Bound in Blood 1 Clandestine (25 page)

Sebastian listened intently at
the back door of the vampire’s
lair? It seemed weird to Emily to think of it as a home. Tyler was
checking the back windows, for any sign of the undead lurking
inside. Emily really wasn’t very far behind Sebastian, probably
only a couple feet. Even still, she felt exposed and vulnerable out
in the open.

The wind blew ruffling her pony tail and she shivered.
Every little noise made her shift uneasily with the potential fear,
that they might not be the only ones lurking in the shadows
behind the old house. Her night vision might have increased
tremendously,but somehow that didn’t make her feel any better.
It just made her want to keep her head on a constant pivot,
peering in every nook and cranny for any hidden monsters.

Suddenly Sebastian’s voice in her mind put a halt to her
fears.
The coast appears to be clear. I’m going to get Tyler’s
attention so we can move in.

No need
, she mind spoke back. Then not really knowing
how she did it, she switched gears and tuned into Tyler.
Ty, it’s
time to go.

Shortly his answering,
alright
, broke through her mind and
he was headed towards them.
Emily snuck a glance at Sebastian and was pleased to see he
was shocked. “Did you do that?” He said to her quizzically with
his eyebrows raised practically to his hair line. The shock over
rode him for a minute, and he forgot they were supposed to be
using the mind link to stay inconspicuous.
She smiled smugly at the ability to catch him off guard.
Instead of responding Emily focused on sliding her knife out of
its holster at her hip. After that, she double checked that the
canister was loose on her silver powder supply. The time it took
to get the lid off during their last battle, was ridiculous. At the
thought of the last encounter, her hand unconsciously raised to
her neck. She lightly probed the spot, where the filthy blood
sucker had choked her.
Once they were all three in attendance, Sebastian motioned
towards the door. He conferred with them in the lightest of
whispers so not to be overheard by the enemy. “This is your first
mission. Don’t get split up. Emily you stay with me.”
She couldn’t help feeling indignant at his command. Sure
she hadn’t had much training. Okay, well she hadn’t had any
training. In all fairness, Tyler had only had one official training
session with Alexander. Why was he deemed to be more
superior? Either way, she had been the one to kill the vamp in
the alley, not Tyler. She schooled her features to look
threatening. No one even seemed to notice, so she doubted it
worked.
The room they entered was some sort of coat and shoe
room. Two walls were lined with racks. There were enough coats
and shoes displayed there to clothe a small town easily. Emily
eyed the jackets skeptically. Some of them were long trench
style garments that reached all the way to the floor. A hungry
blood sucking monster could have been positioned behind one
waiting to strike pretty easily.
Still feeling the sting of Sebastian’s insinuations, she
marched over and quickly moved aside the coats. She hoped the
guys didn’t see her hands shaking. Despite the fact there wasn’t a
blood sucking monster waiting to eat her, she jumped back just
in case.Sure it was silly, although it wouldn’t have been, had
there actually been a vampire hiding there.
Sebastian moved toward the door that would take them
further into the house. “If you’re done scamming for clothes, I
think we should get on with this.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed at Sebastian strongly enough, that
laser beams should have shot out and bit into his flesh. Not
having much choice, she followed them. She glared at Tyler until
he went after Sebastian. It wasn’t necessary to sandwich her in
the middle. Knowing how to handle herself had been her job
ever since her mom died. Fury radiated off of her and if it wasn’t
for the need to be stealthy, she would have let Sebastian know
exactly what she thought of his righteousness.
It was easy to see that Tyler didn’t want to go before her.
He was just trying to do what he was told. The reluctance that
warred on his face softened her just a little bit. The need to keep
her safe was out of compassion. With Sebastian, it was more
about a primal need to exude dominance and that just wasn’t
going to fly.
So far the back of the house was unlit. They made it through
the spotlessly unused kitchen without any incidences. You could
seriously hear a pin drop in this place. Emily was afraid to
breathe. Her heart was hammering in her chest. It would surely
give away her presence to the vampires. Come to think of it,
there really was no point to sneaking up on the bad guys. They
were probably well aware of the intruders coming to get them.
Emily froze when the front door opened as they were
making their way through the living room. Luckily it was just
Kyle. Where was Ivy? Had something gotten her? They couldn’t
have, Kyle wouldn’t be so calm. Ivy might not be the most
agreeable person, but Emily was sure no one would be okay with
