Lost Angeles (25 page)

Tiberius stops at the edge of the debris, smiling like he’s vaguely impressed. “You gonna run, love?”

“Yes,” I croak out, struggling for breath, struggling to get upright, struggling for purchase on anything more stable than a floor littered with ball bearings and metal hubcaps. “I do believe… I will run now.” My snapped-off Louboutin catches a metal bearing and skids, my foot sliding out from under me until my hip bangs against a wooden crate. “Maybe.”

He takes one menacing step forward and then another, picking his way toward me with lethal determination. More tentative tiptoeing on my end, and I clear the ball pit. The second my feet touch down on solid concrete, I take off at a full sprint, headed toward the room where they’re holding Jess. A glance backward tells me that Tiberius is still working his way through the mess I made. He ignores the neophyte wedged beneath the shelving and just keeps coming, like the Terminator and—

“Oof!” I slam face-first into a hard plane, one that I’m fairly sure wasn’t there a second ago. When I lift my eyes to look, I’m expecting to see the other vamp friend.

“Heya, Lo. Miss me?”

Fuck.

“Benicio,” I say, and swallow hard. “I, um…”
Fuck!
“Help me. Please?”

His smarmy grin turns into a frown as he looks over my shoulder at Tiberius, who’s marching double-time. The other vamp pops out of the smaller room and heads straight for us.

Just me and my serial killer stalker. No biggie.

Benicio trails a finger down my cheek. “I got this, Lo. I’m not going to let anyone else hurt you.”

Because he wants to keep that honor for himself.

As the one puny mortal in a room full of immortals, I have zero options right now. Suppressing a shudder, I muster a smile and look up at Benny in what I hope is an encouraging manner. His mouth is but a hairbreadth from mine, and I get the distinct impression that he’s about to—

Please,
please
don’t kiss me.

I’m already bracing for impact when Benicio turns, his hand catching the office vamp by the face. Before our attacker can get off a single scream, his skin turns gray. His entire body follows suit, and within seconds, there’s nothing left of Tiberius’s henchman but a pile of ash and clothing. Blinking twice, I stare at the sin-eater, but he only gives me his signature greasy smile, hitching one shoulder as if he dusts vampires on the daily.

“Who the hell are
you
?” Tiberius demands, breaking into our little circle.

When I turn around, I find myself boxed in by the enemy.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Jess’s next cry dwindles to a piteous moan. Benicio’s hand clamps down on my shoulder, dragging me back and putting me behind the hulking shield of his body.

“I got this.” And he puts his hands out, Kung-Fu style, like he’s about to karate chop his foe to death. “Watch and learn.”

And then he’s off, my knight in Abercrombie & Fitch and a serious amount of Polo by Ralph Lauren. Benicio winds up and swings at Tiberius, the latter easily dodging the wide arc of the punch. A second later, Tiberius has the sin-eater in a choke hold, and I’m seriously rethinking the wisdom of siccing one killer on another. The tide turns when Benicio shakes the hold and manages to land a punch, clipping Tiberius on the jaw and setting those creepy strings of metal teeth to jangling. He doesn’t dust him like he did the other vamp, so either he’s out of juice or he simply
can’t
.

Movement in the distance catches my eye. The vamp that was crushed under the shelves has finally managed to get free, and as soon as he gets his bearings, this fight’s probably going to be two-on-one. Turning, I sprint toward the office. Jess’s screams are jagged, heartfelt shrieks of agony that trigger some serious PTSD on my part. I skid to a halt inside the doorway, grabbing hold of the jamb to slow my momentum. She’s strapped to a stainless steel table—

Cold, unyielding. I’m kicking so hard my skin bruises. Screaming so loud my throat goes raw…

Breathing in through my mouth and out through my nose, I shove the memories aside and dash toward the table. Jess’s body arches, bowing at the middle as she lifts up off the hard surface. The blood—her blood—has already started pushing out of her pores, and it’s soaking through her clothing. My fingers find the place where the needles enter her arms, and I carefully pull the tubes loose, peeling back the medical tape and unhooking her from the haphazard warehouse camp clinic.

“Jess,” I whisper. Her eyes pop open, and I’m stunned to see that the deep brown of her irises has transitioned to a shocking red. When she opens her mouth to speak, I find myself searching for fangs, but apparently those come later. “I’m going to get you out of here. Can you walk?”

“Go,” she whispers. “Lolo, get away from—”

Another spasm hits her, cutting off the warning. I’ve got no choice but to wait for it to pass before I hook my hands around her upper arms and pull her into a sitting position.

“I’m not leaving you,” I tell her.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she gasps, but lets me slide her off the table and onto her feet. With her arm slung over my shoulder and mine gripping her waist, I guide Jess toward the office door. “You need to leave me and
go
, Lolo. Cas wouldn’t want—”

Her legs buckle and her body drops to the floor, dragging me down with her. There’s a few seconds of mad scrambling as my hands slide across the slick surface of her skin, trying to find purchase. Once I have her propped up again, I begin what seems like a forever-march. Benicio and Tiberius are still scrabbling, two titans clashing without realizing that their prize is getting away. They’ve reached some sort of impasse, neither one able to do much damage to the other. When the third vamp joins the fray, Benny catches his fist within his own, and the other henchman goes down in a second pile of ash.

“Lolo—”

“Shhh, they’ll hear you.” And I hate to say it, but I have to add, “Try not to scream.”

