Bring Me to Life (12 page)

She snorted at him. “Get used to it. It’s a lovely part of life.”

He lifted his head and gave her a look.

“I hate to break up the touching moment,” Gregori said in an urgent tone as he stood up, pulling out a pair of wicked double-ended blades as he checked out the window. “But I think we’re about to get a visitor.”

Vincent’s head jerked up. His eyes scanned the door and then the window. “Five vampires.” He glanced at Bryna. “You stay behind us. Do you understand?”

“Do you think I have a—” She stopped and made a face at him. Apparently there was no point in her denying a death wish. “Never mind. I’m not going to try to die. I’ll try to stay out of it.”

He wasn’t sure he believed her. He had the distinct feeling if he’d let her, she’d lead the charge. He scrubbed a hand over his face and went to get his sword he had propped up in the corner. “I mean it. I don’t want to watch you die.”

Her eyes rolled. “Why shouldn’t you watch me die when I—” She stopped herself and glared at him. “We’ll talk about this later. Don’t you and your friends want to play hero for the pretty girl?”

“Bryna.” Her name came out in a growl.

“No. I’ve been fighting vampires for the last ten years without the help of the all-terrifying Wraith,” Bryna said with a bitter twist of her mouth. “Sorry. Can I at least have a stake, you know, just in case one makes it past your defensive line?”

He studied her before he leaned over, grabbed her backpack, and tossed it at her. “No pulsing if you can help it. I am going to assume at this point that has something to do with your death.”

“That’s not fair!” Her voice rose several octaves. “A vampire bite could kill me.”

He used two fingers to tilt her chin back and exposed the scar on her throat. “I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you.”

She scowled at him. “That doesn’t count. He died before any weird things could happen.”

His brow quirked up.

Her eyes narrowed on him. “He was the one sucking on my neck when you died, okay? Does that make you happy?”

Vincent closed his eyes for a moment and then he was across the room with his arms going around her. He needed to remember that everything that happened since that night was traumatic for her and probably reminded her that this was the only time they had left together. “I’m sorry.”

“This is real sweet,” Caleb said as he spun a knife with one hand, and tilted his head toward the window. “But we need to at least get out into the parking lot because I don’t think the Missus will fare well in close-quarter combat.”

Vincent’s head snapped up, and he narrowed his eyes on Caleb. But it didn’t look like the other man had any idea that he’d just insinuated Vincent and Bryna were married. His jaw tightened. Just as soon as these undead were dispatched to Oblivion, he was going to see what he could get out of Caleb. Too bad it wasn’t Derrick. Out of the three brothers Derrick was the easiest to beat in a fight. “Yeah. I’m with her. Let’s go see who we’re dealing with.”

*

Bryna was beginning to feel like she was only allowed to bring toothpicks to a knife fight. She clutched her hand-crafted stake in her hand as she moved in against Vincent’s solid frame. She pulled on his shirtsleeve. He leaned down so his ear was close to her mouth. “What’s up, babe?”

She almost forgot her question because she was stunned for moment by how normal-Vincent his response was. “I thought the only way to kill a vampire was to stab him in the heart with a wooden stake or a pulse.”

He cocked his head so they were looking at each other face-to-face, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. “There are a lot of things the living don’t know about the undead. We just have to cut the heart out. It’s easy enough to do.”

“Opening the door,” Gregori announced.

“Don’t stab me with that thing,” Vincent said with a measure of humor in his tone as his body moved in front of her.

The second Gregori moved to go outside his enormous body lifted up off the threshold, and he went sailing backward. Vincent moved Bryna out of the way. His eyes started to glow.

The man she’d fallen in love with and the being she’d been dealing with for the past twenty-four hours was gone. She was dealing with something wholly terrifying. But she wasn’t having to deal with it, she realized, as Gregori slammed off the wall and Vincent poised himself for battle. He was in Wraith mode.

* * * *

Vincent was beyond pissed. If Gregori had slammed into Bryna, he could have killed her. Didn’t these idiots realize she belonged to him? He was the nightmare instilled in every vampire by their sire at the time of the fatal bite. He wasn’t going for hearts. He was going to take heads.

