Chaos and Moonlight (Order of the Nines Book 1) (32 page)

“Oh dear God, NO!”

Taris went into panic mode. His entire body chilled to the marrow. He hit his knees on the floor in front of her and thrust his arms through the growing blood pool beneath her body. She was freezing. Her pulse was almost nonexistent. Taris forced back a scream. In a quick jerk, he pulled her close to him, sloshing the blood that covered her back onto the walls that surrounded them. Frantically, his hands went to the open holes in her throat.

“You’ve got to fight this,” he gritted through his teeth. He stopped one gushing wound with his thumb and covered the other with his mouth, doing his best to seal it before it did any more damage. He didn’t swallow her blood but let it run out of his mouth as he quickly tried to repair the damage that had been done. He did the same with the other wound. In quick passes, he ran his tongue over the puncture wound, watching as it closed and knit itself back together.

“Sarah, come on, baby. Open your eyes for me.” He brushed blood-matted strands of hair away from her pale face, scanning it for any signs of life. “Open up those big brown eyes and look at me. God, please!” He couldn’t fight the sobs anymore. “Please, I’m begging you.”

Nothing. All that remained of her life force was barely visible in the occasional thread of a pulse.

“Damn it,” he muttered. He lifted a hand to wipe the tears from his face, but all he did was smear more blood onto himself. There was only one way she would survive. One way she would be able to make it through the blood loss she’d endured. With a deep, hard breath, Taris sank his teeth under the edge of the cuff on his forearm and ripped it clean off. It had worked on Nick. It had to work on Sarah. It simply had to.

With his back toward the wall, he repositioned himself. He rested her head on his thigh and held her mouth open with his fingers.

His stomach flipped as he jabbed the tip of a fang into the thick blue vein in his wrist. It sprang open, beading up a dark crimson at the juncture where his hand and his wrist met. Before he wasted too much of it, he turned it over and placed it directly over Sarah’s mouth. He could do nothing but watch and wait.

None of it came back out. The way he held her left her throat wide open for it to make its way straight into her gut. She would either have a belly full of blood that would drive the final nail into her coffin or she would have a belly full of blood that would spring her back in a violent fashion. He’d poured so much into her that something had to start happening. Taris pulled his arm away and sealed the wound. He couldn’t tell if the drops of blood on her face were from where he had lifted his wrist away, or if she was beginning to come back.

The locomotive sound of blood rushing through veins rang in his ears. She was still motionless in front of him. His heart sank down into the recesses of his belly. This was his fate, to accept yet another death at his hands, all in an effort to preserve life. Only this time, it was more palpable, more wrenching. He pulled her up into his arms and cradled her listless form against his chest.

And he sobbed. Hard.

She was gone. The greatest thing that had ever or would ever happen to him was gone. An instantaneous fire lit within him.
Morrigan
. Morrigan took her from him, just like she’d always taken anything that had even a modicum of meaning from him. And that evil harpy bitch was still waiting around somewhere. He knew it. She was never one to walk away from any situation in which she could cause him pain, and the fact that the one woman he actually did love was now dead because of her would be a knife that Morrigan wouldn’t wait to twist in his heart.

“I’ll come back for you,” he whispered and placed a loving kiss on top of Sarah’s motionless head. He started to lift her off his lap, but he could have sworn he felt a twitch. He didn’t move. He didn’t breathe.

There it was again. From where her hand was flopped over against his leg, he felt a finger move.

“Oh shit. Sarah, come on. Fight.”

As if an electric shock was coursing through her, the muscles in Sarah’s body began to jerk. One by one, they lit up, contracting and convulsing. Taris braced his legs against the doorjamb and held onto her for dear life. If her changeover was anything like Nick’s, it was about to get violent in that closet.

Suddenly, a blood-chilling scream blasted out of her chest. Her hand shook and contracted so hard that Taris felt the alternating jabs of her nails in his back and the hard
thud
of her fists hitting the meat of his shoulders. Her feet shook and smacked against the floor. Taris gently tried to keep her head tilted to the side. The last thing he wanted her to do was make it through a complete internal shift in her physical makeup only to choke on her own tongue.

