Golden Anidae (A Blushing Death Novel) (20 page)

The sound of my blood-curdling screams filled my ears. I couldn’t stop. With each breath, a new scream ripped from me, the sound echoing in the marble tomb. My soul felt as if it trembled with grief and remembered pain.

You’re letting them beat you. Fuck! You’re letting your fear win. What happened to the badass killer that WAS the Blushing Death? What happened to the woman that death feared? Patrick and Dean wouldn’t know this pathetic pussy of a woman screaming. You’re stronger than this, damn it! ACT LIKE IT!

The realization hit me like a slap to the face. I
was
stronger than this, than all of them. My screams died in my throat. Air entered and left my stinging lungs. A menthol cool sensation tingled with each intake of stale cool air.

Raising my eyes to meet Salazan’s glee-filled expression, I breathed. In and out. Letting the cold emptiness of the kill fill my being, I relaxed under his glare. He enjoyed torturing me. The evidence was in the sparkle in his eyes and the erection tenting his thousand-dollar slacks.

I vowed to myself to kill him before this was over. That made me smile.

The hum pulsed across my skin as he clipped the jumper cable to the battery again. Electricity traveled down the cable, flashing through my body in a sharp stab of violence. My body clenched. Clamping my jaw shut, I focused my entire being on Cordero Salazan. I let the scent of Pack wash over me, wrapping its familiarity around my hand and arm like a warm blanket.

My fingers tingled with magic and I concentrated, letting the serenity and confidence of the Pack overwhelm the pain. My fingers shifted, becoming something more as claws burst from my nails and fur tickled across my skin. I tilted my hand, angling my claws up to slice across the ropes binding my wrists until it snapped. My claws shouldn’t have been able to snap the silver-threaded rope but they did. I wasn’t one to ask too many questions, especially when I needed the magic to work in my favor. My hands were free and that was all that mattered. I could ask questions later.

Pressure dwindled, my body slumped, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding in a slow, controlled release. My skin prickled with the spark of electricity and magic.

Cordero Salazan smirked, sauntering over to me, all male bravado and malicious pleasure. He leaned down, his lips grazing my earlobe and his hot breath skimming across the skin of my neck. “I’ll make you beg before I’m done.”

Don’t move. Not yet.

His face was only a few inches from mine with a sinister sneer curling one corner of his mouth. “Beg, you fucking whore! Beg me to save your life!”

“No, thanks,” I answered from between clenched teeth and slammed my head into his face. My brain reverberated against my skull but I was prepared for the blow and he wasn’t.

Stumbling back two steps in surprise, he covered his forehead with both hands. Rubbing the skin that was now red and swelling into a hard knot, he cried out in pain.

Reaching into his jacket, I snatched the Smith and Wesson resting in the holster against his ribs. I grabbed the gun in a clean, practiced draw. My hand was unexpectedly steady, even as I aimed the barrel of the gun down on him.

Cordero Salazan’s eyes focused, trailing up the line of the gun with wide eyes. He finally looked and smelled scared.

Hunt him. Kill him
, she growled through my mind.

Ignoring her, I reached down with my left hand and ripped the jumper cables from my ankles. I never disengaged eye contact from him. He was still too dangerous. I couldn’t afford to take the chance he’d flip the switch on me and get the upper hand again.

“Untie her,” I ordered.

His slow and controlled steps toward Enza irked me, setting my teeth on edge. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he plotted and schemed. But he did as I commanded. I was going to kill him but neither of us could still be restrained when I did it. The vampires would react too quickly for me to save her if I was still restrained. Us. To save us. Once that first shot was fired, setting the world on its edge, there wouldn’t be a lot of time.

His fingers fumbled with Enza’s bonds as his eyes darted from me to the gun. He took too long, waiting, plotting. The ropes dropped to the floor, first the ankles and then the wrists. Salazan stepped back, glaring at me, and the Smith and Wesson.

Enza stretched her arms and legs, rubbing her raw, irritated wrists. She stumbled, clutching the chair for support as her knees gave out. I’d kill them all for what they’d done to her.

“Back away,” I snapped. He took three steps back with his hands up and in view. “Enza,” I said with equal sharpness. “Untie my ankles.”

She moved, slowly at first but didn’t question me. Within a minute and a half, Enza’s dexterous fingers had my ankles free, and I stood with the Smith and Wesson bearing down on Cordero Salazan.

