19
THERE WASN’T MUCH TIME FOR AN AFTERGLOW.
“I need to get you out of here,” Declan said, handing me my dress. I grabbed it from him as well as my panties from the ground and put them back on.
I eyed him as he pulled his pants over his legs. “Love’em and leave ’em, huh?”
He smiled, but he looked worried. “Kristoff was sure I’d kill you or you’d kill me. Not sure he expected that.”
“And yet he put us in a bedroom. I think your father is smarter than you give him credit for.”
“He’s not my father.” His expression shadowed. “Nothing there except biology and that doesn’t count in my books.”
“He had me kill Alex, the leader of the Amarantos.” The memory was painful and I still didn’t fully understand why Alex would bite me, knowing what would happen.
He touched my throat gently. “The marks are already fading. You heal up faster because of your bond with Matthias.”
I looked at my arm where the monster dhamp had scratched me earlier. It was only a faint pink line now. “Holy shit.”
“What did he say to you before he bit you?” he asked, his thumb moving over the fading wound. “Did he tell you anything important?”
“He wanted me to promise to help Matthias defeat Kristoff. He was definitely anti-Kristoff as king. Convinced he was evil incarnate. And then he just bit me knowing it was going to kill him.”
“He knew and he still did it?”
I nodded. “It was so strange. The guy had a death wish. He also wanted me to tell Matthias that he forgives him for . . . some bad shit that happened between them.” I paced to the other side of the dark room before I turned to look at Declan again. “We need to find Matthias. Then we need to get Sara and my nieces and get the hell out of here so we can figure out what to do next. It’s too dangerous to stay here.”
Declan frowned. “Sara’s here? How is that possible?”
I swallowed. “Emily’s . . . I’m sorry, but she—she’s dead. Kristoff found out where she was—”
“How?” There was pain in his expression.
“He has a mental bond with Matthias. He saw everything. Matthias knew where Sara was being looked after so that meant his brother knew it as well.”
He rubbed his hand over his scalp and grief crossed his expression. “F*ck. I knew I shouldn’t have told him. I knew it.” He exhaled a long breath. “It’s too late to change anything. It’s done and there’s no going back, only forward. I’m going to assume you’re not willing to negotiate about leaving Matthias behind.”
“No, I’m not. I don’t know what they’ve done to him. He was dragged away after being stabbed.”
“Still alive.”
I nodded. “He’s immortal even though he doubted it. It’s proven now. The ritual worked exactly the way Kristoff wanted it to.”
Declan went silent for a moment, his eye shifting back and forth as he thought it through. “Then Sara’s in more danger than I thought she was.”
“She is. Alex controlled the Amarantos, but now that he’s gone—I don’t know what will happen.”
He nodded and raised his gaze to mine. “Then we need to find her father and get them both the hell out of here.”
I almost smiled. “Sounds like a plan. There’s a problem, though. I have no idea where he is right now.”
“Sure you do.”
I frowned. “I do?”
“You can use your bond to find him.” There was a thickness to his voice, an unpleasantness that sounded like jealousy. His gaze hardened and he drew closer to press his hand against my chest. “You can find him because your soul is bound to his now.”
I gaped at him. “You make it sound like we’re soul mates.”
“You are.”
So that was what claiming actually meant. Even though I wasn’t in love with him, Matthias was my official soul mate in the least romantic way possible. There couldn’t be that many soul mates who became so because one wanted to use the other one for their blood. “I don’t feel any differently.”
“You do. You said so yourself. You’re stronger. Healthier. And the poison doesn’t affect you any longer even though it still runs through your veins. Trust me, I know for a fact it does because your smell is . . . painfully tempting.” I watched as the veins slowly disappeared from his face and his eye returned to gray, although it was a shade lighter than it used to be when he was only a dhampyr.
I chewed my bottom lip, feeling awkward again. “You don’t have to be jealous about the bond between me and Matthias.”
“I’m not jealous. I’m concerned.” He hissed out a breath. “There’s no time for this. If you concentrate you’ll be able to locate him pretty much anywhere in the world.”
