Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (20 page)

There was no doubt in her mind that they would eventually be dealing with the local cops. It was just a matter of time.
She ran through her mental checklist that she used at crime scenes, and it made her feel oddly calm and organized. Monotonous tasks did that. When she’d have big teenage rebellious fights with her mother, she used to organize her DVDs by genre and then alphabetically to calm down. The focus on something logical calmed her emotional side. She really was an odd creature, but her slightly OCD side was helpful.

Silently she chuckled at herself and the way her crazy brain worked as she strolled back down the long hallway. In her psychological studies it always said that people were either predomina
ntly left brained or right brained, either emotional and artistic or logical and cold. She felt like an even blend though. Stupid TV commercials for the ASPCA with the sad eyed dogs and poor helpless kittens made her teary eyed and she worked with charcoals and pencil sketches in her spare time, but somehow logic kept her balanced. Her job was all about distancing herself and looking at every possible angle with cold, hard logic. Maybe it had something to do with being a Scorpio.

Chance was still leaning against the wall with that casual grace that made him look like a poster boy for some ad campaign.
Six feet, three inches of lean muscle, calm and relaxed at the moment but fully capable of springing into deadly action at a second’s notice. Richard Coffee was still staring at him like a giant studying an ant. When he caught sight of her walking down the hall he pushed his chair back and slowly stood up. Her jaw dropped slightly and she quickly amended her original estimation of his height to just over seven feet tall.

Lilith actually paused in the hallway without even thinking. The man was absolutely enormous and looked like he could bench press a semi. She forced herself forward, with a slight tremor in her knees and stole a peek at Chance. He moved off the wall and was trying really hard not to stare at Richard. There was intimidating, scary and then there was Mr. Coffee. Even the boogey man would be quaking in f
ear if that man snarled at him.

The piercing stare that he directed at Chance definitely made it worse. Maybe there was something in him that recognized a fellow strong man, though they would definitely be worlds away if there were weight classes for Body guards. When he turned that
stare on Lilith, a shiver ran down her spine. His face quickly softened to a smile that flooded her whole body with relief.

“
Find everything you need, Ma’am?” The low booming voice rumbled through the hall.

“Yes. Thank you, Mr. Coffee.” She came up to Chance’s side and smiled up at Richard. Way up. “I trust my friend here didn’t give you any trouble?”

The smile that stretched his big, dark lips was definitely a genuine one full of things she really didn’t want to know. Scary things. “Wisely enough, no.” She caught the half smirk that lifted Chance’s lip from the corner of her eye. “I should escort the two of you out, if your business is finished here.”

Lilith nodded nervously and the mountain named Richard, moved around the suddenly tiny desk. The ceilings were at least ten feet tall and looking at him, she was pretty sure he could touch it if he wanted to. They trailed behind him all the way down the hall in silence, just staring at his enormous, muscled back. He had some weight around his waist, like most linebackers do, but she didn’t think any would dare call the man lazy. Hell
, his fist was the size of her entire head. He could probably knock her out with his pinkie finger.

When they reached the outside door, Richard shook her hand again, making her feel like she was about three years old, and held the door
open for them. Chance was walking through when Mr. Coffee’s massive hand dropped on his shoulder, completely covering it. His deep, thunderous voice took on a very serious tone. “You watch her carefully.” Chance looked up and over his shoulder at Richard’s broad face and nodded solemnly.

“I would give my life to keep her safe, even if it wasn’t my job.” The serious tone in his voice made something inside her
quiver. She knew that was pretty much his job description, but when he proclaimed it out loud it really hit home. He wouldn’t even hesitate to sacrifice his entire life for her. There was something purely terrifying about that.

Coffee’s face took on a look of professional respect that made Chance’s shoulders straighten just a hair. He nodded his massive head with a soft smile and then closed the door behind him.

