Chapter 28
Bartol
The town of Livengood numbered its population in the lower double digits. Bartol didn’t find much to note it as a town other than a few old buildings and houses dotting the area and a trading post. Someone mentioned it was founded after gold was discovered in the early 1900s and then mostly abandoned a few decades later. It was a hilly area with thick vegetation and crude roads, constructed mainly of dirt and gravel. The primary attraction to the place was that it began the long and arduous ground route to Prudhoe Bay.
They stopped in the town first to organize their search parties. It was the middle of the night, so thankfully they didn’t have to deal with the few residents who might have noticed a large group of supernaturals gathering conspicuously, particularly those who shifted into wolf form so they could hunt easier.
Bartol paced back and forth as everyone broke off into teams. They assigned Kariann to him because it was decided by everyone—except him—that no one should hunt alone. Also, to be on the safe side, anyone with angel blood had to have someone else on their team who would not be susceptible to whatever Griff was using for protection. Bartol didn’t like it, but Lucas and Melena had spent the entire drive north convincing him that this was the best approach.
“We’ve got the land to the northwest of here,” Kariann said, holding up a map with an outline of their assigned search area.
Bartol was tired of standing around “planning” and didn’t feel like discussing their tactics anymore. He grabbed the female vampire’s arm, jerked her to his side, and flashed them away. As soon as they landed, he let go of Kariann and began investigating the land around them.
“Wow.” She gave him a disgruntled look as she clutched her stomach. “In a hurry much?”
“Yes,” he replied.
She took a moment to collect herself and started walking with him. He was glad to find she could keep up with his long strides as he pushed his way through thick brush and around trees. The snow that had hit the region two days before had mostly melted, so at least they didn’t have to tromp their way through much of it. Bartol only found small patches in places shielded from the sun.
After more than thirty minutes of walking, his gut churned when he crested a rise. Intuition told him he should veer east, though he saw nothing in that direction to indicate the reason. Many times his sixth sense had guided him well in the past, and he would not ignore it now, especially since he felt it through his mate bond. Cori was in pain again.
Kariann rushed to his side. “We can’t go that way. Someone else is assigned that area.”
“I don’t care. Cori is in that direction,” he replied.
“How do you know?” the vampire asked.
“She is my mate, and she’s in trouble. I can feel that we are getting closer to her.” Which was likely the reason Lucas insisted someone go with Bartol so that he didn’t just take off on his own, which was exactly what he wanted to do.
“Right.” Kariann drew her sword and started chopping down the vegetation ahead of them. “I heard mates can sense each other.”
He continued in the direction his instincts guided him. As far as he could tell, there were no signs of human civilization to confirm this was the correct path, but that didn’t deter him. They walked a few more minutes before breaking through a copse of trees. Approximately five hundred feet in the distance, Bartol thought he caught the hint of a structure with a faint light coming from the window.
“Do you see it?” he asked.
Kariann squinted in the direction he looked. “Yes, barely.”
“Cori is in there.”
She pulled a radio out and called in their position to the other search parties.
Bartol shifted on his feet impatiently. “We need to go to her now.”
Kariann moved in front of his path, smart enough not to touch him. “Not yet. We need to scope this place out and see if Griff has any friends in there who could cause trouble. Melena can help with that.”
Bartol worked his jaw, feeling another jolt of pain run through him as Cori was hurt yet again. He clenched his hands at his sides. Kariann was right that it could be a trap, but he couldn’t stand idly by and do nothing. “Five minutes—that’s as long as I’ll wait.”
“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?” The vampire gave him an annoyed look. “It’s going to take more than that for the others to get here. Be patient!”
He crossed his arms and glared at her.
Rapid movement caught their attention, and a moment later, Lucas and Melena appeared next to them. Bartol had suspected that though Lucas couldn’t flash his mate anywhere, he could still move very fast with her. That had only taken two minutes of the five he’d allotted.
After the sensor caught her breath, she turned in the direction they were looking. Her brows knitted. “I don’t sense anything that way. It could just be humans.”
“It’s her,” Bartol insisted.
His patience had worn thin. Feeling another burst of pain from Cori, he used his flashing vision to check on her. It didn’t work. It was as if he had hit a brick wall and couldn’t penetrate farther. Bartol tried flashing to the house, but that didn’t work, either.
