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  With the smell of tangy metal, which I had associated with the blood, there was also a rotten smell, like a dog hit by a car and animal control hadn't been by to pick it up yet. I had to smile to control my gag reflex. I took small shallow breaths through my mouth to cut back on the smell.

  As I crept forward, I didn't want to touch anything. The police would catch up to me eventually. I stumbled over something soft and squishy, which was out of place, I resisted the urge to whimper, and took a calming breath I found that I could disengage myself from the horror of it all, by finding that special place that I could go when I was about to kill.

  In the kill zone, I found I could look at the scene before me. I was relieved that I could do so in that moment, without going crazy or my mind screaming at the horror. With caution I moved forward.

  As the tunnel started to down slope I could hear a faint whimper and a wild, hysterical laugh. I inched my way forward and the whimper grew louder. As I came to a bend in the tunnel, I paused, reached out with my senses and found what I was looking for. A small whimper from a girl, it was minute, and barely audible, but none-the-less it was there.

  After I checked my guns, to be sure they were cocked with one in the chamber, I slid them home into their holsters. I grabbed the sawed off shotgun I braced myself to round the corner, and took one last deep breath before I inched my way into the next section.

  What I saw did not register. It was as if what my eyes saw made no sense to my brain.

  Splashes of red and slimy chunks littered the floor and walls and I thought I saw a hand sticking up in a twisted figure, atop a coffin.

  I suppressed a shudder and sighted down the barrel of the shotgun and the second my sweeping action caught something too horrible to be human I pulled the trigger.

  A scream went up as the shotgun exploded. I followed in and pulled out my honed machete. I took a swing at the neck of the wounded vampire. I had to continue to hack at the neck until the head came free. As it hit the floor with a thick, slurping thud, I once again raised the shotgun.

  Too many coffins, too many obstructions, I thought to myself as I crept around the room searching for the girl.

  I saw a leg sticking out, twisted and bloody. I rushed to it and as I followed it around a corner of a stone coffin, what I saw brought a tear to my eye.

  A small girl was lying there, eyes open filled with fear. I assumed it was the girl that had been abducted. I reached down to her neck to feel for a pulse and she blinked in slow motion at me.

  I took in her appearance, clothing torn, black and blue face, twisted limbs I suppressed a cry of rage, as my vision blurred to red. She was only eleven, how could anybody do this to her?

  "I am here now honey, don't be afraid, I will get us out of here. It is gonna hurt when I move you, but remember I am here to get you out of this.” I said in a soothing whisper, as I checked her for broken bones. I found that her leg and one of her arms was broken, I had to ask if she could move any of her limbs.

  "That's right darling, wiggle your toes for me.” I urged as she pushed through the pain to do as I asked. “Okay I am gonna have to carry you, now on the count of three, are you ready?"

  After she nodded, I began the count, “One ... Two...” I heard her scream as I was pulled back and thrown against the far wall.

  I grunted as the wind was knocked out of me, I dropped the shotgun and slumped to the floor.

  "Ian," I screamed to his mind, "I need you!"

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  All I saw at first was the blackness of my passed out state. I could see fuzz around the edge of my eyesight, but it wasn't mine, I had no will, I couldn't even voice myself to Ian, I could only watch and wait, for either Ian to find me, or for my mind to wake up. I tried in vain to call out to him, as I watched Martinez and Pete pull their guns on him. Ian tried to talk them out of killing him right there and then and it seemed to work. He called to me again and still, I could not find the strength to reply. My mind's eye started to fuzz black around the outer edges and I knew I was in a losing battle with consciousness, and that is the last thing I remembered before everything went black.

  * * * *

  I kept hearing Ian's persistent voice in the back of my head. I regained my senses with a slowness that seemed to take forever. I had an incredible headache and was furious at myself for not sensing my captor before he attacked me.

  I opened my eyes to mere slits and surveyed my surroundings through my eyelashes. I tried not to move my head as I used my peripheral sense to try to find the girl the rogue vamps had kidnapped and brutalized. I found that I was in another room. Dank stale air consumed me and I had a hard time not coughing as it filled my lungs.

