Chapter 36
VALEN
Everything inside me freezes at that mocking voice. I’m transported back to that cell, cold, frail and starving, just waiting for the next time they’d yank me out for something—whether to take more of my blood or to do one of their experiments.
Ava’s hand slides into mine and gives a reassuring squeeze.
I inhale her sweet, sugary scent and instantly feel more grounded.
“Are you up for a fight?” Zavier asks me, looking unsure.
I nod. No one is going to hurt Ava or Celine if I can help it.
Zavier slings the door open, and we come face to face with a row of vampires.
“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Zavier says, rubbing his hands together. The savage gleam in his eye tells me he revels in this sort of chaos.
In a flash, he headbutts the one in front. The bald, hulking vampire clearly wasn’t expecting that and falls backward into the vampires behind him.
“Zavier and I will attempt to clear a path,” I tell Ava. “You and Celine, run.”
Her eyes flash with fear. “I won’t leave you.”
I grab her into a quick, furtive kiss. “You can and you will.” To Celine, I say, “Make her go.”
She nods in understanding. I’m sure she doesn’t want to leave her mate either, but unlike Ava, she knows that the last thing they need is to be caught by these guys.
I join Zavier in the fray. Even after months of recuperating, I’m still not at my full strength, but I’ve managed to build back enough that I am stronger than these guys, and they clearly don’t expect it. It’s the advantage of being a true vampire—a being not human and made but instead changed.
We make such quick work of the ten or so vampires, that the women haven’t gotten far. I grab ahold of Ava while Zav takes Celine, and we run with them in our arms.
“Which way?” Zav asks.
Fuck. I wish I had paid more attention when I was being held here, but I truly gave up on escape centuries ago, so I never bothered.
Think, Valen. Think!
“Down,” I say. “I know they talked about tunnels down here.”
Zav gives me a skeptical look. “Not up?”
It sounds like a horde of more vampires coming from above us. “I don’t know that we can get out that way right now. It might be best to try to shake them in the tunnels.”
“We probably tripped some sort of sensor,” Celine groans. “We should’ve expected that whoever held Valen would expect us to come back snooping.”
We delve deeper beneath the club. This place seems to go on and on for miles with halls branching off. It would take us forever to explore it all. It’s no wonder the police didn’t seem to get very far with their investigation and gave up.
“This way,” I say, sniffing the air and stopping in front of a door.
Only when I open it, we’re very much not alone.
A group of drooling, snarling masses of fur glare at us. Their eyes, a feral red and tinted with savagery, lock on to ours.
“What the fuck are those?” Zavier screams, backing away with Celine slung over his shoulder. Even he knows these creatures, whatever they are, aren’t worth messing with.
“No idea,” I scream, running after him as he jets off.
“They’re like vampire dogs!” Ava shrieks as the animals chase us down one of the many halls. “They have huge fangs!”
My sole thought is of getting Ava out of here. I have to get my mate to a safe place. But with whatever those things are chasing us and vampires coming from the other direction, we’re basically sitting ducks.
“Come on,” Zavier encourages, turning down another corridor. “Faster.”
I overtake the ginger vampire and silently beg that we all make it out of this alive. I didn’t find my mate just to end up captured again.
We zigzag through the maze of tunnels, losing the creatures somewhere along the way. Somehow we silently work in sync. I have no idea how long we go for, but we aren’t finding a way out.
“I think we need to go back up,” Zavier says. “We’re getting nowhere.”
Unfortunately, he’s right.
“Are you ready to fight?” I ask him.
He grins wickedly, green eyes flashing. “Always.”
Using our own scents to guide us, we turn back the way we came. My skin prickles with the thought that we could run into the dogs or vampires at any time.
“How many do you think?” I ask Zavier.
“I can’t tell by smell,” he hisses in annoyance. “How the fuck are they hiding their scent?” He cocks his head to the side. “By the sound of them … minimum twenty, maybe thirty.”
We exchange a look. Even as strong as we are, twenty against two is going to be tough, let alone more than that. Chances are we’re going to end up hurt, or worse, but we have to try.
We only make it about halfway back to our starting point when we encounter them.
