24. Tavia
Chapter 24
Tavia
I reached the settlement soon after dusk plunged into full darkness. Too frantic to find the kickstand with my foot, I killed the motorcycle’s engine and tried to lay it down as gently as I could. Every second messing with the bike felt like a second wasted, and I hurried into the village brandishing my silver dagger
It was too still, too quiet, although it was definitely clear there had been fighting and carnage. Outdoor furniture was broken and strewn all over the place. Windows were shattered, recycling and trash cans dented and overturned, spilling their debris all over the ground.
Blood smeared the ground in long messy trails, as if people had been gutted and dragged away. Bloody hand and footprints covered decks and walkways, all chaotic and with no discernible trail.
No one saw them coming. It must have been madness, people running to whatever shelter they could.
Could draetrium have caused this? Such violence seemed extreme for a side effect. The two addicts I’d seen had been rather mild-mannered and subdued, even if the guy in the restaurant was pushy about it. But this seemed like something else entirely. Like letting a pack of starving dogs loose into a chicken coop. Everything around me showed mindless violence and chaos.
Speaking of chickens, feathers floated on a gentle breeze over all the blood and debris littering the ground. In the animal pens up ahead, I could make out the unmoving bodies of the goats and pigs Amy had taken such good care of. Not even the animals had been safe in the attack.
There were no human bodies that I could see, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or more alarmed at that.
A sound made me freeze, and I held my breath to listen harder. I couldn’t place what the sound was, and turned to face it when I heard it again.
That had been a mistake.
Something hit me from behind, crashing me to the ground with enough force to knock the wind from my lungs. Rough hands turned me over, bringing me face-to-face with a creature I’d never seen before.
It looked like a vampire, but also not. Its eyes held the sickly yellow tinge of a draitrium high, but the lower canines were more prominent, jutting up from its lower jaw like tusks. Its skin was gray and mottled with purple veins and bruising around its eyes.
If this was a vampire, he—I could only assume it was male—was unlike any I’d ever seen.
He lunged toward my neck, and I crossed my arms in front of me in an automatic reflex. An animalistic scream erupted from my attacker, and then raindrops fell from my hands and forearms.
No, not rain. Blood.
I forgot that I had been clutching my silver dagger. The blade had sliced across his face and he scrambled away from me, his skin hissing from where the metal had burned him.
His screams must have alerted others because I spotted movement behind corners and obstacles. More creatures like him emerged, yellow eyes bright as lamplight in the darkness.
I scrambled to my feet, turning in circles to find myself surrounded by yellow-eyed demons. Porchlights threw long shadows, making it seem like there were twice as many as there really were.
I held my knife out as I spun, pausing when I saw the door to the community cellar in the distance. That was where Amy was, where I had to go. All I needed to do was get through this ever-shrinking circle of danger.
They were closing in on me quickly, saliva dripping down their massive lower fangs. Could they even be reasoned with?
“Let me through.” I held my dagger out in front of me, injecting as much strength into the demand as I could muster. Cyan always called me brave, but I felt moments away from curling into a ball from fear. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, so just let me get past you.”
One of them blinked, head cocking to the side. He was large and muscular, looking almost carved from stone with his gray skin.
“...Hurt…?” He mused on the word quietly, like it was familiar but he couldn’t remember what it meant.
“Right. This is silver. It’ll hurt you.” I kept turning in a circle, trying to watch my back at every angle. “I don’t want to do that.”
“Sill-verr,” another snarled before he lunged at me.
His sudden movement startled me so much that I nearly tripped, swinging the dagger wildly as I backed away. It wasn’t until my back crashed into something that I realized I lost track of my surroundings.
A fist grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, exposing my throat while pain shot through my scalp. I held my weapon up in front of my neck as Cyan had trained me, my only flimsy defense against these mindless monsters hellbent on tearing me apart.
What was once my worst fear came true, I realized. I thought this would be my fate when I met Cyan. Trapped and cornered while the bloodthirsty creatures dove in for the kill. Feeling everything as they drank my blood, rended my flesh from my bones, only dying when they got past my rib cage and tore out my heart.
Although not in the literal sense, Cyan had certainly done that.
I brandished the dagger as if I were going to cut my own throat, my eyes wide and darting around as the monsters grew closer. With my head pulled back so far, I couldn’t see the ground near my legs.
