Vampire Thirst (28 page)

At those words, Zoricah’s tense brow melted. “That’s it,” she exclaimed softly. “I’m not supposed to
save
them, but to help them finish this cycle of life, so they can start a new one.”

Tardieh nodded. It made a lot of sense. “And why did she want you to understand that so much?”

Zoricah glanced up to him, then her eyes drifted to one of the dracos inside a glass cage. “Because I’m scared shitless of starting my new life with you.”

Tardieh’s breath got caught in his throat.

“Err, I’m gonna find the others,” Joel said, already halfway through the security doors.

Tardieh cupped Zoricah’s chin with his hands. Their eyes met. “And you think you’re the only one?”

She let out a chuckle that echoed a mix of surprise and nervousness.

He lowered his forehead to hers. “We’ll take one day at a time, and when things get too overwhelming we’ll do what we always do – we’ll regroup and start again. How about that?”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” she answered, then kissed him softly.

“Let’s free these people before it’s too late,” Tardieh whispered against her lips.

After just a few moments of search, they found a hidden door that led to a computer room with towers of CPUs.

“These are probably the central servers feeding the cages,” Tardieh concluded.

“Well, it’s time to pull the plug then,” Zoricah replied. Then she came around and kissed him again. “I’d rather you waited outside.”

Tardieh nodded and complied. He positioned himself by the exit door in the main room. If push came to shove, he’d be able to grab Z and get the hell out.

Suddenly, the temperature in the room went up several degrees. He heard a strange whoosh coming from the antechamber, just before the bright electric charge feeding the glass cages flickered a couple of times, then died out. The door that led to the server room was propelled in the air and angry fire invaded the main area.

From the red and yellow sea of flames, Zoricah appeared. Regal, deadly, gorgeous.

One by one, the prisoners dropped to the floor. Their inmãs had finally crossed the first River into Apa Sâmbetei.

Chapter 8

Yara was getting fed up with those freakin’ Rambo-wanna-be razbians. After Sam charcoaled Dr. Burvis into his next life, they made their way out of that wing and ended up as far as the main courtyard. They had agreed to rendezvous with Tardieh and Z behind the Sports Centre a few blocks away. Z’s orders had been clear – go in, get Sam and Hikuro, blow the fucking place down, and get out. Yara just hoped Z, Tardieh and Joel were also on their way out because the place was falling apart. Flames from the C4s Yara and Dyam had set around the complex had engulfed the corridors and rooms. The ceiling was collapsing, but the razbians kept on coming. Fucking morons.

Yara aimed her
Beretta M9 and blasted another guard. In the corner of her eye, she saw Joel’s blond head appear, followed by Tardieh’s tall figure and Z’s beautiful face.

Thank you, Apa Dobrý!
“About time!” she shouted when Zoricah joined her behind a garbage container.

“Nice to see you too, Yara,” Z replied with a wink, then blasted a dragon fireball at a couple of razbians on the roof.

“Where are the prisoners?”

Z paused, then her lips curved slightly into a sad smile. “They are free.”

“Good,” Dyam shouted from behind a concrete pillar.  “So let’s get the hell out of here.”

A wave of crystal bullets zinged past Yara’s ear. “Fuck! That was close!” She turned around, gun in hands, ready to blast the S.O.B. who shot at her. But when she looked back, the razbian dropped like a potato sack on the floor, not even ten feet from her. She frowned then looked around searching for her hero, but saw no one.

“Fucking Hiad!” Z’s curse brought her back to the fight.

If only Yara could turn into her panther, those razbians would scatter away in no time. But paws weren’t very useful on armed battlefields. Fingers and opposable thumbs were. With them, she held her gun out and fired at two razbians on the roof.

Joel and Dyam materialized right behind her.

“Watch it, vamps, or I’ll shoot your sorry asses!”

“You can try,” Joel replied with a smirk.

They were almost out. Just a few more yards to go and they’d be free from concrete walls, free to teleport out of the complex.

“Stay close, Yara, we’re almost ready to vanish out of here,” Dyam shouted, then jumped away just before another crystal bullet flung past between them. Yara lunged to the floor. If one of those fuckers got her, she’d burn like firewood.

