Vampire Apocalypse #2 Cataylst (14 page)

Cole followed her to the window, watching
Cassie as she stared through the glass. “You never told me what
happened exactly.”

She shrugged, “There was nothing to tell. The
King did forbidden things with me, with my other roommates. He was
probably trying to pull that crap on Kahli when he called her. I
survived that. I can survive, Brent.” Her arms wrapped around her
middle when she spoke. It was impossible not to notice the chill
that covered her skin, like she was doused with a bucket of fear.
Cassie rubbed her arms, trying to push away the memory of the
King’s hands on her. Brent would be nothing compared to that
nightmare.

“I didn’t know,” Cole breathed behind her.
For once, he didn’t touch her. He tripped over his words, making a
few false starts before saying, “I’m sorry, Cass.”

She turned toward him, a sad smile on her
face. “It wasn’t your fault. It’s life. And it’s a good life—the
best we could hope for.” That was the truth. Those thoughts had
been floating through her mind all day. This was better than the
alternative. Cassie was weak, she couldn’t survive another escape,
another trek through the frozen hills. She only held Cole back, and
slowing him down when this was going on would be fatal. Cassie
didn’t want to be the one who got him killed. Staring at Cole, she
said softly, “I’m not going with you.”

Cole’s jaw dropped. “You can’t mean that.
Cassie, don’t do this.”

She felt so hollow, so lost. If there was
another option, Cassie would take it, but there wasn’t. She
couldn’t risk Cole’s life this time. She wasn’t a child anymore.
She couldn’t let him do it. Lying to Cole was the only way to get
him to go without her. She forced a smile and pressed her lips
together, “I was talking to the other girls and they’re really
excited about tonight, and so am I. I mean, I wouldn’t have picked
Brent, but he’s better than some of the others.”

“Cassie,” he murmured, shocked. Cole’s eyes
grew wide. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“You forget, Cole, I do. I know exactly what
I’m saying. I know exactly what will happen. I’m going to my
Pairing. I’m cooperating. I’ll go back to my bed tonight with a
smile on my face, and if I’m lucky, I’ll have a baby in me, too.
You know how the Queen treats the women who are with child.” She
smiled broadly, wistfully, “That’ll be me. Be excited for me, Cole.
I want this. I’ve been thinking about it. This is so much better
than the alternative.” While Cassie spoke, she smiled at him even
though her stomach was twisting tightly.

“This isn’t a choice. How can you act like it
is?” The muscles in Cole’s neck were corded tight. He had trouble
keeping his voice even. He looked at his hands like he didn’t know
what to do with them.

“Everything we do is by choice, even here.
How can you act like it isn’t a good choice for me? Yes, I might
die in nine months when the baby is born, but that’s better than my
odds tonight if I go with you. Cole, this is the best I can hope
for. It’s the best decision for me.” Cole stared at Cassie, his
eyes pleading with her, but she wouldn’t change her mind. Cole
needed to go on without her. Cassie was weak. She knew she’d only
hold him back. Pretending to be excited about the Pairing, lying
and saying she changed her mind, had to convince him to go on
without her.

Before Cole had a chance to say anything
else, Brianna popped her head out of the doorway and hurried into
the hall. Cole stepped back and tried to hide the emotion in his
eyes. “You forgot your negligee, Cassie.” Brianna walked toward
them quickly, holding out the black lace. “Hey, Cole. Too bad your
girl ran off. Guess you won’t be having any fun tonight.”

Through gritted teeth, he muttered, “Guess
not.”

Brianna looked at Cassie and said, “Find
Alice and get back. You’re missing everything.” Brianna’s eyes slid
over Cole’s body once, before returning to his face, “We’re talking
positions. Tell the guys they better be ready.” She winked at him,
and turned on her heel, heading back into the room.

CHAPTER 21

By the time the King’s men realized what they
were tracking, it was too late. The sun was already high in the
sky. It was well into the day after the King had fled the palace
and he was running out of time. Bellowing from the back of his car,
he exclaimed, “It’s nearly noon, and we aren’t any closer than we
were this morning! It’s like that demonic girl is running in
circles! How is she still alive? The storm last night should have
killed her.” The King was growling by the time he finished
speaking, his voice low and menacing. He rubbed the back of his
hands, resisting the urge to strangle the person sitting nearest to
him.

