to sit up, his hand clapped to his side. There was blood all over him, some of it the viscous black of her father’s, the rest thick and blue.
Struggling to his side, she went to her knees. She could barely see for the tears that blinded her, but she managed to wipe them with her grimy sleeve. This was no time to fall apart. Blade needed her. “Let me have a look,” she said.
“She’ll ’eal,” Blade said. The look in his eyes suddenly darkened. “You bloody fool. What the ’ell did you think you were doin’?”
“Saving you,” she replied, rocking back on her heels at the sudden vehemence in his voice.
“I told you to—”
“I don’t give a damn!” she yelled. “I don’t care how many times you tell me to run, I won’t leave you behind!”
“Yes, you will,” he hissed. A grimace flickered over his face as he tried to sit up. “Damn you, Honoria. Seein’ you like that…in danger…it kills me.”
“He wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“’Ow do you know?”
“He was my father.”
Blade’s face darkened. “And Charlie’s your brother. And me? I’m your lover. You don’t think either of us could kill you? You don’t think there’s an ’ungry part of us that ain’t seen you as nothin’ more ’n blood? That’s wanted to ’urt you?” To her surprise, pain twisted his expression. “I would die a thousand times over to see you safe. Even from meself.”
“And I will never walk away,” she whispered, reaching out to press her palm against his cheek. There was a sudden thickness in her throat. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s foolish. But I can’t help how I feel.”
A strangled sound came from Blade’s throat. He pressed her hand against his mouth and kissed it, his cool lips gliding over the palm.
A hydraulic hiss suddenly swept through the tunnel. Both of them looked up as the squad of metaljackets took a sudden step forward in eerie formation. Honoria held Blade’s hand, hovering protectively over him.
“What the hell…?” Leo broke off as the first metaljacket engaged its firing arm, pointing it directly at him. He froze, the blood burns from the vampire’s blood on his face standing out in stark relief.
Honoria’s breath caught as another metaljacket aimed at them. Leaning forward, she tried to cover as much of Blade’s body as she could, though the Spitfire’s fireball could consume them both easily.
Blade caught at her arm. “Don’t.”
A man stepped out of the shadows. The metaljackets’ handler. “I thought I recognized your face,” he said. “You’re the girl from the bounty sheet. The ten-thousand-pound girl.” Avarice gleamed in his pale eyes as he examined the scene. “Nobody move. You.” He gestured toward Honoria. “Come here.”
“Sterne.”
A cool voice came out of the shadows, and Jasper Lynch stepped forward, bleeding heavily. “What are you about? Why didn’t you attack the vampire?”
“I did as commanded, Guild Master.” Sterne’s smile was vicious.
She could barely think with the trauma of events, yet the words sent her mind into a whirl. “Nobody was ever to make it out, were they?” she asked. “The vampire would be dead and Leo and Blade with it. Three of the prince consort’s enemies gone in one fell swoop with him left to cry false tears over the fallen ‘heroes.’” The thought sickened her, but she knew only too well how the Echelon worked.
Leo sucked in a breath, fury sliding harsh shadows over his face.
“Don’t.” Honoria held out a hand to stop him. “It’s futile.”
Blade caught at her fingers. “What are you about?” His voice was low and desperate, his gaze searching hers.
A fresh wave of tears scalded her cheeks. She stroked his face, fingers pausing on his lips. “Please look after Lena and Charlie.” Leaning close, she kissed his lips, but he caught her hands, dragging her face up, shaking his head.
“No. No!”
“He only wants me,” she replied.
Blade glanced at the towering metal legion. “We’re dead anyways.”
“Then use the water,” she whispered and pressed her pistol into his hands.
Black bled through his eyes. He was going to fight. Honoria took the choice away and stepped toward the handler.
“I’ll come for you,” Blade snapped as she stepped within reach of Sterne.
“Water,” she mouthed, meeting both his and Leo’s eyes.
“You won’t be going anywhere,” Sterne said as he grabbed her and dragged her behind the metaljackets.
There was a little click and then a roar as the Spitfire’s jets fired. Light blinded her, burning her eyeballs with the fury of its heat. The tears on her cheeks dried instantly, and her hair whipped behind her like a blazing corona. “No!”
When she could see again, the tunnel was scorched with thick black streaks of soot. There was no sign of the three men. Honoria’s heart pounded and she started forward, but Sterne grabbed her wrist.
Kiss of Steel Page 29