Refuge (49 page)

THIS CAN’T BE real.
The perimeters were tightly
patrolled day and night. How could vampires get past the armed
warriors and get so close to the stronghold?

“Is this her?” the female asked, pointing at
me.

“Yes,” Michael replied in a small voice.

I sucked in a sharp breath. Behind me, I
heard two low growls.

“You rotten little traitorous piece of shit!”
Jordan shrieked, leaping at Michael who stumbled backward. One of
the vampires moved, and I grabbed Jordan’s arm to hold her
back.

“I’m sorry,” Michael cried to me. “They have
Matthew and they’ll kill him if I don’t help them. He’s all I
have.”

All I could do was stare in horror at the boy
waving his arms frantically as he pleaded with me. I had suspected
Michael was a bit messed up from losing his family, but in that
moment I saw how broken he really was. He was so desperate to
believe his brother was alive that he was willing to trust his
mortal enemy and sell out his own people for a ghost.

“Touching.” The female vampire sneered and
motioned to her companions. “Take her and kill the rest.”

“You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone else!”
Michael yelled. “You said you would trade Matthew for her.”

The female laughed and her fangs grew. “We
don’t make deals with the likes of you.” She moved in a blur and
struck him so hard he flew fifteen feet and hit a tree with a
sickening crack. He landed in the snow and lay there unmoving. The
vampire turned to me. “Now where – ?”

She gasped and stepped back as loud growls
erupted behind me and two massive werewolves appeared where Roland
and Peter had stood. I had never seen my friends transform, and it
was shocking even for me.

“Werewolves!” the female spat, stunned that
she and her companions had not picked up on my friends’ scent. She
recovered quickly. “Two of you are no match for five of us.”

“What the fuck am I, chopped liver?” Jordan’s
hand moved and the vampire closest to her made a gurgling noise and
clutched at a silver knife handle protruding from his chest. The
male sank to his knees in the snow and Jordan waved a second knife
in front of her. “Now it’s four to three.”

The female snarled. “Lucky shot, little
hunter, but Stephen was a fledgling. You won’t take me that
easily.” She waved the others forward. “What the hell are you
waiting for?”

One of the werewolves let out a ferocious
growl and jumped over my head to face the dark figures moving in on
us. I didn’t need to ask to know it was Roland in front of me.
Behind me, Peter guarded my back while at my side, Jordan
brandished her long knife. I looked down helplessly at my
weaponless hands before I realized that a knife in my hand wouldn’t
help our odds much anyway. The best weapon I had was me.

Roland dove at one of the approaching
vampires, and I heard the sound of flesh ripping and felt a spray
of hot blood across my cheek. Snarls and shouts filled the woods
around me, and it became impossible to make out one flying shape
from another.

A cold hand grabbed my wrist and whipped me
away from my friends, the sharp claws digging into my skin. I knew
immediately this was no baby vampire. Terror gripped me and
memories of Eli flooded my mind.
No. Never again.

Heat roared through me as I opened the
barrier holding back my power. Instead of trying to pull away from
my attacker, I whirled and placed my free hand on his chest. After
my experience with Nate, I knew exactly where the vamhir demon
lurked and how to hurt it. Before the vampire knew what was
happening, white hot energy burst from my hand and pierced his
chest as easily as one of Jordan’s blades.

The vampire froze and his hands went slack. I
yanked my wrist from his grasp and staggered back a step. It was
too dark to see his expression, but I could tell his eyes were
still open and staring at me in shock. I had no idea how quickly
he’d recover, and I had no weapon to finish him off. I raised both
hands to blast him again, and he made a small sound like a
smothered scream.

A second later, someone shouldered me aside
and a blade sank into the vampire’s chest. Jordan pulled her knife
free and grabbed my arm. “Come on. We need to get out of here.”

I whirled around and realized we were alone
except for the dark shapes littering the ground. My stomach
dropped. “Where are Roland and Peter?”

“They went after the female.” Jordan started
pulling me through the trees. “We need to get back and raise the
alarm. How the hell did five vampires get past our sentries?”

From deeper in the woods my friends’ snarls
grew fainter as they pursued the vampire. I dug in my heels. “We
can’t leave Roland and Peter. And what about Michael?”

