“Hitting him won’t help,” she said, and I gasped when she calmly picked up a knife from the pile and cut the inside of her arm where it wouldn’t be as noticeable. “He’s starving. Look at his pallor.”
That’s what Al had said, and I felt ill as she squeezed her fist and a trace of blood dripped from her elbow. Her expression was empty as she dribbled it into his mouth. Most of it ran down his chin, but then his lips opened. A tongue pushed out, becoming red, and Cormel’s face bunched up in distaste.
“Cormel!” I shouted, then looked past Jenks at the monitors and the ambulances. They couldn’t get down here with that chair holding the elevator doors open. How long? I wondered. How long would they search? “Cormel, wake up!”
Ivy dribbled more into him. Still unconscious, Nina mewled like a cat as she smelled the blood, and my fear redoubled. The sound penetrated Cormel’s haze where the blood hadn’t. A shaky hand rubbed his mouth, and he stared at the blood repellently. “Ivy?” he whispered, his eyes hazy. Jenks was dusting her cut, and it immediately clotted. “Rachel?” he added, seeing me.
I gave him a shake as his eyes closed again. “Cormel!” I hissed, and one eye opened. “Have you seen David? Get up!”
“Who? Go away,” he moaned, his tongue red with Ivy’s blood flashing. “Let me sleep.”
“How can he not be hungry?” Jenks asked. “His aura is almost not there.”
Of course he hadn’t seen David; he’d been asleep. “You think maybe a direct transfusion might snap him out of it?” I asked, but they must have tried that already.
Ivy frowned. “It’s not the blood the undead need. It’s the aura they take with it.”
Frustrated, I slapped him, and Cormel’s eyes flashed open. “Get up!” I shouted, tugging at him. “Felix is the only undead vampire awake in Cincinnati, and if we don’t get you out of here, you might not live to see the next sunset.”
“Felix?” Cormel muttered, eyes drooping, but with me pulling, he managed to push himself up on an elbow. Ivy watched, torn as Nina began to sob, but she left her there, taking Cormel’s other arm and giving a yank. Like a drunken businessman in the gutter, Cormel rose, weaving on his feet between us. Ivy let go, and I struggled to hold him on my own.
“Where am I?” he breathed, again wiping his mouth of Ivy’s blood and looking at it in distaste. Blinking, he looked at Ivy as she hoisted Nina into her arms. “Nina . . .” he said, then looked at his hand in wonder. “I see it, but the thought of blood is repellent,” he whispered in awe, and I shivered when his gaze traveled to me. “What have you done to me?”
Jenks zipped up the stairway and back down. “Can we do this moving?” he said, making motions to get up the stairs. “The sun waits for no vampire.”
Holding Nina in her arms, Ivy easily took the steps. Adrenaline gave me strength as I tucked a shoulder under Cormel. “Waves of wild magic are passing through Cincinnati causing magical misfires and the undead to sleep,” I said, breathing deeply as vampiric incense poured over me, smelling sour somehow. “Except for Felix. Why?”
“Elves are killing vampires?” Cormel said, head hanging as he staggered.
My lips parted at the possibility, then I got us moving forward up the stairs. The light grew brighter, and the feeling of a trap lifted. “No, it’s Free Vampires. Why is Felix the only one awake? What makes him different?”
Cormel shook his head as we emerged, orienting himself. “I didn’t know this was here.”
“Cormel. Why is Felix awake?” I asked again. Ivy was already at the door, Nina in her arms and katana on her hip as she looked first one way, then the other. Nina was crying, but I didn’t think she was really aware yet. I let go of the ley line light spell, and a surge of energy lifted through me until it faded.
“I do not hunger,” Cormel said distantly, and I suddenly found myself holding him upright, staggering under his weight.
“Cormel!” I shouted as he fell down the dais’s shallow stairs. Cursing, I followed him down. His eyes were shut, and grabbing him by the lapels, I lifted his head and gave his face a smack. “Wake up!”
Cormel’s eyes flashed open. “If you keep hitting me, I’m going to lose my patience.”
“The I.S. is falling apart,” I said, trying to get him to stand. “You have to stay awake!”
But his eyes closed, and I looked at Ivy helplessly. We couldn’t leave him here.
