Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (34 page)

Alec looked outside.
 
The sun was finally starting to come up.
 
He could just make out the street outside and the building across from where they were was beginning to take shape in the gloom.
 
Finally, they could rest.
 
He slumped to the ground beside Steven.
 
Marcus and Silas would just be settling in for the day so that gave Alec time to hopefully come up with a plan.
 

“Yeah tell me about it.
 
He went bat-shit crazy and could have killed us all.”

“Actually, when I got ahold of the gun Victor had been carrying the safety was on the whole time.
 
I don’t think he wanted to kill anyone really, he just wanted answers and didn’t know how to get them.”

“I think he wanted to kill Chris.
 
The explosives Vic made him wear and the ignition switch worked just fine.”

“Shhh,” Alec said holding up his hand.
 
He had heard glass break upstairs.
 
Not just one, but multiple sounds of someone breaking in.
 

“Dude the sun is coming up the vampires have finally gone back to their coffins.
 
Hey do vampires actually sleep in coffins or is that a Hollywood thing?”

Alec was listening intently.
 
He could hear movement upstairs.
 
It was slight, but the boards were old and damaged and creaking slightly.
 
Thankfully, he’d been burning blood most of the night and seemed to be holding it together okay.

“Come on,” Alec said pulling Steven up.

“What?
 
I’m tired,” Steven said leaning back against the wall.

The stairs on the far side of the room creaked and both men fell silent and turned slowly in that direction.
 
Quietly, Steven reached down and grabbed his backpack.
 
Alec unzipped it and pulled out the semi auto and held it ready.

With little warning several black figures hurtled off of the stairs and in the direction of the young men.
 
Alec opened fire filling the small space with bullets.
 
There was very little room for multiple vampires to maneuver and Alec scored quite a few hits, unfortunately none of them fatal.
 

Steven backed up slowly to give Alec space to work and suddenly hit something that hadn’t been there a second before.
 
A hand snapped around his neck and started choking him.
 
He fought and clawed at the hand to no avail.
 
He couldn’t breathe and he was starting to see spots in front of his eyes.
 
Steven reached into his pockets with shaking hands and grabbed the crosses that Alec had given him.
 
He slammed a handful of them against the hand of the vampire choking him.
 
Instantly he was released and could breathe again.

The vampire withdrew slightly holding his hand against his chest.
 
All Steven could see was the man’s blue eyes.
 
And they looked crazy, pissed and deadly all at the same time.
 
From behind him, Alec yelled, “Duck!,” and as soon as Steven moved, Alec opened fire on the vampire.
 
The man’s tight black shirt became riddled with red as the bullets tore into his chest.
 
The vampire was thrown to the ground violently.

Before he could move again to stand up, Steven grabbed a silver cross and stuck the long end of it into one of the bullet wounds.
 
The cross wasn’t that big but it was enough to slide grossly into the hole.
 
The vampire instantly began to scream and writhe on the floor in agony.
 
It was awful.
 

Alec had shot bullets until he was out and was now using the body of the gun to block the swords being swung at him.
 
He blocked several blows at once and ducked another.
 
He found an opening and slammed the butt of the gun into the face of one of his attackers.
 
He didn’t make the same mistake that he’d made earlier in the hotel.
 
He’d been holding back then out of habit.
 
Now he used all his strength and speed to his advantage and felt the man’s face give under his attack.
 
Thankfully the vampire’s skull didn’t explode or Alec thought he would have vomited on the spot, instead the vampire dropped clutching his ruined face.

Alec was confused.
 
The sun was coming up.
 
Why weren’t the vampires in their rooms hidden away from the light so they could attack again at a later time?
 
Instead here they were pressing their attack with the sun almost in the sky.
 
Wasn’t that instant, agonizing death for a vampire?
 
Who would want Alec dead to the point of risking his own life to make it happen?
 
Alec caught another blow with the gun in his hands and felt it shear in half from the strike.
 
Now he was left with two halves which he used to block blows and slam into any opening he could find.

Steven couldn’t keep up with what was going on with Alec, and could only hear the clash of sword on gun.
 
He wanted to do something but didn’t know what.
 
He’d just get in Alec’s way if he joined the fight.
 
Then it occurred to him.

Steven quickly went over to one of the windows and started yanking boards free.
 
Some of them were nailed down pretty tightly so he looked around for something to use.
 
He reached down to the writhing vampire on the floor and pulled his sword out of his sheath.
 
Talking about insult to injury.
 
He started hacking at the boards with the sword until the window was clear.

As soon as the boards were cleared, sunlight filled his half of the room.
 
The vampires facing Alec threw their hands up before their faces to block the light.
 
The one lying on the floor wasn’t so lucky.
 
The sunlight was shining directly on him.
 
His hands instantly began to blister and turn red.
 
The skin around his eyes was also affected and he screamed even louder and his head started drumming against the floor like he was having a seizure.
 

Alec figured now the vampires would withdraw and he and Steven could make a run for it.
 
Instead, they continued their attacks, their swords swinging wildly as their skin smoked.
 
Steven went to the window that was a little closer to Alec and began hacking and the boards there.
 
When they were sufficiently loose, he reached up and tore them away from the window.
 
