Bound in Blood 1 Clandestine (19 page)

Emily squared her shoulders and her eyes blazed at him.
“Look, I’m an adult. I make my own decisions and I’m going
whether you like it or not. I won’t get in the way.I don’t even
have to fight. I’m going.” She crossed her arms over her chest
and glared at him defiantly daring him to contradict her. For an
instant she thought about stomping her foot, but figured that
would have been counterproductive.
“You can’t force her to stay behind Sebastian. We don’t
take away ones free will you know that.” Alexander spoke in a
regretful tone, but Emily was glad for the support, even if only
halfheartedly.
“Fine,” Sebastian thundered.
“Hmm,” Emily said smugly. She knew it wasn’t very
maturebut she couldn’t help herself.
She was getting tired of him trying to treat her like a fragile
baby. He had no idea what she was capable of and it wasn’t fair
for him to make assumptions. For all he knew she had a black
belt and could kill someone using only her pinky. Of course she
wasn’t a black belt. Obviously her pinky wasn’t a death tool but
none of that was the point. She was glad Sebastian got shot down
on his daddy trip he deserves to be knocked down a peg once in
a while. It’s good for him.
Sebastianleft the room laughing. “Fine. Come on little
baby ducks…” His words trailed off with his departure.
Coming to life again Tyler spoke to no one in particular.
“And I’m not a fairy,” he sulked. When he pouted he looked like
a little boy.
Emily didn’t say anything to Tyler as they followed several
feet behind Sebastian. She felt like a rubber band pulled taut,
ready to snap any minute. The indignation she felt toward
Sebastian tasted bitter in her mouth and she couldn’t shake it. A
competitive nature had always been inside Emily and he knew
just how to make it rear its ugly head. Tyler didn’t talk either,
apparently still pouting from the fairy comment.
The weapon’s room was terrifying. There was every kind of
knife, sword, and crossbow you could think of. Gleaming silver
caught the light from every corner of the room. There were even
guns with boxes labeled silver bullets on one of the shelves.
Emily saw weird canisters that looked like they held glitter.
Sebastian explained those weren’t glitter. They were pure silver
powder. They burn a vampire’s skin on contact. He gave one of
the salt shaker sized containers to Emily. He warned her that
they could also cut hunters so she would need to be careful
where she aimed. He armed Tyler and himself with crossbows.
He handed Tyler two blades that had severely jagged teeth. He
grabbed two for himself and slid them into his belt. Tyler
carefully slid one of his knives out of the black leather sheath for
examination. The light bounced a reflection off of the blade onto
Tyler’s wicked smile. His eyes caught Emily’s and she saw they
were lit up like a child's on Christmas morning. Sebastian tried
handing Emily a knife, but she shook her head. She figured she
would end up stabbing herself or a tree and both options would
be counterproductive.

Lakeview was dark with little to no activity, anywhere in
site. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary going on,
except that in the past, there still would have been kids out
playing under the street lights in the warm summer air. Now,
there was no sound of children playing. There was no smell of a
late night barbeque blazing. There was only the dull hum of the
street light bulbs as they passed them. Off in the distance Emily
could faintly hear the sound of sporadic cars driving to their
destinations. It really wasn’t that late. If nothing else, there
should have been more traffic. There should have been people
driving home from work doing last minute errands, or teenagers
driving to the next party spot honking the whole time to signal
more party goers to the direction of the fun.

As the three of them passed the vacant looking residential
streets, Emily scanned the houses for signs of life. It seemed
necessary to prove that herhometown wasn’t turning into the
town of the dreaded sundown. Through tightly pulled curtains
she could make out the faint hint of light peeking through the
cracks. There were no sounds, nothing indicating anyone was
home at all. No blaring TV’s or stereos as they passed. It just
didn’t feel right.

Emily’s stomach cramped with a mild pulse
, making her
more alert. In turn, her heart rate began to race. That couldn’t be
a good sign. The pain in her midsection seemed to be a built in
alarm system that let her know her life was about to be in
jeopardy. Every time she felt it, she had been attacked by a
vampire not long after.

They heard a noise coming out of an alley and Sebastian
was the first to take a careful look around the corner. He turned
his head back to them with a manly nod. Emily saw that Tyler
nodded back, though she had no idea what the exchange meant.
Just in case, she gripped the silver shaker in her pocket. Tyler
moved around her and motioned for her to stay put. He moved so
stealthily Emily didn’t hear his feet or even his clothing make a
sound. Sebastian moved out of his way equally as quiet so Tyler
could have a look.

