I shuck him off and ram my body into the rock. I slip in the dirt and give the rock a hard kick. I want to cry, but I won’t. It’s not my time to go yet. I still have to save the world.
A hand extends above me. “Need help?” Sylas asks with hilarity, which is completely unfitting for the situation.
I take his hand and let him pull me up. He’s weak, but refuses to let it get the best of him.
“On the count of three?” he asks with a c*ck of his eyebrow.
I nod and rest my hands against the rock.
“One, two, three,” he says and gives it everything he has left in him.
My feet lose traction against the dirt as I push on the boulder with more strength than I own. Cedrix, Greyson, and Aiden join in. Even Maci throws her best effort into it. The whole cave is about to erupt in flames when the rock finally glides, jarring our bodies forward. It builds us with enough hope that it reboots our adrenaline and we thrust it the rest of the way. It crashes down the hill. Rocks shoot in the air and a cloud of dust and smoke flares behind. We barrel out, hacking, coughing, and falling to the rocky ground.
I sink to my knees, inhaling the fresh air. My skin is charred with ash and chains dangle from my wrists. But relaxation mellows my body. We made it. We all survived.
My eyes sting when I look up, but not because of the smoke. Because darkness has fell and vampires have taken over the night.
Chapter 18
Maci screams. The noise shockwaves through the night and instigates mayhem amongst the vampires. Their eyes dart to the hill and their mouths salivate. With Sylas hurt and the rest of us spent, we are easy prey.
“Well, if they didn’t know we were here before,” Sylas says, dropping to the side of me, “they sure as hell do now.”
Maci’s fear blasts me brutally and I falter to the rocks, splitting my palm open. Cupping the blood in my hand, I glance at the cave engulfed in flames. My eyes rise to the top of the cliff, the only way to go.
“We have to climb up!” I shout. My feet blunder against the rocks as I take Maci’s hand.
She coughs and clutches on as we head to the top. Sylas lags behind us, desperately trying to break the silver cuffs from his wrists. Cedrix struggles to brace his weight at the hill’s sharp incline, which slopes even steeper at the top.
I pause, taking in the severity of the situation. Then I let go of Maci’s hand. “Keep going,” I tell her. “Follow Sylas to the top.”
Sylas freezes, sucking on his burnt finger “What are you going to do?”
“Just keep going,” I say and face the bottom.
Aiden and Greyson are just to my left. Greyson grasps the sword as he fights to walk up the rocks. Aiden starts for me, but I shake my head. He needs to stop trying to save me, whether it be from the decisions I make or from the vampires.
I point my finger to the top of the cliffs, my eyes pressing. “Keep going.”
He slows down, shaking his head. “Don’t even think about it. You’ve got blood all over you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say. “I’m immune. Remember?”
His eyes plead for me to stay, but when he realizes this isn’t going to happen, he steals the sword from Greyson. Hesitating briefly, he tosses it to me. I extend my arm out and catch it. But I lose my balance, step on the chains, and trip. I tumble down the hill, hit mid-center and flip forward, summersaulting toward the bottom. Rocks stab at my knees. I stick my feet out, digging my boots into the dirt. I skid to a rough stop and let out a groan.
Blood oozes from my knees and hands, but when I look back at the hill, I feel satisfied in a strange way. Everyone is still climbing up and that’s what I want.
An eerie feeling consumes me as I take in how many there are.
“This isn’t going to end well, is it?” I say to myself, twirling the blade awkwardly in my hands.
The vampires half-circle me. They inhale my scent and it drives them mad. Their heads shake frenetically as they determine whether to run, or eat me. Then their eyes bleed and I have my answer. They stalk inward, some roaming to the back. I turn in a circle, towing the chains, and holding the blade out. An average height vampire, with thin lips and large beady eyes, leans forward to get a whiff of me. I bring the knife down on him, but his arm shoots up and blocks it effortlessly. It tips its scabbed chin back and howls at the smoky sky. The others follow, spitting blood and saliva all over my boots.
Then they charge. I switch the sword around, my movements lethargic and sloppy. I keep faltering over the chains. The blade nicks a chunk of skin off a vampire without a nose. I’m about to internally celebrate when one sinks its teeth into my neck. My hand shoots to the bite and I hunch over, grunting from the burn. It spits my blood back out like it’s potent. But vampires are not bright creatures and it bores its fangs into my neck again and again. I’m taken down in a sea of fleshless beasts that reek of death. I grip my sword tightly, attempting to stab anything that moves as bite marks cover my skin. Their weight becomes too much and I feel my bones breaking.
Dizziness incapacitates me. So this is how I die? Smashed and bitten to death by vampires? It’s not how I pictured it. Through a small gap, I see the sky and wish I could have seen the stars just once. Perhaps, in one of my memories I do.
