Vampires Dead Ahead (30 page)

“What about her?” an out-of-town Tracker said. Everyone looked at me.

“Nyx is half Drow, which made her less susceptible to the infection of Vampirism,” Armand said. “I have seen for myself her loyalty to our cause and our people. Those of you who know me … Do you really believe that if I sensed a threat, she would be here right now? I hope you trust me more than that. She is one of us.”

That seemed to stop the questions, but I still sensed lingering distrust.

Armand concluded, “The buses are outside and waiting. Let’s clear out of here and ensure that Vampires never harm paranorms again.”

The paranorm Trackers in the ballroom cheered and shouted. I could feel the enthusiasm of the crowd sweeping us on to victory.

Armand clenched his jaw as he added, “We know our enemy is formidable, but we have an excellent plan in place. We have great fighters. We outnumber them. We have the element of surprise. This will be the night that Volod will go down. We will not lose.”

Cheers erupted in the room from the teams. I felt goose bumps. Yes, this night, Volod would go down.

THIRTY-SEVEN

“If they sing ‘one hundred mugs of ale on the bus’ one more time I’m going to go bust some skulls.” Olivia had her eyes narrowed at the back of the bus, where twenty Drow warriors and a king were being led in a rowdy rendition.

I, on the other hand, was laughing so hard my sides hurt. To see my father and his warriors singing along with other Trackers was almost too much. For Olivia it apparently was.

“Why don’t you take a nap?” Nadia turned to Olivia. “You could use one.”

“Listen, fish brain,” Olivia glared at Nadia, “if I want your opinion I’ll … come to think of it, I’ll never want your opinion.”

Nadia gave Olivia a sly look and her sea-green eyes glittered. “From what I hear, whips are your thing. They’re not mine.”

Olivia glanced at me. I raised my hands in an I-have-no-idea-how-she-found-out gesture.

In the back, they started the next round at forty-nine mugs of ale on the bus.

“I have an idea.” Olivia looked immeasurably pleased with herself as she gave Nadia a wicked grin. “Green gills, why don’t you sing them to sleep?”

Nadia brightened. “I would love to.”

“No.” I stood in the aisle and blocked her. “Nooo singing.”

“Bummer.” Nadia flopped back into her seat. “But it would be soooo much fun.”

“Come on,” Olivia said. “It’ll be great.”

“Sirens know one song when it comes to men, and it always means death for the males.” I glared at them both. “We need them for this assignment.”

Nadia and Olivia looked at each other. “Then we’ll do it after,” Olivia said and she and Nadia shook on it.

“Forty-eight mugs of ale” floated up from the back and I almost said,
Go for it.

But no, Nadia would not get to sing. The last time I’d heard her, she’d almost killed two Shifter males at the Pit who’d made some sexist remarks about her.

Sirens hate lewd males. And Sirens from the Bermuda Triangle do not know the meaning of restraint.

She flipped her luscious long red hair over her shoulder. “I think I’ll take a nap. Must rest up my voice for the trip back.” She covered her mouth in a pretty little yawn and curled up.

Nadia and I had been close friends since I’d arrived in New York City. She’d been one of the first Trackers to ask me out on a girls’ night. She adored the opera, and I went with her when I could. The last one we’d gone to was a few weeks ago,
Pelléas et Mélisande
at the Met. She had a lovely singing voice when males weren’t around.

Those in the back got even more rowdy at “forty-À at “ffive mugs of ale on the wall.”

Olivia banged her head on the seat in front of her. “I should have gone in the SUV with Armand, even if it meant sitting next to stinky Penrod.”

Sprites smell like burned broccoli, so I couldn’t blame her. “Desmond cast a spell on everyone,” I said. “If you’ll notice, you can’t smell any odors. It’ll keep us from being smelled by Vampires.”

“Damn.” Olivia banged her head again. “On the way back I am so riding in the SUV.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Ice and Cindy, who were seated a couple of rows behind me. I’d never, ever seen Ice act like he did around her—a gentleman instead of a wisecracking jerk. It was amazing. I wanted to ask them if they enjoyed each other more in the form of mice or as they were now.

Megan, the Witch, sat with Bruce, the pit bull, on the cushion beside her. The falcon, Tate, perched on the back of her seat.

