Chapter 13

 

 

The second we hit the streets, it was clear all hell had broken loose. The streetlights cast an eerie glow and I could see the muzzle of guns lighting up a nearby apartment building. Screams and the smell of smoke assaulted me. Every window around us was smashed, trash and debris scattered everywhere, as if looting as well as murder was going on.

“Psst!” a familiar voice sounded behind me. Turning, I saw Sasha in full SWAT gear with Lincoln and his team behind her. They ran quickly to our location and we all took cover in the entrance of a nearby building.

Lincoln wasted no time: “Over thirty vampires stormed the building. We should split up and attack from all four sides. Crash into windows, kick down doors. Do whatever you have to and get in there. Protect the women and children first.”

We nodded, but I felt a little bad for the men who we were protecting only second. Before we could move out, Carter jumped and leapt up, landing on the apartment roof and taking out a vampire sniper.

“Jesus H Christ, is he with us?” Lincoln asked, sounding slightly concerned.

I nodded. “Yep, he’s one of the good ones, so please try not to shoot him.”

We were on the move. I instinctively stuck to Ryder’s side, knowing it made both of us feel better. We split up then into four groups. Sasha and Lucas were with us as we stormed the front entrance. What I saw had fresh hot rage igniting inside of me. Women were being dragged out of apartments by the hair, vampires feeding off of their necks. Female vampires were making the men drink their blood, exposing them to the virus.

“Party’s over, fuckers!” Sasha yelled, and tossed a flashbang grenade. She waited a second before dive rolling straight into the center of the chaos. I grinned. I’d forgotten how much I loved this chick. She was totally my spirit animal.

Despite my desire to stay close to Ryder, we were soon separated in the absolute chaos. I had my gun held tightly as I ran straight into the fray, shooting to kill as many vampires as I could. The humans’ lives depended on us moving quickly; a lot of them were close to death as it was.

For the infected humans I used my other gun, the one with the cure darts. Cure in my right hand, kill gun in my left. These humans would hopefully survive, but with the massive blood loss it was always a worry.

“Are the hospitals full?” I shouted to Lincoln, who was close by wrestling a vampire. For a human, he was holding his own.

Too impatient to wait for him to finish to answer, I swapped hands and used my “kill” gun, shooting the vampire right in the forehead. Lincoln jumped to his feet, his hands automatically going to wipe away the blood he’d just had spatter all over him.

“Fuck, Charlie. You could have hit me.”

I waved him off. “Nah, I’m an excellent shot. Besides, I owed you that for the broken jaw.”

He didn’t argue with me again. I might have even seen a small smile.

“So, hospitals? Should we be trying to get these humans there? Or is it a complete waste?”

Sasha dashed past us, chasing down a female vamp, and it looked like she had the upper hand. “Ten-hour backlog in hospitals already, no point taking them. We just need to do the best we can in the field.”

Dammit. That’s what I was worried about. Blue Eyes lifted a small comm device then and barked some orders. Within a minute three or four field medics burst into the building. I moved closer to them, determined to keep them safe from any vampires. This floor was relatively clear now, but I couldn’t see any of my boys. Even Jayden was gone, and he’d been close by too.

“Get the humans stabilized. Make sure all of them get a shot of the cure, no matter what.” Lincoln was off again, shouting and killing as he went. Once it looked like this floor was secure, I went into action, dragging the humans across the street to the medic building. They worked fast, already having set up a triage zone. It was soon filled with human casualties.

“All need to go to triage first,” a tall, thin male was shouting. “More urgent to the west end, and the least to the east.”

Dude, seriously! If you want me to follow directions, please never include the words west or east. Thankfully I figured it out; it was clear which were in the worst condition. One near the end had pretty much had her throat torn out, and two Army people were working to stabilize it.

“Charlie, help!”

