Dark Descent (Vampire Hunter Book 5) (2 page)

“Why would you do
that?” I screamed.

“Don’t you know
about the loyalty to your maker?” Bartholomew asked.

“We could use a
warlock on our side,” Thomas said before I could answer. “You’ve seen the way
Lucas clings to that idiot Nicholas. He’d do anything for him.”

“I would
never
in a million years support you two monsters,” Henry spat out. He sounded
furious.

“But you won’t
have a choice,” Thomas replied. “You’ll be our brother – our
blood
brother.”

“I’d rather you
kill me.” Henry stared defiantly at Thomas.

“And we’d rather
have a loyal warlock who also happens to be a vampire,” Bartholomew said. “It
will make disposing of Lucas a lot easier – and more fun.” Bartholomew
looked at me and flashed a triumphant grin.

“And when the time
comes,” he continued, “I feel confident you can help us take down the living
dead girl as well.”

“After the
protective order is removed,” Thomas added.

“You’re crazy,”
Henry said. “I don’t care what you do to me, I would never hurt Aurora.” His
voice was shaking – from anger or fear, I couldn’t tell.

“You’re wasting
your time,” I interjected angrily. “Henry has a
good
heart. He will
never be your brother.”

“I guess we’ll
find out,” Bartholomew said. “Enough talk. It’s time.” Bartholomew’s eyes
flashed, dark as night, as he leaned forward and sunk his pointy teeth into
Henry’s neck.

I could hear
screaming, and I knew it was coming from me, but it felt like I was watching
the scene from outside of my body.
Am I going into shock? This isn’t really
happening.

Among all of the
things I worried about, Henry becoming a vampire was not one of them.

I watched,
paralyzed, still screaming, as Bartholomew sucked the life out of Henry.
Henry’s body was limp. His face had gone pale, and his lips were white. He was
dying, and he was about to be reborn again as a vampire – a vampire that
was loyal to Bartholomew. I turned my head away, unable to watch.

Lucas isn’t
coming to save you. No one is. You have to save Henry yourself.

And then,
something clicked inside of me. I could feel the heat coursing through my body,
getting hotter and hotter.
Am I on fire? Am I burning from the inside out,
like that spell I saw in Henry’s book?

I looked down at
my arms and legs. Nothing. The heat wasn’t painful; it was just
different
.
I hadn’t felt hot or cold since I became undead. It was an odd sensation. It
was like I was alive again.

I jerked my arms
against the ropes – one last feeble attempt to break free – and to
my amazement they tore apart. My feet, which had been bound so tightly I could
barely move them, also easily broke free. I stared down, dumbfounded, at my
wrists and ankles, which had no marks, no sign I had been tied up.

It had been as
effortless as snapping a rubber band.
What the hell is happening to me?

Instinctively, I
picked up the chair I’d been bound to, lifted it high over my head, and smashed
it against the floor. The wood splintered and broke the chair into multiple
pieces. My eyes scanned the ground, looking for what I needed.

This will do.
Still
not quite understanding what was happening, I grabbed a piece of wood, hoping
the end was sharp enough, and lunged for Bartholomew.

I expected for it
to be difficult to drive the stake into Bartholomew’s heart. I was prepared for
having to try multiple times, prepared for Thomas to step in and intervene, to
attempt to stop me. But it was nothing. It was like I was cutting into butter.

I’m not even sure
how I knew where his heart was – I’d never paid much attention in Health
class – and Bartholomew’s back was towards me as well. But that didn’t
seem to matter. The stake plunged through his skin easily. Deep into his heart.

Bartholomew
stumbled forwards. He turned to look at me. Blood was dripping out of his mouth.
Henry’s blood?

Bartholomew
started sputtering, coughing, making horrible hacking noises. The blood
continued to pour from his mouth and I realized it wasn’t Henry’s blood.
Bartholomew was dying.

Thomas rushed
forward to catch his brother and was instantly covered in his blood, which was
now gushing out around the stake that was still embedded in his heart. I was
swimming in blood. It was everywhere.

