Tainted Blood (48 page)

And me, I knew I was too far away from her to stop him in time. I was scrambling toward her when his fangs sank into her neck. They were in her before I could get to her and something in me went deathly cold as her cry pieced the night. I wouldn’t let that son of a bitch take my friend from me. I wouldn’t let him cause me more pain and I sure the hell wasn’t going to let him cause Carter any pain by taking Kiera away from him.

I had enough sense not to tackle Marcus off of Kiera. I feared it would only make him rip her throat out. What I did probably wasn’t the greatest option either but it was effective. I leapt onto Marcus’ back and Kiera’s eyes got even wider as I popped into view over Marcus’ shoulder. She was still struggling and screaming when I grabbed a
hold
of Marcus’ hair with one hand and with the other I grabbed
ahold
of his cheek, my fingers slipping into his mouth to release him from her, and once I was fairly certain I could get him free of her with minimal damage I yanked. His head snapped back and Kiera stayed on the ground as the suction of him trying to drain the life from her was broken. She scrambled to sit and held her neck. Her face was clearly pale with shock and pain as the night was lit up once again.

What I hadn’t counted on was Marcus immediately turning on me. Honestly, I hadn’t thought farther than getting the bastard off of my friend. He had me pinned to the ground, sitting on my chest and my arms. I could only move my legs and that was doing me no good at the moment. I could only assume that when he jerked my head to the side, by my very wet ponytail, it was payback. But when he made to lean down and bite me, something in me broke free and I was able to buck him off of me, but only for a moment before he had me pinned again. My arms were free this time and when he lunged at my neck I raised my arm in defense. His fangs sank into my forearm. It felt like he hit bone and I hoped that if he did, one or both of his fangs would break because of it. It hurt like hell and I think it was the scream that escaped from me that brought Kiera around.

The next thing, I knew Kiera was using her own suggested line of defense and was repeatedly slamming Marcus in the head with her pointy little elbow.

Marcus released me but he was quick to turn on Kiera, and I struggled to grab his leg to hold him back as he lunged at her. What Marcus hadn’t counted on was the one-hundred pounds of pure crazy that Kiera turned into as he came at her again. She may be small but she was fast and slippery in the rain, making it easy for her to get away. Unfortunately, Marcus was a vampire, so no matter how quick either of us was to slip free of him, he had an advantage on us and he was right there a moment later.

As the two of us struggled to stay free of Marcus’ fangs, he was suddenly ripped away from us with an unsettling scream. Kiera and I froze, leaning against each other. The sky lit up just as Felix sank his own massive fangs into Marcus’ neck. I’d never seen Felix’s fangs before. They weren’t like Oliver’s. They didn’t overlap his eyeteeth. They
were
his eyeteeth. Big and sharp and they extended like they were a natural part of him—which they were, considering he was a pureblood vampire. They were startling but they were nothing compared to what happened next.

Felix was standing over us, bent over a struggling Marcus one moment, and in the next Marcus no longer struggled and never would again. I’m sure we looked more terrified than relieved, but I felt quite the opposite. I knew Kiera had never seen a life end before, and me, only the once, and as unsettling as it had been to see Oliver end the tracker vampire who had tried to take my life, it was nowhere near as disturbing as how Felix had just ended Marcus’ life.

Felix dropped Marcus’ lifeless body to the wet ground beside us and stood over us for a moment, a warrior’s stance, and it reminded me of Amber’s statue. Felix was that Spartan warrior. But I didn’t have time to think or process this, because, through the downpour of the rain and the rumble in the sky, Felix looked down on Kiera and me, dark red blood dripping from his mouth, we heard him shout, “Run!”

I was the first to scramble to my feet, and I grabbed Kiera by the wrist and jerked her off of the ground. I was running before she was fully on her feet but she was soon running beside me. Carter appeared beside us a moment later with Zoey in tow and he was shouting, “Run! Run! Go faster!” I was pretty sure we were all running as fast as we could as we hit the wet, muddy grass that separated us from Zoey’s car, but we pushed harder as the rain pelted us.

