TEN
JIMMY HALLAHAN STALKED across the room, reached down and hauled Emeline up by her hair. “You stupid little whore. I tell you to come, you come. You got that? You capable of understanding that when a man tells you to do something, you fucking do it?” He slapped her hard.
Emeline didn’t answer. She didn’t resist. She didn’t cry or make a sound. She simply looked at him. Right in the eye. That was Em. She didn’t back down. She wasn’t trained in warfare like Blaze, but she had courage. She’d grown up on the streets and she wasn’t afraid to die. She had never been afraid to die. Sometimes Blaze thought she was more afraid of living.
“I feel you in here, Blaze,” Emeline said. “You here?”
Can you muffle sound? Blaze asked Maksim.
Of course. He can yell all he wants, but no one will hear him.
“Yeah, babe, I’m here,” Blaze said as she moved into position behind Hallahan and kicked him hard with the toe of her boot right behind his knee. At the same time she fisted his hair and yanked him over backward, stepping to the side so that he toppled hard. The moment he was on the floor, she stomped his throat.
I want him to see me.
He will see you.
Jimmy rolled, swearing, his gaze jumping to her face. She stepped back and watched him stand up, his hand going to his boot to extract a knife. She smiled at him. “Welcome to the party, Jimmy.”
“Welcome to my party, bitch.” He brought the knife low, blade up, and circled her.
“Emmy, why is it that men always call a woman a bitch when she does the exact same thing as the man?”
“I think it’s a lack of vocab, Blaze,” Emeline said, stepping well back, giving Blaze room. “It isn’t like Jimmy Hallahan has much of an education. He dropped out of school to build bombs, and he wasn’t very good at it. He got caught three times and went to prison all three times. Didn’t learn much there, either.” She didn’t touch her swelling face, cover up or in any way act afraid. That was Em.
“Maybe he learned how to be a bitch, a prison bitch,” Blaze said. “That’s why he likes to use that word. He’s kind of describing himself.”
Jimmy roared with rage and stepped into her, using his size, expecting to intimidate her, thrusting upward toward her belly as he came. She slapped his wrist down hard, as she glided to the side, her speed taking her out of his path, her foot slamming hard into the side of his knee, driving it in so that he stumbled. She kicked his kneecap viciously, putting her weight behind it. She didn’t weigh all that much, but it only took eighty pounds of pressure to break the kneecap, and she used every ounce she had.
He went down screaming. Swearing. His face twisted in fury. He spat on the floor, eyes wild, as he tried to drag himself up, the knife still clenched in his fist.
“Your father screamed like a girl. Like a fucking pig.”
She raised her eyebrows, staying just out of reach. “Like you just did? Because that was you screaming, Jimmy, and a girl did that. Sean’s daughter. She took you out. No one can hear you. No one is coming to save you. Not your guards. Not your brothers. You’re going to die here, and you’ll die knowing a girl took your worthless, sorry ass down.”
She kept her voice even, although inside she was crying for her father. This man had tortured him. Even enjoyed it. She knew if he got his hands on her or Emeline, he would do the same to them. She half turned away from him, her gaze jumping to her friend’s, checking to see that she was all right.
Jimmy shrieked his fury again, trying to rise. At the last moment, he threw his knife straight at her. Blaze moved with blinding speed—speed she didn’t even know she had. She was out of the way of the poorly spinning blade. The four throwing knives she had concealed in the loops of her belt didn’t miss. She was deadly accurate with them, she had been since she was six years old. That was the last time she could ever remember missing, even by an eighth of an inch. Four silver hilts protruded, one from his throat, one from his heart, one from his groin and one from his belly.
“Overkill much?” Emeline asked.
“He tortured Dad; there is no such thing as overkill,” Blaze said, unrepentant. “I gave him his chance. He lost.”
Emeline pressed back against the wall, her eyes showing shock, staring down at Jimmy Hallahan. His head was turned toward Emeline, eyes wide open. “You should have heard the things that scumbag said he was going to do to me.”
Maksim materialized out of the corner, and Emeline gasped but said nothing at all as he crouched beside the body. Her gaze jumped to Blaze for reassurance.
“He’s with me,” Blaze said.
“I think I got that. What is he doing?”
Maksim put a hand on either side of Hallahan’s head. “I am going to read his memories, before all activity in his brain ceases.”
“No.” Emeline took a step forward, but carefully avoided touching Maksim. “You can’t. There’s something—someone—else in him. I don’t care if you believe me. I saw him. I think he was using Jimmy as some kind of conduit. He looked right at me. As he was dying, he turned his head and looked right at me.”
Maksim let Hallahan’s head fall back to the floor and he slowly stood. Blaze immediately went to Emeline and put her arm around her. Em had all the courage in the world, but she looked pale and shaky.
