Authors: Ginger Voight
“
I think I explained it rather well already,” she replied.
“
You sure did. Attacks at night, bites on the neck, victims drained of blood. Who the hell is going to take this seriously?”
“
Ask Roman Piccoli.”
He huffed.
“I’m not running this.”
She jumped up from her desk and followed him to the door.
“But you have to! You have a responsibility!”
He spun on her.
“I have a responsibility to the truth! Not the rantings of some sick, irrational woman!”
She backed up, as though shot. He fired on.
“I’ve tried to be understanding. I’ve let you have time off. I’ve let you shape your own schedule. I’ve tried to give you every benefit of the doubt because you’re a damned good reporter. But you’ve flipped your lid this time, Lumas. I want you out!”
She was incredulous.
“You’re firing me?”
“
You’re lucky I’m not committing you!” he roared back. “I want you out of here by noon.” He spun on his heel and left before he said something he regretted, or worse – something that could get him sued.
Brian
, who watched the whole sad affair from his corner of her office, simply picked up his equipment bag to follow Duncan from the room.
“
You think I’m nuts too, don’t you?” she accused when he wouldn’t meet her gaze.
He stopped, sighed, and turned to her.
“I think you’re tired, Addie. Maybe some time away will do you good.”
She had no words as she watched him leave their office. She had lost Nicholas, she had lost Michael and now she had lost the only thing left in her life that made any sense. There were tears in her eyes as she reached for her jac
ket. Something tumbled from the inside pocket and clattered on the floor. Adele had to wipe her eyes clear of tears to see what it was.
It was an ornate bottle – the same bottle Michael had used to save Dani with the cunning use of holy water.
She snatched the bottle and rushed toward the church. Sam made it clear that she was on her own. If she was forced to be the savior now, maybe it was time to take a few cues from the one she had always forsaken.
The first order of business was to heal the sick.
Not even an hour later she ran up the steps of the hospital. Gripped tight in the palm of her hand was the cold, ornate bottle still damp from its brief dip into the font at the church.
Only her march decidedly slowed once she reached the fifth floor Intensive Care Unit. An overwhelming sadness cloaked her spirit the closer she drew, and she knew what happened before she even reached ICU. Before she could even enter his room, she
wasn’t surprised to see two orderlies wheel what was left of Commissioner Roman Piccoli out on a gurney, his body covered head to foot.
She let out a strangled gasp as she slid into a nearby chair along the wall where other people
waited for their own miracles.
She pocketed the bottle of holy water. There was only one person she could see now that would ground her once again in reality – one love left that s
till needed her to stay strong.
But she sensed something was wrong the minute she stepped off the elevator to
Dani’s floor, too. Finding her abandoned bed only confirmed it.
“
Where is she?” she demanded softly of the frantic nurse who chased her into the room.
“
We’ve been trying to call. She disappeared sometime last night.” Adele gulped hard as she listened. “We found this left behind on her bed.”
Adele glanced down and saw one of the vampire books she had gotten from Vincent. A vice closed tight on her heart as she let out a moan, and the nurse had to steady her or else she would
have wilted right to the floor.
Ten minutes later
Adele burst through the front door of her apartment. She nearly came out of her skin the moment an arm grabbed her from behind and a hand covered her mouth. She struggled momentarily like a wildcat but was quickly spun around to see who held her captive.
Her eyes went immediately to the scar across his face and with a cry of relief she thr
ew her arms around her brother.
“
Vincent! Thank God. I just came from the hospital. Dani’s…”
“
Gone,” he finished for her. “And the police commissioner is dead.”
She nodded as she fought back tears.
“Tell me what to do.”
“
You know what to do,” he said. “You have to kill him.”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know how.”
He was firm.
“You will remember.”
She clutched his arms with her hands.
“Come with me. Show me.”
He shook his head.
“I have something else I have to do.”
“
Denise,” she concluded, and he nodded sadly.
“
He isn’t the only one. There is a legion of the undead and they’re growing in number by the day. There is no time to lose, Adele. Soon the commissioner will rise again as one of them. The only way to stop this army from growing is to cut off the head of the snake.”
“
How do you kill something that is already dead?” she pondered aloud, but the question was dead serious.
“
At dusk,” he said. “Right after he’s awakened but before he’s fed. That is when his life force is the most vulnerable.” He took her hands in his. “Make the next time he opens his eyes the last.”
It was her turn to nod. She pulled him in for another hug, and held him just a few beats longer than necessary. Neither of them acknowledged their dangerous mission ahead, or whether or not
they’d see each other again.
There were tears in her eyes when he disappeared from her home under the emerging cloak of dusk, blending in effortlessly with the descending shadows.
As she stooped to retrieve her keys, something sparkled out of the corner of her eye. The sinking sun splintered off the tiny gold crucifix that lay exactly where Michael had dropped it. Her heart lurched as she thought about the last moments she shared with her dearest friend. She pursed her lips in a grim line and then bent for the necklace, fastened it around her neck and turned for the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The minute she slid the plastic card into the key slot and the light turned green, she heard a familiar male voice behind her. “I figured you’d show up here sooner or later.”
She turned to face Michael
. “And I knew you wouldn’t leave this alone.”
