Sweet Last Drop Page 24

  The arm tore at the shoulder, ligament ripped from ligament, so fast that one moment I mourned for the use of his crushed hand, and the next moment, the bone snapped with a wet, suctioned pop and there wasn’t even a hand to mourn. The creature tossed his arm to the side to resume clawing at Rowens’ chest. I stared at the limp, detached arm a few feet away. The hand was a mangled, bloody mess of twisted fingers and protruding bones.

  I swallowed bile.

  Staring at Rowens wasn’t any better. His shoulder had torn in long strands of skin that dangled from his collar onto the ground like wilted daisy petals. Blood sprayed in a wide crescent and was now squirting from the missing limb in pulses.

  I glanced at Montgomery, where he’d fallen and hadn’t moved since. His arms were shredded from the monster’s claws and his chest was now a gaping wound where his heart used to be. I looked past the carnage and fear and narrowed my eyes on Montgomery’s missing heart, his missing heart, and I realized with delayed, dawning recognition that this wasn’t just any vampire. This was our murderer, and we were its next victims.

  I turned back to Rowens. His residual limb was still squirting blood in pulses and the creature, that mountain of a creature, was still on top of him, clawing at his chest.

  I leaned into Walker and covered my mouth around his ear as I whispered. “It’s going for his heart. This is our guy.”

  Walker nodded. He aimed the gun, and I braced myself for its fire. Seconds that felt like minutes passed, but Walker didn’t shoot.

  “Shoot, damn it. What are you waiting for?”

  Walker turned his lips to my ear and whispered, “Rowens’ bullets didn’t penetrate. Shooting will just piss it off. We need to ease back slowly.”

  I blinked. “What about Rowens?”

  Walker’s face hardened. He turned his face away from mine to stare at the creature and what was left of Rowens, giving me his profile. The muscle in Walker’s jaw ticked.

  “If that were me,” I whispered, “would you just stand by and watch? Would you ‘ease back slowly’ as I was ripped apart and that thing ate my heart?”

  Walker glared at me. “You know what I’d risk for you.”

  I looked at him, looked at the creature pointedly, and then back at him.

  “You saw what it did to Rowens’ arm when he shot it,” Walker muttered. “I want to keep both of mine attached to my body, thank you.”

  “He didn’t have silver bullets. You do.” I looked back at Rowens. The creature hadn’t broken through the Kevlar yet, but Rowens wasn’t conscious anymore. He was going to bleed to death. “We need to do something now while we still can.”

  Walker nodded slowly. “Ease back to the cave. When we’re on the cave’s ledge, I’ll shoot.”

  “Shoot it now,” I argued.

  “No, we ease back first. If it comes at us, we can jump into the cave.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “I’m not sure I’d prefer falling to death over having my heart torn out.”

  “Bex won’t let us fall.” Walker jerked his head to the side, and against everything that felt right and humane, I eased back toward the cave.

  The creature was getting frustrated with Rowens’ Kevlar. It gave up with its claws and snapped at the frayed material with its teeth. The Kevlar still held, even against those long rows of sharp fangs, and the creature growled. It clamped its jaws around Rowens’ torso and shook its head like a dog. I winced. If its fangs didn’t puncture through the Kevlar, Rowens’ ribs were surely crushed. If his ribs weren’t crushed, his neck was likely snapped. And he was bleeding to death. I pressed my lips together in a firm line not to give voice to the ache in my throat.

  We were only a few feet from the cave when the creature completely gave up on Rowens. Maybe it had sensed our escape or maybe it had grown impatient with the Kevlar and wanted easier prey. Either way, it dropped Rowens and turned its emotionless, black shark eyes on us.

  Walker didn’t hesitate this time. He squeezed off one shot.

  One.

  In the fraction of a second it took to blink, Walker was knocked back into the cave from one powerful swipe of the creature’s arm. I fell back on my ass in the dirt and stone, and suddenly, inexplicably, the creature was inches from my face.