The first one entered as his blade slashed down. The head rolled off backward and the body exploded into smoky flame. He stabbed his sword into the second one, and with a quick circular motion of his wrist, he had the heart out. He jerked the sword out and slashed up and out. The head came off before the body disintegrated.

He rushed the door, and two of the undead squealed as they jumped back.

“Get him!” roared a hated voice.

“I’m coming for you,” Vincent replied in a deadly quiet.

Draven’s gaze met his. “You can’t have her.” He backed up a step. “The woman’s soul will be mine.”

Vincent dropped into a battle crouch. He focused and charged up a pulsing blast. He dropped the tip of his sword and charged. The two flanking vampires flashed out. Draven held his ground for a moment longer, and then he vanished.

Vincent skidded and scrambled to force his massive momentum to go in the opposite direction. He was in a dead run back into the room. He drew his sword back and hurled it right at Bryna.

He’d never forget the horror on her face as the blade sailed toward her, but he couldn’t be sorry for doing it as a vampire appeared in front of her. Caleb yanked her out of the way as the sword impaled its intended target. Derrick grabbed the hilt and twisted it, gouging out the heart.

Vincent used his building thrust to launch himself up so that he could latch on to the back of the second one who appeared. He hooked his legs around the body, and threw his weight backward as his hands clamped around the head. He twisted it with a popping and snapping of bone. He fell down with the flailing body as Gregori drove Bryna’s stake into the monster’s dead heart. The body burst into ash.

Vincent was up and blocking Bryna just as Draven rematerialized by the door. He was laughing a harsh sound. “Take the victory. This is but one small battle. Her soul will be lost to you.”

Vincent rolled forward, scooped up his weapon, and hurled it at his murderer.

Draven flashed out before the steel could sink into flesh.

Vincent started a low round of curses even as he pushed out his senses to make sure the vampire was gone. Only when he was sure it was safe did he flash to retrieve his sword lying in the middle of the parking lot, and then flashed again to get back to Bryna. He didn’t know why the vampires or demons never flashed in to snatch her, but he figured if they wanted to use her to kill him, she was more useful to them alive.

He dropped the weapon on the bed and crouched down in front of her. His hands made a slow exploration of her to make sure there were no hidden injuries the Argent brothers would have to die for not preventing. When he was satisfied she wasn’t hurt he lifted his gaze to meet hers.

The corner of his mouth lifted. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

She let out a half-laughing, half-sobbing sound and pitched forward.

His arms curled around her. “It’s okay, baby. I wasn’t going to let them get you.”

Gregori was sitting on the floor, alternating between shaking his head and rubbing at the lump forming on the back of it. “Yeah, that’s what we all thought too, until they got her.”

Vincent glared at the other man. “What the hell?”

“The last three times,” Caleb clarified as he checked the wound on his brother’s head. “We don’t have the timing on these bastards down the way you do. At this point, the bastard always got her.”

“Vincent,” Bryna’s voice dragged him away from anything the other men had to say.

He crowded her in against the wall and lowered his head so that his full attention was on her. “You okay, sunshine? Nothing hurts?”

She moved into him the way she used to when she needed to be held.

He moved back the pace to get to the bed and pulled her into him and then onto his lap. She straddled over him and wrapped her arms around him. His closed around her, and then he rested his head on top of hers.

They were quiet for a few moments before she pulled back and looked up at him. “So should we be excited we thwarted them, or worried we pissed them off more than they were before?”

He ran his hands up her arms to hold the sides of her face as he thought about it. Then he had to go with the brutal truth. “I don’t know. If you’ve been taken at this point each time, I’d say someone knows they should have you. Everyone is going to be damn pissed they missed the chance to—” His eyes locked on hers before he looked away.

She rested both of her hands on his chest. “—use me to kill you.”

“I’m already dead,” he said automatically. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what she was saying; it was that he was beginning to understand Bryna had been as right as she’d been wrong. She was the reason he was dead, but it wasn’t because it was her fault, but because no matter what time or place they were in, he’d always come running when she needed him. Big difference. He wasn’t going to utter a damn word about it to her. She’d suffered enough.

