Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) (14 page)

“Hypothetically speaking,” because I didn’t need him to start suspecting me, “I could come down with a flamethrower and burn the place down.”

The vampire laughed so hard he almost fell over. The reason most of the doors were locked and no one kicked open their door to yell at him I attributed to the general middle of the night. Most, if not all of them, would be upstairs or out doing whatever it was they did. I liked that. Made finding Jason easier. In a way. “A flamethrower? Here? You’re really something you know that? Just because we’re down here doesn’t mean a damn thing except we’re here. You think we sleep when the sun rises? You really think you’re going to make it past the front door of the club? Don’t think so. Two things. One, we’ve got just as much of a right to live as you do. You try to burn this place down, even if you don’t actually go through with it, you’ll be in jail for a very long time. Vincent’s got more power in his little finger than your so-called Supreme Court. And I mean that both literally and figuratively.”

A valid point. Still, it didn’t stop me from contemplating. “I believe it.”

His lips twisted in a parody of a smile. “Besides, good luck trying to burn stone. He dug a damn pit in the ground and lined it up with concrete and brick. Minimal steel. He knew what he was doing. ”

“So he had considered the possibility of fire, then.” Not really a question, but he answered it as though it was.

“Let’s just say that what he doesn’t already know, he makes it his business to learn. Fast.”

I was running out of doors to check, but gamely continued on. If we couldn’t find Jason upstairs, then he had to be here. Had to. “He’s a Lord. I would expect no less. How many more rooms below?”

“At least two hundred,” he said thoughtfully and I fought the urge to bash my head against the stone walls, artfully covered by the luxurious wallpaper that felt like silk underneath my fingertips. “It’s like he built a hotel underground.”

“And each vampire gets their own room?”

He shrugged. “If they want. Some of them bunk up, and they’re usually given larger rooms.”

I tried the last door at the hallway which ended in a rather dreary seascape watercolor hung over a white end table with a potted white orchid perched on top.

The knob turned under my hand. “Oh.”

Ryder drew in a quick breath. “Let…go of that doorknob, Ran. You…you really don’t want to just walk in.”

With only a tiny bi-su, I was apt to agree with him. “I need to find him.”

“I understand that, but you can’t just
walk
into someone’s room,” he explained slowly, as though I were a child (in retrospect, I suppose I was, compared to him), and pried my hand off the brass doorknob. “Now, stop back and watch how a pro does it. Ready?”

I stepped back and crossed my arms. “Do your best.”

He cleared his throat.

And then knocked on the door. “See what I did here?”

Needless to say, I was not impressed. “Great. Wonderful. Can you get a move on with it?”

Someone jerked the door open, a tall, almost painfully skinny man with inky hair and a pasty, almost floury complexion. Pale, sometimes, was quite eye-catching, but his deathly white chalky face just made me think he was dead. Which, he was, so it was a silly thought to begin with. “What do you want?”

“Sorry to bug you, Alec. Was wondering if I could get some information from you.”

“That would depend. What sort of information are we talking about?” His pale gray eyes flicked in my direction, but for the most part, they stayed on the man, er, vampire in front of him smiling with such good camaraderie, it was hard to see him as a threat.

Ryder stuck a thumb over his shoulder in my general direction. “We’re looking for a friend of hers. He was upstairs, but he’s not anymore. Was wondering if you might’ve heard or seen something suspicious.”

The dark haired vampire’s eyes narrowed into slits as they focused on me. “She’s no vamp.”

“No,” I said. “I’m not.”

Ryder coughed again, delicately. “Which…really has nothing to do with my question. Have you and haven’t you seen or heard anything suspicious?”

Alec’s eyes came back to me and his lips curved up in a wide smile, exposing his sharpened canines. “Depends on what you classify as suspicious. You look like you’d taste good.”

I chose not to answer, only smiling at the thought of plunging the dagger into his throat and watching that black vampire blood wash like a waterfall down the front of his bare chest.

“Hey, eyes on me, man.” Ryder smacked him on the shoulder. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to mess with her. She’ll rip your head off before you even think about saying uncle. Okay?”

Far from discouraging Alex, it only seemed to whet his appetite more and he ran his tongue along his lower lip, a strangely perverted motion that made me cringe in disgust. The very idea of that tongue running along my skin made bile rise in the back of my throat and I swallowed it down. Vomiting in front of a vampire in a place where I was not supposed to be…it certainly seemed like the worst possible calling card. “You sure about that?”

The blond vampire sighed heavily and shook his head. “She’s an Ailward, you idiot.”

The tongue stopped in mid-motion, halfway across his lip and slipped back into his mouth like a disturbed snail. “Well, why didn’t you say so, you stupid fuck?” He smiled at me, all oil and grease, and I felt sick again, although this was for another reason. “My apologies, Ailward. I was not aware of your…status.”

“Mm,” I said, opting to keep my mouth shut just in case I really did lose it.

He turned to Ryder, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. “As a matter of fact, I did hear someone screaming.”

I almost choked as my heart leapt up to my throat. “Man?”

He shook his head. “No. Woman. Why?”

So…not Jason. Damn it. “Never mind.” I pushed off the wall.

No point staying there anymore. Jason was not here.

“Well, why the hell didn’t you say so from the beginning?” Ryder asked, scratching the back of his neck. “We could’ve been halfway through the place by now.”

The other vampire grinned. “Then you should’ve worded your question more precisely. You know as much as I do how people tend to…scream.”

Ryder sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “Fine, fine, whatever. Sorry to bother you. Thanks for the tip, Alec.”