“It was him. The one I saw before, Blaze,” Emeline said, looking into Blaze’s eyes, willing her to believe. “I know it was and he recognized me.” She shuddered. “Just like in my dream.”
“We have to get out of here,” Maksim said. “Right now.” He waved his hand at the knives on the body and they were instantly gone, returned clean to the loops in Blaze’s belt. He removed all evidence of their presence in the room. “I need to take your girl’s blood.”
“No way,” Emeline clapped both hands over her neck and slipped behind Blaze.
Blaze felt her heart twist in a funny way. No one could resist Emeline. No one. Not, it appeared, even Maksim. She stepped away from him, her body protective of Emeline, feeling her trembling. Inside, her own body was shivering, and something precious was crumbling away, but she stood, ready to defend Em against the man she knew she was already irrevocably tied to. She had let that happen. She had gone into the relationship—if you could call it that—with her eyes wide open.
“Sufletul meu.” He whispered it.
Blaze knew it was an endearment. It was in the tone. In the way he said it. The way he looked at her. She shook her head, resisting his lure.
“Do you know what that means?” he asked softly. “It means you are my soul. The air that I breathe. And, Blaze, you are. You are both those things to me. Never doubt, not even for a moment, that the only woman I see is you.”
Blaze’s heart shifted. Melted. Her stomach did a slow somersault. He said the most ridiculous things to her, but they worked. He always sounded sincere. She knew he was capable of great violence. He might be very soft spoken, but he was dangerous. There was no doubt in her mind, but still, he said things like that and she was a puddle on the floor.
“We do not want anyone to see us leave. We want Jimmy Hallahan found in this apartment dead and no one to say we were ever here,” Maksim explained gently.
“Everyone saw Jimmy drag me up the stairs,” Emeline pointed out. “And there are cameras everywhere.”
“Tomas and Lojos took care of the cameras, and the woman Hallahan dragged up the stairs didn’t look anything at all like you,” Maksim said. “I am not going to hurt you. I need to see what you saw. I need to know you will not ever betray us. If I do not have your blood when I step out of this room, I cannot guarantee your safety.”
“I can,” Blaze said, anger creeping into her voice. “Don’t threaten her.”
“I am not making threats,” Maksim said, impatience beginning to edge his unflappable calm. “I am stating facts. Think about it, Blaze. I am Carpathian. We are hunted already by humans who believe we are vampires. We hunt the vampires they cannot. If the world knew of us, imagine the persecution of our people.”
Emeline kept her hand wrapped around her throat. “I am not going to say a word. I had to leave the country and the only two people in the world I loved because I used the word vampire in my statement to the police.”
“You knew for certain it was a vampire,” Blaze said with sudden insight. “Emmy, you knew. How?”
“We have to leave now,” Maksim said. “I have to shield you. Two of the Hallahan brothers just entered the club. Tomas says we have to move.” He gently moved Blaze out of his way. “I swear to you, I will not hurt your friend.”
Emeline kept her hands pressed to her neck. “I know what could happen. I know.”
“If you know the difference between a Carpathian and a vampire, you know I will not harm you. Let me keep Blaze safe. She will not leave you here to face them alone.”
“I want them to come in,” Blaze said. “It is my chance to get two more of his brothers.”
“We need them to lead us to their master,” Maksim said. “Cutting off the soldiers will not get us the head.”
Blaze looked into Emeline’s eyes. “You call it, honey.”
Emeline took a deep breath and slowly allowed her hands to drop, her eyes on Blaze. “Stay with me.”
“I’m with you.”
“Just like this.” She kept staring into Blaze’s eyes with trust.
Blaze knew there wasn’t a single soul in the world Emeline trusted other than Blaze. “Just like this.”
“If he kills me, you’ll kill him, right?” Emeline persisted. Her body shook.
“Yes, honey. He wouldn’t be the man I believe him to be. You’re my sister now. My family. There is just the two of us.”
“Three,” Maksim corrected. “I belong to you, Blaze, and you to me. She’s your girl, so that makes her mine as well. I would protect both of you with my life. My friends will do the same.”
“If you’re for real,” Emeline said, “you’ll need a lot of friends to keep us safe, because the vampire is going to come after me.”
“Any moment he will be here,” Maksim said softly. “We have to get you out.”
Emeline didn’t touch Blaze, leaving both her hands free in case Maksim was lying and was going to kill her. Blaze didn’t understand why Emeline was so certain she was going to die. Em didn’t move, but her entire body shuddered when he touched her. He blinked. Startled. Stepped back.
“Your mind is shielded. I cannot help you by calming you. You have to let me in.”
Emeline shook her head. “Just do it. I want to know.”
“I will be as gentle as possible,” Maksim said, not arguing. “You will feel a bite of pain and then it will not hurt. It will not feel the same as it does to Blaze, or if your lifemate were to take your blood, but it will not hurt.”