  I strained my hearing, but could not detect the sound of the girls previous whimpering. I almost breathed a sigh of relief assuming the girl was left where I had found her. The only other alternatives were not worth thinking about. I wanted to be in control of my thoughts and in prime fighting condition if I had to face more then one vampire at a time.

  I once again heard Ian's voice in the back of my head, he was asking for direction to my location. Instead, I gave him directions to the last place I remembered, telling him that if the girl was there that was his first priority because I didn't know where I was.

  I watched through a haze of lashes, listening and waiting for any movement, I became impatient for any signs of life other my own.

  I felt as though my lungs were on fire, I was sure that I had at least one broken rib, there was the ache in my head, followed by nausea. I feared I might have a concussion. I fought off the sleepy thoughts running around my brain. Although, I tried not to, I closed my eyes and felt myself drifting off to sleep. When I heard Ian curse under his breath, his thoughts were for blood I knew he had found the girl.

  I turned off the switch that let us share thoughts, because I didn't want to see her again, I left her in his hands.

  Fuck this. I thought. I was not going to sit there and pretend anymore, it just wasn't my style, and I was getting too sleepy anyway. There obviously wasn't anyone around so it was time to seek and destroy.

  I braced myself against the wall so I could stand. I looked around, and saw none of the horrors I had seen in the recent past. All there was to see were very old stone walls, a stone floor that had been scuffed up, and inches of dust layered the scarred surface.

  When I felt my person, I discovered all of my weapons missing except for one, which meant that Raif was the one who searched me. He should have guessed that I had found new hiding places. He missed the twelve-inch blade I had under my jeans strapped to my inner thigh. Not like the Raif I knew. I thought he would have jumped at the chance to feel me up although he would have preferred me to be conscious.

  I grinned to myself at the thought of how good Raif and I used to be together, I followed the dusty footprints, my eyes looking for any movement and my mind and heart thinking back to what I had with Raif. I didn't want to kill him. Of course, I was going to kill him. He was a monster now, he was poison, corrupted, but still the thoughts lingered. I supposed I could wait for Ian. But where was the fun in that? Besides, I was almost positive Raif would be my last fight. That meant I got to wreck some other vamps before I had it out with him.

  I continued to follow the footprints, and tried to keep my mind from wandering too far off course, by reminding myself that Raif was something twisted and cruel not the man I once loved..

  When I rounded a bend, I was still deep in mindless thoughts of the past. I placed one foot in front of the other out of habit, I heard hushed voices, and froze. I gripped my blade tighter. I felt myself grow cold, while I relaxed. I could feel the emotion draining out of my head, then out of my eyes, and leave my face all together. The sweaty palms were a problem. I took a chance and wiped them on my tattered and torn jeans.

  I peeked around the corner with caution and spied a male, my height, although he looked as though he outweighed me by a hundred pounds. He was talking to another presenc
e though I could sense another assailant I couldn't see them. I sensed the other vamp walking backwards towards me, he was talking about how Raif wanted me brought to him and how he would love to sink fang into my pretty little neck.

  "Better watch it, Voss, Raif won't take kindly to your thoughts. He has big plans for the Reaper.” A man's voice whispered out of the darkness.

  "Yeah, yeah,” was the last thing that the vampire Voss would ever utter. I backtracked when he rounded the corner, when his head swung towards me I swung back and sliced his throat open. Blood spurted onto my torso. He tried to call out to his kiss, but I silenced him with quick ease, hacking at his throat to decapitate him was the only option I had, and it was easier than it should have been. I chalked it up to gained strength from being bonded with Ian, I bent and wiped my blade on his shirt and tried to wipe some of the blood off my front.

  I heard something creep towards me, I swung around, just as another rogue vampire struck out at me. I held up my knife in self-defense, I dropped to a crouch and used a sweep kick to try to knock him on his ass. I succeeded in making him stumble, which was not as good as putting him eye-to-eye with me, but better than nothing. I used all the strength I had in my legs to thrust my body up and sank the knife deep into his groin.

