Chapter 11
Dylan
The night was thick with fog as River and I navigated a labyrinth of cargo crates and shipping containers. From what I had managed to glean from my last recon mission, Don Leone was expecting a shipment of some kind at Red Hook dock, and Jordan was curious to know exactly what the crime lord was up to.
Slipping past security was easy enough, despite River’s complete lack of stealthing skills. While the prophetic vampire was nimble and limber, she had a hard time being inconspicuous – and it probably had something to do with the blood-red bodysuit she insisted on wearing for the mission. After the attack that nearly cost me my leg, Jordan was hesitant to have me infiltrating Don’s turf alone. And so I’d been partnered up with River for every mission since, despite my vehement protests.
As if she could hear me rehashing the earlier argument, River caught my eye from where she crouched behind a shipping container and smirked, before slinking past the wandering torchlight of a passing security guard.
Most likely spotting a streak of crimson in his peripheral, the guy swung his torch around and shone it near the spot where River had just been, and I groaned inwardly. To get him off River’s tail, I rifled for a loose piece of gravel and chucked it in the other direction.
It plonked against another crate and the man’s torchlight swept toward the sound. After a moment of stillness, he started after it and I exhaled slowly, not moving a muscle until he was out of sight.
“Will you please –” I hissed when I caught up with River, “– try to be a little more careful. That guy nearly spotted you.”
“Yeah, but I knew you’d have my back,” River replied nonchalantly, tapping her temple and grinning at me. “One of the many perks of prescience. Don’t forget, I can predict these things.”
“Can you predict the exact instance when my foot meets your ass?”
River only rolled her eyes, before peeking around the cargo and peering at the empty port. “There’s no one here. Are you sure the drop is happening tonight?”
Right on cue, a figure appeared from one of the large, fancy yachts floating on the dark water. Even from a distance, Don Leone was recognizable, lazily making his way down the jetty.
River and I watched from the shadows as Don turned his attention to the water – and the small tugboat slowly making its way toward him. It drifted against the jetty and I spotted another figure letting down a ramp for Don to board.
Zeroing in on the stranger, I took note of her features. Stark white hair, incandescent in the moonlight, and strangely gray skin. Her eyes, when I caught a glimpse of them, were an inky black – no whites and no irises, just an abyssal darkness that absorbed the light.
“We need to get on that boat.” River bolted forward before I could stop her, cutting a serpentine path toward the water and disappearing behind another crate.
I swore under my breath and followed, drawing shadows around my body and keeping an eye out for any more wandering security guards. An unsettling feeling filled my gut when I rounded a corner and picked up on the faintest of scents. It was a cloying, sweet aroma, almost like perfume but it left a bad aftertaste.
I wrinkled my nose and pressed on, with a strange sensation brewing in the pit of my stomach. It was a clawing hunger like I hadn’t been sated in days, even though that was far from the truth.
Finally, I caught sight of River, poised beside a stack of cargo crates, her eyes glassy and unfocused. I paused, hissing at her to get her attention.
“River? What are you doing, we need to move.”
She didn’t respond, and the unease curdled in my stomach. I moved closer and saw River twitch, her eyes tracking the movement. But I wasn’t the focus here, I realized with a sick sense of dread, catching the faint torchlight of an approaching security guard. When River’s eyes slitted, her neck craned in the direction of the approaching human, I realized what was happening. She was hunting.
I sprang into action when the security guard rounded the corner, hoping to ram River hard enough to snap her out of her bloodlust. But River was disarmingly fast, and she dodged me, haunching over as her full vampiric transformation began. Her bones bent and contorted with sickening cracks that bounced and echoed around the metal containers, sharp nails lengthening to a razor's edge.
“No, no not here!” I seethed into her ear, gripping her elongating jaw and trying to catch her hazy eyes, which were steadily gravitating away from each other as her skull took on new shape. “River, snap out of it!”
I hurriedly assessed my options. I had dealt with plenty of rogue vampires before, it was the reason I kept two blades slotted neatly against each forearm. I could dispatch River quickly enough, hopefully without killing her, so long as I caught her mid-transformation.
“Goddammit!” I hissed to no one in particular, yanking both blades out of their sheathes and preparing to drive them into River’s chest. As long as I avoided the heart, she’d be okay. Maybe.
“What the –” I heard a strangled gasp behind me and River and I were suddenly bathed in light as the security guard spotted us. I glanced over my shoulder at the quivering man, who nearly dropped his torch when he got a good look at River’s face.
“Jesus Christ, what the fuck is that?!”
“Get out of here!” – was what I wanted to say, but River’s body quivered violently, the scent of fresh blood reaching her newly slitted nostrils, and she bolted.
River went for the man with full force, slamming her morphed body into his and pinning him to the ground. Those razor-sharp teeth flashed as she tried to bite down on the guy's neck, eyes flashing with crazed hunger. Her pupils, when I glimpsed them, were blown wide, like a human on opioids, and she slathered at the mouth like a rabid dog.
