Star, Starland Vamp Series, Book 1 (38 page)

“Always the confident one, aren’t you?” Drake asked, placing a foot on either side of my body, still twirling the knife. So that was how I was going to die. He would either stab me to death, then cut off my head, or cut out my heart. Either way, I hoped it was quick.

“You’ll never be the one to break me, Clark,” I replied, my eyes narrowing.

“We shall see,” he replied with a sneer lighting his lips, clearly amused. “You see? My experiment was a success,” Drake said looking over at Zac. “And now that I have him, what do I need with you?” then he knelt over my body, with a knee on either side. He looked closely at the knife’s long blade, then into my eyes. “Now that I know all I need is your blood or his, what do I need you for?” Then a sneer lifted the corner of his lips, “After all, he’s filled with your blood.”

“Get it over with, Drake,” I taunted, my eyes flaring. “Go ahead and kill me. You always were a coward.”

Drake’s eyes narrowed. “Coward? I am no coward!”

So, I’d struck a nerve. “Years ago, my father invited you into our house to talk rationally, but you were too much of a coward to comply. Obviously, you were too scared to come into the house because you didn’t know if you were outnumbered or not.” I took a breath, feeling it go into my lungs as feeling within my chest started to return. I had to keep him talking. “So being the coward that you are, you called him out! And then you gunned him down like a dog in our front yard where you knew the odds!” I stopped, my eyes flaring, then continued. “My father had more guts in his little finger than you ever had! Even after all these years!”

Drake’s eyes flared as he sat on my chest. At first, I could feel nothing, then feeling slowly began to come back, step by little step. “You have no idea of what you are speaking, Star! He was a traitor!”

“No, you were the traitor, Clark!” I said, as my breath finally started coming back and my fingertips began to tingle. “My father came out into the yard, unarmed! He wasn’t afraid to face you! He gave his life to protect me! And like the coward that you are, you gunned him down like a dog!”

Drake smiled, then ran the knife along the side of my cheek as a sneer lit his lips. “That may be well and good, Star. But who won in the end?”

“You’re a coward!” I yelled into his face. “And nothing’s changed! Look at you now! The only way you could defeat me was to render me helpless! You don’t even have the courage to fight me like a man! No, instead, you’d rather attack me when I’m down … literally! You were a coward then and you’re still a coward now!”

Drake’s sneer turned to a scowl as he raised the dagger high into the air, holding it in both of his shaking hands. “Go to Hell, Star!”

“You first!” a male voice yelled from the landing. Drake’s head snapped up quickly, just as a bullet pierced his brain, right between his eyes. A look of horror filled his eyes as he looked down at me, then his eyes suddenly glazed over as he fell onto me, across my chest.

I heard footsteps behind my head, stepping purposefully toward me, when suddenly a face appeared within my vision. “What are you doing down there, Star?”

“Verus!” I sighed in relief. “I thought you’d never get here! Get this oaf off me, will you?” Verus laughed as he pulled Drake’s body off mine and the feeling slowly returned to my hands. “What the hell did he do to me, anyway?”

“He hit you with a thousand volts of electricity,” Verus explained, as he turned Drake’s body onto his back. “It disables shape shifters, vamps, too, but it prevents you from shifting.”

“No joke!” I replied, wondering what he was doing. “It prevented me from even moving!”

“Don’t worry,” Verus explained, reaching into my boot, “It’ll wear off soon.”

“What the hell are you doing, V?” I asked, watching him pull up my pant leg where my Ballistics knife was strapped to my ankle.

“You mind if I borrow this for a bit?” Verus asked matter of fact, indicating the knife.

“Sure,” I replied, then added. “As long as you don’t use it on me.”

Leaning across my leg, his wavy light brown hair fell lazily across my leg as he unstrapped my knife with a laugh. “As tempting as that might be, you’re safe with me. Don’t ever forget that.”

I nodded, as feeling started to return to my arms and legs.

“How are you feeling, anyway?” Verus asked, matter of fact, as if we were on the veranda sipping iced tea, watching the Kentucky Derby.

