"And how many others are there?"
"There were six of us altogether: Ghost, me,
Omega, Obsidian, Sirius... and X. Omega died in
the fire. The rest of us fled when Falkirk went up
in flames, and took new names to represent our
rebirth. It took a while to... come to terms with
being free. Ghost took control because he said that
we couldn't simply slaughter our way through the
population, or they'd turn on us." A snarl curled her
lips. "Why should we care? We're better than them,
all of them. But he said that even we should fear
the people, and the way technology has provided
them with a means to hunt us with their spitfires
and Cyclopses."
"So Ghost is making the rules," he said,
watching her face. "Kill him, and... we're free?"
Why the hell did this Ghost have something against
Malloryn?
Zero seemed to come back to herself. The
distance faded out of her eyes and she turned that
direct look upon him. "Try to kill Ghost," she told
him, "and he'll make you eat your tongue for
breakfast. If it were so easy, do you not think that
I'd have done it by now?"
"You don't seem to care for your brothers very
much."
"There is no blood between us. Only a shared
experience, and they consider me to be the weak
one." Hatred ignited on her face. "I'll show them
weak. I'm the one with the vampires."
Byrnes eyed the nearest creature. Its head had
jerked up, its nostrils flaring wide.
"What are you—?" Zero followed his gaze,
her cool smile vanishing as she too saw the
intensity in the creature's frame.
Please don't be Ingrid. Or no, please be
Ingrid. Byrnes strained against his ropes, but it
was hopeless. There was no escape.
Footsteps pounded along the hallway, and
gunfire suddenly burst out in a sharp staccato.
Both vampires perked up, like hunting hounds
sensing prey. It would be a slaughter if he didn't
warn them.
"Vampires!" Byrnes bellowed, knowing that
he'd blown his cover. "There are two vampires in
here—"
A fist slammed into the side of his head.
Byrnes spat blood, trying to blink through the
dizziness.
"So...." The look on Zero's face boded
trouble. "You lied to me," she said, and the way
she said it was so eerie that all of the hairs on the
back of Byrnes's neck lifted.
"No, I never meant to—"
And Zero slammed the syringe into the muscle
of his arm and injected all of its contents into him
with a vicious look upon her face.
THE FIRST SCREAM tore through the asylum.
Ingrid had never heard anything like it. She
froze. "Byrnes." There was no way to guess how
she knew it was him, but something about that
animalistic sound shivered down to the very core
of her.
"Ingrid! Wait!" Charlie snatched at her sleeve,
but she wasn't listening.
All that she knew was that her man was in
danger. The world vanished as blood rushed
through her veins and she tore ahead of Charlie,
Malloryn, and Gemma, just as a pair of vampires
came out of nowhere.
One of their heads exploded like rotten melon
as someone shot from behind her. The other one
launched itself toward her, claws raking the air,
and its lean body twisting catlike as she threw
herself beneath it, rolling in a ball as it flew over
her—
Ingrid came up and hit the door with her
shoulder. It jarred the whole way through her. She
caught a glimpse behind her of Charlie and Gemma
parting around the vampire, moving with blue
blood grace as they lashed in with knives. Another
scream echoed from within, and Ingrid slammed
into the door again.
Malloryn withdrew a hollow-looking rifle
from inside his coat. It looked somewhat similar to
a grappling gun. The second he had an opening he
fired, and a silver-tipped net shot out, trapping the
vampire inside.
"Go," he called, catching her eye and jerking
The vampire's high-pitched scream of rage
pierced her eardrums as she took out her pistol and
shot the lock off the door. Slivers of wood erupted
from the timber and Ingrid flung her arm up in front
of her face. The second it had settled she burst
through the door, looking for Byrnes. He strained
in a chair, blood dripping from a mark on his arm
and the muscles in his biceps standing out in stark
relief as he screamed again. There were chains
bolted into the floor, holding him there.
The sound shocked her. Not pain. Not fear.
That was rage she heard in his voice.
“Byrnes?” she whispered, sliding to a halt.
No time to follow up. Zero came out of
nowhere, swinging some sort of staff, with a pair
of vampires at her heels.
This time Ingrid didn’t hesitate. She ducked
below the staff and came up with her fists
clenched. Her first punch smashed into Zero’s face,
flinging her back onto the table.
Bitch. Ingrid grabbed a chair and swung it.
Zero rolled off the table a second before the chair
hit it and came apart at the legs. Then she darted
forward, low enough to hit Ingrid around the waist.
They both went down with a crash, one chair leg
remaining in Ingrid's hand.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Zero spat, locking
her hands around Ingrid’s throat as she crawled up
over her body.
