“No . . .” she managed, sucking in a deep breath.
Bella grazed Alexi’s cheek with her fingertips. “Tell me everything you know about the Arcanum.”
This time, Alexi dared not reply. The pressure increased as Bella touched her, and she felt the desperate need to speak. If she opened her mouth, she knew she would tell the woman everything she wanted to know and probably some things she didn’t.
Alexi squeezed her eyes closed and shut out everything except for the immense pressure in her head. The pressure increased when Bella pushed her, but it had been present even before then. It was perpetual, whenever she was around the woman or any vampire, as though there was some ambient, passive magic flowing through them. With Dupree, the pressure had been unbearable.
After taking another breath, Alexi gathered the last few shreds of her strength and mentally lashed out at the pressure, forcing everything she had into one massive strike. Energy crackled through her body. The pressure spiked, and then . . . pop.
Bella screamed.
The pressure was gone. Alexi sagged against the wall in relief. After she opened her eyes, she drew back in surprise. The attractive, lushly curved woman that had stood there only moments before was gone. In her place stood an emaciated, decayed . . . corpse. Ragged skin stuck to her bones. A few wisps of hair clung to her mottled scalp in patches. Her satin dress—so well filled out a moment before—hung limply from Bella’s bony shoulders.
“What have you done?” Bella cried. She looked down at her own withered hands. “What have you done?”
Alexi shuddered in horror, recoiling from the stink of decay. “What are you people?”
Bella grabbed Alexi’s shirt between gnarled claws. “Give it back.” Fabric tore beneath the onslaught of jagged fingernails. One fingernail chipped away entirely, falling to the floor. “Give it back!”
“I don’t—”
Bella screamed the same words again and slapped Alexi across the face. The force of the blow snapped Alexi’s head back to crash against the wall. She couldn’t see as blood poured into her eyes. Bella slapped her again, and Alexi tasted blood.
“Give it back. Give it back. Give it back—”
The words slurred together as Bella rained blows on her head and shoulders. Alexi screamed as bone gave way. Her nose shattered beneath Bella’s fist. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t see. There was only pain.
Another scream tore from Alexi’s throat as her shoulder broke. Bella’s rage only grew. Each blow tore skin and bruised bone. Alexi could hardly breathe through the agony. Bella lashed out with her foot, shattering Alexi’s knee. Blood, tears, and mucus flowed down Alexi’s chin. At some point, she thought she begged Bella to stop. She promised her anything she wanted to know. Please, just stop.
Bella hit her again and again. A fist to the stomach sent pain lancing through Alexi’s abdomen, and she vomited. Another fist to the ear sent a throbbing numbness shooting through her head. A foot stomped down on hers, shattering her toes.
Alexi screamed until her throat was raw. She wept, hanging from her wrists. She couldn’t stand up. Everything hurt. So. Bad. She couldn’t see out of her right eye. Her left leg dangled, mangled and useless, broken into what seemed like a million pieces.
Bella collapsed into the corner, her hands covered in Alexi’s blood, skin, and shards of bone. She sobbed into her knees.
“Give it back.”
The sweet release of unconsciousness overtook Alexi.
***
Everything was black. Alexi struggled to find light in all the darkness. The darkness was oil, and she couldn’t swim through it. Pain entered her consciousness. Someone was weeping. It sounded pitiful and weak.
Oh god, that’s me.
Her eyes refused to open. They were swollen shut. Rough hands grabbed her face. A thumb pushed against her eye and pried it open. She cried out.
“Wake up, princess. You haven’t told us what we need to know.”
She recognized his voice more than she did the blurry face in front of her. Morgan, Bella’s number two.
“At this point, if she were going to talk, she would have,” Dupree said in his accented voice.
The hand let her go. Alexi couldn’t hold her own head upright, and pain flashed through her neck. After turning her head to the side, she peered up at the men standing over her. Dupree leaned against the wall, his stylish suit untouched. Morgan wore only a pair of jeans. Blood covered his hands, chest, and face. Her blood. She hadn’t even felt him beating her, but she could feel it now.
