Cold Blooded (24 page)

“Okay, okay,” I said. “I’m going to try and dial my sarcasm down to a minimum from now on.” I ducked my head through the opening and tread carefully up steps made of packed earth. They were terribly corroded and barely counted as steps. They were more like lumps of dirt. Once I reached the top, a trapdoor made of thick, white marble loomed above me.

The bottom entrance to the crypt above.

“Is this warded?” I asked.

“It is free.”

“Vampires leave it so.”

“You may enter.”

Let’s make sure
, I told my wolf. I tentatively pressed a single fingernail on the marble. A soft hum of magic met my touch, but nothing threatened me directly. It was probably residual magic. The main door to the outside of the crypt was likely heavily spelled, but whoever was in charge of the torturing must think warding the trapdoor was unnecessary.

“Here we go,” I said as I braced my palms against the cool surface and pushed upward. I had to use a considerable amount of strength because the marble was crazy heavy. “This must be two feet thick,” I grunted. “But it’s working.” There was no resistance, so I kept sliding.

Once it was fully open, the smell of blood hit me.

I caught Naomi’s scent immediately following.

I leaned up and peered into the room. There were faint Gothic shapes decorating the ceiling of the chamber. It was dark inside the crypt. Just like the tunnels, and I could tell from my position and the sloping beams of the roof it was big inside, more like a mausoleum than a crypt. “Is it safe to go inside?” I asked. “No other nasties waiting to attack?” Why not ask my ghost pals if I had the chance? I didn’t detect anything, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t lurking.

“You can enter,” a whisper floated by my ear.

“No one is here.”

“Can I see my mommy now?”

Good grief.

I eased myself through the opening, my body back to my human form. My change was automatic now, not even triggering much thought. I didn’t know if that was good or bad.

The first thing I noticed was a long, rectangle slab of stone perched in the middle of the room.

Normally it would’ve held a coffin with a dead person inside. Instead there was a single shrouded figure lying on top. This wasn’t like Selene’s lair with torture devices hanging all over the walls. This was obviously a place where they took vamps to make sure they didn’t wake. Naomi had once told me she knew how to incapacitate a vamp. I should’ve asked for details while I’d had the chance. Now I was left to my own devices.
I hope she’s not badly hurt. That mummy wrap doesn’t look too promising. It could be hiding a lot of damage.

I paced toward her slowly, scenting everything I could.

There were traces of Valdov’s signature, but he hadn’t been here recently. I couldn’t identify anyone else, because I’d never smelled them before. I scented lots of blood—mostly Naomi’s, which smelled oddly like me. But the white sheet wasn’t swathed in red.
How do you think they’re keeping her unconscious? I smell blood but I don’t see any.

“You must hurry.”

“It takes too much.”

“Cannot regenerate the bloodletting.”

“Bloodletting?” I asked, alarmed. I rushed to the fabric containing her and tore it apart. It ripped easily, falling onto the cold mausoleum floor with only a whisper of a sound. She was swathed in a few layers so it took me some time to get through it all. “Come on,” I urged as I tore. “Please be alive.” The first thing I uncovered was her chest. It was unmoving, but that was to be expected. She was still dressed. I took both my hands and split the last layer of cloth straight up to her neck. There was a loud
zzzzzzip
as the fabric fell apart in my grasp.

A still, bone-white face stared back.

Her eyes were closed and there were heavy dark spots sunken just above her cheekbones. She was so still she appeared to be dead. I had to remind myself that was still normal.

“The arm.”

“Must take it out.”

“It’s hungry.”

“Blood fills the walls too quickly.”

What walls? I didn’t hesitate. Her arms were each wrapped separately. I tore the cloth completely away. One of her arms was hooked to what looked to be a tiny silver funnel. Where it touched her skin, a patch had burned away completely. It was oozing thick red blood. Anger bubbled up inside me so fiercely it took all I had not to bellow my rage and alert everyone within a twenty-mile radius. I reached over her body and tore the funnel from her arm. It burned my fingers, but it didn’t register. As I did, a plastic tube I hadn’t noticed flew with it, breaking from wherever it had been secured, spraying blood all over the room.

“What the hell was that?” I yelled, jumping out of the way, wiping blood off my face with my forearm. “Why was she hooked to a tube?” I leaned over and picked up some of the discarded fabric and blotted the blood off Naomi’s pale skin, hovering over her hoping she’d wake.

“You must feed her quickly.”

“She yearns for blood.”

“The walls are almost full.”

“What
walls
are you talking about?” I shouted in frustration. “Can someone please tell me what’s happening in more than three or four words?”

“You must look below.” Something shoved me from the back, prodding me around the side.

I complied and walked around the thick marble structure that held Naomi’s unconscious body.

“She feeds it too quickly.”

“She is not like other vamps.”

“She is strong.” The whispers came quickly, jumbled together like they were all talking at the same time.

For some reason the ghosts seemed suddenly nervous.

I spotted a circular hole near the bottom where the tube must have been hooked. My stomach lurched. Naomi’s blood had been draining into this thing, filling it up. I inhaled, moving closer to the small opening. There was so much blood. As fast as she could regenerate, it was being siphoned away.

That’s how they kept vamps incapacitated. They knocked them out and drained their lifeblood, making them too weak to fight or even wake up.

But what her captors didn’t realize was she didn’t have ordinary blood running through her veins.

She had mine.

It made her stronger, so she would survive. She had to survive. “Who did this to her?” I demanded. I addressed the ghosts, because there was no one else around to question. My wolf snarled and snapped her muzzle, urging me to free her.
We just need to feed her and give her more blood. Then she’ll be as good as new. We have to believe that.

