Refuge (33 page)

Derek laughed. “Stay here? Dude, what are you
talking about? All the booze and food is at the house.”

Seth laid a hand on the top of the ladder.
“Oh, I think the real party is gonna happen here, my friend.”

My eyes were drawn to the movement of his
hand the second it began to change. I pulled my dagger free as his
fingernails became long black claws. “Vampire!”

“What?” Jordan cried as she whipped out two
lethal knives with lightning fast reflexes.

“What’s this?” Seth sniffed the air and his
smile widened, showing off his glistening fangs. “Oh, I’ve heard
all you juicy little morsels from that Westhorne Institute.”

“Seth, what the fuck man!” Derek yelled as
horror settled on his face. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Wrong?” Chilling laughter burst from Seth.
“I’ve never felt so great in my life, buddy, and it’s about to get
a whole lot better.”

The moment Seth moved, Jordan threw Derek
behind us so hard he hit the wall and crumpled to the floor. She
and I took up fighting stances against the vampire who used to be
Derek’s friend. Jesus, what were the odds of going to a party where
the host’s best friend returned from vacation as a vampire? And
this close to a Mohiri stronghold? I really was a disaster
magnet.

“How cute. The little girls think they can
take me.” Seth rolled his shoulders. “I know all about you Mohiri
children and how there is nothing sweeter than your blood.” His
eyes narrowed, and he swallowed like an alcoholic looking at a
glass of whiskey.

“We know about you, too,” I said with a lot
more bravado than I felt. “You’re a baby vamp, less than a week
old, which means you’re not as good as you think you are. And my
friend Jordan here is the best warrior you’ll ever meet. In fact,
she’s the
last
warrior you’ll ever meet.”

Jordan recovered from the shock of meeting
her first vampire and shot me her signature smirk before deftly
twirling the knife in her right hand. Seth’s eyes followed the
weapon, and I caught the hesitation in his eyes. The fact that he
was a new vampire was the one thing we had going for us. That, and
Jordan really was as good as I’d said she was.

“Are you going eat us or what?” Jordan
taunted, and I saw Seth’s nostrils flare. New vampires are also
rash and quick to temper, and if anyone could piss one off, it was
Jordan. “I’m thirsty and I could be having a beer instead of
wasting time with you.”

If we hadn’t been in mortal danger at that
moment, I would have laughed at her sheer brass.

Seth did not find it as funny. “If anyone
will drink here, it will be me,” he spat, leaping forward. He was
faster than I’d expected, but he did not have the blurring speed of
the other vampires I’d seen. Jordan met him halfway and delivered a
blow to his chest that just missed his heart. He spun away with a
shriek of pain and wisps of smoke rose from his chest when he
turned for a second attack. “You’ll die for that, bitch.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the big bad sucker. Shut
up and kill me already.”

When this was over, Jordan and I had to have
a talk about how
not
to talk to a vampire.

Seth made a sound somewhere between a growl
and a scream and went for Jordan again. I guess he thought I was
less of a threat than the girl with two knives so he’d take her out
first. For an architect, he was pretty stupid. His claws went for
Jordan’s throat when he should have been paying attention to the
two silver blades she wielded with deadly ease. One blade slashed
across his midsection, opening a deep smoking gash there, and as
soon as he dropped his hands to keep his guts from spilling out,
the second blade found its mark. The vampire’s eyes flew wide with
shock as Jordan pulled her knife free. Then he crumpled to the
floor with a heavy thud.

“God I love this job!” Jordan crowed as she
bent to wipe her bloody blades on the dead vampire’s sleeve. When
she stood, I saw that she didn’t have a speck of blood on her. How
was that even possible?

“We should get back to – ” Cold blossomed in
my chest again and dread filled me as it finally dawned on me what
was happening to me. I whirled to the ladder as a female vampire
about my height with long dark hair flew through the hole. Her
appearance did not shock me nearly as much as the revelation that
my episodes were not random bursts of elemental power.

I had developed my very own vampire
radar.

“Seth!” the female vampire shrieked when she
saw him on the floor, and I knew she was his girlfriend, Dana, whom
Derek had mentioned.

