Bloodlines (Demons of Oblivion) (31 page)

“Heaven’s got a car waiting—Zara!”

I snatched the keys and started down the hall, checking each room I passed.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving them here.” I went from cell to cell, opening the doors of the rooms where the vampires still looked mostly human. Only a few were changed completely. Soon I had finished with my side of the hall, so I stumbled over to the next, still too shaky to move with much grace.

Nate stood back as the starving vampires raced past him, knocking the odd one in the face with the butt of his gun if he or she came near enough to attack him. I wasn’t worried. Somehow he was alive, and because of that I was quite confident he could take care of himself.

In the next cell I came to, Dragomir pounded his fists on the glass. I leapt back but my gaze stayed frozen on him. He looked even less like himself: now his arms and legs were each a few inches longer, and his face had contorted into something that could no longer be construed as remotely human. Hair was sparse, wiry. His top jaw jutted out more and in addition to the four inch fangs he sported, his other teeth were longer. Sharper. He couldn’t be let out and I was in no condition to fight him.

I moved on.

Dragomir let out a frustrated cry behind me, pounded again and again on the glass. I kept going.

Nate had found a second set of keys and had been unlocking cages at the other end of the hall. He was already over halfway done.

“Only let out the ones that still look pretty human,” I called.

“Yeah, I figured that part out.”

Smart boy. I stopped at my final cell, where a vampire crouched in the corner, naked and shaking. Despite appearing as emaciated as I probably was, and already having the long fingernails, bulge growing on his skull, and elongated spine, he still seemed human enough.

I slid the key in the lock.

His head shot up, he flew to the door. Cold settled in my veins.

Jamie pressed his hand to the glass, fingers splayed. “Zara! You gotta let me out of here!” His eyes grew wide and terrified. “Please!”

I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Couldn’t take my eyes from him. No one deserved what Dragomir had become: a being without reason, without a mind, without any thought but to kill. No one deserved it...

“That’s the last of them,” Nate called. “We have to go.”

“Please, love!” Jamie begged. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? You have to help me.”

I stared to him for another few seconds, my hand still holding the key. I had to make a decision...

And I did. I bent the key to the side, breaking it in the lock. Not only wasn’t I letting him out, but I’d make damn sure no one else did either.

I held up the broken key for him to see. Gave him my coldest, predatory smile. No one deserved to become what Dragomir did—least of all me, which is what Jamie had signed me up for when he betrayed me.

He slammed his palms on the door. “You bitch! Fucking whore—get me out of here! Zara! Zara!”

I backed away, dropped the keys to the floor, and gave him a little wave. Then I turned to Nate and we ran for the doors.

Jamie continued screaming my name, but I didn’t look back.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Becoming Monsterific

Having simply awoken in the place, I had no idea where Nate led me. But I stuck close by and followed without question.

Outside the section where I had been held, we ran into a short hallway with offices on either side. A handful of the freed vampires feasted on the odd human they found within. My body ached with hunger, mouth filled with saliva. I needed to feed...

But first: escape. I was
not
dying in that fucking prison.

Past the offices waited a huge stairwell. I glanced up, and up, and up. Three levels. Nate moved ahead of me. I stumbled. My legs behaved like they were made of rubber, dropping me on my knees.

“If you can’t walk—” he started.

I wouldn’t admit defeat. “I’m braless, buddy. You try running with
these
flopping unfettered.” My voice was weak and I didn’t think he believed me. Twice Nate slowed down to make sure I could keep up and twice I promised him I could.

We were nearly at the top when a group of guards came up behind us from the second level. Gunfire filled the stairwell, bullets whizzed past us—

And it faded. Pain ripped through me again, starting in my skull and shooting down through my back and limbs. Ugly, angry pain, that tore at me with claws and teeth. I was dimly aware of a loud cracking sound, but I couldn’t determine where it came from.

