Chapter Eleven

Darkness. Fire. A twisting ache in her gut and a burning in her throat. Burning. Everything was burning.

"Brigid?"

She heard his voice calling from a distance. Was she dreaming? She'd thought she was in hell, but he wouldn't be there. No, he couldn't be there. He was good. Pure in a way that she'd never been.

The smell of smoke filled her nose, and the fire rippled along her skin, soothing and burning at the same time.

Pain.

It was the consuming thought in her mind. Burning. Tingling. Snapping tiny bites along her flesh. Stripping bare every nerve with its vicious claws. Pain. Consuming, breath-stealing pain. But she was no longer breathing, and suddenly she knew.

Fire.

"Brigid?"

She blinked awake to the darkness of a room in Alaska, frigid air seeping in from around heavy shutters that held back the light. The darkness was lighter along the edges of the windows, but it was still pitch-black.

"Brigid, are you awake?"

Tenzin.

"Yeah." She sat up and shook the dreams from her mind. Talking with Oleg the night before had been confusing, and she'd dreamed of fire all night. "Gimme me a few minutes."

It wouldn't take her long to get ready. She ran a hand over her head instinctively, but there was nothing but the smooth velvet of buzz-cut black hair. She ran a hand over it once, twice, remembering the feel of Carwyn's massive palm on her head. He would hold her head between his massive warm hands, brushing her temples with his thumbs.

"I don't like it when most people touch me, but I don't mind it when you do. Why do you think that is?"

"Why don't you let me take care of you for a bit? Will you let me, Brigid?"

"I'm a monster."

"No, you're not. Just hold on to me. I've got you. Don't let go."

She felt like her chest caved in at the memory of her mate's arms around her, holding back the world when she'd been a brittle, screaming mass of anger and fear.

Brigid wanted him so badly she felt like her skin would erupt with it, the fire would spread out along the whole of the Alaskan wilderness, searching for anything to consume the void that Carwyn's absence left in her chest.

"Brigid, I smell smoke."

She blinked and saw that the blanket clutched in her hands was burning. She smothered the flames, wiped the burning tears from her eyes, and sucked in a hard breath.

"I'm fine." She cleared her throat and rolled her neck to the right and the left. Then she pulled a jumper over the black tank she'd worn to sleep and thrust her feet into the boots next to her bed. "Give me five minutes and I'll be ready."

"They found another raid." Tenzin's voice was soft. "From weeks ago. Lev's supply boat just went out and found the damage. There was one survivor, but Mika doesn't think he'll last much longer."

This time they traveled by water, and Brigid's usual aversion to that mode of transport was the last thing on her mind. Tenzin, Brigid, and Lev caught a boat at Oleg's dock and sped across the waters of the Cook Inlet in a fast boat, heading toward open water and the tip of the Kenai Peninsula where the gusting wind and churning sea battered their vessel even with a water vampire standing at the bow.

Brigid glanced at Tenzin. "I'm surprised you're not flying."

Tenzin sat next to her in the enclosed cabin. "I don't mind boats."

"Ben hates them."

Tenzin shrugged. "That's probably my fault. I trapped him on a freighter for several weeks once."

Brigid blinked. "Why?"

"He needed to practice his Mandarin." She leaned forward and spoke to Lev. "Why didn't your men bring this human back to Oleg's camp if he's injured?"

Brigid answered. "Mika said he shouldn't be moved. He's elderly, and he managed to keep himself alive despite the blood loss, but survival is still in question."

"Sheer spite," Lev said. "That's what my men said. The human was alive purely from spite."

Brigid glanced at Tenzin. "You could prob'ly move him with the least damage."

"I'm willing to try," she said. "The men who found him obviously couldn't fly."

Lev said, "Oleg says he can't be moved to a human facility. There would be too many questions about his injuries."

"Fuck that," Brigid said. "I'm not lettin' anyone die because Oleg doesn't want inconvenient questions."

"It's not a problem," Lev was quick to add. "We have a clinic we use near Seward. If he survives being moved, they can help him."

"Human doctors are butchers," Tenzin muttered. "But I'll try to fly him there if he'll let me. If he fights me though, I'll drop him in the ocean."

Lev laughed as if he thought Tenzin was joking.

Brigid knew she probably wasn't.

She didn't like any of it. She didn't trust Tenzin's opinion of human doctors since she thought all of them were frauds, but since Brigid couldn't oversee this human's healing herself and she had no way to transport him, there was nothing she could do. She didn't even know if healing was an option.

"The only survivor," Brigid muttered. "How did he manage?"

