Seduced by Crimson (27 page)

"Okay, druid. Do your stuff." Xiao Fei's tone was dry, but he also caught a lighter note of hope. She clearly wanted to believe he had some great druid magic. Too bad—he could do only one thing. And that one thing was pretty useless.

"I can increase Earth's energy. Demons aren't from Earth, so it will give them a good case of nausea." But would a tummy ache really stop any of them?

"Shut up and do it while you still can," was Xiao Fei's response.

"Right." He gripped the amulet where it hung from his neck. Pain lanced through his palm and up his wrist, but he was used to that. He'd been the Draig-Usige for a while now; the aching bum was almost welcome. He glanced back at Xiao Fei. "I can't fight while I'm doing this," he told her.

"Already on it." She'd been digging in the Dumpsters and hauled out an old metal folding chair.

"That won't—"

"Shut up. We'll do what we can."

He nodded. She was a fighter. It was up to him to make sure the demons were incapacitated. He had to give them one hell of a tummy ache.

He closed his eyes and focused. He funneled his thoughts into the amulet, merging with it. And then he let the amulet filter and color his senses. His mind expanded, surfing on the waves of energy and power. He felt the tight, high vibration of Xiao Fei behind him. He recognized the lower vibrations of the metal and stone that surrounded them. He even felt the dissonance farther away of werewolf below and vampire above, and the really strong clang of the rampaging demons: a completely alien energy from everything else. But beneath it all was the steady beat, the all-embracing power of Mother Earth. He found it as quickly as he could; then he dove in, submerging himself in her energy.

She surrounded him, and he became an echo of her. Earth's energy resonated in him. Her vibration built, stronger and stronger. He was the Draig-Usige, with the power to strengthen all that was Earth and thereby dampen all that was not of her holy creation.

That was what he did. Right there, in that location between two Dumpsters with himself as the focal point, he strengthened Earth's vibration, magnified and concentrated it. He did it with one hundred percent of his body, mind, and spirit. And, he did it with one thousand percent of his will.

He opened his eyes. He saw Xiao Fei before him, wielding her chair like an avenging angel. He saw Earth's energy magnify in her, giving power and unusual strength to her body. She smashed a demon over the head with the chair, and he went down like a rock.

There were other demons all around. Two had jumped on top of the Dumpsters and were already swinging their weapons—axlike blades—down toward Xiao Fei and himself. Patrick increased the Earth's resonance in their direction. One lost his footing and tumbled to the ground. The other remained upright, but his eyes rolled strangely in his head. His ax dropped from nerveless fingers. He stumbled and vomited on one of his compatriots.

But there were still more demons coming, pushing through, and though all were slowed, not all were stopped. Another slashed with a sword at Xiao Fei, catching the back of the folding chair in her hands. She tried to hold on, but the force of the blow was too much; the chair was ripped from her grasp. She and Patrick were now defenseless.

Patrick strengthened the Earth's force directly in front of them, but this particular demon was hardy. He grimaced, exposing sharp, crooked teeth, and kept advancing. Xiao Fei backed up into Patrick.

"Jesus, I'm going to be sick," someone growled. "Tone it down, will you?"

Patrick could not identify the voice, but he could see Xiao Fei look up. His own attention was still directing Earth's energy, but it was not enough. The demon kept coming, with two more behind him.

"I got her," came another voice. "Can you…"

"Got him. Upsy-daisy."

Strong arms gripped him around the waist. He would have fought, but his attention remained focused through the amulet. He could do nothing with his body without abandoning his attack on the demons.

He had enough focus to recognize vampires behind him, lifting him up in the air. Xiao Fei too, looking sick as she went airborne, clutched in a male vampire's arms. The demons followed as well, levitating just like the vamps. But the Earth's power weakened them too much. They couldn't fly here. Not while he…

His strength ran out. His focus faded, his hand lost its grip, and he gave a moan that came out more as a sigh. He was not Earth. He was not Draig-Uisge. He was Patrick, who was going to be violently ill, except that he lost consciousness first.

