Vengeance (The Captive Series, Book 6) (24 page)

William’s gaze followed Kane out the door before turning to smile at the remaining guards in the prison. Lifting his hands to his forehead, he gave them a brief salute before walking to the bars lining the back of the cell. No bars ran across the floor of the cell, but he doubted there was any way out below them. The other vampires moved away from him, their gazes wary as he leaned against the back bars and waited for all hell to break loose.

The wind had started to pick up. It blew her hair about her face when she crept to the back of the human bakery and knelt on the porch. She lifted her head to the sky, her heart sinking when she spotted the gray clouds creeping in to obscure the stars and moon that had been shining in the sky. She didn’t smell snow on the air, but the growing wind would whip the flames up and spread them through the town more rapidly.

If the fire spread too fast, would it give everyone enough time to get out? Would it give William enough time?

Her heart sank, but she couldn’t deviate from the plan, she’d promised him she wouldn’t. Her hands trembled as she lit the next rag, rose to her feet, and knocked out the window of the door. Tossing the rag inside, she dashed down the steps and across the yard. She skipped over the three buildings in between to kneel behind a small restaurant. William had told her to spread the fires out to create more chaos, and she preferred to stay away from the residential homes for as long as she could.

Dousing the rag, she popped open the basement window and tossed it inside before hurrying away. Her next stop was a home on the same road as the hotel. There were too many vampires gathered around to risk going any closer to the hotel.

Poking her head cautiously around the corner of one of the buildings, she looked toward the hotel. The crowd gathered around it had begun to disperse, but the highest concentration of white cloaked vampires remained around the building.
Like bees protecting their queen
.

Did that mean William wasn’t in there anymore? Or did it mean he was, and his punishment had been handed down, and their curiosity answered.
Was he still alive?
Tempest shook off that thought. She would know if he was dead, she was certain of it. He was still alive; she just didn’t know what was going on.

Keep going.
It was what she’d promised him she would do. She couldn’t shake the inner tremor rattling her system as her worry for him ate at her. Ducking away, she hurried toward the back of the next building. She carefully broke out the glass of the latched basement window.

The acerbic scent of smoke had grown thicker on the air. Tilting her head back, she peered up at the increasingly cloudy night, but now puffs of dark gray smoke could be seen mingling with the lighter gray clouds. No cries of alarm or warning filled the air yet, but it was only a matter of minutes before someone noticed the smoke, and the flames finally broke free of the buildings.

She was about to douse the rag when a footstep sounded in the snow behind her. She pressed closer against the building, flattening herself to it as a white cloaked figure emerged from the shadows. “What are you doing?” the woman demanded.

Tempest’s mind spun as she tried to come up with a believable response. “Forgot my key.”

Lines creased the woman’s forehead when she frowned at her. “You’re not staying here.”

So much for believable. Turning away, she doused the rag with oil. There had been enough left to set at least three more homes on fire, but that wasn’t going to happen now. She lit the rag and tossed it into the basement with the rest of the oil before turning and fleeing down the side yard.

“Hey, stop! Stop her!” The woman’s shouts rang through the small side yard and reverberated between the buildings as she ran through the snow. She burst onto the street and fled across the crowded thoroughfare. “Stop her!”

Shoving past two vamps who turned to face the woman, she dashed in between a couple of homes. Putting her head down, her arms and legs pumped as she leapt through the snow toward the mountains two hundred feet away. Away from the bustle of the town, she could hear the footsteps and grunts of the vampires laboring to pursue her through the snow.

Turning to the left, she didn’t dare look back, as she headed for the mountains. Her legs burned from exertion, but she could feel the pulse of William’s blood within her veins, giving her a strength and speed she’d never experienced before.

Who knew vampire blood could be so powerful? It certainly boosted her in a way human blood never had. But then, perhaps that was why it had always been so taboo for vampires to feed from one another. Vampires might have turned on each other if they knew they could feel this strength from it. That may have been the reason, but she believed it was more likely taboo because it took a lot of trust for a vampire to share blood with another vampire. To let them know where they would be at all times, to always be able to find and track each other.

She never would have given anyone, other than William, such intimate knowledge of herself. Maybe it was her trust in him that had enabled her to feel more powerful now, and not his blood.

Without slowing, she turned sideways and plunged into the cave she knew was etched within the mountain’s face. Once inside, she was forced to slow as the rocks pressed so close against her they nearly touched the tip of her nose. She shuffled onward, her fingers scrabbling over the rock wall as she guided herself forward.

Behind her the grunts and shuffling feet of the vampires chasing her reverberated against the rocks encompassing them. These caves were in the mountain opposite of the one she’d used to escape this town, but she knew them well.

After fifty feet, the cave widened out. She turned and bolted across the open expanse before making a sharp left and turning sideways into another crevice. The crevice only went twenty feet back before coming to a dead stop, but the cave itself went on for another mile before dead-ending.

She hoped they would pass right by her hiding spot without noticing her. Opening her cloak, she tugged a stake free and gripped it firmly in her sweating palm. Her cheek pressed against the cool rock as she stared out at the gloomy cave. The echoing slap of her tracker’s feet on the rock floor reached her seconds before they burst into view. The light in here was dim, but her pursuers stood out in stark relief against the shadows surrounding them.

Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, she became completely still as they ran onward. They didn’t glance in her direction before plunging into the murky depths of the cave. Tempest’s shoulders sagged, her fingers eased their death grip on her stake, but she didn’t have time to appreciate her brief reprieve. It wouldn’t take them long to arrive at the end of the cave and realize she wasn’t there.

Sliding free of her hiding spot, she ran toward the entrance of the cave. She turned sideways to go back out the entrance and plunged into the open again. What she saw there caused her to take a staggering step back. She collided with the mountain. The rock face bit into her skin, but she couldn’t move away from it. Her mouth dropped as she gazed at her hometown.

