Blood Entangled (41 page)

“Kos. You are getting over here.”

He followed Uta’s voice.

Ouch. She was impaled on a fencepost, flailing her arms like a belly-up cockroach, a dead Hunter skewered on top of her like a shish kebob. Her blood ran down the post, slick and glossy-black in the moonlight.

He pulled the Hunter off. Lucky for her, the post went right through her abdomen, above her pelvis and below her ribs. Re-growing bone took a whole day and hurt like hell. Her soft tissue would heal in minutes.

“You okay? How much blood did you lose?”

“I not bad. Hunter bleeding his magic right into me.”

“What happened?”

“I grab Bennett, but he not have remote control thing. The woman. She have it in book. I am recognizing her. She one of Mason’s…” Uta faltered, glancing toward the ruins of the house.

One of…
Krist.
What had Lena suffered?

“She is knowing me too. She is saying she sorry, then push button. I am still holding Ethan. Grab this other Hunter too, for shielding blast.” Uta kicked him with her designer heels. Their leather was blistered, and the stilettos were warped from the heat. Still, she stood perfectly straight.

“Ethan thrown far. Me and asshole stuck here.” She stepped on his hand, and lots of bones popped.

“Is Bennett dead?”

Uta brushed her palms together. “No. He is driving off with woman.”

“Damn it.”

“Lena okay?” Uta reached for his arm.

“Yeah.”

“Get her. I am looking around.”

Back at the beach, Lena leaned against a smooth boulder, shivering. She hugged herself tightly, eyes closed, breathing steadily. He knelt next to her, and brushed sand off her face.

“Almost ready. Come up top with me. Then we’ll fly home.”

“Home.”

The word sounded hollow, and he didn’t know what to make of her tone. They had a lot of talking to do. He cradled her in his arms, which made flying awkward. But it was just a hop up the cliff.

“Oh, Kos,” she gasped. “Your house. I’m sorry.”

He set her on her feet, holding her elbow just in case. “All that matters is you’re safe.”

She surveyed the rubble, not looking at him.

“Kos. You are needing to see this.” Uta stood with one foot in a black van that had been knocked over in the blast.

Not wanting to leave Lena, he tugged her along to investigate. Inside the van a Hunter lay dead, his face flattened against electrical equipment.

“What is this?” Kos’s shoulders bunched instinctively.

“He looks like Leo.” Lena reached for Kos’s hand.

He did—fatter and older—probably his father. Uta took a picture of him with her phone. Good idea, the kid might need to see.

“Listen.” Uta pushed a button.

His own voice came from a speaker. “I have her. She’s safe. Do it.”

No. It couldn’t be.

She pushed another button, and again Kos heard his own voice. “It’s the only way, Father.”

Lena yanked her hand away, covering her ears and shaking her head. “No!”

Kos grabbed her before she could pull away, afraid of what she might do.

One more button, his voice pleading. “Andre, now. Please. If they blow this place, I might survive, but she won’t.”

His stomach wrung itself into a knot. He’d failed after all. Uta would have saved Lena. He should have stopped this.

Uta slapped him and he tottered, his ears ringing. She glared. “I am seeing your thoughts. Same storms brewing in your eyes as Mila’s. You are stopping now. You too, girl. It is done. Now we pick up pieces. Start over. This what our kind is doing, always.”

Kos leaned against the van and slid to the ground, pulling Lena into his lap. She was so cold and damp.

She sniffed. “Andre will hate me.”

Kos rested his chin on her head. “No. He’ll hate himself.”

“Then I am slapping him too. Now, we are going to Kaštel.”

Uta took off her blood stained jacket and gave it to Lena. At least it was dry. She didn’t even blink before she put on the gory thing. Uta bent her knees and launched herself into the air.

“Hold on.” Kos squeezed Lena tight and pushed off with the balls of his feet into the sky.

The night air froze him to the bone. His fingertips stung from the cold until they finally went numb. Lena shivered against him, crying tears that turned to ice by the time they hit his face.

Would she be okay? She had gashes on her head, a nasty bite mark on her neck.

“Oh no,” she whispered.

Below, the red and white lights of three fire engines lined the highway in front of Kaštel. Two more had pulled down the narrow gravel roads into the vineyard. The thump of a helicopter vibrated the air around them, carrying water to dump on smoldering vines.

The smell burned his sinuses. Not just soot and ash, but something chemical—concentrated gasoline. Lena coughed, and he hugged her tighter.

“Napalm,” Uta shouted. “We are landing there—” she pointed at the former Hunter lookout “—so no strapping firehunks are seeing us.”

“Firemen,” Lena shouted back.

“Whatever.” Uta dismissed her with a wave.

They touched down on the bald rock. Lena’s bare feet looked so delicate on the rough stone. He lifted her again and skidded down a steep hill, carrying her with Uta behind.

At the edge of the highway, Uta said, “Lena, give me jacket so you are not explaining blood to firehunks.”

As Lena shed the thing, Kos said, “Uta. Later, you must tell me the other secret. About Bel.”

Her eyes went to Lena’s and back to his. The muscles in her throat rolled down, as if she’d swallowed a golf ball, but she pressed her lips tight together and nodded.

The hair stood up on the back of his neck, and he soldiered on down the hill with Lena in his hands. What else was there to do?

