Red Awakening: (Red Knight #2) (28 page)

Liz

My head feels like it has been hit with a bag of bricks, and my eyes refuse to open. Hunger burns me up to the point my skin itches all over. I move my wrist, stretching my fingernails out to scratch my thigh, but something is stopping me. I yank both arms around to hear rattling metal, and I feel the restraints.

A cool air whooshes over my bare toes, and I can feel my legs have been elevated.
Shit.
Where the hell am I?

I flinch and jerk, but I can’t move. I need blood. I need to feed. I prize open one eye at a time, but I’m blinded by a glare of whiteness. Screaming out, I bounce around on the springy surface I’m lying on.

“LET ME GO… GOD!”

I bite my bottom lip hard, drawing a little blood. But the taste, the feeling, it does nothing to ease this ache inside me. I want to destroy something. Rip my nails down flesh and bone. It’s a pain worse than any torture.

Taking a breath, I try to calm myself, but the brightness through my eyelids is a discomfort, and I still can’t see.

“Selene… Selene!” I grapple against the bonds on my ankles and wrists. “I need to feed… Selene!”

I’m stronger than this. I know what’s inside me is powerful. But shit, whatever Selene drugged me with, has really messed me up. I’m weak and twisted, and all I can think of is blood.

“Shush now, Elizabeth. This is your big day.”

I know that voice. It’s deep and spine-chilling. I’m unsure, but it has a South African ting to it. The last time I heard it was on my wedding day, when Selene showed her face. It’s Vincent. The weird lanky vampire who has taken over Adrien’s Executive role. I have to open my eyes. I have to know exactly where he is, so I can try to protect myself. Cringing and sobbing in agony, I force open my eyelids, blinking out the stinging tears.

The room I’m in, slowly comes into a hazy focus. Above me is a long Florissant light; one of those lights you’d find in a surgical theatre, movable and attached to the ceiling. I slide my head to the side to find a stainless steel trolley. On it lies operating tools: two different size scalpels, a set of large forceps, and a kidney dish. The large room I’m in is clinically clean. It smells sterile with a filtered air.

Again I yank on my wrists, trying to sit up. Whatever Selene plans to do with me in here, is not going to end well. I have a feeling, like death is here, waiting for me.

I’m doing this for Daniel and Adrien, but that is not stopping me from being shit scared. If I just had one bag to fuel me, I could break these damn chains. Maybe I could succeed and even kill Selene. I holler out her name, flinging my body as far as it will bounce on the hospital bed. My legs have been splayed, my midriff is on show, and there are sticky patches and wires on my lower abdomen.
Fuck. I’m going to be cut open on this damn bed. I need to get the hell out of here.

“Elizabeth, you need to stop fighting.” I turn my head sideward to see Vincent hovering over me. “You’re going to be awake for the procedure, and struggling will only hasten your death.”

Spluttering and weeping with a mix of anger, hunger, and terror, my fangs lengthen, pulling open my jaw in pain.

Vincent removes his brown jacket and rolls up his shirt sleeves, before placing his hand on my head.

“Put those away. They will not do you no good,” he says.

“Get your fuckin hands off me,” I snarl.

“It will all be over soon… look.” He points to a screen at my side. “Our children are ready to come into this world.”

Oh god. I can see my ovaries on a screen, swelling and pulsing. This is so fucked up. I can’t look any longer. I close my eyes, with every muscle inside me cramping and tightening in disgust.

“Your eggs… my seed.”

I swallow down, looking up with a slim view to see Vincent holding a container. A container full of his revolting semen. I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough to go through with this. This is way beyond freak show horror. It’s extremely real agonising terror.

“After we extract your womb; that is when the magic begins.”

His hand is brushing over my hair, and his touch has me retching. I gag, choking on the bile building up in my throat. I turn my head. I’m losing control and unable to hold it back. I vomit violently over the floor.

“Vincent, leave us,” Selene’s voice sounds over my strangled gasps.

With nothing left inside me to throw up, I slam my head back onto the mattress as Selene comes to stand at my side. I don’t want to hear anything else. I don’t want to know what they’re going to do to my body. I shut my eyelids tight and try to find that happy place in my head: Adrien and I, in our apartment.

“You really should try and accept this Elizabeth,” she says. “You’re going to change the world.”

“Please… please, kill me.” I look up at Selene, pleading with my eyes. “You can do what you want then. Promise me Adrien and Daniel will be safe, and you can have my body.”

Her hand lies on my forearm, and she has this pitiful gleam across her stark eyes.

