Drake Chronicles: 01 My Love Lies Bleeding (14 page)

“Everything’s a sad- ass mess, is what’s going on,” I muttered. “Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

I didn’t even know how far away from the farm we were, having slept through a good part of the journey. We could be half an hour away or three hours. The stars were faint above us, visible only when there was a particularly violent gust of wind. I studied their patterns, as much as I was able. The moon hung low.

“Nearly dawn,” I muttered at Logan. “We have to get out of here.”

“You think?” he muttered back, using that tone reserved for only the most annoying of little sisters. I rose to my feet, feeling as if I were moving through water. I was that tired, with my eyes burning and my throat clenched against a yawn. Logan glared at me.

“Get back down.”

I shook my head. “We’re outnumbered.”

“Not the first time,” he grunted, ramming a stake into the heart of a vampire Connor flipped toward him. A hiss, a burst of dust.

“I can smell her,” someone interrupted, excitement thrumming through his voice. I had no desire whatsoever to meet the owner of that voice. The moon continued to drop behind the horizon. I dove toward Logan, coming up at his side. I yanked stakes out of his back holster.

“Stay down, damn it.”

“She’s mine.” One of the vampires caught my scent and turned sharply away from where he’d been beating Duncan to a pulp. The vampire looked around, distracted.

“Solange? I’m here for you, my love.”

“If he starts spouting poetry I’m staking him myself,” I promised through my teeth.

Duncan rolled toward us, a deep gash bleeding profusely on his head. Blood matted his hair to the side of his face. Logan’s nostrils flared.

“Cutting it close, aren’t you?” he muttered.

“Bastard’s stronger than he looks,” Duncan muttered back as I propped him up against a tree. I swallowed against the gag reflex when his blood oozed over my fingers.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He wiped his face with his sleeve. “It’s healing already.” The sounds of battle came closer.

Too close.

I heard the snap of a twig. And then Marcus roaring. Not a twig. His arm.

I threw one of my stakes. It didn’t hit the vampire’s heart but she did stumble back, hissing. Marcus hid himself in the bushes, cradling his injured arm. Quinn laughed even though he was fighting off a vampire and a Helios-Ra agent who were also fighting each other. Fists thudded into flesh. Blood splattered through the air. The darkness was fading slowly to the gray light of predawn, glinting off night-vision equipment. I sat back on my heels, stomach clenching.

“Logan,” I said. “There’s too many of them.”

“We’re fine,” he insisted.

“Are not,” I insisted right back. “You guys have to get out of here.”

“We’re trying,” Duncan grunted.

“I mean right now. Without me.”

“Forget it.”

“We have you surrounded,” a voice announced over some kind of scratchy amplifier. Quinn blinked, midpunch.

“Cops?”

“Worse,” the vampire currently ducking hissed. “Helios-Ra.”

“Damn it all to hell, they’re not even being subtle about it.”

“We only want the girl, not the bounty,” the amplified voice shouted out. “We’re willing to let the rest of you go.”

“Bite me,” Quinn suggested.

“And me,” his new friend agreed.

The sun was hovering on the edge of the horizon. I could see it in my brothers’

faces. A fine sweat beaded Logan’s forehead, and vampire body temperature was generally much lower than human temperature. To see one sweat was rare. Very rare. His face looked drawn too, nearly gray with fatigue. Duncan’s hand shook as he shoved himself to his feet.

We could probably fight our way through the others. After all, they’d have to seek cover soon, just as we would. But even if we did get through them with minor damage, we still had to get through the Helios-Ra, who could lie out in the bright sunlight and just wait for my brothers to sicken and die. My choices were narrowing drastically. I knew what I had to do. I also knew that each and every one of my pig-headed brothers was faster than me. I couldn’t hope to outrun them.

But I could take them by surprise.

I let them mutter among themselves, let Logan pull me to my feet. The other vampires scattered, like earwigs under a shifted stone. The leaves barely trembled at their passing. Quinn and Marcus closed in and Connor moved toward us through the undergrowth. An arrow whistled between the trees and hit him in the shoulder. He jerked back, clutching at his bloody arm.

“I’m all right,” he told us, jaw clenched in pain.

“A warning shot,” an agent called out. “Next time we hit the heart.” My brothers were scowling at each other, dragging Connor to safety.