When she looked up, she spotted a razbian guard sneaking back into the basement. Why would anyone want to go back into a collapsing building?

She pushed off the floor and ran after him.

Pieces of plaster and metal were dropping like flies in the vast basement, blocking her way. Yara called her powers forth and lifted the flaming beams up. She didn’t have to be all furry to enjoy her panther’s supernatural strength.

She ran up a charcoaled staircase –
Hmm, Z has been around here
– through heavy metal doors and down the long corridor. Then she paused. The razbian was nowhere to be found. Damn it.

The sound of a window being smashed echoed behind her. She swirled around low and waited, her Beretta M9 firmly in her hands. Seconds later, the sneaky bastard came out of one of the rooms holding a black box. Yara recognized it instantly. It was one of those containers in which Dr. Burvis kept the electric bullets. If that guard got away with it, someone else could carry on with the experiments. And that could not be allowed to happen.

Yara pulled the trigger. Her shot caught the razbian in the left kidney, but the S.O.B. kept on running. Fuck! He was quite a few feet ahead of her, but instead of heading to the exit, he turned left and went into a large antechamber.

Yara followed him through the single door and stopped. Darkness reigned. She kept quiet and listened. Faint panting echoed somewhere in the room. The lizard was still there, somewhere.

Time to call the big guns out.

She closed her eyes and let her beast take over her five senses. She wouldn’t let it loose completely; all she needed was its acute hearing and night vision. Yara felt the familiar hum in her core grow bigger and bigger, overtaking her heart, her mind, her soul. When she opened her eyes again, the room was as bright as daylight. The razbian was across the chamber, hiding behind a tall chest, a few feet from the exit door – which would certainly lead to his escape.

Yara cracked her neck left, then right. Then she raised both arms and pointed her gun at the bastard.

“Tchau, querido,” she said out loud.

The razbian gasped, then darted out of hiding and opened the exit door. Light from the lamps and the fire that was consuming the compound seeped through and flooded the room, temporarily blinding Yara.

Out of nowhere, a massive male figure blocked the razbian’s path.

What the fuck?

The guy wasn’t a guard or one of the vamps. He wore only a pair of jeans, boots, no shirt. His taut, naked biceps bulged against the light, his ripped abs clenched with each movement. Wow. Who was that?

He threw a double cross punch straight at the razbian’s nose. The guard tried to defend himself, throwing a few punches out, but they only met air. The mysterious man was too fast for him. He was precise, powerful, all male.

After a final hook that knocked the guard out, he straightened himself up and paused, facing Yara. She stared back. The light from outside had ruined her panther eyesight; she could only distinguish the outline of his features, but not details. His face was protected by the shadows, but nonetheless, Yara felt butterflies in her stomach. Her panther suddenly purred inside. Mighty Soartas, who
was
that man?

Something caught his attention and he spun sideways, ready for battle. Yara was mesmerized by the formidable power he exuded. Before her mind registered it, her feet moved forward. It was as if an invisible force was pulling her, compelling her to go to him, to touch him, to feel him against her skin.

But before she closed the gap between them, the stranger snapped his head around and pinned her with his fierce gaze. Yara halted in place, overwhelmed once again by his dominating energy. The words
Alpha male
were whispered in her mind.

Too soon, he turned on his heels and disappeared into the night.

With the black box.

Fuck!

Yara shook her head to clear her blurry mind and resurface from the stupid pseudo-trance she had dived into.
Damn it!
What the fuck was she thinking?
Paralyzed by his dominant power?
How ridiculous! And now he was getting away with the bullets.

She bolted after the mysterious man, very well aware she needed to be more careful. It didn’t matter how he had managed to hypnotize her so quickly and from such a distance, it wouldn’t happen again. Once out of the door, she paused. Where had he gone? Black ashes cascaded from the skies. The main part of the compound was on her right, the tall electric fence was on the left. The stranger was nowhere to be found.

“That’s impossible!”

