Blood Crave 2 (48 page)
Authors: Jennifer Knight
Tags: #Social Issues, #Love & Romance, #Vampires, #College Students, #Juvenile Fiction, #Paranormal, #General, #Romance, #Werewolves, #Dating & Sex, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural
I didn’t spend time worrying about it, because just then, I noticed how violent Lucas’s tremors had become.
Another vampire attacked him, and just as Lucas was about to dodge—he changed.
Derek intercepted the attack, leaving Lucas to fall to the ground in his human form, panting. But at an earsplitting scream from Arabella, the vampires all froze and Derek’s foe retreated.
Derek crouched low to the floor, growling warningly at the room. Lucas, seeing me alone by the wall, swiped me up from the floor in an ultrafast movement that left me seriously disoriented. I was now standing in between wolf-Derek and Lucas in the center of the room.
Everything was silent—nobody moved.
Arabella stood by her toppled-over chair, fists clenched at her sides, blinking rapidly. She wasn’t looking at us, but down at Calvin. Decapitated Calvin.
Dead Calvin.
Slowly, she raised her gaze to Lucas and, to my astonishment, I saw she was crying.
“He—was—my—first,” she choked. “My first—creation. My mate.” Her expression turned stormy. “You will PAY!”
She flew at us.
The room exploded again as the five remaining vampires attacked. I screamed and crouched down to the floor, head pressed hard on my knees by Lucas’s weight. He was surrounding me, his arms a shield against the attack. His head was next to mine, and I heard his voice in my ear, crying out in pain. The sound rattled my heart. His body jerked as someone tried to pull him off of me. He made gurgling sounds, and I was willing to bet he was choking on his own blood, but he held tight to me, shielding me.
I heard Derek fighting, racing around the room. Squelching sounds reached my ears. Two more sounds of death.
Three left.
Something grabbed my ankle and yanked me out of Lucas’s grasp. I screamed when I saw Melissa had me. I struggled, twisting my knee, and then Lucas vaulted for her and sprayed me with blood as his fist went through her chest.
I was so stunned, I couldn’t even move. Lucas cracked her spine in his fist, pried her head off, then turned and grabbed my arm. As he tugged me across the room, I saw Derek fighting Arabella and a dude vampire—Kevin. Derek’s coat was hardly white anymore—just a collage of pink, dark red, and filth.
I didn’t want to leave him, but I didn’t have much of a choice, either.
Lucas raced to the door on the ceiling and scooped me up. He jumped high, breaking the door with his back and running with me in his arms. We were in a wide, dark alley that smelled of grease and chemicals. I looked around Lucas’s shoulder as he ran and saw that a vampire dude was coming after us.
“Lucas!” I yelled, pointing.
He cursed and stopped, slamming me against the wall as his body shook. He changed.
The vampire jumped, and Lucas met him in the air, crushing his body to the ground. I watched, huddled in the corner as Lucas fought off the vampire. Watching him, I suddenly realized how deluded I’d been to think I could handle the vampires alone. I was definitely more than happy to let Lucas and Derek save me.
It didn’t take long for Lucas to finish off the vampire. Once Lucas had pinned him to the ground, he knocked the knife away with his muzzle and started ripping.
I turned away as Lucas tore up the vampire’s throat, spilling muscles out onto the grimy street like bloody spaghetti.
Lucas’s body trembled and he changed back. His face was covered in gore, and he wiped it with his arm as he came to me, panting.
“You’re not paralyzed,” he said, kneeling in front of me. He held my face.
“N-no,” I said, shaking. “It was Derek. They s-switched bodies somehow, I don’t know.”
Lucas nodded, though I could tell he was confused about what had just happened as well. Screams and sounds of fighting continued to sound from the lair down the alley.
Lucas glanced in that direction and said, “I have to help him. Stay here. I’ll be right back for you.”
I nodded jerkily and watched Lucas zip down the street.
In the silent, lonely moments that followed, I began to relax in tiny increments. After a minute or two, I began to breathe more normally, and after throwing up behind a trash can, I felt considerably better. I leaned against the wall, panting as the sounds of battle slowly drifted away.
Then a high-pitched screech—and then another and another.
Oh, God. . . .
There were more vampires down there. More had come to help Arabella.
Oh, God. . . .
There were more vampires down there. More had come to help Arabella.
I had to do something—help my boys. But what could I do? My power was useless against the vampires. I could only control the pack.
The pack!
I rose to my feet and tugged my cell phone from my pocket. It took me three tries to get the right number in, but when I did, Julian’s voice came through the phone.
“This is Julian,” he said.
“It’s Faith,” I said. “We need you. We’re in major trouble.”
“Faith? Where are you? You were supposed to be here—”
“That doesn’t matter now,” I said angrily. “Where are you?”
“At the house,” he said. “Where are you?”
I faltered. “I—I don’t exactly know. We’re at the vampire lair.” There was more yelling and bodies thudding together. I heard Lucas’s voice above the others. He was human again, and for once, I wished for a full moon. “We need help! You have to come help us!”
“I don’t even know where you are. How can I do anything?”
I held the phone away from me, staring at the screen. “Wait— I think I have a GPS thingy.” I started fiddling around, trying to figure it out, when something whizzed in front of me. I shrieked, dropping the phone. Julian’s muffled voice sounded through the receiver, asking if I was still there. Then a dial tone.
He’d hung up.
I looked up to see what had distracted me from finally being the savior, and my jaw hit the floor.
It was Heather.
I stared for a moment, out-of-my-mind-relieved to see her. And then it penetrated my brain that Heather didn’t look like herself. She stood in front of me, dressed like a sexpot, with gloved hands on her hips. Her normal, gentle vibe was snarled with otherness, and her face was pale as the moon.
She had been turned.
