Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2) (42 page)

“Let’s get out of this hellhole.”

Chapter 34

C
hance took point as they made their way into the dimly lit hall. Cohen bit down on murmured groans as Lilith and Timothy supported his weight. He was trying desperately to be quiet, but every single motion tugged at the deep gaping wounds covering his chest, sides and stomach. Lilith tried to go slow and easy for his sake, but her brain kept screaming to run, flooding her body with a half dozen hormones that made her heart race and her muscles twitch.

Dim emergency lights and exit arrows cast the barren hallway in an eerie glow, illuminating the neutral walls and white tile floors with splashes of red and yellow. The black plaques that sat vacantly next to the closed doors only added to the anonymous and creepy feel of the hall. The tiny hairs on the back of Lilith’s neck stood on end as flashes of déjà vu tightened her chest. She felt like she back in Phipps Bend, sneaking through the dark, trying to evade the evil clutches of a psychotic villain. It wasn’t much different. Ashcroft and Luminita were two sides of the same damn coin, but this time it was so much worse. There was no doubt that Ashcroft was far more deadly, but he hadn’t had a vindictive siren and a body-raising voodoo queen on his side.

They picked their way past several bodies on the floor, more of the anonymous SWAT style guards that Farren used. She watched Chance bend down and scoop up one of the semi-automatic guns and for a moment, Lilith considered doing the same. Until she realized that she’d probably hit everything except what she was aiming at. Once again she found herself wishing she was more like the Hollywood vamps. It’d be nice to have an instinctual knowledge of martial arts and weaponry.

The group was nearing a corner when Chance held a hand up and pointed toward the wall. Thankfully, Timothy knew what that meant and began steering Lilith and Cohen to put their backs against the wall. Once Chance saw that they were all in position, he held a finger to his lips and then crept closer to the corner. He crouched down low, the lean muscles in his back tensing like a panther ready to strike. He waited in that position and all Lilith could detect from him was an extreme focus.

Nervously, Lilith glanced back down the long hall and her eyes caught on something. Cohen was leaving a smeared trail of blood, a lot of blood, on the white tile floor, blazingly obvious even in the dim light. They might as well toss glow-in-the-dark breadcrumbs on the floor behind them.              

Her eyes quickly flicked to Cohen who was resting his head against the wall, eyes half closed. The cross slashes around his eyes seemed to have stopped bleeding finally, but the deeper wounds on his torso, the names, were still seeping blood. Hypovolemic shock could set in at any moment. He was dying right here in front of her and she was powerless to help him. Even if she had time to stop, stitch up his wounds and get the bleeding to stop, it wouldn’t be enough. Hell, with as deep as Luminita cut it’d be a miracle if she hadn’t nicked an organ or perforated his bowel.

If she was being completely honest with herself, her concern for Cohen’s survival wasn’t entirely self-less. She empathized with Cohen and she knew he never deserved this, but he was also their only shot to escape the death sentence that awaited them. Without the book and cipher, Luminita and Farren going rogue was the only bargaining chip they had. Without Cohen to corroborate their story, it was their word against Farren and Luminita. She was betting that the word of three vampires didn’t mean much to a tight-knit clan of demons.

Of course, first they had to escape this endless maze of sterile hallways and locked doors. The morgue style torture chamber and continuous tile floor seemed to indicate it was an old medical office of some sort. There couldn’t be that many of them in New York City, could there? Who was she kidding? This was the world post-Obama-care. There was an empty medical or insurance building every few blocks. Besides, it was entirely possible they weren’t even in the state much less the city.

She started to ask Chance where they were, how he had found them, when suddenly she heard a crackle of electricity behind her and then felt all of Cohen’s weight. She swung back to look at Timothy and instead found a guard with a tactile knife pressed against Cohen’s throat, pulling him away from the wall. Her eyes moved from an open door just behind them that had definitely been closed before to Timothy, twitching on the ground, and finally rested back on Cohen.

“Inside.” Growled the guard, jerking his head back toward the morgue style room they’d just escaped. There was no way in hell she would ever set one pinky toe in that room ever again.