Before she could take out her prey I brought my blades down on her back, harpooning the rogue vamp through the shoulders while the security guard punched upwards, smashing his fist into River’s face. I would have been impressed had there been any time to be anything but horrified.
River roared and rolled away, on her feet before I could even blink. She dove for the man again, who was struggling to get to his feet, and I rushed to intercept her. I threw off my jacket and felt my own body begin to shift, limbs elongating as I geared up to collide with my crazed partner, using an unnaturally unhinged jaw to snap down on her arm and wrench her aside.
River shrieked as the bones in her arm cracked and shattered between my fangs, and I delivered another ruthless punch to her abdomen. I was hesitant to pound one of my closest friends into the ground, but I could beat her just close enough to that level that she’d stay down for a while.
But there was a moment of hesitation between blows when River took her chance and kicked out at me, sending me flying backward and denting one of the shipping containers. In the blink of an eye she was on me, jaws wide open to sink her teeth into my flesh. I twisted under her weight, jerking my head to the side and narrowly missing her snapping jaws.
I heard the scrape of shoes on gravel as the security guard booked it away from the fight. I’d have to track him down later and have his mind wiped, as well as everyone else who would inevitably hear about this. It was an administrative nightmare, and the task would inevitably fall to me and one telepathic vampire I didn’t want to partner with. Hunter was even more socially inept than I was.
That thought alone was enough to have me fighting with renewed drive. I managed to curl my knees to my chest, holding back River’s snapping jaws with one arm – an arm that was quickly being gnawed to a bloody pulp. With all the strength I could muster, I kicked upwards, launching River off me. She landed in a muddled heap of gangly limbs and protruding bones, sinewy bat-like wings splayed out on either side of her.
Before she could recover I got to slashing, lengthening my own claws, and lashing out with both hands, not giving her a chance to heal. My blades were still protruding from her back like broken wings, and I grappled my way onto her shoulders as she stood, yanking them out and using them to saw at her wings so she couldn’t fly away.
I felt terrible, subjecting my friend to this torment, but if she got loose in the city it would be a bloodbath. Her piercing keening hurt my ears and I tried to close my mind to the sound, focusing on hacking and slashing and slicing, one thousand cuts to weaken her without actually killing her.
Eventually, River toppled over and I used the opportunity to slam her head into the floor on the way down. Finally, she went still, knocked unconscious, and her body slowly started to morph back to its regular size. Breathing heavily, I dropped down beside her and checked her pulse. Her jumpsuit was torn to shreds and her body was much the same, but she was alive.
My own clothes were looking a little worse for wear, but I at least had the forethought to dress for the occasion. Stretchy fabric worked a hell of a lot better for transformations than bright red body suits.
The sound of running feet reached my ears. Before the security guard could return with backup, I tugged on my jacket and hauled River over my shoulder, shuddering when her blood-slicked body nearly slipped from my grasp. I kicked myself for not bringing the car and ducked behind a cargo vault when the human men arrived to inspect the scene, hightailing it out of the docks with River on my back.
By the time I made it home I was drenched in my friend’s blood, with my chewed-up arm healing slowly in pink, fleshy patches. I kicked the door open and strode in, dumping River unceremoniously on the living room floor. The lights were out, and I silently prayed that the human resident of my household was fast asleep.
Fate, of course, could never be kind. A sharp intake of breath from somewhere nearby had me whipping out a blood-crusted blade, and I turned to find Amara, bug-eyed and frightened like she’d just stepped into a horror movie.
“It’s fine!” I held up my hands, then quickly put them down again when I realized I was brandishing a knife. “She’s not dead.”
Amara lifted her hands and gestured at me, or more accurately, at the blood that soaked my clothes and streaked across the floor from the entrance of the apartment to where River’s crumpled body lay in a heap.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I muttered half-heartedly. “Just – you know – don’t walk in it, you’ll leave bloody footprints all over the place.”
The vamp groaned as she came to, fluttering eyes spotting Amara. I took a cautious step forward, ready to pounce if she was still somehow locked in a frenzied bloodlust, but River only blinked slowly.
“Well hello there,” she drawled and then conked out again and Amara turned her exasperated expression on me.
This was going to be difficult to explain.
After a call with Jordan, a Leyore healer arrived to fetch River. The woman assured me that my partner would be fine, if a little uncomfortable while her body healed itself. When I explained the sudden bloodlust that had overcome River, the healer’s brow knit together. It wasn’t impossible for a baby vamp to be overcome with hunger out of nowhere, but River was not a newly-turned vampire. Neither of us knew what to make of it.
The entire conversation went down outside, away from Amara who no doubt had plenty of questions. After the healer took off with a sleeping River I trudged back upstairs and braced for impact before entering the apartment.
Right on cue, Amara, sitting in the dark, pounced the moment I walked through the door, holding out her cell so I could hear the automated voice speaking her words.
“What happened?”
