4 Vamp Versus Vamp (2 page)

He laughed, as if I’d merely made a joke. “I’ll give you some time. Clearly you don’t understand the stakes here.”

A chill ran up my spine; foreboding twisted my gut. “What stakes?”

“This.” He held out a smart phone showing a live video stream.

The lighting was ample despite the dark environment. Stacked cement blocked created the wall behind where which Kellan and Craig were in chains. It appeared to be a cellar, though where I couldn’t ascertain.

Kellan was the
worse for
wear. He’d been stripped down to his boxers. Cuts and bruises covered his body; he wasn’t healing quickly, as blood pooled near his feet. Abruptly someone poked Kellan, electricity running through the metal chains and over his body. He grunted in pain, still trying to be brave; abruptly he collapsed to the ground. Craig yanked and pulled with all his might on his own restraints, but they were soldered tight.

“Craig’s a vampeen. He’s one of us,” I said. My voice was flat, devoid of all emotion. I’d almost turned off what I saw, and would have gotten away with it had that one traitorous tear not escaped.

“The moment you protect a vampire, you become one of them. You become our enemy.”

And just as quickly as he’d appeared, he was gone, leaving me with no clues as to what city, let alone what neighborhood, the basement cellar where my fiancé was being tortured was located.

Rage burst through me. My body shook with tension. My heart was breaking, slowly blackening at the thought of a life without Kellan. My palms flew open, facing the heavens as wind slapped my face, swirling throughout the space. My veins illuminated, taking on a red light, finally the color of blood. My vision blurred at the edges as a heavy power sprouted from my core.

“Ahhh!” I bellowed my cry over the suffering of my love right as electricity began to crackle around my skin. I threw my hands up, electricity shooting out from my palms.

The ceiling cracked along its surface above me, spider-webbing outwards, with my harsh blow. My breathing became labored and my balance tilted as I fought to remain conscious. I had to control this. It was a power, but it used my energy, my emotions, as fuel. If I hit empty, so did my body.

I stumbled, catching and ripping the back of the sofa with my enhanced strength right as my world was covered in darkness.

Chapter 2

I slowly became aware of male arms encasing me. My eyes flew open. Al stared down at me, frowning.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” Beth asked, drawing my attention towards her. She stood off to the side, a wet washcloth in her hand.

“Where’s Mel?” I croaked. I sat up, grabbing my head as a dizzy spell set in. I closed my eyes for a minute, breathing deep, waiting for her answer.

“I called her father to come get her. They left about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Fifteen minutes? Oh, God. How long was I out?” I couldn’t contain my worry.

“According to Mel, you’ve been out a little over two hours now,” Al stated.

“Two hours?” My voice was loud, panicked. I leapt up, looking throughout the space anxiously. The bodies were gone, but the damage I’d done to my parents’ once beautiful home was crushing.

“Lexi, what’s wrong?” Beth grabbed my arm, forcing me back towards them.

“He has him; he has them.” I stumbled to think clearly enough to communicate.

“Who’s ‘he’?” Al pressed, worry creasing his brow. Beth pursed her lips, taking in my behavior.

I fidgeted, wringing my hands together. “My grandfather, Cesar Euskadi.”

Al was on his feet in a split second
,
phone in hand
. “Shit.”

My eyes widened at his curse. Al never cussed. If he was this upset just over who had Kellan, I could only imagine
how angry he was going to be
once I told him what they were doing to him.

“Um, they were torturing him. All I could gather were electric chains and some sort of charger that they prodded him with.” I closed my eyes, tears gathering. I winced as the image flashed in my mind. “The metal of the chains was something strong, too, because he was pulling hard.”

“It’s probably laced with a chemical compound that weakens him.” Al ran his hand through his hair, yanking at the roots. He walked past us, obviously needing room to pace.

“This better be an emergency, Bancroft,” I heard Auggy grumble through the line.

