A sudden laser blast lit up my vision. The soldier in my arms finally collapsed, but he had incoming backup. The dark-skinned woman who had guarded Dorian charged forward, her weapon slung on her back, obviously eager to take me down by hand for the glory. I dropped my shoulder at the last minute, flipping her sharply into the rubble. She landed awkwardly and screamed, her leg twisted at a sickening angle.
Should have paid attention to my sparring matches at the gym. Maybe you would have seen that coming.
I smashed into the firing soldier next to me and slammed her into the nearby wall. I needed a weapon or a way out of these cuffs. Body slams would only get me so far.
Rayne wrapped her arms around Harlowe, pulling her farther behind the rubble to avoid the lasers. Her concerned face remained focused on her friend. Good. They could sit this out. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about them trying to murder board members.
By the time I looked back, the Bureau soldiers had formed a human wall to protect the board members and were herding them toward the emergency exit, where I could see a sliver of a staircase through the glass door pane. They were headed to the roof. Adrenaline shot through me. We couldn’t let them leave.
“They’re getting away!” Oleah cried. She dodged a blast of green light and took off after the guards, weaving between the laser beams. Gavril followed close behind, his hulking form knocking aside two soldiers who stepped into his path to try and stop him.
Movement caught my eye. A guard fired at Dorian, who still struggled to break free of his restraints. Our talk on the island the night before came back to me like a smack in the face. Why hadn’t he fed to be at full strength?
Bounding forward, I wrapped my cuffs around the guard’s wrist, pulled his arm over my shoulders, and threw him over my hip. He let out a stunned gasp as his back hit the ground behind me. His gun clattered to the ground, and I kicked it away. Pulling the electric baton from his belt, I pressed it to his throat until he stopped moving. Making sure he was still breathing, I surveyed the room, happier now that I had a weapon. The rest of the soldiers focused on Vonn, Oleah, and Roxy. They would have to handle themselves.
I dashed back to Dorian, who convulsed on the ground among the wreckage and debris. His eyes were black. He howled as his fangs pressed painfully against the mask. He had to be overwhelmed by dark energy. My heart pounded. How could I help him?
As I stooped down to him, burning pain glowed to life in my chest. The sensation traveled up my throat and stabbed into my brain as white lights exploded behind my eyes. I hissed, clutching my head, the baton falling from my limp grasp. My limbs were numb. A pang of panic overcame me as the world around me began to dissolve.
The guards pushed the board members toward the exit, their cries growing more desperate. Shots rang out as Vonn’s team chased them. I pressed my hand against Dorian’s back. This was bad. There were no friendly vampires to feed on him, and the fight was moving to the roof. Green lasers discharged over our heads. I squeezed my eyes, trying to think in the chaos.
I couldn’t leave Dorian helpless. But if I didn’t, Vonn, Gavril, and Oleah might kill the board members. Rayne and Harlowe, who was whimpering in pain from her gunshot wound and the initial dark energy blast that struck her, were hiding down here and seemed pretty much checked out of the fight for now. Roxy hadn’t killed anyone yet, and I hoped she would continue to hold back. Perhaps Vonn’s lies had made her think differently about her revenge for Grayson. The board could also successfully escape before our backup arrived if they weren’t stopped, only to return with backup of their own. Would they have a chopper waiting on the roof, for emergencies? It seemed like the kind of thing Alan would do.
Dorian trembled violently beneath my hand. Shadows crawled all over his body, darkening all visible skin. This was like last time but faster and worse. Fear choked me. I watched helplessly as the shadows overtook his neck and slithered up his head. His eyes turned solid black. Rivulets of pitch-black blood trickled from his nose. The plastic bars supposed to contain his fangs snapped.
“Dorian!” I grabbed him, terror seizing me. He gave one final, massive convulsion and collapsed. He went entirely still. The exploding pain in my body immediately ceased. Everything stopped. A sickening thought crossed my mind. Was he…?
Dorian lurched to his feet, a low keening sound pouring from his throat. I clutched his jacket, trying to steady him. He swayed back and forth, his whole body shivering. The tremors were softer now. He whimpered faintly in pain and tugged pointlessly against the straitjacket.