Tyler spun back quickly and leaned on the fence they were
hiding by. He tipped his head back on the boards. His expression
was more than a little wary. Emily had wanted to take a look for
herself. Judging by Tyler’s reaction,she wasn’t so sure she
wanted to know what was going on in that alley. She gulped, bit
her lip and started for the edge of the fence.

Sebastian snatched a hold of her arm and yanked her to
him. Her small body banged into his hard one with a jolt. She
could feel the lines of his peck muscles flexed hard to take the
blunt of the impact. The feel of his well-defined body made her
dizzy. It only took a second to recover and then she was furious.

Emily glowered up at Sebastian. She couldn’t see into his
eyes,but she knew he could see into hers. “What? I just wanted
to see what“

Sebastian put a large hand over her mouth. She had a
sudden memory of the first night they met, which was also in a
dark alley.

“Do you want him to hear you?” Sebastian
hissed the
words into her ear. “Tyler I’m going to take care of this clown,
stay here and watch Emily.”

Tyler nodded nervously with one hand on the butt of his
knife. His body seemed to tremble with the anticipation of what
was about to happen. He was scared, that much was obvious.

Emily started to protest and Sebastian put his hand back
over her mouth. He shook his head fiercely, silently warning her
to be a good little girl and stay quiet. Sebastian took out his knife
and peered back around the fence. Before Emily could blink, he
was gone, melting into the shadows of the alley.

Emily held her breath waiting. She grabbed a hold of
Tyler’s hand that was not gripping a knife and held it as tight as
she could. She didn’t want him to leave her. He was her friend
and that meant a lot to her.She didn’t let many people in.

The sound of a snarl ripping into the summer night air made
Emily and Tyler jump. Tyler’s hand tightened on Emily’s for a
second and then he let go, pushing her protectively behind him.
The answering growl was evident to be a warningthat wasn’t
just a threat. It wasa promise. Emily couldn’t tell who the
aggressor was. Obviously it was a vampire, what else would it
be? She just wished she could see something, anything.

A whimper broke through her concentration. Someone else
was back there. For whatever reason, it had never occurred to
Emily that the vampires might be using the alley as a feeding
ground. The whimper came again, but this time its owner was
clearer. The voice sounded like a child, a teenager at the very
oldest. It was a girl. Emily could hear a set of feet scrambling to
gain purchase on the gravel on the alley floor. Once they had
traction they were headed towards Tyler and Emily. Emily’s
mind flashed back to her experience in an alley similar to this
one.