Her fingers curled into his shirt. “What about Oblivion?”

He shrugged. “Felix will pull me back before that happens.”

“This isn’t funny, Vincent.” She gave him that look, the one that said she was irritated and about to cry all at the same time, and if he didn’t just understand right then, she would cry and it would be all his fault. “If they pulled me into Oblivion when they killed me, then it’s entirely possible they could do it to you, too.”

He curved his hands around the back of her head. His large hands completely covered either side of her face and her throat. He leaned in and gently tapped his forehead against hers. “I’m not sure it matters which one of us they pull into Oblivion. I’ll stay in this loop until I either figure it out, or we go into Oblivion together. They somehow figured that out. It might be why Felix didn’t send me sooner.”

“Okay, so what do we do with this? I get I can’t die. I don’t like it, but I understand it.” She pressed her hands against him before he could chide her for speaking of her own death.

His jaw tightened. “We grill the Argent brothers until one of them cracks. I propose I do the torture, and you do the questioning. I’m not sure they’d believe you would hurt them.”

It was Derrick who snorted. “Speak for yourself. She’s scarier than you, man, deal with it.”

“We’re not cracking,” Gregori said. “Judgment is slightly scarier than Bryna when she’s pissed off.”

“Do you hear them?” Vincent asked without expression or inflection. “I think they’re asking for pain.”

“Speak for yourselves,” Caleb said. “I’m willing to crack, as long as Bryna bakes me some cookies.”

Both Vincent and Bryna turned and stared at Caleb as if he’d sprouted two horns and a spiked tail.

“I don’t bake,” she said.

“And we don’t need to eat,” Vincent reminded him.

Caleb grinned. “Doesn’t mean we can’t still taste. And Bryna makes the most awesome oatmeal and raisin cookies. I’m telling you, Vincent, for that reason alone, it would be worth trying to defy Felix’s number one rule.”

Vincent snapped to attention. Felix’s number one rule was not saving yourself from death on penalty of Hell. But what if he should have lived? What if there was a future where he lived and Bryna learned to bake? No. He couldn’t let himself hope that much. Going to Hell wasn’t an option while Bryna needed him.

Caleb shrugged. “I’m just saying. Think about it. I’d do anything for a cookie.”

Bryna snorted, and then her expression went worried. “Did I bake for you?”

“When you died on me two years ago? No. I couldn’t get you to even think about making me a bowl of cereal.”

Vincent got a sharp pain behind his ears before he was able to process any of Caleb’s cryptic answers. Bryna whimpered, and the other men cringed.

Howlers.

They always produced that odd pain before they showed up, warning their victims, at least anyone who could feel it.

“Shit,” he said with a growl. “We need to move.”

“We should flash out,” Gregori said. “It will confuse them.”

“Yeah, but what about Bryna?” Vincent demanded.

“She can pulse,” he said with that you-should-know-it tone. “She can flash, just bring her with you.”

Vincent shook his head as he disconnected himself from Bryna so he could start getting together everything she would need. He really did need to pay more attention to what was going on when his teachers talked. Not just about the subjects he liked.

“What about the other occupants?” Derrick asked.

Vincent was on his feet gathering whatever he thought Bryna would need to survive just about anywhere in the world. “You and Gregori stay here and get people out if we don’t yank the howlers off track. I’ll take her hopping. In a couple of hours we’ll meet at the place you got in trouble that time.”

“Got it.”

*

Bryna was completely confused. But she did get the mad-dash packing. She did it often enough. She helped Vincent find every last thing they could need that they had with them. Her plan was simple. Let Vincent direct what they were doing now since he seemed to know what he was doing, and then she’d demand answers.

It didn’t take long. They didn’t have much. She met him in the middle of the room. They stood there staring at each other for a moment before he put his arm around her. “Just close your eyes and envision yourself with me.”

“I can do that,” she said in wobbling tones. Only she wasn’t sure she could. For so long she envisioned him one way, but he didn’t look like that anymore. She took so long looking at his face that he growled at her.