The Chosen Ones (4 page)

Behead him. Behead him.

I jumped to my feet. I didn’t
think, merely lifted the weapon and swung. The blade sliced through his neck,
only to come to a stuttering halt as it hit bone.

“Ahhh!” he cried out, clawing at
the weapon.

Determined, I shoved my foot
into his chest for momentum, and pulled the blade free.

“You bitch!” his friend
screamed.

As the other beautiful one
jumped at me, I swung the sword for a second time, this one harder. The blade
sliced through Roman’s neck, hitting the cement floor with a thud. His head
tumbled away, rolling down the corridor like a ball. It was done. Before I
could lift my weapon again, the other beautiful one was over the desk and on
me. We fell to the ground, my skull slamming against the hard floor. Pain shot
down my spine. A startled cry escaped my lips as the world around me wavered in
and out of focus.

Weak and stunned, the sword
slipped from my grip, clanging across the floor. In the low lantern light I
could see the hatred in his gaze, the look of pure determination to take my
life. He gripped my neck with his strong fingers. The air around me fled. My
head pounded, my lungs burning.

Something…I needed something.
Frantic, I swung my arm wide, reaching out… My fingers brushed the cold metal
of my sword. I gripped the blade, not even pausing when it cut into my hand, and
swung it toward his head. The hilt of the sword hit his temple. It wasn’t much,
but it was enough to make him loosen his hold. Wonderful air seeped down my
throat and into my lungs. Gasping, I sucked in as much as I could.

“You’ll pay, cow.” Hands raised,
he started toward my throat once more.

Whimpering, I shoved my feet
into the floor, trying to throw him off, but he wouldn’t budge. Those strong
fingers caught my neck again. I clasped his wrists, digging my nails into his
flesh. It did no good. I was going to die after all. The light faded, and my
lungs burned with an intensity that had tears blurring my vision. I shifted my
gaze, refusing to look into his eyes when I died, and that’s when I saw Will
standing on the desk.

For a brief moment I thought I’d
imagined him…until he jumped. With a cry, he leaped down, swinging his sword in
a great arc like one of the warriors I’d read about. The blade hit the
vampire’s neck. It didn’t pause as mine had, but swiped cleanly through the
animal as Will landed nimbly on his feet beside us.
 
 

The beautiful one collapsed onto
his side, his head rolling down the hall and into the shadows. I was barely
aware of the blood splattering across my trousers. Because as that head rolled
to a stop against the wall, I was reminded of Thanatos and the way he’d ripped
that man’s head from his body the night he’d saved me. The night I’d realize
just how strong the beautiful ones really were.

Thanatos.

I hadn’t thought about him in
days. Suddenly, the entire skyscraper faded. Will, who was checking the bodies
to make sure both beautiful ones were truly dead, no longer mattered. The smoke
curling down the hall wasn’t important. All these days while I’d been
half-dead, the memory of Thanatos had been like a mere dream, something that
tempted me when I slept. Had he been enemy or friend?

Lantern light suddenly flashed
across my face, momentarily blinding me and bringing me back into reality.
 
“You okay?” Will asked, kneeling in front of
me.

I nodded, although I wasn’t sure.
Physically, yes, I supposed I was well enough, although my throat hurt.
Emotionally, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be okay again. I swallowed hard, daring to
look at the two bodies, still unmoving. So much blood. Thanatos was a beautiful
one, he belonged with them, yet he had saved me, hadn’t he? I wasn’t sure
anymore. The entire time at the castle was a blur.

“Jane?” Will watched me with a critical
eye, as if he searched for something, yet wasn’t quite sure what he looked for.
“You saved them.”

I didn’t respond. There was a
question to this statement, although what he asked I didn’t know, nor did I
care. My gaze dropped to the two bodies near my feet; they were beings who had
been breathing only moments before. I had killed one. I had taken a life.
Oddly, I felt numb about the whole thing. There was no sense of vengeance or
relief, only nothingness.

“Kelly and the children…you
saved them. I saw you.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, my throat
painfully sore. I swore I could still feel his fingers around my neck. I
crossed my arms, hoping Will didn’t noticed how much I trembled. “I couldn’t
let them die. Not like that.”