“And he could do the same for me.”
“Yeah.”
“Forever.”
“Pretty much.”
While I appreciated the fact I wasn’t dying because of the Nightshade, this claiming felt much too permanent and intimate. He’d claimed me without asking me if I wanted it. I guess it was similar to what I’d done to Declan—I’d asked that he be sired even though I knew he’d have a harsh adjustment becoming the same thing he’d always hated. The same thing he’d hunted. Matthias had claimed me without asking me and he would have had to know I wouldn’t be entirely thrilled about this situation. No choice. No vote. Just a permanent change to my life.
One thing at a time.
I closed my eyes and thought about him, remembering how he’d looked when Kristoff stabbed him through his heart. He’d believed he was going to die, I’d seen it on his face. But he didn’t. He was immortal. And he was bound to me until the day I died.
Matthias, where are you?
There was nothing for at least a minute, but I tried to concentrate as hard as I could. I felt it then, like a thin, sinuous rope attached to me. I mentally grabbed hold of it and followed it into the darkness. I couldn’t see him, but I felt him on the other end of it. I drew closer.
There he was. Matthias’s face was strained and furious, his hands pressed against a barrier only inches from his body. He was in pain, constrained in a tight space from which he couldn’t break free. I felt claustrophobic, desperate to escape this place. He was desperate to escape from it. It was an effort for me to keep him clear in my head.
He stilled as if he sensed me.
He was in horrible pain, in the darkness all alone. I felt his fear—for his daughter, for himself.
“Jillian.” My name was barely audible, but it confirmed that he knew I was there with him on some level. Shame replaced his fear. He didn’t want me to know he was afraid.
“I see you,” I whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
And then I felt myself pulled upward back along the rope until I opened my eyes and gasped for breath. Declan stood in front of me holding my arms.
“You saw where he is?”
I nodded. “I know where to find him.”
His expression was unreadable. “Your bond is stronger than I thought it was.”
I didn’t have a chance to reply to that. Declan grasped my wrist and pulled me toward the door. He banged on it and it opened a moment later.
“Finally finished with the—” the guard asked before Declan grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulled him into the room, and sliced his dagger upward into his heart. The vampire’s ashes scattered before he even had the chance to scream.
Another guard stared at him with shock, reaching for the gun at his side. “You’re one of us now—you can’t be a hunter, too.”
“Wrong.” Declan slashed his throat and thrust the blade into his chest as well. A moment later, he crouched down and grabbed the guard’s gun from the pile of burning ash and inspected it. “Silver bullets. Nice.”
I was frozen in place, trying to process two kills in less than thirty seconds. “They didn’t seem all that prepared for you.”
He grinned. “They thought I’d lose my mind the moment I smelled you.” He slid the gun into his waistband. “They were right.”
“Your mind seems fine to me.”
“I’m putting up a good front. Right now, I’d much rather throw you back on that bed and devour you than go find Matthias.”
“Devour me.”
His gaze slid to my mouth. “Yes.”
“No fangs involved.”
“No fangs.”
A shiver of pleasure at the reminder of what just happened between us moved over my skin. “I can work with that.”
He kissed me quickly before pulling back. His eye had turned black again and he swore under his breath and grimaced as the veins appeared then quickly disappeared. “You’re very dangerous to me now, Jill.”
“I wish it was different.”
“It isn’t. So let’s go get your soul mate.”
I grimaced. “Let’s agree not to call him that, okay?”
“Fine with me.” He scanned the empty hallway. “There are fifteen vampires here and three blood servants. I just took care of two of them. Lots more where they came from.”
“We just need the right incentive.”
“I have it. I want to get you the hell out of here before it’s too late. Being with you—” He hesitated and his arm tensed under my touch. “It reminded me what’s important and who I need to protect.”
“The troublemaking human with the poisonous blood.”
“Yeah, her.”
I faltered. “The one whose decision made you into a vampire.”
He pulled me closer for a moment. “You chose right.”