There has to be another door out of this place. Benicio and Tiberius are between us and the one I used to come in, and I doubt I could drag Jess through the mess I made when the shelf tipped over, anyway. Off to my right, there’s a huge rolling door, the kind that a semi could back into with a trailer, but the chain is padlocked in two places. My eyes track frantically, looking for any other option when they hit the faintest green glow where dust and more spiderwebs and a collapsed ladder partially obscure an exit sign. Thankfully, even the shittiest structure is built with concerns about potential fires.

“Go on, Lo,” Benny says, sounding unnaturally cheerful for a guy nuts-deep in a fist fight. “I’ll catch up.”

Awesome.

Still clutching Jess, I shove the ladder out of the way and put my hip to the door as hard as I can. It gives with a rusty screech, dumping us out on a loading dock on the back side of the building. I don’t know what the plan would have been if the door had been locked, and I don’t care. There’s no thought left for anything save getting Jess back to the Zenvo and as far away from here as possible. She’s wheezing, a horrible wet sucking kind of noise that indicates her lungs are full of fluid even before the tiny red bubbles start forming on her lips.

“Hold on, Jess. I’ve got you.”

And it’s a good damn thing she’s as petite as she is, because I’m half-carrying, half-dragging her now. By the time we hit the corner of the building, her head is lolling against my shoulder. Without warning, she stiffens and shrieks right into my ear. It’s the straw that breaks this camel’s back, and both of us go down a full block from the Zenvo. Jess’s eyes roll back, and it’s all I can do to hitch her up in my arms.

“Jess.” I shake her, but her head only falls to the side, long dark curls matted with blood that looks black in the streetlights. “Jess, you have to wake up.”

Headlights cut across us. A second later, Asher’s Humvee screeches to a stop in the gutter, and the boys bail out.

“They tried to turn her,” I yell before they can ask. “She’s bleeding out.”

Asher puts on the brakes and doubles back to the trunk. “Where are the kidnappers?”

“Two piles of dust inside the building, plus the guy I told you about before. Last time I saw him, he was fighting with my stalker.”

Then it’s Xaine’s turn to skid to a halt. “So Benicio
did
follow you here?”

Before I can answer, he turns and follows Asher. There’s a brief, muttered conversation, then Xaine comes at me with a small medical kit and Asher’s off and running with a bow slung over his back and a UV pistol in each hand. Eerie to watch a guy that big move without making a noise, but he manages it, heading straight for the fire exit. Hope like hell that he remembers not to let Benny make contact; the last thing we need right now is a doped-up commando.

Xaine lands on his knees next to me, cracking open the box and rummaging around until he finds a silver case. It holds what looks like an EpiPen, or it would, if it didn’t have the words “Property of CasDec” and “Prototype” stamped all over it. He wrangles it out of its protective plastic even as he checks Jess for a pulse.

“Is she—” I start to ask.

“It’s happening fast. Too fucking fast.” He cracks open one of her eyes and gets a good look at the crimson of her irises. “Fucking A, Cas, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Without another word, Xaine hikes up Jess’s skirt and jams the needle into her leg. Holding my breath, I wait for any kind of response. I don’t know what he gave her, but I’m sure as hell not expecting her to turn her head to the side and cough blood all over the sidewalk. Every muscle in Jess’s body constricts, and liquid spatters the concrete and a nearby chain link fence. It’s like a horror movie, looping over and over until she coughs one last time and her body goes lax. She’s still breathing too quick, pulse thudding too fast, but those issues seem minor in comparison to what just happened.

“What the fucking fuck.” Xaine seems more horrified by whatever was in that tube than the fact my roommate coughed up three quarts of crimson all over the sidewalk.

“What is it?” I ask. “What’d you give her?”

Xaine’s quiet for a long moment, staring at the cylinder he’s holding. Then he’s up, spinning in a circle, and I catch a softly muttered “sonovabitch” before he hurls the injector pen against the fence and shouts, “Sonovabitch!”

“Xaine—”

“He fucking did it. Just two hundred fucking years too late.” There’s a wealth of unspoken sentiment in that simple proclamation.

“Are you…” I start to say, but find myself rephrasing. “Did he find a
cure
?”

Somewhere around the corner, there’s the sound of an engine turning over, rubber spinning against asphalt, tires spraying gravel as a vehicle speeds away. Xaine kneels next to Jess, pulling back her eyelid even as she swats him away with a muttered, “Don’t touch me,
pinche
.”

“No,” he tells me, shaking his head. “Not a cure. He’d be selling it otherwise, but maybe… an emergency injection. If you can catch it before it takes hold.”

“So, she’ll be all right?”

“She’ll be fine,” Asher cuts in, heading toward us with that purposeful walk I’m getting to know so well. He stoops down and hefts Jess up in his arms, carrying her toward the black Humvee like she weighs nothing. “I’ll get her to the hospital. I want you two at the mansion. I’ll send a team to run security until we track down these assholes.”

“What, you didn’t take care of them?” Xaine reaches down and hauls me to my feet, scowling as he digs in my skirt pocket for the Zenvo’s keys. “What the hell good are you, Boy Wonder?”

“The guy with the piercings cleared out as I went in. Left Benicio standing there holding his nuts and the hubcap he was using to beat the other dude’s face in.” Asher fastens Jess’s seatbelt and slams the passenger door shut, then circles around to the driver’s side. “Benny’s definitely a sin-eater, but the other one is… something else. And not a vampire, either, or he’d be dust like the other two.”

“Wait!” I take a step toward the Humvee as he clambers in. “I’ll come with you.”

“Like hell,” Xaine protests even as Asher shakes his head.

“I’ve got this,” he said. “If you’re there, you’re a target, and I don’t need the distraction.”