Avenge (15 page)

Alastair whistled, and two vampires
from the back of the room stepped forward. Max kept his hands
fisted as they neared, but didn’t flinch. “Take a seat, Max. This
will only hurt for a minute.”

I wanted to plead with Max, to kick
and scream until he realized this was all a trap—a game in which we
were the prizes. But his love for me prevented him from seeing
reason. He would do whatever he saw necessary to keep me safe. But
what he failed to realize was that sacrificing himself was
sacrificing me too, because there was no way I could survive
without him. He meant everything to me, and without him my world
was empty and flat.

Max turned to me, and in that one look
I saw a lifetime of love. But it wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t
survive with only that, I needed more. I needed all of him. “Always
and forever, Lucy,” Max whispered as the vampires flanked his
sides.

“
I will come back for you.
I will not stop until I do,” I promised. “And they will all die for
doing this to us. I swear it.”

“
Ugh, I can’t take any
more. Finish this already.” Alastair tightened his grip on my waist
as one of the vampires held Max down by the shoulders and the other
leaned in close to his head. The vampire closest to him took a deep
breath, and then leaned into Max’s face. He suctioned his mouth to
Max’s, like he was doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and then
blew, filling Max’s chest. A high-pitched hiss was emitted, like
air releasing from the pinched end of a balloon.

I winced, covering my ears. Max’s
chest arched up off the table, but his head remained down. His
muscles went ridged as he inverted. His eyes bulged and his skin
grew sallow.

“
Max! Oh my God. Please,
stop,” I begged. “What are you doing to him?” I pushed forward,
trying desperately to get to reach Max. I needed to save him from
whatever they were doing. My heart could feel him leaving me,
becoming emptier by the second. It was like scooping out the
insides of a pumpkin. Every second this lasted was another spoonful
being scraped out.

“
It will only last a
minute, deary. Don’t worry. He’ll be fine…for now.”

I mustered any energy left in my weary
body. If I could do anything to help him, now was when I needed my
Patronus body to show me what it was capable of. My anger fueled
and filled me until I tingled. My muscles coiled, ready to spring
into action. Before Alastair could notice that my body language
changed, I pounced.

I tossed my elbow directly into his
nose, quickly followed up with a hard jab to the throat, causing
him to choke and take a step backward. I dropped down, extending my
leg to sweep his. He dropped to the floor, where I rammed my heel
into his kidneys—repeatedly.

Finally freed, I rushed over to Max’s
side, but the other vampires had already shrunk back into the
shadows. His eyes were closed and his body slumped over. I placed
two fingers on his neck to feel for a pulse, but didn’t find one.
“Please, stay with me, Max. Don’t leave me. Do you hear me? I
refuse to allow you to leave me.” I shook his shoulders vigorously,
but stopped when his head bobbed around limply. I closed my eyes,
refusing to believe what was in front of me.

“
Don’t fret, dear Lucy,”
Alastair’s voice teased behind me.

I could hear from his labored
breathing that I’d hurt him, and it brought a sweet satisfaction. I
wanted to hurt him again. I wanted to continue to kick his ribs and
kidneys until he begged for mercy. I wanted to claw his eyes out
and punch every one of his teeth and fangs out of his mouth. A
longing rose deep in my gut as the object of my hate fueled my
vicious thoughts. As he walked over to me I dropped my hips and my
hands fisted, ready to attack.

“
Though I should bleed you
dry myself for that little stunt, I am nothing if not a man of my
word. I will let you go, Lucy, as I said I would.” He took another
step forward, but not toward me. Instead, he walked around to the
other side of Max.

“
You’re not a man. You’re
an animal. A parasite. A soulless wretch sprung from the darkest
depths of hell.” He leaned over to touch Max’s face, but I shoved
his hand away so hard he stumbled backward. “Don’t you dare touch
him.”

“
You really are a naïve
little twit, aren’t you? Do you really think that if I wanted to, I
couldn’t tear that impassioned heart right out of your
chest?”

“
You wouldn’t be able to
once I reach over and tear your arms off right from their sockets,”
I growled, wiggling my fingers impatiently for him to make the
first move.

He didn’t reply, instead he rolled his
eyes. He stretched out his long hand, exposing his wrist from his
long sleeved robe. He held it to his mouth and sliced a single,
fine line across it. His eyes never left mine—I’m sure he thought I
would do something to hurt him again. He nodded almost
imperceptivity. Six vampires surrounded me, not attacking, but not
allowing me to reach Max either. I could still see him, and when
Alastair held his bleeding wrist to Max’s mouth, he allowed a
single drop to touch Max’s lips and slide inside.

I held my breath, unsure what was
happening and afraid of every possibility. For a few tense moments,
no one moved. All eyes were on Max, who lay lifeless on that table.
Alastair glanced at his watch. The ticks became louder and louder,
filling my head until I could hear nothing else. Then, without a
word, Alastair clenched his fist and pounded on Max’s chest
once.

Max’s eyes shot open as he
inhaled a deep breath and sat up. I choked out a cry of
relief—until I took a close look at him. His eyes were pure black,
and two pointed fangs elongated from his mouth.

Chapter
Eighteen

I covered my mouth to try to stifle my
cry, but couldn’t prevent the tears that flowed. “What have you
done?” I whispered, too afraid to raise my voice any higher. I
wanted to run to him, to have him tell me this was all some
mistake, but the huge knot at the pit of my stomach told me
otherwise.

I pivoted to stare directly at
Alastair. “What did you do?” I repeated, shoving my finger in his
face.