“Smack him again!” Jenks said, and Ivy shifted Nina to a shoulder and a fireman’s carry.
“I’ll take him,” she said shortly as she came forward, and my eyes widened. She wanted to carry both of them? “Go before me and make sure everything is clear,” she added, and I watched, amazed, as she crouched with Nina on one shoulder, taking Cormel on the other as I got behind him and managed to get him somewhat upright.
Groaning with the weight, she staggered to a stand, reminding me again that she was more than human. Fear had given her strength, her fear not for Felix, but for Nina. She’d seen the hell Nina was in, been in it until my love for her had pulled her clean from it, as if a sword annealed in quenching waters. We had to get out of here before Felix realized what we were doing and dropped into Nina like a glove.
Ivy shuffled to the hallway door. Jenks darted out. I reached for my splat gun, giving it a shake to make sure the splat balls would flow freely from the hopper. Cormel’s eyes opened as I passed him, and he fixed an upside-down, black-eyed, dead-doll stare on me. “You have to save us, Rachel,” he whispered, and my spike of fear brought both him and Ivy to a brief, alert state.
“I do not!” I hissed, then shoved past Ivy and into the hallway. I was already trying to save their souls. I did not have to save their decaying bodies as well.
Jenks was a hovering spot of sun at the end of the hall. “Ladies . . .” he said, gesturing for us to hurry. Felix was down here. I could feel it. I jogged to Jenks, Ivy moving more slowly behind me, just managing the weight of Nina and Cormel.
“Take the vanguard,” I told Jenks, and he darted off for the great room. We were almost there, and my pulse quickened at the first hints of possibility. Stay quiet, Nina, I thought, not wanting her to draw attention to us as she slowly became aware of what was going on.
The great room was silent as we entered, Jenks first, then Ivy, then me. My splat gun was out, and my pulse pounded. The open elevator beckoned clear across the room, less than fifty steps away. “How long until sunup, Jenks?” I said, knowing he was better than the weather service.
“Three minutes.”
Ivy’s eyes looked pinched at the corners. Just enough time to get Cormel into a specially lined body bag, but just.Gun in one hand, I jogged ahead and pulled my phone out. “Okay. Go on up, Jenks. Find an I.S. agent. Get a shadow bag ready at the top of the elevator.”
“You got it,” Jenks said, and then he was gone, darting presumably to the dumbwaiter.
“And tell them not to shoot us!” I whispered after him, remembering the overabundance of FIB vehicles outside.
We were almost at the elevator when Ivy met my eyes. The relief in her expression was almost palpable. This time, there would be a happy ending.
“I can walk,” Nina said before I could pull the chair from the doors, her voice clear and precise and holding a familiar, uneasy cadence.
Fear slid through me. Ivy gasped, then dropped both Nina and Cormel. Felix.
My gun swung, but Ivy was in the way. Heart pounding, I sidestepped. Three minutes. We didn’t have time for this!
“Nina, no!” Ivy exclaimed, grabbing the woman’s shoulders, but it was too late, and I saw Felix’s persona slip in behind the woman’s eyes and take over.
“You little bitch!” Felix/Nina shouted, spittle flying as she slapped Ivy. “Nina is mine!”
“Move, Ivy!” I shouted, gun pointed and trying to find a better angle. But then Nina looked at me and smiled. I froze, lips parting at the evil satisfaction pouring from her.
And then my breath was knocked out of me as someone hit me from the side. Gasping, I slid across the carpet. My gun went off, and my grip tightened on it, refusing to let go. Friction burned until I stopped. Struggling to breathe, I looked up to find Felix—the real Felix—on top of me, his long fangs bared and his beautiful, young face hard with a domineering need.
“Get off!” I snarled, bringing my gun to bear on him, and he knocked it aside. I wouldn’t let go of it, and pain burned in my wrist. Blood covered him; none of it was his. I could hear Ivy crying as she grappled with Nina, the woman out of her mind as she fought for her right to go beautifully insane.
“Nina is mine,” Felix said, his weight pressing into me as he pinned my hands to the carpet and leaned in to breathe on my neck. “I need her to do my daylight work. Why do you keep interfering?”
“Because she’s not yours,” I said, the words punctuated by my gasping breath.
