Bring Me to Life (22 page)

She wondered how long they would be speaking in puns, and referring to today as the past, but it didn’t matter. He was alive. She was going to keep him this way. Which reminded her. “I have one more place to look.” She left him standing in the kitchen, ignored her uncle on the couch, and got down on the floor to look under it. Jackpot! She pulled Wraith’s sword in the scabbard out and grinned when her uncle blanched. She carried the sword into the kitchen and offered it to Vincent hilt first. “There are only so many places you could hide things in this place that would fit a sword.”

Vincent grinned as he took his sword. “Babe, my chances of surviving tonight just got bigger.”

She scowled at him when a knock sounded through the apartment.

Vincent set the sword on the floor, propped up by the refrigerator. “Come on.” He wrapped his hand around hers, and led her into the living room. He kept her behind him as he looked out the peephole. He pulled the door open and stepped back.

All three Argent brothers walked in followed by Zerek. They were grinning like fools.

“So,” Caleb said. “When are you going to learn how to bake cookies?”

Bryna snorted at him. “I have to finish high school first. I don’t have time to bake.”

“Pity,” Caleb said with a wink. “So, I am guessing that guy not looking too happy on the couch needs to sign you over to your—” He laughed. “To Vincent.”

“To my what?” she demanded.

Caleb winked. “Husband. I can say it now without risking my soul. Felix thought the best way to get the two of you through the awkward stage was to just have you married. It takes care of what the two of you already want, and the whole legal minor problem goes away. But we can take care of those formalities after tonight’s battle, but you, my dear, still need to be caught by vampires if we want history to remain as close as possible to what it had been.”

“No,” Vincent snapped. “You’re bat-shit crazy if you think she’s getting anywhere near a vampire without me.”

“Excuse me,” Uncle Ron said. “But can I go before we start talking about vampires?”

“Right,” Zerek said. He walked over to Ron and motioned for him to stand up. “Give me your hand.”

Ron cringed, but gave the big man his hand. Zerek pulled out a knife, and slashed open Ron’s index finger. He produced a paper out of thin air and set it on the coffee table. “Sign it.”

“What does it say?”

“It takes any right you have to Bryna away forever. Of course, if you don’t want to sign it, I’m happy to give you to Wraith. Might I remind you that your little display of stupid today got him killed and ended in Bryna being needlessly tortured for ten years.”

Ron’s eyes went wide with a look of disbelief. “Sure.” He scrawled his name in blood at the bottom of the page, and then ran out of the apartment.

Caleb closed the door behind him. “That’s handled.” He looked at Bryna. “Your mother was more than happy to sign a page for you, but she wanted me to tell you to visit her when you’re feeling up to it.”

“Of course,” she whispered. Her mother wouldn’t be in the mental facility yet. She shook out the memories of things that would never happen in this time line. “Just as soon as I know it’s safe to do so.”

Caleb nodded. “Great.”

Zerek cleared his throat. “These kids need this apartment for a while longer, so why don’t we take this party somewhere else while we plan a battle.”

*

Vincent’s brain hurt. He had teenage hormones flooding his system. He was about three inches too short, and his muscle mass wasn’t nearly what it should be. He got he was still growing at almost eighteen, but this wasn’t what he’d signed up for when he decided to save himself. Horny teen was not a place he wanted to revisit, but here he was, looking at Bryna in one of those sundresses she’d loved so much with a matching ribbon in her hair, and no shoes. Funny how this dreary little apartment always seemed a million times brighter when she was in it. He shook it off and shot a glare at Caleb. “She’s not going anywhere near a vampire alone.”

“I didn’t say that she was, just that she needed to be captured by them again. I can’t help it if you let them catch you, too, but it’s necessary not only for history’s sake, but also so they take you to that field so innocent humans don’t get caught up in it.”

Vincent thought for a moment, came up with his plan, and then nodded. “We’ll go to the field, like we’re planning a good make-out session. You four can take cover and keep watch. When the vampires show up. I’ll kill them, and the night will be over with me still alive. Can I flash at this age?”

