I could feel him leaning over me. “She’s still out,” he said.
When I heard a cry, followed by more dragging, it took everything in me not to react. How was I going to explain this to Zack? Did it matter? I was up shit’s creek with half a paddle. Without his help, none of us were getting out of this mess alive.
Zack, it’s Diana. Um, I’m kind of in trouble and could really use your help about now. No response. Maybe he can’t hear me with my shields up? I took a deep breath, then lowered them. Big mistake. Ants swarmed in, and my brain felt as if it were on fire. My mouth opened on a silent scream as agonizing pain raked through my head. I knew if I let it out, the game would be over, so I bit down hard on my tongue. It broke through the pain just long enough for me to reengage my shields. Ouch, that fucking hurt. Maybe I would wait a little while before trying Zack again. I slowly pushed my way up to a seated position. Once I was sure I wasn’t going to topple back over, I focused my attention on my sister.
“Bailey, it’s Diana,” I whispered.
It took a minute, but finally, I heard a faint, “Diana?”
“Yeah, babe, it’s me. I need you to talk so I can find my way to you. Do you think you can do that?”
“D-D-Diana?” she called again, then broke into sobs.
“I’m here, Bay. I’m going to get us all out of this mess.” Once that was said, the entire room broke into hysterics. At least I now had no problem locating them.
I reached my sister and pulled her into my arms. She was at least a quarter of her normal size, which was too thin—deadly thin. If I didn’t get her out of here, she would die. There was no option for failure. I had to succeed.
Zack! Can you hear me? I really need you right now! Still nothing.
“Ladies, if I’m going to get us all out of this nightmare, I need you to stop crying.” It took a moment, but eventually, they calmed enough to answer my questions.
I learned the layout of the nest, approximately how many handlers there were, the number of baby vamps I was up against, and that I was seriously fucked.
10
The door swung open. Quiet gasps echoed through the room as the light from the hallway spilled across our faces. The same two vamps as before entered with the girl. Bailey grabbed my arm, her scared whimper scoring through me. Anger simmered in my gut as we watched them drag her down the stairs and drop her at the bottom like a sack of potatoes. I could take them. The only thing stopping me was the thought that Bailey or one of the other girls could get hurt in the crossfire.
“New girl,” one of them called out.
“Don’t go,” Bailey whispered.
I leaned over and kissed the side of her head. “Shhh, I have to. Stay safe. I’ll be back soon.”
Helpless rage washed over me as I pushed to my feet and started toward the two vamps. I was going to lay waste to as many of these fuckers as I could, even if it killed me. I wasn’t going down without causing some major damage. “Blaze of Glory” popped into my head. Bon Jovi couldn’t have said it any better. One of the gruesome twosome must have thought I was moving too slow because one minute he was standing across the room and the next he had me by the back of the shirt. The last thing I saw as he dragged me up the stairs was my sister’s tear-stained face. I shouldn’t have looked back.
A vamp stood at the end of the hallway. He was big—as in, body-builder-I-eat-children-for-breakfast big. One of the twosome prodded me to get a move on. I thought about taking them both out, then running for it. There was no doubt that vampire GI Joe would catch me but at least I would have a head start. No, not GI Joe, GI Fang. The second prod hurt. It also got me moving. I was in trouble—epically deep-shit trouble—the deepest I’d ever been in, and that was saying something because I was a giant shit magnet. Five steps farther and my walls began to rattle. That’s when I noticed that GI Fang was standing in front of a door. Not a door, but the door. My walls couldn’t withstand this many vamps. By the time I’d made it to the halfway mark, I could feel them starting to crumble. I could feel the baby vamps inside my head. Like a million tiny ants, they scurried over and under my shields. I had to fortify fast, or there would be no fight. Since steel wasn’t working, I opted for glass. Glass could crack but not if it was thick enough. It took some concentration, but by the time I made it to GI Fang, the ants had receded and my brain was a still pool of water.
Gruesome grabbed me from behind, his insanely strong arms banding around both of mine, as Twosome announced, “Jorje found this one snooping around Venom.”
Panic churned in the pit of my stomach. “I told you guys, I’m friends with Jessie.”
GI lowered to a half-squat, his blue eyes capturing mine. “What’s your name?”
“Diortha,” I managed to say without flinching.
“Well, Diortha, Jessie doesn’t run the show around here, I do.”
His blue eyes flashed red, not deep red like Zack’s, but blood red with tinges of pink, and I tried not to freak the hell out. The asshole’s trying to trance me. This is how he gets the girls into that room with those