“You’re very loyal Elizabeth. Brave. But I’m sorry, for this to work you have to be awake.”

“Then please… I need blood.”

“No Elizabeth, you need to be compliant.” She turns to the trolley and picks up a pamphlet from the bottom shelf. “You have given hope to a lot of couples out there. I have over fifty scheduled embryo implants over the next month alone.”

I frown at the front cover of the blue pamphlet, shaking my head. Selene has orchestrated all of this. She has opened up this building as a damn fertility clinic called, Bloodline.
What the hell.
    

  “For decades I have searched, researched, and planned,” she says with glee in her tone. “Each Red and each Executive vetted and examined. At one point, I thought it would never happen.” She looks up at my ovaries pulsating on the screen with a weird cherishing smile. “But look at them. Beautiful. Pure. Strong.” She places her hand on my belly.

“Get off me.” My body flinches. “I hope they all die you sick bitch!”

She whips her hand away from my belly, up to grip and dig her fingernails into my cheeks.

“Now, we can do this the hard way, or I could give you a nip of blood, if you promise to cooperate.” She looks at my fangs protruding at the thought of her offer.

I won’t do it though. She can stick her blood up her white dead ass. I’m going to die anyway, so fuck it. I’m going to go out, loud and swinging.

“Piss-off,” I spit through her grip.

She releases her fingers, aggressively forcing my head back onto the mattress.

“Okay,” she sighs, pulling out a pair of surgical gloves from a box on the trolley. “Vincent,” she yells.

I scowl, watching her, wondering what her next move is, as Vincent enters wearing a surgical mask, gloves, and an apron. This has to be some tactic to scare me into submission.

“Vincent here, used to be a vet,” Selene says, relishing the fear on my face.

“A vet?” I tug on the chains. “You’re both crazy. Even for walking corpses. I hope this all goes tits up for you. I hope that when you cut me open, I explode and take you both out with me. You lunatics!”

“I was actually in charge of fertility management,” Vincent adds.

“You helped cows get pregnant?” I yell. “These aren’t cows, or sheep, you idiot!”

“Don’t worry about the children,” Selene replies, ignoring my crazed outburst. “He has performed many procedures. All we need off you is your womb, then all your troubles will be over.”

“You mean I’ll die, don’t you?”

“That is likely.” She pats my head.

A cold substance is brushed over my lower belly. I gasp in and out, watching the iodine dripping down my sides. Vincent then begins to lower the largest scalpel to my skin. My mouth opens, ready to discharge a scream, but a loud crashing sound stops me. The door to the room flies open, creating a gust of wind. I tilt my head to look in the doorway. A man enters, pulling a blanket from his head. He’s wearing a tux, and on his face he wears an eerie disturbing fury. I stare right at him, and he at me. I know of him. I’ve seen him in pictures Adrien has shown me. Demetrius Valt, Selene’s father.

Selene takes a wary step back. “Father.”

Demetrius closes the gap she’s created. “You have betrayed me. You have betrayed us all.”

“You stupid relic,” Selene says. “You have no idea what I do for you and The Order. Listen, please,” her tone is luring. “We are on the very edge of evolution Father. A world in which we will have freedom. A world where we are on top.”

“Dhampir?” he nearly cracks a smirk. “What do you plan to do Selene, in this bigger better world; feed from the Dhampir? They are not beings you can take from. That lesson was learnt by our kind centuries ago.”

“You failed, I will not,” she declares with passion. “As you can see,” her hand gestures around the room. “Times have moved on.”

Demetrius begins to anger, his skeletal features strain. “Your task is to preserve what we are. Not to destroy us. You have become greedy Selene. You have deceived me and others on your journey for power. You will stand down, or suffer the punishment.”

“Why would I do that?” She grins, then like a black flash, flits to take down her father.

They scuffle loudly, knocking over furniture, creating a whirlwind of air. Demetrius gets free from Selene. He flits across the room, grabbing and taking her with him. He slams her back hard against the wall, lifting her up by the throat.

I yank on my cuffed wrists, hissing as Vincent repositions himself over my abdomen.

“GET AWAY FROM ME,” I cry out.

“Shut up,” he growls.

I hear distant noises outside. Metal colliding. Grunting. Banging. Cries. Adrien is here, I can feel him. He said he’d come for me. But unless Demetrius kills Selene right now, I know that my son is still in danger. Selene isn’t stupid, Daniel will be being watched.

“You… brought… friends,” Selene chokes out.

“Oh yes. Adrien is not happy with you.” Demetrius slides Selene higher up the wall. “Lucky for you, I am here to take you home. But not before everything has been destroyed.” His eyes land on me. “Not a trace of this is left, do you understand?”