“You sure can, buddy,” Caleb said with a laugh. “After tonight, you’ll be hooked up as one of us. We do get paid for the work we do, and you’re owed two hundred years back pay. But I’d recommend both of you stay in school and graduate, here if possible. We like to appear as human as we can. Instead of work at the garage, you will have training. We’ll get you beefed back up in no time.”

Caleb was enjoying this way too much, but Vincent had to admit it felt good. He was alive, and while he hadn’t noticed it when he was dead, there was a difference. Bryna’s skin felt softer, her scent more alluring, and there were a million little things about his body and the world around him that had been absent for far too long.

And Bryna.

She was looking at him like he’d hung the moon and stars and like he could do anything. And he would. She was going to get that happy ever after with him. Nothing was going to kill him so it could happen. He padded over to her, and just wrapped an arm around her. He wanted to be afraid—hell, he should be afraid—but he couldn’t. He knew how tonight was going to go down. Nothing was going make him hesitate to save her. He looked at the clock on the DVD player. They had some time before they had to face Draven. “Hey, can you guys give us a few?”

“Sure,” Gregori said. “We’ll just make ourselves at home while you two use the bedroom.”

Vincent snorted, but scooped Bryna up and carried her into their room. They needed time to just be them, how they were, and reconnect in a way he was worried they might never be able to do again. He set her on the bed, and then went back to the door to close it. He turned to just look at her.

She giggled a nervous sound. “What?”

He shook his head. “I’m trying to acclimate. They are making it difficult. How are you holding up?”

She shrugged with one shoulder. “I’m not sure this is real. For so long I’ve wanted to do this, and now we are—it’s surreal.”

He sat on the bed next to her and looked down at his feet. “Yep. I’m not going to die this time.”

She slipped onto his lap and tucked her head under his chin. “What if you do? What if it’s your time like it was my time in the future?”

His hand shook as he stroked her hair. “I won’t die because we don’t have any other choice. You’re not dying. I refuse to let you go back to that horrible life.”

She turned, straddling over his lap and held his face in her hands. “But what if Felix was wrong? What if I was wrong? I know what I want, but I learned a long time ago I very rarely get what I want.”

“I have a human pulse, now. I just do it before Draven ever gets close to me. Maybe I can take out that bastard this time, so he’s not a problem for us in ten years.”

“I want to believe that, but I’m scared.”

He touched his lips to the corner of her mouth. “But I have my sword. We can pulse. We have those four gorillas in the other room who are dying for you to learn how to bake oatmeal raisin cookies. They have been to the future where I survived. If something happens, then we just keep Groundhog Daying this until we make it through the night. I’m not losing you again. Too much of what makes me who I am died when I lost you.” He brushed away one of her tears with the pad of his thumb. “You always bring me to life. Don’t stop now. Please don’t give up on me now.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “I can’t lose you again.”

“I know.” He got a pain behind his ears, and realized he’d had this same pain on the day he died. He stood up with Bryna in his arms. “We have to—”

“—go” she finished for him. “Howlers.”

He set her on the floor, and grabbed her arm before rushing out of the room. Zerek tossed him his sword. “Flash to that field. Now. We’ll take care of the howlers.”

Vincent curled around Bryna. “Think of me.” Then he flashed.

“Well, well,” Draven’s voice said when they appeared in the field where Vincent died.

“Fuck you,” Vincent said on reflex.

Draven laughed. “Just because you can flash doesn’t mean a damn thing.”

Vincent carefully uncurled himself from Bryna and moved her behind him. He gripped his sword. He could only see and feel Draven. To expend the energy for a pulse now would be stupid. His backup was at his apartment protecting the other residents from howlers. Fuck. “I’ve already killed you once. It was really easy.”

Draven’s eyes widened, and then his eyes narrowed. “You lie. Only the girl has ever been able to kill me.”

“Suit yourself,” Vincent said. He backed up, bringing Bryna with him. He still had all his previous training in his head, but that went with a different body. “You kill her, and you sign your death warrant.”

“Or I take her, and I control you.” Draven said. “Come, boy, give me the girl.”

“Over my cold, dead body,” Vincent said.

Bryna sucked in a breath and then darted out in front of him. “Take me,” she said. “You want to get close to the bitch who can kill you. Come on.” She put her hand out to him. “Let’s dance.”

