Amy proves she's new to all this by seeming completely stumped as to what that name means.
"I'm coming with you. I need to make sure this is the only place he destroys," I mumble in objection.
"Oh hell no," Thad interjects while picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. "I've got orders to get you out of here. I sure as hell am not going to piss off the boss."
I would laugh if I wasn't so worried. I don't have time for this. If Drackus loses all control, I have to be there to talk him down. Mom has been the only one to ever do such a thing, but I'm hoping I might stand a chance, since I am his flesh and blood.
"Sorry, Thad. I hate to do this."
"Do what?"
I answer by pressing my hand to his back and forcing a shock through him that's strong enough to knock him unconscious. He falls like a giant from a beanstalk, and I bounce to my feet before anyone knows what I've done.
"You're a pain in the ass," Gage gripes as I join his side.
"You missed me," I say with a wink.
His anger flees and his eyes soften as guilt flashes over them.
"Alyssa, you can't go back in there," Zee interjects. "You're still just mortal."
"I'll be safe. Just get Thad out of here, please. He'll wake up pissed, and I'd like for him to cool down before I see him again."
Kane starts to say something, but Amy tugs on his hand, distracting him long enough for me to lean into Gage's arms.
"Vaporize us, dark boy."
He smirks, and then we're splitting the planes, just a shadow to the others. Only the hands of a night stalker could stop us, and night stalkers don't want to be anywhere close to where we're going right now.
Before I realize it, I feel the cool silver of a lip ring sliding against my lips before his tongue finds mine. I smile, realizing this is the first time he's ever tried kissing me when we weren't trying to do much more.
At the same time, I feel like a slut, considering what I just did with Kane. It seems pointless to have given myself to him now since my rescuers showed up directly after. It did calm my overwhelming desire to be touched, though it certa
inly didn't fully quell it.
"You're right. I missed you. I've been worried to death," he says as we materialize in a part of this castle-like place I've never seen.
"I'm fine. Just a scratched knee. How'd you find me?"
He smiles as he tugs at his jacket I'm wearing.
"She masked your scent, but she didn't realize you were wearing my jacket. She never thought to get rid of it. That was her fatal mistake. Drackus will rip her heart out."
"So he knows you're here with me now?"
"Hell no. Thad told him he was the one trying to get you out of town before Castine did a sneak attack. We need to find Drackus and see if we can bring him down before the high takes him."
The exploding sounds in the darkness ring out, and we follow the sounds at a brisk pace. Gage humors me by keeping my speed, not vaporizing. I know he won't leave me alone though.
We stumble into a wide, spiral stairwell. The cylindrical middle gives us a glimpse of the battle raging on below between my father and Castine.
His black leather duster jacket sweeps behind him as he spins out of the reach of the deadly blast she shouldn't have disposable at her fingertips. Drackus killed a demon without so much as touching him, yet he has to fight to beat the Vampiress. That doesn't make any sense. What did our kind do to help her get this much power?
She shrieks as the dark eyes of my father glisten, and he sends a shot so deadly at her she shouldn't be standing. She does stand though, and she tries to use her powers of subduing against him.
It proves fruitless when he grabs her hand and breaks it in his. She screams out again, but she slips free from his clutches before he can catch her by the neck.
His jet black hair is shorter than the last time I saw him. His misleading appearance would make you think he's in his early thirties. His centuries of death and destruction would prove otherwise.