Selene claws at her father’s wrists. “I… won’t let you take this from me. This is my work.” Her head dips at Vincent. “This is the future… Father.”

Suddenly, Selene is out of her father’s hands and across the other side of the room. A sharp penetrating pain slices across my belly. I scream out as Vincent cuts me open. His hands go deep inside me. I can feel him probing and tugging at my womb. I heave in air, as a different kind of agony rips through me. What Vincent is trying to remove is fighting back, and pulling deep down on my spine.

“It’s nearly over, Elizabeth,” Vincent’s faint voice says through the whistling heat inside my head.

Sobbing quietly, I tilt my fading vision to the side. I can smell my own life leaving me, and the sounds of Vincent pulling me inside out, make me pray for death.

Demetrius and Selene are still at loggerheads, but I don’t care anymore. I’m numb. I’m waiting to fall asleep.

“Do not make me kill you Selene,” Demetrius yells.

“No, allow me!”

My body comes to life in a sudden sharp burst. I angle my heavy head back as far as my achy neck allows. I blink again and again, fighting to focus through the white lights. I see Adrien pinning Selene up against the wall. She’s fighting back, but she is no match for the anger of his Sang.

I swallow and strain my vocal cords, trying to call out his name. If I’m going to die. I want his face to be the last thing I see.

Choking on cold blood, I whisper, “Adrien… Adrien.” But my words are not heard as he drives his blade into Selene’s throat.

“NO!” Demetrius’s unnerving cry lingers in the air.

My eyelids close slowly then re-open, to see another figure racing into the room, Nathan. His pupils are black and hands bloody. He lets out an almighty animal like roar as he tackles Vincent to the floor. Both my boys are here, fighting for me. Not with each other, but side by side. It’s ironic.

All my pain has gone, and the thirst for blood has been replace by a deep exhaustion. My lungs are drowning and I… I can no longer hold on. I allow myself to fall.

Nathan

My boots slide in Liz’s blood as I leave Vincent’s torn up body, and hurry to the bed. What I’m seeing is a fucking nightmare. Liz’s stomach has been sliced open. There is more of her blood on the bed and floor, than what is in her body. I growl out, as Adrien frantically fiddles with the cuff on her wrist.

Dom and Leanna race in, skidding to a stop before Demetrius, who’s cradling Selene on the floor.

“Holy shit,” Dom gasps.

“It’s okay Elizabeth.” Adrien’s shaky blood coated hand, strokes her hair across her forehead. “I’m here… I’m here.”

I turn my back with my fingers clamped on the top of my head, growling out. He can’t do a thing for her. None of us can. She’s gone. My hands drop down by my side, and I see what that sick bastard took from her in a large kidney dish. I can’t contain my Vigore. He’s out and wants someone, or something to pay for this. I wrap my fingers around the trolley, and hurl it into the far wall so Liz’s blood splatters across the clinical canvass.

“Please Elizabeth… Dom do something!” Adrien screams.

I spin on the spot, panting, to see Dom standing nervously, shaking his head at Adrien. He’s scared because there is nothing he can do that will help her. He hurries to the bed and holds a white towel down on Liz’s belly. Adrien snatches and chucks it across the room, thrusting Dom down onto the floor.

“A fucking towel… what did I turn you for?” Adrien hollers. “Where’s your blood therapy?”

Dom quickly fumbles inside his jean pocket, and takes out a small syringe. He tosses it to Adrien, and remains on the floor, staying out of the way.

Adrien rips the cap off with his teeth, and injects Liz with the thick serum. He waits a second, then he rolls up his sleeve, desperately. He picks up a small scalpel from another trolley, and slices deep into the palm of his hand. He makes a fist and squeezes, so his blood drips onto her blue lips.

“Adrien,” Leanna says, warily. “It’s too late.”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up!” he snaps.

For a second, like Adrien, a tiny amount of hope enters my heart. But Leanna is right. Even a Pure wouldn’t be able to come back from what injuries she has sustained. I take her icy hand in mine, and drop down onto my knees, resting my head against her knuckles.

“NO,” Adrien cries out, bringing Liz’s torso up into his arms. “You can’t let go… you can’t.”

His upset is moving my emotions in a way I never thought a vampire could feel. As he growls into her neck, I close my eyes as flashes of my past with her swirl around inside my head. The first time we met in high-school. Our first college party, when she beat me at the drinking game: down in one. Our first date, when I took her to Pizza Hut, but could only afford the cheapest smallest pizza on the menu. And when we both agreed to call it quits and just remain good friends. Some people find their soulmate in a lover. For me, I found it in my best friend.

