Blood and Bite (11 page)

Thank you,
he’d written,
for making it so easy for
me.

That was all.

He’d found the paper and pen in her glove box, and the note
screamed with evil glee. Llodra was having fun.

And she was fucking tired of it.

She punched the hood of her car until Z pulled her into his
arms, then she shoved him away and screamed curses at the sky.

“Rune,” Jack said. “Calm the fuck down.”

“Oh God,” she cried. “Ellis can’t take that vampire shit. We
have to find him.” She grabbed Jack’s arm. “We have to find him, Jack.”

His face was stony. “We’ll fucking find him.” But the look
in his eye said he didn’t believe it.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She heard an insistent
buzzing as though a hundred bees had built nests inside her skull. She shook
her head, trying to make it stop.

She should never have brought Ellis here…she should have
just kept the wolves.

Too late.
Once again she’d
made the wrong decision.

Now Llodra had Matthew and Ellis.

She spotted the bag of blood in the floor, where, obviously,
Ellis had dropped it in his terror.

Tearing it open, she held the bag to her lips and downed the
blood. When it was empty she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and turned
to Jack and Z, who were staring into the darkness.

“Okay, boys.
We have a vampire.
Let’s see what we can get out of him.” They followed her to Jack’s truck where
the vampire lay, silvered.

Llodra could be anywhere and she knew how slim the chances
were of finding him. But he had Matthew, and he had her Ellie. She was not
going to give up.

Ellis wouldn’t have given up on her.

“What would I do without you, Ellie?”

“I don’t know, probably die.”

She grabbed the vampire by his foot and dragged him out of
the truck bed, grim with determination. And she was not in the mood to waste
time.

Jack draped silver wire back over the vampire’s arms and
legs and that bastard wasn’t going anywhere.

She pulled a silver shiv from its sheath and without a word,
plunged it into his throat. “I will make you want to die,” she said, talking
loudly to be heard over his shrieks, “but I won’t take your head and give you
death. I want to know where Llodra is. You have five seconds to tell me.”

He only screamed.

She pulled the shiv from his throat to let the wound close
and slid the blade into his right eye. “Five seconds.”

He continued to scream.

She pulled the knife from his eye. “The next one is going
into your dick. You have five seconds.” She scraped the blade over his ribs,
down his stomach, and to his genitals.

“Shit,” Z whispered, and backed a couple of steps away.

“I don’t know,” the vampire shrieked, his skin smoking from
the silver melting into it. “I don’t know.”

She unbuttoned his fly and pulled out his penis, holding it
with one hand as she put the point of the shiv at the head. “I’m going to slice
your cock in half, dude. You have five seconds.” She began to cut, slowly,
gently, giving him time to reconsider his answer. “Three seconds.”

“I’ll tell,” he screamed. “Oh please, stop, I’ll tell.”

She pulled the knife away from his bleeding genitals. Her
mind was numb. “Tell me.”

Even later, when she thought about it, she didn’t know how
he moved. Fear of the master must have given him super strength and speed. He
jerked the blade from her hand and plunged it into his heart, staking himself.

Then there was just silence.

Rune stared sightlessly into the dark. “I don’t know what
else to do.”

Sure, he could come back, in days or weeks, if they didn’t
take his head.
If they buried him in the ground.
But there
was no time to wait for him to heal.

“I don’t know what else to do,” she repeated.

Z, his face pale in the moonlight, pulled Rune’s shiv from
the vampire’s chest. He pulled the strands of silver wire from the body. Last,
he took the vampire’s head.

No one said a word.

There was nothing to say.

She finally noticed the glowing eyes of the wolves as they
watched from the edge of the trees. In seconds, they melted away, going to tend
to their dead and injured. They couldn’t help her.

She’d lost her control, her reason for being Shiv Crew
leader. She was only a woman who had lost her way, who had failed her people.

And the old Rune took hold. She forgot the doctors, the
promises, and the changes. If she’d been alone she would have hurt herself. But
she wasn’t alone.

Jack and Z stood on either side of her, silent but watchful,
no idea of the turmoil inside her mind.

“We have to do something,” Jack said.

“Split up?” asked Z.

“Yes,” Rune answered. “Split up. Search. Find me fucking
Llodra.” She took off, her booted feet kicking up clumps of dirt and leaves as
she ran into the night.

“But I can tell you this—the master will hide where you
will not expect him to hide. In the open, in the last place you would think to
look.”

The trees of Hawthorne were blurs as she ran past them,
deeper and deeper into the forest.
Hold on, boys. I will save you.

Somehow.

But hours later she dragged herself back to her truck,
despair exhausting her. She had found no trace of the master.
Neither had her men.

They’d questioned at least one member of every group in
River County, but no one could tell them anything.

But the vampires had to come out at night to feed. They had
to feed. Why, then, were they not being seen by someone?

Elizabeth called as Rune was leaving Hawthorne Ridge. The
woman got less sleep than Rune did.

“Rune,” she said. “Three humans have gone missing—the first
one disappeared the night I sanctioned the purge. I just got the report.”

“That’s how Llodra is feeding his coven.”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Of course it is. He sent his people to the fight tonight. I
never thought he’d show himself but he was there while I was occupied.”

“I’m so sorry about Ellis.”

“Yeah.”

“He’s here somewhere. He can’t just disappear.”

But Rune was beginning to wonder.

“Go home, Rune. Get some sleep.”

The worst thing she could have done was go home. Being alone
with her thoughts was a nightmare she wasn’t willing to face.

She hung up and thought about calling Strad, but changed her
mind. Strad was mad at the world right then, and whether he wanted to admit it
or not—even to himself—part of him blamed her because Llodra had taken his son.

She should have killed Llodra when she had the chance.
Gunnar had warned her about choices.