The faint call caught my attention. I quickly deposited my human somewhere in the middle of the triage line. She was conscious but had lost a lot of blood. Following that call from outside, I holstered my cure gun and kept the kill one out. The streets were no better than before. In fact there looked to be a lot more humans and vampires out.

Come on. The cure had to start working soon. In this case, Becca couldn’t have made the change fast enough. As I darted across the road, searching for the one who’d called my name, I sent out a brief hope that other cities weren’t hit as hard as Portland. New York seemed to be under control fast; it had to be the same in other places. I would never be able to live with myself if by curing the vampires I killed off 10% of the human population.

“Charlie!” I knew that voice better than any other. Tessa. She was in trouble.

Full on sprinting through the streets, I tapped into the heat at my center and levitated across the road, landing right before a dark, creepy alley. Of course. Why not? I stepped with very little hesitation, even as the darkness engulfed me. Most of the streetlights were busted, and power seemed to have been cut to lots of buildings. I had ashpire vision but it was still damn dark.

“Tess?” I said, barely more than a whisper. What the fuck was Tessa doing out in the middle of downtown Portland during the war?

The only reply was a low whimper. My heart was pounding heavily, my breathing doing something weird. I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen. This alley was long and narrow. Multiple doorways led off it, and even a few other small alleys. I was about halfway along when I heard her cry out and realized she was to the left, down a side access. I took off, gun still held firmly.

It was stupid of me to come here alone. I knew that the moment I entered the alley. But there was no time to turn back. Tessa needed me. My boots slammed against the pavement, and as the end of the alley came into sight, the rapid pulsing of my heart increased.

WTAF? Tessa was pinned up against the wall by a vampire. A vampire I thought was long dead.

“Hello, Charlene, so nice of you to join us.” Blake had the full creepy stare going on, and I was sure he’d been feeding from my bestie. I could see the blood on his chin and on her throat.

Think, Charlie, you need to defuse this situation right now.

“What are you doing, Blake? You love Tessa. You promised me you’d never hurt her.”

He threw back his head and laughed, this stupid chuckle which was irritating enough that my finger flexed on the trigger. He must have noticed, shaking his head twice at me.

“I wouldn’t do that, Charlie. I have a knife right at the base of Tess’s neck. Even if your bullet hits me, I’ll have enough time to insert the blade.”

Tessa whimpered again, and I could see the flash of blade that Blake was talking about.

“What do you want then?” I said, my tone hard as I took a step closer, about ten feet from them.

Blake’s silver eyes were dead, flat of color and life. The silver actually looked really faded … almost like he’d been...

“Have you been injected with the cure?” I asked him.

The smile fell, and he was less like a blond Cabbage Patch Doll now and more like a psycho serial killer. “Your best friend here forgot to tell me the cure stays in a human’s system for days, and that she was dosed to her eyeballs.”

Tessa’s eyes narrowed; some of her fear fled as dark anger crossed her face. It was definitely only the knife in her spine keeping her from smacking him in the face. “I thought you were dead, you stupid motherfucker. You broke into my safe house and fed from me without my permission. You’ve gotten everything you deserve.”

Blake tightened the grip he had in her hair, his knife-wielding hand sliding closer, and I knew the blade was starting to cut Tessa. I could see her pain, smell the blood.

“I was Allistair’s favorite. He knew he could trust me right from the start, that you would be a weakness he could utilize against Charlie.” His eyes flicked up to me. “He suspected you would be all of our downfall, and he had so many plans in place to make sure you didn’t succeed, but then somehow you always had someone powerful on your side keeping you safe. In the culling it was Lucas and Ryder. They manipulated everything to make sure you would get through. After that you were so deeply involved with the enforcers it was impossible to touch you. So Allistair figured Tessa was our next bet. I was sent in to cultivate her love of vampires. To put her in a position to be used against you.”

Tessa was crying now, and I could see guilt clear across her beautiful features. While Blake was monologuing, I was creeping closer, in the smallest of increments, but there was only about six feet between us now. I could almost reach out and touch my oldest friend.