Chance didn’t say anything else until they were squeezed into the tiny rental car again. “Holy crap! That was like Andre the Giants big brother from Africa!” He blinked a few times and slunk into the seat, as much as the cramped confinements of the car could allow. “Seriously, that wasn’t just sleep deprivation was it? Damn, he had to be over seven feet tall.”

“Kinda makes you feel tiny doesn’t it?” Lilith chuckled and rubbed at her tired eyes. “Duncan definitely knows how to hire security. He could just snarl at someone and they’d dissolve into a puddle of fear.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here before he decides to try it. I hear a couch calling my name. Actually more like fast food and a couch screaming for me to get some fucking sleep.” Lilith could definitely see the dark circles under his eyes now.

She suddenly realized that he hadn’t really slept since the dingy hotel room. After her attack, while she was unconscious, he’d been guarding the door
s and tracking down Spencer. No wonder he was so impossibly tired. She felt bad now, complaining how tired she was. Of course, the only reason she’d gotten any sleep was because someone tried to swing an object clean through her head, so she guessed that kind of made them even.

Thirty
minutes later they were crawling up the stairs to Miriah’s apartment after sucking down some much needed greasy burgers. Ida didn’t make an appearance, not that Lilith really expected her to. It was almost two in the morning, definitely way past a typical 80-year-old’s bedtime. Lilith dropped everything just inside the apartment door. A full belly on top of an emotionally trying day, a head injury and sleep deprivation was making her impossibly groggy.

Chance rubbed at his blood shot eyes and stalked over to the low Japanese style couch. “
I’ll take the couch. You can take the bed.” He flopped down on his back and sprawled his long body out with one arm curved behind his head. Lilith caught herself staring and finally stumbled towards the bedroom and the queen size world of comfort that waited for her.

She had just enough energy to
shimmy out of her jeans before she collapsed on the bed. As soon as she was curled up under the covers, the right side of head started to throb, pointedly reminding her that it was still injured. With a low moan, she curled up on her left side, hugging a pillow, and surrendered to blissful darkness.

The bliss didn’t last long. She was crawling through a narrow passage, rough and jagged
, like bare ground. Stones and roots bit into her hands and knees painfully, but there was an orange glow ahead, so she pushed on. She was in some sort of tunnel or cave. She knew this had to be a dream, but everything felt so real, especially the pain. Muffled cries and shouts echoed through the air. It was a terrifying sound that raised every hair on her body. The air smelled like wet earth and death so heavy that she choked on her deeper breaths. She kept them short and shallow, almost panting by the time she reached the end.

Finally the tunnel opened into a large cavern with
stalactites and stalagmites covering the ceiling and floor. The points were wickedly sharp and dripped some sort of liquid. At first she thought it was water, but it was too thick and syrupy. The smell of blood and death saturated the air. With startling clarity she realized the rocks were weeping with blood, collecting in pools around the larger stalagmites.

The glow
she saw from the tunnel was coming from behind a massive stalagmite about ten feet wide. The light wasn’t constant, it flickered and wavered in strength, like a candle or a flame. The cries and moans of pain continued, weighing heavy in the air and almost visible. It’s a dream, it’s a dream. She repeated the mantra over and over but couldn’t wake up.

Lilith
finally pulled herself out of the tunnel with a heave and tumbled to the rough ground. She looked down at her bare feet, her bare legs, her bare everything and suddenly felt horribly vulnerable. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling the sudden chill against her skin. She crouched there, covering her naked body, not wanting to move, but the cries urged her forward. They pulled at her, thick as strings.

Very carefully she skidded her foot forward, feeling for any sharp rocks before putting weight on it. Tedious step after tedious step, she finally made her way to the massive mound of rock in the center. She tip toed around it, catching the edge of a sharp rock or two that made her swallow a yelp of pain.
She felt the bloody cuts on the soles of her feet, but, somehow, she knew that making any noise at all would be very dangerous.