“We can talk about this,” he pleaded.

“Enza, stand behind me,” I ordered, watching from the corner of my eye as she angled behind me without a word.

Salazan took an uncertain step in my direction, closing in on my personal space and within reach of the gun. I wanted to fire, to end him here and now but my mind wandered to Enza standing behind me.

“Dahlia,” he cooed. “We can—” Grabbing my wrist, he forced my gun hand away. His other hand gripped my throat, squeezing until I gasped for air. “I’ll kill you, you stupid WHORE!”

Enza screamed behind me. The shrill sound pierced my consciousness and a malevolent grin curled my lips. Balling my left hand into a tight fist, I brought it hard across Cordero Salazan’s face. His jaw crunched upon impact and he released my wrist long enough for me to wrangle my gun hand free from his grasp. Bringing the handle of the pistol down hard over his head, I snickered as the hard crunch of bone resonated with the butt of the gun slamming into his skull. Salazan fell to his knees, blood gushing from his scalp and mouth.

Adrenaline coursed through my system and my breath sank heavy in my chest as he knelt before me. The Eithina whispered through my mind,
He’s a threat. They’re all a threat.
She wanted to feel his flesh between her teeth, the taste of his blood flowing freely over her tongue, and the faint beat of his heart dwindling to nothing.

“Let’s see if Marabelle can survive your death,” I whispered. A predatory smile spread easily across my face, reached my eyes, and lit my insides with delight.

Cordero Salazan’s eyes shot up at me, wide and round with understanding.

“Dahlia?” Enza’s trembling question steadied my hand.

I felt her move, her aura floating through the stale air around me. My senses slammed into overdrive as the prospect of dealing out some sort of justice was finally being realized, making Cordero Salazan pay. Enza moved the air around me, the scent of her blood, her anxiety, and her humanity lingered in my nose. Sweet as cotton candy on my tongue, her terror floated through the air like a breeze.

Enza wanted me to stop, to walk out of here and call the cops and let the authorities deal with this mess. Once, that might have been my decision too. But Enza didn’t understand I was the
authorities
. This was my mess to clean up. As the Blushing Death, justice was mine to distribute.

Salazan smirked up at me, his eyes lighting with triumph, assuming I wouldn’t kill him with Enza standing behind me. The glimmer of salvation swirled in the amber flecks swimming in his dark eyes. Peace consumed me and the tension in my body eased. The quiet understanding where nothing and no one existed except me and death flowed, shining like the sun through the clouds.

“The air! The air around you is pink, blushing,” he whispered. His smile falling as realization filled his being. “The Blushing Death,” he whispered.

Squeezing the trigger, I planted a silver bullet between his dark eyes. Now lifeless and empty.

Enza’s horrified gasp behind me echoed in the marble tomb as a heart-wrenching scream from somewhere in the compound rippled through the silence.

I turned to Enza. Her gaze completely focused on the body of Cordero Salazan lying dead across the marble floor. Blood spread out from beneath him like red molasses.

“Enza. Enza!” I shouted. I could already hear a rush of footsteps echoing on the marble floors through the house. They were coming.

As she stood staring at me with mortification etched on her face, I shoved the gun into the palm of her hand. I closed her fingers around the butt of the gun and met her gaze.

“They’re coming. Put your back in that corner and use this if they get close. Aim straight and don’t hesitate.” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard. “ENZA!”

Her dark, once innocent eyes focused, finally seeing . . .
me
.

“They’ll kill you. Use this to protect yourself. Do you hear me? Do you understand?” I shoved her hard toward the corner.

She crouched, holding the gun with shaking hands between her knees.

I just hoped she didn’t end up shooting me with that damned gun. Glancing around, frantic, I started panting. I’d given her my only weapon. My mind focused on the chairs we’d been strapped to and a smile crept across my face. Striding over, I picked up one with sure hands. I lifted it above my head and slammed it against the wall, splintering the wood into hundreds of pieces, repeating my actions with the second chair. Picking up a few pieces, I prepared for the onslaught. They were almost here.

Chapter 18

Looking like he lived in 1960’s Vegas rather than present day, a vampire burst through the door. He erupted into our white marble tomb like an explosion baring fangs. His shiny gold jacket shimmered in the low light, drawing attention to his black slacks tapering down to his gleaming patent leather shoes.

