Chapter 28

Carwyn left Baojia and his people to their own devices and buried himself in a cave a mile from Brigid. He settled into the earth and dreamed of her blood on his lips and her body surrounding his flesh.

It had been three nights since he held her.

Once, they had spent months, even years, on different sides of the planet, but now even a few nights without her felt like cutting off a limb.

In the tremulous space between waking and sleep, he felt her over him, straddling his hips, her body bowed over his as if in supplication. Her ear was pressed to his heart and her lips murmured something against his chest.

"Brigid?"

His eyes fluttered closed.

Brigid?

Mine. Her whisper came to his ears like a hushed prayer. You are mine.

Brigid's eyes opened in the darkness and she knew Carwyn was close. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Six o'clock in the evening, twenty minutes before dusk.

She only woke early when her mate was near. She felt a tug of his amnis with hers. He was close and awake, already aware that she was too.

She rose and dressed in a pair of black hiking pants with various pockets, a slim-fitting black shirt, and a windbreaker that would hide the weapon Carwyn would surely be bringing for her. She pulled on a pair of sturdy boots that were brand-new and irritatingly stiff. Claire McKee wouldn't have anything but brand-new outdoor gear, and it was annoying as shit.

When she was dressed, Brigid sat on the edge of the luxury bed and tried to imagine how many other vampires must have sat in this exact location over how many years. How many missing kids did that represent? How many needless deaths?

Her rage built to the point where it was making her shake.

Calm, Brigid. Claire doesn't care. Claire is excited to hunt and experience a little bit of real violence.

Fucking Claire.

In Brigid's experience, the only people truly turned on by violence were either sociopaths or those who had so little experience with real violence that they romanticized it in their heads.

Her husband hooted and laughed at professional wrestling. Why? Because it was entirely fake. A play of violence so obvious in its deception that it became laughable. Something he could truly enjoy.

Real violence?

No.

These amoral vampires hunting innocent, newly turned humans were playing at violence, as if it were a game or a movie. They wouldn't be the ones cleaning the blood or dragging the bodies into the sun to watch them burn. They would never face the families of their victims or watch the slow descent so many of them would make as their lives were ruined by grief.

You can't save everyone.

She couldn't save these kids. Their lives had already been stolen, just like Summer's innocence and Daniel's dreams. But she could give them a way forward if they wanted it.

She felt the sun setting. She heard distant, desperate cries in the night.

Silent minutes passed while the new vampires were fed.

She waited.

And waited.

Then, through the drifting night fog that blanketed the mountain, Brigid heard a single, tolling bell.

Bong.

She sprinted for the door, only to be elbowed in the neck by another guest as they made their way at superhuman speed down the central staircase.

Brigid took a leap over the heads of two running vampires, swinging off a pendant lamp and dropping over them. She nearly knocked her own head off running through the doors, but she made it to the outside just in time to see the last of the newborns disappearing into the forest.

She ran straight for the edge of the forest and the waiting thread of amnis that called to her. She ran past Sultry and Smug, leaping over the bonfire and making for the trees. Just as she reached the edge of the forest, she saw a flash of red in the night.

There!

She veered toward Carwyn and caught him around the neck, swinging herself into his arms and crushing her mouth to his in a fierce kiss as he ducked into the hollow of a tree.

"There you are!" He bit her lip so hard it bled. "That's my girl. My fierce, magnificent woman!"

She pulled back and cupped his rough cheeks. "Ten newborns, they released them from the stable—whatever that is—just after dusk. There are fourteen vampires hunting. We kill them all."

"And Ivan?"

"Somewhere in the house." She shook her head. "We don't have time. Some of these bastards are very dangerous." She patted his back. "My gun?"

He reached in his pocket and slapped a .45 in her hand. "I brought your Kimber. I knew you'd be missing it."

"Oh, yer lovely."

"Just remember, knives before guns." He handed her a knife sheathed in a thigh harness. "The longer we're silent, the better we can sneak up on Ivan."

She gave him one more kiss and climbed down, strapping the bowie knife to her right leg. "Where's Baojia?"

"On his way. I met up with Daxa in a clearing not too far from here. He knows where the house is now."

"Let's just pray he gets here with reinforcements in time."

Carwyn saw the first newborn before Brigid did. It was a girl who looked barely out of school with long, tangled brown hair and a terrified expression.

She was crouched in the hollow of a fallen redwood, and the minute she spotted Carwyn, she screamed and ran.

Brigid caught her at the other end. "Calm down." She held up her hands. "We're not hunters."