As usual, she’d made the wrong ones.

Who else would the vampire take before she caught him?

The night had come and gone, the search netting her only
more frustration. She got a large coffee and sat in a deserted parking lot
drinking it.

Hawthorne was cursed.

Or she was.

Her house had burned to the ground, but she wished that fire
was the only thing she had to worry about.
Funny how life had
a way of putting things in perspective.

There was nothing from the house that would have survived
the fire. No treasure lying charred and pathetic among the ashes—

And it hit her, just that quickly, where Llodra was hiding.

“Oh
fuck
me.”

Hands shaking, she started the engine and broke every speed
limit posted as she drove to her destroyed house.
Please, please, let them
be there.

She parked across the street, jumping out almost before the
car completely stopped, neglecting to shut her door behind her.

 She picked her way hurriedly over unrecognizable heaps
of burned wood and rubble. The back of the house still stood, listing
dangerously, a hollowed out skeleton beneath which, she hoped,
lay
Ellis and Matthew.

There were no scents of vampires that she caught, but then
she realized that would have been another reason for Llodra choosing this spot.
It would have been nearly impossible for her or any of the
Others
to catch his scent with the soot, ash, and chemicals overpowering everything
else.

She slipped and went down, hard. She held her breath as she
listened for stirring vampires. A piece of glass had sliced into her palm but
she barely felt the pain.

 Her lungs wanted to expel the chemicals and soot she
inhaled, but she forced herself not to cough. Would a cough wake Llodra?
Probably not.

But she wasn’t taking any fucking chances.

She heard a car start as one of the neighbors left for work.
The world outside the burnt haven for vampires began to wake up.

She felt them now.

Their scents might have been smothered by the charred
remains of her house, but the feel of them, they couldn’t hide that. Not from
her.

She wiped her bloody palm on her pants and pulled her cell
from her jacket pocket. Her vgun was still holstered and she planned on using
the fuck out of the weapon that morning.

She called Raze, knowing he was probably just going to sleep
but she needed her crew. Llodra was mad and he was old, and he wasn’t going to
behave like a normal vampire.

If a young vampire woke up, he or she would be sluggish and
most likely easily staked. If Llodra woke up, there could be trouble. He might
also rouse his children.

She wasn’t taking any chances.

“Yeah,” Raze answered.

“I’m at my house,” she replied, her voice low. “I think—I’m
sure
—the
vampires are in the basement. I need you. Grab a couple of the guys and—”

“On it.”
He hung up.

She couldn’t wait for them, and Raze knew that. He would
tear up the highway getting to her.

Carefully she climbed to her feet,
then
unholstered her vgun.
Time to play.

“I’m coming for you, Llodra,” she whispered. If Ellie and
Matthew were in the basement with the vampires, she was bringing them out.
No matter what.

Her basement was an ancient half-basement, full of darkness
and crawling things and spider webs. The door had been in the floor.

Finally, she stood where the basement door had once been. It
was half covered by a pile of boards. She grasped a thick canvas they’d pulled
over the door and pulled it back. She peered into the gaping blackness and the
presence of the undead seeped into her pores and covered her mind with a slimy,
oily film.

They were there.

Barely breathing, she eased her flashlight from her pocket
and clicked it on, then shined it into the hole.

The old wooden stairs looked even more dangerous than usual,
but she didn’t hesitate. Those stairs were the only way into the basement.

She hoped they would hold as she crept down them. Falling into
a nest of vampires was not on her bucket list.

Trying to ignore the ominous creaking, she kept her light on
and went alone into the black basement. She could smell them now, amid the
dampness and mold, the animal droppings and old blood. The lingering fragrance
of the fire was merely an accompaniment to the strong scent of vampire.

Her fangs dropped in response, but she held back her claws.
She wanted the feel of her deadly vgun in her grip.

An eternity later she stepped off the bottom step. She
restrained herself from calling Ellie’s name. The first thing she had to do was
see if Llodra slept in the basement.

She flashed her light over the unmoving forms of the
vampires. They lay in uniform lines with no spaces between them, spreading like
giant, malignant tumors across the floor.

In the darkness, broken only by the thin beam of her
flashlight, one lump was indistinguishable from the other. Any one of them
could have been the child or Ellis.

The stench was almost unmanageable. Something had died down
here, and she had no doubts about what that
something
had been.

From above came the welcome sounds of car doors slamming.
Her crew had arrived. They were not rookies and knew enough to be quiet when
they entered—but even as she thought it she heard the sound of footsteps
running with reckless abandon through her ruined house.

Not Strad. If he’d have been running what remained of the
house would probably have collapsed beneath him.

She stayed still, waiting, but continued to shine her light
across the bodies. Llodra, because he was master, would have placed himself
apart from his children if the level of danger hadn’t been so high. Maybe he
would have slept with a favorite curled against him, but he wouldn’t be lying
with the others.

Now, however, he would most likely be lying in the center
with the bodies of his vampires giving him some sort of meager protection.

She cringed when one of the men clattered down the delicate
stairs. She clenched her teeth and turned toward the offender.

Levi stepped into the basement, a hand to his chest. His
face was so pale it gleamed in the darkness.

She frowned and motioned him toward her with her light. When
he stood beside her she whispered, “Too much fucking noise.”

His hands trembled when he held his vgun toward the slumbering
vampires. He nodded. “Sorry. Ellis?”

Then she understood his panic and lack of caution. She stuck
her light in a loop on her belt,
then
squeezed his
arm. “Look for Llodra first. He’ll control the others and we need to secure
him.”

Again, he nodded, and they began moving slowly, methodically
searching. And that restraint was hard on both of them.

The other men entered the basement silently, but she could
feel their energy—hope, eagerness, and the desire to kill the fucking vampires.