4 Vamp Versus Vamp (3 page)

We’d stopped just short of the opening. Auggy turned to Al. “I’m sorry, but you can’t come with us. You need to stay behind.”

“He’s my son! I’ll be damned if I’m staying behind.” I’d never seen Al’s features crumple so tightly on his face.

“Lower your voice, dear.” Beth seemed sallow, peering at the forest floor. She was caught in the middle. She knew no vampire could safely set foot inside; even vampeens weren’t safe. “We’re trusting you with our son’s life,” she stated, lifting her face to Auggy.

“You have our word.” Auggy nodded as Aunt Claire came to stand beside him.

Aunt Claire’s eyes held the ferocity of a jostled lion. I knew she loved me, but seeing her here, I knew for certain that she’d come to love Kellan, too. She saw what he meant to me, all he’d done for me. He kept me sane; he kept me grounded. “I’d do anything; I’ll do anything,” she assured them.

Beth shook her head, gripping Al’s arms strongly. Her knuckles were white as snow, her shoulders shaking as if she was silently sobbing. Al pulled her into his chest and kissed her head. My stomach knotted. Kellan was their only child. I couldn’t imagine a world without him, but he wasn’t my child. The bond between child and parent was incomparable.

Serum swamped my mouth as Al and Beth turned and headed deeper into the blanket of trees. I faced Auggy and Aunt Claire, determination rooting inside me. “Let’s do this.” A look of understanding and respect passed between us. Somehow Auggy knew what I was going through.

I followed them around the perimeter of the house, staying behind the trunks of the tall oak and pine trees. My nerves were ratcheting up. The moment we stopped across from the cellar doors peeking up from the grass, my slow heartbeat sped up. I unblocked my mind, praying Kellan could hear me.

“
I’m here. We’re here. Just hold on a little longer.
”

AUGGY

Every bit of military instinct said this was a trap. It was too damn easy to access this house, especially considering the level of command behind those doors. No guards roamed the perimeter, scanning or listening for trespassers. Given that they had soundproof walls capping this place, they would have that, at the very least.

I’d checked the outer shingles of the home, every roofline, every slope and crevice, and no cameras were present, either. I couldn’t bring myself to warn the women, especially after hearing Lexi’s cry to Kellan. After all these years, I guess I still had a bit of coward hiding beneath my hard heart.

I slipped my hand inside my pocket, pressing the button that would call off every soldier headed this way. I didn’t want a massacre. We were on their turf. We’d be the ones massacred.

I turned towards Claire. In a short amount of time, she’d wiggled her way into my ice-covered heart. She warmed me. She and Lexi were my family. They were all I had, all I’d ever wanted. Time hadn’t erased my desire for a human experience. Love was the single thing
shared
across all races, even the paranormal.

Chapter 3

Auggy motioned for us to stay behind as he ventured beyond the tree line. He headed straight for his target, not bothering to double-check his surroundings. He reached down and yanked the thick metal lock right off the aged wood doors. They
ratt
led beneath his strength, creaking as they slammed back into place. Auggy seemed angry. His face was a hard line of focus, his lips nearly invisible.

I clasped Aunt Claire’s hand, giving it a death grip; my lungs barely cooperated as Auggy leaned down to lift the doors open. I heard her inhale and hold her breath as he threw open the first door. A single wavering heartbeat could be heard inside.
Craig.

Nausea consumed me as Auggy threw the other door open. Something was wrong. Kellan hadn’t answered me. I couldn’t hear him, either.

I didn’t think; I just acted. I let go of Aunt Claire and raced past Auggy, down the ricket
y
steps into the darkness below.

“Stay back!” Craig yelled.

I froze. A second later the overhead light flickered on, illuminating the cinder block walls of the dingy space. The space was empty, cobwebs mucking the corners. The two light
bulbs dangling from the ceiling were the only décor. It was obvious whatever studio lights they’d used earlier were gone.

Auggy came up behind me, Aunt Claire on his tail. “Shit! I fucking knew it!” His voice was a growl.

My heart stopped as I took in the scene before me. Both men were locked in solid iron chains at their ankles and wrists. Kellan’s naked chest barely lifted as he inhaled; his head hung down. I wanted to run to him, embrace him. Rub his wrists, his ankles; console him the way he’d always comforted me.

“Pick him. Save him,” Kellan stated, his voice mangled. A blue light flickered at his ankle, causing him to jerk.

“What do you mean?” I swallowed my serum.

“No. You’re meant to be here. I’ll be blister-effin tastic to
die here
,
mate
. I know you’ll do what’s right. I know you’ll rip the crufflin’ bastard to shreds in my honor.” Craig lifted his head, narrowing his eyes at Auggy. He was daring him to defy him, to say it wasn’t true.

“Why do we have to choose?”

“Their ankles are connected to a bomb. When one side of the chain is detached, it sets off the alternate bomb.”

My eyes widened as I looked between the two men. My chest constricted. I was being forced to choose between my brother and the man I loved. I was being forced to choose between saving the man my best friend loved and the man I loved.

“There has to be a way around it! No. I… it…they… No!” I shook my head
vehement
ly, trying to control my reaction. Tears welled in my eyes as I looked at Kellan. He struggled to lift his face towards me; his eyes glistened beneath the light. “It’s not fair.”

“It’s the way he wanted it, babe. He’s forcing you to choose between vampeens and vampires. He’s making you choose your side.”

Slowly I closed the gap between us. I cupped his cheeks as I pressed my lips lightly against his. “I’ll always choose you, no matter what side that puts me on.”

I felt a tear slip down my cheek as I skimmed my fingers over his war wounds. He was healing slowly, the scratches just beginning to scab over where they’d tortured him. The deeper cuts appeared to have barely stopped bleeding in the minutes before we arrived, which explained the blood trailing down his flesh.