I maneuvered myself next to her, leaning over her stark face, whipping my wrist up to her mouth, ready to tear my skin with my teeth.

“No!”

“You must wait.”

“Have to stop
it
first.”

The voices rushed up against my ears urgently and hands jostled me in place, forcing me to drop my wrist.

“Stop what?” I yelled. “You said two minutes ago I had to feed her. She clearly needs my blood or she’s not going to wake up.” I glanced down at her arm where the silver had been secured. It wasn’t healing. “What do I need to do? Stop giving me one word answers and
tell me
.”

“Must release the blood.”

“What do you mean
release
the blood? You’re not talking about the blood in the bottom of this altar, right? Please tell me you’re
not
talking about the blood that has been draining from her all this time and is now sloshing around in this giant marble bathtub.”

“If the blood is not freed, she cannot heal.”

“It keeps her here.”

“The blood binds her to
it
.”

They were definitely talking about something I didn’t understand.

My arms prickled. Shivering, I stepped back and searched the room again, but I didn’t feel any spells. I glanced down at Naomi. The only
it
they could be talking about had to be inside the stone altar. Tentatively, like reaching out to pet a rabid animal, I placed both my palms on top of the white and gray veined marble platform.

Something pulsed beneath them.

Did you feel that?
I asked my wolf as I slid my hands to another location trying to sense what was happening.
Her blood is feeding something.
Another small vibration flittered under my palms, like a heartbeat.
Holy shit. Whatever they hooked her up to just got a payday with my blood.

“What’s in there? What’s feeding off her?” I called. The marble jumped under my hands again, this time much stronger. It knew I was here and it was angry. But it wasn’t formed enough to break free, and I just stopped its food supply. It had been so close. Too close.

“The Strigoi stir.”

“The soul wakes.”

“It is always hungry.”

Oh, dear gods.
A Strigoi was the spirit of a dead vampire. In the lore we called them Screamers—vamps whose physical bodies died a true death, but their spirits hung around to wreak havoc on the living. Just like the ones floating around me now, except myth stated that Screamers could still feed on blood. “Can a Screamer really become corporeal if it drinks enough blood?” I urged. I knew only a few stories, but they were legendary. Hideous bloodsuckers with incredible strength that couldn’t be killed. “You have to tell me. How dangerous are they?” I gave an inward shudder. When the ghosts didn’t answer, I yelled, “
Tell me!
”

At my raised voice, the marble top bounced, jutting to the side. The platform wasn’t attached to the bottom of the altar.

No more time.

We have to drain her blood out of this thing
, I told my wolf.
I don’t think it’s full, but I’m not taking any chances. No more blood, no more Screamer.
I crouched down and peered inside the hole, keeping a good distance away. The blood was moving and sloshing around in earnest now.
We have to smash it with something near the bottom so it drains quickly.
I hoped it would be enough.

It had to be enough.

I jumped up and scanned the room. My fist might get through the thick marble in my Lycan form, but now wouldn’t be the time to break my hand to pieces. Once the deed was done, I had to get Naomi out as soon as possible. I didn’t have time to regenerate. “Is there something to smash the marble with in here?” I asked the ghosts. No one answered. For the first time I noticed everything had gone completely quiet.

One lone whisper came flitting into my ear. “They have gone. We fear the Strigoi. They hurt us.”

I made my way around the mausoleum, my hands brushing against the smooth walls searching for something strong enough to bash in the marble. “You stayed. So help me,” I told the ghost. The entire room was roughly thirty by thirty. “We have to find something that will withstand me smashing it into the altar. Is there anything hooked to the walls?”

“Look up,” the voice whispered.

18

I angled my head toward the ceiling. Right at the very top, secured from the midpoint of the roof, was a marble gargoyle head. “It’s not alive, is it?”

“No.”

“Thank goodness for small favors,” I muttered. It hung about fifteen feet above me. I glanced around.
Okay, we come at it from a run, kick off from the altar and grab it. We have to tear it off in one jump.
My wolf barked her agreement. I jogged back to the corner and took off, springing to the edge of the marble near Naomi’s feet and leaping, reaching it easily. My hands closed around its pointy ears and on the way down I cranked like I was twisting the top off a jar and the chunk of marble gargoyle head snapped off in my grip.

I half expected it to yowl at me and come to life, but it didn’t.

One small win in this sea of insanity.

I hit the ground on the balls of my feet, landing in a crouch.
Here we go.
I rushed around to the back of the platform where the hole was, because it seemed like the logical place to drain the gunk out.

Naomi hadn’t moved at all. Not even so much as a twitch.

It was hard to look at her. She was gaunt and spent, like a real corpse.
We better be able to bring her back. Let’s drain this thing and get it over with.
I squatted, angling both my arms back, my wolf fueling me, and swung the marble gargoyle, snout first, into the bottom of the altar.

There was a massive crash as the face hit structure, stone on stone.

The altar cracked—a teensy bit.

Damn, someone had to have heard that. We have to move faster.
Several pieces of the gargoyle had broken off on impact, but it had worked to our advantage. Now there was a nice sharp angle protruding from the head.
Smash the pointy part into the fissure.

Unfortunately, now the Screamer knew exactly what we were trying to do—take his only ride to freedom away. The altar started to rock and jump like a seismic tremor. Blood splashed out of the hole and cracks I’d made.
Yuck. We need to finish this now.
I reared back and smashed the sharp angle into the crack with all my strength. The gargoyle face exploded on impact, sending shards of marble everywhere, but it was enough to split the altar open like a broken dam.