The only response he got was a look of pity and a door in his face.

“That…turned out rather well,” he said and then looked at me. “Ready?”

I’d been ready to leave since Alec mentioned it had been a female scream, but saw no point in saying so. “Let’s go.”

The next underground level was just as elegant, just as subdued as the previous, although no one responded to Ryder’s knocking. He tried the doorknobs, but none of them turned and the ugly, metallic taste of desperation was starting to make me queasy.

“This is not good,” I said.

“I’d say something about that being an understatement, but I don’t really feel like kicking a dead donkey,” he replied and sighed. “Look, have you considered the fact he might’ve just walked out?”

I had considered it, yes. “He wouldn’t have. Not without telling me. He’s under my protection. He’s not foolish enough to just leave me and walk out on his own.”

Our footsteps rattled on the metal staircase as we came to the final landing. There was another flight of stairs, but even from where I stood, it only led to a dimly lit door firmly chained close with a rusted padlock that looked like it hadn’t been open in a century. “I suppose there’s no point in asking you what’s down there?”

“Dunno,” he said. “And even if I did, not sure if it’s worth my skin to tell you.”

“Figured as much.”

This hallway was larger, with a large, common room and sofas scattered artfully here and there. It looked like the lounge to a very expensive hotel. Then again, wasn’t this just what it was? “How many rooms on this floor?”

“I wish I knew,” he said with a sideways glance, almost as though he were embarrassed to admit to such a failure. “Look, a lot of people…they kind of come and go. While they’re here, they’ve got everything, anything they’d want. But…but we’re not really the kind of people to settle down in one place for too long. So Vincent arranged a sort of…safe house. Some people stay.”

“Like you?”

He shrugged. “Don’t really know where else I would go, to be honest.”

A hand on my wrist stopped me from walking any further. Thankfully, it was the wrist with nothing strapped to it. “I think we need another strategy.”

I stared at the hand until he grew uncomfortable enough to withdraw it. “I am, as always, open to suggestion.”

This far down, the quiet reigned supreme. That there was a dance club three stories above with hundreds of people dancing, laughing, shouting, bleeding…it was unthinkable.

And yet, it was true.

He let out a heavy breath, ran a hand through his thick, unruly blond hair that glimmered like gold under the lights. “Just…just let me think about this for a second, okay? If Vincent finds out I let you down here, he’s going to go spare. I just got to think about this for a second.”

A high pitched scream shattered the stillness, the quietness and I bit my tongue in surprise.

He quirked a brow. “Well, it’s not your man, but on second thought, perhaps we should investigate this, after all?”

The cry had come down the right wing and Ryder ran ahead, arms pumping effortlessly at his sides. I followed him, considerably less graceful, but no less faster. I am not a vampire, will never be, but if I tried, I could attempt to keep up with them.

“Do you think it’s the same one Alec was talking about?”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” he answered, voice terse.

A door halfway down the wing gapped open, the door blocking our view from the inside of the room and Ryder stopped a couple of meters away, not even breathing heavily. “Get behind me.”

I did. There were times to argue, but this was not one of them.

He knocked at the door, still standing behind it. Perhaps he was giving whoever it was in the room a modicum of privacy. Or the illusion of it, in any case. “Hello? Is everything all right there?”

And in the quiet of the gently air-conditioned hallway, I heard it.

A terribly organic, almost obscene sound.

A woman whimpered, a slow, pain-filled rattle that made me think she did not have very long.

Neither did we.

Ryder gave me a sideways glance and nodded wordlessly.

I just stared back.

He rolled his eyes up and then sighed.

“You’re no fun,” he whispered.

I ignored that. “Open the door. Or I will.”

“Aw, for fuck’s sake…”

He jerked the door wider, made it easier to see, made it easier to see the splotches of crimson, as though someone had tossed a can of paint onto the walls and furniture.

But it was not paint.

Next to me, Ryder drew in a quick breath, as though someone had punched him in the gut.

If he said anything, I could not hear.

If he moved anything, I could not see.

Could only see the auburn-haired beautiful woman, with the perfect features contorted in pain, hand out to us, entreating, pleading,
begging…

Could only see the dark-haired beautiful man, with the perfect features contorted in pleasure, lips on her throat, licking, sucking,
drinking…

In my years of fighting the unnameable creatures of the dark, in my years of training with my harsh mother, in my years of watching my father subject my mother to brutality and shame, I had never stopped thinking, had never stopped knowing what to do next.

But
this…

Nothing could have prepared me for
this
.

Jason was gone, completely gone. Replaced by a monster that would stop at nothing to quench its thirst.

I’m going to kill the motherfucker who took Shannon.

I think I am glad you are to be my Ailward.

Perhaps I stepped towards him, mind completely blank, white as newly fallen snow, but I was not aware of it.

Jason’s eyes opened and rolled up, focusing on me. No. The vampire.

He was a vampire.

Why was it so easy to forget?

The vampire reared back, his mouth ringed with red. “Ran. This…it’s not.”

Drip, drip with blood.

"Fucking hell!" Ryder shouted. “Vincent’s going to kill me. Holy fuck, he’s going to put my head on a goddamn stake!”

So much blood.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat seized up. I watched the redhead crawl towards us on her knees, one hand on her ravaged throat, one scrabbling on the sleek marble floors.

She was not human. A human wouldn’t have been able to survive such an injury.

Ryder reached out for her and she screamed again, a high keening sound that made my knees weak, as his hands wrapped about on her upper arms, bringing her to her feet.