The agony ceased, falling back like the tide subsiding. Nate knelt next to me and swung my one arm over his shoulder. He was strong and solid, and it scared me how good I felt about him being there.

“I can walk,” I protested as he helped me rise.

“Don’t argue.” He flashed a grin that turned up the corners of his mouth but didn’t touch the rest of his face. “For once.”

Together we raced up the stairs, with me leaning on him far more than I wished I had to. At the top was a door and through it, another hallway. This one had windows and beyond the glass waited a parking lot with a cloudy night sky above.

All this time, I’d been underground. Shit, it really
was
like being dead and buried.

At the end of the hall was a set of double doors. Only steps away, another fit of spasms enveloped me. Pain knocked me out immediately; this time I came to outside the building. My arm was still over Nate’s shoulder, and he had scooped me up to carry me the distance to a four-door car several yards away. Inside the vehicle, Heaven Thiering sat behind the wheel and Peter Fields waited in the passenger side, firing a gun through Heaven’s open window.

Both were very much alive and very much completely frozen.

When I realized what Nate had done—removed us from this dimension’s time stream or whatever he called it—I took a few moments to look around. The building where I had been held was only a single story high, with no indication of the many levels beneath it, in the center of a large parking lot; beyond it, empty fields and no other buildings. Throughout the lot there were several black vans and SUVs currently being used for cover by the guards firing at the escaping vampires. Another two cars of people I didn’t recognize were parked near Heaven’s.

Nate dispelled the time magic just as he reached for the back door of the car.

Heaven nearly leaped from her seat as we “appeared” in front of her. “Damn it, Nathan! I do wish you’d warn... Goddess, is that Zara?”

“Oops, you grabbed the wrong vampire,” I said as Nate put me in the car. “Better put me back.” I’ve always got time for quips. Always.

Nate slid me over and climbed in the back next to me; the car shook as he slammed the door. “I don’t know what they did to her.”

“Who are those guys?” I gestured to the other cars.

“Members of the surviving covens.” Heaven slammed her foot on the gas and spun us around toward the highway, tires squealing on the pavement.

Not just a couple of renegade magic users had come for me—I got a full blown rescue party. Now that was impressive. And surprising.

“They’re following.” Peter looked out the back window. Nate and I turned to check, and were met with several bullets from the gunman in the black van on our trail. The window shattered and everyone ducked as another barrage followed.

“And now there are two more,” Peter said. “Funny, I don’t think they’re pursuing any of the other cars...”

“I guess they want Zara back.” Heaven caught my gaze in the rearview mirror and she winked. “Imagine that.”

“It’s not just me.” I looked at Nate. This was gonna be a
fun
conversation... “It’s Sean. He’s the one behind this.”

“My father? But you—”

“No, your brother. He’s still alive. He decimated all the covens to get in with the Illuminati or whatever, and now he’s building a vampire monster army for the upcoming Armageddon.”

Nate blinked. Twice. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

I repeated it again, verbatim. “I don’t know what this apocalypse crap is about and he’s probably insane,
but
he believes it. Believes he needs this ‘army’—believed it enough to do all this shit and fake his death last year.”

“All this time, Sean,” Peter said. “That explains why you can’t access the family accounts.”

“That explains a lot,” Nate added quietly.

“All right, now please explain what we are to do about the people shooting at the car?” Heaven asked, swerving back and forth across the road.

Peter reloaded his gun and Nate checked his remaining rounds.

“I want a gun,” I said.

“You’re certain you—” Peter began.

“Yes. Gimme.”

Peter rifled through something on the floor of the front seat, then passed me an Uzi Carbine. It was a thing of beauty—pure fucking beauty after being alone and scared and powerless for however long I’d been underground. On the count of three, we all swung out our respective side windows and fired at those following us.

Pain swept through me again, sudden and hot.