He bent his head and without further preamble sank his teeth into her neck. She gasped, but she didn’t move. Blaze stared into her eyes, giving her reassurance. Taking her trust. Maksim opened her mind to his so she could feel what he was feeling. So she could hear.
Get. Out. Of. There. A man’s voice whispering in Maksim’s ear. Lojos. Blaze knew because Maksim identified him for her.
If you cannot get them out, we will have to kill these two. Mataias already killed one of them. We have only these two to lead us to Reginald. That was a different voice. That was Tomas.
So two Hallahans were dead. Blaze would have killed the other two as they came into the room, but with the vampire after Emeline, she was going to have to have patience and allow them to live so they could lead the Carpathian hunters back to their master. She’d strike then and allow the hunters to kill their prey.
Maksim swept his tongue across the pinpricks at Emeline’s neck and waved the women to the side of the door as he lifted his head. “I will mask our presence. The moment the door opens and they are through, Blaze, lead her out. I will bring up the rear. They will not see you, but do not brush up against them or anyone on the stairs.”
Blaze nodded and gripped Emeline’s elbow. “We’ll be all right, Em. We’re just going to go straight through the club and out the door.”
Emeline’s face was stark white. “We have to hurry. Oh, God, Blaze. He’s close. I can feel him close now. Do you feel that? Like in the dream.” Her voice was a panicked whisper. Emeline didn’t panic. She was a street rat and she could disappear when she needed, slipping away through cracks in walls and over rooftops. She had mad skills in the streets, and she never lost her ability to think. Her brain worked at all times, solving puzzles and figuring out the next thing to do. Blaze knew she must be terrified to sound so close to panic.
Before Blaze could reassure Emeline, the door bounced open and Terry and Carrick Hallahan burst into the room. Before Carrick thought to close the door, Blaze hurried through, dragging Emeline after her, trusting Maksim to keep them cloaked from view. She didn’t look back, but she heard the shocked curses as she made her way down the stairs, right past the Hallahans’ guards. She kept one hand on Emeline’s shoulder, but Em didn’t hesitate; she moved through the crowd quickly, not even looking at the two men closing in on either side of them.
Tomas and Lojos? Blaze wanted their identity confirmed. She was certain she was right. Both men had the same dangerous look to them that Maksim did. They were tall with that long, dark, gorgeous hair. Clearly they were twins. Still . . .
Hurry, Blaze, Maksim insisted, telling her without answering that the two men were his friends.
She could feel it now, the swelling danger. The feeling of evil slowly invading the club. The air felt poisonous. She held her breath and knew Emeline was doing the same thing.
Around them, the crowd began to shift restlessly. A fight broke out near the front door. A shot rang out. A woman screamed. Two men rushed the cages and dragged a stripper out, throwing her to the floor. More fights broke out between them and the nearest exit. The smell of blood was strong.
Tomas moved up in front of Emeline.
Stay close to him, Maksim warned the two women, startling Emeline with telepathic communication. Do not speak aloud or even attempt an answer in your head. He is seeking you.
Something dark and oily slid by, jerked to a halt, and for the first time, Blaze saw him. Her heart nearly stopped beating in her chest. She could see why Emeline had been so terrified from the moment she had escaped this monstrous beast. At first glance, he looked to be a handsome, courtly man in a dark business suit. She stared at him intently and saw through the illusion. It took everything she had in her, every ounce of courage, not to scream.
This was her first real look at the undead. He was far worse than anything Hollywood could ever have conceived. His skin was white, pasty white. His gums had receded, leaving jagged teeth clearly stained with blood. His flesh appeared to be falling off his skull, with small tears where tiny parasites wiggled. His hair hung long in tufts and dank, dirty strands. Bald spots showed through the thin, frizzy threads, and she could see the same wiggling parasites boring through unsightly holes.
His eyes glowed red and his teeth snapped together. “I smell you,” he hissed as he reached long arms with bony fingers toward Emeline.
Tomas, the Carpathian guard closest to her, leapt to protect her, to insert himself between them as Blaze threw her body against Emeline’s, pushing her forward and out of the vampire’s reach. The terrible talons settled around her wrist, jerking her toward the undead. Tomas’s body blocked hers from Reginald Coonan.
Blaze screamed as the razor-sharp nails cut her wrist, burning her skin with an acid-like substance. Blood sprayed into the air. Tomas hit Reginald hard, driving him backward into the crowd. The vampire kept possession of Blaze’s wrist, his talon sawing deeper, opening the laceration wider. Maksim slammed his fist deep into the master vampire’s chest, seeking the heart.
Reginald screamed, still dragging Blaze backward, falling toward the crowd. The crowd could see his monstrous appearance as he leaned down and drove his teeth deep into Blaze’s shoulder, just missing her neck. Chaos erupted; people stampeded for the exits, knocking one another down and trampling the fallen.