Four bodies hit the ground and began convulsing as the rays of the sun burned flesh that hadn’t felt its warming touch in centuries if not far longer.
 

Steven hacked open one more window to be on the safe side.
 
Alec grabbed the heavy desk blocking the doorway and shoved it out of their way then took Steven’s arm and shoved him towards the door.
 

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

As they exited the building they left the door hanging open for good measure.

Alec was glad that the streets were deserted in this area of town.
 
The screams of the burning vampires echoed off the surrounding buildings and seemed to follow them as they walked.
 
Thankfully, eventually there was silence.
 

“What the hell happened back there?
 
Why did they attack us during the day?” Steven asked.
 
Alec could tell by his tone that he was freaked out and honestly, so was Alec.

“I don’t know.”
 
Alec shook his head slowly.
 
This made no sense.

“We need to find a place with Wi-Fi,” Steven said and started walking more quickly.

The two young men had been walking for about forty-five minutes before they started seeing other people.
 
The derelict buildings and warehouses disappeared and gave way to large multistoried buildings.
 
Alec guessed they were heading closer to downtown.
 
After a few more minutes, there were more people walking here and there and cars rushing down the streets.

Steven pulled his laptop out and was holding it balanced on one hand.
 
The screen was on and he was looking at it.
 
He spotted a cafe across the street and said, “There.”

The two men ran across quickly and Steven nodded and sat down in front of the building.
 
The cafe was a small affair nestled between some sort of banking and loan and the entrance to the main building.
 
Alec was self-conscious about Steven just sitting down on the sidewalk and looked around to see if anyone took notice.
 
No one seemed to even care.
 
After a moment he slid down beside him.

“Look at this,” Steven mumbled and moved the laptop where Alec could better see the screen.

“Unknown gunman sets off explosion in the Hillman-Hines and is injured during a standoff after several hours of holding hostages, including Senator Taylor’s son, Christopher Taylor. Unknown gunman…” Alec trailed off.

“They all say that.
 
Not one of them mentions my name or Vic’s.
 
And several of them say that Chris and his father are unavailable for comment.”

“Silas or one of the others must have kept your names out of the news.”

“But why?
 
Not that I’m upset mind you.
 
This will make it easier for us to move through the city without everyone pointing at me.
 
Did they do it so it will be easier to make me ‘disappear’?”
 
He looked worried at that thought.

“I doubt it.
 
I’m sure they have their reasons for not releasing your name.
 
It might even be for your own protection.”
 
Steven gave him a quizzical look.

“Some vampires like to take matters into their own hands, even though they aren’t supposed to.
 
Happens to me all the time,” he said casually.
 
“Trust me.”

“I’ve noticed.”
 
They both sat their quietly for a moment, thinking.

“Now what?
 
How do we find your…friends?” Steven asked carefully.

“I’m not sure.
 
I don’t have my phone with me.
 
I seemed to have left it behind when I was dealing with a certain hostage crisis.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, brother,” Steven mumbled.
 
“Vic destroyed mine.”

“I know that they were headed to Vincent VonBell’s.
 
If we had money we could take a taxi or something.
 
I can’t call them, they are…asleep.” he finished lamely.
 
What did they do?
 
Alec wasn’t really sure.

“What do we do until they’re up?” Steven asked yawing.
 

“You need to find someplace to sleep,” Alec said watching the man yawn again.

“What about you?”
 

“I need to sleep but as long as I’m…” he really didn’t know what to say.
 
“As long as I’m in a certain mode, I don’t really feel tired the way I used to.”
 
Steven just eyed him but didn’t say anything.

He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of pills.
 

“I have my medication.
 
This will keep me awake and alert for awhile.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea after all you’ve been through?”

“Yeah should be fine.
 
It helps me to concentrate and stay awake.”

“What is the medication for anyway?”

“I have Attention Deficit Disorder.
 
I take it to help me concentrate.
 
Want one?”

“No thanks.
 
Does it work?
 
Does the medication help?”

“Oh yeah,” he said and popped one in his mouth.
 
They didn’t have any water so he swallowed it the best he could.
 
“I honestly don’t take this recreationally.
 
If we weren’t in this situation I wouldn’t be taking one now.
 
So now what?” Steven asked, looking at Alec.

“We need to get ahold of Silas and Marcus.
 
I don’t have my phone with me and I haven’t memorized their cell phone numbers so I can’t call them.
 
I don’t have their email either.
 
I only know where they were headed.
 
We need to find the address for Vincent VonBell.”

“I can search for it.”
 
Steven started typing on his computer.
 
“What a stupid name.”

Alec just grinned.

“Got it.
 
It’s about eight miles from here.”

“Might as well be eighty,” Alec said stretching.

“Come on, let’s go find a less conspicuous spot with Wi-Fi so I can work on this encrypted file.”

“Yeah, I’m curious to see what he wanted to hide.
 
Hopefully, it’s not porn.”

Steven laughed.
 
“Porn’s not necessarily bad.
 
It’s that freaky shit that gets you.
 
You don’t expect it and suddenly there’s a woman with a donkey and a piñata and she’s…”

“Okay, okay.
 
I get the picture,” Alec said holding his hands up and laughing.
 
Who would have thought after the way they’d met that they would end up laughing and joking together.
 
What a strange world Alec had stumbled into.