Blood Awakening (22 page)

He noted that the inner, outer, and center cross-sections
of the wheel were dissected by circular hallways, passages that wound around
the entire circumference of the colony. And there were exit-entrance points on
all three levels at the outer and inner four-directions. As they had entered
from the south—on the main level at the inner-most cross-section of the wheel—they
would find Salvatore’s lair at the far end of a hall just to the east, along
the farthest, outer cross-section.

Marquis nodded, satisfied, and then he gave the
command to finish the guards. Ramsey stepped forward, grasped the older male by
a fistful of his black-and-crimson hair, and proceeded to slowly slice off his
head with a serrated dagger.

Nachari stepped back to avoid the spurting blood
and held out his sickle, frowning.
One swipe, my friend. Is all that really necessary?

Ramsey cocked his head to the side and shrugged,
waving off the sickle. He stood up, now holding the dislodged head in his hand.

We need to incinerate that,
Julien pointed
out to Marquis,
or he could still come back...albeit, only with some serious
assistance.

Very
serious assistance,
Nachari added.

 Marquis shook his head.
We can’t risk making
fire or drawing the amount of energy needed to incinerate it with electricity.
He
started to look around for an alternative, but he was brought up short by a
splintering crack, the Dark One’s head exploding against the limestone wall. Ramsey
drew the head back a second time and flung it twice as hard, splintering what
little remained into a thousand pieces of cranial…slop.

If they can put that back together,
the
ruthless vampire spat,
the male deserves to live.
He brushed a piece of
bloody cartilage off his shoulder and snorted.

Nachari looked down at his filthy, slop-spattered
cloak.
Thanks, Ramsey.

The sentinel proceeded to dispatch and destroy the
head of the second guard in the same manner, as well as removing both hearts
from their chests, before they continued on.
That’s about as good as I can
do without risking detection
, he said, frowning. No doubt, he would have
preferred to leave nothing but a pile of ash in his wake.

What about the bodies...the remains?
Julien
asked.
We’ve got quite a ways to go; I would hate to get caught this early.

Marquis nodded and gestured toward a door just
inside an intersecting hall.
Put them in there.

Julien and Ramsey nodded, each hefting a corpse as
if it weighed no more than a sack of potatoes, Ramsey carrying the younger
male’s corpse in two pieces while Nachari carefully placed his hands on the hilt
of his sword and stood just outside the door. Marquis took Julien’s M4-carbine from
the inside of the sentinel’s jacket and pointed it toward the door, giving
Nachari a brisk nod.

With his sword drawn and in hand, Nachari kicked
open the door. As it swung fully open, he and Marquis flew inside first, their
eyes quickly sweeping the room for enemies.

Holy mother of Lyra.

Marquis barely managed to pull back on his trigger
finger—to keep from lighting up the chamber—as his eyes took inventory of the
room. Julien and Ramsey snarled as they dropped the headless, heartless bodies
in a heap on the floor.

Their collective mouths fell open.

They were standing in the middle of a nursery,
surrounded by at least fifty-cribs, each one filled with a living infant: an infant
with crimson-and-black banded hair.

A human female was standing in the center of the
cribs, shaking like a leaf. She appeared to be only hours away from death’s
door. Along the far side of the room was another female—younger, healthier—but
she was manacled to the wall with thick, heavy chains attached to her feet and
arms.

Marquis motioned for Ramsey to shut the door behind
them while he checked for security cameras. Although the warriors were still
technically invisible, the sight of a door suddenly splintering open—followed
by a couple of mutilated bodies magically appearing, then piling on the floor—wasn’t
exactly business as usual.

Marquis noticed one eye-cam in each corner and quickly
sent a blast of blue electricity into all four devices, short-circuiting the
wires, hopefully, before anyone had a chance to see them.

What do you want us to do?
Nachari asked.

Marquis frowned. He had come for Ciopori, and he
wasn’t leaving without her. These humans were an unwanted
complication
. He
sighed.
Check the females.

As Nachari approached the sickly woman standing in
the middle of the room, she began to shake so badly she threw up. Her feet were
stationary, frozen to the floor in terror, and she was gazing, stupefied, at
the pile of dead vampire parts the warriors had dragged in from the hall. Undoubtedly,
her spirit could sense the presence of the living males around her, but her
eyes saw nothing. Nachari waved his hand, paralyzing the vocal cords of both
females to keep them from crying out, and then he slowly shimmered into view, projecting
his appearance to the terrified woman.

She staggered back, releasing a silent cry.

“Are you okay?” Nachari whispered as she once
again spilled her guts onto the floor. He released her vocal cords so she could
answer.

Well now, that was a stupid question
,
Marquis quipped, quickly growing impatient with his little brother’s empathy.

The female shook her head furiously, and Nachari
held up both hands. He put his fingers over his mouth as he stepped closer. “Shhh.
I’m not going to hurt you.”

She shook her head even more vigorously and began
to cry. Frustrated, she finally opened her mouth.

Nachari grimaced.
Marquis, they’ve cut out her
tongue
.

Marquis shut his eyes. This wasn’t good. This
woman was too far gone to save without Kagen’s help, and too sickly to bring
with them.

Blanching, the female placed her hand over her
womb and glared at Nachari.

“You’re pregnant?” he asked.

Marquis held his breath, knowing exactly what that
would mean, remembering Dalia and Joelle…

The woman shook her head.
Look.

She was trying to communicate telepathically.

Marquis leaned forward. Nachari stepped back.

You can read my thoughts, right?
The woman’s
psychic voice was quivering but clear.