I lift my head, listening to Adrien’s grief-stricken muffled wails. Her face looks at peace; angel like.

Demetrius rises to his feet behind Adrien, holding Selene in his arms. For a second he looks like he wants to help, but turns his back with his daughter in silence.

“That’s it.” Adrien looks right at him. “You weak fucking asshole.” Demetrius stops and turns, slowly. “Your daughter did this. She deserved to die. But my Elizabeth did not!”

“That human in you did this,” he replies in anger. “You destroy everything in this building before you leave. And be thankful to still have your head on your shoulders.” He goes to leave again.

“No, you will heal her. I know you can, or The Order will hear exactly what has been happening right under their noses,” Adrien threatens. “Your daughter, the leader of the Voax!”

“You allowed a human to become embroiled in this. Your selfish need for love,” Demetrius stresses, standing in the doorway. “You killed my only daughter, the one who was my first, and expect me to revive your wife. Look.” He holds Selene’s body out. “Exist with what you have done!”

Demetrius turns to leave again. But like Adrien, if there is a chance Liz can come back from this, even as a vampire, I’m going to take it.

“Please.” I stand up and take a few steps toward him. “If you have any conscience at all, and you don’t want The Order to find out, or a war on your hands, you will bring her back.”

His shoulder-blades hunch over in the doorway. A movement which tells me to back up. I’ve just threatened a Pure Blood with war, so of course he’s going to be pissed at me.

I look around for support. Leanna is biting her cheek in that flirty, slutty way. I think she’s impressed with me.

Demetrius lies Selene’s body down on the floor, as I ready myself. He turns and strolls nearer, but stops when Leanna flits to my side. Adrien still has Elizabeth in his arms, totally lost, and Dom has joined our ranks. Three against one, the odds are in our favour.

“He’s right Demetrius,” Leanna says. “If the Vigore council find out the reason Executives have been able to form relationships with human girls, is so you can bring back a race that died out centuries ago, then a war will be on your hands.”

“I could kill every single one of you right now. I could destroy all of this, and the child. The child that poor innocent girl was protecting,” he warns, nodding his head toward Liz.

“But you won’t,” Adrien says. “Because right now, Ben is on his way to Prague. He has everything needed, to have you go on trial for disloyalty. Your daughter, the leader of the Voax. Do you honestly believe they will think you knew nothing about it, especially when I have over a dozen witnesses?”

Wow. Adrien has actually planned for this. I don’t know whether to be angry he expected Liz’s death, or relieved he might save her in some screwed up way.

Demetrius is speechless as the upper hand changes sides. He moves to the bed, looks down at Liz, and places his hand on her head, as Adrien moves back a step.

“Well?” Adrien questions, desperately.

“She has fallen too far. It will be pointless.” Demetrius shakes his head.

“Just do it,” I snap, impatiently. “Do it now.”

“Fine. But I have some conditions of my own,” he says to Adrien. “You do as I asked, and clear up this mess, even if she doesn’t come back.”

“Yes,” Adrien agrees.

“You then take her and that child far away from our society. You clean-up everything Adrien Knight. And if I even catch a whiff of that child mingling with our kind, then I will hunt you down, and everyone you care about will suffer. Understood?”

“Clearly,” Adrien states.

Demetrius pushes down on his Ditale ring, so a small razor pops out of the side. He closes his eyes and cuts a vertical incision down his main artery. He utters a few words under his breath, and lets his thin grey blood fall into her mouth.

“This will take some time. I need to concentrate… leave me,” he demands, squeezing at his wrist.

Adrien bends to kiss Liz’s head. “Come back to me,” he whispers to her before heading through the door.

I don’t want to leave. I don’t trust him. But there is no other option. Liz has gone, and he might be the only one who can bring her back. Leanna senses my concern. She takes my arm and guides me out onto the corridor.

                                                       ***

It’s been over twenty minutes now, and I’ve spent it pacing, agitated. Adrien is sitting on the floor with his head in his hands. And Dom is messing around with a pamphlet rack on the cream wall.

“Just look at how far she went for this.” Dom shoves a pamphlet under my nose about IVF treatment. “It could have happened to any Executive.”

I take a wide step away from him. “But it didn’t, did it?” I grumble.

We’ll never be bosom buddies, but I decide to go and join Adrien to get away from Dom, and his trivial waffle. At least Adrien is quiet and has a grasp on how shitty this all is. I sit down a few feet away from him on the glossy beige floor.