The bastard demons were still following. As Patrick blacked out, they recovered their ability to fly and made a beeline straight for their prey.

"I need a gun!" Xiao Fei cursed.

"Right hip. Can you reach it?"

She'd done her best to forget she was being hauled off by a vampire. She knew they were rescuing her, but she couldn't keep Stan and his merry band from her thoughts. Would her rescuers drop her and Patrick from the stratosphere if they knew what she'd done to one of their kind? She didn't want to think about it, especially when there were more immediate problems.

She twisted and got her hands on a pistol. Sweet—another Glock. It took a moment to adjust in the vamp's grip, but then she was all about trying to shoot the pursuing demons out of the sky.

The vamps who carried her and Patrick were hovering low to the ground, zipping in and around buildings at speeds that left her reeling, but not so dizzy that she couldn't aim. Around a corner, and
bam
! A demon spun out of control. She didn't see where he landed, only that he wasn't following anymore.

"Nice shot."

Was there admiration in the vamp's voice? Xiao Fei didn't answer; she was busy sighting another one.
Bam, bam
! Scratch another demon. Hell, this was fun!

Until a group of four demons suddenly launched from under a freeway overpass. She heard her vamp rescuer curse and swerve scarily close to a very pointy cell tower. She glanced sideways to see that Patrick and the other vamps were still with them, still okay. Or at least she prayed Patrick was okay; his skin seemed abnormally gray. But then there was no more time for thought as she began shooting more demons. She emptied the Glock.

"Got any more bullets?" she asked.

"Not on me." Then her rescuer made some sort of gesture to his companion, and abruptly the bottom fell out of her stomach. They soared into the sky.

She screamed. Like a damn baby, Xiao Fei screeched in terror. It was only sheer luck that she didn't drop her pistol. When she ran out of breath she began to hyperventilate. But at least that gave her a moment to marshal her thoughts. Very soon she would make a reasoned and passionate argument to return to terra firma.

"Stop! Stop! Where are you going?" she cried.

"Home," the vamp answered calmly. "Strata Plus One. I've got more bullets there."

She nodded. Bullets were good, especially as additional demons were likely to start appearing at any moment. Even better, there seemed to be more vampires appearing around them, sort of a scary, pale-looking escort.

She frowned. "Don't you guys burn up in sunlight?"

"We've got lots of sunscreen," he replied.

She blinked. She would not get distracted by trivialities. There was something very wrong with the idea of going to Strata Plus One. Something…

She glanced at Patrick. He was looking more ill the higher they went. And then suddenly it clicked. He drew his strength from the Earth. Sure, there was Earth energy in the sky, even in that temple of high-rises that was Strata Plus One. But it was stronger below.

"Take us back down!" she ordered. "To a beach or the woods. To something earthy."

"We won't bite. I swear." There was humor in the vamp's voice that sounded… wholesome somehow. And that thought seriously gave her the willies.

"You don't understand," she said, focusing on her worry for Patrick rather than her bizarre rescuer. "He's a druid. He's attuned to the land. He needs water, green things, trees and stuff."

"A druid?"

"Just take us, damn it!" She was losing her calm. Hell, she'd lost her control a long time ago, but Patrick's skin was looking worse than that of the vampire holding him. That couldn't be good.

"What about the demons?" Mr. Vamp asked.

She scanned the skies. "They're gone."

The vamp sounded grim. "Not for long. While we're at it, why are they after you?"

"Just lucky, I think," she lied. She twisted as far as she could and tried to change the topic. "How'd you guys find us?"

"We were looking for a way to help out the wolves; then suddenly, all those demons just turned and went for you." The vamp paused long enough for Xiao Fei to start to squirm. "Now, what do you two have that they want?" She could feel his intense regard.

"Nothing anymore," she groused. And it was true. She already felt a quart low on blood, and Patrick… "Just get us down, okay? He doesn't look so good."

