Chapter 23
I ran. Or, I tried to. My feet slipped out from underneath me as I fumbled to stand, and I fell back onto my knees.
Roxy grabbed the back of my shirt, snarling—but I pulled free, escaping only because that first accidental stumble had been enough for her to drop her guard, to underestimate me.
I surged out of the hangar, feet pounding on concrete.
This couldn’t have gone any worse. There was absolutely no way that could have been worse.
Well, Benjy could have killed me. That would have been worse. I guess.
But if I’d been killed, then at least I wouldn’t be terrified, running for my life.
The grey light of the moon peeked through the clouds overhead. No time to admire its beauty now though. Besides, stark lights along the runway threatened to overpower it. A pure, glowing white, they were near-blinding as I sprinted past, over places where water had pooled from an overnight rain, puddles reflecting dazzling white pockets of light.
Roxy howled behind me. Her heels sounded like bullets against the tarmac as she ran. She was going to catch me. A cry of pain up ahead drew my attention to—
“Mill?”
He was locked in a brutal UFC-style fight with Ivan. Black, tar-like blood was spattered everywhere. One of Mill’s arms was coated in it. Half of Ivan’s face was too.
Both vampires were grimacing from their wounds and moving incredibly quickly. Every hit resounded, far too loud to be without consequence.
My heart skipped. My mind seesawed—between fear that Mill would lose this fight, and hope—
Because he was my only chance at getting out of here alive.
“Mill!” I shouted, waving my hands wildly, like a tourist greeting an old friend at the airport. Or any idiot. Both, really. He turned—
Ivan surged across the space between them. Fingers curled into claws, he sunk them deep into the flesh above Mill’s navel—and tore open a new, oozing wound.
“Mill!” I screamed.
Mill staggered back, grabbing at the hole in his gut, blood like pitch spilling out between his fingers.
He couldn’t die. He couldn’t. If he died, then that meant …
I didn’t stop running. I tried to read Ivan and Mill, knowing there was very little, if anything, I could do if I reached him. If Mill was able to get me out of here, then maybe we could still escape. But I wasn’t sure how badly hurt he was.
My breath was coming in rasps, and I had stitches in my side. I couldn’t keep it up. I couldn’t—
I hit the ground. Hard. My chin scraped against the pavement, and I felt most of the skin on my palms rip to shreds. Pain exploded from my ribs—broken?—somehow setting off ringing in my ears like a grenade had gone off beside me. I tasted blood.
In my dazed state, it took me a few seconds to realize that I hadn’t tripped. Roxy had slammed into my back, bowling me over like a tenpin. She leered down at me, straddling my chest.
“You think that you’re so smart, don’t you?” Roxy asked, brutally cold edge in her voice. “You thought you were so clever, playing vampire the way you did. And to think—you almost got away with it.”
She pinned my arms up over my head—and then dug a thumb into the scratch that was Benjy’s parting gift.
I shrieked as white-hot pain lanced through me. Tears stung the backs of my eyes.
“Please—”
Roxy pulled her long curls over her one shoulder and bent close to my face.
“I knew something was wrong with you. Something … off.” She let a whiff of blood out like a breath. “I should have guessed when you locked yourself in the bathroom.” She bent even closer and whispered right in my ear. “I have a sudden opening in my squad, Elizabeth. I need some viciousness on my side, and girl—you fit the bill. Your looks aren’t quite what I expect, but right now? Beggars can’t be choosers. You can make me look better by comparison. Get ready to take selfies with me for the rest of your existence.” She grinned, fangs extended.
I slammed my eyes shut, whimpering, fighting to escape—but she was too strong, I could barely buck beneath her.
She leaned forward—I felt her crossing the last of the distance between us, her icy skin a hair’s breadth from mine—
Water rained down, as though the heavens had opened and the earlier rain had resumed.
Roxy screamed. Recoiling from me in an instant, she leapt away from me as though I’d done it. Hands clutching her face, she screeched, a banshee’s wail that tore through the night.
Holy water.
And there was Mill, glowering darkly over Roxy.
In one easy motion, he lifted her and threw her across the tarmac. Then, without a second glance at her, he slipped his arms underneath mine and lifted me. Then he was running.
Over Mill’s shoulder, I saw Ivan run to Roxy who was lying on the ground, still clutching her face, howling like a rabid animal. Ivan was holding his own face, and he was leaving slick, dark streaks behind him.
I was going to be sick.
I laid my head against Mill’s chest. Everything ached, every small bump in our hectic escape sending stabbing pains into my chest and arm. When Mill finally slowed, I looked out from his chest to see we’d made it to the parking lot. He had stopped beside a black limo, just like the one that Iona had sent for me months before.
I recoiled. Limos were going on my hate list. I wanted nothing to do it with it.
Mill gingerly put me on my feet.
His shirt was bloody—with my blood—and I was drenched in his, the black, tarry substance caked all over my side.
If he hadn’t pulled open the door, I would have vomited right there. Somewhere in a deep recess of my mind, I wondered how Mill wasn’t going absolutely insane with my blood all over the place. Blood. Vampire. How?