I realized how quiet Derek was, and I glanced
behind me to see him out cold against the wall. Damn, Jordan didn’t
know her own strength. I hoped he wasn’t hurt too bad, but there
was no time to check on him now. We had Dana to deal with, and if
Seth had been telling the truth, there was a third vampire here
somewhere. All I could do was hope he was as new as these two.

“What have you done with Seth?” Dana
screamed, advancing on us.

Jordan smiled and raised her weapons again.
“Seth’s gone to hell, but don’t worry, you’ll see him again very
soon.”

“Brent!” Dana screeched and bared her fangs
at Jordan. “I am going to kill you slowly, bitch.”

I almost groaned when Jordan replied, “You go
ahead and take your time, but just so you know, I plan to kill you
quickly.”

Up until that moment, I thought we had a
chance to get out of here alive. But when a second male vampire
appeared at the top of the ladder, I knew we were in trouble.
Jordan could probably take one of them, but I wasn’t a fighter. My
only strength was my elemental power, and it wasn’t reliable. I had
a feeling these vampires weren’t going to stand still while I tried
to summon it.

My Mori stirred at the approaching threat,
and I felt a spark of hope. I wasn’t as strong or as fast as
Jordan, but I wasn’t completely helpless either. Fear for my life
overshadowed the fear of my demon, and I dropped the wall between
us.
Help
me.

I suppressed a shudder as the Mori’s
consciousness touched mine, and I felt its power rush through my
body a second later. When Brent flew at me, I shocked us both by
sidestepping his attack so fast it would have made Callum proud.
The vampire recovered quickly and came at me again, his fangs and
claws bared. There was no time to think or to worry about how
Jordan was faring in her own fight. My demon’s instinct took over
and I swung the dagger in an upward arc, ripping it across Brent’s
hands. He screamed, and I gagged as a clawed pinky bounced off my
boot.

Enraged, Brent lunged at me again, and this
time he hit me so hard I flew into the wall. My dagger went
skidding across the floor, but not before I landed a good blow to
his neck. He stepped back to put his hands over the gushing wound,
giving me time to get to my feet again. My demon strength was
already fading. It had saved me from his first attack, but I
couldn’t take another blow like that, and I had lost my weapon.

I flexed my fingers in frustration. Where was
all the power that had flared up around the other demons? Vampires
are demons too – or at least they have a demon inside them – so
there was no reason I couldn’t call on my power like I had with
Nikolas. Vamhir demons are a lot closer to the surface than Mori
demons. My power should be freaking out already being this close to
two vampires. Maybe it just needed a little push.

My eyes did not leave the vampire as I pushed
my Mori back and threw up a wall to protect it before I opened my
power. The comforting heat flowed through me and I reached for it,
trying to shape it into the weapon I had used on Nikolas and the
demons. Nothing. What was I doing wrong?

There was a shout to my right, and Brent
turned to see Jordan deliver a killing blow to his female friend.
His eyes widened in fear at the sight of the other vampire falling.
It was the opening I needed. Using the last of my borrowed
strength, I launched myself at his back and wrapped my hands around
his neck and face. All I had to do was hold him long enough for
Jordan to finish with the female.

As soon as my bare skin made contact with
his, a surge of electricity ripped through me, making all the hair
on my body stand on end. Static crackled up my arms and sparks flew
from my fingertips. The vampire jerked and stiffened like he’d been
electrocuted and dropped to the floor.

I lay on top of him in shock as the sickly
smell of burnt flesh filled my nose. Was he dead? I got my answer
when he moaned and tried to push himself up before collapsing back
to the floor. Whatever I’d done to him, he was down for now, but
vampires healed quickly. I looked around for my dagger and saw it
on the other side of the loft.

“Here.” Jordan held out one of her blades. I
didn’t hesitate; I took the knife and plunged it into the vampire’s
heart.

THE VAMPIRE SHUDDERED violently and went
still. For several seconds, I sat still and stared at the grisly
scene around me.

“Holy fuck!”