I kissed a few of the purple bruises that were beginning to fade to yellow. I kissed his shoulder, my lips gathering a bit of the dirt that created a layer of smut over him. I ran my hands over his chest and down his muscled core. I adjusted his boxers for him.

He chuckled lightly, his eyelids at half-mast. “Thanks.”

“I figured you would have moved your hands by now if you could.”

“They laced the cuffs.”

I swallowed the serum drowning my mouth at his announcement. I bit my lower lip, drawing blood as I peered into his muggy emerald eyes. “We’ll get you out of here. Somehow.”

“
I love you.
” His lips lifted slightly at the corners.

I choked back a sob. “
I love you.
”

I turned away from him. He didn’t need to see my weakness. He needed strength. I sucked in a deep breath, stood straight. Kellan needed a fighter, not a wimp. He needed someone who wouldn’t give up or crumble in the face of adversity. He deserved someone who would move heaven and hell just to save him. Crying wasn’t included; it didn’t help. It only wasted time and energy.

“Energy!” I swung around to face Auggy. “Can you tell what kind of bombs those are?”

He nodded once. “E-bomb.”

“E-bomb?”

“Electromagnetic pulse bomb.”

“What would that do?”

“It can release billions of electrical watts in one strike, knocking out communication over an extended area.”

“I don’t get it. Why put it on them?”

“Because the electrical current running through our system will disable our vamp cells and make all the damage irreversible…
not that there’d be anything left of us.”

“What do you mean, ‘us’?”

“It’s a trap. There is no saving one or the other. There’s no saving anyone down here when that thing goes off.”

“What if we covered ourselves in rubber?”

“This isn’t lightning.” Auggy frowned, pursing his lips as his gaze passed along the chains.

I looked at a silent Aunt Claire. She seemed stunned. Her eyes were wide as they searched the cellar. I couldn’t figure out what was running through her mind, only that she was trying to think of something.

I met Kellan’s eyes. “I’m a conductor. I have to be with the electricity that comes off me. Maybe I can absorb it, too.”

“Your electric force would have to have a positive and negative field that is so close they were on top of each other. Plus, two hundred volts can kill a human. Ten times that will kill a vamp, and we’re talking about a hell of a lot more probably,” Auggy said.

“We have to do something. I can’t just stand here anymore. They’re absorbing some chemical every second they’re still in those chains. Unless you’ve thought of some other ingenious idea, then I think it’s worth a try.”

“You’ll die, Lexi.” I heard the plea in Aunt Claire’s voice but couldn’t acknowledge it. Maybe I was being selfish; maybe I was being self-less. Regardless, we had to do something.

“We need something that will absorb the electricity without spreading it. Unless you can think of something else that will do it, then I have to at least try, Aunt Claire. I wouldn’t do it unless—”

“I got here as soon as I could,” he interjected, sounding breathless.

My jaw dropped. I’d recognize that English accent anywhere. “Will?”

I turned towards him. He stood in pristine khakis, his button-up shirt tucked in neatly with a belt helping to secure it. His pale blue sleeves were rolled up haphazardly, and the top few buttons were undone, giving him a relaxed appearance. What caught my attention, though, was that his oxford loafers had a bit of mud around the edges. He really had rushed.

“I am still your mentor, aren’t I?”

I smiled, but quickly frowned at the realization. “You knew this would happen.”

He nodded. “I can’t change fate, Lexi, but I’m willing to help you try.” He looked at Kellan and Craig. “Bloody bastard did a stellar job of hooking you two up, I see.”

“What do you know about electricity and e-bombs?”

“Not much. But I know about you, Lexi.” He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through the pages of the leather-bound book. “He changed the membrane potential of your cells.”

“My what?” I raised my brows in question.

“He changed your ion channels to that of electricity, rewired the membrane potential of your cells to be charged by your emotions.”

“In English?”

“Your emotions conduct electricity. You are a conductor.”

“Can I absorb electricity, too?”

“You create electricity, but you do not absorb it.”

“So I can power a house, but can’t take any electrical shocks from it?”

He squinted his eyes as if he was trying to blur everything out in order to concentrate. “Electrical currents would run through you in order to do that,” he mused.

“Do you think it’s possible?”

“The possibility is minute. From all I’ve gathered, you are a conductor, and nothing more.” He flipped through the pages of his micro-ledger.

“I don’t like this at all, Jackson.”

“If you were in my shoes and Aunt Claire was on that chain, wouldn’t you at least try?”

“Don’t flip the switch on me. You know the damn answer, but it doesn’t change what is.”

“What about an electrician?” Craig chimed in.

“They cut off the electricity before they go to work. They couldn’t do anything with those.” Auggy pointed towards their bare feet.

“An engineer?” Craig posed.

Auggy shook his head. “The individual pieces are built by hand, but never assembled by a person. It’s too dangerous.”

“Okay, new plan. What if we yanked them both off the chains at the same time?” I asked.

“Both bombs would go off and we’d all be dead.” Auggy’s expression was grim.

“I don’t get it. Isn’t this stuff supposed to affect electronics, satellites and communication stuff, but not humans or vamps?” Craig leaned forward, pulling on the chains with his arms though his hands were limp beyond the cuffs.

“There are different kinds, and we’re not dealing with someone dropping this in the sky over a city. We’re dealing with two vamps connected to the bomb itself,” Auggy replied.

“What if we had something to absorb the electricity attached to the chains?”

Auggy shook his head negatively. “Nothing can absorb electricity. It’s basically free electrons. They can only be transmitted, passed through something, or blocked.”

“You know a lot about electricity.” I hadn’t decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing.