Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) (27 page)

Emerik’s so fast he moves out of the way so that I miss his head and land the kick to his shoulder. He wraps his arm around my shin and calf.

Shit! Bastard’s trying to break my leg.

Instead of pulling back, I keep my momentum going forward. I knock him back into the ventilation unit.

He loses the angle and grip on my leg, but we both fall to the ground.

Emerik scurries on top of me, but I push at my hips. Instead of bucking him off, he locks his legs around my waist and swings at me with a left hook.

“Stop!”

Every muscle in my body, save for my heart, halts.

Same with Emerik, his arm in midair, angled toward my head. 

I’m frozen, but my thoughts are free, so it isn’t a normal Sanjam.

It’s Zladislov doing his advanced Sanjam.

I feel like I’m locked into a forced game of Red Light, Green Light. I struggle to curse Zladislov out to let me go so I can get to Brooke, but I can’t speak.

Son of a bitch!

“Stand up.”

Emerik’s tension around my waist loosens and he pulls his feet out from underneath me. He gets off and we stand up.

“Emerik, don’t move,” Zladislov orders.

I rush over to Brooke and drop to the ground next to her. I pull her into my lap and put pressure against her neck wound.

She has a nasty cut on her head too, but it’s not on an artery.

The blood from my ear drips onto her cheek, but she’s not stirring.

“Brooke?” My voice cracks with fear.

I put my wrist to my mouth and bite down three times. One bite would be sufficient if she sucks, but she’s out and I need more of a flow for it to go down her throat.

She’s lost too much blood. I have to replenish her energy. If she has enough Pijawikan in her to turn Kaitlynn, then she has to have enough for this to work. If not, a blood transfusion will be our only option. At least Emerik didn’t take Brooke away from the hospital.

When my wrist is over her mouth, I push it side to side against her lips to work her jaw open to cover my wounds. “Drink, damn it,” I growl.

My hope is that the blood will stir her animal instincts and cause her to wake and drink, but it’s not working.

I lightly slap her cheek with my free hand. “Brooke, please wake up.”

I’m terrified. My insides feel colder than it is outside.

Zladislov kneels down beside us. “Brooke, wake up,” he says, his voice deep and authoritative, but soothing.

Brooke’s eyes flutter and her tongue gently strokes against my wrist.

I sigh in relief.

Her eyes open and her jaw clamps down as she drinks in earnest.

“She’ll be okay. We’ll get her inside in a minute.” Zladislov stands and walks over to Emerik.

Adrenaline rushes through me so forcefully, I rock Brooke back and forth in my lap to avoid the pain and relief in my heart from leaking out of my eyes.

“Tell me what this is about,” Zladislov barks.

“You were there. You heard enough from the Commission to know they will not allow you to get away with her. She needed to be taken care of.”

“Since when is my daughter something you decided needed taking care of?”

“Since the moment I found out about her. And again when you rushed off to save her, risking all our lives, exposing everything to betray me. You betrayed our race to have relations with her mother.”

Zladislov tsks. “For over four centuries, you have been my stražar. And for seven hundred sixty-four years, you have been my friend.” Zladislov drops his voice, but I still hear the pain from Emerik’s duplicity within it.

Emerik’s eyes grow hard.

“That much has earned you the right to live in light of your betrayal,” Zladislov says, returning to his businesslike tone. “However, you are no longer welcome in my house—in any of my houses—nor are you welcome in my league.” He walks over to Emerik and snatches Emerik’s znak, tearing it clean off his neck. The breaking of the chain echoes hauntingly in the wind.

Emerik clenches his jaw and tightens his lips into a thin, angry line. When he finally speaks, it’s low and menacing. “You’re nothing without me. I raised you to the top and I kept you there. You expected me to do what you were too lazy or too guileless to do yourself. This is simply another one of those times because you were too blind, too soft to do or allow what needs to be done. And the whole race shall bear the consequences of it. My father will ensure—”

“Be careful who you threaten. I have already spent the last of my allegiance to you.”

Emerik’s jaw flexes. “And I to you.” He spins around and leaps over the side of the building onto the emergency fire ladder. The rungs ding as he traverses down to the ground.

Emerik’s gone.

And Zladislov let him go without killing him or even punishing him for what he did to Brooke.

What the hell?

CHAPTER TWENTY
-THREE

Brooke

Mirko’s unwilling to leave my side as the doctor stitches my face, but once I’m sewn up, he has to go talk to Hawk to take care of the nurses, Kaitlynn’s discharge details, and get Jaren and Kaitlynn out of the morgue. And he goes because he now knows it wasn’t my dad behind the attacks. I’m relieved he had nothing to do with it.

The doctor
’s been gone for a while to get some paperwork for me. I tell my dad everything that happened with Emerik, about everything he said to me.

“I apologize, Brooke. Emerik’s power is to alter sound waves. That is why you couldn’t hear your own scream. He altered it into silence. And you couldn’t jump space because his secondary power is to nullify other powers.”