Jordan’s voice snapped me out of my trance,
and I realized I was sitting atop a dead vampire. I rolled off the
body and onto my hands and knees, panting and trying not to
vomit.

“You okay?” she asked, and I nodded slowly.
To prove it, I got unsteadily to my feet.

Jordan stared at me. “What did you do to
him?”

I glanced at the corpse lying face down on
the floor, the burns on his face hidden from view. “I – ”

“Sara? Jordan?”

Trembling, I went to the window and saw at
least half a dozen people below. “Tristan?”

“Is Jordan with you? Are you girls okay?”

I looked behind me at Jordan, the three dead
vampires, and Derek who was still out cold. “We’re fine, but we
could use some help. We had a, um, situation, and there’s an
unconscious man up here who probably needs a doctor.”

“We’re coming up,” he called back.

“Just don’t freak out, okay?” I said as he
started up the ladder. I stood back and took in the bloody scene
again, and my only thought was thank God Nikolas wasn’t here to see
this.

Great, we take down three vampires and the first thing I
think about is
him.

Tristan was the first one through the hatch,
followed by Chris and Callum. The three men stared at the carnage
in shocked silence.

“You two killed three vampires by
yourselves?” Tristan asked, looking at me. I felt an absurd rush of
pleasure that he didn’t assume Jordan had done all the work.

“Baby vampires.” I knelt to check on Derek
and heaved a sigh when I found a strong pulse. “He’s alive,” I told
Jordan.

Callum joined me and did a quick exam of
Derek’s head. He pulled out some gunna paste and winked at me as he
put some in the unconscious man’s mouth. “He likely has a
concussion, but the gunna paste will take care of that. He’ll still
need medical attention.”

“Young vampires?” Tristan murmured.

“He knew them.” I pointed to Derek’s dead
friends. “They’re from town. Their names are Seth and Dana, and
according to Derek they were supposed to be on vacation in Vegas. I
don’t know who the other guy was. She called him Brent.”

The three men exchanged grim looks, and I
could tell they knew more than they were saying. “What are you not
telling us?”

Tristan shifted as if he was carrying a great
weight. “We’ve had reports of an increase in missing persons in
certain areas the last month. Las Vegas has been the worst.”

I didn’t say that I had also heard about the
missing people. “Vampires.”

He nodded silently.

“Young vampires are still strong. How did you
girls manage to take out three at once?” The look Callum gave me
said he still didn’t think much of my fighting skills even though
my training was going better.

I let Jordan tell the story, and her
narration was a lot more colorful than mine would have been. She
was pretty psyched about her first vampire kills. When she got to
mine, she paused like she didn’t know how to continue, and I took
it from there.

“He came at me and I got him good in the
throat, but I lost my knife. He had to cover his throat because
blood was going everywhere.” I waved a hand at my blood-splattered
clothes for emphasis. “I jumped on his back and knocked him down,
and then Jordan gave me her knife to finish him off.”

My explanation sounded normal and straight
forward even to my ears, but out of the corner of my eye I saw
Jordan give me a puzzled look. I hoped she was not going to
question my story, because I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet
anyway.

“How did you guys know we were in trouble
anyway?” I asked to change the subject.

“We monitor the police bands in town, and we
heard a call about a residential homicide,” Tristan told us. “Chris
came to check it out, and he said a neighbor told the police he saw
the victim’s son enter the house several hours ago. The neighbor
thought it was strange because the son was supposed to be in Las
Vegas. With all the reports out of Vegas, I didn’t want to take any
chances.”

“How did you know where we were?”

Chris showed his dimples. “You of all people
should know that we have GPS trackers on all our vehicles. We went
to the house, and Terrence said you girls had gone outside with his
friend, Derek.”

I made a face at him. “Well you missed all
the fun.”

“Are you girls sure you aren’t hurt?” Tristan
asked again. “You’re covered in blood.”

Jordan looked down and noticed her blood
splattered legs for the first time. Her two kills were clean so
there was no doubt where the blood had come from. “Damn it, Sara, I
just bought these jeans.”

I let out a strangled laugh. “Sorry.”

Chris shook his head. “The two of them sound
okay to me.”