The Forever Song (12 page)

It was also completely saturated in gore. Blood streaked the walls and ceiling, splattered in arching ribbons across the cubicle walls. Some of it wasn’t human; I could pick out the subtle hints of animal blood in the room—dogs and cats and rodents, musky and somehow tainted. But the rest of it was definitely human, and the Hunger roared up with a vengeance.

“Well,” Jackal remarked, gazing around the carnage-strewn space, “that doesn’t scream ‘trap’ at all. Is this the best Sarren could come up with? I’m rather disappointed.” Raising his head, he bellowed into the room: “Hey, minions! Daddy’s home, and he’s
not
happy! But because I’m such a nice guy, I’m going to give you a choice. You can make it easy for yourself and blow your brains out right now, or I can slowly twist your head around until it pops right off your neck. Your move!”

For a moment, there was silence. Nothing stirred beyond the door, though if I listened hard enough, I thought I could hear the acceleration of several heartbeats, the scent of fear rising up with the blood.

Then something small, green and oval came arching through the air toward us, thrown by an arm behind an overturned desk, and Jackal grinned.

“Wrong answer,” he muttered.

Lunging past me, he grabbed the object before it could hit the ground and, blindingly fast, hurled it back into the room. There was a muffled, “Shit!” from behind the desk.

And then something exploded in a cloud of smoke and fire, flinging a pair of bodies into the open, mangled and torn. Jackal roared, the sound eager and animalistic, as a few dozen raiders leaped up from behind desks and half walls and sent a hail of gunfire into the room.

I lunged behind a desk as bullets sprayed the floor and put a line of holes in the walls behind me. Gripping my katana, I peeked around the corner, trying to pin down where the attacks were coming from. I didn’t see Kanin, but Jackal charged a cubicle with a roar, fangs bared. Several bullets hit him, tearing through his coat and out his back, but the vampire didn’t slow down. Leaping over the desk, he grabbed one raider by the collar, yanked him off his feet, and slammed his head against the surface. Blood exploded from the raider’s nose and mouth, and Jackal hurled him away to go after another.

Raiders were screaming now, firing their weapons in wild arcs, shattering glass and tearing chunks out of plaster. I saw two humans emerge from behind a pillar, aiming their guns at Jackal’s back. I growled and darted from my hiding place, then lunged toward them. They saw me coming at the last minute and turned, shooting wildly. I felt something tear into my shoulder, sending a hot flare of pain and rage through me. Snarling, I slashed my blade through one raider’s middle and, as he collapsed, whipped it up through the second’s neck. Headless, the man toppled forward, and I leaped past him toward a cluster of raiders in the corner.

The demon in me howled, and bloodlust sang through my veins as I hit the group of men hard, katana flashing. They turned on me, faces white, guns raised. And then everything dissolved into screaming, gunfire and blood. I was hit several times, sharp stabs of pain that barely registered as I gave in to my anger, hate and grief. Raiders fell before me, cut down by my blade, their hot blood filling my senses. The Hunger raged within, stirred into a near frenzy with every kill, every bullet that ripped through me. But through it all, I kept a tight hold of my demon, refusing to lose myself again, even if killing these men brought me one step closer to Sarren. I would avenge Zeke’s death, but I would do so on my terms.

As I fought my way to the center of the room, slicing my way through a trio of raiders, a sudden beeping filled the air, shrill and rapid. On instinct, I leaped back just as the pillar in front of me exploded, sending rocks and shrapnel everywhere and catching two raiders in the back. I was hurled away, crashing through a half wall and into a desk on the other side. Dropping to the floor, I lay there a moment, stunned. My coat was in tatters, and I could feel warm wetness spreading out from my middle a second before the pain hit, making me clench my jaw to keep from screaming. My katana lay several feet from my hand, glinting in the bursts of gunfire around me.

Another shrill beeping went off, and a second explosion rocked the room, filling the air with screams and the stench of smoke. Wincing, I struggled to rise, shrugging off rocks and debris, pushing away the wooden beam that had fallen across my chest. A shadow fell over me, and a raider glared down, eyes wild and crazy, as he pointed the barrel of a shotgun at my face.

