“What?”
“How did you know about this?” he whispers. “How do you know where it goes?”
“Prince Bloodsucker took me up here once.”
Ouch. I didn’t think calling him that would hurt. It’s not like I’m in love with him or anything… but I had a connection with him.
Maybe I just need to connect with more human people. I don’t really make a habit of it. I never considered it a weakness before now, but maybe I should have. Loneliness leaves you vulnerable to rotten connections.
And seeing Bastian as anything but a monster is a mistake. Just because he’s been hurt before, just because he’s experienced the exact same pain I have, that doesn’t mean he’s a good person.
It doesn’t mean I should allow myself to miss him if—when—I get Nathan out of this place.
As I try to drag myself from the memory of what it felt like to have Bastian’s solid arms around me, his hand resting on my stomach and his face buried in the crook of my neck, the elevator chimes suddenly.
I stiffen.
This isn’t right. We shouldn’t be stopping. We aren’t at the ground floor yet. Keeping my gaze locked on the doors, I step forward so that Nathan is behind me, reaching back to hand him one of my blades. I raise my other knife as the twin doors slide open.
“What—” Nathan starts to say, then stops.
The five vampires outside the elevator door stare at us. We stare back.
For a second, nobody does anything.
Then we explode into motion.
Striking like a cobra, I leap forward and jab at the “close door” button at the exact moment that one of the vampires hisses and launches himself into the elevator. The rest of them follow, practically landing on top of each other, fangs bared, mouths spewing inhuman snarls.
One grabs my shoulders and lunges at my throat, but he ends up swallowing my knife instead. It bursts through the back of his head, coated in slick, dark blood. More blood and foam gurgle past his reaching fangs, smothering his furious growls. I don’t have enough room to yank the blade out and stick it where it’ll do some real damage, so I kick him as hard as I can. He slams into the button panel hard enough to shove my knife forward, but not quite out of his mouth.
It’s fucking disgusting, but I don’t have time to dwell on that because there’s another vampire attacking me from the other side. He goes for my throat, and I duck down, letting his face smash into the glass wall behind me. If I never hear vampire fangs screeching down glass again, it’ll be too soon.
From this vantage, all I can see of Nathan is his feet, but the frustrated grunts of our attackers and the darkly metallic scent of vampire blood in the air tell me that he’s holding his own… so far, anyway.
The elevator chimes again.
I throw a kick at the vampire nearest to me, connecting with his chest and sending him flying out through the elevator doors as they open. The rest of us tumble out after him. Deepthroat vamp jerks my knife out of his mouth and throws it aside. A mistake on his part. I grab it as it skitters across the floor, then leap up, take aim, and stab.
I should have wiped it off first. The slick film of blood and foam compromises my grip, and I miss his heart. There’s a scuffling sound behind me, and I try to keep myself alert for a sneak attack as I recalibrate my target and go for the vamp’s head. He hisses and leaps out of the way, too fast even with a chest wound.
“Stop, tribute!” a voice from behind me shrieks.
“No! Don’t stop, Mimi! Run!” The sound of Nathan’s panicked tone has me spinning around, and my heart lodges in my throat when I see him.
They have him. He’s caught.
A vampire holds him in a one-armed chokehold. His other hand curls around Nathan’s throat, his claw-like fingernails denting Nathan’s skin. As I watch, beads of blood pop up under the claws just as beads of sweat pop out on Nathan’s brow.
“Give up, sweetie,” the vampire drawls, grinning darkly at me over Nathan’s shoulder. “Or the boy dies.”
“Don’t do it,” Nathan gasps, wincing at the pain in his neck. “Run, Mikka. Get out of here. I’ll be fine.”
“You’re a liar,” I say around the lump in my throat. “And an idiot if you think I’m leaving you.”
There’s nothing else I can do. I’m pretty good at attacking without telegraphing my movements, but there’s no way I could end this fight before Nathan dies. This is why I try so hard to maintain the element of surprise when I go up against vamps on the outside, and why I always used to hunt alone.
I slowly put my blades on the floor and raise my hands as the vampire holding him chuckles. As soon as I straighten, another bloodsucker grabs me from behind, locking me in a chokehold. I could probably get out of it if I tried, but I won’t. Nathan would be dead before I could manage it.
“Let me kill her, Ahmir,” the one holding me growls, tightening his grip around my neck. “I won’t be talkin’ right for a week after that stunt.”
Ah. That’s why my back is wet. His slowly closing neck wound is bleeding all over me. Gross.
“Nah,” the one holding Nathan says. Ahmir. His grin widens, and it makes him look even more evil somehow. “The Council of Elders will decide what to do with them. Roy, grab those weapons. The prince will want to know what his precious tributes have been up to.”
Fuck.
Cold sweat drips down my spine, and I drag my feet in spite of myself. The stark terror gripping my heart has very little to do with the room full of vicious, ancient vampires I’m about to face. It has to do with the fact that one of those vicious, ancient
