Reckoning (The Watchers Book 5) (22 page)

Like some sick, brutal dance, we broke into pairs. My partner was a snarling vamp in a green uniform who was running straight for me. I set my stance and faced him full-on.

He leapt. I grabbed his throat as we fell backward. But he was too close for me to get my blade into position. As we toppled, my mind went into training mode. I let myself drop to my butt, smoothly rolling back the moment I hit the floor. I kept rolling. Hitched up my knees. Flipped him right over me.

Where Juliet was waiting. She impaled him with her fireplace poker the moment he landed. “Brilliant,” she shouted. “I love this thing.”

“Thanks for the save,” I called up at her, but she’d already turned and was fighting two-on-three with Regina by her side.

I heard Regina gasp, and I spared her a quick glance. She’d been sliced down the side.

But then the vampires around her gasped, too.

The vampire who’d slashed her recoiled. Turned his back to her to recover. “What is that stench?”

The feverfew oil must still be coursing through the girls’ veins.

“I think the phrase you’re looking for is
Trojan horse
.” I sprang to my feet. “Unnerving, isn’t it? Almost as unnerving as being taken from our homes by a bunch of bloodsucking assholes.”

As I spoke, I spotted the reflection of another vamp sneaking up behind me. I had no problems gripping my blade this time. In a single, fluid move, I whirled around and staked him.

“Hey, vampires do have reflections,” I shouted to no one in particular.

Regina came to stand back-to-back with me, and we did a slow turn, ready for the next attack. “These mirrors are freaking me out,” she said.

“I like them,” Watcher Clara called out enthusiastically.

I sought her in the melee and found her gripping a shard of mirror in her hand, standing over a vamp body riddled with more mirror fragments.

“You’re intense,” I said.

She gave me a little salute. “I could say the same.”

A female gasp got my attention, and my eyes found Monique. I’d told her to stay close, but this fight was too chaotic, and I’d lost her. Now a vampire had her by the throat and he was sliding her up the side of the wall.

“Don’t you dare.” I bounded toward them, throwing two stars as I ran, but they pinged off of his back, doing no good.

Before I could reach her, a stake appeared in her hand. She used one hand to strike the vampire’s elbow, and when his arm buckled, she swung her other arm down and skewered him in the throat. She landed on her feet with a growl. “You messed with the wrong girl.”

Kenzie shouted, “Go Monique!”

The new Acari was rubbing her throat and panting to catch her breath. “I learned from the best,” she rasped with a half-smile.

That smile was cut short when a bearded vamp grabbed her from behind. His fingers curled into her upper arms until blood bloomed like dark roses along her sleeves.

He peered at the blood, sniffing deeply. His mouth twisted in repulsion. “What deceit is this?”

Clara launched herself onto his back. “You’re the ones who have trouble with impulse control.” She gritted out the words as she got a hold of his chin with one hand and cupped the top of his head with her other. With a sharp twist to her arms, she propelled herself backward. The crack of his neck reverberated around us.

The instant he dropped to the ground, a few of us were on him, staking him before he could rise again.

Clara looked indignant. “I was getting to that.”

Mala shrugged. “I was feeling left out.”

Talk about fun-sized—I looked around, feeling about ten feet tall. We’d thinned the guards considerably. And though we’d all sustained injuries, for the vampires, it seemed to have backfired. The scent of the girls’ blood was in the air now and it was disturbing them. Throwing them off balance.

One older vampire was hanging back, watching as his fellows were being systematically downed. He struck me as the type to scurry into a hole when times got tough. I didn’t want him to get away and alert anyone.

“A survivor.” I strolled toward him, then enjoyed making a mocking curtsey. “Care to dance?”

He didn’t like that. His lips peeled back in a hiss.

“Tut-tut.” I raised my misericordia with a smile, and it had the same immediate, dramatic effect it’d had on the other vamps. I shook my head in amazement. “This will never get old.”

He summoned something inside himself and pulled to his full height. He must’ve used some kind of vampire mojo, because he seemed to expand to an unnatural size and his voice took on a deep, resounding vibrato. “You know not whom you face.” And then he stalked toward me, like he might overcome me.

“You don’t scare me,” I murmured. And then I broke into a run. Straight for him.