I was surprised. “What?”
“If I was dead, I couldn’t protect you.”
“If you’d taught me how to kick some ass, I wouldn’t need so much protection,” I countered.
“You’re not a killer.”
“And yet I seem to be proving you wrong time and time again.”
He shook his head. “Being the reluctant cause of death doesn’t make you a killer.”
I eyed the weapon he had tucked into his pants. “I’d still like to know how to use a gun.”
His lips twitched into a slight grin. “We get out of this alive and I promise I’ll teach you everything I know.”
That sounded like something worth waiting for. A lesson in firearms from Declan Reyes, ex-dhampyr turned vampire. “It’s a deal.”
“Let’s move. Lead the way.”
We walked swiftly down the hall and descended the stairs. I knew Matthias was in the basement in a room with a green metal door.
We went down the stairs to the basement. It was dark and cool and dry and as we walked it led to a far room with cement walls and no furniture.
I put my hand up against the wall, feeling confused. “No. This can’t be all there is. He’s deeper than this.”
Declan looked around. “Then there must be a door in here somewhere. We just need to find it.”
Quickly would be good. My nerves were fried, and I was afraid someone would come after us when they found the empty room sprinkled with dead vampire ashes upstairs. I scanned our surroundings but it was difficult to see and I couldn’t find a light switch anywhere. The only decoration in the entire room was a throw rug on the dirty floor. And it didn’t exactly look as if it belonged here.
I grabbed the corner of it and pulled it to the side.
“You mean something like this?” I pointed down at the outline of the trapdoor hidden underneath.
Declan raised an eyebrow. “That looks about right.”
He grabbed the rusty handle and lifted up, swinging the door back, and it landed with a thud, leaving a three-foot by three-foot opening that led into more darkness. Hanging from the side was a rope ladder that didn’t look very sturdy.
At the bottom, somewhere down there, was Matthias. And the sooner we found him, the sooner we could get the hell out of here.
“I’ll go first.” Declan didn’t hesitate and grabbed hold of the ladder, swinging his legs into the opening as he began to make his way downward.
I wasn’t quite as gung ho as that. I didn’t like heights on a good day, but especially not when I was descending into complete darkness. But I swallowed my fear, kicked off my shoes, and held on to the rope so tightly it burned my palms. And I started climbing down one rung at a time.
Declan’s heavy boots hit the ground not long after, and I felt him grab hold of me for the last few feet of my climb. I tried to get my bearings. It was lit down here with the occasional overhead lamp set into the low ceiling.
“This isn’t just a basement,” I said. “There are tunnels down here.”
“Most vampires have some sort of underground community. I think this is the one Kristoff used when he was in power. It’s abandoned now. Most vamps who didn’t turn rogue went to live with Matthias’s clan.”
The tunnel appeared to be cut right out of rock and led as far as my eye could see to the left and to the right with more tunnels branching off from that. It was an underground maze underneath a high-end Malibu beach house.
“Which way?” he asked.
I’d be lost if I didn’t have my internal compass that tied me to Matthias. “Left.”
If I knew where Matthias was, didn’t that mean Kristoff would know where Declan was? No, of course not. He hadn’t claimed Declan, he’d sired him. It was a different thing altogether. We were okay, at least for the rest of the night. We had to escape from here while it was still dark out. Matthias couldn’t be out in the sunlight . . . and now, neither could Declan.
It pained me to think he’d never see daylight again. A flash of Alex’s gouged eyes, as if someone had gone in with a blowtorch and burned them out right of his head, haunted me. Declan had already lost one eye. I didn’t want him to lose the other.
Being a vampire definitely came with its limitations.
“Here,” I whispered after it felt as if we’d gone a mile.
There was a green metal door to the left side of the passageway, just as I’d seen in my mind’s eye. No guards. Declan tried the handle, pushing against the door, but it was locked.
“Do you think you can—” I began.
Declan thrust his weight against it, shoulder-first. I heard something splinter.
I raised my eyebrows. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
He glared at the door. “It’s an almost. You’re sure this is the right spot?”
