Eternal Shadows (32 page)

He let the locket dip down, closer to my face. It brushed my cheek, and burned. A scream I didn’t have the air for ripped from my throat.

Malachi laughed and lifted the locket away again. “No one’s told you, have they? Haven’t you noticed none of us wear gold? Use gold? Decorate with gold? It’s because we can’t be near it, can’t touch it. It’s a poison to us. Silver in the myths, gold in reality. Clever really.”

Oh my God. I had never thought—my mother’s jewelry, the artifacts my father had collected from around the world, all gone, and I’d never begun to imagine why. My cheek stung where the locket had touched me. The burn didn’t feel too bad, but what did I know? Why hadn’t anyone told me about this?

Next time I became a mythical creature I would make it a point not to proclaim my death wish in front of those with all the vital information.

That didn’t help me at the moment, though. I needed to get away from Malachi and his present.

“All for you, Kassandra. I had planned on giving it to Evangeline, but the opportunity never arose. I got a better one instead.” He leaned closer, whispering harshly right against my ear. “How suiting for her to die on the eve of her wedding. She screamed with each touch. She cried for him, sobbed and begged me to let her live. I would have let her, had she only agreed to come with me.”

I felt the cold metal of the locket for only an instant against the back of my left shoulder, then it burned—

I was running. Through dark streets, past alleys I knew I had no business going down. I could hear his feet behind me, and feel the tears tracking down my cheeks and neck. My legs burned from exertion and my arms were slick with hot blood. My white nightgown clung to the sweat on my overtaxed body.

Old New York. I was Eva.

No, not now. Please not now.

Malachi appeared in front of me as though by magic. I slammed to a stop against his body, unable to control myself any longer. He gripped my arms and though I struggled, I had no hope of him releasing me.

“One last chance, Eva,” he said, leaning closer than any man other than Rhys had ever gotten to me.

I apologized to Rhys, sending the silent words out into the night and hoping he would understand. I couldn’t fight any longer.

“Go to hell,” I said.

“Wrong answer.”

The burning cut off and the cooler night air washed over me. I was me again, Malachi still on top of me, but the locket no longer pressed into my bare skin.

His scarred face pulled back, gratification written all over. “Interesting. Do you remember now?” He let go of my throat.

I sucked in air like a man dying of thirst drank. Three breaths before I could even think of speaking. “You killed her. You did it.”

“Oh yes.” No remorse. No regret. “And Rhys went crazy. The following years were some of my best.”

“You’re sick.”

“Determined. But then, so are you, it seems. I would have thought the brutal killing of your father would be enough to keep you from endearing yourself to that pathetic excuse for a vampire, but apparently not. ”

I felt my still heart drop in my chest. “You did that?”

Malachi grinned like a cat with a bird. “Oh yeah, princess. All me. Dagger was my man, and loyal enough to the cause to go on that suicide mission. Too bad it didn’t quite go as planned. But the look on your face now is worth it.”

My right arm twitched. Pain still ruled, but I thought maybe…

I sat up and with all my strength shoved both my thumbs into his eye sockets, just like Isaac had said. Malachi screamed and reeled back. I doubted I had blinded him, but the distraction was enough for me to find my feet and put some space between us.

My right arm writhed in agony. I clutched it with my good hand, afraid to look, just in case it no longer hung the right way.

My classmates had fled. I could detect a few of their scents still inside the house, but something had sent the majority of them running for their lives. Good. Better that way. They couldn’t help me. I hadn’t heard any sirens yet. Maybe none of them had gotten around to calling the police on a cell phone. Also better.

But I caught wind of other scents, mingled together on the air. Cade and Garrett, around the side of the house. The sounds of their fight echoing like gunshots off the nearby hills. More surprising, Millie’s scent, maybe from the front, twined with Henry’s thick scent of gunpowder. And Madge. Her perfume danced on the breeze, mixed with Tabitha’s odd aroma of flowers and steel. Somewhere closer, I detected the salty ocean breeze that followed Isaac.

When and how had they all gotten here?

And when would they be able to help me?

Malachi cursed me and stood, his hands still over his eyes. No blood. I hadn’t done as much damage as I would have liked. “You’ll pay for that,” he said.