The Tracker, Celticad was a large man with
dark stubble on his massive jaw. His arms were the size of hams and
covered thickly in dense hair. He clutched a live rabbit and held
it in his lap. Celticad was a fearsome sight when he was human.
After he turned vampire, not even his own kind wanted him around.
He had too much power in those muscles, too much strength in his
body, compared to the rest of them, but there was reason for it.
The King had kindly slipped this Tracker extra vials of blood since
the famine began. It was foolish to allow his guard to become weak,
but that was unpreventable. Too many vampires receiving extra
rations would be noticed, but one loner, freakishly large vampire,
much less so.

Celticad was aware of the King’s strength.
While he fought viciously and feared no one, Celticad feared his
King. There was something about the King that was different,
stronger. The King’s skin didn’t have that sickly yellow tint, his
eyes were cunning—always plotting, always thinking—and his wrath
was swift. This particular setback was not Celticad’s fault,
however the King had no one else to blame.

“There was no way to know, your Highness.”
Celticad would not apologize. They tracked the item that the King
told them to. While he would never say that this was the King’s
doing, Celticad wasn’t about to take the blame or throw it on his
men, either. The King stared furiously, straight ahead, fuming. His
fingers rested on the door. He pressed so hard into the plastic
handle that it snapped under his palm. Celticad did not acknowledge
it. Instead, he continued, “The tracking device was contained
within another animal. She must have realized it was there and
removed it. There was no way to know we weren’t tracking a
human.”

“No,” The King said calmly, “of course not.”
Turning his golden eyes on the Tracker, he lifted his palms, like
he was being reasonable, “There was no way to notice a change in
body temperature or heart rate, no indication whatsoever that the
chip was in a goddamned rabbit!”

Celticad refused to cringe. He sat against
the seat, his back perfectly straight, clutching the rabbit in his
lap. The animal shook fiercely when the King yelled. Celticad
stroked it softly, trying to keep its heart from exploding. Quite
reasonably, Celticad repeated, “As I said, my King, the anomalies
with her temperature and pulse could have been for any number of
reasons. No one suspected that the girl would take a knife to her
back, remove the chip, and put it into another animal.”

The King had underestimated Kahli, again.
There was no way she removed that chip on her own. William helped
her. The King fumed thinking about it. He couldn’t return to the
palace without the girl. He couldn’t return without Will. In a
sudden display of rage, the King turned toward Celticad. Grabbing
his jacket, he roared in his face, revealing his fangs as his anger
exploded, “Do you see these, Celticad? Do you see my power? My
fangs?”

Celticad nodded. While he feared for his
life, he did not fight back. To fight the King meant certain death.
“You are the most powerful vampire in the world, my Lord.”

He shook the large vampire once, and released
him. Celticad slunk back into his seat, his hand smoothing over the
rabbits trembling body. “Then why is it that I am out here and she
is back there?” He screamed, pointing his finger behind them, out
the back windshield. “If I am the most powerful vampire in the
world, why do I have to run from my own wife!” It was a question
that wasn’t meant to be answered, but Celticad cleared his throat,
indicating he would respond. The King’s fierce gaze lifted and
flashed a warning not to speak, but Celticad didn’t listen.

“You don’t have to run, “Celticad said
brazenly. Quickly he explained, “Queen Sophia does not realize how
powerful you’ve become. There is no other vampire with fangs, none
that drinks blood straight from a warm body, none that can compel
without a true name—except you. You can do all those things, my
Lord, and yet, we chase this wild girl, a token of the Queen’s. The
girl was the one who ran, and therefore, the Queen’s wrath will
fall on her, not you. You could say that you did not harm those
other girls, Kahli did. She killed them, spilling their blood
before attacking you and killing members of your guard. You can
return to the palace and resume your place at Queen Sophia’s side
without the wild girl. But—”

The King cocked a dark brow at him, “But,
what?”