As quickly as it started, the violent episode stopped. She went limp against him, but this time he could feel the new heat that radiated off her body and could see the blood racing in her veins. He held his breath, waiting for her to stir or make some motion of lucidity.

“Sarah,” he whispered, stroking her hair. “Can you open your eyes?”

There was a soft flutter of lashes against her skin. She seemed to give up twice before she actually managed to lift her lids enough for him to see into those deep chocolate pools.

“Hey you,” he smiled down at her. His shaking fingers pulled the matted strands of hair away from her face. His eyes misted over, and he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to hide it. Tears pooled in the corners of his eyes and trickled down his cheek.

“That hurt,” she whispered before closing her eyes again.

“It’s over now, baby.” He pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. “I thought… I was afraid I’d lost you.”

With Sarah tucked into him as close as he could manage, Taris braced himself against the wall with one hand and lifted them together. He carefully maneuvered his way out of the tiny closet. Momentary panic hit him when he noticed that Morrigan was nowhere to be found. Her ability to breathe was something he needed to put the kibosh on, quick.

The sound of heavy boots down the hallway made him stop in his tracks. Gripping onto Sarah with one arm, he reached down to his hip and pulled the 45-mm pistol from its holster, aiming it at the opening of the doorway.

“Take one step closer and your midsection gets turned into a fucking canoe,” he growled.

“Chill, T,” Achan carefully stepped into view. “It’s me. Whoa!” Achan ran into the room, looking around at the large smears and pools of blood. He glanced over at Taris and Sarah and saw that the two of them were caked and covered in the stuff as well.

“You guys okay?” he asked.

“We will be,” Taris spat out as he walked toward Achan. “Take care of her.” He handed her over to him, placing her gently into Achan’s open arms. “She’s one of us now.”

“How the hell did that happen?” Achan asked, his spine stiffening.

Taris nodded. “Compliments of that harpy.” He popped his neck and pulled the other pistol from its holster. With a quick flick of his thumb, he pulled the hammer back. “I know she’s still here. She’s too rotten to die easily. Make sure everyone gets out safely. Morrigan has run roughshod on everyone for far too fucking long, and it’s high time someone put that bitch’s head on a spike.”

Taris bent down and kissed Sarah on the top of her head. She didn’t respond. The blood loss and the trauma of what her body had been through had knocked her out completely. It was best that she sleep anyway. He had a little more work to do before he got them all safely home, and it involved violent things he’d rather not have her see. Namely, the ritualistic decapitation of his former wife. He promised her he’d piss down her throat, and after what she’d done to Sarah, he damned well meant to keep his promise. Maybe not literally, but he aimed to make sure that after tonight, Morrigan never drew another breath.

She wasn’t hard to track. Smears and streaks of dark red trailed down the hall and into the elevator, creating a path straight to her. Taris descended the metal stairs with more jumps than steps. Once he was past the second floor, he glanced over at the elevator. The number above the doors hovered on 2 and then began to blink, signaling the elevator’s descent to the first floor. He didn’t waste any time. With his hands on the rails, he launched himself into the air and down onto the main floor of the club.

The mayhem that he’d left to find Sarah had died down. All but one of the poorly hired and tragically fated henchmen were dead. And Judah was only playing with the one he was letting live. The big guy who let them in was nowhere to be found. What remained of the battle was a blood-covered floor, a momentary patch with his brother, and a vampire mate.

“You need some help?” Achan asked. Sarah was still cradled in his arms.

Taris glanced over his shoulder and smiled at the two of them. She was beginning to open her eyes now.

“I got this, thanks. But just so Sarah doesn’t think I’m a total monster and change her mind about me, you might want to turn around. I don’t want her to see this.”

Achan winked at him and backed away.

There was a lagging silence and a pounding in the air that could only be the sound of his heart. His fingers were twitchy. A metallic whir squealed out from behind the metal doors, and the excitement was almost too much for him to bear. He popped his neck and shrugged his shoulders back, ready for the evil that was about to come out from inside the compartment. Once the elevator came to a screeching stop, he drew out his pistol and leveled it toward the door.

The doors creaked apart, snapping on their tracks every few seconds. A dingy yellow light from inside slowly began to flood the space at Taris’ feet. He was surprised to see her standing on her feet. Her stiletto pumps were thrown to the linoleum floor, and her bare toes twitched in the streams of blood that trickled down her torso.

