Immortal Craving (Dark Dynasties) (23 page)

“Some of the Empusae will stand against us, but some are joining us in Chicago. When we all get there, we’ll discuss what comes next. You will
all
be provided for until we can return.” Her voice hardened. “And we
will
be returning. Long enough for us gather what we have and make a proper move to Boston, which will be our new
seat after all of this is done. It’s past time we had a real territory, and we need the protection of the city.”

There were approving murmurs, but when Tasmin looked for Bailey, she looked as though she’d been punched. It wasn’t the way he would have chosen to let her know about the move—but he didn’t think Lily had much of a choice. The Lilim were depending on her to have a plan, to lead. Gaining a true seat of power was part of securing a real place for her people in the world of night.

But in some ways, Bailey would be left behind in this. It was natural.

It would also be painful.

Suddenly, the crowd surged forward, compelled by a signal Tasmin couldn’t hear because he wasn’t connected to those he didn’t share a mark with. It took him by surprise. He shoved against the onrushing bodies, finally managing to get into the small cloakroom where his coat and shoes were. It took no time once he got in there, but he was effectively blocked from getting out.

A column of smoke appeared beside him, slowly materializing into Anura.

“Come,” she said. “We aren’t going the same way as the others.”

“But… Bailey,” he said, thinking of her waiting by the stairs, increasingly frightened. Anura shook her head.

“She’s going with Lily and Ty in one of the SUVs. There’s a small contingent of wolves going with them to fight if they have to… which they probably will. You and I go on foot. I’m hard to see when I want to be… and you know how to shield yourself.”

He did, though he had no idea if he could maintain it for the amount of time it would take him to get out of town.

“I’d be more useful getting them out,” he said. But she shook her head.

“No, that would put everything they want in one place. It makes no sense. We’re not going to Boston. We’ll join back up with everyone in Chicago. Until then, it’s you and me.”

It was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do, waiting for the Lilim to go so that he and Anura could depart. In the meantime, she outlined the route she wanted him to take, a simple enough way to exit notable only in that it would have them heading in the opposite direction of everyone else. The sounds of feet turned to the whisper of paws as the entire dynasty was transformed into a seething mass of big black cats, rushing into the night and vanishing like shadows into the snow.

“Now,” Anura said when the house had gone silent. Tasmin looked toward the foot of the stairs where he’d left Bailey, half expecting that he would see her there, waiting for him with Grimm by her side. But she was gone. The house was empty, and as they stood there, he could already hear the faint sounds of barking, howling, and the scream of an angry feline as the Lilim began their push to escape the noose that the Ptolemy had tried to loop around the neck of the entire dynasty.

They went to the back door, which opened onto a small garden, now nothing but bare wood and empty arbors buried in the blowing snow.

The visibility was terrible, the wind turning the driving snow into a nearly opaque curtain. Despite his coat, the wind ripped through Tasmin, and he shivered. A wild laugh echoed to him in the dark, and the darkness within him stirred and stretched.

Hungry
, it whispered. And his mind filled with images of rent limbs and spilled blood, crimson against new fallen snow.

His heart began to pound, his incisors lengthening. And he felt whatever lurked inside begin to pull him down into the pit… so that it could climb up.

No
, Tasmin thought, his eyes starting to roll back.
No, we have to get out of here!

After
, he heard the voice whisper with a malicious chuckle.

Afterrrrr
…

“We stay together,” Anura was saying to him, raising her voice to be heard above the wind. But he was falling, falling into blackness. And she sounded so incredibly far away.

“Be the lion. Run!”

B
AY SAT IN THE BACK
of Lily’s big black SUV, buckled in and with her arms around Grimm to keep him from, she hoped, going through the windshield if the worst happened.

“The worst” was an excellent description of everything that had happened since Lily had awakened them.

The clock in the dash read 2:13. They had hours to get to Boston, but she wasn’t sure they’d even make it out of the county. And Tasmin hadn’t come back, vanishing along with everyone but Lily and Ty.

