Steal the Night (62 page)

David turned to ash in front of me. All that was left was his bloody clothes, a wicked-looking semiautomatic pistol, and a silver dagger with the hilt wrapped in leather so he could hold it. I wondered why he hadn’t used the weapons, but then I had seen the blood lust in his eyes. Sometimes when the blood was thick in the air, vampires went a little crazy. David’s only thought had been to get to me. It gave me the chills. Trent used his nose to shove the weapons toward us. Marcus leaned down to pick up the pistol but Trent growled a warning.

“I think he wants me armed,” I said to Marcus and I picked up the gun. I flicked the safety off and palmed the knife, too.

Trent growled at Marcus again and then gave me the same treatment.

“I know, I know,” I said. “We’ll stay out of trouble.” He gave me another light growl and then a bark. I used my pointy finger on him because we needed to settle who was boss here and now. “Don’t you use that tone with me. I speak wolf. We’ll be fine. Go. Kill something else.”

Trent barked and it sounded like he was amused. Then he was off, his gray coat lost in the fray. Marcus slipped his hand into mine and started walking, clinging to the sidelines. I let my eyes roam as my feet followed Marcus. I tried to see where Daniel and Dev fought. I caught the briefest glimpse of Devinshea. He was plowing through a group of shifters with his P90. I watched as his brother covered him and he pulled a grenade out of the pockets on his flak jacket. He dislodged the pin and lobbed it deep into enemy territory. There was an enormous explosion and my faery prince looked thrilled with the destruction.

Daniel was in the thick of everything. I could barely see him for the throng of people fighting around him. I saw Excalibur moving, but Daniel was a bit of a blur. I noted that the sand around him was already soaked in blood. Daniel would be wading through it soon.

I felt a little sick at the death all around me. Everywhere I looked a fresh horror was being played out. War, no matter the righteousness of it, was simply a terrible thing to be caught in. I averted my eyes from a group of Unseelie goblins who were pulling apart a vampire. I thought it might be Niles. As much as I had hated that Brit, I wouldn’t have wished quite so awful a fate on him.

“Are you all right?” Marcus asked.

I was pretty sure I’d gone pale at the thought of the people I loved being in that mess of chaos and death. My hand went to my stomach. I really didn’t want my babies stuck out here. I suddenly thought of something I hadn’t before.

“They can all see me, can’t they?” I asked as we crouched down to avoid another volley of gunfire. Marcus covered my head with his torso.

“Yes,
cara
,” he said. “I’m afraid you still glow for all of the vampires. I don’t think any of us quite considered the implications when we began.”

The implications were huge. These were vampires caught up in blood lust. Many of them had lost a large portion of their blood volume. They were dying and I was a bright bag of sweet, sweet healing just walking around for the taking. Daniel loved me dearly, but when he was close to death I feared his beast because the instinct was to live and I was a vampire’s best shot. My bright glow made me stand out. It was a big neon sign saying “get it here.”

Marcus’s dark eyes searched the crowd and I knew he was terrified that those vampires would be coming for me. “I need to get you out of here. There are a couple of places where we might be able to slip away.”

A pair of fighting vampires landed on the ground next to us. They were locked in mortal combat, their claws at each other’s throats. I recognized Henri Jacobs. He was married to a friend of mine and had helped Marcus save Dev’s life a while back. He was losing his fight. He was beneath a big vampire I knew from my time in the catacombs, one of Louis’s thugs. His fangs were out and his claws were making a mottled mess of Henri’s throat. The smaller vampire tried to kick his opponent off, but he couldn’t get a really good position. Henri Jacobs was seconds away from leaving his wife a widow. I really couldn’t stand the thought of that.

I moved from behind Marcus and put the muzzle of my gun against the bigger vampire’s head and, with no remorse at all, I pulled the trigger. The bullet was silver and the vampire’s brain couldn’t handle it. At such close range, I had blown away a large enough portion of his brain that it worked as a decapitation. The vampire seemed to swell briefly and then he turned to dust and covered Henri’s body.

Marcus growled and pulled me back, cursing in Italian.