Which was where the immense pain began.
It burned at first, like two hot nails driving into the meat of my thigh muscle. The pain was so blinding and sudden that I couldn’t even scream. And then the nails pulled and twisted, trying to rip my flesh from my body.
The horrifying reality dawned on me then. I didn’t need my eyes to know that one of them had bitten my leg. My body jerked with the force of the pulling and tearing. The whole limb felt it would get ripped off if I didn’t do something.
I stabbed downward blindly with the dagger, realizing too late that the move left my throat exposed. They must have been waiting for me to lower my arm because multiple fanged mouths laughed, and dove in for my unprotected neck.
I was dead.
And I had failed to save Amy.
I squeezed my eyelids shut, afraid to face the gnashing teeth and ashamed of my wasted effort. I’d never even made it to the cellar, never got to be with Amy while she was injured and scared.
So much for being brave.
Someone yanked me so hard, I felt teeth rip through the bite on my leg. Oh fuck, they were going to fight over my corpse like a pride of lions over a gazelle. I was going to end up in pieces all over the ground like the debris when I first arrived.
My body jostled violently, my bad leg aching and dragging. Someone was running as they carried me away, trying to hoard my flesh and blood to themselves.
“I got you, Tavi. Gotta get you somewhere safe, then I’ll fix you up.”
…Cyan?
My cowardly eyes wanted to crack open and look, to see if that warm, angelic voice was real. But it couldn’t be. He’d have to have been right behind me to catch up. And even if he could have reached me in time, he wouldn’t. He didn’t care enough, and had told me as much.
“You’re okay. That’s a nasty wound but you’re going to be fine.”
A hand cradled the back of my head so tenderly, it soothed the pain in my scalp from where my hair had been pulled. Damn, these near-death, blood loss hallucinations hit me right in the heartstrings.
Still not daring to open my eyes, I felt myself being lowered slowly to lie on a flat surface. Pressure on the hot, burning ache on my leg made me cry out, and a warm hand caressed my face as if to comfort me.
“Look at me, Tavi. Are you hurt anywhere else?”
My eyelids fluttered open, helpless to resist. Red eyes, not yellow, stared back at me. The brow that had been so smooth and relaxed in sleep now knitted in concern. For me.
“Cy?” I croaked weakly.
He gave me that familiar, playful smirk. “Can’t wait to hear my name like that again, but for completely different reasons.”
I was in too much pain to laugh and his smile immediately died. “Are you bitten anywhere else? This blood,” he leaned in and inhaled near my neck. “It’s not yours.”
“I…cut one of them. With the dagger you gave me.”
His smile returned, bright and proud while his hand passed over me, checking for injuries. “That’s my brave little human.”
Once satisfied that I only had the one bite, he pressed both hands over the wound. His fingers were already dark with blood.
“I have to do this fast.” He sounded almost apologetic. “You might want to close your eyes again. It’ll look weird to you and probably pretty gross.”
The pain was so sharp and intense, pulsing up my leg. I clenched my teeth against the sensation and each breath felt like torture.
“What are you?—”
Cyan ripped my jeans, exposing the ragged, torn flesh without the bloodsoaked fabric in the way. Fresh blood poured from the open wound and I felt woozy, but I couldn’t look away as Cyan lowered his mouth to my leg.
What the fuck, was he going to drink from me while I was a gushing fountain?
But rather than drawing blood into his mouth, he dragged his tongue over my ragged, torn flesh.
Again and again, he licked me. The pain faded to a dull numbness, and then a slight itch. And I realized, with each swipe of his tongue, the bleeding slowed. He kept going until it seemed like I was more or less closed up.
“Thank you,” I whispered, now lightheaded from the sudden absence of pain. My leg still ached, but it was tolerable compared to moments ago.
“It’s the least I can do for you,” Cyan murmured. “You may still bleed a little, but you should be okay until I have time to take care of you properly.”
I ignored the implication that he would have anything to do with me at all after this. Now I was no longer on death’s door, my priorities were righted.
“Amy,” I said. “She got hurt. They’re hiding in the cellar across the center of the compound. I need to see her.”