“The place is protected,” he said, directing his attention to Lucas. “Try flashing there.”
The nephilim knitted his brows. After a minute, his expression turned disgruntled. “I can’t.”
“But I don’t sense anything there. I should be able to pick up a spell or something,” Melena argued.
It was more than a little strange for the sensor to be affected by the spell as well. She might have angel blood in her, but it shouldn’t have mattered with her immunity to magic.
“It appears he’s found a way to thwart all of our abilities,” Lucas replied, taking his mate’s hand. “This isn’t only about Cori anymore. We need to know what he’s doing and how to stop it before our enemies use such an advantage against us.”
Derrick and several werewolves joined them, followed by Micah, Tormod, and the rest of the nerou a few minutes later. Lucas and Melena gave them an update while Bartol continued to watch the house for any signs of life. All was calm as if Griff was waiting for them.
“It will be dawn in forty minutes,” Derrick said, glancing at his watch.
“Damn.” Kariann’s lips thinned. “That means I can’t stay long.”
She was the only vampire who’d made the journey because they’d feared they wouldn’t return before sunrise. Derrick wouldn’t have let her come either, but she’d been rather adamant and agreed to a few conditions.
“You can stay out here for twenty more minutes, but after that you will run back to town and crawl into the body bag in the van.” The master stared her down. “Understand?”
She nodded. “Absolutely. I don’t want to die either, but I want to help if I can.”
Just like a nephilim, she could move very quickly when motivated. Bartol estimated it wouldn’t take her more than five or six minutes to get to safety when the time came. He was impressed she was willing to cut it that close for Cori, though. Most vampires refused to be anywhere outdoors an hour before dawn.
After a few final instructions, they set off toward the house. With the whole group being supernatural, they were able to move fast until they got within a hundred feet of the place. Then it became as if they were moving through a swamp. Bartol felt his powers drain away and each step seemed as if his feet were weighted in cement. He glanced over and noted only the werewolves and Kariann didn’t appear to be struggling. They’d slowed with the rest of the group, but they appeared confused by the slower pace.
“Wait!” a young werewolf shouted when they’d gone about fifty feet. He flared his nose several times. “I smell explosives.”
Another in wolf form barked his own confirmation and pawed at the ground.
Derrick tested the air. “I’m not smellin’ anything.”
Micah grimaced and stared at his hands. “None of our enhanced abilities are working now.”
The young werewolf in human form pointed to a spot a few paces ahead. “There’s a landmine right there.” He adjusted the direction of his finger. “And another there. I’m catching them all over the place.”
They were still not close enough to the house. None of them could flash, and most couldn’t even run. The distance was too far for the wolves to leap. They had no way of knowing exactly how to get through the field without risking setting off a mine, and it was possible their rapid healing was suppressed as well.
“I wouldn’t come any closer,” a man called out.
He came through the front door and onto the porch, hauling a woman in front of him. It took a moment for Bartol to recognize Cori with her face swollen and covered in blood. Rage filled him at the sight of her. He’d known her former husband was hurting her but seeing it was an entirely different matter.
Without thinking, he rushed forward, uncaring of the landmines. All he knew was that he had to get to his mate and take her from that monster. If Bartol’s movements were slower than usual, so be it. He pushed with everything he had to make each step.
“Bartol, no!” Melena cried.
He didn’t make it more than half a dozen steps when an explosion went off. Pain erupted in his body as the flesh was torn from his legs, arms, and torso. He went flying through the air, landing not far from where he started. Pain infused his body. He’d not felt this bad since the last time Kerbasi tortured him.
Kariann hurried over to where he lay. “I’ve got this.”
Picking Bartol up, she ran until she’d put a couple of hundred feet between them and the others. He felt his strength begin to return, though his body didn’t heal as fast as he would have liked. Normally, explosives didn’t take a toll quite this bad on him.
“Here,” she said. “Drink.”
He turned his face away. “I do not…”
“If you want to save your woman, do it!” Kariann jerked his face back toward her, bit into her wrist, and pressed it to his mouth.
Bartol had not needed to replenish himself with vampire blood for healing since he was young. It was something a nephilim might do during their first couple of centuries before they grew stronger, but not something they did after they became powerful.