  I heard Walker scream. I felt Walker’s blood spray against my arm before he fell, and I saw Bex’s shadow flit from the darker shadows behind the cave to catch him, like he’d known she would. But it wasn’t what I heard, felt, or saw that would haunt my dreams years from now. Assuming I survived, it was the smell that would keep me awake at night.

  The creature breathed on me in deep, ragged pants, and its breath was the choking, unbreathable stench of feces. My hair blew back and forth as it breathed in and out, flying into the creature’s face and back into mine with each pant. It hadn’t been winded by its attack on Montgomery or Rowens, but now, as it faced me, it inexplicably couldn’t catch its breath.

  I tightened my grip on the knife in my left hand, my finger trembling on the trigger of the silver spray in my right. The creature raised its claw, but it didn’t strike me like I expected. It held my hair against its snout, closed its eyes, and breathed in another long gulp of air.

  The creature was breathing in my scent. I swallowed, trying to stifle my disgust and trembling as I realized by its heightened pants that it liked what it smelled.

  A low, rumbling growl erupted from the creature’s chest. The growl was loud enough and I was close enough that I could actually feel its vibration against my skin. The creature let go of my hair and burrowed its face in the hollow of my neck. I winced back, bracing myself for its claws to pound through my sternum and rip out my heart like it had everyone else, but it didn’t. It nuzzled its snout deeper into my neck and breathed in more of my scent.

  I could feel the heat of my silver dangle earring burn its scaley skin. The sizzle of its flesh cooking against the metal was right against my ear, but the creature didn’t react. Once again, it didn’t even flinch.

  Eventually, the creature pulled back to face me, nose to snout. I watched the blisters on its cheek heal where my earring had burned its scales. They popped, scabbed, and smoothed before my eyes more quickly than even Dominic could heal.

  Its scales were tinged a sallow green color, but beyond its snout and black shark-eyes, the creature still retained some of its former, human-like features. It had short, black hair, longer and greasy on top but faded on the sides in a semblance of a faux-hawk. Its eyebrows were thick and dark, just like its hair. It was naked and obviously male, and despite its blood-coated snout, razor fanged-teeth, and thickened brow, its large, round eyes made it appear young, like it wasn’t yet fully grown despite its size and strength and gruesome brutality.

  I narrowed my eyes on its face as something registered about its appearance that I couldn’t accept. Its nose was flattened and flared to points at the nostrils, just like all vampires’ noses flared in their true, gargoyle-like form, but something on its nose glinted in the moonlight. My stomach bottomed out, and I wanted to scream. I wanted to lift my arm and stab the creature through its disgusting, unfeeling, heart-eating heart. I wanted to cry and rage and die, but I couldn’t do anything but stare and deny the truth of what I’d just seen pierced through the pointed tip of the creature’s nose.

  The creature was wearing a nose ring.

  NO! I instinctively screamed the denial inside my head, but I couldn’t deny what was literally staring me in the face.

  I swallowed and whispered in a shaky, hoarse voice, “Nathan?”

  The creature let loose a sudden, ear piercing shriek, dipped his head into the curve of my neck, and clamped his massive jaws into my carotid.

  The pain was instant and sharp and bone deep. I screamed and pressed the trigger on the silver nitrate, but the creature suctioned a pull of blood from my neck like a straw. I was instantly lightheaded and black starbursts danced over my vision. Another two gulps like that, and I’d be drai
ned.

  I tightened my hold on the knife, knowing that if I hesitated, I might not have the strength to stab him later. Still, I hesitated. The creature was no longer an “it.” The creature was a “he,” Nathan, my brother, and God help me, even if he tore my beating heart from my chest, I couldn’t kill him.

  That thought gave me pause. He should have torn out my heart like he had all his other victims, but he’d gone straight for my carotid instead. He might look and act like a mindless, blood-crazed monster, but on some level, did he know who I was, that I was his sister? There was only one way to determine the innerworkings of his thoughts, and he’d swallowed more than enough of my blood for me to do it.

  “Nathan DiRocco,” I commanded. “Stop feeding from me and step back three paces. Now,” I whispered.