His head shook wildly back and forth and stumbled away from me. He glanced around the room, black eyes moving unnaturally fast. My breath caught. He looked possessed. Could he even see? Beneath the muzzle, his expression warped into a tight grimace, his teeth and fangs fully exposed. The room had gone unnaturally silent.
“Dorian?” I breathed. My gaze narrowed to only him, everything else blurring into my peripheral vision. My throat tightened as he turned toward my voice. I reached out to him, my cuffed hands shaking slightly.
There was a second of complete stillness. Then a violent snarl tore out of his mouth. He lunged at me, murder in his black eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Reacting more than thinking, I leapt to the side, dropped into a roll across the open space, and landed behind a chunk of rubble. The darkness had taken him over completely. He snarled again, such animalistic pain in the sound I could hardly stand to listen to it. I locked eyes with a soldier, the young round-faced one who had helped escort Dorian and me to the boardroom. He was cowering behind the overturned table, and I saw his eyes drift to an abandoned X-75.
“Don’t,” I growled. “Do you want to make this even worse?”
Dorian rounded the rubble I was crouched behind, and I scrambled away as he brought his head down. Behind the mask, his teeth snapped fruitlessly, and he fought within the confines of the straitjacket. Despite how close we were, there wasn’t even the vaguest hint of pain in my chest—he couldn’t see who I was. Maybe, in this state, he didn’t care. He was willing to hurt me. My entire body buzzed with dread.
Rayne charged in from the side, aiming to tackle Dorian, but he braced himself for the blow. She might as well have run straight into a block of concrete. With a cry of pain, she staggered back as Dorian flung her off to crash against the table.
I dodged Dorian as he came at me again. The resounding echo of many hurrying feet came from the emergency exit staircase. He jerked his head in that direction, catching on to the sound. Seizing my chance, I made a break toward Rayne to help get her clear. As I hauled her to her feet, the rubble clattered, and Dorian’s face swung back toward me. A soldier popped up from behind the table, the green stripe on his X-75 catching my eye. With a snarl, Dorian bounded toward him. Grabbing one of the fallen chairs with both my shackled hands, I swung it into Dorian’s path, taking him out at the knees and sending him crashing to the floor. The soldier yelped as Rayne rose up to land a solid punch in his throat. The gun clattered to the floor, and Rayne took no time to hurl it out the destroyed windows.
Shaking his head, woozy, Dorian struggled to his feet. I didn’t think he was trying to target me, instead just striking out wildly at anything and everything around him. Grief filled me as I looked at his face, which was overwhelmed by pulsing shadow, drops of dark blood dripping from his nose onto the white fabric of the straitjacket.
My eyes strayed to the emergency exit door. No soldiers currently stood in my way, as most had already left with the board members, been injured, or were hiding behind the table. I could try to make a run for it, make sure the board members didn’t escape, but if I left Dorian here alone, backup might arrive and—combined with the remaining soldiers—might be able to overwhelm him, maybe even kill him if they were afraid or angry enough. Rayne was strong and fast, but she only needed to get hit with a few beams of dark energy, and she would be in the same state as Dorian. Then there would be two out-of-control vampires running wild.
Dorian crashed headfirst into the table, breaking my frantic thought process. He lunged for the soldiers still hidden behind it, and they scattered out of the way. Without the use of his arms or mouth, he was like a vampire battering ram driven by pure dark energy. Catching sight of me once more, he circled around and lunged at me again. Darting back to avoid him, I watched as his foot caught on a scrap of rebar sticking out of the debris, and he toppled to the ground. I used the free moment to put a pile of rubble between us.
Dorian outmatched me in strength, especially with the darkness amplifying his movements. The restraints improved my chances, but I could only outrun and outsmart him for so long. I needed to get him to the other vampires, ones who were strong enough to restrain him and drain the dark energy. Rayne and Harlowe were in no shape to help me right now. Sike was pinned down with Zach in the apartment. Who knew where the rest of my team was? And all this time the board members were getting away or being slaughtered on the roof by Vonn. My nerves burned, but I pushed ahead.
Be smart. Be quick.
“Dorian, I need you to calm down! They’re getting away. I need you with me,” I cried.