Ingrid tried to twist free, her air cutting off.
She outweighed the woman by a decent portion of
solid muscle, but the dhampir was strong.
“You’ve… got something… belongs to… me.”
Zero’s eyes narrowed and she leaned close
enough to whisper, “He belongs to me now.”
What had she done to him? Ingrid drove her
knee up between the woman’s legs and tried to
fling her aside, but something crashed nearby and
then a weight hit Zero, flinging her off Ingrid with
ease.
Charlie. He stood over her with his gun held
low as he tracked both the vampires and Zero. “It’s
clear!” he called.
A pair of vampires circled them, crouched
low and snarling.
The others came in firing, and Zero darted
into the shadows. She shot Ingrid and Byrnes one
last furious look, then turned to her vampires.
“Come!”
One of the vampires followed her as she
vanished behind a tapestry hanging from one of the
walls. The other’s gaze locked on Byrnes’s arm
and the single drop of blood there. Only the fact
that there were five of them in the room seemed to
confuse it.
“Got it!” Gemma said, and clipped it with a
bullet.
"Byrnes!" Ingrid took her chance and slid to
her knees in front of him.
Byrnes strained in his chains, his fingers
curled into claws and bloodied froth spilling from
his lips. The berserkergang died down a little as
she saw that. Suddenly she was swimming up
through the tides of the fury, her speed and strength
ebbing as uncertainty overtook her.
"Byrnes?" What was wrong with him? His
shirt was torn, and a faint bloodied circle marred
the muscle in his upper arm.
Somehow he ground his teeth together, every
cord in his throat standing out in sharp relief. His
black eyes met hers, every trace of the man she
knew washing away until all she could see was the
hunger overtaking him. "Run!" he screamed, and
his forearms flexed as he tore at the chains. The
steel links stretched, then one tore apart with a
clink.
"Ingrid." Charlie dragged her back out of the
way. "He's not himself at the moment. He might not
recognize you."
"What's wrong with him?"
"I think she gave him the elixir," Charlie said.
“We’ve got to get him out of there.” Ingrid
strained against his hold on her.
“We’ve got other concerns first,” Charlie
retorted, and jerked her back sharply as the
vampire skidded on the rug nearby, narrowly
missing Gemma.
Bullets retorted behind them as Malloryn spun
to track the creature, firing five times as the white
blur bulleted around the room. "Stand still, you
bastard." He clicked empty, and Gemma rotated in
front of him, a pistol in each hand.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The way they moved showed an old
partnership, as Malloryn swiftly reloaded then
rotated back to point the second Gemma ran dry.
Tracking the vampire with the pistol, he let it get
dangerously close to him before he shot it point-
blank in the face.
The head exploded. Black blood spattered
across Malloryn’s chest, but he let out the breath
he’d been holding and lowered his pistol.
The second he did so, Byrnes broke the
second chain pinning him to the floor, his black
gaze locked on Charlie. “Mine,” he snarled.
Charlie’s face paled as he dragged her away.
"Whatever it's done to him, it's unleashed the
hunger within him. He might not be able to
separate friend from foe at the moment."
"He knows who I am," Ingrid replied
incredulously. This was Byrnes. Control was
practically his middle name.
Byrnes darted toward Gemma and snatched
her back against his chest, hissing at Malloryn over
Gemma's shoulder as he curled his hand around her
throat. Gemma froze, her hand locking on his
trembling arm and her gaze meeting Ingrid’s
pleadingly.
“Byrnes!” Ingrid called, stepping forward
with a placating hand. She forced herself to be
calm. “Let her go.”
“Jesus,” Charlie muttered.
Byrnes dragged Gemma back a step as the
three of them fanned out, flanking him.
Malloryn lifted the pistol, aiming it directly
between Byrnes’s eyes. Then he hesitated.
"Ingrid?"
"Don't shoot!"
Byrnes grabbed a fistful of Gemma’s hair and
tilted her head forcefully to the side.
“No!” Both Ingrid and Gemma yelled.
“Talk him out of this, Ingrid!” Malloryn's
pistol never wavered.
“Don’t hurt her!” Ingrid took another step
toward him, meeting those all-black eyes and
trying to find any hint of the man she loved. “You
don’t want to do this, Caleb. We’re your friends.
I’m your… your lover. This is just the elixir
running through your veins. Zero did this. She
infected you with whatever she herself is infected
by. Focus on her. Not on us. Use that rage against
her to take control.”
Byrnes paused. “Zero,” he said in a
shockingly hollow voice.
Gemma squeaked, and went up on her toes as
his fingers tightened on her throat. “Malloryn—”
Malloryn visibly steeled himself. "Ingrid. It's
for the best. There's no coming back from this."