“How cliché.” Might as well get a few verbal jabs in before I died. I couldn’t count on the others saving me. I would have to do my best on my own.

He let his hands fall from his face. His eyes were red, but still there and he could clearly still see me.
Dammit
. I honestly felt like I had nothing left. My right arm was mobile, but broken, and my left shoulder still seared with the pain of the gold burn.

“You die now.” He stalked towards me.

“So quit playing around and get to it.” Maybe I could goad him into making a mistake. Maybe.

He came so fast I barely saw him. I dodged to the left, but he grabbed my ankle and I fell. I braced myself for the impact on my face
. I only had one arm to catch myself with, but the ground never came. My leg jerked and suddenly my direction changed. I flew across the yard, and realized a second too late that I was headed for the house. The siding smashed against my back and I counted one more wall before I hit the floor and slid to a halt. I rolled myself over with my good arm and opened my eyes.

The house was destroyed, an open and splintered path marking where I had come from. The expensive wood floor had been shattered, and the coffee table lay in two pieces on the torn Oriental rug. Kelly and a few of her friends huddled on the stairs, eyes wide like frightened rabbits. No human could have survived what I had just done.

Exposed.

I heard Malachi coming.

“Get out!” I screamed at them again. “Leave now!”

Fear moved them. This time, they listened. They nearly trampled one another in their race to the front door. The last sneaker disappeared from sight, and Malachi’s black leather dress shoes stepped in front of my face.

“So noble.”

“Don’t mock me.” I pressed my cheek to the cold wood floor, begging my mind to clear.

“Shall we finish this?” He bent down until I could see him.

One moment he was there. The next he was gone.

A crash. The air moved like a hurricane wind and a black blur erased Malachi from my view. I curled up on the floor to shield myself from the flying pieces of house that whizzed by. A familiar perfume circled the air around me, and when I cracked one eye open I saw dainty blue kitten heels that could have only belonged to two people. The scent told me who.

Madge.

I lifted my head and opened my other eye. Malachi lay imbedded in the stairs, Tabitha strewn on top of him. Both of them moaned and shifted, dazed by the impact.

“Enough of this, Malachi,” Madge said.

He lifted Tabitha from his chest with ease, setting her on the remaining bottom step. She didn’t quite have her balance back. “Madge, love, stay out of this.”

“Don’t call me love,” she spat. Her blue capris were torn and stained, and her white shirt hung off one shoulder. Blood dripped down her leg, plinking against
the floor. The strange needle-like blade I had seen her with before glimmered in the flickering houselights where she clutched it in one hand. “I’ve had enough. I’ve defended you for as long as I can, trying to persuade everyone from killing you, but I can see now there’s no hope of you coming to your senses.”

“Or, you could just come to see things my way.”

“I tried that.”

“I remember.”

“You used me.  All that time, you had her hidden away.”  She practically spat in Tabitha’s direction.

“Doesn’t mean I didn’t want you.”

Madge scoffed in disgust.

What the heck? Had Madge really taken out Tabitha, a vampire older than herself? Tabitha didn’t look so good. Her head lolled a lot. It gave me hope.

My thoughts didn’t get any further. A spasm jerked my arm, causing more agonizing twinges.

“I see you’ve kept my present,” Malachi said, gesturing vaguely with one hand.

“You gave it to me so I could protect myself. I had the center drilled out and filled with gold.”

“So that’s how you got the better of Tabitha. I taught you well. But I didn’t give it to you to use against me.”

“Leave now,” Madge said, still standing at my head. Between me and Malachi. “This is your last chance. Leave or we kill you.”

He grinned and stood, sauntering towards her. “You don’t have your death warrant.”

“Not yet.”

“Your family is busy. Garrett and Cade are nearly an even match.”

“Only nearly. Don’t bet on Cade being busy for long.”

“In that case,” he stopped just short of us, “I should stop wasting time.”

Tabitha might have been a close match, but Malachi had Madge far outclassed. His fist came up so quickly I almost didn’t see it. The back of it caught Madge’s chin and sent her flying across the room—into the barely conscious Tabitha. The two of them dented the cream-colored wall, blonde and black hair tangled together. Neither moved.