  As he screamed out, I cursed mentally at the sound he was making. I was not about to lose the upper hand. I pulled the blade out and shoved it into his chest, piercing his heart. I knew it wasn't a killing blow, but it would slow him down as his vampiric powers struggled to cure him. I then hacked at his neck until it slid off with a sickening spat as it hit the dusty floor.

  In the back of my head came an all too familiar voice, "Damn it all to hell, Ariana I told you to sit tight until I reached you. Backtrack to the room you were last in, while I shift forms, I will meet you there." Ian sounded angry as he gave a headache inducing shout.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  I backtracked like I had been told to do. I entered the small room I had woken up in. I saw that Ian had not yet arrived. I went the other direction, hoping I'd get to him sooner. I needed a hug.

  I wondered what the hell was coming over me, I had never before needed a hug—well not after killing a bad guy. I figured I must be getting soft in my old age.

  All of these thoughts were going through my head as I headed back the way I had been dragged with an added caution.

  Fucking prick, Raif with his super strength didn't see fit to carry me. I guessed I was on his shit list.

  I continued on my way, thinking about my conflicting emotions while keeping one eye and one ear on the situation at hand. I could hear a fight coming up. Voices of fear and an intense growling came within hearing distance. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans, and gripped my knife even tighter, I inhaled to try to calm my nerves. Smells of blood, guts and animal assailed my nostrils.

  The animal smell seemed to be wet fur, I am sure a confused look crossed my face as I crept forward. The noise of the fight grew louder. I again sniffed the air, another smell mixed in. It was like dust, but not the dust in the crypt or the secret passageway. It was fresher, with something exotic to it, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, maybe it was mingled with the smell of rain, ozone—however, I was even more cautious. This was a scent, and an enemy that I had not encountered before.

  I rounded the next bend with my back against the wall and inched around it to see shadows from the room I had found the girl in. Torches were lit, gunfire erupted making me gasp, and cursing and snarling on all accounts were audible.

  Fuck!

  I ran towards the fight, knife held low in one hand, eyes gone deader than a vampires did. I was in total killer mode. When I rounded the bend I was met with confusion. A wolf fought a large leopard of some kind, and the flickering torch light was wreaking havoc on my eyes and in turn my brain.

  I saw a glimpse of Paul out of the corner of my eye, and flashes of his gun, I ran to help him kill the two vampires that were attacking him. One was in front of him, taking every piece of ammo he could fire into him and still advancing. The other was working his left arm into a bloody mess of torn muscles and crushed bones.

  I had to give him credit when he did not cry out. I decided to take out the vamp chewing on him, while the other was busy getting pumped full of lead. Stupid cop, I told him to use silver when shooting vampires.

  I grabbed the vampire by his hair, yanked back and heard a sick crunch of bone as he clung to Paul's arm with his teeth not willing to give up his meal. I tried to work my thin blade between the arm and the vamp's neck but it was not working. So I pulled my arm back and shoved as hard as I could. I plunged the knife into the rogue vampire's heart.

  The vamp let go of Paul's arm, then reared back and in a blood craze threw himself on top of me. Having lost my knife, I watched as the other vampire advanced on Paul and fell on top of him. I thought that we were all dead as I felt this vampire worry at my collarbone. I reached out my left hand, and felt something splintered.

  Shit, what luck? A damn torch had broken at some point during the fighting, and I recognized it as such when I saw that the end was still smoldering. The torch was just what I needed, it would work as a stake. Soon I was covered in a rapidly deteriorating corpse. I grasped the torch and actually did something I tended to shy away from. I hugged the vamp and held him close, when I felt him relax into my grasp I raised up the broken wood and plunged it into his heart.

  I shoved an even nastier vampire off me, with vampire strength. I thought it funny how my mind wandered when I was in a fight, most people didn't do that, but when I was in killer zone, it happened. Things like killing didn't affect my conscious. So my mind was free to contemplate other things.