Suddenly, the vampires are jerked off me, one by one, and a hand snakes its way inside the mob. I grab on, not caring who it is, and they heave me out.
The vampires immediately encase us, the blood in their eyes drizzling like a rainstorm.
“What the hell are you doing!” I yell at Sylas, positioning the sword at the vamps.
We huddle back to back, moving in a circle.
“Saving your ass,” he jokes over his shoulder, but he’s tense and nervous.
“Why? You ran off the last time this happened.” I swipe the sword at a vampire, but miss by a long shot. “What? Did you get knocked over the head with a stupid stick sometime between then and now?”
“Witty banter during a fight,” he flips around and bares his fangs, “it’s like we’re made for each other.”
I sigh and attempt a Roundhouse kick, like I used to do at Bellator practice all the time. But my leg buckles at the knee and I drop to the ground hard. Sylas instantly pulls me up, steals the sword from me, and brings it down hard on the back of a rotting vampire’s neck, beheading it. It breaks into ash and the others shriek with murder.
Everything goes downhill from there. They mob us and trample us to the ground. I can’t spot Sylas through the dust and fleshless legs, but I catch sight of the hill. My heart drops. Vampires line the peak of the cliff, eyeing Greyson, Cedrix, Aiden, and Maci, who are barreling down the hill, arms flying. One of the vampires flings from the ledge, landing behind Cedrix. He takes him to the ground and I let out a scream as I’m yanked back by my ankle. I fumble through decaying bodies for the sword and find Sylas’ soaked hand instead. I shove a vampire back and dive over to him.
His hand’s draped over his stomach and blood splatters his torn shirt.
“Where’s it coming from.” I scan him over and reach for his arm. “Sylas, are you bit?”
He clamps down on my hand, puts his finger to my lips, and places the sword into my hand. Then his eyes shut and I’m not sure if he’s dead or unconscious. Rage blisters my veins. I bound to my feet and ram my elbow into the nearest vampire’s head over and over again. I don’t stop, even when its mouth spurts blood. I keep going until it’s on the ground and surge the sword through its heart. It shifts to bones and ash. I whirl, ready for the next one.
Instead, I get a moment that will alter my life forever. Vampires swathe the land. They are everywhere. Sylas is down on the ground, bleeding to death. Cedrix is missing and Maci, Aiden, and Greyson are trapped on a thin lip of the cliff. Smoke streams from the cave and the sky shows no sign of morning.
I always planned to make my decision carefully. After spending most of my life doing what someone else desired, I wanted to make sure that becoming a Day Taker was what I wanted. But it was no longer about that. It was about what was right. And standing by, watching everyone get eaten or infected isn’t something I can live with.
Running to a small gap, I kneel down. My hand shakes as I reach into my pocket and take out the vial and syringe. Irreversibly, I bite the cap off the needle, stab it into the vial, and extract the black liquid. The thought never crossed my mind, when I found the vial, that it might not be the right medicine. But there’s no time for a test experiment. I breathe through my nose and thrust the needle into my forearm. The medicine heats through my blood and my heartbeat’s solid. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
My eyes round and my lungs expand as the medicine courses up my body. I pant, ragged breaths that suffocating me. My skin feels like it’s melting. My mind shorts out. I fall to the ground, the vial slipping from my hand. I lie in the sand immobile, watching the bloodshed.
Then I die.
Chapter 19
“Kayla, just breathe” Aiden whispers, his honey eyes filled with worry. Chains bind him to the blood-stained wall. “You can do it, just breathe.”
I lie on my back, my body pumped full of various medicines. Needles implant my skin and every muscle in my body screams. I’m burning up, my skin as hot as fire. I shut my eyes, panting, wanting to get up, but the pain constraints me to the concrete floor.
“I want to die,” I murmur. There’s a knife by Aiden’s ankle. “I can’t take this anymore. Aiden, please just kill me.”
He shakes his head and kicks the knife to the side. “I won’t do it Kayla. I love you too much.”
I cough up blood and it drowns my lungs. Tears slip down my cheeks as the medicine eats away at my heart, my mind, my skin. It’s been going on for days, maybe even weeks, a test which we’re failing. “Aiden, I can’t take it anymore. Please.”
He slides onto his stomach until the chains reach the end. He extends his hand and his fingers brush the tips of mine. “I won’t let you go,” he whispers. “I love you too much.”
I feel his love burning through his blood and at that moment, part of me loves him back. But part of me hates him for loving me so much that he’d rather see me suffer then let me go. And for a brief second, I wish he was Sylas. Because Sylas wouldn’t watch me suffer.