Blood Mate: A Paranormal Romance (14 page)

The shadows whirled, and Jett
flung his arms out, a gun in each hand. His guns spat silver bullets
and bodies disintegrated into ashes in midair as the bullets slammed
into the vampires' hearts.

The vampires came at them from
all directions. They detached themselves from the shadows and
swarmed into the hall.

As he continued firing at the
rogues, Jett yelled over his shoulder at the four scrambling humans,
“Run! Now!”

Jett fired a shot at a
snarling vampire that was tearing into Howie's shoulder with his
fangs. The vampire jerked back with a scream as the silver bullet
tore through his chest and burrowed into his heart. His red eyes
blazed with pain and fury as he exploded into ashes right before
Howie's bulging eyes.

Howie fumbled to his feet in a
hurry, bleeding but alive. “Look out!” Jett shouted,
squeezing off another shot. “Fight your way out!”

This time, Howie paid heed to
Jett's warning. He twisted around just as another vampire leaped
through the air towards him. Cursing, Howie ducked and rolled, and
the vampire crashed into the floor at Jett's feet. Jett glanced down
and finished the vampire off with a single shot.

He met Howie's eyes and Howie
gave him a curt nod. Then he turned and fled.

Jett raised his watch to his
mouth. He had to give the signal now. He couldn't take on the
rogues alone. If he fell, he wouldn't be able to save Bryn and her
grandmother.

He yelled into his watch,
“Third floor! Now! Code F!”
Full-scale fight.

Two seconds later, the first
twenty Enforcers were misted right into the fray by his vamp
Enforcers. Other Enforcers were teleported into the building by his
more experienced demon Enforcers.

There was a high-pitched
screech and the rogues poured out of the shadows in full force to
attack the newly-arrived Enforcers. There were demons, vamps,
witches, warlocks and weres. Most of the rogue shifters had let
their beasts out and were in their animal forms. Jett took aim at
two large wolves and fired, just before they launched themselves at
Scott and Levi, who had already shifted into bear form. Jett could
hear fighting on the ground floor, and the shouts of the PAC members.

As Jett threw his knife into a
rogue demon's back, he heard a human cry and turned just in time to
see Layton falling down the stairs, clutching at his shoulder. His
right arm and half his face was gone. But he managed to make it to
the ground floor.

Jett turned away. Howie and
Layton were the only ones to make it out alive. Garth and Keith had
fallen and disappeared under a pile of rogues. There were wet,
tearing sounds and the screams were cut off abruptly. They were
gone, torn apart and devoured alive.

Jett breathed heavily. The
smell of blood, faeces and spilled guts pervaded the entire building.
Some of his Enforcers had fallen, and their bodies had been
viciously ripped apart by the rogues.

Jett snarled and reloaded his
gun. The battle was far from over.

Many more would die tonight.

Jett looked up and saw a tall,
masked vampire watching the entire fight from a small balcony above
them. Jett knew where the balcony led to. That was the balcony of
the exclusive Diamond Room. Only the Very Very Important Patrons of
Hell were allowed to book the Diamond Room.

Swiftly, Jett ran towards the
hidden door at the back of the hall. Jett glanced back and saw the
fighting intensify as more Enforcers arrived. There were rogues and
Enforcers fighting in almost every corner of the building.

Jett pushed against a panel on
the wall, and the door creaked open. He slipped in quickly and raced
up the narrow stairs. He could hear her voice, and she sounded
pissed.

“
Don't touch my Nana!”
Bryn was shrieking.

Jett flattened himself against
the wall and inched up the steps, listening to the voices coming from
the Diamond Room. Bryn's voice was loud and strong. He heard her
grandmother's voice as well. She was huffing and grunting as she let
out a string of expletives.

Then he heard another voice.
A deep male voice.

“
Just walk through the
door, Jett Riley. Don't be skulking in corners among the cobwebs and
the corpses. Come on out and say hi. We go way back, you and I.”