My eyes rake over the horde of vampires waiting for us. It’s more than Zavier’s estimate of twenty. We set the girls down behind us. I don’t bother telling them to run. There’s no point. If Zav and I couldn’t find a way out, there’s little chance they will either.
Zav and I stand shoulder to shoulder, facing the vampires. One in front with hair cropped close to his scalp takes a step forward.
“Come with us, Valen, and we won’t hurt your friends.”
I narrow my eyes.
He clucks his tongue. “You don’t believe me? Understandable.” He takes another step closer. “I probably wouldn’t believe me either. But we need you, you see, and we’re willing to negotiate.”
“Who’s we?” I growl.
He grins, fangs flashing. “I can’t tell you that now, can I?” He peers around me, eyes flashing with interest. “Nice hair,” he coos at Ava. “You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you? How about once we take out the trash, we have some fun with this one?” he says to the vamps behind him, who chuckle.
He reaches between Zav and me like he’s going to touch her. Violence jolts through my system. I grab his wrist and twist his arm. He screams in pain and drops to his knees.
“You’re strong,” he says through gritted teeth.
“I won’t be taken again,” I hiss.
He smirks. “He always gets what he wants in the end, and he will have you.”
My eyes widen in shock when the vampire’s head separates from his body. Zav drops the decapitated head to the ground.
“Oops,” he laughs. “He was talking too much, don’t you think?”
All hell breaks loose as Zav throws the head at the remaining vampires.
He rips the arm off one and uses it to slap another with a gleeful chuckle. Seeing him in his element is kind of disturbing. There’s no doubt he’s a machine, though, and swiftly kicks the legs out from a vampire trying to sneak up behind him.
I grab the vamp once they’re down and, with a hefty throw, knock down a small group like bowling pins with the body. It won’t kill them, but it’s enough to disorient them while we handle those closing in on us.
Too many.
There’s too fucking many, I think to myself. They just keep coming. Appearing from seemingly nowhere. The worst part is I can’t smell them. At least I can hear them, but having that one sense stolen from me is debilitating.
I dispatch one vampire, only to have another wrap its arm around me and pull me backward. Trying to shake him off, I attempt to bite at any piece of skin I can, but it’s fruitless.
My eyes widen in horror as I pull at his arm, trying to yank him off me.
I might be stronger, but another vampire grabs ahold of me, and then yet another, and finally one more, until four vampires are carrying me—one holding each limb.
I shudder and feel a foggy cloud of fear flood my mind at the familiar memory of being held down.
A shrill scream rips through the air. The scream of my mate.
I fight against their hold with everything I have, a new wave of panic overpowering the trauma that has started to bleed through.
Ava.
I have to get back to Ava.
She needs me.
“Ava!” I roar.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Zavier in a similar position, held against the wall by multiple vampires. He rages and growls, but it makes no difference.
A sudden blinding bright light and heat bursts forth, and I fall to the ground, dropped by the vampires holding me.
The light is so bright that I have to roll to my stomach and cover my face with my hands. Even then, the light still manages to leak into my closed lids. The heat gets impossibly warmer, and I grit my teeth against it. My skin prickles with discomfort.
Just as suddenly as it came, it ends, and the space is bathed in near darkness once more.
Silence greets me and I roll over, slowly opening my eyes. A few sparks of white dance across my vision, but I blink them away.
Gasping, I take in the scene around me. Zavier lies slumped against one wall, looking around, stunned. Celine has been blown against the opposite wall, completely knocked out. Her arm sits at an odd angle. Once Zav realizes, he shouts her name in agony and rushes over to her.
“Ava?” I voice, crawling toward my own mate. She lies in the center of the blast, the space around her entirely clear.
It dawns on me then to check the other vampires—if they’re all knocked out, they should be easy enough for me to dispose of.
But all I find in their places is … ashes.
My eyes slide back to my mate and widen.
Did she…?
I pull her into my arms and listen for a pulse. It’s faint but there.
“What the fuck just happened?” Zavier asks, sounding a bit breathless, worry tainting his tone as he pulls Celine into his chest.
I force myself to hold his gaze. “I think … I think Ava just came into her powers.”