I ran my gaze over the other Trackers from Armand’s bunch as well as some of the Trackers from states across the continent, in addition to our own from New York City. The fact that we’d all pulled together and were ready to go to war against Volod made me shiver.

Colin made his way from the back of the bus to where I was still standing. With the blacked-out windows and the double-black curtains blocking out the light from the front of the bus, it was dim inside, but I enjoyed the view of the Dragon.

When he reached me, he placed one hand on my hip and kissed me. It was a kiss filled with warmth and restrained passion, one that made me feel all melty and gooey inside.

“Are we there yet?” Kelly flopped back in her seat with a scowl on her usually pretty face. She crossed her arms over her chest. “We’ve been driving forever and we can’t even see out. They’re so loud back there. I’m hungry.”

Olivia snickered. “I say we stick her under the bus with all of the weapons.”

Now, there was a thought with merit.

“Better yet,” Olivia said, “since Kelly is a Doppler bunny, she can be our lucky rabbit’s foot. We just need to remove one.”

I held back a laugh and shook my head instead.

Earlier we’d played a game of twenty questions—Colin did the Otherworld version and Dave did the Earth Otherworld version.

The hardest part for me was being around all those paranorms in a confined space … hearing all of those heartbeats … smelling all of that rich blood pumping through their veins … It was a good thing Colin had insisted I drink from him earlier or I might have gone crazy.

When we finally reached our destination the Drow warriors and my father stayed on the bus while the rest of us piled out into the afternoon sunlight. My skin reddened immediately. Fortunately I could handle it well enough to be outside without turning into a Drow-human-Vampire blowtorch.

height="0" width="1em">A strong wind bowed the tops of the trees, reminding me of the sound of a rushing river.

“What is this place?” Kelly had her hands on her hips as she looked around. We were surrounded by forest, forest, and oh, more forest. “Where can we go for dinner?”

Megan and Rachel, a Shifter Tracker from Boston, brought up an ice chest and opened it. It was filled with sandwiches. “We have turkey, ham, egg salad, roast beef, and veggie,” Rachel announced. “They’re wicked good.”

Kelly screwed up her face. “There must be a McDonald’s nearby. McDonald’s are everywhere.”

I was surprised she wasn’t too good for Mickey D’s.

My stomach rumbled and Megan leaned in close to hand me a wrapped package. “Brought a steak sandwich for you. Rare.”

“Thanks, Megan.” I took it from her and smiled, suddenly wishing I had a pint of blood to wash down the steak.

“How’s the ‘gift’ working for you these days?” she asked as I bit into my sandwich.

I chewed and swallowed. “It helped me a lot and then it stopped.” I smiled. “Thank you. It was a special gift.”

“I was meant to give it to you.” Megan smiled back. “I’m glad it gave you what you needed.”

After I finished eating, it was time to get into position.

Volod’s mansion sprawled across a huge clearing in the woods. No other homes or buildings were closer than five miles in any direction. According to our recon team, during the day the entire place was locked down with retractable metal shutters and barred entrances.

The buses parked a good two miles away. As various beings got out their bows and arrows and assorted other weapons, Olivia looked at me and shook her head. “How did this happen? A bus full of grunts on the way to fight a Vampire war. This is as bizarre as it gets.”

I laughed. “I doubt that. These are paranorms we’re talking about. Bizarre is the norm.”

Olivia shook her head. “Anyone passes by here now and sees this group will think a Halloween-in-May bus broke down.”

With another laugh I walked over to Colin and Armand.

“So you feel pretty comfortable with the recon team’s assessment?” I said to Armand.

“Yes.” He looked in the distance, in the direction of the mansion. “I sent the best Trackers I have.”

I glanced up at Colin. He looked so good to me. His long blond hair lifted away from his face in the wind as his warm burnished-gold eyes focused on me. He was heavily armed with two swords strapped to his back, as well as daggers and stakes on his weapons belt.

For a moment I thought the scaled serpent tattoo on his arm moved, but it was only a trick of the waning light.

We broke into eleven teams with an average ofÀan avera ten paranorms each. My team comprised Colin, Ice, Nadia, Robert, Olivia, Mandisa, Penrod, Desmond, and—I had drawn the short straw—Kelly. We would all be in the assembly hall, waiting for Volod and his Vampires and Vampire paranorms to leave the mansion. The first step was getting to the building without being found out.

