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I LAY AWAKE FOR A LONG time. Even after the sun rose and the vampires on the ground floor became inanimate corpses, I remained sleepless. Reece was just as restless. He paced up and down in the room next to mine. He didn’t have a bed and eventually lay down on the floor and went still. His heartbeat became even slower when he fell asleep.
With the building finally devoid of sound, I was free to ponder about my mother’s apparent abilities. She’d known that the nest was approaching Denver, but they hadn’t been on their way to roust us from the city. They’d merely been fleeing from humans who apparently worked for EERI.
The Extraordinary Entities Research Institute was an evil rival to the PIA. Mark had informed us that their end goal could be catastrophic for mankind. It didn’t surprise me that Reece had known about this while Kala and Flynn hadn’t. He’d been Mark’s second in command and led our missions when our boss was absent.
While Katrina hadn’t been completely correct about the motives of the nest, she’d somehow known that they were coming. I’d never heard of vampires having clairvoyant powers before, but I couldn’t discount it. I would find out just how accurate her visions were when we rose for the night.
I eventually slept, but it was as shallow and unsatisfying as usual. Waking up hungry, I remembered the box of cookies that I’d stashed in my backpack. I chewed a few and swallowed them down while Katrina cavorted with some of the new male groupies that she’d gained. From what I could hear, there were several orgies going on downstairs.
Reece knocked lightly on the door, then entered when I didn’t answer. His gaze went to the box of cookies sitting on the bed next to me. He put a hand on his stomach when it rumbled. I’d noticed I didn’t get as hungry as often as usual, but we still had to eat.
At his hopeful look, I tossed him the box. He caught if deftly, then closed the door and leaned against it. Biting into a cookie, he made a face. “Ugh. They’re stale.”
“You don’t have to eat them,” I pointed out. Giving up on the cookies, he tossed them back to me and I bent to hide them beneath the bed.
“We can’t live on just blood alone, can we?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not exactly an expert on our kind.”
“We’re the only two hybrids in existence,” he mused. “I wish I could talk to Mark and get his insight into what we can expect.” As he spoke, gaze shifted away from me and he looked down at the floor. His scent changed slightly as well.
Remembering the furtive glance he’d given Katrina after he’d returned from stealing the guns and other equipment, a sneaking suspicion hit me. “You’ve already talked to him, haven’t you?” His expression gave him away and I shook my head. “How long do we have before they bust in here and wipe us all out?” I was surprised the Shifter Squad had waited so long to exterminate us.
“Mark wouldn’t do that to us,” he protested. “He believed me when I told him we’re not like normal vampires. He’s trying to come up with a plan to help us.” I rolled my eyes, but refrained from reminding him that we couldn’t be saved.
The others were wrapping up their orgies and we’d be heading out soon. We descended to the ground floor and didn’t have to wait long before the others joined us. Katrina stood in front of her leather chair rather than taking a seat. “I dreamed that there is a rival nest a few hours from here. Come. It is time to begin building my army.”
Wary looks were exchanged when she swept regally through our ranks and took the stairs upwards. No one was brave enough to challenge her and we meekly followed in her wake. I went along with it because it was better than suffering the boredom of sitting around doing nothing.
Little conversation was exchanged as we sprinted to the northeast. I wasn’t sure where we were when we came to a stop three hours later.
“Our foes are only a few miles away,” Katrina said. The lights of an unknown city glittered in the distance. “We will feed to replenish our energy before we strike. My plan is to make enough noise to draw the minions out while Lexi and her lover infiltrate their home and kill their master.” I wasn’t sure why she continued to refuse to use Reece’s name. Being turned down when she’d wanted him to have sex with her hadn’t helped endear him to her.
Her plan was sound, but being consulted before volunteering us for the job would have been polite. It would also go against her character. No master vampire would ever ask a servant their opinion. She raised an imperious eyebrow and I nodded my acceptance. Reece’s agreement came far more grudgingly.
We were in a rural area, with farmhouses spaced out widely apart from each other. Katrina chose a house and sent her minions inside. They returned shortly with two middle-aged humans in tow. They’d been dragged kicking and screaming from their beds. We fell on them in a feeding frenzy and drained them dry.
Katrina insisted on us entering the house to clean up after our meal. Being the only ones who still had a reflection, Reece and I entered the small bathroom. I used a washcloth to wipe away all traces of the quick snack I’d had, then handed it to Reece.
He took it and stared at the mirror with a haunted look. “I should have stopped them from killing that couple,” he said barely loudly enough for me to hear him.