Hearing my voice, he cocked his head in my direction, then scrabbled back to his feet. He threw himself into the wall with a pained grunt. I felt a soft twist of sympathy cut through my panic. I took a step toward him, wracking my brain for a way to help him.
He turned on me with a growl, too fast to dodge. I cried out as he slammed into me. The force of his blow spun me into a pile of broken wall. I landed on my butt with my hands protecting my head. My calf stung as a sharp edge of rubble ripped through my pants and into my leg.
Like a wolf, Dorian stalked to stand over me, his face a mass of shadow and blood. My terrified breath caught in my throat as I desperately searched for an exit strategy. I couldn’t get away in time.
He roared, straining his neck muscles.
He sounds like he’s in so much pain. My heart ached for him, but survival was a priority. I rolled to the side and leapt to my feet. The sound of fabric tearing hit my ears. My pulse rocketed as Dorian tore through the restraints on his jacket. His arms flew free from their tight confines. The burning dread in my stomach as I saw him rip the rest of the straitjacket off made me lightheaded, but I forced myself to watch. I needed to see what he would do. A weakness might expose itself. He clawed frantically at the straps on the muzzle, but his nails couldn’t seem to pry it off.
He snarled as he scraped his face and head. Blood trickled from new cuts and gouges that he dug into his own face. I clutched my aching shoulder. Frustrated tears stung my eyes.
“Stop!” I yelled.
He covered his ears and hissed, shaking his head furiously before he lunged toward me again. Panic surged through my every limb. I tried to jump backward over some rubble, but he dove and caught my foot with a tight grip. He pulled me off balance, slamming me to the ground. My head hit the floor, and my vision scattered for a moment. I gasped in pain as he crouched and pulled me toward him. I fought against his grasp. His strength was overwhelming. He could kill me and not even realize what he was doing.
I had to fake him out. I feigned weakness and let him pull me in closer, praying it would work. As he reached for me with his other hand, I kicked him square in the face with my free foot. He reeled back onto his haunches with a grunt, dropping my leg. I felt a pang of guilt, but he had left me no choice. He groaned, craning his head back.
He was clearly in pain, but he was too dangerous for me to help him.
What could possibly stop him? His reflexes seemed slower. His eyes barely focused on my face. Earlier when I yelled, he had covered his ears as if the sound hurt him. One thing was clear: I needed to get out of this conference room with all its trip hazards and broken glass. While my thick coat and armor had saved me from the worst of it, I was already bleeding from several new gashes.
Dorian shook himself, his head seeming to start to clear. I seized the chance and took off into the hallway near the exit, kicking out at a soldier who grabbed for me from behind the table as I went.
“Seriously?” I yelled as my boot connected with his chin, sending him sprawling. “Get a clue!”
Up above on the roof, I heard a muffled commotion. That filled me with apprehension, but I had to deal with Dorian first.
I paused in the doorway, watching him. He groaned as he clawed at his face again, tugging and twisting at the padlock on the muzzle. He seemed confused. Could I overwhelm his senses while he was like this? It was worth a shot. If I could make him run into the wall, he might do it hard enough to knock himself out. My fingers felt cold as the thought struck me. I didn’t want to hurt the person I cared for so deeply, but a vampire concussion was a better option than him tearing me to ribbons. If I could overwhelm him with noisy taunting, then I might have a chance to trick him into acting wildly. The wilder he got, the less control he had over himself.
“Hey,” I shouted.
His head snapped toward me. The black eyes were still horrifying.
“Yes, you. You idiot! Why did you think you could get away without feeding, huh, Dorian? I’m pissed at you. You always have to take risks, and now, surprise, I have to clean up your mess!” If he was halfway out of his mind, I might as well work out some of my anger…
He scrambled to his feet and clawed at his ears. His head swung back and forth as he looked around. From far away, his eyes found my face and suddenly seemed to focus. Oh, no. I quailed. This was what I wanted, but somehow, I hadn’t been prepared to meet the intensity of his gaze.
