Lucien took a right and plunged onward through the darkness. He relied on his senses to guide him as the slap of his bare feet rebounded off the walls. A sound change indicated an opening ahead. He smelled it when the air became fresher and a barely perceptible shift in the currents drifted over his skin.
The shift pulled him to the right, and though the fresh scent of the outdoors beckoned him. The possibility of freedom propelled him faster as he felt himself growing weaker.
Callie couldn’t tear her eyes away from the creatures spilling over the top of one another. Maniacal, rabid clowns were less terrifying than these monsters as some of them crawled over the walls and heads of their fellow psychopaths. She had no idea how they were doing it, but their speed must have made it possible for them to defy gravity.
Her bladder clenched as she made a concentrated effort not to piss herself. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with the freak carrying her, but she didn’t want to piss all over him either.
The air whipping by her blew her hair like she was riding in a convertible with the top down. She felt nauseous and dizzy as the ground rushed past her in a blur while those things clambered forward.
One of them took a swipe at her. Its fingers brushed across her cheek and nose. She cringed away and slid back over the man’s shoulder as she tried to get away from it. She didn’t get far as his arm remained locked around her legs.
“Oh shit,” she breathed.
The terror in the woman’s voice and her nails digging into his shoulder somehow made it possible for Lucien to run faster. The aroma of fresh air grew stronger as he held her tighter, and increased the distance between them and the Savages. He would get her out of here.
From out of the darkness, a small pinprick of light pierced the gloom ahead of him. The sides of the tunnel narrowed until it became only large enough for two men, walking side by side, to get through it.
And then a flash of light caught his attention as it shone off the gates barring his way. Fuck!
The gate consisted of bars that would weaken its structure and make it easier to get through than if it were solid metal, but it would slow him. He also didn’t know if they’d designed those to withstand a vampire.
He was about to find out as he shifted the woman further back, locked his arm around her legs, lowered his shoulder, and smashed into the metal.
The bars twisted and screeched as they bent beneath his weight. He kept the woman sheltered the best he could as he pushed against the metal barring him from freedom. Digging his toes in, he continued to shove against the bars as he fought to break free of the prison holding him for far too long.
He felt the Savages closing in, heard their excited chatter, and pushed harder. If he were at full strength, he would have broken through already and carried her to safety.
But he wasn’t at full strength, and it was taking far longer than it should to get free. Every second of delay was one in which they got closer.
The bars abruptly gave way beneath his weight. Unprepared for the sudden release, he stumbled forward and nearly hit the ground. He was stopped from doing so and jerked back when a bar snagged his jeans and sliced open the flesh around his ankle and calf.
Hands skimmed his back, but they weren’t her hands. With a sinking sensation, he realized the delay would be his death. It would not be the end of her.
Yanking her from his shoulder, he tore his skin further open as he jerked his jeans free of the bar. Blood spilled down his leg as he shoved her toward the beckoning rays of the sun. The woman cried out when she hit the ground on her ass and bounced toward the end of the tunnel. She came to a stop only feet away from the exit.
“Get in the sun!” he shouted at her.
Callie shook her head as she tried to figure out how she’d gone from hanging upside down to being thrown across the ground. Then his words pierced through her mind, and her heart lodged in her throat.
The sun! Freedom! Vampires hated sunlight, or at least that’s what so many things said anyway. And right now, she was willing to go with that myth as she’d always believed vampires were a myth too, until now.
On her hands and knees, she scrambled forward and threw herself into the day. Bursting out of the tunnel, she almost fell over the ledge running along the outside.
She blinked as she tried to get her bearings. Her eyes stung, and tears filled them as she remained on her hands and knees, staring down the rocky hill leading into a dry riverbed.
She clambered back before recalling that put her within arm’s length of the tunnel. Throwing herself forward, she clawed at the dirt beneath her and pulled herself up the pathway running along the rocky wall against her left side. Though her nails were short, one of them tore as it bent back.
Gritting her teeth, she rose and flattened her palms and back against the wall. She panted for breath and tried to control the riotous beat of her heart before she risked a peek back into the tunnel.
Straining to see, she spotted the man coming toward her, but before he made it to the end, those creatures pounced on him and brought him down. However, not all of them were content with their prize as some ran past him and toward her.
She ducked back from the entrance and turned to flee, but it wasn’t easy to run along the slippery, jagged rocks. It had rained overnight, and that rain had turned the surface of the stones into something akin to ice.
Her feet slipped, and she nearly went down, but she caught herself and pushed onward. She traversed twenty feet before she chanced a glance back. It felt like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over her head when she discovered one of the creatures following her.
She blinked at the smoke spiraling from it as she tried to understand if what she was seeing was real. However, the more she blinked, the more it remained. The thing was smoking as it hunted her.
She couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh or cry more as it closed in on her.
Lucien’s chains rattled as he kicked and punched at the Savages pulling and grasping at him but they provided enough room that he could fight with them on. He would not go back to that cell. He was weak, but they’d have to kill him before he ever allowed them to imprison him again.