She leaned out to see past it, searching for the source of the light, and saw Gregor, strapped to a chair. Blood dripped from every inch, oozing from thousands of cuts all along his battered body.
His eyes were defeated, resigned to his fate and that chilled her more than any of the wounds. Clear tubes ran out of each arm, one to a hanging bag of blood, the other to a bucket on the floor beside him. It overflowed and spilled across the floor, adding to the pools around the room. Lilith bit back a scream that she felt in every muscle of her body. Her fingernails gripped the stone so tight that one of her nails snapped. The blinding pain helped keep her calm as it burned up her arm.

There was someone else there, holding an old world lantern. He held it high over Gregor’s head and she could hear his
peals of laughter. There was something completely insane in his voice that made her whole body shiver in disgust. She had to help her father! Despair weighed her down till she sank to her knees. She had no weapons, she didn’t even have clothes. How could she fight off anyone like this?

Lilith watched in absolute horror as the mys
tery man suddenly smashed the lantern at Gregor’s feet and the flames leapt up his legs instantly. Gregor’s screams were agonizing, almost blocking the sound of blood thundering in her ears. Her heart raced and she panted from her hiding spot with tears stinging her eyes. She couldn’t just stand here while her father burned. There had to be something she could do. Her eyes kept scanning the dark floors while her father’s screams echoed so loud it shook the rock formations in the ceiling.

She was absolutely powerless. There was nothing she could use, nothing she could do. She might as well have been bound to
a chair next to him for all the good she could do. She clasped her hands over her ears, rocking, trying to wake up or just make it all stop. She couldn’t just cower here while Gregor burned. She had to try.

She screamed and ran for him, determined to do something, anything.
A face flashed in front of her lightning fast. Dark hair clipped short, a long pointy nose, a thin moustache above thin, cruel lips, eyes dark as night sunken deep into his skull. She knew that face. With a shock she remembered the portrait named Ashcroft, but the portrait didn’t have the network of scars crossing his face and neck.

The man screamed and grabbed her, his talon
-like nails piercing her arms to the bone. Lilith screeched with the sudden pain that stole all the strength from her legs. That horrifying face loomed closer, moving along her neck, smelling her as his eyes closed. It was the same face people made when they smelled something delicious and rare. “Mary.” The words slithered past his thin lips like a lover’s whisper and her stomach lurched. Slowly the black pits of his eyes opened and a sickening smile stretched his lips impossibly wide, revealing rows of jagged, stained teeth.

He pulled one hand away, bringing a single finger, drenched in her blood, to his lips. His beady eyes stared into hers as his mouth closed around his finger. The sucking sounds made her want to curl into a ball under a rock and never come out again.
She fought against him, trying to pull away, screaming and kicking, but his nails were still buried in her left arm and the pain made her almost black out. With a fierce, guttural growl, Ashcroft sunk his fingers back into her right arm, the nails scratching sickeningly against the bone. The wave of pain made her arm twitch and her knees buckle. His face hovered above hers, his hungry eyes drinking in her pain with a horrendous, maniacal glee. He purposefully scratched his nails deeper against the bone, laughing in drunken satisfaction at her screams.

When the pain finally
started to subside, the panic started clouding her mind, all logic leaving her to suffer. Her heart threatened to pound right out of her chest and all she could hear was her screams mixed with Gregor’s cries of agony and the blood raging in her ears. We’re all going to die, she thought. Tears poured down her face as her body gave out. Struggling made his grip on her unbearable, she just couldn’t fight anymore. It was all over.

Arms grabbed the man from behind and heaved him away. His nails ripped from her arms in sudden blinding terror
and she collapsed to the ground like a sack of rocks. Slowly she pulled herself up on her wounded arms with blood pouring down them, making her hands slick on the rock. She saw Chance fling the scrawny man back towards the massive stalagmite with incredible force. Ashcroft hit the rock with a sickening crack and collapsed to the floor like a pile of bones.