“You tried to grab my mom too, didn’t you?” Everything was starting to make sense now. The way Blake had come out of nowhere and “loved” Tessa so much. The council allowed her change so easily.

The curly-headed asswipe nodded. “Yep, more than once, actually. Then she disappeared, and so did you, just when things were getting interesting.”

I noticed movement then, on the side of the building above his head. Was someone up there?

Hoping they were friend and not another vampire douche, I started talking to keep Blake’s focus on me.

“I’m here now, and I’ll do whatever you want if you let Tessa go. She’s human now. She had nothing to do with any of this.”

Blake growled, but his fangs looked quite small now, almost like regular human incisors. The flat gray was fading to blue in his eyes. The cure was starting to work. I wondered if the human version of him was fast enough to stab her before I shot him. Clearly the oxytocin wasn’t pumping out yet, or it never would. Some people were just born dicks.

“Do whatever I want? I want you dead!” he seethed, “I want my old life back, before there was a cure.”

His arm shifted, the one which had been wrapped in Tessa’s hair. He pulled a gun, sliding his arm around Tessa, and pointed it right at me. Fuck. One shot to the head and I was gone. He must have seen the fear in my eyes because he flexed his fingers on the trigger, his creepy grin kicking up a few notches.

The next sixty seconds happened so fast, there was no time for me to do anything but shout his name. Blake’s finger squeezed the trigger as a streak of white dropped from the dark alley, landing right in front of me. Multiple shots sounded, the deafening noise echoing off the brick walls.

“No!” I screamed as the person in front of me took three bullets.

Tessa spurred into action while Blake was distracted. She managed to spin in a whirl of grace and knee him right in the balls.

He dropped the knife and went limp, hunching forward. I heard his curses, my heart freezing as he recovered enough to raise his gun hand. Before I could shout out a warning to Tessa, she wrapped her hand around the gun. They wrestled with it for a moment, but Tessa had surprise on her side.

Her eyes were wild as she twisted it back into his body, and no hesitation squeezed the trigger, nailing him right in the chest. The bang was deafening, and blood splattered on Tessa’s white hair. Blake’s body dropped to the ground at an odd angle.

Knowing my friend was safe now, I could finally turn toward the body on the ground, the man who had saved me. I’d known the second I saw the white coat, but even as I dived across the rocky ground toward him, my mind refused to believe it was Lucas.

A whimper left my throat as I crashed to his side, the rough ground tearing through my pants. Lucas was bleeding from his stomach and chest. I ripped off my jacket, trying not to panic at the way his breaths were coming out in short, labored bursts. I pressed my jacket to his wounds, focusing on the one over his chest.

“Medic!” I shouted, as hot tears ran down my face. This couldn’t be happening, not to Lucas. He’d sacrificed so much and had been this close to a normal life. My head spun around, trying to see if anyone was coming to help. “Help!” I screamed again.

Tessa stood there frozen, shaking from shock. She just killed her fiancé. I couldn’t blame her for not running to get help.

“Shh,” Lucas told me, and coughed as blood dripped and spluttered out his mouth.

I moved my face closer to his, keeping the pressure firm on his chest, but also needing to hug my friend.

Our gazes locked, and already his dark blue eyes looked glassy. Shit, he had blue eyes. I never knew that. He attempted to smile, but it was weak. “No, no, no,” I cried, hugging myself even closer. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were supposed to have a happy ending.”

Those big blue eyes disappeared for a second. He blinked, and it took a long time for his eyes to open again. He was fading away. Dammit! He was human. A vampire would survive these wounds. In a way, it was my cure that killed him.

Lucas reached out and stroked my cheek. “I saved you … I’m going to be … with my wife and kids now.” His breathing was raspy as he struggled for words. “I got to be human … that’s happy enough for me.”