  A whisper was all I could manage, but the strength of my voice didn’t matter. I had an inner strength that belayed my diminutive stature, far stronger than this creature despite its muscles and claws and fangs. A mental twine tightened between the creature’s mind and mine. Now I could pluck the strings. I’d never be equal to vampires in physical strength, but as Dominic so often reminded me, I didn’t need physical strength to be strong, capable, and powerful. I didn’t need physical strength to control their minds.

  The creature swallowed another mouthful of my blood.

  Another wave of starbursts darkened my vision. When I spoke again, I tried to force some strength behind the words.

  “I command you to release my neck from your mouth and step away from me, Nathan DiRocco,” I said, my voice a thready whisper.

  The creature’s grip on my neck tightened, and I realized that my commands weren’t working. I focused on the threads connecting his mind to mine. I could normally easily manipulate those threads, but something was wrong. I could feel his deep, unquenchable hunger. His anger, so familiar to my own, was consuming and ravenous and unstoppable. He had been hunting for something specific, something familiar, and although he hadn’t known what it was, he had found it.

  He had been hunting me all along.

  Besides instinct and sensory stimulation, the creature couldn’t think or understand. I couldn’t control his mind because he only understood the scent of my hair and the cramping burn of thirst. Words like “release” and “step back” and “sister” weren’t part of his comprehension, so he couldn’t respond to those commands.

  If I couldn’t control him mentally and I couldn’t compete with him physically, I was next in line after Montgomery and Rowens.

  I was dead.

  The creature unexpectedly released his hold on my neck and stumbled back.

  I crumpled to my hands and knees in the dirt. My hip ached. My neck ached. Everything ached, and I felt sick and shaky. I blew out a slow, unsteady breath and found enough strength to lift my head.

  The creature had Bex pinned to the ground by her neck. She’d saved me. Bex had just saved me. I looked around frantically; if Bex was here protecting me, where the hell was Walker?

  It took a moment, squinting through the darkness to discern the lump of his form from the surrounding boulders, but I spotted him. He was lying on his side next to the cave. My stomach hitched at the stillness of his body, and I crawled to him.

  When I reached his side, I could see the steady rise and fall of his chest, but his shirt was drenched in blood. I whispered a rushed prayer that the damage wasn’t irrevocable and peeked under the tatters of his shirt to face his wounds.

  His skin was unbroken, smooth, healthy perfection.

  “Now’s not the time to get intimate, darlin’.”

  I snapped my gaze to his face. He was smiling at me.

  “How?” I whispered. “I saw his claws gouge into you and all the blood…” I shook my head. “I saw—”

  “Bex,” Walker said, losing the smile. “You know better than me how well their saliva heals.”

  I turned back toward Bex, expecting the worst but hoping for the best, and as usual, my expectations were on target. Bex was losing her battle with the creature. She dodged and struggled against those massive claws as he stabbed for her heart, but with every near miss, he sliced through her forearms and shoulders and stomach. She was being shredded alive.

  “Jesus!” Walker hissed. “Your neck!”

  I turned back to Walker. “Do you still have your gun?”

  He clamped his hand on my wound. The pressure of his palm hurt worse than the bite itself, and I experienced an eerie flash of deja vu. I jerked back, but he only squeezed harder.

  “Hold still. Let me bind this with something,” he said.

  “I’m fine, but Bex—”

  “No, you’re not. Stop squirming,” he snapped. “Bex has an entire coven of vampires to protect her. She’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “That I can see, the only people here to help her are you and me.” I looked around. “Where’s Rene?”

  Walker’s jaw tightened. He pulled a packet of gauze from his cargo pocket and ripped it open with his teeth. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  I narrowed my gaze on him. “Was Rene there when she healed you? What did she say to him?”

  “It doesn’t matter. She told me to get you out of here, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  “She told Rene not to leave the coven, didn’t she?” I asked, and by the way Walker’s jaw twitched, I knew I was right. “She’s protecting us, but she can’t fight that thing alone. She needs us.”

  “I don’t care what Bex needs,” he snapped. He pressed the gauze hard into my neck. “We’re falling back.”

  I sucked in my breath against the pain. “She saved me, Walker. She saved both of us. We can’t just leave her here to die.”