Human guards were posted around the perimeter of a great wooden spiked fence. I thought about how nice it would be to see a Vampire impaled on each spike.

When the sun started to set, I slipped into the forest and shifted to Drow. Colin came with me. He didn’t like the idea of me being alone, and I didn’t mind letting him watch me shift. He said he found it rather sexual, but this was no time to have my thoughts drift there.

Shifting is always difficult when I can’t stretch and move into the change, but as a Vampire it seemed to be a little easier. Who’d have thought?

Colin and I moved back to our team. I slipped in the earpiece that Olivia had secured for the leaders. We were in a good location where we could see through the gate to the front of the mansion.

The sun slowly settled over the mountain range. The sky grew completely dark.

It was time.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Metal shutters retracted from the mansion’s windows. The bars over the great double front doors did as well.

Lights flickered on in the mansion, yellow beacons that would have appeared warm if it weren’t for the fact that the place housed Vampires.

As if a hot coal had been pressed to my skin, my neck burned where Volod had bitten it. I slapped my hand over the location and ground my teeth. It only burned when Volod was close, so he was definitely in there.

I didn’t want to count on having a whole hour after sunset before the Vampires came out no matter how much time the recon team said we had. I wanted to get in and get ready.

When I gave the signal, my team moved through the night to the front gate. The wind was stronger, and with it came the threat of a storm. It was oddly reminiscent of the last time we had fought Volod down months ago, to the last moments before I had almost severed his head from his shoulders.

We reached the gate. Ice and Robert took the pair of human guards with no problem, snapping their necks and leaving their bodies behind.

Twenty of us were prepared to go inside the assembly hall and prepare for Volod and his people. That left approximately eighty Trackers to surround the perimeter, along with twenty Drow warriors.

Once we were inside, those of us who could pull glamours could position themselves just about anywhere. The rest would go into the storage room or anyplace else they might find to hide.

Although Volod had been able to sense me in my glamour in our last encounter, I knew it would be different this time.

Ice shiftƀhed into his white jaguar form, Robert changed into a cougar, and Kelly became a bunny. They slipped between the bars of the gate.

Nadia, Olivia, Mandisa, Colin, Penrod, and Desmond eased through the night with me. I used my air element to unlock the gates. They swung open, creaking; I hoped the sound of wind helped cover it.

“Stay alert,” I said as we slipped into the mansion’s driveway. We left the gates open for other teams to follow.

Everything was beyond quiet.

We worked our way to the assembly hall, which had remained dark.

“Teams going into the hall report in.” Armand’s voice came over the radio, static caused by the wind making it difficult to hear well.

I held my hand to my ear. “Team one, set,” I said in a low voice.

“Team three, set,” came Angel’s voice over the wind.

One by one the rest of the team leaders checked in.

“On my count.” Armand’s voice was calm and deadly. “Three … two … one …
go
.”

Those of us heading into the hall started moving again. We eased from tree or bush to the next as we made our way to the front entrance. I tried the doorknob. It turned easily, and the door slowly opened.

It was a large, mostly empty room, just as John had said. A good place for Volod to hold his rah-rah Vampire rallies.

Windows lined the east, north, and west sides. The south side was attached to the mansion. Across the room was the large roll-up door that John had mentioned. It now rolled up, and Angel’s team entered from the back.

We moved into place. Colin nodded to me as he and I took a corner and pulled glamours. I crouched and watched.

One by one Trackers cloaked themselves. Those in the hall slipped into the back room. After closing the roll-up door and the front entrance, the last couple of Trackers vanished behind glamours.

It remained quiet. So quiet.

Light crackled outside, capturing my attention. Through the windows an odd orange lightning spiderwebbed the sky. Prickles ran up and down my spine.

“What the hell?” someone whispered.

My whole body suddenly froze. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink.

I felt my glamour drop away.

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t speak. All I could do was hear and see. Even then my vision was limited because I couldn’t turn my head. My eyes burned from not being able to blink.

Fear clawed its way up my throat from my chest.

What was happening?

Other Trackers I could see had lost their glamours. No one was moving.

The back door made a rattling sound as it rolled up. Lightning continued to crackle across the sky. The air smelled of ozone.

Vampire paranorms came into the room. My heart pounded so fast my chest hurt.