The wafting smoke she’d last seen before entering the cave had turned into a full-fledged inferno in the library and school as hungry flames leapt out of their collapsing roofs. Other buildings had flames beginning to poke out the tops of them as well. The crackle of the fires snapped and popped so loudly she could hear them from her location almost two miles away.

Turning, she ran across the backyards toward the main street once more. She slipped in between two of the buildings and plunged into the chaos packing the road. White cloaked vampires and villagers ran back and forth down the crowded thoroughfare. Most of the vampires wearing white ran toward the hotel while the others tried to flee the town by running down the road toward the barricade.

She didn’t look for humans; she hadn’t seen any since their town had been taken over. She assumed they were still alive, most likely in the blood bank, but she didn’t know for sure. Perhaps in the chaos they would be able to get free, but she didn’t know for sure, and she didn’t have time to try for the blood bank.

She shoved her way through the crowd, bouncing back and forth, as the fleeing vamps pushed her from side to side. Her foot was stomped on; she took an elbow to the chin and one to her breast, but they didn’t slow her as she continued to fight her way toward the orphanage.

An elbow to the cheek caused her hand to fly to her face when her skin split open from the blow. She staggered back a step as more vampires jostled violently against her. Ear splitting screams resonated through the air. She glanced down the road leading out of town to find the soldiers who had been standing guard there using their spears against the residents trying to flee. The scent of blood rose in the air to mix with the increasing aroma of smoke and burning wood.

Struggling through the crowd, she was almost to the orphanage when the glass windows of a house four down from her exploded with an echoing bang. Glass flew outward, slicing across the vampires running past the house. They screamed loudly as the shards sliced across their skin. Some fell to the street while others raced onward. Flames shot out from the windows and licked hungrily up the front of the house. Her stomach plummeted into her boots when she realized the house hadn’t been one of the ones she’d set on fire. The wind had whipped the fires up and spread them far faster than she or William had anticipated.

Pushing aside her guilt over what she’d done, and her apprehension that this plan had already spiraled out of control, she kept moving forward, determined to get to the orphanage and the children. The screams intensified, the frenzy of the pushing almost knocked her to her feet. An elbow in her back caused her to stumble forward three steps. She fell but managed to break the fall with her hands before hitting her knees. Scrambling forward, she remained in a crouch until she made it to the safety of a side yard.

She didn’t realize she was shaking until she was free of the commotion of the street. Running through the snow, she leapt up the back stairs of the orphanage, tripped over the top step, and crashed into the door. A startled shout came from inside when she began to beat against the wood.

“Pallas!” she screamed her voice hoarse from the smoke billowing over and around her. She may not require breath, but the smoke still burned her throat. The door flew open to reveal Pallas and Abbott. They were both pale and shaking; their eyes frantic much like she assumed her own were right now. “Get the children, we must go!”

Pallas spun away to reveal the children huddled behind her in the dining room. “Tempest!” Nora cried and ran toward her.

Nora’s weight rocked her, but she embraced the girl in a firm hug before releasing her. “Come, hurry.” She waved frantically at the others and scooped Agnes up in her arms when she toddled forward.

Turning, Tempest fled across the snow toward the mountains. She had to get the children free of this town,
now
.

***

William smelled the pungent smoke before he heard the shouts resonating through the streets. The vampires gathered in the cell around him cautiously approached the bars in front as curiosity drew them forward. He remained in the back, leaning against the bars while he watched the guards rise from their chairs.

“I’ll check it out,” one of the men said to the others. He glanced at the cells before grabbing his cloak from a hook. Opening the front door, he poked his head out. Over his shoulder, William spotted vampires running in both directions on the street. Anguish-filled screams rebounded through the building. The vampires around him exchanged uneasy glances. “Stay here,” the man said and stepped out the door.

The other three men stared at the door as they waited for their cohort to return. The door remained closed; the intensity of the screams increased. The men remained inside for a few more minutes waiting for their leader to return. William’s teeth ground together; he fought the urge to tap his foot as he waited for one or all of them to become curious enough to check outside too.

Or fearful enough.

Something thumped onto the roof, causing everyone around him to jump, including the guards. He tilted his head back. His eyes narrowed as he studied the roof; it remained the same, for now. His attention was drawn away from the suspicious noise when smoke began to coil in from under the front door. The nervous murmurs of the prisoners surrounding him became more of a chatter as they surged toward the bars.

The smoke was enough for the three remaining guards. They didn’t give the prisoners a backward glance, or bother to grab their cloaks before they fled out the door. William didn’t wait for it to shut before he turned toward the man closest to him and held out his hands, “Untie me,” he commanded.

The man turned and ran toward the bars. William cursed as he stormed toward the frightened vampires gathered at the bars and now howling to be set free. He shoved his shoulder into the back of another man, shoving him against the bars. “Untie my hands!” he shouted into his ear in order to be heard over the growing commotion.

The man glanced at him over his shoulder; his eyes rolled in his head before he lifted his arm and pulled it back. William dodged the punch the man threw at him as he swung his joined hands into the side of the man’s face. The force of William’s blow caused the man to spin to the side. He crashed against the bars separating their cell from the one next door. The scent of the man’s blood and his body sprawling onto the floor caught the attention of the others.

William thrust his hands out at another man. “If you want to live, untie my hands. I can get us out of here,” he said in a calm tone that finally pierced the shroud of panic enveloping the room.

“They’ll kill us,” another man said in a tremulous voice.

“They’re going to kill you no matter what. I’m the only chance you have.” The man glanced nervously at the front door. “Or we could all burn to death in here. Me, personally, I’d prefer not become a shriveled vamp-ka-bob today.”