“It is. Cesar Euskadi has my son.”

“Shit. Where’s Lexi?”

“Here.”

“I’m on it. Give me a second to pull up the tracker.”

“Tracker?” My ears perked up; it was the first spark of hope I’d felt.

“Relax, honey. It’s under his watch. It blends right in,” Beth replied.

“When did this happen?”

“When you returned from Puerto Rico.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, shifting as she waited with me.

“Damn. They’re out of the state already,” Auggy sighed. I heard the frustration in his voice. “Meet me at the launch pad in Bellawood. I’m sending troops on foot who’ll arrive shortly behind us. I have a feeling we’re going to need a hell of a lot of backup.”

“See you,” Al clipped, ending the call. He was already walking out the door; Beth and I ran to catch up. I grabbed my cell and keys on the way out, not even bothering to set the alarm.

I slid into the back seat of my Mercedes coupe, immediately pressing all the security buttons and features.

“
System activated. Shield activated. Satellite active. Software available.”
The computer talked us through every control I pressed. I was grateful to the Bladangs and Kellan for insisting on it. Sadly, I’d used the advanced technology in my car on multiple occasions.

Al took my keys and shoved them into the ignition. With the garage door merely halfway up, he peeled out of the driveway. I was thrown backward as he sped off.

“You’re familiar with Cesar, I take it,” I stated, my eyes studying him. His muscles flexed, telling me that he heard me, yet he remained silent as he continued to drive. I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Al? Please.”

Beth reached over, gathering one of his hands. “Go ahead, honey.”

“He killed my parents, or had them killed.”

“But I thought they died of old age?”

“No. I don’t particularly care to talk about it. Just know that I fell on the wrong side of a political debate gone awry.” His brows drew together; his lips formed a thin line as he ground his teeth.

My heart was beating erratically as I watched his reaction to it all. Al was always calm, cool, and collected. He was the sanity in the midst of every emergency. Yet here he was on the verge of
breaking my steering wheel as he zigzagged through traffic at well over a hundred miles per hour.

I studied my striking engagement ring; the green of the diamond reminded me of Kellan’s eyes. Elephants stomped on my stomach as I recalled the image my grandfather had showed me. Kellan didn’t deserve this. Few vamps chose this life, and vampeens didn’t have a choice at all. They were thrown into this life at the tender age of sixteen, told to hold on tight and pick sides.

As Al swerved around a car on the exit ramp, my gut clenched. I realized that slowly my human life had faded away. My life was but a fragment of the same reality. Was it so much to ask for normality? I suppose that was why I clung to the rituals of a human: attending school, eating food, despite it being drenched with blood, and having girls’ nights. Yet here I was, speeding past humans on their way home from work, praying that my vampire fiancé was still alive and not suffering too much.

I closed my eyes, trying to send out a message of strength to Kellan. How I wished we could speak telepathically from afar. The lone tear hitting my cheek awoke me, brought me to the present, to right now. I was in my car with his parents on a mission, hell bent to find my soul
mate and his best friend. Thinking of Craig
shif
ted my thoughts to Mel. I would have to call her later, explain everything. I’d seen the fear in her eyes during my outburst; electric energy charged me too quickly to slow down. I was knee deep in lightning before I even realized it. I sighed. I was a mess. I couldn’t even concentrate on one thing. My head was all over the place and my heart barely keeping up.

I looked out the car, my eyes doing a double take when I saw the sign. “Aiken? We’re already in Aiken, South Carolina?”

“The launch pad Auggy was referring to is here, as is his personal office,” Al stated.

“Oh.”

Less than five minutes later, we were on a dirt road, surrounded by trees. The gravel shot up as the computer said, “Unidentified object repelled.” When it repeated the verse over and over again, I nearly ripped the wires in half. I was on edge, anxious to get to Kellan and Craig, anxious to hold my fiancé in my arms, to soothe him and protect him.