Lily and Ty, who also had every intention of deserting her if they made it out of this alive. The knowledge was a constant drumbeat in the back of her mind. They had never breathed a word of it to her. But from the sound of things, this had been in the works for a while.

She was hurt and angry. Some of each was reserved especially for herself. She couldn’t be Lily’s closest confidante and keep the inner workings of Lily’s world at arm’s
length at the same time. They’d both known it. So there were secrets to fill the widening chasm between them, until Bay made a choice. She’d sensed it for a while. But tonight, faced with the prospect of being killed by warring immortals, Bay finally had her choices illustrated for her in the starkest terms.

She was going to have to decide whether to go all in and join Lily and her kind on a permanent basis, or whether to walk away. For good.

There was nothing else.

And she’d been fooling herself in thinking there ever had been.

Bay felt a prickle of awareness at the edges of her thoughts as she stared at the snow flying at the windshield. The road was deserted so far. It didn’t feel right, and the nerves in the car were palpable. Another SUV led them, driven by Eric Black. Ty had the wheel in this one.

Lily sat in the passenger seat, not looking at her.

Bay knew full well that didn’t mean anything.

“If you want to know what I’m thinking, ask,” Bay said. “You don’t need to try to sneak a peek.”

Lily glanced back at her, worry and regret etched plainly across her face.

“I was going to tell you.”

“Yeah.”

“I
was
,” Lily insisted. “I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. The Council—well, what’s left of it—is creating a new territory for us. New England. It makes sense for us to be in a city. We’re not just risking ourselves out here, we’re risking the whole town. And you can see what happened… We’re too remote to have the right resources if something happens.”

Bay blew out a breath, looking away from her. “See, that’s completely sensible. Which is why you could have mentioned that reasoning to me, I don’t know, before you announced it to everyone as we’re being attacked by invading vampires.”

“I was waiting for the right time,” Lily said. She stared out the window. “I didn’t want you to feel like I was abandoning you.”

In some ways, that was exactly how Bay felt, even though she knew Lily was only trying to do what was best. But it felt like an ending.

“Of course you’re not abandoning me,” Bay said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her tone. “We’re both adults. Your life has changed. You’re moving on. It’s not like I didn’t see it happening.”

“
Bay
.” Lily’s voice was full of pain. Bay wished she could feel some sort of triumph in leaving a mark, but it only made her feel worse. She dropped her head and closed her eyes.

“That sounds nastier than I mean it.”

“But you still mean it. Bay, you have no idea how important you are to me. You really think I want to leave you behind?”

Bay sighed. Not long ago, she’d been wrapped in Tasmin’s arms, not having to think about anything but the moment. But this was the reality—his reality, and Lily’s. There would always be something waiting to tear those lovely moments apart.

“No,” Bay said softly. “You’re a queen. You were going to have to play by their rules eventually.”

“Not all of them,” Lily protested, but the fire went out of her voice quickly. “Some of them, though. Change is
good, but it happens a lot more slowly than I’d hoped. It’s all baby steps. The Lilim are different to begin with—the way we’ve come back, the blending with the Cait Sith. And our alliance with the wolves will stay, whether or not they choose to join us in the city, and I think some of them will. But if we don’t keep some of the trappings of the system we belong to, we’re going to end up overwhelmed.” Her voice sounded wretchedly sad. “Like this. Vlad’s been trying to tell me. I didn’t want to believe it.”

Ty reached over to stroke his wife’s hand.

“You’ve been doing a hell of a job, so stop. The Lilim didn’t even exist before last fall, and look where we are. There are hundreds of us. We’re getting stronger, we’ll have territory, and you’ve made allies that are going to get us through things like this. We’re going to be fine, and most of that is because of you.”

Bay smiled wistfully at the tenderness between her friends, obvious even under intense pressure. She knew that Ty was right—chances were, he and Lily would make it through this somehow, as would their people. They would go on, being immortal, becoming ever more a part of the world they inhabited… and ever less a part of hers.