Calmly, I watched
as Thomas could no longer hold Bartholomew up, as Bartholomew’s body finally
stopped writhing in pain, as the screams turned to groans, then whimpers, then
nothing. Thomas looked up at me from where he had been crouching beside his
dying brother. There were tears in his eyes. And then he lunged forward with a
bloodcurdling yell, tackling me to the ground.

But I didn’t
panic. The sheer strength I had felt from Thomas when he tied me up didn’t seem
so daunting anymore. We were on an even playing field now. This was a fight I
could win. I pushed him off of me with both arms and he tumbled to the side. I
rolled in the other direction, away from him, trying to get some distance
between us. Still acting on instinct, I reached for another shard of wood from
the splintered chair.
This will do.

Thomas was coming
at me again. He got on top of me and pinned my arms down. “I don’t care what
the order says!” he screamed. “I’ll finish turning Henry while you watch. Then
my new brother and I will kill you, your entire family, and Lucas.” Thomas
paused. “Or maybe I’ll save
you
for last so that you can watch them
suffer first.”

Thomas got up and
tried to pull me with him, but he didn’t understand my strength. I wrenched my
right arm – the one holding the stake – out of his grasp. Before he
could try again, I pulled my arm back above my head and drove the stake
forward, into Thomas’ heart, with surprising force.

Just like with
Bartholomew, he started sputtering. I vaguely recalled Nicholas saying that a
vampire’s death was brutal. I pushed Thomas off of me, rolled to the side, and
stood up.  He was still screaming in pain, still spewing blood all over
the floor. I scanned the diner. There was so much blood; it looked like a
massacre had occurred here.

I was covered in
blood as well. Normally, being drenched in blood would have freaked me out, but
I was still calm, collected. I wiped my hands down the side of my dress in an
attempt to remove some of the blood, then rushed forward to check on Henry.

“Henry,” I yelled,
slapping his face. He didn’t respond. I started shaking his shoulders violently.
His head bobbed up and down lifelessly from the jerking motion. Now I was
starting to panic.
Is he a vampire?
No, he couldn’t be. Thomas had said
he’d finish the job; whatever Bartholomew started hadn’t turned him yet.

I pressed my ear
against Henry’s chest. I could hear and feel his heartbeat. He was still alive!

I had no clue what
to do next, but obviously I couldn’t handle this situation alone. I grabbed my
phone and called Lucas.
Pick up, pick up, pick up
,
I willed.

Finally, he
answered. “Aurora, I told you to use the secure phone I gave you!” Lucas
exclaimed.

“There’s no time
for that! I need you – right now. I’m covered in blood.” I knew I wasn’t
making sense. I tried to calm down and think.

“What? Aurora,
what the hell happened? Are you okay? Where are you?”

“Night Owl diner,”
I answered. “Do you know where it is?”

“Yes, be there in
a minute,” he replied.

“Lucas, please
hurry. The twins – they’ve hurt Henry.”

“They’re with you
now?” I could hear Lucas slam his apartment door shut, then get into his car
and start the engine.

“No, they’re dead.
That’s why there’s so much blood.”

“I still don’t
understand,” Lucas said desperately. “But I’ll be there as fast as possible.”

I put my phone
back in my purse and crouched down next to Henry, hugging and rocking his
weakened body.

“Please be okay,”
I repeated over and over, like a mantra.

Lucas opened the
diner door and rushed into the restaurant. His mouth dropped open in shock at
the scene before him.

“Bartholomew was
going to turn Henry,” I yelled. “He bit him.”

“For how long?”
Lucas demanded.

“I don’t know!” I
wailed. “Half a minute? Maybe a minute?”

Lucas picked Henry
up and slung him over his shoulder without speaking. “Where are you taking
him?” I asked.

“Come on,” Lucas
ordered. “We’re going to my apartment. He needs help, and fast, if there’s any
chance for him to live.”

Lucas locked the
diner door behind us. “We’ll deal with the blood bath later,” he said.

