Kyle lifted his head as clicks sounded around the room. From experience, he knew what that click meant. The glass cages began to descend from the ceiling.
“Shit!” he hissed.
It was the right move to make, but he’d expected to be near Melanie when they were all freed. Instead, she was in the middle of the room and the center of all the Savages.
“Kyle, go!” Brian shouted at him.
Kyle shoved aside the guard he’d been beating and leapt to his feet. Bullets zinged past his head, hit the ground, and crashed into the descending glass around him. A couple hit him in his shoulder and upper thigh.
He didn’t let the impacts deter him. Instead, he used the pain to fuel his determination to protect her.
The glass was almost to Melanie’s head, and thirty feet still separated them when a Savage appeared on the other side of her cell. The creature was only twenty feet away and narrowing in.
It must see her as an enemy because she once was the enemy. Plus, she was an easy first meal when it had been denied proper nourishment during its imprisonment in this place.
Kyle hadn’t believed it possible, but terror spurred him to even faster speeds. The demon inside him swelled until it pounded through every part of him. The red and black color covering his skin pulsed and shifted as his muscles bulged and his fangs throbbed. He would tear that thing apart if it touched her.
“Melanie, get down!” he shouted as bullets bounced off the glass encasing her.
Melanie hit the ground as Kyle leapt into the air. His legs kicked like he was walking on air, and he seemed to be flying as he soared toward her. Grasping the edge of the descending glass, he pulled himself over the edge a second before the Savage did.
Melanie scrambled to get out of the way as Kyle landed protectively in front of her. The Savage’s feet thudded against the ground across from them. When she rested her back against the glass, it pulled at her clothes and tugged at her hair as it slipped into the floor.
Undeterred by his presence or the warning growl Kyle released, the Savage charged Melanie with eyes as red as fire. Its elongated fangs slicing into its bottom lip caused blood to spill down its chin.
The thing was too far gone to bloodlust to think clearly and wouldn’t be deterred from its meal. Bracing himself for the impact, Kyle lowered his shoulder, caught the vampire in the upper chest, and lifted it off its feet. He held it in the air for a second before flipping it and propelling it into the ground.
Melanie winced when bones cracked, and the creature’s cry was muffled by the blood spilling from its mouth. It would like nothing more than to eat her, but she couldn’t help feeling bad for it.
She didn’t blame the vamp for its destructive impulses. She wanted to destroy everyone and everything that had a hand in keeping her here too. Still, she wasn’t going to intervene or ask Kyle to spare the vamp’s life. She felt bad for it, but she wasn’t an idiot.
The Savage clawed at Kyle’s arms and face as it fought like a wildcat to get free. Kyle delivered another bone-crushing blow to its face, but somehow it planted its feet firmly onto the ground and, with a mighty heave, threw Kyle over its head.
Kyle crashed into the glass only a few feet off the ground now. The air rushed out of him as he hit the ground, but he scrambled back to his feet and lunged at the Savage as it ran toward Melanie.
Seizing the creature’s ankle, he yanked it back. It lashed out at Melanie with a swipe that barely missed her nose. Kyle dragged the Savage toward him. Its fingers clawed at the ground, and its nails tore away from its flesh as it sought some sort of purchase but found none.
Kyle held onto the Savage’s ankle as he rose over it. The bastard twisted in his hold and kicked out with its free leg. Kyle dodged its foot as he pulled the thing closer and stomped on its face.
The blow caused the right half of its face to cave in, and its eye bulged. It mewled but managed to twist out from under him as it tore its leg from his grasp. Kyle refused to give it a second of reprieve and went in low as the Savage staggered to its feet.
Wrapping his arms around the Savage’s waist, Kyle lifted the creature and propelled it into the ground again. He released the monster when it hit the ground, grasped one of its feet, and lifting it, smashed it onto the top of the glass. The blow caved in the back of the monster’s skull.