“Miss me?” she said. She smiled and long, pointed teeth glittered at me.
“Heather,” I murmured. “Oh, God . . . I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry for what? For being a jerk to me practically every moment since you met me? Whatevs. You know what they say. Karma’s a bitch.”
I swallowed hard. “But, we made up. I tried to warn you about the drugs and now ... just look at you.”
“You’re so stupid. Like I gave a crap about anything you said. I
wanted
this, you idiot. What did you think, I didn’t know what I was taking? Why do you think I never mentioned it to you—they forbade me because the vampires like to kill bloodies for fun. When they found us, it was sheer luck they kept me alive long enough for me to convince them to turn me.”
wanted
this, you idiot. What did you think, I didn’t know what I was taking? Why do you think I never mentioned it to you—they forbade me because the vampires like to kill bloodies for fun. When they found us, it was sheer luck they kept me alive long enough for me to convince them to turn me.”
“Turn you? Why would you want that?”
She bent and leered in my face. “So I can eat that fucker Pete once and for all—suck the life out of him the way he did to me.”
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even stand properly, I was so horrified. My poor Heather ... how could I have let this happen to her? “Please,” I begged. “I’m sorry for everything, but you have to help me. They’re going to kill Lucas and Derek.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll live through it,” she said. “I did when Pete dumped me.” Then she feigned an epiphany and put her finger to her glossy red lips. “Oh wait. I
didn’t
live, did I?” She made a mock sad face. “Well, after I’m through here he’ll be a goner, too. And so will you.” She grabbed me and ran down the alley with me over her shoulder like I was a pile of logs.
didn’t
live, did I?” She made a mock sad face. “Well, after I’m through here he’ll be a goner, too. And so will you.” She grabbed me and ran down the alley with me over her shoulder like I was a pile of logs.
She jumped down the hole that led back to the lair, and her shoulder knocked the air out of me on her landing. The room was oddly quiet. Heather put me on my feet and pinned me to her body as she walked me to the center of the room, where Arabella stood, seething.
Her face was ripped open with slash marks, but there was no blood, meaning she hadn’t eaten in a while. I saw the shining pink wounds healing already, returning to perfection. More vampires filled the room now, at least twenty of them, and I saw Kevin still among them, battered but alive ... ish. Lucas was being restrained with silver again, but this time there was much more of it, and he was completely immobilized. Knives stuck into his limbs and pointed at his throat, threatening to slice his flesh open.
Derek was still in wolf form. Six or so vampires held him down, but that didn’t look necessary. He was unconscious.
Heather released me when we reached the front of the room and drifted into the crowd, leaving me—her so-called friend—to face the wrath of the vampire monarch.
I shook involuntarily. I couldn’t bear to look at her and stared at Lucas’s tortured face instead. He looked right back, defeat in his gaze, and in that moment, I knew we weren’t getting out of this alive.
I turned to Arabella and she immediately slapped me so hard I felt the skin on my cheekbone split. Lucas snarled ferociously, but I righted myself, not wanting him to do anything stupid.
“You have cost me my best subjects,” Arabella cried. “Not to mention my mate! Your debt to me has been increased tenfold. You will never live long enough to repay it. You will be punished. I will not kill your dog. I will let him live. I will make you hurt him. I will make you lash him with silver and watch the life drain from his mongrel eyes.
I
will be your sire so I can force you to do anything I like. You have eons of pain in your dismal future, Faith Reynolds.”
I
will be your sire so I can force you to do anything I like. You have eons of pain in your dismal future, Faith Reynolds.”
She bent and I felt her teeth hit my skin. In the corner of my eye, I saw Derek stirring, shaking his head as if waking up from a nap. I almost smiled at him. He’d saved me, after all ... or at least, tried to. His white wolf-eyes widened as he watched Arabella’s mouth slide toward my collarbone.
He struggled like crazy, but there was no way he could free himself.
Then, without even a word of warning, Arabella’s teeth sunk below the surface of my skin, dipping into my blood like deadly quills into ink. It hit me in a blast of heat, followed immediately by coldness. Frost spread from her fangs throughout my body and all the way down to my soul. My vision swam as she pulled.
I hit the floor, ears ringing oddly, unable to move. I could only stare straight at the ceiling as my body froze. I was so cold ... so incredibly cold. But I could hear. I could hear perfectly, maybe even better than normal.
Lucas roared so loud it made my ears ring, and Derek struggled against the vampires, causing them to shout and strike him. The other vampires hissed and cackled, some jeering. Then a sound like water trickling, and Arabella’s face appeared in front of me. Her wrist was bleeding my blood tainted with venom. The venom that would kill me. Inside, I fought. Inside, I screamed.
But outside, I just laid there.
Paralyzed.
She began to tilt her wrist toward me. I felt warmth on my chest, my cheeks, sliding ever closer to my mouth. I wanted to shut it, but I couldn’t. This was it. There was no escaping death now.
Then Arabella jerked her hand away and looked up, as if listening. At first I couldn’t hear what she heard, and then it was there. The ground began to shake, and the thunderous sound of footfalls hit my ears.
A single howl bit through the night.
The werewolves.
Arabella vaulted to her feet and began screeching out orders. The vampires mobilized. I watched them blur by me and heard them whizzing through the air and into the alley.
And then the howling started.
The glorious howling of the pack, like heralding trumpets calling out victory. Except that there would be no victory for me.
I was dying. No matter what happened now, I would die.
T
he sounds of battle began to fade until all I heard was sobbing and moaning. The crying came from behind me and then someone was talking. Two or three people—all male. I wished they would move so I could see them.
he sounds of battle began to fade until all I heard was sobbing and moaning. The crying came from behind me and then someone was talking. Two or three people—all male. I wished they would move so I could see them.
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