The vampire took a moment to stare at Patrick, who didn't appear to be recovering at all, then nodded. He gave a signal to the four vamps with them, and abruptly their angle shifted. They were going down.

"Thank you," Xiao Fei breathed.

"We'll take you to Redondo Beach. There hasn't been any demon activity there yet, but you never know."

She nodded, already regretting her choice. Wherever they went now, the demons would find them. After what they'd done to the gate, she and Patrick were the demons' greatest threat. So, why did she want to be dropped right back in the pathway of danger? She sighed. Because she didn't want Patrick to die, that was why. And because she didn't like vampires.

She bit her lip in frustration. Intelligent, logical thinking had never been her forte. The monks had taught her to bleed, nothing else. Just bleed, they said, for the good of the people.

"You're that Chinese girl, aren't you?" the vamp said.

She frowned, doing her best not to watch the fast-approaching street. "Cambodian, but that doesn't mean anything to you, does it?"

She felt him shrug. "I know it's a different country." Then he cleared his throat, as if he were feeling awkward. A nervous vamp? The thought boggled her mind. "You're the one who changed Stan back, aren't you?"

She didn't want to react. In fact, she had feared that this was where he was going, so she kept herself very still. But she still had the impression that this keen-eyed vampire saw right through her. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "Who's Stan?"

"Mmhmm. See, here's the thing .:." He kept talking in the most casual way while they careened down streets, barely missing light poles and satellite dishes. It was scary as hell—as he no doubt intended—but all the while, he kept talking as if it were no big deal. "Your energy feels really strange to me, good and bad. I can't really explain it."

She could. Good, in that she was of Earth. Bad, in that he was not. Or he was just off enough that she felt strange to him.

"And Stan was screaming about Chinatown and stuff. About this woman with short hair and a crazy-ass tattoo."

Geez, Stan had seen her tattoo? He couldn't have. He'd been unconscious—or so she'd thought. But then again… She swallowed. She would have tugged the sleeves of her blouse down, but the vamp who held her had already seen enough. Maneuvering behind that Dumpster had put some telltale rips in her attire.

"And then these demons show up," continued Mr. Vamp, "and they're gunning for you. So, I wonder exactly how this all fits in."

He stopped. They were hovering a good twenty feet above a deserted beach.

"What are you doing?" Xiao Fei cried, obviously failing to keep the panic from her voice. "Put us down."

"All in good time," the vamp answered. "I just want some answers, that's all. What did you do to Stan?" The threat was clear: if she didn't talk, he would drop her. She might survive a drop from this height, but she sure as hell couldn't risk Patrick. She bit back a sob of frustration. What the hell was she supposed to do?

"I don't know anything!" she snapped.

"Lies make my hands really slippery," he warned.

"I just cured him, that's all! I unturned him. Now put us down!"

The vamp didn't move. "You unturned him? How?"

"My blood. That's what feels different to you. It…" She glanced desperately at Patrick. He didn't look so bad right then, but then again, most everyone looked good in crisp morning sunlight. Everyone but damned vamps, that is.

"It what?" he prompted.

"Patrick says it accentuates the Earth's vibrations. It brings out the Earth in people. Problem is, vamps aren't from the Earth."

"Yes, we are. We're born here. We live here."

She shrugged. "Okay, you're from Earth, but… different." In truth, it was the demons who felt really different, really alien. Vamps just felt like a different key of the whole Earth song, not a completely different instrument.

"So, what did you do to Stan?" the vamp asked again.

"I brought out the Earth energy in him, I think. Enough to overcome the vamp." Of course, the werewolf cub was strong in her mind. He hadn't been naturally human enough for her blood to work, which meant her blood probably wouldn't work on natural-born vamps either. She closed her eyes. She didn't really care. Not right now, not with Patrick hanging there like a dead dog. "I don't know how I do it; I just do." She twisted to look closer at her rescuer-turned-captor. She had to know. "Is Stan really dead?"