  Walker gave me a look. “Bex can’t die.” He ripped off a strip of his tattered, dirty shirt and tried to bind the gauze to my neck to keep pressure on the wound. “This isn’t working,” he grumbled. “It’s too deep and there’s too much fucking blood.”

  I grabbed his hands. “Listen to me. You can finish that later.”

  Walker tossed the strip of shirt and applied pressure to my neck with his hand again. He breathed a long, suffering sigh. “I’m listening.”

  “Wasn’t it you who told me that vampires are only long-lived and hard to kill, not immortal?” I gestured to the injured, bloody mess that Bex was becoming as she continually dodged the creature’s talons. “She won’t last long.”

  Walker stared at me for a long moment before gritting his teeth in a frustrated groan. “Keep pressure on that,” he demanded, pointing to my neck.

  I slapped my hand on the wound.

  He pulled out his gun.

  “Shoot to wound if you can.”

  Walker looked down at me like I was crazy. “Why the hell would I do that?”

  “Because I think that creature, whatever the hell he is, is my brother.”

  He stared at me and then back at the creature. “Fuck.”

  I sighed. “My thoughts exactly.”

  Walker lifted his gun and aimed. I braced myself for the shot and waited for the creature to turn on us.

  And I continued waiting.

  A full minute passed before I snapped. “You hesitated on Rowens and now you’re hesitating on Bex. What are you waiting for this time?”

  The creature jabbed at Bex, and she just barely rolled in time. His talons scraped her side, ripping open a flap of skin and exposing her ribcage. She screamed.

  The creature lifted his arm back to strike again.

  “I can’t shoot. This may be the only chance I have,” Walker murmured.

  “Your only chance for what?” I said, beyond exasperated.

  “My only chance to be rid of her.”

  The creature punched Bex’s chest, and this time, she wasn’t fast enough. His claw punctured under her sternum and buried his arm nearly elbow deep. Bex shrieked and struggled. Her movements turned frantic, slashing at the crea
ture’s arm with her own claws, but her efforts were only an annoyance, the buzz and tickle of a fly for the creature to swat away.

  Tears streaked through the blood and dirt crusting her cheeks. She was losing and desperate, and we’d hesitated too long to prevent what was about to happen.

  I tried to breathe, but the stink of blood and feces clogged my nose. I swallowed and tried not to throw up.

  The creature twisted his arm inside Bex, and she shrieked even louder. Maybe it was the lingering thread of our mental connection or my own empathy—maybe it was my overactive imagination—but I could feel the pain of that shriek reverberate through my own heart.

  The creature jerked his arm down in a rough, abrupt yank. Bex’s screams cut short. Her arms were outstretched and her legs still kicked and fought, but the movements were awkward and flailing now. She went limp a moment later, and the creature tore his arm out of her chest cavity, heart in hand.

  Chapter 11

  I covered my mouth, horrified. That creature was Nathan. That creature was my caring, punk little brother, and he had just killed Bex. He had ripped her heart from her chest as she screamed and fought him, and by the motion of his tipped head, I had the disturbing realization that he was about to eat it.

  I lost the battle with my stomach and puked Ronnie’s homemade banana nut pancakes on the leaves and dirt in front of me.

  Walker fired.

  The creature jerked back and dropped the heart. He stared at us, looking stunned as the heart slipped from his claws and fell to the ground with a sick splat that did nothing to settle my already heaving stomach. The creature turned his head slowly to look at his shoulder. A tiny ribbon of blood trickled down his right arm.

  Walker pulled the trigger a second time, and the creature jerked back again from the impact. A twin ribbon of blood streamed from his left shoulder. The creature glanced at both shoulders, stunned into inaction for one heartrending moment.

  He disappeared in a blur of movement.

  Walker was knocked off his feet. He fell back toward the cave’s opening with the creature in midair. They landed in a rolling heap from the momentum, and before the creature could pin Walker to the ground, tear off his limbs, or rip out his heart, they skidded over the loose stone surrounding the coven’s entrance and dropped into the cave.