  I watched as Paul went down under a healed vampire. I jumped up pulling the stake out of the dead vampire. I was calm as I walked to him and pierced the dead heart of another vampire.

  "Fuck you,” I said to the dead rogue vampire. I reached down to help Paul to his feet.

  As soon as he gained his balance, I leaned him on a crypt and glanced around at the chaos. Martinez was holding his own. I turned my attention to the wolf and cat fight. I saw that the wolf, which I suspected was Ian, was being attacked on all sides by four more vampires.

  I saw red. It was the last thing I remember before I felt a tongue licking me. I blinked and stared into the intelligent, turquoise eyes of this mammoth canine. I started to get the flashbacks of my killing spree. I had only killed three of the four rogue vamps. The cat had fled and, Ian the wolf rescued me from death from the fourth.

  I shook my head to clear the flashing images of blood squirting my face and coating my hands. I cursed the fact that I had gotten leveled by another vampire. I could feel the bruising now, the sick, cracked drying blood on my face and hands. I remembered the wolf grabbing the fourth vampire by the throat in a natural instinct to get to the jugular. I rose up with a sword that was not my own, and commanded the wolf to move, and chopped off the last vampires head.

  When I glanced back at the wolf, I saw the cut across its left eye. It was not healing. I touched it with tenderness. Ian the wolf, backed away from my caress and licked my hand instead. It was something I would have to ask him about after we caught Raif.

  When I thought of Raif, I wondered where he had run off too. If Ian could shape shift into a Wolf I figured with Raif's personality and strength of soul, he too, would be able to shape shift. It dawned on me that perhaps all master vampires could do it.

  I glanced at Ian and looked into his eyes. I didn't fear what a normal vampire could do. These eyes were intelligent and beautiful, more intelligent than a normal wolf would show. I tried to speak to his mind, befuddled by a loss of scent, and confusion as to why the wolf had not chased down the accursed cat.

  I buried my head in Ian's side, inhaled deeply and smelled the forest, a smell that shouldn't be here but was. I could smell death, as well as Ian's own personal smell.

  I patted him on the same side I leaned into. I snuggled one
more time and looked around to find the room covered in blood, Martinez relatively unscathed, Paul propped up against the same tomb I had left him standing against and another officer I didn't know helping him.

  Ian nudged me to into action, and I rose with grace, yet full of pain. I felt the ache in my side, and my arm was killing me. I glanced down and I remembered the vampire that had worried at my shoulder. Gasping in pain, I walked to check on Paul, finding him out but the bleeding was under control, I walked over to Martinez.

  "So, did you guys get the girl out?” I inquired.

  The second I looked into his brown eyes, I knew they had been ambushed, and that the girl lay forgotten somewhere.

  "You fuck bag, where the fuck is she?” I screamed in anger. My voice bounced of the walls and came back to me. I heard Ian whimper in the background and saw Paul jump in his unconscious state, Martinez winced, and the other officer that I didn't know let out a small moan. I grinned like a fool at scaring the big bad cops or at least catching them off guard, I walked back to Ian, “Show me lover, where is the girl?"

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Ian sniffed out where they had been ambushed with the girl, my fears were quieted. And there she sat, as if she was placed down on the dust-covered floor with gentleness. I assumed one of the men I knew had put her gently on the floor and since Martinez was unscathed I was almost sure he was the one to do it.

  I rubbed Ian's head like a dog, which I apologized for later. I reached down to the girl and noticed she had fresh bite marks on her, and although they were not the regular vampire fang marks, I had no doubt that they were made by Raif in his leopard form.

  I picked the girl up with a careful touch, I felt my sore muscles and broken ribs protest. Tears welled in my eyes, but I suffered through the pain, and carried her out of the crypt. It was a long journey that seemed to take hours spent in agony, rather than minutes.

  I could sense Ian beside me even though he had moved without a sound. I figured I would hear his nails clicking on the stone floor, but it didn't happen.