I clambered in, tears welling up in my eyes again. I’d definitely cracked a few ribs. And it was way more painful than I had ever thought it could be.
Mill slid in beside me as if he didn’t have a hole in his stomach as big as a fist.
He slammed the door, and then pounded on the window to the front. It slid down, and the man at the driver’s seat did not seem remotely surprised to see us there.
“Floor it!” Mill ordered.
The man did not hesitate. He threw the car into drive, and we peeled out of the parking lot—leaving Roxy and Ivan behind us.
Chapter 24
The limo squealed tires out onto the highway, and I felt better with every car that pulled up beside us and in front of us, camouflaging us amongst the traffic. Not that you really could camouflage a stretch limo amongst regular traffic, but still. With Roxy and Ivan dealt with for now, I was acutely aware that I was sitting with another vampire and covered in my own blood—and his.
Frantic, I ripped a corner of my shirt off, and tried to press it to the wound in his stomach.
“Don’t worry,” Mill said gently, placing his hand on my arm. “I’m fine. Really.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. He had literally just saved my life. And not for the first time.
“What are you doing here? And how are you not dead right now?” I asked. “You’re bleeding … everywhere …”
Mill winced, hand hovering over his stomach. “I’ll be fine. Vampires heal pretty fast. And I didn’t die because my head’s still intact, and he didn’t use a stake. Make sense?”
“You can’t just lose too much blood?”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t really work like that with us. We heal a lot faster than we can lose blood. Now, if he had kept at it, he could have incapacitated me enough to kill me. That was his plan.” His face darkened. “And mine, as well.”
I grimaced.
“I’ll be fine by tomorrow,” Mill went on. “This won’t kill me.”
Silence fell for a few moments as we weaved in and out of traffic.
“Mill …” I said. “Why did you come all the way to Miami?”
“Following you,” Mill replied. “Try
ing to help.”
I rolled my eyes, laughing hollowly, and wanted to cry at the same time. He had no idea how much those words meant to me, and yet … everything turned upside down when he showed up.
“You texted me, remember?” Mill said, the black flow of blood slowing as it rolled down his shirt and pants.
“Yes,” I replied reluctantly, but I frowned at him. “I didn’t intend for you to follow me. Mill, you almost got me killed!”
I sounded like an ungrateful brat. He had just saved my life, and all I could do was accuse him of interfering? It wasn’t like I had it all under control in the first place.
Mill’s brow furrowed.
“I was trying to help. You were on a trip with four vampires.”
“Only two now,” I pointed out. Which I should’ve been happy about—but having stoked the fires of Roxy’s wrath, no longer able to fly under her radar, and seeing the sheer damage Ivan had done to Mill, I wasn’t feeling super optimistic about that right this minute. “Roxy thought I had something to do with Charlie’s death. She said as much to me once we left the club in Miami …”
Mill shrugged. “By association, you do.”
I glared at him. “Not the point I’m trying to make. I managed to get you in a picture. I wasn’t trying to. I had no idea you were there.” I sighed heavily, my head falling back against the seat. “Now they know what you look like. That you’re with me.”
Mill’s face remained passive.
“Roxy said that this meant war, Mill. And that girl is crazy. She hated me from the moment she met me.”
“She didn’t know that you were a human until you bled, did she?” His gaze flashed to the gash on my arm, and I tried to cover it again with my shirt. Then he shook his head. “Cassie … she knows you’re a human now.”
I groaned. “Which means that Draven could catch wind of the fact that I’m human too …”
Mill shook his head. “I don’t think so. They hate Draven, don’t they?”
“Yeah, but they probably hate me more now, since I killed Benjy. Wouldn’t telling Draven be a chance to get revenge?”
“That’s three vampires you’ve killed now,” Mill said. “Three kills under your belt. They aren’t going to take that lightly.”
“Thanks, I needed something else to worry about.”
“You don’t get it,” he said. “You’re not some weak-kneed human cattle to them now, like you would have been if they discovered what you were when you first met them. They’re going to see you as a threat. They’ll be cautious of you. I don’t know of any human in recent history who’s killed so many vamps and lived to talk about it.”
Mill ripped a clean piece of his shirt off and slid over to where I was sitting. My heart beat faster as he gingerly tied the shirt sleeve around my bleeding arm. He tied a neat knot to hold it in place.
“The other thing that you have to consider is that they don’t know for sure that you weren’t a spy of Draven’s, right? If there’s even a small chance of that, they won’t go running to him with the news that you’re human. That’d be like signing their own death warrants.”
I swallowed hard. My blood was already starting to stain through the makeshift bandage. “Why would they think Draven would work with a human?”
“Plenty of vampires have loyal pets. Didn’t you see that in Miami?”
I flinched. “So you think I’m safe?”
Mill’s gaze hardened. “Safe … is probably not the best word.” His stare intensified. “As long as you’re with me, though, you’re the safest you can be.”
I was still uneasy. None of what he was saying made me feel any better about it. The one advantage I had, the secret of my humanity, had been ripped from me. Quite literally. With nasty, sharp, vampire fingernails.
“Mill …” I said, touching my injured arm. “Why did you come for me?”