He lunged at me from across the room, taking most of the distance in the air and colliding into me like a sledgehammer to my chest. We hit the ground hard and rolled in a heap of tangled limbs. Enza’s shrill shriek from the corner caught my attention but I couldn’t help her, and that knowledge made my heart race and my stomach plunge into the bowls of my gut. Struggling with Bugsy Siegel on top of me, a shot rang out and reverberated across the marble floor.

“Aim for the heart,” I yelled as a second shot filled the space.

“UGH! Sonovabitch!” I groaned as Bugsy’s jaw clenched onto my shoulder. His teeth sank into my flesh and stung through my arm straight down to my fingertips. I lifted my knee in a cheap shot between the bastard’s legs.

He hitched, a groan escaping his throat as he released my arm. His fingers loosened around my arm and broke free, slamming the broken chair leg through his back and into his heart. Bugsy shriveled and crumbled to dust above me and I was able to breathe again.

Enza screamed before I had a chance to get to my feet. Covered by two vampires, I could barely see her kicking legs through the mass of black leather. I flung the broken chair leg across the room to the wave of long blond hair. The partially blunt splinter of wood sank deep into the back of the female vampire holding Enza down. The chair leg breached her skin, sinking deep between her ribs. A river of blood oozed from her back as a squeal of pain erupted from her long slender throat, sounding almost primal. The sound pierced my ears and my senses.

Momentarily off balance by the howler monkey type shriek, I staggered as she reached for the stake protruding from her back. She reached behind her, flailing her arms and swinging her hair to try and pull the makeshift stake from her back, not quite able to reach it.

I got to my feet, running to her. I kicked the chair leg deeper into the vampire’s back with the heel of my biker boot, sliding the wood between her ribs and into her heart. Releasing a reptilian squeal of pain, she withered and died.

Enza scrambled and tried to kick the leather freak, her hands empty. The gun had been knocked from her grasp and the leather freak sank his teeth in her neck, taking almost everything she had left. Enza struggled but she was losing ground and energy as he drank, slurping Enza’s will and determination to survive with each swallow.

I snatched him up by his hair, dragging him from Enza’s neck and his teeth from her flesh. A commotion from the hall drew my attention. Growls, screams, barks, and shouts of profanities echoed as I dragged the vampire bastard across the marble floor by his hair. I couldn’t worry about what was going on outside until I was finished with leather freak. I would have to make my way out. One vampire at a time.

“Grab the gun!” I yelled back over my shoulder, throwing my leg over the vampire I still held by the hair. Plopping down hard on his midsection, I slammed his head against the marble. I clutched one of the other shards of the broken chair I’d stuffed in my back pocket. He struggled beneath my knees, trying to buck me off but I was strong. Stronger than he thought I was.

Releasing his slimy, greased back hair, I balled my hand into a tight fist and plunged it deep into his eye socket. His skull cracked around my knuckles, splintering out across the bone as his blood coated my hand. I shifted the piece of broken chair in my right hand and jammed it up through his body, underneath his sternum. The splinter punctured flesh, muscle, and lung before sinking deep into the tough muscle tissue of his heart. Squirming beneath me, he shook like he was in fast forward. In an explosion of magic and ash, he was gone.

The door flung open as a body crashed through it, slamming through the wooden door hard and onto the marble floor even harder. A dark black dog the size of a Saint Bernard slid across the floor to my feet, whimpering. A soft warm heat radiated around me, tingling across my skin as his magic sunk into me. Kneeling beside him, I sank my fingers into his fur.

Everett reeked of fear.

I scratched behind his ears. He’d come, overcoming all his submissive instinct, to help me. Raiden slid on his paws beside us, barking. Ferocious, even in his smaller body.

Everett was between 150 pounds and 175 pounds, big for a wolf but small for a werewolf. Raiden was even smaller than that at only about 100 pounds but still bigger than a regular coyote. Raiden wasn’t a fan of werewolves but they’d come together . . . for me.

Raiden circled us on guard as I sank my hands into Everett’s thick fur to ease his anxiety. A growl rumbled in the back of my throat as Jarvis strode through the door. They’d hurt one of mine. The Eithina part of me wanted retribution. Wanted blood.

