Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) (22 page)

The dark haired vampire smiled. It was not a nice one. “Likewise, Ryder. Likewise.”

No movement, for just the briefest moment.

And then Ryder leaped forward.

So did Lazaro.

They met in a clash of limbs, elegant and yet utterly dangerous as their shadows played over the jagged stone corridor.

Most vampires I had met were strong, very much so, but they were strong in the way a bear is dangerous. Strength wise they were strong and most counted on the element of surprise, the element of speed to take the head right off one’s shoulders.

Watching two vampires fight was, for the lack of a different or better word to say, an
education.

Ryder was fast. So damn fast I could barely see him move.

But so was Lazaro.

And therein proved the problem at hand.

Shannon let out a breath and I watched her hands open, close, and then open again. “This is pointless. Fucking idiot. This is never going to work.”

Ryder ducked as a fist plowed by his ear, clipping the unrestrained blond hair that had probably never seen the sunlight in a very, very long time.

With a grace that belied his size, his strength, he ducked under Lazaro’s outstretched arm and pulled his elbow back, throwing it between his opponent’s shoulder blades.

With an audible
thunk
, Lazaro staggered forward, his mouth set in a silent
o,
but even his surprise did not last long.

I felt useless, no, worse than useless, pinned down in the corridor that I could’ve touched with both arms outstretched. Fingernails dug into my palms, as I watched my enemy fight for our lives.

Jason tapped me on the shoulder, his lips close to my ear. I shivered, attributing it t the mind-numbing cold. “There must be something we can do.”

Shannon whirled on one heel, lips turned down at the corners, light brows furrowed down over a small, pointed nose. “Oh yeah? Is there? Christ, Jason, you’re as stupid as you were alive as you are now.”

I blinked. Did that even make any sense? “He is doing more than you.”

“Hush, Ran,” he said softly in an admonishing tone. “I do not need you to fight my battles for me.” And despite the circumstance, I thought I heard a smile in his voice. “At least not my verbal ones.”

Ryder reared back as Lazaro smashed him across the throat with the back of his hand and I felt my own neck twinge in sympathy. On a human, it would’ve crushed the windpipe, but there again was the advantage of being a vampire, of being a monster.

That was right

Vampire equaled monster.

Why was I starting to forget that fact so easily?

“Would you like to help him?” asked Jason.

I flicked the small
bi-su
into the palm of my hand, relishing the feel of the braided handle sitting so comfortably among all the calluses and scars. “I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Is that the only thing you are good at?” How could he sound so damn amused when it seemed as though we were only minutes away from getting slaughtered like mice caught in a trap? “Fighting? Killing?”

I bit my lip, bit it hard enough to taste copper on my tongue. “It is the only thing I have any confidence in.”

He tsked. “You do tend to underestimate yourself, don’t you?”

I looked at him. “Will you let me?”

“Let you?”

I watched Lazaro raise his foot and plant it squarely on Ryder’s solar plexus, watched Ryder’s face contort as all the air left his body, watched his body fold in on itself like a crumbled up jigsaw puzzle. We were beginning to run out of time, it seemed. “Let me save you.”

At the corner of my eye, I saw him smile. No teeth, just a lifting of his beautiful lips.

“My
Ailward,
save me,” he said.

And really, that was all that needed to be said, to be heard.

Shannon spat on the ground. “Fuck that. I’ll do what I was told to do and that’s to protect your stupid, precious bodyguard.”

And now a second vampire fighting for me.

My, how the world was changing.

And in a way, it was frightening, positively frightening. “You were told to protect me?”

She glared at me. “As if I cared about your stupid life. But you’re with Jason now. To protect him, I’ve got to protect you.”

Jason made a small sound in the back of his throat. “Shannon…”

She sighed and then turned her back to us, just in time to watch Ryder get his face smashed into the wall, the masonry crumbling around the shape of his head.

He let out a slow moan and slid down the wall to hit the floor with a very definite thump.

He did not move.

Shannon threw off her trench coat and the torchlights played down the tightly laced leather jacket and pants that could’ve been painted on. With her thin legs encased in dark leather knee high low-heeled boots, I had to admit to a certain curiosity as to how she could possibly move in such a restricting attire that seemed hell bent on keeping her movement as minimal as possible.

She sent a glance at Jason over one shoulder.

“I didn’t have a choice, Jason.”

Was that sorrow in her eyes?

And what sort of choice was she speaking of?

Jason’s lips narrowed and he turned away, almost as though he couldn’t bear to look at her any longer.

Was that pain in his eyes?

When no answer came forthwith, she let out a deep breath as Lazaro straightened up to his full height and then gestured to her in a singularly vulgar finger movement that made me wish I could break his fingers. And perhaps even his wrist. And his arms, while I was at it.

And perhaps even his neck, but really, I wasn’t that greedy.

Nor optimistic.

Not when I saw Lazaro move like an invisible shadow down the passageway and flick his hand upwards.

The blow sent Shannon careening into the low ceiling and I watched the joy of the battle fill Lazaro’s eyes, fill his eyes so completely there were no whites in his eyes, only a overwhelming darkness that promised nothing but death.

But not while I still stood.

And, it seemed, not while life still beat within Shannon’s body.

He stared down at her small hand clenched down around his ankle and laughed, a high, shrill sound that made my stomach jolt.

“Oh?” he said, joyous, ridiculously so. “Is that how it is then? Is that how you want to play this game?”