Felix wasn’t with us and that concerned me. In mid-run I glanced back. Not the wisest thing to do on several parts. When I did look back I saw someone coming after us and it wasn’t Felix. So, with my head still turned I picked up a little more speed. Unfortunately, as I turned back, I slammed right into Carter, knocking us off of our feet and causing the two of us to skid several feet across the muddy grass.

As I was slipping in the wet and muddy mess of grass area, trying to push myself to my feet, Carter yanked me up with such force it winded me for a moment.

“Come on!” he shouted, another flash of white in the sky lit his mud-streaked face and slicked down hair.

He pulled me along as the air rushed back into my lungs. I was terrified to look behind us but I also wanted to know if someone was still after us and if so, how close. But I fought my urge and pumped my legs through the mud right alongside Carter.

Zoey and Kiera were surprisingly far ahead of us. They’d already reached Zoey’s bright green, shoebox-looking SUV, and at that moment we were all trying to climb it through the same door. It wasn’t the best getaway car but it was all we had, and as I climbed into the back with Kiera I looked out across the grass area we’d just crossed. Two figures were heading our way and as Zoey argued with Carter about who was driving I yelled, “Not the time to argue, you two!” I pointed behind them. I saw Carter’s eyes widen with fright. He didn’t even look back, he just shoved Zoey over and she went into the front passenger seat willingly.

Carter jumped into the driver’s seat and before his door was closed he was speeding away, tires spinning on the wet asphalt for a moment. Kiera and I frantically searched for our seatbelts as Carter sped through the pouring rain, little bursts of nervous (or possibly hysteric) laughter escaping him every few minutes.

As the car skidded sideways and felt as though it was going to flip, I realized that Carter probably didn’t have the brightest future as a getaway driver. He gained control of the car once again then shouted at the three of us for screaming. His voice was high and strained, and it was obvious that our out-of-control screams were not helping the concentration he needed to get the four of us to safety.

After hydroplaning a handful of times and running several red lights, Carter slammed on the brakes of our bright green getaway car in front of Zoey’s grandma’s antique shop. Carter tossed Zoey the keys as we piled out of the car and hurried to Zoey’s apartment. As Zoey struggled to get the key into the door that led to the stairwell up to her apartment, a distant bellow—angry and tortured sounding—split through the night. It was so loud that we heard it over the downpour of rain. The ground trembled under our feet as the four of us spun toward the direction of the sound.

“Felix,” I breathed and immediately my chest went tight.

Carter grabbed me firmly by the arms. “He will be fine, Laney!”

The door to the stairwell opened from the inside and Zoey’s grandma stepped out. And, to our surprise, she was wearing a rose colored housecoat and wielding a shotgun!

“Inside!” she shouted with a nod toward the stairs. Her dark eyes searched the night for any signs of trouble as we filed past her.

The four of us raced up the stairs with Grandma Levesque and her shotgun right behind us. Once we were inside and trying to catch our breath, Grandma locked the door tight, and as seemed to be the norm in vampire households, I heard the familiar sounds of the apartment going into lockdown.

“No one leaves,” she told us firmly. She set the shotgun beside the locked front door, and I hoped she wouldn’t need to use it.

Carter embraced Kiera like he thought he’d lost her then started examining her, especially the two good sized holes in her neck. Thankfully, since Felix had ended Marcus, there was no concern that Kiera would have blood-bond connection with that piece of garbage.

Zoey’s grandma had shuffled off down the hall and was returning with a first aid kit. She had Kiera take a seat at the dining table and moved a chair so that she was seated in front of Kiera, then Grandma Levesque went to work cleaning Kiera’s wound.

No one had really said anything since we’d gotten into the safety of Zoey’s home. Kiera finally broke that silence. “Wow!” she said, as she looked past Grandma Levesque to the three of us waiting near the edge of the kitchen. “That was quite a rush! Do you guys do that all the time?”