Jordan stopped and looked back at me. “Your
friends ripped two vampires to shreds; I think they can take care
of themselves. And that little traitor can stay – ”

I froze, almost doubling over from the cold
stabbing me in the chest. “More coming,” I croaked.

“Shit! Where?”

I shook my head because my new vampire radar
wasn’t that specific. The only chance we had was to run and hope it
was away from danger. This time, it was me who grabbed Jordan’s
hand and plunged into the trees. After a dozen or so yards, the
cold fist in my chest loosened, which told me we were heading away
from the vampires, but still being pursued. That wasn’t our only
problem. In the dark, everything looked the same and I had no idea
where we were going. If we didn’t get out of these woods soon, our
chances of escape were not good.

I came to a stop and listened to a faint
gushing roar off to our right. “The river. Come on.” If we were
near the river, we couldn’t be too far from home, and we only had
to follow it downstream to get to safety. Adrenaline rushed through
me, and I changed course and headed for the water with Jordan close
at my heels.

The cold deepened in my chest again, and I
ran with everything in me. My foot snagged on a tree root, I would
have gone down if Jordan hadn’t caught me. Ignoring the throbbing
pain in my ankle, I pushed forward. The roaring grew louder. We
were so close.

We burst from the trees and teetered at the
top of the steep riverbank for several seconds before we righted
ourselves. Gasping for breath, we spun and ran down the narrow path
that followed the river. There was barely enough moonlight to see
the path, but we couldn’t afford to slow down. With every step we
took, I sensed the vampires getting closer. They couldn’t know
where we were or they would have grabbed us already. It was the
only thing we had going for us. We’d never be able to outrun them
otherwise.

Jordan let out a small scream and stopped
abruptly, and I caught myself just in time to keep from plowing
into her. I looked past her at the tall shape standing in a patch
of moonlight at the bend in the river. My newfound gift told me all
I needed to know. Vampire.

I whirled to go back the other way, only to
see someone coming up the path toward us. We were trapped. If we
ran for the woods, they would catch us for sure. That left only one
option.

I grabbed Jordan’s arm and, as soon as she
turned her head toward me, I yelled, “Jump.” She gripped my hand
tightly, and we moved as one. My feet left the ground, and there
was barely enough time to suck in a deep breath before I hit the
river. Freezing water closed over my head. The impact pulled
Jordan’s hand from mine, and I grabbed for her frantically before
my bursting lungs forced me to give up. My head broke the surface,
and I sucked in cold air then choked as I swallowed water.

“Jordan!” I sputtered as more water flooded
my mouth. The current tugged at my heavy clothes, dragging me back
under. I kicked my feet and fought for the surface as the swift
river carried me away. A gasp of air then water washed over my head
again. Terror filled me and I lost all sense of up and down. My
lungs burned and tiny stars exploded before my eyes.

No, not stars. In my panic, I’d summoned the
water’s magic, and it had answered my call. A cloud of sparkling
lights moved rapidly toward me, surrounding me, lifting me. I broke
the surface and sucked in a deep breath of cold air that burned my
throat.

Gasping, I searched the water for Jordan. A
flash of blond in the foaming water ahead of me caught my
attention. It disappeared and I thought I’d imagined it. Then I saw
it again.

“Jordan!” I pushed forward with renewed
strength. A few seconds later my numb fingers snagged the collar of
Jordan’s jacket, and with a cry, I pulled her to me. Her arm
wrapped around my waist and she laid her head on my shoulder as I
kept us above water. She was battered and freezing, but alive.

“Hold on to me. I’m going to get us out of
this.” I took several deep breaths to calm myself and reached out
to the magic in the water. I felt it respond almost immediately and
watched as millions of golden particles formed a warm glowing
shield around us and kept us afloat in the rushing water.

“W-what is that? Is that y-your power?”

“Sort of.” Surrounded by the familiar magic,
I felt my courage and strength returning. This was my element;
there was nothing for me to fear from the water. I was back in
control, and the river would take us exactly where I wanted it
to.

