Page 35 of Bold Mercy

Then the caller screamed. His scream was so loud it was distorted, and I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal, speeding through city streets that were, thank God, a hell of a lot less congested than they usually were.

People were gathering in buildings, bars and clubs and restaurants, perhaps hoping there was safety in numbers. All they were really doing was making it easier for the vampires to kill a bunch of them at once.

There was still too much traffic, though, and I darted around vehicles, wishing I had a cop’s lightbar atop my car. A siren wouldn’t have hurt, either.

Harmony’s was a club for humans—a rival club of Scarlett’s, the club into which I’d gone to rescue the detective. I couldn’t imagine Bastien would allow any of his clubs to remain open with the current state of the city, but if Harmony’s was still open for business, who the hell knew.

I expected the governor to declare a state of emergency and put a curfew in place soon. People were still going to die, but maybe fewer of them would if they were forced to stay inside their homes. The entire city was in a state of shock and confused chaos right now, but things would calm down once the hunters wrangled the rogues. The regular vampires weren’t ever going to cause so much trouble. They never had, after all. And they knew the tide would turn. They understood what was coming for them, and they hated the rogues as much as everyone else for screwing up the status quo.

The county masters would help the humans, even when those masters and their clans became hated, hunted, and tortured. And as I sped to Harmony’s, I called Bastien, leaving a message when he didn’t answer. “The rogues are at Harmony’s. I’m on my way there but it’ll be a few minutes. Send help.”

Still, I got there first. I slammed the car into park, shut off the engine, and raced into the club, Remy behind me and Joe trailing a little behind him. Joe had taken time to grab his machete.

I had my demon blade in one hand and a stake in the other, and as usual, joy in my black, killing little heart. That eagerness helped tamp down the worry and horror I felt for the humans, and even the rage and hatred I felt for the vampires. It was strange, that joy, but it was good. I’d accepted it long ago. It was part of me, and I didn’t see a need to change who I was.

There were two vampire “guards” waiting just inside the entrance, placed there, I figured, to handle law enforcement if they showed up. There was a male and a female, both around sixty when they’d died, both wearing yellow dresses, strangely enough, and their faces lit up when they saw me and my little crew stride in.

“Dinnertime for us,” the female said, but before the sentence was completed, I’d rammed the stake through her heart.

“Dessert for us,” I said, then “Joe.”

“Got it, Boss.” He proceeded to deprive her of her head.

Remy had staked the male, and together, we hurried on into the club, leaving Joe to make sure the two vampires never rose again.

Inside the club, Avis waited. I wasn’t surprised. There were dead human bodies everywhere, but still a few alive for the vampires to play with. I caught a glimpse of Avis sitting at a table against the wall, a drained, naked body stretched across the top. She smiled at me, lifted a bloody finger, and slid it into her big-toothed mouth. There were vampires between us, and I would have to get through them before I got to her. I could do that.

A line of terrified humans sat cringing against the wall, their knees drawn up, crying, screaming, begging.

And then there were the ones being passed from vampire to vampire in the middle of the room. Those vampires weren’t hungry—they were simply enjoying their cruelty. When they saw us they flung their victims away and came at Remy and me, their eyes full of blood.

Thatwas different. Generally, when a vampire’s eyes changed, they went to black, not red. I filed the info away for later. There were only fifteen or twenty vampires in the room, but with their speed and strength, it seemed more like a hundred of the bloodsucking bastards.

Now that she knew I was unaffected by her magic—though she didn’t know it was because of my demon blade—Avis was a little less eager to tangle with me. She wanted me to suffer, true, but she didn’t necessarily want to take me on in a physical fight. I was sure she planned to be long gone by the time I managed to fight my way to her.

I wanted to leap through them and get to her, but I couldn’t leave two human men—even if one of them was the boogeyman, the best of all hunters, Remy Simon. He was still human, and when faced with a roomful of vampires, he would either run, die, or he would fight with me.

Together, we could do some damage.

I heard Joe roaring as he swung his machete, and there was not only a time when I intercepted a vampire going for him, but Remy did, as well. I should have shifted. If I’d shifted, I could have killed the vampires a lot faster, but I couldn’t shift in public, and I couldn’t shift in front of Remy.

Still, I was nearly certain he’d look at me differently when he had time to settle down and think about that night. I was simply too fast, too feral, too strong. I threw my whole self into fighting those vampires. Blood pelted me like raindrops and I danced in puddles of it, and part of me stood back and watched with a sort of anxious wonder, afraid that one of these times I’d trip in the darkness and drown in all the blood.

Bastien and his enforcers came, blowing into the room like lethal, raging hurricanes, and though I wanted to continue fighting, my prize was still across the room, quietly watching the carnage.

And finally, I went after her. To my shock, she didn’t run. She watched me come with shining eyes, and just before I reached her, she stood, rushed me in a blur of movement, and wrapped me up in her arms.

“I want to tell you something,” she murmured into my ear. “Something about your detective.” Her voice sounded like she’d swallowed broken glass and some of it was still caught in her flesh.

And despite my desire to end her, I hesitated. I turned my head slightly and met her stare. “Tell me, then, you monstrous bitch.”

She laughed. “He did some very, very bad things while under my master’s control. You should be prepared, Kait. Soon, he will start to remember. He’s going to change, you know.”

I was abruptly cold as chills shook my body.

I wanted to ask her what he’d done—what Axton had forced him to do with his awful mind control—but there was no time. I knew she didn’t want to kill me, not yet, but I certainly wanted to kill her. She was the reason my city was hurting.

I tightened my grip on the demon blade. It was trapped between our bodies, burning hot, throbbing like a thing alive. There was no time to be precise or worry about hitting her heart just right. I forced the knife into her abdomen, dug it in as deeply as I could, and then began to shove it up toward her foul vampire heart.

But before I could reach it, she tore herself away from me, laughing softly, and was gone faster than my eye could track her.

And she took my precious blade with her.