He was too weak to resist her, though, and she had a valid point. Bartol gulped down her blood until he felt the flesh in his legs and other parts of him regenerate. Then he shoved her arm away. “I appreciate your assistance, but that is enough.”
“You’re welcome,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
“I will be well in a minute. You must take shelter now,” he said, gesturing for her to leave.
Kariann frowned, staring down at his still healing body. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
She hesitated a moment before taking off.
He waited another few seconds for his body to recover and then began the trek back to the rest of the group. They were trying to talk Griff out of what he was doing, but the vampire didn’t appear to be in a listening mood. At least he seemed to be acting alone. They’d yet to see any sign of others helping him, which could have been a good or bad thing.
Bartol hit the perimeter, and his powers drained away again. It was bothersome that it could shield anyone from sensors no matter the distance, but it didn’t drain power until one was much closer. Bartol still couldn’t believe Griff had acquired something with such capabilities. No wonder they had not been able to find the vampire before, and why he’d been able to orchestrate such elaborate attacks on Cori. His movements might have been restricted to nighttime, but he could have come and gone from Fairbanks in disguise and no one would have been the wiser.
“If anyone else tries to come near this house,” Griff shouted, his gaze falling on Bartol in particular. “I will slit Cori’s throat.”
“Let her go,” Lucas demanded. “She has done nothing to deserve this.”
“Didn’t she tell you?” the vampire said, jerking his hostage closer. “My ex-wife here beat me to an inch of my life and then left me for dead in a pile of snow. She doesn’t deserve to live.”
Melena took a cautious step forward. “She was out of her mind with grief over your daughter’s death, and she told me herself that she regretted it. You’re not helping anything by killing her now.”
Griff’s face filled with rage. “If she had never left me, I wouldn’t have been drinking that night. She was the only one who could keep me calm so I didn’t do things like that. It’s her fault—all of it!”
Cori shuddered in Griff’s arms, grief and pain evident in her bruised and swollen face. At this range, Bartol’s connection to his mate was a lot stronger, making it even more difficult for him to watch her suffer. The magic draining his powers couldn’t affect their bond. It was on a metaphysical level that nothing except time and distance could weaken, but even then, it couldn’t cut it completely.
He could sense his mate was losing hope and the will to live. Every word Griff said was like a knife through her heart. The vampire knew exactly which points to hit to make her feel the maximum emotional pain. It was then that Bartol realized why she’d put up with the abuse for as long as she did. This man—or rather monster—had convinced her she was worth nothing and deserved no better than what he gave her.
Cori had spent these last few years finding her strength and rebuilding herself into the incredible woman Bartol met last summer. He could not let Griff tear her back down again. Somehow, they had to save her. She needed to know she was worth something and that everything her former husband said was a lie.
“The sun is going to rise soon,” Bartol warned, doing his best to keep his tone even. He had to keep calm for Cori’s sake. “Please let her go.”
“Oh, thank you for the reminder.” Griff dug into his pocket with one hand while keeping a knife at Cori’s throat with the other. He tapped the screen a few times, glared up at the sky as he waited for a satellite signal, and then put the phone to his ear. “I’ve done all you asked. They’re here, and everyone with angel blood is as weak as you suspected they would be—including the sensor.”
They held their breaths. Everyone who might listen in and recognize the voice on the other end of the line had lost their enhanced abilities. Only the werewolves, aside from Derrick, could still hear at full strength. Unfortunately, none of them would be able to identify the powerful players in the supernatural world to narrow the culprit down.
“Am I free to get my revenge now?” Griff asked.
A long pause.
“Thank you. It’s been an honor serving you.” The vampire hung up the phone. He took one look at the assembled crowd and grinned. “Looks like we’re about done here.”
Griff clutched Cori and moved forward off the porch and into the yard.
“What are you doing?” Bartol asked, his heart in his throat. They were getting far too close to the landmines, and Cori could not survive that kind of a blast. Had the person on the other end of the line been powerful enough to compel Griff to do this, or was it part of his own plan?
The vampire stopped about half a dozen paces from the house and kissed Cori’s swollen cheek. She cringed, but that just made him laugh. “Not long now, babe. You and I are going to be together forever.”
Impotent rage filled Bartol, but then realization struck him, and he glanced at the sky. Dawn was only a few minutes away. If the vampire didn’t take cover now, he’d burn and take Cori with him.