I shrugged, examining the bloody smears on my precious wooden floors. “A deal went wrong, it’s fine. River will be fine.”
My mind was still turning over everything that had happened. River was not one to lose control like that, something else was at play. And what had Don been doing at the docks anyway? Who was that strange woman on the boat?
More typing from Amara’s end. I kept my eyes on the floor when the app spoke again. “Fine? That was not fine, Dylan. She looked like she was mauled by a bear!”
I ignored her, kneeling to scratch at a patch of dried blood on the floorboards. It was going to leave a stain. The smell of dried blood made my nose wrinkle. My thoughts drifted to that strange scent I’d picked up on, moments before River had gone rogue. A smell like perfume but more potent. Could that have done it?
Amara was still prattling on, the monotonous voice crackling from her cell. “And your arm? What happened to your arm? You need to get to a doctor.”
I glanced down at my arm, pinkish flesh already knitted back together. All that was left were the tell-tale marks of River’s fangs and a crusting of dried blood. At least Amara hadn’t noticed the accelerated healing. I brushed a hand over my arm, pondering the strange scent. Could it have been some kind of trap? But how would Don have known we were there?
I stilled, lifting my gaze to Amara who was still pacing up and down beside me.
“Amara,” I said when she caught my eye. “What did you do?”
She froze mid-step like a deer caught in headlights. After a long moment of silence, she typed into her cell. “What are you talking about?”
I slowly got to my feet, stepping lightly over the blood stains toward her. Amara took a small step back, stretching out her arm as if to ward me off.
“Something went wrong tonight.” I spoke quietly, sounding my words slowly. “Someone knew something they shouldn’t have.”
Understanding dawned on her and her eyes widened. She shook her head slowly, then quickly, her curls swinging around her face while she frantically typed on her phone. “Whatever happened, I swear I had nothing to do with it. I told no one where you were going.”
I stalked toward her so quickly that she took another cautious step backward. Her back hit the wall and she jerked forward again, nearly colliding with me, before raising her chin to meet my gaze. She seemed to have gotten used to my unsettling way of moving, shifting from complete stillness to swift motion in the blink of an eye. But it was clear she was uneasy, despite the hard glint in her eyes.
“Really.” I glowered down at her, “You press me to give you information and the moment I do, my partner and I walk right into a trap? And you had nothing to do with it?”
Amara scowled in response, squaring her shoulders like that made her look any less fragile. She stood before me in only a T-shirt, barefoot and shivering, her hair still frazzled like she’d just woken up. She glanced down to type into her phone again and held it up to my nose while the app spoke.
“I told no one. If you don’t believe me that’s fine, just get out of my face.”
She tried to push past me but I grabbed her wrist, stepping closer to her so that our bodies were touching. That faint shimmer of electricity tingled between us, spurred on by the brewing anger that had my blood rushing in my ears. This was what I had expected, this was what I had known all along. Amara was not here for me, no matter how much we opened up to each other. I knew that. But her betrayal still struck a nerve, and I cloaked that pinprick of pain with anger.
“Don’t lie to me,” I hissed.
Amara flinched when I leaned closer but her eyes remained cold and angry, burning with a fire of their own. She shoved at me with her free hand, and I caught that one too. When she struggled and groaned in frustration, I scooped both of her wrists in one hand, propelling her backward against the wall, and pinning her arms above her head.
Amara’s roar of anger was cut short when she found herself nose-to-nose with me once again. This close, I could see tiny flecks of amber in her otherwise hazel eyes. The lightest scattering of freckles was noticeable over her nose, faintly dotting the smooth skin of her cheekbones. Her breath came in short, sharp bursts, and I could feel each gust against my cheek. I realized I had made a grave mistake getting so close.
Her expression was closed, but her eyes burned. There was a bitterness to the set of her mouth, like she was grappling with herself internally, wrestling with some twisted emotion. All of her frustration she aimed at me, conveyed through the intensity of her gaze. But when I brought my other hand up to tuck a curl behind her ear, she sighed into the touch, letting my fingers graze her freckled cheek.
I teetered on a knife’s edge, my resolve dwindling at the sudden heat in my abdomen, and the catching sensation in my chest. I leaned closer, tugging against the invisible shackles that had always stalled me before. Amara jutted her chin out as if to close the distance between her lips and my own, and I inhaled sharply, consumed by the burning sensation that thrummed through my veins like a second heartbeat.
She’s your enemy. I had to remember that. But it was difficult to think rationally when her hips rocked forward to press against mine. I closed my eyes and dropped my forehead to hers, crowding her body against the wall and leaning my forearm above her head. While my rational brain screamed that I shouldn't, couldn’t cross that line, my very cells sang for her, demanding a devastating release that only she could offer.
Before I could betray myself further, and with great effort, I dropped her wrists and abruptly pulled away. Only, I didn’t get very far. Without warning, Amara’s hand snaked out and grabbed my collar, yanking me back toward her and claiming my mouth in a brutal, searing kiss.