Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (36 page)

“
Leave
me. Save your brothers and go.”

Her voice was hoarse
from screaming and she sounded like she was talking around a mouth
full of glass. I could see the concentration in her eyes as she
fought against whatever it was the collar was commanding her to do.
Her hands were working on the collar even as she was preparing to
attack me.

“
Rillae,
I need some gum.”

I had selected Rillae
because I thought we would be compatible for the next 100 years or
so. It had never occurred to me that her near perfect physics score
would be useful so soon. Rillae slid down next to me, already having
a chewed up piece of gum in her hand. She looked up just in time to
avoid a kick from Violeta. Rillae was able to throw me the chewed
stick of gun while putting a second piece into her mouth. She made a
circular motion with her finger before dodging another roundhouse
kick from Violeta. Hoping that I knew what she meant, I got to my
feet, careful not to drop the gum, and looked for an opening.

The collar had spikes
pressed into the side of Violeta's neck. The spikes were hollow and
transparent and I could see liquid pump into her every time she
fought a command.

Violeta advanced on me
and I narrowly missed a punch in the face. She was too close for me
to try for the collar but close enough to wrestle her to the floor. I
grabbed her from the back and wrapped my forearm around her throat.
She was a lot stronger than me but I used momentum to help me fall
backwards and take her with me. As I lay on my back, I held onto
Violeta for dear life and tried to put my piece of gum on her collar.
Just as I had my piece placed, Rillae’s boot came down on
Violeta’s face twice in quick succession. Wasting no time, she
put her piece of gum on the other side of the collar and held
Violeta's head still.

Hopefully the gum did
its trick before Violeta woke up. Tabitha, Chloe and Nicole were
climbing Jordan’s cage. They had already let Zander down and
the other Fare were standing over him while shooting arrows at
Grigor’s men. I watched them in pure awe as each of them hit
target after target. Real life action was so much different than the
Ludos where they failed to earn a place of honor. If we survived the
day, I would make sure their families knew their value.

The smell of smoke
brought my attention back to Violeta. Rillae pulled the smoking
collar off right before Violeta started to wake up. We scrambled off
the ground in case she was still hostile, and assumed a fighting
stance. Violeta blinked her eyes and rubbed her face where Rillae’s
boot had left a print. She struggled to stand but neither of us
attempted to help her up. We just prepared ourselves for a fight.

“
Violeta?”
Zander asked from his prone position at the feet of the Fare
.

She
reached for her collar and flinched when her fingers touched her
battered skin. Movement from Rillae made her head snap around just in
time to catch the collar that was now in two pieces.

Not one for sentimental
gestures, Violeta punched me in the arm and said, “I told you
to take me out” and jogged over to help Zander to his feet.

Several of Grigor’s
men were on the ground; arrows straight through the hearts, but still
alive. I went to the nearest one and noticed the same collar that
Violeta had worn. I turned his head to the side and saw Red Poppy
branded on the back of his neck. He was from the Castellano clan.
Although that family had a bad reputation amongst the Fare, their
members were on the Council and they upheld Vampiric law. Grigor must
have captured him and forced him to do his bidding. I wondered if
Grigor had any loyal followers aside from Raphael and his goons.

I called to Rillae for
some more gum while I checked the necks of the rest of the downed
Vampires. Ethan tried to pull me away but I gave him a look that
caused him to back off. I had just turned the last Vampire over when
Chloe and Tabitha gently laid Jordan down on the ground. He was
bloody and weak but his smile was still in place.

“
Tab
tells me that you found us. Way to go, Sis.” And with that, he
passed out.

“
They
will need blood,” Ethan was already rolling up his sleeve as he
spoke and Landon was doing the same as he walked toward Zander.

Both of them stopped
and turned to me and Chloe. I knew that it was against our laws to
take blood from a Fare that was not yours except in the case of
emergencies. As I looked at the faces of my brothers, I couldn't
think of a bigger emergency. With our nod of approval, our Fare bit
their own wrists and dripped their blood into the mouths of Jordan
and Zander.