Malachi grabbed me by the neck of my dress. I heard the stitching tear. The room spun when he yanked me to my feet. He pulled my face close to his. I could see now that I had done some damage to his eyes. The right one was milky and redder than the left. I hoped his vision had been compromised.

“He’ll never find you,” he said, pushing my wet hair out of my face. “Just your blood. And then, in a decade or so, I’ll send another set of boxes, and this time, it will be you inside.”

“No!” The word slipped from my mouth calling the memory of Rhys, pale and grief stricken, in front of Eva’s bone. I struggled. All I had to do was stay alive until someone came to help. Cade or Millie. One of them had to be close. I punched with my good arm and kicked with both feet, but Malachi didn’t budge. I might as well have been fighting a block of cement.

“Say goodbye.” He grinned at me and his fangs extended to their full length. He grabbed my head and yanked it to the side, exposing my throat.

His fangs were large. I felt every thick bit of them tear through my neck while his fingers continued to press against the bones in my good arm. I tried to scream, but heard a grotesque strangled gurgle instead. Hot blood ran in torrents down my neck as he drank. The suction was terrible. It pulled against my veins and made my neck feel like it would collapse in on itself. God, I hoped it didn’t feel like this for Warren. I’d never be able to drink from him again, even in dire emergencies.

My vision blacked around the edges.

I owed Rhys an apology. I had lied.

I wouldn’t be there when he got back.

Chapter Twenty-F
ive: Resuscitation

I had died once—three times—already, that didn’t make this time any easier.

The world crept in and out. My vision had reduced to nothing more than a pin-hole, and my hearing was spotty. All that existed was the suction on my neck where Malachi bled me dry, and the memories that assaulted my inner mind.

I remembered Eva’s pain, her fear, her sorrow. Each wound she had sustained, I felt it. My arms went numb, then my legs, only to blossom in pain again. My abdomen wrenched like it had been torn open, and my heart ached as though it had been broken, physically and metaphorically.

I apologized to Rhys, hoping he would know I had tried.

I remembered Bryn’s death. The terrible pain in my chest and throat from coughing. The heat and the sweat that came with it. And mostly the heartbreak of not knowing what had happened to Rhys.

I apologized again and again with each new pain. Nothing I went through or remembered was as terrible as knowing what my death would do to him now. That alone kept me alive while I died. Each moment longer I could hold on gave someone the chance to get to me. I had to give Rhys every small second I could.

Malachi’s fangs dug deeper into my throat and I felt him drink deeply. My vision disappeared completely.

Then the pressure on my neck was gone.

I felt like I was falling. Down, and down forever, and just when I thought it wouldn’t end I stopped.

Cold, and the world along with my body was only getting colder. My first day as a vampire, I had been so cold. I had wished for death.

It wasn’t what I wanted now.

Heat. Blazing hot. Something touched me and the contrast to my skin jolted a piece of my consciousness back from the brink of nothingness. I wanted to scream, but couldn’t. My hearing faded in and out. The heat traveled, hitting my arms, my throat, my face.

“Kass! Dammit, Kassandra. Come on, wake up. I need you to wake up.”

I didn’t hear anything again for a long moment. I thought the voice was familiar, but couldn’t be sure. Then the heat lingered on my face, unmoving and so different from the cold I felt that I tried to move away from it.

“Open your eyes, Kassandra. Please.” The voice came again.

How could I resist? The voice from my memories, the only thing I had wanted to hear in my last moments. I forced my eyes to open.

Rhys.

His face was contorted with worry, that little line above his eye more defined than I had ever seen it. Blood ran down the side of his beautiful face. I saw my left hand reach for it more than I felt it or was even conscious of the action. But I couldn’t make it all the way to his face. I didn’t have the strength. I felt a sob stick in my already agonizing throat as my hand began to fall back to the hard floor.

He caught it, his hand so hot against mine. The heat I had felt. He leaned down and pressed his face to my hand. A nervous, anxious laugh escaped him, and a smile broke out over his lips.

“Thank God,” he said, and leaned closer to me. “Kassandra, listen to me.”

That’s all I could do. Listen. And feel. I reveled in the sensation of touching him. I managed to move a finger ever so slightly, brushing his cheek and sending electric waves of pleasure and pain down my arm.