Draven backed up a step. “She’s feistier than I thought she’d be. I don’t have to touch you, dear, to kill you.” He wrapped his hand around the sword hilt at his hip.

Vincent grabbed Bryna and shoved her out of the way as Draven slashed up in an arcing motion. The tip of the sword caught Vincent at the left corner of his jaw, dragged across his cheek, over the bridge of his nose, along his forehead and stopped when it reached his temple. He staggered back. Blood ran into his right eye. Bryna was screaming.

“Now!” Draven bellowed.

Vincent blinked a few times trying to get his vision to clear.

“Come, darling,” Draven said. “You do not want to be with so weak a fool. Come.”

He could hear the enthrall in Draven’s tone.
Not. This. Time
. He hooked his arm around Bryna’s waist and jerked her body in close to his. He could make out the fuzzy images of another two dozen or so vampires surrounding them.

“I need to go to him,” Bryna said. Her little body trembled, and there were tears in her voice. “I’m sorry. I love you.” She twisted and struggled in his arms, trying to get free.

Draven laughed. “Aww, poor boy, your girl wants the hot vampire instead.”

Vincent kissed her temple. “I love you, too, babe.” He wrapped himself around her, and focused two hundred years of pain and rage and suffering out all at once. A blue flash of light exploded from his body, incinerating the vampires, and causing the branches in the trees at the outer edges of the field to blow back.

Exhaustion hit. He dropped to his knees, letting Bryna go. She whirled around, and was on the ground next to him. “Oh God. Your face.” He heard the tearing of fabric, and then she pressed against the sore, ripped flesh on his face. “We need to get you to a hospital. Right now.”

“No,” he murmured. Draven was gone, and he hoped like hell the demon forever taking her into Oblivion didn’t show the way it always did after Draven was killed. There wasn’t enough energy left in his body to fight it off. He didn’t know if he had the ability to heal himself or not anymore, and he was too tired to do it anyway. “Zerek or Caleb. Paper in my pocket. Use your finger.”

*

There was way too much blood and Bryna wasn’t sure she was going to hold it together. She slipped her hand into his pocket and wrote a quick SOS to anyone reading the damn thing. She tucked the paper under her knee, and helped Vincent lay back on the ground. So much for vanishing scars. She held the tattered yellow fabric to his maimed face, hoping the bleeding would stop, or one if his friends would get here to help her.

“Bryna.”

Her head snapped up and she never thought she’d be so happy to see Felix in her life. “I can’t get the bleeding to stop.

“I know.” He knelt down next to them and put one hand on her head, and the other on Vincent’s chest. In the next second she and Vincent were in the bed of a pickup truck that was pulling up in front of an emergency room door.

Felix came out of the driver’s seat as the other men appeared out of the shadows of the building to help get Vincent down.

“Why don’t you just heal him?” Bryna demanded.

Felix let the other men help Vincent as he walked into the emergency room with her. “He’d want to keep his scar.”

“Why?”

“It reminds him of you,” Felix said. “I asked him once, and he said he needed the reminder.”

Bryna wasn’t sure it was supposed to be kept as a good reminder. “Will you heal it if he doesn’t want this reminder?”

“Of course,” Felix said. “Just call if you need me.” Then he was gone in a flash.

Bryna shook her head and focused on the matter at hand. She handled dealing with the nurses while Vincent was carted off to get his face stitched. His injury was bad enough they didn’t want to wait for all the usual hospital questions to be asked before they addressed the wound. She did great, right up until the triage nurse asked how the injury happened. Then Caleb was standing next to her. “It doesn’t matter how he got the injury,” he said in a tone close to what vampires used to enthrall their victims.

“It doesn’t matter,” the nurse parroted and typed into the computer
unknown
. She turned and gave Bryna a bright smile. “You can go back and see him now.”

Caleb escorted her back to the room Vincent was in. Zerek stood guard at the door and stepped to the side when he saw them. Caleb opted to stay in the hall, while Bryna rushed inside. Gregori and Derrick left the room to give them privacy.

Vincent lay on the gurney. Monitors were attached to him, he had an IV in his arm with a bag of blood attached to it, and a bandage strip wrapped his face, covering where Draven had cut him. His skin was pale, and he lay too still.