I couldn’t hold back the sob that hit me. You know how there are moments when you’re supposed to try to be strong for those around you? This was one of those and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep myself from ugly crying all over him.

“Shhh,” he said again, and that was his last word. Life left his eyes. I clutched him closer to me, even though I knew he was gone. His body was still warm, but the essence which had always followed Lucas around was no more. He was no more.

Eventually cold hard anger replaced my sorrow. Lucas had saved me so many times. From my first day in the Hive up until now, he had been my angel. And now he was dead in an alley. He deserved better.

“Fuck!” I shouted, wiping my tears and pulling out both of my guns, replacing the cure cartridge with bullets. Fuck the cure. Any vampire left now was a dead one. They’d chosen to fight, to follow Allistair and his minion Blake. Now they would face the consequences.

Tessa looked afraid. “Charlie?”

I must have looked like a maniac, covered in Lucas’ blood, holding two guns, streams of tears still coating my cheeks.

“Humans are dying. I gotta help and you’re not safe alone. You know how to use a gun?” She sure as hell had handled Blake like an expert. I held one of my kill guns out to her and she took it, stepping even closer. Her eyes were sad as she knelt beside Lucas. She made the sign of the cross over his chest and closed his eyes. “Lucas taught me to protect myself,” she said, standing again.

Of course he did. I told him to look after my bestie in the Hive, and he did, like a fucking gentleman. The world had lost a good man.

“Stick to my ass, and if you see any vampires, shoot to kill.” I wanted these assholes to die. I wanted revenge. Blake’s death wasn’t enough. Lucas had been human, and he’d drunk the blood wine at the same time as everyone else, which had to mean most were or would soon be human. I needed to take out as many vampires as I could before they were human too.

A shout cut through my red murderous haze. As if the universe thought I hadn’t been through enough tonight, Oliver’s bellow rang through the night. “JAYDEN!”

“Oh fuck!” I shouted, and took off running like I was in the goddamn Olympics. “Oliver!” I shouted, trying to pinpoint where I’d heard the scream.

“Charlie!” Oliver screamed and when I burst out of the alley. I took a right, heading toward his voice. I kept close to the walls but bullets snapped at my feet. Shit. Sniper. I was pleased to hear Tessa’s footsteps pounding behind me. Bitch hated running, and at this speed she would probably collapse and die when we got there. But I couldn’t think about anything other than Jayden. Oliver was a badass mother, and nothing short of death would make him scream like that.

“Charlie!” Oliver shouted, and I burst into the open building. The door had been blown off. Holy shit, this was my favorite coffee shop. Oliver was crouching over Jayden’s lifeless body. Oh my God, so much blood. Jayden was lying in a pool of blood as big as an elephant. Oliver was holding his leg, which was spurting in tiny little streams.

A dead vampire lay on the ground next to them.

I turned to see Tessa wheezing, trying to catch her breath. She wouldn’t be able to run and get help. Oliver was holding Jayden’s leg together.

“I’m getting a medic,” I said to Oliver, and he nodded. His face was drained of color, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Turning to Tessa, I gave her a serious look. “Guard them with your fucking life.” Tessa was born into privilege, never went through the culling, and before Blake had never killed anyone. But I needed her to be a badass right now.

Tessa nodded, clenching her jaw, and tightened the grip on her gun, standing in front of the café door like a sentinel.

I didn’t wait. I took off running.

I was the fastest runner I knew, other than Ryder. I WOULD get to a medic. I WOULD get some fucking blood and I WOULD save Jayden’s life. He’d bled a lot during the culling and he’d survived, I told myself. He could survive this.

Fuck! I forgot about the sniper. Bullets snapped all around me as I ran in a zigzag back to the place where the medical triage had been set up. In the end I tapped into my center, letting the heat take me over as I soared close to the medic building.

“Charlie!” Ryder’s voice came to my left, as a bullet nicked my shoulder and I tripped over my legs. Tucking down my left shoulder, I braced for the fall, rolling with it, before quickly popping up to find Ryder at my side, shooting the shit out of the guy on the roof.

