A Drop of Red (36 page)
Her hold on Della fractured.
God no. It couldn’t be. No, no, no.
She heard Kiko raise his guns, but then . . .
Then . . .
Something came flying out of the trees to their right, so fast it was only a line of black.
It stopped just short of one squirming dog that was battling with a Friend, the streak solidifying, showing a male in a dark coat that settled against his body as he took stock of the activity around him.
Jonah.
Dawn’s control over Della snapped for good, leaving the vampire sprawling on her back and staring at the sky.
“No way,” Kiko said, lowering his weapons, clearly not wanting to shoot the boss.
Then everything whirred into spliced motion, one thing, then another—
Kiko retargeted the other three cat-wolf vamps as they raised their heads, their burning eyes adjusting from the UV flash. . . .
Frank barreled out from behind the shack and raced to where Della was now struggling to her feet. . . .
Then Jonah sent Dawn a glare that told her he had something to prove after she’d pushed him down, down into the pit of his body earlier tonight.
What’re you doing?
she thought-yelled to him.
she thought-yelled to him.
He didn’t answer, but she already knew.
What had he said at their dinner a couple nights ago?
I don’t agree very often with the way he goes about business and . . . other matters.
I don’t agree very often with the way he goes about business and . . . other matters.
Jonah had taken over for real.
Idiot. Didn’t he know what he was risking?
Coiled rage sprang out of Dawn, and she used it to try to puppet Jonah out of the fray.
With one
push
, she knocked him back while Kiko aimed at the recovering girls and Frank sprang on Della, holding the vampire to the ground as she wiggled around.
push
, she knocked him back while Kiko aimed at the recovering girls and Frank sprang on Della, holding the vampire to the ground as she wiggled around.
Dawn sent another punch at Jonah.
Wham—
Wham—
His shoulder jerked back, but all he did was give her a disappointed look.
Don’t even try,
he thought to her.
he thought to her.
But then a dog sprang at him, and Dawn lost her rhythm in the complete horror at seeing Costin’s body attacked.
It didn’t matter though, because Jonah reached out with arrogant grace and caught the snapping beast before it clamped to his shoulder. And when another dog came at him, wielding its teeth, Jonah snatched that one, too.
He looked amazed at his reflexes as he restrained both beasts from ripping into his chest and getting to his heart.
Dawn took out her throwing blades. She had to kill those things before they got to Costin and tore out his neck to the point where even he couldn’t heal.
One of the dogs did go for Jonah’s throat, but he bared his own teeth, reared both feral animals back, then banged their heads together in a spray of blood.
Shell-shocked, Dawn couldn’t move. She was only vaguely aware that the vamp girls were running at the building again while Kiko reloaded what might be the last of his bullets and darts.
She also saw Frank finally overcoming Della and gazing into her eyes. . . .
But Dawn couldn’t concentrate on much else because Jonah was staring at the dripping carcasses in his hands as the battle continued around him. He dropped the bodies and stared at his reddened fingers.
But then, as if overtaken by the blood, he leaned back his head, lifting his hands to his mouth.
Tasting the temptation.
Dawn’s stomach turned. Jonah had never been in charge during a feeding before—it’d always been Costin imbibing the blood, truly tasting the fulfillment—and when Jonah shuddered, she knew he’d finally been satisfied after all the watching, all the torture.
Another dog attacked him and, just by lifting a hand, he caught this one, too.
She had to do something before Jonah got Costin hurt.
“Breisi!” Dawn yelled, already leaping from the roof.
Her Friend swished over and caught her midway to the ground, where the spirit cradled her to a running start toward Jonah.
At the same time, Della came alive to throw Frank off of her. They sparred while Kiko yelled for Breisi, too.
He had to be out of bullets and darts.
Even in the short time it took Dawn to reach Jonah, he’d terminated the rest of the dogs, one by fast one. She skidded to a halt in front of the discarded bodies while he inspected the blood on his hands again, his gaze blindingly ravenous.
Feet away, one of the girl vampires screeched when she saw that their animal comrades were lying all around Jonah.
Party over, she started running back toward the dorms.
Dawn cocked a throwing blade, then cursed when she realized that the Friends could follow the girls to any Underground, because that’s where they might be going after getting their asses whopped.