“Positive.”
He threw himself at the door again. More splintering. The next time he kicked it, landing his heavy boot right in the center of it, and the door swung inward.
It was a small room—maybe ten feet square. Empty apart from a black coffin up on a ledge along the right side. A bare lightbulb hung from the ceiling.
“He’s inside.” I found it difficult to breathe. I’d seen this in my mind. This was the confined space Matthias was trapped in.
Declan eyed it. “No one would normally check a coffin looking for a living being inside. It’s good camouflage, especially after the vampire starves enough to go into his sleeping state.”
I went to it and grabbed hold of the padlock. “Not many coffins are locked shut, though.”
“No, they aren’t. Stand back.” Declan pulled out the gun and held it to the lock. The sound of the shot made me jump. It was so loud, it had to alert someone to our location if there was anyone down here in the tunnels.
Declan fumbled with the lock until it fell to the ground, then he swung open the coffin.
Matthias’s pale white hand slowly reached over the side. He moaned—it sounded a bit like my name—but he didn’t say anything else.
I was at his side in an instant. He looked horrible, pale, gaunt, the dark, nearly black circles were under his eyes again. The irises of his eyes were so pale they looked almost white. He opened his mouth but nothing came out.
“Matthias, can you move? What’s wrong with you?”
“F*ck.” Declan stood next to me, staring down at the vampire. “I didn’t expect this.”
“What?”
He reached into the coffin and spread Matthias’s shirt. The blood there wasn’t just remaining from when he’d been staked earlier.
“Oh shit.” I covered my mouth with my hand as my stomach lurched. For a moment I thought I’d vomit until I gained control over myself again. “Matthias. What did they do to you?”
His chest had been cut open, leaving behind a mess of congealed blood and torn flesh that hadn’t healed.
“His heart is gone,” Declan said grimly.
I gasped. “His heart? How—how is this possible?”
“It’s only possible because he’s immortal. Otherwise this would have killed him instantly. But he can’t function until he gets his heart back. He’s not healing because this is a major injury—his body has stopped regenerating itself since it’s now missing a major organ.”
“You are f*cking kidding me.”
Declan didn’t look like he was kidding. “I had a feeling he’d given his heart away. I didn’t know it was to someone other than you.”
I gaped at him. “And this is the time you decide to get funny?”
He shrugged a little. He wasn’t nearly as upset about this situation as I was. “We’ll have to find his heart.”
I forced myself to look at Matthias’s bloody chest again. “And what? Just shove it back inside him?”
“That should do it.”
If I’d had any doubt about what kind of a monster Kristoff was, I didn’t any longer. No wonder I’d sensed so much pain from Matthias. He wasn’t healing. He was missing his heart. And yet he was still alive. And he would have stayed like this, in agony, until I found him again.
The thought made me sick to my stomach.
Kristoff likely found this to be a nice ironic way of dealing with the brother he hated, by punishing him the same way Matthias punished rogue vampires—by tearing his heart from his chest. The difference was that the rogues would have felt pain for only a few seconds before they turned to ash. Matthias didn’t have that promise of relief.
I touched Matthias’s hair, stroking it back off his forehead, compassion and worry spilling over inside of me for this troublesome vampire who’d bonded me to him eternally. “I’ll find it. I swear I will. And I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He gave me an almost imperceptible nod, and I saw the pain in his eyes as I closed the lid.
This was a roadblock and we had to get around it before we could get the hell out of here. “Declan, put the lock back on. It’s busted now, but if anyone glances in here they won’t suspect anything right away.”
“You just want to leave him here like that?”
I looked at him. “Unless you were planning to piggyback a vampire with a gaping chest wound up that rope ladder . . .”
“That might be a bit tricky.”
“Exactly.”
He crossed his arms, his brow lowering. “We could leave him here tonight. Get Sara and your nieces. Get the f*ck out of here before sunrise and come back later.”
