Bloodline (10 page)

“There were…looks. I was attracted to you, and the way you returned those looks…I got the feeling it was mutual. But we never got the chance to—”

“To do more than share one kiss,” she said.

“No.”

“I wish I remembered it more clearly. That first kiss.”

“You might not have remembered it too well even if your mind were intact. You'd been drugged and God knows what else. You were still recovering.”

“So you told me.”

“Besides, we've kissed since then.”

Her eyes flared so slightly that he might have imagined it, and she quickly averted them. “My memory isn't
that
bad, Ethan. I haven't forgotten.” She shrugged, carefully moving her gaze back to meet his. Her eyes were beginning to gleam softly, a rose-tinted glow coming from somewhere beneath the surface. “We have the time now,” she told him. “To do more than kiss, I mean.”

He couldn't help that his gaze slid down to her breasts, even though they were hidden from him by the T-shirt she'd pilfered. “You want to?”

“I wouldn't have said it if I didn't.” She got to her feet,
sexy as hell in the oversize shirt, and moved closer to him. “Besides, it might help my memory.”

She pressed her palms to his chest, and then her body was touching his as her hands slid higher and twined around his neck. She stood on tiptoe, tilted her head back, closed her eyes.

He had no earthly reason to resist the temptation she represented. None at all, and yet there was a tiny voice deep down inside him that told him there would be repercussions. He ignored that voice, barely even heard it above his body's own urgent demands. His heightened senses kicked into overdrive as she pressed herself against him and set his very soul on fire.

He locked his arms around her waist and bent his head until his lips touched hers. They met lightly at first, and then the pressure increased. He wasn't sure which of them was responsible for that—maybe both. And then she sighed a little, and her lips parted, and something sort of shot through him. It felt the way he was certain it would feel if he poked his finger into a live socket. The next thing he knew, he was holding her harder, bending over her and kissing the living hell out of her. He felt as if he could never get enough. And she was kissing him back just as eagerly, just as hungrily.

At last they pulled apart, took a step back, arms falling to their sides, and just stood there, equally stunned and, he thought, equally aroused, as well.

“Well,” she said. “
That
was…even better than last time.”

“Yeah.”

“I guess you were right. I
was
returning your…looks.”

He allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. “Yeah.”

“And it worked, too.”

He blinked and wasn't following. “It worked…?”

“I remember. I remember…you.” Her eyes narrowed on him, and he wondered exactly
what
she remembered. But before he could ask, he sensed a human presence. A heartbeat later, he realized he'd sensed it too late.

As his vision shifted beyond Lilith to the cave opening and the night beyond it, he saw female forms, silhouetted in the darkness. A dozen women, mortals, stood there just outside the cave. Then, moving as one, their flashlights came on, twelve—no, thirteen—glowing spots in the night, each one trained on his eyes.

He lifted a forearm to shield his face as Lilith suddenly became aware of the danger and spun around. He felt the ripple of fear move through her. He felt her wrestle with it, pin it and stand on its back.

“Just who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded. “Get those lights out of my face!”

“Relax,” one of the women said. She moved in front of the others, making her all but invisible to him and, he knew, to Lilith, as well. “We just want to talk to you.”

“I don't know who you are, woman, and it's clear you don't know who I am, either, or you wouldn't dare be here, in the dead of night, in the middle of nowhere, risking your life. Tell your minions to put the lights down and stop blinding me,” Lilith snapped.
“Now.”

“I do know who you are…Lilith.”

When the woman—and Ethan was fairly sure now that she was the same woman who'd visited earlier—said Lilith's name, she flinched backward. He wrapped an arm around her waist from behind, an instinctively protective gesture.

“I can't risk you getting away again,” the woman said. “It's taken me a long time to find you.”

Ethan saw the woman raising her arm, and he reacted instantly, whirling Lilith out of the way even as he heard the
pfft
of the weapon and saw the dart speeding toward them.

It missed its mark, just grazing Lilith's arm and flying harmlessly away. He pushed her behind him, clasped her hand in his, then turned and, with a low growl, lunged directly at the crowd of women. Their leader tried to take aim a second time, but he was too fast. Pulling Lilith along behind him, Ethan sped straight into their midst, knocking half of them to the ground with a single sweep of his arm, while still running at full speed. In another instant he and Lilith were emerging from the mob and racing through the forest.

Their feet pounded. Their speed was so great that it was difficult to avoid hitting branches, even with their heightened reflexes and preternatural night vision. At length he had to slow to a pace near that of a mortal, albeit a
fast
one.

“What the hell just happened, Ethan?” Lilith asked as they hurried along.

She kept stumbling, which worried him. At least the women, though his ears told him they were still in pursuit, had no hope of catching them. He'd put enough distance between them, and was increasing it all the time.