All that would’ve been good to know beforehand. “It was the most terrifying five minutes of my life.”

Mirko returns. “Hawk took Kaitlynn away from the hospital to avoid
any more questions, and Jaren is waiting outside in the hall.”

My mom steps in behind him. The door closes and she whisper-yells at my dad. “How could you let this happen?” She’s looking back and forth between my dad and Mirko.

Mirko looks regretful, but my dad isn’t as easily chastised.

“I trusted Emerik with my life. I never considered I couldn’t trust him with Brooke’s as well.”

“I did,” Mirko says, eyes meeting my dad’s. He’s communicating something to him in their silence. He’s making a point. That he’s needed here. That he’s the most qualified and the best trained to watch over me.

I won’t argue with that.

And neither is my dad.

“Thank the Lord Mirko was here,” my mom says.

“Yes.” My father surveys Mirko as if trying to find some fault but can’t, so he leaves it at that.

We don’t mentioned to my mom what happened to David yet. She can only take so much at once.

The doctor comes back in and gives my parents instructions in wound care, how to take care of my stitches, and when I should return for removal. He gives me a prescription for pain meds and my mom signs me out.

Jaren stands when we step into the waiting area.  His rings under his eyes are dark and deep.

He follows behind us as my mom and my dad pass us on our way to the front doors.

Jaren lingers behind, so I slow my pace to match his. “Are you coming with us to meet up with Hawk and Kaitlynn, or going with them?”

“I’ll go back with them.” He doesn’t look at me when he speaks.

He’s shutting down.

“Are you okay?” I wrap my fingers around his elbow.

He keeps his focus on his feet and shrugs.

I guess I can’t expect much more than that. Of course he’s not okay.

That was a stupid question.

I squeeze his elbow tighter to let him know he’s not alone. To feel my presence through his numbness or pain.

When we get outside, the sun is gone and parking lights illuminate the lot. My parents split away from us to go to the other side of the parking lot, but I tug Jaren into a hug. “You’re not alone. We’ll get through this.”

He wraps one arm around me and tucks his face into the hair at my neck. “I’m glad you’re okay. I couldn’t have lost you too. Well, not any more than I’ve already lost you.” He pulls away from me, gives me a tight smile, and strolls over to my mom and dad before I can respond.

I catch up to Mirko, and we climb into the Land Rover. He pulls out his phone and calls Hawk. “Where are you guys?”

Hawk tells him.

“What are you guys doing there?”

I fight the urge to ask Mirko where they are.

“All right. Stay there. We’ll be there in a few minutes.” Mirko hangs up and drives the car out of the parking lot. “They’re at David’s.”

“What? Why?” What does Kaitlynn think she’ll get from going to his house?

“Hawk said Kaitlynn needed to go to David’s. She wouldn’t drop it.”

That can’t be good. This one day feels like a week. So much has happened. I’m fatigued thinking about all I’ve endured today, that we’ve all endured today. So much change, so much loss, so much pain. But I’ll keep going as long as Kaitlynn needs me.

Mirko pulls the car to a stop across the street from David’s house and behind my Mazda. There’s a single light on inside, but other than that, it looks quiet.

Kaitlynn gets out of my car, and I climb out of the Land Rover to meet her. Mirko follows behind me, but keeps a little distance.

She stops at the curb near David’s mailbox. The house’s dark blue shutters look black in the moonlight, and the light yellow siding looks gray. It’s much gloomier right now than it has been all the other times I’ve seen it.

Kaitlynn doesn’t say anything as we stare at the house. I’m not sure what she’s hoping to get by being here. Or what she’s imagining happened to David.

I hope she’s not going down that dark tunnel.

“Say something.” I have to break the silence before it crushes me. Crushes us.

“I don’t feel him here.” A tear runs down her cheek. It shimmers in the moonlight, a liquid crystal against her delicate skin.

I put my arm over her shoulder. “He’s in here.” I tap my hand over her heart. “He’ll always be here.”

Tears trail down my cheek. I try to keep them back, but they won’t be stopped.

She turns into my arm and hugs me tight, smothering her face into my shoulder as she cries.

I cry with her. Because David’s gone, because he was my friend, he made her happy, he was innocent and way too young, and because I can’t take away her pain. Or Jaren’s, or even my own. I can’t stop any of the things that have been thrust upon those I love most.

Kaitlynn hasn’t been with David long, but that doesn’t matter to me. I know exactly how hard you can fall for someone in such a short time. Had it been Mirko instead of David, Kaitlynn would be here for me the same way I am for her.

She steps back and wipes her hands over her face, looking up at the night sky. She drops her gaze to my face. “I have to see him. Where’d they take him?”

I sniff and wipe the sleeve of my sweater over my face, taking care not to stretch the skin near my stitches. “Mirko should know.” I grab her hand and walk beside over to Mirko.

“Where did they take David?” I ask him.

“Well, it can’t be the Lexington morgue because we were just there. Is there one here in Buena Vista?”

“There’s a smaller hospital at the other edge of town. It probably has one.”