Jasmine stormed off as another vampire girl fled.
Then another.
When Frank gave a gurgling yell, Dawn whipped around just in time to see Della take off, too, leaving Frank, who was covering his neck with his hands.
He collapsed to the ground as Della chased her group, then caught up to the last vampire galloping past the football field. There, she pounced on her, pinned her, glared at her until the one on the bottom wriggled out and raced off.
Della pursued, disappearing into some trees and leaving the branches shivering in her wake.
A gale of jasmine sped to Frank, and Breisi’s voice lulled over the suddenly quiet night as blood seeped through his fingers.
“Frank?” Dawn said, fumbling the throwing blades into her pocket. She was thinking of Kiko’s back, Breisi’s death. . . .
“Don’t worry—he’ll heal, it’s not so deep,”
Breisi said.
“But we need to get to the car. The ferals have all run off now since the vampire girls have let them loose.”
Breisi said.
“But we need to get to the car. The ferals have all run off now since the vampire girls have let them loose.”
She was so serene, so truly not worried.
But Dawn . . . She wanted to cry like a damned baby, and she told herself to stop being weak. To soldier on.
She took a fistful of Jonah’s coat, pulled him away from the dog and forced him to go with her to check on Frank.
Her captive got to his feet, unresisting, only touching his mouth with a blank look, his perception clearly just catching up with his appetite.
She wanted to ask him what the hell had made him come out here, why he thought it was a remotely good idea, but there was too much to deal with.
“Dad?” she asked when they came to him.
Frank made an okay sign, and she breathed easier. He was a vampire, damn it. It wasn’t the same as human hurt.
Jonah had already gone to kneel by her dad’s side and, for a mind-muddled second, she thought he was going to feed from him. But then he put hands on top of Frank’s.
Healing. Jonah had thought to heal him before anything else.
Her dad tried to talk through it all.
“Started to ask Della . . . about Kate and vampire home . . .” he rasped. “Only made it past . . . ‘Kate Lansing’ and ‘vampire’ . . . before she . . .”
“Don’t talk, Dad,” Dawn said, guessing that he’d gotten at least some kind of reading from the other words before Della clawed his neck.
Couldn’t he hurry up and heal?
“Saw victims . . .” Frank added, just as if he were carrying on a regular conversation during a bout of laryngitis. “Kate . . . so many other Kates . . .”
“Shhhh,”
Breisi said. Then she sang to him again, and he focused his gaze on the air, as if he could see her. He smiled like he was just getting a freakin’ haircut.
Breisi said. Then she sang to him again, and he focused his gaze on the air, as if he could see her. He smiled like he was just getting a freakin’ haircut.
Dawn thought she heard sirens in the distance. “We’ve got to go, especially if those girls decide to come back.”
“They won’t,” Jonah said.
“And how the fuck do you know?” Dawn said. She wanted to kick his ass, his face. “What were you even doing out here
to
know?”
to
know?”
“I literally ran right over because you sounded like you needed help. This body can go like the wind now, but Costin never lets it loose. He knows it can do so much more than he—”
“Are you sure it’s not because you wanted to show that you could be free at any time, and you could endanger Costin while you’re at it?”
He didn’t say anything, and she knew she’d hit a button.
God damn it, if he wasn’t so busy healing Frank and if Costin wouldn’t feel any part of a beat down, she’d shove her fist down Jonah’s throat in an attempt to yank Costin back out right now. She wouldn’t even think about how Frank might not be healed this quickly if Jonah weren’t here.
He didn’t deserve the benefit of any doubt.
Frank started to get up, and Breisi and Dawn helped him while Jonah kept his hands on her dad’s neck. They began walking as fast as they could toward the wall, then the car.
In the background, Kiko’s voice called out from the roof. “Hey! Someone want to get me down from here?”
Dawn took the brunt of Frank’s weight as Breisi whizzed up to Kik, then lifted him down.
When they got to the wall, Jonah helped her dad to climb it, keeping one hand over Frank’s wound the entire time.
They arrived at the Sedona, which was marred with jagged scratches. Those, plus the disturbed dirt, testified to the recent ferals versus Friends battle.
