There was a scuffle in the cabin to their right. Carwyn turned and ripped the door off its hinges, throwing it to the side.
Terry caught the first crewman who tried to scurry out, tossing him to Giovanni while Gemma found the other trying to hide in a closet. The man was trembling in fear, so she used her amnis to calm him and send him to the top deck with his hands on his head.
“Where is the girl?” Giovanni growled, as he held the small man up by the throat. Flames flared on his shoulders, and the crewman's horrified gaze flicked farther down the hallway to a pair of large, steel doors.
“Forward cargo hold,” Terry murmured before Giovanni squeezed the man’s neck and sent the human into unconsciousness before dropping him on the floor.
The four approached the door cautiously, Giovanni reaching out with his senses, searching for Beatrice’s distinctive scent in the confused mass of immortal energy, human scent, and growing commotion behind the steel doors. The flames flared on his arms as his frustration grew.
“Carwyn…”
“Focus on her, Gio. Is she in there?”
“Yes,” he hissed and reached for the door. His hands were already flaming as he placed them on the metal, but Carwyn put a firm hand on his shoulder, halting him.
“We don’t know what’s on the other side of that. Hold back the fire, my friend. Now, what’s behind there?”
He closed his eyes and focused. “Beatrice is there. Four vampires…too many humans. More than ten, that’s all I can tell.”
“Is she frightened?”
“Everyone is frightened. I can’t tell where she is.” His patience snapped. “Just get the damn door open before I melt it!”
Terry pulled him back from the doorway and let Carwyn forward.
“Hold back, mate. We’ll take care of the rest. You just find your girl.”
Carwyn placed his ear on the door and closed his eyes before nodding with satisfaction. He reared back and punched both hands through the layers of steel, ripping them apart and pulling the door off its hinges as it broke apart.
All four rushed into the room, darting around the confused humans, who were running to one corner of the cavernous hold where boxes were stacked in a kind of barricade. The four vampires rushed toward them, and Gemma and Terry confronted them as Carwyn began knocking out humans who darted by and tossing them in a pile.
Giovanni only looked for one thing.
“Gio!”
He heard her call his name, but he could not see her in the confusion. One of the vampires escaped Gemma and rushed him, sending a blanket of wet air and extinguishing his flames before he could send them out. The young water vampire drew a sword and slashed at him but only succeeded in cutting Giovanni’s arm before he was grabbed by the throat.
Giovanni eyed him, trying to determine whether he was worth interrogating. The vampire sneered, and Giovanni almost snapped his neck, but Carwyn reached over and snatched him away.
“No. This one feels the oldest. I want to question him.”
Giovanni grunted as he continued stalking toward the corner with the boxes. He saw Beatrice peek out before she was pulled back by a large human holding a gun on her.
“Gio!” she shrieked again before the human tugged her behind a stack of crates. He heard her yell, “Let me go, you bastard!”
Giovanni was tracking her so intently that he barely registered when one of the human crew members to his right pulled a handgun and shot him in the chest.
The blast punched through him, but missed his heart, which would have knocked him over. Giovanni grunted and reached over to grab the man, annoyed as he twisted his neck and let him fall to the ground. He strode to the crates where the human had taken Beatrice only to find her twisting away from her captor. He watched as she drove her elbow into the large man's gut and her knee into his groin. She had already disarmed him, and the gun lay on the ground as they struggled.
Giovanni rushed over, grabbed the human by the neck, and squeezed. The man’s face turned red as he struggled helplessly in his iron grip. Beatrice reached down to grab the nine millimeter and aim it at the dangling human. He examined her quickly.
She was pale and had bruises on her arms, several cuts to her face, and a swollen knee. She also had the beginning of a black eye and an ugly bruise spread over her temple, but her hands were steady.
“Tesoro, are you all right?”
“Fine. I’ll be fine. I’m really glad to see you guys, though.” He saw her glance over his shoulder. “There’s four vampires here. They came down as soon as the sun set, but they didn’t say anything to me. They just herded us down here and told this guy to keep me quiet.”
“Gemma, Terry, and Carwyn are taking care of them.”
“You’re bleeding a lot,” she said in a shaky voice as she glanced at his chest.
“I was shot. It missed the heart, so it shouldn’t take long to heal.” In fact, he could already feel the wound beginning to close, so he reached in his chest with his fingers, grunting until he had pulled the bullet from the torn flesh.
“Oh, Gio!” she cried as she watched him toss the bullet to the ground and wipe at the bleeding cavity. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Did this human hurt you?” The man was barely conscious, but his eyes widened when he heard Giovanni.
He saw her clench her jaw from the corner of his eye. “He’s the one that hit me. He was trying for something else, but my boot met his balls.”
The man desperately tried to pry Giovanni’s fingers from his throat. His terror-stricken eyes met the vampire’s gaze when he cocked his head and spoke in a low voice.
“Did you lay your hands on my woman? That was very foolish. You’re going to wish she had killed you now. She would have been quicker than me.”
His heart began a slow thud of anticipation, but Giovanni wanted to be fair.
“Beatrice, do you wish to kill him yourself?”
His green eyes remained locked on the struggling human’s, and he refused to allow any amnis to spread over him to soften the terror.
“No,” he heard her murmur. “You need the blood.”
Giovanni bared his fangs in the man’s face, cutting off the human’s scream as he twisted his neck to the side and sank his fangs into the soft, warm throat. He closed his eyes and took long, dragging gulps as his bloodlust collided with the pain that finally slammed into his chest.
He opened his eyes to see Beatrice looking around the cargo hold, watching for any threats. He could hear Gemma and Terry rounding up the last of the humans behind them. Beatrice came to stand in front of him as he drank, and he bit harder, piercing the carotid as the blood flooded into his mouth. His green eyes locked with hers and blood ran down his chin, but Beatrice did not flinch as she watched him drain the human who had threatened her life.
He felt the blood pumping through his system as his stomach filled, and a feral growl rumbled in his chest. The flames began to lick at his arms as his body grew stronger.
Beatrice never took her eyes off Giovanni, watching as he slowly sucked the life out of the man. Her hand reached toward him, and an instinctive snarl ripped from his throat, but she only paused for a moment before she placed a hand on his forehead, sweeping her fingers back through his hair as his eyes remained on hers. Gradually, the rage lessened, and the fire along his arms began to die down.
The human’s heartbeat slowed, then stopped, and Giovanni dropped the dead man on the ground, wiping his mouth on his forearm before he stepped toward Beatrice, gripped the back of her neck, and let his bloody mouth crash down on hers.
He almost expected her to push him away, disgusted by his animalistic display, but she did not. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed close, careful to avoid his chest wound. He pierced his tongue and licked at the cut on her chin and at the corner of her mouth until they were sealed and healing.