He nodded like he understood.
And he did. Will had saved me. He’d saved hundreds in this never-ending battle.
“They’re dead, the few blood drinkers who found our lair. But we have to leave
the city. It’s been compromised.”

I didn’t protest. There was
nothing here for me. I belonged nowhere. He reached out his hand. I hesitated, staring
at his strong fingers and thinking of the beautiful one who had tried to choke
me. But Will wasn’t a vampire. He was human, like me. Steeling my nerves, I slipped
my hand into his. He pulled me easily to my feet but didn’t release my hand.

“Are you back now?” he asked,
his breath warm across my face.

I wanted to shrink away. “I
don’t know.” I wasn’t sure. “Maybe.”

“Good.”

“They’re here!” Kelly called out,
her voice echoing down the hall, followed by the thunder of footsteps. I’d
never been so happy to see her.

I pulled my hand from Will’s
just as she came running up to the desk, Tony behind her.

Her wide gaze followed the
pattern of blood covering my clothing, then jumped up to my face. “Are you
okay?”

I nodded, watching them warily
as they climbed over the desk. Being this close, having them stare…it was all
too intimate.

“Did you…” She looked down at
the mess of blood and body parts littering the ground. I knew what she was
asking. Funny, how only two weeks ago death, destruction, and blood had sent me
into a tailspin. Now I could look at it without flinching.
 

“I only killed one,” I replied,
feeling slightly uncomfortable under their intense scrutiny. They were looking
at me differently. Shocked, yes, but something else…as if they expected more
from me now. I wasn’t sure I could offer more.

“Just one?” Kelly laughed and
wrapped her arm around my shoulders, pulling me close for a hug, despite my
bloody clothing. I remained stiff, counting down the seconds until she finally released
me and I could breathe again. “Just one?”

“Holy crap, she killed a
beautiful one?” Tony said, looking at Will for confirmation.

I didn’t bother to explain that
my killing had been more about luck than strength or cunning. Will picked up my
sword, swiped the blood off with his shirt, and then handed it to me. “Well
done. It’s yours now.”

I took the weapon, the weight
reassuring in some way. When my sister was little she’d made herself a doll out
of wheat stalks and a dried apple. She’d kept that doll with her until it had
fallen apart. She said it made her feel better, safe. Holding the sword, I
finally understood.
 

“We have to leave. They’ve found
our base,” Will said, leaping over the desk with the agility of a guy who’d
been running his entire life. “It’s time to move before they return with
reinforcements.”

He and Tony started back toward
the main room, dismissing me and the killings. It was back to business. This
was my new normal. I had no friends, no family. I had nowhere to go but with
them.

“Congrats.” Kelly grinned, helping
me over the desk. “Not only did you save a room full of kids, you also killed
your first beautiful one.”

I didn’t respond. As we made our
way down the hall I couldn’t help but glance back. I couldn’t see the bodies,
but I knew they were there. Like ghosts, they followed me.

How quickly my life had changed.
They’d murdered Sally, and now I had gotten back at them. An eye for an eye—I
supposed I finally understood that saying. It had taken the death of a
beautiful one to bring me back to life. This was what revenge was all about. So
why, then, didn’t I feel any better?

Chapter
3

They burned the bodies.

To make sure there were no
remains, no evidence, Kelly had explained. I said nothing as I watched the
corpses fry; my throat hurt too much to speak. But even the overwhelming scent,
so repulsive that I thought I might vomit, didn’t deter me from watching. Who
would have thought something so beautiful could have smelled so badly?

As ill as I felt, I stayed
because I too wanted to make sure they were truly gone. I wanted them dead. Hated
them with a burning passion that matched the heat of the flames before me. It
was the only feeling that kept me in the here and now. Yet, seeing their
perfect faces burn, the skin practically melting from their skulls, was
something that would give me nightmares for years, if I lived that long, and I
found I couldn’t look away from the grotesqueness of it all.

“Well, we got to stay here for
two months,” Kelly sighed. “Longer than most places.”