Now or never.

If I thought about it too long I might wimp out.

Now.

I eased away from Duncan, who was half– turned away to prop up Connor. Only Logan blocked me and he wasn’t expecting me to knee him in the kidney and then leapfrog over him as he doubled over.

So that was exactly what I did.

A rain of Helios-Ra arrows flew over me, biting the ground behind me like the ramparts of a castle fort. They protected me from my brothers, who had to halt their forward charge, if only for a moment.

“Your word,” I yelled, running even though my legs felt like lead and my lungs burned. “Your word my brothers go free.”

“Take her.”

They swarmed around me like beetles. I jerked away, all instinct and thrumming adrenaline. They were faceless, eye goggles obscuring their features, and black vests, black pants, black boots.

The sun crested the horizon, dripping softly between the leaves.

“Run, you idiots!” I hollered at my brothers as my arms were seized. I knew they didn’t really have any other option. The sun was now bleeding through the trees.

They wouldn’t even be able to make it home. They’d have to use one of the caves or the secret safe houses, and by house, I really meant hole in the ground.

“Got her.”

“This is her?” one of the agents said as they began to march me through the forest. A few of his companions were hobbling, one was being carried. “She’s just a kid.”

I knew what he saw: a fifteen- year-old girl in a muddy slip dress and scratches all over her arms from running through the woods. His companion shrugged.

“Bounty’s the same. And anyway, come her birthday she’ll be a monster like the rest of them.”

“The Drakes are all right,” someone else muttered. “They’re on the Raktapa Council, at least. Now, would you stop your damn gossip and hurry the hell up?” I was so tired I could barely see straight. I shuffled my feet, hardly having the energy to lift them off the ground.

“What’s the matter with you?” he snapped. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m tired.”

“Fresh out of coffee, princess, so move your ass.” The morning continued to unfurl around us in pink misty dampness, as if we sat in the center of a rose after a rain. The leaves shivered above us, so green they nearly glowed. Birds sang cheerfully, oblivious to my predicament. Pine needles crunched under our passage.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, biting back a yawn.

They didn’t answer as they formed a tight circle around me, one I knew I had no hope of breaking through, especially since I felt about as strong as a wet noodle. I squinted at the sunlight, eyes tearing. I hoped my brothers were safe. They’d be nearly defenseless. Each of them was still new enough to the bloodchange that they slept hard, too hard to defend themselves quickly if there was an attack.

We continued to march along until I began to recognize where we were. The mountains were on our right and a small lake glistened in a lower valley. The tunnel ran right underneath us, no one the wiser. I was so close to an escape and it might as well have been on the other side of the planet for all the good it did me. Even if I could get to one of the doorways, which was doubtful, I couldn’t afford to give away the secret location to the Helios-Ra. I was thinking so hard I didn’t see the shadow leap down from a tall gray aspen, scowling fiercely. He wore unrelieved black like the others and was armed to the teeth. His dark eyes pinned me.

“What the hell is she doing here?”

Kieran Black.

CHAPTER 16

Lucy

Saturday night, very late

I ignored the pleasantries being stiffly exchanged since Nicholas was lying really close to me. It was so wrong that I wanted to snuggle against his side.

It was Nicholas.

Byron was a welcome distraction as he ambled up the stairs and lay on my other side. He had kibble breath and was close enough that he drooled on my arm. I nudged him.

“Move over, you big lump.” He just gave me that doggy look, the pathetic one I could never resist. “Fine, but at least quit drooling on me. It’s gross.” I scratched his ear briefly. “Some watchdog you are.” I knew the other two Bouviers would be lying down near Hart and Hope, eyeing them hungrily.

“I want to assure you,” Hart was saying in the living room, “that I have officially retracted the bounty on the Drake clan, just so there are no more misunderstandings.”

“We’re glad to hear it,” Liam said blandly. I could just imagine what retort Helena was biting back.

“It was an accident,” Hart continued, sounding hard. “And one that will be rectified immediately.”

“I suggest you keep a closer rein on your organization,” Helena said. “Or I will cease to keep such a tight rein on mine.”

“Understood. We stand by our treaty,” Hope interjected. “This is an internal problem and should never have leaked out.”