Everett got up, slow and wobbling, on four unsteady legs with a weak growl rumbling in the back of his throat. Jarvis stood tall before us like impending doom and the glimmer of pink behind him caught my eye as Marabelle followed him into the room. The click of her heels echoed on the marble, filling my ears with the crisp sound of a knife through steel. She’d survived Cordero Salazan’s death all right and she was pissed!

Pausing by Cordero Salazan’s limp body, a blood-red tear streamed down her cheek, marring her perfect porcelain skin. She turned green eyes on me, her gaze filled with pain, rage, and vengeance.

Everett stepped up beside me, unsteady and limping, as he tried to keep his weight off his front paw. His leg was bent at an odd angle and I was pretty sure it was broken.

The Eithina in me wanted to take his pain away, but she also wanted to rip Jarvis’ fucking head off. She growled inside of me and I welcomed her blood lust, her primal vengeance.

“You killed him,” Marabelle hiccupped, her voice broken as she spoke through her sob. She seemed surprised.

I glanced down at Raiden and Everett with hard, dead eyes. “Protect her,” I ordered as I nodded my head back to Enza cowering in the corner. I blocked out her cries from my consciousness. I couldn’t worry about her, not yet.

Raiden growled up at Jarvis and Marabelle as he paced a line of defense in front of Enza. Everett whimpered, nudging my calf with his head.

“Go on,” I ordered. “I can take care of myself.” I gave my full attention to the pink nightmare and the white death in front of me. Raiden and Everett would have to fend for themselves for a little while.

Marabelle’s green eyes narrowed on me. Her shoulders squared and her face took on the determination of murder. Her fangs glistened in the soft light as her saliva dripped from her fangs in a sneer. Marabelle’s hands trembled at her sides like a junkie waiting for her next fix. Smiling a devious little grin, my Eithina took pleasure in the pain we’d caused her.

“I’ll kill you for this,” Marabelle snarled through gritted teeth.

She couldn’t keep me. I wouldn’t let her erase Patrick’s mark, and she needed my willing participation. Her only option was to kill me. I knew it, and by the lethal expression in her eyes, she knew it too. The only problem was I wasn’t about to go out without a fight.

“Remember my promise, you fucking lunatic! I’ll suck the marrow from your bones and feed it to you before I’m done,” I growled in a voice that wasn’t just mine, but my Eithina’s as well.

Marabelle’s arctic stab of power raked through me like a knife of ice, and my body tightened in readiness.

Coming at me like a freight train, her blood-coated pink tulle gown flowed behind her like a storm cloud. She was beautiful in her vengeance but I was efficient in mine. I balled my fist, swinging at her when she was almost on me. Quicker than my eyes could follow, I misjudged her distance and my fist sailed past her face. Connecting with her shoulder, my blow slid off, and lost momentum.

She grabbed my throat in both hands, wrapping her fingers around my warm flesh. I grappled with her wrists to loosen her hold as she lifted me from the ground. My feet dangled a few inches off the floor. I circled my legs around Marabelle’s torso and squeezed her midsection as she cut off my air. One of her ribs cracked under the pressure of my thighs and then a second.

Her nostrils flared as she snarled at me, yanking me closer. Her fangs glistened, sharp and dangerous, in her mouth.

I grabbed a clump of her hair in my hands and yanked, forcing her head to the side with all my strength.

“AGHHHH,” she groaned.

I hated using the girl trick but I was starting to see stars as I ran out of oxygen. I had to get her fingers from around my damned throat.

I jabbed my middle and index fingers into her throat, jamming them into the hard tissue through her neck. Her vibrant green eyes crossed at the blow as her trachea collapsed and she couldn’t swallow or scream.

Her grip loosened on my throat and air rushed into my lungs. I kept my legs wrapped around her waist, squeezing as I flung myself back, arching until my hands were flat on the floor behind me. I yanked on her body from my hips with all my might, flipping her over me. Her head smashed into the marble floor with a thick thump, bouncing and cracking as it struck. The dull thud of the blow resonated in my mind.

Snarls and growls from the corner echoed in the stone room as Raiden and Everett wrestled with Jarvis. The entire colony seemed to be hanging back, waiting. Hovering like a swarm just outside. But they didn’t move, didn’t attack. I didn’t know why and as Marabelle steadied herself on her hands and knees, I didn’t care.

