Downbeat (Biting Love) (31 page)

He made a frustrated noise. “I don’t know what’s going on but that siren can’t be good. If that stench is the Soul Stealer, you should stay here where you’ll be safe.”

“You told me I’ve been playing it too safe. I’m coming.”

He grabbed me by the arms. “Now is not the time to listen to what I said before. Stay here!”

“You can’t make me.”

“Can’t I?” He seemed to expand until he towered over me, his eyes black fire.

I pumped steel into my own spine and glared up with equal fire. “Unless this door locks from the outside—and if it did Logan wouldn’t have posted a guard—I think I can safely say you can’t make me.”

He stepped back. “
Sakra
. You’ve picked a fine time to start taking the initiative.”

“You weren’t complaining a moment ago.”

His frustrated expression didn’t change but a twinkle entered his eye. “I wasn’t, was I? Very well. But stay with me.”

“Of course. I’m only so brazen.”

Dragan grabbed my hand and bounded downstairs. On the second floor landing I started toward the secret passageway but he paused, nostrils flared, eyes closed. “This way.” His eyes snapped open and he headed out of the stairwell in the opposite direction from the offices.

Rounin and Logan were rummaging through a windowless corner room filled with racks and tables of weapons, from knives to what looked like assault rifles; arrays of grenades, goggles and gadgets were in between.

As we entered, Rounin spun, both swords instantly drawn.

Logan continued to grab guns and ammo. “Hello, Zajicek.” He glanced over his shoulder and winked. “Gonna have to find a way to make those cuffs pick-proof. In the meantime, get yourself some ordnance. The Soul Stealer is downstairs. The rest are holding him off but I don’t know for how long. Give Rocky one of the lighter handguns. Nixie will show her how to use it.”

“What if the rumor is true?” I said as Dragan dashed into the room, bypassing the canisters of pepper spray and defensive armor to gather knives, grenades, two flat handguns and a stubby but lethal-looking rifle. “What if he can’t be defeated by either human or vampire?”

“Then we evacuate. There are ten of us and one of him. Let’s hope that’s enough.” Logan led the way down the stairs. The sound of battle got louder.

Ten? “Where’s Zinnia?” I asked.

“Safe room. Same as the rest of the household.”

When Logan flung open the fire door to the first floor it was like surfacing after being submerged. Faint pops and bams became explosions that rocked me onto my heels. Logan crossed the hallway and cautiously cracked another fire door. He scanned inside, then threw open the door, bent and ran in.

Through the crack I saw the big storage room. My friends had knocked over metal and wood shelves to make an impromptu bulwark.

Dragan cupped my head and pressed me low, then hustled me in, shielding me with his own body. Rounin followed us.

What happened next happened fast, some of it all at once, some only seconds apart.

Yet it seemed each moment was crystalline, a pixel of time surrounded by endless black.

We slid into the group behind the tables. Three people I didn’t recognize huddled with the Alliance vampires and their spouses: a man, a woman and a child.

“What the fuck.” Logan was staring at the huddled humans, for once losing his perpetual insouciance.

“The Collinses didn’t make it to their safe room in time.” Liese had to shout over the noise and confusion. She and Sissy were firing a barrage of bullets from their rifles.

My attention shifted. The bullets chattered into a cloud of mist that streamed ten feet to the right—and snapped into the megavamp.

From afar, he was big. Close up he was enormous, tall as the doorway behind him, his face like an SUV and his teeth like tombstones, with two long sabers as fangs.

His eyes, pupils burning with hellish infernos, zeroed in.

On me.

He snarled a single word. I couldn’t hear it over the fusillade hammering my eardrums and rattling my very bones, but I could read his lips.

Mine.

Cold terror seized me. My legs gave and I collapsed onto the floor.

Elena fired what looked like a shoulder missile-launcher. The megavamp blasted into mist and flowed ten feet to the left.