“Thanks,” Henri said, jumping up and dusting off his former opponent from his clothes. He stared at me for a moment, his fangs long in his mouth. He turned away from me. “Marcus, you have to get her out of here. I heard Marini telling his men to get her and bring her to him. He’s being a coward. He won’t stop and face the king. He keeps moving just out of range, killing weaker fighters but not letting Daniel get near him. He thinks he can get out of this if he can lay his hands on the queen.”

“I am trying,” Marcus replied.

“Well, try harder,” Henri said. “I don’t think Marini will let her live.”

“Why aren’t they fleeing into the catacombs?” I asked as Henri leapt back into the fray and Marcus continued his careful maneuvering toward his destination somewhere at the back of the arena. At least we were behind our own lines now. “Doesn’t it make sense for them to get those doors open and move this fight into the residential parts?”

They could employ more of a guerilla mentality.

Marcus pointed toward the top of the arena. “They’ve tried to get the doors open but I’m afraid Daniel’s witch is very strong.”

She was hidden behind a group of Fae warriors, but I could see Sarah Day standing far away from the battle. She didn’t have to be close to be effective. She held her hands out and was concentrating on the door. She was dressed for protection, her torso covered in Kevlar and a helmet on her head. Her husband, Felix, stood at her side, watching the battle with a worried look on his face. I was sure he thought about the baby Sarah was carrying. She was five months pregnant and the bulge in her belly was barely visible under the protective Kevlar. Beside her stood my father’s girlfriend, Christine. Her mouth was moving and I knew she was chanting quietly, lending strength to Sarah’s spells. Christine might not be the greatest witch in the world, but she was good at adding power to a spell.

“Daniel couldn’t keep her away,” Marcus said. “She showed up in London with your father and Felix. She promised to stay out of the line of fire and to follow the orders of Declan’s guards.

“Is that my dad?” Tears filled my eyes. My dad was here.

“Yes,
cara
, he wouldn’t stay away either.”

My father was watching the action. His eyes were following Danny and Dev, watching to make sure they were all right. He stood behind his Fae guards and I knew it was killing him that I was down here.

“I need to take you to Neil,” Marcus said. “The vampires won’t care about your father and they probably don’t even realize what Sarah is doing, but they will notice you.”

I nodded, wishing I could climb the stairs and join my father, but I was one big walking target and I didn’t want to bring the war to them. Sarah was being incredibly effective. There was so much chaos that no one really noticed they had an audience and if they did they would have to look very closely to see the small, pregnant female who was blocking their exit. I was satisfied Sarah and the rest were as safe as they could possibly be here.

We were closing in on the opening in the sides of the arena Marcus had pointed out earlier. I breathed a small sigh of relief. We were close.

Marcus gave me a nod and then broke for the opening that lay roughly a hundred feet ahead. I started to follow but my poor human feet sank into the sand, making running very difficult. My sneakers felt like the ground was sucking at them and I fell behind. Marcus cursed as he came back and hauled me up into his arms.

He ran the last hundred feet, his long legs eating the distance in a way mine never could. The sand didn’t bother him. He powered through and then we were inside the shelter of the archway. Marcus set me down and I turned to see the battlefield. Daniel was looking for someone, probably Marini. He was covered in blood, but it didn’t seem to be his. The combatants around him gave him a wide berth, some actually running when they realized he was near.

Devinshea had a deep cut across his face but it was healing even as I watched. He had a long silver knife in his hand and he shoved it into Elof’s back as the vampire tried to flee Daniel. He must have shoved the knife in the proper place because Elof exploded. Vampires sometimes do that. I nearly laughed at the shocked look on Dev’s face as he got coated with vampire guts. I said almost. It was really too horrifying to laugh at.

Marcus took my hand. “Come,
cara
.”

“But it looks like the fight is winding down.” There were a lot fewer people fighting than there were before, replaced with a whole bunch of piles of ash.

“Yes, it is and this is when the vampires on the other side will get really desperate,” Marcus pointed out. “I need to get you somewhere I can easily defend you.”

I peered into the darkened space where Marcus wanted to take me. It looked like a gaping hole to nowhere. The light stopped about ten feet in and I could tell from the slope I was on that it went down. Going down a long dark hole held very little appeal.