“How?” I asked. “Unless your wolf takes over again, you wouldn’t stand a chance against the others. There are too many of them for you to take on alone.” I could have helped him if it came down to a fight, but Katrina was the main one I wanted dead and neither of us had the capacity to kill her.
“They treat humans as if they’re less than animals,” he said in despair.
“Do you treat a burger with respect?” He frowned at my question. “That’s all humans are to them,” I said starkly. “They’re food and nothing else.”
“We can’t let Katrina build an army,” he said.
“I have a feeling it won’t come to that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Something bad is coming,” I said with a shrug.
“How can you possibly know that?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I just do.”
“Fantastic,” he said and tossed the washcloth into the sink. “Just what we need. An unidentified threat that apparently only you’re aware of.”
I left the bathroom to find the other servants in the kitchen scrubbing the bloodstains from their clothes. They sent frequent sullen glances at our master. Katrina’s dress was soaked and clung to her skin. The white fabric was still stained, but it no longer looked like she’d been in a bloodbath.
When everyone was clean enough to satisfy her, she led us outside. She took off at a run and slowed down a couple of minutes later when we closed in on an old house. Not much of the building was left standing. It would be a deathtrap when the sun came up.
“They’re down there,” Katrina said and pointed at a cellar door. “My dream told me that there are only twelve of our brethren in this nest. At my signal, begin making noise to draw them away. Close in to surround them, but don’t kill them. Once their master is dead, I’m going to make the survivors mine.”
My necromancer crept far enough forward for me to be able to use her senses. Katrina was right. I felt twelve undead beings in the cellar. As ordered, Reece and I hid, while the rest of our group began to yell. The rival vampires boiled out into the open like ants from a kicked nest. Their master had sent eight of his lackeys out to battle the attackers, keeping three behind to guard him.
We waited for our kin to lead them away before Reece and I slipped inside the open cellar door. A rabbit warren of tunnels had been dug out beneath the house, but it was easy enough to figure out which way to go. We followed the scent of vampires to a large open area. Rugs lay on the dirt floor and a few pieces of furniture had been carried into the underground hideaway to make it more livable.
Hearing our arrival, the master spun to confront us. It wasn’t a man at all, but was instead a girl. She was small and only in her early teens, yet I sensed her age to be far greater than it seemed. She studied us intently and something about the set of her shoulders told me she knew we weren’t normal vampires. She didn’t waste time asking us questions about what we were. “Kill them,” she ordered her protectors coolly.
Reece nodded at me and moved forward to deal with the three remaining minions. I stepped around them and started towards the master. I didn’t bother to change into a wolf this time. She was trapped below the ground and there was little chance that I’d have to chase her down.
Seemingly unafraid, she stared up at me when I came to a stop in front of her. “You don’t want to kill me,” she said in a persuasive voice as her guardians threw wild punches at Reece. With his martial arts training, he easily kept them busy without sustaining any damage. He could have killed them all with little effort, but Katrina wanted them alive.
Used to being able to enthrall lesser vampires, the teen’s eyes widened in shock when I pulled my gun and pointed it at her face. “You’re right,” I said. “I don’t particularly want to kill you, but I’m going to anyway.” Then I pulled the trigger.
She was much faster than I’d anticipated and almost dodged out of the way. The bullet scored her temple and she snarled in pain and rage. Her lackeys turned to defend her and Reece tackled all three of them to the ground.
The girl’s hand flashed towards my eyes, trying to scoop them from my face. I knocked her hand away and kicked her legs out from under her. I pinned her down with a boot on her stomach and she hissed at me like an enraged cat. I decided not to drag the fight out and emptied my magazine into her face. Apart from beheading or using sunlight, this was the quickest way to kill our kind.
Her head disintegrated and her servants went mad. Shrieking and wailing in loss, they abandoned their attack on Reece and began to writhe on the ground. They were incapable of thought, let alone of escape. Leaving them where they lay, we made our way back outside.
Katrina had rounded up all of the rival vampires and was systematically bending them to her will. Benjamin and Orlando held a shrieking young woman by the arms. My mother caught her by the chin and stared into her eyes. Her screams went silent after a few moments and she became docile. “Drink of my blood and bind yourself to me,” Katrina ordered.
Using her thumbnail, she slit her left wrist and held it out. The young woman swayed forward then bent her head and drank. After a few swallows, she pulled away and blinked before focusing on Katrina. “Master,” she said in a drugged sounding voice. With a smile of triumph, Katrina moved on to the next newly bereaved underling.