I caught Enza’s gaze, wide and disbelieving as she clutched her knees to her chest, cowering in the fetal position in the corner. She’d already seen too much killing and death in a very short time. She was about to see more.

I had to finish Marabelle here and now. Jarvis was winning and Raiden and Everett needed my help. The kid was injured, submissive, and too unskilled to win in a fight. And Jarvis outweighed Raiden by a good 150 pounds.

I glared down at Marabelle as blood gushed from her head. The warm glide of fluid streamed down the side of my face and into my hair. I reached up and wiped the blood away from the corner of my eyes.

I thought about Everett, limping and growling as he protected what was mine. I thought about Dean and how worried but how proud of me he would be in this moment. I remembered the security of him, the Pack wrapped around me, and the warmth of acceptance filled me up. I was Pack. I
was
Eithina.

Marabelle struggled to get her balance in the mess of pink tulle that was tangled around her legs. I knelt beside her as she tried to steady herself on hands and knees. Snatching a handful of her rich auburn hair in my hand, I yanked her head back, exposing her long lean neck. I peered down into her eyes.

“Do you know who I am?” I asked through clenched teeth, the growl deepening in my throat. “Do you know WHAT I am?” I let all my power, all the emptiness of the kill, and all my rage flow from me. It combined with Patrick’s clear, cool essence of death and Dean’s warm primal hunger. I wrapped my right arm in the thought of Dean and the Pack, feeling the familiar tingle as my fingers transformed, growing golden blond fur. My nails stretched out into long silvery claws and my eyes burned to what I knew would be the purest silver.

Marabelle shivered, watching my metamorphosis. Turning pale-green and finally frightened eyes back up to my face, she begged for her life with a pleading glance. My face heated with rage and my mind settled, the peace of death overwhelming me.

“The Blushing Death,” she whimpered.

Smiling down at her with menace in my gaze, I jerked her head harder. She was right. I was the Blushing Death. I was Fertiri. I was Eithina. I was even the Golden Anidae. I was a killer. At the end of the day and after all else was said and done, I was me. No one and nothing could take that from me but me. I wouldn’t lose that perspective again.

“I’m the last thing you’ll ever see,” I said, cold and calm. I brought my claws down across her throat, spraying my arm and her pretty pink dress with her blood. I slashed her again and again until her head dangled from my hand by her hair. Her body lay limp and headless, a stark contrast of crimson and a mountain of pink tulle against the white marble floor.

Glimmering a few feet away, the glint of light reflecting on metal caught my eye. I let my hand shift back to human and grabbed the Smith & Wesson from the floor. I held Marabelle’s head by her hair in my left.

I tossed Marabelle’s head between Jarvis and Raiden, her dulled green eyes staring at nothing as it rolled. Her head rolled unevenly across the floor, sticking in places where her neck, dripping blood and gore, touched the marble. Blood, smearing a red demarcation line, reinforced Raiden and Everett’s position around Enza. 

Jarvis froze, his fist hovering above Everett as his other hand clutched the kid’s neck. Marabelle’s eyes stared up at him, blank, dead. Turning pain-filled eyes to meet mine, Jarvis snarled, lips curling. He dropped Everett, his shoulders squaring. I was tired. I didn’t have another fight in me.

Raising the gun at Jarvis’ determined expression, I fired twice. Bullets punctured his chest, piercing his heart with the hot silver. He dropped to his knees with his palms open and eyes resigned. Skin and muscles peeled away from bone and all the water left his body. What was left was a corpse appearing as if it’d been dead for the last two centuries, crumbling to dust.

Regret burned in my chest as I exhaled. Jarvis’ death was a waste of a good vampire. I’d kinda liked him.

“Take his head,” I ordered Raiden and Everett over my shoulder. I stepped over Jarvis’ disintegrating corpse and plugged two rounds into Marabelle’s chest, just to be sure. As her body disintegrated to dust, I listened to growls and the grinding sounds of teeth on bone as they gnawed Jarvis’ head from his body.

Like a cold fog looming overhead, the colony hovered, swarmed, waited. I centered my power into a tight ball at the core of my being. I couldn’t let them jump us. We wouldn’t stand a chance if the entire colony came at us at once.

I shoved power out with everything I had. Blood, both dead blood and my blood, rose from the floor, springing into a solid wall around us.