Dorian rushed toward me much faster than I’d anticipated. I slammed the door in his way and raced to the stairs. The door crashed back against the wall as he barreled through it like a battering ram, and he caught up to me. I felt his nails catch on my coat near my lower back as I whipped tightly around the corner. He couldn’t stop himself in time. He slammed into the wall with shocking force. Chunks of plaster broke off in a shower of dust. I gasped, frozen with alarm at the foot of the stairs. Was he okay?
He snarled as he pulled away from the wall. His eyes were wilder than ever. Crap, he was okay.
I raced up the stairs three at a time as he came after me. I need to lose these handcuffs and find a way to take him down. Dorian growled behind me as he surged up the stairs, using the railing to pull himself along. He dented the wall with his fist, and it shuddered violently. Primal fear surged through every nerve in my body. My pulse staggered as I threw open the roof access door. The muffled chaos erupted into full volume.
Screams pierced the air, and helicopter blades roared. The wind swept my hair over my eyes. I fought to make out what was happening around me. The guards fired at Oleah and Vonn, fighting them off. Someone cried out in pain—
Dorian staggered out onto the roof and shook his head, a confused look crossing his face. With his bleeding scratches, he looked like a crazed animal. Dancing behind an air vent and out of his view for a moment, I stumbled over the body of a fallen soldier. Was he dead? I stooped to check for a weapon, and relief filled me. The universe was on my side for the moment. A real handgun—with bullets. I fumbled with my handcuffs, attempting to pick it up. I scanned the scene around me, making sure nobody was coming for me. The safety on the gun was off.
Dorian looked around wildly, disturbed by the noise. He turned each and every way as new sounds buffeted him from every side. Between the screams, the gunfire, and the chopper, his brain must have been in overdrive. He flexed his hands, darkness rushing up his arms and concentrating on his head. I gasped as he flung his head to the side and clawed at the muzzle again. The darkness was literally overtaking him, so much worse than the last time he’d been shot. He staggered sideways, flailing out at nothing, his foot landing perilously close to the edge of the roof.
“You’re going to fall,” I cried out.
Flicking on the pistol’s safety, I ran toward him. He turned on me and attempted to smack me out of his way. I sidestepped. He overshot his lu
nge and fell to the ground, but at least he was no longer at such a risk of falling off the roof. I jumped on his back and pressed the cuffs around his neck, the gun in one hand. His fingers clawed at my arms, ripping jagged holes in the sleeves of my coat. A jumbled mess of sound poured from his mouth. The concrete below him became speckled with his blood.
“Please,” I begged. “I need you.”
He bucked, and I placed my knee into the small of his back, hooking my cuffs under his chin and pulling back until he could only gurgle. Despite the uncomfortable position, he continued to struggle. If he couldn’t calm down… The gun in my hand was a heavy reminder of the possibility. I would have to take him out somehow, even if it meant seriously hurting him. Icy distress rolled over me. Was I actually considering shooting him? I could give him a wound he might suffer with for the rest of his life. What if I misjudged the shot or he moved at the last moment? As if to support my fear, he twitched and tried to throw me off, fighting against my cuffs pressing into his throat.
I grew desperate as he edged us closer to the border of the roof. A low wall and some scattered railings lined the perimeter, but it was only two feet tall. If he kept fighting me like this, he could easily send us both tumbling to our deaths. Frustrated tears spilled from my eyes as I searched the roof for aid, but no one could help me. My heart slammed against my chest, so hard I thought my ribs might break. He was going to take me out if I didn’t stop him. My finger hovered over the safety. I dropped my face next to his ear and sucked in a breath, trying to make my voice as gentle and comforting as possible.
“Dorian, it’s Lyra. We have to stop.” Maybe I could soothe him. “You’ve got to stop fighting. I’ve got you. You don’t have to worry.”
He continued to struggle. His grip was vicious, and I swore the bones in my arms where he gripped them were beginning to crack with the extra strength from the darkness inside him. If I shot his leg or arm up close, would it be enough to stop him? My lips trembled as I tried to stop my tears. Would Dorian even be able to come back after being hit by so much dark energy? Last time, it had taken five vampires to drain the dark energy from him. What if this was all he would be from now on? No. It couldn’t come to that.
Darklight 2: Darkthirst Page 47