"Apparently they thought he was too far gone, so they flew him out over the water to dump his body and he survived the fall, then swam to shore."

Brigid's eyes went wide. "In this water?"

Tenzin nodded, clearly impressed.

Lev shrugged. "I told you. Sheer spite and a lot of vodka."

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, that was either severe spite or miraculous vodka.

"Ya know Katya didn't do this, right?" Brigid looked at Lev. "Katya would consider these people hers."

"Maybe she didn't mean to, but maybe if she works with Zasha she has to give them something?"

Lev was determined, Brigid had to give him that.

The boat slowed, and Tenzin and Brigid walked out on the deck. Brigid stared at the low black rise of land in the distance, which grew slowly as they approached.

"What is this place?"

"An island." Lev followed them. "No one comes here."

"And the town?"

He shook his head. "No town. One vampire, her human, and the human's family. At most there were ten people."

"So why bother?" Brigid tried to think like Zasha. "Were they wealthy?"

"Not according to Walter." He looked down at Brigid. "That's the old man. The grandfather of the human mate."

Alaska was definitely living up its reputation of a place that humans and vampires could go to be left alone save for the current crisis. The other two raids had also been on vampire and human clans in isolated locations.

"They're using that to their advantage," Brigid muttered.

Lev frowned. "What?"

"Zasha is using the isolation to their advantage," Tenzin answered for Brigid. "This attack happened weeks ago. If there hadn't been a scheduled delivery of goods from Seward, it would likely have been months before they were found. And at that point, we would have no idea what had happened. If they want to stay under the radar and still have their fun, they're attacking at the right time."

"We wouldn't have any details now except for Walter," Brigid said. "And clearly they didn't plan for Walter to survive."

"What is the purpose of this?" Lev looked confused. "I understand raiding for resources. I understand raiding to eliminate an enemy. But these people had nothing valuable. They were fishermen and hunters."

"They were human prey," Brigid said. "With one vampire to keep things interestin'."

"Poor Rachel," Lev whispered. "She was happy with her husband."

Brigid blinked. It was the first time anyone had mentioned the name of the vampire who had been at the center of this small homestead, and hearing her name made the loss all the more real.

"There." Lev pointed. "I can see it now. You?"

The house was almost hidden by the trees, but Brigid could make out the grey stone and dark wood beams that leaned to the side as if they had been knocked off-balance by a tidal wave.

"It's the same as the others," she said. "We'll find damage from all the elements."

"I'm going to fly in," Tenzin said. "I'll survey from the air in case there's anything Oleg's men didn't spot from the ground."

They pulled into what was left of the dock, tying up to broken timbers that the ocean was already pulling into the deep.

Brigid walked off the boat and made her way across the remains of the dock to the shore where two humans were sitting under a propped-up tarp with a fire burning nearby.

"He didn't want to go in the house," one of the men said to Lev. "We tried to move him, but?—"

"You move me and that leg'll start bleeding again," the old man said.

The old man was covered by a silver emergency blanket and two large furs. His face was bleached of color; his normal skin tone was probably dark brown, but his lips were cracked, his cheeks sunken, and his eyes had a slightly yellow tinge to them.

"Your leg?" Lev asked.

One of the men said, "It's mostly gone, Lev. Walter put a tourniquet around it to keep it from bleeding out."

"Tight." The old man's lips were nearly blue. "I know how to tie one proper. Needed to make sure someone was alive to give a report."

He smells of death.

Brigid had no idea if the human would survive, so she walked over and crouched down next to the man. "Your name is Walter?"

"Evans. Walter Evans. My grandson Jackson was Rachel's husband." He blinked, and darkness flickered behind his eyes. "They killed him right in front of her. I never seen…" His lip quivered for a moment before he firmed it up with a harsh, sucked-in breath. "We thought we'd be safe up here. The location is isolated but easily defensible. We had weapons. We kept a low profile."

Brigid saw Tenzin from the corner of her eye as she landed on the beach and approached them silently.

"My name is Brigid Connor," she told Walter. "I'm a fire vampire, and I work in private security. No affiliation with Oleg, just old friends." It was close enough to the truth for the human. "You sound like you might have some military or police experience. Am I right?"

"Enlisted in the Marines when I was nineteen and stayed until retirement," Walter said. "Lost Mary, my daughter's mama, when I was in my thirties. Raised my girl. She married a good man." Walter's voice caught. "Our whole family was here. I told them it would be safe."

"I'm so sorry." Brigid's heart ached. "I'm so very sorry."

Lev asked, "Did they kill Rachel too?"