I jerked to the side and threw up my arm, just managing to knock the barrel away as a shot rang out, booming in my ears and making my head ring. Fire flared from the tip of the weapon, searing the air close to my face, and my demon recoiled with a shriek. Snarling, I yanked the raider down, tore the gun from his hands, and sank my fangs into his throat. Hot blood filled my mouth, easing the pain as my wounds healed, mangled flesh knitting back together. I continued feeding until the body shuddered and went limp in my grasp, and I let it slump lifelessly to the floor.

Wiping my mouth, I grabbed my katana and rose, looking around for my next enemy.

The chaos in the room had quieted down. Bodies lay everywhere, cut open and torn apart, scattered in pieces throughout the room. I could see my own carnage-strewn trail that led to the ruined pillar, and the two dead raiders who had been caught in the blast. Smoke hung in the air, along with the acrid stench of explosives and burned flesh.

Jackal emerged from the slaughter, blood-drenched and dangerous-looking, crimson streaking his face and hands. Gazing around, he nodded in satisfaction. Kanin also appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, stepping over bodies as he made his way to the center.

“All righty, then.” Jackal kicked a body out of his path and sauntered forward, grinning. “I feel better already. Nothing like massacring a bunch of filthy traitors to get the blood flowing. Wonder where the rest of the bastards are hiding.”

I blinked at him. “There’s more?”

He sneered at me. “This wasn’t even half the army, sister. When I said there’s a whole fucking lot of them, I wasn’t exaggerating. I’m guessing this was just the welcome-home party, and the rest of them are somewhere between this floor and Sarren.”

“Then perhaps we should keep moving,” Kanin suggested. “Unless there is another way to the top.”

“Not unless you want to climb the elevator shaft,” Jackal said, and began walking across the floor, weaving between beams and rubble, stepping over dead bodies. We picked our way through the room, the scent of blood now mingling with the stench of lingering smoke and charred flesh, until we reached a metal door on the other side.

“Ladies first,” Jackal grinned, and pushed open the door to the stairwell.

I stepped through, frowning, then paused. Directly across from me, on the far wall, someone had written a message. In blood. Below that, a wet, unrecognizable lump of…something…had been speared to the wall with a knife. Stepping closer, I looked up at the top line, and my blood went cold.

Little bird,
it read, making my stomach turn in hate and revulsion. There was only one sicko who called me that. I could see his scarred face, hear his awful, raspy voice as he smiled at me, whispering his insane plans.
“Sing for me, little bird,”
he’d told me once, holding up his knife and smiling.
“Sing for me, and make it a glorious song.”

I shivered and forced myself to read the rest of the message.
This is yours,
the bloody note went on, the letters dripping into each other.
Or, at least, I believe Ezekiel wanted you to have it.

I went numb with dread. Fearfully, unable to stop myself, I looked at the lump at the bottom of the message, recognizing it for what it really was. Immediately wishing I hadn’t.

A human heart.

Behind me, Jackal swore, and Kanin called out to me, his voice urgent. I barely heard them. I didn’t register the words. I couldn’t see anything but that awful token Sarren had left behind. It was like he’d reached into my consciousness, found the one thing that scared me more than anything else, and dragged it, twisted and perverse, into the light. My eyes burned, hot tears welling in the corners, but they weren’t tears of sadness or grief. They were tears of blinding, uncontrollable rage.

My vision went black and red. Baring my fangs, I gave a strangled cry that was part roar, part scream, my voice echoing up the stairwell. Gripping my katana, ignoring Kanin’s cries for me to stop, I leaped up the stairs, my mind only on one thing. Finding Sarren, and ripping him to pieces bit by bit. Driving my fist into his chest and tearing the warped, evil heart from his body, making sure he watched me do it.

I heard Kanin and Jackal start after me. But as I raced up the stairs, a sharp, ominous beeping echoed behind me, making the hairs on my neck stand up. I turned just as an explosion boomed through the stairwell, making the whole structure shake. Rock, dust and rubble rained down on me, and I staggered away, shielding my face. When the smoke and debris cleared, the stairs behind me were collapsed, and a wall of concrete, rubble and steel beams blocked the way down.

“Kanin!” I scrambled to the edge and tugged on a massive iron girder, trying to yank it aside. I was strong, but the girder was huge and half buried under a few tons of rock; it groaned but didn’t budge. “Kanin! Jackal! Where are you? Can you hear me?”