She sniffed the air for clues but suffocating smoke whizzed into her nostrils, making her cough. Deciding to scrap that tactic, she quickly pondered on the options. If she were in his shoes, where would she have gone? She’d have leaped over the high fence and disappeared across the dark park. Left it was, then. She ran as fast as her legs could go then jumped up and over the railing, landing smoothly on the other side. She straightened up and focused on the park across the road. Nothing. She swirled around, desperately searching for a clue, a noise, a shadow. Flames engulfed the entire compound. The remaining razbians were running for their lives, but there was no sign of Mystery Man.

Frustration besieged her. “For crying out loud! How can he simply disappear?”

In the back of her mind she realized that her determination wasn’t being fuelled only by her drive to get the bullets back. No, it was being fed by an organ farther down south that had come alive just by looking at the guy. She
had
to find out who he was.

She sighed as she realized he was truly gone. She had let him slip through her fingers. Something tugged at her heart and a weird feeling overwhelmed Yara. She was certain the Soartas had just woven a new path for her life.

*****

Rafe tightened his jaw and held on to the box. He’d been a fool for joining the fight. Now she’d seen him.

At first, he thought of just watching her from a distance. He saw the vampires burst into the old manufacturing plant and blast everything in their path. Rafe snuck in unnoticed and hid in the shadows. But there were too many razbians; they’d eventually win by sheer numbers. Rafe couldn’t have cared less, but when that fucking guard snuck up behind Yara and pulled the trigger, Rafe experienced something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Pure, unquenchable rage. He flew at the lizard and shoved him sideways, successfully making him miss Yara. With that accomplished, Rafe ripped the fucker’s throat out. It had been close, oh so close. Yara had looked around and was almost on to him when her leader called her.

After that he should have gone back to his mission. He should have hunted the vampire king down, killed him and left. But his prick had awakened and overridden any chance of reason. The moment he got near Yara, Rafe felt an overwhelming urge to protect her, to kiss her, to make her his. She exuded power combined with raw rage. Her every move stirred the heat in him. Then her exquisite scent of forest after a storm reached his nostrils. And that was it. Rafe’s chances of ever getting her out of his system vanished.

He wanted the witch. He would have the witch. Period.

So he followed Yara back into the blazing compound and let her see him.

Fucking stupid moron.

Rafe put more power onto his hind legs and darted across the empty streets of Broxbourne. His white wolf was too big to pass as a dog, but no one would stop such a beast in the dead of the night. No one in their right mind anyway.

While the adrenaline of the fight fueled his limbs, his mind steered back to the sexy witch.

What in Hiad had Yara thought by going after that guard alone, with no back-up? Well, maybe he should thank her for it. It was then that he found his ticket to freedom. Rafe snorted. Whatever was in this box was valuable. And he bet his furry ass he could get very good money for it.

Rafe trembled with the thought of what the future held. He had had enough of the shackles his Alfa had strapped him in. He had paid his dues years ago, so since his Alfa had no interest of setting him free, he would bargain a way out himself.

And he would make sure that Yara was part of his reward.

Chapter 9

From the park, Sam watched the old manufacturing plant crumble to the ground. Most of the razbians fled when they realized their master – the one with the check book – was dead. After that, it was a matter of minutes for Sam, Yara, Zoricah and the vampires to eliminate the last stubborn ones. When they were certain the coast was clear, they left the compound to its flames and regrouped at the agreed-upon rendezvous spot – the park behind Broxbourne Sports Centre, away from prying eyes.

“How did Burvis manage to hire so many razbians?” Yara mumbled. Something was off. After a good fight, Yara was always full of energy, but this time around, she seemed to be even grumpier than before.

“Beats me,” Joel replied from his position perched on a high branch.

“He mentioned he had a benefactor,” Sam added, snuggling closer into Hikuro’s arms. Since they’d left the compound, Sam had been introduced to yet another side of Hikuro. He hadn’t left her side and had proven to be very comfortable with public displays of affection. It warmed her heart and freaked her out a little bit at the same time. She knew how to deal with Stone Face Ninja but with Mr. Cuddle? She had no idea what to expect.

“We must find this benefactor then,” Hikuro said, kissing her forehead. It felt so nice.