Blaze felt the vampire elevating their fear. He twisted and raked Maksim’s face and throat with his claws. Swarms of parasites raced up Maksim’s fist and arm, eating the flesh, as he tried to burrow deeper into the vampire’s chest. It was impossible with the undead twisting and ripping at Blaze’s shoulder with his teeth as he did so. Maksim had no choice but to protect her. He withdrew his fist and used both hands to knock the vampire off of her, sending him flying across the room.
Behind them, Emeline screamed. The sound was chilling, filled with sheer terror. Blaze turned her head, trying to spot Emeline through the stampeding crowd. She caught glimpses of Lojos fighting with something every bit as evil as Reginald. The thing, once Carpathian, was now as monstrous as the master vampire, maybe more so, and it had Emeline locked in front of it, holding her as a shield by driving four talons from each hand into the flesh and bone of her rib cage.
Emeline hung suspended in the air, the razor-sharp stiletto knives embedded deep. She thrashed and fought, but the vampire backpedaled through the crowd, holding her off the ground by the blades as he deliberately stomped and kicked men and women lying on the floor like so much litter.
Reginald flew through the air, a dark shadowy figure above the crowd, descending straight toward Blaze, his arms lengthening as Maksim leapt to intercept him. Blaze’s wrist continued to spray blood. She felt burns right down to her bones, as if, when the vampire ripped her wrist open, he’d dumped acid into the wound. She could see the arm snaking around Maksim, although the two bodies collided in midair. Hastily she drew a knife from her belt loop, heedless of the blood loss. As the arm approached, the bony fingers stretching to reach her, she sliced down and across, putting every ounce of strength she had into the attack.
Reginald couldn’t actually see her because Maksim and he fought viciously, tearing at each other’s chests. She leapt back the moment the blade went through flesh and bone, severing the hand. Reginald screamed horribly. Black blood sprayed the room, bubbling on the floor and fallen bodies, burning right through everything. She hadn’t expected the hand to fall, but she had a newfound strength she couldn’t explain.
The hand didn’t remain stationary, but began to roll in an attempt to get back to its owner. She stumbled, terrified at what these creatures were capable of. Emeline’s screams drew her attention away from the fear. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw Emmy still suspended in the air by the razor-sharp talons driven into her ribs.
Trusting Maksim to deal with the vampire, Blaze ran toward Emeline, leaping over fallen bodies, ignoring the cries of those being sprayed by acid-like blood, and whipped out a gun. She was a crack shot even on the move. She’d been practicing since she was three years old. She fired five shots in rapid succession at the vampire suspending Emeline in the air. She hit both eyes, his nose, and drilled two more bullets into his gaping mouth.
Instantly the knives dissolved, and Emeline dropped to the club floor, Lojos cushioning her fall. He clamped both hands hard to the sides of her body and lifted her into his arms. Now that Emeline was safe, the adrenaline left Blaze’s body and she found herself sitting abruptly. Right there in the middle of the floor. A chill swept through her body. She felt numb, and cold. So cold.
“I am going to lift you,” a man’s voice said.
She could barely lift her head. He reached over her shoulder and removed the gun from her hand. She couldn’t keep a grip on the stock, even if she could summon the will to do so. The gun slipped from her nerveless fingers, and then he clamped his hand around her wrist. Hard. Like a vise. It hurt. Burned.
“I am Tomas.” Maksim, we have to go now if your lifemate will live. Let him go. Mataias will track them. She’s lost too much blood. Far too much.
Blaze found her head too heavy to keep upright and she let it fall against his chest. Emeline was gone, carried out by the man called Lojos that Maksim trusted. She had no choice but to trust him as well. Tomas hurried out with her, and she felt Maksim pouring into her mind. Strong. So strong.
Do not leave me, Blaze.
Tomas rushed through the door, leaving the club behind, and she must have been dreaming because she swore they were moving through the air, the wind rushing past her head. Still, the cool breeze didn’t clear the fog from her mind. She remained confused. She clung to Maksim’s mind, although it was Tomas holding her, keeping her from tumbling back to earth.
I am with you, sufletul meu. I will always be with you. I have no choice but to bring you fully into my world, or I will lose you, Blaze. Give me your consent. You have lost too much blood. You already are walking mostly in my world with me. Come wholly to me. Give yourself to me. You will be like me, and together we will find the undead who ordered your father’s death.
He didn’t need to entice her into his world. She’d already made up her mind. Only Emeline held her where she was, and Emeline seemed to know and accept the Carpathian world of the undead far more than she did. In any case, it was Maksim fading in and out, not her.
She tried to reassure him, but the effort seemed too much and she was cold. They shouldn’t be rushing through the clouds, so far from earth, because she just couldn’t get warm.