Walter glanced up. "I think so. I was trying to protect my daughter. They killed my son-in-law first. We were checking crab traps on the dock, just about to pull things in when they attacked." Walter's shaking hand went to his chest. "It was a spear. A goddamn harpoon right in his chest. Jesse went down."

Brigid pried for details. "Did you see how they approached?"

"Two from the air, three in a Zodiac." Walter glanced at Tenzin, then back at Brigid. "Small vessel. They were coming from a bigger boat."

Brigid nodded. "Was there a vampire with red hair with them?"

"Maybe. It was hard to tell in the dark."

"They killed your son-in-law first," Brigid said. "You ran?"

He nodded. "I got to the main house, but the boat had already landed. House was burning. Outbuildings were ripped up like…" He frowned. "Like something had torn up the foundation. Jesse and Sandra's house looked like a tornado hit it."

Wind and earth damage. Fire too. "Was it only vampires? Did you see any humans?"

"It's hard to tell sometimes, ain't it?" Walter's voice dropped. "I think it was all vampires. We didn't stand a chance."

"You said they killed Rachel and Jackson," Brigid said. "Did you see them? Is there any chance anyone else might have survived?"

Walter's face went blank again. "Jackson shoved his mom toward me and told me to run. There's a barn back in the woods. The snowmobiles are there. He told us to run."

Lev asked, "And Rachel?"

"Jackson ran back to her." Walter kept his eyes on Brigid. "She's a water vampire. Was trying to put out the fire they set in the house. They grabbed him and …tw-twisted his neck." Tears pooled in Walter's eyes. "Dead. Just like that. Dropped hard like his daddy."

Brigid kept her voice soft. "And Rachel?"

"I heard her scream his name, and then I didn't hear anything. She would have done anything for Jackson. She loved…" He cleared his throat. "She loved him. But there were three of them on her. Sandra—my daughter—almost ran back to the house, but I grabbed her and took off."

"Trying to get to the barn."

He nodded slightly. "We were running into the woods and two of them just— They scooped us up like barn owls catching mice. Flew us up over the ocean, tossing us back and forth." His eyes were blank. "They were laughing. It was like a game to them."

Lev muttered something low and dark in Russian. Tenzin was an eerie blank void beside her. The two men holding Walter had clearly heard the story before, but their faces remained stoic.

Brigid wanted to rage, but she kept her focus on Walter's face and her expression open. Carwyn called it her "trust me" face, and clearly it was working. "They dropped you in the ocean."

"Lost their grip on us, maybe?" He shook his head a little. "I swam in circles, trying to find Sandra, but I couldn't…" His voice caught. "I couldn't find my girl. Felt the current pulling me, and my God…" His voice turned cold. "I wanted to go under so bad. My whole world was on this island, and they took it."

"But you swam back."

Walter's eyes narrowed. "I knew someone would come. Eventually someone would come. Swam back, tied off my leg, and I waited." He glanced at the man to his right. "Knew these boys would come soon enough."

Walter's strength humbled Brigid.

If someone killed your entire family?—

Hush. No. She couldn't go there. Even a whisper of the idea took Brigid to such a dark place that she felt her blood start to churn and her skin heat up.

"You gonna find who did this?" Walter kept his eyes on Brigid. "You gonna kill them?"

"I swear." Brigid nodded. "With my own fire."

He kept his eyes steady on her. "I've seen a body burn before. Vampires burn the same as humans?"

Her gut twisted. "At the beginning? Yes."

Tenzin moved, crouching down next to Brigid and speaking directly to Walter. "You should imagine the vampires who killed your family turning black, curling into twisted shadows of their previous form, and scattering like ashes in the wind. Because Brigid is going to kill all of them, and I am going to help her." Tenzin never broke her stare. "Do you believe me, Walter?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes, I do."

"Will you let me fly you to the human doctors so they can try to save your life? I can smell that you are bleeding internally and your chances of survival are small, but they do exist."

Brigid saw the man considering it. Saw the ache of longing to leave the world and the hard pull of survival battling in his yellow-tinged eyes.

"Do you have other kin?" Brigid asked.

One of the men holding the old man said, "Jackson has a sister in Louisville." He put his hand on Walter's shoulder. "Jackson said she just had a baby. That's your great-granddaughter, Walter."

"Survive for them," Brigid told Walter. "Your granddaughter has lost her brother and her parents. Don't make her lose everyone."

The old man gave a curt nod and then looked at Tenzin again. "Fly me to the docs then." He looked back at Brigid. "And I'll be seeing you again. When it's done."

"Yes." Brigid stood, keeping her eyes locked with his. "You will."