Behind me, Rounin howled. My attention shifted again.

“That’s him.” Red tears streamed down the samurai’s cheeks. “He killed my master.”

“Did anyone try slashing him?” Logan shouted. “Cut off his head, stake him in the heart?”

“Yes.” Liese pointed behind her.

My attention shifted. Bo sat, gulping breaths, his face and chest an open mass of slashed flesh.

My attention shifted again. Nixie knelt next to a body. Its belly was slit open so far I could see the spine.

It was Julian.

My stomach heaved. I whirled onto my knees, covering my mouth. Breathing got me through the worst.

“He’ll be fine.” Nixie was stuffing entrails back in. “They heal most anything.” She paused to wipe a tear from her cheek with the back of her arm then continued stuffing. “You’ll be fine, Julian. You have to be. Jaxxie needs you.”

I went to help her. Dragan ran to reinforce Elena.

Rounin started forward. He looked as if he was going to wade into the midst of the smoke and bullets and tear off the megavamp’s head with his bare hands.

“Rounin,” Logan snapped. “With me. Now.” He knelt next to Liese. Rounin stood frozen. “I said
now
.” Rounin returned to him and knelt and all three opened fire. Together they hit Gravloth with a stream of bullets.

He blew into mist and reappeared a few feet closer, perfectly fine.

“He’s indestructible!” Liese shouted.

“He’d better not be. Elena, give it ten seconds then try another round. Zajicek, watch the monster. You know what to do.”

Nixie and I had gotten Julian’s intestines in and Nixie was holding his belly together. I stared at Gravloth. The megavamp had been misting left, then right in a pattern that even I could see.

Elena launched a charge. As the monster misted away from Elena’s fire, Dragan lobbed a grenade in anticipation of where he would reappear.

As the Soul Stealer snapped into being, the grenade exploded. It blew his legs into tatters.

He collapsed to the floor.

We cheered.

Bones unfurled almost instantly from the monster’s hips. Layers of muscle rolled onto them like carpet. Skin bubbled to cover the muscle and hair grew like time-lapsed grass.

With a grin he got to his feet.

And rushed us.

Logan hit him with a burst of automatic fire. Bullets peppered the monster’s flesh, barely slowing him. Logan shouted, “He heals like an ancient. He’s been fucking toying with us.”

Elena launched another missile at the megavamp. He blew into mist and streamed aside just as the charge exploded. The edges caught and hissed, but Gravloth appeared a short second later, only singed. It healed almost immediately.

Dragan lobbed another grenade. The monster misted the other way. He snapped solid, the grin still on his face, like a fanged skull.

His gaze turned to me. He licked his lips.

Terror slid like cold slime down my spine.

Logan shouted, “New plan. Evacuate.” He gathered his wife with one arm, firing with the other as they retreated.

“Up up up!” Elena ran to the Collinses, pulling at them. They came sluggishly, moving stiffly, cold or fear or both. Sissy and Rounin lay down cover fire but the humans were slow. Me too. My feet were like ice blocks.

Dragan grabbed me by the waist and half-carried me to the door.

“Help me!” Nixie shouted. We looked back. Julian was trying to get to his feet, Nixie pressing his belly together. It was starting to knit but blood and fluids ran freely and he stumbled.

I pushed Dragan. “Go. Help them.”

Logan and Liese were out the door. Elena scooped up the Collins child and ran after them. Bo stumbled behind her. Sissy and Rounin were shielding the parents.

Trailing them all was Nixie stumbling with Julian, whose glazed eyes meant he didn’t see the monster bearing down on them.

“Dragan, go,” I repeated.

“But you—”

“I’ll be fine. Go!”

Dragan shimmered and instantly was at their side. He scooped up Julian as if the vampire weren’t six-plus of pure muscle, spun and headed for the door.

As he ran, his head swiveled. “Raquel, look out!”

I looked. The monster had changed direction and was headed straight for me.