She wasn’t watching the bodies
burn; the common sight didn’t concern her in the least. Instead, her gaze was
focused on the building in the background. The place where we’d been living
only an hour earlier. Smoke trailed from the open windows in thick, black
clouds, the scent heavy in the air. I realized how close we’d been to burning
like the beautiful ones.
 

Disconcerted, I tore my gaze
from the smoke and refocused on the fire. But killing them made little
difference. I still felt their presence, hidden within the shadows, waiting for
me to sleep. They followed me like the scent of smoke clinging to my clothing. The
weight of my sword nestled in the leather sheath Kelly had given me made me
feel somewhat better, but not much. Somehow we had survived, but would we next
time?

I watched with a cold detachment
as two of Will’s men tossed the body of yet another beautiful one into the
flames. The fourth and last. Amazing how so few vampires could do so much
damage.

“Are you all right?” Kelly asked,
resting a hand on my shoulder.

Her touch startled me from my
stupor, and made me uncomfortable. I stepped away, avoiding eye contact for
fear she’d see the unease in my gaze and know that I hadn’t returned to normal
after all.

“Yes.” And I was well enough. At
least I could move, I could speak, I might be able to eat without getting ill. I
was certainly better than I’d been in the last two weeks. But I was still
numb…so numb inside and out, deep within my bones. I didn’t think the feeling
would ever truly go away. I was like early spring when the ground looked soft
and thawed. Yet, if you tried to dig deep you’d find it hard and frozen.

“It…seems sacrilegious in some
way, killing something so beautiful.”

“Sacrilegious?” Tony laughed, as
he sidled up next to Kelly and threw his arm over her shoulders.

Will merely studied me
thoughtfully from the opposite side of the bonfire, his eyes unreadable. I
admit a part of me wondered what he thought. Was he disappointed I hadn’t
worked harder, or relieved that I’d finally broken out of my stupor? A log in
the fire popped, sending a whirl of sparks into the air and pulling my
attention from Will. Pretty, really. I watched until the sparks disappeared
into the late afternoon sky. It had been days since I’d seen the clouds.

“Don’t know what sacrilegious means,”
Tony said. “But I say a dead beautiful one is a good beautiful one.”

One of Will’s men nodded his
head, agreeing.

There was something about Tony I
didn’t like. He nuzzled Kelly’s neck, his blue eyes hard, soulless, too much
like the beautiful ones. But I couldn’t blame him, could I? After experiencing
what I’d experienced, every day I felt as if I was growing colder. Maybe I
didn’t care for Tony not because he reminded me of the beautiful ones, but
because he reminded me of what I was becoming.

“We should move out,” Will said.

But before any of us could take
a step, Kelly cried out. “You’re injured!”

It wasn’t until she pushed away
from Tony and grabbed my hand that I realized she was talking to me. She
smelled like smoke from the burning skyscraper, but then we all did. And like
her, dark smudges of soot marked my arms and probably my face as I’d brushed
against burning rubble to free myself from the cement tomb. At least in the
compound we’d bathed often. Here, there were no rules to abide by and I
wondered if I’d ever feel clean again.

“Not good,” she murmured, still
focused on my wound.

I’d forgotten about the injury
I’d received when I’d killed the beautiful one. The red gash seemed so insignificant
after all that had happened. In fact, the stinging pain where my own sword had
sliced my palm had become a part of me, like the beating of my heart. “It’s
fine.”

I pulled away from her. Honestly,
I liked the pain; it reminded me I was human, alive. That pain kept me grounded
in the real world when I feared I could so easily slip away again.
 

“No, it’s not fine.” She sighed,
her concern touching and annoying. “Will?”

He nodded toward a pile of
rubble along the side of the road. “Come on.”

A blush crept its way up my neck
and into my cheeks. I wished she hadn’t said anything. It wasn’t as if I needed
even more attention than I’d been getting the past two weeks. I’d taken up too
much of their time already, I didn’t want to be a burden. Reluctantly, I
followed him, weaving my way around the chunks of cement that had fallen from
the tall skyscrapers surrounding us. Although the buildings were broken and
destroyed, it still made me dizzy when I looked up at them. I focused on my
feet instead, concentrating on my dusty boots.