The Flash of a Firefly (20 page)

“What are you doing out here?” Flo asked.

I looked up and frowned. Stu and Sullivan were with her, along with Sid and Reece. I had been hoping for a few minutes alone to sort out this strange feeling. “What are
you
doing here?” I replied.

“We’re heading to my bar. This is a shortcut,” Sid said. “We’ve got business stuff to do, and they’re looking for dinner.”

Sid wasn’t cracked up about vampires feeding on his patrons, but he didn’t seem to mind then. Desperate times called for desperate measures. With so few werewolves left, it was safer to be with vampires.

“Did you get her home safely?” Sullivan asked.

I nodded and looked toward the Unisphere. I felt empty. Empty and angry. Alex was by her side where I wanted to be. I had to let it stop bothering me and focus.

There was a loud thud in front of me, and I jumped. Sid was laying face-first on the ground. We were all instantly on edge. There wasn’t anyone in the park besides us. Reece knelt down carefully to check on him, and a low growl escaped from his throat.

He looked up, and his eyes glowed yellow green. The sounds of bones popping and tearing flesh echoed as he transformed; the air around us was vibrating with his growls. He barreled forward, lips curled in anger, before we could even see what he was running toward.

Francesca was on the other side of the Unisphere. Davis was trying to pull her back as another wolf rammed into Reece’s side. Flo hissed and was the first to run forward, but what she didn’t notice was that we were outnumbered.

Stu called to her, but it was too late. The only thing left to do was follow her. Half a dozen vampires were running toward us, but one in particular had singled me out.

Francesca smiled. Her eyes fixated on me as she got closer and closer. When she finally hit me, it was like a battering ram. I fell to the ground with her on top of me. Her teeth snapped at my neck. I shoved her away and got back on my feet. She was back on hers just as fast.

When she flew at me again, Reece caught her ankle in his mouth in midair. Her body was catapulted toward the statue of the Rocket Thrower. I sped after her. I wasn’t waiting. I lunged at her throat and sunk my teeth into her jugular vein. She shrieked. Her fingernails dug into my back. She tore at my skin. Blood trickled from the gashes and soaked through my shirt. I punched the front of her throat, collapsing her windpipe.

While she was clutching at it, I grabbed her by the hair. “I said I wasn’t going back.” I jumped onto the very top of the bronze sculpture. “I meant it.” I took her by the shoulders and shoved her down so the point of the star pierced her heart.

The wind carried her ashes back toward the Unisphere. I hurried back, but the fight was already over. That was what bringing baby vampires against ones as powerful as us resulted in. Even Francesca hadn’t posed much of a threat.

I looked around to make sure I wasn’t missing something. As it was, I felt like things were unfinished. It was too easy. It was too quick. All that buildup for such a small climax—things never worked like that.

“Kaden?” Sullivan called.

I looked around in a daze. Reece was cut and limping. Flo was pushing Stu away from her as he tried to examine a wound on her arm. Sirens were blaring nearby. It all seemed to blur together.

“Kaden.” Sullivan’s hair was falling around his face and he was breathing a little hard, but he was otherwise unharmed. So was Davis, although his throat was in a death grip at the end of Sullivan’s arm. “Would you like to send a message back to Phoenix, or should I kill him?”

The smart answer was to kill him. One less enemy was always the safest route. But it was Davis. He had the power of reason even if he was still loyal to the master vampire. The only way I would see him again would be because he was sent to me, and I would rather deal with him than someone else.

I counted to ten and exhaled. “Let him go.”

“What?” Flo shrieked. “Have you lost your mind?”

Davis rubbed his neck once he was free and nodded to me. “I’m grateful, but this kind of thing isn’t going to get you very far.”

“No,” I replied. “But it’s gotten me far enough.”

“I’ll pull everyone out tonight.” He gave me a little smile. “But, you know, Phoenix won’t let you go. He’s not going to give up.”

I knew. Things were just going to get harder from that point forward. It was going to be one attack after another, each one worse than the one before. This was only going to end with one of us dead. I had no intention of it being me.

“I can look after myself,” I told him. “Don’t forget to take the Marquis with you.”

Davis’s eyebrows knitted together, and he spun around slowly, scanning the park. His hand fell away from his throat, and he took a step back. “You didn’t kill him?”

I knew I hadn’t, and Sullivan had been busy with Davis. Stu shook his head and looked at Flo. Her eyes widened. “Reece?” she demanded.

He was kneeling beside an unconscious Sid. Blood was streaked down his naked body, and his left eye was swollen shut. “I didn’t even see him,” he croaked.

Davis kept backing up. I didn’t understand what he was doing at first, but there was a steady glow of fear coming from his eyes. It all clicked when he met my stare.

I took one step toward him and stopped. My head spun for a moment before the anger bubbling in my stomach overflowed. My eyes seemed to get tunnel vision. Lyn’s house was at the end of it.

Without another thought, I was running at full speed. Alex would never be enough to protect her from the Marquis. Not in a million years.

 
Chapter 19

Red and blue lights of two police cars reflected off the windows at Lyn’s house, and the front door stood wide open. One of her roommates was standing on the lawn, sobbing hysterically as the cop next to her scribbled on his pad. People were standing on their porches to see what happened while more cars, sirens blaring, flew around the corner.

My stomach was in my throat. The wind stung my face as I watched one of the officers come from the house with his hand over his mouth. Everything slowed down around me, and my mind went completely blank.

Then the smell of fresh blood hit me. It was heavy and rich, far too dense to be human. It was werewolf blood. If Alex was dead, then Lyn was in trouble. There was no rhythmic sound of a human heart in the house and no trace of her scent anywhere outside.