Their voices dropped slightly. There was the clink of glasses. I squirmed, trying to peer around the stairs into the living room. I could see the edge of a chair and nothing else. There wasn’t even anyone sitting in it.

“I’m going to try and get closer,” I murmured.

When Nicholas didn’t try and stop me, I turned to look at him. He was asleep. His cheek rested on his hand, pale skin gleaming, dark brown hair tousled. His features were sculpted, sensual, and dark. It was totally unfair how beautiful he was. Even if it did sound like he might be snoring a little. Byron snorted and rolled over.

“You two are a lot of help,” I said.

And then the quiet shattered.

There was no actual sound of warning, only Hart sailing out of the living room, crashing into the foyer wall and sprawling across the floor in a heap. The chandelier above him rattled alarmingly. At the sound, Nicholas startled awake and flipped himself over me, as if he was protecting me from an airborne missile. He pressed into me, about as yielding as a slab of cold marble. He looked slightly disoriented, not quite fully awake.

“Can’t breathe,” I croaked.

He shifted slightly but didn’t get off me. I could see the thick fringe of his eyelashes, his hair falling over his forehead to tickle mine.

“Foyer,” I wheezed. We both craned our necks. Helena marched out, all black leather and motherly fury. Byron raced down the stairs.

“Where is my daughter?” She seethed, her pale eyes practically glowing. Liam flanked her, simmering. I could all but see the leash on his temper straining to release. Hope took a stake from her belt.

“I wouldn’t,” Bruno advised quietly.

“What the hell was that for?” Hart sat up, his left eye already purpling.

Liam lifted his cell phone. “That was one of my sons, gone to ground because of your blasted league.”

“I told you we didn’t set the damn bounty,” Hart said through his teeth. “I explained.”

“Then explain to me, human,” Helena sneered, “why my daughter has been taken by your agents.”

Hart stared at her. “What?”

Sebastian and Geoffrey joined them from the living room. Boudicca barked once, blocking Hart from doing anything more than sitting up. Nicholas shifted off me, growling low in his throat.

“That’s impossible,” Hart insisted. He reached for his own cell phone and punched in a number. He barked out questions, swore viciously under his breath at the replies.

Sunlight touched the windows on either side of the door.

“Unit’s gone rogue,” he declared.

Hope paled. “No.”

Helena sniffed the air delicately, then nodded at her husband. “He’s not lying.” Beside me, Nicholas sniffed as well. He frowned. I frowned back.

“What?”

“It’s not a lie, but I smell something else. Something I can’t quite place.”

“More lemon shampoo?”

“No. Definitely not that.”

Bruno signaled to the dogs and they eased back, letting Hart get to his feet.

“We have to shut them down,” he said darkly. I wondered if he had a gun strapped inside a shoulder holster under his coat. “Now. Before the damage becomes irrevocable.”

“I am forced to agree.” Liam held up a hand. “However, we had a treaty, Hart. And it was broken. Under the circumstances, I believe a show of faith is in order.” Hart sighed. “What did you have in mind, Drake?”

“One of you stays here.”

“You’re taking hostages now?”

“You have our daughter. Her safety must be assured.”

“You have our word,” Hope said.

Liam raised one eyebrow. “Not nearly good enough.” Hart rubbed his face wearily. “All right. All right,” he repeated. “I’ll stay.” Hope whirled on him. “No, I’ll stay. You know how some of the units still see me as a paper pusher. They’ll respond to you quicker and with less posturing if they truly have gone rogue.” She squared her shoulders. “So, I’ll stay.” She narrowed her eyes.

“You don’t have a dungeon, do you? Because I expect a guest room.” She showed her teeth in a bare approximation of a smile. “As a show of good faith, of course.” Hart met Liam’s grim gaze, returned it with his own. “I expect her to be safe here.” Liam inclined his head. “As long as our daughter is safe.” Hart barely suppressed a wince. “I’ll do my best,” he said.

“If your best isn’t good enough?” Helena said softly, silkily. “I will personally drain every single person in your league. Understood?”

He nodded stiffly.

“Your mom rocks,” I muttered. “You know he’s totally shaking under all that suave sophistication.”

Bruno showed Hart outside, trailed by the dogs, except for Byron, who kept sniffing suspiciously at Hope. Geoffrey nodded his head at the stairs.