But deep in the forest, Lilith yanked her hand free of Ethan's and stopped. “I need to rest.”

He frowned. “You're a vampire. You don't need—”

“Tell me what just happened. Who were those women?”

He shook his head, frowning at her. “The one doing
the talking was the same one who came around asking about you. The one with the photo. I don't know about the rest of them.”

“How the hell did they find us, Ethan?”

“I don't know.”

“Well, don't you think we'd better find out?”

He put a finger to his lips and cut loose with a whistle that was too high for human ears to detect. Within a few minutes the pounding of distant hoofbeats whispered on the wind, drawing ever nearer, until they no longer whispered but thundered.

The beasts slowed to a trot as they reached him, tossing their great manes and blowing, excited by what they were sensing. Trouble. Danger. Impending flight.

“I say we go back there,” Lilith said, gripping Scylla's mane and pulling herself up. She only made it partway, then slid back down. “I say we grab one of those bitches and make her talk.”

“And I say we get on these horses and leave here,” Ethan replied as he peeled off his shirt. He moved beside her, laid the shirt over the mare's back, then cupped her buttocks and helped Lilith up onto Scylla.

“And go where?” she asked, wrapping her hands in the mare's thick mane and urging the horse forward.

“Somewhere safe. Somewhere we can hole up while I try to find my brother. James will know how they tracked us.” He got up onto Charybdis, clicked his tongue and rode up beside Scylla, awaiting Lilith's reply.

“You've been on your own for how long now? Almost two years?” she asked. Even before he nodded, she was rushing on. “And they never found you. Now, within twenty-four hours of my arrival, you're being attacked by
a pack of Amazons. So clearly it's me. Somehow, they're tracking me. Do you agree?”

He met her eyes and wanted to say no, but he knew it was senseless to lie. “Yes.”

“I arrived stark naked, Ethan. So if there's anything on me leading them to us, it must be on the inside. We need to find it and get rid of it before we do anything else.”

He urged Charybdis faster as they moved onto a narrow, winding trail that must have been some sort of deer path through the woods. He looked behind them. “They'll make it here soon. Come with me, Lilith, please. We'll figure out our next step once we've put more distance between us and them.”

She thinned her lips and tapped Scylla's sides with her heels—already, Ethan imagined, missing the clothes she'd left behind. She was reduced again to nothing more than a shirt. He would have to find her something better.

“Is dawn near, Ethan?” she asked as they increased their pace. “I thought it only just got dark.”

“It did.” He looked back at her. “Are you all right, Lilith?”

She nodded, but she also blinked heavily, giving the lie to her response. “We could get me x-rayed. Maybe we could find something.”

“Maybe.”

“But once we know…then I have to go…to go back.”

“Return to The Farm,” he said. “Risk your freedom and your life to rescue people who might rather stay right where they are.”

“That's ezakly what I've gotta do, an' you know't.”

Frowning, he turned, only to see Lilith slumping over Scylla's neck. He leapt to the ground and was already
running back toward her when she fell from Scylla's back. She hit the ground hard, and he was kneeling beside her only an instant later. But she was stone-cold unconscious. Scylla turned and stretched her long neck, nuzzling Lilith's hair.

“Lilith!” Ethan shouted. He gripped her shoulders and shook her. “Lilith, what's wrong?”

“It was a tranquilizer dart,” a voice said. “They must have gotten off another shot as you ran away.”

Ethan went utterly still and then slowly looked up. But he knew that voice even before he saw the man who'd spoken.

“James,” he whispered.

H
is brother rode a horse of his own, an Arabian, far sleeker and smaller than Ethan's powerful draft horses. He sat his mount well, wearing a long black coat that was split in the back. He was about ten yards ahead on the trail.

“How did you find me?” Ethan asked.

“There's no time. Take her north, Ethan. You'll emerge from the woods onto a road. Follow it west for fifteen miles. There you'll find a house you can use for shelter, something to…eat, and a shed for the horses.”

“How did you know where to find us? And why now? Where have you
been,
James? I've been looking for you for—”

“If you don't hurry up, you're both going to end up back on The Farm. They're coming. Get her up, dammit!”

Ethan gathered Lilith up in his arms and held her against himself as he climbed onto Charybdis's powerful back once again. He placed her sideways in front of him, her legs dangling over one side of the horse, her body against his, his arm holding her hard around the shoulders. He took the reins in his free hand and clicked his tongue, then turned his head to look at his brother.

“Thank you, James. I—”

But James had vanished.

Ethan fell silent, scanning the woods around him. He could still hear the Arabian's hoofbeats fading in the distance as his brother galloped away. Urging Charybdis into a trot and holding Lilith tightly, Ethan sent out a mental call to James, but it went unanswered.