The three of us looked at each other and I was pretty sure I heard Grandma snicker to herself. This was not the reaction we’d expected from Kiera. I’m not sure what we expected, maybe some scolding for risking our lives, maybe something along the lines of her wanting to move far away, but not the excitement she was expressing.

“We try not to,” Carter responded.

“Phew!” she said as Zoey’s grandmother finished placing a bandage on her neck that was nowhere near the size of the one Gladys had given me a while back. Granted, Kiera’s bite looked nothing like the one I had gotten from the feral freak.

“I was afraid this was something you guys did all the time. Not sure I could get used to that,” Kiera said. I still wasn't quite sure that Kiera was taking in the seriousness of the situation.

Zoey’s grandma motioned for me to take a seat in Kiera’s place so that she could work on my arm next. The bite on my arm was not nearly as bad as Kiera’s neck, but it had left two tears in Oliver’s hoodie. I unzipped the drenched sweatshirt and held the soggy thing in my lap while Grandma cleaned my arm. It took her only a minute to treat me, and after I left the chair, it was Zoey’s turn.

I was slightly bummed that Marcus’ fangs hadn’t broken when he bit me, but I don’t think he actually hit bone because nothing felt broken. Plus, he got what was coming to him. And, not that I was keeping a tally or anything, but this was my fourth vampire bite. I was
so
thankful to be immune to their venom.

Carter had come through unscathed somehow, and Zoey wasn’t too bad off,
although she did have a fairly good size knot on her head and a gash on one of her palms where she’d tried to catch herself when Marcus had tossed her aside.

While her grandmother was doctoring her hand, Zoey started going on and on about how Carter almost hurt her “baby.” She was referring to her car, of course, and Carter’s response was simple, “I got you all here in one piece, didn’t I?”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Kiera had fresh clothes at Zoey’s since she’d already planned to stay over, but Zoey had to loan me and Carter something to wear. Then each of us took a shower. It felt good to wash all of the filth off of me, which included crazy-vampire filth along with a whole lot of mud.

I had mud in places I don’t even want to talk about…

We all had a damn good laugh at Carter’s expense when he exited the bathroom, squeaky clean and sporting a pair of Zoey’s lavender sweats. Even though he’d filled out quite a bit in the past few weeks, he was still able to get his skinny ass and bird legs into a pair of gir
ls’
sweats. What made it even better was that on him they were capri pants.

Carter, of course, had to make a show of it, acting like the space in front of the three of us, the space he’d recently vomited on in front of Zoey’s bed, was a runway and he was the hottest model on the planet, sucking his cheeks in to make a fish face and everything. It was a pretty good release of tension considering what we’d all just been through.

Thanks to the super awesome shock resistant, water resistant cell case Oliver had given me along with my new phone, it remained undamaged, and to my surprise, it rang a moment later. I just about flew off of Zoey’s bed to grab it from her dresser. I answered with a frantic, “Please tell me you’re okay!”

Felix chuckled on the other end, “I am fine, Delaney. The other guys, not so much.” I didn’t need to think about it. Visions of Felix’s fangs and Marcus’ lifeless body were still playing vividly through my mind. “I got you guys a new specimen for class,” he said and I could hear how amusing he thought he was as I shuddered. Then he said, “I take it the four of you are alright.”

“Yeah,” I said and told him where we were.

“Are you still bleeding?” his deep voiced asked.

“Nah, I’m okay. Zoey’s grandmother fixed us all up,” I told him. Granted, taking a shower after she’d doctored us up probably wasn’t the brightest idea. My bandage was rather soggy, and I peeled it away as Felix spoke.

“That’s good,” he responded. Then he said, “Well, now we know that Morgan and his followers are serious in their mission to destroy me. I appreciate the heads-up, little one. I must say, it is unfortunate, this turn of events. I never really cared for the half-demon but we had history…” he trailed off.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, because I didn’t know what else to say. I noticed at that moment that my friends were huddled together on Zoey’s bed, hanging on every one of my words. At least I wouldn’t have to relay said the call.