Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) (23 page)

“Take a deep breath!” Leo shouted, right before what was left of the windshield gave way to the might of the river.

Water pour
ed through the back of the SUV.
I sucked in a tight breath before
ice-cold
water crashed into my face,
and I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them, the interior of the car wa
s completely filled with water.
Arika was swimming through the opening where the back windshield used to be.
Rook had an arm around Dezyre, and
he guided her up and through the opening in Arika’s wake of bubbles.

A hand rested at my lower back; Leo was pushing me forward. Snapping out of it, I swam toward the opening and into the open water.
It was dark as pitch down here, and the water was so cold that it was making it hard to think or move
,
since my body was starting to go numb.

Leo swam up beside me and grabbed my wrist, jerking me along after several
other
dark shapes swimmi
ng away from the sinking car. We
started to follow
our companions
when another stream of bullets tore through the water, blocking our path.

Leo drew up short
and pulled me in the opposite direction. I faltered, pointing toward the others, but Leo firmly shook his head. Not having any other choice, I followed after him
,
and together, we swam away from the barrage of bullets
,
into the darkness.

My lungs began to burn for fresh air, but I kept going, pressing my lips shut to keep from opening my mouth as the pressure inside my lungs built to the point of becoming extremely uncomfortable.

Leo had the same pinched expression on his face. I wondered if being a vampire meant I could somehow hold my breath longer, and a bolt of fear ripped through me at the thought of my best friend drowning. I couldn’t let that happen.

Desperately, I grabbed his arm and began pulling us upward toward the surface. When Leo resisted, giving me a “What are you doin
g?” look, I pointed to my mouth
and proceeded to haul us up.

I didn’t think we were going to make it, and that I was about to get a lungful of river water. We couldn’t have broken the surface soon enough. I gasped for air as I shot out of the water,
inhaling several mouthfuls of water. I coughed and ran a hand over my eyes, trying to clear them of the river water.

“Over there!”

Fabulous
, I thought as flashlights shone our way.

Leo was sputtering bes
ide me, sounding just as out of
breath as I was. My eyes widened as I saw the S.I.A. and Scarlet Guard raise their guns.

“Leo, swim!” I screamed.

Gunfire rang out, and a barrage of bullets pelted the water, sending up little sprays all around us. I fought against the current, swimming for all I was worth
; I didn’t care
that
I was exhausted
,
or that the water was practically frozen because it was so cold. My breath fogged the air, and I could hear Leo coming up alongside me.

“Agh!”

My whole wor
ld froze at Leo’s agonized cry.
I stopped swimming and whirled around, eyes wide. Pain twisted Leo’s features, and he gripped something below the water, struggling to remain afloat.

Something twisted deep inside me
.
No. No, please, not him.
Please don’t take him away from me too.

Someone was shouting over a megaphone from the riverbank. “Stop shooting! Sovereign McAllister wants her alive.”

So she can kill me herself, probably.

As they lowered their weapons, the beam of their flashlights bounced off something shiny. Hope lifted my quickly sinking spirits. Grabbing
hold of Leo, I began dragging him through the water toward a piece of metal sticking just above the
river’s
surface.

“Hold on
,” I said breathlessly. “Just hang in there.”

He grunted in response. I could feel the pain rolling
off him; it was so intense that
it nearly crippled me.

The metallic object I saw earlier was ribbed, like a piece of piping. The opening appeared to be below the surface.

“Hold your breath,” I said.

After making sure Leo got a mouthful of air, I clamped in a breath and dove underwater.

It felt like a thousand needles were prickling my skin, and it hurt to keep my eyes open as we swam toward the dark, metallic opening.
There was something off about Leo’s efforts,
so
I had to wor
k twice as hard for both of us. Though the water helped carry some of his weight, it was still a bit of a chore to drag him toward the opening.

The tunnel was da
rk, but about twenty feet ahead
,
the water lit up with orange light. I pushed u
s through as quickly as I could;
my lun
gs were starting to burn again. W
e burst up on the other side, gasping for air.
It looked like some kind of entrance to a storm drain.

Leo cried out, then immediately bit down on his lip.

I studied his face, worry creasing my features. “Leo, what is it? What’s wrong?”

His face scrunched up,
as if he
were
tryi
ng to hold in his pain. His voice was so ragged I barely made out what he said between gasps.

“My leg…
I think I’ve… been shot.”

CHAPTER
14

“I’ve been shot.”

Those three words reverberated inside my head, pumping fear into my heart.

I blinked and took a deep breath, steadying my voice. “It’s okay, Leo. You’re going to be fine.”

Terror ripped through me, threatening to paralyze me.
But before it had a chance to, I jerked my mind back in the moment
.
If I had any prayer of helping Leo, I had to be totally, one hundred percent “on it.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Le
o’s lids start to flutter shut. M
y heart catapulted into my throat, nearly leaping out of my mouth. I shook Leo. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me, Rinaldi. I’ll kill you if you die.”

His lips tugged up at one corner in a smirk. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

My lips twitched in the
faintest of smiles. “Shut up.”

