CHAPTER 30.

RACHEL.

I sucked in my breath when Sean aimed the stun gun at me. He'd pull the d.a.m.n trigger, of that I was sure.

Then there was a blur in front of me and Lea was falling to the ground, her back arching as electricity shot through her.

Why had she done that? Her vow? Even after I'd turned my back on her? But I didn't have time to puzzle out the answers. Sean was still shooting electricity through her body.

I considered pulling out my gun and just shooting the f.u.c.ker in the head, but we probably still needed him to get into the facility, which meant I had to do this the hard way.

He was so busy concentrating on zapping Lea and ignoring my demands that he stop-a perverse gleam in his eyes-that he didn't notice I was gearing up for a roundhouse kick until the box was flying out of his hand. His mouth flew open in surprise and he shook out his fingers, cursing.

I grinned, knowing it had to hurt like a son of a b.i.t.c.h.

He turned a murderous glare on me. "You'll regret that." He took a step sideways, a.s.sessing me.

"Not nearly as much as I regret letting you kiss me. I'll never make that mistake again." I circled away from Lea. It worried me that she hadn't moved or made a sound. The electricity couldn't kill her, could it? I stuffed down my rising panic. My initial concern was that I needed her to get into the facility, but that wasn't the only thought that seeped fear into my blood. She might be a vampire, but I could finally admit I felt a kindred spirit in her. Someone who totally understood me.

I didn't want to lose her.

He reached into his coat and pulled out the gun I'd returned to him. A grin spread cross his face. "You never were very bright."

I continued backing away from Lea. "You won't shoot me. You need me for something, but d.a.m.ned if I know what it is."

"Her." He waved the gun toward her p.r.o.ne and unmoving body.

"To lure her in?" I shook my head in disgust. "I'm not buying it. She was coming anyway."

"Then I guess it will be a surprise."

I refrained from rolling my eyes. No need to give myself away. "Truth or dare, Sean, and I get to go first. Truth."

He laughed. "A game?"

I c.o.c.ked my head and moved to the other side of Sean, away from Lea. "Sure, why not? You're a huge fan of games. Setting me up. Making me believe you wanted to avenge Derrick's death when we both know you were the one who ordered him killed."

His eyes lit up. "Clever girl. But I did more than issue the order. I pulled the trigger myself."

My hands clenched at my sides and fury coursed through my blood. "You f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"It was so easy. Caine was the trap. He lured Derrick in so we could contain him." A smile spread across his face. "You should have seen the look of surprise on his face when I pulled out my gun and held it to his forehead."

I wanted to hurt him. Fillet him. My breath came in heavy pants as I held myself back.

"I asked him if he had any last words. Do you know what he said?"

I wasn't sure I could stand it if Derrick had said something about me, but to my surprise, Sean released a chuckle.

"He told me to go to h.e.l.l."

"Then, in his memory, I'll speed your journey along." I whipped the knife out of my jacket sleeve and leapt toward him.

He wasn't prepared for a physical attack, which is what I'd been hoping for. He fell to his side, my knife slas.h.i.+ng the arm of his jacket. The a.s.shole was wearing leather, so I doubted it sank deep enough to do any harm.

He rolled and jumped to his feet, aiming his gun at my stomach. "Oh, Rachel. You've made it so easy." Then he pulled the trigger.

His eyes flew open in surprise when the only sound was the clicking of the empty chamber.

"You really think I trusted you enough to give you a loaded gun?" I gave him a condescending glare. "Like I told you. Your biggest mistake has always been underestimating me."

He tossed the gun to the ground and rushed me, but I was prepared. I slashed with my knife, aiming for his abdomen. I didn't want to necessarily kill him-not yet, anyway-but that didn't mean I couldn't make him suffer before I subdued him.

Sean would f.u.c.king hate getting beaten by a woman.

The blade sliced through his s.h.i.+rt, connecting with his skin as he tried to wrench the weapon from my hand. But I twisted away from him, freeing my wrist from his grasp as I spun around to face him, crouched and ready to pounce. "Looks like you're out of shape."