I laughed and shook my head. “I’ve felt better, but the feeling’s starting to return.”

“Wait just a minute,” Verus said, as if watching the winning touchdown in a football game.

“What the hell?” Drake asked, reaching up to dig the bullet from the center of his forehead.

“I’ll be right back. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment,” Verus said to me without looking, then turned his attention to Drake. He walked purposefully toward Drake and fell to his knees, straddling his chest. He raised my Ballistics knife high into the air as his green eyes flared. “On behalf of Priscus, myself, victims of the wars, and any other person who has suffered at your hands, I send you to Hell!”

“No, no, Verus!” Drake said, raising his hands in protection like the coward that he was. “You can’t do this! I created you!”

“No,” Verus said, shaking his head. “God created me! Now I’m sending you back to him! But I have a feeling he doesn’t want you, so I’m sending you to the devil! Have fun, Titus, … in Hell!”

And with that, Verus brought the knife down hard into Drake’s chest, then twisted the knife, as blood poured from his mouth. Soon, his eyes became fixed.

Feeling was slowly returning to my body, allowing me to sit up. I looked over at Zac and relief filled his eyes. I smiled, knowing he would be fine.

“Well, aren’t you worried about
me
at all?” another voice came from the landing; a voice I would always know, pulling my attention momentarily away from Zac.

“Rick! You’re alive!” I exclaimed, turning to face him. And John was on his heels, smiling.

“Of course! What did you think? That I was going to die and let you have all the fun?” Rick asked, sitting on the ground beside me. “John came back for us. Once we dug out the bullets, Verus and I healed pretty quickly.” Then he ripped open his shirt. “You wanna see?”

“Please, Rick!” I exclaimed, shielding my eyes. “Too much info!”

Rick laughed, until he saw Annie lying lifeless upon the floor. “Annie!” he exclaimed as he ran to her side. Slowly I got to my feet and followed.

Rick knelt beside her and I knelt on her other side as tears filled my eyes. For here was Annie—my friend Acantha for so many years—lying lifeless, face down upon the floor.

“Annie,” Rick said as tears streamed down his face. “Annie you can’t leave me! Not after all these years.” Then he gingerly turned her onto her back as her head lolled to the side. “Not when I’ve finally found you again.” Then he smoothed locks of her light blonde hair gently away from her face. “I love you, Annie,” he whispered into her ear, as tears filled my eyes. Then, with tears streaming steadily down his cheeks, he gingerly kissed her still lips.

Then her lips responded as they slowly kissed him back.

I started laughing through my own tears.

“I can’t believe you, Acantha!” Rick said, pulling back to look at her face as she slowly opened her eyes. “You’ve been awake this whole time! You made me worry about you just to hear me say those things!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Annie replied with a devilish grin.

“You’re a piece of work, Acantha, a real …” But his rants were suddenly cut off as she silenced him with her lips, and he responded, pulling her into his arms, his lips never leaving hers.

I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to Zac, while Verus and John gathered the weapons lying nearby, leaving the vamp body parts on the floor littering the great room.

“Zac, how are you feeling?” I asked, kneeling beside him as my wavy brown hair fell across his chest. “Do you have any feeling yet?”

Zac smiled mischievously, then replied, “I can feel my lips now.”

“Oh, you can, huh?” I answered, laughing. “Can you feel this, too?” I asked as I gingerly kissed his beautiful cheek and my breath caught. He was beautiful before, but his perfection was going to take some getting used to. And his soul was still the most beautiful of all.

“Yes, I can feel that …” Zac responded matter of fact.

“What about here?” I asked as I gingerly kissed his forehead.

“Yes, and that too …”

“And here?” I asked, as my lips gingerly caressed his. His lips moved with mine, gently at first, then he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me across his chest, cradling me within his arms.

“I hate to interrupt, but we need to get out of here, now!” Verus said with so many weapons draped over him he looked like Rambo. “We have to blow this thing.”