“
Make
sure they do not bite you,” Violeta said. “It won’t
go well if the first Vampire you feed is not your own.”

I looked at Ethan and
wondered what it was going to be like to bite his flesh and drink his
blood. He held my gaze. His face was going to be looking at me for
nearly the rest of my long life and I thought I had selected well.

“
Now
what?”

Rillae was at my side
with pieces of a collar in her hand. She had not removed the arrow
from the Castellano Vampire’s chest and I didn’t blame
her. It was dangerous enough for me and Chloe to be this deep in a
Vampire compound but Rillae and the others were genetically
engineered to feed Vamps. They were like candy in a kid’s
store.

The Castellano
Vampire's eyes were open but he was not moving. He could hear us and
was whispering his answers as Violeta questioned him. Satisfied with
what she heard, she stood back and pulled the arrow from his chest,
replacing it with her hand.

She was applying
pressure while I went to the only other door in the room. We had only
been here for few minutes but I knew that the noise from the fighting
must had alerted Grigor. The sound of talking grew louder as I walked
closer to the Vampires on the ground. Their earpieces were still
live. One of them lay on the floor at my feet. It must have fallen
out during the struggle. I put it in my ear and heard frantic
questions coming from Raphael. The Castellano Vampire still had his
earpiece and being free of his collar and arrow, would hopefully be
an asset to us.

As soon as he caught
his breath, the Castellano Vampire told Raphael that everything was
under control and that he would report back in 30 minutes. This
seemed to work because my earpiece went silent. We helped him to his
feet and returned to the others. Zander, strengthened by Landon's
blood, took the Vampire by the elbow and forearm in the greeting that
I have seen him use many times before. It was a royal greeting of
friendship.

“
You
have just saved the life of Sebastian Castellano, Heir to the
Castellano Clan.” Violeta smiled up at me.

Upon hearing his name,
Sebastian turned to me and bowed. He was straightening from his bow
when my earpiece came alive again.

“…
there
has been a breach! There is grappling equipment on the North wall.
All available personnel report to the North wall. I will check on our
prisoners.”

The earpiece went quiet
again but we knew that Raphael and his goons would find out we had
escaped. Each of the injured Vampires went to a broken cage and
lifted 20 pound javelin-like spiked bars to use as weapons. Violeta
took the lead and we ran through the same door that we entered
through.

“
We
have a vehicle on the South side of the compound,” Nicole said
as we rounded a corner. “It is just on the other side of the
wall.”

“
I
thought they found your grappling equipment on the North side?”
Zander asked.

“
We
put it there to throw them off. We may not have your strength and
speed but we are pretty smart.”

Nicole’s witty
remark was rewarded with a smile from Zander. Violeta made a quick
turn in the direction of the South wall. There was no time to second
guess where we were going or if our footfalls were being heard. All
that we knew was that we had to run or die. The ground was beginning
to slope upwards and my legs were killing me as we continued to run
under the compound. At the next corner, Violeta hesitated, not going
left or right. She quickly reached in her pocket and retrieve the two
pieces of her collar, throwing one of them to Sebastian. He nodded
his understanding and placed the half collar on his neck. Both of
them had to slightly tilt their heads to keep the halves from sliding
off, but from that angle they looked attached.

Sebastian had just
lowered his hand when a group of vampires rounded the corner. They
stopped and looked at all of us, wondering why we were in the
tunnels, no doubt. They asked Sebastian and Violeta what we were
doing.

“
There
was a breach and we are taking all of the prisoners to Grigor. Did
you not hear? He does not want to take any chances.”

Sebastian’s
thick accent and deep voice had just the right amount of authority to
keep the group from asking any more questions and they continued
moving in the direction that we had just come.

We reached the cellar
door that led to the South wall a few minutes later. The sun would be
rising soon and we still had to scale the wall and drive away. While
the Vampires made sure we were not followed, the rest of us made sure
the vehicle was still there. Just over 400 yards from the wall was a
small hill of sand. Nicole had said that there was a Humvee on the
other side of it. All we had to do was run for it.