“Jayden is dying! Needs blood,” I shouted to him, and took off running again. He kept pace with me easily, guns out, firing at anyone who got in our way. We dashed into the building. I ran right up to the first person I saw.

“I need to do a blood transfusion STAT!” I all but shouted in her face.

She was in the middle of bandaging someone’s neck, so she motioned over to a cooler. “Blood pouches in there. IV lines on the on table. Help yourself.”

Okay. I could do a blood transfusion. How hard could it be? My mom was a nurse. I threw open the top of the cooler and grabbed three bags labeled AB-negative. I grabbed two IV lines and took off running again. Ryder was right with me the whole time; he was my muscle, shooting any remaining vamps down.

Once I had time to think, I’d realize how damn happy I was to have Ryder close to me again. As a team we kinda rocked. Plus, knowing he was alive was everything. Couldn’t focus on that though, I had a BAFF to save. I’d already lost one friend tonight, and I would not lose another.

I was back at the café in record time and nearly got my head blown off by a trigger-happy Tessa. She pulled her hand away at the last second and shot the ground.

“Jesus, Charlie. Announce yourself!” she barked.

“Sorry!” Damn, she took the protector role seriously. Good girl.

Oliver was shaking; there was too much damn blood, pouring everywhere, coating the floor around them. How was it possible to lose that much blood and not be dead? Jayden had better not be dead.

I sat in the blood, getting as close as I could to my BAFF.

My hands shook as I ripped open the IV lines and attached the blood bag. I felt Ryder’s hulking mass behind me, and when I brought a shaking hand down to my best friend’s arm, Ryder placed his hand over mine to steady it. I took in a deep breath, and then with more focus I placed the line with Ryder’s help. He’d had to do this a few times in the field with his men, so he was actually a massive help.

Jayden’s veins were nearly nonexistent with the blood loss, but we got one. Standing, I held the blood high so it could drip down into his body. Ryder must have grabbed a med kit at the triage center, because he was ripping open packages, his hand steady as he began suturing Jayden’s leg wound.

I tried not to think too hard. My mind already felt stretched so thin it was barely lucid. I held Jayden’s hand; Oliver had the other, and we waited. The longest goddamn wait of my life. My eyes were trained on the very shallow and minuscule rise and fall of Jayden’s chest. If he stopped breathing, I would die. I would literally give up on life. Jayden was someone I couldn’t live without. Thank God he was an ash; a human would have been dead long ago.

We must have stood there in silence forever. But after the gunshots died down, we heard a van drive by, loudspeakers blasting a message: “Vampires have surrendered. It’s safe to leave your homes. Get your wounded to a local triage center.”

“Did you hear that? Get my ass to a triage center.” Jayden’s weak voice filled the silent room and I broke down in tears. I didn’t realize it until now but my arm holding up the blood bag was completely asleep. I let it drop, leaning forward to gently hug Jayden.

Oliver was openly crying, and even Ryder’s eyes looked a bit damp.

“That didn’t exactly go as planned,” Sam said from the doorway, and we turned to see him with Jared, Markus, and Kyle. Kyle’s shoulder was bleeding, but he looked okay. I was just opening my mouth to ask about Carter when he walked in after them, looking like he’d just been to a day spa. Despite his efforts, which most certainly had saved a lot of lives, he had not a hair out of place. I blew my father a kiss, and then all the enforcers.

They were alive. Thank you, God, Jesus, and all the saints. They were alive. My family was alive, and with a bit of luck the cure was working around the world. Vampires’ numbers were decimated.

I couldn’t contain my joy, laughter spilling from me as my eyes continued running across my family. There was a small part of my heart that mourned for Lucas; the fact that he didn’t make it would haunt me forever, but I was determined to remember that everyone else was alive and I would count my blessings.