Then I saw them. At least three vampires, when they weren’t fighting, were moving their heads around, working in tandem to find something or someone. I shrank back against my protector. They were almost certainly looking for me.

“Let’s go,” I whispered to Marcus, hoping we could move before they caught sight of us.

Marcus blended into the shadows as he led the way. As we moved down the slope, I noticed my feet getting wet. I could hear them sloshing in water that was getting deeper. The battle seemed like a different world now as I could only hear muffled sounds coming from the arena. I clung tightly to Marcus’s hand.

“What is this place?” I asked, my voice sounding tiny in the darkness.

“It’s the sewer that runs under the arena,” Marcus replied.

I wished he hadn’t told me that. “Ewww.”

“It’s abandoned, Zoey. It’s no longer in use but it remains here and it floods sometimes when the rain in the city above is very heavy.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“It isn’t deep and we don’t have far to go.” Marcus stopped and his hand briefly left mine. I heard him fumbling with something and a squeak, like a rusty hinge being forced open. Lights above my head flickered on. Then they flickered off.

“Sorry,” the vampire apologized as the lights went off and on at random times. “It isn’t the most reliable electric system.”

I nodded and he started to lead the way again. I kind of wished I’d been left in the dark. The flickering of the lights made everything seem unreal, like we were in some stop motion film. Marcus moved and then the lights went out and when they came on again he was in an entirely different place without the sense that he had walked there.

“Come along,” Marcus urged me. “Two turns and there is a hidden passage that leads to the residence. It will take us directly into the room where Neil is. Louis and I designed it ourselves for just such an occasion.”

“Yes, we did, and we designed more than one way in and out if you remember,” a dark voice said and as the lights flickered back on, I saw the hulking form of the one man I really didn’t want to see down here. He had a gun in his hand. “It was one of your more brilliant plans, old friend.”

“Zoey,” I heard Marcus say. “I am so sorry. Run.”

Then Marini shot his old friend. I felt Marcus fall beside me and went down on my knees to try to help him back up, but Marini stood over us now. He shot into Marcus’s torso another three times, the Italian’s body bucking with each shot.

“You lose, Marcus.” Louis stared down on the man who had been his friend for almost two thousand years. His hand shot out and grabbed my left wrist, hauling me up. “You always were weak. I only made you a member of my Council because you were wise, but now you have proven that’s not true. How could you back that fledgling over me?”

Marcus struggled to speak. “That fledgling is right. Our time of dominion over the world is long past. We must change or die.”

“Well, let me make the choice for you, Marcus.” The final gunshot exploded and echoed through the sewers.

Marcus’s head fell back and I saw his body only briefly as I was pulled along.

“I loved you,” the vampire said, his voice filled with rage.

“No, you didn’t.” I tried to think of any way to get out of his grasp. I held onto the knife in my right hand. He hadn’t noticed it.

“Don’t you question me, Zoey,” he snarled.

As the lights flickered off and on, I could see plainly that Louis hadn’t come out of the fight unruffled. His clothes were ruined. They were ripped and bloodied, and I saw the wounds he had that weren’t healing. It was a sure sign that he was low on blood. My body chilled at the thought. Marini took too much when he wasn’t injured. He would almost certainly drain me once he got to a safe place.

“I gave you everything.” He was continuing his diatribe on where our relationship had gone awry. “I treated you like a queen.”

“Yes, I especially loved the part where you beat the shit out of me.”

We turned a corner and I couldn’t see Marcus anymore. He needed blood. Louis had just left him to die down here in the sewers like a rat. I really couldn’t stand the thought of it.

“You need discipline,” Louis spat. “That was where I went wrong. I won’t indulge you this time, companion. This time our marriage will be on a proper footing. You will serve me. You will submit to me.”

I pulled back, nearly wrenching my arm in the process. I shouted, hoping, praying anyone would hear me. “Daniel!”

I got to meet the back of Louis’s hand for my trouble. I barely managed to hold onto the knife as I tumbled into the water. I tasted blood in my mouth.

The vampire stood over me. “Don’t you ever say his name again, Zoey. You will never speak of him.”