They stared at each other for a moment before she reached for his hand. He gave it a squeeze before he told her,
“You’ll never be alone.” With his other hand he produced the staff he had painstakingly sharpened.
She nodded and le
d the way into the hotel suite.
The door to the tomb room swung open with a dramatic gasp of death that took
Michael’s breath away the instant she hit the light. He instinctively crossed himself as they entered the room and passed the rows of coffins with dead bones and flesh that lay in wait for the setting sun.
Adele
didn’t even stop as she stalked purposefully toward the elevated platform across the room. Michael had to trot to keep up with her until she finally came to a stop right in front of the ornate coffin that contained the undead body of her tormentor. His heart softened as he watched the flood of emotions that crashed across her face. He reached out to touch her arm. “Do you want me to do this?”
She absently shook her head.
“I did it before. I’ll do it again.”
She took the stake from his hands and stepped up onto the platform. Her hands trembled as she poised the stake high above the hollow, sunken chest of the grotesque creature. Seconds almost audibly ticked by as the light retreated across the floor from the sinister
shadows that took their place.
Just being in the room surrounded by the beasts about to waken did a serious number on
Michael’s nerves. He couldn’t understand what she was waiting for. Why not just stab the monster in its black heart before it could have a chance to wake up? Isn’t that what everyone knew from watching every vampire movie ever made?
“
Just do it!” he finally exploded in a harsh whisper.
Adele started so badly she nearly toppled backward off of the platform
, dropping the stake from her hand. Michael caught her and tried to get her upright, and both missed the very second Thaddeus opened his eyes. In a shot he flew up in the air in an angry red mist that knocked both Michael and Adele to the ground, jostling her precious crucifix free without her noticing. A loud hissing filled the air as the other vampires rose from their slumber to surround the intruders.
He hovered in the air over them, and Michael, though frightened, pulled Adele closer in a protective gesture that di
d not go unnoticed by Thaddeus.
“
I knew you’d return to me,” he purred to Adele, “but I had no idea you’d bring a gift.”
Before he knew what was happening, burly vampires pulled Michael up by the arms and dragged him away from Adele, despite his loud protests.
“No! Adele!”
She hopped to her feet to reach for him, but Thaddeus circled her. She glared at him.
“Let him go.”
His fangs dripped from his mouth as he smiled.
“Now why would I do that?”
She glanced over at Michael, who was restrained by two large vampires
that eyed his virgin neck with obvious hunger. Adele gulped. She only had one card left to play. “Because if you do…if you do I will return to you.”
“
Adele, no!”
Her defeated eyes met
Michael’s. “I can’t lose anyone else I love, Michael,” she told him sadly. “I just can’t.”
Thaddeus descended on her, his eyes glowing blood red.
“You haven’t changed at all, Natasha.”
His mouth widened as he dove down toward her, and she closed her eyes to brace for the pain of his fangs buried into her neck.
Instead she felt herself snatched up into powerful arms. The wind hit her face as she was yanked from the hotel window out into the night.
She clutched her rescuer’s neck out of sheer terror as they soared together high above the towering trees of the forest. She wanted to scream but
couldn’t find the voice to do it. She knew that she’d been spared from Thaddeus, at least temporarily, but she hardly felt any safer in the arms of a creature that could shoot through the night like a comet.
That was, until she realized that soft hair fell over her arms, and the hard chest she was molded to felt achingly familiar.
Her gasp was lost in the wind as her eyes searched the face of the one who had saved her. It was her Nicholas – her Nicholai – right down to the dark eyes and the mole that pierced his cheek. Tears flew from her face as she wrapped herself around him, memorizing every detail of his body pressed so tightly against her own. He trembled beneath her, but hadn’t yet said a word. She was too elated to worry. Her love had returned. She didn’t care how or why.
They spiraled toward the ground and crashed through the roof o
f the deserted ranger’s station. She rolled away from him as soon as the embrace was broken, and he turned his back on her so that she wouldn’t see what he had become.
“
Nicholas…” she reached for him but he turned away from her. His shoulders shook. “Nicholai, look at me.”
There were fresh tears on his face when he finally complied. His eyes glowed unnaturally yellow and two fangs sprung from his mouth as he watched her from where he stood just mere feet away. He could smell her blood, and wanted more than anything to taste her flesh on his tongue. This
wasn’t a sexual hunger like the one he had burned with for hundreds of years; this was a raw hunger to consume the very essence of her. She was in danger as long as he was here with her, but he knew if he dared leave she’d be in even more danger.
The moments they shared were stolen. They always had been. And soon Thaddeus wo
uld make sure they paid for it.
That was, if Nicholas
didn’t make her pay with her life first.
“
Don’t come any closer,” he growled when she tried to approach him. “Don’t you know how dangerous I am?”
“
I’m not scared,” she said, and she really meant it. She remembered how it felt to be in his shoes. She hadn’t hurt him when she was a vampire; she knew he wouldn’t hurt her now that he was one. Their threat was beyond these four walls, and she’d fight all the demons of hell to savor each moment she got to spend with him.
Though he knew he should
, he didn’t move away from her as she came closer. There were tears in her eyes when she finally stood before him, and touched his face with the palm of her hand. “I thought I lost you,” she whispered.