This time, I didn’t immediately pass out. The sound cut out around me; the gun dropped from my hands and hit the pavement; the road came closer and closer as I slumped over the car door. Couldn’t move, couldn’t stop myself from falling closer and closer to the pavement—

“Jesus,” Nate mumbled. Warms arms were around me; I lay across the backseat, looking up at the gray felt ceiling. My upper body rested against Nate. He inspected one of my hands, then returned it to my side. The white skin across my knuckles had torn from dragging on the pavement.

The wounds were bloodless.

I tried to speak, to move, to do
anything
, but my body wouldn’t respond. All I felt was the searing heat of Nate’s body beneath mine, and the slow, rhythmic pump of blood through his veins. God, I was so hungry...

Nate shifted, arms tightening. “Peter, do you know what’s going on with her? She looked like she was seizing back there, her skin is like ice, and now she’s not even bleeding... Her ribs are cracked, too. Not healing.”

“I think they drained her and kept her from feeding,” Peter replied.

“But why?” Heaven said.

“I’ve heard stories about a vampire in southern India that was forced to go without feeding for months,” Peter said. “Came across it in my research—more than weak rumors or myths. The demon in his brain grew out of control and took over his body, changing him into a pure killing machine and purging his mind of any reason or semblance of the original person. Over twenty Hunters were contracted to take him out, and at least sixteen or seventeen died in the process. I encountered no proof, however—I never spoke to witnesses or found someone with a firsthand account.”

It sucked having to listen to everyone refer to me like I wasn’t really there, but I didn’t have to worry about that for long as my body fell into spasms and I screamed.

****

The car had come to a halt when I awoke again later.

An ache in my head throbbed constantly now, starting at the back and shooting pain through the rest of me as it pulsated. My limbs were weak and trembling as I struggled to rise; it took two tries to hoist myself into a sitting position so I could look out the window.

We were off the highway, on a side road. Area looked rural—lots of fields and trees. Headlights illuminated another car. Nate, Heaven, and Peter stood beside it, talking. I strained to hear their conversation, closing my eyes and pushing back at the pain long enough to focus.

“We’ll meet with the others,” Heaven said. “Regroup, see who’s still alive, and share with them what Zara said and what you saw, Nathan. You’re sure you don’t—”

“It’s probably best to split up right now.” That was Nate.

“All right then, we’ll come by tomorrow and see how she’s doing.” Footsteps on the gravel; quick, light ones that must’ve been Heaven’s. A car door opened and closed.

“Nate,” Peter began quietly. “This isn’t a good idea.”

“I heard you the first time you said it.”

“No, I don’t think you did.” Peter’s voice pitched low and warning, sterner than I’d ever heard him before. “You’ve got to take her into the city and find her someone to feed from.
Immediately
. Even then, I can’t say for certain that she’ll be okay. The change seems to be growing at an exponential rate. It may be too late—”

“And if you’re right, and the parasite does grow out of control and takes over her soon, then we all risk exposure in the city. Sean will be looking for us and having an uncontrollable demon running around killing people isn’t what I consider keeping a low profile.”

“Nate—”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“But—”

“Just come by tomorrow. At least it will be daylight, so if I have any problems...well, you know what to do.”

Oh. Wow. I got it. They knew what I was becoming. They knew it probably couldn’t be stopped, save for killing me...

Which was exactly what Nate was going to do.

Chapter Thirty-Three

No One Here Gets Out Alive

Nate got into the driver’s seat and watched as the other car drove off.

He was going to kill me.
Me
. Would it be a stake to the heart, then decapitation? At least while staked, I wouldn’t feel anything else. It basically rendered a vamp unconscious. But what if he got creative with magic and fried me? That had to be a possibility too. One that would hurt.

I grabbed a hold of any worries and shoved them away, locked them up, and stopped thinking about it. One thing at a time. “Where are we?”

“North of Montreal,” Nate replied.

“Is that where they’re going?” I asked as if I hadn’t been eavesdropping earlier.

“Yes, to a hotel to meet with the other coven members.” He switched the car out of park and started in the opposite direction Heaven and Peter had gone.