That was all she could muster. Her head dropped down. That hurt, too.
Come on. Hang in there, she told herself. You’ve survived worse.
Alexi couldn’t feel anything on the right side of her face, her shoulders sounded like grinding stone, and the ache from her knees told her they wouldn’t support her.
“She knows nothing, or she’s been trained to resist—and trained quite well,” Dupree said, turning to leave. “Either way, we’re done with her.”
“What about the mistress?” Morgan asked.
Dupree waved one hand. “I’m disappointed to find her so . . . weak. I have no use for her in her present state. Sacrifice her next to this one. Don’t look so shocked, Morgan. You’re the new master of Seattle—for as long as it stands, in any case.”
What Alexi had done to Bella was apparently permanent. She wasn’t even sure what she’d done and how it was different from her glimpse at the vampire outside the bar.
What had he meant—as long as it stands? Dupree’s tone had made it seem as though he thought Seattle didn’t have a lot of time left, what could he possibly do to destroy a city?
The doors opened to let Dupree out, and four others entered. Awareness flooded into Alexi. They were human. She could hear their heartbeats and smell the blood flowing beneath their skin.
“I need two of you to escort Bella downstairs,” Morgan said to the servants. “The other two, scrape this mess off the floor and take her down also.”
“Morgan—” Bella’s raspy voice spiked shrilly. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, Bella.”
Alexi didn’t move and she barely breathed. If they believed she were unconscious . . . Two of the thralls unlocked her chains and scooped her up. It was all she could do to go limp and not scream as they moved her. They slung her across their shoulders, one tucked under each of her arms to hold her upright. Her head rolled loosely on her neck.
Bella pushed one of the thralls as he tried to pick her up. The man stumbled back. His cry was cut short as Bella jammed her jagged, bony fist through his chest.
Blood bubbled up from his mouth, and he collapsed. Bella pushed past the other thrall and leaped at Morgan.
One of the thralls holding Alexi up dropped her and rushed to Morgan’s aid. The other hung back, waiting for an opening as the two vampires clashed.
Alexi struck. With every shred of strength she could muster, she clapped her hand over the mouth of the thrall holding her up, muffling his scream as she sunk her fangs into his neck.
Blood and essence flowed into her mouth. His body went rigid, and she wrapped her arms around him, holding him still. Life flowed from him to her. Muscles knitted, tissue healed, and her vision cleared. Her shoulders popped painfully as they slid back in place. The thrall’s struggles lessened. She sensed his life force fading, and she tasted a strong note of despair as he realized that he was going to die.
Alexi tore herself away, shoving the thrall back. He gasped for breath, pale from the loss of blood. Alexi wasn’t fully healed, but it was enough. She turned in time to catch Morgan’s glance as he tried to wrestle Bella down.
“Stop her!” he shouted at the remaining thralls. Alexi rushed past outstretched hands and through the open door. Like the other security doors in the complex, this one was huge and heavy. She heaved. Her muscles screamed at her to stop. Ignoring the pain, she pushed with everything she had. The door scraped against the floor an in
ch at a time. Sweat beaded off her forehead.
Bella snapped a poor thrall’s neck like a twig. Morgan cast another desperate glance at Alexi but was unable to stop her and fight Bella at the same time. The last thing Alexi saw as the door slammed shut was Bella sinking her fangs into the last thrall.
Alexi grabbed the massive bar on the outside of the door and slid it into place, locking Morgan and Bella in together. It could be hours before anyone checked on them. That bought her some time.
There was no way she was getting out of here in her current state. She needed more food. The casual way in which she thought of people as food sent a shiver of disgust through her. She picked a corridor and limped her way down it.
TWENTY-ONE
It was cold, and the temperature would only drop more as the sun dipped below the mountains. Fall was coming to a close, and the early bite of winter was felt over the city. While the days were still warm the onset of night brought sudden, cold temperatures. People rushed to and from with large coats and boots instead of shorts and sandals.