“It’s ok. We’ll cooperate.” Lilith dropped her 9mm and held her hands up, hoping Chance had a plan. When she glanced over her shoulder, the look on his chiseled face said it all. His gut reaction was to lose the dead weight, aka Cohen. The only thing stopping him was Timothy still twitching at the guard’s feet. It shouldn’t have really come as a surprise. The look on Cohen’s face, however, came as a complete shock leaving Lilith truly bewildered. He was smiling, which was more than a little disturbing with the deep slashes on either side of his mouth.

“Idiot. I thought they would have trained you better.” Cohen’s voice was broken and raspy but there was a confidence beneath all the physical trauma. Instantly his hands shot up, grabbing the guard’s arms with a desperate, iron-clad grip. The knife bit into Cohen’s neck, blood welling around the blade, but he didn’t care.

Chance leapt at the distraction, pulling Lilith behind him and tugging Timothy to safety. After a few sharp slaps, Timothy looked up groggily, his eyes catching on Cohen and the guard. “Jesus. What the hell is he doing?” Blood trickled down Cohen’s neck in a steady stream as the guard continued to struggle, digging the knife deeper. But what truly caught Timothy’s attention wasn’t Cohen. There was a scream frozen on the guard’s face as the color seemed to leech out of his skin with every movement.

Suddenly, the dry wall above them erupted into a shower of shrapnel sending Chance, Lilith and Timothy skidding around the corner. “Cohen!” Lilith screamed his name, but all she heard was the sound of boots sprinting down the hall. She tried to slide around the corner to grab Andrew, but Chance looped his arms around her waist and pulled her in the opposite direction.

“Run, Lilith!” Chance screamed the words over fresh pops of gunfire. She was about to argue, turn back, something, anything to help Cohen, but then she felt it. Not one blast of frustrated anger belonging to a single pair of boots, but four. Shit. She knew Luminita still wanted them alive, but the Romanian demon had pointed out, there were plenty of body parts she could live without.

She stared at the corner as if she could force Cohen to appear by sheer will as the sharp bangs of gunfire sounded grew louder. Her entire body was frozen with indecision. If she ran the council would kill her, if she didn’t Luminita would.

Suddenly, Chance’s handsome face filled her field of vision, looming inches from hers. There was a calm panic intensifying his hazel eyes that was almost hypnotic. “Lilith. I need you to run. He’s as good as dead.”

In one brilliant instant his hand gripped her neck, pulling her in as his lips crashed against hers with a kiss that burned through the dark fog in her mind. Abruptly he pulled away, his eyes searching hers for something. Whatever he was looking for, he seemed to have found it. His lips spread in that old familiar Cheshire cat grin that she loved so much.

Chance was right. Cohen was out of time. She couldn’t wait any longer. Dammit. Lilith tore off down the hall, her bare feet slapping against the tile, with Chance just behind her. They rounded a corner, still trailing behind Timothy and a bright Exit sign pointing left lit the darkness in brilliant red. The relief that flooded over Lilith almost made her knees buckle. They were close. With renewed strength, Lilith sprinted forward, passing Tim as she raced for the next corner. It wasn’t the best idea, since she was the only one not armed, but her instinctual need to escape was over-riding her logic.

A few feet from the exit sign, a sound lit the air that sent crippling chills down Lilith’s spine. Every muscle in her body suddenly seized to a halt sending her crashing butt first on the tile. The loud clicks of high heels on tile echoed ominously off the walls and Lilith started scrambling backward panting for each breath as true panic lit her nerves. No. Not her. Shit. She tried to call out, to warm Tim and Chance, but the terror gripping her throat let nothing escape.

Peisinoe’s round face loomed into view, like a slow motion scene straight from her nightmares. Not even the bullet wound in her shoulder couldn’t distract from the toothy smile of vindictive glee lighting her face. There was no one here to restrain her this time, no master to tug on her leash and her ocean blue eyes were fixed pointedly on Lilith.

Pure dread knotted in Lilith’s chest as she desperately clawed at the tile, trying to get on her feet. Peisinoe’s lips opened slowly, savoring the palpable dread coming off Lilith in waves like it wasn’t the finest wine. Lilith finally forced her panicked muscles move, shooting to her feet and ran for Chance and Timothy. “Run!!!” She screamed the words with everything she had, but she knew it was already too late.

