Crimson Dawn (22 page)

The kid flinched, and his grip faltered. Bingo, I'd cracked his tough guy armor and made him think about what he was doing. This didn't make the other two happy at all. Someone threw David across the room, and another Deadborn quickly tried to take his place. I dropped the pretense of weakness and flashed out of his grip. Before either could turn, I was behind them. Grabbing both their heads, I smashed them together, and, for the time being at least, they were out cold.

The scent of fresh blood assaulted my nose and caused my stomach to roll in hunger. I shook off the feeling and willed my features to melt back into my normal form then wheeled around to check David. My UV sight blinked off again, just as I knelt by his side. Damn it to hell and back again! It looked like I could only use it while I was feral. I blinked my eyes and tried the night vision, but it blinked in and out like a TV on the fritz. I tried dropping my films, so I could at least see normally but had no luck. Hampered by the dark again, I hadn't gotten to see where the bleeding was coming from. I ran my hands across his stomach and felt something poking through the skin, something that was wide enough and had caused enough damage to prove lethal for a Deadborn.

The ‘something’ that was wrapped in David's hands proved to be a jagged, rusted pipe. "I don't wanna die, please help me.” Damn me, and my sense of moral obligation. This boy just tried to kill me, but I saw something that was worth saving.

I gripped the pipe and slipped into his mind again. "
I can help you, David, but this is going to hurt. Blood can heal you, but I'm going to have to remove the pipe. You can't heal around it
.” David nodded and ground his teeth together in anticipation of the pain. Reaching around the boy to make sure the pipe wasn't attached to anything, I pulled it through his body in one quick tug.

I'll give it to the kid, he didn't scream as loudly as I thought he would. Pipe out, now for the blood. I helped David to his feet and walked him back over to where his two buddies were just beginning to gain consciousness again. Another knock on the head took care of that. "There's your blood.” He looked at me in horror, but dropped to his knees and began feeding from his former friends.

While he fed, I looked around in the darkness and tried willing my UV eyesight to work. No such luck. I sighed and reached out with my mind trying to feel the auras the remaining vamps. The only thing I got were the worried minds of the children I'd left in hiding. I reached out farther but got no feel for the other vamps. What I did get was the taste of blackest aura I had every felt in my life.

A knot of dread settled into the pit of my stomach and a feeling of familiarity wrapped around my brain. I snatched David away from the second body and flashed back to the kids before he could utter a word. I had to get them out of here before whatever was heading our way made its appearance.

I forewent any subtly and uncovered the children in one quick movement. My eyes blinked back on as the air around us took a nosedive into colder climates and the knot in my stomach got even bigger. It was closer and strong as hell. At this rate we weren't all getting out of here alive, and losing any of the children wasn't an outcome I could accept. Giving David a hard look, I reassured, "Alright kids, this is my new friend, David. He's going to get you to the nearest police station, so your mommies and daddies can come and take you home. OK?"

David looked at me with a puzzled look on his face, and I cut him off mentally before he could express his concern out loud. "
There's a big nasty heading this way, and I'm gonna stay here to give you guys a chance to make it to safety. I'm trusting you to control yourself, David. One scratch on any of these kids and I'll forget that I'm starting to like you, are we clear
?” David nodded, and I turned my attention back to the children.

"David is special just like me. He’s not like the bad men that took you from your homes," I looked around for the nearest exit and got zilch. Luckily, for me, I was a one woman wrecking crew when I needed to be. I took a few steps back and ran forwards as fast and as hard as I could. The old wall didn't stand a chance.

When I looked back, David and the children looked at me with mixed looks of awe and terror. "Alright guys, up and outta here, no time to waste.” I took the unconscious child still huddled in her protector's arms and passed her to David. "Run hard, run fast, and no matter what, don't look back. The first people you find, you bug the fuck outta them until they take you to a Human police station. You got it?”

David signaled 'OK', and rushed the kids out into the night and away from the building as fast as he could. As they ran, I prayed that I was strong enough to hold whatever was heading in my direction off long enough for Irulan and Priest to arrive with backup.

As the icy chill around me settled into my lungs, I seriously doubted it. Whatever was here packed some serious power, and I'll be damned if it didn't know my name.

"Valeria, Valeria, Valeria, you've been a very busy girl. And a very naughty girl. I felt the light of my turns go dark. I'm assuming they were extinguished by you as you're the only one present.” The voice wrapped itself around me like silken butter and turned the knots to butterflies.

Without even the effort of reaching out, I felt an immense aura looming in the darkness, a very familiar aura. Trying to get a feel for what I was up against, I squinted and turned my head in the direction of the voice. I got nothing - no scent, no sounds of a heartbeat, no breathing. I tentatively reached out with my mind and ran right into a solid wall. Whoever this was, he was shielding like a big dog. I couldn't find any cracks whatsoever.

The voice wrapped itself around me again, "Not nice to try and get by my shields, Donnie. You might hurt yourself.” Before my mind could accept the truth of who was out there in the dark, it was plunged into a world of pain.

I screamed, but the only thing I heard was the pounding of blood in my ears as my knees buckled under the onslaught that was attacking me. I writhed in agony for what seemed like hours, but in actuality, was only a few seconds. The voice became louder and clearer, forcing its way through the haze of pain that clouded my mind as its owner made its way to my side and kneeled down, leaning forward till it was inches from my sight, finally allowing me to see its face.

My eyes couldn't let the doubt my mind was trying to grasp hold purchase any longer. I felt this thing was definitely Tristan, but that didn't make any sense to my frazzled brain at all. I had felt Tristan's aura coming from the rooftop, not fifteen minutes ago. I saw his face when he dropped the first child through the skylight. Hell, I heard his voice when he ordered his fledglings to drop the others.