I only had to think about it briefly. “I can’t leave him here like this. And it has nothing to do with him claiming me or whatever you think our special soul-mate bond is now. I wouldn’t let anyone suffer like that any longer than they had to. He doesn’t deserve this.”
“That’s debatable.”
“Declan,” I said sharply. “Are you with me on this or not?”
He was quiet for a moment. “Fine. I’m with you. We need to find his heart as soon as possible. Pray that Kristoff didn’t burn it.”
I grimaced. “Pray for a vampire’s heart. I can do that.”
“I figure the only reason he’s still conscious is because of his bond with you. He’s drawing on your energy right now to maintain his.”
Our bond. I felt a little weaker than I had before, now that he mentioned it, but I’d figured it was because it had been a long, stressful day. My weariness wasn’t much, but it was enough to notice. I remembered that metaphysical rope that tied me and Matthias together that I’d used to find him down here. It was entirely possible he could use that rope to access my life force.
Shit. This was seriously messed up. But if it was true then it meant that the more injured Matthias was, the weaker I’d become. I hadn’t signed up for this, but I needed to deal with it. And I needed to find his heart so he could heal himself again.
The thought that Kristoff could have burned the heart filled me with a fresh wash of panic. Perhaps that was the only way to destroy an immortal vampire—fire. But if so, then that wouldn’t make them truly immortal. They had to be invulnerable. But we were still working with the laws of nature on some level. Vampires were a living entity—although very different from humans. Their hearts barely beat, but they still needed them, as evidenced by Matthias’s inability to function without his. Their body temperatures were lower, but, as I’ve learned, fledglings didn’t become cooler to the touch immediately. Days. Months. Years. I didn’t know how long it would take before Declan’s temperature lowered to what Matthias’s was.
All I knew was if we couldn’t find the heart, Matthias would be in this state for a very long time—possibly forever. That would be hell. I didn’t think his sanity would last very long trapped in a coffin with an empty chest.
I tried to climb the rope ladder quickly, but it was unstable and my hands were shaking. The faster I tried to be, the slower I actually went. My hands and feet, plus just about every other muscle in my body hurt by the time I reached the top. A glance behind me confirmed that Declan wasn’t even breaking a sweat. I couldn’t express how happy and relieved I was that he was helping me. I couldn’t do this without him.
I got to the top first and pulled myself up.
Five vampires including Kristoff waited for us there. I stopped breathing, eyes widening with shock at the sight of them. Then despair crashed over me.
Shit.
Declan pulled himself through the trapdoor and slowly got to his feet. His muscles were tense as he scanned the faces of the vampires standing there.
I expected him to immediately leap forward, slashing his silver blade though their hearts. Or use his new gun with the silver bullets to take them out one by one. There were too many of them, though. He couldn’t possibly take them on without getting hurt or killed in the process.
“Please, Declan,” I whispered. “Don’t fight them.”
He stayed in one place, his hands at his sides. Kristoff drew closer to him.
“Well?” he asked.
“You were right,” Declan said evenly. “Matthias isn’t going anywhere in his current condition.”
I stared at him. “Declan . . .”
Kristoff crossed his arms. “So you’re able to control yourself around her.”
Declan nodded. “Yeah. I’ll admit it’s a struggle, but I’m glad I asked for the opportunity to test myself. Now I know for sure.”
“Were you tempted?”
“Of course I was. Her blood is an incredibly powerful weapon against vampires, more than I even realized.”
Kristoff looked pleased. “Well done. Dhampyrs make the strongest vampires—always have. It’s one of the reasons I created the law preventing their siring and destroyed those already made before my rule. But I’m glad I made an exception for you, my son. You will be a great asset to me now.”
“Alex was against you, just as you thought. Jill told me he asked her to help Matthias to defeat you.”
I felt the color draining from my face with every word he spoke, and disappointment cut into my chest as sharply as a stake.
Declan finally glanced at me and I saw nothing on his face to indicate what the hell was going on. Then again, I didn’t really think I needed a program to know the players in this particular game.
The son of the vampire king had been tested. And he’d passed with flying colors.