Peisinoe released one shrill note that stabbed into Lilith’s brain like a white-hot poker, sending her crashing to the floor again as her hands instinctively covered her ears. She waited for the sound to tear through her and finally kill her this time, but instead it settled into a low hum like a buzz saw. Lilith was truly confused as she slowly uncurled, her hands falling away from her ears. The siren had almost killed her earlier with one screech, why was she holding back now?

Her eyes moved to Peisinoe as her heels clicked closer, the most satisfied look of triumph plastered across her pouty face. She moved right past Lilith and came to a stop in front of Chance and Timothy. That’s when she saw their frozen looks of blind adoration and Lilith’s heart fell right into the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t move, couldn’t even speak as all the fear from her nightmare roared over her. She knew what was coming.

Peisinoe’s ocean blue eyes looked over Timothy thoroughly, inspecting him, weighing his usefulness. “Hold her.” Tim immediately moved forward as Lilith’s eyes widened. The movement broke her trance and she skittered to her feet, but it was too late. Tim’s arms clamped around her from behind like iron bars, swinging her back around to face Peisinoe.

The siren’s eyes slithered up the long line of Chance’s body possessively, a hungry smile curling her full lips. Her delicate fingertips skimmed over the smooth skin of his chest, savoring the moment. A flicker of anger began to burn in Lilith’s stomach, growing a tiny bit bigger every time she touched him.

“Ah…Karma.” Peisinoe walked her fingers up over Chance’s shoulder as her eyes swung back to Lilith. “If you’d just played Luminita’s little game like good little minions…” Her fingers lightly guided his face towards hers, a smile lighting her lips as she studied every line. “No. I definitely prefer things this way. Fuck Luminita.”

Peisinoe flashed a malicious grin at Lilith and then casually leaned up on tip toe to whisper into Chance’s eager ear. A blush crept over his cheeks as her teeth slowly nipped his earlobe, the siren’s eyes darting over to drink in Lilith’s reaction. Lilith forced herself to look away, tears already stinging her eyes, but the scene kept replaying in her mind. It didn’t matter that Peisinoe had total control, it still felt like gut punch to the heart, like a betrayal.

The sharp clicks of Peisinoe’s stilettos echoed off the bare walls, coming closer. Lilith’s body screamed for her to fight, but she just stood there limply in Timothy’s stiff arms. She knew what was coming. She knew what she would see when she opened her eyes and she just couldn’t bring herself to face it. Of all the times she thought she was about to die in the past couple days, she’d never felt so completely defeated and heartbroken. It wasn’t just her life that would end. The Chance she knew would die tonight leaving a tortured, empty husk behind.

Warm fingertips caressed over her cheek as Chance’s Cajun-flecked voice rumbled in a soft whisper. “
Cherie
.” Immediately Lilith’s eyes flashed open to see his warm hazel eyes flecked with green staring deep into hers. How was it possible? Could he really be strong enough to fight off Peisinoe’s influence? The razor-wire tone of her control still buzzed through the air, but there he was with that familiar smile pulling at his lips.

“Chance?” There were tears in her raw throat as he carefully brushed the hair back from her face, his eyes falling to her lips. He leaned closer, his lips just barely grazing hers in a trembling kiss as his warm breath trickled over her cool skin. He pulled back with the happy grin she loved so much and Lilith was so wrapped up in the moment that she didn’t even see the blush pink nails curl over Chance’s shoulder.

Lilith’s smile began to falter as the light in his eyes slowly slipped away like grains of sand in an hourglass. Little by little Chance became less like himself and Lilith’s heart began to sink. The siren’s brilliant, icy blue eyes appeared over his shoulder, studying her, memorizing every ounce of pain in Lilith’s face.

“Good boy.” Peisinoe’s fingers caressed affectionately through his chestnut hair and he nestled toward her hand like a faithful lap dog. She should have known better. Cohen had flat out told her there was no denying the siren when she wanted control, but she couldn’t help grasping for that brief glimpse of hope.