Jett exhaled wearily. An old
enemy.

He pushed off the wall and
stepped through the doorway. The vampire turned away from the
balcony and inclined his head. “At last,” the vampire
said, adjusting the black mask over his eyes.

Jett pointed his gun at the
vampire's heart and glanced to the side. A witch was standing behind
Bryn, immobilizing her with a spell. Bryn's face was contorted with
rage as she struggled against the binding spell. But the witch was
too strong. Her dark magick wound around Bryn, binding the young
vampire securely. Bryn's entire body was stiff, like it had been
frozen. She could only move her facial muscles, and Jett saw a flash
of relief and fear in her eyes when she saw him.

“
Get that thing away
from Nana!” she screamed.

Jett turned and saw a ghoul
creeping towards Nana, who was backing away with her fists out.

“
I'll punch your lights
out,” Nana warned. “And I'll kick your balls to kingdom
come!” Nana scowled, as she aimed her foot between the ghoul's
legs.

The ghoul was naked, its skin
gray and hairless. Its stomach was distended and there was the smell
of rot and decay on its breath. Long claws curved from its fingers
and toes, and it gnashed its teeth constantly.

Ghouls survived on flesh.
They needed living flesh to keep themselves alive. If they couldn't
secure living prey, they dug up fresh graves and consumed the newly
dead as a last resort. But the flesh of the dead could only take the
edge of their hunger. It couldn't keep them alive. Ghouls were dead
beings, brought back to life by the blood of a vampire and the dark
magick of a witch. To keep death at bay, they had to devour living
flesh. If they didn't eat the living, they would start to decompose.

Jett looked at the statuesque,
eerily beautiful witch standing silently behind Bryn. She had long
white hair, and her face was smooth and flawless. It was impossible
to place her age. She could be twenty or two hundred. Her eyes were
pale gray, like the ghoul's, and her lips were curved in a frozen
smile. Her beauty was unnatural, unearthly. But Jett thought she
looked vaguely familiar.

And for some bizarre reason,
he thought he recognized the ghoul as well. That shuffling gait and
leering smile was eerily familiar.

Nana had her back against the
wall, and the ghoul was twitching and slobbering, making guttural,
animal sounds as it turned its bald head to look at the vampire. It
was waiting for the command to eat.

Jett kept his gun trained on
the ghoul, but turned to narrow his eyes at the vampire.

“
What's with the mask,
mate?” he asked in a friendly tone. “Are you worse
looking than him?” Jett jerked his head towards the ghoul.
I
bet you are.

The vampire snarled.

Jett tightened his finger on
the trigger. He would prefer to shoot the vampire first, but the
ghoul was too near Nana. He couldn't let Bryn's grandmother get
hurt.

The vampire glanced at the
witch, and smiled. “You really don't remember us, do you,
Jett?”

“
Can't say I do.”

“
I'm surprised you don't
remember young Nathaniel.” The vampire waved at the slavering
ghoul. “After all, you're the one who killed him.”

Jett's eyes swung to the
ghoul. “Nathaniel,” he repeated the name with a frown.

“
Nathaniel Elliott,”
the vampire went on. “My son.”

Jett stared at the ghoul.
That
was Nathaniel Elliott?

Nathaniel was a rogue vampire.
He knew witchcraft as well, and he used his looks and charms to lure
his victims to his bed and their doom.

The bodies of his victims were
found with their eyes and fingers missing. They'd been drained of
their blood. At that time, it was suspected that they had been
killed by a vampire and a witch, since eyeballs and fingers were key
ingredients in dark spells and potions.

Jett had spent months hunting
the killer, until finally the trail led to Nathaniel.

He had taken off Nathaniel's
head with a silver blade.

Nathaniel Elliott's body had
been stolen from the morgue the following night. It was never
recovered.

Jett glared at the back of the
ghoul's neck and saw a line of fine stitches around the base of the
neck.