Those two auras were miles apart strength-wise. I don't know how he did it before, but the man in front of me was Tristan, this time there was no doubt in my mind.

The look of understanding on his face spoke volumes, "I understand this is all a bit confusing for you, love. It's nice to know my decoy did his job as well as I'd hoped. I go through great pains spelling my blood for the decoy to consume in order to keep that charade stable. In my line of business, it pays off in the end. Tristan ran his hand down the side of my face to push a stray hair back out of the way. "I'm sorry I had to hurt you, love. Hopefully, you won’t provoke me like that again." I tried to pull away from his touch, but my body wasn't ready to cooperate just yet.

Tristan tsked me and sucked on his teeth before settling back onto his haunches, "Careful there, Donnie. You're going to hurt my feelings, make me think you don't enjoy my company anymore. Oh, incidentally, I've forgiven you for the little misunderstanding that caused our breakup. At first, I was understandably furious, but, over time, I realized that your father drove us apart. He never thought that I was good enough for you, not strong enough."

Tristan ran a cold hand up and down the side of my leg, "But no worries about that now, love. I've got all the strength I need and then some. Both of our fathers will have no choice but to smile upon our union and admit they were wrong about me."

I couldn't believe it, all the deaths, all the forced turns, just to prove to our fathers that he was big enough for his breeches now. I'd hate to see what he was capable of if he had a legitimate cause to advocate.

My body finally decided to come back to the land of the living. I pulled myself up into a sitting position, and a wave of nausea rolled over me. It took a concentrated effort not to hurl as I struggled to talk. "Our breakup was never about either of our fathers, Tristan. It was about you and your lack of a conscience. I didn't need my father to tell me I didn't belong with a monster like you. I came to that realization all on my own."

I know, not a bright move, but it'd been a long time since I bit my tongue for anyone, and I was all about moving forward, not backward.

Apparently, he didn't like what I said. Tristan halted his stroking and gripped my calf like a vice. "I told you, baby, if you're not careful you're going to hurt my feelings.” With that, he flexed his hand barely an inch and crushed the bone in my leg. "You really should be careful with my feelings, Valeria.” Tristan poked at my leg with a finger, moving the broken pieces of bone around under the surface of my leg. "Since you and your friends are so fond of breaking the bones of my associates, let's see how you like the same treatment.”

Everything in me wanted to scream out as the pain shot through me, but I refused to give him the satisfaction. "You're not getting any brownie points breaking bones, Tris," I said through clenched teeth, "and you can't blame everything on our fathers. In fact, my father was the reason our relationship lasted as long as it did. At some point, you’re going to have to admit to yourself that you're nothing more than a demented, spoiled, little brat who never learned how to play with the big boys. "

Tristan flinched and ran his hand down the other leg before he leaned forward and promptly broke the bone in it too. The fragmented bone pierced through the surface of my skin and this time, I couldn't stop the low moan of pain that escaped my lips. If Irulan and Priest didn't get here soon, I wouldn’t have any bones left intact.

Tristan leaned close enough to drop a quick kiss on my lips, "I never had to learn to play with the boys, love. I simply became the biggest boy on the block. Now everyone has to play by my rules.”

Tristan hauled me up by my arms promptly breaking them both and bent his head to nuzzle my neck. "I so had much higher hope for our reunion, Donnie. With things the way they are between us, I'm sure you'll understand that I can't have you down here decimating my plans."

Even though I felt the brush of his fangs, I never thought that he would blood rape me until I felt the skin of my neck give way underneath them.

My features melted into my feral form, and huge leathery wings ripped themselves from my back. He had tapped into my feral side and drew it out of me in a way I never had before.

My mind raced a mile a minute as I tried to find a way out of the situation alive. In the end, the only thing I could do was beg. When my voice came out I could hardly believe my own ears, the low-throaty hiss sounded nothing like me at all. "Please, Tris, don't do this, we've know each other since we were fourteen years old. Damn it! Purebloods don't do this to each other."

Tristan laughed and pulled back a bit, "Haven't you noticed, love? I do whatever the hell I want now. I don't let the gargantuan pile of rules our race lives by govern my actions any longer, and I do believe I'm a better man for it. Don’t you think?”

He tore back into my neck with renewed gusto wrenching a scream from the depths of my core.

I tried to struggle against him, but his grip was unforgiving, "Please, Tris, for God's sake, don't do this.” Nothing I said made any difference to Tristan. He ripped my blood from me, savagely gnawing at my neck as if he were trying to chew it off.

Looks as if I had been mistaken, I was about to lose a lot more than intact bones. Tristan devoured my lifeblood at an insane rate. One of these days, I’ll start listening to Irulan. I should have told Marcus and my father both where they could shove this case, but no, I needed fuckin' closure.

It seemed funny that my thoughts would drift to Irulan at this moment. She's always been there for me even when I tried my damnedest to push her away. Three days ago, she all but admitted she was in love with me, but my silly hang-ups wouldn't allow me to consider a relationship with her as a possibility.

Shit, I love her more than I realized, and I trust her with my life. Isn’t that the basis for a strong relationship? By my reckoning, we might as well be an old, married couple. We certainly behaved like one.

Now, because I was stubborn and hardheaded, we'd never get that chance. I reached out with what little power I had left and tried to find Irulan. If I were to die, I needed her to know how I felt. I couldn't go to my grave without her knowing that I loved her just as much as she loved me. Surprisingly enough I didn't have to reach that far.