“You need blood. You have to drink.”

I could feel my blood all over, down the side of my neck, over my arm and soaking into my dress. But Warren wasn’t here. He was upstairs, hurt. I tried to tell Rhys, but no sound came out. Just more gurgling.

His other hand pressed tight against the side of my throat where Malachi had bitten me. What had happened to Malachi? I didn’t care. Not as long as I could see Rhys.

He set my hand carefully on the floor, and I whimpered at the loss of contact. The world was fading again. The black had returned to the edges of my vision. No! I wanted to see him. See him until the very end. Leave my vision. Take that last. I blinked and forced my eyes to stay open.

He bit his own wrist. Why? I watched his blood flow out, decorating his flawless skin with tendrils of red. The sight of his blood elicited a sort of primal fear in me. I didn’t want to see his blood.

The thirst burned my already tortured throat.

He pressed his bleeding wrist to my lips.

No! I used every ounce of strength I had to keep my mouth shut tight. I couldn’t recall much, but I remembered what he had told me about letting one vampire drink from another. Dangerous. I knew the truth of that. Malachi had illustrated for me.

“Kassandra, drink! You have to!” He pleaded with me, leaning so close our faces almost touched.

“No.” My voice surprised me. It sounded twisted and dead. But if I could make sound I was going to tell him as much as I could. His blood coated my lips as I spoke, I resisted licking it away. “Can’t. I’ll kill you.”

“You won’t. I promise.”

“No.”

“If you die, that will kill me. I will stop you before you drink too much, I promise you that. Trust me. Please.”

His blood dripped into my mouth, and I lost all control. With a surge of monstrous strength I grabbed his arm with both hands and began to drink.

He tasted different from Warren, different from all the human blood I had ever had in my short life. Rhys tasted better, older, wiser. It was the difference between a newly fermented wine and a vintage. I understood now why he had said drinking from another vampire was dangerous. Not just because of the risk of draining and death, but because I didn’t think I could stop. Even though I wanted to. I drank his blood like there would be no end to it. The numbness in my limbs receded, and the dark edges of my vision disappeared. My hearing returned full force.

I continued to drink.

God, Rhys, stop me.

I hated myself. If I killed him I would find Malachi and let him finish what he had started.

“Let go, Kassandra.” Rhys wrenched his wrist from my grip. I felt my fangs tear his flesh. I’d never actually done damage with them before.

I gasped and shoved myself backwards, away from him. I could feel everything again. Every bruise, every break. My right arm stung, my fingers
were tormented by pins and needles. My ribs screamed with every breath I took, and my neck pulsed with indescribable anguish.

But I could see. And Rhys was there, perfect, whole and alive.

We stared at each other, neither daring to move. I hadn’t killed him. I told myself that over and over again in my mind. I wanted to hold him. I carefully lifted my left arm, feeling the skin on the back of my shoulder pull where it had been burned, and reached for him.

I was in his arms in an instant.

He held me so tight my injuries protested, but I told them all to shut up. Nothing was more important than having him close. I clung to him with my one good arm. He was colder than before. A result of the blood-loss I had inflicted upon him.

Thought returned to me.

“How did you know? How did you get here?”

“The council came to a decision quicker than we thought,” he said against my neck. His voice sounded strangely thicker than normal. “When we got home Brody told us Madge had smelled Malachi nearby and they had gone after you here.”

Madge had saved me. Of all people. It would be harder to hate her in the future.

“What did the council say?”

He hesitated. “No.”

All hope in me sank. How could they say no? Now Malachi would be free to roam, free to come back and finish this. I wouldn’t survive a next time. I started to shake.

Rhys held me tighter for a moment, then pulled back to look at my face. He stroked my cheek while he spoke. “But it doesn’t matter. An attack like this leaves us no choice. Self-defense.”

“Really?”

He stood, lifting me from the floor easily and supporting all my weight. I leaned into him. The house was destroyed. The stairs had caved in, and the walls had been opened up from back to front, creating one large, debris-filled room. Tabitha was still imbedded in the wall. She hadn’t moved. Water sprang up like a fountain from the kitchen sink, and there was a hole large enough to drive a truck through in the ceiling.