To my surprise, Cyan sprang immediately into action, hoisting me easily into his arms like a groom carrying his bride. “There’s a way around these buildings, right? All the marrowers seem to be concentrating in the center.”
“Yeah, head left around these houses.”
I had no brain space to think about why he was helping me so readily, how he got here so fast. The last time I saw him, he’d all but admitted that he was only nice to manipulate me. Amy was the only important thing.
But it still made me wonder. What did he have to gain from saving my life, saving Sapien? It wasn’t like I’d ever consent to giving him my blood again.
“The rest of the clan is on their way,” he said between my directions to the cellar, not even breathing hard from the exertion of carrying me, running, and talking. “We’ll clean this shit up in an hour. Don’t worry about a thing, Tavi.”
“How did you get here so fast?” My hands clasped together around his neck. Just because it felt more secure, not because I wanted to hold onto him for any reason.
“Rode at top speed all the way here and burned my tires to strips.” The corner of his mouth hooked in that smirk again. “Gonna have to catch a ride with someone else on the way back.”
But why? I wanted to ask, but was too afraid of what the answer would be.
“Here we are.” Cyan carefully lowered my legs to the ground in front of the cellar doors, but kept his arm wrapped around my upper back to support.
“Robin!” I yelled, pounding on the aged wood. “It’s me, Tavia!”
I glanced around nervously while waiting for a response, but Cyan seemed undisturbed.
“We’ll handle them,” he assured with a squeeze around my waist. “I can hear the others’ bikes now.”
Just as the distant roar of engines became clear to me, the cellar doors cracked open. “Tavia?”
“Robin!”
She pushed one of the doors all the way open to let me through while Cy supported me down the rickety stairs, not letting go until the last possible moment. Robin of course knew him, but I heard a small chorus of gasps from others crowded in the cellar.
Cyan ignored them, his gaze focused on me. “Have them barricade the doors from inside as best you can. Do not open the cellar for any reason until you hear my voice.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Be careful.”
Again, that smirk. “What’s the fun in that?” And then he was closing the doors.
“You heard him,” Robin said to the onlookers. “Pull the chain back through the handles and weigh it down with anything heavy. Go!” To me, she said, “Did you get attacked?” and eyed my sore leg that I was favoring.
“Yeah, but I’m fine. Cyan helped.” I held onto a shelf of canned preserves for support, not wanting to explain the healing properties of vampire saliva right then. “Where’s Amy?”
Robin’s face turned grave. “Come with me.”
She wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me walk to a small alcove toward the back of the cellar. We turned a corner and I saw a pale figure lying on a cot covered with a blanket up to her collarbones. All around the cot were piles of blood-soaked towels and linens.
“Amy!” I forgot all about my leg and it collapsed under me when I let go of Robin and tried to run.
I felt wetness on my skin, probably my wound splitting open and bleeding, but that didn’t matter. I dragged myself to Amy’s side, terrified to touch her face that was entirely too pale.
“Hey Ames, it’s me.” My hand shook as I pet her hair. “It’s okay. I made it. I’m here. I made it.”
Her eyes were closed and her lips were parted. She was just sleeping, she had to be. They had to give her something to knock her out for the pain, right?
“Dr. Barrow didn’t have time to grab anything for a blood transfusion.” Robin’s hand came to rest on my shoulder. “She’s lost a lot of blood, Tavi. And there was…organ damage. I’m so sorry.”
I heard everything she said, but none of it registered. They were just words. Just sounds. Meaningless noise.
“It’s okay,” I repeated. “Cyan can help her. He’s…he’s helped me so much.” I knew I was babbling, the adrenaline wearing off only to be replaced with denial and grief. “Cyan can make you all better, Ames. He closed me up, made me all better. You’ll be okay.”
Keeping it together felt like a Herculean task, but I forced my eyes to stay on her neck and chest. Did she have a pulse? Was she breathing? Why was it so hard to tell?
I pressed two fingers to the side of her neck and my sanity started to crumble when I didn’t feel anything. Then…there it was! Faint and slow, but I felt her pulse.
“That’s my girl,” I whispered. “You don’t let them beat you down, no matter what. You’re so much stronger than you know, Ames.” I forced out a laugh. “Hell, you don’t even need me. Not really.”
She didn’t answer. I didn’t know if she could hear me.
And then her pulse stopped.