I reached out to Bel who skipped away, oblivious to my incapacitation. Tears dribbled from the corners of my eyes. I needed to breath, except the pain wouldn’t let me move.
“Rabbit?” With the mental question, the pain disappeared like a switch turned off.
I gasped and my lungs filled with sweet air as I lay on the ground, face pressed to the hard concrete of the sidewalk. Tremors twanged the muscles of my tense limbs from the remembered agony.
Whatever was left of my mental shield lay in tatters. I could sense Tane waiting, not trying to intrude. “What the hell was that?”
“Luckard inserting the last restraining bar through me. I’m sorry, the pain was too much and I’ve little control over my powers.”
Holy crap, and a truckload of it. The strain of shielding me from his torture vibrated through our connection. Why wasn’t he screaming and freaking-out? My respect for him grew three-fold. “I’m coming for you—for both of you.”
His weakened state from the drug allowed me a glimpse in his head. I sensed surprise and joy that I included him.
A touch on my shoulder drew me away. Bel squatted next to me. “Connie?”
“I’m okay. I tripped.” Rolling onto my side I sat, then heaved to my feet. “Lead the way.” Tane’s presence faded and I concentrated on building my mental shields stronger.
Around and around my thoughts went as I created a walled fortress with imaginary bricks.
Almost nothing had ever broken down those walls. Almost. The drug Archios wanted weakened them and the Nosferatu could shatter them with brute force. Just like Tane did a moment ago.
Funny how comfortable I’d become with him in my head. I rarely allowed Rurik in, only when he fed, which hadn’t been for nights.
“It’s that one.”
I stopped next to Bel, who pointed at a large white stucco house. The neighborhood appeared upper middle class. Well-kept properties spaced at regular intervals, a few new cars, nothing luxurious. The streets were quiet and dark, all the good humans tucked in their beds while the vampires tortured each other in the house next door.
I checked my cell for signal strength then called Colby. “We’re on Sonia Angel Jones off of Mario Alves, number three-twenty-one.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Stay out of the house, we’re twenty minutes away.” Colby disconnected the line and left me staring at the house of torture.
“Who were you speaking to?” Bel crossed her arms over her petite chest. Her thin eyebrows furrowed in a frown.
I couldn’t trust Bel, no matter how much I wanted to. The pistons in her head didn’t fire like they should, and our priorities didn’t match.
She wanted me to convince her husband of his mistakes, yet if Archios laid one finger on my vampires then he could go straight back to hell.
“It was Gwen.” Technically, did that count as a lie? She did accompany Colby. My conscience wasn’t bothered by it much. “She’s coming to help with Luckard. Neither of us can fight him without a lot of help.”
Bel chewed at her bottom lip then nodded. “She might not hurt Archios if you ask her not to. I think we should just tell him to leave before she gets here.” Twisting she marched across the street.
I scampered after her and grabbed her elbow. “Are there guards?” Someone helped transport Tane and Rurik here.
She stopped mid-step and looked at the ground, refusing to meet my stare. “Not anymore.”
“Bel?”
“They’re dead.” She glanced at me, tears brimming in her eyes. “Don’t tell Archios.
He’ll be so angry if he finds out. He’s always telling me I have to stop feeding before the human dies, but my hunger is so strong.”
“You fed on all of them?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
She counted her fingers and held up six.
My eyebrows shot up before I could school my expression.
“They were only human, Connie. I am capable of hunting on my own.” She sighed.
“But we’re not supposed to hunt like this anymore. Not since Dragos died.”
Cold intuition froze my gut. I recalled the story Tane told me of Bel’s creation. How she’d started as a bound human like me, except separation from her master and the hunger drove her mad, until Archios made her a vampire. Did changing her really cure her hunger or mutate it?
Was this my future?
The hunger had stayed quiet since I’d fed from Tane, but what if he abandoned me?
I wanted to make her feel better. I understood the hunger, and I prayed to never become like her. So I took her hand and smiled. “It’s okay. We’ll explain it to him together. He’ll believe us.”
She grinned at my reassurance. When I died I’d be joining Dragos in hell for those lies.
Hand in hand, Bel and I approached the house. Every light appeared to be on. It streamed out of the windows and bled onto to the street. Like a bug zapper it drew us in.
A driveway ran along the rectangular building and red flowers grew at its base.
White lace curtains hung in the windows. A picturesque little home in the suburbs of Rio, except for the splatter of blood drops across one of the windows.
My stomach clenched at the sight. Two stairs led to a red door. I stood at the foot of the first step and stared at the pattern of blood drops that formed a rainbow of gore.
Bell brushed past me, climbed the steps and opened the door, not disturbed by what she’d find inside.
Then I recalled she probably caused the mess. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
Innocent Bel was still a predator, maybe the most dangerous kind, where she lured her prey with sweetness.
Sometimes I could be so stupid. I was about to follow her inside a house that contained Luckard and Archios. Short of carrying a flamethrower, I didn’t have a chance of rescuing my vampires without Colby and Gwen. “Bel, I don’t think we should go in,” I whispered. “Let’s wait for Gwen.”
“I need you to speak with Archios and convince him to leave before she gets here.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “They might hurt him—”
A toe-curling scream interrupted our debate. My spine snapped to attention and I bit down on my lip. I recognized the cry. I’d made similar ones under Luckard’s care.
Bel ran into the house.
I took the first step and halted as every horror movie memory returned. Don’t go in the house, my instincts shouted.
The red door stood open where Bel had left it and I caught a glimpse of a hand.
Fingers curled, it lay on the white tiled floor in a small pool of blood. As I rose on tiptoe to glance around the corner, I could see the arm of the victim. I steeled my courage and prayed rescue would be here soon, because I couldn’t ignore the noises of pain and I was the queen of stupidity.
Long live the queen.
Either all three of us got out alive or none of us did. I couldn’t bear anymore grief.
Taking the last stair, I crossed the threshold. Three bodies lay across the kitchen floor. I expected more blood, but then again, Bel probably drained them dry.
I stepped over the legs of a Latino man I didn’t recognize. Tane’s home brimmed with people so they all could have lived there. The muscles in my arms and legs trembled with tension, tight as bowstrings ready to spring into a sprint. My breaths sounded loud to my ears and competed with the drumming of my heart.
A slow footfall at a time, I crossed the kitchen to the archway leading to the dining room.
Creaking wood, as if someone climbed the outdoor steps to the doorway, caused me to spin around.