Minutes later, I saw a glow through the trees
ahead. The stronghold. Using my free hand, I directed the water to
carry us to the shore below the low bank I often sat on. Our feet
touched bottom, and we supported each other as we stumbled across
the slippery rocks to collapse on the shore. As soon as we left the
water, the cold hit me again and I shivered violently. Rocks dug
into my back as I stared up at the clear moonlit sky, but for a
full minute I was too exhausted to move.

Stiff from the cold, I got to my feet and
pulled Jordan up with me. “We have to get inside and warn
everyone.” I was still reeling from Michael’s betrayal and the fact
that so many vampires had gotten past Tristan’s security. The
stronghold was supposed to be impenetrable, but it looked like no
place was safe from the Master.

“Well, hello there,” drawled a strange male
voice above our heads. I jerked backward and stared in shock at the
two vampires standing on the bank. I was so cold I hadn’t even
sensed them.

“Stay back.” I shuffled backward until I felt
cold water around my calves. Where the hell was everyone? We had
vampires running around the grounds and there wasn’t a warrior in
sight. My gut told me the situation was a lot worse than I’d
thought. There was no way vampires would get this close to me with
Nikolas here unless . . . unless something really bad had happened
to him. My stomach squeezed painfully.

“Don’t come any closer,” I yelled at them, my
fear for Nikolas overriding my own.

“Or what?” The second vampire let out a laugh
as he jumped off the bank and landed a few feet away. “You’ll
splash us?” Before I could respond, he seized my arm in a steel
grip, yanking me against him. Jordan pulled out her knife and waved
it at the other vampire who was advancing on her.

“Mmm, you do smell good. I bet you taste
amazing.” The vampire’s nose nuzzled my neck, and I pushed back on
the terror threatening to engulf me. He was trying to use my fear
against me, to make me so scared I could not fight. A few months
ago, he would have succeeded.

I twisted around and put my hands on his
chest. I wasn’t too scared or cold to notice he had moved faster
than a baby vampire but not as fast as a mature vampire. I might
not be able to knock him out, but I was prepared to do my
damnedest. Keeping my eyes on him, I reached into the water
swirling around my knees and sent out a silent, urgent call to the
magic that waited to do my bidding.
Come to me. Help me, please
, I cried,
terror tinging my inner voice.

Water exploded upward behind me, sending a
cold shower down on our heads. The vampire’s eyes flew wide and his
mouth opened in a silent scream as an ungodly screech rent the air.
Before I could turn to see what was behind me, a huge white shape
leapt over my head to land on the shore behind the vampire. The
snow white kelpie towered above us and shook his magnificent mane
before he opened his mouth to emit another earsplitting sound.

“Noooo!” the vampire screamed as Fiannar
clamped down on his shoulder and ripped him away from me. The
vampire’s horrified eyes met mine, and then he was gone. With a
flick of his powerful head, Fiannar tossed him out into the
river.

“Fiannar,” I breathed as the kelpie ran past
a stunned Jordan to grab the second vampire who shrieked in terror
as he was dragged into the water. The water guardian stopped beside
me and gave a slight bow before he disappeared beneath the surface
with his struggling captive.

Farther out, the first vampire recovered from
his shock and started swimming frantically back to shore. Out of
the water rose the black head of Feeorin. The kelpie latched onto
the vampire and dragged him screaming underwater.

The whole attack had lasted no more than a
minute, and I was left staring at the dark river where the two
kelpies had been a moment ago.

“What the
fuck
was that?”

I faced Jordan, who stood with her knife
hanging limply from her hand. She sounded like herself for the
first time since we’d entered the river.

I started climbing the riverbank. “That was
Feeorin and his brother, Fiannar. They’re the kelpies who guard the
river.”

“Oh, is that all?” She tucked her knife away
and followed me. “Friends of yours?”

“You could say that.”

Almost numb from the cold, we pulled
ourselves over the top of the riverbank. We lay there for a minute
to catch our breath before we set off running toward the buildings.
There could be more vampires lurking around the property, and we
had to find help before someone else was attacked. I didn’t want to
think about Roland and Peter out in the woods dealing with God only
knew what. Or Nikolas. Or Nate.