Blood and brains exploded across the glass. When the Savage slumped to the ground, Kyle placed his foot against the creature’s throat and pressed down until he succeeded in tearing its head away.
Melanie swallowed the bile clogging her throat and rose onto wobbly legs. When Kyle turned toward her, she barely recognized the man staring at her with red eyes. Blood from his wounds and the others covered him. That red and black color suffused his skin. His fangs glistened in the light.
However, she couldn’t stop herself from staggering toward him and flinging herself into his arms. Tears spilled from her eyes as the blood covering him seeped through her clothes.
Kyle squeezed her as he inhaled the fresh spring scent she exuded while savoring the feel of her in his arms once more. He’d never felt anything as right as her, and he was going to keep her forever.
He could stand there holding her for hours, days, and weeks, but her freedom from that cage didn’t mean the danger was over. Bullets continued to fly around the room and screams resonated as his family and Savages took down the guards.
“We have to go,” Kyle said and reluctantly released her.
Melanie slid her hand into his as they stepped over what little remained of the glass cage and ran toward the stairwell they used to enter the room.
“Your dad?” she panted as they ran.
“He’ll be okay.”
Kyle refused to believe anything different. He couldn’t be the cause of his parents’ demise.
The screams lessened as the Savages succeeded in taking down more of the guards. Kyle chanced a glance at the others as he steered Melanie around a couple of bodies.
By the other stairwell, Willow stabbed one of the Savages in the stomach with her sword. The creature released a startled howl and clawed at the blade before bursting into ashes.
Kyle had heard what that sword could do, but seeing it in action caused his step to falter. Its power was astounding, as was the fact his sister—someone he’d tormented, laughed with, and teased over the years—was the one wielding it. Willow once had knobby, skinned knees and freckles. Now she had a powerful sword and the lethality of a cougar.
Declan took Willow’s hand. They, along with Ethan and Dante, sprinted away from the Savages, who were descending to feast on the guards. After seeing what Willow’s sword could do, the other Savages stayed far away from her.
They were fifty feet away from the stairwell door when Vicky, Nathan, Lucy, Aiden, and Maggie entered the room. They ran toward his dad while Brian, Julian, Aida, and Cassidy fell in with him and Melanie, and they sprinted toward his parents.
Half of the Savages went for the guards by the elevator. As the doors closed, they slipped inside with the humans. Screams and gunshots resonated from within, but there wouldn’t be any human survivors by the time the elevator arrived at its destination.
Aiden knelt at their dad’s side and carefully lifted him into his arms. He ran for the doorway with their mom on his heels. The screams stopped as the rest of them followed. Kyle pulled Melanie into the stairwell and leaned against the doorway as he turned to watch the rest of his family sprinting for the door.
“How is everyone else?” he demanded.
“Stefan’s hurt pretty bad, but he’ll live. David’s injured too but not as bad,” Aiden answered.
Turning away from the carnage of the prison room, Kyle grasped Melanie’s shoulders. He hugged her close before kissing her. He broke away and nudged her toward Lucy.
“Go with Lucy,” he said.
He hated to part with her so soon after finally getting her back, but he couldn’t leave here without making sure the others were also free. His family had put themselves at risk to save Melanie, and he would make sure they all escaped before leaving here.
“I’m not leaving you,” she protested.
“I have to make sure everyone gets out of that room, and you have to go.”
Melanie started to protest, but Lucy pulled her away. Melanie planted her feet into the ground; it didn’t stop Lucy from propelling her onward.
“Lucy!” She tried to shake off her friend’s hold, but Lucy refused to release her.
“We have to get out of here, Mel,” Lucy said. “And after everything we’ve been through, I’m not leaving without you.”
Melanie stopped resisting her friend’s incessant pulling and reluctantly followed her toward the stairs. As she climbed, she twisted her head to look back as Kyle returned to the room with the cells. She stopped walking, but she couldn’t go back as Vicky and Nathan blocked her way. When Lucy tugged on her again, she reluctantly went with her friend.