Imagining the empty mansion, her life devoid of some of the characters who had come to inhabit it, made her feel strangely empty. She’d managed to keep a foot in each world, as had Lily, really, for over a year now. But the time for that to be possible was drawing to a close, and she could hear the knowledge of that in Lily’s voice.

Lily had made her choice about where she belonged when she’d allowed Ty to bite her, when she’d accepted
her destiny and renewed a dynasty. The decisions she was making now were just natural extensions of that, Bay realized.

But she… she still had some of the hardest choices to make. It had been easy before, not getting involved in vampire problems. They’d seemed very distant, while she’d simply focused on trying to enjoy Lily the way she always had, with the sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating addition of Ty and a handful of their more colorful friends. But as of tonight, she’d been dragged into one of the oldest and most pervasive parts of living among the dynasties: war among the bloodlines.

If she lived through the crash course in the dark side of vampire politics, she would have a lot of thinking to do.

The car lapsed into silence, no sound but the wind outside the SUV rushing past. After a few minutes, though, Lily spoke. And whether she’d picked up some of Bay’s thoughts or simply guessed at them, she seemed to know what was on her mind.

“You know that if you ever want to join us,” she said quietly, “you would be more than welcome.”

“I know.”

She’d always known, though this was the first time Lily had ever been so explicit about the offer. She could be a vampire, with all the good and bad that entailed.

“I don’t know what I want,” Bay admitted.

“I know,” Lily said, not unkindly. “But… and please take this the way it’s intended… until you figure that out, you might want to put some space between yourself and Tasmin Singh.” She paused, then pressed ahead. “I’m the last person who should be warning you off of a dangerous man, Bay. But he has some unique issues.”

Bay sighed. “That’s a nice way to put it.”

“I was a literature professor. Part of the job description is BS Artist.”

It made her laugh, though it didn’t really make her feel any better.

“Well, thank you for not freaking out about it.” Bay leaned her head against Grimm, who was tense as he stared ahead out the windshield.

“If he’d shown any less control than he has, I would be. As it is… just be careful. I know it hasn’t been perfect, Bay, but you’re as much my sister as if you were blood. I’m trying so hard to protect you. He’s the one thing I don’t know how to protect you from. You don’t know what you want yet for your future. I don’t want the decision to be taken away from you.”

Before Bay could answer, Ty gave a harsh growl.

“Hell. Here we go. Hang on.”

Bay leaned forward and watched in horror as Eric’s SUV began to slide sideways on the icy road, then righted itself and accelerated. Out of the squalling sheets of snow figures materialized, little more than flickering shadows as they moved almost more quickly than the eye could see. Then they were swarming the vehicle, leaping onto it, clinging to the doors, hanging onto the roof and windshield.

And it wasn’t just Eric’s SUV.

“Son of a bitch!” snarled Ty. There was a bang on the roof of the car, then another. An instant later something large slammed onto the hood and hooked its fingers into the groove between the hood and the windshield. The back window shattered in a burst of glass. Bay shrieked and started trying to pull Grimm onto the floor with her.
He was frantic, whimpering and trying to scramble back from her, unsure of where to go to get away from all that was happening.

Ty careened wildly back and forth, while Eric spun out and off the road. Bay caught a glimpse of one of the vampires ripping the driver’s side door off. Then the gunshots started.

Her eyes widened. “Who’s shooting?” she cried.

“Bullets won’t kill them, but they can slow them down,” Lily said. “I’m so sorry, Bay. Just try to stay down.” She was unbuckling her seat belt.

“Lily—”

“Stay
down
!”

A vampire slid through the shattered back window. Lily snarled and launched herself into the backseat, going over Bay and Grimm. The interior of the car was engulfed in a flash of white light, and there was a pitiful cry from the Ptolemy she’d hit. Lily shoved the convulsing vampire back out the window, then scrambled back into the front seat, where she rolled down the window. She looked at Ty, her expression steely.

“You okay?”

“Hell yes,” he said. “Fry the bastards.”

“Turn around,” Lily said. “We need to get Eric and the others.”