Hearts In Darkness

dead ever since she'd awakened in the hospital, and she doubted it would come to life now simply because she needed it.

From behind her came the sound of a cautious step. Nikki tensed, muscles beginning to ache. Her neck tingled a familiar warning. It was Jake. He'd only fired two shots. He still had four left in the gun.

More than enough to blow a vampire's brains out.

The thought turned her stomach. She ignored it. There was no time for squeamishness—not if they were all going to survive this mess.

'Why can't you tell me your plans?' she said to the woman. 'You intend killing us all anyway, don't you?'

Again the smile shimmered coldly across the darkness. 'Oh yes. But as you said, it pays to never underestimate humans—or the not-so-human.'

'Then I'm afraid I'm just going to have to spoil your party.'

Nikki thrust kinetic energy at the bleeding vampire, lifting him up into the air and propelling him toward the window. 'Jake, incoming at four o'clock!'

Gunshots reverberated through the silence, and pain ripped through her brain. Nikki gasped, tears stinging her eyes. She was pushing the limits of her abilities. Too much further, and she'd hit the wall.

But she had no choice. She slid the last knife from her boot and ran to her left, straight at the darkness that hid the woman. She stabbed wildly, felt the knife strike something solid and slice deep. Heard a gasp of pain a second before a fist hit her chin and flung her backwards.

She crashed against a packing crate and air whooshed from her lungs. She slumped to the ground, gasping for breath and seeing stars. Groaning, she felt the back of her head. Her fingers came away bloody. The night around her stirred, and the air was so thick with the sense of evil it felt as if she was sucking in liquid.

Move, move, she thought. On hands and knees, she scrambled away. Another shot roared across the silence. The woman cursed. She was close, so close.

Nikki flung energy in the woman's direction, heard a slight grunt before the red hot knives hit her brain.

She gasped, holding her stomach, rocking back and forth. Tears mingled with sweat on her cheeks. This couldn't happen. Not yet! She hadn't rescued Matthew.

'Nikki? You okay?'

Jake's voice came from her right. Another warning prickled across the back of Nikki's neck. The woman was on the move, circling. Heading for Jake.

'Behind you,' Nikki gasped.

Something glittered in the darkness, and the smell of burning flesh stung the air. Moonlight glinted off silver as a knife arced through the air. Her knife, the one she'd used against the male vampire, now in the woman's hands.

A gunshot reverberated. Jake grunted, then something heavy hit the concrete. Silence returned. Oh God no…

She pushed upright, ignoring the pain, barely able to see as she staggered forward. Her feet hit something solid. She bent, reaching out, touching jeans, shirt, and then unshaven face.

'Jake,' she said, her voice harsh, her throat constricted with fear. 'Don't you dare die on me.'

He didn't respond. She felt for his neck. His pulse was weak, thready . Jake, you can't leave me.

You're all I have…

Air stirred, brushing coldly across her back. Nikki thrust through the pain barrier, reaching deep. Energy burned through her body, fuelled by anger—fuelled by grief. She twisted and flung a bolt of energy toward the woman.

There was a thump, then silence. Nikki waited, fists clenched, kinetic energy dancing like fireflies across the tips of her fingers.

The sense of evil slowly dissipated, and the darkness became benign once more. Nikki pulled the cell phone from her jeans' pocket and called 911. Then she rose and walked to the crates where she'd last heard Matthew.

He was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Four

Nikki winced as the paramedic pulled the bandage tight. He glanced up. 'Too tight?'

'Depends,' she muttered. 'Are my fingertips supposed to be blue?'

A smile crinkled the corners of the medic's kind blue eyes. 'No, but you have to admit, it is a pretty shade.'

'Yeah, but it's not a good look on fingers.'

She glanced past the doctor and watched Detective Col MacEwan approach. They'd obviously dragged him out of bed. His normally neat brown hair was everywhere, and he wore a striped pajama top half-tucked into his jeans. 'Any news on Jake?' she asked.

'Yeah. He's in surgery now, with wounds to his stomach and chest. The doctors are hopeful.' MacEwan planted his feet behind the doctor and crossed his arms. 'Now, you want to tell me about your little fight here?'

Nikki scrubbed her good hand across her eyes. She was hot and tired, and her head still pounded something fierce. All she could smell was sweat and blood and fear. She just wanted to go home and stand under a hot shower to wash it all away. The last thing she needed was MacEwan and his questions.

'It didn't start out as a fight, you know.'

MacEwan snorted. 'Never does with you. But it always ends the same, doesn't it?'

With people dead or missing, Jake in the hospital and her getting patched up.The unspoken words hung like a sword in the air. She glanced down at her newly bandaged hand and muttered a thank-you to the medic.

'Don't use that hand too much, or the clips won't hold,' he warned. 'And if you start getting a headache, I want you to come straight to the hospital.'

She snorted softly. She already had a headache, and its source certainly wasn't the knock on the head.

But she nodded and waited until he'd gathered his bags and left before she looked back to MacEwan.

'The woman wasn't human. Neither were the men who'd accompanied her.' He studied her for a minute, then dug a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. He lit one and took several long drags, blowing the smoke toward the starlit sky. 'I suppose you expect me to believe that.'

'You're the only one who will—and the only one I'll say it to. My official statement is that we were attacked by five unknown assailants—one woman and four men.'

MacEwan's brown-eyed gaze was shrewd. 'That doesn't jell with the number of corpses I have in that warehouse.'

'There should be at least three—one with a broken neck, two with gunshot wounds.'

'We've got two. And no sign of the kid you were following.'

So one of the vamps hadn't been killed. She wondered if the woman had rescued him, or whether he'd simply slid away before the cops had arrived. 'If you don't believe we were here following Matthew, check with his mother.' She rolled her neck, trying to ease the ache.

'Oh, I did.'

She snorted. Why was she not surprised? She and MacEwan might have come to a better understanding of each other during that whole Jasper mess, but that didn't mean friendship had blossomed as a result.

'And?'

'And it's the only reason your ass is not currently parked in a cell.'

'For what? Having the audacity to defend myself?'

MacEwan smiled grimly. 'Blowing someone's brains out is manslaughter, regardless of whether it's done in self-defense or not.'

'I didn't blow anyone's brains out—a fact I think you'll discover once you run prints on the gun.'

They wouldn't find Jake's prints, either, as he'd been wearing gloves—gloves that were now sitting in her