God, he hadn't seen his brother in over two years. For him to appear to him just this once—here and now—how could it be? How had James known? Ethan's mind was spinning with so many questions.

But James was long gone, and Lilith needed him. A tranquilizer. It had taken a while to work, and he suspected she'd received only a partial dose, possibly from that first dart that had grazed her.

He glanced back, glad to see Scylla following along behind them as he rode in the direction James had suggested—although the entire time part of him fought not to wheel his horse around and gallop after his brother instead.

* * *

Serena remembered it so vividly that it was as if it were still happening. She felt herself standing at the dark entrance to the cave, staring inside and wishing she could see the two who hid within its shadowy walls. But she didn't have a vampire's vision. Behind her, at her signal, a dozen of her sisters turned on their flashlights and aimed them into the cave's mouth, both to reveal whoever lurked inside and to blind them enough to prevent an attack.

Because they might attack. The vampires had no way of knowing that the Sisterhood of Athena was on their
side. And they must know they were being hunted by those who wanted only to kill them.

For just one brief moment, Serena glimpsed the tall, proud beauty within, shielding her face against the light, her pale skin and endless copper hair all that were really visible. There was a man with her. Vampires, both. Serena had been with the Sisterhood long enough to easily tell mortal from immortal, even with no more than a glance. And no more than a glance was all she gave the male. The woman was her goal. Just as she had been for the past twenty-one years.

Lilith. Her daughter.

So beautiful. Ivory skin, smooth as silk. Long, wild curls that twisted and writhed all the way to her hips, gleaming bronze in the flashlight beams. She was tall and very slender, and her eyes—were they green like Serena's own? Was there a slight resemblance in the bone structure, the cheekbones, the stubborn chin? Could this really be her long-lost baby girl?

Before Serena could complete the thought, her sisters were aiming weapons as well as lights. With hands that trembled, she lifted her own, her prepared speech frozen on her lips.

I think I may be your mother. You were taken from me long ago, before I ever even got to hold you. I've devoted every moment of my life since to searching for you, finding you. You're beautiful, and I love you, and you can trust me. And these guns won't harm you. They're only for your own protection, just until I can make you understand. I've come to help you, because I would
never
hurt you. And everything's going to be all right now. And thank God, thank God, thank God I've found you.

But none of those words made their way past her lips. Her brain froze on one simple fact. If this was her baby girl, then what Callista had told her was true. Her daughter was a vampire.

She managed to say something—something ineffective, by all evidence—because in the next instant someone shot, and then the two vampires exploded from the cave. Sisters fell like dominoes as what seemed like a dark twister crashed through them. And then the vampires were gone.

Serena found herself lying faceup in a clump of brush. “No,” she whispered. And then, scrambling upright, she shouted, “No, wait! You don't understand!” She began running in the direction they had taken. “Come back! You have to listen to me!”

But there was no response.

She kept going, using her flashlight to scan the ground for tracks. The Sisterhood had trained her, and trained her well. She could track better than the most avid hunters. All the sisters could.

Eventually she came to a spot where signs of the vampires' passing met up with hoofprints in the soft, damp ground. She followed the prints, moving as quickly as she could, but she knew she would never catch them. Her daughter—her one chance at finally finding her baby—was vanishing practically before her eyes.

Her whole body trembling, she stopped at last and stood staring into the distance.

“I'll find you, baby. I swear to God, I'll keep searching until I find you.”

Wiping away her tears, she turned and walked back along the path to the clearing outside the cave. And there
she saw her sisters, some injured, others tending to them. Shaking her head slowly, she drew a breath and got to work.

* * *

In my dream I was back there. I was back at The Farm….

Ethan was gone, and I had been dejected since I'd awakened one morning to hear the gossip that claimed he had escaped. He wouldn't have done that, would he? I thought. Not after that tender kiss we'd shared. I'd thought there was something between us—something unspoken but real. He wouldn't have gone and left me behind. Or maybe he
would.
Maybe he knew that if he stayed, I'd get us both killed.

I was the rebel, the untamable one. The one constantly being punished. The one whose mind-bending drugs were being increased beyond anything that had even been attempted before, in order to bring me into submission.

I'd heard the keepers talking about that. And I was afraid, because since this last time, I hadn't felt right. My thinking was clouded. My temper was dulled. Part of me wanted to just give in and do what the keepers told me to do. Part of me wondered if maybe being there wasn't so bad after all.

And then I heard one keeper mention an antidote by name—something that could be used on me in case of accidental overdose. “Melanine,” she said. And I knew I had to find it somehow. Because I could feel my mind slipping from my grasp.