her destruction.
Emily looked to Sebastian concentrating hard.
Where’s
Ivy?
She’s coming around back.
He never stopped walking as he
sent her the message. He glided smoothly up a wide staircase
without making a sound.
As Emily ascended the stairs after them,she couldn’t help
but notice how beautiful the feature was. The path up the stairs
narrowed like a funnel. At the top, a hallway branched off on
both sides. There were several doors and expensive paintings
along the wall. She hadn’t noticed it right away, but the wall that
was on the side of the stairs wasn’t there. Instead an intricately
carved railing stretched the length of the entire hall.
Sebastian seemed to be listening intently with his head
cocked to one side. He motioned to the right with his hand
holding a sparkling dagger. They made their way across the floor
where he had indicated. Emily thought it would have been better
to split up but could see why Sebastian didn’t.
Splitting up would cause one of them to make their sweep
alone. Not knowing what they were walking into, didn’t make
that a very good idea. Wasn’t the whole reason they were here
because the vampires had taken a group of humans in here?
Where were they? You would think if nothing else, they would
be able to hear noise from the humans.
After about the third door Emily and Tyler exchanged a
weary glance. Clearly they were mice walking straight into a
trap. Emily shifted uneasy as she waited for Sebastian and Kyle
to come out of the room. Once they returned empty handed, they
moved to the next door in their path.
The guys were still ahead of her. She had peaked into the
room they had just come out of. It looked like a bedroom, a
normal bedroom at that. It seemed stupid but Emily expected to
see coffins instead of actual beds.
When she realized they weren’t waiting for her she tried to
follow. She was stopped by a cool hand sliding across her throat.
There wasn’t even time to react. She tried to suck in a breath to
scream at the others but the hand squeezed cutting off her air
supply.
“Hello Emily,” a voice breathed in her ear. “I didn’t expect
to see you here.”
Emily’s blood ran cold. She knew that voice. “Hello... Mrs.
Cleary.” She had to force the words out of her mouth before she
choked on them. The same woman that was holding her hostage
was the same scared woman she labeled a pod person after
running into her on the way to work the otherday. “We’re here
to help you.”
Mrs.Cleary laughed. “No, you’re here to kill me. I should
probablywarn you, I’m a little harder to kill these days sweetie.”
As she spoke her lips brushed over Emily’s neck.
There was no way this could be happening! At least that’s
what her mind tried to think. It was just a defense mechanism
though. No matter how bad her mind wanted to reject the truth,
there it was threatening to strangle her. Those monsters had
turned sweet Mrs. Cleary into one of them. She had known the
woman since she was a kid and now it appeared likely she would
die by her hands.
The reality of that was staggering. Emily tested her captor’s
grip by trying to move. She didn’t get very far when Mrs.
Cleary’s other arm wrapped around her waist and tightened like
a vice. Emily shrieked.
The guys raced back to her with Tyler in the lead this time.
“Emily!” He called panting. “Bitch you better let her go!” Tyler
stopped and trained his crossbow on them. It was shaking
slightly with his apprehension. Emily was strategically
positioned in front of Mrs. Cleary. The best Tyler could hope for
when he let off his shot was to not kill Emily. The chance that he
would hit his mark was unlikely.
“Watch your mouth young man.” Mrs. Cleary said
reproachfully. Apparently her mothering instincts were only
intact when it came to curse words. Putting Emily in a choke
hold didn’t reach her mama bear side at all.
“Where’s your leader?” Sebastian asked seeming to ignore
Emily at the heart of the fray. He wouldn’t even look directly at
her.
“He’s around. Don’t worry. You’ll be seeing him sooner
thanyou think." The female vampire’s voice was nonchalant.
She wasn’t worried in the least that she stood there out
numbered.
Just then Emily noticed a shadow moving up behind
Sebastian. She screamed. “Behind you!” The grip on her throat
got tighter cutting off her air and any other chance at speech.
“No no Emily.” Mrs. Cleary scolded mildly as though she
were talking to a toddler. “We don’t want to give away the
ending before it’s time.”
Kyle and Sebastian spun around to see the new threat. It
was Mr. Johnson. Emily recognized him from the bank. He
looked different. His skin was flawless and his eyes were that
awful green that looked like they were glowing. His stance was
predatory and full of menace.
“Nice work Sara,” Mr. Johnson soothed.
Emily realized belatedly that Sara was Mrs. Cleary. She had
only known the older woman by her last name. Now she could
only be known as leech. As if hearing her thoughts the grip
around her throat got even tighter still. Emily gasped and