"No!" Ingrid smashed into his side as the
pistol retorted.
An enormous chunk of brick wall shattered
into powder. Byrnes flinched and Gemma tore free,
throwing herself into Charlie’s arms. Byrnes turned
swiftly and then he was gone into the tunnel after
Zero, moving like liquid night itself.
Ingrid wasted no time. She wasn’t about to
lose him.
Not now.
THIRTY-THREE
INGRID LOST BYRNES in the space of five
minutes. Scrambling through narrow tunnels, she
finally came to a halt in a larger cavern, following
the scent of Byrnes's aftershave.
"Byrnes?" she called. Not a cavern, but an
abandoned underground train station. Which meant
she was somewhere below the asylum now, and
the room where she'd first discovered him.
And, as she turned in a slow circle, she began
to realize that she wasn't alone. Ingrid jerked
around as an ethereal ghost stepped onto the
platform, the hairs down her arms rising.
"So," Zero said, her boot heels ringing on
stone as she settled into an aggressive posture. "We
meet again. The beauty... and the beast. May the
best woman win."
Ingrid glared back at her, bringing up her
hands in a pugilists position. "This is not a
competition."
"Oh, it is," Zero purred. "You're the only thing
stopping him from being mine. Once you're gone,
he'll accept the transformation."
Ingrid took a step toward her. "You're mad as
hatters. Byrnes is not some prize to be won. And
you've effectively poisoned him. What if he doesn't
survive?"
Zero's smile faded, and her black eyes
glittered. "I'm not mad," she stated flatly. "And if
he doesn't survive, then clearly he wasn't worth it
after all."
Ingrid sidestepped the other woman's sudden
lunge, her heart pounding. It wasn't much, but the
sudden rage in Zero's eyes hinted at a weakness to
exploit. What was it? The reference toward
madness? Had to be... and they were standing
beneath an asylum, which Zero seemed to know all
too well.
Warily they circled each other.
"Your kind are filth," Zero spat.
"As opposed to vampires?"
This time there was no avoiding the blow. A
fist hammered toward her face, and Ingrid barely
deflected it, taking the blow to the shoulder. She
retaliated with a brutal elbow as she ducked
beneath Zero's second swing, and they came
together with a clash. Fists punching, arms
flailing... it wasn't pretty, and she couldn't avoid
every blow. One slammed into her face, sending
her sprawling to the ground, but as Zero le
apt upon
her, Ingrid kicked up with her feet into the
dhampir's midsection and sent her crashing off to
the side.
Ingrid flipped up onto her feet just as Zero
tackled her. They hit the platform hard, and then
they were rolling, each fighting for the upper hand.
Ingrid landed flat on her back, the other woman
getting in a glancing blow across her cheekbone.
Pain exploded through her face and ear and she
tried to lock her legs around the other woman's
hips.
They rolled, end over end. Ingrid felt her fury
growing. "You poisoned him!" She slammed Zero's
head into the floor. "You bitch!"
"Maybe he wanted it? Maybe he was tired of
smelling your rank scent?"
"And maybe," Ingrid rasped, her hands
closing around the other woman's throat, "he just
pretended to be interested in you so that we could
find you? You do realize there's a tracking device
on him?"
That sent her sprawling as Zero's eyes
narrowed and she renewed her efforts. A knife
flashed and Ingrid scrambled to grab Zero's arms
as the woman stabbed down with it. Ingrid's arm
trembled, and she grimaced as Zero forced the
knife closer to her throat. Christ, the woman was
strong!
"Just die," Zero hissed.
"N-never." Ingrid shoved her face to the side
as she let go of Zero’s hand. The knife sparked as
it hit the stone beside her ear, and Zero lost her
balance just enough for Ingrid to throw the
dhampir clear.
They scrambled to their feet, both of them
panting.
One thing was becoming abundantly clear:
she would need every trick in the book to win this.
Zero's strength superseded her own.
But then, Ingrid had grown up in a cage. She'd
been used as a child to test Lord Balfour's men and
their strength. Balfour had pushed her into cage
matches at the age of ten, sending his men in with
steel against her to prove their worth. Verwulfen
strength might be an arsenal all in its own, but it
wasn't the entirety of what she had. Ingrid knew
what it felt like to fight men or women stronger and
faster and bigger than she. She knew how to push
through pain and focus on winning. And she'd been
doing it since she was a child.
"What did they do to you?" Ingrid asked.
"Lock you up in here? Why? Why are you doing
any of this?" It made no sense. Why attack the
Council of Dukes, or the queen? What did the
queen have to do with Zero?
“None of your bloody business.” Zero circled