“Have you called Ben?” I turn my head to face him. “Last I saw, he wasn’t heading for Prague, but battling his way through a group of new bloods.”

“Demetrius doesn’t know that,” he utters.

I smile for a second. “Good move.”

He bangs the back of his head against the wall, looking up to the ceiling. “Yeah, well this is no game we’re playing.”

I hum out an awkward breath. “Where is he then… Ben?”

“After he finished off Gerrard, I told him to go back to the house to watch over Sara and Daniel.”

He goes silent. He doesn’t want to talk, and after everything, I really can’t blame him. I still don’t think he’ll ever be good enough for Liz. But then, I think that about everyone.

“What’s Demetrius doing to her?” I ask, breaking the silence. “He can’t be turning someone that’s already been turned, surely.”

“A Pure’s blood has powerful properties, mine doesn’t,” he replies, in a can’t be bothered tone.

“You think it will work?” I ask, needing some hope.

“Look, can you just stop talking.”

“Yeah… sure,” I smirk, pissed-off.

Asshole
. I stand up and brush down the blood stained sleeve of my shirt. I guess once a dick, always a dick.

I make my way back to Dom, but stop as the door Liz is behind opens. Demetrius makes his way out onto the corridor, carrying Selene. He’s weak and his footing is shaky. Adrien hurries to him, and places his hand on his back.

“I’m fine.” Demetrius shudders away Adrien’s touch. “She is healing.”

Adrien goes to race into the room, but Demetrius stops him, “I said she is healing. She’s still too far gone to bring back fully.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Her body has healed, but her soul has not,” he says. “She may come back; she may not. I have done my bit.” He walks down the corridor, toward the exit. “Now you play your part. And remember what I told you about that child. If he ever feeds, or crosses my path, then I will bring death to you… All of you.”

In the blink of an eye, Demetrius and Selene are gone.

Adrien hurries into the room and I follow. My mouth falls open as I study Liz’s skin. There isn’t a mark or scratch on her.

“She looks kind of… healthy.” My eyes squint.

He doesn’t say a word to me. Focus driven by her only, he threads his arm beneath her knees, and lifts her body from the bed.

“Where the hell are you going with her?” I follow as he strides through the door.

“I’m taking her somewhere safe.”

I jog to keep up with him. “Where?”

“I will call you if she wakes.”

He’s going to flit with her. I can see it forming in his walk.

“You won’t leave me in the dark over this.” I grab his arm to stop him going anywhere. “After everything, I deserve to be kept in the loop. She’s my friend dammit!”

He huffs out a pissed-off breath, staring at me. “I’ll take good care of her, and Daniel,” he affirms. “And you’ll be the first to know if there is any change.” He shakes off my hold.

“Look…”

“No!” he snaps before I can finish. “I need to be alone with her. This is over for you now. I’m her husband, and it is my job to care for them.”

Dom comes to stand at my side. “Have I to make a start on the clean-up boss?”

“Yes Dom. Make sure everything is incinerated,” Adrien says. “Will you help Nathan… for Elizabeth?”

I kick the tip of my boot across the floor. I’m no longer needed, so he said. I should just fuck-off from here. But he asked me to do it for her, and that makes it difficult to refuse.

“Yeah, I’ll help clear up this shit,” I say as he turns his back. “You protect them,” I call out as he nears the exit, ignoring me. “Or you won’t just have Demetrius to worry about.”

                                                    ***

Both Dom and I stand behind the fence of the vast carpark, watching as the entire building goes up in smoke. By the time the fire department reach this secluded area, there should be nothing but ash that remains. This corrugated warehouse, which used to be a recycle plant, stands miles from the nearest town.

We’ve been here for hours, going through filing cabinets full of paperwork. Lists of potential Executives and their Reds. Also lists of failures over the years. Selene thought she had it all worked out, but she didn’t count on having vampires that would defy her. Now, as Liz fights her way back. I feel I no longer belong anywhere. I can’t stick around with a coven that is not my own.

The sun sets behind the raging flames that sweep up and lick the sky. Dom lies his hand on my shoulder with a manly squeeze.

“You coming back to the house?” he asks. “I could do with a drink… or fifty.”

“Nah, I need to be moving on from all this shit.”

He fumbles through his trouser pocket, and pulls out a set of car keys.

“You can take the truck.” He swings the keys on his finger. “Can’t have you flitting through Vancouver.” He tosses the keys and I catch them.

“Do something for me,” I ask.

“For you, anything… You had my back several times today.”