A familiar annoyed voice came from somewhere below, muffled through the stone and rock, but there.

“We’re fine, Allison,” Kanin called over Jackal’s swearing, making me slump with relief. But a gunshot rang out, followed by distant shouting, and the sound of bullets sparking off the walls below. Jackal snarled.

“Well, shit. There are the rest of ’em. I was wondering where they were hiding.”

“Allison!” Kanin called, as the shouts and gunshots grew louder. “Wait for us! We’ll find another way up! Do not take on Sarren by yourself, do you understand?”

A yell echoed somewhere below, and bullets ricocheted off the walls. “We gotta move, old man,” Jackal yelled, his voice booming through the stairwell. “Now!”

“Kanin!” I called, but there was no answer. Kanin and Jackal had already moved back into the room. I listened as the screams, shots and roars of furious vampires raged below for a few seconds, then faded away, growing distant as if the fight had left the room. Or as if Jackal and Kanin had fled, taking the army with them.

Alone in the stairwell, I straightened, backed away from the cave-in, and gazed up the stairs.
He
was up there, somewhere. Waiting for me. Everything he’d done so far—the trap, the horrible message…Zeke’s heart—was to separate me from my group. He wasn’t interested in Kanin and Jackal. He wanted me.

Okay, you bastard,
I thought, gripping my blade. A cold resolve filled my heart, and I glanced up the stairwell.
You want me? Here I come.

I met no one on my journey up the tower, probably because all the raiders were busy dealing with Jackal and Kanin. I desperately hoped they were all right, though it was pointless to worry; I couldn’t help them now.

The long, twisting stairwell went on, dark and empty but never silent. The stairs creaked under my weight, and every so often a rusty groan would echo through the shaft, making my skin crawl. I tried not to imagine the whole thing collapsing beneath me, and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

As I neared the top, the scent of old blood hit me, faint and indistinct, and I proceeded more cautiously. Reaching another landing, I stopped, stifling the tiny ripple of fear that crawled up my spine. Overhead, a light flickered, casting erratic, disjointed shadows over the wall, and the message written on it in blood.

Almost there, little bird.

I swallowed hard.
Almost there,
I agreed.
And you’re going to pay for what you did to him
.
Watch me, Zeke. I’ll send your killer to hell, and I’ll smile while I’m doing it.

Gripping my katana, I climbed the final few steps to the top landing, wrenched open the door, and stepped through.

A long hallway greeted me, lined with windows on one side, most of them blown out or shattered. Far below, Old Chicago huddled in the shadows and dark water, and beyond it, the moon glimmered off the surface of the enormous Lake Michigan, stretching over the horizon.

I began walking toward the door at the very end of the hall, feeling as if I’d been here before. As I passed another corridor, I glanced down and saw a darkened elevator shaft along the walls, and everything jolted into place. I
had
been here, on this very floor, when I’d tried to rescue Jeb. I’d come up through the elevator instead of the stairwell. And I knew where I had to go. Through the door at the end of the hall was the laboratory, where Jebbadiah Crosse had died. Where I’d met Jackal for the first time.

Where Sarren waited for me now.

The door loomed dead ahead, and I didn’t stop. I didn’t pause to reconsider my plan. Whether I was walking into a trap or straight to my death. Katana at my side, I strode up to the door and kicked it below the knob. It flew open with a crash, nearly ripped off its hinges, and I stepped into the room.

The lab was dark, silent, and I paused in the frame, listening. When I’d been here last, it had been brightly lit, with no shadows or dark corners to hide in. I stepped through the door, sword out, searching for my enemy.

“Sarren,” I called, easing forward, wary of traps and explosions, or a sudden horde of raiders pouring out to shoot at me. But the room remained silent. Still wary, I stepped through the doorway, a sense of familiarity stealing over me as I gazed around. I remembered this place. There was the desk and the ancient computer in the corner, mostly undisturbed, though the screen was dark and shattered now. There was the counter, covered in broken beakers and chips of glass, where Jackal had held me down and rammed a stake through my gut. And beyond it, the wall of cracked and shattered windows, through which my brother had fallen to his supposed death, glinted in the darkness, the remaining shards of glass sharp and lethal.