We finally pulled into a clearing, the dirt road dead-ending right where the helicopter was
parked
. Off to the right was a ranch-style house. A porch stretched the entire width of the front; several rocking chairs sat abandoned, yet inviting, beside one of two large windows.

I barely resisted shoving Beth out the car to get to the air transportation quicker. Auggy stood by the entrance on the helicopter’s side, a headset in place. He said something into the microphone dangling by his cheek and the blades whipped into action. Al handed all of us a headset before climbing aboard. Beth leapt in after him, squeezing on his lap behind the pilot’s seat. The
moment my foot touched the metal floor of the craft, I spotted Aunt Claire. She held her arms out wide and I rushed into her embrace in the back row. Her hug was welcome, reminiscent of the few good ones with my mom. My life wasn’t the same without her.

“How are you holding up, sweetie?”

“I’m fine.” She gave me the same look my mother did when she knew I wasn’t telling the truth. “Okay, so I feel sick to my stomach with worry. Why didn’t you tell me grandpa was still alive?”

She smoothed my hair as the helicopter took off into the air. It scaled the trees with ease as we headed north.

“He hasn’t been in our lives since your mom and I were young. He popped in once or twice a year to drop off a wad of cash, say ‘hello,’ and then take off again.”

“You know who he really is, don’t you?”

She pursed her lips, her eyes gazing beyond me as she nodded. “Auggy told me about a month ago when I showed him a picture.”

I grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently. “I guess we were both ambushed.”

“Not that it matters, but you have very little vampire in you. Learning that Cesar is only twenty-five percent vamp, all of our numbers have dropped.” Her voice was
sad,
as if this new revelation had knocked us all down a notch on society’s pole.

“What exactly does that mean?”

“That you will have more human weaknesses than vamp strengths.” Her tone was matter-of-fact. The conversation itself felt forced, as if she dreaded the topic.

“I don’t mind.” I shrugged. How could I? It wasn’t like I could change it. It was what it was;
it is what it is
.

“Lex, you—”

“We’re going to land a couple miles away out of earshot. I’ve loaded the tracker’s signal to my phone so we can follow it. I don’t care what the hell you see in there, you’re not to make a peep. No human emotional shit; that will only make you careless. We can’t afford to make a mistake. Now follow me,” Auggy ordered, jumping out of the moving helicopter before it landed. Beth followed, then Al.

My stomach whirled again, fear knotting inside me. I swallowed the serum that chose this moment to finally erupt into my mouth. I looked down at the empty highway beneath us. Trees lined the pavement, forests on either side of the road. I took a deep breath and leapt out. I landed on my feet, quickly seeking refuge in the woods behind the others.

Aunt Claire placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. “He’s my father, but he’s cruel. Blood means nothing to him, honey, so brace yourself.” Her words hit me like a sharp knife, cutting deep, cutting hard,
splashing
me with ice-cold water.

We dashed through the trees, shuffling our feet to avoid leaving a solid trail behind. Serum coated my tongue; the longer we were on the ground, the more anxious I became. Several miles in, my thoughts were in disarray as my veins began to glow.

“Keep your shit under control, Jackson,” Auggy ordered.

I stopped, the others flying past me. I took a few deep breaths. It would do me no good to go in like a glowworm, not only attracting attention, but also running the risk of exploding, only to pass out. I didn’t have control over this… this thing that Sir Staten had given me. It seemed more like a science experiment gone radioactive bad than a gift.

Knowing Kellan was up ahead in need of me, I pulled myself together the best I could and doubled my speed to catch up with the others. I reached them just as a large home came into view. My gaze traveled the area; it was an odd location for the size of the property, but the build itself fit the landscape in the middle of the woods. Cedar shingles covered the outer surface of the home, giving it a homey feel, but I recognized the misgivings. I knew beyond the white French double-door entry lay the worst of my kind. I knew I was about to enter the battle of my life to save the man I loved.