Pushing back the memory, she tugged at Tyler’s arm. “Ty
someone's coming,” Emily whispered franticly.
Tyler tensed and Emily heard the sound of him removing a
blade from its sheath. “Take this just in case.”
Emily felt the offering of the knife’s shaft on her fingers.
Without thinking she grabbed a hold of it expertly as if she had
been doing it for years. “Get ready,” she said, hearing the
footsteps get closer. Whoever it was coming to meet them was
running now.
Emily took a deep breath and held it, wishing she were
invisible. Strangely though, she wasn’t as afraid as she should
have been. Suddenly there was a figure bolting out of the alley
and heading in their direction. The shadowed figure stopped and
seemed to be taking in the observers. Itclearly wasn’t Sebastian.
It was much too slight to be him. Emily took a small flashlight
out of her jacket pocket and pointed it over Tyler’s shoulder at
the stranger.
At the sight of the small, bright beam of light the figure
recoiled back and almost fell on the rocks. Itdidn’t look like a
vampire. Everything she had learned so far, taught her that
vampires and apparently their hunters, could shroud themselves
in total silence. Whoever this was seemed petrified at the sight of
them. Emily had a feeling that a crazed vampire wouldn’t have
even batted an eye lash at them, let alone be afraid. The person
looked ruffled like they had been in a hurricane or something.
Without hesitation, Emily moved around Tyler and shown
the light in her own face. Maybe the person thought she and
Tyler were vampires. After being in the dark for so long the
brightness was a shock. Emily had to blink a few times to adjust
to the change.
“What are you doing?” Tyler tried to pull her back behind
him, with no luck.
Emily knew she was right about this one. Every fiber of her
being was telling her she needed to help this girl. She was the
cause of the whimpering they had heard. Emily locked her feet in
place and somehow steadied herself so thateven Tyler couldn’t
budge her.
Emily looked down the mouth of the alley at the sound of
violent fighting. Sebastian was in full on combat mode with one
of the vampires. He was expertly dodging and weaving. Emily
didn’t think he had his knife, had he lost it during the scuffle? He
couldn’t kill the vampire without a blade and they were too close
to each other for Sebastian to pull out his crossbow.
“Tyler go help Sebastian,” Emily demanded firmly like a
drill sergeant. “I can take care of the girl,just go.”
A struggle seemed to be going on inside of Tyler. It was his
will and desire to protect Emily verses the need and instinct to
aid in the fight. After a moment he turned and took out his bow.
This was apparently his compromise. This way he was able to
stay close to Emily. If necessary, he was in a position where he
hopefully could take out the vamp. Within seconds he had a
silver tipped arrow trained on the two figures.
Emily left him to his business and moved to check on the
other girl. As Emily got closer, the girl stepped back in
preparation to run. Emily held a hand up in front of her urging
her to stop. She didn’t know if the girl could see her. Emily tried
to communicate with her eyes that she would be safe, at least she
hoped that were true.
“It’s okay,” Emily pleaded. “We are the good guys I
promise. Was there only one that attacked you?”
The other girl stopped moving. Even though she didn’t
answer, the poor girlat least didn’t seem to be on the verge of
running away anymore.
Emily sighed with relief. No confirmation of more vampires
was good enough for Emily, even if she hadn’t technically gotten
an answer. “Okay that’s good. Are you hurt?” Emily tried to give
her a once over with the flash light but couldn’t see much. That
is until the beam of lightreached the girls neck. “Oh my Gosh!
Are you okay?” Emily moved toward her in a rush.
Streaming down the girl’s throat and drenching her dark T-
shirt,was a steady flow of blood. As if she hadn’t noticed, the
other girls hand flew up to examine what Emily was talking
about. “Oh God,” she breathed sounding totally panicked. “Oh
God it hurts.”
It reminded Emily of a small child. The girl didn’t seem to
notice the pain, until she noticed the wound. From the look of all
the blood, she should have been in agony. The poor girl’s breath
was coming in small heavy pants now. If she didn’t calm down,
she was going to hyperventilate.
Emily tore off her coat and wrapped it in a ball. It wasn’t an
ideal bandage, but it would have to do. She applied the coat to
the girl’s neck and pressed as hard as she could, without
knocking the poor thing over. She looked as though she was
going into shock. The longer Emily was with her, the better her
eyes seemed to adjust to the darkness. “I need you to come over
by the fence. There are a few bushes you can hide behind until I
come back for you. I have to help my friends okay?” She put her
arm around the other girls shoulder to guide her to their hiding
place.
“I want to go home,” the girl sobbed. “Please don’t leave
me.” She dug into Emily’s arm so hard Emily could feel the
sting of broken skin where her nails had dug in.
“I know you do,” Emily soothed. “We’ll get you home
soon. I need you to just sit here for now okay?” Emily sat the
other girl down so she was concealed behind the bushes. “I’m
Emily by the way. Who are you?” Emily was whispering now
since they were closer to the chaos.
“Beth,” the other girl said her voice wobbling.
“Hey, I know you,don’t I?” Recognition snapped into place
within Emily. “Beth Thomas,right?”
Beth nodded weakly.
Emily went to high school with her. Beth was in one of
Emily’s English classes. “Alright Beth, you stay here. I’ll be
back for you as soon as I can,I promise.”
She didn’t give Beth a chance to protest again. She stood
and hurriedly moved to the alley. Before she got very far, Emily
was stopped short because a cold hand grabbed her around her
neck. Emily gasped and tried to struggle free. It was no use.
Whoever had a hold of her had a grip of steel. The more she
struggled the tighter the hold on her throat became, as though she
were stuck in a body sized Chinese finger trap. It was becoming
harder and harder to take in a breath.
“Don’t move and I’ll loosen up,” a menacing voice breathed
in her ear. His breath had a recognizable scent.