He reached for his stomach, then examined the blood on his fingers. "You're gonna regret that."

I grinned. "You keep saying that, but you're the only one I see with any regrets."

He lunged for me again and I whipped to the side, slas.h.i.+ng at his arm. I reached deeper this time, making sure I got through the leather.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h!" He spun around, grabbing his arm.

I laughed while I waited for him to attack again.

This time he lunged for my legs, intending to tackle me. I jumped far enough backward for him to miss, but not enough to escape his reaching hand. I stomped on it with my boot, making him cry out in pain. I wasn't prepared for him to react so quickly, though, and he managed to grab my leg with his other hand.

As soon as I came down on top of him, he grabbed the knife from me and rolled me onto my back. He slowly pushed the knife to my neck. I pushed as hard as I could against him, but he outweighed me by a good seventy pounds. We both knew there was no way I was going to win this battle of strength.

"You draw one drop of her blood and I will rip your head off," Lea's deadly cold voice rang out behind me.

I resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. She was alive-or as alive as a vampire could be. "Listen to her," I said, still pus.h.i.+ng on his arm. The blade was six inches from my neck. Too close for my liking. "I've seen her do it. Ugly business."

He gawked at her in surprise. "That amount of voltage should have killed you."

"I'm harder to dispose of than that."

I filed the voltage news away for future reference and then switched my focus to getting this a.s.shole off me. I rolled to my side, catching him off guard, and lifted my now-free leg, ramming my lower thigh into his crotch. It didn't have the force I would have liked behind it, but it was enough to get him off me. His hand came down out of reflex to support his falling weight, and I pushed it to the side. It missed my carotid by a matter of centimeters, but it still nicked through the skin of my collarbone.

Lea inhaled sharply, then released a low growl. "I warned you."

Fear filled Sean's eyes. He leapt to his feet and took off running for the scrub brush behind us.

"He's getting away!" I scrambled to my feet in frustration. There was no way I could catch up to him on foot, and even though he was injured, I was pretty sure his adrenaline would push him quite a distance.

"He's not going anywhere."

Then she disappeared like a flash.

CHAPTER 31.

LEA.

Sean crashed through the bush like a rhino on steroids; easy to follow. But my reserves were low after that f.u.c.king Taser and I didn't have time for games. I bolted after him, using the last of my energy to tackle his a.s.s to the ground. We rolled twice and I let him end up on top of me.

His eyes were wild with fear and adrenaline. "f.u.c.king vampire."

"Not even if you were the last man on earth." I bucked him off with my hips, sending him flying over my head, straight into a tangle of thorns.

He grunted and cursed, but the more he fought, the more twisted up he became. I stood and brushed myself off and moved to stand just in front of him. "You do know I'm going to kill you, don't you?"

Sean stopped fighting the bush. "Rachel might be p.i.s.sed at me, but she's not a killer. She won't let you. Same way she didn't want you to hurt that young vamp. She's always been too soft."

I rolled my shoulders. He could be right; she might ask me not to kill him. I reached out and grabbed his arms, yanking him out of the bush. The thorns dug in and tore through his skin, drawing even more blood. "Could be that you're right. But then, I don't have to kill you myself to make sure you're dead. I could just drain you to the brink and leave you here in the bush." I dragged him along with me, his fighting and squirming bringing me to the brink of exhaustion. I had to feed or I would be useless.

Kicking him in the back of his legs, I dropped him to his knees while still holding his hands tightly secured against his back. Rachel stood in front of us, her gun steady on him.

"Rachel, you aren't a killer," Sean said, his voice going back to that smooth, silky tone he was so good at. I snorted, not bothering to try and hide it.

"She doesn't have to be a killer, Sean." I leaned in close to his ear. "That's why I'm here."

He blanched and Rachel lowered her gun. "You look like s.h.i.+t, Lea."

I let out a deep breath, the burn from where the p.r.o.ngs took me in the leg flaring up and hitching said breath. "I have no doubt. I need to feed. And if I take him to the point of death I'll get his memories too, which will give us what we need to break into the facility." Giving Sean a pointed shake, I looked at her. "You going to be okay with this?"

