Chapter 61
AVA
It’s been a week since I last laid eyes on Celine. If Zav’s telling me the truth, then she’s still in the suite of the hotel, recovering from her change and acclimating to being a vampire. But I desperately want to see her with my own two eyes. To know she’s alive—well, undead alive—and okay.
“You need to stop moping,” Valen says. I turn to find him with Pom Pom cradled in his arms like a baby.
“I’m not moping,” I snap.
Okay, so maybe I am a little.
I keep replaying the events of the gala in my mind. Everything went to shit so much quicker than we anticipated. We thought we were prepared, but we were the furthest thing from it.
“Then what do you call what you are doing?” Valen asks, taking one of Pom Pom’s paws to boop my nose. I give him the tiniest of smiles in return. I know my mate is only trying to make me feel better.
With a sigh, I scoot around him and into the kitchen. Swiping a pop from the fridge, I open the can and take a long swig. I’m totally stalling, and from Valen’s raised brow, he knows it.
“Fine, okay. I am moping, but can you blame me? My best friend almost died. I mean technically she did, and now she’s a vampire and I’m not allowed to see her.”
“I’m sorry, Starlight.” He sets the fluffy dog down on the floor so he can pull me into his arms. “I’m so—”
The door to the apartment flies off its hinges.
“What the fuck?” I scream, ducking as splinters of wood rain down.
Deep down, I’ve known that the reprieve this past week would be short lasting. I’ve been looking over my shoulder constantly when I leave the apartment. Silly of me, when I should have known the danger could appear here just as easily.
“Get down!” Valen shouts, shoving me aside. He pushes me a little too hard and I slide across the floor until I slam into the kitchen cabinets.
“Ow!” I cry out.
Valen crouches low and tackles the vampire to the ground. His strength has grown immensely these last months, and even though the vampire is clearly giving his all, Valen is stronger.
It doesn’t mean the brawl is entirely one-sided.
The other vampire slams his fist into Valen’s ribs hard enough to send my mate careening into the window. It doesn’t break—thank God, because while Valen would surely survive the fall, the recovery would have to be brutal—but it does groan from the sheer force.
With a scream, Valen overtakes the vampire again, dragging him to the floor where he repeatedly slams his fist into his face.
When the vampire stops fighting, Valen looks over his shoulder at me. “I need something to tie him up.”
My brain runs through what I might have.
“Won’t he break through rope pretty easily?”
“Yeah, probably, but we’ll be ready for him.”
I find some spare rope in the closet and give it to Valen. He shoves the limp vampire into a kitchen chair and ties him so he’s thoroughly bound.
“Call Levi,” he instructs.
“Why?” I blurt in surprise.
“Because he’s a demon. He should have the power to see into his mind.”
My jaw pops open. “He can read minds?”
“No, not read them, per se, but he can … probe them.”
“Probe?” I try not to giggle.
Valen sighs. “Dirty girl. Just call him.”
With a shake of my head, I ring Luna, since it’s the quickest way to get ahold of Levi. I wonder how she’s faring now with him. I feel terrible that I’m the reason they’re linked together, but Luna’s been too nice to blame me for it.
“Pinky,” Levi croons. “What could you possibly need from me?”
“We … uh … we just got attacked by a vampire, and I think it’s safe to say that homeboy was sent by Big, Bad Damien. Valen says we need you to help interrogate him since you can probe his mind.”
“Probe,” Levi chuckles. “Sure. We’ll be there as quick as we can, but please tell Uncle Valentine to never call it probing again.”
Before I can reply, he hangs up.
“They’ll be here,” I tell Valen.
He nods, hands on his hips as he stares down at the vampire. I wonder if he’s trying to figure out if he knows him.
“Good.”
Twenty minutes later, Levi and Luna let themselves into the apartment.
“What the hell?” Luna mutters, taking in the busted down door.
Levi waves his hand behind him and the open doorway glimmers a deep shade of purple. At my speculative look, he explains, “It’s a glamour. Any humans passing by will see a closed door.”
“Makes sense,” I mutter. It also makes me wonder what other powers he might be hiding. I don’t know much at all about the demon at this point.
Levi takes in the vampire who’s knocked out once more. The second he started stirring, Valen struck him across the face and knocked him out again.