The pressure on my chest was almost unbearable. She would’ve still been unconscious and wouldn’t have had a chance. It was all my fault. If I had just left her alone to begin with, then none of this would have happened.

My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out with numb hands. There was a text from Alex. I looked back at the house before reading the message. When I did, a wave of relief rushed over me. They were on their way to my house.
Then who is dead inside?
I asked myself.

It didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting back home and seeing Lyn alive with my own two eyes. But, what should have occurred to me was that I received a text instead of a phone call. It could have been anyone sending me that message. I wanted to believe it though, so I did. That was my first mistake.

My second mistake was barreling down my driveway at full speed without making sure the coast was clear. Before I knew it, I was tripping over an ivory cane and landing face-first in the gravel. Little pieces of stone lodged themselves in my face and hands as I skidded forward.

Ouch.

“You know, Kaden, it’s starting to get awfully tiresome chasing you around.” He kicked me onto my back and left his foot on my throat. “Can we get going back to Spain now?”

“Did you really think that it would be that easy after everything we’ve just gone through?” I asked in a hoarse voice.

The stars were beginning to show from behind the clouds, but the ground was still wet from a rainstorm earlier. The wounds on my face were healing around the little rocks, and to make matters worse, the familiar twinkle came over the Marquis’s face.

“Let’s wait for your little girlfriend to show up and see what tune you’re singing then.”

I had to get out of this. I was stronger than him; I knew I was. It was fear that had been holding me back, but now there was a new fear, a stronger one, urging me to do something.

“Here they are,” he said as Alex turned onto the driveway with the Trailblazer. “I don’t know how they got away from the muscle I sent, but it adds a little excitement to my night.”

“If you touch her …” I started.

“You’ll what?” He smiled down at me.

The vehicle slammed to a stop as it came out of the tree line. It was thrown into reverse and the engine whined as Alex slammed onto the gas pedal. At the last second, he swerved and rammed into one of the larger maple trees near the road.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I took advantage of the distraction. With every ounce of energy I had left, I drove my fist into the Marquis’s knee. The knee cap crumbled under the pressure with a terrible crack, and he fell backward onto the wet grass.

Alex had successfully managed to dig the wheels into the mud and had given up trying to get them out. He was lifting Lyn out of the backseat like she was a rag doll and rushing toward the house with her.

The Marquis was back on his feet already. His long hair fell into his face as he started to laugh. “That wasn’t very nice.”

My fingers twitched at my sides. Alex wasn’t inside with her yet, and until he was I couldn’t make my move. He was almost there. His sneakers squeaked against the porch steps, and he fumbled with the doorknob.

The Marquis was watching me as intently as I was watching him.
Come on, Alex,
I thought. Finally, the door was open and he stepped across the threshold.

I collided midair with the Marquis and landed on the ground with a loud thud. His fangs sunk into my shoulder, sending pain up into my neck. I hissed and clawed at his face, but he had latched on with an iron jaw.

I drove my knee up into his groin, and he pulled away. My blood was running down his chin as he lunged forward to chomp on me again. I shoved my fist into his chest but missed his heart by an inch. It made a disgusting gurgling sound, and he smiled again.

“You can do better than that,” he whispered.

I pushed him away from me, and he landed on his feet halfway across the lawn. He sneered at me and got ready to pounce. Before his feet could leave the ground, he stopped and changed direction toward the house.

My eyes followed him in what seemed to be slow motion as he moved forward. Alex was on the porch again, still holding onto Lyn. I flew after him to stop him before he could reach them, but I wasn’t fast enough.

Luckily, I didn’t have to be. Sullivan came out of nowhere and slammed into him. The two tumbled to the side, and I continued toward Alex. In one fluid movement, I pushed Alex and Lyn inside and shut the door behind them.

“Kaden,” Alex called nervously, “open the door.”

Sullivan and the Marquis were circling each other on the lawn with their fangs barred. With each step, the Marquis was increasing the distance between them until he reached his cane, which was lying in the grass where he had dropped it.

“I know when I’m fighting a losing battle,” he growled. “But this isn’t over. Phoenix isn’t going to let you slip through his fingers.”

I used the top step to push myself forward. I was going to end it with him tonight, even if it wouldn’t end the rest of it. He had other ideas. With lightning speed, he took off down the drive, and Sullivan grabbed my arm before I could follow him.

“What are you doing?” I yelled. “He’s going to get away.”

“Kaden.” He pointed to the house. The door was open again, and Alex was backing out of it. “There are more pressing issues at hand.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to go back, but the words stuck in my throat. The living room was torn apart. There were claw marks gouged into the wallpaper, and stuffing from the throw pillows was all over the hardwood floors. The dining room table was flipped onto its side, and an awful burnt odor was wafting toward us.

My mouth was still hanging open as I stepped around Alex. The damage was worse than it looked from outside. The television was cracked, spindles from the staircase were broken off, and the coffee table was splintered all across the room.

I stepped carefully over bits of what used to be my house. Now I was really pissed off. This was so far over the line that you couldn’t even see it anymore.

And just as I thought my night couldn’t possibly get any worse, Max came in through the shattered French doors, crunching on broken glass as he did. He was filthy. There was something black smudged on his arms and neck, and his T-shirt was torn.

He looked at me from across the room with wide eyes and took a step backward. “Hi,” he stammered.

“What are you doing here?” I growled.

It was against my better judgment to not kill him on the spot, but I fought to control myself. The last thing I needed was the Iustitia coming to New York to avenge one of their fallen.