He opened the
backseat door of his car and placed Henry inside. I got into the passenger
seat. Lucas grabbed his phone.
He’s probably calling Nicholas for help.

“We need the
antidote as fast as you can get your hands on it,” Lucas said tersely. “It may
already be too late.” Lucas paused as Nicholas said something. “Yeah,” he
answered. “It’s for Henry.” Lucas clicked off his phone and turned his
attention to the road. We were flying to his apartment.

“I thought Henry
put a spell on the twins? To keep them away,” he said.

I looked around
nervously, praying there were no cops nearby, trying to meet their ticket quota.
Lucas continued to speed towards his place at breakneck speed. But it was still
early in the morning and the roads were empty.

“It was only
temporary,” I answered.

When we arrived at
Lucas’ apartment, he carried Henry inside and placed him on the couch. Without
speaking, he went into the kitchen and came back a moment later with a damp
cloth, which he put on Henry’s forehead. It was then that I noticed Henry’s coloring
had gone from pale to pink. He was flushed, feverish. I sat down on the floor
next to the couch and cupped Henry’s hand in mine.

“What’s happening
to him?” I asked Lucas.

“He’s sick. Very,
very sick. Bartholomew bit him, but he didn’t take enough blood. It’s how a
vampire can kill someone if they don’t want to turn the person,” he explained.
“It’s like a venomous snake bite.”

“But you said there
was an antidote, right?” I demanded.

“Yeah, Nicholas is
trying to get some. It’s illegal for vampires to kill humans. So there’s not
much need for the antidote nowadays.”

“How long has he
got?” I whispered.

Lucas didn’t
answer.

“Just tell me,” I
begged. “I deserve to know the truth!”

“I’m not sure,”
Lucas replied, throwing up his hands helplessly. “I’m not bull shitting you. I
really don’t know. It depends on how strong his body is and how close he was to
being turned. That’s why I asked you how long he’d been bitten before you
intervened.”

Lucas walked over
to where I was still sitting with Henry and placed his hand on my back. “But
you said you wanted to know the truth, so I also need to tell you that the
antidote is not always 100% effective.”

“What do you
mean?”

“It works about
50% of the time, and even then, there are residual side effects,” Lucas said.

“You mean he could
crave blood?” I asked.

“No, he’s not a
vampire. He won’t drink blood, he won’t be immortal. But he may have
sensitivity to light, the ability to see extremely far distances. That kind of
thing.”

“If he even makes
it…” My voice trailed off.

“Lucas?” I asked,
looking up at him.

He nodded for me
to go on.

“What if you turned
him? You know, finish what Bartholomew started. Then –“

“It’s not an
option, Aurora,” Lucas interrupted me.

“Why?” I demanded.
“Because it won’t work or because you refuse to do it? Come on,” I said before
he had a chance to answer. “Henry would be loyal to
you
. He’d be
your
blood brother. Not Bartholomew’s.”

Lucas sighed
deeply. “I know you would do anything to save Henry, but I don’t think it would
work. It’s been too long since he was first bitten. He’s too sick now. Any more
would probably kill him instantly.”

“
Probably
?”
I questioned. “If there’s only a 50% chance this antidote will work, then
what’s it matter? Sounds like he’s fucked either way! Can’t you at least
try
?”

“You’re not
thinking clearly,” Lucas said. He turned and walked over to the window and
pushed aside the thick curtain. “Where the hell is Nicholas?” he muttered, just
loud enough for me to hear.

The minutes ticked
by painfully. Finally, Nicholas arrived. It was one of the few times I had ever
seen him look flustered. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It was a bitch getting a hold
of this stuff.” He pulled out a vial of liquid and a handful of
syringes.  

Lucas took them
from him without speaking. He opened the vial, placed the end of one of the
needles into the liquid, and pulled back on the syringe handle to draw the
medicine inside. Then, he lifted Henry’s shirt and administered the shot next
to his navel.
Just like when I had a shot, to keep me from going into a
trance at the underground meeting.