"You aren't seriously asking Rachel's permission to bite me? You are a stupid b.i.t.c.h if you think she's going to say-"

"Yes, fine by me." Rachel tucked her gun into the back of her jeans. "You need me to do anything?"

I grabbed Sean's hair and jerked his head hard to the left, baring his carotid. "No, but I may not be able to stop. The hunger is like that. This could be goodbye for you two for real." I wanted to make very sure she understood I was going to drain him.

And to make sure she wasn't going to freak out on me later.

Rachel's eyes didn't give anything away. She would have made a good cop. "I've said my piece to him. He deserves this, for what he did to Derrick at the very least." And she turned her back to us.

Sean fought in earnest, but I had a good hold on him. He wasn't going anywhere. I snaked my head out and drove my fangs deep into his neck, not bothering with the niceties. Adjusting my mouth, I made sure my fangs went in at a bad angle, hitting nerve endings as well as the carotid.

He screamed for five of his already slowing heartbeats and then settled into a low-grade whimper. His memories crashed over me and I picked through them as if I were deciding which book to read at a library.

Skipping over his time with Rachel, I focused on his knowledge of the base. Fort Tilden was supposed to be abandoned, but based on the many-layered structure I saw in Sean's memories, it was far from it. Fifteen levels below ground, the base stretched out for miles. The best entry point that I could pick out was the aircraft hangar that peeked out of the forest a short jog from where we stood. No guards were posted there because they thought no one could get in because of the layout. But Sean had left rappelling gear there for just such an emergency, and his memories confirmed that he hadn't just been blowing smoke up Rachel's a.s.s.

A hand touched my shoulder. "Lea, is he dead?"

Blinking, shaking myself from the feeding stupor, I looked up at Rachel. "His heart still beats, but it's slowing. I won't drain him all the way, that will take him too close to becoming a vampire. I can taste a vampire on him that he's been swapping blood with, and that is the last f.u.c.king thing we need."

I stood and Sean's body flopped forward, already a dead weight. "Other than that first few seconds, he won't feel-"

"I want him to suffer." She bit the words out and I caught the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

"Then we'll leave him here. There are enough animals in the woods to finish him off, and he will likely still be alive when they begin to eat him," I said, walking away. I wasn't sure of that, but there was one thing I knew very well. Revenge was not something that let you sleep at night once you'd dabbled in it.

I went to the bag of weapons I'd grabbed out of Sean's SUV, and she followed. "Let's get as much gear as we can," I said. "The entrance he mentioned isn't far from here."

Rachel crouched beside me as we opened the bag. The thing was loaded with anything we could have wanted. Guns, knives, crossbows, grenades. "Where's Calvin?"

"He's going to hang back. He'd just slow us down." I couldn't tell her the truth, that he was gone from my life for good.

We went through the weapons quickly, taking everything we could, along with as much ammo as possible. Still, I felt like it wouldn't be enough.

Rachel stopped at Sean's body. I thought she was going to say goodbye to him, for old time's sake. She dropped to one knee and frisked him. After a minute, she yanked out a keycard and held it up to me. "We're going to need this."

Better and better.

We started into the woods once more, only this time I knew exactly where we were going, using Sean's memories to guide us.

"You saw inside his head..." Rachel said softly.

I nodded. "A gift or a curse, depending on how you look at it. I gain a victim's memories as I drink them down."

"Was he always like this? Did I just not see it, or was he fooling me all along?"

I flipped through Sean's past, stumbling over the memories of him and Rachel. "I think he cared for you, but that changed. He saw you as an obstacle to the power and prestige he wanted."

I held up a hand, stopping her. "We're close. Our entry point is just around this clump of trees."

I thought she would be done with the questions. Wrong again.

"Why did you jump in front of the stun gun?"

There was no way around it now. "We made a blood vow. It's my duty to protect you."

She sucked in a sharp breath. "Why didn't you tell me that sooner?"

"You humans need to figure this s.h.i.+t out on your own. It was the same with Calvin. Until he saw I really did value his life over my own, he didn't trust me."