The girl was crying, and bloody tears ran down her mud-streaked face. "I don't know you. I don't know what's going on!"

"My name is Brigid. This is my husband Carwyn. We're like you. We're vampires, and I know this all seems crazy, but I want you to stay with us and we'll protect you."

She was shaking her head, clearly confused. "What if you're tricking me?"

"I promise we're not."

Carwyn knew the girl was still on the edge. He thought about his own fear when he'd first awoken, though it had been a thousand years ago. He reached into his pocket and took out a hunting knife. "Here. If I give you a weapon, will you believe us?"

He could feel Brigid's amnis beating at him.

What are you doing?

"If we were hunting you," he asked, "would we give you a weapon that might hurt us?"

She was still shaking her head and crying, but she wiped her cheeks. "I guess not."

He reached out and let her hand close around the knife. "You're just as fast as we are." It was a lie, but one that she didn't need to question in that moment. "Keep up with us. Defend yourself from anyone trying to hurt you, but don't hurt any of the other newborns."

"Newborns?"

"The hikers like you," Brigid said. "The ones at the farm."

The girl's face crumbled. "You know about the farm?"

"We found it a few nights ago," Carwyn said. "There's no time to explain, just come with us."

Brigid was already heading off into the fog-laced redwoods, running between the trees, drawing her weapon twice at what ended up only being giant-sized redwood burls springing from the base of the trees.

Carwyn took the girl's hand and held it carefully as they followed Brigid. "Do you know what any of the others were doing?"

"They kept us separate," the girl said. "There are these horse stables, and they boarded up all the windows and kept us in there. They…" She paused, and Carwyn turned to see her looking ill. "They put people in our rooms this morning." She held her stomach, the hunting knife digging into her skin. "I killed him. I think. Or he was unconscious maybe." She started to shake even while they ran. "I'm a murderer."

"You're not," Carwyn said. "You're a newborn. In any right world, this wouldn't have happened to you unless you wanted it and were in the care of an older, careful sire. I'm so sorry, my girl."

Carwyn climbed up and over another fallen redwood, checking inside the base this time. He helped the girl up and over the tree.

"Beth," she said. "My name is Bethany."

"Okay, Beth." He squeezed her hand and heard Brigid in the distance. "I want you to hide in this hollow tree for a moment, okay?"

She frowned. "Why?"

A vampire came flying from the fog, bowling into Carwyn and knocking him to the ground. "That's why!"

"No!"

Carwyn ignored the girl's screams for the moment and focused on killing the linebacker-sized immortal who'd tackled him to the ground. The man was trying to get his hands around Carwyn's neck to twist it.

"Why…?" He snarled. "You're no newborn!"

Carwyn laughed, pushed the man to the side, and rolled to his feet. He gripped the man by the ankles, spun around once, and flung him into the side of a tree. The vampire crumpled like a broken toy, and Carwyn ran over and picked him up again.

"You're right," he said. "I'm not even close to being a newborn." He was tempted to leave the man incapacitated, but there was no luxury for that. This was a battle, and the man would only try to kill another if Carwyn let him live.

He quickly twisted the man's neck, and the linebacker went limp. He held his hand out to Beth, who was frozen by the tree. "I need the knife, Bethany."

She held it to him with shaking hands.

"Vampire lesson number one." Carwyn pushed the man's head forward as he groaned and tried to protest. "A broken neck won't kill us. Nothing much will kill us but fire—which we're not doing in the middle of the forest—or a severed neck." He put the hunting knife to the vampire's neck, sliced it through the spine and the cord, and let the body drop to the ground with the neck nearly detached.

Beth promptly turned and threw up a bellyful of blood.

"Sorry about that," Carwyn said. "Most of our lives are not this violent."

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."

He could hear Brigid struggling in the distance, so he ran, grabbing Beth's hand as they headed for a small clearing. "Survive now," he said. "Fall apart later."

Brigid had just dispatched her second vampire and caught sight of Grouchy in the distance when Baojia caught up with her.

"Ten newborns," she started. "Fourteen vampires. Three down—"

"Six down," Baojia said. "Daxa already took out two. I got another one. My people are hunting right now."

She cleaned her knife on her thigh. "Have you found any newborns yet?"

"One, but he was already dead. I killed the vampire feeding on him." Baojia's mouth was set in a grim line. "I'm sorry, Brigid."

"Don't be sorry, just keep going." She turned and saw Carwyn approaching. "Send your people out." She spread her arms. "There are woods all around that house. They could be anywhere!"