Before I could react, one of Sam’s powerful energy balls struck the vampire, making him burst into ashes with a scream. Then we were both at Evan’s side, helping him from the floor. As I’d expected, the bite was bad. The vampire had almost taken a chunk out of Evan’s neck with his overriding thirst. “You okay?”
Evan put pressure against the badly bleeding wound with his hand. “No.”
“Well, that explained why no one came.” When a vampire went into ‘starvation mode’, their senses gradually dulled until they were even less acute than human senses. Furthermore, their predatory drives increasingly took over as their need for survival made them operate on an almost animal instinct – losing rationality, reason, and civilisation. That was why they were also unable to focus enough to use their gifts.
I tensed as the ground seemed to rumble beneath us. Worse, it sounded like a freaking stampede was heading our way. Clearly the racket we’d just made and the sound of the vampire’s scream had gained us some attention. If that was the rest of the nest coming toward us, we were doomed if we didn’t get out of there now. I turned, intending to order everyone to hold onto one another so I could teleport us all outside. That was when I noticed that not only was there a big gap between us and the others – who had clearly continued following my order to retreat – but none of them were looking at me. They were staring at the horde of vampires that were charging down the other end of the tunnel, heading for them.
Fuck, we were boxed in.
Having the deadliest gifts, David, Chico, and Salem immediately began attacking the starving vampires approaching them, taking advantage of the distance still between them. At the same time, Harvey used his telekinesis to shove them back again and again. Having faith that they could all handle themselves for now and do what they had been trained to do, I joined Evan and Sam in dealing with the flock of vampires that were fast approaching us.
Sam was attacking with energy balls, energy bolts, and thermal energy beams. Evan was freezing every vampire that came at him – not to ice, but completely immobilising them so that there was no blood-flow, no heartbeat, no breathing, nothing. Mere milliseconds after the vampires were frozen, they exploded into ashes.
I joined the fight; sending charge after charge after charge of electricity from my hands. But there were just so damn many of them that even our combined efforts couldn’t keep them completely at bay. Any time a vampire managed to get too close, Sam would slam up her shield, causing the vampire to bounce away. But they weren’t deterred; they continued to charge at us. Sam then conjured an energy shield big enough to encompass her, me, and Evan, but the vampires tried crawling over it like ants.
“Bollocks to this,” she gritted out. A blast of wind flew out of her palms, sending the vampires zooming through the air until they collided with the wall at the end of the tunnel. She then swiftly tapped into the natural elements, using the earth to quickly build a wall to block the tunnel. “It won’t hold them back for long,” she warned. She was right; no sooner had the tunnel sealed shut than the wall was being charged at. “Quick, go, go, go!”
Turning, I took in the sight in front of us. Butch had formed a deflecting shield and was using it to protect Salem, David, and Chico as they attacked the starving vampires. Unfortunately the shield wasn’t big enough to act as a barrier, and some of the vampires had gotten past it. Denny was shooting yellowy-green ooze out of his thumbs and smallest fingers to engulf and spring them away while Harvey was using his telekinesis to fight off others. But still some vampires had slipped through.
One was currently biting into Stuart’s arm, who then quickly exploded into molecules in order to get free. Another had its teeth buried in Max’s throat as Cristiano attacked it from behind with a knife that I was guessing he’d conjured – nice gift. Ava was fighting off a third and, damn, could she fight! Sam was right; tiny Ava could take care of herself. Apparently that didn’t matter to Salem, because the big guy suddenly turned, looped an arm around her, pulled her back against his chest, and sent a lethal psychic punch hurling at her attacker.
Sam, Evan, and I leaped into action immediately. Sam took Stuart’s attacker out of the equation with an energy ball before joining Evan and me at the front of the group. Sam’s hands were suddenly like flamethrowers as she set the vampires alight, wincing at their high-pitched screams. My bolts of electricity took care of some of the other vampires that followed while the squad dealt with the rest. Still, there were just too many of the fuckers.
When Harvey telekinetically sent them flying down the tunnels, giving us plenty of space, I hollered, “Everyone hold hands!”
Just then, Sam’s wall crumbled behind us. Starving vampires were then charging at us from two directions. Thank fucking God that everyone had immediately done as I’d ordered, because I then managed to teleport us all outside of the caves before the vampires could reach us. Reuben and Damien instantly crowded around Evan, Stuart, Max, and Cristiano, who were all bleeding pretty badly. Fuck.
“We need to make sure they’re all destroyed.” I lifted my hand, and projected an extremely powerful lightning bolt at the entrance. Everything shook and rumbled as the tunnels caved in, crushing and burying alive anything that managed to withstand the impact of the lightning bolt. Breathing a sigh of relief, I grabbed Sam and ran my gaze and hands all over her, taking a full inventory.
“I’m okay.”
Her reassurance didn’t matter, and nor did the fact that I could sense through our bond that she wasn’t in pain. I had to see for myself that she was fine. Apparently I was annoying her because she cuffed me over the head, her mercury irises glinting.
“I said I’m okay. But some of these people aren’t, so let’s get them back to The Hollow now.”
CHAPTER THREE
(Sam)
Finding Antonio and Luther on a bench in the botanical gardens, Jared and I relayed to them everything that had happened on Quentin’s territory. Their expressions turned grimmer and grimmer as the story went on. The guards were casting each other uneasy glances, and even the dogs looked anxious as if the negativity in the air was affecting them.
“I’m thinking someone trapped all the vampires in the tunnels, and left them there to starve to death,” said Jared. “But why? And who would do that? It can’t have been an attempt at usurping Quentin or we all would have heard about his replacement by now. The guy would be bragging and claiming his position as the new High Master of Quentin’s territory.”
Jared made a good point, but there was something else that was bugging me. I cocked my head. “This is what I don’t understand. Why, if the vampires were so hungry, hadn’t they all turned on each other? If they were thirsty enough to attack all of us like that, so senselessly, why hadn’t they fed from each other?”
Antonio leaned forward in his seat; there was a sense of urgency in his manner that hadn’t been there before, and apprehension slid through me. “I need to ask you something. And this is very important. In the tunnels, was there an awful smell?”
“Yeah.” Jared’s elbow brushed against mine as he folded his arms across his chest. “Like rotten fish.”
Both Jared and I tensed when Antonio and Luther exchanged a frantic look. They actually paled, which was hard for two extremely pale-skinned vampires to do.