Time froze; my entrails iced, enveloped by a black aura of fear where my skin used to be.

I was about to die.

Chapter Nineteen

The megavamp steamed toward me like a bullet train, unbelievably fast. He was about to hit me—

“Die, Soul Stealer!” Rounin smashed into his side, throwing him from me at the last instant. “For Tamayori!”

Gravloth hit the opposite wall, bounced off—and sprang toward the Collinses, shuffling toward the door, shepherded by Sissy. She blasted the monster point-blank with her automatic weapon, a trill of lethal bullets.

The Soul Stealer staggered back then shook them off with a growl.

“We need more time,” she cried. “Or we won’t get out.”

The megavamp charged at her.

She closed hands around a random Collins, lifted and took off for the door.

Leaving the woman to shiver, eyes widening as the monster zoomed in.

Dragan leaped. He hit the megavamp’s back and stabbed two daggers into the monster’s neck. Blood spurted like fountains.

The monster reached behind him, grabbed Dragan by the head and threw him into the floor with such force that nearby shelves collapsed. Dragan flattened like a pile of broken pieces. My eyes filled with tears I had no time to shed. My feet were already running toward him.

The monster pulled the knives out of his neck. His eyes lifted to me running toward Dragan, and he flashed to intercept.

Rounin appeared before me and thrust the Collins woman into my arms, cutting my dash for Dragan short. “Get her to safety!”

Behind him, Dragan had staggered to his feet and slammed bodily into the megavamp, spinning him into the wall. “Raquel, go!” he shouted.

I trembled. My nerves were shattered and adrenaline had ruined my strength. But I’d played through stage fright before. I called on every bit of performance craft I had to pump control into my muscles. Trembling, I hauled the woman toward the door.

Rounin moved between me and the monster, both swords drawn. “I live to avenge my master. Today is a good day to die. Gravloth! Face me if you dare.”

The megavamp growled. In my periphery I saw the monster blur as he leaped for Rounin.

I couldn’t stop myself from looking. The samurai brought up one blade to block while stabbing with the other. The monster caught the blocking blade, slicing his hand.

The other blade skewered him deep in his belly.

He simply grinned and walked down the blade to catch Rounin by the throat.

I choked.

“Raquel, hurry.” Hands caught me and hustled me and Ms. Collins out the door. It clanged behind us with a note of finality.

I looked up into Dragan’s black eyes. Despite the green bruising of skin surrounding them, his gaze was direct and clear. I said, “But Rounin—”

“Is buying us time. Saving us will bring honor to his master’s memory.”

“And to Rounin?”

“Especially to Rounin. Honor will bring him peace.”

Tears filled my eyes. I didn’t want to go but Dragan was pulling me, and Ms. Collins was weeping and shuddering and I didn’t know what else to do. We ran.

We joined a stream of people in the stairwell, Logan’s household. In the basement parking, Sissy and Zinnia directed people into vans. When Sissy grabbed Ms. Collins and shoveled her in, two cries of joy came from inside.

Logan stood to one side of the stairwell, eyes closed in tight concentration. As the last people trickled out, he slowly opened them. “That’s it. Good.”

“Blood call?” Dragan asked. “That’s advanced.”

“First thing Elias teaches us. Calling our humans to us is sometimes the difference between life and death.” Logan cut an impatient glance behind Dragan. “Rounin?”

“Avenging his master.”

A shudder went through the blond vampire. “Damn. I…damn. He’s a solid protector. I’ve failed him.”

Dragan put a hand on Logan’s shoulder. “No, my friend. He did exactly as he wished. If he dies, it is with honor. And he’s bought you time to save your people, when nothing else could. Don’t make his sacrifice for nothing.”

Logan sucked in a breath through flared nostrils and shook his head. “I can’t believe one damned monster made us all run. Fuck. All right.” He pointed toward one of the vans. “Your mate can ride in there.”

“She’s not—”