The fall equinox isn’t far off, a day? Maye two. Savanna mused as she gazed out the car window at the light show only she could see happening in the sky above. Victor sat next to her, his body radiating enough heat to keep the compartment warm even with the engine off.
“Anything?” he asked her.
Right, focus.
“No, nothing yet.” Savanna shook her head, annoyed at letting herself become distracted. She leaned forward and peered through the windshield at the sky. Her powers allowed her to see the ley line that flowed through the city, leaving a rainbow-colored trail of energy that rippled and moved like a river.
People without magical abilities could see the effects of the magic, though in less obvious ways. For a few days prior to the equinox, the moon glowed with a halo effect. Atmospheric distortion, scientists said—but Savanna knew that the real answer was magic.
The ley lines were living things that moved with the earth. When the planet shifted orbit to winter, the ley lines shifted as well. It was a beautiful thing to behold and distracting.
“Is there a spell you can do? Anything?” Victor pressed her. She could hear the impatience in his voice, and she knew it was out of concern for Alexi. She tried to remind herself of that.
He softened as if he sensed her anxiety. “Sorry. I just . . .”
“I know.” Savanna sighed. “So am I.” After pulling her dagger from her boot, she nicked her arm and whispered a few arcane words of power.
Magic flowed with incredible ease this close to the ley line. It amplified her spell, letting her cast it with much more power and finesse than she would be able to manage elsewhere—all with just a drop of blood. The equinox was the easiest time to use magic, enabling even the most marginally talented witches to cast spells and make powerful potions.
The magic from her spell coalesced around her fingers, and she let it seep from one hand into the next, like a handful of water.
“Alexi,” she whispered. All the power she held inside her rushed out in that one word. Her body seized violently as it departed. The magic rose to the sky before diving down into the street.
“She’s here.” Savanna breathed hard. “Under the ground—oh, god.”
Victor tensed beside her, and his knuckles went white on the steering wheel. “Where? Here? What happened?”
“She’s hurt. Bad—but . . . they had her, but she broke free and . . . she’s looking for something.”
“A way out?”
“No. Something else.”
Victor hissed air between his teeth. The sun was twenty minutes from down. Neither of them could go in there now, what would they do? Alexi wouldn’t be able to come out.
“Can you talk to her? Guide her out?”
Savanna closed her eyes. Even with the ley lines, sustained magic required a continual supply of blood. She nicked her arm again, drawing the cut out longer this time. She winced from the pain. The fresh blood fueled her existing spell, and in her mind, she formed a line between Alexi and her.
When it was ready, she spoke aloud. “Alexi.”
***
“Alexi.”
The sudden sound startled Alexi, and she flattened herself instinctively against the wall. She looked left and right. She could swear she heard Savanna call her name . . .
“Savanna?” Alexi’s wandering of the halls had ended up with her being hopelessly lost. Had her torture damaged her mind to the point she was hearing things now?
Savanna’s voice came again: “Sundown in twenty minutes. You need to find an exit.”
This wasn’t the telepathy they sometimes shared. It was an actual sound reaching her ears.
“I can’t,” Alexi said. “Not yet. Do you remember the vision you had?” She darted down the hallway to her left, searching for a place to hide for a few moments.
“Yes. Hard to forget.” A pause. “Victor says you need to get out now, or he’s coming in.”
Alexi grinned. That sounded like him. She would love nothing more than to leave, but all the snatches of conversation she had caught from Dupree and his underlings made her increasingly certain that something big was going on—bigger than her and what had they had done to her. Bigger, even, than the basement full of people on life support.
“Listen, there’s a vampire here named Dupree. Seems like he’s the man in charge.” Alexi found a door, pressed her ear to it for a moment, and then eased it open and darted inside. “I think he’s planning something. Something big. I think it might have something to do with your vision.”