My gun was pinned, but I could still defend myself; he snarled in pain when I pulled a ley line through me and shoved it into him, twisting and bucking until I broke his hold. I spun away to a kneel, gun aim wavering as my wrist burned, but he was eight steps back, pacing. The propellant would send it that far, but he wouldn’t be there when it landed.
“I’m sorry,” Ivy said as she grappled with Nina, and her face wet with tears, she put her hand over her fist and loggerheaded Nina with her elbow. The vampire’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and she dropped. I looked at the huge clock above the elevator. The sun was up. Cormel was stuck down here. Unless we could bring the FIB to us . . .
“You can’t have her,” I said as I stood up, aim shaking. I moved, not watching my feet as I went to Ivy. She was standing over Cormel and Nina, her expression numb.
And still Felix circled, hunched and beautiful, like a jungle cat. “Did you not see Cormel’s children?” he said softly, and his voice echoed in my mind like velvet, circling, numbing as he tried to bespell me. “I tried to work through another. Their minds are too weak. I need Nina. She knows me. I know her. Ivy has made her strong. Leave her, and I’ll let you live.”
Ivy was panting, and I reached for her when she fell to a kneel, fighting the pull in his demand. “We’re not leaving . . . without her. You bloodsucking . . . bastard,” she whispered, and I quailed at the reminder of what a master vampire could do, could call forth.
“Ivy . . .” Felix whispered, his hand held out to her. “Come to me.”
“Ivy, no,” I said, knowing not to touch her when she moaned, eyes closing in anticipation of a numbing pleasure. His summons to submit had permeated the room, and I wondered if I was going to have to down her with a splat ball. She’d be pissed, but she’d thank me later.
“You need to take a nap, Felix,” I said. “Everyone else is sleeping. Why aren’t you?”
Felix looked away. Behind me, Ivy took a heaving gasp of air as his hold broke. “They sleep because they feel no need,” he said, his tone derisive. “I’m always hungry. Take Cormel if you want. He’ll be dead in three days. All of them will. Nina stays. And Ivy.”
Fear slid down my spine, and I tightened my grip on my gun. “Not happening.”
“Then you will die so I can get on with living,” he said, and with that as my warning, he jumped at me, his hands bent into claws.
“Rachel!” Ivy screamed, but instinct took over, and I braced myself, taking his momentum and flinging him into a pillar.
Felix twisted in midair. His shoulder took the blow instead of his back, and he sprang to his feet before I could shoot, eyes alight. “I’ve never had demon blood before,” he said, eyes flicking behind me, and I felt Ivy’s presence slide up to mine.
“That’s not going to change, dirt nap,” I said, drawing on the ley line until my hair floated.
Howling, he jumped again to kick my middle. My air exploded from me, and I found myself flung backward, skidding across the carpet until I hit the wall. My chest hurt. Eyes almost shut, I struggled to breathe, helpless as Ivy screamed and attacked. Fists a blur and shouts chilling, she forced him back from me. She seldom scored, but he was on the retreat. If he’d been trained in the arts, she wouldn’t have had a chance. If he thought we might be able to best him, he wouldn’t be playing with us as he was. If he noticed Nina crawling to the elevator to pull the chair away and send the lift to the surface . . . he might not be smiling, enjoying himself and the anticipation of our blood in his mouth.
But he didn’t.
My gun shook in my grip. He was too far away. The propellant was only good for about twenty feet. Screaming in outrage, Ivy landed a side kick that sent Felix falling into a roll. “Why do you fight me?” he said as he regained his feet. “The Free Vampires will destroy the undead. All of them. I can stop them, but I need Nina,” he coaxed, his hands spread in innocence.
Ivy retreated to stand beside me. “Do it without your slave,” she said, panting. “You won’t have her.”
He knew about the Free Vampires? Then it was them after all? They were trying to kill the masters. The misfires were just a side effect. My grip on my gun grew steady, and with a soft wing hum, Jenks hovered between us, his satisfied smile making Felix hesitate. He was back. The FIB and I.S. were on the way. Oh God, I hope they don’t shoot me.
“Your ass is staying under the grass, blood bag,” the pixy said, and Felix’s eyes became black as he looked at the elevator and Nina slumped beside it. Weak, she cracked her eyes and flipped him off as it dinged.