coughed trying to catch her breath. “Just let me go!”
”Now where would the fun be in that?” Mr. Johnson asked
seeming genuinely curious.
“Enough! Where is Andre?” Sebastian barked. His dagger
was poised and ready, as he stepped closer to the male vampire.
The slow smile Mr. Johnson gave him in return was
sickening. It revealed that he was definitely one of the bad guys.
His K9’s were fully lengthened to a sharp point like thick
needles. Emily wasn’t sure but she thought she saw blood on one
of them.
“He’s busy right now but if you’d like to leave a message...”
his voice trailed off. The sarcasm in his impersonation was thick.
“He’s making more-”
“Shut up, Michael!” Mrs. Cleary instructed. “Remember
what Master said.”
Mr. Johnson, or Michael closed his mouth and gave her a
tight nod. He took two purposeful steps towards Sebastian. He
didn’t get any further though because a crossbow bolt struck him
in the chest. Blood pooled around the arrow and Michael fell to
his knees. He grabbed at the arrow but couldn’t gain proper
purchase. With a gasp his upper body pitched forward and hit the
floor with a thud.
Sebastian turned to Tyler with a half of a smile tugging the
corner of his lips. “Thank you.” Sebastian didn’t offer up any
further praise. That would mean he would have to admit he was
just saved by a newbie.
Tyler didn’t answer, turning he regained his focus on Emily.
Repositioning the crossbow, he threatened, “wantsome?” The
malevolence in his voice made it barely recognizable.
Mrs. Cleary however, was not impressed. She simply
laughed. “Go ahead and shoot. Who do you think you’ll hit?
Me? It’s more likely you’ll get dear sweet innocent Emily here.”
She crooned the part about Emily as though she were talking to a
baby.
“Kyle go check out the rest of the rooms down there.”
Sebastian motioned in the direction they were headed before
Emily had been grabbed.
Kyle swallowed. “Sure thing Bass.” He didn’t seem very
enthused about heading off alone.
Emily couldn’t blame him. They had no idea how many
newly made vampires were waiting to attack. One man walking
into a nest alone didn’t sound that appealing to her either.
This had gone on long enough! She had just about had her
fill of
almost
dying. Without giving herself time to think, she
reached for the knife sheathed at her hip. Using all her strength
she jerked her body to the side and thrust her knife back and up.
Mrs. Cleary instantly let go of Emily and fell to the ground. She
lay there flat on her back. Her body was in an unnatural position
with Emily’s knife sticking out of her chest. Emily had killed
another vampire. Not just any vampire but a vampire who she
had known and loved her whole life.
Sebastian didn’t give her much time to regret what she had
done. Without a word he strode to the body at her feet and made
a smooth downward arc with his dagger. When Emily looked
down she saw that Mrs. Cleary’s head was no longer attached to
her body. There would be no coming back for Mrs. Cleary that
was for sure. Turning to Tyler she saw that he was giving
Michael the same fate.
Tyler winced at the sight at his feet. “Yuck. How do you
people get used to this?” He bent down and wiped the blade of
his knife on Michael’s pants.
Sebastianraised a sardonic eyebrow at him. “You people?
You are one of us, or have you forgotten?” As if he had just
remembered Emily’s presence he turned to her. “Are you
alright?” He put a hand under her chin and lifted it up for
inspection. “You’ve got a nasty welt but that will be gone soon.
Our kind heals fast.”
Before she could respond to that information, three
vampires burst out of a door from down the hall, no, two
vampires and Kyle who was flying into the banister with a
sickening crack. He recovered quick and positioned himself to
spring at a linebacker sized vamp in front of him. One of the
rings to the banister had splintered with the force of his landing.
Emily’s first reaction was to hide. Standing in a hallway
didn’t leave many options, so she moved against the wall.
Sebastian and Tyler jumped into the action without hesitation.
Part of Emily wanted to join thembut she couldn’t seem to
make her feet move.
The smaller vampire wasn’t nearly as big as the linebacker,
though his ruthlessness was still just as menacing. He threw a
punch at Sebastian’s face that should have sent him sailing. Just
as fast as the punch was swung, Sebastian dodged, masterfully
avoiding rearrangement of his face. The fist did manage to
connect to his shoulder and push Sebastian back a few feet. Tyler
and Kyle were teaming up against the burly one. Emily noticed
while he was big, his accuracy left something to be desired. His
moves seemed clumsy. He had the brute force, but no skill to
back it up.
She was clenching her fists at her sides so tightly it made
her knuckles turn white. She kept expecting another door to open
and more monsters to get in on the fight. Her eyes darted to the
other end of the hall. It seemed clear for the moment, so Emily
trained her eyes back on the rumble happening not more than six
feet away from her.