I could hardly
believe that was merely a week ago, and that I had swooned at the needle. Now,
after killing Thomas and Bartholomew and getting drenched in their blood, cringing
at a needle was downright ridiculous.

“How quickly will
the antidote work?” I asked nervously.

Lucas looked grim.
“He has to get a shot every hour. If he’s going to be able to recover from
this, we’ll know by tomorrow morning.”

“Are you serious?”
I whispered. “Twenty-four hours?”

Lucas nodded. He
turned to Nicholas. “Thanks for getting it so quickly.”

“No prob, bro.”
His tone was light, but Nicholas’ eyes were filled with worry.

“I’m staying
here,” I announced.

“No, you can’t
stay,” Lucas said.

I looked at him in
surprise. “Are you kidding me?”

“You can’t stay
here in case this doesn’t go well. It’s for your own good,” Lucas said.

“That’s not fair!”
I protested.

Lucas held up his
hand before I could say anything else. “Aurora,” he said quietly, “I know you
understand how serious this is. I’ll call you if or when something changes.”

“He’s right,”
Nicholas interjected. “Lucas is protecting you. Let him.”

“At least allow me
to stay here for a little while,” I pleaded.

Lucas and Nicholas
looked at each other. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Lucas asked. They
walked out of the room.

What’s that all
about?
Normally I’d be annoyed at Lucas blatantly leaving the room to have
a private conversation with Nicholas, but at this particular moment I just
didn’t care. I was mentally exhausted and emotionally drained.

They returned a
minute later. “I’m going to take care of things at the diner,” Nicholas
announced. “Then I’ll come back, get you, and take you home. In the meantime,
you might want to shower; I think your parents will have a heart attack if you
walk through the door looking like
that
.”

The blood. “Oh, no,
I completely forgot,” I wailed, jumping to my feet. “I shouldn’t have sat on
your floor, Lucas. The carpet is ruined now. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Lucas
assured me. “I’ll clean it up later.”

“I need to get
going, take care of the diner before someone else finds the gruesome scene,”
Nicholas said. “But I just have to ask, how the hell did you manage to kill
both
Thomas and Bartholomew? Those guys are intimidating, even to
me
.”

“I don’t know. I
guess seeing Henry about to get turned into a vampire fueled me with a strength
that I didn’t know I had.”

Nicholas nodded
but didn’t comment. “Okay, I’m off,” he said. “We can talk about your vampire
slaying skills later. Anything I need to know about the scene I’m going to
clean up?”

“There’s blood
– everywhere,” I replied.

“That’s fine.”
Nicholas waved his hand dismissively. “I know what it looks like when a vampire
is staked. Is anyone else dead? Patrons of the diner?”

“No, but they
killed the owner. I didn’t see the body, though.”

“I’ll find it. No
other casualties?”

“Not that I know
of,” I replied.

“Good. They
probably had the owner make everyone else leave. I’ll get rid of Thomas’ and
Bartholomew’s bodies and clean up the blood.” He looked at Lucas. “What about
the owner? What do you think is best?”

“I guess leave
him?” Lucas shook his head. “Shit, Nic, I don’t know. If you get rid of the
body, his – or her – family will never know what happened.”

“That’s what I was
thinking,” Nicholas replied. “Okay, I’d better go now.”

“Please be
careful, Nicholas,” I said.

“Don’t worry about
me. I’ll be fine,” he replied, forcing a smile.

“Make sure you
disable any cameras,” I said as an afterthought.

“I bet that the
twins already took care of that, but I’ll double check,” Nicholas promised.

“Thank you for
helping Henry,” I said, my voice shaky.

“You guys don’t
have to keep thanking me,” Nicholas replied. “In case you haven’t figured it
out by now, I
like
helping people – and especially my friends and
my brother. I will never atone for my sins, but at least I’m on the right track
now.” And with that, he was gone.

Nicholas had such
a blasé attitude most of the time; I hadn’t realized he shared the same guilt
as Lucas over the things they had done in the past.

