Vengeance of the Demons (19 page)

She closed the door behind her, the two men shooting daggers her direction. She stopped and glared at them.

“Don’t give me the stink eye. We could have easily killed you but we didn’t.” She walked to the bed, being careful to step over the smaller of the two guards, lifted her shirt, and set all of the grenades as well as the guns and ammo on the bed.

She walked to her wardrobe and pulled it open. There was no suitcase but there was a backpack. She tugged it out. Her mom had gotten it for her on her thirteenth birthday. A black and pink plaid backpack for school. She let out a hiccupped sigh and walked to her CD collection. She pulled out her five favorite CDs. Then she grabbed her favorite scarf, a couple pairs of underwear, T-shirts, and a new pair of pants as well as some sweats. William would need clothes too, but he’d have to wear something of Tommy’s.

Lastly, she went to her small jewelry box and put it inside the backpack as well. She looked around her room at everything she was leaving behind. There was nothing else of value to her. Nothing that couldn’t be replaced.

Nervous energy settled in her bones, and she sat on the bed to wait. She refused to let “what if” scenarios infect her and take over her thoughts. Instead, she went over the plan. She ran it through her mind over and over until there was nothing but the plan. The plan and William’s handsome face.

William’s eyes burned as he tracked the one remaining human walking around the lab. The one who liked to stick him with needles. He had no concept of how much time had passed since Evan had come to see him. The thirst stormed his brain like a thick dense fog, sweeping over every thought and tainting the air a grayish blue.

The man moved from his station at a microscope to a machine that looked like an oversized microwave. His scent and the pounding of the blood in his veins assaulted William. The man walked back to the microscope and their eyes connected.

“Stop staring at me, leech,” the man spat.

William ground his teeth together. “When I get free, I’m going to kill you first.”

The man snorted and pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up his nose. “When you get free, it’ll be to put your rotten corpse in the furnace.”

William growled low in his chest. Dried blood caked the front of him, making his chest and face itch. The bleeding hadn’t stopped, and it surprised William that he wasn’t dead already.

He slammed his head back on his pillow and howled in rage, pulling on the restraints again and again trying to break them.

“Quiet down over there!” the tech shouted. “Some of us are actually trying to undo the crapstorm your kind unleashed on the world.”

The tech turned up a stereo on his table.

William stared at the white lab coat, picturing it on the floor splattered in blood, and wanted nothing more than to make that happen.

The elevator rang and William’s gaze whipped to it. The doors opened and Tommy stepped out. William would kill Lou and Peter for what they’d done to him and if it would hurt them, he’d even kill Tommy. The pain he’d envisioned inflicting on the two men over the past week burned so hard in his mind he’d been having trouble figuring out whether or not he’d already killed them.

From behind Tommy, out stepped Evan. His heart and mind collided in an avalanche of emotion and conscious.

She peeked around Tommy’s shoulder and stared at William. He bared his teeth, but she held her finger to her lips and then pointed to the lab tech. He tried to concentrate on her miming but the lust in his gut only made him think that now there were three. Three people he could drain instead of one.

No! He shook his head. Trying to hold the thirst at bay was like trying to stop a broken levee with a cardboard box.

Evan. He concentrated on her face. Her beautiful blue eyes and the stubborn yet soft way they commanded his attention. He’d never do that to her.

She whispered something to Tommy, who nodded. The lab tech still had his back to them, his music drowning everything out. Tommy headed with quick, cautious steps toward the tech as Evan made her way toward William.

She parted the clear curtains and her scent slapped him in the face. It made his stomach growl and his fangs ache to taste her, to bleed her, to drain her dry. No! William threw his head back and squeezed his eyes shut tight. No. Not Evan. He wouldn’t do that to her. But the other two…

A warm hand fell on his cheek and his eyes whipped open. The distinct odor of fear trickled up his nostrils.

“We’re getting out of here,” she whispered.

William tried to nod his head, but his eyes latched onto her jugular and the pulling rhythm entranced him.