One of them was headed straight for me.

Instinctively I tried to reach for my weapons, but it was as if my entire body had turned to ice.

When the Vampire paranorm reached me, he leaned down and picked me up under his arm like I was something he’d just purchased. He carried me through the back door and outside.

Between the mansion and the assembly hall, Trackers were being set onto the lawn as if they were great chess pieces on a massive board.

Tracker after Tracker. Each being carried by Vampires and Vampire paranorms.

My heart sank to my belly when I saw my father and his men being arranged behind the Trackers. All of them faced one direction.

I had the odd thought that the wind might blow one of the frozen paranorms over and trigger a domino effect, with each paranorm Tracker falling against the next.

How had Volod managed to freeze us? It was as if he had a Soothsayer …

I mentally shook my head. Impossible. Or was it?

The Vampire paranorm hefted me onto his shoulder once again. And then a silent scream echoed in my head at what I saw.

There had to be over two hundred Vampires and Vampire paranorms. A sea of them.

Our intel had been wrong. Very wrong. How could this be?

The Vampire paranorm carried me through the array of frozen Trackers. I sensed all the tension, the anger, the fear, the fury, of every one of the Trackers and Drow warriors. If thoughts could kill, we’d never see Volod again.

When he reached the front row, he set me down. I was in a crouching position and could only look directly in front of me.

Two Vampires moved within my line of sight. I couldn’t look up but I knew instinctively who was staring down at me.

Volod. Elizabeth.

“Unfreeze her.” Volod spoke to someone on the other side of me.

“Yes, Volod,” came a voice I was more than familiar with.

The orange light streaking the sky sparked. A female wearing a long pink gown that brushed the tops of the grass raised her fingers, and a stream of light traveled from her hand to me. My body went limp and I fell forward. I caught myself with my hands, my arms braced so that I was on my hands and knees.

I tipped my head back and saw Lulu.

Lulu. Volod had taken her, just as we’d feared.

She looked triumphant. In her element. Proud to be a Vampire paranorm.

Pleased to be in control of me.

She stepped aside and I met Volod’s eyes. Dark. Burning. Hateful.

“Get her up.” Volod glanced to his right.

I followed his gaze and saw two Vampire paranorms I recognized from the brownstone. One of them had brought the Doppler female to me, my first meal. Vaguely I wondered what had happened to that female.

They dragged me to my feet. I felt off balance but my coordination was returning.

My elemental powers. I tried to concentrate on them, to call to the earth to open up a chasm beneath Volod’s feet. But I was still too weak.

“Restrain her,” Volod said to the two Vampire paranorms.

I tried to shrug off their holds, but together they were incredibly strong. They easily restrained my hands behind my back with Vampire cuffs. As Trackers we were spelled to get out of such handcuffs, but as a part Vampire, I was now unable to.

“Shackle her ankles,” Volod said.

The raw edge of panic cut through me. I tried to call to my elements but they wouldn’t answer. The cuffs wouldn’t allow me to use any of my magic.

I kicked and struggled but they held me tight as a third and fourth Vampire paranorm brought forth a spreader bar with cuffs attached to it. They forced my feet apart and placed the bar between my ankles. If I tried anything with my feet, it would throw me off balance.

“Take off her weapons,” Volod said. “She won’t be able to use them, anyway, but I want her to feel completely vulnerable.”

And then I was stripped of the rest of what could have aided me in fighting Volod. If I’d figured out how to free myself.

“Did you enjoy my surprise?” Volod gestured to Lulu. “Isn’t she magnificent? I’ve been keeping her a secret until she was needed. One never knows who might spoil the element of surprise.”

“How does she freeze paranorms?” My throat ached as if it had been rubbed raw. “And why aren’t your people affected?”

“You were the only ones affected because you were the only ones in the area her spell covered. My Vampires poured out of the mansion and all of the hidden cavern exits in the forest after she froze you. And you happened to be in the building she spelled, didn’t you?”

I hated to hear his laugh. I hated him relishing victory. I never should have asked.

Lulu looked so smug and beautiful there beside Elizabeth.

“That doesn’t explain how she was able to freeze paranorms,” I said. “Soothsayers can only freeze humans.”