And so I'd been very obedient that day and pretended that I no longer cared enough to disagree with the teachers. I worked hard and fell into bed. And they relaxed a little. At least enough that I didn't wind up in
the punishment barracks again. Then, in the dead of night, I sneaked out of my barracks and made my way to the medical facility. I knew where it was located, but I had never ventured into that part of the compound before. I'd never had reason. I did on that night, though, and I hoped I would be able to find the right building.

Unlike most other places on the compound, the medical center was only lightly guarded, and I wondered at that. As I headed closer, I passed another building. A small tin shack, perhaps six feet square. No windows, and only one door, with two guards stationed in front of it.

Two guards. For a shack so tiny it couldn't possibly hold more than one person. Who was so important—or so dangerous? There was a barbed-wire fence around the men and the shack, and signs that warned against stepping past it.

I paused, hidden from the guards' view by the shadows, something compelling me to halt there for just a moment.

And then I heard it. A voice—in my head, but far too real to ignore.

Young one. Lilith. You're a special one. I sense it in you. I am very weak and will not be able to help you much longer. So come to me. Come to me, Lilith.

I swallowed hard, my eyes widening, my heart racing. I knew the voice came from inside that tiny, well-guarded building. I
knew
it.

I need your help, child, as much as you need mine. Please, find a way to get inside. I promise you won't need any help at all getting back out.

Something wouldn't let me disobey. He sounded weak. He sounded as if he were suffering, in great pain. And I
didn't like seeing anyone tortured. I knew all too well how that felt.

Licking my lips, I tried to think of a way to get the guards' attention away from their duty, and I came up with a method quite easily. I backed away until I was near the huge electrified fence that surrounded the entire compound. We all knew it was deadly and rigged to sound an alarm when touched.

I picked up a rock from the ground and threw it as hard as I could at the nearest metal fence pole. The rock hit, and a shower of white-gold sparks sizzled from the point of impact and the alarm began to shriek. The guards raced away from their post.

I ran very fast toward the tiny building, diving over the barbed-wire fence, landing hands first, and tucking and rolling to break my fall.

Then, wasting not a single second, I scrambled to my feet and ran to the door. Even as I stood there fumbling with the lock, it clicked open all on its own. I wondered if the person inside were magic. A wizard?

I stepped inside, and then I caught my breath.

It was stifling inside, like an oven. And…
he
was lying on a hard table, beneath a white sheet, and his face was gaunt, bleached white skin stretched so tightly over sharply delineated bones that I thought it could easily be peeled away.

His cheeks were hollow, the cheekbones and jaw as prominent as a naked skull's. White matted hair covered his scalp in tufts, with pale skin in between. And his eyes…ice-blue eyes that seemed to be clouding over with—well, to me, it looked like death.

“Who…who are you?” I whispered.

“Can't you guess? Who else could open a lock without touching it? I'm a vampire, child.”

“A real one?” I'd been taught of them in my studies. I knew they existed.

And I knew, even then, of my own unique connection to them as one of the Chosen.

But I'd never seen one before.

“Yes, a real one.” He spoke very slowly, each word seeming to emerge only with extreme effort. “But not for much longer, I fear. I'm dying, child.”

“You are?”

He nodded.

“You and I have a special bond, child, and I do not have time to explain it to you. But I
will
tell you that I'll be far happier dead than living in this hell any longer.”

“Why are you here? What are they doing to you?” I asked.

He blinked, and I thought with alarm that I could see through his eyelids. His hands moved as if to gesture, but they fell again with a clanging and banging noise. Manacles and chains, I saw now, at his wrists and feet.

“When they want to make a vampire, they get the blood from me. Every vampire in this place is my off-spring. My bloodline. They're afraid I'll regain my strength and destroy them, so they don't give me enough in return. I grow weaker every day. But my bloodline is strong, Lilith. If you'll take the gift I offer, you'll become a vampire, too, this very night, and you'll be strong enough to jump the fence and run away. But it has to be
now.
Right now. I'm not going to live another night. Perhaps…not even…another hour.”

I thought about all the others here. I thought about the
revolt I had hoped to instigate, the coup I'd hoped to lead that would put this place into our control. But I thought perhaps those things would be better accomplished from the outside. I could grow strong. I could learn more. I could solicit help.

I blinked and, meeting the old man's eyes, nodded my acceptance. “What do you want me to do?”

He lifted a hand, the chain jangling as he moved it, and gestured me closer. I moved, and when I was near enough, he closed his hand on the back of my head and jerked me forward. He was remarkably strong, far stronger than I would have imagined. If this were weak—if this were dying—then what had he been like in what he called life?

He whispered in my ear, and I shuddered, then gasped as he yanked my head right down to his and forcefully pressed my neck against his dry, shrunken mouth. I felt it open. But then his head fell, and I knew he was too weak to do what needed doing on his own. Looking around, I spotted a blade, well beyond his reach, and, taking it, braced myself and drew it cleanly across my wrist.