“But, I believe you had another reason to
return in mind. You can easily overpower the Queen if you return.
You can kill her and her guard, and yet, we sit out here in the
wild.” Celticad paused, and ran his thick hand through his hair.
“I’m not a fool. I know the girl’s worth, why you want her—but the
player who makes the first move is the one with the upper-hand. If
you plan to eradicate the Queen, now is the time, whether the girl
is in hand or not.” Celticad knew he’d spoken too openly, said too
much, but it was a risk he had to take. If the King was
slaughtered, beheaded by the Queen, then all who assisted him today
would also feel her wrath.

The King worked his jaw as he listened to
Celticad. When the vampire first spoke, the King planned on
decapitating him at his last word, but the longer the brute spoke,
the more the King agreed with him. Finally, the King glanced at him
out of the corner of his eye, “That was extremely foolish, to speak
out just now.”

Celticad responded, “Or brave. It depends on
how you look at it.”

“Apparently so,” he considered Celticad for a
moment and nodded, “So be it. We will return to the palace. I will
seize the throne, and if that girl is still alive, I’ll hunt her
down myself when this is over.” He grinned, revealing his pearly
fangs, thinking about sinking them into her neck again. Kahli was
still alive. He could feel her heart beat, feel the steady pulsing
of blood circulating her body. That blood was his. He would have
her yet.

The King reached forward and took the
frightened rabbit from Celticad’s hands. Grabbing it by the scruff
of the neck, the King held the snow white rabbit up in front of his
face. The little ball of fur trembled, its bright eyes darting from
side to side, looking for a way to escape. The King spoke to it
gently, “There’s no reason to fear, little one.” He smiled at the
animal. With a flick of his wrist, the rabbit’s neck snapped. The
sound of bone breaking echoed in the King’s ears. “Here,” he handed
the lifeless ball of fur back to Celticad, “Skin it and strap its
pelt to your belt. Every time you look at its soft fur, remember
the sound of its neck snapping. Remember that is exactly what will
happen to you if you ever again make a mistake of the magnitude you
made today. Next time you will not survive. Never forget it.”

CHAPTER 22

Although he didn’t want to, Reggie knew that
he couldn’t get caught with Kahli, but he didn’t know what to do
with her. He wanted to keep her, use her blood for himself, but
having her body around—and that uncouth mouth—was not smart. If the
girl escaped her cage while he was unaware, she’d slit his throat
and set him on fire. There were things vampires had once been able
to recover from, but being beheaded and burned alive wasn’t one of
them. His eyes flicked to Kahli. She sat in the center of the cage,
cross-legged, picking her nails like an ape.

“Must you do that?”

Kahli looked up at him, her eyes narrowed.
She flicked a nail and it made that awful sound again. “What? You
mean this?” She did it again, watching Reggie cringe.

“You know exactly what I mean, you barbaric
simian. Stop making ghastly sounds.” He pressed his fingers to his
temples. “I need to think.”

Kahli sighed and fell onto her back. Staring
at the cage ceiling, she said, “Simian? Really? We’re resorting to
name calling now, Reggie?”

“Reginald,” he bit back, his hands flying
away from his face. Although he desperately needed to figure out
how to play this hand, he couldn’t think. Every time his mind
brushed the surface of an idea, it slipped away. Exasperated, he
strode toward her cage and stopped in front of it. “Did William
teach you to act this way, or is this your own concoction?”

Kahli grinned, still looking at the ceiling
of the cage. Not lifting her head to look at the vamp, she said,
“William taught me not to trust anyone. My manners are my own
creation. I know how much you like me, Reggie. I think we’d get
along way better if you didn’t treat me like a monkey.” Kahli
looked at her nails and then pressed them to the bottom of the
metal cage, and pulled. They made a shrieking sound that made Kahli
cringe inside, but she scraped her nails all the way across the
cage bottom, which made the hideous noise louder. When she
finished, Kahli looked at her nails. Two ripped, but it was worth
it.

Reggie’s arms tensed at the sound and pulled
tighter to his body. His shoulders went rigid as he watched the
girl. Plugging his fingers in his ears, he yelled, “I’ll stop
treating you like a monkey when you stop acting like one!”

Kahli jumped to her feet. “I’ll stop acting
like one, when you stop treating me like one. Let me out of this
damn cage. We want the same things. We should be working together.
You already know that, but you’re too arrogant to say you need my
help.”