Alastair ignored me, instead reaching
to Max’s left hand. He grabbed his bracelet and—much to my
surprise—slid it easily off of his wrist. He spun the gold bracelet
around his finger like a hula hoop, a smirk appearing on the side
of his mouth. “The bracelets won’t come off while you’re a
Patronus, no matter what we tried. So, we have to make sure you’re
not a Patronus anymore. They deactivate and shut down instantly,
and we can slide them right off.”

He stopped spinning the bracelet and
handed it to another vampire. “Be sure that this is at least fifty
miles away from here. Not that we’ll be using this place for much
longer, but better to be safe.”

I blinked a few times, trying to wrap
my head around what has happening. “But…how…I don’t have a bracelet
anymore.”

“
That’s
correct.”

“
But I’m not a
vampire!”

Alastair winked at me and chuckled.
“Not anymore.”

“
Wh—what?” My mouth
suddenly went dry, and my thick tongue stuck to the roof of my
mouth. I looked between him and Max, who was now idly scraping his
tongue across the pointed tip of his incisor and paying no
attention to me whatsoever. “How?”

“
This isn’t the end of an
episode of Scooby Doo. I’m not giving away all my secrets yet.” He
snapped his fingers twice. “Xavier, take the girl and get rid of
her somewhere while we close down. Leo and Kent, you two escort our
new friend here to the new headquarters.” Alastair turned back to
me, folding his hands and smiling. “It was a true pleasure, dear. I
look forward to seeing you again. I have no doubts when we do, it
will be…memorable. Ciao, bella.”

Before I could argue or say another
word, a gag was shoved in my mouth and a black hood was tossed on
my head and tied tight, so I couldn’t see and could barely breathe.
The sound of tape being stretched out was immediately followed by
my hands and feet being bound, and then I was picked up—fireman
style—and carried away.

I kicked repeatedly, trying to get the
big brut to drop me, but he grunted and smacked my bottom. He
placed me into the trunk of a car—it must have been, based on how
cramped I was lying down—and we drove for what seemed like hours. I
paid attention to turns and listened for something that would help
me retrace my steps (water, trains, construction), but I couldn’t
make out anything over the rap music they blasted through the
speakers.

We rolled to a stop. I could hear the
crunch of gravel below the tires and car doors slamming shut. The
trunk opened and I was yanked out and shoved to the rough ground. I
scrambled to my bare feet, ready to take on anything that came at
me. Having not been drained in so long, my body healed from a lot
of my previous injuries and I felt stronger. I used this to my
advantage and fought, but being tied up, blindfolded, and gagged
made it hard to even find a target.

I never got the chance. Before I could
even lunge forward, squealing tires pelted me with small rocks and
dust.

They were gone, and I was
alone.

*****

I tilted my head toward the sky and
felt the sun on my face. I needed to follow it, knowing that it
would lead me in a straight direction. I prayed I was headed toward
something and not straight into an alligator-filled swamp. I wasn’t
sure if alligators could see me through the thick veil that
separated Patronus from humans, but I didn’t want to risk the
chance. I’d stumbled several times on rocks and divots in the
ground, but didn’t stop. I’d tried unsuccessfully to feel around on
my hands and knees for something to cut the ties on my hands so I
could take off the hood, but nothing was sharp enough to cut the
thick tape.

The sound of a car’s engine revved and
squealing tires came closer to me. I knew the car couldn’t hit me,
but it was hard not to jump out of the way when I heard it coming
closer and closer. I stood rigid and braced for the car to rush
through me, knowing I wouldn’t feel anything more than a gentle
breeze. But the car stopped.

“
Lucy? Is that you,
sweetie?” Cassie’s syrupy Southern drawl was music to my ears. Her
accent was usually very light, except for when she was nervous or
stressed, so I knew she was upset.

The gag still in my mouth prevented me
from yelling “Yes!”, so I jumped up and down frantically. Several
sets of arms fell on me, hugging, pulling at my ties, and tearing
the duct tape away. When the last bit of wrist bindings finally
broke free, I wrapped my hands around Cassie, clinging to her. I
buried my still hooded face into her hair and breathed in the
familiar and safe scent. I held back tears. I couldn’t afford to
sob, afraid I’d choke.

“
Lucy, I need you to let go
for one second so I can take this hood off. Can you do that?”
Adam’s low voice whispered in my ear as he placed a protective hand
on my back. I didn’t want to leave the safety of my best friend; I
wanted to cry on her shoulder and tell her what happened to Max,
but I knew I couldn’t do that with the gag still in. I nodded and
pushed myself away from Cassie as Adam cut the binding and lifted
the hood. I squinted against the brightness, but I could still make
out the audible gasps that came from Cassie and the low rumble of
“shit” from James. I knew I must look bad if James was
cursing.

As my eyes adjusted, I could see the
vein in Adam’s neck was bulging. His hands clenched and unclenched,
but only for a second as he gently cut the leather from the
gag.

I wiped my tongue around my mouth and
swallowed a few times before speaking. “Thank you.”

Adam didn’t change his posture, but
simply nodded once. Then, he turned around and heaved the gag
several hundred yards while yelling expletives. Cassie hurried back
to my side and checked me over for injuries.

The silence surrounded us for a few
moments after that, but James finally broke it. “Max?” he asked. A
lump formed in my throat and I couldn’t form words. I didn’t need
any. James nodded, then ushered us back toward an awaiting SUV.
“Let’s get you back and we can talk about everything
later.”

I had so many questions, but was
suddenly too exhausted to ask any of them. The driver of the SUV
was the same woman that Sadie Ann stopped to talk to the night I’d
been captured. She watched me from the rear view mirror, and when I
caught her eye, she winked. “It will be a long road, dear. But
you’re strong enough. I can see it.”