“You’ll have to
wear my clothes when you leave here. Yours are probably ruined,” Lucas said.
“And you really do need a shower before you go home.”

“Mom wasn’t too
pleased when I came back in your clothes that day it was raining and I got
drenched,” I muttered. “Maybe I can sneak in without her seeing me.”

“If you really
think it will be a problem, ask Nicholas to stop by the mall on the way home,”
Lucas suggested.

“It’s cool.” I
wanted another one of Lucas’ shirts. When I was panicked and alone, trying to
wile away the painful hours of the night, I often wore the one he had given me.
It was comforting.

“Does Henry look
any different to you?” I asked. Before, I couldn’t tell that he was alive until
I placed my ear against his chest and listened. But now, I could easily see his
chest rising and falling. Was Henry getting stronger? Or was it just wishful
thinking on my part?

“His breathing has
improved, after the first dose,” Lucas confirmed.

“That’s great
news, right?” I asked excitedly.

“Don’t get ahead
of yourself. He’s far from being out of the woods. Part of the reason he was so
weak is because of the amount of blood drained from his body. But the human
body is resilient. It’s a slow process, but his body is already working to
regenerate the blood that was lost. Yes, he looks better. But no, we can’t
assume he’s going to be okay.” Lucas had been pacing. He stopped and sat down
on the floor next to Henry and me.

“I’ll watch him,”
he said gently. “You get a shower. Just go into my bedroom and pick out anything
you want to wear. It’s all hanging in the closet. My wardrobe consists of
black, black and more black.” Lucas smiled, obviously trying to make me laugh.

Which I did,
despite myself.

“If something
changes, you’d better come knock on the door and tell me,” I ordered Lucas.

“Not come in the
bathroom and tell you?” he teased.

“Don’t make me
hurt you,” I shot back, pumping my fist in the air jokingly.

Lucas was smiling
and looking at me.

“What?” I asked,
suddenly feeling self-conscious. My hands flew to my face, which I realized was
also caked in blood. “I must look disgusting!” I exclaimed.

“You never look
disgusting, Rory,” Lucas said softly.

I diverted my
gaze, suddenly feeling nervous, the way I always felt when Lucas looked at me
like that.

“I’m just glad
you’re okay,” Lucas said.

“Me, too,” I whispered,
finally looking at him. “But I’m scared as shit about Henry. He just has to get
through this!”

“We’re doing everything
we can,” Lucas said.

I stood up
reluctantly. “I should go get that shower. The shock has worn off, and I’m
starting to feel a little uncomfortable, being covered in the blood of two dead
vampires.”

“I still don’t
understand how you did it.” Lucas had a funny expression on his face.

“I told you,
seeing Henry in that position, knowing that no one was coming to rescue us, I
just got overcome with this crazy superhuman strength.”

“I keep thinking
about how that demon told Nicholas you were fated to become a powerful hunter,”
Lucas said. “Maybe this is the beginning of your powers? There’s a difference
between natural hunting ability and possessing strength that allows you to
overtake not one, but
two
vampires. Do you have any idea how strong
vampires are?”

I shrugged.

“And besides,”
Lucas continued, “you said Bartholomew was the one who bit Henry. How the hell
did you manage to stake him before Thomas realized what was going on? I told
you before – like that time you ran from the werewolf – that you
have an incomprehensible ability for speed.”

“In fact,” he said
excitedly, “if you were moving that fast – which I feel certain that you
were – you might not be an accurate judge of time. Maybe Henry wasn’t
bitten for very long. I mean, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but perhaps
he’s got a better chance to recover than I initially thought.”

“Really?” For the
first time since we’d arrived at Lucas’ apartment, I felt a glimmer of hope.

“We still have to
be cautiously optimistic,” he warned. “And maybe I’m grasping at straws. Who
knows? But time will tell.”

I walked back to
Lucas’ bedroom to get clothes to change into after my shower. He hadn’t been
kidding. There was hanger after hanger of black t-shirts. Black pants and dark
blue jeans were folded in a pile by the wall.