His eyes flicked to the witch,
whose gray eyes were the exact same shade as Nathaniel's. This was
his mother.

Nathaniel's father was a
vampire and his mother was a dark witch. They had resurrected their
son as a ghoul, and fed him living flesh to keep him alive.

Jett took a small step back.
He was staring at the killers of his Enforcers.

His Enforcers had been eaten,
their eyeballs gouged out, and their killers had masked all traces of
themselves with dark magick.

Jett's lips curved in an ugly
smile. He'd killed Nathaniel Elliott before. He would kill him
again, for good this time. And he would destroy Nathaniel's makers
as well.

“
Elliott,” Jett
mused. “You must be Viktor Elliott, Nathaniel's old man. And
this must be Mrs Elliot, Ofelia.” He remembered them. Viktor
and Ofelia had stormed into the PAC Headquarters, and demanded that
the PAC hand over their son's killer to them. They wanted Jett
Riley's head.

Viktor Elliott smiled, letting
his fangs slice out. Slowly, he raised his hand to remove the black
mask over his eyes.

Jett stared at the dark,
jagged mark at the vampire's left temple. He remembered that
distinctive mark. It was hard to miss. It looked like dark, red
flames stretching from his hairline to the corner of his left eye.

“
Long time no see,
Viktor,” Jett said cheerfully. He tipped his head at the
witch. “Ofelia, you're looking swell. You haven't aged at
all!”

Jett heard Bryn suck in a
sharp breath when Viktor turned his face towards her. Her dark eyes
shone with anger and hate as she stared at Viktor.

Nana let out a sudden scream
as the ghoul lunged towards her. She raised her arms to protect
herself as those deadly claws slashed down, aiming for her soft
belly.

“
Nana!” Bryn
screamed. “Jett!”

Viktor threw himself at Jett,
but Jett managed to squeeze the trigger just before he was thrown to
the floor.

The silver bullet smashed into
the ghoul's back and burrowed through its dead heart.

The ghoul opened its mouth in
a silent scream. Instantly, its gray skin shredded from its body and
thick, gooey liquid oozed from its sockets and ears. The ghoul
started to decompose right before their eyes. Maggots wriggled out
of its mouth and nostrils, and it slumped into a growing puddle of
gore as its insides began to liquify.

The witch let out a
blood-curdling scream. “No, Nathaniel! My son! No!”

She tore out chunks of white
hair from her scalp, and howled with grief.

As Jett wrestled with Viktor,
he saw Ofelia turn towards Bryn, her gray eyes burning with hatred.

Her long nails flew towards
Bryn's throat, and she screeched out a death spell.

Before she could finish
uttering her spell, Jett raised his hand and fired. The first bullet
hit her in the chest but missed her heart. Ofelia was cut off in mid
spell, and as her power bled out of her, the immobility spell binding
Bryn began to weaken. Bryn's limbs twitched as the spell gradually
lost its power.

Jett fired again just as
Viktor clamped his fangs down on his wrist. Yelping in pain, the gun
slid out of his grasp.

Jett heard a thud as Ofelia
fell back, a silver bullet in her heart. She locked eyes with Viktor
and mouthed a command an instant before she disintegrated into ashes.

Kill him.

Jett saw Bryn lurch forward
and land on the floor as she was released suddenly and violently from
the immobility spell. Bryn's head snapped up immediately at the
scent of his blood. Her eyes found him, and her mouth twisted in a
snarl when she saw his blood smeared all over the floor. Nana's eyes
were watering from the overpowering stench of decay, but the old lady
was standing and shouting to Bryn, “Help him! Get that bad
vampire off him!”

Jett widened his eyes at
Bryn's feisty little grandmother. He had expected her to pull her
precious granddaughter to safety. Instead, she was hollering at Bryn
to jump into the fray and join in the fight.

“
Pull the evil vampire
up, and let me kill him! You murderer! You...murderer!” Jett
heard the terrible agony in Nana's scream.