This room wasn’t guest quarters. An ornate bed, and a bar were in the main room. She could see three doors leading off of it. One was a master suite bathroom and the other looked like a massive walk in closet. From her current angle she couldn’t see inside of it. This room belonged to someone important. A heartbeat sounded in her ears, and she froze. Two more joined the first from the direction of the closet.
“Hold on, Savanna,” she whispered. The plush carpet and her bare feet made it easy to close the distance quietly. With her back to the wall, she slid until she was at the edge of the closet door. Now she could smell them. Humans. Women, if the perfume was any indication. What were they doing in the closet?
In one quick movement, she glanced around the doorway. Three women, each similar to Bella’s figure, stood in the closet wearing gowns. They didn’t move when she looked in. She took a chance and turned the corner. Their heartbeats spiked, and she could feel the fear on them. Alexi’s head felt light from the sudden desire to feed. Their fear acted as an intoxicant. The pangs in her stomach were a reminder that the single feeding hadn’t been enough.
I hate to do this . . .
“Come to me,” she commanded, pushing them just a little. The three women dropped their poses and obeyed. The smell of fear vanished as her hold on them replaced their own will. That made it easier to think. If she just took a little from each thrall, they would remain conscious enough to escape and perhaps even show her the way.
As she approached the first one, her head began to pound. The all too familiar pressure returned. They were human, she was sure of it. Alexi closed her eyes. Instinctively, she held her hand out to the girls. There was something there . . . almost a link to something. It was a cord. It bound them to someone.
Is this how a thrall works? Magic? Is it possible the vamps don’t even know they use magic?
Regardless, she could sense it. Maybe she could even sever it. With a wave of her hand, the cord vanished. The girls all gasped as one.
“What have you done?” the one in front cried.
“Quiet, don’t move.”
They froze as her will supplanted theirs.
She stood next to the first girl. The poor thing was powerless to stop her. Alexi tilted the brunette’s head to the side. Her long delightful neck beckoned her. She sank her fangs into the smooth skin. Alexi couldn’t stop the moan that escaped her lips. It was a hot drink on a cold day. T
he girl’s response was no less powerful. Her chest heaved, and she sighed blissfully. Whatever it was that vampires did when they fed, Alexi got the feeling it was vastly different with her. She pushed away the fear that came through the link.
She held the woman tight as she fed. It was an impulse she couldn’t resist. Bruises vanished, skin knitted, and her wounds healed with each swallow. The woman’s breath came fast and shallow. Alexi needed to stop. With an effort, she pulled away.
“No, please don’t,” the woman pleaded breathlessly.
Alexi moved on to the next. A few short minutes later, she felt whole. She stretched her body toward the ceiling. Nothing popped or hurt. Strength flowed in her again. The three women huddled in one corner looking at her with wide eyes. The effects of prolonged abuse and terror were evident on them. Alexi had done her best to draw that out of them when she fed and bolster their confidence enough to encourage them to leave.
“I need a jacket,” she said to them. One pointed to the back of the closet. “All right, do any of you know the way out?”
All three nodded. “There’s a back passage known only to a few. It doesn’t have any of the security measures the front door does.”
“How about where Dupree lives?”
One of the women, the one Alexi fed on first, cringed. “I do. He fed on me once—almost killed me. God, what was I thinking?”
Alexi shrugged the stylish leather jacket she had found around her shoulders and zipped it up. It didn’t quite fit, but it would do.
The mood of all three of the women seemed to shift radically. As thralls, their will was subservient to another. With their minds their own again, they alone had to pay the emotional consequences of what has happened to them. Alexi had done what she could to ease their burden through the feeding, but it would be up to them to survive this.
“I know you’ve been through a lot,” Alexi said, “but you’ve got to listen to me. It’s not your fault. Do you understand?” She pushed her will on them, using her borrowed strength to reinforce her words. “It is not your fault. You need to leave, go home, and never come back here again.”
With the Dawn (Faith of the Fallen) Page 18