As Frank waved Jonah off and got into the back of the vehicle, Jonah turned to Dawn.
“Why is his existence so much more important than mine?” he asked, just like the question had been eating at him this entire time. “Why is he more important than any of us?”
The question struck her. “Because he’s saving the world while saving himself?”
“And I can’t save the world just as well as he can?”
She almost laughed at that. Jonah, the savior.
But then she recalled that he had volunteered his body to Costin’s cause in the first place—that he was one of those justice seekers who populated the teams.
Jonah had just taken a wrong turn somewhere.
As Frank lay down, she saw that most of his neck wounds had already been closed, but he kept healing it while he closed his eyes.
“Get your balls in there, Jonah,” she said, motioning toward the car while Breisi helped Kiko to tumble over the wall.
Jonah only stared at her, those blue eyes deep and oddly emotional. “Have you ever considered that being buried inside my new body will shelter him just as well as hiding inside that house will? It’s crossed
his
mind, Dawn. But that’d just be another thing he hasn’t mentioned.”
his
mind, Dawn. But that’d just be another thing he hasn’t mentioned.”
The words banged at her, trying to get in, but she wasn’t allowing them to.
Still, the adrenaline ebbed and left her feeling ill. Costin had always likened his state to being caved in, and he’d told the team previously that buried earth tended to hide a vampire’s powers from anything outside.
Was it the same for him?
Could
he go outside headquarters if he was sheltered by Jonah’s body?
he go outside headquarters if he was sheltered by Jonah’s body?
Then why would he hesitate?
She knew. Costin’s situation was too dangerous to dick around with.
Jonah lowered his voice. “I liked it, Dawn.”
He meant the blood and the fight and the freedom of it all. Dawn shook her head and started to walk away.
“I’d just need a few hours to test the theory that he’s safer than you think,” he added. “I’ll prove he doesn’t need to stay behind walls, and we can strengthen all our attacks, speed them up, vanquish all the communities so he can be saved that much quicker. Because that’s what you want, isn’t it? To save him? Or would that mean letting too much go?”
Before her mind even tapped into that, he took a step away, and she should’ve known that he meant to leave with or without her blessing.
But then he smiled—an all-too-understanding gesture that took her off guard—and he zinged away in a blur that was gone before she could even react.
“Get him, Breisi!” Kiko yelled from behind Dawn.
Their Friend took off after Jonah.
Costin . . . their ultimate weapon . . .
Her
ultimate . . . Something.
ultimate . . . Something.
As sirens called in the distance, Frank sat up in the backseat, still holding his throat. “FUBAR,” he rasped.
She held back all fear, because saying that their situation was Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition was the biggest understatement ever.
TWENTY - TWO
LONDON BABYLON
AS
the girls tore through the trees where the intruders had been hiding earlier, Della leaped on Violet again, finally catching her for good.
the girls tore through the trees where the intruders had been hiding earlier, Della leaped on Violet again, finally catching her for good.
They spun over the dirt and leaves, roots jamming into them while they clawed at each other’s skin and bit at each other’s arms, rolling, rolling, until Della pinned Violet’s legs with her shins and planted her hands on her arms.
Violet still tried to bite, but Della didn’t even flinch as she kept restraining the other girl.
From behind the thick tree where Polly and Noreen were hiding, they whined.
“Della, stop!”
“Della!”
They kept peering round the trunk with their cat-wolf mouths opened, their skin reddened from the flash of the bomb the little man had thrown. As Della glared at them, her own eyes stung because the explosion had almost felt like looking straight into the sun, which had contained the power to hurt them only when they exposed themselves for too long.
“Quiet, you clots,” she said.
The other girls clamped their thin lips together and retreated behind the trunk.
Violet had gone motionless, her slanted gaze malicious as Della listened for sounds of pursuit from the football field.
But there was nothing aside from the sirens that were approaching Queenshill.
Had the intruders failed to give chase because Della had injured the vampire whom the little man had called “Frank”—the one who had trespassed into her mind?
Or perhaps the violent second vampire, who had killed the dogs, was troubling the group now . . . ?
Della didn’t know since the battlefield was too distant for her to catch scents or hear any clues.
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