“What about the others?” John asked, indicating the vamps recovering in their rooms.

“Sorry, kid,” Verus replied, handing him an Uzi. “There’s just no time. They could be rogue, for all we know.”

John nodded, slinging another weapon across his shoulders, probably realizing how close he had come to his own death.

Rick helped Annie to her feet, as I helped Zac to his, and we made our way to the front door.

“Hold it right there,” the blonde vamp with the high and tight haircut bellowed, blocking our way out.

“Man, give it up!” Verus replied, as if the blonde Rambo was holding a pop gun. “You’re the only one left! Drake is dead! It’s over!”

“Not to me,” the blonde Rambo replied, pulling the trigger as a shower of bullets ricocheted within the metal walls.

Within a second, I ran up the wall, using it for leverage, then pushed off and landed on him, knocking him to the ground, then rammed my Ballistics knife deep into his chest.

“Let’s go before we have more company!” Verus said, as we darted down the dark tunnel. Suddenly, a round of gunfire sounded behind us, ricocheting off the walls. I looked behind us and the blonde vamp was on his feet, headed toward us. “You guys get out of here! I’ll hold him off!”

“No way!” Rick yelled, pushing Annie toward me.

“Get out of here!” Verus yelled into Rick’s face, pushing him toward Annie. Any other time Rick would have pulverized him for that, but instead, he nodded once, then took Annie’s hand and followed us toward the lightening at the end of the tunnel.

John handed Zac an Uzi as I pulled my Glock from the back of my pants, ready for whatever was on the other side.

“Fire in the hole!” Verus yelled behind us as a sudden fire blast erupted behind us.

“Fire!” we all yelled at the same time as we ran at vamp speed to the light at the end of the tunnel. Fire was hot on our heels as we bolted into the bright daylight, waiting for us like an old friend at the end of the tunnel.

Outside, Zac grabbed me, pulling me out of the way and covered me with his body just as the fire blast bolted from the tunnel.

A few rogue vamps fired upon us, but we unloaded our Uzis and weapons into them, taking them down. “Come on! Let’s get the car!” I yelled at Zac, pulling him down the alley on the side of the fortress. At vamp speed, we were at the Challenger. I quickly started it as Zac took down a vamp that followed us, unloading his Uzi into him.

“Let’s go, Abbey! We’ve got company!” Zac yelled, jumping into the car.

Slamming the car door, I expertly wheeled the Challenger around, running over another rogue vamp in the process. I stopped the car on the corner where Rick, Annie, and John were waiting, taking down rogue vamps as shots of gunfire resonated throughout the neighborhood.

It wouldn’t be long and the humans would respond. The men in blue would be crawling all over us in the matter of minutes.

Quickly, I slung open the trunk and Rick and Annie were beside me in an instant, ripping open the cases.

“Yes! A Gatlin gun!” Rick yelled, taking it from the case. “Good girl!” he yelled as he quickly loaded the bullet belt into it, then pulled it into his arms with ease, slinging the bullet belt over his shoulder.

Annie, Zac, and John pulled weapons from the black leather cases, loading up, then quickly turned to stave off the rogue vamps coming toward us.

Quickly, I flung open a case, finding what I was looking for, a grenade launcher. Pulling it from the case, I quickly loaded it with a case of grenades, then walked decisively toward the open tunnel, where the fire was dying down.

The whole time we were outside, Verus never came out. I sighed as anger filled my heart. Verus gave his life to save us. And within my mind, from long ago, a biblical phrase ran through my mind, “There’s no greater love than to give one’s life for a friend.” And at that moment, I knew that he had earned his place in Heaven.

But I was still here.

Determined, I propped the grenade launcher on my shoulder and pointed it into the tunnel. “This one’s for you, V,” I said as I pulled the trigger. In an instant, fire once again filled the tunnel as I shot off another grenade, then another, until the whole building was ablaze.

“It’s going to blow!” John yelled, backing away toward the car.

“No, not yet,” I yelled, then called over my shoulder to Annie. “Acantha? We need a bomb!”