She glanced at Tommy. William did too. Tommy was sneaking up on the lab tech. Her breath caught as Tommy wrapped his arm around the tech’s throat and cut off his airway. The tech flailed and kicked. His foot connected with the stool he’d been sitting on, and he knocked it over with a clatter.

“Come on,” Evan said. She unbound his wrist and headed for his ankles.

William unbuckled his chest restraint. Every nerve awake and ready to feed. He waited till she finished with his ankles, and then he sprang from the bed.

“William!”

He dashed past her and pushed Tommy out of the way. Before anyone could stop him, he climbed on top of the unconscious lab tech and sank his fangs into the man’s soft flesh. The first gulp of blood gushed into his mouth and coated his tongue. He moaned and sucked harder.

“William! Stop!” Evan cried.

A pair of strong hands gripped William’s shoulders and tried to tear him away. William wrapped his arms around the tech’s torso and continued to drink. Strength rushed through his limbs, and he hung on tighter. Euphoria burst through like an electric blanket and the thirst dissipated slightly. Tommy tried to pick William up and shake him off, but William was too strong.

The blood flow slowed. The tech was almost gone. Just a few more swallows and he’d be finished. He should stop. Let the man go and get the hell out of there. But he didn’t. William gulped down the blood. He deserved every last drop the bastard had to give him. A blow to the kidneys made him howl in pain and release the tech.

He whipped around and spotted Tommy. He bared his teeth and lunged. Evan stepped between them and raised her forearm as a shield. William grabbed it and bit into her wrist. She cried out as he took his first gulp.

“Get off her!” Tommy lunged, but Evan pushed him back.

“It’s okay,” she said.

William sucked greedily from her vein. Her eyes connected with his and softened.

“It’s okay.”

He sucked hard from her weak wrist veins trying to pull out more blood. Evan lifted her other hand and stroked his cheek.

“I know you’re in there,” she said. “I know you can hear me, William.”

He stared at her and continued to drink.

She stumbled slightly but held Tommy back.

“He’s going to kill you,” Tommy said.

“No.” She kept her eyes on William. “He won’t. I know he won’t. I know William. He’s hungry but he’ll stop.”

Stop. Stop. Stop. He blinked several times and stared at Evan. Oh my gosh. What was he doing? The thirst clicked off and William scrambled to remember what he was doing. He licked her wound shut and gathered her in his arms.

“Evan. I’m so sorry. The thirst… the hunger…”

She gripped him fiercely. “It’s okay. It’s all right. But we need to go. We have to get out of here.”

He looked around the lab. Go. Leave. Yes, they needed to get out.

“I have no clothes.”

“Here.” Evan crossed to the dead lab tech. “Help me.” She stripped off the tech’s shoes and socks and then undid his belt.

“We don’t have time.” Tommy watched William warily.

William stared down at the dead man. He’d done that. He’d killed a man. He’d almost killed Evan.

“Go,” he whispered. Guilt ran through him like a stampede of horses.

Evan glanced up as she tried to tug off the man’s jeans. “Yes, we have to go.”

“No.” He pulled her to her feet. “You have to go. I have to stay.”

Confusion played over her features. “You can’t stay. If you stay you’ll die.”

The thirst scratched up his throat again.

“If I go with you who knows how many people will die.”

“But you’ve fed. You’ll be fine until we get you to Chicago.” She searched his face.

He turned to Tommy. “Take her and leave. You aren’t safe with me. Neither of you are. Even now the thirst is starting to build again. I won’t risk killing the two of you. I’m as good as dead anyway.”

Her palm came out of nowhere and smacked him hard across the cheek. William growled and whipped to face her.

Her icy stare was one he’d seen too many times before. “Now you listen here. You aren’t going to kill me or Tommy and you are coming with us back to Chicago. So help me get the clothes off this man and put them on, or I’ll give you a fight you won’t easily win.”

The anger in her voice both frightened and turned him on. Visions of bending her over the lab table and taking her right there flashed through his mind.

He nodded once, trying to keep from attacking her, for blood, for sex. Right then, his body didn’t care.

She threw the jeans at him and he yanked them on. Then he helped her get the T-shirt off the dead man. He slid his feet into the crowded shoes and tried not to be grossed out by the fact that he was wearing someone else’s sneakers without socks.