Marquis watched as Nachari nodded in the
affirmative, all of the males listening intently.

Weeping, the woman repeated,
Look inside of me.

While vampires did possess extraordinary talents,
x-ray vision wasn’t one of them. However, they could scan a body for health or
disease, much like an ultra-sound used sonar waves to create images. In
addition, all of the males possessed the innate ability to read the exact
phases of a female’s reproductive cycle.

Marquis nodded his consent, and Nachari began to
scan the woman’s womb, projecting the information to the other warriors as he
examined her internal structure.

He stopped suddenly and dropped his head, out of
propriety or pity, Marquis wasn’t sure: The human’s insides were a virtual wasteland,
littered with maggots, cancer, and worms. In fact, the only reason she was
still alive was because the Dark Ones were using repeated injections of venom
to keep her that way—no doubt, a desperately cruel attempt to keep themselves
from raping her. If her womb was ruined, it could hardly be used to create life,
which meant the female could take care of the babies a little longer.

The human slowly nodded as if she understood what
the males were thinking.
Kill me,
she pleaded, forcing herself to take a
step toward Nachari.
Please, don’t leave me here like this...with them.

Nachari looked over his shoulder to measure
Marquis’s eyes.

Marquis slowly exhaled, then nodded.
Do it.

The female was beyond human medicine, and the
amount of venom she would require to repair her rotting organs was too great a
risk: They would have to turn her Vampyr, which meant she would have to
willingly relinquish her soul. No one but one’s
destiny
could safely be converted
without jeopardizing their eternal being.

Nachari turned back to face her and slowly
inclined his head. He mouthed the word,
Yes
.

Despite her resolve, her courage faltered, and her
body began to sway.

“It won’t hurt,” Nachari whispered, reaching out
to steady her by her elbow.

Wait.
She held up her hand.
Maryann.

“Who?”
Nachari asked.

She pointed to the young female shackled to the
wall at the back of the room.
They just brought her in last night. She
hasn’t been raped or...ruined yet. Take her with you, please. Or kill her, too.

Marquis snarled, but he gestured toward Ramsey,
who immediately went to work on the girl’s chains as Nachari stepped up to the
dying female. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She nodded, trying desperately to stop her
trembling.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…

Nachari winced as he pulled her to him. His
six-foot, two-inch frame towered above her. He cupped her face in his hands
with exquisite gentleness.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he
leadeth me beside the still waters…
She was almost in a full-fledged panic
now.

Those cursed bastards!
Marquis knew this
was not easy for Nachari, but to his little brother’s credit, the wizard showed
no visible signs of emotion as he released one of his hands from beneath her
chin and placed it on the top of her head.

He restoreth my soul…

Nachari twisted—quick and hard—in opposite directions,
instantly snapping the woman’s neck, gently lowering her body to the floor.

Marquis pointed to a closet in the back of the
room.
Put her in there with the other bodies, and let’s go! I had to use a
substantial surge of energy to take out the cameras; we have no time to waste. Ramsey,
do you have the other female?

Ramsey turned around and held up the chains, indicating
that the female was free. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she, too, was
frozen in place like a statue, clearly in a state of shock.

Marquis shook his head.
I can’t afford to have
you carry her, Ramsey. You must be free to fight.
He frowned.
The woman
will unnecessarily slow us down, and as for placing her in a trance, Zombies
don’t travel well.
He snorted.
Leave her.
His decision was pragmatic.
Gag her so she doesn’t scream and—

Wait,
Nachari said.

He walked across the room and took her face in his
hands, staring deep into her terrified eyes. And then he began to softly chant a
rhythmic series of words in Latin. As his eyes dimmed to a subtle shade of
green, his voice took on a sultry lilt, like water trickling down a river. All
at once, the female stood up straight, flashed a serene smile, and gently took the
wizard’s hand.

Enchantment spell
, he explained.
She’s
fully alert. She’ll follow on her own, and she’ll obey willingly.

Marquis nodded.
Very well.
He paused to survey
the room one more time and frowned.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Ramsey
asked.

I’m thinking I wish like hell we could use
fire,
Marquis grumbled
.

To take out the infants?

Yes.

There’s always the old fashioned way…

Do it,
Marquis ordered.
Quickly.

Ramsey turned to the other males.
Snap the
necks, remove the heads, and stake the hearts.
He broke off a piece of wood
from one of the crib spindles and demonstrated with the infant closest to him.

The warriors nodded and immediately went to work,
destroying the children of their enemies. Although the babies howled and hissed,
flailed their arms and legs in protest and desperation, there was no sympathy
to play upon. Evil was evil, at any age, and the sons of Jadon were ruthless.

Marquis tucked Julien’s M4-carbine away for safe
keeping and went to work with the rest of them.
Keep it quiet and make it quick,
he reiterated
.

In a sudden blur of movement, the vampires picked
up the pace, traveling from crib to crib with preternatural speed. The vulgar
pop of snapping spines and splintering wood echoed like drum-beats—a gruesome lullaby—as
one by one, the dark sons of Jaegar died at their hands.

In less than two minutes, they had slaughtered the
entire room and were standing once again by the door, weapons in hand.

Marquis gestured forward
. Let’s move out.
He
looked back at the room.
And pray to the gods that our dark brothers don’t
find this insult before we find Ciopori
.

Ciopori lay perfectly still, not wanting to awaken Salvatore again. She was
chained at his side in his large, four-poster bed, her arms shackled above her
head, her left ankle shackled to his right, so that she couldn’t even adjust
her position without rousing the sinister vampire. She had learned that the
hard way—almost getting raped the last time she stirred the monster from his
sleep.