She lifted her head off the floor and a thin stream of crimson dripped off her chin to splatter on the concrete.

Next to me, Jason made out a small sound.

It worried me.

Was it because she was his ex-lover, the woman he had loved enough to conceive a child, a woman he had loved enough to pursue all these years, a woman he would have gladly laid down his life?

Or was it because he was just hungry?

“I’m not done yet,” she coughed, spraying blood from her lips.

Lazaro’s lips curled with disdain.

“I need to help her,” I said. “She can’t do this alone.”

And it wasn’t that I particularly liked her.

“No!” she screamed. “Stay there. I’ll kill the bastard. Let me do it!”

Lazaro’s laughter filled the corridor. “Is that the truth? Well, then, shall we dance?”

She pulled herself up, using his leg as a crutch and he let her. It must have been confidence that kept the smile on his darkly tanned face, confidence that made him put his hands under her arms and bring her back up to her feet.

But she stood and managed to take a step away from him, bringing her hands in front of her face protectively. Already, a massive bruise was forming on her brow and her right eye had swollen to magnificent proportions.

I felt my admiration for her grow. I did not like her, but I was beginning to understand her.

And that in itself was somewhat frightening.

“Here,” he said, opening his arms out wide. “I am not such a cruel man. In fact, it is lucky they sent me. I will allow you one blow. Anywhere you would like.” He winked, as though this was all one big joke. It was enough to put my teeth on edge. “But just one blow, you understand. I am not cruel, nor am I an idiot.”

She let out a soft sound, somewhere between a mew and a sigh and Jason cursed quietly next to me.

I wanted to ask if he still loved her, if he still sheltered feelings for her, but knew there couldn’t have been a worse time to ask.

She turned her large amber eyes up at him, looking up at him through lashes heavy with tears. “You hurt me.”

Lazaro clucked his tongue. “I did not have a choice. But here, I am allowing you one blow. Go on and do it before I lose my patience, little one. You won’t have a chance like this ever again.”

Her eyes flashed, and I realized her hurt voice, that little, pathetic voice was nothing but an act.

Ah, but what an act it was.

With a flick of her wrist, something fell into her hand and she rushed forward, quicker than my human eyes could follow.

The other vampire could not react, didn’t even have a chance to move.

She held him, as close as a lover, one hand twined around his neck, one hand forcing the small blade deeper and deeper up under his rib cage.

Eyes wide, Lazaro coughed blood, just like Shannon, but unlike her, he was dying.

I knew she had punched through his other side when his body shuddered and he gagged as a river of red flowed from his mouth over her shoulder like a silken ponytail.

Jason shuddered and I caught him as his knees crumbled, nearly bringing us to the ground.

His laughter was shaky. “Thank you, Ran. I didn’t...I didn’t expect that.”

“Didn’t expect her to win or didn’t expect all the blood?”

He paused. “Both.”

With a hiss of disgust, she let go of Lazaro, wrenching the small dagger out of his body.

“Bastard. Underestimated me,” she spat out, standing over him as though she meant to do further harm to a corpse that was, even now, already starting to wither away. “Shouldn’t have given me that chance.”

“Shouldn’t you be thanking him?” I adjusted Jason so his shoulder didn’t ground so painfully into my collar bone. “Were it not for him saying you could hit him once, you would be dead right now.”

Her fangs flashed in the flickering torchlight and for one moment, with her body drenched in blood, I felt my breath come short and quick.

Male vampires were scary.

But female vampires were outright terrifying.

“He said he wasn’t an idiot,” she said and tossed her hair with a laugh. “What a stupid motherfucker. That’s why I hate men.”

Jason cleared his throat and slowly got to his feet with no help from me. “You’ve changed.”

That feral light faded if but a little bit and for a moment, just one moment, I saw her shoulders hunch defensively.

Was this bluster just an act as well?

“We all do,” she replied. “Even you.”

He smiled, although it was not one of happiness. “What I am is because of you.”

“Then you’re also a dumb ass.”

The complete shutdown in his eyes spoke volumes.

Watching them from the sidelines was not something I wanted to do. “Enough. I would rather we get out of this death trap.”

Jason opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it with a shake of his head.

Shannon shrugged. “I’m not complaining. Let’s get the hell out of here before those sons of bitches send someone else. Fighting here feels like a fucking death trap.”

I knelt by Ryder. This was new for me, this offering assistance to something I had done nothing but decimate for the past ten years. “Ryder?”

He did not answer and I rolled him onto his back. Except for a thin stream of blood trickling down his face, there did not appear to be lasting harm. Then again, doing lasting harm to vampire was just about impossible. They were either perfect or just dead. All or nothing for the so-called masters of the night.

“Ryder.”

He groaned and opened one eye, one brilliantly blue eye that looked at me and then crinkled at the corners. “Did we win?”

I didn’t like the way he said “we” as though it was already decided we were some sort of team. “Lazaro is dead.”

He laughed and then immediately winced, one hand going over his chest, the other going to his temple. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have been so damn confident. I probably could’ve taken him. If I tried harder, that is.”

Keeping my face straight, I helped him onto his feet. “Of course, Ryder.”

“Why does it feel like you’re telling me to go fuck myself?”

He laughed low under his breath. He smelled like stargazer lilies, my favorite flower. I couldn’t stop myself from taking in a deep breath, remembering the way they looked at my mother’s funeral.