The question hung in the air. Mill was a vampire, and one of only two who I’d met who I’d consider “nice.” Every other vampire I’d known of acted like the ones at the club in Miami tonight; people were only good for wearing collars and being a sustainable source of food.
Mill cleared his throat. “Because you asked?”
I gasped as the phone on my lap vibrated, and then cried out in pain as the movement jostled my ribs. Xandra was calling.
I ignored it. I had told her I was back, didn’t I?
“I don’t buy that for a second,” I replied. “That is the dumbest excuse I’ve ever heard.”
“After all this time, after all the help I’ve given you, you’re still suspicious of me,” Mill said, crossing his arms over his chest.
I scowled. “Um, how could I not be? You’re a freaking vampire. I’m human. At some point, this relationship is going to get tested.” I held up my arm, a fresh wave of the acrid, metallic stench of blood filling the air. “Worse than this.”
Mill’s eyes followed my arm.
“I don’t get it. Why are vamps such cast-iron jerkheads, but you’re so nice? I mean, did gypsies curse you with a soul?”
“They’re called the Romani—and no. It’s not that simple,” he said.
Finally, I was getting something out of him. At the same time, it seemed like every time I thought I understood something, new information cropped up that sent my head spinning.
“Vampires are no more cut and dry than humans are,” Mill said, frowning as he looked out of the dark, tinted window. “When someone becomes a vampire, their basic needs remain the same. Survival. A place to live. Finding something to eat. The curse that is thrust upon a vampire is just that: a curse. Everything in us, our very humanity, is wrenched away in service of bloodlust. The desire to feed on people makes it easy to forget the humanity of those we feed upon. In a way … if you’re going to eat live humans, you have to forget what it means to be human. In order the live the way vampires do, to embrace the call, to feed on people … you can’t see them as like yourself. You have to be … superior. Otherwise …” He shook his head.
He paused. The limo slowed and stopped for a red light, then picked up speed again.
“Some vampires go utterly mad after their conversion. They have these urges to feed on people, and they try to contain it. But the longer a vampire goes without feeding, the more insatiable their desires become, and the harder it is to fight. I’ve seen an entire busload of people killed because a vampire tried to fight their own nature too long.”
I stared at him, open-mouthed.
“Others are power-drunk. They were weak as humans, and then find that they’re the strongest creatures in the world. They don’t care that they’re irredeemable. All they care about is getting their next fix.”
Charlie’s easy smile flashed across my mind’s eye, his story about the human he had almost killed fresh in my mind. Hadn’t Benjy said something about him using? Was he just blood drunk?
Mill turned his weighted gaze on me. “Still others are slaves. They have no hope. They simply exist. They don’t experience any joy in their choices, but they’re addicted to them all the same.”
I frowned. “Which one are you?”
The limo slowed to a stop.
“We’re here,” Mill said. Not an answer. I stared for a moment … but none was coming.
“Pull around the corner to the house two down from here,” I said. The driver complied, bringing us up in front of Laura’s house.
Hopefully … we’d made it before Roxy and Ivan had.
Chapter 25
“Why are we here?” Mill asked.
I pointed to the upper window of the dark house. “This is Laura’s house. Roxy was going to come here and turn her tonight. She seemed to think that their numbers were too low after Charlie’s death.”
“She was talking about it openly?” Mill said. He grimaced. “She really had no idea that you were human. You certainly played your part well.” I pulled open my phone, found Laura’s number, and hit the call button. It rang and rang … finally she picked up.
“Hullo?” said a sleepy voice on the other end.
“Laura? It’s Cassie.”
“Cassie?” she repeated, her voice clearing. “Why are you calling me at—four in the morning?”
“Sorry, but it’s important. Can you come outside and meet me?”
“No. I can’t. Are you crazy? What are you doing up right now?”
“Laura, I need you to come out here and get in the limo.”
“Limo?” She sounded like she was going to choke on her blankets, her voice was so sleepy.
“Yes, limo,” I said. “Listen to me. You are in danger.”
“What?” She was fully awake now, though she kept her voice quiet.
“Those vamps are coming to get you, to turn you,” I said. “Don’t ask me how I know that—it’s too long of a story, and honestly I don’t want to talk about it. Just get down here.”
“I …” Laura murmured. “I don’t think I should.”
“Are you freaking kidding me right now?”
“It’s just … my parents are out of town. I’m here by myself.”
“You were home alone all night? And you didn’t tell me?” I asked. “Laura, that is a big no-no when vampires are after you.”
“You said I’d be safe at home.” Yeah, she was waking up now; there was a little fire in her reply.
“You were.” I heaved a sigh. “But if I hadn’t been with them all night, you’d probably be one of them by now.”
“Wait, you were with them?”
“I said I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“You were the one that brought it up!”
Mill nodded.
“Not helping,” I mouthed, pointing a finger at him.
“You told me not to leave the house,” Laura said. “Now all of the sudden it’s okay for me to come out? At night? What if a vampire gets to me?”
“What if they burn your house down with you in it?” I countered.
BANG BANG BANG! I nearly jumped out of my skin. Jerking round to the window where the thumps had come from—
Someone Should Save Her Page 11