“Oh, did I ruin your cashmere?” Taris ran his tongue over a fang and lifted a hand, motioning for her to step forward. “I’d like my knife back, please.”

She tried to say something, but with every breath she drew in a fresh jet of blood spurted from the wound in her neck. The black handle of the blade jiggled in her shoulder with every step. In her hand, she tried to grip a large pistol. She lifted it with shaky hands, trying to take aim, but every attempt she made only resulted in her dropping her arms again.

Taris stepped back and watched as the nightmare that used to share his bed shuffled closer. Her navy blue orbs were encircled by bloodshot rings of red, and her skin was beginning to turn an ashy gray color. He almost felt bad, letting her struggle like that, but every fiber of pity he’d had for her was overshadowed by the centuries of torment and death and heartache that she’d engineered.

A final, shuffling step brought her completely out of the elevator, and the pure evil within her gave her just enough strength for one last stand. With a burst of energy, she launched herself at Taris, gun still firmly in her hand. He reacted quickly, stepping to the side before grabbing her by the shoulder. With a twist of his torso, he lifted her over his head and slammed her to the floor. Her back met the sticky ground with a sickening
smack
. The gun was stuck to her hand, her finger twisted around the trigger. His heavy boot on her abdomen pinned her body to the floor. Bending down, he wrapped his hand around the handle of his blade. It made a horrid sucking sound as it came free.

“Everything you touch withers and dies.” Taris’ voice was an angry hiss. He knelt down beside her and lifted her slightly off the ground by the collar of her cashmere sweater. “You deserve no less than the lowest rung of hell. I would be cliché about this moment and go on about the hardship and pain you’ve caused us all until the end of time, but I really don’t care to waste my breath on you anymore.” She shook beneath him, but her silent laugh was quickly cut off.

“Killing me doesn’t help you win,” she wheezed. “I broke you. I will always be in your head. You will never be rid of me.” Morrigan used what little strength she had to twist out from under him and rise to her feet. The pistol was leveled at Taris’ head, and a sinister laugh pushed through the blood and the torn flesh at her throat. Just as Taris rose up to face off with her, her face twisted.

“There’s more than one way to break you, boy,” she said. The shaky pistol in her hand moved from where he was standing to where Achan and Sarah were sitting, but when he looked over, Sarah was not there.

“Where did your bitch go?” Morrigan said as she spit blood out of her mouth.

“I’m right here.”

Sarah was positioned behind her. Taris’ eyes grew wide as he watched her level a gun at the back of Morrigan’s head.

“You don’t have the guts,” Morrigan laughed as she turned to face Sarah.

“Maybe not,” Sarah replied. “But I’ve distracted you long enough.” She moved backward, and Taris started to swing Rhiannon’s large claymore. Morrigan’s eyes grew wide just as he brought it down, severing her head from her body. The sickening
thud
echoed through the bar, and as it fell to the floor, her body jerked. The finger that she had twisted around the trigger convulsed, and the gun fired a blasting shot, followed by a loud scream.

Taris looked for the source of the scream and yelled for Judah as he dashed toward Zillah, who was crumbling to the floor.

* * *

The sound of the shot thundered through the open space. Its ringing echo clung to the walls and drowned out all other noise, except for the sound of Judah’s cry. He grabbed the sides of his opponent’s head, twisting it on its axis until his body slumped down to the floor. He cleared tables and the flimsy excuse for a stage in record leaps before he was on his knees at Zillah’s side.

“Oh no. Oh shit. Zillah. Wake up.”

Judah frantically ran his hands over the length of her, trying to figure out where all the blood was coming from. He hadn’t seen her take the hit. All he knew was that one minute he was elbow-deep in some wannabe badass, and the next he’d heard the sickening
thud
of her body hitting the floor. God help her, there was so much blood. He pulled her closer to him and did his best to unfasten the buckles at her back that kept the Kevlar corset closed. Lots of pissing good it did her. Once he managed to fumble the last buckle loose, he flung the damned thing clear across the room and stifled a cry as he saw the gaping wound in her side.