“When she was turned, it enhanced her powers.” Volod smiled. “I then took her to our newly turned Sorcerer. He showed her the magic she didn’t know she had and helped her strengthen it, until she grew to have the power she now wields.

“He also showed her how to freeze you,” he continued, “but keep you fully conscious. Yes, I wanted you to know everything going on.

“As long as she lives, Lulu shall serve me.” He lifted his hands and looked to the orange light show in the sky.

Then he put his hands behind himself and turned to the scene before us.

“Not only do I have this precious gem, your Lulu,” he said, “but I have your council.” He gave a nod to his left. I looked and saw the Paranorm Council standing straight and proud, weapons in their hands. The only one missing was Bethany, and I wondered what had happened to her. Volod gestured to his right. “As well as a pair of your precious Trackers.”

My heart ached as I saw Lawan and Gentry.

“We have you far outnumbered,” he continued. “I didn’t just have the Vampires and Vampire paranorms that you expected. I had another one hundred and fifty below in the caverns.”

A cold chill swept over me. “Our forces outnumber yours by what, two or three to one?” He made an offhand gesture.

I felt deflated. Like every good thing had been sucked out of me. Surrounding me were some of the best fighters in the paranorm world. Now every one of them was frozen. At Volod’s mercy.

And that was something Volod had none of. Mercy.

Volod motioned for a Vampire paranorm to step forward—Fae, I thought, but not a race I was familiar with. “Meet Christopher.” Volod let his gaze drift across the assembled “statues.” “Some of you know him. He has the gift of transference.”

The Master Vampire patted Christopher on the shoulder. “After my work is finished here, he will take me straight back to my home, the place that will once again be mine. You know it well. The pyramid, I think you call it.”

Volod let his gaze drift over the Trackers on either side of me. He stopped at Nadia.

“That one.” Volod gave a nod in Nadia’s direction. “She is good friends with the Drow bitch. She will be first. Even if I wasn’t going to kill all of these Trackers here, she is a Water Fae and cannot be turned. Thus I would never have a use for her anyway.”

The thumping of my heart grew faster. “Let her go, Volod.” I struggled to keep a pleading note from my words.

Nadia was kneeling in her frozen position. A beautiful ice sculpture. It seemed like her warm and loving nature should be strong enough to melt her ice prison.

“Bring the Siren here.” Volod directed his request to a pair of Vampire paranorms to his left.

They hesitated a fraction of a second before following through. Then they picked Nadia up and carried her before Volod.

A great spiked ball lodged in my chest, its metal spines seeming to pierce my organs.

To Lulu he said, “Unfreeze her.”

Even Lulu seemed to pause at the request, but she pointed her finger toward Nadia. A small burst of light shot out.

Nadia gasped and sucked in a long breath. Her sea-green eyes were wide. Like me she had heard everything that was happening while she was frozen. And she knew Volod had something planned for her.

She didn’t beg, though. It wasn’t Nadia’s style. Instead she glared at Volod. Her skin took on a light tinge of green as she started to sing her Siren’s song. The song that meant certain death to males.

Volod stepped forward. His hand whipped out so fast it was a blur. Metal glinted off a blade.

And he sliced open her throat.

“No!” I screamed and fought against the handcuffs and the two males who held me.

Nadia crumpled to her knees. Blood poured down the front of her, the red spilling over the black leather she wore.

She brought her hands to her throat and collapsed to her side then rolled onto her back. Instead of singing there were only wet, rasping gurgles.

Screams echoed over and over in my head. My heart nearly stopped beating.

Nadia’s eyes stared up at the orange sky.

She was dead.

Tears rolled down my cheeks and the pain in my chest was nearly too much to bear. Not my dear friend. Not Nadia. “Please, no.”

“Good.” Volod’s words were chilling. “I will enjoy killing your other friends here while you watch. You will be last.”

My head ached, my heart hurt. The pain of Nadia’s death began to turn into a hot burning fury.

“Are you not particularly fond of the human?” Volod said with an evil smile.

I tried to keep from revealing anything with my expression but I wasn’t successful.

“Yes …” A vicious smile curved the corners of his lips. “I can see that you are.”

I thought pain was going to rip me in half over Nadia, but now Olivia, too?

No. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to stop him somehow.

But as I looked over the sea of Vampires and Vampire paranorms that surrounded me and the frozen paranorms, I felt utterly helpless.