It was almost intoxicating to Emily’s senses. A dizzy
feeling began to wash over her with a growing intensity that
made her knees shake. Unlike before though, something clicked
in her brain and the wooziness fell away as quick as it had come.
“What do you want?” Emily struggled to speak against the force
of his hand, clenched like a vise around her throat.
“Why leverage of course. Your friends are killing my
friend. This angers me. I believe they will stop if they see what I
have to barter with.” He sounded carefree like this was just
another day in the life of a psycho. It probably was for a
vampire.
“Let me go,” Emily pleaded. When he didn’t she tried to get
a hold of the blade she had shoved into the waste of her jeans.
He got to it first and dropped it to the ground, just out of the
reach of her foot. “You really didn’t think I’d let you get to that,
did you?” The vampire made a tisk-tisk noise and shook his head
at her disapprovingly. “Silly girl, silver blades are for hunters
and you,I’m afraid are no hunter. You know nothing of this life.
I wonder though… Do your chums realize what a true treasure
you are to them? Well, I guesswe’ll soon find out won’t we?”
Emily wanted to scream to get Tyler and Sebastian’s
attention. She could see them now. They were really letting the
vampire have it. They were so engrossed in the fight they hadn’t
even noticed that Emily was now captured not more than ten feet
away from them. Just as Tyler raised his blade to the vamps
throat,Emily’s captor spoke.
“Oh boys, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” There was a
taunting edge to his voice. “I believe I have something you might
want to trade for my friend.
Tyler froze and looked up, saying nothing.
It was Sebastian who responded. Andre let the girl go, or
your leech friend here dies.”
Andre? It was the vampire creep from the computer lab.
Emily was gripped with fear now. Both of the vamps that she
had encountered besides him were terrifying. There was just
something different about Andre. The look of fury and what she
now assumed to be hunger, flashed in her memory like an
unshakeable nightmare. As if sensing her realization, the hand
around her neck clenched even harder and she choked for air.
“I really don’t think you are in any position to bargain
young Sebastian. All I have to do is tighten my hand a little more
and her sweet little neck will be snapped like a twig. You kill
him and she dies before you have time to blink.” Andre ran his
nose along Emily’s jaw line lovingly, breathing in deeply as he
did. “That would be a shame too. It’s positively sinful how
decadent she smells.”
Emily winced at the thought of his teeth breaking the skin at
the hollow of her throat. “Sebastian kill him. Don’t worry about
me.” Her words came out in a hoarse whisper from Andre’s
pressure but Sebastian still seemed to understand.
Tyler’s blade was still trained on the fallen vampire’s throat.
It wouldn’t take much for him to finish the job. Emily’s eyes
darted back and forth from Tyler to Sebastian and finally to the
practically dead
thing
on the ground. She had to do something.
What could she do? There was no way that she could over power
Andre. At most, all she could have hoped for was that he did
snap her neck. At least if he did, there wouldn’t be any lingering
pain.
The three of them were still exchanging words, but Emily
blocked them out. They became almost like a blur of sound, like
a distant hum. Their voices swam together like nonsensical
gibberish. Every passing second brought her closer to the
devastating realization that her life was about to end before the
night was up. There were so many things she still hadn’t done.
She had never told Lucy what was going on with the vampires.
She had never had a real boyfriend. Would George cut her a
break if she didn’t show up to work because Andre cut out her
throat? Who would take care of Sam? Andre’s voice was the
hardest to block out because he insisted on keeping his lips near
the corner of her jaw when he spoke. His words although broken,
kept penetrating the walls she had put up in her mind. One of her
mother’s famous mantras pierced her thoughts like a warm
blanket. Quitters never win...
Suddenly the solution was there.
The silver powder
. If she
could just get the lid off without Andre noticing. Her hand
moved almost in perceptively into her pocket. Andre was so
engaged in the duel with the other two he didn’t seem to think
twice about her movements. She made a purposeful point to
continue to struggle a little. If he thought she was trying to break
free, he might not think that she was trying anything
underhanded. He clearly underestimated her.
The lid was off the plastic container. She was almost there,
just a little more. She wasn’t really sure how to use the powder
but she dug her fingers inside trying to get a hold of some.
Remembering what Sebastian had said about the powder needing
to be activated she tried to figure out a way to throw the powder
somehow.
“Struggling will do you no good my dear girl,” Andre
whispered almost seductively into her ear breaking her
concentration for a moment. He still hadn’t noticed what she was
doing. Or if he did he was waiting for the last possible minute to
catch her in the act. Then he would kill her for sure.
Emily couldn’t think about that. She had to try. What other
choice was there? Besides, her life depended on it. Either way he
could kill her, she didn’t have anything to lose. She hoped
anyway, dying really didn’t seem like an appealing option.
When her hand came out of her pocket it was fisted around
a mound of the silver powder. Almost there. Through her
struggling she managed to cock her head to the side so she would
have a clear shot at Andre’s face. Her eyes remained in front of
her. She could tell that Tyler could see what she was doing. He
was trying not to give her away with long glances but she knew
that he knew.
Time was running out, she couldn’t afford to wait any
longer. Soon, Andre would resort to inflicting pain on Emily to
get his point across. Right now he was just a cobra preparing to
strike. Once he was in full action mode, it would be harder to
fight back. With one small but quick motion she thrust her arm
upward releasing the powder into Andre’s face at point blank
range.