The dotted yellow lines between highway lanes lulled Ethan into a kind of seething hypnosis.

“With the vines destroyed, the vampires will continue to waste away. You scored the greatest victory.” Gwen patted his knee.

He took one hand off the wheel to grab hers and squeeze it, hard. She gasped. Her knuckles would bruise from the pressure across their breadth.

She dared to comfort him, to rationalize with him?

“You are out of line. Say you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

He released her hand. “Who was the female?”

After a steadying breath, she answered with some composure. “She’s an authority of some kind. She rescued me from Mason, and placed me in counseling.”

An authority? Did vampires have a formal social structure? That made them more sophisticated than Hunters.

“Ethan, may I ask what is next?”

Ah. That tone was much prettier. He eased up his grip.

“You may. Now we start the war.”

Chapter 33

T
HE
F
ORTRESS
-L
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W
OODEN
D
OOR
of the house loomed before Lena, and her hand refused to press its lever. She’d already spent her last drop of courage, and facing Andre was the scariest thing she’d ever had to do, scarier even than jumping into the surf.

Kos covered her hand and opened the front door. She tap-danced behind him, but he dragged her around.

Just inside, Zoey and Andre were engrossed in a heated conversation with two firemen. Both stood too close to Andre. They were both big men, and surely didn’t realize they should be frightened. She knew better.

Andre turned to look at the new arrivals. When his gaze landed on her, he smiled, his whole face becoming genuinely kind.

Her knees went soft.

He reached out to her. “I am so very glad to see you.”

She stared at his hand before she worked up the nerve to take it. Once he had a firm grip on her fingers, he pulled her into a bear hug. With her cheek pressed against his chest, she looked at Zoey.

The vampire’s mouth spread into a huge, unexpected smile. “Welcome to the family. I’ll go get you a blanket.”

Lena stepped back, and Andre released her. Puzzled, she turned to Kos for an explanation.

He took her hand again—he’d hardly let go since they took off from his house. “We have a lot to talk about.” His eyes were a cloudy color somewhere in between the telltale shades of blue or gray that made him so transparent to her.

One of the firemen coughed. “Listen. I don’t know what kind of circus your little winery is, but the motive for this fire is very suspicious, and nobody in the Sacramento or San Francisco FBI offices knows anything about anti-Croatian hate groups. I’m calling homeland security.”

“Ralph?” Lena stepped forward to read his badge.

“Lena?”

“You’re a fireman? I thought you owned an ice cream shop.”

“Arson investigator by day, ice cream maker by night.” He raised one shoulder in a shrug, a boyish gesture on such a bulky man.

“Oh.”

“Are you okay?”

Glancing at her bare feet and filthy clothes, she tried to think of an explanation for the gashes on her head and her neck—nothing. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“You live here?”

“Sure do. We love your ice cream. Andre here is the biggest fan. Eats most of it himself.” She waggled her eyebrows at Andre.

“It is true, Captain. I like the…um, chocolate?”

Lena forced an amused laugh, patting Andre’s forearm. “He means the Deep Dark Chocolate Secret. And Kos here likes the peppermint, or the lavender, when it’s in season.”

“I’m partial to the lavender myself.” The captain took a step away from Andre. “So, Lena, do you know anything about this alleged anti-Croatian hate group.”

“Yes, sir.” Her chin bobbed in a rapid nod.

“Just Ralph is fine.”

“Okay, Ralph. They’ve been giving us a lot of trouble. Started off with pranks, then threats—”

“Phone calls?”

“No, too smart for that, I think. Those can be traced.”

He scribbled in a little notebook. “True, true. Why didn’t you call the police?”

“Oh, well.” She stepped close to him and stood on her tiptoes. “These Croatian guys are kind of macho. They want to take care of things themselves.”

He grunted. “Typical. Well, I’m afraid you boys will have to turn this over to the professionals.”

Kos extended his hand. “Yes, Captain. I’m Kosjenic Maras, Andre’s son, and I can assure you we have every intention of doing so. Clearly, we’re in over our heads.”

Ralph looked Kos up and down, then did the same to Andre.

“Yes. About that. I am very sorry. I guess you’ve lost your life’s work.”

Andre’s jaw bulged, and he rubbed his eyes with the heels of both hands, nodding in agreement.

“I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I lost the ice-cream shop.”

Good Lord, did he just say that? And it had been going so well. Lena patted his elbow. “Yes, that would be a tragedy too, Ralph. So, if you’re finished with your questions, I think the family needs some time to grieve.”

“Oh, of course. Here’s my number, if you think of anything else.” Ralph pressed a business card into Kos’s hand.

He closed the door behind them. “Lena, that was amazing. Some of the best obfuscating I’ve ever seen.”

What the heck did obfuscating mean? Maybe it didn’t matter. It sounded like a compliment. She smiled. “Thanks.”

Zoey appeared with a thick robe—Kos’s—and wrapped it around Lena. Andre reached one long arm toward her and patted her on the shoulder just like her father used to, and suddenly everything fell into place.

“I’m so sorry. I wish you hadn’t done that for me.” Tears fell down her face. Andre’s eyes filled with bloody tears too, and without thinking, she reached up to wipe them away.

He managed a forlorn smile. “I do not think Kos could have lived with himself, or with me, if I had not.”