One by one the Vampires
leapt to the top of the 8 foot wall while the rest of us climbed. The
sound of barking dogs grew after the last of us landed on the ground.
We had mere seconds to make our way across the sand. Knowing that the
Vampires would have no problem making it to the vehicle, I stayed
with Chloe. Being the youngest, she was also the slowest even if she
could run the 400 in sixty seconds.

I ordered our Fare to
go and tried to keep pace in the sand. The barking grew louder; the
dogs had been let out. We were running for our lives. I urged Chloe
on, but she was running as fast as her legs could take her. Our backs
were being covered by our brothers but we still needed more speed. We
were almost there when I heard my earpiece crackle on.

“
Cheyenne?
Cheyenne, baby. Please don’t leave me.”

I came to a dead stop
at the sound of Zola’s voice. Despite all that I had learned, I
wanted so much for her to mean those words that I forgot everything
that I had just learned about her. Since Violeta and Sebastian were
the only ones who would have heard Zola call to me, everyone else
kept running and were rounding the hill to the Humvee. I was alone
and without cover when Grigor and Raphael came into view. They each
had a dog leash in their hand and were flanked by the same Vampires
we encountered in the tunnels. The Vampires notched their bows and
Grigor released the dogs. I knew I had two choices: hit the ground
and avoid the arrows or risk getting shot in the back and run for it.

Weighing my odds for
point zero seconds, I turned and ran. I mentally thanked my track
coach for having us do high knees because I called upon that skill to
lift my feet out of the sand. I pumped arms and extended my stride
like my life depended on it, which it did.

The roof of the Humvee
had just come into view when I felt something warm on my back. I
tried to take another step but couldn’t quite lift my
leg...then I felt three more hot spots. My legs became dead weight
and I went down. As I was falling I could see my shadow. And the four
arrows sticking out of my back.

Chapter 26

The last thing I
remembered was falling down. There were four arrows sticking out of
my back and Grigor’s dogs gaining on me. I tried to get to the
Humvee but my legs wouldn’t move and my arms wouldn’t
support my weight. Bright light shone through my eyelids, making it
impossible to see straight. Damn. Was that little boy who wrote about
Heaven right? Does a light come to guide you? And what would happen
if I fought against the light? Is there a truly darker, hotter
alternative? I had about 2 seconds to ponder the concepts of Heaven
and Hell before I was hit with a wave of pain.

At first it felt like
someone had lit a match under each of my fingernails. It was very
uncomfortable but bearable. A few moments later the pain moved up
into the joints of my arms and shoulders until it took hold in my
throat. Gagging, I convulsed until I was sure I was dying. I reached
out for the light, hoping for any type of relief and felt the cool
sensation of flesh.

The contact immediately
pushed the fire back down to my fingertips where it waited like an
attack dog. I squeezed the flesh to try to identify what it was. It
felt like a hand; long fingers and a slim wrist. I cracked an eyelid
open and saw Pleasant. Her eyes were filled with concern but she
managed to smile at me. I opened the other eye and glanced around the
room. I wasn’t sure where I was but I knew that I wasn’t
in Vegas anymore. Pleasant glanced behind her at something unseen and
shook her head. She turned back to me with tears in her eyes. I was
wondering what had made her so sad right before I passed out.

It is not clear how
long I was out. I remember Pleasant crying and the pain that had
filled my body but not much else. Still laying down, I was colder
than before, almost as if I was in a freezer of some sort. There was
no bright light peeking beneath my eyelids this time; only darkness
creeping into every centimeter of my being. My blood pressure
decreased and my heart had slowed down. So, this was death. .

I was coherent for
hours before I heard anything other than my own heartbeat. Other
sounds joined it in a macabre type of song; dripping water, ants
crawling on the outside of the window, bird feathers rustling in the
wind. I could hear everything.