Blood loses vitality when it leaves the body, and vampires need living blood to thrive. The Goon Squad should know that. But obviously they didn’t care. They were giving Juliet enough nourishment to keep her alive, but weak. She’d be easier to handle that way. “I’ll see if there’s anything Kane can do.”
“Why didn’t he come? I asked for him specifically.”
“He said . . .” I looked around, wondering where they’d hidden the microphone, and didn’t finish.
How the hell were we supposed to have any kind of meaningful conversation? There was so much to talk about, but nothing we could say, given the circumstances. We went back to staring at each other.
Coming here to talk with Juliet had been a bad idea. In the morning, her real lawyer would show up. There might be trouble for Juliet because I’d dropped by tonight. And I hadn’t gotten an answer to even one of my million-and-two questions.
So much for helping my roommate.
At least I could try to play lawyer, then get advice from Kane. What would he be asking if he were here?
“Have any specific charges been brought against you?” I asked, trying to sound like I knew what I was doing.
Instead of answering, Juliet gasped. “What on earth?” She was looking over my shoulder, toward the camera.
I twisted around. It took me a moment to realize what she’d seen. There was no blinking from the video camera. Its light had gone dark.
Out in the hallway, something crashed, making the cell’s cement floor shudder. The crash was followed by a protracted scream, a sound twisted with unfathomable fear and pain.
I jumped up and went to the door. There was no knob on the inside. We were trapped. More crashes, more bangs shook the cell. Maybe whatever stalked the hallway wasn’t looking for us. Maybe it would pass us by.
I held my breath and waited.
A blow from outside jarred the door. So much for passing us by.
Behind me, Juliet made a strangled sound. “It’s them,” she whispered. “They’ve found me.” She looked wildly around the cell. Her gaze landed on me, darkened with something like sorrow. “I’m sorry, Vicky,” she whispered.
Her words chilled me more than the scream had. Vampires never apologize—ever. Not even as a figure of speech.
Another blow bulged the door inward.
I reached into my purse for a knife—and pulled out my weapons-check receipt. Stupid visitors’ policy. I picked up the chair I’d been sitting in and lifted it over my head, pressing myself as flat as I could against the cinder-block wall beside the door. When whatever was on the other side rushed into the room, I’d knock the crap out of it.
With a screech of tearing metal, the door was ripped from its hinges. A robed figure sped through the doorway. I slammed the chair down on him, and he collapsed in a heap of black cloth.
Right behind him came a second one, this one in a brown robe. He flew—literally flew—over the first, straight at Juliet.
Juliet sat perfectly still, her hands folded in her lap, her face expressionless except for the terror that screamed silently from her eyes.
What the hell was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she fighting?
She didn’t move, didn’t even flinch, as the brown-robed creature lifted her from the bed.
I picked up the chair and rushed him from behind. As I brought the chair down, the creature flung his arm backward, knocking me sideways. There was ice and power in the blow, and more-than-ordinary strength. I flew across the room and hit the wall headfirst. Stars exploded through my vision. Pain and the warm, metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I’d bitten my tongue when I hit the wall. I wiped my mouth, smearing blood across my cheek.
The room felt twenty degrees colder than it had before the Old Ones entered.
I shook the stars away. Brown Robe held Juliet like an undead groom about to whisk his bride over the threshold. But her shackle held her back, the silver chain stretched taut. The creature grabbed the chain and pulled, trying to yank it from the wall. He shrieked as a cloud of black-and-yellow smoke billowed from his hand. The creature dropped both Juliet and the chain. He spun around, clutching his hand to his chest, his bulging eyes searching the room.
His face. I’d forgotten how hideous the Old Ones were. Yellow skin stretched taut across the skull. His eyes protruded from their sockets, the whites tea colored. A hole gaped where his nose should be. But it was the fangs that made the Old Ones redefine ugly. They stretched from this Old One’s lipless mouth past his chin, ending in razor-sharp points. Saber-toothed vampires. Just what I wanted to fight without my weapons.
Brown Robe didn’t share my dilemma. Smoke still streaming from his right hand, he drew a short sword with his left. I tensed, preparing. But the Old One didn’t attack. Instead, he picked up Juliet, threw her onto the cot, and began hacking at her leg with the sword, just above the shackle.
Juliet screamed.
Oh, no, you don’t.
I rushed the Old One from the right. He tried to swat me away again, but I dodged the blow. I grabbed his sword, and we grappled for it.
The Old One’s grip was strong. His icy fingers made my joints ache. Gritting my teeth, I stuck a finger in his eye socket. Brown Robe recoiled, and I twisted my body. I got the sword away.
Immediately I thrust, but Brown Robe jumped impossibly high. Something grabbed my ankle and yanked backward. I fell, cracking my head again on the side of the cot. More stars. They filled the room, swirling over my head like the goddamn Milky Way.
When my vision cleared, I lay on my back, a weight pinning my limbs to the floor. Inches above me, the faces of two Old Ones hovered like a nightmare. The cold, stale smell of ancient death—of mold and rot and grave dust—flowed from them like an arctic wind blowing through a tomb. I struggled, but I couldn’t move. The Old Ones looked at each other. The black-robed one nodded. Brown Robe yanked his sword from my hand and rose. Immediately, Juliet’s screams began again, louder and more frantic than before.
Black Robe lowered his face to mine. A tip of black tongue poked out from between his fangs. Slowly, carefully, he licked the corner of my mouth, tasting the blood smeared there. It felt like an ice-coated slug slithering along my skin. Revulsion clenched my stomach, and I turned my head away. Mistake. Pain stabbed my neck and shoulder as the Old One sank his fangs into me. These creatures could drain a person dry in a couple of minutes. I’d seen the empty husks they left behind.
My neck ached and burned, and I could feel myself weaken as the creature sucked the life from my body. My toes and fingers were cold, going numb. I wiggled them, and my left hand brushed something. I heard a faint clink. The silver chain. It had burned Brown Robe’s hand to a cinder. I had a feeling that Black Robe wouldn’t like it much, either.
Black Robe had my hand pinned to the floor, but I got my fingers around the chain. One flick, and the silver made contact with the decrepit yellow flesh. Smoke billowed. Black Robe reared back, batting at his burned hand.
The moment his weight left my arms I was up on my knees. I wrapped the chain around his neck and yanked hard. Black Robe snarled and bucked and clawed at me with both hands. I looped the chain around my own hands so I wouldn’t lose my grip on it. The silver links grew hot in my fists as smoke billowed, spewing the smell of charred, rotten meat throughout the room. The links of chain seared my palms, the backs of my hands. I clenched my teeth against the pain and kept the chain taut.