Rolling up the sleeves of his gauzy black shirt, he sighs. “Let’s get to it.” He grabs the vampire’s head between his huge hands and murmurs something I can’t hear.
Nothing seems to happen at first, but then the vampire’s head raises and his eyes pop wide open. The orbs are glassy and out of it, which I take to mean Levi has infiltrated his mind.
“You attacked my uncle and future aunt. That’s not very nice, is it?” Levi croons and I shiver at his words. Yes, I’m mated to Valen, and I assume we’ll get married, but to hear those words from someone who looks to be my age is odd. “Tell me, what are you doing here?”
The vampire jolts in his hold, like he’s fighting the probing, but soon settles.
“I’m here for the vampire. He made the boss angry, and he wanted me to snatch him and kill the pink-haired girl,” his deep voice replies.
Off to the side, I cross my arms and watch the whole thing with Luna, who is in a similar position. I’m probably far too calm, considering this vampire just admitted that he came to kill me, but it looks like someone wanting me dead is becoming a regular thing.
“Why is this particular vampire so important?” Levi prompts, asking the question we’re all wondering.
“He’s the beginning of it all. As a fallen angel turned vampire, his blood is the most powerful. The purest.”
“Most powerful for what?” Valen interjects.
“Making vampires,” the vampire replies but twitches in an odd way.
“What’s wrong with him?” Luna asks, cringing.
“Besides the obvious beating he took?” Levi tilts his head over his shoulder to make eye contact while continuing to hold the guy’s head. “I can only do this for so long before he expires, so you better ask any other burning questions you have.”
“Making vampires?” Valen hums in thought. “Why would he need my blood for that?”
“The boss has created vampires for centuries, dating back to almost the dawn of modern humanity. He’s used different covers over the years to hide his tracks—such as operating as a government research program.”
I stiffen hearing that and wonder back to Zav and what Celine told me about his backstory. Is this vampire saying this whole time it was Damien behind the creation of vampires, including Zav? Those “experiments” by the government were a front?
“Continue,” Levi commands, his voice deep and booming.
“The boss has mastered various mutations and powers from the blood he’s collected and experimented with to create the kind of vampire he needs. Any iterations before then, he’s taken to eliminating when he can.”
His soulless eyes zero in on Luna and she grabs my arm for support. Levi growls and squeezes harder.
“Why is he creating vampires? What do you mean by the kind of vampire he needs?” Valen asks as the vampire starts to seize up. Shit, time is of the essence.
“He wants an army. His plan is to create the perfect, controllable vampire army to eradicate those lesser than us and take over. There are so many of them, and they are strong and hard to kill. With a force like that, no human or supernatural will be able to stop him.”
My mouth drops in shock.
What the fuck?
“He’s been holding me captive, collecting my blood, and torturing me, all to create an army to take over?” Valen advances on the vampire and growls out.
“Correct.” The vampire is frothing at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably now. “He has had many failures in his quest. Many. But in the last fifty years, he’s finally begun to perfect the formula to create what he needs—vampires that are controllable by him and him only.”
Valen seems frantic as he realizes the sole source of information he’s wanted for so long is dwindling away. He bends down beside the vampire and gives him a rough shake. Levi groans when his hold is almost knocked loose from the vampire’s skull.
“How many vampires does he have in his army?” When the vampire doesn’t answer right away, Valen screams, “How many?”
As the last of the light leaves the vampires eyes and Levi pulls his hands away, he whispers three words.
“Thousands upon thousands.”
The four of us exchange a look and horror sends a shiver down my spine.
If Damien has built an army filled with vampires he controls, then we’re screwed.
“This is bad, isn’t it?” Luna voices. “Like real bad.”
Levi grabs her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “The good news is we know what’s going on now.”
“And the bad news?” she voices.
Levi sighs and runs his fingers through his icy blond hair. The tips turn a bright cobalt blue before settling back into their normal hue. “The bad news is, we’re severely underprepared for a war.”
Valen’s eyes meet mine and he pulls me into his arms. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he vows.
I know he means what he says, but I worry there might come a point when he won’t be able to protect me.
“What do we do now?” I ask.
Valen sighs and looks toward Luna and Levi. “We prepare in every way we can.”
Levi twists one of his many rings around his finger. “And try to win this war before it even starts.”