My heart sank as I pulled us into the circle of eerie orange light, made even spookier by the bulb’s erratic flickering. I kicked out and that’s when I felt it – a concrete bed. I had been so focused on making sure Leo didn’t die on me that I hadn’t paid much attention to my surroundings.

We were underground, or at least, that’s what it looked like. Crumbling concrete walls rose all around, making me feel even more trapped. The thought we could turn around briefly crossed my mind before I dismissed it, knowing we’d be caught if we left.

The concrete bed rose out o
f the water onto a
ledge
that led into the earth, fa
rther into the sewer system beneath the city. The iron bars that had once covered the entrance had
e
ither been ripped off or eroded,
I couldn’t tell.

Finding my footing on the ledge, I started to lift Leo,
gritting my teeth when he hissed at the movement
. That sound, so full of agony, shot a dagger of ice-cold fear straight through my
chest
.

“I know it hurts,” I said, feeling guilty for jostling him so much as I awkwardly tried to lift him over the ledge
and
into the tunnel. “But I need to get you out of the water before you catch pneumonia.”

It was completely possi
ble for vampires to catch colds
too, but I figured my immune system was probably
stronger
than his was.

I smelled it the moment his leg broke the water’s surface, the sweet, hypnotic tang of his blood.
Oh G
od.

My
pulse
picked up speed as I s
truggled not to breathe, to rei
n in my inner demons. I squeezed my eyes shut.
No, not now. Not ever again.

It was harder than I thought to say no, like my drinking from him the first time had
made me addicted to his blood
. I wondered if vampires had secret suppo
rt groups like Bloods
uckers Anonymous.

The moment my gums ached, I bit down so hard on my lip that my fangs nearly tore it off. The pain jolted me back to my senses, and I blinked, hard.

“Sloane?”

My gaze snapped to Leo. “Yes?”

The word sounded edgier thank
s
to the metallic, hollow echo of the tunnel. “Are you okay?” he asked. His v
oice had taken on a deeper tone.
I knew from nursing him back to health after all our school fights that he did that in order
to hide how pained he was
.

My heart went out to him. “I’m sorry, Leo. Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m a trooper,” I said lamely, giving him what I hoped was a convincing smile. “Let’s get you patched up.”

We somehow managed to get him onto the ledge, and then I hauled myself up beside him. We huddled against each other, listening, every muscle in our bodies straining to hear if we were being tracked. I heard voices in the distance, accompanied by the squealing of tires, which meant the S.I.A. and the
Scarlet Guard must be leaving. It would be
foolish of
me to think they wouldn’t be back with a diving team.

Slowly, we both let out long breaths and leaned heavily against each other. “Do you remember when we were little and played ‘super-action-hero’ in my front yard?” I asked softly, staring thought
fully out at the
pool.

That had the desired reaction. Leo’s grimace turned upside down, and I smiled back at him. “How could I forget?” he said with a soft laugh, eyes growing far-off. “We used to beat the shit out of each other
. ‘We
have
to make it authentic, like real good guys catching the bad guys,’ I think you said.”

I winked at him, tearing off a piece of my shirt – which wasn’t so easy since it was a sweater, but I had enhanced strength – and wrung it out in a vain attempt to dry it. “Don’t lie. You liked it.”

“Yeah,” he said dry
ly as I rolled up his pant
leg. “N
ow I have all these battle scars to show off to chicks. My badass value increased exponentially thanks to you.”

That made me laugh. “Glad I could help.” I flinched as Leo sucked in a tight breath wh
en I rolled the hem of his pants
over the bloody hole in his shin. Clenching my nostrils, I did the best I could at not breathing in the scent of
his
blood, though my mouth started to water.

Get a grip, Sloane.

One look at Leo’s face was all it took.
Taking a deep breath, I refocused on his injury. Even with vampire vision, there were too many things gunking up the hole
– blood, shredded flesh –
for me to see if the bullet was still there.

I shot Leo an apology with my eyes. “Leo, you know I
would never intentionally
–”

“Do it,” he said. The hard look in his eyes matched the steel in his voice.

Mentally bracing myself, I reached two fingers into
the hole. Leo immediately yelled
, and I threw my other hand up against his mouth to muffle the sound. Every muscle in my body clenched with tension, making me edgy and nervous as I felt around for the bullet.

I kne
w the second I found the bullet
because the nerves in my fingertips flared up like they were on fire, shooting needle pricks of molten lava straight into my bloodstream. I gritted my teeth to trap my own cry of pain inside my mouth, forcing myself to grip the
Scarlet Steel
bullet and pull it out. Leo began trembling with the effort of holding in his agony, and my arm, which was starting to go numb, shook as I finally pulled the bullet free and threw it into the water.

I held up my hand and almost vomited. It looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie; my index finger and thumb were nothing but bloody bones, from which clung scraps of shiny, pink muscle. The burning sensation remained as the Scarlet Steel’s chemicals
continued liquefying my flesh. Tears stung my eyes as I turned away from Leo and suppressed a moan.

Leo laid a hand
on my shoulder.
I could feel the warmth of his fingers sinking into my soiled sweater. “What is it, Sloane?
” He asked, his voice sounding raw from pain.
“
What’s wrong?”