Things hadn’t been that bad when I passed out.

“What happened?”

“It took me a long time to wake you.” He scooped my legs up off the floor and headed towards the back of the house. “Julius and Bartolome took over things.”

The cool night air hit me like a welcomed friend. It cooled some of the pain in my body, and woke me up, making my thoughts that much clearer. The side of the pool was missing a large piece, and the fence had been decimated. Cade stood over Garrett, both bloody, but Cade less so. Garrett didn’t move. Millie sat with Madge by a tree, talking softly and stroking her sister’s matted hair. Aurelia had her foot planted on Henry’s neck, but he didn’t seem eager to move any time soon. Viviane stood out against the black of night, her skin like white snow. Next to her I could just barely make out the outline of Isaac. Beyond them stood the general and Cordoba. I craned my neck to try to see better, but the pain stopped me.

“Rhys,” I said, hoping he would understand.

“I think it would be better if I got you home,” he said.

I shook my head. “It was him. He had my father killed. I want to see. I have to know.”

Surprise flashed through his blue eyes, but he moved. We were by Cade when he finally stopped, and I could see Malachi on the ground at Cordoba’s feet, his arms and legs lying at odd angles.

“You have brought this upon yourself,” Cordoba said, stepping closer.

“No. Bartolome, you promised. You can’t.” Malachi tried to drag himself out of danger, but there was nowhere to go.

Cordoba knelt down, and took Malachi by the neck. “There is no other way.”

I pressed my face into Rhys’s shirt before I could see what happened next. Hearing it was bad enough.

At least it was over.

I’d left my window open, so my bed was blessedly cool when Rhys set me on it. He’d run back to the house swiftly, but so carefully I had barely felt it. In fact, I was fairly sure I had slept through a moment or two of it. I concentrated on sitting up while he went into the bathroom. A second later he came back and pressed a wet washcloth to my neck.

“I’m going to need a lot more than a washcloth,” I said. My dress had stuck to my right side, the blood that soaked it
half-dry. I probably needed about five showers and at least three hot baths.

“This will do for now,” he said, wiping away the blood. His eyes were trained on my neck, on the wound.

“Is it really bad?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

He pressed the cool cloth back against the holes in my neck and looked at me. “You’ll heal,” he said.

“Fabulous.” I cradled my right arm to my body and looked at my ruined dress. So much for lasting a few decades.

“It’s a good color on you. You must have looked beautiful.”

“Looked being the operative word. It’s completely ruined now. I wanted you to see it.”

“We can get you a new one.”

“I don’t think I’d be able to wear it.” Too much association. This one would have to be thrown out. It would always make me remember this night.

Rhys didn’t argue with me. He brushed my hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear.

“Is Warren okay?” Truthfully, I was afraid to ask. But Rhys hadn’t mentioned him, and that made me anxious.

“He’s down the hall with Gianna. I think he’ll be fine. She didn’t seem too worried. We got him out quickly.”

“Good.” One suffocating vine of stress released me. I still had plenty more. “And what about me?”

“You’re out of danger now. Gianna will come show me how to set your arm when she’s finished.”

“I feel worse than I did when that car hit me.”

“Understandable.”

I looked back at him, at the blood on his face. I tried to wipe it away. “What happened?”

“I was the first to get to Malachi.”

“Oh.”

“I shouldn’t have left.” The line on his forehead had returned, and it had brought with it a loathing that darkened his normally bright eyes.

“You didn’t know this would happen.”

“You did.”

Crap
. “No I didn’t.”

“You did. You got one of those feelings just before I left. I could tell.”

“It didn’t mean anything at the time. I don’t know how these things work. It wasn’t worth risking the council meeting. If we had done something we might have only made things worse.”

“You will tell me next time.”

I was too tired to argue. Besides, technically things turned out so he was right, not me. Had he stayed behind, Malachi might have done nothing. “Fine. Next time.”

He caressed my cheek, the loathing fading from his eyes to be replaced by fear. “I couldn’t bear to lose you again.”

“I know. I couldn’t bear it either.” I’d lost count of how many times I had apologized to him as I thought I was dying. “He did it, you know. He killed Eva.”