“We need to go,” said Tommy. “We’ve wasted enough time.”

Evan took William’s hand. “Stay with me.”

He squeezed her hand tight.

The group headed for the elevator but the bell rang and they froze.

“There’s a stairwell this way.” Tommy led them the other direction. They ran for the stairs and darted through as someone stepped out of the elevator.

All three leapt from stairwell to stairwell down the six flights of stairs. When they hit the ground level, an alarm blared through the hotel.

“We have to get to the garage,” Tommy yelled over the noise.

“How?” Evan asked.

“Stay out of the way and act natural.”

Evan turned to him. “Stay behind me and keep your head down.”

Act natural. The only natural way William wanted to act at the moment was to naturally drink every human in the hotel dry.

Tommy opened the door and looked out. The group headed into the hallway and turned left. The ground floor was a chaotic mess of guards with weapons running in every direction.

Across the lobby, William spotted Lou and Peter, who was on a pair of crutches. He lunged that direction but Evan’s grip on his hand tightened.

“No,” she said.

He looked between her and Lou. His muscles twitched with wanting to rip the man’s face off.

She stepped in his line of sight, breaking his focus.

“No,” she said softly.

His arousal stirred again and like a puppy on a leash, he followed her the opposite direction.

They headed down the hallway and toward a side exit. The door opened and Joe ran in, a rifle in his hands. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted them. His gaze traveled between the group and landed on William. Everyone froze.

“What’s going on here isn’t right, Joe,” said Evan. “If you let us go, I won’t tell and we won’t ever come back.”

“Please,” said Tommy. “We’ve been friends a long time. I’m begging you.”

Joe’s gaze didn’t move from William and neither did his rifle as he jogged past without a word.

“Thank you,” Evan whispered.

Jealousy spiked in William and his fist clenched tight as Joe passed.

“Now or never,” said Tommy.

Evan grabbed him by the wrist and propelled him forward.

They raced down a set of cement stairs and then back inside the underground parking garage. They skirted around car after packed-in car until they reached one near the front.

“Get in.” Evan pointed to the back seat. She hopped in the front with Tommy.

He got in and found several of his black duffel bags in the back seat. Tommy started the engine and pulled out as William ripped open a bag and grabbed two bottles of Savor. He drained the first one before they’d even left the garage. Then he opened the second one.

“Hey.” Evan’s hand fell lightly on his knee. “Save them. You’re gonna need ’em.” Her finger traced a soft pattern on his leg. He swallowed back the burn of the thirst and closed the bottle.

This was not good.

They rolled out to the hotel drive and several guards ran by, weapons in hand. Tommy drove up the long isolated stretch of road that was the only way in or out of the hotel compound. As they neared the exit gate William’s tension ratcheted higher. He rubbed his palms on his jeans. He needed to get out of the car. He needed to go back inside the hotel and drain them all dry.

“Get him to lie down.” Tommy’s cautious gaze stared at William in the rearview mirror, angering him.

He wanted to drain Tommy as well.

“Lay down,” Evan told him. His gaze flicked to hers and he licked his lips. “Lay down or you’ll get us caught.”

William slid onto the floor behind her seat and stretched out. Tommy slowed the car and rolled down his window. “Pop said for us to patrol the outside neighborhood to make sure no one got out.”

“I didn’t get that order,” said a man. “Hey! Did you get directions from Lou to let Tommy out?”

“No,” a man farther away called.

“Sorry. We haven’t heard anything. I’ll call it in.”

Footsteps crunched away from the car.

“You want me to take care of it?” asked William.

“No!” Evan and Tommy said together.

“We could use the flash grenades,” offered Evan.

“Do it.”

William shut his eyes as Evan rolled down her window. There was a ping sound and then Evan grunted.

“What the hell?” someone said before a small explosion and several shouts.

“Go. Go,” Evan yelled.

The car lurched forward and picked up speed.

“Hang on,” said Tommy. The vehicle impacted the gate, and William’s head slammed into the bottom of Evan’s seat and then the back seat.

Gunfire rang out and William covered his head.