Taken aback, he was suddenly normal height again. Or maybe it was just my perception. Maybe I could see through their tricks now.

He hadn’t changed.
I had.

I staked him, and the spot where my blade struck burst into a low, smoldering flame.

I turned. We were done. We’d gotten them all.

I grinned at each girl in turn, appreciating every single one of them. “Well—”

The next thing I knew, Regina was flying past me, garrote in hand.

I turned in time to see her clothesline the vamp I’d just killed, catching him at the neck. He fell, throat slashed halfway through.

We watched as his burning body shuddered back to standing.

“Again?” I stared at the red and black smoking fissure where his ribcage should’ve been. I’d missed his heart the first time, and now he was shambling toward me, swinging his arms erratically, trying to grab me.

“What the fuck?” Clara scowled. “How old is this guy?”

Regina shouted, “Finish him, D.”

“My pleasure.” I dodged and staked him again, making sure not to miss his heart this time.

Regina began to squeal, putting me back on instant alert. Tiny orange embers had caught the ends of her curly hair.

I dashed to her side to pat them out. “I burned my hair once,” I told her. “I don’t recommend it.”

She thanked me, but I was quick to say, “Thank
you
. That was a nice save.”

Kenzie came over, hands on hips, those sai knives still clutched tightly in her fists. “I think this fight is over.”

“Looks like they were guarding that.” I pointed to a door at the end of the hallway.

Ronan.
Hold on. I’m almost there.

“Let’s think this through,” Juliet said.

But I was done thinking. By the time she finished speaking, I was already running toward it. Toward him.

Until a figure popped from the shadows in front of me. I staggered to a halt with a shout, genuinely startled, torn from my laser-focus.

“Boo.” It was Sonja, and she was laughing. “You’re so predictable, chasing after your boys as you do. Run, run, Annelise, like a child mad for a toy. But I’ve caught you. Charlotte led you right to me. And now I will have your strength.
My beautiful boys
will have your strength.” She chucked me on the chin, and I flinched away.

I held my right hand at my thigh, the misericordia tucked along my forearm, out of her sight. She still didn’t know I had her blade.

I made like I was considering her words. “Yeahhh…nope. I’m not in a sharing mood, Sonja. Now get out of my way.”

This was the vampire who’d controlled the Isle of Night from the shadows. Who’d masterminded the death of so many of my friends. Who’d betrayed her own sex in search of more and more power.

It had been
Sonja’s
circus of violence and brutality that’d taught me how to fight. That had trained me not to tip my hand. Now I’d make Sonja suffer the lesson she’d taught me. I’d keep my weapon—the weapon I’d stolen from her—hidden until the last possible second.

That was some delicious irony right there.

A coquettish grin shone from her face. “Tell me, did you come for Ronan? Or is Carden still the flavor of the month?”

I widened my eyes in mock surprise. “I think you just insulted me.”

Her face shriveled into a sneer. “You think they care about you, but it’s me they—”

I was shaking my head. “I’m going to stop you right there. I’m done playing your sick game.”

Done with people hurting me.

Done losing friends, being estranged from family.

Done with Sonja’s cruel, narcissistic rule of
Eyja næturinnar
.

My arm flashed up, and the misericordia was an arrow aimed for her heart.

I staked her. Hard.

“Now to answer your question.” I staked her again for good measure, and again, even after she lay smoldering on the ground. “I came here for
all
the people I care about.”

I pulled the blade free one final time with a crackle of smoke and sputtering blood.

“I think you got her,” Kenzie said, sounding amused.

We all stood there in silence staring down at the body. Had I really just killed Sonja?

“That was quick,” Clara said, and then she began to laugh. “I expected… I don’t know…”

Monique looked at her in amazement. “What, you wanted
more
drama?”

“A quick kill? I’ll take it.” I slung an arm around Mala and one around Regina, but my eyes were glued to the door at the end of the hall. “And now it’s time for door number three.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The elevator dinged.

We shared exasperated glances at the hushed sound of the doors sliding open. “No freaking way,” Mala groaned. “More of them?”

I looked from the elevator to the doorway and back again.

Kenzie put her hand on my shoulder. “We got this. You go find Ronan.”