Grasping the heads of two Savages, he grinned as he bashed them together. Bone gave way as the skulls caved in and their eyes bulged. He shoved the Savages away before turning over.
Clawing at the dirt, he rushed forward. One of his hands brushed against a broken piece of bar as a hand landed on his shoulder. Gripping the bar, he spun and plunged it straight through the vamp’s eye before yanking it free again. He turned it in his hand and used it to batter the temple of the next Savage coming at him.
His body thrummed with pleasure as he beat and maimed more Savages. It had been so long since he’d killed; he needed this release almost as much as he did blood. He relished the brutality he unleashed and the screams of his victims as he released the demon part of him.
This was what he’d been born to do. He was a killer, and he loved it.
Staggering back from the crush of bodies, he used the foot-long section of bar to beat away the Savages pursuing him. He was almost to the end of the tunnel when hands clawed at his back.
Unwilling to tear his gaze away from the horde of assholes pursuing him, he twisted his head to discover that one of the vamps who chased after the woman had returned to the tunnel. The sun had probably driven it back inside, but the other Savage was not with it. Which meant it was still chasing her.
Lucien’s mouth went dry, and his hands constricted on the bar. He’d beat every last one of these things to death if that’s what it took to keep her safe. He twisted away from the clawing hands of the vamp and, ducking low, sank the bar into its stomach.
With a loud bellow, he lifted the Savage off the ground and ran toward the end of the tunnel. The Savage clawed at him over the top of the bar. Its fingers tearing into his arms shredded his skin, but he didn’t feel it as his pulse thundered in his ears.
Where was the woman? Had they done something to her? He’d make them pay if they had.
Rushing into the sun’s rays, he gave another angry shout as he threw the Savage away from him. It howled, and its skin blistered and smoked as its body bounced down the rocks to the culvert below.
The sound of rocks bouncing against rocks drew his attention to his toes hanging over the edge of the ditch. One more step and he would tumble down boulders and to the bottom of the fifteen-foot ravine where he would join the now flaming Savage.
When he threw himself away from the edge, hands grasped his arms and tried to pull him back into the tunnel. He tore free of them and lurched to the side where he plastered himself to the rocky wall running along the edge of the culvert.
The scrape of sneakers against stone drew his attention, and he looked up to discover the woman forty feet away from him. The Savage pursuing her was smoking, but it tolerated the sun better than the rest of its friends.
“Shit,” he whispered when he realized he was on the opposite side of the tunnel opening than them. He had to cross back in front of it to get to her.
As he watched them, one of the Savages crept into the day. Smoke rose from its hair as its skin blistered, and it squinted its eyes against the burning sun. Despite its burning flesh, it didn’t duck back inside. He was close enough to withstand the pain if it meant recapturing him.
When it charged at him, Lucien grasped its head and shoved it to the side. It released a startled cry as it bounced and flailed down the rocky embankment. Flames licked over its back and consumed its clothes when it came to a stop at the bottom.
When another Savage poked its head out of the tunnel, everything around Lucien screeched to a halt. The sounds of the battle, the hunger churning inside him, and even the woman faded away as he gazed at a face he hadn’t seen in hundreds of years.
It was a face he’d hoped never to see again. A fiery rage rose to replace his astonishment as he gazed at the man he’d hoped he killed centuries ago. Thrust back into the past, he felt the fingers clawing at his flesh and the punches pummeling his ribs while battering his torso. Slick blood coated his back as he and his brother rolled across the floor.
He recalled his struggle to breathe and his determination to kill as his fingers bit into his brother’s throat and his thumbs pushed under his chin. Flesh gave way as he dug his thumbs into his skin to tear his brother’s head free.
Then something went wrong, and he found himself staggering toward the open doorway as the retreating figure of his brother fled across the field of their family estate. Fire leapt from his back as he ran into the sunlight.
“Yannis,” he breathed.
A cruel smile twisted his brother’s mouth before he couldn’t tolerate the sun anymore and vanished back into the tunnel. For a moment, Lucien remained unmoving as the past and present collided.
Without thinking, he lunged forward to go after the bastard and tear him apart. Yannis should have died all those years ago, he shouldn’t be here now, but since he was, Lucien would make sure he finished what he started so long ago.
The woman slipped on the rocks and cried out as stones clattered away from her feet. His concern for her rushed to the forefront. Yannis would die, he would make sure of it now that he knew the evil fucker lived, but he had to take care of her.
For the first time in his life, his need to protect someone overrode his obsessive impulse to kill. When no more Savages poked their heads out of the tunnel, Lucien sprinted across the opening.
His toes curled into the slippery rocks, and he used his hands to help keep him stable as he pursued the Savage closing in on the woman. The Savage had one hand extended toward her, and little flames danced across its fingertips when Lucien snapped its neck. He kept twisting until he tore the head free. He kicked the body into the ditch and threw its head after it.
The woman turned back and squeaked when she spotted him. He heard the frantic beat of her heart as she fled up the rocks, but she wouldn’t get away from him. Winding his arm around her waist, he clasped her against his side as he lifted her off the ground.
Looking back, he spotted two more Savages coming after them.