“Watch out for Charlotte,” Clara added. “I knew her before she ‘died’ the first time. She was a pain in my ass. Go kill her for real now.”

I nodded, but the idea didn’t sit well. Could I kill Ronan’s only sister? What if it came down to her or me—whom would he choose? The thought was unsettling.

Male shouting echoed from down the hall. The vampires had found the carnage.

“Everyone knows we’re here now.” Juliet gave me a shove. “Go. We’ll see you on the outside.”

“But…” I looked from girl to girl. Would they be able to find their way back to the surface? I thought of all the vampires they’d face between here and the mainland. “Don’t you need all the help you can get?”

Clara gave me an exaggeratedly disparaging scowl. “I think we can survive without your help, little D.”

Finally, I nodded. “Okay, but that’s Fun-Sized D to you.”

A couple of the girls gave me extra shoves as I spun and went for the door. A cacophony of clashing and snarling exploded behind my back.

I tuned it out.

I had a very different fight ahead of me.

I didn’t give myself a moment to think. My hand was on the old-fashioned glass doorknob. I turned it. Stepped inside.

My eyes found Ronan at once. I couldn’t look away. He was seated on a lush, upholstered chair. He wasn’t tied, but something held him in place. Pain? Hidden bonds? Vampire mojo?

“Ronan?” my voice cracked on his name.

Slowly his head turned to me. Dread churned in my belly, and it gave my body a sick, swampy feeling, because what would be in his eyes when he saw me? Anger…hatred…disappointment…I don’t know which would be the worst.

He saw me. His eyes blinked hard. Was it tears? Disbelief? Or had Charlotte simply beat the crap out of him?

He looked confused.

My heart fell. Had I destroyed the trust we’d built together with one massively stupid mistake?

I deflated even more. Because it wasn’t just a single, stupid mistake on my part. I’d been doing stupid stuff since I’d arrived on the Isle of Night.

But then his gaze seemed to focus, and that Ronan light I knew and loved so well kindled to life in his forest-green eyes. He was ablaze in there, in his heart. I saw it. And it was aimed at me. “Ann?” he rasped.

There was a supernova in my chest—relief, excitement, giddiness, heat—all the feelings, so many of them new, unfurled in me. I ran to him.

“Your mother. Did you find her?” He tried to rise, but staggered and fell back into his seat.

“Oh my God, oh my God, it’s okay, Ronan. Sit down.” I fell to my knees before him, searching his body for injury. “Are you all right? I didn’t find my mom yet, but I just…I needed to find you first. I
had
to see you. We’ll get you out of here. But, oh God, you must hate me. I’m so sorry. Will you forgive me? Can you ever forgive me? I don’t know why I didn’t trust you. You just, I don’t know, it’s your
sister
. You always talked—”

“Shush, Ann. Get up here.” His hands were reaching for me.

I propelled myself into his arms. My body nestled onto his lap like a puzzle piece finding its place.

I pulled away to look at him, and my heart skipped in my chest. I felt insubstantial. As though it were only his arms around me that held me grounded to the earth.

The eyes that met mine smoldered, but it was his hands that set me alight. Smoothing over my body. Down my back and along my thighs. Through my hair. All the while murmuring, “I’m fine, but your neck. What happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m fine. It’s nothing. That doesn’t matter. But, oh Ronan…” My eyes held his as I waited for my throat to unclench. “Ronan, I am so sorry.”

“It’s okay, love. It’s—”

He’d called me
love
. I was undone.

I cut him off with a fierce hug, wrapping my arms around his neck, tangling my fingers in his hair.

Breathing him in.

He laughed low and quiet, giving me a squeeze, then easing back. He held my face in his hands, our noses mere inches apart. He whispered, “Don’t punish yourself. This is a terrifying, confusing place. I understand. I dared not tell you the plan in front of Carden, but I knew you’d get it eventually. I have faith in you, Ann. I always do. From the first moment we sat together in that ridiculous car, I had faith.”

I couldn’t speak, overcome with emotion.

So I kissed him instead.

I was out of words, but apparently my body had no trouble expressing itself. It was a riot of feeling. My shoulders loosened, releasing all the tension of being apart, while other, more secret parts of me tightened until I felt I couldn’t get enough of him.